farm animals

Apparently sheep were more dangerous that day haha


poor josh

Dear Baltimore,

as a city, I don't miss you at all.

Sorry 'bout that.

Sunday

Sooo yesterday I slept in a bit. After I got up Lena and I walked to the Petrol station to "top up" our phone balance. I also got some toffee flavoured ice cream (soooo goood). Then it took a million years and a bunch of euros but finally figured out how to get mum & dad to be able to call me, so I got to talk to them for a long while, also hung out with a cow in the backyard and walked circles around the driveway a couple of times. Amber and I went to the Spar for a few small things and we saw Aiden on the way back. He was about to go to Zam Zams. He asked if we had eaten the chocolate orange he'd given us the other night (that we had put up and hid so it wouldn't get eaten and then promptly forgot about), and told us how his niece gave them to him every time he saw her and he asked if we liked the pub and told us to come back and hang out during the week when we had time. Apparently he was having a "quiet relaxed evening in" with Zam Zams for dinner haha. We walked back and then proceeded to stuff ourselves with food haha. We had "Irish Whiskey Salami" and then the "Tay-to Crisps" (Tay-to Crisps are the most delicious potato chip ever) and theeeeenn we split some chocolate chip cookies, then had a cup of coffee. Haha. Eventually Robert got back with the people who had stayed in Galway overnight and we went out to say hello to him and he asked us (Oh, speaking of Robert he just popped his head in here apparently looking for someone and said "I need trackers on you all so I can find ye") if we had "Recovered" yet. We were both really confused but apparently he meant from when he saw us at the pub the other night, since he had left before we did, except we didn't really even stay up that late, and Robert likes to give us a hard time. Harris walked up with my gloves that I had thought I lost but turned out to just be in the Blue Door house (The Blue Door house, also known as the Church Cottage, or alternatively the Boys' House, has Harris, Franz, Drew & Noah in it. They are constantly late waking up to catch Robert's shuttle). He came inside and we sat around telling funny stories we knew about ourselves or family members and had some Paddy, which is a kind of Irish Whiskey which apparently Harris's dad used to import to the states because he liked it so much. Oh, we also put a large sheet of brown paper on our fridge to write quotes and draw on, and it started to get filled up very fast. I illustrated most of mine. I'll have to scan it in when it is all filled. But one example would be: When Amber was little she used to believe that if she caught all her tears in a dixie cup and poured them into the pool, a unicorn would appear! Somehow our stories morphed into all the creepy things or scary stories that had happened to us. Lyndsey I don't think believes us because she's never had anything weird happen to her, but the rest of us had some pretty good true stories. We were all really creeped out, and so Amber and I had to go to the bathroom together hahaha and then when we opened the door Harris was outside with a huge blanket over his head and we both screamed, and then punched him. We ate our chocolate orange and then made popcorn and watched Death at a Funeral to un-creep ourselves (I know it doesn't sound like it would, but it's a hilarious comedy). But Harris was too creeped out to walk home so we gave him an extra blanket and pillow and he slept downstairs on the couch.

Oh, also, Amber tried to read our palms (she learned about it online) and we decided we were practically the same person haha.

In the morning Harris left to go shower and we all made breakfast and waited for Robert to get here. Now I have nothing till Art History after lunch. I brought some bread, a knife and my jar of Nutella with me for lunch so I don't have to buy lunch today, and I also have some dried apricots, that are really good like the ones in Paris were, for a snack.

Brian sent me a really sweet email that made my day :)

Amber just came in and said some people were walking to an abandoned town, but she wants to go at some point but she's in class right now and i think they already left so I am going to wait and go with Amber a different day.

Now I am going to go upload some photos so I can post them for you all.

O2

Thanks for providing me email

Outings

So im actually writing this from my awesome new mobile. Today was for the most part a really fun day. Last night Amber and i finally went out to the pub. We are apparently now part of the crowd that goes to the new hotel. Im sure we'll eventually go to logues and the 2 others whose names escape me, but the new hotel (limestone) is amazing. We met Aiden, who owns the store up the road, and Sara, Grainne, Eoin, Alicia and Conner from Dublin who we'll meet up with in a few weeks. I also met chris who used to go to mica. Oh and Robert was there for a bit but then he left. Anyway today we wandered slash meandered around Galway. The excursion resulted in my phone, a woolen scarf and arm warmers that still smell of sheep, bad ass sneakers, a small chocolate bar (already gone), a cheap back pack, a €4 fleece blanket, required school books, and a vest with a hood from the thrift store. Had a spot of trouble with the knee climbing the stairs to the art shop thats above the music store. I had some roast lamb for lunch. Slept half the bus ride home till some loud american guy took the seat next to me. After we got back amber and i went out to the petrol station and then ate dinner in ZamZams. the guy in the petrol station was really nice and gave her some thin store signs for free to use as straightedges for drawing. the guy in Zam Zams was nice too. I just got chips (potato wedges) and a coke. although their chips were not as delicious as the ones from the pub we ate at for lunch in Galway. Then we walked to the studios to get online so i could set up my phone. Shelby, Carra and Lena were there. Thane came right before we left. To amuse ourselves on the long walk home, amber and i aimed for the puddles. We wrote postcards and watched the animated movie of watership down and now im tired so goodnight :)

butter crinkle crunch attacking cookies

so yesterday was eventful in that josh got charged by some angry male sheep haha. we were in this fairy fort / ring fort on this woman's farm and the sheep decided they didn't want us in there anymore, so they came into the area where we were all standing and charged at poor josh, twice. he ran. he will never look at sheep the same way again haha. we hiked around in a bunch of places, photos to come. then when we got home we had 'movie night' and watched The Princess Bride and guess what!!!! it was filmed in Ireland! we were watching it and saying how we thought it was, and then at the credits it says "Unit 2: Ireland" Yess!

