Rome and Pisa...

The trek into Rome was really exciting for me. I have always wanted to go there because I find its history so amazing and grand. I found my hostel pretty easily. It was a ways out, in a student neighborhood, but it was quiet and nice. There was a courtyard which was a great place to hang out at night. I decided to stay in for a bit because I had booked the hostel for nearly a week. I hung out in the hostel, met a few people. I went to the grocery store to stock up on food, which was nice. It's always funny shopping in a foreign country. The pasta was fresh and the wine was dirt cheap. I made dinner at the hostel and relaxed. This by the way was the most international hostel I stayed in. There were people there from all over, it was great to all mesh together.

Anywho, the next day I planned out as my tour Bernini day. I started by going to the Galleria Borghese which is where some of the pieces that I had been totally and completely excited to see for the longest time. It was a difficult place to find because it was in a huge park that is in the middle of the city, but once I found it I found out that they were sold out until Sunday on tickets. So, disappointed as I was, I got a ticket for Monday. I had some time to kill because I had intended to be visiting Bernini so I found a zoo in the park that I was in. I think I am probably one of the only people in the world that would go to Rome and proceed to go to the zoo. I don't know. It was fun, and I noticed the difference between American zoos and foreign zoos. I don't claim to be the expert seeing as I've only been to one foreign zoo, but I am allowed to make assumptions. It was getting to be mid-day and It was getting hot. I tried to find shade wherever I went, but eventually I had to just overcome the blasting heat. I walked around the city finding little holes in the wall, and random city squares where Bernini sculptures reside. It was actually pretty awesome and great seeing parts of the city I would not have otherwise. I also went to the Trevi Fountain which is where, I figure out, every tourist is. All at the same time. Or so it seems. There are just people everywhere, and when I say everywhere, I mean it. HUGE crowds, and probably one of the best places to people watch on the planet. It was great sitting there listening to the different languages, watching all of the pictures being taken, and seeing everyone so happy with themselves. It was a good place to end my journey for the day.


The Galleria Borghese.


The elephant says CIAO!


Bernini's Ecstasy of St. Teresa.


Me in front of the Trevi Fountain.

On the following day I planned on doing one of those cityseeing, hop on/hop off bus tours, the ones with the double deckers. I had never done one in a country that did not speak english, so I was unsure on how they were going to treat the situation, but they did it remarkably well. Everyone gets a set of headphones on the way onto the bus, then you plug it into the jack in front of your seat, and tune to the channel that is of the language you speak. WONDERFUL. I got to see some great places on the tour too. We went past the place where Julius Caesar was murdered, drove by the Colosseum, and under the walls of the ancient city. All around it was amazing. I hopped off at the Colosseum to do a tour of it. I heard from the girl that I stayed with in Venice to do the English tour that sounds sketchy but in fact is not sketchy at all. We got to skip the line and recieved much valuable information on the huge and ancient structure. I can't explain how huge it is once you're inside. Seriously, again, it's just one of those things that you have to see for yourself. I found out through the same tour group that I had a free tour of the Palatine Hill which is the place where the whole city started. It's right next to the Colosseum and it's got some pretty amazing structures for itself. There's a huge palace (all in ruins of course), Mousolini's villa, the foot off of a huge statue (all that's left) and the supposed hut location of Rome's founder, Romulus. All in all it was well worth it. The exit of the hill comes straight out into the Roman Forum which is apparently where every Roman has walked...that's a lot of history. It's mostly just ruins, again with the ruins, but still awe inspiring. The day was hot, and I got very sunburned, so it was time for me to turn in.


This is where Caesar died.


Inside the Colosseum.


The Roman Forum.


Outside the Colosseum.

This new day was going to be a fun day I decided. I was going to take a nice day trip to Pisa where I was going to see the leaning tower. I got to the train station, got my ticket to Pisa and found the train to be delayed. Now, I have not really mentioned it yet, but trains in Italy are, well, hard to get used to...especially when you don't speak Italian. I was standing there, waiting for the train that said 'Pisa' which had a 30 minute delay. I waited and waited, then at the last second realized that the train I needed to get on was in fact the one that said 'Torino' for it would be stopping in Pisa. I ran, but it was too late, my train had departed and I had to hastily speedwalk to the other train platform to see if I could still ride the next train. I was able, but soon realized after I got on the train that it was taking a very very long time. It in fact took me nearly five hours to get from Rome to Pisa which on the other train would have only taken about two. Upset as I was, I just went with the flow, the scenery was nice. I get to Pisa and book my return train just to make sure I have a seat. I had to get one that would put me back in Rome at a decent hour. I wandered around for a bit trying to figure out how to get to the tower, finally found the bus stop, could not figure out where to get the ticket, figured it out, got on the bus, got to the tower, only to find out that I would not be able to go up into the tower because it was sold out until after I had to leave. Livid, upset, angry...I just wanted to leave. I hung around for a while, tried to go into the Cathedral, found out that you had to pay for that as well, that's not right. Whatever, bad day, bad idea. Oh yeah, and the tower's not much to see anyways, it looks like it does in all the pictures, and I don't think it's worth seeing in real life. However, I do know now that if I had not gone to see it I would have kicked myself. I finally left Pisa, fuming from how the day turned out. I got back to Rome just before the sun started to set, got on the bus which was completely packed and i was totally squished in. At my stop I had to push and shove my way through to get out. As the bus pulled away towards the stoplight, I realized that my phone had dropped out of my pocket when I was exiting the bus. I FREAKED out. I ran up to the door of the bus, banging on it, praying that the bus driver would open the door. As I was doing this I was trying to explain that I had lost my phone. Some kindly person then proceeded to hand it to me out the window, saving my sanity and life. My heart was racing, but luckily I was not completely screwed. I got back to the hostel, ate some pizza, calmed down and went to sleep, excited for the next day, glad that this one was over.


