Galway and The Aran Islands

Hello everyone! I had a really great weekend. As courtesy of Tisch, everyone was taken on a weekend trip to the city of Galway and The Aran Islands on the west coast of Ireland. We left at 10 AM on Saturday by bus to Galway, which took three hours. The scenery was beautiful! I saw so many cows and sheep and horses on the way because we passed  through the country.

Susanne took us out to the city centre, and then we were left to explore the city for 4 hours. It was very crowded and filled with tourists. There were lots of Irish gift shops and jewelry shops that sold Claddagh rings (apparaently Galway is where they originated). Our group split up into smaller groups. Some of us went to lunch (I had to resort to McDonald's because I couldn't remember my PIN number) and some went off to get Claddagh rings. We walked around the city, looking at the various shops. We stopped in a second hand bookstore and had books for pretty cheap. Eventually we walked out of the crowded city to the water.

After walking by the water we went to a local street fair. I bought a homemade donut and ice cream and it was delicious. By then there wasn't much else to do, and we all got bored. We had to be back at the bus by 5, so we just sat around until it was time to go.

We got back on the bus and headed to the dock where we would be taking a ferry to the Aran Islands. The ride took about 45 minutes. I went outside to take some photos (and was really cold!) and then went back to my seat inside and dozed off for a bit. The island we were going to was named Inis Oirr.

By the time we got to Inis Oirr it was already night. All of us were staying in a hostel. We put our bags away in our rooms and went out to dinner at a local pub/restaurant called Rauiri's. I had fish, chips, potatoes, and apple pie for dessert. I was definitely tired after that meal. Susanne took us next door to the pub where live Irish music was playing. It was getting crowded because a concert was ending. I was too exhausted to really enjoy myself, so I went back to the hostel with some others. The hostel so was cold that night, no bueno...

The next day we had breakfast provided to us by the hostel, and then we went on a walking tour of the island. Our guide was a local who knew the history of the island and most of the people who lived there. Before the island was inhabited it was made completely out of rock. then when people came over, they moved rocks around and somehow managed to make fertile land. During our tour we saw some people  building a stone wall. Apparently they do it every year. The whole island is filled with stone walls that separate the houses.

The island was beautiful. The tour guide kept us walking because it was cold, but we warmed up walking up all those steep hills. 250 people live on the island, and everyone knows each other and their family histories. It's all about the family history in Ireland.

Our guide took us through the island and to the top, where there were some ruins. There was an old school, a watch tower, and castle ruins. Our walking tour was 2 hours. It was nice though.

After the walking tour we had a horse and trap tour of the island. We split up into 2 groups and took a ride in a horse-drawn carriage of sorts. We saw even more of the island, including a lake and a shipwreck. That tour was only an hour, and then we had lunch! Soup, sandwiches, and chips (aka fries). After lunch we had 2 hours of free time before we had to take the ferry back to the mainland. I was too exhausted to do more exploring, so me and my friends played on a playground and then went to a local pub for coffee and hot chocolate.

The journey home was long. I slept for most of the ferry and bus ride. It was a great trip though. I have lots more pictures, if we're friends on Facebook you should check out the albums!

Culture Night!

Hello everyone! Tonight was Culture Night in Dublin. All the artistic institutions were open late and hosted free events for the public. Anna told us about a street fair at the Irish Museum of Modern Art that served free beer. I went with Ellis, Stephanie, Hannah, Paulo, and Anthony.

We got kinda lost on our way there. Google Maps didn't really give good directions, and we had no idea what the streets were. We took the Luas (which is a tram) to the right area and managed to find our way to the museum based on a map. We got there late. The event was from 7 to 10pm, and we got there at 9pm. It wasn't really a street fair. It was outside on the museum grounds. They were still handing out free beer, and a band was playing live jazz music. But most of the other beverages and food was gone. Some exhibits from local artists were open.

The Jazzberries

It was a pretty cold night...in the 40s. The event ended at 10, and we were debating whether or not we should take a cab, walk, or take the Luas back to Griffith. Eventually we decided to walk back, which I didn't mind. However, I have no idea how we ended up back home. Dublin is still very confusing to me.

Tomorrow we're going to Galway and the Aran Islands! I'm so excited :)

The Plough and The Stars

Production still from The Plough and The Stars

Hello everyone! Yesterday I had my Contemporary Irish Theater class. We had to read an Irish play called The Plough and The Stars by Sean O'Casey. It was such a boring read---I didn't really retain what I was reading after awhile. However, we were going to see the play at the Abbey Theater after class. I wasn't too enthusiastic about seeing a play, especially since it's 4 acts.

The play is set I think during the first World War, where Ireland is trying to liberate itself from the British. It follows a group of people who live in a tenement in Dublin. It shows how the war affects them all.

