Scottish Deep Thoughts

Sunday night we played Edinburgh in Stirling. We lost, but it was our closest loss this year! The trip home was a classic hockey team road trip...alcohol fueled immaturity.

One of the teachers is retiring so there was a party for her last night at the school. I ended my impressive (or sad) streak of returning to school after hours at 3 times this week! The party was OK, but I left early. I didn't feel like dancing and could feel that I was an easy target for drunk female teachers looking for dance partners. With a tinge of purple on their teeth and a glint of schadenfreude in their eye, these middle-aged Scottish dance enthuisiasts attempt to drag the reluctant Canadian to the dancefloor.

"C'mon, Mike. You look like you need to get up and dance."
"ach, no. I'm fine. Really. I'm tired. I don't know this dance."
"That's ok. I'll teach you."

At this point she grabs my hand with a rigid grip. I now have three options: get up and dance; act like an 11 year-old boy who still thinks girls are vile, germ-ridden beasts and desperately try to shake my hand loose; or gnaw my arm off and escape.

"No, really. I don't feel like it."

Others around the table join in to persuade me up, as if I am almost at the end of a grueling marathon, struggling to cross the finish line. Bastards.

"ugh"

I admit defeat. My fearless conqueror struts to the dance floor, towing me and their indestructible sense of self-satisfaction. To them, this noble act has helped me enjoy the evening. To me, they have only added to my discomfort and misery. I suppose it's not that bad, but I didn't feel like dancing the Canadian Barn Dance last night.

While "the speeches" were made I had frightening vision of a year and a half into the future. I had images of being subjected to the same ordeal during my going-away party - games, food, mingling, drinking, speeches and dancing. I'm not into that. I'm gonna leave a nice card with that classic high school line: "Have a good summer!". Maybe a few people will meet me at the pub.

I ate a lot of haggis, neeps and tatties tonight. The school put on a Robert Burns dinner. It was ok, but unusual to have a "dry" Burns night. The food was awesome but the singing and dancing gets awkward and uncomfortable quite quickly. More drinking, less dancing.

I suppose the Canadian voting public and I have been having a similar experiences as of late... We have both been fed things that we didn't know much about or didn't care to know about. Both of us have been subjected to long speeches in languages that I don't understand and seemed to focus around creating some semblance of a national identity. And finally, we both know that Robert Burns Day and another Canadian federal election will inevitably happen again this time next year!

Sweeeeeeet.

BEFORE & AFTER

The beard is coming off tonight. I amassed some seriously impressive growth. A lot of people said that it suited me but, alas, it is time to say goodbye. However, not all of it is coming off. I'm going to sport the bad-ass moustache for 2 days. It should be legendary. I'll take photos.

I took 3 of my Advanced Higher(Grade 13?) pupils down to Edinburgh on Saturday. They are in AH Art as well so Dugal came too. We went to look at some art during the day and in the evening we went to a live performance of a novel they are currently studying. It was a very culture-packed day in the "big-city". I missed a hockey game for this outing so they better treasure it as a fond memory of their high school days!

I didn't get up to much this weekend. It was a just a relaxing weekend. I played hockey for the first time in a month. I hurt the next day. This week is going by with relative ease. Nothing out of the ordinary so far.
I'm going to Edinburgh with a few of my Advanced Higher pupils to see a perfomrance of a novel that they are reading. Should be alright. I think the kids just enjoy seeing the "bright lights" of Edinburgh.

I am back...I spent some time trying to piece together my trip and have written them below. Nothing exciting. Unlike some of my blog fans, I keep up to date mith my posts (James, this means you...Mexico?).

I got my presents unwrapped tonight...socks, playing cards and a webcam. Not bad. If any of you have a webcam and would like to chat sometime, let me know.

ok, ok...much too long for a new post. I'll get my holiday blogs up this weekend. I know. I'm lazy. I suck. As most of you know, I'm back in Scotland from a holiday in Spain and started work today.

I spent the last few days of freedom being lazy and trying to get a bit of work done. I succeeded at both. We didn't have a TV in the flat, which was quite nice. I wasn't distracted by crappy reality shows, Coronation Street or very bad late-night movies. Instead, I became addicted to Radio 6. Holy crap, I love this station. It's only online or digitial radio and plays such an amazing variety of music. If any of you are looking to listen to some good/different music than the CanCom crud (most of it, anyway) that Canadians are subjected to on major stations, give this a try. It has all the BBC sessions (including all the John Peel sessions) and they archive everything for at least a week and you can listen to any show anytime....too much music, too little time.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/6music

Other than that, I didn't do too much. I met up with Ian for a few pints on Saturday night. While walking back, I bumped into a student who lived next to my flat. After an exchange of "hi" the student replies: "Don't get too drunk tonight". Who says that to their teacher?! I wasn't visibly drunk and didn't stink of alcohol. I don't think that I would say that to one of my teachers...damn cheeky kids.

My disappointment of the failure of "The Great Moustache Competition" between myself and three other staff members was somewhat lessened this morning due to a pleasant surprise from Chris the Jani. A package sent by my parents in November somehow landed in my landlord's brother's wife's hands for the past month. She works in the school canteen and brought it to me today. I am convinced that I would get my mail if it were addressed to Canadian teacher, Grantown-on-Spey. Gotta love small town postal service!

Nothing out of the ordinary today.

I made it back to Barcelona for one more night. The train ride showed yet another bad film. This time it was from the illustrious library of Ice Cube ("Are We There Yet?" maybe). The only advantage was that it was filmed in Vancouver so spotting places I knew in the city kept me occupied.

I stayed at the same hostel when I got back to Barcelona. The next day, I went out to the Olympic park....such a relaxing day. The sun was shining so I just hung out in the park all day.

The trip home the next day was long but harmless.

If you like New Year's Eve don't be on your own in a foreign small town. Fortunately, I don't make a big thing over New Years Eve. Having said that, I wouldn't do it again. I spent a relaxing day around town. Then went into the square of the town where the celebrations happened. I spent the countdown to midnight listening to the stage band murder Gloria Estefan "hits" - the rhythm definitely did not get me that night.

The 3 hour train ride from Barcelona to Zaragoza was so much better than yesterday's train trip to Figueres. The seats reclined, there was ample leg room and there showed a movie (free headphones too!) I killed the time by reading up on the place I went to on a whim and a recommendation as well as trying to understand the Spanish translation of a very bad Ben Affleck Christmas movie. First impressions of Zaragoza were that it is a nice city but I think 2 days here is the right amount of time. I found my place and tried to wade my way through the Spanish-English divide at the hotel I booked. It was a bit of a dodgy place but was decent enough for two days. I went out to see a bit of the city followed by my habitual tapas, wine and coffee.