Go raibh ma agat, Eire!

Nicole and Mom told me to go to the Chester Beatty Library, but I didn't want to...so instead yesterday I went somewhere that I actually wanted to go, the Museum of Decorative Arts and History(that's it on the right). It's a lot of old tables and chairs and vases, but they have a really good collection of historic clothing. I didn't remember having gone there the last time I was in Ireland, but I kept getting deja vu, so I guess we did go there before. Anyways...cool place.

Afterwards I wanted to get lunch at the oldest pub in Ireland (left) which has been there since the 12th century, but I guess in 900 years they haven't added any vegetarian options to the menu. Instead I ate at a cute little cafe. I was the only person eating there that the employees didn't know by name. Also, their options for tea were listed as "peppermint, chamomile, earl grey, jasmine, green tea, and fruity ones."

After that I strolled around enjoying the relatively nice weather and I strolled past a place called the "Czech Inn," which is a funny joke that I didn't understand until I pronounced it out loud.

Today is my last day in Ireland. Can you believe it? I can't. I'm excited to be able to do laundry and take a shower with actual hot water and not to have to sleep in a room that smells like boy's feet, but other than that I'm very sad to leave.

If reading my travel chronicles for the past several weeks has inspired you to travel to Ireland for yourself I'd like to offer you a few tips for traveling here:
1) Get lazier
2) Memorize your life story in monologue form, you'll be reciting it often
3) When asked why you've come to Ireland don't mention anything about coming to the land of your ancestors. Irish people actually really like Americans, but they hate the Americans that come to Ireland "seeking their heritage" and claiming to be more Irish than the locals. You will, however, be asked what your ancestry is by everyone you meet...they just don't really want you to say you're Irish. It's a bit of a paradox, but then, so is everything here.
5) Bring an umbrella and sunglasses and expect to change between them multiple times a day
6) Don't stay in Paddy's Palace Hostel of Derry or Marlborough Hostel of Dublin
7) Do stay in B&B's. You'll meet some very eccentric people
8) Emotionally prepare yourself for being very near farm animals
9) Don't judge the country by Dublin--someone told me this at the very beginning of my trip and I didn't understand what they meant by it, but I figured it out now


I'm leaving Ireland with a lot of good stories, a lot less money, a little more understanding of the things I was researching, and healthy addictions to tea and alcohol. It's been a splendid trip though. Fabulous, in fact.

Thanks to everyone who has been reading and leaving comments! This will be my final blog entry, but stay tuned...in a few months I'll be reporting on my study abroad adventures--we'll see what India has in store for me!

Slainte! Go raibh ma agat!

Riverdance!

Riverdance! Riverdance! Riverdance!

Tease me if you must, but I'm a big dork for Riverdance. You are too, you just don't want to admit it. I was literally sitting watching the show jaw dropped, mouth covered by my hand, eyes wide...but I'm getting ahead of myself.

I arrived at the Gaiety Theater to conduct my interview at about 6:30 and went to the stage door as I had been instructed to do by the email that I received a while ago. Inside the stage door there was a receptionist girl who really doubted me when I told her I was there to interview one of the performers. She almost didn't let me in, but then one of the other dancers walked through the door and was like "Oh you're looking for Niamh? Come back with me, I'll get her for you." So the girl brought me backstage. Allow me a moment to tell you about the Gaiety Theater. You can tell you are in Ireland when a fancy, historic opera house has not one, but FOUR bars inside. Three of the bars are for audience patrons during intermission and then they open up to the public and become three night clubs on the weekend. The fourth bar is backstage exclusively for theater employees. It's more than just a backstage green room for the performers, it has bartenders, booths, several beers on tap, a big stereo system and all of the functions of a real bar. So the dancer girl deposited me in the backstage performer bar while she went to find Niamh O'Connor.

In case you didn't know, Niamh is pronounced "Neev" (rhymes with sleeve) because it is a Gaelic name and Gaelic pronunciations have nothing to do with Gaelic spellings.

I sat around in the bar being really awkward for a long time as I watched performers come in and out and interact with each other like real live people! The flamenco dancer said "hola" to someone! The main gospel singer guy discussed Los Angeles with me! He also told me that Niamh O'Connor was on stage doing a last minute emergency rehearsal because there was a new singer in the cast that night. Finally she emerged very frazzled and said "I'm so sorry to keep you waiting! We're having a bit of an emergency, do you think you could come back after the show?" Yes Niamh O'Connor. Yes I can.

At this point I went and got delicious dinner at Wagamama. I'm not going to explain to you what Wagamama is because if you've been there you already know how awesome it is, and if you don't know what it is you'll only be really jealous that you've never been there. Ignorance is bliss.

After delicious dinner I went into the theater and purchased a colorful, overpriced souvenir program (or programme if you're Irish) then went to my seat. With my mastery of the ticketmaster website I was able to procure a front and center ticket. Literally row A seat 14 . You can also tell you're in Ireland when in addition to people sitting around you in a theater with alcoholic beverages there are people sitting around you eating popcorn.

The show began to my delight. I have actually watched my old 1996 vhs recording of Riverdance (the Michael Flatley/ Jean Butler version) so many times that while watching the show I could pick out exactly which places the choreography had been changed and which parts were improvised. Regardless of the fact that I already knew exactly what dance was going to be done before they came out to do it, I still got my mind blown several times over. It also helped that I was close enough that I could have reached out and touched the performers if I wanted to...I didn't touch any performers, don't worry, I have some sense of self control. My only complaint was that the original show got about 50 dancers on stage at once, and they've really downsized, it's probably closer to 20 now...still impressive, just not as grand scale as it was in the past. May I just point out though that the 20 or so dancers were extremely well cast...not only were they all very talented but like...there was a lot of handsomeness on that stage.

