The afterwards audio is just extra joy for you all
It's been yet another interesting week- mainly full of sleepless nights. I understand I'm in college, but my goodness the Irish know how to play hard. All night. Outside of our house. With glass bottles. And a soccer ball. 0.o Very, very sleepy few days lately.
Classes have settled in to a daily grind. The afternoon classes are a little miserable. I love sleeping in, but these also interfere with my old school afternoon nap time, so coffee is a must on a daily bases. Drat the luck! I still don't have my schedule memorized so I find myself in the wrong theatre all the time. "Theatres" are what they call their lecture halls. Sadly, I am not having classes in actual theatres. Some of my lectures are really engaging and fascinating, while others are just, ehh. College problems. I have discovered, however, that I LOVE my negotiating identities English seminar so far. There are only about 12 of us in there, 2 are Americans, one is German, and all the rest are Irish, so it's wonderful. We began by talking about what it means to be Irish and how the Irish cultural identity came to be. It was a giant history lecture, and I was eating it up. Maybe I should have been an anthropology major... hmmm. Only bummer? It's my one Friday class. We're already cutting these classes down to an 8 week running time (doubling up on class 2 weeks in this semester) so I really don't want to miss this class, but travel plans seem to be getting in the way with that. It costs a lot more to fly places on Friday evenings than a Thursday night or a Friday morning, so I feel bad about trying to plan trips with friends. But I talked to my teacher and she's alright with me missing one or two. She says that's typical of visiting students and that you should definitely travel while you can. WHY CAN'T ALL TEACHERS BE THAT ENCOURAGING WITH CULTURE?!?!?
Anyways, it just means I really have to stay on top of this class so I can skip one or two- and not get sick. Which means, I'm currently getting sick. Boo hiss. This class is very involved and engaging, which is splendid and different than all of the other classes I have. As worried as I was that I would hate this class, it may turn out to be my favorite. Although, I still would have loved Lord of the Rings or Arthur Conan Doyle as a class *le sigh*. Readings are getting more demanding on my other classes as well, so maybe I won't be bored with just 4 classes this time around. One bit of great news that I did get this week was that I am DONE with my THEA minor after this semester! That much closer to graduating and joining the real world! Thrilling, but petrifying.
Oh, speaking of grinds, I have begun working my way through the coffee shops of Galway. It's wonderful. I love getting to both sleep in and then stroll downtown and sit in a little cafe and people watch- I mean, study!- while sipping on delicious caffeinated beverages. And there are so many to try. It's a perfect world. On the other hand, they also have scrumptious treats at these cafes, and both my wallet and waistline hate me this week. Between the cafe breakfasts, heavenly granola, SpudHouse dinners, my home baking of nutella cookies, oatmeal chocolate chip muffins, and banana pancakes, and the world's BEST hot chocolate last night (they literally melted a variety of chocolate chips in to milk. And then added cinnamon and nutmeg. Gold in a cup!). I have officially hit food coma level. But it was worth it :)
Off the food train now.
This week I also finally gave in and got my Claddagh ring. It is beautiful! Jessie, Rachel, and I decided to splurge and get ours from the original Claddagh makers. Well worth it, I think. The craftsmanship on these things is so amazing.
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| Stunning |
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| The only ring in the world allowed to have the official stamp! |
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| I call this my beacon of singleness. It is lit and ready to go! |
There is a logic to how you wear these. If you wear it with the crown towards you and the heart pointed out, it means that your heart is open. If you wear it with the heart in towards you and the crown out, it means your heart is taken. The woman who sold us the rings was just adorable. She was able to size us within a quarter size just by looking at us. That's true quality and care about what you do.
Last week I told you about the Potter Soc. This week I will inform you about Choir Soc. Basically, a great small group of talented individuals that I am sort of honored to be singing with. Don't get me wrong, I love the theatre department Socs here as well (I joined both of them), but I think I may try something new this semester and stick with all the things I normally can't do back home because of theatre. Although, they are performing RENT next spring. Did I mention I belong here? Side rant about to begin in 3,2,1. Not to brag, but I was pretty proud of my audition. Yes, I auditioned, on a whim, for a musical I won't even be here for, but the point is that I did it. No stage fright, I sang in a voice I've never had before, and the people I auditioned for applauded after I sang. (Okay, so I do want to brag just a bit). For those of you that know how I get about singing in front of strangers... well, you understand how big of a deal that is for me. Having that opportunity was a great hit to my self confidence. They are all wonderfully welcoming and warm here. They saw that I was a visiting student (and therefore not able to perform in the musical) and I asked if they cared that I auditioned anyways. Their answer? "No, please do! We love auditions!" Anyways, I was not cast (obviously) but they told me to come back and audition for their small fall musical called "Reefer's Madness". Pretty darn honored. Okay, side rant over. So as much as I would love to be involved in the theatre here, I know how much dedication it takes, and I want to be free to travel on weekends and experience things like choir and Noms Soc and hiking and, well, sleep in general. So Tuesday night was our first choir practice. Already started learning music. Nice little Do-Wop called "Goodnight Sweetheart". What's even cooler is that my dad knows the song. I mean, that's not uncommon in the slightest- he knows practically every single song from the 1940's through the early 90's. It's how we've always bonded. It made me miss him a bit when I was singing it in choir because I wish there was a way he and mom could come see us perform it. It's the first time I've been remotely homesick the whole 3 months now that I've been away from home between the internship and study abroad. But he did send me the mp3 for the song so I could practice :) Poor mom had to deal with my mini stress breakdown earlier this week. But all is well and I'm super glad that I can skype friends and family.
