Scotland: golf + more

Jason here.

One of my goals of our time living in Europe was to go play golf in Scotland. As things have been drawing to a close... I began to get nervous this wouldn't happen. How can I live only 3 hours from the birthplace of golf and not go experience it?!?!?

So...

In October, Kevin Fortsch (pictured above) and I played 36 holes of golf there!!! He flew from DFW to London and then took the train up to Edinburgh. I flew in the afternoon from Madrid straight to Edinburgh... (for 22Euros!)... arriving at about 6:30pm.

The first adventure was driving a car on the opposite side of the road. At night. In the rain. With my GPS barking orders at me. Quite honestly (and Kevin will agree to this fact), I was often driving on the right (wrong?) side of the road and putting our lives at risk. I love cars and driving, so this experience was a real hoot. Remember how you felt when you first started driving and had to think about EVERYTHING? That was me!! The biggest challenge was the shifting with your left hand. I was often going from 1st to 4th and such. Crazy!! My rule of driving was, "just do what other cars are doing". When we were alone on the roads... it was not pretty. Roundabouts in the opposite direction. Foreign! Love it.

Kevin and I left Edinburgh and stayed at a little hotel in the country. Fish and chips #1. Uneventful.

On Friday morning (well, for Kevin it was really midnight 'body time') we left our hotel and began driving towards our chosen course.

Crail Golfing Society

http://www.crailgolfingsociety.co.uk/

We had a 45 minute drive to the golf course in the morning... and we met some of the local wildlife in the process. On a two lane country road, a young and misinformed deer proved that cars are heavier and stronger than animals. No... I did not hit her... she hit us!! I saw her near the left side of the road and slowed considerably while moving from the left side to right on the roadway (strange, yes) to be further from her. As we came along side her... she decided to show her pals how fast she can cross a country road. She slammed right into the side of our little rented Kia. I'm sad to report we didn't ship any deer meat home as she was ok and shook it off like the little rugby-player she must be... she then left us to go tell her friends about some rude Americans she met who cared nothing about her... just that little white ball up ahead. Thankfully, the car was unharmed (hey, it's a rental!) and we had an extra-clean spot on Kevin's side of the car with a little bit of her hair... otherwise, no harm done.

(sorry, no pic... little deer are fast boogers and we were itching to get on the tee-box, so chose not to pursue her further)

yes... this is a golf story... I promise...


So we make it to the golf course. WOW!! The course is right on the sea (with a castle next door, see the pic to the left) and is GREEN and beautiful. It's a grey, cold, windy day... so there aren't too many people around. Those who are there are super friendly and are speaking English, yet I'm forced to REALLY concentrate to understand them. Foreign! Love it!

We bought a few things in the Pro Shop. Rented our gear and headed for the tee box. Our plan was to play the New Course (actually new... like 11 years old) in the morning with pull carts and to play the old course (about 175 years old!!) in the afternoon, with Caddies.

We are off! Here are some pics of the early going...


















I hadn't played a round in over 2 years... so things were more than a little rusty for me. Kevin is a good athlete and golfer and (he might disagree?!?) played quite well! A good shot for me is one where my ball is findable. :-). I think I scored a 105 on the first 18. Something in that range. Not good!

The most interesting thing we experienced on the first 18 was a WALL! No kidding. In the middle of the fairway was this ancient mossy, stone wall. Crazy. Kevin drove right up to it (good and bad) and I was a about 3o yards from it. Here are some pics.













We completed the first 18... and it was GREAT. In a word, peaceful. There are no electric carts. No noise. Just the course and the wind and the fun of hanging out and talking with Kevin while losing golf balls in the rough. We passed a few golfers on the course. Some of them had their dogs walking with them. Nice!

We took a break in the Crail Restaurant and enjoyed a great meal and view of the North Sea and the Old Course. Fish and chips #2. Below is a pic of our view during lunch!

The old course was VERY cool. In a word: Caddies. We decided to indulge a little and have a caddie for the 2nd 18. I'd never had a caddie before.

I... ummm... highly recommend it.

Jim and Ian were both members of the Crail Golfing Society and wonderful retired Scottish gentlemen.

