Happy Birthday, Mom!

Sorry I've been rushing around like mad lately, and haven't really had a whole lot of time to post. But let me catch you up on what I've been doing, minus pictures, since blogger won't let me post them right now. Bizarre.

Went to St. Pat's finally, and got acclimated, a little bit, at least, to the campus. I was going to take two classes there, but after some careful thought, I've decided to only do the a Literary Criticism class, because the other one is pretty much doubling up what I'm learning in my Joyce class, and I like Prof. O'Connor a whole bunch. Also, it would mean dropping Celtic Myths and Legends, which is the class I'm learning Gaelic in, and quitting student council, which is really quite a lot of fun. There will be some unhappy English majors on the bus on Wednesday mornings, as our class starts at 9, which makes us get on the bus around 8 in the am. Gross.

Em, what else? Oh! Went up to Knowth (say it now-th) on Monday for a field trip, which was...well...I could lie and say it was loads of fun, but I won't. It was a bunch of big burial mounds, really, just giant hills of dirt. With rocks around them. Although, Jess and I did rub a fertility stone...guess what it was shaped like? And we met a druid, oddly enough. He was our tour guide, and his name was Adrian, and he had fantastic long dark curly hair. Kept blowing in his eyes, because it was beyond ridiculously windy that day. He told us to be sure to keep behind the wind guards, because otherwise we'd blow off the mounds and die. That's how he said it. But really, I mean, I guess the history of the place was pretty cool, we just went with our crazy art teacher, and we were scared she was going to leave us out there alone. And we ate blackberries. Because me and Jess and Howie do that everywhere we go. Mmmm.

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING HALF OF THE POST CONTAINS REINACTMENTS OF DRUNKEN ESCAPADES. IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO READ THOSE, PLEASE EXIT THE BLOG NOW. HAVE A NICE DAY.

Okay, this week was also Septemberfest, which is the real reason I've not been posting. Septemberfest is, of course, the five day period containing the birthdays of Taylor, Kelsey, Casey, and Howie. But first...what happened on Friday night?

We drank, that's what happened. And we (Leeson kids) walked over to Mt. Pleasant for a "Wine but no Cheese" party, and on the way there...I made a jackass of myself. I fell in the street and smashed my foot against the kerb (cool spelling, eh?), which I totally blame on Ryan, since he was supposed to, em, not let me get killed. Bad form. But once we got there, I swiped a suit jacket and looked very classy at The Barge, where we went afterwards. When we got back, Howie and TJ decided that a foot massage was in order, because I clearly messed up a muscle in my foot when I fell. Turns out, I actually did some tissue damage to the foot, so not sure the massage helped so much. Now, on to Taylor's birthday!

So, really, the Leeson kids had been drinking pretty hardcore since Thursday night, and by the time Sunday rolled around, we were ready to get out and do things. So we did. We started out drinking, just the roomies, (me Steph Taylor) and then headed up to the girls for cake, balloons, and party hats. And more drinking. We think Taylor had about...11 before she went out :) And then we all went out to The Barge, which has become kind of a thing for us, and the bartender kept yelling at Taylor to put her shoes on, and I bought her (Taylor, not the bartender) a shot of Bailey's, and we all made her dance with this ridiculously clotheslined guy, and then we walked her home. Where she proceeded to have a picnic in the bathtub. Pretty sure there are still soggy pretzels and peanut butter on the floor.

The Leeson kids took a break the next night, as we'd been partying like rockstars for about a week or so, but we did go down and visit Kelsey, who was drinking straight gin by the time we got there and fell going out the door. She wasn't out for very long.

And then the day of rest.

Casey's birthday was last night; we started at midnight with champagne, and then we all got together around 7ish last night, but didn't actually go out until 8.30, when we were all nice and alcoholed. We made it to this place called Flannery's, and the bouncers were kind of jerks to us, but after we got in, we had a blast being the loud American jackasses we all were. It was a more "American" style bar, I think, with lots of people, loud music, not really dancing, though. In any case, they played our kind of music: John Mellancamp, Billy Joel, that sort of thing. At one point, there were...em...11 of us standing in a circle, screaming the words to "We Didn't Start the Fire" at the top of our lungs, and jumping around, generally acting crazy, and I glanced over and these Irish guys were just staring at us like we were insane. Which, of course, we were.

Also, when I ordered my first pint there, some big bald guy was sitting beside me, sloshed out of his mind, and he just kept saying, "Sure, and you're absolutely gorgeous, darling," to me. It was nice, but kind of creepy. In any case, we had a blast. And then Howie's birthday started at midnight, so I bought him a shot of Bailey's (that's kind of my thing. none of these guys really drink bailey's, and it's not a mean shot to buy) because he wants to do his 21 shots. He took six last night while we were out, and four this morning before we went to class, so he's on track to make it. His roommates, good guys that they are, are going shot for shot with him. Jess and I are the designated sober walkers/cab hailers tonight.

And now for something totally different...

I'm going to talk about people in this post. So here we go.

