Bike riding day

So, today was a beautiful Aberdonian day. The sun was out, it wasn't warm by any normal standards, but with some gloves on and some layers if felt great. Kelli and I decided that we should take a bike ride.

For those of you who know me well, I tend not to "move" too much. Going on a bike ride was definitely extending the outer limits of my movement. But I thought that going for bike rides at least once a week or so would help to counter-balance the fact that I sit in a chair for 8 hours a day reading.

The easiest place to just jump on a bike trail without going through the city is right by our place. There is a road with a bike lane that runs right along the Sea, and at any time you can just jump off the bike and sit on the grass on a bluff overlooking pretty much everything. So we decided to do that. I was surprised at how easy it was to ride - it has been a while and I expected to hit a wall about 3 minutes into this adventure - but to our surprise, I did not.

We pick up the 2 and half mile trail about a mile into it, and go North along the Sea to the Bridge of Don (see below). The Bridge of Don is the main bridge that goes over the Don River, which borders the city proper to the North.

I couldn't believe how many people were out. I guess you get a good day with some sun and people know to take advantage of it. There were plenty of people surfing (yes, they do surf here), people flying kites, lots of people walking, jogging, roller blading, etc., along the trail. So we decided to stop and take some pictures for you.

After we say in the grass and had a wee bit of a picnic, we decided to head back...and this is where something finally hit me. Evidently, I failed to notice two key elements to our ride up to this point, a ride that was pretty easy for me. The first was that we had gone down a gradual but steady decline the entire way to the bridge - and so, needless to say, on our way back we had a gradual, and at times not so gradual, incline the entire way back. And the second thing was that there was a heafty gust of wind coming off of the Sea that was no longer at our backs as it was when we were coming down the hill - but was now in our faces. So, needless to say, I almost died...twice every 6 minutes. But all in all we had a great time. Here are some pics of our little riding adventure.

Carebears, Mary Poppins, and my first Job

This will be quite the random post. I've had some thoughts I'd like to share. Like yesterday...probably the most windy day we've had yet. While walking against the wind, I found myself fully leaning into the wind, each step I took my foot would just hand in the air for a little while. It's quite difficult to explain, kind of fun. I've never seen clouds move so fast. Who remembers the CareBears and their cloud cars, and how they would zoom in the sky?? Thats what was happening yesterday, the Carebears were out and about.

Another random thought, I think about Mary Poppins almost daily. It has something to do with the chimneys here...I can just picture her landing on one of the roofs with her umbrella.

And as for my first bit of work in Aberdeen, it was awesome. I presented a lecture on the US health system, and the 2 hours went by so fast. The students were suprisingly quite interested in what I had to say and they had so many questions, which made me realize how little I actually know about our country. So I have some homework to do for next week's lecture, but I'm excited and enjoying teaching for a little bit!

Now I am off to find pumpkin stuff for our pie...yes, we are celebrating Thanksgiving tomorrow, with some Americans. I'm now realizing how stressful preparing a meal can be. I'm in charge of making the pumpkin pie, mashed potatoes, and vegetables...so we'll see how it goes! Happy Turkey Day to all!



My first crust I've ever made....let's hope I can make a decent crust for the pumpkin pie!!

Life Update

Hello all. Sorry that kelli and I have not written much lately - things have been a bit crazy. Ok, where to start? First, kelli has gotten the opportunity to lecture at one of the local universities (there are two - Aberdeen University is where I am at, and then Robert Gordon University is where she is lecturing). They needed someone to do two 2-hour long lectures, one a week for two weeks, on the American health care system. Because of the hard times that PT's are facing here, a lot of them are heading out to America, and because the system is so vastly different they want to try and expose them to it prior to going.

So you can probably imagine that kelli is running around trying to get that figured out. It has been really last minute, so she is trying to put together a power point presentation and everything to get ready - but I know she'll be great.

Other than that, we have found a church that we believe will become our new church home. It is called Gerrard Street Baptist, pronounced Gerad (there is a form of ebonics here that I call Scotch-bonics. For instance, the area called Foot Dee is now called Fittie - and it is even written out like that. Interesting how the English language seems to have a natural tendency of digressing into gibberish. In any case, if you want to check it out, go to gsbaptist.org.

On my side of things, I am having a bit of a hard time juggling all that is going on. I have had a lot going on lately with the website I started with my friend jamin www.metamorpha.com, as well as planning my new website for my book. I am amazed at how fast the days go when I am in my office. I am trying to split up my days into the two guys I am studying (Karl Barth and Jonathan Edwards) and actually writing and supposedly learning latin. The whole German thing got thrown out the window a while ago - and I keep telling everyone that will start up again in Jan. We'll see.

Because I know how much you all love pictures I wanted to put a picture of our apartment from the beach, and also where my office is. Maybe later I'll throw up a pic of me in my office, but until then, you'll have to get a shot from the courtyard. It is in the building with the crown, and in the courtyard if you look up to the corner, I am up there somewhere. We don't have a window, but we do have a skylight...which is nice! I hope all is well back there. Oh yeah, it is gotten colder now, and it is definitely windy by the Sea!

Life update

I will put aside the flash and glamor of the pictures and whatnot, and for a moment do what you have all been asking me to do - actually give an update. Well, here it goes. Things overall are going well. There are moments where we, and maybe more I, can only think about ways to get home, but we have been blessed with good friends here that have helped us make this a new temporary home.

