Johnny was a super sport and we took our bikes to hurling in the morning.
The rain is really strange, I have to admit. At one point he and I were waiting at a streetlight and I literally held my hand out and could not feel the rain on my hand. Seriously. But looking out at the world with my eyes, it looked like it was pouring. I am serious. It is the strangest thing.
Here is a picture of the arm of my jacket that I was wearing that was collecting this "rain". It is almost like a mist. And there is something actually nice about it. Even being outside in the middle of it.
It is definitely not as miserable as a pouring rain and it wasn't cold so really, it isn't too bad.
Of course, standing out in it and playing in it for an hour gets you thoroughly soaked, just a little bit at a time. A guy I was chatting with on the sidelines described it as though we were "inside of a cloud."
Here are a couple more videos of hurling. I can't get enough of it so humor me! During the scrimmage today they let the boys play where they can pick up the ball with their hurley, carry it for a few steps and then hit it. It was amazing and you could really get a glimpse of how cool the game is and why they call it the "fastest field sport." It also highlighted the difference between the new kid (Johnny) and some of the more talented boys who have been playing the game for three years. I unfortunately don't have a video of the scrimmage -- I was too enthralled to stop and video it!
The guy I was chatting with said we could probably get tickets for a game at Croke Park. If we can I will get a video for you.
He also laughed when I said I tried to get tickets for the England v. Ireland rugby game today that was literally down the street. He said it'd probably have been easier to get superbowl tickets. Here's our vantage point of the game this afternoon --our televison (England won in the end, 12-6 but it was a good game). Also, he finally sorted out the league for me -- I finally understand.
After hurling Johnny went to Oscar's birthday party. Dervla picked him up and dropped him off (!). Sheila and I headed in to Dun Laoghaire for lunch and a bit of shopping. I wanted to get a little tourist's guide to Paris as I hardly know anything about the city.
Here are a few more pictures of Dun Laoghaire. One of the main drag leading to the sea and another of a picture of George and the Dragon on a church.
I was starving so we stopped for lunch at the Sunshine Cafe for lunch where I had a traditional Irish breakfast (at 3 p.m. -- my favorite. I have to say I love to have breakfast for lunch or dinner and a nice cold beer at noon!).
The Irish are obsessed with sausages. They're everywhere and even though I'm not a big fan of pork, they're usually delicious. Somehow Johnny's strongest accent comes out when he says "sausage," which is all the time as they are regular examples in school (and because prior to coming here we never really had sausages so I'm sure he never really had an occasion to hear the word sans accent in America). Stories about men whose noses turn into sausages, math word problems about sausages etc. etc. And now two birthday parties that serve sausages.
Other than hurling, rugby and lunch, the only other major thing for today was giving Maggie a little nudge.
We're heading into our fifth week here and she has the entire week off. Johnny is off on Thursday and Friday and we are heading to Paris on Friday. Sheila and I talked this morning about how to help Maggie organize her little time off and to make the most of her visit despite her reluctance to let loose and enjoy without reminding us too often about how we've ruined her life (I say with a bit of tongue in check). We've given her a long leash here (not pushing too hard and giving her lots of time with her itouch to communicate with friends), given that its' been such a big adjustment, but now we've got to help her really take advantage of it all and put down the electronics enough to really engage.
Sheila loosened the lid on these thoughts of ours with her while Johnny and I were at hurling, suggesting that she get a few things done this week. She's wanted to write a few letters home to her friends and her buddy at school. She's talked about starting a blog, or at least commenting on this one, and she's got a stack of books a mile high that she's ignoring -- books for pleasure. But somehow, these things don't get done. Maggie resisted--who wants to be told what to do with free time?
But without a goal and a plan, you never reach your goal, right?
Once back together, Sheila and I encouraged her to pick something to do in Dublin tomorrow with Sheila and I, and to check out the Paris book and do the same. Then we talked a little about how important it is for her to write a bit about her experiences here.. Even if the writing is just for herself. That she shouldn't overlook the significance of this opportunity even if she doesn't see it now. I showed her the exhibition book that we bought of Jack Yeats' sketches... How he made over 200 books of little sketches that he saw in his everyday experiences. Maggie wants to perhaps be a writer so we encouraged her to try to document some of her life here. Maybe just one sentence per day.
Little steps.
So today she picked something for tomorrow and I was delighted that it happened to be one of my dogears in the Dublin guide book: Kilmaingud Goal.
More on that tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment