Friday, February 26, 2010

All by myself

This weekend is one of travel. Tomorrow, I leave to spend a night in Galway and a night on Inis Mór, the largest of the Aran Islands off the west coast of Ireland. It was nice to have this entire day off to clean up a bit, pack and catch up on some much needed sleep. But what was truly remarkable was that I had the entire 10 person suite to myself! One roommate went to London, one to Scotland, one to Germany and the rest to Amsterdam, and I've been enjoying the silence ever since this morning.

Now don't get me wrong, I love everyone I live with, but I've come to miss the quiet that living in a single at BU allows me to have. We are together morning, noon and night here and I've made some amazing friends, but having a day to myself was much welcomed. Plus, I had the luxury of using three of the four burners on the stove at one time! Oh, the little things...

Though I did experience a midday freak out, all thanks to my addiction to crime shows like Law & Order: SVU and CSI. I was Skyping with Eileen, when I heard the door to our apartment open and slam. Immediately my heart started pounding since all of my suitemates were out of the country. Plus, I'm all the way in Dublin, how would Grissom ever solve my crime when he's in Las Vegas?! I investigated, with Eileen standing by on the computer, and found that it was only a maintenance man coming to fix Colleen and Tara's blinking bathroom light. Whew, crisis averted.

I took advantage of the lack of foot traffic in the common room to do some major cleaning--doing dishes, cleaning counters, vacuuming and taking out the trash. It's a pretty nice lounge, but would it have killed them to give a room of 10 people more than four burners, one sink and about a foot and a half of counter space?



Unfortunately, seeing as everyone starts trickling back Sunday morning, I estimate this wonderful sight will only last for the next 36 hours at most. Sigh, there's always next weekend.

I'm so excited to be going back to Galway; it's bar none my favorite place in Ireland. I hear the Aran Islands are beautiful, too, so I'm anticipating a lot of picture taking. We're coming back Monday morning before our history class at 2 p.m., so expect an update sometime after that!

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Checking in!

Having two term papers due within a few days of each other has seriously cut into my blogging time. The good news is, all you've missed is me drinking tea, making egg sandwiches, eating Cadbury eggs, typing, typing and typing.

I did have an eventful Tuesday night when I realized that I lost my credit card and my driver's license, which resulted in a frantic call to my mother, only to realize they were both in the 20 pound load of laundry I had just shoved in the dryer. Oops...

Last night, we went to the Abbey Theatre to see the world premier of Christ Deliver Us! which is a play about coming of age in the 1950s in Ireland, which basically meant no discussion of feelings unless it was to a priest. It was funny, sad, and disturbing, but wonderful. I spare you the plot details, but trust me in that it was very well acted and produced.

Today, instead of sociology, we headed over to the Houses of the Oireachtas, the Irish parliament. We were able to sit in the balcony overlooking the Dáil Éirann, which is the equivalent of our House. We walked in when everyone was speaking Irish, as they can choose to speak in that or English, but they soon changed back, which was helpful for us. There were some tense moments as they established the order of business, like when one representative yelled at the Ceann Comhairle (like our Speaker of the House) when he was cutting her off: "Ceann Comhairle, do you have a problem with all women or is it just the Labour Party?" The claws came out on that one....meowww.

We got a standard tour of the rest of the building, which used to be a town house for some family with...ready for this...22 children. This house is so big that, well, it got turned into the Irish parliament building.

As for the rest of the night, we're all recharging our batteries. I'm making pancakes! Unfortunately, chocolate chips are absolutely nowhere to be found in Ireland, so I'm using M&Ms as a delicious substitute. Now I'm off to make tortellini for dinner and give Julia Childs, or Sheila Kavanaugh, a run for her title of top chef.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Snow?!

Last night, all the girls on the trip decided to dress to the nines, wearing dresses and heels to go dancing. The guys had all donned suits the night before and had back stories of being 24-year-old investment bankers, record producers, lawyers and even a real estate agent. Well, they did pull off the suits and ties quite well, but the girls certainly could not be shown up. So we all suited up on our own in only the prettiest dresses and shoes, straightened and curled our hair, did our makeup, and looked fabulous.

Then it snowed.

It doesn't snow here. Almost never. Not the kind of snow that sticks to the ground anyways. Usually it's just these tiny balls of hail that kind of look like mini Dippin' Dots. Now, I mean this amount of snow is laughable for a bunch of students from Boston, but we would never have gone out with bare legs in February had we been back home. Nevertheless, we braved the elements and the barrage of snowballs thrown at us by some Irish guys to go out.

