Dublin & a Lazy Weekend

Hello! So, this weekend (as in Thursday and Friday) we went to Dublin for a school trip. We left at 7am, which was LOVELY. Guhhh... Then we had a nice 4 hour bus ride. Tim Jones, the dean of BCA, came along as our chaperon and had a lot planned for our time there. We went to so many different museums and galleries...my word. I think the first place we went was the Modern Art Museum. It was in an old building that, apparently, used to be a hospital. I just don't get a lot of modern art. Some of it-ok, fine-but a lot of it just leaves me stumped and sort of annoyed, really. But, I won't get into that whole one-sided debate on my blog! However, there was a cool photography exhibit there that was photos from NY. I know, I'm such an American, but leave me alone, there was some really great work in that exhibit! I think it was all black and white photography and I love the contrasts. :) We also went to a museum with a Francis Bacon exhibit, and I didn't actually go the exhibit of his paintings...you see, a few of us were starving to death and they didn't really give us time in our schedule, soooo we looked around for a while and saw some of the museum and Francis Bacon's crazy studio and then we went to eat. There were a couple quotes, by Francis Bacon, that I really liked:

"I think artists stay much closer to their childhood than other people. They
remain far more constant to those early sensations. Other people change
completely, but artists tend to stay the way they have been from the very
beginning."

"For some reason the moment I saw this place [referring to his studio that I saw]
I knew that I could work here. I am very influenced by places-by the atmosphere
of a room..."

I know that I am very affected by my visual environment. So, I decorated my studio immediately! I might try and do a project that involves covering an entire wall with objects and colors, etc. that express who I am/what I love/ kind of the essence of me. I think it could be a cool self portrait project for me to attempt. Anyways, I also met a leprechaun! I got a picture with him (had to pay him a euro though). Kinji is such an adorable and sweet man. He is the professor that came along with the MCAD students. On Thursday night, he wanted to find an Asian restaurant, so Max, Brian, Alex, Nick, Suzanne, and I went with him to a place called Wagamama. It was really good! We all ate with our chopsticks. :) I actually did alright with them, too! Kinji was so kind to buy us a couple appetizers and then he also bought us a couple desserts, including ginger something cheesecake and some type of spiced chocolate cake. nick told us a story at dinner about how he once had a pet cockroach, named Ralph...I think that was his name. It was so ridiculous, he said it was a gift for him while he was heartbroken from an ended relationship and then another girl came to love Ralph through loving Nick, according to his story=so sweet. lol Ohhh the conversations that we have here! Sooooo, we had dinner there and then we headed back to the hostel, called Barnacles, and I ended up just hanging out in the room and reading a bit until a few girls(Jenny, Allison, Kelly, and Maggie) came and we all just talked, which was nice. Eventually, Allison, Kelly, and Maggie left, so Jenny and I got ready for bed and then ended up talking for an hour or so before finally going to sleep, I love getting to know new people, it makes me happy inside. :) We went to some more museums and such the next day, which included a historical museum where they had bodies that had been discovered in a bog so the skin had turned to leather! It was insane how well preserved some of them were. The hands on one were so crazy, it looked like a sculpture of some type of weird clothing item, since it was leather. You could even see the facial hair on some of them still and they were SO old! Then, Suzanne, John, Janine, and I went to meet the Arcadia people. We had to fill out and turn in our course selection forms. They (Grainne and Hayden) took us out for a really nice lunch. We also got tea and dessert (I got amazing chocolate orange cheesecake!) Then, we parted ways (after spending most of the afternoon with them! They are such delightful people) and Suzanne and Janine and I wandered into a cheap fun jewelry shop and bought necklaces, then went to Dunnes, where we bought some clothes. I got a fun black shirt with a pretty beaded neckline and a turquoise t-shirt. We then headed back to the hostel to get out bags and take off for home! Brittany and Brian stayed the whole weekend in Dublin, so our house was a bit quieter this weekend with less family members. On Saturday, Suzanne and I walked to the school and sketched and hung out with Marcus, it was nice. The walks there and back were great for conversation. I love Suzanne.:) Last night, we watched the movie Snatch and spent time together watching a ridiculous lottery game show beforehand on our one tv channel. Today, I went to church at the Catholic church right behind our house! It was cute and Katie also went. We talked to the priest afterwards and he is ridiculous! He just has a strange sense of humor and Katie and I were laughing hysterically a good majority of the time almost for no reason. I kind of lazied around the house after that, made lunch, and then watched the movie "A Walk in the Clouds" with Michelle. It was a delightfully cheesy movie, starring Keanu Reeves=enough said. My favorite line of his was "When I was boy, every night, I used to climb up to roof of the orphanage and wish on every star I could see." CLASSIC! Gotta love Keanu lol. Theeeeeen, Brittany and Brian got home and most of us watched Zoolander :) Such a silly movie. Then, we laid on the wood floor in the family room, wrapped up in our comforters and just acted liek slugs for a while and I ended up giving Suzanne a backrub as she read for Photography and now, here I am, blogging for you! Then end!

