Ulster road trip photos-- FINALLY

I'm sorry I haven't updated in so long. I've been really busy, and plus I didn't feel like I should update until I could put up my photos from the road trip. And since I took over 200 of them, well, it took me a while to finally get them sorted out.

But I did! And I put them on Facebook! You can see them all here!

After whittling it down from more than 200, I still put up 67 photos. So I'm not going to post them all here, simply because it's already taken most of the evening to get them up in one place. You should go look at them on Facebook, if you want to see them all. But I will give you some highlights...















The intrepid explorers:



Up next: adventure in Scotland! My lovely mother is flying over this week-- on July 21, my birthday!-- and we are going to Edinburgh and St Andrews together. I am almost inexpressibly excited! I have wanted to go to Scotland since I was a little kid, and going with my mother on my birthday is just too good. And then, as soon as we get done over there, we're flying back to the 'States together, for my summer break. I get to spend pretty much the whole month of August in Michigan and Chicago this time, and man am I looking forward to it. Excitement abounds!

Dang, an update

Ooh hey, new layout! I think this is more thematically appropriate, don't you? Also more relevant to my interests, as I have a bit of an obsession with old maps.


Anyway, in case you were wondering-- the road trip was fantastic. I took over 200 pictures, so I'm still kind of sorting through those... someday I'll put 'em up online. There are a lot of gorgeous ones, owing nothing to my skill with a camera and everything to the rugged natural beauty. Anyway, Jenn and I spent our four days hiking, climbing, and/or rambling around on mountains and cliffs in Ulster. It was a wonderful time. Also full of firsts for both of us-- first time renting a car, first time driving on the other side of the road! I was really nervous about driving for the first two days, but by the end of it I was feeling confident and enjoying myself a lot.


Since getting back, it's mostly been business as usual. My friend Quincy, who lives in New York City, was visiting Galway this weekend, so I spent some time hanging out with him. And my friend Jenn broke up with her boyfriend on Sunday, so I spent some time hanging out with and consoling her. Tomorrow I'm going to a symposium (ie, two lectures, some discussion, and then dinner with bigwigs, with a liberal sprinkling of schmoozing throughout) on Imperialism and Media. This weekend, I'm helping out with a conference ("Empire and Education") at the college-- registering attendees, setting up rooms, directing visitors to the College Bar, etc. Grunt work, but that's what being a grad student is all about, really. After that, back to business until the end of July...

Road trip!

So, um, I'm taking a road trip! This coming week, from Tuesday to Friday!

My friend Jenn and I are renting a car and driving up north.* We're going to County Donegal, which is in the Republic of Ireland, and County Antrim, which is in Northern Ireland. This is exciting to me for a number of reasons! I have never been that far north here, and it's supposed to be absolutely gorgeous... plus, I have never been to Northern Ireland, and even though it's on the same island and you don't need to show your passport or anything to cross the border, I'm still excited to be going to what is technically a different country. Also, we are driving there-- I have never driven in this country! I'm really excited (though admittedly nervous) about driving on the other side of the road. And we got a manual, so I get to try shifting with my left hand!

We're going to be mostly doing outdoorsy stuff-- hiking on Slieve League, Ireland's second-highest cliffs (and Europe's 6th-highest); walking the beaches at Malin Head, the most northerly point of Ireland and a haven for whales and basking sharks; hiking from the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge to the Giant's Causeway. We also might stop by Derry to see some of the city, particularly the murals. We're not staying in Derry, but Jenn has been there before (and she did her MA on Northern Irish stuff, and is really knowledgeable about the history) so she can show me around the cool stuff. Woo!


I'm also currently engaged in planning another trip-- my mother and I are going to Scotland!-- but that is a subject for its own post. Suffice to say, interesting times are afoot for this summer!





*Not to be confused with Up North, which everyone from Michigan knows is a place. No, I just mean "in a northerly direction." Though in Ireland, The North is a place-- Northern Ireland, part of the UK.

On the Saint Mary's University "Queering Ireland" conference

... and here I am, floating around yet another strange city. Story of my life these days, it seems. I just got in to Ottawa-- my flight from Halifax was so early it bordered on red-eye. The flight was at 06:40am, so I had to leave the hotel at 04:30. And since last night was the final night of the conference, everyone was dragged out to a bar, so I really only got about two hours of sleep. All I want to do now is nap and shower, not necessarily in that order, but the hotel check-in isn't until 3pm. And it's 8:30am right now. They let me stow my suitcase, though, and right now I'm having coffee in the hotel restaurant. I might take a walk around town and get my bearings, maybe do a bit of shopping-- I want a new coat, and I feel like Canada is a good place for coat-buying.


So my combination jetlag-sleep deprivation aside, it's been a fantastic weekend so far. The conference was brilliant, in both the American understanding of the word and the British-Irish colloquial sense. Great papers, great talks, and an overall great group. It was small enough that we were able to really get a dialogue going, and rather than being like lectures the talks ended up being more of a conversation most of the time. A conversation that was continued at the bar in the evening. The whole tone of the thing was very informal and friendly; I originally brought a suit to wear for my talk, but then after seeing that the other conference participants were overwhelmingly in jeans, I went for a much more casual outfit. At first I was rather intimidated, because after all I'm just a lowly unpublished graduate student and maybe 75% of the people at the conference were professors who have books and monographs and journal articles all over the place. But everyone was very friendly and supportive, and there wasn't any distinction made between the Doctors and non-Doctors. So, overall, it was an incredibly positive experience.

