Dublin and Cliffs of Moher

Saturday I got my first chance to really go into Dublin.  One of my roommates and I took the double-decker blue and yellow bus into St. Stephen's Green.  It was a warm day so we walked around the duck pond and then walked to Merrion Square.  Merrion Square is a park surrounded by Georgian red brick town homes.  The park is full of sculptures and interesting old lamp posts from Dublin.  The main attraction is a sculpture of Oscar Wilde reclining on a rock.  Oscar Wilde lived at No. 1 Merrion Square until he was about 21 years old.  His childhood home has been restored, but unfortunately it is not open to the public (at least so far as I could tell).

Oscar Wilde Statue 

We then left Merrion square and walked Northwest along Clare street to the nearby National Gallery.  The National Gallery is one of several museums in a compound near Merrion Square.  The National Gallery looks a lot bigger than it actually is, which was fine because I was able to see everything without getting museum fatigue.  The National Gallery has a collection of Irish painters, including Jack Butler Yeats.  I really liked the sunlight in "A Convent Garden, Brittany" by William John Leech.  In the European hall there was a small, but good collection of European art including the earliest known painting by Velazquez, an actress painted by Goya, and a Vermeer.  The collection was basically a snapshot of European art with one painting by each of the painters I just listed, plus Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Picasso, and Monet.  The museum is free and worth the 45 minutes.

Trinity College

After the National Gallery we had lunch at an Italian place called Dunn & Crescenzi.  We just happened to run into it and I remembered that one our professors had suggested it earlier.  We sat outside and enjoyed one of the rare warm days of the trip.  After lunch we went to Trinity College which was just right across the street from where we ate.  Trinity College was founded in 1592 and is home to the Book of Kells and a library that contains a copy of every book published in Ireland.  The Book of Kells was written around 800 A.D. and contains the four gospels written in Latin.  The Book of Kells is highly decorated and full of illuminated text, which is probably why it took the skin of around 180 calves to produce enough vellum for the book.  The pages currently on display are a portrait of St. John and the beginning of Jesus' genealogy.  

 Long Room

After looking at the pages we headed upstairs to walk through the "Long Room" which is the old library.  The room is full of old books, busts of great thinkers, and the oldest harp in Ireland.  The Brian Boru harp was built in the 15th Century and is the national symbol of Ireland.

The Cliffs of Moher

On Sunday I made a last minute decision to join a group of UMKC students who drove across Ireland with poor directions and basic maps to see the Cliffs of Moher.  Somehow we managed to navigate through rain and a narrow coastal road used by tour buses and make it to The Cliffs of Moher.  The Cliffs of Moher have been the site of various films including The Princess Bride and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.  We arrived in the pouring rain, but after it let up we had beautiful views for about an hour until it started misting again.

The Burren

After the Cliffs we drove back along the coast for a little while to look at the Burren.  The Burren is an area along the coast covered with flat limestone rocks.  The rocks are like stepping stones with gaps between them of anywhere from a few inches to a foot or more.  We drove another half hour up to Galways for dinner.  After dinner we drove back to Dublin on a big, main highway and got in around midnight.  Thankfully we didn't have class until Monday afternoon so I was able to take it easy Monday morning.

Galway

Yesterday we had class and then some of my roommates and I got dinner at a traditional Irish pub.  Today we sat in on trials at the criminal court in Dublin and then had class in the afternoon.  It has been a long day and I am looking forward to taking it easy tonight.  Friday after class and Saturday I have planned to go into the city and check a few more things of my list including the Jameson Distillery and Kilmainham Jail where leaders of Irish rebellions in 1798, 1803, 1848, 1867, and 1913 were detained.

Dingle, Killarney, and Glendalough

Last Friday a group of us from UMKC went to Killarney. Killarney was about two hours by bus from Dingle. After we dropped off our bags we walked down High Street. High Street is the main street in town and there are tons of shops, bars, and restaurants. We all got a Guinness and then had dinner at an Irish restaurant called Bricin. We all had “boxty” which is a potato pancake which can have different savory fillings.

Ross Castle

Saturday we went on a tour of Ross Castle. Ross is a tour house castle and was built in the 15th Century by the O’Donoghues. As a result of conflict between Irish Catholics and English Protestants the castle has passed through a number of hands over the centuries. The castle's roof was burnt off by one of its last owners in order to avoid having to pay taxes on the property. After years of being exposed to the elements the interior of the castle collapsed. The outer walls and spiral staircase remained intact and the castle has been restored using traditional building techniques.

Muckross House

After the castle we went to Muckross House. In 1932 the last owners, American aristocrats, donated the house and its 11,000 acres to the Irish government. The land formed the first national park in Ireland. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert visited the House in 1861. The house reminded me of Downton Abbey. There is a huge staircase in the center of the house and there are over 20 different bells that ring down to the servants’ hall. After the tour, we returned to Dingle and I helped to fry up some fish that students from the group caught in the Dingle Bay.

view from T.P.'s

On Sunday and Monday I did some shopping in Dingle and studied for our tests. I also got local ice cream at a place called Murphy’s. They had a gin flavor made from local gin. On Tuesday we took a test and then learned traditional Irish dancing. On Wednesday we took another test, cleaned up our cottages, went down to the beach, and then went to T.P.’s bar where we showed off our dancing skills. My partner and I won the runner-up prize.

Yesterday we took the bus from Dingle to Dublin. Last night some of the UMKC ladies and I went into the city to eat at a nice Italian place. Today we went to Glendalough, which is a glacial valley that contains the ruins of an Early Medieval monastery. Saint Kevin established the monastery in the 600s. The round tower and Saint Kevin’s Church are in great shape and have only had minimal work done to them.

St. Kevin's Church

We walked around the valley and had beautiful views of the lakes and the mountains. We have 2-day passes to do a hop on hop off tour of Dublin, so I will probably be doing that this weekend. We also now have regular internet access, so hopefully I will be able to post more regularly.

First Days in Dingle

We arrived in Dingle Sunday afternoon.  It was warm and sunny so we all walked down to the marina to look at Dingle Bay.  The bay was very blue and is circled by green hills and mountains.  There were some small boats docked at the marina, but most of them looked like recreational sailboats and not fishing boats.  Dingle used to have a huge fishing industry, but since Ireland’s entry into the EU, Dingle lost a lot of its fishing rights to France and Spain.

That evening we made a spaghetti dinner together and ate outside at picnic tables.  It was a nice end to the day.  After dinner I was pretty tired and was in bed by 8:30p.m.

Diseart Institute

On Monday we had our first day of class.  The classes were on the history of the EU and international criminal tribunals.  Classes are held at a former convent turned cultural center.  My roommates and I ate a well-priced lunch at a little café across the street.  I didn’t really know my roommates prior to the trip, but I have enjoyed getting to know them.  In the afternoon we had a talk by a local man about the general history of Ireland and the area.  We learned about the Irish sports of Gaelic football and hurling.  We also learned a little bit about the Irish language.  The Dingle area is a stronghold of the Irish language.  Many children here learn to speak Irish and English at home.  In other areas of Ireland children only learn Irish at school and never really speak it like a native.  The man who gave the talk had even been recorded for the Rosetta stone for Irish. 

After class my roommates and I walked around the town for a bit and we ran into many more tourists than Irish people.  Dingle’s economy is highly dependent on tourism.  The shops are not tacky, but are clearly geared to tourists.  Being in Dingle has been a sort of quasi-abroad experience for me.  In some ways I barely feel like I’m abroad.  This probably has to do with the fact that I am traveling with a group of Americans in a country where everyone speaks English.  Everything here feels very familiar and tidy compared to my other international experiences.  I am enjoying the natural beauty of the area, hearing Irish, and learning about the area, but I hope I can get away from some of the touristy parts of the area.

On Tuesday we had classes in the morning and then had a bus tour of the area with an older local man named T.P..  T.P. seems to know just about everything and everyone in the area.  He pointed out the ruins or ring forts, told stories about movies shot in the area, and let us know that there are a lot of vacant houses for rent.  Ireland has a big bust in the late 2000s.  In Dingle the real estate bubble burst and property that had sold for $8 million dropped to $1 million.

Blasket Islands

Our first stop was a lookout to see the Blasket Islands.  The Blasket Islands are off the west coast of Ireland.  Fishers inhabited the islands until 1953 when they were forced to abandon it.  The islands are important to the Irish because their inhabitants were key to the revitalization of the Irish language.  Many of the islanders wrote or told stories in Irish.  These writings were then used to promote the language through out the country. 

