A gift card will do.

Nearly two weeks ago I was in the kitchen, preparing to make a batch of chocolate chip cookies to appease the hungry boys in the living room. As I poured the brown sugar out, I caught a glimpse of something that didn't belong in a bag of smooth brown sugar. I grabbed a spoon and sifted through the sugar until I discovered...the back half of a bee with its stinger still attached!! This unfortunate creature must have managed to get mixed up in a sugar factory and sliced in half at some point in the processing line, bagged up, sealed and sent off to Sainsbury's in Edinburgh.

I scooped the backside of the bee up and put him on display for Tony and Ryan. I joked that with all the prayers we've been saying for the financial provision for Tony's schooling, maybe God is going to provide through a successful lawsuit against Sainsbury's regarding a bee in the brown sugar! Okay, maybe it's not that big of a deal. But Tony did contact Sainsbury's about the bee incident and we received a very apologetic phone call a few days later. Today I got a letter from Sainsbury's with a 5 pound gift card (not a 5 lb. card, but value of 5 British Pounds) included to cover the cost of the brown sugar.

It's no tuition waiver, but I suppose the gift card will do. : )

About Me

My friend Adrienne "tagged" me in the last line of her answers, so I'm keeping it alive and posting my answers. This is kind of like a 2008 version of a chain letter, huh?!

I am- trying to make homemade bread today.
I want- Lasik eye surgery.
I have- converted to drinking tea almost entirely.
I wish- webcams allowed you to hug the people you’re looking at.
I hate- extreme statements about individuals and groups of people.
I fear- the degrading morality of the world that my kids will one day grow up in.
I search- for chocolate chips, green chili's and baking cocoa here in Scotland.
I wonder- what the future holds.
I always- love a Chai tea latte from Starbucks, even more with a piece of pumpkin loaf.
I usually- check my email 5 times per day.
I am not- as artistic as I wish I were.
I dance- sometimes, but Tony just watches!
I hear - that my sister is PREGNANT again!!
I sing- songs in Spanish more than English.
I never- have understood why prayer works.
I rarely- finish craft projects that I begin.
I cry- when I’m overwhelmed.
I am not always- aware of the implications of my own decisions have on the world I’m living in.
I lose- sight of what’s important when I’m overwhelmed.
I’m confused- by the levels of anger involved in this year’s election.
I need- a job. Soon.
I should- start to understand the Scottish brogue better sometime soon.
I dream- of Peru almost every night.
I TAG-uh, I don't know who reads this that also has a blog. Andie? Janelle? Elyssa, with a pregnancy twist on it?

A walk along our street...

Since I'm often intrigued by the little shops and sights along our street, I thought it might be fun to post a few pictures of the things we see during our daily strolls up and down this end of the Royal Mile.  Stepping out of Browns Close, you are greeted by the following sights:

This little tea room always has delectable smelling soup luring customers inside. 

The daily selections are displayed on the chalkboard next to the door:

One of many little grocers along our street:

The view down the pedestrian alleyway behind our close:

Not all the sights are foreign....

This little garden is tucked behind a close just a ways up from us: 

A smattering of the leaves that I love to walk amongst: 

The primary school building across from our house.  I love seeing the children out during recess, playing in their ever-so-British uniforms. 

Looking back down the Royal Mile towards our flat:

The historic site of the Edinburgh Tollbooth, formerly used for collecting tolls, hosting the city chamber, holding court hearings and housing prisoners.  

The Tollbooth now houses a museum reflecting the lives of ordinary people in Edinburgh throughout the history of its development. 

Another museum just across the street...

I love the name of this charming storefront - "Ye Olde Christmas Shoppe"

Our first Hill Walk

Being the mountain snobs that we are from Colorado, we didn't think much of the feats of the "hill walking" group at Holyrood Abbey when they invited us to join them for their next walk. Even when a fellow American clarified that "hill walking" means actual hiking, we didn't feel too intimidated by the proposed climb. We were glad to join them and looked forward to getting out of the city, getting some outdoor exercise, and exploring some of the Scottish Highlands.
It turns out that the excursion was much more than a walk up a hill after all! It was a decent climb - we ascended about 3,000 ft. to reach the summit. The scenery was very much what I pictured for the highlands - smooth, green hills with sheep scattered all over the the land. When we met up with the group for our early (meaning 8:45am) drive up to the hill, I felt very confident that we were going to be fine when I saw what the group was wearing - sweats, tennis shoes, and rain coats. What we didn't know was that they all had a change of clothes in the car that they donned before we started climbing - 100% waterproof gear from head to toe! They even had gaiters to wrap their ankles and calves in to keep water from getting into their shoes. We had our rain coats with us, and I had work out pants and waterproof hiking boots, but Tony had khakis and a pair of day hiking shoes (not waterproof). Worse yet, our friend Ryan was in shorts and a pair of tennis shoes that had holes in the soles!