Taylor Blue: One of my roommates, and a fine specimen of a Leeson Lady. Which is what we call ourselves. Her birthday was yesterday, and we took her out and had a blast. She's from Florida and goes to school in California, and I've never met a more independent woman. She's silly and crazy and off the wall and loyal and funny, and I think my life has already been made richer just by knowing her. We've got similar senses of humor; like we just spent 20 minutes sitting right next to each other, touching practically, IMing each other and laughing like lunatics. She eats veggie burgers and drinks like a champion, and I wish I knew enough words to tell you about her, but even as a poet, I find myself falling short. She's a math major, but a really cool one, unlike some people I know ;).

Stephanie Miller: Another of my roommates, and another fantastic gal. I've honestly never met anyone nicer...she never has a cross word to say about anyone, really. She's a New York girl, born and bred, but not the city type. Definitely more of a small town girl, which is nice. A fellow English major, but she's also into psychology. She's loyal and unpretentious and sweet and nothing but honest.

Casey Hanley: Next door neighbor, and...a crazy, really, but in a good way. I don't know if she's someone that I would have met somewhere but Ireland, but I'm glad that I did. We hang out and eat and do nothing, or make Taylor drink, or drink lots of beers together. She's a religion major, which is terribly interesting, and she talks politics with me when we drink, which makes me a little less homesick for my boys.

Jess Lothman: My long lost soulmate. We've got similar thought patterns, and speech patterns, and career goals and laughs. A fellow mid-westerner (MW!!!), and I'll be surprised if I don't end up going to grad school with her. That's really all you need to know about her.

I don't feel like discussing the guys tonight. So that's all you get for now. Boys, weekend update, and what other people think about me to come tomorrow.

And suddenly there is light!

I got an email from IU, saying that half of my money should be posted tomorrow, or by Monday. Hooray!!!! So the starving artist is no longer. And really, even though nothing bad happened to me, I don't think I'm impressed with the having no money thing. I need a financial backer so I can write poetry. Feel free to sign up at the end of this post :)

Had my Art History class today. Taught by the weirdest woman ever. She takes us to museums around the city, wanders around with us a bit, and then leaves us there, assuming we know how to get home. Which we've managed to figure out both times, but jeez, lady, give us a break. She's taking us on a field trip on Monday, so if I get left in the Irish countryside, you won't hear from me for a while.

Went on a slightly different sort of walking tour of Dublin today, one that sort of showed us the underbelly of the city. It was really sort of shocking, to be able to see the smokestacks of the Guinness brewery, and have our instructor tell us that everyone in the flats in front of us knew or was related to someone who had died a herion or AIDS related death. These places were barely off the tourist-beaten path, and yet invisible to us. Darren, that's our instructor, stopped to talk a girl he used to social work for. She was weary looking, lined in the face, and her hair was long, stringy, but she met him with a big hug and smile. There was a hospital band around one wrist and tracks up both of her arms. Darren asked after her six-year-old son and her new baby. The baby had been stillborn, not a week ago, and she was out and about. She was 23, by the way, and looked more than 30.

I've spent the evening trying to plan my spring semester, and I think I've got it all worked out. I'm going to relax my class load, and probably only take 12 hours. With my free time, I'm going to pick up both a job and an internship, and hopefully grant money along with the internship. When the summer rolls around, hopefully I'll have my parents (along with most of my credit card bill) paid off, and I'll be able to hold onto the job for cash, and maybe find another small hours internship in town, or be able to look out of town for a paid one.

On a non-Ireland note...thoughts and prayers out to the Snyder family. RIP, David, we all love and miss you.

Good night, my loved ones, and sleep well.

The Flip Side

Since I post about all my happy and fun things, I suppose I can take a minute to post about not so happy things, like my checking account.

There was some sort of snafu with my money clearing, which meant that I came to Ireland with about...well, let's just say a lot less money than what I'd planned on having here. They promised me before I left that I'd have the money the first Monday I was over here.

Which would have been fine, had that actually happened.

Here we are, beginning of...week 3, believe it or not, and still no money from IU. Now, mind you, this is my Stafford money, the money I get from the government, that hasn't cleared. It's been okayed by everyone, IU just hasn't released it into my account yet.

As I had to pay my credit card bill this morning, things just got dire for Erin. Luckily, my credit card hasn't been refused anywhere, since apparently, I didn't make any charges last month, so they didn't send me an online statement, so I was a few days late in paying that. Hooray, late fees!

And the worst of it is, I've been sticking to my budget. If I had spent a ridiculous amount of money so far, I wouldn't be complaining. But honestly, I'm right where I should be, if only the money was where it should be.

/end freakout

Some notes on the day

First off, my Joyce class went beyond fantasically today. We start every class off by breaking into small groups and reading a passage of Finnegan's Wake. Both weeks now I've been the reader for my group, as they like my outloud rhythm, and since I hold the book, Prof. O'Connor has asked me what we glean from our reading/small group discussion. Last week, she told me my reading of the passage was very sophisticated, and today she said I was brilliant and spot on. I talked with her after class, and she really thinks I have a knack for reading and interpreting Joyce, so she suggested some books to me, which I'm picking up after class tomorrow. I like to be encouraged by teachers, because it only makes me want to do better. Also, Finnegan's Wake gives me (as though I needed one) another excuse to expand my library, as it makes references to nearly every book ever written, apparently. I think this class could turn me into a Joyce scholar, which is sort of a shame, seeing as I can't do anything with it at IU. Maybe, in addition to doing my creative Honors thesis, I can find a Prof who would be willing to work on a Joyce piece with me as well. IU needs a Joyce specialist...maybe I can come back in a couple (10) years, well versed enough in Irish myth literature and Joyce to be considered an important addition to the staff. Dream job :)

I got some poetry written today, some of which is terrible but has great potential, some of which was pretty good on the first write. It's been a literarily successful day for me. Now, I'm just waiting up to hear from Mike and then head off to bed for the night. Late class tomorrow, so I'll be having a bit of a lie-in. Have a good night, everyone!