LIVE @ 8

Hey! So, tonight, some of our group went to a performance art thing at this pub in Galway. I had never before seen live performance art, so I was a bit scared. But, although the first part was weird, the videos at the end were hilarious-they were just outrageous, silly videos that this guy made-he has great funny voices and costumes and just very strange ideas for videos. I am going to try and attach some videos on here, but I don't know if they'll work-hopefully, they do, otherwise, look up the name HUGH COONEY on YouTube and watch some of his stuff=so strange. The place we went to was called LIVE @ 8, and Ania, a professor at BCA, is an organizer for the events. But, anyways, I am very glad that there were not any nude performance artists prancing around a stage making strange noises on random objects and painting things with their bodies...those are the types of ideas I have of performance art lol. My laundry is currently washing, and the machine goes nuts! It sounds like it's going to take off and fly to space!!! Turbo cycle, I guess...goodness. I had tea...probably was not wise, we get picked up at 7 am tomorrow to go to Dublin-that could be interesting, but I suppose i can sleep on the bus if I need to! Oh! We had our Wednesday session meetings today, and Tom Malloy and Ania had their presentations=awesome! I loved Tom's stuff! He's the drawing and painting professor, so he had a lot of really great drawings, some cool, detailed pencil drawn portraits and a lot of other stuff. It was great. Ok, now to try and upload those videos!

Tuesday

Hello, again! So, it is Tuuuuesday and, well...not much to tell for today yet, I guess. I didn't really have much motivation to get work done today, so I did some sitting and then I went over to some other students studio spaces and hung out with them and sketched a bit/made some silly cartoon-like drawings for Janine's studio wall. it was pretty funny today, cuz it's Brian's birthday, and he is afraid of whales, so Robert(the do-it-all mini-bus-driver man=really fun sense of sassy humor) told everyone to make whale noises all the time around Brian and to put up pictures of whales and so on, so at one point, Robert even helped Mike(whose studio is next to Brian's) set up speakers for his laptop so that he could play whale noises from youtube very loudly in the studio! It was great. Suzanne passed around a card all day that she had decorated with a nice whale wearing a party hat. :) Then, Michelle and I walked back early, so that we could buy baking ingredients and make a cake! We made a really funny owl cake with 2 layers of cake(chocolate in the middle)-we got M&Ms and little chocolate buttons and pretzels and such, it's pretty funny. I still need to put up pictures from that, I will probably do that later tonight, after we go out to the pub for a b-day celebration(unfortunately, nothing like the dance party last weekend). Oh! I forgot, this morning, a few girls and I went into the computer lab and signed on to Brian's account(we all have the same password) and we changed the desktop backgrounds to pictures of whales so that whichever computer he uses, there it will be! mwuahahahahahaha... Well, we are gonna head over to the pub soon, should be fun, I think quite a few other students are joining us! Love you and miss you, everyone!

Ok, so tonight at the pub-while Brian and some others were celebrating Brian's birthday with strong liquids, Michelle and I were taking sugar shots-please enjoy the videos.

A Very Basic, Pleasant Day

Hello :) So, today was my independent drawing day, so I went to my studio after sitting in the cafe with people for a while, like I always do. I decided to start writing a story for a silly book I had an idea for, so I wrote a couple pages for that in my sketchbook and then made a funky birthday card for Brian's birthday, which is tomorrow. I don't think he reads this, but in case he does...I better not give away that we are hiring a magician, an entire circus performance group and Obama to come tomorrow in honor of his birth. Whoops. I think i just gave it all away. Anyways! Tom Malloy, the drawing/painting professor came to my studio for a weekly catch up visit and we chatted for a while about my story idea and progress and he gave me advice for illustration inspiration and text layout and random artsy/organizational stuff that you wouldn't really by that interested to hear about. I made some fun sketches of cows for my book I'm writing, and then, funny enough, came close to being trampled by a small herd of cows on a dirt road when I went out walking right afterwards! Silly cows... I collected some more cool old stuff in the morning, as well, from the "junk" piles out back and am excited to have more old, aesthetically pleasing decor for my studio floor...that kind of rhymed :) I walked back to the house with Michelle, by means of the Burren way hiking path that I have taken only once before today. It's a nice path, I enjoyed it. :) Then...I took a very short nap, squashed in a two person couch with my huge bed comforter, made dinner, and watched the rest of Matilda and then Stranger Than Fiction=2 very good movies.:) Nooooow I'm sitting here trying to figure out what to do...I guess maybe I could SNEEZE! excuse me. But, I think maybe I will finally edit the pictures from the potluck/birthday dance party to upload onto my facebook...guhhhhh I am getting so sick of uploading things, especially when my computer is on it's deathbed (my hard drive is full, apparently=awesome.) The end for now! I don't think I took any interesting pictures today...oh wait! Yes. I took a video of the cows following me and just of the cows and of Marcus sleeping in Stephanie's studio :) I may or may not put some of those on this post...we shall wait and see.

