Powerscourt & Glendalough

Saturday, Arcadia took us on a day trip to Powerscourt Estate & Gardens and to the Glendalough Monastic Settlement (Co. Wicklow).

I'd talk about it, but the pictures say more, so without further ado:
Powerscourt Gardens.





Glendalough (Glean dá Loch - Land of Two Lakes)
This Monastic Settlement was founded by St. Kevin way back in like the 600s AD. The buildings though, were built around 1100/1200.


UET and Me at the Upper Lake of Glendalough
(Ashlee Springer, Catherine Kemp, Me, Aaron Wilson)

Celtic Cross in the Sun



It was a good day with good friends and 172 photos later, I think a pretty well-documented day as well.

Stranger Danger

Golly. I feel like I've been terrible at posting, but it seems like nothing too exciting has happened to me. Here are a few happenings in my life as of late:

Last Saturday night, I went to see Ben Taylor play at the Sugar Club near St. Stephen's Green. (For those who don't know, Ben Taylor is the son of James Taylor and Carly Simon). It was so good. Oh man, he is very amazing. When he came out — just him and his guitar — and played his first song, the audience was silent. You could only hear a few clinking glasses and that's it. And after a song or two, he took off his shoes and just had fun with the audience. He said that we were getting the most quiet audience award, until about half way through and he forgot his spud-gun, so he couldn't shoot the noisy people in the audience. He was so good live. His voice is so rich and soothing. And he sounds so much like his dad. It was awesome. Admission to get into the club was €15 and drinks were incredibly expensive. I could only afford one €8 Long Island Iced Tea. And it was gone by the time Ben got on to perform. (There were two opening acts). But there was this couple in their 30s or 40s next to Springer and I who bought one bottle of wine (€20), finished that and bought another, but brought two extra wine glasses and poured us each a glass. "We'll never finish it," they said, "We're Irish — we don't drink very much!" So, we each scored two free glasses of wine. (He forced me to pour myself another when I drank the first glass). He was selling and signing CD's (because he heard that signed CD's sound better), but we had to run off to catch the bus before the buses stopped running.

Ben Taylor

But my night certainly didn't end there by any means. Outside my apartment, I ran into this couple who were taking out the trash and they told me I should come over for Lorna's Birthday. I had nothing better to do, so I went over to some strange girls' apartment (at UCD, not in the city) for her birthday party. Also, it was probably close to midnight because the concert wasn't over until after 11pm. Luckily, I kinda knew one guy at Lorna's — Sean, who lives across the hall from Ashlee, Meg and Alyssa. But other than that, I knew no one. I met pretty much everyone there — Lorna, Anna, Marian?, Canadian girl, a few other girls, Dave, John from Hong Kong, Sean... But we all hung out until about 4am. It was a lot of fun. People are so friendly. I walked in, they asked if I had rabies, and then they accepted me into the party and got me a drink. They also brain-washed me into voting for Cork as the best county in Ireland. They even taught me some Irish. They were all really cool kids.

Classes are good. Most are boring, but I'm loving my classes with Professor Dolan. He's so damn smart. I have him for Humor: Medieval to Modern (where we just read a book every week and talk about it). I went to that class by accident, but I really enjoyed it, so I registered for it. But when I tried, it was closed, so I had to see Prof. Dolan to get a letter from him and as he was writing my letter, he asked where I was from and I told him Montana and he asked if I had ever heard of Great Falls, Montana. He said that he had visited Great Falls back in the 90s and really enjoyed it.
I needed to pick up one more class to get a full course load, so I asked him about his other class (Wise Virgins). He kinda gave me an overview of it and it sounded interesting enough, plus he's awesome, so he wrote me a letter to get into that class as well. And then he showed me the text that we were using that was a book that belonged to JRR Tolkien. (Author of Lord of the Rings). On the inside cover were the initials "JRRT" in elvish handwriting. It was amazing. I asked him how he got it and he goes "Oh, I knew him at Oxford." Of course.
He seems to like to pick on me in class. I think it's because I'm American, but also cause he knows my name. That, and I'm really cool.

