Welcome to the July edition of The Irish Times Abroad newsletter. Galwegian Christopher Burke longs for a Dunnes Stores in Colombia like the one in Knocknacarra but the closer connection to food producers in Colombia is a reason why he stays. “What Colombia lacks in supermarket sophistication, it makes up for in other ways.” He describes the oranges, that are often more green than orange “far from uniform in shape and without pretension”. The plaza de mercado in each town is where people go for fresh food markets, he writes. “Random piles of mandarin oranges are par for the course, as are pyramids of full and halved papayas.” He recommends buying the papas sucias – dirty potatoes – and the shelled peas for a cheaper and more authentic experience.
As the country dreams about summer holidays, a flight attendant writes about the top five most annoying things passengers do in the middle of a flight. People who talk to the crew in the galley areas, flight attendant Paula Gahan said. “I hate to be the one to burst anyone’s delusional bubble, but this one needs to be, for the good of humanity. I can’t allow one more fellow crew member to be put through this. The crew don’t love you. They hate you and are too nice to tell you to go away.” Some other traits to feature on the list are people who joke that they fly more often than crew members do and passengers clear their table after the meal, bringing everything to the galley before the crew are ready.
This month, Laura Kennedy writes about her last 11 months in Australia and how that has changed her outlook on life. “You do lie to yourself a good deal prior to emigration, imagining versions of yourself who might do things you’d never, ever do at home.” However, Laura says “Australia has changed me” since moving to the other side of the world. The mild temperatures and sunshine make outdoor activities less of a chore and more of a pleasure, she says. She also says “you learn to see yourself as a product of different environments and that you can be different depending on where you find yourself”.
“If I had #livedmybestlife as designed by my box-fresh 18-year-old self, I would now be reading the news on telly with two full-sleeve tattoos of clocks, owls, lions and other horrendous 2010 millennial-core cliches,” writes Brianna Parkins. She talks about how she is grateful every wish she made her early 20s did not come to fruition and instead her Irish family shaped her to “make sure I had a culture that was more than just the thing you drank in kombucha”.
Brianna Parkins: ‘The Irish have a natural instinct for nosiness’
Washing up in Iberia: ‘We realised we weren’t ever going to sail the world, so we moved ashore and sold the boat’
Irishman in Canada for 50 years: ‘I was about to return home after three years but then things changed’
Laura Kennedy: Australians respond differently to nature compared to Irish people
It was the tournament all of Europe was watching and for anyone living in England the build-up to the Euros final reached fever pitch in those last few weeks. “Imagine being an Ewok trapped on the Death Star, sobbing quietly into your green fur while a hammer Darth Vader prepares to explode another planet,” said Peter Flanagan. He describes the difference in seeing friend turn from their every day molds to football fanatics, “it’s like seeing their sex face”.
Éamon Ó Caoineachán talks about the impact of Irish music while abroad and how that can translate into bringing Irish emigrants closer together. Celebrations such as the Gulf Cost Cruinniú festival gather “incredible Irish musicians from the US, Ireland and around the world for ‘classes, culture, sessions and craic’”. The festival is held in Houston, Texas, and the inspiration for it started when “a group of musician friends in the Houston area wanted to increase the opportunities for Irish musicians throughout Texas, our neighbouring states, and beyond to study with top-level performers and teachers of Irish music”, said fiddler Katie Geringer.
Isabel Auld swapped life in Ireland for the sunshine of the Caribbean in 2022 “but somehow the move doesn’t feel that drastic”. She moved to work with the United Nations, a job that sees her cover areas such as climate change and empowering women. Despite moving so far from home “the Irish connection with Barbados dates back centuries, primarily through the migration of indentured servants during the colonial era under Oliver Cromwell”.
Thanks for reading.
