LOTS TO TELL

Me in front of the largest

high cross in Ireland at

Monasterboice

Oh man, do I have stories to share! My lack of posts in the past week really hasn't been out of laziness, but because I wanted to wait to fill you in on everything that has been happening. Let's start from the beginning . . .

We left bright and early (8 am - I would call that bright and early) Wednesday morning for Dublin. It was a pretty long drive, but definitely worth it. We started off at the National Museum of Ireland. It was unbelievable to think some of the pieces they had were the original pieces from thousands of years ago. There were even a few skulls from 1000 BC! To be honest, those were a little creepy. In the afternoon we visited Christ Church Cathedral. The high ceilings were beautiful, but I was especially interested in the stained glass windows. They were each so intricately created and had unique differences from each other. Our final stop of the day was the Monasterboice monastery in County Meath. There were some of the largest high crosses depicting scenes from the Old and New testaments, and 2 churches surviving from the 5th century. We experienced a little soft weather during this visit, which I have grown to expect and appreciate as a natural part of Ireland's climate. One of the coolest parts about these field trips is realizing just how much older Ireland and other parts of Europe are than America. When the states were just getting their feet off the ground, Ireland already had thousands of years of history!

After dinner we headed to the village of Slane where our hostel was located. It was still early, but we all assumed we were just hanging out there for the rest of the night. Wrong! Tomas had a special surprise for us. He brought us back into town where we went to Boyles (definitely liked that name!), a traditional Irish pub. We listened to great music, and had a wonderful time. After a long day of travel, archaeological visits, making new friends, and ending the night at Boyle's, I was definitely ready for some sleep.

The second day of our field trip brought us to Newgrange, one of the Neolithic passage tombs we had been studying. As you probably understand by now, most of the specific Archaeology stuff we study has pretty much gone straight over my head. Newgrange, however, is monumental enough for me to understand just how truly amazing it is. The tour guide told us it took about 80 men in 4 days just to move one of the large stones into place for the tomb to be built. And it has been standing since 3000 BC! 5000 years and the structure is relatively exactly how it was when it was originally constructed. Our final stop before heading back to Cork was Trim Castle. This was the capital of the Lordship of County Meath, the largest medieval castle in Ireland, and it had some absolutely amazing views of the town! I'm definitely learning that wherever you are in Ireland, as long as you're up high, you're going to get a great view.

So that was the field trip. Definitely a great break from classroom lectures, and I loved getting to hang out with some more people from my class. Onto the weekend . . .

With this being the last weekend before the craziness of Teaching Period 1 begins, the Holy Cross girls and I really wanted to take one last day trip locally in Ireland. We decided on Waterford, a county about 2 hours east of Cork. Luckily, we picked the weekend of their annual Harvest Festival! Sunday was "Amazing Grazing," basically the most epic outside market you could ever imagine. There was at least half a mile of continuous tents set up of every type of food you could ever imagine. My friend Kristin and I had the most delicious nutella and banana crepes for dessert! We also visited the Waterford Crystal Factory. We took a tour of the factory and saw exactly how the glass is perfected. It was amazing to see; each step is done with such precision and care, and each final product is beyond beautiful. Although we all had to come back and write our Archaeology papers, it was the perfect way to spend a Sunday!

I am very happy with all of the amazing places I have seen in the past week. I have only been here four weeks (I can't believe it's been a month!) and I feel like I already have quite a firm grasp of Cork and a lot of the surrounding area. I can only imagine how much else I will get the opportunity to see over the course of the year.

Final piece of great news: I have a roommate! Her name is Lucy and she is a visiting student from North Carolina. She arrived yesterday and it's so nice to finally have someone else in the apartment with me. She seems so nice and it got me even more excited for the rest of my roommates to arrive. Everything is all starting to happen! Thanks to already being here for the Early Start Program, I feel so prepared to start school and to welcome all my roommates to our home.

WOW! What a post that was. Enjoy the photos (and remember, click on them to view at a larger size)! I promise to keep posting often. I hope autumn is treating everyone well!

Us at Christ Church Cathedral

Me and my friend Courtney
enjoying the Irish pub

Newgrange Passage Tomb

Amazing stained glass windows
at Christ Church