Ireland: Dancing Singing and Watching Others Get Drunk Past Review

Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc.

I comment on this further in other sections. The work is generally independent but only if you are taking the classes labeled "Independent." Though even the one which aren't are based on skill, if you rock then the teachers will let you do your own thing, if you are exploring just starting out there will be instruction and assignments to help get you started. There is no grading thank you, a grade will appear sometime after you get back and you can determine from that how much your teacher liked your work but MICA doesn't count the grades on your transcript anyway so as long as you pass you are fine. I of course was wonderful and my teachers loved me but I took Advanced Sculpture-Independent Sculpture-and Live Art which was a lot of sculpture work and I ended up in a way merging the three and ended up doing a bunch of performance art where I would build sculptures to be used in the performances while building some things not related just to experiment so the cross class grading system became wild and what I would recommend would be to not think about grades but to focus on your work and how it relates to your other work and not force your work by keeping the classes seperated. Wow that sounded confusing. You are expected to show up every day and be at school 9am-5pm but one of the best students did his work like from 5pm to 8am and would sleep through the time he was required to be in school which annoyed the faculty a lot but he still got great work done.

On-site administration of your program

I went to the Burren for the spring semester. Spring is misleading as we landed in Shannon airport the country was covered with a thin layer of frost, trees coated a real fairy tale landscape if anything and the burren was no less for the rest of the semester. Many details hhmm there was a first week where Bryan the bus driver who just had a baby drove everybody around the burren from Fanore Beach to the Cliffs of Moher to lisdoon lisdoon lisdoon lisdoonvarna! Oooh lisdoonvarna! Tim is the dean of the college who was around all the time often our tour guide unless we were on Irish Studies Field trips which where lead by Gordon D’arcy who was much loved by all oh and if you aren’t in the Irish Studies class join it! Cause what else are ye there for! You select classes when you arriveish, in addition to Irish Studies where each Friday you go to some new exciting place in County Clare either on foot or by bus there is almost a class field trip every week, at least there is a grocery shopping trip every other week to Gort. Lots of bus time lots and lots of time with the whole group, which made everybody the best of friends, bonding through adventures up the mountain of carboniferous limestone. There are many pubs in town and everyone in my group loved to drink to excess and each person got rowdy in their own special way. I actually never drank when I was there but I’m crazy on my own so it wasn’t needed, needless to say it was a semester of dance and song, seclusion and togetherness. Deborah is the librarian and has been known to be a little… odd. She and Robert the facilities manager practically run the whole school regardless of Ann’s place as president and Tim as Dean. Robert will be your shuttle driver every day unless you walk to the school which you should often. Watch out for Robert cause he is very prissy? He has quite the irish humor and loves to make fun of the students and pick on the new kids and cajole everybody. Don’t mind him everybody loved him even through all the snappy jokes and pranks he pulled. I guess the whole semester depends on the type of people who are in your class as apparently we were one of the better classes since everyone got along and we hung with the grad students.

How satisfied were you with your living arrangements?

Everybody sorta lives together in four different houses owned by people in the towne, the 26 of us. I was in the smallest house: Tom Connolly’s the taxi cab driver. Once I started cooking for everyone in my house we had “Family Dinners” every week and had lots of experiments with baking and cooking breads and brownies, which I would recommend! Other houses: Orchard, Ann’s, and umm.. eh that other one. I spent most time at orchard the largest house which was also the loudest rowdiest drunkest party house I think 11-14 people lived there and only 3 didn’t drink crazy, it was rough for them cause if they wanted to sleep while everyone partied too bad they’re too drunk. I wooould definitely recommend stay over on the field trip to Dublin cause a lot of my crazy adventures happened there. There’s a wonderful lady in to Mishka who does yoga on Tuesdays ask Deborah Evers for her number hopefully she still teaches. The houses are fully furnished, homey cozy and warm! Hot water was almost limitless, the sinks had some ecsentricities... (you turn the hot water on it would act normal then stop all of a sudden, whereas the cold water you'd turn on and it would slowly grow in water pressure till you were spraying water all over!) Great kitchens, great yards, great views, you are either in the town or closer to school, either way the school is only 2km from the town of Ballyvaughan.

GREATEST FOOD I EVER DID TASTE! It was sad the farmer's market did not start till late march-april the end of the semester but in general I had the best milk, the best eggs, best and freshest healthiest meats and fish around. The grocery in town is teeny tiny but is well stocked, every two weeks there is a grocery trip for everybody and plenty of options from organic awesome foods to the cheapest of the cheap supermarkets, veggies, meats whatever, I made it a habit of buying something new and exciting every time I went out (e.g. fresh fish, live crab, chia seed, kamut flour, Slippery Elm Powder! chicken so fresh a nice little Irish lady hand delivers it to you through your window) The food in the pubs is darn right tyranny very expensive but the taste is great and the seafood is impressive. I don't drink but if you do drink guinness, nowhere will you find a drink so good that gives you strength, Jameson Irish Whiskey was popular and so was the strong cider. Continued in Social and Cultural Experiences...

How integrated did you feel with the local culture?

Get used to it buddy not everybody drinks but the entire social structure revolves around the drink. Some people went to the pub every night others didn't, but if you didn't go at least once or twice on the weekends you pretty much miss the entire culture whoops! Not a problem for me I had a perfect balance going out partying, dancing, going to pubs at night a few times a week, just to read, chat with local yokels, friends, sing with the musicians that are almost always there on weekends, everybody sings at least everybody loves when there is someone singing and I was very welcomed when I asked to sing a song and though we got funny looks when we danced it really just makes them feel happy watching the youth have a good time to the music. Of course there were visitors from the city would come down to our country pubs for a night out and just mess stuff up, take over and break glasses; don't be like that. There's having fun and interacting with a culture and then there's people like that, that just dishonor it in a way. Not really any Irish Students Sorry.

How well were health issues addressed during the program?

I felt like I was in the safest cleanest place on the planet. Reflective vests are provided so you better wear them or you won't feel safe on winding roads with no streetlights and bus rides are scary but Bryan is an expert driver don't worry! We never locked our door, when we did we put the key in the rock wall in front of the house. It's the country = no crime. Now there were some trips to the city and I admit I went through some scary, nighttime experiences in dark places but yo it's Ireland and throughout the entire trip in the Burren, in Galway, in Dublin I was never as afraid as I am for one second in Baltimore. Your biggest fear would be some rowdy drunks, bouncers at bars are scary but they are actually there protecting you, at least if you are a peaceful paying patron of their pub or club. I was never alone. Well I was alone sometimes but all the city trips everyone either stuck together like bubblegum or split into two or three large groups so safe just don't be stupid, carry around a flashlight always and remember where your hostel is in the city and oh I just remembered there always tends to be a weird water issue the past two times I was there one in Galway two years ago (cryptosperidium) and one this year in the burren silage or something got in the water smelled like cow manure for two weeks and so did you if you took a shower eewww, but they fixed it, it's a farming culture deal with it, boil the water and it's fine to drink when that happens but don't be paranoid about the water they will inform you right away if something goes awry.

(1 = not very easy/$200+ on food & personal expenses/week, 2.5 = $100/week, 5 = very easily/minimal cost)

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