AMRS Movie, Take 2!

Hello again everyone!

The second AMRS movie night was a blast! We watched The Secret of the Kells, which is an animated movie "set in medieval Ireland. This movie tells the adventure of Brendan and a celebrated master illuminator of manuscripts who arrives with a book brimming with secret wisdom and powers. Magic, fantasy, and Celtic mythology come together in a riot of color and detail that dazzle the eyes in a sweeping story about the power of imagination and faith to carry humanity through dark times." In other words, it was just awesome. :) The animation and colors were fantastic. My favorite character was Pangur Ban, the white cat who belongs to the master illuminator and, later, Brendan. Pangur provided comic moments throughout the film by acting like a typical cat.

And to make this second movie even better, Dr. DeMarco cooked a delicious pork butt, cumin carrots, and mashed potatoes with a secret ingredient, which shall not be disclosed (it is secret after all). The food was absolutely soooo good!

Everyone had a wonderful time and enjoyed the fantastic food!

I did some amazing traveling this week and am preparing to do some more, but in the spirit of All Hallow's Eve I want to talk about something more terrifying than ghouls or ghosts: IMMIGRATION.

One semester is not very long to live in Ireland. However, it is slightly longer than 90 days, which is the maximum amount of time you can spend here as a tourist or visitor. When you get off the plane, you go through customs, where they ask your business in Ireland and when you'll be leaving, and your passport is stamped. Because we are right on the borderline of that 90 day limit, the whole process comes down to who is standing in the customs booth that day and how they are feeling. If you're lucky, they give you a stamp for 90 days, write in the day you leave, and spare you the trouble of having to acquire a visa. Or they could give you a stamp that requires you to obtain a visa within two months. Or, if it's me, they give one month.

A month is not unreasonable, but I didn't realize how time-consuming this process would actually be. To immigrate, you need (are you taking notes?): 150 euro for the processing fee, a passport, a student ID card, a bank statement from an Irish bank with at least 1, 500 euro in it OR a letter of financial responsibility from your sending university, a mini bank statement from the day you apply, and a letter from your insurance company stating your name and your dates of coverage. Right. So. Most kids had a letter from their home university, but OWU doesn't provide that. Nor did they inform me ahead of time what I would need, despite the fact that they've been sending students to this program for years. So I had to open an account with the Bank of Ireland, then give my information to my mother so she could go to my bank in the US and have the money wired, wait for the wire transfer, go in to request a bank statement, wait for the statement to come. This took two weeks. My statement did not arrive before my month was up.

Then the insurance. The document in question absolutely must have your name AND the dates of coverage on it, which is not something my insurance company understood the first time. "This is what we always give to students abroad." Look lady, I told you what I needed. So I waited for a second document. This took three days, two e-mails and an international phone call in which I navigated through five minutes of automated caller assistance.

The Garda (police) Station has a desk where two people deal with immigration from 9 AM to noon and 2 to 4 PM. If you arrive at 2, there is already a line so long that you will not be helped by the time they close at 4. If you get there decently early, you will still be at least an hour in line. To acquire a bank printout from that day meant that I walked three quarters of a mile to the machine and then back to the station before they opened. If you do not have all the necessary paperwork, you will get a full-scale telling-off in the dulcet tones of a Cork accent, something along the lines of, "If you want to stay in the country, you have to abide by the laws of the country. You can't be a burden on the Irish government. If you want to stay in the country--" and so forth. And you will have to come back and do it again.

Essentially, I went through the smoothest immigration process in the world today. I am a student like thousands before me, fairly harmless, English-speaking, here for a short time, unable to legally hold a job, and ready to spend cash. The Irish government is definitely the winner in this situation, and they made it inconvenient enough. Imagine, if you dare, the bureaucratic labyrinth rigged up in the USA.

All I can say is BOO!

AMRS Movie Night! (AKA Free Yummy Food for the Awesome Ones!)

Hi everyone!
On Tuesday the AMRS program had its first movie night of the year and we watched The Return of Martin Guerre. It was a French film from the 80s, and it was really good. It's "a suspenseful tale based on records from 16th century France about a man who abandoned his wife and left his village. Eight years later, he returns, a changed man, more loving than the violent husband of years past. Soon villagers begin to suspect he may not be the man he claims to be, and an investigation unfolds, threatening the new romance and the life of Martin Guerre" (thank you, Dr. DeMarco). It's based on real documents so it's totally historically accurate, which is cool because we all know that all movie that are "historical accurate" aren't really, just "inspired by true events." Right. Whatever.


Anyways, this was a good movie with enough suspense to keep me interested. I didn't even realize that over two hours had passed until the lights went back on. Definitely two thumbs way, way up. :) The acting was great too.

