Week One since being back

The trip back to Banchory was a good one. I have not had a poor journey so far which I am grateful for. This trip was a bit different with the amount of vacant seats on both flights. It was nice because the SeaTac to Heathrow flight I had the isle to my left and an empty space to my right. Although the space factor was a new experience the regiment I have fallowed did not waver. The objective: watch as many films as possible. To complete it means no sleep and no sleep it was. Once I got back to “The Neuk” (the house’s name in Banchory) it was 6pm and crashed shortly there after. Jet lag is always an issue but I consider myself a seasoned jet lag over comer. It is nice to be able to reconstruct ones sleeping patterns so drastically. I wake without trouble at 8am or earlier and get to bed by 11pm. A drastic change from the norm I will assure you.

I got back on Wednesday and went to the Edge Thursday night, which was great to see those young people and just get right back into the swing of things. On Fridays we go to Friday Coffees in the morning, which is always great and again good to see people I have not seen in 6 weeks. Later that day I was invited to go to Caitlin’s house for Burns Supper. I was not aware of the significance of this night and celebration until I arrived. Turns out Robbie Burns is a famous Scottish poet who some say invented hagis or at least made it popular. Scots celebrate him on his birthday, the 25th of January. The night was filled with interesting food (the hagis) and loads of Burns poetry. It was with out a doubt a real life Scottish experience. The next day I realized I had been volunteered to do the children’s address at church on Sunday and also leading the bible study also on Sunday so it was a day of preparation. After spending the middle part of the day in my bible and brainstorming Calum (my host brother who is in Edinburgh University) and Meg (his wife, also at Edinburgh University) showed up and we had our own Burns nigh celebration. So back-to-back days of hagis! To be honest I wouldn’t wish it upon anyone. For those of you of Scandinavian decent I will dare to compare hagis to lutefisk. Being that it makes no common sense to consume such food in these modern times, the taste is one the be acquired (which I will not spend the time to do so), and commonly there are people who are presented with the chance to try a taste and have not. After dinner we went to a friends house and had an actual meal to be consumed. We then played a came called Articulate for a couple of hours and then had to finish planning the children’s talk. The great things about getting into a better sleeping routine is that when before there was no time to do things in the morning, now this is. I therefore finished up what I was to say in the morning before church and then went to church. After church I had a choice to make. To go into town with Sean, his girlfriend and Calum to bowl or to stay and plan the bible study for later than night knowing that we were all to go out for a meal at 5pm and would not get back until just before bible study. I decided to bowl. It turned out to be ok bout would have been a wiser choice to stay and prepare although the bible study turned out well. The next few days were early risers with school assemblies 8:45am and planning after that. Monday evening we had a university aged bible study, which was good to get some good conversation and discussion from a little bit older people. That was good and on Tuesday night we had Rock, which was out of control (in a good way) with 45 people. Wednesday was good and that night was the first time back on the basketball court since being back in Banchory. It was good seeing all those guys and getting in a good run. I realized however that I although tried to get in shape while I was home did not. Even though my sleep patterns had changed it was still difficult to get out of bed on Thursday morning on account of the sore body.

It has been really good getting back into things over here and it really doesn’t feel as if I were gone for so long. I apologize for the length although this was just a week. I will work on my selectivity of details in the future.

The forecast predicts heavy snowfall so it might be me hitting the hills of Scotland to go skiing. Oh and I have planned a trip to Milan, Italy on February 15th to visit Jay Free. I am very much looking forward to that.