the irish equalivant...

Writing a paper on the Celtic Tiger and its affects on Irish theatre. I have an odd feeling of deja vu.

Made brunch with Lauren... french toast with powdered sugar... watched 'Michael Collins' (the Irish equivalent of 'Braveheart') and LOVED it... naturally.

On a side note... why is 'Braveheart' CALLED 'Braveheart'? Is it because he had a brave heart? If so... why not call it 'Courage' or 'A Brave Heart' or 'Scotland'?

True... 'Braveheart' has a distinct ring to it. But why not called it 'William Wallace'? I guess I shouldn't ever name movies.

I watched a movie called 'The Edge of Love' and it was fantastic... but I was unsure why the name was chosen. I mean... I couldn't even remember the name.... until I looked it up for the purpose of writing this post.

Now the name 'Michael Collins'... kinda tells you what you need to know. I am just saying...

Anyway...I need to get back to work. Bah.

Had a lovely Skype date with Mutant last night. I miss her.

I am going to see 'Terminus' tonight at The Abbey Theatre.

FUN FACT: Dracula is Irish for "bad blood". Well played Bram Stoker... well played indeed.

Now I have to write. BAH.

28 days later...

I don't remember my American cell phone number. Good grief.

Donal has been teaching me Irish... I am rubbish at it. But I have been teaching him fun American phrases... like "douche-bag" and "shit-show". Those are two of his favorites.

I am feeling a bit under the weather. :( Third times the charm? I have a huge paper to write before Thursday and crap loads of plays to read and articles to peruse before I can even start writing it.

The lads are coming over this morning so we can all hang out before I have to put my nose back to the grindstone.

Also, its inevitable, but sometime today I am going to need to purchase groceries... and shower.

28 days...

the world brings fools together...

So last night I saw 'Johnny Patterson, The Singing Irish Clown' at the Project Arts Center.
AWESOME.
Just AWESOME.

It was a visually stunning show. Three actors told the life story of Johnny Patterson. One was the narrator/ Johnny/ other various characters, one was a live musician who also played a few characters and one was a completely silent 'traditional' clown who play characters and re-enacted moments...

its hard to explain but it was amazing. It was very 'Warhorse'-esque in the physicality. We stay for a talk-back after the show which was with the main clown (who played Johnny) and was the writer.

Then we headed back to the apartment, made No-Bake cookies and a fort (which was called 'The Big Top' in the living room.
It was most excellent.

I want to run away with the circus.

ministry of silly walks

I am bad at updating.

Claire, Audrey and Nicole come to visit for Halloween.
Bram Stoker's Dracula Experience.
Enough said.


I met Michael Palin today. Went to his book signing in Grafton St., bought his book 'Halfway to Hollywood', and stood in line for about an hour. When it was my turn, Michael Palin and I had a lovely little chat. He asked where I was from, I said Texas. He said that he has just talked to someone who had taken a train through Texas and said that there was nothing to see. I said "There is tons to see in Texas!" He said, "Maybe he just meant by train. But that is what travel is all about." I said, "Yes, that is very true." Then HE said "Maybe I will have to go and see for myself." It was a lovely tete a tete.

I finished off the afternoon with the Scrubs finale. Teared up a bit... had some hot chocolate. :)

Moral of the story? DUBLIN is AWWWWESOME!

london calling...

London!

Up at the crack of dawn we walked to the bus stop, caught the bus to the airport. As we stood waiting for flight to board I went into a bookstore thinking about buying a magazine when I saw 'The Alchemist' on the 'Staff Picks' shelf so I decided it was a sign... since Blakey loves that book... so I bought it. Our flight got into London right around 11... we took the Tube into the city, got settled in our hostel and I took off on my own. I took a walking tour based on the DaVinci Code, which was really interesting. Mainly just because I got see old churches and parts of the city that I hadn't seen before.
I headed back to the hostel around 4pm, wandered around Bloomsbury(where my hostel was) for a bit then met up with everyone else for dinner.
We got to the restaurant and while we were waiting for our table a couple of the lads and I went into Oxfam (Salvation Army type) and I found... wait for it... pink Converse for 3 pounds... in my size. I about lost my mind and naturally I purchased them.
We ate at a FANTASTIC Indian restaurant... I ate so much food it was crazy. We then went to see 'Warhorse'.

O.M.G.

Phenomenal. I can't even... so good. The puppeteers who worked the horses were so incredible... I kept forgetting that the horses were, in fact, not real horses.

After that, we walked back to the hostel... I hit the hay early.

