6 Month Anniversary!

Believe it or not, we arrived in Aberdeen exactly 6 months ago today! Hard to believe.

I am happy to report that BT made good on their promise to get our line hooked up yesterday! This was huge :) We appreciate your prayers on our behalf! We also have use of our "free" dial-up now. It's better than nothing.

The move went well. We are half settled, but more so every day. I think we must be rough on flats though, because I've already discovered a leak under the sink. Ah well, it's barely phased me this time. Must be getting used to this!

In light of this anniversary, we thought we'd post some things we've learned in the past 6 months about life here.

1. Heat is a beautiful thing! We love having heat (other than small space heaters) in our new flat! It is much warmer and makes me especially grateful for warmth.

2. There are at least 5 stages of drying clothes here: 1) Not dry--didn't I take that out of the washer a day ago?; 2)Slightly dry--I'll turn it over and help it out some; 3) Almost dry--getting there, but not there yet; 4)Still not dry--how much longer?; 5)Dry enough--is this wet or just cold? Guess it's dry enough to wear!
*Note, we've already noticed a HUGE difference in how quickly clothes dry when you have heat pumping out all the time, so the above stages may not actually apply for our next 6 months here.

3. When driving people WILL drive in your lane coming in the opposite direction. You may feel like you will die, but they almost always move and if they don't probably your reflexes will kick in and you'll quickly jerk the opposite way to avoid any collisions. Also related, you may not think that you car can fit there (or get out of there, esp. when parking) but you somehow always can. Millimeters are all you need to squeeze by :)

4. Do not stand on the edge of the "pavement" (sidewalk) when waiting to cross the street. A bus will almost certainly run you over. (We learned this VERY early on when I almost got my toes/nose and Mark his head clipped by a bus zipping past as we stood to wait to cross the street. There is almost no shoulder and because the lanes are small, buses are rarely within the lines and usually they drive in the 3 inch shoulder area.)

5. Pedestrians have their own "green light." This is a fantastic thing about living here! Because so many people walk the pedestrians have their own cycle on a stop light when all cars in all directions are stopped. The best part is you can even cross diagonally!

6. Aberdeen is sunnier than you'd think and windier than we'd like to admit. Not sure if we've just gotten lucky these first 6 months, but it has rained a lot less and even been a lot less grey and "blah" than we expected.

7. We've learned a new vocabulary. Just this week an older Scottish gentleman I work with taught me how to compliment a chef on his/her cooking. All I have to say is "It'll go round my heart like a hairy worm." YIKES! Doesn't sound like a compliment to me! But he was completely serious that this is what you say to a cook. I dare anyone to try that out (with the Scottish accent, meaning "heart" sounds more like "hairt") :)

8. And we've no doubt learned that the Scots are great people and we are grateful to be here!