Hallow's Eve

Happy Halloween!

Tonight I went on the Ghost Bus tour with IES. It was kind of scary, not really though. I don't think it was worth the ticket price but it was a good thing to do on Halloween to celebrate the spirit.

There are a lot of fireworks going off because Halloween is the Irish celebratory equivalent to the 4th of July. It's nice to watch when you're out walking about at night but not so nice when you're trying to get to sleep I'm sure.

I had a weekend trip to London which I will write about later when photos get uploaded. Lots to tell! It was a trip of mixed blessings - some good things and some things that were very frustrating. I really want to go back and see more of London! What an amazing city.

We have a cat!

His name is Conor McPherson and he roams around in our backyard. Today Nora fed him some turkey and Peter got him to come into the kitchen, but he ran back out into the yard as soon as Pete tried to pet him. He's been around the backyard for a few days now, and I really hope that he comes back when we return from London. I will take some pictures of Conor and post them later. Hopefully he doesn't have rabies.

This is more for myself...

...than for anyone else. I need to keep track of the books I want to get from the library (or buy) when I get home and I can't think of anywhere to do it other than here. If I write it down in a notebook, I'll forget where I wrote it.

Martin McDonagh: Plays 1

The Lieutenant of Inishmore by Martin McDonagh

The Cripple of Inishmaan by Martin McDonagh

Dubliners by James Joyce

Paddy Clark Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle

The Deportees: And Other Stories by Roddy Doyle

Brownbread and War: Two Plays by Roddy Doyle

Cromwell by Brendan Kennelly

Beowulf: A New Verse Translation by Seamus Heaney

The School Bag by Ted Hughes and Seamus Heaney

Coraline by Neil Gaiman

Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift

Pete and Bri on a Cliff

Ulster Weekend

Today we returned from an eye-opening weekend in Northern Ireland. Here's how it went:

Friday we (barely) made it on the train because I got confused and thought that we departed at Heuston Station. We got to Heuston Station and looked around only to realize that we actually departed from Connolley Station and needed to be there five minutes ago. A very obliging cab driver raced us to the correct station and we did make it to the train on time, with only a few tears on my part.

Once we arrived in Belfast we were greeted at the train station by my friend Allyson. Allyson and I went to high school together, and we rarely see each other because we attend colleges that are thousands of miles apart. She is studying in Belfast this year, so we decided to take advantage of our proximity and visit each other while in Ireland. Ally helped us find our bed and breakfast, the Avenue House. It was lovely. Our proprietors were so kind and hospitable. They made us tasty breakfasts and engaged us in lively conversation. Peter and I would stay there again in a heartbeat, and we highly recommend it to anyone who seeks a place to stay in Belfast.

Nothing in Belfast is open past five except for eating and drinking and places of debauchery. Since places of debauchery were out of the question for the night, we went to The Bridge House which had cheap drinks and cheap entrees. Good food. We played cards for way too long and indulged in Bramley Apple Pie for dessert. Not as good as Grandma Rew's apple pie, not even close. Bramley apples are flavorful but this version of the pie doesn't have any cinnamon or spices in it, which is pretty much my favorite part of apple pie.

After sitting there for a few hours catching up and getting schooled by my fellow card players, I decided I wanted chips. I wanted chips badly. Ally and Pete refused to walk to find a decent chipper with me, so I had to get chips from The Bridge House and douse them with malt vinegar. I also found a packet of Heinz Mint Sauce while I was burrowing through the condiment bar. I decided that I would bring it home for Alanna. That's your Christmas present, Alanna. Just the mint sauce. Hehe.

We then went to see Stardust at the Movie House Cinema in Belfast City Centre. It was cheap, and even with the soaring exchange rate it was less expensive to see a movie there than at home at the Portage Theatres. Also, it was awesome. Probably because it was based on Neil Gaiman's novel, and everything that Neil Gaiman does is fantastic.

