Weather's nice, and here's some pictures...

I know people have wanted to see some pictures so here's some from the past few weeks.



A street in Galway City. This was from our first trip outside of Ballyvaughan. We went for a Saturday right before we started classes officially. I am pretty sure this is the sun peeking through the clouds about a minute after it stopped raining.



Still in Galway. There's no real definition between a lot of buildings here. Most of the time it's only paint that tells you you're looking at two separate places. It's like that everywhere not just in Galway.



Galway still, but this seems to be a chaing whatever it is. Read the sign then figure out what is wrong with it...



This is Danny on our first day of school. I had to take the classic picture.



We have this class on Fridays called Irish Studies where we go out into the field and learn about the area. This is a turlough which is what we like to call a fake lake that appears and dissappears through a sink hole in the limestone. These things are totally huge, some are hundreds of acres and in the summer there is no water to be found there. The areas surrounding the turloughs generally go through a drought in the summer. Wierd huh?



Just goes to show you that these are areas used in the summer. This is a stone wall that just dissappears into the water.



Everything is so beautiful here.



On a "soft day" in Ireland. A soft day is where it's misty and rainy. By our standards, pouring rain is their rain...it gets really wet sometimes.



Irish cattle look a lot different than them American ones. They're a lot burlier.



Exit signs are pretty funny here. The person is sooooo hurried that they are almost falling over. The signs all over are pretty funny as well. The figures on them are more realistic than the stick figures back home. I'll try to take some more pictures of signs so everyone can see what I am talking about.



This is Trinity College in Dublin. I wish U of M was like this.



This is what I was talking about in my post about Dublin. This is the Irish Museum of Modern Art. It's so old yet it has such new furnishings everywhere else.



We've decided that this has to be the cover of a new CD. It's Aaron, Luke and Meg out in front of our hostel in Dublin.

That's all for now. We're hoping to head back to Dublin in a couple of weeks and I should be able to take more pictures then. Enjoy!

Dublin and Some Assorted Sweets

It's been a while since my last post but that's because not too much had happened, at least not blog worthy. The week was pretty slow which was nice because it gave us time to finally settle in. We were able to work on starting up class stuff and have a pretty chill time at home. I've been painting quite a bit and it's rather relaxing. Also, surprisingly enough I've been cooking almost every night because, surprise surprise, I actually have time to! There's not too much to do once it gets dark around here and most of the time we're back at the house so it's relaxing to cook dinner for myself, and sometimes for some other people in the house. We all seem to have a mutual love for cooking. I really need to go shopping and I think I'm going to later tonight so I can eat some good food.

On this past Thursday we had a required excursion to Dublin. If you know where I am living, you know that Dublin is across the country. It shouldn't be that far, but the roads make it hard to get there. It took us about 4 hours on a huge bus to get there. We left at about 7:45 am and when we got there we went to the Irish Museum of Modern Art. It's this huge old building with a giant courtyard; the funny thing about it though was that only two of the galleries were open. It didn't take us long to navigate. There were all these doors that were closed for remodeling or something or another. There was an odd modern/old clash with the building. Once on the inside of the building everything looked pretty new while the outside was stone and old. That's how everything seems in Dublin and for the most part in Ireland. There's a constant push and pull from the past and the present.

After the museum we went to the hostel to check in. There were only three rooms available that were for two nights and we got one so luckily we didn't have to move out and move back into another room. The hostel was pretty sweet. The rooms were small and the beds were kind of stiff but other than that it had a lot of interesting stuff and people in it. The weirdest thing about it was that everything was coed. The rooms and even the bathrooms. That's just something that's odd to get used to. So once we lugged out luggage up the stairs to the third floor (not realizing there was an elevator) and dropped our stuff off we were off again. This time we split into two groups and headed to a couple of galleries around town. The first one we went to was in Temple Bar, which is an area of Dublin that has become the center for clubs, pubs, and music. It's been said that it's family friendly until about 8pm, then you should just head somewhere else. Once we were done in Temple Bar we went to the Trinity College's gallery and saw a student exhibition. After that we headed to another gallery, which had quite a few abstract pieces, including some of Frank Stella's work. After that, we were lead to Graffton Street, which is the center for a lot of shopping in Dublin. It was kind of odd walking down there because there were so many American places and things. There were I think two McDonald's and two Burger Kings. I have to tell you too that this is only about maybe 5 or 6 city blocks long. We weren't really that interested in shopping, all of us were pretty hungry at that point. We split up because some of us did not want to eat sushi like the rest of them, so we went on to find a pretty nice place that had great pasta. Once we were done eating we made our way back to the hostel to rest for a bit. The other girl from U of M and I went to meet some people that we had met the week before back in Ballyvaughan. They live just outside of Dublin and told us that they would show us around. We went out and about then came back to the hostel and crashed. It had been a really long day.

