and again

Hi. The last week and a half in Ireland has been very challenging, but very fun. I have been spending a lot of time in my studio finishing up some works, (I woke up one day and I realized I hadn't really completed anything all semester) spending time blowing my nose all over, (due to my sinus infection) and spending quality family time with orchard house. 

This semester has been so wonderful and really helpful in understanding myself in relation to the people around me. In the first few weeks I was really unsure of the people I was living with; we were all such different personality, with polar interests, and too many personal habits. But over the corse of the semester I have realized how dependent we are on one another, our influences, and how much we have grown to love everyone. I am very appreciative of who I live with and I will miss them terribly when we are back home. 

Highlights of the week:

Last Sunday I went with Steph to the cake walk at the Hyde Gallery and had a delicious piece of carrot cake: ) mmmmm. Then we went on a long bike ride/date to the rhine beach and ate a brownie from the cake walk while our feet were buried in sand. What a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon

On Thursday, I went to set dancing which is always my favorite part of the week. I am going to miss set dancing- I can already tell. I looked up places in Minnesota that I can continue classes when I get back to the states. 

On Friday I had Irish Studies, and we went to see Yeat's tower and house, Lady Gregories place, and this old church with beautiful stained glass. Seeing Yeat's house and stream, it makes complete sense that he is one of the most well-known poets of the twentieth century; anyone who lived there would have been inspired by solitude. 

My favorite place of the day though was definitely Lady Gregories place. She had the most sublime forest will lines of giant, skinny trees and fields of vines- it took my breath away. In the entrance of the drive there was a field of wild garlic leaves, and we all got down on our hands and knees and ate garlic right there and then- it felt really natural and great. In the back of her property was a huge tulough with cracked dirt and rock underneath. We spent time skipping rocks and splashing our feet. What a nice and fantastic day.  

Friday night we went to Monks for live music and dancing. It was pretty nice and I had some really good conversations with Suzanne. Oh, and Kellys bike broke and we had to carry it all the way home: (

Saturday was another Gort trip. I have mixed feelings about Gort as a place. It is sorta nice.....but it is in the middle of the day and its kind of annoying to spend 5 hours to get groceries. After the trip to Gort, we had a potluck at Kinjis house: ) sooooo much food and it was all soooo delicious. ah i ate a ton! and then I went to Logues and danced with my full belly. There was a 40th birthday party happening and so there was a live band- the Holeran Twins, who played 80 american music and I danced for hours. After being wiped out at Logues we took a stole to the pier and sang songs by the ocean. I am getting really excited for it to be warm enough to swim! I am going to jump right off the end of the pier. We took our time in walking back to the house only to find a giant PARTY! woo. lol. I had the time of my life dancing all through the night. 

Sunday afternoon we went back over to Kinjis house to eat the rest of the potluck food on his back porch. It was such a sunny and beautiful day and we got to talk about a lot of personal stories. It was perfect.