End finally

One class down. Film is over. Everyone clapped at the end of it. He pretty much gave us our exam too. It'd be nice if everything were this easy.

The exam schedule is up online now. I have a Saturday one. It's really lame, but I probably wouldn't be doing anything anyway. Two of them are at 9:30 though. That'll suck.

Our apartment smells really bad and I don't get why 'cause all the trash was taken out today. We unsettled it I guess.

Are you a man or an amoeba?

I woke up late and got up later. Back to insomnia it looks like.

Modernism. Faulkner. That guy is weird. I guess he's known for his long run-on sentences that you have to go back and read twice to know what's going on. That makes the book twice as long. But I started it today. I can't see myself finishing it before the exam. It'll be okay though. Anyway, it's a metafiction--a fiction about fiction. Faulkner doesn't care about a story itself but about the art of storytelling. It makes reading difficult. Thursday--the last day of this class--is all about race in this book, "Absalom, Absalom!" In the very second paragraph there's this: "grouped behind him his band of wild niggers like beasts half tamed to walk upright like men, in attitudes wild and reposed..." Yeah. It's going to be a great read.

Myth and Poetry was all about ancient sport poetry. It was not a great lecture. This was the first time I've been really bored by the teacher. I don't think there was that much to say so he dragged it out with umms and repeating himself. That's okay though. One out of 17 aint bad.

My debit card was not in the mail today either. If it's not tomorrow either...freak out time. My roommate printed off my boarding passes for me a little bit ago though. I'll be in Spain in 3 days!

Facade

For both poetry and film, this is the last week of lectures. That means that I'm only missing one class next Monday. My other Monday class ends next week. That means so far I have no class on Monday the last week of lectures. I hope this sort of thing continues.

I went down to check my mail at 3 and the mean woman down there said that they hadn't brought the post yet. I asked her when it usually comes in and she said she didn't know, whenever they get around to it. Whenever they get around to it? What the hell.

Here's something from the margins of my notebook for poetry class:
Six times today.
7:14, 7:48, 10:49, 3 last hour.
What do I do?
Text. Sarcasm, softly leave me alone.

That's right next to "she can't stop walking around She speaks very well" and "Celtic Tiger".

I might sleep all day tomorrow 'cause I'm not going to be able to tonight.

Thanksgiving again

Turkey, stuffing, cranberry stuff, mashed potatoes (no gravy), homemade apple sauce, carrots, red wine, pumpkin pie, and ice cream! I was pretty surprised, but turkey was really good. It was sad to see all the juices get dumped down the drain. That would have been some good gravy. These Americans of Dodder are great. Just silly messed up people. I learned the word celiac because of the girls is a celiac--a person who has whatever disease it is that you can't eat gluten. Nate is just all around weird. And the other girl is very fun to make fun of. It was a good time. I am quite full. I brought over a few of my precious pumpkin pies and did the dishes as my contribution.

After dinner we watched Antz. That was weird. You know, all the disney movies or pixar or whatever have lines in there that kids won't understand. They're dirty or political or something, but I don't remember them being as obvious as they are in Antz. They actually swear in it a few times. I'm not appalled or anything, I just think it's sad really.

I really did finish that book. I wasn't honestly expecting to.

That's been it for today. Hopefully my card will come in the mail tomorrow or the next day!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY

Mom and Dad! I hope you're having fun in Seattle with the peeps!

I'm figuring out my schedule for next quarter. I'm being much more methodical and much less impulsive about it this time. I didn't know the process for registering was so ridiculous before, so I kind of had to pick things on the spot. But now I know, and I'm not going to sign up for anything that I know I'm not going to want to do anything for. Nothing like Modernism again where I think it's interesting, but not interesting enough to write an essay on. Those classes I'm describing are the Ancient Classics. That's my ancient myth and poetry class is my favorite this quarter and it's the easiest too. Just go listen to this guy talk, read a book, study hard for the exam and you're done. So my "for sure" classes that are going to apply back at Central are Counterpoint and Sociology. That's it. So I have 20 credits to work with. I'm not going to take a full schedule again though. I don't have to, so why? I'm also working it so that I don't have classes on Friday. Or Thursday, and very very possibly Wednesday. This could be amazing. A packed full Monday and Tuesday, but it'll be awesome! Much easier to conquer Europe when class doesn't get in the way.

Nate invited me to thanksgiving dinner tomorrow. I am so there. He bought this huge turkey, and got all this food delivered to him by his "program," so him and the rest of the Americans he knows are going to eat all his food. If there are only a few of us I'll share some of my pumpkin pie. He's gotten on my nerves the last few times I've talked to him though. He seems to think the kitchen is the most disgusting place on earth. It's pretty gross, but I don't complain about it because I don't really want to clean it up because the vast majority of it is not my mess. He's not going to clean shit, but he can sit there and talk about it for half an hour and rag on the other people in the apartment for not doing anything. Whatever man.

I spent from noon until 4 reading Mrs. Dalloway. I'm almost done with it now. I shall finish it tonight and put a dent in the last bit of the Odyssey. Tomorrow I shall finish the Odyssey and start in on the Faulkner. I'm not taking any English courses next term. I'm thinking about dropping the Creative Writing minor too. It's kind of a silly minor. Everyone says if you want to write, just write. It's not that easy though. Maybe if it's not that easy, I just shouldn't do it...I'm also going to be very behind with the major, so I could use all the credits I can get my hands on.

Plans

Today was dedicated entirely to planning winter break with Adrianna. I was supposed to get up and start researching things before noon, but that didn't happen. AT noon was time enough. Now we have plane tickets. And we have things to see in each place and hostels mostly picked out, and pretty much all that's left to do is to pay for things. Also we're going on a quest to see the family crest. haha I don't know. We're going to meet this guy in her family who lives in Switzerland--kind of sort of near Montreux--at the town where there is a church where the crest is supposed to be. And then he's going to show us where it is. That's all I know really. I'm just along for the ride at that point. But it'll be cool. We had to cut out doing things in the UK because we just don't have the time for it. So the semi-final plan is: Berlin, Munich, Bavarian castle, Zurich, Glacier express from Chur to Zermatt, Matterhorn, Bern, Montreux, crest, Geneva, Irish stuff. Christmas will be here. And I will be participating in my first Christmas dinner feast! wooo that's exciting. We'll see how it turns out in my kitchen.

Tomorrow I'm doing nothing again. It will be grand. Probably reading lots. Also buying some hostels and a Eurail pass! Exciting.

Next weekend: Madrid! I need to do a little research for there too. Right now all I really know that I want to see is Picasso's Guernica. And eat tapas and churros.

Oh yeah I only have three weeks of classes left. That's really exciting. I can't wait to be done with these classes.

Okay, I thought that I was a pretty negative person. After going to Rome with random people and just talking to everyone, I know now that am one of the more positive people in the world. It's crazy. Maybe I'm just naive or too "go-with-the-flow-it's-going-to-be-fine-don't-worry-about-it-what's-the-worst-that-can-happen?-why-wouldn't-it-work?-it-says-it-does-this-why-do-you-need-to-read-it-in-ten-different-places-to-believe-it?" I just tend not to stress about things, and I don't really question things. I mean, I question things, but not menu items, train timetables, prices, or how much somebody knows about their job that I know nothing about, and I feel like "making sure" means something different to me than to everyone else. It's rather irritating. Why can't everyone just calm it down? I think most things are easier than a lot of people make them out to be.

Turkey Day!

I had half a thanksgiving dinner. Instead of turkey I had pork chops, and instead of green beans I had carrots. These packaged mashed potatoes and gravy are really good though! I didn't have very high expectations honestly, but they were great. Also hot chocolate. I don't think that's a Thanksgiving thing. But it's definitely a cold weather thing and it was damn cold and windy today. It was better than it looks in this picture I swear. It has been an awesome day actually. I woke late and decided that I didn't care about classes today. That's sounds bad, but it'll be alright. I was productive anyway--doing lots of laundry, began cleaning my room, took out some trash, made a real lunch, talked with Aoife about Irish stuff. She'd never even heard of pumpkin pie. Terrible. And when you try to explain it, it sounds gross. It's like spiced pumpkin mush in a crust. I didn't say that, but you know.




And then I checked my post! Adrianna send me a very festive package. These jars are mini pumpkin pies! It's soooo cool. And they are delicious. There are 12. All these Irish peeps are going to learn what they are missing. But that's not all!












