Thursday, April 2, 2009

Mo Theaghlach

Haigh! Is mise Rachel. Ta ceathrar i mo theaghlach. Taimid inar gionai i Nua Shasana, i Na Stait Aontaithe. Ach ta me i mo chonae in Eirinn. Ta athair agus mathair agam, Richard agus Sandra. Ta siad colscartha. Is dliodoir e m´athair. Is maith leis an peil agus drama. Is fuath leis leadog. Is dioltoir i mo mhathair. Teann mo mhathair go dti an phictiurlann o am go cheile. Is brea lei galf. Ta deirfiur amhain agam freisin, Becky. Nil si posta go foill; ta si singil. Ta cat amhain aici, Titus. Is eolai i. Teann Becky go dti an teach tabhairne. Imrionn Becky rugbai freisin. Is mac leinn me. Ba dhioltoir me ach anois ta me. Ni singil me, Matthew is mo bhuachaill. Imrim cluiche corr agus sacar. Seinim an piano agus teim drama anois is oris. Is brea liom clasiceach racheol. Ta ceithre chat agam freisin, Ginny agus Mackenzie agus Raycroft agus Patrice.

Translation--> (Note that some of the facts had to be changed because of my limited vocabulary..)

My family

Hi! My name is Rachel. There are 4 people in my family. We are living in New England, in the United States of America. But right now I am living in Ireland. I have a father and mother, Richard and Sandra. They are divorced. My father is a lawyer. He likes football and drama. He hates tennis. My mother is a sales person. My mother likes to go to the cinema from time to time. She loves golf. I also have one sister, Becky. She is not married yet; she is single. She has one cat, Titus. She is a scientist. Becky goes to the pub. Becky also plays rugby. I am a student. I used to be a sales person, but now I am unemployed. I am not single, Matthew is my boyfriend. I play softball and soccer. I play piano and go to the drama every now and then. I love classic rock. I also have 4 cats, Ginny and Mackenzie and Raycroft and Patrice.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Belfast

Last weekend we went on a trip to Belfast. The city itself is very small and pretty shitty aside from a few nice areas. We were able to see the ship yards and where the Titanic was built which was pretty cool.

Saturday morning we did a day trip to the Giant's Causeway. It's wicked cool. There's a legend behind it...

According to mythology, the Giant of the Causeway was Ulster warrior Fionn Mac Cumhaill (also known as Finn McCool), and two legends of Fionn's exploits provide an entertaining alternative to geologists' explanations of the Causeway's origins. In one, Fionn became besotted with a woman giant who resided on the Scottish island of Staffa (where the Causeway's fault-line resurfaces) and constructed a highway across the sea by which he could travel to woo his inamorata. An alternative version of the story suggests that Fionn built the Causeway in order to head over to Scotland to give another giant a good kicking, but, when confronted by his enemy's superior size, fled back to Ireland and hid in an extra-large cot which he'd persuaded his wife to construct. When the pursuing Scots giant arrived, he took just a glance at the sheer size of Fionn's supposed "baby" and fled back to Scotland.

The second story, with the baby, was what our tour guide told us. There's another story about geological basalt formations.. but I think that's just a load of BS. After the tour that took us down by the causeway, we were able to take a cliff walk up to the top. It was very cool!!

After that we met up with some of the Belfast kids that we met during Dublin orientation and walked around Victoria Square and stuff. It was a fun, relaxing evening.

The next day we went to a lecture on the political murals in Belfast. It was very interesting. At the end the lecturer talked about how they were painting over some of the nastier murals with things that showed more unity.. like famous soccer players. The lecturer, and our tour guide on the following bus tour of the city, talked about how Belfast used to be a very scary place to live. They also mentioned how they have peace now and that Belfast is becoming a very safe place to live.

I don't know if any of you have been following the Irish news, but the weekend after we were in Belfast, two British soldiers were shot and killed. A few days later a police officer was shot while sitting inside his cruiser. The gunmen have yet to be found but they are pretty sure that they are members of the IRA.

Here are links to some articles..

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/reuters/090308/world/international_us_irish_army_shooting
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/10/world/europe/10ulster.html?hp

I'm just happy I didn't go to school in Belfast.

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Waterford

So 2 weekends ago we (Scott, Liz, Patricia, Stev, David and I) decided to take a trip to Waterford. You know.. like Waterford Crystal?

So we got up wicked early on Saturday morning and took the bus into Dublin. Then walked to the Bus station in Dublin and got tickets for the bus to Waterford. The trip to Waterford was very long, like 4ish hours? Lame.. Scott and I slept or made up new rules for all the observation games that we already know. It was sort of fun.

When we finally arrived in Waterford we went to the tourist information building and I found a lot of cute sheep apparel! It's super cute how many sheep there are everywhere here! I try to spot the baby lambs in the fields as we drive by.. they're super cute. Sadly I didn't get anything.. not even the sheep in Ireland calendar.

Since Liz, Stev and Patricia were spending the night in Waterford and then going to New Ross in the morning we walked to find them a hotel to stay in. (Our Irish professor gave them a few suggestions and said that she would not feel comfortable suggesting a hostel.) The important part of this is that there was a McDonald's next to the hotel and I got a euro milkshake. It was tiny, and not that great.. but still made me happy!

