by Arthur Milnes
Northern News Services

FORT SIMPSON (Aug 22/97) - A funny thing happens when you move from the Deh Cho across the sea to Scotland -- you start hearing from the Scots what a funny accent you have.

Of course, they deliver the news with the hearty accent only a Scot can provide.

Perceptions differ.

That's been the experience of Wrigley's Laureen Donaldson, who followed her husband, Malcolm, to Scotland more than a year ago.

Home for the summer, she stopped into the xxxDrum last week for a conversation about her Scottish adventure.

"The accent and the houses all made of stone and everyone driving on the left side of the road -- those are the biggest differences," she says of the changes one finds when moving from Wrigley to the Scottish town of Dalkeith. "They are very interested in where I'm from and they often ask if it's cold ... (and) they are very interested in native culture."

The former Wrigley justice of the peace and researcher for her First Nation, Donaldson moved to Scotland in May 1996 shortly after her marriage to Malcolm, whom she met while he served as Co-op manager in Wrigley.

"I said, 'Maybe I'll find a rich husband (if I travel overseas)' and he said, 'My brother is the rich one but you can have a poor husband right here,'" she says.

Malcolm still works in retail in Scotland, his family home, while Donaldson has been busy studying German and completing a writing course.

And, on this topic, she is promising to send home monthly columns to the xxxDrum so that all her friends and family in the Deh Cho can keep up with her and Malcolm's Scottish tour of duty.

While Donaldson says she is loving her overseas experience, she admits to becoming homesick sometimes.

"Just when my sisters call," she says before sending along a special message to her mom, Mary Neyelle. "(Tell her to) take care and be good."

Visiting everyone in Wrigley since July, Donaldson will be returning to Scotland Aug. 29.

Before leaving the xxxDrum office, she had to answer the fateful question: what is haggis (cooked sheep entrails) really like?

"I liked it," she says. "It kind of tasted like hamburger."

Take that Robert Burns.