Below are the 11 most recent journal entries recorded in kerrysinireland's LiveJournal:

Tuesday, June 28th, 2005
8:05 pm	Did you hear Bono fell off the stage? He got too close to the Edge! Hey! So Kerry went to U2 yesterday and wants to talk all about it but knows it's boring. So here's my rambling; I'll mark off a section with asterisks that's really unnecessary. You can decide whether or not to read it. It'll be like a 'Choose Your Own Adventure Book.' (I'm totally ripping this off of Kurt.) I know my folks and others wanted a full report, so here goes. U2... ...was... ...amazing. ***************** CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE! (Start superfluous details of why) The day was brilliant, sunny and warm and not a cloud in the sky. The company was fantastic. Adrian and Ciaran and I had a wonderful easy-going time, joking and sharing sandwiches on the way down. Dublin was class as always. It was like a carnival atmosphere; the stadium's in the middle of a residential neighborhood and people were having BBQ's and selling water and candy off their lawn. The streets were flooded. U2 hadn't been in Ireland in years so it was like a national holiday almost, swear. And they blew me away. First of all, we were on the pitch so maybe 6 rows of people from the side of the stage and we could've been closer but decided it'd get too crowded to see well later on, so we staked our ground and didn't leave it the whole night. The Bravery were great (New York, WHAT!) and I got cool video footage of them, and Ash was brilliant, playing all their old stuff to really get the crowd juiced. U2 came on and it was still daylight, opening with 'Vertigo' and 'All Because of You'. Bono came to our side of the stage early and posed for pictures, despite the signs everywhere forbidding cameras (check mine out on ofoto; you can see how close he got). Then he pulled a little girl up from the crowd right in front of us, her name was Ciara and he sang 'Beautiful Day' to her. He took her cowboy hat off and put it on, but when he went to take it off, it stuck on his ear piece and she had to detangle it for him, this wee girl, working away while he sang 'Beautiful Day' through laughter. Finally he got it off and she went back into the crowd and he stood up and it was right at the part where he says 'See the world in green and blue, see china right in front of you' but he sang instead 'See the world in green and blue, green orange white in front of you' and the place went mad. Bono was very human all the night. That was the best part, they were back to being 4 lads from Dublin. Not a lot of theatrics, just 2 and a half hours of rock. During 'Original of the Species' when Bono sings 'Some things you shouldn't get too good at, like smiling crying and celebrity, some people got way to much confidence, baby' he pointed to himself at the confidence line and laughed. It was cute. He was definitely crying during 'Sometimes You Can't Make it on Your Own,' as well, which is about his Dad dying I think. The lights behind the stage came on during 'City of Blinding Lights' like in the video and it was absolutely deadly. The lighting for the rest of the night was lethal--simple but amazing. Different things got thrown up on the big screen: a heart monitor pulse thing during Miracle Drug, a couple of times the big screen was the four of them playing, and the Declaration of Human Rights during 'Running to Stand Still'...Bono's written a couple of songs about Aung San Suu Kyi, this Nobel Peace Prize winner and Burmese leader whose currently unfairly imprisoned, and he opened by saying it was her 60th birthday and during the song the International Declaration of Human Rights came scrolling on the screen, and then a Burmese woman reading them, and then Bono segued into 'Happy Birthday to You' set to 'Running to Stand Still' and it got dead silent. I had three favorite songs. One was 'Sunday Bloody Sunday' because I've never seen it live; they stopped doing it live then started again in Sarejevo a few years back. And the concert was in Croke Park, the sight of the first Bloody Sunday Massacre in 1920 (even though the song's about the '72 Bloody Sunday.) The stage was bathed in red light, though, and on the big screen was the word Coexist but the 'c' was a Muslim moon, the 'x' a star of David and the 't' a cross. During the break he said, 'Thanks to men greater than anyone here your children won't have to worry about another bloody sunday. So tonight, Ireland, we sing to that. We sing to no more bloody sundays. No more!' and everyone chanted 'no more!' 'No more!' 'No more!' 'No more!' 'No more!' 