After five awesome, hectic, and educational months in
Europe, I am finally home – and it feels good. I missed my family, friends,
girlfriend, home, routine, car, bed, language (I consider Scottish a unique
dialect), weather, beaches, and most of all, California burritos. With that
said, my time abroad in Scotland and broader Europe was a once-in-a-lifetime
experience that I will always cherish. I was constantly learning, growing, and loving life. I consider Scotland my second home and am confident
that I will return in the future.
I finished my education at St. Andrews on May 13th
and departed for a trip I’ve referred to as the “Victory Lap” on May 16th.
I went to Dublin, Amsterdam, Ghent (Belgium), Paris, back to Scotland (to show
the family Edinburgh, St. Andrews, Isle of Skye, and Glasgow), and then Italy
to visit Sorrento, Minore, and Rome. The Victory Lap was filled with
bucketloads of stories, sights, and awesome people, but rather than
regurgitating my whole trip for you all, I’m going to focus on something else.
I’m going to share a few of my cultural observations from Scotland. Now I’m no
anthropology major (whatever that is anyways) and I’ve done no major research
on the subject; I’m just going to share what I noticed during my brief stint in
Scotland. My views may be skewed, biased, or just flat out wrong, but I hope
you found my observations interesting and enjoyable.
One of the most obvious contrasts is lingo and
I’m just scratching the surface. Here are some U.S. words and their
Scottish equivalents: Gas is called petrol, studying is known as revising, time
is on a 24 hour clock (what we call military time), knackered means tired,
freshman year is known as first year and so on, they “have a look” instead of
“take a look”, cheers is a way to say thank you (and I truly felt assimilated
when I mustered up the courage to say it in public), pissed means wasted (and
come on, this is Scotland, at first I had no clue why every was claiming to be
so dang angry at 9 AM, it turns out they were just drunk which is makes so much
more sense), aye means yes (never had the huevos to try this one, my voice is
nowhere near Scottish enough or deep enough), wee mean little or small amount,
and my personal favorite, to be “taking the piss” means to be joking and making
something less serious.
Let’s put this one in some context because it took me a
while. If someone cracks a joke or says something far fetched, their pal may
respond “Aye, mate are you taking the piss?” In my early days, I thought they were saying “taking a piss” so I decided to try it out one day. I
cracked a joke amongst a group of Scottish friends and proceeded to say,
“I’m taking a piss.” I was met with short period of dead silence and then
thunderous laughter. They were kind enough to explain the nuances of the phrase
me, but only after about ten minutes of gut busting. I would have done the
exact same thing if I were in their shoes. Imagine how bizarre it would be to
be with all your mates when some new, silly American dude comes in and casually
says he’s taking a piss. Yeah…they never really let that one go.
Now, let’s get on to a few infrastructure differences. Many
people know cars in the UK drive on the left side of the road and there are
typically roundabouts instead of traffic lights. But, I don’t think they
realize how hard this is to adjust to. It goes against everything I’ve ever
known and the concept of “stop, look, and listen” gets flipped on its head and
once again becomes a lifesaving device. Trust me, when you’ve been within 4
inches of those big red buses, you’ll be thanking mama for ingraining “stop,
look, and listen into your brain. Also, urinals don’t flush, they constantly drip
in a way that almost mocks that elderly man standing at the urinal for hours as
he regrets his decision to cancel his Flomax prescription. I don’t get if it
saves water or is cheaper or whatever; it just is what it is. Lastly, in the
USA, I’ve mastered the art of the light switch. If you need light, turn on the
switch, easy peezy. However, what I have yet to conquer is the art of the
outlet switch. Yup, you read that correctly, OUTLET SWITCH. Individual
electrical outlets have their own on/off switches, DEAL WITH IT. It’s no longer
a simple matter of: Is device plugged in? Check. Is device turned on? Check. In
the UK there’s a whole other step – checking the pesky outlet switch. My
college education allowed me to determine that that’s 50% more effort! So what
if this switch helps prevent electrical fires and infant electrocutions (and
the occasional high schooler electrocution); it’s more work! It took way too
many painful lessons of contacting the dean or warden to complain that my
outlets were not working, only to have them walk in to flip the silly outlet
switch on, for me to get the hang of outlet switches.
It's culture time! I find that no one sums it up better than
my biochemistry professor, Jim Naismith – the bolo tie donning, cowboy hat
wearing Scotsman. He loved America, LOVED IT. (Side note: when I say America,
I’m referring to just the USA. I used to believe this practice was just a self-centered
tendency of the USA itself. However, it turns out that all of Europe refers to
the USA as America as well.) I became the token “America Expert” in his class
and was called upon anytime he wanted to know something about the USA, whether
it was how we vaccinate/prevent tuberculosis or why In-N-Out is so great. He
even offered extra credit (the only extra credit offered during my time in
Scotland) to anyone who could deliver him Blue Corn Tortilla Chips from Texas.
Sadly, I was unable to take advantage of this opportunity, but I certainly
tried. Many of my Scottish and other international friends had similar curiosities.
Did my high school really have jocks and cheerleaders? Were there lockers? Do I
see movie stars all the time? What is the food like? While there are many
wonderful UK musicians, movies, TV shows, and pop culture icons, American
culture ABSOLUTELY DOMINATES the scene. Kanye West seems to be even bigger in
the UK than he is in the US. My non-US pals seemed to be more aware of the
current cultural and political happenings in the US than I was while I was in
Scotland. Some of them could even name all 50 states.
Yet, as always, there were some conspicuous differences. I
was stunned when I first turned on a TV in Scotland and heard extensive
profanity. There is less (if any) language censorship on national television
and drinking alcoholic beverages in commercials or on talk shows is
commonplace. Also, it seems like people are less afraid of being sued or
politically attacked. The Scots are more open and honest, in a refreshing sort
of way. This did lead to some surprises though. During my briefing on legal
differences in Scotland versus the US during my abroad orientation a police
officer came in as a guest speaker and blatantly said, “Yeah, we stereotype.
It’s a great way to identify criminals.” My jaw dropped at that moment, but
then I remembered I wasn’t in America anymore. Yes, we know police in the US
stereotype, but an officer would incite outrage if he/she were to casually say
it in a public setting. Finally, I would there is a cultural difference that I
would love to export to the US. When hitting the town for a night out, large
groups of friends dress up in ridiculous costumes, seemingly just for the hell
of it. Imagine seeing a huge group of Waldos or twenty Smerfs breaking it down
on the dance floor, it’s absolutely hilarious.
Here are some highlights from my "Victory Lap"
Dublin
Amsterdam
Ghent
Paris
Scotland
Italy
And if you happened to scroll through that obscene quantity of pictures, here's the snippet video!
As this entry brings a conclusion to my journey abroad, it also brings a conclusion to Hilborn’s Haggis. It was an awesome experience and never in a million years would I have considered that I might actually enjoy this whole blogging thing until I tried it. I may even maintain one for some other purpose in the future. With this in mind, I would greatly appreciate some feedback on what you liked, what you bored you to death, and things that I could do to improve my blogging skills in the future. Thanks so much for staying tuned and for all of the support I’ve received for this blog along the way.
Love,
Adamthefish