Santa Run

This week John took part in the annual Santa Run in Edinburgh. It was a fridged morning around 20F. Once we arrived we found that the running trail was covered in ice, so it turned into a "be careful" Santa Walk. They continued to make it very clear that it was a Santa WALK for liability reasons. There were around 300 Santa's and several little elves on top of Santa backs. It was quite enjoyable for John, but Brandlyn froze all of her extrimities. The most unusual part of this event was the Santa Piper Band.

Week's Highlights

Cannon from the Castle pointing right at the Christmas Market.

A fire alarm went off while we were at the Castle so we all had to get on the grass.

This is the Highland market at the Christmas Fair.

This was taken on Saturday after our first night of snow. 

Saturday night we disregarded the warnings to stay indoors to see the fair and markets all lit up.  At a whopping 20 degrees, definitely worth it!

Today on our second day of snow, we had to celebrate!

This is the Grassmarket area.  It is georgous in the snow!

And this is the Castle after our second snow taken at the Grassmarket

A Happy Thanksgiving

If you were to ask us what we did for Thanksgiving, you wouldn't be able to guess the answer.  Of course we told you in our last post what we planned to do, but it is so much more.  In fact, this posting can hardly be typed due to frozen fingers.  Anyway, I will began. 

Other than Brandlyn having class today, it started out to be a normal Thanksgiving.  (Well, except for the fact we missed the Macy's parade, but what to do?)  John cooked a delicious Thanksgiving meal including a roasted chicken, garlic mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, rolls, and devilled eggs.  Our friend Gabriella joined us for our delicious meal bringing a dessert of pudding.  It was foreign to us all at was more like a very sweet, rich, solid with some fruit in it. It was very tasty however and brought a great end to our Thanksgiving meal.  Around 5 we left to go see the lighting of the Christmas tree on the Mound.  It was beautiful, clear, freezing night. Christmas music was playing on the speakers around us, a city official spoke as did a man from Norway where the tree was from.  Then, there were drummers who were dressed like drummer toy people.  They were then hoisted by a crane up into the air on a mobile.  It was like being in a giant baby's crib.   Only after watching them drum in the air while the top toy person performed acrobatic tricks did the Christmas tree light up along with the rest of the trees in the area and the rides at the Fun Fair behind us.  Once the tree was lit the fireworks began! So, to sum it all up.  Our Thanksgiving consisted of a meal, freezing weather, Christmas lights, real toy drummer people flying through the air, a huge Christmas tree and fireworks.  Not typical, but definitely a great time!

Our Thankgiving Meal

Christmas Tree on the Mound

Toy Drummers on Mobile Contraption with an acrobat girl at the top.  Very Cool!

Although difficult to capture fireworks and a lit up tree at night in one shot, it can be done!

 

 

 

 

Taken the day before Thanksgiving, this is what we still look like.

This is a lovely sunset.  Taken at 3:30pm.

Chrismas, Weddings, and other things.

With only a little over a month left in 2010 we have obviously been kept very busy.  Brandlyn's classes are getting more busy with assignments and everything coming up while John has been quickly reading the Harry Potter series to finish it in time to see the new movie.  We have done nothing spectacular or extraordinary, but are still having a lot of fun and being very much entertained in Edinburgh.  One plan we have made for Thanksgiving is not to celebrate it.  We planned on celebrating it despite the fact that we had no clue how to fit a turkey into our oven, but our plans changed once we realized that November 25th is the first day of Edinburgh's Christmas.  Apparently there are a lot of things going on in one of the parks here including a fun fair (rides and all), and ice-skating ring, and a German market.  Of course all of this will be lasting for about a month I think, but November 25th is the first day of it; the first lighting of the Christmas tree and the street lighting.  All of this we know from what we saw on the internet, so we will let you know what it is actually like once we go.

The days are shorter now.  Today the sunrise was at 7:58 and the sunset will be at 3:58.  On many days, such as today, it is cloudy which makes it seem to get darker earlier.  We are slowly adjusting to it.  We have actually already put our Christmas tree up. It makes it very homey and warm in our house especially when it gets dark so early.

The Royal Wedding is getting a lot of attention here, although one of Brandlyn's Scottish teachers told the class that the Scots really don't care about the wedding.  She said the Monarchy is more of an English thing.  The story has obviously been dominating the news and there are people that are not that thrilled about having to hear about it all the time.  However, we haven't talked to any other Scot's about it so we can not say what the main consensus is.  We are kind of excited to be here during a Royal Wedding.  When Princess Diana got married it was a big deal, so if this wedding is going to be just as big, it will be nice to be able to say that we were in Britian when Prince William was married.

