So!
I just got a job!! YAY!!! I am going to be working in an Internet cafe. It all started when I had to get a new phone because mine wouldn't work over here. The lady at the shop is named Emma and she is starting an Internet cafe. I went in a few times and talked to her just about phone stuff and then one time when me and Casey were in the shop waiting for my new phone we started talking about jobs. And then she offered me a job in the cafe! It hasn't opened up yet and she really wants me to put in a lot of ideas about the place. The cafe will be serving hot and cold food, and she wants ideas for food and some decorations. She told me that we may go to Ikea and shop around one day. The thing is since the place hasn't really opened she doesn't know how much she can pay me. So after this month is over and she sees how much money is coming in, then she will pay me. Then after this month she said she would pay me at the end of every week. So I am pretty excited about starting my job. I start on Monday and I think it is going to be really fun. Today is a really beautiful day outside, it is really sunny and warm. It has been kinda of rainy and bla lately so this is a nice change. I think that is all for now so I'll let you know if anything else exciting happens!
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Monday, May 26, 2008
More Pictures
Ok So in the pictures below the second building is Edinburgh castle and I'm not sure what the first one is but I will ask Casey. In this post there is the picture with me and the bird, Aurthur's seat, Casey standing on the top of Aurthur's Seat, and some pictures of the the veiw from various hiking spots. Enjoy!
Hiking and stuff
So a few days ago we hiked up this mountian called Aurthr's seat. It was a pretty easy hike but the wind was blowing so hard. The views here so amazing! I wish everyone could have been there with us. Once we got to the top Casey took a picture of me and a bird just happened to be flying in the background. It's pretty cool. Of course Casey had to stand on top of the highest point, which was kind of dangerous and made me very nervous. When we had hiked about half way up we could see the ocean and it was so close. That water was very blue and the pictures of it do it no justice. From the top we could see the whole city. Today is Casey's first day of work, I hope he has a good day and I hope he likes the people he works with. I did some laundry today and I'm not sure that I put all the soaps in the right place. The clothes are hanging on the line in the garden. I hope they are not too stiff. Also there is no dishwasher here so that kinda stinks. We also did the tourist thing and walked the Royal Mile. There were bagpipers playing music and lots and lost of touristy people. We went into this beautiful church. It was the church of St. Giles. We wern't allowed to take any pictures but Casey did sneek some video of the place. Everything here is so amazing. All of the buildings are so old and they look so cool. I also really like the cobble stone streets, and the double decker busses. Well I think that is all for now. We love and miss everyone. Enjoy the pictures!
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Telephone numbers
Although my last post is long and possibly boring, if you scroll to the bottom you will see the numbers Nat and I got for Scotland.
We're finally here....take two
So I was stoked when I read Nat's post because she already talked about a lot of the stuff that I was going to talk about. As she said I went climbing today, and it felt good to do so after not climbing for at least a week and a half. I hope to hit up the world's largest climbing gym, located here in Edinburgh, in the next couple of days. The rock was not super awesome, but the experience was amazing due to the perfect weather (by any standards, not just Scotland standards or whatever) and the location. To get to the little bouldering area I was at I had to walk to the top of Blackford hill where the royal observatory is located. The building even from the outside is awesome, and the view was awe inspiring (or god-smacking as Tali is fond of saying). I could see the ocean and all of the old buildings, as well as the new crazy buildings, like the Scottish National Library. I can't wait for the view from the top of Arthur's Seat, which is the extinct volcano looming in the middle of the city. We have an amzing view of the mountain from our living room window. I'll bring my camera and post a compilation video of what I've got so far soon.
As I am accustomed to analyzing, sometimes over-analyzing, things and then vocalizing these ideas to anyone who will listen, I will consider you, Mr. or Mrs. blog reader, as my captive audience. The biggest differences I've noticed are the environment and the culture. I guess it didn't sink in when people said it was going to be different. I wasn't prepared for the feelings that would bombard me as I walked down the street coming back from meeting my coworkers. Tali had said that Edinburgh really wasn't a big city like London, just a big village sort of trying to be a city. I can see that some, but if that is the case then Austin and most of DFW are straight up po-dunk. I realized that 90 percent of the time I couldn't see any portion of the streets on either side of my own, the buildings were so tightly packed. I actually thought 'Dang, I like America!' This was followed by me making fun of myself for being some what homesick, and the realization that this experince is super important to my personal development into a well rounded dude.
My brief experiences with Scottish people on the phone did not prepare me for the thickness of some of the accents I've heard (but defintiely not understood). Also, some Scottish people are really aloof, but since they aren't all like that I'm sure that's just a big city thing I may not be used to. And Edinburgh is so multicultural that even as i eavesdropped on passerby in my attempt to perfect my Scottish accent (everyone in America said mine sucked, but we will see in August), I only caught English being spoken every couple of times. There are a ton, like a ton, of Indian and South-East asian take out (take way in the UK) places. I had this thing last night that they call a kabab. It's not meat on a skewer; it's like a gyro with chili sauce instead of tzatziki sauce and cabbage instead of lettuce. It was really good. Hamburgers are pretty much the same idea, like every place has them, but it seems to me that it definitely is an American import. Speaking of that, every car is super tiny and there are about 1,000 brands of cars. Some of them are cool and wouldn't be bad climber cars if they had a roof rack. Also, we get like 4 stations that show American TV, so while we don't miss out on Scrubs and stuff, I shocked that we have such a large influence as a country. What else, let's see, oh, all of the atms havew free cash withdrawals and the bus system is not only awesome, the buses are double decker and the seats are like wicked comfy.
