Who has short hair? I have short hair!

So, these aren't the best pictures but it's rather difficult trying to take a picture of the back of your head by yourself. It took me a while to get shots that I liked enough to put up here. Whenever I took one, I didn't like how my hair looked--but I like it in person. Weird, I know.
But, these will have to do for now.

When I got this haircut I sort of, kinda accomplished two points on my bucket list-- be a model and do something that scares me. Although, accomplished isn't really the right word. It's not like I'm forever finished with these two things and I'll never again do something that scares me, but I'm not concerned enough to think of a better word. Anyways, the 'do something that scares me' one is pretty obvious. Who isn't scared when they get a haircut? But this was especially nerve wracking because it was such a change from any haircut I've ever had before. I loved the way this kind of cut looked on other people (short hair is really popular right now) but I was afraid it would look bad on me. But, I've always wanted to go short and for some reason the fact that I'm away from my friends and family and my regular life makes me more apt to do something risky, like get my eyebrow pierced, so I went for it.
The 'be a model' one might not be so obvious. I wasn't really a model in the way that most people would think of when they hear that word, but thats what the sign said, so thats what I was. The salon that I went to had a sign out front that said' models required'. After walking past it many times I finally went in to see what they wanted. Basically, they just want people who are willing to get their hair cut by a student. It was much cheaper than a normal haircut would have been at that salon and I've had my sisters cut my hair before, so someone still in college is a pro in my opinion. The owner of the salon told the girl exactly what to do, showed her a few cuts and then came to check in on her every few minutes. Every time she would start a new section she would go get the teacher to make sure she was doing it right. In the end, the teacher touched things up and made sure everything was even. So on Tuesday I was a model for about three hours (yes thats how long it took... the teacher had his own clients to deal with so he wasn't always available to come check right away).

Now it's your turn to go for a crazy new haircut, Emily!

I did it

I got my hair cut on Tuesday. It's short. Very short.

Pictures to follow.

Did I just do a bad thing?

I just turned down a full time job...on the Royal Mile...at the kind of store I've been wanting to work at since I moved here. Have I lost my mind? I don't think so.

I'm only getting part-time hours at the bar so on Monday I started handing out more CVs (resumes). Last night there was a message on our phone asking if I could come in for a trial shift at one of the tourist shops I applied to. Hurray! No more job searching! It has always taken weeks to get any kind of response from jobs so I was so thankful that I got one early. I called this morning and she asked me to come in at any time today.

The first thing the manager said was that the hours are long (9-9) and could I handle that? I said yes, thats fine, and her response was "oh, I don't know, are you sure (as she looked me up and down)." I was thinking 'who are you to tell me whether I can work a long shift or not', but I just sweetly told her that I've worked long shifts before and worked 14 days in a row several times. So then she asked me if I was going to quit my other job, in which case I said no.

Apparently for the first month you work there you don't get put on the schedule. You get asked to work on a day to day basis, so theres really no guarantee how many hours you'll get. So she told me she needs people with a lot of availability and if I was still working at the bar then she didn't know if I could work there. I told her that I would tell my boss that I could only work at the bar Friday evenings and that I would be available for her the rest of the week. Before I could even finish the sentence she told me she couldn't do that. She can't work around other peoples schedules. So after five or so minutes of us trying to understand each other she said "so, you are going to tell your boss you quit and then you can come here and work." To which I replied "Um, I don't think this is going to work out, sorry" and left.

I don't have any regrets right now, but I might if I'm still looking for a job in two weeks!

This clearly shows how much fun I'm having working at the bar/restaurant. Well, I enjoy the people I work with more than the actually work, but I definitely don't want to quit. Especially to go work for someone who considers me having three hours where I can't work for her a week as being 'unavailable.'

My Bucket List

I've never seen the movie The Bucket List, but I like the idea of making a list of goals/dreams that I have for my life. I started writing the list as I was sitting in the park near Edinburgh Castle today. Visiting Scotland has always been a big dream of mine that, truthfully, I didn't think would happen--at least not for a long time. So who knows how many of these will actually come true. Some of these are serious, some are silly and some will (most likely!) never happen, but I'm hoping that having this list will help me accomplish the more important ones.
In no particular order, here's my list so far:

1. Swim in the Blue Lagoon in Iceland
2 .Write a novel
3. Own a pair of Christian Louboutin shoes
4. Be on the cover of a magazine
5. Play with my nieces and nephew more
6. See the Eiffel Tower
7. Find and marry the man of my dreams
8. Take a picture in front of the Hollywood sign
9. Ride a horse without being afraid
10. Learn to play the violin
11. Be a better Christian
12. Own a Kate Spade bag
13. Be a model
14. Have three kids
15. Kiss the Blarney Stone
16. Go to New York City
17. Find a career I love
18. Learn to play the piano
19. Start running, or at least doing some sort of regular exercise
20. Meet Brad Pitt :)
21. Get another tattoo
22. Design and build my dream home
23. Go to the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville
24. Meet the Pioneer Woman
25. Help build a school somewhere in Africa
26. See the Great Barrier Reef in Australia
27. Go skydiving or bungee jumping
28. Be more patient
29. Do something that scares me
30. Be more outgoing
31. Go on the bungee swing ride at Canada's Wonderland
32. Be an adventurous baker
33. Help a stranger
34. Give more to charities
35. Try to only buy something if I really need it (I already know I'm going to fail at this one)
36. Sponsor a child
37. Be a stay at home mom
38. Get married within the next five years
39. See Scotland --check!
40. Go on a real vacation with my family
41. Be an extra in a movie
42. Stop letting my shyness stop me from doing things I want to do
43. Get my own apartment
44. Build something out of wood
45. Go to the Calgary Stampede
46. Be a volunteer
47. Read my bible more often
48. Eat healthier
49. Run a marathon
50. Love myself even if I don't accomplish any of these goals

