Hi everyone. Just wanted to thank you all for reading this blog. Last week, I hit a record high number of visit to the site in a single day. Close to 30 people logged on to read this thing. I feel pressure now to produce a meaningful and insightful post. Sadly, I doubt that will happen and this blog will continue to just be a rambling chronicle of my time here.
This week was a pretty ordinary week. Just school, school, and more school. Some of the courses are beginning to wrap up as the end of the semester is just a few weeks away. I'll be happy to finish these courses and I'm excited about starting the new ones in January. The osteology course has continued to become more practical. We have been studying how to determine the age of death of neonates, infants, and children. This is accomplished using many different methods. The most common and accurate way to determine age at death is to examine the dentition of the remains. Our teeth erupt at more or less a set age. By comparing which teeth have erupted to those that have not, an accurate age at death can be determined. We also learned methods for estimating the age by using several other bones of the body. In this method we examine the size of the bones along with their developmental stage. Our bones grow and fuse (commonly known as the growth plate) at particular ages, just like dental eruption, and by compiling all the data we can establish an accurate age, typically with in a year or two.
On Friday, we had our first guest lecturer of the year. The talk was about international forensic anthropology. The women, who currently works in the Netherlands as part of the International Criminal Court, presented on her work as a forensic anthropologist analyzing human remains for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia as well as her work in Iraq, Rwanda, and other ICC investigations of genocide and crimes against humanity. The talk was absolutely fascinating. I'm sure the general public would disagree with my feelings towards the lecture as most people would not enjoy 2 hours of talk and images about genocide and mass graves. If you are even the slightest bit interested in how genocide is proven in an international criminal trial from a forensic point of view I highly recommend reading The Bone Woman by Clea Koff. Not only is Clea a friend of mine and an incredible writer, her book goes deeper then what you would see on TV shows such as CSI or Bones. She really examines the emotional impact doing this work has on the lives of those who survived the wars and those who study the remains and speak for those who were killed. Its an emotional read but one I think everyone should pick up. She explains everything much better than I can. I hope one day to be able to join on of the teams that investigates this types of crimes. I know they are currently sending in "fact-finding" teams into Lybia and several other African nations. We will see what happens in the next few months or years but given the chance to do it, I would go. Right now, The Bone Woman is less than $10 on Amazon. Here is a link: The Bone Woman by Clea Koff
I got several messages and comments about the little sneak peek I gave you all last week. I will post a separate entry about the upcoming project and my involvement very soon. As it stands now, the project will take place. I am unsure of the exact route that it will follow, but something will be happening. I will let you all know every soon. Well, I think that is it for this week. I trust that everyone is able to view the slideshows that I have posted. If you are having any issues viewing any content I publish here please let me know and I will attempt to address it as best I can. Weather has been really crappy, so no new photos this week. Hope next week will be better.
Thursday, November 24, 2011
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Sneak Peek
While I still can't personally tell you what I am involved in, I did find a newspaper article that gives you a brief insight into what I am going to be working on. It is still tentative at this point but it is looking promising. I have a meeting next week that will determine the course of the study.
Read more: http://www.examiner.ie/ireland/resignation-offers-hope-that-mummy-may-stay-in-cork-172479.html#ixzz1e0Ud5T3P
This appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Tuesday, November 01, 2011
Resignation offers hope that mummy may stay in Cork
Tuesday, November 01, 2011
THE case for repatriation of an Egyptian mummy from its current resting place in Cork city has lost one of its most vocal supporters after he stood down as head of Egypt’s Supreme Council for Antiquities.
Zahi Hawass, the world’s foremost authority on ancient Egypt, has previously spoken in favour of returning the mummy to North Africa.
However, he resigned in July, sparking hopes that the ancient remains may be allowed rest in peace as part of the Boole Library Collection at University College Cork (UCC).
In 2002, Mr Hawass was quoted as saying: "This mummy is coming home."
