Dublin Part Deuce

So Dublin - Day 3 (Sunday) - Part Deuce
Sunday Morning up early for breakfast and check out of the hotel. I finally tried some of the infamous "Black Pudding", and I have to say, it's not bad. I was expecting much worse, so I was pleasantly surprised. After breakfast I went to mass at St. Augustine's, which (as I was told) has the highest church spires in all of Dublin. I'd say that's pretty impressive! They had a St. Monica statue in the back of the church. St. Monica was the mother of St. Augustine in case you didn't know. It was the first statue of St. Monica that I've seen. So, after that we walked to the Guinness factory where I got to pour the perfect pint of Guinness! The factory and museum itself was really cool! They had a lot of information about the history of Guinness and how it is made as well as information on the marketing of Guinness. After the Guinness factory it was a quick walk over to Kilmainham Gaol to get a tour of the infamous Dublin jail.

Kilmainham Gaol is a Victorian style jail that has housed thousand upon thousands of Irish men, women and children during its time. It now stands as a museum where visitors can tour through the jail, and see cells and stone breaking yard and learn the history of the Jail and its visitors. This was the same jail where the rebels of the Easter Rising of 1916 were held and executed. We got to walk down in the stone yard where they were shot by firing squad. It was very eerie and intriguing all at the same time. Being in places like this really gives you an appreciation for History and the people who played such a large part in it.

After Kilmainham, we took the Dart over to the Jameson Distillery, you know - Jameson Irish Whiskey? So we took the tour of Jameson, and at Tom's suggestion, I volunteered to be a Whiskey Taster at the end of the tour. After learning all about how Jameson is made and why it is different from Scotch and American whiskey we got to the taste testing. There really is a difference in the smoothness of Jameson compared to Johnny Walker Black Label Scotch or Jack Daniels. After the tasting I got a certificate - I'm now an "Official Irish Whiskey Taster". I'm not sure how much credibility I get, but it's still pretty cool.
Jameson was the last on my tour of Dublin, after this we hurried back to catch the bus for our ride back to Dungarvan. Ending our weekend of escapades and adventures around Dublin. Next week this time I'll be standing in front of some great work of art or eating some delicious French cuisine!
Cheers!

Dublin Part One!

Dublin! Finally :)
So Friday morning we roused out of bed at an early hour to board our bus to Dublin! About 3 hours later we arrive, and hit the ground running. Dublin's a big city to see in two and a half days! First we went to Dublin Castle, a beautiful old Georgian building with a lot of history, most of which we got courtesy of Tom our walking encyclopedia. If Tom doesn't know it, he makes it up, if he can't make it up, it probably doesn't exist. Tom is probably the most informative tour guide you will ever have, ever. After Dublin Castle we headed out to find lunch! A group of 26 very hungry college students soon descended on three unassuming cafes. Afterward we headed over to the Irish National Archeology Museum. A huge museum with a lot of great exhibits on everything from early Irish life to the Vikings and ancient Egypt. It was really well done. Not only were the exhibits interesting, but the building itself was gorgeous. It had huge detailed doorways, with ornate carvings and rich blue and gold painting around them. There was marble everywhere, I saw a lot of green marble which I'm assuming is Connemara Marble. After the museum, we walked next door to Parliament! Where we got to tour around the building see where Parliament is held now, where it used to be held, and some history of the place and the people who had been there, including JFK. Again, until you think about it, walking the same halls as JFK... After the tour we headed back to the hotel to unpack, officially check in, and nap before heading out for the evening. I had dinner at a cute little Bistro near our hotel, and the food was amazing. We then began our wander around Dublin, until we finally ended up in O'Donoghue's where we caught the end of the Rugby match on TV. After hanging around there for a bit we called it a night, and headed back to get some much needed sleep for the next day.
Day 2 (Saturday)
Up early and headed out we walked over to Christchurch Cathedral, a ginormous church with some very neat/creepy crypts. After that we headed over to Trinity College to see the Book of Kells, unfortunately I didn't get to take any pictures at the Book of Kells! But it was amazing. The book is incredibly detailed and I was impressed with how well it had been preserved. Upstairs from the Book of Kells was "The Long Room" a huge library filled with tons of old books on who knows what! But it was awesome - think the library from "Beauty and the Beast". I found this picture of the Long Room online.
After the Book of Kells, we headed over to the GPO (General Post Office) the main site of the Easter Rising of 1916. We had been hearing about these places in history class, and here in our Seminar, but to finally get there and see it was pretty cool. Made you feel pretty small. I think sometimes I forget just how big the world is. After seeing the GPO we all split up for the day in our own groups and headed out to tour Dublin ourselves. I decided to walk around explore Dublin. We tooled around Henry Street, grabbed some lunch and headed over to St. Stephen's Green. It was a beautiful park complete with swans in a lake! Then we marched all the way down to the Mercy International Center on Baggot Street - where the Sister's of Mercy first started.
That evening we headed out for round two of Dublin nightlife. After dinner at a Chinese place - I know I know... Chinese in Ireland - We got our group together and made our way over to Pravda, a Russian themed Bar just across the River from Temple Bar. It was a very laid back bar, with great music, any DJ who starts the night off with MGMT and rocks out to Arcade Fire and Passion Pit is a-okay by me! After that we headed back, for the night, we had a long day ahead of us on Sunday!

