Back home, whenever there was a bad hurricane or a picture of a crocodile, my friends and I used to joke that we never had to experience these things because we lived in a place where it was winter basically six months of the year. The reward for dealing with this climate was no natural disasters or freak animals. All it took was footage of a huge crocodile or snake for us to say, “this is why I live where the air hurts my face.”
This last week I had to deal with my first hurricane. Ophelia hit Ireland on Monday, basically shutting it down for a day. Luckily, in Galway the damage wasn’t too bad and I could see the rough seas from my apartment. A few hours south, near where I had a game two days before, the roof of a gym was blown off.
Although hurricanes and storms like this are not normal in Ireland, Ophelia definitely gave me a different perspective on the trouble they can cause. For the time being, I’m looking forward to the mild Irish winter and lack of snow and air that hurts my face.
