Picking up where I left off...

Sorry for the hiatus - winter break was short and then spring semester was a sprint the whole way through, but I WILL finish this blog this summer. On with Adventures in Ireland!

The next Monday (October 12, if you're paying attention) was a busy day, the kick-off of a busy week. After my Monday classes, I killed some time in the library and then went to a meeting at Iona to help plan and discuss Jewish Cultural Night and the Jewish Cultural Festival, both of which were to take place that week. Janusz wasn't there and I was told he was sick. I was the only Jew in the room, but Cliona was there, so I wasn't really on my own. I agreed to teach a couple Israeli dances and Cliona volunteered to organize the food preparation. I said that if Janusz couldn't be there, I could teach some Jewish songs too, and promised to get lyric sheets to Richard, one of the people at Iona, as soon as possible. I left the meeting totally jazzed and walked to fencing club planning songs.

Wednesday was Jewish Cultural Night. Janusz still wasn't feeling well, so I was planning on teaching some fairly typical, easy-to-learn songs. I wanted to teach songs in Hebrew and English, religious songs and cultural songs. My final song list consisted of Shalom Rav, Ilu Finu, Heveinu Shalom Aleichem (the one with the shoo-bops and hand motions), Not By Might, and Where Ever You Go, There's Always Someone Jewish (which I admit was more than a little ironic, given the circumstances!). I wanted to teach easy dances so I decided on the clap-clap dance (which I have never known the name of - it's the one where you "carry the pizza") and Od Lo Ahavti Dai.

I made it through classes and RAN home. Technically the festivities were supposed to start a half hour after my last class finished, but I decided to run home, shower, and quickly create the dance music playlist and just meet the group at the synagogue which was right around the corner from where I lived. I finished just in time and dashed to Cork Hebrew Congregation (http://www.corkhebrewcongregation.com/) where I found the group listening to an older gentleman talk about the history of the Jewish community in Cork. Although I disagreed with some of what he said (he was speaking from an Orthodox standpoint and tended to dismiss the Jews in the area who weren't Orthodox), it was really interesting to hear him talk about the rapidly disappearing Jewish community. He wasn't fighting to revive it. It really surprised me - I couldn't imagine a Jewish community in the US that wouldn't fight to continue, he seemed very matter-of-fact about the fact that it seemed likely that there would be no Jews in Ireland in a few generations. But because he wasn't sad, it seemed almost wrong for me to see the situation as sad. His explanations for the migration and population loss were logical and were I in the position that his grandchildren (who were present and around my age) are in, I could see why leaving would make sense.

From the talk, we all headed back to Iona for the festivities to truly begin. The food Cliona had organized and prepared along with the kosher and non-kosher wine that had been procured was being passed around for everyone to sample. Hummus, falafel balls, matzah, cholent and cookies were all available for people to try. After it had quieted down, I began teaching songs. Everyone was very enthusiastic - the song sheets I had made had transliteration and translation so even for the songs in Hebrew, everyone could understand what they were singing. The musicians helped, quickly picking up Ilu Finu. By the time we were done singing, at least a third had left - but since we started with probably 30 or so, there were still enough left to teach some dances too. The clap-clap song was a smash hit, although by the time we tried Od Lo Ahavti Dai, I think most people were too distracted and a little too drunk too pay much attention. I had convinced some Butler people and one of my flatmates to come, so it was really fun. If you're on Facebook, check out this video of the evening: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/video/video.php?v=504683126442&subj=746811962.

After leaving Iona, I met up with a couple other friends, because Sophie's dad was in town. I hung out there for a little while and then headed home, completely satisfied with the evening and absolutely wiped out.

Getting into the swing of things

By October 5th, I was getting the hang of this whole Cork thing. That Monday, I went to fencing club for the first time. I was totally nervous - I hadn't picked up a blade since my foot surgery the previous November - and I KNEW that inevitably I'd do a million things wrong. Lucky for me, it was still early enough in the semester that tons of people were showing up, which meant that I was able to avoid doing any actual sword-work that day. Instead, after warm-up I did lots and lots of footwork and coordination drills. For me, this was excellent - a chance to get my feet advancing and retreating again without worrying about swords, and a chance to get back into the level of concentration that's supposed to be maintained in fencing. I did fairly well in the coordination and reflex drills and knew that I needed to work on my footwork (at least some things are consistent across sport-lines - I never wanted to move in tennis either!). It was lots of fun and best of all, one of the girls from my early start class was there, so I wasn't entirely alone!

Tuesday was supposed to be Chorale Society, but I had to skip it - having missed an IFSA dinner while on Inis Meaín, I definitely wanted to go to this one, since it would be my first opportunity to meet Maria, our new advisor. Unfortunately, I ran a little late and ended up sitting at the opposite end of the table. It was nice though - I sat with some of the IFSA kids who didn't do early start, who I had not yet had the opportunity to meet. I also sat with two of the early start girls I didn't see very often, so it was nice to catch up. I heard all about their adventures at Oktoberfest, which made me glad I hadn't gone, since they had been so excited about it and had had such a miserable experience.

