Rough Landing!

We’re here, and all in one piece. Our flight from Syracuse to Newark was uneventful, and the flight from Newark to Edinburgh started that way as well. John fell asleep as soon as the wheels of the plane retracted, and Emma settled in to the in-flight entertainment center, equipped with plenty of episodes of Good Luck Charlie. David and I watched movies, and thoroughly enjoyed the first three hours. The sleeping part, however, was not so enjoyable. Emma and I tried to prop ourselves up on each other, but her habit of throwing elbows made for fitful sleep at best. We left Newark at 7pm New York time, and at about midnight, the flight crew threw on the lights and started distributing croissants, in the hopes of fooling us into thinking we had just passed through the night and were now ready for the morning. Uh, nope… The pilot put up the “Fasten Seatbelts” sign and said it was going to be a bit of a bumpy landing. Though the plane landed smoothly, he was right—at least for us!

We landed at 7:30 am Edinburgh time and passed through the border with no issues. Our driver was a bit late, and much to David’s horror, showed up wearing a Red Sox cap! We followed the driver out to the parking lot, looking both left and right a few times before crossing any road, then climbed into his van and tried not to make a big deal out of how strange it was to see him sit behind the wheel on the right hand side of the car. I had hoped to use the ride as a chance to observe some of the rules of the road before we tried driving ourselves, but the height of the seat back in front of me, and the fact that it was as dark outside as the circles under my eyes, meant that I couldn’t see much. Instead, I listened to David talking to the driver, amazed that he could converse—though I did understand them when they started talking about American football and the driver said he was a fan of the Miami Dolphins as he couldn’t follow the Patriots since they had the word “England” in their name!

After an hour’s drive in which we passed through some ridiculously grey little villages, we got to the house. George, the father of the owner, was here to greet us. I’m sure that he’s a very nice man and had lots of wonderful and welcoming things to say to us, but truthfully I couldn’t understand a word of what he was saying. He showed us around the house a bit, and the kids disappeared right away to put “dibs” on their bedrooms. David and I carried in the luggage, then George pointed out that it was “tea time” (I think…) and offered to drive one of us to the grocery store. I chose to go, and left David home to make beds for the kids.

I got some money out of the ATM machine and headed into Morrison’s with George. While he engaged in some indecipherable conversation with some of the other shoppers, I raced through the store, trying to find a few staples that would get us through the night. I found some Jamie Oliver-brand tortelloni, which looked delicious, a teensy bag of lettuce, some apples, and a small jug of milk. George caught up with me as I was searching for peanut butter, and when I asked him about it, he said, “Well, I have never heard of such a thing.” He asked the clerk, who thought for a minute, then said that, yes, they did stock pea-nut-butta and took me to the bottom end of an aisle where I found three dusty jars under a hefty display of Nutella. I asked them both what kids in Scotland ate, and they both stared at me blankly. Apparently not peanut butter.

George took me back to the house, where David and the kids had opened every suitcase in search of comfy clothes and a toothbrush. George left us after a few parting directions about the “telly” and a warning about how slick the “pavements” would be in the morning, and the four of us went directly to bed. Emma protested, but fell asleep mid-sentence about how she wasn’t tired at…

So, all in all, it has been a bit of a bumpy landing for us. The time change, the darkness, the accents (Oh, my gosh…the accents!!! What am I going to do?) all make us feel as if we have landed in a time warp rather than just on another continent. We’re all hoping that things will stop shaking tomorrow after a good night’s sleep and a breakfast of apples and peanut butter!

Part Two of Rough Landing

We’re still having trouble getting on to our home internet, so we haven’t been online yet. But Day Two was a bit more successful for us, and a bit less bumpy. We all slept in again in the morning—still adjusting to GMT here—and after breakfast, headed into the town of St. Andrews. Our house is in a new neighborhood about a mile outside the town, but very close to a path called the Lade Braes, which is a gorgeous footpath that goes along a creek and through town. It was a bit icy this morning, so we slipped down the path toward town, which took about fifteen minutes. We went right to the post office, which is in the back of a W.H. Smith shop (a bit strange), in search of our wireless modem. It, of course, was not there, so we headed to the public library instead. We signed up for library cards, checked out a few books, and sent a quick “all clear” email while the kids were weeping from hunger. We stopped for a sandwich and “crisps” for them, popped into the Boots pharmacy (awesome!) then “topped up” our borrowed cell phones. Though the town was fabulous and we wanted to stay, we headed home after only an hour because the car rental company was going to meet us to take us to their office…which of course they did not in the end. So we spent a second evening at home, with no groceries, no phone, no car, no toilet paper (!) and no internet. The kids are starting to refer to this trip so far as “Survivor: Scotland” and I kind of agree with them!