Ups and Downs/Rich

Up: Watching the World Cup in Europe. Even in the outskirts of small towns in Scotland, the bars are pretty loud and entertaining during games. It’s fun to be in the midst of a lot of people who care; even if their team isn’t playing, they REALLY want some of the other teams to lose, which is always pretty funny. I can’t even imagine how crazy it’ll be in Paris and Lisbon (but will likely go into hiding if the U.S. beats Portugal while we’re there...). Random thoughts on various World Cup happenings so far: During the Brazil game I was 99% sure the guy who scored an own goal was going to start crying, Brail has a delightful array of players with one very masculine name (Fred, Hulk, etc.), English fans hate their team way more than anyone else hates the English, English newspapers and radios are hilariously self-deprecating about their lack of a chance to win, and the Netherlands are the most entertaining team in the world.

Down: Now, it’s time to address the biggest downside to Scotland. I wouldn’t bring it up in a blog post but it’s just so prevalent that we can’t honestly talk about the country without addressing it. “The grass is very well fertilized” would be a polite way of saying it. Zeke might have said it better when he said “this country is just riddled with poop” and “it’s like these sheep eat nothing but Taco Bell”. Sometimes we don’t get to enjoy the views that much because we have to look down the entire time to avoid stepping in anything. I tried to get a tasteful but indicative picture to show that I’m not exaggerating; imagine ten miles of walking and avoiding this:

Up: There are castles in Scotland. A lot of castles. They’re all owned by families whose names are Mac-something. As far as I can tell, the Macdonalds were the meanest but wussiest family around; they apparently cleared out villages of people so they could have more land to raise sheep, which were more profitable than having subjects. They also attacked a castle manned with 3 people with 50 of their ships and got turned back. Each of the castled families come with some pretty awesome family crests and really long, detailed family trees.

Down: Bugs. I’m coated in bug bites. The first night I went running and when I came back, Tirrill asked me what was wrong with my face. I had run into so many bugs that my forehead was mostly black. On the way, I sprinted past some cute American girls and thought they would be really impressed by how strong and fast I was. In retrospect, I was spotted red with exertion and black with bugs, covered in bugs, and smelled like I hadn’t showered in days (which might coincidentally have been true). For some reason they didn’t follow me into the hostel bar…