The Nose Knows

Oh yeah—the international student orientation meeting had one odd point. The Scotch director of international students woman was explaining how to deal with culture shock, what to expect when adjusting to Irish culture, things like that, when her focus turned to the different foods one would eat here rather than elsewhere. She then expanded on this, quite casually mentioning that as one's diet was going to change, one's body smell would change with it. "So, you know, don't be surprised if your body smells differently. It's going to happen."

I can positively say I noticed no change in my body smell when I moved to Ireland.

It was funny as well to hear the orientation people explain basic Irish parlance like "craic" or "yer man". They spent about five minutes on how "You okay?" doesn't actually mean "Are you alright?". In my view, that kind of crash course in parochial slang never, ever works. You need to go out and talk to people before you get it. Language is definitely something you need to speak to understand. Hell, I still don't understand plenty of the things said to me around here. I will admit to using some slang, even some of the more dodgy stuff that just sounds stupid when an American says it (ex. "That's grand"), but a lot of it is involuntary—I don't wake up and say, "I'm going to slip in a 'lad' or two today." I'm not going to cling desperately to my completely generalized East Coast American accent or vamp up the Philadelphia nasal twang just because some Irish get huffy when an outsider demonstrates familiarity with their culture.

Ah, I don't know. I do know I don't smell any differently. You can take a whiff when you see me next if you don't believe me.