Notes from the Teachers' Congress

Teachers’ Congress – Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue, Asia Pacific Hall
November 28th, 2008

Minister of Education Shirley Bond
- welcome, overview & introductory remarks

Dr. Martha Piper – Keynote
- times have changed
- world of challenge leads the way to a world of hope
- confront global issues with hope rather than fear
- education rids us of fear and equips us with hope
- global citizenship is imperative
- we each dwell in two communities: local community of our birth, and the global community
- each of us needs to do our part
- Lester Pearson in 1946, foresaw the dangers of a rapidly changing world: “there is no refuge in remoteness” – no protection to be gained by distance
- we must seek mutual understanding through education
- three areas of educational focus as designated by Mr. Lee, president of Singapore: 1) language 2) scientific/computer technology 3) understanding of world cultures & religions
- five possible approaches to introducing global citizenship:

o How many schools have adequate language departments? How do we expose children to foreign language?
o How do we integrate what it means to be human into curriculum? How do we emphasize humanity?
o We must embed the messages of global citizenship within every class and every class, every year. Socio-political implications need to be introduced into our curriculum. Global issues need to be interwoven into teaching.
o Community Service Learning. Volunteering, giving, and service to others.
o Teach tolerance, respect & citizenship. Be a role model and demonstrate through your own actions. Students need to be secure enough to explore their own curiosity. Celebrate diversity.

- students need ownership of their own thoughts and speech
- the need for free citizens with free minds has never been greater
- African sentiment – ubuntu – “I am, because you are”

Focus groups – Developing Global Citizens
- discussions with groups of people around us
Thoughts:
- mandated curriculum and provincial exams severely limit our ability to create global citizenship because of the need to teach to a test
- teachers need to expand beyond provincial curriculum
- also a need to teach appreciation of what we have
- in order to teach languages and cultural literature, we need to stop underfunding libraries, closing libraries
- how to implement language education when the ESL program is underfunded and has little support
- “tyranny of coverage” – if you take a breath, you miss something. There is so much curriculum that it does not allow for the tangents that so often contain the best teaching moments
- reconciling the noble ideal with reality – we are struggling to keep our heads above water
- creativity costs money and it costs time
- teachers are overwhelmed, overworked, overtired
- we need to give hope to the teachers as well as the students
- teachers need to feel inspiration in order to be inspirational

Daniella Salazar, Todd Bethune, Lauren Bone & Brent Greenless – Sharing the Dream Webcasting Series – Student Led Initiative and Overview of 2010 Educational Resources
- webcasts coordinated between highschool students from Prince George and Coquitlam (Heritage Woods)
- the leadership program at College Heights Secondary, Prince George involved many initiatives outside of school
- reflections about interview with Carol Huynh – overcoming obstacles is about learning at every possible opportunity
- http://www.sharingthedream.gov.bc.ca/
- Next webcast is February 20th, 2009

Don Black, Director, Education Programs for the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games
- teachers can access online bilingual resources, events and activities to be integrated into curriculum
- teachers are integral to the program development
- teacher forum is hosted by UBC faculty of Education
- teachers can showcase lessons and student work on the website
o http://www.vancouver2010.com/en/culture-and-education/education/feature-programs/-/34032/33978/11dl109/sharing-the-dream-webcast-seri.html

Kathryn Graham, Amber Church & Matthew Carroll – Youth Climate Leadership Alliance – Integrating Sustainability into the Classroom
- engage and encourage youth to take action for the environment
- Idle-Free Ambassadors – work to reduce instances of idling
- Climate Action Facilitators are located all over BC – there are 2 for Metro Vancouver
- Key concept – CARE: Complexity, Aesthetic Appreciation, Responsibility, Ethics
- Students come to understand how their actions affect both local and global environments
- Websites/programs/initiatives that are available:
o http://www.treesfortomorrow.gov.bc.ca/
o http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/environment_ed/
o http://www.greenlearning.ca/
o http://www.hastebc.org/
o http://www.bcgreengames.ca/

Ian Grbavec & Cheryl Woods - Healthy Schools Network and Draft Healthy Living Performance Standards- healthy living is an umbrella topic that permeates all other learning outcomes
- direct links to: PE, HCE, Planning, Grad Transitions, Home Ec
- Emerging/Developing/Acquired/Accomplished – change to use positive language instead of the old performance standards
- Comprised of 4 aspect areas: Healthy Eating, Active Living, Healthy Relationships and Healthy Practices
- 6 big strategies:
o thoughtful feedback
o criteria for success
o teaching/learning
o etc.
- integrating DPA into curriculum
- Canadian Medical Association praises DPA but says it’s not enough