'Wipe your tears away...wipe your bloodshot eyes' Number two was 'One' just because it was the greatest rendition I've ever heard and I love that song. They tacked 'Unchained Melody' onto the end of that one. Class. Bono did his normal political stuff, like blindfolding himself during 'Bullet the Blue Sky' and pretending to be bound to speak out about human rights violations, it was kind of cool seeing him feel his way around the stage though. And he did the petition to 'make poverty history,' you know the Live-8 thing, which whether or not you agree, it was mental to see 80,000 cell phones in the air and people all texting the word 'africa' and their name to this number. Bono was toned down though. He just sang and the boys just played and there was nary a second in between songs. The sound was dead-on too; apparently the first two shows were plagued with sound issues, but for this, the final show, everything sounded right. It was all brilliant, and Ciaran and Adrian were great. We had our arms around each others shoulders and would sway or jump up and down depending on the song and sang so loud we lost our voices, and when something class would be thrown on the screen we'd look at each other and just shake our heads and grin, and during big lines in songs we'd stick our heads together and power-ballad-fist and just wail. They closed with 'With or Without You' and came back for an encore of 'Zoo Station 'and 'the Fly' where all these words just flashed all over the screen--it was very 'Zoo TV' tour. Then they closed with 'Vertigo' (which they opened with too) and Ciaran and Adrian and I jumped the whole song and my jaw hurt from screaming and it was amazing. And then! Bono comes back out on stage and does his thank-yous and goes 'and a special thanks to the Croke Park Gardai who are letting us have an extra half hour' and they did another encore! 'Yahweh', which I'm 'eh' about, but then '40' and that was my third favorite song. They used to close with '40', the last line is just 'How long to sing this song' repeated over and over, and the crowd kept repeating it, and Bono said 'Thank you Dublin. Never in my megalomania did I ever imagine a homecoming like this. These three days here will be hard to top during all the days in the rest of my life.' And he peaced. Then Adam waved and left. The Edge and Larry kept playing and everyone kept chanting 'How long to sing this song' the whole time, the Edge waved and left and Larry just kept drumming, softer and softer... At one point he hangs his head and stops playing and the whole place, 100,000 or whatever, keeps chanting. He waits a minute and then starts playing, hard like, and everyone just screams even louder and then eventually he gets up and walks to the front of the stage and looks out, and Larry's always so serious. So he stands there, looks out, then grins and shakes his head, waves and walks off. And the place kept chanting 'how long to sing this song' for a good five minutes till the lights came on. And that was one of the coolest moments of my life. ************************************************ So there you have it. The best concert I've ever been to, hands down. And I bought a rad Vertigo t-shirt that says 'Croke Park Dublin' on the back, and saved 5 euro by buying a children's size. I'm still high off the show--honestly, we were stone cold sober but nothing, not running or piercings or alcohol or love or anything has ever made me feel that absolutely high. What a way to end the experience here... (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, June 26th, 2005
8:23 pm	Last night, a perfect beach party with a campfire by the water and singing rebel songs, football songs, pop songs and damien rice and weezer and u2 songs. Absolutely lovely and it gets light around 3, 3:30 so we played football in the sand in the wee hours of the morning. Check out the pictures. It was perfect. Tonight, tons of work so that I can take off tomorrow to see u2--in their hometown, fools. Should be amazing. I'm hyperventilating I'm so excited. Tuesday, recoup from tomorrow's down and back to Dublin, Wednesday tons of work and my last trad seisun in Carn, Thursday tons of work again and then Friday a 5k in Muff and a last hurrah in Derry. Saturday, my aunt visits, I pack and our farewell bbq with the kids in Moville. Sunday...onward to Dublin where I fly out Monday to meet my mom in London for some hardcore England/Scotland touring. I've been so all about coming home it hadn't hit me till today that I was leaving. This place has become my home so quickly. Something as small as ordering a burger with cheese, salad (lettuce) and red sauce (ketchup,) and chips (fries) without salt and vinegar (which comes standard) to takeaway (to go) made me realize how comfortable I am here, how accostumed I am to everything, and how heartsick I'll be when I leave. But I have tons to look forward to--seeing all you fools again, good bagels and pizza, better sleep since it's not light all night, and New York City again. The second day I'm back Kurt is visiting and he's only been to New York once before. I'm already listing in my head all my favorite places to swing by with him. Magnolia Bakery is as touristy as it'll get. Well onward to finish this work so I can leave with good clips for my resume. See you all so very soon. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, June 21st, 2005
5:43 pm	Happy Summer Soltice, kiddies. To celebrate the ridiculously long day, I'll be watching Goonies and that at around 10:30 we'll have a picnic on the town diamond. Hope everyone else is well. (Comment on this)
