Galway

Okay, this is going to be short and sweet, since I have a paper I really ought to be writing, in addition to packing and everything that needs to be done before I come home on Saturday.

Some new pictures are up here.

Galway was great. I've officially figured out both Dublin city buses and Irish national buses and can make my way across the country without much trouble by myself. Andrea (a friend from TU) met me at the bus. Friday was devoted to meandering through Galway's city centre a bit, walking up Salt Hill and then to a party with some of the exchange students at the National University of Ireland. They were mostly French, with a couple of Qubeckers thrown in, but they were nice enough to speak English.

Saturday was spent acquiring some of the best fish & chips in the British Isles at McDonaugh's -- at least, that's what their sign says. Andrea showed me Shop Street and we went to the local market. Sunday I caught a bus tour all around the Burren and the Cliffs of Moher. It's amazing scenery and I took a ton of pictures.

Monday was the bus ride back to Dublin and the beginning of the great paperwriting marathon to which I will now return.

See y'all soon!

Virginia Tech

I'm livid at the European reaction to the ongoing Virginia Tech crisis. I'm listening specifically to the Sky News coverage, which continually circles back around to phrases like "At least American schools are used to this sort of thing and know how to react."

That's a paraphrase, but the word choice and tone of voice keeps making that point very clear.

Easter Weekend

So, interesting fact: Everything closes in Dublin for Holy Week. Convenience stores, pubs, newsagents, everything.

This weekend was spent catching up on little things like homework because there really wasn't anything else to do.

However, next week, I'm meeting up with a friend who graduated from TU last year and now lives in Galway. She's going to show me around and we'll have a ton of fun, I'm sure.

Drogheda

My professor from my creative writing class invited the entire class to come visit him in his home town of Drogheda, a small town about an hour outside of Dublin. Three of us actually went, although one girl brought a friend along.

I got up at 6:30 to make it in time to catch the 8 a.m. bus, and Stephen was there waiting for us when we got off the bus. We made a quick run up to Newgrange because none of the other girls had seen it. I took more pictures of sheep, but I'll spare you.

We headed back to Drogheda after that and got a quick lunch. Stephen then took us on a guided tour. We walked up to the fort that over looks the town. We didn't actually go in, but I took some pictures of the town from there: here and here.

We did, however, hop a wall taller than me behind the fort. There was a handball court there. Here's a picture of Stephen attempting to teach a bunch of American girls the joys of handball. I was out pretty fast. In my defense, I'd fallen off the wall in the process of climbing over, and banged myself up a bit.

We also went to two of Drogheda's seven churches. We saw lots of graves and other things, as well as the head of St. Oliver Plunkett. I took a bad picture of it, which is here.

We saw a lot of other historical sites, every one of which was improved by Stephen's stories, including a historic pub, which is historic for, among other things, having a grocery store inside it at one point and a bartender who didn't allow jokes, loud noises, or anything really.

We ate dinner at a delicious Thai restaurant and then headed back to Dublin.

Weekend

This Weekend

I played tourist in Dublin this weekend. I went to the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin Castle, which has a huge collection of religious manuscripts. Unfortunately, one of their collections is currently unavailable to the public, so I was a little disappointed.

I also just wandered around Grafton Street (a pedestrian shopping area) and St. Stephen's Green (a gorgeous park) and took pictures.

Classes

During one of my classes, Tommy McKearney, a former member of the IRA, came in to talk to us. I kept getting struck by the fact that he's exactly the same age as Dad (they were both born in 1952), but Mr. McKearney looks at least 10 years older. He joined the IRA when he was 18, and spent from 1977 to 1993 in prison. He spent 53 days on a hunger strike in 1980.

My opinions on Northern Ireland change a little everyday. When I first got here, I didn't know very much and thought it was mostly just sectarian violence. I learned it was rather a matter of civil rights and my automatic reaction was that, well, gaining basic civil rights is an excellent cause and excuses a lot.

But both sides, loyalist and republican, have ties to groups I find abhorrent, and tactics that I find inexcusable.

It makes it even harder to decide what my opinion is when you find out that everyone involved is just human.

In the News

If you've been following the current news for Northern Ireland, today is the expiration date for Sinn Fein and the DUP to form a power sharing government. It's not happening. No violence, but still no resolution.

St. Patty's Day Weekend

Saturday

Well, we got up and went to the huge parade. This was my view of the parade, unfortunately. However, the tallest guy in our group narrated the whole parade for me, and I think I got a much more exciting parade than everyone else (mine had pirates!). There were lots of high school marching bands from the U.S.

I decided not to watch the GAA games, so I wandered through the festival. I got to see my first Hare Krishnas. There was also a lot of absolutely amazing music all other the place.

Sunday

I had planned to go to the fireworks, but they were canceled due to inclement weather: a lot of rain and a little snow. I think everyone wound up taking Sunday pretty easy.

