Monday - Week IX

Woke up to a gorgeous sunny day which lasted until afternoon when the rain came and that was that. Not so bad because it’s not too cold and we are hoping for sunny warm weather by the end of the week.

I had a nice walk into town, albeit a very slow walk to due ice on the sidewalks. It's been rather treacherous walking conditions these past few weeks and on Saturday night Una, the women who's apartment I stay at slipped and sprained her had. She'll be fine and it doesn't require a cast but I know she was trying hard to be careful these past few weeks that it was just so annoying to her that she fell and hurt herself. She had even begun to wear socks over her shoes, a tip she got from a friend and apparently it really works but on Saturday night the heel of her shoe ripped through the sock and that's just when she fell. I had never heard about the sock thing before but apparently it really works and they even sell special socks now that are meant solely for use on the outside of the shoes.

After making it into town safely I stopped off at St. Nicholas Collegiate Church to warm up. It’s a beautiful church originally built in 1320 and it is said that Columbus, on his way to discovering America stopped here in Galway and went to mass at St. Nicks. It certainly is possible and in 1477 when he is said to have been there I'm sure the church, which has had several refurbishments since that time mostly due to damage incurred during various wars, was still quite beautiful.

As I warmed up in the back of the church there was a celebration of St. Nicholas day service going on up front. But what was so interesting about it was that it wasn’t a protestant mass, which usually takes place in this church, but a Romanian Orthodox mass in the Romanian language. It was so beautiful, and very much like a high Latin mass in the Roman Catholic Church. Actually the priest who I spoke to after the service told me that Romanian is a lot like Latin and also like the Italian language so that’s probably why it sounded familiar. I also spoke with two of the Romanian women after the service and it turns out there is a Romanian Orthodox mass each Sunday at 9:00am there. Today was a special mass because it was St. Nicholas' saints day celebration which is also commemorated in the Eastern European countries by putting sweets like chocolates into the shoes of the children. Sounds like a yummy holiday to me.

As I was listening to them talk I began to think it would be nice to go to one of these masses on a Sunday morning. The priest was so friendly and the people are so nice. I do think the was just so excited at the idea of having more people at mass and talked with me for a bit longer than he probably normally would. It turns out he worked a few years back in a Romanian Orthodox church in Queens, NY. I don’t think there is a huge community of Romanian’s here in Galway but what there is seems to be very tight knit as well as welcoming.

I then met up with Patricia, one of my Spanish students and she took me for hot coco at a lovely little café and we had a two and a half hour lesson. It’s nice to have just one student every once in a while and she got lots of practice with her speaking skills and I learned a bit about Spanish men and how they like to flirt a lot and how sometimes women just need to maybe not take it too seriously if her Spanish man wonders a bit from home as long as he is good to his wife/partner and provides a nice home for her. Basically Spanish men may stray but the good ones will always make being with them worthwhile. I don’t think many American women will agree with this philosophy but it works for some women and in the end if you’re truly happy who cares about all those pesky details.

Patricia broke up with her boyfriend of 9 years it had nothing to do with him cheating on her, which he did once that she knows of, but more to do with that he was moody and eventually she just got fed up with his behavior. She made me laugh when she said her mother was so upset with her when she broke up with her boyfriend because when she finally did it and told him it was over she called her mother and the boyfriend got on the phone crying and her mother couldn’t believe that she was being so heartless and making him cry. He’s clearly the sensitive type.

I then spent a bit of time at the library and then off to the gym with Jean Marie. A very productive and enlightening day.