The Ceilidh (Finally)

Goodness I'm behind on posting! So many things to tell you about...First up is the Burns Night Ceilidh we went to last Sunday that was put on by the Water of Life Society. It was my first ever ceilidh, and hopefully won't be my last. I can't even begin to describe how fun it was. Everyone was very friendly and the dances weren't nearly as hard as they looked. They had a wonderful live band with a caller, who taught us all the steps before each dance. You soon stop worrying about looking like a fool and just go for it. I have a couple videos from it, but they're are just a little bit too big to post. I'll try to condense them or put them up somewhere else.

It was an absolutely amazing evening and we danced for hours and hours, however that meant when I got out of bed two days later (I felt deceptively fine the day after) my calves were so sore that I looked like an old lady when I tried to walk down the stairs.

Now about what John referred to as the "gerbil haggis"...As per Burns Night tradition, there was the Address to a Haggis, where they recite the Robert Burns poem of the same name, as well as a slaying of the haggis. During the very spirited Address, said haggis was brutally stabbed and slain. The explanation given for the gerbily thing was that it was supposed to represent the haggis that was slain last year.

I keep forgetting...

I meant to mention this in the last few posts, but forgot every time.

I've added a link to my Edinburgh Picasa album on the right of the page. It's titled 'Photographic Snippets'. See it? If you click on the picture, it will take you the album. I haven't captioned any of them yet, it's kind of a daunting task. Hopefully it will happen soon.

Foodstuffs cont'd: Breakfast

After our Sunday morning church excursion, we went out for our first full British Breakfast. It included the following:

• A fried egg
• Bacon (more like fried ham)
• Pork and leek sausage
• Baked beans (verdict: beans on toast is delicious)
• Tomato
• Mushrooms (the bacon/mushroom combo was especially good)
• Chips
• Toast

All in all, it was pretty tasty and very filling. We thought that the menu said it would also come with haggis, but apparently not. That will just have to wait for another day. Perhaps my next Scottish food adventure will be the traditional Haggis, Neeps and Tatties (Haggis with mashed turnips and potatoes. The potatoes and turnips are served separately I believe).

While I'm on the subject of breakfast foods, I. miss. coffee. Apparently, good ol' plain brewed coffee does not exist here. There is no shortage of espresso, however. If you ask for a cup of coffee in a restaurant, they bring you and Americano. I think by the end of this semester, I'm never going to want another Americano. Also, almost all of the coffee sold in the grocery store is instant, freeze-dried coffee. I bought some and gave it a try today, but it's just not the same. So attention all of you reading this who have been to Edinburgh/know someone who has been here: is there anywhere I can get drip coffee?

Church of Scotland

This past Sunday I had my first experience with the Church of Scotland. We went to a morning service at Greyfriars Kirk, and I thought it was very nice. It was a pretty standard protestant service, so nothing too new or different there. The sermon was a bit strange, however. I think part of it may have been that the minister who gave it (I think she was an assistant minister or minister in training or something) did not have English as her first language. Some parts of it were kind of hard to follow just because of the difficulty in writing in a language that's not your own. I think the other reason it felt a little strange was just due to the fact that the style was different than what I'm used to. Another difference was the way they took communion. They brought out four goblets and a couple loaves of bread, so I assumed they were going to take it by intinction. nope. They had one side of the church come up and gather in a circle, then the minister served one person and the elements (first bread and then wine) were passed around the circle, with each person serving to the person on his or her left. The bread was all fine and dandy - standard serving style. The wine, however, was passed around and each person drank from the same goblet, wiping the rim with a handkerchief afterward. Nothing wrong with that really, except I was sort of taken out of the experience by hoping that the man next to me didn't have a cold.
Anyway...the church itself was lovely, and the people very nice as well. The head minister's wife came up and introduced herself afterward and chatted with us for a bit. I think I'll definitely come back a time or two. Maybe if I work up enough courage, I'll stay for the Gaelic service at 12:30

The pictures are various views from the kirkyard.

Oh! And of course, I took a picture of the statue of Greyfriars Bobby on the street out front. If you don't know the story of Greyfriars Bobby, check out the link.

So.Many.Things #1: Aberfeldy

Hello all,

Well! It has been quite the week: a whisky distillery, encounters with the Church of Scotland, my first British breakfast, and a ceilidh. I'll try to divide them up into a few posts instead of rambling on in one ridiculously long entry. I suppose we'll just do this chronologically. Now that I've gotten into sort of a routine and the daily grind of classes and homework (well let's be honest, I don't always get to the homework) the days all sort of blend together and before you know it I've been here almost a month! Seriously, it's February, when did that happen? It seems this semester is just going to fly by; I had better get cracking on all the things I want to do and that long list of places I want to visit.

