Yesterday we took a day trip up the Antrim Coast. A huge group of international students managed to get together and arrange a deal with a tour company, so we ended up getting a great deal and whole bus to ourselves. Our first stop of the day was called Carrickfergus castle. We didn't get much history on the castle--we only stopped there for some pictures, otherwise we could have gone in and toured--so I don't know anything about it except that it over looks the water, and therefore makes for some great pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lighthouse Island

 

 

 

One of the many caves in the rock on the side of the highway.

 

 

 

Our next stop was to Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge. I was so excited because I'd never been on a rope bridge before. The bridge spans a 65 foot gap between the mainland and a close island. So it isn't very long, but it's very high up--amost 100 feet. It gets a little scary towards the middle, especially because it was pretty windy yesterday and you can feel the birdge rocking as you're walking across. It's especially frightening if you're holdng a video camera while trying not to lose your footing, but that's exactly what I did.

The island that the bridge leads to has some really pretty views of the cliffs of the mainland. You can also see across the water to another island a few miles off the coast, and even to Scotland, though Scotland is difficult to see when it's cloudy. We learned a lot more abour Carrick-a-Rede than we did Carrickfergus. Alan, our tourguide for the day, told us, for example, that "Carrick-a-Rede" is an Anglicanized version of the Gaelic phrase for "Rock in the Road." He also told us that the bridge was originally erected every year by salmon fishermen who wanted to get to the island. This, of course, brought up the question, "How do they get the bridge over there every year?" And the question, "When they take it down, do they need to abandon someone on the island?"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sheep Island. I really want there to be a sheep civilization there.

 

Giant's Causeway was just as gorgeous as I had always heard. Alan said it was considered by some to be the 8th Wonder of the World. The rocks were formed there either by a volcano 60,000,000 years ago, or an Irishman who was feuding with his Scotish neighbor. And the rocks are huge! Looking in pictures they just look like rocks, but when you stand next to one and it dwarfs you, it's a whole other feeling, even for someone like me who is regularly dwarfed by others. Luckily, Kim and I had woken up early enough in the morning to pack our lunches, so while Aaron and Karen went to the restaurant in the hotel there to eat, Kim, Justine, and I went and explored. We walked the upper trail first, and then turned around at the end and walked back the coastal trail.

 

 

 

A formation called The Organ.

I can play the rock organ!

 

 

 

Justine, Kim, and I.

Justine has a little sheep and a little pig, instead of a Carl. All three are good friends.

 

 

That's Aaron next to a super big and super old volcanic rock.

Carl and I climbing the rocks.

 

 

 

 

The final stop we made was a quick picture stop near Dunluce Castle. Alan tells the story best: "One evening the nobles that lived there had an enormous banquet, with foods of all types and lots of it. The servants had been preparing for weeks for all the guests. When the night finally arrived, everone had a tremendous time, laughing and eating. The family was quite pleased. They called some of the servants in and asked to be brought more food. The servants went to fetch more from the kitchen, only to discover that the kitchen was gone." The castle was struck by lightening. The ground holding up the kitchen broke off from the rest and that part of the castle feel into the sea, sadly killing everyone in that part of the building. I'm sure the rest of the party was great, though.

Today we went to the Ulster Folk Museum. It's not a normal museum though. It's set up like an old Irish town, and the surrounding farm lands, and they actually took old houses and refurbished them for the displays. So you get to walk around and see the houses that people lived in, and the stores, and the churches. And then the "farms" are actually a pretty decent walk from the town. If everything wasn't Irish I would have felt like I was in Little House on the Prairie.

The Protestant Church.

Inside one of the poorer houses in town.

The basket weaver's.

Inside one of the richer houses in town.

The master bedroom.

The guest room.

Carl taking a bath in the guest room.

One of the first printing presses still in existence. Another in the set is in Philadelphia.

Carl found an Irish ancestor.

In order to be a cadet, a man had to be 5'9". Carl didn't quite make the height requirement.

The Catholic Church was in the shady area of town.

It was still pretty though.

The old mill.

Walking to the farms.

Master bedroom of the farmhouse.

Carl churned some butter.

Then it felt like we were back in Central PA.

The world's biggest pig.

Aaron liked the goats.