On Thursday, I again had lunch with Hope - we had figured out that our schedules worked out really well for meeting up for lunch on Thursdays and it was a nice way for me to start my weekend.

Friday, I found myself again on campus, even though I didn't have class. I was meeting Janusz (and Cliona, though I didn't know that yet!) for coffee to talk about the Jewish Cultural Night and Jewish Cultural Festival that Iona (the chaplaincy on campus) was holding the following week. I had met Janusz at the Society Fair, but was nonetheless surprised to actually hear from him. We talked about ways for both Cliona and I to get involved (she was going to help organize and cook and I was going to teach a couple Israeli dances and maybe a song or two), but eventually we ended up talking about the Jewish community in Cork and community feeling towards Jews and Israel in Ireland. Now, it's important for me to mention that Janusz, who's from Poland, isn't Jewish, even though he was organizing both the Evening and the Festival and Cliona, who's actually from Cork, is planning on converting, and currently learning Hebrew. Technically, I was the only Jewish person there. Janusz plays klezmer music, which is how he got involved - he had actually started the festival the previous year and he told us about how he didn't know what would happen to it when he leaves, since what little Jewish community exists at UCC isn't very involved. Cliona and Janusz also talked about the bias they felt Irish media exhibited when discussing Israel - Janusz in particular compared it to coverage in Poland and the States, where they both considered media was more neutral. We ended up talking for a couple hours and I really enjoyed myself - I was definitely looking forward to the events.

Yom Kippur and the rest of that week

Monday I woke up, having decided that I would try to fast. Normally, it's not a big deal, but because I walk about a 5k on Mondays just going to and from classes PLUS set dance and step dance classes, I didn't want to faint or anything trying to fast. I wasn't comfortable skipping classes to go to services, so I decided to try to make 'it 'til at least I got home from classes, at which point, I could see how I was feeling. I made it through classes ok, though I was drinking water.

I went to closing services that night along with one of my flatmates. Again, we went up to the balcony and sat through services. It was really interesting - the man who at home would be the president of the synagogue (I don't know if he has an official title here) spoke during services about the future of their congregation - basically, that they didn't have one. He spoke of a day, not far in the future, when they would no longer have the money to turn on the lights, when they would no longer have even HHD services. What was so shocking to me was the way he spoke of this: as an inevitable fact, sad, but not something that could or even should be fought. I couldn't - and still can't - imagine the Jewish community back home being so accepting of this, but here in Cork, it was simply a sign of the times, of people moving on and leaving for better places. Since Yom Kippur, I've learned more about local opinion towards Jews, which in Ireland, is intimately connected to feelings on Israel. A lot of media attention here comes down in condemnation, at least to some extent of Israel, probably due to Ireland's awareness of its own history. What the man was basically saying was, how could they expect their children or grandchildren to remain in a community where they couldn't be among other Jews and live Jewishly? It seems obvious, but where I would expect people to stand up and fight for their right to stay, the Jews in Cork don't seem to feel a need to encourage the young people to come back - rather, they seemed to encourage them to go forth and live where there were greater opportunities. To me, the whole situation seemed very sad - as though I were witnessing the death of a community, which, I could have been.

Tuesday was the first meeting of Chorale Society, which many of my Copley Court friends and I were planning to get involved in. At rehearsal, we worked our way through 3 songs, one of which was a liturgical Latin piece and another of which was a choral arrangement of Lady Gaga's "Pokerface" - clearly, this was not a group run by Mr. Pressman! It was lots of fun, and we were all excited to be involved - the Christmas concerts in particular sounded like a blast!

Wednesday, I got home from classes and got a call about a movie party. I'm pretty much always game for movie parties and since it was still early, I figured I could go and still get to sleep at a reasonable hour. Of course, I had forgotten that when movie parties also involve having to choose a movie, they don't always start right away. Eventually, Across the Universe was chosen and everyone agreed NOT to sing through the whole thing (half the room was thrilled that the other half wouldn't be singing, the other half seemed somewhat put-out, but oh well), since I still hadn't seen it. We finally started watching the movie, which was truly beautiful, but seemed rather jumbled plot-wise. I got about part-way through before I realized I really should go back to my room and go to sleep. I still haven't seen the whole thing, so don't tell me what happens!

Thursday was sort of a landmark day for me. I had been hanging out almost exclusively with IFSA-Butler people up 'til now, but on Thursday, I went to lunch for the first time with Hope and Quinn, two of my flatmates. I can be kind of shy, to say the least, so it meant a lot that they asked me to come with them and seemed to really want me to go (Note that this was about 2 months ago and sounds rather ridiculous to me now, but that was then, this is now, etc.). I had a lot of fun and felt much less like the awkward youngest kid in the flat (which is only fair, since I'm not quite the youngest). Yay for flat bonding!