Minister of Education Shirley Bond – General Discussion
- mental health issues are prevalent as well as physical
- issue of too many IEP kids in provincially examinable classes
- comprehensive provincial plan for suicide prevention
- brain-drain of top BC students to out-of-province universities
- struggling families are not being addressed – they are in survival mode – students have specific learning needs that are not being addressed
- the issues that students bring to school today are often very different than the issues that were brought forward 20 years ago
- school counselors would like to come to the table to discuss issues with the government/ministry
- with staff shortages and class size increases, how can you ensure an increase in student (specifically aboriginal students) graduation rates
- DPA: who, what, when, where & how
- moving away from universal FSA’s to random selection with no identifiers
- the need to invest in social services, mental health, etc.
- 6-8 IEP kids in a class – added initiatives just further stress and overwhelm the teacher
- premier spending thousands of $ on newspaper advertisements instead of investing in education
- less than 20% of students choosing to write the provincial exams in courses where it is optional – will they be cancelled?
- what can teachers do to prevent burnout – and keep ourselves healthy and happy
- parental leave for fathers/harmonization of benefits
- gifted and advanced learners deserve to have their needs met as well
- help schools that score low on the FSA’s by investing in them – if you are going to persist in giving the FSA’s then do something positive with the results
- money was “de-targeted” from gifted programs, but stayed in the system – boards made decisions about how to allot the money
- teacher education courses should include ESL training since there are ESL kids in every classroom
- teaching practitioners need to inform policy more than any other partner
- ranking schools and then allowing parents to choose which school they send their kid to

Marc Kielburger – “Me to We” – Approaches to Fostering Student Engagement – Free the Children
- http://www.freethechildren.com/
- parents endure major sacrifices to ensure that their children have access to education
- student achievement = student engagement
- sign up for Monday column in Vancouver Sun that have lessons/ideas/suggestions for global issues
- make gratitude a regular part of their lives
- every child can be a philanthropist
- become a responsible shopper
- lead by example
- reach out through empathy
- don’t shelter young people from the issues
- celebrate heroes and people that make the world a better place
- teaching compassion
- www.metowe.org
- “do small things with great love” – Mother Theresa

Edinburgh to Galloway

Hello lovely people,

Rest easy, because this just might be the last email you get from me about my travels (for some of you that will be a welcome relief, I know...)! Today is Friday, we head South from Edinburgh to the Borders/Dumfries/Galloway region, stay down there for tonight, and then come back up to Glasgow and fly home on Sunday. Yay!

Edinburgh was easily the best city that we saw on the trip. However, cities were my least favourite part of the trip. But considering I am *still* awed and excited to be in Scotland, it's really all good. Edinburgh Castle wasn't terribly impressive, but we may be coming to the point where we have seen so many castles and churches and galleries and museums and historical sites, that it's a bit of overload. C'est la vie... I'm not going to complain. ;)

Today is the 8th day of the 8th month of 2008, which I gather is a very very lucky day for Asian culture. My cousin Mike is getting married today, so I hope that the luck works in his favour to make everything go smoothly. From what I hear, Vancouver is looking rather gorgeous as of late! Should be a lovely day.

Christine & I have been trying to add up how much we have spent here to make sure we have our stories straight when we get to customs (cough, cough), and more importantly, trying to see where it will all fit! All I have to say is, whisky is big and heavy, not to mention expensive. It better not break!

One thing that doesn't often happen here is when we go to a restaurant and pay with a credit card, there is no place to add a tip. I never really realized how much I appreciate having that little gratuity line, because I am trying to travel here with as little cash as possible, and sometimes that has meant a meagre tip or worse, none at all! With food being as expensive as it is, I kinda just wish the tip was included in prices -- wouldn't that make everything so much easier?? Anyways.

Being that Christine has so many food allergies, we have been virtually unable to share food. Or at least, she can't have anything that I can eat -- which is good in a way, because it keeps the money thing very separate and "yours/mine" issues very clear, but I feel bad that I can't give her some of my treats or share an entree when neither of us are particularly famished. Ah well. I am just happy that she stayed healthy. :)

So, highlights of the trip? Barra. Love Barra. All the islands, for sure -- Orkney and Iona and Skye... but Barra still is my favourite. The people were also a highlight -- I love the people here. And the landscape -- wow. The museums and galleries and castles etc. were great too (except for the overload). Still haven't found that deep-fried Mars bar, but despite that, the dinner at Iona was the highlight for food.

And with that, I am off. Hope to see y'all soon... expect photos to come sometime in the next few weeks. :)
Cheers
xo
Elaan

Edinburgh

Hello hello

Yesterday and today was Edinburgh. We got into the city later in the evening and Christine did an amazing job of navigating the craziness of downtown (one-way streets and festivals and bus-only lanes and people everywhere and bridges and basic insanity) and I was the stellar co-pilot! Woo! Anyways, we had to stay in a hostel last night, which we were NOT looking forward to (the B&B's have spoiled us), and with good reason... it was the same sweaty stinky noisy sleepless experience. The difference was, it was located RIGHT on the Royal Mile! Which is the main strip of downtown.

Unfortunately we had to leave our car several blocks away, and so we had to get up this morning at 7am to go move it before it got towed. That's okay, we didn't really need an excuse to get out of that hostel. We decided to drive straight to the Marriott and hopefully leave our bags and car while we found food and maybe also our way back into the city. The Marriott was a package deal we got with our tickets to the Military Tattoo (big military band, music, marching, dancing, singing performance that is apparently quite famous, although neither of us had heard of it before we started telling people that we were going to Scotland, and then many of them said "are you going to the Tattoo?" and "you HAVE to go to the Tattoo!" -- so, we got the only tickets left, which were a package deal with the Marriott hotel).

