A true Scottish experience:

The week started off with me saying goodbye to Maryke and then immediately going to the climbing center where I met up with Jacob, Michael and Jasmyn. This blog is going to involve a lot of people being mentioned because let's face it, my time abroad in Scotland is running up a lot quicker than expected. 

First off I would like to mention Jacob Malaluan: To sum up Jacob I would probably refer to one of his quotes this week: "I don't understand how people live here?" This was referring to how cold it is here and something to note about him is that he is from California and this is his first time out of the country and into a place where the sun is almost never out. One of my best friends I have come to find here in Scotland, he is always such a wise person who is willing to talk about everything. He has been there for me when I needed someone to just vent to and his endearing faith truly is an inspiration to me.  If it isn't his smile that cheers you up it is probably his one liner comments about the cold that gets you. So thankful to have met him. 

Tuesday came along and because it is approaching finals week I have been working my butt off in the library and that is what I have been doing almost everyday. 

On Wednesday the gang dragged me along to go and see Mockingjay with them.

Thursday night came along and about 8 of us decided to go to the Celtic football game. Now when I say 8 of us decided to go...the 7 of them so graciously invited me along. Here are some pictures of the stadium: 

In order from left to right: Gregor, Laurence, Raddi, Ethan (the 14 year old in front wearing blue), Ciara, Dan, Johanna and myself. 

Note to self: When yelling out a chant or anything for that matter, make sure you know the right words...

So now that we've already covered Dan and Raddi, Gregor and Laurence are going to be my next two victims. Gregor for some reason has such a simple name but whenever his name comes up I think of Gordon, who is another guy on the tennis team. Sorry mate. Gregor is such a nice guy who I haven't really hung out with a whole lot but always has a firm greeting of enthusiasm to see you which is a great quality to have. Next we have Laurence, who is quiet with his words, but he seems so knowledgable with his words and his one liners that he seems to slip in whenever seems fitting. Also side note, he doesn't really look much like a tennis player, but he has consistency on the courts! Seeing him mess up is normally just a sigh from him and then back to the end of the line which just adds to his awesome character. I'll save Ciara and Jo for later down the blog because they appear again. Oh boy...where do I even start with Ethan? Perhaps with Banter, banter and more banter. Have you ever thought of a stereotypical UK guy? For some reason he is exactly what I think of when I think UK. Pale, short hair, some freckles, skinny, short, he doesn't seem to have bad teeth so he escaped the stereotype there. The only other thing about him is that he doesn't have a London accent, but a thick Glaswegian accent. Rarely, infact never have I seen him in a dull state of mind. He always has a good laugh and some smart comment that he brings to the plate. His tennis technique would probably be a representation of his personality. Squak - a squirrel on crack. Constantly he is moving at such a quick pace, sometimes it's hard to keep up with his body movements. His laugh never fails to amuse me and others. A genuine guy who is always great to have around, especially when you need someone to pick on. I would easily say that his boy like features makes him an easy target for everyone, but he is a great sport about everything. 

Friday came along with a sunny day and some cornbread thanks to the McNellys, along with Bible study and some great talks during our time together in Sydney and Harper's room:  

Saturday was spent in the library after some breakfast with Katie Williams, a California/Colorado girl stuck in a London girl's body. Most of our conversation was talking about hammocking and slack linning among traveling and other languages. Great way to start my Saturday. At night I had my first Ceilidh, which for those who don't know, is a Scottish version of line dancing. The entire GUT team hosted it and it was such a blast just trying to figure out the dances, watching so many guys wear kilts and just great chats: 

In the middle we have Johanna: A german girl who I can't give enough justice to in this blog. Since day one she has picked up on every joke I have said and played along with every comment we have made up. Smart, witty, german what more can a guy ask for? Honestly she has become such a great friend of mine here and she has truly just embraced me into the team here making things so worth it. If we aren't joking about getting married we are probably talking about Dan and what a riot he is. Sorry dan, not really. Jo and I's "date" will presume once I return from madrid, we decided to get fancy for it and...well I won't spoil to much and save it for the next blog. On the end we have Momma Evans, Mum, or I guess Leila Evans. She probably takes the most beating from me, because well it's easy. I first started calling her mum after a post on facebook and ever since then if there was any situation where I could turn it against her , I did. She gives me as much grief back so it evens out kinda. Oh and no one talks to themselves more on the courts than this one. She is so much fun and easy to get along with because of her spunky attitude. Love ya momma. 

In the middle we have Ciara. She reminds me of a Teletubby in such a great way! Up until this past Celtic game I had no idea how animated she is. I think at one point she went on for a good 5 minutes doing the same tune and not even worrying about speaking words. She's also one of the only people I know that can rock a carpet as a scarf and still look good. I know that I've said this about a lot of people but she always has a smile on her face, and a great one at that. To some up she is the sweetheart of the team. 

