6 : Blood pudding, Royal Wedding and More

Daniel and I were actually able to wake up early (ha) today: 8:15am--we are finally adjusting to the time change.  Technically, we could have gone in to work, but a lot of schools, offices, and buildings were closed for the Royal Wedding and we were told we could choose. So we did and we decided to stay in, cook blood pudding, and watch two people that don't mean much to us get married. 

AND

Daniel cooking the blood pudding

Verdicts: 

Overall, the Royal Wedding was boring (Simply meaning that I'm just bitter about it because I'm jealous haha). I thought the balcony kiss was lame BUT Kate looked beautiful and it will be fun to remember that we were living in Edinburgh when it happened. (We wanted to go out to a pub to watch it, but we didn't really know what was going on where so yeah.  It was nice to stay in). As for the blood pudding, I psyched myself out.  Literally, as soon as I put the thing in my mouth I tasted iron and started dry heaving.  Daniel on the other hand said it wasn't too bad.

There is a picture of me spitting it out... but I have a REALLY
BAD double chin in it so I'm not posting it. haha

In the afternoon we went and toured the Parliament Building.  It was interesting and it was cool to see where Daniel would be working after the election.  I didn't particularly love the architecture and I thought some of the rooms smelled awful (like rubbish - trash) but Daniel really liked it (not the smell, just the architecture :-)).

Daniel in the debate room

A book we found in the gift shop.  It's about a little boy whose parents were
both red heads and all his siblings were, but he was a blonde and always felt left out.

After the Parliament tour we just walked up the Royal Mile.  First, we stopped in the Canongate Churchyard and visited Adam Smith's grave (the only name I remember from my highschool economy class).  Then we visited a few tourist shops (and found the Alexander shield) and hit up a fudge shop.  We got the Almond Toffee Cream. YUM.

Canongate Church Cemetary.  There is a grave that is rumored to date back to the 1500!

Daniel and Adam Smith

Daniel walking around the grave yard

Alexander Shield

Fudge Shop that is highly recommended. SO good.

It actually started raining today and a lot of shops were closed before we got done with our tour, so we headed home after stopping at the grocery store and trying to stock up on dinner/lunch for the next couple of days and yeah.  That was our day. 

FIVE: discoveries

Daniel and I had a long day. 

It started out with a long morning... on the wrong bus.  We decided to go to the campaign office on the other side of town and wanted to give the bus system a whirl.  Well, we got on the right bus at 10:00am BUT it was headed the wrong direction. About two hours later we got off that bus and entered the SNP offices.


Just so you can visualize

We spent the next couple of hours folding and stuffing newspapers and putting stamps on envelopes.  We then got a short lunch break and since Daniel and I still haven't stocked our house with foods we can pack for lunch, we shared a baked potato.  After that, Daniel went out leaf letting on the "battle bus" and I stayed behind and continued folding... and folding... and folding.  My hands were black and my back ached by the time we left about FOUR hours later.  Yes.  I folded newspapers for four hours.  It wasn't too bad when other people were with me (granted I couldn't understand much of their conversations-- politics + accent), but it did get a little boring when everybody left. 

Daniel putting stamps on envelopes and yes, that is Sean Connery on the newspaper.
He strongly endorses the SNP. haha

Me with the baked potato.  We ate outside since it was so beautiful out.

Daniel in the "battle bus"  Tom Buchanan is in the drivers seat.

During the folding newspapers section of my day, we did have some fun conversations.   I learned that the native Scots get just as much of a kick out of us as we do out of them.  For example: they laughed really hard when I referred to the "fanny pack" a man was wearing yesterday.  Apparently they call them "bum bags" and a fanny is a female reproductive organ. Yupp.  They laughed and explained and I turned bright red.  (And FYI "bum bags" were never cool in Scotland either. haha I don't know why they still exist.)

They also gave us recommendations for what and where to eat and more lessons on language.  I can't even remember all the words we learned.  BUT one of the office workers, a volunteer named Pam came back from her lunch break with a "Scots School Dictionary" and some store bought black pudding for us.  Daniel and I will let you know how that goes.  We are planning on making it for breakfast tomorrow (ew). For those who don't know what black pudding is read below:

Black pudding or blood pudding is a type of sausage made by cooking blood or dried blood with a filler until it is thick enough to congeal when cooled.

Congealed Blood. I don't know about this. But when in Scotland........ (minus all the Whisky)

Pam also told us to try Scottish Butter.  I don't know how it's supposed to be different.
 But the blood pudding is next to it.  I'm so nervous for that.

Daniel has a new text book!

We didn't start heading home until after 7:30pm and we were both so tired that we didn't do any touring things today. We grabbed dinner at a very classy restaurant that always reminds me of home and then stopped at the Tesco Express for some quick/cheap breakfast and lunch items for tomorrow.

And that was our day! :-)

Tomorrow we are trying to set up a tour of the Parliament Building and get tickets for the fire festival that is this weekend.  It should be good.

OH and speaking of good...


