Ireland: The Good, the Bad, but Not the Ugly. Day 1.2

Day 1.2 8:38 am. Friday, September 3, 2008

Um. I think I am in love with this country.

9:00 am

Tour lecture time.

Topic One: Vikings settle Dublin in 998 (about 5 minutes of speech)
Topic Two: Guinness (at least 20 minutes of speech)

Irish slang to learn:

1. "I'm a craichead" or "I'm having the craic" or "good/great craic" or "the craic was mighty" or "the craic was up to 90"#
--This means "I am having fun" or "I enjoy good times!", not to be confused with drug use.
2. "feck" (a derivative of the f-word)
--Completely acceptable, can even be said to your grandmas or priest
--For example at the dinner table: "Feck off grandma, I don't want anymore feckin' potatoes" ... "I was only feckin' askin."
3. "eejit"
--same as "idiot", but much politer and less mean

Now for the Irish music!

10:58 am

It's not even eleven o'clock and I have already had a 'tiffle' of whiskey and a pink cupcake (I can't resist adorable foods).

Just toured an Irish Whiskey Distillery. My favorite part was the sounds of the still-working water wheel - an ominous creaking and groaning that didn't quite fill up the room but rather snuck up behind you and wraps around your shoulders. Strangely comforting...I didn't listen to most of what the tour guide said - wasn't interested, and too fascinated with the 300 year old working machinery. (Which, hypocritically, was probably what she was talking about. Ah well.)

On to the monastery!

Ireland: the Good, the Bad, but Not the Ugly Day One

Day 1. 7:38 am. Friday, October 31, 2008

Last night couldn't have been less stressful - flying to Dublin and getting to the hostel on my own. It's almost disappointing, seeing as how I worried about it for so long. Almost.

I was even lucky enough to end up with a four-bed room and still have it all to myself.

When I got off the plane last night (outside), my first thought was 'It smells different'. It smells wonderful here, though I can't put my finger on why, exactly. I had a great conversation with my taxi driver, who told me that the Kerry area has vegetation unique from the rest of the world. I even felt that long-awaited for euphoric feeling when I told him I was part Irish and he said "Welcome back." Those two words had quite a powerful effect on me, as earlier I had been wondering if I'd feel a kinship at all to the people living here.

My hostel is as nice as a hotel. I even get a free sparse breakfast (and found some peanut butter in the fridge!). I apparently woke up too early, though, because I've been moving as slow as humanly possible and I still have half an hour free.

So far, I am really loving traveling.
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I'll post the other days soon.

Mid-Week Slump

I visited the British Museum, finally, and it was amazing. I felt like every sense was affected, even when I was just sitting still. I could only visit like three halls, but I will probably go back a lot to just sit quietly, or write, or listen to music. The best part was that it was like a break from the crowded rooms of the city (during the week anyway), and the high ceilings and clean fresh smells were all very relaxing.

I did laundry this weekend, but it smelled awful so I have to wash everything all over again. My room is pretty small, and I am living in the room with the least furniture, but that doesn't really matter because I have an awesome roommate (Babs) and not that much stuff.

This weekend, I have plans to see Welwyn Garden City, Bruges (in Belgium), and then going on another country walk (possibly to Canterbury Cathedral or around Oxford). That's about it, right now, I guess.

A Nine Mile Walk, Greenwich, and Samuel Beckett

I finally got out of the city yesterday, and I didn't realize how nice it was until we walked off the train and I could inhale deeply without any fear of what I might be smelling - there are so many chemical smells downtown. I guess I'm truly not a city girl, because I've been living in one for less than two weeks and already I crave the quiet solitude of rural life. That or I'm just still adjusting to all the people, traffic, and jackhammers outside my window at two and three in the morning.

Elyse, Molly, and I went on a 9 mile country walk from Otford to Eynesford, which actually turned into nine miles when we got lost on a golf course (in my defense, the given directions told us to simply follow the numbered posts from 16 to 35 - and there were no posts at all). We had lunch in the most adorable English Teahouse (the Honeypot) and our waitress, knowing immediately we were foreigners (other than the accent, I cannot figure out what other things about me scream American, though I know they are there), was everything I could hope for in a kind English lady.

My favorite part of the walk was the very end, where we visited Eynesford castle (free), which was just in an open area and you could just walk around and climb on walls and what-not. Awesome.


