The Land of Scotch and Gin

I am completely charmed by Edinburgh. It's like visiting Hogsmeade Village (Harry Potter reference!!), especially in Old Town. Edinburgh actually reminded us both a bit of Victoria, BC. It also has a much more laid-back vibe than London and is pretty much exactly how we both envisioned visiting a part of Scotland would be like: hilly, old stone buildings, blustery weather, and a much more raw beauty. We both developed a cold our first morning here, unfortunately. But we were still able to do a fair number of activities (and perhaps a couple of activities helped combat our colds...?).

An overview:

- roughly 2.5 days in this beautiful city.
- 2 castles visited: Holyrood Castle and Edinburgh Castle. Holyrood Castle is the royal family's official residence in Scotland and is closed when they are in residence (apparently typically in the summer). We walked around part of the grounds and the outside of the castle, but did not tour the interior. Edinburgh Castle is actually a fortress vs a castle that people live in and we did tour this. Guides provide free 30 minute tours which we of course joined and found very informative. The Scottish Crown jewels are housed here (no photography allowed in here) as well as the old vaults that were used as prisons, particularly for prisoners of war during the various wars, including the Revolutionary War; old doors with graffiti are showcased, which includes what is believed to be the earliest etching of an old version of the American flag on British soil. Bonus: the daily one o' clock gun is shot from Edinburgh Castle. While there is a lot less pomp and pagentry than the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace, it was still pretty fun to watch.

Can you see the American flag?

Nearly one o'clock!

- 1 "Gold Tour" visit to the Scotch Whiskey Experience. While not an actual distillery, it included many great elements: a silly barrel ride that takes you through a brief video of how scotch whiskey is made, a guide who provides a brief history of the drink, a viewing of the largest private collection of scotch, your own scotch glass to bring home, and tastings of 5 different types of malt whiskey (each tasting was a proper 25 mL!!). Bonus: meeting Josh, a young man in his mid-20s who lives in England. He was doing a carpe diem sort of trip having experienced a very serious health issue last year. ** An aside: I've had the privilege of meeting several people over various trips who have shared stories that remind me that time and life are gifts and to make the most of it. It always gives me perspective which I am grateful for and inspires me to make the most of each day. **

A small section of this very large private collection of scotch whiskey.

- 1 "Gin Connoisseur" tour at the Edinburgh Gin Distillery which is right in the heart of the city (a bit of a theme to our visit, we realize....). Ted and I both quite enjoy gin and had no idea until just before this trip that Scotland was quite a gin producing country! Tour includes a very funny guide who takes you through the history of gin making and the political and economic impacts of it in Britain over time, which was actually very fascinating, a tasting of 5 various types of gins/gin liquors and a full delicious gin&tonic.

Let the gin tasting begin!

- 1 hike along Salisbury Crags which overlooks Holyrood Castle and the Scottish Parliament. One can go further and hike all the way up to "Arthur's Seat". It appeared to include a long route consisting mostly of stairs hewn into the rock (kind of like the Grouse Grind in Vancouver). Our head colds, fatigue, and generally lack of fitness ultimately deterred us from doing this.

Hiking Salisbury Crags. How beautiful is that?

- a few strolls along the Royal Mile: the main drag in Edinburgh, particularly if you're a tourist. Filled with shops selling souvenirs and Scottish wares.
- various examples of architecture admired: St. Giles church, Scottish Parliament (controversially designed by a Catalan architect. Indeed, elements of the building are reminiscent of what you might see in parts of Barcelona but are based on various Scottish things, such as an interpretation of a famous Scottish painting), and New Town (Georgian style).
- a quick visit to the University of Edinburgh. Because. It's the University of Edinburgh!!!

" Old School", University of Edinburgh

- various requisite foods and beer/ale consumed, including: haggis (VERY delicious. Honestly!) And smoked salmon. We also found a neat cocktail bar that is housed in a cellar called Bramble. Very delicious. Bonus: clinking glasses and sharing friendly "cheers" with a solo traveller in a pub our first night who was also clearly as excited to be in Edinburgh as we were.

My Mint 500 served in a teacup wine glass thing. I can't remember what was in it, but it was delicious and I may have to recreate the glass when I get home.

