Home again

As I write this, I’m sitting in the Dublin Airport amid a four-hour layover as I wait for my flight to New York City. This will be the last entry of my Irish adventure. It may be the last entry of the blog — who knows. If the world has a great clamoring for my daily thoughts I may proceed, but I’ll at least pull a Brett Favre and announce my retirement from blogging after this post. But I reserve the right to return if the Jets give me a call.

Now is the time to provide a little perspective on the trip. Was the trip worth it? What did I learn? What will I do differently after my month-long excursion to Ireland? Perhaps it is too early to provide answers to such broad questions, but it can’t hurt to think about these topics as I move forward to the next adventure of my life. The one thing I know is that I am poorer. But I have no complaints. It was all money well spent.

Was the trip worth it in non-monetary terms? Definitely. One of the biggest things missing from my undergraduate resume was a trip abroad. True, I spent three weeks backpacking in Europe with my brother in 2001, but that was more about tourism and sightseeing. Granted this trip contained a lot of that, but being based in one place and spending an extended time in one country provides a different glimpse into life in a foreign country and its culture. I think that every person should study abroad at least once. It provides a global perspective and makes you realize there is more to the world than your cozy corner in the States. The biggest point I learned is even though people in other countries have different histories, and perhaps speak a different language, they aren’t too different than you or I. Part of college is getting out in the real world and discovering who you are, and nothing can enhance that more by living out of your comfort zone in a foreign country. So if you are considering going abroad, do it. Figure out the finances later.

On a separate educational angle, will this trip advance my legal coursework? I doubt it. The course that appeared to have the most potential as a subject matter — Legal Responses to Terrorism — turned out to be a flop. It was poorly organized and crammed into two weeks, which didn’t provide ample time for the massive amount of reading. Comparative Trial Advocacy essentially became Trial Ad Lite, which wasn’t of much use here but should help a little when I take the real Trial Ad course. And finally, Ireland Criminal Justice was interesting, but unless I return to Ireland and do more academic work, the subject material is largely irrelevant. So much for learning in the classroom.

For the real value of the trip, we have to turn to the weekend adventures and exposure to the local culture. Perhaps, my two favorite parts of the trip were the road trip to Killeeshill and the outing at St. Andrews. But again, those were largely tourist adventures. The Killeeshill trip provided me with a glimpse into my family’s past as well as great pride in my heritage. It was awe-inspiring. The road trip also allowed me to get off the beaten path and get to see the real Ireland. St. Andrews was just an amazing visit to one of sports' most sacred grounds. Plus I held my own on a links course, which allowed me to soak up the atmosphere rather than worry about my play. The birdie was nice too.

But back to the learning theme. If I had to pick a theme for this trip, it would be international politics. Before leaving on this trip, I started to read Barack Obama’s book “The Audacity of Hope.” (I am finishing it on the plane ride home, and I highly recommend it, even for non-liberals). In addition to staying in Ireland, I went to the United Nations during my week in New York, which provided some foreshadowing into my global adventure. Ireland gave a glimpse into the volatile nature of other countries and exposed me to a country that is still trying to establish its identity — it is easy to forget that Ireland in its current state has only existed for a little more than 80 years. At times, it was hard to grasp that Ireland was in the midst of a violent struggle less than 15 years ago. In fact, only 10 years ago did the Irish government officially recognize the existence of Northern Ireland and remove a provision from its constitution that said it was the country’s goal to rule the entire island as a single country. Northern Ireland is still struggling with its identity, as Catholics slowly increase their numbers and are close to becoming a majority — when this happens, according to the Good Friday Agreement, the country will take a vote on what it wants to do for its future. If this doesn’t go over smoothly, the country could fall back into a tumultuous period rife with terrorism. Learning the history of the conflict and trying to understand why people that had so much in common hated each other so much was perhaps the most fascinating, yet difficult topic, to learn about.

The trip also coincided with Obama’s visit to Europe. On Thursday, he spoke to 200,000 people in Germany and the reaction in Ireland was as if the next President had arrived. Ireland has a special connection with John F. Kennedy because of his Irish roots and we saw numerous sights that raved of his visit 45 years ago. To me, it felt like the Irish people viewed Obama as the same type of person as Kennedy. It is amazing all of the pro-Obama rhetoric here and how little attention McCain receives. This will be an interesting next four months as the race continues to unfold. If anything, it got me excited about politics and the positive differences that can be made when working with others that have different opinions than you do.

The biggest lesson I take from these experiences is the value of leadership and working on a global stage. I feel too often the United States dictates how the world is going to be run and then looks for followers. Rather, I feel the United States should be a leader. Look out for the little guy as much as its own interests and set the example of how to be a global player. We should not dismiss other countries simply because they do not have a massive population nor vast amounts of natural resources. All people matter. It is not easy, but working with people of different backgrounds, cultures and interests never is.

This trip also proved that I could survive on my own and make the most of the people around me. The group we had was small at 14 but eclectic in their interests and personalities. There were some great people that I connected well with and am glad to have met. Rarely has the summer camp mentality of ‘Let’s stay in touch’ ever carried through. But we’ll see. With most of the posse in Kansas, it is possible. Plus we’ve already talked about our first reunion in November for the Kansas-Nebraska football game.

Where does this all lead? Who knows? I still struggle with what I want to do with my law degree. Maybe the road to politics looks a little more appealing after this. Having discussions with people from Ireland, Florida, Ohio and Kansas about politics and current events are fascinating. I still got plenty of time to decide all that. Now, I return to my insular world in Nebraska and fall back into a daily routine of studying, reading and trying to survive law school. If anything, the trip was refreshing. It gave me a break from the daily grind of working and school. If nothing else it was my first true vacation in two or three years.

What excites me is going right from this trip, where I feel my perspective on the world changed a little, to Workshop. I hope I can express my thoughts and show a dozen high school students there is more to the world than worrying about homecoming or being angry at the principle because he won’t sign off on a project. I like to try to provide them with a new outlook on their life, but now I feel that I have one and am better able to speak to the world outside Nebraska.