St. Patty's Day Weekend

Saturday

Well, we got up and went to the huge parade. This was my view of the parade, unfortunately. However, the tallest guy in our group narrated the whole parade for me, and I think I got a much more exciting parade than everyone else (mine had pirates!). There were lots of high school marching bands from the U.S.

I decided not to watch the GAA games, so I wandered through the festival. I got to see my first Hare Krishnas. There was also a lot of absolutely amazing music all other the place.

Sunday

I had planned to go to the fireworks, but they were canceled due to inclement weather: a lot of rain and a little snow. I think everyone wound up taking Sunday pretty easy.

Lots of stuff

Alright, I know I've missed a lot of time here. Apologies and all that - I went traveling and then got slammed with mid-terms. I'm going to give you a brief run down of the past two weeks; pictures are here. Even better, I will do it in reverse. This way, when you get bored, you will have read the most recent bits.

Birthday

I've made it to the ripe old age of 22. Some of the IES kids are taking me out to dinner tonight - we're going to get some Indian food. It will be very yummy.

This Last Weekend

I've been sick since Thursday. I still don't quite have a voice, but I'm feeling much better. I did make it out to grab coffee and hang out with my new Irish friend Adam, and he very nicely didn't comment on my lack of voice.

This Last Week

I wrote something like 8,000 words worth of essay last week. You can probably tell why I didn't do much else.

Northern Ireland

We took the train from Dublin to Belfast on March 1. The whole group ate lunch in a pub across from the Europa Hotel, better known as the most blown up building in Belfast. Between 1970 and 1994, it was bombed more than 30 times. That's because international journalists almost exclusively stayed at the Europa, and therefore it was an excellent place to attract media attention.

We took the Black Cab tour of Belfast. These tours take people to both Catholic and Protestant neighborhoods, focusing on the murals and graffiti supporting each side. We even saw some of the peace walls.

That evening, we took a bus to Portrush, up on the northern coast in County Antrim. The area was amazingly gorgeous. IES arranged for very nice bed and breakfasts for all of us and treated us to dinner. We walked along the beach to get to the restaurant, where I got delicious fresh salmon.

On Friday, I got up early and got breakfast. The B&B's specialty was an Ulster Fry: Bacon, sausage, fried egg, potato cake, fried tomato and fried soda bread. Seriously. I went down and walked on the beach a little while everyone else got ready. We visited the Giant's Causeway. We walked around for quite a while; it was cold and windy but very fun. We were on our own for the afternoon and evening, and just explored Portrush.

On Saturday, we found out we were going to get to see Carrick-a-rede Rope Bridge, which had just opened the day before. No one had expected the weather to be good enough, so it was a great surprise. We hurried through visiting Dunluce Castle and spent about an hour on the small island the bridge connects to. The bridge was built by salmon fishermen and it's quite an experience just walking across the bridge.

We left from there, taking a bus back to Belfast and a train back to Dublin.

Wales and England

Bright and early Feb. 24, I caught a bus to the Dublin airport, so that I could wait for my (delayed) flight to Cardiff. About two hours late, at 11 a.m. I got into Cardiff International Airport, caught a bus to Cardiff City Centre and met up with Aleks, a friend from TU.

We explored Cardiff, spending the most time at Cardiff Castle (they have peacocks!). We also went to the National Museum of Wales, where there is some really amazing sculpture, including Rodin's "The Lovers." Unfortunately, a very high percentage of Cardiff's sites are plaques saying something along the lines of "Something very important used to be here. We bulldozed it and built a car park. Have a nice day."

Because of the Carling Cup (a very important soccer game) the only place we could get to stay was in Pen coed (pronounced pen-coth), about 16 miles outside of Cardiff. Also in Pen coed: a pub connected to the hotel and a McDonald's. Dinner was at the pub, breakfast at McDonald's. During dinner we got to watch Ireland beat England soundly and Wales lose horribly to Italy. Both were Six Nations rugby games, which I'm getting very into (this weekend I watched three more of the games).

In the morning, we got back into Cardiff proper and it was a madhouse! Most of London came down for the Carling Cup. Aleks and I decided to get the heck out of there, and left for Oxford (where he's studying) early. It was a nice relaxing train ride.

Aleks had classes and such, so on Monday I explored Oxford on my own. Oxford Castle was kind of a wash; it has a Krispy Kreme inside. But there are a ton of bookstores in Oxford, so I was still happy. Furthermore, there are loads of literary landmarks: the Eagle and Child (where J.R.R. Tolkein and C.S. Lewis used to drink together), Christ Church (once the home of Alice Liddell and Lewis Carroll and now where parts of Harry Potter are filmed), and, of course, the various locations associated with the Oxford English Dictionary. Also, at the Pitt Rivers Museum, I saw a 99 pence leaflet entitled "Shrunken Heads," as well as several shrunken heads.

