Monday, July 2, 2007

Great Scot!


A quick post to bring us up to date. Soon as we got into town yesterday a huge thunderstorm broke loose, just deluging the camp. It was a proper mountain storm with thunder rolling down the valleys and "great wicked forkin' lightning," so said Joe, on of the scoutmasters from the Glasgow contingent. We have housing inside, but not everyone in camp does. After dinner we decided that with so many cool people around we should go a-visiting and just meet people, especially those brave folks who were out in the campsites, weathering the rain. Patrick, in a stroke of genius, decided to go grab an armload of Toberlone to sweeten our reception. Thus equipped we headed out into the stormy night, going from campfire to campfire meeting people and learning little bits of languages (Goodbye in Dutch is "Doo-ee", but most kids say "How-doo", they play a card game called "Hghricken", at least I think that's what it's called.) On the way back to the chalet we ran into the Scots scoutmasters again and were even invited in "fahr ah wee dram o'th Scotch." How could we refuse?

We're setting off hiking this morning and we have plans to go abseilling ("rappelling" for silly Americans who just have to be different) later this afternoon. Auf wiedersehen!!

Remember: We can't fit all the photos we upload into the blog. Be sure to pop over the Rambling Rovers flickr site for the whole selection.

Edit: James, I have you to thank. We were having a discussion of the history and mystery o' the Scotch and he mentioned that there was a great song about the excise man and the moonshiners. I asked "Gather up the pots and the old tin cans?" and was met by uproarious agreement. Sir, I raised a glass to you.

5 comments:

krystal said...

My mom was in Ireland this past month with family and their goal was to find as much authentic music as possible. She was impressed when I knew just about every song she learned. And it is all thanks to you guys. :)
Good luck on the hike.

Anonymous said...

Sounds like you guys are having an awesome time!! I'm definitely jealous, but amazed at how much you've already been able to fit in! Have fun with the hike.

~Julia~

Fidus Aelius said...

Alright, our knowledge of Irish traditional tunes comes to the forefront! My thanks, old friend!

Anonymous said...

The chalet looks like a great place to stay. Do hope your hike and rappelling went well. Did you find any other US scouts? Let us know soon where you have moved to. Stay healthy and safe! Mom

Anonymous said...

Dewds:
I have some friends currently in McMurdo (Antarctica), and Kaska grew up in Poland. Want some notes on what to do and where to go?
steve.white@usap.gov