Sarah Got a Job!!!!

Well, good news, I finally got a job....and a good one at that! I am (as of Monday) working at a financial company (before you go and laugh Mom) as a receptionist. My job is to meet and greet all the high rollers that enter the building and direct them where to go. Apparently I will be given pictures and details about each one of the clients that walks through the doors so that I can greet them by name. Apparently this company is pretty prestigious. I have to wear black trousers (b/c the word pants apparently means men's underwear), and a black blouse, and look very 'chic'. The hours are Mon-Fri 8-5pm with a 1 hour lunch. I get paid 6 pounds an hour plus holiday pay. This is about normal in this city. Apparently my boss is a little bit of a hard ass, but I can deal with it! I am so excited! Now I have great hours, and weekends off so Rob and I can go sightseeing.

Rob also has been invited to play for the Edinburgh Academicals Football Club (which is actually a rugby club). He went to a try out on Thursday and did really well. They've got him playing a game this Saturday already, so I'm going to watch my honey! Rob's happy because he's been dying to play.

Speaking of sightseeing, on Sunday, Rob and I are off to the city of Dundee, in Northern Scotland. I've been reading in our guide books, and one of the most fairy tale castles in all of Scotland, Glamis Castle (pronounced Glahms), is just north of there. Apparently this castle was the childhood home of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. Check out this site to get a bit of a view of where we're headed! Also in Dundee, there is apparently the last and oldest British warship (fully fitted from it's last journey) anchored there. We're going to try and check that out too. When we get back we'll update everyone!

As for anything else that is new, not much really. Rob is enjoying the practical part of school (ie: class in the pool), but he isn't enjoying the lectures. Apparently they are quite boring. That can be the reality of school though!

I also dyed my hair and got some bangs (which the lady at the hairdresser had no clue what they were because apparently they are called 'a fringe' here). It's a nice change from my blond hair for the past year and a bit, that I've been growing for the wedding. In a couple of months I'm thinking of cutting it all off anyways, but we'll see.

Well that's all for now! We'll update you as soon as we get home.

Lots of love,

Sarah (and Rob of course :-)

Stirling Day Trip

Hi All! Well as you may have read below, this past Saturday we ventured to the old town of Stirling, about an hour and a half away from Edinburgh by bus. We had heard that there was a beautiful castle there, so we wanted to go and check it out! We packed our bags in the morning with overnight gear, in the event that we found somewhere else to travel to once we arrived there, but we later found out that it was the last holiday weekend of the summer before school, and so everything was already booked up.

We travelled through beautiful countryside of rolling green hills dotted with sheep and remains of old buildings. It is still crazy to see such old buildings absolutely everywhere, whereas in Canada there are very few.


Once we arrived in Stirling, we hopped off the bus and started walking in the general direction of the castle. The town looks very much like the old part of Edinburgh with cobblestone streets and little shops everywhere. It seems like many areas around here look the same.

However, as we walked up the hill towards the castle, we came upon a beautiful old church (built over 600 years ago!!!) and the admission was free! Which was great for us of course. So we decided to venture in and we're sure glad we did! Apparently, the Church of the Holy Rude (kinda like Holyrood) is the only surviving church in Scotland to have witnessed a coronation. The last person to be coronated here was Mary Queen of Scots son, King James VI. You can even see the spot that he was coronated!



The church has beautiful stained glass windows everywhere, and also has a little room in which there are gravestones embedded in the floor from centuries ago. We thought that this was pretty cool.

Outside of the church though, was another incredible sight. The old cemetery. While we are both a little leery of venturing into cemeteries, we thought it would be worth it to see how many gravestones there were with dates on them that are older than Confederation. Apparently there are hundreds:) We found tons of gravestones from the 1700s and even found one from the late 1600s....the graveyard (or kirkyard as the Scottish call it) also houses a gravestone from the 1500s, which we couldn't find. But a sign read that you can distinguish the older gravestones by the symbols of skulls on them....they also may have other symbols that show the profession of the dead person (i.e.: merchant). While we were wandering in here, we finally saw the castle and made our way up to it.










Stirling Castle is apparently known to be much like Edinburgh Castle, just in miniture size. The Castle was lived in by Mary Queen of Scots and her son James VI and his son as well. The Castle is made up of many buildings together, along with the Palace. There are two courtyards which were used for trading, a huge Great Hall with nine fireplaces (for dining), a Church, the King's Quarters, the Soldiers Quarters and the main Palace. Each of them are different in design (being built in different years) but all of them are beautiful. The views from Stirling Castle are also amazing. We listened to an audio tour there, but the ticketing centre failed to mention to us that the Palace was closed (but all the other buildings remained open). We didn't find this out until we got up to the top and had already paid. So that was a bit disappointing...but according to the staff.....we didn't miss much (yeah right).