Tuesday, I just relaxed and read. Wednesday was spent in travel, along with a little more exploration of Cardiff. Train, train, walking, bus, airplane, bus.

Out of touch

I'm sorry -- this week has been so busy with midterms. And tomorrow morning, I'm going to Cardiff, Wales for two days, then Oxford, England, then Belfast, Northern Ireland. I will have my cell, but emergencies only, please.

Look forward to a huge update when I get back.

Update

Apologies

I started writing this post on Wednesday, saved it to finish later and forgot I hadn't posted it. Sorry, y'all.

Art History

We took another trip to the Irish National Gallery; this time to look at 19th century painters. We also have to start thinking about our final projects, which can be anything related to art. Anything. I'm thinking of just cleaning up some of the pictures I've taken of various architecture around the city and turning those in, maybe with a little glitter on top.

Introduction to Northern Irish Troubles

Cancelled. So I went and found the National Library instead. It's on Kildare Street, and they don't let you check out books, but they do have a very nice microfilm room.

Reporting Northern Ireland

We watched the first TV interview done with Gerry Adams, the leader of Sinn Fein, for Irish TV. It was done in 1994. Gerry Adams has one of the most amazing media presences I've ever seen. He doesn't seem to be a very nice person, all things considered, but he does know how to talk to people.

Valentine's Day

Christopher found purple roses to send me. Absolutely amazing.

Creative Writing

A group of us are talking about going up to Drogheda, where the professor lives, and visiting him. He keeps inviting us.

Revolutionary Traditions

We're covering the Great Famine now. It's strange; if you talk to most people about the famine, they'll say things like "The British kept exporting all the food and made the famine worse." But the professor put up the actual import and export figures for Ireland during the famine years: the exports dropped to zero and imports went way up. So, there's a lot of myths about what happened that aren't necessarily true.

Celtic Myth and Legend

The professor for this class brought in two traditional Irish musicians who played us a bunch of jigs, hornpipes and reels. They also sang in Gaelic. Very cool stuff. Planxty and Altan are supposed to be the best modern examples of Irish music. (One of my favorite singers is Christy Moore, who used to be part of Planxty).

Glasnevin Cemetery and Kilmainham Gaol

On Friday, my Revolutionary Traditions class went on a field trip, first to Glasnevin and then to Kilmainham. Glasnevin houses the graves of many Irish nationalists, including Michael Collins and Eamon de Valera, who you may remember from the movie, Michael Collins. De Valera's grave is the most vandalized in the entire 120 acre cemetery, while people still bring flowers to Collins' grave every day.

Kilmainham held political prisoners from every Irish uprising between 1796, when it was built, and 1924, when it was closed. The leaders of the Easter 1916 rising were executed by firing squad in the courtyard. Pictures are here and here.

The Jameson Dublin International Film Festival

I spent most of my time Sunday handing out programs for the film festival. It wasn't the most exciting job in the world, but I got a free ticket to any of the other films. I have two more shifts: Monday and Saturday.

Weekend

A Quiet Weekend

This weekend, I stayed in Dublin. I had a bit of a cold, and some things to get done.

Dublin International Film Festival

On Saturday, we had our orientation, for the next week and a half's worth of volunteering. Volunteering, among other things, scores me at least three free movies and a new t-shirt. Pretty good deal, I think, but I have no idea how I'm going to decide on which movies. There's also a couple of free sessions on scriptwriting I'm going to try to sit in on.

Ireland vs. France

Sunday was the big rugby game, so Maggie, Leigh and I went down to O'Brien's (the pub down the street), to watch the game. I'm still not very clear on the rules, but Ireland was winning with about three minutes on the clock, when France managed to score. Very sad. But we made a new Irish friend: Edward. He works at one of the banks here and told us a lot about how American policy is affecting the rest of the world.

Creative Writing

Still a great class, although we're covering some fairly basic material. On the plus side, my professor says amazing things:

Writing passes the time when the pub is closed.

Revolutionary Traditions

In class, we watched The Wind that Shakes the Barley. Definitely not a happy movie, but very informative. It emphasizes the socialists' involvement in the Irish war for independence, perhaps too much. The only actor I recognized was Cillian Murphy, who was one of the bad guys in the latest Batman movie.

Celtic Myths and Legends

Yesterday, we went on a field trip to the Irish National Museum (yes, this is the third time I've been to this museum to look at the bog bodies) and Dublin Castle. The bog bodies have not changed, although it's always fun to hear a new group of people get grossed out by the very preserved dead bodies. I did notice one new thing in the display: bog butter. Basically, for the past several thousand years (and until relatively recently), the local method of preserving butter was to bury it a bog. It seems to have worked relatively well, although the really old bits of butter are basically stone now.

Dublin Castle

The majority of the pictures I took didn't turn out so well. I think it had something to do with the really weird lighting combinations. These two are okay though. The tour was really interesting although short. A couple of highlights:

1. For the third term in a row, the president of Ireland is a woman named Mary. The current one, Mary McAleese, leaves office in 2011. Basically, this means that anyone under 21 assumes that to be president of Ireland, you have to be female.
   
