Hello from IONA!!!

Internet is VERY slow here, so no pictures will be uploaded until I can get faster internet (which may not be until Edinburgh).  I have decided that I will be looking into PhD programs in Scotland.  I absolutely love it here.

Here is the journal entry I wrote last night in Oban (no web connection there):

My mother taught me (or maybe it was the playground) that if you do not have anything nice to say don’t say it at all.  Because of that, I will not say anything on the internet about the train ride from Toulouse to Paris…other than overnight train, stinky men, and tears.  If you ask when I see you, I may tell the story…but I hope to repress that memory.  Let’s just say it was the worse night of my life.  Ugh.  And I realize that I am spoiled and the people going on the Lourdes pilgrimage in the very early years had it way worse, but that is beside the point.

However…I LOVE SCOTLAND!  Right away everyone was SO much nicer than people in France (it’s really only in Paris that SOME people are rude.  I have now been to both Northern and Southern France and while the people of Northern France are very nice, Scotland has them beat ten-fold).  I was wearing my Pittsburgh Penguins shirt and as I’m walking through Customs, a customs agent asks where I came from.  I assumed he meant where did I depart from, so I told him Paris.  He then said (in an awesome accent) “Then how do you end up with a Penguins shirt?”  I told him hockey fans can visit Paris, too.  He responded that he was a huge hockey fan, but his team was the Red Wings.  It was so cool!

We took a short bus ride to downtown Glasgow and then ate at the BEST pub (ok so I’ve only been to one so far in the UK, but of the pubs I’ve been to in the US, this one is far better).  I had a whiskey and coke (cuz after the long day prior (and no sleep) I needed one!  It was sooooooo yummy!  They even had a goat cheese pizza!  Christina got the fish and chips (which were HUGE) and I ate some of hers.  She and I then went walking around Glasgow and I bought some very cute shoes.  After a few hours in Glasgow we took yet another train (I think that is 5 in 24 hours if you count Paris Metro…if not then it was the third train), but this was a very nice, scenic route.  It reminded me a lot of Norway (though I do think Norway is prettier).  We are now in a quaint hotel in Oban for the night.  Tomorrow (after some much needed rest) it is off to Iona.

I am currently watching non-news TV in English (Family Guy).  Much better than BBC News (which I do enjoy…just not when it is the only thing on in English) on repeat.  There was a commercial for Doctor Who and I was excited because I can watch it IN SCOTLAND (the person that plays Amy on the show is from Scotland...so that’s sort of a connection).