Catherine and the team

Home

Well, for those of you wondering just where we are these days, we have all safely arrived home. Most of us, anyway. Sarah should be seeing the sights in and around London right about now since she chose to visit a few friends there. But Leah, Robin, and Wayne (me) set foot on Canadian soil on Monday night (or around 2 a.m. for our friends in Scotland). I had another four hour drive home with my parents, while Leah and Robin also had family picking them up. Tuesday was a day to unpack and get life sorted, then back to work on Wednesday.

Ryan and his family are well. Hopefully we can all get together very soon and share pictures and fill him in on the adventures of the last week.

The conference in Perth was enjoyable and a good way to bring the trip to a close. We were able to see a lot of our hosts from throughout our various stays and say some final goodbyes. We especially had a lot of fun meeting the GSE team that traveled to Australia in the spring and shared some common experiences with them. General response was that people enjoyed our final presentation on Sunday, after which we stayed to hear the final speeches of the conference and then packed our things to leave for the hotel in Renfrew.

One of our surprises at the conference was to present District Governor Catherine Stewart with a personalized Canadian hockey jersey...

So, thanks to those of you who have so faithfully followed this blog during our trip. It was sometimes a challenge finding time to update it and create posts, but it has been a really useful way to show people some of what we've been experiencing. Not sure how many posts will follow now that we're home, but for anyone wanting to send us a message or a comment (if you don't already have our email addresses), you can send it through the blog and it should get to us. For everyone else, it's been great to get emails from some of you already, and we really hope to keep in touch with our new friends.

I personally want to thank everyone who has been so interested and supportive of my music. You can find some more information on that part of my life by checking out www.myspace.com/waynegibsonmusic or searching for me on iTunes. I've got some other things in the works, so stay tuned.

On behalf of myself (Wayne) and the rest of the team (Ryan, Leah, Sarah, and Robin), thanks again for a pure dead brilliant experience in Scotland.

Gryffe Valley

On Tuesday we made our final club transfer and met the good folks at Gryffe Valley Rotary Club. They treated us to a great meal that night with all the hosts and were gracious with us as tiredness started to set in and we felt like we were bumbling along. Our cultural experiences included a visit to the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow which could literally be visited several times before really scratching the surface of all there is to see and learn there. We also enjoyed a good pub meal at the Horse Shoe Bar, a tour of the City Chambers, and the St. Mungo Museum of Religious Life and Art.

Our vocational days on Thursday had quite a bit of variety. Sarah attended another school, while Leah and Wayne were treated to a tour of the Gallery of Modern Art in Glasgow and a Scottish music jam session arranged by Angus and Nigel. On Friday, we headed to Perth where we are now, trying to keep up with the pace of seeing everyone again, preparing for our presentation, and doing those last minute things we still want to do in Scotland before we fly out on Monday.

Our visit to Stranraer

September 26 to 30, 2008
Our time in the Stranraer District been purely exciting.

Although we have been busy learning about the "Stranraer life", countryside, and history of the area, our team has managed to enjoy a bit of social time. Our hosts have taken us to a "21st" birthday party, (where Wayne, Sarah, and Leah learned a few traditional Scottish dances), visited a local distillery, and enjoyed food, fun and laughter at many dinner parties.

September 30 is our last travel day, we were are off to the Gryffe Valley area. Although we are sad to say goodbye, we are all looking forward to reuniting in Perth for the Rotary District conference.

On Sunday, the team enjoyed some more bus adventures courtesy of the Stranraer club. David, Hugh, Hew, Jock, and John took us south to the Mull of Galloway to see the lighthouse and the cliff from which we could see Belfast, the Isle of Man, the cost of Scotland and (on a clear day) England. The weather turned out beautifully, and after lunch we saw some incredible images as the sun shone done on the green hillsides. From the lighthouse, we went to the Blandoch Distillery and had a tour through the building and an explanation of the entire process of making whisky. Of course, we did a little taste-testing too. After that, we headed to Wigtown to see a bit of the book festival there. Somehow we ended up sampling wine there too. We also filled our time on the bus by singing lots of songs, and we managed to come up with quite a few that we all knew, and some others that might be best never to learn :o) The club treated us to a great meal Sunday night and more socializing at David and Barbara Campbell's house. Monday will be a fairly relaxed day with just a lunch Rotary meeting to attend and give our presentation, some free time after that, and another get-together with the club in the evening.