Birthday Dance Party Extravaganza!

TONIGHT WAS SO MUCH FUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! POTLUCK AND A BIRTHDAY PARTY DANCE PARTY WITH A DJ AND LIGHTS AND TONS OF FUN AT THE PUB AFTERWARDS!!!!! THAT IS ALL! :D (i'll post pictures later...I have way too many. CORRECTION ON SUNDAY: my photos were deleted off of my camera :( I only have a select amount of the photos from last night)

Food.

Today, we got to sleep in! Whoohoo!!! We met at the Emo station for the bus and then Brian (the bus driver) took us to Gort for grocery shopping and such. First, our whole house family ate lunch together at Grady's restaurant=SO GOOD! I had my first taste of Irish style curry, it was delicious. But, I am still so happy that our family ate lunch together, even though we totally didn't need to, we didn't even realize it really until we were all sitting down and then we were happy. :) We all get along so well! After we ate, we went to Super Valu grocery store and bought food. When we got home, Brittany and I made rice krispie bars with these really funny, multi-colored marshmallows. So the crunchy bottom part is like an orangey color (pink and yellow marshmallows) and then we drizzled the teal color (blue and green ones) on the top! So silly, hopefully they'll taste alright. We have the potluck at 8, so we'll bring those and then Suzanne is making some type of curry thing and I dunno about the guys. It should be fun, eating and communing together in a student house! :) It is super foggy today! Oh! On the bus as we were driving to Gort, we saw a ton of adorable little baby sheep, they were so precious and tiny! They had that kinda wrinkled skin, like a bulldog puppy, and were prancing all over the place, being cute and small. Then, we saw a couple tiny dogs when we were walking back to our house! So many animals around here! :) Wow, I use a lot of exclamation points...whoops. Please enjoy the video. The end.

The Cliffs of Moher

Today, we took an Irish Studies fieldtrip to the Cliffs of Moher, it was so gorgeous there! Ahhhhh!!! It was one of those places that I thought I would get there and be like "Ok, well I guess that's pretty sweet and kinda pretty, but I'm over it," but it was so beautiful! Every angle changed it and made it beautiful in a whole new way and I couldn't stop taking pictures! It was pretty sad though, while we were there, we started to see a bunch of men in bright orange suits laying on the rock ledges and looking out over the water and then a helicopter came and a boat was searching the water by the cliffs. We don't know if someone fell and jumped or what happened, but I guess that kind of thing happens there quite a bit, unfortunately. :( But, aside from that depressing bit of information, we had the most beautifully clear and bright day we could have possibly received! The light for pictures was incredible.:) Whoa, I am freezing, sitting in my studio right now! I walked over here with a couple students to work, so I've been messin around with some junk that I've collected and really like...but I'm ready to go back, just waiting for Brian so that I don't walk back in the dark for 45 minutes by myself! I am also very hungry, I got home after our fieldtrip and wasn't starving, for once in my life, so i just ate bananas and peanut butter, then we walked over to the school and now I'm starving! I want my tortellini. I must have it when I return home! Well...hmmm...I guess we didn't do much else today, just walked around for a couple hours at the cliffs (don't worry family members, I did NOT walk close to the edge of any cliff) and then came home (after I got a really delicious mocha!). Now, I just need to try and talk Brian into leaving soon. The end!

