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.