My First Irish Kiss: Cork and Volunteering

.....To leave you hanging, I'm not going to talk about it until it comes up chronologically. This is a really long blog post, and I apologize for the faint-hearted (but ROCK ON FOR THE DEVOTED READERS)

So, we'll start off where we left off last time. Friday, I think I slept about 12 hours. Which I didn't realize that my body needed. If I'm not caught up on the jet lag yet, I think we're getting centimetres closer. Anyways, after running some chores around campus and catching up on some work, I jumped on the train from Heuston Station in west Dublin to Newbridge in county Kildaire.

All the signs were in Irish first, then English. Talk about fear

I finally arrived at the Newbridge train station about 1.5 hours after I left my room. Important thing to note for future trippers. When you google map a location to note the distance (i.e. your university to your volunteer station) it is not always as short as the image makes it up to be. But, this is life, I suppose. It's all about learning it the hard way. After walking into town and seeing the main strip up and down (ask people for directions so you don't make wrong turns), I arrived at the Kildaire Youth Theatre centre. It was sitting on top of a bar, and was comprised of about 4 small rooms and a studio where most of the action takes place. After entering, and walking up the long narrow stair set while passing by children in their early-mid teens, I was introduced to Peter Hussey, a lecturing professor at one of the NUI schools in Ireland. After he finished having a "hash session" with one of the girls wielding a guitar, we sat down and talked out what my history was with the field, what I was studying, etc...all the basic stuff.

He informed me that they were doing a residency program that really interested me because it involved faciliating discussions and devising performances. Apparently there are really high suicide rates among teenagers in Ireland right now. Surprisingly high numbers and they can't figure out what the deal is. So, what Peter does with Kildaire Youth theatre is make a cultural investment in the students to create a piece that creates discussion with the community. The parents come out and have the talk with the kids. This is probably what I'll be doing with my time there.

So, after about 30 minutes of chat, he had to prep for his 7 o clock group (which I was staying to see), and I had a chance to kick around with a few of the students. I was sitting in a room talking with a couple of the graduating high school students, who were informing me the way the university system here works with points while listening to a kid make some sweet music on guitar in the other room. He stepped in, and I was trying to get cool points, so this was the conversation we had.

"So, I heard you playing Mumford and Sons in there, it sounded pretty good."
"Yea, thanks......"
"Also, weren't you playing Slow Dancing in a Burning Room?"
*Eyes jump with amazement*
"WHAT? YOU KNOW WHO JOHN MAYER IS"
"Yea man, he's huge in the United States"

The kid ran from room to room telling everyone I knew (and had actually seen) who John Mayer was. Apparently, he's not as big in Europe. But this kid knew how to play every song by John Mayer. I couldn't believe it. But I digress, he gave me the names of a bunch of Irish bands to listen to. So we had a good conversation out of it.

Around 7 o clock, Peter took me into the big room with 7 17-year-old aspiring actors, and I watched them go through a normal viewpoints exercise. I was only planning on watching, but since they were a person short, I jumped in and helped out. Their entire night was planning on devising scenes for a performance they were bringing to an Edinburough festival. It was being writting by and up and coming playwright named Tom Swift, and they recorded parts they thought would be good to incorporate via film and sent it to him to write down. Peter took my idea of telling a story to a partner, followed by the partner relaying it back to the camera so there would be a sense of openness and detachment, which was really cool.

...Which brings me to how I got around to discussing drinking stories with 17 year olds. Since the drinking age here is 16, they have a lot more laid-back stance on it, and the scene we were devising was about alcohol. So...we shared....But the night was good craic, and I got my first Irish tea out of it. Hopefully I'll get to work on the residency project Peter was referring to. I didn't get back home until about 12, but I had to wake up at about 6 for....

Cork: The home of drinking wine 2 days after opening the bottle.

OUR TRIP TO CORK! So after a freezing, horribly cramped 4 hour bus ride, we got there at around 12, but couldn't go to Bru's Hostel and check in until 1, so we wandered the city centre and looked for a restaurant to eat lunch in.

How exciting! They have a Tennessean restaurant!

It was essentially a smaller version of city centre Dublin, with the river et all. Cork is slightly different because there are these rolling hills that surround the city. It's not as flat as most of the other places I've seen, and it was raining (oh wait, that's actually accurate). After catching a quick lunch with the group at a pizza place, I broke off from the group to buy warmer socks. One note: If you're going to be coming to a place in winter, bring warm socks. Plenty of them. And a good hat. I ended up wandering down this open market called the English Market that was right next door. They had some pretty grand offerings.

Yummy, no? It almost made me clear some room for lunch.

After making my way out of the market, I ran into a couple of political groups that were organizing. The first group was protesting the Isreali-Palestine occupation. They were ex-pats who had somehow found their way into Cork and were trying to get people to stop buying Israeli goods. I think they were somewhat happy to talk to an American, (even if he wasn't the MOST informed) because they seemed genuinely glad anyone was listening. Then I passed by the Occupy Cork movement going on in their equivalency of a town hall.

If you look carefully in the window, you can see me as a member of the movement

I didn't actually stop in, but I did get a chance to read some of their grievances. Interesting. The one in Dublin is outdoors, but it's surrounded by a wooden barricade. I'm going to have to get a photo at some point.

