Now remember everyone, she was alright when she left here! [Belfast Part One]

Wednesday, November 4th, we head out on our field trip to Northern Ireland. It's only about 2 hours north of Dublin, and a lot of Irish people head there to shop because the prices are cheaper. Northern Ireland is still part of the United Kingdom, but there's no border even, we just drove right in. We stopped in Belfast to meet Ray, one of Don's former students, who was working on his Ph.D. in... can't remember, but it had something to do with the folk/traditional music of the Republicans (nationalists - those who want a united 32 county Ireland) and the Unionists (Loyalists - those who want to remain part of the British empire). Anyways, Ray took us on a mini tour of the Belfast murals - especially the wall of murals that reflect current political issues and so can change sometimes weekly. Then we went and changed our money - Britain is still on the pound and it was about 1eur10 to the pound - that's more than a $1.70 now!! Had lunch, then went on a longer walking tour, where we went into some of the neighborhoods that have political murals painted on the sides of houses. Most of them were relating to "The Troubles" during the 60s and 70s, but a few were global, and a few had other Irish political issues.
After the walking tour, we got back on the bus which drove us to the Peace Lines - along Falls Road and Shankill Road. The peace lines is a giant fence that separates Falls Rd on the Catholic or Nationalist side, and Shankill Rd on the Protestant Unionist side. On the Falls Rd side, the houses are built right up to the fence, and they all have barriers on them because there is still a fear of riots or conflict. On the Shankill Rd side, they purposefully leave about 200 yards as it was when the August 1969 riots broke out with the burning of Catholic Bombay Street. We could walk along the Catholic side, but couldn't stop the bus or walk along Shankill Rd because we didn't want to attract too much attention (so I couldn't get any good pictures). Even walking along Falls Rd was a bit eerie, but Shankill was horrific - the 200 yards or so beyond the peace line fence are bombed out buildings and debree-filled empty lots that are all spray painted over. Beyond that is a neighborhood filled with people going about their everyday business, but they keep it that way to remind people of the riots that broke out.... and also it's a bit of a tourist attraction. It was very eye-opening... before, The Troubles had been a distant thing, but driving along those roads and looking at all the murals and memorials to those that died really brought home that the main riots and bombings in 1969 are still fresh in people's minds.

After that, we drove through the Unionist side of Belfast, saw a bunch of Loyalist murals, and then headed to the Titanic Quarter. There we got a tour of the old drawing room (all run down and closed up - though they're in the process of fixing it up to make into a museum) where they drew the plans for the Titanic, and then the shipyard and slipway where they used to build the ships. It was very cool, and our tour guide was hilarious - he knew every line to the movie Titanic, and kept throwing them out there to our great amusement. Ironically, they're building a museum for the Titanic now, but the disaster really wasn't that well known or cared about until the movie came out, and it's really because of the success of the movie that they are able to build a museum/hotel and be confident that people will come to see it and stay there. Anyways, the important thing to remember is that "she was alright when she left here, and she would've been fine, until they got an Englishman to captain her!"

After a long day of traveling, and heavy topics of conversation/lecture, we finally pulled into our hotel, freaked out because it was sooooo nice!!!, and then met for dinner later that evening.

It's the Americans vs the Germans vs the Japanese!

Retrospective blog post #1: my first week in Ireland

So I arrive in Ireland Sept 21st at about 830 in the morning. I'm met by Don, our program director, and a few other people in the program who were arriving that morning as well. We're bussed to DCU, which is about 10 minutes away from the airport.

I'll admit, first impressions weren't great. I was expecting DCU to be downtown and it wasn't - it's not even in Dublin proper. The girls I had met at the airport were in all different houses so I didn't know anyone who was going to be in my apartment. The apartments are laid out with 5 individual rooms with your own bathroom and a common kitchen/lounge area, but the rooms are all shut off from each other because they're obsessed with fire safety here, and you aren't allowed to put anything up on the walls, so it felt a bit like an insane asylum with all that white. We were to meet our directors in about 2 hours for a quick tour about campus, and in that 2 hours I went a little crazy. I couldn't get my internet to work and I couldn't find my adapter so I was freaking out that I would have to get a new one, and meanwhile would have no way of contacting anyone I knew. My roommate Molly who was already here, was part of the program - from Rhode Island - she helped me connect to the internet, but I still couldn't find my adapter so my battery was running low... I was so overwhelmed.