Marcus

Hello! So today, I had my Mixed Media class in the morning, and it was kind of exciting! Our project relates to a "Journey" of some sort, we can do whatever we want with it. :) I went to that and then went exploring some more (so beautiful!) When I got back to my studio, Marcus the cat was sleeping on my chair!!! He ended up staying there for hours!!! I would leave to go do things and come back, and there he would be, being cute and cuddly, wanting attention, which I gave him! :) The rain was great today, too! Brian and I kicked around a soccer ball out in a huge open field behind the barn studio-I bumped the ball off of my head, it was pretty humiliating really. But now my boots are nice and broken in, I'd say! So dirty and getting like scratches here and there after climbing mountains and trekking around in the rain and such things. I did some drawing today (included in the photos I uploaded) and lazied around being mello while I thought about art and doing other things. Then, tonight, we went "set dancing" with almost the whole group! It was so funny. Brittany was my dancing partner, I was the man. I lead like a pro! Hahaha...not really though, we were all over the place, so much spinning, I got dizzy! i think our group has the opportunity to go back for classes every week or so with student funds, so I will probably do that, could be a good work-out! After that, we just all sat in the pub where the dancing had taken place and we talked and laughed and had weird art people conversations that made no sense and it was fun. Some of the group went to Greene's pub when we got back to Ballyvaughan, but I wasn't up for it, so I'm here, showered up and no longer sweaty and nasty and we might watch Sleeping Beauty to make us tired lol. That's about it! Happy Birthday, Nuts the Squirrel! You're 14 years old today! (I read the tag last night, randomly, and discovered that his Beanie Baby birthday was today lol)

Fetch!

Today wasn't too eventful. Every Wednesday, we have a full group meeting, "Wednesday Session" and we also meet with Deborah in the library. I also had my first art history class, it seems like it could be pretty interesting, it's contemporary art, so I feel like I will be able to relate a bit more to some of it. This morning, in my studio, I decided that I'm going to read a Psalm a day, every morning, first thing I do. :) I'm looking forward to it! After class, Suzanne, Michelle, Brittany, and I walked back to our house, rather than riding with Robert in the mini bus. It was a really cool walk through a woodsy area, fields, over walls-it's actually a hiking trail! Since, then, I've taken a shower (it's too difficult getting up in the morning to do it), made dinner (pasta bake thing), and now I'm watching 21 Jumpstreet with Brittany and Michelle. It is such a cheesy, but awesome, show! It has Johnny Depp from waaaay back in his younger years in the 80s! On the topic of watching things on a tv, last night, Suzanne, Brittany, Brian, Michelle, and I walked over to Orchard house to watch a funny leprechaun movie called Darby O'Gill and the Little People! It was pretty entertaining and it was fun to finally see Orchard house, it's the biggest one, 16 people live there. They have like 20 living room areas...ok, maybe not 20, but probably 3! Tonight, we still might head over to a pub and hang out for a bit with some friends from the other houses. I have only been to Logue's pub so far, so we might go to Greene's...not sure. I am getting kinda tired already though, but that could change at any time, I get a second wind most nights. Anyways, watch this video of a dog that was on campus and wanted to play!



It was funny, I felt bad when I had to leave the stick on the ground and go to class. :( Well, that's about it for today, I think. Tomorrow, we go to an Irish dancing lesson, I will tell you about that after the event!

Sculptural Day of Exploration

Today was my first day with an actual class meeting time. Professor Tom Flanagan met with all the sculpture students this morning from 10-12ish to discuss things about the various levels for the semester and he also showed us a bunch of his work=amazing! He does a lot of mixed media type of work, like video that is incorporated with larger installations and sound and other things, it was really really cool. Then, he showed us some other artists on a slide show, not tons of which I was a huge fan of, but there were a few that could possibly give me some inspiration. He gave us our first project assignment, which is to use found objects to create a piece. Towards the end of the class, I was feeling pretty discouraged about myself and my art-making abilities, but I went back to my studio and read the verses I taped up in the corner and that gave some temporary relief. After lunch, Suzanne, Brittany, and I went walking and found a really amazingly beautiful area that is right by the college campus. The girls had class, so I went back to my studio to retrieve some things, like my backpack to stow found objects in, and some proper mittens that have the exposed fingers feature :) Then, I went back to the wooded area and explored on my own! It's kinda interesting, because I've started realizing that I'm becoming a lot more introverted now that I spend so much time by myself, working in my studio. I love people and I visit people and talk and laugh and act silly, as usual, but I find myself spending so much more time being quiet and mello. Kinda like the old days, right mom and dad? But anyways, the wooded area was just so gorgeous and magical. The amount of green was incredible and the moss all over the rocks and the vines on the trees...oh man, oh man, oh man! I posted a couple videos with me being an excitable idiot, but it gives a visual idea for where i was spending my afternoon. Being there really built me back up spiritually and I was ready to keep moving forward with my day! I found some old bottles and a really really awesome stick! So, I brought it all back to my studio and started messing around with the stuff I got. I went and rummaged out behind the barn studios again and finally decided that it was time I brought in the rusted sheet of metal that I am in love with, and have been since I got here. I had Brian help me nail it to my studio wall and then I figured out a way that i want the stick to work over it and then i will put some things into the knotted area of the stick. But, who knows, that plan might change completely, we have like 3 weeks before our sculpture project is even due. I found another big piece of pretty nice fabric, so I want to make a pillow for my floor so that I can sit on the floor and work down there when I need my "floor time." Right now, my studio is pretty trashed looking...there is dirt all over the floor and stuff piled up on my table and old rusty found objects littering the floor with their lovliness :) I love old stuff, you guys! So much! AHHH! Well, I worked on that for a while and then stopped for a while to work on my pictures and such. I headed back to the house in the mini bus (driven by Robert, the do-it-all-BCA-man)around 5 and made some tortellini with cheese and sauce, I also had bread, carrots, tea, and later a couple mini chocolate muffins. Theeen, I finally got all my pictures uploaded on facebook and on here and now I'm finally doing my blog! Whew! So much time spent on these technological things! I want comments from people to hear how things are in the US besides what I hear from my parents and a couple friends. I WORE FLANNEL TODAY SINCE I FAILED BETHEL BY NOT PARTICIPATING IN FLANNEL FRIDAY LAST WEEK! I'm sorry, Adam...I still am anxious to know what the committee has to say about the situation, I know it's quite serious of an offense.

