The Training is Over!

I have had 2 days of training at Starbucks and expected just another day of training today when I walked in at 6:30am and my manager said, "Hazel is sick today. It's just you and me." OH, dear! I was so glad I reviewed my material for how many shots of this and how many pumps of that. So I ran the bar most of the day (made the drinks). It was a good learning experience. Before I knew it, I had to squeeze in my lunch, read my training books for 30 minutes, and head home.

We had an anniversary last week. Our fourth! We celebrated by going to a little ristorante. It was very romantic! Our first chance to get out to a real restaurant. (Ikea doesn't count!)

Saturday we hiked Arthur's Seat again. It was such a lovely day and not nearly as much wind as our first try. Before the hike I went to the local farmer's market for the first time. They did not have nearly as much fruit and veg at the markets at home would have. It was focused more on meats. There were some interesting meats: veal, venison, ostrich, wild boar. I am interested in trying the ostrich burgers sometime. They had a pig on a spit that they were carving away at. There were duck and quail eggs. It was a good time of exploring.

Yesterday the minister of the church we have been attending invited us and the other students who have started attending recently out to a small cafe for lunch. There were also a few other regular attenders. We were quite relieved to finally get to know some of the regulars as Scottish people, while they are very polite and friendly, do keep to themselves and do not want to "intrude."

I am finding I get different reactions from people when I say I work at Starbucks. From Americans I get, "Wow" "How fun" "Ooh, free coffee." From UKers I get a slight raise of the eyebrows and a polite "oh." It seems that the big, international corporations are bad and rather they like to support the small time companies, especially when they use free trade products whenever possible.

One thing I just have to mention that I always laugh at is outdoor dining here. There are many, many restaurants that have outdoor seating. It amazes me that people sit out in 55 degrees and eat their meals, chatting away wearing their gloves and scarves like it is nothing. They even dine out in light rain! I just laugh everytime I see this. I guess since the weather doesn't stay warm for long they like to enjoy it as long as possible. Only once when we had heavy rain for 2 straight days did I notice the tables and chairs were taken in.

Well, here are a couple of photos from Arthur's Seat. I will also be posting more photos on Our Photos link, so be sure to check that out. It will also include photos from our sea walk a couple of weekends ago.