Friday, I had asked Kathryn to go with me to pick up my shoes for step class. She and Samm had gone together on Wednesday while I was in class. First, though, I had to print out my papers for Early Start that were due. Kathryn had classes Friday morning, so I was planning to go to campus to print out and turn in the papers while she was in class, so we could stop to pick up the shoes on the way home. As always when technology is involved, things didn't go quite to plan. I got to campus on time (having finished writing my papers that morning), but the first computer I tried to log in on didn't have a working mouse. Fine. I tried another computer, but it took me LITERALLY 20 minutes to log in and then wouldn't let me print out. I tried a third computer and it finally let me print. I was now running behind schedule and I had to find a stapler. I had forgotten that I would need to staple my pages after printing them out and, unfortunately, had left my mini-stapler (which usually lives in my purse specifically for occasions like these) in Los Angeles. I called Kathryn to explain why I was running a few minutes late - and naturally, her class had gotten out early. Lucky for me, it was a beautiful day and Kathryn was reading outside and in no rush. Relieved that for the moment nothing was irrevocably ruined, I dashed to the shop on campus and bought a mini-stapeler, stapled my papers, and dropped them off at Mary Breen's office. With the papers done, I had nothing to worry about related to Early Start until the final exam, which was still a couple weeks away. (In case you were wondering, one of the papers was an adaptation of my blog entries about Inis Meaín and the other was about the subversion of genre in two of the Irish films we watched in class.) It was all done, and I could finally go pick up my step shoes.

We got to the store without a problem. I wasn't sure which size I would need, so I tried on one size which seemed rather large to me and the salespeople. Unfortunately, they didn't have the next smaller size, but they said they could get it from another store if I would just wait 10 minutes, which I agreed to do, telling Kathryn that she didn't have to stay if she had things to do. She didn't so we just hung out looking at the other shoes in the store as we waited for the smaller size to arrive. When it did, of course, that size was too small, so I ended up getting the bigger size - which was the biggest size you could get and still pay the cheaper price for the smaller pair. Finally, a real benefit for being unfairly short - I saved 5 euros!

On my own...the weekend!

Thursday I had no class. That night, Iona was hosting Folk Music Night - basically, a group of people were meeting to go listen to music at An Spailpin Fanach (pronounced Ahn Shpallpeen Fahnak). Kathryn, Emma (one of my flatmates), and I all decided to walk to Iona to meet up with the group, rather than just meeting everyone at the pub (which was closer to Copley Court than Iona) because we wanted to meet people and we KNEW that if we just showed up, we'd end up hanging out amongst ourselves.

When we got to Iona, there were already about a dozen people there. We shmoozed for a few minutes and then began walking to the pub. I met another girl named Kathryn who seemed really nice, her friend Gina, and a guy named Tim. We all found seats together and talked through the first band's set. The second band was louder, which made it harder to talk. By then, the rest of our friends from Copley had shown up and gotten a table together. At the end of the second act, I was told that they were going to get ice cream. I love ice cream - it's nearly impossible for me to turn down, so I said goodbye to my new friends and left to go look for Eddie Rocket's.

We went in completely the wrong direction - Eddie Rocket's was only a block or two from where we were but we wandered all over until we finally got to the right place. (Eddie Rocket's is the European branch of Johnny Rocket's like TJ Maxx and TK Maxx.)Anyways, so the group of us all enjoyed our American experience and then finally headed home.

The next day, Friday, I also didn't have classes (but unlike Thursday, when I normally do have classes, Friday I truly have no classes). My Copley Court friends were planning a White Russian/Mule party, but then we heard that Culture Night was that night, so the party got pushed back. Culture Night is a Europe-wide project to make culture available to citizens for free. It sounded very cool and, I figured, even if it wasn't, I could always leave. A group of us left Copley Court. First we went to watch a book being made, but we couldn't get inside and not everyone was as willing to peep through windows and watch, so we went to the Butter Museum. Yes, you did read that correctly and no, I am not kidding. Cork has a museum all about butter because Cork, once upon a time, was the center of butter sales in Ireland and Ireland produces a lot of dairy. The butter market was a big deal back in the day and now there's a museum that you can visit for 5 euros normally - except on Culture Night it was free! Obviously, this was an opportunity not to be missed. From there, we checked out some dance classes (but didn't participate because they had already started) and went to look at one of the many beautiful churches in Cork - I think it was St. Anne's. At that point, most everyone left and Kathryn and I continued on to the Glucksman Gallery (on UCC's campus) where everything was '80s themed. We put on costumes and took pictures and looked at the art and danced around to the fantastically, awesomely bad music that made up much of the '80s. It was excellent fun, but we were getting tired and knew that if we didn't go home soon, there would be no mules or White Russians left to drink! We turned around and headed home.