So, finally, this gets to the good part. After dumping our stuff off in the hostel, we tripped out to Blarney to see the famous Blarney Castle. It's a small town no larger than Carborro, and I think it's designed for tourism. Anyways, we finally arrived at the castle:

It was really old. And green. But mostly old.

And after exploring the small cave-like dungeon that made up the approach with a bit of amateur spelunking, we finally went up to the top of the castle, where I saw her.....

She was older, and apparently much more experienced than me. But I cautiously worked my way along the battlements towards her, where it happened. I don't know how. I mean, I was laying on my back, it was raining, and all of a sudden there she was..

I'm still waiting for the call back, but she gave me vibes that she was emotionally stolid.

My first Irish kiss was the Blarney stone. For those of you who don't know what it is, it's supposed to give you good luck and bless you with eloquence. Tons of famous people including Charlie Chaplin and Winston Churchill have been up and kissed it (apparently, by the transitive property, I've kissed WC. Not bad). So, you lay back on this plastic sheet, and a guy is paid to sit up there and slide you about two feet suspended 200 feet up in mid air to kiss the stone (talk about a romantic job). It was the most tourist-ey thing I've done thus far, and I'm proud to have done it. The rest of the time in Cork was basically spent just hanging around hostel and various pubs in the city, which gave me a chance to explore the Irish nightlife. But it wasn't anything out of the ordinary, so I won't go into details. We woke up this morning and took the 4 hour bus ride home with no problems. It was even warm this time! We drove past the rolling green hills filled with spray-painted sheep and furry cows. Yup. Just another normal day in the life of a Dubliner.

One last thing I thought of before I got off. One thing I've noticed about the experiences and adventures I've had in the last year is that the question "How was it?" comes up soooooo often. And while I realize it really is meant to be a polite gesture, it's incredibly hard to encompass a vivid sensory experience with that stimulus. I guess specificity in the questioning is something I'm really appreciative of. And I'm going to try to incorporate that more into real life. And not just theory like this.


Other side notes

• Finally got this whole "cooking" thing down. If only I had an oven to do actual baking in. #themostdomestic
• Time to get serious about work. I have a music paper about timbre on friday. cookies to the first person who wants to explain what it means.
• Working on a short one-act about transition right now. Talk about wasting free time. Yeesh.

Exciting Adventures in Store

So, when I left you off just a couple of days ago, I promised only to update you on the current happenings, and leave the mundane in the back. Literally, after writing that message, I took a nap (maybe went to sleep, I'm still not on a perfect sleep schedule), woke up, and found a message in my inbox saying that I had been selected to become a blog Ambassador UCD on Education in Ireland for UCD's art's campus. This is big news for the blog, because it means not only are you, my closest friends and family back home, reading this, but also a new wave of people thinking about coming to UCD!. Now, I know what you're thinking: "You're a big deal, you're never going to talk to me again" "It's going to go straight to his head, he's going to get a permanent steady job blogging and using the internet, and he's never going to see me again" or even "I can finally exploit Noel for his fame! Thank god I feigned friendship for all these years."
Realistically, you should be asking "Are you going to change your format and lose your backbone to attract the universal crowd?" And the answer is No. I was selected from a number that exceeds 1, so I assume it was based on a selection due to my current format. SO WORRY NOT FAITHFUL READERS, this blog shall remain the same. In essence, I'm going to take snippets of blogs here and there, and submit them for a wider audience to view. But this was exciting news for me, so I'm just got keep walking in these clouds and bring you...

TO POINT 2- Finally heard back from the director of Crooked House productions where I was planning on doing the volunteering (we'll call it an internship to act formal). Tomorrow night, i'm going to be hopping on the Dublin Bus system and finding a way out to Newbridge (which I'm assured isn't terrible to get to) where I'll be meeting with Peter Hussy to determine what capacity I'm going to be filling in for him for the upcoming semester. I'm super excited, because this is definitely a way to carry on the Boal-based Theater of The Oppressed group I do back home (SHOUTOUT TO ITC, THE CHILLINGEST). In addition, this will be a way to step away from my American peers and truly have an Irish experience. Apparently they start rehearsing at 6 on friday, and finish at around 9. I'm hoping to watch the process.

Hope to have more photos for you next time!

Interesting other things to note

• My roommate has a tattoo of Che Guevara on his back, but he doesn't agree with his policies. Last night he ended up going to a Dubstep club. He is the quintessential college student. 
• I ended up going to a tutorial (recitation) today where no one but the teacher showed up. That means I got a good 50 minute one-on-one with the professor to talk about Edwardian reform and the Book of Common Prayer. I wish I had reviewed the material a fair bit more before I went in. Nice enough guy though. Just hope that doesn't happen again.
• We watched a clip of The Lonesome West (it's pronounce Poch-ee, not poteen) in my recitation for contemporary Irish Drama yesterday. As the irish students watched it, they kept breaking up into laughter. Myself and my two fellow American students kept looking at each other wondering what was up. After asking "if their accents were off" the students laughed and informed me this was most definitely "stage irish"
• Laura K. and I are going to to attempt to recreate Bskis in a Carolina night here on campus. We're hurting for late night wraps here.
• Signed up for a day trip to Kilkenny next weekend. This weekend we're off to Cork for a night (my first European hostel experience!)
• We've gotten a lot better at cooking pasta. Like, experts. Now onto the sauce (living real life is a lot harder than I expected).