When You Are Old

I was rereading Yeats, "When You Are Old" and it reminded me of the song, "Ageless Beauty" by the band Stars. Stars is one of my favorite bands and for some reason, when I read "When You Are Old", this song came to my mind. So, I thought I would share it. I'm not sure why I put these two together. They don't have much in common by way of similar phrasing, and "When You Are Old" didn't come with a CD to sing along to. I think what I found in common was the praising of a beautiful young woman, who has seen better days, worn by the world. But her beauty has survived in memories in Yeats poem. The singer in "Ageless Beauty" believes, from my interpretation, that this woman's beauty will outlast the tests of time, as will their love. But hey, that's just what I think, draw your own conclusions - agree or disagree or be neutral. That's what art is all about anyways, one's own interpretation of the real and the imaginary.

Here is the song:
There is an actual music video, but in this case, I think that its more important to listen than see.

When You Are Old
- William Butler Yeats
When you are old and gray and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
You eyes ad once, and of their shadows deep;

How many loved your moments of glad grace;
And loved your beauty with love false or true;
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face.

And bending down beside the glowing bars
Murmur, a little sadly, how love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.

Soft rain

So late this Tuesday evening, I find myself staring out into the rainy night, wondering if this weather will persist in Dublin, or if we might see the sunshine this weekend. Today, mostly cloudy and misty, an overall nice day. We spent most of it walking to and cleaning up an old famine grave yard. We felt that it was a nice way to give back to a community that has done so much for us. On the way there we were followed by a cute, little puppy we named "Carlos" whom everyone wanted to take back to the hotel.
After cleaning up the graveyard, we headed back to the hotel for afternoon classes, meetings and dinner. Our meeting tonight was a briefing for our trip to Dublin this weekend. Everyone is really excited, we will be there from Friday morning through Sunday evening. A nice long weekend to explore one of Ireland's great cities. It's also exciting because we are finally get to walk along the same streets as many of Joyce's characters did in Dubliners. Joyce's descriptions of people and places are for me, very realistic. Not overly descriptive, neither minimalist, just the right amount mixed with a bit of imagination made Dubliners, for me, a book filled with images. I think my favorite story might have been "The Dead", or at least the end of it. I loved the way he described all the thoughts of Gabriel as he admired his wife. The way he didn't wasn't overly romantic, just simple. Yeats has provided a very different set of images from that of Joyce. Yeats images are more pastoral, older, more whimsical. These imgaes conjur up old forests in the Irish mountains, or small glens in "The Stolen Child". This change in imagery is nice, and provides a different look at Ireland and its inhabitants.

St. Padraig's Day

I know, I know I'm a few days late, but hey better late than never right? So this year I spent my St. Patrick's Day here in Ireland celebrating with my friends and the people of Dungarvan. It was pretty surreal. All this time its been "oh yeah, we're in Ireland" but now on Wednesday it was "Oh.... I'm in Ireland....It's St. Patrick's Day...I'm actually here!!". It was one of those moments where you realize it fully what is going on. It was a pretty exciting day! They raised the Irish, American, Pennsylvania and Erie City Flag early in the morning and then we attended mass at St. Mary's, a beautiful church here in Dungarvan. The mass was in Irish, and the Mercyhurst students participated in the mass by reading intercessions, a reading as well as doing the offertory. I was one of the students who got to read, and I did one of the intercessions. It was a big honor to be invited to participate in this mass, considering St. Patrick is their patron saint. Celebrating mass in Irish was pretty cool, I was able to follow along - after Catholic school for 12 years I better be able to! Which is one of the neat things about Catholic mass, no matter where you are in the world or what language its in, you can follow along because all the masses are formatted exactly the same.

Later that day we lined up for the parade! It was pretty exciting to see all the people that came out for the parade and all the different groups that were in it. I was especially excited that I got to carry one of the Irish flags in the parade! After the parade we were fed a "traditional" Irish dinner of ham, cabbage, carrots, and potatoes at the Dungarvan sailing club. It was delicious!

I'm not quite sure how to wrap this up, I'd like to talk about what we've been reading (finishing Dubliners and Easter 1916) but I think St. Padraig's Day should get it's own post. Don't worry, I haven't forgotten about Joyce and Yeats! I'll get back to them next time :)
Until then, Slainte!

Busy, busy, busy!