First Day of "Class" (and Galway weekend)

So, today was the first official day of classes...but MY Mondays consist of independent studio time, cuz it's my day for independent study drawing...but reeeally, I can do whatever I want on Mondays and probably most of the week with how open and independent our classes are. Late this afternoon, my drawing professor stopped by my studio and sat down to talk with me about a bunch of stuff like what I enjoy working on and what I might be doing over the semester and so on and so forth, it was good! I had been a bit nervous and intimidated by him after my first encounter in the full faculty and student meeting, but he seems like he'll be really good and open for whatever I want to do. He said that some students will make one drawing over the whole semester, while others will make hundreds! So, I can work on a bunch of random stuff, so I'm excited about that freedom. :) I just made home-made mac n' cheese, and it was pretty good! Yay, I'm not going to starve to death! :) Today, in the studio, I did a lot of doodling/brainstorming about ideas for projects, I have some ideas for drawing and sculpture, but I have no idea what I will end up doing for mixed media, I guess I just don't really understand the class yet, so I'll wait until we get together as a group and then everything will, hopefully, make sense. The sky was so beautiful today! Unfortunately, I got into my studio around 9:30 and was sitting and working in there basically all day up until around 4, when I decided I had gone artistically braindead. But, once I walked outside, I ran back and got my camera, cuz the sky was so beautiful and the air was so fresh! I wore my new wool sweater today, and ohhh my goodness, I love it so much! It's a nice tealish color, and I got it for a decent price, I think. I have become even more obsessed with chocolate since I've arrived in Ireland, it's bad news, but once I find chocolatey goodness, I'm set and happier than ever! I also have started drinking tea with milk and sugar, and I rather enjoy it. Suzanne started noticing that I always crave it around 9 or 9:30, although, tonight, it might be a bit earlier than usual. My throat hurts, I woke up with a sore throat, which is my least favorite ailment! A lot of students are sick here, so it was bound to find me. Bummer. The campus cat, Marcus, is so cute! He's a little black cat and he is awfully friendly. I picked him up today, after lunch, and carried him into my studio (he's allowed in there!) and I sat him on my stool and pet him. He loved it, he kept meowing in really cute silly ways because he was so content with all the attention! I think I will probably get into the habit of taking him hostage in the barn studio so that I can have a nice little kitty to entertain me and keep me happy. :) I'm trying to think what else is new...hmmmm...did I talk about Galway? No. My goodness. So, this weekend, we went to Galway as a whole group, but only some of us stayed the night. I stayed in a hostel called Snoozles with 5 other girls(Suzanne, Michelle, Janine, Katie, and Maura)! Such a cute and silly name for the hostel, but it was pretty nice! We went around with a tour group on the day when the whole class was there, and we saw a lot of the same sites that my Arcadia friends and I had seen when we were in Galway during our homestay days, but it was still pretty cool, the day was nice. :) The city of Galway is so great, the streets during the day are beautiful with all the brightly colored stores with the light from the over the bay illuminating everything. We went out Saturday night and went to a few different pubs to hang out, and Janine and I just kinda bounced around (neither of us drink) and we happened upon a pub where there was a 50th birthday party going on upstairs! So, we totally went up there and found the last couple of open chairs and just enjoyed the live music (fiddles, tin whistle, etc.) It was so much fun! We were probably in there for about an hour and a half! Janine's motive was to wait for the cake, but we never got to have any. We ended up going to Supermac's (Irish McDonalds plus like way more) and got ice cream! Then, on Sunday, Janine, Katie, and I went to 11:15 mass at a beautiful cathedral in Galway. It was pretty different and quite short, but so beautiful and cool to get a feel for how church might be here. This coming Sunday, or Saturday night, I hope to finally get to the church right behind our house! I think it's supposed to be pretty cute inside, and apparently, the priest has a nice voice! Cute! Ok...this sweater is starting to get a bit warm. Anywho! After church, the three of us wandered around and shopped for things that we needed. I was too brainless to go to the fabric store on Saturday, so when I went on Sunday, it was closed. Grrr...the stupidity that overwhelms me at times, myyyy goodness. I ended up buying some hideous neon ribbon (for a potential sculpture project) and some drawing supplies at another shop and then we all went grocery shopping at Dunnes. I bought about 43 euros worth of food, I think I did alright with getting things that I needed! I got such good bread! Two loaves of freshly baked white bread for around 3 euro, I think. Yum. Well, anyways, we headed back to Ballyvaughan at 5 and then we sat around on our computers as always, and then I decided to try and use my straightener (with the adapter and converter, like it said to!) and it made the lovely popping spark of orange that we all dread. Sooooo...I broke the house for a while. Our wireless was out and most of the outlets didn't work, but then Suzanne finally located the fuse box and we got everything up and working again. Yay! I didn't permanently break the house!!! Well...that's about it for now, I think. I'm sure I forgot a lot of funny things that I wanted to say...oh! We went to a little Christian cafe for lunch on Saturday, we didn't know it was until we got in and it was nice and cheap and they gave us enough food and then I got a deliciously perfect brownie (oh gosh, now I'm craving chocolate...good thing I loaded up at Dunnes!) and yeah...The End!

