Nollaig Shona Duit

Happy Christmas

A rollup of Christmas traditions here across the pond. The Irish people claim Christmas as their big holiday. They seem to think that thanksgiving is the big one in the U.S. We have explained there all big over there...

Food:
The one similarity to American thanksgiving is the meal. In ireland the Christmas dinner is similar big deal as Thanksgiving meal.
The typical meal is turkey and ham (boiled not baked), stuffing,  roast vegetables.
For dessert- mince pies, christmas cake, christmas pudding (note mince pies are everywhere, it is one of the signs of the season in grocery stores, coffee shops, etc...)
We found out the other day that it really is ham and turkey not an or. We were at a restaurant where both are served together. A slice of turkey on the bottom, covered by lump of stuffing with a slice of ham on top. Surprisingly good.

TV:
The season starts off with the late late toy show
Then the nation channels fill the season with movies...
From the english neighbours we have Christmas Day specials for Doctor Who (new doctor introduced on Christmas this year) to Downton Abbey.

Jumpers:
Sweaters to americans... It sounds like this is a new old tradition. Christmas jumpers are available in all the stores. We have the classy ones and the ones that are 3D with baubles hanging off. Mine has a scarf and a bauble nose.

Drinking:
In downtown dublin it is the 12 pubs of christmas. this is where everyone wear the aforementioned jumper and try and visit 12  pubs in one night. Drunken mayhem ensues...
Also tis the season for mulled wine.
Egg nog not so much. The only place you would see this is on the starbucks menu as an egg nog latte. otherwise not an Irish thing.

Pantos:
I have heard it is tradition to see a holiday Panto. From wikipedia  pantos are theater style that includes song, dance, slapstick, cross-dressing,jokes. Will let you know, we are set to see one on New Years eve.

Santa Claus:
Obviously his minions and stand ins are here also. The Irish affectionately call him Santy

thats all for now, will see if we learn any other new Irish customs in the coming week

Rob

Irishisms

Things we hear in ireland

Is that alright or are you alright?

       Usually from customer service - banks tellers , store workers,  etc.

       And if it is not alright what is the response...

Ye

       Yes old English for you , how are ye doing 

Me

       For my , I.e. Me bike , me hat , etc..

Hard luck
      used in sports, for a close goal

Well done
       self explanatory

Good lad
       good effort in sports

Off to the jacks

       going to the bathroom

Irish/American dictionary (for the common stuff)

• Rubbish     / trash
• Crisps       / potato chips
• Chips        / French fries
• Bacon       / Irish bacon is more like canadian bacon
• Bin            / trash can
• Lift            / to give a ride in the car or an elevator
• Ride           / this is a family blog people....
• pint             / same word, but just to be clear in ireland a pint is 20 oz or 500ml
• creche         / preschool or afterschool care
• post            / mail  (verb or noun, put it in the post, or post it)
• Craic          / good time or story 

A few more food notes

        bacon as mentioned above is not bacon

        ham and cheese sandwich (cheese is shredded cheese)

        scone, is not a starbucks scone  but quite delish

        coffee is often instant, if not instant it will be an americano

        beans, this typically means beans in tomato sauce, served at breakfast usually

thats all for now

Rob

Christmas traditions

Well we have been told that Christmas is the big holiday here . We are doing our best to uncover the Irish Christmas traditions .

The first one being the late late toy show.

Since atleast the 70s their late late show (think tonight show) has a Christmas special once a year . The host breaks out a special jumper and they have performances by kids, and kids demonstrating different toys .

The audience is all adults dressed in Christmas garb , jumpers , etc..

Crisps part 2

Well as the Facebook readers may know we ran across roast beefy in stout flavor and turkey and stuffing flavor at the store.

We were invited to an expat thanksgiving party yesterday so decided these would make a nice starter.

The roast beef does taste like roast beef actually quite tasty. The turkey and stuffing tastes like a salty stuffing .

