TheLionRampant.net

Well it’s nearly November, which means we get to turn on our fireplace! This of course is a self-imposed stipulation as we are trying to not be overly dependent upon heat; therefore as the weather gets gradually colder, we can gradually increase our heating. Therefore we can be proud of ourselves for acclimatising to the weather. Really 40 degrees isn’t bad…

Today was good. I feel a sore throat coming on so I bought some Strepsils (recommended by my mom as the best cough/sore throat drop available on the planet) and I stayed in bed for quite a long time today. Plus I got to bed about 3 hours before my husband. So Bryce is probably low on sleep and I’m feeling a bit better. I biked to my “autonomous study group” for my core course at Old College Law Library today. It was a tiring bike ride but good to be exercising too! Our group meets once a week and are given discussion questions to answer which form the basis for discussion during class. Most of the time it’s interesting. I was very thankful that we had questions dealing with only 2 of the 3 books for this week, as I couldn’t get my hands on the third book and no way did I have time to read it.

Work is going well too. Everyone that works full time there works 5 10 hour shifts and I don’t have a clue how they deal. It’s tiring but everyone is very friendly and flexible. So when I make a mistake (like accidentally dropping a 4 pound piece of cake all over some clean dishes) it’s alright. Last night I got to bring home a baguette and a piece of lemon tea cake. We had the baguette with cheese and olive oil/balsamic vinegar last night for dinner and I had the tea cake for breakfast.

Tonight Sarah and I were going to get our hair cut but couldn’t find a place that 1) had a free spot for tonight or 2) didn’t cost upwards of 20 pounds! She stayed for dinner and we made pizza…there’s not too many pizza shops here…more things like fish n’ chips/odd sandwich or pasty takeaways/ Indian food and things masquerading as Chinese and Mexican restaurants.

We learned something weird today…Roasted Peanuts are called “Toasted Monkey Nuts”–we walked into Sainsbury’s to go grocery shopping and saw them advertised with all the Halloween stuff. We also had another first: our checker must’ve picked up something off of the conveyer belt and the wine we were going to buy fell off, shattering on the floor. And no one seemed at all particularly surprised, embarassed, or in a rush to get the broken glass and wine mopped up!

We got bikes! Now instead of a 25 minute walk to class in the morning I have about a 12 minute bike ride (that is, as long as it’s not raining). It’s all uphill on the way in, but that makes for a quick trip home. It’s a bit crazy riding a bike here; getting used to riding on the left side of the street and roundabouts. The bikes are basically mountain bikes with road tires, we’ll post some pictures soon.

My second paper was due on Tuesday. It was for Old Testament on Genesis 9:18-27 - The Curse of Canaan. Quite an interesting little passage. Apparently it takes a long time to get our papers back, since they are all graded by an internal and external examiner.

I think we have a new church. On Sunday we went to New Restalrig (I think that’s how it’s spelled) Church, which is a Church of Scotland congregation about a 15 minute walk from our flat. The congregation seems very lively and has a good mix of ages, and the pastor is a very good preacher. After the first service we spoke with him quite a bit, Jonathan and I quizzed him and he held up pretty well. The main factor for us continuing to go there is that it seems like there will be more opportunities to be involved in the congregation than at Holyrood Abbey. After the evening service we went to the ‘youth fellowship’ which is comprised of people from 18 to early 40s (obviously). They did a quiz night, which apparently is a pretty big thing here. It was a lot of fun meeting some new folks, although we probably won’t attend the YF regularly since it makes for a very long day. Sorry, the church doesn’t have a website.

We started studying Exodus Tuesday in Old Testament. I love studying the Old Testament, and the prof for that class is brilliant.

I can’t think of a cultural idiosyncrasy to let you know about today, sorry. My brain is mush; I’ve been studying Greek and Old Testament for 5 hours.

Just a quick update; Bryce will write more later to fill you all in. Today I worked for nearly 6.5 hours at PdC (Plaisir du Chocolat, the cafe on the Royal Mile). It was tiring and would’ve been easier if we had one other person working as well. Plus the three of us who were working felt our brains turning to mush around 4 o’clock when it was quieting down for a minute and then a horde of people walk in. Waitressing is hard work and my feet get tired. I’m glad I won’t be doing a retail-ish job my entire life! It looks like I should get consistent hours now that one girl quit. I’m hoping to work only Tuesdays and Wednesdays (10 hour shifts) and then get the whole weekend free. I’m sure you all are just so excited to hear about all this mundane stuff…

Well, we are starting to experience Edinburgh’s haar (pronounced like hearty har har)–it’s just heavy mist that rolls right off from the sea. It’s not the most pleasant to walk around; I just want to say, “Just RAIN already!”, but it makes me glad that I’ve packed my hat with me, that’s for sure. We’ve had some beautiful days with the sun out at least for part of the day. It is getting darker though: at the cafe today, I noticed the sky was darkening outside around 4:30.

