I'm still here!

Oh dear. So I guess it's been 3 months since I last posted. Oops!
If I'm being honest, I was purposefully avoiding the blog until I found a job. It's just too sad to keep updating with the same sad news of continued unemployment sadness.

But, as I'm sure most of you know by now via facebook and/or family gossip mills, I have finally been hired full time! By Cineworld of all places. My official job title is "Multifunctional Team Member". And they mean multifunctional. I don't remember ever having a busier first week at a job. My first shift was November 11th and they already have me going at around 42 hours a week. My BEAST of a holiday is officially over. And good riddance! It's so nice to be busy again!

I'm being trained on everything. Popcorn (where you basically just make large quantities of theatre popcorn for 7 hours), Floor (ripping tickets, cleaning theatres, piracy checks), Snacks (selling overpriced cinema food), Box Office (selling overpriced film tickets). It's been....eye opening. It is HARD WORK working at a cinema. I have a newfound appreciation for it all. I must say though that the excitement and 'magic' of going to the movies with friends has already lost much of its appeal to me. Which is ironic seeing as I can now see all movies for free at Cineworld. Haha.

Everything about this job has been really perfect so far. The cinema is about a 10 minute walk from my flat. Everyone I work with is around my age and super nice. I have guaranteed full time hours every week. And I get paid this Friday! Couldn't be happier really. I had today off and was finally able to fit in a proper grocery shop at Tesco's as well as some latte-sipping/people watching/journal writing time at my favorite neighbourhood cafe, Project Coffee. Such a great way to spend a couple lazy hours :)

Job stuff aside, my little circle of Canadian friends has expanded considerably since August. There are about 9 of us now who try to meet up and go out together on a regular basis. I hosted a Thanksgiving at my flat a couple weeks ago, which ended up being a huge success (despite some turkey glitches along the way!) Long story short. I bought a frozen turkey with every intention of roasting it to perfection, but botched it completely, and ended up having to bin it and buy cut up roasted turkey in the deli section of the grocery store instead. Very expensive. Very stressful.
Ah well. Everyone said the replacement turkey tasted good, and it made for a funny story. Here's a picture of Liam trying to solve the frozen turkey dilemma (before it was tossed in the bin).

RIP Frosty the Turkey :( I'm sure you would have been delicious.

And here are some pictures of all the Canadians at my flat (plus a couple Irish boyfriends, and my two Scottish flatmates of course!)

To sum up I guess, things have really settled into a comfortable, happy life here for me! Especially now that I have the job part figured out. Four of the girls have just moved into a flat together nearby and have invited me to stay at their place for Christmas. We're planning on organizing a little gift exchange and maybe getting stockings too. So even though I know I'll be pretty homesick by the time Xmas comes around, I know I'll be surrounded by good friends so I'm not too worried :)

Hope everyone back in Canada is doing well! Maybe I will see some of you on skype over the Christmas break...

All my love
Amy xx

Fringe!

Hello again!
I apologize for neglecting the blog so much.  It's hard without Kayla here to remind me about it - I have a hard enough time updating my own journal.  The posts may not be as exciting now that I'm on my own, but i'll try my best to keep everyone updated every once and awhile.

The days really have flown by since Kayla left.  I didn't realize it had been so long - almost 3 weeks!  The first week alone was pretty rough for me, I must admit.  The way timing worked out, both my flatmate Liam and his friend Marcus (who had been staying in the flat in July) left Edinburgh at the same time as Kayla.  So after dropping Kayla off at the airport, I came home to an empty flat and the city suddenly seemed much bigger and scarier without my trusty sidekick to keep me company.

Looking back now, it was probably a good challenge for me to get through.  I was alone in the flat for about 9 days.  Spent the first 4 days locked up in my room having mild panic attacks and bouts of homesickness (which I never would have admitted to at the time).  By about the 5th day, I finally pulled myself together and started getting things done.  On my own.  Ah, feels good :)

I am still without a job, but I have been told it is nearly impossible to find a job during festival time.  So I have relaxed a little on that front, and am just enjoying what's left of summer and the fringe festival.  The city really has 'come alive' with the start of fringe.  I make a point of avoiding Princes St, the Royal Mile, and everywhere inbetween - if I can.  It takes about twice as long to walk anywhere because there are so many people.  The closest I can compare it to is Canada Day in downtown Ottawa...except lasting for 3 weeks.
I realize I sound like a grouch.  And I might be.  But I'm quite proud of that actually because it makes me feel like I'm becoming a REAL jaded local, scowling and huffing at all the silly tourists. Hah.

