Taking time to slow down

As some of you may have noticed, most of my posts are centered around my weekend travels. You've heard a lot about the places I visit, but I think enough time has passed that I actually have something to tell about my daily life in Cork. The most noticeable thing about my daily life is that it's much slower than my life has been in a long time. At most, I have 4 hours of class per day, and I don't have classes at all on Fridays :) While this is a nice academic break, it leaves a lot of free time to deal with. You wouldn't think that I'd feel like I have to "deal with" free time at all, but it adds up. So to fill my time, I've taken to actually working out on a regular basis (woah), reading (duh), and sewing. It's going to be quite the shock to come back next semester and be super busy as usual.

As for academics themselves, I'm really liking my classes :) The prize for my favorite class is a tie between Step Dancing and Modern Irish, which is the gaelic language. Step Dancing is a class of 7 girls taught by a young woman named Margaret. It's really nice to dance again and I love learning all the new steps. The Irish language is really weird. So many odd spellings that don't go with the pronunciation whatsoever and rules that I'm only starting to be introduced to. But I really like learning everyday phrases and we're getting to the point where I feel like I actually know a little. Nowhere near being able to converse, but I overheard someone on campus talking in Gaelic and I understood a phrase that she used. I was so excited :) I'm also learning Tin Whistle, with a new song each week. We've been doing some ornamentation, but our rudimentary playing is never as cool-sounding as our teacher's. Admittedly she's the teacher, but I hope we learn more ornamentation soon. My other classes, Intro to Irish music and Intro to Anglo Irish Lit are lecture classes with good information, but lectures are never going to be my thing, so they're not my favorite. Finally, I'm starting my Geology class this week. We had one lecture last week and it turns out that there's a field trip at the end of the semester as part of our assessment. We'll be going out to the countryside near Antrim to do geological stuff...not really sure what yet. It might conflict with my plans to visit Italy, but cross your fingers that I'm scheduled for the other group!

Now some of you may be wondering about the nightlife here. Pubs are frequented all nights of the week and the busiest nights for college kids are tuesday and thursday. Yep, most students go home on the weekends so they party during the week. As for me, I usually go out a few nights a week and get a pint at whatever pub we've chosen for the night. My favorite is still the cider, but I'm learning to like some of the beer. I still have a ways to go until I like Guinness though. They do have clubs that fill up on the busy nights, but that's not my style and the way the girls dress for those clubs is definitely not my style. I much prefer a pint and some live music.

Have I left anything out? I think that gives a bit of an insight into my everyday life here. We did just discover a map with lots of fun looking stuff to do during the day, so we'll probably be checking those out in the next few weeks. I'll let you know if we find anything cool :)

"Is the Eiffel tower as big as the blue whale?" and other London escapades

There are a lot of people in London. I’ve never independently navigated through a city so big and so crowded; it was quite the experience. We had an amazing weekend that went off without a hitch, thanks largely to the help of our CSB/SJU friends who were hosting us. While I had a great time and saw some awesome things, I’m glad to back in Cork where things are less crowded and much friendlier.

Julia, Rochelle and I arrived in London on Wednesday morning, having taken a 7:00 am flight and 9:00 bus into London. We got off the bus at Victoria station with no more information than the fact that we were headed for South Kensington, 13 Manson place. Being a map person, I was in search of a map of London, but apparently they don’t like to give out street maps of London. Tube maps? Got em. Train maps? Got em. Street maps? Nope. So I ended up buying a £2 map, which told us that we were a ways away from South Kensington. So even though none of us really knew what we were doing, we bought a ticket to South Kensington on the underground. I’m pretty proud of us, because it went really smoothly. And when we got there, we bumped into one of the guys from St. John’s as he was waiting for the tube. Talk about weird. He gave us directions and off he went. Step one: make it to the flat all in one piece. Check J

The rest of the weekend was a mix of sightseeing, chilling in the flat, chatting with the group and museums. Julia, Rochelle, and I all had a friend or two who we’d been planning with and we all knew a few random members of the London group, so sometimes we’d be joined by a few London friends and sometimes we’d just go off on our own to sightsee. Rachel and Aaron, who are Julia’s good friends and who I knew through classes really took us under their wing and were wonderful hosts. They joined us for some of our excursions and made us feel comfortable in the flat.

