I’m officially homesick. I am wondering if seasonal affectiveness disorder is real because all this cloudiness, drizzling, and cold air is getting to me. I’ve realized that I enjoyed Dublin because a) it was a city, b) I spent hours at a time talking to people my age, and c) it was sunny and 5-10 degrees warmer. Listening to my music on the bus ride back also compounded my homesickness as it reminds me of different people and events. If I could describe my disposition in a playlist right now, it would be slower, yet hopeful:
- Still Fighting by Ben Folds (or simply the entire Rocking the Suburbs album)
- Come Sail Away by Styx
- Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For by U2
- Tonight Tonight by Smashing Pumpkins
- The Ocean by Teitur
- Wake Me Up by Norah Jones
- That’s the Way by Led Zeppelin
Another reason why I could be out of sorts: I have very few responsibilities here, practically none when compared to my usual life. Go ahead and laugh, I think everyone has told me at least once to cut back and take on less responsibility. However I do enjoy taking on huge projects and tasks and seeing them through. It’s strange to sit with the Solas group, plan an event, and have little impact (I haven’t much to contribute as I don’t know the area). I did answer the phone this morning when none of the staff members were in the office (I had trouble taking the message because the woman on the other end spoke so quickly with her accent).
Work was good. For several hours I forgot about everything else and was really happy. We went to Horn Head for today’s walk which was refreshing and arduous. It didn’t rain. The views were spectacular (as always) but my heart still belongs to Ard’s Forest. A note on the landscape: Donegal is probably the most rugged, wild, and uninhabited part of the island. On the way through Northern Ireland on the bus yesterday, I noticed how stunning the land there was: lush, green, a patchwork of farms and fields with different crops and animals. The northern counties of Ireland were the best for farming and that’s why the British settled up here. Returning to Donegal, the land is equally if not more gorgeous, yet it is a mixture of mountains, bogs, and beaches. The patchwork here is created by stone walls, separating sheep (as opposed to lines of trees and bushes between fields of wheat). In the past, this entire area was forest (think Rocky Mountains) and was cleared for the timber. What was left was the acidic soil which accumulated greater amounts of water due to the lack of trees, creating bog. The contrast is striking as you move across the north.
Right now I’m really looking forward to this weekend. I have a surfing lesson in Bundoran at 10am on Saturday and will be meeting up with Meggy afterward in Donegal Town where they are having a music festival this weekend. I’ll also be staying with a Nuala (administrator of Solas) who has so kindly offered to put me up for the weekend and I’ve decided to cook her and her boyfriend dinner in return.
Today I may practice guitar, read my book (150 pages left out of 630), come up with more things to write. Honestly, writing this blog is one of the few things keeping me sane right now. Without internet, phoning, or seeing people, putting this together is my only link to the rest of my world. Miss you all.
Today was quite an interesting day. We went to the Doagh Famine Village at the Isle of Doagh to learn a bit about Irish history. A brief summary of the key interesting points:
- Up until the last thirty years, Ireland’s population lived in poverty using traditional methods of survival developed over th past couple hundred years, including fishing off cliffs with long wooden polls during August and September, collecting all the fish that they could for the winter months (salting and drying the fish), eating seaweed, trapping rabbits throughout the winter months, and living in stone/mason two-three room houses.
- Ireland joined the European Union and adapted its educational system and business laws to encourage foreign investment. It quickly became the most affluent country (outside financial districts like Luxemberg) in the European Union and was listed the Best Place in the World by Britain’s Economist based on a criteria of income, health, freedom, unemployment, family life, climate, political stability, security, gender equality, and family and community life. (I also recently read about this in The World is Flat. Are we taking notes America?)
- A wake is held for three days to represent the three days before Christ rose and to wait to see if the person actually woke-up. Everyone at a wake says only good things about the deceased for fear of their spirit (or the chance they are in a coma). A plate of snuff (which both men and women enjoyed) would be placed on the body to limit consumption to one per person (taken as they knelt to pray) and allow them to watch for breathing (hence the phrases ‘quicker than snuff at a wake’ and ‘snuffed-out’ for deceased). The wake was (and still is throughout much of Ireland) held in the home of the deceased or a relative. The door would be taken off the house, laid across two chairs, and the coffin placed on top. In Britain, a bell would be attached to the hand of the deceased and attached to a bell above ground, leading to the phrases ‘saved by the bell’ and ‘dead ringer’.
- The Irish famine was compounded by a wind storm on January 6, 1839 that damaged the fishing and farming industries in Ireland (and Britain). This led to the fact that despite being an island, the population could not turn to the sea for food during the potato blight. When the British government established a pension in 1909, it used the storm as a mark of age to qualify people. The term windfall comes from the association of the wind storm with a free acquisition similar to the fall of an apple from a tree.
- The conflicts in Northern Ireland are rooted in Ulster Plantations (early 17th century) when British and Scottish landlords were given land under governmental policy to control the territory and the Williamite warms (between the local Irish and landed British). The Protestant population maintained wealth and control, legislating limitations for the status of Catholics. The ‘Troubles’ were a period beginning in 1968 when the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association’s march in Derry ended in violence. “Many Catholics consider themselves Irish and nationalist (one independent Ireland) while many Protestants consider themselves as British and unionist – wanting to maintain the union with Britain.”
I had a great time walking throughout the museum. It was truly an educational experience as I learned a great deal and was able to fill in the gaps of my knowledge of Irish history.
Today was very different than our usual Monday-Tuesday routine. Generally, I arrive with the staff at 9:30am, participants arrive at 10:30am, we leave in the mini-bus at 11am and go on a several hour walk (walking, talking, and listening – check the website), arrive back around 2pm, eat lunch, plan for the rest of the week, participants leave by 3:30pm, and we stay for a bit longer. Tomorrow will be a Wednesday schedule with all-staff meeting at 9:30am and weekly diary in the afternoon.
I have little energy in the evenings lately. I’ve been napping and actually purchased ice cream to pick me up. The weather is quite chilly (late October weather) and I unfortunately did not pack enough warm gear. Quite looking forward to this weekend.
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