Oct 8

First off... I talked to Caroline and Ryan... I'm so excited about being an uncle in no time!

Once again I learned the Irish love spontaneity and jump on any opportunity for some giggles.
The projector in class malfunctioned meaning our prof, Jackie, couldn’t function. She vetoed class altogether and called for an archeological walk into Spiddal to learn about the Gaelic Catholic church. We bounced out of our seats with excitement and trucked it down the road into town. Jackie led the pack. We halted at the first intersection into town, because she noticed a sign notifying her of a commentary down the road, and hung a right for a detour.

Emily and I walked ahead of the group with Jackie cracking jokes and learning about Irish culture. She looked at Emily and me and threatened to pull a quick one on the group. We joked about tricking everyone into thinking a cinder block on the side of the road held archeological significance to Spiddal. The second we stopped laughing she stopped the group, opened the gate to a random cow pasture, and guided us through a jungle of grassland peppered with cow pie landmines disguised as mud. After dodging some manure and slipping on the waterlogged grass we slid over to a small rock formation which doubled as an island in the sea of lush grass, mud, and cow dung to listen to her lecture. Emily and I turned red and almost burst into tears of laughter, but managed to get a hold of ourselves when Jackie shot us a look. She posed the question, “Does anyone know what we’re standing on right now?” Alex proudly piped up, “A megalithic tomb!” She happily said, “Yes, what kind of tomb?” Nick explained, “A court tomb.” She said, “Yes, how’d you know?” He admitted it was a guess. Like everyone else I let out some laughter, but for a different reason than Nick’s smart remark. The prof kept a straight face and said, “Grand, does anyone know what the court in the tomb is for?” A couple people spurted out, “it’s the place inside the tomb the community holds a feast to celebrate the life of the dead.” She continued, “Grand, Now where’s the court of this tomb?” Alex proudly pointed to flat ground at the base of the “tomb” exclaiming, “Right there.” The smirk on my face became wider with every confident comment by Alex. She asked, “So where’s the entrance?” I couldn’t hold it in anymore. Before Alex could answer, the smirk on my face exploded into a loud giggle. Then Emily cracked and began to chuckle.

Our prof smirked and let everyone in on the joke. We all let out a laugh, tiptoed around the cow poop, and took refuge on the clean and dry pathway. As we walked away I zoomed out and laughed once again noticing thousands of nearly identical rock formations shaping the landscape.
On our way back a couple of us holding up the tail ran into a local “cowboy” as he called himself (not a farmer like I assumingly called him). The old man supported thinning white hair and an intriguingly thick accent. I pulled a Joe Lais and we exchanged our life stories. Meanwhile the majority of the group made their way down the road. Us few stragglers looked around and found ourselves alone. The others made their way into Spiddal. I voted to go back to class banking that if they went to Spiddal I’d already missed the lecture anyways. If they didn’t, I’d be back in the classroom like everyone else. I scurried back to the cottage classroom to find myself alone. Yikes, I successfully ditched my first class. Turns out the class continued on to Spiddal.

I finished my homework and started to get nervous about missing class. Eventually, everyone started to trickle back home and question where I went. They assured me the prof never noticed my absence.

For supper my cottage was invited to eat at the prof’s place. We all changed into different pants and fancy shirts and made our way to their cottage with the gift of red wine. (Yes, we definitely regifted the wine J.P. gave me). The food hit the spot. As I used to say to mom, it was a “real meal”. The wine took the edge off and the awkwardness we all expected evolved into a flowing conversation.

As we walked out I mentioned how the night was much funnier and less awkward than I’d expected. Joey replied by saying, “Ya, I enjoyed myself too, especially, as we were leaving, when I noticed your fly was down the whole night.” I looked down at my fly, zipped it, and punched him on the shoulder. We all laughed.

After supper I finished my paper late and snoozed.