Hello everyone and a lovely Sunday,
I heard the weather back home in Austria is amazing, so I hope yous can make the best out of it and are able to get some fresh air in the lovely sun.
This week was st. Patrick´s week, so the colour green was all over the place and the shops were all decorated for the occasion. Due to the national holiday, I only had a very short week of school. The days I had were really good tough, cause we barely had to do anything. The boys from our school got to the Gaelic U16 final. The whole year got to go with them to show our support. I was even able to drive on the team-bus, which made my day:) The boys played a brilliant game and had the opponents especially in the first half. Unfortunately, the opponents got much better in the second half and in the end our boys lost due to hard luck. I felt bad for them, cause it´s never nice to lose a final. Fair plays to them for getting this far though. I hope they are proud of themselves. On the Tuesday, some Spanish exchange students had organised a volleyball blitz, so we had games for the whole day. The teams were decided by them and you were always playing one game and watching the next one. It was great crack and felt really good to play volleyball for a bit again. Not that it was with any rules or any techniques, but just to play in a blitz was fantastic. Tuesday was probably the best day of the week. I adore sports, so to be able to work out for the whole day, is literally living the dream for me. After playing volleyball for the whole school day, I had Gaelic training in school straight away. To top all of that off, there was Gaelic training in the club right after I got to the house. Oh, I live for sport and love doing it.
We got a bank holiday on the Thursday. I had to buy some things so I went up to Blanchardstown by myself and spent most of the day up at the gigantic shopping area. I got all that I needed and to my won surprise, shopping wasn´t even that bad and I wasn´t exhausted afterwards. In the evening we went to mass for the anniversary mass of my host mom´s father. There was a meet up with some of the relatives in his memory afterwards, which was nice too.
As I already said at the beginning. The big national holiday St. Patrick´s day or short “paddy´s day” was this week on the 17th of March. I got up early in the morning with all my green stuff and met my friends at the bus stop. Together we all drove up to Dublin and got ourselves a good spot for the parade. Now, the st Patrick’s festival is know to be one of the biggest festivals around the world especially when in Dublin. I have to admit though, my experience didn´t match up with the hype. We watched the whole parade, which was 2h. It was good and there were some cool groups in it. Most of the groups came from other countries, with the majority coming over from America. I initially wanted to do my exchange over there, so it was class to see the marching bands and see them all. A little bit of an American experience :) the costumes and ideas of some of the groups were cool too and the absolute best part was when I heard a marching band play “hey baby” by DJ Ötzi. Me and two other Austrian´s that were watching the parade beside us, were singing along with the rest of the tourists, who knew the song. Right after the parade, I said goodbye to my friends, because I got the bus straight back to Kells. My host sister was walking in that parade so I sped up to get there on time. Luckily, I made it just in time to see her walk past. The parade in Kells was great and very different from the one in Dublin. I loved the Irish dancers and the tractors at the end. And as if two parade in two different counties weren´t enough, my host family (I met them after the parade in Kells) brought us over to a third parade, in a third county and a second Province. It was a mini parade in Mullagh, but still good to see. The tractors were class again and it´s always fascinating to hear bagpipes playing. To end the day, we went to the Pub in Carnaross. There was a little Bandle session organised and I was really looking forward to it. My friends were the first ones to back out though, because they were exhausted and not feeling too well. Then when we got there, the audience was over 50s only and then there were me and my host sister with her friends. The music was good though and at least I can say, I was in a Pub on St. Paddy´s day.
After just a couple hours of sleep, my alarm woke me early Saturday morning (5:20 a.m.). It is spring solstice on the 21st of march. Apparently, there is always a ritual on a hill like Newgrange called “loughcrew”. So, off the went early to see sunrise up on the hill. It became clear very soon that we wouldn´t get to see sunrise, because the whole landscape was covered with deep, damp fog. That didn´t stop us though and we walked up and had a look around.
As fate would have it, the Rugby game between England and Ireland in the six nations cup was scheduled on Saturday. A friend of the host family had invited us for a barbeque so off we went to their house. I had an awesome time there. Everyone was super nice and the game was super too. I slowly start to understand the basic rules and systems in Rugby and you can get me into any sport you want, I´ll be watching it enthusiastically anyway. Ireland won and with it they won not only the Six Nations but also a Grand Slam. With the result, the evening was a great success and we all got back to the house extremely tired but happy.
Oh and I nearly forgot. I moved up to the attic for good this week. Now I have kind of my own space, which is really nice.
Today on the Sunday, is mother´s day in Ireland. After such an eventful weekend, I´m not sure, if we will do anything today. If we do so, I´ll tell yous next week. Until then I wish yous all the best and hope yous are keeping up well.
With all the love Emma<3
Comments