Gabi

Hello All!

I have to sincerely, sincerely apologize for being so terrible about blogging. I just realized that my last post was in November…shame on me! I have lots to cover from then until now.

So, back in January I moved all of my stuff (well, 3 suit cases and a backpack) to Galway, Ireland. Since then I have been going to school and getting an insiders perspective on Irish culture, and let me tell you, it’s been a trip. It’s been strange being a temporary resident of a place where you’re not really staying but you’re not really going, either.

First of all, I had to adjust to the school system here where you go to lectures for the entire semester but have no homework, then at the end there is month of exams. WHOA! SO different than any of the schooling I have had in the U.S.

For my classes I had 2 lectures and 2 seminars (seminars are smaller classes where there is student discussion and you’re not in a big hall with 50+ other people). My lectures were: ‘Northern Ireland: Politics of a Divided Society’ and ‘Ancient Celtic Myths’. And my seminars were an Irish language class and ‘Indigenous Arts Exploration’.

While the myths course and the Irish language class were very interesting, the politics class and the Indigenous Arts Exploration were modules that really sparked my interest. What I found wonderful about the university system in Ireland was that they combined their Political Science and their Sociology departments into one. Personally I feel that is a big ‘duh’ as I think studying social constructs within societies should go hand-in-hand with studying political policy. Anyway, my Northern Ireland class focused just as much on the ethnic conflict that was at the root of the problem as it did on the political differences between the groups. My lecturer was also very passionate about the subject, which made the class that much more interesting.

The Indigenous Arts Exploration class was hands down one of the most interesting and stimulating classes I have ever had the privilege to take. There were only 20 students, all from the U.S., and every friday we were bused out to the TG4 television station studio (it’s basically Ireland’s national tv and radio station where everything that is broadcast is in Irish). There we watched archive films about how the land of Ireland as well as Irish people have been portrayed in cinema. We also had musicians, dancers, and singers come in to perform for us and speak to us about their relationship with the indigenous arts of Ireland. There really aren’t words to describe how much I loved this course. To hear the passion that the artists had for their craft, and for traditional Irish culture in general, was really humbling for me. While I identify myself as an American, there have never really been any cultural traditions that I feel strongly connected to. The American culture is so diverse and eclectic that I have never felt that there is any particular thing that define’s me, that define’s my American-ness. However, listening to performers, such as dancer Seosamh Ó Neachtain (youtube him!), and hearing their stories about the artistic traditions of their regions, it really got me thinking about the things that I most identify with. Here’s what I have discovered:

Hi, I’m Gabrielle and I’m a Seattlite. I love Seattle and I am incredibly proud of my city. I love it’s quirks. I identify strongly with it’s funky, eclectic, rustic, sometimes environmentally elitist, totally ridiculous, chill-out, hyped-up, laid-back, mountains and ocean and grey sky vibes. I love the music and musicians that are my city’s claim to fame – Nirvana, Jimi Hendrix, The Head and the Heart, Blue Scholars, Dave Matthews…the list goes on and on. I love that you can see business people riding the King County Metro buses, and “environmentally conscious” people driving SUVs. I thrive in the 9 months of grey and 3 months of blue. I like to neighborhood hop – from the U-district with it’s bubble tea and funky-meets-fashionable stores, to Pike Place where I always have to see at least one fish get thrown, to Northgate Mall with it’s slightly sweet and sticky food court smell and the Claire’s where I got my ears pierced at the age of 6. I revel that we begin summer with FolkLife and it’s dance circles and end it with Bumbershoot and it’s bands (I can always hear the drums of both from my bedroom window at night). I am of Seattle, born and raised. No, I don’t understand all of it’s fads and it’s funk and it’s green, yet materialistic dichotomy, but it’s my city. I belong to it just as much as it belongs to me. After hearing musicians from Connemara and Sligo and Dublin speak about the passion they have for their music and their culture and their traditions, I realized that I find that same passion somewhere between the area codes 425, 206, and 253 – in the music, the clothing, the cars on Aurora and I5.

Anyway, while I have story after story about Ireland and my time here, they will have to wait. If I look back over this blog I see that it’s trend is really leading me towards the following conclusion:

My study abroad experience is one that I wouldn’t trade for the world. I wouldn’t change a second of it for anything. I will encourage any person who asks (and probably even those who don’t) to take advantage of any study abroad opportunity that they find and grab it with both hands. But I will be honest when I tell them that what surprised me most was that at as my time in another country came to a close I wasn’t absolutely heart-broken to leave. In fact, what I felt more than anything was gratitude. Gratitude for an experience that taught me that while I personally have the ability to go out and explore and thrive in wonderfully foreign places, for now they are not my places. For now my place is still the city I grew up in. Not that Galway, Ireland might not one day feel like home if I chose to come back, but that for now I still feel that home is 5000 miles away from me. As corny and poetic as it sounds, I think I went out trying to find a home in a new city (and in a new country), only to find that home for me is still where it always was, in Seattle.