Saturday morning we woke up bright and early and thought that our stomachs would grumble of hunger all day because we had to leave the B&B before general serving time. But our lovely proprietress gave us tea and toast and fruit and yogurt, so we left with contended stomachs for our Northern Ireland Coastal Tour. First stop: the rope bridge.

The Carrick-A-Rede rope bridge was originally used by fisherman to cross to an island where they could observe the spawning patterns of salmon and figure out where they needed to take their boats. The rope bridge is rickety enough to make you gasp as you cross, but naturally Peter felt the urge to swing and jump and make everyone queasy as they watched him teeter over the sea.

Once on the island we enjoyed the spectacular views. This particular view of three sea caves made me think of Pirates of the Caribbean, Ireland Style:

And of course we had to take the mandatory cutesy picture that makes everyone gag because we are so adorable:
The Paddywagon bus (yes, it was a bright and tacky shade of green with a leprechaun logo) then took us to Giant's Causeway. This was the highlight of the weekend.

There is a great legend about the formation of Giant's Causeway that is too detailed to tell here, but you should Google it because it's really neat. The unusual hexagonal rock formations are actually volcanic rock the bubbled up through a lesion in the sea floor.
Again, copious photo snapping ensued.
That's me sitting on the giant's boot. Judging by the size of the 'boot,' giant experts say that Finn McCool, the giant who built the causeway, would have been 27 feet tall. And he was the tiny giant!

This is the coastline:

And this is Pete literally bounding up the rocks in excitement:
Then we went to Derry to see another area where conflict happened during The Troubles. We were too exhausted to take the walking tour, so instead we went to visit some of the many Halloween shops. Derry is the Halloween capitol of Europe. Pete tried on a great mask:

And mourned Luciano Pavarotti:

And then we saw Potted Potter at the Lyric Theatre and slept, a lot, after a long day.

Sunday got weird. We took the black cab tour. Saw some incredibly interesting Loyalist murals:
And some equally interesting Republican murals:
I'm really glad that I got to see the walls dividing the Protestant and Catholic communities so that I could better understand the atmosphere of post-Troubles Belfast. The tour would have been much better, though, if our guide was not a seriously crazy anarchist who hated Protestant Loyalists and was slick enough to be a used car salesman.

Sunday afternoon was spent getting some much needed rest. After supper, as we were walking back to Ally's dorm, we got egged. Some teenagers drove by, yelled "Brit Pigs!" at us and threw eggs. It was gross. Egg all over my jeans, in my shoes, and on poor Ally's brand new expensive wool coat. Not the nicest thing to have happen on my last night in Belfast. But...looking back, it does add to the perspective of the remnants of hostility that remain in Belfast.

No class the next two days! But that doesn't mean recreation, it means getting down to business and writing those mid-term papers that are due. Then I leave for London on Thursday morning.

Who Knew?

My roommate, Nora, posed an interesting question today. This is how it breaks down.

Premise: The Irish seem to love mayonnaise. They put it on chips and slather it on sandwiches.

Question: Could this be because Mayonnaise is from Ireland? Perhaps from County Mayo?

Answer: No. Sadly, mayonnaise originated in Spain, not in County Mayo. Thank you to Wikipedia for answering the question. The Irish must just like mayonnaise because they like hardy food that is bad for their arteries.

Last night was IES Movie Night. They showed InterMission. I enjoyed it - it was just the sort of film that I like. A bit gritty with an ending that is only partially happy.

I leave for Belfast tomorrow!

All American Feast

Last week, our German housemates Bea and Nora made German food for supper. This week we Americans decided to reciprocate and treat them to an All-American Meal. The menu was as follows:

Sweet Potato Soup
Salad w/peppers, mushrooms, and cherry tomatoes
Baked Macaroni and Cheese
Fried Chicken
Bananas Foster

My contribution was the sweet potato soup. It turned out SO well!