But me and Molly went to go meet the rest of our group. We had a quick tour around campus which went completely over my head because I had been awake for almost 20 hours at that point. Brian, Don's second in command, then takes us all to Omni, which is a big shopping center, to get sheets and groceries and such. We kinda then split off into groups depending on what everyone needs, we all get phones (which I wasn't intending on getting, but now I'm glad I did), and try to make our way back to campus.

The first week was such a blur of tours and information, that I can hardly remember the details. Dublin is an awesome city, but completely daunting to try to navigate. All the streets go willy-nilly all over the place, and street names only last for about 2 or 3 blocks before changing names. So, completely exhausted by the end of our first week, and thoroughly confused about downtown, Don sends us an email about a trip on our first Saturday out to Causey Farm.
Causey Farm is a working sheep farm turned tourist attraction, and all the international students at DCU were invited to go. Our group (we've started to realize we've got a good group going on, and have become good friends, for the most part) decides to go as well, and we bus out Saturday morning.

It turned out to be a blast - probably one of the funnest days of my life. We all roll up and split into 3 groups because there's about 150 international students. Our group goes to learn an Irish jig first. The girl teaches us the steps... which if I remember correctly, goes something like this: you and your partner are side by side and you're next to another pair, and the four of you are across from another four people, step in 2 3, in 2 3, out 2 3, out 2 3, in 2 3, in 2 3, out 2 3, out 2 3, sidestep 2 3!, 1 2 3, and sidestep back 2 3, in 2 3, out 2 3, swing with the person across from you for 8 counts!, in 2 3, out 2 3, and under the arms of the people in front of you to meet the next four people. And it just keeps going til you run out of rows of people and have to turn around, and when the song ends. And it's really fast! We were all exhausted and laughing hysterically by the end because the only part people could remember was the swinging!

So after that we go to learn how to play the Bodhran, the Irish drum that sits on your knee, and then we make Irish soda bread to go with our meal in the evening. Then we play with some puppies that were running around, head off to the bog to cut some turf, and along the way learn a song about a moose. Then we come back, go milk a cow, and as we're done with that, one of the owners asks if we want to try to catch some pigs? Of course we say yes! Our group happened to be all Americans, Germans, and Japanese, so the guy pitted the three world superpowers against each other in the Olympics of pig chasing. None of us caught any. Those pigs are fast! Then we go off to learn about hurling, an Irish sport that's a little like lacrosse or field hockey... but not. Girls don't play hurling, and it's a really fast, kinda brutal game, but really fun to watch. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AM-kB1e96CA check it out.

After a bunch of cows stampede us while practising our hurling skills, we figure it's time to go eat. All of the international students pile into a hall where we grab our bread we made earlier, and soup and cheese, etc. It was all really good. After the meal we clear all the chairs and tables for a cieli, or session. That's where everyone in the room contributes a story or a song or a dance or a joke, and it's just a big party, because that's the Irish way. At first, everyone is shy, but our group leaders kind of pick up the slack and perform some traditional Irish songs on their instruments - our group leader played the Irish flute, another girl played the accordion, and a guy played the guitar. Most of the nationalities added in something from their country, and at the very end, one of the owner's daughters, maybe about 4 years old, sang "Molly Malone." It was very sweet, and a good end to a great day.

More to come!

I'm a part time firefighter... and a part time secret agent.