Lemme tell you, I was amazed by this play. All of us had second row, which was really good seats. The play was so much better to watch than to read. And the performances were amazing. Every actor/actress did a brilliant job, no matter how long they were on stage for. And the last 3 acts were completely heartbreaking. I nearly cried. One part of the play was so sad, and some teenagers in the audience started laughing, which took me out a little bit. All of us really enjoyed it regardless.

I have a big weekend to look forward to! Tisch is taking us to the Aran Islands and Galway!

Shop Therapy.

Hello everyone! I haven't really updated because honestly, I wasn't having such a good week, and I haven't done much except go to class. I spent this weekend in my room just to do nothing and relax.

Today I went out though. I did some shop therapy. I bought myself a Claddagh ring from a Celtic craftshop/Irish gift shop. I've always wanted one! I also went into Penney's, which is a pretty cheap store that everyone shops at here. I bought my friend a shirt and myself a nice purse that can switch from a clutch to a shoulder bag. Then I did some much needed grocery shopping. I made the mistake last time of buying lots of bread, which spoiled super fast. This time, I knew better.

I'm exicted for next weekend! Tisch is taking everyone on a trip to Galway and the Aran Islands!

Immigration and Penelope

Hello friends! Yesterday all the screenwriting students had to be at the Tisch Office by 10 am so we could all head to immigration to get our Irish ID cards. When we first came into the country the immigration officer gave us a stamp telling us when we needed to get our ID cards. Some lucky bastards got a stamp that lasted until they had to go home. My stamp said I had one month from the arrival date.

I forgot my passport so me and my classmate Anthony went back to our rooms to get out passports, then we had to go to the immigration office. We had to wait in line for a number, then wait hours just to get called. When I got there they were calling 100. My number was 236. While waiting I went to a nearby park with my class, went back to the office, got lunch, dozed off in the waiting room, and sat around waiting for my number. When I was finally called I had to show my acceptance letter and pay 150 Euro (about $190) for the card. That was annoying.

Then I had to wait another hour just to get my passport and ID. What was even more annoying was that the man giving out the passport and IDs took his sweet time. We all got to class late, so Colin taught us until 7pm.

Today I was tired and not in the mood for class. I didn't do all of the reading for Irish Theatre but I was able to bullshit like I did. Tonight we had to see a play as a requirement for the class. The play was called Penelope and it was a take on the story about Odysseus' wife Penelope and how she was pursued by different men while he was gone. The play is set at the bottom of a drained pool, where four men try to win Penelope's love before her husband comes home. I couldn't get into it because I was so tired, but it seemed alright. I wish I could see it again so I could have appreciate it better.

Museum of Ireland and The Guinness Storehouse

Hello everyone! Today was a good day. Me and a small group went off to visit the National Museum of Ireland. The day so far was clear. Cloudy of course, but clear. We saw swimmers in the river, and I wasn't sure if they were racing or not. When we got to the museum we saw people rehearsing for a parade. Today and yesterday was is the Fringe Fest, which is like a medieval Irish festival. The people were moving puppets and it looked really cool but kinda freaky at the same time.

The museum was interesting but boring. At least it was free. There was an Asian Art exhibition currently running. We got up to the third floor and decided to leave because some of us were feeling tired from the museum. Next we went to the Guinness Storehouse, which was the most exciting thing of the day. It's where the original Guinness factory is. Part of it was built into a museum of sorts. According to one the man who gave us an introduction, the museum is set up like a giant pint of Guinness. The most appealing part is at the end where everyone is given a free pint of Guinness at the end of the tour. It was 11 Euro to get in for students. The museum was AMAZING. They show you how it all began with Arthur Guinness, who signed a 9,000 year lease for the storehouse. You see what ingredients go into Guinness, how it's made, how it's contained/bottled, and how it's distributed and advertised. I took about 100 pictures.

Free half-pint for tasting!

I don't like Guinness at all, but I liked being at the storehouse. It's so glorified in Ireland. Honestly, look up Guinness adds on the internet. The commercials are great.

The top floor of the storehouse is called the Gravity Bar. It overlooks all of Ireland in a 360 degree room. Plus that's where everyone gets their free pint. I liked the idea and atmosphere. The pint, not so much. I only drank half of it. Everyone else loved it.

Me with my free pint :)

After our pints we went back down to the ground floor to visit the huge flagship store. I bought myself a cute little bag. We were going to go to the medieval parade, but we decided to just take a cab home.

If we're friends on Facebook, check out all my pictures from today!

Night Out in Dublin

Hello friends. Yesterday was a fun day. After Screenwriting I went with Kasey and Kathleen in search of the supermarket Tesco. It has more stuff and is cheaper than the markets we live near. Kasey looked up the directions on Google Maps and we attempted the mile walk.

Since we are not familiar with the area, we got a little lost in a neighborhood. It wasn't so bad because I really enjoyed looking at all the houses. They were so cute!

