Burns Supper 2009

On Friday night Derek and I attended our first Burns Supper.  Burns suppers are held around the world by Scots in honour of the famous 18th century Scottish bard, Robert Burns.  Today, January 25, 2009, is the 250th anniversary of Burns' birth.  There is a movement in Scotland this year called Homecoming Scotland, where the Scottish government is trying to get Scots who have immigrated to other countries around the world to come home to Scotland this year.  One of their major initiatives was to coordinate a series of Burns Suppers around the globe.

Derek and I went to a traditional supper organized by the University of Edinburgh for international postgraduate students.  I love their events for international students, because you get to meet people from all over the world who have this school and this city in common, and because whatever we're experiencing is new to us all.  We sat at a table with students from Canada, America, Poland, Portugal and Italy.  Only one couple at the table had tried haggis before, so we were all excited.

A number of things happen at a Burns supper.  The bagpipes welcome you to the dinner, and then after the Selkirk Grace is read (which I know by heart from reading it countless times on Grandma's wall), the haggis is welcomed.  It comes in on a large tray following the bagpiper, and followed by the wine.  Then the Address to the Haggis is read or recited, which is a dramatic speech to and about the haggis.  The school was quite smart: everyone had a program at their place which contained the poems and prayers plus their translation from Scots to English, so we could easily follow along.  After this speech, the meal began.  

This supper consisted of two courses: Scotch broth for the soup and then haggis, neeps (mashed turnips) and tatties (mashed potatoes).  The haggis was quite good, I would have it again.  It was just odd that everything on the plate was the same mashed consistency.  But everyone seemed to enjoy it.  Following the dinner were a number of speeches and toasts, including memories of Robert Burns, his legacy, a toast to the "lasses" and their reply.  

After supper we were all asked to leave the hall while the tables were moved to create a large dance floor.  During this break they held a raffle, and Derek won a university backpack!  Its quite small, but would be perfect to pack a picnic and take up to the crags.  A ceilidh (pronounced caylee) band set up, and then the ceilidh started.  Derek and I realized quite quickly that we were at a significant advantage, having been to them before.  We caught onto the steps faster and were able to help others get going.  At one point our group of six became the demonstration group for the other 140 or so students trying to dance.  It was a lot of fun, and no twisted ankles for Derek this time around.

Overall, we really enjoyed ourselves and are determined to go again next year.  Although we must find something tartan to wear!  Perhaps Derek will have a kilt...

Staying Put for Another Year

I received an email this week asking if we would like to renew our lease with the university and stay here in university accommodation until the end of the summer (or lease currently ends in June) or for another year, and I think we're going to stay.  We both like our place a lot.  It far exceeded my expectations.  It's relatively large, clean, fairly safe and in an excellent location (if you don't mind the people hanging around the shelter across the street).  

Living in a construction zone since we moved here in September has been difficult and frustrating.  Street work left boards on the road every night for cars to drive over loudly, skips were unloaded at 6:30am 7 days a week, cement saws buzz throughout the work day and loud singing or swearing construction workers tend to hang around our front door, sometimes sneaking in to use our hallway to access the second construction area in the back courtyard.  We even moved our bed into the living room at the back of the flat to be able to sleep at night.  Part of the problem is that the windows are very long and single glazed, so they let noise and the cold air in.

The furnishings leave much to be desired.  The couch and living room chairs are old and ugly.  The curtains are faded and were probably pretty ugly to begin with, not to mention they're uneven and too long for the windows (hard to believe with the windows being 7 feet high) so they drag across my desk whenever I open or close them.  We're severely lacking electrical outlets in the living room: our phone is currently under our bed because the phone jack is at one side of the room and the nearest power outlet is on the other.

In the next couple days our plan is to head to Ikea and get a couple things to personalize our home a bit.  We could really use some lamps.  Derek replaced the bulb in the living room so the light is decent in there, but the bedroom doesn't have enough light to read in once the sun's gone down around 4 or 4:30.  I love Ikea and am looking forward to the trip.  Being here feels like home, and soon hopefully we'll have it looking like home, too. 

A Lot of Late Nights

It's a good thing Derek and I got caught up on our sleep while we were home, because we've been doing a record of late nights now that we're back in Edinburgh!  Those who know us well know we're pretty careful about bedtime.  I'm a 10pm type of girl, Derek's more 10:30 or 11, and so we're usually trying to sleep by 11, and that way we can wake up around 7:30 or 8 and start the day.  But not lately!  Starting with New Years Eve (as expected), there has been a wave of late night activity and its been pretty fun.

