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Just to give a preempted apology if we don’t blog much in the next month. Bryce has one week left of classes and then two weeks of finals, so he’ll be sitting in front of his stack of books and computer until we leave for London on Dec 19. I have three weeks of classes, in which I’m trying to read a bit and participate marginally, so that I have more time to research for my essays. I have one essay due in each class (one’s 3,000 words, the other’s 5,000) and they are worth 50 percent of my grade for my degree combined. So yeah, that’s a lot of work. Also, I’m editing a girl’s first chapter of her dissertation this week. Plus, it’s nice to spend some time together doing laundry, eating meals, sleeping in and vegging. So sorry if you don’t hear from us for awhile.

We had Thanksgiving last night with the Hays. Sarah and I were quite impressed at how well all the food turned out being that neither of us had ever cooked a proper Thanksgiving meal ever before. We had turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, stuffing, biscuits, green beans, corn, pumpkin and apple pie. Sarah finally found ‘tinned’ pumpkin so we could have a yummy pie! The guy at Sainsbury’s looked at me like I was from Planet Loser when I asked about canned pumpkin and suggested just making it myself…yeah right. So I tried my best at an apple pie. It tasted pretty yummy but looked awful, oh well.

Today was what we expected Scotland to be like more than it has been: cold, overcast, rainy, and windy. We did some Christmas shopping and went to IKEA, spending probably too many hours hopping buses. OK, that’s it right now; my brain is hurting. Yay, tomorrow is Sunday and how we need a day of rest.

Hope you all had a Happy Turkey Day. Bryce said it’s been odd for him explaining multiple times the meaning of Thanksgiving in America and what everyone eats. P.S. His sermon went well and I got to hear it on audiocasette. Good stuff.

Hey there. It’s officially freezing: 30 degrees (even though today’s low still says 36, you’d think they’d change it once it gets colder). This morning as we walked to church there was frost all over the ground and I had fun sliding around like a kid. I’m surprised at how well we are adjusting to the cold weather, it’s not half as bad as I expected it to be. I’m holding out hope that it will snow, even though it apparently hasn’t snowed in Edinburgh for at least 3 years.

We got some Christmas shopping done after church, aren’t we ahead of the game? They start getting ready for Christmas even earlier here than they do in the States. I was surprised when I first noticed this happening, but after many hours of thought dedicated to the subject, I’ve come to the conclusion that it is the result of not having Thanksgiving to hold them back. On November 5th they celebrate Guy Fawkes Day (a holiday which celebrates an unsuccessful attempt to blow up Parliament, a strange thing to celebrate in my opinion), after which point the Christmas decorations that have slowly been invading stores take full force.

Last Friday I turned in my last paper for the semester: “The Effect of the Rise of Islam on Christianity.” I have 2 more weeks of class, then 2 weeks of finals, and then I’m 1/6 of the way done. Crazy, in some ways it still feels like we just got here. This Thursday I am preaching for my homiletics class (yes, that’s Thanksgiving, and of course the only 2 Americans in the class are scheduled to preach that day) on Exodus 3:1-4:17. Obviously the majority of my week will be focused on preparation for that.

Ok, so, my last trivia question caused a small amount opposition, let’s see if I can keep myself out of trouble this time. Here it is…A number of the feast in Old Testament Israel begin on the 15th of the month. What is the significance of this? Ready….Set….GO(ogle)!

And finally, today’s cultural idiosyncrasy:
The word “pants” refers to underwear in the UK. What we think of as pants are known as “trousers.” Forgetting that can get you into a sticky situation.

We just received dark denim curtains for our living room window that my mom made. Now we finally match! We no longer have peach walls and we have curtains that help to establish the whole blue and red thing we’ve got going on. You don’t know how exciting it is to not have peach and navajo decor.
We also got brownie mix, pinto beans, black beans, our suitcase–it’s great! Thanks mom.
Today I also met Annette, Adele’s mum. She’s very nice (especially as she brought our suitcase full of stuff to us) and will be joining us next week for Thanksgiving even though she’s Scottish. Let’s see, I slept in, did laundry, had tea with Annette, met my study group and popped into some shops on the way home. Bryce has 3 weeks more of class, has a paper to turn in tomorrow and is preaching next Thursday. And tonight, we’re having the Hays over for a celebratory dinner (celebrating the curtains of course). That’s it for now…

I like working during the week, hardly anyone comes in (or at least not until noonish, or if it’s rainy). I guess November’s not too much of a tourist season. Today as there were only three of us, including the chef, we had a yummy staff lunch since no customers were coming into the restaurant. So instead of our standard fare of onion soup, we had awesome fondue. It was fabulous! Lots of cheese, fresh bread…perfect.