What are you goals? I challenge you to write down at least 10 goals you have for yourself, whether they're future goals or something you want to accomplish by the end of this week.
I know that having a list will help us all to be accountable for what we are, or are not, accomplishing. I'm already trying to eat healthier--right after I eat the delicious looking chocolate brownie mousse sundae thing I bought today...

Pronunciations

I had every intention of doing a post about this subject when I first started the blog, but here we are several months later and I still haven't done it. Most of you will probably have noticed that our 'name' on the blog is Sassenachs in Scotland. Sassenach is from the Outlander books (surprise, surprise) and is used as a term of endearment by Jaime, the main guy, to his wife Claire. This word originated in the late 1700s and is simply a Scottish word for an Englishman. The pronunciation is the difficult part. It is not sass-a-natch. You pronounce the 'ch' more like a 'k', but with a guttural Gaelic sound with it, which I don't do. The way I say it is sass-en-ack. Say it with me now, sass-en-ack. Now that we have that one out of the way, there are a few other names I have come across that are pronounced differently than what you would think.

First of all, you don't pronounce the 'g' in Edinburgh.With places like Pittsburgh, where you DO pronounce the 'g', its understandable why people get confused. A lot of people say Edinburroh, which is acceptable, but the way the Scots say it is Edinburrah. If they are talking quickly, it can sometimes sound like the take the 'u' out and say Edinbrrah. Are you confused yet?
When we first got here we came across a road leading up to the Royal Mile called Cockburn St. I'm sure you can guess what we thought the pronunciation for this was. It's actually co-burn, as in co-worker. Now that I've warned you, if you are ever in Scotland don't make the mistake of saying Cock-burn St. outloud!

There are lots of crazy place names in Scotland that have WAY different pronunciations than what you would expect. Here is a website with lots of Scottish towns and words and how you pronounce them. Look through the list if you have time, it's kinda fun to see how well you can pronounce them.

Being lazy...

I've decided to be really lazy and not write out my own retelling of my recent trip around Scotland, England and Rome. I know that most of the people that read my blog also read my dear friend Lucy's blog so I'm just going to tell everyone to go read her four part recap. I haven't asked her if this is OK, but I know she won't mind. Plus, if there's someone who stumbles across my blog who doesn't read her blog but is interested in finding about the trip maybe she'll gain a new follower! Everyone wins in this situation :)

I will say, though, that I had a FANTASTIC time while Lindsay and Laura were here. I got to see parts of Scotland that I hadn't seen yet, but more importantly, I got to see ROME! And more importantly than Rome, I got to spend 12 wonderful days with two amazing girls. We made memories that I know we will be talking about when we're 80 and sitting side by side in our rocking chairs.

Lin and Laura left early Sunday morning and Amy and I had another Canadian visitor by Sunday night. Amanda B., who we went to high school with and is the sister of one of our aunts, is traveling around Scotland and Ireland for a month with her grandma. She came down from Aviemore to Edinburgh for two days. We walked the Royal Mile, ate some fish and chips and took a tour of the underground vaults of Edinburgh. They have many ghost tours of the vaults but we all happily decided to take the more historical tour. It was very interesting and you should definitely look up the history of the south bridge vaults in Edinburgh. Even though it wasn't a ghost tour it was still a little scary. As the tour guide said, the ghosts don't respect the fact that its a historical tour and not a ghost one. We walked through several stone rooms, including a few that were said to be the most haunted. Amy thinks she saw something in the flash of someones camera. I really hope she didn't though because if she did the ghost would have been standing right beside me. I didn't feel any unusual cool drafts around me, so I think Amy was just seeing things. I did come out of the vaults wishing I had seen something though. What an interesting experience that would be. Maybe I'll have to find the courage to do a ghost tour before I go home.

Speaking of going home...there is only 3 1/2 months before the potential leaving date. We don't have a date set in stone but have always figured we'd be ready to go home at the beginning of September. M,y how time flies by. The summer is going to go by quickly as well (it always does) because of the many festivals that will be going on around the city. This year is the year of the clan and Scotland is celebrating by having the biggest clan gathering in the world. There will be highland games (can't wait!), calling of the clans, as well as a parade of all the members of clans that have come for the occasion. The city is going to be packed! I found out a few weeks ago that Diana Gabaldon, the author of the Outlander series and the reason why I am living here is going to be at the clan gathering. I've already met her and had my pic taken with her but will gladly get another book signed. Plus, theres the huge festival in August and the Edinburgh Tattoo. There'll be lots to see and do over the summer in Edinburgh. It will be a great way to end our year in Scotland.