New Year's Eve and Gale Force Winds

Well, it seems like Mother Nature has ruined our plans yet again! First it was us seeing the Edinburgh castle (for free) because of the gale force winds. Now the New Year's celebration in George Square has been cancelled because of the gale force winds of 70 mph. The wind is whipping through the streets so forcefully that the lamp posts are moving quite a bit and the street barricades that had been set up for the celebrations were being blown around by the wind. We are bummed that the weather is so crappy because it sounded like it was going to be a great time with all the bands and entertainment throughout the night. But as we have been sick since Christmas with some sort of horrid cold, I suppose its for the best that the party has been cancelled!

Saturday, 23 December -- Ronda

We took the bus into the little mountain town of Ronda today. The town is known for the beautiful bridge below, known as the New Bridge. There are three in total, and obviously this one is the newest. It was built in the 18th century and is still functioning today as the bridge across the gorge. You can also take a tour of the bridge which will allow you out onto some of the balconies of the bridge and inside the bridge which would allow for some fantastic views of the gorge. But since it was so close to the holidays, it was not open when we were there.

After you cross the bridge you are into the old historic part of town. We were wandering down the streets and ended up stumbling upon a Nazareth Market. I must say before this trip, I had been pretty bummed that we were not able to see any of the traditional Spanish Christmas practices. Today we were able to and it was wonderful. In this market most items were handmade and every one who had a booth was dressed in what people would have worn in Jesus' time. There was a man turning wood on an ancient foot powered lathe, and woman darning wool, a blacksmith, a wood carver, and cooks. The children took donkey rides through the square. There were all sorts of food booths similar to what would have been during this period of time. There was also a live Nativity in a little barn stall. It was amazing!
This is where we ate lunch at. I am not sure that chorizo and beer were available during the time of Jesus, but it was tasty!
This was the most amazing chocolate pastry that I have ever had. I have no idea what was in it, but Mike and I could have spent all of our money buying them out of it, if it would have been easy to get back to our apartment. Unfortunately, we only had this big slice. Of course, its all gone now, and we miss it.
The historic part of Ronda was incredibly beautiful. There were many old parts of the town that had been Incorporated into the newer buildings, such as doorways, walls, towers, and arches. Above if the Arch of Felipe V and was the old gateway access into Ronda. The old Moorish walls and gates were still standing, along with the Arab Baths, remains of mosques, a Moorish King's house and more. Some of these pictures are up on flickr.
This is the Old Bridge or Arab Bridge. The scenery was very beautiful in the gorge. This was probably our favorite day because of all we were able to see in just three hours. The market was incredible, along with the rest of the city and we highly recommend anyone going to the Costa del Sol or Andalusia visiting Ronda.

Friday, 22 December -- Gibraltar

It was another early morning... but at least we got to sleep into 6:30am! We went to Gibraltar with a different tour company than Thomson, and at 7:00am went out to wait for the bus to pick us up in front of the hotel. This double-decker bus finally came down the road at the appointed time of 7:10am. Mike handed the lady our tickets and she told us to get on the bus. At this time I noticed the name of the tour company and didn't think it was the same as the one with booked with, but the lady had looked at our tickets and told us to get on the bus. We were really excited too because we got to sit on the top level right up front! Such great seats! Well, I imagine you know where this is going. We got off the bus in Gibraltar to find out we had been on the wrong tour bus. Interestingly enough she didn't find this out until we were almost to Gibraltar and she looked at every one's tickets. We watched her do this at every stop and she actually looked at other's tickets and directed them to the correct company. But, such is life, we didn't have to change companies and no harm was done.
This is Gibraltar. For those of you who don't know its history... The Rock of Gibraltar has been a much contested piece of land for many years. The Spanish, Moors, English, and others have occupied it at various times throughout history. The English have had it in their possession since the 1700's. Of course there were many battles over the possession of Gibraltar since then, and Franco, one of Spain's leaders, demanded it back the mid 1950's when Spain joined the UN. There was a vote and a high majority wanted to stay British. Now it is claimed that Tony Blair is trying to sell it for the money. Many tourists visit the Rock because of the duty free prices. Alcohol and cigarettes are incredibly cheap there. Also, there are the Barbary Apes, St Michael's Caves, and the World War II tunnels. The city is also very beautiful. Every time the local government tries to tear down one of the historic buildings, the Heritage Society jumps in and stops them. Therefore, many of the old buildings have been renovated and the city has retained its old charm. A lot of the old military barracks have been renovated and are now incredibly expensive apartments.