So, we get to the Marriott totally exhausted from not sleeping at the hostel, and have a super awesome gourmet breakfast... yummmmm... and then they manage to get our room ready quickly so we could get in there. SO nice! We showered and napped and Christine even went for a swim. Ahhhh, luxury. Hostels are bollocks and rubbish I say! We got onto a handy-dandy bus that took us straight downtown and went to the National Gallery. Wow... I don't even know what to say about that place. Amazing and stupendous. I could have spent all day in there. Except that they don't let you wear your backpacks on your back (or front, or one shoulder) which is annoying. What the purpose for that is, I have no idea.

We also went to the Fruitmarket Gallery. Weird stuff in there. Weirder stuff in the gift shop even. Brits have some messed up sense of humour... sometimes it totally works and is hilarious but other times it just crosses the line or doesn't make any sense. Like a card that said "catch the ball, because if you don't your wife will leave you and take the kids". Dub-tee-eff?! Anyways. Just sayin'. Weird.

So we had dinner at a great little Italian joint called Rocco's and then headed to the Tattoo. It was awesome, amazing, marvelous, incredible and wicked. It also poured rain on us like God was trying to put out a fire in our souls (I have no idea where THAT imagery came from, honest). No but seriously, it rained so hard that people started leaving the stands (oh, did I mention it is an uncovered, outdoor performace that has never ever been cancelled in any weather conditions?) about 30 minutes into the 90 minute show. I was fairly miserable, but I kept my mouth shut and just focused on the excellent show. I tried with all my might to avoid thinking about how my shoes had become puddles for my feet, and how my jeans had wicked the water all the way to my waist.

I think the last time I was completely soaked like that was when I was a kid taking swimming lessons and they asked us to get in the pool with our clothes on so we could get the feeling of what it felt like. But, my core remained fairly dry -- that raincoat I bought the night before I left did a really great job. Not sure what I am going to do about my wet shoes. I may have to break out the hairdryer.

All in all, we have had really great bright and sunny weather, so I am not going to complain if it rains. We have been super lucky so far, so it is what it is. :)

We have tomorrow and Friday morning in Edinburgh, Friday afternoon and Saturday in the South, and then on Sunday we are back in YVR! I hope the nice heat wave you guys are having holds out until we get home. :)

Hope y'all are well, and dry, and snug
xo
Elaan

Orkney to Inverness to Blairgowrie to Edinburgh

Hello everyone,

So on Sunday in Orkney we went to see the Tomb of the Eagles and a Bronze-age house, and we also stopped at a famous Italian Chapel that was made completely out of garbage and found materials during WWII. Very neat. Then we stopped back in Kirkwall, and went shopping. I must say it's the first time on the trip I really wanted to buy something for myself -- so guess what I bought -- a necklace and earrings, and a cheese board. Yes, I said cheese board. It's not just any cheese board though, it has ancient viking runes etched into it! So that makes it an ultra-cool awesome cheese board.

Anyways, with those purchases I think I have officially run out of money. Any time I consider buying anything it is usually at the expense of a meal or two, haha. So I think my purchases will stop there -- I just don't have room in my bags or money for anything else! Although Christine thinks we could buy another bag to check at the airport... but my motivation for being here really isn't shopping, so that's okay.

Yesterday at the B&B we were staying at in Inverness, they offered haggis as part of the morning meal, so I tried it!! I figured it was a safe way to try it since there would be lots of other food, and it was all part of the package. So, haggis... hmmm. It wasn't bad really. It kinda tasted like ground beef and barley put together. It sure wasn't my favourite, me being not a very big meat-eater anyways, but it was fine. I didn't finish it all. So now I have had the whiskey AND the haggis. I wonder if there are any other Scottish traditions to have before I leave here?

After breakfast we went down to Loch Ness to go swimming. Except... that it was freezing ice-cold. We stood in the water up to our calves and I swear after about 30 seconds I couldn't feel my feet anymore. So, we didn't swim. But we did dip our toes in the water!

After Loch Ness we went to Dundee (not a very pretty city, but family history abounds there for Christine). We also went to the famous Glamis Castle, which was amazing, and headed to a lovely B&B for the night.

Oddly, we have seen 4 or 5 instances of fighter jets?? in the sky while we've been here. Seriously, it's something out of Top Gun. Strange to see them flying so low. And we have also seen many instances of mating cows. Related? Maybe so.

Anyways, I must be going because my time is running out but tonight we head to Edinburgh! It's going to be fabulous! We are home soon after that. Hope y'all are well...
xo
Elaan

Orkney rocks

Helloooooo...

So today we did Orkney... and tomorrow we do more Orkney, before we leave Orkney. We love Orkney. Today, was beautiful. We couldn't ask for better weather.

There were three sites we visited today that were more than 5000 years old -- older than the pyramids! Wow. Names won't mean much to you, but the Ring of Brodgar, Skara Brae, Brough of Birsay, Standing Stones of Stenness and Maes Howe were awesome. I attached the links so you can have a look in case you are at all interested in that stuff. We also went to the Orkney Museum, Earl's Palace, Bishop's Palace and Wideford Hill. We find again and again that our cameras just can't do it justice here. You will have to come and see for yourselves -- we recommend it!

