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.
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