since friday aftertoon my life has been filled with amazing people. kelly and sarah (two best friends from stout) walked into the glasgow international airport with Lauren (MY SISTER)! we spent the weekend in edinburgh walking around: watching a street performer, climbing an intense hill to see over the city, and letting the sun touch our faces as we soaked in the presense of eachother.
mark was really nice to let us all sleep at his place in st. andrews. so we spend sunday going to church, which was amazing and for only 7 pounds we got to go up in a tower and see all of st. andrews, go through a museum and walk through the st. andrews castle. the best part about the castle was when sarah and i road our 'horses' in to it and then the five of us 'shot a canon out of the window! its fun to have an imagination!
what has been really neat is that i think God new when the best time would be for lauren, kelly and sarah to come. i was getting a little lonely and missing friendships! its really great to be able to let them all experience what i experience everyday. and i have realized how important friends and family are. they really give fill hearts with love!....and laughter and smiles!
it was fun to see lauren take off her shoes by the ocean and me telling her she was crazy when that is exactly what i did the first time i saw the ocean!
they got to eat at the best panini restuarant id say in scotland...Le Rendevous. Mark and i have finally learned the owners name, Aldo. So aldo made 4 mean ham paninis (baguette, ham, cheese and wildberry chutney (jam)) and sarah got something different as she like to venture off...the first night she jumped right in to scottish quisine by getting chicken and haggis with a whiskey sauce!
we relaxed a bit before taking on the big city glasgow...i called a taxi for the first time when we got to the bus station and of course it was chaotic and the taxi driver couldnt find us and we couldt find him...but about twenty five minutes later we were in front of 50 Hillhead (my flat). we spent the day eating outside the uni building and then they came to my lecture with me for celtic civilizations...they seem to better understand why im not a regular attendee after that...sadly you want to snore. we rested up before our big st. patty's day experience...we walked around the idyllic ashton lane and there were tons of people dancing, talking and drinking in the streets! we ended up at a pub called Curlers where a deal was with getting a burger, chips (fries) and a pint of cider was only 3.75 pounds! afterwards it was mission pint takeaway (MPT)...had to get a guinnes glass from a pub so we went to this one where an irish band was playing...it was full of st.patty spirit! the whole pub was filled with people clapping, singing, holding their drinks high and having a cheerie time!! it was such a good cultural experience...lauren however was the only one to succeed to spot an empty glass and take it away!
lauren has two more days here so hopefully she will get to do some shopping and other fun stuff...it will be hard to let her go home.
this upcoming weekend though mark, kelly, sarah and i are heading to london. Then on monday kelly, sarah and i are going to hungary and rome. Kelly has a friend in hungary who is letting us stay with her and then rome just for fun! it will be exciting because so many adventures are going to be made!!
i hope i can update at somepoint during the next journey here....

a luncheon and 10k.

so today, tuesday, a great day!
i went to the beanscene and read 1 Corinthians for bible study tonight. i meet a little boy named Thor who wanted to grab my tea and knock it to the ground! cutie! i practiced my chanter a bit...still should be doing that more...eeek. i went to a celtic lecture then had a lovely lunch with my friend Katy Dycus who is a post grad student from Texas! next tuesday we are going to this indian restaurant with our other friends Gina and Dish...its called Mother India...they all love it so im sure i will too!
when i got back to my flat i checked my email and got this message from someone saying there is a 10k for just women may 10th...i went to the website...checked what exactly is a 10k, about 6.5 miles...thought about it hmmm....i can do that! So i registered...and now i cant go back! Im doing my first 10k in glasgow scotland! What exactly its for is cancer research and its the biggest all-women 10k in the uk(Ignis Asset Management Women's 10k; Sunday 10th May 2009; 10am). i got to choose a charity to run for so im running for the Parkinson's Disease Society! I have been wanted to do something like this for awhile and now im just going to do it! why wait or put it off! so wish me luck with training...i can take some tips as well!

so i have this amazing opportunity to raise money for the Parkinson's Disease Society...so if anyone is wanting to support me running for this charity please let me know. i'll post my address if people would like to:
50C Hillhead Street
G12 8QB
Glasgow, Scotland

first things first... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elaine_Davidson
when ashley and i went to Edinburgh...we saw the woman who holds the Guinness world record for most piercings...we just found this out today!!! i knew there was a reason for coming to scotland!

more in-depth: this has been quite the journey. i have gone in and out of thoughts on what is important to me in life. i never knew one way for God to help me grow would be to send me to scotland. but it has a lot. i have basically been forced to face myself each day with who i am. i realized how in the past its been easy for me to put others interests/feelings on myself, kind of ignoring what my interests and feelings are. but i've started to discover those things that get me excited about life. its not going to pubs, living the 'city' life, or trying to make a million friends at once. it is about walking in to coffee shops and sitting down in a comfy chair to have good conversation or a writing session with God. it is about going up and down hills to my art classes and realizing that it is ok not to be perfect. that sculpting a human body is not going to look like it belongs in an museum my first try. and drawing does not have to be a certain way, just as long as i let myself breathe and love the process. it is about accepting someones love and friendship, knowing they wont leave even if i can't make decisions all the time. it is about realizing that back home my heart misses when i thought i wouldn't miss it at all. i have to come to the understanding that life here for me is more that the stereotypical scottish life, it is about walking with God everywhere I go and listening to Him tell me each step He wants me taking. No matter where i go, who i am with, how my life is here, He tells me its where He wants me.
Saturday I went to a worship concert called 'Soul Survivor' with Mark. He heard about it through people from his church. It was held in the South end of town (a place needed to be discovered) at the Queen's Park Baptist Church. It was an amazing night, a night I had been longing for ever since I came here. A night of praising the Lord, dancing and singing to Him, and accepting and surrendering life to Him again! It was amazing to see all these people fill this place up coming together to sing for the thankfulness and praise to a God that LOVES. I couldn't help but cry a little...of course.

more out-depth: i got a card from mom and she said maybe the best chocolate cake that mark and i have will be one that we make...so our daring selves tried this. friday night we spent a couple hours preparing the best 'EGG SPONGE, non-tasting chocolate, so bad had to spit out CAKE'. haha. it was awful, but of course the measuring techniques here are different, we didn't exactly have all the right ingredients and the ovens were foreign to us...excuses i know. But it isn't the last time, we think we can only get better turnouts!
we also tried to find the play Peter Pan (which crazily is the minneapolis childeren's theatre here touring) but it was in the East end of glasgow (the called 'dodgy' part of town). But after 2.45 hours on a bus we only found it after the play had started! just wasn't meant to be to find peter pan that day.
sunday went to Re:Hope again, it was different this time since Sandra and Kenny weren't there but it was nice to think about them having a lovely time in Texas! I am joining a Bible Read through group, which gets together every tuesday in starbuck to talk about a book in the bible. Im quite excited about that!
things i miss: cinnamon toast crunch, natural skippy peanut butter, high-pressure shower heads.
...before i end this post i would like to open the comment section up for anyone that has prayer requests that I could pray for!
see you!