It's Holiday Time!

Fall is the season of Holidays.  Well, actually it begins on October 31st with Halloween which in our observations, adults possibly enjoy it more than the kids.  As we walked down the street there were many funny creatures and people that we saw, all adults.  Many pubs had costume contests and Halloween parties.  Although we did not dress up, it was a lot of fun to see everyone else dressed up. 

Other events that have been going on are of course Guy Fawkes / Bonfire Night which was on the 5th of November.  We do not know everything about Guy Fawkes, but what we do know is that the movie V for Vendetta is kind of about him.  Apparently, he had a plan to blow up the Parliament building in London (I don't remember the time). His reasons, I believe were religious. Needless to say, he was cut up, but luckily broke his neck before they started cutting him up. (Gross, I know) Anyway, during Bonfire Night, people light fireworks and I guess hold bonfires burning Fawkes in effigy.  I say I guess because although we did see a lot of fireworks going off, we did not see any bonfires, but we heard of them happening.

We also have Remembrance Day which is on Sunday.  This day is similiar to America's Veteren's Day.  It is a day to remember the sacrifices of members of the armed forces and civilians in times of war, specifically the First World War. It is also called Poppy Day.  There are stores who have a box of Poppies and people donate money and put a poppy flower on their shirt or jacket in remembrance of those who have served.  We have been seeing more and more people walking around with their poppies lately.

We have no Thanksgiving here, although we will still celebrate it with a turkey, but Christmas will still begin the day after Thanksgiving!

Now on a completely different note, but something I have been wanting to mention, I would like to compare universal things that are in both New Mexico and Edinburgh. We will compare Starbucks stores. First of all, they are everywhere (at least by where we live). The downside to the Starbucks in Edinburgh is that they do not sell pumpkin spice lattes.  This is very sad, however they do make up for it by serving eggnog lattes as well as new Christmas flavors.  The plus side to the Starbucks here is that if you enjoy your coffee in the store, they will give it to you in a glass coffee cup.  It is what we have been hoping Starbucks in New Mexico would do, but have yet to do it.  Here, it is normal, not just a sometimes thing.  It is great because not only does it help the environment, and make sense, and resemble Friends just a little bit,  but it is just cool.  In the comparison, Edinburgh wins!

Almost Natives

We have been living in Scotland for 2 months now.  During these 2 months, we have been learning new things about the culture here and adapting to the weather as best we can.  One of our favorite things we have mentioned has been the farmers market.  We go every Saturday to get our beef.  Today Brandlyn went with her friend Gabriella because John, for those who don't know was at work.  He got a job as a Sandwich Artist at Subway. Anyway, Brandlyn took pictures today of the Farmers Market so that you can see what it is like.  It doesn't matter what time we seem to go, they are always busy, but it is a great atmosphere!  We haven't really been doing much else the past 2 weeks.  John has started work and Brandlyn has continued to work on her school work. In the midst of all this though, we have realized that we no longer act like tourists.  As we walk down the street we comment on things that have changed, Brandlyn no longer wears big jackets when it is nearly 50 degrees, and she doesn't breathe that hard when we walk up hills.  It is almost like we have become Natives of Edinburgh.  Besides our accent and the occasional weird looks we may give when we can't understand Scottish accents, we are growing into our new home and it is feeling a little bit more like home.  We still haven't tried Haggis though.  One day, one day.

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This is where we get our steak pies.  We didn't get any this run though.

Is there a better place to have a Farmers Market.  I think not!

Brandlyn bought some fresh chili-lemon crisps here.  They are delicious!

Why We're Here

John and I are so happy to be living in Scotland.  We are very thankful and feel very blessed that we have this opportunity.  I have to say that my desire to come here probably wouldn't exist if I didn't get the opportunity to hear about the world when I was a little girl.  My grandparents traveled all over the world when they retired, and whenever they would come to visit, my grandma would bring her box of pictures and postcards from the many places they visited.  I loved the time I had with her hearing about all of these different places and seeing the cultures of these foreign places coming alive in the pictures.  I like to think that she sparked my desire to one day be able to travel and maybe even live overseas for a little while.  My grandma passed away on Saturday, but her independent, adventurous spirit still lives on.  I believe she passed it on to her 3 daughters and through my mom it was passed on to my sister and me.  Her memorial party (yes party because that's how we roll in this family) is today, so I felt that I shouldn't wait a moment longer to tell everyone the about impact she has made in my life,and how without her, I probably would not be living in Scotland today.  Thank you Nanny Pat, we will miss you! 

