First week of school is sorted!

A full week has passed since our arrival in St. Andrews, and we are getting settled in. It took us some back-and-forth with the school to enroll Leah and set her up in a classroom, so we filled our first few days of the week with more walks through town. Leah is a fan of the beaches, but my favorite spot in town is the Lade Braes, which is a walking path along a small creek that heads out of St. Andrews for almost two miles. The phrase Lade Braes is one of those terms that you can’t make sense of regardless of the number of times you hear it unless you know what is being discussed, but once you see one of the signs for the path around town, often recessed into a stone wall, it all makes sense. And once you take the path and see the water moving towards the town and pass the ruins of two water wheels, you understand why it’s there. The “Lade” means “lead” in that the stream was created to lead water into town, from a pond above a water mill, and the “Braes” refers to a Scottish word for high ground near a river. So: a stream bringing water down into town. Local reference books say the path was built to bring water to St. Andrews priory, and that was founded in 1140, but it’s possible that the stream existed before that, and was used for washing clothes and cleaning fish. You don’t see any of that today, fortunately—it’s filled with dog walkers, joggers and school children taking a short cut home. And now that I’m here, I will be among the throngs daily, looking for blooming bulbs and other signs of spring on my daily walk.

Leah on a Lade Braes walk

 

We managed to have Leah enrolled in school on Wednesday and her first day was Thursday. She’s in Primary 6 (P6), which is the equivalent of fifth grade in the US. (The year that we call Kindergarten is P1 here, accounting for the numbering shift). The school is Greyfriars, a Catholic school that is state-funded (not uncommon here) and provides education to students in a specific “catchment.” Because it overlaps with the University, it’s a very diverse student population, and university kiddos’ comings-and-goings are relatively common. As a result, none of the teachers batted an eye when the head teacher took us around to introduce Leah and announce that she was beginning at the school the next day. She also reviewed the uniform requirements with Leah (tie and formal collared shirt are required under the school jumper, but no crest-emblazoned blazer for her, as was not the case for Emma and John when they attended secondary school here a few years ago) and explained that the school doesn’t allow any outdoor shoes so she would need some black plimsoles. Fortunately, we had secured some of those the weekend before in Dundee, along with a gym kit that is supposed to be left at the school for the term (another difference from the secondary school! Yuck!).

 

Leah was incredibly nervous on our walk to the school on the first day, though I had hoped that her position as one of the older students at the school would help somewhat. Her school in the US is pre-K to 12, so she regularly walks in the front doors of the school alongside kids with facial hair carrying to-go coffees. But, the little kids jostling around us on their way into the building, as if we were two rocks in the middle of a swiftly moving river, didn’t help her and she wanted me to come into the building with her. I left her with the head teacher, and waited for hours to hear the report. It was mostly positive, and her stories made it sound as if the other students were very welcoming. She is a combined class of students in P5 and P6, created because there are too many students in each grade alone, so is one of only 4 P6 students in the class. This is a bit concerning to us, as we hope this doesn’t cause her to fall behind the rest of her fifth-grade class in the US. We know from previous experience that she is going to have to work on her own at home on math, as the Scottish schools seem to move much more slowly in “maths” here. Her new P6 teacher said they would focus on money, graphs and shapes, whereas her fifth-grade class in the US is working on operations with mixed fractions. On the other hand, previous experience tells us that they will be much more advanced in history and geography and they cover literacy in a different way as well. Leah said they were discussing Shakespeare on her first day and on Friday she had a spelling test with quite advanced words (all ending in -ion, thankfully…the week in which they do the -our suffix is going to cause her some issues with her American-style spelling!), and over the weekend her homework was to memorize a Robert Burns poem. She said they haven’t discussed geography yet, though she said she wasn’t able to accurately convey where she was from to the teacher. The teacher asked where she was from in the US and Leah said New York, so of course she assumed Leah was from the city. When Leah corrected her and added that she lived pretty far outside the city, the teacher said, “Oh, like the Hamptons then? I would LOVE to visit the Hamptons!” I don’t think Leah really knows where the Hamptons are, except to know that we don’t live there either, but I think she just left it at that and didn’t correct her. I pointed out that she could tell the students that she lives as far from New York City as Edinburgh is from Ullapool on the far northwest coast of Scotland!

