An Atlas of Clouds: Ireland, August 17-September 5
“Three or four times only in my youth did I glimpse the Joyous Isles, before they were lost to fogs, depressions, cold fronts, ill winds, and contrary tides…I mistook them for adulthood. Assuming they were a fixed feature in my life’s voyage, I neglected to record the latitude, their longitude, their approach. Young ruddy fool. What wouldn’t I give now for an never-changing map of the ever-constant ineffable? To possess, as it were, an atlas of clouds.”
- Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell
I thought it appropriate to begin with this quote from a great book I’m currently reading, the title and author of which you can see above. I’m not going to spoil the style in which it was written (which is pretty nuts) or give away any key details, but this quote hit particularly hard when I read it, so I wanted to share. It may seem rather depressing—and it is, in a sense, and it’s spoken by one of the book’s more downtrodden characters—but that’s not the point, and it’s not why it stuck out for me, since I’m having a fantastic time in Ireland so far. He’s expressing a desire for something I’ve always wanted for myself, this so-called “cloud atlas”, a map of the future to know for sure when times will be good and bad, so that one can prepare for the worst and truly savor those moments that they know are best. I could go into great detail about wanting this for my past self now that I’ve matured and how it relates to my time in Ireland now, but I know no one wants to hear that. I’d rather just stick it here as food for thought to be chewed and savored. Also, it’s a fantastic book and all of you should consider reading it if you’re looking for suggestions. Get to it!
Anyways…..I’ve been a little hesitant to start doing a travel blog, since I’m already sending regular updates to my family back home and I’ve started writing every few days in a journal specifically for this trip so I can look back on it months or years later, just like a time capsule. I don’t to rehash my own thoughts and events so many times that I begin to lose interest or overthink aspects of it that don’t matter. But, that’s probably just me being overly cynical. I’m doing it anyways—i’ll be writing with less frequency than when I use my journal, but here I can add pictures and videos and other neat stuff. So…where do I even start?
I suppose I could start with the field trip I just got back from earlier this afternoon, as in what the class I’m in is, where we went, and why we did it. I, with about 150 other international students at University College Cork (UCC) came here, to Cork, a month early to take part in their “early start” program. We chose from five one month-long classes, each one of them focusing on a different aspect of Irish culture in great detail. Mine is Irish music (of all kinds), but others included folklore or literature, for example. We’ve focused primarily on traditional music (called “trad music” here), but we’ve since started to branch out into contemporary rock, pop, and punk. Eventually we’ll have a whole day for Irish rap, which should be interesting to say the least.
I haven’t met that many others my age yet, which is a little disappointing, but there are too very clear reasons for that. Firstly, the Irish students are only beginning to arrive this week, so not that many college students are here yet. And secondly, we met a small group of girls soon after arrival but haven’t branched out since then, which is entirely our own fault. We’re can be pretty lazy, and we’re not the type to amass huge entourages—we prefer a smaller, closely-knit crowd with plenty of one-on-one conversation, that sort of thing. I’m sure a handful of friends will eventually be made during nights out pubhopping downtown, but for now I’m in lazy mode and content hanging out with this small posse.
What else to discuss? I should probably mention the field trip our music class took last week to a region in counties Kerry and Cork called Sliabh Luachra (pronounced “sleeve luke-rah”….what a bizarre language) because they’re home to a very rich and specific type of Irish traditional music, and we spent 1.5 driving around to small villages and one city (Killarney) in West Ireland whilst learning about Sliabh Luachra through performances, stories and tours. There’s plenty of information about the region and famous figures connected with it that can be found online—such as Sean O Riada, who also attended UCC!—so feel free to look them up yourself if you’re so inclined. In the meantime, here’s some pretty pictures from the trip to gaze at, especially the ones from the gorgeous Killarney National Park:
Other random observations:
- The term “bits and bobs” is used a surprising amount of times
- Where’s Waldo = Where’s Wally
- Irish people older than 20 seem to all be incredibly nice, whereas all the kids I’ve seen are kind of pricks
- Ireland truly is just as green as people say it is
