But, I Will Miss That Christmas Is a Big Deal

Despite my last blog post on the shock of no separation of church and State in Scotland  (and my continuing surprise that my 3-year old is coming home from supposedly secular nursery school singing Christmas songs that talk about Mary having a baby and asking the innkeeper for room at the inn), there are some good things about the ubiquity of Christmas here.

While the anthropologist in me thinks about the Muslims who are feeling left out, the Christian in me really likes the fuss made over Christmas.  Without Thanksgiving to postpone celebration, the Christmas season (or Festive Period) starts here in mid-November and goes all the way into early January.

Edinburgh gets a Christmas market, complete with an outdoor skating rink, and stalls selling spiced wine, hot chocolate and chocolate-dipped marshmallows. But Dundee kicks off with Christmas Light Night, then the West End (the neighborhood where we live) has its own West End Christmas Light Night.  This is a free event, put on by the city/neighborhood, and it involves a concert in the local church, a pipe band to start things off (they even had Christmas lights on their bagpipes but I couldn't get a good picture), the lighting of the Christmas tree, a fireworks display, and Santa and others giving out free goodies to kids (a chocolate sampler, a coloring book, glow-glasses). Plus sparklers. 

Sparklers in front of the tree

More sparklers!

Santa posing with Audrey

We also took part in another Dundee Christmas tradition this year: the Singing Kettle Christmas show (I won the tickets by following a link on Twitter - even better!):

Specific instructions on attire

She's ready!

Though it's not certain he is...

Making use of the reindeer antlers sent by Nana

We still have another month and it is packed with Christmas possibilities - Christmas Fayres (yes, spelled like that) and events, many free, and the general festivity of a city that's decked with boughs of holly and where people have a little more fa-la-la-la-la than for the rest of the year.

And that, I will miss.

Christmas Light Night 2014 or Church and State, No Separation

Friday the 14th of November, 2014  marked the annual Christmas Light Night in Dundee. 

Waiting for the lights to be switched on

This is the night on which the Christmas tree in the city centre is switched on, and the Christmas season officially begins (at least from the point of view of stores and shoppers, if not the church).

If you are reading this in the US, you may be saying, hold on a minute here - the city government puts up a Christmas tree in the centre of town? And throws a party, complete with a torchlight parade, music, dancing, an appearance by Santa, fireworks (set to "Let it Go" much to the delight of the girls) but ALSO the aforementioned Christmas tree, lighted decorations with Christmas themes, and a Nativity play? What happened to separation of Church and State?

Reform Street greetings

The answer, as far as I can tell in Scotland, is "it doesn't really exist."  The common perception is"Well, everyone is Christian anyway, so it doesn't matter."  According to the 2011 census in Scotland, 54% of people say they are Christian, while 37% claim "no religion."  Muslims are 1.4% of the population, and all others (Hindu, Jewish, Sikh, or Another Religion) are .9% of the population.  Audrey goes to a Catholic school which is part of the state-supported school system - she went because there were places there, not so much because we wanted her to be in Catholic school, but it is tuition-free - again, a big no-no in the States, and a big so-what in Scotland.

So, Christmas Light Night 2014. 

The Christmas Tree, lit up

The City Centre gets a teacup ride for the occasion

...and really large Disney balloons...

Preparing to go out, with our Santa hats

Bonus: One-minute video of the Light Night event during which the band plays a cover of A-Ha's "Take On Me" on the bagpipes. Seriously Awesome.

Caution: Objects in Mirror Are Older Than They Appear, or Approaching Forty on Facebook

I have somewhat over 300 friends on Facebook, and I would guess that 90% of them I met before I was an adult.  I'll draw the line arbitrarily at about age 21 for that; in other words, if I met you after I left college, you're in the 10%.  But if you are among the vast majority of my FB friends, I met you when I was between 14 and 19.  And this has some consequences.  For example, I recently noticed that among those of you who have kids approaching (or already in) double digits, I'll be scrolling through my Newsfeed and all of the sudden I'll see YOU...well, the you I knew when we first met and we were 15.  Except it's not you. It's your child.  This is disconcerting.