Public Service Announcement

Hello my good friends!

As you may or may not have noticed, I haven't been faithfully posting blog entries daily as I started to originally. This is because (as I may have been unaware of at the start) there are actual assignments to do while at University, and this is not a jig and a watoosie followed by a pint of Guinness. So, from here on out, I'll be updating you to my life as things happen, or maybe as a couple of things happen. But rest be assured, nothing HUGE will escape your knowledge. So. Over the last few days:

• Started actually doing all the prep work for classes. My theatre classes are great fun, but it looks like we'll have to be doing a lot of analysis/theory work for Contemporary Irish theater and Introduction to Beckett (who coincidentally hated Ireland). History looks quite fun. Folklore is going to be somewhat of a struggle to attend, as I'm learning it's now basically a repetition of the cultural anthropology class I took first year at Carolina (with an emphasis on Leprechauns and Magpies). Music is going to be my favorite class. For instance, we started comparing Dylan's "All along the Watchtower" to hendrix's. And we're discussing the history of sound recording.
• Keep getting into wonderful talks with my roommate about the cultural divides between our countries. He's fascinated with the concept of "anti-drug" commercials, and asks me constantly for information about meth users in the united states. He's a pretty interesting guy, and inspires me to exercise every time I walk into the kitchen and see his high-protein diet. He's telling me about the current issue with immigration from Muslim countries currently, and how there's a divide between Sharia law that the nationalized citizens want the country to follow, and the actual practicality of following it. We have yet to get into US politics. In fact, every time I bring up US politics with anybody here, they usually shy away from it (including the American students).
• Joined the following clubs here: The Drama Society, The Film Society, The International Student Society, and the Ultimate Frisbee club (that one's a shout out to you, Frog). It's interesting here, because you have to pay dues straight up front, but you get to be a card-carrying member of the organization. For instance, my Dramsoc card is a dramatic black card. How appropriate. But I'm looking forward to stuff here. They do two shows a week, and that should be plenty of experience to gain from it. I just got back from watching Pulp Fiction with the Irish students, and they still gasp at all the same moments the American students did. And laugh, and shriek..etc.

No photos for you today, but I'll try to keep my camera handy from now on, yea?

Hamlet, Howth, and Hops

Faithful readers! Thanks for coming back! If you accidentally stumbled onto this or wound up here anyways...... I think you know where the back button is.

SO, the days have been pretty packed so far. Yesterday was my first Friday in town, and although I didn't have class, I still stayed fairly busy. I woke up and went to go see my FIRST IRISH THEATRICAL EXPERIENCE. Hamlet. From an Irish viewpoint. I didn't take my camera, but here are my thoughts right off the bat:

1. They used a minimalist set that incorporated hanging plastic sheets (which came into play in a big way with the death of Polonius). It was a modern adaptation? I think? I mean, the adults wore skinny jeans, so I assume they weren't trying to be retro/ironic, I think it was just European. And the actor who played Hamlet was the son of Barry McGovern.
2. WOOOOOOOOOW. Shakespeare on stage>Shakespeare on page. This was a really good production, and everything flowed fantastically. Keith Thompson, whoever you are, you really nailed it on this one. I hope we're related.
3. They took out Fortinbras from this production, which is ok because it put more emphasis on the main plot being Hamlet's utter descent into madness. I never realized what games Hamlet's character plays with Ophelia until I saw it. Interesting...

Anyways, I spent the rest of the day catching up on sleep/work/doing light reading while trying to figure out what I was going to do today with some friends. The night ended with my two friends on youtube watching cat videos while eating chocolate ice cream and feeling homesick (OK, these things do go together. I promise, sometimes you just have to listen to your emotions).....

Which brings us to today! We woke up super early (before 9, still early in Irish time) and headed out to the DART station in Blackrock. After waiting only about 20 minutes, we managed to catch a train up to Howth, a city about an hour north where there were supposedly dragons castles, seals, and a lighthouse. What we found was this:

Yea, I bet you wish you had a map on a wall.

No, but in all honesty, we spent an awesome day just wandering around the city-part of Howth looking at how gorgeous the Irish country-side was. We walked out to this turret thing that they converted into a radio-tower.

 

The view from up top

The turret itself.

 

 

The Coastline

And afterwards wandered into a restaurant called "the bloody stream" to get the classic seaside fish and chips. It took a little while because they didn't have the kitchen open until midnight, so we sat around warming up by the fire instead. They had a thing where they charge 10% more on saturdays and don't split up checks either, so I think they were trying to appeal to the tourist crowd. So, afterwards, we attempted to make our way out to the lighthouse on the pier of the island. However, we did not expect HURRICANE FORCE WINDS to be attacking us on the way out. I would lean over and try to fall down forwards and the wind would push me upright again. It was blowing so fast that the masts of the ships were blowing together and tapping to make a symphony of noises. In addition, there were metal structures along the way that the wind was whistling through, creating vague chords. I know "cool" is an ambiguous word for any writer to use, but IT WAS COOL. I'd highly recommend Howth to everyone who comes to Ireland. It's only a 5.20 Euro roundtrip from Dublin, and you could spend the whole day there.

And there was a nice view.

After escaping from the fierce wind, and taking a powernap on the train back to dublin (about an hour), my friend Gretchen and I split up from the rest of the group and went to the most famous place in Ireland (the determining factor of most famous place being the place I'm asked about most by my friends)....

