June 30-Under the Weather

Today was a pretty typical day of class. We had our second Irish language class, and we did a lot more today, going through a bunch of new phrases and some grammatical stuff. I'm starting to get the hang of some of the spellings, but it's still pretty tough. Pronunciation is also not easy; the Irish use that sort of guttural "h" sound that English speakers have trouble with, and there's a unique way that the Irish roll their r's. I'm still working on it. We also got information about our exam schedules. We have midterms next Tuesday, which is absolutely insane. I can't believe I'm almost halfway done with time in Ireland.
As per typical Irish weather, it started pouring midafternoon for a good hour or so. I had gone back to my homestay to nap because I wasn't feeling well, but I felt a little better after watching "Friends" on the telly and getting a hearty meal of Irish stew at Riordan's in town, where they label their tables with famous Irish writers (I got the Oscar Wilde table). Hopefully a good night's sleep will complete the healing process!

June 29-The Burren

Today was definitely a full day of classes, starting off with an archaeology lecture about megalithic tombs and then progressing to an optional workshop in Sean Nos dancing, which is a style of dance popular in Ireland. I've done very basic lessons in Irish step dance, which is what most people think of when they think of Irish dancing (popularized by Riverdance, but don't tell an Irish dancer that. There are apparently very important differences.) Sean Nos dancing is more like tap dancing, with the feet kept close to the floor and the hips kept level, as opposed to step dancing which involves more bouncing. I'm sure there is a more technical explanation of each, but that's the best I can do with limited experience in each. The instructor is apparently one of the best dancers in Ireland, and he was definitely pretty amazing in the few demos he showed us before teaching us the steps. We started out with simple steps to learn the basic style and get a handle on the rhythm. I was okay at the steps, but atrocious at the rhythm. Oh well. It was interesting to see but not really my cup of tea. I went straight from dancing to my history lesson, and then from there my archaeology class boarded a bus to go to the Burren, our first of two field trips. The Burren, located in County Clare about an hour or so from Galway, is basically a large stretch of rocky landscape that contains tons of archaeology. Dr. Jones showed a wedge tomb from the late neolithic age, a prehistoric wall, and a neolithic court tomb, as well as pointing out how the tombs were aligned according to the landscape and astronomy at certain times of the year. He was going to show us a portal tomb, but then the Nazis showed up and we had to escape in a zeppelin (just kidding!). But the field trip was pretty awesome, not to mention the drive there took us past some beautiful scenery.

June 28- "Dia dhuit!"

Dia dhuit! Is mise Nicole. Cen chaoi 'bhfuil tu? Go deas bualadh leath.
Just some phrases I learned in my Irish Language class today. Of course, learning to read Irish and learning to speak Irish are entirely different things for a native English speaker, as the letters don't correspond to sounds the same way they do in English. To make matters more complicated, Irish is subjected to regional dialects, so the way you would ask someone how they were in Kerry is different from the way you would ask someone in Donegal or Connemara or Inishmore. It's a very complex language to learn, but I really liked the first class. So look out for more Irish phrases in the future!
Today started off with waking up to the sound of rain pounding on the roof. My new rain jacket definitely came in handy (thanks, Dad!) Anyway, I had an archaeology lecture this morning where we talked about rocks. And stones. And rocks and stones that people made into tools. I guess that's why they called it the Stone Age. Dr. Jones told us all about how people came to inhabit Ireland by crossing the land bridge between Britain and Ireland as the glaciers retreated. On the one hand, the melting glaciers allowed Ireland to sustain life, but as the ice melted, the land bridge disappeared, which means that Ireland was isolated and therefore its vegetation and wildlife was less diverse than in Britain or on the continent. We discussed a lot of mesolithic and neolithic settlements and how archaeologists determine the diets and activities of people who lived there. It's unbelievable how much they can prove with so little.
In the afternoon, we had an interdisciplinary seminar on emigration. Ireland's history and national identity is significantly influenced by emigration, as thousand upon thousands of people left the island in search of better living conditions or work. To illustrate the scope of the diaspora, it is estimated that 80 million people worldwide claim some Irish ancestry (about 40 million are Americans)--this is incredible when considering that Ireland's population is only about 6 million people. We had professors talk about emigration in Ireland from the perspectives of literature, sociology, and music/dance. The seminar presented interesting information, though it seemed that a lot more could have been said by each professor. But it definitely presented some interesting points to think about.
The best part of the seminar was a reading by Murph from his memoir entitled "Finding Home," in which he read a portion about his experience traveling to Ireland with his father. His father had been gone for 46 years, and going back was an experience where he was both a local and a tourist. He'd told us a lot of what he read in class, but it was definitely cool to hear it as a personal connection alongside the academic discussion. Plus he's a great storyteller. They honored him after the lecture for all the work he's done in bringing students to Galway and helping in the development of the summer program--it's certainly going to be hard to say goodbye at the end of the summer.

June 27- Coole Park

Because both English classes offered by the NUIG summer program correspond to classes I have already taken at Villanova, I am unable to take any literature classes while I'm here. But that doesn't mean I can't stowaway on their field trips! I joined the Literature and Film students on a trip to Coole Park, which was the estate of Irish literary icon Lady Augusta Gregory. Lady Gregory was a key figure in starting the Abbey Theater Company which essentially gave Ireland its own theater tradition. Her estate was a gathering place for the likes of George Bernard Shaw, John Synge, and Sean O'Casey. W.B Yeats was a particularly frequent guest and friend to Lady Gregory and even dedicated many poems to Coole Park. The original house was torn down long ago, but we got to walk around the grounds and see the tree where Lady Gregory's most esteemed friends carved their names. There were so many trees in general, and we definitely climbed a few of them. We were up in one when a few older Irish women asked us if it was the Autograph Tree-- there is nothing that can make an English major stutter than to ask her if she's scrambling up a tree that JM Synge signed. The grounds were very beautiful, like something out of a Jane Austen novel, which inspired quite a few "turns about the garden."
We then visited the ruins of an early monastic site (this seems to be a common theme for our excursions) and saw the tallest round tower in Ireland. The Irish must have heard about the tactics of Italian tourism, because this tower is leaning quite significantly. There was actually an unsettling optical illusion when you stood looking up at the tower as it seemed to be falling toward you. You couldn't get into the ruins of the churches, which was kind of a bummer, but the graveyard was cool.

June 26-"Congratulations, it's a food baby!"

This has been the perfect day--and the night is young yet! We woke up this morning and headed into town to check out an open air market we'd heard about from various guidebooks and local Galwegians.

It. Was. Incredible.

There was a whole street filled with vendors selling various crafts and food. Everything from cheese to handwoven bags to original artworks was on display and up for sale. The crafts were pretty and all, but we were really there for the food. We sampled donuts from the famous donut stand, almond-coconut-orange cake (gluten-free!), and crepes that were out of this world. The beautiful crepe cart had a ton of options on its menu--I myself got a crepe with vanilla sugar, butter, and lemon, so delicious! My only complaint would be that they didn't make the crepes right in front of you with the windshield-wiper thing, like they do at the crepe place in Philly, but the crepe itself was superb. After walking through the market several times, we decided that we needed a coffee break. We stopped by a bakery right on Shop Street, where I ordered a hot chocolate. The girl working asked if I wanted whipped cream and marshmellows and I of course said yes, thinking it would be a little dollop of whipped cream and a sprinkling of marshmellows--Oh no. This was like if you replicated the iceberg that sunk the Titantic in whipped cream and set it down in an ocean of hot chocolately perfection with some gooey marshmellows floating underneath like sharks on the prowl. I know that is the weirdest sentence I will probably ever write on this blog, but that's what I was thinking as I drank it, so it will be immortalized here in cyberspace. Strange description aside, it was the most epic cup of hot chocolate I've ever had. The only problem with this wonderful morning? We all were now sporting pretty impressive food babies, so we decided to explore a little as we walked off at least some of our calorie binge. We couldn't escape the food for long though, as our wandering took us past some pretty amazing bakeries. We physically couldn't eat anymore, but my "Things to do in Galway" list has grown pretty substantially. My companions returned to their homestay after awhile to take a much needed nap, but I continued to wander around. I found a bunch of used bookshops, which I have an almost unhealthy obsession with. I am trying to resist the urge to buy books, since I'd have to lug them back to the States, but I wrote down some titles to check out at the library. My wanderings led me out of the main downtown area and toward the beach, where I enjoyed a nice walk around the coast and into the Salthill area. Apparently there are some good beaches farther down, so I'll have to plan a beach day sometime soon.

The day was complete with a trip to the King's Head to watch USA take on Ghana in the first round of World Cup. The game itself was almost as painful as watching Villanova in the tournament this year, but there were a lot of US supporters in the pub to take the edge off. There was a rousing chorus of "Que sera, sera" towards the end. We did see quite a few hen parties in progress on our way home, so that was at least entertaining.

June 25-TGIF

I was supposed to have class today at 10, but the professor got caught up in a meeting and couldn't make it. Bummer. Despite the fact that I essentially had a free day, I spent most of my time at the university. I've been expanding my friend circle beyond Villanova, so there were lots of people to hang out and talk with. Most of the people enrolled in the summer program are American, but there are also a handful of kids from other places in Europe. I've been spending a lot of time with a girl named Leeva from Norway; it's been fun to learn about her culture.
Anyway, we spent the evening in town, stopping for dinner at the Dail Bar off of Shop Street. I had already eaten a heavenly sandwich from Ward's, the sandwich shop across the street from the university, but I'll have to make another trip to the Dail because the food looked great. Shop Street is a great place to wander and people-watch. We ran into a couple others from our group and ended up at the Hole in the Wall bar, which was actually a cool place to meet people. All in all, it was a pretty good start to the first weekend in Galway.

June 24- So much drama

First "real" day of class after the introductory ones yesterday. Both classes had a common theme: Covering a lot of time in very little time. My hand was cramping by the end from trying to write everything down, but reading the supplementary articles helps piece together what was said in lecture. I went to the NUI library for the first time, which for some reason is always a big thing for me. I don't know; it's something about putting an English major in a building full of books. The library itself was great--that is, until I got lost and couldn't figure out where the entrance was. I blame the overabundance of stairwells. I eventually figured out how to get downstairs, though it ended up happening twice. What can I say? I'm still getting oriented. But my wanderings did lead me to the Tolkien section, so I can claim that "not all who wander are lost." After classes, there was a film showing of "The Quiet Man," a 1952 John Wayne movie in which the main character returns to his family home in Innisfree ("I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree..." --Yeats) and engages in hijinks with various locals, including a love affair with a fiery Maureen O'Hara (a redhead with a temper--never seen that before). The movie was very 1950's, with a lot of stereotypes. But it was all good fun. We also were invited to see a play in the Town Hall Theater across the river. The play was entitled "The Matchmaker" and involved two actors telling a story through letters about various people seeking help from a matchmaker (epistolary!). It was not my cup of tea. It was interesting to note how one actor's thick accent was so strong that he was almost impossible to understand. Sure, Ireland is English-speaking, but that doesn't mean there isn't a language barrier.
After the play ended, a bunch of us went in search for food. Unfortunately, things close a lot earlier here than they do in the States. Even the late night pharmacy by our homestay is only open until 9pm at the latest. However, our wanderings did lead us down Shop Street, where we encountered an amazing band of drummers and a didgeridoo player.