In a newspaper article, Mr Hawass said: "I was in Ireland on a lecture tour in October last year and I had talks with senior staff at UCC. They agreed to let us take Osiris [the mummy’s name] home where he belongs, to the sun and shifting sands of Egypt."
However Mr Hawass’s resignation might work in Ireland’s favour.
Mystery surrounds how the mummy came to UCC.
By 1910, it was illegal to export mummified remains from Egypt, which may explain why there is no record of its delivery to the college.
The mummy is part of a number of artifacts retained by the college from collections amassed when it was Queen’s College Cork (1845 to 1908).
A spokeswoman said the mummy was acquired in the late 19th or very early 20th century by the college and dates to around 305 BC.
The date puts the mummy into the Ptolemaic period, when Egypt was part of a Greek kingdom centred on the eastern Mediterranean.
The college said there is no inscription naming the man but scholarly analysis suggests he would have belonged to the upper echelons of society.
Research conducted by Helen Moloney Davis discovered that the coffin came from Thebes.
The mummy is 1 metre and 69cm long and weighs 24.2kg. X-rays reveal the mummy was a well-built, fully grown male.
The mummy’s coffin dates to around 625 to 600 BC and bears an inscription of a man called Hor whose title was lotus-beater.
However, the mummy itself can be dated back to the Ptolemaic Roman period 305 BC to 500 AD.
Ms Moloney Davis said it is apparent the mummy and the coffin do not belong together.
Ultimately, what becomes of the mummy will depend on the discussions taking place between the Egyptian embassy and UCC.
The Grand Egyptian Museum, also known as the Giza Museum, is planned to contain artifacts of ancient Egypt.
It is scheduled to open in 2013 — and the hunt is on for treasures to fill it up.
It is understood that experts are being drafted in over the coming weeks to assess the mummy and an arrangement will have to be reached with UCC and the Egyptian authorities.
However, he resigned in July, sparking hopes that the ancient remains may be allowed rest in peace as part of the Boole Library Collection at University College Cork (UCC).
In 2002, Mr Hawass was quoted as saying: "This mummy is coming home."
In a newspaper article, Mr Hawass said: "I was in Ireland on a lecture tour in October last year and I had talks with senior staff at UCC. They agreed to let us take Osiris [the mummy’s name] home where he belongs, to the sun and shifting sands of Egypt."
However Mr Hawass’s resignation might work in Ireland’s favour.
Mystery surrounds how the mummy came to UCC.
By 1910, it was illegal to export mummified remains from Egypt, which may explain why there is no record of its delivery to the college.
The mummy is part of a number of artifacts retained by the college from collections amassed when it was Queen’s College Cork (1845 to 1908).
A spokeswoman said the mummy was acquired in the late 19th or very early 20th century by the college and dates to around 305 BC.
The date puts the mummy into the Ptolemaic period, when Egypt was part of a Greek kingdom centred on the eastern Mediterranean.
The college said there is no inscription naming the man but scholarly analysis suggests he would have belonged to the upper echelons of society.
Research conducted by Helen Moloney Davis discovered that the coffin came from Thebes.
The mummy is 1 metre and 69cm long and weighs 24.2kg. X-rays reveal the mummy was a well-built, fully grown male.
The mummy’s coffin dates to around 625 to 600 BC and bears an inscription of a man called Hor whose title was lotus-beater.
However, the mummy itself can be dated back to the Ptolemaic Roman period 305 BC to 500 AD.
Ms Moloney Davis said it is apparent the mummy and the coffin do not belong together.
Ultimately, what becomes of the mummy will depend on the discussions taking place between the Egyptian embassy and UCC.
The Grand Egyptian Museum, also known as the Giza Museum, is planned to contain artifacts of ancient Egypt.
It is scheduled to open in 2013 — and the hunt is on for treasures to fill it up.
It is understood that experts are being drafted in over the coming weeks to assess the mummy and an arrangement will have to be reached with UCC and the Egyptian authorities.
