If it's Tuesday....

The last couple of weeks have been many and variegated.

Ok, that doesn't make much sense, but then again, it does: I left London on July 5, stayed in Ennis one night, went out to Doolin, commuted to Miltown for the Willie Clancy from Doolin, came back to Ennis for a few days, and then came to Dublin yesterday. In all likelihood, I will only add to this kind of disjointed narrative in the coming weeks, but at the moment, I have access to wireless internet, so I'm taking advantage of it, if only to say that internet is a rare occurrence for me here at the moment!

Which means that cooking successes don't get blogged about until much later, like the stew Lauren & I made at the hostel in Doolin. It was a little random--partly designed to use up ingredients--but it was fabulous:

4 or 5 smallish regular potatoes
2 medium sweet potatoes
2 leeks (?) and some garlic, sauteed in butter
3 small red peppers, roasted
vegetable stock
a little ground coriander
salt & pepper

Definitely more than the sum of its parts. It needed some oregano, but did fine without, and we crumbled feta cheese on top.

I'm proud to say that I did not have to resort to chips at all during the week.

Eating in Dublin has been fabulous as well, but I'll leave those descriptions for another time. Suffice to say that Lauren & Dan have been feeding me well!

Life in Glencolumcille, Part 1

During my time in Gleann, I kept wishing for enough internet access to blog, but alas--the only public computer in the village is dial-up, extremely expensive, and most critical, never available. So I've been saving up thoughts, and I've had several requests to blog about spending most of the summer in rural Donegal, so--here goes!

Gleann Cholm Cille, or Glencolumcille, is a village of roughly 700, according to some census figure or other. I figure this number includes people living in the general area, because there's no way in hell there are as many as 700 in the village--so perhaps this count refers to the parish? Anyway, the village has several fine establishments, and I'll do my best to remember each of them. There aren't many.

1. Pubs: Biddy's, Roarty's (where I mostly hung out), and the Glen Head (where the locals retreat when all the "Gabh Mo Leisceals" arrive for the summer (this, apparently, is what they call us language students--it means "I'm sorry" and supposedly refers to overeager non-local Irish speakers making their way through crowded pubs).

2. Byrne's Food Store, which is about the size of a small convenience store here.

3. The post office and the small shop next to it, which carries only postcards, chocolate, Tayto, and things of that nature.

4. The weird shop, which seems to try to cater to tourists? I never went in, which is surprising, since the jumble of wares in the window was puzzling in its variety--fishing rods, tupperware, plush sheep toys, etc.

5. Some sort of shop that seemed to sell paint, although I never saw it open.

6. Two churches: Catholic and the Church of Ireland

7. The chipper van (usually open only on weekend nights)

Then, away from the village toward the strand but still within walking distance:

1. The laundrette--I believe the proprietor's name is Mary, and she seems to be--like many of the locals--ambivalent toward the students, who really do overrun the village in the summer. I expect she sees the knickers of nearly every person who comes through town, so if I were her, I suppose I would be wary of strangers, too.

2. An Stasiún Tine--the fire station. It's the size of a one-car garage.

3. The John Molloy Woolen Shop, which had for-sale signs up but did open sometime in July for a few weeks. I imagine they have a range of tourist crap, but never went in.

4. Oideas Gael (the school), and its rather basic restaurant, An Cistin ("the kitchen"). Oh, yes, and the bookstore inside, which not surprisingly sells mostly books in Irish, including translations of Harry Potter and other such books!

5. The Folk Village & its shop (more tourist stuff for sale here).

I think that's it for human-made public establishments. And then, of course, is the strand--which leaves me a great opportunity to post a gratuitous picture or two. Bear in mind that the weather seen here is not representative of the weather I, er, enjoyed during most of the summer.

Cad é Tharla? (What Happened?)

Yes, folks, I'm back from Ireland!

Describing the whole thing of a piece is too much for me in my still-jetlagged state, and besides, who wants a laundry list of What I Did During My Summer in Ireland (for vacation it was not)? Ok, I know some of you want the big story all at once, but what you'll get (eventually) are a series of vignettes.

For now, though, two short lists.

Momentous Things That Happened

1. I found out that I got the Mainzer Fellowship to Cambridge next winter! I'll be there for two months as part of their gender studies program, and I'm ecstatic about it! While there, I will be doing research about Julia Clifford and Lucy Farr.

2. Jenny & I spent five days in Paris, catching up with our friend Chris, formerly a student in composition in NYU. He moved to France a few years ago, and we got to hang out with him and his fabulous Parisian and ex-pat friends. We felt tres chic, indeed!

3. My Irish language skills are much improved, thanks to the FLAS grant that allowed me to spend about a month and a half studying at Oideas Gael. Of course I have lots to say about that, but for now, I'll leave it by saying that despite its significant flaws (namely its very pathetic food shop) I'm already making plans to get back to Glencolumcille as soon as possible.

4. I perfected my apple crumble technique, sans measurements of any kind other than by eyeball and handful. Once it cools off enough to want the oven on--which, providentially, will coincide with apple season--I'll have to see whether my newfound skills came with me across the Atlantic, or whether they were a magical gift of the cottage in Glen where I stayed for the month of June.

5. I caught my first 4 fish! Mackerel, off the coast near Teelin. I fried them up and they were beautiful.

6. I heard about the song "Automatic Lover" for the first time ever. Stay tuned....

...and a second list--

Things that Momentously Did Not Happen

1. Fieldwork interviews. This omission felt right and good, though--partly because I was busy learning Irish, thinking about my project--and what's more, have not filed any research plans with the Human Subjects Board at NYU (better safe than sorry).

2. A great deal of fiddling. The first three weeks I was in Glen, the good music was elsewhere, and I didn't have a car. I did make up for lost time later in the summer there (more on this later), but also momentously, I spent a total of about 12 hours at the Willie Clancy week. That, for you non-traddies out there, is a trifling amount, because in past years I've spent nearly all my waking hours for a week there. And during that 12 hours or so, I played maybe an hour's worth. Again, more on the whys and wherefores of this later.

3. Drinking. I probably had a total of 5 pints the whole summer, taken glass by glass. My coffee intake was slightly higher, but still fairly insignificant. My consumption of black tea and Donegal bogwater, however, was unprecedented.

As I recover from jetlag and get back into the swing of posting, I'll describe some of this stuff in more detail and post some pictures. For now, here are two teasers: one photo, and the unspeakably stunning and bizarro video for "Automatic Lover." I thank Paolo (Sophie's boyfriend and now a friend of mine) for tipping me off about this song. Too cool, man, too cool.