Here's the recipe for anyone who is interested:

Sweet Potato Soup

6 lg. sweet potatoes
2 sm. containers plain yogurt
1 can chicken broth
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 lg. white onion
3 tbsp. butter
1 shot glass sherry

Cook sweet potatoes, either in oven or microwave. Scoop sweet potato meat of each potato and place in food processor. Turn into puree; add chicken broth and yogurt to mixture.

Separately saute chopped onion in butter until clear. Add sweet potato mix and onion in large pot and heat until bubbles form on side. Then simmer for about 20 minutes.

Add sherry and nutmeg and simmer for another 15 minutes. Serve warm and in small quantities; it is very rich.

I did a little less yogurt than recommended, added cinnamon in addition to the nutmeg, and stirred in a little cream along with the sherry. It was SO good. It probably would have been less chunky if I had a food processor or blender to puree it, but I had to mash it all wish a fork, so let's just say it had 'hardy' texture.

It was a tight fit with the 5 of us in the kitchen cooking at once. Everything turned out fantastic! It was one of the best meals I have had since being here.

This weekend I'm off to Belfast to see my friend Allyson from high school. Still have a lot of planning to do for the London trip and our weekend trips in November!

Kilkenny

I am so exhausted after this weekend and I can't explain why. I didn't do anything too strenuous, so I shouldn't be physically exhausted, and I worked on all of my writing assignments but that didn't bother me too much, so I don't understand why I am so mentally exhausted. Today is going to be a very very long day.

Peter and I left on the train for Kilkenny on Friday afternoon. We found our B&B easily because it was just a short walk away from the train station, and it was very nice. We decided to explore Kilkenny a little bit and we walked around until we found Kytelyr's Inn, a restaurant which was once owned by a woman who was burned at the stake for being a witch.

Then we simply browsed the downtown area. It is very nice, just what I was hoping for - small town but still a grocery store and clothing stores and everything you need. Kilkenny really is great. After supper we found a pub and stayed there for a while playing cards.
Then we moved on to a takeaway chipper where we got chips to bring back to our B&B. Once back at the B&B, we crashed and watched a programme on the all-Irish channel about renewable energy in Ireland. Did you know that Ireland has to import 95% of its energy? It has little to no resources. No fossil fuel, no oil, no gas, no coal. Just peat from the bogs, and that source is running low. Ireland is currently exploring harnessing wind and sea as sources of renewable energy, as well as wood chip burners, which seem a bit sketchy but the people on this program seemed very enthusiastic about that option.

In the morning our hostess made us a traditional Irish breakfast. It was salty and tasty and delicious. We packed up our very heavy backpacks and went to St. Canice's Cathedral.
The cathedral was just amazing. We loved seeing it. It's so old! There are tombs from the 1500s in there!
After we toured the inside of the cathedral we went outside to climb the round tower.
Yep, I climbed that. Even though I hate ladders and steep flights of stairs.

Upon entering the round tower, this is what you see:
How comforting. And it only gets more harrowing from there.
But once you get to the top, it's so worth it. The view is amazing. And thankfully, coming back down the ladder was almost easier than going up.

Then it was browsing the shops of Kilkenny and touring Kilkenny Castle. This castle has been in the Butler family for many generations. They had a close connection with the English monarchy so there are many tributes to various kings and queens within the castle. I wish we could have taken pictures inside, but cameras were not allowed, so here is a picture of the outside instead:
The day concluded with more walking around Kilkenny, another stop at the chipper, and a train ride back to Dublin. Sunday was unimpressive: shopping for groceries, writing papers, making supper. A delightfully mundane day. Sometimes you need that in the midst of all this excitement and travelling.

Today I just have class and no other obligations (Hurrah!) so I get to come home, make dinner, and do homework like a normal person instead of running all over Dublin trying to get to the right place at the right time. I look forward to the peace and quiet.