Coum Dhíneol

Next we walked down the cliffs to a beach called Coum Dhíneol.  We were lucky and had a very nice day for the tour.  It was warm enough that we all took off our shoes and went walking in the sand.  The water was cold, but the sun made it nice. 

 Old Church

Then we stopped off at a cultural center to learn about the Blaskets.  We finished the tour by walking in the rain to see a 1,300 year old church.  It is a small stone structure made with no mortar and 3-4ft. wide stones.  It is the only one of its kind in the area to still have its stone roof intact. 

Wednesday I went to see the new Wes Anderson movie and got my first Irish Guinness and fish and chips.  The group went out later that evening and got to hear some live Irish music.

Today we climbed up a mountain.  I will be very sore.

view of Dingle from the mountain 

Friday we have the afternoon I am going to Killarney with some girls from the group.  Saturday we will come back and may join the group in a fish fry.  Sunday I may rent bicycles or get a boat ride over to the Blaskets.

We don’t have Internet at the cottages, so I likely won’t be able to update again for a few days.  Hope everyone is doing well.

Arrival in Shannon

We arrived in Shannon at 7:00am local time and 1:00am home time.  It is raining and about 50 degrees here.  From what I could see from the plane, it is very green.  I don't think I have ever seen land so green.  I also already saw some sheep.  So, basically Ireland from the window of plane is exactly what you would expect.

There were several UMKC students on the flight with me so now we are all together in the airport waiting to meet up with the rest of the program.  We will travel by bus to Dingle where we will be staying for ten days.  We will be staying in cottages where we get our own rooms, but share common spaces.  We have kitchens, so if the TSA hasn't taken my spices, I will be doing some cooking.

Classes start tomorrow, so hopefully I will be over the jet lag by then.

I don't know if I will have wifi at the cottages.  If I do I will try to post again once I'm settled.

Summer in Ireland and the U.K.

This summer I am traveling with UMKC School of Law Ireland Summer Abroad Program. The program is from May 17-June 14. I will be taking classes on the law of the European Union, International Criminal Tribunals, and Comparative Advocacy in Ireland. I will be studying at the Diseart Cultural Center in Dingle, University College Dublin in Dublin, and Bangor Management Center in Bangor Wales.

The program starts in Dingle, Ireland where we will be from May 17-May 28. Then we travel to Dublin where we will be May 29-June 7. And finally the program will take a ferry to Wales and be in Bangor June 8-June 14. After the program ends, Kyle and I travel for two weeks to Ireland, Scotland, and England. We will be in Dublin and then fly to Glasgow and then travel on to Edinburgh.  After Scotland we will head south to Norwich and on to our last stop, London.

The easiest way to stay up to date with my blogposts is to subscribe and the email will come straight to your inbox. I've directly subscribed to blogspot blogs before and have never had any problems. You'll just get emails from me and that's it.  There should be a link on the right hand side of the screen.

Feathers, Bus Rides, and Pujato

Well, I am down to the final stretch. Ten days until I turn in my final paper, thirteen until my birthday, and seventeen until I am home. I just had a bit of a panic attack when I realized I only have 10 days to write 20 pages in Spanish! Oh dear! I am currently in Pujato , the small town I stayed in around Easter. I arrived here Wednesday morning from Asunción, Paraguay and I'll head back to Buenos Aires this Saturday.

Well, let´s see, I basically have two weeks worth of B.A. updates since my last email. In that time I finished up with classes, took my final, and spent a lot of time with my friend Elise. Elise, one of my new friends in Buenos Aires, was returning to the U.S. before I get back from traveling...so we ran all over the city in the time we had left together. Friday night the 9th we we met up at Plaza San Martin with some other friends to watch a free outdoor acrobatics performance. It was amazing. The acrobats slid between multiple-story buildings and dropped white feathers over the crowd watching from below. I was told later that 1.5 tons of white feather were used. There were so many feathers it looked like snow...at the end people started throwing feather snow balls! I got completely covered in feathers! The following Wednesday, Elise and I explored a new neighborhood in B.A. The thing that struck me about this neighborhood on the south west side of town was that for once I was free of the sea of multiple story buildings. There were some tall buildings, but on average I could see the sky. It had an oddly small town feel about it that was a nice break. Wednesday, I went over to a pot luck at her house and brought the brownies from a box that have become very popular with her friends. And Thursday I finally made it back over to Elise´s by like 1:30pm to have some banana-chocolate chip pancakes and then go buy silly hats in her eclectic and artsy neighborhood of San Telmo.