After exploring the Castle and realizing that there was no where else to venture to, we decided to go home, which was as well because we were quite tired. Climbing Castle hills makes you tired! That is one thing that is good about being here though is that we have to walk everywhere! We should be in great shape when we come home!:)

Until another adventure,

Lots of love,

Rob and Sarah

Update on Rob and Sarah

Hello All!

Well as you can see we've been busy uploading our photos....however there are still more to come, but we're tired now and want to take a break (b/c uploading photos literally takes hours!)

This past weekend we went to Stirling ( a little town about 1 1/4 hours from Edinburgh by bus) where we saw Stirling Castle (Sarah was extremely excited about this!) and a fabulous church called Holy Rude. We have pictures, and we'll try to upload them later on today. We also went to the Britannia, which you can be updated on below.

As for school, Rob starts today....he basically has to register, but tomorrow is his first class.....it's in the pool! Apparently this year for him will be just like gym class (or so he thinks:)

As for Sarah's job search....well it's coming along. She has an interview today with a school for Special Ed students, and then an interview tomorrow with the Univesity of Edinburgh for a receptionist job. Another interview after that at a restaurant. Cross your fingers....hope it all goes well.

We'll keep you updated and upload those photos as soon as we can.

Ciao for now!

Love,

Rob and Sarah

Arthur's Seat (in Holyrood Park)

These are the promised pictures from Arthur's Seat (the tallest mountain in Edinburgh) which we visited last week. They are really quite incredible, and don't really do the park justice. To see it properly you just have to come visit!!!!

The hike to get to the top, took us about 30 minutes or so.....a little longer with breaks....but the views of Edinburgh are breathtaking. Everything was so green as well, and the pathways were really soft to walk on. We hiked to the top and then had a picnic (and a nap:). It was pretty cool, and as you can see some people decided to tent up here. However it was quite windy at the top, so I don't know how enjoyable that would be.

At the bottom of the park, you can see glimpses of Holyrood Palace, the Queen's official residence in Scotland. She comes here about twice a year we are told for official visits such as the opening of Parliament. However it is not her retreat- that's Balmoral up in the Highlands which I can't wait to see! We're going to try get to the Palace of Holyrood soon, but we're waiting until the festival is over (Aug. 31st) so we can avoid the crowds, and so Rob can get a student discount with his card!

Holyrood Park is about a 20 minute walk from where we live, but you can see it from almost anywhere in the city. It is really impressive, and provides a glimpse of what I thought Scotland (in the countryside) would look like. Apparently the Highlands are like this, just prettier if that is even possible.

Hope you enjoy the pictures!

Lots of love,

Rob and Sarah

P.S. Sorry about the formatting but it is quite confusing....we'll get the hang of it soon!

The Royal Yacht Britannia!

Yesterday we travelled down to the Ocean Terminal (the Port of Leith) about 10-15 minute walk from our flat, to go see The Royal Yacht Britannia!!! It was owned by the Royal Family and used to travel all over the world once every year until the 80s, when it took it's last voyage and came to dock perminantly at the Port of Leith.

It was absolutely amazing. It's a huge and beautiful boat that accomodated the 45 members of the Royal Family plus roughly 400 crew members on board at all times. The ship had a upper level which was the sunning deck, then the next level which was the apartments for the admiral (the captain) and for the Royal Family, (apparently the Queen and the Duke sleep in different rooms, and it included the room that Prince Charles and Princess Diana used on their honeymoon....it had a double bed!) the next level down was the kitchens, the Royal living room and studies for the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh (Prince Philip). The next level had the formal dining room (which was used to entertain people like Nelson Mandela, President Clinton, Margaret Thatcher, Winston Churchill, etc) and the kitchens (which they still use today.) Apparently important dinners are still held on Britannia for those who are rich enough to rent it out. On the lower floor, there was the sleeping quarters for all the crew and their entertainment areas. This floor also included the massive laundry room and sick bay. Finally the lowest desk was encompassed by the massive and beautiful engine room.

The entire ship was not decorated elaborately as we thought it would be, but is furnished more like a summer cottage....which was apparently the intent of the Queen, who wanted a retreat when she was on board. However, as far as the crew goes, they were still required to act formally. The upper decks had to be scrubbed every day in the morning with sea water before 8 am, so that all work on the ship had to be done before the Royal Family rose. If a member of the Royal Family happened to come by during this time, the crew member would have to stop working, and stand at attention without saying a word until the Royal had left. However, the Queen preferred that on the sun deck (the area where the Royal Family relaxed outside) that the crew take off their hats, which would put them 'out of uniform' so that the Family didn't always have to return salutes up here. We thought this was pretty crazy.

However, the yacht was beautiful, and well worth a visit. The coolest thing about the attractions here are that once you pay to enter them once, you now have free entry for a year....which doesn't benefit the majority of tourists, but benefits us huge!

Firbush (Rob's Orientation)

Alright, so I'm a little leery of this blogging thing but I am going to give it a go.