I guess that's it for now, I apologize if this was boring. Hopefully following posts will have more interesting thoughts than this one and of course, videos and pictures.
As a final thing, let me give everyone Natalie's and my own cell phone numbers. If you really need to contact us directly, you can call them. We don't pay for received calls, but you pay quite a bit, so you can also just text us with a time when you want to sit down and talk using the computer and we'll work something out that way.
The numbers are:
Natalie: 0044 (country code for Scotland)-752-201-0834
Casey: 0044-752-201-0835
If we told you about this blog, then you are someone we love and care about and we wish you could be here with us.
As I am accustomed to analyzing, sometimes over-analyzing, things and then vocalizing these ideas to anyone who will listen, I will consider you, Mr. or Mrs. blog reader, as my captive audience. The biggest differences I've noticed are the environment and the culture. I guess it didn't sink in when people said it was going to be different. I wasn't prepared for the feelings that would bombard me as I walked down the street coming back from meeting my coworkers. Tali had said that Edinburgh really wasn't a big city like London, just a big village sort of trying to be a city. I can see that some, but if that is the case then Austin and most of DFW are straight up po-dunk. I realized that 90 percent of the time I couldn't see any portion of the streets on either side of my own, the buildings were so tightly packed. I actually thought 'Dang, I like America!' This was followed by me making fun of myself for being some what homesick, and the realization that this experince is super important to my personal development into a well rounded dude.
My brief experiences with Scottish people on the phone did not prepare me for the thickness of some of the accents I've heard (but defintiely not understood). Also, some Scottish people are really aloof, but since they aren't all like that I'm sure that's just a big city thing I may not be used to. And Edinburgh is so multicultural that even as i eavesdropped on passerby in my attempt to perfect my Scottish accent (everyone in America said mine sucked, but we will see in August), I only caught English being spoken every couple of times. There are a ton, like a ton, of Indian and South-East asian take out (take way in the UK) places. I had this thing last night that they call a kabab. It's not meat on a skewer; it's like a gyro with chili sauce instead of tzatziki sauce and cabbage instead of lettuce. It was really good. Hamburgers are pretty much the same idea, like every place has them, but it seems to me that it definitely is an American import. Speaking of that, every car is super tiny and there are about 1,000 brands of cars. Some of them are cool and wouldn't be bad climber cars if they had a roof rack. Also, we get like 4 stations that show American TV, so while we don't miss out on Scrubs and stuff, I shocked that we have such a large influence as a country. What else, let's see, oh, all of the atms havew free cash withdrawals and the bus system is not only awesome, the buses are double decker and the seats are like wicked comfy.
I guess that's it for now, I apologize if this was boring. Hopefully following posts will have more interesting thoughts than this one and of course, videos and pictures.
As a final thing, let me give everyone Natalie's and my own cell phone numbers. If you really need to contact us directly, you can call them. We don't pay for received calls, but you pay quite a bit, so you can also just text us with a time when you want to sit down and talk using the computer and we'll work something out that way.
The numbers are:
Natalie: 0044 (country code for Scotland)-752-201-0834
Casey: 0044-752-201-0835
If we told you about this blog, then you are someone we love and care about and we wish you could be here with us.
We're finally here!
Hi everyone!
So we are finally here and it is so beautiful. The flights here were actually not that bad. Our flight to New York landed and hour early so we really had a 6 hour layover. And the plane that we flew on was super tiny. It was a 2 by 2 seater. But we walked around the airport to get some of our energy out. Our flight to Edinburgh was AWESOME! Our plane was really big and everyone had a little T.V. in front of them. We could watch TONS of recent movies like The Kite Runner, Jumper, 27 Dresses, and lots of other movies. Also we could watch regular T.V shows like Scrubs, Friends, House, and Big Band theory. And they had HBO shows like Big Love and Flight of the Concords. And they had lots of music like soothing sounds and classical and jazz and all that stuff. But they also had a lot of new Cd's like the new Jack Johnson. So basically we were never really bored. But we didn't really get to watch anything because we slept most of the time. The food on the flight was actually pretty good. We had chicken and it didn't taste like rubber. When we landed I was really tired and it took me a while to really realize that I was in Scotland. I had to keep telling myself, I'm in Scotland, I'm in Scotland. Our flatmate Tali is super nice and very helpful. Today she left to go back to her home in Israel for 2 weeks, so we have the place to ourselves which is good and bad. Our first meal in Edinburgh was fish and chips. It was pretty good except the batter tasted like funnel cake. But the fish was really fresh because we live so close to the cost. Casey had his first Guinness and it was a success. I had a coke which was really good because it had a lot of syrup in it. But they also put an orange in it instead of a lemon or something. I really liked it and I think I will do that when I get back home. The weather here is kind of cold but since we walk every where we warm up easily. Today we need to go to the store to buy groceries, and run a few more errands. Casey is out climbing right now and the sim card that I bought to use my phone to call him, doesn't work. So I have to return it and get one that is compatible. I am a little worried that I can't call Casey, but I think that is just because I am worried about him getting injured. But people in the old days didn't have cell phones so I'll be ok for a few hours without one. I called my mom last night on the program that Tali has called "voice cheap" and when I talked it was soooooo delayed. It was pretty annoying so hopefully we can figure out something better. I think it is so slow and delayed because Tali has dial up. :-( Oh well. I think that is all for now. We miss everyone back home, but we are safe and having a good time. Oh yeah, Casey starts work on Monday so he still has a few days to recover. But for the most part we are pretty much fine, no jet lag or anything. I will write again soon and I will have Casey post something as well.