July 23-First Day of School

First day of school, first day of school! Our day started off with a sort of overall lecture about the goals of the program. They take a very interdisciplinary approach here, because as the speaker said, every discipline gives new perspective to understanding the issue as a whole. So, in addition to our normal classes, the program offers a series of interdisciplinary lectures, film showings, and "for fun" classes in Irish language, singing, and dancing. Maybe I'm just a super nerd, but I'm totally pumped. Anyway, today was basically a day of introductory lectures to get a feel for the courses. I'm taking courses in history and archaeology, which promise to be a very different approach to Irish Studies than the literature classes I've taken at Villanova. Archaeology in particular has a different approach here in Ireland than in the States. In North America, archaeology falls under anthropology as a subdivision in the study of humanity. But here, archaeology existed as an area of study long before anthropology developed. Therefore, our first class was a lot defining archaeology and establishing what the course would focus on and entail. Our professor's name is Dr. Jones, so I'm looking forward to chasing after hidden treasures and running from Nazis when we take our field trips to the Burren. My history class seems really great as well. The professor was educated in Belfast in Northern Ireland, so he took the first day to illustrate how different perspectives can affect how events and the progression of history are perceived. For Northern Ireland, the English conquest was a time of progress and advancement of society. But in the Republic of Ireland, it's a different story. It's really interesting to read the textbook and try to pick up where the bias is coming from. It's also really strange to read a history book that refers to "our" history and have to remember that it's not referring to American history. Of course, our AP Government textbook in high school did compare ever facet of American politics to parliment, so that probably threw me off as well. Anyway, both classes seem really good, and I'm excited to get further into the material.
Other highlights of the day include watching the World Cup! I had a short break between classes, so I popped down to the college bar in an attempt to catch the US. Yes, we have a bar on campus. Apparently that's pretty common for European universities. Anyway, the US game took a backseat to England v Slovenia. Most of the Irish just want England to lose, so it was an interesting crowd. To their dismay, England won, but to our excitement, so did the US! It's so much fun to be in a football-crazed country during World Cup, though one must be careful because Gaelic football is very different from football as we know it (or soccer, I guess). Ireland's other sport is hurling, which I'm told is like field hockey but played by both men and women. I will try to catch a game while I'm here to provide a better description.
Also a highlight of the day: our first Irish rain! It started raining here this afternoon and kept up for an hour or two. And yes, Mom, I had my umbrella.

June 22-NUI Galway

I'm officially an NUIG student! I went this morning and registered for my classes and got my ID and everything. My student ID card is actually in Irish, which is pretty awesome. I also now have access to NUI's wireless network, so I will hopefully be better about updating. We got a quick tour around campus from Elaine, a grad student working with the summer session program. She's from Sligo and moved to Galway for her undergrad six years ago. Here in Ireland, you can get a sort of General Studies degree, in which you pick specializations. Elaine did her undergraduate studies in English, Political Science, and Sociology, which would be pretty difficult to do in the States. She gave us some great suggestions of places to eat in and around Galway, so I'd say we've made a very valuable acquaintance. After we were all set up at the university, we headed into town to get lunch at Kelly's, a pub that Elaine had recommended. People keep asking me what traditional Irish foods I've been eating, and I'm still trying to figure out what exactly traditional Irish food is. Most pubs here serve everything from sandwiches to soups to burgers, and of course, there's a couple famous fish and chips places here in Galway. Ireland's not really known as a food culture; rather, it's characterized by its conversation. Risking accusations of stereotyping, I'd say that Ireland's culture is best found in its pubs. Not for the drinking, but for the general mood of fun and the constant chatter--the Irish are very good storytellers. I think someone once remarked about the aftermath of battles saying, "The winners write the history books, and the losers write the songs." Definitely in Irish history there has been a long narrative of oppression, and it wouldn't be hard to say that this contributed to Ireland's rich literary and musical culture. If you're interested, check out some Irish poetry from the 19th and 20th century, where many poets wrote love poems to girls named Kathleen or Rosaleen. There's a tradition of Ireland being portrayed as a woman, and many of these apparent love poems are actually political poems offering loyalty to the country.
Anyway, returning from that tangent, I had some time after lunch to explore Galway on my own, so I headed down to the Spanish Arch, where I had lounged with a few friends the day before. My purpose today was to see what I could find closer to the bay. I found an interesting monument honoring about eight men lost at sea during a particular storm, much like the one found on Inishmore. I also found a row of brightly colored houses, which may or may not be the old site of Claddagh. This is where the ring of the same name was invented, though the original village is long gone. There are tons of stores selling the claddagh ring up and down Shop Street. For those who don't know, the claddagh ring is comprised of two hands holding a heart with a crown about the heart. It symbolizes friendship (the hands), loyalty (the crown), and love (the heart). I hung out around the pier for a while, but it was pretty overcast (the first cloudy day since I've been here!), so I wandered around Shop Street for awhile. I say Shop Street to mean the actual street and anything connected to it; for the most part, I'm wandering around without a clue where I am. I actually found a school that taught in Irish while I was trying to get into the pier, so I've been pretty fortunate in my meandering so far. There's a lot of cool stores in town, as well as a few bookshops, which no true bibliophile can resist. I eventually made it back to my homestay in hopes to get a good night's sleep before starting classes tomorrow.

