B is for Book

I realized that I never told you about one of my large projects that took on for Christmas. When I was working on my 30 things to do before I turned 30, one of the items I had listed on there was write a children's book.

Did I write a book? No. I wrote seven. So my cousins on my mom's side have some very adorable children. I am going to refrain from posting pictures of them though, because I'm not sure that their mothers would like that plan. Regardless though, there is Jacob, Ethan, Emily, Naleyah, Jaydah, Aleada, and Gavin. And so I wrote 7 different books that had each of them as the main character and then illustrated the book to match. Each book also had a lesson that was appropriate for each of them. It was a lot of work, but I loved it!

Craic Cookies

In Ireland there are lots of words that I took to mean one thing that to the Irish actually mean something completely different. This Friday in Cead Mile Differences we are going to look at what some of those words and phrases are. I decided for a sneak preview we would discuss the word Craic (pronounced crack) which in Irish means good fun, or good times. I will never for get the staff meeting I sat in the first Monday I worked in Ireland asked a coworker how her weekend was. She smiled and said "it was really good, a few of the others from the office and I went out and even though it wasn't the plan, ended up having great crack." (as heard by me). I sat through the meeting freaking out wondering what the heck I was doing in a company and a country for that matter that proudly regaled their crack habits. After working up the courage to ask my supervisor if there was a serious crack problem in Ireland, the miscommunication came to light and everyone got a very big laugh (at my expense). I loved introducing this term Craic to the study abroad students that came every semester and especially loved showing the sign in the Guinness Factory that said "Welcome to Guinness, home of the craic"

I heard about this recipe from a friend who love the Kelly and Regis show and knew that I had to make it. The first time I made these cookies were for a girlie dinner at my sisters house. Even though we had stuffed ourselves with cheese from a delicious raclette dinner, the five us managed to put away over 30 of these cookies. We weren't proud, but did deem them addictive...kind of like we would imagine crack to be. But since we are ladies and we did have good fun making and eating them - we deemed them Craic cookies - a favorite amongst my friends.

Driving in Ireland

When I moved to Ireland, the whole everyone driving on the other side of the road thing really got to me. I was terrified to cross the street because cars seemingly came from nowhere seeking to run me over. Even the painted "Look Right" signs at every streetlight corner couldn't stop me from occasionally stepping in front of a car I expected to see coming from the other direction.

As time wore on I became a much better pedestrian, but I was still terrified to become a driver. Fortunately, work beckoned and I had to drive myself and an admissions counselor to a recruitment fair. I was a nervous wreck, convinced I would cause physical harm to those around me. I put the car in gear and inched forward barely able to grip the steering wheel due to the sweat pumping out of my hands. Taking my first turn out of the car park, I managed to bump the side view mirror. No damage done to anything except my confidence! I am happy to say that was the low point and it didn't take long for me to acclimate to driving on the left side of the road. What did take a little longer was getting used to the rules of the road. Today's differences are going to focus on driving.

Travelling on my stomach

One of the perks of living abroad is being able to travel to some really amazing places. Ireland isn't on the Continent making it require a flight to get most places, but with airlines like Aer Lingus and RyanAir, if we plan ahead we can get round trip tickets for $30 to various European cities.

I have a little confession to make though - when I was a novice traveller, one of the first places I liked to identify upon landing in a new city was the McDonald's. It sounds shameful now, but there was something comforting about finding something that was the same when I was surrounded by so much that was different. I also must confess that in the early days I ate at a lot of restaurants that had pictures for menus. I am not proud, just honest!

As I became more comfortable being in places that were totally new, I also became braver. Part of that braveness came with having my sister and my friend Aaron as travelling companions. They took a lot of the scariness out of finding new restaurants and ordering new things. I also learned that I will never starve while on holiday and if I make a bad order, I can always order something else.

Sad Deer:The Picture

When posting about the deer, I had intended to include a picture of Sad Deer that Sissy P has texted me. Except that the picture had disappeared off my cell phone, and so that was a no go. She has sent me another copy though... so here is Sad Deer! (And thanks Sis!)

feeling funktastic

When we were in college my friend Megan and I would talk on the phone almost every Sunday evening. Partially because it was a great time to catch up and partially because we were both prone to suffering what she coined as the Sunday blues (in distinct contrast with the Friday buzz). Sundays were often the days we had left for sorting the apartment, cramming in last minute study, and generally finishing all of the things deemed not fun enough for a Saturday. Every now and then the Sunday blues were a product of the Saturday evening regrets. Whatever had happened over the weekend it was always great to end it talking to Megan. Incidentally Megan is famous amongst our friends for coining phrases that have stuck with us for life. One of my favorite phrases came after a break up with a guy we didn't think was capable of hurting her. She looked me square in the eye and said "Zippers. Who needs them." We laughed til our sides ached and as the years went on and the break ups piled up, we always returned to that phrase as a way of reminding ourselves that boys may come and go, but good girlfriends are always there.