A Theatre Update

I've seen two more shows this week. Here's the scoop:

Playboy of the Western World in a new version by Bisi Adigun and Roddy Doyle
This show was hilarious. The audience chuckled their way through most of the show. Unfortunately, as the writers adapted the play, they lost much of the tragic part of tragicomedy and the play glossed over the danger and the darker themes that make Playboy what it is. I have to do my performance analysis on this play, so it will be a welcome challenge. I've done my research and I hope that I can please the tutor - she seems to keep changing her mind about what she wants in the papers. Another bit of good luck came with this show: The Abbey produces teacher guides for workshops based on their current performances, and I was able to obtain one for my Youth Theatre independent study.

Long Day's Journey Into Night
Well...it certainly was long. 4 and 1/2 hours long. I admit that I probably bothered my seat neighbors because I got squirmy by the end of the show. It was neat to see James Cromwell on stage, but I kind of wanted him to just say "That'll do pig" so that we could all laugh and go home. There were some poor choices made by the actors, but overall I really loved the text. I had never seen or read any O'Neill before and now I feel that I must learn more about his work.

Today I have the morning off to work on papers (hurrah!) and the German students who are living in my house are going to cook authentic German food for us tonight. I'm also looking to get tickets for a puppet version of Neil Gaiman's Coraline on Monday.

Galway & The Aran Islands

I'm still exhausted after my weekend trip, but I decided I should post about it before I forget everything. This afternoon I am catching up on homework. I just read The Beauty Queen of Lenane by Martin McDonagh. It was excellent, I really like his dark humor, can't wait to read The Lieutenant of Inishmore. I also read a significant chunk of Dracula on the train this weekend. It's deliciously frightening. My resolution to indulge in Irish literature only has certainly paid off!

On Friday after voice class, Peter and I packed up and got on the train for Galway. I paid 6 euro extra to reserve our seats on the train, which is good because it was packed on a Friday afternoon and people had to stand. However, some rude businessman was sitting in our seats and refused to get up, so we had to find seats somewhere else. He was a real jerk.

Upon arriving in Galway we went to the tourist office to get maps and decide how to get to the Aran Islands the next day, and then we ate at KC Blake's. I had read about it in my guidebook, and we really had no idea where else to go, and we randomly stumbled upon it, so we ate there. It was great. I had a boxty burger: a burger served on top of mashed potatoes, with potato chip garnish, and boiled potatoes on the side. Another side that came with the meal was a puree of vegetables - I don't really know what sort of vegetables they were, it was orange and unidentifiable, yet tasty! Here's what my boxty burger looked like:

Yum. We then had a bit of an ordeal finding our B&B. The proprietor kept giving us poor directions as we repeatedly called them telling them that we were lost, and it took as three times as long as it should have for us to get there. It also was much further away from the city centre of Galway than the guidebook claimed. We were so tired upon arriving that we just crashed and went to sleep because we didn't have the energy to haul ourselves back into town and go to a pub.

The next morning we explored Galway City a bit. We went to the open air market and walked around their shop street. Galway was a little disappointing - it's the fastest growing city in Europe and is basically mini-Dublin. It has all of the same restaurants, chain stores, etc. that we have in my neighborhood in Dublin, and it wasn't as unique as I hoped it would be. We then boarded the ferry to go to Inishmore.

The Aran Islands are simply amazing. Beautiful, rural, and non-globalized, which is the best part. The first thing we did was check into our cute B&B:
The owner had a nice dog, too. We went to the Aran Sweater Market to shop for woolens and Christmas presents for our families, then took a mini-coach tour of the island. This was a great idea. Our driver didn't pick up any other tourists, so Peter and I had our own personal island tour. The driver even pulled over and took Peter's camera so that he could snap photos of his brand new, one-hour-old baby calf for us.

We spent about an hour and a half admiring the ancient beauty of Dun Aengus fort. It rests on a cliff. It used to be a circular port, but part of it fell into the sea when the edge of the cliff collapsed. It was so breathtaking. I wish we could have stayed there all day long.

