Final Round

In a new house but I can see its potential to feel like home. It is just as hot here as the place that I left-- unexpectedly so, given that this place is farther north and embedded deep in a valley between two high ridges. They call this place "Happy Valley", but that has not been my experience here so far. However. I do think that things can change if we let them, which requires that we transform ourselves into people who allow change to happen.

I forgot to pack a toothbrush into any of the many boxes containing most of my possessions, which my parents and I hauled up here this afternoon, so around 8:30 I headed downtown to make the purchase. As I walked to the store along familiar houses and well-known streets, I found myself thinking: here is the sidewalk where I was so laden with sadness that I wasn't sure I could walk the whole way to the store, or back again.

It is easy, when in a known place, to revert to the person you were and the feelings that you felt and the ways that you acted while you were originally there. The challenge, then, is to recreate yourself into a new entity even as the place remains 'old'. Emphasis on 'create'-- self-making is a creative process, fraught with poetically licensed decisions, inspiration, and the necessity of finding and staying true to your soul (in this sense, there is no creation involved-- you simply pay attention to what you already are).

I'm tired now, too tired to say fully what I mean, or to word well the few sentences that I have managed to get out. But I know what I'm talking about. Hopefully I will articulate it more tomorrow. Until then, here is my mantra:

(based on the premise that What we give our attention to grows stronger),

I am setting my intention to give attention to calm, to quiet listening and to acting in accordance with my heart and my soul

Ireland

things I will miss:

-the accents
-people talk slower, include more details, and expect you to listen-- not so much catering to short attention spans and busy schedules
-life is less fast- paced, in general
-the phraseology, particularly "how's the craic?"
-common courtesy is the norm
-Irish time
-most everything being poorly run
-eating big carrots in my apartment
-people are laid back-- stress is not a way of life
-random castles all over the place, particularly in fields of grazing cattle
-crazy weather
-Saturday market
-the man who makes the doughnuts at the Saturday market
-pints of Bulmer's cider
-a huge selection of Cadbury creations
-my favorite cereal from Tesco
-raiding Tesco's "Reduced to Clear" sections
-the air
-Supermac's: 99s, observing the drunken antics that occur there on a nightly basis
-the people
-good nights in my room, laughing/bemoaning the shitty internet with my roommate
-The Quays
-long walks
-picturing my location, and realizing that I'm a tiny dot on an island
-shitty roads
-nights on the town
-random late- night meetings
-quick friendships that are no less genuine for being made in haste
-the horrible walk to campus
-craziness in Gort na Coiribe
-the way the seasons change; it's different than at home-- so much more sudden and sort of unpredictable
-having to turn on the boost and wait an hour before taking a shower
-trying to make the most out of every last euro
-realizing that I've actually gotten to know a lot of people, both Irish and American-- saying hi to people on the sidewalks
-being asked for directions
-fruit & veg stands, and the man who sells the fruit & veg
-watching the city transform along with the weather
-living in a country so small that it only has zip codes in the biggest city
-free time
-panic is not normalized
-Charlie Byrne's book store
-bakeries
-it being normal/acceptable to have a pint in the afternoon
-Irish stereotypes that ring true (read: old men who live in the pub)
-watching rugby games in pubs
-once again: the people
-the Circle of Death
-enduring shitty lectures
-less daily interaction with technology-- especially phones
-walking everywhere
-feeling good
-not having to explain one's self, not having to always be doing something 'productive', "just havin' a laugh"
-lying in the grass by the Spanish Arch
-the view from my window

going over to Blake's house

I was wrong. The ivy- colored castle with swans in front of it, pictured in one of my previous posts, was not Yeats' Keep-- it was Blake's house. it burned down in 1910, but today a couple of us took a walk to what remains.

#1 part of the exterior


#2 part of the interior. those stairs are the original stairs. I touched them. the two dogs joined us part way through our walk, and followed us the whole way to the castle-- then demanded that we play fetch with the big stick visible in front of the brown dog (whose name, according to his collar, is Fahy)
#3 part of what we think were the servants' quarters-- the building sits about 100 feet away from the 'main house' (castle)
#4 original fireplace-- picture it!
#5 on the walk back, I ducked into the woods beside the path-- and this is what I saw. We think the stones poking out in the center are part of an old well. these white flowers covered the ground. the first thought that popped into my head was, "it's like the world is wearing a wedding dress".

walking to Salthill

today a couple of us walked to the neighboring town of Salthill. ostensibly, we embarked on this journey in order to kick the wall beside the ocean (it's meant to bring the kicker 'good luck' or some such positivity)... but when we got there, we were so distracted by how nice the day was that it wasn't until after I got home that I realized we'd forgotten to kick the wall. I'm not that worked up about it.

