Cora crua an tsaoil

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Sure, they say they broke up this big terror plot, but what if they didn't get everyone? God, I wish I didn't have to fly on Tuesday. On one of the airlines and on one of the routes they're most concerned about. As everyone knows, I hate flying in the first place, and this certainly doesn't make it any better.

*trembles*

Well, I guess I just have to put my life in the hands of MI5 and the FBI, which is certainly not a comforting thought. I'll be so glad to touch down in the US that I'll probably burst into tears. If I haven't been restrained already from having a nervous breakdown.

I've still got some time...

My week went well - I conducted five interviews and got loads of useful information. I'll probably go to the Feile this weekend...they have some neat events going on, I just have to decide which ones I'd like to do.

I also need to find a larger carryon bag. Continental is allowing us to check three bags now, since they're not letting us have a carryon, so maybe I can find one and shove all my books into it. I hope I don't have to pay anything for the overweight fees...I bought too many books, I'm afraid...but the Queen's bookstore had all these books I'd been trying so hard to get in the States and couldn't find!

Anyway, I'm going to take a nap. I was up way too late last night, I'm afraid. Nerves, and the fact I slept half the afternoon. BTW, if I'm ever here again (fingers crossed, I will be) remember Four Star Pizza on the Lisburn Road. They have delicious pizza and cheesebread.

So, my program at Queen's is over, and I am now comfortably situated at the my guesthouse on Wellington Park Road. I'va managed to pirate a wireless signal which, while not incredibly good, seems at least to be mostly stable and allows me to browse the internet. So I can update my site and check my e-mail and everything without paying the incredible amounts of money they want here for internet cafes. (5GBP - approximately $10 for about an hour!)

I was, as a whole, very satifsfied with my program. Some lectures, of course, were better than others, but I found it to be very interesting and very informative. The best part to me was simply being here, and seeing first hand the things I had for so long only read about. I have to admit some of the younger students in the program did bother me. They seemed far more set on getting drunk (since they weren't legal at home) than of getting anything out of the program. But I guess that's par for the course, and there were enough serious students that you could just ignore them for the most part.

Yesterday I met my friend Michael and we went to West Belfast for a discussion by an ex-Orangeman of his new book that is critical of the Orange Order. It was very interesting - an Orangeman talking to a room full of Republicans. This is what needs to happen. Meaningful discussion between the communities. It was neat, though, because on our way down the falls towards the An Culturalann where this was taking place, I saw my tourguide from three weeks ago - and he recognized me! I couldn't believe it. :) Michael thought it was a bit disturbing that I was being recognized by ex-prisoners on the Falls Road, but at least he was able to give us directions to where we were going...

On our way back, we decided to cut through Sandy Row. It was a bit of a short cut to where we were going in the first place, and I had walked past it a thousand times without actually going down there. Partially because of this very welcoming sign:




But I got up the courage and walked down the road, and I must say it was creepy. But I'm going back sometime this week because they had this incredible looking bakery there...right behind this shop that sold Dr. Abshire's "Hey Hey let's kill the IRA music and a huge variety of flags.

My interviews start tomorrow. I've got to go make a photocopy of my informed consent statement later today, but nothing's going to be open for a while anyway (actually I may have to go in the morning). Everything closes up like a fortress around here on Sundays!

But I still have two weeks left in Northern Ireland! Yay!

The weather has been wretched - cold and wet. I had to go out today and buy some warm clothes because I was absolutely freezing. It hardly ever REALLY rains. It's just this dreary grey mist that makes you really wet without you really noticing it. And then the sun generally comes out at least a bit in the afternoon.

It's been two long days of lectures - no pictures to show. They've been quite interesting, though. Perhaps I'll type up my notes later.

Had Chinese for dinner tonight...quite good selection of asian resturants here Belfast (expensive, though).

I'm getting so bad at updating this!

I do have an excuse though, I've been half-dead with a killer cold all week...(yeah, that's an excuse, right?)

Right now it's pouring down rain outside, though, so I'm going to stay in and get all my pictures uploaded and updated and get over this. It'll be good to just have a relaxing day.

Let's see...the last day I posted was on the 25th...so let's see what's happened since then...

