Gaelic Class

I had my first Gaelic class on Monday. It went by super fast. We went over two pages of Gaelic. The other Gaelic class only went over one page. Apparently I have the fast paced teacher. Gaelic isn’t pronounced the way it looks on the page. Consequently I was trying to write both the meaning of the Gaelic and the phonetic spelling of it. As the teacher was going quite quick this only worked so-so. Luckily my “language partner” has attended Gaelic classes before and kept helping me out. This class isn’t for a grade (I don’t think I could take it if it was). I did enjoy myself even though it was a bit overwhelming. Other students departing from class looked their brains had exploded. I have a feeling there will be a smaller attendance on Wednesday, but what the heck, I’m going back.

Cliffs of Moher

They were beautiful, just breath-taking. It wasn’t raining when I went out there either.



There is a castle up on the hill.



I paid two euros to go to the top. It also had a scary stair case but it wasn’t as high up as Thoor Ballylee. The staircase was made of metal and a very tightly wrapped circular. The wind at the top of the castle was fantastic. I have a great photo of my hair just everywhere. If I was a goddess, I'd walk around all the time with my hair flying all about me in an angry sort of way (like this!), and I magically wouldn't have any knots. It was a pain combing my hair after I got home, but worth it. The wind was lots of fun!



I have a nifty story associated with the Cliffs of Moher but I will only tell it once I get back to the States. HA! Its something I just have to tell in person.



I saw this at the start the trip. I really think things like don't fall off the cliff shouldn't need to be said... but then I saw the tourists.

My host family says 2 or 3 people die every year the cliffs. Watching people lean over the edge with heels on… well I can understand why there is a sign. There was one man, that both myself and my GMU Faculty Director, Tom, both hurried by because we didn’t want to witness his fall. As far as we know he didn’t actually topple over, but it really looked like he was trying to.

There is a restaurant and gift shop built into the side of a cliff. It reminded me of stories about dwarfs building their homes inside of mountains. My host family said there was a big controversy over whether or not to allow the building of the shops and restaurant or to leave the land untouched. Honestly you can barely tell they are there, since they are built inside the hill. I think it added something instead of taking away.


And yes there were cattle. Cattle are everywhere in Ireland. I managed to actually cluck a black and white cow over to me. He nuzzled my hand twice but tossed his head in displeasure since I had no food for him. Tom convinced him to eat a bit of grass from him but apparently the grass I plucked wasn’t tasty enough. But I was the only one who got cow nuzzles!

Oh I almost forgot the best part. I ate at the restaurant afterwards with the GMU group that went and the server asked me what I wanted to eat in Gaelic. Now, he asked everyone else what they wanted in English. I assuming I just didn’t understand the accent at first asked “What” and he repeated, in Gaelic, we did this two more times to each other before I looked at Tom for help. Tom explained that he wanted my order, and then we both had a Ah-HA moment and he switched back into English for me. But hey, I’m just that Irish that I look like I know Gaelic. Too bad I don’t. Tom surmised that it might have also been what I was wearing a traditional Aran sweater and no rain coat.

NUI - The Quad

This is the oldest building on campus. You can also hear the gathering of the birds. Surprisingly their numbers grow much larger at night, so this is just a few of them.

Cill Mhic Dhuach

This picture was actually taken from the bus as we were pulling up. As you can see its pretty much surrounded by cattle. I've seen more cattle than sheep in Ireland. I don't know if this is considered "common land" or not, but basically if it is common land then its owned by the government but you can put livestock on it for free and let them graze. Turns out the land behind the place I am staying at is common land- which is why the horses are out there. The biggest problem I see with this is the family I live with doesn't know who owns the horses... and I'm not sure the government does either. So if there was a problem with an animal like it got sick or something, I'm not sure the owner could be easily contacted.


This is my Irish Literature teacher talking about the round tower and the monks. He didn't know I was filming him- shhhh! Oh and never mind the loud mooing in the background- there were a lot of cattle about.