I think Disney has "the happiest place on earth" trademarked

It was a fun time to be had! We got to explore and see how things were made, and at the end of the tour we got to pour the perfect pint of guinness, for which I received a certificate....and I mean, it's not like they give them out to everyone. Just the very best...It's not like they pre-print them off before you even pour the pint or anything. But the rest of the factory was pretty interesting, they have a 360 degree glass room at the top of the building where you can see everything in Dublin. Afterwards, we stopped at a little bistro and then came back to campus. I collapsed on my bed, fighting fatigue. Another full day in Ireland (or any other corny tagline you can think of here)

The Merry Ploughboys Pub

Hey everyone! I apologize first off for not being consistant the last few days in updating, but you have to understand that when you are doing Dublin, sometime you can't keep up with the times. So! Where to begin today? From the beginning of course.

I went to my first Folklore class yesterday, which is probably going to be the class that challenges me the most. It seems to be an ethnographic way to approaching "lore" in Ireland and the traditional stories, but I don't know if the lecturer exactly knows how to explain it. She's a Chicago-born visual artist converted to a folklore studier....that doesn't have a ring. Folklorist? Regardless, she goes by "Chinese Oak Whispers" and kept pulling up obscure Irish examples that the majority of the US students had no idea about. But it's cool, cause I guess we're doing "Belief Journals" I mean, folkloristics? How cool is that?

Anyways, jumped from that class to my "Beckett in performance" class, which is probably going to be my most difficult/favorite class. It started off with some soft-focus exercises, and was in the same padded small room as my staging performance class. We spent the period talking about Beckett's rather depressing life, and how he was quoted as saying "I would rather live in Paris During WWII, than live in Dublin during peacetime."  He apparently didn't like the place? But he went to Trinity, not UCD. That might have had something to do with it. It was pretty cool, we started with Godot and we're moving onto Happy Days next week. (Sidenote, the first Dublin rain came down here. And when I say came down, I really mean it had a severe attraction to the ground and I think the drops all collectively aspired to be a pool. The wind on the 2nd floor of Newman facing the courtyard is absolutely horrifying) A bunch of the kids in that class are in Drama Society (affectionately known as Dramsoc). They sent me to the correct place where I found they're doing a 24-hour musical (SCRUBS!). I'm feeling like this is a good investment of my time, even if it means I don't get a lot of sleep and miss a class or two. I think it's a good way to get my foot in the door? So auditions are next tuesday. Time to get my pipes in order....oh, pipes you say?

You see what I did there?

That brings me to the entertainment of the evening. They packed about 80 international students onto a bus and took us to a place called the "Merry Ploughboys Pub" about 20 minutes away from campus. (I think it was south, but it was dark and we were going down roads that weren't wide enough for the bus and other cars, so relative direction wasn't exactly on my mind). We sat down at long tavern-like tables and they gave us a drink while this traditional Irish Band came out on stage.

They played traditional Irish pipes (the irish word is Uilleann) and the tin whistle.

These guys have apparently been doing it for 20 years or so, and they came on stage to play the traditional songs like "finnigan's wake" "the lonely fisherman" and "Whiskey in the jar." They even made it interactive! Calling people up on stage if they were clapping out of time or doing anything else inappropriate.

Like my friend Annija here, who was clapping too enthusiastically for their liking.

Being here and having listened to a couple of groups so far, I can start to see the trends emerging from Appalachian folk music back home. You can definitely see the influence from one to the other.
After the group got off stage, we were able to see some FIERCE irish dancing from a 5 person group attached to the pub. The male-based dancing seemed to be a lot louder and in your face while the female group seemed to have the grace.

But it was a fantastic night at the pub, and I think it was a quality use of time.

I don't have class on fridays, so after that, a couple of friends and I went out to downtown to see what we could see. Laura and I ended up singing the Carolina Alma Mater on the back of the Dublin Bus, (much to the amusement of the Irish students around us) and we were the only representative school to know it. Maybe it's a bigger thing in the south. Oh well, I'll leave you with this gem, and we'll call it a post.

Proof we're alive and doing well! And don't mind the guy on the left, he's just Australian.

James Joyce Library + Micellaneous affairs

The excitement of being Dublin is slowing fading to the back as I realize that there is important higher learning that is at hand, but I think it's going to work out ok, because so far every class has been INSANELY INTERESTING. Well I won't get to every detail, I'll hit the highlights for the viewers back home.

Yesterday, I went to my first Drama class here: Staging Performance. Basically, it was a small studio in the Newman Center on the third floor (where I'm told all the drama classes take place) with a padded ground and windows. As it was one of my backup choices for class selection, I didn't know how to feel about it initially, but basically the class will consist of working with the space around you in order to work on performance. We started off with some basic image theater work, but it looks like later in the class we get to progress to Viewpoints and Stanislavski methods of delivery. The teacher is great, and this was really the first time I got to actually interact with the Irish students. (it's small, only about 10-12 people).

After getting back from class, I finally had a chance to sit down with one of my roommates from Kildaire county and talk about the cultural differences. We discussed how Irish students all go home on the weekend, effectively making this a commuter school. His parents are both auctioneers, so I'm hoping to get a chance to meet them and see what that's all about. He asked if I lived on a farm, being in the south, and I explain that yes, but not everyone in the south lives on a farm. I also explained the concept of "fraternities" to him. He had mixed reactions to the whole bit. I'll probably his brain more in the future.

