Still Grand, But Slightly Different

I realized that I cannot produce an accurate description of my first two days of class without pointing out a couple of fun differences I've encountered.

1. The treadmill speed is in fact kilometers per hour. An obvious fact you would think. Not quite for me...

After joining the gym, I jumped on a treadmill excited to be able to move again. I was comforted by the fact that the treadmill brand was the same as Hempfield Rec at home. I set up my speed and settings just as I would at home and when the treadmill did not pick up speed was then hit in the face by the fact that I will not be running in miles per hour but instead kilometers per hour. Needless to say, I felt quite silly and was thankful no one could see what was going through my head at that moment.

2. Many of the doors here have a release button that needs to be pushed before exiting. This is not an easy adjustment and I have run into more doors than I can count.

3. The food does not look like it tastes. More will come later once I've dabbled a bit more with the local food.

4. An Irish Catholic daily mass is 18 minutes long. There was no homily and the responses were said as though it was a race to the finish. There is no disrespect in this method, it just appears to be the way it is.

5. Colleen in Gaelic is spelled Cailin and there is a brand of "sweets" in Ireland called Colleen. I'm going to have to try those!




6. Because of the Gulf Stream, Ireland does in fact have Palm Trees.

More will come later :)

Quick Gaelic Lesson.

In Irish, "craic," pronounced "crack," means fun and the Irish are big fans of both the word and the meaning. Common phrases I've heard include,

"Where's the craic?"
"She's a lot of craic"
"Have you had good craic?"

We had a Gaelic lesson during orientation so we could get accustomed to some common phrases and words that we would hear around town. It proved to be interesting and will allow us to relate to the Irish in a new way.