Thanks for reading the blog. I hope you learned a thing or two and enjoyed keeping tabs of me abroad. I’ll be in Wayne for a week for Workshop and then it’s back down to Lincoln for the start of the school year. I look forward to talking to you more about my Irish adventure and sharing photos and more stories with you. Until then, Erin Go Bragh.

Cheers,

LJLA

Let's go get a P!

Not much today. Yesterday was spent writing a take-home test and the last final is this morning in a little bit more than an hour. After that, it's packing time and one last hoorah (HOO-RAH!) tonight. Either tomorrow or after my travels back to the States I will hopefully be able to provide some perspective on the month. 

Cheers, LJLA

Irish Food and a Mile Run

Yesterday's post was all for the dorm lovers. Today, we'll cover something interesting for those people that love to eat. Yummy. Below are pictures of several meals that I have consumed in Ireland. I had several great meals during the first week before I decided to document the meals. My favorite of the entire trip was an Irish Angus Steak at Locke's. It was cooked perfect and thick and juicy. Plus it cost 24 Euro. It had better be good. Here are the rest of the meals that highlighted the trip.

BBQ Ribs at Thunder Road Cafe in Dublin. We had not eaten all day so I was slightly famished. I ordered ribs thinking I'd get a rack or two, but they gave me three. With a lot of determination and a determined will, I made it through. All in all, good meat and the ribs were cooked well with a nice sauce.

The final damage:

For July 4, the entire group ate together at a boxty restaurant. Several people in our group had boxty before, but they said this was different than what they were used to. For those who don't know what a boxty is, here you go. My boxty was filled with chicken and covered in a nice creamy sauce. Pretty solid.


During the Heritage Road Trip, we ate lunch at a small local restaurant that had a great Sunday special. I went with the lamb and mint. You can tell we were in the United Kingdom when we ate because the meal had an English feel with the peas and carrots. Overall it was pretty solid. I also had a little Irish tea to go with the meal but did not care for it, even after adding the milk.


For dessert in Irvingstown, I had warm apple pie with a custard sauce. It was really good, but after the lamb and the fried mushrooms I had as an appetizer, I was getting pretty full.


For dinner in Cork on Friday, I went with a traditional Irish meal. This included steak, eggs, mushrooms, chips, and black pudding. Most everyone here hates black pudding. I didn't find it that bad.

During our excursion to Galway, we ate at a basement restaurant called The Mustard. (This is where the Nebraska girl was our waitress). They had an ostrich burger on the menu. I tried it. It didn't taste that different than a normal hamburger and plus it had a lot of toppings on it so, it was difficult to gauge the true flavor of the meat. It was solid nonetheless.

Perhaps the greatest week for trying good Irish food was this last week. One professor took us out for dinner on Tuesday, Wednesday's dinner was paid for by the University of Limerick and we will also get a "free" meal on Friday. I say "free" because it is coming out of the surplus money we have in our study abroad budget. So really we paid for it, but it tastes much better not thinking about it.

On Tuesday, I opted for the Irish sirloin steak. Again, good stuff. It was covered in a pepper sauce and had lots of onions and mushrooms on top. I still say Locke's steak was better, but this wasn't too shabby.


On Wednesday night, we went to a small village Killaloe for dinner. We ate at Gosser's cafe (Which wins the silver medal for best name, just behind The Hurler) After missing out on the lamb on Tuesday — they had only one to cook, so a lot of our group opted for lamb Tuesday night. Again, no complaints here. After nearly making the mistake of ordering it medium well, the dish came with a slice of nice tender meat with a rice/mushroom/onion mix in the middle. I'm running out of adjectives to describe good food, so we'll leave it at that.


For dessert, I had warm apple pie. It was supposed to be homemade, but the lady that made the pies was out sick. I couldn't tell the difference.



Live Update:
Wednesday also included a trip to the Limerick District Court. As the court in Dublin, it was hard to hear, but we could understand the gist of what was happening. Also, we saw (or didn't see) two big events while we were at the courthouse. We were up in the balcony so we couldn't see the guy with the guards, but we did see a bunch of people arrested for DUI and theft. One common trait, they all wore wind pants. Here you can read up on what happened while we were at court.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2008/0723/breaking48.htm

http://www.limerickleader.ie/news/Faction-fighting-near-Limerick-courthouse.4314953.jp

After dinner came the last big event of the night -- a little event we call the beer mile. Jillian (the one who had done this before), Ramsey and I undertook the adventure. We scoped out the UL track and determined how it was going to go down because the idea is to get in, do it and get out without drawing any attention or getting caught.

For the event, I drank Red Bull, Jillian had Carling and Ramsey had Tuborg. The idea is to drink four beverages and run four laps as quickly as you can. It is difficult. By the third lap, your stomach is full of liquid and you are burping quite a bit. I know it isn't that healthy, but it was a lot of fun. I was the only one to actually finish the race (8 minutes, 15 seconds), but the full dinner and the larger than normal cans made it difficult for the other two. After a 1.5-mile walk back the body began returning to normal and I actually fell asleep with reasonable ease less than two hours later. It was a good night. I don't know if I will do it again, but I can check it off the list.

Cheers,

LJLA

The Great Brookfield Hall

Not much happening today.

So you get a filler post. I had been meaning to post something about my room so you can see the luxurious accommodations we have in Limerick. I also have a filler post coming about some of the exciting meals I have eaten while over here.


We'll start with a picture from the foyer of the apartment. The Absurdly Long Hallway on the left leads to the entrance and my apartment door is on the right here. The Absurdly Long Hallway always makes for great fun whenever someone knocks on the door and it takes at least 20 seconds to get there.

This is from the corner of the Absurdly Long Hallway. The door you see on the left goes to Jake's room and the door on the right is the kitchen/living room. For being a simple two-bedroom apartment, there are way too many doors in the apartment. After coming into the initial entrance, you have to open another door to get to either Jake or my room or the kitchen/living room. In addition, Jake has another door separating the foyer from his bedroom. Way too many doors.