This is at one of the observation points. Across the Straits of Gibraltar is Africa.

This is at the same point as above. Of course, there is also a lighthouse here. This is Ibrahim-al-Ibrahim Mosque, and is the only mosque on Gibraltar. It was built as a gift from the King of Saudi Arabia. It was closed, but we were told it is very beautiful on the inside was well as the outside.

This is a photo from the inside of St. Michael's Caves. They were used during World War II as well as the tunnels that were dug out. The formations were lovely and there are still parts of the caves that have yet to be explored. One theory of how the Barbary Apes came to the island is through these tunnels. Some think that they may go under the Straits of Gibraltar and into Africa where the Apes originate from. In these caves there is a concert hall of sorts. It would be amazing to see something there, but according to our guide in the summer you need an umbrella during the concert because of the water dripping off the ceiling.

The Barbary Apes were wonderful. There are about 300 apes on the island in 6 different packs. This one was right outside the caves. It is illegal to feed the apes, and of course you cannot leave the van with any food or they will rip it from your hands. People on the bus trip told us of the trip they took to see the apes 3 years ago -- someone had left a window on the van open and the apes got in and opened every one's bags looking for food. They are fed by the city everyday, but that doesn't stop them.

Every ape that is born on the island is tattooed so that they know it is part of the Gibraltar population. Each one also has its own name and the residents know just about all of them. The apes are tattooed because there is a black market for the baby apes. When the authorities find a baby ape dead or dying in a box somewhere in the world, Gibraltar is able to tell the authorities that the ape is/is not part of their population by the tattoo.

After our tour we were dropped off for shopping. Not exactly Mike and my favorite pastime, but it was nice to walk through the streets and window shop for a while and see all the beautiful buildings.

When we went down for dinner we were astonished. All week we had been served British food. Its not bad, but we went to Spain to experience Spain, not the UK. But we went down to dinner that night and found Spanish food!! There was all sorts of seafood and tapas. It was great and we were really excited. Of course, many weren't and opted for the usual British meal of fried fish and fries. Its amazing how many people go on vacation to foreign lands and never want to experience the country. Many people at our hotel never left the grounds and the hotel was just like a little slice of the UK in Spain. Quite sad, but its their loss.

Then the entertainment for the night was Flamenco Dancing. It was amazing to see the four dancers for the hour they preformed. It would have been nicer if it had been longer, but it was Christmas Carol night for the hotel reps and we had to sit through their horrid singing before we could actually see the dancing.

Mike and I had never been to a resort before that actually had entertainment and activities throughout the day and had no idea what to expect. Grandpa and Grandma VanderVoord have been on many cruises where there is entertainment and it has always looked wonderful. We went to a pretty low class resort, and the entertainment mirrored that. Lots of lounge singers and bingo every night. I took a video clip of the cult like bingo, but have no idea how to upload it. Every time someone yelled out "bingo!" there would be music and some sort of dance accompanied it. Mike and I were frightened and never returned for the bingo portion of the night.

Then there were the activities. Some were normal, such as lawn bowling. And archery is even okay. But there was also pistol shooting, rifle shooting, and radical shooting nearly every day. Seemed quite odd to us and again, we never participated.