After they got a room and everything we hurried back to the visitor's center because there was supposed to be a historical tour of Waterford leaving soon. (According to our guidebooks it was the only really cool thing to do in Waterford.)

Unfortunately, the tour does not run in the winter and would be open again in March. (We were there at the very end of February. Bad luck!) So instead we ate our bag lunches we packed ourselves and then went to the museum. It was pretty cool. Sadly Scott and I left early because we wanted to go see Reginald's Tower, the far corner of the city wall in the Viking times, and were afraid that it would close. (If the other people missed it they could just go the next day.. but since we were leaving on a 7:30pm bus we didn't want to miss it..)

Reginald's Tower was really cool! There was even an ancient latrine! After that we walked around the city and tried to follow the ancient city walls all the way around. Waterford is a very cute city! Then we walked back to the museum to find everyone else and turns out they made it into Reginald's Tower right before it closed. So we waited on the pier for them to finish in the tower and made up hillbilly personalities for everyone. Quite entertaining!

After that we had pretty much done everything there was to do in Waterford. So we walked around more and then chilled in a pub until it was time for the bus home, which was pretty uneventful. The bus was, however much quicker because there were a lot less stops to make, thank goodness. When we got to the train station in Dublin we learned that the train back to Maynooth didn't leave for over an hour. This sucked because we were tired and hungry, so I said fuck it and walked to Burger King on O'Connell St. and ordered the Recession Buster! A double cheeseburger, small soda and small fry for 3.50 euro. Whoo!

We ran into a kid from our Irish class on the train platform and talked with him until the train came and then all the way back. It was a fun, but very tiring day.

An interesting note about Waterford and Waterford Crystal-->

According to our Irish professor, for many years now they've been making majority of the crystal in cheaper places, like China, and then sending it to Waterford Ireland to be stamped and then sold. Now that the recession is happening, they can no longer afford to make any crystal in Waterford and have shut down their factory and moved to a cheaper place.. like China.

So Jill.. I was thinking Waterford crystal might not be the best choice for your souvenir.. any other ideas?

Friday, February 20, 2009

American Battle sites vs. Irish Battle sites

As someone who has lived in Gettysburg for 2 and a half years and has been to the battle field countless times, on my own, with friends, family and had at least 3 of those tours where the park ranger drives your car around. And having grown up with a father who loves history and has taken me to countless battle sites and other historically significant places, I think it would be safe for me to say that I know what to expect when it comes to battles sites.

The Battle of the Boyne is a very famous battle that took place in Co. Meath, Ireland. Here's a mini bio on it..

The Battle of the Boyne (Irish: Cath na Bóinne) was fought in 1690 between two rival claimants for the English, Scottish and Irish thrones - the Catholic King James and the Protestant King William, who had deposed James in 1688. The battle was won by William, was a turning point in James' unsuccessful attempt to regain the crown and ultimately helped ensure the continuation of Protestant supremacy in Ireland.
The battle took place on July 1, 1690 (Old Style) just outside the town of Drogheda on Ireland's east coast. The armies stood on opposing sides of the River Boyne. William's forces easily defeated those of James who led an army of mostly raw recruits. The symbolic importance of this battle has made it one of the best-known battles in British and Irish history. It is a key part in Ulster Protestant folklore and is still commemorated today, principally by the Orange Institution. As a consequence of the adoption of the Gregorian calendar ("New Style" dating), the battle is now commemorated on July 12 each year.


Now it all sounds very cool and what not, but seriously.. this battle site was so lame! They had a 3 room museum type thing. One room had tents with what each James and William were probably doing the night before the battle. The other room had quotes written on the wall about the battle. Then the last room had some guns and stuff and a large board with lights showing where the two side's troops were at what times. That was actually pretty cool, but didn't Gettysburg have one of those and now it's like totally obsolete?

Gettysburg on the other hand, has an entire museum as part of their visitors center. I know this is new, but it's wicked cool. The museum is huge! It has like 5 videos as part of it, interactive games, lots of memorabilia and lots of other cool stuff.

The video about the Battle of the Boyne, while it was free, (actually this might not be true. I think you had to pay to get into the museum, which you don't have to at Gettysburg.) was actually quite funny, which isn't good. It was random and weird and the re-enactments filmed for certain scenes were horrible. And it was only 7 minutes, without stadium seating.

The Gettysburg movie on the other hand has Morgan Freeman. Need we say anything else? Not to mention they cyclorama.

There were no monuments at the Battle of the Boyne site, compared to the hundreds at Gettysburg. And I counted no more than 3 cannons, though there may have only been 2.

The most disappointing thing about the battle site however, was the size. Now I know that you cannot plan out ahead of time how big the battle site will be, but seriously, it was tiny! My Dad has done like, at least 10, battle field walks at Gettysburg. You could have easily walked around the entire Battle of the Boyne site in 30 minutes. In fact, we almost did.

Here are pictures..




