Thanksgiving

Last week for Thanksgiving a group of us Americans decided to have a big potluck dinner. We brought in extra chairs and silverware and squeezed about ten people around one of the small apartment tables. Everyone had exciting adventures in figuring out how to cook (especially in an oven where the degrees Celsius have almost completely faded) and making do with the ingredients available in Ireland. I had wanted to make cornbread, but there was no cornmeal at any of the 3 grocery stores within walking distance, so I attempted (American) biscuits. I discovered that out oven still smoked even after vigorous cleaning, and set off the fire alarm in my flat. Luckily there was only one other person there and she knew how to call Security to get them to turn it off. So I transfered my half-baked biscuits to another kitchen and they turned out more or less alright. Dinner was great, and we even managed to obtain a big enough turkey at the last minute. We all got sent home with bags full of leftovers.
The Irish students found our dinner very intriguing-- they were astonished by the quantities of food on the counter, and one asked if we exchanged presents. The International Office sent us an email with an American flag featuring a cornucopia containing bananas and oranges.
My classes are starting to wind down. The Tain finished several weeks ago, although we still have a paper to write. Paul has become one of my favorite classes. The professor is brilliant, and the Maynooth students are all terrified of him-- he'll call on people in class and question them on information they learned in first year, two years before. He really makes us think and question our assumptions, and the difference between an Irish Catholic school and my American liberal arts school is emphasized when he starts every class with a prayer. Instead of a final exam I'm writing a 10 page paper on community in 1 Corinthians, and it's one of the few times I'm really exited about researching and writing a paper. Although my Celts class is on interesting subjects and right now we're talking about places I've visited or read about in the Tain, the professor has such a quiet, soothing voice that it's hard to stay focused. I'm doing fairly well in Greek, though I'm getting nervous about having to learn Classical Greek in the span of a month in order to catch up with the second semester class at Williams. The Old Testament and Irish are also good. We've become so proficient in singing "Beidh aonach amarach" that our professor wants to show us off to the head of the department at our Christmas party...