Mid-term Break

Derelict Cathedral at St. Andrew's

I would normally call this Fall Break, but I want to make this blog intelligible to our UK readers.  And since we're on the subject of language, let explain one phrase that has been the subject of personal confusion.  In America, if want a throw away phrase to pretend you are interested in someone's well being, you say 'How's it going?' or 'What's up?' or even 'How are you?' 
Not so the British, not so.  Here (meaning England) the appropriate phrase is 'Are you alright?'  For me, 'Are you alright?' is a serious inquiry into someone's health and well being.  It has the implication that the person addressed by the question does not look alright, and that something is probably wrong.  Perhaps their dog died, or they found out their best friend liked New Jersey or whatever.  But over here, people throw the phrase 'Are you alright?' around like it doesn't mean anything. And it doesn't.  I've kind of gotten used to it, but the first few times I was asked, I answered earnestly, apologized for looking haggard, and emphasized that I was just fine.  Even now, when asked the question I can't completely avoid the 'oh no, I must look aweful' instinct.  Old habits
die hard.  Except that for essays over here, it is proper to use single quotation marks, rather than double, when quoting another author.  At least that is the case at the school I am attending.  My brain was rewired in an instant, because single quote marks are easier to type.  So much for language conventions.

Edinburgh Castle

November 4, a Friday, saw the beginning of break and me on a nine hour bus ride to Edinburgh.  From there, I caught a shorter bus to St. Andrew's, where I would stay with friends at a friend's friend's residence.  The next day was spent seeing the golf course there (golf was invented at St. Andrew's), going dune running near the beach, walking around the ruins of a cathedral, and walking out onto the pier.  The sun set really early, and so a potluck dinner followed.  Then came a rousing game of golf (the card game, but very appropriate for St. Andrew's) in which I tied for first, winning by only one point, followed by a bonfire on the beach.  It wasn't much, but there was guitar playing, singing, good people, and fireworks.  It was to celebrate Guy Fawkes day/bonfire night/the fifth of November.

Sunday, was a trip back to Edinburgh.  We went on a walking tour of the city, seeing all sorts of things, like the statue of David Hume, the 'royal crier's tower' thing, where they announce the coronation of the new monarch, a cemetery where a dog called Greyfriars Bobby lived, the cafe where J.K. Rowling wrote the first Harry Potter book, various views of the castle.  In Edinburgh, there is a really popular drink which I tasted called Irn-Bru (pronounced 'Iron Brew') that outsells every other soft drink.  It tastes like liquid bubble gum, is illegal in the United States, and apparently is an excellent cure for hangovers.  As a whole, Edinburgh is a really cool city, and the old part has a great historical feel to it.  After the tour, we climbed up this large hill just outside the city, to the peak, which is called Arthur's seat.  It offered a great view of the city and of the sea.  We watched the Sun set there (at 4:15!  On a mountain!).  We eventually found a Mass to go to in the evening, after one unsuccessful attempt which resulted in sung evening prayer and free biscuits (cookies).  Then we hung out in a cafe playing hearts, until it was late.  Then I departed for my hostel, and the other left for the airport to catch a morning flight.

Sunset on Arthur's Seat making the Irn-Bru glow even more

Monday, I walked towards the sea, first stopping at the hill which is sort of opposite Arthur's seat, on which the building with Edinburgh's time ball (dropping at 1:00pm) sits.  Then I walked down and along the coast, following the John Muir Way for the most part, but only getting as far as Prestonpans.  It was nice just to get close to nature, probably the most I had experienced since arriving in Europe.  My journey was necessarily cut short by the early sunset.  So I basically just took a city bus back to Edinburgh, read for a little bit, and called it an early night.

Tuesday, I spend the day touring Edinburgh Castle.  Among other things I saw there was the Scottish crown jewels, and chapel of St. Margret of Scotland, the oldest building of the castle.  It was also a great chance to catch up on my Scottish royal history.  I found my way to the museum (free admission!) which had a fun hands-on science area for kids and stayed there till close.  Then I fell asleep in the nearby library, reading a huge book of English grammar.

I finally found Mooreeffoc in the Edinburgh Museum!

Wednesday, I had time to see two paintings in the National Gallery, before catching a plane to Dublin, where KS, just in from Spain, met me in the airport.  We spend the afternoon seeing things in the city, like Trinity College, St. Patrick's Cathedral, Christ's Church, and a temporary exhibit on W.B. Yeats at the national library.  On our tourist map we saw some kind of building named after Newman just south of one of the parks.  We thought that sounded like a Catholic place, and we were not disappointed.  We showed up during the one hour during the week that Eucharistic Adoration happens there, and joined the old Irish ladies in adoring Our Lord.  One interesting thing about Ireland, is that all the official (government) signs are written first in Irish, with English below or to the side.  No one speaks Irish, so this seems rather odd.  Every private enterprise has all their signs in English.  Using the Irish language is a good way of holding onto Irish culture, I suppose.  At any rate, it is neat that they do that.

