as a disclaimer, don't expect capitalization, or regular punctuation. hey, it was good enough for e.e.cummings, it's goon enough for me!

moving on, i promised to go back and talk about where i've been, so here it is. I flew into Limerick (nicknamed "stab city" i found out later...eeesh) two days before the rest of the group to get over jetlag and get to see the city a little. i wandered the streets, got really frustrated at payphone (and found out that they don't take american phone cards, grrr) was a little homesick, and saw this beautiful place: it's called Saint Mary's cathedral, and it's just this rusticated stone cathedral rising out of a hustle and bustle of painted storefronts, winding roads and car horns. it's not the most detailed picture, but i spent a good bit of time wandering around these raised graveyards with beautiful old mausoleums and angels for headstones. you can feel the age there. i then continued on to see King John's castle (which yes, i know i babbled about quite a bit, but i was excited!) it's mostly been turned into a tourist museum to explain the historical origins of the castle and all that, and the many many times it changed hands. no mention of robin hood at all in fact, probably because King John speant more time in the sherwood forest chasing after him than actually being in his castle in ireland.....anyways, some of the old towers remained, though whitewashed on the insides with little dioramas and wax figures of John himself, with a hilarious voice track of a narrator then john cutting in to illustrate the various opinions about him, maninly that he pissed off everyone everywhere he went. anyways, enough of the history lesson, i just thought it was really cool. as i went out to the castle i got caught in a truely torrential downpour, so here's the only picture that i got:
it was pretty cool nonetheless. mmm, kay, so nexy off, I went with the Butler kids (that group that sent me here) to see Bunratty castle, which is an old castle that they restored a bit and then moved all kinds of period houses and gardens around to show how people in that time period really lived, it was really cool, and my camera ran out of batteries halfways through so i have some of my pictures, and some that i yoinked from my friend ifer.
so i'm going to load you up with pictures then explain them.




okay, so that's Bunratty. From the top, left to right. First Bunratty castle. next is the inside of the great hall, we couldn't use flash so the pictures are a little dark. But those huge antlers on the wall? yeah, those are prehistoric deer antlers that are twice as long as I am tall, that were found preserved in peat bogs, from before civilization when there probably weren't even little brown pictish people running around in the area. think about how freeking big that stag had to be, jesus! Number three on the top is the rebuilt wooden roof of the great hall, they had this firepit in the middle of the stone floor and a hole in the roof for the smoke to go out, and that was central heating. on top of it, this constant flow of smoke cured the wood, super cool. those little angel looking things below the candles are actually angels holding shields, there's a whole bunch of them and i couldn't get a clear picture of it, but the shields have the insignias of the great families in the area whose hands the castle passed through. number four top row is a shot of the throne backlit by a staioned glass window. you probably can't see it, but this castle's walls are now whitewashed, but used to be covered with plaster in swirls and vines painted all kinds of bright blues and golds mainly, royal colors, though an earl sat on this particular throne. there are also spy holes runing into the great hall from the resident preist's quarters, and from the women's wing. women weren't allowed in the main hall to "protect their chastity" form the unsavory charactors who milled around below. they did have a little window at the top that they could stick out their heads and catcall from, though they probably were too proper for that sort of thing. lets see, next row, first pic is this crazy stone goddess who is built into the wall that i thought was cool. she is said to be very powerful and has a scary skull face to scare away evil, specifically protecting mothers and women in childbirth. supposedly if you touch it, within a year you will have twins, or if she can't manage to give you twins you will most certainly have a child within the year...i stayed away and got only a picture. our family is fertile enough thank you. funny thogh, the picture wouldn't come out clearly and i took it about 5 times. heh, anyways, row two picture two is me, and two friends, john (in the foreground) and Billy (in the back) being shut in the dungeon, panic!!! rwo two pic 3 is a room i liked, there were these crazy sea turtle shells and stuff laid out. i just thought it was intersting. there's another one that i didn't take a picture of that had a dead rabbit on display. random. rwo 3 pic 1 is an etched / painted window showing the classic adam and ever, with eve pointing to the apple. i was mostly excited that the picture came out so well, and i thought it was pretty, and i'm a nerd so i think all of those little thematic things to remind the people who walk these incredible death-spiraling tower halls of the perils of going against god's word. funny times indeed. especially amusing ibecause of the pagan stone goddess built into the walls below....i have a strnage sense of humor i'm afraid. row 3 pic 2 is a view form on top of Bunratty castle, the whole countryside rolled out from underneath us, the swollen river shannon, little fishing boats off of the river, more moderns stores, some old looking, everything. it was unbelieveable. for the sake of brevity i left out the classic tourist shot of the butler kids, normal, posed, you know the drill, and a shot of the very tipy top of the castle that they'd gated off, i almost jumped the fence to get up higher but was convinced that it would be a bad idea. and they we're probably right. row 3 pic 3 is this marshy laguna-thing that was beautiful. what this picture unfortunately dosn't show (these are the pictures i stole btw) is one pof the most impressive behemoth's of a plant i have ever seen. it took over the center of this marshy laguna and claimed it, it had to be incredibly old. it had leaves similar in look and texture to a squash or pumpkin plant, but were bigger than i could span stretched out in the d'vinci man pose. it was incredible. row 4 pic 1 is one of the little houses with the thached roofing and one room. someone has a picture of me up in the little kid's loft that i'll get and post, it was awesome. row 4 pic 2 is a tree tunnel!!! it made me really happy. walking around to these houses you got to be totally enshrouded in happy plant life. *sigh* happyhappy, it was amazing, as i'm sure this picture hints at. the last picture is this maze that was kind of in a kid's park like area, there were swings (yes i jumped on, duh) and slides (that were definitely not built for an adult butt) and this maze that i squealed at seeing , climbed on top of and danced / walked on top of. you have to understand, as short as i am, even I could see over the top fo this thing. still, chris and billy and john said it was cheating.....i choose to see it as interpretive maze climbing.......way easier that way that keeping your hand on the right wall or whatever. aaaand that was bunratty. other than that it's been lots of discos, pubs, card games, hanging out and all. this weekend i think i may take a short (as i'm sickly) day trip with soem incredibly cool girls to galway and hopefully the Eryn islands (i really don't know how it's spelled, probably not that way, oops) and there'll be more pictures from that, as when Deirdre and I get together, there are pictures galore. hugs to all, love, and I hope this didn't bore you to death!.


oh, and classes are phenomenally cool...i'll gush later though cause this post is more than long enough!

love
Peace
~Jean~