The Hogmanay Torchlight Parade

This week we're hosting my mom and she's been able to experience the Edinburgh Hogmanay.  Take a look at the website for all the details, they claim it's the worlds biggest New Year's celebration... debate amongst yourselves.

On Monday night we took part in the torchlight procession.  Roughly 30 ancient Scottish warriors led the procession followed by a full bagpipe marching band and 20,000 folks carrying torches.  It was amazing to see the entire downtown area alight with torches and the massive bonfire and fireworks were impressive!  I've posted some of our pictures but they don't do justice to the event, I suggest looking here at the professional pictures.

 

Scottish Warriors bearing weapons and flame

Stacie and Sally joining the crowd

Torch Procession

What's a parade without fireworks?

The bonfire

Tonight we'll be joining crowds over 100,000 strong to welcome the new year with fireworks and Auld Lang Syne.  Have a happy new year and I'll see you in 2009.

-Kyle

Our family Christmas

Here is a bit of a photo montage of my family's visit to Edinburgh for Christmas: 

Whiskey Shop on the Royal Mile

Inside the Great Hall in the Castle

Our traditional Christmas Eve nachos

View from Holyrood Park

Stacie's dad at the top of Arthur's Seat

Dinner at the Witchery

Kyle, Justin & Me in front of the Dome

Stacie's parents at the top of the Castle

Armour inside the Castle

Chapel inside the Edinburgh Castle

Kyle, Justin & Me in front of the Castle

Kyle & Me with a Piper

Justin with all of his Hearts Football Club gear

The family (minus our photographer- Stacie's mom)

As you can see, we had a wonderful and very eventful trip with my family. The plan was for my parents and brother Justin to fly off to Paris on Saturday morning.  However, on Friday morning my mother woke up with her leg swollen to twice it's normal size.  After spending most of the day in the Royal Infirmary, we learned that she had three blood clots in her left leg and was unable to fly.  After much debating, my father and brother decided to continue on to Paris without her and have left her here in our care.  Hopefully she'll be able to go home soon- it just depends on how quickly her blood thins.  

On a more positive note, Kyle's mother Sally arrived safely this afternoon from Spokane. She is spending the week with us here, so we'll keep you updated with some great New Year's photos. 

-Stacie 

St. Andrews

This week we've been blessed to have Stacie's family visit us for Christmas here in Scotland. We've been showing them around the city and even took them to a soccer match.  Today we all jumped on the train and headed to historic St. Andrews.  I was aware of the history associated with golf but we were all pleasantly surprised with the rest of the city.  Here's a few pictures:

Rugged natural features of hole #4

Group shot at hole #6

Old Course Hotel in background

St. Andrews coast on the North Sea

Castle ruins, (for McClure: history)

Cathedral remnants and graveyard

We all had a great day exploring St. Andrews and found it to be a charming Scottish village with amazing views and impressive history.  Stay tuned-in as we'll be uploading pics over the next few days as we play tour guide.

-Kyle

Getting in the Festive Spirit...

Kyle and I have been busy over the last week getting in the Christmas spirit by moving to a new flat and dressing up as Santa...not sure how the two go together? They don't really, but that was our weekend. We have been having issues with our flat in the past month (aside from the obvious issue of space) Mildew...a little while ago I noticed a lovely black and white substance growing on our bedroom wall- nasty! Long story short, we were able to get our landlord to agree to let us out of our lease for health reasons and the Lord has provided (Jehovah Jirah!). We moved in on Saturday to our much nicer and more spacious flat in the Bruntsfield area of Edinburgh. Here are some pictures of our new pad:

Entry Way

Living Room

Master Bedroom

Kitchen

Hallway

Possibly the greatest feature of our new flat is the laundry drying rack. To save space and utilize the high ceilings they have installed a pulley system to hang wet clothes. Check it out!


To celebrate our move, we went out on Saturday night to the Christmas Market. The market has a ferris wheel, swings, slides, ice skating, bumper cars on ice and tons of booths with traditional Scottish and German fare.

Now for the dressing up as Santa part. Every year Edinburgh has a charity walk called the Santa Stroll where you get a Santa costume as part of your entry fee. We went with a group of people from my work. After we all got our Santa gear on, we went for a leisurely stroll around Princes Street Gardens serenaded by bag piping Santas. Even Deacon got to wear a Santa costume and got 'oohed and ahhed' at as we walked around. He was quite the hit in his red cape!





This week is Kyle's last week of final's and then my parents and younger brother arrive on Friday to spend the week with us! We'll post some updates while they're in town.

-Stacie

Who turned the lights out?

