Hello again! Here's part 2 of my general Glasgow update, hopefully with some reflections too as we start to close this chapter of our travels. Please check out part 1 (the previous post) first if you're just starting here.
Jewish nature-y events
I wanted to pick up with some more info about all that we've been up to while staying here. I've gone to two really cool Jewish events created by the Canadian friend who was hosting us for dinner when I had my food poisoning fiasco. And Tori joined for the second of those two.
The first was mikveh-themed, for Yom Kippur. We drove out to a loch (aka lake) close to Glasgow. Fun fact: it's estimated that there are at least 31,460 lochs in Scotland :o !!! And yes, we did get in the freezing cold loch for a mikveh*-style dip! Though I definitely did not immerse all the way (traditionally you fully immerse your body in a mikveh), just barely up to my shoulders and then I ran out of there fast. When I tell you it was FREEZING, I mean it. Here is a pic of us warming up pre-dip.
*A mikveh is a Jewish ritual bath that people use for various life cycle events, though it's not commonly used by most Jewish people I know. I think it's mostly a more religious thing. But apparently people immerse in it before Yom Kippur, since that's the holiest day of the Jewish calendar.
After getting in the freezing cold water, we made a campfire and had some soup and hot tea while discussing teachings related to Yom Kippur and sharing reflections on our past year. The scenery was gorgeous and we passed by lots of sheep on the drive out of the city. I was surprised that there were actually so many local folks also taking a dip in the water. And, I made a friend there who I recently met up with to go climbing at a local indoor climbing gym! We plan to hopefully go another time before we leave. Here's a pic of the group while dinner was getting warmed up on the fire. You can see the start of the beautiful sunset on the loch. We were also visited with a nearly full moon which was magical.
Tori and I attended another event for Sukkot (yes, the Jewish holidays are never ending this time of year), located at the sukkah* of a synagogue (though the event was not connected to the synagogue). We did havdalah, ate some food, and did some crafting with willow branches, which are native to Scotland and one of the species on the lulav. Also really lovely overall, and it was nice to see familiar faces from the previous event at the loch and from the queer tashlich event.
*A sukkah is that structure that you can see in the background of the below pic -- it's a temporary outside dwelling created during the holiday of Sukkot (which is plural for sukkah). A lulav is a bouquet of different plant species that is ritually used during the holiday. Havdalah is a ritual done at the close of Shabbat. And I guess I didn't explain in the last post when I mentioned tashlich, but it's a ritual done during the High Holiday season where you throw bread (though now people often use fallen leaves or more natural items) into a moving body of water, symbolic of casting away things you want to release from the prior year.
Routines & Normal Life in GlasgowBeyond that, we've been enjoying settling into a rhythm here. Tori has been going to classes at a spin studio a couple times a week and I joined a gym and have been going to yoga and group fitness classes there.
As I mentioned in the last post, I got a job revamping a website for an acupuncture clinic, so I've been focused on that. The job is temporary -- I started it in mid October and I will probably finish up sometime in late December, but until then I'm glad to have some work and some money coming in. Please let me know if y'all know of anyone else looking for a website revamp, a virtual admin assistant, grant writer, copy editor, that kinda thing! And I still teach virtual private yoga weekly. Tori is continuing working about 12-8pm local time each day and is enjoying sleeping in and having leisurely mornings and going to spin. Really grateful for the flexibility in her work schedule that lets her make this work.
Our Airbnb (our "flat") is super close to two rivers which I have loved getting to explore. And, we've been here for peak fall so it's been beautiful to watch the leaves change and to notice a shift in the seasons. Below are some of my favorite fall foliage pics. By now, I'd say the trees are mostly bare but we still have a bit of remaining fall foliage.
And despite the great people we've met, we still only got here two months ago and don't have friends we see regularly outside of events and such, so we've very much been staying in and cooking and eating at home most nights. Which we are not complaining about at all -- it's been nice to lean into those normal, boring rhythms and having a regular sleep schedule amidst all of the changes that are our life right now. I've really appreciated the spaciousness, the quiet, and not being in the noisy hustle & bustle of NYC.
It has been hard to be far from family and friends, which I especially felt when my brother had a baby in early October. I was so sad to not be there for the bris and that we haven't been able to meet the baby yet. We can't wait to meet baby Eli when we're back in the US over the summer!
And of course, with the election, being away from the US has come with lots of pluses and minuses. Everyone keeps saying, "it must be so nice to not be in the US right now," but I think Tori especially was missing being with community during that/this time. I'm glad that we were able to still do some phone and text banking the day before the election -- Tori text banked for Kamala and I phone banked for two close congressional races which sadly were both lost to Republicans 😠Mostly people here have not been talking about the election much, as far as we've noticed (or at least not to the extent that it's been on our minds), though we did chat extensively with this older English woman about American politics at the cafe that we volunteered at this past Sunday.
And, in typical Tori fashion she's continued to seek out live events. At this point she's gone to six shows and two sporting events. I've joined her for two of the shows and one of the sporting events. We also went to a concert last week! Griff was awesome. Here are pics from a Glasgow City women's football game we went to our first week here.
And of course, how could I not mention the Liberty win!???!!! The New York Liberty won the WNBA championship for the first time in franchise history on October 20th in a riveting overtime winner-takes-all game five of the five game series. Yes, we did stay up until 4:30am to watch them clinch the title. Yes, I am a sports fan now and yes, I hate it. It is so stressful. Thanks, Tori.
