England and Scotland

Full disclosure: I wrote the first 4 paragraphs about 2 or 3 weeks ago and then got bored and forgot about it. I have a LOT to catch you all up on.

Hi pals,

After the training in Mallorca, I traveled to London. I've been going around the central and southwestern areas of England for the last 3 weeks. I interviewed an adventure therapist in Worcester and spent 3 consecutive nights at their Christmas market because it was just so lovely!

After that I took the train to Ashburton, a small village in Devon right next to the Dartmoor National Park. I spent a day with an outdoor counselor doing walk n' talk and then interviewing her afterwards, and (surprise) another Christmas market visit! It was a really fantastic experience, and I love that me taking care of my mental health by doing a counseling session for the first time since leaving Hamilton is also directly relevant to what I'm researching. 2 birds, 1 stone!

I also spent an entire day with a local forest bathing guide/ecotherapist and wow... I felt so connected to myself, the land, the sky, everything. I'm still surprised by how generous people have been with their time, knowledge, and resources.

There was a school nearby on a farm, and the school teaches husbandry, traditional methods of land-care. It's an alternative schooling option for kids whose mainstream education system isn't working for them. I spent the entire day volunteering- hauling logs and branches, picking lemon verbena leaves off of the vines, potting vegetables, and bagging carrots. It is a beautiful place filled with beautiful souls.

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As of now- when I'm writing this part- it is December 27th and I'm in Aviemore, Scotland. The last month has been extremely challenging and I've struggled with many parts of it, but have also been learning what it's like to figure out how to deal with the things that come up on my own. I've had to confront some harsh realities about my situations and my way of thinking that hasn't always felt good, but I'm all the better for it.

One of the things I've struggled with regarding this blog is how to share my experiences without just writing down a rote list of what I've done, and I think unfortunately that's probably what I've done so far. That doesn't mean that I'm not actually processing or thinking deeply about everything- I'm doing that pretty constantly- but all of that goes into my journal and once it's in my journal it's kind of exhausting to try and reiterate it on the blog. I still think it would be useful to share what I'm learning about myself and my experiences on the blog, but it requires much more time and effort than I've been willing to put in. I think I just have to accept that I'm not going to be able to share everything that I've done and what those things have taught me on the blog, and so I need to just pick a select few to focus on. However I still want to list all of the things I've done because it's fun so here:

• Went dogsledding in Aviemore
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  

  This is Alan (I think?) who owns and runs the dogsledding training center with his wife. They have like 20 dogs there! He took us through the history of dogsledding and his story of how he became involved

• Hiked to Loch Eilein and hitchhiked back to the village center (first time hitchhiking by myself!)
• Baked Christmas cookies by myself and tried to hand them out to strangers but was rejected several times /: so I subsequently ate most of them. 
• Went to the Christmas Parade in Aviemore which was about 30 seconds long and consisted of a band of bagpipers and reindeer- awesome but waaaay too short. Then gathered with the rest of the town and sang Christmas carols while drinking mulled wine and eating mince pies. And watched fireworks. 
• Spent the holidays reading books, cooking, hiking, watching movies, and working on a puzzle
• Visited and hiked around the Glenfinnan Viaduct that makes a special appearance in the Harry Potter films

• Hiked to Steal Falls near Fort William, another Harry Potter filming location as well as the area where Braveheart was filmed!

• Had many fantastic conversations with wonderful people that do and teach Adventure Therapy in Scotland
• Took the Caledonian Sleeper Train to Scotland from the southern part of England. 
• Forest bathed in Totnes and interviewed the guide
• Played Dungeon and Dragons for the first time! I was fantastic at it. Duh.
• Spent another day and a half with a forest therapy guide in Ashburton (awesome experience)
• Visited the Husbandry School twice, once to volunteer outdoors and once to volunteer inside with the kids and interview some of the staff
• Went to Dartmoor and did an outdoor counseling session and interviewed the counselor (another awesome experience)

I'm about to get on a train to Edinburgh, and then on New Year's Day I'm flying to Budapest where I've got an actual apartment to stay in for an entire month! That's another one of the things I've learned: the longer I can stay in one place, the better. So I'm forcing myself to stay in Budapest for at least a month so I can actually do and learn all the things I've planned to.

Man... I was planning on writing a bunch more but I'm in a time crunch! Oh well. Peace!

-Andi