So we are finally here and it is so beautiful. The flights here were actually not that bad. Our flight to New York landed and hour early so we really had a 6 hour layover. And the plane that we flew on was super tiny. It was a 2 by 2 seater. But we walked around the airport to get some of our energy out. Our flight to Edinburgh was AWESOME! Our plane was really big and everyone had a little T.V. in front of them. We could watch TONS of recent movies like The Kite Runner, Jumper, 27 Dresses, and lots of other movies. Also we could watch regular T.V shows like Scrubs, Friends, House, and Big Band theory. And they had HBO shows like Big Love and Flight of the Concords. And they had lots of music like soothing sounds and classical and jazz and all that stuff. But they also had a lot of new Cd's like the new Jack Johnson. So basically we were never really bored. But we didn't really get to watch anything because we slept most of the time. The food on the flight was actually pretty good. We had chicken and it didn't taste like rubber. When we landed I was really tired and it took me a while to really realize that I was in Scotland. I had to keep telling myself, I'm in Scotland, I'm in Scotland. Our flatmate Tali is super nice and very helpful. Today she left to go back to her home in Israel for 2 weeks, so we have the place to ourselves which is good and bad. Our first meal in Edinburgh was fish and chips. It was pretty good except the batter tasted like funnel cake. But the fish was really fresh because we live so close to the cost. Casey had his first Guinness and it was a success. I had a coke which was really good because it had a lot of syrup in it. But they also put an orange in it instead of a lemon or something. I really liked it and I think I will do that when I get back home. The weather here is kind of cold but since we walk every where we warm up easily. Today we need to go to the store to buy groceries, and run a few more errands. Casey is out climbing right now and the sim card that I bought to use my phone to call him, doesn't work. So I have to return it and get one that is compatible. I am a little worried that I can't call Casey, but I think that is just because I am worried about him getting injured. But people in the old days didn't have cell phones so I'll be ok for a few hours without one. I called my mom last night on the program that Tali has called "voice cheap" and when I talked it was soooooo delayed. It was pretty annoying so hopefully we can figure out something better. I think it is so slow and delayed because Tali has dial up. :-( Oh well. I think that is all for now. We miss everyone back home, but we are safe and having a good time. Oh yeah, Casey starts work on Monday so he still has a few days to recover. But for the most part we are pretty much fine, no jet lag or anything. I will write again soon and I will have Casey post something as well.
Sunday, May 18, 2008
T minus... 1 day
So it's Sunday night, and for those of you who don't know we leave at 12 noon on Tuesday. We'll fly to New York JFK, layover for 5 hours, and then fly to Edinburgh, arriving 10:20 am local time. We're both very excited but we've both expressed a sort of shock. I can't seem to get it through my head that I'm going to be gone for the length of a semester. I know I should be way more nervous but I think this past semester has fried my brain. We will, of course, let every know how we're doing as soon as we get settled in on Wednesday. And I have also attached a picture at the bottom of this post of our awesome host Tali, who is renting us our room in Newington.
Hi everyone!
So I just got both of my pieces of luggage today and I need to start officially packing. Like Casey said before, it hasn't really set in that I am going to Scotland VERY soon. Saying goodbye to everyone at the airport is going to be really hard, but I'll be prepared by not wearing any make up. I can't wait to land in Scotland and take my first look around. I want to try and remember that moment forever. I'm not quite sure what to expect but I'm sure it will be unforgettable. :-)
Also,
Casey will be posting in black and I will be posting in purple!
Here is our host Tali
Hi everyone!
So I just got both of my pieces of luggage today and I need to start officially packing. Like Casey said before, it hasn't really set in that I am going to Scotland VERY soon. Saying goodbye to everyone at the airport is going to be really hard, but I'll be prepared by not wearing any make up. I can't wait to land in Scotland and take my first look around. I want to try and remember that moment forever. I'm not quite sure what to expect but I'm sure it will be unforgettable. :-)
Also,
Casey will be posting in black and I will be posting in purple!
Here is our host Tali
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