Well, we had a little snow this weekend. Good for the holiday spirit, as we enviously read about the early snow in the Pacific Northwest. Last winter, Ireland had some snow as well, but apparently it was otherwise quite a few years ago when it last snowed. It has been cold, by local standards. Typical day temperatures around 6 degrees Celsius and nights around freezing, with some black ice. The days have been clear, for a week. A good respite from the wild, windy storms that hammer this first piece of land that they encounter coming off the Atlantic. We have had 2 storms with winds between 50 and 85 mph, to date. The girls bravely go down the driveway, and wait for the bus. Occasionally I will drive them to the school, as I do for Stephen. The days have been brilliantly clear and crisp.
Yesterday, Summer celebrated her thirteenth birthday, with four Irish girls from her school. Justine asked them if they would go to college, and they all said yes. Typically, a large percent of children do go on to college, in part because it is pretty cheap. They take exams for the last few weeks of high school, which are graded by a point system. The highest scores on the test get into the most competitive fields, for instance medicine. This is called the "Leaving Cert." for leaving certificate. Patients often ask me for a "cert." when they are sick and can't go to work of school. The girls have big tests this week and next, in their twelve school subjects.
We celebrated Thanksgiving, even managing to find some turkey. Justine cooked up a big feast. I worked, and the kids had school. Somebody anonymously dropped off a box of cookies on our front doorstep. We have been given fresh lobsters, crabs, salmon and homemade jam, from this kind community.
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