Sixteenth Day - Seventeenth Day

St. Paddy's parade in Dungarvan!

Us banner girls! Mimi is upset because she's not in the sorority!

Mimi and I. Thanks for the headband, Dr. Reed!

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Sarah and I had spent the weekend inviting fellow Mercyhurst students over for kegs and eggs on Sunday morning, which turned out simply to be eggs because we were too lazy and poor to provide the kegs. Furthermore, a few of us were going to go to mass at St. Mary's, so we didn't want to drink alcohol and then sit in a house of God. But we, and by we I really mean Sarah made breakfast for the two of us, Lindsey, Anna, Sara, and Katelyn. After that, the six of us and a few more from our group went to meet Tom Keith in front of the Park Hotel to go to mass. Unfortunately, many of us believed that mass was optional, but there was a flag-raising ceremony with the mayor. We were under the impression that it wasn't a huge deal, but apparently it was, and not only does it look bad for TK if there are only a few Mercyhurst students, it also looks bad for the mayor. I was horrified! Lindsey, Sarah, and I went in Tom's car to the Civic offices where the mayor was already waiting wearing his traditional garb. Tom had given me a bowl of shamrocks to hold onto, and his driving was causing water to spill all over my pants! Anyway, rather than being upset or angry, (although TK was a little more than ruffled) he and the mayor decided to do the flag raising after mass.

Here's an interesting fact: it's the shamrock, NOT the four-leaf clover that is the symbol of Ireland. Plus, the shamrock wasn't even really the symbol of Ireland (the harp is) but in the later 1800s when Americans were using it as an Irish symbol, it went BACK across the seas where it became more widely recognized in Ireland today. The story is, though, that when St. Patrick arrived, the locals questioned how there can be three beings in one God. St. Patrick then plucked up a shamrock and pointed to the three leaves: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; three leaves connected as one on the shamrock. 

When we went to the mass, we were the only ones wearing green, and in fact, for most of the day, we were the only ones wearing green! The priest welcomed us specifically, of course, and after we got a picture with him and with their figure of St. Patrick. The mass, being almost entirely in Irish, was entirely beyond my comprehension. I had no clue what was going on most of the time. When the mass was over, so many of the townspeople came up to us and welcomed us and shook our hands, saying it was so nice to have us here, which was just awesome. 

After the mass, TK made us run (literally) back across town, through the square where the stage was being set up, to the civic offices where the rest of our group that slept in was waiting. We took more photographs, raised the flags, witnessed some acrobatic stunts from TK and Dr. McFee (not really), and then we headed back to townhouse 8 to pre-game, I MEAN...wait patiently and quietly until the start of the parade. Let's be real here, guys, I'm of age in Ireland on St. Patrick's Day. Ricky, James, Rachel, Lindsey, and Maire came over and Sarah made everyone grilled cheeses again, while I did so much work in grabbing Lindsey a bag of chips from the cupboard. At 2:30 we all met up in front of the Park, I held the banner in the front of the group, while TK provided us all with a bunch of flags to wave. The parade started in abbeyside, went back across the bridge in through the square, where we were announced and people cheered for us! Earlier at the civic offices, TK was handing out the flags, and he points to Ricky (Ricardo) and says, "since you're nice and tall, we will hand you the American flag to wave, you'll be special!" We all start laughing and TK looks at us and says "what?" And we tell him it's funny because Ricky is Honduran, not American. Lindsey screams: "He's Latin American, Tom, he's about as American as you are!"

During the parade was the first time I'd realized how big Dungarvan actually is. There was a whole part of the town that I hadn't even been through yet. The parade was lovely and there were plenty of people there. Lindsey made friends with the small schoolchildren who were marching behind us, and they knew all the American songs and they were some of the best Irish dancers I've seen. At the end of the parade, we were shepherded to the sailing club to have some snacks and a free drink (YAY!) The best part of that was getting to sit with my professors and have a drink. We spent our time persuading Dr. Peterson to move the next day's class up to 9 am instead of 8:30 (we really wanted it cancelled, but TK was going to give a lecture on the Irish system of government) and trying to get the other two professors to cancel as well. It's safe to say we were unsuccessful, but I enjoyed hanging out with them anyway! 

When we were done with our drinks, Lindsey, Rachel, Sarah, and I headed back to the townhouses to change and then we went out to Downey's where there was a group of teenagers playing traditional Irish music. I got a rum and coke, but it was 5 euro (aka 6.50 in U.S. dollars) which discouraged me from purchasing any more drinks. At that point, our roommates Nikki, Lauren, and Danielle, were finally back from the 5K in Dublin. So we went BACK to the Park to get some dinner, and there we met the nicest Irish family: Veronica, Cathall (pronounced Cah-hall), and Fiona, a little 11 year old who is obsessed with Harry Potter). Danielle, Nikki, Lauren and I spent a good hour at least talking to them about where we were from, about harry potter of course, about where they were from, about where we should go in Ireland, about music and about weather and about everything. That night we ordered the Guinness Cake for desert and while we ladies were eating, Cathall said, you ladies know how many calories are in that cake, don't you? His wife then scolded him and said we can eat whatever we want, which we did, and let me tell you, the cake was AMAZING. After telling Fiona what book series she should take up since she's done with Harry Potter, and discussing which characters we like best and who we're most like, we parted ways. After dinner, we all met up at the Anchor, which was packed, and there was a live band, but they were playing all older American songs. There, we danced, and celebrated, but because we had school the next day, Danielle, Lauren, and I decided to head home early.

That brings me to today, Monday! I've got a lot of work to do, but of course I took time to catch up on my blog. It was all work and no play today since I had to catch up, and also sit through three long classes. TK came to lecture in government though, which made up for the fact that we had to be there early. I would just like to mention that TK, while talking about the government and comparing their president to ours, made a reference to the West Wing. I am obsessed with that show, I'm already in the last season! Anyway, he began a quote frequently used in the show: "I serve at..." and I promptly finished it, "at the pleasure of the president" making myself look like a huge nerd. Dr. Peterson actually laughed at me, but it's okay, because he already knew I was obsessed with the show, so did half of the class. It's worth mentioning that our president, who is quite powerful, is nothing like the Irish president, who cannot, as stated in Article 13, section 11 of their Constitution, take ANY action without "the advice of the government" which is just the polite way of saying he does what he's told by the House/prime minister.

I had an amazing weekend, I hope everyone had a good one!