This time my visit to the Cahalans was more hands on. After having visited them a few times before, I felt much more comfortable just being there for a few days. I loved being able to just chat with whoever was around and see what was happening around the farm. I did learn a few things and did lots of stuff I’d never done before. I think the coolest thing was that I drove the tractor. Now, I’ve only driven a manual once, and that was a tiny car in a parking lot. So when David moved over and said, “you drive” it didn’t hit me until he had to walk me thru it all that I was driving a very big vehicle. Either way, I wasn’t the smoothest driver but I didn’t crash the tractor or smash into anything J I also learned a lot about horse fertility, including how far a vet has to stick his arm up their asses to get a reading for follicle size. Other farm-like activities I learned: I conquered the gates, got shocked by the wires, helped dose a foal, and helped put up fence posts. Now, I’m sure any Cahalan farmers reading this blog are chuckling that these are accomplishments for me, since they grew up doing these things, but I really enjoyed learning about the farm and tagging along to see how everything works. I’m really glad I took another trip to visit them; I had a really good time and got to know them much better.
Meg's (Irish) Musings
Monday, May 28, 2012
Slán go fóill
This time my visit to the Cahalans was more hands on. After having visited them a few times before, I felt much more comfortable just being there for a few days. I loved being able to just chat with whoever was around and see what was happening around the farm. I did learn a few things and did lots of stuff I’d never done before. I think the coolest thing was that I drove the tractor. Now, I’ve only driven a manual once, and that was a tiny car in a parking lot. So when David moved over and said, “you drive” it didn’t hit me until he had to walk me thru it all that I was driving a very big vehicle. Either way, I wasn’t the smoothest driver but I didn’t crash the tractor or smash into anything J I also learned a lot about horse fertility, including how far a vet has to stick his arm up their asses to get a reading for follicle size. Other farm-like activities I learned: I conquered the gates, got shocked by the wires, helped dose a foal, and helped put up fence posts. Now, I’m sure any Cahalan farmers reading this blog are chuckling that these are accomplishments for me, since they grew up doing these things, but I really enjoyed learning about the farm and tagging along to see how everything works. I’m really glad I took another trip to visit them; I had a really good time and got to know them much better.
Deignans come to the homeland
We started off our trip in Dublin, me meeting them at the hotel. I don’t remember the last time I was so excited to see my family. I mean, I see them on a regular enough basis at home that it’s not a big deal. But even though there were a few missing, it was still great. I wish Jimmy and Ryan could have joined and it would have been perfect. Anyways, we spent our first day exploring Dublin, seeing the book of Kells and St. Stephen’s green. Emma wasn’t feeling great so it was a low key day, but great nonetheless. We finished our first day in Ireland together with some trad music at a pub J

Sangria in Spain :)
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Belgian Chocolate + Belgian Waffles + Irish Choral Society= The Perfect Mix


Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Pizza and Wine and Gelato, oh my!

Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Homework, Rocks and Sunburn
I’ve actually been somewhat busy for the past couples week, with my semester finishing itself up. The way the school system works at UCC is that we have classes from January to March, then we get April off to “study” and May is exams. Our exams can be spread over the whole month with study time in between. But of course, I always have to do something different with my schedule and it turns out that I have no exams in May. All my classes did final exams last week and I’m finishing up a group project soon and then I’ll be completely done with schoolwork for the semester J Be jealous.
As you may remember from an earlier post, I haven’t had a very rigorous class schedule. It honestly has been an easy semester, but remarkably, I’ve still learned a lot. You’d think that only going to class onc
e a week with very little homework would accomplish little, but looking back, I have learned a lot of new things. Maybe not much that pertains to my major, but still good to know anyway. The best example of this is the field trip that I took this weekend to County Antrim in Northern Ireland with the Geology class. I’m actually typing this up on the bus on the way back to Cork.
My Geology class has been the biggest source of stress for me this semester but surprisingly, one of the most interesting courses as well. I need the Geology credit to fill my Natural Science requirement at St. Ben’s, and so I basically chose it from a list because it seemed like the least painful class available. Let me tell you, I didn’t get off to a good start with Geology. First, it didn’t start until halfway through the semester but I didn’t realize that so went on the first day of the semester and felt thoroughly stupid when I ended up in a microbiology lecture. Then, when I finally went to the right lecture, I was told that there would be a field trip that conflicted with all my travel plans (I worked it out in the end but had a few frustrated conversations before then) Then, I couldn’t find the actual Geology building to pay the fee for the field trip. Then I missed a lab because all the other students are in classes together and passed the word about schedule changes to each other and forgot about me. Then I couldn’t get ahold of my group for our project when I couldn’t find enough research about my topic for the project. And that was all before the field trip actually began. Up to that point I really hated Geology.
Even as we started the field trip, I still had no idea what we’d be doing or what I should know to actually do well in this class. I also didn’t know anyone on the trip. But I decided that I was gonna have a good field trip if it killed me. So I introduced myself to 2 people who seemed nice and weren’t part of the “clique” Side note about “the clique”: imagine high school seniors let loose for a weekend with their friends with alcohol readily available, and that’s them. Altogether not
bad or mean people at all, just…not my type. Anyway, it turns out that Brian and Natasha, the people I made friends with had striking resemblances in personality to Dave Kaster and Rachel Pollari. It made for a good time getting to know them but oddly a bit homesick as well. And not just homesick for school people or hometown people, but both, since each person reminded me of one group of people. Over the weekend, I had great conversations with both Brian and Natasha, about the most random topics. I also taught Brian the game Cows Mine, and at the moment, I’m winning J They were a big reason that the weekend turned in to a success. It also turned out to be some great sightseeing as well. We went to some really beautiful beaches and cliffs. I frolicked in the sea for a little while and it was incredible.
The other thing about this weekend that I wasn’t expecting was that I really liked the actual field work. We had three days of traveling along the north coast of Antrim being guided through the basics of Geology. The first day I did feel really overwhelmed because the other students had had another semester of Geology and practicals that prepared them for this and I knew next to nothing (the lectures were not helpful at all). After that first morning though, I started catching on and by the end of the weekend, was answering most of the questions with the rest of the group. It helped a lot that my group leaders, Jo and Jess did really well with guiding us all through the process at each locality. I mean, the other people in my group didn’t really know what they were doing either; I just sometimes needed an explanation of a more basic concept in order to understand the most complex bit we were learning.
And finally, the weather was INCREDIBLE. Clear, blue skies for 5 days straight, 65 degree average for the whole trip. I even wore sunscreen and got burnt. It was actually very comical to watch all these Irish natives burn in the sun. A few guys got a little burnt on the second day and wore their hoodies the whole last day, which was the hottest with a huge hill to climb. They were about as burnt as I get in an hour or so without sunscreen and they were cryin like babies. They should stay in Ireland where 75 is as hot as it gets and 5 days of sun is a miracle. I took every opportunity to lie in the sun and soak it in. I’m so excited for summer and will probably be immensely disappointed by the weather in May, which will probably be back to it’s normal Irish course. Until then, I’ll just be appreciative of our amazing luck. I like to think that I was the lucky charm J
As for my next few weeks, I’ve got a lot of traveling in store. Tomorrow morning, I’m flying with three friends to start our Europe travels. Starting in Italy, we’ll hit Pisa for a few days, Florence for a day and Venice for a few days. After that, I’ll split off from them and head to Belgium to join the choral society for a 5 day stint that just so happens to include a choral competition and Easter. After that, I’ll fly to Barcelona and meet my friends to spend our last 6 days in Spain. I’ll then head back to good ol’ Ireland to recuperate for a few days before Mom, Dad, Emma, and Aunt Marilyn join me for their Ireland visit. I’m excited to show them around- if the weather is even half as nice as this weekend we’ll count ourselves lucky. After that I’ve got a few weeks to chill and for the grande finale of my Ireland experience, Samantha Ellen Schloss will join me for my last week in Ireland! What a way to end J
I’ll be journaling while in Europe, so next time I post will be dependant on the journal and probably not forthcoming until April or May. Keep me in your prayers that my travels go smoothly!