Turning 21 in Dublin

Ok, I think it’s about time I updated!!! So, going back two weeks, let me tell you about my wonderful birthday weekend!!

When I first realized I was going to be in Ireland over my 21^st birthday, I was a little disappointed because with the drinking age here being 18, I’d miss out on the typical American 21^st birthday experience. But then I realized I’d get to spend my birthday in Ireland, and how could I complain about that?! To make it even better, my friend Katie who’s studying in London decided to come visit me that weekend too! So Katie and her friend Mariah hopped on a Ryanair flight (which I have yet to experience- but from their stories, it sounded like they basically flew over in an over sized plastic toy plane- scary!!) in the wee hours of the morning, took the bus from Dublin, and got to Galway at around 11am. Going off of no sleep for 24 hours, we jumped straight into sight seeing and I showed them around the beautiful city of Galway!! I stole most of these pictures from them because they both have those fancy cameras with the long lenses and insisted on stopping to photograph every single door we passed (as a random guy on a bike stopped to say to us, “I guess some people can see art in anything.”). 

Shops on Quay St

A Galway Hooker (not what you're thinking- it's a boat!)

Katie's photography skills caught my hair in the wind!

At the Quadrangle on the NUIG campus

We found a sign for Irish Fest in Milwaukee!

Where we ate dinner!

After wandering around the city, we went and had a delicious, traditional Irish meal at Finnegans Corner, and headed off to bed because these two were exhausted! Plus, the next morning we had an early bus to catch to go see the Cliffs of Moher. We got much luckier this time with the weather than the first time I went! It was cold, windy, and rainy, but there was no fog and the clouds even parted to show some blue skies at one point. The water was a gorgeous blue-green color that almost looked like it belonged in the Caribbean! 

Blue skies and tropical looking water!

Peeking over the edge ;]

On Wisconsin!

Even though my actual birthday was on Sunday, we all had classes on Monday and Katie and Mariah had an early flight so we went to the pubs to celebrate on Saturday night! We spent the night dancing to some 90s and early 2000s music (so typical of going out in Ireland!) and meeting some interesting characters! One guy taught us some super creative dance moves (the lawn mower and the grocery cart... so 6th grade!), one guy guessed my age to be 14 (I told him to add 7, he said 23, we walked away), and after a lot of laughs, we headed home to get some sleep before waking up a few hours later to get on a bus to spend my birthday in Dublin!

Before I came to Ireland, lots of people told me that Dublin wasn't all that great, that it was just like any other big city, and to experience "true Ireland" I had to make sure to get out of the city and see the countryside. So going in, I had pretty low expectations. However, I absolutely loved the city of Dublin! Sure, it was pretty touristy, and I didn't exactly get same "Irish" feeling from it as I do in Galway, it was nice to feel the hustle and bustle of a big city again. It also was filled with the gorgeous, old architecture that is so prominent in European cities and so lacking in American ones.

We walked around the Trinity College campus for a while, which was absolutely gorgeous. We were looking for the famous beautiful library that's all over Pinterest, and found a building that said library and we followed a student in. Turns out, it was a small, normal looking library- that you couldn't leave unless you had a Student ID card! So we stood in the doorway for a good 10 minutes freaking out until a student came by and let us out! 

After we thankfully didn't spend the whole day locked inside the library, we went to explore the two gorgeous cathedrals in Dublin, Christ Church Cathedral and St. Patrick's Cathedral. We got to go inside Christ Church Cathedral, which was beautiful, and I lit a candle for Coco. We tried to go inside St. Patrick's Cathedral, but we were there on a Sunday and it was closed for visitors because they were having mass. The outside was beautiful, though!

Christ Church Cathedral

The candle I lit for Coco is the one on the bottom right!

St. Patrick's Cathedral

After we saw the cathedrals, we went to the Guinness Storehouse to learn about the famous drink of Ireland and get our free pints in the Gravity Bar, where we got a gorgeous 360 degree view of the city! The tour was really cool. We got to learn how to properly taste Guinness, where they told us to lift our elbows while we drank because it helps you get to the sweet taste further down in the drink (I thought it still tasted bitter- but I'm not much of a dark beer person). We also met a guy in the Gravity Bar that had been hanging out there a while and had already had a few pints- he told us all about his farm in Maryland and kept telling us to add him on "FacePlant", which we assumed meant Facebook! Everyone in Ireland loves to chat, it's great.