Speaking of visiting, last Saturday we went on of the International Student Center's day trips to go visit the distillery at Aberfeldy. It was perfect weather for the two hour drive. Clear, bright blue, sunny skies - not a rain cloud in sight. The scenery alone on the drive up to Aberfeldy was worth the 12 pounds for the ticket. Lots of rolling hills and mountains off in the distance and more sheep than I could possibly begin to count. We saw at least a thousand sheep. seriously. Probably more, actually. A large group of them were grazing in an enormous turnip patch, which of course made me think of my father. (Anybody who knows him will know of his great fondness for all root vegetables, especially turnips and rutabagas) I tried to take a few pictures out the window of the van, but was not too successful. Here's one from the drive home:

The tour itself was fairly interesting. It's nice to now know about how whisky's made and the difference between single malt and blended whiskies and all that, but I don't think I'll be headed to any more distillerys anytime soon. There really wasn't much to see as far as the distilling process goes, just lots of various containers of fermenting grains and liquid. mmmm...let me tell you, this place smelled lovely, if you like the smell of fermenting grains anyway.

After the tour, we got to investigate the kind of silly museum they had set up. One exhibit had you try to guess different smells (leather, heather, smoke, woody, and digestive biscuit, e.g. Yes that's right, digestive biscuit) that might be in the nose of a whisky. A really neat part of the museum was a display of what the blending room of Dewar's first master blender might have looked like.

We did get to sample some of the whisky at the end. My friend and I each tried a different one. Mine was quite smooth and very nice. Hers on the other hand, though it had a very interesting flavor (kind of like heather) it was a bit hard to drink.

Burn's Night

Edina! Scotia's darling seat!
All hail thy palaces and tow'rs,
Where once, beneath a Monarch's feet,
Sat Legislation's sov'reign pow'rs:
From marking wildly scatt'red flow'rs,
As on the banks of Ayr I stray'd,
And singing, lone, the lingering hours,
I shelter in they honour'd shade.

-Robert Burns

As some of you know, Monday was Robert Burns' Night, celebrated with poetry, haggis, and whisky the world over. The bit of poetry above is from Burns' Address to Edinburgh
First of all, how funny is it that he refers to Edinburgh as Edina? Let's all take a moment and compare Edina, MN and Edinburgh, UK. Different. But I digress. There were several ceilidhs (pronounced kay-lees) around campus, but we decided to not attend. None of us were feeling like going to a big event and the Whisky Society is hosting a Burns ceilidh this upcoming Sunday, so nothing lost. A friend and I did, however, go to Sandy Bell's to have a dram in the dear poet's honor and to hear some live folk music (be sure to check out the link). This pub has quite the reputation for being an excellent place to hear live sessions, and it certainly lived up to that reputation. The pub itself was pretty small and the session very informal. It seemed like a group of friends who just gathered there several nights a week and played whatever they felt like. Unfortunately my friend and I were seated kind of around the corner from the group, so we didn't really get to watch them, but the sounded great. At one point a man began to sing a ballad type song (reminiscent of Archie Fisher) with little to no accompaniment. As he sang, the whole pub became quiet save a woman seated at the bar who was softly singing harmony. It was like something straight out of a movie, and it was absolutely beautiful.

St Andrews

I was lucky enough (after standing in line for an hour) to get a ticket for the day trip to St. Andrews this past Saturday. We left on a cold, rainy morning for what would turn out to be an even colder, rainier day. Though we wouldn't have minded some sun, my fellow travelers and I agreed it almost seemed more fitting to tour the Scottish countryside in the mist and rain. Regardless of the weather, St. Andrews was beautiful - lots of gorgeous, mossy ruins to explore (though many required payment to explore the inside, which we opted out of), stony beaches, and of course the...ahem...Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews:

We spent the first part of the day wandering the ruins of the cathedral and the kirkyard. True to my upbringing, I took many pictures of interesting gravestones, which you can see in the full album.




After that we headed to take a quick look at the golf course, saw some rich men playing golf, as well as the beaches across the road where the opening sequence of Chariots of Fire was filmed. (It was wrongly credited in the film, but now you know - that beach is in St Andrews) We then moved on to the very quaint city museum, housed in an old estate, and then onto lunch, one of my favorite parts of any trip. After resting our feet and satisfying our grumbling bellies, we continued on to poke around the castle and some more beaches. For the rest of the afternoon we simply walked around the city (which is tiny), ducking into little shops and laughing at all the silly golf clothes for sale.All in all it was really nice to get out the city and see other parts of Scotland. Hopefully I'll get to do much more of that soon, although I think I'm going to have to wait for spring to head up north. You can see the rest of my pictures from the trip here:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=145423&id=500102627&l=ee3b42518f