This is the kitchen area of the apartment with the door on the right that leads to the foyer. Note the great placement of the refrigerator. If we want to keep the door open then we block the access to the fridge. The kitchen has a range, stove and a scattering of random pots and pans. There were three plates, five glasses and six forks. We had to provide our own dish soap and condiments. Also, there was no dishwasher.


The other side of the kitchen/living room. The television was small and received about eight channels on 10 stations. We got three BBC channels, two channels of RTE, MTV Germany and Eurosport and SkyNews. Several of the stations appeared on multiple channels and came in quite fuzzy. The screwy part is that several of our roommates received completely different channel lineups.

This is my bedroom. A good-sized bed, but by no means is it comfortable. The room also has about 10 yards of empty space between the bed/desk and the window. This area became my souvenir collection area. Another weird quirk of the apartment is that my room and Jake's are nowhere near the same size. I have a regular-sized be and he has a twin. He is also missing the extra space inside the room.

The trade-off is in the bathrooms. Jake has a nice spacious area while I have the bathroom below. It is small. Another issue is hot water. Jake's has a constant supply while my hot water is set on a timer. It wasn't until the third week that I discovered this and figured out how to mess with the settings. Before that, it was hit or miss on whether I was going to take a warm shower. Always made for an interesting morning.


And that's Brookfield hall. In addition to the poorly designed rooms, the laundry is also a rip-off. They charge 5 Euros for a wash and dry. And you have to buy tokens when the desk is open. Plus they don't refill the soda machine and it is at least a half-mile away from the bus stop and a mile and half away from anything resembling a store. Needless to say, Brookfield won't be one of the selling points when I tell other students about studying abroad.

Live Update: We went out tonight with our professors. Apparently, we had extra money left in our budget so the program bought us dinner and we also had our drinks paid for. We went to Duggan's Pub where they have traditional Irish music. It was a lot of fun to hang out with all of our professors outside the classroom. After Duggan's, we went to another late-night bar, with our Irish professor, who isn't much older than we are. The night ended late, but we get to sleep in tomorrow because we are going to the courts. Weeeeee.

Cheers,

LJLA

Here Nessie, Nessie, Nessie

After a brief stint out on the town on Friday night, we continued our Scottish adventure on Saturday with a tour of the Scottish Highlands that culminated at Loch Ness. I didn't really know what this tour was all going to entail, but why not.

We boarded a bus near the Edinburgh Castle at 8 a.m. and were off to the Highlands. The first sight was the Stirling Castle, where William Wallace won the first of his major battles. We continued along before stopping for breakfast at a small Scottish town. The interesting bit about traveling in a giant tour bus is the group was full of Americans and other foreigners. Most of the bus was full of a group of students from Georgia Tech that were studying at Oxford. And then I found $5.

As we were driving the Scottish weather played games with us. It would drizzle for short stretches and then we'd go around a bend in the road and it would be sunny. The roads we took in our huge tour bus were quite similar to the ones that we drove in our Ireland car trip. Except for this time, it felt like we were careening off the road. Our tour guide, Dave, told us lots of stories as well as interjecting his political spin a couple of times. For example, he went off on a tangent about the vast amount of money the Scottish government spent on building its new Parliament building. He contrasted this with a small, thatched-roof primary school building in Fort William. Our driver was a real character. He dropped several other great lines on the trip, such as when talking about whether or not to take the boat ride on Loch Ness "If you went to the Moon, wouldn't you walk on it?" About kilts: "The ladies always ask me what is worn under my kilt. I tell them nothing is worn, everything is in great working condition." He was a corker. He was good, but here are the two other guides that were part of the same company. As you can see we missed having both a true Scotsman and Santa as our guide.

Once we got into the Highlands the mountains jutted out of the ground and disappeared just as quickly. It wasn't the typical mountains I am used to in the Rockies, but it more like each mountain was a separate geographical figure that stuck out of the plains. It made for a very dynamic landscape (which might be the vaguest description ever). Each mountain usually had several streams that flowed down and into a stream at the foot of the mountain. It really was quite breathtaking. We also saw a bunch of bike and hiking trails. It would have been really awesome to take a day trip through the area on a bicycle. Take a look and you can see the stream on the jutting mountain on the right (which was taken through a window on the bus):


The bus ride continued and we made surprisingly few stops. Instead, we looked at everything out the windows and rarely exited the bus. The one spot we did stop was the Three Sisters. These mountains and the surrounding areas were used in the Harry Potter movies and Highlander. I have not seen either of those movies so I can only imagine how sweet they are. I will take your word on it.

After another hour or so and a stop for lunch outside Fort William, we made it Loch Ness. The place is pretty huge. The lake is long and skinny as it stretches for 23 miles and is just over a mile wide. I think it is somewhat comparable to Lake McConaughy, which is 24 miles long by four miles wide. The major difference is McConaughy is only 142 feet deep while Loch Ness sinks as low as 750 feet at its deepest point.

On our boat ride, we went out into the waters of Loch Ness. The waters of the Loch Ness are very dark. This comes from the drain off of the peat from the surrounding areas. The dark waters add tot he mystery of the Loch and make it impossible to see the bottom of the water even in shallow areas. We rode to the Urquhart Castle, an old Scottish stronghold from the Jacobite era. It was torn down by the English long ago, but the ruins still stand. Because we were running late on time due to screwy traffic we didn't have time to stop and walk about the castle. I'm sure it was like others we had seen, but only with a Scottish flag.

After a short stop at the gift shop, we were back on the road. We took the highway back to Edinburgh and made a good time. The journey up was interesting and we got to see a lot of the countryside, but it felt like we didn't see everything we could have. And we didn't catch Nessie. Oh well.

The only regret of the day was not visiting Edinburgh Castle. We walked around it several times, but never went in. This adds to my list of places that I almost visited, but not quite. Topping the list is the Roman Coliseum, which Nathan and I missed out on going to twice. A close second is Sacre Coeur Basilica in Paris, which was right next to our hostel, but the stairs up to it were too many for Nathan.