Monday, June 20th, 2005
9:20 pm	Wow. 2 weeks to go at my internship. What can I say, but that it's been an experience to say the least. I'm comforted knowing I'll be back in September. Taking away the sentimentality of leaving and not knowing when I'll be back has allowed me to truly look forward to coming home to NY and seeing everyone. I've just been plugging along at the station. I'm on air usually about 4 hours a week. I present and produce 'Talk Time,' a magazine-style show about local issues on Wednesdays. My rock show is Sundays at half five. I also tend to fill in for whenever people can't make their shows since I live in walking distance and jump at a chance to subject people to my musical taste. I'm trying to finish up my two documentaries but it'll be tough. I think I'm going to take my audio for the Death of Language home and attempt to continue to work on it and expand it to include other nations. It's too rich of a topic to contain to 15 minutes, which is the time limit for Global Voices, Local Ears. I've also had a ton of fun and seen a lot of the country. But I won't go into details here--I'm sure you'll hear stories when I'm home! Remember that bookshop owner who blew me off for an interview? Well I've gotten to know him pretty well. I drafted up this piece today, but I'm not sure it'll ever see anything other than this livejournal. But I had to write about him, he's the coolest guy. Maybe I'll edit it and clean it up and see if there's anything I can do. But I'll be here through the 4th before trekking around Scotland and England with my mom. So if you want to mail me anything, do it now! It takes between 4 days and 2 weeks to get here, so better safe than sorry. I can't wait to see everybody in a month! Here's the piece on mickey: As you descend Pound Street out of Carndonagh’s small downtown, you could miss the sign. About a foot wide and unassuming above the street, it hangs: The Book Store. Down the narrow alley, nestled behind the street, the Book Store is a refuge for the bibliophile. On the door, a handwritten sign in faded marker proclaims, ‘a book is a perfect present you can open AGAIN and AGAIN,’ scotch-taped next to yellowed articles about local authors. Behind the dusty window are guide and history books alike, documenting the Derry and Donegal area. Inside the room is about the size of a classroom. Bookcases are placed diagonally throughout, creating barely walkable passageways between. Stacks line the walls three deep. Eircom labeled bags and Hula Hoop boxes overflow in the corner. The Irish greats—Yates, Shaw, Joyce and friends—have their own section, as does anything Irish history themed. Throughout the remainder of the shop, the bulk of the books seem to relate to Ireland in some way. There is however a ‘penguin classics’ shelf, and children’s books spill out of cartons in the back wall. Everything else is scattered throughout the shop on the peripheral bookcases—Tropic of Cancer next to Antoine Fisher, the works of Byron beside Calvin and Hobbes. It is a rhyme and reason only the owner can understand: the white-haired man in the tweed jacked who sits in an alcove with barely enough space hollowed out of the stacks for a chair. He has no cash register or computer, but instead, a piece of paper and a pen rest on his crossed legs, balanced over the well-pleated grey slacks that have become his uniform. He makes notes when not doing word puzzles while his customers browse the shelves. A teakettle sits on the floor besides biscuits, which he offers to people as they move through the shop. His business card says ‘Michael Herron,’ but everyone knows him as Mickey. Mickey’s life wasn’t always based out of the Book Store. In a former life he was the principal of a primary school in Scotland. Moving back to Carn, Mickey traded in primers and textbooks for ‘rare, antiquarian, second hand and out of print books.’ He’s back where his people are from now. His brother Charles is a short story author of local renown. His nephew Charlie Junior is the resident rockstar. Charlie Junior’s wife Collette paints canvases that hang in local pubs and museums alike, rounding out the cultural tree that the Herron family has rooted in Inishowen. Mickey once shopped online and browsed garage sales for his treasured tomes. These days, though, most of his purchases come from townspeople who sell him their old collections. ‘I used to go out in find them in my younger days,’ Herron says as he gestures around him. He speaks are softly as he moves slowly. ‘Now they come to me,’ he says with a slight smile. It is the smile of a man who has found his home, not only in Carn but in a dusty bookshop down the back alley, surrounded by all the loves that have shaped his life. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, June 14th, 2005
10:21 am	My first complaint: It's pretty sweet that the the days are like 21 hours of light...but when the high for the day is 50 and the low 38 and it's raining a cold rain consistently, who really needs it. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, June 7th, 2005
