STONEHAVEN

Today was an amazing day. I decided to head out on my own and go to Stonehaven. It was absolutely beautiful. It may be the best place I have seen yet. I spent last night playing cards with my flat mates and capitalized on that great experience with a midmorning trip to the train station. While in Stonehaven I got to see the best castle I have been to yet and then walk to an old grave yard. I also got to see their memorial to the World War One and Two veterans from their little town. It was a great monument. I don’t have a whole lot else to say at the moment. I am just so tired. I probably did between 15-20 miles of walking today. I do have a little quiz for everyone. While there I had an ice cream cone. I was able to have my two favorite flavors mixed together. Leave me a comment if you think you know what must have been in the ice cream cone. Well, that is it for now. Enjoy the pictures of the day. Oh, I got to end my evening there with the sun set on my right and a half moon on my left. It was an amazing night. Feel free to ask for further information and please enjoy the pictures.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/12609321@N03/sets/72157602563064031/

Lots of New Post

As you may have noticed there are a few new post. In addition I am working on writing one about the music I have been hearing in the churches. I have been keeping track of particular songs I like. Hopefully that will be coming soon. However, enjoy all of the post. I would start with the oldest and work your way toward the top.

Do I Miss Home?

Quite a few people from both the states and from Aberdeen have asked if I miss home. Therefore I want to do my best to address the question by answering it yes and no. I do miss some of the relationships I have with people back in the states. However, I know that I will be back in what is now unbelievably only nine weeks. I came here with the purpose in mind to really search who I was and reflect on where I am in life. More importantly I wanted to have some time away from all of my commitments to just listen to God and actually focus on hearing from Him. It has really been a great experience. Also between the basketball team and Christian Union, I feel like I am just an ordinary student at a greater distance. I am sure that by the time I get ready to go home I will be missing some of the friends I have made here. Although, I am fortunate that at least some of those friends will be coming back to the states with me. Finally, technology has made being away so simply. I have daily access to the internet and can easily stay in touch with people. So while yes I miss people and relationships I have in the states, I don’t miss home. And I certainly do not regret being here. I am having an absolutely fabulous time.

Friends

I made mention in my Isle of Skye post that I really enjoyed me time with the people I went with. I wanted to elaborate on that a little bit. I have incredible brothers at Kappa Sigma and enjoy my friends in WCM. I also get the privilege to work with some incredible high school students. However, it dawned on me that I spent very little time this summer with people my own age. Much of this was my own fault. However, I have been blessed while here at Aberdeen. It is so wonderful to have a couple of honestly good men of Christ to share life with. We all know we don’t have it all figured out and don’t plan on it by the time we leave, but I am truly grateful to get to spend time with them. They desire to start a weekly time for us together for a meal and time of sharing. I pray this comes to fruition. I think it will make me value those relationships I have at home even more. Well, I just wanted to let you all know that I am thoroughly enjoying the people I am spending time with here. I also have quite enjoyed hanging out with the guys on the basketball team. I don’t have my faith in common with them, but they are a great group. Oh, I also found out on Sunday I am officially on the First Squad. For those of you who know how great an athlete I am (J/K), that will give you an idea of the caliber of basketball in Aberdeen. Regardless, I am having a great time and couldn’t be happier.

Isle of Skye

Wow, I had an amazing weekend. This is the first bit of scenery I have seen that doesn’t remind me in any way of anything I have ever seen before. The water, cliffs, and mountains at the Isle of Skye are absolutely gorgeous. The first day (Friday) was spent traveling from Aberdeen to Isle of Skye. This is about a six hour trip. Once we arrived we walked about two miles and across a great bridge to our hostel. Of course it was pitch black and we couldn’t see a thing, but it was fun none the less. We discovered in the morning just where we had walked and how beautiful it was. I made this journey with five great friends from Hope College and was later met by another person from our program whose college name is escaping me right now. It was a great group to hang out with. Saturday we got up at a decent hour, ate some breakfast, and headed north. We visited the town of Portree and then took a bus to Kilt Rock. Afterwards we walked two or three miles to another town where we spent quite a bit of time near the water just exploring. It was quite a liberating day. We then headed back to Kyleakin (where the hostel was) for a good meal and some cards before bed. Oh, we ate our lunch at Kilt Rock. We got to bed a little late that night, but not a big deal. The next day we set off in search of a castle. This was more difficult than we thought it would be as a result of the fact not that many buses run on Sunday. However, we did make it and it was well worth the trip. We spent all morning and part of the early afternoon there before getting on the train to head back to Aberdeen. Are trip back was a little long as a result of a layover in Inverness. However, this ended up being a marvelous thing. We had three hours to explore the city. We had an incredible dinner (the best I have had yet). I took a picture of Haggis for everyone. Mom, you better learn how to cook it or make sure I have the kitchenware to cook it myself. I quite enjoy it. Afterwards we toured the city at night and finally got back to Aberdeen a little before midnight. The trip could not have gone any better. I took a lot of photos while I was there, so please enjoy. The link to the photos of the trip is below. Also I added a link to all of my photos on the side of this page if you have missed things so far.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/12609321@N03/sets/72157602436893711/