On the Way to Belfast

hi everyone,
i am at the airport wasting a bit of time on a very painful internet station so this will b short, sorry about the mistakes.
we had an amazing day yesterday, we did glasgow proud by going everywhere and doing almost everything! my favourites were st. mungo's cathedral (could have spent allllll day there), the necropolis (so many great photos), the gallery of modern art (very cool & free), and the burrell collection (lots of famous stuff in there). by the end of the day yesterday we were totally exhausted.
today we are off to belfast! i will write more later.
xoxo
elaan

ps how are my babies tracy?

Glasgow

Ok, now I know I just emailed everyone, but rest easy knowing that I won't be filling your inboxes with minute-by-minute detailed messages of our every waking move.

Christine & I got a great sleep last night and had a decent breakfast this morning, made up our itinerary for the day and headed out... only to discover that it is a Glasgow city holiday today and everything is closed.... which severely limits our options! So in order to regroup and figure out what we're doing today, we stopped in this little internet cafe, and the rest is history.

Turns out the museum and art gallery we saw yesterday was rated #1 of the things to see while in Glasgow -- cool! We are boggled over the fact that not only was it free admission, but we were allowed to take photographs everywhere inside. There was some cool stuff, I only wish I was more coherent.

Talking to the Scots here reminds me of talking to Newfoundlanders... you KNOW they are speaking English, but you can't get a handle on 100% of what they are saying. We have found that the older people are harder to understand, but maybe it's more of a factor of origin rather than age. We will see... I wonder how it will be once we get to Barra.

Tomorrow we head back to the airport and get on a domestic flight to Belfast, where we are staying overnight. It's the only part of the trip that won't be in Scotland. We plan to pretty much do a day tour while we are there, have dinner in a pub (maybe have a Guinness?) and then head back the next morning... and pretty much get straight on the plane to Barra.

Ok, well we are off on our Glasweigan adventure! Hope y'all are well! :)
Elaan

We have arrived!

Hello everyone,

Just a quick email to let you know that Christine and I have arrived in Scotland safe and sound! Well, safe, anyways... we basically haven't slept since we left, so we are a wee bit tired and zombie-like. We hope to get a fresh start on the day tomorrow.

As for the flight, it was bearable considering that we had a 2 hour delay in Vancouver, an hour delay in Calgary, it was freezing, you had to pay for blankets and headphones, and the food made us, well, unsettled. Apparently others felt the same about the food because about 45 minutes before landing in Glasgow a kid threw up (and I mean, really explosive projectile vomit... sorry for the imagery there hehe...) in the seat right in front of us, and that started a chain reaction. In total, 5 people were sick on the plane before we landed! Those poor flight attendants, they sure earned their money on that flight. I was fine though, I actually thought it was mildly amusing and kept thinking of that old movie "Airplane" with the guy with the "drinking problem".

Anyways. We are in Glasgow, birthplace of my grandmother! We had dinner at a lovely pub, the place we are staying seems clean and decent, and we are starting early tomorrow to do some serious sightseeing. We spent part of the afternoon today in an amazing museum and art gallery... but there is lots more to see other than the dingy streets and general disrepair that reminds us just a little bit of East Vancouver.

Hope y'all are well, will update you again when I can! :)
Cheers
Elaan

The Last Queen of Scotland

I might go to Scotland this summer. If I can afford it. I am tempted to just buy a plane ticket and "work the rest out" later, but I am fearful of including things like food & shelter in my oversight.

Hmm... to go or not to go. If I go, I will attend my clan gathering in July:
http://the-macneils.org.uk/
Looks cool! :) I guess I should try to book accomodation on that tiny island first before I book my flight there... hate to be found sleeping on the beach!

Other things to consider...?

Intimidating words

Intimidating words I read in my first article assigned for my MEd class:

eulogistic
de jure
despotically
capricious
insuperable
incommensurability
flux
inure
antithetical
obverse

Since I spend my day with teenagers, I barely get to use a word above 2 or 3 syllables... so in a way, this is a refreshing change. Or at least that's what I was thinking by the end of the first page of the article. After a few more pages, when my eyes teared up and I had shaken my head to clear it before reading a paragraph over for the umpteenth time to try and ascertain some vague meaning from it.. I decided that plain language would be better. Hey, who knows, maybe this course will make me smarter?!! :P If not more intelligent, surely a more adept thesaurusizer (is that a real word? who cares, it's 5 syllables!!).

John Dewey: Democracy in Education

In response to John Dewey's Democracy in Education

Throughout his historical recounting of the examination of education, Dewey seems to criticize either the means or the aims with which society has attempted to find primary value in the educational process. Either the creative and unique nature of the individual is stifled in order to serve an economic or nationalistic purpose, or the societal framework is insufficient to support the kind of development needed to be in harmony with nature and “truth”.

Dewey leaves us with a challenge to reconcile our own aims and means. He promotes an open communication amongst all peoples and a dialogue that transcends borders and politics. Dewey also supports a system that will allow individuals to flourish and capitalize on their own strengths, which in turn would naturally support societal growth, change and progress:

“Accomplishment of this end demands not only adequate administrative provision of school facilities, and such supplementation of family resources as will enable youth to take advantage of them, but also such modification of traditional ideals of culture, traditional subjects of study and traditional methods of teaching and discipline as will retain all the youth under educational influences until they are equipped to be masters of their own economic and social careers.” (p. 11)

I have created a monster

I have created a monster. She may not look that scary, but boy is she ever predictable with her prey. At first when she seemed interested in the water dripping from the bathroom sink, I thought it was cute. Now I can't even walk PAST the bathroom and she's bounding in there meowing like crazy until I turn the tap on for her. And it has to be just so, as seen here.