Well, I think that's everything of at least mild interest so far. My friend Catherine is coming tonight from England where she is studying abroad, so I'm excited for her to come which should end in at least a few adventures of worth. Until then,

Scotland; Haggis and Kilts

Golly. What a weekend! I have officially broken the ice on travel with my first trip — Scotland!

Ashlee Springer and I left Dublin on Thursday and after trying to check into the wrong hostel, we found the correct one which was much more ... non-hippyish. We dropped our bags and went out to explore the city. We found some food, a few drinks, but most shops were closed. The next morning, we awoke to a room full of hairy old men. And unfortunately for us, one of them sure was naked under his cover. Needless to say, we escaped as quickly as possible.

We made our way through Old Town to the Edinburgh Castle which was very cool. I have quite a few pictures to prove it.

Edinburgh Castle

After a few hours at the castle, we stopped for lunch. And I tried haggis. I asked the waitress what exactly it was and she said "It's heart, lungs and intestine ... but you really shouldn't ask. People who don't know what it is really like it." So, I pretended I didn't ask and I tried it anyway. It wasn't bad, but I just kept thinking about what exactly it was. I am still trying to block it from my memory.

View of Arthur's Seat from the Castle.
After lunch, we walked down the Royal Mile and over to the trailhead to Arthur's Seat. Arthur's Seat sits atop a very high mountain and over looks Edinburgh and the surrounding area. The hike sucked, but the overall reward was amazing. The view was tremendous and made the journey well worth the climb.


View of the Castle from Arthur's Seat.
After a fumble down the mountain, we tried to start a pub crawl that Nikki Glaros told us to do. But no luck. Apparently, they stopped doing the Downtown Ale Trail in Edinburgh. Instead, I suggested that we try to catch the evening performance of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang at the Edinburgh Playhouse. So we found our way over to the theatre and scored some tickets off to the side in the balcony. But with an hour til curtain, we wandered around the area near the theatre. We ended up at a take-out fish 'n chips place which quite possibly is the worst idea in the world. With no where to go, we sat on the steps of some apartment building attempting to eat fish and chips. It was a disaster. But it was nearing showtime, so we went over to the theatre to take our seats. They were definately in the nosebleeds, but when the overture started playing, everone with bad seats made a dash for the center of the balcony. And then. The show began. It was so much fun! I found myself grinning like an idiot the entire show. I don't know if it was because I was so tired from walking all day, but I absolutely loved the show! And the car flew! It was awesome!

After the show, we went a few doors down to the Theatre Royal Bar and slowly, a few members of the cast started to trickle in. At first, it was more of a joke — "He looks 'dancey' and he has a bag! I bet he was one of the chorus boys!" But then, most definately, the actor who played the Baron came in. I was determined to meet these people. So, I got the next round of drinks and on my way back to the table, I asked the Baron is he was in the show. We proceeded to have about a minute long converstaion about the show and where I was from and what not. It was awesome.
And then at a table near us were some of the chorus boys (one of them offered me some pizza) and the Baroness even came for a while. (She was amazing.) It was cool to see them all interact with each other after the show. They all seemed like cool people that I would want to hang out with. I also introduced myself to one of the actors who played one of the Bulgarian duo. It was a good night.

We returned to the hostel and prayed that everyone would be clothed in the morning. (We now know the importance of a youth hostel.) The next morning, we wandered around and then caught a bus to Glasgow. (It was cheaper to fly into Edinburgh and out of Glasgow). So, yesterday afternoon, we went to the Glasgow Cathedral (c. 1200's?) which was old and to the Necropolis cemetary which was really cool.



Our flight left early this morning and it sure did suck. I was so exhausted last night. All the walking from the day before was catching up to me. So, after the cemetary and some food. I basically just passed out until 5am when we had to be up to catch a taxi to the airport. (Airports hate me by the way. That's a story for another time though.)