GOOD NEWS MOMENT:
1.  Daniel and I found a laundry unit in our building complex last night!  It has dryers and it's right down the stairs from our apartment.  We didn't know how to get in at first, but we figured out that our flat keys have a magnetic wand thing that opens the laundry room door... that would have been nice for our landlord to tell us.  At least it didnt take us three months to figure out.

2.  We found a bigger blanket! There was a closet in the living room that had full sized blankets.  Now Daniel and I don't have to fight over the covers every night :-)

Day Four: Scottish Culture

 Today Daniel and I handed out leaf lets from 11:00am to 12:30pm and then met up with the other SNP interns and workers at St. Andrew's square while they were having lunch (we really like working with them).  Daniel and I kept folding leaflets.  We are such hard workers.... and we had already eaten. It was another beautiful day so we kept handing out leaflets after lunch and finished around 4:30pm. 

Then we went back to the apartment and made dinner (spaghetti... again).  We've decided that we don't like our salad dressing.  It's supposed to be Caesar but it tastes like and has the texture of mayo.... it was cheap. 

And again, I know I posted pictures a little while ago of the flat but let me try and emphasize how little the place is. The picture below shows Daniel doing the dishes.  Next to him you can see our washer and fridge.  We haven't figured out how to dry our clothes since we don't have a dryer and we have nothing to hang our clothes on in the apartment. 

 The next picture is our bedroom.  This is what really makes the flat feel so small.  The bed is a double but only has a twin blanket.  Daniel and I wake up multiple times a night just to put covers back on us... we will most likely have to invest in a bigger blanket.  There are no drawers and there isn't a closet either, so all of our clothes are in the baskets and Daniel's nice clothes are hung up in the utilities closet where there is conveniently a bar. Also, the end of the bed that you can't see is right next to a wall with a hole in it--the last tenant probably kicked it in when he was sleeping haha.  To summarize: there is nothing else but a bed, bright blue wall paper and a rock picture (that has fallen off and hit me in the head before).

 Here is the living room.  It came with a lot of books and a few DVD's... many of which Daniel and I will not be watching. haha

And the bathroom.... we have to turn on a switch to get the hot water to work (all of which is tinted slightly yellow)

Over all, we get wireless internet and cable, have a bed to sleep in, a kitchen to keep our food and a place to do our business. We are happy to call it home. Oh and lets not forget the fact that it's right in the middle of the city of Edinburgh, SCOTLAND. :-)

Now for the touring stuff

After dinner Daniel and I hit up St. Giles Cathedral.  It's 900 years old! This sounds really awful, but you had to pay two pounds to have a "photography pass" and we didn't want to pay it (yes.. we are that cheap)... so I snuck a few pictures of the inside--I cheated in church.  Yikes.

Daniel : St. Giles Cathedral



Mandi: St. Giles Cathedral (posed haha)



Above is one of my illegal pictures of the inside.  The architecture is beautiful and the stained glass windows tell stories of Christ's life as well as other Bible stories. Stunning.  However, I think the coolest thing about this cathedral is that while it pays tribute to Christ's life, it also pays tribute to the knights from the 12th century to the "knights" / soldiers of the 21st.  It was refreshing to see that-- especially when compared to a lot of other cathedrals that simply worship the priests and bishops of the sect even more so than the Savior. 

Another room to note with in the cathedral is the Thistle Chapel.  It's only 100 years old, but it's beautiful. It's a room for the royalty and 16 honored knights to meet together.  Each knight has to earn their seat ( it's not passed down within the family) and then the crests of the family rest above their seat when they pass on.  Daniel and I tried to find the Baird crest... but we didn't see it. :-(   We may have to do something awesome so we can represent the name.

Outside the Cathedral was a bagpiper... so we got our picture with him.  The bagpipes are surprisingly really loud so we didn't get too close.

 A booklet of information on the Baird Clan.  Daniel is very proud.

 SCOTTISH CULTURE:

The SNP advocates introduced us to a few "very scottish" things. 
1.  Irn Bru.  It tastes like bubblegum, is very artifically colored, and is supposed to be great for a hangover.  It was alright. haha I don't think I'd ever choose to buy it.  But Shirly-Ann (MSP- member of Scottish Parliament) says that besides Whisky, this is their second national drink. 

Daniel really loves it I guess....

2.  Tunnocks Chocolate Mallow.  It's a tea cake that is a marshmallow covered in chocolate ontop of a crispy cake--except the marshmallow is more creamy textured (but still fluffy) and the chocolate has a hazelnut flavor to it.  I loved it.  They are very very sweet though. 



And that was our day in a nut shell.

CHEERS! (Daniel loves saying that by the way)

Day 3: Jet Lag

Today was pretty relaxed.  Daniel and I slept in (ie couldn't wake up) and then we didn't go into the SNP office until 1:00pm because we had some errands to run--luckily, we found a big Tesco right by our house! It's like the Edinburgh Wal-mart and it's wonderful because everything is so cheap.  

We picked up lunch at a little sandwhich shop outside St. Andrew's square and then ate in the square.  It was a beautiful day but still chilly (about 65 degrees).  Everybody kept complaining about how hot it was and kept slathering on spf 50 -- one man even asked if we liked living in the tropics. haha

  

Me in St. Andrew's Square



Daniel in St. Andrew's square facing the city.