July 26, 2006

We went to Stormont. Interesting place, but WAAAAY too fancy for the size it is. Northern Ireland has around 1.7 million people (smaller by far than Chicago, not that much bigger than Indianapolis) and yet it has this platial parliament building. Unreal. Inside, we weren't allowed to take pictures, but they had incredible amounts of real gold and real silver...rather pretentious and uncalled for in a province that has always suffered from terrible unemployment!!! After the tour of the building, we met with representatives from all the different political parties - Peter Weir from the DUP, Roy Beggs (JR) from the UUP, Francie Molloy (Sinn Fein), David Ford (Alliance - cool to meet their leader!) and an SDLP lady whose name I can't remember but I should really look up. It was interesting, although they said very little that was unexpected. :) My question ws one of the ones chosen to be asked, though. :)

Stormont pictures are behind the LJ Cut:

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July 27, 2006

I felt really sick this day, and skipped the "Public Art Walk" in the afternoon in order to sleep and hopefully get to feeling better. In the evening, I was able to make it to the Ceilleigh, which was fun, although I'm certainly not a dancer. This is also the day I discovered that Orange Juice is the favorite drink of New Yorkers (check out the pictures behind the cut).

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July 28, 2006

We went to Strangford Lough in Co. Down. It was really cold (although they all said it was rather normal) but enjoyable. We started the day at Nendrum, an ancient monastic site overlooking the Lough. (See pictures behind the cut).

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Then, we headed across the Lough to have a brief lunch at a cute little pub called Daft Eddy's, and spent some time walking around the little island it was located on, including an oyster bed (see pics behind LJ-cut).

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After lunch, we headed down to Downpatrick, Co. Down, one of the three places (the others are Cashel and Armagh) that claim to have the remains of St. Patrick. The church where he is supposedly buried is now an Anglican church, but it's pretty, nonetheless. (pics behind LJ-cut).

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July 29, 2006

Then, yesterday, I got up early and caught the train to Derry, meeting Michael as I did. It was a two hour train ride up through North Antrim (through Antrim, Ballymena, Coleraine, etc) and a ways along the North Antrim coast, but it was a nice view and enjoyable (except when I was riding backwards and thought I was going to throw up). We got into Derry around eleven, and by the time we situated ourselves (around 12) we headed down to see the UU Magee campus. You know, I'm not sure I'm very fond of the campus. It could very well have been because it was very empty because of summer, but it seemed rather run-down and not in very good repair. Queen's is a much nicer and more vibrant campus! Then we made our way back into town, following a map which finally got us to Rossville Street and into the Bogside. I'm not sure exactly how, but somehow we missed our tour (we were waiting in the right place at the right time, I KNOW we were) but it worked out well enough anyway and we just made our own little tour of the Bogside. Let me say straightforward that no place I have been in Belfast is as "in-your-face" about its Republicanism as the Bogside. It had a totally different feel than West Belfast. One thing that disturbed me a bit is that there seemed to be a LOT of graffiti for dissident groups such as the RIRA or CIRA, and there was certainly a strong INLA/IRSP presence as well. It was cold and raining in Derry, and I got absolutely drenched, but it was still quite an experience. After we walked around the Bogside, we happened across the Bloody Sunday trust museum located in Glenfada Park (where the last shootings on Bloody Sunday took place). There I had a long conversation with the guy in charge, who ended up throwing some free books into the bag of books I bought. :) Very interesting place. (Bogside pictures behind LJ-cut)

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Then we spent the rest of the time touring the rest of the city, which is actually far smaller than I thought it was, being Northern Ireland's second biggest city and all. The walled city itself is very small, and has really steep, San Francisco-esque roads leading up to the Diamond. Pretty, though. Then we took a bus tour, which, unfortunately, didn't show us much that we hadn't seen walking around on our own, although I was able to get a picture of the Hands Across the Divide statue at the base of the Craigavon Bridge (other Derry pictures behind lj-cut).

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So after that we headed back on the train from Derry. Rather uneventful except for when we changed trains in Coleraine, we got on a train with the entire Belfast brigade of the UVF (ok, I don't know that for sure, but it seemed that way. ;))...and at Ballymena some Orangemen in uniform and with drums got on...

Interesting place. ;)


And yay! I'm updated!

...I was a little bit under the weather and have been very busy!

