You can still see the sun shining on some of the clouds behind the grey clouds. This next picture was taken on Thursday at 4:00 p.m. The sky was a golden orange at 3:30 as we left the church building. On the drive home we were amazed at the sight. I took this picture behind our flat
Thanksgiving is an American holiday which the Scots don't celebrate. This year we made our own Thanksgiving celebration. We decided to have some of the young
missionaries come to our flat for a “Thanksgiving Dinner” on Thanksgiving
Day. We made believe we had a turkey
and substituted it for a couple of chickens cooked at the deli rotisserie next door. We had all the trimmings including turkey
gravy, mashed potatoes, dressing, yams, green beans, rolls, and the traditional
pumpkin pie. I think they enjoyed the
dinner…
Since there is no Thanksgiving holiday here, all of the decorations in the stores changed to Christmas decorations on November 1st…right after Halloween. (Wait a minute…that is the same thing that happens in the States even with Thanksgiving.) Christmas shopping has begun here big time. All of the stores are very crowded and everything is geared to the Christmas shopper. We were in a large department store on Tuesday and one would have thought it was “Black Friday”.
We (the senior missionaries) decided that we would have our
own Thanksgiving dinner. Since
Thanksgiving day here was a “normal” work day with scheduled meetings, we had our
dinner yesterday, Saturday, November 30th. Most of the senior missionaries in Scotland were
able to attend the dinner. Our task became
where to find a whole turkey. In all the
butcher shops you can find sliced turkey or a turkey breast but not a whole
turkey. We finally found a few frozen
whole turkeys at a grocery store. They
came in “medium, large, extra large, and XX Large” sizes. We had 23 people coming to dinner so we
bought the XX large turkey. The weight
was 10.3 kg – or about 22 pounds. The
cost was £30 or about $48…for a
turkey!!
We had the dinner at the mission home which is a large old home in Edinburgh that was probably built in the late 1800s. It has been remodeled and a mission office has been added to the back. The rooms are very large with very high ceilings. You can see from the decorations that it was a combination Thanksgiving/Christmas holiday dinner. :)
We cooked the turkey at the mission home and had a ton of food...Here President Brown, our Mission President, is carving the turkey. Following dinner we gathered in the front room and sang Christmas carols.
This does not do justice to the beauty of the room, but his is a corner of the ceiling.
The big thing I am thankful for this year is…I passed my written
driving test! I have been studying for
the last few months for the theory test (written test) for the drivers
license. The UK recognizes my AZ drivers
license for one year. Since we will be
here for 18 months I need to get a UK drivers license. I had to pay £50 for a Provisional License (a learners license) and then £31 for the privilege of taking the
written test. (That is about $130 and I
still can’t drive without my US license)
The positive part of this is that since I do have a valid US license I dinnae
(that is Scottish for “don’t”) need to
have the “scarlet letter” on the car.
One can drive in the UK with a Provisional if they are accompanied by a
UK licensed driver but they must display a large red “L” on the front and back
of the car to show the world that they are learning to drive.
Many of the senior missionaries don’t worry about getting
their drivers license. If they are
assigned to work in Scotland, they will be transferred to the Republic of
Ireland when the one year is up. The
clock is then reset. If they are in the
Republic, they will be transferred to Scotland after the year to reset the
clock. Since we are assigned to
Edinburgh and need to stay here the full 18 months, we don’t have the option of
being transferred to the Republic…so I need to get my license.
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