Playing Catch-up (Part VIII)

Okay, this is getting ridiculous - I'm in Belfast, and by now I must be a month behind in my blogging! I have so much to write about, so I think I'm going to just blast through the rest of it right now because it's Thursday afternoon and I've got the whole weekend ahead of me. Are you ready?

I'm going to admit that I just spent ten minutes distractedly watching some fake news videos on The Onion. But I'm ready to write now... really. Anyway.

So on to the second weekend in Dublin. Um, I don't know what we did. Most likely we went into the city centre and walked around a whole lot. We probably got lost. Oh, I think we went to the Dublin Writers Museum, which was actually pretty cool. It's housed in an old building on the north side (north of the River Liffey) and features lots of information on the many venerable Irish authors from ancient times to the present. The admission fee (which we were reimbursed for later, score) included one of those recorded tours that you listen to on a vaguely telephone-like apparatus. So we walked around and alternately read plaques about the authors, listened to the recordings, and looked at displays of memorabilia - letters, first editions, typewriters, dress suits... pretty random. Other than that, I don't know that we did anything very exciting.

On Monday we had an all-day field trip to Co. Wicklow. This county is called "the garden of Ireland," and it was easy to see why. We visited Powerscourt Estate, which features a big ol' house, beautiful grounds, and a gorgeous, huge flower garden. We wandered through the grounds for a couple of hours and found a pet cemetary (!), lots of small fountains/pools, a wishing well, and this very fairy tale-esque tower. We we climbed the spiral staircase inside and were rewarded with a gorgeous view of the countryside. Next we went to Glendalough, "the early Christian monastic site...founded in the fifth century, with its seven churches on two lakes." Now, the weather had been beautiful and sunny at Powerscourt but turned rainy and cold at Glendalough. We'd already seen so many round towers and crumbling, ruined churches that I didn't feel too guilty about paying less attention than I might've. But we did have an amusing tour guide who, contrary to other tour guides in Ireland, swore that the round towers could not at all have been used for defense because anybody hiding inside was basically at the mercy of the invaders as the upper-level floors were made of wood - throw in a flame, and you're in a giant firetrap. Kind of makes sense, if you ask me. Anyway, our final stop was at Avondale House, the family home of Charles Stewart Parnell, an absolutely essential figure in nineteenth-century politics. Wikipedia him if you don't know who he is.

On Tuesday we had class, and then a local novelist came and talked to us about contemporary fiction. His name was James Ryan, but none of us had ever really heard of him, and although he was a really friendly guy, what he read aloud from his latest book wasn't too striking. I guess the most interesting thing about him was that he writes about things other authors haven't dealt with; one book is about the experience of an Irish schoolteacher during WWII. Did you know that a whole lot of the Irish people sided with the Germans simply because they were fighting the British? It's true.

We finally wrote our directed reading essay on Wednesday for Connie to show that we did in fact read the books we were assigned before coming to Ireland. So we basically got 4 credits for reading two books and writing a really easy essay about them. Yay. On Thursday we had Declan's class and then heard a lecture about contemporary drama. I felt kind of bad for this young prof who gave the lecture because about a quarter of the class didn't show up, for various reasons; some were leaving for the weekend and others were just lazy. Erm.

Then it was the weekend and again I don't really know what we did. I think we went to the Natural History Museum, which had a wide variety of artifacts from around the globe, not just Ireland. It also housed 6 or so of the bog people, bodies that have been preserved in the bogs for thousands of years. It was so strange to see some of the bodies that were nearly intact, with blackened, shrivelled skin and hair still on their heads. I think I saw Lucy in London when I was there in '04, but these were just really something to look at, especially with Seamus Heaney's bog poetry in mind. Oh, and sometime earlier that week we'd met up with Kate, who goes to St. Olaf and whose younger sister is in our year at Carleton. Kate studied at UCD in the spring and is just living here and sort-of working for the summer. We also met another American, Kate's friend Gabe, who's doing his masters' at Trinity. He's writing about Chaucer, so he was pretty fun to talk to.

Thus began our last week of classes in Dublin! On Monday morning we visited the Irish Film Institute in the city for a dady of modern Irish cinema. As you can imagine, I loved this day. A local film critic spoke for a bit, and then we watched three very different short films. The first, "Zulu 9," was a super intense piece that dealt with illegal immigration in Ireland. It packed an emotional punch, and we were all a bit shocked at the end. Next we watched "Yu Ming is Ainm Dom," which, while also dealing with immigration, was completely lighthearted and told the tale of a Chinese guy who decides, rather arbitrarily, to move to Ireland. He learns Irish and then heads over here, only to discover that English is spoken in most places. He ends up, however, happily living in a gaeltacht (a small completely Irish-speaking community) - a very happy ending. This one had the aesthetic of a Carleton DVDFest film, to be honest. The final short film was called "Six Shooters," and was more along the lines of the first because it was very dark. Basically six people (well, five and a rabbit) die, and then the main guy is going to kill himself, but can't. It's much more involved than that but it's pretty dark. It seemed like it could've been adapted into a feature length film and was pretty well made. Finally we saw "Once," a feature length film that's running the indie circuits and has been quite well recieved at Sundance and the like. It's a cute movie about a Dublin busker who meets an immigrant woman who starts writing lyrics for his song and playing the piano for him... etc. It has some decent music, including one song that was stuck in our heads for weeks afterwards. I liked it because the end was not your typical happy ending - probably because it was an indie film. It's definitely worth a watch. Anyway, we had class in the afternoon, and then went to see an enjoyable performance of "Private Lives" at the Gate Theatre.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, we had class as usual. On Tuesday night, the five of us who'd met up with Kate and Gabe went to Kate's apartment, where they cooked us an amazing vegetarian dinner. They served fresh, organic veggies, pitas, hummus, lentil soup, this delicious almond cous cous dish, roasted vegetables, a goats' cheese-tomato-type salad, a pita & goats' cheese & lentils dish, and then chocolate fondue with fresh fruit and shortbread to dip for dessert. We stayed and talked about lots of things, and had a great night. We also had another free yummy dinner on Wednesday night at our "farewell to Dublin" dinner at a super expensive restaurant. We got three course meals, but personally I thought that the one Kate and Gabe made was superior to this one. :) On Thursday, we wrote our final exam for Declan's "Ulysses" class; he was really easygoing about it and let us basically choose any topic and prepare ahead of time, so it wasn't as stressful as I'd thought it would be.

Then, on Friday, Bonnie and I left for our midterm break in SPAIN! Aaand I think I'll write about that later. Really, I will.