P-town

It seems that the weather here is overall grey, misty, foggy and drizzly during this time of year but it adds to the pub life, whisky drinking atmosphere that it is so well know for. WE meet up with some local p-towners last night that were traveling through on their way to Ireland. It was rad to see some people from home and share in this awesome experience.4 pleasantonians in Scotland. YEAH!! We went out for pints  at dirty dick's the bar and had our first nips of scotch together ( quite expensive here and I think it taste like band-aid smell) We ate crappy turkish food and passed a  rainy night together. We are ready to get up out of this hostel. There are like 14 beds in our room and it is loud, last night we could here some dude and girl getting it on, ( nasty) We should of threw stuff at them. That is the pain of paying like 12 Euros to stay here. Saving $ but weird stuff man.
 Tomorrow we are leaving for St. Andrew and hopefully we will get settled in really quickly. John went there yesterday and said the town is really small but beautiful with the ocean alongside of it.  We have been eating and drinking really well here in Edinburgh, it is easy to get around on foot, feels relatively safe and it feels a little like home.

Day 3

Style that is all its own. Anything goes, but its not Italy and its not Spain.
Quiz nite at the pub. Cider. Giant pints of Ale.
Fish and chips, Haggis, nips and taddies? Pasty's. Tea time.
Men in skirts. Big fur caps, Tweed, cashmere and woolies.
Redheads.Castles. Cool taxies. Bagpipes. Mates and blokes.
Grey skies, early sunsets, Fireplaces and cozy bars.

EDINBURGH

Hello everyone- We made it to Edinburgh!!! Whoo hoooo. It was a crazy trip to get here. 9.5 hour bus ride to get here, it was like 100degrees in it. death. Waited in the airport for 9 hours while john ran around in madrid trying to find a post office  to mail all of our crap. Almost miss the flight, but they call us a car that will drop us off at the plane. WHEw. we made it to edinburgh the night of the 3rd, The guy at the customs desk stopped us and made john get his acceptance letters out of his luggage and prove that we have the right to be there. It was really a bad way to start off, he was busting our balls for no reason. we didnt have the directions to the hostel but the people were really nice and we just stopped in at a pub and they gave us the directions. It began to snow that night while we we eating fish and chip and a pint in a local pub. I think we fell asleep at 10:30, we were so tired from all of the travels. The next day we walked around the city which is really clean, spacious, green, near the water, old and beautiful. The people are really kind and have a different sense of humor. Our hostel is really nice. Full of lots of people from all around the world. Edinburgh is really international, you can have whatever type of food you want, we ate indian last night, It was so good!!! The cost of the pound just kills the US dollar but things are relativly the same in cost. Like our nice indian dinner was 30 pounds, roughly 40$ or 45$. Maybe a little more expensive but we ate lunch for like 3.50$ each . Since it is a city full of students there is a discount given and a lot of low cost places for food. No smoking in bars and other places, free museums, you can walk everywhere and there is alot of bikes. I can wait to get in there and get to know people that live here. To see the country and learn more about my heritage. It seems like edinburgh is good for those that think London is too much, too many people, too much hustle and bustle. There is alot of good music, good food and a nice pace of life here. I will post photos after we get moved in, since all of my crap is being sent over, I hope it makes it to our house. After I come back to the states for a visit I need to  get rid of alot of this stuff, it is just too much to travel with and way too expensive.

Countdown

only 1 week left until we hit the road to SA. ( st. Andrews). Since we are on a countdown, I am trying to act like a tourist on my days off and take in anything I didn't have time for before. Taking in the second leg of the journey, I am stoked about getting out! Scotland is new for me. I went to England like 12 years ago, so I am excited to meet the people, travel around the UK and hopefully make it over to some other countries like Germany and Hollanda.
I had a bad incident with the hair color and now I am a brunette. This all happened by accident. It is only temporary color but I have not been this dark since I was 17, just out of beauty school. If I cut it off really short I might look the same. Well, this was not the plan but it is something different and I need to change it up every once in awhile. Funny that everyone else noticed the change but my colorblind husband didn't say one thing.
Just think that is 3 months from now I will be sitting on a warm beach in Mexico. It gives me something to dream about while I am up North.
Some strange  and different happenings here in Espana.
*Alot of older women have cankles, I have noticed this in every European country I have visited. Why is this??? I looked it up on the internet but it does not say why we get this. John thinks it is scartissue from the uneven stone ground here.
*My feet hurt and I twist my ankle like twice a day on the uneven stone ground.
*No toilet seat covers, not that I sit down but there needs to be a barrier. ( in Portugal there was a really cool plastic cover that went around eachtime and it was new for each person)
*Smoking, Smoking Smoking. * whateves, the americans are fat but everyone here smokes like chimneys
*French fries are like a delicacy and they serve them everywhere.
Jamon is in everything you eat. you must be a wary eater and be aware of the Ham.Even if you tell them you are a vegetarian there  is still ham lurking.

