IRELAND STUFF

Good evening,

To complete my presentation about Ireland, I want to include this video. You can see some boys, called "knackers", naughty boys that you can never know what they're up to, steering a shopping trolley, with a drunkard inside. A Garda (Irish police) car bumps into them and ask them to bring back the trolley - in Spain it would have been different indeed - while the boys don't seem to be even worried about the situation. The drunkard says, "I'm not going home!", which made me burst into laughter.

Unfortunately and as I said in my speech, the alcohol consumption is a real problem in Ireland. People usually have a "black celebration" in the evening, that one when you don't have anything to celebrate. Drink with moderation, it's your responsibility.

NARRATION

Et voilà...

THE FIRST IMPRESSION SELDOM MATTERS

Experience has always been considered a kind of mastery in people’s life. People may not be somehow appropriate in situations they have not faced before. Thus when the sensible become aware of a behavioural mistake, they must try not to do it again.

During my Erasmus spell, in 2003, I paid my friend Néstor a short visit in Dublin. I arrived in the city on a spring day at 5pm and Néstor, who by that time was working, had given me his address. After some time seeking the house, there I was knocking at his door and a short, dark-complexioned, East Asian man opened it. Immediately did I think, “Poor Néstor! He must be broke; he can only afford to live with a tramp.” After introducing ourselves, he struck up a conversation. His name was Shiful and was Bangladeshi. I will always remember that he was gazing at a Michael Jackson music video in which the departed singer was characterized as a statue as he exclaimed, “I want to go to this place!” I realized that he was both naïve and enthusiastic. He showed me their house, half in ruins. They shared it with some everlasting moss. I entered their filthy, two-square-metre bathroom, the only one where you could do number two, wash your hands in the washbasin and your feet in the shower at the same time! He worked for fifteen hours a day as a chef. Not only was he hard-working, but he was also vital. He stated that he would develop his profession for a period of time, in that his ideal job was to rest free from worry.

Life teaches lessons every day. “Optimistic people make us grow old happy,” would preach my grandma. I judged Shiful by his appearance. Then I got to know a person in a million. 

HALLOWEEN

Thank God Halloween ended. For the first time I have celebrated this Celt-Yank tradition. Being a child I would disguise myself under a costume, but only in Carnival. Now I remember putting on a tracksuit pretending to be Benito Floro, Real Madrid's coach in the 1990s, with his glasses and his grey hair and his annoying personality.

Halloween has never been, however, my cup of tea. Hence, the fact that I had not thought of becoming a monster creature. Life is hard, sometimes. On becoming an English teacher there is some sacrifice prior to All Saint's Day. I had always refused to be Frankenstein, but this year it all has changed. The secretary of my school went to Lidl - she doesn't know how I adore her - and purchased all the Halloween stuff the school could afford (more than the Junta de Andalucía's budget would expect, for sure). Therefore, during the weekly seminar meeting the question of Halloween was proposed. We would have to hang the ghastly creatures, pumpkins, witches silhouettes and so forth and so on. My sister's school lent us a lovely head of Fester Adams. I did disguise myself. In spite of the fact that I was reluctant. I was Scary Skeleton for 15 minutes, during which I frightened a pupil of mine, as I changed my clothes in the classroom so as not to be seen, taking advantage of the break.

I may not do it again but I have to admit that it was fun. I gave my students some sweets, but the party finished within 20 minutes. They had to sit an exam. That was horror indeed.

All in all, Halloween is a globalisation festivity imported from the USA, the country in which everything is considered perfect. That is not bad, but our sense for this day is losing its importance. In addition, amounts of money are wasted, so the balance moves to the down side.