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.