And Dr. DeMarco made her famous lasagna and meatballs, which, as usual, were awesome. Thanks, Dr. DeMarco for feeding us! We appreciate it! (Sorry to the AMRS majors/minors who are currently abroad right now; you missed some great munchies!)

And as you can see, we had a pretty good turn out. Thanks for showing up everyone! It made the movie that much better and more enjoyable!

Greetings from Cork!

So, confession time: I am not an AMRS kid.

More importantly, though, I am personally aquainted with the mascot, and maybe ye of AMRS bent will get something out of the gibbering of an English/Anthropology/Sociology student abroad in Ireland.

They told us at Orientation that culture shock is a W curve. When you get here, you're delighted with yourself and your surroundings. This honeymoon period is followed by rapid disintigration, which gradually gets better through "reintigration" until you reach "autonomy" in your new surroundings. That's the first "U" of the W. Then you get to do it all over again when you get home. Luckily the closest thing I had to disintigration was a nasty bout of jet lag, which didn't take long to kick.

Cork is a beautiful city, and very safe as long as you're not on the street when the bars close. It is still a city. You get the occasional puke on the sidewalk or, as I witnessed recently, a fellow retrieving his stash from behind the shrubbery on the corner. But the groceries are close by, which makes a difference when you carry them by hand (do not take two for one deals on sacks of potatoes). I am fascinated by the nearby River Lee, which is pretty poluted but still attracts all kinds of birds, fish, and even the occasional seal.

The Irish academic calendar is very different from ours at OWU, so the true semester did not begin until late September. For American students, they offer 4 week Early Start programs in music, history, economics, folklore, literature, and archaeology. For the biased record, Archaeology is the best. A working knowledge of the last 10,000 years of Irish history is a good background for just about everything you encounter here, from Blarney tower house to the tombs of the Bru na Boinne. We got to see some of the most important and impressive monuments in all Ireland, and a few off the beaten path (the farmers didn't mind). It's nice to have travel, meals and hostels all arranged by someone else, in addition to having your own very knowledgeable tour guide. The only disadvantage is he has this nasty habit of quizzing us on our lecture notes as we stand before the object of interest, almost as though we're supposed to apply what we've learned. The nerve.

I have been traveling outside of class as well: weekend trips to Killarney National Park, the Dingle Peninsula, Mangerton Mountain, West Cork, and Cape Clear Island. Traveling is never cheap unless you go with a group from the University, but it is made easier by a decent long-distance bus system and youth hostels. Cooking at the hostel is cheaper than eating out. Expect to do a lot of walking, but often the places of interest are scattered over a broad area and it is better to rent a bike or pay for a driving tour. Those early Christian monks didn't build their beehive huts in town where they would be convenient for 21st century tourists, darn their hides.

It's hard to believe how quickly the time goes by. I love being here, but I do miss my friends, my family, and watching movies without waiting for them to load. Enjoy that for me. Signing off, Abby D.

Killarney

For the first time in a great many weeks, Captain Rohan and I left the city to go on a trip anywhere. This weekend we went northwest to Killarney, a town that lays claim to Ireland's largest national park (possible it's only, since it doesn't appear that there are any other parks of significance on my map).

We left on Friday, missing the 3.30 bus because it had filled with people (apparently a popular bus to get on on Fridays) and had to make sure we got on the 4.30 bus. After getting dropped off at Killarney's bus station (part of it's outlet mall) we went in search of a hostel. Originally we went the wrong direction, but we found it in the end. Our late departure and the time it took to find our hostel meant that it was long past dinner time by the time we went in search of food. Having a group of five meant that our food cost was low because we bought lunch and dinner at Tesco, but everyone was very hungry when we finally had the food all cooked and ready to eat (yum, grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup!). We also lucked out in getting a room for five (the Buzzard room) so we didn't need to worry about sharing with anyone else.

The next day we ate breakfast and packed up our stuff, leaving most of it in lockers at the hostel and went to the street to wait for the horse-drawn carriage to come pick us up to take us around part of the park. It was AWESOME! Our driver was very friendly and I was surprised by how calm the horse was having to deal with cars passing it and eventually dogs around its feet. The park was absolutely lovely, made even more visually awesome by the perfect weather we had. Crisp, cool autumn air and a clear blue sky almost the same color as the lakes we saw on our ride.
The ride took us around part of the park (saving my bum knee from having to walk it, thank goodness) and we were able to see (at a distance) Ross castle, the lakes, the ruins of a lime kiln, and even some Irish Red Deer! The deer were pretty cool because they are not always to easy to see. Even heard a buck roaring because it's rutting season.

After the ride our group split, and Abby went on a bike ride around more of the park and the rest of the group wandered around the town. We ate lunch at Killarney House (now in serious need of TLC) and went to see the cathedral (second tallest in Ireland!). I was also able to find some lovely Irish wool socks to wear around my apartment because, man, is it getting cool around here!

Cheers!