Read more: http://www.examiner.ie/ireland/resignation-offers-hope-that-mummy-may-stay-in-cork-172479.html#ixzz1e0Ud5T3P
This appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Tuesday, November 01, 2011
8 Down
So two months have come and gone now. Which means I only have 10 months to figure out my Master's project, do said project, and then write a small book about it! Doesn't seem that far off when I think about it. In fact, it's a little bit scary to think that it is that close. Speaking of my Master's project, I will be writing a separate post that will be uploaded shortly explaining everything. Sorry about all the secrecy. Trust me, I want to talk about it. I am just getting a lot of pressure from some very powerful people to keep it very quiet at the moment. I don't want to get on their bad side as it could jeopardize my chance at doing the project. It wouldn't be me if there wasn't some element of controversy involved.
This week was pretty calm. Readings were lighter than usual and lectures were easier. The topics are no longer in the realm of theory and thus the material is much easier to engage with. Topics we are currently discussing include: age and sex, childhood (and its relationship to mortuary practices), and determining the biological sex of a skeleton using various bones of the body. I like the hands on element; I'm good at it.
Friday was our first class field trip! We took a tour around West Cork and viewed several cemeteries that dated from the medieval period to the late 19th century. The weather was less then ideal starting out. It had poured the entire night before and the forecast suggested that it wouldn't let up for the entire day. Luckily, the rain did stop as soon as we left the city center. The wind, however, did not. The wind had the ability to cut through just about everything. Need to invest in a serious wind breaker style jacket. Our locations during the tour were not helping the poor weather. All of the places we visited were right along the southwest coast of Ireland. The wind would pick up the sea water, so even though it wasn't raining, we were still getting wet. It was amazing to see how the cemeteries changed over time. Some burials were very Pagan while others displayed highly Christian themes. Many of these graveyards had the ruins of an old medieval church still partially standing. We also visited the ruins of a late medieval star-shaped fort. It was a little bit of an adventure getting to it which involved a slight bit of trespassing, a fair amount of mud, cattle, and an electric fence. The latter was slightly terrifying. I'm ok with barbed wire but electric fences, in the rain, are a different story.
Towards the end of our trip we stopped for lunch at a cafe/restaurant in a small town. The food was amazing, the dessert even better! The dessert special for the day was Jamesson and Bailey's Creme Burlee and it was one of the best things I have ever had! Our professor surprised us all and picked up the tab for all of our lunches. We are going to have to get him a nice Christmas gift from the class. After lunch we stopped at one last cemetery. This one was just outside of the town where we ate. It was most known for its mass grave dating to the years of the great Irish famine from 1845-1850. It just looked like a large field, but you could see slight depressions where the pits were (top left of picture below). It is unknown exactly how many bodies were buried there, but it is in the order of several hundred. There is a modern memorial erected dedicated to those who lost their lives in the famine (approx 1 million people). You can see the ruins of a church in the upper right of the picture below. It looks like a triangular tree as the remaining structure is fully covered in plant growth.
Well That's it for this week's update. Hopefully I will have good news to share with you all by mid next week and I can stop being so secretive.
This week was pretty calm. Readings were lighter than usual and lectures were easier. The topics are no longer in the realm of theory and thus the material is much easier to engage with. Topics we are currently discussing include: age and sex, childhood (and its relationship to mortuary practices), and determining the biological sex of a skeleton using various bones of the body. I like the hands on element; I'm good at it.
