3 weeks to go

It seems like just yesterday I had 4 months in a foreign city in front of me. And now I only have three more weeks here. I really wonder how much I have changed, and how much of it will effect my choices in the future. Unlike many people, I can say that I have lived in a different country, and I would challenge anyone who gave me a hard time about the fact that English is spoken here, to live in Ireland. I love it here so much but I'm starting to get those familiar pangs for home. They felt the same when I first got here. Of course I have had ups and downs of home sickness, but this is different, it is the feeling of being so close to home but still so far away.

I have 2 more weeks of classes, and then a showcase to show what we have worked on this semester, and then I am off to the states again. The showcase prep is going well, but in different ways for my 4 different classes. I feel pretty comfortable about all but one. For one of them all we have is a frame and no real idea what we will be doing in the middle. That doesn't give us much time to work of the specificity she keeps harping on lately. But all the others are great. I have developed a love for Irish drama that I bet will continue for a while. I really feel like I'm going to be able to do a good job on the other showcase pieces. I get to play an irish reported in a cell in Beirut with two other guys, one British and one American. It is a really great piece. I play a really quirking character written by Samuel Beckett in my voice showcase which includes flashing and farting, which are the makings of a great time. I hope I can get someone to record/take pictures of it for me. We will have to see.

Belfast and North Antrim coast

Last weekend I made another trip up to the north with a bunch of people who are on my program here. This trip was fun, but their were 9 of us, and if you don't know already, it is hard to make sure everyone is happy with so many people with you. But we did alright and we all shared one big hostel room, which was fun. I stayed up a little too late the night before, because someone from UPS (Greta) who I didn't know very well, came to Dublin, and I took her and her friends out on the town the night before I left. It was cool, that while I am meeting and making new friends in this foreign place, I still managed to make a new friend from UPS.

This whole trip was a little touristy for me, but it worked out really well with how many people were there and how we could best get around. The first day we spent in Belfast, and took a black cab tour of the city. We then went in search of the Ulster museum but little did we know it was closed. Then the rain started coming down, and by the time we got back to the hostel, people didn't really want to go out again. We got some groceries in bulk and make a big pot of spaghetti and bad of chips (fries) for dinner. We ended up making way to much, but it was good fun anyway. We then went up to the room and played some games before going to sleep. The next day we got on a tour bus which took us up the Antrim coast which is the coast of the Irish Island closest to Scotland. The coolest parts were the Giant's Causeway and Derry/Londonderry.

The Giant's Causeway is a geographical formation, where there are a bunch of octagonal shaped rocks that jut out into the ocean. There are big cliffs and small areas you can walk on, and the green the surrounds the area is beautiful. The wind was pretty bad there and I nearly got blown over a couple times. Our tour guide told us about the giant Fiann McCool who is a big part of Celtic myth and how he created the giants causeway.

Derry/Londonderry is one of the few towns in Northern Ireland that have a Catholic majority. The two sided protestant and catholic are separated by a river so there is no peace wall in Derry. Catholics call the city Derry and the Protestants call it Londonderry. There were murals there as well, and the tour guide was great. He told us a story about how an IRA member had blown up the city hall twice, and after the piece talks he ran for a position in government there and got it and when we was being given the position he said, "Last time I was here I brought down the house."

On the ride back into Dublin i watched perhaps the worst movie ever made. With John Candy called Delirium or something like that. Never watch it if you are ever tempted.

Class trip to london

So, the second part of my midterm break was spent on a class trip to London. We left fairly early in the morning, and the flight was uneventful. We landed and took the tube to our hostel, near Russel square. The hostel was hilarious, it was such a joke. It looked more like an arcade on the inside than a hostel. The outside looked normal, but on the inside there it was the iron grate look, and primary blues and reds. It was ridiculous. It was a big hostel, and there was a bar in there. And there were a whole bunch of employees who worked as bouncers for the hostel.

London is a big city, and it is also known for theatre. The biggest thing we did while we were there was see plays. All of the plays we saw were pretty good, but I of course liked some more than others. We saw Creditors, The Walworth Farce, Now or Later, Six Characters in Search of an Author, and Table Manners. I really enjoyed all of the plays. I also got shown parts of London which I haden't seen, in my 12 hours in London when I came to pick up Matt for our Travels. We took a tour of the Globe, saw some great markets, and even saw Josh Hartnett with tons of people around him taking pictures.

While I was there I got to visit some of the people from the University of Puget Sound who were there. I met up with a couple of then several times, and one night I wen't to one of their houses (Aly and Megan's) and had some pasta and went to a pub afterwards. I also got to see the Imperial War Museum, which was cool with tons of exipits on every major war, and it was from the British side too. All in all the trip was a success and a great experience.

Going home was intersting, because in Dublin, there is very little security but at Heathrow, there is a whole lot. There was face recognition software and everything. I got back to Dublin though, with no trouble. I've come away from the trip being very happy with my decision to study in Dublin. I like it better here, London is too big, and you can't see the city for the buildings. Dublin is great and with a friendly and fun culture.

Dublin and Galway

Ok, so I realize that I can't keep everything straight, but I am going to do my best at some writing this chronologically. So, Dublin is pretty big if you don't know, it is the biggest city in on the Irish Island with Belfast being second, Cork third, Derry/Londonderry fourth, and Galway as the fifth largest. I can't remember if I've used this analogy before, but Ireland is like a Teddy bear reaching for America. Northern Ireland is the head. I've met a couple Irish people here, not including the Irish students at the Gaiety because for some reason we/I don't hang out with them that often. Gemna is a pharmacist from Galway which is in the armpit of the teddy bear, Nora is from Wexford "in the bum" as she said, and Jason is from county Antrim at the very top of the head. Anyway, Dublin is in the back and Dublin isn't just a city, it is a county too, so it is pretty big geographically as well, so one weekend I did a little bit of traveling around. I went to two seaside towns which are in different directions, Dun Laoghaire (pronounced Dun leary) and Howth. Both of these places were pretty cute. Dun Laoghaire isn't that touristy, but it has a big Pier that was fun to walk out on and the area is pretty nice, the weird thing is that I ran into the director of the Gaiety School of Acting there Patrick Sutton. Howth was a little more exciting but is still just that kinda sweet little seaside town. There was an open air food market that I looked around and apparently the best fish and chips around are in Howth, but I wasn't completely convinced. Howth was really hard to get around, we picked up a little tourist map that was not drawn to scale, we walked around quite a bit trying to find Howth castle, and we only found it right before we left, but it was still nice to get out of the city for a little bit. I took both of these trips using the Dublin Area Rapid Transport (D.A.R.T.) system which is really easy to use and helpful.

Midterm was a couple weeks ago, so we got a week off of school. I was signed up to go to London for the second half but I didn't know what to do with the rest of the week. I decided to go to Galway. Like I said earlier, Galway is on the other side of the country, which means a 3 hour train ride. I couldn't get anyone to go with me on this trip so I went by myself, which lends a very different feel to any traveling you do. I suddenly get more introspective and think about how this place fits into my life and all that stuff, which is really corny but not necessarily bad.

I left Dublin pretty late, I wasn't in too much of a hurry. When I got into Galway I booked into my hostel and then went exploring a bit. Galway wasn't that exciting for me. I walked around. It was really windy and cold so I was all bundled up. I went to another place that was supposed to be the best fish and chips place in Ireland, McDonagh's. It was better but really I don't know what the best fish and chips in Ireland would taste like. I then went to a couple pubs looking for Irish music and I found it. Galway is probably the best place in Ireland to go for traditional Irish music. I stopped into one pub with a Gaelic name that I can't remember or pronounce, and there was a life traditional music session going on. There were a couple fiddle players, a man with a hand drum, an accordion type instrument, and a clarinet type instrument. They sounded great and they were having a good time.

I then went to another pub up the road that advertised Irish music, and this one was very different, there was a small stage with two men with guitars there. These guys were great musicians, they took requests and played all kinds of songs. They even played some Johnny Cash. A pretty girl requested the song Galway girl, which is a very famous Irish song, and the guys relented saying that they usually saved it for the end of their set but that they would do it just once. That night was pretty fun, and I slept well that night.

I woke up fairly late the next day, around ten or so, and set out to visit the Cliffs of Moher which are fairly close, but as it turns out for some reason there are only two buses a day that take you there and one doesn't even get you there before dark. So, I was a little disappointed at that, but I decided I'd go to the Aran Islands that day instead and the next day I would go to the Cliffs of Moher since I was going to be there for two days. So I had missed the first ferry to the Islands but I was all set to take the second one, but when I arrived it turns out that the ferry was cancelled due to windy weather. That was just great, I couldn't do the two things I had gone there to do, and Galway was already boring me, and disappointing me with its lack of transportation, so I went to the bus station and got a ticket for Limerick.

The bus ride to Limerick was nice and about two and a half hours long. I saw the countryside and everything. It was very nice. Limerick however was not that great. I walked around and saw some stuff, that didn't impress me much. There is a Castle but it isn't that great. I did however get the best kebab of my life there, which was delicious. I stayed in Limerick about 3 hours and then caught the next bus back to Galway. I took it easy that night. I went to the hostel and read for a while and then went to sleep early to be ready for the next day.

I got up early and bought a ticket to the Inishmore, one of the Aran Islands, and this ferry wasn't cancelled. The ride was rough and I don't do that great on boats, but I was fine when we got there. I rented a bike and went on my way. Last year I was in a play called The Cripple of Inishmaan, which takes place on one of the Aran Islands and it was great to see the place we were trying to portray. The islands are Gaeltacht, which means predominantly Irish speaking, which was kind of fun to hear spoken conversationally. I biked all over the island and saw beautiful cliffs and a few ruins. It only started raining when I was going up a hill to see the the light house before heading back to the ferry, that was also the same time that I realized the lowest gear on my bike was broken. But all in all it was great and it was so beautiful.

I got back into Galway later than we were supposed to, and I ended up missing the last train to Dublin, which mean I had to take a bus, which wasn't too bad and it was even relaxing. But it was almost 5 hours long. I finished the book I was reading and I had a relaxing trip into Dublin and back to my place. Alls well that ends well. I had a day off and then I was headed for London.

Quick Succession and Belfast

Ok, so I realize it has been a month since I have updated my blog. I've of course had a lot of things to do, especially writing. Lets start somewhere close to where I left off. Some professors came and visited us here, and that was cool. I met Geoff Proehl and had a drink with him, and he got his fish and chips as well. Um jump ahead a little bit and I can talk about my trip to Belfast with Matt Jackson and then write several short posts to catch up.

First things first, I of course forgot my camera. So I took some pictures with Matt's which i still need to get from him. I took a bus up from Dublin and it took about 3 hours which isn't too bad. The first thing I noticed, is that there is no official border. There are no checkpoints or even a sign that says welcome to Northern Ireland. There are just more little farms that blend into Northern Irish farms without much change. Got off the bus and the first think I needed to do was get some cash, because Northern Ireland is on the Pound sterling while Ireland is on the Euro.

If you don't already know, the politics of Northern Ireland are/have been pretty messed up. I haven't done much research, but the way I understand Northern Ireland today is that it is still a part of the UK just like Wales and Scotland which means it has its own local government but it also is under the power of the Queen/British Parliament in England, there are seats in the British Parliament for people from NI (Northern Ireland) as well as for Scotland and Wales. It took NI longer than these other places to receive local representation. Until the 80's and 90's NI was ruled completely by the powers in London. There is a very convoluted history of Northern Ireland and Britain if you don't know. So anyway NI is on the pound, but the banks there print their own money, the same as in Scotland and Wales.

To give a very brief history of NI I will spend one paragraph on it. The republic of Ireland gained there independence from the thrown shortly after the Easter Uprising of 1916, Britain however gave up all put 6 counties in the North. They called this Ulster, even though the Ulster Provence includes 9 counties. There was a little bit of fighting over it, but not much because in the 1800's and earlier there was a system of called plantation where people who were loyal to the throne could get land in the north for free. This land was often taken away from the native Irish. These people who were loyal to the throne were mostly protestants because that was the national religion of Britain. The Irish there however were mostly Catholics. So there is where the trouble is. In NI we have the Protestants who are loyal to Britain and the Catholics who are loyal to the Republic of Ireland and in the 60's violence really started to erupt and the three letter groups started killing each other, the IRA (Catholic) and the UVF (Protestant) and many other shoot offs of these groups. That was the beginning of the "troubles" which is the term used (especially by the Irish) to refer to the 30 years of violent conflict between the two sides. The first ceasefire was in 1994 I believe and from then on there have been continuous peace talks and more cease fires. Both sides are said to be inactive and to have destroyed their guns, but just a couple weeks ago the police made the biggest arms bust since the beginning of the conflict and the guns were the UVF's. Please ask me about the conflict sometime because entire books have been written about it and it is hard to fit it into here, and I would love to talk your ear off about it.

So as you may know/should know, Matt and I are writing a play about NI and the troubles. I met Matt and we checked into our hostel and then we went for a walk, we walked up the Shankill (Protestant street) and the crossed over to the catholic side through a gate in the peace wall and then walked down the Falls road (Catholic street). We walked around quite a lot and as it was getting dark we ran across a large group of kids around the age of 10 and we talked to them for a while. We talked a lot about pop culture and the Disney channel, and I can see that the conflict doesn't involve them. It was their parents who had to live through the violence, they just know the aftermath, there hasn't been a riot on their street. Some interesting things though are that they apparently can't have block parties because the protestant side could get scared they they will start rioting and violence could break out again. Matt asked one of the kids what was on the other side of the wall. A young guy who is a bit of a class clown said something along the lines of "Protestants, we don't like them!" and as soon as he said that, one of the older girls in the group pointed at him and said "That's sectarianism." and the young man kinda kicked the ground a mumbled. It seems that there isn't any real hatred or dislike, but it is like it is almost expected of them to not like the other side.

We said goodbye to them and we were gonna head back over to the other side of the peace wall, but we learned that they close the gates through the peace wall at night, so we had to make the 45 minute trek around the peace wall which mean going down into the city center. We had no problems, but it was a really long walk. That night we wanted to go to a pub on the Shankill aka a protestant pub. We were walking up the street scoping it out and looking for a good place when these guys standing outside a pub started talking to us. They recognized us as American and were interested, they brought us in and bought us drinks the whole night. We talked to all these men and it was really interesting. They really truly want to remain a part of the UK. One man told me that if the Catholics had power then they would push the rule of the pope onto them, he spoke of religious freedom and he thought that the Catholics didn't want that. We kept talking and we realized that many of these people were and/or are still members of protestant paramilitaries. One man hinted to Matt that the UVF was still stockpiling arms in case the IRA decides to end the cease fire. There was even some real hate toward catholics. One man was talking to me and asked if we have a lot of guns in America. I said that we do, and it was because a lot of people go hunting. The man said "Around here we hung Fenians." If you don't know "Fenian" is a bad word for a Catholic and/or Irishman. A man also said "You aren't a Catholic are you?" At the end of the night, they played the national anthem of Great Britain and then the bar closed so we went home for the night.

The next day we took it fairly easy, we took a black cab tour around Belfast and we asked the cabbie so many questions. A big part of the tour were the murals around Belfast. Both sides have a lot of murals, and for a lot of different reasons. On the protestant side there are a lot of historical mural celebrating great victories and memorials for dead protestants. On the Catholic side there are murals about civil rights mostly, and some that compare the catholic struggle in NI to the struggle for black civil rights in America. And some murals celebrate people, such as the hunger strikers 10 of which died in their attempt to receive POW status. The murals are incredible and really interesting to see.

We walked around some other parts of Belfast for the rest of the day and and found a delicious market. I really want to live somewhere with a good food market. I bought a can opener because i found a cheap one. That night we went to a pub on the catholic side, and we heard some traditional Irish songs played by a guy on a guitar as well as some songs about the hunger strikers and revolution songs. Drinks were more expensive on the catholic side and we didn't have anyone buying us drinks. Matt got some older woman's address. We talked to one man and he told us about how normal the violence and getting a gun pointed at your head can be.

We then walked into the city center but all the bars were closing, but we could see how completely different the city center is. It seems removed from the conflict, there aren't any flags or anything that would suggest one side or the other. That night some drunk British girls tried to get into bed with the lights off and they were being ridiculous and couldn't seem to do it so Matt lent them his key chain light so they could manage.

The next day Matt flew out early, and since he woke me up when he left I caught an early bus back to Dublin. That is basically my trip to Belfast, it was really fun and I am planning on going back.

Catch up and Differences

Hey, It is getting late on a Thursday night but that is okay, because I only have one class tomorrow, even though it is at 8:45am (my earliest class). After my voice class, I have the rest of the day, and the weekend to myself. Tomorrow is Culture night in Dublin, so tons of museums and different things around Dublin will be free to do. I still need to go through the brochure and pick out exactly what I want to do.

My flat mates and I just got a new room mate. His name is Aitor and he is studying at the European Business School here in Dublin and he is from Spain. One of my room mates and I took Spanish is school so it has been kindof fun helping eachother to speak and learn new words. I was The Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde the other night and it was incredibly funny and enjoyable to watch. One of the Actresses was sick though so there was someone reading her part which meant she had a script on stage, but it didn't take away from the show.

On Monday a bunch of American Professors are coming in to check out the Theatre Performance program through IES and the Gaiety. One of the people coming will be Geoff Proehl, one of my teachers at The University of Puget Sound. We have already arrange to get coffee with Claire (the other girl from UPS) and I after we do a presentation for the professors. In all of my classes, we have been working on this short new script to create short performances to show the professors when they come. I hope we impress them, and I am fairly sure we will, at least in some ways.

The other day I set out for an hour long jog, and then got lost. It took me 2 hours to find my way back.

Ok, and I wanted to take a minute to talk about some differences between America and Ireland. Here it goes: The pedestrian signals at streets suck here and no one pays attention to them, and if you did it would make a 3o minute walk into a 45 minute walk. All signs are written in both English and Gaelic. Unlike in American, streets are not set up on a grid pattern which means the curve all over the place, and street names can sometimes last for only a block before they change. For example, the street that the IES Study Abroad center is on, is Lower Rathmines, but the street starts out as South St. James and changes to Camden and several other names before it gets to Rathmines. Streets can be called Upper, Middle, and Lower as well. The more northern part of Rathmines is Upper Rathmines and then there is Lower Rathmines. They also don't care if they put Lower or Upper before or after the name of the street. Therefore Upper Rathmines and Rathmines Upper are the same road. Irish people, always underestimate how long it takes you to get from one place to another, five minutes is a common time. If you didn't know it already, different counties have different accents. My Acting teacher is from the County Kerry and sometimes replaces "T"s with "D"s. So in stead of "mother or other" he will say "mudder or udder." He also likes to say "ye" instead of "you" but I have yet to talk to someone else with an accent like him. Irish still call euros "quid" sometimes even though they are no longer on the Irish Pound. A female third wheel is called a "gooseberry" or "Margerie". A slut is called a "slapper." Soccer is still called soccer here because they have a sport called Gaelic Football, which is a cross between soccer and rugby.

I can't think of anymore, but I will write more as I think of them. :)

Music Festival

Tonight I went to a music festival called Hard Working Class Heroes in the Temple Bar district of Dublin. The bands were all Irish and there were several venues with different acts throughout the night. My friend Peter and I saw The Holy Roman Army first which was a lowfi mello electronica stuff that wasn't that great, but all the other bands were good. I would suggest looking up Hybrasil, Bats, Halves, The Minutes, and Fight Like Apes. Fight Like Apes was crazy and they ended up totaling the stage at the end of their set, which I've only heard about but never seen until now.

My first week at the Gaiety is over and some of the stress of it has worn off, but I was pretty nervous at first. Classes seem good so far and once we get past some of the basics I'm sure it will pick up. All my teachers are Irish, and the ones teaching my acting classes are Gaiety instructors. We will integrate with Irish students in October, but until then it is just us.

Dublin!

Ok, now I'm in Dublin. I think the chronologically crap should stop and I can keep shorter updates with just cool stuff. Dublin seems pretty awesome. I got in a day to early to move into my flat so I got a hostel for the night and found my way to the IES center the next day where I was then directed to my place. My housemates are pretty cool, one of them in the theatre program too and is from Portland so we already have that in common and he actually knows Holly Coombs so that rocks. Things work a little different in the flat than they do in the US. Doors seem harder to lock, and most appliances have little symbols on them and I didn't know what they meant until someone showed me.

The people on the program seems great, especially the Theatre Performance program. For the first couple weeks it will be just classes of us, but in October we will integrate with the Gaiety students on their first day. Classes seem awesome, some of them seem a little over the top artsy, but I won't pass an judgement until I get in there. For orientation we went to this place called Glendalough where there is a Monastic ruin that was cool and we say some elk and beautiful scenery. On our first night our RAs took all the students to a pub. There are pubs on every corner and we are still trying to find the cheaper ones. Dublin is apparently the 3rd most expensive city, which is a little ominous.

I got some sight seeing out of the way on an open top bus tour and got to seem some of the great history of Ireland and Dublin as well as going on a tour of the Guiness Brewery. And lucky for me, I like Guiness. So it was pretty good for me when some of the girls we went with couldn't finish their pints.

We get to see a lot of plays in the program and we will get a lot of time to travel on the weekend which will rock. We watched the Irish National Hurling championship yesterday in a pub and it was really fun to watch, though I'm not sure how the scoring works. If anyone knows please feel free to explain it to me. I guess that is all I have for now, so I will update again but i want to try and keep them shorter. I miss everyone, and please know that you are all always on my mind.
Love.

Begining of the Travels Part 2

Sorry about the abrupt ending to the previous post. Although the program said we would have a computer, we still have yet to recieve one in our Flat so I have been using the computers at the IES Study Abroad center in Dublin, that closes at 5:30. Now let me continue.

So Paris was touristy and expensive, and with no one to show us around, we didn't get to do that much off the beaten path, and thank god for Matt who speaks better French than he lets on. So, when our departure day arrived, we were pretty ready to move on to our next destination Switzerland. We had booked an early train before we left the states to take us to Switzerland, and although we woke up on time, we misjudged how long it would take us to get to the Train Station and in a big heap of bags and stress, we arrived on the platform just in time to see our train pulling out of the station. We dejectedly walked to the ticket counter and in a confusing interaction in which a language barrier was clumbsly climbed over, we ended up having to buy 2 new tickets at 70 euro each for the next train that left in 4 hours. We spent said 4 hours in the train station determined not to run the risk of missing our train. (Note for if you are traveling abroad. Sometimes you miss trains and its sad. I would say that one should get a EurRail Pass or buy your tickets at the station to avoid missing trains). Needless to say, we were a little down trodden after our ordeal, but we made it on the train with no problems after that.

If you haven't heard yet, Matt Jackson and I are working on a two man play together about the conflict in Northern Ireland. And much of our travel and down time was spent talking about the play and bouncing ideas off of eachother. This train ride was no different, but I ended up finishing the book on Nothern Ireland I had bought and I gave it to Matt to read because the Book (The Belfast Diaries) really helped educate me about the conflict. We will be premiering the show on the University of Puget Sound campus in the spring of 2009, so be sure keep an eye and ear out for advertisements.

With some confusion at a transfering stop we finally made it to Fribourg, Switzerland. We arrived a little later than we had planned, but after we checked into our hostel we went out and saw what Fribourg had to offer.

Fribourg is absolutely gorgeous with a huge cathedral and tons of old buildings and those cute narrow streets you always see when you think of a small european town. It was beautiful and magnificent and as soon as I get a cable for my camera, some pictures will be up here. The sun set and after sight seeing until dark we spent 2 hours finding our way back. We had hoped that things would be cheaper in Switzerland because the Swiss Franc is about 1 to 1 with the US dollar, but we were wrong. It may be even with the US Dollar, but the Franc doesn't go very far. For example, a meal at McDonalds cost 11-16 Francs. Matt and I fell back on our popular and cheap food establishment, a Kabob/Kabab place.

Since Annie's last meal, we had to take care of our own food. The staples of our diet were bread and cheese, and Kabab places. In Switzerland, every Hostel served us breakfast, and the other meals were up to us. He also bought a can of beans and some rice-like couscous stuff that tasted aweful and made up one dinner as well. We also picked up some vegetables, when we had the chance.

The next morning in Fribourg, we checked out of our hostle, went into the tourist center by the train station, got a map, and put our bags in a train station locker. From there we decided to go on a hike in the area surrounding Fribourg. The hike was incredible, I'm not sure how far we went, but it was quite a ways and much of it was through rolling countryside as well a ravine cut by a small but quick river. On this hike we decided on a name for our 10 day exodus, Wanderweg. On the trail we were hiking on, we kept coming across signs with a backpacker on them with the word Wanderweg underneith them, we assume it is German and means something along the lines of Trail, or Backpacker, but we believe that this word is a great name for our Travels we had together. We also learned on this hiking trip, that Fribourg and Freibourg are the same place after a baffeling junction that could have sent us in multiple wrong directions. In the end we got back alright and bought a ticket for Bern, Switzerland.

We arrived in Bern after about a 20 minute ride and since had thought ahead and had our previous hostel receptionist book us a place in Bern, there was very little hassel. Matt and I checked in and then wandered around for a while until we came back that night to eat some of the horrible food we had that I mentioned earlier. Two British girl who were staying in the same dorm as us, and commented on the strange yet humourous interactions between Matt and I and in the end they came down and talked to us for quite a while while we slowly ate our not so good dinner. The two british girls Becky and Sarah are not very far into their two month adventure in Europe and when they get back they will most likely get in contact with Matt (who was very Popular with them) in London.

The next day the girls woke us up for breakfast and after saying goodbuy they boarded a train for their next destination and we set out to explore Bern. Bern is in the German speaking part of Switzerland so this time Matt and I were on the same level, but that didn't seem to matter much, because it turns out that most Swiss people speak English, and it may be taught in school. Matt and I did some exploreing but we were both pretty worn out and after a little while we decided to just head to Geneva a little early and take it fairly easy. On the way to the Train station we saw the only street performer of the entire trip and he was incredible, he spoke in French and German and seemed to tell a story and then sang along with an interesting instrument that sounded and looked like an inverted steal drum. It sounded incredible and he could also hum and whistle at the same time which Matt and I continued to try for the next few hours and on the train.

We then bought train tickets to Geneva and we arrived there in one piece. After some wandering we found our hostel and set up camp. We then set out to see some of the sights and we walked past this huge fountain that is set up in the middle of the bay that shoots a single stream straight up at least 150ft. We continued our wandering and then came to a park with chess and checker boards on the ground with chess pieces that stand as tall as your knee. Matt and I started up a checker game and since I am not very good at strategic games Matt soon had me backed into the corner. About that time a man came over and sat on the bench next to our board and started saying things in French. He started directing me and telling me I needed glasses, all in French, and I ended up giving in to Matt and taking my loss. The man, who we call Marc (because it is really hard to understand a man who speaks French with an Italian Accent), then challenged Matt and I both to a game. We ended up playing two games with him and he swept the floor with us. It turns out that Marc grew up in Italy and in his 20s we think he moved to Switzerland and worked as a mason though he is retired now. He is a great guy and it really made Matt and I happy to talk to him. That night Matt and I bought a bottle of wine to go along with our bread and cheese.

We went back and crashed that night and the next day we set out with a plan. We saw the United Nations, the Botanical Gardens, and the Red Cross museum which was really interesting and quite the learning experience. We then wandered some more, and we were both pretty beat. We had been traveling for 9 days and had walked just about everywhere. Matt however, being the beast that he is, was fine with continuing our trek at just a slower pace. I however was dead. We walked along Lake Geneva and when I realized we had walked all the way back to the Botanical Gardens I broke into an exhaused laughing fit and layed on the ground and refused to get up. Matt finally coaxed me to find a softer spot af grass and once we did we both layed down for a nap.

About 2 hours after I started my nap I was awoken by a security guard telling me that the Botanical gardens were closing. Matt was no where to be found. On a small piece of paper I saw written, "Be right back." and as the guard went about telling other people they were closing I waited for Matt. Turns out he had gone to the bathroom and he showed up not too long after and we were not locked inside the Botanical Gardens.

After that we went and checked to see what bus we had to take to the airport the next day and then we went back and went to bed.

The next day was uneventful, we caught our bus to the airport and Matt was the first one to fly out. We said our goodbyes and wished eachother luck on our programs, and then he was gone, headed for London. I killed 4 hours by walking up and down the terminal. (Yeah, I know. Now I can walk for hours.) I then caught my flight for Dublin with no hiccups and that was the end of our 10 days of european travel.

Begining of the Travels

Alright, now I’m in Dublin. It took a while but I am finally set up in Dublin and I start orientation tomorrow. I guess the best way to go about explaining my trip up until this point is chronologically, but I promise it won’t be too dragged our or bogged down my details.

It was a clear chilly morning as I stepped outside my house the morning of the 22nd in Oregon. I caught an early flight to Phoenix Arizona and then after a torturous 10 hour layover I got on a plane for Heathrow Airport, London. The plane was awesome, I’ve never been on an International flight, but British Airways takes good care of you. I got a meal and they gave me some free wine with it, and there were video screens in the seat in front of you with movies and stuff in them. I watched the movie Redbelt, whish wasn’t too bad but not that great either. It has the guy in it who played the Villain in 4 Brothers.

I got into London after a total of 30ish hours of travelling and waiting around but I had taken naps so I was ready. I got a day pass on the tube and ran around London for half the day taking pictures and seeing all the sights. I had my backpack with all my stuff in it on the whole time. I was scheduled to meet Matt Jackson in front of Big Ben at midnight and after some wandering, I managed to find Big Ben and I bedded down for a nap in a small green in front of the clock tower. I woke up after my nap around 11:30 and while staring at the base of the clock tower, I saw a familiar swagger. I chased down said swaggerer and in a way much like a mugger, I managed to let him know that I found him with a surprise hug. (Matt had been walking around for an hour or so trying to find a place to pee.) We caught a train and a bus to where Matt was staying and I spend the night.

Pearl, the woman Matt was staying with was incredibly kind and fed me the next morning and ended up driving us to the airport because she is so nice. We hopped a plane to Marseille, France where the incredible and very kind Annie met us at the airport. Annie is a friend of Matt’s parents and she gave us room and board while we stayed there.

Marseille is an incredible city and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to go to France. It was warm the whole time and it is a beautiful city with a lot of wonderful sights. We went to a place called the Collonqucese (I know how to say it but not how to spell it) which is a group of coves into the Mediterranean where we got to swim and see some amazing water, and rock formations. French people drive crazy, and that being said, Annie, in her driving Matt and I around got into an accident which totalled her car. We were all fine, but the car was no more. In any case, after Matt and I took Annie out for a thank you dinner, we boarded a train for Paris.

Paris was great and I got to see the Eiffel tower and go to the Louvre but most of what we did was touristy and we didn’t have much money so no cafes were entered. The centre is closing so I have to run, but I will finish this story in a day or two.

Summer Update

I want to take just a little while to write about my summer before I leave tomorrow at 4am. So, although this should be a lot longer, I don’t have that much time so a few minutes will have to do.
This summer has been such an incredible and eye opening experience. Here is a list of my summer jobs. Office Cleaner, Waiter, Farm Hand, Pretend Astronaut, Intern, Extra, Trade Show Worker, Capri Sun Pusher, Stand-up Comedian, and maybe others that I can’t remember.
I want to thank Basil Kelley for giving me the farm hand job this summer even though I may not have been the most experienced person for the job. His flexibility let me do a lot of great new things. Working for him I mucked stalls, and weeded and watered a lot.

Izzy’s sucks because they stopped giving me hours a month ago. Enough said.

My internship at Artist’s Reparatory Theatre in Portland was an incredible experience. I worked with them for 2 weeks on their children’s theatre Camp called “Spotlight” 10 children worked with 10 playwrights and 10 actors to create a 2 person show that was performed by the child and their assigned actor. Each play was tailored to the child acting in it. It was incredible to see so much interesting material come to life with the raw creativity of the children filtered through the amazing talent of the playwrights and actors. I met incredible actors and found out that it is possible to make a living in Portland being a theatre artist.

I was able to be in two commercials this summer, which blows my mind. The first one I was in was very hush hush so I don’t know much about it other thanthe fact that it is for the video game Rock Band in some way. The lovely Jenny Tate and I both auditioned and though I didn’t get in but Jenny did in the initial decisions, I was called up to come in when the shoot time had changed.

My second extra experience was as a featured extra in a commercial for Portland Community College to be shown in the Portland area. I got to work with two great individuals who seem to know a lot about the acting scene in the Portland area. Talking to them was incredible. Both of these commercials should be showing soon. The Rock Band commercial is national and I will be in a crowd listening to the band Bang Camero, and the PCC commercial is local to Portland but should show a shot of me working on homework with a voice over talking about being the first one in your family to go to college.

To start off my summer I did some work in Promotional Events which I didn’t even know existed until this summer. The world of Promotional Events is made up of a bunch of companies that staff certain events and festivals throughout the year as well as Guerilla marketing campaigns. The first one I did was for the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum and a team of people including me dressed up in Astronaut suits and walked around Portland handing out freeze dried ice cream and stickers. It turns out that some people do promotional events for a living, while others just do it as a job on the side. I had a lot of fun and so I did another one.
I worked for Capri Sun down at the Rose Festival in Portland where they had a large area full of activities for their demographic which is the 8 to 12 year olds. There was a half pipe there where some very talented action sports athletes performed. My job during most of the promotion was to ride a Capri Sun long board around Portland and hand out free Capri Sun. I wasn’t very good on the skateboard to begin with but after the week was over I got pretty awesome on it. One of the tour managers who was traveling with the tour which was criscrossing the US turned out to be a dancer and actor. Once he was finished touring with Capri Sun, he was going to move to New York to try and make it on Broadway. He said something really interesting to me, that promotional jobs were the new waiting tables for actors. I think that is a fair assessment because of the sporadic nature of both professions. I learned a lot and will defiantly try to do more in the future.

One last thing I wanted to talk about were the incredible trips I had with friends this summer. Artshare with Jacki was fun and invigorating. I went on a fated adventure hiking with David Wolf and although we had to turn back halfway I would do it again. The rafting trips with David Cohn and Mike Heppner were awesome and crazy. Mike is fighting a forest fire right now so keep him in your hearts while he is out there. Meghan and I had an incredible hiking trip and although it was extremely planned out, we had an incredible and exciting time, especially with large shadows walking past your tent. Also I want to thank those people I had an incredible time with at the beach, and on 4th of July in Tacoma. So basically, this summer has been great and I couldn’t have wished for a better one.

Feel free to ask me more questions about it if you like, but right now I have a 6am flight I have to get to in the morning so I will update this some time, but it might have to wait until after I get through London, Marseilles, Paris, Fribourg, and Geneva. But I will defiantly update in Dublin. I wish you all happy travels back to school or where ever you are going as I embark on my adventure. Thank you everybody. Good night.