Pete took this picture while leaning over the edge of the cliff:
And I climbed down to one of the ledges for this one:
And this is of the edge of the cliff extending out into the sea:

And finally, this one was taken when Peter pushed me off the edge of the cliff and I had to cling to the edge to save myself:
Just kidding.

The mini-coach tour took us around other parts of the island where we took some more neat photos:
We ran into two other IES students after having dinner at the island and we all went to a small pub right next to our B&B. The locals were wrapped up in the rugby game and there was a wedding party having a post-reception drink, so we found a quiet corner and enjoyed the atmosphere.

Peter and I got up bright and early to get on the 8 AM ferry back to the mainland. I proceeded to slip down the flight of wet stairs on the ferry and get a huge bruise on my backside and arm, which made my movement class rather difficult this morning. That's what I get for being super clumsy.

Once we got back to Galway, Peter and I took the city bus tour. It was nice to learn about the historical aspect of Galway so that I didn't feel so overwhelmed by its obvious commercialization. The city was very foggy on our first bus ride around, and since the tickets were good all day we got off at the aquarium to see the fish (more octopus! more sharks!) and we took it again later in the day once the fog had cleared, and the view was much better. I also picked up some gifts for my darling sister, but I'm going to keep them secret so that she doesn't read this and ruin her Christmas surprise. This is a picture of Galway bay that I took on the tour. This is the least commercialized and most beautiful part of Galway City:
And after relaxing in the park in Galway and taking the train back to Dublin, I have begun another week of classes. They're getting more and more exhausting. Tonight we go to see The Playboy of the Western World - A New Version by Bisi Adigun and Roddy Doyle. I have been looking forward to this production since the day we arrived, so I hope it's great. I've thoroughly enjoyed the Roddy Doyle pieces I've read since being here and I can't imagine that this show could go wrong. So far, reviews have been mostly positive. Nora and I are both writing our performance analysis on this show, so I must be extra diligent in taking notes tonight.

And now that I realize I've written an extra long post instead of doing homework, I should go.

Possibility

I've been casually searching for an excuse to return to Ireland in the future, and I finally found an ideal one:

ArtsTrain

It's a year long intensive training for youth theatre facilitators, and is a sort of segue into graduate studies. The work they do in this program is AMAZING. I'll put it on my list of "in case I don't get into graduate school" options. And Irish youth theatre is so strong, and the program so well established, that it's a highly tempting opportunity.

A Streak of Good Theatre

One show each day this week, and so far none have been disappointing. Here's the rundown:

Monday - Traces

This urban circus show did something I didn't know could be done: It took a circus act and humanized it. I was on the edge of my seat rooting for the performers, hoping that they could make their stunts. It was breathtaking. This clip won't do it justice, but it will give you a taste of how amazing they are.

Tuesday - Pride of Parnell Street

A heartbreaking show about two determined people who loved each other but could not hold themselves up against the tide of class circumstances. Really sad, but in a glowing sort of way. This it the review that appeared in Irish Theatre Magazine.

Wednesday - James Son of James

Well...what do I say about this show...hmmm. It was a melange of physical theatre, musical, and satire. But I didn't get it. I enjoyed the dancing, understood the relationships among characters, and really loved the color palette selected for costumes, but I totally lost some of the plot. It seemed unresolved and surreal and strange. Perhaps I just wasn't smart enough to get it. But, to my comfort, a very nasty review appeared in the Irish Times yesterday, and although that's not good for the show it certainly makes me feel better because I wasn't the only one who though the show lacked clarity. I'm very glad I went though because it was unlike any theatre that I have seen before.

Getting very excited about my weekend in the Aran Islands. I leave tomorrow! Something not so exciting, however, has been happening with my cellphone. CellHire (a company recommended by IES) stopped providing phone service. Yes, my phone simply ceased working this past weekend, leaving me with no communication options in case of emergency. And they've been incredibly uncooperative and unresponsive as we try to fix this. As a result of this unfortunate occurrence, I have to go out today and buy a new phone...as if i hadn't already spent enough money. *Sigh*