2. The national symbol of Ireland is the left-facing harp. The fact that it faces left is very important; the Guinness harp faces right.
3. About half the castle had to be rebuilt in 1684, after the Lord Lieutenant's son burned it down in the middle of a party while his parents were away.

Just a quick note:
Anyone considering sending me a care package, please include a pair of shoelaces. I can't seem to find a store that sells them, and mine are broken.

Weekend in Cork

Leigh's Birthday

One of my flatmates had her 21st birthday on February (the rest of them are not yet 21). We went out to dinner at Attica Venizia, an Italian restaurant near by. Just a head's up: a nice dinner out in Dublin costs about the same as I spend to eat in for a week. The rest of the group wanted to stay out after that, so I tagged along for a while. Everywhere we went was packed. I wimped out and went home to bed, so that I could be rested for a very busy Friday.

Newgrange

Friday morning, our class trooped on to a bus bound for Newgrange. It's only about an hour out. For a 5,000 year old Neo-lithic burial chamber, it sure is a pile of rocks. But it sits just above the Boyne river and is surrounded by miles of gorgeous farmland. Our tour guide told us that any Irish farmer would give up a limb for just a few acres of land in the Boyne River Valley.

Monsterboise

We stopped off at Monsterboise on the bus ride back to look at some Celtic crosses. The site is still a functioning graveyard; we saw a woman and a little girl bringing flowers to a grave while we were there.

Back in Dublin

The bus got back to Dublin, and I had to run to get all my errands done before leaving for Cork. One was to the IES center, where I managed to check my mail, and found my new glasses! And I managed to catch up with the Cork-bound group and run to the bus station. We made it on to the last bus of the day: the 6 p.m. express. It's a four hour ride from Dublin to Cork.

I slept for part of the ride. I also read the next book required for my creative writing class: The Book of Evidence by John Banville. Like The Butcher Boy, it centers on a murder and is written in stream of consciousness. It's a far more refined book however -- it has complete thoughts and punctuation (two of my best friends). I probably wouldn't suggest it as light reading, but it's readable.

Evening in Cork

We got into Cork at 10 p.m. and checked into our hostel. We then met up with another group at a pub: a couple of other IES people, the brother of one of the IES Dublin guys who happens to be studying in Cork this semester, and an American fiddler who is currently wandering Ireland and met a couple of IES people in the Aran Islands and now seeks us out.

We hung out for a while and then went out in search of food. We found Hillbilly's, a cheap fried chicken joint. They only do takeout, so we obtained our chicken and proceeded to have a picnic on the sidewalk.

Blarney Castle

Saturday morning, we caught the first bus to Blarney. We went up to the castle and did the requisite kissing of the stone, then wandered around the grounds for quite a while. We grabbed lunch at the local pub (Dad, I think we ate there when we visited, but I remembered the fish and chips being a lot better than they were on Saturday). We caught the 12:30 bus back to Cork.

Wandering Around Cork

We made up our own tour of Cork. First stop was St. Finn Barre's Cathedral. It's Church of Ireland, meaning that it is an Anglican cathedral. It's a gorgeous gothic style building. Next up was the Art Museum, featuring works by Harry Clarke, Robert Gibbings and Louis le Brocquy. Somewhere in there we found a used bookstore and I picked up some reading material for the ride back. Unfortunately, the Cork Butter Museum was closed.

Evening in Kinsale

We decided to head to Kinsale a little early so we could get dinner and check into our hostel. It's an amazing little village. We walked around looking for a restaurant and probably walked 90% of the town in under 30 minutes. We found a good Indian restaurant tucked into a small side street, right across from this pub. Renee, it's official -- you'll have to come visit. They have live music so we went there after dinner.

Charles Fort

Sunday morning, we hiked from Kinsale to Charles Fort, passing by some of the most amazing scenery. We took the guided tour, as well as wandering all over the fort on our own (it's huge!).

We heard the story of the White Lady: In the 1700s, the daughter of the fort's governor married one of the officers stationed there. During the festivities, they slipped off to the wall to be alone. She saw some flowers at the bottom of the wall and asked him to get them for her. He took her back to the party, and went back to the wall. The officer ordered the sentry on duty to go fetch the flowers and took the sentry's coat. The officer dressed as the sentry and made himself comfortable in the guard house. In the meanwhile, the governor, a real stickler for duty, went up on the walls to check all the sentries. When he wasn't challenged, the governor looked into the guard house and saw a sleeping sentry, whom the governor immediately shot. The "sentry" was dragged down to the parade ground, next to the governor's house. Everyone attending the wedding party came out to see what was going on and the bride realized her husband was the dead soldier. She ran back to the top of the walls in her wedding dress and jumped, falling 45 feet to the rocks below.

