Cultural experience number one was attending a Robert Burns supper, commemorating the 250th anniversary of the highly lauded writer's birth. From what I've gathered Burns is the Scottish Shakespeare/Beatles/insert national superstar here. Scots are nutty for him (but I had no idea who he was until I learned he wrote "Auld Lang Syne"). The interns joined the Scottish Folk Society, chaired by Paddy, at a cabaret bar where we watched the somewhat eccentric festivities unfold.
[caption id="attachment_151" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="Awaiting the start of the festivities."]
[/caption][caption id="attachment_152" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="Lovable Paddy giving the introductory remarks."]
[/caption]The night started with music by a folk group who sang some lovely Burns poems set to music as well as other traditional Scottish songs. I was suprised at how much I actually enjoyed both the words and the melody; My favorite song by far was one about an old woman who is granted three wishes. For one of her wishes she asks for her tomcat to be turned into a handsome man, and the song ends with him whispering in her ear "now you'll regret taking me to the vet!"
We then dined, and that's when cultural experience number two took place. A bagpiper "piped in" a serving dish of haggis, and then a man "slaughtered" it (aka cut it) on stage.
[caption id="attachment_153" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="Kilted man "piping in" the haggis."]
[/caption]Haggis: sheep innards, including pieces of heart and lung. Think meatloaf but no meat. Suprisingly I really liked it! I liked it so much I got seconds. I'm planning to become a haggis connoisseur now.
[caption id="attachment_154" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="Delicious innards!"]
[/caption]I mentioned in my last post that I had managed to stay away from hard alcohol since I've been here. But no more. Cultural experience three was trying my first Scottish whisky. A man led us in a toast for Burns (who was apparently quite the ladies man) and we raised our glasses and gulped. I only had a wee bit, but wooooo it burned as it went down.
The second part of the evening consisted of various members of the audience getting on stage and singing or reciting Burns poems. We all joined in for the last one, of course "Auld Lang Syne." The tradition is to cross your arms and grip your neighbors' hands and raise them up and down as you sing. I'm a bit of a sap, but it was a beautiful moment. I love Scotland!
Moving backwards to Sunday now and to the charming town of Stirling. I took my second daytrip with fellow intern Megan. We hopped on the train Sunday morning and made the fifty minute trip to the town famous for its castle. So of course our first stop was the castle, which had gorgeous views of the Highlands.
[caption id="attachment_157" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="Inside the castle walls."]
[/caption][caption id="attachment_158" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="We asked a guy to take our picture and this is what came out. Nice cannon, huh?"]
[/caption][caption id="attachment_159" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="One of many lovely views."]
[/caption][caption id="attachment_160" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="Castle chapel. The tapestries, which are reproductions, each took four years to make. I would never have that much patience."]
[/caption]After leaving the castle we spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around Stirling, and I'm beginning to think most towns in Scotland look the same: old. We stopped for lunch at a place claiming to be the best teahouse in Scotland, and while I'm not so sure that's true the brie sandwhich I had was amazing. You can find brie almost anywhere here.
The rest of this week has been mostly consumed by writing a brief for my Scottish politics class on whether Scotland should have control of its own elections. They definitely don't need no Westminster telling them what to do! But luckily I'm done now and am getting pumped for this weekend's trip on the West Highland Railway. Cheers!
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