Last night the Irish department had a party, and all of the international Irish language students were invited too. It was the first time I really heard people conversing normally in Irish rather than just inserting well-known phrases into English. For a long time it seemed like Irish was just a dead language that people were trying to revive for cultural identity, but last night I saw how much it could really be used. Students here are required to start learning Irish in primary school, and the people who take the course at university are far more fluent in it than I am in Spanish. They had musicians performing-- a harp, tin whistle, and fiddle-- and the harpist did some Irish step dancing (the first I have seen here!). Lots of different people performed songs in Irish, and our class was roped in to performing several of the songs we had learned. There are many songs that every one seems to know and they all joined in. I'm really glad that I took the class and picked up a bit of the language, although I had almost no idea what people were saying.
I've added pictures from other people's cameras throughout the semester, especially from when I was running out of batteries at the Giant's Causeway.

Thanksgiving

Last week for Thanksgiving a group of us Americans decided to have a big potluck dinner. We brought in extra chairs and silverware and squeezed about ten people around one of the small apartment tables. Everyone had exciting adventures in figuring out how to cook (especially in an oven where the degrees Celsius have almost completely faded) and making do with the ingredients available in Ireland. I had wanted to make cornbread, but there was no cornmeal at any of the 3 grocery stores within walking distance, so I attempted (American) biscuits. I discovered that out oven still smoked even after vigorous cleaning, and set off the fire alarm in my flat. Luckily there was only one other person there and she knew how to call Security to get them to turn it off. So I transfered my half-baked biscuits to another kitchen and they turned out more or less alright. Dinner was great, and we even managed to obtain a big enough turkey at the last minute. We all got sent home with bags full of leftovers.
The Irish students found our dinner very intriguing-- they were astonished by the quantities of food on the counter, and one asked if we exchanged presents. The International Office sent us an email with an American flag featuring a cornucopia containing bananas and oranges.
My classes are starting to wind down. The Tain finished several weeks ago, although we still have a paper to write. Paul has become one of my favorite classes. The professor is brilliant, and the Maynooth students are all terrified of him-- he'll call on people in class and question them on information they learned in first year, two years before. He really makes us think and question our assumptions, and the difference between an Irish Catholic school and my American liberal arts school is emphasized when he starts every class with a prayer. Instead of a final exam I'm writing a 10 page paper on community in 1 Corinthians, and it's one of the few times I'm really exited about researching and writing a paper. Although my Celts class is on interesting subjects and right now we're talking about places I've visited or read about in the Tain, the professor has such a quiet, soothing voice that it's hard to stay focused. I'm doing fairly well in Greek, though I'm getting nervous about having to learn Classical Greek in the span of a month in order to catch up with the second semester class at Williams. The Old Testament and Irish are also good. We've become so proficient in singing "Beidh aonach amarach" that our professor wants to show us off to the head of the department at our Christmas party...

vocabulary

Before coming to Ireland, I was aware that people used different words for things, like biscuit for cookie and jumper for sweater. Here were a few that I hadn't heard before:

duster: chalkboard eraser
press: cupboard
minerals: soda/pop
half eight: half past eight (for the longest time I thought this meant four o'clock)

There are also a few Irish words in common use like Gardai for police. My Irish prof insists that people here say "geansai" for sweater/jumper, but I haven't heard anyone else use it.

Newgrange

On Saturday, I went on a bus tour of the Boyne Valley with another girl from the Butler program. The Boyne Valley is north of Dublin, and it contains all sorts of ancient sites that I didn't realize when I agreed to go on the trip. I have done a fair amount of traveling in Ireland, but so far I had not been to any prehistoric places. It was fascinating to see the locations that have sparked Irish legends. The main attraction is Newgrange, a megalithic passage tomb. It was built in 3000 BC, before the pyramids were built or the Celts arrived in Ireland. The mound contains a passage to a central chamber in which cremated remains were placed. An opening was built to allow light into the chamber only on the winter solstice. Newgrange was constructed of giant rocks weighing several tons, which were probably brought by boat. The rocks were then covered by layers of dirt. We got to go inside the tomb, although we couldn't take pictures. The tomb was originally in complete darkness, so the tour guide turned off the electric lights to demonstrate how the light filtered through on the shortest day of the year. Newgrange was rediscovered but not restored for a few hundred years, and you can see graffiti carved into the rock dated "1822," "1835," and so on. It poured rain the whole day, so it was rather unpleasant to leave the shelter of the tomb. We got back on the bus and headed to Tara, which was the seat of the ancient high kings of Ireland. Our bus driver was friends with a man in a bookshop there, so we all crowded in to his little shop to watch a slide show. We didn't wander around too much on the hill itself since it was getting dark and still raining, but we spent enough time climbing and falling down the mounds and getting thoroughly muddy. We saw the Mound of Hostages, which I had just mentioned in my Celtic Studies paper, and the Royal Seat, on which is the Stone of Destiny where the Irish high king was crowned. St. Patrick was said to have gone to Tara to convince the king to allow him to preach Christianity.
Speaking of Christianity, on the way to the Boyne Valley we stopped at St. Peter's Church in Drogheda where we saw the head of the 17th Century Irish saint Oliver Plunkett preserved in a glass case. I have some pictures from Boyne Valley, but most of them aren't very good because it was so wet.
We're starting to plan Thanksgiving celebrations, but we haven't been able to find pumpkin pie filling and we probably won't have a turkey (they're very expensive here, and most of us prefer chicken anyway).