People, mostly men, continue to see her if they're in the fort in the evening, wandering still in her wedding dress.

Back to Kinsale, Cork & Dublin

We walked back to catch our bus back to Cork. Mom, you know your plan to find some house to live in with Aunt Jenny when you two get old? How about here? See the little yellow house on the left? Absolutely ideal. Everything's in walking distance, including lots of pubs and a few tourists. You could even be sure of me coming to visit.

The bus we planned to catch was the last one that would get us to Cork in time for our bus to Dublin. We had a really scary minute when that bus was completely full. Luckily the bus company brought up a second bus, and we made our connection.

So I'm back, all in one piece.

This weekend

Just a head's up -- I'll be without computer access from about Friday morning on. I'll have lots of photos to post when I get back on Monday though.

Friday - Newgrange
Saturday & Sunday - Cork

Another week of classes

Monday

Monday was completely uneventful, taken up by homework and errands. I did manage to finish The Butcher Boy which I cannot recommend with any honesty. I knew how it was going to end two chapters in, which is forgivable, and it was written completely in a stream of consciousness, which is not. On a good note, however, the local grocery store, Tesco, carries ramen.

Art History

For class yesterday, we walked around Trinity College and looked at its examples of Georgian architecture, which is typified by neoclassicism. Lots of columns, plinths and temple fronts. I took pictures of several examples as well as other parts of the campus.

Northern Irish Troubles

The reading load for this class is intense. It all tends to be extremely interesting and very biased one way or another. One of the most interesting things that keeps cropping up is that the various phases of the Troubles were never started by the IRA. The situations usually went something along the lines of:

1. A group of Catholics (non-IRA) organize to march for civil rights (such as fair housing allocations).
2. Protestant police would attempt to stop them from marching.
3. Protestants would attack a Catholic settlement.
   
4. The IRA would step in to protect the settlement.

Pretty scary stuff.

Reporting Northern Ireland

Even scarier is the fact in the Irish Republic, on the other side of the border, it was routine to lock up suspected members of the IRA. Because IRA members, Sinn Fein members, etc. did not recognize the courts, all it took was an Irish police officer swearing that there was reason to believe they were members and they'd be locked up automatically for three months. No other evidence was needed.

Upcoming

On Friday morning, I'm going out to see Newgrange, and am likely going to Cork for the weekend. More on all that later.

Technorati Profile

Saturday

The Botanical Gardens

I went to the Dublin Botanical Gardens Saturday morning with Sarah, my roommate, and Meredith, who lives downstairs. You can see the two of them here in front of a huge tree in the park. There was a huge open grounds, with streams, trees, and ducks. There were also many greenhouses, including a palm house and oodles of amazing flowers. I experimented with one of the photos I took in the succulent house, as well.

I probably took about a hundred photos all told, but I won't make you suffer through all of them.

Grafton Street

We took the bus there and back, and stopped off at a little bakery on Grafton Street for lunch. I had this delicious quiche thing, but their tarts looked amazing. Walking up and down Grafton Street is amazing, there are tons of flower sellers on the streets, as well as protestors (I saw a huge group for Falun Gong), musicians (my favorite was a female accordianist who had a very young girl with her passing the hat), living statues (one man had painted himself copper green and found a sheet of the same color. He posed as the Statue of Liberty) etc.

The Jameson International Film Festival

I'm trying to volunteer for the Jameson International Film Festival and had a meeting to attend in the afternoon. I think the meeting was mostly to weed out unreliable people because it turned out to only be about 20 minutes long. Apparently they get about 300 volunteers each year but can only use about 150.

I did meet several people there: Julia, a French girl studying English, and two Brazilians: Raphael and Luciana. Raphael is also studying English, but Luciana is in Dublin working on her Ph.D. in genetics.

The Temple Bar Trad Festival

Raphael, Luciana and I decided to go to the Temple Bar Trad Festival afterwards and see if there were any free venues. Most of the concerts were priced at 20 euros -- which is a little pricey in my opinion. All of the music at the festival is traditional Irish musics -- lots of ballads and such.

We found the Temple Bar Pub, which has live music every day, for free, assuming you at least buy a drink. It was packed, but the four gentlemen playing were amazing. They finished their set with one of my favorites: "The Wild Rover."

I've been a wild rover for many's the year
I've spent all me money on whiskey and beer
But now I'm returning with gold in great store
And I never will play the wild rover no more

And it's No, Nay, never,
No, nay never no more
Will I play the wild rover,
No never no more

I went in to an alehouse I used to frequent
And I told the landlady me money was spent
I asked her for credit, she answered me nay
Such a customer as you I can have any day

And it's No, Nay, never,
No, nay never no more
Will I play the wild rover,
No never no more

I took up from my pocket, ten sovereigns bright
And the landlady's eyes opened wide with delight
She says "I have whiskeys and wines of the best
And the words that you told me were only in jest"

And it's No, Nay, never,
No, nay never no more
Will I play the wild rover,
No never no more

I'll go home to my parents, confess what I've done
And I'll ask them to pardon their prodigal son
And, when they've caressed me as oft times before
I never will play the wild rover no more

And it's No, Nay, never,
No, nay never no more
Will I play the wild rover,
No never no more

Art History

We walked over to the Irish National Gallery for most of class. A good chunk of the gallery's funding still comes from the estate of George Bernard Shaw, so My Fair Lady is very popular with them.