At the end of my 9 days in solitude - EVERYONE +2 came back at once.  Liam and Scott were back, plus their ex-flatmate Gavin and his friend Andy came for about 5 days and stayed at the flat.  Full house once more.  It felt like a reward for getting through that week alone.  We had a lot of fun going to different comedy shows at the festival.  I was even coaxed into watching a football game at a sports pub on a Sunday afternoon (both teams were from the same city...which confused me).  I think it's safe to say that I don't think football will replace hockey for me.  I kept these thoughts to myself though.

The UK riots were going on throughout all of this, and we stayed glued to the bbc and sky news for awhile.  Very scary.  None of us were ever worried about it spreading to Edinburgh though.  Everyone here is practically glowing with happiness and beer and general fringe-euphoria.  Made me very very glad I chose to live here rather than London.

This past Friday, I saw the musical "Spring Awakening" with my friend Erin (a fellow Canadian!) and it was super well done.  It was done by an English Secondary School so I hadn't been expecting TOO much, but I was blown away.  Their voices were incredible.  I recommend seeing it if you ever get the chance.

I think that brings me up to date, for the most part.  I'm going out for drinks tonight with Erin and perhaps making a trip to Ikea tomorrow(!!!) which I am very excited about, obviously.

I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the last couple weeks of summer.  Excited to see Mum & Dad in a few weeks!

Love
Amy

PS.  Sorry for the lack of pictures!  I haven't been carrying my camera around with me very much.  I'll try to take some pics of the festival this week.

Almost time to go...

Well, another week has flown by here. Amy and I have been enjoying the good weather as much as possible. And we've been keeping ourselves so busy that it's hard to believe I'll be leaving in a few days. We haven't talked about it much.. it's a scary topic for both of us I think.

But we've also been having a great time getting to know Amy's flat mates and their friends. Every new person we've met has been super friendly. Tonight I believe one of Amy's flat mates will be cooking Haggis for us - neither of us have been brave enough to try it before so hopefully it goes well! So far it's been fun meeting people from here and exchanging all our cultural differences. I do believe I'm leaving Amy in good hands. :)

A few days ago Amy and I finally set out to see The Surgeon's Hall. It had been on our list of things to do for a while because we had heard good things about it. It's a museum dedicated to a Scottish history of medicine and surgery - super cool. They had tons of displays to look at with jars of organs and limbs and fetuses... not everyone's cup of tea. But I think we both found it really interesting. There were brains from the early 1900's, skeletons with birth defects and bullet wounds... and a whole section on tumors that really freaked me out. Sorry. I won't continue. I can hear you all groaning. To sum it up, I would say it was informative.

We also decided to give Arthur's seat another go. I'm leaving so soon and I wanted to see it one more time -plus, that kind of view would never get old. We ended up taking a different route up the other side to see another view from the top. It turned out to be a beautiful day so the hike was lovely and we were able to sit and watch the city for a while.

We woke up today still in hike-mode so we took another walk out in the nice weather. This time to Blackford Hill. It's much smaller than Arthur's seat, but it sits on the other side of the city centre so the view is a whole different kind of amazing.

Oh and we've now seen Harry Potter twice in the theaters... not exactly my idea but Amy was quite happy about it.

Hoping you are all doing well and enjoying the heat wave (!!) in Ottawa. :)

Love Kayla (and Amy)

Highland Insanity (the good kind)