Chicken with an afro.

Then there was a duck that hissed at us. It clearly didn't like us, but I've never seen a duck do that before.

Back in town, Aaron showed us the wares in his post office/mercantile.

And finally, the banker's house. Or, the wealthiest house in town.

I decided that had I lived in that time, I would have liked to be the banker's daughter. They had the best house by far.

Also, I found it almost stereotypical that the Catholic Church would be so hidden in the town and the Protestant one so prominent in the main square. I guess it's to be expected, but other than that I haven't run into any religious discrimination, even in passing.

Tonight we went to a Brazilian Carnival hosted by the School of Anthropology and Ethnomusicology. We got to dress up in bright colorful skirts and scarves and ribbons, and we learned how to samba. And when I say we, I mean we. Aaron looked lovely in his bright skirt and headband. And his George Washington wig. I'm actually not too sure what George Washington has to do with Brazil, but Aaron pulled off the look.

Every Thursday here there's a lunchtime recital in either the music building or the sonic arts building. Today was in the sonic arts building, so, naturally, it was not a classical performance. The artist's name was James Gourlay. He's a Scottish tuba player, and very into computer music. He said how the tuba as a solo instrument has not been well received throughout the years, even with piano or orchestral accompaniment. He believes that synth music fits very well with the tuba and accompanies it beautifully.

The first strange thing about this concert was the hall. I'd never been in the performance hall before, but i would hope that it normally has a solid floor. Today it didn't. We were walking on metal grates and could clearly see down to what was beneath us...a concrete floor 20-30 feet down. Gourlay started the concert by playing the first piece from down below us with green lights shining up, and an accompaniment track playing from speakers in the front of the hall. He played the rest of the pieces on stage, but each one of them had a pre-recorded or synthesized accompaniment track, and the last one even had a video to go with it, which was actually a bit weird, because it was mostly just zooming in and out on a tuba and a person playing a tuba and putting weird filters on it.

The program was:

Heavy Reductions (tuba and tape) by Tim Souster

Going Down (tuba and sample sounds) by Andy Scott

Floating Dreams (tuba and CD) by Peter Meechan

Rings of Darkness: Caverns of Light (tuba, sampled sounds, and video) by Pricilla McLean

It was a pretty cool concert, but I definitely wouldn't say I liked it. Floating Dreams was pretty, but the other pieces were very strange.

Yesterday and today we had gorgeous weather here. It was sunny and not to cold. I can't believe the average temperature here is 45 degrees in February, especially when it's freezing back in Annville. Yesterday I slept in, and that was really nice, but today was so gorgeous I had to get outside. Kim and I took a walk around town and ended up down in the City Center. It was a really relaxing day, because after class we really had nowhere to be, so it was cool to just cruise around and take pictures.

First we went through the Botanic Gardens. In there is a green house, which smelled so nice. There were tons of flowers in there and it smelled just like spring time. It made me really happy.

Then we went to our library here at Queen's...

and go through the door to Narnia...

And then finally on to City Center.

Today, Aaron and I went to Dublin. It was actually one of the easiest trips ever. We just got on a train and went. It was funny when one of the locals was like "Yea, it's a bit of a trip. Might not be worth it. It's about two hours." Thanks, dude, but it takes me that long to get not even halfway across my state. So we went. They didn't even check our passports or anything, which I thought was super weird. Maybe they just do that closer to Easter.

So Aaron was determined to see the Guinness Factory. We made that our first stop, knowing that it might be our only stop. We were running late and had to get a later train. Then when we got to Connolly Station, and had no idea where to go, we asked some bus drivers that we found. We ended up taking the Luas, which is possibly the most convenient form of transportation across a city.

It's the same idea as a trolley, but it looks like a subway car, or the El in NYC. Anyway, we bought tickets for that, which we probably didn't have to do. No one ended up checking our tickets. One thing I noticed, not only on the Luas, but everywhere in Dublin more people speak Gaelic than I realized. Almost every sign was doubled in English and Gaelic and the Luas even announced stops in English and Gaelic. I guess I had thought that Gaelic was not such a prominent language anymore, but I even heard more people speaking it than English. It came as a bit of a surprise.

