I miss Scotland

Sorry, this is from last week. I need to be more diligant about updating this I guess.

Everyone should travel to a foreign country at some point in their life. It’s called becoming “cultured.” However, there are certain rules involved to make it a true foreign experience. First off, Canada doesn’t count. And neither does some extremely Americanized resort in Mexico or the Caribbean. If it’s in a brochure designed to attract college kids on their spring break, it doesn’t count. No sir, if you’re going to travel, you have to immerse yourself into the culture. Otherwise, you might as well save your money and travel domestic.

I have had one true international experience. Three years ago about now, three friends and I joined about 30 other UW-River Falls students on a two-week long international study tour to Great Britain, with an emphasis on Scotland. It was called a study tour, but trust me, we spent more time touring landmarks and patronizing the local pubs than studying. We did have an assignment over there. Each of us had to conduct research on something to do with Scottish culture, history or politics. That leaves it open to pretty much anything doesn’t it?

The four of us teamed up and planned an itinerary of touring along with our research. Cindy did a project on Loch Ness tourism (culture/politics). This meant we all got to travel from Edinburgh away from the group to the infamous Loch Ness. Loch Ness is actually a lake, and Inverness was the city we visited. No, we didn’t see the monster, lovingly known as Nessie, but there was this weird shadow on one of my photos...

I also happened to turn 21 in Inverness. It was a good time, even if all the Scots were wondering why we were celebrating. There the legal drinking age is 18, so we were a few years late. The next day, we visited Stirling, home of the William Wallace monument. Remember the movie Braveheart? He’s Mel Gibson. We climbed all the steps of the monument, which was quite a challenge with how I happened to feel that day. It was worth it for the spectacular view though.

We headed back to Edinburgh so Loni and I could do our research. Jen was able to do her’s along the way since it was a public opinion survey on the Iraq war.

I could go on a long time, so I’ll just summarize what I learned about Scottish culture:
--They love their whiskey. They say there’s a whiskey for everyone, but I didn’t find mine;
--American public transportation is pretty crumby compared to Europe. There you can find a train or bus going almost anywhere. Here, without a car, you’re pretty limited;
--America is a country in infancy compared to most European countries. Here, everything man-built is less than 200 years old. There, structures have stood for centuries.
--Lastly, and the four of us might say most importantly, what happens in Inverness stays in Inverness.