I have now celebrated two major holidays in Ireland –
Christmas and New Years – and although I miss the familiar traditions from the
past years of my life with family and friends, I also enjoy the random memories
made while celebrating holidays overseas.
To celebrate Christmas, Jenny and I decided to go to a
Christmas evensong (which is basically a mass) in a 12th century
church in Dublin at 11pm. Although it was very long and very…Latin, I wouldn’t
have done it differently. We took communion, which was not a “normal” sort of
communion, but I liked it. Communion is one of those things that I take for
granted, and when it’s not how I know it to be, it forces me to think about it.
It has happened in Georgia, and now it has happened in Ireland.
We slept in on Christmas morning until 11am and woke up to
have a delicious breakfast of donuts – a tradition Jenny’s family has. I opened
the presents my family had sent, and we picked out the day’s movie line-up. We
started the day out with Holiday Inn, followed by The Holiday and a bit of
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. I called my family on Skype and talked
with them for a bit, which is always delightful. I read the Christmas story
while we ate Christmas candy and junk food – a tradition my family has
(although the junk food is not necessary to the tradition). Jenny went to bed,
and I continued the evening with sitting in the hallway, watching the first
half of the Packer game.
The second holiday – New Year’s Eve – was celebrated, only 1
hour and 15 minutes ago, in Galway, Ireland. We had the delightfully naïve idea
that bringing in the new year with random Irish people in a pub would be an
unforgettable experience, so we got dinner and started the search for the
perfect pub. Most were charging covers up to €20 per person, so our choices
were narrowed down significantly. We finally found one that looked promising,
and although we had to shove our way in, we eventually squeezed our way to the
bar and ordered drinks.
Sitting down next to a random old man, we silently
congratulated ourselves on finding the only two seats in the entire building.
We quickly realized, however, that our victory was empty as there was a clear
reason no one had beaten us to the bench. The man, who seemed a bit tipsy but
possibly sweet, was fairly drunk and fairly crazy. He would not stop talking
and neither would the second man that came up a few minutes later. Finishing
our drinks, we eventually escaped the old man’s prattles but not before he
showed us his back scar where a bullet from one of the three (that’s right,
three) world wars and not before he insisted on fixing our hair so that he
could take a picture of us. We wandered around city center in search of a
better bar but to no avail. We eventually ended up back in the same pub, where
we got another set of drinks. We quickly realized, however, that the night
would not be fun if we spent it standing up, shoved up against everyone else.
We made the decision to leave and get a bottle of champagne from the store and
take it back to the room to celebrate on our own. Little did we know that
Ireland stops selling alcohol at 10pm. Instead, we got the next best thing:
sparking fruit punch.
We walked back to the hotel, where we snuck unnoticed so
that we didn’t have to answer any unnecessary questions. Getting back to the room,
I immediately changed into sweatpants and put my hair into a ponytail. We
watched a few clips of good New Year’s Eve movie scenes and then played a few
rounds of duraka (cards). At one minute to go, we poured the sparking fruit
punch and started an appropriate song to have in the background as the new year
began. We decided to drink our punch “Georgian friendship toast” style, which
means nothing to those who have not been to a Georgian supra…which is most of
you. After downing the whole glass while linking arms and kissing on the cheek
three times, we had a chance to recognize that the aftertaste of our celebratory
juice was awful. Really awful. We continued with cards and then watched an
episode of Community. Jenny fell asleep and then woke up and started into crazy
mode, which is always fun to experience.
Here’s the point of this post (apart from informing the
world on what my holidays have been): I don’t mind changing things up a bit. I
like my traditions, and I like being in a place where I’m surrounded by friends
and family. However, I’ve realized that celebrating the holidays, wherever I am
and however it is done, is still a celebration. I like doing it in whatever way
seems the most fitting for the experience I’m having at the time. This year, I
have lived in Georgia and am visiting Ireland. It is very fitting in my mind to
have some strange sorts of holiday experiences, then, because my year has been
that of a strange sort.
Jenny’s going to bed and I’m going to look up some London
activities, but first I’m going to drink another glass of what has been deemed “puke
juice” while sitting in my room in Ireland three weeks away from being back in
Georgia because this has been a strange sort of year. Here's to 2012 being the same sort of year.