We soon came to realize that the waterproof gear was not just necessary due to rain during our "walk". The highlands receive so much rain that, even though the hill is relatively steep, the entire surface is pretty much a bog and is holding tons of water in the plant life that covers it. Each step causes water to squish out and go over, then into your shoe, unless of course you have gaiters covering your shoes! All of this water made for a very slippery and muddy climb, and an even more slippery and more muddy descent. Tony took several big slides on the way down and managed to cover his shoe completely with mud! (It's still sitting out on our balcony, waiting to be dealt with.)
The closer we got to the top, the colder and windier it became. I nearly blew over several times, and I couldn't imagine how cold our friend Ryan must have been in his shorts if my legs and fingers felt like ice inside my pants and mittens! We were delighted to find a stone shelter at the top that was the most inviting haven I've seen in a while. We ate our lunches in the shelter from the wind and occasionally stood up to enjoy the view before the berating wind forced us back down. We were supposed to get up on top of the cement post in the middle to have our picture taken as a first-timer, but I'm certain I would've blown off so we settled for pictures next to it.
We took one group shot up at the top before I was too cold to stay around any longer:
As we descended, the weather cleared up quite a bit and it turned out to be a nice afternoon. The scenery was gorgeous, the sheep were adorable and when we reached the bottom we turned to see this rainbow behind us - the perfect finish to the hike.
As I was climbing up the hill and it was getting colder and windier, I tucked myself further and further into my raincoat. I eventually had my hood on, zipped over my chin, with the sides fastened down so tightly that my face was barely showing. I was so desperate to get to the top that I kept looking up to check my progress, and I was advancing at about the same rate that time passes during a particularly long speech at a particularly long program in a hot school auditorium in Peru. I finally quit looking up and just focused on each step that I was taking, trying to fill my mind with other things than the distance between me and the peak.

As I was going up, I started reflecting on our current situation here in Scotland and the many questions we're throwing around about what the future holds for us. Lately we've been so overwhelmed with the possibilities and unknowns of the next 5 years that it's been a bit hard to focus on what we're here to do. I tend to learn well through narrative and metaphors, so naturally I started to reflect on some similarities between my current state of anxiety and my present climb to the peak in front of me. I have been spending a lot of time praying that I would be able to trust God with our future plans and all of the risks, implications and uncertainties that go with it. I've been trying to develop a discipline in turning my anxieties about the future into prayer and a new focus on the present moment we've been given. So as I realized the need to quit looking at the top of the hill and focusing on the fact that I was going nowhere quickly, I was again reminded of the importance of taking my focus off the next one, two...five years, and instead focusing on what's been placed before me. I'm sure some motivational speaker could have gone through that same experience and developed an inspiring talk about the importance of keeping your eye on the goal and not losing sight of the top of the mountain, but for me the lesson was in focusing on the here and now, not fretting about what lies ahead or how quickly we can get there.

This and that...

As we've settled into our flat over the past month, Tony and I have claimed our respective places in the living room. Tony usually settles into the comfy reading chair with a book or his laptop in hand, while I grab a throw pillow and plop myself directly in front of the heater attached to the wall. I'm usually reading, journaling, or have my laptop set up on the coffee table in front of me. Ever since I was little I have always gravitated toward the warmest place in the house. I used to cuddle in front of the furnace vents in our house with a blanket over me, and still sit by the vents occasionally when at my parents home, so it's only fitting that I have claimed my spot in front of the heater. Tonight I'm home in my spot while Tony is off playing soccer (or football, as we're slowly learning to call it), and I thought it would be a good time to write an overdue blog post.

The fall weather has definitely moved into Edinburgh and there's a distinct chill in the air. The leaves are changing colors and falling, and yesterday I actually got hit in the face twice by falling leaves! There are few things I love more than blustery fall days and the crunch of leaves beneath my feet, so I have been soaking this up since we missed fall last year in Peru. Tony wears khakis and sweaters most every day which seems quite fitting given the weather and setting of his studies. As for me, I'm rotating between my 6 long sleeve shirts and realizing I shouldn't have doubted all the advice blogs for Americans moving to the UK that said, "You will not wear short sleeves, so you may as well leave them behind."

