Happy Christmas

That's what they usually say around here, rather than Merry Christmas. And they say it a lot, because the people here are super friendly. C-- and I went for a walk today and almost everyone on our way said hi and wished us a Happy Christmas.

We found a glen with a path running alongside it. Everything was still covered in snow because the sun couldn't shine directly into it. And the snow was covered in little snow crystals that must have come from the mist that we saw in the distance or the dew from the morning. The rivulet running down the middle was still mostly covered in ice, and where the middle was free of it, there were little ice flakes on the sides. The water looked like chocolate because of the light. (It was quite clean, though.) There was a small bit of still, unfrozen water where all the the ducks and little birds gathered. The ducks searched for food, and every once in a while would bob underwater so that their tails stuck out vertically. And the other birds took their baths. I felt rather cold for them, but they looked happy.

Everything was closed today. (Absolutely everything.) We had bought provisions yesterday in kind of a rush so today we could take it easy. We lunched on soda break, cured meat and cheese from the English market, and a bit of blackcurrant jam from a nearby grocery. And dinner was a surprisingly good curry-in-a-box and a decent minestrone soup. The owner of our bed and breakfast was kind enough to leave a microwave out for us in the breakfast room today, as well as utensils. And best of all, she left out some mince pies, which C-- and I loved, and some frosted Christmas pudding, which I loved. It was very nice to stay home for our meals this once. We've been eating out so often!

We stayed the past few days with a friend of C--'s. She is working in Cork this year, living in a house with mentally disabled people, caring for them, and giving them a sense of home. Living there was an eye-opening experience. The people she lives with are the sort that one usually happily ignores. They might be out on the street, but you just walk by and go on comfortably with your life. But she has gotten to know her residents, seen their quirks, their habits, seen how they interact with one another and get along (or don't.) And we got to see a bit of that by living there for just a couple of days. It's very humanizing.