Aran Islands

This weekend, I went to Galway and the Aran Islands with my friends Dylan and Zak. Friday night we stayed at the apartment of Dylan's friend in Galway. We got up early Saturday to get tickets to the Aran Islands. For the price of 36 Euro, we got roundtrip bus rdes to the ferry, ferry to Inis Mor, and a night in the Kilroan Hostel on the island. The Hostel was at Kilronan, the main town on the island and where the ferry lets off.

The Aran Islands are part of the Gaeltacht, the parts of Ireland where Irish is still the local language. For the first time, I actually heard people in casual conversation using Irish. Inis Mor, the largest of the three islands, is about nine miles long and two miles wide. For 10 euro, we rented bikes for the day and explored.



We headed out down the main road for a few miles before coming to a spot where we sat, rested, and took in the beautiful surroundings. The ground on the island was completely covered with rocks. This makes for an amazing visual, but also has a depressing understory. People on the island once used dragged seaweed out of the ocean and layered it with sand to make soil so that they could farm something. Many of the farmers here still use this practice, I'm told. Oliver Cromwell used to say towards his enemies in Ireland "To Hell or Connaught"(the Western section of Ireland). I understand why there was a time when the two could be equated.



A little further along, Zak got into some trouble with his bike, and this friendly farmer whose property we were nearby came out to see if we were alright.


We pressed on, and soon we got to Dun Aengus, a fort originally built in stone age, pre-Celtic Ireland. The fort was restored and expanded many times later, up through teh medieval period. The back of the fort is a sheer cliff face that drops 100 meters into the sea. Sitting in this ancient fort built thousands of years ago felt unreal. I imagined myself in the sndals of an ancient warrior, and honestly, I felt pretty good about this fort. I mean, it's a difficult run up that hill, it's steep, stony, and full of obstacles. My prehistoric enemies ain't got nothin' on me.



After taking in the feeling of the fort, we sat outside and ate our lunch. We brought a picnic of loaves of bread, serrano ham, and cheese, which we shared by passing around a knife to cut off chunks. It was the perfect break for a busy day fending off attackers from our fort.



After lunch we kept moving, got to the "Seven Churches", which are actually only two old churches at an old monastic site, now covered with graves, many of which are actually very recent. Then we began the ride back, for which we took the low road, which was along the coast. We stopped for a break by a beach, then pushed on until we got back to Kilronan.

In town, there were a bunch of French tourists waiting for the day's second, and last, ferry back. An impromptu rugby game broke out as they passed the time.


Ah, now just to end the fantastic day of biking with a hearty meal in town, right? No! Not a single place in Kilronan was serving food past 4:30 PM (much of the town shuts down during the winter, summer is the tourist season). We hiked about 15 minutes outside of town to the island's hotel, where I got a hearty traditional Irish stew with lamb, barley, carrots, and potatoes. The perfect ending to a fantastic Irish day.

The whole time we were there, we had near-perfect weather. The sun was shining most of the time without any clouds in the sky. The weather was cool, but when biking, it became the perfect weather to keep cool while moving around. The day before we were told it was freezing. The islands are absolutely beautiful, and from what I've done here so far, biking Inis Mor is the first thing I would recommend to any visitor to Ireland.

All my pictures from the trip can be accessed here.

The Siege of Limerick Trailer

There's a fun Ultimate tournament coming up in February. It's called the Siege of Limerick, and will be in Limerick (surprise) February 14-15. I've been playing Ultimate with the team here, and I'll be going up. A team from the Netherlands just released a trash-talk video, which I found pretty entertaining. Click here to check out the video.

Getting Acculturated

My Culture, Literature, and Language of Ireland professor (actually called a lecturer here, a professor is the head of a specific department) is exactly what you expect an old Irishman to look like. Short, pale with reddened cheeks and frazzled, thinning red hair. He's also hilarious, and spends half the class making jokes. The following is a gem of a conversation. First, a little background. Irish classes are scheduled from the beginning of an hour to the end of an hour, with no passing period. Since it would be unreasonable to expect people to be there at the exact times, most classes start 5-10 minutes into the hour. The lecturer walked into class yesterday at 6 PM, looked at the full room, and said: "Wow, everyone's on time. That's so un-Irish of you."
Me: "Give us a few weeks, we're not adjusted yet."
Lecturer: "Ah, yes, in a few weeks you'll all be acculturated and come late. Then you'll be drunk, too. But that's not a problem, it will make the lecture better."

(American) Gladiators

American Gladiators, the beloved, patriotic television franchise, is simply known as "Gladiators" here. Europe, stop kidding yourself, we all know who invented it.

Also, in the Eliminator, they replace the hand bicycle part of the eliminator with monkey bars for women. We need to pass the Equal Rights Amendment in the United States immediately to make sure this doesn't happen to our treasured institution.

Immigration, Classes, and Belfast

This post is going to be all over the place.

First, I'm a bit frustrated right now because I just wasted an hour in line to register with the Irish Immigration department. Anyone staying here over 90 days has to register with immigration so the Irish government can make sure we're not trying to move here and mooch off their services. We need to prove we're actually a student and can support ourselves. So, after getting all my forms filled out, I had to walk to the Garda (police) station and wait in line. The walk wasn't bad, only about 1k, but after waiting in line for an hour and getting to the front, they announce they're closing and are not going to take anyone else, because it was 4:00 PM, when they close (it was actually 3:55). So, they sent about 20 of us home without bothering to tell people who had no chance of registering that they were wasting their time waiting. Now I need to go do this all again on Monday morning.

