Week Six
On February 19th, Amy and I headed to Killarney, Co Kerry, for a relaxing weekend in nature. Because there is no direct route from Dublin to Killarney, we had to take a four hour bus to Limerick City, then a 2 hour bus from there to Killarney. But that was fine with me, as we had an hour to kill in Limerick and I got to see my namesake, the Shannon River! Turns out it was kind of grimy in Limerick, but that’s fine with me, since I’m a little ghetto myself! haha
So we ate our lunches by the river, accompanied by HUNDREDS of terrifying birds. I kid you not, it was a rough time in my life. But I made it through, and we got back on the bus headed to Killarney. When we arrived, we found a hostel, The Railway Hostel, and checked in. For roommates we had to Spainards who were quite silly, as well as Trevor, who goes to UMASS AMHERTS and is from IPSWITCH. So strange! So we went out with Trevor to a few places, but it wasn’t really too lively, and we weren’t that into it anyways.
The next morning, we woke up and headed to Killarney National Park for some bonding with nature. We were going to rent bikes (I was going to take one for the team here) but it ended up being like 12 euro, which was too much for me, so we decided to just walk. We then wanted to climb the highest mountain in Ireland, but there was snow on it, so were were advised against this, sadly. So we ended up walking in the park, where we saw Ross Castle, with was cool, some lovely lakes, Muckross House and tons of awesome mountains. It was really beautiful, and an INTENSE walk for sure. We rewarded ourselves with some great, but expensive, Chinese food on our walk back to town.
That night we weren’t really feeling going out, so we ended up at the movie theater for Valentine’s Day, which was pretty horrible, but it was nice to just relax and see a movie. When we got back we played some cards in the common area at the hostel and ended up talking to the nice Algerian hostel worker, who told me to avoid drugs and alcohol and even if you love someone to let them go if they are going down a distructive path. Some of the things he said were right on, but the letting people you love go if you aren’t on the same path was pretty terrible, I thought, but to each his own.
We headed back pretty early the next day and just relaxed Sunday night, which is always nice.
That week I had my interview tuesday, and two sociology field trips on wednesday and thursday. The interview was with Aileen Rogan of Tennis Ireland, which is actually located in the same building I live in, making for a short commute. It went very well, I thought. It was very informal and the organization seems very friendly and relaxed, but it seemed as though I would be given a lot of work and responsibility, which is awesome. She said I would probably be writing press released, updating their Twitter and Facebook, as well as helping to plan their next big tournament, which all sounds perfect for me! So I’m very excited about that.
Wednesday night we had a sociology field trip to the Abbey Theater to see the Irish Premiere Christ Deliver Us, which was so ridiculously amazing. The direction was wonderful, even the way they changed the set was choreographed and so beautiful. There was one scene where two scenes were actually taking place on the stage and the actors switched off, using the same props. It was so cool and it really reminded me of Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia, which I loved reading and would be amazing to see performed. The play was basically about questioning religion and how you can still be moral and a good person without it and you shouldn’t let it or other people dictate your life. It was just compeltely amazing. There was a gay kiss, suicide, rape and a girl dying while giving birth—very graphic, but so well done. Definitely my favorite trip by far.
Thursday morning sociology met again at Dail Eireann, the Irish Parliament, located in Leinster House near Trinity College. We got to see both the Dail (House of Commons) and the Seanad (Senate) in action, which was so cool because they got into pretty heated arguments, but also joked around a lot—it was highly entertaining. We also got to speak to Senator O’Toole, who basically told us he thought American students were stupid because they don’t keep up to date on world events, or even their own events. Some people were offended, but I totally agree. I know at least I don’t pay attention to the news, which is horrible, so I’m really trying to start. I made the Boston Globe my homepage and am making an effort to read things other than local news and sports, but it will definitely take some time to get into the habit of news!