After the show I went backstage again and felt very smug because while all of the other dazzled audience members had to leave I got to go chill with the performers. It would have been even more awesome if I had been able to act like a cool person instead of like a bumbling dork like I did. This time around the backstage bar was filled up with all of the sweaty exhausted dancers. I tried very hard not to stare. Ms. O'Connor arrived and I interviewed her. All of my questions were stupid, I acted really nervous, and she was clearly very tired and not completely excited about doing an interview, but considering the disastrously embarrassing things that I could have done, I think the whole thing was very successful. She's actually not the female lead in the current show, but she is the "dance captain" who keeps everyone in line and makes sure everyone has the choreography down and stuff. She's been dancing professionally with show for 13 years...which is like longer than I've even been a dancer. She is also engaged to marry the very handsome Padraic Moyles, male lead of the show. Let me point out that Padraic Moyles can do quadruple heel clicks, nerve taps, and drum rolls faster than the speed of light. If you don't know what those things mean just act impressed. Padraic Moyles also touched my camera...he took this picture of me(looking embarrassing) and Niamh O'Connor (looking embarrassed for me) that you see below.So like...what did you do last night?

Cockles and Mussels

This morning I conversed with a German lady staying in the hostel who is here in Ireland "making a holiday." Actually, there are no Americans in the hostel...or even English speakers. Everyone here seems like the have been here for a very long time and the seem to be staying indefinitely. They have all taken advantage of the relaxed EU policies on immigration and work visas and are here trying to get jobs so that they can improve their English, move back home and get better jobs. In the mean time, I'm a bit of an outsider here.

I set out for some adventuring this morning and I saw that intriguing directional sign that you see to the right. I followed the sign to come across the unattractive little church that you see in the photo to the left. It's in the center of the city surrounded by pubs. I ventured inside through the automatic sliding glass doors, past the confession boxes with doorbells on them, past the very decorative holy water fountain that you see below, back to a corner of the church where a boldly colored statue and a little old box were marked "Relics of St. Valentine." I would have taken a picture of that too, but there were actually a lot of people in the church praying and I was wearing sunglasses and a t-shirt with a skull and crossbones on it, so it felt like it might be the wrong time to whip out my camera.
You remember when I said I was wearing sunglasses and a t-shirt? That was appropriate for about 25 minutes and then it started pouring rain. I reached for my umbrella only to discover it was not with me. Actually, I'm not sure where it is on second thought...I better investigate that.

Twice now I've been into restaurant bathrooms that are lit only by black lights. This is presumably to display how clean the facilities are...or just to confuse drunk restaurant patrons...I'm not sure which.

The other night an Irish bloke asked me, "So what exactly is Thanksgiving?" I tried my best to explain about pilgrims and Indians without getting too much into genocide and racism...I added that it's basically a day set aside to over eat and wake up early to watch a televised parade...When explaining the Thanksgiving feast I got the follow-up question of "Isn't that just the same stuff that you eat on Christmas?" I said yes and he asked "So you just have the same big family feast twice in a one-month period?" I said yes. Odd holiday now that I think about it.

Here are some more things that Irish people say:
--Fair play meaning well done, or good job...someone said this to me, I didn't understand what they were saying and I took it to mean something very different...we cleared it up though...it's a good story, I'll tell you some time.
--That's Class meaning that's cool
--That's Gas also meaning that's cool
--Biffo meaning hillbilly. It stands for Big Ignorant Fuck from Offaly. County Offaly is like the designated hillbilly zone in Ireland that all the other Irish people make fun of. When I tell people that I visited the town Birr the reaction, invariably, is "HA HA HA you went to Offaly!!!"
--Like... you know? sometimes just "like" or sometimes just "you know" but they say these words more than the average California Valley Girl...they tack it onto the end of the phrase though, where a Valley Girl would put it in the middle of the phrase. For example, a Valley Girl might say "I like, went out for a burger. It was, you know, really good" and an Irish person would say "I went for some fish n' chips like, you know? It was grand, like."

And a really good Irish quote:
"You just go anticlockwise. Anticlockwise is the opposite of uncle clockwise."

Tonight is the night for watching Riverdance and interviewing Niamh O'Connor, so I'm sure I'll have some really embarrassing story to tell you tomorrow.

To conclude, let me point out that there are just eight days until my 21st birthday. This is what I want, it's now just a matter of which one of you will be buying it for me: CLICK HERE!!

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Just think what toucan do

No blog yesterday...I know. Sorry. There were adventures to be had and I couldn't be slowed down by the internet...I'll catch you up though.

I don't know if we've discussed this before or not, but I have an uncanny gravitational pull for crazy strangers. I get asked for directions by strangers literally every day. Not just in Ireland, but Portland, Los Angeles, New York, and everywhere I go. I once went for a short walk around Occidental and in under twenty minutes I was stopped three times by people asking me for directions. I used to think that I was overreacting and that everyone must get stopped for directions as much as I do, but I have come to realize that I just have a magical forcefield that draws confused strangers towards me. Despite what my mother says about my sense of direction, I actually find my way around very well without getting lost so I'm generally able to help the crazy people out...even when I've only been in the city for a few hours like my first day in Dublin when two Irish guys asked me how to get somewhere and then they were very embarrassed to discover that I was actually not a local. The next day I directed some French people to a movie theater, the next day I was unable to help some Australians looking for a place called O'Shea's, and this morning I was walking around and I was the only person out on a quiet, rainy Sunday morning, but then like magic a confused American girl in pajamas and flip flops appeared from nowhere to ask me where the nearest internet cafe was. I sometimes save people the embarrassment of discovering that I too am a tourist and give them directions in a faux-Irish accent, but that's only for special occasions. Actually, I've been wanting to confess that I am really worried about the well-being of a nice British family who may still be wandering the streets of Ennis looking for the grocery store that I accidentally told them was in the opposite direction to where it really is.

I'm glad I got that off my chest.

Yesterday morning I thought I would be really worldly and cultured and strike up a conversation in Spanish with some Spanish guests at the hostel, but evidently my Spanish is a little rusty. I said one phrase and they were like "Uh...What???" and then I got really embarrassed and said "ok, sorry, bye!" and ran away.

