The honeymoon is OVER

I admit it, I was completely blinded by my lust for everything N. Irish when I first arrived in Belfast. I mean the grass really is greener here! Then I realized that the reason for that is the ungodly amount of precipitation. Not only is the grass greener, but so are the roofs. I could probably count on two hands the amount of days in my 5 months here that there hasn't been any form of rain, fog, snow, sleet, or forms of precipitation that I haven't even encountered before. Hollywood must have had Belfast in mind when it created the iconic movie rain. I have gotten so soaked walking in the rain for 10 minutes that I looked like I just got out of the shower. Actually a typical rain here probably has more pressure than my shower.

I know I am living here during one of the coldest winters in a long time, but even when I first arrived on a mild October day, it wasn't the cold outside that bothered me, it was the temperature of my house. These people keep heat on a timer, portioning and rationing human comfort in an attempt to save money. Americans don't realize how spoiled we are when it comes to temperature control. When we are cold we just turn the heat up a little nudge. Or if you are in my family, you turn it up with thick gloves so that you leave no finger prints and then blame it on Adam. "Yeah dad, I put some wood on the fire, I don't know why anyone would turn the heat up?!?! But, I did see Adam lingering in the hall earlier". Something like that. Here, I don't even know how the heater works. Even when the sisters are out of town, I have no control of the heat. Which is probably a good thing for their heating bill.

Other than the weather, I guess I am just weary of the little differences. I am constantly wrong footed in even the most simple of interactions. A few weeks ago I was sitting around with the youth team before club. There had been a meeting earlier in the day and as usual the extra food was left for the youth team to either eat or throw away. I wasn't feeling well that day so when Andrea offered me some food I declined, besides I said "I have some pizza in my purse". My coworkers all paused and looked as if waiting for the punchline of a hilarious joke. Unfortunately that joke is me. "How did you manage that?" One of them asked. Blinking and looking from one expectant face to the next I finally realized my mistake, women's wallets here are called purses and a purse is a bag. Sometimes I think that it would be easier if I actually did speak a different language than the N. Irish. Then at least I would have a good excuse when I said stupid things like "Darn, now my pants are all wet!" in front of children. My coworkers wouldn't look at me like I was crass, but instead pity me for being the ignorant nonnative norn irish speaker that I am.

I am alive, but barely

Another old email...give me a break, its Friday. Also for those who have read the original emails, I have now changed all the names of the children and young people to protect them since this now goes beyond family and friends. I have replaced names according to catholic or protestant names, which is the easiest way to know what side someone is from. If the name isn't obvious, then you go by school, and then street.

Thought I should probably write and let you all know that I am alive. I can't believe I have only been here a week and a half. Seriously, the things that I have seen and done in just a week are incredible. I feel completely lost and tired most of the time, but I love it. Not every minute--there is one child that I think was sent to test my patience (if I could spell her name I would tell you, its one of the really Celtic names that I have never heard of). There is too much to put in one email so I will just give you some highlights. First, I am learning a new language. Don't ever say pants to a young person unless you want to be laughed at, a craic is a good time, a gag is a funny time, and a braic is a sweet bread you eat at tea that is also made with tea. The word wee can never be used too much (as in "I have a wee kitty and I have made her 5 wee hats") and yous is singular (even if yous are well educated). If you want to know someone's name you ask "What do you call her?"...and don't respond with uh...? because N. Irish people are always surprised that other people don't ask for a name in the same way (well sometimes I call him dad and sometimes I call him a jerk, why do you ask?). Never ever ever use Irish as an adjective in mixed company unless you are clearly talking about the Republic of Ireland, seriously just don't go there. 95% of the young people think the US is "class" even though only 15% have been there, the other 5% think its crap and have never been there. Driving for an hour to get somewhere is far, driving for 6 hours gets you to the other end of the country, so when you ask a kid how long they think it would take me to drive to LA from Cincinnati the typical answer ranges from 30min to a couple of hours, they literally don't believe me when I tell them it would take days.
On to more serious stuff. I work with little kids three days a week from 2-5:30 and that is the most stressful part of my week. Its a day care/ afterschools and most of the kids are catholic though we do have a protestant brother and sister and are apparently going to get another. They are all local kids, so they are the ones growing up in the worst of it and sometimes it is absolutely heart wrenching working with them. There is this one little boy, Sean, who I am really coming to love even though he can be absolutely terrible. I think he has always been labeled and dismissed as a "problem child" but he really just needs positive attention for positive behavior. He throws the occasional temper tantrum (and by occasional I mean once an hour on his best days) but he bounces back quickly and is a bright interesting child. The most emotional experience I have had so far involving sectarianism was with Sean. On a nice day last week (ie a day that only threatened rain but did not actually produce any substantial precipitation) we took the kids to the nearest park, which happens to be on the protestant side. Before we left we made all the catholic kids put on their coats to cover their school uniforms. Some of the kids didn't want to and all didn't understand why they had to but the two protestant kids didn't. None of the workers wanted to explain, but eventually we convinced them all to put their jackets on. About 15 minutes after we got to the park another worker Annya (that's how its pronounced but the spelling is crazy Celtic) started to yell at Sean because he was running around without his coat on. At the same moment I see a young (presumably) protestant boy walking towards us so I ran over and helped Sean into his jacket. He of course fought me and started crying. He told me he was hot and asked why he had to wear his jacket when the other two didn't. Ah, I can't describe the pain I felt looking into his eyes. How do you explain 800 years of quarrels to a 7 year old? How do you tell a child that should be innocent that there are people in the world who would run us out of the park just for wearing the wrong colors? It was terrible.
On a brighter note I think I was on the news. I participated in a human peace wall on Saturday. A few hundred people from both sides got together and we created a line across the wall connecting the Falls to the Shankill. We held hands and blocked traffic for 15 minutes. It was really beautiful. And then they let off balloons in the colors of the two sides: orange green and white for the catholic, and red white and blue for the protestants (the Rep. of Ireland's flag and the Union Jack).
There is so much more to tell but I am falling asleep at the keyboard. I worked 12 hours today. So I apologize for any grammatical or spelling errors or just plain wonky writing.