what i know

yesterday i learned that the reason there are 6 times as many irish nationals abroad as irish nationals is because they are used to having to go sixteen miles to the market to buy a loaf of bread. so why not go sixteen miles in some other country.
i learned that the irish don't eat irish food.
i learned that the irish, though theirs is not an industrial country, are swept by the trade-union mentality, and dont realize that they already have twice as many paid days off as americans, but still strike for more.
i learned that the tourist attraction at the end of the causeway is a sewage plant.
i learned that they think their new nigerian immigrants will be a great addition to the gaelic football scene because they have the strong legs of ancestors who used to catch antelope.
yesterday i learned they make a martini with a glass of vermouth and a splash of vodka,
and i learned that insurance on a building goes out, not up. and that it will cost more money that i make a month for a pub to have us for lunch in a room above the bar. i learned that that room is only free if it's a funeral.
yesterday i learned that i am awful at cooking omelettes but great at frying back bacon.
and today i will confirm that fact.
this morning i learned that the reason the town "maam" (not pronounced "mom") is named so is because that's the sound the sheep there make, particular to the region.

here i am, six weeks in, thinking that my learning curve was plateauing. and then it dawned on me, as i sipped my fanta and looked at pictures of brazil and pined for t-shirts, it's not the quantity but the content of the new information that seems to deteriorate with time for me. i suppose that all depends on perspective. tonight i'm going bowling at the community center to gain a little more perspective on the irish take on american passion and precision and world domination while sticking fingers into greasy holes.