Arthur's Seat

The sun came out today!  We haven't seen it in a few days.  It didn't stay all day, but it was very nice while it was here.  It came and went as we walked to the Farmer's Market to pick up some more meat, of course another steak pie because our last one was delicious, and some rasberry dressing.  The hi temp for today was 51 Degrees.  It has been cool like this all week, but nice still.  In fact, because we saw the sun today we disregarded the cold temperature and spent the day outside.

We decided to hike up Arthur's Seat.  For those who don't know what Arthur's Seat is, it is the tallest hill in Edinburgh at a whopping 823ft.  For us, it is quite tough, especially if you are Brandlyn.  We made it up together though and it was well worth it.  The jagged rocks, steep hills, and muddy crevices don't matter much once your at the top.  Besides, isn't that what is supposed to be half the fun?  Here are a few pictures of our journey.

As we were walking in Holyrood Park toward Authors seat, there were military men and of course, the band!

Across from where the military and band were there is a lovely pond area that is home to doves, geese, ducks, and ....

Swans!  They are so much bigger than the other birds

After the pond, we started are trek up Arthur's Seat.  This was about 1/8 of the way up at one of our many breaks.

Finally! We have reached the top and can now look out on Edinburgh.

It really is a gorgeous place to stand.  You can't tell, but he is facing the North Sea.

After our hike, we enjoyed some twin cones at the bottome of the hill!

More to come next week!

Differences

It has been over a month since we have been in Edinburgh, and we are learning new things all the time.  Many of these things are some differences between Britian and America that we weren't expecting.  One of which in Brandlyn's case is school organization.  Her school has yet to figure out a permanent room for one of her classes.  Hopefully this will change come Wednesday and a final room will be assigned.  The funny thing is that both the professors and the students are confused about this.  Organization issues were happening with many of her classes, but thankfully it is now only one.  After asking people both Scottish and English about it, the reply was that this kind of thing is typical in British Universities.  Apparently organization in certain areas, such as schedules, is a little bit off.  Other than not knowing exactly where a certain class is going to be held each week (but having a rough idea), classes are going great.  Brandlyn has been really busy and has tons of homework, but she is enjoying her classes a lot. 

Another difference we have found is in the career fair aspect.  In America, we have experienced career fairs as something where you take your resume, and get dressed up as if it is a job interview.  There you talk to employers who are looking at hiring potential employees.  In Scotland, at least at the one put on by the Career Services earlier this week, it is a bit different.  When John went, he was the only potential employee dressed up, and after introducing himself to an HR rep from a company at the fair, she said nothing.  When he asked if he could give her his CV (Resume) she replied with a very shocked reply (hands raised up in defense and everything) we don't take CVs here.  Apparently none of the businesses accepted cvs, and any questions you have for them are answered by telling you to look online.  It's just a bit different.

On the "non-different" side of things, we attended the farmers market behind the castle again on Saturday and bought some delicious hamburger patties from a pure grass fed angus beef company called, Well Hung and Tender.  Isn't it a great name? We bought a canvas bag!  We also bought (from a different seller) a steak pie.  It will be our first meat pie which is a traditional Scottish meal.   We haven't eaten it yet, but it will be coming. 

In the meantime it is school and job searching as well as the beginning of another adventerous week!

Great Week!

This week we had a lot of great experiences and great news come to us.  We met our neighbors and attended a neighborhood/flat building  get-together.  We are so excited to have great, friendly neighbors. We also tasted many different flavors of chips at this party, 3 of them which were meet flavored (I can't remember what kind).  Anyway, we have made some great connections and look forward to the chances we have to continue hanging out with our new neighbors. 

One of the other great things we have learned this week was that John can work full time while he is here.  He has just updated his outsanding CV (resume) and has applied for a National Insurance Number which he needs in order to work.  The rules haven't changed.  Brandlyn apparently misread something in all her visa research and believed he could only work part time.  We are both very glad she was wrong and will keep you updated as the job hunt is now expanded!

