Well well

So I just wrote a huge blog and somehow it got deleted. I guess I'm not rewriting that. So today's is short. We had class today and everything went good. I'll post a couple videos below.

This video is of a bagpiper on Princes St.

Jacob and I in H & M. They have this store in the U.S. but not by us. We thought these glasses were pretty attractive ;)

Well sorry that this blog is disappointing, I had a good one written I really did, but technology is not always on my side.

Goodnight,

Hayley and Jacob

Another Day in Edinburgh

Good Afternoon/Night,

Today we took another trip into Edinburgh. We did part of a scavenger hunt with some people from the house and eventually went on our own little trip around the city. We went to Waverly Train Station today and that was definitely cool to see since we don't have many train stations in the United States. The train schedule boards seem utterly confusing and I don't plan on ever taking one.  Inside though the train station was very clean to my surprise. The only odd thing is that you have to pay to use the bathroom which I heard is common in the UK and in Europe. I would rather hold it than pay 40 pence to use the toilet which is probably gross and not clean.

To get to Edinburgh from Dalkeith or vice versa we have to use bus tickets/bus passes. The system is actually pretty slick but very time consuming since it takes us 40 minutes to go 10 miles. The buses are usually double deckers so that makes it more fun and the scenery is gorgeous. There are some tricky things about the bus systems though, such as make sure you taking the bus that goes in the right direction or you'll end up no where close to home. We have to take 3, 3A, or 49 to get to Edinburgh or to get back from Edinburgh. We have to make sure that we are on the correct side of the street or we'll go in the wrong direction. And they don't let you know what stop your coming to, they just drive right past it if no one presses the "stop" button. So you basically have to know when your stop is coming up or you'll completely miss it.

Today in Edinburgh I saw my life flash before my eyes. I guess I'm used to the little town feel of Marion and Menomonie, as today I tried to cross the streets. I looked for cars of course but I only looked to the left and of course there weren't any cars.  I forgot that they drive on the opposite side of the road. (Oops) Just as I put my foot out to cross I hear a screaching honk coming from a car that's whipping around the corner and about to plow me over. Jacob quickly jerked me back thank goodness or I could've been a goner. They drive like maniacs here. They drive super fast and whip around corners like no other.

Jacob, Carissa (one of my roommates) and I ate lunch as this restaurant called the Bank Hotel on the Royal Mile. I had a BLT Ciabatta (Carissa did too) and Jacob had a Chicken Cheddar Cheese Jalapeno Ciabatta. They were delicious. The weird thing about some of the restaurants here is that you have to go to the bar to order your meal and you tell them where you are sitting and then they bring your food to you. There aren't any waitresses here or anything. And tipping isn't necessarily required either. Another thing we found out today is that their mayonnaise is NOT....I repeat....NOT.....our mayonnaise. Their's is made out of egg and then has the mayonnaise added so it basically tastes like an egg salad sandwich. And ranch dressing is non-existant here. They use oil and vinegar on their salads which does not in anyway satisfy my pallate when it comes to salad dressing.

Jacob and I made a trip to the grocery store today once we got back to Dalkeith. The store is called Lidl (pronounced Little) and is basically like our Aldi's. You pay for a cart, no bags, and super cheap. Their water here and sodas are so inexpensive it's amazes me. I bought two 2 liters of water today and they were each 25 pence. So that's like 80 cents in American money. In America you can't even by a 16 oz. water for $1.00. All together my bill came to around 1.50 lbs. I was shocked. No wonder these stores are everywhere around in Scotland. We pass like 4 of them when we go to Edinburgh. I have yet to find a store that is even close to a Wal-Mart and I'm not going to lie but I miss Wal-Mart. I never realized how convenient they were until I came here. Jacob's been trying to find a pillow and we have yet to find a place that even sells them.

