First Impressions

September 10, 2009

Family, its been so long and I'm so sorry for not getting a chance to contact you guys! I'm not going to lie...I thought we were going to arrive and see this beautiful country, and be welcomed with opened arms and just completely fall in love with it. But, sadly, this hasn't entirely been the case...

We arrived here at about 7 in the morning thursday morning. Our flight out of New Jersey into Edinburgh was about 6 hours long (after 2 other flights this one was seriously murder). It was the most turbulent flight I've ever been on...I really thought we were going to die haha. The best part was, luckily, this really smug looking handsome kid was sitting next to Angela and I, and so I thought I'd spark up some conversation. He ended up being the first Scottish person that we'd meet. His name is Blair, and Hes 19 years old and full of really helpful advice and a good sense of humor. He's a great kid and really helped us out a lot.

After 6 hours and the Angels and Demons movie, we arrived in beautiful Edinburgh. It was seriously a sight I'll never forget. I almost cried (mainly because I was so glad to be on the ground). Our luggage, thankfully, arrived safe and untouched. Blair had told us that it would be best (and cheapest) to take the bus into to City Center (Princes Street) and from there catch a cab to our B&B (which is only like 6 minutes away). We figured "easy enough". So we buy a map and get on our way. We find the bus we're supposed to get on and head towards it with our luggage (which we both have on these luggage cart things). It's our turn to get on, the bus door opens and we're welcomed with these words "Don't you know you're not supposed to bring the cart in line!? You better not hit my bus!" I ask the "nice" gentleman where I put my luggage and he says "Well inside of course!" At this point I realize we, combined, have 6 bags that weigh a total of about 200 lbs and a line full of people behind us. To make a long story short, no one helped us out. Everyone got on the bus and didn't wait for us to get our luggage on. Angela ended up accidentally hitting the bus and the nice man yelled at her. It wasn't the traditional "open arms" welcoming we had hoped for.

So tired, hungry, and pretty upset now, we head towards City Centre. The sights are so beautiful that we can't help to calm down and Thank God that at least we're finally here and it's going to be great. The bus stops, and while we're getting off the driver seems to be really cheerful and talkative to us (as if nothing happened). So that makes us feel better. We get a cab. The driver was this really nice, funny guy that kind of reminds me of Harry Potters uncle in the movie (tall, chubby, mustache...). He takes us right to the B&B.

The neighborhoods are seriously unlike anything I've every seen in real life. They look familiar only because in movies set in like old english times do you see stuff like this. Their front yard walls aren't made of rock, their tall shrubs. There's green EVERYWHERE. Seagulls instead of pigeons. All the cars are really nice...no old, beat up, pick up trucks in sight.

We get inside the B&B and are greeted by this really nice girl named Timy. The B&B is owned and run by a family made up of parents and 3 little kids (all under like 7 I think). Timy has some really good news. "Oh no, you all are a little early." We say what do you mean? She says "Well, check out time is at 930, but check it time is at 400 pm". It just so happens to be 930. So she manages to get our key and advises us to be back around 4:00 and our room will be ready. Angela and I just try to look on the bright side and figure we can get a lot done in about 6 hours so maybe this is a blessing in disguise. So we take a look at our map, and start walking towards the campus.

Now I don't know if you all noticed, but when we left Angela and I weren't exactly in the kind of shape you need to be to run a marathon. Well, we definitely felt it walking in the hills of Scotland. The only thing that made up for the blistering feet, burning legs, aching back, and loss of breath was the absolutely amazing scenery. We were saying that the closest thing that compares to a place like this is Ruidoso, but the gap is still very far between. So about 2 miles and an entire golf course later, we arrive to the campus we're supposed to be at, Craiglockhart.

