Greetings,
You all probably either wondered what happened to us with no weekly letter last weekend, or perhaps you were thankful that whatever did happen did, so you were not obligated to read 5 pages of our gibberish. Well, no matter, I'll make up for it!
Actually last week was a quiet week. Dick and Suzanne left on Tuesday morning (Nov 28). We lay {or is that lied?} low pretty much all the rest of the week, until Sunday. Emmeline turned 8 on Saturday so we went out to dinner Saturday night. {Eight is considered the chop suey birthday in most Aisian sects and so we went to an Irish Chinese restaurant, where you can get a wee cup o' saki.} Sunday morning we had a special Mass to attend. It was the enrollment ceremony for all the children in Emmeline's class who will be making their first Confession (yes, that's what they still call it here) and first Communion. Emmeline read one of the prayers of the faithful. It was a very nice Mass. Then we had about an hour to get ready for her birthday party. We just did a small party where she invited some kids from her class. It was nice for her to share the day with some friends.
After that, they had a bookfair at the kids' school, which we dropped in on. And later that evening, the parent board at school ran a fundraiser, something called a 45 Drive. 45 is a card game, and the evening was run similar to a Bunco night. I was hoping to learn the game, but spent too much time visiting with my colleagues on the board to learn the game. Hopefully before I leave I'll learn it. We raised close to £1000, so we felt pretty good about it overall.
Monday I went to my art class. I'm still working on my painting with the sheep, but the sheep has yet to make it to the canvas. I'm afraid it's taking me longer to fill the bay with water than I thought. But I am quite pleased with the way it is turning out. I could actually see myself framing this one!
Tuesday was the faculty wives' (I've given up my tacit acceptance of this "Plassey Partners" nomenclature. Who are we kidding? The only man there was the speaker!) Christmas lunch. It was very nice. It was fun to sit at a banquet table with 30 Irish women and see how they use a fork. Also how much they use their knives. I guess when you hold your fork upside down, you need another tool to get the food onto it.
Speaking of tools, I have been spending a bit of time scouring hardware stores for wire. I have probably been to 7 or 8 small hardware stores and 2 of the major home improvement warehouses in Limerick, looking for small spools of copper and brass wire to make some Christmas ornaments. Right now I would take any size spool! It doesn't appear to exist in this country. I was at a hardware store today in Dublin and the man behind the counter said he used to have one supplier for such merchandise, but that source dried up and he has yet to find another. So I guess I'm out of luck.
I used the term "major home improvement warehouse." We are not talking Home Depot or Lowes. Think the small Ace Hardware on Roosevelt in Seattle (sorry all you non-Seattlelites, you'll just have to use your imagination). 50 cans of paint. A few lock sets. 2 toilets. 2 sinks. A selection of copper pipe fittings. But no copper wire. Also, from the reception I received at more than one, I don't believe they are terribly used to (or perhaps not terribly fond of) women in hardware stores. Or maybe it was my funny accent. I even found my way to IWP, which stands for Irish Wire Products, down on the Dock Road. Oddly enough, they carry lumber and nails but no wire. Go figure.
As an aside. I just saved this e-mail, so I had to title it on the computer. We just use numbers for the titles and this is the 13th e-mail falling on Pearl Harbor Day.
We had a wonderful day today. The kids were off school due to a teacher in-service. We just got notice about the in-service a week ago. (I find myself longing for the Assumption School way of notification, where we got the calendar for the upcoming school year in June. {I find myself longing for a giant cosmic web page where you can click on anyone's name and schedule them to do all of the jobs you would rather not do your self. Listening to and trying to responsibly evaluate student presentations on things about which I know next to nil leaps to mind.}) Anyway, we were able to make great use of the day. We got up early and headed for the train. The trains were actually running today. The taxi drivers are still striking, but at least for the time being the railroad signalmen are satisfied with the negotiating process. Anyway we had a lovely train ride up to Dublin. Melinda, under the influence of strong Irish tea, saw some bunnies hopping through the fields. When we got to Dublin we took the double-decker bus into town ("an lar" - your Irish lesson for today) and went to Christ Church Cathedral. It is beautiful. I commented to Mark that it made the cathedrals I've seen in America look like country churches. Aside from the usual church fixtures such as choir stalls and baptismal fonts, albeit rather fancy versions of same, the cathedral holds an effigy (clothed in chain armor, no less) of Strongbow, a heart-shaped requillary containing the heart of St. Laurence O'Toole, {Yes, that's literally his heart in there! This, to me, was way cool - nearly on a par with Bog Butter - and points to a significant cultural difference. Can you imagine our early church figures honoring the revered town hero of, say, Chicago by taking the dripping heart from his or her dead body and storing it in an iron container for all to appreciate? That takes real guts.} and on one wall, a display of a mummified cat and mouse which were found in an organ pipe in the 1860s. Underneath the cathedral is a huge crypt with graves of some, apparently, very influential mucky-mucks from the last 3 or 4 hundred years. Also, oddly enough, a (set of(?)) stocks. I guess the threat of the stocks is one way to keep your kids quiet during church services. In the cathedral, we found a map of the church and grounds, which pointed out an area known as the "Ancient Garth". (I know he's got a birthday coming up, but if he's ancient, what would that make me?!) As we were leaving the church, workers were erecting the Christmas tree in the Ancient Garth. Wonder if we ought to just attach our tree to Garth's head.
