Torrential Rain in Scotland

Hello and Happy Mother's Day to all of the mothers!  I hope everyone had (or is having as it might be) a fabulous Mother's Day.  My Mother's Day started earlier than expected.  Last night was the loudest night I've ever experienced at Stirling.  Most of the time if there is music, it stops after an hour or so.  Well, last night the must started at 7 and ended at 5 am.  And, it was loud.  Like thumping base through my window loud.  I don't know what everyone's problem was, but honestly, that is really rude.  But, it seems quiet so far tonight, and I managed to plan most of the day trips that my friend Lauren and I will be taking whenever she comes to visit (in 9 days).

This morning, Grace, Katelin and I got up to go to church.  The music last night should have been a clue that things were not going to go as planned today.  We got a bus into town and let me tell you, this was the slowest bus ever.  There is this residential neighborhood that the buses drive through on Sunday mornings, and honestly (I'm not exaggerating) there is a bus stop every block.  It was ridiculous.  By the time we ended up at the doors of our church, it was 10:45 (the service started at 10:30, and just as a side note, we left Stirling at 10:00) and the doors were closed.  Thus, dressed in our Sunday clothes, we went on a hunt for another church.  So, remembering the church we passed on our ghost tour, we ended up at the 11:30 service at the Church of the Holy Rude (which is a Church of Scotland (think UCC) in case you were curious).  We thought it would be interesting because 1) we hadn't been inside it before 2) it's really old (it's the second oldest building in Scotland, right after the Castle itself) and 3) it's historical.

It turned out really good.  We walked around the church for a while.  It is the only church in the UK, other than Westminster Abbey, that has had a coronation held within it (it was for King James VI, the son of Mary Queen of Scots, and he was only 13 months old).  The service was good.  I didn't like it as much as the Methodist church in Stirling, but the music was really good.  They had a good choir and we sang How Great Thou Art and Crown Him of Many Crowns.  The minister wasn't as good, but we were really just happy we found a church to go to.  The people were also really nice.  I must say that the church-going people of Scotland are some of the nicest people I've ever met. Then, we went outside...

As a side note, this is a picture that I took a while ago.  But the church is off to the left.

Once we got outside, we realized 2 things very quickly; 1) the noise we were hearing inside the church that sounded like the air conditioner, was actually rain...really heavy rain 2) walking down hill when it's raining hard, is really horrible.  The church is up by the castle, so we had to walk downhill to get to McDonald's (our post-church tradition).  Well, there was literally a stream of water running downhill. My shoes were soaked through within seconds.  It was interesting to say the least.  Once we were inside McDonald's, we didn't want to leave.  But, in true Scottish fashion, by the time we were leaving McDonald's, the rain had stopped and the sky was turning blue.

I spent the rest of my day studying and trying to catch up on the sleep I missed out on last night.  After dinner Katelin and I booked our trip to Sweden (Stockholm to be exact).  We're really excited! We leave on the 13th!  Tomorrow, I have 1 class and then I am officially done with classes.  All that will be left are my exams.