Day 1 & 2: Arrival in New California

This post was written 31 Aug:

We have arrived safely in Scotland. As we flew into Glasgow yesterday, we suddenly noticed that there are hills and mountains all around, and of course the river Clyde broadening out toward the sea in the distance. It reminded us strongly of California in the winter, when everything is green. So we have decided that Scotland is our new California! A New California for our new life...

A friendly taxi driver (all the taxi drivers we've encountered so far here have been friendly) drove us in from the airport, stopping in the city center for us to pick up our house keys. There were no disasters waiting for us at the house, although we are still trying to figure out the typically byzantine (a nod to Kenneth... hope you remember to get to your Byzantine history class on time today!) central heating/hot water (yes, they are the same here) system. We even managed a somewhat groggy trip to the local large grocery store and bought food for dinner and breakfast.

We fell into bed early last night, exhausted from the journey but most of all from the stress of the past days of sorting, cleaning and packing. This morning, however, some of us got up much refreshed and went for a run along the Firth-Clyde Canal near our place. Finally, we tackled the dreaded bank situation again (having already been turned down twice by the Bank of Scotland last July as potential money launderers). This time we tried the Royal Bank of Scotland, and were given a long form to fill out and bring back in this afternoon. This we managed to do, and were shocked to learn on our return that we might actually be allowed to open a bank account with them in the very near future, i.e., tomorrow.

Because we have no internet service yet, we have walked over to the University and are using a borrowed computer to write this to you all. That is where we stand at the moment.

Tomorrow I start work. The first order of business will be to get a key to my office. Diane is going to work on the phone and internet service tomorrow. Then we will see what's next. And we will be in more frequent contact, including cheap phone rates to the US. Brendan has been nagging me to start a blog, so I will try to do that also as a way to keep you up to date with our adventures in New California!