Cockles and Mussels

This morning I conversed with a German lady staying in the hostel who is here in Ireland "making a holiday." Actually, there are no Americans in the hostel...or even English speakers. Everyone here seems like the have been here for a very long time and the seem to be staying indefinitely. They have all taken advantage of the relaxed EU policies on immigration and work visas and are here trying to get jobs so that they can improve their English, move back home and get better jobs. In the mean time, I'm a bit of an outsider here.

I set out for some adventuring this morning and I saw that intriguing directional sign that you see to the right. I followed the sign to come across the unattractive little church that you see in the photo to the left. It's in the center of the city surrounded by pubs. I ventured inside through the automatic sliding glass doors, past the confession boxes with doorbells on them, past the very decorative holy water fountain that you see below, back to a corner of the church where a boldly colored statue and a little old box were marked "Relics of St. Valentine." I would have taken a picture of that too, but there were actually a lot of people in the church praying and I was wearing sunglasses and a t-shirt with a skull and crossbones on it, so it felt like it might be the wrong time to whip out my camera.
You remember when I said I was wearing sunglasses and a t-shirt? That was appropriate for about 25 minutes and then it started pouring rain. I reached for my umbrella only to discover it was not with me. Actually, I'm not sure where it is on second thought...I better investigate that.

Twice now I've been into restaurant bathrooms that are lit only by black lights. This is presumably to display how clean the facilities are...or just to confuse drunk restaurant patrons...I'm not sure which.

The other night an Irish bloke asked me, "So what exactly is Thanksgiving?" I tried my best to explain about pilgrims and Indians without getting too much into genocide and racism...I added that it's basically a day set aside to over eat and wake up early to watch a televised parade...When explaining the Thanksgiving feast I got the follow-up question of "Isn't that just the same stuff that you eat on Christmas?" I said yes and he asked "So you just have the same big family feast twice in a one-month period?" I said yes. Odd holiday now that I think about it.

Here are some more things that Irish people say:
--Fair play meaning well done, or good job...someone said this to me, I didn't understand what they were saying and I took it to mean something very different...we cleared it up though...it's a good story, I'll tell you some time.
--That's Class meaning that's cool
--That's Gas also meaning that's cool
--Biffo meaning hillbilly. It stands for Big Ignorant Fuck from Offaly. County Offaly is like the designated hillbilly zone in Ireland that all the other Irish people make fun of. When I tell people that I visited the town Birr the reaction, invariably, is "HA HA HA you went to Offaly!!!"
--Like... you know? sometimes just "like" or sometimes just "you know" but they say these words more than the average California Valley Girl...they tack it onto the end of the phrase though, where a Valley Girl would put it in the middle of the phrase. For example, a Valley Girl might say "I like, went out for a burger. It was, you know, really good" and an Irish person would say "I went for some fish n' chips like, you know? It was grand, like."

And a really good Irish quote:
"You just go anticlockwise. Anticlockwise is the opposite of uncle clockwise."

Tonight is the night for watching Riverdance and interviewing Niamh O'Connor, so I'm sure I'll have some really embarrassing story to tell you tomorrow.

To conclude, let me point out that there are just eight days until my 21st birthday. This is what I want, it's now just a matter of which one of you will be buying it for me: CLICK HERE!!

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