With the hotels in Edinburgh filling up for the high tourist season, our posse went back to Glasgow for Saturday night. We found a nice relaxed pub to start the evening before heading off to Frankenstein on the recommendation of our waiter. Frankenstein was a dance club with plenty of seating areas. And also about a half dozen bachelorette parties - they were everywhere. By the end of the night, we were swing dancing with one group and made their night. I'm quite sure of it. A little Burger King at 3 a.m. on our way home capped off the evening.

On Sunday, we walked around Glasgow a bit before we had to head out to the airport. One of the tour books we had recommended a market area, but when we got there it was essentially a flea market with tons of crap for sale. We call it culture. We countered the film from the market by going to the Gallery of Modern Art. Interesting stuff. A quick bite and a little shopping and we were back to Ireland and Shannon Airport.

Live Update: It's Tuesday and only a few days left here. Tonight we are going out to dinner and drinks with Dean Pierce and we might actually start studying for the finals. Tomorrow we are going to the courts to watch an Irish trial in district court. I hope to do a little bit of shopping and buy a new duffel bag for all the new stuff. Last chance for souvenir requests.

Cheers,

LJLA

18 holes at the Birthplace of Golf

For our last full weekend in Ireland, our professors decided we needed another long vacation. Early on in the program, they decided to cancel class on Friday and give us another what amounted to a four-day weekend. Boom. Six of us decided Scotland would be a great place for example. The other half traveled to Brussels and two others went to Amsterdam. Scotland was clearly the best option.

After getting out of class at noon on Thursday, the six of us went out to Shannon Airport and flew to Glasgow, Scotland. And when I say Glasgow, I mean some other airport in the general area of the city because it was about an hour into the city. We flew with RyanAir, which has a lot of super-cheap deals. One of the guys in our group, Wes, purchased his tickets more than two weeks in advance and his ticket only cost 15 Euros (Roughly $21). The rest of us waited too long and paid about 70 Euros. Still a good deal.

We then took a train to Edinburgh where we located our hotel for the stay — The Holiday Inn at the Zoo. Unfortunately, the only time we were at/near the zoo, it was closed. But I hear the koala wore kilts and the monkeys played the bagpipes. Good times.

One of the reasons I wanted to journey to Scotland was to play some golf. Originally, I was going to settle for a round at a links course in Limerick, but then in talking to Wes, we decided why to set our sights low: we should play a course in Scotland. Oh, but why settle for a round of golf a just another course in Scotland when we could go to St. Andrews, the birthplace of golf. St. Andrews is only a couple hours north of Edinburgh and I figured I wouldn’t be this close in a long time. This trip needed to happen. After doing some research, we discovered that playing the fabled Old Course wasn’t going to happen — you have to apply for a tee time a month in advance and have a verified handicap of at least 26. The New Course, the Jubilee Course and the new Castle Course were out by price (They all cost more than $150 per round and the Castle was $260). That left us with three choices to play. Of those, Eden Course seemed to have the most history and legacy. It still cost £40 ($80) but what the heck. Let’s roll. In addition to Wes, who golfed in high school and goes to the Masters each year, Jillian — who had never golfed 18 holes at once — also joined us in our adventure and our threesome was set.

On Friday morning, we got up a little after 6 a.m. and caught the 7:30 bus to St. Andrews. If I could sleep on the bus, this would not have been a problem. Alas, the bumpy ride and the wonderful scenery prevented any napping. We arrived in St. Andrews and began walking around. Within five minutes we discovered the house of Old Tom Morris. A quick turn and before we knew it we were walking along the 18th hole of the Old Course.

This is the birthplace of golf.


We took in the sights of the Swilken Bridge and the view of the old clubhouse. I recognized the 17th green from TV and from the Tiger Woods PGA Golf for Playstation. From the surroundings, it is hard to think that this course is the home to a major given the intimate surroundings. The road on the side of the 18th fairway jut right next up to the course. We continued walking up the Old Course along 17 and past the Old Course Hotel before splitting off on a trail that took us past a practice center and on to the Eden Course. We checked in and got our equipment — shoes and clubs. Along with our shoes, we got a pair of complementary socks (Retail value £8). The clubs they gave us were probably the best I’ve ever used. The bag included FT5 driver and Big Bertha 3 wood, X Hybrid No4, X20 Tour irons, and an XG 2-ball putter. My only complaint was the putter, which was a nice Odyssey but had a weird head that was a double-wide. I’m used to a nice flat stick. So at least I have an excuse for my shoddy putting. The one thing they didn't provide you with was balls and they only sold nice Callaway balls with St. Andrews stamps. I got six hoping the rough would be kind to me. After a quick breakfast in the clubhouse and a few putts on the course, we were off.

Most of the time when I step onto the first tee box, I'm not that nervous. But when I stood over the ball on the first tee, my stomach was in knots. I don't know if it was being at St. Andrews, playing with new people that expected me to be decent or general excitement. All that worrying was for naught as a drove the ball straight down the fairway 250 yards or so. We were off. After choking on a medium putt, I settled for a bogey. Not a bad start. The goal was to break 100.

One of the things I was worried about heading into the trip was the weather. As I learned in Ireland, the weather is a fickle thing. Usually, it rains once if not several times a day. With a tee time set for 11:04 on Friday, all we could do was hope for good weather. Thursday was scary as we watched the Open Championship turn into a hack fest with the high winds and poor conditions. However, thy sky was overcast and rained on us while we were on the second hole, but for the most part, it was good weather. It tried sprinkling on us several times, and the wind picked up at times, but polo and khakis were comfortable.

(Wes on the left, Jillian on the right)
After a few holes, it became clear that the hardest thing about the course was putting. The greens were incredibly fast and hardly held any pitch shots. Most of the time if you landed a pitch on the front edge of the green it would roll all the way through and back off the edge.

After a disastrous No. 2, the rest of the front nine was a mixture of bogeys, doubles and one par. Usually, when I play 18, I am ready to get done by the end of the round, but here it seemed as a went on, the better I felt. Also, for almost the first time I didn't get frustrated after an awry shot.

