In many ways we think we are adapting very well:
I remember our first months, creeping behind a slow driver (or sitting in the car with them), wondering why he/she was only doing 45 when it was a 60 zone and there were no bends. Well, now, that’s (sometimes) me!

But one thing we are only getting used to very slowly is that people live on a slightly different time frame than us. Even for Swiss standards we go to bed quite early, but since we’ve arrived it is very slowly getting later, which means going to bed around 9.30ish or even 10pm, on rare occasions... But more than once we have been phoned around 10pm - by people who just want to tell us something, not emergencies at all, things which could easily wait till the next day. This would never happen in Switzerland, but at least, now we don’t jump out of bed and think “What has happened???” when we hear the phone so late!
On the other hand, getting up before 7.30am, is considered very early - and we all agree fully with that part!

Also, when entering the mall at Inverness, Matt and I just looked at each other and we both knew, that this was too loud and there were way too many people for us - although there were probably less than any given Saturday in our Supermarket at home!

And (and this one slightly caught me off guard...) when we were on the ferry back from Aberdeen and saw Mainland, we both felt that we were coming home!
(Matt will (hopefully) tell you more about our successful chess journey and road trip to Aberdeen, or you can read about it in the German blog I’m supposed to be writing).

Also we now enjoy chatting to people a lot more, no matter if it's at the front of a long queue or in the middle of the road. When we came here we were always very conscious of people waiting behind us or somewhere we had to be when someone started talking to us at the cash registrar, or on the road, at the post office or wherever, but now we think it’s lovely that people take the time to chatter, enjoying the encounter and not worrying about having to be somewhere else. Everything else can easily wait!

Ah, and I’ve just remembered something else we have not (yet) quite adapted to: The variable understanding of time. People are often late - and nobody cares. Only we Swiss (and in this we still feel very Swiss...) we are normally at least 5 minutes early - and then we wait for half an hour, for the Orcadians to turn up. But, luckily this doesn’t bother us anymore. Nanouk said last time: “Did you forget again, that we are in Orkney?” when we were somewhere “much too early” :o)

The the lesson behind the most of these things is the principle of “taking things as they are”, in which we are getting better, but are not quite there yet. If we get to a coffee shop or the museum, which should be open but is not, we are still slightly frustrated, but not as much as we were at the beginning and we can more and more just shrug our shoulders and look for an alternative!

And, of course, it’s great to know so many people here, whether they are Orcadian or not, but all such lovely people who make our life so much more pleasant!

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