By the time we reached the flat on Wednesday, it was around noon. We chatted with the group and decided to go see some of the big must-see’s of London. Aaron, Rachel and Christine showed us how to not look like a tourist on the tube, and brought us to the stop that emerged directly under Big Ben and the Parliament building, where we definitely did the whole tourist thing. From there we could see the London eye and Millennium bridge (the one that the dementors attack in Harry Potter ;) We then walked past Westminster Abbey and through St. James Park to Buckingham Palace. The queen was there at the time, shown by her flag being flown above the building. We arrived as there was a small change of the guard. We didn’t see the whole shebang, but it was pretty cool anyway. It was cold the whole weekend, so we then decided to check out Harrods, this HUGE store full of stuff that is more expensive than I can even fathom. I felt like a little kid, who needed to keep her hands by her sides at all times. No touching or else something would break and I’d be in trouble. I made it out without breaking anything, with a croissant in my hands to boot. We went back to the flat after that and were treated to a family dinner, made by some of the girls in the other flat. Now, I say the other flat because there were only two flats for 24 of them. There were 5 bedrooms, and a small kitchen and living room in each. I was very impressed by their ability to live together in such close quarters. They seemed to be doing pretty well with not stepping on each other’s toes too much. We did our best to be as unobtrusive as possible, since they were already pretty crowded.

Thursday, Julia, Rochelle and I struck out on our own to see more of London. We made a stop at the Natural History Museum, which was literally around the corner from their flat. While looking at a full size model of a blue whale, a little girl from a tour class asked her teacher “Is the Eiffel tower as big as the blue whale?” It was the cutest question J All the museums we saw were really cool, but I really liked this one, with the dinosaur exhibit and all the animals. After the museum, we worked our way along the Piccadilly tube line, with stops along the way. We hopped off at Piccadilly Circus and Leicester square, walked around China town and ended up at Trafalgar square. The square had a few big fountains and a tall memorial, surrounded by four huge lions. We tried to climb the lions, but they were too tall, so we got some pictures by their haunches :P We then went into the National Gallery, which overlooked the square. Here we got a close look at some Monet paintings and lots of others. (and Manet was right next to Monet for those Ordinary Days fans) We finished off our excursion with a stop at King’s Cross station. It was unfortunately under construction for the Olympics, but we still got a picture at platform 9 ¾ J

When I first started thinking of going to London, I instantly wanted to go see Les Miserables in the West End. Unfortunately, I didn’t find anyone who would go with me, so I decided to go to Wicked with the other girls. As this was the third time I had seen Wicked, I was a little disappointed that I couldn’t see Les Mis, which I’d never seen professionally performed. But I needn’t have worried; it was just as wonderful as the first time. The woman who played Elfaba had an incredible voice and the whole production was enthralling. Maybe I’ll make it a tradition to see Wicked every three years of my life :P

Friday was another day of sightseeing, this time joined by Aaron and Rachel. We went to the V&A (Victoria and Albert Museum) which had a lot of cool art, and the Borough market. This market was a huge, open-air market with fresh food galore. It reminded me of a bigger English Market like we have here in Cork. I got a meat pie at the market and prayed that it wasn’t made by Mrs. Lovett, courtesy of Sweeney Todd. We then returned to the flat to rest up, because we were headed to Club Koko that night. The club was actually really cool, mostly because of the venue. We went early so we could pay the cheap cover charge, so it was relatively empty for while. The club itself was in an old theatre building, so the dance floor was in place of the ground floor seats and the balconies were open and the chandeliers still in place. The music wasn’t that great, but the coolest part was that there was a guy dubbing a Gene Kelly movie to the beat of the music. He’d make the ballet dancer repeat fluid movements to the beat of the song or match Gene Kelly to the music. It was really cool J Seeing as I’m not much of a clubber, I was glad when part of the group decided to leave after an hour or so, but really happy that I had seen it- it was definitely worth the two pounds.

