Today is Independence Day in the States and, in an effort to boost American tourism in Limerick, it's celebrated here, too. It isn't something I would have recognized here on campus, but I read the Limerick Post and saw an article claiming as much. Which was helpful because I'm already confused about what day it is.
Soon I'll begin posting pictures and that will help tell this story. A coworker of mine named one of his daughters Shannon for the river and the other Erin for the rest. He picked both from looking at a map and hoping to come here some day, and standing on the bridge today looking out over the river I wish it for him, too. Today, in addition to ducks and swans, I saw herons and cranes and what I thought were an unusual number of blue jays, which may not have been blue jays but sure looked like them. And there are bats every evening which you hear first, flapping and squeeking above your head, and then you see. I tried to get pics on my phone but need to go back out with the good camera. Seeing them last night reminded me of the excellent story about the bat under my sister's bed, and remembering bat in the house stories never gets old.
I mentioned the other day that there are people here from all over the world, and they're interesting to speak with and learn about. Cristina works at the University of Helsinki in the computer science department but has just been accepted to study Irish dance at the University of Limerick this fall. Jason lives on a barge up the river a bit and has invited Chris to come by the barge any time during our travels. He invites people places, I guess; today he invited me to join their Irish language class. Shlomo is from Israel and didn't pick up an instrument until he was 60 and now makes his own instruments. We had dinner last night with a young woman from Buffalo, New York, who is a reporter for an Irish dance and culture magazine, and she had to excuse herself early to prepare for a Skype interview with the founders of Hammerstep--a group you would totally know if you were interested in Irish dance (or apparently a watcher of America's Got Talent, on which they recently appeared). This evening we had dinner with a couple from Rotterdam. He works for the railroad, and she is a music teacher. Similar to Chris, they had little idea what to expect when they signed up for Blas and, similar to Chris, they are having a rich experience. And there is a woman here from New York who reminds me so much of my former coworker, Lynn, that I mostly sat quietly during our meal together amazed that there could be more than one in the world. The woman who turned us on to the hot whiskey is an accordion player from Dublin who isn't here for Blas, but has sat in on the pub sessions the last few nights because she's here for a choral concert tomorrow evening. The only American airport she's ever flown into is O'Hare because she's part of an accordion band that competes in, of all the shocking places, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Today was beautiful by my standards. It was dry and the sun shined and there was a light breeze and it was warm. That said, something I like about it here is that at any time--no matter what it is doing outside from spitting to drizzling to downright raining--you overhear Irish people saying it is a beautiful day, and that seems like just the right attitude to have.
Soon I'll begin posting pictures and that will help tell this story. A coworker of mine named one of his daughters Shannon for the river and the other Erin for the rest. He picked both from looking at a map and hoping to come here some day, and standing on the bridge today looking out over the river I wish it for him, too. Today, in addition to ducks and swans, I saw herons and cranes and what I thought were an unusual number of blue jays, which may not have been blue jays but sure looked like them. And there are bats every evening which you hear first, flapping and squeeking above your head, and then you see. I tried to get pics on my phone but need to go back out with the good camera. Seeing them last night reminded me of the excellent story about the bat under my sister's bed, and remembering bat in the house stories never gets old.
I mentioned the other day that there are people here from all over the world, and they're interesting to speak with and learn about. Cristina works at the University of Helsinki in the computer science department but has just been accepted to study Irish dance at the University of Limerick this fall. Jason lives on a barge up the river a bit and has invited Chris to come by the barge any time during our travels. He invites people places, I guess; today he invited me to join their Irish language class. Shlomo is from Israel and didn't pick up an instrument until he was 60 and now makes his own instruments. We had dinner last night with a young woman from Buffalo, New York, who is a reporter for an Irish dance and culture magazine, and she had to excuse herself early to prepare for a Skype interview with the founders of Hammerstep--a group you would totally know if you were interested in Irish dance (or apparently a watcher of America's Got Talent, on which they recently appeared). This evening we had dinner with a couple from Rotterdam. He works for the railroad, and she is a music teacher. Similar to Chris, they had little idea what to expect when they signed up for Blas and, similar to Chris, they are having a rich experience. And there is a woman here from New York who reminds me so much of my former coworker, Lynn, that I mostly sat quietly during our meal together amazed that there could be more than one in the world. The woman who turned us on to the hot whiskey is an accordion player from Dublin who isn't here for Blas, but has sat in on the pub sessions the last few nights because she's here for a choral concert tomorrow evening. The only American airport she's ever flown into is O'Hare because she's part of an accordion band that competes in, of all the shocking places, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Today was beautiful by my standards. It was dry and the sun shined and there was a light breeze and it was warm. That said, something I like about it here is that at any time--no matter what it is doing outside from spitting to drizzling to downright raining--you overhear Irish people saying it is a beautiful day, and that seems like just the right attitude to have.
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