Look at me now!!!!!

As most of you may know I haven't shaved since Kels and I's wedding and I was starting to get pretty bushy. I have bad news for those of you that liked it (and good news for those of you that didn't). I SHAVED!!!! It started when I hated how long my hair was so Kelsey shaved my head and my beard looked like crap once my hair was so short. So I trimmed it pretty short. I thought that I was only going to trim a little but as I trimmed it still looked prettey bad so I went really short.
Enough about my beard onto what I have done since the last post that I wrote. I have spent alot of time in Edinburgh. I have gone to Camera Obscura which is a place where they have a parascope type thing that gives you a 360 up by the degree view of Edinburgh from the castle. It also has a lot of paintings and pictures that are optical illusions. It actually was a lot of fun
Another thing I did while I was in Edinburgh was a whiskey tour. You walk around a building and a tour guide shows you how Scotch Whiskey is made. You find out the difference between single malt and a blend. The best part is at the end you get a shot of Single Malt and a Blend and you also get a free Scotch glass. I found out that I am not much of a scotch guy so I wont be going to the pub and ordering a scotch with a water back anytime soon.
Kels, Naomi, and I went into Edinburgh the Friday after kels was done with student teaching and celebrated. That was a lot of fun and I think all of us forgot how strong drinks are over here. We each only had a few but we had a great time (if you know what I mean).
A few weeks ago I took a long bus ride up to a castle in Dirlenton called, wierdly enough, Dirlenton Castle. It was a lot better on paper then it was actually seeing it. It has a huge garden that no flowers are blooming in at this time of the year and the castle was only a ruin castle. It was still fun nonetheless. So far I have gotten lost a few times and this trip was probably the worst. I went to traveline.com and looked up how to get to the castle but genious me didn't write down what buses I had to take. I made it to the castle just fine but I got off the bus where I thought the website told me to and found out I couldn't find a bus that connected from there to Dalkeith. So stuck in the town of Wallyford I decided to start hoofing it. That was a 4km walk. I made it to the next town and found a bus that would take me back to Dalkeith but it was a 45 minute wait and I was already half way back to the house so I said 'well I walked this far I might as well walk the reat of the way.' So about an hour and a half later I finally got back and told everyone about my awesome adventure. It ended being a really good day, between seeing a castle and seeing a lot of the rural scenery that I walked through.
This past weekend Kels and I flew over to Ireland for the weekend. The best way to get around in the part of Ireland that me and kels went was by car. That was a very interesting experience. I dont know what was worse driving on the left side of the road or the driver side of the car being on the right side of the car. If you check out some of the video I posted you will see I was a little nervous about it and check out how small the roads are. In one of the videos we show a semi that almost hits the side median (for lack of a better word) everytime a car has to pass in the opposite direction. Once we arrived at the hostel we were staying at we headed out for the Cliffs Of Moher. They were amazing and you know how they say a picture worth a thousand words these pictures of the cliffs don't do them justice. I remember reading somthing about the cliffs are 650 feet above the Atlantic. I tell you what I never thought that 650 feet could be so scary. As most of you could guess there were signs that say dont pass but I did, but not without getting yelled at by Kelsey. I have a few pictures from the ledge of the cliff but I will have to show you all when I get home that in the pictures I actuall have pictures of many birds lying down at the bottom by the ocean. You cant see them unless you zoom in on the pictures on the camera.
All in all I have had a few fun weeks and it has been fun traveling with Kels whenever she can get a moment away from work. I plan on doing better about updating our blog but Kels and I have been and are going to be busier then a one legged man in an ass kicking contest. (I read that in my books and have been waiting a week to be able to use it.)

Ok when you watch this video I want you to realize I just found out I can do a bunch of fun stuff to our videos in a program on out computer. So last night I spent about 2 hours on this, most of which was exploring the program.

Just a quick update

We know, we know, we have fallen very behind in our blogging. I guess we have a lot to update you on. I have finished my student teaching here. I was able to do some actual teaching in a variety of classes and got some very interesting questions about life in America such as “is everyone fat”, “why do you like ‘thick’ girls like Paris Hilton”, “do you live on a farm”, “is going to New York City like going into Edinburgh” and “are there palm trees everywhere in America?” It feels so good to be done with my teaching and getting a good start to my job here.

The house is starting to fill up now. Our resident director of academics and his wife have arrived along with both of our faculty members and in just over a week 59 students will arrive to begin their semester in Scotland. It will be very nice to see the house filled and full of life again!

Since our last blog we have had quite a few adventures. Last Friday Drew, Naomi and myself celebrated my last night of student teaching with a night out in the Grassmarket area of Edinburgh. We went to a few different pubs and just had a really great time being carefree. The following evening we went to Rosewell for a traditional Ceilidh (pronounced Kay-lee) dance. Ceilidh is much like square dancing with a little bit of irish jig mixed in. We were by far the youngest people at the dance and felt like the guests of honor. People were offering to buy us drinks, give us rides home and were pulling us out onto the dance floor every time the music began. Drew was very apprehensive about the whole evening but really enjoyed himself once he got dancing. We looked like absolute fools because we had no idea what we were doing and, as most of you already know, we’re terrible dancers to begin with! On Sunday, Drew and I went into Edinburgh and tested out a scavenger hunt that the students will be completing when they arrive. It was fun to revisit some parts of the city that I hadn’t yet been back to.

Drew and I have both been spending a lot of time catching up on our reading. It has been so nice to be able to have some free time to actually be able to sit down and read. I’m including some pictures of our bedroom because I’ve had a few requests to see where we’re living.