I also got to drink some truly excellent dirty martinis and sleep in the most comfortable bed I've ever encountered, so that was pretty nice too. The only regret I have is not really being able to see Halifax-- I got in late Thursday night, spent all day Friday and Saturday at talks, and then left early Sunday morning. What I glimpsed of the town seemed very cool, so I definitely have to come back some day, maybe even for a proper vacation!

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood!

Galway is in the grips of its semiannual week of nice weather right now! This means that it is sunny and in the high 60s-low 70s. Yesterday, I went to the beach with friends Jenn, Bri, and Jason and sat in the sunshine for about four hours. I wore a knee-length skirt and short-sleeved top, while Bri and Jenn actually wore bathing suit tops-- I thought it was too cold for bathing suits, but here you have to take advantage of any teeny bit of sunshine. Today it's supposed to be equally nice, though I have lots of work to do. (Especially since I spent yesterday sitting around the beach.) So, in order to enjoy the nice weather but also work, I am sitting outside a cafe with my laptop and books. It's a good compromise.

So why do I have so much work to do? Because I am going to a conference in Halifax, Nova Scotia, this week! Not only am I attending, but I am also presenting a paper. It's a serious, big-deal sort of a conference and I am actually pretty nervous about the whole thing. And after the conference, I am flying to Ottawa to do a couple days of research at the Library and Archives Canada, which is like the Canadian Library of Congress. It's all very exciting... though it's going to be a pretty darn busy week. My itinerary is as follows:

-Wednesday 16 September: I take a bus to Dublin and spend the night at the airport Days Hotel.
-Thursday 17 Sept: I fly to Halifax, Nova Scotia, by way of Newark. (I have a five-hour layover in Newark, which is just annoying. If it were much longer, I could leave and maybe go get a bite to eat in Brooklyn or Manhattan with one of my friends that lives there. But 5 hours is too short to leave, but too long to easily kill with going through Customs and security. Oh well.)
-Friday & Saturday, 18-19 Sept: Conference! Haven't gotten the programs yet, so I don't know what day I'm giving the talk, but it will probably be Saturday afternoon.
-Sunday 20 Sept: I fly from Halifax to Ottawa. I am staying in a hotel in Ottawa, not a hostel, because I honestly didn't want to go on a research trip so soon anyway. Lionel talked me into it, and I decided that having my own room and bathroom would make the prospect much more palatable.
-Monday & Tuesday, 21-22 Sept: Research at the Library & Archives Canada. I'm just going to be sussing out their collection, seeing if they have much that can be of use to me, and making contacts. Then I can decide if I'll need to go back later for more in-depth research. I still don't want to do this right now, but I admit that the nerd in me is excited to see a national archive. My hotel is like five minutes away from the Canadian parliament and supreme court and all that stuff-- basically where I am staying is the Canadian equivalent of Capitol Hill. Neat!
-Wednesday 23 Sept: I fly back to Ireland. I'm getting in to Shannon at 7am on Thursday the 24th, so I should be back to my flat before 10am.


Whew. Just reading that makes me tired... oh well. I'll manage I'm sure. And really, if the biggest complaint I have about my job is that I have to travel too much, things really aren't so bad.

Ok! Back to work!

Windy City post!

Yes, I am posting this from Chicago! Sorry for the radio silence on this 'blog, but I've been on vacation, and despite spending my days being super-lazy that still has been surprisingly busy. Anyway I've been at my parents' house, and they are about 90% of my readership anyway. :-P

So, I am currently at Jim's apartment in Chicago. Tomorrow morning I am flying out to San Diego to visit my sister! I haven't seen Hanna since Christmas, and I haven't visited her in California in over two years. Needless to say, I'm very excited. Adventures will be had!

Then it will be back to MI, and the annual Pirate Party. Then I'll have another week to bum around, and then I'll go back here to do some research at the University of Chicago, before I fly back to Ireland on August 25. Oy.

quick update

I'm sorry I haven't updated in a while! I have been crazy busy. I was in New York for four days, then Boston for a week, then Rhode Island for two days, and now I'm in New York again. (With another two days in Massachusetts thrown in there.) I am leaving on Wednesday already... the three weeks really have flown.

I am currently at my friend Meredith's apartment in Brooklyn. She lives here with her boyfriend Michael, but he is in Israel right now for his work. Michael is a good guy, and I'm sad I don't get to see him more on this trip-- the three of us had dinner the day I got in, but that's it-- but I feel better about crashing on their futon for a week when there are only two people here, not three. I would be worried about being in their way too much if both of them were here, but since it's just me and Meredith I don't feel like I'm taking up too much space.

