Happy Holidays!

In the last few days we have celebrated 2 holidays here in Ireland: Mother’s Day and St. Patrick’s Day.

This last Sunday was Mother’s Day, or “Mum’s Day” as they sometimes call it here, and so Leanna, Erin, and I were able to celebrate it by showing Mary, our host mom (or “second mom” as we’ve dubbed her) our appreciation. We bought her tulips, a card, and made a fabulous dinner of chicken pesto (I can say that without bragging because I didn’t exactly cook…I just made the salad :P ) Mary has been a wonderful hostess, and I couldn’t be more grateful to be staying with her! The four of us have passed the awkward stage of living together (though there wasn’t much of one to begin with), and get along quite nicely. We have dinner together nearly every night, which consists of a delicious meal made by Mary and talking and laughing about random things for about 2 hours. I love it! J

Our cute little family :)

And then there was St. Patrick’s Day. I was so excited…I was going to actually be in Ireland, the birthplace of the holiday! Unfortunately, it was not as grand as I expected it to be. I could be wrong on this, but from what I’ve gathered and noticed over the past few days is that while the holiday does celebrate the Irish, Irish men and women in America started the holiday, proud of their national identity. My guess is that people began to assume that since the day celebrated Ireland, that Ireland had the biggest celebration. In actuality, I’ve heard that Chicago and Boston make a bigger deal of it all, while Ireland struggles to live up to it’s expectations and impress the tourists…of which there are many. I’m pretty sure most of the Irish people just enjoy the day off of work and school, while the tourists and teenagers are the ones who get all dressed up and get completely inebriated. It’s quite sad to think about what the day has turned in to…especially considering that St. Patrick was a missionary to Ireland, who fasted and prayed for the country, introducing many to Christ. One thing that I learned in my Irish History class at the beginning of the semester was that during that time period when Ireland was “Christianized” Ireland as a whole experienced the most peaceful time in all of it’s history. Imagine that.

Anyway, I did still have fun celebrating the holiday. The day before a bunch of us went to one of the festival events and learned how to Irish dance. On St. Patty’s Day itself, I started off the day by going to the parade. It was rather disappointing…very low in energy and kind of strange. But then again, maybe I was just disappointed because I expected something spectacular after standing and waiting for 2 hours before the parade even started in order to get a good viewing spot. However, the day got better because I was able to go to both the championship hurling and Gaelic football matches at the historical Croke Park. Hurling and Gaelic football are native to Ireland, and while I didn’t understand the games at first, they were so fun to try to figure out, and it was a great cultural experience. Hurling is crazy…if you don’t know what it is already, and want to get an idea, check out this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpxXyEasAAA&feature=related. Following the hurling match was Gaelic football, which I really enjoyed. Picture a mixture of soccer, basketball, and American football. Or check out this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MH1pS3on6F8. Our tickets were really cheap and we ended up getting front row seats! After the games, we headed straight home to avoid the drunken mobs and ate a delicious traditional Irish dinner Mary made for us J

The cows were learning how to dance too...I actually danced with one of them!

The group decked out in green on St. Patty's Day

Waiting for the parade to start...

I don't know his name, but apparently this guy was the goalie for Ireland when they did really well in the World Cup

A high school marching band from Louisiana...what?

A giant egg getting chased by a cook...like I said, it was rather strange

Some man dressed in a chicken costume singing

Horses...anyone seen Monty Python and the Holy Grail? Haha...

At the game, enjoying digestive biscuits...and no, I don't have any digestive issues, that's just what people eat in Ireland...especially with their tea.

Hurling

The group that went to the game