Today (Friday the 24th) was our last day talking about our readings in class. We discussed four short stories from James Joyce’s Dubliners and how the stories depicted the sad reality of the typical person living in Ireland at the time; and for that reason it took him a long time to get this book published. Then, after lunch, there was a small field trip that a lot of us took to the local perfumery and an impressive old ring/fairy fort. The perfumery was awesome, “I loved every second of it! I spent the rest of my Ireland budget there” said Leah Creger. The place was full of all sorts of soaps, perfumes, colones and oils; all handmade from local plants and flowers. It was a great place to get some high quality gifts for family and friends back home (I know I got a little something for my grandma there). We stayed there for a while, because the lady working there was super friendly and was talking to a couple of us about all kinds of things, from where the perfumery was located in the Burren, to the different kinds of products she had. After that, though we went to go see a really cool ring fort! The trail leading to it was about a kilometer long and took us up a fairly steep hill. It was actually really funny, because around the inner portion of the fort there was an electric fence. “It was crazy that there was and electric fence” said Eric Gazett, but what was even crazier was that 3 people then proceeded to touch it! At first nobody believed that it was electric because it looked like just a plastic rope, and everybody was daring each other to find out. Eventually Chris, Priscilla’s husband, grabbed onto it and jumped back with a quick “Ouch!” then he was daring Becca Elin to touch it, and eventually she did…with the same result, and shortly after Tram Bui also touched it. It was pretty hilarious. After the field trip was done everybody had gone home and finished up rough drafts of their two final essays, and that kept most of us busy for the rest of the night. But a couple of us finished early and got together at cottage 2 for a fun night of a Rummy 300 tournament. “It was fun, it was cool to see a different side of Priscilla and Chris…especially since Chris is such a ruthless card shark” said Greg Meyer; and he’s right! The night was a lot of fun, just playing cards by the fire, sharing laughs and some food, but boy oh boy was Chris good at playing cards! He, of course, ended up winning the whole tournament by a lot. It was a great way to end a long day of exploring a cool new place, and working hard on our final essays!
Kailee & Amanda walking to the perfumery
Becca about to touch the electric fence!
Fairy fort ruins