"I was made for sunny days." This is as honest as Google was when it told me that Ireland gets roughly 54 days of sunshine in total per year. A fact that had me near tears (ok I was actually in tears) when I thought of leaving a place that gets approximately 364 days of sunshine per year (365 if it's a leap year) to live in this rain-stricken land. (^ me being asked if I was excited to go to Ireland) However, despite the nerves & outright refusal to come to Ireland, I have come to truly enjoy living here. I owe this to the incredible people that I've met and formed friendships with over the year- many that have come & gone, one Canadian that has made the wise decision to stick around (@Rachel Parker), plus a few Irish people that I have decided I'm not ready to leave yet (for the banter). Above all, I owe it to my 'Irish parents' that have gone above & beyond to make sure I feel at home here, & have gone out of their way countless times to solve my (many) problems! To repay them for taking on this tremendous & stress-filled responsibility (me), I get the pleasure of house/ dog sitting while they are away from home. Oh, I also repay them with peanut butter & chocolate chip cookies baked by yours truly, but that has nothing to do with this blog.. the house sitting does though! I recently got to take on this responsibility as they were on an overnight excursion to Dublin. After enjoying an exciting night of having a house to myself by indulging in ice-cream and watching movies with Roxy (the dog), I woke up to her looking wide awake & ready for the day while watching me and obviously thinking "How is she still asleep at this hour?"... it was 5:30 a.m. Surprisingly, I was able to drag myself out of bed to let her outside, only after contemplating the consequences of not doing so & remembering who would have to clean up these 'consequences'. But don't be fooled, I quickly took myself straight back to bed. A few hours later however, I awoke ready to enjoy a sun-filled day that constant weather forecast checking throughout the week had told me would be a shocking 25 degrees. Now, when you can only count on having 54 sunny days throughout the year, & about 5-10 of these are already gone, you suddenly have a different attitude towards them. One that consists of finding ways to perform every daily activity- outdoors. Luckily, Roxy was just as eager to take advantage of this sunshine as I was! & so after confirming that the house would not burn down in my absence, and checking another 3 or 4 times, we set out on our adventure! It was a day nothing short of beautiful, & the rest of Limerick clearly agreed as they trailed behind overly excited dogs that were more confident in expressing what I was also feeling towards the sun coming out & bringing warmth with it! A 2 hour walk along the river, followed by relaxing beside the lake while others were getting prepared for bath time by making their way into the lake via a sloppy mud trail (no names), had clearly tired this certain someone out & so we made our way back home. After giving the princess a bath, and enjoying the daily activity of eating lunch- outdoors, I was ready to get my sunbathing on & wait for my Irish parents to return. But when I was presented with an invitation to go to the beach, I couldn't turn it down. & so the sunshine adventures continued! With the idea of going swimming in mind, & an understanding of the temperature difference between the sea in Ireland and the sea in Barbados not in mind, we made our way to Lahinch. Upon arriving, it was clear that the tide was in & so swimming here was not an option (for safety reasons). Determined to get in the sea, we moved on to a spot about a 10 minute drive away known as the 'jump-off spot' (which, for my Bajan friends, looked a lot like the north/ east coast of Barbados). By now it was getting on to 7 p.m, but thanks to Ireland's longer summer days, it would be bright out until about 9:30 p.m. Now, earlier on in the day 'bright' also meant 'warm'. But this was not the case as we arrived at the jump-off spot. The sun was periodically being blocked by clouds which gave an opportunity to really feel the temperature of the wind coming straight off the Atlantic, & it was definitely not warm. However, I had set my mind on going swimming & with the words "I told myself I was going to do it, so I have to do it" going through my mind, there was no backing out. This mindset had some competition when my toe hit the puddles of water on the rocks, and was quickly replaced with:
Having made it all the way to standing at the edge of the rock in a swimsuit, I convinced myself that the sea was a warm bathtub & managed to jump (nothing to do with the group of guys nearby that I could feel waiting for me to back out, of course). Two seconds later the image of a warm bathtub, along with any image other than being surrounded by a pool of ice, had quickly been erased from my mind. The initial temperature shock combined with the fear of the hundreds of sharks that were obviously right beneath me just waiting to eat one of my limbs resulted in a totally graceful rush to get out of this ice bath. But much to my surprise, almost instantly my body warmed up & the brutality of the experience was forgotten. Not wanting to half-ass anything, I had to go for round 2. "It wasn't that bad! It was actually kinda warm!" Round 2 confirmed that I do not learn from experience... The day finished with a quick visit to the Cliffs of Moher- an incredible spot to visit if you ever get the chance! Preferably on a sunny day... so that gives you 54 days of the year to choose from. 😉 Well, here's to sunny days & all the adventures they bring! Treasure the endless sunshine you guys are getting over in Barbados. I know it's hard to appreciate something when it's always there, but thanks to my experience in Ireland I am now truly grateful for sunny days! To close, I would like to announce to all you guys that what we all thought would be a year of college in Ireland upgraded & I will be returning to the Emerald Isle in September to begin the final year of my 4 year degree in Marketing & Management. Yours truly, Cin-namon xoxo P.s. pictures & video to come! ♥
1 Comment
secret admirer
6/1/2017 08:08:53 pm
roxy was up so early cause she was tired of you snoring
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