Both were pretty good and the audience seem to be split on which was their favorite

Rob

Managing expectations or What Stays the Same

I was ruminating last night about why our life here in a foreign land feels much less foreign than I expected. It's the kids. 

When you are married with kids of a certain age range you do certain stuff. The same sort of stuff whether you live in Portland, Chicago or Maynooth. You work (in our case this is just Rob), you care for a house, you cook, clean up what you cooked, do laundry, shop and take kids to school and their activities. Here in Maynooth the activities are different, the stores we shop in are new and laundry is really different (see previous posts), but the effect is the same. Right now Rob and Jack are at a GAA challenge match (instead of soccer) and Audrey and I are at church choir practice. 

Sometimes I get really frustrated that we aren't out traveling every spare moment.  But that's not realistic. We are a family living in a series of communities- school, work, town and parish.  We could choose to spend all of our weekends traveling, but then we are not part of our community. And kids need community. We are trying to strike a balance. Taking advantage of our location and seeing the beauty all around us, and living in our new Irish home. So, we are seeing a bit less of Europe than I expected so far, but we are learning more about what it means to live in Ireland. On most days I would say its a fair trade. 

Crisps (aka potato chips )

The chips section at the grocery store is not like in the US.

The majority of potato chips are sold in individual bags . We attempted to buy a big bag for home snacking, but when we got home and opened the bag we ended up with a bunch of small bags. It turns out that the big bags are just bags of little bags

Flavor selection is also quite different .

Flavours above prawn flavor, chicken flavor , bacon flavor, pickled onion, cheese and onion , and tomato...The closest to 'regular ' is ready salted bit these are tough to find .

Balsamic vinegar and sea salt is a little more available .
The weirdness aside they do have good potatoes so if you buy the high end potato chips they can be quite good. Current favorite is a cheese and onion from Tipperary.

Rob

Banks...

Banking has been one of our major frustrations. Here for 3 months and still don't have an Irish credit card .

Online banking is more complicated ,

You need account number , pin and password to login. Then to pay a bill you have to have a home card reader (free from bank) . You insert card when prompted , then enter number from card reader on your pc .

And to demonstrate their commitment to security the bank entrances have a nice airlock entry . Press a button to enter , inner door has to be closed then yours opens. Close yours , press a button and open inner door

That's today's lesson on living Irish 

Rob

More Irish names

From the store birthday card section 

Toto were not in Kansas anymore

Rob

Cars in ireland (match game)

Here is a sample of car logos from ireland

Match the brand

• Skoda
• Audi
• Honda
• Renault
• Citroen
• Peugot
• Volkswagen
• Opel
• Vauxhall
• Seat
• Suzuki
• Ford
• Toyota
• Alfa Romeo

also seen but not pictured

• Nissan
• Mercedes
• Kia
• Mini

Model wise even  for the common brands (Audi, Volkswagen, Honda, Toyota, Mercedes ) many unique models here
Corolla verso which we are driving and here are some other names
Sharan, Clio, Fabia, Touran, Scenis, FR-V, One, Megane, Laguna, Superb, Yeta, Zafira, Astra, C4, A3, Ibiza,
bonus points to match to brands above

other surprises- heated seats, an american thing apparently. Have yet to see a car in Ireland with heated seats despite the fact they are awesome ...

Rob

Holiday in Wales (day 1)

Wales is castle land (from their tourism site their are over 600 castles in Wales, most per square mile than any country in the world).
We knew there were castles but we did not know how impressive they would be.

We arrived on Saturday morning after a ride on the quick ferry from Dublin (around 35mph... 2 hours long). I had planned to start with a castle that looked good on paper Conwy Castle. On the way we saw a sign for Beaumaris castle and thought after a 2 hour ferry ride why not a quick castle stop on the way to the next castle which was 40 minute away.

