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MOUSTACHE FROG ON YOU!!!
Written on Aug 8 2010

No, that is not an insult.  While people sing Sean-Nós songs in the Conamara area, listeners often shout things at the singers to give them the motivation to continue.  These words of encouragement include:

Dia leat – God be with you
Up sleamhcán – Up sladdy (sea vegetable)
Up scrathachaí – Up sods of turf
Croch suas é – Lift it up
Up an baile s’againne – Up out village

And my personal favorite:
Muisteais frog ort! – Moustache frog on you!

I asked a couple locals why people shout about frogs and moustaches, and apparently there isn’t really a reason.  It’s just what they do.  Haha  I think the Irish may just have a thing for animals with moustaches, because when I was on the Aran Islands, I found this moustashed horse:



Comments    Life, Travel     TAGS: aran islands, conamara, ireland, irish language, moustaches, summer 2010
An update on the last two and a half weeks of my life:
Written on Aug 3 2010

I arrived in Galway City on… July 15th, I believe.  For those of you who don’t know, I’m in Conamara right now doing an Irish Language immersion course.

I happened to be in the same hostel room as a good chunk of kids who would be in my course.  We meandered, bonded, all around become best friends overnight.

I did the beginner level of this course last year, so this year I requested to stay with the same bean a’ tí (host mom) I had last year.  When I walked up to the front door she flung it open and said, “Welcome home!”  It was so nice after a month of wandering without any familiar faces.

I’ve been studying pretty hard (I even brought my notebook and notecards into the pub and studied there), but I feel like things sunk in more easily last year.

I made a return to several places I journeyed to with this program last year:  Ros Muc, Kylemore Abbey, Clifden, and Inis Meáin (where I climbed on and around Dún Chonchúir for the second year in a row…YES!).

I’ll probably write more about my program and what we’re doing.

In the meantime… ENJOY SOME PICTURES!!!



Comments    Life, Travel     TAGS: conamara, galway, ireland, irish language