finally here!

September 17, 2008

WHOA, HOLY EYEBROWS.

Today we got up around 8am to get ready, find some coffee and get to our Bunac orientation. It’s taking me FOREVER to find things in my suitcase…especially since I actually packed stuff. Unfortunately, it wasn’t in a smart manner, and so I have to go searching for everything I need to find. Including shirts, pants, sweaters….EVERYTHING. And it’s chilly here. I figured I would be able to get by with just a shirt…nope. We’re all wearing our fleeces. Also, for some odd reason, I didn’t bring simple, walking-around-town shoes. So I’m definitely going to have to find a pair of those. My black and white shoes that I wore for about two hours today rubbed horrible blisters on my feet….that’s not okay with me. I’ve decided on a couple of other things I need as well, like a belt. AND A PLACE TO LIVE. This living in a hostel thing is not gonna fly for long. It’s so hard to find things and get organized when you literally have to live out of a suitcase with ALL of your stuff in it, and keep it compact since we’ll (hopefully­) be moving into a flat soon.

However, we got a lot of stuff accomplished today and so hopefully we’ll find a place to live soon. We opened up a bank account today and called OfficeTeam, getting interviews for tomorrow. Claire, Anna and I all have interviews with them tomorrow around three. Hooooopefully, we’ll all be hired around four. haha Then we can decide what we’ll be able to afford and look for a flat. And we hope we’ll be able to actually look at flats this weekend. We’ve also explored a good bit, considering that we’ve only been here for like, a day and a half. We walked around Old Town for probably thirty minutes before orientation this morning and then up to New Town to figure out where the OfficeTeam office was this afternoon. I’m pretty much able to figure out where I am on the map and then figure out which direction we need to go in to get to wherever….all in my head. Yay! Which is quite a feat for me….but I’ve also been looking at maps of the city for a few weeks since all I did in my free time was look for flats.

Tonight Bunac had a pub greet at a pub called The Last Drop, which got its name from the fact that the last public hanging was outside of its doors back in the day. We met a few people there…some I’m not so sure that we’ll keep in touch with, but a girl name Angela was there who was also in orientation this morning. She’s from around Ottawa, Canada and is a bit awkward but really sweet in all. I think we’ll probably keep in touch with her. We also got some good tips of places to go, including a discount clothes store in Glasgow to visit. Apparently they have like £5 jeans and £6 jackets, which is pretty awesome. We decided that we needed to find a place to live…something that had a closet…before we bought any more clothes. Anna and I were proud of ourselves for having a real Scottish beer…we don’t even know what it was called, but it tasted just like Bud Light with a little bit of an aftertaste, but not bad in all.

Let’s talk about British/European fashion for a minute. We’ve noticed lots (I mean, like, TONS) of skinny jeans with horribly ugly slouchy boots (sorry Linds), lots of scarves (I expected that), and lots short-sleeved/sleeveless shirts. These people act as if it’s not like, 50 degrees outside or something. And lots of strange hairstyles. It’s crazy to see so many fashion personalities all in the same place. I’m sure we stick out like sore thumbs here. People always ask us where we’re from…but I thinks it’s either a)out of niceness, or b)they think it’s possible we could be Canadians. But I’m pretty sure everyone knows we’re North American, if not from the good ole USofA. We saw a North Carolinian at the pub and knew she was from the South by her accent and foul language. It was actually quite funny to watch.

Tomorrow I think we’re going to try to hit up some of the free museums around the Old Town before our interviews in the afternoon. The Museum of Childhood is free, as well as some others that are close. We found out very quickly that the city is very pedestrian-friendly and looks much larger on a map than it really is…which is nice. We walked to the other side of the city center in about ten minutes, and a walk to Leith is only about 20 minutes apparently (Angela was looking at flats in Leith today). Niiice. Okay, well it’s definitely bedtime for me. I’m worn slap out.

September 25, 2008

IT’S NOT COCKBURN. MORE LIKE CO-BURN….