Ireland Update

Hi all! I know it's been a while, but honestly, not much has happened that is especially noteworthy around here. Oh, of course there are the little events that happen in each day that are memorable but as far as reporting from abroad, not so much.

While I have been here I have discovered an incredible new love of Ohio Wesleyan's school system, notably the fact that a class meets at the same time in the same place for whatever time slot and location it takes. Here I have to move classrooms (and times) for every class that doesn't have it's two hours smooshed together into one block. Won't lie, this has led to many freak-outs over whether or not I am about to be late for a class. This usually happens for my Monday/Tuesday art history class which on Monday is at 4pm and on Tuesday is at 5pm. 3:45 rolls around on Tuesday and I panic and start getting ready in a hurry (luckily I have a bike here, so I can make it to school relatively quickly...I also miss that about OWU.) only to realize that I have another 45minutes until I need to leave.


Also, Cork did win the All-Ireland Gaelic Football (this has to be the most intense sport EVER! Think of rugby meets european football, yeah, that intense) Championship for the first time in 20 years! Molly O'Malley, our roommate Ali, and I were lucky to find out about the HUGE street celebration that the city held the following Monday. Probably a third of Cork's population showed up. Ok, well, at least a couple of thousand people were there. It was utter chaos with music. The oddest thing we saw were people waving Confederate flags (because the team are the Rebels). As American students we weren't quite sure how we felt about that.

I have discovered that the Irish have an odd love of things that are "Southern." Not southern Ireland southern, but the American South southern. For goodness sake, there are frozen fries that proclaim to be "Southern style" in flavor. I don't really know what they mean by that, but it's confusing.


Adventures will continue later in the semester as I am going on a trip to Amsterdam with my Dutch art class, London in December with other friends, Dublin with my Medieval Irish Art class to see the conservation department as well as do our presentations WHILE IN THE NATIONAL MUSEUM!!! That will be AWESOME! (Can you tell how excited I am?) And this weekend I am headed up to Killarney with some OWU girls. It's going to be nice to get out of the city for a weekend, since I haven't left since the Early start program ended.

So Long Everyone!
Cheers!

Adventures in the first 5 weeks of Ireland!!

Hey all, this is Amadea writing under threat from Erika! It's been an incredibly busy 5 weeks since I got to Ireland with my rubber pirate-duck companion Captain Rohan Corteo. This duck was given to me at the beginning of the summer by my boss and I decided to bring him along with me and he has gone along with me on all of my adventures.

  The first big adventure (besides getting here, which is a crazy story all its own, but I will not recount here, because it is much too long) was a trip out to Blarney with 4 other OWU girls: Hairong, Marie, Abigail Dockter, and Molly O'Malley. We got out to the town by bus and wandered over enjoying the amazing weather towards the castle. We paid for our tickets and walked up the path that led up to Blarney castle, taking many pictures, of course. It was a lot of fun exploring the ruin, we all looked into the guard post and dungeon, though some went in further than others (meaning, Molly and I went out before the others, disliking the tight space and great number of people). Eventually we made it to the top of the castle where Molly and Abby both kissed the Blarney Stone to gain the gift of blarney (speak the varnished truth basically). The rest of us chose to keep our lips of the stone and hope for the best! After leaving the castle and its most

treacherous spiral stairs we went through the Rock Close. Not completely sure what that entails, but we got to see the wishing steps, witch's hut, and druid's circle among other supernatural sites. Afterwards we enjoyed the town and the weather then headed back to Cork. Check: adventure one!

Next adventure was with my Early Start class to west county Cork. That trip gave new meaning to "field trip." The first stop was a medieval ring fort in the middle of a cow pasture that we had to cross to get there. This stop also introduced us to Tomas' habit of climbing onto things in order to talk to us. Ring forts are apparently quite common on the Irish landscape, though they were being quickly destroyed in the 1970s to make room for more agricultural pursuits. Then we drove to Ballinacarriga Tower house, this one is late medieval though, versus the early medieval ring fort (at this point I wish to inform everyone that I only learned while here that Ireland never really experienced the Renaissance that most of Europe underwent so the periods here are early medieval, late medieval, and the early modern. This means that anything that is late medieval merely follows the Anglo-Norman invasion in 1169). After lunch, our third stop was a late medieval/ early modern fortified house called Coppinger's Court. Sadly the place was not safe enough for us to climb around as we had been allowed at the tower house. Lastly we went to Drombeg stone circle. I can no longer remember if it was a neolithic or bronze age site, but either way, the stones there are all the original ones. Check: adventure two!

The day after this I went with my roommates, Molly and Ali, to Youghal (pronounced 'yawl') on the very eastern border of Cork and Waterford counties. Youghal is a cute beach resort town with great history. It has some late medieval structures including a parish church with its original wooden ceiling, one of the only ones in all of Ireland, and part of it's medieval walls that you can (and we did!) walk upon. Check: adventure three!