-quick side note, there are quite a lot of older people here in the classes. And they're the ones who are predominantly answering questions. Also, that stereotype that European people are shorter. Totally not true, At ~5'11", I'm constantly looking up to the other men walking around campus.

Today I had my Popular Music and Culture class, which spent the day comparing the differences between Jeff Buckley's Hallelujah and a gospel version from the English version of X-factor (which is a much bigger thing here, think American Idol (Simon Cowell included)). I made a comment about how it was supposed to be a lot less uplifting and a lot more depressing, but again, the predominant contributing force was the older gentleman in our class. It looks super interesting, as any college course that starts off with a power-point that has the Jay-Z/Beatles Grey Album front center can be. It looks to explore what makes music "popular" and what trends in music develop from the 50's on. It'll be interesting to get a Irish perspective (even though the teacher is Canadian, I believe)..So, I mean, I guess that's a Canadian's understanding of an Irish Class's cultural reflection of American and English music as relayed back to you by an American...Wooooooffff. That's a mouthful.

I also signed up for two more classes today to fill the requirements by UNC- An introductory Irish Folklore class and a Contemporary Irish Theatre class (field trip!!! omgz). Tomorrow night we're going to a traditional Irish Dancing show with the International Student Society. Friday I'm getting to attend a student production of Hamlet. So, look out for those! I got the hang of the James Joyce Library, which is kinda the title of this post, but is also just a side-note. More on that later.

And in honor of my music class, I'm gonna let you watch this video. No photos to update you with! But enjoy this all the same.

We actually have to take classes here? Reality achieved.

For my faithful readers back home, I apologize for the day between posts. I assure you that this will not happen often or if it does it is due to the fact that I'm getting caught up in all of the activities on campus.

So, from yesterday! I woke up, walked outside, and decided to climb a tree.

As demonstrated by my good friend Gretchen here.

Perhaps this needs a little bit more explanation: Gretchen told me of this massive tree that was growing by the landscaping part of campus (way out west) that looked totally climbable. In reality, this really means we could get to the first limb, or about 14 feet off the ground. In reality, I screamed for help and froze up at the top while Gretchen's climbing prowess was the only thing that got us off that tree. Anyways, this gave me an opportunity to look around the west side of campus, about a 20 minute walk away. See the following photos.

 The tree in question.

 Gretchen holding a black Monday flier (I'll explain this later)

 Richview campus (newish building?)

 A hula-hoop in a tree. Normal in these parts from the wind.

Random staircase from the architecture building

I got to see the architecture studio, and look through what it meant to be a student there with all the models and the penknifes and what-not. It looks interesting! Like a total blast! Super fun.... But I'll stick with Chemistry. After wandering around trying to fix various technical problems and looking around the student union, I went off to my first class in Dublin: Popes, Protestants and Popular Belief- A class focused on the Henrician Protestant movement in Britain. After sitting down in the lecture hall the size of a room of Dey, I watched as maybe 8-10 other students showed up for the first day of class (including an international student I met at orientation named Katy). What I was more surprised by was how the majority of the students seemed to be upwards of 50 years old.
(Full disclaimer, I was later informed that the first day of class is a formality for many of the students, and instead they celebrate what is infamously known as black monday. This means that most students skip their classes and just spend the day in the campus pub. But, more on that later.)
The professor immediately jumped into lecturing about Henry VIII and his acts with the Papacy that led to the schism and formation of the Church of England. While I was informed the Irish and the English aren't the best of friends, I didn't see much resentment in the subtext he was using, and instead saw a deep respect for the Throne from my teacher (if you ignore the constant identifications with Henry as a "power-monger" but I think it's ok because I think he was). He was an interesting guy, and I mentioned I was an international student after class, but he said that made no difference. He was confident in my abilities, I suppose, just off the basis of looks. I've always thought I had a historical face...Anyways! Immediately after class, I met up with a group of students from California and Illinois who had set up camp in the student bar. The place was PACKED, and it was only 4 o clock. I had a meeting with Garda to get my registration card, so I didn't stay long, but it definitely left an impression.
After following some random students on the bus who claimed they were going to the immigration office, and somehow finding our way there, we pulled up and waited about an hour and 15 minutes to get our immigration cards. Let's just say that the photos were not flattering. For instance, I may or may not look like a serial killer. But that's what happens with a lot of standardized photos I suppose. After we got back, I went out with the other girl in my program to the city where most of the students were heading. Her heel broke immediately, and she proceeded to dance in her socks until security kicked her out.

Woke up this morning and made it out to recitation with the teacher, which was basically just him throwing up softball questions about the lecture yesterday and going over the major differences between Henry's Catholic-oriented protestantism and luthernism. I really like when lecturers speak in accents. Hopefully this isn't just a thing.

Lazy Sunday

Today was fairly relaxing. I woke up and met up with Gretchen to go to the Leinster pub to watch the rugby game around 12 30. We met up with some other kids in her program there, and watched the 8 and 10 year olds screaming for Leinster to win the match. It was shrill, piercing, all of the above. The atmosphere was pretty cool, and the seats were hard to come by, but we got a fairly good view from halfway across the bar. The hush that would come over the entire place when there was someone kicking or when Glasgow was succeeding was INSANE. People actually shushed! Like in middle school! But we won (at least one of my teams can win), got the first experience of pub food, and i got to know some other folk in my program a little bit better, so it was positive overall.