The Weekend Warrior Returns!

Cheers, all! I've just gotten back from my weekend in Galway, which was packed with loads of fun and excitement. Details to follow.

Taylor, Casey, and Steph left early on Friday, so they got in before I did. Jess, Erin, Katie, and I stayed behind to do the scavenger hunt (pics of that when I get them from Jess/Erin), so we left on a later bus and got into Galway around 11.30 or so. To The Claddaugh. Which is a hostel in Galway and was...an experience to say the least. There were 10 bunked beds in a room about the size of my bedroom in Bloomington, maybe a little bit smaller. And the pillows were plastic. But the first night it was just us, and this older American women and her daughter. So the next morning we were up bright and early and went out on a bus tour of Galway with the craziest bus driver EVER. Sadly, I can't get my picture of him to load, but as soon as I get it, it'll be up. I'll just have a random picture post at some point, I guess. So we left Galway at 10 or so in the morning and this was our first stop.


This is just looking out over Galway. Like...that's the countryside. And I'm on the otherside of the camera. This is more what I pictured Ireland looking like, just little cottages nestled in green. Look how green. And how far you can see. It's amazing.

This is a picture of the Burren (say it Burn) region. The Gaelic word for it is, I think, Al Burren, which means the rocky country. And, as you can tell, it is. The Burren was formed 800...million...years ago, 800...million years (that's what Desmond said, a lot of times. Pretty funny). It's all limestone, so it gets pretty hot up there in the summer, and there are flowers that just grow there, nowhere else in Ireland or the world. But it was just rocks while we were there.

Another random scenery picture. You'll see a lot of these, so sorry if they kind of look the same. It's a lot prettier in person.

This is a standing stone structure in the Burren region, and it's supposedly a burial structure erected by the ancient people who inhabited Ireland thousands of years ago. Awesome, eh? A cool kind of Stonehenge-y kind of thing. Yes. And we played mountain goats jumping around on the rocks. Not those big rocks, but the little ones in the ground.

Here's a castle. On the side of the road. I know you're jealous.

This a view of the lookout tower at the Cliffs of Moher. We didn't go up it, because it cost an extra 2 Euro, and frankly, we were high enough to have a damn good view already, in case you can't tell.

Don't I look like a postcard??? But yeah, those are the Cliffs of Moher behind me. And I suggest anyone who wants to visit the Cliffs gets there quickly. You can't tell in any of my pictures, but there's a lot of construction going on, on a new vistior's/viewing centre, but it just won't be the same, I think.

This is a straight down view from where I was standing on the cliffs. There are no fences, no rails, not even a warning sign. If you wanted to jump off, you could. And that's fantastic, because you can get so much closer, and really appreciate it a lot more, I think.

Here's Erin, Jess, and Steph looking thoughtful on the Cliffs.

Me, Taylor, and Casey doing the same. We're so cute.

Here's me looking cute (and a little pudgy) by the lookout tower. We tried to take pictures of each other, so we could send them home and show people we were really here.

Here's my feet (on the right, with the cool shoelaces) and Taylor's feet, on the edge of the world. At least, it kind of felt that way. Pretty awesome.

This is me, hanging out in a sloping meadow thing on the edge of the Cliffs. We had to hop a barbed wire fence to get to this place, and walk down a really narrow, steep footpath to get here, but it was totally worth it.

My gal pals wandering down a mountain in the Burren. Aren't they cute?

This is...I think, O'Brien castle, owned by the decendents of Brian Boru. Look him up yourself, he's a really cool High King of Ireland. The clan O'Ceallaigh (that's the Gaelic spelling of Kelly/Kelley) fought alongside him in his fight to keep the throne. He's a good guy and we like him. At low tide, it's not surrounded by water, so we stopped on our way back into Galway to take a cool water picture with the castle.

After we got done with our bus tour of the countryside, we went back to the hostel to find Brunhilda moved in to our room. She was a...ahem...rather large girl of German decent. Casey tried to make friends with her. Here's how the conversation went: Casey: So, I'm Casey. Brunhilda: My name is Katherine. Casey: Where in Germany are you from? Brunhilda: I'm from the West. Casey: Oh, I've heard of that. After that, she didn't talk anymore, just sat in the corner and stared at us. Guess who had to sleep in the bed nearest to hers? Yeah, that was me. We went out and had some really fantastic Italian food that night, and hung out and listened to live music for a while, met up with Howie, Ryan, and Dan, and also Steph's friend Jane, and some of Jane's friends. Everyone was feeling a little homesick, though, it seemed, so it was kind of a low-key night. For most of us, anyhow. Up bright and early the next day. We took a bus to a dock, and then ferried on over to the Aran Islands, where we rented bikes and rode around on Inishmor, which is the biggest of the three islands. We managed to all get over without getting seasick and here's what we saw!Rambly Irish island countryside. How amazing.