Also making me do double-takes nowadays - if I met you when you were 15 and we were good friends, chances are excellent that I met your parents.  And it has recently become alarming to me that I'll be scrolling through the Newsfeed and all of the sudden I'll see YOUR PARENT...except it's really you.  The math supports me on this one - if you were born when your parents were around 25 (not that unusual in the 70's), when you were 15 and I met your parents, they were...about 40. And voila, the alternate title of this post.

And a special note about Eddie. I am not Eddie's friend on Facebook, because he is the little brother of my sister's elementary school best friend (figure out that relationship!) But he and his wife recently had a baby, because, you know, they are in their thirties, and it's normal to have a kid then.  But I have extremely clear memories of Eddie when he was three (which is the same age as my younger daughter is now).  So in a brain-bending twist, seeing him and his baby has caused me to imagine my three year old as a mom. And it is just too strange.

 So next time I like a photo of your child (even though, most of the time, I have never met your child) or if I hesitate before I like a photo of you (although you will never actually know this), it's just because I am coming to terms with getting older where everyone can see me, on social media. Where the 15-year-olds I remember have become the 40-year-old parents, and I am no exception. 

I Miss Halloween

Monkey and Princess, October 2012

Our last Halloween in the States, Audrey was 4 and Claire was almost 15 months old. We followed the Providence, RI routine - we met up at Brown St. Park, had the Halloween parade, and then trick-or-treated back toward our house.  Claire was just making the connection between going to houses, saying Trick or Treat, and getting candy...she was amazed that this kept working at each house.

Audrey was in her element, hanging out with friends and going door to door - Paul told her she was collecting candy for him, and she still believed it.

Monkey Claire learning to trick or treat, October 2012

Brown St. Parade (our friend "Rod Stewart" in the foreground)

Last year, we had only been in Scotland a month at Halloween, and Audrey had just started school a week before, so we knew very few people.  We heard about a few Halloween parties, but weren't invited. Trick or Treating didn't seem to be a "thing" - we saw some older kids roaming around but our house is off the beaten path so we didn't get any trick or treaters.   Audrey was a little disappointed; Claire was too young to know the difference.

This year, we planned to try to trick or treat, starting with some friends who were expecting us, and then go from there, but at the last minute we were invited by Audrey's school friend's mom to go trick or treating in their neighborhood and then go on to a Halloween party.  We drove over there and had a critical mass of 6 kids between the ages of 3 and 10, and we started looking for likely houses.  In their neighborhood (maybe 30-40 houses), about 4 has their lights on, the code for "open for trick or treating" (at least in the US, I assume it also holds in Scotland as well). The process is much more involved, though; instead of bopping from house to house and collecting candy, you are invited in and asked for your performance - a joke, a song, a dance.  After the first house I came up with "Twinkle Twinkle Little Bat" and got Audrey, Claire, and Audrey's school friend to sing along - it went something like this (bear in mind I made this up on the fly...no pun intended):

Twinkle, twinkle little bat

How I wonder where you're at

Flying up in the sky

Flying low and flying high

Twinkle, twinkle little bat

How I wonder where you're at.

People seemed to like this (at least it was something...all the Halloween songs and jokes that are out there, and I couldn't remember a THING). So at each house, the kids got several pieces of candy, sometimes fruit, and also a little money (for their "punch boxes" no idea what this is, and the all-knowing Internet is no help, a search for this term just gives me boxing equipment).  After trick or treating to the 4 available houses, we went to the party at the community center.  It was a smallish gym, stuffed with kids (aged a few weeks to about 12 years) who were dancing to loud music with disco lights (I remember a jazzy version of the Scooby Doo theme), and their parents resting at tables in the back of the hall.  It was definitely kid friendly - only 1 pound admission and juice and snacks for just a small donation, but it was hot and loud, and Claire was ready for bed so we made an exit, leaving Audrey with her school friend and her parents. We finally ended up at our friends' house (the ones who had been expecting us originally) and chatted with them a few minutes.  Since they are not Scottish, they gave Claire plenty of candy, and didn't even demand a performance.  They were complaining they hadn't had any trick or treaters, but we told them they needed to turn on their front light - and, as if to prove our point, as we left their house, three young teens came up to their door. 

Facebook friends,  I love seeing pictures of your kids in their costumes, with their candy.  I also love the pictures of groups of kids meeting up and traveling around your neighborhoods, because it reminds me that maybe next year we'll be back in the States, and back to celebrating Halloween for real instead of it being an imported holiday!