This thing is what it says it is--a holiday countdown calendar. It's from trombone buddy Laura! There are little tabs with numbers that you pull up to reveal chocolate underneath. haha it's cute. The numbers are all over the place though...so it's not really a calendar, but is just fine. You can't start until December 1st though. Very important. And it counts down until Christmas of course. It might be slightly anticlimactic for me, but I like it.













BAM! I've still never tried this. But it gets rave reviews from one and all. And it's Christmas seasonal. I'm excited for it.





Also: hahaha






Okay yes. Great day. Last night I started watching The Fellowship cause it's been far too long. I'll watch another 70 minutes of it tonight and by this time next week it'll be over.

Practicing

I played my trombone today. In my bathroom. I don't know why. I felt like it would be too loud in my room, so the enclosed space was nice haha. I don't think anyone was here anyway. I'm terrible right now though. I'm going to stick to my get-back-into-things practice regiment. Long tones, lips slurs, buzzing, breathing exercises until my tone isn't that of a 5th grader anymore. Then I can move on. My lip is swollen right now though and I was only playing for about 15 minutes.

I have to do some practicing for Irish class. I haven't been to a Wednesday class for three weeks. Break, didn't want to go, and then Rome. This teacher is harder too--she actually talks to all of us individually and will wait for you to answer. The other one is chill and cool and if you don't answer right away she answers it for you and makes you say it back to her. She gets that most of the time the probably is you just don't know how to pronounce the words. That really is the hardest part. We don't learn much grammar so it's all memorizing phrases and putting different words or people into the framework.

That's been it for today. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving yeah? Pumpkin pie doesn't exist here. It's really a shame. Stuffing either I don't think. I'll look for some next time I go shopping though. It's so easy and so good. Anyway, Friday the film for class is Silence of the Lambs. I don't know if I want to go see that. I haven't really had any desire to see it ever, but maybe it's time. I should be able to handle scary movies by now huh? Scary and gross are different things though. I used to not mind the gross--like Saw--but now that's worse to me than jumpy or creepy things. This one is gross scary right? I don't know. I'll see how I feel on Friday.

I missed Modernism last week, and I went in yesterday and we are already supposed to be done with Mrs. Dalloway...I've only read about 30 pages. It's not too terribly long though, so hopefully I can finish it this weekend and make some headway in Absalom, Absalom! by Faulkner. My English teacher last quarter thought Faulkner was a genius. He also thought that Hawthorne was the greatest writer of the last 400 years. Whatever. We shall see.

Ulysses

It little profits that an idle king,
by this still hearth, among these barren crags,
match'd with an aged wife, I mete and dole
unequal laws unto a savage race,
that hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me.

I cannot rest from travel; I will drink
life to the lees. All times I have enjoy'd
greatly, have suffer'd greatly, both with those
that loved me, and alone; on shore, and when
thro' scudding drifts the rainy Hyades
vext the dim sea. I am become a name;
for always roaming with a hungry heart
much have I seen and known,--cities of men
and manners, climates, councils, governments,
myself not least, but honor'd of them all,--
and drunk delight of battle with my peers,
far on the ringing plains of windy Troy.
I am a part of all that I have met;
Yet all experience is an arch wherethro'
gleams that untravell'd world whose margin fades
for ever and for ever when I move.
How dull it is to pause, to make an end,
to rust unburnish'd, not to shine in use!
As tho' to breathe were life! Life piled on life
were all too little, and of one to me
little remains; but every hour is saved
from that eternal silence, something more,
a bringer of new things; and vile it were
for some three suns to store and hoard myself,
and this gray spirit yearning in desire
to follow knowledge like a sinking star,
beyond the utmost bound of human thought.

This is my son, mine own Telemachus,
to whom I leave the sceptre and the isle,--
well-loved of my, discerning to fulfill
this labor, by slow prudence to make mild
a rugged people, and thro' soft degrees
subdue them to the useful and the good.
Most blameless is he, centered in the sphere
of common duties, decent not to fail
in offices of tenderness, and pay
meet adoration to my household gods,
when I am gone. He works his work, I mine.

There lies the port; the vessel puffs her sail;
there gloom the dark, broad seas. My mariners,
souls that have toil'd, and wrought, and thought with me,
that ever with a frolic welcome took
the thunder and the sunshine, and opposed
free hearts, free foreheads,--you and I are old;
old age hath yet his honor and his toil.
Death closes all; but something ere the end,
some work of noble note, may yet be done,
not unbecoming men that strove with Gods.
The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks;
the long day wanes; the slow moon climbs; the deep
moans round with many voices. Come, my friends.
'T is not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
the sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
to sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down;
it may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
and see the great Achilles, whom we knew.
Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'
we are not now that strength which in old days
moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are,--
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

--Alfred Lord Tennyson

Never been so happy...

to leave a place. Not that Rome isn't brilliant. It's one of my favorite cities now. It's just that everything that could have gone wrong, short of being put in Italian jail, did.

Even getting to a western union was a pain in the ass. The woman at the reception of the hostel during the day is really nice and I decided to ask her, quickly, like a walking by thing, if she just so happened to know where the nearest one to the hostel was. Bad move. She said no, so I said oh never mind I'll find one, they seem to be all over the place. No no no, I'll look it up online. Alright, if you insist. After about 20 minutes of her not thinking things and trying to call random numbers from the internet she finds this one that is way not the way that I'm trying to go. I just said okay whatever man, thanks! But that wasn't enough either. she then went on to tell me where to get on and off the bus to get there. And then about how long it would all take, and finally not to get lost. And even before that she even got sassy with me when I said I was going to Il Gesu church. She was like "there are a million churches in this city and they are all for Jesus, I need the full name." But that is the full name...

I went to the one I knew was only 15 minutes away. This time there were two guys in there instead of two women. They were really nice and patient and it worked perfectly. It was actually really cool cause they were talking and one guy got on the phone and asked me if I wanted coffee. Of course I want coffee. A few minutes later this woman walks in with a tray of little cups covered in tin foil. They were espressos. So good. And free.

So after that I was calm again and walked around the Campo, took a few pictures, sampled lots of little things. I was alone too, so I could think and do whatever the hell I wanted. It was awesome. I wanted to go back to Piazza Navona to get a picture 'cause that's what I like to do--get local art from wherever I go. But then I get a text. What's my plan? I told them--Navona, Il Gesu, and then to eat somewhere. So, they said they would meet me at the church. Alright, that's fine, but give me time to get there. I was just wandering through the streets when she texts me again to say that they got me a picture from the Navona earlier. That was really nice. I felt guilty for being mean. But still, they wanted me to go straight to the church instead since I didn't really have another reason to go back to Navona. So okay...I'll head that way.

I went a kind of round about way though. I wanted to stay off of the main streets and I ended up in the Ghetto. Not the scary part of town, but the part where they kept the Jews. It was interesting. I'd have stayed and snooped around longer, but I knew they were going to start freaking out if I didn't show up soon. I did see a sign on a little cafe that said Anthony Bourdain ate there. It was closed, otherwise I'd have been all over it.

They beat me there. I found out later Dan-Dan was practically running because she thought there was a deadline or something. Il Gesu is amazing though. I think it might be my favorite. I can't commit though. It's really beautiful in there. And really silent. You aren't allowed to take pictures, but I didn't really want to anyway.

We left there and headed back toward the Campo because there was a specific restaurant they wanted to eat at. We were kind of wandering around again, but in a hurry because Kelsey really had to pee. That was annoying too. We passed by another big church and I wanted to go inside, so I did. There were Caravaggios in there. It was awesome. I don't know if you weren't supposed to take pictures, of if you just weren't supposed to use flash. It was funny though because it was all dark and then if you wanted to turn the lights on you had to put money in the offering box. Some other woman did it so I took three quick pictures and we had to run out again. We didn't find that place we wanted to try, but whatever. We ended up eating at the Campo de Fiori Restaurant. Kind of lame, but it was still good food.

We went back to the hostel after that to wait for Rachael to get back. She went to the Borghese and wandered. I really wanted to go the museum, and I definitely would have gone with her if I hadn't had money issues. But it's okay. I'll just have to go back someday. Maybe next semester even haha When she got there though we went out! There is a really small bar by our hostel. We'd gone there the second night and only had two drinks cause they got there late and they closed, but it was my turn to buy a round. Drinks are expensive. It was alright though. It only fair. The round didn't bother me, but the other 4 drinks after that were what bothered me. I shouldn't have had more than that first round, only because I was on a serious budget. But you know, it was fun and I got a few weird things I never heard of. An Alexander? I don't even remember what that is right now, but it was good. All the drinks I got both nights were super strong. I don't know what it was. Some were almost undrinkable. Almost. I got a mudslide and it was like you could see the alcohol wafting off of it. It was crazy. The other girls' weren't though. Whatever. Apparently I got my 6 euro worth on that one.

