A Dublin Sunday

(For those of you who read my emails this is exactly what was in the email but I'm putting some pictures with it.)

Today I got up early and attended the 8:00am mass at which they have no music. I then got to meet Mary’s sister in law, whose name is also Mary, and her nieces Ruth, 18 and Aoife, 15. Aoife is an Irish name pronounced Efa. One thing I have learned here is that I can totally disregard every single time my mother told me to sound out words when I was learning how to read, because Irish cannot be sounded out like English. Anyway the five of us had breakfast and then headed to Phoenix Park for an event put on by a group called Concern. Mary’s brother Joe works for Concern and today they had a Kitefest to raise awareness about child labor. They had many elaborate kites flying and then they had a tent in which the kids could decorate kites and fly them. Teddy bears were even being parachuted from kites at certain points. The SARI (Sport Against Racism Ireland) soccerfest was taking place as well. It was quite a lovely event and the weather was incredibly nice as well, blue skies and in the 60’s.
We walked across the park and actually watched a polo match for a bit as well and during that time Ruth, Aoife, and I expressed our extreme love of Gilmore Girls while the Marys shivered at the thought of the fast talking show. When we got back to the house we had an early dinner followed by tea and apple tart. Ruth and I were the only ones who managed to stay awake and we watched a number of programs and talked about school among other things. I have quite a bit in common with them, and it was nice to have some kind of normalcy for one day. It’s not that things aren’t normal while I’m home here in Dublin 6w, because they are, but it was nice to spend a day just talking to people my age and not worrying about traveling here or there. It was a nice break from my American cohorts, who like me are worried about seeing and doing everything possible while here. I got a chance to just chat and learn about their schooling, where they like to shop, and the programs they watch. I mentioned the fact that I played flute and saxophone and Aoife told me that she had always wanted to learn how to play sax because Lisa Simpson did, it made me laugh. Both of them dance and neither of them is into the outdoors, animals, dirt, or sports. There were quite a few other things as well that I was pleasantly surprised to find we agreed on. It was probably one of the best cultural emersions I’ve had yet. Aoife asked me quite a bit about the American school system as well and she wanted clarification on what a corn dog was because she and some of her friends had had a debate about it last week. She also wanted to know what beef jerky was, I didn’t exactly know how to explain it, but I tried. On the other hand I learned that as part of their Irish class and culture emersion they have to go live in a household in Ireland that still speaks Irish on a daily basis for three weeks. The people who host kids do it all summer long and they have about 10-14 kids at a time. The funniest part had to have been that there was a television program on right before they left that followed families who took these kids in. It was of course in Irish but I was able to read the subtitles. They then left for home as it was half of eight, that’s how they say 8:30 here, I’m working on it. I really hope to see them again soon.