It was a nice end to a relaxing weekend, the first one all month where we stayed in Dublin. Friday, I stayed in, watched a movie and made an egg sandwich. It was pretty wonderful. Then yesterday, Marion and I went shopping at Penney's in the city center for some ridiculous bargains and new clothes and shoes. It was a wonderful girls' day out. And today will be spent grocery shopping and writing a sociology essay. And making egg sandwiches because they're delicious.

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

My day in jail


In lieu of classes today, we hopped on our familiar coach bus to take a trip to the Kilmainham Gaol Museum. The jail was home to many a rebel and thief throughout the years of British rule, including many children. Basically any petty crime could get you locked up for months on end, including an eight-year-old girl who stole a cloak to keep warm on the street and a six-year-old boy who was caught on a train without a valid ticket. Some kids would actually try to get caught stealing loaves of bread because after being orphaned by the famine or political imprisonment, having the jail roof over their heads and three meals a day was a pretty good deal. They also executed the prisoners here, and we got a chance to see the gallows. Eerie stuff.

Unfortunately, I forgot to charge my camera so I had to bum pictures off Colleen, but she got some good ones so it all worked out.


This iconic main area has been the set for over 70 movies, and the acoustics are so wonderful that U2 has even recorded here.

It was an interesting trip, and a welcome break from classes. Then, we all came back to bang out our 2,000 word history essays. I'm finished in record time (at 1 a.m.) considering my procrastination impairment. And I'm not the last one awake! Hey, I'll take my victories where I can.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Pancake Day!


It's Pancake Day here in Ireland today. It's the equivalent of Mardi Gras, since my media professor didn't have a clue what Mardi Gras meant. The news was full of segments showing people eating delicious looking pancakes, talking about delicious looking pancakes, cooking delicious looking pancakes...you get the idea.

Unfortunately, I did not have any pancakes today. We had classes today and we have a paper due on Thursday, so we've all been a bit busy and preoccupied. The workload here is much lighter than the work at BU so having two papers due in the next week has thrown us all for a loop. But I, along with everyone else, take comfort in knowing that there has to be someone in the class who has done less than me at this point.

Nevertheless, I should start making a dent. I dipped a Cadbury egg in my Barry's tea tonight as a Mardi Gras treat to myself. For those of you keeping score at home, my Cadbury egg count is up to at least one per day. Today was a double. This picture accurately represents my reaction upon looking up the calorie count in one egg.

I won't spoil the surprise for you, but it's not pretty. Here's to making the most of your Fat Tuesday!

Monday, February 15, 2010

The South

This was the third weekend in a row that I've lived out of my backpack, not giving a second thought to wrinkled shirts, ice cold showers or neck pains from sleeping on the bus. We traveled to the south of Ireland and celebrated our one month anniversary of arriving in this beautiful country. At dinner one night, as we passed our plates and ate bits of each other's dinner, it hit me that we had become one cohesive unit, a kind of family. We do everything together and are sharing these amazing experiences with each other, it's crazy to think that I've only known these people for one month.

But enough with the reflection, look at all the good craic I had!

We started out on Friday by going to Glendalough, an old monastic site. The lakes and mountains were beautiful.

After exploring, we hopped back on the bus for a several hour ride to Dingle in the southwest. The people who live in Dingle are a part of the 2.7% of Ireland that speaks Irish fluently and regularly. Signs were in Irish and did not include English like the rest of the country. We arrived at night, dropped off our bags and headed out to the pubs, which would have been quite empty without us. We talked to some locals, who all happened to be about 17 years old, and they taught us a few phrases in Irish.

Hello--Dia duit. (gee ah gwitch)
How are you--Conas atá tú? (Connis ah taw too)
You are hot--Atá tú te. (Ah taw too teh)

When we arrived back at the hostel that night, I was about to go inside when I glanced up at the sky and saw by far, the most stars I have ever seen in my entire life. The sky was just full, I can't even describe it. I laid down on the porch and just stared. I've never been so far away from cities and bright lights in my life, so being there surrounded by farmland, with the sky crystal clear, was one of the most beautiful sights I've ever experienced.

The next morning, we hopped on a boat to search for Fungie, the dolphin who appeared in Dingle about 10 years ago. The Gulf Stream goes right through Ireland, which accounts for the palm trees and moderate climate. Fungie came alone, but he hangs out in the bay and people like us pay to hop on a boat and search for him for a while. We were having no luck, but the scenery was well worth the trip.


I must say I'm getting quite used to seeing stone ruins in my day-to-day life. Boston should look into acquiring some.



Here's the other boat of us, actively searching for the Irish dolphin.