We start classes tomorrow so that will be a small change. I'm excited to start as it will keep my occupied. Jacob and I have 4 classes; Jazz, Music in Our World, Business Management, and Scotland Globalization. We have 2 teachers here that teach all of the classes offered. They live in the same house as us but in their own wing. It's kind of convenient because if we ever have questions they will only be a door away. They also will be participating in all of our house trips such as London in 2 weekends, so we'll get to know them personally and not as just teachers.

This weekend on Friday we are doing a day trip to St. Andrews. For those of you who don't know the game of Golf was invented in Scotland and St. Andrews is the first golf course in the world. From pictures it seems beautiful and I can't wait to see it. I'm sure my Dad's a little jealous since I will be seeing it before him but he'll see it soon enough. The day trip should be an adventure as we are taking a bus there. The cost is 15 lbs. per person and includes transportation and admission into the Castle there I think. Jacob and I figured we didn't have anything planned for this Friday so we might as well go. The course at St. Andrews (there's many courses, but the main one) hosts some golf championship every once in a while (Dan Brandenburg, I'm sure you know the Championship) so it's a pretty big deal. So we're excited for that and we'll take tons of pictures.

Well it's almost time for us to go to a traditional dance ensemble called the Cailledah (pronouced Kailee), and hopefully that's fun. Maybe we'll dance around in kilts! :) By the way, kilts and bagpipers still exist here. They make me chuckle!

Have a great day in Wisconsin!

Hayley and Jacob

Exploring Edinburgh

Hey Everyone,

More orientation continued today. Some of the things they told us were kind of scary. One guy who's here in the house got randomly punched in the face last night at a pub. They brought this up at our orientation and told us the the Scottish hit people in the face if they're annoyed, you say stupid things, give them a dirty look or even for bumping into them by accident. So basically I'm never going to a pub around here. I refuse to get punched in the face for no reason. They also told us that cops here don't carry guns they only carry batons and pepper spray. And you can't carry pepper spray if you aren't a cop because according to the law here that is considered a fire arm. They also told us about this one pub in Dalkeith to stay away from because from 12-3 a.m. they have 8 cops stand around the premisis because the fights get so bad there. Doesn't sound like a very safe town, I know.

Today Jacob and I went into Edinburgh and toured the Edinburgh Castle. To my surprise it was pretty cool and Jacob really enjoyed it as well. The one cool thing was that they had all of these books of people who died in some wars and they were all listed alphabetically by last name. We looked through every single book and found 32 "Peebles". Obviously Jacob has some heritage here as there is also a town called Peebles about 20 minutes away. I didn't find any "Evrard"s but I can't seem to find Evrard's anywhere, let alone a different country. The above picture is of the country side leaving Dalkeith on our way to Edinburgh via bus. Speaking of the bus, this is a public bus system. They showed us how to get to Edinburgh via the bus and we had a chaperone take us there. But then they gave us a bus ticket and said when you are done in Edinburgh find your way back to the Palace. Well when there's about 50 bus stops and 50 different buses it kind of freaked us out. They told us where to get back on to go home and to take either bus 3, 3A, or 49. Jacob and I got on bus 3 on the way home and thankfully got off at the right stop.

Here's the outside of the Castle. This was as we were walking up to the gate to get in. We spend a good 3.5 hours in the Castle. We purchased the headsets that tell you extra information about certain spots and to my surprise they were very informative. We walked the entire Castle and probably could've spent more time there if we wished.

More of the Castle.

Here's a view of Edinburgh from the top of the Castle. The weather was very misty and foggy so the pictures aren't as "sunny and bright" as I wish they would've been.

This picture is odd. This little patch of grass with the gravestones around it is a dog graveyard. No joke. And yes, this was at the Castle. Supposedly this graveyard was for soldier's dogs who passed away.

Another view of Edinburgh. Can you spot the train station?

Here's a room filled with swords. All of the walls in the room were lined with these and the details on them are very precise making them even cooler to look at.

A handle on one of the swords.

