Walks

For those of you well versed in British history, the words "Orange Order" may sound familiar. On Saturday, we witnessed an Orange Parade. Fi had noticed signs around town warning of closed roads due to the parade. However, it wasn't until we were in a shop purchasing a bottle of water before our ascent of Arthur's seat, (more later) and heard the shop clerk mentioning the words "catholics" and "pub" that I realized which parade they were talking about:it was an Orange March. At that point, we were down by the Scottish Parliament in an area of Edinburgh called Holyrood. Our plan was to climb Arthur's seat, the famous hill seen from most areas in Edinburgh. The word was that the parade of ten thousand people was to come down the Royal Mile (which ends at Holyrood) in about 1/2 hour. Feeling that this was a phenomenon Brian ought to witness, we hung around. For Fi, to stick around and watch felt a little odd. I'll not say too much about what this is all about - you can judge for yourself by googling "Orange Order" or linking to the Wiki entry by clicking "Orange Order" above. All that is to say that the Orange Lodge is a protestant fraternal order which originated in Ireland. Actually, the parade itself is the closest to a marching band I have seen here - pipes, flutes and drums make up the musical sections. The march could be heard all over Edinburgh for the rest of the afternoon.

Onto something more cheerful. After a few minutes of watching the March, we set off to climb Arthur's seat. It's just a little hill, but within five minutes of the first steep climb, we were sobered by a reminder of how little we've exercised over the past few months! However, if skinny little Italian girls with knee-high boots and 6 inch heels can climb Arthur's Seat (I kid you not...) then we can huff and puff our way to the top, and so we did. It was a wonderful walk and fun to see Edinburgh from the peak. We could even see the May Island sitting in the Firth of Forth, which means that we were looking across to Anstruther. After we descended, we treated ourselves to a cup of tea and a snack at Clarinda's - a famous tearoom on the Royal Mile.

Here are our pictures from the day:

Good news!

Yesterday I received a piece of good news that I just can't contain: I found out that a baby I know has just been declared cancer free. Samara (many of you know exactly who I am talking about :-) was diagnosed with neuroblastoma at only three months old. After 4 (i think...) rounds of chemo and a hell (s'cuse the language - it's appropriate I think) of a lot of courage, her liver is now free of the cancer. Samara holds a very special place in my heart for many reasons, so this news, as you can imagine, produced tears of joy. Of course, it kills me that I can't be with Tim, Heidi, & Samara to rejoice and celebrate. This is one of the consequences of moving across the Atlantic that I have to learn to live with.

The promised lenten reflections on transition will have to wait. For now, I will revel in light, hope, and good news, breaking the (Anglican only??) practice of omitting that celebratory, worshipful word during lent by yelling... ALLELUIA! ALLELUIA! ALLELUIA!

mmm.... now doesn't that feel good?!

It's only been three weeks...

It's been a few days since we last logged on and we're ready to give you our "Things we are enjoying about living in Scotland so far" list. Here goes:

Diluting Juice
Walking more.
Being able to walk round the corner and get fresh produce in the local Spar. Or Scotmid. Or the wee fruit shop along the road (these stores being a rough equivalent to a 7-Eleven)
Better news reporting at our fingertips. From the British news today: Chancellor Gordon Brown revealed his new budget and all week, the BBC are covering loss of life in Iraq. Go figure.
Good chocolate (Dairy Milk, MInstrels...mmm)
Sweet popcorn at the movies.
The bus stop 60 steps from our house.
Good public transport.
Friendly customer service. On the whole, we've found that people in places like the bank, seem to actually be there to help us. The fact that this has been noticeable should speak for itself.
The award winning curry house located a three minute walk from our flat
The sea across the road from our flat
The daffodils are out
Re-kindling old friendships
Pub Quizzes
Pubs
Lots of sunny days (clear blue skies...)
Clothes options - both of us find it easier to shop here. Not sure why (more options available to the average Joe?), really... just is.
Our flat - in particular, the french doors in the kitchen which lead to a lovely little garden
Front loading washing machines

There has been a rather chilly cold snap here in Scotland. One would think we'd never left Michigan... except that there's no snow to show for the cold. The days have generally been sunny and clear, but freezing cold. We can't keep our feet warm (which Fi believes is due to the central heating: instead of forced air pushing out of vents in the floor, we have radiators. There is less heat lower down... if that makes sense)!

Today, we also received the welcome news that our crate is en route. It is on the vessel, which set sail today. You know, It hardly seems true that we have only been here for about three weeks... it feels like longer. So, when we're having hard days, or feeling a little blue as we go through the awkwardness of transition, we remind each other that it's only been three weeks.

More soon. Maybe even a little lenten reflection on our transition. Who knows...

Things we miss

In a move like this there are times when you feel like everything is rosy. Then there are the days that don't feel quite so great. Generally, our few weeks here have been a mix. We are enjoying our first 12 days so far - to be honest, we're patting ourselves on our backs at how much we've achieved during that time. Interestingly, for both of us, it is the evenings that bring pangs of homesickness. Perhaps it is the fact that we miss our own bed, or that at night we begin to think a bit more. Either way, it's the evenings that hold the biggest potential for solemn reflection on what we miss. Therefore, following in that theme, here is a list of things we miss as of 10:10 p.m. on Thursday, March 15, 2007, in no particular order:

Our old bed
Our flat
Our cat: Sam climbing up on the couch to snuggle
Brian misses coming home from work (currently, his work route takes him out of the bedroom, left up the hall and left into the spare room!)
Meeting friends at Bombay Cuisine
Friends (you know who you are...)
Studio 60
Thursday night TV: The Office, My Name is Earl. I'd add Scrubs, but we can get that here with our Digital TV package!
Having a table at which to eat dinner etc... (that will arrive with our crate)
Our spices (they, too, will arrive with the crate)
Our favourite coffee mugs (again... with the crate)
Knowing where things are in the supermarket (Fi has had two rather traumatic trips to Tesco during which she came ever so close to slamming into another shopper's ankles with her trolley (cart) as she struggled to manovere through the veg section)
Blue Moon beer
Routines
Fi misses NIA

Yes, there are moments when the fact that we are still in unfamiliar surroundings seems to scream out at us. So, for those of you who are so inclined, we value your contined prayers.

