Scottish Food

Before we had our flat, we were a little timid in our tasting Scottish food. We of course tried Fish and chips (fries), but that was about it. We have now tried Scottish Pies, which are really just meat pies. And I even eat lamb burgers. We bought a Scottish Cookbook the other day and have tried a fish recipe out of it and then I made scones. I was kinda nervous about it because I love scones, but they turned out to be delicious!

The other night we even tried Haggis. We were told to try it by many people, but not from the little grease pits you find on every corner, but at a nicer restaurant. Well, we looked around and found a nice (and reasonably priced) restaurant, Wetherspoon, that had haggis. So, Mike ordered that and I tried it. It wasn't all that bad even and I would eat it again. Although I still cannot think what is in it. Apparently there is a more modern way of preparing it that doesn't include all the ingredients that traditional haggis contains and this is what I like to think was in the haggis that we tried. But you all should be proud of me! I am eating lamb, beef, haggis and even smoked sausage we bought in the French Market. I think I have lost my mind.

ohh.. library internet

I just wanted everyone to know, that I have tried uploading more pictures onto Flickr, but alas the library's internet sees it as a security risk. I am going to try on our laptop later on today, but Mike and I may have to breakdown and find a service for our apartment. We have been busy lately, there was a festival in town this past weekend and we were able to brouse through a French Market and see traditional Scottish music sung in a local pub. We also were able to take a guided tour through the necropolis that is nearby. It was really neat to hear all the stories off the place. We have slowly but surely seeing more and more of the city as the days go on. We have been to the art museum, which was amazing, and the Glasgow Cathedral, which was absolutely beautiful. But, now Mike has to start doing some research for his paper that is due at the end of the year. He will have 3 classes, 2 that last the full school year, and 1 that is a semester course. But they don't all meet every week and when they do, its only once a week. Its rather od, but he also has a near 50 page paper to have done by the end of the school year. So, me may be heading off to Berlin soon to see the Holocaust Museum and German History Museum (a professor here strongly recommended that Mike go if he continues with German History). And the archives in London and South Hampton are in our future as well. Well, I hope to have picutre up soon!

We have a flat!

Well, we are all moved into our very own flat. It is quite close to campus, at the most a five minute walk. And the grocery store is pretty close too, along with a library. We really like it and it was furnished. It was definitely easy to unpack everything when you only have 2 suitcases apiece. I forgot my flash drive, so I will post pictures next time. Yesterday we found pound shops, which I was VERY excited about. Not as good of deals as a dollar store, but the same idea. Today we started out walking to the Barras (a market)and found that we live very close to some beautiful churches. We didn't go through them yet. Then, we went to an outdoor flea market and started some of our souviner shopping because we needed something to put on the walls. The pure white walls were starting to get to me. Then we found a little festival. We have no idea what it was for, but everything was french. Most of the booths were brimming with divine smelling foods. Unfortunetly, we had just eaten, but we did try a crossant and it was heavenly. Next, we are going to the Art Gallery above the library and then on from there.

We're here!

Well, we are finally in Scotland. The flight was not that long, but with the time change and constant in flight movies, we only slept about 2 hours on the plane ride over. Then hit customs, more security and got on the very short plane ride from Dublin to Glasgow. Our hotel is great and by a large park and the beautiful campus of University of Glasgow. Yesterday we went to the University of Strathclye where Mike will be taking classes and got that all worked out. He will only have to take 3 classes, 2 year long classes and one semester class, but there will be a huge paper to write on top of that. We meet a very helpful profesor that laid out the program for us and what to expect as well as helped us get Mike all registered at the university. We even got a cell phone yesterday so my mom can now rest easy.
As of this morning I am now equiped with a library card, and hopefully by this afternoon we will have our apartment. I'll let everyone know more and add pictures later this week!

For Grandma

My Grandma VanderVoord made this beautiful dress about 57 years ago and wore it on her wedding day. Then 26 years ago my mother was able to wear it on her wedding day. For years I had wanted to wear it on my wedding day. I thought it would be so special to wear the same dress that both my mom and grandma had worn on their wedding days, but Grandma always said, "oh, you don't want to wear that old thing." Oh, course I did! But she claimed it would fall apart. While I didn't wear the dress on my wedding day, I was able to try it on with Grandma's original veil.
I did end up getting a new dress for the wedding, but Grandma picked it out. She was the one that pulled the dress off the rack and had me try it on. Thank-you Grandma!

Mystery Flower... again

I know that I have already asked this... but please, help! I need to know the answer! Does anyone know the name of this flower?? They were all over around Niagara Falls and they are so pretty.

Stupid Girls

First, I was so excited when I opened my e-mail and found out that peer pressure still works. James and Stacey now have a blog! How fun! Now just one more brother to work on....
OK, I dropped Mike off at campus this afternoon because we had things to do right after work today. I realize that I was a college student not that long ago, but I hope I was not that ridiculous. Most college students realize the "dress code" is jeans and shirts, flip-flops or tennis shoes, but not all. You still have the people that go to class dressed for a club. I actually saw some odd girl walking across the campus in 3-inch spike heels. I know CMU's campus is not that big.. But still!
Oh, and by the way, the CMU football game actually made it on to ESPN-2 tonight... who would have thought?

The countdown begins...