Last night we gathered to watch Obama’s inauguration with the others in the house. It was interesting to watch it with the British commentary…the Brits certainly love to place extra emphasis on his middle name! This weekend Drew and I will be traveling to Shannon County, Ireland for a quick weekend getaway…more on that later!

This and that...

Hello! I just finished my first week of student teaching here in Scotland. I was just observing classes in the social studies department this week and will begin teaching in a variety of classes next week. The social studies department is composed of history, geography and religious, moral and philosophical courses. Education in Scotland is much different than back in the states because students are only required to attend school until the age of 16. The last two years of school are optional and more concentrated in specific subject areas, like declaring a major in college. It is interesting, to say the least but I have enjoyed it thus far.

The weather this week has been pretty cool and overcast. It has struck me how far north we are because it is dark when I go to school in the morning and dark when I come back in the afternoon…I am looking forward to this summer when we’ll be experiencing really long days!

Drew has had an exciting week. Yesterday he spent the day in Edinburgh investigating the Royal Mile and Calton Hill and taking some great pictures. He fell asleep on the bus ride home, missed the stop in Dalkeith so he got to ride all the way to Gorebridge (hour or more on the bus) where the bus turned around to come back to Dalkeith. Today he ventured out to explore the grounds of the Dalkeith estate and spent a good 3 ½ hours getting lost on the 800 acres of the estate…it sounds silly but, really, the best thing to do on the grounds here is to walk around, get lost, and try to find your way back. It sounds like he found some pretty cool things that I didn’t know were on the grounds so I am looking forward to going out hiking with him in the near future to try to find them again! Tomorrow we will be heading up to Perth for a little sightseeing.

Drew and I have become swept up in one of Britain’s favorite addictions – Big Brother. Celebrity Big Brother is airing right now with Latoya Jackson, Coolio, Vern (mini-me from Austin Powers) and a bunch of other British celebrities. It started last Friday, airs every night at 9:00 p.m. and the first elimination is tonight…it is so cheesy especially for someone like me who hates reality TV but, sadly, we’re hooked!

The economy here is much like the economy back home. I was shocked when I first arrived in Dalkeith to see many of the shops, including Sam’s pub – a favorite drinking establishment for Dalkeith students, out of business. All Woolworth’s shops across the UK have completely gone out of business as well. Edinburgh, being a hub of European banking has really felt the effects of the “credit crunch”. It seems as though everyone is talking about the credit crunch and, though it’s dismal to realize that the economy is crappy everywhere, I guess Drew and I are benefitting from a better exchange rate!

Well, I hope everything is going well back home…we miss you all!

Poor Vikings

Last night I went out to a pub in Dalkeith and watched the first half of the game. Since the pub closed at 11pm I could not finish the game. I woke up this morning and the first thing I did was went downstairs to the library to get online to see how the Vikings did. I really wish I would have seen a different result but as most of you probably already know the Vikings lost. This does actually make my life a little easier just because I dont have to find a place that will be open at 2am to watch the next one. Enough about the Vikings.... Today Kels is doing some more training and tomorrow she starts her 2 weeks of student teaching at a school only about a mile away. I have some good and bad news from back home in Lino Lakes. Since most people ask for the bad news first I will do that. In the past few days my mom had to make the difficult decision to put our dog Hunter down. She hadn't gotten up, eaten or drank anything in two days. It makes me sad that I wont be able to go home and be greeted by here as I walk in the door (or when she finally hears that i am there). Oh well, on the the good news, my mom found out that she is having another baby. Can you believe it 6 kids. I personally think she is crazy. Any more than 3 would make me go crazy but good for here for being strong and the bravest person i know.

So with getting multiple request I am finally going to post all of the photos and video we have taken since we arrived in New York. Thats one thing I didn't tell too many people is during our lay over in New York me and kels went down to Times Square and had a wonderful romantic dinner at McDonalds in the middle of down town. So yeah that was fun and take a look at all of our pics and videos.
To see our pics you need to go to this website: http://picasaweb.google.com/drewmclean2486/
Here are all of our videos so far:

Hey all:
Its Friday and kels and I are having a blast. I hope everything is going well back home. A few things I have encountered since I have been here:

1) The pool table in the basement I was so excited about is a billiards table so the balls are half the size and the pockets are tiny. Looks like I will be spending more time in town at the local pub that kelsey says has a real pool table. (lucky you eyryne)
2) The New years street dance we went to was not the biggest in the world it only had approx 160,000 people.
3) Although the party was not the biggest in the world it was still fun the beers were only 3.50 pounds, they had the sweetest invention ever: a port-a-potty that had trough on both sides so six guys could pee at the same time rather then waiting for each one to get done, also they had the biggest fireworks show I had ever seen it was basically a 3 minute grand finale.
4) The exchange rate for the dollar is 1 pound= $1.44 so a lot better then it was when I visited last ($1.88).
5) The Scottish Highland Cows are still out in the pasture in front of the house. I want to talk to the grounds keeper to see if I can help with feeding or anything just to keep myself busy.
6) Apparently January 2nd is also a holiday in Scotland. I guess the alcoholics over here need an extra day to recover from parting through the new year. Just kidding.

Those are just a few things that i have noticed since I have been here I'm sure there is more. Kels and I are thinking about going on our first day trip tomorrow. We dont know where yet. It may be a last minute decision. I hope everything is going well in the states but I am going to go back up to our room before my fingers fall off. The only warm rooms in this house are our bedrooms. So I cant feel my fingers because it is so cold (that is the cause for all of the spelling errors)

We miss you all
Drew and Kels