We did a lot of going one way and realizing we went the wrong way so we'd turn back. Eventually we got on the right track and made it to the main road where Tesco was. I saw another rainbow on the way. We stopped in a beauty store called Boots, and I got hair ties, shaving cream, and lotion.  The interesting thing about the Irish is that they hardly use plastic bags. If you ever buy something in a store, the cashier will either ask you if you want a bag or just won't give you one unless you say so. Everyone uses the re-usable bags, carry their stuff, or bring their own bags. I had brought my big purses to carry groceries, but in the end I bought a re-usable bag from Tesco.

I bought a lot more stuff like meat, vegetable, milk, orange juice, bananas, bagels, soda, and pasta. The last time I went shopping it cost me 50 Euro. This time it cost me 29 Euro and I think I bought more stuff, if not the same amount. Regardless, I should be well fed for awhile.

Later that night a few people wanted to go out bar hopping. We pre-gamed with cheap vodka Ellis bought, and then went out to an area where there was lots of young people hanging out. We stopped in one bar that was filled with people our age and had great music. I only bought one drink because they were a little pricey there. We were trying to look for some people we could meet, but approaching people in bars is kinda awkward. Stephanie and Kathleen spotted two boys heading over to the smoking section and immediately went to try and talk with them. Paulo also went with them? Me, Ellis, and Natalie just sat waiting for them, but Paulo returned saying the four of them were taking. So we walked over to see them. Sure enough, Kathleen and Stephanie were talking to the two guys, who later introduced themselves as Sean and David. They looked young, but they had to be over 18.

Next to those four were two men. One of them was really drunk and starting talking to us, so we told them we were from the US. The drunk one was from England, and I assumed his sober friend was from the area. The drunk guy was amusing, until he started getting annoyed with Ellis for no reason and starting mocking him. His sober friend apologized on his behalf, but I'm sure we've all been in that situation before.

We all left the bar with Sean and David, having no idea where they were taking us. As it turns out, there is one street where is a bunch of clubs all in a row, and they took us to one. We found out it was a club because it was 5 Euro to get in. That's cheaper that getting into a club in NYC, which is usually $20, $10 if you go before a certain time. The club was pretty much empty even though is was after midnight, but when we went down to the dance floor it got crowded fast.

Paulo, Me and Ellis

Ellis, Me and Stephanie (with Paulo in the back?)

At first the music was lame, then it got really good and we started dancing. Then after an hour the music got lame again, then repeated the same songs as before. By 2 am me, Ellis, and Natalie were tired and ready to leave but Kathleen and Stephanie were having fun with their new found friends. The three of us including Paulo went outside to wait for them to come out. The street was filled with people leaving or going into clubs at 3 AM. While sitting outside we met 2 French people and a guy looking for weed. It reminded me so much of New York City. Kathleen and Stephanie found us. Kathleen got David's number and Stephanie got Sean's. It made me and Ellis miss our boyfriends a whole lot. We all walked home (still filled with drunk people going home) and didn't get back until after 3:30 am.

I didn't expect to be out so late. I had class at 2pm today so it wasn't a big deal, but I was a little tired. I had Contemporary Irish Cinema with Susanne, who is the director of the program. The class is interesting, but sitting in a lecture is so exhausting.

Walking Tour of Dublin

Hello everyone! This morning I woke up at 4 am and have been up since ^^; Good news is that it had stopped raining! It was still cloudy, but I saw patches of blue sky. I hope it'll be sunnier soon.

At 10 am all of us walked to the Trinity College main gates to meet with the Irish History & Politics professor. Even though we're not all in his class we had to go anyway. He took us to the Bank of Ireland,  and area in temple Bar, Dublin Castle, Christ Church, and then back to Tisch. At each location he spoke extensively about the history of the place we were at. It was interesting at first, but my feet started to hurt from standing a lot so eventually I lost interest.

Trinity College

Inside the Bank of Ireland there was this mini-model of the Bank of Ireland

Dublin Castle (which isn't much of a castle)

I forgot what building this was >.<

Christ Church

At 2 pm I had my Contemporary Irish Theater class. The teacher is named Sara Keating. I'm not sure how interested in the class I'll be. The lecture is pretty boring. We analyzing plays, which isn't too hard, but sometimes the other students have more insight that I do. The cool thing about this class is that we're going to see a play once a week (because the class is once a week). We got quite a bit of reading this week. I'm lazy and dislike assigned reading. Oh Nelly, get over it XD

On my way back with my suitemates it started raining a lot for 10 minutes. Then we saw a rainbow.

It made my day.

First Day of Class!

Another cold, rainy day

Hello friends, and Happy Monday! And for all you Americans, Happy Labor Day! My first day of class was cold and rainy :( It's gonna be like this all week. And probably next week too.