1:04 pm	Phew what a weekend. It was a bank holiday, and power was interupted on Sunday, so I had three days off. Friday we headed up to Derry to cover a concert series--I got to interview a wicked cool metal band! Saturday I bought birthday/wedding/souvenir gifts in Derry, then Barry and Sarah and I watched the Ireland match at the pub. It was awful, the histrionic goalie kept wasting time by pretending to be injured and eventually got Andy O'Brien red carded even though the replay of the two of them tumbling to the ground, the goalie clearly punches O'Brien in the head. Anyway, enough of that rambling. Saturday night we went to this great bar that's definitely frequented by a kind of indy crowd. Insecure boys who wear too-smale sweaters and haven't shaved in a while and don't make eye contact while they talk + obnoxious girls with spiky/mullety hair who look you up and down as you pass in the bathroom = kerry feels at home! Sunday we headed down to Kilkenny for the Cat Laughs comedy festival. I forgot how different the south is. To be honest, the accents are nicer and so is the Guinness, but I still love Derry and Donegal. The festival was good--Dylan Moran was clearly tired, and his act showed it. He did a lot of jokes from his DVD and skipped the encore. It was also a lot of America bashing, so much even Barry said it got tiresome, and Irish humor that I didn't quite get. It was still rad just to be in the same room as him. He's so brilliant. Monday was a lot of travelling--due to the holiday the busses kept being too full to take us so we tried to get out of Kilkenny by 9, but didn't get out till 11:30. We missed our bus from Dublin to Derry by literally 2 minutes and had to pass 2 and a half hours in Dublin, but luckily it was gorgeous weather so in the end I'm glad for that break. As always, if you want to see pictures check out www.ofoto.com and log in with white_kerry_e@hotmail.com, and password kerrysinireland. My captions are always so long, it's practically another livejournal! But I'm a lot less homesick now, getting out cured my itchyness too. And eating a whole pizza in Dublin helped, lol. So fat! Sigh...there's just more of me to love now. :) (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, May 31st, 2005
3:48 pm	There is a theory that all of our cells have memory. The idea is that memory isn’t just stored in certain parts in the brain but in all of our cells throughout our body. People turn to transplant receivers as proof—after receiving hearts and lungs from others, the receivers develop personality traits of the donors: a vegan craves chicken nuggets, a rap artist picks up classical violin. I’ve never been one for alternative medical theories, but a month after stepping off a plane in Dublin, Ireland, I’m suddenly beginning to wonder if maybe there’s a grain of truth in this somewhere. In every other foreign country I’ve always visited, there’s always been an intangible feeling of, ‘Wow, this is a foreign country. This is different. This is exotic.’ Whether it’s the streets of Paris or the rainforests of Costa Rica, there has always been something that has made me feel as if I were in a completely new surrounding. Even Canada has always held a vague sense of romanticism, even just waiting on line to drive through customs checkpoints. It’s human nature, (isn’t it?), to embrace that which is different as automatically exciting. The day I arrived in Ireland, however, that feeling of ‘wow’ just never came. As I traversed the city of Dublin, I found myself thinking, ‘this is a lovely city,’ but still no ‘wow.’ My night at Katy Daly’s in Belfast, unwinding after a long two days of travel, I thought, ‘what a great little pub,’ but still no ‘wow.’ Even now, each day that I come into work at Inishowen Community Radio, I think either, ‘what a great place to work’ or ‘I wish I were back in bed,’ depending on my schedule for the day. But neither of these thoughts contains a trace of ‘wow.’ My whole life I’ve identified myself as Irish-American. I have ginger hair and green eyes, freckles across my nose and an inclination to sunburn. In my household growing up, dinner conversation was just as likely to focus on Irish Republicans as American; what was occurring in the Dáil was on the agenda alongside the happenings at Congress. The music I was raised on was classic rock complimented with trad legends the Wolfetones and the Chieftains. Maybe it’s only because the culture seems so familiar to my home—maybe that’s why I never felt out of place. In a very short time, my new surroundings here in Donegal have felt like home. I watch soccer matches at the pub and scream at the TV after defensive mishandlings. I inhale curry chips after a night on the beer. I drink tea four times a day and am quite accustomed to instant coffee. I forget that my accent marks me immediately as an outsider. And still, I wait for that ‘wow’ feeling. And still it doesn’t come. And that’s what I wonder. Is it possible that cell memory retains something across generations? Is it possible that ingrained in the DNA that gives me that ginger hair, the freckles and green eyes and fair skin, is a small memory of what is was like when this place *was* home? I don’t quite look Irish, I have an Irish-American look about me, and so maybe that memory has been watered down in much the same way. So I have to ask, what if the alternative theories are right? What if each and every cell in our body carries a memory, an idea of what was before. Maybe for me, that ‘cell memory’ of Ireland has become just a faint recollection, a vague notion of familiarity leftover from generations ago. But still, maybe that’s enough to make this place seem not quite ‘wow.’ Maybe that’s enough to make this place seem closer to home. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, May 25th, 2005
