Remember me? (March)

March 9th, 2011: My 21st Birthday!!
It was soooooooooo WIIIIIIIIIIIIILLLLD!!!!!%$&*^)£)!&$)

...or not. I had a big philosophy paper to write on my birthday, and almost everyone I knew in Dublin was out of town on Spring break. So the night before, I just went to Messrs Macguires for a drink or two with Siomha, Mike, and our friend from UCD, Neeta. The next day was a little miserable...I was writing my paper all day, and I still had a lot more to write when the evening arrived. Not the most exciting birthday ever. That night, however, Siomha and I were just going to grab a drink at the Long Hall with a couple girls, but when it was almost time to go out and I went to go get changed, my room door was locked! When I knocked on my own room door, feeling pretty confused, I heard Siomha's little voice answering "Come back in 5 minutes!"

When my ROOMMATE finally let me into my OWN room, I found the room covered in colored pieces of construction paper with messages my family and friends on them. It made me feel so happy and loved! Thank you to everyone who sent Siomha a birthday message.  I'm so glad Siomha is my roommate--she really made my birthday. :) After that we went for a drink at the Long Hall, and then I had to come home and keep working on my paper...

Due to this tame 21st birthday celebration, I intend to have a REAL celebration back in the U.S. My family has been waiting for this day a long time, so I expect this summer will be a lot of fun! :)

March 12th, 2011: KDLM AND JIMMY STEIN!!!!

On Saturday morning, I was ready and waiting at the aircoach stop way before I needed to be. I was so excited! As soon as Jimmy and Kevin hopped off the bus, we dropped their stuff in the apartment, had a little tea, and then I took them directing to the Saturday morning food market in Temple bar. After devouring a few sweet potato soup bread bowls, we went to pick up some wine and cheese to accompany our afternoon of FRIENDZIA (back at Notre Dame, the three of us got in the habit of watching far too much Friends while drinking very cheap wine...Franzia. Hence, Friendzia marathons began). After watching far too much wine friends, we were all feeling a little sleepy, so I took them to Kennedys for a little Irish coffee (hey, it has coffee in it!). Then, to continue the wonderful evening, we decided to give me a real birthday celebration. Most of my favorite people in Ireland--Rachel, Mary, Mike, Siomha, KDLM, and Jimmy--all went to this cheap bar called MacTurcails, followed by a fun night of dancing at the Palace.

The next morning, Mary, her friend Ryan, Jimmy, Kevin, and I hopped on the 11:15 bus to Glendalough for a day of beautiful hiking in the Wicklow mountains. I absolutely adore Glendalough. Even though it was a little less warm and sunny than Glendalough last semester, and a it sprinkled a few times, it was still a beautiful day, and the sun came out enough to reward us for our hike. This time around was a lot more musical than last time. I'm not sure why, but when Jimmy and KDLM and I are all together, our showtune-singing sides all come out. I'm pretty sure it freaks out everyone around us, but it's a lot of fun. I'd like the think we were like the von Trapp family, happily singing in the mountains (except for the escaping from Nazis thing...).

The next day, we took the train to Galway (that's right, we went EVERYWHERE). We loved feeling like we were on the Hogwarts Express, but we were disappointed by the snacks they had to offer on the "trolly" (we were expecting Chocolate frogs).

When we arrived, we wandered around Galway to find our hostel with the funniest name--Snoozles. It ended up being a pretty great hostel, but we would have stayed at Snoozles regardless of the quality of hostel it was. We spent the afternoon having pints at little pubs and exploring the pedestrian areas in Galway--such a fun city!

Wonderful live music, pubs galore, little cafes everywhere...and the Galway bay in the distance. We took a walk along the water and ended up on a little bridge out to the beautiful white lighthouse. It was the perfect place to watch the sunset. We sat there, watching the colors change and the bay become a silvery, mercury substance, for nearly two hours. It was absolutely spectacular. Would you care to see? Let's watch the progression...

Okay, so that was a lot of pictures. But it was seriously the most beautiful sunset I've ever seen. We spent the night listening to live music and pub-hopping. Such a fun night.

The next day (the day before St. Paddy's day!) we had a big Celtic Twilight event at the O'Connell house. After a DELICIOUS dinner, we had a kind of session, with lots of Irish dance, singing, music, poetry readings, etc. I Irish danced with another girl, Kristine Rafferty, and I played guitar and sang the duet "Falling Slowly" from the movie Once with Mike Rodio, who played piano.

