Land of Leprechauns

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Over the past 5 days, I participated in a creativity workshop- read: 3 hours a day of lying on the floor with 23 other adults, color pencils, glue sticks, scissors and a variety of objects flying as we visualized, wrote, drew, made up stories, and, in short, tapped into aspects of play and imagination that we abandoned after about 8 years of age. While there were a couple oversights (poor teaching practice on the part of the instructors- probably only really bothering the 15 or so educators in the room), the course was mentally invigorating and well worth the time and money. I can't wait to share what I learned with students next year, and plan to keep flexing my creative muscles more consistently as well.

Our workshop was located just off one of the city's busiest streets- Grafton- and it cast its spell on me- until the workshop ended, I didn't really venture very far outside the street's 1/2 mile perimeter. Grafton Street is a lot like the main strip of State Street in Santa Barbara, only without cars and condensed into about half the distance- rows of stores and restaurants pulse throughout the day with busy shoppers (even busier since July is one of two official "sale months" in Ireland, where practically every window has 50% off signs in the window). The economy thrived in the last decade, and people here are doing the shopping to prove it (although, incidentally, Ireland's economy has taken a slight downturn over the past year). Most buildings are a few stories tall, made of brick or stone, and stores all seem to have 3 stories. I wandered around enchanted, taking in the wide variety of musicians and street entertainers that stud the paths every 20 paces or so. One afternoon I encountered, in the space of about about 10 minutes, a magician climbing a free-standing ladder, a juggling unicyclist, a violinist, a 3 piece band, street mimes painted entirely in silver and gold, and a handful of guitarists, playing everything from classic rock to traditional Irish ballads. And when I walked back up after lunch there was, to my surprise, an entirely different set of musicians- perhaps there's a time limit. While Ireland may be comparatively expensive, there are no shortage of free entertainers on Grafton. Mingling with the bustling shoppers, stroller weilding or pregnant 20-something women dot the streets. There is a stat that fully 50%- or even more- of Ireland's population is under the age of 28- not sure what percentage are new mothers, but it's enough to make you take notice.

Off to run some errands with Lynnsie- more to come later...

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