10:58 am	Fearghal (my boss): Kerry, have you made it down to the gym? Did you talk to Pete down there, he owns it and knows about all the 5Ks in the area. Kerry: Yeah, but Pete wasn't there. There was an elderly woman working the desk... Fearghal: Oh, that's Pete's mum. Yeah, it's a great gym but probably the only one in the world with a statue of the Virgin Mother looking down as you hit the treadmills. Knowing this area, it was probably part of the lease agreement. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, May 24th, 2005
5:31 pm	Week three. What a week it was. Sunday was my first radio show and I wasn't feeling quite well so I was a bit shaky but survived. Since then I've been on air three times so I'm becoming a pro. I'm getting on with my women's sports documentary as well. Last weekend Kim and I escaped to Belfast and I realized how homesick I am--or rather civilization sick. I was so happy in Belfast and Derry. But things have been less lonely around here now that I'm meeting people and have things to look forward to on the weekends. And last night, we had dinner with this lovely hippy family and then babysat for the baby, Eoghan (pronounced Owen) at the Isle of Dough and I was once again floored by the beauty of this place. The parents, Kathleen and Brendan, are putting on a summer gathering with environmental activists and artists and artisans at the Isle so they had a meeting there. Kim and I walked with Eoghan on the beach to keep him out of his parents' hair. We got on pretty well, me and Eoghan--he reminds me so much of my nephew Daniel. So starting next week I'll be babysitting regularly, every Monday during their summer gathering meeting, in exchange for a homemade meal and good company and a place to crash once a week. I'm quite excited--check out my pictures at ofoto (log in white_kerry_e@hotmail.com, password kerrysinireland)--Eoghan is adorable. Kim unfortunately lives too far to babysit regularly, but she has such a big homestay family, I don't think it means quite as much to have a meal with a family. But back to the Isle--everything here is not only gorgeous but steeped in history. At the summer gathering meeting we met a local tour guide and story teller who's taking Kim and me out for a drive/hike this weekend. It's so unspoiled, there are stone circles and pagan temples just along people's property. And even the place names are fascinating. One of the mts is called the irish for 'Horse's Hill.' There are no horses, but instead the story is that in olden days your property line was decided by how far your strongest horse could run before passing out, hence Horse's Hill. The Isle of Dough is not an Island but nearly an island--connected to the main peninsula by only a sand bank (now paved into a road.) The name Dough means 'raised sandbank,' so the name makes sense when you know that. Even Carndonagh comes from Carn Domhnach, or Carn of the Sundays, which goes back to St. Patrick's times--places founded by St. Patrick have the word 'Sunday' in them because he's the patron saint of Ireland. Enough rambling...I'm sure this isn't quite as interesting to everyone else. I'm wiped from my talk show I did today anyway...I committed a cardinal sin of radio, forget my mic was up, flubbed the minidisc, and audibly said 'aw crap.' At least I don't swear too much. Still miss everyone...still love getting emails and letters ;) love kerry (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, May 16th, 2005
10:13 am	Let me just start off by saying: Sundays 5:30-6:30 (12:30-1:30 EST) "Coffee Talk: The best rock from your own backyard to across the pond" (Tentative title, all right! Give me some time here!) DJed by your very own Kerry White 105/107.6 ICRFM or www.icrfm.ie I hope for your sake you have something better to do, but if not, tune in. It really won't be very good music since I don't have any cd's with me and will just be burning what I can off my ipod. BUT! You can e-mail your requests during the week and I'll shout you out! Kim (the Canadian co-intern) and I co-anchored (as substitutes) a slot last week and called it "North American Delight." We got such good feedback we were both offered our own slots! So, work has officially started. ICR (Inishowen Community Radio) is really a great place to work. The station is really just a small room cordoned into three cubicles, then there's a kitchen, two offices, two studios and a back room