Galway Girl

I spent my weekend on the west coast of Ireland in the great city of Galway!

When telling people I was moving to Ireland (especially my gaggle of girlfriends), there was one comment/question that emerged above all the others. Everyone always made reference to the movie PS I Love You. I had never seen the movie, so on a lonely night in the fall (I guess I hadn't made friends yet) I watched it. Umm, it's alright? I wasn't really enamored with it.

The one part of the movie I like...the use of Steve Earle and Sharon Shannon's song, Galway Girl.

Since the movie, every American girl coming to study for a semester blares Galway Girl on her ipod the entire way over dreaming about the cute Irish boy she is going to meet. This doesn't give the  song the best reputation with the Irish. Let's just say it's not a song I would request down at Brady's Pub on a Saturday night. However, I am still sort of a tourist and sometimes, just sometimes, my sorority girl ways get the best of me. So I love it! Cheesiness aside, Steve Earle is a great American songwriter and I support most things where his name is attached.

I say all that about this song and movie because it can set the mood for you of my weekend.

Galway is a hip city. Dublin sits on the east of Ireland with its couple million people and its never ending expanse of suburbs. Galway is the antithesis. A college town of about 75,000, Galway is the only major city on the very rural west coast. It has a really lively art and music scene (all helped by the fact it is a college town) and in a way, Galway still knows itself.

The critique many have of Dublin is that it is any city. The stereotypical expectations of Ireland aren't within Dublin. Sure there are pubs and the Guinness Storehouse but for the most part it is a big city (and has all the problems that come with that). Galway has retained some of those easily definable traits of Ireland (most things are locally owned, colorful pubs, outside of town is an expanse of rolling green).

We were lucky enough to get to stay with a fellow Mitchell scholar who was nice enough to let us take over her perfectly located apartment for the weekend (she shares the apartment with another Mitchell scholar but he happened to be away at a wedding). On Friday night my traveling buddies and myself wandered around downtown Galway and enjoyed a few pints. Then we headed off to see our hostess with the most-ess in a play (which was great!). We finished off the night with a really late delicious dinner at a french restaurant.

On Saturday we woke up for a day trip out to the Cliffs of Moher. You might remember if you read the blog carefully that I went to the Cliffs already with my mom and aunt. But we had absolutely terrible weather on our first trip. I guess my luck turned around this time because we had the best weather that western Ireland has seen all year!

(good news: my camera will be back in my hands in Ireland very soon. Bad news: it might mean less of these incredible pictures from my stand-in photog Jess Moldovan)

(Galway Travelers: Dave and Jess

lil side tid bit, you can just step over a small wall and walk right up to the edge of the cliffs. And they wonder how a dozen or so people die there a year?)

We also took a different tour than the one we took back in November. This tour was nice because we got the chance to stop off at a local farm and have a brief hike up a mountain in their backyard. For not being very high up, it had some incredible views.

(coolest part, I got to carry a hiking stick)

After our long day of exploring, we headed back to Galway for a yummy tapas dinner and a few pints. I've long had a complaint about Irish drinking culture that it is dangerous (well in a couple different ways) because of the dependence on glass.  I will often wake up in the morning to walk to class and the walk ways between the dorms is littered with broken glass. Pints and bottles are the norm here. Long story short, it just makes for a big ol' nasty mess. One of the many things I loved about Galway is they addressed this problem by putting plastic cups at every bar exit. You can bring your drink outside (this isn't MS, drinks outside are pretty normal everywhere) but you have to put it in a plastic cup first. Simple stuff, but makes for a world of difference. Made it feel a little bit like New Orleans...

And in the spirit of New Orleans, I woke up Sunday morning to catch Mass at the Galway Cathedral. One of my goals for this semester is to get to mass more often. The Galway Cathedral is beautiful and one of the biggest, so I thought it was a good start. Ireland is no longer the monolithic catholic country that is once was, but surprisingly on Sunday there was not a seat open in the Cathedral (and there were several masses throughout the day). However, upon closer look it made a little more sense. I was one of the few people in the entire place not over 55 or under 5. The loosening of Catholic Ireland is easiest to witness generationally. All that being said, I really glad I went. There is something really comforting about walking into a church around the world and it all feeling familiar. Feels a little bit like home...

(I stole this picture of the inside of Galway Cathedral off of google, but I promise it is real and really this beautiful)

Up this week I'm meeting with an Irish senator, traveling to rural county Mayo for a protest, and reading a great fictional book (that I might get to meet the author of) about the conflict in northern Ireland. Updates will soon follow!

cheers yall,
 chelsea

Catching Up

So this is going to be a jumble of an update on life.