The Orkney accent is different and much stronger than the regular Scottish accent, which makes it difficult to understand some people -- I find myself doing a little more of the smiling-and-nodding schtick, although this could be problematic since today I think a Scottish man was trying to get me to take him home with me, and there I was with my smile & nod... oops.

Tomorrow we are going to the Tomb of Eagles, Orphir Church (no, I won't be worshipping this time), Stromness Museum, and maybe some others... but we have to get back on the ferry in the afternoon, to go back to the mainland. We are pretty disappointed, because we really liked it here. So far, Scottish isles have really impressed!

Also impressive are towel warming racks in the hotels and B&B's -- why don't we have those? They come in especially handy when you need to wash some clothing and it needs to dry quickly.

I have discovered that I really like rhubarb yogurt. And rhubarb jam. And I like that grilled tomatoes and mushrooms is standard breakfast fare here. I don't really like the bacon (it's thick slabs, more like back bacon) and the sausages always get delivered to me in varying shapes and sizes... I don't like that, makes me suspicious! Haha.

Cute story from today: we were driving along the country road (they are pretty much all country roads until we get back down to Edinburgh I think), and we see this huge crowd of big black cows huddled up at a fence. And there's a guy, a tourist with a camera, standing directly on the other side of the fence within about an arm's reach of the cows. Thing is, he's not taking photos -- he appears to be talking to them (or with them), quite animatedly. Funnier still, I kinda wanted to jump out of the car and join in the conversation. Just BE there, you know? :P Ya, so I might be crazy... but I feel a lot saner than I have been in a very long time. It heals your soul to be somewhere like this, it really does.

We stay at a different B&B in Inverness this time tomorrow. And they know we are coming late, so hopefully they won't be cranky. :)

We have heard the news about the sea-to-sky landslide and butchery on the bus to Winnipeg (very disturbing) -- hopefully there's more good news (and weather) in the works for you guys back home.

Hope y'all are well!
xo
Elaan

Skye to Inverness to Orkney

Hi everyone

We can hardly believe that it's August already! That means we come home in nine days... so much to pack in between now and then. Christine and I are actually really good travelling companions in that we seem to have the same disposition towards our activities; when I feel like eating, so does she, when she wants to get out of the city, I am in agreement, and so on. We have disagreed about precious little -- indeed, nothing really comes to mind! It's all good.

Some random observations:

The cool thing about driving around in Scotland is that all the signs are in Gaelic and in English, and sometimes you can see how they have just made up the English words to be as similar sounding to the original Gaelic ones... so you get some pretty funny place names. I really wanted to visit Tongue, but it just wasn't in the cards for today. ;) We did get to John o' Groats and Portnalong and Sligachen though.

And, as a few of you warned, there are roundabouts everywhere instead of stoplights, which is great -- there haven't really been any bottlenecks unless there was construction, although the traffic is much faster when there are two lanes rather than those treacherous one-laners. I don't much like those!

On the sides of the roads and beyond are sheep. A few times I caught myself thinking about the nice dog sitting there, and then realized that it was a sheep. Although they seem to gravitate away from human bodies, they are generally unphased by the huge motor vehicles hurtling down the road... sometimes they walk right down the middle, taking their sweet time. Christine calls those ones "kamikaze death-wishers"... and there are a few drivers like that here too.

I also really like how the outlets in the walls have switches, and you have to turn the switch on to get power, so that it conserves energy. Why don't we have those??

Midges suck, big time. They are tiny biting little bugs that get you. We hate them. They are everywhere. Smaller than moquitoes, and more insidious.

They offer English mustard and French mustard at the restaurants here. Ironically, it's the English mustard that looks like the regular yellow "French's" mustard I have back home in my fridge. French mustard is black. BLACK. Tastes like mustard, though, despite its look of tar. And no, I haven't had haggis yet.


Ok, so back to the travel update. I will try to be brief (hah!).

We drove from Skye and stayed at a B&B in Inverness with a mildly cranky lady who was mad that we were late checking in - she tried to lie and say that she had re-let our room but when we made to leave she suddenly found it to be empty. Hmmm. We didn't like Inverness much -- just a city with a mall, and it wasn't quaint or beautiful and there wasn't much there to see, or that we wanted to see.

Outside of Inverness, though, are some amazing sites. Like the Culloden Battlefield, which was the best visitor center and facility we have been to yet. Simply excellent. We also saw Cawdor Castle, where Macbeth is supposed to have been set for Shakespeare's play, and we went to Fort George but it was closed when we got there. We also saw Loch Ness (and Nessie, of course) and Urquhart Castle. Both were pretty good.

Today we drove up the east coast of Scotland and went to the most northern tip. We caught the ferry to Orkney, and we are here for 2 nights. We LOVE the place that we are staying at (not the least of which because they have fast & free internet), it's right by the water with amazing views and we are SO excited to be in Orkney. We have some very famous archaeological sites to visit tomorrow. On Sunday we go back to Inverness.

