Europeans are no mugs...

Now that I work in Ireland, I am entitled to take 'tea breaks'. While every one of the neuroscientists working here will tell you that tea, as it contains caffeine, is a sort of addicitive substance, I get the feeling that the rush to the staff room at 10 and 3 every day is actually more of an excuse to stand around and chat than it is a caffeine fix. Not that I am complaining.

Since I am new to the whole tea culture, I don't have my own mug, and am therefore obligated to borrow one from the Greenland-sized store of them kept in one of the cabinets. (Honestly, I had no idea it was possible to put so many mugs into such a small cabinet.) Today, I noticed that my randomly-selected mug had words on it, and when I read them closely, I decided that I needed to share them with you.

This mug purports to list the things that are great about Europe, which, according to my tea cup, are (in this order):

1. Protecting consumer rights

2. The Euro

3. Work and study abroad

4. European health insurance

5. Irish Beef

6. Cleaner environment

7. Lower call charges

8. James Joyce

Now, you might be able to tell that this is a teacup made in Ireland, as they have given due acknowledgment to Joyce and beef, but the rest of the list is a bit confusing. I am also worried that they could only come up with a list of 8 good things about Europe (none of which is the EU, you'll notice), since there is definitely space for two more things on the mug...