St. Brigid = Pancakes?

Yesterday was my long day: 1pm-10pm with a two hour break at 6pm. At 8pm I went out with Stefan with the pre-employment guys who are all 16-18yrs old. We went out about 10km to the woods. I forget the name of the woods but it was grand. The road we took to get there was the first country road I've been on in Ireland. The road that I initially thought was bad was, what Stefan said, one of the better roads in Ireland. The next road we took was about 3x as bad as the back road to Preble Pond. Plenty of potholes and the road was just narrow enough for one car...should another car come toward us someone would have to back out until there was an opening large enough to pull over. We finally got to the "entrance" where we pulled over and got out. There were probably 6 boys and three leaders including myself. Each leader got a flashlight and we staggered between the guys. The path was muddy but I was prepared with my "wellies" or boots. The guys were tripping over roots and rocks so I kept my distance from whoever was in front of me. We got to some more narrow paths and figured out that they were dirt bike paths. We walked over a bridge made out of farm crates. I almost lost it walking over the crates. Stefan had said they were rotting. Luckily I made it over without falling, two of the guys helped me with the 3' jump I had to make at the end. We continued through over jumps and ramps until we made a turn down a beaten path. The path lead us to an old dilapidated rock wall. The wall was of an estate. The wall lead to an arch that lead to a balcony looking over a lake. I wish it was daylight so I could have seen more of the woods from there but it was pretty nonetheless. The vines hanging off the arch and the moss on the rock wall were the highlight of the walk. We made our way up a steep hill to a resting place where Stefan had previously tied rope around trees for us to find our way through without using flashlights. The task was fun and we ended up falling down the hill as a group and into sharp sticks. It sounds worse than it was. We backtracked a bit from the walk before and had to climb the steep hill again to the ressting place. We headed out after that back to the van and then home. It was another late night but next week we're planning a day trip to the mountains. I'm real excited for that day. Also next week is Pancake Tuesday. What?!? Yes, it is a day devoted to pancakes - morning, noon, and night. Someone was trying to tell me that it was to celebrate St. Brigid but I find it hard to believe there is a pancake saint. Ireland has got it goin' on. Today was fine. I went over to Eva's in the morning to do some laundry. (Laundry in my building is about $13 to wash and dry so Eva suggested I launder my clothes at her place fo free.) Then we walked around town hanging up flyers for her - she is offering German lessons to anyone interested. Work went well today; I was only there for an hour and a half for homework club. After work I went to Tesco to buy cooking supplies. I made oatmeal/m&m/almond/pecan cookies to give to Eva as payment for my laundry and lunch. I don't have any measuring cups here since they weigh all their measurements (and my flatmates don't have a measuring scale) so I had to eye everything I put into the batter. People here don't eat batter. The 5 people I told to taste the batter looked at me like I'm nuts. Am I the only one who enjoys a good spoonful of delectable cookie batter?! Probably not. I had extra cookies so I left them on the kitchen table in my flat. Ciaron (pronounced Kier-on) came into my room asking about the cookies. He devoured one cookie and asked how much sugar was in it...after hearing my answer he told me he was going to put his diabetes on hold for tonight while he ate the cookies. I wonder how Ciaran will handle Pancake Tuesday...