The day began at the Hutchesons’ Grammar School in Glasgow, Scotland with a great assembly where the school’s rector formally welcomed the guests from Colorado Academy. The highlight of the rector’s address was his recount of the weekend sporting outcomes, which was hilarious when he described a match that was cancelled due to a flooded pitch, entirely deadpan, a la a Monty Python skit. Then he turned it over to the morning speaker, who appealed to the student body for donations to help cloth kids who live in Chernobyl.
Jim McDougal, the Deputy Rector at Hutchesons’, took all of the Scotland exchange students on a great tour as only he can, full of funny quips and classroom pop-ins. There’s a great morning break where faculty actually gather and have a coffee and biscuits and just relax mid-morning.
Jim had all three of us sit in on his S1 Geography course which was hilarious as the roughly seventh-grade kids were really excited to have three live Americans in their midst. Colorado Academy exchange students juniors Jack Funk and John Barron are off to a great start and showing well. Both have grown immensely from this entire exchange process and it leaps out at their advisor.
When I parted with the boys after lunch, they were surrounded by a small pack of students and their hosts. I think they’re going to be just fine over the next few weeks. Everyone is so nice that we’ve met so far.