While Kevin might have played another 18 holes of golf after this one... I was quickly wearing out! So for me... while the 2nd 18 was very much about golf... I honestly enjoyed walking and talking with Ian equally as much. He had retired from a Steel Mill mgmt/exec position in Glasgow and had a very interesting life. I enjoyed spending the time with him and appreciated his skills at finding my ball in the most ridiculous of places!! There were more than a few times he would say something to me and I heard him well... but still didn't understand what he said! It was GREAT. The funniest thing he said was to tell me, "You see that cow up there next to that barn? Aim in that direction." (they were beyond the course boundary)

I regret that I didn't get a good picture with of him.


Here is an "action shot" of Kevin and Jim. I think Kevin was saying, "Yes lad... please get the recommended club ready for me... I'll be along as soon as Risley finds his ball... yet again." lol...

In the end... I can't say I know my score on the 2nd 18. Likely north of 120. OUCH. Kevin and his driver became good friends... and he was smoking the fairways. I'd guess he was in the mid-90's. ?? Not sure.

Hard to sum up the whole Scotland golf experience. Much like other things in Europe... there's just nothing like it. Several times we literally had the sense of people 100+ years ago walking this ground and doing what we were doing. I found myself wondering what they discussed... what their lives were like...

In the end, I am SO THANKFUL that Kevin took the time away to come over. It was AMAZING. I would highly recommend it to others!! I can't believe we did it. What a great experience!

St. Andrews

After we finished golfing, we drove up to St. Andrews and walked the 18th hole. Amazing. Here's a pic of the 3rd hole and the hotel next to the 18th. It was getting dark... so my pics of the course didn't take. Bummer!

Thanks for reading about our adventures in Scotland!

Jason

Not the way you are supposed to write a blog

OK, I thought I should fess up...

I am compiling this blog into books so that we will have a record of the blog when we get back to Texas. There have been a couple of posts that I wanted to write, but as I am ALWAYS behind on this blog, they just never got written. So... in an effort for the blog books to be complete... I went back and wrote those missing posts and dated them so that they would fall in their chronological places!

But then I noticed that those retro posts weren't showing up on my blog reader - so I figured I'd better tell you about them so they would actually get read :-)

So here is my post on my 35th birthday and here is my post on Mother's Day. Hope you enjoy them. :-)

The peanut butter is gone....

.... so it must be time to come home!!

Thanksgiving in Paris!

Dan & Ruth came to visit us during the week of Thanksgiving. (see the last post here for what we did the rest of the week) We enjoyed a "traditional" Thanksgiving dinner with 150 friends at our church on Sunday before Thanksgiving. So for Thanksgiving itself we went to Paris :-) Dan & Ruth had never been and we were happy to show it to them!

I am still blown away by the fact that we found ourselves in Paris so many times these last 2 years. It is truly a magical city!! It was our first European city to see and it is still our favorite. One of the cool things about this trip was that the Christmas lights had all just been turned on - it was magical! 2 years ago when Jason first started this job, he told me about these teardrop lights on the Champs Elysee - and it was so exciting that I got to see them! We got to stay on the rue Cler again - such a great street in a great neighborhood.



Thanksgiving Day, I headed off to see a friend, Deb, who lives in Paris, while everyone else went to see Notre Dame. Then we all met in the garden of the Tuileries near the Louvre for our Thanksgiving feast. We had gathered the ingredients for the picnic on the rue Cler that morning. And it was truly a picnic feast! French cheese, fresh bread, Spanish wine, dried meats and fruits. Yummy!! And best of all was the atmosphere and company :-). We also agreed that the prep and cleanup of Thanksgiving dinner couldn't be beat! The birds were happy to help us out with the cleanup. :-) Katie was soooo excited that one actually landed on her hand!

After eating, we visited the Louvre again. Highlights of this trip were seeing ruins of ancient Assyria - artifacts from the time of the captivity of Israel described in the Old Testament! It was very mind blowing!




The next day, Dan & Ruth took all 3 girls up in the Eiffel Tower while Jason & I wandered the streets of Paris. It was cool to get to discover some new areas that we had never seen before. We also saw the site of Princess Diana's sad car crash. After we met up again, we took the metro to the Champs Elysee. We enjoyed a yummy snack and then wandered down the beautiful avenue. We were still there when the lights went on - it was magical! We also found a fun Christmas market to browse. This ferris wheel was in the Place de la Concorde, where once was found the guillotine.

