Monday, February 22, 2010
Clicking Heels in Kilkenny
Katherine, Kate, Chris, Tom, and Tricia letting out some energy before we headed back to Dublin on the train.
Friday Adventure: Discovering Ireland
Winters in Vermont always seem to be far too long. Don’t get me wrong, I love snow. However, I always find myself looking at the Green Mountains wanting them to be… green.
This is not an issue in Ireland. Spring starts on February 1st. Our group from Champlain College successfully bypassed the winter months! Although we have been seeing yellow tulips pop up throughout St. Stephen’s Green, spring hadn’t officially smiled back at us until we took our Friday art trip with Jacinta. For the hour and a half train ride to Kilkenny, I looked out into fields of green grass being grazed by sheep, and their new-to-the-world lambs.
Champlain College Dublin gave us a huge gift: reserved Fridays. We have two reserved Fridays a month. Some of these reserved Fridays don’t even pertain to all the students. The Fridays the school doesn’t have reserved, the students have reserved for sleep or day trips of their own!
I took my first reserved Friday trip with my Cultural Immersion through the Fine Arts class with Jacinta to a town called Kilkenny.
The Dart took us out of the city and into the country where we took a look into The Butler Gallery. The gallery is presently showing Aideen Barry’s exhibition, "The Morphology of the Other."The exhibit consisted of four rooms. The first room held Barry’s drawings of what she saw humans morphing into as well as sculptures which were half grenades-half squirt bottles.
My fellow student and buddy, Rob, was quite interested in these. He even got to hold one!
The second room held her piece, Minefield. It was four mines made out of aluminium.
They were at one time shown at the Royal Hibernian Gallery where we had seen another contemporary art exhibit, by Nevan Lehart, the week before. And, if and when you find yourself talking with someone from Ireland, write “aluminium” on a piece of paper, hand it to them, and tell them to read it aloud.
The third exhibit consisted of three televisions showing three different movies. Each movie was accompanied by music/sounds. The movie that struck me the most was Barry’s film about how we have become so pretentious about keeping a clean environment, and we move around so much to get everything done, that we never really even touch the ground. The woman, Barry, in the movie is floating above ground while shopping for groceries, taking out the garbage, and cleaning the house.
We have been discussing in Jacinta’s class if some contemporary art is really art; we have been asking if these artists deserve as much credit as Monet, or Degas.
And, Barry’s last exhibit made me decide my answer. The extent to how I felt when I went into the last room of the exhibit was too powerful for the work in the room not to be considered art. Projected on the far wall was a video of a creature, half woman-half vacuum cleaner. The suit she was wearing in the movie was displayed along the wall. It was like a long, disgusting, disturbing worm. Just an interesting fact: To get the full effect of feeling no gravity, Barry was granted money to study with NASA!
The Butler Gallery is located in the bottom of the Kilkenny Castle. After looking through the gallery, we took a tour of the castle. It was built in the first decade of the 13th century for the Duke of Pembroke. It later became the home of the Butler family for around 600 years. In 1967, Arthur Butler, the 3rd Earl of Ormond, sold it to the people of Kilkenny for… £50!!! It has been going through renovations for many years. Jacinta asked when the renovations would be done. Our tour guide responded, “Never probably!”
Out of the many, many opportunities that we receive from Champlain College Abroad, reserved Fridays are one of the best. Whether we are off discovering Ireland with a professor or fellow students, we are bound to be on an adventure. This Friday, we are heading out of the city to ride horses!
This is not an issue in Ireland. Spring starts on February 1st. Our group from Champlain College successfully bypassed the winter months! Although we have been seeing yellow tulips pop up throughout St. Stephen’s Green, spring hadn’t officially smiled back at us until we took our Friday art trip with Jacinta. For the hour and a half train ride to Kilkenny, I looked out into fields of green grass being grazed by sheep, and their new-to-the-world lambs.
Champlain College Dublin gave us a huge gift: reserved Fridays. We have two reserved Fridays a month. Some of these reserved Fridays don’t even pertain to all the students. The Fridays the school doesn’t have reserved, the students have reserved for sleep or day trips of their own!
I took my first reserved Friday trip with my Cultural Immersion through the Fine Arts class with Jacinta to a town called Kilkenny.
The Dart took us out of the city and into the country where we took a look into The Butler Gallery. The gallery is presently showing Aideen Barry’s exhibition, "The Morphology of the Other."The exhibit consisted of four rooms. The first room held Barry’s drawings of what she saw humans morphing into as well as sculptures which were half grenades-half squirt bottles.
My fellow student and buddy, Rob, was quite interested in these. He even got to hold one!
The second room held her piece, Minefield. It was four mines made out of aluminium.
They were at one time shown at the Royal Hibernian Gallery where we had seen another contemporary art exhibit, by Nevan Lehart, the week before. And, if and when you find yourself talking with someone from Ireland, write “aluminium” on a piece of paper, hand it to them, and tell them to read it aloud.
