Failte!

I'm excited to share my adventures with all of you! I want your first taste of my life in Ireland to be this poem that I wrote very late one night when I was a Junior in College. Its meaning seems eerily prophetic now. More than anything, I've created this blog to make the actualization of this life-long dream of mine visible to those I love: my friends who are my foundation, my endlessly supportive family, my mentors and co-workers who inspire me, and my former students who have given me enough satisfaction and fulfillment to last two lifetimes... Have the courage to believe that your wildest dreams can come true.

Is fhearr fheuchainn na bhith san duil, (It is better to try than to hope)

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Mourn (A Seaside Peak in Southern Ireland)

The dark, earthen sod saturates her fair feet,
but briefly since she frolics fast in knee high
blades of greenest grass that blow dizzily in the Celtic-sea air.

Her wool skirt, stiffened by ware of evenings past
is splashed by cresting waves that break
against a beach blacker than her hair.
Those once stiffer fibers were loosed by nights upon nights
of hanging perfectly on his line before being wildly blown dry
by the crisp Hibernian salt air.

The pair sits to rest a while instead of dodging
breakers or skipping paler stones.

"Indian summer's here," he says softly,
but all of summer here feels like the edge
of autumn to her, even though she grins in agreement
as she dangles her pale, soft feet off Achilles' peak,
where Erin's vermillion-gold sky meets
an ocean that is grey with years.

She sleeps with her eyes closed tight most nights.
He asks her if she believes in Tier-Nan-Og,
and she asks him if he believes in anything eternal.
Outside the tide is rising, or it's receding—
She never can tell but for the strengthened smell of
salty freshness strained through his light, lace curtains.
She thinks to herself that he is like trying to hold the sea 
and she imagines the water running between her fingers--
clenched so tight.

And so, the night calls her out of her sleeping,
like daytime chides her into dreaming.
She slips her white fingers through the holes of an old loose scarf
that affords her more company than warmth
on these newborn autumn evenings. She is off-- 
Night clouds reflect emerald from land to sea,
And the tara that she never eyes from long hours of
staring too far into star blanketed skies,
feels cool against the thickening pads of her pallid feet.

Elisabeth Lewis (2005)

30 September 2011

I Never Ever Saw the Northern Lights (I never really heard of cluster flies)

Today was uneventful, even lazy. I did scope out some potential jobs and I'll be dropping off my resume tomorrow at a Parfumerie and a Book Store, both in St. Stephen's Green Shopping Center, which is right around the corner from my house. They have fish pedicures, TK Maxx, and flirtatious Irish boys in the Outdoor store. I did purchase a feather hair extension while there which was more for Candace (who has been begging me to get one since we moved here) than for myself. I'm hoping to get a Christmas Temp Job that will run from October-January and help me to pay for food and vacation. As my budget stands now, after paying rent and buying a ticket home for November, I have 4 euro a day to spend on food and entertainment : /. Candace and Matt are headed to Paris in the morning to celebrate their 2 year wedding anniversary! I'm super jealous, as Paris is one of my FAVORITE cities, and I dream about it regularly...

Other places I want to go this year:
  • Copenhagen & Brussels this spring
  • Scotland (I saw it last weekend from the coast)
  • Iceland/Norway to see the Northern Lights this winter
  • Florence (because it's like home to me)
  • Kenya with Candace for our 27th birthdays
  • Graduation 2012 TRIP= Southern Spain/ The Alhambra
My Mama gets here in 12 days and we're going to London!!  I can't WAIT to show her The British Museum, The National Gallery, St. Paul's, and Buckingham Palace. So these are all the reasons I need a temp. job. I think travel will always be what I spend the majority of my income on (at least until I have babies).

*Special School Note: Our speaker last night was from Arizona State University. Among a room full of MA & PhD students and Professors, I was the first to ask a question! I wont bore you, but the good news is there is a plethora of rock art in the American Southwest and I see myself there in the future more and more.

I am a cactus after all, prickly on  the outside, but full of thirst quenching life sustenance on the inside...



Hope everyone has a great weekend! I'll have updates about my thesis topic and a few new shots of exciting things I've found around the city by Sunday!

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