Merry Belated Christmas!!!!

Hey everyone. I talked to a bunch of you on Christmas but for those i didnt get a chance to talk to I hope you ahd a wonderful day. Jilli and I are in Killarney now enjoying the gorgeous mountains. We took a walk through the national park. This irish guy gave us a mini tour of one of the pathways. We thought that was very welcoming. Then later on we saw him walking around with a different group of kids our age. We think he might have taken it upon himself to be the free tour guide of Killarney national park. Either way we had a lovely 3.5 hour walk around the park.

Unfortunately Jilli didn't get the best sleep last night so she is taking a power nap now and I am checking up on emails and bus schedules and such so that everything is squared away for when we leave ireland for big bad paris tomorrow. Lots of museums up ahead! And hopefully we will have a sunny day in paris so we can get a good view from eiffel tower.

The sun finally cam out for jilli today. I was worried that she would have visited Ireland for 10 days without seeing the sky (its been overcast for 8 days). But the sun poked out and there isn't a cloud in the sky. We miss and love everyone very much. I'll be back in Waterford in 13 days, on Jan 9th, and Jilli goes straight back to D.C. I'll have some pictures up when i get to paris because my friend eliza will have he laptop so we can get the wireless in the apartment. Hope all is going well back home. We miss you!!! <3

Ahhhhhhh!

So the last couple weeks have been crazy. Our exhibition went up and then got taken down. We packed up. 6 of the 10 roommates left at 5:30 am this morning. Its been insane. I've been behind with my journal and blog. Hopefully now that I will be traveling around maybe i'll have some time to post some pictures. I dont have time to write too much about my pieces. Feel free to ask questions.

^ Mirrors 

^ these mirrors are full of "i am beautiful because....." and "i am not beautiful because...." statements.

^ close up

^Toilet Paper

^I tried to write my stream of thoughts on this toilet paper made of not toilet paper material.

^crepe paper roll

^Filing cabinet with new window installment

^Filing drawer

^Jars containing the cut out strips from my journal.

^I couldnt get a picture of my walls but if you click on it you can kind of see it.

^zoomed in

Haunted Castle Weekend

Hey guys. Last quick update for today. (well not so quick because there are a lot of pictures) Nana and Grandpa keep trying to make sure that I am eating well so I thought I would post proof that I eat well at least one night a week. (I can't lie, the rest of the nights include spaghetti and paninis of pb and nutella) However my friends, eliza and matt, and I decided it was nice cooking together for one of the potluck dinners so we now cook one meal a week together. Usually it includes a soup which means we have dinner for a couple nights that week and it works out economically as well. Here is an example of one of our meals with dumplings and homemade vegetable and bean soup:

^Yummy Food

Two weekends ago 13 of the students here, mostly photo kids, went to Charleville Castle in Tullamore. It is one of the most haunted castles in Ireland and has been on many tv shows including Britain's most haunted, etc. etc. However we arrived there for the weekend (about a 28 hour stay) and it was one of the most peaceful weekends we have all had while in Ireland. We all were on assignment for class and so people were taking pictures, drawing, filming and doing performances all over the castle and the grounds.

^Anna's site of performance/filming

^Chandelier in the gathering area

^Eliza drawing in the room we drew in for 3 and a half hours without realizing it.

The rest of the night consisted of watching and participating in Anna's performance/movie, drawing by candlelight, sitting by the fire, photographing some more and holding a seance. I was part of the seance. Some of you know how terrified I get just by walking in the dark but it was a cool experience and we experienced some interesting things. However when the seance was done it was around 4 in the morning and Eliza and I were still awake drawing, though the drawings got more interesting as the night went on and we got more and more delirious/tired. I eventually fell asleep for half an hour at 7, though technically it was 6 because we had daylight savings time. That meant that no one really knew what time it was all night  which added to the weird feeling everyone had all night.

In the morning eliza, sarah and I ventured off in to the oak forest which is the oldest in Ireland. The sun was rising and it was absolutely gorgeous. It woke me up and we all felt like we had been rejuvenated and not been awake for the past 24 hours.

 

^Eliza amongst the tall trees

^Me looking up at the humungous trees in shock

^Gorgeous

^I took a lot of pictures of the stables for my project. We are making a book of all the work we did while at Charleville as our way of giving back to the people that let us stay there (as well as 25 euro). However they were wonderful and our book is our creative contribution to them.

^No more roof

^ At tha beginning of the driveway there is this tree which is the oldest oak tree.

^ I didn't get the best pictures but it was so beautiful

^Ridiculous

^Here is Matt, taking pictures as per usual. 

^Here is Eliza pretending to take pictures because she doesn't, as per usual.

^ Eliza modeling (possibly making fun of modeling, we aren't quite sure), as per usual.

^Guess who.

^My friend Sarah.

^There was just stuff everywhere. The castle is privately owned and so they are constantly trying to get money to restore the place and people work there on a volunteer basis.

^The grand Staircase. P.s. Becoming Jane was filmed in this castle and you can see this staircase in it.

So I think that mostly sums up the weekend in as much I can put in a blog post. I'll have a copy of the book so everyone can see it when I get back, hopefully one of my images will be good enough to put in the book. More updates to come soon. Love you all.

Most amazing Gordon field trip yet

The following week we had the best Gordon Field trip we have ever had. He took us on a 7 mile hike right in our backyard of the college. We followed the Burren Way onto the mass path which was the road the people walked on to get to mass when all the protestants were trying to rid themselves of the catholics. It took us all the way around the mountain I climb and am always talking about. It was wonderful.

^ Matt an Gordon. Gordon was pointing out the berries for us to make this special holiday gin. Because that was obviously a necessary addition to our learning experience on this trip. In actuality Gordon was showing us which berries were ok to be eating so we didn't get poisoned.

^ Here's mike. I put this picture in to demonstrated how nice it was at the end of october here. People were in longsleeves shirt not like furry boots or anything.

^ Passing through gates and property set up on the land surrounding the mass path.

^ Resting and waiting for Gordon to finish his comfort stop.

^ The pictures that follow are a series documenting the wall climbing and cow field walking that were required to get back to the mass path since modern property lines disregarded the path.

^In the cow field

^ Attempting to avoid the poop.

^ look at the botton of the picture for the mud. Well, mud and poop. 

^ More crossing

^Gordon minding the wall so it didn't collapse on us. ( He is that strong because he is God and the sun follows him)

^Mike stranded on a rock.

Suzie attempting to cross the poop successfully.

^ The view. Breathtaking.

^ Now back down the mountain. But not without some serious thinking and absorption of our surroundings. Eliza, Anna and I got caught up in it and didn't see when people left so we headed down once we realized this.

^ Eliza on the mass path.

^ Jonathan took a wonderful picture from behind of Matt, Eliza and I walking and then I looked at this picture of Matt and Jonathan. and thought it was the same kind of idea. Buddies. hahahaha.

^ Stepping through gates

^ Castle by the church that the mass path ends at.

^Absorbing the ocean breeze and the waves.

All in all, it was a great day and all within a few miles on us.