Once we were back at Copley, I went to my apartment and made dinner quickly and brought my dinner up to the party apartment. I just barely made it back in time to get a drink and then we all hung out for a couple hours and goofed off. An excellent start to the weekend!

Since I went to sleep so late that night, I slept in the next day and did nothing more exciting than watch Shakespeare in Love with Sophie. :) Shakespeare is ALWAYS a good way to spend an evening, as far as I'm concerned.

Sunday was Kol Nidre and I nervously went to services by myself to the one synagogue in Cork. It's Orthodox but because there are so few Jews in Cork, they ship in people from Chabad in London and elsewhere so that they have a minyan (Jewish quorum - in Orthodoxy, there must be 10 Jewish men present). This means that rather than the services being Modern Orthodox, they were Chabad-style. I sat in the balcony with the other women, which was definitely a new experience for me. I knew going in that I'd be sitting apart, but I expected to be indignant on some level, and I was surprised when I wasn't. It was all so matter-of-fact, that there was nothing to get upset about, almost. Looking back, I'm still kind of confused about it, but I'm definitely glad that I experienced it.

The services were no longer than the services I was used to, which surprised me a little bit. After all, they were Orthodox - surely their services would be super-intense and long? They weren't though, and I quickly figured out why. The prayers were said super-fast (much like when certain cousins of mine read prayers!) and there was very little pause for music in the way that I was used to. The whole service was efficient - there were no English readings, there was no extraneous music - after all, there were no instruments and few people, so there was no way to produce the highly musical services with which I was brought up. It was definitely different and I was left feeling unsatisfied - there just wasn't enough awe for the Days of Awe for me. I wonder if that's because Orthodox Jews are simply more accustomed to praying and so the whole experience of praying was in some way demystified, in a way that it's not for more liberal denominations. Whatever the reason, I just didn't get the approach to praying that they used: it didn't work for me, but I was glad I went, because I really feel like I learned a lot. It was really interesting to hear some of the same nusach (the musical mode of a service) as used at home and made the whole experience feel a little less foreign.

The Rest of Mom and Steph's Trip!

Tuesday, I woke up right on time so I had plenty of time to get ready, but I ended up going too slowly and had to run to the bus station - but I still got there first, so it was ok. Grabbed breakfast at the station with Mom and Steph and then we all got on the bus. I spent that ride showing off my pictures of Ireland so far. We got to Killarney in about an hour and a half and were picked up by the tour company. After a brief stop to pick up another party, we went to the tour company building and all got on the bus.

At this point, I'd love to tell you all about how much I learned about Kerry, but I think by now, you know me well enough to know that I have difficulty staying awake. Needless to say, it was a rather restful tour of the Ring of Kerry, broken by photo ops, a stop at a recreated famine-town, and a lunch stop. The only things I really remember from the tour are that the purple flowers everywhere were heather and the yellow ones were gorse, that shamrocks and four-leaved clovers are different, that the "luck of the Irish" is an American thing, and that the sheep have colored blotches on their fleece to mark ownership.

Once we got back to Killarney, Mom and Steph wanted to walk around for a while so we did - in the process, going in different locations of the same store (Quills, I think) 4 or 5 times. (Incidentally, I just saw one of the same stores in Cork, so now I really feel like it was a waste, but whatever lol.). Mom said we were working our way back to the bus station, but when Steph and I decided to ask someone where the bus station was, it turns out we had been moving away from the station, so we started walking back. We passed some lovely homes on the way and tons of B&Bs. We got back to the station with plenty of time to spare, so we looked at the hotel that was next door (it was VERY cool, lots of red and purple velvet, really interesting light fixtures, beautiful floral arrangements - I forget what it's called or I'd link to the website so you could see it) and walked around the mall that was attached to the bus station. Everything was closing, but we got there in time to grab some of the discount dried fruit that they were selling, which was very exciting.

Finally the bus was ready to leave. I think I fell asleep for the bus ride home. We decided to go to this vegetarian restaurant Cafe Paradiso for dinner, but when we got there and looked at the menu, nothing really appealed to me. I'm normally really easy (it's true, I'm not just saying that), but the menu there was really just not for me. By this point, Steph was feeling rather run down and thought she might be getting sick, so she decided to take a cab back to the hotel, where she could get soup and go to sleep. Mom and I ended up back at Liberty Cafe, ordering the same thing we had had the previous evening. We again arranged to speak a little later and then Mom took a cab back to the hotel and I walked home.

Looking at my schedule, I realized that I really had to be on campus Wednesday. Even though I only had one class, I had a meeting for the English department and the Club Fair, plus I wanted to try to register for the seminar. Regretfully, I told Mom that she and Steph would have to go to Kinsale without me - I had to go to school.