This is just kind of cool. Ireland has all sorts of crazy stairs for getting to the other side of stone walls. This one I climbed over to get a better look at the house pictured below. Of course cattle were on the other side of the wall... which was also fine until one of the girls decided she wanted her picture in front of a cow. Which after an angry glare from the cow, the picture was taken a good distance away. I however hopped right back over the wall just in case it didn't go so well that the cow wouldn't be angry with me as well. All turned out well though, she got her picture and the cow didn't charge or anything.


Yes, those are graves inside the little ruin of a house. I'm not sure if they were there when it had a roof or not.




More graves at Cill Mhic Duach. Note the really awesome and seriously old Celtic crosses


The round tower of Cill Mhic Dhuach


The round tower and ruins of Cill Mhic Dhuach


This was just awesome! On the building you can see there is some sort of plaque explaining the importance of the ruin- and the cow is using it to scratch her face- just delightful!


This man was herding his cows near the round tower. I thought this was pretty awesome. He really looked like he could have used the help of a herding dog but he was doing alright with it. You can't hear it on the video but he was making a high shhhh noise at them.

Coole Park

Again, these pictures are from last Saturday's trip


This is what Coole House looked like before it was torn down.


This is the ONLY water fountain I have seen in all of Ireland. Its also the prettiest little water fountain I have ever seen.


These are the orginial stables for Coole House. So while the house was destroyed the stables were left standing. Now they have bathrooms and a little diner in them. I had the vegetable soup and garlic bread. The soup was creamy, different and tasty.


This is my favorite part of Coole park- where you "park" your dogs. Tee hee. I guess Robin and I would have to explain our meeting at the dog park a little differently in Ireland. This is right out side of the stables/resturant.



The Irish are very proud of these deer. England killed all of Ireland's deer so they are a rarity to see here. Apperently the Anglo-Norman Protestant Landowners kept deer parks (they are completely stone walled in) for hunting purposes. These deer are quite fortunate that they are safe and will be for the rest of their lives, unlike the poor deer herds before them.


This is the famous tree with all the signatures and the rest of the people from the university.



This is the area where Lady Gregory's friends used to play cricket.

Thoor Ballylee - View from the top

This is a video from the top of the castle of Thoor Ballylee. Please note the very tiny door I had to come out, I wasn't quite sure I was going to make it through. Great view. Worth going up the scarecase to get there.

The Scarecase of Thoor Ballylee

This is a video of me going down the stairs of Thoor Ballylee. I'm convinced that the stairs were all different heights. Sometimes I had to crouch down to get the railing before stepping down. It was SCARY, yet oddly fun.

Thoor Ballylee

This is my Irish Literature Professor.



So here is the famous Thoor Ballyee. The little stone wall you see in the first picture is actually a bridge.


Here is what said bridge looks like. This is taken from inside the castle, looking out a window.



Here is me sitting in the window the the previous picture was taken from.



Ah yes the TINY door.


Me outside of Thoor Ballylee

Saturday 6/27/09 Irish Literature Field Trip

Saturday I went on a Irish Literature field trip. We ventured off to the first castle I’ve ever seen. Yeats lived there for about 3 years to be close to Lady Gregory. The castle’s name is Thoor Ballylee. It was built in the Norman-Anglo design which means it’s basically a big rectangle. Not the prettiest of castles. Since then I’ve seen a few more of similar design. It seems the Irish are not fond of these castles because they represent the British rulership of their country. Many of them were burned out during an attack at one point or another. The rest are being left to fall to ruin unless they are of significant importance or a tourist attraction. I’m pretty sure the only reason why it still stands is because Yeats once lived there and composed poems like the “The Winding Stair”.

The stairs by the way were very winding and very scary. I took a video of me going down the stairs, will be uploaded shortly. Yeats lived there with his wife and two young boys. I can’t imagine thinking that the castle would be a good idea for children after seeing the staircase.

Anyway, after that we went to Coole park. The Coole property is where Lady Gregory used to live. She founded the first Irish National Theater. She was well known with the famous and powerful- she had a fan with famous signatures as well as a tree that had the initials of famous writers carved on it. She was part of a highly wealthy land owning protestant population which wasn’t much liked by the native Irish. The native Irish had to pay fees to farm on the land. Anyway, she lost much of the land and power due to reforms in Ireland. Eventually the after her death the Irish government owned the property, sold it to a private contractor, who tore down the house and used the materials in other building projects. They felt they were doing the country a favor by getting rid of it.

