10 Irish Quirks I'm Still Getting Used To

I'm still getting used to all of the quirks of Ireland, including:

1) The Irish language. Many signs are in both English and Irish. Gaelic names are fairly common, and any Gaelic word is impossible to pronounce unless you know the language as they're not pronounced phonetically. For example, my boss's name is Sile, which is pronounced 'Sheila'. I found that out the hard way after I said, "Thanks very much, SILE" and the people in my office laughed. Two of the girls who work at the Notre Dame Center here are named Eimear (pronounced like "dreamer" without the "d") and Aoife (pronounced like Eva but with an "f" instead of a "v"). See what I mean?

2) Addendum to number 1: words in Irish English that are not in American English.

A daycare is a "crèche" (hello, French word!),

a line is a queue,

the trash is the rubbish,

diapers are nappies, an elevator is a lift, a sidewalk is a footpath or just a path, a highway is a carriageway. "Brilliant!" and "Grand!" are very, very common expressions. Hurling doesn't mean puking, it's a sport. Everyone from Obama to Bush to George Clooney to Bon Jovi can be referred to as "your man..."

3) The whole driving on the left side (the wrong side!) of the road. Luckily I don't drive a car because I would have been toast ages ago, but even crossing the streets and riding a bike still completely throws me off, and I have to repeat "left side, left side, left side" to myself whenever I rent a Dublin bike. What's even weirder is that most Dublin people walk on the right side of the road. Drive left, walk right. Whatever works, I guess!

4) Five (or six or seven or eight) euros for a pint. Sticker shock, even coming from France. (Though I prefer a good Bulmers).

5) Carrying an umbrella with you at all times. You never know. Bonuses: getting judged by your umbrella (yup, they're a style statement) and walking into work looking like this when you forget your umbrella:

6) All of the redheads. And me not being out of place by being a shade tanner than albino even in the summertime!

7) Tea time. Everyone drinks it, and no one would think twice about a man who drinks tea in Ireland. We get an hour tea break each morning (along with the office gossip, news, and complaints about the state of the economy!).

8) The buses! I love sitting on the top level in the very front of the double decker buses. Grand.

There's also big tour buses, all the time. Not that I didn't see them in many of the bigger European cities, but let's just say no one was taking Viking Splash tours in extremely ridiculous hats in Angers.

9) Irish people telling me how much better the countryside is. The question 'how are you liking Dublin?' is almost always followed by 'have you been downcountry yet?' So far, I've only been to county Wicklow, just south of Dublin. After most people hear that, several (often contradictory) recommendations follow: 'Go to Cork!' 'Jesus, why would you want to go to Cork? She's IN Dublin, and everyone knows Cork is only a smaller version of it!' 'Galway! The Cliffs of Moher!' 'Tourist trap! Why in Christ's name would she want to go with all of those feckin' people right now? Go to Dingle, just as nice but not as touristy!' And so it continues. In my office, such discussions have led some of my coworkers to bring me pamphlets, print-outs, and even bus schedules of their chosen locations (I'm not quite sure if it's merely to supply me with information or prove once and for all to each other that, truly, their county is the best).

10) Talking about the weather. A lot. People here can talk about the weather for ages and ages. It starts off the office conversation in the morning ("eh, wonder what today will look like out there. Bit cloudy at the moment, but you never know, it could clear up"), discussion during tea time ("well, look at that, there's a bit of sunshine"), and as a sort of daily sum-up ("it's been a beautiful day, by Dublin standards. Maybe go for a stroll after work"). When there's a lag in the conversation, you can rest assured that someone will bring up the current status, the latest predictions, the rain over the weekend, etc., and that the weather-related conversation will last twice as long as most Americans can possibly talk about the weather (even in small towns in the Midwest!). Oh, and Irish people almost always begin with whether it's wet or dry, not hot or cold. Makes sense.

Cheers,

Claire