Fanad Head- can you see the stairs going down to the water?
Monday, September 05, 2005
Sunday, August 21, 2005
Tuesday, August 16, 2005
We'll be home so soon you'll want us to leave, and come back later!
Here's a quote from Lord Byron that sums up the last 4 months: "The English winter - ending in July to recommence in August."
The first week of April we went to Majorca, a Spanish island which was beautiful, but not quite as warm as one might have hoped for sunbathing (this did not deter the older German ladies from exposing way too much at the pool!) We drove all over exploring and saw where Princess Grace and Prince Rainier honeymooned. There were so many beautiful harbors, little seaside towns and orchards.
I finished my classes in May, and not surprisingly my last Feminism class met in a pub instead of the classroom. It gets stranger, I had the highest and second highest grades in my two classes, so that just goes to show the quality of education over here when a middle aged redneck like me is top of the class! I was in the mall enjoying anonymously blending into the crowd when a young woman dropped her wallet right in front of me without noticing. I stooped to pick it up and turned around thinking someone else would have told her or she would have noticed. No such luck, and she was getting farther away so instinct kicked in and I loudly yelled out in classic Virginia two syllable style "Ma'am!" Turns out you'd only use that name for the Queen, so heads everywhere turned and stared at me like the strange freak I am. I sheepishly gave her the wallet and ran away as quickly as I could to Kentucky Fried Chicken. The teenager there corrected me when I tried to order a chicken fillet; here they are pronounced "fill-it." I was already feeling too sheepish to point out that he was working in a KENTUCKY FRIED CHICKEN and I ought to be able to pronounce it the way they do in Kentucky.
We have recently, by the grace of God, gotten a Quiznos and a Starbucks within a few blocks of our house. I'd eaten at Quiznos three times the first week it opened. We've since been invited to go water skiing with the owner/manager, I kid you not. The kids at Starbucks keep telling me I can pick my drink up at the end of the bar without perhaps grasping that I've been picking my grande no whip decaf caffe mocha up from the bar since they were in grade school.
Aaron has been moving through his Aikido class and has achieved several belts. He has not, however, figured out how to defend himself from a closed elevator as he has gotten stuck at night in the elevator at work twice now. Haley isn't much better, as she is now afraid of her own farts and released an audible belch last week. She's been battling hay fever and the vet, who has lived in Kentucky, said he'd never seen a dog with such a gap in between her front teeth. just when you thought we couldn't be any more country, the dog gets called a redneck! Well, she was born a Shifflett...
The first week of June, in time for the anniversary of D-Day, we descended on Paris. We went up the Eiffel Tower, hung off Notre Dame yelling "She gave me water!", took a boat cruise on the Seine, had crepes, wiped away a tear at the tunnel where Princess Diana died, and tracked down the Harley Davidson store, you know, the usual things. We did learn there is only one kind of dressing for salad in France, and it's not the orange kind you find in the US. We overheard some American girls ordering "French fries" and better understand why people might think we are clueless travelers. We also were fortunate enough to catch a showing of Cirque du Soleil, which was fantastic. We were directed there by a woman who spoke only French and of course neither of us speaks French, but somehow through the international language of pointing and grunting we enjoyed the kindness of a stranger.
We took a train to Normandy and it was really profound to see the beaches and memorials. One of the most poignant moments may have been listening to all the different languages and accents being spoken by the other tourists and school groups as we all climbed all over the aging German guns. Who'd have imagined the children and grandchildren of those who fought would be meeting each other at the places of their battles, now a tourist attraction? The inscription on the Omaha Beach memorial reads: "No mission too difficult, no sacrifice too great, Duty first forced Omaha Beach at dawn on 6 June."
On the train to the airport with all our bags, we got a bad feeling we might be on the wrong train. So Aaron jumps off and disappears outside. At this point it occurs to me what a precarious position I'm in, on the wrong train in a foreign country where I don't speak the language, with bags I can't carry, a flight to catch and a missing husband. So of course the doors close, the color drains from my face, my jaw drops open and the words that tumble out weren't pretty (think tire changing scene in "A Christmas Story"). As the train pulls away and complete panic begins to set in who should come grinning through the doors walking down from the front of the train but Aaron. Turns out he heard the door closing bell and threw his upper body through onto the first car. While the older French guys near me didn't appear to speak any English, they laughed knowingly enough at us to have enjoyed the situation! At the airport an old woman with a cane got on the shuttle bus and I was the only person to jump up to give her my seat-where is the chivalry? There was a young business man in a suit closer to her who remained seated and everyone looked at me like I was from another planet. I should mention that once in Belfast Aaron forgot his wallet when we got gasoline and they just gave him a form and 7 days to come back by and pay for it-what a country!