Today was the first day we got caught in the rain and wind... it was very hard to take good photos. Hopefully it's nice out tomorrow! I hope you guys are having great weather too!
xo
Elaan

Fort William to the Isle of Skye

Greetings from the other side of the Atlantic!

Today we saw the Commando momument, the Well of the Seven Heads, and the Eilean Donan Castle. The castle was amazing! A recreation of a medieval castle and in the most amazing setting on the water. Excellent!

I forgot to mention yesterday that Christine & I went on the first of our many, many whiskey distillery tours. Just joking... I don't think we will go to that many -- maybe one more. We went to the Oban Distillery in Oban, and it was a small, traditional distillery so we are thinking that we might go again to one of the bigger ones to compare. In fact where we are staying right now on Skye is very close to the Talisker Distillery, so we may go there.

Whisky... oh my. Not a drink for me! They gave us two tastes of it on the tour, and the first one wasn't completely through the process yet and it was at like 55% alcohol -- tasted like rubbish! Made the back of my throat burn and my mouth water... ick. By the time we got to the end of the tour and they gave us the good stuff, it tasted much better -- must be a ploy to make people think whiskey tastes good (sorry, Dad & Wes, I will still keep my eye out for that Lagavulin you want).

Also, I had my first stint driving on the wrong side of the road -- SO weird. The hard part is that your body wants to be on the right instead of the left so you have to be careful to not drift over to the shoulder. Today Christine was a little nervous when I came a little close to a cyclist. :P The other hard part of driving on the left is shifting with your left hand! That takes some getting used to. But other than that, it's actually been pretty intuitive. We just wish the the roads over here weren't so bloody narrow!

And that leads me to our first great tragedy of the trip. Haha, okay so it wasn't a tragedy, more like an adventure to keep us humble! Just outside of the Isle of Skye we were driving on a highway in the middle of nowhere with nobody around, and we hear a strange noise, so we pull over. Sure enough, yes, it's an extremely flat tire!! Oh goody gumdrops. I was mildly phased at first but Christine jumped right in and started pulling the spare out of the trunk and between the two of us we had the jack and wheel lock (thank goodness I had one of those on my car or we may have been hooped!) all figured out and we changed that tire pronto! Dad would have been proud.

Even though we wracked our brain to find a good reason for why the tire was flat, we just can't figure it out. We called the rental company who basically told us that we were on our own because we were so far away from civilization (we are way out here in the country, people!), and that we would have to pay for it ourselves since it was obviously "driver error" which pissed us off a bit. Me so more than Christine, but whatever.

We got to where we were going on Skye (a hostel, but with a private room, yay!), drove into town, found the garage, they found us a tire and replaced it for us all within about 30 minutes, and we are now pleased as punch to be back on the road in fine form! If that's the worst thing to happen on the trip then we are lucky-lucky.

Tomorrow we are driving all over the island. We have some sightseeing to do and then Christine wants to go shopping. We are 2 nights here on Skye, and then on to Inverness!

Hope y'all are well.
xo
Elaan

Fort William

Hello everyone

Christine & I have arrived in Fort William. It is a nice little town, although one of the tour books describes it as a major shopping district, which is laughable. They don't even have a movie theatre, and I think it's the biggest city of the highlands! We are thinking we should be prepared for REALLY small towns for the next while until we get back into Edinburgh.

En route today we stopped in Glencoe and went to this really cool museum and stopped at the Glencoe Massacre monument. I am learning a lot about Scottish history on this trip! It might not help that I am reading the second book in the Outlander series (which is set in Scotland) because all the history and politics in there are kinda confusing... I am hoping the REAL historical accounts will help me figure out what's going on in the book!

This evening we saw Neptune's Staircase, the Caledonian Canal, the Glenfinnan Monument, Ben Nevis, and Inverlochy Castle. And that was all done in a couple of hours! The bugs have come out tonight and they served to drive us away from staying still in any one place for too long. I hate stupid biting itchy bugs!

We have bought this Explorer Pass that gives us free entry into a number of castles and historical sites, and we just finished working out what we want to see and roughly when we think it will happen. We are doing well, although today I am feeling totally drained because it was SO hot here, and I wilted pretty good. Me + Heat = Blah. Thank goodness we have AC in the car. :)

Tomorrow we head to the Isle of Skye for two nights. We are also counting down the nights that we have booked in hostels... we are much more looking forward to rooms with privacy! There is one place down near Perth that was a highly recommended B&B, but the only catch was that they didn't have twin beds, only a double bed. I hope Christine doesn't mind that I am a cuddler! Hahaha.

Anyways, gotta get going... hope y'all are well. Drop me a line when you can!
Cheers
xo
Elaan

Iona to Mull, back to Oban

Hello lovely people,

Today we left Iona after worshipping in the famed Iona Abbey. Although I felt like a total poser in there, I quite enjoyed listening to the singing (reminded me of that gospel course me & Dad took last summer) and there were moments when the three-part harmony came together, and it echoed throughout the stone walls and it just felt really... well, neat. :) So beautiful.

We took the short ferry back to Mull, drove the short way back to the other end of the island, and then caught the other ferry back to Oban. What a nice city this is... right on the water, with amazing views and quite the atmosphere. We had a cheap(ish) dinner and chocolate-chip mint ice cream, yummm.