So a lot has happened since the 17^th! We all got hired by OfficeTeam and so far Claire and I have jobs. I’m working at a non-profit youth advocacy organization called YoungScot, doing data entry. I’m entering 900+ surveys the Scottish government handed out to the youth of Scotland. It’s extremely tedious and boring, but it pays. I really like the people I work with. They’re all young (mostly under 35) and cuss like crazy. Only to them, it’s part of their everyday vocabulary and it just sounds cool and posh.

Aaaaanyway, I don’t even know what to journal about because there’s so much that’s happened in the past week and a half. We went on a free walking tour of the city, where we met Mark, who is in Edinburgh at the university. He was our tour guide and is from Manchester, England. Even though he only recognizes us by face and we’re 99.9% sure he doesn’t know ANY of our names, we consider him our friend. Haha During the tour when he found out that we’d be in the city for six months, he told us that we should come to hear his band play at the Tron, a trendy pub off High Street. We went one Saturday night where we met some guys from outside of Edinburgh who were blown away that people would come to Edinburgh, and more than that, that we were three girls coming by ourselves (“No offense or anything…” blahblahblah). Mark’s band was pretty good, and we plan on going back on this Saturday as well.

Later in the week, we went on a pub crawl put on by NewEurope (the walking tour company), which was super fun. We made several friends/acquaintances and fondly gave them all nicknames. Firstly, this guy named Craig. We named him Navy. No surprise there, he’s in the Navy. Real creative, I know. Next, this guy who looked like a tool who wore a shirt that was waaaay too tight, had a bottle of something that definitely was spiked and had about a gallon of gel in his hair…..meet Jersey. He actually ended up being really nice, but still. You can’t take away the name Jersey after it’s been dished, especially if you have your hair gelled and you still wear muscle shirts at like, 29. Sorry. Next is Israeli. Once again, to no surprise, the guy was Israeli. We also named him Sketchball. I mean, he was offering to let us “share” his drink. Ummmm, actually, if you did that in the US, you would be trying to drug me. So, no thanks. And finally, there were two guys we’re pretty sure were gay. Hence, the Lovers. All in all, we had a super time and took some awesome pictures.

So the day after the pub crawl (Saturday), we had an appointment to look at a flat a little past Grassmarket, which is a super cute part of town. So we walked to the area…we were late, but whatever. We absolutely fell in love with this flat the minute we walked into it. It was three (double!!!) bedrooms, had a kitchen, bathroom and living room (we had yet to see a flat with a living room) and was just cute!! So we left the place in love, but nervous because there was still another couple to check it out, and we had seen a couple of flats be snatched up beneath us. We left the flat at about two, and decided that we’d call Joy (the owner) by two-thirty to ask her if we could have it, and she said yes!! So we had FINALLY found a flat that we actually loved. And luckily enough, it was empty and so we were able to move in the next day. Which was amazing, because we were about to go crazy in the hostel. It was nice, but we were just ready to spread out! So now we’ve gotten to explore a new part of town. We have yet to find a big grocery store though, and so we’re basically blowing our money on meals since we’re not fixing anything at home and we eat out every night for dinner. We just haven’t had a chance to look around, and everything here closes so early! Stores are beginning to close at like, six. Which is a pain when you don’t leave work until five and then have to walk home before you can do anything. Anyway. We really like the area we live in. It’s super cute, and within walking distance of my current job, so I can’t really complain.

We’ve decided that we have a few favorite places so far:

Pub: The Last Drop—super cute bartender, amazing atmosphere and wonderful food

Restaurant: “Cute Little Italian Place”—we’ve only eaten there once, but it was REAL good.

Other Restaurant: “Soup place”—real good soup that you get a freaking huge baguette with

Tomorrow I’m going to try the sandwich shop across the street from my work that’s called Sandwich Culture. Jessica, the other Bunac-er from my work, has gotten food there quite a bit and it looks super.