Friday was our first class field trip! We took a tour around West Cork and viewed several cemeteries that dated from the medieval period to the late 19th century. The weather was less then ideal starting out. It had poured the entire night before and the forecast suggested that it wouldn't let up for the entire day. Luckily, the rain did stop as soon as we left the city center. The wind, however, did not. The wind had the ability to cut through just about everything. Need to invest in a serious wind breaker style jacket. Our locations during the tour were not helping the poor weather. All of the places we visited were right along the southwest coast of Ireland. The wind would pick up the sea water, so even though it wasn't raining, we were still getting wet. It was amazing to see how the cemeteries changed over time. Some burials were very Pagan while others displayed highly Christian themes. Many of these graveyards had the ruins of an old medieval church still partially standing. We also visited the ruins of a late medieval star-shaped fort. It was a little bit of an adventure getting to it which involved a slight bit of trespassing, a fair amount of mud, cattle, and an electric fence. The latter was slightly terrifying. I'm ok with barbed wire but electric fences, in the rain, are a different story.
 |
| Medieval cemetery and church in Castlehaven Harbour, Co. Cork, Ireland |
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| Ruined fort in Castletownsend, Co. Cork, Ireland |
Towards the end of our trip we stopped for lunch at a cafe/restaurant in a small town. The food was amazing, the dessert even better! The dessert special for the day was Jamesson and Bailey's Creme Burlee and it was one of the best things I have ever had! Our professor surprised us all and picked up the tab for all of our lunches. We are going to have to get him a nice Christmas gift from the class. After lunch we stopped at one last cemetery. This one was just outside of the town where we ate. It was most known for its mass grave dating to the years of the great Irish famine from 1845-1850. It just looked like a large field, but you could see slight depressions where the pits were (top left of picture below). It is unknown exactly how many bodies were buried there, but it is in the order of several hundred. There is a modern memorial erected dedicated to those who lost their lives in the famine (approx 1 million people). You can see the ruins of a church in the upper right of the picture below. It looks like a triangular tree as the remaining structure is fully covered in plant growth.
 |
| Abbeystrewry cemetery and famine memorial, Skibbereen, Co. Cork, Ireland |
Comments on posts - FIXED!
I didn't realize the settings on this blog only allowed comments by people with Google accounts. I have changed that so everyone should now be able to comment on the blogs. I want to hear your comments, questions, and observations! So post away!! If you're still having problems let me know and I will try to fix it.
Monday, November 14, 2011
7 Down
Looks like I forgot to post this one. Thought I did. Oh well, here it is now.
So after last weekend's fun it was time to get back to work. This week wasn't all work. In fact, I got some very cool news! Sadly, I cannot share it with you quite yet. I am still awaiting confirmation from the powers that be. I will tease you with this little nugget: It was found under the floor boards of the university.
Classes this week were nothing special. Just the same old lectures, readings, and discussions. Friday was a bit different. We spent the day examining the skeletal collections here at the university. There are quite a few collections from various regions around Ireland and from time periods ranging from the medieval to the 19th century. The collections are from both urban and rural populations. It is from these collections that we will be producing our master's theses. We might be able to work on material that is held in the national museum in Dublin, but our adviser has recommended that we work with the collections here on campus. This will prevent us from having to constantly travel to Dublin (about 3 hours by bus) and we will have access to the material when we need it. Since my original idea about studying the bog bodies is dead, it looks like I will be studying one of these collections. I am going to try and examine musculoskeletal markers (MSM) as indicators of activity patterns. Its boring, but very easy, and will make a nice thesis. I did learn one interesting fact during the tour of the collections: Crosses Green (where I am currently living) was excavated by UCC several years ago when they were building this apartment complex. While excavating, they discovered at number of burials dating to the 18th century. I would choose the only apartment complex built upon a partially excavated cemetery.
So that's it for this week. Short update for a short and uneventful week. I will hopefully have a very exciting update for you in the near future! Just need to get final confirmation before I get my hopes up too far. One more little hint for you all: I am waiting for experts from another country to say 'OK'. If you have a guess as to what the project may involve, let me hear it!
So after last weekend's fun it was time to get back to work. This week wasn't all work. In fact, I got some very cool news! Sadly, I cannot share it with you quite yet. I am still awaiting confirmation from the powers that be. I will tease you with this little nugget: It was found under the floor boards of the university.