This semester is already much busier than I expected. A few exciting things are going on that are helping keep me extra busy.

I am sitting in on some really neat classes. Please excuse the teacher's pet tone of this entire paragraph.  My MA course only meets on Monday and Tuesday (all day) so I am left with a sort-of lop sided schedule. I attempted to do this last semester but there weren’t many courses offered on Wednesday and Thursday (side note-irish scheduling is bizarre. Instead of having a class on M/W/F at the same time your class meets at say 2pm on Wednesday and 11am on Thursday). This semester there happen to be two Irish public policy courses on Wednesday and Thursday that I’ve started sitting in on. Just after a week in these classes I already feel so much more comfortable talking about Irish history and modern policy.

As for my MA classes, they have really cranked up this semester. I don’t know if it is that the courses that are offered are more of my interests (or maybe more of the professors interests) or if I’m just more settled, whatever it is I really like my classes so far this semester. Last semester I almost craved more homework (I’ve become that kid…I know). In a lot of my classes they would have these huge suggested reading lists but none of it was required and the lists were so long they ended up being overwhelming and I just didn’t read any of it. This semester all of the classes still have the suggested readings but we also have manageable weekly reading assignments. I don’t have much of a philosophy background but the irish love it! My program really trys to ground its practice in theory. So for the first time I’m being challenged to not just BS my way through but to dive deep into the arguments of people like Pablo Freire and Antonio Gramsci. Often in class discussions with this stuff I find myself in way over my head, but I’m learning.

To fill up the time I’m not spending reading I’m helping a friend run for student body president (to all my Ole Miss friends this should be no surprise) and I’m doing a lot of travel. This weekend I’m off to the west of Ireland to stay with a Mitchell friend in Galway. Next weekend I’m riding a bus out to the rural area of County Mayo to be a part of a weekend celebration that is trying to highlight the fight by local people to keep their land from the takeover by a Shell Oil Company pipeline (this is a cause I’ve become really connected to and I will give more details after the weekend). The weekend after that I’m traveling with my Mitchell class up to Belfast for a weekend packed with activities. Then the next weeks are filled with a trip to Berlin, Brussels (for a special visit at the European Union), St. Patrick’s Day in Dublin and trips to London and Paris. There are always more travel possibilities in the works and oh did I forget to mention, I’m writing a thesis?

Life is busy. But I like it that way. I work best when my schedule is full. The fall was tricky for me because I didn’t find enough stuff to fill my time and all that down time led to more homesickness than I ever want. So I’m feeling really good, happy, blessed and lucky to be back and having all this fun stuff going on.

Last aside, all this business leaves me with less downtime for the blog. Last semester I had big goals of posting multiple times a week and I kept pretty close to it. This semester the goal is simple: one post a week with an update on what is going on. That update might include what I’ve read lately or some funny irish lesson or it might just be a travel update. We’ll see where it goes.

The good part is, less blogging means I’m doing more fun things. Talk to yall next week! 

Enjoy Valentine's Day with your honey:) 

Cheers Yall,

 chelsea 

I'm Back...from Morocco!

Hey yall! It has been a lil while…missed yall!  Hope you all had wonderful holidays!

Well, I’m officially back on the isle of green! And I have really exciting stories to share.

Before I dive into my most recent travels, I need to put the gravity of the latest trip into perspective.

When I was in the eighth grade I became obsessed with surfing. The matter of me becoming obsessed with something isn’t really that odd. I have a natural tendency to become overly consumed by things (authors, styles, bands, etc). This tendency for obsession might not be the sort of thing I should share on the internet. For any future suitors out there, be forewarned that I have never taken any sort of obsession to a scary level so don’t be afraid.

Anyway, surfing is probably the ultimate peak of my tunnel vision. For a solid two years I was enthralled by the world of competitive surfing. I asked for a surfboard for two years in a row for Christmas. When asked by my mom where I would use it, my response was often “the bathtub.” Instead of a surfboard I got subscriptions to Surf and SurfWorld magazines. I ordered surf DVDs and watched them while pretending that I had the slightest clue what was going on. I covered my binders with collages of pictures that I cut out from my surf magazines. I talked about Kelly Slater and Andy Irons like we were close personal friends. “Yeah Kelly killed it at Pipeline yesterday”

The ultimate display of my odd love…my room was a surf girl wannabe’s paradise.

For those of you who might remember Pottery Barn Teen and the Surf Girl room? Yep, I had it. A pillow embroderied with “Surf Girl Chelsea” sat at the head of my bed, and I don’t think there could be a better physical representation of my bizarre obsession.