 

A third wee trip to St. Andrews has begun!

Our third adventure in Scotland has begun! We arrived at the Edinburgh airport on Friday morning (UK time) of last week, took a cab to our rental house (more on that later!), dropped our bags in the back garden since we were not allowed to enter until noon, and headed to Market Street in St. Andrews for a morning coffee and hot chocolate. We were a bit bleary-eyed and it was drizzling/raining for most of the morning, but it was so lovely to be back in St. Andrews that we didn’t mind at all. We then stopped into a Vodafone to switch our SIM cards to UK phone numbers, which took the rest of our morning—mostly because I wasn’t thinking fast enough yet to provide my birth day into the usual British calendar format (day then month). By the time we were sorted with new numbers, it was noon and we made the short walk back to our house.

Of the three houses in which we have stayed in St. Andrews, this is the closest and most convenient to town: for those of you in the know, it’s on the Kinness Burn where the ducks hang out, just down a steep hill from Queen’s Terrace. It’s also the least charming of the three: aside from some lovely glass doors between the front hall and the living room, it’s a bit worn out and in need of an update throughout. But, it’s very comfortable and once we figured out how to turn on the heat, it was lovely and warm. There’s a large kitchen in the window that overlooks a private terrace with some plantings. And, since nothing is neither precious nor new, we don’t have to worry if, for example, David were to break a glass approximately ten minutes after we arrive, say. A real bonus!

Our first weekend was a predictable one: hire a car to take us to the nearby village of Cupar for a rental car for the term, then on to Dundee for school uniform shopping with Leah. This cab ride was short and we weren’t as tired, and the driver was a rugby player (a winger, too!) which worked out well for everyone in the car. We picked up a little Vauxhall Corsa in Cupar, and used our phone to get us to the uniform shop in Dundee. I should say here that both David and I both love driving in the UK—what was a source of real anxiety in our first few weeks back in 2011 when we first arrived in Scotland has now become one of our favorite parts of being here. I can confidently report that once one learns to drive on the left side of the road, seated on the right side of the car, one has mastered a skill that will last a lifetime. Each time we return, the maiden voyage is a bit easier, and now with updated maps through an iPhone, it’s very simple—even the multilane rotaries aren’t terribly difficult to navigate. In this case, we made it to Dundee without incident and left the Vauxhall in a carpark, then walked to the uniform shop. The process of purchasing a uniform for Leah was rather fun (for me, at least…she abhors shopping for clothes and especially trying on clothes…) though I could not stop using the word “pants” rather than “trousers” to the salesclerk. I’m sure she was rather amused, though she hid it well, because in every way possible we are giving off American vibes wherever we go: our credit cards don’t always work, I can’t yet manage to work out any of the coins smaller than a pound in my purse and have to ask for help, and we are just a little bit too loud when speaking to each other. Hopefully, we can improve upon all three in the coming weeks.

