10 Thoughts for 10 Days

Yesterday marked ten full days of living in Edinburgh (though we’ve been gone now for almost three weeks). One of the reasons we were so excited about this experience was the opportunity to live in a different context than we had ever experienced. Both Brittany and I grew up in small town Augusta County, lived in Staunton when we were first married, and then moved to Albemarle County. Living in a city is a whole new experience, and something we’re excited to embrace over this next year. This coupled with the fact that this city happens to be in a foreign country, and we’re really enjoying lots of new experiences. After ten full days in Scotland, here are ten observations I have about our new home:

1.     The saying in Edinburgh regarding the weather is, “if you don’t like the weather, wait ten minutes.” I’ve actually heard this said about a number of localities, but after only ten days in Edinburgh, I can say it’s completely accurate. Before moving to Scotland, we sought some advice from people who had previously lived or studied here. One individual we spoke with gave us the sage advice to always take our rain coats and umbrellas with us wherever we go, even if it’s blue skies and sunny. Unfortunately we haven’t been great at heeding this advice, and have found ourselves caught in rain storms on a number of occasions. We’re slowly getting better about always being prepared, something that’s important here in Edinburgh.

2.      Never having lived in a city before, I have never had to use public transportation to get around. When I was at JMU I never once set foot on a campus bus, because I didn’t like the idea of having to rely on someone else to get me where I needed to go. I quickly realized that I would have no option but to rely on public transportation here in Edinburgh. I have been more than pleasantly surprised at the ease of using the bus service here in Edinburgh, and to be honest, have thoroughly enjoyed taking public transportation. It plays to one of my favorite past-times; people watching! Not to mention, it is environmentally friendly, and something we should all be doing when given the opportunity. Suffice it to say, I’m a fan of public tran!

3.      While the public transportation is great, we still walk a lot. We are averaging about eight miles a day. Certain parts of Edinburgh are quite hilly, so we’ve definitely been getting our workout in. So far we are loving walking, and having exercise just built in to our daily routines.

4.      The coffee is different here, and not as good. There is hot tea everywhere, and lots of little cafes advertising “afternoon tea.” While I enjoy hot tea, I’m already missing southern sweet tea.

5.      Just over a week in, and the kids are already starting to pick up some of the lingo (trolley instead of shopping cart, queue instead of line, etc.), and even a bit of the accent. We have noticed it the most in Kylie. Both Kylie and Norah have been in school now for a week, and so are hearing the accent daily.

6.      Speaking of the schools here in Edinburgh, the girls have had a great first week. There are lots of things we’re really liking about this new school, and some things that we’re missing about Meriwether Lewis. One thing I really like though is that the kids here wear uniforms.  This is what Preston Street Primary says about the use of uniforms:

“Wearing school uniform contributes to a positive school ethos and helps avoid discrimination and reduces peer pressure to wear expensive designer clothing. A school’s reputation can also be enhanced in the local community by the wearing of school uniform and school security will be improved as it will be easier to identify intruders.”

I love the idea behind school uniforms, not to mention, Kylie and Norah look incredibly cute in the outfits they are wearing!

7.       Exploring a new city has been a ton of fun. After some trial and error we’ve found some good local grocery stores, a new bank, some great local parks, a unique used book store, a restaurant we’ll never go to again, and a great Indian take-out restaurant! We have really taken advantage of technology, and I must say, having a smart phone, and GPS services, has really simplified the ability to quickly acclimate to a new environment.

8.       Living in a city, and in a flat, means constant noise. While we are lucky to be on a quiet street, there is still plenty of noise that we hear. We hear the noise of children playing outside (a pleasant sound….most of the time), street traffic, sirens, neighbors moving around, doors opening and closing, work trucks going about their business, and on and on and on. While I miss the peace and quiet of living off Garth Rd, I must admit, all the noise that comes with a city doesn’t bother me like I thought it might.

9.       When people familiar with Edinburgh learned we were moving the beginning of August, they all had different things to say about the festival. During the month of August Edinburgh transforms from a bustling city, to an insanely chaotic city. Here are the numbers reported by the BBC at the end of last year’s Fringe Festival:

-          53,232 performances

-          3,398 shows

-          300 venues

-          Nearly 500,000 people in attendance

At the same time, the Edinburgh Book Festival also takes place, which last year saw a record number 250,000 in attendance. While there is some obvious overlap between these two festivals, it’s still wild the amount of people who flock to Edinburgh during festival season. We have experienced these crowds first hand, as we haven’t been afraid of venturing into the heart of the city. We’ve enjoyed the festival so far, and have plans to continue to take advantage of all that is going on. The festival ends next week on August 27^th with a large fireworks show over the castle. I plan to write a follow up blog post detailing further our experiences enjoying the festival season here in Edinburgh. What we’ve learned so far though is that Edinburgh in August is magical, chaotic, exciting, and extremely crowded!

10.   Speaking of the festival, the largest event that takes place each year is the Edinburgh Tattoo. Again, I’ll write more about this experience in a subsequent post, but I just want to say, the tattoo lives up to the hype, and is one of the most incredible events I have ever witnessed.

~Seth, August 21, 2018