Thursday, 21 December -- Malaga

We took the train into Malaga, which takes you right into the center of town. As soon as we got off the train we headed strait for the bullring and castle ruins. Along the way we found the Christmas Market. We had heard that there was one in town and were hoping that it would be like the one in Glasgow. What we found were booths with all the makings for a traditional Spanish Nativity, some jewelry and purse vendors and the rest were little joke shop vendors. These booths sold fireworks, fake poo, giant fake penises of various colors, and enormous boobs. Needless to say, we didn't spend lots of time in the Christmas Market. Something about a fake penis doesn't say "Happy Birthday Jesus" to me. At least all around the Christmas Market there were big nativity scenes and beautiful Christmas decorations all up.
We hiked up a massive hill to get to the castle, but the weather was so nice that we were wearing t-shirts all day. It was spectacular to be able to walk around in a tank top and sunglasses in December! It was quite the hike up the side of the cliff that the castle is atop, but the views of the harbour, bullring, and city were amazing.

This is a view of the city with the Malaga Cathedral in the middle of it all.

The first place we visited was the castle. It was not as impressive as the rest of the places we saw that day, but it was still beautiful. Most of the buildings are in ruins, but the outer walls are still there and you can walk along them in many places. Many of the gardens (like the one above) had been re-made and there was lots of information on the products of Spain and what the castle and its gardens may have looked like.

This is the amazing little restaurant we ate tapas at. We wanted to try real Spain food since our hotel's food was just like the food we can get here in Scotland. We tried excellent tuna and oysters from this little restaurant where the menus were still in Spanish! Again, you might say "duh, you were in Spain!" But everything in the stretch of coast to the east of Malaga is in English. The billboards, menus, maps, pamphlets, etc are all in English and most people talk to you in English. Malaga is only 10 minutes from were we stayed, but it had not sold out to tourism. We both enjoyed actually experiencing Spanish culture that day.

This is the Roman Theatre ruins that are being reconstructed. Part of the Arts College in Malaga has the students working on this theatre and the Alcazaba to reconstruct them to their old glory. We spent hours going through the Alcazaba. The walls all have ledges for you to walk along and see the city and, again, the views were amazing. There were lots of rooms and walkways in which the former decor (such as relief work and fresco like paintings on the walls) had been restored. Some of the pottery shards that had been found were put back together so we could see what they would have looked like. There was also a model kiln that would have been used.

Every now and then we would turn a corner and see a random fountain, courtyard garden, or decoration on the walls. It was amazing and I would recommend that any one who visits the Costa del Sol see the Alcazaba in Malaga.

Many of the archways were like this, and these aren't even the most beautiful that we saw that day. The white checked tile rectangles hold water. And, again, other courtyards were much more impressive.

The rest stop was the Cathedral. By this time we were tired from walking all day and had thought of skipping this place. We are so very glad we just decided to do it. I love seeing churches. In Chile, Shannon and I saw many of them and every city we stopped in we at least visited one. Sometimes we even went to a city specifically to see a church. Mike and I are much the same. One of our favorite tourist spots here is the Glasgow Cathedral. This is one picture that I took in the church. I am sure that I broke every Catholic Religious law by taking pictures inside, but it was too beautiful not to want to share what we saw. And in our defense, there were no "Do not take photos" signs like there are in so many other churches.

All the towns were decorated for the Holiday season. Not only for Christmas, but for Three Kings day as well. That is what the crown is for.

Wednesday, 20 December - Tangier

How We Came To Own A "Super Duper Magic Flying Carpet"

