Getting there is half the battle.

After hearing so much about Scots and their land, without actually meeting a native, I am even more excited to record my own thoughts.



Everyone has an opinion, it seems. So far, the best description of the Scottish people has been, “Loud, drunk, and ginger.” (Thanks to a very en vogue Londoner for that comment!) The Italian next to me and the American behind me were both kind enough to warn that Scotland is, “very cold.” Although I’ve come to the conclusion that everyone in the world, excepting perhaps Eskimos and Scots themselves, tout this doctrine. Just now a very Cockney customs official assured me that Scotland was no place to study English. Right, then. (Giggling to myself, I wondered where he picked up the language; but I could never judge, I’m too enthralled with any British accent to say anything negative!)



I’m always amazed at international flights, truly I am. Some people close up their windows and act as if noting incredible is happening. I am simply bedazzled. Just on this flight alone I formed a very easy friendship with the aforementioned Italian woman. She is a paramedic working in England and seems very kind. A thoroughly British gentleman, the kind who would say ‘balderdash’ and ‘zounds’, I have not officially “met” is just in front and across the aisle from me. He is presently drinking white wine and reading E. M. Forrester’s A Room with a View. I believe the stiff upper-lip has already begun! (Incidentally, his thoughts on the Scots were something to the effect of, “You should hear what they’ve said about the English.” Ah, glorious grudges!)

My overall experience with flying (alone) away from home to a strange, new place has validated my feelings of adulthood. If I wasn’t a woman before, I am closer now. I believe it must be a mark of maturity to depart from the known to the unknown and still keep your wits about you. Maybe I’m waxing too philosophical – it is about one o’ clock in the morning, after all. I think I will leave this journal post for now, letting the jet stream lull me to sleep. Though, I can never seem to sleep whilst hurtling through the air at warp speeds thousands of miles above sea level. It all seems quite unsettling when you put it like that!