Adventures!

Last week was TradFest, which was basically a weeklong traditional Irish music festival. Nina and I went to a whole lot of the free concerts- On Wednesday there was a memorial lecture on Sean O'Riada, which became 2 hours of daydreaming for me because I had pretty much no idea what the presenter was talking about. It didn't help that sometimes other people in the audience would ask him questions in Irish (this guy was born in a Gaeltacht area). Afterwards, there was FREE wine and sandwiches (and since we're poor college students we all appreciated that) and all the tutors played their instruments!! So I got to hear my TradFlute tutor perform. She's so shy normally, it was cute!

I didn't have my camera/recorder with me, but I wish I did. The harp was probably my favorite; a solo Irish harp is nothing like I've ever heard before. It was breathtaking. I have to say though, the wine was supremely negative good and I think one glass gave me a massive headache. Friday, there was another free concert in the Aula Maxima located in the main quad, of which I actually did get some video. So I'll have to put that up somewhere- it was also amazing. A violinist and accordion performed and sang sean-nós singing. I found an example on youtube of what sean-nós singing sounds like... http://youtube.com/watch?v=JE6QDQdwo9E
and its from the show TG4 (pronounced caher) which shows Irish programs! They have Dora the Explorer and Spongebob Squarepants in Irish. Love it.


Also on Friday, I ventured into Ye Olde English Market with Nina and Alex. I add on the "ye olde" myself because its appropriate to how it looks! There are a ton of meat shops, regular odds and ends, organic foods, fruits and vegatables of every kind, cheeses, breads, desserts, and even fish! I saw a huge scary looking fish that must have been 4 feet long staring at me. Creepy. Oh, theres a chocolatier! Yummy. I already know that my parents would love that one :D Nina and I invested in some cheeses, breads, strawberries, and cider and had a movie night. Alex, being too macho for such things, didn't stay for the feature film Pride and Prejudice. His loss.


Then on Sunday I went to see Blarney Castle with Jill and her parents, who were visiting. It was so cool. You really can't get the feel of Ireland until you see a half ruinous castle covered in moss and completely bare of human furnishings, or at least thats what I think. This was just a....highly commercialized version! But it was very cool nonetheless. I have more pictures up on Facebook, because that seems to load like 100x as fast, but I'll try to also put up a link to my Picassa album. Anyway, there were dungeons at the bottom, dark and creepy holes that you would not want to get stuck in, and a very very very narrow and steep staircase all the way up to the top! Once you get onto the battlements, theres normally a verra long line to get to the actual stone, but since its not full tourist season yet we only had to wait a short while.


Little known fact (or at least I didn't know!): you have to lean over the side of the castle backwards and down to kiss the stone. Zomg, it was terrifying. There's two very thin metal bars between you and a thousand foot drop. Well, that and a nice Irish man who's holding onto your legs. I didn't want to actually kiss the stone because, well just imagine how many germs it has, but he wouldn't let me up until I actually kissed it! I think he said something like "You're all the way up here, no half measures now!" And all the blood was rushing to my head and I was envisioning falling to my death, so I did. I now have the gift of the gab :D


Ok, final adventure story before I go to sleep. I heard Dylan (the 1 year old) fiddling with my door an hour ago and didn't think anything of it. However, when I got up to go to the bathroom, I discovered....that I am locked in. Yup, the doors here have those old fashioned keys, and I've just been leaving mine in the door since I unlocked it earlier. Its about 12:30 now, so people are asleep. And I really have to pee. Solution? Climb out the window and go in the front door. Done and done.