Right after lunch we went to the SNP office and did some more campaigning. More leaflets and door knocking.  We spent about 3 hours doing that and then they let us go. 

Daniel with his SNP paraphernalia

 We went back to our apartment and made spaghetti for dinner.  Our first home made meal :-) and then headed out for some sight seeing.  Our first stop was Robert Louis Stevenson's house.  It's literally right around the corner from our apartment.  He wrote the book Jekyll and Hyde-- one of Daniel's favorite books.  It's a private residence now.

 Then we walked to Calton's Hill.  It's the first public park in Edinburgh and gives an incredible view of the city.  This coming Friday is the Beltane Fire Festival which marks the opening of summer.  Daniel and I will definitely be attending.



Daniel in front of Arthur's Seat and i forget what the building is.



Me and Daniel with a great view of the city

Me and Daniel on Calton's Hill with Arthur's Seat behind us.

Day 2 : Daniel and somehow My first day of work

** Like a true Alexander, I forgot my camera today so all pictures are borrowed off the internet **

I woke up this morning with the intention of walking Daniel to his office and then heading off to the many free art museums of the city. Instead, I spent the entire day (8:30am-5pm) campaigning for the Scottish National Party (SNP).  Apparently, they don't care whether or not I am an intern and as long as I am willing to work, they'll use me. 



Arthur's seat is the hill (inactive volcano) in the back ground.

As soon as we got to the campaigning office for Kenny McAskill (?) from "head quarters" (a beautiful walk around Arthur's Seat), Tom Buchanan, the elected officer of the Economic Development Committee, showed us to his car and we spent the next 3 and a half hours handing out leaflets in rural Edinburgh.  Daniel sat in the drivers seat on accident haha he forgot that people in the UK sit on the right side to drive.  I laughed so hard. 

Despite all the walking, it was awesome.  We got to see a lot of places that we most likely wouldn't have been able to and Tom knows the city well and shared a lot of local history with us. He also kept saying "bloody ______" and then "pardon my french".... It made me laugh.  I don't know what that word is equivalent to in English...I don't know if I want to know. haha



City Council Building

The statue pictured above is famous because the artist (whose name I forget) was so upset about the proportions of this piece, that after it was finished,  he went home and committed suicide.

Tom also gave us a private tour of the city council offices on the Royal Mile.  If I remember correctly, my little Edinburgh book says, "City Council building: NOT open to the public".  Awesome. OH and JK Rowlings hand prints are in there too.

Around 12:30 we went back to the campaigning office and Kenny McAskill bought Daniel and I lunch (via a woman named Karen).  We went to a baked potato shop (genius- we've seen them all over so far) where each dish included 2 baked potatoes and a topping.  I got a mexican bean/chicken topping and Daniel got bean/sausage (which ended up being beans and hot dogs- haha) It filled us up and we had left overs.  Then we went out on the "bus"--a big van with SNP stuff all over it and music blasting-- and delivered more pamphlets until 5. 

On our way home we only stopped at a cell (mobile) phone store, grocery store, and table to eat our left over baked potatoes but still didn't get home until 7:30pm. We've been on our feet all day and are exhausted.  BUT it's actually sunny out, so we will post likely go out again tonight.

I'm learning my way around the city and Daniel quizzes me to make sure I can get home by myself. I'm a big girl.

PS. At the grocery store we bought a jar of spaghetti sauce for 18 pence and pack spaghetti noodles for 35 pence.  It should last us at least 2 meals each.  INCREDIBLE.

Oh and Mom (if you even read this... haha) I've seen so many cool old cemeteries so far. 

Graduation Plus

This past week has been insane.

Packing...Finals...Packing...Graduation...Parties...Airplanes... SCOTLAND.

Daniel and I packed up all our belongings and shoved them in an 8x8 storage unit for the summer. Then we went his graduation. I was surprised at how much I actually enjoyed it--granted, there were a few snoozing moments--the energy of the grads was contagious and it makes me sad that I didn't go to my own. Oh well. Daniel had a blast.

Daniel and his cousin Whitney

Grad lineup

Daniel with Cami and Ethan

Me and Daniel

Daniel and his old roommate Cooper

Daniel had me jump a fence with him so he could play soccer "one last time" with his buddies.

Grandpa, Jared, Me, Daniel, Aunt Melanie

Graduation part at Aunt Suzanne's

My favorite grads :-) Daniel, Copper, and Jillian

After all the graduation celebrations, we were off to Scotland for Daniel's internship.   Currently, I am sitting in my tiny "flat"-- and when I say tiny I mean it... Actually, I think microscopic would describe it better.  We spent the afternoon relaxing (but not sleeping) and then touring aka trying to find where Daniel has to be TOMORROW for his first day of work.  We ate our first Easter meal / meal in Scotland at a small kebab shop where a small Greek boy kept throwing pennies at our heads.   Oh and yes... that is the Edinburgh castle behind us :-)