Final message from Scotland

Sorry for the delay in posting this final message from Scotland. Life’s been hectic here at home!

From the Edinburgh airport:
While here, I've
--seen crazy Irish dance styles. Dresses span a large spectrum now. The latest thing seems to be very ornate dresses, sans Celtic knotwork, with a traditional shawl on the back. The shawls are pinned as are McTeggart school costume shawls, but they are dotted with glitter and sequins and metallic embroidery. They're very cool. Some dresses are returning to velvet now, too. The prettiest one I saw was a rich fuschia velvet with white Celtic knot embroidery (the only dress with Celtic knotwork), lots of rhinestones, and a traditional (though VERY sparkly) shawl on the back. Wigs are larger, with a beaded/glittered/bedazzled headband instead of tiaras or crowns. Also, wigs are changing a lot I didn't see too many of these, but two girls were wearing wigs that looked like cute 1950's hairstyles. Like Olivia Newton-John in Grease if she had curled her hair a little more. I'll have to find a photo of that hairstyle to show you. They were few and far between, but SO cute. I couldn't take my eyes off of one girl who had the 1950's wig---not really because of her dancing, but the hair just moved in such a pretty way
–realized that English is not the same in every English-speaking country. I thought I’d be right at home in Scotland because people speak English, but the accents were so thick that I felt like they were speaking a completely different language. I had to ask one woman at an internet café to repeat herself three times when she asked the simple question “Would you like ice in your drink?”. Scotland is just as much a foreign country as Poland. I might have been a little more comfortable in Poland, actually. At least there I couldn’t claim that I knew the language–I had an excuse for not understanding!
–been astounded on several occasions by people of Chinese or Indian descent speaking English with a thick Scottish brogue. Never thought I’d see the day when a slight Chinese woman spoke English to me with no trace of a Mandarin accent, but with an unintelligible (to me!) Scottish accent. It was a learning experience.
–realized that Irish dancing is absolutely amazing. I’m so blessed to be a part of the McTeggart School, and so blessed to have been given the opportunity to attend the Worlds. Irish dancing is so intricate, so detailed, so energetic, exciting, innovative...just breathtaking. There is so much more to Irish dancing than what we see in Lexington. Keep working, girls and boys. Practice hard. It will be so rewarding when you reach the levels of dancing that I witnessed. And you can. I can’t wait to be home and get to work!