When we got back to Belfast we took off the next day for the Wicklow mountains outside Dublin for a visit with friends, and of course, the Neal Diamond concert. I was so grateful he made it through without keeling over on the stage that I barely noticed how many of the spectators themselves had oxygen masks (average age of concertgoer: 74). We explained to our Irish friends what a "booty call" was, so the cultural exchanges are still in full swing. In case you were wondering, corndogs here are called "toad in the hole." "Knackered" means tired, "minging" means stinky, "rubbers" are pencil erasers and "bollocks" is a curse word we think means testicles. Aaron dropped all our new 'colorful' words recently at a friend's house much to their horror and the delight of their teenagers.
A social worker friend, upon hearing that our apartment complex used to be the site of a nursing home, replied that she "used to place people there." Aaron and I both choked on our dinners as our eyes popped out of our heads because with her accent we both heard "I used to PLEASE people there!" One of my favorites is the National Union of Teachers here, acronym: N.U.T. True in so many ways. Political correctness hasn't caught on as much yet here either, as recently an Irish politician referred to Turkish airport workers as 'kebabs' and a comedian referred to the French as "cheese eating surrender monkeys." And of course there's the craziness that shows up on TV. We've seen a special on penis enlargements, a show called "Desperate Midwives" with live birth footage, as well as a beach competition of bikini tug-o-war, where the loser of course ends up topless. Turns out chewing tobaccy is illegal here (I'm having withdrawals), because it causes cancer. Good thing the thick clouds of second hand smoke you find everywhere are harmless enough.
We also attended a concert by Ronan Tynan (he sang at Ronald Reagan's funeral), previously one of the Irish tenors, who not only has an amazing voice but an incredible life story that you should read about if you missed the Barbara Walters special. I e-mailed him after the concert about how cool it was he united an otherwise "mixed" crowd right after elections here, and not only did he e-mail me back, but put my comments on his website. It may be the closest I come to ever getting published!
We went out to dinner on the 4th of July to celebrate. Turns out wearing red, white, and blue, also the colors of the Union Jack, wasn't such a hot idea as an Orange Parade marched by while we ate. When we're home we'll show you pictures of the controversial 11th and 12th holidays. This year was a slower year for bombs and riots. You might have thought there wouldn't be any so soon after the bombs in London on the 7th, but you'd have been wrong. When I first heard on the radio that bombs had gone off in the city I assumed it must have been Belfast. Thankfully in a historic move, the IRA has declared an end to the "armed struggle" of the last 35 years. The British army immediately dismantled its watchtowers, calling them 'unnecessary,' which translates as "we've got other ways of watching you now."
Despite the sudden rain, hail, and cooler temperatures, folks here do enjoy grilling out. We all had a good laugh when we discovered that a girl from Texas and I have both been offering to bring bags of ice to the cookouts-silly Americans! It's not hot enough to need ice and there aren't coolers full of cans of beer and coke!
The last two weekends of July we went to Barcelona and then Scotland. I'll try to add the Barcelona pictures in the next few weeks. Barcelona was lively and hot. It was nice and familiar to actually sweat for a change. I went to Starbucks there, thinking I'd be ok with only limited Spanish since I know the menu pretty well. The guy behind the counter asked for my name to write on the cup. I said "Suellen" and he just looked at me, puzzled. So I smiled and tried again with "Sue." He paused, then wrote. When I picked up my tasty frappacino, on the side of the cup was written "Lady."
Scotland was fantastic if not absurdly cold for July. We hit all the places you've heard mentioned on Braveheart-Falkirk, Bannockburn, Stirling and St. Andrews, where William Wallace freed the golf course. Edinburgh was super cool and we wished we could have stayed longer. We had the closest thing to authentic Mexican food this side of the Atlantic there, but Aaron was too chicken to try Haggis. Maybe next time.
When we got home we had a young Swiss girl (who went to university in Maryland) stay with us for a week. We've been catching up on episodes of "Lost" while I've been hunkering down and trying to make progress on my dissertation. I recently interviewed a rebel priest, so at least it's not boring. I will be glad to be finished by mid-September after a holiday weekend with friends in Donegal at the end of August. We're hoping to fly home the first week of October after one final hurrah in Greece the 3rd week of September. I probably won't put any more text on until we're back home, but I will add more pictures over the next 6 weeks.