Wood Fairy and grumpy Princess, October 2014

The Wonder Blog

My cultural probe box greets me

A few weeks ago, a student at the Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design (yes, it's a long name for a place to work - we call it DJCAD)  took to the email listserv asking for volunteers for his senior project on Wonder.  His methodology was the cultural probe, which, to my knowledge, is a little bit like anthropology in a box or an envelope; no ethnographer doing interviews, but a variety of materials to think about, and to respond to through various means.  I got a disposable camera to snap pictures of everyday wonder, a wee diary to record information about my "wonder camera" snaps and other thoughts, an instruction to write a letter to my childhood self about wonder, and a set of postcards with images to which I was to record my responses. The last bit, which I want to share here, asked me to put together a collection of images related to wonder.  The instructions for this were very object-focused, and as I tried to collect the images, I found out that I am not a terribly object-focused person (though Paul would disagree, given my pack-rat nature...I hang onto things but I don't really care about them, I guess). Below are the images I chose, with the prompt in the caption:

Evokes a sense of wonder (2)

Evokes a sense of wonder (1)

The object on the left is a glass block commemorating the christening of  a ship at the Newport News Shipyard. My dad gave it to me when I was 4 or 5. It is also a prism, and is currently on my daughters' windowsill to make rainbows when it's sunny.  The object on the right is a partly finished sock monkey. I make sock monkeys for babies - if you know me, your child may have one! This one is being co-sewn by Audrey and I for her teacher who's set to go out on maternity leave in December.

Environment that evokes a sense of wonder

East Sands beach, St. Andrews.  I like it because beaches are sources of rocks and shells (see later picture) and also because of the St. Andrews Cathedral in the background - wonderful architecture.

Object you do not tire of exploring: rocks and shells!

Object that brings you joy

 Paul made this for Valentines Day one year early in our marriage, a little sculpture with our initials.

Object you find beautiful for its aesthetics: part of my egg collection

Object you find beautiful for its intrinsic qualities: one of Claire's first recognizable drawings

Drawn just a few days before her third birthday, she says it's a bug eating an apple and darned if it doesn't look like that.

An object that inspires joy and discovery: books, of course!

I didn't include these in my image collection but they are a few more wonderful things:

Audrey trimming the Christmas tree, December 2013

A rainbow that ended on Magdalen Green near our house, October 2014

I hope you've enjoyed a peek into my Wonder Blog.  Please leave a comment about the things or environments you find wonderful!

On the Road Again: Dundee to Bath and Back Again

It's the October holidays, so it is time to stop climbing the walls, and get out of town.  In Scotland, holidays mean 2 weeks off school for the kids, and though I usually can't take quite that much time, I did take a week.  This was plenty of time to drive down to Bath, meet up with my parents, tour around, completely wear them out, and send them back to the States.

I say "we" drove, but really it was Paul *now a licensed UK driver* who drove our rented minivan (called a "full size MPV" in the UK, reflecting that is a much larger car than you typically see on the road) from Dundee to Bath.  Now, the UK is a small country.  We drove across Scotland and almost down to the Southwestern corner, and it took approximately 8.5 hours (with stops).  Try THAT in the United States.  Leaving D.C., you'd still be in Virginia! From Tucson, you'd only make it to Albuquerque. It was still a long drive, and we laid down the law to the girls.  "Look," Paul said, "This is going to be a long drive.  It's going to be boring. I don't want to hear about it. This is part of the family vacation, the long, boring getting-there-and-coming-back part. No one will ask "Are we there yet?" Do you understand?"  To their credit, they mostly didn't ask.

And of course once we got to Bath and found Nana and Papa already there, all the long boring hours were forgotten.  The weather cooperated - mostly - which is to say it was mainly cloudy, with strategically timed rainstorms that coincided with our indoor activities. We even had a little sun, pulling off all out raincoats and sweaters to soak in the rays and the 17-degree temperatures (practically 63 degrees - considering it's already autumn in Dundee and about 10-11 (50ish) degrees there, it was balmy!)