We looked at an awful lot of portraits and landscapes, but nothing I got too excited about. The professor's comments about Georgian architecture are far more interesting so far. Next week, we're going to just wander around Dublin looking at architecture, so that should be fun, and perhaps even give me some good photographs.

An Introduction to Northern Irish Troubles

I'm having a hard time convincing myself not to do all the work for this class. It's extremely interesting, but since I'm auditing it, it's hard to justify writing lots of extra papers. It's especially interesting because the professor for this class sees things very differently than the professor for the next class.

Reporting Northern Ireland

We spent a lot of class talking about the day's news: the police ombudsman for Northern Ireland just released a huge report proving collusion between police and loyalists (the Protestants) during the Troubles. Effectively, the police ignored murders taking place, refused to investigate them, all sorts of things. Very scary stuff.

Creative Writing

In class yesterday, we got side tracked talking about County Cork, which often refers to itself as the Republic of Cork, and takes a very Boulder-ish approach to viewing their own autonomy. This, of course, all dates back to 1922, when Michael Collins signed a treaty with the British, effectively getting independence for 75% of Ireland. A bunch of rebels, based in Country Cork, felt this was selling out and started a civil war.

In other, more modern news, we each have to have a workshop. I volunteered to take the first workshop because I'm the only person with anything written at all (two pages of a very depressing short story). But I now have incentive to hurry up and finish it, because it has to be emailed out to the class on Monday.

Revolutionary Traditions

Despite this class being basically straight lectures, it's still amazing. The professor says things in the most amazing way.

So, they told the British parliament, "We have a very good argument. And, oh, an army."

Just thoroughly enjoyable.

This Weekend

I still haven't a clue what I'm doing for this weekend. I'd like to go somewhere, but at the same time there is a huge traditional music festival in Dublin. It caters to the tourists, but, I guess that's what I am.

The Irish National Museum

A few of us went to the Irish National Museum (the Archeology branch, at least) on Sunday. I tried to take pictures, but they wouldn't let me, so I have no pictures of the bog bodies. These bodies were found in various bogs in Ireland. They generally date to the Bronze Age, but are extremely well preserved, as in they still have hair and fingernails attached. Many of them seem to have been thrown into the bogs as sacrifices.

Additionally, the museum has a huge Neolithic collection, a lot of Christian artifacts, and a great set of displays on Viking and medieval life in Ireland. One of the interactive displays allows the user to see the roots of various Irish names. I looked up 'Burke', the maiden name of my great-grandmother. The surname 'Burke' comes from a family of Normans, the 'de Burgos', who settled in Ireland with the rest of the Anglo-Normans starting in 1169.

Homework

In the course of my reading for my art history class, I discovered the existence of the Book of Saint Chad. It is an illuminated manuscript, like the Book of Kells.

From Bruce Arnold's Irish Art: A Concise History, pg. 24:

The Book of Saint Chad, preserved now in Lichfield Cathedral, is an example of the 'wandering' manuscript. Its place of origin is unknown, and the earliest mention of its movements is contained in some notes in Welsh on the manuscript itself, recording that it was exchanged for a horse, and subsequently given to Saint Teliau and placed in the monastery of Llandaff, near the Bristol Channel.

The book goes on from there for another page. But I just keep giggling about the thought of a saint named Chad. So, I did a little investigation about the origins of the name, 'Chad', as well. It's a modern spelling of the Old English name, 'Ceadda', a 7th-century saint.

So, now you know.

I've also been reading The Butcher Boy, by Patrick McCabe. Honestly, I'm not enjoying it too much. It's stream-of-consciousness, which I have never really liked.

In Conclusion

I have class for the rest of the week, and I really ought to go grocery shopping as well. I think our RA, Patricia, is also planning to meet with us for a little while tonight. That's about it for tonight.

More Classes, Scavenger Hunt

Creative Introduction to Irish Fiction

The professor, Steve McMahon, for this class is also teaches at a college just outside of Dublin, and has won a number of Irish prizes for fiction, including the Jameson prize. He doesn't seem to care what we write, as long as we write. In class, he gave us a couple of dates and told us to show up with whatever we've written on these days.

So far, he's managed to say a number of things that I consider absolutely brilliant, like the idea that The Lord of the Rings is absolutely different from the normal quest book format, because they start out with the prize, and have to get rid of it. This almost tops my favorite discussion of those books, but, don't worry, Dad -- you'll always take first place with your comparison of the saga to a football game.

