We had our second day of classes at Burren College of Art today. Since it’s on campus, we decided to have our English class in the fifteenth century castle. It’s right there at the school so why not use it for class. During class, we acted out some of the scenes from The Death of Cuchulain. We may have been cold, but there are few times in life to be able to have class in a castle, and it was worth it.
We had a short break in the middle of English, and moved to a warmer setting. In the second half, we started talking about our own writing, and did an exercise where we described a picture we had taken from memory with words. We shared with a small group what we had written in class, and then were could go have lunch.
For our photography class, we were divided up into two groups based on how much experience we had with Photoshop. One group stayed with the professor while the other group was free to go take pictures. We had very beautiful weather today compared to other days, so it was a real treat to be able to take advantage of the sunshine. In class, we talked about some basic Photoshop and looked at some of the pictures we had sent in for our first assignment.
When the first group was done with class, we were free to leave, and Elizabeth, Brendan, and I decided to take the long way back to the cottages. Before we could leave the school however, a rainbow distracted us. We stood and took pictures of this rainbow for several minutes before we finally left.
The rainbow we saw from school. Looks like Ballyvaughen is our pot of gold!
It rained for part of our walk back, but we were still able to take some pictures of the Irish landscape around us. We did a little adventuring while we walked, climbing over the rocks by the bay, or “mountain goating” as Elizabeth put it. Then we went our separate ways to do homework, until later when we went back to the college to hear a lecture by Gordon D’Arcy, a professor of Irish Studies at the college. He told us about the geographical and human history of the Burren, and also about the amazing plant and animal life that lives here. Then he compared that to another area of Ireland, Connemara, which is very different geographically, but still looked fascinating. After his talk we want to take a trip there! After the lecture we were brought back to out cottages and were free to do what we wanted for the rest of the night.
A view of the rocky landscape with vegetation growing.
Another view of the rocks, this time with Galway Bay.