Many who know me, know that I am not a morning person. Neither is Mike really, so us waking up at 4:30am and being ready for the day by 5:20am is a big thing. Then we stopped at every Thomson owned resort in the next few cities, making a 2 hour journey into a 4 hour journey. We had hoped that we could sleep, but we were too excited. We left Spain from a little port city called Tarifa that is less than 25 miles to Tangier, Morocco in Africa. We took the fast ferry over and in less than a half hour we were in Africa. Since we went with a tour company, our passports were not stamped, just our tickets. We are also "fast tracked" through Moroccan customs (i.e. You walk right through it.) Well, Mike and I were at the end of the line and all of a sudden you walk out of customs and into Morocco. The traditional clothes of people from Tangier, or Berbers, were something similar to monk's robes. So, you step out into Morocco and are confronted with all these people in robes, and some in suits and regular dress. This combined with the fact that the National Languages are French and Arabic and its an Islamic nation and Mike and I are from the US. It was a tad overwhelming and we were really glad we were part of a tour group. Later we did learn that all Berbers are required to learn Arabic, French, and at least one other language by the time they graduate High School. Most know Arabic, French, Spanish, AND English. It was incredibly impressive. We were ushered on to a bus and driven through the "New Town." The French came to Tangier in the 1910's and started building this part of town and it is still growing today. This part of town wasn't really impressive because it was like any large city. It was interesting to learn of all the famous people throughout history that had lived there.
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This was our tour guide for the day. He was really crazy, and carried this stupid antennae with ribbons tied to the end of it so that we could easily follow him. Mike and I felt like we were in Elementary School again, and I am sure that people pointed and laughed at us as we went by. Now as I alluded to before, our Tangier tour guide was a bit more sketchy. (This might be the part where Mama might want to skip.) When we got back home we found a website talking about how Tangier is a difficult city to like, which it can be. You are bombarded from all sides for money of any kind. People are shoving items in your face begging you to buy them, and everyone wants a tip. There are of course underlying reasons why Tangier is a difficult city as well. In the past it has been a popular drug spot and the police have been corrupt. We knew this going to Tangier. Then we found a website that claimed there still are strong ties between the local police, authorities, and the mafia. I unfortunately have no pictures of the Tangier tour guide, but he was way too slick to be just a tour guide. He knew everyone and only took us to see his friends to buy wares from (not all that uncommon). But the odd thing was the amount of men with walking talkies circling our group and keeping people away. Anytime someone was being harassed to buy something, the harasser was immediately pulled off by one of these walkie talkie wielding Henchmen. The tour guide was definitely not rich enough to have body guards and Thomson would not hire them just for our group. It was all very suspicious until we read the site about the local mafia. We are now convinced that he was a part of it. So, those travelling to Morocco, do not book the trip through Thomson. The tour guides from the other companies looked less likely to be part of the Mafia.

After our tour of the New City, we went to the Medina (picture above.) Medina in Arabic - and Spanish - means "city" or in Tangier's case, the Old City. The houses are all built very close to each other with an outer wall surrounding them for protection. The streets are so narrow that no cars can get through, although they have built motorized vehicles small enough to maneuver down the lanes and corners to transport goods. The bottom floors are all shops and people live above them. There are thousands of people living and working inside these walls and interestingly enough the people living there come from immensely different economic backgrounds. It was amazing to walk through the streets and see men sewing robes, creating rugs, waving to people in windows above us, and just taking in all the sites of the city. This was the snake charmer we saw outside the Medina at the Casbah. I was so shocked to turn around and see a man with a cobra looking snake out and moving it around, this is the best picture I could get. He pulled out some less poisonous snake for people to take pictures with, but I declined.
Right before lunch we went to a traditional Moroccan Pharmacist. It was really interesting to hear about all the natural cures to common illnesses. We were able to try quite a few and they worked amazingly well. We didn't buy any of them because quite a few of them last a long time and we didn't know how well they would get through US customs being in an unmarked baggie. But we did get Mike some Moroccan spices for cooking while we are here. And we may be buying a book on natural remedies in the future.