The cliff walk from Greystones to Bray

Thursday began early with a bus ride to Greystones and walk along the cliffs over looking the sea to Bray.  It was a beautiful, scenic walk, after the sun had just risen.  There was, unfortunately, just enough rain to soak my feet for the rest of the day.  After a series of buses, we arrived at Kilmainham Gaol.  If you are at all interested in Irish history, this is a must see place if you visit Dublin.  The jail was used as a regular prison and was quite over crowded for much of its history.  However, following the Easter Rising in 1916, several individual fighting for a free Ireland was imprisoned and executed there.  Stories coming from the prison bolstered the movement for Irish independence.  On particularly moving story was that of Joseph Plunkett, who wed his wife Grace Gifford the night before he was executed for his part in the Easter Rising.  We saw the chapel where they were wed, Joseph Plunkett's cell, and the cell where Grace Gifford was imprisoned several years later.  The main part of the jail is a model of a Victorian era prison, and several films have been shot there.  Kilmainham also was the place where the hunger strikers were held during the Irish Civil war.  There is an interesting museum attached to the jail, which has artifacts from important figures of this era of Irish history.  Following Kilmainham, we went to the Guinness Storehouse.  There was a self guided tour, explaining the process of making Guinness, and other aspects related to the marketing and distribution of Guinness.  The tour ends with a 'free' pint on the top of the building, with a great view of Dublin.  Guinness really does taste better in Dublin.  Following this, was a pot luck at University College of Dublin (UCD) with Notre Dame students and a rematch game of hearts (see Sunday above).

Kilmainham Gaol

Friday started with a trek to Glasnevin Cemetery.  We didn't go into the museum or pay for a tour, but it is a massive cemetery and some key figures in Irish history (for example Michael Collins) are buried there.  We walked around for a while, only finding a few graves of important figures, and appropriately enough it was pouring rain.  We had planned to go on a walking tour of Dublin, but because of the rain decided not to.  Instead, we happened upon the inauguration ceremony of the new Irish president, Michael D. Higgins.  We couldn't see much, being kept out by the gates around Dublin Castle, but where actually right at the spot were the motorcade would come out.  We got our pictures with St. Patrick's and Christ's Church and even got closer to the Castle, before dragging soaking wet bodies back to UCD, where we changed clothes.  SM took us to see the O'Connel house for Notre Dame in Dublin and introduced us to some of the staff members, before heading over to St. Mary's pro-cathedral for Mass with its excellent choir.  After getting pizza for dinner (noteworthy because I had had pizza one other time since arriving in Europe), we went to an Irish pub to watch Ireland's soccer match against Estonia.  A qualifying game for the European championships, it was a rousing 4-0 win for the Irish.  It was altogether a fun environment to watch soccer in.

Blarney Castle

Saturday was spend almost entirely in traveling to and from Cork and nearby Blarney, home of a castle that you may have heard of.  The four hour bus ride to Cork was immediately followed by a trip to an extremely busy shopping area, where some fresh food was purchased for lunch.  Then the bus was caught to Blarney.  Blarney castle isn't particularly big, but it felt really accessible.  You explore many parts of the castle and feel a part of it.  Of course I kissed the Blarney stone, which you actually had a lean back quite a ways to reach.  I imagine it was quite dangerous in the days before they installed metal bars beneath the gap, installed hand grips, and stationed a professional there to help hold you.  After that, we went to the nice nature areas which surround the castle grounds.  There were kind of creepy things there, like a stone that looked like a witch, and a druid circle.  There is also a poison garden, meant to teach about poisonous plants.  There were actually poisonous plants there (for example Hemlock), and a few that were kind of weak cases, like tea because it has caffeine.  No longer present in the garden is Cannabis, which was confiscated by the Irish police until Blarney can get properly licensed.  The three hours there were sufficient, but they had to be.  We needed to begin our series of bus rides back to UCD, lest we miss the last one.  The next morning we caught the plane back to London.

Me kissing the Blarney Stone

Let me conclude with a few more general remarks.  Ireland was great.  The grass is literally greener there.  The people there were so nice.  Everyone we asked for directions or help was so friendly.  I also loved the fact that you could call 'soccer' soccer, yield signs said 'yield,' and people pronounced 'amen,' 'ey-men.'  It was just more like American than GB.  And they love American over in Ireland.  For example, our tourist maps commemorated the visit of Obama to Dublin, and had marked on the map the place where he gave a speech.  And I don't know if this counts as an example, but whenever Ireland scored a goal, one of the guys in the pub sang something about going to America.  That probably proves nothing.  But Ireland was still pretty awesome.


Finally, one of the take home lessons from this trip was that you can be anywhere in the world, but as long as you are with good people, things are going to be alright.  I haven't talked much about other people in the post, but some of the best moments of the week were simply talking and being with good friends.  Another lesson is that people are the best source of information.  Even in the age of Google, asking another person is often the best way to get an answer.  That's why human teachers haven't gone out of style yet.  Other people were quite helpful as I tried to navigate around all these unfamiliar places or to figure out what was going on.