Bounce-Hebridean Breeze

So I’ve been ‘in the field’ for one week now. I think I’m doing ok. First of all, hallelujah to pre-field visits. As painful as it was, being here for 6 months 6 years ago and for a month 2 years ago was a great investment, because I’m now able to move around with much more confidence and get myself out of the house by visiting people.

Of course I kind of got sucked into the bottomless pit that is Sunday on the Isle of Lewis. I’m very proud of myself for going to church all by myself, and sitting through an entire fire-and-brimstone sermon that I could actually understand since the preacher didn’t know any Gaelic. The regular minister was in Edinburgh for the opening of the new Scottish parliament, at which someone had decided there should be the ‘traditional’ singing of a psalm. It was a bit bizarre –the acoustics were horrible, so the singing sounded even more distorted than it usually does (it’s always struck me as the human equivalent of bagpipes), and I bet the Queen, who was there, had never even known of such a practice existing in her kingdom.

Anyway, I’ve always credited my experience sitting through Lewis church services for my ability to sit through long boring seminars, and so this time, I whiled away the time by checking out the hats [If you can believe it, I also wore a hat –a nice navy conservative one out of my collection of three hats specifically purchased for this purpose). My favorite number this time was a leopard-print polarfleece hat that was worn by a woman of about 70. Next to the candy eating that’s still rampant during the sermon (sometimes it’s hard to hear the preaching over all the rustling of candy wrappers), you really can’t fault people for being overly comformist.
The time after church was a bit of a drag, because there really isn’t much you can do. The beach is a bit too far fro my current accommodations to slink away for an unobtrusive walk on the beach, but at least I could turn on the TV without worrying about incurring the wrath of God –or rather, without anyone expressing this possibility to me. At least they don’t padlock the swings on the playgrounds any more.

But now it’s a regular weekday, and Lewis is back in the secular world for a bit. And the most amazing bit of news may just be the fact that it hasn’t rained since Friday. As a matter of fact, yesterday the sun was out and my laundry dried in a couple of hours on the line. I have to say, no chemical engineer will ever be able to capture the smell of laundry dried in the fresh sea air for the creation of Bounce-Hebridean Breeze.