Leah is already ahead of me in her knowledge of British coins

The trip back to St. Andrews from our shopping excursion was lovely: it’s so nice to be back in Scotland where there is so little visual “noise.” No billboards, no dollar stores, no car-centric zoning codes—just lovely, narrow roads edged with stone walls and views of the ocean wherever you turn. The latter was especially of interest to Leah, as she has been asking to go to the beach since we arrived. Saturday afternoon was taken up by our first trip to the grocery store, which was especially lengthy since we both enjoy lingering in the aisles. And, because the sun is still setting at 3:45pm, the day felt like it really got away from us. So, our first beach trip had to wait until Sunday afternoon, and I think Leah felt that it was a real success. She found some driftwood on the East Sands beach that resembles a wand freshly procured from Garrick Ollivander himself, and since it was a Sunday, the beach was full of dogs running loose. We walked from East Sands to Castle Sands along the beach and spotted several sea lions playing in the surf (not at all uncommon in St. Andrews, so we were the only ones on the beach exclaiming over them!), and Leah busied herself with looking for shards of pottery among the rocks (also not at all uncommon in St. Andrews). We stayed until after sunset (again, not hard to do!), then walked into town for some toiletries at Boots and some steak and haggis pies from Fisher and Donaldson for dinner. Incidentally, the ordering of said pies was one of my first moments on this trip of feeling a little bit less obvious as a visitor. The usual queue had formed in the bakery so when the shopkeeper asked what I would like, I was not standing in front of any of the goods on offer, but was still  able to order as if I were in the know: “Two steak and haggis pies,” I said, without a whiff of an American-style question mark at the end of the phrase, “and I suppose one fudge donut as well.”  She nodded and smiled, and said something along the lines of how one can’t help but to throw that in (I didn’t understand every word but managed to make out a “ya kin” and a “wee” in there somewhere). But, at the end of the transaction, she thanked me with a “See ya next time!” Some might take that as confidence in one’s product, or perhaps even commentary on my weight, but I heard it as neither, and instead felt seen—not as an American in town just to play the Old Course but as someone who knew St. Andrews (just a little bit?) 

Leah turns 3 on the Orkneys

St. Magnus Cathedral

June 1 is Leah's birthday, and she turned three today. We spent the day in Kirkwall, visiting the St. Magnus Cathedral and the Bishop's Palace, then had a lunch of cheese toastie and sweet potato cake at a cafe across the street. Since we are just about to pack everything up to leave St. Andrews, we kept the gifts on the small, portable side, but as we walked through Kirkwall we did manage to find her two stuffed Elsa and Anna dolls, and a Gruffalo matching game. We also stopped in at the Kirkwall leisure center for an hour on the indoor toddler play area, and another hour in the leisure pool. This pool was a bit smaller and less well-equipped than the one we usually visit in Dundee...only one small slide here, and no wave pool or current river for the big kids. Also, the water was a bit...cool! Leah didn't mind, though. She was chuffed that there was a big box of rubber duckies available to borrow, and so she and I spent most of the hour lining the duckies up and having them discuss their upcoming birthday parties in turn.

We stopped at the Tesco for a birthday cake and candles, and for Leah's chosen birthday meal: macaroni cheese and cucumbers. We found a cute sparkler candle shaped like a "3" along with party hats. Tesco gives away free bits of fruit to kids who are shopping, so she was thrilled to have a handful of strawberries and blueberries to eat as we shopped, and even more thrilled that when she went back for more, one of the employees gave her a small box of plastic jewelry with a plastic key. That left a huge impression on her, and when we got in the car for the ride home, she quickly put all the jewelry on, then promptly fell asleep.

When she woke up later that evening, she was a bit groggy and grouchy but did come around when she saw her birthday cake all candled up. She was completely shocked when we lit the sparkler, as I don't think she had seen that before, but when she realized that we didn't find it alarming, she started to smile, and even managed to blow out all three candles as well!

A cold foggy hike to the Broch of Birsay

It's quite cool and windy here, and our itinerary is getting smaller and smaller as a result. Not much sense in spending the day at the beach when it's freezing!

This morning, we took a drive across the northern part of the mainland towards Birsay. At the tip of the island, there's a wee dot of land that was inhabited by the Vikings, where there's the foundational remains of a small settlement. When the tide is low, you can access the island by walking across the rocks, but when the tide comes in, it's an island once more. We checked the tide times before the visit, so when we arrived we could walk right out. The island is very close to sea level on one side, but much higher on the other, so there are some seriously dramatic cliffs full of blooming flowers and nesting sea birds. It was lovely, but a bit too vertiginous for me to stand at the edge for too long!