Part of the tour included a five course Moroccan lunch. We were able to try soup, beef kebabs, couscous, honey cakes, and a sweet mint tea. It was all very delicious and I would love the recipes to them all. During lunch we were entertained by a traditional band and a belly dancer. Now, when we were told that there would be a belly dancer, all of us in the group expected a belly dancer, someone exotic and dressed like the girl from "I Dream of Jeannie". What we got was the girl below barely moving her hips from side to side and waving her hands about a bit. Needless to say, our table did not tip and we were all a bit let down. We all felt it was false advertising and wanted the real belly dancer to come out, but she never did. After lunch we were let out to shop for 30 minutes. Mike and I were a little bummed at first, not because we wanted to shop, but because we wanted to poke around the street. By then we had already bought a beautiful wooden camel. When we first came into the Medina, a man started following us and hastling us to buy bracelets. No part of me telling him, no I don't wear lots of bracelets would persuade him to stop getting us to buy the bracelets. When he finally caught on that we we're not going to buy the bracelets, he switched to camels. But we we're interested in the price. He kept going down, but we still weren't interested. Finally he just shoved the camel into my hands and turned to Mike and said, "8 euro." We were frantically trying to shove the camel back to him when we had our first encounter with one of the walkie talkie men. At this point we hadn't noticed them and I was sure that he thought we were trying to steal it and we would end up in a Moroccan prison. Thankfully he was on our side and just pushed the guy away from us. The seller reduced his price drastically and we bought the camel. I think we met the same seller 3 more times and each time he tried to get us to buy bracelets and another camel. For the rest of the day though, I keep my hands folded in front of me.

But, on to the shopping experience after lunch and how we now own a (small) Persian carpet. The guide had a "helper" to keep track of the 25 or so of us on the tour. He kindly guided us into a Moroccan Co-op, as he called it, and then up to where the carpets are made. He sat us down on this bench and told us to wait. Soon men came out with various Berber carpets to show us how wonderful they were and each one kept getting better. Then he brought out the 250,000 knot per foot silk carpet. Granted, it was smaller than the others, but they were super duper as he had claimed. He told us for 180 euro we could have it. So, we explained that we did not have that much money with us. So, he said he would give us 2 for 200 euro and they take credit cards. We explained that we had left them at home (and even if we hadn't I would not have used it in Africa!) So he reduced the price a little more, then I explained that we just got married and have no money. Wrong move, then he was convinced that we needed this carpet since we just got married. We told him all we had with us was 20 euro and he finally let up. We went downstairs and found a beautiful leather wallet for me (with the guy still following us around.) He tried to get us to buy more that just the wallet to no avail, so he took the wallet I was buying to bag it and I tried to give him the money. Guy, "How much for you to take the wallet and the carpet? 50 euro?" No, we don't have that much. Then Mike leaned over and whispered to me, "what about 30?" The man heard Mike and that is how we now have a carpet and wallet from Morocco. That was all 20 minutes into our shopping time. By the time we left the store, in a daze that we had just bought a carpet, we were ready to be done. We still cannot believe that we own an incredibly beautiful Persian rug, and have agreed that no one will ever step on it. We may not have paid that much for it, but its way too pretty! We have no idea what we will do with it yet, although we are thinking of making a glassed top table to put it in.
A couple from our group being hastled into buying a wallet.
A view from the bus ride home. Across the strait there is Africa and in the foreground is Spain.

Tuesday, 19th December -- Fuengirola and Benalmadena

Today Mike experienced his first Spanish Market in a city just down the coast from where we were, called Fuengirola. There was definitely not as much bartering as South America, but it was still really cheap and random. This is one of the most popular markets in the area and you could find anything from purses, to clothes, fruit, candy, nativity scenes, and of course the ever popular fake dog poo. We had lots of fun walking through the aisles and looking at all there was to offer.
Stacey, if you're reading this, we found your Christmas present for next year here... and no, its not fake dog poo. :)

After walking through the market for a couple of hours we were famished, so we decided to look for a Spanish restaurant. Who thought finding a Spanish restaurant in Spain would be so hard!! We found Mexican, American, British, Irish, German, Dutch, Italian, etc. Until, when we had almost given up hope, we finally found little restaurant called Ivan's, and no, it wasn't Russian. It was a wonderful restaurant run by a very friendly Spanish couple (you might say duh, but there were a lot of British family run restaurants). We had the most amazing paella there. I cannot remember if I have ever had it before, but it was Mike's first try and we both loved it. The only thing that kinda of irked us was the fact that in Spain the heads of the shrimp are still on when you receive the dish. I let Mike eat all of them.

