Scotland

After my friends left London, I took a few days to recover then headed off to join Neha, Agnes, and Cindy, three fellow General Course students, up in Scotland. We visited Edinburgh and Glasgow from January 5th to January 11th. Seeing Scotland's two largest cities was really interesting as was seeing the differences between England and Scotland. It was also fun to spend some time with fellow General Course students outside of school and London.

View from Edinburgh Castle

-Edinburgh castle was full of fascinating and super old buildings. The castle is so old, in fact, that they're not sure when exactly it was constructed or by whom.

Enjoying some haggis with a dram of whisky 

-The Scottish people have made a very disproportionate contribution to the British Empire since the Act of Union in 1707. I had learned a bit about this in my British History class back at K, but it was enlightening to see so many examples in the museums in Edinburgh and Glasgow. James Watt (inventor of the steam engine), Adam Smith (father of modern economics), and Alexander Fleming (inventor of antibiotics) were all proud Scots. James Bond fans will know that the original Bond of the books and movies was Scottish, and this fits perfectly with the British Empire's history where Scots played disproportionate roles in the British military and colonial administration. It's remarkable what a profound impact such a small nation has had on the world.

Inside the world's largest whisky collection

-We watched a debate in the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh, and were lucky to witness a very exciting one! The debate was over a bill to expand free school lunches. As some of you may be aware, Scotland is currently in the process of setting up a vote on whether or not to become independent, and this issue colored the entire debate. Scotland has a number of different parties. There is a Labour Party and Conservative Party which correspond to their counterparts in Westminster. However, the majority party is the left wing Scottish National Party (SNP), which is leading the charge for independence. There is also a smaller, centrist Scottish Liberal Party. Normally, the SNP and Labour Party see eye to eye on most issues, but Labour is opposed to independence. On this issue, Labour advocated increasing childcare credits for working parents as more effective. The Conservatives were opposed to the whole thing, but Scotland is a fairly leftist nation and they don't have much of a voice. More than disagreeing on what would be most effective, the rift between Labour and the SNP came up over an amendment supporting independence added onto the bill. Anyways, it was an interesting debates, with plenty of the booing and cheering that makes British politics famous. Some of the politicians were quite skilled orators, and it was fun to listen to the back and forths as the parties grilled each other with questions during the speeches. The bill (predictably given SNP's majority) passed, but the independence issue is still very much up in the air and will depend on the upcoming vote.

We visited the Royal Botanical Gardens in Edinburgh where there was a pavilion dedicated to the Queen Mother, who was a Scot. 

-Scottish accents range from fairly normal sounding to completely incomprehensible to me. On a bus in Glasgow, I sat behind two men coming back from work, and I could not understand a word they exchanged (although they were speaking English)! On my distillery tour (described below), they showed a video where one of the workers interviewed had subtitles.

Edinburgh

-I fell in love with Scotch Whisky during my time in Scotland. During our last day in Glasgow, I took a day trip to the Glengoyne Distillery. The trip was informative and a fun way to get out into Scotland's beautiful countryside. I wasn't sure when the bus would arrive to take me back into Glasgow, but a very kind man who saw me walking along the rode gave me a ride to the nearest town where I could catch a train. The man turned out to be a police officer who grew up in the area and remembered the "good old days" when it was unthinkable to not offer a ride to someone walking along the rode. He was very kind, interested in my travels, and seemed to know a lot about the community surrounding Glasgow. His brother-in-law ran the Glengoyne distillery, in fact. Anyways, on the subject of Whisky, I love the depth of the flavors involved. I picked up a few bottles, and every time I have a wee dram, I discover something new in the taste. Different whisky's also have very distinct flavors based on where the barley was grown, where they were distilled, and what kind of barrel they matured in.

A view of the countryside outside the distillery

As President Obama has pointed out, the UK is about the same size as Oregon, but the country is filled with diversity and different people. I loved seeing a different part of the UK outside of London! 

At Glengoyne Distillery