We're starting straight off by reading The Butcher Boy by Patrick McCabe.

Revolutionary Traditions

The professor of this class, Gillian O'Brien, is another one that I'm quickly starting to adore. She walked into class, and told us the entire history of Ireland:

"Everyone left during the famine. If you didn't leave, you died. And it's always Britain's fault."

There were many reminders throughout the class that the fall back answer for every question regarding Irish history is "It's always Britain's fault." We'll be going on two field trips for this class: to a jail and a cemetery. Just in case you had any doubts about the nature of Irish history.

Celtic Myth and Legends

My last professor, Michelle Piazza, is an American, although by way of half a dozen other countries. She also teaches yoga in the early afternoons. This woman is perpetually in motion. Very energetic.

The class is actually more interesting than I expected, because we're covering a little of the Neolithic culture, some Celtic mythology, a tiny bit of Roman thought that crept in, the conversion to Catholicism and the melding of the old ideas with Christianity.

Bonus points whenever talking about the Celtic culture in Ireland: anything before 600 B.C. in Ireland is absolutely not Celtic, which includes the triple spiral pattern that most people consider Celtic. Anything after 400 A.D., ditto.

The Great IES Scavenger Hunt

Friday afternoon, we did a bit more orientation, and then the IES staff split us up and sent us all over Dublin in search of random things. I was in Group G, which also included my flatmate, Leigh. So, here are a bunch of pictures.

Despite missing two of the clues altogether, G came in second. We won CDs. Mine is Mundy's "Live & Confusion", which I've never heard of before. It's not the greatest thing since sliced bread, but it's decent. IES also provided drinks and munchies at the end of the hunt. I've noticed that there's a certain culture of getting drinks during or after many activities here.

The EBS Mixer

There's a school here for European students spending a semester abroad called the European Business School, that apparently has a lot of ties to the IES Center here. They had a mixer and invited all of IES. It was at Major Tom's Down Under, which is a club located underneath a shopping mall. A bit loud for my taste, as well as a few others. Myself, Denis (who lives in the next building over), Hilary and Abby (who both live in the building past that), wandered back to Hilary and Abby's apartment and watched Channel 4 for a while. Channel 4 is the all Irish channel, so we had the subtitles on.

This Weekend

I didn't plan any trips for this weekend, just because I'm still getting adjusted and all that. I'm thinking of going to the Irish National Museum and looking at things nice and slow. I also need to go by the Irish National Library and obtain a card. Not that they'll let me check anything out. It's a research library, rather than a lending library. But still. Books.

I'm trying to get a couple of people together and go to Galway either next weekend or the weekend after. The consensus seems to be this weekend, but I may have some sort of interview so that I can volunteer at the Jameson International Film Festival in mid-February, which I think would be an amazing opportunity.

First Day of Classes

Getting Lost

On my way to my first class yesterday morning, I got very, very, very lost. As in the kind of lost you measure in kilometers. Luckily, a nice man in a bright pink sweater gave me directions, and I got to the IES center only 15 minutes late.

Irish Art: Neolithic to New Age

The professor for this class, Ruth Ferguson, has an amazing knowledge of the topic. We walked over to the Irish National Museum for a quick look at Neolithic, Bronze Age, Iron Age and early Christian pieces, and she just rattled off details and such from memory. She also walks extremely fast.

I found this about her on UCD's website:

Ruth Ferguson – Visual Art Curator, UCD Newman House
Ruth Ferguson holds a BA degree in Art History and Archaeology and an MA in Palladianism. She has worked in the National Gallery of Ireland and in the Royal Hospital Kilmainham where she was exhibition officer. Ruth also worked in IMMA until 1995 and curated the shows John Heartfield and Patrick Swift. She has been curator of Newman House and of the UCD art collection since 1995 and is currently the chairperson of the Irish Association of Art Historians.

Basically, every session of this class will involve field trips, if only across the street to the museum. I have to remember to bring my camera... and I need to go back to the museum with it.

Northern Irish Troubles

I'm only auditing this class, but it's extremely interesting, and I think I need the background for one of my other classes. The professor left it up to me on how much of the work I'm going to do... I'm planning to do the reading and some of the homework assignments, but I really don't feel the need to do the big essays or projects.

It'll be pretty intensive all the same. Yesterday, in 2.5 hours, I took 9 pages of notes.

The professor, Kevin Rafter is rather well-known (in Ireland) journalist. He even has a Wikipedia entry.

Reporting Northern Ireland

I think this will end up being one of my favorite classes. The professor, John Horgan, started his career as a journalist in the early 1960s, just when the Troubles were starting up, and he covered it all the way through. He also was in politics and academia at various points. He illustrates his points with amazing stories.