Sunday was my birthday and I didn't do a whole lot. I was really tired from the week and pretty badly sunburned from Saturday, so it was nice to just stay in and do nothing. Amy and I did go out for Chinese at a really nice resturant on Botanic...well, I guess this is a bit of a story...

You see, first of all we started out heading to this Thai place we'd seen on the Dublin road, just a block or two from the movie house. So we're almost there, and it's just a normal day, lots of people on the street, when this guy comes out of one of the little loyalist enclave side roads covered in blood. I'm not joking. His shirt was covered in blood, as was the rest of him. Amy and I just stared at him in shock, unsure of what to do (were we supposed to call the cops? Or what?). It was honestly like a scene out of the first five minutes of Law and Order. The strangest thing about it, though, is while he was obviously trying to get away, he wasn't running or anything, and actually looked fairly calm. There was this car across the street with these two guys in it just watching him, as he crossed the street and headed somewhere...we were so freaked out that we ended up going to dinner quite a few blocks away, on a different street, and having quite a lot to drink. So here's my question - was it drugs? Was it sectarian? Was it both? The guy made it and obviously didn't report it, so we didn't hear anything about it in the news, but I've honest to god never seen anything like it...

Yesterday we had lectures on drama and music in Northern Ireland, which would have been far more interesting had I not been coming down with a cold and absolutely exhausted. Still, they were quite interesting, and there were several plays that they talked about that I'd really like to get my hands on. Firstly, Thompson in Tir-na-Og, which is about an Orangeman who ends up dying and going to the Celtic land of eternal youth. They acted out a scene for us, and it was so funny - there's a lot of interesting interaction between Thompson and Cuchullin about who is really defending Ulster. Also, I'd love to read Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching to the Somme. Also picked up some books at the Queen's University bookstore - one by Brian Kennaway called "The Orange Order - A Tradtion Betrayed," and then the trilogy of Martin Dillon's books which I'd found difficult to get in the states. Today I bought a book on powersharing with an introduction by Donald Horowitz and some pamphlets from a onference here in Northern Ireland. I'll be seeing Brian Kennaway speak at the West Belfast festival a week from this coming Saturday. Should be interesting - hopefully I'll have the book read by then!

Today was an incredibly long day of lectures and the such, although they were quite interesting. The best one was the one we had tonight on troubles movies...gave me several titles that I'd really like to see...

Went on a tour of Republican West Belfast today, led by an ex-prisoner who had been in prison for "political" reasons for 15 years. Now he never admitted DOING anything (of course), but he was in prison for hijacking a car, killing a prison guard during the Hunger Strikes, and getting into a shoot out where some people were killed. So he was pretty hard core, and a bit scary. Well, if you thought about what he'd done. He was actually a really friendly guy on a personal level. He'd been on the blanket, and on the dirty protest as well.

So this tour was pretty hard core. We started at Divis Flats and he took us quite a ways up the Falls Road before turning down side roads and showing us "real" West Belfast, as opposed to where the tour busses take you. He took us up past Clonard Monastary, then back through Bombay Street, telling us Republican stories the whole way. He took us past the peace gate (which was open), but we couldn't go down the Shankill because he made it very clear that while it would be interesting, he most certainly wouldn't be safe there. It was fascinating while we were in the Republican areas, though, because everybody was waving at him, or honking at him, or giving him a thumbs up. It was like everyone knew him and everyone liked and supported him. It certainly was the way to take a tour of West Belfast because we were most certainly with a trusted and admired member of the community who knew his community quite well.

We ended the tour at the Milltown Cemetary republican plot, where Bobby Sands, Kieran Doherty and Joe McDonnell are buried, among other Republicans. He told us the story of how Michael Stone shot up one of the funerals there. What I found interesting is that there's really no special thing for the hunger strikers. They're buried right beside and in the same way as all the other IRA volunteers buried in the plot - he said it's because in death every Volunteer is at heart the same as every other Volunteer, and they're all brave and special. An equality in death sort of thing.

After that, I caught a black taxi (yes, one of the West Belfast black taxis) back to the City center, and made my way back to campus from there. The black taxis are really nice and really cheap - only a pound, while the city taxis START at 2.70GBP. But he says you have to watch out because some of the city cabbies are now driving black cabs, but they're EXPENSIVE black cabs. He says you can tell because the West Belfast taxis have white registration tags as opposed to yellow ones.

