Woes in Scotland

I am here in Edinburgh - finally! The past few weeks/months have been an absolute whirlwind of activity and my last week on PEI was no exception. It was great to be able to spend time with family and friends again (especially with my wee niece) before heading out on my current adventure though. There have been some hiccups since I arrived:

First, money woes:

The most stressful part of my week was finding out that my credit card number has been stolen. Yep, that's right - someone out there is using my credit card to finance rather large purchases at both Dell and Rogers. Grrrrrrr. Naturally, this all happened the night before I was supposed to leave for Scotland, after 5pm too - absolutely the worst possible timing!

The girl I was speaking to at my credit card company was absolutely insistent that she had to cancel my card straight away and there was nothing she could do to help me out further. This, was in no way acceptable as I was flying out the next day and would need my card to pay for things when I arrived: like food and my hostel, for instance. I was so stressed out at that point - I was supposed to be out to dinner with my family for a farewell dinner, not on the phone with the credit card company - eventually I just broke down and started to cry. I am not much of a crier, but I just couldn't help it. I find situations like this very stressful. I was passed on to her supervisor and he straightened me out right away. He said that at that point he wouldn't consider it fraud, but I would need to call them on Monday to check my card's activity. So, thank goodness I was able to keep my card because I had no cash in the bank over here yet as I was not able to wire my money until Saturday (the day I left) because of restrictions with the Bank of Montreal. That is a whole other long story, but I don't think I can stomach getting into it right now. The long and the short of things is this: My Scottish bank account (and my Canadian bank account actually) are both currently empty as I wait for my money to be wired from home. Where has it gone, I wonder? And, more importantly, when will it arrive? The other thing is that I have no credit card and they cannot send it to me directly here in the UK. It has to go to a Canadian address, so my mom will be getting it and forwarding it on to me here. Hopefully, this will all go smoothly in the next couple of days because I only have £30 in cash. Eek! Luckily, a friend of mine was kind enough to take me out to lunch today (thanks Kiki!) which certainly brightened up my day!

Second, phone woes:

When I came over here and visited in the summer I bought a mobile phone to use, thinking it would save me some time when I came back because I would already have a phone. Well, it turns out that after 3 months of inactivity (e.g. when I went back to Canada to finish my M.Sc.) they inactivate your phone. To reactivate it can take up to 14 days!!!!!! Currently, there is a problem with my phone in that, while people can contact me, I cannot contact them - particularly overseas calls, which as you can imagine, is a problem when I am trying to straighten out my credit card issue! So, I haven't been able to text either, which means I haven't been in contact with hardly anyone here yet that I know, but I hope this issue will also be resolved soon. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Third, postal strike woes:

So, if all this wasn't bad enough, there is currently a postal strike here in Scotland. So, while I am waiting for things from my bank and my credit card to show up quickly, they will almost certainly be held up due to this strike. Argh.

On the bright side:

My hostel and fellow hostelers are all really great so far. Except for this one American girl who kind of scares me. Okay, she scares me a lot - but I am not the only one afraid of her! I can't really explain it - she just doesn't exactly have that sunny disposition I had hoped for.

I haven't really started job hunting yet, because I am waiting for some money to come through first so I can buy a more proper pair of shoes and a coat. Silly, I know, but I don't want to look like the ratty traveller I am when I go in to make me first impression! Keep your fingers crossed for me!