Week 8 - Ash and Leeds

Wednesday(02/25/2009):

Wednesday was Ash Wednesday, and I lectored at the 6:05 PM Mass at Honan Chapel. The Mass was really pretty nice, and like every Ash Wednesday, very full. The Mass that I lecotred at was the last Mass of the day, and it was so full that we almost had people out the door (other Masses that day actually did have people out the door). The Chaplaincy estimated that about 2,000 UCC students attended a Ash Wednesday Mass that day. The bishop of Cork was there at all the Masses that day, but he was also the concelebrant of the 6:05 Mass. Our Mass was really pretty laid back, and it is a UCC tradition to let one of the students to give the homily on Ash Wednesday, so one of the grad students who is really involved in the Chaplaincy gave it. He's a really nice guy originally from Poland, and after his 4 years of undergrad at UCC he went to China to teach English for a year, and is now back pursuing a degree in international politics. It was also really nice as they had members of the Taizé prayer group sing and play piano, and flute throughout the Mass, which was very peaceful and beautiful, and during the Our Father they had different students come up and lead in saying it in English, French, Spanish, German, and Italian. So I really enjoyed the Mass, and was able to appreciate the differences from that of St. John's Chapel back at the U of I, though I do wish they had done a cleaner job when giving me my ashes.

Friday(02/27/2009):

So, as it was the first Friday of Lent, I was looking forward to some good fish. As there aren't any church fish fries here that I can find, I bought some fish at TESCO and had a my own personal fish fry at the apartment. I had some cod, and it was quite good. Michael and Kristin came from Leeds to visit me for the weekend. They had spent the day in Dublin, and got in to Kent Station at 10:00 PM. It was so good to see both of them. After they came back to the apartment and dropped off their stuff we went out a bit and showed them around Cork a little bit. They had both had quite a large breakfast and had kinda skipped lunch and dinner, so we went to Speedy Gonzales Burrito Bar, and got some burritos. It was around 11:50 PM when we got them, and I noticed after inhaling mine that it had chicken in it....so I get a FAIL for not eating meat on Fridays during Lent. Oh well. Michael and Kristin were both pretty tired, understandably, from traveling so we went back and talked a while about the glory days of high school cross country, and how we should run the 2009 Chicago Marathon, as we were kinda missing training, and then they went to bed.

Saturday(02/28/2009):

On Saturday we woke up, and I made us some of the cheese omelet sandwiches for an early brunch and we then went out so I could show Michael and Kristin Cork properly. I first took them to UCC via the scenic path, past Saint Finbar's Cathedral and the Beamish brewery. They both thought that UCC's campus was very pretty, and I agree. From there we went on to the English Market to get the ingredients for that nights dinner. Michael and Kristin both really seemed to love the market and were seeming to have a great time following me around to the different shops and stalls. I have to admit, that I think that the English Market is going to be one of the things that I miss the most when I go home in June, but I guess that's more motivation to go to the Farmer's Market in Urbana. Michael spied some scones in a booth that were 4 for €1, so we got 4 and went to the city park across the street to eat them by the fountain. They were delicious. It was getting to be close to 3 by then, and since the next bus to Blarney didn't leave until 3:50 and they both had some homework to do they decided to not go check out Blarney Castle. We went by the bus station and picked up some city maps and I marked where there were some nice cafes and shops and places to go hang out in Cork and then turned them loose to explore, get coffee and study. I went back and worked on my Fourier Methods homework until 6:30 PM when they got back and I started on dinner prep. I had given them some options on what they would like for sides and sauce for dinner, so I ended up preparing chicken parmesan over a bead of whole grain penne with a tomato sauce and a side of couscous along with Viennetta for dessert. Michael had stopped and picked up a bottle of Merlot to go with dinner (after I received a tip on what wines go with chicken that was kindly provided by Mr. Iain Duguay). I didn't time things perfectly so the pasta got done about 5 minutes before the chicken, but I still think dinner turned out pretty well. The chicken was really good I thought, so I need to thank my dear sister and brother-in-law Jennifer and Greg Byard for their recipe which I used.

Following dinner Michael and Kristin wanted to try a pint of Irish Guinness, as they didn't make it to the Guinness brewery in Dublin, so Shawn and I took them to An Bróg where we got pints and talked for about an hour. Michael got a Guinness, and Shawn and I both got Murphy's so that he and Kristin could get a good taste of both. They both thought that the pub was pretty cool, and said that it was a bit different from those back in Leeds and London. We then went to The Old Oak, where Shawn and I went ahead and got pints of Beamish and we all talked for a little longer, before retiring back to South Mall Court for the night.

Sunday(03/01/2009):

Sunday morning we woke up and went to Mass at St. Augustine's and then went out for brunch at L.A. Coffee where Michael and Kristin were kind enough to treat me to a delicious cup of soup and warm buttered bagel. It was awesome. We all did comment on how much we miss pancakes though....I can seem to find pancake mix at TESCO. After the had collected their backpacks from my apartment we walked to the Bus Eireann bus station were I left them to catch their bus, but I'm going to see them in 5 days in London for the U of I SAO Spring 2009 London Weekend, so I'm pretty happy. After that I went to a Knights of Columbanus initiation Mass at Bru Columbanus, which was quite different from any of the Knigths of Columbus ceremonials, although I really can't go into more detail then that, I can say that a major difference was that it was a public ceremonial, not private. Afterwards they had tea, sandwiches, scones, biscuits (and by that I mean cookies...I wonder what they call real biscuits?), crisps (and by that I mean Pringles), and cake. I wasn't expecting food, so I was quite happy and had a bit of a late afternoon snack before heading home to work on my Fourier Methods homework, and had a rather late night dinner.