Our version of hiking the West Highland Way Part 1

Ft. William to Glasgow,
95-miles,
Five days,
Seven friends,
Mountains,
Lochs...........and then....


Among the many popular walks here in Scotland, the West Highland Way (WHW) trail is probably the best known and maybe the most walked. Winding around through the spectacular Scottish mountains and along the famous Lock Lomond, the WHW sounds like a great way to see Scotland's landscape. It is a 95-mile trek from Glasgow (in the south of Scotland) to Ft. William (in the north). While the Glasgow end of the trail is considered to be the beginning, we chose to begin our hike in the north. This northern part of the trail takes you up into the mountains, actually, up and down and up and down the mountains while the southern part of the trail is an easy walk along Lock Lomond (this is what we hear at least). With school finishing on Friday and people with plans on the following Friday it was decided that we would begin our hike early on Sunday (giving us some time to pull our gear together) and then finish in Glasgow on Thursday. Sounded easy enough. Ha!

Friday afternoon we began scavenging for supplies, searching the school closets and cupboards, borrowing and bartering. For most of us this meant everything. Backpacks, sleeping bags, sleeping mats, cooking supplies, food, rain gear, tents, water bottles, flashlights etc. Saturday we were all dashing around like mad trying to pull everything together including transportation to Ft. William.

Esther and I in Sycamore (my house) discussing what we still need to find for our trip. That is Jens on the stairs and Valerie to the right.
The process of packing.

By late Saturday night everything was set. We would all meet at 4 am on Sunday in the car park where Ueli would be waiting to kindly take us as far as Oban. From Oban we would then catch a bus to Ft. William and begin our trek to Glasgow.

Oban!! At 5 am!! If you can't tell by the picture we are freezing. Not only is it early morning but Oban is located on the coast and it was quite cold.
Simeon, Jens, Valerie, Esther (in the shelter) and Gerusa

In an attempt to find some relief from the cold and maybe a bite to eat we were invited in to a small coffee shop. They were not officially open yet but the man told us that he could offer us tea and coffee until the proper breakfast was ready. We weren't sure what he meant by proper breakfast but tea and coffee sounded great. After having something hot to drink the man surprised us by leading us into this dinning area, the coffee shop was apparently attached to the hotel next door. Well, we thought it would be great to enjoy one last proper meal before hiking into the nature as Esther would say. One last proper meal before eating only couscous and soup for five days.
Our proper meal. Going around the table: Simeon, Esther, Gerusa, me and Jens

Esther and Gerusa leaving the cafe. Feeling good and ready to tackle WHW.


Just found out that our bus doesn't run on Sunday. Right, plan B is.....taxi?
Esther, Simeon, David and Jens

Taxi is here!! We had to wait an hour and a half just for the taxi. This is our brave taxi driver strapping two of our bags to the roof. Can you see how packed in we were?

Better late than never. Me, Valerie, Gerusa, Jens and Simeon
Here it is, we are officially beginning our hike on the WHW trail. It is so funny to look at these early pictures and see how fresh and full of energy we all look. How quickly that changed.
The view!!

This was when I was still in awe of Scotland's highlands. By day two I was not loving the mountains.

End of Term Festival

Heya!
Before I tell you all about my holidays, including all the adventures and escapades, I'll start at the beginning with some pictures from our End of Term Festival. The festival went very well and it was a great chance for all of the classes to entertain us and creatively share what they have been learning throughout the term. For instance one of our classes was studying weather and so they gave a weather report, rain, rain and most likely more rain. Then they sang an oldie but a goodie, Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head, before busting out their umbrellas and dancing around to Rihanna's Umbrella song. Everyone got a kick out of it.
For me the festival was particularly wonderful because the boy I look after in class was so successful, not only during our performance but also sitting and watching the others. He really managed so well and this was just the kind of situation which he finds difficult. I was very anxious before the festival about sitting with him and I was so sure that he really wouldn't manage but he was terrific! He stayed in his seat (and it wasn't his special chair which he gets strapped into) and in spite of his obvious excitement he didn't make a lot of noise even though he is known for really making a racket. He even managed to behave and make an appearance on stage and while I was worried that he would get excited and run off the stage, he only went to sit in his chair waiting off to the side. I was so impressed and so proud. It gets even better though because I was talking with the teacher whose class I work in and he said that he was impressed as well but he credited me more than the boy. He said that it was how I managed the boy and how I worked with him. Yay!! I was so pleased as you can imagine but even more so because I haven't heard much feedback about my work in the class, good or bad, which often just leaves me wondering "what the heck am I doing here?!"


(As it turns out I don't have so many pictures from the festival that I can post here on the internet. That is most unfortunate. I also wasn't able to find one of me as the dragon in our play. Not even one that I could crop and post. These will have to do.)

That is Esther helping Fabian to dress in the background and Gerusa in the yellow helping my youngest boy to get into his costume (unfortunately I had to crop him out). If you aren't sure they are dressing as Indians and their play was about making naan (this term they were studying India).
More costume preparations.

Folk dancing! This was something that we have been doing all of term, however, I have never really participated because of the boy I look after during the dancing. While everyone else has a partner and is dancing in "formation" he and I are usually free-styling or else I am making sure he doesn't get stepped on while he tries to socialize with all the dancers. Well, the week of the festival I was informed that I would be joining the dancers and be partnered with one of the girls from my class. Luckily, no one in my dancing group (seen in the picture) had ever really danced the dance so we were all in the same boat. The first time we danced together in practice we were so terrible and we were told that we had lots of work to do. Haha! Somehow we managed though and I think we did really well.
More dancing. By the way, this is supposedly and American folk dance. It is called Two Fat (or First, I'm never really sure) Ladies. Never heard of it. It is very funny here, because if anything American comes up people automatically get excited because I'm here from America. In class we are studying geography, in particular, continents. When it comes to placing North America in our giant sized puzzle it always comes up "Kaija lives in America!" Also, in addition to placing the name of the continent on the puzzle piece, there is a picture of me to stick beside it.

I hope you enjoy!
Coming soon.....the West Highland Way.

Tenerife, Spain

Life moves pretty quickly here and once again plans have progressed swiftly from an idea to actuality. Hence, tomorrow morning at quarter past nine Jens, Esther and I will drive down Ochil Tower's driveway on our way to the airport in Glasgow. From Glasgow we will fly to Tenerife. The island is Spanish territory but if you look for it on a map you will find it off the coast of Africa. With the cold and rainy weather here in Scotland you can imagine how I am looking forward to the warm sunny beaches in Tenerife! I am still so amazed that I can do something like this. Its not exactly something you can do from the U.S, fly to an island off the coast of Africa for a week! Well, here goes me making the most of my year here in Scotland and the opportunities for traveling. Rest assured that pictures and stories from these two weeks will be posted after I return next Friday.

(By the way, the hike went well. I can't wait to show you some of the amazing pictures and oh, the stories. It was a hike full of adventure. That is for sure.)

Love to you all!!