Oh, also. Internet. It’s a pain right now because we don’t have it. We thought we’d just get little wireless usb plug-ins instead of getting it through the phone company, but we can’t do that because you have to pay for it by automatic debit from your checking account…which we don’t have yet and probably won’t for like, two weeks. Which would all be find and dandy, except that I would really like to skype. Particularly with my mother. Which is really hard to do when the only places with wireless are a few restaurants in the city centre…and I’d have to do it at like, eleven pm. Which would be a pain in the hiney to do since I’d have to take a taxi back to the flat. I’m just hoping that we’ll be able to work out the banking situation fairly soon and we’ll be able to internet. Soon. I would really like to be able to email and not worry that I’m going to get caught and fired at work. I don’t really think they care, but what do I know? Maybe they track all my web usage. Oh, well. Whatev.

We went on a ghost tour tonight with a Canadian (Karen? Kelly? Something with a K. We have affectionately nicknamed her Eyebrows because they’re HUGE. EDIT: Kathy is her name. However, I will continue to refer to her as Eyebrows.), and it was crap. Lots of good information, but not a good ghost tour. And the fact that we were all really tired didn’t make it any better. We were supposed to have a free pint at the end of it, but we skipped out and took the bus home instead. Tiiiiired.

Okay, it’s almost one am and I must get to sleep. Work tomorrow and I’m getting up at 7:25. Which sucks for me since I’m not a morning person. Night!

September 27, 2008 12:24am

I THINK HOMEBOY’S STARING AT YOU…

We just got back from having a fabulous night out in the city, and currently I’m waiting for my mask to dry so that I can go to sleep without getting clay mask all over my comforter and sheets….hence the journaling. It was quite the uneventful day, except that I found out that Claire, Anna and I are eligible for YoungScot cards, which apparently will get us loads of discounts in Scotland, the UK, and Europe. Which will be real nice when we start to travel..…in March. Also, we took a ghost tour last night, given by our friend Eyebrows. It was complete crap. Rubbish.

(As a side note, I have this creepy creaking noise on/in my floorboards, right beside my bed. I’ve decided it’s an extremely nice ghost that just likes to make it known that she/he is here, and that they mean no harm.)

So tonight we tried to halfway retrace our pub crawl….but only going to three bars. And only two of the bars were on the crawl. Firstly we went to The Globe, which is where they served Snakebites (complete with the hand motion of a snake striking), which are sooooo good. A snakebite is Strongbow cider, some other kind of beer, and grenadine. It’s faaaabulous. We managed to show up on the night where the new bartender was tending…bar. He didn’t know how to make them, but they were still real good. Also, there was a homeboy who kept staring in our direction, but never quite made it over to us, which just made him look like an idiot. Although he had a Scottish accent, he was straight out of South Carolina with a button up shirt under a sweater with jeans….all he needed was some Sperrys and he’d be set to fit into the Carolinas. Aaaaanyway, then we went to this place called the Three Sisters, which was absolutely PACKED. Firstly, the place was huge. There was probably a thousand people there, easily. They had a beer garden, and there was plenty of opportunity to do some people watching, which I always love. Scottish/British/European people have the wackiest sense of style I’ve ever seen. Get an obnoxious haircut and wear the most ridiculous things you can find and you’ll fit right in. However, if you try to actually look nice and match, you’ll just look like an American, heaven forbid. At this point, I’ve stopped caring, figuring that everyone can already tell I’m from the good ole USofA, so why try to hide it and try to fit in?? There’s no point. So after that we went back up the hill to another place, who had the worst band ever there…seriously it was the worst rendition of Sweet Home Alabama I’ve ever heard. Brits don’t need to try to impersonate Southern Rock bands. It’s just a bad idea. Really.

After that, we found a Subway (yes, the UK has Subway), where we picked up some cookies and a doughnut (thanks to me…you’re welcome.), and consequently almost missed our bus. We were totally the people you think look like idiots running down the sidewalk because their bus is at the stop. Yeah, we were going at a full sprint. At least as fast as we could go after two Snakebites, a pint, and cookies. Luckily, we made it….and that brings me to the present. At my home sweet flat, ready to go to bed.

And with that…..goodnight.