What a CORKer!

It has occurred to me that I will never, during my three months abroad here, look “cool”. I’m carrying 90% work clothes that I care nothing about (save for one Dude and Catastrophe hoodie), my everyday walking shoes are clunky hiking-boot-style things, I haven’t brought a razor, my coat is three sizes too big, and – icing on the cake – instead of a wallet, I’m carrying money and cards in a cream-colored L.L. Bean money pouch that loops around my waist and zips up for security. No, I think I will always look like a farmer or a dork. This is something I must come to terms with.

So, Cork City.

Night 1: I sat around for much of the afternoon recuperating from the travel. I went out into town and found a Tesco Value store (roughly equivalent to Wal-Mart, but seemingly less reviled by the public). There I purchased half a loaf of bread, blackcurrant jam, and “American-style” crunchy peanut butter. These would be my primary sustenance for the next two days. That evening, I got to know my roommates – four girls from Toronto who had been all over Europe over the last several months and were all around my sister’s age (weird). We joined Bret from California for a night on the town, culminating in one girl having forgotten all forms of ID and getting rejected from a club. When she taxied back to the hostel to get her passport, Bret and I called it a night and walked back. Good people.

Day 2: Got some more advice from Paddy. Walked to the English Market in town (somewhat like an indoors Eastern Market, selling all kinds of marvelous meats and fruits) and got a sausage sandwich for lunch. Wandered town aimlessly, eventually happening upon St. Fin Barre’s cathedral – beautiful on the outside, but I didn’t go into it on account of the €1.50 fee. Went back to the hostel and met two Aussies (strangers to each other ‘til about an hour before I met them) and a Brit (dating one of the Aussies) who collectively invited me to comedy at a local bar. One bought me a Murphy’s, which wad darn good considering my usual taste for beer (i.e., none). Comedy turned out to be open mic, but still not half bad. The highlight was when one fellow took a sip from his neat quadruple-whiskey while performing and said “Aah, ‘tis like mother’s milk. If…your mother was a raging alcoholic.” One odd thing – the final comic made fun of her Catholic upbringing like it was no big thing, but right after her bit, the emcee guy wrapped things up by thanking “our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.” Nobody laughed, so I presume it was serious. Strange juxtaposition.

Now I’m on the first farm! It’s called Kilkern, and it’s on the southern coast near Clonakilty. Things are pretty good so far. I’ve got my own little mobile home to live in, with most of the amenities. It gets quite cold at night and I need to light my own heating-fire, but that’s okay. Every day I start work around 8:30 or 9 in the morning, break for a large, hot lunch (or as they call it, “dinner”) around 1, then keep working until 5 or 6. Then I wash up (by this point the hot water in my caravan has been heated up properly) and fix myself some dinner with staples provided for me as well as vegetables from the garden that I have been given free rein to plunder. Chard, leek, lettuce, spinach, onion…apparently there’s an herb garden too, but I haven’t explored it yet. Saturday is a half day (plus an opportunity to join the family in town) and Sunday is my day off.

So far, the vast majority of my work has been weeding. Using a pitchfork, I turn the soil along the stone wall on one side of the property, then get on my knees and yank up all the roots I can see. Blackberries and stinging nettles are the biggest offenders here. I must say, while I would be happy to never see another nettle again, I am very impressed by their tenacity. The root systems for these things are incredibly far-reaching, tough (that is, hard to rip apart) and they even manage to criss-cross one another enough that I can’t just yank one big vine-like root all the way to its end because it ends up being held down by one of its comrades. I’ve also helped erect a chimney and aerated a vegetable bed (mixing in manure all the while).