After the very very Irish evening, a bunch of us went to a really old bar called Mulligans, the same pub that was in James Joyce's wrote the short story "Counterparts" in his book Dubliners. Supposedly it pulls the best pint of Guinness in the city. And it was PACKED. I thought it would be a sleepy old man bar, but it was an incredibly LIVELY old man bar. I guess it was the day before St. Paddy's...should have expected it. We had a hard time finding a seat, but we still had a lot of fun.

St. Patrick's day was incredible--filled with neon green tights and sweatbands, mimosas, Irish carbombs, the St. Paddy's day parade, a very fun and drunken rugby game, and a big group dinner at the end of the evening.

After dinner, however, we all had a hard time summoning enough energy to go out (drinking all day is very tiring...) but we went out just to see Dublin nightlife on the most Irish day of the year. When we were walking to the pub, I felt like we were at the Quidditch cup in Harry Potter--so many bright lights and so much green and so many leprechauns and rugby scarves and cheering and running and JOY.It was so much fun to be on the streets at night on St. Paddy's. The bars were all too packed to stay in for long. By midnight, we were all at home in my apartment.
We spent the next few days exploring Dublin:
wandering Grafton st, lounging in St. Stephen's Green, visiting my favorite little courtyard in Trinity, listening to TONS of live music, and going to endless bars: O'Neils, Gogarty's, The Long Hall, Shebeen Chic, No-Name bar, The Market Bar...we did well for ourselves!

Sadly, Jimmy and KDLM had to leave. I walked them to their aircoach stop at around 4am, since they had such an early flight. There were still tons of drunk people out on the streets participating in a belated St. Patrick's day. Our sad goodbye felt very out of place among the drunken celebrations of Temple Bar.

March 23rd: School Begins in earnest
I had tons of essays, tests, and presentations coming up, and only ONE of those things was actually FUN to do. For my directing process class, I had to direct a 10 minute duologue--I chose a scene from the play Rabbit Hole by David Lindsay-Abaire, and I begged my dear friend Rachel Sussman and her friend Adin to be my actors. Best decision ever. Our rehearsals were essentially just excuses to reminisce about high school, drink wine, watch Black Swan and Rabbit Hole, talk about Meryl Streep and Nicole Kidman, and eat lots of food. We had so much fun, and I loved directing such talented actors and doing such a moving scene. By the time the performance came around on April 6th, I couldn't have been prouder of the scene. I wish I had recorded it!

March 25th: Trip West
Our program went to Westport, in county Mayo, to climb LOTSSSSSSS of mountains. It was a very lovely trip. A little exhausting, but lovely. The first day, we climbed Croagh Patrick, a pilgrimage site that happens to be a 2,500 ft mountain.

It may look small. It's not. See those black specks? Those are people.

St. Patrick supposedly fasted on top of the mountain for forty days, and then built a church at the top.  Every year, on the last sunday in July (Reek Sunday) thousands come to climb the mountain. It used to be done during the night, but for whatever reason, night pilgrimages are no longer allowed (it also used to be done BAREFOOT, and anyone who did/does that is mentally insane).

The rocks are all sharps and loose, and with each step you take, dozens of rocks shift and slip down the mountain. It is VERY easy to sprain an ankle on that kind of surface, so I took extra care on the climb, especially when coming down.

If I thought our hikes at Glendalough or Bray had been tiring, I had another thing coming. Because the rocks shift so much, each step you take is that taking a half-step--you don't make nearly as much progress as you think you're making.

Our group stopped every 500 yards to "look at the scenery," aka gasp for breath. Still, I have to say, when we got to the top, it was worth it. We all felt extra-holy and exhilarated, and the view was incredible.

We spent the second day of the program trip--you guessed it--hiking! Our sore bodies were NOT happy about a second day of hiking, but it was still very beautiful. We ended the trip at a little beach, where we all frolicked in the freezing cold water and took a little jog along the shore.

March 29th: The worst day of my entire young adult life.
This day was absolutely tragic. One of the worst things that has ever happened. Ever. To anyone. (ok, I'm being a little overdramatic). I spilled a glass of water on my laptop computer. My laptop is officially dead. I had 5 essays due in the next 6 days. All of my class notes were on that computer. I tried to borrow one from the O'Connell house, but I was stranded without my class notes, and the internet at Trinity was being a big jerk. It took me four days and four paper extensions in order to finally get a computer with working internet. Somehow (SOMEHOW) I survived and I got all of my papers done. I've even gotten four of my grades back--three As and one B. Not too shabby. My computer, however, is lost forever. I better start saving this summer....

ALRIGHT! Well that's March. I'm going to have to wait until after my final on Monday to do April. Wish me luck!

Slainte,
Clare Mairead