Some of you reading this remember all these quirks of mine from growing up, and I’m sad to say you can attest that all of this is true.

That background puts into context the importance of my most recent globe hop. I just spent seven days surfing in Morocco!

Let me repeat that, Surfer Girl Chelsea just rode waves (maybe more like splashed on the top of some small waves) in North Africa. 

This trip is by far the most unique trip I’ve ever been on. It was unlike anything I’ve ever done and most likely, unlike anything I will ever do again.

In general, Morocco is so different from anywhere I have traveled. The desert meets beach aspect was breathtaking combined with a country that is the ultimate clash of traditional and progressive. The same saying that is used about Mississippi could apply to Morocco, it is a land of extremes.

We stayed in a surf village, Taghazout, about thirty minutes from the larger city of Agadir. Every morning I got to wake up to this….

(all these pics are courtesy of my friend Erica. I am a never ending camera problem this year. My nice camera is still getting fixed from the orange juice spill in Edinburgh and I left my cord to upload pictures from my other camera in Mississippi. So until it arrives, I'm stealing pics!)

Then put on a way too-tight wet suit and carry my long board down a rocky path for about a 20 minute walk. By far, this is the most physical thing I’ve done in a long time. And I’m giving myself a lil pat on the back because besides the mumbled complaints under my breath for the most part I had a great time!

(Taghazout, Morocco. Part of the walk to the beach)

Once we got to the beach we would spend the morning and afternoon at “surf camp”, getting instruction on the basic from Omar, our surf guru.

(our whole group stopping for a pic. This is right after I rode a ton of huge waves:))

(camels on the beach. totally normal)

(our surf guru Omar hosted some sunset yoga for us on the beach)

We took two days away from the beach to experience some of Morocco. One day we drove three hours to Marakesh to experience the markets. You could get lost in never ending rows of stales selling jewelry, leather, and fabric.

On another day we found ourselves at a natural oasis in the middle of the desert. With crystal clear water and palm trees, Paradise Valley looked like a scene out of a movie.

(natural oasis in the middle of the moroccan desert)

One of the cooler parts of the trip: the unique crew. The trip was put together by the NUI-Maynooth Surf Club and when describing the group it sounds more like a bad bar joke. Two Russians, a Parisian, three germans, three Americans, a Canadian and three Irish all walk onto a beach in Morocco…none of this is an exaggeration, I went surfing with the UN.

I could tell detail after detail about the trip, but I know this is getting long. Overall, I’m really glad I pushed myself to go and can’t think of a cooler way to start off my second semester in Ireland!

Back to the grind of class, but at least I have a tan!

Cheers Yall,

 Chelsea 

PS. Glad to be BACK!

Semester in Review

Semester in Review

So in just a few days I will be flying home for a month! That month will be spent telling my family how much I love them, celebrating some close friends’ marriages, and catching some live music with my posse. As excited as I am to get home for a little while (and as much as I should be packing right now) I thought it only appropriate to spend a little time reflecting on these past three months in Ireland.

I’m feeling pretty lucky at this point that I get to come back to Ireland in the spring. Sure I get homesick and sure there are times when the wind/rain makes me wish I was anywhere but here. But those moments are few and far between and I think what has helped me get through this semester are these things…

-my course/classmates/professors

-the rad Mitchell crew

-Irish accents and hospitality

I did an ok job this semester of getting outside of my comfort zone but I can always do better. So here are my goals for next semester…

I never want to turn down an invite-to anything (within the bounds of legality of course). I want to follow up with everyone I meet. I want to spend more time with community organizations. I want to spend more time outside of the city center of Dublin. Finally, I want to get more into the Dublin music scene (got a few concerst in the works-The Civil Wars for sure!). These are all a little scattered but I think the general theme is that I’ve spent the first few months getting comfortable and situated. Now in my next few months I want to get out of tourist mode.  

So to wrap up I’m backing away from the blog for a while. I’m back in the states on December 14th then I’m back to Ireland on Jan. 19th. As soon as I’m back to Ireland I’m turning around to hop another flight off to Morocco for a week on a trip with the university surf club (this is the type of thing that for the rest of my life I will reference in an attempt to sound cool). My spring will be filled with thesis writing (when I figure out exactly what that looks like I’ll let you know), travels with friends (London, Paris, Berlin?, Switzerland?, somewhere sunny with beaches) and hopefully doing all the things I said above.