STAY TUNED! Next time on Transitions: The "Things we are enjoying about being in Scotland" list.

Stuff

When I chose the title Transitions for this blog, it was with a slight nag at the back of my mind that it is a boring, uncreative name for a blog about two people moving to another country! Yet, it says it all. We found out last week that our moving company messed up, and our container will be over a month late in arriving. Our initial deep frustration has died down (partly due to the fact that the shipping company's apology included financial compensation and a very real acknowledgment that they were in the wrong) and we have come to terms with the fact that for the next month, we'll be getting settled without our belongings. However, I can't shake the feeling that just when we'll be starting to feel at home, we'll be facing it all again when our crate arrives - the transition prolonged even further. We miss our things: they represent the life we had together in Grand Rapids - a life continued in Edinburgh. And so while we try to live a life content with what we have for the time being, we do look forward to the day that lorry (truck) drives up our street and unloads our things.

More later!

Another sunny day!

We woke up this morning to the second day in a row (third day in total) of glorious sunshine and blue skies. Ahhh....

Today we finally managed to be approved by Virgin Media to have our phone, TV, and broadband internet hooked up. The reason it took so long (usually it should take, say, a few hours!) to be approved was to do with the credit check. Since neither of us have been residents in the UK for the past few years, we had to provide proof of residency in the U.S. from the past few years to proceed with the check. I would venture to say that it was the tenth (and the only Scottish) salesperson we talked to who finally revealed this information!

We enjoyed a long walk from the beach on the west side of Anstruther along to the next village - Pittenweem - today. It felt good to get out of the house and away from the chores of setting up a new life. As we walked and talked we were commenting on the fact that we are only in our fourth day here - yet it seems as though we have been here for much longer...

I am off to watch "Comic Relief Does Fame Academy" on BBC1 while eating a curry prepared by Chef Brian!

Next time on Transistions: A report on the saga of our container...

We're here!

At approximately 1:20 p.m. yesterday (Saturday, March 3), Brian and I touched down on Scottish soil. We arrived to a gloriously sunny day which lasted well into the early evening. In fact, as we approached the Forth Road Bridge, which connects Edinburgh to Fife (the county where Fi grew up) we were treated to a rainbow which vibrant in its hues, stretched up alongside the bridge which itself was bathed in early afternoon sunlight. What a lovely way to start out - with a reminder of God's promises to us spanning Edinburgh and Fife! In addition, we enjoyed viewing the Lunar Eclipse last night which we cold see perfectly from Fi's mum's living room window. Brilliant!

Our trip home went smoothly much to Fi's relief - she had made the massive mistake of reading online reviews of Aer Lingus the night before we flew and no few of these reviews were bad. However, our experience was perfectly fine. During check-in at Boston's Logan Airport, we discovered that the proposed strike in Ireland's airports (which was the catalyst for our flight being moved forward) had been called off. To be honest, it ended up working out well. It gave us some time to relax in Boston, and offered Brian the chance to give working remotely a dry run.

However, one thing that is causing us some angst is the situation of our shipment of belongings. We had been told that it would take 4-6 weeks from the day it was packed up and moved out of our flat, to the day it would arrive in Scotland. If this was the case, tomorrow (Monday) would be the beginning of the 6th week. This is exactly why we planned our flight home when we did (even with the changed flight hiccup) - we knew that we could do without our stuff for two weeks. On Monday,Fi talked to our representative at our moving company who partners with North American Movers to get the container to the port at which point North American takes over. During this phone call, Fi was informed that our container was still sitting at the port in the USA, and that it probably wouldn't arrive in Scotland until the end of March. After a few phone calls back and forth, Fi eventually talked to the general manager of this moving company who explained that this was all due to an error with North American International and that they would be contacting us on Monday. He then went on to say that his guess at arrival time for our container in Scotland would be the end of March at the earliest and probably more like the first week of April. Now, we did the maths and that is 4-5 weeks later than expected. We are deeply frustrated at a few levels. First, that our moving company who are meant to walk us through the move knew nothing about this until we finally contacted them to ask how we might track the container at which point they looked into it. If we hadn't called, how long might our container have sat by the see in Maryland, or wherever it is? Second, this all wouldn't be so bad, but we are VERY ready to start settling in our new home - this only prolongs the waiting. We've definitely been learning the importance of living without our 'stuff' (living simply, an all that) but at some point, during a move like this, the 'stuff' becomes important again because it represents familiarity. Again, we're very aware that compared to two thirds of the world, we live like kings and queens even without our container of belongings, so we're trying to remember that!

Another interesting point of note is that upon our entry into Scotland, nobody checked Brian's visa. We traveled from Boston to Ireland and when we entered Ireland, went through passport control. Ireland is a European Union member but is not a part of the UK (Northern Ireland IS). We then flew from Ireland into Scotland. Since we were flying within the EU, there was no immigration to pass through in Scotland - and therefore, nobody checked Brian's visa. Don't get us wrong - we don't really care... it's just that it was a tad anti-climactic!

And so we enter our first full day back in
Scotland, eager to start settling into our new life here, and whatever
it is that God has in store for us.

Cheerio for now.