 The Leinster bar.

 I'm clearly the best at informing people I'm taking photos of them.

 Best advertisement ever.

 Ehh, it could've been worse? Note the two different types of potatoes.

After coming back to campus and taking a quick nap, I headed out to the grocery store to pick up supplies for the next week of attempted cooking. I think I did pretty well, but they don't give out plastic bags here (thank god for the environmentally conscious), so I packed up everything in my backpack and a small fabric bag we got from the history department. Dinner was slightly more successful this time, and I think it's going to be an early night. For those of you keeping track back home, apologies for not having more!

Dublin through the eyes of a tourist. Soon to be a resident.

First weekend at UCD, the day back home when I knocked off everything on my to-do list. And what does it lead to..of course a day where everything I planned is foiled at every turn. So apparently, it's not weird here for everything to be closed on Saturday. So apparently, that translates to every single UCD building is closed on Saturday/Sunday. So that means I got to spend some time walking around campus snapping some photos of the foliage. Classic Mwiti Murungi, I know.

Anyways, after failing to meet up with my roommates with BC for the 3rd or 4th day in a row, I ended up taking a trip to City Centre, which is about 20 minutes away via bus. There was a guided tour earlier in the day, but I decided to sleep in and take a self-exploration trip instead. There's something exciting about the prospect of dropping yourself in a city, and wandering around until you can find your own way back. It's like Lewis and Clark on their expedition out west!

except this is the largest beast I run into.

So, I got dropped off in St. Stephen's and started walking through the park on my way to O'Connel street. (for those of you follow at home, here's a good reference). I basically wandered northwest from the green following the shopping centers and the bohemian street performers who didn't care really if you paid them or not. They seemed fairly happy with the performance they were giving, and in multiple cases there were people not even taking money. I stopped by a couple of poster sales around the city with a big smile on my face, with the only thought being

I''m in Dublin. I'm by myself. And I have yet to die*!

*let it be known, this may be the most optimistic way I could phrase this after my arrival. I don't feel like a subsequent explanation is necessary.

I picked up a Dahlik poster to remind me of home England David Tennent Sophomore year.

After meandering through the city for a while, and picking up a tin flute (all the folks die for it here, apparently),  I went back in through the blistery cold and came back to my room. I had some time to kill, so I examined the mold collection that was growing in our kitchen and found a way to exterminate some of that problem. Apparently our roommate came in over the weekend and never cleaned up afterwards. So, I mopped, swept, and washed in true domestic fashion, and took care of that problem. So now, we can actually access our mutual living area.

I met up with a friend named Patrick from Catholic afterwards, who has the novelty of counting his drinks while we're here in Dublin. I won't go into detail, but I'll mention he's only been here a week. We watched the 49er's-Saints game (really, it's been a horrible week for Louisiana) while I met the other kids in his program who are studying through Arcadia U in philly. There were about 5 or 6 including a girl named Gretchen (we're climbing a tree tomorrow. We're really close.) who's really interested in AT hiking and I had a good conversation with about tripping around Europe. The other really good convo. I had tonight was about music philosophy with a girl named Julia from Arcadia. It's good to see that music is pretty universal. At least from a national sense.

Got to catch up with a couple friends from home after I got back, which reminds me. My Skype username is N_Thompson90, so if you want to see my smiling face instead of reaching me here, just let me know and we can work out a time! I'm keeping Facebook pretty updated with photos.

Wrapping another full day from Dublin, wishing the best for everyone and thinking about you all back home!

How to burn Pasta 101

Last night we ended up going to the "University Pub" (the idea is still such a novelty it demands the quotation marks) where they have top 100 hits and pool tables. Basically, it's still a bunch of American students getting to know each other. The Irish students haven't arrived yet. We sit around and talk about the little parts of home that we miss, or the similarities we have from region to region, or in my group's case, the mutual people from DC. I exaggerated, but the majority of the people I've started consistently associating with are from either AU, GW, Catholic...etc. They're wonderful people. The best. And I think the offchance that they might be viewing this forces me to say that I have no problem with their banter and joke about it to give them a wee bit of slagging.
BUT Back to those readers at home who don't care about the interpersonal problems we face on a constant barraging basis. After waking up and getting coffee, 4 of the folks from AU (heretofore mentioned as Max, Annie, Meredith, and Annija) went down to Blackrock campus to see their other AU friend Caitlin. I tagged along with them, and we made a day of it.

If you haven't seen the photos from Fbook, Blackrock campus is about a 10 minute ride away from UCD's main campus where the Business school is located. It's got the coastline with a DART (Dublin Area Rail Transit) system that hosts a nicer part of the Dublin housing. There are cobblestone streets, pigeons as large as over-inflated footballs, and Swans that would make reinforce PTSD to an extreme level if Leda was around (totally confused her with Medea earlier, so many inappropriate cultural references I'm dropping here. I.e. Jason Derulo and Bruno Mars- totally different people ). We walked around the dog park to the Blackrock Baths, which apparently used to be a training ground for the Irish swimmers with a huge diving board et all.

 Care for a dive?

