Apologies for the blackout!
Polly here, coming to you live from Collins Ave - internet access happily supplied this morning by your man (your man, very common saying here, used when we would say the cable guy or he, of course context is everything to know who your man actually is). Can't tell you how liberating it is to once again be connected to the world. What did we do before email and blogs?
However, I'm going to keep this short because I promised that I would start my own blog when I had access at home. I just need a good name...suggestions welcome!
Just a few updates, we stayed in Waterford last weekend except for a lovely walk around Cheekpoint, a tiny village about 20 minutes east. Cheekpoint looks out over where the Nore and Barrow rivers dump into the Suir (pronounced "sure", as in "sure your man was here setting up internet access this morning"), which then dumps into Waterford Harbour. I'll go into more detail on my blog on this and more about our Waterford surroundings.
Also this week, I met with a recruiter and passed my driver theory test - 100%! Just waiting for my Lerner premit to come in the mail, then I'm set to drive! And we had the opportunity to see a cooking demonstration by a very well known Irish chef, Darina Allen (who was in the US over the summer promotion her book, so not just Ireland famous). It was great - she showed up six dishes using a whole chicken (with carving demonstration as each dish used different parts) - we are excited to try them all!
On the plan this weekend, joining a beach clean up in the Gaeltacht region near here. It is so sad to see and say, but there is a litter problem here. Not nearly as bad as New Jersey (that was awful), but more than I'm used to seeing. So, we are becoming part of the solution. There is a place about an hour west of here on the southern coast that is called the Ring Peninsula. The primary language in the area is Irish (thus it is called a Gaeltacht region - you would not say they speak Gaelic though, that is a misnomer as Gaelic is a family of languages that includes Irish, Manx, Scottish and others). Hopefully we won't be the only English speakers, so far the only Irish we've learned is hello and how to properly pronounce Dublin (which isn't called Dublin in Irish, it's Baile Atha Cliath - any guesses?)
