Its raining... rain and candy

Hey all! I hope you are having a wonderful spring break! Enjoy your week off : ) Things here are great. This past we went to Loch Lomond! We stayed in a hostel that was also an old castle; it was so beautiful (add cliché study abroad phrases). And for our movie night we watched Braveheart IN a castle IN Scotland… pure happiness!

On Saturday I signed up to go “cave walking” and canoeing at the adventure center. Well! There was no walking involved at all! We were lowered 50 feet into a cave and crawled and climbed through narrow passage ways! It was so amazing! This was all in the rain of course! Then we went canoeing on a loch, in the rain still : ) We also got to witness a sheep dog demonstration (in the rain)! I was kind of rooting for the sheep (bah ram youuuu). Overall, the weekend was a wet one, and very fantastic!

So my trip to Liverpool was a long time ago, but it didn’t fit in my last blog! Oops! My friend and I had fun walking around the harbor (where the Titanic set sail) and having lunch with her parents. I did not realize how overly crowded the country is in the cities in England. They complain about people coming into the country and taking jobs too! The train getting there was a great success as well! I found my platform all by myself, using the automated boards overhead. Let’s hear it for the girl! I asked a frowning conductor just to double check, and of course I was wrong. Apparently the train on platform B is actually on Platform C. So always ask! I took three pictures from the entire trip, one of which I have included. I need to get better about that! Anyway, as always, the trip was not without it’s challenging moments.

The train itself was very nice, decorated in a soothing purple and green. It was incredibly crowded, people were standing in the aisles, and I was thankful to have a reserved seat. The train got going (no one yelled, “All aboard” much to my disappointment) and we settled into our seats. And no one talked! I mean no one. The only noise was coming from the ipod of the middle-aged balding man two rows in front of me listening to Disturbia by Rihanna. It was ridiculous. It was eerie that so many people could be so quiet. I frowned; I didn’t want to spend the entire trip in creepy silence. I had a book, but it was a three-hour train journey. I turned to the girl next me. She was about my age and was reading a textbook about the Effect of Language in Western Culture. While I’m sure it was a real page-turner, I decided to test the waters, and extend the olive branch of friendship. I smiled and whispered, “You working on homework on a Friday too?”. This turned out to be one of the worst decisions I could have made. While these people didn’t prompt conversation on their own, once you opened pandora’s box there was no getting it closed again. Once I started her talking, she took off like a shot. She loudly chatted about her classes, her first year at University, and the lasagna her boyfriend was making for her and was supposed to have ready when she got off the train, but he probably wouldn’t because he’s not a very good cook and has a tendency to forget to set the timer. Therefore it was plausible that they would be going out to eat that night.
It was painfully obvious that we were the ONLY people talking. It was comparable to those moments in the movie when the protagonist pokes the alarm clock in the room of sleeping lions, just to see if it would go off. Inevitably it does and the contrast between the screeching alarm and the silence is literally painful. I tried to calm her by lowering my own voice, but it was to no avail. (Picture was taken from the train to Liverpool, while she was still talking)

I sheepishly glanced around the train as she loudly rattled on. We were the only people talking, and everyone knew it. The middle-aged balding man, whose ipod I could no longer hear over the yammering of my seatmate, gave me a frown of disapproval. Apparently, since I was the American, I was to blame for instigating the conversation and therefore responsible for disturbing the peace and silence of the train. I knew that if I didn’t put a stop to this girl there is no telling what would happen. I turned to the girl and said kindly, “Well it’s been lovely to talk to you, but I really do need to finish this book.” She grinned and agreed that her homework was overwhelming as well and she better start it now, because goodness knows how much she was going to get done at home with after seeing her friends, who were planning a big party since she was home... A few moments later I glanced back at the middle-aged man to see if I had been forgiven. His head was resting on the back of the seat, his eyes closed. I could hear the power ballad lyrics of Beyonce. Lesson learned.

The next train was better. As I sat down I noticed that there were two blond sisters, about seven and eight, and their mother a few seats in front of me, sitting at a table in the train. The two girls reminded me of my sister and I when I was younger. They were apparently on their way home after a fun filled day because the girls had matching stuffed animals and candy. Their mother was passed out asleep! The girls were hitting each other with their plush unicorns and laughing, taking advantage of the temporary lapse in parental authority. I smiled, and remembered those days with my younger sister. The older sister picked up her candy. It was a large clear, plastic tube of M&M’s (Much smaller than the candies in the picture) with a candy cane shaped top holding the M&M’s inside the tube.
The sweets made a fun rattling noise and she shrieked in delight and shook harder, glancing at her mom to see how far she could push her new found freedom... Mom didn’t move. Her younger sister just laughed, encouraging her. At this point she was throwing her entire body into the shaking. I smiled and began the inevitable countdown in my head. 10…9…8… I barely made it to 3 when the top dislodged and the M&M’s exploded from the tube! It rained all colors of the rainbow inside that train. A million little candies made plinking noises as they hit the floor. Everyone on the train turned round to see... then, total silence. The girl with the empty tube in her hands didn't move, a shell-shocked look plastered on her face and she gaped at her sister. They both stared, wide eyed at each other, knowing they were “in hot water” as my mother would say. It was look my sister and I have shared many times. Complete silence… Then, ever so carefully… they both slooowly turned to look at their mother…fearing the worst… nothing... mom hadn’t moved. Success! The sisters shared a mischievous, secretive smile. The threat of danger gone, they resumed bashing each other with their fluffy unicorns. As we got off the train, I heard the mother admonishing the older sister for having eaten her entire tube of candy on the train. Behind their mother's back the girls shared a look of conspiracy known only in the sibling world. Mom would never know what really happened.
I will leave you with a pretty picture of Loch Eck, the site of our canoeing adventure in the rain