Okay where are we now? Sunday - Church library and a lovely chat with Jacob! Here are some pictures on the way to church and inside the church itself: (It's always sunny on sundays here)  

Now before you ask why I have a half eaten donut in this blog let me explain the backstory: 

I think for the past six weekends now I have been going to this amazing church called Re:Hope, and before service they have some donuts, croissants and other things. For the past 6 weeks I have gone up multiple times and gotten a CUSTARD filled donut, hoping I would finally get jelly filled one. For the first time in 6 weeks I can finally say that after defeat and the loss of hope the dire times are in the past because not only did I get my first JELLY filled donut, but I got 3. Don't judge. 

Christmas time at our church.

Now I have truly started to follow my feet and walk on the path that God has set for me and I am running to His open arms. I truly am so thankful that He has turned my life around again and blessed me with such an amazing community here in Scotland, a loving family back home and such great experiences abroad. This week I am going to Madrid to visit my amiga Naomi.

God Bless

T.H.A.N.K.S.G.I.V.I.N.G

This week truly has brought me so much happiness. I will try and contain myself but no promises, it's just that this week had so many different little moments that made me realise how lucky I am. It started off with doing some research and trying to be productive in the library while the deadline for my finals are closely approaching, however this week soon distracted me from doing anything. I bought myself a little notebook that I can carry around with me in my pocket everyday and jot down some notes to myself, and it has made the world's of difference with remembering little details and things to do. Tuesday I got treated by Claire, Martin and Lise (again) to homemade crepes: 

This little notebook of mine really helps me with my french because I can write down a few phrases as the frenchies are talking. The crepes were unbelievable with a variety of ham and cheese to sugar and chocolate powder. 

Another thing I would have to mention was that this week was another dry week in Glasgow which made for some pretty amazing artwork in the sky: 

 This is the view from my room, and being woken up to this light coming into my window is such a blessing.

On wednesday I went to go see the intimidation game with the french girls and I was not disappointed. I highly recommend watching this film about the history of cracking the Enigma machine during a time of war around the world. After the film when I left the french house I saw a cute cat walking towards me and while on the one hand it jumped onto my lap and continued to be really cute and cuddly, the rest of the story didn't turn out so great. I got clawed in the face after she jumped up onto a garbage bin. I didn't have it in me to just walk away and leave our relationship like that however so I went back and we made up by her allowing me to pet her one more time: 

On thursday I had my regular lesson with Chris the bagpipe instructor followed by lunch with Sydney Cason. Syd was an interesting character to pin point in the beginning of the semester because she told me she was studying neuroscience yet she can sing opera. If it isn't her laugh it is her amazing enthusiasm to do everything and anything. She really is a gem to have around, especially because she always has a smile on her face. We ended up going back to the piping center before our lecture and both did a solid number with researching for our final papers. 

After our lecture a handful of us decided to have a wine and cheese night because who doesn't like wine and cheese? If not that then a chance to procrastinate more, perhaps? The night was a great success:

Friday meant bible study being back to the normal time, and although a lot of people couldn't make it due to weekend trips we still went on. This week was a little more in depth I would say because I could tell that a lot of people were at that time where finals and other stress in their life has hit them. This just gave us more to pray about and a chance to share some personal struggles:

Saturday couldn't have come any sooner because that meant that my cousin Maryke would arrive from London! Being reunited with my cousin really brought a special warmth in my heart. It amazes me how even after 3 years of not seeing her nothing seems to have changed. We spent the entire saturday going to the cathedral, the necropolis, and the modern art museum with Martin, Claire and Lise. We saw a wedding while at the cathedral:

Before we headed back out to the city center for night time we had some tea and cake at the french house where some of us passed out for an afternoon nap and others just played guitar. At night we attempted to go see Mockinjay, however after failing due to it all being sold out we ended up watching Interstellar. Now I have two words to sum up this movie: MIND BLOWN. Truly an incredible film that toys with your emotions, mind, beliefs, and perception of things. One of our fellow companions really wanted to watch interstellar the whole week yet couldn't make it every time. Brandon wasn't there this night but we tried to include him the best we could: 

Sunday was pure joy from the beginning till the end. We went to church and Maryke came with, also Calvin's family joined us. Every sunday so far it has been sunny during church service and it just really creates a sense of aw while learning about the Lord's word. This particular service had a baptism and right before she was submerged into the water she said a few words. For a person so young she spoke of words far past my vocabulary, with such passion and love it had most of the community in church: 

After the incredibly powerful service we went to campus to show the McNellys and Maryke around: 

Because a bunch of us will be traveling this weekend, not myself, we decided to do thanksgiving a week early. We ended up squeezing about 25-27 people into our tiny kitchen. The food stacked up against the counters and after the great feast it felt as though we had to roll everyone out of the kitchen:

Familiar friends, people we haven't really known for that long, families we just met and families reuniting from afar; france, argentina, canada, south africa, united states, texas and brazil. So many different people with so many different stories all coming together for thansgiving, for some it was their first. 