Can't wait to see all of y'all in person! Miss you!
Aaron, Suellen and Haley
The first week of April we went to Majorca, a Spanish island which was beautiful, but not quite as warm as one might have hoped for sunbathing (this did not deter the older German ladies from exposing way too much at the pool!) We drove all over exploring and saw where Princess Grace and Prince Rainier honeymooned. There were so many beautiful harbors, little seaside towns and orchards.
I finished my classes in May, and not surprisingly my last Feminism class met in a pub instead of the classroom. It gets stranger, I had the highest and second highest grades in my two classes, so that just goes to show the quality of education over here when a middle aged redneck like me is top of the class! I was in the mall enjoying anonymously blending into the crowd when a young woman dropped her wallet right in front of me without noticing. I stooped to pick it up and turned around thinking someone else would have told her or she would have noticed. No such luck, and she was getting farther away so instinct kicked in and I loudly yelled out in classic Virginia two syllable style "Ma'am!" Turns out you'd only use that name for the Queen, so heads everywhere turned and stared at me like the strange freak I am. I sheepishly gave her the wallet and ran away as quickly as I could to Kentucky Fried Chicken. The teenager there corrected me when I tried to order a chicken fillet; here they are pronounced "fill-it." I was already feeling too sheepish to point out that he was working in a KENTUCKY FRIED CHICKEN and I ought to be able to pronounce it the way they do in Kentucky.
We have recently, by the grace of God, gotten a Quiznos and a Starbucks within a few blocks of our house. I'd eaten at Quiznos three times the first week it opened. We've since been invited to go water skiing with the owner/manager, I kid you not. The kids at Starbucks keep telling me I can pick my drink up at the end of the bar without perhaps grasping that I've been picking my grande no whip decaf caffe mocha up from the bar since they were in grade school.
Aaron has been moving through his Aikido class and has achieved several belts. He has not, however, figured out how to defend himself from a closed elevator as he has gotten stuck at night in the elevator at work twice now. Haley isn't much better, as she is now afraid of her own farts and released an audible belch last week. She's been battling hay fever and the vet, who has lived in Kentucky, said he'd never seen a dog with such a gap in between her front teeth. just when you thought we couldn't be any more country, the dog gets called a redneck! Well, she was born a Shifflett...
The first week of June, in time for the anniversary of D-Day, we descended on Paris. We went up the Eiffel Tower, hung off Notre Dame yelling "She gave me water!", took a boat cruise on the Seine, had crepes, wiped away a tear at the tunnel where Princess Diana died, and tracked down the Harley Davidson store, you know, the usual things. We did learn there is only one kind of dressing for salad in France, and it's not the orange kind you find in the US. We overheard some American girls ordering "French fries" and better understand why people might think we are clueless travelers. We also were fortunate enough to catch a showing of Cirque du Soleil, which was fantastic. We were directed there by a woman who spoke only French and of course neither of us speaks French, but somehow through the international language of pointing and grunting we enjoyed the kindness of a stranger.
We took a train to Normandy and it was really profound to see the beaches and memorials. One of the most poignant moments may have been listening to all the different languages and accents being spoken by the other tourists and school groups as we all climbed all over the aging German guns. Who'd have imagined the children and grandchildren of those who fought would be meeting each other at the places of their battles, now a tourist attraction? The inscription on the Omaha Beach memorial reads: "No mission too difficult, no sacrifice too great, Duty first forced Omaha Beach at dawn on 6 June."
On the train to the airport with all our bags, we got a bad feeling we might be on the wrong train. So Aaron jumps off and disappears outside. At this point it occurs to me what a precarious position I'm in, on the wrong train in a foreign country where I don't speak the language, with bags I can't carry, a flight to catch and a missing husband. So of course the doors close, the color drains from my face, my jaw drops open and the words that tumble out weren't pretty (think tire changing scene in "A Christmas Story"). As the train pulls away and complete panic begins to set in who should come grinning through the doors walking down from the front of the train but Aaron. Turns out he heard the door closing bell and threw his upper body through onto the first car. While the older French guys near me didn't appear to speak any English, they laughed knowingly enough at us to have enjoyed the situation! At the airport an old woman with a cane got on the shuttle bus and I was the only person to jump up to give her my seat-where is the chivalry? There was a young business man in a suit closer to her who remained seated and everyone looked at me like I was from another planet. I should mention that once in Belfast Aaron forgot his wallet when we got gasoline and they just gave him a form and 7 days to come back by and pay for it-what a country!