So, I have now conquered Belfast. I made it to West Belfast and back again in one piece all by myself! Go me.

Again, pictures are behind the LJ-cut.

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...or so it feels. Lots of walking today, but it was a good day.

Got a bit more sleep last night and wasn't QUITE as exhausted today. Had some good lectures in more political fields (yay!) and then had a tour of city hall. In between, Amy and I walked through Donegall Pass over to the Ormeau Road because she wanted to check out some minority-owned shops that had opened up over there and were apparantly facing a good deal of harassment. Well, unfortunately, I can tell you that it's true from experience. Some guy was standing out front and as Amy and I started to go in told us how we "didn't want to go in there." It was kind of like that store's personal heckler.

According to what Amy says, a lot of Chinese are settling in Loyalist areas, even though from her interviews all of them have told her that protestants are far more hostile to their presence than are Catholics. There just aren't very many places available in Catholic areas so they're being forced to settle in places where they're not welcome, and may, in fact, face violence. It was really kind of sad, and as we both agreed, that place had a "freaky vibe."

I was able to get some Republican anti-parading murals photographed to, so it was worth the trip.

Then we met up with Michael and went to see "The Wind that Shakes the Barley." Jeez, that's a good movie. I think it's far more powerful than "Michael Collins" actually. I can't write about it now, though, maybe later when all the emotions it's caused in me have settled.

Ok, pictures for today are again behind an LJ cut:

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Today we went to the Ulster American Folk park, about an hour and a half from here, near Omagh, Co. Tyrone. I enjoyed the drive through the countryside of Northern Ireland - it was absolutely lovely. It was also interesting to drive past Long Kesh, and to see all the Tri-Colours and black Hunger Striker 25th anniversary flags in the Tyrone countryside and the loyalist flags and Union Jacks (I even saw the Orange standard flying) near the exits to Portadown.

The museum itself was a rather unique experience. It was as if it were trying to be some place like Conner Prarie or Colonial Williamsburg, only not. It had two parts - an indoor display with the typical museum places, and an outdoor display. The outdoor display depicted three stages of Ulster emigration to America. First, it showed the "Old World" - the Ulster that they left behind - turf houses and the like. Then it had a brief recreation of the "crossing", with a ship you walked through to get to the "New World" - America. The America part was much like most of the American villages I have seen recreated, although they really planted their corn strange...I guess the Northern Irish don't know how to plant corn. ;)

After we went through it, we had a debriefing back at the Center for Migration studies, which was also located there. We pretty much decided as a group that while the display had a predominantly Protestant slant to it, this was not necessarily a bad thing, as that side tends to be very underrepresented anyway. Anyway, it was a good discussion and a good day, and I have pictures again. :)

Again, behind an LJ-cut.

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Oh yeah, and somehow I got a really bad sunburn yesterday. Ouch.

Today waa a day of lectures, and was very interesting. Our first lecture was an introduction to Irish literature, which isn't really my thing, but I thoroughly enjoyed listening to Dr. Hughes read the poetry he had chosen. There are certain people who are simply talented at reading poetry, and he is definitely one of them.

The second lecture was on identity in Northern Ireland, and that was fascinating, It was one of Dr. Bryan's lectures, and we spoke a lot about "telling" and about Rosemary Harris's 1950's study of rural attitudes in Northern Ireland.

The third lecture, after lunch (which I slept through because I was so jet lagged) was on Ulster-American migration, which is important because tomorrow we're going to the Ulster American Folk Park just outside of Omagh. I'm looking forward to that and should have lots of pictures.

Then afterwards, I went out for some drinks with Michael and some of his friends and really had a blast. Pubs here are so much different than pubs in Madison - they're made for young people and not hicks in cowboy boots and cowboy hats playing horrible country music and getting in bar fights...

All in all, I'm really starting to love this city. I think history has given it a really bad rap that is not completely deserved...

