Twenty-three students were led by three professors to The Burn, a country house at Edzell near Brechin, which is few miles north of Dundee. Lyon, Jacqueline (Taiwan), Afka (Netherlands), Tali, Andi, Alex, Walt, Greg, Neetha, Kevin, Sureni, (U.S.) Chad (Canada), James W., James Brown (Scotland), Naoise, Finnoula (Ireland), Jessica (Switzerland), Jennifer, Isabel (England), Magalia (German), Iason (Greece), Christian (Norway), and myself joined University of Edinburgh lecturers Dr. Chad Damro, Dr. Mark Aspinwal (U.S.) and Dr. Annicka Bergman (Sweeden) for a 2 day 2 night academic and social weekend. Our gracious hosts opened up the 18th century manor home - one dedicated to educational groups from all over the world.
We arrived about 5pm - explored the old home, checking out all the interesting nooks and crannies, the sitting rooms and the marvellous art, regal stairwells, entry ways and architecture. The bar - open very limited hours - opened and we indulged in a pre-dinner drink. Dinner was served at 7pm - Mince and Tatties, and then we all moved into the large sitting room, started a fire, and Chad hosted 2 rounds of mock ‘Question Time’, a popular British show that brings experts and the public together to discuss topical political or social issues. It was a great laugh and our panel did great!
We drank far more than we needed to I am sure, but at the end of the day, we stared at the beautiful star-filled sky, listened to the roar of the river and had great conversations about sex, politics and humanity. We are SOOO smart when we are drinking, I’m sure we solved the world’s problems before we went to bed, unfortunately, no one remembered the next day.
Saturday morning we had breakfast at 9:00am - most made - and then we had a 3 hour International Relations Simulation. I know I am a nerd, but I LOVE stuff like this! We had to role play - Diplomats, Peacekeepers, Refugee Relief Workers, Human Rights Workers, Provision of Aid workers, and try to problem-solved an implement a plan to help ‘Zadora’, a country divided into the power-holding Balboans, the most populous Achoa, and the resource rich but ethnically unlike the other two Kikuyas. The two main issues that seem to arise - the immediate and short term plan tended to need to be more aggressive, perhaps more interventionist but the long term plan and ideals discussed tended to promote non-intervention and self-determination. Nevertheless, we enjoyed ourselves and had a great learning experience.
A run for me, a walk and or soccer for others and others yet took a nap for their free time, but we returned as a large group when the bar opened. Dinner was fish and chips and then it was a massive and fun Pub Quiz! Mahalia, Jennifer and Iason did most of the work making it, but since I typed it and therefore knew all the answers, I was the reader for the evening. Four teams of 6 including the lecturers made for good size teams. The lowest score each sub-round had to act sing a song (Dancing Queen) or act out ‘light bondage’ which made for some laughs and surely some great pictures (which are coming). Fast forward to midnight - The final results…
- Gigalos 82 points
- The Others 81 points
- The ‘Burn’ Outs 79 points
- Norfolk & Chance 77 points
It was hysterical to hear the conversations and different nationalities asserting themselves as experts on this or that, be it history or the Simpsons.
From there it was downhill. The wine flowed and the cigarettes were doled out, and even more (incoherent) conversations about sex, politics and humanity - popular themes of the weekend! Unfortunately for me, I can rarely turn down a conversation on any of these topics, and I was up until 4:00am - but, on the early end of those who went to bed believe it or not. I won’t even describe how tired we were at the 9:00am breakfast and 10:00am departure.
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