Catching up: Hurricane Northern Ireland & my 21st birthday!

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Hey all. Sorry it's been so long since my last entry! Every time I thought about sitting down to update, something inevitably came up. And by "something", I don't necessarily mean the pubs. 😉

Last week was midterms (albeit the least stressful midterms week of my life) so we didn't have any classes. The idea was that we were supposed to use the free time to write our essays and study - you know, as if we were in real school - but I'm sort of notorious for finishing my papers mere hours before their deadlines, so I wasn't too stressed. We also discovered that the local Irish channel RTE plays Scrubs, Friends, and Sex & The City in one big lineup of guilt-free procrastination, so that certainly didn't help either. However, I still managed to find some time to study. 😉 My Irish language midterm turned out to much harder than expected, and it definitely doesn't help that my Spanish is getting mangled up along with it. At this point, I can say hello, how are you, how's the weather (rainy), where I'm from, where I'm living, how to ask for a pint of Guinness, and how to count to ten. Rigorous. It's cool to know some Irish, but as some of my friends found out the hard way, if you approach someone in a pub and start speaking it in your terrible American accent, the locals are going to think yer an arse.

Onto the bigger & better things. Last Thursday my program, IES, sponsored a field trip to Northern Ireland, which is not part of the Republic of Ireland but instead the U.K. Almost everyone in the program went along (I suppose it was technically our spring holiday). We took a two hour train from Dublin to Belfast and upon arrival boarded a coach bus to have lunch at the Crown Bar. Fun fact: This was located across the street from the most heavily bombed hotel in Europe back during the Troubles. And quick background information because this has everything to do with the trip: the "Troubles" refers to the violent conflict between Irish Catholic Republicans and English Protestant Loyalists in NI; to this day the city of Belfast is divided along these lines, with fences and "peacewalls" partitioning the city. (This is horribly simplfied summary, so if this interests you at all I would suggest looking into it.) After lunch we took a black cab tour of the city, highlighting the peacewalls, murals, and memorials in honor of the many people who died as a result of the sectarian violence. After the tour, we boarded the bus again for Portrush, a small oceanside town two hours away from Belfast (with considerably less community tension). We stayed at a Ramada Hotel right off the rocky coastline - the view was incredible, but probably more exciting than the view was the accommodations. My flat in Dublin is amazing, but when traveling I'm used to sketchy, dirty hostels. Here, I got a king sized bed! The night was our own, so after dinner at a pizza place, we went en mass to a local pub for the night where I played pool with a former snooker champion (aka it didn't matter than I am god awful at pool) and made friends with some townies.

The next morning we had to be up bright and early. Thankfully the hotel offered a full breakfast with all the coffee a girl could ask for. The first thing on the itinerary was a visit to the Bushmill's whiskey distillery - I maintain that was a rather cruel joke on IES' part. The cool thing about this tour was that they literally took us through the factory rather than replicating the experience (like the Guinness Storehouse does, for example). It was incredible. At the very end we were allowed one free drink at the bar, and I tried a hot toddy which is considered medicinal here ("We take it for everything!") I also had a few sips of a special 12 year old reserve whiskey which was quite honestly delicious (and ridiculously expensive. Northern Ireland is on the pound, which is double the American dollar. Brutal!). After the whiskey tour we had lunch in a pub that used to be a schoolhouse, so it was still set up that way which made for somewhat awkward conversation. We had the standard pub lunch of sandwiches and vegetable soup, followed by tea. Then we were off to Giant's Causeway - by far one of the most amazing things I have ever done. The causeway is basically natural phenomena, the result of a volcanic eruption, say the scientists - or perhaps it's because the giant Finn McCool built the causeway to Scotland in order to reach his enemy Benandonner. 😉 In any case, hopefully the pictures will speak for themselves, although I made sure to take video because photos do not do this country justice. The wind was absolutely insane at the Causeway, it was as if I was literally caught in a tornado. Walking the cliffs, we could barely stand up, and at some points I was forced to grab hold of the nearest tree branch or fence in order to keep my balance. I cannot emphasize how incredible this was - and also exhausting! When we'd finally had enough, and had slipped into the office/gift shop for reprieve, we noticed a large sign: "Hazardous Cross Winds! You Are Advised NOT To Use The Cliff Walks Today!"