Hi Everyone! So, once again, A LOT has happened since our last post.
I'm all moved in to my new flat now (yay!), I've started applying for jobs around the city, and we just got back from a road-trip to Glencoe.
My new flat mates (Liam and Scott) are really nice and we've been having fun getting to know them and some of their friends. The lease I signed on July 1st is for 12 months - so I guess that makes this whole thing official. I won't be coming back for awhile. Which is a good thing!
The job search is still ongoing, but I have faith something will come up. Handing out more CVs tomorrow.
I suppose our most interesting news to share was our trip to Glencoe. We decided it would be nice to get out of the city for a bit and get to really see Scotland - namely, the Highlands.  We decided on Glencoe.  Site of the famous Macdonald clan massacre (not our direct ancestors per se, but we were sentimental nonetheless).
It was about 4 hours by bus, but it felt much much longer...
Immediately after boarding, our bus driver informed everyone that what he'd really like to be is a tour guide bus driver (we were NOT on a tour bus fyi) and that he would be trying out some of his tour guide 'knowledge' during the trip.  Now to be fair, some of his route info was actually interesting: pointing out famous castles, the train bridge used in Harry Potter films, Hamish the cow, etc.
However.
When he was not pointing these things out, either loud bagpiper tunes were being played through the bus speakers, the driver was telling really horrible jokes, or he would (often) forget to turn his mic off so everyone could hear him loudly breathing/humming through the speakers. Hahaha right?  Not for 4 hours. At least the scenery was beautiful. Actually, the scenery was breathtaking - especially as we got closer to Glencoe.  I can honestly say it is a landscape I have never seen the likes of before.  Kayla and I were both amazed, to say the least.

View of the Glen and Loch Leven

The Massacre Monument

Trying to find our hostel...

When we arrived in the village of Glencoe, we then faced the challenge of finding our hostel. Tougher than we thought, as it turns out.  The directions they gave on the website were very vague, as in "Walk into the village. Cross the hump-backed bridge. Walk 1 mile. We are on the right."
After walking for about 30mins in the wrong direction completely, we returned to our starting point and tried to call a local taxi. They take Sundays off apparently. Guh. So we tried another direction and walked for nearly an hour before finally arriving at the hostel. And the hostel was perfect. Located in the woods at the base of several mountains.

Our lovely little hostel

SIGHS. OF. RELIEF.
We rested for a bit before deciding we wanted to do something crazy. Specifically, we wanted to go swimming in a creek we had passed earlier. Now, this is crazy because July in Scotland is probably more like March or April in Ottawa. As in, not hot at all and nearly always raining.
It was so much fun. A moment to remember for sure.

SO COLD.

So anyways, we loved Glencoe. The most beautiful place I've ever been - hands down.

Sidenote: when we were climbing on the bus to come home today, who should greet us but our old bus driver from the day before! No joke. The same guy drove us all the way back to Edinburgh and he retold all the same stupid stories and bad jokes as before. This time however, he spent part of the journey singing Celtic songs to us over the intercom. And not even to get a laugh. Just because he wanted to. So unbelievably awkward.

That's it for now! Hope you're all doing well.

Love,
Amy (+ Kayla)

St Andrews, Secret Gardens, and more hiking...

Ahhh it's been over a week since our last post! We apologize - it's been a busy week.
Amandine arrived from Oslo last Tuesday and we had a lot of fun exploring the city with her. We filled the week with cooking, movies, walking/hiking, day trips, and relaxing in private gardens. The rain did not stop us. She is on her way back to Calgary tomorrow and I miss her already.
At Amandine's recommendation, we decided to hike up Arthur's Seat again - this time in the middle of the night - to arrive at the top in time to watch the sun rise over the ocean. Sounds great in theory, right? It turned out to be slightly less magical when we, completely sleep-deprived, had to navigate our way through swarms of drunk people stumbling home at 3:30am in order to get to the base of the hill. The actual climb also seems to be ten times more difficult when your body wishes it was sleeping. There was no going back at that point though. We made it to the top just in time to watch the sky turn crazy shades of pink and purple and to see the sun peak up over the horizon. We sat for awhile and appreciated the view before agreeing that bed sounded really really good.

On Monday (27th), the three of us took a bus to St Andrews and spent the day wandering around the town. The weather wasn't the greatest, but we still had fun. We had lunch at an amazing fish and chips place called Tail's End, and then took a walk on the huge stretch of beach that runs parallel to the Old Golf Course. None of us were too intrigued by the golf stuff, but we got really excited when we found out they filmed that famous scene from Chariots of Fire on that beach. So cool.

We ended up at an old cemetery and cathedral ruins on the other end of town. The scene became extremely morbid and creepy when we witnessed two seagulls brutally attacking each other. In the rain. Among the ruins. We were kind of dumbstruck by it. Both birds were okay (we think) but it was completely bizarre to watch. We ended our day at a cute coffee shop, where I tried Banoffee Pie for the first time. It's a British dessert - combination of bananas and toffee. So good. I definitely recommend.