A lot of things he said really emphasized the small size of Ireland, and especially Northern Ireland. Belfast has three main papers, each of which has about 3 solid pages of obits and other family notices. The New York Times or the Washington Post would never do that -- these are small, community papers.

Monday Morning

Sunday's Bus Tour

One, two, three, four, five pictures from Sunday's bus tour.

Monday Morning

In preparation for classes tomorrow, I went in search of some basic school supplies. Becky, one of my roommates, gave me directions to Read's, which is across the street from Trinity. So, after breakfast, I set out.

Notes on Irish Traffic

It's scary. Seriously scary. The first rule is that cars always have the right away. The second rule is that all street markings, signs (including street names), etc. are suggestions at best. I saw several pedestrians casually saunter out into oncoming traffic and maneuver, somehow, around the cars to the opposite side of the street. Kids, don't try this at home.

No pedestrians wait for the lights, so I've developed a trick: I find some nice grandmotherly lady who moves at the same speed as I do and hopefully has no need to visit the optometrist. I then wait for her to cross the street, and do so at the same time. For those of you who have read Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, yes, this did evolve out of Zen navigation.

I made it there and back in one piece.

A few days

Orientation

Orientation was, well, orientation. The same everywhere you go, I think. We chose classes, heard about safety, etc. They had two of the garda (the police force) in to speak to us about safety concerns. Apparently the burglars here have taken to inserting fishing poles into mail slots and using them to snag keys off tables near doors (our flat has two sets of locked doors, so this isn't a worry for us).

Glendalough

On Thursday afternoon we went to see Glendalough. They divided the group in two and sent the first half to lunch and the second to take a walk around. I went in the second group. It was windy and cold, but not raining. I put up a bunch of pictures on flickr, but I have even more if anyone wants to see them. My group got back to the building and it started pouring rain just before the other group started left for the tour.

Despite Glendalough's historical importance, there has been no excavations or digs or anything. That's because it's still an operating graveyard. I saw one headstone from 2003. Until the graveyard is full and officially closed, no real research can be done. The local families consider those burial rights very valuable so only one person from each generation is buried there from each family, and the docents said that it could take another 300 years for the graveyard to fill.

Classes

1. Reporting Northern Ireland
2. Irish Art: Neolithic to New Age
3. Creative Intro to Irish Fiction
4. Revolutionary Traditions
5. Celtic Myth and Legend

There's a sixth class that I really want to audit: An Introduction to the Northern Irish Troubles. I'll probably sit in on it, assuming the professor lets me.

Tour of Dublin

Yesterday, our RAs took us on an open-topped bus tour of Dublin. I have lots of photos, but I haven't taken them off my camera yet. Soon, I swear.

Day 2

Dinner

Mmmm. Baked potato.

Last Night

We did a mini-orientation with our RA, Patricia -- basic stuff, like respecting the apartments and all that, and then the RAs took a big bunch of us down to the Barge, a pub along the canal. I wound up sitting with Maggie, one of my flatmates, and three guys who live next door: Jared, Henry and Dennis.

The RAs had warned all of us not to wander off by ourselves, so when Jared wanted to come back and fix himself some dinner, I decided to come with him. It was raining really hard, and we got a bit lost. By the time we made it back to our flats, we were soaked. (And it's still raining and windy. I should investigate getting an umbrella.)

Today

I didn't sleep too well, so I got up at 7 a.m. -- the first one up. We're supposed to leave to walk to the
IES center at 8:30, but so far no one else is up and it's 8:08. Perhaps I should go wake them up.

The Journey

I woke up Tuesday morning at 5 a.m. and Dad drove me to Denver International Airport. I made it out of DIA in one piece. I got into Chicago, with the prospect of a six hour wait in front of me. I ate one last McDonald's hamburger and some fries and read, while my wait turned into seven hours and then almost eight. We finally got out of Chicago late, with three babies crying and an old man snoring. I slept, waking occasionally for horrible airplane food and the tail end of Walk the Line.

I watched the countryside as we descended. The land is divided up into haphazard tiny sections. Think of Kansas seen from the sky. If Kansas' divisions are sheets of paper, then Ireland's are stamps.

The Apartment

There are five of us girls in this apartment: me, Sarah, Maggie, Leigh and Becky. Sarah and I are roommates. So are Maggie and Leigh.

This is our room. This is our tiny bathroom. This is the view from my room. This is the view from the kitchen. And this is one of our many big red buttons.

Exploring

Maggie, Leigh and I set off in search of a grocery store. We apparently went quite a ways in the opposite direction, but we did find the American Embassy while we were lost (if we could find it again is another question altogether). Two schoolgirls directed us back towards the Tesco near our apartment.

I bought:

1. 2 Oranges
2. 4 Large Rolls
3. 3 Packets of Cream of Chicken Soup
4. Margarine (I think)
5. 2 Potatoes

I expect this to last me til Friday, when I plan to do a little more shopping.