I'm so exhausted! Our lectures started today and so far it's very interesting. Dominic Bryan (who wrote the Orange Parades book that I used for my paper in Dr. Abshire's nationalism class) is in charge of everything and today gave us a brief lecture on the history of Belfast before taking us on a tour of murals and interface areas. The tour today was much more inclusive than the tour I went on with Fearghus last year. We went all the way down the Falls Road, up into Ballymurphy and White Rock, through the peace gate and up the Shankill, then into the Ardoyne and New Lodge (and various Loyalist areas in North Belfast), then we crossed over into East Belfast and took in the Newtownards Road and over to the shipyards where the Titanic was built. The tour took about two hours, and he was telling us fascinating things the entire time and we got to stop a couple of times so I didn't have to take ALL my pictures out of the bus. I missed a lot of stuff on the Falls Road, though (it was on the other side of the bus), so I'll have to go back and rectify that on my tour on Saturday.

We had some interesting occurances on our tour today. First, when we were on the Shankill, someone threw a water balloon (I think it was a water balloon) really hard at our bus. Scared us half to death! Then, when we were in the New Lodge, some little kid flipped off our bus, then, when we got off, got really excited about us taking pictures and posed for some people in front of the murals (yeah, that was weird, and my New Lodge pictures are strange child free). But one of the strangest things happened on the Newtownards Road when we were taking pictures of some murals that seemed to have been freshly painted for the 12th of July parades - some old guy (who was slightly drunk) rushed into his house and brought out his huge picture of the queen. Poster sized. And showed it off to us. So very, very weird.

One thing that was really apparant on the tour was that the protestant areas are in really bad shape. Sure, the Falls wasn't upper class, or anything, but it was in much, MUCH better repair than the protestant areas of North Belfast. There were literally homes with holes in the roofs, and vacant lots just full of rubble. The houses (even the ones that weren't literally falling apart) were much more run down and the neighborhoods were full of trash and filth. It was really sad, and depressing.

After the tour, we had a wine reception which was rather brief, before going to a chinese resturant on the Dublin Road. It's amazing how many chinese resturants there are in this town...of course their food is certainly an improvement on Irish/English food...although I have to admit I liked the Ulster Fry I had for breakfast...

Oh yes, I nearly forgot! We had a pre-test type quiz today that was treated rather like a game show, with prizes and like for the winners. Well, my team won! Mainly thanks to me since I was the one who answered all of the questions...ok, all but 1 out of 40. We were the only one to get a perfect ten on one of the four levels! Go me!

Again, pictures for today are behind an LJ cut:

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So I’m in Belfast! The plane arrived a little bit late – around 9:00am instead of 8:30am. Not too bad, though, since we left Newark about an hour late. I don’t understand why the airline was so stupid – they didn’t tell anyone until about five minutes prior to boarding that non-US citizens had to go to the Homeland Security kiosk and get fingerprinted – so of course, that held us up for a long time. I spent a lot of time in Newark talking to this mother and son from Philly who were going to Derry to visit his children (her grandchildren). Apparently he had married an Irish woman and it had ended in divorce. Nice people though, and chatting helped to pass the seemingly unending time in the airport. By the time we boarded, I was really worn out and barely made it to dinner before I fell asleep. I was sitting in the first row of the plane (well, the first row after First Class), so at least I could spread out my legs a little more than some people, and I had a window, so I could lean my head against the window instead of the person beside me! All in all it was an uneventful fight, and I made it through customs and got to the University without any trouble at all.
Took a nap when I got there and then headed out to explore Belfast with an American girl who had been on my flight and I met at the airport (her name’s Amy and she’s from Alaska) and a Finnish guy named Jorno (don’t ask me how on earth to say it…not even sure I spelled it right!) She’s working on her master’s degree in Anthropology, studying minorities (particularly the Chinese, I think) in Northern Ireland and the discrimination, etc. that they fae, and he’s studying English translation and needed to do a study abroad in an English speaking country. (Does Northern Ireland really count?) So we walked from our residence halls (which are a bit south of the University)up through the Botanic Gardens, all the way up to the City Center where we had dinner at a very Republican but very affordable, friendly, and tasty pub at the city center. They had live Irish music which was actually quite good and pictures of Gerry Adams plastered all over the walls. There was also a copy of the Easter Proclamation with the1916 signatories pictures’…no mistaking which side they were on! Probably will go back there at some point though because I could get an orange juice and Malibu (they had Malibu – yay!) and a sandwich for about 5GBP. Right now I’m about $5 behind my budget, but saying that I had to buy the piece for my digital camera, I think that’s pretty good. I’ll catch that up soon enough.
Then we walked back to campus and got a little bit lost, but thankfully nowhere too bad. Saw lots of remnants of the 12th – Union Jacks everywhere, and banners on Sandy Row and off the Lisburn Road. Didn’t go directly into any of these places, though, as it was a bit deserted on a Sunday afternoon. Will get up the courage later, though! Also noticed that there was an Irish tricolour flying from Divis Tower…how things have changed! Walking through Belfast is actually kind of sad. There are so many buildings boarded up and streets that are just really derelict – and this just a street or two over from the city center. Granted, it was a Sunday, and a lot was boarded up simply because it was closed, but it was obvious that this town has gone through difficult times. With a little bit (who am I joking, with a TON) of money thrown into it, it could really be a lovely place, but there’s really nothing here to attract business and still a lot to discourage it…sectarianism, while perhaps not as overtly violent as it was before the Agreement, is still alive and well in Belfast, as even a quick walk like we tourists took today will show very quickly.
Ended up walking at least five miles today, I think. If I keep that up I’m not going to have to watch what I eat at all! Not that I ate much today – just some fruit on the plane and then the sandwich and a few potato chips along with my drink at the pub. I’ll probably have some of the cheese I bought here in a second, though. I love Irish cheese. Oh! And Lucozade! God Bless Lucozade. This is one of my favorite things about going overseas. It’s a British energy drink that I absolutely adore. Last time I was over here I got practically addicted to the stuff…it’s kind of like a combination between Mountain Dew and Orange juice (well, one flavor is), but it’s even more potent than Mountain Dew because it actually has glucose in it in addition to the caffeine. Maybe, just maybe, I’ll be able to get some home. I can try, anyway.
It’s 9:30pm and it’s still mostly light outside. I’ve heard it doesn’t really get dark here in the summer, but I guess I get to see for myself tonight. They have big, thick heavy curtains on my window, though, so I don’t think sleeping will be a problem. Especially after the walk I had today and the jet lag I’m really starting to feel…
My room is very nice. Bed, desk, computer stuff – they even had the cords here for me. Only problem is that I need a password in order to access the Queen’s LAN, which is why I’m writing this on Word to post tomorrow and backdate rather than actually in my LiveJournal. It’s very nice to have a bathroom of my own too, although the shower is slightly raised above the floor of the bathroom and leaks onto the floor because of this. So I’m glad I brought two towels – one to keep on the floor to soak up the water and one to dry off on!
It seems that most people on this program are American. There are some exceptions – Jorno, who is from Finland, this girl I met from Edinburgh, Scotland, this girl who I think was French who I helped get into the dorm this afternoon, and the guy across the hall who is Canadian. Thing is, most of them are like eighteen or something too…lots of little teeny boppers, which is somewhat annoying, but then I can just hang out with Jorno and Amy (both of whom are older than me) and I won’t have to worry about it.
Well, I’m going to try to get some rest. Busy day tomorrow! And hopefully I’ll be able to get this posted online…

Oh yeah, and so this isn't HUGE, the pictures are behind an LJ cut, so just click on the "read more" below to see them.

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So I'm in Newark now. The flight went pretty good, saying it was a tiny plane that only held 50 people. It was kind of bumpy, but I've had worse. The worst part was that we were caught in a holding pattern outside of Newark for about half an hour so we got in kind of late. That's not really that much of a problem though, I suppose, as I have 3 hours to wait as of now. Ah well, at least I have internet access...

This airport is more like a mall - they have pretty much everything you can possibly imagine here. Good thing, though - I got an adapter so I can dump my pictures onto my laptop...yay!!!!

It's a beautiful, sunny day here in Chicago...looks like a perfect day for flying (fingers crossed). Checked out the weather at Newark too - supposed to be nice there, which is good. At least those tornadoes and 100mph winds are out of the area...those could have made for an interesting flight...and not in a good way.

So I've got two hours before I need to catch the airport shuttle to O'Hare. My flight leaves at 12:45pm, and gets into Newark a little past 4:30. With the time change, it's a little over 2 1/2 hours in the air. Too much, but nothing compared to the transcontinental one, of course. My stomach's a mess. I hate flying so much. And they have me on this little bitty plane that only holds 50 people - one row of seats on one side and two on the other (won't that make it tip over? I don't even want to think about it...argh).

