William Wallace Town!

This weekend, as I informed you earlier, was my "home stay" with a British family in Stirling. From this experience I would safely say that, if I ever have the choice, I will not do anything of this sort again. Its not that the family was rude or mean. Actually what bugged me the most was their complete indifference! I did not end up staying with the woman I was assigned. Apparently she was sick. So instead, me and three other girls stayed with family (of two - husband and wife). The husband was nice enough but I found the wife a little bit anal and she seemed annoyed most of the time. I mean, she gave us a 10:30 curfew when none of the other home stay kids even had one! 10:30?? I haven't had a curfew that early since the 8th grade. Actually, I think my curfew was even later than 10:30 in the 8th grade! Needless to say, I am relieved its over.

Aside from the less-than-perfect home stay, the girls I stayed with were awesome! We went to the William Wallace monument and climbed all the way to the top (246 steps and I have a certificate to prove it!) for a magnificent view. Here is the monument itself and then one of the many pictures I took from the top.

William Wallace Monument. So grand and glorious... just like MEL! (Mel Gibson, in case you didn't get that).

One of several pictures from the top of the Wallace monument.

We then went to Stirling Castle (after a delicious lunch) where I was told a few times that "actually there's no photography in here." Whoops! It was fabulous and huge and we really enjoyed ourselves despite the rain. The Great Hall was very Harry Potter-esque, so I loved it. I also found my future husband (who wore a disturbing sporran made out of a head)! See below for visual aids.

The Great Hall! "It looks like Harry Potter" were my words upon entering. It was pretty much a dream come true.

Me and my new boyfriend (let's call him James because that seems like a very Scottish name to me for some unknown reason).

My boyfriend's disturbing badger sporran.

On Sunday we went shopping and found a store called Primark that sells stuff for Wal-Mart prices. Seriously, I got a pair of jeans for 6 pounds (which is basically 12 dollars) and several cute shirts for only 1 or 2 pounds! Yay! After that we headed back to Edinburgh. I got a little bit sick on our trip (I've caught the dreaded "fresher's flu") but I've had so much citrus over the past two days that I think I'll be well by the weekend. I leave you with some more pictures from my Stirling excursion.

Statue of Robert the Bruce outside Stirling Castle.

William Wallace's sword (allegedly).

Bagpiper on the street.

Me with one of the famous Unicorn Tapestries. It was a replica. For some reason I look really ticked off but I assure you I was actually really excited.

Stirling Bridge (reconstructed, obviously) where Wallace and his army defeated the English!