So it was a good day to make up for not-so-good night.

Bryce and I went to bed around midnight but didn’t fall asleep until at least 3 AM, since Bryce was coughing intermittently…and of course, we had run out of cough syrup. I even tried to go out to the living room to fall asleep on the couch, but our fridge and clock are too noisy. So I was really happy to have a great lunch and a number of cups of tea throughout the day.

In case you’re wondering, Bryce is feeling better as he stayed home from school, bought cough syrup and played on the internet. Now Bryce and Jonathan are going to play a bit ‘a footie with the guys from New Restalrig; Sarah and I are staying inside to read, chat, drink tea and be cozy.

We got home last night at 1 AM. We went over to the pastor’s house for dinner at 7; the Hays were invited as well as another young married couple, Andrew and Kay. We had great Indian food complete with hors d’oeuvres, salad (without dressing, that’s how it’s done here), and chickpea curry/korma chicken with rice and fabulous naan bread. We had ice cream and lime pie for dessert–quite a feast. I couldn’t believe we stayed so long and hope we didn’t impose on their hospitality. We talked a bit about how we can get involved there, where the church is going, and trends in evangelical churches in Scotland and in America. We laughed a lot.

So we slept in until about noon; it was glorious and we haven’t done that in a long time! We’ve been reading, doing laundry and ventured out of our flat just about 30 minutes ago to get a few groceries at our local co-op. In a few hours we’re going over to the Hays for dinner. We haven’t had to cook all weekend (or correspondingly, had to do dishes either). I’ve finished (I use that term loosely, as I haven’t had time to read every word) three of the seven biographies that I’m reviewing (Mussolini, Hitler & Churchill, and Hutton). So far, I’m voting for the Hitler and Churchill: Secrets of Leadership biography.

Gosh it’s hard to balance things…
Lately I feel like I’m working and just studying part-time, instead of the other way around. I worked on an editing job for Katie and now I’ve another lined up, I’m in conversation with the MPhil student regularly, I’m working 2 days at the cafe, and oh yeah, trying to get an MSc at Edinburgh Uni. That’s okay, I think I’ll feel like I work all the time after my 2 days at the cafe. It’s sure slowing down; November isn’t tourist season. But when it’s slow, we get to do exciting things like fold napkins, polish cutlery, and fold/address invitations for Christmas bookings. But I also end up drinking/sampling lots of tea and eating too much bad-for-you food that is lying around. At least I drank my 7 glasses of water today. Then there’s the benefit of bringing things home: yesterday we had rum/cream tarts and today I brought home a mocha/chocolate tart, a raspberry tart, and two ‘chocolate pillows.’ (just so you know, ” ” aren’t called quotation marks but inverted commas–plus here they use single quotes: ‘ ‘, not double ones, ” “).

But I think eventually I’ll get used to the juggling act. At least I don’t feel like I’m getting more sick and I don’t think my school work is suffering. The good thing is that I can turn down editing jobs if I need to. Please continue to pray that Bryce and I will be able to get all the school work needed done and have time to spend with one another. Thank you!

If you look at weather.com, the forecast for Edinburgh hasn’t changed much in the past three weeks. Almost every day it says it’s going to rain, but it rarely does. Usually there are bright blue skies. Kinda weird. The Scots, who like to complain, say ‘wait until winter, it’ll be bad then!’ I’ll reserve my final judgment for later, but I have to admit I’m a bit skeptical.

OK, here’s my new trivia question, drawing from Old Testament biblical theology: Moses brought down from Mt Sinai 2 tablets on which were written the Ten Commandments. How many commandments were written on each tablet?

By the way, in case any confusion still lingers, you can reply to this post, or read other replies to this post, by clicking on the word ‘comments’ at the bottom of this post.

