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.