Oh Happy Day

Today we went to St. Andrews--the home of William and Kate's beautiful romance. There are so many places we all want to see, we decided to start early and just do it. Thankfully, we have a few Scottish friends that went with us, so we didn't have to be the lost/ignorant/tourist Americans (plus an Austrian and Chinese).

                                                                                            (compliments to Quinn for the picture!)

I was struck again by not only the beauty of the landscape and architecture, but also by the beauty of the people. Mostly everyone (there are always exceptions--such as our first bus driver) will just stop what they're doing and talk with you. Whether it's the guy that works at Subway, the girl at Tesco, or the little old man walking his dog, everyone is just...friendly. I would never just chat it up with a cashier at Publix. They scan my food, tell me the cost, take my money, and I leave. Here, they're just friendly and...happy. When Daddy and I came from Edinburgh to Dundee on the train, there were tons of problems. Everything went wrong. From tracks closing to the crew leaving to changing routes multiple times, there was always a problem. However, each time someone announced what the delay was, everyone just laughed. Literally, the whole car would just laugh and brush it off. If we had been in the New York subway or on the Atlanta Marta, I can pretty much guarantee you people wold not laugh if they were delayed. Again. And again. And again. People here are just happy. Which is a little bizarre because it's only daylight for about 6 hours of the day. Maybe I'm still awed by the newness of everything, so it all seems so wonderful, but I honestly think people are just happy and...nice.

I'm not complaining!