Lost in D4

The Most Recent Adventure:

Last night, I met up with Jen Kelly, an Irish girl who came to Montana a few summers ago and stayed with Brianne Handwerk. Well, we met up on Grafton Street near St. Stephen's Green and walked to her apartment not too far away and had some tea and a chat and all was well and good. At 11:00pm, she walked me to the bus stop so that I could get a bus before they stopped running. Not too long after she left me there, the Number 11 bus came along. Now, normally I take the Number 10 bus to a bus stop right on campus, but Jen thought that the 11 would get me there too. So, I asked the driver of the Number 11 if he went to UCD Belfield. Before he answered, he shut the bus door, trapping be abroad the Number 11. He then said that he went to Mumble Mumble Street, which apparently is near UCD. I rode for about ten minutes through neighborhoods that I've never seen before. The driver then tells me that the next stop is UCD.

Where I got off the bus was nothing like UCD. I was in some pseudoresidential neighborhood with no sign of any type of University building or campus of any sort. And not only that - but I had no idea which direction to even walk. So, I chose right. Seemed like an okay choice at the time. I walked for a while until I realized that there was probably no chance of finding campus in this direction. So, I turned around.

I kept thinking the whole time: If I make it back to campus, it'll be another adventure to add to my stories; if I die, well then shit.

I began walking back towards the bus stop and when I reached it, I looked around again. Still no clue. I kept walking a little further and there came an opening in a wall with a road leading down a dimly lit path surrounded on both sides by heavy vegetation. I spotted a sign — "John Paul Construction." Damn. And then, a smaller sign in the grass... "University College Dublin." Thank God!

I made my way down this road. And before, when I said "dimly lit," that was being generous. It was like walking into Jurassic Park. But I braved being eaten by a T-Rex or a bum and walked down the dark road. The road split and I chose left. (Right seemed like more impending doom than left.) This wrapped around a building that looked rather uncampus like and passed by another with exterior lights going off and on, which was not comforting in the least.

Running into a gated dead end, I began to doubt the validity of the "University College Dublin" sign. I figured I was being lured to my death. Like some kind of messed up fairy tale.

But I turned again and found another road which took me by some sports fields that looked like they could be vaguely familiar. I kept going until finally I saw a building that I recognized. That's when I knew — I was going to live. Arrive back to the Belgrove apartments at 12am, my hour long death march was over.

And Apparently I Look Like I'm 12 in Ireland too...

A recent phenomenon:

As many of you know, the legal drinking age in the Republic of Ireland is 18.

I am 19 and a half years of age.

The other day, at Tesco Grocery store, I attempted to buy a few bottles of wine to bring over to our new friends' flat for dinner. But no. The Korean woman carded me and because I didn't have my passport or my "Irish Age Card," they wouldn't sell me the wine.

Later, my roommate Patrick went to another grocery store and bought wine no problem. He, of course, doesn't look like a little boy. He has a beard. Thus, I have decided that I will not shave any more.

This problem furthers itself when I was carded at pubs and at the Guinness storehouse when I received my free stout at the end of the tour. Many pubs in the Temple Bar area require people to be 21 or sometimes 23. Both of which, I am not. Not only am I not. But I look like I'm not. And being the youngest lad in the group from Arcadia, I sometimes feel like I am holding everyone back from hitting the pubs that they want to hit. Oh well, I guess they can just deal with it.

So far, the only "sites" I've hit are St. Patrick's Cathedral and the Guinness Storehouse. Both of which were very cool. St. Patrick's was very beautiful and old. And then at the Guinness Storehouse, you walk through a bunch of different levels and it tells you about the ingredients used in making Guinness and about Arthur Guinness (who, we found out on the bus tour, had 21 children -- "Yes, it's true. Guinness does give you strength.") It was really fascinating and I just wish that my dad could've been there. I think he would've really enjoyed the tour. And then at the end of the tour, you make it to the top of the storehouse on the 7th floor to a 360 degree panoramic view and, of course, a bar with a complimentary Guinness. The other Arcadia students and I sat, had a chat, enjoyed the view and watched the sun set over Dublin city. It was a pretty good day.