Next day, I got up and walked to meet Mom and Steph for breakfast at their hotel. I might not have been able to sightsee, but I could still see them for part of the day! Their hotel did a lovely buffet and then, with their stuff for the day in hand and my backpack on, we walked to campus, which they had not yet seen. I walked them around the main campus, showed them the President's garden, the quad, and the Student Center. The one thing I was most excited to show them was Honan Chapel, and, lucky for me, it was open when we went by. Needless to say, they both LOVED it. The sunlight streamed through the stained glass and everything just looked magical.

After the mini-tour, I said goodbye and went off to find my class, while Mom and Steph went off on their day trip. The building was easy enough to find, but the classroom was rather less so. I had plenty of time though, and found it in soon enough. I saw several people I knew, including Cara, who had been one of my housemates on Inis Meain. After class, I told her about going to register for the seminar class and she decided to go with me, but when we got to the right building, even though we had gotten there within 15 minutes of registration starting, there were already hundreds of people there. After spending about 15 minutes trying to figure out what we needed to do, we both decided to throw in the towel. I met some friends for lunch and then went to the English department meeting. It was very boring and I fell asleep, but Mary Breen was holding the meeting, so I didn't worry too much. When the meeting ended, I went up to her to ask about the seminar class and she said she'd look into it for me, and that I should check in with her on Friday.

With that hope in my mind, I went home to hang out and clean up. I was to meet Mom and Stephanie at this restaurant called Jacob's on the Mall for dinner and they said it was nice so I couldn't just go in my school clothes. I would like it noted that while I was a minute or two late for dinner, I would NOT have been if the restaurant were more clearly marked (the same thing happened when I tried to go again a month later, as you'll see whenever I get around to writing about that.). The restaurant was very cool: bright blue and red furniture with light brown bricks and white washed walls. Art hung from the walls and trees hung in planters suspended from the high ceilings. The food was delicious and we had lots of fun.

After dinner, we went to Clancy's, a local bar, to listen to some traditional music. Unfortunately, because there was a game on, the band didn't start on time and Steph decided to head back early. Mom and I shared an apple crumble-thing and listened to music for a while before becoming too tired. We said goodnight and goodbye and then Mom hopped in a cab and I walked home. They were to leave early the next morning so it was the final goodbye. It was a wonderful visit - I'm so glad they were able to come! - but now that they were gone, I would be really able to throw myself into life in Cork and student activities.

Details, details, details: Friday, Sept. 18th - Monday, Sept. 21st

Yes, I'm even further behind. I know. A regular blogger, I am not, but here it is - the LONG awaited update! Rather than making you wait longer for a giant update, here is a few days' worth while I work on the next bit!

September 18th, I got up and promptly began running late. Clearly, running behind is something of a chronic condition with me - one might even call it congenital, since I was actually born 5 days after my due date - but it was ok that I was late Friday, because there was really only one thing I had to do that day: go to the Academic Walkabout. Now, I really didn't know what the academic walkabout was, but my teacher Mary Breen recommended it very highly.

Turns out, the Academic Walkabout was a lot like the fair they have at IU during Welcome Week for the College of Arts and Sciences: little booths for each department where visiting students and new students can ask questions about classes and expectations. Useful, but not something that took up very much time. After 45 minutes, I'd talked to everyone there that I needed to, asked all the questions I had come up with, and was very ready to leave - the room was packed and hectic and I just wanted to go back to sleep (surprise, surprise).

I spent the rest of that day and part of Saturday working on figuring out my schedule for the semester. This was a harder task than expected because the class schedules work so differently here than they do at home. Whereas at home you might have an English class 10-10:50 MWF and a history class TuTh 2:15-3:30, here in Ireland, just you might have a class start at 2:00 on Monday and the same class again on Tuesday at 4:00. There is no consistency in the timing of classes or even of the classrooms, which makes keeping track of what class you have next or where that class is being held rather more complicated than it is at home. (My friends and my own confusion about our schedules continued far later into the semester than it would at home too - just this past week, I almost texted Sophie to ask whether our class started at 12 or 1 before remembering that she had texted me with the EXACT SAME QUESTION last week and I had known the answer then so I should know it now - 1 o'clock.) As far as I knew, I was allowed to take 30 UCC credits (equal to about 15 IU credits) and that academic class was worth 5 credits, but what to take?? I am somewhat notorious for getting overly excited when planning out my semester schedule, so I was very serious in making my decisions.

The first thing I did was pull up an Excel spreadsheet template I made when I started college with all the class times and days plotted out. Each semester I save a copy as Fall (or Spring) 2009 (or whatever year is is). As I select classes, I plug them into my sheet to check for overlaps and commute problems. Given the randomness of the class times here, this was super-important and helped me spot all kinds of potential problems in my schedule.

