To this day I find it highly comical that I met an American exchange student at Trinity who cried for days because she was so far from home. Ireland is indeed located across the Atlantic Ocean, but there are far more foreign places out there than a country that shares so many similarities to the University of Notre Dame. Ahem.
Even though I still take delight in mocking a certain sheltered American exchange student, I must tell you that this country could never be described as America with an Irish accent. Not for a second. It is still a fundamentally different place, complete with its own culture and funny accents that sound different depending on where you find yourself on the island. Which leads me to today’s post…
What follows is really nothing more than a cobbling of miscellany that I found humorous while wandering around town and trying to kill some time. You may or may not find thse things as enteratining as I found them, but then again you might cry every time you find yourself more than a few miles from your haven of americana.
The morning starts out with modest beginnings. An outstanding breakfast of coffee and scone at Avoca helped fuel my as-of-yet unknown agenda of commercial amusement.
Avoca is a really neat string of Irish shops, and unfortunately for my already overstuffed suitcase I always come upon loads of things that I’d love to buy. Lucky for you and me, I prefer to roll with a camera stashed inside my jacket pocket; instead of spending money on stupid stuff that I don’t need, I opt to photograph the morning’s amusement.
I am sure that you can find this crap in America, but I still find it highly entertainig. I don’t mean to bash you- the male half of this human population- but as of late I have encountered several instances where men have come off as babies when it comes to getting sick. Feel free to post your rebuttals in the comments section of this blog entry.
As excited as I am for 2012, I still can’t manage to wrap my brain around the New Year. I can just about guarantee that I’ll be spending the night of December 31st in bed (because I think that New Year’s Eve is stupid), but I can say that the associated accessories are quite fancy. Even Rory thought so.
If you all don’t know by now that I’m divorced…well then now you do. Judging a book by its cover alone, I thought that this one was probably hilarious. That said, my favorite part is the author’s name.
What could you get for the 34 year old Irish American who still can’t manage to match her socks? Why these might be a fitting start….
Moving down Grafton Street, we still have some more time to kill. I take my sister to the ground level of Marks and Spencer in order to show off the cornocopia of prepared foods that I always drooled over while at university. It’s mid-November, so they’ve got a bunch of Christams foods for sale. “Rip Roaring Seafood Sauce” might not be the first thing that comes to mind for my Christmas dinner table, but then again I don’t know many Americans who would envision a jar of Cheez Whiz or a slab of Velveeta on their table either.
Here’s another thing that I love about the food on sale here: you hardly ever see any of that reduced or fat free nonsense. There is absolutely no fear of the “B” word in the British Isles. And you know what? The butter is so damned good here that you’d be crazy to forego the product as a supporting angle of your food pyramid.
My sister is big on chocolate foodstuffs, and rightly so. I just love how things are worded over here: “Would you fancy a slice of cake? It’s extremely chocolately…”
Moving on from the chocolate cake bit, I have to say that I was a bit disappointed by the lack of imagination in naming whatever this happens to be. It almost looks like something you’d see in Asia, but then again I’d have to defer to Tim and Shara, the Thailand scholars, in order to get verification….
Rory was pretty revolted by this dessert, and I can kinda see why. “It looks like they just took a jar of strawberry jelly and dumped Cool-Whip on top before calling it dessert!” I agree- it looks kinda nasty. Needs to be extremely chocolately or something…
Are you worried about what will happen if you decide to eat all of this crap? Not a bother- simply head upstairs to the main level and purchase a tube of this cream. Bums and Tums? No further explanation necessary.
Maybe it’s due to my product familiarity, but I didn’t find this too remarkable- but my sister certainly did. Taytos are an Irish mainstay. Kinda like Club Orange and Barry’s Tea.
Again with the butter! There is no fear here.
I’m not making fun of my sister, because she is really great. Still, how many of you also were confused by the potential that a store sold ice cubes on their shelves, and that they masqueraded as cakes?
It’s a bit of a family joke, but Rory and I totally know what husband and wife couple are getting these selections for Christmas this year…
Okay, that’s kind of it for now. Even though I have been to this country more often than any other place, I never get tired of observing the accents, manners of speech, and fantastic wares that can be discovered by stepping out and seeing what everyday life is like away from the tourist sites. It’s certainly not America, but in a strange way I still find it pretty comforting.
Maybe that’s because I believe in the possibility to consume unlimited amounts of buttered scones with no fear of weight gain. After all, this country’s got silhouette smoothing cream that will be sure to undo all of the wonderful bad that I am consuming at the moment.
Maybe that’s because I believe in the possibility to consume unlimited amounts of buttered scones with no fear of weight gain. After all, this country’s got silhouette smoothing cream that will be sure to undo all of the wonderful bad that I am consuming at the moment.