When my parents arrived on Friday December 1st, I was so excited! It was literally like Christmas morning. Right at 1pm I rushed out of my class, walked as fast as I could to my apartment in hopes they were there. They weren’t. I thought to myself hmmm where could they be. Their flight arrived at 6am to Dublin, at most three hours and breakfast, they should be in Cork by 11am. I waited till 2:15pm and finally got a call from the front desk of my complex saying that my parents arrived. So obviously the first question was, what happened? Apparently they got lost from bad directions they received. They somehow ended up in Wexford, and whenever they said that to the natives, all they would do is laugh and ask how? Finally they were in Cork though and were ready to tour and enjoy their visit to the Emerald Isle.
On our first night the parents were tired but we embarked on a journey to Parochial Hall to watch me coach my U14 cup game. I didn’t know they would be in for such a wild game. We finally prevailed and won in double overtime. By the end of our game everyone in the whole Hall was watching our game.
The next day we took a nice day trip to Kinsale where we had an amazing seafood dinner at a restaurant called Fishy Fishy. We then strolled through the quaint town and as we left, purchased some hot drinks and pastries for dessert. Being that they were very tired from the trip and the visit to Kinsale that night we hung out like we would at home and played gin rummy and listened to music as we laughed the night away.
The people of Ireland are so gracious to visitors and through this trip it was very evident for my parents to see that. Neptune basketball club made them feel right at home by having my family out for dinner with all the coaches, and chairmen of the club. Then we went to our team’s pub and sat there for hours just talking and having some craic!
Another example of the unbelievable welcoming of newcomers in this country is when my parents and I went over to the O’Sullivan’s house. Conor and Darragh play on Neptune with me and I have been over there a few times now and they make you feel right at home. So when my parents and I went over for dinner I knew they would enjoy the night. We had supper and then Conor, Darragh and I had to leave for practice so my parents and theirs stayed talking for the rest of the night and hit it off like old friends who hadn’t seen each other for awhile.
For the rest of the week my parents and I ventured through the city of Cork, trying all the restaurants and food Cork had to offer as well as sight seeing. One place that we went to which was very very cool was the Shandon Street Church. You were able to climb the steps which were built into the 7 foot thick walls and climb up past the clocks, through the belfry to the balcony which was 120 feet above the ground. While climbing there was a stop halfway where you could ring the bells of the church and play the songs laid out for you. The ropes were given numbers and you would pull the correlating numbers from the song to the ropes. Another fun fact about the church is that four clocks on each side of the outside of the church never have the same time. They are all off slightly from each other.
Finally to the end the week, we drove up to Belfast for my game. Many people here obviously think Belfast is very far because it is on the whole other side of the country but that trip believe it or not was a short one for my parents. They are the definition of “road warriors” as they drove 17 hours to watch me play numerous times in college.
The week went by so fast and already miss them but having them here to visit was such a wonderful delight and can’t wait for them to come back in March. I’m glad that they could see that I am helping a community through my love and passion for basketball, and I have to thank Sport Changes Life for giving me this opportunity to allow that to happen.
