December 4th, 2015 | Uncategorized
Before I came to Ireland, I thought I knew what tea was. I would drink it occasionally, especially when my mom used to make me a cup of hot tea before I went to high school in the mornings. So I figured I had a pretty good handle on what it was. The Irish have made me realize how wrong I was.
A number of my Irish friends have critiqued my methods of making tea. I thought it was a pretty straightforward process; I didn’t realize how many mistakes one could make with something so simple as tea. My roommate Maidy was aghast when she saw me adding in sugar and milk before taking out the teabag. My teammate Helena informed me further that I actually have to take the tea bag out, add the sugar, stir it until it is fully dissolved, and only then add the milk. Aimee from Sport Changes Life even instructed me to stir her tea three times to the left and once to the right (I think she was kidding, but then again with tea you never know).
Not only have I been making tea wrong my entire life, but I’ve also been drinking it incorrectly. Whereas I used to drink tea only in the morning, the Irish drink it throughout the day. There’s morning tea, mid-morning tea, afternoon tea, after dinner tea, and before bed tea. Basically, you can and should drink tea at any and all times. You also might have a snack with your tea. This could be a cookie (or as the Irish call it, a “biscuit”) or a bar of chocolate, to name a couple of examples. This snack is often dipped into the tea, which I don’t really like to do because it makes the snack soggy and gets crumbs into the tea, but I’ll let the Irish do their thing. Despite this, I can feel myself assimilating to the Irish ways.
I now drink probably between three and six cups of tea a day. I not only crave it in the morning, but at all hours of the day. Often, I’ll eat a digestive (a cookie that is sort of like a graham cracker but is half covered in chocolate) alongside my tea. I even think my tea-making skills are improving.
I never expected tea to become such an important part of my day. After coming to Ireland, I’m sure that I’ll never look at tea the same way again.
Victory Scholar: Katie Fox
Present University: Waterford IT
US League: NEC
Club/Community Partner: Waterford Wildcats
Alma Mater: St. Francis College
Sponsored by: Teamwear Ireland