Classes this week were nothing special. Just the same old lectures, readings, and discussions. Friday was a bit different. We spent the day examining the skeletal collections here at the university. There are quite a few collections from various regions around Ireland and from time periods ranging from the medieval to the 19th century. The collections are from both urban and rural populations. It is from these collections that we will be producing our master's theses. We might be able to work on material that is held in the national museum in Dublin, but our adviser has recommended that we work with the collections here on campus. This will prevent us from having to constantly travel to Dublin (about 3 hours by bus) and we will have access to the material when we need it. Since my original idea about studying the bog bodies is dead, it looks like I will be studying one of these collections. I am going to try and examine musculoskeletal markers (MSM) as indicators of activity patterns. Its boring, but very easy, and will make a nice thesis. I did learn one interesting fact during the tour of the collections: Crosses Green (where I am currently living) was excavated by UCC several years ago when they were building this apartment complex. While excavating, they discovered at number of burials dating to the 18th century. I would choose the only apartment complex built upon a partially excavated cemetery.
So that's it for this week. Short update for a short and uneventful week. I will hopefully have a very exciting update for you in the near future! Just need to get final confirmation before I get my hopes up too far. One more little hint for you all: I am waiting for experts from another country to say 'OK'. If you have a guess as to what the project may involve, let me hear it!
Monday, November 7, 2011
Sad Day For Anthropology
I learned this morning of the passing of the world's foremost expert on Gibbons. Mr. Alan Mootnick was a friend, both personal and academic. His passion for his work was the likes which I have never seen. There is a huge void in the anthropological world now. Here is the statement issued by his institution, The Gibbon Conservation Center:
Alan Richard Mootnick—one of the world’s foremost specialists and conservationists of gibbons—passed away on Friday, November 4, 2011, from complications following heart surgery. He was 60 years old.
Mootnick founded the non-profit Gibbon Conservation Center (GCC) in Santa Clarita, CA, in 1976, with the purpose to prevent the extinction of gibbons—small Southeast Asian apes—and to advance the study, propagation, and conservation of the species.
What started as a childhood fascination with gibbons developed into an important sanctuary, housing the largest gathering of endangered apes in the Western Hemisphere. Completely self-taught in primatology, Mootnick was one of a team responsible for the identification and naming of the highly endangered Hoolock Gibbon.
He published more than 30 articles in peer-reviewed journals and offered advice to zoos, government agencies, veterinary universities, and gibbon rescue centers throughout the world. He was the studbook keeper for five species and Husbandry Advisor for the Gibbon Species Survival Plan.
Mootnick and his work touched countless individuals and institutions. Hundreds of school children and students visit the Gibbon Conservation Center yearly, and the general public enjoys the annual “Breakfast With the Gibbons” fundraiser. Known for an eccentric style—gray-spotted beard, constant suspenders, and dry sense of humor—Mootnick was a person not easily forgotten. Strangers would approach him on the street, recognizing him from a long-ago school trip to the Gibbon Conservation Center.
A Los Angeles native, Mootnick is survived by his sister Ronnie Weinberger, nephews Paul and Steve Weinberger, aunt Jean Galanti, cousins Geri-Ann Galanti, and William and Kenneth Benbassat, and 44 gibbons currently residing at the Gibbon Conservation Center.
Funeral services will be held at Groman Eden Mortuary, 11500 Sepulveda Blvd., Mission Hills, on Tuesday, November 8, 2011, at 10am. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the Gibbon Conservation Center, www.gibboncenter.org/contribute/contribute.html
Alan Richard Mootnick—one of the world’s foremost specialists and conservationists of gibbons—passed away on Friday, November 4, 2011, from complications following heart surgery. He was 60 years old.
Mootnick founded the non-profit Gibbon Conservation Center (GCC) in Santa Clarita, CA, in 1976, with the purpose to prevent the extinction of gibbons—small Southeast Asian apes—and to advance the study, propagation, and conservation of the species.
What started as a childhood fascination with gibbons developed into an important sanctuary, housing the largest gathering of endangered apes in the Western Hemisphere. Completely self-taught in primatology, Mootnick was one of a team responsible for the identification and naming of the highly endangered Hoolock Gibbon.
