Hello Readers!

Well here we are…the final stretch of my semester abroad.

This week’s blog won’t be focusing on my week as much as the weekend, but first a few highlights from this week. I will write about some and just post photos of the others!

On Tuesday, I went into Edinburgh with Sofia. We originally went in for some stationary, but ended up getting distracted and went clothes shopping! On our walk we saw an interesting store with some pretty rings in the window, so naturally we went in. As soon as we walked in we both got a bad feeling. The store was so full that I couldn’t even turn in a circle without knocking stuff over.

The store owner also was kind of creepy and offered us tea and coffee which we politely declined. If I am being honest, and I always am in my writing, it was like a scene out of a horror film. After maybe 5 mins, we left as quick as we could without taking down everything as we went.

Another highlight that I don’t have a photo for is I got to help our cook make dessert for our Burn’s Dinner we had on Thursday. I have dinner duty that day anyways, so I had to go down and work, but I asked if I could come down and help early because I was feeling stressed with all my homework. At 4 I went down stairs and we made the desserts which was so much fun. A bit later everyone else came and we finished out regular chores.

Once it was dinner time we went upstairs and served food and ate ourselves. After I was done eating I asked Henry, our chef, if there was anything he could like me to do and he said ‘follow me.’ Naturally I thought he was going to show me something to do, but oh no he brought me out into eating area, got everyone’s attention and said ‘you all have Jordan to thank tonight for the desserts.’ I was very honored and embarrassed at the same time!

This Weekend:

This weekend we took a trip to the highlands and it was absolutely amazing! No words can describe how amazingly beautiful the highlands are.

We headed out Friday morning at about 9. If you were to drive straight through it could take about 5 hours to get to the Isle of Skye, but we took lots of stops along the way which was nice to be able to actually see where we area.

Our first stop on the way was at Glenmore Forest Park & Inshriach Forest that was gorgeous. The beach was located in a Nation Park so there we miles of gorgeous hiking trails that went along the loch.

Next on the stop was the Culloden Battle field which I wasn’t too excited about at first, but once we got to the interactive part it was very fun and I learned a lot.

After that I got to cross one thing off my bucket list…I got to swim in Loch Ness! The water was cold, but not as bad as I thought it would be the thing that was the worst was the slippery rocks. I could hardly walk in; Sarah Kaye and I had to hold onto each other so we didn’t completely fall over.

After putting on dry clothes we headed to the hostel. Once there we explored a ruin castle for a bit, then had a taco dinner before calling it a night.

The next day was another long day of traveling

We starting the morning at 8am and headed to the Fairy Pools! This was another place that was on my bucket list to see. Legend says that if you stick your face in the water for 7 seconds, no more, no less, then you will have eternal beauty, so knowing this we stuck our faces in!

After the pools we headed to The Old Man of Storr where we were able to hike for about 2 hours! Everyone besides Sarah Kaye and I went up the normal way, so we decided to take the road less traveled and oh my goodness was it worth it. The views were breathtaking, literally and figuratively because we both were having very bad allergies that day which made it really hard to breathe.

Later that night a restaurant in town was hosting a Ceilidh that we were able to attend. At first it wasn’t very much fun, but some old ladies had us dance with them since they knew the traditional steps, so it became so much fun! After dancing out hearts out Sarah Kaye, Lauryn and I found a table to relax for a bit. While we were hanging out one of the bar tenders who had just gotten off work and some of his friends came over and we ended up talking with them the rest of the night.

• I love meeting new people, because you learn so much more about a culture through locals.

At 1am we got kicked out (because of bar close, no weren’t being too rambunctious) and decided to call it a night.

Sunday was sadly our last day in the highlands.

Our first few stops were very quick. We stopped at a castle and a look out for a few minutes before heading onto Glencoe. Here we saw incredible mountains. We didn’t get that much time here, but just enough that I was able to hike a ways into the mountain. I got too see the river that went through some of the mountains which was pretty neat.

After about an hour we hopped on the bus again and went to Doune Castle where many films were filmed including Monty Python and the Holy Grail! The castle itself wasn’t anything too spectacular, but it was cool to recognize it from various movies.

Once we were done there it was back to the palace for a night of homework, blogging and photos!

Talk to you soon & thank you for reading

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The title:

The title of this blog comes from something I thought a lot about this weekend. Taking the road less traveled. This weekend I actively thought about not going where everyone else goes and finding my own path weather it’s with someone else or just me.

It is important to blaze your own trail and not just conform to those around you. Even if its starting small with something like rocking that red lipstick you aren’t sure you can pull off or something bigger like quitting school or a job to do something you love. You shouldn’t focus so much on pleasing others by following exactly what they do. The people who really matter are the ones who will love you even if you do something silly, kind of out there or even make a mistake. We are all humans who make mistakes and there is no point in dwelling on the past because guess what, there is no way to change that. So take the road less traveled and find who you are because you are an amazing gift.