The next day we woke up and went to the National Gallery, which has loads and loads of work. I recently discovered Jack B. Yeats who's one of the most influential artists from Ireland and from one of the most famous Irish families. In the National Gallery there is a whole section of the museum dedicated to him so that's where I went first. Then after that I kind of just meandered around until it was time to leave. We left and went strait to the Natural History Museum, which was our last guided stop of the trip, after that we were completely free to do as we wished. The museum had loads of interesting artifacts from all around Ireland. They actually have one of that largest collections of gold in the world and have a section dedicated to the bog people. The bog people are people that were thrown into the peat bogs left to rot. The bog preserved most of them and they have them on display. Some still have hair and teeth and fingernails. They look all leathery too. Once we were done with the museum a couple of us went back to Graffton Street to pick up some needed supplies then we got lunch. Once done there we headed back to the hostel to take a needed nap. At about 6 some people who had opted not to stay the extra night left Dublin and headed back to Ballyvaughan. We however went back up to the room and a while later went out to eat. We ended up finding a place down in Temple Bar and when we were done eating, walked around a bit but then headed back to the hostel. A couple of us decided to hit the hay kind of early because we were so drained.

In the morning we checked out, left our luggage there and headed back out. Three of us needed to get some art supplies and then decided to split up. I went to see the Book of Kells at Trinity College. I was excited to see it because I had seen a couple of the illuminations in my history class last summer. When you get in there it's a big room explaining illuminated manuscripts and the process. It also explained the history of the Book of Kells itself. I don't think anything so far has hit me while being here on how old it actually is except for this. This book is so old. The craziest thing about it is that it has been at Trinity College for protection from destruction since 1661. That's more than 100 years longer than our country has been in existence. And that's not even how old it is, that's just how long it's been at this college! I'm still a bit baffled by it. Once you're done looking at the book, which is in a small dark room, you head upstairs to a place called the long room. I had no idea what to expect when I went in there because I hadn't heard about it. What it is is this long room, filled on two stories with books. All first editions. All extremely old. All available to look at for the students at the college. I couldn't believe my eyes when I stepped in there. I know it's an odd reference, but it reminded me of the library in the castle in Beauty and the Beast. It's on such a grand scale and it's really hard to explain. Once I was through there I went back outside and went back to the National Gallery to meet back up with one of the other girls. She and I decided that we wanted to do one of the bus tours around Dublin since we hadn't really seen the whole city yet. Being our stupid selves we decided to sit on the top of the double decker bus that had no roof. It was an awesome view but really cold. Cold enough that it took us a good 5 hours to finally warm up, when we were finally back in Ballyvaughan. It was kind of strange coming back into such a secluded area, coming from a densely populated area. Now today it's kind of nice being home. I do, however, have a few notes on Dublin...

1. Bathrooms. I think it's really funny that since none of the buildings were built when bathrooms were even a room, which means that most of the bathrooms are through about 4 doors and down about 3 sets of stairs. Odd, but funny.

2. People. Most people in Dublin will ignore you even if you have an accent. They don't really care. They all keep to themselves, very much unlike the smaller town people from Clare at least.

3. City. It's a big city and reminds me of most big cities. It kind of reminded me of being in America. Odd seeing as it's such and old place.

I think that's all for now. I will try to post up some pictures I have taken recently but because I didn't bring my computer with me today it will have to wait for another time.