Little guy's not too happy, since Jess and I spooked Momma away. He was having lunch.

Jess, in the ocean. With a coat on. Crazy girl.

This is my favorite picture from the day. I jumped up into a cemetery and snapped this one. It's just fantastic.

This is the cool little cafe place where we stopped at for lunch. I had homemade veggie soup and brown bread that was absolutely divine. Very warm and filling for 3 euro. On we bike!

Picture of the girls from behind. I was the slow poke all day, mostly because this is where I wanted to be, behind and a little alone, exploring the countryside at my own pace :). That's just how I am. But we came to this fort called Dun Aonghasa (Fort Angus in English). We paid a euro each to walk up here, and you'll see why in a minute.

Here's us gazing over the edge, contemplating life, the universe, and everything.

This is me by the edge of the wall that's there. There's nothing on the other side of that. Nothing but ocean, baby.

Here's a good view of what it looked like from where I was standing in the last picture.

A pithy little sign posted just before we got up to the fort.

This is a fantastic sign on the dock. Pretty self-explanatory.

As much as I've tried, I can't fully explain what this weekend was to you. You can see the pictures, but you can't taste the blackberries we picked off the side of the road, you can't feel the cow's fur, or hear the ocean wind rushing up over the cliffs. That's why I write poetry.

But it's late...and I need supper and bedtime and talking to the fam. Love you all! Oh, and I did turn on word verification, so make sure you test that out.

When you're around, I'm always laughin' :)

Listening to the B-52s, baby. My roommates are all gone; Steph and Taylor took an early bus out of town and Mikat, whom I haven't mentioned a lot, is sick and went to the emergency room with Siobhan. Spare an extra thought/prayer for her, if you do that. She's pretty quiet and doesn't hang out with us a lot, but she's still a cool girl.

Went out with a HUGE group of us last night. No pictures yet; since my camera eats batteries, whenever we go out from now on, I'll probably just have the other girls email me pictures. Plus, we all know my tendency to leave things places or lose things. Speaking of, I lost an earring last night :(. Now, it's not as though it was a particularly nice earring, just a cheap target earring, but it was long and dangly and silver and pink, and I'd been getting compliments on them all night. Maybe someone found it on the way home, or maybe it'll show up around the flat somewhere. Boo.

A fantastic bit of news I have to share with you. I'm a juice drinker, and when I was younger, I went to the Ocean Spray factory, and when we were done with the tour, we got to go down to a testing room and try a bunch of juice. Seriously, this was a long time ago, and anyone who knows me very well knows that my favorite juice there was the Cran-Currant juice. Well, when I went into the grocery my first day, I was browsing the juice aisle, and there it was, Cranberry-Black currant juice!!!! So, I didn't make it up. It's real. And it's delicious.

More strange things about Ireland:
Always a queue (or Q) and never a line. "So, are you queueing up for the bar there?"
Americans are loud, or the Irish are quiet. I'm inclined to think the former. We're always hyper aware of ourselves when we go in some place. People stare and they know we are American.
Another thing...at home, I'd think nothing of going out in a group of 10-20 people...we never see Irish people out in bigger groups than 2 or 3, maybe 4. Maybe because they're quiet and couldn't talk loud enough for more people to hear them :P.
Siobhan said "Cheerio!" on the phone with me today :)
Pints are big. Like, really. Go find a pint mearsuring cup and look at it. I can drink about two beers when I'm out and I'm good for the rest of the evening.

That's all on that for now. One more thing: I'm sick, or getting that way...not sure which. Runny nose, sore ears and throat, that kind of thing. I'll buy vitamins and cough drops today before I leave for Galway. I won't be back again to check on the blog or you guys 'til Monday, but I will have my cell if you need to get a hold of me on that. And I promise I'll have fantastic pictures, no matter what. But I need to pack and eat lunch, so I'm signing off. Have a good weekend everyone!

P.S. Taylor busted out the southern accent last night. You should be looking forward to those pictures when I come home :)

Upkeep

A quick post on my break...I'll be walking over to my Art History Class in a few shakes...but. I had another spam comment last night, but still. That's only been three the whole time I've been writing so I don't consider it a problem yet. If it becomes a problem, I will have to turn on word verification, which means that you'll have a little picture with some letters in it, and you'll have to type those letters in a box before you can post a comment. It's a little bit of a hassle, so I'll hold off on doing that as long as I can.

More pictures!

Most of these are from Leeson Kids Go to the Pub night, so I'll just run through them with you, give you a little bit of an idea what's going on.




This is Steph, Ryan, and Casey posing with this weird statue of a dog and rabbit hugging. Casey just has her eyes closed, she's not plastered, honestly.

Same kids, plus Howie, who's trying to get someone to hug him so they can look like the statue, but nobody will. Poor Howie :( In the background, Steph has some serious butt-grabbing going on.

