It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

Winter weather has finally arrived in Ireland. Everyone thinks it's cold but expresses it differently. The Irish are more "it's a bit chilly today" whereas the Americans are more "whoa, did it become winter overnight, I'm not prepared for this, why did I pick to study abroad in the fall when I am going to come back to the United States for the winter season?" One of the quirks about having classrooms in buildings that are from 1849 is the heating systems are from that time as well. Actually they probably aren't but they aren't functioning yet, so we are going to pretend like they are. In class yesterday (where I had a jacket on the entire time), students shared stories about cold classrooms. One of my classmates remembered the time when every student in Ireland used to have to bring a brick of peat (correct terminology?) to class every day to put in the peat moss fire. It would get so smokey however that students would have to jump around and flap their arms to dissipate the smoke. One of the benefits of being in Ireland is I get to hear stories like that. They are a lot more interesting to tell and listen to than "so it was cold today at school so we had to have recess inside."

However one of the best things about Winter is that lovely little birth of Jesus Christ every December 25th. In the United States, the Christmas season is tempered by Thanksgiving occurring at the end of November. While the malls start decorating before Turkey Day, it is generally socially acceptable to officially open the Christmas season after Thanksgiving. Here, there is no Thanksgiving so Christmas decorations are already up. The coffee shop across the street from school has a lighted wreath up, the town center has wreaths and lights hung across the street. The stores put out their Christmas merchandise the day after Halloween. Christmas season has already come to Cork and I am thoroughly enjoying it.