Last night I went over to Adele’s with Sarah. (Adele is a friend of a friend of a friend, etc). It is such a small world! Sarah had been told by her sister’s best friend, Cheryl, that Sarah had to meet Adele–as Sarah and Cheryl had grown up in the same church and a few years ago Adele was really involved in that church and met Cheryl. Anyway, you all are now probably very confused… All that to say, it was lots of fun to hang out with Sarah and Adele and chat while Bryce and Jonathan edited each other’s OT papers.

That’s it for now; wish me luck with another day at work tomorrow. The good thing is that I do still get to sleep in. But please keep us in your prayers. Please pray for discipline in getting reading/writing/researching done, for us to be intentional about spending time with one another, and for continued direction and provision (especially with paying for rent, utilities, etc.) in our lives here. Thank you! We miss hearing from you!

This morning Ashley and I hiked to the top of Arthur’s Seat. The views from the top are absolutely amazing and I would have liked to stay up there all day but the wind was blowing so hard that we had to come down. I took some pictures of my own, hopefully I’ll be able to post them soon.

The rest of the day was primarily spent studying. I finished the rough draft of my Old Testament exegesis paper and started studying the book of Exodus (we begin studying the book in OT on Tuesday, I bought a copy of the prof’s commentary on it :)).

I’m looking forward to November, because then I will be allow myself to turn on our fake fireplace and wear my warmest coat and wool pants. I’m also holding out hope that I’ll manage to obtain a pair of flannel-lined pants from J Crew when they bring out their winter clothes. I can always hope, can’t I?

Tomorrow morning we are going with the Hays to visit a different church. It is a church of Scotland congregation a little past Holyrood Abbey and it’s rumored to be evangelical - we’ll see. The pastor at Holyrood is out this week so we figured we’d take a little look around.

Today’s Cultural idiosyncrasy:
If you’re in the UK, the opposite of ‘within’ is ‘outwith’. I guess it makes sense if you think about it, I’ve just never heard it used in the US. It’s a pretty handy little word though, I even managed to work it in to my last paper.

Today wasn’t as long a Friday as last week–mainly because I didn’t go to the 4 o’clock visiting speaker series. My research methods class was a total waste of time; we aren’t really being taught about how to research, pick a topic and narrow it down, or anything quite that pragmatic. Instead we learn weekly about boolean searches and what databases and other resources are available. But it does allow me to check email and locate books while paying attention somewhat.

Today a group of us met for our extracurricular reading group on postcolonialism. There are about 11 of us. I am getting excited as I hope to do some more work in postcolonialism for my master’s thesis (I think at this point anyway…). So I checked out a bunch of books to help with delving into a totally new field. The group will meet fortnightly at a coffee shop and after trying to consider the questions of definition of terms, we’ll focus on a different aspect of postcolonialism (such as postcolonialism AND: postmodernism, feminism, genre theory, interdisciplinary elements, nationalism, myth, etc) and a different student will initialize the reading and lead the discussion. So it should be a great learning experience to help with future teaching as well.

I am trying to find work as a tutor/editor. I’ve sent my CV to a number of different tutoring agencies and put some flyers up around the university. My friend Sarah works at a publishing company, Banner of Truth. I’d love if they could hire me part-time to edit; that’d be super! But we shall see what happens. (So if any of you know folks who would like something edited or need help via email on writing or literature, I’d love to help–for a modest fee).
Tonight we’re going over to Jonathan and Sarah’s for dinner and will meet their Australian friends–should be fun! I’ll try to write more later this weekend.

Woo Hoo, Charles posted! I’m so excited. I have been a bit depressed lately since its been almost 3 weeks since I’ve heard from friends back home. On top of that we only have 1 other couple that we are friends with here. All that to say I’ve been a bit lonely lately and would appreciate your prayers.

This week is supposedly a vacation. I have no classes, but still have tons of studying to do. I’m primarily occupied with my Old Testament exegesis essay which is due on Tuesday. I also have church history reading to catch up on and I could stand to review about 2 weeks worth of Greek. On top of all that I am painting our living room.

As you all have already noted, it’s cold here! It was actually a bit warmer today, although it’s currently 32.

