Weekend in Banchory

This past weekend my friend Laurie (the other female NT PhD student here - from Seattle) invited me to visit her home in Banchory, a small village about an hour by bus from Aberdeen. I rode the bus down Friday evening, and met Laurie to go to a ceilidh (pronounced kay-lee), a Scottish dance that's sort of like square dancing. It was a lot of fun. Ceilidh's are popular events in Scotland, and this one was a fundraiser for youth mission trips this summer. I will admit - this was the only youth event I've ever been to that was BYOB! One of the trips is to Seattle, so there were American flags decorating the walls and some of the tables. (If you notice, the handpainted flag in the background of this picture has one too many red stripes. It caught my eye immediately, and Laurie noticed it as well. Too funny!)

The name of this ceilidh was "Any Excuse for a Ceilidh," and it was a very informal, family-oriented atmosphere, with little kids dancing with senior adults and the whole mix in between. A lot of the men were wearing kilts, and the featured instrument in the band was a fiddle. I danced several of the dances, though not well, I must say. But it was fun to try them. I sat out the most active dances, because of course I didn't know the steps. One of the coolest dances (which I was not about to try) was called a "helicopter". Two women and two men go into the middle of the circle. The women put their arms up over the shoulders of the men, and the men run around very quickly in a circle while the women's legs fly out from the motion (see below).

Anyway, my ceilidh pictures aren't the best, and definitely don't convey the atmosphere very well, but they're all I've got, so I'm posting them anyway. You'll notice in the picture of Laurie and me below that we're standing in front of Scotland, not America (by the way, that picture was taken around 1:00 am, after a lot of dancing, so that's why I look so rough).

So, I stayed at Laurie's cottage in Banchory friday night. We didn't get in from the dance until around 1:30 am. Saturday morning we got up and met a couple of her friends for what I understood would be a walk. It turned out to be a HIKE up to the top of a hill. I am so out of shape, so it was quite a stretch for me to make it to the top, but I did it. My face was so red and hot. But the weather was gorgeous - almost 60 degrees! That's unheard of in March in Aberdeen. The view from the top was quite lovely, very scenic, and thankfully the walk down was much easier.

Boy were my knees tired after that hike, and when I got up yesterday my legs and hips were so sore! I felt like an old lady trying to walk. But it was worth it - I had a blast out in the country for the weekend. Hopefully I'll be able to get back out there sometime, and go to another ceilidh. At least this time I' d be somewhat familiar with the dances. I still don't think I'd try the helicopter though!