Sunday rolled around and we had to say goodbye to Rachael. I don't think I talked about her yet. She is from Vancouver Canada. She was a lot of fun--much more easy going than my company. The only thing that bothered me was that she felt like she was so much older and wiser than us because she was 23. Big deal. Lorena, the Peruvian girl we hung out with the whole time, I thought she was our age. One night at dinner we went around asking random shit and turns out she's 30. Not that 30 is old or whatever, but I was kind of shocked. Oh yeah that first dinner we all had together was awesome. It was this place off of the main street--the Via del Corso one--and our waiter was brilliant. He was really nice and really funny and really patient and he didn't care that we were a bunch of stupid American tourists. It was really good because we felt like we could ask him a million things about the menu and drinks and the city and he didn't care. Other waiters or random people act like they just don't want to talk to you and at a restaurant you should just know what you want and they want to have limited interaction with you. Whatever. It sounds weird written out like this, but he fake choked Lorena and I. There's one dessert that is hard to describe in English I guess, but the waiter spoke Spanish and was telling Lorena what it was and then he wanted her to tell us what it was in English. But she couldn't. So she got strangled. Kind of the same thing with me. I ordered Panacotta for dessert but I didn't know what it was. When he brought it out everyone was asking him what it was and he looked at me like to explain, but I told him, hey I don't know either I just wanted it. Strangled. It was a good time.

The last day was a little weird. I think we were all burned out and irritable. I was cranky anyway. We were supposed to get blessed by the Pope, but it turns out he was in Africa that weekend. Oh well. We didn't stay to see him on the big screens. We could watch that on youtube. We had our last pizza and gelato at the place by the hostel. Delicious.

"Sacred Area" where apparently Caesar was killed. I've heard a few things about that though...Dan-Dan said she was told it was at the theater of Pompeii. Okay there's one in that area that we went to and then there's another little piazza right next to the Campo de Fiori called the theater of Pompeo. So who knows. She thinks she's got the right one though, so whatever. The place we went to is now a cat sanctuary.

Mouth of Truth. That was a little weird. There's this line you wait in to see the big stone face and then there's a guy sitting there who takes your picture for you with your camera. It's just weird because everyone in line behind you is watching you get this picture taken. The inside of the church wasn't that amazing actually. I think if you go downstairs into the underground part it's cool. But you had to pay and the other girls weren't into it, so we just left. I wasn't that heartbroken.

Then we had about 4 hours to walk up to Termini station. We were all over the old part of the city again. Circo Massimo. Nice park. Walked around Palentine hill up to the wedding cake building again. Still grand. Then we walked down Via Alessandrina to go by all the different forums. Kelsey and I were in desperate need of coffee after that so stopped at a random place that had cafe in it's name. We also wanted tiramisu, but apparently at the time we went you could only order pasta. It was stupid. We got drinks though and bullshitted and complained for a little bit before moving on.

The Piazza della Republica wasn't as grand as they make it look on this cartoon-y map I have. One whole side is a hotel with a McDonald's. The station is about a minute away from that and since we were there Dan-Dan decided we should just take an earlier bus to the airport. Why not? I think I must have just been in a shitty mood because I was even getting angry at Kelsey because she kept bumping me in line. I started getting claustrophobic when our bus came though. Everyone just kind of mobbed the bus. People are rude. We all made it on though and I took a 30 minute nap.

Okay this airport experience sucked. Going through security! Dublin security is a joke. If you want to smuggle something onto a plane, fly from Dublin. I thought I took my knife out of my purse a long time ago. I hadn't even used it or thought about it for a few weeks. Apparently I had it with me the whole time. Dublin took my toothpaste, but they let me by with a 3 inch pocket knife. The Italians are smarter I guess. The guards were laughing at me actually. I went through and they took some of my liquids and then they put all my stuff back through the machine. I didn't know I had it though. The guy was laughing and asked me "do you have a knife??" I said no! All surprised and he just said "yes. A really big knife." Then I was confused even more because I didn't think that thing was "really big" status anyway. So then they took Paco and took everything out of and emptied everything onto this little table. It's kind of mortifying. The guy couldn't find it though. I didn't want him to start tearing my stuff apart like I was trying to hide it in the seems of my purse, so after a while I was like look man, there's a zipper right there. He took it and my boarding pass and went somewhere. I was freaking out a little bit when he took my boarding pass. I didn't want them to take me somewhere and ask me questions and I'd have to just be like, look it was an accident please believe me.

But nothing happened. He confiscated the knife--I'm sorry Padre--and let me go. I was in an even worse mood after that as I'm sure you peeps can imagine. I just wanted to get out of there really. I had no money, nobody I really knew, all my stuff had just been inventoried, and I was angry. I wouldn't have been too shocked if the plane crashed just to top it all off. The flight attendants were Irish. Never so happy to hear an Irish accent. Three hours later, perfect landing in Dublin. It was freezing and cloudy and sprinkling. The cab driver was super nice--the taxi driver I had when I first got here fucked me over. It was 10 less Euro this time. Bastard.

I got here, ate something cause I was starving and crashed.

Yesterday wasn't too interesting. Just going to class and doing nothing the rest of the day. Today has been more of the same. I don't have class until 3 on tuesdays so I got up late, made some potatoes for breakfast and here I am.

I called US bank again a little bit ago, and I can't transfer money directly out of my account with them into a foreign bank account. I have to go through Western Union again, so I have to wait for my new card to get home in the mail. Not a big deal to me. I have so much food right now I'm set. I even have meet frozen, so I'm set for a long while. The only thing that sucks is I owe Dan-Dan about 50 Euro and I'm going to need money for Madrid, but Dan-Dan can hold her horses, and Madrid is still two weeks away, so I'm not going to worry about it.

I do love Rome though, and I'd love to go back. I'll just be better prepared and play by the rules next time.

Catch up/bad news

Yesterday was insane. We woke up super early because Dan Dan (crazy girl) wanted to be out of the hostel by 8:30 am. Fine, grand, evs. I got up at 7:45, took a shower, at some breakfast. Breakfast at this hostel is some cereal, yogurt, bread, swiss cheese, this kind of soft bree-like cheese that you can spread on toast, and loads of coffee. It's wonderful. We ate and left for the hill. I really don't know anything about Palentine hill. I should do some research before I try to talk about it, but it's really cool. There is the Via Nova which is awesome to walk down at dawn. All the domes and arches and those chariots on top of that building look amazing. I feel like Rome is just a city of layers. That's how I like to describe all the roads and alleys and from somewhere a little higher up it just looks like it's going to go on forever with layer after layer of buildings. Oh but the tragedy of this day was that my camera wasn't fully charged for some reason. And it was half alive when we started out in the morning. So I was seriously conserving energy. Instead of taking ten thousand pictures of every ancient stone on that hill, I was jotting down notes. And of course these girls were asking me constantly "what are you writing?" Leave me alone bitches. Ya'll can know my notes though.

Palentine Hill: 9AM--morning, sunny, misty

Via Nova--forum, chariots, domes, arches

layers, pigeons on heads of statues

terra cota

clear pool

Neronian cryptoporticus. "it's just a dark hallway." stfu bitch.
I really don't think that bird was trying to kill you.

AVLAM PALATINAM

oval, windows, columns fallen
I feel like they may have placed some of this stuff to make tourists happy.

DOMVS AVGVSTANA

I want to break the rules. Never travel with a group again. Check out your split ends while you wait for people.

The forum was supposed to be next, but Kelsey and I basically got ditched. Dan Dan went ahead with two other girls we met at the hostel. They texted to say they were leaving the hill for the forum so we said alright fine, we'll follow you. We thought we had to leave the hill to get to the forum though. You don't have to do that. By the time we had walked around the corner passed the Colosseum they said they were leaving the forum and heading to the colosseum. I was so angry. If we left her she would just curl into a ball and die on the side of the road. We followed this arrow though thinking we could get in and see it really fast or something before they got to the Colosseum. Instead we went into this really cool and empty church. It was also seriously creepy because a little girl is burried there--glass walled tomb. Really freaked me out seeing little girl skeleton in a wall.

