Edinburgh!!!!

Plaid Anyone?!

Edinburgh is an amazing and mysterious city! When Ross and I first applied to PhD programs, the first school we were accepted to was the University of Edinburgh. For six months we planned to live here in the beautiful city of Edinburgh. When our plans changed and we were accepted to Trinity College in Dublin, we couldn't wait for the opportunity to travel to Edinburgh to see where we might have ended up. Although it was a very short and unexpected trip, we truly fell in love with the city.

On the second day we stumbled onto a free 3 hour walking tour, which ended up being the highlight of the trip. Our guide was funny and knowledgable and made the mysterious city of Edinburgh in the 1600's come alive! We also really enjoyed our tour of Mary King's Close, an area of the city, that is now underground, which was greatly affected by the plague. Edinburgh has a fascinating history!

View from Calton Hill

One of my favorite streets heading down toward the Grass Market

St. Giles Cathedral

View of the Castle from the back

View of the Castle from the front standing in front of Ross Fountain

David Hume's (a famous philosopher) grave

Charming shops on the Royal Mile

The school that Hogwarts was inspired by in Harry Potter

One of the college buildings apart of the University of Edinburgh

The lovely friends we stayed with in Edinburgh- in front of the Halfway House a great, yet tiny pub halfway up one of the closes (narrow alleys) between New and Old town

Work Visa Update

Getting permission to work here in Ireland has continued to be an unbelievably difficult task! I will attempt to quickly summarize the ongoing saga we have had these past few months. Sorry for the very late update!

In September my work had applied for me (Suz) to get a new work visa to continue at St. Andrews teaching American History. Unfortunately, in February it was denied because I was currently working in the country on a Working Holiday Authorization, which required me to leave the country after 12 months. After going to the Immigration office, Ross and I were informed that we were required to leave the country for a 48 hour period, so we packed our bags, booked airline tickets, and the next day flew to the lovely city of Edinburgh. Upon arriving in Ireland again, I received a dependent stamp giving me permission to legally reside in Ireland. Unfortunately, what I did not know at the time is that a dependent stamp does not give my employer permission to apply for a work permit on my behalf. So... after contacting the US Embassy, I was advised to move back to the US while my employer applied for the work visa for me. So, off to California we will be heading this summer! After the initial shock, both Ross and I now feel a great peace about this decision and are actually quite excited to have a second chance this year to see the friends and family that we have been missing so much.

We are not positive of the exact dates yet, but we will probably be in SD for June, July, and part of August. I can't believe we will be home in 1 month!

Our New Home

After our first flat was flooded, we had the blessing of moving to the precious seafront town of Dun Laoghaire. We have lived here now since September and absolutely love it! It is bright and airy, a great luxury in Dublin where space and light are both hard to come by. We have a lovely balcony which overlooks the harbor. Although being right on the water adds an extra chilly wind factor, our frequent pier walks makes this quaint sea town a fantastic new home for us!

View from our balcony

View from the outside

Our bedroom (a door to the balcony on the left)

Our living room and kitchen

A view of the water from our couch

The lovely bathroom with a much coveted tub!!!

Dun Laoghaire Pier: Our favorite place to walk

Our Trip Home for Christmas

We had an amazing trip home this year for Christmas. We feel absolutely blessed to have had the opportunity to spend a few weeks with all our favorite people that we have been dying to see this past year! We spent our first week with the Inmans over Christmas. During our week we spent time in Austin, Ingram, Fredricksburg, and San Antonio. We had a relaxing Texan Christmas Darla style!

We then went to San Diego to have a belated Christmas celebration with the Howland family. What a joy it was to spend quality time with the fam. Baden and Avery have gotten so big! Ross and I enjoyed many days playing with them and catching up with great friends!

Inman Fam

Love you Dagmar!

Our Traditional New Years in Arrowhead... I love these girls!

Julian trip with Mom and Dad!

Matching Julian hats :) I love my stylin' cute mom!

