Scotland, Spain, and Morocco, Oh My!

No fun stories this time, sorry. But I have a fun fact: classes ended today. As in, I'm done for the semester. Well, okay, that's not true. I still have to finish two essays that are due next week and have two finals in May. But tomorrow is the start of a two week Easter Break (we didn't have a spring break), then we have a week to study before exams start, and instead of them all being crammed into one week, they'll be spread out over a month. Briefly, here are my plans for April:

4th-7th: Edinburgh, Scotland with Meg, Allen, and Brad
9th-17th: Mom and Dad are coming to visit; we'll be driving around Ireland
17th-22nd: Stay with Alex in Madrid, Spain (fingers crossed we'll get up to Segovia Castle!)
22nd-...sometime before the 30th: Stay with Kristen in Rabat, Morocco. Maybe go hiking?

Then I'll come back and have roughly a week before each final to study. Then home. I'm not staying here during the summer. At all. I'm amused that that rumor is still going but perhaps I can put it to rest (again); unless you hear directly from me that I am staying until June (or whenever), don't believe it. And you won't hear that from me. So there you have it: Brooke is officially going home in May. And, for those of you trying to rendezvous with me this summer, I'll be in Texas for about a week, back at Wake for summer school in June, taking a bio course in Vienna through July, then back in Texas (and Colorado for a tad) in August. Sound good? Yeah, I think so, too.

Oh, it also snowed again today.

Adventures Abounding!

I realize that I might have left you wondering, "What is this 'adventure weekend' you speak of?" Well, Butler rounded up all of their students from every program in Ireland and brought us to Connemara in west Co. Galway for an 'activity weekend', if you will... We signed up for what we wanted to do each day, choosing between things like zip lining, ropes courses, bungee jumping, archery, clay pigeon shooting, water skiing, ringo (tubing), hiking, etc.

So... here's some of what I did:

(actually... okay, I didn't windsurf. I really wanted to but the wind picked up way too much Saturday afternoon)

Yup. Good weekend.

Adventure Weekend

Butler brought all of us together at the Killary Adventure Center for a weekend of thrills. This is the view from where we're staying:

I think it's going to be a good weekend...

Lá Fhéile Pádraig Sona Duit!

Saint Patrick's Day is of course well underway in Ireland, and is there any better way to celebrate it than with a parade? Well... actually, yeah, I suppose there is, but a parade is a pretty good way to kick off the celebration of a British man taken to Ireland as a slave, told by God to flee, then, after successfully returning home, encouraged by God to return so that he might save the Irish. And why drink on this 17th day of March? Because it used to (and still does) serve as a one day break from Lent. And what did many of the Irish give up for this forty day stretch of fasting? You got it. So the drinking actually has a purpose, folks! So that's what I did this afternoon... the parade, not the drinking... My impressions of the parade? Worth attending, but a little sporadically thrown together. And for whatever reason this year's theme (there are themes to St. Patty's Day parades other than Irishness and St. Patrick?) was Over the Moon. A little beyond me, I have to admit. And although Galway was densely packed it wasn't as... wild, maybe?... as I was expecting. I actually don't know what I was expecting, maybe just that it would have been more elaborate. Also there were plenty of people not wearing green. But all that aside I'd still much rather go to a parade than class on occasion, and I can proudly say I've been in Ireland on Saint Partick's Day.

A few fun tidbits:
-The Irish do NOT pinch or punch anyone who doesn't wear green today. Nor have they ever heard of that tradition.
-The shortest parade in celebration of this day takes place in a village in County Cork where they travel 100 yards between the two pubs there.

I was almost certain that this was the horse taken by the travelers until I remembered that horse had two other stockings. Maybe they just painted them black so they could use him in the parade...

Kilkenny Castle and Arvo Part

I apologize for being remiss in my blog-keeping, but it's not for lack of entertainment from across the pond! Two weekends ago was Kilkenny, last weekend a return to Dublin. The interim held lots of reading, lab reports, and a presentation for my English seminar on dueling. Possibly the most ridiculous one that I read about was between two French men who duelled in hot air balloons and the aim was to shoot the other man's balloon out of the sky. I'll be sticking around Galway for the next two weekends to get a start on the three essays I have due at the end of the month, so I may not be posting anything about them, because, let's face it, do you really want to read about that? No. No you don't. OH! But the Castles course that I'm auditing (did I mention that I'm auditing a course about castles? I am...) is taking a field trip (!) next Saturday and the lecturer said he doesn't mind at all if I come along. In fact he seemed a bit baffled that someone actually seemed excited about going. But Kilkenny. Right.

A few details which may prove beneficial:
The Group- Noel, Beth, and Brad (an eclectic group to say the least... oh, and they didn't actually know each other, they all just knew me)
The Purpose- Twofold. See Kilkenny Castle. Attend Hibernian Orchesta's performance of Arvo Part, Mozart, and Brahms.
The Transportation- About as horrendously slow as you can get. 167km/104mi away. 6 hours to get there, 7 to get back.