Aha! We found him! Once we spotted his fin a few times, we chased him down and he swam in the wake of our boat for a while. We were so close to him and he was hamming it up, jumping in and out of the water and loving the attention.

So we got back on the bus and headed to a beach for entire afternoon to eat lunch, play capture the flag and climb rocks.


We have had the best luck with weather. Not once has any trip been ruined by rain or clouds. The sun seems to follow us wherever we go.



If you look closely, you can see Casey and I after we climbed up the cliff. I'm kind of turning into an outdoorsy person and it's really fun.



Now what you don't see in these pictures is that Casey and I were the only two to keep our shoes and socks on. We didn't have any desire to stick our feet in the freezing Atlantic Ocean, get them all sandy, then sit on the bus for another few hours. So, we climbed rocks. As we were mid-photo shoot on a rock near the water, an enormous wave came and completely soaked our feet and pants. So we were not only wet and sandy like the rest of our class, we now had soaking wet clothes and shoes. A quick change of clothes on the bus fixed everything, but we definitely felt the Murphy's Law on that one.

We stopped a few more times on the way to Killarney, seeing some of the amazing coastline. Ireland is shaped like a saucer, with mountains and cliffs around the outside and the lowlands in the middle, so it lends itself to beautiful scenery.

We went out to dinner in Killarney and had the after dinner treat of a table full of Irish Car Bombs. I don't like Guinness or Bailey's, but that was mighty tasty. Then we went to a pub with live music, where we saw the guitar player from a pub in Dingle. He was finishing his set when we arrived, but then a band with a female singer came on to play covers. They were SO much fun! They played songs that everyone knew the words to and could belt out. We were all crammed up by the stage, singing and dancing, completely catching the band off guard. They were shocked at how much enthusiasm and excitement we had. When they were done playing after a few hours, I took the set list off the stage as a souvenir.

On Sunday, we spent most of the day sitting on the bus, but we made the necessary stop at Blarney Castle to kiss the Blarney Stone. There I am, making my gift of gab official, because let's be honest, I don't really need any help in that department.


There was the most amazing gift shop for all things Irish at the Blarney Castle since it's such a tourist spot, so I shopped for the first time since coming here and picked up quite a few gifts for family and friends.

This was our last weekend with our history teacher Caroline as our tour guide of Ireland, and we will all miss her trips. They are exhausting, but so much fun. I've now been to each of the four provinces in Ireland: Leinster in the east, Connaght in the west, Ulster in the north and now Munster in the south. There has been no down time and I love it, we're taking every chance we get to explore and see more of the country.

Sunday, February 14, 2010

One month

One month ago today, I landed in Dublin airport and started this amazing semester in Ireland. I've just returned from a weekend in the south of Ireland, and a real blog post will be up soon, but I just thought I should share that I spent my Valentine's Day kissing the Blarney Stone. You can't get more Irish than that.

Friday, February 12, 2010

And now to the South

World traveler that I am, this will be the third weekend in a row that I am going on a trip. Last weekend was to the North, now this weekend is to the South. We're heading to Cork and the surrounding areas. I should know more, but all I can remember is that we're heading to the Blarney Stone on this trip. Hopefully I'm granted with the gift of gab--we all know I need it.

Monday, February 8, 2010

Heavy

Going to Northern Ireland this weekend was an eye-opening experience if I've ever had one. Before coming to Ireland, I sort of had a vague notion that Northern Ireland was separated for some religious reason, but it wasn't until taking a history class here did I understand the conflict between the Catholics and Protestants, the Irish and the British. Once our bus crossed over the border from the Republic of Ireland into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, I felt even more ignorant since the tension was so much more present than I could have imagined.

Ireland is a fairly young country in that they only broke away from British rule in 1921, when they officially decided that Northern Ireland would belong to the Queen. Since then, the Irish have been fighting to reclaim the six counties in the north and the fight has been a bloody one. The Irish Republican Army, who are either freedom fighters or terrorists depending on whose side you're on, believe that physical force and violence, like bombs and shootings, will allow them to unite all 32 counties in the Republic of Ireland once again.

Peace walls were erected in order to physically separate the Catholics and Protestants, who fight more over their representation of the Irish and British than actual differing religious beliefs. These two groups demand equal services from the government, which means that in Belfast, for example, both sides of the peace wall get the same number of schools, public swimming pools, football fields, etc. There is actually a gate that closes at night to keep the groups from mixing after dark.

In 1998, a ceasefire was called in order to stop the violence by the IRA and to try to establish a more peaceful state. This meant the building of more peace walls and just more secretive violent attacks.