When we got back to Belfast we took off the next day for the Wicklow mountains outside Dublin for a visit with friends, and of course, the Neal Diamond concert. I was so grateful he made it through without keeling over on the stage that I barely noticed how many of the spectators themselves had oxygen masks (average age of concertgoer: 74). We explained to our Irish friends what a "booty call" was, so the cultural exchanges are still in full swing. In case you were wondering, corndogs here are called "toad in the hole." "Knackered" means tired, "minging" means stinky, "rubbers" are pencil erasers and "bollocks" is a curse word we think means testicles. Aaron dropped all our new 'colorful' words recently at a friend's house much to their horror and the delight of their teenagers.
A social worker friend, upon hearing that our apartment complex used to be the site of a nursing home, replied that she "used to place people there." Aaron and I both choked on our dinners as our eyes popped out of our heads because with her accent we both heard "I used to PLEASE people there!" One of my favorites is the National Union of Teachers here, acronym: N.U.T. True in so many ways. Political correctness hasn't caught on as much yet here either, as recently an Irish politician referred to Turkish airport workers as 'kebabs' and a comedian referred to the French as "cheese eating surrender monkeys." And of course there's the craziness that shows up on TV. We've seen a special on penis enlargements, a show called "Desperate Midwives" with live birth footage, as well as a beach competition of bikini tug-o-war, where the loser of course ends up topless. Turns out chewing tobaccy is illegal here (I'm having withdrawals), because it causes cancer. Good thing the thick clouds of second hand smoke you find everywhere are harmless enough.
We also attended a concert by Ronan Tynan (he sang at Ronald Reagan's funeral), previously one of the Irish tenors, who not only has an amazing voice but an incredible life story that you should read about if you missed the Barbara Walters special. I e-mailed him after the concert about how cool it was he united an otherwise "mixed" crowd right after elections here, and not only did he e-mail me back, but put my comments on his website. It may be the closest I come to ever getting published!
We went out to dinner on the 4th of July to celebrate. Turns out wearing red, white, and blue, also the colors of the Union Jack, wasn't such a hot idea as an Orange Parade marched by while we ate. When we're home we'll show you pictures of the controversial 11th and 12th holidays. This year was a slower year for bombs and riots. You might have thought there wouldn't be any so soon after the bombs in London on the 7th, but you'd have been wrong. When I first heard on the radio that bombs had gone off in the city I assumed it must have been Belfast. Thankfully in a historic move, the IRA has declared an end to the "armed struggle" of the last 35 years. The British army immediately dismantled its watchtowers, calling them 'unnecessary,' which translates as "we've got other ways of watching you now."
Despite the sudden rain, hail, and cooler temperatures, folks here do enjoy grilling out. We all had a good laugh when we discovered that a girl from Texas and I have both been offering to bring bags of ice to the cookouts-silly Americans! It's not hot enough to need ice and there aren't coolers full of cans of beer and coke!
The last two weekends of July we went to Barcelona and then Scotland. I'll try to add the Barcelona pictures in the next few weeks. Barcelona was lively and hot. It was nice and familiar to actually sweat for a change. I went to Starbucks there, thinking I'd be ok with only limited Spanish since I know the menu pretty well. The guy behind the counter asked for my name to write on the cup. I said "Suellen" and he just looked at me, puzzled. So I smiled and tried again with "Sue." He paused, then wrote. When I picked up my tasty frappacino, on the side of the cup was written "Lady."
Scotland was fantastic if not absurdly cold for July. We hit all the places you've heard mentioned on Braveheart-Falkirk, Bannockburn, Stirling and St. Andrews, where William Wallace freed the golf course. Edinburgh was super cool and we wished we could have stayed longer. We had the closest thing to authentic Mexican food this side of the Atlantic there, but Aaron was too chicken to try Haggis. Maybe next time.
When we got home we had a young Swiss girl (who went to university in Maryland) stay with us for a week. We've been catching up on episodes of "Lost" while I've been hunkering down and trying to make progress on my dissertation. I recently interviewed a rebel priest, so at least it's not boring. I will be glad to be finished by mid-September after a holiday weekend with friends in Donegal at the end of August. We're hoping to fly home the first week of October after one final hurrah in Greece the 3rd week of September. I probably won't put any more text on until we're back home, but I will add more pictures over the next 6 weeks.
Can't wait to see all of y'all in person! Miss you!
Aaron, Suellen and Haley
Wednesday, August 10, 2005
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