Fun with Phonetics and a lot of Wine

Irish is the language of unpronouncable vowels and mysterious consonants. For example, the letters mh (as in Niamh) are pronounced as a v sound making the name niamh pronounced as "Neeve." This makes for some potentially sticky situations when trying to pronounce people's names and neighborhoods. Tom keeps making fun of me for my inability to get right the name of the neighborhood Ranalagh. First things first, those gh's at the ends of words are always silent, unless of course there's a u in there (like augh) in which case there's a k sound to the word (as in McLaughlin.) So, I got the gh thing down right away but I keep saying Ron-a-lah which seems intuitively right to my Americanized brain, but no, it's Ran-a-luh which I somehow can't make stick. I have a job interview next week in Ranalagh Village though so I'm practising...haha. Ran-a-luh, Ran-a-luh, Ran-u-luh...Ha, ha.... Here are some other tricky Irish words which defy the roman language pronunciations we're all used to: Failte, Caiomhe, Aoife, Baile Atha Cliath....(Fall-Cha, Kee-va, Eef-uh, and last but not least, Bally Atta Clia which is the Irish word for Dublin for any of you who might be interested.) Craziness. Everything is written in both English and Irish around here and I find myself attempting Irish words that I pronounce so very wrongly, it's amazing. Well, I've got garbage can, bus lane and Belfast down which seems like a good start (Bruscar, lana, and Biel Feirste.) I'm on my way to fluency.

Anyway, aside from pondering the mysteries of Irish grammar, I have been exploring new parts of the city. Went to this brand new, fancy-pants, shopping center in Dundrum yesterday (pronounced the way it sounds...phew) and wandered around looking at stuff I shouldn't buy with money I don't have. It's the largest mall in Europe apparently and it was kind of fun to check out all the european chain stores and get my fix of H&M (That's Haich and Em to you.) I did buy a sweater for job interview purposes. I have to go to this networking event next week which I am dreading beyond belief. I have visions of myself, sweating through my H&M sweater, obsessively hitting up the cheese table and hoping no one notices that I don't know a soul...oh the joys of self-promotion are many.

Went to a wine tasting last night which, aside from being free which is a beautiful thing in Rip-off Dublin, was quite fabulous and the bar was fast and free with the bottles. Went with Tom and we ran into some of his coworkers who were actually pretty cool. Got to try 6 different wines (three whites and three reds) and learn a thing or two about grapes and tasting from a sweet and slightly nerdy presenter guy who was just so Sideways. The bar was called Odeon and is in a renovated building that used to be the main train station in south city centre. It's huge and absolutely beautiful and I'm told they have great brunch and cult movies on Sundays. (Strange combination but I'm all for it.) Said wine tasting also included a small, but delicious cheese plate. Strangely enough, Monterey Jack is an unusual (and imported) cheese around here but there it was, some vaguely, highfalutin' form of Monterey jack on my cheese plate. Who knew? I think I'm going to have to find all the free wine tastings in the city. Gotta love the freebies in a place where they charge 7 bucks for two Cokes. Yup. Tom and I went for lunch yesterday and got 2 fountain sodas from the bar for 5 euros to go along with our smallish and mediocrish paninis for 11 euros. I am doing some serious restaurant research. If I'm gonna pay these prices, my food damn well better be amazing. You'll be happy to know that I've started a restaurant (and other activities) book so by the time you all visit, I will have the hookups. Am going to a Noodle Bar in Ran-a-luh tonight that's supposed to be really good so we'll see. You know it's really all about the food for me. Yum.

Love to you all. Be well.