Today’s Cultural idiosyncrasy:
I’ve just noticed in the last week that Scots find it unnecessary to heat the bathroom. We were at a coffee shop tonight and the restroom was just as cold as it is outside. This is not an isolated incident, it’s the same at my college and at Starbucks. What’s up with that???

That’s it for now, maybe I’ll write something deep tomorrow.

Current weather: windy, grey, chilly, rainy (winter’s coming!)
Temperature: 40s F
We’ve noticed we are adapting: i.e., eating Indian food and drinking beer…

Bryce has taped off the room and he’s beginning to paint! The color is not really khaki (what we wanted), but more of an off-white; but it’s much better than peach.

They don’t need me at work this week, so I’m starting to get anxious about that. I obviously need consistent work to pay the bills. If I can’t get 10-15 hours a week at Plaisir du Chocolat, I’ll check out Starbucks.

Today, Bryce and I braved the rain and went to Free Church College to study then to this upstairs Starbucks on Princes Street for more reading/writing. We got 2 comfy chairs and free heating!

We’re also arranging to have Thanksgiving dinner with the Hays. Gosh, I feel so grown up, cooking Thanksgiving dinner…

I’ve really realized the value of keeping the Sabbath. Today was such a great day and so refreshing; yesterday, I tumbled into bed tired from work, feeling overwhelmed by the amount of reading that needed to be completed by Monday. I knew that if I kept the Sabbath and didn’t do my work (i.e. reading) Sunday, I wouldn’t finish the whole text for Monday as I have 300 pages to finish. However, that’s not to matter right now. Bryce and I went to church at 11 this morning. The pastor preached on the last miracle in Luke 8. It was great. After that we went over to the manse along with 14 others (and the pastor, his wife and son) for lasagne, multiple salads and pudding (generic for dessert). We also had tea and some good conversation. Bryce and I (along w/ 2 others) ended up staying until about 5:30 and they brought us to the evening service. (Most Scots do go to both services on Sunday and both are similar in style but there are different hymns and a different sermon).

The evening service was great as well. Phil (the pastor) is going exegetically through Zechariah–which I haven’t ever heard preached on except for his sermon last week. Jonathan and Sarah went with us. And though they had a hard time understanding his accent (it’s a bit more Glaswegian, I believe), liked it alright. They are looking for an evangelical reformed parish a bit closer to their end of town however. They came over after church and we made chicken fajitas and brownies and ice cream–a good Western US meal. It was very nice to hang out with friends and drink a few Tennent’s and wine. It was a relaxing, refreshing day and one where I am glad to rest and enjoy fellowship. I’m sure Bryce will write something soon as he will be holed up this week reading and writing and thus, blogging may provide a nice diversion.

If you say it really fast no one knows how bad your fake French accent is. Well, after a 5-hour shift, it all went well. I found out I am getting paid for the shifts I’m working and after an undisclosed amount of time, I’ll hear if I get “permanent shifts” (i.e. hired). I get along well with the manager and seem to do alright. I have 3 shifts next week and I’ll go in on Saturday for “more training.” Which isn’t training per se, just trying to wait on tables, make drinks, use the till, etc. with little instruction beforehand, and where I ask a lot of questions. Quite a different way of doing things! I’ll let you know how it goes.

I have my first graduate class tomorrow…and I even finished all the reading a day ahead of schedule! Mas tarde (more later for those of you who speak French). Au reviour!

The library is my home on Friday. I have an “early” class (9:30-11:30 AM), then a usually boring class at noon till 1 (Research Methods); last week we learned how to do a boolean search. But today we went to the Uni’s special collections section and learned how to use it. It’s basically like the Bodleian but you don’t have to wait a day for the librarians to collect your book for you. The woman who gave us the intro was very helpful and showed us some early 17th c Shakespeare folios, some works by Sidney and Spencer and an illuminated manuscript from the early 16th c, I believe. Quite amazing, yet I don’t know how all that “old stuff” will filter into my work…we’ll see. They also have some notebooks, drafts, correspondences, etc of some contemporary Scottish writers, which would be quite interesting to peruse to get an idea of authorship.

Next, I opted to go to a meeting where my professor, Bill Bell, gave a talk on what Scots read when away from Scotland (in the specific case of a Captain Scott of an early 20th c Arctic voyage); the organization is called the Centre for the History of the Book, on which my course, The Literary Industry, is loosely based. So I thought I’d make an appearance. Plus there was free tea, and that tipped the balance on if I should or shouldn’t go to the talk.

Now I have 2 hours to kill before going to another “recommended” (required?) talk. I really should be reading Gaskell’s Life of Charlotte Bronte, but can’t be bothered too much. I need some technological stimulation after sitting for 4 hours in succession. That’s it for now…