Hello All! I'd like to start this entry with a shout out to my 'Scot of the Week' - Danny Dey. A new segment in my weekly updates will include a friend I've made here! So for those of you who are with me here in Scotland...you could be next! Danny is a fun-loving Scotland native from the town of Forres (where King Duncan's castle sits, in Macbeth). I met Danny through Calum, my flatmate, after I was introduced to the guys and girls upstairs. He is studying education so that he can teach elementary school, loves working with kids, and is an incorrigible narcissist (after all, the 'Scot of the Week' segment only came about after Danny told me "Put me in your blog! Put me in!") So that's Danny! Pictured to the left out one night at a club!
Last night was a special one in Scotland, when the nation comes together to celebrate their quintessential poet laureate - Robert Burns.
It's kind of like that American holiday...o wait, America has no holiday honoring its literary figures. But of course we celebrate people like Columbus, who was Italian, and didn't even discover North America (rather the Caribbean). Anyway, Burns Night has some interesting traditions such as 'piping in the haggis' - I still have no idea what this means, I keep imagining this large absurd procession of kilted men escorting a silver platter of haggis through the streets to the sound of bagpipes - along with singing 'Auld lang syne' and dancing/eating. I still have not tried haggis, but not out of disgust or fear. Rather I just haven't had too many ready opportunities. I cook in most of my meals - but my day of reckoning is coming. I'm sure you'll hear about it, when I give it a try. To the right is Mr. Rabbie Burns himself.
Interesting fact learned from Mr. Silver in the 11th Grade: Salinger (R.I.P.) took his title "Catcher in the Rye" from the Robert Burns poem Comin' Thro' the Rye.
As festive and cultural as Burns Night sounded, however, I was unable to partake in the festivities due to two interviews I had over skype. They were back-to-back with two different private boarding schools in Connecticut. So hopefully I'll be teaching English at one of them this summer! They're both great schools and I'd be happy to end up either place. Interviewing at 8pm was strange haha. Of course it was only 3pm in CT, but for me - clad in shirt, tie, and cardigan, planted in front of my laptop - it felt far too late to be at an interview!
Had kickboxing today. I paid my £15 and am officially a card-carrying kickboxer. Paired up with two others and had a good work out. Hands are still shaking, and I'm very thirsty. They apparently have a ball (a formal) coming up, at a club they've rented out, in February. So that'll be fun, and perhaps smack something of Kappa Sigma's ragers.
That's about it for now. Looking forward to Shap in Cumbria this weekend. The only other place in England I've been so far is Heathrow - so I haven't actually been to England yet. I imagine it will be an adventure something akin to Roslin this past Sunday. I obviously can't wait to take more random day/weekend trips like that. Even though I went by myself it was a great time. In fact, I really tend to like doing things on my own in any case! So I've been put in Britain and told "Go! Do something entertaining!" and I hope I'm doing just that - for my own amusement as well as yours.
Thinking of you all!
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