- Other things: wandering down various "closes" - narrow corridors/side streets off the main roads. Some of the wandering around town highlighted the great pride in Scottish literary giants which tickles my fancy, having read some works be some of these authors once upon a time (I used to be a big reader! I have since fallen out of the habit); examples include Stevenson and Sir Walter Scott (in fact, one of the major train stations, Waverly, is reportedly the only station in the world named after a piece of literature). Also, Thursday, May 5 was the Scottish Parliamentary election, so we watched the news to see the outcome and see if we could learn about the various parties (it was a bit confusing. Closer to the Canadian system - we think). It was interesting -- there was absolutely no news on this until after 10pm (which is when the polls close) which we remarked on; during the Canadian Federal election in the fall of 2015, my parents were pretty miffed about the news coverage and the projected wins coming from the east coast (time difference, y'all).
- I had the added bonus of watching Ted develop pride in his distant Scottish heritage and looking up information on his sept and clan (Robertson, we discovered) and trying to find the clan tartan.

Slàinte Mhath, Edinburgh!
Onward to: Dublin, Ireland!

London Calling

An overview of our jam-packed holiday in London, England:

- 5.5 days spent in this English metropolis.
- 3 museums/galleries toured: Tate Modern, National Gallery, and the British Museum. Fun fact: they're all free to get into and to view the main collections. Special exhibits require tickets.

Main atrium of the British Museum.

- 4 bridges crossed: Waterloo Bridge, London Bridge (not to be confused with Tower Bridge), Millennium Bridge, Westminster Bridge.
- 7 iconic landmarks admired: Tower Bridge (viewed from London Bridge), St. Paul's Cathedral, the Gherkin, The Shard (seriously), the London Eye, Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament.

- 1 show attended in the West End: the amazing Lion King.
- 1 Shakespearean production seen at the Globe Theatre: the beautifully staged and wildly entertaining adaptation of "A Midsummer Night's Dream". #WonderSeason.
- 1 Abbey toured: Westminster Abbey (£20 for admission, but you get an audio guide). Darwin and Newton are interred there and there's a great " Poet's corner" where many English literary bigwigs are commemorated, including Lewis Carrol. Also the grave of the Unknown Soldier is here. Handel also has a giant monument as a German-born composer who primarily worked in England. The whole abbey was a lot larger than I had anticipated.

Courtyard of Westminster Abbey.

- 3 squares/circuses (plus Regent St) visited and people-watched at: Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Sq, Oxford Circus. Bonus: Canada House is right at Trafalgar Square and houses a small exhibition area currently showcasing Emily Carr paintings. We didn't have a chance to go in.
- 1 viewing of the pomp and pagentry that is the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace. Arrive early and be prepared to lose your place if you so much as twitch or turn away for a half second. Weirdest moment: when the marching band started playing Bon Jovi's "Living on a Prayer" and Ted started singing.

- 4 markets shopped at: Camden Market, Portobello Road Market, Old Spitalfields Market, and Brick Lane Market.
- 2 delicious meals filled with laughs with family and friends who live in London.
- many tubes and double-decker busses ridden. Bonus: an attempt to get to platform 9 3/4 to catch the train to Hogwarts.

- several requisite meals/foods eaten including: yummy Indian food, bangers & mash, meat pie (FINALLY!!), fish & chips, Cornish pasties, Sunday roast with all the fixings, sticky toffee pudding, afternoon tea with scones and clotted cream.
- many pubs visited and several pints of beer imbibed. Bonus: 1 Canadian-themed bar visited where we drank Sleeman's Honey Brown.

The Maple Leaf! I was first brought here during my 2nd trip to London in 2010 by my good friend, Heather -- a fellow Canadian.

- and we still managed to wander the neighbourhoods and duck into residential streets, just to see. Bonus: Street art, 221B Baker St (a totally just-for-fun address, but it still made me giddy!), and a peek at Craven St,  where a particular doorknocker (that is no longer there), apparently gave Dickens (one of my favourite authors) the inspiration to a certain key scene in his classic "A Christmas Carol".

London, you've been a slice!
Up next: Edinburgh, Scotland!

Art and stuff

One of the things Ted and I enjoy doing together, whether at home or on trips, is wandering around different neighbourhoods and finding fun and funny street/graffiti and public art. When travelling, this is even more interesting because it has the added benefit of sometimes getting us a tiny bit outside the major touristy spots (which we always unabashedly enjoy) into other fun spots.

London, it turns out, is quite the hub for street artists (Banksy, anyone?) -- there's even a street art collective. There are blogs and websites dedicated to mapping some of the blocks street artists tend to regularly work and we were able to find and take snaps of neat examples. Turns out some of the fun pieces that caught our eye were done by well-known artists which we figured out after the fact.