It was a bit of a shady walk from the Luas dropoff to the factory. The factory's in the manufacturing sector of town, and aside from the factory itself, there's no real tourists attractions there. At one point a guy stopped to ask us where the Art Museum was and his friend kept walking in front of us, so we felt surrounded, and just not so safe. We walked really fast though, so it was ok.

The factory itself was awesome. I wasn't sure how exciting it would be to tour a factory and see how beer is made, but it's actually really cool. I learned that there are four ingredients in Guinness. First is barley, and for this they have a giant pit, it looks like a sandbox, but it's filled with barley. It's huge. Part of me really wanted to dive in it. Second is hops, which they showed growing on the wall in huge glass cases. I think they were fake plants, but you got the idea. The next ingredient is yeast. They have a little vault for that, with the door glued just open enough that you can see inside. There's a beaker in there, supposedly containing Arthur Guinness' secret yeast. The fourth ingredient is water, for which they have a giant waterfall. That was awesome. Then they considered the fifth ingredient the brewer and they had a chart showing all the head brewers from Arthur Guinness to today's brewing team.

The giant waterfall.

There are seven floors to the factory tour, and they take you through all sorts of things, like barrel making, the brewing process, advertisments through the years, etc. They also had a sample station, where you got a small taste of a new "prototype."

Guinness is like medicine...especially for women who are nursing.

With the tour, you get a "free" pint. "Free" in the sense that you don't have to pay an additional fee after you pay for the tour itself. There were a few places to get the free pint, including a bar where you learned how to pour your own, but Aaron and I were too intrigued by what's called the Gravity Bar. It's a bar on the seventh story of the building, and it's a glass room with a 360 degree view. It was gorgeous up there. You can see the entire city of Dublin, which is considerably bigger than Belfast, and all the major landmarks are labeled on the windows.

Carl's first Guinness.

The view from the Gravity Bar.

While were at the bar, an old Irishman came up and started talking to us. We have no idea who he was, and barely any idea what he was saying, but I managed to get a small video clip of him. I realize that's creepy, but I don't think he minded at all. We think he invited us to a party. Personally, I hope he was a direct descendant of Arthur Guinness, because that would make the story even better.

The real genius of the tour comes into play right after the bar, when you go to leave the factory. Pints are big, and Aaron and I hadn't eaten all day, and to get out of the building you have to walk through the gift shop. It's almost overwhelming.

After we left, we followed a couple to a populated street, because it was dark by then, and I didn't want to walk through the super shady area in the dark. We also didn't have any definite plans at that point, so we found a place to eat, that unfortunately wasn't a pub. All the pubs were full because of the rugby game: Ireland vs. Italy. We found an awesome Thai restaurant, though, and then just walked around the city looking at old buildings and monuments and churches and cool bridges. Overall, it was a successful trip, and we'll definitely be going back to Dublin.

Sailor memorial.

Cool bridge.

Apparently the culture shock finally hit me, because Tuesday night into Wednesday I had every intention of leaving and going home. However, I can't get classes back at LVC and everyone is telling me I should stay and wait it out because it will get better. The thing is there's nothing that's wrong here. Nothing bad happened, nothing is wrong, it just kind of feels like I made a mistake coming here and I want to fix it. So Wednesday I went to Recording and can't say that I paid much attention because I was practically falling asleep and I was just thinking about calling Jill. She said it's normal to feel that way right now, and that I need to try and keep going.

We had recording again today though. It's just the three of us in that class beause they couldn't put us in the real one since we're only here for this semester. It's turning out to be more of a science class. We have to set up a year long listening experiment on other people. I'm still not sure I quite understand it. Hopefully I will soon.

As for the homesickness, turns out a lot of us from the states are feeling that way, so we all just hung out and played cards and listened to music last night. That was nice. It made me feel a little better. I'm still feeling homesick, but it's not as bad as it was Tuesday. Jill helped by sending me a list of short term goals. Step one is to get through my first week of class. Tomorrow's class was cancelled because our teacher is sick, so I can check number one off of my list, and now I only have nine more to go. Next up: Get through my first weekend without jetlag.