So, turns out all the people who live in the rich, fancy neighborhoods of New Town (like Murphy), get access to the Private Queen Street gardens. Like, the gardens are in the middle of the city but gated and locked at all times to the public. Unless you have a special key. Which Murphy does, and so kindly allowed us to use so we could have a fancy picnic removed from the hassles of commoners and their unruliness. So naturally, we went to M&S and bought sandwiches, crisps, fruit, and bubbly wine spritzers and entered our lovely green sanctuary. As Kayla describes it, "it is for all the rich puppies and their poops" - which is actually completely accurate. We spent a few hours laying in the sunshine, getting bloated by the fizzy drinks, and feeling generally very fancy.

I believe that's it for now! We'll probably keep up this method of writing from now on - a longer post once a week instead of every few days. Next week will be very eventful as I am moving into my new flat on Friday. Hope you are all doing well!

Love,
Amy (+ Kayla)

Movin on up...

No more hostels!!!!
I think Amy and I have decided that we would be very happy people if we never stayed in a hostel again. Okay, it wasn't that horrible, but the place we are staying now is really beautiful! We are renting a room in a flat in New Town and it seems since we got here that they live quite stylishly. The evening we arrived, they cooked us dinner - oysters, sea bass, scallops and sea asparagus to be exact! - we were impressed. When our fellow dinner guest turned out to be a director at the film festival and invited us to her premiere (for free!), we were speechless. And then very excited. Quite the turn-around from the hostel we stayed in the night before.
The movie she directed is called Bombay Beach - Amy and I both really enjoyed it. It was a documentary about a poor community in California. Super interesting and really beautifully made!
So after a glamorous first night in New Town, we spent the next day walking along The Water of Leith. It's a river that runs through the city and leads to the National Gallery of Modern Art. We made it to the gallery and got to see their current exhibition on August Sander (an early 20th century German photographer). To say the least, it was beautiful.  He was a portrait photographer - I recommend Googling him.

We went to a restaurant last night called Tiles at Dad's recommendation and had a very nice meal with a pint of Tennant's beer. Proof here:






In other news, I gave Amy a haircut!



Love Kayla (and Amy)

Hummdeedum...

Sorry for the delay guys! Our eventful days are slowing down a little. Amy has been searching for flats online and e-mailing lots of people. Other than that, we've been walking around the city and getting familiar with everything.
Yesterday we visited Calton Hill. Nice view of the whole city, plus some strange Greek-themed architecture that apparently was never completed (they started building it in the 1820's and ran out of money...). Oh well. Tourists like it.

The view from Calton Hill

Another view

The weather has been on our side for the most part, so we're having fun spending time in all the parks they have scattered throughout the city. So much green here! Really nice.

Lounging in Princes St Gardens

Amy also wanted to let Dad know that she finished her book and loved it - you did good, Pops.
We are thinking of you guys every day! We promise next post will be more exciting!

Love Kayla (and Amy)

Art Galleries + Hardcore Hiking!!

So, as some of you may know by now, we are having miserable luck finding a steady source of WiFi for internet purposes.  Our hostel has been a major fail in that department, but thank goodness for public libraries! They have been our internet haven these past few days.

So yesterday (June 12th) was yet another busy, cardio-filled day!  I finally got a UK sim card for my phone (yay!) and Kayla and I discovered the National Gallery of Scotland.  Which was located in the middle of Princes Street Gardens, was absolutely beautiful, and free!  Kayla was very excited because they had a special exhibit on the artist, Albert Durer.  He was a famous printmaker from  the 16th Century and specialized in engravings and wood cuts. Very cool.

The weather was beautiful so we decided it was as good a day as any to climb Arthur's Seat.  It was a steep climb (steeper than I remember!) but we made it to the top and the incredible view made it all worth it.  We plan on doing the hike again soon.

Afterwards we walked to Holyrood Park (big green space at base of Arthur's Seat) and just sat and people-watched for awhile. We ended up having dinner at Greyfriar Bobby's Pub, just up the road from our hostel.  We both had a very English meal - Sausages & Mash - and I think we've discovered our new favorite comfort food. So good.
All-in-all, it was a very nice, relaxing, happy day.

Glad you're all enjoying the blog!
Until next time...

Amy & Kayla

Edinburgh is hilly.

Guess what? We're still jetlagged! Yaayyyy...

Yesterday was a super fun day full of site-seeing and walking all around the city. We got up very early (7am if I'm not mistaken), and eagerly set out to begin our day. Turns out people here like to sleep in. Nearly every shop was closed with no hours posted on their doors. We hummed about it for a bit but ended up making out way out to Princes Street, and what do ya know - this is where all the early-risers are.