June 21-Fiver!

We had a noon ferry back to Galway, so we used the morning to check out the southern tip of the island. We ended up traveling through a huge warren of rabbits--just like Watership Down! From the tip of Inishmore, we could see the cliffs of Inis Meian, the middle island (literally). Some of the cliff even fell into the ocean while we were there--talk about intense. But then it was back on the boat and back to Galway. We were welcomed back by our host family, who let us use their washing machine instead of having to pay at a laundromat. They use lines to hang dry their clothes here, so that was cool since we aren't allowed to do that at home (thanks, Homeowners' Association). But apparently, we have a lot to learn; Ms. McCullihan had to show us how to properly hang our "jumpers." Anyway, we didn't really have any plans for the day, so we went exploring! We had dinner at the Kings Head, which is a local pub on Shop Street, the better, less touristy version of Dublin's Grafton Street. I love it. We also headed down to the Spanish Arch, where there is a small monument to Christopher Columbus. And by small, I mean small. I'm taller than it. That area is a big place for lounging, and apparently drinking. But the garda came by and confisgated all the alcohol--apparently public drinking is illegal here. We headed back as it started getting dark, but that's not helpful because it gets dark around 11 o'clock here and gets light around 4 am, especially today, on the longest day of the year (and by that, I mean the day with the most daylight hours, Mom).

June 20th-Aran, Day Two

Today, our bicycle adventure took us to the beach! The water was pretty cold, though Murphy and Joe jumped right in. The sand was nice and soft, and the sun was excellent. After lounging there, we went up to Dun Aonghasa. This fort was a very easy walk, unlike the Black Fort. This fort was also much more complete than the Black Fort. We had a great tour guide take us through the history of the place, since each of the walls were built at different times. The only time it was ever a place of year-round residence was 1000-800 BC, though it was used for other purposes throughout history. The highlight of the fort was the fact that it was located on the top of a huge cliff and we all lay on our stomachs and peered down at the crashing waves below. It was kind of intense. We rode back to our guesthouses at our own paces, which meant that I was able to be distracted by three seals lounging around in the bay. They were fun to watch, just flopping around out on a sand bar. When we finally got back, we had a great home cooked dinner at the guesthouse and then we all headed to the bar to hear the music and enjoy the craic (Irish for "fun times"). And by all, I mean all, including Murph and Joe. Murph is fun to sit with; he knows all the songs and made us all sing with him. The Mulkerrin brothers were back, as well as a new band with traditional Irish instruments like the bodhran drum and the ulin pipe (like a bagpipe, but you use your elbow: ulin=elbow, though I'm not sure on that spelling). It was an awesome night.

June 19th- Off to Aran!