Although we have met many new, great people this week, we have also met some not so new, great people.  Some of our friends from FBC Roswell were coming over here for a little vacation.  Well, on Tuesday they called Brandlyn's cell phone and left a message with the number to reach them at.  Of course with touch-screen technologies these days, Brandlyn's face cheek deleted the message before a number could be written. Needless to say, we weren't going to be able to meet up with them.  John, however, after running errands while Brandlyn was in class, was walking back home and happened to see them on the street.  Is it a small world or what?  Although we do live in the tourist part of the city, it was still a happy surprise. 

Next on the list of good experiences, our flat is finally warm!  It hasn't been super cold or anything, but in the mornings our little Scottish flags wave in front of the window (on the inside). We just thought it wasn't sealed properly.  Well, after John decided to climb up on the sill and check it out, it turns out our window was actually cracked open a bit at the top.  Yes....our window pulls down from the top to open, as well us up from the bottom.  Of course we knew the bottom opened, but it is a relief to know that the top opens. It certainly did minimize the breeze.

That is all our amazing and wonderful news for this week.  I am sure we will have more to report on very soon.  We are getting much busier though, so forgive us if we do not publish a post as often.  We will try to be as consistent as possible.  In the meantime, if you plan on visiting us, please let us know so that we can give you a wee wish list.  Thank you.

Pleasant Discoveries

The sun is hiding, school has started, and jobs are still being hunted for.  We are more than 3 weeks in now, and we are starting to get a little bit busier.  This week has been a particularly busy, yet relaxing week compared to our previous two. Saturday and Sunday were spent mainly at home relaxing, however because the Archery World Cup was in town, we didn't stay at home the entire time.  We are also very happy to report that in all the events we saw, which was all but one, Americans placed in every event.  In the Men's Recurve event, an American won the Gold.  From what we have found, (both before and during the tournament) Great Britian takes a large interest in Archery.  More so than in America.  The interesting thing is, we can't seem to find very many Archery shops here in Edinburgh.  At the tournament when we asked about where people buy their supplies, we were told that they usually just buy everything online.
                                       

As you can see, it is the perfect setting on a very nice day!

On Monday we wanted to go to IKEA, so we each bought an All Day bus pass for £3 each.  We bought a £15 coffee table and a few other small things there.  After IKEA we came home, ate lunch and decided to explore the city by bus since we had a day long pass.  We decided to first go to the coast so, after arriving 30 seconds to late to the bus stop, we walked to a place to get a route map, then went to a different stop to hopefully catch a bus that would take us to the coast.  The only bus we were able to catch at that stop was a bus that took us to Ocean Terminal.  We figured by the name itself we would be right on the coast.  When we got off, we were right by the coast,  but there was a big shopping mall in front of it.  We decided to explore the mall and found it set up very much like American malls, but with different stores.  Same idea though.  After exploring the mall, we caught bus 35 which actually stops right next to our street that we live on.  It also goes to the campus as well as out to the airport.  We decided to take the bus to the airport to see the other side of town.  As we were on our way to the airport, we saw an ASDA.  The sign said they were part of the Wal-Mart family so, we got off and went in.  For the first time since we have been here (and we have been looking very hard) we found corn tortillas! Actually we found the boxes, they were sold out! However, we now know where to get them.  In comparison to Walmart which is about 3/4 merchandise and 1/4 food, ASDA is about 3/4 food and 1/4 merchandise.  We still found things we were needing such as beaters, slippers, and measuring cups, but the food part was the best.  It is the first all-in-one store that we have seen here, even though we know they exist, and to know that it is only a 15 minute bus ride from our house is amazing!  Sadly, we have never been so excited to see a "Walmart" in our lives.  After trying to avoid it back home, we are happy to embrace it.   We still prefer shopping for many things at the little stores around us, but it is nice to know that there is something more out there.   Here are a few pictures of Scotland.  None of these are more than a 15 minute walk from our front door:

                                   

This is a view of the castle from Princes St. Gardens.  It is a beautiful park.

This is a street just right off the Royal Mile. They all look like this.

This is a different view of part of the castle from the other side.

                                   

Celebrations and Papal Seeings.

