Turkey day!

Obviously there is no Thanksgiving here in Scotland, so life goes on today like nothing is happening. I sit here knowing that all my friends and family will be eating the BEST meal of the year, while I attempt to make some type of meager excuse for a Thanksgiving here. I will cook some turkey breast fillets, maybe a baked potato and some pumpkin pie... I will await a phone call from my parents wishing me a nice day, and passing me around to everyone who happens to be there while I am 4000 miles away feeling completely un-American.
Thing is, I have always been opposed to Thanksgiving for all the leftist political reasons (that we all know, so I won't go into it here), and it is ironic that I am missing something that I always detested. But is Thanksgiving really about the Pilgrims anymore? It is more about family and realizing what you have than the slow decimation of an entire race....
Earlier this week I had to go to the American Consulate in Edinburgh to get my SS card changed. As I walked up the hill, with Edinburgh behind me and Arthur's Seat in front, I saw the American flag wavering in the wind up ahead, Great Seal of the US above the door, surveillance cameras all around... I started to laugh hard, because all I could think of is that scene at the end of Not Without My Daughter where Sally Field says to her daughter after escaping post revolutionary Iran,"Mahmoub we're home!" Here it was, a little bit of the ol' USA in the midst of Scotland.... Of course the minute I walked in I was bombarded with pictures of the 2 things I detest about the US right now, Condi and George ..... but it felt like home: the metal detector, the "We will never forget" of 9-11, and best of all, GREAT customer service (something the Scots are not good at no matter how nice they are).
Do I miss the US?? Not really, just certain things- my friends and family, Sundays full of football games, good donuts, buffalo wings.... I mean who wouldn't?

Got it!

so i am officially a resident alien! woo hoo!!! it took about 3 hours of sitting on our butts in a very clinical waiting room, with absolutely no grilling, just copies made of passports, wedding certificate and bank statements, and there you have it, another visa to add to my passport! the crazy thing was that the cabby who drove us from the train station to the Home Office in Glasgow complained to us the WHOLE time about immigrants of the non-white variety and how they are horrible to him and how they are mucking up the country. david squeezed my hand so that i kept silent (it was pouring and he was afraid i would get us kicked out of the cab in the middle of some estate where a bunch of yobs would cut us up with machetes, which seems to happen quite regularly in glasgow), so the only real thing i did day is that "i really appreciate a multi-ethnic culture"... i know lame....
when he dropped us off in front of the gates (complete with razor wire on top), he said "you will be the only white people in there, i guarantee you that!" before he put the peddle to the metal and got the hell out of there.... well, he wasn't far off, there were 2 other white women in there, both with their foreign husbands (one indian, and one arab), which we laughed about, thinking that the cabbie would not be too happy about those statistics! but the next thing was how NICE they were to us because we were both english speaking white people, and how rude all the people -from security, all the way to hijab wearing cashier- were to the non-white people. amazing.... you would think that the glaswegians would take a big clue from how messed up the southern US is and be more open minded, ESPECIALLY after how the scots were (and still are at times) treated by the english.... go figure..... I had hoped that I had left that type of mentality behind when i left the states! i guess teaching (and opening the minds) of the Scottish youth won't be so boring after all!

cold!

this will be my first full winter here in Scotland, and i am hoping i deal better than i did last year. leaving a balmy Florida in February is not conducive to being warm in Dunbar, no matter what new sweaters or down jackets you bought before you left! The gradual shift from warm to cool to chilly is helping though, and if only the arctic blast off the sea would calm down a little, it might not be too bad at all. on an extremely positive note, the leaves are changing colors! that is something i really missed living in Florida the past 4 years.
This should be an interesting month. I should be getting my Work permit and Visa, and that means I will also be (cross our fingers) substituting before the month is out! I miss being in a classroom mainly because of the interaction with the students... I don't miss the parents freaking out or grading papers or the horrible meetings and agendas. I am extremely curious to see if I will like being around Scottish kids, how they will measure up to the kids that I miss. I guess I am close to finding out!
We have our tickets for Christmas. We will be in the states from Dec. 25 until Jan. 4th. I am looking forward to eating all the food that I miss... Chipotle, Panera, Mugs n' Jugs, Krispy Kreme. I better not gain any weight while I am there!!! best bring my running shoes with me....