I want to thank everyone who has taken the time to read the blog or just occasionally look at the pictures. It is a pretty selfish thing to write only about your life and expect people to stay interested. I feel really blessed to have this experience and it means a lot that I’m able to share it with everyone.

So I hope everyone has a great holiday wherever you are in the world! If you find yourself in Mississippi, hopefully I’ll see you!

See you in 2012!

Cheers Yall,

 Chelsea

A Lil Love for the Season

So I've found lots of new ways to waste time here in Ireland. The main ways include reading a lot of style blogs and drooling over pinterest. These new procrastination techniques made me realize that my own blog is a little...serious. Irish history and social commentary, how could that be serious? I can hear the giggles now.

To get in the Christmas spirit, I thought I could throw out a few gift ideas. Anyone reading who wants to buy me these things, I won't complain. But really I thought this might be a fun way for me to pass along things that can keep on giving!

First, let me set the mood with some Christmas tunes by one of my favorites, THE Grace Potter. This gives Christmas music some sass.

For the style guru-Nisolo shoes

For all the Ole Miss readers out there you have probably already heard about Nisolo but I can't help but be in awe of the pretty shoes made by a cool company. I don't think there is a better way to explain Patrick Woodyard and his brainchild company than cool. Nisolo works to connect high quality leather shoes to American shoppers and in return puts the profit back in the hands of the artisans who made the the shoes in a small Peruvian village. It is an example of globalisation at its best.

http://www.nisoloshoes.com/

For the music lover-Oxford American Missip' Music Edition.

First off, if you have never had the pleasure of reading Oxford American I hope this sparks you to start. How can anything with the name Oxford be bad, right? Well their annual music edition is especially good. What's really great is it comes with a full cd of most of the tunes mentioned in the mag and it has a special Mississippi focus this year. I haven't yet gotten a copy of this year's edition because they are surprisingly hard to find in Ireland but looking at the bit that's online it doesn't look to disappoint. The best part about this is you are supporting a pretty local publication that really highlights people who rarely get "highlighted." Let's help keep the music culture of Mississippi flourishing. 

http://www.oxfordamerican.org/articles/issues/latest_issue/

Maybe a lil stocking stuffer to go with this-The new Black Keys CD. Since I was on the topic of music, I had to add this quick plug in. Just a lil music love. 

For anyone who knows me personally-Donation to the SCFP.

This should be no surprise. Who thought I would really go an entire three months without begging for money for the SCFP? Well I got close.

You've all heard this spill before but the SCFP is doing amazing work in the rural Mississippi Delta. They make a big impact with a small amount of money. I can guarantee you that whatever donation you send, it will be greatly appreciated. This organization changed my life and lots of others. I hope somebody might get inspired to help them, in whatever way, keep their doors open this year!

http://www.sunflowerfreedom.org/

They are putting on a theater production at the BB King Museum in Indianola, MS on December 17th for anyone who is interested! I'll see yall there! 

The last gift idea for anyone who might be reading-a plane ticket to Ireland! I love visitors! 

This was fun for me. Thanks for reading!

Merry Christmas! 

Cheers Yall,

 Chelsea

Struggle

I’ve had a real struggle this semester, and I'm not talking about the rainy weather or occasional homesickness. A few weeks ago I got approached by a professor about not speaking up in class. He said he had noticed that I was very talkative at the start of the semester but I had stopped contributing as much in class. His concern was sincere and appreciated and I quickly realized that he was completely right.

His concern made me really think some about what was going on and it didn’t take me long to realize  that I have found myself in a peculiar place when it comes to my identity.

For my entire life I have defined myself by my place. I am a Mississippian. I think for most people there is some sort of connection between place and personal identity but I think I'm quick to take it to an extreme. My favorite authors, musicians, chefs, designers, are all Mississippians. I vacation in the Mississippi Delta. This list is never ending.

Sure I’ve spent time outside of Mississippi but the purpose of those travels was often to bring back some lesson to the state and there was always a set date on when I would return. So for the first time ever I’ve left for an extended period and there is no promise that I will come back (what happens next is a blog post for a different time).

So with my identity so closely wrapped into my longtime place, the move to a new place has sent me on a bit of a roller coaster. I started out the year using the word "Mississippi" in every other sentence. Then I pulled a 180 degree turn. I kept telling myself that I was here to experience something new and if I didn't make the conscious effort to get out of my comfort zone then my experience would be wasted. 

