Language Barriers

Hola! Como estan? Estoy cansada pero muy bien. Mi clase de espanol es muy interesante...

Sorry, I've kind of been stuck in a cheesy quasi-spangirelish dialect today. For Spanish class I have three different teachers; two of them are simply Irish and I'm beginning to separate the Irish accent on the English language from the Irish/English accent on the Spanish language. Oh you think that's confusing?? Once a week we have a spoken lab where 8 of us just sit around and speak Spanish. (Today was the first time I went to this lab because of some registration confusion and I was happily surprised to find that my Spanish speaking abilities are actually well above average in the class.) Our professor, however, is something to write home about. Her nationality and first language are Japanese, her second language is English, she's picked up an Irish accent, and she's teaching US how to speak Spanish! You can't even imagine a Japanese/Irish/English accent applied to the Spanish language. And on top of that, the Spanish language here is spoken quite different than the Mexican Spanish I learned at home. Let's just say that I'm glad I've got the basic pronunciations because I don't think I'll be learning too much more in this lab! She had us read Spanish out loud today and the guy next to me might as well have said, "I'm-o going to el store-o without-o mucho dinero-o" and she'd have said... "Perfecto!"For her, any form of Spanglish will do.

The rest of my classes are going well. In one lecture we've breached the tip of the iceberg that is Ulysses. For those of you that avoid literature, I imagine Ulysses is a prime example of WHY you avoid it. Written by the infamous Irish author James Joyce, it is mostly known for its ability to confound even the most snobbish intellectuals. So getting through this book could be a wild ride. Seminar classes started this week; this is the class that I had to stand in line for an hour and a half to register for. I wound up with my first choice which is unheard of, considering I wasn't among those who camped outside the Registrar's door after a long night at the pubs to be first in line. My class of choice was the "English Language in Ireland," or as our prof refers to it, Hiberno English. I'm really excited about this one. It's a small class with about 25 people so there should be some great discussions. There are only 3 Americans, phew, and also 5 Spanish and one Italian student - the rest of course being Irish. There are two girls whose first language is Irish, a rarity, so it will be great to have their input as well. Our prof, Ms. Frances McCormack, is young and very energetic. The overall scope of the class is to look at how Hiberno-English (basically the way the Irish speak English) emerged, what historical events contributed to the evolution of the language, and the main differences between Hiberno-English and the English that the rest of the world speaks. I'm sure some of you are snoozing by now, but it's something I'm thrilled to learn more about.

Last night Will, Noel, and Laura called saying they needed a fourth team member for a pub quiz that was taking place downtown. I guess they have these "pub quizzes" frequently just for kicks and you can win a few prizes. There is a 24 euro charge per team and the money goes to help the tsunami victims, so I thought why not? Much to our chagrin the quaint little pub quiz idea turned out to be a bit more uppity than we had expected. The four of us were by far the youngest competitors in the room. The rest of the 150 people were mostly above 40 and among the crowd were several local authors, editors, publishers, critics, and bookshop owners. We were intimidated but we set out with the goal not to come in last, another mistake believe it or not. There were about 38 teams of four and the questions were insane... There were quite a few Irish-based questions that I wouldn't have had a prayer of knowing, but my three Irish teammates even struggled with those. The questions were very obscure and I walked away feeling that even if I had read every book on my "to-read" list I still wouldn't have contributed much. After 10 rounds of 10 questions each I had pitched in just a few answers for my teammates... I identified Anne Frank by photo and knew that Loretta Lynne was the coal miner's daughter. In less than a year I'll have an English Literature degree... kind of frightening. We reached our goal of not coming in last (I believe we were third to last) but we may have been better off last because that team won a bottle of wine! We also should have been more crafty with our guesses... When asked what the follow up book to Tuesdays with Morrie was, the team next to us received a smart-ass prize for replying Wednesdays with Morrie. Now that's the Irish for you.

I'll tell you something that's not Irish... spicy food! Salsa dancing is popular, but apparently the dance is the only meaning for that word here... they only have mild salsa in all the places I've searched, and the "salsa" is just no good. Craving something to really set me on fire, I bought a jar of jalepenos... I ate a fork full and my eyes didn't even water... I was extremely disappointed. The jar was gone in two days. However their reputation for potatoes has not been a disappointment. They are really serious about their potatoes in this country. They are a crucial part of every meal; even the fries (they call them chips) that come with the meal at fast food joints are not little shreds of tators like at home, they're slabs of grease the size of pickles. I love it!

I've had a few girlfriends at home keep asking, "So what do the men look like over there?" Well lets hope no Irish people see this site, but I'm going to commit a blatant stereotype here... Collin Farrell, Will Ferrell, Frodo and a few Travis Lulays... I'm not kidding, I've met loads of guys who really do resemble Elijah Wood. (No, not a bad thing at all!) There aren't as many redheads as people think, but they're not rare. Blondes are actually pretty rare. It's such a relief to not see the little Brittany Spears look-alikes everywhere. There are a few of the typical trendy types running around in their 4 inch Paris Hilton ruffle skirts, but they get made fun of every time they turn their backs. It seems that the men here, in general, are a bit taller. But this may be my eyes playing tricks on me because everyone here is so thin! They've got to be, they walk everywhere! I think I've lost almost 10 lbs (at least half a stone!) since I've been here. Most of the few overweight people I've seen are American, no joke.

Speaking of men... no I don't have a boyfriend, but I will say that one young man made quite a bold move last night. Let go of everything you're thinking right now because you're WAY off... I was minding my own business walking down the street on my way to Noel's at about 7:30. I was walking past the soccer fields by my house and saw a few little boys playing Gaelic football. Of course I'm innocently thinking, oh isn't that cute, some nice young boys in touch with their heritage playing Gaelic football. All of a sudden, out of nowhere, WHACK! I feel this stinging slap on the butt! Before I could even comprehend what was going on this boy, about 10 years old, ran past me and back up the hill with his little conspiring friends, who were of course cheering him on. I may have hollered something after him, but I was so shocked I don't even really remember what I said. For the next 5 minutes I was thinking I should have grabbed him and made him apologize, but then again boys will be boys... Did that really just happen? It was shocking, but admittedly comical. Kids these days... I tell ya what...

Well unfortunately that's about all the exciting news I have for today. We'll see what this weekend holds in store... I thought I was going to be playing in a volleyball tournament in Dublin. I was good, but not good enough - kind of the story of my life with volleyball huh? :) Wednesday night a bunch of us were playing and the guy in charge was making mental notes... It's a co-ed tournament so they had 4 spots for guys and 4 for girls... There was one really great setter so she was guaranteed a spot, and another girl from last year, so 4 of us girls that were all pretty good were competing for two spots. I was bummed, but it was a great time just to play 5 on 5 with some hard hitting. It's been so long since I played really intense volleyball, I forgot how much I love it! There are more tournaments coming up that are all-girl & I'm sure I can get into those. We'll see.

Tonight Nine, Peter, and crew are going out. Cuba's has been selling 10 euro tickets all week to raise money for tsunami victims so we bought some. I guess it's my week to do the charity thing! Those poor people in Asia... wow. How can you even begin to explain the atrocities?

Oh, a couple of you (Rachel!) hinted that I should call... Just so you all know I'm working on it. I tried to buy a phone card the other day and really had the feeling that I was getting swindled into over a euro per minute so I temporarily gave up. But I'm still looking I promise! Thanks everyone for all the emails, it really meant a lot, especially this week - I kind of had a temporary 'bout of homesickness. Love you all & miss ya!

-Sarah