The tower that leans exactly the same if you see it in real life or on a post card.

I woke up extra early to get to Vatican City, and again, went through the same tour group that did the Colosseum, which meant again, that we got to bipass the huge line into the museums. Now, here's something else I can't explain for you must go there yourself, but I will attempt to speak of a few things. It is huge and completely confusing. There is so much in there I can't even remember most of it. The pieces that you go to see are all that really stick out, like some of Rafael's work and what not. The Sistine Chapel is great, but completely packed with people, and guards shushing people left and right. There's also the recorded man telling people off every 5 minutes or so for taking pictures and talking, the recording is much longer however because it is read in many languages. St. Peter's Basilica is pretty awe inspiring in itself. It's huge, and again, full of people. The statue of St. Peter is made of bronze and apparently you're supposed to rub his toes for good luck, and after hundreds of years of people rubbing his toes, they have completely worn off. That's amazing in itself. There's a lot of Bernini's work in there too, which was exciting to see. Michaelangelo's Pieta is behind bullet proof glass making it seem more like a diarama than a piece of art. The square outside is not in fact a square, it is an oval, and huge. And the end of the tour is mostly anti-climactic. I wish I could have seen Vatican City's secrets, I think that would have been better. After this I was to go back to the Galleria Borghese to see the sculptures I had waited so long to see. I got there a bit early so walked around for a while, then when I reached the Galleria, I found the doors to be closed and locked with a sign that said it was not going to be open. I FREAKED again. Actually, I started crying. I had my mom call me because I was so upset. I found out that the management of the place decided to sell people tickets for Monday, but then could not follow through with staffing the place for Monday and closed it. I was frustrated and upset, so upset that my feelings about traveling completely changed. I wanted to go home as bad as ever. I did not get to see the one thing in Rome that I had truly been excited about, and I just wanted to go home. I did not get my money back and since I was leaving the next morning, there was no way for me to see it. The worst day so far, even worse than the stupid Pisa thing. However, once I calmed down and got back to my Hostel, I hung around with some people and we just talked, ate and drank the night away. There was this trio from Slovenia, and ps, Slovenian wine is great, if you ever get your hands on some, you will be lucky. I ended the day on a good note. The next day I would be leaving Italy after a long stint, and trudging on to the South of France.


Michaelangelo's Pieta.


St. Peter's Basillica.

*A few things I will miss about Rome: The history that's at every turn, the architecture, the smell of the metro (I know that's a weird one but hey), the flowers along the street leadig to my hostel, the people I met while in the hostel.

*A few things I will miss about Pisa: NOTHING!

*A few things I will miss about Italy: The food, the people, the gelato, the atmosphere, the fields and fields of poppies, the art, the language, and the history.

Florence...

The next morning I headed out pretty early to get to Florence. Looking back I wish I could have spent a bit more time in Venice, but hey, that's in the past. Anyway, on to Florence I went, the train ride was beautiful. I completely understand why Italian painters paint what they do, it's because that's what they see.

Once I got to Florence, I wandered around for about an hour or so because I could not for the life of me find the hostel. I was starting to get really frustrated because people kept telling me to go the wrong way, but I finally got there. Also, I must mention that the people of Florence are rude in my standards, but I understand it's a cultural difference. If you walk down the street, which are already very tight, they will not move over, they'd rather run into you than move to let you by. This made me more frustrated. By the time I found my hostel I was not in a good mood, so I decided to stay there for the night. I met this English girl in the hostel and we went out to dinner where we ate how the Italians do. First they start out with a pasta dish, then move onto the meat and vegitable course, then dessert, and to top it all off you have a shot of this lemony pineapple thing. It was an interesting meal. After this I went back to the hostel to sleep.

The next day, I had decided that I was going to go to the Academia where Michaelangelo's David stands. I had to wait in line for about an hour. The line is squished down one of the streets along this amazing wall. Everyone for many years past have written all over it, graffiti really, but great graffiti. Most said either where they were from or how long they had been in line. Lots were in languages and characters I could not read. There was also a lot of gum stuck all over the walls, which I tried my hardest to avoid. When I was near the front of the line I saw one of my professors from back at Michigan, who I had happened to think about earlier because we had discussed Michaelangelo's David in his class. I went over to say hello, and we were both utterly surprised to see the other. Anyways, when I got into the museum I tried to look at everything in there and not just focus on getting to David. Too bad that's what ended up happening when I stepped into the room with the sculpture. I have been told many times before that the statue is huge, much bigger than you expect, and that it's exquiset, but I was getting slightly bored with seeing marble sculptures. I walked into the room, and saw the sculpture and my stomach quite literally dropped to the floor. It is one of the most amazing things I have ever seen before. I was totally mesmorized with it. I can't explain it but just think that everyone should go see it in their lifetimes if they have a chance. I didn't want to leave. But alas I had to.


This is a just part of the wall that I talked about.


