Thursday June 18, 2009

We had a leisurely morning mostly doing homework and whatever else.  At 2pm I gave a presentation on John Hewitt that I had prepared for honors credit.  As far as I know it went well and my prof Mindi told me that it was a good presentation, so that is all that counts.  We were supposed to then go over to the John Hewitt Bar that I presented on to read our personal poems that we wrote, but the bar said that they didn't want our big group coming in anymore because they were busy.  We read our poems to each other in the living area, which was a nice experience while sampling Irish chocolate (have I mentioned their chocolate bars here are wayy better?).  A lot of people had really serious poems about the landscape, but Phil and I had sillier poems.  All the poems, though, had to be about Ireland.  Mindi laughed really hard at my poem so I was good with that.  I will post it eventually, but it will probably mean a lot less because you are not here to understand the jokes.  Neil said that he will put together a booklet or online site for all of our poems and some of our sketches.  I hope that actually works out.  We did go into Belfast to pop into the John Hewitt Bar.  It had special significance to me since I wrote a lot about it.  We then had our classic, one hour, to be back to the bus when everything in Belfast is closed because it is after five so really we just wander around for an hour in the mist.  For the record, we did find a really cool store and an Urban Outfitters, so it wasn't a total waste of time.  What is really interesting is that in the times of the Troubles, the IRA used to bomb weddings.  So, not only would that add stress to the bride and groom but also one had to risk one's life to go to a wedding.  For dinner Billy made us pork chops, carrots, brussel sprouts, and potatoes- it was a very Irish meal.  After dinner we watched and Irish comedy called "Everlasting Piece," which was comedic as well as portrayed the Troubles in Belfast in the 1980's quite accurately.  Before bed we had to pack for our weekend away at the North Coast.