Photographically, this is the coolest picture Taylor took, I think. That's me and Howie walking home from Arlington, with O'Connell street blurred around us. Well shot, Taylor!

Me, Ryan, Howie, my delinquent flatmate with a stolen pint glass. Actually, that doesn't seem to be a big deal here...you can just walk out on the street drinking your pint. So no one really cares, we think, if you wander off with one or two.

Awesome group picture!!!! The people you don't know yet...those guys on the left. Francis is the dark-headed one on the far left, Tim is in the white (I think I called him TJ in an earlier post) and TJ is the guy in the blue. You know everyone else. Aren't we cool with our pints and smiles and stool-surfing Howie?

Aww...cute girls at the pub.

This is our cute, hey we're excited to be in Dublin on the bridge over the Liffey picture we took while out shopping earlier in the afternoon. The girl in the pink is Katie, she's also a Leeson Lady, but she doesn't hang out with us a lot. Kind of the quiet, to herself type. For those of you who think Ireland is always rainy and gross...check out the sun!

That's all for tonight, I think, because I'm getting sleepy, so I think I'll read until Mike calls and then catch my Zs. Up early for two new classes tomorrow...Irish Communal Identity, which is a service class, mostly, and Irish Art History. Fun fun.

Thoughts on classes and other things...

So far I've gone to three classes; I already gave you guys a run-down of the Joyce class. Taught by Prof. O'Connor, for further reference. You care, I can tell.

The class after that yesterday was Northern Irish Trouble, taught by Kevin Raferty. This guy definitely knows his stuff...he's a political liason, journalist, something important like that. He just tossed out a lot of information that first day; I took about 5 pages of notes. And he's really pushing the book he wrote on us, which I'm not sure if I like or not. I'm leaning towards not. I feel like I'm going to get a lot out of this class...he said the goal was to be able to speak intelligently about the conflict in Ireland. Which will be a good thing to have gotten out of this trip. It'll be hard, but I'm hoping to enjoy it.

My class today, though, was fantastic. It's titled Celtic Myths and Legends, but in addition to learning all the old Irish stories and legends, we learn religion, and half our class is devoted to learning Irish :) I'll post some later, when I know more and have some time.

But the girls just got from class, so we're gonna hang out for a while. I'll post again when I have pictures :)

Leeson Kids go to the Pub

I promised picture goodness from last night, and, though I don't have any of the dancers or the cool old guys who played the Irish music last night, I do have...well, we'll call this post a human interest piece. Introducing my new friends:


We went down to The Arlington last night, the whole big clan of IES kids, and I was sitting with these guys and a few others for most of the night. The guy in glasses is Tim; I actually just met him last night, but he seemed impressed enough by my Irish singing abilities that he bought me a pint :) so he's a good guy in my book. The other guy is Dan, who lives out in Leeson, as do all the girls in the picture. He's a cool guy, even though he's a Duke fan. We played euchre and won. The redhead in the foreground is another Erin; there are three of us. She's also really cool and will be going to Galway with us this weekend. The girl in the dark shirt next to me is Jess and she's the midwestern girl I spoke of earlier; she made me a really fantastic lunch yesterday, so I owe her a meal. And the gal in the green is my roommate, Taylor, whom you met earlier in the fantastic fur hat :). We're just having a pint, talking, generally enjoying each other's company.

Okay, you can't see it really in the picture...stupid flash and dark pub...but this is my pint of Guinness and there's a shamrock in the foam. That's cool, guys. Oh, and those are Taylor's hand model hands.

This is Taylor, Steph, and Casey doing silly things on our walk home...I think they were running and posing. Or something. Ryan is on the right, Howie is on the left. When I have better pictures of them, I'll introduce them to y'all.

And here's Casey showing off a fantastic pillar of the Irish National Bank. Isn't it nice? Isn't she lovely?

And here's the girls posing with the world famous Molly Malone, known in Dublin as the dish with the fish, the tart with the cart, and the trollop with the scallop. She's the most famous person to fall victim to the Liffey fever. Alive, alive-o.

Posts yet to come...a constantly updating post on the pubs I've visited and my impressions of them, a post of misconceptions of Ireland and Irish people, and a piece that more fully evaluates my roommates, but I figure I'll do that when I have better pictures of them. We've got plans in place to go to Galway this weekend, so after Thursday, I might not post again 'til Monday, but I'll take lots of pictures and good notes for you.

Taking a break

First class is done, we're on lunch break until class number two starts. As you may or may not know, my first class this morning was titled "Joyce: Indentity, Place, Perception", and the woman who teaches it is absolutely brilliant. We went around the room and told our majors and for every single one of us, she had one or two outside books that we needed to read that somehow related to our majors, interests, and Joyce. I pity everyone who's in school who will never have this woman as a teacher. As a side note, Austin, pick up Finnegan's Wake and drive yourself crazy for...oh, the rest of your life with it. The passage we read today read like a play, looked like a novel and moved like the baset language poetry I've ever read. Let's suppose e.e.cummings smoked a lot of crack and then got a pair of scissors and cut up all of his poetry and a huge dictionary from about every language spoken on the planet and glued words down, and then took white out and rewrote over some of the words to make them different. That's kind of the feel I got from Finnegan's Wake.

