:BRIGHTSTUFF:..Personal & Political Musings & Rants by a Liberal Leftist Black & Asian Teacher

Our trip to Scotland was certainly a mind-altering experience to me.

Don't get me wrong--- I'm sure some ex-patriate Scot out there might say the same about New York City (where I currently reside) after staying here on vacation.

I felt embraced by the place the second we walked off the plane.

When you enter Glasgow, one thing that you notice is a smell that is not unlike the smell of almost-burnt toast. It's not an unpleasant scent, but it is distinctive.
I never figured out what the smell actually was, but we speculated that it was perhaps the smell of coal.

The day was gorgeous, and despite the fact that it was overcast, the sun shone gloriously as we landed into Glasgow's airport.

From the sky, I could see the land underneath me, laying across the landscape in a quilt of yellow, green, and pale purples. Spring was on the way in Scotland, and the landscape wasn't yet as technicolor as I wanted it to be. It was, however, quite astounding.

Clouds seem to hang low in great billowy tufts of white and grey all over Scotland, and you can see them casting shadows all over the mountains and countryside.

The sky itself seems so close that you actually feel that you could reach up and poke the clouds with your index finger.

The air felt fresh, and despite the burnt toast smell, I remember thinking how clean my lungs felt when I breathed in the cool Scottish air.

As my old man's uncle, Frank (a wonderfully kind elderly gentleman with an accent as thick as butter)drove us through Glasgow, my eyes were as wide as tea saucers with expectation and excitement...

Well...
I'm going to stop here and continue a bit later on.
My bed is calling me, and I want to go back to sleep.

To be continued...