Our hotel happened to be right next to Leake Street, one of the only areas where graffiti can be legally done. Although street art can be found all over London, the East End and the Shoreditch neighbourhood are particular hotspots for this. There are some great markets in these areas as well (Old Spitalfields Market and Brick Lane, for example) so depending on where one is, one can mix it up a bit between gawking at walls while taking in the urine-scented atmosphere of some sidestreets and tunnels and looking at handicrafts, vintage ware, and artisan foods.

As for the street art we came across -- sometimes it was an obvious political and/or social commentary, sometimes it was just plain incredible, and sometimes it just made me smile.

This guy made me laugh and was seen near Camden Market.

By ROA. Seen near Brick Lane. Plus, I love pigs.

A medley.

Dolus.

Very topical. John D'Oh.

A giant ROA piece in the Shoreditch area.

Leake Street tunnel. Street artists were actively working while we walked through.

Banksy. Near the Mayfair area.

Celebrating the Lunar New Year (kind of)

Let's just start by saying that we do our best. :)

The Lunar New Year has always been a big deal in my home growing up. To this day, leading up to Chinese New Year, my parents spend days preparing for this occasion. A whole day is dedicated to cooking a banquet for a holiday we observe over 3 days. Let's also not forget the cleaning of the house top-to-bottom. Dinner consisted of my parents doling out items of food while explaining the significance and meaning of each food -- it all has to do with good fortune and long life. Man, I wish I had paid more attention to these traditions.

Over the past couple of years, Ted and I have created our own version of this holiday. Our knowledge is pretty limited and dependent mostly on emails and Skype calls with my mom, and my own interpretation of childhood memories of the holiday (Ted not being Chinese and all). We clean the apartment and we try to make a mini- banquet that consists of: a steamed fish (to represent luck and never running out), noodles of some sort (long life), some sliced carrots (to represent coins), and maybe some dumplings. This year, I decided to limit my kitchen time to making Chinese New Year almond cookies and to go out to eat at Myers + Chang, instead. We also invited some very good friends we've made here. While not Chinese and having never celebrated Chinese New Year, they're good sports who are genuinely curious and delighted about sharing in various customs and recognized the importance of this holiday for me. As I get older, I value these traditions even more and am pretty pleased that while our customs (as in the ones Ted and I have mashed together) are not quite to-the-letter, we've created our own that I feel honour an important piece of my life -- a part of my Asian identity -- and have the privilege of sharing these with close friends.

So, yay!

Homemade almond cookies and strawberry luck candies! Yum!

A Slice of The Nuje

A short story:
At the beginning of the summer, some friends of ours moved from Massachusetts to New Jersey. So, over the Labour Day weekend, we hopped on the train and went to visit them. Nothing beats a good long weekend getaway to see good friends!

***Backstory: Ted and John knew each other way back when during their undergrad days at the University of Victoria. Life happens, as it does and John went off to Quebec where he met and married his wife, Marie-Eve. They ultimately moved to the Boston area several years ago. When we moved here in 2013, luckily for me, Ted and John reconnected and we all became friends. John and Marie-Eve also have two very adorable little girls who are always a hoot to hang out with. ***

The weekend happened to coincide with the US Open so there was a day where John and Ted went to New York to watch some of the tournament while the ladies spent the day checking out a local farmer's market (which I love) and the local swimming pool where Sophie got to showcase what she had learned after a summer of swimming lessons.

A definite highlight of our first and very short visit to New Jersey was a visit to the Liberty Science Center -- lots to do and see and it was very interactive! There is an Infinity Climber (above), a suspended play space and a favourite of Sophie's.

There were also some animal displays, which to my delight, included this tortoise.

From the outdoor spaces of the Science Center, New York City's skyline was clearly visible.

We also took a walk through part of Liberty State Park and peered at the Statue of Liberty...

...and New York City across the way.

We took the Amtrak home and had a bit of time at Penn Station where we got some good ol' people watching in.

'Til next time, Nuje.

A Weekend in the Nation's Capital

Summer in Washington, DC is sweltering. We managed to survive the humidity (Ted and I do not do well in extreme temperatures) and took in some iconic American sights over a period of just under 48 hours. 

While walking is a good way to see the city, the metro isn't a bad option, either. I've noticed in various cities I've traveled to that have subway systems, is that one can often find interesting stations that are tailored to the neighbourhood/stop.