There's no rest for the weary, so after a wonderful night's sleep and an excellent breakfast cooked by our host family, we hopped on a bus and then a ferry to get to the Aran Islands. The Aran Islands is situated between Galway Bay and the Atlantic Ocean, so we were looking at extreme isolation. This is where a lot of the Irish language and culture survived the English conquest. In fact, when WB Yeats learned that JM Synge knew Irish, he told him to go to the Aran Islands and gather material for his plays there. Synge reportedly would eavesdrop through the floorboards to the locals telling stories, and a lot of what he heard went into his plays. Most of what I saw reflected the play "Riders to the Sea," in which a mother who has lost a husband and two sons to the sea gets word that her only remaining child has gone missing as well. There was a monument on our route from Kilronan (the biggest town) to our guesthouse to those lost at sea, particularly mentioning one storm in the eighteen-fifties that claimed fifteen lives. It's very sobering to stand at the monument, reading the names on the plaque (which often repeat, indicating fathers and sons or brothers). Being out there basically on the edge of the world, the sea is a big part of the culture. There's a sort of fatalistic idea that when your time comes, the sea claims you. For such a small community, the sea and its tragedies are a big part of life.
Anyway, returning from that literary tangent, the largest of the islands, Inishmore (the Irish, Inis Mor, means "big island") has a population of only about 900, so there are very few cars or even roads. For us, that meant our mode of transportation was bicycle! I cannot describe how awesome it was to be biking around the coast of the island. I will say this: blue waters, mountains in the distance, and cows. Lots and lots of cows. Our adventure of the day took us on a bike and then a hike up the hill to the ruins of a church. We got up the hill and looked over the other side and after a steep stretch of fields and rock fences, we were looking at the Atlantic Ocean. If you went directly west from the Aran Islands into the ocean, Boston would be the first thing you would hit. The Celtic peoples believed that the edge of the ocean was where Tir-na-nOg, the Land of Eternal Youth, was. The extreme Tolkien fanatic in me is now going to make the connection to the West of Lord of the Rings, the Undying Lands of the Elves. Nerd moment over. Anyway, now that we were up on the top of the hill, we had the option of following Dr. Lennon (aka Joe, the new Irish Studies director) to the Black Fort, another ruin on the island. With great directions from Murphy ("When you get to the Atlantic, turn right". Thanks Murph) we headed out. The hike was a lot longer than we expected, turning into an hour and a half of climbing rock fences and trying to figure out what the fort actually was, since it was most likely a large wall of rock in the among lots of other rock walls. But it was a great walk, since we were walking along the cliffs. We did eventually make it there, and it was pretty cool. The outer walls still stand, as well as some walls of rooms and stairs. We took a much shorter way back.
Now, for an aside: before I left for Ireland, I had many people request that I find a guy in Ireland for them who was pretty much Gerard Butler's character from "P.S I Love You." Well, ladies, I have found him, the perfect Irish man: he sings, he dances, he plays the banjo and the tin whistle. The only catch? He's about 9 years old. But I'll try to include a video for general enjoyment and amazement. The band is the Mulkerrin brothers, who are, you guessed it, brothers. The oldest is only 14. Look them up on Youtube; maybe we can get them for Novafest!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Us5nIATjQjM

June 18-Clonmacnoise and Galway

Like any good adventure to the great unknown, our travel plans led us westward from Dublin toward Galway. Normally, the trip would take about two hours with Ireland's new highway, but our journey was of the meandering sort, so we took a detour to Clonmacnoise, an old monastic settlement at the heart of Ireland. The settlement is situated at the intersection of a ridge and the Shannon River, a prime location for attracting a lot of visitors. This also means it attracted a lot of not-so friendly invaders, from the Vikings to the English. The site itself has a kind of haunting beauty, with ruins of churches and towers amid fields of Celtic stone crosses. Our tour guide seemed rushed in getting us through the site, but it was cool to wander around. Archaelogists have actually removed some of the stone crosses and put them inside a shelter to help preserve them against the elements; it's amazing how much detail they were able to save by providing shelter and cleaning the moss off. The ruins were also pretty interesting. The ones I remember the most were the burial sites of the last high kings of Ireland and the scriptorium, where the Tain Bo Cuailnge was written (an Irish text about a cattle raid involving several mythic heroes).
We then headed to Galway, where we'll be living for the next four weeks. The town is great--excellent energy but not as touristy as Dublin. We settled into our homestays as well. My host family owns a bed and breakfast, and Liz and I are staying in a sort of apartment-type guest house in the backyard. It's awesome.