The second field trip (another single day trip) went to northern county cork and in to Tipperary. The first stop was the Labbacallee Wedge tomb, the largest in Ireland, which sadly says a lot about how small wedge tombs are. Labbacallee is also the name of the town and means "bed of the witch/ wise woman" and may refer to the body buried furthest back in the wedge tomb, that of a 60 year old woman. Then we went to the Mitchelstown caves where we were not allowed to take any pictures, but all you need to really do to imagine what it looked like is think 'caves'. Then we drove to Cashel for lunch and the to see the Rock of Cashel. The Rock of Cashel is actually a large cashel (round enclosure built up on the inside

with dirt and rocks to create an elevated platform to build upon) that was originally the site where the kings of Munster ruled from. In 1101 the site was given to the Church to basically kill two birds with one stone. By giving this land to the Church it helped promote the shift to a diocesan hierarchy as well as deny the family that had formerly been the kings of Munster their political center. We went to see Cormac's Chapel, the finest example of the Romanesque architectural style in Ireland, which had been awkwardly assimilated into a Gothic cathedral, now the ruins of a Gothic cathedral. The restoration that was going on there made seeing most the building difficult, though the restoration has been revealing a lot of significant discoveries as far as the art history and archaeological world are concerned. Check: adventure four!

         The third week of Early Start brought with it the two-day field trips. This time we headed up to Dublin and county Meath. It was a ridiculously long bus ride there, but going to the National Museum was amazing! Admittedly we were there for only about an hour and a half, so I didn't get to see much, but what we did see was great! There was a large prehistory gallery that had examples of pretty much everything we had learned about in class. Seeing how thin a lunulae really is is a very different thing that knowing theoretically how thin it is. Sadly, no pictures were allowed, so I have none of the museum. While in Dublin we also went to Christ Church Cathedral, the mixed architectural style cathedral that it is. The transepts and chancel are in the Romanesque and the nave and aisles are Gothic. The most random and amusing part of that church was the gift shop and coffee shop in the crypt. Though, with the story Tomas told of how the crypt used to be a place where (in the modern period) ladies of the night would ply their trade and during the day, a market would be held, it made more sense that the crypt would now be a place to set up a gift shop. Lastly, we drove out to Monasterboice to see the 8th century high crosses. I had not realized how tall the Tall Cross was until I saw it in person. The next day we went to Newgrange, the Neoltihic passage tomb. Now that was HUGE. Pictures do not do its size justice at all. And Tomas had made sure 18 months prior that we would get to go inside the passage tomb. I cannot believe how efficient the neolithic

people must have been to do all of their rituals in less than 17 minutes of light. Then was Trim castle. Again a place that pictures are deceiving. It, on the other hand, seems much larger in pictures that it is in real life. Not that it was not incredible to see, but it just seemed smaller. Our tour guide there was quite funny. Told us a lot of random facts, not always of any connection with Trim. Check: adventure five!

  The last two-day trip my class went on was to the Burren, an area in western Ireland that translates as "the place of rocks". Most of the places we saw while there were not sites that are along the tourists path, which was the most rewarding since it meant we were getting an experience we would never have gotten as a regular tourist. We saw what historically was the most impoverished dioceses in Ireland (Kilfenora) and the small cathedral that was built there. Then we drove further and stopped at an intersection, got out of the bus and stood on the road to look at a tower house that had been assimilated into a semi-fortified house. We couldn't go up closer to look at it because the land owner won't let anyone up there, but we got great pictures from the road! This was followed by a visit to Poulnabrone portal tomb, where we got rained on. Right after we left it was sunny and lovely, of course. After lunch we went to Corcomroe Abbey, which, while being built, lost its funding and thus only part of the church is well crafted and the rest is very rough stone. Then a long walk to another cashel, where, once again, we got heavily rained on. Poor Tomas wore his voice out yelling over the wind. Our last stop of the first day was the Cliffs of Moher where it was VERY windy. It was not the best day to have worn a dress, but all of my pants were in the laundry, so there wasn't much of an option. The next day had fewer sites, but was still intense in pace. We went to Quin Abbey first, which is a lovely Franciscan abbey that still has parts of its second floors! Then to Moughan hillfort, honestly the least impressive site to be seen from the ground. Because of the forest growth, you really can't get a good idea of how large it is, which is important considering it is the largest hillfort in Ireland. The last stop for this field trip, and really the whole class, was Bunratty castle and folk park. Bunratty castle is the largest tower house in Ireland and has been restored to pretty much the condition it would have been in to be lived in. It has been furnished with pieces that aren't Irish, but you still are able to get an idea of how a medieval tower house would have felt to live in.
              That about sums up the adventures of Amadea and Captain Rohan for the first five weeks. Stay tuned for the next ones!