The highlight of my round came on No. 13. The hole is a 404-yard par 4 straight hole without much elevation change. I hit driver off the tee and even though it sliced at the end the ball stayed in the fairway. With about 160 left to the center of the green, I pulled a six iron out of the bag and hit a laser. The shot landed on the front edge of the green and somehow stayed on and rolled to within three feet. After waiting for Wes and Jillian to clean up, I calmly sank the putt for a birdie 3. Boom. We commemorated the moment with the photo at right. Being aware of golfing etiquette, I also bought drinks later.

I followed up the birdie with two more pars down the stretch with a 5 at the 523-yard 16th and a 4 at the 334-yard 18th. After going out right on pace with a 50, I picked it up on the way in for a final round of 96. Wes finished with a 109 and Jillian carded her first 18-hole round with a respectable 126. We celebrated by having a Scotsman take our photo on the 18th green.

After resting a bit in the clubhouse, we headed back up to the Old Course hoping to go on a walking tour. However, when we arrived the lady at the pro shop said the tours were done for the day -- this despite it being 3:45 and the pamphlet said tours went to 4 p.m. Whatever. We walked around the course a bit and went to the clubhouse where once again I spent way too much money. But it could have been worse. They had an amazing sweater vests and jackets that cost £90. Despite the temptation, I could not justify spending $180 on a sweater vest, no matter how sweet. Instead, I opted for a £20 hat and a various assortment of goodies.

It was a great day. The weather cooperated, I didn't embarrass myself and played a respectable, but not a great round. I'm glad we opted for St. Andrews and splurged.

Coming tomorrow: The rest of the Scotland Trip, including a trip up to Loch Ness. Stay tuned.

Cheers, 

LJLA

The Galway Girl

Early on in the program we were making travel plans, it happened that Galway was one of the places that wasn’t making the cut. The city came with high recommendations and was on my list of places to visit, but when the Scotland trip came to, Galway got bumped.

Flash forward to Monday in class. The Nebraska professor (Dean Pierce) was raving about her weekend trip to Galway. The city has a vibrant downtown and it so happened that the City Arts Festival was going on. Well, that opened up a nice little door for us. We had looked at some of the preplanned tours that included Galway and it was only scheduled, Galway. So after raving about how great Galway was, she couldn’t turn us down when we offered a plan to visit this city. We were in.

After more research, we decided that we’d do a city tour on our own. It would be a heck of a lot cheaper, allow us more time in Galway and more freedom to see the city. We left Brookfield at 8 a.m. and to take the 9:25 bus out of Limerick. (Our trust in the bus system is waning after Tuesday night when a bus pulled a psyche out and forced us to walk three miles downtown).

The bus arrived at Galway just before noon. The first area we walked through was the Eyre Square, which was one of the coolest Town Centre’s I’ve seen. We then walked down Shop Street, which was a pedestrian shopping area. For a Wednesday afternoon, the area was extremely busy. The other interesting bit about the shopping district was the overwhelming amount of street performers. There were magicians, people singing over a guitar, balloon animals, henna tattoos and people selling knick-knacks. I thought I was back in New York with all the street handlers.

After a lunch, our group began to split up. Since I had done a lot of shopping already and wasn’t much into walking around the shops, I ended up going with Ramsey and Jillian to go sightseeing. We started the afternoon with a bus tour of the city. We saw St. Nicholas's Cathedral – the largest remaining medieval church still in use in Ireland, it was built in 1320. We also got an overview of the city’s history and saw some of the significant buildings in the city, including a thatched-roof house and the first Irish pub to allow music inside. In addition, we also drove by the University of Ireland College and St. Mary's College.

Another cool part of the trip was the journey along the coastline. It was a little cold, but you could see for miles. In addition, they had a bunch of cool houses that lined the coast painted in an array of colors. You can see this below.


On our way back, we cut back through Eyre Center and saw the monument where John F. Kennedy made a speech back in 1963. The next stop was the Arts Festival. They had a bunch of Joni Mitchell pictures hanging up in the main gallery. Interesting stuff about war and the prevailing human condition. We weren't able to do much else because the rest of the events started early in the afternoon, at night or involved children's productions.

Instead of being cultured on the arts, we went back to the Spanish Arches, which were built in 1584 and two of which are still standing. The tour guide said something about them briefly. It turns out that's all the time they deserved. They were cool, but not worth the extra walk. However, the arches were right next to the Galway City Museum. This was pretty cool as it contained more artifacts and memories about JFK's visit to Galway, which was 45 years ago. It also contained the history of the city and tales of the 12 Merchant Princes of Galway.


After a little shopping, the day was capped off with dinner at Mustard – a semi-fancy burger restaurant that seemed reasonable. One of the first things we noticed was the friendly and helpful attitude of our waitress. Up to this point of the trip, the service we received at restaurants was mediocre at best. After giving us our food, we typically would not see our waiter/waitresses until we asked them for the check or flagged them down for more drinks. Anyway, we figured something was up. First, we could tell that our waitress didn’t have an accent. Then she returned to our table to ask how our food was (even though we were the only people in the basement) and finally when we told her that we were opting for desert she responded with “Awesome.”

All this could only mean one thing — she was American.

When I went up to pay the bill, I asked if she was from Galway. (I didn’t want to assume she was from the States) She responded that she was from Nebraska. Boy howdy! Now we’re talking. It ends up she went to Omaha Roncalli and graduated from UNO in December. Not wanting to get a real job, she got a job in Galway. After a while, she saw my Husker Law shirt and it all come together. The point of the story: Even the nice people you meet in foreign countries are from Nebraska. (Also, the other great part of the story was I had an ostrich burger. Tasted good, but had too many toppings

This experience was much more pleasant that the first time I thought I ran into a fellow Nebraskan. Saturday in Cork, we were at a bar and a guy had a shirt with Nebraska on it. I asked if he was from Nebraska: Nope. Did he get the shirt there? Nope. Blah, blah blah. It was only after the conversation was over that I was informed that the guy I was talking to was gay and he was hitting on me big time. Oops. Oh well. At least I eventually ran into a real Nebraskan.