for the server and wiring. When you walk in everyone says 'hi,' and as you pass people by they most likely will stop what their doing to shoot the breeze or take the mick (joke around) a bit before diving back into work. The kitchen is always stocked with tea and instant coffee, and tucked in the fridge you can usually find leftover cookies from Tuesday's 5-7 jazz show--the presenter (what they call the DJ) always brings a box of Jaffa Cakes or Wagon Wheels over with him, earning him the nickname Billy Biscuits. Everyday from 1-3 during the Golden Oldies show, PJ the presenter (who is also the station's Programming Director) offers up a quiz raffle and the phone lines are flooded. Answering the phones, names and towns are taken down and if you can't understand what's said, someone in the office will know--"Alfie Something or Other from Ballymaggin?" "McGovern or Doherty." "Definitely McGovern, thanks!" Yesterday I hung up the phone complaining about the surly old man who just argued with me that the answer was France and not Portugal. Everyone shook their head and said, "Mickey Liam is at it again." Everyone knows everyone. And yet there are amazing talents and qualifications in the station, and the town is a treasuretrove of characters. While I was just intimidated at first by being told, "it's up to you to make of this what you want--enjoy!" I now see this internship for what it is--a production studio, equipment, airwaves and complete freedom. In order to truly represent the diverse interests of the community, their rule is "if one person would find this interesting, that's enough." So if I don't get a lot done in the next 7 weeks I'll kick myself--I'll never have this opportunity again. Plus, I'm so bored--I really have no excuse. Kim and I are working on ideas for "Global Voices, Local Ears." I've started researching on the decline of languages (i.e. Irish, Native American, Maori etc...) and also thinking about some women's rights angles. I had my first rejection though! There's this great book shop in town, it's the size of a dorm room with shelves diagnonally placed creating barely passable asiles. There are stacks against the shelves three thick, and boxes and bags overflowing in the corner. On the door is a hand written note that says in faded marker, "A book is a present you can open again and again!" Apparently the owner was a secondary school principal in Derry and got tired of city life so he moved to Inishowen. He has some really rare first editions right next to books you can get for half a Euro. He just loves books and he passes his time in a little alcove of books in his shop, answering questions and shooting the breeze. And he does not want to be interviewed! Tears, sighs, cries. He said he got interviewed for the station once already, and so would prefer not to. I explained that I'm a bit of a bibliophile myself, and would love to just chat about the books. No thanks, pet, was the only answer. Ahhhh.... So that's work, in other news--things are pretty chill. Sometimes the lonliness gets to me. Everyone in this town is so damned friendly...but the kids are all a little bit cooler. Last Wednesday I went to the pub with Colm, my 65 year-old homestay host, for a traditional session (it's like an Irish music jam open mike thing) and Colm got up for the bathroom. I was sitting right next to a group of kids, our tables were basically adjoining, by myself and they all stared for a bit and then went back to talking to each other. Last Saturday night I went to the same pub to see Colm and his brother play a gig (old aging Irish hippies, ahh...) That outing was better, I met and chatted with a few nice kids but they all went back to what they were doing after a minute or so, and I eventually felt like a loser sitting at the bar alone so I peaced out. Apparently they all were looking for me around 1 to take me to the club, but I didn't know to stick around. My co-intern is awesome, though, so sweet and a lot of fun but is in homestay in Moville, a good 15-20 miles away, and is dependent on one of the workers at the station to get in and out of the Carn (what they call Carndonagh around here.) Saturday afternoon I got a ride into Moville--such a neat seaside town. We hiked 3 miles along the water to see some castle ruins, and walked back on the road (well, caught a ride with a group of boys from Moville for the last few meters.) It's good to have ways to pass the weekends. Kim's homestays own a B and B and said I'm welcome anytime, and Barry will be in Derry starting next weekend which is only a bus ride away, and I'll have to get down there once a week anyhow to do my Summer Decathlon Series run. (There are no tracks on the Inishowen Peninsula.) The buses don't run on the weekends so I'd have to leave Friday if I wanted to go anywhere, but I can work on that. Weeknights, however, are taken up by making mix cds, writing in my journal, reading, watching DVD's and researching--which I enjoy, really, but it's only been a week and I'm already a little lonely. I'm a brat...I miss internet and cell phone and talking to my friends and family. Some