The next great adventure

Does anyone still read this blog anymore? If so, leave your email address because we have decided to go private. Cheers! And what's the next great adventure? You'll just have to leave your address and come back again.

The Internship

This week I finally began the internship that I have been talking about for months. Unfortunately this will be an unpaid internship, however, it will be great experience and should be a great addition to my application for graduate schools. So what do I do for this internship you might be asking yourself? Here's the info.

I work in the office of a member of the SNP, or Scottish National Party. I am an assistant to the head researcher within the office. There are only two of us, as in me and the researcher, but we get along well and it should be a fun few months. I get to attend meetings that my MSP, Member of Scottish Parliament, goes to and take notes so the researcher knows more about what goes on in the meeting. I am currently researching a project that would put wind farms off the coast of Scotland. I like to think of it as a glorified version of the GMAT. I have been given an argument and understand both sides of the coin. Now my responsibility is to find all the holes in each side and present them to my MSP so she knows what she's up against. It immediately brought home the fact that national government can be the glue that holds business and local governments together. It is really exciting to think that what I have to say actually matters.

I get to attend debates in the parliamentary chamber and see politicians answers all sorts of strange questions. Sometimes the matter being discussed appears rather uncontroversial, but then they always manage to tweak things so a simply matter becomes a huge parliamentary debate, funny how government works. I also have access to the cafeteria. This reminds me of being in elementary school again, although this time I actually purchase food from the cafeteria instead of bringing a lunch from home.

Along with the internship comes the opportunity to show friends and family around the Scottish Parliament. I can take people on tours and give them the in's and out's of the building. I just learned that the window decorations on the side of the building are not glue guns, but apparently representative of a window curtain being pulled back. There are lots of other interesting symbols within the building itself, so you just might have to journey over here so I can give you the grand tour.

All being said, and I know I haven't said much, I think this will be a great experience. I am working eight hour days, four days a week. I keep Saturday and Monday open so I can work at Sports Direct when they need me (this is the place I sell shoes). Being busy has helped me to manage my time more effectively and get back into a steady routine.

Did I mention...

that I live in Scotland and that I have a new blog? Sorry folks, I just got really tired of looking at the same photo all the time. Life is great here; it rains all the time, gets dark at 4:30 (soon to be 3:00), is freezing cold, and I never get phone calls. But really, Scotland is amazing and we just found a secret website with train tickets that are really cheap so we can visit London on the weekends. That's all for now. Cheers!

For Joe

Is it a terrible thing when you go on your honeymoon and then every time you turn around you remember something you did or said to a roommate? Well, either way it happened and I thought I'd share some thoughts with ya'll. So Kristen and I went up to Midway, Utah to spend a few days before she headed out to Scotland. While we were there we stopped by Swiss Days to see the festivities and enjoy the food. Well, that was a lie because we didn't eat any of the food there.

So of course we had this sweet sign pointing out where everything was in relation to us. Naturally I looked for Taipei first but there was nothing to be found. Then I saw Moscow and realized that was where my buddy was staying that week.

Kristen was a little more successful in finding a city that she had been to though. She will be in Amsterdam sometime today, which will be close to Paris, though I do realize it is in a totally different country. And I might add that my wife is pretty much the coolest thing since sliced bread. I'm a big fan of being married, for all of those people who were wondering. Still find it hard to believe that I'm no longer single, especially since I'm living alone again, but that's another story.

And of course we found the book "A Train to Potevka." I remember that was a big deal when we were living in Taiwan. All of the teachers made it through the book and we enjoyed it until we got to the end. It turns into a love story during the last few chapters and I thought it fitting that I take this picture. Of course one of the authors standing next to us asked us why I did this and I made up some stupid answer. She then tried to sell us on some of her books and gave us some bookmarks. We walked down a few stalls and Kristen then proceeded to empty my hands of the bookmarks. And so you see that Taiwan is still alive and well in the heart of GreenTaiwan.

I'm no longer a menace to society

So I got married last week and we decided to make life a little easier and start a new blog. The address is steveandkristenadams.blogspot.com. So go ahead and add that to your list and pray that we start posting things soon.

This is how I feel

I'm getting married in about two weeks and hence I don't really make the time to blog. Getting married is really exciting but really there isn't a whole lot of exciting things to blog about. We stuffed wedding announcements a few weeks ago, which didn't take as long as I thought it would. This weeks project was putting together a slideshow of our lives and let me tell you, that was quite the experience. Everytime I tried renaming the pictures they decided to reorder themselves. So it appeared that I was graduating immediately after I got out of diapers. But it got fixed and we were able to move along. The outfits and the flowers have been ordered and so has the guestbook. About the only thing we have left to worry about is the visa problem. Kristen should get hers soon and we're hoping that mine won't take too long. But even with all of the wedding stuff to worry about and the little things that keep popping up I'm still excited to marry the girl I love. And in case you couldn't tell by the photo, I'm happy. However ask me how I feel two weeks after the wedding and I'll probably be miserable, but only because my wife will have left me for graduate school. For now I'm content.

My excuse for not blogging

So lately I haven't made any time to blog and I'd like to make a confession. I have a crush on a really beautiful girl and she seems to be taking up all of my time. I don't mind spending my time with her but it tends to cut back on my time to do other things, blogging included. So today when I got off work an hour earlier than I expected to I decided that I should head to the library and attempt to compensate for my lack of blogging.

As it turns out I am getting married to the beautiful girl that I have a crush on and we have to take care of about one million things before we get married and start the process of moving to Scotland. One of the assignments prior to the wedding which we had this week was taking groomals. This is the modern-day equivalent of bridals, except that I get to show up and stand in. I must say that I'm quite excited to be getting married to such a beautiful bride and it was fun taking photos. No need to share the details, just know that we had a good time. As part of the preparation we had to create a bouquet and boutonniere.

So I learned how to prepare flowers and how uncreative I am when given the task of creating a bouquet. Kristen did a wonderful job and I basically sat there and watched her work. I tried to be helpful but I think I was mostly a distraction. We got through it though and the second set of pictures has now been completed. I wasn't quite as nervous taking these pictures. During the first set I was super worried about messing them up somehow. You can tell how nervous I was in the first set of photos and I am happy to report that the second set turned out much better. I'd like to post a few but I would rather surprise people later on. So maybe Kristen will blog about it later, or you'll just have to show up to our home in Scotland sometime in the next year.