In my scholarship application to come to Ireland I made the case that my strength lies in my ability to meet people wherever they are coming from and thus, I could only learn about Ireland by living here. My 180 degree turn took me from one extreme to another and I took my application too far.  I got so swept up in the idea that I needed to really become a part of “Ireland” that I would get really discouraged when people would make small comments about my accent or when I had to ask for clarification on a piece of Irish history. In making my decision to "give up" Mississippi, I immediately jumped to having to define myself solely by my new place, Ireland. 

This is when the silence in class set in. I didn’t want to only talk about Mississippi but I didn't feel enough of a “local” to talk about Ireland (no surprise there right? I've only been here a few months). I was stuck in the middle and feeling really unsure of how to relate myself and my experiences to anything around me. 

So with all this over-thinking self-analysis on my mind, I went to see my thesis advisor a week ago. I’ve been planning on writing my thesis about a community organization here in Ireland that I’ve mentioned on the blog but I haven't made any progress. Preparing for my advisor to be disappointed in my lack of movement, I was surprised when she calmly suggested that maybe I should rethink the topic of my thesis. She suggested that there has to be a way for me to incorporate my experience in Mississippi with what I am experiencing here in Ireland.

Lightbulb moment. There has to be a balance between defining myself so stringently by place, and being able to carry with me my places. There also has to be a balance between honestly trying to meet people where they are coming from while also realizing that at times, I will be an outsider.

The difficult part is figuring that balance out….

I still can’t say I have a good answer to what the balance will look like but I think a good first step is realizing this little dilemma of mine. And most importantly remembering that I will always have Mississippi but a heart is never too full to love somewhere new.

Another good first step: I talked in class this week (probably too much) about the difficulty on teachers in both the rural Mississippi Delta AND working class Dublin. 

Thanks for reading!

Cheers Yall,

 Chelsea

PS. Another good first step for my new focus on balance is adding a little Mississippi to my all Irish sign-off…

Another One Off the List: Amsterdam

Hey friends! I just got back from a weekend in Amsterdam, Holland. My out of Ireland travels have been sort of limited this semester but I'm feeling proud/lucky to mark two new countries off my travel list in the past three months (not including Ireland).

There is not much doubt about my Dutch heritage so Amsterdam meant something a little extra than other places on my travel list. My maternal grandmother, Jacoba Regina Smits Caveny, was born in The Hague, Holland and moved to the US in her early teens. Granny, as known by all of her grandchildren, was an incredible woman who I miss and look up to everyday.

I hope to one day get back to Holland and spend some time out in the country side. I'm finding that I enjoy cities for a brief visit but I end up really liking a place when I get to see a little bit of life outside of the city. (like Ireland through car travel and a short day in the Scottish Highlands).

Amsterdam is this crazy mix of regal history and modern hipster cool. Its modern reputation is a city with lots of young people doing things illegal in other countries. But I think Amsterdam deserves a lot more credit than that. It has museums galore, great sidewalk cafes, and a funny quirky vibe.

(my good camera is in the process of being fixed from my orange juice spill in Edinburgh. I can't wait to get it back to get better pictures of all my travels!)

So here is what we did this weekend...

-visited the Anne Frank House. The house where Anne Frank, her family, and the van Pels hid for two years has been turned into a museum. The annex has been restored to almost exactly the same condition. It was well worth the wait to get through the doors. After the weight of what you see, I just can't say that you leave very happy. 

-visited the Heineken Experience (lookin' like a tourist above) Heineken is no longer brewed in the city (it's now brewed out at a big warehouse that isn't very aesthetically appealing for tourists) but they have turned the old brewery into an interactive museum. Throughout the tour you learn the history of the brewery, how to drink a Heineken properly and what sort of yeast sets Heineken apart. That description gives the tour no justice for how interactive it is. 

-took a boat ride through the canals of the city. Amsterdam was once the leading port city in the World. Now its canals just make great locations for lots of quirky houseboats. 

-tried some great local beer. They were mostly Dutch names so I'm returning back to Ireland with the same knowledge of Dutch beers that I had before going to Amsterdam: Heineken and Amstel. If only I knew Dutch...

-ate an Oliebollen. Oliebollens are like the Dutch equivalent of beignets. They are sold mostly from street vendors only around Christmas time and they were delicious! Cafe Du Monde's got a little competition!  

Oh and on Sunday I used almost every form of public transit created.
-a tram from the hotel
-a boat ride on the canals
-a train ride to the airport
-a flight back to Dublin
-a bus back to Maynooth
Days like these are fun, every once in a while. If they were everyday I would really begin to miss my old Jeep!

The next travel spot: MISSISSIPPI. After that, MOROCCO. My goals for the spring are to get to London, Paris, and some sort of warm destination, maybe twice.

Cheers,
 Chelsea