This weekend's ISA culture feature was Cork and Blarney Castle. Since I was a good student and went to my Friday class, I missed out on a lot of the slights of Cork. Being a bit bratty here, but I was super bummed about it. I certainly loved the class and I'm glad I stayed, but man, I love exploring, especially with my camera. I may be borrowing some of my friend's photos from their Facebooks to share with you all, because I saw a pub, an Indian restaurant, a few streets, and city hall. That, and Blarney, but still not much of Cork. This weekend was a huge cultural festival weekend in Cork. Basically, the city opened over a hundred venues, museums, and hosted events all over the city that were free to the public (with free bus transportation to and from the different venues) to encourage culture, community, and local business. There were some amazing options to choose from that day. I missed most of them, but I did get to have an amazing banana nutella crepe and the hot chocolate previously mentioned, as well as go to the Short Horror Film portion of the festival. As a result, my roommates and I covered up all of the mirrors in our B&B that night. By the way, if any of you are ever in Cork- stay at this B&B. It's about a 7 euro taxi ride from the bus station, but well worth it. It's called the "Belvedere Lodge" It's a beautiful little place. I sadly did not get any photos of it :/
Back to the films- some were really freaky, some were just a bit, well, odd. For example, a man who laid an egg, and then brought it with him to the pub. While enjoying his Guinness, the egg began to hatch. It was this weird hissing vine-like alien creature that ended up getting accidentally squashed by the bartender. Another film, called "Hungry Hickory", however, was freaky as mess.
As well as "He Dies at the End" and "Never, Ever Open It." Yeah, faces haunting my nightmares for weeks. I did enjoy being scared by the first short, but that's about all I could handle. Everyone else was having a grand time though so it was all in good spirit :) I just spent most of the film festival hiding behind my hands haha. Some things never change. The city is beautiful at night as well.
This morning (wow, was that really just this morning??) we woke up and headed to Blarney Castle. Hooray!
The Blarney Stone has a lot of cool stories behind it. This is one of the oldest legends:
"The King of Munster was a hero- at least to one old woman. The story goes he rescued her from drowning in a raging river and in return the woman cast a spell to give him a gift of speech so powerful he could win allies to his cause. The catch- for some reason- was that he had to climb to the top of Blarney castle and kiss a particular stone for the spell to take affect."
The other part of this story is this:"During the reign of Queen Elizabeth the first, the ruler of the Blarney fortress was required to surrender it as a test of loyalty. Dermott McCarthy was his name, and making excuses was his game. Each time he appeared in court he made the promises anew, but never delivered on the surrender. Finally the Queen was so frustrated that she exclaimed in the face of his most recent story that she was done with “Blarney talk”. From this the word Blarney has come to mean fancy talk that holds little meaning."
http://www.timelessmyths.co.uk/kissing-the-blarney-stone.html
Found both of these on this website
No matter how you bend it (get it? Bending to kiss the stone? Ha) it's still fun to be part of the mythology that covers this land. The kiss was rushed, but it was a Saturday and there were long touristy lines. Completely understandable. The grounds were beautiful and there was so much to see there- including a poison garden, which held all sorts of poisonous plants and herbs. Really cool stuff, but signs EVERYWHERE saying "Do not eat". So of course, people let their children run free in there. One great thing I've noticed about the Irish. They will warn you with signs and such, but really and truly, they believe that your life is your own responsibility. There were signs all over the Cliffs of Moher and this garden and the castle itself to let you know what was dangerous, but no one to really enforce it. They figure if something happens, it's your own stupid fault. I bet there aren't any lawsuits about McDonalds making you fat or burning you with coffee here. I say, survival of the fittest. Good on them.
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| Leprechaun nooks! haha |
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| See the railing? Yeah, that's where the stone is. |
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| Kickin up my heels in Ireland! |
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| Kitchen in Blarney Castle- my future job! |
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| The old house. So gorgeous! |
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| Post-Blarney kissing! |
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| In front of the mandrake roots!! |
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| Love this |
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| Just chillin in the tree- nbd |
Tomorrow is a day for planning Europe excursions (heading to Scotland soon! woooo!) and catching up on homework readings. Oh, and a minor little football match between Donegal and Mayo. It's gonna be a blast in my house- roomie's from Donegal, her boyfriend is cheering for Mayo. I feel like the child caught in the middle- who do I cheer for?? So I may neander in to town to watch over a pint of Bullmers Light (I've gotta counteract the cold somehow, right?) and tomorrow night I'm watching "Love, Actually" with some friends. I know it's not the holidays yet, but I am so blasted excited for them that I'm already in the spirit. Okay, that's all for now my lovelies. Until next week!
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