I'm Here!

I’m sorry to say that this is the first blog entry I’ve made since I’ve been here (in Ireland, cause I’m Letterkenny Donegal right now) which has been since last Thursday- almost a week. Well, first off I just think it’s really lovely here. Since I’ve been here a week now I feel so comfortable living with my aunt. I feel like I could stay forever (but I’m really missing my family too). Anyway, everyday seems to hold some sort of surprise or unexpected visitor and that’s what’s keeping it exiting. Well, one thing for sure that was a surprise was last friday, right when we arrived at my aunts house, my nana got sick and had to be rushed to the hospital and it turns out she ended up staying until today! The poor thing, she’s been bored stiff at that hospital just sitting there doing nothing, we kept visiting her to keep her busy cause we missed her company back at the house but see, the thing is is that the hospitals just take longer here than what I’m used to back in America. Anyway, she’s fine now.

Right so, Saturday was a lot better because we new nana was ok, but my uilleann pipe reed decided that it wanted attention and closed up, so I couldn’t play it at all. I knew of this guy called Martin Crossin who’s up in Falcaraigh, and I asked my aunt if she knew him and she didn’t, but my cousin Aiden said his in laws lived right next to a pipe-maker (and when he called them, they said that it was Martin) so Aiden took me on up to his parent’s house and when we got there, you wouldn’t believe it. That’s where I saw the very first whole rainbow I ever saw… (pitiful huh?) that really made me happy for the rest of the day, just knowing that I had just seen the first full rainbow I ever saw…hehe anyway. We went on up (aiden and his father-in-law Vincent, who’s also a piper) and we went up to their neighbor-pipe-makers house. When we got there, there was no one home, but right as we were about to leave, this girl comes up and she’s like “oh, you’re looking for Eamonn?” and Vincent said yes, so me and aiden were just like, woah! Wait… Eamonn? Soo, yeah, this pipe maker wasn’t Martin Crossin at all. It was Eamonn Corrin (I think that’s his last name but I’m not sure…), it’s funny how it turned out though cause this wasn’t his normal home, he actually lived in Dublin or something and that’s where his workshop was so he couldn’t really do much to the reed without the equipment. But after talking to him for a while and playing on his pipes I realized that I’d heard of him before. He actually had a set of his own (that he’d made) with him, and he let me play the chanter. He even said that if I couldn’t fix my reed before I left for scoil eigse that I could barrow it. I mean I think it was the best thing I ever palyed, and it was made from box-wood too, not the normal African blackwood like most chanters. The neat thing was that he said that Martin Crossin (the piper I’d hear of) had taken some of his piping classes. So that right there says that this guys no bologna. Really great.

Yeah well I’ll write more tomarrow cause I’m really tired and I need to get to bed (I got up a 5:00 this morning and went to bed at 2:00 the night before cause we went to a session… I’ll explain later)

Beannacht,

~Mair