I should be working on my dissertation….
but for some reason I can’t focus today. Maybe thats because I’ve been hitting the library hard for the past few weeks. Or maybe its because MY PARENTS ARRIVED IN THE UK TODAY! They’re in London, and I’m in Scotland, but its hard to focus when I know Matt is playing with them and taking them to a few places. The start of vacations are always exciting, all the new sites, sound and food, and I’m here stuck in the library.
I do really like what I’m researching, but I’ve been here for about 3 hours and have barely typed an intro to Chapter 1. Should I keep pushing through, or just give up? My parents get here Friday!
Success!
I know it’s been a week, but I guess I need to go ahead and post the results of the dinner we had.
It was a very enjoyable night – overall we had 77 people attend and raised a grand total of £1800 pounds! We actually had more, but we had to pay a few expenses, mostly the hotel for the dinner. Because we are doing a matching grant, we didn’t have to raise as much money as we had originally thought, which was £2500. Instead, or number was dropped a bit to £1350, and we met that and then some!
I may be wrong, but I think overall Maggie’s gets somewhere around £9000! This is supported by three clubs from LA, and two in Edinburgh. So it will be a huge help to Maggie’s Centre in Edinburgh, who recently had a breakdown with most of their computers. So I believe the majority of money we give them will cover that cost.
Thank you very much for your support and monetary donations that were made. It is much appreciated, and I think we helped out a great cause!
I originally wanted to post some pictures of the evening, but I didn’t take any pictures, and I’m still waiting to get some from the scholars that did. But the line dancing was awesome, and I’ll definitely be wanting to do that the next time I’m back in TX!
I’ll post pics of the event as soon as I can get my hands on them!
Rotary Dinner Tonight!
We have finally come to the night of our Dinner. I think its going to be a great success – we have 82 people confirmed!
We have also been doing great on the fund-raising front! Through other donations we have already raised over £800 pounds and just with ticket sales the dinner puts us over £1500! So we will well surpass our goal, which is actually £1350.
If any of you are feeling extra generous and would still like to make a donation to Maggie’s you can do so here:
www.justgiving/RotaryScholars
I’ll be sure to take lots of pictures and post them here! FLYER
Fundraiser Dinner
Rotary Fundraiser
As some of you know, we scholars are hosting a fundraiser dinner for Maggie’s Centre on June the 11th. Aside from the money we hope to raise at the dinner, we have also set up an online donation site if any of you lovely people would care to make a donation.
The website is
www.justgiving.com/RotaryScholars
Its only been up for two days and we have received £95 so far! And I donated with my US card, so everything works fine if you’re overseas.
Hope everyone is well and if any of you would like to come to our dinner here is our flyer:
FLYER
Let’s hope its a success!
Loch Ness
About two weeks ago I took a little trip up to a little loch (lake) in Scotland called Loch Ness. When I say little I mean it was huge. The loch is about 23 miles long and it over 800 ft deep in some places.
Of course the most alluring and mystifying thing about the loch is the famous Monster Nessie. And I have to say, some pictures were taken that look a little suspicious…
Its the Monster!
Well I guess I should start from the beginning. Once again, I had my lovely Scottish tour guide, Malcolm take me up to Loch Ness. We had a really nice drive up there and this was our view most of the way:
Ah, landscape
The first thing we did when we got there was get on a boat and go visit this castle. The castle dates back to the 13th Century! And its also the place where Nessie keeps getting spotted.
Urquhart Castle
When we got there I looked for Nessie, but I couldn’t find her.
I'm not seeing anything suspicious...
We had a nice walk around and in the castle. We even stopped and posed for pictures.
Lord and Lady
Yeah, we’re clever.
We also did a bit of hiking around Glen Affric, which I kept mistakenly calling Ben Affleck. It was an absolutely beautiful hike, and when we got to the top, this was our view:
The Highlands are pretty.
The next day we did horseback riding before we left. It was a lot of fun, and it reminded me how much I enjoy riding horses. Well, I enjoy riding them when they don’t trot. Which we did – 4 times.
Getty up!
Me and Mr Coblett
I had the trusty and stable Mr Coblett – he didn’t do too much, just followed the group and occasionally ate some grass. Malcolm had Kelly the horse, who unfortunately refused to pose with Malcolm after the ride by head butting him in the stomach, so we only have this picture to remember the happier times between Malcolm and Kelly the horse.
Malcolm and Kelly
After the horse riding we went to tour a distillery, but they were pretty much closed so we began the journey back. It was a really fun trip and I have to admit there is something magical about Loch Ness. Its a beautiful part of Scotland and I think I’ll be heading back there when my parents come in July. Until then I’ll just have to leave it with this last picture we caught of Nessie before she descended into the depths.
Bye Nessie!
Day 30: Anticlimatic
Well – day 30 was actually yesterday. But I was in Hawick, and I can only log onto my blog dashboard on my computer because my password is stored on this computer and my Rotary host didn’t have wireless internet.
So this is the end of the experiment. I woke up at 6:30 for 30 days. I have to say I think it will work for me to become a morning person. Even on the weekends, i don’t really sleep past 8:30. So I guess mission accomplished! Hopefully during the week I plan to wake up around 7/7:30. And when I get a job again, hopefully one day soon, it won’t be hard to get up, and I can maybe enjoy my mornings a bit more rather than rushing off because I woke up late for work.
Day 29: Final Countdown!
ONE MORE DAY TO GO. I have that song “Final Countdown” in my head…da-nanana da-nanana da-nananana ….its the final countdown.
Last night I was celebrating a friend’s birthday. He is a great and bearded man who studies theology. And I thought I should test if I could go out for a drink and still keep to my newly dedicated risings. I am a bit worse for wear. But I’m up. I’m tired and cranky, and feel a bit nauseous, but birthdays come only once a year. Hope you had a happy birthday Evan (a fellow rotary scholar). 
Day 28: 2 Days to Go…
I have 2 days left of my waking-up-early-to-becoming-a-morning-person-regime. At times when I think about this it feels kind of silly because I know people wake up this early all the time for jobs that they have to get to. So its almost not a that much accomplishment when you look at it from that perspective. But, it is an accomplishment to me, it is something that doesn’t come naturally to me and I have to work towards. But I have to admit I could have worked harder. I didn’t spring out of bed every morning at 6:30, sometimes I snoozed. I could have taken this opportunity to start a morning Yoga routine, which I did a few times, but not that many. I find that I like to take on challenges that I know I can accomplish and use just enough effort to get by, but towards the end of the challenge, I always look back and realize I could have worked a little harder. I need to work on this.
Day 27: This one counts
Ok guys – I’m up, its 6:40 and this counts. I have three more mornings of this. Its going to feel weird not having an obligation to wake up, but hopefully it will still be easy to get up. One thing I’m looking forward to is doing blog posts that don’t have to do with what time I woke up in the morning. I have to admit I’m getting a bit tired of just writing about my wake-up status. But lots to do today. Its painfully cold outside…we had a crazy snow/wind storm, but there is no snow this morning. I guess no spring for me anytime soon.