My inner stats nerd was very excited about the plaque dedicated to the famous statistician that developed the Student 't' test!

Celebrating my 21st with a pint!

We passed this kid running across the top of a bridge! He then slid down like it was a slide! Thankfully, he didn't slide into the river!

After the Guinness Factory, and a quick stop in Burger King to use the bathroom, we went to the see the Temple Bar and find somewhere to eat dinner. We were too tired to go the pub afterwards, so we found somewhere to have some birthday cake and wine, and headed back to the hotel and went to bed!

We had a few photo bombers!

Overall, it was my best birthday yet!!! I'm so thankful that I got spend it with great friends, and I can't wait to go to London next month so Katie and Mariah can show me all around their new city! 

Thanks for reading!

Love,

Elise

Getting cultured!

First of all, I'm so sorry I haven't updated in ages! I've been having a blast, and trying to find time to study, and sleep, and blogging keeps falling to the wayside. But, that just means now I have a lot to write about! So here goes!

I can't believe I've been here for over a month. The time is absolutely flying. My classes are starting to pick up a bit and I feel like I'm learning so much about Ireland. I purposely took a mix of classes that cover topics about Ireland in different points of time. It's such an interesting country to study because it has such a rich cultural history that goes back for centuries, but at the same time, it's only been an independent nation since 1922. So in my indigenous arts class, we learn about all of the old Irish art forms, while in my history and politics classes we cover more recent Irish events.

I am also so glad I'm taking a class in the Irish language. It's the official language of the country, but unfortunately, only about 10% of the country actually speaks it fluently. So even though all of the buildings around campus and street signs around the city are written in Irish first and English second, walking around town I've only ever heard people speaking English. Irish students are required to take the language in schools growing up, but by the time they enter university, they hardly remember any of it. There have been some efforts made to revive the language, though. We learned about these summer camps that teenagers go to for intense Irish lessons. They make it fun and relevant though, and the students remake popular songs in Irish and film videos! I've been listening to them while I study. Here's their version of Passenger's "Let Her Go":

I'm also loving my Irish Indigenous Arts class! A couple of weeks ago we went out to Carna, a Gaeltacht or Irish speaking area of Connemara. We went into a pub, all stood in a big circle, and learned how to Irish dance! But not the river dance kind of Irish dancing, we learned Sean-Nós style dancing, or old-style dancing. It's very similar to tap dancing- in fact, American tap dancing originated from when Irish immigrants came to America in the 1800s and their style mixed with the traditional dancing of African-Americans. So here we were, 40 non-Irish students (my indigenous arts class is only offered to visiting students, and is mostly Americans) dancing in a pub! It was pretty hilarious. 

Last week in our Indigenous Arts class, we learned about Sean-Nós singing (old-style singing). It's a very beautiful style, where the singer is unaccompanied and has a lot of freedom to improvise the rhythm and ornamentation. The song we learned was called "A Stór Mo Chroí," which means "Darling of my Heart." It's a song that would be sung by the mother of a young Irish man or woman emigrating in the late 19th or early 20th century to find work and a better life. We talked about how this wasn't just a goodbye for a while, but it was a goodbye knowing they would never see each other again. It would take the Irish emigrant nearly their whole life to save up the amount of money and time needed to come back to Ireland for a visit, by which time their parents would probably be long gone. I had a hard enough time saying goodbye to my parents when I left for Ireland, knowing it would only be five months and that I would get to email and Skype with them nearly every day. I cannot even imagine having to say goodbye to my parents forever, but this song definitely made me understand what it would feel like a little bit better.

Aside from learning about Irish culture in my classes, I've been making it a point to seek out live trad music around Galway! This city really is the "cultural heart of Ireland", and there are so many opportunities to soak it all in. I still have to write a post about my birthday weekend and going to Dublin, so stay tuned for more! For now, here's an Irish toast we learned in class:

"Go mbeirimid beo ar an am seo arís!" (May we be alive this time next year!)

Slán go fóill!

Elise