He published more than 30 articles in peer-reviewed journals and offered advice to zoos, government agencies, veterinary universities, and gibbon rescue centers throughout the world. He was the studbook keeper for five species and Husbandry Advisor for the Gibbon Species Survival Plan.
Mootnick and his work touched countless individuals and institutions. Hundreds of school children and students visit the Gibbon Conservation Center yearly, and the general public enjoys the annual “Breakfast With the Gibbons” fundraiser. Known for an eccentric style—gray-spotted beard, constant suspenders, and dry sense of humor—Mootnick was a person not easily forgotten. Strangers would approach him on the street, recognizing him from a long-ago school trip to the Gibbon Conservation Center.
A Los Angeles native, Mootnick is survived by his sister Ronnie Weinberger, nephews Paul and Steve Weinberger, aunt Jean Galanti, cousins Geri-Ann Galanti, and William and Kenneth Benbassat, and 44 gibbons currently residing at the Gibbon Conservation Center.
Funeral services will be held at Groman Eden Mortuary, 11500 Sepulveda Blvd., Mission Hills, on Tuesday, November 8, 2011, at 10am. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the Gibbon Conservation Center, www.gibboncenter.org/contribute/contribute.html
I encourage everyone to visit the Gibbon Conservation Center. It is an absolutely amazing place. Alan will be greatly missed as he was truly a wonderful person.
Here is a link to another article: http://www.dailynews.com/breakingnews/ci_19273288
Here is a link to another article: http://www.dailynews.com/breakingnews/ci_19273288
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Dylan Moran Live!
Tonight was a great night! I got to see one of my all time favorite comedians, Dylan Moran, perform live! It was fantastic. I have not laughed that hard for a very long time. He performed in the Cork Opera House which is an amazing venue. I want to see other shows in the Cork Opera House just to have an excuse to go back to the venue. Dylan Moran's style of comedy is hard to explain. He is a native Irishman, so seeing him perform in Ireland was very special. I have included a short clip of a previous performance of his below. That one was filmed earlier this year when he was preforming in Australia. The audio and video are every so slightly off but it's one of my favorite segments from the show. Enjoy!
Halloween and Jazz Festival Weekend
Sorry I am posting this a little late. But as we have learned with this blog, everything is posted about a week late. So yeah. This past weekend was quite an adventure. First off, it was the Cork Jazz Festival. The Jazz Festival is a 4 day long celebration of jazz music. There were tons of special events being held at all the pubs and venues in town. Most of the pubs had live bands preforming all types of jazz music throughout the day. It was really nice to listen to live music while having a pint of Guinness.
On Saturday, I went to a pub/ venue called Fred Zeppelins. It is a different sort of pub then most of those as it is home to the alternative crowd in Cork. I very much felt at home in there. I was there to see a friend's band play. I met Jimmy randomly in Hot Topic back in Hollywood. It was his first day in the USA and happened to stop in the store. He is originally from a town nearby Cork. I saw on Facebook that his band was touring Ireland and was going to be playing one show in Cork. It was great to meet up with him and see him perform. I had a lot of fun and met some of his friends who were all great.
Halloween ended up being a very fun day for me. It was a Bank Holiday so I had no class. In the early afternoon I went for a walk through St. Finbarre's Cemetery. The cemetery has many graves from the late 19th century and early 20th century. I took lots of pictures and I will post them in a slide show on this side soon. They are already up on Facebook. The cemetery was very cool in a creepy way. Just being around so many old graves and seeing how worn and weathered many of the grave stones were was a strange feeling. You would see a grave that had been completely forgotten about right next to one with fresh flowers. This dichotomy got me thinking about life and death and what happens when we are gone. I hope to go back soon and take more photographs of the cemetery. Let me know what you think of the pictures so far. I am trying to teach myself Photoshop and applied some of what I have learned to the photographs I took.
