Andi & Anne's Gaelic College Adventures
Day 4
8/12/02 Tuesday

After our romp in Glace Bay we were tired and went right to bed. They have a nice tradition at the Gaelic College called “Night Lunch” – essentially snack time for adults! Always goodies – cookies, cake, pudding, little sandwiches, fruit. You never knew what it was going to be. Juice, coffee and tea for drinks. But we had missed it that night. Oh well

Tuesday dawned with the sound of the bagpiper as it did everyday at 6:45. We always missed it! LOL! But every day dawned in our room with the contents of Andi’s bed either on the floor or thrown at me! I don’t know if it worked every night but there’d always be at least ONE pillow tossed at me during the night. Poor Andi.

Tuesday’s bodhran session had us doing jig rhythms and trying to do “the foot thing” while playing. Everyone up here taps their foot while playing, some more vigorously than others. It was like rubbing your tummy and patting your head at the same time – not possible for me right now! This bodhran class remains my favorite of the day. Michelle talked about what a good bodhran player Lucy MacNeil is. She played several tunes from Racket in the Attic so we could hear different techniques. She also told us about meeting her favorite bodhran player (from an Irish band) and feeling like a school girI. He found out that she has a bodhran making business and asked her to make one for him – gave her his address and phone number. She said she felt like screaming! LOL!

I questioned Ian about the foot thing today and said if I tried that then my bow arm wouldn’t work. He told me he had played about 5 years before he could do it properly. Okay, I don’t feel so bad then. We worked on Stan Chapman’s Jig for the second day and I almost have it. The other girl has transferred up to Intermediate and Dean and I are “it.”

I must admit that I didn’t practice the chanter last night and it showed today! Hard to hide in a class of one as Jim W. has gone to the next level class today. We worked hard and I finally was able to do a “g” grace note up and down the scale. Poor Alisdair! I am making him earn his money this week! He released me a tad early since I was a class of one and had monopolized the whole time. Plus it was all both of us could hack for one day! Lunch was good as usual.

After lunch Ceilidh was nice. Here are some pics from some of them. I get mixed up which day was which so you get almost all of them here:
The "foot thing" in evidence. Jean MacNeil has an excuse - after all, she is a Step Dance Instructor. But look at Mac and Ian's right feet! LOL! Jean is the mother of the Barras and lives here on Cape Breton
Gaelic song is sweet at the Gaelic College, although most of the songs were laments.
Michelle demonstrates use of a different kind of tipper and shows how the sound changes according to where you have your hand on the goat skin.
Two of the instructors delight the audience in appreciation for the Highland dance. Thought I was in Brigadoon!
Susan and Carl entertain with jigs and reels. The piano players have it hard because half the time the fiddlers can't tell them which tunes they are playing! LOL! There is a definite art to accompanying the fiddlers here!
Scottish Small Pipes have a sweeter, quieter sound than the Great Highland Pipes.
Mac has a relaxed way to step dance. Susan and Carl play for him
Andi and I brought the hot weather with us from home. Several days it was too hot to have a celidh in the sun, so it went inside to the Hall of the Clans. Here is Wendy MacIssac playing some tunes.
Afternoon class was spent meeting Wendy MacIssac for the first time. She had been in Montreal doing a show the day before and Stan Chapman had taken her place. I missed Stan since I had stayed two periods with Carl yesterday afternoon. Wendy was a dream come true. She learns best by listening and was willing to work with me on that. *sigh* Finally found my niche! She was extremely patient with Elaine and Andi and was also with me, trying to figure out where exactly I was in the continuum. What a treasure!

In Carl’s class we continued to work on Morag. I have it down but Andi and Elaine are working on it. Carl is a sweetie but doesn’t seem to know what to do with us! LOL!

Both Andi and I were going through computer withdrawal since there was not one available on campus. We had brought the ridiculously hot weather with us from home. I thought we’d get some relief in Cape Breton and Newfoundland but this was not to be. The 90 degree plus temperatures were playing havoc with the Computer Access Center (CAP) on campus and they have no air conditioning. They had to shut down in mid-morning because of the heat. Andi and I were dying to get to use a computer so we hatched a plan to invade Baddeck at dinnertime to find access, hoping there was a CAP site there. We were prepared to go to Sydney even so we could do this! On to Baddeck!