Friday, October 9, 2009

Chelsea Post 2

Today this place finally felt like I imagined N. Ireland should. I have soggy boots and hair! This should not excite me as much as it does, and I am sure it will get old. There are so many things to talk about this first week, and I do not want to bore anyone such that they never read this thing. So, I think I will do most of this in list form. The essential bit is that I am feeling fine and in good spirits.

1. Weavery is as awesome as I expected, and I may even be learning to spin with a “villager” from the master spinner that comes in twice a week.
2. “Villager” is the term they use around Clanabogan for the adults with special needs. I am having and will continue to have problems with this. After all, if this is a village, aren’t we all villagers? It is a tricky thing to do, name a group of folks. I struggle.
3. We went into Omagh today. For a town of 20,000, there’s sure a lot of traffic! We shopped for conditioner, ate at a little-too-fancy pub (Jeff had Irish Stew… I had a cheese sandwich. I think I will be eating a lot of those here), and managed to get library cards. Navigating pounds and pence (pences?) was easy enough. A price x2 is the cost in US dollars, but everything is more expensive here, so it all seems just about right if I pretend the pounds price is dollars. Our fun-money stipend is comfortable.
4. Hot mango pickle sauce is an installment here, and I am in love.
5. Met a maintenance-man/tea-time-musician here named Adrian. Turns out there is something about the name… all Adrians are wonderful. He was quietly happy to see that I could sing some refrains with him. Also, I’m getting to know and love another man named Timmy, who lives in Rainbow. I am slowly learning some of his signs so that we can communicate, but he already makes me smile a whole lot.

That’s all for now, more soon!

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