But yes, we're on to Northern Irish Troubles after our break, and I feel as though it'll be a huge let down after the lecture/talk/exploration given by my Joyce professor.

Sorry no pics posted last night, got in a bit late, for a school night, and needed to get some rest, plus our seats weren't that great for picture taking. I should have some emailed to me tonight and ready to post after I get home from class. We're all hitting another pub, Corrigan's, after class; we hear it's a cheap one. :)

A little worn out

This'll probably be a two-post day, depending on how sleepy I am when I get in tonight. Classes start tomorrow for this little Dubliner :) Okay, I'm not a Dubliner at all, but I have read the book, and I am living here, however short the time may be. And I didn't make an idiot of myself today, which is nice.

Went down to Grafton and O'Connell street with Steph, Taylor (flatmates), Katie, and Jess (neighbor girls). We wanted to get some fresh produce type things, and it's all really cheap from the street vendor. I had less than 6 euro in my pocket today and I bought 4 postcards, a bag of new potatoes, 2 onions, a stalk of broccoli and 100 grams of spiced beef (that's about 4 sandwich pieces from a delicatessen). I felt pretty good. And then I did some more grocery shopping, got things like tuna, sliced cheese, bread, mayo, chips...crisps, I suppose :), juice and a soda, among a couple other things, for 20 euro, and I think I won't need to buy groceries again for another week and half at least. Except for chicken teriyaki night. I'll buy the chicken fresh.

Also went into Penney's today. It's not a J.C. Penny's, just called Penney's, and it's got some insanely cheap clothes. Taylor, the flatmate from warmer places, has bought a couple sweaters there, one for 11 euro and one for 7. That's nuts. And nearly everything there is extremely affordable.

The weather was so so nice today. I shed my so far usual sweater and boots for a tee shirt and Chucks today. Felt like I was back at IU, sporting my Mario tee. And then I remembered that Dublin is way more awesome than Indiana and I felt better ;). Just teasing guys. Mostly.

But the reason that today is going to be a double post day...toinght we're going to a pub (of course) that has traditional Irish music and dancing. So I'll take the hit and look like the goofy tourist just so you guys can see what's going on here in my world. You know, if you guys wanted to carry a camera around and send me pictures of your every day lives, I wouldn't mind.

I've been trying to stay fairly busy and keep myself surrounded with people, because it's those times when you're sitting alone in the flat when homesickness creeps up on you. And I think everyone is feeling that way, so we all try to stay together. Played euchre last night and won! Of course :) I only played two hands, but I feel like I definitely contributed to the win.

We were going to head up to Phoenix Park today, but I think we all might be a little too worn out after our shopping adventures. Oh, I'm not buying any gifts yet, but if anyone has an idea of what they'd like brought back, or something you collect that you'd like one of from Ireland, let me know in the comment section.

But I'm off to eat with Jess, a neighbor girl and fellow midwesterner. Have a good day!

Some cultural differences

I'm listening to Christmas music, but that's not a cultural difference, just me being strange. But lots of people have been asking me questions about how different it is here from America, and what those differences are, so here we go, guys.

People:
Dublin is very young city. It's not uncommon to see a lot of older guys in a pub, but as far as walking down the street, mostly everyone is in the 20-30 crowd. We've seen a lot of younger looking girls, my age or around, with two kids. I think it's because it's so expensive to live in the city that a lot of older people live outside and commute in, while the people here were either born here, or are young executive types.

The people here walk very quickly; when I walk with another person or a group, we're forever getting passed by Irish people. Maybe that's more of a city thing, but I don't feel as though I'm a particularly slow walker. There is kind of a crush of people, but people don't really say sorry or excuse me. They'll just bump you and assume you understand, because it's a crowded place.

It seems that, as a general rule, more people here wear nicer clothes, like nice pants or skirts. Lots of collared shirts, nice shoes. The younger crowd seems to have a lot of the American/Japanese goth influence, heavy boots, weird striped colored socks. This isn't to say there aren't people in jeans and tee shirts, but I feel like I'm seeing it much less often than at home.

The mohawk is in here. As is the mullet.

Out in the pubs, though, people are very friendly. Every Irishman I've met's been nothing but drunk and utterly charming. It's not unusual to find men in their 30s chatting up considerably younger girls in the pubs. Or maybe that's because we're American girls and everyone loves us. Siobhan told us that Irish boys really like American girls, because they're shy and we're very chatty. But so far, we've not run into any American-hating Irish. Let's just hope GWB doesn't do something even more ridiculous while we're over here, like...I don't know, try to conquer the country. I think our popularity would take a hit.

Drinking is central to everything, be it tea or beer. And if an Irish person offers you tea, it's customary to refuse the first time, maybe even the second, and not accept 'til the third time. Unless, you know, you're in a restaurant. It's always, "Let's meet for a drink" or "Yeah, we'll get a drink sometime." Never supper or a walk in the park. Always a drink.

The Flat:
Was very bizarre for the first couple days. They're very big into conservation of energy and recycling over here, so there are seperate switches for things. Like, outside our bathroom, there's a red switch that we have to flip on to have hot water for our shower. Also, the lightswitches are all outside the room. Same in the kitchen, big red switch to make the outlets and the stove work. Think of it as having breakers everywhere to have to throw every time you wanted to do something.

