All These Things That I've Done

Well one of the main reasons we came here was to help out with the Earagail Arts Festival, which has been an entertaining string of artistic events, performances, artist exhibits, and things of that nature. I've volunteered for a couple events so far, the first being at the opening art exhibition of local artist Locky Morris. His main thing seems to be turning to really simple material to make a big statement. One piece I found interesting was a piece of his living room carpet, on which his daughter took off the tag of her school uniform and dropped it; this piece of the carpet was encased in glass (with the tag still laying there) to preserve the memory of his daughter's first day of school. Simple, but an interesting approach to art... A lot of his art also represents aspects of The Troubles here in Ireland. I wish I had some pictures to show you.. but I don't.
Back to the exhibition opening.. Our job was simply to pour wine. Ok well, I've never poured alcohol for the public before and a normal person would use their common sense but of course I have all these questions. How much wine do I put in their glass? Can they have refills? How many can they have? Can I have some?
This was funny because one of the guys.. who had two or three glasses.. was telling us he hoped we got to have some. Upon telling him I was too afraid to ask, he yells "Are ye kidding me?? It's IRELAND!" Haha. It made for a nice cultural realization.

Following the exhibition, a group of us volunteered at the Carnival Parade which was kind of like a kickoff event for the festival. Well, my wine pouring mate was with me, but there was a whole group of people that were missing. I'm just like wow, they're really late..then all of the sudden they emerge out of the crowed in these insane, like.. ludicrous. outfits. I guess when they showed up some lady was like Aye! go get your costumes on! Haha. It's going to be real great when I get back to the States with this Irish accent. Anyway, so yes they we're dressed up like clowns, and I got to wear a neon vest. Our duties were simply to walk along side the parade to make sure people weren't going into the street and that everything was going smoothly. It was a great parade people were dressed up like crazy animals and dancers and there was music and dancing and huge floats. And we just walked all the way down the main street in Letterkenny and back.

These are two events I've volunteered at, and I've also attended some events. We checked out the carnival the next day at the park- first time discovering the park! That was exciting. It was mostly just grass and paths.. which lead my thoughts toward: well, this country doesn't need jungle gyms, sand, and swings because they're happy enough just running around in their extremely green grass and using their imagination. Just a cultural observation. Not saying they don't have parks with swings, but well, I haven't seen one. The next weekend we went to The Glebe Gathering, an event about a half hour away that was having another art exhibit for kids mostly. We took a tour of artist Derek Hill's house. He was a quirky guy. His house was filled with art work from artists all around the world, like a plate from Picasso, and a bunch of other crazy stuff like huge beetles encased in glass, beaded stools that his mother made, a victorian-like chair just for his dog, a decorated toilet bowl, a painting that changes color when the sun shines through it, etc. Very cool house. Then we went to Glenveagh castle and national park!! (one of 6 in Ireland). Yes, I've been in a castle now. We took a tour and I think we only got to see about 1/4 of the castle, but it was beautiful. and deer-themed. and haunted! and cursed. So I feel pretty lucky.

More recently, I went to a kids play called Star Boy, starring Joe Brennan, the topic of my documentary. He is a local storyteller and actually wrote this play without words to approach a different way of telling a story. It was cute, very good. I felt kind of ridiculous, I was literally the only one my age there. The audience consisted of parents and 2-9 year olds. I also went to see a performance by Solo Cissokho who is also a storyteller, and a musician of Souther Senegal in Africa. He played the griot (beautiful instrument) and told an old story from a village by his hometown.

That about sums it up for my volunteer and festival activities for the time being. Some fun cultural things that may be obvious but I'd like point out: They have a deep appreciation for their sheep here.. seriously, it's theme on the souvenirs.
Guiness is also a prominent theme in the culture, as well as music (much more so than in America); it is a much larger focus in the schools here.

Thanks for reading!

"Wait. Speaking of Jews... The goblins that work at the bank? Totally the jews of the movie."

Hey guys.. Can we still be friends after this weekend?

Yes, so the accents took some time to get used to, as well as the blatant staring, but also the friendliness of the people; the surrounding of vast green pastures filled with sheep or cattle is new and the lack of ranch dressing in the country has been rough. But I think the weather, more than anything, is still taking its toll on me! It's cold here.. for the most part. Ninety-five percent of the time it is overcast, with the sun shining through maybe a total of 60 minutes a day.. Most of the time it's cold and windy, but sometimes it gets pretty hot! for a few minutes. You just never know what it's going to do and it's definitely one of the things I'm still getting used to. Today, for example, I grabbed by umbrella, rain jacket, sunglasses, and wore flip flops.. Ya just can't know.

Oh but it's so beautiful here. I really can't emphasize it enough. This past weekend, we spent the weekend in Galway and the Aran Islands, and it's hard for me to put in words just how gorgeous the land is.. Galway has a mix of atmospheres: Shop street was filled with small pubs and shops of Irish souvenirs and SWEATERS!(don't feel like explaining this). With Galway Bay just a short walk through there, you have the sand and the waves and the jellyfish right at your fingertips. I spent the night in a hostel for the first time- not like the movie at all! We all agreed it was like a big sleepover! I think the best part of this was when I accidentally walked into the other girls room at 2 in the morning thinking it was ours. Oops. Always make sure your door is closed all the way..
The next day was the Aran Islands (Inishmore), which we took a ferry to. We rented bikes upon our arrival and rode around a big chunk of the island for most of the day. I think this has been my favorite experience so far.. We had beautiful weather and clear skies; we saw horses and donkeys, we climbed rocks and saw dolphins- it was absolutely perfect. Oh.. I can't forget how we ended the evening. The group participated in an intense kereoke singing contest, winning of course, and bonding like no group of people has ever bonded before. All I can do now is pray that those videos will never surface.

The only thing I regret of the weekend was not having enough time in Galway.. It's definitely a place I would like to return to.

Our next trip is to Derry in a couple of weeks. These days we're beginning to adapt our short stories to a screenplay and gearing up to help out with the festival. I'm very excited to start work for the arts festival, to meet more people in this town and learn more about the culture. The people here are absolutely amazing. Besides a snooty, depressed waiter we had on the island and the boys that yell from their cars, everyone is ridiculously friendly. Fun fact- they think Americans are the friendly ones because we always say "have a nice day." But the Irish are genuinely friendly and genuinely concerned if you're having a nice day or not. It seems.

Cheers

"I left my sweater swag back at the B&B."