A funny story - you can take the Americans to Europe, but you can NOT make them suave Europeans... Katie and Jason actually pulled one of Katie's teeth inside a cafe on the Champs Elysee. Yes, I was dying of embarrassment. No one seemed to be staring at us.... but I'm sure we were the talk of the place after we left. :-) Ah, memories :-)


A definite highlight of the trip was Friday night - my friend Deb had helped us find a babysitter, and even allowed us to stay at her apartment for the sitter and kids to have more space. So the 4 adults got to go out to dinner - it was a true treat!! We enjoyed a several course meal and such great conversation (remember the theme I mentioned in my last post? :-) ). The guys topped off the evening with a couple of Cubans as we walked down the Seine. Ruth snapped this pic - gotta love those completely candid shots!!

Saturday, the guys took the girls back to Madrid while Ruth & I hit Les Puces - a famous flea market in Paris. The area was quite dodgy :-), but the flea market was great! We enjoyed a great day of shopping and laughing with some great keepsakes!

Sunday when we got back, the Christmas lights had just been turned on in Madrid as well. So we headed downtown for a mostly driving tour of the lights. It was a great way to end a great week :-)

Fun with Friends

Well, life has sped up a bit... the countdown is on to the day of Going Home! December has passed in a blur of birthday, Christmas and moving preparations. But we must get caught up before we come home :-)




We had a wonderful week the last week of November with our friends, Dan & Ruth and their girls Kaarin & Erika. They were fabulous house guests, even cooking us a gourmet steak and lobster dinner one night! Katie was hilarious with the live lobsters. She was fascinated, but did NOT want to touch them! I had just watched the movie Julie & Julia where they talk about how lobsters scream when you boil them alive. Katie is still asking if these lobsters screamed when Mr Dan put them in the pot :-)

I think this meal really characterized our time with our friends (and maybe our time in Spain?): We had so many nice meals together and so many nice conversations to go with those meals! It was great! Dan & Ruth both come from international backgrounds, so they really helped us process our time here in Spain in light of our quickly approaching return home.


Kaarin and Erika were so sweet and really played with Katie a lot. (they are much older at 12 and 11!) It was good for Katie to get reacquainted with some of her Texas friends :-). Their visit definitely got all of us thinking about home a lot more!




While they were here, we got to explore another little Spanish town called Pedraza that is just an hour north of here. The town had been highly recommended to us, but I was a little nervous that it would disappoint since we had never been there before personally. But wow - it did not disappoint!! It was a fabulous little town and very typically Spanish. We started off by exploring a 12th century little castle that was very well preserved. We walked down into an old well and got this great pic of the girls peering down at us. Then we had a great meal on a balcony overlooking the main square. It was really a beautiful day! Full of the wonderful Spanish sunshine :-). Then we enjoyed a tour of a 12th century jail with very colorful stories about the "old days"! Kaarin and Erika were especially fascinated :-) We got to finish off the day with some shopping at fun little shops. It was a great place to visit for a day trip!

Thankful

We have already celebrated our Thanksgiving, with 150 friends from around the world at our church this past Sunday. We enjoyed all the traditional food of Thanksgiving, as well as goodies from Spain and other foreign places :-) We are going to be "celebrating" Thanksgiving Day in Paris by sharing some French cheese with our good friends, Dan & Ruth Staalsen. So it's not exactly a typical Thanksgiving Day for us this year!

I have been reflecting on many things these past few weeks. As with many of you, I have also been thinking of the things that I am thankful for. For one thing, I am thankful that my dad is doing so well. By way of (belated) update for those of you who are not also Facebook friends :-), my dad's surgery went extremely well. He has recovered nicely and the doctors are pleased with how he is doing after surgery. He also got extremely good news last week from his first blood test: his PSA level has already gone to ZERO!! Now that his prostate is gone, any level of PSA hormone in his blood means that there is more prostate cancer floating around in his body. So this means that they really did get all the cancer that was there!! The doctors did not expect that it would go to zero this soon, and they had kind of indicated that they did not think it would go to zero at all (i.e. that they were afraid there was still cancer floating around). They will continue to watch him very closely, but we are so so thankful!!