After that embarrassment I walked around the city for a while and went to a funky little covered market selling lots of odds and ends. Here's a stall that was selling ladies clothing and big dead bugs in glass boxes.

I also felt like being really touristy yesterday so I went to the very popular National Museum of Alcoholism...also called the Guinness Storehouse Museum. Everyone that I have met has told me that I have to go there and like, who am I to disregard their advice? It's a pretty clever operation. You arrive with all of the other masses of tourists to stand in a Disneyland-length line before paying an arm and a leg to enter the museum. Then you walk through the museum reading all about the Guinness-making process, Arthur Guinness's legacy, and various funny advertising campaigns. All of this makes you really want a Guinness and then you arrive at the top floor of the building and they give you a free pint. As it turns out, a pint is a lot of liquid. The Guinness imbibing room at the top of the building is also where the best views of Dublin are because it is just a circular room with 360 degrees of windows. Observe the nice photo to the right.

The Challenge.The Accomplishment. (sorry parents.)

Skip ahead now to this morning. I decided to go out for Sunday brunch...which is actually very difficult to do in Ireland since everything except the churches is closed on Sunday mornings and the only other people out on the streets are lost American girls in pajamas looking for internet cafes. (If you don't get that joke then you haven't been paying attention.) I finally found a very swanky pseudo-French cafe where I ordered porridge. My experience with ordering porridge on this trip so far is that a bowl of pretty standard oatmeal arrives, but that was not the case here. I'm not sure what that was that I ate, but it involved a lot of cream, a lot of berries, and it was really delicious. If that is what porridge is supposed to be then I understand why Goldilocks got into trouble.

Walking out of the swanky Frenchy porridge cafe I discovered a place called "The Secret Bookstore." It is aptly titled because it is completely hidden down a little alley and all that leads you there is a tiny sign that says "secret bookstore this way." Inside there were a lot of cool used books, but guess what I found!!! There before me was a book of six full-color pull-out posters of the various portraits of Queen Elizabeth I. omg. If you know me well, then you know that despite our 454 year age difference, Good Queen Bess and I share a very special bond. I snatched up the posters immediately along with another piece of reading material for the plane.

Happy birthday Brian...he's 30 now...whoa.

none of the thoughts in this post are in any way connected to each other.

Just to reiterate Pete McCarthy's quote that "the Irish aren't after your money, they just want to know everything about you," last night, once again, I found myself in a swarm of Irish locals who wanted details about all aspects of my life and wouldn't allow me to leave until I had been peer-pressured, mercilessly teased, and most of my life story was out in the open.

Here's a picture of a sign that I found amusing.

The zipper on my suitcase is actually broken now so like...I hope it survives the journey home...

The radio is playing here in the hostel and the announcer just said something about it being the 4th of July today. Waddya know?! It is the 4th! I had completely forgotten...I guess they don't feel the need to celebrate America's independence in Ireland.

Today was sunny and lovely for once! I did some urban hiking, some park bench sitting, and some gallery visiting. I went to the National Gallery...mostly because I'm afraid of what my mother would say if I didn't go to any art museums on my trip...and also because there's free admission.

I ate lunch at a place called the Bad Ass Cafe. Mostly because of the name.







Here's the Oscar Wilde statue. I saw that today too.

Good thing I have an umbrella.

I am about 98% sure I just saw Gabriel Byrne walking down the street. Although, a lot of Irish people look alike and they tend to have big families...so it could have been like his brother or something. In any case, I just saw someone that looks exactly like Gabriel Byrne.

Last night I went to this restaurant that you see on the left. My tourist map suggested it and the description included the words "cheap" and "vegetarian" so I jumped at the opportunity. It was delicious and all the decorations were pink. My map and I seem to disagree a little about what "cheap" means though. I used my highly advanced Excel chart to calculate how much money I have left in my food budget and as of last night I had 4 euros left. I don't know that I can stretch 4 euros over a week in Dublin...especially considering I've already spent about 6.50 on food today...maybe I should have asked Gabriel Byrne for a meal.

I had a bunch of things planned for the day, but most of them involved wandering the streets taking in the sunshine. The sun stood me up though. It's been pouring all day long. I sought out indoor activities such as visiting the National Museum. They have lots of really impressive artifacts there, but you're not allowed to take pictures of anything. I was finding it very hard to abide by such a rule but the one time I tried to sneak my camera out of my purse a very angry guard appeared. They have one room in the museum that has four "bog bodies," as in people that died about 2000 years ago but their bodies were preserved in Irish bogs only to be discovered several hundred years later by archaeologists. It's one of those instances where something that should be totally disgusting becomes strangely intriguing. All of the descriptions were kind of oddly frank as well. It would say, for example, "This is the body of a 25 year old man from around 200 A.D. He stood about 5'9", his last meal appears to have been grains and dairy, and he died from several heavy blows to the head by an axe. He was also disemboweled."

I needed a book to read so a few days ago I purchased McCarthy's Bar. It's a comedy travel memoir thing that a guy wrote about his travels through Ireland. It kind of reminds me of my blog only it's funnier and better written. I can certainly relate very closely to a lot of his anecdotes. One thing he got right was when he said "The Irish aren't after your money, they just want to know everything about you."
I purchased the book in the "Irish Interest" section of a little used bookstore in Limerick. One thing I have observed about bookstores here is that without fail the first section you see in every bookstore you walk into is the Irish section. That usually gets divided into "Irish Literature" "Irish Poetry" "Irish Travel" "Irish History" and basically any other book genre that you can attach the word "Irish" to. They have other sections too, but usually, if say, you go to the "Classics" section it's all James Joyce and Oscar Wilde and Jonathan Swift. At first I thought the stores were just really catering to tourists, but then I realized that they actually just really like to read about Ireland.