This is the replica because you're not allowed to photograph the real one. I just want you to notice the people standing around it, as a scale of how large it is.

I then ventured out into the city, which I must say I was not very fond of. There were people everywhere and I have already discussed how rude most of them were. Florence has nice things to offer, but once you're in the buildings, not really outside, in my opinion. I decided to go to the Palazzo Vecchio to go on this secret rooms tour which was great. We got to see the interworkings of secret passages, rooms behind paintings, stairs that go nowhere, and rooms that seem to have no doors at all. I am glad that I chose to go here, it made me appreciate Florence more. This is also the place where the David originally stood guarding the doorway, but was moved and a replica replaced it. I decided to stop in a cathedral just because on my way back to the hostel. It was actually pretty amazing. It's directly across from the huge doors called the Gates of Paradise. That night I went to dinner again with the same English girl from the night before, it was great, then we decided to go out to a pub/bar somewhere, and where did we go? Of course, the only Irish Pub in town...HAH! It was funny, I was probably the most Irish person in there. Relaxing way to end it. I also found a wonderful bicycle bell on the ground and fully intend to equip my bike with the find. The next day I packed up and moved on to Rome.


This is from my secret rooms tour. There was a huge room filled with all these old maps, so I found Ireland of course.

*A few things I will miss about Florence: Michaelangelo's David, and the people that ran the hostel, they were probably the most friendly people I have every met.

Venice...

We arrived in Venice at about 7:30 am and I had to make my way through the windy unfamiliar streets to my hostel. I eventually could not figure out where I was so I found a vaparetto stop (it's like their bus system on water) because I knew which stop I needed to get to for the hostel. It ended up I was only one stop away, but across the grand canal from it. The streets there are totally and completely confusing until you get used to it, but luckily you can't really get lost on an island and as long as you can find the grand canal and know where to go from there you should be fine. Anyways, I had to ask a few people for directions, easy enough using sign language and such if said person did not speak English. I found the hostel pretty easily which felt like it was in a back alley, which I later figured out is pretty much all of Venice, it's part of it's charm.


This is the 'alley' my hostel was in.


Just a canal.

I got checked into the hostel and started walking around just exploring. I stopped for lunch at this small cafe and got some really amazing pizza. I met a couple from Dallas there and chatted for a while, then we parted ways after lunch and I went to do some more exploring. Eventually I got tired and went back to the hostel to chillax for a bit. I met the girl that was in my room with me and we went out later to dinner and I finally found Piazza San Marco, which is CRAZY full of people and pigeons. After that though, I was completely beat from not really sleeping the past two nights on the boat so I went to bed.


See all the pigeons? See all the people?

The next day I took Isa's (fellow classmate in Ireland) advice to go to the Peggy Gugenheim Collection and it was great. I got some more gelato (there are gelateria's everywhere you turn) then went back to Piazza San Marco and went into the Basilica which is completely amazing, mostly because of the floor. It's all rumpled and crumpled from years and years of flood damage. And the floor's all mosaic so it makes it all the more interesting. After walking around a bit more, me and the girl from my hostel went on a vaparetto ride out to Murano, one of the Islands in the lagoon. It's the island famous for their glass blowing. We watched a few demonstrations and I recorded one on my phone, mostly just because it was in Italian and sounded lovely. There was this one man that had a lump of hot glass one minute and less than two minutes later it was a horse that stood perfectly upright when he set it down. Oh the art of glass blowing, how I wish I could conquer thee. After that we went back to the main islands and just went on a relaxing vaparetto ride just to see the city. Once the sun went down we headed back to Piazza San Marco because at night they light it up all beautiful like and have bands playing all around the perimeter. It was awesome just to see all of the people walking around, but it was still rather peaceful and serene. We went back to the hostel and slept, preparing to venture forth the next day, destination Florence.


One minute it's a ball of glass, the next it's a horse, ON FIRE!


Shop of masks.


Piazza San Marco at night.

*A few things I will miss about Venice: the gelato, the pizza (both the best in all of my travels through Italy), the atmosphere, the fact that I couldn't get lost, the streets that looked like alleys, waking up to gondoleers (sp?) yellling 'OY' from outside my window, and pretty much everything to do with it.

The Ferry...

So after I got on the ferry from Greece to Venice, Italy, I had to wait patiently for 37 hours to arrive at the destination. It was pretty boring to be perfectly honest. I had my phone on for a while and at one point it sent me a text message saying "Welcome to Albania" so at that point I decided to turn it off, since I had no use for it anyways. I didn't have a room on the boat so I had to sleep in the common room area which was difficult because of the people that decided to stay up late and talk loudly, but the chairs were comfortable at least. I didn't speak to anyone for the majority of the time there because nobody really spoke English. There was one point when a Polish man decided that I should dance with him because his family was having a wonderful party where I was supposed to be sleeping but I said no...ha. This is when the Polish started singing and dancing, and the Greeks didn't want to be out-done, so they blasted Greek music through the speakers and started dancing. Each group trying to be louder than the other made it difficult to sleep, but it was still interesting. Two nights on the boat was enough for me.


The only good thing about the ferry was this picture.

*I will miss nothing about the ferry. I got off and for 4 days felt like I was sloshing back and forth on a boat, couldn't walk a straight line even if I had wanted to.

England and Greece...

