Whistle is going a little better, it's much more manageable and much easier to learn and a lot of fun. Hopefully I'll work up a bank of tunes in my head, real traditional Irish musicians don't read music, they just have hundreds of tunes memorized...crazy! But once that happens for me I can start playing in the sessions at the pubs...that's my goal for this semester. I am desperately missing my guitar...I think if I continue this traveling thing, I'm going to need to get a travel guitar, five months without one is going to kill me!
Last weekend was actually a lot more low key then expected, it poured on Friday and Saturday, and it didn't just rain, the wind was howling as well, umbrellas were inside out all over the place! We decided to postpone the Blarney trip to this weekend and go to the Gaol (prison) instead. Christine and I started walking there, got partway and couldn't go on, we were sopping wet and cold and didn't want to spend six euro to be uncomfortable for hours. Also, I got splashed by a car for the first time! You'd think living in Portland this would've happened before, but this was the first time. Also, I'm pretty sure it was deliberate, the car had a lot of space to go around the puddle but just drove right through it...rude! So instead of going to the goal we beat a hasty retreat to the English Market. Christine was going to a wine and cheese party so needed a bottle of wine. I decided to buy one too because...well I can, and I've been cooking scrumptious meals that would go really well with a glass of wine. The wine merchant was uber nice, he knew a lot about wine from all over the world, including Oregon, and helped us find some really good, inexpensive wine. Then we went home. I curled up in bed in my sweats for the rest of the day. I really needed a fire and some hot chocolate and possibly even a cat curled up on my lap, oh and a really comfy lounger (like Basil) to make the day perfect, but the tea, book and bed were good enough.
On Monday I had my first Modern Irish class. The professor is really nice and just had us going over words we know in Irish and giving us an idea of how the language works. It's beautiful, but tough. Letters act differently in different words in different combinations. I guess it's kinda similar to the way 'g' sounds one way by itself but differently if there's an 'n' in front or an 'h' behind. This teacher is definitely better then any of the Spanish teachers I've had in the past, so hopefully I'll do better then I did then.
Last night I went to my first rugby practice ever, and I can't decide how I feel about it. They spend a lot of time on the ground in this sport. You're always getting tackled or throwing yourself on the ground. It's nothing like soccer! They're already halfway through the season, so there was no like grace period for teaching the newbie (me) anything. They just threw me into the drills...I think I would've liked to spend more time watching and learning, or at least learning how to tackle and be tackled. Also, it was FREEZING, like the ground and grass were literally frozen. I've played sports in the freezing cold before, but I've never had to be thrown on the ground during them. Colleen keeps telling me that rugby is actually really great, but honestly, I really prefer the game we played in Australia, on a tropical beach, with the sun setting. Oh man, you have no idea how much I missed that last night, and this morning when I woke up and was unable to move. However, despite all these negatives, the girls were all really really nice. I don't know what it is, but people here are really nice. They were really trying to help my out the best they could while trying to get the most out of the training session too. Also, actually exercising felt really cold (even if the air was freezing cold) and the fitness was not nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be on me (aka a lot easier then we ever had it in soccer). I think I'm going to continue going to practices. Rafa said she'd work with me on tackles and such, that way maybe i won't be so afraid of hitting and getting hit...oh man...we'll just have to wait and see.
It looks like this weekend it's not going to be stormy so we're actually going to go to Blarney, hopefully stay for the sunset, which is regularly beautiful.
So I've been trying to get my camera out more often, even though I hate looking really touristy, but I've been realizing that Ireland is so different then either Brunswick or Portland, or anywhere else I've been really. I've also found some really cool features on my camera, like panorama and face recognition, I will be trying those out soon. My parents said they wanted to see more pictures, so here are some:
This is the view of the city out of my bedroom window. I feel kinda like Mary Poppins, on top of the world.
I walk across this bridge to get to the road that leads up to the music building.
A view of the River Lee from the same bridge. At some points, like here, it's a really pretty river.
There are tons of churches and cathedrals here and they are all beautiful, you can see a bunch of spires in the first picture. Some time I think I want to go in one.
The street on the way to the music building. The sidewalks are so narrow here in some places, and will often disappear altogether. That stone wall is probably pretty old.
I really like these houses, they have a funny walkway thing leading out to the road. I can't help but think of Jude's neighborhood from "Across the Universe" and I really just want someone to belt out "All my Loving" down the street.
Can we all just oogle at my schedule for a little bit? No class on Friday, barely any class on Tuseday, Wednesday, or Thursday and no four hour labs...ever. So beautiful!
Irish proverb of the day:
As old as the mist and older by two.
Chomh sean leis an cheo agus níos sine faoi dhó.
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