Eventually, my class schedule was semi-decided. I registered online for my two classes in the music school. I was very excited about them - a couple of my friends were also going to be taking them and apart from that, they just sounded like fun. Who wouldn't want to take Irish Step Dancing (think Riverdance for complete beginners) and Irish Set Dancing (basically Irish square dancing)?? I was also going to take Celtic Literature through the Celtic Civilization dept. (looking at the major myth and saga cycles in Irish tradition), Literatures in Modern Ireland (with part of the class focusing on the development of the Irish theatre and part looking at stories and things - I think, we haven't gotten to that part yet!), and European Imperialism 1450-1750 (guess what that's about?). I really wanted to take a seminar called Fallen Angels: Depictions of Satan in Text and Art, but I wasn't sure if I was allowed to yet, so I picked a different class that I could take in case the seminar didn't work out. I was really hoping for the seminar though, because the class size for seminars is never more than 15 people and the class itself is worth two classes, so if I couldn't take it, I'd be under 30 credits even with the other class I'd picked.

There was nothing else I could do though, since it was the weekend and offices were closed so Sunday I put aside all my scheduling craziness to join everyone in town (literally all of Cork) in cheering on "our" team in the GAA finals against Kerry. My friends and I, all in our Cork red and white, left Copley Court around 1:30 to find a pub where we could all sit down and watch the game. Our first few attempts were unsuccessful, but eventually we made it to Art McBrides, which was still fairly empty, since the game didn't start 'til around 3:30. Now, before coming to Cork, the one pub I had decided I HAD to go to was called the Thirsty Scholar. Upon arriving in Cork, I learned that the Thirsty Scholar had unfortunately been renamed Art McBrides(I still don't know why). We grabbed a table big enough for all of us (I think we were 8 that day) and settled in with our pints. Shortly before the game started, we made a run to pick up sandwiches, but besides that, we all watched the game the whole time. All except for me - because even though it was noisy in the pub, what with the Cork supporters cheering on our boys and the Kerry invaders cheering on their team, I fell asleep at the pub.

Despite our earnest cheering, the Kerry supporters overpowered us, as did their team. With the game over, we split up. Some went back home while others of us decided to check out the céilidh (pronounced KAY-lee) that was supposed to take place. A céilidh is basically a set dance/traditional music extravaganza-thing. After waiting around for about 40 minutes in the cold, only to learn that it wasn't going to start for another 40 minutes however, we called it a day and went home. School started the next day and we didn't want to be late!!

Monday morning, I woke up, got dressed and dashed off to Literature in Modern Ireland. I got off to a great start: I wasn't late, I knew where the building was, and Sophie was in my first class. Less great was the fact that the instructor didn't show up and after half an hour, we all left. This turned out to be a VERY good thing because although I left right away to get to step dancing, I only got there with ten minutes to spare. Here is a map of Cork with my route to school from Copley Court and from school to the music school where the dance classes are held back-to-back: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=Ireland+(Copley+Court+Student+Village)&daddr=Donovan+Rd+to:122+Sunday%27s+Well+Rd,+Cork,+Ireland+(St.+Vincents)&hl=en&geocode=FWnbFwMdLs9-_yGA6E5Qga2IzQ%3BFe_TFwMdHnd-_w%3BFZXsFwMdPnN-_yG3FFTBB7VuPA&mra=pr&dirflg=w&sll=51.896754,-8.48917&sspn=0.015333,0.045447&ie=UTF8&ll=51.896754,-8.475523&spn=0.015333,0.045447&z=15. The map won't show my actual route to the music school because it doesn't have the walking path and walking bridge that I take on it, but the distance traveled is equivalent. Suffice to say, it's a twenty minute walk that I have 5 minutes to do every Monday. Except for that first Monday, I have been 15 minutes late every week. Luckily, Peggy, who teaches both dance classes, also offers an optional 1-hour class after set dancing (which is immediately after step dancing) for going over material. She said that as long as I stay for that (which my friends and I all do anyways because we need the help!), she doesn't mind my being late.

Anyways, so I muddled my way to the music building, found the classroom and we immediately began dancing. No easing us in for Peggy! We all decided that as long as Peggy can dance and teach dance for three hours, we should be able to dance for three hours. She is a little old woman (easily in her late 70s and probably older) who always wears the same dress made out of royal blue fabric with green gemstones depicted in the fabric. She's adorable and we all love her to bits - we just wish she'd teach slower!

Step dancing was unlike anything I remember doing (although I'm assured by my family that I did take tap at one point and I vaguely remember being told to put my tap shoes on outside so I didn't scratch the floors inside), but set dancing was much easier going. Where step dancing is all about placement and finesse, set dancing is all about having fun and just getting the basic steps right - a welcome break between our first hour of step dancing and our extra class, usually step dancing too.

