Happy Anniversary, Pat and Phil!

Eleven years ago today, my husband Paul and I went on our fourth date.  I'm usually pretty bad at remembering details, but I can tell you with certainty what we did on our first four dates, eleven years ago.

Our first date was two Tucson's Fourth Avenue Street Fair.  During that date, Paul started ranting about the idiocy of people who insisted on having grassy lawns in drought-stricken Tucson, and I was hooked.

Our second date, we went to see a horrible movie, which somehow managed to garner critical acclaim - Gangs of New York.  On this date, Paul's loathing of Leonardo di Caprio was solidified, and we bonded not only over the horribleness of Gangs of New York, but also our mutual dislike for The English Patient, another critically acclaimed movie that perhaps two people in the whole US were willing to admit they disliked...and they were now on a date together.

Our third date, I invited Paul to go on the Medical Anthropology overnight camping trip to Patagonia, AZ. He gained major points not only by knowing how to put up our tent (I had borrowed it from my roommate and had no idea what to do with it) but also by making s'mores for my friends and making charming small talk with total strangers.

Which brought us to April 20, 2003, our fourth date.  Which happened to be both Easter Sunday, and my future in-laws 35th wedding anniversary. And the first time I had met anyone in Paul's family. Talk about your nerve-wracking scenarios. 

But it turned out to be lovely. Paul's parents are wonderful folks, and his brother and sister-in-law made me feel welcome, too. His nieces and nephew were just kids, 10 and 11 - now they're in in their early 20's. The food was great, and conversation flowed easily. There was an awkward moment around pictures - his parents took one of Paul and I (which I think is now packed away in a storage space in Virginia - at least I hope it is, since it didn't make it to Scotland with us) but of course I wasn't in any of the other photos, but who knew if I was going to be around another week, a month, a year? It was only our fourth date.

But, eleven years later, I have not only married Pat and Phil's youngest son, but have also taken himto Rhode Island for three years, and now Scotland for two. Part of his heart will always be in Tucson, though, with Pat, Phil, and the rest of the Orzechs. So Happy Anniversary, Pat and Phil, and we'll see you in Tucson as soon as we can!

  

Preparing for Easter in Scotland

Today is Easter, but I started to think about preparing for it a few weeks ago.  I know, I'm supposed to have been reflecting on Easter for all of Lent, but my earnest concern about Easter traditions only started a little prior to Palm Sunday.   Thinking about Palm Sunday made me miss Central Congregational Church in Providence, and all their Palm Sunday celebrations - waving palms, procession with a teenager plying Jesus, and even Jasper the donkey. Last week at Palm Sunday here, I ended up working in the creche (nursery) during church, so I couldn't be sure about the palm-waving, but there was definitely no donkey. I saw small palm branches woven into crosses (pre-woven, not even a palm leaf to weave yourself, or teach your kids how to make the cross out of it).

For Easter itself, I thought about the American traditions, and then ran into Scottish roadblocks:

1) Dyeing eggs. Okay, didn't even really anticipate this one: almost all eggs in the US are white, right. you could get brown eggs if you wanted, but they're not as common. Not so here.  Eggs are uniformly brown. No white eggs to be found, even in a big store. So how do you dye eggs when they are all brown? I asked Paul to get stickers, so we sticker-ed our eggs this year:

 

2) Hunting for (plastic) eggs hidden by the Easter Bunny.  Okay, we were doing better on this one. The trickiest part was the plastic eggs (which Paul found and bought, although he lamented the whole time the three dozen plastic eggs we had left in the storage space in Virginia).  But Easter candy was plentiful - gummy bunnies (Haribo has a monopoly over here on gummy things), Cadbury mini-eggs (not the creme eggs although those are also everywhere), jellybeans - and we have a garden (yard) for hiding eggs.  So what if the Scottish neighbors thought we were a bit nuts, yelling "Eggs!" and hiding and re-hiding them in the garden between 9 and 10 am (see video clip below). We didn't find any bit Easter Egg hunts (like at church in Providence).  The one thing we did discover was a Scottish penchant for egg-rolling. At school, Audrey's teacher and classmates told her she had to roll a big egg down a hill, "like rolling the stone away from the grave" on Eastern Sunday morning. And some friends of ours did plan to go egg-rolling first thing (like 8 am) on Easter. We have the big plastic egg that the 36 small plastic eggs came in, so we thought we might roll that down the hill...but at church, a girl (8 or 9 years old) came up to me to ask if Audrey wanted to roll her (Cadbury chocolate) egg down the hill with her.  I said sure, and later Audrey told me that they had rolled an egg for the girls and an egg for the boys, and when they rolled down the hill, guess what, they broke, and she got to eat 3 pieces of chocolate...so maybe this is the point :-) 

3) Eat peeps. This is really more of a my-father Easter tradition, but with two marshmallow-loving kids, it seems like a good tradition to uphold.  Except there are no peeps in Scotland. Cadbury has a virtual lock on the market, and they don't make peeps. At church I found pink marshmallow bunnies, but it wasn't the same. No chicks. No sparkly sugar. Just not the same!

