Green green grass (of home)
Um, well I guess that 'light blogging' really meant no blogging. I could blame it on the dial-up but truth is that I was really having such a lovely time being at home that it seemed somehow fitting to take a break from all things associated with daily life in Canada. Although I did cook a lot, and actually even painted a window frame for my mum. So perhaps that's a rubbish justification for blogger-laziness.
Any-way...it was a holiday, and a brilliant holiday at that. I spent most of my time at my mum's place in the sunny south-east of Ireland, surrounded by the juciest looking green grass ever - its lushness perhaps all the more apparant to eyes accustomed to the frost-fried brown tangle that has been Calgary vegetation over the Winter and into Spring. The Irish fields just seemed so, I don't know, bouncy or something. And the gorse (or furze as it is apparantly known elsewhere) was out in fabulous flower, bright bright yellow and smelling of coconut up close. Primroses, blackthorn, hawthorn...it was a rural idyll. I walked on the beach and sucked up lungfulls of sea-air, I tramped over fields and stroked the noses of horses. I ate fresh fresh fresh organic vegetables and wholewheat Irish soda bread with Greek honey.
But of course the most important part of any trip home is the time spent with loved ones and that was much much better than it has been on previous trips. When I arrived, my Grandmother was there, then my step-sister flew in from London for a couple of days, then I toddled up to Dublin and spent a few days with friends there, saw my father, met one of my favourite lecturers from my undergrad days, got to see my friends' babies, my sister came home for a few days and it went well and wasn't stressful at all, and saw several close family friends aswell. Phew! It could have been exhausting but it wasn't, and I did get sick for a few days but even that wasn't so bad because we all know that the best possible place to get sick is with your mum and she was fantastic and did the whole hot-water-bottle, cups of tea, medicinal chocolate thing so well!
Perhaps the most important feeling I'm left with is that I finally feel at ease with my home country. It's not easy to admit it, but I really did have a chip on my shoulder there for a while. I was very negative about Ireland and what it represented for me, what it reminded me of. More than anything I think that I didn't know how to be comfortable with my own choices (spending so long in Taiwan, not taking the career-house-marriage-baby route in my twenties) without belittling the choices I chose not to make (if that makes any sense). I found it hard to connect with my friends in Ireland at times because I was insecure and snippy. And now I'm not. Which is really great. And it meant that I had some really good, honest conversations and I am very very thankful that, despite the geographical distance I have put between us, some other kind of distance has been bridged. I'm such a cornball I know.
Perhaps the babies had something to do with it. Of course they were all really cute and adorable all that. But they were extra cute because I could see their parents in them, and I know their parents and they are pretty funny people so I am anticipating that when these children are older and more talkative, they will say and do some pretty funny things. I also got to learn a lot about pregnancy aches and pains and cravings, childbirth, the importance of early school enrollment, breast feeding, breast leaking, and breast pads (which may go missing and turn up under cushions when guests are around).
Anyway, this is a bit of a start on what I want to write about my trip. I guess it's the 'personal' bit. The more intentionally analytical bit will come later. I'm planning to write couple of posts based on my observations of Ireland during my trip, with less gushing about my lovely family and friends. I'll try to have the first up those up by the weekend, and blogging should be more consistent over the coming weeks. I'm also excited because I'm getting involved with a couple of blog-related projects which I may or may not talk about here depending upon how much I want to keep this a fairly personal blog and others more professional endeavors (I do not like having to do this, but needs must).
And so, as usual, I am off to clean and paint something.
Any-way...it was a holiday, and a brilliant holiday at that. I spent most of my time at my mum's place in the sunny south-east of Ireland, surrounded by the juciest looking green grass ever - its lushness perhaps all the more apparant to eyes accustomed to the frost-fried brown tangle that has been Calgary vegetation over the Winter and into Spring. The Irish fields just seemed so, I don't know, bouncy or something. And the gorse (or furze as it is apparantly known elsewhere) was out in fabulous flower, bright bright yellow and smelling of coconut up close. Primroses, blackthorn, hawthorn...it was a rural idyll. I walked on the beach and sucked up lungfulls of sea-air, I tramped over fields and stroked the noses of horses. I ate fresh fresh fresh organic vegetables and wholewheat Irish soda bread with Greek honey.
But of course the most important part of any trip home is the time spent with loved ones and that was much much better than it has been on previous trips. When I arrived, my Grandmother was there, then my step-sister flew in from London for a couple of days, then I toddled up to Dublin and spent a few days with friends there, saw my father, met one of my favourite lecturers from my undergrad days, got to see my friends' babies, my sister came home for a few days and it went well and wasn't stressful at all, and saw several close family friends aswell. Phew! It could have been exhausting but it wasn't, and I did get sick for a few days but even that wasn't so bad because we all know that the best possible place to get sick is with your mum and she was fantastic and did the whole hot-water-bottle, cups of tea, medicinal chocolate thing so well!
Perhaps the most important feeling I'm left with is that I finally feel at ease with my home country. It's not easy to admit it, but I really did have a chip on my shoulder there for a while. I was very negative about Ireland and what it represented for me, what it reminded me of. More than anything I think that I didn't know how to be comfortable with my own choices (spending so long in Taiwan, not taking the career-house-marriage-baby route in my twenties) without belittling the choices I chose not to make (if that makes any sense). I found it hard to connect with my friends in Ireland at times because I was insecure and snippy. And now I'm not. Which is really great. And it meant that I had some really good, honest conversations and I am very very thankful that, despite the geographical distance I have put between us, some other kind of distance has been bridged. I'm such a cornball I know.
Perhaps the babies had something to do with it. Of course they were all really cute and adorable all that. But they were extra cute because I could see their parents in them, and I know their parents and they are pretty funny people so I am anticipating that when these children are older and more talkative, they will say and do some pretty funny things. I also got to learn a lot about pregnancy aches and pains and cravings, childbirth, the importance of early school enrollment, breast feeding, breast leaking, and breast pads (which may go missing and turn up under cushions when guests are around).
Anyway, this is a bit of a start on what I want to write about my trip. I guess it's the 'personal' bit. The more intentionally analytical bit will come later. I'm planning to write couple of posts based on my observations of Ireland during my trip, with less gushing about my lovely family and friends. I'll try to have the first up those up by the weekend, and blogging should be more consistent over the coming weeks. I'm also excited because I'm getting involved with a couple of blog-related projects which I may or may not talk about here depending upon how much I want to keep this a fairly personal blog and others more professional endeavors (I do not like having to do this, but needs must).
And so, as usual, I am off to clean and paint something.
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