Happy Christmas!

How’re ye, lads? It snowed this Christmas eve and Christmas morning, for the first time in years, we’ve been told, so it almost feels like home! (we must have brought it with us) It was so nice to wake up on Christmas morning and see the little Irish kids (and some of their parents too) out throwing snowballs and having a great time. We had to shake the dusting of the white stuff off of our backyard palm tree, and it probably won’t last long, but it was very magical.

Everything here is going great, working at the pub is a very interesting introduction to the culture, and the work as a Personal Assistant is terrific as well. We went out last weekend to Blarney Castle to kiss the Blarney Stone, which is rumoured to bestow upon the kisser the gift of the gab, and we are hoping that it will help us join in the Irish banter as the night wears on at the pub. In case it doesn’t, Mike got us a book for Christmas called “The Wit of Irish Conversation”, which we will be keeping in our Guinness apron pockets for moments such as: “Will ye go for a jar?” (would you like a drink?) to which we will reply “I’m on the dry!” (No thank you), unless we are off shift in which case we will reply: ”A few pints wouldn’t go astray at all!” We also got a short wave radio for Christmas, so we are hoping to tune in the CBC maybe, but so far we haven’t been able to find it between the Chinese and Romanian programs.

Another treat we received in the mail was our Polish friend, Kinga’s (stayed with her in Gdansk, see entry for October 13, 2004) English version of her book about hitchhiking the world for five years. If anyone is curious, her website about it is http://ledbydestiny.com.

For all those who have asked us about whether cork trees grow here in Cork, we have researched the topic and they do not, they come from the Mediterranean coast, as far as we can ascertain. ”Cork” is the anglicised name from the Gaelic name “Corcaigh”, which means marshy place, which is what the city is built on we have noticed. Sometimes we get half a foot of standing water in our back “garden”, and the rivers come dangerously close to street levels downtown. In fact, parts of the city flooded just a few weeks before we came! Our community is actually what used to be Douglas village, the Gaelic name was "Dubhghlas", which was the name given to the river meaning "dark stream".

Unfortunately, there are no candy canes and no egg nog here, but we are enjoying Turnip Puff, Boxty potatoes, mince pies and apple cider, and wearing our lamb’s wool sweaters and stoking our coal fireplace. We have had a lovely Christmas, even though we have missed everyone at home so much! We want to wish you all a very happy Christmas, and a great New Year!