We tried to get it, but apparently it's been locked up for years and years. And no one wanted to get wet swimming around to open the gate up for us. So we basically just wandered around the area until about 5, when Meredith and I came back to campus and split up with the rest of the group. We were confused with French people by an older woman sitting on the bus bench. I have no idea how she thought that, but I almost look higher on that than I do for being American.

After getting back and making an unexpected rendezvous with everyone at the equivalent of our student grocery store, we went back to one of the suites to cook dinner, where I informed everyone I could cook pasta.....


So. Apparently cooking pasta and watching your parents making pasta for years and years are very different things. I succeeded on the sauce. It was perfect. Like, if anyone can pour sauce out of a jar into a saucepan and warm it up, it's me. Annie pointed out well too late that the pasta I was preparing was sticky. The French student cooking with me, Lucy, was sympathetic, but it was obvious the pasta was ruined. My utter embarrassment can only last for so long, I'm assuming, but I don't know the psychology behind these things. I guess I would've felt better if I hadn't been teaching others to cook it? #neverletmecookagain #youcantburnsalad. But it was our first night cooking, and people ate the food. So, adequate is a good definition.

  Credit to Meredith West for the photo. If you look close, you can see it all sticking together.

Met up with some kids from Catholic U. in DC afterwards. Still looking for those 6 degrees to somehow know each other. We'll get there eventually.

I'm meeting up with my intern program director next week at some point. He says most of the programs are in the evening, which is slightly problematic because my classes are at 3 pm across the board, but I think I still can contribute. Tomorrow most of the group I've been hanging out with is going on a hike in south country that I didn't sign up for in time. I'm hopefully going to the city to make a walking tour sponsored by UCD.

Orienting yourself with your surroundings

So orientation all day, but maybe something about the surreal state of being in Ireland made it a little bit easier than orientations back home. It was about 10 minutes into the first one that I made myself consciously aware of the fact that indeed, someone was talking to me in an Irish accent. I think that's a good thing. I'm getting a little more used to the situation.  After shuffling to and from free food events/orientation programs/James Joyce library/residences...

...I'm trying to summon up a second wind to meet up with a couple of friends down on south campus at the Castle. Yea, we have one on campus, I realize we're pretty cool.

It's really just like first year all over again, meeting people, attempting to remember names, but instead remembering what school they went to, something interesting about them, or where their hometown in the Northeast is. Seriously. everyone here. Another thing is that everyone is a junior from a Jesuit/Franciscan university and studying Business.

Tomorrow I'm heading out to go grocery shopping with my roommates from BC and hopefully to explore the city a little bit. I think I'm at least compotent enough to follow the bus system now. #fingerscrossed #imisstweetingthis


First impressions:

1. Milk- The cheapest thing in the world
2. Maybe apparently means no. Because "the irish are genuinely polite people and don't want to disappoint you"
3. People actually believe in leprechauns. It's not just a stereotype.
4. Talk about an emotional roller coaster. 
5. The poster was for all you harry potter fans. PARTY IN A CASTLE. WITH NEVILLE!

Offical day #1 in Ireland

Where to begin? I truly feel that is the only accurate thing to say up to this point.

It can't even start today. We start back after my last blog entry yesterday. After trying to fight the jetlag and entering the information about the trip, I ended up tripping around the campus a wee bit attempting to find my way. I got as far as the campus general store and bought some peanut butter and white bread in an attempt to find normalcy. Afterwards, my UNC transfer student partner, her roommate, and I attempted to go out into the city to find some way to purchase bedsheets/pillows/towels/toiletries. It was our first trip into the city, we were a wee-bit sleep deprived, but we made it. Long story short, i got to sleep last night without worrying. I finally met one of my roommates, from Ireland, who was in town just to drop off a couple of CVs for jobs. He offered to take me out for a pint, but on 7 hours of sleep on the last 48 hours, I had to turn him down. Instead, I went to see a movie with Liam Neeson called Breakfast on Pluto? The plot was a bit weird, but the motley soundtrack was absolutely fantastic.

I came back, and slept from approximately 9-6 am. Apparently, who knew, it takes a lot out of you when you're jetlagged. I only woke up to find my roommates arriving from BC and pulling their luggage in. After explaining to them that TP was not provided, and helping them out with the 3 remaining in my 4 pack, I offered a quick tip o' the hat and turned in for the next three hours, only meeting them in the morning when I needed to head out to pick up some milk. Later on in the day, I met up with some international students from California i met the day before to do some day shopping. We went out to St. Stephen's squares, which is close to City Centre( A 2.15 Euro/30 minute ride). I had my first hot meal, which really set into my bones, and I ended up getting shampoo. It was possibly the happiest moment of my life.

After coming back, we went to orientation pt. 1, and were informed that "it's weird sometimes because people are homesick for their pets." I retroactively went back and thought about all the times i could've been talking with my dog Katy since I arrived. I wept a single tear for her. There was coffee/tea afterwards, and I met some kids from AU who knew a couple of mutual friends (this is a "yea....I know it" moment for Nathan and Graham). After a failed attempt to go to Tesco, the grocery store near campus...

I FOUND OUT AFTER ARRIVAL BoA HAD DECIDED TO FREEZE MY ACCOUNT...AGAIN

...we went to the international dinner. Where the following happened.