So I have one more full day at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, and then about fourish hours on Wednesday, if I need them. We'll see. This trip has been wonderful; the work has been hard, but quite rewarding, and it was been simply lovely to see new places and good friends.


Eventually I'll make a proper update, with comprehensive impressions and pictures and all. But I'll leave you with this, for now, oh reader: yesterday afternoon found me eating Salvadoran street food while sitting under the Brooklyn Bridge on a beautiful summer day. Which I think is one of those "to do before I die" items.

Ayla Abroad... in Manhattan!

Yes, this post comes from Hostel 99, in Manhattan's Upper East Side. I arrived in New York City yesterday afternoon! I am staying here until Sunday, when I will be traveling to Boston and staying there for a week. I might end up staying longer in Boston, depending on how much I get done in that week, or I might go back to New York after that. Oh, and one weekend in there I'm going to Rhode Island.

This is by no means a vacation, of course. I'm here for research: the big theatre collections for the period I'm studying are at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts and at the Harvard Theatre Collection. (And the Museum of the City of New York archives, but that's closed for renovations.) Today-- in a couple hours-- I'm going to head down to the Library for the Performing Arts and start exploring. It's kind of intimidating, because I really don't know what I'm looking for, but still exciting!

Which shows how much of a dork I am, I guess. I'm intimidated by a library card catalogue, but actually getting to the library-- getting around in New York City, a place I have no previous knowledge of-- is no biggie. Well, it's easy to get around! It's definitely easier to follow directions and maps here than in, say, Dublin... here at least the streets are in grids and don't change their names every block. The subway is easy too, and there's a station not far from my hostel. And, if all else fails, I can always hail a cab, but I'm trying to do this on a budget. Hence the hostel.


Last night, I met up with my friend Meredith. Meredith and I were in the same MA, but when she finished she moved back to Brooklyn and now works at a publishing company. Toward the end of my trip-- when I come back from Boston-- I'm going to be staying with her, which will be fun. We went out for dinner last night in Chinatown, at a restaurant called Yeah Shanghai Deluxe. It was delicious, and she insisted I keep the leftovers, so I have dinner taken care of for the next couple days!

Speaking of food, the hostel breakfast is starting...

People's Republic of Cork

So this weekend I went to Cork with the orchestra! We performed the same concert as last week, again with the choirs from Cork and Clifden, at University College Cork. And we stayed at a 4-star hotel, which was definitely one of the nicest hotels I've ever seen! The rooms were super-comfy, the shower was gorgeous, and the food was fantastic. (The included breakfast buffet was amazing! Hot food, lots of fresh fruit, even a smorgasbord platter with fancy cheeses and meats and smoked salmon.) The Orchestra Society must have gotten a lot of money for the trip, because it only cost each of us €70 for two nights and meals.

I've been to Cork before, and it is a very urban city-- it's the second largest city in Ireland, but is only 1/10th the size of Dublin. (Dublin is about 1,500,000, and Cork is about 150,000.) I always sort of think of Cork as being like Dublin, but compressed to 1/10th its size; squeezed between two hills onto islands in the River Lee, the city seems to have all the energy and conflict of Dublin, but pressed closer together. There are sketchy alleys coming off the posh pedestrian shopping streets, and medieval cathedrals butting onto dodgy Chinese markets. And lots of graffiti, especially political graffiti. (Cork likes to pretend that it is its own country; t-shirts that say "Cork Republic" are popular [I have one!], and I have a friend who says he's from "the People's Republic of Cork.")

Given this impression, I was expecting the UCC campus to be a very urban one. So I was very surprised to see that it actually looks a lot more like what I think of as a "college campus" than other colleges I've seen in Ireland. It actually reminded me somewhat of MSU, with wide grassy spaces and footbridges over the river and exotic trees with little identifier plaques. The architecture, of course, is much more European; I heard people comparing it to Cambridge. It was very pretty, and the auditorium where we performed was all high dark wood ceilings and bookcases and stained glass windows.

Of course, the best part of the weekend was the after-party. Musicians are the best people to party with. We started drinking in the hotel bar around 10:30, and at midnight the instruments started coming out, and suddenly there was a trad session on. There was a guitar, an accordion, a bodhran, a double bass, a penny whistle, and about nine violins! The highlight, for me, was the jam session of "Summertime." It was awesome-- everyone playing took a solo, and it had an almost klezmer sound. Anyway, they jammed until after 3am, when I went to bed... and I guess they started up again at 4:30! Irish people are crazy, and musicians are crazy, and Irish musicians are the craziest. :-)


One weird thing from the weekend, though... I shared a hotel room with two British girls, one (violinist) from Yorkshire and one (cellist) from Belfast.* (That's not the weird part.) I always used to pick up lots of the speech patterns of whoever I talk to, but I don't really do that with Irish people for some reason. But after spending three days talking to the Brits, I found that I was using a lot of their syntax and inflections. It culminated Sunday afternoon when I said "pavement" instead of "sidewalk!" I don't know where that came from...




*I realize that calling someone from Belfast "British" as opposed to "Irish" is contentious and politically charged, but that is what she considered herself. I think she's Protestant. Oh, Northern Ireland...