Sunday PM

It is 8:30pm/2:30Tx on Sunday evening and I've already return to my room for 'me' time for the night. Its the first chance I've gotten to be alone without being completely exhausted and I'm not sure what to do with myself. I'm taking advantage of the opportunity and just relaxing while checking my e-mails and such.
These are the days things will start getting repetitive, because I don't remember what I've told you and what I've told Momma, Daddy, and Aaron on the phone and I'm honestly too lazy to go back and check.
We have TV in our rooms, I've seen "Friends" and "Desperate Housewives". Its just too hard to understand the British TV shows. Plus, their humor is so off kilter it is just corny and not funny at all, almost irritating.
After the headache I took some sinus pills and went to sleep. Apparently it is what I needed because I woke up still wearing my glasses.
We went to church this morning at St. Giles, which is Church of Scotland which translates to Presbyterian. The Presbyterians that were with me considered it really 'strange' and very formal I guess you could say, I on the other hand found it very comfortable. It was very similar to a Catholic mass, minus the kneeling, cross making, and few things during communion as far as wording goes.
Also, the communion service was very different, for all of us I think. First let me describe the church. It was a very old cathedral, basically where the Church of Scotland was formed. John Knox's house is just down the road and some of this earliest followers are represented there. The church is laid out in a cross shape with the alter in the middle. The congregation makes up the long bar of the cross, each side looking in to the alter. The alter, in the center, faces the left side of the short bar, and the clergy chairs and things are behind the alter, the right side of the short bar.
For communion the left side of the congregation (on both ends) is brought forward and a 'circle' is made around the alter. Its more of a rounded + sign if that makes any sense at all. There are 4 pillars making the middle square and a semi-circle is formed within each pair of pillars. Now that the really really confusing stuff is explained...
They take pieces of real bread (Which I was not accustomed to) and hand it to people on each corner of the 'circle' and each person tears off their own piece and passes it to the person beside them, and the same is done with the chalice (Which was HUGE, like dinner place size at the opening)
The 'circle' then does the 'peace'and greeting thing with those in their circle, and then they are filed back to their seats, and the same is repeated with the right side of the congregation. It was interesting to watch.
The church also had a huge pipe organ, which looks really cool, and counded really neat at the beggining with some of the slower pieces, but towards the end where things were much bouncier and full of life, it was almost tooo much. The choir there was the chamber choir from the University of Edinburgh because St. Giles' choir is touring in Canada.
Other than that, we did some shopping. It was honestly a little boring. The streets we were on were the main tourist streets so every store had the exact same thing in it, so it got really old pretty quick.
We had supper early, because we had been walking so much, in town and no one had any issues. It was the first real 'pub' we've been in and we all found something edible. I had the most 'scottish' of the group, but it was just Beef and Ale Pie... which I expected to be something like a pot pie, and it wasn't, but it was good. It was like a roasted meat with peas and carrots, with a very very flakey roll. Some had a salmon sandwich, they said was really good, and others had some pasta dish they really liked. Alot of the 'european' things have cheeses in them I've never tried, and that just scares me! lol
When we made it in from downtown we stopped in the cafeteria and found some 'treats'. I've done really well about staying away from sweets so far, so I felt I deserved it, lol. I had a really delicious cheese cake, which I think had a butterscotch or caramel swirl in it. It was really really good.
Now I'm in my room, looking out the window (Which has an air leak, causing a draft) watching the clouds roll in.
I don't really have any fun or entertaining stories to tell, the Scots, unlike the Russians, aren't much different from us so far. I have seen many people walking around in kilts, especially this morning as men wear them to church sometimes, much like a suit, and there is always someone playing some type of music on the streets for money. Bagpipes, flutes, guitars and bongos, lots of different things.
The coming week is lots of classes and art museums, so hopefully I have some interesting things to share.
Now that you've read my novel, I will let you be. Have a good day!
Kait