On a related topic, I am starting to get a bit worried about our upcoming trip to Rome. We haven't experienced temperatures much above 60 degrees since we have been in Scotland, and it's going to be in the high 80s in Rome next week. I'm afraid a sudden 30 degree swing is going to make us wilt! So, prepare yourself for various sweaty photos of us panting and draped over Roman ruins!

Site Visits on the Orkneys

We are renting a huge farmhouse on the Orkneys for a few days. Emma and I found this by chance, since by the time we had decided to change up our end-of-term plans almost everything was booked. We were looking for something really remote, even for Scottish standards, and since the mainland of Orkney is not a very large island there aren’t many things available. Also, the commemoration ceremonies for the Battle of Jutland (World War I naval battle) are going on this week in Kirkwall, which is the mainland’s largest town, meaning David Cameron is here along with Germany’s president, and a whole host of visitors, veterans, and camera crews. When we arrived on Sunday and disembarked from the ferry, we noticed that about half of the vehicles unloading in front of us were equipped with some kind of satellite broadcasting dish on the roof.

Nevertheless, I managed to find this farmhouse, which is one of four cottages offered for holiday lets by a family that lives in the tiny “town” of Riff on the mainland. The farmhouse is the largest property, and the only one they hadn’t yet rented out for the week. It’s much too large for us, and I think it’s probably much too large for most vacationing families, so I was able to strike the owner a deal for only a few nights. When we arrived and saw the house for the first time, Emma and I kept talking about how great it would have been if our house in St. Andrews were this big, this new, and this well-furnished. Also, the views from every window of the ocean and the fields full of sheep and their baby lambs weren’t bad either!

On our first full day, we visited several of the archaeological sites on Orkney, for which the islands are well-known. While the British consider these islands to be remote today, they used to be an important part of the political and economic network of what is now northern Europe. The people who lived here through the ages left a good bit of evidence on how they lived and who they were. Our first stop in the morning was Maes Howe, a remnant of the Neolithic communities who lived on the Orkneys 5,000 years ago. This is an earth-covered mound, and inside is a long, narrow and perfectly straight tunnel, about 3 feet tall and 20 feet long, that leads into a stone tomb. Since it’s small, they only allow in small groups of visitors at a time, accompanied by a guide from Historic Scotland. We all had to duck-walk our way in slowly since it was so low and tight, though Leah was able to run right through! Our guide was excellent, and showed us how they original inhabitants of the area used the alignment of the midwinter sun to build the tomb in perfect square out of massive rocks. With a flashlight, he also pointed out various bits of graffiti left by the Norse inhabitants of Orkney in later centuries (900 AD or so), and we were all impressed that the graffiti was so similar to the kind of graffiti one would still find today, but with a Viking theme. Some of the things etched into the stones included, “Haakon singlehanded bore treasures from this howe” and “Ingigerd is the most beautiful of women.” I suppose you might see a bit more crude language used today, but still…the same idea!

We also stopped at some of the ceremonial sites in the area, most of which feature standing stones. There’s the Stones of Stenness and the Ring of Brodgar—the latter features 27 standing stones in a large circle and ringed by a ditch. We joined the tour groups in a quick walk up the mound, and a quick tour around the stones. Leah wasn’t terribly impressed, so though we managed to get in a few of the requisite families-members-lined-up-like-stones shots, she quickly lost altitude. We managed to perk her up with a stop for lunch at the Orkney Brewery, which is located in an old school house. There was a large box of wooden toys in the corner for kids, and she happily played here for quite a while as she waited for her mature cheddar toastie to emerge from the kitchen. David and I split a massive sharing board of Orkney cheddar, salmon, oatcakes, and bere bannock, and he had a dark beer. We followed our lunch up with a huge slice of “dragon cake” which is a dark chocolate cake soaked in dark beer and topped with a white meringue frosting. We all had small bites, and Leah managed to finish off the rest of it. As we walked out of the restaurant, she kept repeating, “I ate all the dragon cake, and now my belly is huge!”