Back to hostel living... although it feels markedly better to not be arriving in the middle of the night and actually getting to stay in a girl's dorm. :) There is some kind of party going on here tonight, so the hostel lounge (where I am writing this email) is alive with balloons and cake and drinks and people... and some guy is dressed in drag, doing his best to freak people out I think. Didn't work on me!

Tomorrow we are back on the road to Fort William, and then on to Skye. We love it here; we might not come home. Just so ya know...

How is the weather there? Are you enjoying summer? Tell me how your life is!!
Cheers,
xo
Elaan

Iona and Mull

Hi all

I bet you didn't think I'd be writing so many emails eh? Well that makes two of us. If it's too much for your inbox to handle... just delete. :P

Today Christine & I took the ferry from Oban to Mull, and then we drove (well, she drove) around the island of Mull before taking another ferry to a small little island called Iona.

Several of you warned me that distances in Scotland are decieving, and that's the truth! It took us wayyyyyyy longer to drive around Mull than we thought. Crazy one-lane roads with no visibility kinda freak me out. I don't enjoy sitting in the passenger seat wondering if there is something big coming around the corner in the oncoming lane. Doesn't seem to phase Christine though... guess that's why she's driving!

Looking at the rest of our itinerary and driving estimations, we have realized that we may need to make some heavy adaptations!!

If I had to describe Scotland in one word, it would be GREEN. Everything is so lush here. It doesn't take much for something to seem idyllic... I marvel at the fact that Scots live amidst this beauty all the time. How do they go anywhere else?

Iona is amazing. It's like Barra in that it is a magical, wondrous place that I could lose myself in. Not as connected through family, which makes Barra special to me, but Iona is still one of the best places we've been so far.

The hotel that we are staying at here has dinner and breakfast included. We finished dinner a few hours ago and I have just recovered from my comatose state and emerged from the room to use the free internet (yay free internet!). The food was SO BLOODY GOOD. So good in fact, that I almost hurt myself trying to eat it all. Almost made myself sick. Isn't that awful? But I swear it's the best food I have had on my trip so far, and maybe even for a long long time in general.

We were afforded an appetizer, main course and dessert. I had a cheese and salad plate with oat cakes & cranberry relish, then the sirloin steak with green salad, fries & garlic peppercorn mushrooms, and then the best belgium chocolate mousse cake I have ever had, not too sweet, light and fluffy, with amazing homemade vanilla ice cream. YUM. I can't really move right now, but I don't care; even the memory of it makes me happy.

A few days ago we stopped at a cafe and they had haggis on the menu but I was not brave enough to try it yet. I am reluctant to waste $$ (or rather, ££) on something I am pretty sure I won't like. But... it's like the Guinness...

I am still taking photos like a madman. Of course. Can't help myself really. Christine is addicted to checking her email; I am addicted to taking photos!

I uploaded a couple of photos to Facebook today. It takes a long time so I won't be trying to do that regularly. But check 'em out and lemme know whatcha think!

Tomorrow Christine is taking me to a church service at the Iona Abbey. She is determined that I will have a religious experience on this trip! (Little does she know that I have one every time we drive on those one-lane roads). Church is not my thing, but Christine describes the Iona Abbey as "the cradle of Christianity in the UK" since it dates back to the 500's. My primary goal in coming to Scotland was to go to Barra; hers was to come to Iona. So, I am looking forward to it -- I actually really love churches, if not for the same reason as her. As such, I am looking forward to going tomorrow.

After that, we ferry back to Mull, then drive across Mull (the "short" way this time), and catch the ferry back to Oban. Back to that lovely hostel. Sigh.

Take care, be good, stay healthy and happy,
xo
Elaan

Oban to Mull to Iona

Hello, hello

Last night was experience #2 in a hostel in Oban. It was better than the first experience, but still with the humidity, sweating all night and listening to people snore. Plus we didn't arrive until 10:30pm and everyone in our room was asleep and turns out, we had to be put in a men's dorm. Ah well, we were the last ones to bed and the first ones awake so it didn't matter much.

I don't know what it is about people snoring that makes me homicidal, but let me tell you, earplugs saved somebody's life last night! Hehe. Tonight we are staying in Iona, which apparently is quite unusual... it's a verrrrrry small island and a popular daytrip destination, so not many people can say that they have stayed there. According to Christine, dinner AND breakfast is included too -- must be a VERY small island since I would guess that there isn't many options for food. Anyways, it's a hotel and not a hostel. :) Unfortunately tomorrow night we are right back to staying at the hostel here in Oban again. :P Hopefully a women's dorm with no snore-ers.

The drive has been absolutely breathtaking, and not just because of the near-death experiences we've had. Ha! No actually, I haven't even driven yet, Christine took the first stint, and the only time she erred was when *I* told her the wrong way to go. Very narrow roads here though, which is a bit nerve-wracking when passing oncoming trucks, or people that hug the center line.

As for cars, we had originally reserved a car with Hertz because we were quoted some amazing deal that was going to work out to be about £300... but when we went to pick up the car, turns out that with taxes, two weeks of ridiculously-priced insurance, and the cost of a map and the daily fee for an additional driver, it would have come to about £1000!! That's like two-thousand bucks!! I had visions of changing my flight and coming home after a week.