I woke up at 10 to get a fresh start with bland cereal and some vanilla yogurt. I watched True Blood before getting ready for class. I was really excited to wear my new outfit, even though it's gross out.

I LOVE my new Star Wars sweater. I bought it at an H&M in New York City. Anyway, I thought my fellow classmates would all leave together, but only Sourabh was still around. We didn't leave Griffith until after 1:30 pm, and we power-walked to get there on time. Well, I did. Sourabh is tall so he just strolled while I scurried behind him. We made it on time, thank god. Next time I'm leaving at 1 pm.

My screenwriting teacher is named Colin McKewon. He's from North Ireland so his accent is different. I'm excited about this semester. It's going to be very writing-intensive. Colin says we'll go on a 4-day writer's retreat up in his hometown, which is 2 hours out of Dublin in the country. We'll spend most of our days writing and talking with professional writers.

Colin just wants us to write in notebooks he gave us. It could be anything, we just have to "exercise our writing muscles." I love to write, but I never have to discipline. Maybe this will help me gain some, and I can finally write my screenplay for Experimental Film in the Spring. We did some writing exercises, like writing every letter of the alphabet and then using each letter to begin a word for a story in alphabetical order. We also played different "Guess That Movie" games, like figuring out titles by looking at Polish movie posters. Colin also says that he will write a feature length screenplay with us as well. We're not supposed have ideas yet because he wants us to start from scratch. I have one idea, but maybe I will come up with a whole new one too.

After class I did some grocery shopping. I have enough food to last me awhile, so I don't have to go out to eat. Maybe I'll do that once a week. I also bought a bottle of Bailey's =). First time buying alcohol and I didn't even get carded. I also bought some chocolate milk to have with it. That should be my alternative to pubs (probably not XD), but I can enjoy a delicious drink in my room.

I have an early bedtime. Tomorrow morning everyone is going on a tour of I think Trinity College. I also have my second class, Contemporary Irish Cinema, from 2-5pm.

Day Trip to Howth

Hello everyone! Today I woke up at 1 PM after a good night of sleep. Most people were going out for lunch, but I had gone grocery shopping last night so I ate my cereal (which was pretty bland) with orange juice. I finally got to talk to my boyfriend on Skype. The time difference makes it difficult to do so.

Sourabh came up with a great idea to visit a fishing village outside the city. So all 18 of us met up and tried to figure out where to go. We didn't know what village to go to, just that we wanted to go to one. So we walked through the city to the DART Train.

St. Patrick's Church Park

The ticket booth man said Howth was a place to go, so we spent 4 Euro and 20 cents for a round trip ticket. Today the weather was chilly and rainy. It was more or less drizzling all day, and in Howth it was foggy cause we were so close to the water. Our large group split up into 2 different groups so we each could do our own thing. My group checked out the area around the water. We walked along the beach before walking in town.

There were seals in the water!

A small view of Howth

Walking on the beach

The town along the water was super cute. Since it was Sunday most places were closed, but pubs and restaurants were still open. We didn't have any places in mind to go, so we just walked around. We went up a staircase that lead up to the suburban area elevated above the water. We took pictures at a lookout point and walked back down again. I was really craving some fish n' chips. The others wanted to hit up another pub on our way back. We walked to the edge where there was more water, then turned back to explore more.

Me, Paulo, and Kasey

We were going to look at a church, but Ellis noticed a bar called The Cock Tavern and wanted to take a picture of it. There was an old cemetery nearby where we took pictures. We saw the other half of our group again. They still wanted to go exploring, my group wanted to get drinks in the tavern, and I wanted food. My suitemate Anna and I went into a restaurant across the street and got fish n' chips. I think I found my new favorite meal.

Afterwards we met everyone back in the tavern for drinks. The locals were very nice and welcoming. One man gave up his stool for me and Anna. He asked me if I was from Texas because he really wanted to hear my accent. That amused me. There was live Irish music being performed. I felt like I was having a real Irish experience! I ordered an Irish coffee. I thought it was coffee with Bailey's, but it's coffee with whiskey. I don't like whiskey, but the drink was alright. Somehow Stephanie was forced to go up and sing a song, but she didn't know any Irish songs. She ended up singing The Cranberries with one of the performers. The locals cheered her on.

I indulged in one more drink, Bailey's on the rocks. Everyone else had had 4 drinks already. Drinks were pretty cheap. Mine were both 3 Euro each. We had a great time, and the bartender was very flirtatious with Stephanie. When we left the locals said goodbye and told us to come back. Maybe we will!

We met up with the rest of our large group at a pub called The Blood Stream. We took the train back.

My screenwriting class starts tomorrow at 2pm! My schedule is pretty nice. I have one class a day Monday thru Friday from 2pm to 5pm each day (except Friday, which is 10am-1pm).