Our first 11 days in Scotland

To the many gracious family and friends who want to follow along with our adventure, we offer this blog….

After a VERY long and cold journey, we did arrive. We left Harrah, OK (with the abundant care of Les and Benita) at 4:30 am on Jan 1^st. Happy New Year! OKC was a great airport from which to leave, small, not crowded, and friendly. The flight to Newark was seamless, and then we embarked on our great idea to show the kids NYC in all its Christmas wonder. Since everyone had gotten up in the middle of the night and the wind chill was in the single digits, this proved to be less-than-enjoyable, or in Lance’s words, “an unmitigated disaster.” We did see the Empire State Building (from the ground outside) and the Rockefeller Christmas Tree (notice the abject joy on everyone’s faces) as well took a (scream-filled) trip down a few streets and the Lego Store. The silver lining is that in all future trips, this will be our lodestar of horror (“Well that was a little stressful, but it wasn’t as bad as New York!”)

The flight to Edinburgh was the smoothest Lance and I had ever experienced. Immigration went smoothly. We walked through Customs without even stopping, and it didn’t take too much effort to find our taxi. All graces for which we were very thankful.

Our new St. Andrews friend T.J. met us at our new house and took Lance and Kate on our first grocery run. The house wasn’t as cold as New York, but it was pretty chilly and it takes quite awhile for radiator heat to catch up. The rest of that day was a long endurance run through coldness and tiredness. We did survive.

On Wednesday, T.J. drove me to work and I met with the scholar who let me know about this opportunity, Alan Torrance. We had coffee at the Golf Café overlooking the ocean and the course. It was stunning and encouraging as he spoke about the history and future of the Logos Institute. I’m simply thrilled to be a part. I spent the better part of that day at HR and other offices that helped me get inducted. While I was in town, Lance and the kids were exploring our neighborhood. We are just a few minutes’ walk from the East Sands Beach. Inside, the kids fell in love with our attic loft where they constructed their own play world.

Since then we’ve fallen into a decent rhythm. Lance has taken the lion’s share of the workload to get us settled in, with a mobile phone, internet, utilities, etc. He’s navigated the many great small stores around town as we’ve fallen in love with fresh Scottish food and especially rich Scottish dairy products! Alan has graciously introduced him to several musicians in town and the churches have been very welcoming, so his plan for the next full week is to find as many organs as possible that he can play on a regular basis!

I have a lovely third-floor office space at St. Mary’s College (the theological school of St. Andrews) that I share with several other (very helpful!) research fellows and students. I love the spiral staircase I climb to my office, and love how quiet it is for thinking and writing. I have met many of the faculty at St. Mary’s and will start to meet more students as the semester begins in a few weeks.

Kate and Maxson are enrolled at Canongate Primary School. We walked the first morning (our coldest here, wind chills were in the teens), over a mile, and they were troopers. After that they’ve been riding the bus. It is a large city bus, but reserved at that time and on that route for their school. The children have been very welcoming to Kate and Maxson. Kate said on the first day, “I have too many friends to count!” This month they are memorizing the poetry of Robert Burns, and learning Scottish dancing. They seem to be doing quite well, although Maxson admitted that it still doesn’t feel comfortable there yet. Their hearts, we are sure, are still at Hawthorne.

Kindred started at St. Andrews Nursery School, and although he claims he forgets his whole day as soon as we pick him up, we hear glimpses of fun things like playing outside, painting, Lego, and computer time. We are pretty sure that if they ever have free time, he chooses to read “Billy Goats Gruff” on the computer. His teachers are abundantly kind, and though he worried he wouldn’t be able to understand “Scottish,” all sound (to me!) like Mrs. Doubtfire.

We’ve taken two day trips on our Saturdays. First to Dundee to buy school uniforms and second to Edinburgh to visit our grad school friends, the Novensons. The bus and train system are fantastic (just as everyone told us!). Dundee is a little gritty, but we had a great meal there and enjoyed walking around (and spending the end of the kids Christmas money – thanks Grammy!).

Edinburgh was stunning. Truly one of the most amazing cities Lance and I have visited. The Novensons fed us a lovely lunch, then walked us just a few streets away in their neighborhood to the top of Blackford Hill where we could see the entirety of the city. Michelle promised the boys it would be better than a movie and she was right. They thoroughly enjoyed playing tig (as we have learned to say in “Scottish”) and taking in the views.  

Close up, Edinburgh looks like the wizarding city J. K. Rowling imagined it to be. With homage to Sir Walter Scott, Greyfriar’s Bobby, and the young wizard himself, we hit several of the highlights on what we hope will be only the first of many visits (to the great delight of our Hogwarts’ loving girl).

At the close of our first full (non-jetlagged) week, we can say that we are LOVING it. The pace of sabbatical itself gives room to enjoy and breathe (while still getting lots of writing done), and in this setting, we still keep having to pinch ourselves at the beauty of this gift.

Favorites:

Walking everywhere (Lance and I are killing step counts every single day)

The East Sands Leisure Center. Just a block or so from our house, we’ve swam in this amazing pool on most days.

The people of Scotland, so welcoming

The town of St. Andrews. It reminds us of Wheaton and Princeton. Cute shops. Fun restaurants. The energy of a University. It’s only a lot older and sits right next to the ocean.

Hopes:

That Maxson would love school as much as Kate

More time for work/practicing for Lance

That we could find another place to live! The landlords of our cute little house have decided they need to sell, so we need to find another nice place in the next month or so.

That Kindred either falls in love with walking or we will find another way to transport him (our backs are feeling it!)

Since we do have internet in the last few days (it took awhile!), we look forward to keeping in touch with you all! We miss everyone!