Saturday we were shown around Portobello market, which runs down one long street and sells all sorts of things, from clothes to food to antiques. If it weren’t so cold we probably could have spent all day there. We finished off our sightseeing with a trip to the Tower of London and Tower Bridge. I had no idea what the tower of London looked like and was expecting something of a tall bell tower, so when it was really more of a castle, it took me a while to realize that that was it. Before heading to the airport on Saturday, we walked through Kensington park and stopped at Ben’s Cookies, which is right by the tube stop and has amazing cookies.

I don’t think I could have asked for a better weekend. I had great traveling companions, who I’m really glad I’m getting to know. We had wonderful hosts, and didn’t have to pay for accommodation to boot. And we got to see a lot of London without spending money to get into anything. The rest of my travels are going to have to step up their game to compete with London J

Thank God for hiking boots, rain coats, and home knit hats.

This past weekend, I went to Dingle with 3 St. Ben's girls to see the sights. Kelsey, Rochelle, Julia, and I were planning on biking around the Dingle Peninsula on Saturday: a 28 mile ride along the coast and around the mountains. Let's start at the beginning :)

Friday morning, we bussed to Dingle. It was a beautiful day, with the sun shining almost all day. When we arrived in Dingle, we found the hostel and were greeted by Dave, the man who ran the hostel. He gave us tips about where to get good local food, which pubs to try, and which tourists traps to avoid. After we got settled, we struck out to explore the town. Now, Dingle isn't very big and is definitely a tourist town. Since it's not tourist season at the moment, some of the shops had signs in the window saying "see you in March." Despite this, we found some cool art shops and promising looking pubs. We got some beautiful pictures on the pier and a delicious plate of fresh caught cod at a restaurant right on the marina.

After a rest at the hostel, we headed out to explore the nightlife of Dingle. It was really odd, how quiet it was. We were heading to a pub around 8:30, and we literally saw 3 people on our way to the first one. This was quite the change from Cork, where you'll pass a pretty steady stream of people at any time of day. But apparently all the locals of Dingle weren't on the street because they were already at the pub. When we reached the first pub, the "quirky" local pub Dave had pointed us towards, who should we bump into but Dave himself. We made it known that we were at his hostel and we were to be treated well. We stayed there for almost two hours chatting with some of Dave's friends. I even got a free pint from the bartender. Not sure why, but who am I to turn down a free beer? We then continued on to main street, where we went to another pub that had trad music. There was a group of adults set dancing, which is sort of the Irish form of square dancing. It was really cool to watch :) We were also joined by 2 Irish boys who looked no older than 18 but claimed to be 21...let's just say it was an interesting visit. At one point, the more boisterous one of the two noted our rings. We all happened to be wearing rings and he made a show of checking if we were available. I'm glad I was wearing my anam cara ring from Dave, so he mostly left me alone the rest of the night. I spent the remaining time trying to talk to the quieter friend, but he apparently has very different tastes than I do. Anytime I mentioned a topic I liked, he'd respond "oh tat's boring." They were entertaining for awhile, but we weren't too sad when they left. We went back to the hostel, heading to bed and praying for nice weather for our bike ride the next day. Our prayers weren't answered though, when we woke up it was raining.

The weather in Ireland is very fickle. There have only been a handful of days here when the weather has been consistent all day. One minute it's raining and the next the sun could be shining. So with that in mind, we bundled up and went to rent bikes, hoping that the rain would blow over and it'd at least clear up for some of the ride. The weather did fluctuate that day, but it was a small shift; from cloudy, to a light rain, to pouring, and back again. Suffice to say, we were soaked to the bone by the time we returned. But overall, it was still a great bike ride. When the rain stopped, we had some beautiful views and great pictures. It was a tough ride, and we think we went about 25 miles. We ended up not doing the full loop around, because we were worried about it getting dark too early because of the rain that had continued throughout the day. By the last 2 or 3 miles we were all just plowing through to get back and get dry. I don't think I've ever been that wet with so many layers on. But miraculously, my feet were completely dry in my hiking shoes, and my head was still warm thanks to my new hat Dave had sent me. My raincoat was great in that I wasn't drenched underneath, but it was not as completely waterproof as I would have liked. By the time we got everything hung up in our room to dry, there wasn't a spare spot in the room and the windows were utterly drenched with perspiration. We all had a nice warm nap and went for some fish and chips at a cozy pub with a fire at our backs. After dinner we decided to skip the pubs and go to bed- we were all exhausted from fighting the weather that day.

