Weekend 1

Written September 12th:

It is a lovely evening here in Aberdeen. It was a warm day and is in the low 60’s outside right now. Not bad since it is almost 7pm. I am sitting at our new desk set in a little alcove made of windows listening to the Curious George soundtrack by Jack Johnson. Ahhhh…the only thing that could make this better would be an internet connection.

Today has been a wonderful, terrific, totally good day! I was driving off to an interview this afternoon when I saw a global delivery guy drive up to the apartment. My mom said the package she sent me was supposed to be in tomorrow so I pulled over, thinking it might be my orthodics, and asked if it was for me. It was, but much to my surprise, it wasn’t from my mom. It was a box FULL of new pajamas, robes, and nightgowns all made of warm and snuggly material from my Aunt Cindi! I was so excited to open that box. I was like a little girl at Christmas pulling item after item out. The weather here has been sooooo much colder than I thought and I know I will be in those flannel PJs in no time.

But the fun day doesn’t end there. My friend Valerie, the wife of the other exchangee, knocked a little while later and had a package the UPS man delivered to her while I was gone. And this time it was the package from my mom. Yes – the wonderful orthodics (just like Dr. Scholl’s inserts) that have taken years and months to get. For those of you don’t know, I got a stress fracture in the ball of my foot the summer before I went to college at my last Irish dance competition ever. I had doctors tell me there was nothing I could do, so I basically haven’t been able to run or walk long distances without pain for about 5 years now. Well, I found a specialist in Houston who fitted me for an orthodics, however he made a big mistake and I didn’t get them before we left for the UK. My mom has been spending the last two weeks reading page after page of customs forms, fighting with the doctor’s office, etc. But today they came and today I ran. Yes. I ran and I have absolutely no pain in my foot!!!!!!!!!! IT HAS BEEN FIVE YEARS!!!! YEA! HURRAY!

Enough about all that, I bet you wonder what is new in Scotland? Well, as my last post mentioned we went to the Braemar Gathering the first weekend in September. It was absolutely freezing, but so much fun. I think the pictures and video will show you just what I mean. (To be added when we have internet...sorry!)

After that weekend Sander settled into his job and we were able to make a few new friends. Our guides who took us to Stonehaven got together with us on Thursday so the guys could play catch. Sander is thrilled of course to find someone who will play ball with him here. You can’t even really buy baseballs here, so he brought about a dozen with us, just in case. Looks like there are others who might be interested, so perhaps a UK branch of backyard baseball could be in our future?