Nicole is a very whiny person and she complained that I haven't been posting pictures lately. Just for her, here are a few shots from Dublin and Limerick.

Lest you forget what country you are in amidst the hustle and bustle of metropolitan Dublin, they have this helpful statue (on the right) to remind you where you really are.

My hostel is right next to St. Mary's Pro-Cathedral. It's a nice building. It's especially nice when there is a seagull perched on top of St. Mary's head.

These ones are from Limerick a few days ago.

Here is the University of Limerick. I tried to walk there and it ended up taking like 2 hours. I was then too exhausted to walk around the campus very long so I just got the bus back.

This sculpture in Limerick troubled me. It is a "Broken Heart" in memorial to the lives lost during the Great Famine. Did the artist have to be that literal?

Where's Waldo? No seriously...where is he and who is this Wally person?

A testament to how much they love hurling and rugby in Limerick.

And may I just say...If my 50 cent/ballet/Gershwin dream can't yield comments from you people then I don't know what will.

Baile Atha Cliath

I wouldn't normally share my dreams in such a public venue as the internet...I mean...I wouldn't want just anyone psychoanalyzing me...but last night's dream was truly noteworthy. I kid you not, I literally conjured up a dream in which I was dancing an improvisational ballet pas-de-deux with famed gangster-rapper 50 Cent to a song by George Gershwin. I am not making that up. I couldn't make that up if I tried. Any interpretations are welcome.

This morning I came THIS CLOSE (you can't see me but I am gesturing two fingers very close together) to leaving my cell phone in the hostel in Limerick. That would have sucked.

It is a good thing that this morning was the last time I had to move my stuff because my suitcase and I are no longer on friendly terms. At the beginning of my journey with gentle coaxing I could convince Suitcase to close or even to move if I wanted it to, but that is no longer the case. Suitcase cries out in agony when I try to close its zippers and moves only on its own very unreasonable terms. Our relationship has turned bitter and spiteful.

You will recall at the start of this trip I was having a lot of anxiety over being in small towns. As a self-proclaimed "city person" I was having a lot of trouble slowing my pace down enough to appreciate the simple rural lifestyle. After several weeks I really got the hang of it though. As a result, I faced culture shock again today when I arrived in Dublin. The Dublin area actually has fewer people than the Portland area, but because it is the biggest city in Ireland and the center for the country's government and economy, it sort of looks and feels like a huge metropolis...especially when you've just spent a month and a half in sheep and cow territory. When I got off the bus I had a few moments of panic. The crowds! The noise! The buildings higher that two stories!

I readjusted to city-speed pretty quickly though and was able to obtain a soy chai latte almost instantaneously.

I had been in contact with someone from Riverdance several months ago when I was writing up my proposal and application for my grant and they said that I might be able to get an interview with one of the cast members while I was here. I didn't ever really hear from them again though, so I kind of assumed that that wasn't really going to happen. I received an email the other night though that instructed me to come to the stage door before the show in a few days and ask for Niamh O'Connor, the female lead of the show, at which point I am to conduct a 20-30 minute interview. Oh dear. There are a few problems with this situation. First of all there is my crippling social anxiety and my extreme vulnerability to star-struck behavior. Secondly, it seems, from the email they sent me, that they assume I am far more professional and prestigious than I actually am. Finally, because I had assumed I wasn't actually going to be doing this interview, I have no questions prepared. A bit problematic, no? At least I have a few days to become less anxious, more professional, and better prepared.


All neuroses aside, I arrived safely in Dublin, the hostel is in a great location, and I should have plenty of fun things to do for the next week.

Only ten more days??!

It's July already! I have to leave in ten days! I'm not yet ready!

Yesterday I spent like three euros on internet cafes then I returned to my room to discover I had free wifi. oops. Unfortunately, the wireless signal isn't really strong enough for me to upload any pictures otherwise I would be dazzling you all with my genius photography skills right now.

After some careful consideration and some phone calls and emails I concluded that I would skip ahead one day in my itinerary. That is, I will leave Limerick for Dublin one day earlier than scheduled. I figure I've already done all that I wanted to do in Limerick and there is a lot of unexplored territory in Dublin, so...onward! Or perhaps I was just getting tired of writing Limericks...

Whilst in the Aran Islands, I spoke to a local who expressed this opinion to me:
"I love America! I went to New York City once--everything is so convenient there!"
to which I responded..."yes...if you grow up on a tiny, remote island I would imagine New York would seem like a very convenient place..."
I do have to agree with him in a lot of respects though. I've kind of been keeping score on Ireland vs. USA as I've been going along this trip. It's a pretty close call in a lot of cases, but Ireland loses a lot of points in terms of convenience...especially in terms of laundry machines. I just paid a very unreasonable amount of money to use the laundry facilities here and the machines barely fit one pair of pants inside...that is to say, they are very small.

To be fair though, here are a few places where Ireland gains a lot of points:
-Most nice restaurants give you a piece of chocolate with your bill at the end of your meal. 10 points.
-You never have to tip anyone for services (taxi, restaurant, etc) and if you try to tip them they get really confused and give you your money back. 8 points.
-Limerick has both a Catherine Street (wrong spelling, right idea) and a Davis Street. 8 points.
-If you want to cross the street jay-walking is strongly encouraged on any street even if there are cars coming. If you step in front of oncoming traffic, the drivers politely stop and wave you across. 5 points.
-Regardless of where you are, you always have access to free tea. 5 points.
-Cute accents. 5 points.

It's my last day in Limerick today
Tomorrow I'll be on my way
I know you'll all miss
my little poems like this
But I'm sick of them, so I say "Hooray!!"

(Subject)

I kind of miss that tv that I had in Tralee. In addition to the Murder, She Wrote reruns I was also exposed to a lot of other gems of Irish media. I saw tv shows in Gaelic, some weird commercial featuring really scary puppets with Italian accents, and the finest game show ever called Who Dares Sings? (is that correct grammar?) It's a British show in which members of the studio audience are selected at random to come on stage and sing karaoke. Depending on how well they do they can win money. It's wonderful.