Amber, Harris and I stood outside looking at the stars because you can see them so well here and we saw a shooting star! so we decided to watch stardust, but we all fell asleep so we are going to try again tonight.

Today we went to Connemara, which was beautiful. There's a river that apparently people come from all over the world to fish, so I'll have to ask Gordon for more details so that Dad can go there. We also went to the neatest beach made from coral/seaweed stuff and there were so many beautiful multicoloured shells. I got some, but I definitely want to go back. The mountains there are gorgeous and when Mom comes, I want to climb one. The view from the valley / bogland in Connemara is odd. It reminds me of Arizona and Maine all at the same time.

Tomorrow we are going to Galway, some people are staying over at a hostel to make it a 2day trip but Shelby, Lyndsey, Lena and I are coming home on the bus in the evening so we have Sunday to rest and start work. Maybe I will call Mikey, Tom's friend, and see if I can drop by for a visit or I'll read some more in the Celtic mythology book I got from the library. At least, let my knee rest because it is still hurting and I am hoping I won't have to go to the doctor next week.

But other than that, the last two days were great, very little rain as well. Today it didn't rain at all until after we had gotten home again.

it's a soft day

which means it's raining, but not too heavily.
yesterday we did registration, and they are not offering creative writing so i am going to have to try and somehow work out an independent academic study somehow, i don't know. bah. oh well.

i love nutella, by the way. it's delicious.

got everything out of the way with registration today, and our schedules and all that. we also got to see our teachers work, which was really great. I really loved Martina's work (and she will be my teacher for 3 out of 4 of the classes i have right now).

anyway, the internet is a bit fickle, yea? so it has been down since this morning till just a short while ago. i may be able to email from my phone though, but we'll see.

aannnnd we have arrived

So although I don't have photos to upload yet since I am on a school computer in the lab before registration, we have done a lot since i arrived.

Friday:
dropped off at our houses. the electric was off, but came back on shortly. I'm in Marie's House. (Me, Shelby, Lyndsey, Amber, Lena, Olga & Hannah). We have a peat burning fireplace which is wonderful and a very nice house in general by itself at the end of a lane with a fairy forest not too far away. We walked to the Spar (which when said out loud sounds a lot like This Bar instead of The Spar... coincidence?) and bought groceries and cooked ourselves dinner.

Saturday:
tour of Ballyvaughan, our town. then Lyndsey and I went on an adventure through the fairy forest out into fields, ran into some cows, got hailed on some more, oh, i forgot to mention the hail. and when we arrived at the airport friday morning it was snowing for about an hour. anyway we eventually found our way home by climbing over a wall into one of our semi-neighbors' back yards haha. It was really great though. we also all got adopted by a dog, Rex, who follows us around town and walks us home.

Sunday:
bus tour of the Burren. We went to Kilfenora, saw different kinds of tombs. The Portal Tomb we saw was made long before the Pyramids in egypt were created. Pretty awesome. We also went to the Cliffs of Moher, already. They were amazing. I took some short video so I'll try and get that up. My knee started to bother me. We then went to Doolin and walked along the limestone pavement, which is very different from what that sounds like. I got some pretty snail shells from in between the rocks, and pictures of the waves coming up over the cliffs. We were all pretty exhausted and drenched when we got home. The electricity went out 4 times. It sounded like a hurricane outside and i had to listen to my ipod to get to sleep.

Monday:
we got a tour of our school. the cafe is really great and has amazing food. Robert told us "Now don't go using your first aid kits on injured dags." (dogs). A famous story teller came, Eddie Lenihan, one of the greatest storytellers in Ireland, and he told us stories for about two hours. It was really amazing. I bought a book from him that is apparently out of print in both America and Ireland (woo-hoo for rare books) and it should be great. I went to the Spar again and stocked up on more food. Then tried to get to sleep early.

Eddie:

Eddie, obviously, is on the left.

Tuesday:
"settled" into our studios, although i have nothing much to put in mine. Now I'm waiting to register at 12:20. So far I've only talked to mom, dad & Brian (I'm paying Lyndsey back to use her phone) but hopefully I'll have a cell by saturday. I had thought we were supposed to have wireless in the studios, but apparently not till a few weeks from now (if that) so hopefully someone from the school has extra ethernet cables or i can find a cheap one somewhere. or i'll just use these school ones in the lab but there's only a certain number of them.




Practical information: When in Ireland, Brian told us, (Brian here, not my Brian), never ask someone "for a ride." Always ask "for a lift." a "ride" means something drastically different than a "lift" and you don't want to be misunderstood, if you take my meaning. you can figure it out.

Paris

While we're waiting for this to officially begin, here are the 5 photos I took in Paris that I showed in the group exhibition:

Leaving

I'm leaving on January 3rd for Ireland.

I am going to post photographs and stories here as often as I possibly can, so make sure you bookmark this page and check back often!!

If you want a postcard, please leave me a comment on any post with your address OR send an e-mail to blesscatastrophe@yahoo.com or somehow get in touch with me.

I'll give you more contact information like my address over there once I get it.

I'm going to miss everyone (especially Brian and Boner)