Warm Welcome

We arrived in Edinburgh, to a very warm welcome, on Tuesday. The trip over was long and fairly uneventful. It was a busy week leading up to our departure with the drive from St. Louis to Virginia, a two-day trip to DC for fun (with my parents), unloading our truck and storing our things, and packing for the move here (which was much more difficult than we imagined). We finally headed out last night (Monday) on a 9:45pm flight from DC. We had a bit of a delay in the London airport for our connecting flight, but made it to Edinburgh around 4:30pm (an hour behind schedule). All of our bags (about 300 pounds total) made it through and we are feeling very fortunate to have gotten so much stuff over on the plane (we really got more on than we probably should have and didn't have to pay any extra fees).

Joe's advisor, Fr. Purcell, has opened his home to us while we look for long term housing. He is out of town right now but arranged for a very kind couple from his parish to pick us up at the airport. They took us on a bit of a detour to their home, on the way to Fr. Purcell's, where they served us tea and cake and finger foods, then showed us how to use the train (about a 5 minute walk from the house). They were so sweet and even had a bag of a few staples (milk, bread) for us. Fr. Purcell left us a nicely made up room, complete with train passes, postcards and stamps, a bottle of wine, electrical adapters and a few other helpful items.

Tomorrow we are hoping to meet up with a letting agent to view some flats (we are picking up the vocabulary quickly!). There is a couple here from St. Louis who have also been really welcoming. Rebecca (Manor for you St. Louis-ans) has generously offered to show us around and help us with opening bank accounts, finding groceries, getting phones, etc. It will be so nice to have fellow Americans to orient us to this new culture!

We are exhausted and our bodies are totally off schedule. Neither of us slept much on the plane last night. It was a HUGE plane and we were really fortunate to get a last minute seat change (thanks to Joe who stood in a really long line to ask) so that we were in the set of two seats with one window and one aisle seat versus our originally assigned seats in the middle of the 5 person middle section. But, still it was cramped and uncomfortable and sleep was not easy. I did not realize what a long trip it would be. All said, it took 19 hours from my parents' house to Edinburgh. And, we have not slept in quite awhile. So, we are hoping for a long night's sleep.

It does feel a little far from home, but it has been nice to be welcomed so warmly. We do miss our friends and family and are looking forward to getting settled so you can come visit us!