Promised Irish tidbits!

I've spent some time thinking of juicy Irish tidbits to share with you.  To start, I'd like to pass on this picture which I quickly snapped while going downtown on the city bus one day.

Yes that would be a pony, in the middle of the street, clearly on the loose judging by the lead hanging from its halter.  I have a feeling this scenario is more common than you might imagine in Irish cities. I had a good laugh because no matter where I am, whether at home in Ontario, at school in Brandon, or living in Ireland, I can never seem to escape agriculture.

My second tidbit is indeed a fascinating one!  Over coffee one day, my classmates were informing me that red-headed people are slowly breeding out their ginger genetic traits because red hair is a recessive gene.  According to online articles, the unfortunate red-headed kind only have about 100 years left to prosper! (http://www.news.com.au/top-stories/gingers-extinct-in-100-years-say-scientists/story-e6frfkp9-1111114243424).  I recommend that you warn all the Gingers you know as soon as possible. I've already notified my cousins.

I also want to share some tidbits about the Irish accent and diction, because I have not touched on the topic for awhile in my blogs.  One of the most common words around is "Grand" which ranges in meaning from fabulous to downright awful.  Also dangerously similar to "grand" is "fine."  Much like in North America, if someone says they are fine, they could be perfectly happy or inches away from a fistfight.  My class has had some good laughs over these words because they turn up in many Monday morning greetings.

In terms of pronunciation I've found it interesting that words such as appreciate or negotiate have a "see" (appre-see-ate/ nego-see-ate) sound rather a "shee" sound like I would use.  I've come to identify with different terminology as well.  Cell phone are mobiles, and sweaters are jumpers.  There is no such thing as a city "block" and zucchinis are referred to by their French title Courgettes.  Confusingly, chips are called crisps because chips are really french fries.  Don't even bother mentioning toques because you only get blank stares.  I believe warm headgear is called a beanie or simply a hat over here.  I am pretty proud that I have convinced my Greek roommate to call them toques instead.

My life is still school-focused at the moment with only two weeks left before all my written assignments are due.  I should have another blog for you soon.  I hope to report on how Irish I have become over the past three months.

Happy Thanksgiving to American readers,
Shannon

Prepping for Ensemble Concerts

It is now under a month till I am done my first semester in Limerick.  As we race down the back-stretch to Christmas, I will find myself rather busy with assignments due, recordings to be made, concerts to perform, and holidays to plan.

I am most excited for our class ensemble performance in the last week of November.  All through the semester we have had three hour rehearsals every Wednesday to compose and arrange a 30-45 minute performance which depicts how our class perceives community music.  With two weeks left before the concert we are in crunch time to fit all our ideas together.

Our class has incorporated music genres from all over the world to emphasize the cultural diversity of community music.  We are performing everything from American bluegrass to Samba, and African drumming to traditional Chinese and Irish singing.  We dip into modern music with some jazz and rock, plus sing in multiple languages and play a variety of instruments.  This ensemble performance will be my debut performance on the electric bass!  I'll be rocking out to some Blitzkrieg Bop by the Ramones.

Our ensemble performance will also have many opportunities for the audience to participate.  Participation is really the key element in community music.  In one of my course texts Joining In, author Anthony Everitt claims "Music is too important to be left to the musicians: it belongs to all of us."  Our class agrees with Everitt and therefore will have people singing, clapping, performing body percussion and dancing in our performance.  There is still much organization to be done, but as long as it comes together it will be a blast!

Tonight I must brave the rain to attend my weekly University of Limerick Community Orchestra rehearsal.  Every Tuesday over the semester I have enjoyed these rehearsals because it keeps me playing classical music and motivates me to practice more repertoire.  We have a concert on December 8th which will feature various Christmas carols, March Slave by Tchaikovsky, Trombone Concerto by Rimsky-Korsakov, Farandole by Bizet, Finnegan's Wake by Potter, a Cole Porter Suite and much more.  I've had quite a positive experience with this group thanks to the friendliness of orchestra members and energetic style of the conductor.

As my semester wraps up I will do my best to continue posting regularly.  Unfortunately I do not have any travelling adventures planned in the next month, but I'll keep my ears posted on interesting Irish tidbits to share with you.

All the Best,
Shannon

Cliffs of Moher

A couple weekends ago I was getting the "travel somewhere" itch so my roommates George, Chris and I decided to make a day trip to the iconic Cliffs of Moher.  My apologies for not posting this sooner, but school is starting to become a bit demanding considering I only have three weeks of classes left.  Regardless of my timing, the beauty of the Cliffs is worth sharing.

The Cliffs are located about a 1 hour and 20 minute drive northwest of Limerick, in County Clare.  You will probably be familiar with some of the images because they have been seen in films like Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, Princess Bride, and countless Irish tourism advertisements.

 

The Cliffs are absolutely stunning and incredibly massive.  They stand 214m/ 700ft  above the water below.  They are composed mostly of shale and sandstone and stretch for 8 km/ 5miles along the coastline.  The name Moher comes from a historic fort "Mothar" overlooking the water, which was demolished during the Napoleonic wars.  Today, there is a visitor center on site, as well as O'Brien's Tower which was built in 1835 as a viewing point for tourists.

We were extremely lucky on our visit because the weather was clear skies with no wind.  Apparently the wind can swirl around the cliffs and make it quite dangerous.  There is stone barrier denoting the walking path along the cliffs, but in typical human nature everyone chooses to walk on the other side of the barrier to get closer to the drop-off.  People enjoy living on the edge, pardon my pun!  You want to be really careful getting close to the edge because of loose gravel, erosion, etc.  I would go nowhere near if it was raining, for fear it would be slippery.  Warnings of these hazards are pretty clear along the walkway because several people have previously lost their lives.

A good example of the nicely worn path on the wrong side of the barrier. 

The closest I dared to get.... so far down....

 

The Cliffs of Moher provide a spectacular view of the Aran Islands as well as some of the interior landscape.  The west coast is fairly barren and composed of little vegetation and lots of rocks.  Hence why Irish farmers made fences from stone rather than wood.  Most of the land seems to be used for beef or sheep, though the Cliffs support a great variety of bird species and at some points in the year Dolphins can even be seen in the water.  Sadly the only animals I saw were the cattle roaming the tops of the hills.  The country-girl in me took the following photo. I suppose "bull warnings" are internationally understood.

I highly recommend the Cliffs if you are ever in Ireland.  Our trio only made a quick day trip, but it would be wiser to make multiple stops in the area at other places such as Aillwee Cave, Caherconnell Fort, or Pulnabrone Dolmen (a tomb dating to 3200 BC).  You could also take a ferry over to the Aran Islands, or continue on your way north to the artsy city of Galway.

Happy Remembrance Day,

Shannon

It's called Autumn, not Fall.

Welcome to November and Happy Belated Halloween!  It's been fun to see pictures of costumes on Facebook, lots of them are totally "savage" (a common Irish term on par with our "awesome").  I did not put nearly as much effort into mine; in a last minute decision George, my American friend Rebecca and I organized some costumes to attend the Traditional Music Society's bash at Dolan's pub downtown.

Rebecca and I went as something we North Americans know quite well, snow, and George went as some strange combination of the scarecrow, tin man and lion from Wizard of Oz.  We were teasing him that he wasn't a very good catch considering he had no brain, heart, or courage.

At the pub we met up with my classmate Jen and she furthered my Irish education with a shot of Baby Guinness, which is a combination of the coffee liqueur Tia Maria and Baileys.  Not sure if shots are commonly described as "cute," but this one is the closest I've seen.

For being on the fence about going out for Halloween I was sure glad I did because the band at Dolan's was brilliant (another commonly used term in Ireland declaring awesome-ness).  Considering the host was the Traditional Society I was expecting Trad music, but wow did I get a surprise.  Imagine a big band, playing all the classic dance tunes like Mac the Knife, Stevie Wonder and even Thriller, but with the Celtic instruments fiddle, flute, Uilleann pipes and button accordion.  They also had a drum kit, electric bass and guitar, and main vocalist accompanied by three back-up singers.  It reminded me of the Big Band Dance at Brandon University, but with a authentically Irish twist.  The night was great craic!

Overall I'd say that October was a pretty good month for me, and it was not nearly as awful in weather as I was led to believe.  While many Canadians are facing freezing temperatures and their first snowfall, I feel pretty luck to still have green grass, albeit a bit of rain.  We had one really cold day here, which got to a nippy -2 Celsius!  That's almost enough for me to invest in a winter coat!  Here are some campus pictures of autumn (because fall does not exist here):

 

Although that is an authentic Irish rainbow on the right, I did not have the time of day to search for the pot of gold. 

Next post will be about my weekend trip to the Cliffs of Moher, one of the most beautiful natural formations in Ireland!

Cheers,

Shannon