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  We are getting much busier though, so forgive us if we do not publish a post as often.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.