Tonight we tried going shopping at Oxfam, a second-hand store, but stores close really early here, so we're going to have to go tomorrow. We might as well since we have the whole day off. Later we're going to the Empire on Botanic to see a jazz/blue's group. And tomorrow, I get to sleep in, I mean really sleep in, for the first time since I've gotten here.

Tuesday's class is called Electroacoustic Composition, and it is definitely more of a composition class than a recording class. I don't know if it's similar to the Electronic Music class back at LVC, but it is pretty cool. We use this program called CSound, which pretty much creates and manipulates sounds, all through coding. It's definitely the most interesting class this semester.

I was definitely feeling the culture shock and homesickness this week. Tuesday I was just kind of having a sucky day. To try and take our minds off of feeling sad we went to a jazz night hosted by the International Friendship Association. We met a girl from the Republic of Ireland named Zara, and she was really talkative, so we got to hear a lot about local social life and things to do in the Republic of Ireland and in and around Belfast. The jazz group there wasn't bad. They played really short songs though, so it was done pretty quickly.

Afterward I wasn't ready to go back to my room, so Kim, Aaron, and I, along with our French friend from last Friday, Elodie, went to a pub on the way back to Elm's Village. It's called the Botanic, but the students just call it the Bot. I think it's way better than Lavery's. It was more my kind of atmosphere. And we were lucky enough to end up there on trivia night, so we had a lot of fun with that. I almost won a prize, but I second guessed myself on a Good Charlotte song. Oops..

 

Today was the start of class here at Queen's, so Aaron, Kim, and I had our Popular World Music class. I can't say I wasn't a little bit disappointed when I learned that the professor was American. But she seems very nice, and actually reminded the three of us a little of Professor Norris back at LVC. The class lasted a total of 11 minutes. She took attendance, handed out a packet to read, and then dismissed us because she lost her voice. It doesn't look like this class will be too difficult. We have a journal entry for every reading, and then a final essay, and then a written final exam. It's the type of class I was hoping for. We actually have it twice in one day, which I found a little weird, but because the classes here are so big they split them up into lab situations called tutorials. Those start next week, though, so I have no idea what they're like yet.

Tonight we went to a free international student dinner hosted by the International Friendship Association. They're a Christian organization that helps international students get adjusted to living abroad, and it's a really great way to meet other internationals. Tonight we met a girl from Finland named Milla and her housemate from Finland. We got to talk about favorite movies and music and it was really cool. She was really interested in what I thought of Helsinki when I visited five years ago with my orchestra, and we talked about her trips to Canada and Estonia and Amsterdam and Italy. We also had a local at our table named Trevor and we talked to him about America and what there was there. He had no clue where Pennsylvania was, which actually surprised me because every other local we've talked to has heard of Pennsylvania, and a lot have even visited. When he asked us what we were famous for we told him Hershey's chocolate and Amish people. He knew what Hershey's was. We also explained to him the Liberty Bell and the Oregon Trail and the Wild Wild West. He seemed kind of interested, but mostly confused. He told us some places in Northern Ireland "worth seeing, but not worth going to see" because the drives were "really long." In reality, the drives were 90 minutes, and that's when we told him it takes over 90 minutes to get halfway accross our state.

Still haven't found a bike shop yet. And until this morning I didn't have forks or knives, so i cut my bagel with a spoon. On the way back from class I gave up the idea of finding cheap silverware in Tesco's and bought plastic ones at the convenience store in Elm's. At least they work. And I have approximately 50 of each forks, knives, and spoons, so I call that mission accomplished.

Well last night was very different from the night before. We met up with Lainey's friend Paul, a student here who she met in Spain last year, and his friends. We hung out there for a while, but then we went to Lavery's, which they described as a bar/club hybrid. I definitely feel it was more on the club side. It was cool, because it had two floors, and the one was a live rock band and the one was DJed techno music. It was very loud, and we all agreed afterward that clubbing isn't really our thing, so we probably won't go again. At least not soon. But it was really cool exposure to the Belfast night life. Maybe it's because I'm so used to Annville, where wearing jeans and a nice top means you're dressed up for evening, but the girls at Lavery's were all wearing skirts and tube tops and mountains of makeup. It's definitely different from what I'm used to on a Saturday night.

We decided though that we all like the laid-back pub scene better, so we're going to try and find a nice pub to relax in and sit around and chat with locals.