So I'll recap exactly what I did when I was traveling. I started out in Brighton, England, but of course you know this. It was good being there because I was with people I knew, just kind of winding down from the end of the semester. It was relaxing. After this I went to stay with Cherry, a friend from long ago when I worked at Camp Linden. I remember exactly when she told me if ever I was in England to get in touch with her...so I did. It was really fun reminiscing over old camp stories, playing odd camp games, it really was like nothing had changed at all, even though it had been 5 years. Unfortunatly I was only able to be there for three days because she just moved into a new flat.


Lyndsey and I at Stone Henge


Lyndsey, Micah and I just before I left Brighton.

After that, I flew to Athens, Greece. I made my first mistake here. I did not write down where the hostel was that I was to stay at, which in turn meant I had to take a cab. The guy driving kept making wrong turns and taking the long way around. Most of the time he was talking on the phone, every once in a while, breaking from the madened Greek to speak to me in English. The ride cost 70 euro, which I found out later is about twice as much as it should have. But whatever, I got to my hostel safely and luckily it was owned by Australians, so the majority of the people there spoke English. That night I hung around in the hostel and met some neat people. This one girl I met, Rebee, actually used to live in Ann Arbor. She used to work at the Ann Arbor 1&2 which was the theater before Quality 16 existed, which is where I used to work. Weird. But it gets weirder. She was in Ireland at the same time that I was, but she was down in the Beara Penninsula. Even weirder is that she was traveling in March around Ireland and happened to stop in Ballyvaughan, and come up to the school to see the tower house...all while I was in class at the school. And we ended up meeting each other in Athens, Greece. All I can say is that it really is a small world. Ironically enough, it was when I was in Athens that I finally realized that the world is full of people. It's hard to put things in perspective until you see it, and seeing Athens, full of people, lots of people, made me realize it.


This is the view from the roof of the hostel.


Everywhere you turned this is what it looked like.

Anyways, I was there for three days in total, which by the way is far too many to see the city. You only need about one because the only really interesting parts are all together in the center, everything else is just a valley full of smog and white buildings. The hostel that I was at was about a 5 minute walk to the Acropolis so we were in the right place. On my last day there, I went around with these two girls that I met, both from Australia. We went to all the historical sites, and the greatest part about it? They were all free for me! Since I had been studying in Ireland, which is part of the EU, I still had my student visa from there and anywhere in Greece, if you have studied in the EU, the historical sites are free. So I guess maybe that wasn't the best part, but it sure was great.


I do really miss the food.

The Acropolis is pretty amazing. You have to walk up and it seems like it is going to be a long haul, but it ends up being one of the easiest hikes ever. There are sites along the way up that you stop at and many platforms on which you are walking on flat land, so it's surprising once you get to the top. It is amazing, but it is a ruin. I really wish I could have seen it when it was in full bloom. The buildings must have been amazing. Someone told me that the whole thing is built using Pendelic marble which comes from this mountain visible from the city. The ancient Greeks knew that the mountain had odd properties, still not really explained. If you spill out some of your water on the hill, it will fall up, against the pull of gravity. Same thing if you let your car roll, it will roll up the hill. Anyways, the Acropolis is built out of this marble from this odd mountain, which gives it odd properties in itself. Birds won't fly over it. I think this is my favorite story that I heard when in Athens.


These are the girls I went up to the Acropolis with, Marissa and Emma.


This is me, duh.

After we were done we headed back to the hostel and it was time for me to leave. I bid my adieu's and left on the metro to the train station. By the way, the metro in Athens is seriously the smoothest subway I have ever been on. I got on the train to head to Patras which is where the ferry I needed to take to get to Italy was departing from. This is where it got scary. I don't speak a lick of Greek and obviously cannot read the alphabet, which in turn meant that I had to go completely on faith that I was on the correct train. I was nervous the whole way until we finally got there. For all I know I could have been on a train to Albania. Nevermind that though, everything turned out alright. I got to the ferry and was on my way to Italy.

*A few things I will miss from Greece: the gyros, the prices (everything was cheap), the people I met, the landscape, and the history.

So I am really bad at this...

This past month has just been a blur of crazy. Everything in Ireland was coming to a close so I spent that majority of my time having as much fun as I possibly could. We had our end of the semester show, which ended up looking really great. I had an installation piece, a photo series and some paintings in the show. I think we did well, we got a lot of good feed back from the community and our professors. I am really glad that I chose to come to Ireland. It has helped me put a lot of things into perspective with my artwork. For one, I have finally come to the realization that I am a mixed media artist and not just a photographer. I do still love photography, but I don't think that I could just use one medium for the rest of my life, I think I'd get too bored.

Last Saturday, April 21st was the end of the semester. It's amazing that it all went by so quickly. I still remember trying to get some sleep in the Shannon airport waiting for the bus to pick us up to take us to our houses in Ballyvaghan like it's yesterday...but alas it is not. It was odd leaving the house for the last time. I realized that while living there I never really had the realization that someday it would all be over...it's hard to explain. I kind of just accepted what was there as the rest of my life. So it was surprising to have to pack everything up and leave. It was also really emotional leaving everyone at the airport. All of our flights were at different times and so it was a slow process. My flight was at about 1:00 so I had to go up early, leaving Ireland and my experience behind. I don't think I can explain how hard it was to leave.