Before we go.

Holy cows. We are moving in 2 weeks. So excited for Scotland. We set sail the 2nd, taking a midnight bus from Santiago to Madrid, then a plane to Edinburgh. We will be in Edinburgh for 5 days, checking out the city, hit up Glasgow and then move into our new pad on the 8th. So until the 3rd, we have to finish up teaching classes, pack up all of our junk  = only like 100 pounds each. Yeah right!( Leaving some stuff here) john only has to write another 15 pager and then we are out.
Crazy! It seemed like time was going so slowly here and suddenly we have like only seconds left before we have to travel through hell and back again to get to our new destination. It is a really weird feeling having to pack up and start again.
I keep having thoughts like - will we have a comfortable bed in Scotland? Will it be warm in our house? can I get a job? .
 And thoughts about spain,- I am going to miss all of the old men chillin in the bars, the rains not so bad, all the people smoking away in the bars and the food- will I miss it? Whatever, I will be back sooner than later.
What is Scotland going to be like??? Can't wait.
PS. Oh yeah. If you want to come, tickets are super cheap.!!! YOu have a place to stay.

PASSPORTS

We got our U.K. Visa's.!!!!! Damn the uk is efficient, they got the visas to us in 2 days. Spain, I think took 2 months. GoIng to Scotland!!!

Madrid

We went to Madrid for a few days in order to apply for our visas to live in Scotland. Madrid is a huge city, 3 million in the city and 5.6 including the suburbs. It is one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the world, meaning that it is full of immigrants from around the world and every year the number increases. There are more bars in this city than any other city in the world. We got off to a precarious start. When we woke up, there was snow on the ground ( it has not snowed in Santiago for 5 years) WE could not catch a bus, train, plane or automobile, all of the roads were closed. Santiago totally freaked out and has no Idea what to do when it snowed. Eventually we got a cab with two other people to the airport, we were already and hour late but had hopes of catching a later plane. When we got there, our plane had been delayed an was still there. Miraculously we boarded with no time to spare and headed off to Madrid.In the middle of winter is no time to go. It was freezing cold, I have never lived in the snow, nor do I want to. It was -2 celcius which is around 30 degrees F. It rained, it snowed, it blizzard. We stayed in a cheap hostel that smelled like old feet, it was like a meat locker, but at least it was a clean place to stay. We spent way too much money because everything is expensive and spent way too much time there. We did do some cool stuff besides freeze, WE took a train to Toledo, went to a live concert, ate japanese food ( yumm) Art museums and walked around the whole entire city.

 watches, old school casio's

nappy bus station seats

On the last day, Tuesday, we had to go to the british consulate where they took all of our money to apply for this visa which we are not even sure if we are excepted. After running around like chicken with our heads cut off we ate a huge lunch, spent the last of our lifes savings at the bar and went to the airport to stay warm and catch our flight. Once we got to the airport we asked Ryan air( our airline that we were flying) if we could fly without our passports, since we had a Spanish residency card. They said hell no!! oh no, what are we going to do?? How are we going to get home? we gave our passports to the british consulate. We ran around the airport trying to find a bus that would take us back to Santiago, finally we take the metro to the bus station and pay another 40 Euros each to take a bus at 12:30 pm to Santiago. We wait in the stinky, pimp filled, rat hole of a bus station for 5 hours and take the bus and arrive at home at 8:30 am. Frazzled out, we go about school and work and finish our day. So, to all of those that are so jelouse of what we are doing, shit like this makes being in cali look alot better.