Sunday was a pretty chill day. We had to be out of the hostel by 10 but our bus wasn't picking up until 5:45 that night. So we mainly cafe hopped during the day. I found a church to go to, and they said the Our Father in gaelic :) It was really cool and I think I'd like to find a translation and figure out how to say it. We had some good ice creme in the afternoon followed by a shift of location and some hot chocolate. The bus finally came, and we made it back to Cork, safe and sound. The weekend turned out to be really cool. Dingle was Ireland like I had expected it to be; a small community, surrounded by beautiful green hills and sea. We got a good work out, and a chance to test our rain gear. I'd just like to say, thank God for hiking boots, rain coats, and home knit hats.

Family Time

Cahalan. We say it CaHAlan and they say CAhalan, but either way, it’s family. This weekend I took a trip to Ballingarry to meet my relatives on my mom’s side. It’s a long complicated list of people to connect our families, but when it comes down to it, I was staying with 3^rd and 4^th cousins. Mary and I had been exchanging e-mails all week and made a plan for me to bus to their home, called Southpark, for the weekend. I was picked up at the bus station and brought home for my first taste of a real Irish home. Friday night was mostly made up of tea, talking, dinner, more tea and more talking J It was great getting to know these people who were strangers only hours before. Mary and Morgan have 3 grown children, Tom, David, and Jessica. On Friday night, I met Tom and David (and his girlfriend Louise) as well as Mary and Morgan. I gave them a geography lesson of America while we tried to muddle through our ancestors. With a little help from the Green Family Book and my Aunt Marilyn, we think we’ve figured it out. After a lovely home cooked dinner, Morgan and I sat in amiable quiet while we read and watched the Latelate show (at 10 pm). It was a great start to a marvelous weekend.

Saturday morning, I met Tom’s 2 year old daughter Cora, who is a darling little girl with red curly hair. Unfortunately, she’s teething and a drama queen to top it off, so we had a bit of a tantrum, followed by her charming her way back into our good graces. Breakfast was a big family brunch, accompanied by tea (the ever present beverage) After, Morgan took me around the farm for rounds.

I had been told to bring my “wellies”, but I don’t have anything like rain boots. Luckily enough, a new friend of mine had her “Alaskan Sneakers”, which are heavy-duty rain boots, and lent them to me for the weekend. And good thing too, because those fields were really muddy! We made the rounds in a Jeep filled with feed. The first job Morgan gave me was to hop out and open the big gate so we could drive into the first field… the gate defeated me and Morgan had to help me figure it out. Not my greatest moment. After that, a pattern began. We’d climb out and Morgan would tell me which bag of feed to grab. I’d haul it over to the stone hedge where sheep, cows or horses were waiting. Morgan would get the fence and he’d distribute the food for the animals. By the end, I was helping pour out the food and could figure out the gates J At this farm, they have over 250 acres of land on the farm here, approximately 300 breeding sheep, 9 pregnant mares (25 horses in all) and 40 beef cows. They also have about 30 acres to produce grain for feed. And In the next few months, the place will be brimming with baby animals. On our way back out, I had a second chance at the all-elusive gate. I was doing well, getting it closed all on my own, till I realized I was on the wrong side. I used one of my newly acquired Irish cuss words and clambered over the fence. As I climbed into the jeep, Morgan gave a chuckle and congratulated me on a good job. It was a great morning, and I had lots of fun. But my day had only just begun. Next, Morgan would take me to the hunt.

