Saying farewell to Ireland

Some of you have asked why we have stopped blogging. I think it's because we have discovered what all expats discover - that eventually all the things that seemed different and quaint when you first arrived become commonplace and actually not so weird after all. And that at some point you actually stop noticing them, and can no longer remember why they seemed funny and worth blogging about in the first place. So we decided we needed to wait until we had something of interest to say, and one month became two months and two months became four months. And then, just when we had settled in so deeply that even a full Irish breakfast with black and white pudding and baked beans no longer made us lose our appetites (OK, we are lying about that, it still looks awful), we got the call.

It's time to come home.

Tis true: after a brief 18 months we will soon be returning to the States. We have had a wonderful, once in a lifetime experience, and there's so much we could say about it. But we've been warned that when you come back from something like this, you risk boring to death every friend you have once you start musing about your life abroad. So we'll make this brief. First, a shout-out to all of you who had a chance to visit us: To MTTF friends Byron and Jennifer; Heather and Toby; Bethany and Jordan; Tim, Gwenn, Ian and Chris; an unexpected reunion with Adriane and her friend Emily; Sandy's flight attendant cousin Beth; Kyle Nickel and photographer friend Trevor; Kay and Dennis; the completely unexpected three months with our favorite engineering student Marin; Dad; Rosemary; Diane; Tom and Coni; Greg and Jenifer; Chad, who took us on a wonderful tour of his Burgundy wine producers; and Jim and Cindy's cancer-free celebration.

And now we will say farewell with one more list, and, with a tear in our eye, bring an end to Steve & Sandy's great Irish adventure.


18 things we will miss about Ireland, and 2 things we won't:


Things we won't miss


1) Driving in Dublin. Even after owning a car for 16 months here, we need a GPS if we are driving more than one mile from our apartment.

2) Dog owners who don't clean up the sidewalk.


Things we WILL miss, a lot


1) The most gregarious people we have met anywhere in the world.

2) The fellowship and warmth of Grosvenor Road Baptist Church.

3) Sheep

4) Driving from the east coast to the west coast in three hours.

5) The stunningly beautiful Irish countryside. We never get tired of it.

6) Hearing the "T" sound in place of "TH" in every word, except one. 

• Would you like a cup of tea?  Sure, tanks. 
• What number comes after 32?  Turty-tree. 
• What day comes after Wednesday?  Tursday.
• What's the name of that spice from the Scarborough Fair song? You know, "parsley, sage, rosemary and..."  Thime.

Wait, what???

7) Finding the end of a rainbow just down the path.

8) When people find lost items on the sidewalk, they pick them up and place them on a nearby fence, so that if the person that lost it comes back to look they might find it. 

9) You can drive in any direction, stop in any village you come to, walk into the first pub or cafe you see, and order delicious veg soup and brown bread. Perfect on a chilly Irish Saturday after a hike. 

10) Did we mention sheep?

11) A perfectly pulled pint of Guinness.

12) The Irish House Party at the Landsdowne Hotel.

13) Walking to the grocery, the post office, to dinner, to work, the cinema, the park, the recycling bins, the Nespresso store, to buy some brown bread, to....pretty much everywhere.

14) The Blackbird singing night and day outside our apartment.

15) Walking in brilliant sunshine and suddenly realizing it is raining on you. Sandy calls them sun showers.

16) After-dinner strolls in Herbert Park.

17) Unexpected delights, like witnessing a sing-off in our favorite pub between a group of Irish pensioners and some Scots in kilts who had just wandered in. 

18) And lastly, sad Irish songs, so many of which are about leaving. Like this one, called "Paddy's Green Shamrock Shore":

So fare thee well, my own true love, I'll think of you night and day
And a place in mind you surely will find, though I am so far away
Though I'll be alone, far from my home, I'll think of the good times once more
Until the day I can make my way back, to Paddy's green shamrock shore

Slán go fóille!