But turns out it was just Hertz that was trying to do us in... we checked with a few other car rental agencies and they all had deals that included the insurance, additional driver AND map! We were happy & relieved to be able to continue with the driving leg of the journey. Phew! Stupid Hertz. We don't like them now.

Oban looks to be a really nice town, and when we get back from Iona I hope that we will have time to explore around here more. It kinda reminds me of a European-version of Horseshoe Bay village. Would love to just walk around for a while.

Christine & I are doing great, I think we have made a great team so far. :) Hope all is well with you guys!

Cheers,
xo
Elaan

Going Home to Barra

Hello lovelies,

We are back from Barra and all I have to say is WOW. I absolutely loved it there -- it's sooooo gorgeous and peaceful and filled with family heritage and beaches and ocean and rocks and scenery and history and it was amazing. I loved every single moment and I knew I would regret not booking a longer stay there.

My cousin Mary Kate met us at the airport and was a generous hostess, giving us island tours and doing up my whole family tree and having us over for tea, and all that. She's quite the character. Very nice. I have taken about a billion photos. Mary Kate works for the Barra Heritage Society so that came in quite handy.

Met some family at the Clan Macneil Gathering, and got on quite well with the chief, went and saw Kisimul Castle and attended the Clan Macneil dinner. It was lovely. People are so friendly, and everything is so quaint. Island life, you know.... I don't know that I would live there, but I sure wish I had been able to stay longer. Next time I come to Scotland I will make sure to do all the Hebrides up properly.

Got to see the house that my great-grandfather lived in, and my great-grandmother, and the church where they were married. Visited a few graveyards, monuments, ruins... so much personal history there.

We walked in to town every day and everyone waves to each other on the road... I love that. And there is only one single-lane road anywhere on the island, with "passing places" where people pull over if there's need. Last night Christine and I walked home from the Clan dinner (about 40 minutes) back to our hotel, and it was dark, but we had a dog go with us the whole way... our patron saint! It was so sweet to have a friendly furry canine guide with us. I miss my cats.

Anyways, we are doing really well and having lots of fun but mostly in awe of everything and feeling so lucky to be here and to have the opportunities that we have. We are just about to pick up our rental car and start driving on the other side... so I wonder how long I will continue to feel lucky, ha!

Hope all at home are well... thanks muchfor the messages.
xo
Elaan

Belfast to Barra

Well, Belfast was cool and all, but we just plainly didn't have enough time there. Got some photos of some amazing things, but we don't feel that we did it justice... not like Glasgow anyways!

The hostel experience... now that's an interesting one. I have never stayed in a hostel before, and it was... not good. Although, Christine said it was not typical.

The room we stayed in had 6 bunk beds stuffed into it, and it was co-ed. Windows did not open so it was super humid, especially with all 12 people in there breathing at night. Kinda gross actually! Everyone was coming & going and sleeping & waking at all hours... the bathroom was on the other side of the building... people were snoring and wheezing and farting and whistling through their nose, and we had to listen to people scratching themselves and rifling through what seemed like endless plastic bags. The staff at the hostel were not friendly and did not give good service.

BUT, I know I sound like I am complaining, but it wasn't that bad actually. Being a hostel-virgin I was actually kinda fascinated by the whole thing. We are going to be staying in other hostels on our trip, and Christine says that the next ones are recommended by someone she knows, so we will see. I have to say it's really nice to have your own room & privacy. I must be spoiled. :P

Today we are on our way to Barra... where my grandmother's family orginates. Should be interesting! Going from Belfast back to Glasgow, we got hassled at the airport a bit -- I got the "random" pat-down, and Christine got all the stuff pulled out of her bag and they made her go back and re-pack everything into plastic bags. We have found that when leaving a major airport, they are much more lax about stuff, but when leaving a small airport they are really strict.

Okay, I am off... thanks to all of you that have sent messages!
xo
Elaan

A Day in Belfast

Hello, hello!

Right now we are in Belfast, we arrived safely and are staying at a hostel called Paddy's Palace... but trust me, it's no palace. Our dorm room is right by the front door and we suspect that our sleep might get interrupted by the all-night partiers! We will see. The flight here was super short and much less eventful than that last one, hehe. Tomorrow we get on our third and fourth airplanes when we fly back to Glasgow and then out to Barra in the Hebrides.

We are definitely looking forward to some R&R. Today we did a tour of Belfast and we saw some amazing things, like the peace wall, the famous murals and war-torn historical parts of town, not to mention downtown with all the shopping and pubs. Some of you warned me how expensive the pubs are, holy crow you weren't kidding! Today my lunch cost £14 which is about 29 bucks... for a burger and fries, oh and a Guinness!

Yes, I tried a Guinness... and those of you who know me well know that I don't drink beer, much less Guinness, which can only loosely be classified as beer. But I really wanted to try it here in N. Ireland, to do what the Romans do, as they say... let's just say that it was not my kinda thing. I did admirably, said Christine, but I was unable to even drink half of it. Yikes!