Just yesterday we attended a Scottish ceilidh (pronounced "kay-lee"), which is a traditional dance event. Kind of similar to line dancing or the hora. It very chaotic and also lots of fun.
Our trip to Skye
One of the highlights of our whole time here has definitely been our long weekend away in the highlands. We went to the isle of Skye which is STUNNING. Truly had the best time taking in the gorgeous scenery. I had to limit myself with the pictures here cus I could go on sharing them forever.
We stayed at a charming bed and breakfast where the sweet host served us a delicious Scottish breakfast each morning and was so kind and accommodating. We explored the Eilean Donan castle and learned a lot about Scottish history and culture there. We saw highland cows (pronounced "coos") plus some regular cows on the side of the roads, along with endless sheep and rams. We explored the fairy pools and the fairy glen, hiked the Old Man of Storr (through the fog), went to a local whisky distillery (though really just explored the gift shop lol since we didn't book a tour in advance), hiked up near a lighthouse and a nature preserve, caught an unbelievable sunset, star-gazed and saw probably the most stars I've ever seen in my life, and got absolutely DRENCHED in a massive downpour.
I was caught up in enjoying the normal routines of our life in Glasgow and couldn't think much beyond that, so it was Tori who pushed us to take this little trip - and I'm so glad she did. (And also that she planned it all and drove a car on the other side of the road!!!) We picked up a rental car from Glasgow on a Thursday morning and came back Sunday night. I was very impressed by how quickly Tori got the hang of driving on the other side of the road. Once we were up in Skye, the roads were basically just a single road with ONE lane (for both directions). There were frequent passing spots on the side of the road, and when we saw a car coming, the closest car to reach a pullout would pull over and the other car would go around them.
It was very rainy which we learned is just how it is up there -- there's really no way to avoid it. But we were amazed by the gorgeous full-length rainbow we saw, and for the most part, the rain didn't get in our way. The fog also brought a kind of magical quality to the landscape. There are really limited food options up there, and in general it's pretty sparsely populated and not very built up, so we brought a lot of our own food with us. The b&b we stayed at was super remote. We had to stop many times when sheep were casually just chilling in the middle of the road. And the drive to & from Skye was stunning too. So, so glad we got a peak at the vastness of the highlands and that we got to see more of this beautiful country. Plus, we found out that Scotland has puffins in the spring so now we want to go back to see them when the season's right :)
Samhain in Edinburgh
A week after our trip to the Highlands, we went back to Edinburgh. We stayed over for two nights so we could spend more time exploring the city. The main attraction for us was the Samhain fire festival held on the night of Halloween at a big open park in Edinburgh. Samhain is pronounced "sow-un" with the ow pronounced like "Ow! I just hurt myself."
The event is a re-creation of the ancient Celtic festival marking the transition from summer to winter. We came in not knowing much, and honestly didn't leave knowing much more. There were huge crowds which made it was hard to see and understand what was going on. The event took place in a large flat area of the park that was framed by hills on one side. A bonfire was started at the top of the hill and then there was a large procession of people with lit torches who paraded down the hill, dressed in elaborate costumes. There were different areas with various happenings like drumming and performers dancing with the fire. I don't have great pictures because we were pretty far away from the action, and it was completely dark except for the performers' torches.
We did get more of a sense of what was happening at the center of the festival, at an area which stayed calm the whole time. We learned that it was set up as a neutral space and as a space of remembrance, which is part of the theme of Samhain, when the veil is thin between the living and the dead. Slowly, and in groups of a few people at a time, spectators were given a strip of cloth and invited into the circle to release the cloth into the fire. The invitation was to recall either someone/something you are remembering, or an idea, habit, concept, etc. that you want to release. It was really beautiful.
Earlier that day, we went apple and blueberry picking at a farm right outside of Edinburgh. The place was totally decked out in Halloween decorations. They also had pumpkins, sheep, highland cows, and a whole corn maze decorated very spookily for Halloween. It is very much towards the end of the season so the trees were pretty bare, but we still enjoyed the whole seasonal pumpkin patch kind of vibe.
(Craigies is the name of the farm)
The next day, we worked at a cafe and saw the Book of Mormon for $20, and the next day we explored the National Museum of Scotland and learned more about the history of the country. Tori went to a rugby match and a chihuahua cafe and I went to a radical bookstore. And we ate at Dishoom, a popular UK-based Indian restaurant chain.
Edinburgh is very different from Glasgow in that it feels older -- and honestly I'd say the architecture is more beautiful -- but it's a lot smaller and more tourist-y feeling.
Reflections as we wrap up
I think that's it as far as the activities and events that I wanted to mention. As we wrap up I'll just say that we miss our people but are so grateful to be here! Feeing lucky and proud that we made it happen. Job things continue to be extremely non-ideal for me but we're making it work and thinking a lot about what's next and how to balance that with enjoying the present. The people we've met have truly been wonderful -- actually I forgot to mention about another friend we made who is American but has been living here for a while. We went to a very odd and kind of creepy art exhibit of kinetic sculptures with him lol (photo below). And we've also just been connected with someone new who we're seeing later this week, so yay for continued connections, even though our time here is ending soon.
We leave Glasgow on Nov 23rd and are going to Ireland and Northern Ireland for a week before moving to Lisbon, where we'll be starting December 1st and until February 22nd. The next stop after that is TBD. We've actually been entertaining the idea of coming back here -- we'll see if we're craving more familiarity. And we'll have avoided the worst of the winter, too.
Please come visit us and continue to be in touch! Much love <3
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