A view of the coast and mountains behind off the pier in Fuengirola. The weather was spectacular and clear everyday except Saturday, and then we left the coast. I went wading in the Mediterranean, but it was a little chilly. But at least I can say that I went into the Mediterranean!

We then took the train over to Benalmadena and poked through the main park there. It was a typical park with all the flowers and plants, but there were tons of animals roaming about. There were peacocks, chickens, all sorts of ducks, rabbits, emus, swans, geese, and turtles. Also, they had various flora and fauna sectioned off throughout the park, such as the cacti area. There were lots of chickens roaming around the park, and of course, they followed us hoping for food. But we thought that this guy was pretty looking.

Benalmadena is right next to Torremolinos, so we decided after we walked through the park that we would just walk back to the hotel. Well, what we didn't account for is that we started on the very west end of Benalmadena and our hotel was on the very east end of Torremolinos. So, according to Google Maps we walked about 8 miles down the coast. And that doesn't even included the 1.5 mile walk to the train station in the morning nor us walking all over Fuengirola! By the end of dinner we were ready for bed, and only managed to stay awake until about 9:30 that night. But the next day we were going to Tangier, Morocco, so it was probably a good thing.

This is the Castle BilBil on the Benalmadena coast. People either hate it or love it, and Mike and I thought it was great. It is very Moorish in its architectural style, and by looking at it we never would have guessed it was it was built in the 1930's. It is the city's cultural centre, so there are lots of exhibitions and events there, but unfortunately it was closed for the holiday season.

All over the Costa del Sol the sidewalks had beautiful artwork on them such as this one. Even in one of the little towns that wasn't as touristy, there still were wonderful sidewalks made all out of rocks. I now have lots of ideas for the future! With all my rocks, I am sure that we will be able to make great walkways through a future yard. Mike is already excited about this project!!

A fountain in Benalmadena

This is the marina in Benalmadena. It is pretty large, and of course had massive boats in it. The apartments in the background were all very gated. Its a pretty ritzy part of town, and of course according to the resort reps the best clubbing in town. It even boasts to have a restaurant owned by Antonio Banderas and all sorts of Hollywood stars have been spotted there. But since we went during the tourist off season there was, unfortunately, no chance of seeing Antonio.

Monday,18 December - Torremolinos

We stayed in a VERY touristy town called Torremolinos, but it was great for exploring some of the region. We were really glad that we decided to go during the non-tourist season. Apparently during the summer its a just a little slice of Britain with all the UK tourists. That and LOTS of people on the nude beaches. Thankfully it was slightly chilly, so no nude beach goers.
We had a room on the 10th floor and the hotel was right next to the beach. Thankfully we could see the beach, and the mountains surrounding the Costa del Sol all from our balcony.

Above: Our hotel

Below: Views from our balcony

Since we felt the need to attend the "Welcome Meeting" our first day, we had to wait around until noon at the hotel before we could finally get on with our day. I have no idea what other resort welcome meetings are like, but it was a fairly big waste of an hour. All the resort reps did was freak us out that there would be no spaces left in the Tangier, Morocco trip unless we booked right away. So, like idiots we signed right up only to find out on our walk into town we could have booked the same trip for half the cost. At least we booked the our other side trek through the cheaper (and accredited) company. And the trip to Tangier was not fully booked, and in case any of you are wondering, the other tour company did exactly the same thing as we did, but their guide was not part of the local mafia. But that's a story for another day.
The rest of the day we spent poking around Torremolinos and walking along the beach. I, of course, found rocks and shells to bring home, but only a handful. Here are some pictures of Torremolinos and our day.

Mike drinking Sangria. The resort was all inclusive, so we drank quite a bit of it over our seven day stay.

We're back from Spain

We are back from Spain and all the sun. We left sunny, warm Spain and returned to Glasgow covered in fog and COLD. But we had a wonderful time in Spain. The weather was spectacular and we were able to see quite a bit of the Costa del Sol, and went to Gibraltar AND Morocco. I will post pictures and what all we did as time permits.

