Since Monday

First are a few photos of the concert Arielle and I went to. This was the band Marillion. We enjoyed ourselves. I think most of you would have really liked them too. It was cool. Also there's a pic of a James Joyce Award that some pub I was in got. There's James' face and it explains about pubs in Dublin that I thought was cool.

So this needs to be quick cuz I need to do research. I did all the work I needed to do on Monday and got my proposal finished. We handed it in on Tues, even tho the prof forgot she told us to turn them in. Classes, more classes, then we had a guest prof storm out of our last class since most of us hadnt seen the screening the day before. That was interesting... On Wed I had our theatre seminar tho the prof spent the whole class time going over each of our proposals, reading thru them out loud and telling us how we could improve. It was a good session, but she waited to get to mine til last so I was so nervous by the time she got to me, my hands were sweaty and I was shaky! The proposal wasnt very good, but it's a first draft and not graded so that's no worry. None of us did great and none of us knew how to do it. They dont give detailed instructions. They just say "do it". So she said "turn in your proposals" and we said "uh.... ok". At least after giving her what our interpretations of a proposal were, now we know what exactly to have and how it should look when it's due next month. She told us to work on them over Christmas. Oh yea, also on Wed night, I went to choir and we did Christmas caroling rehearsal. After all my junk is finished next Wed, I will meet the choir around 5:45 and we will head down to temple bar and start singing. It's fun since there are a couple of them that I've never heard of! LOL. It's also funny cuz I was the only alto who could start singing Silent Night on the correct note. Hey, at least it's ONE song I recognize!! haha. Oh and I also tried minced pie. For the holidays everyone is bringing out mulled wine and minced pie, and they had the pie after choir. Tasted like fig newtons!

But for now I'm looking over primary research that I can put into a power point presentation for next Wed, and I'm doing laundry. I'm looking to do my dissertation, proposal, thesis, presentation.... all this stuff, on the technology in the theatre. The same plays have been produced for over a hundred (or more in some cases) years, and technology has certainly changed. So I have to find something original - newspapers, video clips, pictures, memoirs, programs, anything that's done first hand on these plays, melodramas perhaps, maybe something on the playwrights themselves... In the end I'll need all of this. Right now I need something that i can talk about for 10 minutes. Maybe I can write long blogs, cuz I have lots of thoughts about "me", but actual academic research is different.

So now that i've told you what i need to be looking for, I will go out and find it. Just one week til I'm done with classes and flying home, but I'm going to stay busy

Just working

So this weekend I really tried staying in. I guess it's not super freezing outside, as mom pointed out, it's supposed to be 'mild' here. It is mild. But when you're used to being inside all the time, the 'mild' cold weather feels cold cold. Like at home, when you're leaving for work or to go out, you start in the house. You are outside for about 10 seconds before you turn on the heater if your car needs it. Then you drive. You are dry. No wind in your face. Set the temp to keep you comfortable. Then you arrive at your destination, depending on where you are, you may have to face walking for about 30 seconds outside, until you get inside another warm comfortable building. So even if the weather here is not much colder than it is in SC right now, it feels worse cuz I'm outside for a lot of it. Walk to the bus. Wait for the bus. Get off the bus. Walk around campus or town. Walk to the shop to get a snack. Walk to the laundry room. All of this walking is outside. It could be worse. But still, it's not what's normal. When you're used to being inside all of the time, then this is cold. When I'd go to work and it was in the 40s, I'd have a short sleeve shirt on and a jacket on top. That's cuz I'd be outside for a total of 60 seconds tops! But here you're outside most of the time. And also, you may remember, my school is old. Way older than our country. and luckily for me, my classrooms are not in really new up to date places. My music classroom is cold! It over looks the front outside of Trinity. You can see the street and all the cars and people. And there may be heat somewhere, but it doesnt stay trapped in there too long.

Today I walked to campus and decided to blow off my film screening and instead met up with LeeAnn and we went to KC Peaches, this sandwich/coffee shop sorta place. It's quite a ways out from Trinity. Then we walked back to the national archive and library, which was the reason we went so far to eat. We were in there for a while. I realized that a lot of my research will have to be done from my computer first. Like, if I want to see a program from a theatre in 1917, then I'll need to go to the newspapers and find out when the play was performing, and then I can ask for the date of the program.

I'm writing (or supposed to be writing) my proposal for my dissertation. Other that not knowing how to write a proposal, I'm having trouble finding an angle for it too. And I have a couple of different ideas. Writing this proposal wont mean I cant change my mind, but I do have to figure out which idea I think I'd be best following up on. I may focus on an Irish playwright called Dion Boucicault, whose works were first produced in the mid 1800s, and i found that one of his plays that premiered in 1860 was most recently reproduced in NY in 2003. So that could give me an idea of how this one particular play has changed throughout the years, technologically speaking. I just have to figure out how to write it so it sounds intelligible.

I'll see what my prof says, cuz really the ones who are turning in their proposals are the film students, so my prof may tell me she doesnt need it right now, since it will be focused on the theatre. Who knows. But then i'll spend the rest of this week doing primary research so i can be prepared to do my presentation next week. Unfortunately the presentation is the day before I leave, so there wont be much down time before coming home.

Other than that I've had little more going on. I went to Immanuel Church Dublin on Sunday night. On friday I went to the Irish film institute, which was small but cool. Thank goodness I'm not doing much film work cuz you have to pay each time you go there. Trinity used to cover the fees for the students but dropped that this year. We went down to the film cellar where they work with films. There was one film that a guy was working on that was from Mass in the late 50's and it was their St Patrick's day parade, i think, and real quickly you see a little kid go out in the street and shake JFK's hand, before anyone knew who he was. That's interesting to have on film. They also have films like one of the beatles in germany, and all you could hear was screaming and some singing. But it's more than just professional films, tho they have all professional films. It's filled with home movies and lots of amateur films. They run thru them quickly but we could have the opportunity if we wanted to go thru it more carefully to find stuff. Either way, i wont be doing much there. And lets see, the day before that, on Thursday, when a bunch of you were at Laura's party, I went to a concert. The group was called Marillion. Steve sent me some of their music a little while back. And Arielle and I decided to go. They are a British rock band but this was their acoustic tour. They've been playing since the 80's and 90's. They sounded great and were really funny and the Irish crowd was very interactive with them so it was a good time all around.

Anyways, i need to work on some research... That's my blabbing for today

Dec 3 my time

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Any of you reading this post as I post it will realize that it's only Dec 2nd, but in Ireland it's already your birthday dad. I figure I'm probably the first person in the world to wish it, as i hit the day the soonest. :-)

I've been in class the past two days. Turned in my theatre essay on Monday. Plan on going to the National Archives tomorrow and try to do some research for my presentation, which has now been moved back one week - the day before I leave to come home, actually. But we now have our dissertation proposal due on Tuesday morning. It's supposed to be for those in the class who are focusing more on film, but even though I'm focusing more on theatre, it still sounds like she expects mine then also. Our theatre proposals werent due until after Christmas. So she did say that if it was more film then it was due next week, and after we all told what it was we wanted to do, she said 'it sounds like all of you have a film related topic so your proposals will all be due on Tues" - even tho mine may touch on film, but will really be theatre related... oh well. i guess it's one less thing to do. However, i will still need to do research so I can know how to write my proposal, which also includes a bibliography of what we plan on using... so you've gotta have pre research for your research...

Anyways, everyone have fun at Laura and Tommy's party, and Dad, have a great birthday!!! :-)