Friday, December 4, 2009

The Homeland

Well, NaNoWriMo was a bust. But that's okay, I'm going to keep trucking. This was quite a big week though - I found out I get to go to Scotland for an archaeology dig this summer. I can't wait! I've been wanting to go to Scotland for, well, as long as I've known what Scotland was.

My great-grandparents came to the United States from Scotland. I've always been interested in British history. I'm most interested in the Classical World, but I just feel more of a connection to the UK since that's where much of my family came from. My last name is Scottish and there's a whiskey company with the name. I've been collecting memorabilia from the company since I first learned how to use ebay.

Back in college I worked at DisneyWorld for half a year. We often got guests from around the world, and folks from Britain were consistently the most friendly people. It made my desire to visit even stronger. Fast forward to 2008 when I participated in an archaeology dig in southern Italy. One of the crews I worked with was from Britain. They were wonderful. I couldn't help but notice that, generally speaking, they were more laid back, less drama, tended to talk more openly about things. Whereas many of the American crew members seemed to be more catty and thrive on drama. And the more I talked to them and learned about where they lived, the more I wanted to go.

I've been looking for a reason to go (as if just going isn't reason enough) for ages. It's tough to find travel buddies who are willing to commit the time and money to go with you, and people you could stand being with for that much time ;) I kept looking for tours, short-term school programs, archaeology digs, etc, that I could participate in.

Lo and behold I found the perfect dig! It's only two weeks long and quite affordable. It's 25 miles outside of Edinburgh (where most of my British friends live) so I plan to stay an extra week after the dig and visit friends while sight-seeing. It's going to be fantastic and I just can't wait! August will be a great month indeed. As a couple of my friends over there have said, "we're finally getting you to the homeland!" Indeed! :D

No comments:

Post a Comment