Today was the day that everyone was looking forward to--The 10 hour bus trip to Scotland! I was actually quite surprised that the trip went by fairly fast, as was everyone. Our bus left out of Cambridge at 8.30. Sitting next to me was a girl named Annie, and across their aisle was her husband Alex. They were both BYU students. Sitting in front of me was a girl I didn't know and an Indian girl from my drugs class named Shivani. It was in the first few minutes of conversation that I learned/realized that BYU (Brigham Young Universtiy) was indeed a Mormon school. Why does this matter?
I would say at least half, if not a majority of the students that I've met and had significant socialization with have been from BYU. I have been wondering why it seemed that most of the people I was meeting didn't drink or ever mutter a curse word. Now some of those are still because of some of my previous thoughts--they are just too uptight or uppity. But for many of them, its been because they were Mormon! This was indeed an "Ah-ha!" moment for me. There were many good conversation had on the bus to Fountain's Abbey, though they mostly involved the areas we came from, and weren't particularly notable.
As we arrived at Fountain's Abbey a good rain set in. The driver unlocked the back of the bus so I could get my raincoat out of my bag, but of course it was in the very back. I took a dive into the compartment and managed to get it, but it was quite a hassle getting out. I mean, they could have closed it with me in there. Anyway, Fountain's Abbey is the ruins of an old cathedral. It is quite beautiful as you'll be able to see from the pictures when I put them up--I left my card reader in Cambridge. My group of friends wandered around taking pictures, stopped for a bit to eat our food, and then stopped at the cafe for some tea. It is here that I accidentally said an entire phrase with a British accent.
"Excuse me, but where would you like me to place these spoons?"
I brought it up later with Shivani how I had accidentally done this, and she said she had heard it and found it quite amusing, but that it sounded right to her. I don't know how to feel about the situation.
Our group had trekked pretty far in the grounds to see the "Surprise View" marked on the map we had been given. I'll mark it on the pictures when I upload them. It was nice, but not really a surprise (I guess they spoiled that for us). None of us had realized how far we had come and we didn't leave in enough time to get to the bus on time. We cut down a hill and jumped in a window to the cellar of the abbey to cut straight through it instead of having to walk all the way around it. Success.
After getting back on the bus Shivani let me listen to some Above and Beyond. It's electronica/trance. Really good stuff too. We all got to talking about techno and such, when a girl behind me asks if anyone likes dubstep. Well if you know me, you know I love the wub wub. She was asking because there is a dubstep show in London on the 23rd that she wanted to go to but hadn't found anyone else that was interested. Duh, winning. I'm really hoping I get to go, and I should be able to.
Somewhere along the bus ride we hit Scotland, and shortly after I fell asleep for a bit. Scotland looks like England except with more hills. We checked in at the Edinburgh First--college dorms that they rent out in the off season. I had to pay 10 quid for internet for the trip, which isn't terrible but still a pain. The cafeteria food here was amazing, though I think it may have simply been because they had more familiar foods, and it was buffet style. Cheese sticks, pizza, baked pasta. Good stuff. I took a little walk around the town afterwards to enjoy this 55 degree weather before settling in for the evening. Tomorrow I'm going to hike a part of the highlands.
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