#1 the water. I waded in it. the water is so much clearer than at any of the beaches I've been to at home-- I could see my feet! even when I was standing in water up to my knees! the water wasn't that cold, either. in fact, it pretty much defined the word "refreshing", to stand there with my feet in the ocean
#2 there were so many people there. a lot of the 'young folks' gathered on whatever this yellow structure is in order to take turns diving off. something that I've grown to appreciate about the Irish people in general is the way they really take advantage of nice weather. I think this has largely to do with the fact that nice weather can't be taken for granted-- the prevailing mentality seems to be that 'you never know when you'll see it again, here, so you take advantage of it when it comes'. and they do-- when it's sunny and warm, the outdoors is suddenly filled to bursting
#3 on the walk back. people flying kites! (that palm tree near the bottom center is the same one that was in the photo with the giant pile of trash)
#4 ok, seriously: how cool is this? this is the bakery that I photographed way back in the beginning of my trip-- the one with the huuuge meringues. only now, instead of meringues, their window display consists of alligators! made out of pastry! I am so freakin' impressed
#5 me with my homies: Oscar and Edmund Wilde

views from the top

I almost didn't take pictures from the top, because I knew that photos wouldn't do it justice. I was right. (but these are still pretty)

#1 I would have guessed 'the Carribean' as opposed to 'Ireland', if you'd put me up at the top and asked me to guess where I was

#2 we were almost even with the clouds

#3 teeny- tiny houses. the cars, according to Chuck, looked like "grains of rice". this made me picture little grains of rice with legs running frantically along the highway, which made me laugh out loud

Croagh Patrick

today I climbed a huge mountain. I am tired.


#1 the biggest peak-- that's the one we climbed.

#3 DO NOT READ THIS ONE YET. THIS IS PICTURE #3. SCROLL DOWN FOR #2, and then scroll back up here (I uploaded in the wrong order). the trek was divided into two segments: first we climbed to top of the shorter peak (see #1), then we climbed to the top of the big one. this is the view of part of the second chunk of the trip. I couldn't find an angle that allowed me to capture how steep and rocky and treacherous and big this was
#4 another attempt to capture the steepness. didn't really work. and the other thing that you can't tell from these photos is that the 'path' is comprised of loose rocks of varying sizes-- definitely a 'two steps forward, one-- or six-- steps back' situation
#5 at the top. St. Patrick's cathedral. apparently St. Patrick climbed up here, fasted for 40 days, and then expelled the serpents from Ireland. the stones to build the cathedral were carried up by donkeys. I'm pretty sure that qualifies as animal abuse. I'm also pretty sure that you couldn't have paid me to carry anything other than my water bottle and lunch up there
#2 at the very beginning. the land seemed so serene and gentle. it belied what was to come.

more pictures

#1 have I mentioned this yet? during the famine, the government decided that they couldn't give aid 'for nothing'-- because then people would always expect 'free' aid. so the government decided to make people 'work' for the aid. this work consisted of building random fences and roads that led nowhere and had no purpose other than to fill people's days. the fences and roads ended whenever all of the workers had died. this fence-- leading up a mountain-- is one such fence. I have also come across roads that simply... end
#2 this castle is unique in that it has big, fairly open windows-- most castles in Ireland have the little slit-windows required for adequate protection from arrows. the residents of this castle must have liked to flirt with danger. badass.
#3 atop the cliffs, I found this field. the cows are less than a couple hundred feet from the edge of the cliff, and it's always windy-- I can't believe how serene they are; I'd be pretty pissed off if someone asked me to live up there all the time
#4 on the way back from the cliffs. this is called the "moon or lunar area", because theoretically the rocks look like the surface of the moon. the area is formed by glaciers, and is more than 15,000 old
#5 sheep! more specifically: baby sheep! awwww