So, no Forum for now. The Colosseum is cool. I may have just been in a bad mood at that point, but it wasn't like I wanted to drool or sit there and stare at it for a hundred years, but it's definitely cool. They had to block off part of it because there was woman there who went over the fence and was just sitting on the edge of the wall and talking to the fuzz. They got ambulences there and the fire brigade and there was helicopter hanging around for a while. It was crazy.

Lunch at some little restaurant. I got canaloni. It was delicious. This place gave you cheese in a dog dish with a huge spoon. Awesome.

We met this other girl in the colosseum that's staying in this hostel and she hadn't done the Forum yet so I went with her to see that while the other girls went back to the hostel because Dan Dan was having camera memory card issues. Bummmmmer.

The forum is cool. I feel like some kind of tour or other information would make it a little cooler, but it's amazing to just be there and see something for real that you've seen so many other times only in books or on tv or whatever. There's a tiny little exhibit that from the entrance just looks like a bunch of heads on sticks. Apparently that's all that was left of these statutes they found.

On the way to meet up with everyone else this other girl--her name is Rachael--and I came across the Vittoria Emanuelle II building. It's awesome. Massive winged chariot peoples on top of this building and enternal flame things going on and guards with real guns. It's so cool. A really big white triumphant building.

We regrouped at the Pantheon. The Pantheon is the shit. I think it's so cool. It was my favorite of the day. The ceiling blows my mind. I know it's supposed to, but seriously. It's poured concrete, and there is no ribbing or rebar or whatever in it. How does that work? How did they get it up there? How does it stay there without the keystone? So far, the Greeks win the statue contest, but the Romans have their domes figured out. I didn't know that Raphael was in the Pantheon. Really, I didn't know where anything was in Rome. I'm getting the hang of it though.

After that we saw the Trevi Fountain. It was fun finding this one. It kind of comes out of nowhere, but when you get close you can hear the water falling. It was exciting. It's really beautiful. We got there right around dusk too so it was even more perfect. I through a coin over my shoulder. Just one. I guess that means that I'll be back someday. That's what I was told anyway. I don't think it would too terrible to swim in. The walk anywhere afterward would be terrible.

Spanish steps are cool too. After the first few at the bottom they are all in groups of 12 steps. Kelsey was counting them. I really like the fountain at the bottom though. The church at the top is class too. This guy handed me some roses and I said no, but then he just kind of put them in front me. I didn't want to move though because I was just standing at the top of this mountain of steps and taking it all in and being chill. I thought he would just leave if I ignored him, but they are persistent. He asked me if I had a husband. Then he was gone again for a few minutes. Then he asked me for money. I gave him a Euro. He gave me a rose for real. I didn't want the freaking rose. What am I going to do with a rose? Just walk around with it? Luckily, we went into the church after that. I'm used to the candles being everywhere and the money boxes and all that, but this cool church also had vases of roses. Perfect. Kind of. For the wrong reasons, but oh well.

After that we kind of all wanted to chop our feet off, so we headed back to the hostel. We really didn't know what we were doing though and kind of just backtracked all the way down to the Colosseum again. It was great though because we saw the Forum at night down this little side street thing and there's huge random church right across from it where we took some seriously dorky photos.

Yesterday was Vatican day. Sistine Chapel, lots of statues, some Egyptian stuff, modern catholic art. That was kind of weird. A big tapestry of the last supper. Lots of Raffael. It was cool--huge long corridors covered with paintings or maps or tapestries. There's a really cool globe with all the astrological signs and constellations. The Basilica though. That's definitely around the top of the list of cool stuff I've seen. It's just so huge. If you pay 5 Euro you can climb however many, 500something, stairs to the cupola. It's so cool. Best 5 Euro I've spent so far. You're going up tiny spiral staircases and ramps and when you get really high you know you're in the dome because the wall is slanting toward you and you have to kind of walk leaning to the side. And the view from up there is ridiculous. It doesn't look real. I felt rushed up there though. It was just the crazy girl and I and the others were down there sitting somewhere waiting for us, and when we were coming down they sent us a test that they were going to eat each other soon and we needed to hurry. That kind of pissed me off. We're all adults right? You can leave.

We were leaving the Vatican when we came across nice and cheap postcards. That's when I realized my card wasn't working. I have my Irish debit card too, and it only had like 20 Euro on it or something, so I could pay for my cards and stamps, but we went to an ATM right afterward and I couldn't do anything. So, I had no money--no cash whatsoever either. The nice girl bought me lunch though. I'm going to make her dinner when we get back to school because apparently she doesn't cook so she just eats random stuff all the time. That's awful.

But when I got back here to the hostel I got online and was waiting around for peeps to get online. I didn't have any skype credit to call someone, but Adrianna got on and she is so thoroughly wonderful that she put skype monies on my account for me. So I called the bank and they transfered me to the fraud department and this girl was talking to me and she sounded super bored and was reading off some charges that were iffy to them. She didn't say anything about Rome though. Like, you have two charges from Rome. Are you in Rome right now? No it was like there's a charger from some restaurant and she spelled out the name of the place. Yes that was me. And the only other thing was something she called "chickoria." And this I'm still not sure about. She said it was "like a movie ticket, or show, or cinema, something like that." And I know I didn't try to get a movie ticket, but I did try to reserve tickets for the Borghese museum the night before. I don't know why it would say other shit like that though. When she read that off I said no I definitely didn't do that, but I was thinking about it later and maybe I did. But I don't like to think about it now because it just pisses me off and there's nothing I can do about it anyway. Anyway, my card was "hot listed" and canceled and I can't use it anymore it's worthless. They are sending madre another one in the mail that will get to Bremerton in 7-10 business days and Ireland who knows when.

In the mean time, things haven't gotten much better. I called the bank was asking what my options were or if I even had any. And tshe told me to go to Western Union because they do international wiring stuff. So cool, Madre got online and looked everything up in English cause everything I was looking at was in Italian. Found a place that was right where we were going--Camp de Fiori. I calmed down a bit, everything was going to be fine. I got there this morning and it didn't work. They said that they couldn't do it from the bank, it had to be sent from a person. Fuck. They told me to try a different place down the street. So I walked up and down Corso Vittorio Emanuele for about an hour. Apparently working at a Tabbachi shop is a woman's job and I asked two old Italian woman and they didn't speak English and they were not happy with me. Even though they had wester union stickers on the windows of the shops...really annoying. Anyway, I came back here, and have been chilling. Talking to Adrianna, waiting for madre to be on, thinking of what I could do for free. Thinking if eating is really that important. Maybe it's overrated. But I think it's okay now. Adrianna was going to give me money. I said no for about an hour and then she was talking about pizza and gnocci which I haven't had yet, and artsy things, so okay. But Madre is back now so I think we're all good. I don't have to feel as guilty about being a pain in the ass.

Anyways, once this is figured out I'm going to the Chiesa del Gesu for sure. Then up to the Piazza Navona for some artsiness. Keep going up all the way to the Piazza del Popolo. And if my feet don't wear out by then I'll see if I can find the Parco Gianicolense. I don't know how it is at night. If it's freaky or sketch or whatever, it's close to the hostel. No big deal.

We're getting blessed by the Pope tomorrow. Should be fun.

Hey

Not dead or anything. But, I'm not even going to attempt a real post right now. There is just too much and I'm falling asleep, but it'll happen. I just don't have any words for this place right now. It's amazing. Fantastic. So happy.

Ciao

I'm in Rome!! It's so weird to me now. I wasn't even excited until I saw the planes at the airport this morning. But even then I was more worried that I'm going to want to murder this girl that I'm with. But no, I'm here, and it's grand, and there is no way I'm letting this bitch ruin things for me.

First of all. The Dublin airport is simple. I like it. Ryanair is a little shady, but it works and it's cheap, and I have no qualms with it. That 3oz rule is just something that I can not retain. Each time I've gotten on the plane there has been something that I just throw in my bag and they take it. I was pretty pissed off about it for a few minutes.

Pause, the real first of all is that the buses in downtown Dublin are always late. ALWAYS no matter what. I don't know why that was so shocking. And I hate asking people for directions. And this girl is asking questions for stupid shit. She wanted to ask another bus driver if the bus we needed really came to this stop even though all the signs said it did. I had to do some deep breaths. We got to the airport just find though--with hours to spare.

Got some food, went through security, got some coffee, waited around, got on the plane, found some seats, everything was fine. Joking around, good times. The flight was fine. I just listened to my ipod and dozed the whole time. Landing was not the greatest. It was one where people were clapping afterward.