These two pictures are from more or less the same place looking in opposite directions. And that's pretty much the entire site.

Overall, I think that as someone who has been living in Gettysburg, my hopes were high for the Battle of the Boyne site, but it did not deliver. Sadness..

Photo Contest!!

The rules..

I know that you happen to be on an Arcadia trips this Saturday and a few of you on Sunday so I've come up with a little idea which may interest you! I have decided to run a small Valentine's Photo competition.

When you have your camera out on Saturday and you are busy clicking at what strikes you as something good to take a picture of -

THINK "ROMANTIC"!

Now I don't mean Romantic in the sense of couples or the cheesy stuff! Just remember you are in Romantic Ireland and this means you can perhaps stretch the imagination of what the word means to you.

Once you have decided on a nice photo then please send it to me by email with a short description of where exactly it was taken and what it means to you.

My entry..





And the response of the person running the contest..

Hi Rachel

Thank you so much for your wonderful work, it has been most impressive!! I would also like to print this in the Arcadia Newsletter which means I can pay you for your work also. More details later!

Once all the pictures have been carefully examined we will come up with a winner.

I will be in contact.



I haven't heard anything yet but I'm hoping soon! I'll let you know when I hear though!


Also.. Mom, in Ireland you have to pay to get plastic bags at the grocery store, so you can tell Vikki that her tote has proved to be vital for my trip! :C)

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Modern Irish

(Person 1)- Dia duit.
(Person) 2- Dia is Muire duit.
1- Dia is Muire duit is Padraig.
2- Dia is Muire duit is Padraig is Brid.
1- Cad is ainm duit?
2- Jean-Luke is ainm dom. Cad is ainm duit?
1- Popeye is ainm duit.

10 points to whoever can guess what they're saying! (Contest goes till whenever I decide to update again.)

Anyways, I like modern Irish. Which is weird because after Latin I was sure that I had sworn of languages, other than English, forever. It does suck that it's the only class that I have 2 times a week, 2 hours a day.. for a total of 4 grueling hours a week. As Scott pointed out, 2 hour blocks are too much to learn a language.. there's just too much.

Irish numbers are weird. We did 1-10. Got it down nicely. Then we started to do more 11-100. Don't have it down so well. The teacher suggested we played Bingo with the numbers 1-20. She starts calling off numbers and after a little while looks up at the class and asks if anyone has Bingo yet. We all shake our heads no and she looks at us and said that she already called all the numbers. Oops. At least it was the whole class and not just me.

So we have numbers 1-100. Cool. Think it's that easy? No, of course it isn't. The Irish have a different counting system for people and nouns. (I'm not sure if that makes 2 total, or 3 total.) So now we have to learn a whole new set of numbers for counting people.. ugh. Why can't they just have one set of numbers like normal languages?

We also listen to these tapes of people speaking Irish and have to either choose the right answer to what they said or try to write down what they said, like their phone numbers and stuff. These started really, really easy. And I was really excited because I was getting the answers right. But now, the people talk so fast I'm trying to figure out what they said 3 words ago and miss bits. It stinks. Actually I didn't do as bad on the last one as I though I had, but she did play it 3 times..

I will impress you all with my Irish soon. I'll tell you all about Maynooth and the things that we have. Be prepared to be impressed! :C)

Friday, February 13, 2009

An American in Ireland.

Do you want to know how the Irish people can tell who the Americans are?

We all wear a North Face. And it's so true! Majority of the American students here have a North Face and wear it every time they go out. Out of the 12 or so kids from Arcadia at the Dublin ornamentation (the people going to Maynooth and Belfast), 3 of us had the exact same North Face coat. 2 of those 3 are Scott and I. We can be seen a great deal of the time walking around Maynooth looking like twins in black shoes or sneakers, jeans, a hoodie and a North Face.

You can also tell who the Americans are by the people not wearing skinny jeans and flat boots all the time or flowery skirts with black tights. Also, look for the handful of girls who are severely under dressed at the Roost on Thursday nights and you'll find Americans.

Or you can just wait until after participating in class discussion for about an hour and a half your American professor (we think) looks at you in front of the entire class of about 40 students and says...

Professor- I just realized that you don't have an accent! You're not Irish are you?
Me- No.
Professor- Are you from the States?
Me- Yes.
Professor- Where abouts?
Me- Massachusetts.
Irish students- *laughter*

I should have asked this professor where he was from since we're pretty sure that he's American and the anthropology world is rather small in the US.

He's also pretty funny because it's his first time as a lecturer, although he said he has been a guest lecturer before (presumably in the US). On the first day of class he asked everyone, "They don't actually lecture for the full 2 hours do they?" To which the class responded that they usually give you a break in between or only lecture for an hour and a half. The professor looked rather relieved and said "Okay, I didn't think so." All of his lectures have been about an hour and a half.

Also getting prescription drugs are ten times easier in Ireland than in America. This morning I went to the doctor, asked for the prescription, got it, went to the pharmacy and filled it in under 40 minutes and for only 7 euro. The longest part was figuring out what the overseas equivalent to what I take was, but we did!

And with that I'm almost late for being early to class.. tootles!