Zipping about in our trusty minivan we hopped through history in and around Bath - back to Prehistory at Stonehenge (Paul: I can't live in the UK and NOT visit Stonehenge; he was suitably impressed) and Avebury (where you can actually get close to the stones, and the sheep...)

..through Roman times (the Roman Baths, in the city of Bath itself),

 the 12th-15th centuries (Wells Cathedral) in Wells,

the 17th-19th centuries (Bath Abbey) back in Bath,

and finally to the 1960's at Longleat, with trippy murals by Lord Bath (not pictured, but see here for examples), a hall of mirrors, and the first drive-thru Safari park outside of Africa (opened in 1966).

   

 











When it was finally time to go home, it was an even longer drive, as we did it all in one day instead of splitting it up.  What I appreciated about the British motorway system on the way home, however, was its optimism.  Every time they posted a sign, they only told you about the nearby towns. "Preston 25 miles" it would say, cheerily. Anything further away than about 30 miles just fell into a large category, with a helpful arrow: "The Midlands" "the North."  This would never fly in the United States - what do you mean, The North? I want to know how far it is to Minnesota - never mind that I'm in Mississippi! When we finally started seeing the arrow marked "Scotland" we knew we were nearly home, back to our life in Dundee.

One Year in Scotland: 3 Reasons to Think Again

1. Being Far Away Sucks.

Far, far away Soria Moria Palace shimmered like gold: painted by Theodor Kittelsen, 1900.

This is the number-one reason we are thinking again about staying in Scotland. It is far away from family, from friends, and from events (like, for example, birthdays, anniversaries, my 20th high school reunion, American Anthropological Association conferences where friends gather, and of course the Orioles finally going for World Series).  We're also too far away to help - for example, as family members recover from surgery.  People ask me if we traveled back to the United States over the summer holidays.  The answer is no, of course. Trips for all four of us are too costly to even consider.  We have TIME, but not money.  One day, maybe we'll have both.  Which brings me to the number-two reason we are thinking again...

2. It Costs a Lot to be a Foreigner.

Scottish Pounds. Yes, Scotland has its own money, they are equivalent to English pounds, but with more character.

This is actually in two parts, the first being the actual costs of coming to and staying in the UK.  Although the University hired me, and paid for some relocation costs, they did not pay for even my visa costs.  And it was not just me who needed a visa.  In order to come work here for 2 years, we (okay, full disclosure, my dad) paid $800 for each of us - including the two year old! - to come here. While I'm here, I also don't have a pension plan that transfers back to the US ( I opted out, after reading the fine print that said, in essence "we'll try to get your money into an account you can use in the U.S."), and there are also certain benefits that people in the UK get that we do not qualify for as US citizens - for example, Child Benefit.  If you have 2 children in the UK, you qualify for approximately $55 per week to help with their care.  It may not sound like a lot but over a year it amounts to almost $3,000. The second reason it costs a lot to be a foreigner is the desire to do stuff.  It's the "Hey, we're in Europe, when will we get here again, let's take advantage of it!" Except it really is not that cheap to go to Europe for 4 people - even cheap flights add up.  Even just traveling around Scotland is not so cheap if you want to stay anywhere for any length of time during the times you can actually go (i.e., when kids off school).  When thinking about "living overseas" in the abstract, there's sort of a  myth of an eternal vacation - but I'm at work, the kids are in school, and we're trying to travel at peak times just like everyone else in the UK. And of course, there's also...

3. The Weather.

View from the 7th floor of the building where I work, toward St. Peter's Free Church, the River Tay and the Tay Rail Bridge.

Dundee advertises itself the sunniest city in Scotland.  And, it probably is, given what I've heard about Glasgow.  Even today, perhaps in an effort to make me change my mind about Point 3, it was sunny and clear.  But the truth is that it's far more likely to look like there pictures than to be beautiful and sunny.  This past Monday it was rainy and so windy that the rain was like little daggers trying to stab Audrey and I as we walked up to her school.  Umbrellas were useless (as they often are) and the wind was trying to whip our raincoats away from us.  When Scotland is clear, it's gorgeous, and I love taking the atmospheric cloud picture (see below).  But when it's rainy, it's just Scottish weather.

Tay Rail Bridge with atmospheric clouds

If you enjoyed this post, why not visit Part 1 of my One Year in Scotland series: One Year in Scotland: Five Reasons We Love It.

