Slainte, friends!
So we arrived in Ireland safely, with luggage in tow and high spirits intact. Labs survived the plane ride, I survived the transfer to Gatwick airport, Martha survived the way a seasoned international traveler always does (she was just fine!). We were met at the Dublin airport by Fr. Denis and Des, and traveled by mini-bus back to Wexford.
These past few days we've been hosted by Emmett and Gráinne Cullen at Granville House, a lovely B&B not far from our house in Cluain Dara, which isn't quite ready yet. No bother, though, as they say here--the tiler has been working all week, and once he's finished, the carpets will be installed, furniture moved in, and we'll be all set!
In the meantime, we've been overcoming jetlag and adjusting to the new time zone (5 hours ahead of our EST friends, 6 hours for my crew in the CST), as well as getting to know the town through the tours given by our gracious hosts at Clonard Parish. We've also been getting used to the weather here. It's much cooler than the sweltering summer we left in the States, but it has also rained for at least part of every day since our arrival. Our new friends say that the rain has been much more prevalent this summer, but so far, it hasn't dampened our spirits at all. Myself, I feel as though I'm experiencing the real Irish weather for the first time, since the sun shone through all of my previous visits here. I'm just going to have to stop associating rainy days with perfect opportunities for four-hour naps and repeated viewings of
Jurassic Park (best rainy day movie ever;
The Goonies is a close second).
All in all, we're getting our feet wet--figuratively and literally--and we're learning our way around. Tonight we go to the Wexford Opera House for a concert performed by The Swell Season, fronted by Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová of the movie
Once. This is just the first of hopefully many of our adventures in this little Irish town with the
huge music scene.
As for everything else--the house, getting started with work, settling in to parish life--again, as we've heard so many times here, "We'll sort it out!"
This past week, we spent three days in Ferns at St. Aiden’s monastery on a retreat planned for us by Fr. Martin. It’s a truly peaceful and beautiful place. We each had our own hermitage and space to meet as a group in the convent. It was great to have a little time away to reflect and prepare for the coming year. The retreat was also good for getting a better picture of what we’ll be trying to accomplish this year.