So, since the last time I wrote, I have been to Cork City, saw Christy Moore in concert, and watched my first hurling match. Needless to say, it's been a busy weekend! So I'll start at the beginning!
Cork City
On Saturday a group of us decided to catch the bus from here in Dungarvan out to Cork to spend the day before we had to be back for the Christy Moore Concert. Cork was great, they had just started their St. Patrick's Festival, which lasts a week, so there was a lot to do on Grand Parade and St. Patrick's Street. There were tons of vendors out most of them selling food of some kind. The booths were specialties and they had everything from homemade crepes to oven baked pizza's. It all smelled amazing and was very delicious! They also had a stage up at the end of Grand Parade Street and we stood and listed as a few different bands took their turn on the stage. While those bands took the stage, buskers and smaller groups scattered themselves around the city playing for the change thrown into their open buckets, or instrument cases. Needless to say, almost anywhere you went you were surrounded by music - as you moved out of earshot of one busker you would soon hear the notes of the next artist as you walked down the streets. After spending some time at the festival we ventured out a bit from the crowds to see more of Cork. We went looking for the North Cathedral, but instead found St. Fin Barre's, an amazing old Church on the SOUTHERN side of Cork. Oops, we realized we went the wrong way. But St. Fin Barre's was a great find! We asked a someone for directions to North Church, they didn't know where it was, but told us a great story about the golden angel perched on the top of the dome at the back of St. Fin Barre's. They said that according to legend, that when the Apocalypse happens, the angel will come to life and sound the trumpets it is holding to announce the coming of the Kingdom. After some wandering about there, we headed back into the festival. At this point the group split up, Caitlin and I ventured out to find the clock tower that we kept seeing and the rest of the group stayed to explore the festival more. We found the clock tower to be none other than the famous Shandon tower, attached to St. Anne's Church. You can walk all the way to the top of the tower and have a birds eye view of Cork. On your way up you can also ring the Church bells, so that was a good "craic". We played "Oh, Susanna", "The Bells of St. Mary's" and "The Last Rose of Summer". After making lots of noise and seeing Cork from way up high, we headed back to Dungarvan.

Christy Moore
The Christy Moore concert was held in a town center in Capoquin, a nearby town. He is truly a great musician and it was a real treat to be able to hear such a legend play. The venue was very intimate which made the concert really enjoyable. He even played a song for us! It was a very sad song, but it was still really good. Most everyone there knew all the words to the songs and sang along, everyone was really enjoying themselves clapping and singing.

Hurling
Hurling.... words to describe Hurling...fast, brutal, fun, crazy, skillful. Get the picture? Not really... I have a hard time describing Hurling, I think the best I can do is say that it is a cross between, hockey, soccer, lacrosse and instead of me trying to explain it to you, I think a video would do it justice best. The game was a blast, the crowd really gets into in and we started to as well! Hopefully I'll be able to go see another match before we leave. The match we saw was between Waterford, blue and white jersey's and Limerick, the green jereseys. We of course rooted for our home team of Waterford. They won handily out scoring Limerick 26 to 16!
Anyways, here is a little video I took at the game, I hope this helps better than my description.


So that's all I have for now! But this week is looking to be a good one, we have more trips and St. Paddy's day events all coming up

Araby

Today, we have officially been here in Dungarvan one whole week. One very busy and very fun week. This past week I've been slowly exploring the town, taking walks in the morning before class, and getting a better idea of where things are, as well as finding new places. On yesterday's walk, I found out that Dungarvan holds a Farmer's Market every Thursday in the Square. I knew I wanted to get something, I just wasn't sure what. So I decided to walk around some more and then come back after while. While out and about I found some gorgeous views and a small park. After meandering down by the quay and down a few streets I decided to head back to the farmer's market and see what I could find. While I wandered around between the tents, I felt a bit like the boy in Araby - a bit confused at what to get. Although I wasn't buying a gift for someone else, and everyone I talked to was more than kind, and the market wasn't closing yet. I understood for a moment that sense of confusion and loss that comes when shopping without a purpose, only that sense that you should buy something. Unlike Joyce's character I was a bit more successful in obtaining an adorable cupcake with vanilla icing and sprinkles, and a bottle of apple raspberry juice. Both were delicious!
As we continue our stay here in Ireland, I'll continue my exploring, both here in Dungarvan and around the country. The trip to Dublin is fast approaching and I can't wait. Joyce's characters in many of the other stories mention streets or places in Dublin that I hope to see once I am there!

We're Here!

One year ago I was only dreaming that I could be studying Ireland, and now, I'm sitting at the kitchen table, in Dungarvan Ireland, blogging of all things! After a lot of traveling - cars, planes, buses - and some airport security we are finally here!
Since we've been here in Dungarvan, the weather has been nothing short of beautiful. Blue skies, sunshine and perfect weather so far, I can't complain one bit! A lot of people here have been telling us that this is unusual, but sometimes unusual isn't all that bad! The town is picturesque, sitting right on the bay and Irish Sea, with the mountains rising up in the background. Who could ask for more? Everyone here as been extremely welcoming and very kind. The hospitality that has been shown to us is above and beyond anything I've ever known. There are signs, and banners, welcome dinners and multiple tours of the town.
The past few days have been pretty surreal. I couldn't at first believe that I was actually abroad. Walking around the town and getting familiar with our new home for the next ten weeks has been the main pastime for most of us. With such great weather its nearly impossible to pass up the opportunity to take a walk and enjoy the scenery.
The history in the town is incredible and I can't wait to see more of it!