Luckily as we grew older, the everyday hustle and bustle of life took over. The Sunday blues became less frequent (some might say because everyday seemed more like a Sunday but that would just be too cynical), which is why it took me by surprise this past Sunday when I found myself in a funktastic mood. The reality of moving countries, combined with several weekends of saying goodbye activities had started to take its toll on me. The not knowing of the exact when or where dangled in front of me plunging me into a severe case of the Sunday Blues, not felt since the 90's! The 8 hour time difference made it impossible for me to call Megan until later so I turned to the activity that these days makes everything seem brighter: cooking.

This is one of the first soup recipes I ever tried and the first go produced a decent result. This time however, I have a bit more soup making skills under my belt and was able to adjust the recipe to make a deeply satisfying bowl of soup with just the right amount of kick.

I hope you enjoy!

VEGAN SPICY SWEET POTATO SOUP
Makes 6 -8

Ingredients
1 teaspoon ground cumin
3 medium onions, cut into a medium dice
6 cloves garlic minced
1/2 bunch celery, cut into a medium dice
2 medium carrots, cut into a medium dice
1 1/2 teaspoons ancho chili powder (I used Cayenne)
3 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
6 cups water or Vegetable Stock
2 pounds sweet potatoes, peeled, cut into 1- to 2-inch cubes
1 small dried chipotle or 1/2 canned chipotle, drained (I only had powdered and it was delicious)
1/4 cup fresh lemon or lime juice
Salt and pepper

Directions
Preheat your pan. Add the onions, garlic, celery, and carrots. When the vegetables have begun to brown, add the chili powder, ginger, and ground cumin. Cook this mixture until a heady aroma rises from the pot and vegetables are fairly soft.

Add the stock and the sweet potatoes. Cook until the sweet potatoes are very soft, just about falling apart, about 40 minutes. Taste the soup and add chipotles accordingly. Remember that the heat of the chipotle will continue to develop over the next day or so, so if you are heat-averse, be conservative at this point.

Puree the soup and return it to the pot. Add the lemon juice and season with salt and pepper. If the soup is too spicy, a bit of sugar will tone it down a little. If the soup is too mild, a little more chipotle will add some kick.

Adapted from the recipe taken from The Complete Vegan Kitchen

The Boob Tube in Ireland...uh, quite literally

For this week's feature on the differences between Ireland and the US, I thought we would focus on the television. The physical television really isn't that different than what you would see in the US, minus the plug. But the programming, and the channels, oh dear friends are quite different indeed! It's hard to know where to start. We'll start with the National Television station: RTE (Raidió Teilifís Éireann), The radio bit has been around since 1926 and the TV station began in 1961 - its a ststuatory body run by a board appointed by the Irish government. RTE has RTE 1 and RTE 2. A lot of the programming comes from America, anywhere from one week to several months later than it would have been run in the states. They obviously cover a load of Irish sports, politics, etc. We also get the BBC stations here and then a wide range of cable stations.

Some of the biggest differences include:

If you have a TV in Ireland, you are required by law to pay a yearly TV license. This license is €160 a year and is supposed to mean that we can view programs without loads of commercials. This works for the BBC stations, but sadly not for the RTE ones. If you don’t pay the fees you can wind up being hugely fined or in some cases even going to prison!

Nudity. As alluded to in the title of this blog – nudity and cursing are allowed on normal, not cable television. The first time I saw full frontal nudity and heard the f word, I nearly fell off my couch! There is no need to pay for Skinemax here, just wait until 9pm and you never know what you’ll get!

Program schedules. It is very normal for a weekly program to not actually come on at the same time every week. One week it could start at 9:00, the next week at 8:55, the following week at 9:15. If there is a program you really want to see, you must be vigilant in seeking it out!

Everyone watches the same thing. It could be because Ireland is a smaller country, that there are less offerings or that people are following the habits of their parents, but I find that almost everyone watches the RTE programming, RTE news, and RTE movie of the week (every Wednesday at 9:30 or 9:35). Until I lived with Carl, I didn’t participate in the watching of these programs, but they do a thorough job of keeping the public informed of what’s happening in the country. Right now RTE is working overtime with all of the depressing news about the Irish economy they are reporting!

News. The news in Ireland is presented in very calm and nearly monotone voice. Sometimes I really have to focus to hear it - it's very different than the reporter voices you would hear in America. Some how the news seems slightly more serious and less subjective when you listen to it, which is completely ironic considering it is a government run station!

As we are getting closer to knowing our leaving date I have slowly realised the things that were so different to me in the beginning are so normal to me now, and when I go home I have a feeling there are more than a few things I am going to miss.