The Burren!!! The College of Art!!! Friends!!! Studio Spaces!!!

Hey guys! So, I have been horrible the last few days at updating this with everything I've been doing! So, I have pictures on facebook from Galway and such, but I have a lot more! Galway was so beautiful! It's on the Galway Bay, so we can see Galway across the bay when we are at Burren and vice versa :) kinda fun. So, I got to see it from both sides! It is so funny to have a little pack of art majors (Suzanne, John, Janine, and I) taking a walk. One or all of us stop every couple seconds to take a picture :) There were just way too many photo opportunities there and everywhere in Ireland! We did homestays there and-did I already write about Galway? Maybe I did...no, I didn't! ok, anyways, on with what I was saying! So...the homestay was good. There was a girl our age in the house and she was funny, so that was nice and the mom made us lunches and stuff :) We will definitely be going to Galway a lot, it's about 45 minutes from here on a bus, I dooo declaaare. But! We are now in the Burren and it is great!!! I live in house with 5 other students: Suzanne (my roommate, who is amazing! I love her very very much already!), Brittany & Michelle (these two room together), and Brian & Max (also roommates-they go to the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, so kind of Minnesotans, even though they are not otherwise.) Our house has never been used for student housing before, it's a vacation rental home, so it's really nice! We have fun as a house! We've spent a lot of time sitting in our family room area by the fireplace and watching the show "Freaks and Geeks," which we already finished because they cancelled the progression of the show, which is lame. But house family time was great! Right now, we are making breakfast for dinner! Pancakes, hashbrowns, eggs, possibly some type of meat! Yay for food! I think I may starve to death while I'm here though...really. lol The first night at the Burren, all the students went to a pub to meet people and have dinner. Afterwards, I went out with a group of 6 others and we walked a long ways down a road in the dark and the thick fog (when we had no idea where anything was yet!) and we finally made our way to the near top of a huge hill, which we titled "The Mountain!" On the journey, we laughed about there being an evil man eating goat somewhere in the Burren, which we never encountered, and we climbed over/under a couple fences and ran into some cows. At one point, we came to field with a barbed wire fence and we crawled underneath it, not knowing what it was blocking. I spotted a cow in the distance but some of the guys decided not to believe me, sooo they continued and a couple others and I went back to the safe side of the fence. Of course, a couple moments later, they start flipping out, screaming and running back to the fence, flying underneath it! They claim they saw "The Demon White Cow." So, now there is not only a man eating goat on the mountain, but also an evil cow=GREAT! But, the journey was great and once, but once we got to the top, the stars were absolutely incredible! We could see all the star dust and shooting stars and every constellation imaginable! It was a great first night :) I am so lost with the days and how long we've been here, but the other day, we took a class fieldtrip to some different places that my facebook photos will illustrate; it was freezing! (one of the days, we were in Ennis, and we heard this awesome guy on the street singing a Neil Young song!) Today, we went to the school and spent our day in our own personal studio spaces!!! Then, we had meetings throughout the day for registering for our classes. I will be taking Independent Study Drawing, Mixed Media, Sculpture in Context II, Art History, and Irish Studies. Apparently, for Irish Studies, we go on a fieldtrip every week to a cool new place around the area!!! I'm excited. I decorated my studio space with a bunch of fabric scraps, so it looks all homey for me:) I will be spending a looooot of time in there, afterall! Oh! We built a fort in our house a couple nights ago, and it was awesome!!! We took down two curtains and tied them up around underneath the staircase using yarn, it was seriously a gorgeous creation, compliments of Brittany and Lindsey's fort building talents. So, Suzanne, Brittany, Brian, and I spent 2-3 hours in there on cushions we dragged in and listened to music and looked at pictures in the lamplight. Towards the end, we got really loud and silly-singing very loudly to funny songs they used to play at middleschool dances! It was much fun. However, Brid (the woman right next door who owns the house) freaked out when she discovered the fort and apparently the curtains were like 800 euro! Who the heck spends that much on fort building curtains?! My goodness...Anyways, we took it down, but I DID take pictures of it :) I am getting quite excited to eat breakfast for dinner!!! All the smells of overwhelming me right now as I sit here in the kitchen since we now have WiFi!!!!!!!!!! Ok, so I'm a little bit excited. We also have WiFi in our studios! So, I can talk to you guys no matter where I am...well, kinda. The time difference kinda makes things a bit more difficult, unfortunately, but I'll be in the studio late a night, so I can talk then :) Well! I think that is about it for now, if not, I will just make update edits on this post :) Love you and miss you!!!