There's hundreds of students around, all really cool looking, and loud music because it was "Freshers" Week. Angela and I get really excited because we finally feel like we've reached a place where we'll fit in. We step inside the building and, of course, have no idea where to go. We're led outside of the International Students office and greeted by Scottish girl that was probably having a really bad day. Rude. Finally we meet the lady and man we've been talking to in emails all year long, Claire and Slawek. Both of them are GREAT people. I mean great. Nice to the max. Like, I want to be their best friend nice. haha We're sitting in the office, taking care of business, and it hits us. It's noon now, and we're crashing like there's no tomorrow. Angela turns to me and says "Are you dizzy and light-headed, and does it feel like you're moving right now?" and I go "Yep". But, of course it being our luck, we're advised to go see our Academic Advisors so we can register for school. Completely disoriented, we decide to move forward because we know we should...also, remember we kind of don't have anywhere else to go.

We take Lothian Bus 23 to the Craighouse Campus in order to get Angela advised and set up. The plan was to go see this man for Angela, then go a hop and skip to Merchiston Campus for my advisor. And while we were there at Merchiston we'd take care of our registration and be good to go (as far as school goes). We get of the bus at Craigouse,and we both feel like dying. It's close to 1:00 now, and from the waist down it's just pain. Plus, we have NO IDEA where to go for food. We get to the building and Angela is told that Mr. Ted Finch will be right with her. So we waited downstairs a little bit. A little bit turned into half an hour. Half an hour turned into one. One turned into two. Two turned into three. Angela and I wake up in the lobby and decide to just go back to the B&B.

It's almost 5:00, and all the kids are getting out of school. They just wander the streets in their little uniforms and accents. It's really the cutest thing to see. Even though we're starving, we just plop on the bed and knock out.

We open our eyes and it's dark in the room. We check the phone and it's almost 10:00. We're still tired, but we're more hungry. There's a horrible stench in the room. It's as much Angela as it is me (more me though). So we decide to take our first shower in 2 days. I walk into the bathroom and see a sink, toilet, shower, and string hanging from the ceiling. I open the shower, and it's easy as pie. The buttons read "high, medium, low, and stop...and there's a dial for the heat". It's not rocket science, so I press high. Nothing happens. I press Medium. Nothing happens. Low. Nothing. Stop. Nothing. Turn dial. Nothing. I repeat this process, oh about, 20 times. I think it was just too long of a day to realize that I didn't know how to work a Scottish shower. Then, I see the string.

It was a suspicious looking string, dangling from a box in the ceiling like that. As if it had some kind of purpose. Stupid string. So, me being the all adventures, I tug it. Nothing. I tug it harder. Nothing. I tug that damn thing really hard, like really hard. Nothing. haha I give it one more try and I pull it so hard that there was a click. Holy crap...I broke something. The light on the shower controller went from on to off. I walk downstairs to talk to the owner and ask her whats up with the shower. "Hello" I say to a barely cracked open door. I can hear a T.V. A man and women start "whispering arguing" about who should open the door and talk to me (haha as if I can't hear them). The women swings the door open, in all her sleepy pajama glory and says "what do you want". "I'm sorry to bother you ma'am, but I'm from the U.S. staying in one of your rooms and I'd like to take a shower, but I really have no idea how to work it. Can you help me or something? I'm really sorry." She looks back at someone, then at me and says "are you serious". At this point I'm just frozen. I thought that the poor, helpless, good-looking, American card would work for me, but I was wrong. The man comes and flies to my rescue with a big ol' smile on his face and says "Don't worry about it I'll get it for you". The woman looked relieved.

We climb upstairs, hop into the restroom, and he says. "Oh here's your problem mate..." he tugs the string like nothing. It clicks. The light on the controller turns on. "It was off" he says. So just to make sure, I say "Oh okay than thanks a lot sir. So I just press the button and the shower will turn on?" He says "yeah, just pick your preference, high or low, and you'll be fine." Tell him thanks so much. He leaves. I get naked wearing nothing but a smile on my face and step into the shower. High. Nothing. Medium. Nothing. Low. Nothing. Dial. Nothing. Stop. Nothing. Crap.....