Anyone who knows me well knows that I have a hard time dealing with change...as it's happening. All I wanted to do on my flight was go home (Michigan home), but I was flying even farther away. I flew into London and took a train down to Brighton which is where I am now. The first few days I kept wishing I was back in Ireland, not traveling. But now I am really glad that I am traveling. I'm a bit bored here now, which is kind of nice. I've been just relaxing mostly since being here. Doing whatever I feel like at the moment. We went to see Stone Henge on Wednesday, which was great, it's a check off my list of things to do before I die. Good place to start. I am leaving here on Monday to go to London to stay with a friend that I met when working at Camp Linden. She lives in London and I haven't seen her in about 4 years so it should be great. After that, on Wednesday I am off to Athens, Greece. This makes me a bit nervous...mostly because I don't speak Greek, and I realized that this is going to be my first time in a country that doesn't speak English...ever! And to top it all off I am going to be alone. I should be fine though, there's a lot to do and I have my guide book. I am actually really excited, I've always wanted to go there, but the nerves are getting the best of me right now...also the whole thing with change, I don't want it. BUT, I've paid for my plane ticket, and I'm doing it. Then from Athens I am going to the Peloponese (sp?) where I am going to take a ferry to Venice, Italy. I'm going to stay there for a few days, then going to Rome. I am really excited about Rome. All I've wanted to do for a long time is see a Bernini (if you don't know him look up the Rape of Prosperine) sculpture, and this museum in Rome has all of the sculptures that I've been dying to see. From Rome I am heading up to Florence, where I may or may not be staying with a friend from Michigan. From there I am heading up to the Czech Republic to Prague to visit someone. I've been looking at pictures and the city looks beautiful. Then I am off to Switzerland to visit anothe friend. All I've heard from anyone who's been there is that Switzerland is amazing, so that gets me excited. Then from switzerland I have to somehow get back to Ireland. I am going to be staying with Gwen and Joe, they both work in the college and I was their kids' babysitter this semester, for a few days in Ballyvaghan. I am sure that I will be very emotional having that realization that I won't be back in Ireland for a long time (and I say it like that because I truly intend on returning). May 31st is when I am to return back to the wonderful land of Michigan. Don't get me wrong, I am excited to get home to see friends and family and to be in America again, but I am going to miss this experience and these places. I've had the most amazing time here and met some really great people. I wouldn't have changed anything that I did, and am so fortunate to be able to have this experience. Thank you to anyone and everyone that helped me get here.


I don't think that I will be able to post on my blog again while I am abroad, I will try, but I can't make any promises. I am trying to send letters and whatnot to all that I have addresses for, and I will try to do some emailing...but again, I am not making any promises. I want to experience this and not be weighed down with the responsibility. Email me if you want me to send you something in the mail with your address emilyem@umich.edu. I will also have a phone with me and it would be nice to have people's phone numbers just in case I want to talk to someone so email me those as well. Thanks for reading!

Sorry for the delay...I've been busy.

It has been a while since I last posted, but that's because March has been full of madness, and not the kind involving basketball either. I went to England for a weekend from the 9th through the 11th. It was a short trip, which is funny because it was England. I still can't get over how I can just hop over to another country for the weekend and be back for class, totally strange. Anyways, the original reason for us (Briana who lives in my house went with me) going over to London was to attempt to see the Royal Shakespeare Company perform the Tempest...I know, I saw it when they came to Ann Arbor, but I still wanted to see it again, however, we were foiled and could not get tickets. The trip was still rather amazing though. We flew in on Friday morning and got the train into the city. From there, we decided not to take a map and just wander around for the day. In doing this we found a couple of neat street markets and stumbled upon the Tower Bridge and the Tower of London. The weather treated us nicely, the sun peaked through the clouds for the majority of the day, and it was not too cold. From there we took the Underground to the train station that had the train that went into Brighton, which is where we were staying for the night. A few weeks earlier, a couple of people that are from MCAD studying in England visited their friends here, in Ireland, so Briana and I made plans to go stay with them for a night. It was free so how could we pass that up. Once we were in Brighton, which is right at the bottom of England, about 45 minutes away from London, we pretty much just wandered around again. We went down to the beach and hung out there for a while and got dinner, all around a nice first night in England. On a side note, Brighton reminded me so much of Ann Arbor. There was this one street that I literally stopped at and had to take a picture because it looks exactly like North U and State walking towards Espresso Roayle. It wasn't just the looks of the city that reminded me of AA but also just the feel, it's a college town and kind of hip too. One of the major differences was the giant castle sitting in the middle of it, that something that you don't find in AA.

On the next day we all went into London. For the whole morning we did the whole, walk around London without a map which lead us to some pretty neat places, off the beaten path. I'm pretty sure that most of that time we were actually in Westminster, but still, cool all the same. In the afternoon we walked over to Buckingham Palace, Trafalger Square, the London Eye (big ferris wheel thing), Big Ben and Westminster's Abbey. By this point it was getting late so Lyndsey and Micah had to get on the train back to Brighton. We took the long route back to the train station through Picadilly Circus, which was totally and absolutly crazy. There were young folk everywhere! Something I haven't really seen since being back home. After seeing them off, Briana and I had a lot of waiting to do. Our flight didn't leave until early on Sunday morning so we had a whole night to kill. First we made our way back to the train station for the express train to the airport, only to find that the last train for the night had left about a half hour earlier, and they wouldn't start back up until about 4 in the morning. Pooped we just sat in the train station for a while, then once that closed we went to this 24 hour diner across the street. I slept there for a little bit, but tried to act like I wasn't because they were kicking people out that were doing it...Briana woke me up whenever they owner came by. Then the train station opened up, we got to the airport, got through security, got on the plane, and flew back home, got on the bus got to Kilcolgan, got picked up by Joe, drove around Galway, got back home and passed out. I was really tired.

