The Little Man and His Big Expectations

Hello again! Let me continue the saga of my weekend by starting with the sleeping thing.  First of all, I don't like pitch dark.  It just freaks me out (I think it's because my eyesight isn't the best sans glasses or contacts).  After explaining this you'll understand why the room being pitch black really freaked me out.  But what was really scary, was that whenever the girl on the top bunk above me moved, the entire bunk would shake like it was falling apart.  It really freaked me out, but I did make it through the night.

When I got up the next morning, I got dressed and went down to breakfast.  Again I battled the whole strange eating system thing and was again last in line. Then, we went to the common room and broke into our activity groups.  I was lucky because I ended up with my friend Katelin and my other friend's boyfriend.  I was happy to have friends in my group.  Then, we met our instructor.  (First, let me explain that I got signed up for kayaking as the lesser of the evils and was not going to get into a kayak. I also told the head IFSA rep that I wasn't going to do it and she said that was fine.)  He was this short little man (the top of his head came up to my neck and I'm not exactly tall) and he was one of those people who can't possibly understand why somebody would not want to get in a kayak (you know those really athletic types that just don't understand people who aren't athletic? He was one of those).  So, we meet the instructor and I tell the Little Man that I'm not getting in a kayak (I really have a bad relationship with boats.  I have personally tasted Mesker Lake and that pretty much ended the whole Jennifer/Boat relationship.).  Here is how this conversation went.

Me: Hi.  I'm not really going to be kayaking.
Little Man: Then, why did you sign up for it?
Me: Because I wasn't going to do any of the other activities either.
Little Man: Then, why would you come on this trip.
Me: Because I paid for it in my student fees and I'm getting my money's worth.
Little Man: Fine, you can just walk around the loch.

Thus started our relationship of him telling me what he wanted me to do and me telling him what I was going to do.  I'm sure he really cherishes our new found friendship (I laughed hysterically while I wrote this last part).  (Side note: I also got hunted down my Crazy, I think he is the head-honcho of the camp, and got kind of stern talking to about not wandering off since I wasn't going kayaking.)

Here is the Little Man.  Since we developed a great relationship throughout this day, I thought everyone should have a visual.  (Side note: Honestly, if I fell into the loch, can you imagine the Little Man trying to pull me out?)

We took a bus to the loch and while everyone went kayaking I proceeded to take pictures and wander.  (I was given the instructions to be back at 12:30.)

Here is the loch I was supposed to be walking around.  It really was pretty.

I met the IFSA rep during my wander and she invited me to walk around with her to some of the other activities.  I got some really good information out of her.  1. She didn't stay at the hostel.  She stayed at a nice hotel in Dunoon. 2. During the Isle of Skye trip (which is in April) we will be staying at in Inn  3. Whenever I go to St. Andrew's, get fudge donuts because they are known for them.  4. This is only the second year that IFSA has been coming to Camp Hellhole.  It was a pretty successful chat.  I went and saw some of my friends doing their activities.  Here are some pictures of things I would never do.

Repelling down a cliff. 

The high ropes course.

After this I headed back to the loch to meet up with the Little Man and my group.  As I was walking up to the loch (it was 12:15) the Little Man was pulling away.  When I got in the van, the Little Man assured me that he wasn't leaving me behind (yeah I don't believe this). Then, we went back and had lunch before heading on our hike.

I did partake in the hike.  We were dropped off at some footpaths by Crazy about a mile away from the camp.  The Little Man told Crazy that we would just walk back and there was no reason to come pick us up (this is humorous latter on).  Thus, we proceeded on our "mellow" hike.  It was really pretty where we hiked, but the Little Man's version of mellow is my version of relatively strenuous.  He hiked up a gorge on a tiny muddy path with rocks jutting out at a pretty fast pace. 

Here are some pictures from my hike.  The scenery really was pretty.

Another pretty picture.

At the end of the trail, we stopped for a bit.  (Before the hike, the Little Man said that we would have the option of doing the strenuous hike or heading back down.)  Then, we started talking about the next leg of our hike.  Honestly, if the first part is what he considered mellow, I really had no intention of seeing his strenuous (which I'm glad I didn't because evidently it wasn't on a path, through a bog, and up vertical hills).  Here is yet another fun interaction with the Little Man.

Little Man: Well I'm sure none of you are ready to go down yet, so let's head up.

Me: I think I'm ready to head down.

Little Man: WHY?

Me: I don't want to get muddy.

Little Man: Well, you can't go alone.

(My friend's boyfriend said he was ready to head down too.)

Little Man: (insert irritated face here) Ok fine.  You head down this path off of here and just follow the signs to the exit and Black Gates.  There are signs everywhere, you can't miss it. We'll meet you down there at 4:30.

He gave us a map (it literally was drawn with crayon) to help us.  Well, we started walking and went for a really long time without seeing any signs until we came to a main road. By this time we knew something wasn't right.  We asked a man who was off in his farmland how to get to the Black Gates and he pointed up in the right direction.  So, we started our trek down a main road.  Along the way, we passed a pasture of sheep.  It was really weird.  They all cam charging at us.

Here are the sheep charging at us.  I actually got to touch the black one.

We eventually found the black gates.  We got there about 4:15 (which tells you how far off track we got because they were supposed to meet us at 4:30 and were supposed to be 30 to 40 minutes behind us.) So, we waited for a little while, then found a map (a real one, not the crayon squiggles I had) and we found our way back to the camp.  We made it back with no Little Man in sight.  We eventually found Katelin (who was in our group) who told us that on their way down, the Little Man realized there were no signs and got kind of concerned about us (Gee, why would he be concerned? We we were only lost in a part of the country neither of us had been in before with only a preschooler's drawing to guide us.).  Then the Little Man showed up.

Little Man: Jennifer! I'm glad to see that you're alive.

Me: Yeah, we made it back.

Little Man: Where did you go.

Me: Oh you know, the main road.

Little Man: Wow that's a pretty long walk.

Me: Yeah, we noticed.

Then we went to dinner.  Lucky for me, guess who was on duty all night?  My dear old friend the Little Man. I just couldn't escape him.  After dinner we watched Braveheart.  It was kind of cool to watch Braveheart in Scotland, especially since a lot of it takes place in Stirling.  After dinner we found a game room that had a Charades game from the 70's.  We proceeded to play it with the Glasgow kids until the Little Man came in and tried to join in the fun.  This is when I left to go to bed.  Needless to say, I was really looking forward to leaving the next day and getting back to Stirling!