Ercassesanwi - October 12th, 2003
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01:48 pm
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Ata Liltan Scoti, I dance with Scots again
Dancing is becoming my favorite thing to do here. It's a good thing, since I'm not very good at drinking and pubbing.
This weekend I got a lot done (besides homework) -- dealing with paperwork, straightening the messy room, etc. I even managed to find two cheap fast food places in town, good since I get only two meals a day from DRH.
The Kinness Fry Bar (KFB) will deep fry anything for you. Anything. A Scottish specialty, which I have yet to try but will before I leave, is the deep fried Mars bar. This place fries any kind of candy bar. One worker told us he'd been asked to deep fry skittles. Hmmm. They also serve pizza, sausage, fish, chips (fries), etc. They will deliver for free if you spend 10 quid or more. But that would be a lot of Mars bars.
We ate at the KFB last night. Laura and I went out with our friend Jamie (James). I didn't know the charity ball was that night, but we saw lots of people all dressed up, including many guys in full kilt costume with dress jacket. I hadn't thought I'd like to go, but I started to change my mind. Still, it was too late to get a ticket. I was also told that the charity ball was a snobby event and not a fun one. There will be other balls with other kilted Scots who aren't there to "see and be seen" but to have fun.
There's also the Pizza Connection that stays open until 2 AM, very popular with those stumbling home drunk from the pubs. Laura and I had one of their pizzas for dinner today.
Today was the second meeting of the medieval society. I was going to go, but Laura wanted to see about a ceilidh we'd seen advertised as happening every Sunday afternoon at a local church. Since the medieval society's meeting this week was only about sewing costumes, we figured it would be the best one to miss. We wandered around looking for North Castle Street until we found the church.
Yes, almost everyone there could have been my grandparent, but they were very nice. This group was more experienced than the poor freshers at the ceilidh I attended at the student union. The demonstrator couple would do one or two repetitions of the step, and then everyone would join in. I danced three times with the male demonstrator. He was very good, naturally, and he asked me if I had danced before since I was able to cope with the ball-change step. (Thank you, Mom, for my ballet/tap lessons!)
A couple of times I danced with a really nice Asian man who is the best waltzer I have ever seen! I didn't have to think at all about what I was doing, even when we did the counter-waltz (going in the wrong direction). He did all the wonderful things like pushing me gently to give me momentum for my spins and holding his arm high to support mine. We were doing some tango steps, and when he found out it was my first time he told me I am a "natural dancer." Yay!
We stopped for tea and biscuits (cookies) halfway through and then continued. The lady who passed around the biscuits first tried to encourage people saying, "Get one before they disappear." Then she urged them, "Take two."
By the end of the session Laura and I were confident enough to get up and do the steps together. I was the gentleman because she didn't know much about how to waltz and polka. It got a little confusing when we did progressive dances and the men kept thinking I was their next partner. But it was a lot of fun!
There were a few other girls in their early twenties there too. I did a progressive waltz with one of them. She was very nice.
We may not go back to that church's ceilidh as it conflicts with the medieval society. But we heard from one of them that another church puts on something similar on Tuesday nights and that some young people attend too.
Even if I felt silly dancing with grandfathers and with other girls, I learned a lot about Scottish dance. I will be prepared for another ceilidh!
AM "buck" = BR "quid" (not in value but in that it's a slang term for the basic unit of money)
AM "movie" = BR "film"
Don't ask why I'm listening to Christmas music. I like it.
Current Mood:  cheerful
Current Music: Harry Connick Jr. "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer"
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