Irish Céilí

Today was my last day of work for my internship. I knew I was going to be sad to leave, but when my coworkers surprised me with a pizza party at lunch, it all began to hit me. They were incredibly kind and gave me a very thoughtful gift: a necklace and a bag full of Cadbury creme eggs. It was quite obvious they had picked up on my love for chocolate over the past seven weeks, but it meant a lot that they remembered the details. As I was leaving, the physio who I had spent the most time with tried her American accent once more, and I could only laugh as it sounded so unnatural. I feel incredibly blessed to have been given the opportunity to meet such wonderful people, and I know that I will be back in the future. I was told to come back and work once I am qualified, and with how positive the experience was, I certainly cannot discount it at this point. Who knows what the future holds?

After work, I came back to DCU for a quick dinner and Molly, Tara, Melissa, Meghan and I headed out to the city center to meet our dance teacher, Mary Beth for the Irish Céilí. She explained to us that in Dublin, the tradition attracts an older crowd, whereas in other parts of the country a greater variety of ages would be present. This fact did not bother us at all, for we were too determined to show off our moves. We arrived shortly after 9:30 and had a drink while we waited for the accordion player to arrive and learned some quick tips in the meantime. The first set was one we had not learned, but Mary Beth offered to dance the male part and led me through the set. The music made me feel light on my toes, regardless of how I actually looked to the rest of the crowd. I was definitely moving in the opposite direction at times, but with the help of a positive teacher, we made it through all sets and I ended with a smile and a new appreciation of the art. The girls were nice enough to snap some photos!





This move is called "Christmas" and was by far my favorite of the night. With interlaced arms, the object is to spin around as fast as possible, while still looking graceful, and boy does everyone move quickly. The graceful aspect needs some work on my part, but I enjoyed the move nonetheless.

Meghan was quite the photographer and managed to catch some of my moves!



Melissa relieved my position and took a go at the end of this same set. She was a pro and caught on very quickly.

The next set was the Connemara set, the one we had practiced in class. It was time to show off what we had learned in dance lessons. We had two different sets dancing, sixteen people in total. I was the lucky one and danced the male part and Meghan was my beautiful partner. With only a few glitches, we made it to the end and had impressed a couple of the locals in the process. It's quite the form of exercise, and we were all soon tired. It was the perfect event with the end so close, and we all had a blast experiencing a unique form of Irish culture!