Air conditioning is not really a big thing here. It's almost always cold and damp, so not many places have it. Our beds were very warm, though; they put on three big blankets, plus a couple of sheets for each of us.

The water almost always comes out of seperate taps. I have no idea why. Maybe it's another conservation thing. And even in our kitchen, where the water comes out of the same tap, it's weird, because the cold water comes out straight down and the hot water comes out around it, so you still burn or freeze your hands while washing a dish.

Vocabulary:

This is by far the most interesting to me. Here's a short list of words I've heard, or new ones and what they mean.
Obliged- it seems to be used more frequently here, as in "Students are obliged to meet once a month with their tutors."
Rota- a shortened version of the word rotation
One down- Megan said that when she didn't have enough papers to hand out. "Oh, it seems I'm one down."
veg- for vegetable, instead of veggie
take away- this is used instead of take out, like for food

Have also heard used in coversation: dodgy, snarky, mad, brilliant, mental :) I feel like I'm in a Harry Potter book.

General:
Phones here are weird, cell phones in particular. It doesn't seem to me that one can get a phone plan like we're used to in the states, with paying a certain amount every month for so many minutes or unlimited calls. They all seem to be pre-paid, and you can go anywhere to "top up" your minutes. You put some money in a machine, 10, 20, or 40 euro and it gives you a little receipt with a number you call and a PIN number to access your minutes, which are then credited to the phone. You have a month to use them, and then you lose them.

Calls are insanely expensive. It's between 50 and 65 cents a minute during the day, but only 6 cents for text messages, so that's what nearly everyone does here. It doesn't cost anything to receive messages either, so that's generally the way people here go. Mom, you'd die if you ever moved here, I think :).

Food is...weird. A lot more fresh produce and for cheap here, if you buy if from the street vendors. And always bring your own grocery bag to the store; you'll be charge 15 cents per plastic bag. More of that conservation thing. :)

I think that's all for now. I need a shower. But if you have any other culture questions, leave them in the comment section. I love comments, so as many as you want would be fantastic!

Good to know that insomnia travels well...

Yeah, it's like 2.30 in the morning here and I'm still up on the computer. Nice that habits don't change. The other roomies have been in bed for a couple hours now, but I'm just not sleepy. Catching up on the football game with Mike...way to go Hoosiers and coach Hep! But. I told you I'd update on what I did today. So here goes.

Today we all met in front of the Leeson Street Lounge for a hop-on, hop-off tour of Dublin, which was very very cool. (quick note: there are not enough adjectives in the english language for me to describe everything I'm doing and seeing here, so if I overuse them, I apologize.) We walked down to St. Stephen's green and did our first hop-off a couple stops later, at St. Patrick's Cathedral. Let's take a walk around. But first, some minor history. St. Patrick's, despite the name and what I thought, is not Catholic. The church was originally founded Catholic, but became Methodist in 1530 or thereabouts. That's really the important thing, but this is cool too. Attached to the cathedral is the largest public libaray in Ireland, founded by Narcissus Marsh in the 1700s. You can't check any books out, as they're all priceless manuscripts, and they've got a flaw-proof security system in place to prevent patrons from stealing the books. They lock them in cages while they read. Fantastic. On with the pictures.



Anyone seeing a pattern here? I really want an Irish wolfhound. This particular stone dog is sleeping peacefully inside the cathedral, with four of his brothers, serving as guards for a monument dedicated to the soliders who died in WW2. Notice that detailing on his fur. Amazing for people who didn't have indoor plumbing, eh?

Yes, I know this looks like a big giant list of names, because, well, it is. But underneath it, stretching all the way across the wall way too far for my camera to encompass, a pretty gold script read, "Roll of the Knights of the Most Illustrious Order of Saint Patrick." Awesome, huh?

This, clearly, is blurry and badly taken picture of the altar of St. Patrick's but I had to get it on here anyway. It's still very pretty, isn't it?

This is the plaque that bears the epitaph of Jonathan Swift. The smug, conceited man wrote his own epitaph by the way, as did many of my writing heroes, but that's neither here nor there. Let me impress you with my translation skills, as you can see the writing is Latin. In English, it reads, "Here lies the body of Jonathan Swift, D.D, dean of this cathedral, where burning indignation can no longer lacerate his heart. Go, traveler, and imitate if you can a man who was an undaunted champion of liberty." How perfectly wonderful. Jonathan Swift, as you may or may not know, was a famous Dublin author; he wrote Gulliver's Travels, A Modest Proposal, and The Drapier Letters. A good guy, really.

These two go together. So I grouped them that way. The inscription reads "This Stone was raised 18th June 1901 six feet below the surface of the traditional site of St. Patrick's Well. Is 91 feet due north from the north west angle of the tower." That was the well where St. Patrick is said to have baptised his freshly converted Christians.

I feel like this blog feels like a museum visit, which, if you know me, should not be surprising. But I am having real fun too, I promise, not just geek fun. After we hopped back on at St. Patrick's, we hopped off again on O'Connell street where one of my roommates bought this fantastic hat. This is Taylor, she lives with me and she's from Florida/California. So she gets cold really easily. We decided the best way to combat this would be with a furry ear flap hat, which she wore for the remainder of the bus tour.