Our Christmas Newsletter

Us at the Christmas Ceilidh

Happy holidays from our family to yours!

As you can guess from our previous posts, it has been a very busy year for us. Trisha completed her Student Teaching and (finally) graduated in May. She can now officially teach Spanish and Earth Science! We then got married in June, the weekend after the wedding of Trish’s cousin, Brittany, in Illinois. We honeymooned in Tennesee for a week. We spent a long weekend in Niagara Falls attending a wonderful wedding right before James and Stacey got married in August. Then it was time to pack everything up and head to Glasgow, Scotland! We have had a really busy year, and it has finally started to wind down.

Stacey, Lisa, Becky, Emily, Trish, Mike, Eric, James, and Chris

The biggest highlight of our year was, of course, our wedding. We had a wonderful time at the Rehearsal Dinner and the Wedding. A big thanks to our parents for the wonderful parties! Also, thank you to everyone else for not only coming to celebrate the day(s) with us, but also for taking all the lovely pictures, video, all the memorable moments, love and support. We really appreciate all the help making our day so special.
We Honeymooned in Tennessee near Smokey Mountains National Park. Huge thanks to Uncle Jim and Aunt Marianne for letting us use their cabin in the hills. The cows thankfully never attacked, and the National Park was beautiful. It was in the ninties the week we were there, but we still managed to take a few hikes in the mountains, and even went into Gatlinburg in all the heat and tourists. We even managed to see the Dixie Stampede, which was pretty entertaining.

James and Stacey dancing

Trish's brother, James, and Stacey were married two months after our wedding. It was another wonderful ceremony. Trish has wanted a little sister since James came along 23 years ago and even more so when Christopher turned out to be a boy 19 years ago, so finally getting one was great. Mike has also enjoyed his new siblings. He went from none to three in a matter of months, so he is really liking having two little brothers and a little sister.

We spent the part of the summer in which we were not at weddings or in Tennessee packing all our stuff. It took us the entire summer and it’s a good thing that we rented the BIG storage unit. It somehow all fit in there, but it was a squeeze. And we still have lots of boxes at both our parents house's. It will be a project moving it all into where ever we live when we come home, but it should be fun.
Mike is currently working on his Masters/PhD in History through Central Michigan University and for one year Central sends students in his program to Scotland, paid. So, on Central’s money, we are living in Scotland for the year while Mike attends classes and writes a thesis at the University of Strathclyde. He has been busy not only reading and working on class work, but also researching for his thesis. He has decided to write his thesis on correspondence between Jewish communities during the early Third Reich. While you may be wondering then why we are in Scotland if Mike is studying German History, we have no answers. Although the two main archives he researches in, at the moment, are in the United Kingdom. Later on in the year we may also go to the Netherlands and Germany for Mike to research in as well. Thankfully the catalogue for the archive in Jerusalem is online and he can just order documents he needs.

For Mike it has thus far been an interesting experience to study in a different country. While they may speak English, it still sounds like a foreign language most days, and getting used to classroom discussions took a lot of patience and work on his part!
Trisha tried being a kept wife, but found that it was too irritating, and went to the nearest employment agency. Since October she has been working for the National Health Service in the Occupational Health Department at a couple different hospitals in the West End of Glasgow.

So far we have been very fortunate with our travels. Not only have we been able to travel, but the weather has been spectacular (minus gale force winds in Edinburgh) which is rare for the United Kingdom. We have been to Southern England, the Isle of Skye in Scotland, various cities throughout Scotland, and will be in Spain shortly for the week before Christmas. We are also hoping to go to Italy for a week or two in April. In the beginning of April we also will hear if we will be living in Germany for the summer. Mike has applied for a grant for a German Language study which would last for two months. Hopefully by the time we come home our passports will be filled with lots of stamps! And maybe if we’re really lucky, we’ll still have money left when we come home too!
We are looking forward to all of our March visitors (Mom Rose, Heidi, Mama Fues, and Dad Fues) and are hoping for some later in the Spring as well. See everyone in the summer otherwise!