Without the luxury of television I had to return last night to old-fashioned entertainment and read. Actually, I just finished the book I was reading and it was really really good. Poor Lazarus by Maurice Leitch. I got it from the "Irish Literature" section of a very cool used bookstore in Galway. It was about a Canadian filmmaker who goes to Ireland for a few months on a journey of personal and cultural discovery, etc...sound appropriate? Before that I read The Welsh Girl which I got in the Bestseller section of a very overpriced chain bookstore. It sucked. Don't read it.

My quest for a new book led me into another bookstore today and I wandered into the children's section. It was there that I saw a big display of Where's Waldo? books...I got very nostalgic so I picked one up and was paging through it. It was only then that I realized something was horribly wrong. In Ireland, everyone's favorite bespectacled master of disguise is named not Waldo, but Wally. Where's Wally? What??! Waldo! Waldo is his name! I was quite disturbed.

On another note, It's kind of nice to come back to a city where I already know my way around. I'm a Limerick pro by now. School is out now, so I haven't seen any school girls in heinous Limerick uniforms this time around. When I was here before Munster (western Ireland) had just won an important rugby match and so every business in the city was flying their red Munster Rugby flags. I expected they would be gone by now, but a month later they are still in every window...even like fancy lady's hair salons and prestigious banks and law offices...I guess they love their rugby in Limerick. That might explain the large bronze rugby player statue in the center of the city...

I have been to Limerick city before
They support Munster Rugby in every store
It's a good little place
and I can't even face
that I only have a few days more!

Another Limerick limerick

I'm back in Limerick now
On the drive I saw many-a-cow
I haven't much to say
'Cause I was on the bus all day
And this poem's all time will allow

shuffle 1, shuffle 2, hop back 2,3,4

More dance conferencing today...

I stayed for three lectures in the morning and two lecture/demonstrations in the afternoon. The morning lectures had less to do with my research but were still interesting. Actually, one of the morning lectures was to do with gender studies in the Irish dance competition scene, so it was interesting to hear what she had to say. The first lecture/demonstration was about New England style folk dancing and we actually had to do some of the dances. That was a little weird. The second demonstration was really cool though. It was taught by a man who is probably in his 70s and has been teaching Irish dance in county Kerry for years and years. He was teaching a few steps from his teacher who, from what I can gather, was a prominent "dance master" at the turn of the century. So he was dancing and teaching some really historic choreography. It was weird to try to dance beause it's such an old style. The best part was that I got a video of him doing one of these rare old dances and I feel like I'm in possession of a valuable antique now.

Boring blog I guess...I've done a lot today, but not much of it was really blog-worthy material. I could tell you all the things I've learned about the origins of the jig and about Irish social dancing trends in the 1940s, but somehow I feel you wouldn't be that interested in reading it.

Tomorrow I'm going to the last bit of the conference in the morning then hopping on the bus to Limerick after that so perhaps I won't have time to write a blog, but no need to panic, I'll come up with something really witty and interesting to say for the next day.

To be noted:
Irish tv is wonderful if only for the fact that they still show re-runs of Murder, She Wrote.

tra la la TRALEE

Last night I saw my second show at Siamsa Tire. In answer to Mom's question, they do about four shows per season, some old, some new, which is why I had already seen San Am Fado. In any case, the show I saw last night was called Tearmann (rhymes with German). This one was about the great famine, that is to say, it's not quite as lively as a show as San Am Fado is. It was still a very good show, albeit a bit of a downer. It will be an interesting comparison for research purposes because the choreography in Tearmann is a lot more contemporary.

I was sitting next to a woman from Ohio who took intermission as an opportunity to tell me her life story. She also told me that I didn't look old enough to be in college and I have been panicking ever since.

Yesterday I also walked out to the Tralee Institute of Technology which is where the Dance Research Forum would be taking place. Turns out, it's not really walking distance...but I only found this out after I had walked all the way there for an hour in the rain...at least I found it.

I took a taxi there this morning for the conference. It might be the ugliest college campus I have ever seen and it's all under construction so it's impossible to tell which building is which. I was wandering around trying to figure which ugly building to go into when I ran into another lost American lady. We commiserated for a moment and then she goes "Oh, I should introduce myself, I'm Darah." to which I responded "OH MY GOD YOU'RE DARAH CARR!!! I've read all about your company!" I'm a bit of a dork at times. Darah Carr is the director of a very cool dance company in New York City. I have never seen one of the shows, but I have reason to assume it's a very cool company.

Soon we found our way into the conference and sure enough everyone there was someone cool. The name alphabetically above my own on the registration sheet was Dr. John Cullinane who is the author of Aspects of the History of Irish Dance among other things and whose work I have cited many times. The room was basically a walking, breathing version of my bibliography for this research project. Needless to say I was a little intimidated, first because I was really star-struck, second because I was probably one of the only people there without a PHD, and third because of the newly acquired knowledge that I don't even look old enough to be in college. I sat down for the first lecture of the day and the man in front of me looked really familiar then it struck me that he was the lead dancer from the show I had seen the previous night. omg.

I stayed around for about three quarters of the lectures today and they were all really really informative. I think I could basically write my research paper based on notes I took today so that's a big plus. At the second coffee break of the day I had calmed down enough to actually talk to some of the people there. I introduced myself to a woman named Maire Clerkin. I couldn't figure out where I recognized that name from then it occurred to me that she has been one of my judges at dance competitions many times. She lives in Los Angeles, and she knows my dance teacher from Portland really well, and her lecture was basically the same topic that I'm researching, so we had a lot to chat about. After that I met another woman who's a professor at the University of Georgia who knows my ballet teacher from Oxy, so I kept having small-world moments all day.