In 1998, I went to Disney World for the first time. Talk about perspective.

So, being briefed on conversation etiquette (no political discussions in the pubs unless you clearly know whose territory you're in, and even then, be careful), we headed up to Belfast on Friday and had a bus tour of the city. There are murals on so many buildings depicting different historical events and differing between Catholic and Protestant areas.








It's pretty clear which territory is which as the Protestant curbs tend to be painted red, white and blue, and the Catholic shops tend to look very Irish and have Irish names. Every citizen of Northern Ireland has dual citizenship with England and Ireland, but the passport they choose to carry speaks volumes for their political beliefs.

We then arrived at the Belfast Peace Wall, which is literally just concrete and barbed wire separating the neighborhoods. There is actually a gate that closes at night, fully separating the two. People from all over the world come and sign the wall, offering messages of peace and hope. Of course, I had to add mine.






The tour guide said that the murals and walls bring much tourism to the area and helps with the economy, but that leaving the murals and walls up only means continuing the conflict. Those who live there are at a crossroads as to how to move on.

We went out at night to the pubs, where the heaviness of the political mess isn't as intense. We were in a pretty neutral area, so no one was saying much either way. There was a live Irish band at the pub, and I bought their CD for 1o pounds. One of the guys in the band offered to sign it for me, and asked me what I wanted it to read. Forgetting I was in UK territory, I said, "I don't know, write something in Irish." He looked at me like I told him to write something in Swahili and said, "I don't know Irish. I could ask my wife if you really want me to." Worrying that I might have offended him, I quickly apologized and told him English was fine, so I got, "To Meghan, Best Wishes."

The next morning a few of us got up before the sun to head down to St. George's Market, where they were setting up to sell fish, meat, bread, pastries, cheese, etc. Colleen and I split a delicious potato and cheese pancake, then I got a tea, a red velvet cupcake and a croissant for the road.

On our way to Derry, we stopped at the Carrick-a-rede rope bridge for some sightseeing. We all crossed the rope bridge, and disobeyed trespassing signs once again.




Then we headed off to Giant's Causeway for some more sightseeing of some rocks that were naturally eroded away to look like towers.


We piled back into the bus and headed off to Derry, where the very large majority of the population is Catholic and identifies with Ireland. We arrived and got a walking tour of the town, which is the site of the Bloody Sunday massacres 30 years ago, where police opened fire on a peaceful protest, where most of the participants were teenaged boys.











This sign usually says, "You are now entering Free Derry," as opposed to the British name for the town, Londonderry. In memory of one of the boys who was killed on Bloody Sunday, someone put his eyes up over the sign instead.


Then we saw the Protestant Loyalist area, where the residents choose to live behind two fences. However, the taxpayers are the ones paying for the fences, which is a major point of contention for Derry residents. Nowhere else in the United Kingdom could one religious group get others to pay for their segregation. The tour guide said that at night, bombs still get thrown over the fences by rowdy teens who feel it's now their job to continue the fight. However, amidst the broken class scattered on the streets and the barbed wire and security cameras on every building, he feels that Derry is a safe place where there don't need to be fences and walls. He believes that the main fear of the Protestants living behind the fences is that if the boundaries come down, their children might actually, gasp, become friends with Catholic children. Pride is so important to the Irish that they don't want to give up on anything.



We checked into our nicest hostel yet, as you can obviously tell from the pictures. Four of us had our own bathroom! With hot water! Oh, and an insane asylum's warden used to live here and he killed his family in our room. But we had hot showers!


At night, we went to a local pub, where tourists were very welcome. Before I had even taken off my coat, a few men at the bar asked me why in the world I was in Derry. Once I said I was in Dublin for the semester, they asked if I was Irish. I told them my last name and they said, "Oh, well then you like the IRA?" A dumb, "Uhhhh..." came out of my mouth before I said, "We don't need to talk about the IRA." The men were obviously IRA members at this point, since they started saying how great it was, so I politely excused myself to find my friends. Not that I was in any danger whatsoever, but it's hard to listen to the history of this conflict and then sit down for a pint with people who are so very into the politics.

The next day consisted mostly of the bus ride home, only to hop back on a bus into Dublin city center to watch the Super Bowl. The game was obviously great, I love when Peyton Manning throws those beautiful touchdown passes, but I was so physically and emotionally drained from the weekend that I just about fell asleep in my chair. It didn't help that the game was over around 2:30 a.m. here and that we had no American commercials to keep us occupied in between plays.

I'm glad I had the opportunity to experience this weekend and the conflict first hand, but it certainly wasn't uplifting. It was absolutely draining, but equally as necessary.