"Save Me

Call my name and save me from the dark"

-Evanescence: Wake Me Up

With Scotland being a similar latitude to Alaska, things are starting to get pretty dark over here...I thought I was doing good not having to start work until 9 a.m, but when the sun doesn't rise until 8:30 a.m. it doesn't feel as good as it used to.  With the shortest day of the year being about 2 weeks away, we still have a few weeks left of diminishing sunlight.  The sun has been setting around 3:30 in the afternoon it's only going to bet worse.  On the flip side though, we will be living it up this summer when the sun rises at 4 a.m and sets at 11 p.m! 

-Stacie

Thankful

Yesterday Stacie and I shared food, wine and laughter with friends in Edinburgh as we celebrated Thanksgiving . The theme of the night was pinched from the poet-philosophers Crosby, Stills and Nash, "If you can't be with the ones you love, love the ones you're with".

Several Americans are in the b-school and we combined forces with the Canadians to celebrate Turkey Day. It was fun to introduce Thanksgiving to our friends from the UK, as well a Swede and Ecuadorian. The night was a great success and I'm always blown away when I reflect on all the blessings in my life.

Sticking with the thankfulness theme, yet sidetracking slightly, Stacie and I are thankful that our little Mercedes is on the mend. This summer she appears to have eaten something previously thought inedible and the mystery meal lodged into her intestine. In the past few weeks she lost a third of her body weight and had to have emergency surgery.

Welcome home from the Vet

Below is a picture that highlights her malnourishment plight. She looks like a sweet little skeleton with fur.


We are thankful that she pulled through (the veterinarian said she's a fighter!). Most of all we are thankful to my mom for shuttling her between home and vet, nursing her back to health and generously spoiling her in our absence. Mercedes buddy Max was a nervous wreck when she was in the animal hospital...it seems he'll protect her while she's on the mend.

Max the protector

Happy Thanksgiving everyone, we hope you had a great day and enjoy the long weekend with friends and family.

Love,

-Kyle & Stacie

Sorta like football (but I'm ignorant)

Last weekend I had the opportunity to take some time away from the books and witness a true spectacle. Rugby is a big deal in Scotland and S. Africa was in town for a match. This is significant because S. Africa is the reigning world champion. Here is a taste of my first National Rugby afternoon:

• Met 20 or so fellow MBA'ers for a pint in a local pub
• Sang 'Flower of Scotland' with tipsy crowd in jam packed pub
• Walked to new pub and bantered with visiting S. African expats up from London
• Enjoyed another pint in a very crowed pub
• Sang 'Flower of Scotland' with another crowd, this one a wee bit more tipsy
• Headed off to Murray Field for the match, popped into another crowded pub for one last pint
• Sang 'Flower of Scotland' with extra tipsy crowd (sociology note: increasing alcohol consumption = thicker Scottish accent)
• Bantered with more S.African fans on the way to Murray Field
• Harassed some Scotland fans for wearing wrong pattern of tartan kilt (only Scottish Rugby tartan allowed on National Rugby day...everyone knows that!)

• Arrived at Murray Field just in time to hear bag pipers and drummers finish 'Flower of Scotland'
• Asked British friends roughly 300 questions about rugby during match
• Was forced to drink several more pints during match
• Enjoyed Scotland's finest export (whisky) after each point scored (when in Scotland...do as the Scot's)

Overall my first rugby match was a smashing success. Scotland lost but put up a very respectable effort against the world champs. I enjoyed being part of the crowd and feeling the excitement rise in the stadium as Scotland marched down the field. I even figured out when to yell 'heave!!!!' at the appropriate time (trust me, if you mess this up you look like an idiot). By the end of the match I was critiquing the refs by yelling 'that call was rubish' and supporting the players with phrases such as 'that chaps a right good fellar'.

I'll certainly be attending another match.

-Kyle

A wee bit of free time...

A few weeks ago, Kyle was given a "break" from class with a study week.  Really, he was just as busy as usual. However, we finally had some free time on the weekend to go out and explore more of Edinburgh. We took a bus out to Cramond and Lauriston Castle.  Lauriston Castle was originally a 1590's tower house, but was left in trust to Scotland in 1926. 

Lauriston Castle

During our short journey to the castle, it's only about 15 minutes away, we ran into Kyle's two dream cars.  The stark contrast in these cars just demonstrate how Kyle has a streak of Idaho running through his Seattle veins. 

Orange Dream #1 (attainable)

Orange Dream #2 (slightly less attainable)

After we walked around the Castle grounds, we visited the village of Cramond, which is about 2 miles outside of Edinburgh city centre. Neither Kyle or I realized that we were so close to a beach! Needless to say, we were both very excited with our discovery of Cramond. 

Kyle on the Firth of Forth beach

Firth of Forth from a distance

It's been back to the books for Kyle since our excursion a few weekends ago, but thankfully this semester is almost over.  Kyle will be taking his last final as my parents get their first good look at Edinburgh on December 19th, a mere 5 weeks away! 

-Stacie