I accidentally drank some coffee (it looks just like tea) so I have been speaking and walking at about twice my normal speed, so I made the walk back to town after the conference and it was no problem at all...it also wasn't raining, so that was nice. Also, I typed this whole entry really really fast.

Ta an craic is fearr san Eirinn!

Tralee, as I said before, is a very cute little town. It’s only about 20,000 people, but after places like Inishmore and Dungiven, it feels like a booming metropolis. I came here to see some shows at Siamsa Tire (pronounced Sheem-sa Tee-ra translates to “country entertainment”) which is the National Folk Theater of Ireland. As luck would have it one of my research contacts invited me to attend a Dance Research Forum in Tralee and it just happened to be taking place during the week when I had planned on being here! The research conference starts up tomorrow, I saw the first show at Siamsa Tire last night, and I’ll see another one tonight. I also got really lucky in that my hotel is literally next door to the Siamsa Tire theater—I didn’t even plan that!

The first show I saw was called San Am Fado (pronounced Shan ahm fa-DOH translates to “the long ago”). It is actually the same show that I saw at Siamsa Tire when I came to Ireland a few years ago with the fam. I remembered really liking it, but last night reaffirmed that it is one of the most perfect pieces of theater I’ve ever seen. It’s not really a play, there’s no script or dialogue, or even that much of a story; the actors just act out scenes of country life and it’s all punctuated by moments of Irish dancing and really beautiful Gaelic choral singing. It’s a little hard to describe…it’s like an Irish dance ballet… Anyways, call me cheesy, but it totally gave me goose bumps. Tonight I’m seeing a different show by the same company, so I don’t know what it’s going to be like but I expect it will also be wonderful.

There is nowhere for me to eat in Tralee. Everything is either really expensive or meat dishes only. I had Chinese food last night. Actually, I’ve eaten SO MUCH Chinese food on this trip (a lot of Indian food too). The only place I have been so far that did not have a Chinese restaurant was Inishmore. Dungiven had two, Birr had three, and in Belfast I found one street that had literally four in a row and one across the street. At Chinese restaurants in Ireland you have to pay for your rice which is usually more like Uncle Ben’s than Long Grain Jasmine rice. Also, French fries are always offered as a side dish. Also, no fortune cookies.

Here is the best building in Tralee.

I thought I’d share a few more pictures from the Aran Islands too:

Here’s the big hill you have to climb to get to the Dun Aonghasa fort

Here’s some of Teampall Bhreacain, an 8^th century church.

At one point when I was riding my bike around I stopped next to a farm wall to look at my map and readjust. I had seen that there were some horses in the field and when I looked up from the map I found them looking right back at me. They had seen me and run over to greet me. Apparently they really wanted to have their picture taken.

Where have you been??

I'm alive! Many of you have called me in the last few days expressing your concern for my general well-being, so thank you very much for that. The hostel in the Aran Islands was supposed to have wifi and when I arrived the guy said it was "broken" and he would "fix it tomorrow" liar.

I'll try to keep this entry short, but we have like four days of catching up to do, so bear with me...maybe grab yourself a little snack before you start reading or something...

Last Day in Galway:
When I went to make myself lunch I discovered that the groceries that I had bought myself had been taken from the hostel guest food storage area and I was very very sad.

I attended a big ceili dance that night and an American couple got up and started mock Irish dancing. I wanted to get up and shout "NO! You're being offensive!" but instead I hung my head in shame.

At dinner I felt like being a local so I conducted all of my interactions with an Irish accent. No one seemed to notice.

The Journey to the Aran Islands:
The Aran islands are three tiny islands (Inishmore, Inishmaan, and Inisheer) off the West coast of Ireland, the total population spread out over the three islands is about one thousand people. I've been some pretty remote places on this trip, but this is certainly wins the middle-of-nowhere contest. I'm not a very outdoorsy person and I certainly prefer big cities, so the Aran islands were a bit of a psychological challenge for me. I had some close encounters with farm animals, and basically survived the worst storm ever...but read on...To get to the Aran Islands one must ride a bus for about an hour then a ferry for about 45 minutes. The ferry ride was extremely rough and luckily the journey ended before anything gross or embarrassing happened. When I got off the ferry on Inishmore I realized why the ride had been so choppy...it was basically hurricane conditions outside. It was so windy I could feel my eyelashes flying back against my eyelids and when I opened my mouth I could feel my cheeks flapping around. In addition to that it was raining so hard that when I walked outside for about ten feet I got completely drenched and it took my pants three days to dry out from all the rain they absorbed. This was the day of the summer solstice—everyone loves irony, eh? Apparently they previous day on the island had been sunny and beautiful. Even the locals said this kind of treacherous weather was unusual. I look really pretty with that wind-blown hair look, no?

The hostel was pretty nice and one of the other girls staying my room was a nice British girl who was actually also traveling doing research as well—she’s getting her masters in anthropology and was doing her dissertation on Aran knitting traditions.

Anyways. About the only thing I did on that first day was go out for dinner. There are only two dinner options in the town of Kilronan, a skeezy American themed restaurant and bar aptly titled "the American Bar" and a swanky fancy tourist restaurant. I chose the American Bar for budgeting purposes. When I entered apparently stood out from the local crowd because just about everyone looked up. Three very old men (certainly old enough to be my grandfather) sitting at the bar immediately turned around and began making generally flattering, but in the circumstances, very much unwelcome comments about my appearance. Ew. When I sat down I noticed that there was nothing vegetarian on the menu so I just got up and left, still managing to awkwardly draw lots and lots of attention to myself. I went to the swanky restaurant and it was delicious.

