Shrove Tuesday

The day before lent, Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday, and we know it, is called Shrove Tuesday over here. They celebrate it by making pancakes. Their versions of pancakes are more like dainty crepes than hearty flapjacks but are still delicious.

Ultimate in the UK

I originally sent this as an email but due to the smashing success rate I received in response, I thought I should post it to the blog so everyone could share in the laughter. My apologies that my blog is no longer "clean", but you know . . . it is rather hilarious.

Dearest American Ultimate Players,

I miss you and your American ways. Ultimate is a bit different here: I did not attend, but know their indoor nationals (last weekend) consisted of a day of five 18-minute games on Saturday and four 18-minute games on Sunday. They play a much different indoor game. They are good for what they do; it is just different.

If you are reading my blog you will know that my last post was about cultural differences and the different lingo/slang/vocabulary of the British.

Well apparently I made a mistake.

I guess "tossing" means to . . . well . . . masturbate.

They got a kick out of my email, which I sent very innocently last week and was only just enlightened to today.

Please read with aforementioned meaning of word in mind. Might make you chuckle.

Peace, love, ultimate,
Karen


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From: positivemojo@yahoogroups.com [positivemojo@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Katz, Karen [karen.katz.08@aberdeen.ac.uk]
Sent: 18 February 2009 21:47
To: positivemojo@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [positivemojo] Tossing!



Hey Mojo,

So at Gustavus we have a tradition of "chapel toss" which is just tossing during the half-hour break our school allots for daily chapel. Since Aberdeen doesn't have such a communal break as far as I know . . . you should just toss with me on my free time between classes on Thursdays 12-2! Say in that grassy area between New King's and King's College? If anyone is game shoot me an email or give me a text 0750 3997558. Actually, just anytime you have the urge to toss please feel free to call.

peace, love, ultimate,

Karen

------

This was sent on a Wednesday, and on the following Monday, still naieve, I very loudly announced to a mini bus full of players, "Would anyone like to toss with me tomorrow?"

Whoops.

Culture Clash

My mother asked me if I passed as a Scot or if I stuck out as an American. By looks, it's hard to say. Certainly if I am gawking around at buildings with my camera as a natural extension of my hand, then no, I am being the blatant tourist. If I am just walking with a clear direction of where I am going and not daydreaming, or if I am just going to class, I think I might blend in, depending on what I am wearing (sweatshirt and jeans are not the norm here -stylish boots and skinny jeans are popular) Once I just stood in the middle of a shopping mall watching the faces of people walking past, and they just looked British. As soon as I open my mouth however, all doubt is removed. My vocabulary is different too. For example: pants refer to underwear, not trousers; trucks are lorries; garbage is rubbish; and soccer is football. This last one comes as welcome change, as I have no sentimentality for a sport (American football) I never understood but find that I actually do enjoy watching a sport I used to play, which is conveniently the sport of choice in the UK. Neighborhood signs that read "No ball games" do not refer to baseball but instead to football, and the game featured in the pub is the Celtics v. Rangers. I went to a home game for the Aberdeen club team, the Dons, against Dundee (a city just south of Aberdeen and also ranked above them in the league). Boy do the old men in the bleachers get angry! I heard plenty of colorful Scottish slang there. I also just met a girl who fences and one who does archery. I think I should be better friends with them. ;) There are plenty of other differences (grocery stores alone could fill a book), from milkshakes turning out to be milk with flavored syrup instead of blended ice-cream (so disappointing!) to British senses of humor. Some people just interact differently than I am used to . . . but that is to be expected. Hopefully I will be able to voice it better by the end of my stay.
Cheers,
Karen