The Queen of Scotland became Queen at 9 months old. That's not exaclty what I think a 9 month old has in mind during that period of their life. I wonder how well she did as Queen?

Picture of the Castle (ignore the construction)

Jacob and I

Jacob and I walked the Royal Mile for a little bit. The Royal Mile is one mile long and has tons of souvenier shops on it.

Jacob in a red telephone booth :)

Me in the red telephone booth :)

St. Giles Cathedral.  It was so gorgeous inside.

A heart in the road. I read about this in one of my guide books, and I can't really remember the significance but I know there's something hahahahaha.

Ceiling in the Cathedral. Took this picture and then realized that you had to pay to take pictures. OOPS!

Anyone watch the show Supernanny? This is definitely a Supernanny car? A lot of the cars are like this. Almost all of the cars are stickshifts, hatchbacks, and itty-bitty.

Another huge shopping street in Edinburgh besides the Royal Mile. Jacob and I will have to return here as we didn't go down this street much. Jacob's ankle started to bother him so we got something to eat and went back to the Palace. But I here the shopping is great on this road! Looks like we're going back tomorrow! :)

A picture of the Castle from afar.

Arthur's Seat. I am going to climb this before I leave. I will I will I will.

It's basically a huge cliff and is pretty famous for hiking.

Saw this SuperBowl sign on a Pub's window......pretty damn cool.

Jacob in the cafe where we had dinner. Many places were closed at 5 pm when we started looking for places to eat. We found this little pasta cafe and we both got baguette paninis that were delicious.

This is Jacob's orange Fanta from dinner. It didn't come out of the can orange like in the United States and it didn't really taste like our Fanta either. But it was still really good.

The sign outside the Dalkeith Palace. We live in a County Park.

St. John's Monument. It is absolutely gorgeous.

St. John's Monument again.

Well I guess that's all for today. It's 8:30 here and I'm ready to pile on the clothes in order to stay warm. I'm glad I brought the turtle necks my mom suggested I pack. :)



Good Morning

Good Morning (wait, good night),

Well good morning for me and good night for you. Gotta love the 6 hour time difference. Just got back from an early breakfast of cereal (cornflakes...my favorite), toast, and orange juice. We have a training session at 8:30 about food training which is required by Scottish law if we work in the kitchen here. Even if we aren't working in the kitchen they still said we have to go. We are actually tested on this so hopefully I pass. At about 11:00 we then have an Alcohol and Pub Etiquette class and then at noon we have a Lothian and Borders Police class explaining their laws here. At 1:00 p.m. we get to go to Edinburgh which is optional but if we go we get into the Edinburgh Castle for free. Jacob and I are both going to go since everything is always better when it's free! I guess I'll update later tonight when we get back to let you know how Edinburgh went!


Hayley and Jacob

These are the clouds (obviously) on our flight from Amsterdam to Edinburgh. I was sleeping but Jacob said it was just gorgeous. If you look close you can see the ocean.

This is a tunnel in the Detroit Airport. It's pretty cool and constantly changes colors.

This was the map on our tv's on our flight from Detroit to Amsterdam. It showed how far we were.

Jacob and I

On the bus trip to Dalkeith, Scotland

More gorgeous clouds

Again on the bus ride to Dalkeith. The mountains are beautiful!

We Made It To Edinburgh

Hello Everyone,

Where to start? Well Wednesday my mom, Jacob's mom, and his sister Leah took us to the Appleton airport to send us on our way. They all got "gate passes" so that they could cross security and sit with us while we waited to board our flight. Let's just say that there were many tears shed and that we were then on our way!