This week has been surprisingly busy. Between registering with doctors, attending Fresher's week functions, going to school meetings, and meeting new people, we have been quite busy.  We have also been having a lot of fun. For instance last night, we met up at Viava Mexico restaurant to celebrate Mexico's Independence Day with our new friend from Mexico City, and another friend from Hong Kong who actually lived in Mexico for 2 1/2 years.  The menu and the setting of the restaurant was actually authentically Mexican.  There were a few things on the menu that neither our new friends, nor we actually recognized, but for the most part, our Mexican friend recognized many tradional dishes on the menu.  We didn't eat any of these items.  The cheapest meal was £10 and seeing as how we were all college students, we just ordered some chips and salsa and guacamole.  Now, I am sure many of you are curious as to what may be on the menu.  They had the usual: enchiladas, burritos, quesadillas, and a variety of traditional fish dishes.  Some weren't so traditional. One of the more interesting ScotMex they offered for instance was a cheese and haggis quesadilla.  Maybe one day we will go back and try this, but our first Haggis experience probably won't involve a tortilla.

As many of you know, the Pope visited Edinburgh today.  Of course we had to go see him, so we met our new Mexican friend and walked about 15 minutes to watch the St. Ninions day parade, at the end of which the Pope was going to be in his Pope mobile. We arrived at our watching spot at around 10, and arrived back at home at about 12:30. The parade was very lively.  There were 1,000 pipers who performed very well and a few nuns and religious figures as well.  Finally at about 12:15 the Pope arrived in his Pope mobile and we were able to see him for approximately 15 seconds.  Totally worth it!  He seems to be welcomed very well.  BBC is covering his visit here very thoroughly.  We even watched the Pope's plane fly in and land on the TV.  The rest of the day will continue on as normal, but come this weekend, the Archery World Finals will be in Princes St. Gardens, and so will we.

                                                    

Tram Revision

Ok, so we had a slight misunderstanding about the light rail/tram system here in Edinburgh.  Apparently, it hasn't even started running yet.  They are still working on it, and have been for a while.  This makes sense to us because before we came here, we weren't aware they had a rail system of any kind. The misunderstanding came when a sign in one of the rail cars said something about it being shut down for the Papal visit.  We just wanted to clear that up.

Our Second Week

Our second week has come to and end here in Edinburgh, and it has been one that we would definitely change if we could. The good news is, we are finally over the hump of our mourning period for the loss of our iMac. All of our important photos we realized last night were transferred onto our old iPod. We don't remember transferring them, but we are so grateful that we haven't lost them. As for the rest of our week, it has ended quite well. There were a few international events that Brandlyn attended and she met some very nice people. The country, where about half of the people she is meeting seem to be from, is Greece. Her school orientation events begin tomorrow. There are also so many events that the school is putting on for international students, nobody can physically attend them all. It is quite exciting.

I don't know how many of you know, but the Pope is coming to Edinburgh on Thursday. Although we are not Catholics, we are both very excited to see him drive by in his little Papal Bubble. It is the first visit a Pope has ever made to Scotland and the first for the UK since 1982. The light rail system has been closed down since we arrived just for this visit. The government is spending £12 Million in preparing for his arrival with security and closing off roads, and whatever else they are spending it on. This visit is causing quite a controversy here, but irregardless, we are thrilled to get the chance to see the Pope.

Yesterday, we were able to buy a new laptop. It of course is no Mac, but it will work just fine for school and some pictures. On our way home from the store where be bought our computer, we were walking back up the hill listening to the bagipipes play along the Royal Mile. When we arrived on the Royal Mile we noticed there were barracades that people were standing behind. We stopped to see what was going on and we ended up arriving just in time for a parade. It was a parade/march celebrating the 450th Anniversary of the Scottish Reformation. There were many different groups marching in the parade. Each group had a band that was playing the same song, and Scots marching behind. We didn't have our camera, so after watching it for about 10 minutes and not seeing the end in sight, we hurried back home to find the camera. Unfortunately we were too late to take any pictures. It was very neat to see though.

Tomorrow we will buy posters to cover the lightly tan walls of our flat and go to more international events. In the meantime, here are some pictures of our flat.

Our Bad Day

Today was our first cloudy rainy day. I was preparing for a job interview when our computer arrived. I buzzed the courier in and waited for him in the stairwell. I saw him running up the stairs with my package weighing around 30 pounds. I thought to my self this guys strong, that was until he handed the box to me. It may have weighed 2 pounds. All I could say was,"no no no no..." I told him that my computer has been stolen. He said,"No, you see it's still taped up". I said,"yeah it has been taped up after someone stole everything from inside it". All of my photos and movies were in it. Also tons of documents and our life! All we can do is collect the pittance of $650, the maximum USPS would allow us to insure it for. Today we have spent telling every investigator, creditor, and apple about our issue. We are happy that this day is at a close.

