Life with the Oldfields

Thursday, February 15, 2007

Scottish Country Dancing is actually cool

I'm a little late on blogging about this but on Saturday we dragged some friends to a bowel cancer fundraiser being organized by our neighbor, Virginia. The fundraiser consisted of the usual raffle tickets, prizes, and even an auction.... however, the main event of the evening was a proper Scottish Ceilidh. A ceilidh is basically a bunch of people coming together to do Scottish country dancing which is a mix between line dancing and square dancing. You're thinking "lame" right? Oh no, my friend.....it is soo the shiznit. People here take this stuff very seriously and anyone who's anyone does it. Even Jeff!!! Check him out with the ladies. (Oh, and Jeff was going to wait until we came home to let people see that he got glasses but I've ruined the surprise. Doesn't he look über intelligent?) Anyway, back to the ceilidh. Now when I say that everyone does it, I mean EVERYONE. The kids actually learn these dances during PE all the way through elementary, middle and high school. It's quite eerie when the caller (the guy who calls out what dance we'll do next and leads the music) calls out the name of the next dance and everyone just gets into position. Us Americans had a hard time but it's easy enough to catch on if you're dancing with someone who knows what they're doing. The highlight of the evening had to be this AMAZING dancer that Allison and I fell in love with. I know, I know... he's not exactly in his prime, but there is seriously something sexy about a man who knows how to lead a woman on the dance floor. ;-) Oh the joys of Scottish country dancing! The greatest thing is that we'll be doing this again fairly soon at the St Mary's ball except this time we'll be dressed to the nines as it's a black tie affair. How fun!

Sunday, February 11, 2007

Anxiety

You know what I didn't expect?...the very mixed feelings that would come with the prospect of moving home this summer. And we'll definitely be moving home home. Jeff's heard that they've offered the Canadian job to someone else so we have no more prospects at the moment. We're planning then to move home this summer and get jobs to save up some money while he keeps applying. Don't get me wrong; I am really excited to see friends and family but it's really weird that we'll be leaving the UK for good.... I mean it's been our home for the past 5 years. Will I seem strange to people back home with all my British ways? I mean I know that I've changed a lot since we left the US in more ways than just my accent and the words I use. Will I be a foreigner in my own home town?