Week 4 – Mon – Thu

I am writing this on Friday morning and first wanted everyone to know that I was safe, in Ireland, and thankfully nowhere near the terrible events in Nice, France last night. Before I left for Ireland I decided I was not going to France or Brussels because of terrorism threats present there. So sad about what happened!

Had a fairly busy but largely uneventful week. I went to a musical called ‘Once’ with some of the students, only to realize I had seen it before. Oh well, it was fun to see it again in Dublin. Other than that a bunch of us went on a pub crawl Tuesday where there was great music but very large crowds. Dublin seems to be getting busier as the summer progresses. I guess it is simply the vacation season hitting high gear. Last evening before the final dinner, the class went on a 1916 Rising Tour to see all the sites that were so prominent in the important rebellion. One other thing that has been happening with my classmates recently has been an obsession with a new game they are playing on their phone’s, called Pokémon Go. I don’t want to even see what it is all about but it appears to me the addiction rate is very high!

Just to review how my courses work, I am taking 2 separate four week, 3 credit history classes and the first one ends this week. Our last day of history class with our professor Niall Coffer was Wednesday (I know that doesn’t sound like an Irish name but he says his ancestors came here in 1350 from France and he has a brogue, so that’s good enough for me). Niall has been great and I will miss him and his humor. On Thursday the Director of the program did a debrief for all 29 of us who took the first class, but especially the 20 people who will not be taking the second class and will be leaving Ireland in the next few days. Many of the young people I got closest to are among those 20 departing, so the final dinner last night was sad at times, between laughs. Oh well life goes on! Next week the remaining 9 of us will be joined by 8 new students. So I get to view 8 new incredulous faces when they see this old fart for the first time in class next week. The irishsummerofbill goes on! One thing the program Director stressed in the debrief was to tell those departing, especially the girls, to please reframe from saying things like “pass the fookn salt” when they get back to the dinner table at home. He told them to put their language filters back in place and remember they are not in Ireland anymore.

One more thing for all those interested in the size of my ‘belly’ after all the Guinness and other good high carb stuff I am eating. In fact, my friend and former NGC coworker Kurt asked if I was pregnant again in a recent email. Officially, I don’t know the answer to the question because I have not had the opportunity to get on a scale in a month. I think I am doing okay because my clothes still fit very comfortably and the waist on those pants are 5 inches less the pants I wore when I was pregnant. I have averaged almost 16,000 steps a day since I arrived in Ireland so I am crossing my fingers that activity is offsetting the bread, potatoes, and Guinness. So I am hoping I am still just fat, not morbidly obese!

I will be in Prague this weekend, returning Monday night. I will try to post on the Blog again Tuesday.

Ireland facts:

-In Ireland a college education is free to all students

-Ireland’s corporate income tax rate is only 12.5% and that is why they have so many multinationals with a large presence here

-a county town is what we call a county seat

Pictures:

Some of my favorites from class on stage at the Olympia Theatre before the performance of Once; The Quay Bar during the Dublin pub crawl; The Garden of Remembrance that is dedicated to all the patriots through the ages who fought for Irish freedom.