The third exhibit consisted of three televisions showing three different movies. Each movie was accompanied by music/sounds. The movie that struck me the most was Barry’s film about how we have become so pretentious about keeping a clean environment, and we move around so much to get everything done, that we never really even touch the ground. The woman, Barry, in the movie is floating above ground while shopping for groceries, taking out the garbage, and cleaning the house.
We have been discussing in Jacinta’s class if some contemporary art is really art; we have been asking if these artists deserve as much credit as Monet, or Degas.
And, Barry’s last exhibit made me decide my answer. The extent to how I felt when I went into the last room of the exhibit was too powerful for the work in the room not to be considered art. Projected on the far wall was a video of a creature, half woman-half vacuum cleaner. The suit she was wearing in the movie was displayed along the wall. It was like a long, disgusting, disturbing worm. Just an interesting fact: To get the full effect of feeling no gravity, Barry was granted money to study with NASA!
The Butler Gallery is located in the bottom of the Kilkenny Castle. After looking through the gallery, we took a tour of the castle. It was built in the first decade of the 13th century for the Duke of Pembroke. It later became the home of the Butler family for around 600 years. In 1967, Arthur Butler, the 3rd Earl of Ormond, sold it to the people of Kilkenny for… £50!!! It has been going through renovations for many years. Jacinta asked when the renovations would be done. Our tour guide responded, “Never probably!”
Out of the many, many opportunities that we receive from Champlain College Abroad, reserved Fridays are one of the best. Whether we are off discovering Ireland with a professor or fellow students, we are bound to be on an adventure. This Friday, we are heading out of the city to ride horses!
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Fresh In Week Five
It’s hard to believe that we all have been on The Emerald Isle for over a month now. Do you know what that means? This is week FIVE of classes.
Our classes are moving right along; we have already made presentations, written papers, and finished Irish novels.
As a Professional Writing major, I have to take two online classes. However, I do take four classes at the Champlain Dublin academic center. I can guarantee that every student would say, “I am learning.”
And, not just learning. We aren’t talking about American History or re-reading the literature that we were introduced to in the ninth grade. We’re learning about Ireland. That would make sense, right?
In Jacinta Kendrick’s Cultural Immersion through the Fine Arts course, we have spent our weekly class time out of the classroom. In our first week, we went to The National Museum where we looked at bog bodies. These bodies were preserved in the layers of earth in Irish bogs. As well as the bodies, Irish relics have been found; our assignment was to sketch one of these relics. I chose The Tully Lough Cross. In our other class periods, we have gone to The Irish Museum of Modern Art, The Georgian House Museum, and walked past the Leinster House, which houses the National Parliament of Ireland.
The Irish Parliament has been a hot topic in Anthony O’Halloran’s Modern Irish Social History. We have discussed the issues present in Ireland and America and learned that Religion and Government run parallel through more societies than we thought. We have been shown the disturbing intensity of the Famine through important historical documents and speeches and can recognize the recent developments in Irish society like women’s importance and the approval of divorce. Most important, we have been shown the affect America has had on Ireland and Ireland on America.
I have two classes with Caroline Elbay. One of these classes, Writing the City, I am illustrating the city through my writing. In one piece for this course, I wrote about a brunch my roommates and I devoured. We write creatively to inform the reader about an experience we had at an establishment like a café, restaurant, park, theatre, and more. One of our courses was spent at The Irish Writers’ Center, where we listened to four authors read their short stories while enjoying a glass of wine and the company of other writing appreciative people.
In Caroline’s other course, Cultural Immersion through Irish Literature, we have just finished reading The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. Our class learned about Irish history and evolution in culture through this novel. We now recognize the urbanization in Irish history, the emergence of the “new woman”, and the ideas of Darwin and Freud. We have moved onto James Joyce’s collection of short works, The Dubliners. This collection has illustrated the different lives of people in Dublin; we have read about Priests, young boys skipping school and traveling across the Liffey, and young women leaving their families to pursue life and love.
In each of Anthony’s classes, he tells us, “You will need to know this when you get back to Vermont to know the real story.” And, we listen. And, to be completely honest, I feel relatively proud right now. I feel proud to be able to tell about all that I have learned in Dublin. It is an amazing, exhilarating, even ecstatic feeling to be able to recall five weeks of courses and have every idea be fresh in my mind.
Our classes are moving right along; we have already made presentations, written papers, and finished Irish novels.
As a Professional Writing major, I have to take two online classes. However, I do take four classes at the Champlain Dublin academic center. I can guarantee that every student would say, “I am learning.”
And, not just learning. We aren’t talking about American History or re-reading the literature that we were introduced to in the ninth grade. We’re learning about Ireland. That would make sense, right?
In Jacinta Kendrick’s Cultural Immersion through the Fine Arts course, we have spent our weekly class time out of the classroom. In our first week, we went to The National Museum where we looked at bog bodies. These bodies were preserved in the layers of earth in Irish bogs. As well as the bodies, Irish relics have been found; our assignment was to sketch one of these relics. I chose The Tully Lough Cross. In our other class periods, we have gone to The Irish Museum of Modern Art, The Georgian House Museum, and walked past the Leinster House, which houses the National Parliament of Ireland.