We officially got the theater show that I am in completely teched this weekend and we have our first dress rehearsal tonight! I can’t believe how quickly this rehearsal process has gone. It seems like it was just yesterday that I was auditioning, even though that actually happened back in September. The crazy thing is that the show opens on Thursday and then it runs for two weekends…and then it’s all over. What’s even crazier is that once the show is over I have a week until Thanksgiving break, and then once that’s over I have two weeks of classes, a week of finals, and then I am finished at Linfield for this school year! I say “finished at Linfield” because on January 3rd I will be leaving for Galway, Ireland for 5 months!!!! The closer my departure date gets, the more antsy I get!
I have been talking with my friends who studied in Ireland last spring about their experiences and advice. I’ve told over and over to join clubs to meet people because unlike Linfield which has 1700 students, I will be at the National University of Ireland-Galway with 17,000 other students!!! I can’t even imagine!
I’ll keep you updated as I gear up for Ireland!!! That’s all for now!

Howdy folks! Looks like another year has not only begun, but gotten under full sail here at Linfield College. I am now well on my way to being half way through my sophomore year of college and it’s more than slightly surreal. I’m no longer one of the new kids on the block but I am definitely still being presented with a variety of new challenges.
I (in a moment of insanity) signed up for 16 credits this semester and am currently in a theater production which is affording me another course credit. Let me just say that I NEVER EVER want to take on this much school work again. I wake up every morning wondering how I am going to make it through the day, let alone the week. BUT, on the bright side I always do manage to get through and am always glad when the weekend arrives.
Although my current workload is trying to smother at every step (hence the title of this post) I am lucky that I happen to really enjoy all of my classes! I don’t currently have time to go into detail about what they all are but I will definitely do that soon. I will also give a little insider look at what I have experienced living off campus this semester…lots of fun and interesting tales there! Until then have a wonderful week and here is a little picture of what I did this summer =D

There is nothing so fantastic to see as the Linfield campus when the sun really comes out and shines. Yesterday it hit a little over 70 degrees and I swear I have never seen so many people on the IM field in front of my dorm. My first classes ended at noon and there were already several groups of students sunning themselves in the grass. By the time I went to my 2:30 class there weren’t many open spots left on the field. The best thing about all that sun (besides the beginnings of a tan that I got) is that everyone was in a great mood. I didn’t see a single person who wasn’t smiling and saying hello to everyone they passed. There were several classes that were being held outside and almost every girl was in a sundress! Summer break fever hit in full force because everyone had that ‘counting the days until vacation’ look on their face.
Today it is overcast but it still feels like nice weather is just around the corner. It feels like one of those mid-July days where it cools off a bit and the clouds roll in for the day.
According to my calculations I have 21.5 days left (that’s including weekends). Summer is almost here!!!
Cheers! Gabrielle

I am going to let you in on a secret. My friends and I are going to be competing tomorrow night in Linfield’s Battle of the Bands (that’s not the secret). Our band is called The Other Guys and consists of my friend Brittany and I on vocals, Jenny on the piano/keyboard, and Jeremy on the guitar (also not the secret). Ok, here’s the part that not a lot of people know…our set list (understandably the secret might not be as exciting as you were hoping for and if that is the case, I apologize)!!!

We are going to start out with a hugely improved and totally new rendition of Lady Gaga’s ‘Poker Face’ mashed up with MGMT’s ‘Kids’, which will be a house-rockin’ opener. Next we are throwing down John Mayer’s ‘Daughter’s’ with a twist (a new and original third verse by our very own Brittany). We are closing with a song whose regular version I like a lot, but whose new version (arranged by us, the band) I am completely in love with…we’ll be pulling out Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay as our finale. But, this isn’t just any old “dock”! This one is super jazzy and laid back and instead of a piano, Jenny will be playing the spoons as percussion!

There are only three bands competing so we will definitely place…but I really want to win! The winning band gets to open at Wildstock (Linfield’s big, end of the year music celebration)! I think we have a good shot because we are original and fresh faces on the Linfield music scene.

Well, that’s all for now…the sun has finally come out in McMinnville and it’s starting to feel like it might be heading towards summer after all!

Cheers!     Gabrielle