In a genuine attempt to be more consistent with updating this blog, here I am again to fill you in on what I've been doing for the past week and a half. Quite frankly, though, this is also a bit self-serving--if I were to wait any longer, I would surely have so much to talk about that I would have to omit discussing some of the great things that have been happening here. Last weekend, I took a trip with some of my friends to Co. Galway. When we had visited it the first time for our homestay, we had all fallen in love with the area, so we decided to make it our home base for a couple of days as we embarked upon a couple of day trips. We arrived on Friday night to Galway City and checked into the Woodquay Hostel, a cute little place with a homey atmosphere. The woman who ran the hostel clearly took a great deal of pride in the area, and she enthusiastically provided us with some background on "the cultural capital of Ireland" and gave us suggestions for different activities to try during the course of our stay. Hearing her talk about how much there was to do, I found myself wishing that we could stay for longer than just a weekend. For a few of us, this realization caused a bit of apprehension and even melancholy as we began to wonder whether we should have chosen a place like Galway to study abroad instead of the larger and more urban environment of Dublin. On some level, Galway has a more specifically and authentically Irish feel; the latter is a distinctly more international city, and we questioned whether we were getting the full experience that we wanted.
You'll be glad to know, then, that the weekend trip actually helped me come to terms with my location and appreciate Dublin. Galway and the surrounding area are wonderful, and I would certainly consider living there one day (perhaps even working at NUIG, in an ideal scenario), but Dublin truly is a good place in which to study this semester. Where I am, I get the best of both worlds: an urban setting with a lively atmosphere, and easy access to smaller towns and more rural areas when I need to get away from the noise and fast pace.
As far as getting away, this weekend's trip was the perfect way to do it. On Friday night, we all went out to a couple of pubs, wanting to sample some of the nightlife for which Galway is notorious among college students. What I found interesting about the whole experience is that, since there are fewer people out on the streets than in Dublin, catcallers and people struggling to walk straight are actually more salient than in the big city where everyone is doing their own thing. As far as the pubs themselves went, my friends and I stopped in to a place called Hole in the Wall and another, larger venue called The Front Door. The Hole in the Wall was fairly quiet, but I enjoyed myself immensely at The Front Door where I had an intelligent (and gloriously platonic) conversation with a local. The next morning, the group of us took a bus over to a ferry that brought us to Inis Mor, the largest of the Aran Islands. Once on the island, we rented bicycles and rode around to explore on our own. Although when we first arrived the weather was freezing cold, a quick stop for lunch gave us an opportunity to warm up before we began our ride. Once we did, I was SO glad that we had decided to brave the weather. As soon as everyone hopped on the bikes there was a marked increase in enthusiasm, and we spent the rest of the afternoon in the throes of what I can only describe as pure whimsy. The combination of the rushing wind, the spectacular ocean views, and the sympathetic laughter as we all struggled to climb the hills together made for a wonderful couple of hours. Once we had finished riding, we went down to the Aran Sweater Shop to search for souvenirs. The Aran Islands are home to the famous Aran sweater, knitted with family-specific weave patterns and originally made for fishermen. Although I'm allergic to wool and couldn't purchase any sweaters, I still had fun exploring the shop briefly before we boarded our return ferry.
We went out on the town again that evening, but since I was feeling tired I decided to call it an early night. The next morning we prepared for our second daytrip, a bus-guided tour of The Burren in Co. Clare and the Cliffs of Moher led by a cheeky little driver whose catchphrase was "Wooooow". To be perfectly honest, my favorite part of the day was the ride itself. The scenery was so lovely--not in the sense of breathtaking landscapes warranting an effusion of superlatives, but in its very simplicity. The sloping hills and rugged limestone lining the bus's path conveyed a humble majesty that lent itself to quiet reflection. Watching it pass by my window I felt an internal stillness--the first genuine sense of peace I've had since I arrived in Ireland. There was one specific photo opportunity stop about which I got pretty excited, though: an earthen ringfort, or rath, in the Burren! Ringforts are round domestic dwellings from the early medieval period in Ireland, and after having discussed them in my archaeology module the previous week it was exciting to see--and stand in--one in person! my friends were a little less enthusiastic about what appeared to them to be a heavily wooded pile of dirt, but once I explained a bit of background I think they appreciated it a little more. Surprisingly, the only real bust of the day was the Cliffs of Moher site. Due to fog in the area, there was a complete whiteout that rendered us incapable of seeing the cliffs at all. Since we had a couple of hours to walk around, we took some pictures and took refuge in the gift shop. I thought the situation was hilarious; my friends, not so much.
Sadly, the beginning of this week was not as enjoyable as the weekend. For the most part, my problems stemmed from academic stress: I found out that one of my modules was not going to transfer for a major requirement back at Puget Sound, and in my other classes I began to panic over the possibility of falling behind. Here, students choose a portion of what they read from a suggested reading list instead of having a set amount of work for each class session: as such, it's been a little difficult for me to gauge whether I have been doing enough. Furthermore, when I emailed a lecturer to ask a question, he emailed back to ask what class I was in. He did it very kindly, but it definitely drove home the fact that I am not in the proverbial Kansas anymore--in Washington, with classes of 25 students, a professor would never need ask which course I was taking.
While these frustrations were minor on an individual level, together they left me a bit discouraged and painfully feeling the distance from my parents as I called them, sobbing, at 3am west coast time. Fortunately, a good night's sleep and the resolution of the class transfer issue did wonders to alleviate my concerns. Additionally, the outpouring of support and happy Youtube videos that I received from my friends to cheer me up was heartwarming, and I am now happy once more. Last night I went to my first Literary Society event, a pub quiz on literary trivia. Our group won a bottle of wine for having the most clever team name ("The Grapes of Rathmines", in honor of the street where we all live), and we fared pretty well in the trivia part, too. Needless to say, we were rock-solid on the Harry Potter round, but we each contributed a bit based on our own literary specialties: Claudio chimed in with a lot of 19th century British literature, Shelby proved the resident expert on all things James Joyce, Kate contributed to questions about plays, and I piped up with my Chaucer knowledge and a couple other tidbits (aka knowing that the children's book Make Way for Ducklings is set in Boston and that the variety of duck discussed therein was a mallard). Tonight, I'm off to a Phil event called the Life Raft Debate, in which the audience pretends there has been a nuclear holocaust and we have to pick one academic to save. Professors from various departments argue why their discipline is the one that warrants salvation, and the audience votes at the end. Tomorrow, I'm then off to Belfast for the weekend with the other Arcadia students. Looking back, I find it laughable that I doubted I was going to get to travel to places besides Dublin while I was here! Listed below is my itinerary for upcoming travel dates and destinations:
14-16 October: Belfast and Giant's Causeway
21-23 October: Brussels and Amsterdam
3-11 November: Wales, Scotland
12 November: Wicklow
17-21 November: England
1-4 December: Switzerland
Well, I believe that's all for now!
Sending you some transatlantic love,
Kelli
SCOTLAND!!!!!!!!!
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