kate (ireland): come here to me

"come here to me:" an irish phrase meaning something like "listen to this" or "here's a new story"

so last weekend we went on a bus tour to connemara, which is for all intents and purposes ireland's wilderness land. in the 1600s, oliver cromwell was running england and he basically took over all of eastern ireland where the fertile soil is and sent millions of irish to the west coast to die. they settled in connemara and ended up survivng and multiplying, living in the mountains and growing potatoes. go figure. my connemara pictures are up on facebook, and i hear it's even more spectacular in the summmer with the flowers and the sunshine. i plan to go back before i leave. we even saw a few connemara ponies, which should get KO excited. the best part of the day was sitting on the banks of the lake in front of kylemore abbey, enjoying the reflection of the sun off of the water and the green leaves everywhere and the mountains in the distance. i could have sat there all day. it was hard to believe i was really there, and that it was the middle of january.

classes here are basically a joke. i have 8 hours of class per week and my grades are based off of one final/paper at the end. meh. and let me tell you, cherish beloit classes while you can because big lecture halls are a drag. especially for english classes. i am taking 20th century literature, contemporary irish writing, intro to northern ireland politics, and modernizing social work and social policy. yay! also, enjoy the solitude of beloit. it's absolutely impossible to find a place to be alone here. i share my room, there's always someone in our living room, there are hoards of people on campus constantly, and the noise gets a little maddening.

been talking to lots of irish people. i was at a house party last week when a girl asked me about the american government. i stiffened a little, hoping to avoid anti-americanism and war talk, but she explained to me that she didn't really know anything about how our goverment work and what our policies were and such. so it was really great to get to have a real conversation with someone about that stuff, and explain how congress works and how bush basically tramples us all. it's a very foreign concept to the irish that americans do not support the elected goverment in power.

it's really weird to meet people and immediately forget their name, not beause you're too drunk, but because it sounds so unfamiliar on your tongue: deckland, ronan, griona, padric, moira, colhm. we're speaking the same language, but sometimes it doesn't feel like it. i'll leave you with a wonderful/ridiculous new discovery: cockney rhyming slang, where a word is referred to by another that rhymes with it. examples: apples and pears = go upstairs, china plate = mate, britney = beer (after britney spears), spetic = yank (after septic tank--feel the love, my american darlings?).

anyhow, i miss you guys. happy february!