2 Years!

I just realized I've completely missed the entire summer on my blog. Maybe it's because it DOESN'T REALLY FEEL LIKE SUMMER??

Last I wrote, it was May, we were winding up to a beautiful summer - long sunny days, the sun going down at 11pm. It was going to be amazing. Well, the past almost 3 months has proven a bit colder than normal. I think it's mostly been high 50s/low 60s, and it has legit been in the 40s at night. There have been a few nice sunny days in the high 60s, but for the most part, it's been very un-summerlike.

Last week, Clay and I celebrated 2 years in Scotland. We have a tradition: on our anniversary of living in St A, we go eat dinner at Maisha, because that's where we ended up our first day here. We got off the plane at 10am in Manchester, somehow navigated the 5-6 hours into Scotland with a dinky road map, and NEVER STOPPED FOR FOOD. I lived off of Target Caramel Cashew trail mix because that was all we had, but neither of us felt brave enough to stop anywhere and talk to anyone because we knew they would peg us as tourists. We stopped ONCE to go to the bathroom at a rest stop (which was also a little farm shop?) and I wanted to look around, and Clay refused, and was completely silent. It's so funny looking back now at how ridiculous that was. NOOOOO, they'll know we're Americans and shun us! Needless to say, when we finally arrived in St A, we were jet lagged and starving. Indian food was an easy choice and wow, was it good. So now, every year on the 15th of August, we eat Maisha, in memory of the sad, jet-lagged and terrified Americans we used to be!

Summertime in Scotland gave me bragging rights last year. It's like never ending springtime, but then you have 18 hour days, long stretches of sunshine, no mosquitos. Now, I just keep thinking about those warm summer nights in City Park in NOLA, listening to crickets and cicadas, and feeling the 90 degrees like a soft blanket while we watch the sun set. I am in desperate need of a holiday... on a warm beach somewhere.

June was pretty nice. I celebrated 1 year at the Ardgowan Hotel (I'm sure it feels like it's been longer than that for my co-workers - HA!) Mom, Dad, and Mels came to visit for a few days and we had a great time. Note to anyone booking a place to stay on AirBnB: make sure they have internet before you book it. Their place didn't and it proved to be especially difficult to do simple things like planning our time together and getting in touch with one another. But we went a few places we'd never been, like Inverness and the Edinburgh Castle, and worked a few puzzles. We also got to introduce our family to our home group, which I really loved. It's always fun when you realize that people love Jesus all over the world.

July was fun. The British Open was here, and, while work was insanely busy, I didn't really get to experience much else of the Open. I was mostly just working. But people were friendly and spent lots of money, so that's good, I guess. Will Ferrell was in St Andrews though... and I didn't see him. It was a sad sad day. Another sad sad day is that we had to say goodbye the Quentin, which has now left a maple leaf shaped hole in our home group. Missing you, buddy.

Quentin!

August so far has been weird. One of the great things about living in a university town is that you meet people from all over the world. But then, probably the worst part, they all leave just as quickly as they came. This time last year, we were worried that our homegroup numbers were dwindling down to nothing, but we had a huge influx of postgrads and our homegroup jumped to nearly 20 people, with more new people coming in and out. We've all grown so close over the last year, and the time has come where, one by one, they are all heading back to the real world. I will miss being your homegroup mom, guys!

The only other interesting that that is happening is our always precarious situation here. Will Clay get upgraded to PhD? Will our Visas ever come back saying I can work? (they did) Will Clay be doing ministry or academics? Only time will tell. Hopefully, sooner rather than later, I will be updating this blog again with good news! But for now, it's August, we're here, and we're still alive.