nights I just want to go to bed wicked early out of boredom, but because we're so North the days are incredibly long. The sun is up and shining by 5 (which is a pain to sleep through) and it's dusk well past 10. I can't bring myself to go to bed while it's light out, which will be rough around mid-June when it'll still have some light into the 11's. According to the tour book, sunrise starts on June 21 at 3:47 AM and sunset begins at 10:15, but the locals say the light lingers nearly to midnight. The scenery still gets me though. Go to www.ofoto.com and log in with my email (white_kerry_e@hotmail.com) and the password kerrysinireland. This week is just landscapes of the area--pretty boring but you get an idea. In the next few weeks I'll get pictures of people, places, the station etc. Oh, and this week I bought a two litre bottle of 'juice' and killed it after work, thinking all the while that it was a little too sweet for my taste. Only later when checking the calorie content did I see in small letters, "4 parts water to 1 part juice concentrate." Nowhere else on the bottle did the words concentrate appear! Narf. Foreigners cook for themselves and hilarious antics ensue! Well back to work. They're not paying me to check emails. Well, they're not paying me at all actually. Slan kerry (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, May 10th, 2005
10:43 am	HIYA So I set up this account and I'll try to update it every week or so, so you voyeurs can take a peek into my adventures abroad and I can feel like I'm somewhat keeping in touch. I do miss everyone like madness. My week in Belfast is over and yesterday I arrived in Carndonagh where I'll be spending the next two months. Spending time with friends was a nice transition into being here, and real good craic (fun). And having to figure out how to get from Dublin to Belfast, and then Belfast to Derry to Carndonagh was a nice boost in my independence. Having someone pick me up at the airport would've been too easy. Struggling my way through public transportation in strange cities with a behemoth of a suitcase is clearly the way to go. (Note to anyone planning on taking a bus in Dublin: the doors open inward, so if you're leaning on one when the bus happens to stop, you will get smacked around and wedged between the seat and the door and everyone will laugh at you.) My hour wait in Derry allowed me to explore though, and Derry is where University of Ulster Magee is. I found a coffeeshop that serves bagels, which goes in the "plus" category when deciding whether or not to go to grad school there. Belfast was really nice. Newtonabbey, where Barry lives, is a nice little suburb of Belfast too, and nearby the University of Ulster Jordanstown, which is where Barry and Conor go and where I spent 2 weeks in 2000. The city of Belfast is quite cute and the suburbs have some beautiful mountainscapes. We did a nice split of touristy things and spending time doing what the students do. Unfortunately right when I started really enjoying myself I had to split out for Carndonagh. Where I am now is much more rural and picturesque--the town has a population of about 4000. I'll take some pictures of the main street and my "backyard" and get them up soon. It will be a slow lifestyle though, and I won't mind distractions in the form of emails and letters...if the fancy so strikes you, my email is still white_kerry_e@hotmail.com, and the address is Kerry White c/o Colm McGettigan Malin Road Carndonagh Co. Donegal Ireland Yup it's such a small town you just send to the person's name and it'll find it's way. (I'm staying in a homestay, fyi, that's why my mail is courtesy of some man's name.) Oh, and comment on this post with your address if you want a postcard! Right now I'm at work, which is a super small community radio station. There doesn't seem to be much work for me--everyone keeps telling me to 'take initiative' but I have no idea in what direction. So I'm going to shadow and listen to the station and get a feel for what it does. They all but admitted they're not quite sure what to do with interns, but it'll be an experience just to see how something like this works and get some production and onair experience (I already recorded 3 community announcements--apparently my New York accent is exotic!) But I'll write more on that when I know more. Well that's about all I got--I'm doing well, but admittedly a little homesick. Using the phone is expensive and difficult, navigating the time change irritating, and internet hard to come by so I feel a little isolated but I guess that's the whole point of doing something like this. Luckily I have my lap top, which isn't connected to the internet or anything, but I can still hug it and cradle it when no one's looking, saying "sweet sweet technology..." If you're interested in some pictures head over to www.ofoto.com, type in my email address (white_kerry_e@hotmail.com) and the password is kerrysinireland. I'll try to find a photo hosting website in the meantime so that I can just put them directly into this journal. Later on! Kerry (3 Comments |Comment on this)