June 17th-Last Day in Dublin

For our last day in Dublin, the group headed to the National History Museum and the National Library. The main attractions at the Museum were the bog people--human remains found preserved in bogs and the subjects of several of Nobel-winning poet Seamus Heaney's poems--and the artifacts from Ireland pre-Christian history. I found a lot of Celtic symbols in the artifacts, including a stone carving of a sheela-na-gig, an Irish fertility goddess of sorts. Definitely a good destination. Then we headed to the Library to see a Yeats exhibit, which had a lot of original manuscripts and connections with other writers of the time. I'm glad I've taken a couple of Irish lit classes to have a lot of background in the places and things we've seen this week.
We had the afternoon free, so I finally got to search for the Oscar Wilde statue in Hyde Park. I found it, along with the Street Performance World Championship. This town is awesome. And since it was our last night in Dublin, Liz and I went to see Tom Stoppard's "Arcadia" at the Gate Theater. It was a great show, though pretty complex. Our heads hurt by the end. Anyway, we'll be heading off to Galway tomorrow to get settled with our host families, and then spending the weekend in the Aran Islands. Dublin has been a blast, but I'm ready to see more of Ireland. Toodles!

June 16th-Happy Bloomsday!

Today is June 16th, which is the date that James Joyce's Ulysses takes place. That means that there were people all over Dublin dressed in period clothing and ordering a lunch of gorgonzola cheese and burgundy wine. For us, this was a huge day of Dublin sightseeing. First stop was Trinity College, this time to see the Book of Kells. For anyone who doesn't know, the Book of Kells is an old manuscript of the New Testament from the monastic period. The concept basically is that the Testament is supposed to be the word of God, so therefore it must be contained within beautifully decorated pages, the same way you must receive communion from a gold chalice instead of a paper cup. Technically, you could do it, but it deserves more ceremony. Murphy showed us how to read some of the really elaborate calligraphy pages--reading the Bible is a lot easier nowadays. We exited through the Long Room, which was a cross between the libraries in Harry Potter and Beauty and the Beast, quite the view for a bibliophile like me. They even had JM Synge's typewriter and a early draft of "Playboy of the Western World." Again, the English major in me was quite excited.
The next stop on our excursion was Kilmainham Gaol, which was an amazing tour through Irish history from the famine and through the rebellions and the civil war. We got to see the cells of Irish leaders like Charles Parnell, Joseph Plunkett, and Patrick Pearse. It was an awesome tour, especially since our guide took us through a lot of the history and politics involved in Ireland's struggle for independence.
We then headed to St. Patrick's Cathedral, a notable landmark in Dublin and Ireland in general. It's a beautiful church, not to mention it's the place where Jonathon Swift is buried. There's also a door where the handshake apparently originated.
Other notable sights on the tour were the hotel owned by U2 and the house that Joyce's short story "The Dead" supposedly took place in. I will have to make a return journey to stake out the Clarence Hotel in hopes of spotting Bono.
Our day concluded with a Literary Pub Crawl, which was a lot of fun. Our tour guide/entertainer was pretty awesome and introduced us to a lot of the literary culture and history of Dublin. Definitely an entertaining end to the day. Plus, we passed the pub that Leopold Bloom visits in Ulysses, so we got to see everyone in their Joycean attire. I love this town.