Next door to the Cathedral, in the old Synod Hall, is something called Dublinia, an exhibition of Dublin history, mostly during the middle ages. There was a nice hands-on section showing what a fair or market day celebration might have been like. We were also able to go up St. Michael's tower, about 200 feet up, and get a bird's eye view of Dublin.
After that, it was time to head north of the River Liffey and try to find some tweed for the professor. As we crossed a bridge, we saw a bird swimming in the river, struggling with, and eventually victorious over, an eel. {Once more, I must interject and give a bit more detail. The eel, at least 14 inches long, was swallowed whole and clearly alive!} We walked along the quays (in all my reading of Thomas the Tank engine, I always thought that word was pronounced "kway". It wasn't until I had someone here directing me to the "keys" that I learned the error of my ways). We were headed to the GPO (General Post Office), the center of the 1916 Easter Uprising to see a famous statue of Chuhulain, a mythical Irish hero (unfortunately the statue is on loan to somewhere in Belfast) when we happened upon an open air market along Henry Street. There was an overabundance of tacky Christmas decorations along with some wonderful produce and colorful flowers. It felt quite festive. {Again, I am compelled to add the essential detail - there were Large Toblerone Bars for £1.50! That's not as good as Bog Butter but it's not bad.} We even saw a shaggy horse pulling a cart, delivering produce to the vendors.
After the GPO we worked our way to the Customs House. On our way we stood on a street corner looking at the guidebook to see what other sights we should catch along the way to the Customs House, when the nicest man stopped to see if we needed help. We may have appeared lost as we stood with our noses in our book, and although his help wasn't necessary, it was so pleasant to be treated so kindly, especially in the ever-increasing holiday bustle. The Customs House has beautiful keystones above its windows, carved heads representing the main rivers of Ireland. It is a beautiful building.
We still had some time to kill before we needed to catch our train so we went to the National Gallery. Now that I am a budding artiste, I had a whole new appreciation for the artwork. For the past 10 years when I would go to quilt shows, I would spend a lot of time looking at technique, trying to figure out "how did they do that "and "what makes it work." I looked at paintings today in much the same way, really appreciating the light and the focus and the hidden treasures to be found in some of them. But I am clueless as to how some of those guys painted those 8 foot by 14 foot paintings and managed to get the light and the shading just right. And they must have been skinny guys, what with all the running they would have had to do, putting on the paint and then running 15 feet away to see how it looked and then back again to the canvas! After we leave Limerick we plan on about a month of travel through Great Britain, France and Italy. I can't wait to go to more art museums.
We caught another double-decker bus, again top-side, front seat (ain't it great to feel like you own the whole city!) to the train station, just as it started to sprinkle. Then a leisurely train ride home. Sure beats fighting the rush-hour traffic to face a 3-hour stint behind the wheel.
As we turned over the calendar page last week, it really hit me. We are leaving next month. Much as I am excited about coming home and seeing our loved ones (and the Captain's face on the cereal aisle), it is very bittersweet. We have been given such a tremendous gift with this experience. The chance to, not just tour a country, but to really take part in its culture - to attend its schools, to celebrate with its people, to share in its worship. I think Garth summed it up best when he said that it will be much harder leaving here. When we left Seattle we knew exactly when we would be back, but when we leave here, we have no idea when we will see our friends again.
If any of you ever get the opportunity for an experience like this, grab it! The road may not be smooth (reread my first e-mail home if you question that!), but the memories and personal growth you will gain will change your life. (Director's note: big! soundtrack here, lot of violins.)
I will sign off temporarily. The professor will come back and edit his magic into the text {or not} and then we can mail it off. Look for it on a website near you soon. Mark took lots of pictures to illustrate today's adventure.
Slan,
Mary and Mark