1 Week In

It has been exactly one week since we arrived in Edinburgh. We are finally starting to get use to how things work around here. Brandlyn is still nervous about crossing the streets just because the vehicles are on the wrong side, and John has been able to cross the technological barriers and add more channels to our tv, as well as figure out what certain switches in our flat our meant for. We are both very impressed with how efficient the city is. In our flat, each electrical outlet has a switch that we can turn on if we are using the outlet, and off when we are not. Our water heater also has a switch we can flip to heat up the water in the house and it will keep it hot long after the switch is turned back off. Considering we have to pay our own electricity, we like these methods!

Although we have spent a lot of time becoming acquainted with our flat, our week has been very eventful. We have opened up a bank account, acquired cell phones for a lot less money then we would have in America, went up Edinburgh Castle, and Saturday we went to the farmers market behind the castle. We have also finally learned how to shop for certain items we need. There is no Walmart here, or any store of its kind (at least that we have found). There is also no Target here, or any store of its kind. After searching for a blowdryer all week, we finally found one on Friday at a drug/beauty store that has the feel of Walgreens and the makeup sections in Dillards all in one. We have also been looking for a printer which we desperately needed, and finally found one Saturday after leaving the Farmer's Market. We were walking home and noticed a store that we thought might cell electronic things like Printers and computers. We walked in and it was a catalog store. All you see are stands with giant catalogs and kiosks where you pay for what you want. Although catalog stores are very mid-1900's, these are very modern day ones. You can text in your order number and have it either shipped to your home or pick it up in the store. We got online, found our printer along with other things, and picked them up in the store which is 2 blocks away. It is such a great deal. We assume that this is as close to Walmart or Target as we will get when it comes to getting most of the things we need in one place. Needless to say, we are happy to have finally found a place where we can get anything we need.

To close, this was a very busy week. We have been making our flat into a home as well as exploring the city little by little. We can't express how beautiful this city is. We will post pictures once our desktop gets here which hopefully will be soon. Until then, you'll just have to take our word for it.

We're here!

After 16 + hours of traveling, and watching great movies on Continental Airlines which we definitely recommend flying overseas, we have finally arrived in Edinburgh.  We are so late getting this blog update out due to our lack of #1 our own computer, and #2 the internet. 

When we arrived in Edinburgh, we took a cab to Brandlyn’s uncle’s friend’s mother’s house.  It was a beautiful house, and the hospitality was just great.  We had tea when we arrived and after playing games with our hostess’s family, we ate a wonderful lunch consisting of chicken, peas, carrots, potatoes, and parsnips.  Oh yes, did we mention this was the middle course?  Our first course consisted of melons, while our third consisted of Scottish cheeses, oatcakes, ice cream, and a fruit salad.  It was a great first meal in Scotland for us.  Later that day, we went to my Uncle’s friend’s home where we stayed for the next 3 nights before we moved into our flat.  Their names are Adam and Amanda, and they are about the nicest people we have ever met.  After Brandlyn broke their sink and stopped up their toilet (which they say happens all the timeor at least that what they told Bran) they still put up with us and fed us.  While in their care and company, we had more interesting Scottish foods.  One of them being chicken liver patte on toast which was excellent!  Brandlyn was also brave and tried the one thing she said she wouldn’t which was Black Pudding.  She liked it, but isn’t in a hurry to try it again and probably won’t be stocking it in her house to feed to visitors, although it really wasn’t bad. 

We may now move on to tonight.  Tonight is September 1^st.  We have just moved into our flat after walking hours back and forth getting our key and other things sorted out around the town.  We are pre-typing this blog because we still have no internet connection due to lack of a cord, and we are not sure if our phone works properly because we have to register it to call anyone not in this building, but we can’t register it until we register our internet.  It is all quite ironic.  We went to buy a cable for our internet today, but oddly enough in this big city, most stores close at 5:30.  Restaurants and grocery stores stay open late, as well as pubs, but not regular stores.  Roswell has one up on them so far on that!