Now, when I think of a fox hunt, I think of Mary Poppins and the carousel. The image of an actual fox hunt is remarkably similar but much more fun. The Cahalan family used to be very involved with the hunts and Morgan had his time when he hunted with every hunt. From what I can tell, Jessica and Morgan are still involved with the organization of the hunts and we had a great time as spectators. What we did Saturday was similar to a cross country spectator does, except in the jeep. We started off in Terryglass, a nearby village, where the riders gathered for the hunt around noon. But first, we stopped at the cemetery where my relatives are buried. The stone had been erected by a closer relative, who was listed as being from Waukon Junction U.S.A. I got a picture with the newly refurbished gravestone and took a moment to appreciate the fact that I’m here. It’s sometimes easy to forget how incredible it is that I’m in Ireland, chatting with distant cousins.

After that, we began our drives all over the area. First we went to retrieve the Huntsman, names Dennis, and his hounds. They were riding up the road on their way to Terryglass, their truck having broken down further up the road. It was quite the sight; 25 hounds milling around 2 horses, mounted by a man in a red jacket and a woman in a black jacket. They were dressed very smartly and riding straight down the road, keeping the hounds in a pack. We returned to town and as we waited for everyone to gather, we went to the pub for a quick drink. Morgan ordered a whiskey and asked what I wanted; suggesting port, and I said, “I’ve never tried it” so that’s what I got. I still don’t really know what port is, but it was a small strong drink that tasted like thick wine- actually not too bad. I didn’t have time to finish it, since we were there for about five minutes, but now I can say I’ve had port. When Dennis and his entourage arrived, everyone rallied pretty quickly and the hunt began.

All in all, there were about 25 riders and 12 and a half couples, which means there were 25 hounds. The riders were all smartly dressed, on beautiful horses, and the hounds were an active swarm with their tails awag. They started off by riding down the road and off to the field where they began. Basically the way it goes is that the hounds find the scent and the riders follow. We didn’t see much of the overall hunt, but by following along back roads and fields, we caught glimpses of them and heard about the issues. At one point, 2 and a half couples (5 hounds) chased 6 deer into neighboring fields and were lost for most of the hunt. Some of the spectators chased after them and eventually rounded them up.

We often stopped to get out and walk towards the action. Once, we encountered Paul, a lead hunter, who was trying to gather the hunt, as it had scattered a bit. It was an odd sight; people participating in an old tradition and using cell phones left and right to keep organized. Anyway, Paul needed to go off for something and I was standing there with Morgan. He handed me the reigns of his horse and asked me to hold him for a moment. Before I could answer at all, Paul had walked off. Well, the horse was beautiful and well behaved for the first 30 seconds. Then he started to get feisty. He wanted to move about and I would rather have stayed put, so we ended up turning in circles. Once I felt ridiculous enough doing that, I decided walking wouldn’t be too bad. After awhile, a woman I’d been talking to before took pity on me and took over with the horse. Probably a good idea too, since no doubt I had the least experience with horses as anyone in the area. Our last foray into the hunt was when the man who went to look for the missing hounds got stuck in a field. Apparently “only Jimmy can get a 4 wheel drive stuck in a field” but he was right stuck. With the help of 5 people pushing though, we got the truck out and headed back to meet up with the group.

By the time we rejoined the group, Morgan’s daughter Jessica had joined. We stopped to meet her and I switched cars to run some errands with her. We headed over to her brother Tom’s house to meet his wife Aisling and newborn daughter, Clodagh. Jessica, Aisling, and I had a nice conversation while enjoying the company of the bright eyed 7 week old. It was a nice couple of hours, getting to know Jessica and meeting some more family. Later that night, Mary, Morgan, Jessica and I went back to Terryglass and The Derg Inn for dinner. We all had a starter, main course, and dessert and I was stuffed to the brim with yummy goodness. I finished the night as I had the last; watching the news with Morgan, interspersed with bits of conversation, ranging from education to farm subsidies. What a day J