Mike has had a countdown until when we leave for Scotland for months now. Mine started today. We still had money left on a couple of different gift cards so we decided to check into one more larger suitcase. I found this one on sale. Its spectacular. It will definitely be easy to pick out AND it comes with all sorts of fun bags inside it. Now, I am finally excited to pack... I just have to remember I still have 26 more days until we leave, so I cannot pack up too much stuff into the suitcase!

A New Sister!

Well, after 23 years of waiting, I finally got a little sister. The weekend started with the Rehearsal Dinner. Which meant that at 5:30 that morning Uncle Jim, Mom, and I were out in the backyard grappling with a 130-pound pig, trying to get it on to the roaster. I am sure that it was quite the sight, but thankfully no one was there to witness that occasion. It wasn't so bad until I shined the light on the pig. BIG mistake. In my opinion, it was not worth it, but James and Stacey, and everyone else, thought it was tasty.

The Wedding was beautiful. And the Reception was great. A big group of us had to sabotage the car. We filled it with various inflatable animals and balls, including a 7-foot alligator, golf wiffle balls, little pink pigs, fake money for the Honeymoon, about 250 balloons and a Cosmo with tips for the Honeymoon. We shut all the doors and cracked one window so that we could stuff the car with even more balloons. It was great! James was smarter than Mike and I though, and took a pin from his boutonniere and popped all the balloons. Becky has some great pictures of it. If you click on the 'Flicker' link to the left I have some more. Thanks Lynn for helping me with that!!

Niagara

This past weekend Mike and I and a couple of friends headed to Niagara for a friend's wedding. After a LONG drive and an inquisition from the Canadian border patrol, we finally arrived at the hotel. Neither Mike nor I had been to the falls for quite some time, so it was fun to see them again. We did the "Journey Behind the Falls" tour, which was really neat.
The wedding was beautiful. It was at Niagara-on-the-Lake and you could even see Toronto across the lake. They were able to rent out a gazebo right on the lake and have a violinist for the music. It was very pretty. It was in a public park and we were amazed by the amount of people that would stop and watch the ceremony. Many stayed for the whole thing and there were even people video taping it. Shannon even and two girls ask to have their pictures taken with her.

Mystery Flower

Does anyone know the name of this flower?? They were all over around the falls and they are so pretty.

Hammy

Well, 53 days until Mike and I head for Scotland. I seems like we have been packing all summer long and yet we still have more stuff to pack. At least we have a HUGE storage unit.
I am sad to say that our hamster, Hammy, died yesterday. His little eye infection had all cleared up and we changed his bedding to hamster friendly stuff (apparently cedar and pine bedding is deadly to them). He was doing great! We found out that he LOVED apples. He would go nuts over them. But, Mike came home from work last night and he had ceased living. So, we had a small hamster funeral over here last night.

Fun at The Bird

Lately, I have been making Mike watch the TV show According to Jim with me. I love the show. We were hanging out with friends last Saturday night at The Bird and who should walk into the place, but Larry Joe Campbell who is hilarious on the show. Well, Mike and I couldn't agree on whether it really was him or not, so he went up there and started talking to him, and lo and behold it was him. Apparently he graduated from CMU in 1992 and was back for a benefit. But he came over and introduced himself AND I got an autograph, but I had forgotten the camera at home. Never again will that happen.

Stupid people and bears

Well, the wedding came and went without a hitch. We had a great time at the wedding and then at the reception. And the honeymoon was great fun. We went to Tennessee right near the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We drove a couple of the auto tours and hiked to Abrams Falls. It was beautiful, but when they say 'moderately strenuous', they mean it. We hiked up and down some very large hills in high 90 degree weather. But, at least the falls were really pretty. On the same day we were able to witness really daft people harassing bears. I don't think that people realize that even though it is a National Park, the bears are WILD. They are not pets. There were three scared baby cubs up in a tree and a harassed looking mama bear stalking around the bottom of the tree and people were still leaning over the very small fence with their kids and grandmas to take pictures. And they wonder why the bears attack...

This girl that Mike works with in the History Department gave us a hamster (with cage, bedding, food, and wooden house) for free because she couldn't take it home. Instead of dropping off the hamster, Dulce, when we were home, she decided to drop off Dulce when we would be at work and just put him in the backyard. Well, I guess that after you get a Master's Degree you forget that the Earth actually rotates and that the sun moves throughout the day because by the time that we got home at 5:15pm, the animal had been in the sun for about 4 hours. The poor thing was all swollen, sweaty and everything in the cage was hot. It felt like a scene off from Animal Planet where they rescue abused animals. Surprisingly enough, Dulce survived. Although he now has an eye infection, but Mike is sure that we don't have to pay a vet bill to fix him and he will just get better... we'll see.
He doesn't do much, unless its 2 am. But I like him.

Well, here I am at graduation day.. Finally. I was in the ceremony that was the shortest (thank goodness because it still seemed too long.) And my future Mother-in-law was able to give me my fake diploma, which was really neat.
We survived our first pre-marital counseling session last night too. It was surprisingly not bad. We have a Reverend that is very laid back so the meeting consisted of us talking about his dog, his travels around the world and ours, and a little bit about the ceremony. No personality or compatibility testing! Mike was very excited.

Well... after my long 19 year stint as a student, I am finally entering the "real world" this weekend. Granted, I am graduating with a degree and won't be using it for a while, but such is life. Either way, I am excited to FINALLY be done with college (at least for a short while.)