On a different topic, my class schedule is finalized now, here are my list of courses:

1. Introduction to Modern Irish
2. Introduction to French
3. Culture, Literature, and Language of Ireland.
4. Moral Responsibility
5. Citizenship and Human Rights
6. Theories and Origins of Democracy and Ideology

The first three are courses specifically made for visiting students, and the last three are with actual Irish students.

Finally, I reserved my spot on the trip to Belfast that Arcadia University is organizing. It's heavily subsidized, and for only 20 euro, I get transportation, accommodation, a few meals, and some guided tours. It's a great deal and should be a fantastic trip. Below is the itinerary:

Arcadia Belfast Field Trip
27/02/09 - 01/03/09
Itinerary
Nestled on the coast below Cave Hill and the Black Mountain, Belfast is a vibrant city where the
hospitality is legendary and the warmth of the people is genuine. Dramatically transformed in recent
years, Northern Ireland’s capital is a warm and welcoming place just waiting to be discovered.
Day 1
Friday
February 27th
8:45 a.m. Depart Deanshall, Cork for Belfast
4:30 p.m. Arrive in Belfast, check into Belfast International Hostel
6:00 p.m. Dinner at Jury’s Inn Group 1
7:30 p.m. Dinner @ Jury’s Inn Group 2


Day 2
Saturday
February 28th
8:00 a.m. Breakfast at the Youth Hostel
Depart the Hostel for Field Trip to the North Coast and the Giant’s Causeway.
10:15 a.m. Guided tour of the Giant’s Causeway
Stop in the scenic village of Portrush for lunch on return to Belfast.
7:00 p.m. Depart hostel by coach travel to Dinner in The Edge restuarant.
Day 3
Sunday
March 1st
9:00 a.m. Breakfast at the Hostel
9:30 a.m. Check out and depart by coach for Wellington Park Hotel.
Talk and Slide presentation on the rich culture of Belfast’s Murals, with Professor
Bill Rolston.
Followed by a Q&A session.
This session will orientate you to the unique political and cultural background of Belfast and
Northern Ireland. It will address the history of the conflict and will clarify the main players:
political parties, paramilitary organisations and the communities that they represent. This
will help create a context for the guided tour.
12:00 p.m. Lunch at The Wellington Park Hotel
12:45 p.m. Board coaches for a Guided tour of Belfast City.
Guided by Belfast City Guides, we will explore the city of Belfast. We will visit the political
murals of East and West Belfast including the Catholic Falls and Protestant Shankill roads.

c.3pm – Depart Belfast for Cork



Accommodation
Belfast International Hostel
22-32 Donegal Place
Belfast
Tel: 048 903154354

Faucet Frustration

Almost all the sinks here have separate faucets for hot and cold water. This is an awful system. Rather than adjust the temperature to anywhere on a spectrum of hot or cold, I am forced to choose between scalding hot water leaving my hands with third-degree burns, or a freezing blast of water in an already cold country. The superiority of one faucet is clear.

Homestay

This weekend Arcadia arranged a homestay for all the students with different Irish families. My friend Dylan and I stayed with an Irish couple who lived in a rural area outside of Buttervant, Co. Cork. Undoubtedly the best experience I've had in Ireland so far.

The husband's name is Philip, and he's originally from a rural area outside of Dublin. He moved to Co. Cork years ago after he married Mary. Mary's family has a farm in the area, and her sister and her husband live just down the road from her. Most other family members of hers seemed to live in the area. Both Mary and Philip work in Cork city, a 45-minute commute.

After a late start Saturday, we were given a short tour of the family dairy farm. We saw the cows, which are pregnant right now, and the milking machines. Then, we went to a local public park in the area for a walk. The park was formerly an English estate. The park was beautiful and well-kept, but knowing the park's history can make the view a bit darker. Essentially, the land was taken by the English and then they gave the land to an English noble to rule. There was a huge manor house and a beautiful walk up to it. As Philip said, "Beautiful front yard to have. You can imagine riding your horse-drawn carriage up to it. Just make sure you kick the peasants out of your way." Everyone who worked on the estate was forced to live in a series of small houses in Buttervant, and the English ruler got the large estate house. Beating Irish peasants was common.

That being said, the whole area is still beautiful. The best part of my homestay came Saturday night. After dinner, we went to a local pub, O'Neill's, where we met up with the rest of the family. This pub was about as traditional as they come. It was also a small gorcery store, and you had to walk past the grocery area and open up a door in the back to get to the pub area. We then went to another pub. Philip warnedd me that there would be bad music, and that's an understatement. There was a singer who brought a synthesizer to play the accompanying music. I still can't get the synthesized Danny Boy out of my head. But even though the musi was bad, I still had a great time laughing with everyone about it, and it was great to have the experience. Then, we got a taxi back to the house. A family friend came over with a guitar, and we ended up staying up until the wee hours of the morning talking and singing. The experience was great, I felt like the family really bonded with Dylan and me. Their hospitality was touching.

Here's a special note for my mother. I was talking with an Irish man in O'Neill's about American perceptions of Ireland. He complained that American movies made images of Ireland that don't exist. I asked if Waking Ned Devine would be a good example, and he said, "Yeah, that movie is a load of shite!" I asked for another example of a stupid American characterization of Ireland and he mentioned The Quiet Man, accompanied by a finger in his mouth and a gagging expression. "Nothing like that ever existed!"