The Irish Parliament has been a hot topic in Anthony O’Halloran’s Modern Irish Social History. We have discussed the issues present in Ireland and America and learned that Religion and Government run parallel through more societies than we thought. We have been shown the disturbing intensity of the Famine through important historical documents and speeches and can recognize the recent developments in Irish society like women’s importance and the approval of divorce. Most important, we have been shown the affect America has had on Ireland and Ireland on America.
I have two classes with Caroline Elbay. One of these classes, Writing the City, I am illustrating the city through my writing. In one piece for this course, I wrote about a brunch my roommates and I devoured. We write creatively to inform the reader about an experience we had at an establishment like a café, restaurant, park, theatre, and more. One of our courses was spent at The Irish Writers’ Center, where we listened to four authors read their short stories while enjoying a glass of wine and the company of other writing appreciative people.
In Caroline’s other course, Cultural Immersion through Irish Literature, we have just finished reading The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. Our class learned about Irish history and evolution in culture through this novel. We now recognize the urbanization in Irish history, the emergence of the “new woman”, and the ideas of Darwin and Freud. We have moved onto James Joyce’s collection of short works, The Dubliners. This collection has illustrated the different lives of people in Dublin; we have read about Priests, young boys skipping school and traveling across the Liffey, and young women leaving their families to pursue life and love.
In each of Anthony’s classes, he tells us, “You will need to know this when you get back to Vermont to know the real story.” And, we listen. And, to be completely honest, I feel relatively proud right now. I feel proud to be able to tell about all that I have learned in Dublin. It is an amazing, exhilarating, even ecstatic feeling to be able to recall five weeks of courses and have every idea be fresh in my mind.
Monday, February 1, 2010
A Few Pictures
We hiked from Bray to Greystones. This was a view from the coast about a mile away.
Katherine looking out at the ocean when we arrived in Greystones.
A Decorated Dublin
Couples danced, hand in hand, swinging their partners to other jigging bodies in front of a stage decorated with the traditional Irish band. People gathered around to see them dance the dance they had known for years.
So, of course, I joined in. Our friend Darragh (pronounced Dara if you will believe it) led us into the center of the dancing crowd. He tapped his toes and heels as the girls and I spun each other around.
Trad Fest is a weeklong festival that takes place in Temple Bar. Short for Traditional, Trad Fest is a combination of events that represent the traditional ways of Ireland, and specifically Dublin. Not only was there live music in the streets, but each pub was decorated with celebration and a classic band. Temple Bar sits between the Liffey (the river that runs through Dublin) and Dame Street. It’s only a few blocks, but it is packed with pubs, restaurants, shops, and smiling faces. However, this past Sunday, the streets of Temple Bar were filled with a parade of coral orange seahorses, giant prawn (who looked more like aliens), blaring bagpipes, floats of trains, and a collection of Irish youth, representing the old of their home.
A group of young girls, about thirteen, with painted faces and shiny teal suits, marched down Dame Street waving a sheer and sequined cloth, representing the water in the Liffey. As I said before, they were thirteen, meaning that they were more embarrassed walking down the main street of Dublin dressed like blue Christmas lights. She encouraged the girls to wave their water cloth with oomph, to smile at the crowds of people around them; she screamed, “This is one of the best things you will ever do in your life!”
To be honest, I think that might be the sentence I have heard most since I have been here. That’s right, even more than “cheers”!
So, of course, I joined in. Our friend Darragh (pronounced Dara if you will believe it) led us into the center of the dancing crowd. He tapped his toes and heels as the girls and I spun each other around.
Trad Fest is a weeklong festival that takes place in Temple Bar. Short for Traditional, Trad Fest is a combination of events that represent the traditional ways of Ireland, and specifically Dublin. Not only was there live music in the streets, but each pub was decorated with celebration and a classic band. Temple Bar sits between the Liffey (the river that runs through Dublin) and Dame Street. It’s only a few blocks, but it is packed with pubs, restaurants, shops, and smiling faces. However, this past Sunday, the streets of Temple Bar were filled with a parade of coral orange seahorses, giant prawn (who looked more like aliens), blaring bagpipes, floats of trains, and a collection of Irish youth, representing the old of their home.
A group of young girls, about thirteen, with painted faces and shiny teal suits, marched down Dame Street waving a sheer and sequined cloth, representing the water in the Liffey. As I said before, they were thirteen, meaning that they were more embarrassed walking down the main street of Dublin dressed like blue Christmas lights. She encouraged the girls to wave their water cloth with oomph, to smile at the crowds of people around them; she screamed, “This is one of the best things you will ever do in your life!”
To be honest, I think that might be the sentence I have heard most since I have been here. That’s right, even more than “cheers”!
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