Enough for now - off to roll the plastic egg down the hill, which Audrey is currently taping with scotch tape (sellotape, here) so that it will be able to survive its rolling journey in one piece!

Blog bonus: Here is the 30-second video of her rolling the egg. Tried to put it on Facebook but it came up as a black screen (audio but no video) every time...

Getting there is half the fun: London with kids

Battersea Children's Zoo: not an actual transport experience

I was a little nervous about going to London with the kids. Okay, I was a lot nervous. When we went to Edinburgh, Audrey was sick half the time, so I was hoping at least we'd all be healthy for London.

Well, we lucked out. Everyone was healthy.  And we all had a good time in London, too, starting with 5.5 hours on the train traveling down from Dundee.  The kids were surprisingly entertained by the smallest things - C (2.5 years) pretend-punched probably 50 tickets, and A (5.5 years) made paperclip necklaces for everyone.  They went to the toilet (exciting, going when the train is going...) and walked to the FoodBar car and back.

When we got to London, we did do some adult things (like go to the British Museum) and some kid things (the Battersea Children's Zoo) and some in-between (taking a Thames Cruise, going to the Angela Lansbury Film Festival showing of Bedknobs and Broomsticks).  But I think the kids had the best time getting from place to place.  Taking the Underground (train) and the Docklands Light Railway to the film (and stopping to play in a lovely park on the way).  Walking down to the British Museum from the Kings Cross area. Taking the Underground again and walking across a very windy bridge to Battersea Park. Taking a taxi to Westminster Pier to catch the boat for the cruise, and of course cruising (we thought it was going to be too windy, but it turned out to be fine, we even sat on the top deck). And I almost forgot one of the kids' highlights (because I wasn't there - my parents watched the kids while Paul and I nipped down to Somerset House to see a small collection of Impressionists) - the London Transport Museum.  Where else can your 5 year old drive a double-decker bus while the 2 year old pilots a taxi? They loved it, and didn't want to leave, even to meet up with mom and dad.

For the whole trip, they didn't seem to care too much about the destination, they just wanted to travel.  We don't have a subway in Dundee, or a river to cruise down.  Who cares that there are 8 million objects in the British Museum? They just wanted to ride the train and play in the park.  Kind of like home, but with a bit more adventure.  Isn't that what traveling is all about?

Update: Six months in Scotland

The end of March marked our six-month anniversary here in Scotland.  There wasn't a lot of fanfare - the biggest thing that was happening the week of 24th March was that we were preparing for my parents  and sister's visit, which started on Sunday the 30th for us in Dundee. A bit more on that later. For now, the update, with some pictures below.

I am reminded of the interviews I conducted with young adults about their online life; they emphasized that what made it online from their lives was the fun, social, traveling-new-places part. Work (or school) was generally not photo-documented or posted about.  My life is the same. I spend most of my week working, yet I have no pictures of it, except for this one of Audrey sitting at my desk, with dad behind her. And I didn't even take the picture (thanks mom). I guess I have a few photos from quarterly meetings, where we travel to our partner universities, in Surrey and Nottingham - but again, I spent most of my time at work! I enjoy my work, I like my boss a lot, it's a fun project, and it keeps me busy.  In my "spare time" when I'm not working I'm taking care of the kids, doing what I did in Rhode Island - exploring the place - except without a car this time. We do have one, but my manual transmission skills are poor and enthusiasm for driving on the wrong side of the road practically nil...so no car, just walking, the bus, occasionally the train.  Good thing the UK has a good public transit system! I also joined a women's singing group almost as soon as we arrived - we were still staying in the bed and breakfast, we hadn't even found our rental house yet when I went to the first rehearsal.  That has been great - all singing by ear, no music, 40 or more ladies ranging in age from 28 to 88 - very opposite to every choir I've ever been in, but lots of fun.