Endorphins and Picts

Since endorphins really do make you happy, I finally got myself running again. It is amazing what a difference it makes in my day; I feel healthier, more accomplished and just simply happier. There is a nice path along the North Sea beach and it is really cool to watch the waves, oil rigs and birds when I run. There is something wrong with some tendon in my foot/achilles though . . . I think it has something to do with wearing bad shoes with hard backs. I bought new shoes with softer backs and this helped but it hasn't completely gone away. Apparently I have a habit of getting weird injuries. I am trying to see a doctor about it but although the health care system in this country may be free, it certainly hasn't proved convenient.
I skipped the two outdoor ultimate practices last week but I don't think I'll do that again, especially since the snow has melted and we are running on grass again! (I have also seen a few crocuses emerging from the sodden ground.) It feels too good to play. I am also trying to implement an Aberdeen equivalent of chapel toss, but there is no common free time during the day to do so and I have been warned that the groundskeepers will kick me out of the yard at uni. It went fine today so we shall see . . .
Caleb sent me a mixed cd and it is helping cure my music illiteracy. "Sodom, South Georgia" by Iron and Wine just played and it is great. Caleb you are great.
I actually do have homework in my classes; although I didn't think to do it until about 40 minutes before my tutorial today I managed to have more to say than most in my class. We were supposed to research a Pictish symbol stone. I chose the stone Newbigging Leslie, located near Huntley in Aberdeenshire (Pictish territory was in the northeast of Scotland), because when I went to the database and typed in "wolf" under the search by symbol device it only came up with three. On this particular stone is a wolf, a rectangle, comb and mirror. I don't know what exactly the rectangle or wolf are supposed to represent, but the theory behind the comb and mirror combo is that it represents a woman, probably wife or daughter, who erected the stone in order to commemorate a male relative. Another theory is that it represents a dowry paid at a wedding linking two lineages, and the other two symbols are then the symbols of the respective lineages. To see it follow the link here: http://www.stams.strath.ac.uk/research/pictish/database.php?details=182
Maybe I will come back home tattooed blue with these symbols. (Pictish stereotype! Sorry!)
Cheers,
Karen

First Weekend Trip: Inverness and Loch Ness!

After a childhood spent visiting the train museum in Duluth, playing with my brothers Brio trains, and reading period books that often involved trains, I finally got to go on one! (Hour lunch trains in Taylor's Falls don't count). As expected, it was not the romantic red plush coach car that one dreams of but instead resembled was the inside of a coach bus. We traveled after dark, so unfortunately it was a blind journey, but a journey nonetheless. I went with four other girls: three from St. Olaf and one from Norway.
Inverness was eerie at 9pm on a Friday night; small sets of 30-somethings dressed under their age quickly ran from cab to club and a handful of smokers gathered outside of pubs, but other than that it was quiet. After walking around in circles, finding food and drinks, we wound up catching the tail end of live folk music at a place called Hootenannys. If I didn't think I had yet experienced the kind of Scottish atmosphere I was looking for, I did then. Wines and ales glowed in warm yellow candlelight and feet tapped to the sounds of fiddle and acoustic guitar. Unfortunately, we missed most of it and had to retire to a fitful night of cold breezes and drunken fights courtesy of our vocal neighbors at the Highlander Hostel.
We set out the next morning to take a tour of Loch Ness. While the fabled monster remained elusive the loch lived up to it's fame: 23 miles long, 754 feet deep, filling 263,000 million cubic feet, it is the largest volume of fresh water in Great Britain. The cold air, snow-covered mountain peaks, and remoteness of the area were all anyone would need to imagine mysterious creatures lurking beneath the murky waters. Climbing around the remains of the Castle Urqhart it was hard to believe the stones had been in place for 800-some years. The site has traceable evidence of being inhabited thousands of years ago, but the castle was likely built around the 1200s. The government was ordered to beseige the castle in order to prevent it from becoming a Jacobite stronghold and a final attack in 1692 left the ruins that stand today.
Inverness was a much friendlier town by day, and we spent the rest of the afternoon wandering from shop to shop and searching for the site of Macbeth's castle (no longer in existence) before catching a train home in the dark.
I would have liked to stay another night and listen to the folk band again, but most everyone wanted to get home to Aberdeen. At least this was a good introduction on how to travel for next time . . .

Bha e duthchasach dha: It was natural for him (Gaelic proverb)

Proverb similar to "the apple didn't fall far from the tree".

The past week was rather slow; I took an adventure around the residential areas of Aberdeen (may have accidentally tresspassed a few times), experienced my first indoor session with Mojo, wandered into town again to buy rail passes, tried to go for a run during rush hour, and went to classes.

In Gaelic Cultures we talked about Duthchas*, which is the Gaelic word that describes a country/region/area and the culture or identity of that area. My lecturer is an elderly Scottish woman who has all the spunk and fire you would expect of a Scotswoman in touch with her roots. She spends much of the hour just telling us stories of her childhood and characterizing the Gaelic peoples. It's wonderful. Apparently only 58,000 people reoprted on the 2000(?) census that they speak Gaelic. If the number falls below 50,000 it is declared a dead language and the British government doesn't have to support/fund it's continued presence. If I heard the number right, there are more like 168,000 speakers -just not everyone can read, write, and speak on a daily basis and so responded on the census questions. At times, I feel a little out of place in the class. I am not the only American in the class, but the other at least has traceable Scottish descent. I am just there because the culture has always fascinated me and because I love learning about lesser recognized cultures . . . especially since I am living in the area it only makes sense to me to learn its history and how that history is writing itself today. How many people in the world ever think about Gaels? What does it matter that an American girl takes a semester class about a (potentially) fading culture? Can outsiders "save" a culture or will a movement only be effective if it comes from within? What role does the Gaelic community have in the modern world?
*accent over the u

The First Week in Review

I have been here slightly more than a week!

