(no subject)
TUESDAY, MAY 26
Believe it or not, after a day of working extra hard, I finished all of the surveys I've received thus far. There is a mighty large stack, all of which I have entered the hell out of in my brand new, shiny, clean, database. Although I really enjoy typing in all of the stuff on the database, when I get more surveys from other schools in, I'd really like to just do the surveys I'm really interested in. I've been trying to think of how I can format the research I've done into a meaningful fashion, but it's harder than I've anticipated. I could just write out what I've found out so far, but I feel like it's not enough. I mean I can't exactly go "One time this motherfucker saw a god damned banshee and fucking died. Isn't that fucked up?" I mean the things I'm researching are often very concrete, but the things I'm interested in aren't. At all. It's a lot of "this happened, I swear," kinds of stuff. The next time I see Carole, I really need to work this through. It was bugging me all day.
Talking to Carolyn and the other ladies at work is getting easier. My crushing social anxiety is no longer crushing, and now just results in me listening at ease instead of listening with that deer in the headlights look. Carolyn was talking to me about my syllabus (which she has a copy of, for some reason), and asked about one of the articles on the Dublin Monaghan bombings. I told her a bit about what it concerned, but mostly told her that I would lend it to her after we went over it in class.
After chatting a bit about her recent visit to Derry (where we were planning on going the following day), I asked her about how much fuss used to be required to head across the border as opposing to now. All the ladies agreed that there was zero fuss nowadays, but Carolyn mentioned that when she used to go across the border, the guards always used to ask her to bring them cigarettes and whatnot. Clare kind of looked at her funny, and Carolyn asked, "What, they never asked you to do that?" Clare started laughing really hard and said that she didn't aid terrorists.
That killed all of us for some reason, but now that I write about it, I kind of see how messed up that is. Both sides see the others as terrorists, which probably doesn't end in respect of any kind. I never heard the British Army referred to as terrorists until then. It's very telling in what people laugh at, and just to hear them casually joking about how the British are all terrorists makes me realize how deeply rooted the problem still is.
After work, Mary showed me how to make soda bread. It's stupidly easy and quick, and boy is it tasty. After watching her make a beautiful loaf, she showed me how to make soda farles. Pretty much the same thing only made on a griddle instead of in the oven.
Check out them soda farles. It was so lovely with butter and jam. Yes, they butter it AND put jam on it. Excellent.
Mary Savage is a brilliant cook, no matter what she says. Super chef extraordinaire.