The second we got off the plan the freaking out began. We found a shuttle from the Ciampino airport to downtown somewhere. I don't remember. That was fine. We were dropped off at a bus station/metro station, and then it got weird. There are three of us that have never been here before. But there are three of us. You'd think that our combined travel knowledge would be enough to comfort a person's fears. But no. She just started marching around with this paper in her hand and when it wasn't obvious where we were supposed to go because everything is in Italian and I feel like it isn't that clear even in Italian, she got teary eyed. I have no sympathy for that. I just want to slap people like that. Are you just going to stand here and cry until someone tells you where you are supposed to go? I was really irritated. We found the bus though cause this guy basically walked us over to it, and then we found our stop because this other guy told us to get off where he got off, and then he pointed us in the right direction and told us better directions than what we had from the hostel. And then this girl was practically running through the streets. I wasn't having it. I was strolling behind them and they kept asking me if I were alright. Yeah bitches I'm fine, I'm just trying to enjoy this city by night and look around me a little bit.

I feel like this girl is traveling to check things off a list. We were heading to the hostel. To her that meant don't look around for anything other than landmarks that will tell you where this hostl is. We crossed the river. It was amazing. One way you could see the moon super low and really yellow and half covered by a cloud. I would have loved to take a picture of it. The other way is this huge domed building. I don't know what it was, but I will find out. Anyway, I don't think she saw any of it. Most of the fun of travling to me is actually getting to a place. I love riding buses and trains and just walking. I don't have a set in stone list of things that I need to see for the sake of saying that I've seen those things. That's bullshit. That doesn't mean anything. I was just angry and I really wanted to say fuck you guys, go run to the hostel, I'll see you there later. But I couldn't do that. I didn't even know the name of the place.

We go here though and the first thing she does is get on a computer. That's fine. Do whatever you want. I through my stuff in a locker, locked it up, and wanted to turn around and do something. The other girl was hungry so we went to eat. The three of us got down to the main door and it's weird because you can't get back in once it's closed--you have to buzz up to the reception and that's a pain. But the stupid girl finally said that she didn't want to go because she was just really tired and wanted to sleep. Thank God. I couldn't stand looking at her face anymore. So me and this other girl went in search of pizza. And we found it. And it was fantastic. And I think I'm going to go there every night and get a different kind of pizza because it's right near the hostel and really cheap. We also had our first gelato of the weekend. Wonderful. I'm happy again.

When we got back here, first girl had to let us in and she asked us how dinner was. We were excited so we said it was great! We had pizza and gelato! She said "thanks..." What the fuck does that mean? I wanted to throw her in front of a scooter. You didn't want to come bitch. There is no way I'm feeling bad for your lame ass. I'm being profane, sorry Grandma haha

They went to sleep and I got on this free computer here. A little bit ago the girl I like came out and told me the plan for tomorrow. She was the messanger. It was really super important that I know that we are all getting up at 7:15, eating breakfast at 8, leaving by 8:30, and getting to the colosseum by 9. Did she think I would sleep through all the alarms going off in our room? Did she think that I would just decide not to go? I think she's just super controling and paranoid and can't just enjoy anything. She doesn't appreciate anything, she doesn't see anything but what she thinks she's supposed to see....ahhhhh it just makes me so mad. I just might end up bitching her out before we leave. And I won't care, because I never have to see her again really. I've only seen her one time before this and she's leaving next month. It's grand.

But anyway, tomorrow we're doing the colosseum, forum, pantheon, and something else. She has our day all planned out for us of course. It will be great though. Tons and tons of pictures I'm sure. And probably some more complaining tomorrow.

Meaningless

I'm out of practice eating hot food. This is a real problem. I made stir fry again since I had a bunch of random stuff I needed to eat before leaving tomorrow. I threw in a few of these chilies that Adrianna sent me, and I don't know if it's because I cooked them a lot or what, but this is super hot. Making me sweat and everything. It's grand though. Masochism.

I also had limes that I felt were on the verge of death, but I didn't know what to do with them. I made some limeade kind of. I squeezed them and dumped in some sugar. It's pretty good. Reminds me of Alex.

I realized that I don't know what Modernism is today. Actually, I realized that I really haven't retained much from my classes this term. Or maybe I was just really seriously inarticulate today. This has to change. When I get back I'm going to start caring again. It would be great if you could just decide to care about things like that.

Packing needs to be done still. I don't know, I'm sure I'll just throw a bunch of shirts and socks and chonies in Paco and call it good. I wasn't sure if I wanted to bring my laptop with me. But I do. Of course I do. There is for sure going to be something to complain about, and not having my laptop is like asking for loneliness and inner anger. Melodramatic...I'm just feeling like it may have been a mistake to rush into this trip with people I don't know. But it's Rome. I'm not going to let crazy people ruin Rome. I don't know if they could anyway.

Lullaby of Birdland

That was fun. The semi-original plan was to go to Galway on Satuday and come back that night and party in Dublin. But we aren't early morning people and didn't get out of here until noon. So instead we decided that the money we would have spent on bus tickets to Galway was instead going to be spent on drinks. In the mean time, we got on the Dart to Bray. It only takes about half an hour to get there but it's so different from the city. It's a cute and small town on the ocean. There's a walk you can do that's between one stop on the Dart and the next--between Bray and Greystones. The whole thing is 6km, but we went in for 2 then turned around. It's really cool though. The walk is just this path along the cliffs over there. It's not paved and it was actually pretty muddy when we were there, but I'd like to go back some random day and do the whole path. It's supposed to take an hour and a half. It's beautiful too. I love the ocean. Julian touched the Atlantic ocean for the first time. I got a picture.

We came back and walked across Dublin to the Guinness factory to find it closed. That sucked because it's in the oldest part of the city and there isn't really much around it. But we stopped at a pub on the way back towards Temple Bar and had some Irish food and our first pint of the evening--he had Guinness, I had Smithwicks. The pub hopping began. This place was called Bakers, after that was The Brazen Head--the oldest pub in Dublin where we were only charged for one pint of Bulmers cider instead of two. That was a highlight of the night because that shit was expensive. 5.35 Euro for a pint. Ridiculous. After that was some other place in Temple Bar. I don't remember the name but it was packed and we kind of just gulped down our beers--this time I had the Guinness and Julian tried Smithwicks. Smithwicks is my favorite Irish beer so far I think. It's an ale, not a stout. Stout is too much sometimes. We went to my favorite pub of the night after this and I don't remember what's it's called either. I wasn't paying attention to the names at all. We got really good Irish coffee though. They aren't strong or anything--one shot of whiskey in it, but they taste good. Our final pub was right on the side of OConnell bridge and we had hot Powers. It was good. Rather like tea--hot whiskey with lemon and cloves.

We weren't drunk at all though. Too much time walking around trying to find other places, or cheaper places, so we came back to Maynooth expecting to be able to buy something from the 24hour Tesco, but they stop selling alcohol at 10pm. Bummmmmer. Instead, we cooked. Julian made tortilla espanola. It's like a potato omelet. It was good.

Another late morning. Breakfast was very successful though--Irish sausages, eggs, and fried potatoes. We decided to open a breakfast for dinner restaurant someday. We took the bus to Trinity college to see the Book of Kells and the Long Library, but it was 8 euro, and that was too much apparently...so we walked to the Guinness storehouse again. It's kind of cool over there--it reminded me of The Jungle cause the road you have to walk down is just big tall stone warehouses on both sides. We poured the perfect pint and got a certificate. They spelled my name wrong even though you write it down yourself. The Galaxy bar is pretty cool too. It seems a lot taller than it is. It's only eight stories, but most things around are only three.

We had a lot of time to kill before the bus for the airport left, so we got Irish stew at a pub and watched this guy sing karaoke for a few songs. Walked around. Sat on a bench along the Liffey for a bit. Baileys coffee is really expensive, but it's delicious. I saw him onto his bus and that was it pretty much. It was a lot of fun, and it was really good to have a friend here.

Today was boring. It was hard to wake up this morning even though I fell asleep pretty early, and I'm super tired even right now.

I'm going to be in Rome on Wednesday. That's a ridiculous sentence.