Audrey at my desk in the Art College

Paul is settling in, though the transition has been harder for him. If we had arrived in July instead of practically October, things would have been a bit easier for him and for Audrey - we would have been here for the start of school instead of 8 weeks in, there might have been more people playing at the parks in the summer than there were in October - more people to meet.  But, Audrey did get into school (and catch up with the phonics she had missed in the 1st 8 weeks), Paul did find playgroups to keep him and Claire busy, and has even found a yoga class that morphs into a night out at the pub every Wednesday.  That group even took him skiing - when friends ask Paul what he's doing in Scotland and he says "Drinking and Skiing" they're a little shocked...but he's fitting into the culture :-)

Six months in, we have done a bit of touring around - we went to St. Andrews (castle, cathedral, the cafe where Kate met Will), to Edinburgh around Christmas to enjoy the "Edinburgh Christmas" fair, and to Stirling and London when my parents and Sarah visited. We're starting our hit list - the Scottish Highlands and Islands, Stonehenge or some other less well known stone circle, Dublin, Istanbul, maybe Spain (or somewhere with a warm beach).  And of course Naples for when Margaret and her family get there later this year. We'll see how many we can make happen!

We don't know for sure what will happen at the end of my 2-year contract.  My boss has already offered to write me into future grants this autumn, but we're not sure we want to stay beyond the 2 years.  Some things are great (see my previous post on three things Scotland does right) but it's far from family, and we're not sure we want to raise Scottish kids.  Both Audrey and Claire are already picking up British words (and spelling for Audrey).  Audrey's learned the British monetary system as she's learned to add and subtract, and Claire told her sister the other day that she couldn't come play because she was "on holiday."  So far the lobbying from Paul and Audrey seems to be pointing back to Rhode Island, but it's still early days yet. 

I've pasted pictures below with captions that move from our earliest days to the most recent - some you may have seen on Facebook, but probably not all...enjoy!

 

At the Parlour cafe our first week in Dundee	Starting school after a month of back and forth with the city council
Magdalen Green, near our house, and yes, traditional, still functional British phone booth	With A in Edinburgh, before ice-skating
Paul with girls by the sea in St. Andrews	Girls with Gingy in front of Edinburgh Castle
Beautify sunset, looking toward the Tay Rail bridge near our house	Visit from cousins Tim & Julia, passing through Scotland in January
Happy New Year photo	Funny "haggis" cookies at the local baker, for Burns Night in January
Playing on Magdalen Green on a warm(er) winter day	A with her Healthy Roundabout badge for Rainbows
Yes, the weather was that bad: family visits Scotland, and it rains (near Broughty Ferry beach)	Stirling Castle: more bad weather, but a cool location!
Orzechs on the beach, St. Andrews	C climbing the abbey walls in St. Andrews - literally.
Amusing Papa and Nana on the train to London	Sports in the park: race to the center of the flowers
The British Museum: drawing, of course.	Big Ben Selfie for C and Papa
Copycat Big Ben Selfie for A and Kay	Paul and half of Tower Bridge ( the other half looks just the same, anyway)
Singing "Let it Go" (the Elsa Song) in front of Kings Cross Station	A's photo of us before we got on the train to Dundee, leaving Papa and Nana on their own in London

How to Buy Brown Shoe Polish in Dundee: Hint - No Target Here.

One of the tricky things about changing countries is that you don't know where to buy things.  I had realized that I was somewhat dependent on Target before I left the U.S., but it wasn't until I tried to buy brown shoe polish here that I realized the true level of convenience that Target, a store that carries pretty much anything you need, provides.  The closest thing we have to Target here is the Tesco Extra.  And to be fair, I didn't go there for my shoe polish, because it's a bit of a tricky walk, especially on my lunch hour at work, which is when I have most of my opportunity to shop.

But anyway, the brief story: I have brown leather shoes. They were getting pretty scuffed, since I walk pretty much everywhere I go in Dundee.  The smart thing to do would have been to go to the shoe store and get the shoe polish, but I thought sure I could find it cheaper and closer (the shoe store is pretty much on the far end of the pedestrian high street in town).  So I started looking. And I found tons of black shoe polish.  I could buy black shoe polish at the local post office near A's primary school.  No brown shoe polish, though.  To be fair, all the kids have to wear black shoes to school, so there's probably a lot more call for black shoe polish than brown.  Finally, after walking all the way downtown (in fact, past the aforementioned shoe store I didn't want to walk to), I found brown shoe polish, in a so-called "Gift Store" - there are several of these dotted around town, and I'm not sure why they are called Gift Stores, other than they sell gift wrap and gift bags, among many other things.  Most of the things they carry I cannot imagine giving as a gift...practical things like shower curtain rings, an inexpensive watch, vaguely strange things like velvet posters of unicorns to color...and of course, shoe polish....almost all black, but one tin of brown hidden in the basket. I think these stores might be competing with the British version of the Dollar Store (called, unsurprisingly, Poundland) but don't want to limit themselves to very low prices, perhaps. More points to ponder...and Target, I miss you and all your easily available made-in-China goods.       

