Having just returned from visiting my relatives in Scotland, I discovered how two countries can share similarities but yet be very different.
Schools are just a small portion of the differences. While American middle and high school kids wake up early to get ready and catch the school bus, the Scottish kids are still asleep in bed. There, they don’t start school till around 8:30-9 a.m. They don’t have to worry about missing the school bus either. Some kids have to catch the city double-decker bus, but most kids walk to school. We wake up and dress ourselves in clothes we want and choose. They wake up and put on their school uniforms. Uniforms usually are black dress pants, white shirts, sweaters with the school’s logo on them and plaid ties. Those uniforms are for both girls and boys. Sometimes the girls have to wear plaid skirts. School usually ends around 4 p.m.
Edinburgh is Scotland’s historical capital. The population there is 250,000. The first thing one notices when arriving in this city is the smell…it smells old! But as you look around, you see cobblestone that is hundreds of years old, the historical stone and brick buildings and the dark, aged closes (tiny alley-ways). The smell manages to fit in with the city. As you walk up the Royal Mile, which leads to Edinburgh Castle, you can learn a lot about history. The castle was built in the 1400s. It was once the home of Mary Queen of Scots. The castle sits high on the ledge, and overlooks the whole city. The buildings are the same as they were hundreds of years ago; not much has changed there. Outside St. Giles Cathedral, in the cobblestone there is a heart made out of granite stone. This is the heart of Edinburgh. When you walk by, it’s good luck to spit on it. Scottish superstition?
Sports and athletics are important activities in almost everyone’s lives worldwide. Scotland’s national sport is football, or what we know as soccer. For such a small country, they have a remarkable record in international competitions such as the World Cup. The game of golf was invented in Scotland and enjoyed by the nobility as early as the 18th century. Scotland has countless golf courses; Edinburgh alone has 21 courses!
You haven’t experienced Scotland until you’ve had fish ‘n chips. While most food is the same as ours, families still have their traditional meals. Such meals include fish ‘n chips, haggis, mince ‘n tatties, stew and tea & toast. It’s pretty hard to find fast food there. Hopefully it stays that way.
Because Scotland has a lot of small towns and villages, families stay close together. Most are within walking distance of one another, and they rely on each other a lot.
People travel daily on buses. They use them within their own town and take them into the city. It’s much easier than taking a car, especially when gas is $5 a gallon!
We all think that the typical Scottish outfit is a tartan kilt, but in fact, any man seen wearing a kilt (outside of formal occasion) is usually an American tourist!
Although Scotland is 3,000 miles away, we still have similarities, but the differences are what make our countries unique.
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