1. We were fed beef stew and mashed potatoes. There were potatoes in the beef stew.
2. I jumped up with my friend Alex to volunteer to dance the traditional Irish dance first, assuming EVERYONE was behind us! We got up to the front and found a single other girl with us, from the crowd of 200.
3. In an attempt to save a falling Budweiser bottle of another friend, the entire room got crowded and stared me down. I HEARD A PIN DROP. NO JOKE
4. Alex and I spun around a lot. And got dizzy. And were called out for our mad spinz.

Afterwards, we headed to the campus pub for an international night. I got my first pint of Guinness..

and we headed out to the city centre via bus to try to find the local culture.
After getting over the original awkwardness of meeting people from other places, we ended up with the following people: 2 guys from an obscure college in Australia, 6 students from American University, 2 Students from UNC, 1 student from George Washington, and 3 students from Boston University. We had a geniunely good time out on the city, and actually ended up at a bar playing only American music. We met some Irish folk that thought it was a good idea to mingle!

As of right now, it's 3 o' clock dublin time, I've had a lot of craic (irish=fun) tonight, but I believe it's time to turn in.

Missing all my family/friends in Carolina/loved ones! Hope everyone is doing fantastically!

Disoriented, Dazed, Confused, Jetlagged, and Surrounded by IRELAND!

After floating past the eastern coast of Ireland on our final approach, we broke through the cloud cover over the Irish Sea and made our way onto the Dublin air strip. Living in Dublin happily ever after. The end.

As if you thought it would be that minimalist. WE'RE HERE SAFE! DUBLIN, IRE!



The plane leaving Charlotte wasn't terrible. Laura met me at the gate around 2 hours before our plane was supposed to take off, when I was thumbing through Ray Bradbury's Martian Chronicles. She grimly bought her last bottle of Arnold Palmer before we jumped on our plane up to JFK. The flight was totally deserted and I had tons of room to stretch out after my seatmate jumped to an open row. At first, we had the impression that our flight attendant was Irish! What an auspicious omen to start the trip! We're in good hands! This is meant to be!

Then after the safety announcement, we realized that she was only Scottish (sigh). But the flight into NYC was nice, seeing all the lights. Here's a blurry photo for you.

(This was my most rebellious moment of the flight, as they informed us we could not be using electronics at this point)


We ended up sitting next to a student named Gabby from Erskine College in SC who's studying in Oxford this semester. She had a longer layover than ours, so we then spent the next time stumbling around JFK airport looking for ways to blow 3 hours. So we ate pizza at a bar next to our gate, and were watching the beginning of the national championship game over a couple of beers (as i was writing this sentence, I learned of LSU's unfortunate demise. Apologies to the Murungi and Vaccari families). We became so engrossed in the game that we had missed our boarding for the "economy comfort" class, and had to join the the "economy" line. How truly base. Half of the passengers on the flight looked like they were international students, and in fact the two girls I was sitting next to were from NY studying in Dublin. But the flight went fairly slowly. I didn't get a lot of sleep, as I was on the aisle seat and people kept walking past right as I was on the brink of consciousness. Even with my Dre Beats I was unable. Truly, one of the greatest tragedies of our time. The last 2 hours or so went sooooo slowly, I think just because I really wanted to be here.

We landed, got through customs in record time. Got an Aircoach to UCD through Dublin proper (~30 minutes), and wandered around until we found the big sign that said "RECEPTION." I checked in and came here and snapped a few photos of my room:

Now once I learn how to turn on the radiator, I think it's going to be a good day.

In conclusion, everything you need to know you can learn from Douglas Adams:
Carry a towel- I really want to bathe right now. Not possible.
Don't panic- Apparently things don't get better if you do.

How to fit 5 months in one suitcase

So, this is clearly not a how-to guide. Because they're generally written by people who have an idea with what they want to bring/ what they need to bring/ what they're planning on doing over the next 5 months. But I needed a catchy title that would really hook you in on this action. And look! You're still reading!

I think today I finished everything I needed to to prep for Dublin. I contacted my bank (after they froze my account yesterday for paying my housing bill), and found a 3rd or 4th representative who told me that since Ireland was in the UK, I have automatic access without withdrawal fees... Maybe it's just an East TN thing, I don't know. But my Irish friends have reprimanded me multiple times for DARING TO THINK IRELAND BELONGS TO THE UK. So, I use it as a learning moment to teach these people that Northern Ireland, and Ireland are in fact separate.

Paperwork is all done. Boarding pass printed out. Bus pass to UCD is purchased. I think I managed to get everything. I have no clue who the other 5 people in my flat are going to be. And I'm fairly certain I won't be finding out until I'm knocking at their door. As a good ambassador of TN, I'm trying to narrow down things to bring that would seem pretty stereotypical southeast. After eliminating a few objects on the basis of practicality (an elvis costume, moonshine, and a football team), I think I might just stick with some country music on the computer. Maybe a book about Oak Ridge's atomic past. We'll see. In talking to a friend recently, we discussed the parts of TN we always bring up in conversation to show our state pride.

1. Basil Marceaux's nomination video 
2. The Scopes Monkey Trial
3. They Hung an Elephant here- This is actually a town I ended up at on the AT. I'd fully believe it.

....I think I'm just going to tell people I'm from NC. Much much safer.

I also failed to learn how to cook while home, so that's going to be a trial by fire scenario when I arrive in Dublin. H'oh boy. If I weigh 90 pounds the next time you see me, you know why.

T-minus 97 hours until take-off!