We arrived in Detroit's airport where our layover seemed to fly by. We only had about 1 hour for a layover. We got off the plane, used the bathrooms, and grabbed some lunch (we were going to have Quizno's but there's no way I'm paying $7.00 for a sandwich that I have to scarf down in 5 minutes, so we resorted to some pizza.) We tried to access some wireless internet to let our parents know that we made it but that was a bust. The internet wouldn't connect, and when we finally found one that did, it was one where you had to pay. So Jacob got some change from a store and we payed $1.00 for 4 minutes of talk time to call home. I called my mom and told her we atleast made it as far as Detroit. I let her know our internet situation and told her that we probably wouldn't talk to her until we actually got to Scotland. We then boarded our flight to Amsterdam, and the 8 hours it was going to take didn't seem at all appealing.

So we started the long flight which held tons of people. We both started out watching a movie (you each get your own television screen) and they served us a snack of peanuts or pretzels. Eventually we got some dinner which we had the choice of chicken or pasta. Of course I picked the pasta and Jacob did as well. It was pasta with cheesy alfredo sauce with spinach, a side salad, crackers and cheese, a roll, and a brownie. It was pretty impressive for an inflight meal so we were satisfied. Then came the time where we new we should try and sleep. The plane actually provides new pillows and blankets for each person on the flight which was convenient. Jacob ended up falling asleep, but I was not as lucky. I realized that before the flight I had taken some headache medicine which contained caffeine and that was the culprit of my sleepless 8 hour flight. Also, the screaming kids and a person who kept needing medical attention about 6 rows ahead of us kept us awake as well. All in all the flight was fine and we made it to Amsterdam, The Netherlands (previously known as Holland).

We got off the plane and again used the bathroom and got something to drink. We figured we would attempt the internet thing one more time. We connected to the internet but they only allow 1 hour of free internet which was more than enough for us. So we notified our parents again telling them that we had made it to Amsterdam and that we only  had one more flight to go. Amsterdam was a weird airport, you have to go through security again when you get to your flights gate. So basically you can't leave your gate if you want food or water or anything unless you want to go back through security. I guess I like that fact that they're trying to keep the flights safe but it was a pain in the butt.

We finally took off and made it to Edinburgh. We got our bags (they arrived thank the Lord) and went through customs. Customs was a piece of cake and the lady even asked if we were doing the Wisconsin in Scotland program, which we are. So that was kind of cool. We then walked toward the exit where we were greated by Patty who is our house director. We took a mini bus to the Palace and got all setteled in. The outside is gorgeous and the inside is definitely old. Old furniture and a little beat up. But it is what it is. They told us it would be cold in the Palace but I think they meant FREEZING. I slept in a turtleneck, sweatshirt, leggings and pajama pants all last night. And don't forget about the socks either. I'm currently wearing my winter coat while I write this since it's so cold. We've been doing a lot of orientation things and will continue doing them throughout the weekend. Tomorrow we are going into Edinburgh so that will be fun.

I don't have much more to write since we haven't exactly done much yet but I'm sure after this weekend I'll post some pictures and tell you more about Edinburgh and Dalkeith. Have fun in Wisconsin and stay warm!

Love and Miss you All,

Hayley and Jacob

Long Day

Hey Everyone,
Jacob and I made it to Scotland and we are settled into our new "home." Not quite what we expected but it will do :) I would love to let you in on our travel stories but since I only got one our of sleep on a very turbulant plane ride, I would rather sleep right about now. It's approx. 7:38 p.m. in Scotland and in Marion it's only 1:40 p.m. So have fun working back in the U.S. and I will type more and tell you our stories when the time permits. We have a pretty busy "orientation" schedule for the next three days so we'll see if I have any time to write.

Love and miss you all!

Tomorrow is the day!

Wow,
I can't believe that January 26th is arriving tomorrow. I've had a countdown since triple digits and now there aren't any more days to count. I thought I was done packing a couple days ago until the Packers won the NFC championship. (I hope I got that right, I'm not too big into football.) Since they won I had to pack the Packer jersey since Jacob will NOT miss the Superbowl. I immediately e-mailed the lady over in Scotland who is in charge and asked her how we will be able to watch the Superbowl. She replied that they will be showing it at the Palace (where we are staying), since all of the students and professors are from Wisconsin/Minnesota. The downfall is that the pregame doesn't start until 11:30 p.m. in Scotland and the game doesn't start until around 1 a.m. So it will be a late night that Sunday but of course it will be completely worth it.

