Getting to Know You

St. Andrew's Episcopal Kirk

These past few days have been an attempt on my part to get to know the city.  I lace on my tennis shoes and start walking.  Sometimes there is a goal in mind but most of the time it is simply exploration.  I have talked to many of the locals asking them if there are things they recommend me to see, many of them list off general areas, parks, castles and I try my best to remember.

St. Nicholas

One day when it was drizzly out I popped in to St. Nicholas' Cathedral, the Mither Kirk (Mother Church) of Scotland remembering it was a suggested visit.  I was glad to be inside because my faithful tennis shoes were starting to let the rain in around my toes.  It gave me the feeling that my sock was about to do the wiggle and end up all wadded up around the front.  Everybody knows that feeling of wet, folded sock.  Anyway, where was I... Oh, so every church here has a type of committee that sits inside mainly gossiping about family and friends in hushed tones, but the minute you walk in the door they all go quiet and one gets up to welcome you to the church.

Light of the World Candle

In St. Nicholas this older woman walks up to me and welcomes me in from the rain.  After I said hello and complimented the building she asked me if it was an American accent and I said yes.  She was so cute and pleasant it was hard not to like her.  She offered to let me explore on my own or she could walk with me and answer any questions I had.  I said that I would be glad to have a personal tour and she said that it was hardly a tour.  So I thought, okay it's more of those question and answer things.  So I started out easy.
"Well, can you tell me about what I am standing on?"  It was a beautiful peace of black granite that had been carved into a beautiful design on the floor.
"That would be someone's grave dear."
I jumped off startled and she kind of gave me a smile.
After that first question disaster, I told her I would just mozy around at my own speed.  That seemed to suit her since her friends had started gossiping again and she wanted to get back to put her two pence in.  She came up to me at the end to explain the chapel and recommend a few spots in Aberdeen to visit.  She gave me strict orders to "come back in a fortnight, that's two weeks from now" to let her know how I liked all the places she suggested.

Aberdeen is situated between two rivers, The Dee and The Don.  No I did not make that up.  The Dee has a town next to it named "Footdee" because it is at the Foot of the River Dee, but everyone here just calls it "Fittie."  Yesterday, I went on an exploration to find Fittie.  I walked for two hours and then gave up.  I also had to pee so that sped up the giving up process.  Upon finding a public restroom next to the edge of the ocean it read, "Public Restroom's of Footdee." I sighed and realized that I had been walking in Fittie for the past forty minutes.  Well it was picturesque and I thought it was awful cute to just be next to the River Dee.
I think it will take a couple more hours of wearing out my shoes to get to know all about Aberdeen.  This weekend: London!  Get excited!

First Day of School... I mean, Work!

So Allen and Carly headed off on Monday for work.  It was a very gray day that had a weather map entirely shaded with blue blobs and swirling arrows, which apparently meant torrential downpour with hurricane winds.  The arrows dictate what direction your face will be peppered with the freezing rain.  After Allen and Carly left for work, the Evil Jetlag took over and I pulled the black out curtains like I was hiding in World War II.  It was a lovely sleep.  The kind where you aren't even embarrassed that you drooled a little because it was so refreshing.

Exploring that day was limited since the rain kept me close to home.  I walked around for awhile and then did what every good American does in the cold rain, came in and watched a movie with my slippers on.  I kind of felt guilty about Allen and Carly working so hard all day, but then "Sense and Sensibility" came on and all was forgotten.  :)  I did manage to go to the grocery store (Morrisons), though.  Did you know that Cool Whip is not already whipped here?  And that chicken soup is chicken broth and chicken broth is chicken soup?  It makes for an exciting time cooking.

Unfortunately, there was a big accident on the main street (by main street I mean two lane road) and the traffic was stopped up for miles.  Result: Bus routes getting cancelled and Allen and Carly stuck at work at the bus stop while the rain took out all of its vengeance on them.  By the time they got home they looked like little kids playing dress up in the rain.  There was a small amount of guilt again when I thought about how warm and cozy I had been all afternoon, but then I remembered the chicken pot pie was done and it gently slipped my conscience.


Happy First Day of Work, Allen!

Codonas Amusement Park, Aberdeen

Since we are in the golfing capital of the world, the three of us decided we would honor this age old tradition with a round of golf, mini golf that is, at the Codonas Amusement Park at the edge of the North Sea.  The courses had a pirate theme mixed with tropical huts and volcanoes, which we thought was an interesting choice this far north.  The pirate ships would fire cannons and the water would explode in the ponds.  It was quite exciting.  I must say that the three of us really got into it.  Allen and Carly tied for first and I got a pretty good second.  So I say look out Aberdeen, here come your next world class golfers!
Carly is showing us how to enter the tiny tiki hut house, which she almost broke the windows out of with her crazy "putt."

The Amusement park had some pretty interesting rides.  They had a log flume ride, but besides two little boys and their brave parents nobody was going to volunteer to get wet when it happens all the time here.  The three of us chose to do the Ferris wheel (or Big Wheel) and the Big roller coaster, which wasn't big at all not in space taken up anyway.  It was on top of a roof, which you tried not to think of while you were careening around the tight track, and it even had a loop!  At first glance you think, I don't think we can even get going fast enough to go through some of those turns, let alone a loop, and then you get on.  This was a hold on for dear life, Allen might have been too tall and lose his head, kind of ride.  I love roller coasters, but this one was like a parking lot coaster for adrenaline junkies.  Safety was iffy and nobody did that cute little tug on your harness before you leave the station thing.  We were glad we survived.