This morning, after breakfast, Morgan brought me to mass in a nearby village. It was the first church I had been in that was built in the 20^th century, yet it was still as cold as all those huge stone churches. This was my first experience with a lack of music during mass at Irish masses. Apparently, this is somewhat normal, which makes me very sad. Music is my favorite part of mass and one of the best forms of prayer that I know of. So although I’m glad I got to mass, it was missing some of the meaning that I have come to love. After mass, we had some downtime that I used to go online and read a bit before we had lunch. By this point, it was just Mary, Morgan and I and we had lamb, which I had never had before. It was quite good, just as everything in that kitchen had been. After lunch, we snapped a few photos with Tom (the rest of the family had escaped before I realized I hadn’t gotten any pictures of them) and they packed me a bag of food that will keep me well fed for awhile. Mary drove me to the bus station and we had another opportunity to get to know each other. I loved my talks with Mary, and hope to have a few more before I leave J With a quick hug, and a wave from the bus, my weekend with the Cahalans ended.

I’m so glad I plucked up the courage to visit! I was a bit apprehensive about going to spend the weekend with people I’d never met. But once I got comfortable with Mary and Morgan, I had a great time. I loved figuring out the family connections, with its random members who have connected over the years. I got to meet a lot of the Cahalans of all ages and everyone was so welcoming. My day with Morgan showed me a lot of things I’d never encountered before and gave me an opportunity to get to know him as I wouldn’t have in other circumstances. And Mary was a wonderful host, with loads of great stories to share. I’m definitely looking forward to returning with my family to introduce everyone J

The Gift of Gab

Brace yourselves lads, it's gonna be a long post. Not only have I not blogged in a week, but I've also received the gift of gab via kissing a certain stone, so I give myself license to go on for a bit ;)

Since I last wrote, I've had a few days of classes and settled in a bit more. I can't believe I've been here two weeks. Sometimes it feels like I just got here, and other times it feels like I've been here forever. It's a bit disorienting. So far, my only other academic class I've been to (besides Intro to Traditional Music, which I talked about in my last post) is Intro to Anglo-Irish Lit. I have two other classes, but Geology doesn't start till half way through the semester, and Gaelic starts tomorrow. My lit class though, has been a good introduction to lecture-style classes. It's not my favorite format by far, but my professor is very knowledgeable and an engaging speaker. So far, we're just getting a brief overview of Irish history and the literary figures that go along with it. We just follow along with the handout and take notes. No interaction, just taking notes. As I said, not my favorite, but definitely not bad. The topic is interesting and I'd like to see how she deals with the actual literature we'll be reading.

As you may be able to tell, I have a bit of free time on my hands...yep. So I'm figuring out the best ways to use that time. I'm actually working out on a regular basis *gasp* and reading a bit as well (surprise surprise) And since it's very wet here, and I never got around to hemming my pants at home, I have hand hemmed three of my pairs of pants here. I have to say, I'm pretty proud of myself :) I also went to the Choral Society rehearsal Tuesday night. It was a lot of fun :) Since it was a night rehearsal on campus, I searched for someone to go with me, so I didn't have to walk to campus alone at night. As it turned out, no one in our CSB/SJU group wanted to go, but a guy I had met from St. Norbert was planning on going. So Derek and I trekked to campus and joined the Choral Society. It was a 2 hour rehearsal run by a student. We sang a Thomas Tallis piece and Stand By Me acapella :) There was lots of laughter and a lot of chatting throughout the rehearsal. The atmosphere was a bit different than I was used to, to say the least. It was also a completely different sound with this choir than I had ever been a part of. It took me awhile to realize that I was one of the only people singing with vibratto. I'm not sure if it was just this choir or maybe a regional trend of singing, but it was odd. It didn't sound bad, but I was much more aware of my own vibratto after I had realized that. After rehearsal, everyone was invited to go to a pub with the choir, so Derek and I joined about 15 other students and went to the pub. We got about 5 minutes of chatting with the Irish students in the society before a band started playing. They were good, but really loud, so it was hard to hold a conversation. My first real opportunity to get to know Irish students covered up by a country song. Lovely. Despite that, I really enjoyed my first foray into the clubs and societies at UCC. I'm planning on trying a few more this coming week.

