I'm coming on the tail end of a string of celebrations in Ireland, though I'm not sure if I should count Ash Wednesday as a celebration or just a solemn holy day. Holiday! Pretty sure those words are the same thing, which is cool. I'm also about to embark on a 'holiday', as they call it here, of a long weekend in London! Anyway, I started writing this a few days ago but am just now going back through, finishing up and changing a bit around.
Yesterday was Ash Wednesday, and I went to mass at the Galway Cathedral which is grand and beautiful, and was able to be a part of in the ceremony that drove me to think of so many sober similar occasions back home, including that one Good Friday when I fainted in the back of church and hit my head on the stone floor which burst some pimple on my forehead and prompted everyone to think I had a skull wound. Not this time, though. It was peaceful and nice, where the only major difference was the application of the actual ashes was done with a little head stamp, rather than the priest's thumb, which I'm not totally sure how I feel about. I mean, it does make the actual cross nice and neat, but it seems in a way more impersonal.
So naturally falling before the start of Lent, this week also featured Fat Tuesday! And in Ireland (and maybe other parts of the world too), that means pancake day. It was a huge deal that everyone seemed to be celebrating: when I ran out to the local supermarket for some syrup and vegetable oil (which wasn't there, so we used sunflower oil which was cheaper and did the same thing), it was full of people all there for the same reason. There was a big display of premade packaged pancakes, bottles of special syrup I don't think they ever normally have, nutella and loads of other toppings. Shops all along the main retail area were featuring pancakes, and every Irish person I spoke to was excited for the event. I even met another foreigner in Dunnes' trying to decide if she should just get olive oil, both of us planning for similar events.
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(The above was mostly written two nights ago, only reworded to sound recent, but this is new. I just deleted a whole paragraph talking about how I've been spending Valentine's Day and yesterdays Galentine's Day, a celebration of girldom from the TV series Parks and Recreation. But it all sounded forced and diary-like so we'll change track.)
Valentine's has been a little bittersweet this year as it marks about a third of the way through the long-distance part of my relationship, but it's also been nice to see everyone dressed in pink and I have also been eating a lot of chocolate recently as a part of Pancake Day and the aforementioned Galentine's. Thankfully, though, I've been keeping incredibly busy today- I leave Galway for London in just about 10 hours for the first part of a madcap three hour bus ride to Dublin for our 6am flight, which is also my first experience with the notorious discount airline RyanAir. I've read and reread their terms and conditions, and if I'm safely back home Monday afternoon without having paid any exorbitant fees I will consider it a tremendous win.
I'm finishing up this post quickly now, sitting in the library of NUIG at long last, after being locked out for a couple hours because it was on fire: I'd been waiting to get onto one of their computers for a good while, finally sat down and was cheerily opening my email when the alarm went off. It'd happened once last week too, then accompanied by the voice of a gentle man repeatedly explaining that fire had been spotted in the building, and that we should all wait for further instructions. Nothing ever came of that, though I was a bit concerned, but this time we were all forcibly made to evacuate and it smelled like smoke...and I lost my prized spot at the computer. I'm back now though, hogging it with writing, and am finally sort of figuring out a plan for London. I'd made a pretty comprehensive one earlier and accidentally not saved it, so I didn't really have the heart to recreate it until now...probably not the best idea.
So, away I go. Next time I write it will be about London, unless I oversleep and miss my bus tomorrow or my carry-on bag weighs too much or immigration doesn't let me back in the country or I just decide to sit at King's Cross Station until September 1st. Happy Valentine's Day, and if you like, take a moment to enjoy this song that I decided a few years ago that I would always try to listen to on this day, no matter what was going on in my life, as a nice reminder of how important love is to every human person- and to never overlook that. It's nice. Enjoy!
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