Did you all eat haggis and wear your plaid to observe Burns day today? Dear Robbie Burns is probably Scotland's greatest poet and is known as "Scotland's finest son." His poems give a vision of the everyday life of Scots in the 1700's and of their fierce spirit. My favourite Burns poem was written as if Robert the Bruce was giving a speech to his troops before the battle of Bannockburn - a great victory for the Scotts against England. To me, it could just as easily be about the American spirit as well. A grand call to freedom at any cost. It is called Scots, Wha Hae (translation - Scots, who have) and here is a snippet:

By Oppression's woes and pains!
By your Sons in servile chains!
We will drain your dearest veins,
But they shall be free!
Lay the proud usurpers low!
Tyrants fall in every foe!
Liberty's in every blow!
Let us Do - or Die!!!

On another Scottish cultural note, I attended a concert last night that was part of Glasgow's Celtic Connections music festival. The festival is huge with several large concerts every night for two weeks and a multitude of smaller concerts, workshops, and events during the day. This concert was the fiddle band "Fiddlers' Bid" and they were amazing. Awesome Scottish music that had people dancing up front and every toe tapping. Fiddlers' Bid aside, however, the evening was not quite what I had expected.

The concert was scheduled to start at 8:30 and was held at a venue called the Barrowlands in downtown Glasgow. The hall was full of character with a wood floor, small bar on the side, and seating at tables on the dance floor. When we arrived, late by American standards, the hall was still only 3/4 full and we got good seats, bought a drink, and wondered when things would get started. About half an hour later, an announcer got things started, by announcing some other band. "Ah" I thought, "a group to get the crowd warmed up and ready for the main act." Silly me, I actually thought it would be in the same genera as Fiddlers' Bid. Those of you who know me and my musical tastes will be quite amused to know I spent the next hour or more listening to a French rapper (yes, it was all in French). It was so ironic I had to laugh. Here was a French rap group, with a middle eastern lead singer, a black backup singer performing at a Celtic music concert in Glasgow. When they had finally finished, there was a forty-five minute break before Fiddlers' Bid finally started. By then, the hall was standing room only. All said and done, I didn't get back to my flat till after 2:00 in the morning.

Hopefully the next concert I am attending, on 2 February, will start out a bit easier on the ears. It is also part of Celtic Connections and the group is called the Dubliners. I decided to go to their concert based solely on their picture - they just look too Irish to pass up. I guess they are on their 5th decade performing, and are quite famous. Talking to our taxi driver last night, he had never seen them, but "had got drunk to their music in many a pub."

Last Friday night, the CU (Christian Union) at the vet school had a get together at the leaders' flat. We hung out, talked shop, watched Pirates of the Caribbean, and just chilled. I had made cookies to take, and boy did they disappear fast. It still seems strange to me that home baked cookies are so novel. Only Americans here seem to bake. As one girl put it "my friends mom makes cookies also: She's from American too"

That reminds me of a little language tidbit that I find interesting. If I talk about home or where I am from I usually refer to it as the US or United States, but everyone here refers to it as America. As in "are you from America?" For some reason that sounds very colonial to me. Like they still see it as a new frontier, or somewhere to which relatives went and were never heard from again. Play with the terms yourself and see if it sounds a bit strange to you.

On the vet side of things, I have had a new lecturer recently in Biomolecular who really puts things in perspective. Before Dr. Stear I had never really considered the beauty and enticement of Cholesterol. Now my eyes have been opened! Did you know that there works out to have been one Nobel prize given for every 2 carbon atoms in Cholesterol (27 carbon atoms and 14 Nobel prizes.)! Truly this is a molecule above all other molecules. (Sadly, I am not exaggerating Dr Stear's passion for this molecule. He really does seem to expect that we will all feel that way and he really does say things like "I hope you can now all see what a truly exciting molecule Cholesterol is.")

Additionally, I have become an expert in five layer barn insulation techniques I even know that glass fibre (fiberglass) insulation has a thermal conductivity of 0.040, making a layer 75-100mm think suitable for the floor of a controlled environment building for piglets over 15 kilos liveweight. Yeah, I figured you would be glad to know that piece of trivia. The really sad thing is that in out first 3-hr lecture on animal housing, we only make it 1/4 of the way through the handout. Oh the joys remaining ;)

I had best sign off as it is quickly approaching time to crash for the night. I hope you are having a wonderful year so far, and I apologise to all those friends I was not able to visit over the holiday.

One other note, for those who are in suspense, I passed all my term exams with "Honours!"

God bless,
Rebecca