In The Marketplace
January 10, 2010
This trip to Ireland has been full of surprises in many ways. I’m getting to see Ireland in a way that very few people have seen it before. They’re saying it’s getting close to -15 degrees Celsius, a temperature that hasn’t existed in Ireland for at least 40 years.
Incidentally, even though it’s been about 5 months since I was in Japan, I still think in Celsius. I’ve told a few people this story already, but it’s a good one that tells you just how obsolete farenheit is worldwide. I was talking to one of my Japanese professors and said “In America, we don’t use Celsius.” Her immediate reaction was “Oh, you use Kelvin?”
Anyway, Ireland, which is usually known for rain and green, is now snowy and white. Hopefully this is just an abnormal winter, because, as I said before, if this is the start of a larger trend then it could have disastrous consequences. One of the best examples of how this weather is affecting Ireland was what I saw at the farmer’s market yesterday.
I love going to markets when I’m in a foreign country, partly because I love eating, but also because I think food is a really good window into a culture. In the case of the Galway farmer’s market, it was a really good window into what’s happening in Ireland right now. Our professor took us there and told us that the farmer’s market is always busy and full of people. But when we went there, there were only a few stands, and hardly any people. Only a few truly dedicated farmers had brought their produce with them to the market. I asked our professor, and he said it was probably just because the farmers couldn’t drive out to the market on the icy roads, and it probably wasn’t because the weather was affecting the crops. But it shows how just this one bad winter is immediately affecting Ireland, and how reliant a farming economy is on consistent weather.
While the weather is obviously making this trip not go as planned, it’s still a great experience. I came here because I wanted to see what Ireland is like, and that’s not at all what’s happening. I’m not seeing what Ireland is like, because it’s never like this. But I am getting to see Ireland like no one has ever seen it before, and that’s a good experience in its own way.