Tuesday morning I woke up for my 10:00 class at 9:30am after turning off both my alarms. It takes about 15-20 minutes to walk from my flat to classes, but I managed to both find the classroom and find it on time. I am taking Revolution to Revolution, a period literature class that looks at works written between 1640-1789, Gaelic Cultures, Celtic Scotland, and I will be doing a traveling Forestry Class over spring break for one week. I am only in class 7 hours a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, which makes me feel guilty, but it is a full course load so I guess it is legit.

I found out that all the societies like to host things on Wednesdays, and therefore am having difficulty deciding which to join. One difference between UK schools and American schools is the drinking age. Societies are able to host socials at bars/clubs . . . which is weird. The International Society hosted a social at one of these hip and happenin places on Wednesday. Chelsea and I missed the last bus so we walked all the way back . . . it took close to an hour!

Although Scots are big on fresh-squeezed orange juice, they don't have much for bakeries (jealous of you Lauren!). They prefer hot breakfasts that include meat. Coffee is not popular with my roommates either and it is killing me. However two of them cooked me mince and tatties, which is minced beef and mashed potatoes, a standard Scottish meal. They also have their own soft drink, IRN-BRU, which is bright orange and very sweet. Bottled only in Scotland.

After a week of itching to go I finally made it to the beach! It is actually quite close to where I live. There are pictures up on facebook . . . eventually I'll make a Shutterfly page if you don't have facebook.

cheers,
Karen

Hello from Scotland!

After 15 hours of airport travel comprising of three flights, I have arrived safely. The first thing I noticed when I got off the plane was the wind, rain, and overcast skies. When my taxi driver drove by some sheep I was assured that I had arrived in the right place. Although I was shivering in the rain outside on Sunday it is quite balmy compared to the weather I left at home in Minnesota. It is currently 3 degrees C (37 degrees F). Everyone keeps asking if I am enjoying the cold and I try to explain to them what -20 F and a few feet of snow feels like. Although they complain about it, I think the Scottish take pride in their weather just as Minnesotans do. :)

My flat is in a university housing community of about 2,000 people, most of whom are freshers, because the university is so large and the demand for housing so high, they and the international students are mostly the only ones who get campus housing. I am in a self-catered apartment, with a room to myself and four other roommates. They are all very nice girls and one of them took me on the bus to the grocery store called Morrison's, which I imagine to be the Econofoods of Aberdeen.

Saturday and Sunday I spent my time at Scotland's Regionals tournament, pretty much all day (I was responsible enough to show up to orientation and my registration appointment). The frisbee team here is called Positive Mojo and they let me jump in on one of their teams right away, annndd I got to play pretty much savage. Ultimate is the same game here (well, much smaller) and all the players were extremely welcoming and friendly, which made me feel quite at home. I couldn't have imagined a better way to spend my first few days in a foreign country. I may have even gone to their ultimate party Saturday night.

Today was the first day I had to really explore the city, which I did on foot. Everything here is grey or green or white. All of the buildings are made of granite which combined with the cobblestone or pavement streets comprises the grey; the grass and leaves are green; and the sky is white. I may be pushing the white there -it is probably better classified as a pale shade of grey. There are two main streets: King's and Union. I took King's into the shopping district and it was quite a hike, but I am too cheap to spend a £1.50 on bus fare each time, even though they have very convenient routes. I did have to get used to traffic driving on opposite sides of the road and was almost hit crossing a few times. Although it is smaller, Aberdeen (pop 202,370) feels like more of a city than St. Paul and Minneapolis because it is much denser. There are essentially no yards to houses and far more pedestrians.

Besides having some minor difficulties with turning on the stove, not having the right outlet adaptors, and not being able to get the toilet to flush (I have since solved all three problems), things have been going pretty smoothly.

Send me photos and paraphanalia to decorate my room with! And send me your address (unless you are at Gustavus)!

cheers,
Karen