The next morning, after a hearty hostel breakfast of cereal and uncooked bread ( toast), I gave Lauren a tour of the city (since it was her first time there). It was loads of fun. We grabbed a light lunch and headed to the Globe for our group tour. After that Lauren and I walked over Tower Bridge, contemplated going to The Tower of London, decided against it and wandered and saw some more sights instead. That night we went and saw 'Endgame'. I was so tired I almost fell asleep, though I was actually enjoying myself. After the show, I hit the hay early again.
I awoke early again and Lauren and I head to the British Museum. We attempted to form a strategy so that we could see everything... but our strategy crashed and burned and, instead, we walked through the whole place playing a game of "When I take over the world I get that".

We then saw a matinee of "If there is, I haven't found it yet." which is a new play. I actually enjoyed it for the most part and bought the script. Amanda, Erika, Lauren and I then rushed to King's Cross Station, found Platform 9 3/4, did what we went to do, then headed to the next theatre for the next show. We ate a quick dinner then saw "Many Roads to Paradise" which was bad. Just bad.
Went back to the hostel, I decided to NOT be lame and went out to the Pub with the lads. Then Amanda, Erika and I met up with a friend of theirs. We went to Tesco and bought a chocolate cake for a pound. We ate the whole thing... with our hands... it was epic.

Sunday, I went to Camden Market with Lauren and then walked through Hyde Park and Kennsington Gardens. We found the Peter Pan statue and sat for about an hour and a half. Then I met up with Claire, Audrey and Nicole and we had a lovely reunion on the grass. It was wonderful. :) Amanda and Erika brought my backpack to the park and we rushed to the train station to catch the train to the airport for our flight. We got lost and Amanda and Erika's friend Nikko and I sang 'Oliver' while wandering through London. A-MAZING.

Found the train, caught the plane... back in Dublin, did lots of nothin'.

There. I updated. Tedious recap of my trip... I hope you enjoyed it.

Switzerland, or how I decided to become a Swiss banker.

OK...

Where to start...

Switzerland was awesome.

I got to Zurich around 4pm and Mike met me at the airport. We then proceeded to wandered around the city for a few hours. I was still feeling kind of sick but much better. We ate a light dinner then took the train to St. Gallen and decided to stay in because we planned on getting up early to go hiking. So we hung out, caught up and watched Role Models (amazing movie) then went to bed. It was rainy the next day so hiking was out... instead we did a light hike in the hills around St. Gallen.

Fun Fact: There are LOTS of sheep in Switzerland.

Fun Fact: I hate sheep.

About 30 minutes into it it started snowing. SNOWING. I know. It was awesome... but quite cold.We went down to the city after that and bought some groceries, made dinner... and yet again, stayed in and watched a movie. Sensing a theme?

The next morning we got up early and head to the train to go to Santis for our hike. After about 2 hours we got there, only to find out there was 4-6 feet of snow on the ground so all the paths were covered. We were kind of bummed but took the Sky Tram up to the top to look around. Normally you can see 6 countries and all of the Alps from the top... but it was very foggy so we saw about 10 feet in front of our faces. We had a snowball fight, which was legendary.
Headed back to St. Gallen, did some sight seeing... saw the Abbey( beaaaautiful!) and then when to Olma Fest, which was a huge carnival with food and rides. :)

Mike had class the next day so I was on my own. I got up and saw some more of St. Gallen, then took the train to Rorschach, Switzerland and spend some time by Lake Constance (a huge lake that borders 3 countries). Then I head back to St. Gallen and saw Theatre St. Gallen's production of Romeo and Juliet... in German. I think some of it was lost in translation, literally. My German is pretty bad but I am almost positive Mercutio said "This isn't 'Trolius and Cressida'".

Tuesday I got up and headed back to Zurich and wandered taking pictures for a few hours before I headed to the airport.

What I Learned in Switzerland.
No one is Switzerland is poor. No one.
The Swiss are a jovial people for whom life is a musical. Example:

I have no hard evidence but I am pretty sure this is the home of a Swizz banker.
I want to be a Swiss Banker.
Mercedes Benz are common cars in Switzerland. Everyone has them... which is why I learning German and moving to Switzerland as soon as possible.



I'll post about London next.

nausea

i spent all of yesterday incredibly sick to my stomach.

i just put the first solid food in my body in over 36 hours. we shall see how that goes over.

its 6:48am here. i have yet to pack for switzerland... class in two hours then a mad rush to the airport.

time to get cracking...