Well, I returned from my home stay this afternoon so I thought my first post should be dedicated to that little adventure. Fellow American Emily Mulligan and I were given to Mike and Miriam Foley for the weekend. They live in Charleville, County Cork. They raise cows for dairy and for beef on a small farm there. Miriam picked us up from town on Friday evening. She was very sweet and friendly and when we arrived at her home we were greeted by Mike, who can't be more that 5 feet tall, and their dog Bruno. Miriam has a strong accent and Mike an even stronger one. We sat down to have dinner right when we got there. We had sandwiches with butter, mayo and ham (there actually weren't bad) and soup and of course tea. For dessert we had little individual size pies with raisins and some other ingredients I couldn't make out.
After, we watched TV with Mike and Bruno while Miri chatted on the phone with the neighbors. We watched a show about WWII and Mike explained some elements of the war to us, only half of which we could understand. He also told us that Henry Ford was Irish and so was the man who invented the hydraulic lift and put it on a tractor. In my time here I have learned that any American to do something great was Irish. Obama's mother's family is supposed to Irish as well.
Miriam came in later and we watched The Late Late Show, the longest running "chat show" in the world (It has been running since 1962). It goes on for two hours and the Irish host asks questions that an American host never would and they interview them for a while, so that's nice. After that ended we went to bed and all I can say is I love electric blankets. The main rooms in the house are heated with coal/woodburning stoves but the bedrooms are pretty cold. This makes the house seem really rustic but it looks very modern.
When we woke up the next morning, there had been a frost that had frozen the pipes. So no water. Poor Mike and Miriam could not get there usual farm chores done without the water. Ireland has not seen weather like this since 1947 so there is a huge commotion all over the country because there is not enough salt or grit for the roads and no plows or chains for tires.
Anyway we went out and met the cows and a big bull named Seamus. He was friendly and we pet him and his big rough tongue licked me. The little tiny Bruno ran around the farm and sniffed at the cows in their pens. Everything was white with frost so Emily and I took a walk and it was really beautiful. Even the cobwebs were covered with little crystals of ice. As soon as I get the USB cable for my camera I'll put them up. When we got back from our walk Miriam took us to town and were met two other girls I knew who were staying with Miriam's friend. We walked around a bit and took some pictures. We learned that a Bookmaker neither made nor sold books. It is a place where you make bets. We also went to a bakery when we found it was too cold to walk around and had more tea and a cupcake.
Back at the farm we ate again. Sheperd's pie and jello with ice cream. Then she served us cake. After that we worked on Miriam's computer. She was having all sorts of problems with it so we figured them out for her. The we watched a "money show," a game show to non Irish folk. To get on the show you buy a scratcher and if you get three stars on the scratcher you send it in and you enter a drawing to get on the show. There are several games, but no matter what happens you always win more money. You start the show with 10,000 Euro and when you mess up and don't go to the next round they give you more money for your trouble. Opps you didn't get the big prize but we're gonna throw in 2,000 more Euro.
The show ended and Mike played the accordion for us. He sang Irish songs and some Christmas songs we knew. Then we watched a movie and Miriam, who has a big sweet tooth gave us more sweets and "biscuits". (On a side note Cadbury makes everything here. It is very popular) Bruno has a sweet tooth as well and always eats whatever we're eating. He ate more sandwiches than I did that first night.
We went to sleep after the movie. We woke up the next morning and it was snowing. Still no water and the weather was set to get worse. In fact it is snowing even now. After breakfast we went to mass with Mike. It was the quickest and most efficient mass I'd ever seen. Everyone was in an out in forty minutes. The priest spoke so quickly I could barely understand him. Mike sang in the choir and you could hear his...unique voice and accent over the choir.
Then there was breakfast part two. A traditional Irish breakfast which is basically meat, meat and meat. There was ham, pork sausage and black pudding. Here is a link to the black pudding wikipedia page, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_pudding, so you can learn what it is. It isn't too bad, really. White pudding was worse. I don't even know what that is, but I ate it. There were also waffle potatoes and let's not forget, tea. Jello for dessert.
It was time to go back to Cork then so Miriam dropped us off in town where the bus met us. The roads were bad so it took us a couple of hours for the bus to get us home. Now back to the school routine. If you can think of anything typically Californian that I could send Miri and Mike, let me know because nothing comes to mind. I know this description was exhaustive but the little differences between Ireland and home are really interesting to me.
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