Salad and Soda in Ireland

One thing I learned in my three weeks in Ireland was that communication wasn't always as easy as I thought it would be, even when visiting an English speaking country. I knew of the commonly used differences in language like "lift" instead of "elevator" and "boot" instead of "trunk" but there were so many others that I'd never heard of until I was there. I learned quickly to ask for directions to a "petrol" station instead of a "gas" station if I needed to fuel the rental car. Asking for a gas station just led to directions to getting propane. If you ordered food and wanted it "to go" you asked for "take away." Those differences were easy. There were two things though that I never did quite master in the three weeks, one I still haven't figured out how to do.

First, salad. In the states, salad is often in references to a group of ingredients tossed together. Fruit salad is several types of fruit cut up and tossed together in a bowl. Tuna, potato, and egg salad have the main ingredient by name plus mayo and other staples that often end up in the bowl, mixed up and served. In Ireland, salad was lettuce and tomato unless otherwise noted. If the sandwich you ordered was advertised as having salad it didn't mean a salad on the side, it meant there was lettuce and tomato on the sandwich. An egg salad sandwich wasn't what I thought it would be. Instead it was a fried egg (the yolk cooked through) on bread topped with lettuce, tomato, and mayo. Not bad but a little weird when your expecting the states version of egg salad. By the end of my time in Ireland, I'd pretty much sorted out that bit of information and had mastered many of the other differences in language. (although I will admit I never did figure out what the street sign "traffic calming" meant.)

There was one thing though I never did figure out. That was ordering a soda. I understand that throughout the states alone there are different ways to order that fizzy drink you want. In some parts you might order a pop, in some a soda (like we do here in Arizona), still others you order a coke regardless of what type of soda you want. In Ireland, I tried ordering a pop and got a confused look. I tried ordering a soda, they thought I meant a soda water. I tried ordering a fizzy drink, no luck. I tried all the different ways that I could think of and each time I resorted to describing drink brands, Dr. Pepper, Coke, Pepsi, Sprite, etc and the server would then understand what I was requesting. Never once did they correct me, and I really wish they had because I still don't know to order a soda. One day when I go back I hope that I'll be able to figure out exactly how to master this particular challenge. One can only drink so much water and tea before wanting a little variety in the sweet icy coldness of a soft drink.