After breakfast we walked through a beautiful cemetery next to the Princes Street Gardens. Sort of an eerie place since it looks like it hasn't been taken care of in a while.

After that, we walked up to the castle to watch some kilted men with bagpipes do a little performance (we're not sure what it was for, but it looked very important). Also ended up going to the top of the Scott Monument (the tall, dark building that looks as though it belongs to an an evil villain). I'm sure Mr. Scott was a very nice man. Walking to the top of those narrow little stairs was a little unnerving, but we had fun trying it out!

We also went to Jenners and walked through an M&S grocery store... people in Scotland sure do like buying everything individually wrapped. I got very weirded-out by this place. Scottish people also really like coffee. More than Mum, even.

After all this wandering, we walked to the Edinburgh College of Art (on my request). The lady at the desk quickly told us that we weren't allowed walking around because they were setting up the Grad show(!!). She should not have told me this, because it only prompted me to try the other building's entrance and walk around the building from there. Amy relunctantly followed while I squealed at each department. And it was a BEAUTIFUL building. We're definitely going back soon to check out the Grad show when it's ready.

It was a veeery long day, full of happy things.

Love Kayla (and Amy)

Woo Edinburgh! [London did not defeat us]

So we've finally made it to Edinburgh!

Eating lunch at Kings Cross Station

Our last morning in London was...tiring.  After checking out, we had to book it to the nearest NatWest bank (dragging our huge suitcases) so I could set up a bank account before we left London at noon.  Turns out, you can only open a bank account in the UK in specific London branches.  BUNAC told me this yesterday.  I was not in the best of moods.  That is the reason we had nothing exciting to share about June 8th - it was a bit of a fail.  Spent the majority of the day in the BUNAC office followed by major anxiety attack in the hostel and turning in early.
ANYWAY.  It's okay cause it all worked out!  And I have a bank account now! And we were really early for our train! All good all good.
So right now, it's 7pm and Kayla and I are sitting at a cafe (free WiFi!) eating and internet surfing before we go to bed.  The hostel here looks 150% nicer than the London one.  Very friendly, lots of Canadians.  Plus, they apparently do pub crawls Mon-Fri.  So we are excited.

Until next time...

Amy & Kayla

We've Arrived!!

Longest. Day. Ever.
Kayla and I are coming to the end of Day 1 in the UK (although it feels like it should be Day 3, at least).  We are currently sitting in our hostel lounge, catching up on emails and facebook notifications as well as flipping through all our photos taken so far.
We saw a LOT today.  Accidentally got off at the wrong station coming from Gatwick (would you believe Victoria Station made a second accidental appearance, Sarah?) but it worked out for the best because we were able to store our luggage and immediately saw signs pointing us in the direction of Westminster Abbey, Parliament, the Thames, etc.  Dad - we saw and took lots of pictures outside of Westminster Abbey, but didn't go in because we still had our heavy backpacks with us, but we may go back tomorrow if there's time!

Sat for awhile on a bench by the Thames.  Which was lovely.  And gave our legs a bit of rest.  Finally made our way to our hostel in Russell Square and walked from there to the British Library and walked through their permanent collection.  So cool.  We got a chance to see the illuminated manuscripts (Magna Carta, Canterbury Tales, Jane Austen, Shakespeare, Virginia Woolfe, Oscar Wilde, Mozart, Beatles....and on and on)  Kayla and I were slightly overwhelmed by how extensive and impressive their collection is.  And we only saw a small part of it.  Definitely worth the trip (thanks for the tip, Jesse!).
Tomorrow we plan on maybe going to the Tate Modern and exploring around there after my BUNAC orientation.
Unfortunately, I left my camera cord at home so until I buy a new one we won't be able to post pictures. I'll try to find one tomorrow.

That's it for now!

Love,
Amy & Kayla

Packing!

Getting ready and packing everything away... tough to do with the one-suitcase policy. Amy is desperately flipping through city maps and muttering to herself about the pros and cons of subways. We will be arriving in London at about 6:30 in the morning so we are trying to make plans for our day while remembering how incredibly tired we are going to be. Should be fun!
Between the two of us, I'm pretty certain it's my job to keep anxiety at ease. We are not short of determination. IT STARTS...

Love Kayla (and Amy)