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.

October 17th and 18th

Sorry I've been so behind guys. I've been crazy busy but you all know that's how I function.  I have a couple posts breaking down the past couple weeks. This one focuses on just two days, a Gordon field trip day and an adventure to Doolin:

On fridays as you know by now are field trip with Gordon days. This day we went to a couple different ruined churches and estates. 

^ Celtic cross at Dysert O'Dea Castle, the word dysert means landscape of some sort, hence the word desert. 

^Here is my friend Anna. It was a little colder and wetter than we expected when we left the school, but Anna here is showing that we pushed through it and trekked around in the rain

 (meaning we crossed lots of mushy fields cows live in. you know what that means.)

^ Eliza drawing the heads around the archway. Above one of the doors of the church at Dysert O'Dea there are carvings of 12 apostles and some animal heads. 

^ Anna and Matt and demonstrating the manner in which most of us get the majority of our sleep. On a 14 person bus, head tilter back, mouth at various degrees of openness.

On Saturday after visiting the farmer's market and buying 8 euros worth of olives, Matt, Eliza, Sarah and I headed out for the Cliffs of Moher on Bus Eireann.

^ Cliffs, terrifyinglt high

^ I sacrificed myself to taking the tourist shot of the day. Matt shook his head in disapproval the whole time. I took a tourist shot of Eliza but she was in no way smiling like and idiot like me. Although you should all be proud that I was not one of the people in the crowd of tourists to be joking about how close to the edge I could get to. I almost had a heartattack for them.

^ More cliffs

^This last picture needs a little explaining. There is a road called the Burren Way. It circles most of the Burren and passes through Ballyvaughan all the way down to the cliffs. THe four of us decided it would be fun to take a day trip to the cliffs and then walk home on the Burren Way. So we took a bus to the cliffs, walked around amazed, then we started walking back to Doolin. However it was about 10-11 km back to just Doolin and it was already 3:30. When we finally got to Dooling we saw this sign that said 29Km to Ballyvaughan. At that point we decided we had given a valiant effort however we were soaked because it rained on us and decided to grab a pint, some dinner and get a taxi home. However it was an amazing day and we were all still very proud of turning the situation around and having a silly evening.