I put on my clothes and walk to the room. Angela asks me what happened, I tell her, and we walk to the restroom. Maybe it needed a woman's touch. Nope. I walk downstairs to go ask someone again. The man is no longer there. "Hello?" I say. I hear huffing and puffing. The woman appears, looking mad as hell. "Its 10 o clock in the night and I'm really tired what the hell do you want" (I'm really not kidding this is what she said). Scared, I tell her "look I'm really sorry but I really just can't figure out the shower!" She says, "Didn't Ross show you how to work it?!?!?!" I say "Yeah he did and I'm sorry but it still isn't working I don't know!" She storms upstairs and into the bathroom...me walking like a little puppy dog with my tail in between my legs behind her (about to cry). She looks at it, presses all the buttons, pulls the chord twice, presses all the buttons and says. "Someone has totally broken it" and she looks at me. She says" somebody jammed in the stop button so it won't work, did YOU do this?!?!" I tell her "no ma'am, I promise you i just tried to press all the buttons and that one was already like that" (it really was like that, but I just thought that was how it was supposed to be). She starts apologizing like crazy and asks me if I can do without a shower tonight. I tell her of course and she says goodnight.

Angela and I decide to get ready anyways and walk towards a busy street to find some food. Its now 11:00.

We pass by some little businesses, a bar, and this nice little place with a young man and old man working it and decide to go in. These guys were pure gentleman, really nice. We order a large pizza with pepperonis and peppers and are told that it'll be ready in about 10 minutes. "Cool" we think and sit down on some benches inside.

Just then, a short and stalky little man stumbles in reeking with alcohol. This man had like Danny Devito's body, with a little more muscle. He comes up, introduces himself, Ernie, asks Angela is she's Japanese, and just starts spitting out all kinds of jibberish. We make it very clear that we're doing fine without his company, so he leaves and tries to order something from the nice older gentleman. About a minute into his order, he calls the nice man bald. Ernie is drunker than drunk. The older man calls Ernie an idiot and tells him to get lost and go home to his bed. After a few bad exchanging of words between them, Ernie straight up tells this nice man "Fu** you". At this point the nice man is pretty upset. The store closes at midnight. The nice man says "why don't you come back after midnight and we'll talk then." Ernie doesn't leave, he just keeps on trying to start a fight. Angela and I are sitting, no lie, about 4 feet away from all this. My fists are clenched. The day has been way too long for some short, fat, stupid, drunk, little scottish man to try to mess with Angela or I. I decide that if this guy tries to touch either one of us, I'll kill him. Really, as bad as it sounds, I would've torn this guy apart. Well, some sensible, bigger guys pull Ernie outside and start arguing with him, asking him why he would be so rude to such a nice guy. The younger kid tells us our pizza is ready and says "You know, I'm really sorry about all that. I promise that NEVER happens. You all are actually pretty lucky to see this because really, it never happens. I'm really sorry though and please do come back." Man, these two guys were so nice. So we leave in a hurry, in fear of our lives, and speed walk like Billy Crystal all the way home. We get into the room, shed a few tears because it's been the worst day in the history of days since the beginning of time, eat a pizza, drink water and a sprite, watch "Love Actually" and fall asleep.

This was only our first day in Scotland.

Well, if you've read this far I congratulate you because this is, by far, the biggest piece of ramble and crap that I've ever written in my life! We love you all so much and we're doing okay now. Although it's really hard, we believe that we can still make it here and that it's only going to get better. At least we have each other. We had to extend our stay at the B&B until next thursday because finding a flat over here is like a meteorologist in El Paso predicting the weather. Impossible. But other than that, we're okay. School starts on Monday and even though we might miss a few classes because we still aren't registered, finding a place to live is #1 on our list right now. Thank you so much for all your prayers and thoughts because God knows we need them. We love you all and are really, really missing home right now. Miss you and talk to you soon!!!!

Cheers,

Angela and Dan