(I'm sitting in the middle on the wall)

Also went to Greenwich saturday morning, that was nice. Incredible architecture, large and old, and mostly what I was impressed with were the courtyards. You could almost hear the clip-clop of horses in the wide, silent paveways.

A good weekend. I'm pretty exhausted though. We went to another play tonight, entitled "Fragments", consisting of five short plays by Samuel Beckett (author of "Waiting for Godot"). I was expecting existential angst, but was (mostly) pleasantly surprised. It was still existential, random, and somewhat confusing, but there was a nice infusion of humor to help you along.

Learning to Wear Stripes with Plaid: Not So Easy

A little self perspective:
"Once you can accept the universe as matter expanding into nothing that is something, wearing stripes with plaid comes easy." - Albert Einstein

Not having too positive a day, a little sad, a little overwhelmed, but as long as I keep going and not think too much I can at least get done what needs to be done.

I've had kind of an incredible week, show-wise. Wednesday we all went to the Globe theater to see "A Midsummer Night's Dream". It. Was. Amazing. Mostly because I was watching it at the globe itself, and I even reveled in the sore bottom caused by 7-inch seats (lengthwise), telling myself it was the same irritating pain people experienced hundreds of years ago.

Last night, we went to the Playhouse theater to see "The Harder They Come", a Jamaican musical that was short on plot but thick in music. I would have probably enjoyed it much more if I did not have the presentation to give today hanging over my head - will be over in exactly three hours! Parts of it were especially hard to watch, such as when Ivan (the main Robin Hood-type character) was rejected by his mother for seemingly no reason (it made me sad), but mostly it gave me a full appreciation of reggae music that I did not have before.

I've been trying to keep a list of All Weird Things British, perhaps I'll post it when it becomes fuller.

On the subject of classes and teachers, they are all fine and dandy except my crazy theater prof, who is obviously not a Grinnellian prof and consequently says very un-Grinnellian, thoughtless things that are a little shocking. Especially when she's halfway into her gin during class.

Overall, I'm still constantly tired. Weekends looking up, though, especially if I manage to get some real sleep or semblence of rest.

Classes Finally Begin

Woke up this morning for an 8:45 am class, and my stomach was still a little queasy from the sub-par tomato pasta last night (still worth it, it was cheap).

Accomplished so far (in the seven days since I arrived in London):

+ Picadilly Circus (crowded, impressive architecture...and that's it really)
+ Soho (also crowded, cute shops and very fashionable people)
+ St. James Sq (we were actually looking for St. James Church, which may or may not exist)
+ Buckingham Palace (we pretty much stumbled upon it, then went 'oh how pretty'. Oh and Barbara was mistaken for a Frenchwoman.)
+ Camden Market (the anti-fashion district, and play-area of Amy Whinehouse)
+ ISH International Student House (cute, very college-y)
+ Assorted Pubs (like a cross between Chilis and college bars)
+ Coach tour (aka bus tour of London, given by the enthusiastic Vivian, to be quoted later)
+ London Philharmonic @ BBC Proms Concert (simply. beautiful.)
+ Notting Hill Carnival (unimpressed by the Bobbies - or police officers - knowledge of London. Later learned hardly any of them are from here, and have very little knowledge of the city. Ironic.)

Weekend in Camden

We decided this morning that we wanted to go thrift shopping, but I most of the stores we went to were strangely closed - maybe because Monday is a holiday? So we ended up walking north of our flat to Camden Market - punk capital! There were some really cute clothes, and fascinating people, but I didn't want to spend any my pounds quite yet. Though I must admit the cardigans tempted me - how much more British can you get?

Our first trip to the Underground, in Camden Market, was probably the most eventful it could be. While we were buying our new Oyster cards (travel tickets), a large man in a bright red t-shirt and dreds down to his ankles was escorted out of the station, by one policeman and one man in a collared shirt. Then when we were walking down the stairs to the train and there was a man lying unconcious on the stairs, in a small pool of vomit. Certainly about as many adventurous things as possible in one train ride.

Tonight, everyone is too tired to go out again, though we are telling ourselves it is because we have a 9am coach tour in the morning. Last night (Friday) everyone went to the ISH bar, then my flatmates and myself came back to the flat to play a rousing game of "never have I ever" which is a great way to get to know people.