Bath Science

Departing from the usual blog about Scotland to write about another passion - education.  Specifically, the education of our daughters, aged 5 and 2.

Most days, I give the girls a bath after dinner. Sometimes this is fun, sometimes it is just another step in the process of moving them from dinnertime to bedtime.  But a few nights ago, they were having fun playing with the water and I realized the bath was a great place to learn science.  Whenever the girls get in the bath, they always want to play with the water.  We didn't bring much in the way of bath toys to Scotland - we had a few before, but they mostly got chucked before we moved.  So their bath toys here are:

• a recycled-plastic boat
• 2 sturdy plastic cups
• 2 "Little People" figurines
• 2 mitt-style washcloths

With these, plus water, we do science. A (5) notices that the water coming out of the faucet starts out wide and then narrows as it falls into the tub. Why is that? We hypothesize.  C (2) becomes obsessed with her "giving a gift" game, and puts a Little Person inside a washcloth.  She tries to give me a gift of "a person, and water," but the water keeps draining out. Why is that, I ask A? She answers, correctly, that the water can pass through the (cheap) washcloth.  Why? I ask again, and she explores it further, thinking about properties of water, plastic figurines, and cheap washcloths. And we haven't even started exploring the soap.  

Three Things Scotland Does Right, in my humble opinion

Many of the entries in this blog are devoted to questioning things in Scotland that seem strange and different.  Although this often means different-bad, there is also different-good. Things that would probably never fly in the United States, but that Scotland - as a small country, and as part of the UK, can pull off. Despite the last sentence, this is not going to be about Scottish Independence. I'll wait until closer to the Referendum for that (for those of you who are not aware, Scotland is going to vote on whether it should be independent from the rest of the UK in September 2014...this is a huge story in Scotland that the US couple probably care less about.)

But, for today, a quick list of things Scotland (and the UK more generally) does right:

1) Health care.

Yes, there is grumbling about long wait times and the fact that people may not be getting top-line care from the National Health Service. But here was our experience of getting health care in Scotland:

• We arrived in Scotland for my job
• Human resources told me to go check in at my local health centre
• We checked in at Ryehill Health Centre, just up the hill from our house
• We gave them a little bit of information (our passports and visas and immunization records for the kids)
• Now we can call them whenever we need health care.
• It costs nothing out of pocket. No out of pocket costs for prescriptions either. 
• If you need care on the weekend, you call a national number that does triage with you and tells you where to go to get help.    

We can't really complain, especially given the shaky nature of health care in the US when you are unemployed/underemployed. Dental care was similarly easy to access and much cheaper than US care - preventative care is free and more extensive care is about 7x cheaper (in my tooth repairing experience so far - $250 in the States and about $35 here)

2) Fresh, local food

This was a sign I took a picture of today outside the larger Tesco (large UK supermarket chain) in Dundee city centre. It's really common to see meat and dairy labeled as Scottish or British.  There is a local butcher and a local grocer just a few blocks up the hill.  When Paul asked where the Christmas turkey we ordered was from, the butcher pointed across the River Tay, approximately 15 minutes away by car.

Things also have a more limited shelf life.  I told my (English, but has lived in Scotland 20+ years) boss that milk in the US will stay good in your refrigerator for a week. She was appalled.  Milk is really only good here for 3-4 days after being opened. Fewer preservatives, I guess.  Organic food is also common, and often as cheap (sometimes cheaper) that the non-organic item.

Even the small market just up the hill (which is bigger than a US convenience store, but would probably charge premium prices in the US anyway) advertises their Scottish/British foods (and the prices for most items are comparable to the large chains like Tesco).

3. Walk-ability

We do have a car here, which is convenient, especially when traveling around the local area.  But like most of Europe, Scotland is much more walkable and accessible by public transit. I can  walk to work in about 10 minutes. Walk Audrey to school in about 15 minutes. Walk to the city centre in 20 minutes. And I could take the bus to these places even faster.  I can really get everywhere I need to go, and many places I want to go (singing rehearsal, the cinema) by walking. And everybody walks. There is no such thing as a school bus...literally everyone walks to school, or takes the city bus there. And in the city centre there are always scores of people (proper Scottish would be "loads of people") walking around, shopping, visiting the library, having coffee, all walking from place to place. Don't get me wrong, Dundee does have shopping centers and strip malls - but they are not the norm, and you have to work a bit to get there. I kind of like that (although I do miss Target for one stop shopping...not really a familiar concept around here).