First week...

I landed early afternoon last Friday at the Edinburgh airport....after a long awaited trip I am finally in the UK! I met some really interesting people during my trip over during which I didn't even get one minute of sleep because of excitement + stress of flying (horrible weather). I meet one couple from Ethiopia who were heading to Edinburgh for a marathon. Really cool; they travel around the world to do running marathons ... one of their friends even ran in O-town! I also meet another couple who were visiting family in Edinburgh. The women has been living in Canada for over 40 overs but is originally from Scotland. We had a good conversation about social work, living abroad and chick flicks ... I had just watched Letters to Juliet on the plane to London (so cheesy but sooo good ... especially when you're already emotional)... She was such a lovely women. I told her about meeting Richard and moving to the UK. She thought it was such a nice story and seemed genuinely happy for me. I  love meeting nice and interesting strangers! 

Anyways, now for the important stuff, I was SOO happy to see Richard!! We had an amazing and romantic reunion at the airport (as always :) ) and then we had a fun weekend exploring Edinburgh: we walked around the lovely city, saw the castle, and walked up Arthur's seats (picture). 

We went to a pub called 'the Last Drop' in front of which they used to have public hangings... creepy. BUT they had good bitter beer and awesome music. 

So, after a fun weekend in Edinburgh, we headed back to Newcastle. We stopped in a cute little town called Bernwick Upon Tweed and had lunch, walked around and took in some fresh sea air. Gorgeous little town!

After getting back we got together with a couple of Richard's friends for a hockey game!! Newcastle Vipers!! Who thought they'd have hockey in England .. awesome! The game was SO much fun. The crowd was lively and really into the game. It was so sweet... Richard's friend had the idea to get my arrival to England announced! So during one of the short breaks (penalty I think) the announcer said something like <This is for Sarah who is sitting behind the net and who just arrived from Canada. This is her first Newcastle Vipers game and hopefully not her last. Welcome to England love, Richard, Iain and Norman>...  I was really touched :) 

Well other than that I've been pretty much just job hunting and getting settled in OH but on Monday night we went to this <live music and poetry> night at the Tyneside cinema (kinda like the Mayfair or Bytown for the Ottawans). I FINALLY got to try Newcastle Brown Ale (aka Broon in Geordie) ...  not very good! But, the music was AMAZING! Especially this one band called Matt Stalker & Fables: 

http://www.myspace.com/mattjstalker. 

OH! I forgot to mention earlier that Richard bought me a <welcome to England> gift, a book called: 

Taak of the Toon: How to speak Geordie ... lol awesome gift! 

So, here's your first Geordie lesson: 

If someone were to say <thank you>, you could respond, in proper Geordie: 

Naebotheratallcaacanny .... translation .... My pleasure, have a nice day 

Well I'll stop at that .... I''ll post some pics soon!!