From dance, I walked back to campus to meet Sophie for lunch before my next class, European Imperialism.... Finally, a normal first day of class: we got handed reading lists, went over expectations, and summarized the material that we were to learn. Best of all, we were let out early - something I normally object to (if I am paying for an hour of class, I want to be taught for an hour, not 40 minutes!), but since I was still feeling grubby from dance, I wasn't going to complain!!

After class (which my flatmate Teddy was also in), I walked home, anxious to take a shower and clean up before meeting my mom and her best friend Stephanie, who were arriving in Cork that day to visit for a few days. Mere moments after walking in the door, my cell phone rang. It was my mom, telling me to come over to their hotel. There was just one problem - I was sweaty and gross, had just gotten home, and their hotel was right by campus!! I did NOT want to walk all the way back up the hill to campus either sweaty as I was or after showering. After I explained the situation to them, my mom and Stephanie decided to walk to town where I would meet them after quickly cleaning up.

Naturally, rather than meeting them where I was supposed to, I ran a little bit late and met up with them right near my building. They were carrying a shopping bag full of goodies for me (dried apricots, Throat Coat, my favorite kind of cough drops, and other anti-sickness things), so I suggested going by my flat to drop off my stuff, so they could see where I was living. Both were pleasantly surprised by how nice our building is and neither were surprised by the.... disorder of my room, shall we say?

From there, I took them all over City Centre. We went to the English Market and to Tesco's (the regular market). We walked up and down the little streets, browsed at the boutiques and had a lovely time, but I was getting hungry. The concierge at their hotel had told them about a restaurant on Washington St. called Liberty Grill that was supposed to be good, so we went there for dinner. Steph got a salad off the menu, mom got a salad that she ordered specially, and I got chicken - and everything was delicious. Mom was so excited about the salad dressing that came with her special salad that she asked for, and received, the recipe.

After dinner, we split up, still unsure quite what we'd be doing the next day. Mom and Steph walked back to their hotel to discuss options with the concierge and I went home. After giving them some time to work everything out, I called them and we decided to go on a Ring of Kerry tour the next day. Although I hate skipping class, they were only going to be in Cork for a little while and I wanted to make the most of it. We agreed to meet at the bus station the next morning to catch the bus to Killarney, where the tour began. We had a big day ahead of us!

September 16th, continued...

Sophie, Elle and I continued to walk. I was falling behind and looking at every little thing that caught my attention. This is fairly typical of me when I walk - if I'm not running late somewhere, chances are I'm not moving very quickly because I'm stopping to examine whatever has caught my attention. Anyways, I guess I fell into an unconscious pattern because I started humming and then found myself singing - at which point Elle turned around to ask if I was in fact singing. She seemed rather bemused, but I always sing when I walk - particularly if I'm alone. Walking around campus in Bloomington or to temple at home, I'm almost always found with my iPod on, singing along. Like talking with my hands, it's something I don't really notice when I'm doing it.

Eventually, our little train ended up by the shore. We found a pseudo staircase to take us down to the beach and descended. Sophie waded into the water, since she was wearing her rainboots. I hung back. The ocean and I, well, we're not exactly best buddies. I think it's a combination of being knocked over by waves too many times as a child and unpleasant memories of being covered in sand after a day at the beach. I was perfectly content to just take pictures of Sophie playing in the little waves and Elle looking for seashells. It was a beautiful beach: all rocks, but smooth, not jagged like back home, just shelves of limestone, I think. The water was clear and genuinely blue, the sun was shining, and I don't think any of us could quite believe that we were in Ireland, land of rain and clouds.

After hanging out there for a while, we continued to meander on the coast, drawing ever closer to the illusive windmills. We clambered over rocks and boulders for what felt like forever - though we ALL agreed that we'd rather climb over rocks than have to avoid the rather giant piles of manure we'd dealt with on the paths earlier that day. Once we reached the windmills, we all agreed that we wanted to head back. We'd walked all day and were just wiped out. The problem was, since we were no longer on a path, we didn't have an obvious route to get back to town. The windmills were in a pasture of their own, but we were reluctant to walk through it, since we weren't sure how safe that would be. We just had to keep on walking 'til we found a path.

About 15 minutes later, we saw a man playing with his dog - and the road where he'd parked his car! Surely the road the car had taken would get us back to a place we'd recognize enough to find our way home. We set off. After a while, we heard voices behind us. Sound on the island travels really far - if a dog barked, we had no way of knowing if it was the dog down the street or clear across the island. There was just no noise - too few cars to produce much sound pollution and nothing else that would. Ever the sucker and too curious for my own good, I turned around. Two girls were behind us, waving. Naturally, I couldn't tell who they were, but Elle could. The girls were from our class, but they weren't exactly our favorite people. It would have been rude to keep walking and ignore them, so we stopped and waited for them to catch up with us. As our enlarged group continued to walk, they told us about their experience so far and we told them how much we were enjoying ourselves - how Moira was so sweet and the house was lovely, etc.