I am thankful for God blessing me with this amazing opportunity of coming over to a new country, meeting these amazing friends, having a loving family, and just for the amazing love He has given me throughout my life. 

Today was spent going geocaching with Maryke and placing a verse from the book of Psalm in each one we found. Following the exploration we took a lunch break in the botanical gardens in my hammock with some leftover turkey sandwiches from last night. After we went for a tour through the city chambers in the heart of Glasgow: 

I am so incredibly happy and although I am overwhelmed with how much work I have to do before my finals this week has been one of favorite weeks thusfar in Scotland. God is so incredibly loving and thoughtful. All glory be to Him forever. 

A bit of a misunderstanding

This week was probably the week where I got the most frustrated with being in a different place. The culture is different and sometimes the people don't always understand you. As I go through my updates of activities I will try and explain more. The week didn't start off with the best situation having Liverpool lose to Chelsea 2-1 in what might have been a better game if the ref understood the game. Needless to say Calvin and I were still supporting our team in our colours:

Noelle my flat mate who is such a blessing to have around with her continuous joy had a friend come visit her and a couple of us went to the Crafty Pig and the Bookclub. Two pubs that have great food and a casual environment:

My filming continued throughout this week and while I try to explore some newer areas I couldn't help but to stop and take a picture:

The weather this week panned out to be awesome with almost no rain and some sunshine, which meant one thing: Me. Myself. and my Hammock:

My french friends Martin, Claire and Lise once again outdone themselves with cooking myself, emma and Chris dinner. A traditional french dish called Crozets. I also learnt a new french sentence: comment ete ta journee? Yes my spelling is really poor but I understand it this way. They have a crack at my french because it is so horrible but I somehow am learning something.

I think because this is close to the end of the semester we all needed a little break from cooking and pizza was a must:

I don't have any exams for my finals but I do have three research papers. Now being in a different country things aren't the same as back in the States including the way we do research. Here we have to actually go into a library and find primary sources so I spent four hours in the Mitchell Library digging through archives and found my research for one of my papers:

While I was in the City Center I met up with a bunch of people in order to watch a Christmas parade, that turned out to be 6 reindeer pulling Santa in a sleigh. The gang went to a dinner place that had cheap but really good food which is where the frustration and misunderstanding part of my week comes in to play. The dinner was pretty great because I got myself some steak and egg. The whole gan was surrounding a half booth kind of table in the corner and I was on the outside next to a little table. There was a narrow gap for the person at the small table and myself to get out and I thought I was being polite. I was putting on my coat and just talking to the group while standing when the gentleman behind me started raising his voice and that is when I turned around to see what the commotion was. Apparently he was yelling at me, I still don't know what for, but he seemed very angry. I was confused so I asked him what I did wrong and he really had one of the thickest scottish accents ever. I am pretty good with understanding people here but for the life of me I swear he wasn't talking english. He continued to rant while I asked to speak slower so that I can understand, when the only words I could make out was "you're a prick, sit down boy". Obviously hearing this wasn't the best thing especially when I didn't know what I did wrong. He continued to say the same things over and over and then he stepped closer and got in my face, which at this point I could smell the alcohol on him. I tried to handle the situation as calmly as possible and told him that he doesn't know me and that he might have had too much to drink. After being shaken up I left telling him to have a better night. So that was the first incident, then I biked home and on my way home there were three guys walking next to eachother on the pavement when I politely said "heads up". The one guy started chasing me after I had passed them and I just kept pedaling because once again I didn't think I did anything wrong. I suddenly felt as if I was the one who did something wrong because this was two incidents in the same night. Moral of the story is there are different cultures and you have to be careful with your actions and words because someone might interpret it differently.

My friend Emma Dell who lived on my floor freshman year came to visit me this weekend and together we did some touristy things in Glasgow such as going to the Cathedral, walking down Buchanan Street, seeing the Necropolis, visiting the University of Glasgow, and seeing the Hunterian Museum in our Uni:

I notice that I save bible study and church always for the end of my blogs, and I think mostly it is because I want to leave off thinking about that the most. So this week bible study was short because many people weren't able to make it, but we still got to hear an amazing story from Mickael our french friend. He truly does not fail to amaze me with his constant enthusiasm and happiness no matter what the situation is. I am so thankful to have met him because an individual like this really makes a person's day 10 times better. Church was well needed like every week and ReHope genuinely makes it so awesome to be here and share our faith in a loving community. Not to mention free donuts, croissants and coffee.