walls for the wind: Farm and Other Happenings

Hello, all!

It's been pretty busy this week! Sorry for not updating for a couple of days. I forget I have an audience now. ;-)

So here is the Cliff's Notes version of the past few days.

Sunday: Visit to Jameson Whisky Distillery. Nifty place for souveniers and touring, but otherwise not of much interest to me. ;-) I did taste my friend's complimentary drink, Jameson and cranberry juice, though. I knew by the smell I wouldn't like it, and the one sip sealed the deal. Whiskey = not my thing. ;-)

This weekend was the first for another batch of students that arrived, so it was their "orientation" weekend. I am amused that their first activity was the Jameson Distillery and ours was the Guiness Storehouse. Pattern? ;-)

Monday: One of the coolest days ever! We took a trip to an Irish Farm! Sadly, I lost some of my pictures from that day, but one of my housemates backed them up, luckily. I will get them from her later and post a few of the ones I didn't lose.

So at the farm, we made bread, and while it was baking, we learned to play the traditional Irish drum, called the Bodhran. We learned an Irish dance to a reel. (Lots of fun. It should be said that there was a loose board in the dance floor, and someone knocked it to the side, and yes, I stepped in the hole, and fell. This shouldn't be news to anyone, as I am a klutz.) Haha! I try to entertain when I can.

After the most delicious meal ever, plus the bread that I made with the other Hillary (we refer to ourselves as Hillary squared, BTW) We did a bunch of other things together. We herded some cows (for real!), walked around in an Irish bog (barefoot! and some of the boys jumped in to their waste), built some fuel stacks out of turf, herded ponies, wandered around a barn, went on a hayride, and had some freshly baked scones before we headed out. Also, we tried our hand at hurling, a big Irish sport and the fastest ball/stick sport in the world. And I am proud to say that I could whack the ball farther than all the girls and all but three of the boys. ;-) Thank you softball!

It was a great day!

Tuesday: New class started: Themes in Irish History, Study Tour Seminar. So, in this class, we have a lecture for the first part of the day and then take field trips around Dublin and the surrounding area. It is sweet. Tuesday we went to the National Museum and there were cool artifacts and bog bodies! That was very strange!

Wednesday: (Today) Caught up now! Today, our field trip was to Trinity College, Dublin City Hall, and Dublin Castle. Cool stuff. So my paper for my previous class is loosely due on Monday, and I am not done. Therefore, I am getting off the blog to get to work!

Enjoy some pics and vids from the farm!