Precious friends!

My two cutie prego friends :)

Sweet Avery! I love her little scrunched nose!

Love my sissies and mom!

Spencer on day care duty!

I could kiss my precious B boy all day :)

Avery's Irish plaid jacket... she's lovin' it!

The Beautiful City of Prague

This past week we spent our first holiday outside of Ireland in the gorgeous city of Prague. We had always heard it was a beautiful place to visit, but neither of us knew what to expect. I (Ross) arrived a week before Suzanne to attend a philosophy conference where I shared a paper.  It went really well and I had incredible opportunities to meet and dine with some important philosophers in my field of study.  It was such a privilege to talk philosophy over a pint with some of the philosophers I most admire... and in Prague of all places!

I (Suzanne) met up with Ross on the last day of his conference. We spent five days and four nights touring Prague and two towns outside of the city. After a guided walking tour given through Ross' conference,  we ate dinner at an authentic Czech restaurant with the Brower family (the husband is the man Ross wanted to work with at Purdue University). They were an incredibly sweet family.  Once we went back to our hotel room my stomach started feeling really crummy. Unfortunately, that whole night I was keeled over the toilet... not the pleasant first night I was expecting! That next day, we had so much we wanted to see but because I still was feeling awful we took it really slow. I slugged through the Jewish Quarter, an area in town that was the Jewish Ghetto during WWII. There is a cemetery there where 20,000 Jews are buried, but because of how small the area is, the bodies are buried vertically. The headstones are literally on top of each other! It was really sad.  After barely making it through that area of town, we went back for a two hour nap to power up. That night we went back out to explore the famous Charles Bridge.

Our beautiful room at Mosaic House

Sick, sick, sick

Old Town Square

Jewish Cemetery

The waterfront close to our hotel

Feeling well enough to smile by the end of the night :)

The next day, I felt dramatically better. We explored the castle grounds in Prague, a large area that contains the beautiful St. Vitus Cathedral and Prague's castle (which really doesn't look like a castle). The rest of the day we spent meandering through the narrow, windy streets. They have fantastic shops, gelato, and an outdoor market where you can find all sorts of fresh fruit and trinkets. That night we found a wonderful outdoor restaurant right on the water where we listened to live music. What a great way to end the day!

St. Vitus Cathedral

I just had to take a picture with this castle guard

Restaurant where we listened to live music

The following day we took a day trip to Kutna Hora, a town an hour outside of Prague. Oh my what an absolute adventure... well actually it was a nightmare trying to get to the right bus station. We were using a friend's travel book to help us get around. Unfortunatley, it was from 2002, and led us all over town to the wrong bus station. But, after a couple of hours, and just before giving up, we finally made it to a train station that led us to our desired destination... the BONE CHURCH! I know, sounds creepy right? Yes, it is exactly what it sounds like. It is a church decorated with real human bones from thousands of people that died during a plague and war in the 14th and 15th century. There is a bone chandelier, coat of arms, and huge bone piles. Creepy! Creepy! Creepy!... but very worth the day trip. St. Barbara's Cathedral was in the same town and a wonderful balance to the creepy bone church. After making our way back to Prague, we went to the same restaurant to listen to some more music... but this night the musician was terrible! Quite entertaining with a cowboy hat and a twang... we think he came all the way from the south to serenade us!

Huge bone pile

Coat of Arms made of bones

Bone Chandelier

St. Barbara's Cathedral in Kutna Hora

Our last day, and our favorite, was spent on another day trip to Karlstejn Castle. How amazing and beautiful!!! I was ready to move in! We loved the little shops selling Bohemian crystal, and we just couldn't pass it up! We bought two wine glasses that ring like a bell. To end our trip we went back to Prague and took a relaxing paddle boat ride on the river.  Overall, a fabulous and wonderful trip!  This country is a must do!

Karlstejn Castle... oh how lovely!

In the castle grounds

View from the paddle boat