Week 3.5 St Patrick's Day

Today was a very fun day.  All morning it was alternating between downpours and blue skies but for most of the St Patrick's Day Parade, it was fairly nice.  This was a fun little parade-- families out, kids excited, pipe bands playing, papier mache horses and giant globes going by.  I was glad we went: it was a fun event.  (Regarding St. Patrick's Day, this is a fascinating article from the quite stellar Irish Times).  After the parade finished we went to one pub and enjoyed all the different things going on: little kids in giant shamrock hats, funny conversations, and all ages singing to songs old and somewhat new.  I'm always impressed at how people in their teens and twenties here know lyrics to the songs people in their 80s are singing.  I can't imagine this happening in North America.  I was also amused to note that the two songs that got the entire pub singing were The Pogues' Dirty Old Town and Johnny Cash's Ring of Fire.  Danny Boy had a few people humming along but nothing like the Pogues and Johnny.  After a while, we left there and went to perhaps our favourite pub in town which today had some excellent music and dancing to watch-- all spontaneous and serendipitous.  This particular pub is where we've met most of the people we know and it was fun to sit with them and meet a few new people.  I met someone today who, when introduced to me, said "Oh! Yes! Are you feeling better now? I heard you were sick on the ferry."  One of our new friends told me, "The whole town knows you were sick.  Sorry."  It's remarkable how small the world is here and how close the connections are.  It's helpful to us as we navigate our way around this community.  We left our happy friendly pub and then went for dinner at a place we like in the Quay.  It's by our apartment and chatted with someone else we've got to know there.  It is a strange feeling to move into a town for six weeks: it is and is not a lot of time.  I think we both thought we'd be on our own for this whole time and that was fine.  That said, tonight we were really struck by how-- in two short weeks-- we've been welcomed by so many people that we're really feeling at home. And even though it's pretty embarrassing, it's also sweet that people ask if I'm feeling better and say sympathetically, "oh yes, that small boat is very rough."  They're very kind.  And we're very grateful.