June 15th-More Wandering

Today the rest of our group arrived, which was great because we got to move into the rooms we'll be in for the rest of the time in Dublin. Liz and I are rooming together--this has already proven to be a great source of entertainment. We got some lunch at a great little cafe called the Queen of Tarts. Had I known that was the name of the place, I would have gotten a tart. But the sandwich I ordered was excellent, so I was pleased. Liz needed a nap after the flight, so I did some wandering on my own. My first quest was to find the Abbey Theater, which was a prominent part of my Irish Renaissance class. JM Synge's plays graced the stage there, and Lady Augusta Gregory was very involved as part of the literary revival in Ireland. Unfortunately, the original Abbey burned down at some point, so the Abbey Theater I saw was a very modern, shiny building. Kind of disappointing, but at least I found it. I headed further down O'Connell Street, which has a lot of history. The statue on the Liffey end actually has bullet holes in it from the Easter 1916 rebellion, and the post office is where the Irish version of the Declaration of Independence was announced. This also has bullet holes in it. I walked all the way down to the Garden of Remembrance, a memorial to all those who gave their lives for Irish independence. The garden has a great statue of the children of Lir turning into swans, an Irish myth (thank you, Irish Literature to 1880). Anyway, my next mission was to find the statue of Oscar Wilde in Marrion Square, which took me back across the Liffey and through Grafton Street. Grafton Street is probably my favorite area of Dublin, not for the shopping but for all the street performers. There's always something different. Unfortunately, my search for Oscar was deterred by me turning down the wrong street. Whoops.
Murphy took the group on a walking tour in the afternoon, which pretty much covered the areas I'd already seen, but we got to walk through Trinity College--beautiful campus. After the tour, we found a great Italian restaurant (we tried to find a pub, but they were crazy crowded). The restaurant was awesome, and even Murphy was there. We walked back to the hotel with him, and then the greatest part of the day occurred. For those of you who don't know, Murphy is one of my favorite teachers of all time, and it is literally one of my "Things To Do Before I Die" list to have a pint with him. Well, we stopped by the pub by our hotel (the Darkey Kelly, which was the name of the brothel on the same street) and Murphy treated the four or five of us to a pint while we talked about the World Cup and Irish political history and literature. I'm not much of a drinker, but it was pretty much the greatest night of my life.

June 14- Day One of Dublin

Despite a last minute adapter crisis, "Jam Factor 8" traffic on 95, and disorganized airline employees at the check-in counter, I made it to Dublin! My mother would like it to be known that she single-handedly got me to the airport against all odds--thanks Mom! Anyway, we arrived in Dublin early this morning, the plane passing through heavy cloud cover to reveal the green underneath. Our cab driver was quite talkative, discussing everything from World Cup to the BP oil spill to pointing out the sights of Dublin. All the street signs here are in English and Irish; it's pretty awesome.
It was a fairly short ride to our hotel, which is directly across the street from Christ Church. Our rooms weren't quite ready, so we stored our luggage and headed out to explore Dublin while our rooms were prepared. Ironically, our first stop was Starbucks--sometimes you just can't leave home! But the coffee was a much needed energy boost and gave us enough fuel to explore the city. We wandered through Grafton Street, which is a pedestrian shopping street with many stores and street musicians. It was great to get the fresh air, not too mention hear the beautiful Irish accents! We left Grafton to explore St. Steven's Green, a beautiful park in the middle of Dublin. The treetops are so thick and green here; it's amazing.
We finally got into our rooms, which are pretty large and have great views of the street below--Copper Alley, which is famous for once being the home of the Unicorn Tavern and a brothel. Cool. It was awesome to shower and freshen up after the long flight. We probably would have fallen asleep right then, but there were more urgent matters--namely, we were starving! So we headed out again, this time in search of food. We found a little Italian restaurant along the River Liffey after a bit of wandering. This particular place was having a lunch special--any pizza or pasta with a complimentary glass of wine for 12 euros. We weren't planning on having any wine, but our waiter didn't seem to understand that. So it was a dinner of magherita pizza and red wine--keep it classy, Dublin. It was kind of crazy that a waiter would just bring us wine without looking at ID or anything, but like Dorothy, we aren't in Kansas anymore!

June 13- (Almost) Ready to go!

Today's the day! I've almost managed to get everything packed and ready to go, which is a good thing since we're T-minus four hours before we need to leave for the airport. This accomplished feeling while probably disappear once I weigh my gigantic suitcase (the initial measurement this morning came to about 44 pounds, which didn't include some laundry and my shoes. Yikes). Anyway, it looks like I may actually be ready to jump on a plane to Dublin by tonight!