Jacob's mom and my  mom are taking us both to the airport. Derek and Leah (Jacob's siblings) are also coming along for the ride to the Appleton airport. I was a little worried that our flights might get messed up and that clearing security might be more difficult as President Obama is coming to Manitowac tomorrow as well. To my joy he is arriving at Austin Straubel Airport in Green Bay which should make our departure easier. The flight leaves Appleton for Detroit at 1:15 p.m. and we arrive in Detroit around 3:30. From Detroit we fly to Amsterdam, The Netherlands (previously known as Holland), where we have a 2 hour layover and then fly to Edinburgh, Scotland. Edinburgh is the capitol of Scotland and the Palace is about 10 miles away in Dalkeith. Edinburgh is a population of 440,000 so it's definitely a change from little 'ol Marion or even Menomonie where UW-Stout is.

So, hopefully the flights go well and there aren't any bumps in the road. We have our papers ready so clearing customs will hopefully be a piece of cake.....I'll let you all know when we arrive!

Adios United States, Hello United Kingdom!

Hayley and Jacob

Packing, Flights, and Sleepless Nights

Well Jacob and I are officially packed. I first started out with 2 larger suitcases that I already own. The weight limit of 50 lbs was close with the the biggest suitcase and the 2nd suitcase (smaller one) was about 40 lbs but I couldn't jam any more stuff into it. Since I couldn't fit anything Jacob and I went to Green Bay and bought a bigger suitcase. Now everything fits and they are both just under the weight limit.
Today Jacob and I got news that our flight itinerary had changed. Of course I was frantic about what could have possibly changed and would we make it to Scotland in time for our shuttle to pick us up from the airport? We got home and checked the e-mail, the change was a 10 minute difference in one of our flights home in May. I guess we had nothing to worry about. The weather seems like it will be pleasurable when we arrive. As of right now it says that the low is 35 degrees. Compared to the -35 degrees we had here in Wisconsin yesterday, I'll take the +35 degrees any day.
Hopefully everything goes smoothly with checking in at the airport, paying extra for our bags, getting through customs and hopping on our shuttle to the house. More sleepless nights to come....

Counting Down The Days

Hey Everyone,
I'm counting down the days. 10 days left, so tomorrow we will be in the single digits! Got Jacob almost completely packed today. He has about 30 lbs. left to spare in his luggage. I'm pretty sure I'll be cutting the luggage weight limit (50 pounds per suitcase) pretty close. We are both allowed to have 2 suitcases. The first one is free for international flights but you have to pay for the second one ($50 charge).  In all reality what's an extra $50 when we are already spending a lot of money? Jacob and I both went and got British Pounds from the bank so that we have their currency when we arrive. Their money looks like fake money, it's shiny and has the Queen on every single type of bill. We received our official letters for customs, (cross my fingers that we don't have any problems getting into Scotland). The fact that Jacob and I are leaving for Scotland for 3 1/2 months hasn't exactly hit me yet, but once I'm on a LONG 8 hour flight from Detriot to Amsterdam I'm sure it will.

Until my fingers hit the keys,

Hayley

And the blogging begins.....

Hey Everyone,

As most of you  know Jacob and I are leaving for Scotland on January 26th! Only 13 days left.....yahoo! I've started the packing phase and repacking and repacking.....you get the point. Deciding what to take is the hardest challenge so far. Two suitcases for 3 1/2 months really isn't that much room. As long as I have the necessities I will survive. I'm hoping to update this blog often so people can read about mine and Jacob's adventures. The good, bad and ugly will probably be posted :)

Until my fingers meet the keys again,

Hayley