Welcome to Ireland
I arrived in Ireland on the 5th of December, whatever day of the week that was, I have lost track.
Immediately I was overwhelmed by the sound of English being spoken everywhere. So much so, that I was unaware of any accents and still have really yet to detect any accents, I just hear English and it is strange.
I didn't think that I would miss being surrounded by a language that I never mastered or truly really understood, but I do. It's sad to think that my days of trying to explain things through small phrases and hand motions are over. It is strange to now fully understand the whining of the children around you. It makes you want to hit them even more. I hear and understand basically every conversation that is around me, whereas before I was easily able to drown them out or at least listen long enough for language practice to realize that talk about potatoes isn't really all that interesting.
I went to the luggage storage room and needed to hand over my passport, which has my beautiful Ukrainian cover that my linkmate and her husband got me for my birthday. As he handed it back to me, the young man behind the counter said, "that looks like someplace nice" sarcastically and hurt me in doing so.
Rainy and windy, I went outside and hopped on a bus heading into Dublin. As we got closer to the center of town and the Temple Bar section, I looked out the window and thought, "this is just like a Soviet town, just from the turn of the century." All of the buildings look the same, they are all of the same height, same building material, uniform. Boring.
Those were my first thoughts on this country that I have heard so many people rave about and to be honest, it hasn't really changed. In part I suppose it is because it is not the "season" and I have been limited in what I can do and see and enjoy. Dowdy. Boring. Plain. And EXPENSIVE. I realize that I am no longer an Anglophile at all. But at least they have good restaurants.
Immediately I was overwhelmed by the sound of English being spoken everywhere. So much so, that I was unaware of any accents and still have really yet to detect any accents, I just hear English and it is strange.
I didn't think that I would miss being surrounded by a language that I never mastered or truly really understood, but I do. It's sad to think that my days of trying to explain things through small phrases and hand motions are over. It is strange to now fully understand the whining of the children around you. It makes you want to hit them even more. I hear and understand basically every conversation that is around me, whereas before I was easily able to drown them out or at least listen long enough for language practice to realize that talk about potatoes isn't really all that interesting.
I went to the luggage storage room and needed to hand over my passport, which has my beautiful Ukrainian cover that my linkmate and her husband got me for my birthday. As he handed it back to me, the young man behind the counter said, "that looks like someplace nice" sarcastically and hurt me in doing so.
Rainy and windy, I went outside and hopped on a bus heading into Dublin. As we got closer to the center of town and the Temple Bar section, I looked out the window and thought, "this is just like a Soviet town, just from the turn of the century." All of the buildings look the same, they are all of the same height, same building material, uniform. Boring.
Those were my first thoughts on this country that I have heard so many people rave about and to be honest, it hasn't really changed. In part I suppose it is because it is not the "season" and I have been limited in what I can do and see and enjoy. Dowdy. Boring. Plain. And EXPENSIVE. I realize that I am no longer an Anglophile at all. But at least they have good restaurants.
posted by Molly | 10:22 AM
1 Comments:
If there's one thing I've heard about Dublin, it's "Get our of Dublin and see the real Ireland." I understand Dublin to be nothing more than a fast-paced, expensive, cosmopolitan city. Susan sister, Megan and her husband were exasperated by the city (if I recall correctly) and only drove through it... after getting lost within its limits.
So, the Cliffs of Moher, Chill Arney, Chill Kenny and Molly Molone are all beckoning!
Safe travels!
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