Day Eleven

Saturday, July 4th, 2009

When I think of my forefathers and how they bravely fought against the overwhelming forces of the entire British army and navy for our country’s independence based on the ideals of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, I’m thankful for the extreme sacrifices they made in preserving their vision of a perfect nation with a government of the people, by the people, and for the people.

But would it have been too much to ask for Thomas Jefferson to throw in the abolishment of 9 a.m. field trips in foreign countries as he was penning the immortal words of the Declaration of Independence?

Couldn’t he have just slipped it in under the grievances to the British Government? ”#5: Thou shalt have no taxation without representation, #6: Thou shalt not force hungover American students into a field trip at nine o’clock in the morning on a Saturday.”

(P.S. James Dugan, I have never missed you more. We could have used you and your flag-waving.)

Because, as my alarm went off bright and early Saturday morning, I couldn’t help but really wish the great founding patriots of our country had really taken my needs more into account. Today was when three classes being forced to go on a field trip to Yeats’ Tower and Coole Park (Lady Gregory’s estate. Yes, I know they’re really important and did a bunch of important historical stuff, but I just couldn’t muster up any energy or excitement over being forced to spend my Saturday walking around some big tower.

The one bright spot in our morning was that Abbie introduced Valerie and I to an amazing thing she learned in Australia. Behold the wonder of the Tim-tam: A wafer-like cookie with chocolate filling covered in a thick layer of chocolate (and not available in the US). By biting off opposite corners of the cookie, you are able to stick one end in your hot cup of tea and use the other end to suck the tea through the cookie, thereby melting the chocolate into gooey goodness. Though every time we do it I feel almost like we’re snorting a line of cocaine, it’s probably one of the most exciting things I’ve experienced here.

But anyway, we got on the bus for our field trip and I pulled out my book, spending the drive reading and trying not to fall asleep. When we arrived at Yeats’ Tower, I was not at all surprised to see…a tower. I’ll post pictures once I can get back on the campus internet to upload them and figure out why blogspot doesn’t like to have a working ‘insert picture’ button, but it’s basically a very square, tall tower where Yeats’ lived for a while. Inside was a very narrow winding staircase that I was slightly afraid I would fall down and break my neck. The top of the tower, however, offered a stunning view of the Irish countryside.

After Yeats’s Tower it was off to Coole Park, Lady Gregory’s estate. I was less than enthusiastic about visiting, since the actual house had been torn down in the 1950’s and all that was left were the grounds. But it was actually rather interesting. After watching a 30-minute documentary that nearly put everyone to sleep, we walked on the grounds and saw where the parks services was keeping a family of Irish Red Deer (there was a baby!) and we went to the walled gardens where we were viciously attacked by bugs (seriously, they were flying around EVERYWHERE). There we saw the autograph tree, where many of her famous guests (including Yeats, G.B. Shaw, and others carved their names into the trunk).

After eating a quick lunch, we walked down to the lake where, for the first time, I really understood the magic and myth surrounding the Irish west. It was a small valley with a little stream running through it connecting to a larger lake. It was windy as hell, but I could almost imagine Lady Gregory walking about in her older years.

After the field trip, we had a brief rest before heading out on the town for our Canadian friend Courtney’s birthday (she’s so lucky to share her birthday with our country’s). It was a fun time—we went back to Crane’s and got pretty decent seats before the pub filled up completely and were able to listen to the traditional music the whole night.

I admit, I was a little tired so I wimped out a little early and went home to sleep. Though I maintain that it was purely to conserve energy for Valerie’s 21^st birthday the next day.

(Yeats' Tower, Abbie & I at the top of Y.T., Coole Park, C.P. again, band at Crane's)