It was a wonderful day full of junk food, grocery store going, and amusement park riding.  The North Sea is beautiful, but you couldn't pay this Texas girl enough money to stick a toe into it.  I couldn't believe it when I saw surfers volunteering to go in, now that is dedication to the sport.

The Big Hill that shows Aberdeen

Welcome to Aberdeen!

So we are here and very rested.  It was sometime over the Atlantic Ocean ("It is the Atlantic, right, Allen?") that I turned to Allen and asked, "Do we know where we are going once we get to Aberdeen?  Did we get an apartment number or something?"
"Uh, no.  Not really.  I guess we should have asked that."
"Okay, so all we have is an address?"
"yep."
So that is how we stepped off the plane with all of our luggage and headed towards the taxi cab armed with an address that I was trying to remember from a far away email.  The taxi driver was satisfied with the address we gave him until we got to the street and there were tons of apartments.  His question of, which house number?, brought me to laughter.  After stopping at the end of the street the taxi driver got out and started questioning the locals if they had seen an American girl living here.  He kept pointing to us in a hopeless manner and I am sure I looked quite hopeless laughing at Allen running around the street looking for house number one when they stopped at three.  The taxi driver kept asking if we had a phone number and we had to keep reminding him of how ill prepared we were. Finally the driver (he was amazing!) pushed the call button on an apartment and asked, "yes, ello there.  We are looking for an American girrrl." And then a beautiful voice came out of the intercom, it was Carly!  So that is how we started.  On the bright side the locals are all very friendly.

Rule number one of living here, always carry something to keep the rain off.  While exploring the city, it started raining.  Once we were good and soaked we found a bus that would take us the rest of the way to the house.  The lady behind us said, "Bless you dears, soaked to the bone!...Welcome to Aberdeen."  So there you have it, Welcome to Aberdeeen everyone!

Leaving on a Jet Plane

"All my bags are packed I'm ready to go..." Well, I am ready to go but as far as bags being packed?  Sorry John Denver, not so much.  The flight is booked for Friday at 4:30 and the visas have arrived and are pasted in our passports.  Speaking of that, I think the workers at Walgreens are in cohorts with the people in customs.  If you have ever read Erma Bombeck's book "When you look like your passport photo, It's time to go home," you understand how bad these pictures look like.  How else after travelling for 9 hours would they recognize you with that picture on your visa?  You need to look a little greasy, a little crumpled, and have some bags under your eyes before customs will believe for one second that your picture is actually you.  I actually saw the Walgreens man working on the lighting of my photo, like that could help.  He spent four minutes changing shades while I stood awkwardly behind him watching my face turn a slight shade of red and back to blue.  He went through all the shades and decided he could do nothing to help me and hit cancel changes, print.  I was about to suggest that if it was that hopeless why not try another shot, but it was already half way through printing my chin... For Allen's photo I suggested he try a sort of smile.  (You should see his driver's license photo!  It is a mug shot of a juvenile delinquent who may or may not be on drugs.)  I thought a small smile might lighten up the tough exterior.  Result: A smirk.  A smirk that he describes as "partly cloudy, indifferent."  So there you have it.  Apparently Allen feels the same as the Walgreens and Customs people, nobody should look happy when you are having to show your identity.

In travelling with Allen a couple of times now I have come to realize that we view vacations differently.  Allen likes to try and blend into the culture.  He will attempt to adopt the dress, the accents, and refuse to openly ask for directions or look at a map. He thinks it's embarrassing to see people taking pictures in front of those "typical" places and being annoying to the locals as a tourist... So he takes it to a new level.  I know for a fact that in New York he walked up to a pizza parlor and asked for a " 'roni and a coke" in his best NY accent in Times Square (the Tourist capital of the world).  And then there is me.  I am a tourist.  I take the title to a whole new level.  There is no blending in, there is excessive picture taking, there is plaque reading, map looking at, asking directions in broken spanish...The list goes on.  I go to all the museums, all the tourist traps are built for me.  When cities think of ways to improve their economy through tourism they pull up a picture of me and build campaigns based on my eager tourist ways.  As long as it's not my passport photo it's okay with me.
Thank you for reading my blog everybody!  Hope you will enjoy it!

May the Packing Begin... Early

Yes, it's still two weeks away.  Yes, I may be jumping the gun, but if you were a Texas girl who thinks Fall is a cute nickname for the end of summer, you would be concerned with the reports of an average of 30 degrees in November in Scotland, too.  The suitcase is borrowed and  sits in the corner looking very intimidated as I pile bulky sweaters and coats next to it.  The real challenge of packing is the shoes.  As a tall-ish girl I have had to endure size 9.5 shoes most of my adult life.  When I see my feet they don't look that big, but when I see my shoes in that ever shrinking suitcase it makes me shake my head and wonder what kind of freaky vitamins my mother fed me as a child to produce such a giant.  

Anyway, there is one thing I will not be short on, scarves.  A couple of years ago scarves came back in style in Texas.  We like to pretend it's cold here in order to convince us that Christmas is coming.  So, everybody got scarves. For Christmas, Birthdays, Saint Patrick's Day.... I love scarves but there comes a time when your suitcase looks at you with those bulging, silver zippers and says, "You've got to be kidding me."  In an effort to preserve room for other clothing besides my neck, I will be wearing as many scarves on the airplane as possible.  This might be quite a scene since it will be August 24th in Houston on the day I board the plane... Maybe I will take more of a squirrel approach and use available pockets, socks, Allen.  You never know what will happen.  

I probably won't bore you with the details of my packing, but I needed to post my first blog to get things going on here.  I will do my best to keep it interesting, entertaining, light-hearted, and the most like Erma Bombeck as possible.  :)