Later that night, I met up with two of the girls from my master's program and one of their flatmates. We had a few drinks at home before heading out to the city centre. All the pubs and clubs were pack with people dressed in various costumes. This is how the older crowd celebrates Halloween here. It is relatively a new thing for college aged kids to dress up, but it is defiantly catching on. It still has a long way to come before it approaches the scale of Halloween in the USA. We ended up at a pub named The Crane Lane where we sat around, socialized, and had a few pints. The night was a lot of fun but I did miss working my haunted houses and all that craziness that is my normal Halloween. I'll have to make up for missing this year next Halloween!
On Saturday, I went to a pub/ venue called Fred Zeppelins. It is a different sort of pub then most of those as it is home to the alternative crowd in Cork. I very much felt at home in there. I was there to see a friend's band play. I met Jimmy randomly in Hot Topic back in Hollywood. It was his first day in the USA and happened to stop in the store. He is originally from a town nearby Cork. I saw on Facebook that his band was touring Ireland and was going to be playing one show in Cork. It was great to meet up with him and see him perform. I had a lot of fun and met some of his friends who were all great.
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| Jimmy and I at Fred Zeppelins |
Halloween ended up being a very fun day for me. It was a Bank Holiday so I had no class. In the early afternoon I went for a walk through St. Finbarre's Cemetery. The cemetery has many graves from the late 19th century and early 20th century. I took lots of pictures and I will post them in a slide show on this side soon. They are already up on Facebook. The cemetery was very cool in a creepy way. Just being around so many old graves and seeing how worn and weathered many of the grave stones were was a strange feeling. You would see a grave that had been completely forgotten about right next to one with fresh flowers. This dichotomy got me thinking about life and death and what happens when we are gone. I hope to go back soon and take more photographs of the cemetery. Let me know what you think of the pictures so far. I am trying to teach myself Photoshop and applied some of what I have learned to the photographs I took.
 |
| Halloween must be a Gaffney thing! I swear this is not me pretending to be an 8 year old to win a pumpkin carving contest! |
Later that night, I met up with two of the girls from my master's program and one of their flatmates. We had a few drinks at home before heading out to the city centre. All the pubs and clubs were pack with people dressed in various costumes. This is how the older crowd celebrates Halloween here. It is relatively a new thing for college aged kids to dress up, but it is defiantly catching on. It still has a long way to come before it approaches the scale of Halloween in the USA. We ended up at a pub named The Crane Lane where we sat around, socialized, and had a few pints. The night was a lot of fun but I did miss working my haunted houses and all that craziness that is my normal Halloween. I'll have to make up for missing this year next Halloween!
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
6 Down
So I have reached the mid way point of the first semester here. I feel like I am settling in well and adjusting to everything alright. Classes have stayed fairly light but we have been assigned more readings. Some of them are interesting. Most, are painfully boring! Oh well. I only have a few more classes of my Biocultural Theory course. I can't wait to be finished with that one. I will have to start writing a paper for it soon. I think I have a topic already selected which shouldn't be too hard to write. Not too much else to report on the school front.
I do have some good news! I am now an immigrant to the Republic of Ireland. I finally got all the immigration stuff finalized and finished. I have permission to remain the the country until the end of September 2012. So I don't have to worry about any of that crap for a while anyways.
I am looking forward to this weekend. First, Monday is a bank holiday so no school on Monday! Second, This weekend is the Jazz Festival in Cork. It's a huge, city-wide, music festival. There will be lots of live music in all the pubs and from what I am told all the music is really good. Third, a friend I met back in Hollywood will be in town with his band on Saturday. I am going to see him play. He is originally from Ireland so I am looking forward to being with some local counter culture people. And lastly, Monday is Halloween. I am not sure what I am going to do, but I am going to try to have some fun, some how. I am really missing all the haunted house stuff though. I can't wait until I am more stable and can really devote more time and energy into improving my haunts, props, and effects.
So that's it for this little post. I'll give an update after the weekend is over so tune in then - same Bat-time, same Bat-channel!
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