Eventually, we came to a fork in the road. A hill stood between us and a clear view of the rest of the island, so we didn't know which way to go. My contribution to the decision making consisted solely of a rather lame allusion along the lines of, two roads diverged, and I took the one less traveled. Unfortunately, as Sophie said, neither looked particularly well-traveled. After all, it's not like there's a lot of traffic there! Sophie wanted to go the smaller pathway and the other girls wanted to go on the paved road. I was feeling pretty well-oriented and thought that the paved road would take us closer to where we wanted to be - and I was tired enough by then to just want to get back and take a little nap before dinner - but I didn't like the idea of Sophie going on the other way alone. Clearly Minnesinger trips had instilled in me the value of traveling with a buddy. She insisted she'd be fine, though, and told me I should go the other way, if I wanted, so I gave her my cell phone to have so that she could call Elle when she got back or if she needed to reach us or anything and then we split up.

We walked for maybe another 20 minutes before coming to the main road, at which point Elle and I left the other two girls to make their way to the house they were staying at while we went back to Moira's. Once back, I made use of the slightly sketchy shower downstairs and promptly pulled on pjs and fell asleep after only reading a few pages of Tarry Flynn.

Dinner that night was roast lamb with boiled potatoes and steamed carrots and soup, plus the ever-present brown bread, butter and jam. Knowing what I knew about the chickens, I couldn't help but think about the sheep we'd seen earlier, but oddly enough, this didn't disturb me as much as I thought it would. The sheep I had seen were outdoors in their pastures, soaking in the sunshine and generally living a pretty good life. It seemed to me that it was a more honorable way to eat meat than simply to buy it at the supermarket, without giving a thought to how it got there or where it came from.

After dinner, we all departed for the pub. Our last night on the island, we were determined to go out and meet locals - but that just didn't happen. Instead, our class showed up in bits and pieces and mixed and mingled with each other, to the consternation of everyone else at the pub who was trying to watch the soccer game on tv. Oh well. I think we all had a good time - we played random drinking games and card games and eventually we all went home and fell asleep. After walking all day, I don't think there was a single one of us who wasn't exhausted.

The next morning, there seemed to be a feeling of some urgency among the seven of us in our house. We had to see everything - we were leaving that afternoon, so we were running out of time. Straightaway after breakfast, we headed over to the knitwear factory, but the shop wasn't closed. Inis Meaín, we had heard, was famous for it's woven products and we all wanted a souvenir. Since it wouldn't open for several hours, we decided to go see the fort. The other four girls had been told at the general store that the only way to get there was to go through the pastures so over the fence we went.

When we got to the fort, we encountered a small problem. We couldn't see anyway in, besides the rather scary looking almost-staircase. We tried walking around the fort, but we couldn't get all the way around before the path dropped off. Up the staircase appeared to be the only way in from where we were. We went up carefully one by one. At the top of the stairs, we had to climb a small wall to get to the top of the fort. It wasn't exactly safe (not exactly dangerous either, don't worry, anyone), but we didn't have any problems and we did manage to get in the fort, which was all that really mattered to us at the time. Once inside, we could see the actual entrance on the opposite side of the fort. We just sat around in the sun (the weather was beautiful that day) and explored the fort (which looked more like an amphitheater than anything else). When we decided to head back, we went out the real exit in the company of an older Irish gentleman who had arrived at the fort some time after us. He too was visiting Inis Meaín for the first time. We wandered back to Moira's.

At that point, the 7 of us split back up again, This time, Sophie stayed at the house to hang out, Elle, Margaret and I went back to the factory, and the other three girls wandered off. We got there a few minutes too early, but shortly afterwards, a woman arrived and opened the shop. Everything there was beautiful, but very expensive (if you want to look for yourselves, this is their website: http://www.inismeain.ie/en/knitting/products.html ). Everything was soft and warm. The fabric colors were all rich and earthy. We wandered around, finally noticing three boxes on the floor. The boxes contained the mistakes: articles of clothing that were in some way defective. I have enough shoppers in my family to know what that means - discounts. Sure enough, I found two hats that were perfectly fine for my purposes, one of which I bought (green) and the other, Margaret bought (grey). A bargain to be proud of: €5 instead of €25!

We got back in time for lunch. Egg salad, jam and butter, brown bread and white bread, leftover chicken... I don't even remember all that was on the lunch table that day! Our last chocolate tea cake was carefully cut into seven pieces and eaten. We lingered over our last cup of tea. No one really wanted to leave - although i'm sure I wasn't alone in feeling that if we had stayed much longer, I would have gone stir crazy from lack of activities. We packed up our stuff and walked back to the pier, caught the ferry and got back on the bus. After dropping off some of the class, who had decided to spend the weekend in Galway, the bus continued, stopping only for a brief dinner in Dublin before finally dropping us off back in Cork late that night. I was tired, but glad to be home.