I got up rather late, missing any chance for an early church service before class. So instead I packed my stuff, then drank coffee while hanging out with some of the others in the dorm lounge.

The morning class started with a review of some of the material from yesterday, then we did a little with verbal nouns. There is more to them than the first few chapters of Progress in Irish had led me to believe. Then we watched a couple short films in Irish, in one case without subtitles. These were interesting and fun.

The last official activity was lunch. I was torn between the urge to head home to Mia and the feeling that I should help with packing the group stuff away and cleaning up. The dilemma was neatly resolved when I heard that N, one of our instructors, needed a ride home to Minneapolis. I volunteered, although feeling a little nervous about having one of our VIP’s in my beat-up ’92 Geo Prizm.

Nothing to worry about. She was a delightful travel companion. We talked about Irish, Gaeltacht Minnesota, Minnesota towns, dialects, and linguistics. She has been teaching at the U. of Minnesota for about 30 years. She knew my mother’s dissertation advisor, and had a great story about meeting my father at a conference in Milwaukee.