As for the flat we live in.  Despite it’s dark corridors, it is still pretty dark in the flat itself, which will probably drive a certain electrician crazy.  For now, it works very well.  The only bill we pay here is electricity, which is nice, however everything uses electricity.  We have just learned that in our bath/shower, the bath works and heats up just fine, but in order to turn on the shower, you adjust your heat by a knob in the shower, but you pull a cord that is by the bathroom door to turn on the shower.  For hours we have been trying to figure out what this random cord is.  Now we know.  We now realize it will cost us money to take showers, but no money to take baths.  It is all quite interesting, and I have a feeling we will start taking more baths. 

As for the temperature here, we have been sweating.  Let us just say that it is not hot.  It is probably 60 degrees during the day, and when the sun is on you it feels hotter.  We have been sweating however, because everything is uphill.  Literally, our flat is at the bottom of two hills. We’re not complaining, it is a fantastic workout, however it does bring about difficulty of how to dress.  Jacket or no jacket? Anyway, that is all for now.  Next stop, Haggis!

The Time Has Come

It is finally here.  This is the last blog we will be posting before we arrive in Scotland.  We have been spending the past few weeks packing little by little, and we are ready to go.  The plan is to leave Roswell tomorrow around noon, head to Las Cruces, and then head to El Paso on Friday so that we can fly out on Saturday morning at 8:00am.   We are taking 4 suitcases all under 50lbs each, and 4 carry ons, each under 40lbs.  This is our life and we look forward to writing more about it our next blog from across the world.

Road Trip

Due to the fact that we were leaving in a month, and still had people we wanted to see, we decided to take a "little" road trip. Well, here is how it went:

Its a funny story actually.  We left Roswell at 6am on a Friday, and drove 21 hours and 1300 miles finally arriving in Madison, WI at 3:30am.  Many might say we are crazy, but we really aren't.  We had every intention of stopping along the way.  Once the clock struck 11, we decided we should probably start trying to find a hotel.  Needless to say, we couldn't.  The rooms were either $100 + for a "cheap" hotel, or they were full, or there were only smoking rooms left.  Finally, a Holiday Inn express right outside of Madison, in Verona, made our night! The good that came out of all of this is that not only did we get a awesome hotel room for $70.

Madison, Wisconsin.  Mike and Marcy have a beautiful home and everywhere we looked we saw green!  It was amazing to see lakes that were actually big enough to be lakes and rivers that we couldn't see the bottom of. We went to a concert at the University after that we walked up State Street which is quite a popular place to be, and it takes you right up to the Capital.  The next day we went to Devil's lake which is a beautiful recreation area where you can climb rough rocks to the top of a big hill, swim on the sandy beach of the lake, or take a sailboat out into the deep water.  It was one of the smaller lakes we saw, but definitely one of the prettiest. Most of our time was spent doing what we went there to do which was hang out with our friends.

Chicago was our next stop to see our relatives. Chicago was an awesome experience. We began with an amazing architecture cruise and then walked for 5 hours. During our walk we went all over down town. We saw Millennium Park, The Bean, Navy Pier, Lincoln Park, and finished with dinner at Uno's Pizzeria. The next day we went to Willis Tower and stood on a glass lookout 103 stories up.

Moline, Illinois was fast paced. We saw the John Deere Pavilion, John Deere Corporate head quarters, and John Deere's residences. We also saw an Arsenal Base on the Mississippi, a river boat tour, and got to eat at Pasteurs French Vietnamese restaurant. Moline was fun and it was great to see John's Aunt Mary Ann.

Springfield, Illinois was next on our list to visit our relatives. We went to Abe Lincoln's Tomb to rub his noise for good luck. We then went to the Abraham Lincoln National Museum. The museum was amazing. Later we had horseshoes for dinner. A horseshoe is quite odd. Start with texas toast on a plate, then put your meat on it, add fry's, then pour cheese sauce and viola! It seems strange, but it's really good especially with some hot sauce.

St. Louis, Missouri was the only tourist trap we went to on the way to Paris. We saw, touched, and went inside the arch.

Paris, Texas was our last stop. Here we visited with more family. We saw the Eiffel Tower wearing a cowboy hat and we really enjoyed the time we spent with everyone (even if they are from Texas!)

Now we are back in Roswell.  We have begun packing and are getting very excited about our big move.

                                        

                                          Hanging out with Mike and Marcy was a lot of fun.

Chicago was a pretty cool city.  Even from 103 stories up.

                                         At the John Deer Pavilion, we saw some pretty big machines!

                        The whole family was surprisingly not that tall.  Except of course for Mr. Lincoln.

Yes, its real.