Today’s Cultural Idiosyncrasy:
In Scotland, the word ‘quite’ means the opposite of what it means in the U.S. In the U.S. if I said ‘the food was quite good,’ that would mean it was VERY good. In Scotland the same phrase would mean that food was average, which could be taken as an insult.

I’m taking a break from editing/reading/writing to play on the internet, which of course, includes blogging.

Let’s see, Friday Bryce and I spent the night sitting on the couch reading (not together, but doing our course work). He “made” me go out for a short walk with him so we could take advantage of the great views we get of this amazing city we live in.

Saturday was lots better. I had my first editing meeting with a “client.” I went to the library and discussed a girl’s dissertation plan and first chapter with her (she’s an MPhil student). She’s also in the English lit department and since her supervisor told her she wouldn’t give her any feedback until after she’d submitted her first chapter, the girl needed someone to help her out with organization, ideas, etc. She saw a flyer I had up at the library and now I’m “advising” her and will edit her paper–at least the first chapter anyway. It was fun, tiring, but great to get paid! Also along those lines…I’m helping Katie (friend from OC) with some of her editing jobs as she’s out of town. It’s a bit maddening when you read papers where the grammar’s awful or incomprehensible or the writing is just vague and bad.

Then, when I got home the Crocketts were here! They drove down to spend the day with us; we had planned to go climb Arthur’s Seat but it was a bit drizzly (as Bryce pointed out this was inevitable as the weather.com site forecasted “mostly sunny” for Saturday). So, we walked around the Royal Mile, went to see the outside of the castle, walked around the tartan weaving mill exhibition, went into St. Giles and drove by Bryce’s college, my work, and the George Square area (main Edinburgh Uni area). After that, we went to IKEA (about 20 minutes outside Edinburgh and one of two in all of Scotland). IKEA is so exciting for us. The kids played in the balls and had a blast. We bought another table lamp, some candles and some more mugs (they’re only 35p each!) and made it out for just ?20! We also feasted on fish ‘n chips there–it was quite a splurge! We then went back to the flat and had some tea and biscuits before the kids got really sleepy and they left to drive home.

Today was also nice. We had a nice walk to church and the skies were trying really hard to be blue. We met some more folks at church and one lady works as a proofreader at the Rutherford House (established as a centre for theological study and research) and she got my details (i.e., contact info) in case they need some freelance editors. The Hays came over for lunch and we used our last packet of brownie mix. Now we have no more canned black beans or brownie mix; our chocolate chips and peanut butter supplies are running low and our new tortillas sort of taste like pancakes. There’s some definite things we miss to eat!

I’ll let you know in just a few short weeks which book weighs out on top.

I was just given 7 biographies to read by December 19. Good thing I’m getting paid for reading about 2500 pages in 6 weeks and reviewing them, mind you (see yesterday’s post below). This is nuts. What do I think I am? A reading machine? However, I thought I could learn a bit while reading these books. I picked the “dictator” stack of books to read–there’s one on Mussolini, one on Stalin, one on Hitler and Churchill…the others are on Amy Johnson (woman pilot), Charles Wesley, Victor Rothschild (some British dude) and Hutton (who was a Darwinian precursor). I gotta make this work to my advantage and now think my topic for my paper for my Literary Industry class will be on biography.

I may need reading glasses for Christmas…

I get free lunch when I work a 10-hour shift! (Today I had cream of mushroom soup and yesterday French onion…yummy!) And then there’s the taste-testing of various gateauxs, tea cakes, chocolates, hot chocolates, candies, and innumerable teas! It’s heavenly. And I get to take goodies home. If a slice of cake is unpresentable, I get to feed it to my hubby. One time I brought home about 5 pieces of raspberry gateaux cake (that amounted to about ?20 worth of cake) and so we had the Hays over to consume lots of calories. Today I brought home 2 pain au chocolates for breakfast tomorrow and a few empty tea tins to store our tea in and spruce things up a bit. My feet are tired, but I’m remarkably chipper for 2 shifts back to back. I may even ditch the reading and watch a movie. What’s the world coming to?

P.S. I get to get PAID and get FREE BOOKS. Amazing beyond words. There’s a prize Edinburgh Uni gives out every year for fiction and biography. They pay postgrads to read the books, make comments and recommend a few to the final judges. They GIVE us the books and pay us to read; this is the best job ever. I believe it’s somewhere around ?100 that we get paid.