Eleven

It took longer to get to the airport than I though. But I got there, I found Julian. And now he's here. It was a little unfortunate 'cause we had to come straight back here from the airport to make it to my immigration appointment. That was dumb. You present all this documentation, get your picture taken, get your fingerprints taken, and get a huge stamp in your passport, and yet another little card to carry around. That's one less thing to worry about now though. We got some tea, walked around Maynooth and south campus, dinner and a pint at the pub Caulfields, and back here. Tomorrow is another Galway day. Probably going to see the city since the trips to anything outside are all day long. Hopefully it won't be raining too terribly. It was pouring this afternoon.

I have met them at close of day...

Morning began at a nice, comfortable 9:56. I ate some breakfast, got my notebooks together, wondered what to do with myself for a few minutes, and strolled over to Modernism. I guess it's nice to have time to wake up in the morning. It makes me nervous for some reason though. I'm so used to just waking up and going when I have morning classes.

After Modernism I have an hour break so I was walking to get some coffee when I realized I have less than a week until I'm going to Rome. That gave me a minor heart attack because I still don't have that stupid immigration card. The original plan was just to catch up on some reading in my in between hour, but I couldn't concentrate, so I went down to the international office for some advise. The Garda man was for sure going to be there at half 2, so I left Irish a half hour early and went down to the station. There was no one there...so I went to the bank and got the info I need to transfer money from my US account into my new Irish one. Then there was this other guy standing outside the station so I went up and knocked on the door and the guy came out. I now have an appointment for tomorrow at 3:30pm. That's pretty good. It sucks cause Julian and I have to come straight here after he lands, but oh well.

I deep cleaned my room. The vacuum still doesn't work. I had hoped it would magically.

Today was poetry man's last day. So we'll have someone new talking about something else next week. He read a poem that makes him emotional. I hope all these different lecturers end like that. His was better than the first time though. It was "Easter 1916" by Yeats, about the Easter risings here. The last "rebellion" in Ireland was in 1980. That's crazy to me. They are really proud and still going through all this shit. The new president's first day is tomorrow. All the their slogans were something along the lines of understanding the past and believing in the future of the country. It's interesting because in every class, a lot of things are put into that context, and for a long time it all just went over my head 'cause they just assume you know. But Irish class is great because our teachers know we really don't know what's going on here, and they take the time for history lessons.

I was called an antisocial American today.

Flat mates

We've got drama! And of course it has to do with taking out the trash. On one side is Nate who wants his feet kissed every time he wipes off the counters with a dirty sponge and who takes the bins to the front door of the apartment and leaves them there until someone else gets sick of the hallway stinking. On the other side is Louise who cleans, dries, and puts away all her dishes directly after using them and who lets all of us use her printer whenever we need to. I haven't asked her to use it because I feel weird about it. There are school printers available, and I'll only ask her if I really need something. Nate has no problem sending her emails with attachments for her to print out. Anyway, Nate thought he cleaned the kitchen really well so he told Louise "you can take out the bins." She took them out the last two weeks because her friend was coming over and because she was the only one here last week, so she said, no Nate. It's interesting because I of course, inevitably, get told both sides and I have to act like I've never heard the story before.

Results: I wake up when Nate knocks on my door this morning, but I ignore him. So then he texts me saying "Ready! Everyone in the flat is ready to clean the kitchen. Come join." I haven't taken the trash out at all...so I went and helped. Really it was just Nate and Aoife out there, and I think that is perfect because they are the ones that don't know what clean means. If something takes longer to clean than 30 seconds they just leave it the way it is. It's ridiculous. So, they kind of started things and I finished for them. The kitchen is clean for now. End of story.

Yesterday...

All my troubles seemed so far away. Not really, this is a happy post. I actually had things to say yesterday, but ended up being social until 3am.

So, first of all. There were classes. In Myth we've gotten to the part of the Odyssey were Odysseus makes it back home. The teacher titled the lecture "The Return of the King" and told us that he did that on purpose. He's a Tolkien fan. It wasn't just for fun though--Tolkien studied middle English and mythology and Latin and all this cool stuff. I don't think Aragorn is really based on Odysseus, but there are some cool parallels. The big thing is being able to tell people your name. In the Odyssey he tells different people different names because he doesn't know who he can trust. Aragorn has a million names that different people know him by. They are both wanderers for the majority of the books. They both have a lot of stuff to take care of when they get home.

Poetry is pointless. I wrote some more nonsense:
Victorian Era named after Queen Victoria. 1837-1901. How? Why? Who cares? Why ask questions so demandingly if you know there's no real answer? You would like us to ponder it right? Think about it and find it interesting. Well that only took about the time it took to read the first slide. Now it's slide six ad you've asked the same question in fifty different ways. You began this lecture by telling us how you're behind and you'll need to condense because you're only here for two more days. Thank God. We're not all scholars. We don't all have super hearing abilities so stop mumbling please. What is poetry? I'm going to freak out. We answered this question a month ago by saying there really isn't an answer. This is English. The point is always interpretation. Classifications are rather irrelevant. That's your point yet? You're making me hate your shirt. It wasn't my favorite to begin with. It's pink, but my disdain for you is making it worse. You are so easy to ignore. I don't even know what you're talking about anymore. The girl in front of me is drawing. We don't need more examples. That's all you are is a stream of examples. You have an important voice. I think you like it too much. You consider yourself a Historian. We're here to learn about poetry. I don't care to hear you drone on about the Enlightenment. I've known about that, in detail, for the last five years at least. Maybe the other people don't...how can they not though? I don't know if I've ever seen more vacant looks in one room. I wonder if this guy writes. He's much too analytical and unfeeling. He's like a guy that gets off on blue ray rather than the movie itself. Like focusing on poetic form instead of the meaning. Like Ringo being your favorite Beatle. Like enjoying handwriting rather than words. Like taking pictures of the frame, not the painting. Ah now he's talking about science--thing moving faster than the speed of light. Impossible right? I don't remember why Nick said so. We've thought other things were impossible or just false. The world used to be flat. The sun used to orbit the earth. The model of the atom. Things change. Can's assume we know everything. Or anything. What is real? Certainly not literary classifications. Woah man. Taking a minute for questions!? Now way. Dude, you're growing. You're wasting time though. You like to contradict yourself. Objectivity. Don't go there. We'll never get out of here. the clutch of circumstance. The mercy of public transportation. Blind chance. All knowing fate. Why am I here? To listen to pink shirted Irish man repeat himself for an hour. This particular hour of this particular day. English Romantic movement. Construction by literary historians. "Retroactively. Retrospectively. After the fact." Give us another translation why don't you. "We might identify a specific similar group of writers before we identify, or name them." Isn't that how it has to work? You can't name something that isn't there. Except zero. Image of a poet=gross stereotype. Pouring your heart and thoughts on paper. Comes from the Romantics. Okay. Grand. "Emotional collective." I like that. Well played to you pink man. We've gone over. Let us go! If we're supposed to live like we'd die tomorrow, I definitely wouldn't be here right now.

Filim (that's how they say it). Politics and film. It was kind of interesting. How political movies don't really come out and say what they mean all the time--the references are oblique so they don't alienate audiences. So basically political movies don't do very well, but "social problem movies" are popular.

I went to a concert at the Olympia Theater in Dublin. I forgot to mention it before, but it was a Boyce Avenue concert opened by Tyler Ward. I wouldn't be surprised if you've never heard of these people. It's the band I went to see in Seattle with Adrianna in September. It's probably not terribly interesting seeing another person's concert pictures, but the theatre is class, so here you go.

So, they're kind of blurry, but they're the best I've got. The theatre is pretty cool, and really old. They have a barrier for the audience because underneath the stage is the pit and it's only covered by curtains. The only annoying thing is that on the tiers they have this metal bar going around so that idiots don't fall off. The bar is the perfect height to block some of the stage. I like it though. It's a small large venue. The American girls that live upstairs were there though. It was random, but nice 'cause I had people to ride the bus back with. I love Americans. One of the girls hasn't been able to use the internet in her apartment so I told her she could use the wifi in mine. So we were in the living room peacefully until drunk Nate showed up and felt we needed to be livelier until 3am rolled around and we retired.










If anyone is interested, this is Tyler Ward:

And this is Boyce Avenue: The only thing to note about today was that pink shirted English man, the subject of my hate stream, is now the lecturer for Modernism as well. I think it might be an in my face sign that I should stop thinking about a double major in English. He did do much better in this class than Poetry. He was wearing another pink shirt though. It might have been the same one even. We've left Ulysses and are now on to Mrs. Dalloway by poor depressed messed up Virginia Woolf. I'm still determined to finish Ulysses however. Even if none of it makes any sense to me.

