Author's Notes/Other Thoughts, 01-03 June 2004

01 June 2004 (04 April 2008)

• Kilt day was a great idea. But since I didn't have a sporran yet, it was really annoying not having pockets.
• I must have looked much more authentic than I felt in my kilt & hat. At one point Emily and I walked past a little girl & her mother, and we heard her say "Look mummy, a real Scotsman!" I had a hard time not cracking up, but I kept my mouth shut. I'm guessing they weren't from Scotland either, though the accent was British.
• Some of the water at the western beach & Columba's Bay actually looked tropical, which was very surprising.
• I've still got all the rocks I picked up in a bag somewhere in my room... I'll have to pull those out again one of these days.
• On the way back, we used some rocks to spell out "pudding" & took a picture of it for one of Emily's friends back home.
• Looks like I had a few complaints about Barb, so I should note that I don't have anything against her. She's actually a pretty cool lady, it's just that art isn't really my cup of tea.
• Corliss also mentioned that of all the study tours she had been on, we were one of the best in terms of how little drinking we did. While we certainly weren't wandering around plastered, that kind of surprised me.

02 June 2004 (04 April 2008)

• Yup, I did already mention how bad the roads were.
• I've still got a coupon from the distillery for £3 off a 70cl bottle of Oban Scotch. It's probably expired now, though.
• The only times I've seen Oban back in the US, it was going for $70+ a bottle, so I'm guessing it's highly regarded.

03 June 2004 (04 April 2008)

• I finally gave up on my travel wallet and bought a real/regular one (genuine leather) (also, made in Germany) at Ft. William. It's held up pretty well... I'm still using it today.
• Urquhart had a few stone troughs that started inside the castle and led to the outside. We figured they were either for toilets or pouring something on people trying to scale the wall, but never found out for sure.
• I was in a bad mood for the boat ride & most of the rest of the day, though I don't remember why.
• Rob downed an entire pitcher of Blue Lagoon that night, and somehow woke up without a hangover. So much for the whole "not a lot of drinking" thing.