Black Sheep

I believe I am officially the Black Sheep of the family. Wanna know why? Today I got my eyebrow pierced. Yep, my eyebrow. When I told my mom the other day that I was getting it done she said "why don't you get your nose pierced instead?" Well, I didn't want my nose pierced, I wanted my eyebrow pierced. I've wanted it done for probably four years but refrained from getting it done because I knew my parents wouldn't be too pleased. Now that I'm out on my own I decided it was time. I was pretty nervous about the whole thing. The pain...the aftercare...keeping it clean...whether I would actually like it or not...but I figured I've wanted it done for a long time and the only way to find out if I would like it was to get it done. So Amy and I went to a tattoo parlor on the Royal Mile to check things out. My flatmate Rachel told me about this place and said that it was a safe, clean place to go. So, I went in, filled out the paperwork and got it done. In total it took probably 5 minutes. I was worried about the pain, but honestly it didn't really hurt. It just felt like getting a needle--which I guess is essentially what it is! The barbell that I got it pierced with is bigger than what I would have wanted but it is the smallest one that they could actually pierce with. It has to be a little bigger to accommodate for any swelling. After it is healed, in about 2 months, I can change it to a smaller one. I was feeling a little faint after I got it done so had to sit down for a couple minutes. You know how your hearing starts to go when you feel like you are going to faint? Yeah, that happened to me. It went for about a minute than slowly started to come back.

Here I am feeling a little faint. I am wearing the new coat, but there will be a better picture of it later.


Back at home...feeling much better. I tried to upload the video that Amy took of the actual piercing, but it didn't work. I managed to get it on Facebook so if you really want to watch it you can head over there. I promise it isn't gross and is suitable for everyone to watch. You can't see the needle going in because the guys hands are in the way. I've had it for a few hours now and it feels really good. It isn't throbbing or hurting at all. I'm not looking forward to the first cleaning though, or sleeping with it in. I'll let you know how it feels in the morning :)


Update: I've now had it for more than 24 hours and it feels great. Cleaning it is a breeze and I slept with a hat on last night to keep my bangs, sorry fringe, away from it and that seemed to work well.

Settling In

We are now two months and two days into our yearlong adventure. Time has flown by! We will quickly fill you in on some details of the first two months.

When we arrived in Edinburgh we went straight to our hostel, which was downtown, right beside the main shopping area called Princes St. We each had two big suitcases, a carry-on, and a purse. The bus dropped us off around the corner from our hostel and we had to practically drag our bags to the front door and up two flights of stairs. It was then that we realized we brought way too much stuff! This was our first experience with a hostel and we were a little apprehensive about it. The thought of sharing a room with 6 other females did not sound like a lot of fun, but we actually had a really good time. There were four other girls in our room who were from Italy, France and a mother and daughter from Spokane, Washington. We all got along really well and we had a good time getting to know them.

Before we left Canada we had set up an appointment to view a flat at 6:30 the day we arrived. It ended up being the flat that we chose and now happily live in. We stayed at the hostel for five days before we moved into the flat. Those first five days we acted like tourists and walked around different parts of the city, taking pictures of the amazing old buildings.

The first few days were the hardest emotionally. We were in this strange new country, on our own, with no idea what we were doing or where we were going to live. The excitement of being in Scotland was overshadowed by the huge tasks of finding a flat, handing out CVs (resumes) and opening up a bank account. On the third day here, while taking the bus back to our hostel, Katie saw a sign at The Playhouse, which is a live theatre, for Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. This was one of our favourite movies as kids so we knew we had to go see a live production of it. It was amazing and incredibly funny and brought a little bit of home to Scotland.
After setting up our bank account, the next step was to start looking for a job. We started handing our CVs out on Tuesday September 23 and neither of us got a phone call for an interview until October 23. A month of looking for a job with no positive feedback is very stressful! Amy got the first phone call and was offered the job at the interview. She is waitressing at a restuarant in one of the malls. Katie got a call the next day and is working in retail. Payment for both jobs is done monthly, so we will have gone almost three months without a paycheck. We don't advise anyone trying this! Soon, though, we will be able to jet off to London, Paris or Rome for the weekend and get some more stamps on our passports.

Our Dream

Since we came to Edinburgh many people have asked us why we chose to move to Scotland. You'd think after all this time we would have perfected our answer, but it is still difficult for us to think exactly what it was that got us interested in all things Scottish. We know that most of it comes from reading a book series that is mainly set in Scotland, but our love for kilts, castles and bagpipes goes further back than that. Scotland has been a part of our mom's family for a long time. Our grandpa has visited different parts of Scotland many times and we imagine hearing his stories added to the excitement we felt about the country. When we were younger we always said that when we had enough money the first place we would go to would be Scotland. Living here for a year really is a dream come true!
We'll give you a little history about us and the year leading up to our departure.
We are the two youngest daughters in a family of four girls. Our two oldest sisters are married and have two daughters each (lots of girls!). We were both still living at home and decided it was time for a change. The thought of moving out of our parents house and into an apartment in the next town, finding minimum wage jobs and basically having the same life just with a lot more to pay for, didn't sound very exciting to us. We both knew that if we wanted to do something crazy and different, now was the time. This was around December 2007. At first we thought about moving out east to Halifax. We have a good friend there and Katie even flew out there for a weekend to check things out. After doing some research, though, we decided that going west to Calgary would be a better option as there are endless amounts of jobs there. This was around February 2008 and our goal was to be in Calgary by May or June, as Katie was not going to miss the Calgary Stampede in July! However, one day while Katie was at work, Amy started doing some research about moving to Scotland. As soon as Katie got home Amy told her that they were moving to Scotland instead of Calgary. It turns out it is a lot easier than you might think. The biggest hurdle is figuring out which visa to apply for and being approved for it. So, from February we started saving our pennies.

Fast forward to August 2008. Not a lot could be done until we applied for our visa. We didn't apply for it until we had enough money saved up, which was the middle of August and we left September 10th, so those couple of weeks were quite stressful! We went into Toronto on a Wednesday to hand in our application and by Tuesday we found out we were approved. What a feeling! For months we had been planning, praying and hoping that we would be approved and our dream would come true. It was great to know that everything we had planned for was going to happen. Next we had to buy our plane tickets, order British pounds from the bank, deal with OHIP and buy health insurance to please our mother. :) At the beginning of September we started to pack and say our goodbyes. Our tickets were booked with a great flight straight to Edinburgh from Hamilton. The weekend before we left we went to Waterloo to spend some time with sister #2, S, and some friends. That Sunday we drove home and had a big family dinner with all our aunts and uncles that live in the area and said goodbye to them for the year.

Wednesday was the day we left and a day of tearful goodbyes. Our flight left at 10 pm, arriving in Edinburgh at 10 am their time. Our parents and sister #1, L, drove us to the airport. After a few hugs from each of them and a prayer for our safety from our dad we were off on the adventure of a lifetime.

blogging

Before we left Canada, many people asked us if we were going to blog our travels, to which we replied 'no'. We have travel journals that we have been writing in since we got here to help us remember when and where things happened and a couple hundred pictures so far. We thought the journal would keep the memories alive until we got back to Canada and were able to put the pictures and stories together in SEVERAL scrapbooks. However, after reading a few different blogs we decided that it would be a good idea to put the stories and pictures together now! So, we hope you enjoy reading about our adventures in Scotland and Europe. Cheers!