Visitors...and a parade

So, I got to see some friends from home today! Liz D. and Liz G. are in Edinburgh, before taking off with some of the other Brown/U.Edinburgh girls who I've met this semester on a trip around Scotland.

We got lunch, and as we were walking down to the library to check email etc, we saw these people.



Hmm, we thought. A marching band. Then we got to the library, and thought it would be a good idea to show our visitors the Meadows, the big, beautiful, don't-walk-in-it-after-dark park next door. Where we saw another marching band.



I mean fifty or so.



It turns out we stumbled on the march commemorating the 300th anniversary of the union between Scotland and England, being sponsored by the pro-union political groups against the Scottish nationalists. There were no Scottish flags we saw (except for the one at the pub in the first picture), but lots of Union Jacks:





Also lots of pro-Protestant sentiment. We were given leaflets by a man who told us it was necessary to prevent the separatists "cos otherwise we'll have to have a Pope."



On the other hand there were also plenty of cute kids.

ok, it's a scotland blog...

Woke up at 5AM on sunday morning to climb up Arthur's Seat, the pint-sized mountain (?) conveniently located in the middle of Edinburgh. The other people in the picture are Bria, Anna, Bob, & Lewis, all from the FolkSoc group I've been going to.

is this a scotland blog or a dance blog?

...unclear.

Anyway, I had a rollicking good time at the Inter-Varsity Folk Dance Festival (IFVDF, pronounce it 'iff-diff') last weekend. I stewarded in exchange for a slightly cheaper ticket and a purple haggis t-shirt, but mainly I wore myself out watching & participating in everything from swing to irish step dance (which brings back 8th grade memories...)

Some pictures:

Remco, Amber, & Bryony at the 'Dem' ceilidh, w/ performances by lots of the visiting groups, some traditional,

and some not so much.

Can I please be this morris troup (Gog Magog Molly) when I grow up?
Sadly I have no pictures of the New Scotland dem (these are the people I dance with) - they did a medley to songs from the Sound of Music, complete with lederhosen, nun costumes, and the following lyrics to 'Do a deer' as they executed their flawless pas-de-basques:

DO a deer, I need a beer
RAY - the man who buys me beer!
ME - the one I buy beer for
FA - a long way to the bar
SO, I think I'll have a beer
LA - la la la la la laaaa
TEA - No thanks, I'll have a beer...

um. yes.

That night was a series of social dances in Teviot (one of our FOUR student unions) with swing upstairs:

and contra (yes!!) downstairs:

Gaelic = awesome

I just want to share the text of an email I recieved today, for a ceilidh (dance party ala Scotland, if you're just tuning in) that I'm going to this Saturday.

Posted for no reason other than that I really enjoy the apparently random decisions about what to print in English versus Gaelic.

***

Comann Ceilteach Oilthigh Dhun Eideann

An Dannsa Bliadhnail
The Highland Annual

Di-Sathuirne 24mh Gearran, 9f – 3m
Saturday 24th February, 9pm – 3am

Teviot House

Fergie Domhnallach
agus
Meantime

Caitlin NicAonaghais
Darren MacIlleathain
Tormod MacArtair
Maeve Nicfhionnaghain

Fearchar Domhnallach
Mike & Ali Vass
Anndra Mac a' Gobhainn

Coisir Gaidhlig Lodainn

Tradtional Ceilidh with:

Kathleen Macinnes, Darren Maclean,
Maeve Mackinnon, Tormod Marcarthur,
Mike & Ali Vass, Farquar MacDonald, Andrew Smith

Lothian Gaelic Choir

Tiocaidean: £8, £6 (Oileanaich/Students), £5 (Luchd-ciuil/ Musicians)

Two classically Scottish things.

Thing #1: Greyfriars Bobby

From left to right, Laura, Emily, Rachel, Charly, Betsy, me (together, half of flat 8)

Thing #2: Nationalism

Edit: these are apparently all over town now; Emily saw one which had been amended to read 'Scottish AND British.'

Fashion Statement

I just found this article on the New York Times web site.

On the ground in Edinburgh, I can report that the kaffiyeh-as-scarf phenomenon is indeed flourishing. I noticed it my first week here; these days I probably see at least one if I walk from my flat to the library on a weekday. There is a little shop nearby that sells cheap scarves & bangles, and the kaffiyeh has the advantage of being one of the designs without any sparkles in it, so it is worn by men & women to some extent as well.

Fancy dress?

I've been going to classes on Scottish Country Dancing for about a month now, and this weekend I went to my first real country dance ball (as opposed to a ceilidh, which is more informal.) It was in Glasgow, so we all piled onto a hired bus to get there. It was a formal dance, which was initially worrisome as I hadn't brought any dresses...but then I remembered that I live with 11 other women.

I had a bit of confusion with one of the English flatmates, Charly, because I told her that I was going to a fancy dress ball. It turns out that 'fancy dress' over here means halloween-type costumes!

Anyway, the dance was great, though quite a mental workout. Scottish country dances, like contras, are all made out of a fairly small set of 'figures' - little patterns that take 4 or 8 measures to complete. But each dance strings together its own order, and there are thousands of dances. If you're experienced, a ball usually consists of around half 'standards' that everyone knows, and half new ones. If you're me, they're all new.

When we arrived, we were given dance cards, little booklets with a crib for each dance (these are the red & yellow things safety-pinned to the women in a couple of these photos - the men are lucky enough to have dance card-sized sporrans as part of the traditional costume!) If you had a spare minute you could try to learn the next dance, but otherwise all you had to go on was the description announced before the music started. Or, if the dance was especially hard, you might get to walk it through, once, before it began. I managed to get through most of them (especially when the rest of the set was more experienced) though we also managed to 'kill our set' on a few as well!