We have class again on Thursday, then we fly off to Scotland. This weekend is going to be awesome. On top of the trip to St. Andrews, we are also going to Edinburgh and Glasgow. Then it’s back to Limerick and the last week of classes. Sigh.

And as for the title of this post, it is to one of the best Irish pub songs. Enjoy:

Cheers,

LJLA

They are all Corkers

When I was growing up, whenever you were acting like a silly goose, you got called a corker. I became quite comfortable with the term it wasn't until later when I called some of my friends corkers that I realized it was not a wide-used term amongst them. It wasn't until I watched the movie "Far & Away" that I heard the term again. (Aye, Shannon you're a corker.)

Why the story? Well, last weekend I went to Cork. The land of the Corkers, or so I thought. While most of the other crew went to see the Cliffs of Moher and dolphin watching I opted for Cork. It was one of the top places on my visit list that Nathan and I didn't hit on our 2001 adventure. The trip worked out well because Jillian had a friend from undergrad that lived in Cork so that provided us with three very key elements to the trip: 1. A guide to the city and area, 2. transportation because she had a car and 3. A place to stay for free.

We departed for Cork Friday after class and got there early in the afternoon. While waiting for Jillian's friend, we perused a Dunnes Store -- which is their version of Wal-Mart. I purchased an umbrella for the first time, and what do you know I haven't been rained on since. Awesome.

Because the traffic was so bad and it was getting late, we decided to put off the trip to the Blarney Stone until Saturday. Instead, we relaxed at Emily's house and waited for her boyfriend to get home before work and going out for dinner. Dinner included black pudding. Brendan (Emily's boyfriend) wouldn't tell me what was in it except it was made with blood. But surprisingly it wasn't that bad. Afterward, we went to a few pubs and the capped off the night at a dance club. Cork has a nice nightlife, but boy is it expensive. To get to the nightclub we first had to pay a cover to see a band (The Lollygaggers) on the ground floor. Then at about 1 a.m., we went up to the ultra-hip dance club, which featured a 12 Euro cover charge -- which is about $20. I drank four Red Bulls up to that point and didn't care and was ready to dance and get rid of some of that extra energy. We stayed until 3 a.m. before going home. I was so hopped up on caffeine that I stayed up until about 6 a.m. Good times.

Saturday was awesome because it was the first day in Ireland that I've been able to sleep in. There had been other chances, but travel arrangements and the early sunrise prevented any sleep past 8:30 a.m. I like sleeping in. Before we went to Blarney we first had to wait for Brendan to get off work so we could use the car. We passed the time by watching "The Pursuit of Happyness." Great flick. For some reason, Brendan didn't want to go to the Blarney Stone. In fact, I think he wanted nothing to do with the Stone at all. He was surprised that we Americans had heard of this insignificant stone and had such a desire to see it.

Eventually, we made our way out to Blarney Castle. I was slightly worried about the crowds because I figured midday on a Saturday in July would be a zoo, but I'm guessing between the high prices of travel and a few showers helped our cause. We went on the 20-minute ride out to Blarney, the grounds weren't packed and it didn't feel like an overly touristy place. Once arriving at the Castle and the Grounds we headed to the Blarney Castle. The Blarney Stone is located on the top floor of the Castle and to reach it we had to climb a super narrow staircase -- I had to turn my feet sideways so they would fit on the steps. Luckily there was a rope to make the walk feel a little more secure, but I do not think it would meet ADA standards. On the way to the top, there were several side rooms. From these rooms, I determined that ancient Irish people were tiny. At 6'1" I had to duck quite a bit for most of the doors and couldn’t stand upright in a few of the rooms. I pity the person taller than I.

Once we reached the top, a breathtaking view awaited us. You could see miles of lush countryside and pastureland. Check out the video for a complete 360-degree view of the grounds. Amazing.



Much like the rest of the grounds, the top was almost empty and I think there were at most five other people on the level with us. I was expecting to wait about 10 minutes or so in line before getting to kiss the Stone. I wanted to read as many of the signs about the history and lore of the Stone as possible, but because there was no line I felt like we were rushed right up to the Stone. First, let me tell you about the stone. Its origin is unclear but legend has it that the stone is believed by some to be half of the original Stone of Scone, and said to have been presented to Cormac McCarthy by Robert the Bruce in 1314 in recognition of his support in the Battle of Bannockburn. There are a bunch of others too. Anyway, a legend grew that those who kiss are granted the gift of eloquence. Many famous people and tourists have kissed it, including people like Winston Churchill. A less popular legend is that each night locals pee on it. I could not taste anything, and luckily it rained earlier.

Once at the Blarney Stone, you have to lie on your back and then lean back to kiss the Stone. But it is not just a straight back lean, you have to arch your back at least a foot, if not slightly more, to reach the Stone. It is kind of unclear where the stone is because there is no definitive marking. It is just a stone that is part of a wall. This leads to fake outs and multiple kisses of the wall. While leaning back, a Blarney Stone Guy holds your waist as you lean back to kiss the Stone.

So check that off the list.

We hung up at the top of the Blarney Castle for about five minutes with just our group of three and the guy who takes your picture (and is willing to sell it to you for 10 Euro.) It was quite peaceful and serene. Again, it was one of the best scenes I've seen while here.

In addition to the Castle, the rest of the grounds included several extensive hiking trails, picnic areas and other smaller buildings. We went on the shortest of the planned walks. The first item we encountered were these giant plants that had huge leaves - by which I mean like three feet across. I'm not sure quite what they were like that but they were huge and everywhere. After meandering some more, we ran into a few more points of interest. The first was the Wishing Steps. Legend has it that a blind witch had to carry wood up and down the steps each day. If you walked up the stairs backward and down forward, all with your eyes closed, your wish would be granted. Not only did I do this, but also I broke all sorts of time records. (That might be a stretch of the truth, but I did it twice as fast as anyone else around us.) We passed by a few more spots such as the Fairy Den, Witch's Cave and a sideways branch that connected two trees.

