Wednesday may eleventh

Wednesday may eleventh 2011
This morning we woke up at eight for breakfast then had a presentation at ten on the Gaelic speaking university we are staying at, Sabhal Mor Ostaig. The lecture was to describe the universities purpose and point. From what I gathered, the university exists to preserve and promote the language and culture. At eleven we had a tour of the campus. The cafeteria looks onto the ocean and the mountains, everywhere you go provides another beautiful scene. At 12:30 we had lunch then a lecture on political science. The lecture focused on the different political parties in Scotland. The way parliament was designed didn't allow one party to take majority. A few days ago, however, the SNP took the majority, providing an interesting lecture. Then at 3:00 we witnessed a debate between to professors about literature. We then had another professor share important poetry to Scotland. One of the poems, the Hallaig poem was recognized greatly by Ken as a very important poem in Gaelic. Afterwards we had a short break with tea, coffee and treats followed by poetry by very entertaining professor. His poetry was a little more modern and enjoyable in my perspective. After the poetry we had dinner. after dinner we had a class discussion on an article through the lens of anthropology on the topic of Scottish personal nationalism and identity. After the lecture we went to the old barn that had been turned into a bar/stage for a student exam. The exam was a music exam with about six or seven students with two fiddles, a guitar, two bagpipes, percussion, piano and voice. I was impressed by the majority or students who played multiple instruments. The performance of Gaelic music was inspiring and entertaining.  I enjoyed it very much. After the performance, some of the performers invited us to the bar just down the road. A bunch of us took a cab to the bar and talked to some locals. It wasn't until half passed eleven when we were informed that the last taxi came at eleven. This meant the rest of us were going to take the "just down the street" walk back home.. Two and a half miles later in the dark, rainy and very unpopulated road we landed ourselves back to campus safe and sound. When I approached the door to the building of my room, there were a group of students celebrating the night, one covered in toilet paper. It was strange. Also, I miss Mexican food sooooo much. It's weird the things you start to miss.