I am now officially moved into my flat. I have two roommates, one goes to Evansville (Harrison) and the other is from Massachusetts (Patrick). It was nice to finally not be living out of a suitcase in a tiny room with four other guys like I was in the hostel.

We had a few days of Orientation with Arcadia, which was nice. They fed us nicely and the staff was really cool. We went to a show on Tuesday night at the Abbey Theatre, The School for Scandal. It was definately interesting. The set was like a perspective drawing of a room, but bright white and they lit it all sorts of colors. Panels opened from the walls to reveal more lighting effects. The costumes were very bright and colorful and period, but not. (You UET kids know what I'm talking about). However, after long days and short nights, my tiredness got the best of me and I kept nodding off. It didn't help that the language was archaic and hard to understand sometimes. And so, I fell asleep. I was just worried that I would fall forward, thwacking the woman in front of me's head with my own and cause a big old ruckus. But I didn't. It was okay.

So, I'm moved in and everything is grand. We are all registered for classes that start on Monday. I think this weekend, we are all taking some time to sit back and relax and still get into life here at UCD. Tonight, a group of us are going to a pub to watch a rugby match on TV. They get pretty riled up here, so that should be exciting.

Next weekend, we do our Irish homestay near Galway, so that'll be an adventure. But I should go because this is getting rather long, but thanks for checking in. I am still kicking over here and I'll be sure to update sometime next week.

I've Been Awake Too Long

January 13/14, 2007

The Adventure Begins.

Well, first off, I was pulled out of line going through security in Great Falls, Montana. They patted me down and what not and took out every thing that was in my backpack and scanned it through the x-ray. Of course I'm going to blow up the plane. With my iPod and my PowerBook charger? Naturally.

But through plane delays and low-speaking 90 year old women, I finally made it to Dublin. And I love it. Right now, we are all staying in a hostel across the street from Temple Bar (the kinda touristy part of town, but it's awesome). Ashlee Springer waited for me at the Dublin airport and we took a bus down town and had to carry my giant bags a few blocks to the hostel where we met up with everyone who was just leaving for lunch. We went to a very nice restaurant and lunch was on the program. (Well, I'm sure we're paying for it somewhere, it just seems nice that we didnt have to pay.)

After lunch, they let us off on our own. I took a much needed shower and discovered something rather interesting. You have to punch your key card into a thing by the front door of your hostel room to get light. Okay, fair enough. Except when that light only lasts about three minutes -- maybe. So, while I was showering, about a minute in, the lights went off and I had to finish my shower in the dark. It was pretty black in there. But after that, I went on an adventure to find cheap/free internet. I found a coffee shop with a really weak signal, and I checked most of my email and stuff, but it was too slow, so I walked around the Temple Bar area and found a place to write this and let everyone know I made it and I'm okay, but I have to use the computers provided and they are just a wee bit different than an American keyboard. And it's frustrating. And just the thought of everyone coming in here and touching the mouse and keyboard grosses me out. In an hour, I am meeting back up with the rest of the students and I think we're all going to dinner together. (Except this time, we have to pay.)

I think I'm doing pretty well as far as jet lag goes. I didn't sleep the night before I left and I kinda slept in the airports and a decent amount on the flight over. I'm definately tired because it should be a quarter to 10:00am (Montana time) but it's really 4:45pm Dublin time and I haven't had more than three hours of sleep since about 11:00am on Friday. Needless to say, I'll be ready to go to bed tonight. And then tomorrow we have to be up early for Orientation stuff. Oh well. It's been nice to have the day to do a little exploring, hopefully more in the next few days too. (Before we move further away from Temple Bar.)

I have a pocketfull of Euros and an empty notebook and I suppose by the end of my journey, they will have reversed themselves.

AH!

Well, I leave in less than eleven hours and have yet to pack. How Meier of me. Oh golly. This is crazy. It hasn't hit me yet, but I'm really anxious and excited to go. But I should go ... a lot of things to do still! Post when I arrive!

Matt