After we departed from Blarney Castle, we crossed the street to the Blarney Mills Factory Store. When you think of Irish sweaters, you think of Blarney Woolen Mills. They had a huge outlet store along with a wide assortment of Irish gifts and Waterford Crystal. I made several purchases and we ate a quick lunch before continuing the adventure south.

One of the other spots recommended by our Professor (a native Corker) was to go south to Kinsale, a nice port town. Kinsale is a typical port community with tons of sailboats and lots of little shops around the bay. However, before we attacked the city, we continued all the way south to Old Head. Compared to the first beach we viewed on the Irish Sea, this one was awesome. Fine sand covered the beach and then probably not quite a mile each direction was cliffs. There were lots of families enjoying the semi-nice day and wearing bodysuits.

Back in Kinsale, we walked around town several times looking at shops and trying to find a place to eat. It so happened that Saturday was also the first day of a week-long arts festival in the city. We listened to a little of the live music and eventually settled on a little pizza place with seafood. I had some smoked salmon. So good. We returned from the daylong adventure wiped out and topped it off with a trip to the store for some ice cream.

Live update: Tuesday's featured a trip to the driving range at Limerick County Country Club. Wes, Jillian and I hit some balls in preparation for our St. Andrews trip. Man, I am pumped. We were going to play a pitch and putt, but there wasn't any in Limerick. Anyway, Wednesday features a trip to Galway and no class. Summer school is great.

Hurling Madness!

I apologize for the delay in posting. Lots of stuff going on. It was a busy weekend indeed. I went down to Cork for the weekend, saw the Blarney Stone and visited the beach. It was a great time, but that story will wait for tomorrow. Today is about a little sport we call hurling.

For the loyal readers, you will remember I gave you a brief overview of hurling back on my first day in Ireland when we went to the Hurlers Pub. One of the things we wanted to try to do was attend a Gaelic sporting event, either football or hurling. It so happened that our trip coincided with the Munster Regional Championship. Our University of Limerick professor said that it was an event not to be missed. In talking with a few of the locals they said the best teams in Ireland come from Munster and the championship just so happened to be in Limerick. I'm pretty sure this match would be like going to watch Game 7 of the ALCS or something. Anyway, I was sold on the game.

The match we were to see between Tipperary and Clare. Tipp (as the locals call it) is about 40 km southeast of Limerick, while Clare was 35 km to the northwest. I asked a local who to root for and he suggested Tipperary. Again, it didn't take much to convince me about picking sides. The only problem was both Tipperary and Clare had the same team colors — blue and yellow. In fact, Tipperary's flag is a blue rectangle next to a yellow rectangle, while Clare's flag consists of a yellow flag next to a blue one. So blindly I chose to wear blue. It turned out to a good call.

We left for the Gaelic grounds shortly after 1 p.m. hoping to catch a bus to downtown where we could walk to the stadium. Except for the traffic on Dublin Road was a mess and we could almost walk as fast as it was traveling. After spending 25 minutes waiting futilely at the bus stop we decided the best course of action was to go to Burger King, eat greasy food, allow everyone to load up on whiskey and call a cab.

Our cab driver took us relatively close to the stadium and dropped us off in the middle of fan chaos. Think downtown Lincoln before a football game, only everyone in the entire stadium is walking on the same street and the city really isn't enforcing the open container laws. Also as we got out we were handed inflatable hurling sticks for free. (Hello souvenirs!)

When we arrived at the stadium we made our way to the City End section where our tickets were for. We opted to get just general admission to save a few Euro. Apparently, by general admission, they mean mass chaos. We eventually found a section about two-thirds of the way up and hung out. Other thoughts about the stadium: it is a large bowl with seating on each of the sidelines (one of which was covered) and concrete steps for standing at both ends. The teams were divided by loyalty (Luckily we got into the Tipp side) and colors. The end zones are standing only. Try to sit down, but the seats were so low it wasn't worth it. We stood the whole game -- and no one complained, not even the blue hairs. Smoking is allowed in the stadium. During halftime, a giant white cloud loomed over the stadium.

With the championship game set to begin at 4 p.m., we were treated to what I think was the junior league Munster championship between Tipperary and Cork. Cork but the Tipps didn't care much because they were there for the main event. After the field cleared following the first match a band marched around the field with each of the county's flags. They played a song toward each section of the stadium. They repeated the march after the teams came out with the members of the starting lineup following behind.

Hurling is an interesting sport. They say it is the quickest ball game out there. I'll take their word for it. It is played with 15 people (goalie, 3 fullbacks, 3 halfbacks, 2 midfielders, 3 forwards and 3 full forwards) who wear Numbers 1-15 from back to front. The object is to take the ball, which is slightly smaller than a baseball and a little bit smaller, and either 1. hit it or kick it over the goal post for one point or hit it under the crossbar for a goal for three points. These two methods of scoring are kept separate which leads to confusing scores like 2-18 def. 1-19.

Also, they can catch and run with the ball for three steps. After that, they have to balance the ball on their stick or pass it to a teammate by hitting it, throwing it underhand or bouncing it off the stick and hitting it with their hand.

The play was quick and included lots of scoring. Tipp scored three times in the first five minutes.
The way they scored was impressive too. Some of the shots were from midfield and from sideline to sideline. They not only could give the ball a good whack, but the players knew how to play the angles. (The referees that indicated the goals and points wore lab coats and waved little white flags.)

Tipp continued to dominate and led 1-16 to 0-6 at one point in the second half, but then Clare rallied and got to within 1-16, 0-15 before Tipp scored a goal to take control again. In the end, Tipp prevailed 2-21 to 0-19. Again the entire stadium — some 48,000 people — poured out of the stadium on onto a street headed into downtown Limerick. We followed the crowd, grabbed some dinner and headed back to campus. Overall, it was a great game and fun to be part of the atmosphere. I tried to take some video, but between where we were sitting and the fast pace of the action, my video isn't very good.

Not much happening back in Limerick. Several of us watched Braveheart in preparation for our trip to Scotland. So awesome. To further our prep, we are going to the driving range on Tuesday so they don't boo us off St. Andrews. Also, I think we talked our teachers into canceling class on Wednesday so we can go visit Galway. Good times.

