Ah! There’s not enough time for writing posts!

I’m going to try to sum up a lot in this (a week’s worth), but it’s still going to be a long post (more blathering on. Sorry!).

Last Monday I only had a half day of class and we watched a film called The Field. It had Richard Harris (original Dumbledore) and Sean Bean (Boromir in Lord of the Rings). It was neither of their best acting. The movie was just ridiculous. To sum up: Sean Bean’s character dies because he’s not smart enough to know you shouldn’t stand in between a stampeding herd of cows and a cliff edge, and Richard Harris’ character tries to beat the ocean away from his dead son’s body with a walking stick after he made his cows run off the cliff.

Tuesday we watched a movie called The Butcher Boy. This movie was highly disturbing, but really good. It also had a Harry Potter actor in it—the lady who played Petunia Dursley—but she wasn’t in the movie a lot. The movie was about a mentally disturbed boy who couldn’t tell the difference between reality and fantasy and didn’t have anyone to look out for him.

Wednesday we had our last excursion. We went back to The Burren (the limestone covered landscape in Ireland), and to a beach on the west coast:

and the Ailwee cave:

I was told by cave goers that it’s not the most exciting cave, but I enjoyed it because they turned off the lights and I really wanted to see that (or not see ;P ). It was also interesting because they found some bears bones in the cave and bears are extinct in Ireland.

There’s was also some Irish set dancing that was learned. I got a ton of footage of people dancing, but unfortunately the blog site is having some problems uploading just one of them. Those who have facebook can watch them on there under my videos.

Thursday I had class but we didn’t actually watch any movies. Instead we talked about The Field and then gender issues in film. I was surprised to find that pretty much no one in my class considered themselves a feminist (in a class with 8 girls and only 2 boys). I also found out that though Ireland is amazing, I’m glad I was born in America. From 1932 to 1973 women who worked as teachers or in a civil service job (or any type of public job) had to leave upon getting married. They simply were not allowed to work, even in till the 70s, because they’re supposed to be "good" wives. Contraceptives were illegal till 1990, and there was a ban on divorce till 1995. They didn’t have any type of equal employment act for anyone (not just women) until 1998.

Friday, we had another half day and we watched a movie called In The Name of the Father. At first the teacher told us we might get out late, or maybe even have to watch the end of the movie on our own time because it was long and we were all annoyed, but when it was 12:30 (when we get out) and the movie was still going not a single person got up to leave (there were only 6 minutes left, but we didn't know that). The movie was great, and I’m now a huge fan of Daniel Day-Lewis, even though that’s the only movie I’ve seen him in. It was about his character and the character's family being arrested in Northern Ireland (which is under British rule) for being Irish terrorists and apparently bombing London. Everyone’s sent to prison, even some kids who had no idea what was going on.

Saturday we went to Blarney Castle and Cork. Yes, I did kiss the stone. Here’s a picture from beneath the stone:

At the bottom of where those bars are is where the stone is, and you have to lean backwards in the gap to kiss it. When thinking about how high that is, keep in mind my camera is zoomed in.

Here’s a picture of a another girl, Molly, kissing the stone (I have an official Blarney Castle photographer picture of me, but no one could get a picture on their personal cameras because I was the first to go, and where you stand in line doesn’t give you a good view):

Then we went to Cork and searched for a park that we did not find. The internet lied to me and told me the wrong location. Outside of that it was a cool place. It was much less touristy than Dublin, which was really nice, but also meant we had no reason to go into any of the stores, since it’s too expensive to buy stuff here when we can get it at home for a lot cheaper (once again, everything is SO expensive here). I would definitely go there to shop if I lived in Ireland though. The best part was it actually has sidewalks, unlike Dublin! People can actually fit on the sidewalk without worrying about a car being 3 inches from them.

And though this is cliché for Ireland, when we were heading home we saw a rainbow! And the search of the leprechauns' pot of gold can now begin:

Today was good apart from my typical personal social problems that seem to have flared even greater over the weekend and today. In class we watched Pavee Lackeen and Ballroom of Romance. Pavee Lackeen is a docudrama on the Irish traveler community (kind of nomadic people who are highly discriminated against in Ireland). Ballroom of Romance was a short movie that was a social critique of gender roles in Ireland through a storyline of a woman who settled for a man she didn’t want because she basically had no other choice.

Tomorrow we have our exam (wish me luck, I'm going to need it!) and a BBQ/final dinner thing and the program ends. Most people are going home Wednesday, but as most of you know, me and two other CMU students are sticking around for a week and traveling Ireland. Because of this, I doubt there will be another post here for a while, and no more pictures. I will have some limited internet access, but I’m not bringing my own computer with me.

Here’s the plan:

-Back to the Cliffs of Moher and then onto Galway. Stay the night in Galway on the 17^th.

-Back to Dublin for a tour of the Guinness factor, a haunted Dublin tour, and some bar from the movie/book P.S. I Love You. Stay the night in Dublin on the 18^th.

-Up to Northern Ireland to see the Giant’s Causeway, and stay the night in Omagh, with the intention of seeing a girl we meet in the program who will be there, on the 19^th.

-Back through Dublin (you have to go through Dublin to get to Northern Ireland) and on to Dingle and the Dingle Peninsula on the 20^th.

-Killarney and the Ring of Kerry on 21^st.

-Maybe back to Limerick then up to Shannon to stay the night close to the airport on the 22^nd.

-23^rd HOME!

-24^th Pizza Hut for dinner

These plans are subject to change (except the Galway and Dublin part because we already booked our hostels).

P.S. For those expecting postcards, I’m sorry to say you won’t get them until I get home. It cost about $3 to send each card and I have a lot of people I’m supposed to send them to, so I just decided that it was too expensive. Sorry.