Two Townies in the Country: Part Two

YoYoYo.

Exciting update: I am going back to Westport on Thursday and staying with Sinead one night, Mary the other.

Soooo, since time is passing so quickly and I am easily falling behind on my blogging, I must finish writing about my first weekend with the cousins before the second begins.

Steve in 2005.  What a baby he was!

Me, coming down from the tractor =]

Amy and I woke up Saturday morning and to Shane's disappointment, were not all that hungover.  We had some Coco Pops for breakfast and then Shane took us out on the tractor!  First he drove us around and then he taught me out to drive it... but I was absolutely dreadful.  On the tractor there are multiple brakes, multiple accelerators... it was just not working out for me.  I made Amy take a picture of me jumping down from the tractor because the picture of Steve from when my mom visited in '05 was of him coming down from a tractor.  I mentioned it to him when we went out on Friday and, amazingly, he remembered it being taken!  He said that he had just jumped off the tractor and some person he had never met before made him climb back up so she could take a picture of him.  You left quite the impression, Ma ;-)

Shane, the twelve-year-old, teaching me how to drive.

After the tractor excursion, Gerry, Shane, and Brian took us to see the new baby calf that had been born that morning.  Amy and I were not happy that they hadn't woken us up to see the birth of the calf!  But, everyone had either overestimated Steve or underestimated us and thought we would be too sick and need a "lie in."  Actually, I am more than certain that what really happened was that Steve was warned to take it easy on us and therefore ended up not drinking as much as he normally might have.  I definitely have noticed that the Irish people do drink a lot more than people at home do.  I'm sure there are both positive and negative outcomes resulting from this.  Obviously, alcoholism is more likely to occur in a society that revolves so much around social drinking, but it is also nice to see that the adults still go out with friends and family.  One thing that happens at home is that adults often stop seeing their friends once they have families, but here it is normal for adults to still go out to the pubs.  I digress.

The calf was really cute and it was awesome to see all the different animals that my cousins have on their farm.  We waved goodbye to the calf and when we got back to Louise and Gerry's, Fiona was waiting for us.  We got into her car and went to pick up Sinead and Mary because they were taking us to explore Aughagower and Westport for the day.  I'd met Mary the night before but this was my first time meeting Sinead.  She and Fiona definitely do look a lot alike but luckily Amy and I were able to tell them apart.

Me bein' cute at Aughagower Cemetery.

 First they took us to Aughagower Cemetery where some family members or other were buried... I love old cemeteries so it was cool to see even if I didn't know exactly how I was related everyone there.  I wanted to take pictures but I thought that would be kind of weird... I got a few snapshots in though.  At Aughagower is also St. Patrick's bed... I'm not really clear on the background of this, especially since my history professor insists that everything I have ever read or heard about St. Patrick is either a mistake or a lie.  The church at the cemetery is the place my great-grandma was baptized.  Cute anecdote: Grandma Nora didn't meet her husband, Robert Sammon, until they were in America, but it turned out that they had been baptized in the same church!  Precious moments.

Church at Aughagower.

Joseph's Cows.

After the cemetery we went to Turlough House which is a beautiful house that has a museum alongside it.  The house was closed while we were there, but the museum was really interesting.  There was so much history about the Aran people.  I usually do not enjoy museums much but this was fascinating to me.  I think because it was focused only on the Aran people it was more in depth and therefore more intriguing.

We went to lunch in Castlebar following our adventure to Turlough House.  Apparently the Sammons are from Castlebar so I need to do some research to see if there is some family still there.  I did, however, meet a guy from Castlebar a few weeks ago and he said he knew some Sammons there and that they were probably related to me since Sammon is not a very common last name.  I don't really know how to go about finding these relations so if anyone has any leads, let me know!

Amy and I were really tired after all of our exploration.  I'd already been tired on Friday since I had to wake up early to register for a class, and going out the night before didn't help matters.  After lunch, we drove to Cathy's house.  CATHY LIVES ON CROAGH PATRICK.  The view from her house is gorgeous, but Cathy kept saying that it wasn't good because the weather was so bad and we couldn't see very far.  I can't imagine what the view must be like on a day without rain because even the view we had was far more beautiful than any view I'd ever had before.

Joseph winning at Connect Four.

The cousins were all so welcoming this weekend.  Every single one of them.  They are so kind and funny-- honestly the nicest people I've ever met.  We walked into Cathy and Joe's house and they came up to us and hugged us and said "You are welcome."  I have never had anyone say "you are welcome" to me in such a pure sense of the phrase.  Cathy and Joe are gorgeous and have a beautiful family.  Their kid are 12, 10, 8, and 6 and their names are Lisa, Kate, Sean, and Joseph.  They are all so sweet and funny!  Cathy is apparently the cook of the family and she made us some delicious lasagna for dinner.  The day we came, the kids got hooked on Connect Four so we played that after dinner for a long time.  Later on, Cathy took us out to a pub but Amy and I were so exhausted that we could only stay out for one drink.

Me with Kate and Joseph.

Left to Right: Joseph, Tricia, Me, Padraig, Kate, Cathy.

In the morning, Cathy made us our first Irish breakfast and it was delicious, although Amy and I wish we hadn't found out what the black and white pudding is made from.  After breakfast Cathy, Lisa, and Kate took us for a ride to the bottom of the Reek (Croagh Patrick) and then drove us around the countryside so that we could see some of the beautiful landscape.  When we got back to Cathy's she made us a huge lunch and we tried lamb for the first time.  It was really good... and I felt better knowing that it was their lamb and that it was not cruelly treated or transported from some random farm.  Padraig, Brian, and Tricia came over for lunch and then we had to say goodbye to everyone.  I was in no way ready to leave and I found Galway contemptible for the first few days after my return.

I guess I can't really some up what this weekend meant to me in words, because these feelings do not translate into English.  This was the first long-term dream of mine that I had come true, meeting the cousins, and it is an exhilarating feeling to have a dream come true.  Never have I met such a welcoming group of people.  They made me feel at home right away as they teased me and Amy and laughed at our love for the sheep.  I am very happy to be going back there this weekend to get to know these cousins even better.  Hugs and kisses from Ireland.