The Seafarer by Conor McPherson

So, tonight, as a full Arcadia study abroad group, we went to the play The Seafarer at the Abbey Theatre. According to a website i found, the description of the play says:


A thrilling tale of a debt with the Devil…

“Drink yourself up on to the next shelf in the basement. Drink to where possibility feels infinite and your immortality feels strong.”

It’s Christmas Eve and Sharky has returned to Dublin to look after his irascible, ageing brother who’s recently gone blind. Old drinking buddies Ivan and Nicky are holed up at the house too, hoping to play some cards. With the arrival of a stranger from the distant past, the stakes are raised ever higher. In fact, Sharky may be playing for his very soul…
In the midst of this raucous tale of drinking, craic and card playing, there is a tender story of a family, and of redemption. So, pull up a chair alongside Sharky, Nicky, Ivan and co and enjoy a great story, well told.

This play was written for Ireland, so all the actor's spoke in strong grumbling accents and cussed and drank like mad! The acting was phenomenal, even though some of the time, I had not a clue what they were sayin! The character of Ivan was absolutely hilarious. He was always drinking, like most of 'em, and was extremely clumsy and stumbled over his words as his gruff and stuttering voice babbled in and out. As the description says, the devil was involved in the plot. The character named Sharky had won a bet years before that won him his freedom from the cell he shared with the devil. He had escaped hell that time, but the devil showed up for a second shot at stealing a soul. The part of the play that really hit me hard and stayed with me was a point at which that devil and Sharky were alone in a room and the devil described hell. It was absolutely horrible. It nearly stopped my heart from beating as I listened. I knew that all he said was not even near to the truth of the horrors of hell, even though his description was terrifying. He said that nobody is there to love you and that time never allows you to move forward and escape, by means of death. After that, he briefly stated that "in Heaven, time slips by." The last bit of the monologue really reminded me of something very important. With the devil, with sin, there is no love, there is no freedom, even though it can often feel like the freedom. With God, with his mercy and forgiveness, there is more incredible love than can ever be completely comprehended. A life lived for God is a life that gives your soul the incredible reward of Heaven and true freedom in an eternity filled with joyful worship, directed towards the one who died to forgive our sins. How amazing is that?! SO AMAZING! I know that there are so many lost souls. You and I and people all over are struggling to find love and security in this world. We just need to know and remember that Jesus Christ is the source of that security, He is the source of that love. There is NO OTHER SOURCE that can give us those two things the way that He can, absolutely no other. I feel fear thinking of those words spoken in that play about hell, but I feel peace and joy when I think of the love I have from my savior, Jesus Christ. :) I know that here, and anywhere else that i roam, I will be taken care of as long as I put my trust and faith in Him. Thank you for all of your prayers!

Catchin' Up Here! Yesterday and Today's Shhhhedgwool.