So, that gets us to the ever-fun 16 hour bus ride to Asunción. They always play the strangest B and C rated movies on these overnight buses. One of the ones they played was a kung-fu movie that involved a guy trying to rescue his beloved baby elephant from some mobsters. In the morning I was then serenaded by what my friend next to me called the Barry White of Argentina...and that was giving him credit. Anyway, I went to Asunción with a girl from my study abroad program so that I could do research for my paper. My topic is the fight against agrotoxics and the women´s movement in Paraguay that has the strongest voice against them. I got three interviews when I was there and think I have enough material to work with now for my paper...I just need to get going on it! Besides work, I also had the most entertaining bus ride of my life while in Asunción. This past Saturday I went with my friend out to the countryside and I knew when we got on the bus and saw that the driver´s chair was a lawn-chair bolted to the ground that it was going to be a great ride. As I sat at the back of the bus, it was like a watching a show. First came all the people hauling on potato sacks and giant baskets. Then the couple that loaded a washing machine on. I thought I was going to have a wall of stuff built up around me. On top of all that commotion, at every stop multiple vendors got on. They sold everything from fruit to socks to cokes to English workbooks to t.v. antennas. I don´t know how they were able to move for all the people on the bus. Oh, and towards the end of the ride my friend and I realized that everyone in our back section of the bus were either family or friends. They all knew each other and chatted or shared drinks. I think that bus ride is what I will remember Paraguay for. Well, I hope that is what I remember Paraguay and not for the food poisoning it gave me. Sunday night I got my first case of food poisoning and ended up sleeping part of the night on the bathroom floor. I was in bed all day Monday, had to miss an interview and of course was unable to do any work on my paper. Today my stomach finally stopped hurting...but I am still sleeping a lot. I am still feeling a little weak and now have a stuffy nose, but am happy that my stomach has calmed down.

I arrived in Pujato this Wednesday after another very fun bus ride from Asunción. I figured I´d be the only American on the bus, but I ended up sitting a row behind a kid from Portland. Since I got to Pujato all I´ve done is sleep and eat. It´s a terrible thing to have an upset stomach here...even though I explained that I had food poisoning and all my host stay mom is like ¨you should eat, you should eat!¨ She understands, but food is just what they do here. For example, for lunch today there was a thick veggie soup. Great. Then there was a soy milanesa (think country fried steak, but thinner and with soy inside) with tomato and melted cheese on top and a salad. Oh, boy, I was fine with just the soup...but it is impossible to explain the idea of ¨I´m not hungry, but it all looks delicious.¨ So after lunch all I could do was go back to bed and sleep for literally four hours. I have got to find another way to deflect...or get up the energy to go running, which is I think more than my body can take right now.

I guess I´ll try to get one more update out before I head home, but forgive me if you don´t hear from me until I am back state-side. I have a lot of writing, a lot of packing, and a lot of goodbyes to do in these last two weeks.

Pujato, Porte Alegre and Paraguay

First of all, my apologies for the unacceptable lapse in my correspondence. In the last month most of my free time has been taken up by traveling. At the end of March I spent a week in a small farming town in the breadbasket, the province of Santa Fe. I then had two weeks back in Buenos Aires before heading to Porto Alegre, Brazil and then Asuncion, Paraguay.

I. Santa Fe
In the small town of Pujato I felt so welcomed and at home. Everyone is related or friends with everyone else in town...I met so many cousins of so-and-so. I stayed with a family of Italian descent. See photo attached of me and my friend Cata with our homestay mom and dad. I spent a lot of time in the kitchen either drinking mate or eating homemade alfajors, cookies with caramel filling and coated in chocolate. Partly to avoid turning into a roly poly and partly to make room in my tummy so I could eat more, I jogged or biked around town almost everyday, which was a great way to see the town and the people. While in Pujato I got to ride in crop cultivator, watch a cattle auction, and see cheese made at a small dairy. My dad pointed out that I could have done all of those things back in Missouri, but I'm pretty sure that small towns back home don't have dance clubs that are still going strong after day break. I don't know quite how I did it, but I went out with some girls from the town to a dance club until 8:30am and then had breakfast, took a shower, napped, and then went to Easter mass. I hope to go back to Pujato in the next month or so...the homemade alfajors are calling to me!