This weekend, we had a planned tour of Cork, Cobh, and Blarney. This is the trip that the study abroad stipend for our program paid for. We had a bus driver named Greg, who is a native of Cork as our tour guide. We started off with a drive through Cork. We covered mostly places I had seen, which made me feel good about having found the most notable places in Cork. It was nice to actually get some of the history behind Cork. I had seen lots of the places he pointed out, but didn't know anything about them. My favorite thing in this part of the tour was the English Market. It's not too far from our apartment, and I've been there a few times. It's got so much fresh produce available everyday for cheaper prices than the grocery stores. What I didn't know about it is that it's been around for over 200 years. Some of the stall owners' families have been there since the beginning. Walking through the market with Greg was also different, because he knew a lot of the people there. He must have said hi to 15 people in the 5 minutes we were walking through.

After Cork, we drove to Cobh (pronounced cove). It's a small town outside of Cork that is right on the ocean. It's the port that most Irish people emigrated from. It's also known as Queenstown, and was the last port that the Titanic was at before it went under. The ocean was a really cool greenish color, and the view was amazing. My pictures definitely don't do it justice. In Cobh, we had vouchers to get into the heritage center, which was a small museum that taught us about the famine, emigration, convict deportation, the Titanic and the Lusitania. I also looked through a book of Irish family names and found Deignan. There was a computer where we were supposed to be able to look up more information, but it wasn't working. While in Cobh, my camera battery also died. Of course. So I didn't get many pictures of Blarney, but I managed a couple and got a friend to take pictures for me.

After Cobh, we headed to Blarney, which is only a few miles outside of Cork. For those of you who don't know, Blarney castle holds the Blarney Stone. Legend says if you kiss the Blarney Stone, you are given the gift of eloquence, or the gift of gab, as the Irish put it. Blarney is said here to be just a big tourist trap, and "not even that great of a castle," but seeing as it was my first castle in Ireland and I like the idea of the Blarney stone, I didn't mind. And we didn't have to pay to get in, thanks St. Ben's. The castle had a lot of nooks and crannies that were fun to climb around, and they made the climb to the top much more fun. The blarney stone is located at the top of the castle, part of the battlements hanging over open air at the top of the castle. In order to kiss it, you have to lay on your back and hang your head back and kiss it upside down. There are two bars that run up and down that you hold on to, and a guy whose job it is to hold people while they kiss the stone. You can also buy a picture that they snap when you come back up. I had this huge grin on my face and it was a very funny picture. But reeeally not worth 10 Euro. We finished our Blarney adventure with a walk through the poison garden, where I saw actual Mandragora (they grow them in case they need to wake Hermione from being petrified)

So those are the highlights of my past week. I'm now registered at the Guarda and officially legal to stay here for 5 months and also registered for classes. We have all the essentials for living in our apartment and have figured out some tricks for getting around and saving money. I'm sure I'll have more to tell later, but that's all I have for now. I hope I was eloquent enough for you :)

~Meg

Finally, some music :)

Music!! Today was my day of music :) I started off the day with Step Dancing, followed by Tin Whistle and capped off with the class Intro to Irish Traditional Music. And finally, we're heading to the Franciscan Well tonight to hear some more music later tonight.

The view of the music building from my bedroom
window at sunset

This morning, I headed up the hill to the music building, which is quite a hike. Between the pool, the hill, and the step dancing, I'd better be in good shape by the end of the semester! I had Step Dancing first, with a young teacher named Margaret. I brought my ghillie soft shoes, and wore them for the day, but unfortunately, the class is done in hard shoe :( It was still a great class. We started learning the reel today, but it was really slow going. We learned the leap step, which I know is important, but some of the people in the class were a bit....uncoordinated. So it took us awhile, but hopefully once they get the rhythm of things the pace will pick up. It also helped that I remember a bit of those lessons years ago, and show choir. Way to go muscle memory! It's definitely going to be a work out, and quite a way to start my week.

I then took a trip to a music store, which had a lot of cool instruments, to get my tin whistle. With careful deliberation, I found my whistle. On my way back, I stopped to buy some tap shoes, which would stand in for the real Irish hard shoes. I mean, I love authenticity and all, but if it's a difference between 30 Euros and 175 Euros I think tap shoes win. After that, I took trip number two up the hill to the music building for tin whistle.