As Sarah has mentioned I recently attended an orientation in the Southern Highlands, known as Firbush, It is a camp situated on a picturesque lake (or loch as the Scottish call it) surrounded by mountains a close to a tiny little town called Killin.
The camp started out with everyone meeting at the university at 7 am and piling into two van-buses. So here it began, it is pretty tough to initiate small talk with people that only talk about soccer(football) and the British Olympic team. Unfortunately, no one wanted to talk about the NHL or American Football so I did my best to get into conversations when I could but I couldn't help but to feel like an outcast.

Fortunately for me the feeling didn't last longer than an hour after being at the camp. The first thing we did was split into smaller groups to play team building camps that were quite challenging and I quickly became acquainted with some classmates (within 8 minutes of starting the activities I was standing in my hiking shoes on a classmates shoulders moulding my body around a tree to get through a very small hole).

Some of the other activities we did were; kayaking (including playing games of tag and kayak water polo where many people including myself flipped over), windsurfing, canoeing, gorge trekking, mountain biking, fly fishing (which I am terrible at), sailing, and a few other outdoor activities.

The other activities commenced at night, and that mainly drinking at the local bar and playing drinking Jenga at camp... what a blast... that's when you really get to know people.

So needless to say this trip was extremely beneficial for my I now know everyone in my class feel comfortable with everyone and I know some more scottish lingo, such as "nae bother mate", I will let you all figure that one out.

Well, I start my first class tomorrow and I have a rugby practice (it feels a lot like a tryout) on Tuesday with a team called Currie RFC they are in the Premier division in Scotland and said to be very competitive. Wish me luck I will need it with both.

Update you later,

Rob

IT'S STILL RAINING!!!!!

Thank you all of your for your wishes for sun! I hope it comes too, because it is still raining here. I can't get over it....The weather is very unpredictable here. I will leave our flat in the morning wearing pants, a fleece and a rain jacket, and in an hour I will be sweating....then 20 minutes later I am freezing and it's raining. The rain doesn't let up for very long. From what I hear though, it has still be raining quite a bit at home too.

Well Rob gets back from his orientation tomorrow, but he has been having a great time in the Highlands. He has been taking gorge trekking (they call hiking funny things over here), kayaking (he fell in :), and fly fishing (which apparently he isn't very good at!) But he has met alot of people from his program. From what they have told him, his program is very difficult to get into! I asked Rob's prof about this and she said that international students who pay $ are guaranteed a spot, but for the locals, there are roughly 14-20 students fighting for each spot. Needless to say, Rob is quite happy he is in! As am I of course.

Also, talking to Maggie (Rob's prof's wife), about the school system here in Scotland, apparently it operates like that described in Harry Potter! Each school has four houses and they all compete for house points in academics, sports and extra-curricular activities. I thought that was pretty cool. I told her that I though, naively I guess, that J.K. Rowling had made that little bit up.

The job hunt continues and no luck so far. I'll keep trying though.

Oh my god!!!!! It stopped raining.....I have to get outside, so I'll write later and post pictures when Rob gets back from his camp tomorrow.

Lots of Love,

Sarah

The Latest

Howdy! Well Rob's off today to go to his orientation in the Highlands.....I'm a little jealous. While he's up there having fun kayaking, mountain biking, and enjoying the outdoors, I'm still here in Edinburgh looking for a job.....how tedious. I've applied to a million of them.....keep your fingers crossed, hopefully I'll get one soon! Who knows, I may end up being a nanny, receptionist, bar/wait staff, or personal assistant!

For those of you that aren't aware, we've found a one bedroom apartment and are living in it right now. It is fairly small, and we have no shower, so we have to take baths to get clean. I don't overly mind, but this drives Rob crazy....lol.....but I've set up some candles so he can enjoy his time in there a little more. In the meantime, he's dreaming up ways of concocting some solution so we can make our bath a shower.....hmmmm.....keep your fingers crossed. This smacks of a Gerry scheme. :)

We also get our food daily, from local stores....although there aren't really that many local bakeries nearby. But we have found an ASDA (or Walmart) that is a 15-20 minute bus ride away, so it is great for getting all we need! Also, IKEA isn't far too! Yay!!!!!! In all reality, we have gone there once to get the bare mininum.....b/c that is what we're living on!

Today in Edinburgh, it is raining. Don't be surprised if every note we write, describes this very same thing. I fear that this country is totally gray all the time......if you can, send us some sunshine in a bottle okay??

We'll I'm off to go set up a bank account, but I'll be back later to upload some pictures. Talk to you all soon!

Lots of love,

Sarah

Hello!!!!!!!!

Hi All!

Well we've finally set up our blog. You can come visit us here at this page to see what we're up to! Rob and I will try to update this page as often as we can and include pictures too! Feel free to comment on the blog page as well. Forgive us if we take a bit to get it completely up and running, but we're new at this blogging thing:)

We love you all and can't wait to hear what you're up to! Keep us updated.

Lots of love,

Rob and Sarah ASHWOOD!!!!