Tonight we are happy to relax back here at the hostel, as we are both exhausted. This morning we got up bright and early to get to the airport, and the bus stop we were told to go to (by 3 different people, no less) never actually produced the bus we needed and as a result we had to break down and get to the airport by taxi. On Friday we pick up our rental car so there will be no more taxis after that! Just expensive fuel. By far the best taxi driver we've had was the gentleman who drove us from Belfast City Airport to our hostel... he was hilarious!! We are finding the Irish accent significantly easier to understand than the Scottish, and this guy had us cracking up.

That is one thing that we are a little nervous about, driving on the other side of the road. I have almost gotten us lost twice because I was thinking traffic was going the opposite way from how I thought, and this afternoon I almost got shmucked by a bus when I looked the wrong way for cars before stepping out on the road. Yeah, yeah, yeah I know... rookie mistake. If I manage to survive being a pedestrian on these roads, the next challenge will be driving around! Please send us your best wishes... :P

Tomorrow we wake up early and head back to airport, stay there for a few hours and then catch out flight to Barra. There is a cousin of my grandmother's meeting us at the "airport" -- which is a beach. Our flight to Barra is the only scheduled flight in the world which lands on a beach. Should be interesting! I will get photos... I get photos of everything.

Thanks to those of you that have written short messages to me, it's nice to hear the updates from home and feel connected to y'all... I don't have time to write you back but I read all of them and it's great! :) Feel free to keep 'em coming if you get a chance to drop me a line.

Anyways, I gotta get going but I will email again sometime...
Hope you are all well,
Elaan

On the Way to Belfast

hi everyone,
i am at the airport wasting a bit of time on a very painful internet station so this will b short, sorry about the mistakes.
we had an amazing day yesterday, we did glasgow proud by going everywhere and doing almost everything! my favourites were st. mungo's cathedral (could have spent allllll day there), the necropolis (so many great photos), the gallery of modern art (very cool & free), and the burrell collection (lots of famous stuff in there). by the end of the day yesterday we were totally exhausted.
today we are off to belfast! i will write more later.
xoxo
elaan

ps how are my babies tracy?

Glasgow

Ok, now I know I just emailed everyone, but rest easy knowing that I won't be filling your inboxes with minute-by-minute detailed messages of our every waking move.

Christine & I got a great sleep last night and had a decent breakfast this morning, made up our itinerary for the day and headed out... only to discover that it is a Glasgow city holiday today and everything is closed.... which severely limits our options! So in order to regroup and figure out what we're doing today, we stopped in this little internet cafe, and the rest is history.

Turns out the museum and art gallery we saw yesterday was rated #1 of the things to see while in Glasgow -- cool! We are boggled over the fact that not only was it free admission, but we were allowed to take photographs everywhere inside. There was some cool stuff, I only wish I was more coherent.

Talking to the Scots here reminds me of talking to Newfoundlanders... you KNOW they are speaking English, but you can't get a handle on 100% of what they are saying. We have found that the older people are harder to understand, but maybe it's more of a factor of origin rather than age. We will see... I wonder how it will be once we get to Barra.

Tomorrow we head back to the airport and get on a domestic flight to Belfast, where we are staying overnight. It's the only part of the trip that won't be in Scotland. We plan to pretty much do a day tour while we are there, have dinner in a pub (maybe have a Guinness?) and then head back the next morning... and pretty much get straight on the plane to Barra.

Ok, well we are off on our Glasweigan adventure! Hope y'all are well! :)
Elaan

We have arrived!

Hello everyone,

Just a quick email to let you know that Christine and I have arrived in Scotland safe and sound! Well, safe, anyways... we basically haven't slept since we left, so we are a wee bit tired and zombie-like. We hope to get a fresh start on the day tomorrow.

As for the flight, it was bearable considering that we had a 2 hour delay in Vancouver, an hour delay in Calgary, it was freezing, you had to pay for blankets and headphones, and the food made us, well, unsettled. Apparently others felt the same about the food because about 45 minutes before landing in Glasgow a kid threw up (and I mean, really explosive projectile vomit... sorry for the imagery there hehe...) in the seat right in front of us, and that started a chain reaction. In total, 5 people were sick on the plane before we landed! Those poor flight attendants, they sure earned their money on that flight. I was fine though, I actually thought it was mildly amusing and kept thinking of that old movie "Airplane" with the guy with the "drinking problem".

Anyways. We are in Glasgow, birthplace of my grandmother! We had dinner at a lovely pub, the place we are staying seems clean and decent, and we are starting early tomorrow to do some serious sightseeing. We spent part of the afternoon today in an amazing museum and art gallery... but there is lots more to see other than the dingy streets and general disrepair that reminds us just a little bit of East Vancouver.

Hope y'all are well, will update you again when I can! :)
Cheers
Elaan

The Last Queen of Scotland

I might go to Scotland this summer. If I can afford it. I am tempted to just buy a plane ticket and "work the rest out" later, but I am fearful of including things like food & shelter in my oversight.

Hmm... to go or not to go. If I go, I will attend my clan gathering in July:
http://the-macneils.org.uk/
Looks cool! :) I guess I should try to book accomodation on that tiny island first before I book my flight there... hate to be found sleeping on the beach!

Other things to consider...?