I have also been reflecting on the last 2 years. I have been reading my journal from 2 years ago and it is hard to believe how things have changed. It would be fair to say I had many mixed emotions moving here to Spain :-). I am NOT a dreamer and it would never have occurred to me to move halfway around the world, far from everyone and everything I knew and loved. But God gave me a wonderful husband who compliments me well and who dreams big dreams - and I am SOOOO thankful! (How boring my life would be without him!) What I would have missed out on if he (and He!!) had not led us here to Spain!

In my journal in November 2007, I wrote of fear and loss and being completely overwhelmed at the prospect and details of moving internationally. I wrote of not knowing if we could make a new life for ourselves in a strange land. I wrote of being far from family and worry of something happening to them while we were so far away. I wrote of peace in the midst of my swirling thoughts and emotions and a clear sense of God's leading us to take this huge step.

The last 2 years have been some of the most difficult and the most rewarding years of our lives. We have experienced loss and overwhelming details in learning how to survive, then thrive in a strange land. But God has given us comfort in our losses and increased patience in dealing with those details - and the joys have overshadowed the loss. We have indeed had things happen with our parents: 3 of our 4 parents have had a major health crisis since we've been here. But each time, God enabled us to be with them and protected their lives. We have made a home and a life here, with a wealth of good friendships and good experiences. We have seen God's hand in our lives, protecting us and providing for us in so many ways. He has not left us alone; we have not faced this strange land without His help and His strength. We have grown emotionally, mentally and spiritually with His help.

We are now looking at the end of our time here in Spain. I am overwhelmed with thankfulness for how God has helped us these last 2 years. Remembering my emotions and thoughts 2 years ago, it is a bit ironic that in many ways we will now leave Spain with mixed emotions. Yes, we are ready to come home; yes, we will leave part of our hearts in Spain.

Thank you, God, for this rich experience and your faithful love for us!!

Happy Thanksgiving :-)

My dad

I would like to ask you to pray with us over the next few weeks and months. About a month ago, my dad was diagnosed with aggressive prostate cancer. He will have surgery on October 22 so they can remove his prostate. We are praying that they will be able to get all the cancer out, that the cancer has not spread to his lymph nodes, and that the side effects will be as minimal as possible. Also pray for the time to go quickly - the surgery was originally scheduled for October 5, and it is not especially fun to wait 2 more weeks!!

For several months, Katie & I have planned to come to Texas at the end of October - I guess only God knew the whole reason we were coming. So our schedule has been arranged and rearranged, and will likely be rearranged again, but I am thankful that I will get to be there with my family.

I don't know what else to say. It's scary stuff and we don't know what the future will hold. But I know that God does know and He is big enough.

Psalm 142:3a "When my spirit grows faint within me, it is you who know my way."

Psalm 16:8 "I have set the LORD always before me. Because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken."

1st Day of School!

Friday, 4 September, was Katie's first day of school. Katie has been in school 4 days a week this past year, but this year was a big deal:
1. Because this is Kindergarten!! For real (and no matter what country we live in), she is in school now!
and 2. Because she switched to a new school!!

Katie is now attending an international school called ICS (International College Spain). It follows the IB program and is much more similar in style and philosophy to schools in the states. We hope this will make her transition back to a TX school easier when that time comes.

We kicked off a new tradition this year, one that comes from my childhood: the back to school lunch! Katie & I enjoyed lunch together the week before school started, to celebrate the new beginning. We ate at a place called Frankie & Benny's that makes yummy American style pizza. Then we went shopping for her new backpack and to spend the money Mimi & Poppi sent her for some new school supplies. She loved the shopping and spending of money - maybe as much or more than the lunch! :-)

Thursday we got to go meet her new teacher, Ms. Moran. Ms. Moran is from Ireland. Katie enjoyed seeing her new classroom and the new school.









