Post-Trip Reflection (Discussion #8)

Date: December 14th, 2018
Location: Hillhead Student Village, Aberdeen

Fairy Glen, Uig, Isle of Skye (My photo)

          It's December 14th and I'm just within reach of finally getting to go home. While there have been plenty of fun and exciting things to do, I've also grown and leaned quite a bit in my studies. This term was full of classes that weren't necessarily STEM related which allowed me to explore different ways of thinking. In my pre-trip post about what I am excited to learn and do, I talked about the different accents and what the language barrier might create as well as how the country has begun to modernize. After immersing myself and delving into these two topics, I explored how they fit into society but was also left with many questions.
          At the beginning of September, I discussed how I believed that getting to hear all the different dialects and languages will be most memorable due to my love of linguistics. Having now been exposed to such a diverse variety of languages for three and a half months, I have come back with a sense of confidence in exploring unknown places. One of the biggest barriers between mutual understanding is not just sharing a language, but also understanding it and its dialect. For example, my first post stated that the use of Doric, Aberdeenshire's native dialect, is widespread but this was just not the case. The main users of Doric were taxi drivers and the older generation, but why is it very rarely seen outside these two groups? Seeing as Aberdeen is home to three universities and two colleges, people from all over the world are constantly coming in and out. One reason why Doric may not be used as frequently with the younger crowd is due to the need to communicate quickly with people who may have a very limited understanding of English. The dialect is quite thick and full of terms that make very little sense to those outside the city, such as "foos yer doos" and "away an boil yer heid.". By simplifying English to try and remove or lessen the language barrier, the more complicated dialect starts to fade away.

Back Wynd, Aberdeen (My photo)

         The widespread modernism of the Scottish landscape was another topic that I talked about in my pre-trip discussion. Aberdeen is in the middle-eastern portion of the country, meaning that I could access both the rugged Highlands in the north and the updated cities such as Glasgow and Edinburgh in the south. During the pre-trip discussion, I supposed that Scotland ha gone away from its medieval and gothic look in favor of a more modern feeling. After exploring cities and heading up north to travel the Highlands, I found that most cities have retained the Gothic structure, with the industrial towns favoring the modern buildings with uncommon shapes and materials. An example of this is Dundee, a town right on the River Tay. The town is renowned for its massive buildings that stand several stories higher than the typical Scottish city. Its main port is surrounded by hotels that stand alone, the Ninewells Hospital, and the Dundee Science Centre. Each of these buildings is styled quite differently, and most are standing alone, meaning that they are not attached on either side to another shop, restaurant, or living space. This may not seem all that unique, but for Scotland, it is! Most cities have long stretches of buildings that are all attached to one another, much like a massive wall that lines a major street. Why are these style buildings so popular? One reason may be for architectural harmony within the city. With very few standalone buildings, that means that every block has a more homogeneous design. If this were not the case, there could happen

Beautiful ram, Uig, Isle of Skye (My photo)

to be two blocks next to each other with very contrasting styles. Despite this modern way of building and growing of cities, the people who reside there still cling to their ancient roots. The Highland Games are still held out in the rolling hills of farming lands and among the tightly packed walls are the ever-popular "family history" shops, where historians help families determine what clan they came from and their origins in the country. Seeing some modernization come to the Scottish landscape didn't mean that the Scots let go of their heritage.
          After looking back at my very first post about the worries and excitement I had coming into a new country, I found that many of the fears were unnecessary! The Scots in Aberdeen were friendly and helpful and provided much knowledge about the town and its history. Spending just over three and a half months in the country has helped me to grow in my cultural awareness as well as my passion to travel and learn more about the way people live.