Hogmanay, the New Years celebrations in Edinburgh, were amazing.  100 000 people gathered in a ticketed street party along Princes Street and the Mound to ring in the New Year with a Carnival, four concert stages, a ceilidh in the park, spectacular fireworks around the castle and a laser light show after midnight.  I thought it was very cool that a small number of fireworks went off at 11pm to celebrate the New Year in western Europe.  After the fireworks we made our way back to the flats, where two more parties were raging.  It was a great night.

But that's not where it ends.  School doesn't start for us until Monday, so those of us who came back to the flats early/never left have been spending the evenings chatting, playing board games and watching Celebrity Big Brother (which I am completely addicted to!).  There's been a few bottles of wine drunk, red holiday microwave popcorn snacked on, some heated games of Cluedo (the name for Clue here) and a rather fun taste test of Dove chocolate, which I brought back from Canada, versus Galaxy chocolate, which is the UK brand name for Dove.  Galaxy won by a landslide.  It was so much smoother and sweeter, and so so good.  

We also celebrated the upcoming birthday of a housemate this week by staying up past midnight until the big day arrived.  That was pretty late by our standards, but our friends headed upstairs shortly after midnight to continue the festivities and quietly partied until 4am.  While we've gone back to our early-ish bedtime, Derek and I have continued the fun by playing our first games of Cribbage in years -- we just start early and end before 10.  And now we can wake up at 7:30 feeling rested rather than exhausted (in theory, anyway).

Home for Christmas

I know this blog is dedicated to our adventures in Edinburgh and abroad, but we've just spent three weeks home in Canada and that was an adventure in itself, so I think it has a bit of a place here.  After some consideration, I think I'll write about it thematically.

Weather

This element had a massive impact on our trip.  Three winter storms hit, giving us some picturesque landscapes to enjoy, but also throwing a wrench in our travel plans.  After making it home to Southern Ontario safely, we'd planned to travel down to Tennessee to see my dad and family over a long weekend.  Unfortunately the first winter storm hit that morning, and no flights made it out of the local airport (or out of many airports across eastern Canada and the US).  With more snow and strong winds coming, we couldn't risk getting stuck in Detroit or down in Tennessee, so we missed the weekend with family and my brother's birthday.  But we live in Canada and snow is something to expect.  Plus it made for good skiing and sledding conditions, which Derek and his family made use of.

Illness

I won't say a lot about this theme, but it affected me, my mum, Derek, his mom and two siblings.  Derek was already fighting off a cold when he and his siblings got hit with an awful stomach bug one night.  Not a fun night, so I'm told.  Three days later and I was horribly ill for 36 hours.  At least my weight didn't go up over the holidays, seeing as I couldn't eat for a couple days ;)  Derek still has a bad cough that Buckley's just couldn't kick.  Maybe we're just not used to cold weather anymore!

Family

Seeing family for the first time in three months was a wonderful feeling!  I'm really glad we were able to go home and see so many loved ones.  Not a lot in the way of extended family and friends, but between the weather and illnesses that's not surprising.  I can't emphasize enough how much Skype has helped us stay connected to our parents, siblings and my grandma.  It is so good to see people's faces and be able to talk for hours without worrying about the cost, but you can't touch them or hug them, and for a hugger like me that's very difficult.  We're so glad we came home for Christmas, and to spend my birthday with a close friend and lots of family was wonderful.

Prezzies

Between my birthday and Christmas there were lots of presents around :)  We had filled one of our two suitcases with presents from Scotland for friends and family.  I was very excited about the items I picked out for mum: a purse from Marks & Spencers that she had picked out and a selection of Stephen Fry books.  She gave me money for a brilliant new digital camera, one of my favourite shows, Gavin and Stacey, on DVD, and Animal Crossing for Wii which I can't stop playing.  Derek had helped with the importing and exporting.  There was a family portrait for Derek's mom, lots of Scottish items for his family and some items for my dad's little family which I haven't been able to give to them yet, so they'll have to remain a surprise.  Derek's mom gave me a stunning pair of Uggs, and I love them.  I gave Derek some accessories for our Wii and something secret is arriving for him shortly, and he gave me a university sweatshirt for my birthday and the complete Monty Python collection I'd been drooling over for Christmas.  

We really did have a wonderful time at home.  Thank you to everyone who took care of us and spent time with us during the past three weeks.  I know the next few months will fly by and we'll be home again before we know it.