Hello again! So right now, I am laying in my bed at the hostel, tucked under my blanket after running around outside in the cold for a while! I realized that I haven't done too well the last couple days at updating everyone on what I've been up to here in Dublin. Yesterday, we slept until around 9:45 and then got ready for the day, dilly-dallied, went to a coffee place a little ways down (the same one I went to with Suzanne on the first day) and then we met up with the whole group for lunch at a place called Luigi Malone's. The study abroad program paid for the meal, so that was great! I had BBQ Chicken pizza=delicious and mighty fulfilling. During the time while we waited for our food (our table was very very last!) Suzanne and I talked and got excited to get to the Burren and see our art school out on the countryside! After we finished lunch, we were free to do what we pleased, so a group of us girls (there are 6 in my hostel room) went to the National Gallery (art museum). It was free and pretty cool! Later that night, we went to the Port House restaurant, which had tapas and amazing desserts! I got this adorable little mini sirloin steak, it was smaller than my palm and was on an itsy bitsy piece of garlic bread!!! So funny! I laughed out loud (llol, mom) when they put it in front of me. For dessert, Natalie and I split an order of chocolate mousse and an order of churros con chocolate=whoa, yum, give me more.

Today:
We were up bright and early (meaning when it was STILL DARK!) at the lovely time of 7:45. Ew. We quickly got ready for the day, went next door, to a pizza place, and got a free continental breakfast(weird a bit? yes, we all thought so) and then we met outside the hostel with the entire group, hopped on a bus, and headed to a hotel, where we went through a bunch of orientation stuff like safety precautions and blah blah blah, some of which was fun cuz the Irish are just cute with how they talk and the words they use, like hicklety-picklety and might'nt. :) Then, they gave us tiny tea sandwiches for lunch (we were not pleased about that! lol) and then we went on the hop-on-hop-off bus tour. During this, Suzanne and I stopped at the Kilmainham Gaol (Jail). We took a tour for 2 euros, which was not bad! It was really cool and interesting! It was actually literally cool, the jail was freezing! But it was a really really old place that shut down usage around 1926 I think, I may be wrong, most like am, but it was something like that...It was sad, they told us the story about this man who was sentenced to be executed, but he and his fiance were married in the jail's chapel the day before. Very sad. They used to do public executions here, also. I am very glad that those no longer take place! Kinda funny though, the tour guide said that U2 has part of a music video filmed there, what a goof-ball! Let's see...then we just came back to the hostel and chilled out with our trusty laptops. I think I'll be going to a pub next door for a late dinner around 9 tonight. Otherwiiiise....hmmm....yeah! OH! We found out about housing and homestays. Apparently, Suzanne and I are probably roommates in the Brids House, which is close to the village of Ballyvaughan. Our 2 homestay nights are comin up, and Suzanne and I will be staying with a family with 4 kids! Three boys, and one girl, we do not know the ages yet. So, hopefully that will be a fun experience. Yep! That's all for now! It's been pretty cold here, how cold is it there in the midwest? I heard it was -20!!! Ahhhh!!!!! Craziness.

I SAW A LEPRECHAUN TODAY!

Dublin!

I made it!!! I am sitting in a lounge space at a Hostel in Dublin with my friend, Suzanne, who I recently met (she will also be studying at Burren!) Traveling was long and I am relieved to have that part out of the way! I can't wait to see the Burren, my new home for the next 4 months!:) Unfortunately, 'tis a bit slushy here in the Eire, so I still feel a bit like I'm in the midwest! But I'm sure once we get out exploring, it will really hit me that I'm in a different country! It's been fun already to hear the accents and observe the wardrobe differences and such things. I love that about a new place! Outside of the window to my right, there are vine-covered walls! So lovely! I just know I'm going to love all the green here-so get outta here slush! Well, that's about it for now! Love you!

P.S. Abigail, I'm sorry to say that I have not found Doben yet.

Ireland-bound!

The day has finally arrived, I leave for Ireland tonight! My flight was delayed a tiny bit, but hopefully I'll make it out of the country eventually! I decided that writing a blog would be a great way to keep the greatest amount of people updated about my semester-and that way, only the people who really want to know can by visiting this blog! I was pretty darn nervous about this trip over the last few months, but I'm finally getting excited :) There will be so many changes, not only in location, but in lifestyle, communication, independence, and responsibility! I will be meeting many new people, which excites me almost as much as exploring a magical/fairy-taleish new land! However, I know there will be times of struggle, frustration, and doubt about my artistic abilities. Due to this inevitability of hard times, I would appreciate your prayers and words of encouragement. I love all of you and hope that your time spent in places other than Ireland will be wonderful! God bless and please pray for me during my travels!