II. Buenos Aires
Once back in Buenos Aires I had two field study visits to "villas miserias." These villas are poor neighborhoods in Buenos Aires that were built by immigrants when they couldn't find a place to live. These neighborhoods often suffer from a lack of public services and infrastructure. The villas are not shanty towns, as I had imagined, they have buildings that are multiple stories high built out of bricks or concrete and have little corner stores and restaurants. The villas are often seen as an eyesore and nuisance, but they have been a part of the city for over 50 years and continue to exist because the government has been unwilling or unable to deliver the necessary services. It is unbelievable that people are living in these conditions less than 10 blocks from the most expensive restaurants of the whole city in Puerto Madero.

On a lighter note, in the two weeks before Brazil I went to a play done completely in the dark, an independent film festival, and a drum circle performance. The play in the dark was the coolest theatrical experience I've had in at least a year. It was really cool because the actors incorporated sounds and smells that helped the audience imagine scenes from places like Africa to China. At the film festival I watched a Chilean film called "Navidad." It took me about 15 minutes to get used to the accent, but finally I was able to get into it. The film was about three teenagers who end up spending Christmas together and at the same time are trying to figure out who they are. The cinematography was really good even if the plot was a little unimaginative. If you are interested in watching the trailer its http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ospkB6qmdUE. The drum circle was a really cool performance of like 20 drummers and was attended by a large portion of the hip 20-somethings in the city.

III. Brazil
So after a week in Porto Alegre, Brazil I've concluded that Portuguese is like a sing-songy french with a few Spanish words thrown in from time to time. I think my idea of Brazil was probably completely based on what I know about Carnival in Rio, so as a result I was taken a back when I didn't see nearly naked women sambaing down the street. Funny how what shocked me most was the fact that Porto Alegre is just a regular city about the size of KC. While in Brazil I had two field visits to groups fighting for land rights in a country with one of the most unequal distributions of land and wealth in the world. One group, the quilobolas are afro-descendants seeking recognition of their right to their traditional lands and the other group the MST, are landless farmers who are pressuring the government to find them a place to live. I was impressed with the community and spirit of the quilombolas and the determination and strength of the MST.

The highlight of my time in Porto Alegre was probably the soccer game between one of Porto Alegre's teams and an Ecuadorian team. From where I was sitting I not only really enjoyed the game, but also watching the die-hard fans in the standing only section jumping in the thousands, waving flags, and singing through the whole game. I am really glad the Brazilian team won, because I don't want to know how the crowd would have reacted to a loss in this game that serves as something of a qualifying round.

At the end of my time in Brazil, my study abroad group went to Iguazu waterfalls. I had already been with Aunt Gloria and Uncle Chris, and I was really glad for that because the most captivating trail was closed this time because the water level was so high.

IV. Paraguay
Although it is true that Paraguay is very poor and has many problems, I was fascinated by the sense that history was being made before my eyes. Because Paraguay was under a dictator from 1954-1989, in many ways the society has just re-started. We had a visit to a museum on the dictatorship that is only a few years old and is still being put together. After seeing some of the cells where people were tortured, a man who had been tortured and then helped discover the files that cataloged these abuses gave as an impromptu talk. I don't think I realized that I was in the presence of an important figure in Paraguay's history until I saw the same man in a photo on the wall at the achieve of the torture files.

Paraguay, like Brazil also suffers from terrible inequality of the distribution of land which has contributed to the villa in Asuncion. It bowled me over to see that the 5km long villa is built up against the back side of the Presidential Palace and Congress. I don't know how government officials care bare to look out the window and see the suffering they are failing to end. Like one of the coordinators of my program said, she didn't understand how people in the villas in Buenos Aires could say they were better off than they were back home until she saw the villa in Asuncion. The villa is built in part on top of a dump and was permeated by the sickening smells of burning putrid meat, trash, and pigs.

I haven't 100% decided, but I think I will be going back to Paraguay to do a case study for my research project. I think I am going to study a social movement called CONAMURI that was formed 10 years ago to fight for the rights of rural women and Indians.

V. The End
Hats off to you if you made it through this e-mail. I promise that the next one won't be quite so long. So yeah, I have a lot of work to do this week as classes end Friday. I have a final next week and then about 3 weeks to investigate and write by 20-40 page research paper...boy, oh boy! The good news is that I have to turn in it before my birthday, so hopefully I'll get to relax and enjoy the big 21 and my last few days in Buenos Aires.