Also awesome: My pantry is full. Thank you Grandma, Grandpa, Madre, and Padre!

Home sweet home...

Not nearly. More like a return to the familiar.

Today's been looooonnngggg. The bus didn't leave Donegal until 1, so I didn't wake up until 9:30. I would have slept longer if I could. I drank black coffee this morning! I hadn't had any coffee for a few weeks and I haven't had any black since I've been here. It was nice. I signed the guest list, paid for my room, said farewell and got into town at 11. I sat in the Diamond until I decided I was cold, then I ate lunch at The Coffee House. A BLT with brie. It was weirdly salty. Then on the bus for four hours. I was paranoid that I'd miss the bus to Maynooth. It normally wouldn't be a big deal at all, but on Sundays they only come once an hour. I got over there and ended up standing in front of Ireland's version of KFC for half an hour.

The 40 minute bus ride out here took two hours because the main street going north along the Liffey was closed for road work or something. We moved 4 meters in an hour. It was crazy. I was kind of just dozing and listening to music the whole time though. None of this would have mattered, but I was supposed to meet up with the girls I'm going to Rome with to figure some stuff out. I don't really care though. They are particular about things. One of them called me while I was on the bus and said she really wanted to book this hostel and she was telling me about it--it's an all girl hostel and breakfast is included and some other stuff I don't remember. She asked if it was okay if it was dorm style instead of private. What do you think I've been doing the last week? I guess she doesn't know me...so I shouldn't be mean to her yet.

There are fruit flies in my room. I left a kiwi in here.

It's taking ten years to upload photos, but it'll happen.

Dun na nGall

Though it is incredibly beautiful in this part of the country, there's isn't much to do if you don't have a car. I mean, I can only walk so far with four or five hours of light to work with. This couple just got here and the guy is from Portugal but he's been living in Northern Ireland for 8 years and he has an Irish accent now. It's really weird. The woman who works this place doesn't know when to stop talking and let people go. They are just standing out in the entry awkwardly listening to her talk between the pauses. Oh well. Portuguese is really cool sounding.

There's really not much to say about today actually. I didn't do anything spectacular--just walked around town and saw some nature and ate some food and it was nice and peaceful and uneventful. Now I'm just sitting in this common room by the fire. They burn turf here. My roommate was telling me about going out to the peat bogs and how it's really a pain in the ass to actually collect the stuff. It doesn't burn as hot as wood. It's still nice though. I'm actually ready to be back in Maynooth, oddly enough.

I have an essay due on Wednesday. I've decided to do it on Joyce's use of stream of consciousness because that's the only thing I've really been interested in so far anyway. It has to be 2,000 words though. I don't know if I have 2,000 words to say about it. That seems like a lot.

Julian will be here on Friday! I don't know what we're going to do yet though. It doesn't matter.

This internet is absolutely terrible. It'll be working just fine for half an hour or a full hour if you're lucky, and then it's down. It's really frustrating. I'm about to just go to sleep and forget about this. It's only 7:30 though...

Travel Day 2

This morning I had a minor heart attack 'cause there are actually two different bus stations right across the street from each other and I was at the wrong one. I was 20 minutes early though, so it really didn't matter. Oh yeah I guess I have too much stuff cause one of the straps of my grocery bag thing broke. So now I have to carry it like a basket or something instead of just throwing it over my shoulder. Good thing there's only one more day I have to carry it around.

The bus left Galway at 10:30 and got to Sligo at around 1:20. I didn't know that place was so big. I'd heard of it and everything, but I didn't think it was as big as it is. Anyway, after another hour we got here. That last hour of the bus ride is brilliant. This is where the mountains live. They are nothing like ours, but they are tall enough to have a little tiny bit of snow up at the top. Right outside of Sligo there are huge mesas coming up out of nowhere. I don't know what they're called for real. Plateaus I guess. But it's just beautiful. The whole of this town is a triangle--they call it "The Diamond." This hostel is only a kilometer away--which is only a little over half a mile--but it felt a lot longer today with all the shit I've accumulated over the week.

I feel like I've gotten really lucky with hostels this week. The woman who runs this one is really nice as well. I threw all my stuff down on a bed and turned around and went into town again because I wanted to use the light that was left in the day. She told me about this walkway that goes around the edge of the bay into the town. It was fantastic. It was sunny, dusk, warm, the water was going out, across the way you can see the ancient abbey and graveyard. It was perfect. Madre, I think this place has ashes sprinkling potential.

So far, if there's one thing that Ireland really fails at, it's salad. I didn't order a salad, but I got one as a side thing because I was feeling the need for some ruffage and it was just weird. You'd think that if you can grow cabbage like none other, you'd have some decent lettuce. But no, they had a few little strips of iceburg and the rest was peppers, onions, cucumbers, and corn. It was weird. So, I walked around town for a while before decided that I wanted to eat something and then I was indecisive for another little while before going into a restaurant. It wasn't particularly good, but it also wasn't particularly expensive, so whatever.

Then it was getting dark and I did the first something that I probably shouldn't have done. I went back along that same path even though I don't think it's any shorter. I may be longer actually. It wasn't too dark when I left the restaurant, but by the time I was half way along the trail it was. The moral of the story is dusk is brilliant and twilight is scary.

When I got back here guess who I found. The Germans--two of them are Dutch, but oh well. The people I first met at orientation and went out with in Dublin and kind of stopped talking to, they are here. It's really random. I might hang out with them tomorrow because they've picked up the Australian I'm sharing a room with and they actually have a plan for what they are going to do whereas I have no idea and will probably just end up walking around in the hills all day. We'll see though...they aren't my favorite people in the world.

Inis-Mor

I was running a little later than I was comfortable with so I left the hostel this morning only grabbing two pieces of bread--no tea. It was sunny though. Maybe that's how it's going to be everywhere I go: one gross day and one perfect one. Or nearly perfect anyway...

Honestly, I wasn't very impressed when the ferry was pulling up to this island. There doesn't seem to be much there--you can see every building on the island from the dock. It turns out all the restaurants that are open at all this time of year, open at noon. It was dead. It was weird. The loudest thing besides the wind were disgruntled cows. So, I walked up the road a little ways and hung out on the beach for about half an hour until I decided to stop being lame. I told my caffeine headache to go to hell and started walking. After about twenty minutes of walking up this road and seeing no one--no cars, biker tourists, or people who live there--I felt like the fairy winds picked me up and dropped me in Cormac McCarthy's The Road and I should be looking around for canned food. The wind was gone and the cows were far off so now all I was hearing were my own foot steps and all around are ruined stone houses, tall stacked stone pillars with Celtic crosses perched on top that are too old to read the inscriptions, newer houses with blackberry pushes taking them over. I was walking along when this dogs comes around the corner. He came up all nice so I pet him and then he was mine for the next few hours. I went as far as the point before I decided there was nothing farther on this road. Up on the hill you could see all the stone fences or barriers that the islands are known for. There's also another old ruined building. I didn't know you could go up there though. There's a trail. It's very cool. It's not far at all, but it's steep. You have to climb over some rocks or walk up some narrow stone steps.

The view from the top is amazing though. The island is smaller than I thought it was. One way you can see the Atlantic and the other way is Galway Bay. That building is actually a church from the 5th century. It's so small though. You couldn't fit more than 3 people in there at once. Right next to it the fields begin. At this point I played fetch with the dog. It was cute. Anyway, you can walk through all the fields. It was a weird experience actually. I think I spent an hour walking around up there and climbing through the walls and following this dog. It was so quiet. There was a point where I turned around and started going back the other direction and nothing looked familiar so I was thinking: okay, this place has turned into the labyrinth, time to go. But really, if you're able to keep some rationality, you'll find that you have excellent reference points--the massive ocean behind you and the points of that church. And somewhere up there my buddy the dog left me. I started thinking maybe he was another in incognito leprechaun trying to get me lost. Not so. I am supremely, maybe overly, rational.

On the way back down the road to the lack of civilization it started raining. Oh first there was a rainbow over the bay, so I should have known. Not that knowing would have helped cause there was nowhere to hide anyway. I thought my clothes were wet yesterday, this was totally different. This was like having someone pick you up and dunk your lower body in a lake.

The only establishments open today was the sweater shop--I guess the Aran islands are known for their expensive handmade sweaters--and "The American Bar." I'd avoided this place the whole time. Really it's just another pub with photographs of famous Americans all over the place. I got seafood chowder and a pint Smithwick's. I like Smithwick's more than Guinness. They aren't really comparable though because one is a stout and one is an ale, but whatever. After sitting there for another hour the Bailey's cheesecake was calling me. It was delicious. Way different than how we do cheesecake.

