19 March 2007
Well, I have experienced real Irish weather. The big Weatherman was taking it easy on me before, softening me up before the big hit. A sucker punch to the meterological gut. Sunday, it was pouring rain (called a “flogging rain” here) and then it started hailing and then the sun came out while it was raining and hailing all at the same time and it was seven degrees celcius outside (which is cold when you’re used to 12 or so). Beautiful, eh? My umberella flipped so much that it was completely useless. I figured out that moment why it is that you see umbrellas always discarded in litter bins or left on the side of the roads… umbrellas are weak sauce. A joke. God: 1, Umbrellas: 0.
That was Sunday. St. Paddy’s day night was spent hanging out at the pub in the lobby of the hotel because they had a traditional music band! It was so delightful to hear some fiddle and jigs. The band consisted of a fiddler, a squeezebox player, and a guitarist/whistle player. They were amazing. And the company was good, if a little rowdy. My friend Mark let me try a little sip of his Irish Whiskey. It was good the second sip, but the first sip tasted kind of like carrots and nail polish remover. The second sip was quite tasty though. I talked to a couple at the bar from Limerick about dancing. The woman, Caroline, loves dancing, but her boyfriend Mark, thought dancing was kind of “gay”, so we tried to convince him that girls love a guy who dances. I don’t think we were successful, but I really wish I had my fav dance partner there to show off some of our amazing moves. But alas…
Sunday, my friends Laura, Sarah, Ann, and I went to head to the wild life park, but unfortunately it was raining too hard to go. We only got a block away from the hotel. Then, because we were getting so antsy and very hungry, Ann and I tried to go to the grocery store, but then it was hailing from both directions so we didn’t get farther than the end of the block. The third time was the charm and we got home from the grocery store just in time to get soaked. I did some homework, washed laundry in the bathtub, talked on the phone briefly, and went to bed early, and that was Sunday. This picture is of the ridiculous weather that is actually cloudy and starting to rain on the left side of the picture and sunny and cheery on the right side of the picture. Craziness.
Today the weather was still tempermental, but I ventured out with Dr. Mann (my favorite professor) and about 15 other people to explore the churches and cathedrals in the area. They were gorgeous and I love them. The only one I didn’t enjoy was the biggest, fanciest one where they were actually holding a 12:00 mass. That was very awkward coming from my Congregational upbringing. Holy water and high church confuse me, and I felt profoundly uncomfortable and unwelcome. And though beautiful, the church (St. Peter and Paul’s) was completed and decorated in the Victorian neo-gothic style which is pretty much like regularly cluttered Victorian style except much grander… also very un-Puritan. I was so dissappointed. I looked forward so much to exploring a real, live Catholic cathedral, but was frustrated to feel so shut out of their little Catholic club. I feel like a religious palentologist, like I’m studying shells of churches when there are no people in them, examining the space, enjoying the silence, feeling close to God and my friends, and soaking in the atmosphere; but then I’m baffled when confronted by a living church celebrating mass with community members. I realize that it’s still so very liturgical and dogmatic and exclusive; I feel a little dissillusioned to be honest. I wish I could just go and pray in the cathedrals and read about the saints and not have to feel so excluded by their secret Catholic party. I guess I was just hoping that maybe Catholicism could fill in some of the holes where my puritan-descended protestantism left me theologically hanging. The other cathedrals were gorgeous and my favorite was the the Fransican church because of all the little grottoes with statues of saints and candles and prayer cards that were right in the sanctuary, making it look more cozy, welcoming, private, and mysterious.
Actually, my very favorite trip of the day was to the bell tower of St. Ann’s cathedral (spelled with no “e” just like my roommate!) where I got to don a set of ear protectors and climb up into the bell tower itself. I even got to ring the bells! It was amazing. Andrew, you would have loved it, getting to play an entire bell tower. Not a caralon, but an octave of very large real bells. I played “Do- a- Deer” and “Amazing Grace”. I would have played “Monkey Extravaganza”, but they were ordered from high to low and there were other people waiting to play. The tower of St. Ann’s is decorated with clocks on all four sides, but they’re called “the faces of the four liars” by the local Cork residents because the edges of the clocks are made of wood and the wood warps with the changing weather meaning that none of the clocks show the same time at once. The view out the top of the tower was great. I could see the whole of Cork city and I could also see the cute little dog that followed our group all through the Shandon neighborhood. I named the dog Francis and enjoyed his company until he left us to go play with a dog-friend he met that one of my classmates named Sam. All in all, it was a very good weekend.