  

After lunch, we made it to Skara Brae, which is the most well-known of the ancient sites in the Orkneys. It’s certainly the oldest, and the folks that run it keep reminding visitors that it’s older than Stonehenge and the Pyramids. This is a Neolithic village, comprised of a set of dwellings built of stone, with midden (compost and rubbish, basically) packed in between for insulation. Each small home was connected to all the others by a series of passageways, which meant that the inhabitants could circulate among the buildings without going outside. The site was buried in sand for centuries, and discovered in 1850 when a storm blew through the area and exposed it. It’s very well preserved…the homes still contain their stone beds and dressers and hearths. However, it’s also very busy! As we arrived, the woman who sold us tickets alerted us that a tour bus of 55 people was set to arrive in 10 minutes, so we hurried out to the site, then returned later to see the exhibits in the visitor’s centre.

Trip to Thurso and Ferry to the Orkneys

After John's send-off party on Friday night, we packed up a small suitcase and hit the road for one more road trip in Scotland. Emma has been helping me plan this one all semester, and we have tweaked and retweaked it a few times after some of our other trips. We initially chose to do a driving-heavy tour of the Outer Hebrides, then the western and northern coast of Scotland before taking a ferry from the northeast tip to the Orkneys, but about a month ago we decided to change it up after realizing that the Orkneys held the most interest for us, and none of us were keen to spend that much time in the car.

After a three hour drive towards Inverness, we stopped for lunch at a mill and had sandwiches and soup. We then visited a bookstore that was located in a converted church, which we had visited in 2011. There used to be a cafe on the second floor, and I planned to distract Leah with a plate of sticky toffee pudding there while everyone else browsed for books, but without the cafe there it was not to be. After I let her take a few trips up the metal, spiral staircase and noticed the bookshop owner was giving her disapproving glances, I took her to a nearby cafe and brought John along to help. Leah had a bit of meltdown in the cafe, and kept insisting she needed a bag of chorizo and red onion crisps. I tried to get her to settle for a chocolate muffin, but she refused, so we got the crisps, and the muffin for John. At the table, of course, Leah tasted one crisp, then immediately moved on to John's muffin and ate the whole thing by herself. John was a great sport about it, and let her finish it off without complaint.

We got back in the car and drove for another two hours along the east coast, cutting inland at the very end to get to the town of Thurso. This part of Scotland is quite rural, although the temperate climate means the infrequently-traveled roads are in fantastic shape. The drive along the coast was stunningly beautiful, and there were some crazy hairpin turns along the way to keep us on our toes. When we arrived at Thurso around tea time, we were surprised that it was such a large town (population of about 8,000), given its remote location. It seems to be a hub for all those heading north out of one of the small port cities along the northern coast, though, and it has its own wide sandy beach, dramatic cliffs, and lighthouses as attractions as well. We were staying just one night, but I could see how people might use it as a base for exploring the northern coast. We saw a number of cyclists on the way up, and in the town itself, and there's a popular cycling route that goes from John O'Groats to our east and Kyle of Tongue (yes, these are actual place names!) to our west. We were staying at a small guesthouse...one of the few places I found in town that had a family room available that could accommodate all five of us. It was quite affordable, and included breakfast, so I wasn't sure what to expect, and we were pleasantly surprised that it turned out to be a lovely older home that was fully restored, and run by a woman from London named Lisa who wore flowy, colorful robes. Her nephew Jack was visiting her for the weekend, and she had put him to work helping out around the guesthouse. He was quite proud to show us to our large, lovely ground floor room, and point out that he had done all the hoovering himself, and now had a tenner to show for it.


