Today was full of many things that were extremely moving to me. In class we talked about Beckett’s Texts For Nothing which sparked much conversation about why the text was so confusing and what the meaning behind it was. After class we went on the James Joyce tour which is one of my favorite things we have done so far. It really gave me an inside look on his early life and that explained a lot of the themes and stories found in Dubliners. Themes such as leaving Dublin because of his poor experiences with the city itself, and some quirky things such as the jumping over the fence. After the tour we went to the coffee shop and bookstore thats pictured in this post, and I ended up not getting coffee because they said they were out of non-dairy milk :(. I really enjoyed all of the books, and the ones about Irish history were all from authors I knew and understood now. This makes me feel a lot closer to Irish history. After the bookstore we walked across the river and saw the monument of the famine which I found extremely powerful. The statues of the people and the children were almost alien-like which I think was the point of it. It was to relay that the time period, that it was almost portrayed as not being real and the people there were so hungry that they didn’t even look real as well. Afterwards we saw a Beckett portrayal which I found extremely interesting because it didn’t clear up what those texts are actually supposed to mean. But the woman who portrayed this was absolutely incredible. The sound and emotion that was portrayed was something that stood out to me. It made me feel almost connected to the texts, even though you didn’t know what they were supposed to mean. Today made me feel more connected to the Irish history and the authors behind it.

Today was an amazing day. Today I really felt like I got to experience Dublin. This picture is of my dinner that I had at Sprouts before the Literary Pub Crawl. This day was especially special because for one it did not rain. The class this morning I found particularly intriguing because we were talking about animal ethics behind the Natural History Museum. As a vegan, I am pretty knowledgable about animal ethics and animal rights. I almost found this concept to be a “place” for me. Even though a discussion topic is not a physical being I find it interesting that even something such as a concept can be a place for me. It becomes a place when it’s something I can relate to and something I feel I connect on an extremely deep level. This picture ties into this as this is the best vegan meal I’ve had since I’ve been here. The pub crawl afterwards was really fun, as I had odd encounters with every bar tender. I really felt like I got the whole Dublin City experience like the boys in Dubliners. I think the difference between my experiences and theirs comes down to the fact that I am older than them and more mature, so I did not end up having this unrealistic magical views, and I also already live in the city. Today was an exceptionally good day, I did a lot of shopping, drank a lot of good beer, and ate the most amazing food.