Ireland

These days I feel like all people ask me is: “How was Ireland? Did you like it?”. A question so straightforward and yet so difficult to answer. Not that I, of all people, can say I saw much of Dublin outside the city center, but my general impression about most places is that aside from the history (that doesn't really directly touch most locals' lives) some distinctive buildings (some riddled with bullet holes and some not), and other tourist sites, it’s not as if any capital city is really that different from another; it’s the people that make the difference. The denizens are the soul of any place, and if someone never came in contact with that, how is the experience describable to them? Gems like these (below) simply can't be paraphrased...they have to be experienced:

• The real usage of the word “grand”: e.g. when referring to a restaurant’s menu: “ah sure it’s not great…it’s grand, like”
• The true meaning of the word “temperate”: as in… “Sure you’ll be grand with a couple of jackets… Ireland’s climate is very temperate”… YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE!!
• “The one” (drink) -- as in "will we head to Kennedys for the one?"… fresh off the plane, I thought that it was indeed a drink, as in singular. To my surprise (and delight, I must add), I realized that the phrase refers, instead, to “the one that will put one in intimate contact with the flooring”.
• “Your man” or “your one”: as in “Jesus, would you see what your one there is wearing?”.

“Are you happy to be back home?”… now there’s another tough one. Having moved enough in life, I’m not sure where home really is anymore. Part of me now considers Dublin home as well. People tell me that not everyone thinks like this about a place they went for a temporary assignment… in that case, I am really REALLY lucky!