Oops.

That evening we went to a nice restaurant for dinner and IES paid for everything - wine and desserts included. We basically stuffed ourselves silly on banoffee pie, chocolate brownies, and cheesecake, to the point that immediately after returning to the hotel almost everyone needed to lie down. We watched a bit of tv (some kind of Saturday Night Live sketch show; most of the humor went over our heads) and I'm glad we did. I was very surprised to see that on the Northern Irish weather segments of the news, they only showed the temperatures of other U.K. cities, completely ignoring the rest of Ireland. All the NI television programmes were British as well - it absolutely felt like a foreign country and not like we were on the same island at all. Obviously this is the point, but I guess I just didn't expect these two places to completely ignore each other. The next day, Saturday, we visited the extensive ruins of Dunluce Castle, located on the cliffs (hundreds of years ago, the kitchen broke off from the castle and fell into the sea, taking the kitchen staff with it) and while the rest of the program then returned to Belfast and to Dublin, three friends and I chose to spend an extra night in Northern Ireland to see Derry. Another 2 hour train ride later, we found ourselves in the city where Bloody Sunday took place on 30 January 1972. On Bloody Sunday, the British army fired on a civil rights march, killing 14 civilians and seriously intensifying the violence in the city. We walked around the city to see the murals and memorials, but were so exhausted from all the traveling than after grabbing dinner, we just decided to see a movie. For the record, "No Country For Old Men" is fantastic. We got back to Dublin late evening on Sunday.

Tuesday I finally turned 21! Initially when I came abroad, I was a bit sad thinking that I'd be celebrating such a milestone with none of my friends or family, but in reality I could not have asked for a better birthday here. The day before I got the greatest care package ever from home, with all the things I'm craving that I can't get here, like macaroni & cheese, microwave popcorn, etc., and all the birthday cards brought such a huge smile to my face - thanks again!! At midnight my time, Mom, Dad, Meghan and Bailey Skyped me & sang happy birthday, which put me in a great mood despite the fact I was writing one of the aforementioned papers. I also got a couple phone calls and instant messages at about the same time which was really touching - I couldn't believe how many of my friends had an eye on the clock for local Dublin time. After classes on Tuesday, about 12 of my friends and I got all dressed up to go out to dinner at a Italian restaurant. I'd told the restaurant it was my birthday, so they came through with a gigantic chocolate cake surrounded by cream puffs, and everyone even sang. After dinner, we went to a pub/nightclub where I was supplied with a crown and birthday sash and even a few presents. I was thrilled that so many friends came out even though we all had papers to write and tests to study for, and people kept telling me that my happiness was actually contagious. Furthermore, on Thursday during my writing class, my professor heard it was my birthday, and during our 15 minute tea break (yes, we get those) he ran out to get me another birthday cake and everyone sang AGAIN which was humiliating & amazing. In any case, I can't actually believe I'm 21 but I'm definitely looking forward to having a drink with everyone when I come back.

Max came to visit this past weekend, and today marks the beginning of the week-long St. Patrick's Day festival (yay!) so I have lots more to write about, but this is probably enough for now.

May those that love us, love us.
And those that don't love us,
May God turn their hearts.
And if He doesn't turn their hearts,
May He turn their ankles
So we will know them by their limping.

Also I'm sorry if you get multiple alerts for the update in your e-mail. Just ignore!

Cheers!

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Photos

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Protestant murals at Shankill Road.

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Signing the peace wall: Jenna from Chicago, IL!

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Giant's Causeway.

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The cliffs.

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"The Giant's Boot" - hardly needed to pretend we were falling.

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Dunluce Castle.

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Mona Lisa was wearing my birthday hat.