As is made painfully aware to everyone both in Ireland and back home, St. Patrick's Day is nearly upon us, and so my Facebook newsfeed is already beginning to swell with mirror photos of girls in green tank tops and links to Philadelphia or Boston pub crawls. Though I'm tempted to lean back in my chair and scoff about how 'they don't know Ireland like I do', there's also something comforting in knowing that during this time of year, a big part of the world takes a bit of time to think about the Irish, or at least, their perception of this wonderful island.
Yesterday in my absolutely engaging and thought-provoking philosophy lecture, I turned to give the man seated next to me the sign-in sheet (the existence of which had nothing to do with my attendance to class that day) and noticed that he was a leprechaun. I did a double take, and didn't want to stare blatantly at him as he filled out his ID number, but proceeded to sneak glances out of the corner of my eye for the rest of class and informed my friend seated to my other side of his magical nature via typing it into the search bar of my handy Kindle Fire. She giggled and agreed, so officially confirming my suspicions. But for real, he had red-ish hair and beard, a bright green sweatshirt, and a brown cap with a flower in it. Why the flower?! I failed to notice at the end of class if he was shorter than average height, but for the sake of the theme lets just pretend that he was.
There is a Leprechaun Museum in Dublin that's basically an upscaled touristy playground for little kids, but other than there and in various St. Paddy's day decorations (not Patty's!), the little green men that my culture sees as synonymous with Ireland have been strangely absent. I have, however, been newly educated on the proper way to pronounce the name of Artemis Fowl and the LEP Recon team's creator, Eoin Colfer- it's exactly like Owen, not something rhyming with 'coin' as I'd previously thought. (I will forever mispronounce 'monk', however, and you'd be shocked how frequently that word comes up in daily conversation).
So, in the spirit of the upcoming St. Paddy's, I've decided to outline a few other perceived truths about Ireland and viciously debunk them all for ye, Snopes style. (More on 'ye' and other language differences later!)
- Ireland is a land full of lazy drunkards
- The Irish do enjoy their pints of Guinness and Bulmers, and coming here definitely subjected me to the culture shock of students going out on weeknights primarily, since they go home to work on weekends and use their time in Galway to be with friends. It's important to know, however, that a pub is far more than a place to get extraordinarily intoxicated, it's a hangout point for all generations to enjoy music and company. They can probably handle a pint better than you, anyway. As for the lazy part, that's pretty blatantly untrue: I'm writing this in the library right now (instead of my papers) and it is positively packed. People here also plop down next to you to do work instead of keeping a healthy germophobe bubble around each seat, which is a little uncomfortable but also efficient.
- who eat potatoes and corned beef
- Potatoes are definitely popular and I've seen the contents of Mrs. Weasley's sandwiches in Dunnes, but never actually observed anyone eating them. My family's coming to visit in a few weeks (have I mentioned that enough yet?) and one of my sisters worriedly asked about how she'd fare here as a picky eater. Well, you could read my food post but if not, just take my word on it here that there are plenty of yummy options for all palates. Some of my friends have a variety of complicated allergies and food preferences, all of which have been accommodated by the Irish quite well I think.
- and get into fistfights with baby kittens
- I threw the last part in for effect there, I don't think anyone thinks that back home- and they shouldn't, as I've seen no fights here, and no kittens either for that matter...
- while playing a harp and fiddle
- Okay, probably more true! I'll write about this in depth eventually I swear, but the music scene here is fantastic. My favorite part of any day is walking down shop street to the sounds of traditional music mingled with modern tunes from all over the world. Maybe it's just Galway in particular, but the sounds of Ireland have certainly stolen my heart.
- wearing a green wool sweater
- Fun fact told to me by someone who heard it from an Irishman who would know: famous and expensive Aran Wool isn't actually from the Aran islands just off shore from Galway. It was originally, but the sheep ran amok and ate all the grass on the island before it could be replanted. They're somewhere nearby, just don't live directly on those islands. But wool is worn a lot, and the girl working directly across from me at the this moment is wearing a green sweater and got here after I made this stupid list, so so much for debunking stereotypes.
- as it rains
- True, the end
- on their soulless ginger hair
- Despite what I said above about my leprechaun philosophy friend (he doesn't know we're friends or that I'm about to make him famous), redheads are definitely not as common here as movies might lead you to believe. One of my American roommates has red hair, and was telling me this morning that people here are always stopping to ask her for directions because she looks Irish, but she's constantly needing to disappoint them and reveal her true nationality.
- and sheep frolic about
- Sheep actually are everywhere, I was super excited to see them the first few days and have sort of gotten over the novelty but not really. They're all colorful too; farmers spray paint different colored dots on the wool so they can go roam the fields freely with each other, and then when shearing time comes around they all know which flock belongs to who.
- asking each other about where to find some crack.
- This isn't a stereotype so much as a heads up for any unsuspecting tourists who find their way into a group of Irish people who will undoubtedly ask them before long "What's the craic?", "where's the craic?", or "how's the craic?" That word at the end sounds suspiciously like an illegal substance, but is really a catch all term for fun, sort of. I'd compare it to a kind of 'what's up?' most closely if I had to pin it down- a greeting and genuine inquiry into finding something to do.
There you have it, this is now my longest post so I'll leave it unconcluded and start to do my real work. If you subscribe to me, it will make me the happiest person in the library and I promise to send more good stuff along soon. J
No comments:
Post a Comment