The ferry back was leaving pretty soon after that. On the way over it was super choppy and my stomach didn't appreciate it, but one the way back I was asleep. It was kind of weird because I think I kept my head up the whole time and I when I woke up it was all stiff and sore. The bus was 15 minutes late and it's an hour ride into the city anyway. Even with all that though, I got back here to the hostel a little after 7. It got dark at 5:30 today. That's the only bad thing about fall.

There was some hardcore partying going on in this common room up until a few minutes ago. It started out with the occasional yelling but it was pretty constant at the end. They did that weird pounding on the table and making animal signs game. Really poor atmosphere for skyping...

But yeah I don't know. It was a very peaceful day. Tomorrow I have to be out of here by 10:30, but I'm going to be sooner because I want to catch the 10:30 bus to Donegal. It's a 4 hour bus ride and I'd like to get there before it's dark since the hostel is a little ways out of the village. Not too far people, don't worry.

The Burren

I woke up this morning at a drizzly 8:45 and everyone was gone from the room already. Breakfast here is cereal and toast with coffee and weird orange juice. Could be worse. I put Paco in the locker room and had them hold my lap top behind the reception desk, went downstairs and booked some tours! I have excellent timing--the bus to the Cliffs of Moher was leaving in 20 minutes. When you book two tours you get a 10% discount. I'm going to the Aran Islands tomorrow. But first! It's been a great long day.

You get on the bus at the Galway coach station which is literally right around the corner from this hostel--there is a very lively drinking game going on in the kitchen right now by the way. I think they are "pre partying" the pub crawl. We say prefunk, they say preparty, Nate from Tennessee says pregame. Evs. The first thing the bus driver tells us is that we have to make a choice between seeing Aillwee Cave, or going on a walking tour of the Burren led by this guy who owns a hunk of land that has been in his family for 300 years. I didn't know there was more to this thing than just the cliffs. I saw brochure about this farm walk thing last night so I decided to do that one. The place is half an hour outside of Galway city centre. It was still only kind of wet when we got there, but the guide--John--made sure we all had rain jackets. I'd never heard of the Burren before this. Jon starts off by telling us that the Burren hills are an anglicized version of an Irish word that means "place of rock." It's a 250 sq km area of limestone. It's really cool looking. These hills are kind of terraced and from far away they look like they are just piles of limestone, but when you get closer--and actually hike up them--there is tons of thick grass coming up all around.

They don't have "grass" here. No lawn either. It's something more. It's thick and fluffy and more like green fur covering the ground. That stuff grows up out of limestone. I don't think we got the full tour because we were hiking up one of these hills--they call them mountains, but I guess I'm a mountain snob--and it started really raining. I was very grateful to have a Mom who's so much smarter than me and made me get a rain jacket before I left. It was "slippy" and muddy and the going was slow, but we got up to this tree he wanted to show us. It's an old tradition that if you have a problem you come up to one of these trees that look like bushes and tie something on the little branches. And then...something about the fairy world helping you out.

By the time we got up there my lower half was soaked through, but I could have cared less. It was beautiful up there--even from not very high up you can see so much around you. On the ride over the bus driver told us about the stone walls that you always see in Irish travel guides. They are mostly in this part--the north west where all this limestone is. Well those walls are everywhere and they are cool because they are just stacked like that--no cement holding it all together--and they stand for a really long time. Long enough to get overrun by bushes and to have trees growing through them. You can see these plot lines for miles around when you get up the mountain.

John had us go back down after this though. He said he wanted to tell us a story. We got back down to his granny's cottage which is where all this starts off and ends and he's set up a kind of cafe that his mom who lives next door bakes for. It was rather expensive so I settled for my first Irish coffee. That warmed me up as well as anything else was going to. He had the whole group congregate in the living room around the fire, and he did tell us a story--an old Irish oral tradition story. He's pretty funny--talking with his hands and sound effects and all that. It's not blog translatable...you can't read an Irish accent and I'm guessing you guys don't have any whiskey in you at the moment. Beer pong has begun. Or something. Too bad we only get wifi in the common room.

We passed through a town that has an annual matchmaking festival. It's called Lisdoonvarna. There is a guy there whose grandfather and father were matchmakers, now he and his daughter are. Apparently his reputation didn't suffer when his wife left him for someone else.

The cliffs were next. They really are beautiful. People here say "mile an hour" everything when they mean kilometers. The bus driver said they were expecting hundred mile an hour winds at the cliffs. That would have been intense. They weren't even hundred kilometer an hour winds though. There were some gusts and it was raining, but we could still see a long way so it was great. I guess a lot of times people get all the way out there and it's too foggy to see anything. Bus driver man kept calling the visitor's center "Teletubbie house." I don't get it...It's kind of built into a hill and is covered with grass. I thought that you would be able to walk along the cliffs farther though. They only have a nice walkway/path for a little ways and then you're just cut off. There's definitely a path that goes right along the edge all the way down, but it's not the official thing. At the highest point is O'Brian's Tower. I met some nice people that offered to take a few pictures of me. It's so awkward. But the girl was from Berkley and now teaches English in Vienna and the guy is from Pakistan and I have no idea what he's doing here. So, I have proof I was there this time.

Doolin and Fitzpatrick's pub for a late lunch was next. I was going for some beef and wild mushroom stew, but they ran out of that so I got a fish and shellfish pie. It was pretty good. Tour bus man also went on a bit about the powers of oysters. He called them "little slimy devils." There weren't any oysters in this thing, but there could have been. After we ate I walked across the street and talked to a burro for a few minutes. It was adorable.

Ballyreen is on the scenic drive back to Galway. It's like a mini cliffs of Moher--only like 50 or 60 feet. Guy from Pakistan (I never thought to ask for names) was asking us about the ocean. Where do the birds live? Do they fly back to land every night 'cause you can find them pretty far out there in the ocean. I don't know man, they have to don't they. Then he was making fun of us cause we should know and be able to inform people like him who come from a landlocked country. It was interesting to talk to him. He think it's cheating if you're looking out into the ocean and can see land across the way or coming in around like in a bay. He likes seeing nothing but water and sky. I can't imagine not living by the water.

Doonmara castle is still in use. Apparently you can tour it in the summer and they use it for medieval banquets. I don't know how you get invited to one of those. Or if you have to dress up. Anyway, we stopped there to take some more pictures. Before coming back into the city.

Tour guides are great people. They are so cheerful and goofy.

Travel day

This hostel is awesome. The common room is huge and there are a lot of tables and the kitchen is really well stocked. It's next door to a mall with a Dunne's store so I bought a single serving lasagna thing for dinner. Across the street is a bank. Downstairs you can book tours to the Cliffs of Moher and the Arran Islands. I was going to book those tonight but they closed right after I got up here, so tomorrow morning. You get breakfast included in the price of the rooms, but I don't know how great it's going to be. Free is free though. It's a lot colder and windier here than it was in Cork. That's fine, I just hope it doesn't rain tomorrow or the next day. It probably will.

It was a beautiful morning in Cork. It was actually sunny and warm. I went to the English market in Cork. It's pretty cool. A lot like Pike's minus all the fish, bean bag things, and jewelry. I ate breakfast there--another lovely scone with tea. They serve their scones with whipped cream in Cork. They don't as far as I've had in Dublin. I didn't buy anything in the market though because it's mostly food, and I don't want to end up carrying a million pounds of nonsense back with me. I would have bought some cheeses to try if I were staying longer though. They had all kinds of stuff. I didn't see Tracy before I left. I wanted to say thanks and tell her how great she is, but I'm sure she knows--almost all the reviews for her place mention her.

After that I got on the bus up here. The route is beautiful. The one from Dublin to Cork is fantastic. It took about 4 and a half hours today. We went through Limerick. That place looks pretty run down. We crossed the river Shannon--the widest river I've seen yet. We stopped there and I forgot that I had to switch buses to get here. The bus driver was asking us where we were going though and he pointed at the bus I needed to be on. I was all flustered though and my stuff was all over the place 'cause I was just chilling. The bus driver was making fun of me a little bit, telling me I have too much stuff. I brought Paco--and he hasn't failed me yet--and a big material grocery bag thing. I was getting stuck in the row of seats. Oh well.

That's been it for today though. I'm just going to chill here tonight and wake up early-ish in the morning.