The Art of Storytelling

Last night in the Lecture Hall an Irish storyteller came in to tell us some stories about the faeries and local tales. It was so amazing. I love people who can tell stories. He is one of those people that just has that inate ability to be able to convey a story and a feeling and a place with enthusiasm and grace. Over the years he has collected many stories from the people and he has published quite a few books. I bought one called "Biddy Early" and it's about this woman in the early 1800s that lived in Co. Clare on the eastern side of it (opposite where I am now) and was like the South American Shaman of today. People from all over came to her for help, mostly they were serious ailments but every once and a while they were trivial. There is this story of a man that walked 45 miles to see her because he was balding. He made it to Biddy's house and realized that he wasn't as in need of her help as everyone else waiting there, however, he had walked 45 miles so he had to wait in line otherwise it would have been a a waist to walk all that way. The man waited through the long line of illness wridden people and finally when it was his turn Biddy was waiting in the doorway. She welcomed him, speaking to him by name, (because this is what Biddy is known for, she knew everything about you before you stepped through your door) however, just to keep the man at ease she asked, knowing fully what the answer would be, what it was that was bothering him. He told her that he was balding and wanted his hair back, she said it was possible. She walked out the door, down the hill and to a well (still there today) and pulled up some water. She placed it in a bottle and corked it with a piece of paper. She told him to stick it in the deepest and safest pocket in his jacket and not to take it out until he was in his house then he was to wash with it and he would have his hair back. She also forewarned that she was not responsible if he took the bottle out and dropped it along the way. Those consequences were his own. The man thanked her and walked back home. He made it the whole way without letting the water touch the ground. As he was walking up to his house his wife was standing there waiting for him and she asked him if he had gotten the cure that he had wanted so desparatly and he pulled out the bottle to show her. He was so excited that he had made it the whole 45 miles home without one drop spilled that he tripped as entering his own house, something he had done hundreds of times before. The bottle smashed on the floor and his tonic went everywhere. He stood up, dumbfounded at what he had wasted, and slumped back to his room and into his bed which he didn't leave for a full day. When he finally decided to get up, he walked out into the house only to find it empty. All he saw was a small patch of bushy hair growing on the floor in front of his door. This is just a sample of what Biddy Early is about and it's only a sample of what this guy told us about. He also said that he has found Biddy's grave and can show you where her house is, which goes to show you that Biddy was real, and the stories must come from something real as well. I can't even explain how entertaining it was to hear him talk about this. He was up and down off of his chair, on the floor and jutting around the room like the stories were real. I'm going to read up on my Faery stories.

A Summary of a Few Events

I should probably start with what we did on Sunday. We took a bus tour of the Burren. It was an all day thing, we left at 10 am, stopped in Kilfenora for lunch for about an hour and then finally got back to Ballyvaughan at 5:30 pm. We went to a bunch of different places all over County Clare. It's so crazy how many places we went, how amazing all of it was and how LONG it took to get around this small area. The tour included small monuments to the famine, stone circle forts thousands of years old, cathedrals, castles and the Cliffs of Moher. I don't even know if I can explain how amazing the cliffs were. They were (insert word here because I have literally been sitting here for about 5 minutes trying to place the perfect word, so you do it yourself) and it's so hard to envision the expanse of the world until you're on the edge of it. The sun was peaking in and out of the clouds, which move extremely fast creating a great visual, shining down on the cliffs and on the ocean. If you have seen pictures of the Cliffs of Moher I still don't think that you have the true understanding of what they are. If ever in Ireland, that is one of the places that should be on the top of your list. I would recomend though to bring a lot of wind gear though because sometimes the wind literally pushes you so much that you have to lean back to not blow over. Anyways, there are so many places that I want to go again and probably will be gone from Ballyvaghan many weekends just to see them all.

The other night there were some well known musicians welcomed into the school for a concert in our lecture hall as well as many locals from Ballyvaughan. The music was so amazing. It was all traditional Irish folk music. There was a harp, some flutes, a violin, an accordian and the uilleann pipes which are like Scottish bag pipes but the air flow is different. For how many instruments there were you would expect a whole orchestra of people, but there were only four. It was great hearing them talk about the history of Irish music and the tradition of music. Music is still a part of the everyday life in Ireland. Songs are still being written and spread among the people. They become the people's songs. Once this two hour event was all said and done, the president of our college (Mary) stood up to say that the music may continue at Greene's, one of the local pubs and then gave us a wink. I decided that it would be awesome to go and see them play in a location intended for music. We got a lift from a local man who had moved to Ballyvaghan from Dublin because of true love (see it still happens). This pub is a small room, probably the size of a standard classroom back home, maybe less, and jammed into it were so many of the locals it was amazing. Apparently it's a custom here that if one person from the village is invited to something, within a very short period of time the whole of the village knows as well, so many people that weren't even at the concert joined in. Everyone was just enjoying themselves with the music but all of a sudden everyone was hushed down. A woman started to sing an old Irish tune and everyone was listening intently. A tradition of song in Ireland is that when someone is singing, the whole of the audience helps the person along, helps them through the song by singing with them or humming along. We had learned this the day before, but in context of traditional Irish music, and I was completely surprised when I heard a hum from the crowd. The rest of the night when someone began to sing, everyone stopped what they were doing and joined in or listened. I was in awe of what I had seen and I think this was the defining moment when I realized that I had chosen the right for me to study.

Last night a large group of us went to another pub, Obrien's, to learn traditional Irish step dancing. This is something that is held every Wednesday night so I plan on being fully able to dance and Irish jig when I make it back home. It was all in all a great evening. After the beginner's lesson, there was a group that got up that have been dancing for years. It was great just to watch them move and twist and turn around the dance floor. It was young and old people alike dancing together enjoying themselves. Tonight is another lesson in Kilfenora and I am planning on going as well. We're getting a bus ride and it's about a half hour away. My legs hurt from last night so we'll see how it goes. I think that's it for now. We'll see where I stand tomorrow, I may have forgotten something and may or may not make a post.