At the end of our bus tour, we decided to walk home through St. Stephen's Green, which is a huge park, comparable, we decided, to Central Park. Only it doesn't smell like New York. But here are some duckies in the pond in the middle of the green.

And here are some flowers. Really pretty flowers. And I did get called a tourist while taking this picture, so I hope you appreciate them. They smelled quite lovely, though not as nice as Powerscourt.

And here's my favorite picture of the day. Four little old Irish guys on a bench in the park. Once we exchange email addresses, my new friend Ryan has some much better pictures of this, as well as some cool pub outing pictures. Those'll be here as soon as possible. Also to come as soon as I have time, a post on the cool Irish people I have met, and one about the weird differences between Ireland and the states. But that's all for now. Have a good night/morning!

That's a huge post!

Okay, so first thing...ignore the fact that I'm a moron and posted my pictures backwards, chronologically speaking. They're from most recent to least, so if my tour of Ireland seems a little disjointed, that's because I'm ridiculous.

Let me see. I told you about the first day here and our adventures at The Barge. So the next day we took a bus out of town and stayed over night in a fantastic hotel called the Glenview. I didn't take any pictures of that, because that's weird to me. Because of the way I loaded the pictures, I'm going to tell you about the second day, which was...um...Thursday, the 8th of September, as best I can tell.

We went to Powerscourt Estates on our second day out of town. It's this huge place, think like the houses described in Jane Austen, only bigger and more magnificent. The house was...okay, I suppose, but the main attraction of the place is the gardens. I picked a few pictures to share with you guys.

This is a headstone found in the pet cemetary on the grounds. It reads "Kilfane, Irish Wolfhound. Died 20th October, 1911. Universally Beloved." There was also a gravestone to a horse, King, who was buried with his wife, Magic, and a cow's headstone that proclaimed she's given birth to 17 calves and produced over 100,000 gallons of milk. Weird stuff.

This is a picture of the Japanese tranquilty gardens, from one of the high footpaths. Directly beneath me while I was taking the photo was a small mountain sort of thing with six or seven windy footpaths to get down to the actual garden part. It had all kinds of little bridges and an Irish spring. Where they make the soap. It was said that the people who owned Powerscourt added this section of the gardens to add peace, tranquilty and balance to the grounds.

This is probably my favorite picture I took whilst at Powerscourt. I was standing on the second floor of the house, and this is looking out over the main part of the gardens. This is overlooking the Italian gardens and the Winged Horses and Triton Lake. It's pretty far away, but the statue in the middle of the lake, of Triton, was based on the fountain in the Piazza Barberini in Rome. Aren't you impressed?

On to day...one. That first day out of town we went to Glendalough, which is pronounced like the Gaelic term for it, Glen da loch, which translates into "Land Between the Lakes". And everytime someone said that, I thought about the butter. Whatever that says about me. Here we go!

This is the High Lake at Glendalough, called that because it's, um, higher than the other one. Also way bigger and much prettier. While we were there, I saw a high school boy skip a rock 15 times across the water, which was really impressive. Very big and peaceful and wonderful, really. I think it looks very Irish, with the mist and the clouds. Also, the town of Glendalough relied on this lake for protection. It's very long and low and kind of shallow, so it flooded easily, and made the town very difficult to reach.

This is a cross which was in the original gatehouse of the city of Glendalough. Brief history lesson. Glendalough was originally inhabitated by St. Kevin, who, like most saints, was more crazy than anything. He lived in a cave between the lakes and talked to birds. He never actually saw the city built there. It was just dedicated to him. Anyway, whenever a traveler passed this cross, he was automatically under the protection and rule of the city of Glendalough. They didn't have cement when this was built, so it's a combination of granite stone, charcol, horse hair, animal blood and limestone mortar. You can still see the hairs sticking out of it. Kinda icky.

This is the tower, one of the few whole round towers left in Ireland. It stood high above the trees that originally grew there, oaks and alders, and could be seen at a great distance. It was used as a look out tower and a bell tower. It was built in around 1150 and took around 10 months to complete. In the foreground there, you can see Jess and Dan, also taking pictures, along with a whole mess of gravestones. Weird thing, a lot of them said who paid for the stone above the name of the person who is actually buried there. Also, that big triangle bushy looking thing is a Yew tree, which the graveyard keepers planted there to keep the animals out of there. It's also what Voldemort's wand is made from. Interesting, eh?

And this is St. Kevin's cross. As you can see this is a Celtic cross, unique to the people of Ireland, who take it with them whever they travel. The cross faces east, which is important, because most everything faces east in the compound of the city. The reason there are rings on Irish crosses: 1. In that day, rings were given to victors, and obviously, Jesus was seen as a victor over death and evil. 2. The ring shape paid homage to the sun god that the pagan of Ireland used to worship. I guess they weren't quite ready to give him up yet. 3. The ring also represents life. No beginning, no end. Excellent.

So, there's my first couple of days. But I'm tired of writing now, and ready for supper. I'll post again maybe later tonight with what I did today. Love you all!!!