I spent this past weekend with the Reillys, an Irish family who lives in the village Corofin. We (myself and another girl from my program, Trissanna) had been told we would be staying in Tuam (pronounced toom–doesn’t rhyme with Guam), but this was not the case!  My first shock was sitting behind the driver on the right-hand side of the car!  It was dark when we arrived, but the headlights illuminated a very narrow, unpaved road ahead of us as we headed back to their home.  So my second surprise was that we were far from town; rather, we were out in the country (which is quite impressive for only being an hour from Galway). 

The next surprise–their home is large and very nice!  They told us during orientation to expect a small home with small rooms, since those are easier to heat.  I was also beginning to expect a farm house that would be sparse and maybe a little dusty.  Not the case at all.  They built their home in Corofin twenty years ago and since then had added on an addition, which was a high ceiling-ed kitchen and living room.  It was nicely decorated with wood accents, model sailboats, family photos, and other odds and ends.  They also had two wood stoves that heated the addition and the water for the upstairs shower. 

On Saturday, we ate beans, fried eggs, toast, brown bread, and cereal for breakfast.  Then we tagged along with the mom and the youngest son, David who is eleven years old, into Tuam.  While David was getting his hair cut, Trissanna and I explored the town and found two beautiful cathedrals and Teample Jarlath (The place of Jarlath), which was the first Christian settlement in Tuam and established the town as a population center. 

For dinner that night, the father made us our first authentic Irish stew.  It was delicious!  It had beef, potatoes, carrots, and parsnips.  He also taught us how to make it (basically throw whatever ingredients you want into a pot of water, add stock cubes for flavor, and simmer for as long as you want), so I’m going to try it sometime.  Oh, it was so good.

Sunday morning, we had the same breakfast, minus the cereal and plus sausage and bacon (side note: bacon in Ireland is more like Canadian bacon, even when on burgers).  Also delicious.  Trissanna and I walked around the village, petted a horse, baa’ed at sheep, and skirted around many houses with barking dogs.  When we returned, we ate steak, broccoli, carrots and parsnips mashed together, and potatoes–garlic potatoes, fried potatoes, and mashed potatoes.  It was so much food and it was all so so good.  It was devastating to get back on the bus and think of the boring pasta waiting for me at home.  But now I am inspired to try to cook some new meals!

Mostly, we watched television with the family (they had two other children, a seventeen year old and a twenty-one year old but we didn’t see them much at all).  After watching television there, I wonder how people in other countries view Americans–we watched E! shows like Keeping up with the Kardashians and I know they know about Jersey Shore.  But we also talked about what their life is like and we told them about ours, which provides a much deeper cultural understanding than TV can offer.  One of the things I found most interesting was how the Irish economic recession has affected them–heating and oil is incredibly expensive, so they’ve switched mostly to wood for fuel in their home; crime went up in the year or two following the recession, but laws regarding self-protection and weapons are only now starting to change.

As a college student, who lives in a college town (both at home and here in Galway), I rarely interact with people who aren’t either my age or associated with the university.  But this experience put me in an entirely different setting and allowed me to live with people I never would have even met otherwise.  It was really great and I would recommend anyone who has the chance to do a homestay!

Location: Tuam, Ireland