Belfast

On Saturday, we were treated to an afternoon in Belfast. We rode the ferry for two hours each way from Stranraer right into the Northern Ireland city. As soon as we arrived, we jumped on a city sight-seeing bus (sitting on the top deck, of course) and took in the first part of the tour which included a view of the docks where the Titanic was constructed and made its departure, as well as Campbell College where C.S. Lewis attended school. Probably the most interesting (and eerie) part of the tour was venturing into the northern part of the city where "the troubles" had their greatest impact. Murals have been painted to give memory of the time and there is still evidence of the destruction that happened from all the fighting. Construction and rebuilding is happening all over Belfast, from what we could see.

Close to the centre of the city, we hopped off to get a late lunch and did some shopping and wandering around before catching the ferry again back to Stranraer. That night, most of the team took in a unique 21st birthday party that was supposed to be an Audrey Hepburn theme. Somehow kilts go with everything, though, so that's what quite a few of our hosts wore :o) We did our best to learn some of the traditional Scottish dances.

Our day in Belfast

East Kilbride

September 26, 2008
Our team has had a very enjoyable time in East Kilbride. Wednesday we were taken into Glasgow for a day of sightseeing and riding the Clockwork Orange. First we walked around the University of Glasgow and looked in the Hunterrian museum. A combination of fascinating and unsettling materials were in the museum, since it is in honor of a famous anatomist who paved the way in a lot of medical research. The fetuses and various body parts were on display as evidence.

For lunch we took in A Play, A Pie, and A Pint at the Oran Mor. “When Clarence Calls” was the name of the play performed and it was set in the basement of an old church that has been converted into a pub and theatre house. Very fun! The rest of the afternoon was taken up at the National Piping Centre and a walk down Buchanan Street, a major shopping centre in Glasgow.

Thursday consisted of touring Edinburgh, where our team toured the Scottish Parliament. We were able to meet with Linda Fabieni, who is a MSP (Member of Scottish Parliament), sit in on a meeting in the discussion chamber and also tour the building. It was extremely interesting to learn of the unique architecture and how the building was designed.

After our tour, we enjoyed a casual lunch in a pub on the Royal Mile, which consisted of the Scottish favorite meal: fish and chips, cheeseburger, and yes more chips!

While Archie, our host, toured Robin around a local golf course, Frank took the four team members on a shopping tour of the Royal Mile. After a very long time in Edinburgh traffic, our group met up at the Forth Bridges at Queens Ferry (Forth road and forth rail).

Although Friday was a transition day, our team enjoyed a wee bit of down time. Our team had some free time in the morning to visit with each other over coffee even catch up on a round of golf. We also enjoyed a lunch meeting with the East Kilbride Club, where we had en enjoyable meal and took the opportunity to take a few photographs.

Late afternoon we continued on to meet our Stranraer Club hosts. We were met with open arms and an exciting itinerary. Saturday our hosts will take us to Belfast Ireland for the day.

Until next time,

East Kilbride

Monday Sept 22 marked our transition day into the East Kilbride Club. We spent the day touring around the town, visited the Farm museum, and even had time to toss a good luck coin into the Rotary Wishing well. Tuesday evening, we were treated to an enjoyable dinner at Denise and Barry's home for a haggis meal. Wayne and Ally, a new friend, had the opportunity to enteratin us on the beautiful electric grand piano.

Today, Wednesday, our group spent the day in Glasgow touring the University, National Pipe museum, and walked through Buchannan Street, one of the most popular shopping streets.

On Saturday morning, our Prestwick hosts delivered us to the Chestnut Hotel in Ayr where the team had a couple of days on our own to wind down, relax, and spend some 'us' time. The weather was beautiful on both days, giving us lots of opportunity to walk around and see the town. Saturday, we went to Robbie Burns' house, the Brigadoon, and the monument established in his honour. Ate a delicious dinner at the hotel before taking in a few pubs and doing a little dancing. On Sunday, we all did a few different things. Sarah mostly hung out at the hotel, did some reading and relaxing, Leah and Wayne walked into Ayr to do some shopping and looking around, Robin took in Burns' house since he missed it the day before, and Ryan did a coastal walk to Dunure Castle. For dinner, we enjoyed some Indian food in Ayr.

More pics from Arran