My December Adventure

Holiday Greetings Everyone!

I have officially finished my first semester, just in time to head off on more adventures.  This Christmas I will not be returning home to Canada. Instead, my cousin Garnet and I will be traveling during December.  I head to Dublin this evening in order to catch an early morning flight tomorrow.

Our travel plans include touring Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic before heading to the United Kingdom to spend Christmas and New Years visiting family and friends.  Garnet and I will both fly into Frankfurt, where we will meet up with my friend Everett.  He will take us into the city and show us some sights.  I've heard amazing things about the German Christmas markets and cannot wait to see them in person.

After Frankfurt we will head south to Munich for a few days, then into Austria to see Salzburg and Vienna. By December 20th we will arrive in Prague, and on the 23rd we will fly to London. Next it is down to Plymouth to see our cousin Tom and his family for Christmas. While in the UK we will also visit relatives outside of Cambridge and acquaintances in Exeter who own The Big Sheep tourist farm.

Our big splurge is to spend New Years in central London. Very Excited! Our travels in the UK will wrap up on January 5th when Garnet and I fly to our respective countries from Heathrow airport.  While Garnet heads home, I will stop briefly in Belfast to visit even more relatives before returning to Limerick.

It will be a whirlwind trip with many sights to see. I will do my best to blog throughout, but may not get pictures up until January. School does not start for me until the end of January so I will have lots of time to blog, fiddle, read and relax then.

I wish everyone a safe and enjoyable Christmas, and all the best in the New Year.

Shannon

How Irish Am I? Part I

Welcome to December! I hope everyone is getting in the Christmas spirit as we get closer and closer to the day.  My holiday season was brought in by the annual Christmas "Toy Show," on Ireland's Late Late Show with Ryan Tubridy. The two hour special hosts children from all over Ireland to test out and share their opinions on the newest toys. According to my Irish flatmates it is a Christmas tradition to watch the Toy Show. It put me in the holiday spirit!

Last week I had my in-class assessments and my class ensemble performance. The concert went really well. We had the audience line-dancing to an American fiddle tune, doing body percussion to African drumming, singing along to the Ramones, and parading outside while we played Brazilian Samba. My friends think I have the most entertaining degree on campus!

Today, I get the joy of printing out all my written work and submitting it for the semester.  It is a great feeling! All I have left before my holiday break is performing in the UL Community Orchestra concert on Saturday and playing a fiddle jury on December 11th.

As my first semester comes to an end, I thought that I would share how Irish I feel I have become. I've tallied up my Irish and Canadian traits for comparison, and I must admit they are fairly amusing.

How Irish am I?

• As mentioned several times before, I like Guinness ... a lot actually.
• Every once and awhile I say "Grand," I even used it in my most recent essay.
• I am thoroughly addicted to tea. That's what happens when you get two tea breaks each day during class.
• In terms of music I have to think in crochets (quarter notes) and quavers (eighth notes), which I still feel is weird.
• And strangest of all ... I like boiled cabbage! One evening I cooked myself a meal of baked fish, boiled potato and boiled cabbage. It was quite Irish of me.

How Canadian am I?

• Either than the odd word added to my vocabulary, I have not acquired any Irish accent.  Still Canadian in that sense.
• I cannot read the Irish language for the life of me.  My friends made a game out of listening to me read the sugar packets in the pub last week.
• Sadly, I am still a Canadian classical violinist when it comes to fiddling. I'm doing my best to remedy this issue. My teacher has recommended I get "the Trad disease" like Irish musicians.
• The bipolar weather here still surprises me. If it is sunny in the morning, it will pour in the afternoon. I've also never seen so much rain falling from sunny skies.
• Some of my favourite shows to watch on TV are still the American-made Big Band Theory and Criminal Minds. I have yet to become interested in Irish soap operas (for good reason).
• And I saved the most important for last... I still say "Eh!" My classmates get a kick out of catching me.

The conclusion?  Besides the obvious label on my passport, I would say that I am still a full-fledged Canadian. I definitely feel Canadian, but it is an amazing experience to be surrounded by a new, exciting culture. My favourite parts of Ireland are the Trad music, and the cosy, intimate atmospheres of pubs. These aspects set Irish culture apart from any other around the globe. The downside is the country receives no snow, which is problematic at Christmas time!

Best of luck in this busy time of year!
Shannon