As for my studies...let me explain what life looks like. I have meetings every other week which basically go like this: Have you read this...no; how about this...no, what about this...no, well have you ever heard of so and so...no, what about him...no, what about them...no. Well, why don't you write up something for next time. Ok. On what exactly? What have you been doing? Reading. Ok, on that then.

So basically, it has become clear that I don't know anything...so I've got that going for me. But the day to day has been good, it is just a little hard to get used to. I am trying to get into the office between 8 and 8:30 and I am there until about 5 or 5:30. During that time I read. I break it up with a little latin here and there, and then my taking notes. I have narrowed down my thesis idea, which helps, and I have been assigned to only one of my supervisors, which I think will make the whole process easier.

Kelli is doing well. She is studying and getting to know people here. We are both trying to figure out our future plans, which seem pretty ambiguous right now. We have some opportunities that we want to take advantage of, be we are not sure if we will be able to. We'll fill you in later. Other than that, she has been taking the brunt of the housework - and has become an incredible cook in the meantime. In between my running around hysterically wondering why I have never read anything, she has been calm and collected. It is good I have her here or I would go out of my mind.

All in all though, we are really enjoying ourselves. I can't wait until we both get in our grooves more, that will really help I think. Things are just still so new and different that it has been hard to really settle in a set routine. So in the meantime, we'll be drinking coffee likes its our job - which at this point it basically is!

Happy Guy Fawkes DAY!!!!

So, we had a Guy Fawkes day celebration on Nov. 5th at our new apartment which was a lot of fun. For all of those who don't know, and who haven't seen V for Vendetta, Guy Fawkes (sounds like Fox) day is a day of fireworks in the UK. Typically, it seems that people get together almost like we would on the 4th of July. On a sadder note, it is actually celebrating the killing of Guy Fawkes who tried to blow up parliament because of the harsh treatment of the Catholics. Upon being found out, there was even harsher treatment on the Catholics because of what he and several others tried to do. They actually did have something like 36 barrels of gun powder under the parliament room, which is pretty impressive considered that no one noticed this going on. It wasn't until someone warned their relative not to go to parliament the next day that the plan was discovered.

Needless to say, I doubt anyone really knows or thinks about the real reason for parting and fireworks, in much the same way that most probably don't know the story behind the 4th of July. So it was a fun day. We had our friends Chris and Rachel Green over who oddly are from the same town as Kelli, and our friends Kent, Tammy, and Hannah Eilers over, and that was a lot of fun. It was the first time little Hannah got to see fireworks, and she really like them. So that was fun to see. Anyway, here are some pics from our time.

our second home

well, its been quite fun getting settled in our flat. Moving into a home that is already furnished is so much easier! I've filled most of my time cleaning and shopping for random things. It took me about 4 days to find ground cinnamon. I purchased some meat from the local butcher, that was kind of fun. And tonight I ate cod for the first time, and I wasn't even grossed out preparing the fish! It was quite good.

I think today was definitely the coldest, or should I say the wind was the coldest its been. I felt like the skin on my face had this layer of frozen film covering it. Who knows how many miles I walked today. I don't bother with the buses anymore, I just keep walking and if I get tired I stop for some soup in a to go coffee cup and then I'm on my way. The soups are just amazing here by the way, I think I've mentioned that, but seriously, they are just so flavorful and diverse!

I've continued to study for my board exam at Starbucks. I must admit...its odd to be studying when I am not actually attending a school, or working for that matter. Fortunately, I am actually enjoying the studying process...for now at least. As for work, I still have no idea what's going to happen. It's amazing how many random connections I have here, so we'll see...most recently I've been exploring the possibility of doing some teaching at a university...which, wow...I don't know, that could be crazy!



So, the photo above depicts our view when we walk about 5 minutes from our flat. In the other direction are lots of fun coffee shops and restaurants (one pictured below, previously mentioned by kyle, however, he called it something else because he can't ever say the name right :) I think we are actually heading to one of the cafes for breakfast in the morning.



As you could imagine, life is definitely different here. I think we are learning more and more about one another, and how we feel out of our comfort zones...but we definitely feel blessed to be here and are excited what these next few years will teach us. We miss you all so much!

New Apartment!!!

Well everyone, we are settled into our new apartment, and have already had people over - which will be another post. We have been living here for over a week now, and we just got our internet tonight, so we look forward to continue our blogging and emailing.

Our place came with a nice stench, that Kelli was able to take care of quickly. We found that our electric toothbrush has nowhere to plug into the bathroom because the voltage is so high here they are afraid of having outlets in the bathroom - the joys of a new culture. So while we try not to shock ourselves to death, we have been doing well. There is not too much to add, but we will probably post several blogs in the next couple of days just to catch everyone up on everything. We didn't take pictures of the whole place, but we wanted to let you see how stealth our kitchen is (see pics below).

Anyway, we would love to hear from you all. We hope this finds you well. kyle

on the move

well, we moved into our flat yesterday. It's quite nice, except for the dirty wet rag smell we can't seem to get rid of...but I think I'll do a monster clean tomorrow and we'll see if that takes care of it.

Anyway, our internet will not be hooked up for another week or so, who knows. So we'll be spending more time at the internet cafes...which my favorite one is pictured below...I'm sitting inside the cafe in the first photo, and the other one is from just out side the door




They have excellent soups and scones...and it's one of the only places you can order a Chai (which is kyle's favorite). The shop also sells used books and has one of the best rates on internet use. I just realized I am sounding like an advertisement. My intention was just to let you all know where we spend our time, and places that make us feel at home...where we will likely take you as well when you come visit :)