Tony's classes are going well and he's fully immersed in the world of philosophy. The British style of academics has taken some getting used to as it is very self-directed and unstructured, but he's now enjoying the freedom to investigate topics of personal interest and contribute his findings to class discussions. I generally work out in the morning and then spend my days looking for jobs, applying for jobs, cleaning, cooking and remembering what it's like to have free time. I've been working on some continuing education courses to keep up my counseling certifications and have really enjoyed the engagement of my mind as a therapist again.

A few random observations we've made about life in Scotland over this first month:
- Scots do not like to do thing early in the morning, therefore they don't. Coffee shops, even Starbucks, don't open until 7am or later. It makes my days of getting up at 3:45am to be at Starbucks for my opening shift at 4:30am seem like a bad dream!

- We understand why Scots don't like to do things early in the morning - it's always very dark in the mornings. The sun doesn't rise until 7:30am, so it's still rather dim around 8am, and it's very cold out, which isn't very inviting when you're warm in bed. The worst is yet to come, however. By the end of December we'll have a total of 6 hours of daylight!

- The friendly Scottish-British rivalry we heard about is not so friendly, actually. There's a good amount of resentment still brewing towards the English here and it comes out in all kinds of ways. A vote will be taken in Scotland in 2010 regarding the Scottish Independence referendum, which would officially separate Scotland from England. Apparently Westminster could ammend the referendum if passed and bring Scotland back into the UK and under it's control, but that doesn't seem to squash the spirits of people who are for Scottish independence here!

- Edinburgh is a very international city. During the 15-minute walk from our flat to Tony's main school building we usually hear about 7 different languages being spoken on the street. Tony plays soccer with a group of guys on Thursday afternoons and estimates 8 nationalities represented among their group of 20 players. It creates an interesting synergy within the city and offers a great selection of international cuisine. YUM!

-We have settled on a church to call home here in Edinburgh. This has been quite a challenge because the suffering condition of the church in Europe has resulted in many historical and traditional churches that scarcely uphold the basic doctrines of Christianity. There are only a handful of churches that continue to uphold those doctrines, and they have moved towards contemporary styles to meet the desires of young church goers. We were really hoping to find a liturgical and contemplative church to be a part of this year, but most of those churches are quite liberal theologically and have no young people in them for us to build relationships with. You ultimatley have to choose between liturgy and tradition or theologically sound with potential to build community. All that being said, we have been attending Holyrood Abbey, a church that offers a lot of potential for building community with other believers and upholds Christian doctrine in their teaching and worship. It's a rather historical church in Edinburgh - if you're interested you can read more here.

- Lastly, it is surprising to realize how much interest even non-US citizens have in our election this year. The McCain/Obama dynamic comes up in most every extended conversation we have here. I have been glad to skip all the TV campaign ads and have the freedom to avoid that part of the campaign and do my own reading and news watching as the campaign moves along. We are registered to vote from abroad and we'll be voting in this historic election, even though neither candidate is one we'd really love to see as president.

Well, that's the update from my spot in front of the heater. I'll be posting some pictures next of our adventure last weekend to the Highlands. Stay tuned!

Reign of The Mini

Within hours of arriving here in Edinburgh, one thing became quite clear:

The mini-skirt is BACK.

And it's not just the mini-skirt, it's mini-skirts with tights and leggings, mini-skirts with boots or ballet flats, mini-skirts with sweaters and coats that hang lower than the skirt, leading me to fear that some of these dear girls have actually forgotten to put on their pants. No matter the temperature, the mini-skirt it out. No matter the wind, the mini-skirt is out. It has no limitations - style must be upheld despite the chill or the breeze risk factors. Size of the thighs is apparently no consideration either - women of all sizes sport the mini. The muffin-top + mini combo is alarmingly common, but seemingly only to us foreigners. The mini is pervasive throughout society - students, professionals, mums and their daughters all wear them. I nearly choked on my water when our letting agent stood up and revealed her "poofy-mini",which is what I call the type of mini-skirts shown here on the right (but shorter):



My simple style (or "classic style" as I've been told to say!) is entirely out of place here. The other day we walked into the bank and there was a group of three girls standing at the teller counter. All three were wearing non-tapered jeans with Dansko clogs, two of them were wearing fleece jackets, and two of them had Vera Bradley bags on their shoulders. I nearly walked up and hugged them because it was so good to see a familiar sense of style!

I had to laugh when I saw this cartoon because it reflected our initial impressions so well! Cheers!