However the house foundation is still there, as is the deer park (these are rather special because the English killed off all of Ireland’s deer), the gardens and the tree with all the signatures. It’s now owned by the Park Service who fixed it up as a tourist attraction. It also had the only water fountain I have seen in ALL of Ireland. I took a picture. I’ve been told by other students that campus does have water fountains they are just especially hard to find.

After that we went cill mhic dhuach, which were old monastic ruins. They had a large tower that was probably used for two purposes- 1) so people could find the monastery and 2) so the monks could climb into it for safety if someone tried to plunder the monastery. It had many old graves. Some of the graves are new because if their other family is buried there then you have a right to be buried near your family, so some are new. There were lots of cows wandering around the site. Also I took a video of a man herding a lot of cows with a stick.

So that was the Saturday trip and I will write about the Cliffs of Moher a little later, which was the Sunday trip.

NUI - National University of Ireland, Galway

This is one of the campus buildings. As you can see with the staircase they favor modern design concepts.



This is the gym. Apperently it has an indoor swimming pool though I haven't seen it. I also forgot to pack my swim suit. Anyway I could join for not too much but I probably won't because the only thing I would use is the swimming pool. And if I go swimming I'd rather do it in the ocean.

This odd looking thing is the most important landmark in the entire school (for me at least). This is right outside the building that ALL my classes are in. Being as I am often lost I am sooooo happy when I see this! It's the "YAY I know where I am now!" point. From here I can get home, to galway city, the library, the college bar, the bookstore, the Cafeteria and a little snack stand I often buy pop and muffins at.


One of the cooler buildings I have seen on campus. Its the marine science building.


This is just a really good example of what most of the buildings around campus look like. Almost every building has a little glass walkway that connects it to another building.

Signs

This is one of the the directional signs for the school. As you can see its written in Gaelic above and English below. This is true for about everything on campus- like the no smoking signs etc.



This is one of the street signs, again you can see the Gaelic above and English below. All the street/highway signs are like this. Nifty.


Yes, even the trash cans have Gaelic writing on them. They are also kind of oddly shaped so you you have to fold your trash to get rid of it. All of the trash cans on campus are ones were you step on it to get the lid to open. They are not as big as american trash cans either.

The Sailboat at Galway Bay - This is for you Robin!

A Full Circle View of Galway Bay

Wednesday Galway Shopping

So today I got lost on the way to class. So I was a wee bit late for Irish History. The guy next to me was falling asleep though, so it could have been worse. I so don’t blame him jet lag sucks. After class I took a two hour nap, which was lovely.

Then I went to the school bookstore. It is really tiny compared to VCU or GMU bookstore. They ran out of two of the books I need for my Irish lit class but hopefully they will have more in on Monday. This Saturday is my Lit Field trip to County Clare and South Galway.

I watched the Quiet Man in the theater today. First time I ever saw it. It was cute and kinda quirky.

After that I went into town to look for a belt and a watch. I discovered Galway bay- GORGEOUS. There was a little sail boat too, so of course I thought about Robin. For those who don’t know Robin really wants to buy a sailboat. Anyway, it was lovely. Nice coastal breeze. I found the Galway Museum. I’ll have to go back when it is actually open.

It always bothers me in America when I go to an Irish restaurant and there are things like cheeseburgers on the menu. Being in Ireland, isn’t much different from that. Every pub I have been to (which isn’t many at this point) has burgers and plays American music. There is a taco restaurant, American fast food restaurants, and Asian restaurants.

There is an awful lot of American music here. Seems most of the radio stations play what you would hear in the states and most of the stores play American music too. I walked into a Music store that was playing Irish music on the outside, had a big sign that said “Traditional Irish Music Sold Here!”, had a wall of Irish music artists, Irish films and Irish T-Shirts and inside the store they were playing American music!!! Very strange.

I was hit on by an Irish guy today. I was asked out for a bit of pint. Tee hee. His name was Conner. Seems he had lost his shirt in the river, quite literally. He showed me the way into town and no, I didn’t go out for a pint. I did tell him I had a very wonderful man waiting for me in the states. Conner wasn’t the most elegant of sorts because his opening line to me was “Are you the American girl I saw yesterday in the really short skirt?” Ah, no, haven’t worn a skirt here. Not the best opening line. In truth I think he did think I was some other girl he had talked to a few days ago.