Well, I have experienced real Irish weather. The big Weatherman was taking it easy on me before, softening me up before the big hit. A sucker punch to the meterological gut. Sunday, it was pouring rain (called a “flogging rain” here) and then it started hailing and then the sun came out while it was raining and hailing all at the same time and it was seven degrees celcius outside (which is cold when you’re used to 12 or so). Beautiful, eh? My umberella flipped so much that it was completely useless. I figured out that moment why it is that you see umbrellas always discarded in litter bins or left on the side of the roads… umbrellas are weak sauce. A joke. God: 1, Umbrellas: 0.
That was Sunday. St. Paddy’s day night was spent hanging out at the pub in the lobby of the hotel because they had a traditional music band! It was so delightful to hear some fiddle and jigs. The band consisted of a fiddler, a squeezebox player, and a guitarist/whistle player. They were amazing. And the company was good, if a little rowdy. My friend Mark let me try a little sip of his Irish Whiskey. It was good the second sip, but the first sip tasted kind of like carrots and nail polish remover. The second sip was quite tasty though. I talked to a couple at the bar from Limerick about dancing. The woman, Caroline, loves dancing, but her boyfriend Mark, thought dancing was kind of “gay”, so we tried to convince him that girls love a guy who dances. I don’t think we were successful, but I really wish I had my fav dance partner there to show off some of our amazing moves. But alas…
Sunday, my friends Laura, Sarah, Ann, and I went to head to the wild life park, but unfortunately it was raining too hard to go. We only got a block away from the hotel. Then, because we were getting so antsy and very hungry, Ann and I tried to go to the grocery store, but then it was hailing from both directions so we didn’t get farther than the end of the block. The third time was the charm and we got home from the grocery store just in time to get soaked. I did some homework, washed laundry in the bathtub, talked on the phone briefly, and went to bed early, and that was Sunday. This picture is of the ridiculous weather that is actually cloudy and starting to rain on the left side of the picture and sunny and cheery on the right side of the picture. Craziness.Today the weather was still tempermental, but I ventured out with Dr. Mann (my favorite professor) and about 15 other people to explore the churches and cathedrals in the area. They were gorgeous and I love them. The only one I didn’t enjoy was the biggest, fanciest one where they were actually holding a 12:00 mass. That was very awkward coming from my Congregational upbringing. Holy water and high church confuse me, and I felt profoundly uncomfortable and unwelcome. And though beautiful, the church (St. Peter and Paul’s) was completed and decorated in the Victorian neo-gothic style which is pretty much like regularly cluttered Victorian style except much grander… also very un-Puritan. I was so dissappointed. I looked forward so much to exploring a real, live Catholic cathedral, but was frustrated to feel so shut out of their little Catholic club. I feel like a religious palentologist, like I’m studying shells of churches when there are no people in them, examining the space, enjoying the silence, feeling close to God and my friends, and soaking in the atmosphere; but then I’m baffled when confronted by a living church celebrating mass with community members. I realize that it’s still so very liturgical and dogmatic and exclusive; I feel a little dissillusioned to be honest. I wish I could just go and pray in the cathedrals and read about the saints and not have to feel so excluded by their secret Catholic party. I guess I was just hoping that maybe Catholicism could fill in some of the holes where my puritan-descended protestantism left me theologically hanging. The other cathedrals were gorgeous and my favorite was the the Fransican church because of all the little grottoes with statues of saints and candles and prayer cards that were right in the sanctuary, making it look more cozy, welcoming, private, and mysterious.
Actually, my very favorite trip of the day was to the bell tower of St. Ann’s cathedral (spelled with no “e” just like my roommate!) where I got to don a set of ear protectors and climb up into the bell tower itself. I even got to ring the bells! It was amazing. Andrew, you would have loved it, getting to play an entire bell tower. Not a caralon, but an octave of very large real bells. I played “Do- a- Deer” and “Amazing Grace”. I would have played “Monkey Extravaganza”, but they were ordered from high to low and there were other people waiting to play. The tower of St. Ann’s is decorated with clocks on all four sides, but they’re called “the faces of the four liars” by the local Cork residents because the edges of the clocks are made of wood and the wood warps with the changing weather meaning that none of the clocks show the same time at once. The view out the top of the tower was great. I could see the whole of Cork city and I could also see the cute little dog that followed our group all through the Shandon neighborhood. I named the dog Francis and enjoyed his company until he left us to go play with a dog-friend he met that one of my classmates named Sam. All in all, it was a very good weekend.
1 comment:
Glad to hear that the weather is working out so well for you in ireland. My family leaves for china in four days or so. I'll be here in central texas - totally devoid of anything cultural. I wish I could go into a shell of a place that had some kind of significance... Yay for Ireland!
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