Settling in and exploring London

Hello everyone! We now have a permanent address in Edinburgh for those of you that might fancy sending us a letter or dropping in on our doorstep. It is: 40 East Fountainbrdge Edinburgh EH3 9BH United Kingdom. Mail gets here rather quick, and only takes about a week so don't hesitate to drop us a note!

We spent the last week in London for the Marshall Scholar orientation programme and had a lot of fun. We went on a very nice tour of the city and rode the "london eye" the largest farris wheel in Europe, which gives a very good view of the city (note: I personally would not have shelled out the 11 pounds per person but in any case the Marshall Commission was footing the bill). We also toured the parliment building and went to a very swanky reception in our honor held by the British Foreign Office. We got to meet lots of heavy hitters as well as many current and former Marshall scholars. Not to mention all the crabcakes and wine we could handle.

The big point of trip was to meet the other scholars in Alletta's program. So far, they turned out to be very very nice and loads of fun (not nearly as square as one would expect for a bunch of über-nerds!). A fair number of them brought spouses to the UK and we met one who has a baby too. Went out to dinner and a number of pubs, along with a very hip club in central London. Ryan got along very well with the guys and has made friends with several of them. Though the city is not as visually stunning as others in Europe, it is a neat place to be. There are tons of great restuarants and pubs, great shopping and as well as some lovely parks and buildings. We have get to take advantage of the museums but that will definately be on our agenda for future visits. There are luckily a number of current Marshall Scholars in the city who we can stay with for free, and it is actually pretty cheap to go from Edinburgh to London by train or bus.

We are now back in Edinburgh and beginning to really appreciate how beautiful and interesting a city it is. It very old feeling (though few buildings remain that are actually more than a couple of hundred years old), with lots of winding cobblestone streets and these little alleyways that lead to other streets and charming squares. There are lots of great resturants and pubs as well as great museums and parks. The people are nice, and since we are very centrally located we are in a great position to enjoy it all. In general, Britian is no longer like it was back in the Thatcher days. The economy is now booming and everything is really nice, all the modern conviences you could want and then some. In our flat we have a very nice front loading washer/dryer, special heaters that draw electricity during off peak hours, and a water heater that heats on demand. All the appliances are new, as well as the fixtures and floors. It is a beautiful place even though the building is probably 150 years old. We even have a nice wood stove built into the old fireplace, which will be really nice in the winter. We are only minutes from massive parks, movie theaters, pubs, shopping, and the university too.

Ryan is currently looking to find work in one of the many cafes or bars in our neighborhood, which is good because we are very centrally located with lots of hip places just minutes away on foot. If that doesn't work, he will go to a temp agency.

It has been a bit of a pain getting stuff set up here. The British tend towards red tape, (though it cannot be anything close to as bad as it is in Greece or Italy!) We hope to get internet set up soon at the house, but for now we are going to a very cool cafe that offers free wireless. It is a teahouse with a great selection of nice teas and a great atmosphere and so for now I don't mind spending time there. It is good to get out of the house. The main problem has been setting up a bank account, which is very hard to do if you are a foreigner. We have finally, after a couple of weeks managed to get all the necessary documentation together, and so we will hopefully have access to our Marshall funds within a week (if we are lucky!)

We have made a few friends here in Edinburgh, but so far we have been too busy to socialize much. Otherwise, we have several U.S. friends visiting in the next few weeks, which we are very excited about. We will certainly have many more in the future are other Marshall scholars come to visit as well. One girl, who Alletta made friends with when she was a Rhodes finalist, has family in Edinburgh and so we will definately see a bit of her, and hopefully her family too. As some of you might have heard, we are not going to be home for Christma. However there are a lot of great cultural events that we would miss otherwise and so it is probably a good thing. Here in Scotland, New Years (known as Hogmany) is a very big deal, involving several days of big parties and events. In addition, we hope to do a bit of traveling during the holiday break. Maybe to somewhere warm!! Hopefully though we can come home in the early spring for sure.

That's all for now. The month is going incredibly fast. And yes, we are going to get some pictures online very soon!