Day Two on Inishmore:
On the second day the weather wasn't quite as deadly as it was on the first day, but there was no electricity on the whole island. The only place that had power, and thus the only business that was open, was the tiny grocery store that had a big noisy generator. I didn’t do much all day… Finally around 6pm the electricity came back and the weather cleared up a little bit. Since I hadn’t done anything all day I decided to go seek out some traditional music that night for research purposes. I went to one of the area’s three pubs (when there are only 3 pubs you know you’re in a really remote place) which said they would have music at 10pm. I arrived at 10 but there was no music happening, then I realized that it was because the all-important soccer game had not ended yet. When it was over (Spain won) the music started, but it turned out to be just some local guy singing Simon and Garfunkel/ The Eagles/ R.E.M. type covers, so it wasn’t really what I was looking for. I would have left, but all of the sudden I found myself in the middle of a swarm of locals who wanted to talk to me. The Aran locals are all very friendly, but talking to them is a little unsettling—they all speak to each other in Gaelic so they would say something to me in English then suddenly turn to each other say something in Gaelic and start laughing…oh dear. That evening turned out to be the first, and presumably the only, time in my life the parish priest bought me a drink.

Day Three on Inishmore:
On the third day I used my mind powers to summon the sun out from behind the clouds. I ended up creating a perfect day! No wind, no rain, just beautiful sunny 75 degree conditions. I rented a bicycle and biked all over island. First I stopped by the island’s seal colony…SEALS!! (photo to the left) Seals make noises like Chewbacca. I continued biking up through the lovely countryside past lots of thatched cottages and farm animals and stone walls and such and maybe an hour or two later I arrived at Dun Aonghasa (no idea how that is pronounced), an early Celtic fort from about 1100 BC. When you get there after the long bike ride you then have to hike up a big hill for about 20 minutes but when you make it to the top it is spectacular, amazing, breath-taking, and more. It’s a good place for a fort because, in addition to the remote location, in one direction you can see out over the whole island (beautiful on a clear day), and in the other direction there are huge cliffs that drop straight into the ocean. Very much like the Cliffs of Insanity from The Princess Bride. You can walk right up to the edge of the cliff so it’s a little frightening since all that separates you from the ocean is several hundred feet of jagged rocks. It’s all very mind-blowing and I can hardly describe it. A nice couple from California took my picture (I look a little disheveled from the bike ride and hike).

After the fort, I cycled on around the rest of the island past more farms, 9^th century church ruins, beaches, and lots more indescribable scenery. In total I was on the bike for about five hours, so by the end I was a little tired and very sunburned. (Sunburned in Ireland…I know!!) I got back and cooked myself a delicious dinner…yes, cooked.

Leaving the Island:
The ferry ride away from the island was not nearly as treacherous as the one that took me there, and I spotted another seal in the harbor as we were leaving. After that I rode three different buses to get to Tralee. In total it was about 8 hours of constant traveling…blahhhh…

Small anecdote: As I was standing waiting for one of the buses to come an old man was standing next to me and he pointed to a man with a big grizzly beard walking by and said (in a heavy Irish accent) “That man there has a fine whisker.” Best quote by an old Irish guy so far? I think so.

When I arrived in Tralee I was so excited to see that my hotel is SUPER nice! It’s like…an actual hotel…with my own room and my own bathroom and a big bed that’s not a bunk-bed, and towels and a tv (I watched a Gaelic tv channel for a long time), and they have no internet…sigh…

Tralee is a very cute town and I’ll have lots to say, but this post is very long already, so until tomorrow, I leave you! But first, an Aran Islands joke:

Why did the Irish chickens cross the road?

To go to the pub! (duh.)

Last Day in Galway

It's my last day in Galway--I've been here a whole week now. I have been in Ireland now one bottle of shampoo's worth of time. Shampoo, I discovered, is an inexplicably expensive commodity in Ireland...like 8 euros per bottle. To be cheap I went to see if I could find some at the "Everything for 2 euro Store" but all they had was overstock shampoo with Sanskrit writing on the bottle...so at least I think it's shampoo that I bought...

Last night I attended the show Trad on the Prom which, as I predicted, was delightfully cheesy. I wish I could have taken pictures, but photography wasn't allowed. If you want an idea of the cheesiness though, you can look at the website: http://www.tradontheprom.com There was stage fog, rainbow colored lighting schemes, and computer generated projections of celtic knots on the back curtain. Also, there was a singer guy who kept coming on who was really channeling Michael Bolton (not meant as a compliment) and actually sang a Josh Groban song at one point. I caught one of the back-up musicians laughing at him while he sang... The audience, composed of about 95% American retiree tour groups, loved him.

Behind the cheesy facade, however, all of the performers were pretty outstanding. They only had six dancers, but all of them had world titles. The main guy dancer (used to be the lead in Lord of the Dance) kept doing quadruple heel clicks. That means clicking his heels back and forth in the air four times before landing. The girl dancers were pretty impressive too. The most impressive dancing came from these two young boys though. They were brothers, I would guess about 13 and 15 and apparently they have both won the World Championships about 5 times. Ridiculous. I don't even know what to say about them because nothing I saw will get the point across.

What was really unusual about the whole experience is that it was the first professional dance and music show that I've seen after a month of watching casual amateur events and it felt so strange to see in it that kind of setting. Even when they're playing essentially the same music, there's a big difference between watching a woman in a sequin covered dress playing the electric fiddle on stage and watching an ancient local man playing the fiddle in the corner of a crowded pub.

It's a good thing I only have one more night in this hostel because I'm ready to kill one of the people sharing my room--he seems like a nice person, but he snores like a lawn mower. Thank god I have earplugs.

Tomorrow I'm off to the Aran Islands!

Slainte!

I don't know, but I've been told

Well...I've heard a lot of Irish music on this trip. Like...a lot. So last night I was paging through the music festival program trying to decide which free concert to attend and I had about a million traditional Irish bands to choose from. Then I noticed one band listed and in parentheses next to the band name it said (bluegrass). I thought "We have a winner!!" So I took a little break from the research and I went to go listen to a bluegrass band. They actually turned out to be completely awesome, they kept going into perfect four-part harmonies and they had a harmonica and a tambourine and everything. It really helped temporarily get Irish accordion songs unstuck from my head. They even finished off the night with a very cool Led Zeppelin cover. In retrospect, I feel I should have purchased their CD, but too late now I guess.

