Lonely Days

Don't take this title to mean that I am having second thoughts about being here. In fact its quite the opposite. I love this city, and I'm really starting to feel a part of it. I haven't even been here a week, but I feel like I'm a part of it. I helps that it seems like no one is really from here. To this point, I will give the example of today at Starbucks. My co-workers in Starbucks today were from the following places:

India
New Zealand
Manchester, England
Melbourne, Australia
Portugal
Chicago, USA
Durham, USA

As you can see, people are from everywhere except Scotland. So even though I'm a foreigner, I fit right in.

I apologize for not blogging every day, but I have been extremely busy and have been traveling all day long so when it's time to get home, I don't really want to type anything. I'm forcing myself to do this right now. Let me know if you're getting bored of the way I'm writing. I sometimes worry it sounds like a daily planner.

Tuesday was actually a lonely day. I dig bag a job at................wait for it.................Starbucks! I'm sorry to all of those people I lied to saying that I would never work at Starbucks again. It fell on me and worked out perfectly so how could I say no. In my defense, I will say that the view is stunning. I work in the heart of the city, so when I walk out the door, there are all kinds of people around. I am in walking distance from any kind of shop that you could imagine. And when you step out and take a look to the right you can see what you see to the right. Now don't think that you know what it looks like from the picture, because it doesn't do it any justice. I work in the shadow of Edinburgh Castle. How cool is that?

There are a few differences that I have seen about Starbucks here and in the States. First of all, 90% of all drinks we make are made into ceramic mugs. That's very different from the .001% of drinks that we use mugs for in the States. People here are much more environmentally conscience and concerned about FairTrade. Cappuccinos are also a VERY popular drink. Those of you who have worked in Starbucks know how annoying that can be. My coworkers are great, and I was even invited to play football in Portobello (a beach town connected to Edinburgh).

I am also going to be doing balloons for the kids at the opening of the Bathgate congregation on Sunday. I spent 2.5 hours tracking down balloons and an apron. yesterday. During this expedition, I discovered "The Elephant House" which is supposedly the birthplace of Harry Potter, and I didn't realize this until yesterday but J.K. Rowling lives here in Edinburgh and wrote Harry Potter here. (As a side note, I'm 2 hours of audio away from finishing book 7 of Harry Potter)

All of today was spent working at the Bucks and coming home and enjoying a great meal made by Yuli. I'm really enjoying staying here with them, and were building a good friendship. Tomorrow, I'm going to eat lunch with my Aunt Danielle and snag some tickets to the Croatia vs. Scotland football (soccer) match. So I'm going to retire.

Feel free to leave any questions and I'll answer them in the next post. Until then, I hope you guys are doing great. Take care.


Ian