Pictures from the first few days

These are a couple of pictures I have taken so far here in Ireland.





Those pictures above are from one of the first nights when we all decided to put matresses on the stairs and make a huge slide. We took all of the cushions from the living room furniture and made a landing pad. Oh what a bunch of art students will do for fun.



This is what I woke up to this morning. I took this picture just outside of our front door. It takes a long time for the sun to make it over the huge hill, so sunrise seems to be a lot later than it actually is. The place that we're in is actually a valley so everywhere you look other than the bay is just walls of limestone rock.



Everyday when we go up to the school we have to check in at the reception desk in the main house. When I stepped back out of the building I saw all these sheep running around. It's great, they come almost all the way up to the school. Cows too.



This is just the view of the Burren and some of the houses around Ballyvaughan.



This is actually a tower house, not a castle, even though it's still called a castle. It's named Newtown Castle and as we found out is impossible to storm, e.g. very well made. That's why it's still surviving today and wasn't demolished.



I ventured to the top of the tower today and took a picture of our school. This is seriously the smallest campus I have every seen. Walking across campus means walking across the courtyard, about a 20 second walk if you're lazy. Well that's it for now, the busride home is about to leave and I don't want to have to walk back. I will write about the Burren bus tour the next time I update.

Finally, a reason to post on my blog...

I'm in Ireland, finally. It was a long process getting here. Started out from home on Thursday at about 11 in Metro Airport. Left the airport at about 1:30pm. Landed in Boston at about 3:15. This is where it got confusing. I came in in the terminal that I was supposed to leave from, but then had to leave security to get my boarding pass, go back through security and then wait about 2 hours until I was to board my plane to Ireland at 6:15. I went to Borders and got a Sudoku book and a magazine. Then went and called my Mom to say that I had arrived. I sat for about an hour and half people watching and listening to music. We started to board our plane (it was green and had a shamrock by the way). I got a window seat and watched the moon over the ocean as we took off. I sat next to a woman from near Dublin and we chatted the whole way there (no sleeping). I tried to sleep but it never worked.

So we got to Shannon Airport at 5:15 am (their time which is 5 hours ahead, you do the math) and had to wait around until 1pm to leave on our bus to the village of Ballyvaughan. I slept for about an hour right before the man came to pick us up. I met a few people before we left but not that many. We left in this HUGE bus. I mean it's normal sized but felt huge because the roads here are not spacious at all. Think of a dirt road where one person has to stop and let the other person by, but subtract the stopping of one person and add a stone wall to the side of the road. I don't know how the bus made it but it did. It was about an hour and ten minutes on the road. The man that drove us knew a lot about the area and gave us some insight on how we should not ask for a ride (lift means ride, ride means something else that you probably don't want).

I think that I am still in awe of everything that I have seen. The greens really are greener. It was amazing weather yesterday when we got in, which all the locals thanked us for bringing with us. The sun was out, it wasn't too cold and wasn't raining. We saw castles and towns and people and old stone tables and everything that is cool about Ireland. There are palm trees growing next to aspens and moss growing out of the tiles on the roofs in the village. I am actually living in the house that is on my blog below. It's huge and great. The kitchen is amazing and our backyard is overlooking a huge hill with goats living on it. I'll post pictures at some point. The locals have all so far been really nice (maybe because we bring more business). Walking on the roads is a little bit crazy. There are so many curves and the walls prevent people from seeing us walking until right before they are there. And they're going so fast that it's scary sometimes. Haven't been hit yet (hopefully won't). Also, they drive on the wrong side of the road so it's confusing walking, I keep forgetting which side of the road is the side that I should be on to walk into traffic. I hope I get used to that.

Today we're in for a walking tour of the village and tomorrow we're going on an all day bus tour of the Burren. The Burren is the area that I am in. It literally means 'a stony place' which is what it is here. There are stones and rocks everywhere. Some of the areas are so stony that it looks completely barren but then you drive a bit more and you're back to green pastures. I don't know how to explain what I have seen so far. It's so spacious and green. There really are rolling hills just covered in greens galore, sheep and cattle. I think I am going to look into getting a phone that you pay as you go. I won't really be able to make calls because it uses a lot of minutes but will be able to receive them for cheaper. I also just got my address which is:

Emily Milton C/O
Burren College of Art
Newtown Castle
Ballyvaughan
Co. Clare
Ireland

Send me postcards, letters whatever. Also if you want me to send you things I will, just send me your addresses by email

emilyem@umich.edu

That's all for now. I hope to be able to update soon enough.