After that weekend the weather got really nice and it was hard to force myself to do work. But I did, not as much as I should have, but I did do work. That Saturday was St. Patrick's Day and also the day that my parents were supposed to get in, and I say supposed to because they didn't, their flight got cancelled due to the bad weather on the east coast so they had to come in on Sunday. So on St. Patrick's Day I woke up with a sore throat, but still thought that it would be good to go into Galway to watch the Parade. In the morning on the walk down to the gas station where the bus was to pick us up the rain started to pick up. On the bus I started to feel worse, but thought nothing of it. We got to Galway about an hour or so before the parade was to start so we just wandered around, had some lunch, and I started to feel even worse. I got a shamrock painted on my face and then the rain picked back up just before the parade, which meant that the shamrock started to wither. The parade was ok, nothing too special, other than the fact that it was in Ireland. After that was over we walked to the theater a ways away to see what movies were on because we weren't being picked up until later that night, we had a lot of time to kill. We decided that Hot Fuzz was a good choice, but had a while until it started so we went wandering around. My body was aching real bad by this point and all I wanted to do was sit down and relax. Finally I had had too much and just broke down, I was in so much pain that I started crying, lame I know, but pain is pain and most of the time that means hurting is involved which can toy with your waterworks, which it did. During the movie I sat in the corner by myself trying not to think about the sick building up inside of me. Finally it was time to go home. Once I got home I just broke down because I was so tired and grossly sick that I wanted to magically be asleep and better. I tried to eat dinner and some tea, then went to sleep. That was my St. Patrick's Day experience in Ireland. Oh, and did I mention the rain and the cold? Yeah they never stopped throughout the day.

The next day I woke up still sick, but ready for my parents to come in. I got a taxi into the airport to pick them up, only to find that their flight had been delayed for two hours. This meant more waiting around in an airport for me. I waited and waited and waited, finally their flight got delayed a bit more, and it landed. I think 2.5 hours late, but they didn't come out until almost an hour after they landed, because the airline lost their luggage. Once they finally came out, we got the rental car and were on our way. The weather was acting CRAZY, one minute it would be snowing, the next minute it would be raining, the next sunny, the next hailing and then sunny, then rainy, then sunny, then snowy. Ireland was confused for a while. When Dad was driving through Ennis, he took a wrong turn and proceeded to hit a car. Only the mirror, but still. I think that was the point where mom had a fit...I told them driving was going to be different, but I don't think they really believed me until that point. For the week that they were here the weather cleared up and we went all around. Back to the Cliffs of Moher, around the area, they went into Galway, kind of, went to the pubs, ate good dinner. All around it was nice, minus the fact that I really didn't get any work done, oh yeah and the fact that I was sick the whole time. Today, they day after they left, is the first day that I actually feel good.

I think this is a good update, not really sure what else I can think of to talk about...I'll try to keep up the posts more than just once every month. Hopefully I'll actually do it.

Amazing Days

All I can say is that Friday and Saturday were both amazing days. On Friday it was Irish Studies and we were taking an all day bus tour. We started at about 10 and were back at about 4. We went and saw this great cathedral called St. Brendan's Cathedral. It has some really great stained glass windows all over. Everywhere you look in the place is one amazing thing after another. The colors of the glass were so vibrant that it filled the place with an odd but beautiful aura. After leaving the cathedral we went out rather far from any town to Yeats' castle. It was nothing more than a tower house next to a river with a few buildings attached, however, it was one of the greatest sights I've ever seen. This is where Yeats sat sipping tea and writing some of the greatest works of the 20th century. Our professor, Gordon D'Arcy then proceeded to read aloud many of Yeats' poems while standing right near to where they were written. I can't explain how grand it was. Shortly after this, while back on the bus, I mentioned to Pat, who I was sitting next to, that I really was sick of rocks and just wanted to badly to see a forest again. Literally about a minute later we turn into this wooded area, over 1,000 acres of what I had been wishing. It was the former site of Lady Gregory's house and the current site of the forest and garden that she built up. There we saw the first deer since coming here, they're caged in, but still they were there. There was also large amounts of wild garlic everywhere, so much so that you could just smell the garlic in the air. We then took a 45 minute walk through the woods and then the sun came out and everything became extrordinary. There were so many old and gnarly trees that everytime we saw one, at least one person decided to climb it. They were HUGE. I have plenty of pictures, but I don't think any of them can really reflect what was there. Once through the forest we came out into the gardens. In the garden there is this tree that many of the great writers of Lady Gregory's time signed their names in, including Yeats. Everything about this place was amazing. I don't even think that I can explain how everything was so grand that we all left with smiles on our faces. Our trip then concluded.