One Year in Scotland: Five Reasons We Love It

1. They take care of you

Scottish ambulance

 By this I mean that here in Scotland, there are many things that we would be worried about in the States that we don't have to worry about here.  Chief among these is health care; while in the US it's a complicated mess of employer sponsored care, here it's simple.  You show up at the local health centre, register, and you're on the rolls. Your children are automatically sent reminders for well-child checks and vaccinations. If you have a problem, call, or walk up the hill and make an appointment.  Another non-worry: preschool.  In the US if you're middle income & up, you pay for private preschool.  Here, you're guaranteed 15 hours per week of preschool (nursery) once your child turns 3.  No charge. A big one (though we won't be here long enough to take advantage of this) University is still tuition-free in Scotland.  So if you're Scottish and you apply for a place in a Scottish University and are accepted, you pay zero tuition.  

2. There is work/life balance

 The biggest difference in Scotland (and the UK) is the amount of time people have off.  People, no matter what their job, have weeks of leave, not just days.  It's usual to get emails back when you send something out that say, "I am away on annual leave until [2 weeks from now]. I will reply to you on my return [OR, contact this person, email provided]." People don't seem to think they're indispensable in the same way they do in the States.  Maternity leave is a lot longer too - at least 6 months, often a year, and advertisements are put out for maternity leave cover with regularity. It takes some getting used to. When we arrived last September, I started my job and realized I had nine or ten days of leave that I needed to take before the end of the calendar year. It makes taking time off, especially when kids are out of school, seem like a much more normal part of life rather than juggling childcare when kids are out of school. 

3. Food is fresh and local, by default

 We happen to live in the "soft fruit" belt of Scotland.  So that means fresh, local strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, and even tayberries (a mix of blackberry and raspberry, so named because they grow near the River Tay.)  Even in the local Tesco, they feature local produce when possible.  Meat is the same - we have a local butcher who sells local meat and eggs - when Paul asked him where the lamb came from, the butcher gestured across the River Tay and said "Right over there." 

 

 

4. There is a culture of walking and taking public transport

 We have lived here just over one year, and I do not drive.  We live walking distance from my work and Audrey (and now Claire's) school. We walk to all our regular activities (singing, yoga, Rainbows for Audrey (a bit like Brownies)) with the exception of swimming lessons. If it's too far to walk to get to the city centre, or the other side of town, buses run regularly, except on Sundays.  Trains also run regularly, and it's easy (and often cheap) to get a train to Glasgow, Edinburgh, or into England. People walk a lot.  And the buses are well-used by everyone.  In our early days in Dundee, a man struck up a conversation with me on the bus to tell me that when he went to America, he was never more scared than when he rode the bus in Orlando, Florida.  It was definitely not the friendly atmosphere of a Scottish bus for him.   

5. There is obvious national pride

 For a place with the approximate land area of the state of Maine (see this Telegraph article for 50 facts about Scotland) there is a lot of national pride.  Many visible symbols reflect this: the national dress (no pun intended) of the kilt, the strong interest in highland dancing (accomplished in tartan and featuring at just about every gathering of Scots), highland games, and of course bagpipes and bagpipers.  Then there are the national drinks of Scotch whisky in its innumerable varieties, and Irn Bru, a Scottish orange drink in one variety, and the national dish of Haggis.  Accompanied, of course, by the Scottish poet Robert Burns (or as they say here, Rabbie Burns, see my earlier post on Burns Night, which features both haggis and poetry (and of course, highland dancing, see above)). There are Scottish sweets like Tunnocks caramel wafers and tea cakes (see my earlier blog on sweeties and biscuits here), not to mention Scottish jams, Scottish tablet (imagine fudge and sugar mated), and Scottish shortbread.  When I attended a one-day conference at the University recently, the attendees were welcomed into the building by a bagpiper playing out front, and the conference bags contained a mini Walker's Shortbread and a copy of The Beano (a local Dundee comic book, still in print).  Now there's pride for you - for Scotland and for Dundee.      

Bonus: 

Watch Scottish comedian Michael MacIntyre talk about the birth of the kilt here on Youtube

If you enjoyed this post, why not visit Part 2 of my One Year in Scotland series:   One Year in Scotland: 3 Reasons to Think Again.