Tin whistle turned out to be a small group class with 3 people in it so far: me, Jake (from St. John's) and Verina, a girl from Germany. We started off with a scale and the basics of tin whistle and moved quickly to start learning ornamentation. By the end of the lesson, we had learned out first Irish song on the tin whistle :) We have the music and a recording to listen to and instructions to practice before next class. Which I'm actually going to do.

St. Finn Barr's Cathedral from a dirty window of the
Music building

Now, if you draw a mental map of the places I've been today, my apartment, the music building, and the main campus make a rough triangle with the river running through the middle. After tin whistle, I needed to get to the main campus to register for my classes, but I'd never walked from the music building to campus. I had been told about a staircase between houses and a Shaky Bridge I should cross to get to campus. So off I went. It was farther than I thought to the stairway, but I eventually found it and got to the bridge that didn't look unstable or anything, but was a little shaky in the middle, thus the name Shaky Bridge. I made it to campus and registered just fine. I can officially take classes here now.

My final class today was Intro to Irish Traditional Music. It was in a mid-sized lecture hall and it was packed. Apparently they can only have 80 people in the class but already had 91 registered and still more wanting in. Either way, I registered last Tuesday, so I should be fine. The class was taught by my tin whistle prof and was pretty interesting. We got an overview of the harp and fiddle in Ireland, and listened to examples of a few things. Overall, it was my first full lecture class and though it's not my preferred lesson format, I think it's going to be a cool class. And one of our papers (out of 2 total) is comparing a trad session and concert setting, which means we have to go to each. Which I think will be a good paper :)

I'm finally back at my apartment to get some dinner and sit down. It's been a long day, but awesome. I can tell Mondays are going to be good days :) I think we're going to go to a pub tonight that has live music as well, so that'll be a good way to end my musical day. I'm really excited to see where these classes take me. Maybe by the end I'll be able to give you a history of the tin whistle and I'll dance and play for you :P

Roses and Birdsong in January

On my way back to my apartment today, I walked through the Mardyke Park, which sits on the river. It's not sunny, but it is warm enough to just wear a sweatshirt. I was enjoying the view of the river when I realized that there were birds singing in the park and roses on the bushes. And it's January! It's honestly 50 degrees (F) outside and it's great :) I don't thinks it absolutely normal here, but I'll take it.

Today is Friday, which for me, means I have no classes :) We were going to get up super early to go to the Guarda to register with the Irish government, but Rochelle wasn't feeling well, and she was the one who knows how to get there....so we slept in. Once we finally rolled out of bed, Julia and I went to explore the Mardyke Sports center, which is basically the YMCA of Cork and free to UCC students.

I decided to swim, and what a great idea. Pros of this pool: lap swimmers circle swim. Cons of this pool: they circle swim backwards. Now that took a turn of mind, swimming on the left side of the lane. I ended

up joining the other people in my lane doing some 100 IM sets, some fast, some slow, and a cool down. One guy was acting basically as the coach, even reminding us of things to work on with each set. I really enjoyed it, even though it was a harder workout than I was used to. Not to mention that it was a metre pool not a yard pool. I also explored the machines and they're really nice as well.

W.B. Yeats, who my proff says
 is the overreaching giant she
can't ignore when covering Irish lit

Yesterday, I had my first class and I'm really excited about it. It was the Intro to Anglo-Irish Lit class. It's an overview of Irish Lit written in English including poetry, drama and fiction. The proff was engaging and seemed really knowledgeable about the subject. We're also going to get a general overview of Irish history to begin with. She said it would be a lot of reading, but it seems pretty comparable (even a bit less) than the reading I do at home. I can't wait to see how it goes :) Last night, we decided to explore another recommended pub, An Brog. We apparently went too early for dancing, but that's ok, we were all too tired anyway. We did meet 2 Irish boys who were quite entertaining. One of them plays in a band and we got a flyer from him and we'll probably go see it next week. It was quite a fun night :)

Now I'm off to the English Market to explore and possibly find a second hand bookstore to get my texts for the English class. Definitely a great day for wandering :)

~Meg