After we settled in, we ventured back out for some dinner. We stopped at an Indian takeaway place, but it looked especially formal, even for UK standards (I still don't get that here...), so we nipped in to the chippy across the road. There was a queue out the door, mostly composed of groups of teenagers, so I could tell that Emma wasn't terribly chuffed at the idea of joining the chippy queue. As we ordered, we learned they were out of veggie burgers which means there wasn't much left for her, but she managed with a spring roll that was full of cabbage and corn (!). David and I ordered fish and John had a burger, and we packed up the whole greasy lot and took it to the beach where we had a picnic.

John was pleasantly stunned when he took a bite of his burger, and realized that it had been battered and deep-fried! He says it's now the best thing that he has ever eaten in his entire life!

On Sunday morning, we slept in a bit somehow (very hard to do when the sun rises at 4:11 am!) and woke up to a lovely and huge breakfast prepared by Lisa and Jack. It included eggs with pumpkin-colored yolks from a Thurso farmer, and bread from a bakery down the road, served with homemade strawberry jam and orange marmalade. It was a locavore's dream breakfast, though that's pretty standard in most places in Scotland since they don't have much of an option to eat anything other than local food.

After breakfast, we walked to mass, then packed up the car (there's Leah above, waiting under a tree with my Kindle while we pack) to drive to the port at Gills Bay. We stopped along the way for a quick visit to Castle Mey, though we only toured the gardens and the barns to save on time. 

John and Leah spent some time running through the walled garden, and one of the castle attendants wandered over to investigate the commotion. He asked us a few questions, and we chatted a bit. He pointed out a low, misty cloud in the distance (you can see it in the photo above) and told us it was called a "haar" and it was coming in from John O'Groats. We watched it move across the sky for a bit, but it was such a sunny day that it didn't seem too alarming. We then made it to the barns, where Leah and John met some geese that could match their sound level. It was quite the racket as they all took turns honking at each other.

The woman taking care of the animals asked Leah to help wash the ducks feet, and gave the kids peanuts to feed to the caged chipmunks. It's always interesting to see what people in different parts of the world find exhibit-worthy...I'm sure Americans would never take the time out to visit an enclosure full of chipmunks!

Finally, we made it to Gills Bay to catch the ferry, and drove on with our car which we are taking to the Orkneys with us. Leah was moderately interested in the process of getting all the vehicles onto the ferry, and also moderately interested in watching us pull away from the dock. It was quite windy on the top deck of the ferry, though, and John sacrificed his jumper to keep her warm, for which he earned a hug. As the boat cut across the water, that "haar" really started to move in, though, and the sun disappeared. We made a hasty retreat to the enclosed floors below-deck for the remainder of the ride across the water.

Saying Goodbye

The kids have had their last day of school, and they are quite sad to leave their friends. Emma had four girls over last night for a sleepover, and after a dinner at Nando's they came back to our house to watch movies and play Celebrity. The girls are all on study leave this week, so none of them needed to be up early for class this morning.

Emma's Maths class at Madras College on South Street

John has invited a whole group of boys to our house today after school, and he has a whole evening's worth of activities planned...most of which involve junk food and sports. Emma and Leah and I are getting out of the house as a result, and heading to Dundee for a night at the leisure center.

John's technology class at Madras on Kilrymont

Same class, looking less studious...

In the midst of hosting all these kids, we are starting to pack things up. We sent a few boxes back today, full of books and clothes that we won't need for the remainder of our trip. We will have a few to send next week as well, but it's good to get a start on the packing.

Emma helps David ship a box back to the U.S.

Leah's teachers gave her a lovely send-off from nursery yesterday. Her teachers made her a lovely card, and even had Leah and her friends bake Leah a going-away/birthday cake that was served to the kids for pudding. They also took a great group picture, though I don't yet have a copy. This old photo from a recent field trip will have to suffice!

Leah's nursery class at the botanical gardens.