 We started our Washington weekend at the National Museum of American History -- home of Dorothy's ruby slippers and various historical and pop culture American items. Best overheard exchange: 

                       Woman (pointing at exhibit): "I had this exact dollhouse as a child!"
                                    Son: "And now it's in a museum...."

We strolled along the National Mall (with many breaks in the shade) and admired the Washington Monument and Reflecting pool (Anyone else think of Jenny from Forrest Gump splashing through it?).

 We took a quiet moment to take in the World War II Memorial...

...And the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial before continuing to...

... the grand (and very crowded) Lincoln Memorial.

The exploration of the city continued and we came across the Albert Einstein Memorial! Ted, as a scientist, was particularly pleased.

Later in the early evening, we wandered over to see The White House. While we obviously couldn't get anywhere near the actual structure, it was still neat to see, if a bit underwhelming. I'm not sure what I was expecting, actually.

And, of course, we had to pop by the J. Edgar Hoover building to say hello to Mulder and Scully

The next day, we stopped by the Canadian Embassy just because we couldn't help ourselves!

Our weekend in Washington was capped off with a visit to the 

National Gallery of Art.

City bonus: these amazing sights in Washington, including the various Smithsonian museums, are free! There's some talk that this may change soon -- so, have a visit sooner rather than later if there's ever an opportunity! 

"The Only Constant is Change"

Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.

-- George Bernard Shaw 

After much soul searching, Ted decided to leave the bench and the world of academia behind. It wasn't making him happy and was, in fact, affecting his health and by extension, our quality of life. So, with great hope and excitement, Ted embarked on the fun road of job hunting in what he referred to as "the real world". And lo! He is now the Scientific Editor for a Ebiomedicine,  a new journal that reviews and publishes scientific journals that relate to the field of translational medicine. 

Last summer, I had just started a development internship at Community Research Initiative (CRI) as well as a position working most weekdays as a per diem clinical social worker in inpatient psychiatry units at a hospital in town. After my internship wrapped up in the beginning of December, I began working every weekend as a clinical social worker on various medicine floors at Boston Medical Center (in addition to my continued work in psychiatry during the week). Around the same time Ted was doing his soul-searching and answering the question of "what next" for himself, Ted and I had good discussions about how we were well-positioned to be able to carefully look for and choose jobs in fields we really wanted to be in, especially given that we are at a stage in life where a big part of our time and identity is wrapped up in what we do for work. I was doing all these various things to learn more about these different areas as I'm a big believer of testing things out, if I'm able to; Ted had just experienced the negative affects of a bad fit. Thus, we encouraged each other to really think about what we wanted to do, take action, and see where the cards fell. With this sense of renewed purpose, I also applied for another new job and am now the first-ever palliative care social worker at Boston Medical Center. Palliative care is a field I've long been interested in, and is in part what influenced my decision to return to school to become a social worker all those years ago (over a decade ago, now!). As someone who loves finding connections, you can be assured that this greatly pleases my sense of coming full circle, so to speak. And yes, here we go with yet another new beginning for the both of us at the same time (we've become quite accustomed to having change in our lives).

But wait. What did this change in employment mean for our visa status? It meant that it was time to change our visa status from our current J-status to a TN visa status. As Canadians and with jobs that fall under the NAFTA professionals list, we were eligible to apply for this non-immigrant status visa. We each applied for this in different ways: Ted's employer completed a petition for this change in visa status, which was processed without Ted having to meet with anyone in person; for my part, after gathering the necessary documents (in short: your degree [the original], passport, application fee, and one of the key pieces -- a formal letter from your prospective employer, preferably written by their legal team), we took a drive to the Canadian border to process my visa request in person!! As the visa is meant to be processed upon entry into the country, I had to drive across the border into Canada (Quebec) and immediately turn around to cross the border into the US again. Made for some interesting questioning at the border:

Border guard: When were you last in the United States?

Me: Um... 5 minutes ago. I just crossed the border over there. **points across the way** 

So, in the end, Ted and I both now have our own TN visa statuses that are independent of each other. Overall, Ted's visa took a bit longer to process once all the documentation was submitted; mine was much quicker (ie. essentially immediate) once I had everything I needed and presented myself at the border at my appointed time. Thank you, NAFTA agreement! 

Time-saving tip: Call the designated point of entry you have decided to cross that processes TN visas to make an appointment ahead of time and clarify the documents you need!!! We learned this the hard way and ended up driving up to Highgate Springs, Vermont twice. It is, after all U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) that will be processing this visa request.

Welcome (back) to America! The border at Highgate Springs, VT from the Canadian side.