Life in Scotland (so far)

I'm typing this while sitting in my bed eating this delicious thing and figuring out where in the world I should begin. It's like a fluffy marshamallow with graham cracker and covered in chocolate. Yum!

It feels like its been nonstop since we've gotten here. Well first of all I did make it, thank goodness. The flights were so great and I met up with one if the girls, Katie, at JFK and now we're roommates! She's the sweetest. She's from New Jersey and goes to Grove City College.  We are staying in a flat with a very sweet lady, Ali, who is super involved with a small church about 100 ft from her flat. We got to go with her to church on Sunday and it was so awesome. The Scots are so friendly and love to know what Americans are like and they love laughing at us. The church, KLM, is a sister church with another called Liberton Kirk which is bigger and they are all part of The Church of Scotland. Then after church we went to The Hub which is just an old church that has a big open room in it now that people use to do all sorts of activities. It's where we have Club and snacks and is the central meeting spot for everyone involved with camp this week.  For dinner Liberton Kirk had us for a Garden Party, or what we call a BBQ, and asked us for their forgiveness because they couldn't do it like we do in the states. It was yummy though and I'm finally realizing how much our portions of food are ridiculously huge in the states (don't say anything mom & dad). Afterwards we went back to the hub to finish getting ready for our first day of Stage n' Slam, the camp we are running for kids here.  I already love the kids here so much!!  It's crazy how fast you become close to them and your heart just starts breaking for them.  The community here is incredible. All 3 churches here in Edinburgh are working together with tons of others to pull off this camp. It's for years (grades) S-1 (6th grade) through S-6 (12th grade) which is a huge age difference. S stands for secondary which is high school and goes from S-1 to S-6 and P stands for primary school and goes from P-1 to P-5.

Monday was the first day of camp and it was phenomenal. We started at 1 p.m. at the high school, Gilmerton H.S., where kids could choose from golf, American football, drama, dance, and gymnastics for 2 different sessions. The program team is awesome and I've loved getting to know them and their families. Eric Hoffman from Dayton, Ohio is the main program guy and he brought 2 others from Dayton to help him out. Gary Wilmer from Baltimore is our speaker and is incredible. I can't wait to hear from him more this week. God is already on the move here and it's so evident. We shared tonight as a group how we saw God today and the ways we've seen Him move is so exciting!!  Yesterday was awesome too.  I learned more kids names and had great conversations with them.  Getting to hang out with the 13 girls on my team has been so great.  Each of them are so fun to be around.  Today was exceptionally awesome.  My favorite day yet.  We started off at the high school like normal but after the sessions we went to Faith Mission Bible College and set up a super cool Clubble!!  It's a huge plastic bubble that you have club in, hence the name Clubble!  But before they got to go in the Clubble we set up the longest gutter ice cream sundae I have ever seen!  I feel like each day just keeps getting better and better.  I already love this place.  Thinking about moving here...oops maybe I should pray about that one first. 

Here are some pictures from the week so far!  These are all taken from my iPhone, but I have lots more on my camera!!

At Norfolk airport getting ready to board!

Captain America (Alex) and an American football player (Andy) greeted us at the Scotland airport!  Classic Young Life.

Hillary baking lots and lots of cookies for kids.  The kids never really have gooey cookies so they think it's a big deal when we fix them like that.

Nina with all our luggage in the back.  Think we have enough?  See those bins?  The program guys brought 6 of them that they had to check! 

Our "Garden Party" at a local church.

The church...

Stage n' Slam Day 1 at the high school. 

The Hub (where club is) all decorated!  The themes is the Avengers!

Some of my favorite Scots showing me their dance moves.  So glad they love dancing as much as I do! 

The first Dairy Milk chocolate bar I ate and now I'm addicted. 

The pub/where they have social functions.

That's Katie on the right, Carley and Meagan from Texas, and Ewen from Edinburgh!

I'm OBSESSED with the Olympics so of course I freaked when I saw this!

This place is so unreal!! I decided I was moving here when I saw this...

And this...

Ok this picture is sooo bad but it's so cool!  It's the Queen's palace in Edinburgh and you can tell if she's there or not if the flag is up or down.  And the flag was up!!  She was there for a Garden Party.  One of the gaurds flashed a light at us through the window but we were fine. 

The Clubble!!

Inside the Clubble!

The longest and yummiest gutter ice cream sundae everrrrr!

 That's all for now! 

xoxo,

erin with a p and a double r