Cup of Tea?

     One of the activities I've decided to pick up while abroad is fencing. We meet Tuesdays and Thursdays for about 2 hours and practice footwork, form, and poking at each other. For us newbies it is obviously difficult, but at the moment we don't care that our legs hurt like nobody's business - we are too in love with the idea of sword fighting. That is, until we encounter a set of stairs, and they're easy to avoid, right?
     Ha. Hahaha. Usually, stairs can be circumvented and minimized, unless you're lucky enough to have a homestay program scheduled for the weekend. I don't mean that sarcastically, the homestay experience can be an incredible one, but man the house I was placed in was 80% stairs. The house was tall, narrow and part of a set if you will. The rooms were all a "normal" size, but the hallways were tiny so that the rooms were packed closely together. At the very top of the stairs, the square landing is framed on 3 sides by doors; there isn't even any space for a wall-corner to separate the doors, so its all just wood.
     Each meal we had was home-cooked. They got rid of their microwave a week or two before, citing that it couldn't possibly be healthy. Martin, the father, was head cook for one of the pubs on Shop Street once, and both him and Roisin (his wife) are amazing cooks. They also have a little girl named Lily who is too cute! That first night Maggie (my fellow homstayee) and I went to bed early after getting some school work done, and the next morning we were dropped off at the Spanish Arch, at the end of Quays Street, near Shop Street.
     I should mention here that our homestay, along with 11 other people, was situated in Galway, and that the remainder of our group went to Castlebar. Since we were guests only for the weekend, most of the families assumed we wanted to spend our time exploring the city. . . the city that we've been living in for the last few weeks, that is. In this regard, the homestay was a bit disappointing since we didn't get the chance to see more of the country. Most of us probably would've ended up in the same area, just in a different context. We made the best of it by visiting the Galway museum and touring the Saturday morning "farmer's market."
     Sunday morning Maggie and I attended mass with Roisin and Lily. I've been to mass only once before as part of my church's confirmation, so it wasn't wholly unfamiliar. The church (cathedral?) was in a residential area and situated so that one couldn't find it unless you knew it was there. The four of us were running about 10 minutes late, which meant we were right on time as we took our seats. You could definitely feel the sense of community within this church - kids were running everywhere, and the lady I sat next too was my host mom's grade school teacher, which makes sense seeing how many kids waved at her as they walked past.
     After mass, we were invited back to Lily's grandparents' house (Roisin's parents) for tea and biscuits, which turned into tea and sweets and playing with Lily. Roisin had to run to the supermarket, so we stayed with Lily and her grandparents and chatted about American and Irish school systems. When I brought up that I go to school out of state in Arizona, and drive 11 hours to my college, they were surprised.
     I'm finding that most people are. In Ireland most students go home every weekend to work, do laundry, and maybe do some schoolwork. I've been asked if I drive home every weekend, and when I said no, I only go back for Thanksgiving, Christmas, spring break, and maybe one other time . . . they aren't sure how to respond. From my point of view, it seems very natural to not see my parents for weeks on end, and talk to them only once a week. But then again, I'm very independent and don't know any differently. Like I said, the college students here go home every weekend - even the partiers - which to me seems stifling, but for them it is a comfort and expected. Different from what I'm used too, but based off of my host family, going home every weekend would be quite enjoyable!
     I had a lovely weekend with them, and I think if I ever have the opportunity to host international students, I would. I shall -

• Have activities and sights to go see with them if they want that experience
• But also give them the option to chill and relax all weekend (like I did)
• Pack them a lunch. Because it was so sweet of my "Mum" to pack a lunch for us on Saturday (so cute!)
• Home cook every meal (to the best of my ability) because I enjoyed that beyond reason after cooking pasta for myself all week
• Show them were that lights switches are - very important. And also often overlooked
• Invite them to take a long luxurious bath. I didn't because we'd been warned about using too much hot water by our program managers, but the temptation was there.

The weekend wasn't what I thought it would be. There were no sheep grazing in a quaint little pasture out back, and my family was hip, cool and very modern. Yet, every meal was home cooked. It wasn't what I thought it would be, no, but it was still a healthy social encounter that gave insights into normal every-day Irish life, separate from student life at the college. Maggie and I both expressed wishes to meet up with our family later in the semester, and share another cup of tea.

♥C