On Friday, Katie was up and eager to get on her way. She was ready WAY before Mom & Dad were! Katie doesn't exactly wear uniforms at her new school, but they have a gym outfit that they wear on gym days. Since they have gym 3 times a week, it about amounts to the same thing :-)




Unfortunately we can't quite walk to school, even though the new school is closer than the old one. We clocked it at 26 minutes the week before school started. A bit too much for EVERY morning! But we park on a street down the hill from the school and walk up the hill so as to avoid the traffic. If we get there on the late side, sometimes it feels like we're walking to school :-)





Each morning, they line up to wait for their teacher and their class's turn to go inside. Katie was REALLY upset when she found out at meet-the-teacher that we could not go upstairs with her to her actual classroom. But on the first day, she did great! It's actually a great system because any leaving drama is lessened by the structure and the distance from the actual classroom.

And finally: the actual back-to-school outfit :-). We had bought this before we realized that the first day of school was a gym day and that she would wear her gym clothes. So this was on Wednesday, the 4th day of school :-) Katie is LOVING her new school and has quickly settled in and made friends. This is a HUGE answer to prayer, as her transition to the 1st Spanish school was not so smooth. She is still adjusting to the schedule - by Thursday or Friday each week, she is pretty worn out. She goes 5 days a week from 8:50 -4:05 - 1 day and almost an hour longer than her school last year. Actually, I think Mommy & Daddy are still adjusting too - we get pretty worn out by the end of the week too! :-) But we are so thankful that we have found a place where Katie is doing so well!

France

Now for the grand finale of the "20 Day Trip"! :-)







We wrapped up our vacation by meeting some friends in Paris. These are French friends we met in Madrid, who moved to Dubai in March. They have a 5 year old girl just a little bit older than Katie and a 3 year old boy. Katie was sooo excited to get to see her friends again and to have someone to play with. We got to stay at our friends' parents' amazing 400 year old house in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, the oldest suburb of Paris. It was a wonderful town and we enjoyed having coffee on the square and being spoiled a bit by her parents. It was so refreshing to be in a home with a family after 2 weeks of traveling! We enjoyed a fabulous meal with fabulous desserts - quite appropriate to kick off our time in France. In France, as in Italy, it is really all about the food :-) In Spain, the pastries look pretty but usually taste blah. In France.... oo la la!! The fruit one looks a bit prettier, but the chocolate one won by a mile! :-)

After this lovely morning in Saint Germain, we headed off to the Loire Valley, where there are many castles. On our way to the condo we stayed in, we stopped at the Chateau of Chambord. It was a very beautiful castle. It has a corkscrew staircase in the middle of it - 2 spiral staircases intertwined so that 2 people can ascend at the same time and not pass each other. You could just catch glimpses of the other person through breaks in the walls. It was really cool. After quickly touring the castle (we got there just before closing time!), we had a lovely picnic on the grounds behind the castle. Somehow roasted chicken, fruit, cheese & French bread taste sooo much better that way! The kids were able to play together as they ate = big fun!!

The next day we headed out to see the Chateau of Chenonceau. This one is much more grand and dramatic, especially because it spans a river. It was beautiful to see the reflection of the castle in the water! This was actually the dividing line of occupied France and non-occupied France during WWII. They smuggled people out of occupied France through this castle!

We also enjoyed the beautiful gardens of Chenonceau and enjoyed an amazing lunch at a restaurant in town. It was a wonderful day! Here's our toothless girl near the castle (and someone's lovely orange shirt :-) )

I'm finding myself short on words to describe what we did in France - we had a wonderful time, but what we saw was truly secondary to just spending time with our friends! It was priceless to have so much time to be together and catch up on each others' lives. We are so thankful that God has given us such friends in such a short time here in Madrid! We didn't really even begin to see the castles that there are to see - there are a BUNCH of them! We really just enjoyed the time together - and now we have a reason to go back!

We stayed in the town of Loches in a wonderful condominium. It was perfect to have room to cook, eat and talk without sitting on our beds :-) The town ended up being really neat in its own right - so our last day together, we spent exploring Loches. This is the view out the window of our apartment! It was really pretty! There was a castle in town as well (cool to visit, though not so photogenic as this building - we never did figure out what exactly this building is :-) ). So we explored the town and finished the day and our stay in France with a lovely meal at a creperie. A perfect ending for a perfect time!!