I've never blogged before. But in order to keep family and friends informed of my thoughts and experiences without mass emails... here we go.
I've been in Dublin, Ireland on a CIEE study abroad program for about 4 weeks now. Maybe I'll do retrospective blogs about the first three weeks, but we'll see. For now, though, just jumping right in. Near the end of the 4th week, we had one of our required field trips to the west of Ireland. It was absolutely beautiful. We stayed for three nights in a hotel in the small town of Westport. Very cute, with pubs literally every two storefronts downtown. Matt Malloy's is the famous one - owned by Matt Malloy of The Chieftains and Grammy winning fame. We saw Matt himself play a set Friday night, our last night there. But perhaps this is best done chronologically.

Wednesday the 14th of October we left Dublin on private coach to the west of the Emerald Isle. Along the way, we stopped at Strokestown House, the Famine Museum, and the Museum of Country Life. All designed (and indeed the purpose of this trip) to make the importance of the Famine (An Gorta Mor = The Great Hunger) in Irish history, culture, politics, and collective memory come alive for us. Pulled into Westport about 5pm, checked in, found rooms, etc. And then came dinner. Technically, we all paid CIEE for this, but dinners were free, which was very exciting. And they didn't joke around. 3 courses and all delicious. Except for the apple cake thing. I got excited about the Apple pie on the menu... and it was not apple pie. So disappointing. Headed out to Matt Malloy's after dinner for some chill times with the peeps. Very very crowded bar, but met up with our two program directors, and proceeded to have some very interesting and epically hilarious conversations involving mating rituals, serious drunken talks about taking care of drunken friends, and dancing. Among others.

Don (program director head honcho): Oh geez, would ya look at that?!" (referring to guys meeting girls at the bar behind us). "It's all the same. Ooo I'm Allison. Hey I'm Bill. Wanna see my pecs?" (and so on)
Tom, a guy in our group: "It's really hot in here!"
Me, sweating (it really was sweltering): "Yeah!"
Don: "Oh I'm a part time firefighter. (doing the voice of 'Allison') Oh really, I'm a neurologist!"

Thursday. Head out to Croagh Patrick and a famine memorial. There's a pilgrimage every year up the entire mountain (hill for west coasters) in remembrance of the people who suffered during the famine. Then onto Connemara (and another Famine memorial), a region inbetween County Galway and County Mayo, sometimes referred to as the 33rd county of Ireland. Indescribably beautiful countryside. Just one sweeping panoramic vista of epicness after another... and someday soon I'll be productive enough to upload pictures. Thursday night dinner was a choice of lamb, steak or chicken. Never had lamb before so I had that, but everyone else got really excited about the steak... and the fact they didn't have to pay the extra charge. Excellent stuff. Head out to hoppin' downtown Westport again, this time to Cosy Joe's, a pub turned dance club that was open til the wee hours of the morn. Had a grand time, involving copious amounts of alcohol and showing off mad dance skills. The thing I love so far are the awesome people in my group. None of us really knew each other, save for a few, before we arrived. We're from all over the U.S., different personalities and interests, but we all have a great group dynamic, which makes this experience that much more fantastic. I feel like some of these people I've known for years - maybe simply an effect of us all being thrown together so often and in such close quarters, but I choose to think not - that some people in this group I will keep in touch with for years after our three months together.

Friday. Pile onto the bus at 9:30 to head to Galway. Don on the bus microphone is singing and laughing creepily... his payback for us coming in late last night and being loud in the halls. Could we help our natural giddyness?? Certain people who experienced the situation would say no. You know who you are :)

Anyways, Galway was great. We had a few hours of free time, so we split off to do some shopping and get lunch. I end up spending far too much money, but on the plus side, Christmas shopping is done done done. Walk around the main part of downtown for a while, then pile back on the bus to head back to Westport. Is it sad that the best part of our days there was racing downstairs promptly at 7pm just to see what was on the dinner menu? Maybe not for some, but it definitely was one of the best parts of my trip. That night, we all head out to Matt Malloy's for our last night there, saw Matt Malloy himself, and when he stopped playing, we headed to Cosy Joe's again for some dancing.

Saturday, head home to Dublin.

So that's that for my first ever blog post! Feel free to leave comments, I think everyone should be able to. And thanks for reading :)