Later that night at the house, we watched Donnie Darko, it's the first time that I have seen it all the way through and it kind of played with my head. My mind was already full of what we had done during the day and it was really hard to grasp what had just happened. I want to see it again. Once we were done watching the movie it was almost time for this woman, Karen, to pick us up so we could go to this Caylee (unknown spelling) which is pretty much like and Irish barn dance. It was in Galway City which is about 45 minutes away. I think 9 of us got lifts in all to dance at this. Now, I must say that all of these people have definatly been doing this for much longer than we have, but still, we all joined in and it was one of the greatest things I've done since I've been here. We do all of the really simple steps, as in we just do what we're taught, while the advanced dancers do all of this crazy footwork that sounds amazing on the wood floor. It's something you have to see/hear for yourself. The dance didn't start until about 10 and it wasn't done until after 12:30. We got home at about 2:30 and I just conked out.

In the morning, I woke up early (about 9) to go to Lahinch which is a town about 45 minutes the other way from Galway. It's on the west coast and is a great surfing spot. When we got there it was about 11 and the first thing we did was head to this place called Seaworld, which had an aquarium and a pool. We went swimming for about an hour maybe more which was a lot of fun. It's something that none of us have done so far while being here. After swimming we were all starved and found this great Italian restaurant, which actually was founded just behind our school but had to move. Once we were done with one of the best meals we've had in a long time we set off into the streets. We soon found that there really was only one street that had shops on it and that you could browse through them in about 20 minutes. Not knowing what to do, we went to this pub to wait for the bus that dropped us off to come back, which was about 3 hours away. Once 5:30 rolled around, one hour until pick up, we went back down to the beach to watch the sunset. The waves were amazing to watch crash in and move back out, while the sun slowly moved closer and closer to the horizon. The bus came before we were able to see the full sunset, but it was good enough for me. I've only seen the sunset over lakes before, never over the ocean. As we drove off the sun had slipped behind some clouds making a site that looked like a painting. The skies here tend to be epic, even if it's just grey clouds, it's still epic. When riding back, just after leaving Lahinch, the full moon was rising above the hills. It looked pasted up against a sky of pure blue. It was an amazing sight, which only got better. There was this cloud that was moving closer and closer to the moon which we then realized was no cloud at all, but a large flock of small birds. It was like something out of National Geographic that you only can see to believe. The cloud would disappear then reappear just because of the angle of the birds to us. It fluxtuated shapes and sizes and finally after probably 10 minutes of watching this, it flew over and dipped behind us. One of the guys that I live with later described it in the only way that any of us can think of. He called it a 'death storm of mystical birds'. Just picture that. So the whole way home after having such a great day, everyone was all smiles. Nothing could make the day better, until later that night. I mean, I didn't think the day could have been any better, I'm still amazed by all that happened yesterday, and can't wrap my brain around the fact that it really was only one day. At about 11 o'clock there was a total lunar eclipse. We watched as the moon slowly disappeared behind the dark shadow of the earth. The moon seemed to be on fire for a long period of time, it was glowing red so vibrant that I thought it may actually be on fire. It got too cold so we had to go in, where we went to finish a documentary that we had started watching about the Pharos of Egypt. We were watching it on a computer that we had set up in this fort that two of the guys in the house had built a few days earlier with all of our living room furniture. They layed down the futon matress so it was really comfortable. comfortable enough that four of us ended up falling asleep in there only to wake up in the morning a little dazed.

Tonight there is supposed to be a huge storm coming with 140km/h winds. I think I'm going to stay inside for the night.

I've been in hiding.

It's been a long while since my last post. I think that may be because I haven't done anything so exciting that it should be documented, but the reason for that probably is I'm finally settling into a routine here. When I walk outside, I am still baffled by how beautiful is here, but it's starting to be a ritual. Everyday I rediscover that I am in Ireland when I step out the front door. Now that it's been cleared up why I haven't written on here in a while, I'll do a recap of my life from the past few weeks...

I've decided that I don't really like Galway City that much anymore. It's always a hustle and bustle there, there's no time to just relax and there's always way too many people. It may be because we can only go on Saturdays, but I think that it seems busy all of the time because the city is so dense, kind of like Dublin. When we went to Galway the other week it was to get some essentials that we can't really get in Ballyvaghan. So the whole time we were running around the city, didn't get a chance to sit at all, which probably didn't help the situation. I was really glad to come back to a quieter place. Last week on Thursday a few of us headed to Ennis (like Tennis but without the 't') which is a city in the middle of Clare. It's not as busy as Galway which is nice, and it just seemed like my kind of place more than Galway. Ennis is the perfect sized city. We got there a little bit late, so most of the shops were closed, but we got to go to the €2 Store and an art supplies store, which is like sending a child into a candy shop. I wanted to buy a lot of the supplies, but I didn't, only bought a couple of things, and everyone should be proud. HA! After that we all kind of split up and went to find a place to eat. After walking for about a half hour maybe less we found a somewhat cheap sitdown restaurant. They had burgers, and all four of us got one. We're a little deprived of burgers here, not too many places serve them. After we all were stuffed we went grocery shopping and came back home.

