So it turns out that I absolutely adore Ireland with every fiber of my twenty year old being. Do you know what the first thing I noticed was? The grass. I am head over heels in love with the grass here. I’ve never seen anything in my life so green, with speckles and clumps of wildflowers where you would least expect them. I saw a man cutting my grass the other day as I was walking (which I constantly seem to be doing) and almost burst into tears at the sight of someone trying to tame that aspect-altering grass. I would move to Ireland just to have a tiny patch of perfect grass all my own. But I’ve been doing other things as well in between long stretches of grass admiration.
I’ve made a wonderful group of international friends from all over the world, and they have made the past two weeks thrilling and beautiful. We’re from all over the world; Finland, Germany, Italy, Turkey, France, and all parts of America. We’ve been on trips to Dublin to go on walking tours, and for the culture nights festival (a concert in Dublin Castle? Yeah, I’ll try to clear my schedule I guess). We spent a day in the seaside town of Howth hiking, drinking coffee, and sharing train rides and our stories. I planned a surprise party for my friend Summer and a girl I hardly know named Caroline from Italy and we all went on a pub crawl that lasted until sunrise. We dance, we laugh, and listen to each others music and live bands, running into whatever pub has music spilling out into the night. All of us are in pursuit of fun and adventure, independence and companionship. It seems I’m quite content, and ecstatically happy. I love helping my friends with their English and enhancing their vocabulary as they trade me tiny words and phrases, which is all my practically non-existent aptitude for languages can store away.
My classes are wonderful, and I love talking about using nematodes as a biological pesticide to protect crop production, humor in medieval Celtic literature (which takes a little practice if you can believe it), T.S. Eliot and James Joyce, and the mythology and history of the ancient Celtic pagans. Not everyone’s cup of tea, but for me it’s a mug of the strongest coffee on a blistery Irish morning.
Shaina