American wants to know Irish culture

insight driver

Hi and greetings to anyone who chooses to chime in on this. I am an American, born and raised, of European ancestry. It seems as I've gotten older I've become deeply interested in really learning what it is like to live somewhere other than here. As my topic is really difficult to answer it would take a bit of back and forth to figure out exactly what things we could learn from each other. Frankly I do not stereotype.

What prompts me to make such a post as this on an Irish board? Currently I have been reading a history of England. This reminded me I am of Irish heritage. I read a post where someone commented about the shortest day of the year coming up. Questioning my wife it became obvious that the person actually meant the vernal equinox was coming up, not the winter solstice. Googling that I got to a site on the history of St. Patrick. Being in the mood to learn more about Ireland as it is today, from a standpoint of culture and life quality I googled Irish message boards and ended up here.

I tried to be concise. I was either successful or failed completely.

Bookee

That's a tough one... ! Welcome; I'm sure someone will give you a good, concise response....

K!LL!@N

Funny I should come across this thread.
I've just moved to Sacramento, from Ireland, in May of this year.

I think the quality of life here is much better than it is in Ireland.
The only things I miss about Ireland are family, friends and a decent pint of Guinness.

The cost of living here is a lot cheaper than it is in Ireland.

I'm renting a nice two bedroom apartment with a swimming pool and small gym less than a minute away from my front door.
It costs about $850 a month.
You'd be hard pressed to find a nice two bedroom apartment in Ireland for the same amount, nevermind one with a swimming pool and gym.

Housing here is also substantially cheaper than Ireland.
I've looked at a few houses here and have seen a few really nice 4-5 bedroom houses, with large back gardens and swimming pools, two garages etc. in the $300-400k range.
You wouldn't find anything comparable to that in Ireland in that price range.

Food and eating out here is cheaper with so much more choice and i'm not just talking fast food. I go out to dinner quite a bit and for $10-20 per person you can have a really nice meal.

Basically anything i can think of is cheaper here.

Then we have the weather.
You might remember that spell of rain we had here in May, that was when i arrived and i don't think i've seen a drop of rain since then.
Summers here are pretty much perfect.
A little hot at times, but i've adjusted amazingly well.
I love summers here.
From May to September you can plan an outdoor activity and be 99.9999999% sure that you're going to have a perfect day.
Weather in Ireland changes day to day, some would say hour to hour and even minute to minute some times.

Entertainment wise there is so much to do here. I love films so it's great to be able to see a film when it comes out and not have to wait months to see it.
And, you can actually get butter on your popcorn here!
It can be relatively expensive to go to the cinema here, i think the average is about $9 per person but it's still cheaper than Ireland, i think it had broken 10 euro per person the last time i went to the cinema in Dublin.
If you don't want to pay $9 here you can go to the Drive-In and see two films for $6 per person( $4 on Tuesday nights ), or go to the rerun cinema at the Sunrise Mall for $3 per person if you want to see reruns of films that came out a few months ago.

You've got really nice bike trails along the rivers here.
You've got swimming, kayaking, fishing and boating on the rivers.
There are some really nice parks.
You're just over an hour's drive to Lake Tahoe and some of the most spectacular scenery i've ever seen.
There's great hiking and camping spots all around Tahoe.
And you've got skiing and snowboarding in the winter.
Lots of Irish people would kill to be able to drive for just over an hour and go snowboarding/skiing.

You're also just over an hour away from San Francisco which is a really nice city.

The people here are fine, no better or worse than people in Ireland or anywhere else i've been.
I will tend to avoid conversations involving politics and religion but i avoid those two particular topics wherever i am.

I think a lot of Americans of Irish ancestry have this really romantic notion of Ireland and i'm afraid it's just not like that any more.
The fields of green are turning into rows of identikit houses and apartment blocks and even the leprechauns have replaced the gold in their pots with Visa cards.
There are definitely things to see and experience, and i've no doubt you'd have a good time if you went.
Just don't expect it to be all that different.

I hope that gives you a better perspective on the differences, or lack there of, between Ireland and here.

Killian

insight driver

Hi Killian,

I appreciate your response. I would give some feedback now that may help others to see what I mean. I gathered from your excellent post that you see things through the filter of living conveniences and culture. I'm curious, though, how easily did you adjust to language idioms and slang that differ from Ireland? Were there attitudes that people have generally different in each place?

As far as weather is concerned, I grew up in New Jersey that has rain regularly throughout the year, and high humidity, plus snow in the winter, beautiful fall colors in the trees and foilage and the welcome greening in the spring after a grey winter.

I wonder, too , how you find Americans to be different and in what ways.

Of Sacramento I know the amentities, being a cyclist and riding the American River Bicycle trail which would impress any cyclist from anywhere in the world. The price differences were interesting since Sacramento is known as an expensive area to live in compared to other places in the US.

To give an idea of things that I think of: People in Sacramento are generally friendly and laid-back. Back east I had a sense that most people are rather curt with strangers and not as friendly. life seems more rushed back east. I see Sacramento as a more pleasant city to live in than many other cities back east. I am not happy with the crime level here, though.

insight driver

Bookee wrote:

That's a tough one... ! Welcome; I'm sure someone will give you a good, concise response....

Thanks Bookee, nice to have your hello.

K!LL!@N

Glad you got something out of it.

I have no problem understanding people here.
Irish people watch so much American tv and film that we know most of the slang/idioms.
Combine that with listening to American music and i think you've covered most of the slang/idioms.

I can't really think of any major differences with Americans.
Found people to be generally pretty friendly and helpful.
For example we got a bunch of free tickets to a River Cats baseball game, we had a bunch of friends coming but still had some left over.
So we planned to give them away to people waiting in line to buy tickets.
There were other people there giving away free tickets too.
We gave ours to three guys who insisted on buying us drinks because we wouldn't take any money for the tickets.

I think crime rates are generally higher here but Ireland has it's fair share of crime.
Not so much gun crime, but it is on the rise.
I haven't felt unsafe anywhere i've been in Sacramento, perhaps it's just easier to spot trouble in Ireland.

Killian

The Sweeper

It might be worth pointing out that K!LL!@n's response is driven by how an Irish person has got to know American culture. For Americans on Ireland, PM Beat...