Lessons Learned

I have learned so many things in my whole one week in Scotland, and I think the most important lesson thus far is that flexibility is key.  A person who is a creature of habit will not adapt well in another country.  While I think I've gotten much better at "rolling with the punches" in the last few years of my life, with all of our moves and such, I think God isn't through stretching me just yet. 

So here are a few of my newest lessons learned:

This is my refrigerator...yep, that's it.  Family and friends back in Texas will understand just how much this has affected me.  I have two refrigerators and an upright freezer back in Tomball.  Now I have this.

And this is my washing machine.  It's kind of hard to tell from the picture, but this will hold a whopping 4 pairs of adult blue jeans! (And yes, that was sarcasm.)  What does this mean for me, you ask?  I have to do laundry ALL. THE. TIME. 
And apparently these two examples are not specific to apartment living either.  Other Americans I have met who live in houses have the same issue.  Not fun, but oh well...

This is ASDA.  It's like their super Walmart here.  I felt silly taking this picture, so I had Keith take it, but I know I was still gawking at the escalator for shopping carts! Grocery shopping is going to be interesting.  We were just there for a couple of things so we didn't have a cart, but I can see the future where I'm the crazy American who starts rolling down and lands in the display at the bottom. 

Of course, there's also the issue of food.  From what I can tell, they like Italian and Indian food over here, but my idea of Italian is not their idea of Italian.  This was our garlic bread last night.  Keith and Levi shared a pizza, and Levi said, "This pizza has barbeque sauce on it!"  It seems that their sauces and condiments are much sweeter here than we are used to, so we will either learn to adapt or eat at home.

And finally, there's the road system:

This shot was taken in the Highlands.  It's such beautiful country, but boy is it hard to get to.  This road is considered a "B" road, with "A" roads being the best, so we didn't think much about taking it.  What we discovered is that it is a one laned road with places to pull over when you meet on-coming cars.  The white line you see on the road is dividing the road from the "shoulder".  And I use the term "shoulder" loosely because they don't actually run the entire length of the road...just where they think the shoulders are needed or will fit.  In addition to all of this, we ran into several places where the River Dee flooded and backed up onto this road.  If I weren't so nervous about crossing the water in the car, I would've taken pics of that too!

Overall, I'm just so thankful for the opportunity to see and live in such a beautiful place, that I will continue to do my best and adapt.  I wouldn't trade all of these experiences for anything!