When I was in town I turned into an alley to look in a store window and discovered it was not an alley- but a mall! A two story mall! I’ll post pictures, its one of those things you have to see to believe. In America you just can’t accidentally walk into a mall and not know it.

Reception at the College Bar! (6/23/09)

The outside view of the the building the college bar is in. Quite pretty.

All us GMU folks hanging out on the balcony

View of the bar from the balcony. They had pool tables on both the lower floor and the balcony. Kind of a side note, but I've been informed that in Ireland the 1st floor is called the "ground floor" and the second floor is called the "1st floor".

The patio area of the reception

The view of the river from the patio area.

This was just kind of cool. He was clearing the glasses off the tables and stacked them taller than him to carry them.

My Room!

I get my own bathroom! And its got more hot water than my house in Richmond!



This is the window I can see the horses out of. Its a huge window. Thats a picture of me and Robin : ) The other frame is a mirror that came with the room.



Look all my clothes are put away!

1st Day of School

So I am taking Irish Lit and Film and Irish History. Both lectures seem like they are going to be pretty cool. Still need to buy school books and a watch. Normally carry around the cell and use that to figure out the time, but since the cell doesn't work here, a wrist watch would be helpful.

The sun rises super early. I woke up at 8am because I could hear the two children that live here. Others told me the sun came up at 5am. It doesn't really get dark here until 11pm. That’s a lot of sun.

The weather is beautiful. As all you VA people know, humidity is a killer in VA. Here when it is hot it is also dry, no humidity, its lovely, warm but not sweaty. There was a nice gentle breeze today too. I’ve been told the weather is rather unusual. I only saw the tiniest bit of rain in Dublin, and none since I arrived in Galway. My host family thinks it is probably warm enough to swim in the ocean and offered to drive me and my roommates there. We had to decline because the day was booked full with classes and the reception. Last year about this time, I am told, it was raining every day and everyone was soaked. I hope the weather holds up like this.

The reception after classes was not what I expected. I envisioned cloth table clothes and horderves. But I also work at VCU Center for Corporate Education who throws receptions for business people quite often. And this was a reception for college students. First off it was at the college bar. Yes, the college bar, you know, the one on campus inside a school building- ha! They gave us two drink tickets. I got a hard raspberry cinder. Quite good actually. They had drinks on tap and bottled everything. There was loud techno music. There was a sitting area, then a balcony, where myself and the other GMU folks sat, and also a little patio that had a view of the river. I saw kayakers float pass. There were also people who brought about large plates of sandwiches, chicken, sausages, and eggrolls on a large platter to each table. All were quite tasty.

The campus is more modern than perhaps you would envision. Much of the town also has modern architecture. Pictures will be posted soon.

Everyone in Ireland has been especially friendly. There are probably about 100 Americans in this program. There are also people from other countries touring around Galway.

I went on my first trip into the town today. Its awesome. Several street performers, though one group only seemed to know two songs. Most of the clothing/other stores close down at the latest around 7. So everything was closed when I got there. However the streets were still teeming with people. The pubs and night clubs close much later and have staggered closing times so you can go from one place to the other.

The river that runs through Galway is just beautiful. I saw several swans, baby ducks and black faced seagulls. Men were standing in the river fishing as the sun began to set.

My host family has informed us that there are no misquotes in Ireland. There are however HUNDREDS of moths. They only appear at night and hover around the tallest objects. Being 5’11 I was quite unhappy to find their attraction to me, but they went away as soon as I got around a tree or a wall. Could have been worse, three of them fell down a girl’s shirt who I was with today. She was quite frantic to get them out.

There were also tons of crows. At least I think they were crows. Again these only appeared at night, flew around a church and into the trees. They were so loud it was almost deafening.

I’ve seen two feral cats around campus and they are not eartipped, sadly.

Horses!

These are two of the three horses you can see from my bedroom window in Ireland! The smaller one in the foreground is a wee little foal.









A larger view of the horses from my window