Cheers,

LJLA

Cram Central

Not much of an update today. Took a nap, went for a run and dove into a bunch of studying. I know so much about terrorism now. (Or at least legal responses to it.)

Also, if you would like any Irish souvenirs, please let me know. I think I am going to have to buy an extra bag so I should have some extra room. (This can be from Limerick, Cork and Blarney, Scotland and St. Andrews or Newark Airport.)

Time for some sleep before this final. Let's get a P!

The Return to the Homeland

During the first week of classes, I was talking to one of the girls in the program — Anne — who came over to the country with her family a week early and went around the island tracking all of her family history. This got me thinking and itching to dig up the past of the Arneals. It just so happened we were to have an extra day of adventure following our Dublin/Belfast trip. In talking with the group, I discovered that Jillian also had ancestors from Ireland and it turns out the homelands of our relatives were about 30 miles apart. I smell a road trip. Since the places were in the middle of Northern Ireland we figured the best way to get to them would be via car.

Seven years ago, my brother Nathan and I did a whirlwind tour of Ireland. We rented a car and saw the country the way it was meant to be seen. It remains one of my favorite parts of the trip. Needless to say, when the opportunity to drive through the Irish countryside presented itself, I was sold. In addition to Jillian and I, Adam, who has no Irish blood in him, joined us on our journey.

After picking up our car from the Dublin airport our first mission was to get to the Irish Sea. We picked an exit and drove along the seaside until we found a parking spot where we could go exploring. The only downside to the stop was the Sea was at low tide so we had to walk a long way to get to the water. In the gap between the shore and the water were hundreds of jellyfish on the beach. Luckily, it wasn't raining during this time and we were able to wade out into the water. I found the water incredibly cold, however, Jillian and Adam both thought it was warm compared. We collected a few shells and made our way back to our car. It so happened off that the next town up the road Clogerhead. I thought Whitney would like to live there.

From the shoreline, we navigated up Northern Ireland. We took a mostly side and winding roads, it soon became clear that Irish drivers are insane. I was going about 10 km under the speed limit and we felt slightly uncomfortable taking the turns so fast. Yet, the Irish drivers still caught up and passed us. Oh, and this is forgetting to mention that the roads were ridiculously narrow and their idea of shoulders were 10-foot high bushes. Good times. Also passing on their version of highways is great fun. Instead of using the right lane to pass, the slow car essentially moves onto the shoulder to allow the faster one to go on.

Anyway, In just under two hours we safely arrived at Jillian's town, Irvinestown. This strand of family stems from her maternal grandmother's family. They descended from Christopher Irvine, an English nobleman who was granted the land by King James VI in the early 1600s. The castle is currently an equestrian operation with lots of horses and trails, but still has a great view of the countryside. The old part of the castle has undergone major renovations and was last used as a military hospital during WWII. You can see the windows and doors are now painted a lovely shade of blue and trimmed with red.

The other cool part about Irvingstown was after we exited a cafe for lunch, we heard bagpipes. As we looked up the town centre, a marching band emerged followed by about 40 people wearing suits and orange sashes. This was a live Orange March that our professor told us about. We watched them march down the street (along with a smattering of other people) before walking out to the castle. We spent about an hour or so wandering out around the castle. Upon our return to the town centre, the crew was still marching. They were hardcore.



After doing a little postcard hunting, we took off to Killeeshill. A quick overview of my trip destination. I don't know much about my family other than John Arneal traveled from Ireland to Ohio sometime between 1810-1820. We didn't have a castle or anything.

Before the trip, I knew that the Arneals came from the County Tyrone, which is now part of Northern Ireland. After doing a little research and e-mailing a few people, I narrowed the county down to Killeeshill, which isn't a town, but rather a road and parish. Knowing I was looking for a parish, I found the Church of Ireland on Killeeshill Road. It took one drive by, but we ended up finding the road and the church quite easily. The chapel, St. Paul's Church of Killeeshill, was perched above on a hill. We parked outside the gates and let ourselves it. It appeared that the church was still active as it had service times posted on a badly stained sign, which unfortunately was the only sign of identification. The church had been renovated, but the back part looks like the original section. Huge trees blocked the front side to prevent any pictures from that angle, but the backside was still quite the sight.

The cemetery surrounded the church on all sides. Most of the front section was filled with newer graves (as recent at 2003) while the back was overgrown. I read on a website about the church that the front side was the Protestant section and the back was reserved for Catholics. Several of the graves looked to be quite old, but we were unable to read them because most of the inscription had been worn off. We pieced together enough information from several graves to figure out that the cemetery existed back in the early 1800s. (The website said it had graves from the 1700s, but I could find no proof.) Even though I didn't find the ultimate prize and find a gravestone with "Arneal" on it, being in the cemetery and church were my ancient relatives walked was still an amazing experience.

I walked around a little more taking pictures of as many gravestones as I could before we (and the rain) decided it was time to move on. However, before we began our trip back to Dublin, I spotted a sign by the highway for US Grant's ancestral homestead. We drove to the sight and toiled around for a minute or two (long enough to take a few pictures) and took off again. The Grant House was only a few miles from Killeeshill, so if you think about it, there is a pretty good chance that my ancestors knew the relatives of Ulysses S. Grant. (Also, we drove around Killeeshill Road for a little while and there are some huge amazing houses in the area. Glad to see the natives are still doing well.)

The drive home was uneventful and smooth. We had an automatic shifting car so we didn't have to mess with using a stick shift on the left side. The last thing to cap our amazing day was a full rainbow that appeared to end right on the road.

In all, it was a great trip. Even though I fell short of the ultimate goal, it was still worth it to explore the area and feel connected to a little bit of my personal history.

That wraps up the four-day trip to Dublin. In itself, it would have made a great vacation. But there is more to come. This weekend, I am off to Cork and Blarney Castle. But not before I have a final on Friday. We've been busy studying for it so not many updates for the day. I'm going to knock it out of the park.

Cheers,

LJLA