On Friday of last week we had Irish Studies and we went around to a couple of ecclesiastical sights. All very nice places, and as the day went on it got nicer and nicer. The sun started to peak through the clouds and soon the clouds dissappeared all together. When we got back home, I decided that I wanted to go down to the ocean seeing as I hadn't actually been down there since we had been here. Laura, one of my housemates, let me borrow her bike and I went for a ride. I found this really amazing spot, called the Bird Hide, where there are all these small trails through a small patch of woods and some grass butting up against the water. I went and sat on the rocks next to the water for a long while, I needed the alone time. Living in a house with 11 other people is not a good environment for a quiet life. I then rode out about a mile out of town to a small beach and walked around for a bit. Once I got back to the house we all sat around for a bit. Once night rolled around we headed into town because there was a Welsch music festival going on. Every year the weekend after Valentine's Day, a large group of musicians come into Ballyvaughan to play music in the local pubs. The music was great. The next morning it was another really nice day so I headed into town at about 11 to go sit on the pier. I sat there for about and hour and a half just watching the tide come in. After that I picked up some groceries and looked in some of the shops that had opened for the weekend. The town was so busy. I have yet to see it that busy. People were all around, there was no place in town to have a quiet moment. However, I didn't really mind it so much. The town is finally getting some life. The rest of the day was rather uneventful and we went to listen to the music again that night after a great dinner at the seafood restaurant in town, Monk's. On Sunday I decided that it was going to be my day to do whatever I wanted, and what I wanted was to sit around all day in my pajamas doing absolutly nothing. Once night rolled around I got a bit of cabin fever, but made it through. This week was the beginning of the midsemester critiques (or tutorials as they call them here). I'm pretty confounded that it's already midsemester. It doesn't feel like we've been here for that long, and it's odd that schools halfway over...I don't know what to think of that right now. Maybe I'll have some reflection later.

The sun's just come out, I think I may head down to the water.

Oh good lord, IT'S SNOWING!

It just snowed! I finally got to see my snow, but it was like the snow that we get in Michigan in like September. But still, it almost never snows in Ireland so it was completely unexpected. I LOVE IT! That's all that needs to be said.

6 mile hike up a hill, you know, a normal Friday...

Today for Irish Studies we learned about the neolithic man in Ireland which was pretty neat. There are all these tombs around Ireland from different times and they're all different kinds too. After that we had a break for tea (that happens a lot here) and after about an hour we left for our afternoon out and about in the Burren. This is what happens every week in Irish Studies, but this is the first week where it hasn't been a soft day or just plain raining. In fact it was BEAUTIFUL out today. There were barely any clouds to be seen all day long. Gordon D'Arcy, our teacher, is freaking amazing because he's in his 60s and he hikes all over the place like he was twenty something. He decided that we were going to go on this hike up to see a caern on top of one of the hills near Ballyvaughan that's about 3 to 4 thousand years old. A caern (spelling may or may not be correct on that one) is just a pile of rocks in any shape or form, and that fact may or may not be correct. Anyways, he dropped this bomb saying that we were going to go on a hike and then told us that it's 6 miles and going to be a couple of hours. I just got really excited about the whole thing, We normally only go on a bus around and get out at random times, but this was going to just be us walking. Then we left finally heading to Bell Harbour, one town over, to head up this hill (when I say hill I really think I should be saying mountain because they are huge but everyone around here says that they are just hills).

We started out at about 12:30 on a cattle herding path up, up, up the hill. It's all pretty much grass and mud at this point. We don't really stop until about a half hour in. We stopped at this holy well (there are a lot of them all over the Burren and Ireland) and rested for about 15 minutes. Then we were off again. Still kind of on soft ground that rapidly turned into limestone. It's so hard to explain how it was up there. We climbed over one of the many many walls and started to ascend into oblivion. We had to pretty much find our way up these huge cliffs. It actually was much easier than it looked, but it was still hard. Everytime we got over one of these cliffs there was another one to climb. They just kept surprising us. I seriously think we went over at least 6 or 7 each time thinking that it was the last. Finally after probably a half hour or more of trying to climb up these we were on flatish land and stayed there for a while. We walked around this enclosed area (probably about a quarter of a mile across maybe more and once we were done hearing what Gordon had to say (which I never really heard because he was always waaay too far ahead of me for me to hear, seriously he's like a 60 year old goat) we started up some more steep landscape. There weren't too many other cliffs but it was very hard to walk up. Even though it was less rocky, on top, it still was really hard to walk on. There was just grass on top of this rough landscape which meant that there were plenty of places to fall into a crevace or hole that didn't seem to be there until you were on top of it. Once we were finally at the top we were at the caern. This is where we had some lunch. We were there for about 20 to 30 minutes before heading back down. It was amazing. You could see everything. All around. Once we were done eating and relaxing we decided to make the descent. It was so difficult. There were the same steep cliffs going down that there were going up. You had to be strategic. I fell a couple of times and I have scratches all over my hands and arms from the thorny bushes and sharp rocks. I don't know how long it took to get back down but the loose rock beneath our feet probably didn't help. When we finally got back down to the bus it was about 4:30. We were hiking for 4 hours which is just amazing to me. It felt like so long but at the same time seemed shorter than 4 hours.

On the bus I felt the need to reflect on what had just happened. Also I was really glad to be back on steady ground. I rolled my ankles quite a bit. And also almost fell straight into a rock so when I caught myself it really messed up my arms and back. I ached all over but it was worth it totally. When we got back to the house we all relaxed in the kitchen and then watched The Gremlins. In the middle of the movie one of our housemates, Isa, came in from outside and said that we needed to see the moon. We went outside and it was one of the coolest things that I had ever seen. The moon all orange and yellow rising above the misty blue mountains in the purple blue sky. I can't even explain it. We stood out there for about 5 minutes just watching it. That was probably the perfect ending to a great day. Upon reflection I can't believe all of the stuff that I did and to be perfectly honest I am proud of myself for doing it. Even when it got really hard I kept going and I'm so glad to have done it. It's been a good day.

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.