Saturday (February 27th) morning we caught the 7:00 bus out of Galway to Athlone, then changed buses down to Kilkenny. I attempted to sleep, only woken once by what I can best describe as bickering which escalated to what sounded like high pitched old women. But actually it was our bus driver and a fellow who was accusing him of hitting the side mirror on his car. The latter kept repeating sentiments about our driver not having honor or being respectable which was really agitating our driver, who disappeared for about fifteen minutes with the fellow. They looked very close to getting into a fist fight as they left but I suppose they never actually came to blows. Luckily that tiff didn't hinder his driving and we got in around 1:00, wandering around for a bit in the general direction of where we were staying. Turns out it's on the main street, and only about a four minute walk from St. Canice's Cathedral (where the orchestra was playing). We could see it up the road when we walked out the front door! Which isn't saying too much; Kilkenny is relatively small so the furthest point of interest, Kilkenny Castle, was maybe a twelve minute walk south. After lunch (at the Paris, Texas pub... which reminded me nothing of Texas) we sauntered down there. Absolutely picturesque! Right along a river, overlooking a beautiful garden to the north and a huge lawn that extends to the horizon to the south. And the castle itself was fantastic!! Unfortunately we weren't supposed to take pictures inside. Apparently the castle used to have four walls, shaped like a trapezoid, but Cromwell damaged one of them so much when he invaded that they had to tear it down, which really turned out quite well in my opinion because it allows the main wing to overlook the amazing southern grounds without being blocked. Though I suppose that demolished wing would then have had that view...

We left there around 5:00 and dropped in to watch the Irish vs. England rugby match. Brad and I left Beth and Noel for twenty minutes to go explore the town a little more. Everything was closed by that time but I at least found out for Sunday where some neat church ruins and Black Abbey were. We made dinner that night in the hostel kitchen (fajitas!) then just sat by the fire and hung out; we were all a bit exhausted.

Sunday we awoke around 9:00 and unfortunately Beth was feeling worse - she had been feeling under the weather the day before - and was worried about getting home at midnight (actually turned out to be closer to 1:00am) so she opted to catch the 1:15 bus back. Noel went with her because she had a group project due Tuesday that she needed to finish, so we wandered for a bit then had tea and scones (almost) on a little porch out over the river below Kilkenny Castle (I say "almost" because we ate inside since Beth was feeling ill and didn't want to be in the cold, but we went outside to admire the view after breakfast). We then went in search of Black Abbey and discovered how diminutive it was compared to St. Mary's Cathedral (which we didn't know existed; I had assumed the vast tower overlooking town was in fact Black Abbey) which was further enhanced by being on a slight rise above the abbey. We also went up to St. Canice's to have a peak inside since the two would miss the performance but Mass was still going on. AND there was a nifty tower beside it that you could climb up and have a view of the country... Closed! Until March. Ha. So we strolled back to the bus station on the far side of town, which took perhaps twenty minutes - strenuous walk, I know. Then Brad and I retraced our steps so I could get pictures of everything. We hadn't gone inside anywhere before since Mass was still on, but by 2:00 everything was empty so we could admire at leisure.

So we went to St. Mary's, Black Abbey, and... passed by two ruins that were gated so we couldn't get in and I'm not quite sure what they were, and two other churches but didn't go in, just walked past... and St. Canice's. But back to that in a wee bit. I think the facade of St. Mary's was my favorite, it was just so massive and prominent! But in my humble opinion the interior of St. Canice's is superior.

But what you really want to know about is how the Hibernian Orchestra performed! Okay, I shan't hold you in suspense any longer!! IT WAS SPECTACULAR, ABSOLUTE GLORY AND MAGNIFICENCE, all enhanced by the cathedral's breathtaking atmosphere!!!! I was a bit surprised, though: they did not start Arvo Part's Fratres with the tension-building intro, just came in on the first note after. Either way it was very good, very poignant. Now for Mozart, it was good too, but I don't think it worked well in that space. There were perhaps sixty in the orchestra (my very rough estimate) but for Mozart the size reduced to... maybe forty? It was a little difficult to tell; I was ten rows back and there were taller people sitting in front of me, not that that's uncommon. It was a bassoon concerto and the remainder of the orchestra was very... quiet. I'm not sure if it was the downsize of members, that they were playing softer for Peter Whelen to be spotlighted, or a combination, but the sound seemed to be lost to the vast expanse of the cathedral. I'm not sure if it was the sound or the composition itself but I was not as impacted by it. Still good though, don't get me wrong. And everyone was performing Brahms after a short intermission; I was rather fond of that. Overall it was exceptionally well done (to my untrained ear), a masterpiece that was very neat in that setting!!!

We then ate a quick dinner in an old traditional Irish pub/restaurant, Kyteler's (if you ever find yourself in Kilkenny I actually highly recommend it. Good, reasonably priced food, neat atmosphere, etc... because yes, I know the odds are high that you will both soon be in Kilkenny and remember the name of this place). We - dare I admit?- barely caught the 6:30 bus to Dublin, got in at 8:40, and left on the 9:00 bus to Galway. Definitely a worthwhile weekend!!


And, as always, pictures:

Kilkenny Castle

St. Mary's Cathedral

Black Abbey

St. Canice's Cathedral

A Few Others...