lush life/indwelling

i'm sorry to say it, but for the remainder of this week my posts are to become quite sparse. i am headed to prague on friday for four nights (21st thru 25th) and have to take care of absolutely everything before then, including my first essay of the semester, so some things will need to be neglected, including extended blog posts and long overdue email writings.

but at the moment, there is my day to tell you about. today i went with josh on a day tour of a part of scotland at the southernmost part of the highlands, with a final destination of loch lomond and the trossochs national park. we went through a very scottish tour group called haggis, with a highly entertaining and informative guide who asked to be called "disco dave." the group was quite small - only ten people total - and we drove around in a cozy bright yellow bus. many people consider edinburgh the least scottish part of the country because of how international and cosmopolitan it is, and i can say after today that is probably fair. everything further i saw of scotland was beautiful, in a natural, unadorned way that even seems to welcome and embrace the grayness of the color scale over here. the weather today was perfect - sunny and 60 degrees (mind that those are quite fortunate conditions for us) and i spent my day pleasantly in magnificent scenery and with much amusement from the tales (often more mythologized than accurate, but in a memorable, literary way) and jokes our guide provided. the air and surroundings at loch lomond itself were intoxicating, and felt very clearing; often in edinburgh i become uncomfortable walking around the city breathing in its smells, and trust me, there are many, most of the vaguely unpleasant sort. i really think that people need, at least every once in awhile, to go to a natural place and just sort of slow themselves and meditate on their surroundings. it probably should even be considered a basic human need, especially for workhorse americans and self-absorbed students.

so, i happily learned more about scotland today, in words and through sharing its space and presence. please refer to my updated photosite to get a better look, and a better documentation at that.
the rest of my weekend was relatively but comfortably solitary - both of my scottish flatmates always go home on the weekends, which is sort of lame but whatever one fancies, i suppose, and my american flatmate laura went on a trip to loch ness this weekend with like 150 other americans (here through the same program), so i was king of the house. friday involved lots of working, saturday lots of writing and shopping for a raincoat and exploring a new fancy shopping street that has stores that i would never even dream of setting foot in, and trying to tackle my reading and essay topic. i haven't seemed to figure out how to be as productive over here, probably because everyone wants to go out every damn night. there is so much life to plan! my to-do list never ends, it seems.

i meanwhile really need to go make one of those for the week. wish me luck with my first real bout of stress over here. adieu and well wishes to all-