Northern Ireland Weekend

This past weekend I went with IFSA-Butler to Northern Ireland. We stayed in Belfast and went on a day trip to Derry and the Giant’s Causeway on Friday. I didn’t realize how beautiful the City Centre of Belfast is, especially at night. I tried to take a lot of pictures of the city hall and other buildings all lit up, but a lot of them didn’t turn out. Derry was also very interesting, because I didn’t know much of its history. It is often known as Londonderry, but right now there is a Catholic majority on the city council. Despite being by far the minority, Protestants always managed to be in control of the city, making Derry a prime battlefield in the Troubles. The tour guide told us that Catholic paramilitary groups were always very careful to wait to set off bombs they had planted until the buildings were evacuated, so they never had any casualties. He took us on a tour around the city walls which make Derry the only remaining walled city in Ireland, mostly because the walls were useless—they were too low to protect buildings from cannon fire.
Along the way to the Causeway, we stopped at Dunluce Castle, which is by far the biggest castle I have seen so far. You could also climb pretty much anywhere on it, although you have to be careful of the strong wind and sudden drop-off into the ocean. The Giant’s Causeway was spectacular, but my camera eats batteries and gave out halfway through. I’m hoping to borrow other people’s pictures to post.
The next day I we went on a bus tour of Belfast. It’s easy to forget how recently peace has come to Ireland, even in the Republic, but I was constantly hit with reminders in Belfast. On the tour we passed countless buildings surrounded by barbed wire, and the driver would inform us of the new buildings that can be made of glass now that they don’t have to worry about car bombs. The hotel down the street was bombed the second most out of any buildings in the world. I assumed that in the past decade or so everything had more or less settled down—Belfast is safe, tourism is back and the Protestant and Catholic sides of town get along with few disagreements, but there are still signs of the Troubles. The peace walls to prevent rock-throwing between neighborhoods still stand at the behest of the residents, and more are still being erected. The tour bus couldn’t go down a street on its usual route because of an Orangemen parade, and of course everywhere there were murals glorifying the paramilitary groups of both sides. We wandered around for a while trying to find the house Van Morrison grew up in (one of my friends is a big fan), but everyone was very nice in giving us directions.
Now I'm back to Maynooth for the second half of the semester. My Tain class is finished, which means I have a total of 4 classes on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Tuesdays are a bit ridiculous, with 6 hours of class when I have my tutorial.
I've finally posted more pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/Clara.D.Coughlin/LondonAndNorthernIreland?authkey=VvIxi9K1deY

London and Oxford

I spent most of Study Week in England, visiting friends in London and Oxford. I There were three of us visiting University College London last week, and we had an interesting time all trying to fit on the floor. It was great seeing Williams people again, and talking about crew, which I haven't been able to do in a while. Pam (my JA who now is an intern at the American School in London) joined us for dinner the two nights I was there. We stopped by her flat (getting delicious crepes on the way) and it was amazing and in a really nice neighborhood. The next day she and the other interns were being sent to Rome for a conference. I think I would enjoy working at ASL when I graduate.
During the day we walked around the city, seeing Trafalgar Square, the National Gallery, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Picadilly Circus, and so on. London seems like a very accessible city. I think I more or less have the Underground worked out.
On Thursday morning I took a bus up to Oxford to meet Teia. At the bus station, there was an outdoor market selling all sorts of antiques, so we wandered around for a while. It was kind of surreal running into Williams people again. We passed by some street musicians like there were in Dublin, but then I realized that they were Williams students. The Ephraim Williams House is actually about half an hour's walk away from the main university, so we headed back for the dinner they get each week.
I did a lot of wandering in Oxford, which is a lot bigger than I thought it was. The colleges are all beautiful, and I loved walking along the river. It reminds me of the towpath trail in Ohio. There were lots of people out punting, which was interesting to watch. Apparently almost everyone took up rowing at Exeter.
On Friday I went to a lecture on the supernatural (vampires?) in Hamlet, a play about Voltaire's mistress who wrote significant scientific papers, and the Exeter All Souls' Day service. The chapel at Exeter is gorgeous, and the service was very high church-- lots of incense, etc. It was kind of surreal sitting in the common room at the compound, and it was easy to forget that I wasn't at Williams.
Since my flight was out of Stansted at 6:30 Sunday morning, I had to catch a bus from Oxford at 1 am. It was rather uncomfortable, but at least I got to sleep all day Sunday. This week I have my first real assignments due (2 papers!) before I leave for Northern Ireland on Thursday. I think I like the American system better-- it's easier to be motivated when you've been doing regular assignments and you have a limited amount of time in which to do them.