The good thing to remember, though - this time tomorrow, I'll be in Belfast!

Yeah, it's really late at night and I'm still awake. I'm too nervous about tomorrow to fall asleep, although I did get a little nap. I keep listening to the planes taking off and landing (we've got to be REALLY close to the airport here) and thinking that this time tomorrow I'll be on one...about two hours outside of Belfast!

So I spent a bunch of time tonight playing with the Sleep Number Bed (king sized!) it's fun to make it really soft and then really firm and try out everything in the middle. (Yes, that sounds rather perverse, but I assure you it isn't.

To anyone wanting to see pictures - I'm really mad at myself because I've forgotten the cord that connects my computer to my digital camera, so until I can get something to replace it (I'm going to look at the airport tomorrow) I'm going to be able to TAKE pictures, but not post them. I'm working on it, though, and hopefully I'll be able to soon.

Well, I'd better try to get some sleep. I don't know how riding on a plane can be so exhausting, but it certainly is...

Well I've made it part of the way - I'm in Chicago now. My cousin just dropped me off at my hotel, and I'll have a restful day here before leaving for the airport tomorrow morning. Left at about 6:30 this morning from Indianapolis, dropped my cousin's son off at his grandparents' house in Renssalear and then headed on up. Traffic didn't seem to be too bad on the Dan Ryan - my cousin figured he only lost about 20 minutes or so on it.

So here I am in a nice comfy hotel room all by myself with a huge bed and internet access and cable. :) Things couldn't get much better. Which is good, since nerves have me not sleeping too well. :) I figure I'll order pizza tonight or something...or there's a Chili's across the road if I want to brave crorssing the traffic...probably stick with pizza!

So, one week from today I will be in Chicago, in my hotel room, relaxing on the night before my flight leaves. I'm terribly excited but a bit scared at the same time - I absolutely hate flying, but there really is no other way to get there.

I got my power-converter and adapter set in the mail today, so I should be able to use my laptop over there to keep this updated ad to keep in touch with all of my friends and family. Technology is a wonderful thing - even though I'm thousands of miles away, I can share my trip with everyone nearly instantaneously!

I will also try to get pictures uploaded both here and to my smugmug account, so that everyone can see what I've been up to on a daily basis. I don't know if I'll be able to have very good internet access once I leave Queen's (I'm pretty sure my bed and breakfasts don't have wireless), but I'll still stop by an internet cafe every once in a while to check in.

For some reason, as excited as I am, I'm still procrastinating on my packing. True, I have a week (almost) but I really should be getting my stuff together, or at least making a list. But no. I know that I'm not actually going to start packing until Wednesday evening when I'm going to have to be running around like a chicken with my head chopped off, and I'll be up half the night trying to find all my stuff and completely freaking out. But that's part of the trip, so I guess I might as well give in to my demons and keep procrastinating as long as I possibly can. :) Heck, it's tradition!

One of the things that's nice about my trip to Belfast is that I won't be completely alone when I get over there - I do know some people. Fearghus (my friend from Cork who I visited last year) says he'll be coming to visit me at some point, and my friend Michael (who I've been chatting with for years on MT) and I are going to meet up to do some touristy stuff on weekends. I met him last year when I was there with Fearghus, and he's a funny guy so that should be fun as well. It's nice going over there knowing some people, though.

For those of you who don't know much about Northern Ireland, one of the interesting things about going over there when I'm going is that it's in the middle of the protestant Marching Season. From around Easter until mid-September or so, the Orange Order (yes, I wrote a paper on them for Dr. Abshire's class) has over 2000 parades commemorating different historical events of political significance, culminating in the month surrounding July 12th. July 12th is the anniversary of the Battle of the Boyne, when Protestant King William of Orange defeated Catholic King James II, and is a date that the protestants in Northern Ireland hold very dear to their heart. There is often a lot of rioting surrounding these marches, which often go through Catholic areas and provoke a great deal of anger. I won't actually be there on the 12th, but I am hoping to see an Orange Parade at some point when I'm there, as they'll be going on that whole month. Maybe it's kind of morbid curiosity, but I really think that you need to see some things to truly understand them, so, yes, I have a strange desire to attend one of these parades. :)

Anyway, I'll be checking back by here every once in a while before I go, then hopefully posting every day once I do.

Happy reading!