Don't worry, tonight I'm back to the grindstone doing some strenuous research at a traditional Irish music and dance show.

I don't even know how to explain the weather here. Yesterday I reported that the rain had returned and when I wrote that I was wearing my warmest sweater and my coat and I had my umbrella out all morning, but by late evening yesterday the sun came out and it was beautiful and warm. Today has been mostly beautiful and warm except for hourly ten-minute downpours that seem to only happen when I want to go outside. Now that I'm inside on the computer it appears to be sunny and warm again.

I found the best place in the world and it is called "Butler's Chocolate Bar." I went inside because I saw that they offered chai lattes for very cheap and they turned out to be the first place in Ireland that I have found that offers to make them with soy milk! AND THEN when I ordered it, the guy pointed to the dangerously tantalizing chocolate display and said, "would you like to choose your complimentary truffle?" I nearly screamed. It was the best chai latte ever and the best truffle ever.

I believe Galway attracts so many tourists because it is very small and very nice to stroll around in. It is for this reason that it also attracts a lot of those irritating charity petition type people that stop you on the street and tell you how selfish you are for not saving the world's hungry children. Because I'm out walking around alone a lot I have found I am a prime target for these people. Yes, their causes are very worthy and if I had lots of money to spare I would donate to them, but I can't seem to convince them that I don't have money to give. One petitioner in particular has stopped me literally every day that I've been in Galway. He recognizes me now and somehow tracks me down every time I go outside. I tried lying to get rid of him--I told him I was 17 and that I don't have any sort of bank account--but that has not deterred his persistence. I have now had to go beyond lying into outright rudeness. Today when he ambushed me all I said was "Oh my god, you're everywhere." He said "Yes I am!" in his annoyingly perky way and then I just said nothing and crossed the street.

I'm a terrible terrible person.

If you know me well, then you probably know that I very much dislike swans based on a scarring childhood experience. Vile creatures as they are, they are kind of charming floating in Galway bay. And I also read that the ancient Claddagh tribe believed swans to be the returned souls of their loved ones lost at sea, so I guess that's kind of interesting.

Last night I went into a bathroom, but really it was a portal to the future. In the future, all bathrooms will have these coin operated hair straighteners. Technology...wow.

Finally, someone left an anonymous comment on my blog titled "my goodness! my guinness!" and because I have no way of knowing who it was I'm just going to go ahead and assume it was Christian Bale.

Rince agus ceol na Gaillimh

How's that for a subject line?! I totally speak Gaelic now. I'm pretty sure that says "dance and music in Galway" but I can't be too sure.

The weather was beautiful back on Saturday when I arrived in Galway, but now the rain has returned and the weather really sucks. Last night I was supposed to go to another pub dance event thing and I had to walk across town in the rain to get there. Then when I arrived I could barely even get inside the door because it was completely packed with tourists. Noisy, sweaty, pushy tourists. There was some dancing going on but it was only one set (one group of 8 people) and I was expecting much more than that. In any case, I could hardly see and it seemed like it was all very much a touristy thing so I only stayed very briefly and then made my exit.

Tonight I have a few options for activities and I have yet to decide what to do. Last night I was working on the assumption that it would be better to arrive late since everything in Ireland starts at least 15-20 minutes later than scheduled, but perhaps it would actually be smarter to arrive early so that I can at least get in and get a seat where I can see. I guess I haven't figured out how it all works yet.

I did go back to the secret pub from Monday night to take some pictures and here they are:
_ _
You go through this unmarked gate, down this little alley, and you find this secret pub!

This morning I walked up to Galway University to see what that's all about. Turns out it's not too exciting, They have on really pretty building and a bunch of big eyesores. But they do have this weird sculpture. Kind of looks like a headless graduate, no?

And here's a look at my hostel room...a little cozy with five people in there, but last night there was actually just one other person.
Thanks for the comments, I'm a little starved for human interaction :)

My goodness! My Guinness!

Last night the event I went to turned out to be very cool. If you didn't read the last post (though...I can't imagine why you wouldn't have...) I was going to an event that I thought had something to do with dance, but I couldn't be sure because the only information I could find about it was all in Gaelic. I walked by the building earlier in the day and it just looked like a plain building front. I thought it might be some kind of community center or something, but I couldn't see into any windows or doors, so I couldn't really tell.

When I arrived in the evening one of the gates had been opened and there was just a little back alley that led around to the back of the building and a very small sign that said something in Gaelic and had an arrow pointing down the alley. There were no people around and I couldn't read the sign, but I followed the arrow only to discover that down the alley, around the back of the building is a tiny, dark little pub! Of course! I was even more shocked to see that it was swarming with people inside and at least half of them were tourists (how did they find this place???) Soon enough the Sean Nos Dancing demonstration started and it was very very cool to watch.

Sean Nos dancing is a particular style of Irish step dancing that is much closer to the traditional origins than modern Irish dancing is. It is very simple--almost anyone could probably do it--and it is almost completely improvisational. Even though it doesn't have any of the fast, flashy kicks that you see in modern Irish dance, it is still really entertaining to watch because it is really expressive and there is a lot of room for personal style. I don't know, maybe it's not so interesting for you all to read about, but I was fascinated. After the Sean Nos demonstration (three solo dancers) they started Set dancing (group dances) and people got up and did that. Very cool to watch as well. So here are two pictures, on the left is a girl doing Sean Nos step dancing and on the right are some people Set Dancing.


Tonight I'm probably going to go to a similar kind of event, so I expect that will be pretty cool as well.

On another note, I found a mostly vegetarian restaurant and ate vegan shepherd's pie for lunch.

Also, I packed pretty light for this journey and it's been like a month of the same few outfits now and I officially hate all of my clothes.

Oh and also, I went to the Galway City Museum this morning (free admission!) and I saw St. Ursula's skull. Here it is: