Culture, Ireland

On Being Irish – Or Not.

10 Comments

Shabby sidewalkI bet you’re all dying to hear more glorious stories from the emerald islands, right?
OK here’s something I’ve noticed and had confirmed by others as well. You’all’ve seen the pictures from my walk to work, right? Well, on two days of this last week they were even more disgusting than usual. That one day me and Richard were both walking there – me to work, he to the bus stop – when some bloke gut out of a car and started walking in front of us. We-hell, what a nice view we had, right down his sweatpants into his butt crack. Ewwww (sweatpants)! Ewwwwwwwww (3cm of his buttcrack)! Gross! Then, a couple of days later, I slowly trot to work (still not Friday *sighs*) when I notice someone walking ahead of me (I usually pass many people cause I’m that fast (ha!) ;-)). Couldn’t keep my eyes of his butt! Not because it was hot but because there was a huge hole in his sweat(!)pants and I could see right through to the skin of his butt. Yuk! I actually started laughing because of the ridicule. All these people in sweatpants here and then what’s up with showing off their arses?! Geeee! Alcohol kills brain cells….
Another piece of Irish culture became clear on one of my many walks to and from work as well. The sidewalk is usually about 1m wide and there’s a fence on one side and the street to the other (without a gutter) so not much space really. However, this does not keep the Irish away from walking with three people next to each other. When you walk into the other direction you’d think they’d budge and make some space to let you through. Well no. Wrong idea. They don’t really do that. They so don’t go out of their way – today some girl even ran into me in the shopping aisle even though she had loads of space on her side to make a bit room for me. You know, even when they’re walking alone they sometimes don’t feel the need to move a bit to the right or left to let me walk into the opposite direction. Tzzz!
But let me tell you about some other Irish cultural artifact: Shandy! I went to the pub last night (yeah Wednesday…) with some people from xing and I was saying how much I’d love a Alster/Radler (beer and sprite) right now and well, turns out, not only do the Irish know beer with lemonade but they even have a name for it: Shandy! Well, they do know they alcohol. 😉 Tasted different because they use bitter lemon instead I think but still quite good and I’m sure I could say “Shandy with sprite or 7up please”.
Now I just need to figure out how Irish light bulbs work because I can’t get my broken one out of the lamp – and it’s not like I don’t know how to do that but it just won’t come out. Hmpf! Annoying to sit in the semi dark here (even though I should be used to it by now ;-))

Well me dears, have a fantastic weekend! Me family and I’ll be driving south on Sat after I pick them up at the airport and I won’t be back until Tuesday. Toodles!

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10 Comments

  1. i simply do not get people who don’t know the difference between clothes you wear around the house (or at a gym) and clothes you wear outside, to a party, work etc. we both know, american’s are good about the “sweatpants wherever they go – thing” as well *rollseyes*

    have a good weekend and just bump into the rude irish. tough luck if they don’t have any manners… 🙂

  2. lol. em, i definetely feel guilty right now. i love going to school in pyjamas. not my school of course, but i am dropping of my kids in mine. i am too lazy to change and no one here cares. its great. i do feel a little american at times though. lol. yeah kim is right bump into them. so no cute irish guys there so far? i cant believe it. the whole kelly family is irish. lol. love ya hunbun

  3. I feel sick merely reading those 2 descriptions, yet, I still miss visiting ya. Be firm on the sidewalks. Have fun, have fun for me this weekend! I wish I were there still! I’ve sent you a CF bulb. Please use it :).

  4. I remember in the US when I was going shopping in my sweats or going to Blockbuster to rent some movies. But I would never do that here in Europe. It’s just a different cultural thing here. But your experience sounds pretty nasty… Good luck changing your light bulb… I am always wondering why everything has to be different all the time and why all countries around the world can’t have the same stuff. Oh well. Again culture… I guess. 🙂 ….btw, I am sorry for my absence of commenting lately.

  5. uh. gross. just try to look someone else sweetie… it’s going to blur your vision 😉

    have a great time with your family 🙂 xoxo.

  7. thanks for the eprop…i wish i could teach my class elsewhere..but too bad it’s held
    during their workday….directly in there companies conference room…and yeah,
    your right, it’s usually easy to bond with other mommies, like i did in the US..but
    i guess it just takes a lot longer here due to the language barrier…

    anyhow, it took me awhile to catch up on all your blogs! i started from the latest, but
    then got all confused and thought you had a new boyfriend! then i went
    all the way back to your first post in ireland and now it’s all clear 🙂 … i love reading
    about your irish tales..i have yet to visit ireland, but now i get a taste of it, along with
    a lot of laughs, through your daily adventures!!!

  8. Your in Ireland now. Your not suppose to call them pants (cause that is what they call their undies). They call pants Trousers.

    That still always catches me up!

    Shandy’s are great!

  9. I see your feeling grand, that’s awesome!
    Ryc: The place is still not really in the shape to be shown off yet but we are working on it! Very hard!
    Tomorrow I have to see the doc again, I don’t feel any changes myself. Which is good I hope. And I kind of get used to the cataract situation, I guess!