Beaumaris turned out to be huge. A moated castle with a giant inner green space. Rooms in the walls.
Unfinished in the end but spectacular nether the less. Sarah read more signs than I did (designated Jack chaser that I am) so she can pipe in on the history.

and to be kid friendly they add a playground outside...

Next stop Conwy Castle

Just as grand as Beaumaris. This castle was finished and was on the water which makes for a picturesque castle. The walls at Beaumaris were high but the turrets on Conwy were really high and it turns out wearing a hat is dicey. Mine blew off, but luckily right into Sarah's hands.

Gorgeous views from up top

a rare shot of The photographer with family

Day 2 to hopefully follow tomorrow...

Rob

Welsh for beginners

Our first out of country holiday...
Ferry to Wales for a 4 day trip.
I will post more about the trip but first a few images of welsh an unusual language where "y" is used quite liberally as well as ll, dd which don't sound like they look (and we thought irish was weird)

Castles vs Beer (Game on)

To the side of the blog is now a list of castles visited during our tenure here in ireland. Castles from previous visits don't count. All of europe (and US I suppose though I only know of Hearst Castle ) are in play.
The challenge to see more castles in Europe than the number of breweries I visited in beer club.
You  say how hard can that be... Well the magic number is 41 assuming I did my math right (Todd may correct me later). So 24 months or so to hit 41 castles...

Current count is 10 after 3 months . Not bad. If we can keep up the pace of 3 a month then in a little over a year we can the mark...

Number 11 is next weekend Dunluce castle.

Rob

how long is two months, really?

Well I was walking to pick up the kids from school the other day and was wondering why it feels like we've been here in Ireland for such a long time.  When people ask me and I respond "two months" it sounds like a very short time, but somehow it doesn't feel that way to me.  I think I know why.  It's the chores.

My life here in Ireland, although very different in many ways, is also very much the same life I lived in Portland.  In between meeting new people, seeing amazing things and hearing that beautiful accent all day long, I do chores.  The same ones over and over.  Not that it's a problem, it's the life of a housewife and mom, and most days it suits me just fine.  But, here is why it feels like 2 months is a long time indeed.  Since we moved to Maynooth:

I have prepared and cleaned up at least 144 meals - that's assuming that we eat out at least once a week. We don't.

I've swept the kitchen floor at least 56 times - and that's assuming I only did it once a day.  You know me and you know that's not true.  But for the sake of science we'll go with it.

I've done at least 48 loads of laundry - many of those hung out on a line to dry.

And I've "hoovered" the carpet at least 20 times (see previous post on appliances for more information on "hoovering) - that doesn't include the little carpet sweeper thingy that I use every day at least once on the heavily trod upon areas.

And finally I've walked to the Presentation Girls National School and the St. Mary's Boys National School and back home again approximately 40 times.

So, that's why it seems like we've been here a while and why I feel like I already know my small corner of Ireland very well indeed.  Soon we will get to know the rest of the country and Europe....But maybe not by doing chores in them.

Candy selection

Candy selection in ireland is different

It is nestle kit kat in ireland vs Hershey in the USA 

Cadbury and Nestlé are the big brands

Enjoy the gallery ...

Groceries in ireland

In ireland we walk to the grocery usually.

Our local options are lidl , aldi, dunnes and tesco.

Bags cost money so bring your own.

Shopping carts require €1 or €2 deposit 

Some translations 

Crisps (potato chips)

Wraps (tortillas)

Fresh milk (whole milk)

Mince beef (ground beef)

Biscuits (cookies)

Toastie cheese ( American sliced cheese)

Not readily available

Macaroni ( we knew no mac and cheese ahead but you can't even find the pasta)

Bacon ( sure Irish bacon which is more like Canadian bacon aka ham) , I'm sure American style is there we just haven't found it 

Good salsa

Cream of wheat ( all oats and porridge )

In general containers are smaller , which makes sense for walking 

Well that's all for now

Rob