Aran Islands

I don't have time to post about all of my trip right now, as I have to get ready for a flight to London tomorrow, but the Aran Islands were amazing! I rented a bike and rode to Dun Aonghasa, which is a stone fort on the island. I had no idea how spectacular the views were going to be. I also saw a seal colony, although from far away. This morning I had a very peaceful time before the ferry of day tourists came, and I sat on a rock facing the Atlantic Ocean reading Jane Austen (Mansfield Park was the only book in English in the hostel's library). I even got to practice my Irish with a woman selling postcards. The trips there and back went quite well. I rode on the top of my first double decker bus, and the ride on the ferry over was very bumpy and exciting. I took loads of pictures of my trip, so I put them in a new album: http://picasaweb.google.com/Clara.D.Coughlin/AranIslands?authkey=kemNXWCRkJw
I leave tomorrow afternoon for England. I'm very glad that the time change was yesterday morning here so that I've had a chance to sleep.

Dublin and Delphi

The weekend before last I went to Dublin for the first time and it was a lot of fun. Two girls from IFSA Butler and I took the train on Saturday morning and spent the day walking around the city, mostly shopping. The streets we were on were for pedestrian traffic only, and there were crowds of people walking, looking into shops and streetside vendors, taking pictures, and admiring the street theater. There was a lot of it-- several people dressed up as statues, a man dancing with a mannequin, mimes, traditional Irish musicans, tons of guitarists, and even someone playing the didgeridoo. In the Temple Bar district, everyone was getting ready for the Ireland/Germany football game. Large crowds of people wearing German flags were singing as they marched down the street. That evening we went to see The History Boys as part of the Dublin Theatre Festival before taking the last train home.
This past weekend as part of the Butler program we went to Delphi Adventure Center in Co. Mayo. I have never seen mountains (hills, really) like it before. They are barren and rocky, and seem to spring out of nowhere. In addition to free food, we got to do several activities in and around the Center. I signed up for canoeing, high ropes course, and rock climbing on the indoor wall. For canoeing, we got to wear wetsuits since it was so cold. Apparently they are more effective when wet, so they made us all jump into the lake before setting out. There was a fairly small group of canoers (sp?)-- only four people, three of whom were from Maynooth. We got to paddle around on our own and watch the kayakers try to flip each other. In our boat we practiced standing up and seeing how far we could rock the boat without either of us falling out, and we managed it with only one casualty. The mountains all around the lake were lined with rock walls to keep in the sheep that wandered all the way up to the banks. We experienced the stereotypical traffic jam caused by sheep blocking the road on the way back.
Although I did not do as well on the high ropes course as I have in the past (I only did three out of the six activities) it was a lot of fun. In one place you have to crawl through a wobbly tunnel that has a hole in the middle. The most difficult part was trying to climb out of the tunnel head first at the end while 30 feet in the air. I've discovered that I'm still terrified of heights even after all of my roofing. The rock wall felt a bit safer as I had something to hold on to, but we were all very sore the next morning from trying to push ourselves up to a handhold just out of reach. I have a lot of pictures, and I will try to get some of those up soon.
On the way back from Delphi, we saw a carnival in Maynooth and decided to check it out. We went on the ferris wheel and got a great view of the college. They didn't have elephant ears, but we had a good time.
Next week is "study week" in which we have no classes. I'm planning on going to London on Tuesday to visit with Williams people. For this weekend, I'm traveling to the Aran Islands for two nights. I probably won't be able to fit in a trip to the Cliffs of Moher this time, but I am looking forward to spending some time hiking and taking pictures on Inishmore. I'm taking a 5 hour bus ride from Maynooth to Rossaveal with a stopover in Galway, and then I take a ferry to Inishmore. I'll have all Sunday to explore before making the return journey on Monday, followed by a flight to England Tuesday. I'm hoping my trips will be worth all the time spent traveling.
Classes have become fairly routine, and I think Greek is my favorite. It's relatively easy because the grammar is so close to Latin. We've translated out first bit of the New Testament- the first few verses of the Prologue of John. Irish is entertaining- it's very difficult to pronounce anything properly, and I keep finding myself sticking in phrases in Spanish. We just read A Modest Proposal in The Tain and Satire, and the professor takes the stance that Swift believed everything he wrote about the need to decrease the Catholic population. We haven't had many assignments so far, but things are starting to pick up as papers are due after study week. I'm not particularly looking forward to relearning how to do several hours of work a day for second semester.
The big issue right now is whether I'm actually legally in the country. The man at the police station in charge of immigration has been out sick, while my 30 days was up last Tuesday. I'm not sure if I'll be let back in to the country after Study Week, although I think Customs may have given me 90 days to register. If I stay in England for a few months, you'll know why.

Irish was interesting today. We were learning how to introduce ourselves, and I was paired with another girl named Clara from Germany.
1: I'm Clara. What's your name?
2: I'm Clara.
repeat ad infinitum

I've posted some more photos on Picasa. I went on a tour of South Campus trying to take pictures unobtrusively during everyone's lunch hour. Maybe I'll get a chance to take some of North Campus tomorrow.
Pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/Clara.D.Coughlin/Ireland?authkey=NneSffiDB0A
Map of South Campus: http://www.nuim.ie/location/maps/south.shtml