Raise your hopeful voice you had a choice you've made it now. Falling slowly sing your melody I'll sing along - "Falling Slowly" from Once

That 6:00 a.m. flight took me back to DUBLIN! To the complete confusion and suspicion of Ireland Border Control I was back in Ireland just four days later after staying for just 36 hours a week ago. I got a tasting of what I liked! Or I’m smuggling peanut butter. Who knows but if you ask me one more time how to spell Elise Delmerico’s last name at 7:15 a.m. with 2 hours of sleep I’m taking the peanut butter back with me.

Alright shorter posts are in order with more pictures and less yacking so here goes SPRING BREAK PART 1 of 3: DUBLIN

These pretty girls.

Visit to Howth with London friends and Elise.

Ate the best fish n chips known to man-kind.

Hiking up the Howth hillside to get the most beautiful view of the big blue and my favorite: a 

lighthouse! Search for Irish whales begins.

Ireland v. England rugby at the pub with an Irish victory. Great way to spend an afternoon!! Starting to realize why the Europeans make so much fun of American football..

Back to the Porterhouse and other Irish pubs for a night out on the town. It was a day with a LOT of Bulmers Cider. Thanks Miss D J

Trip to Sandycove on the DART round two.

Sailboats, farmer’s markets and Irish yacht clubs = bliss.

Pancake dinner with Elise, Sarah O, other Elon kids and new Dublin/London friends!

An AWESOME visit to Dublin. Elise taught me well – trips to the ocean and hillsides by day and back to the city for drinks at the pub by night in Dublin. I loved it!

Off to Galway. See next blog post! How’s that for efficient blog-writing!

See I've travelled around, I've been all over the world, Boys I've never seen nothin like a Galway girl

SPRING BREAK PART 2 of 3: GALWAY

Headed to the West of Ireland to find Miss Erin Cavanaugh. Definitely one of my favorite trips ever.

Used my polished British dialect to keep an eager Irish man at bay. His response to my “Could you tell me where the station is sir?” --- “Oh you’re English” (walks away). Dear Great Britain, Thanks for being one of the most uptight, hated empires ever. I am in love with you.

Found that other redhead and went back to meet her apartment-mates. They were all so great despite not understanding how Erin and I survive off at least two peanut butter and JELLY (not jam and also not jell-o) sandwiches a day. Watch it.

The first day we explored Galway. It is so beautiful and had a real town feel to it. It’s right on the ocean, which is perfect. It reminded me so much of Cape Cod. Her campus in Galway is beautifully green. The doors of Galway were a big hit. And ANOTHER lighthouse!!!

Swans in the harbor - so many!

Beach in Galway

Houses of Galway

Ok back to list form:

Explored Shop Street and had the most delicious Farmer’s Vegetable Soup and brown bread for lunch.

Walked along the beach to the lighthouse.

Went gift-shopping for babies clothes from Ireland. I’ll let this one float.

Convinced Erin to eat a piece of chocolate. There was no turning back after that.

Hung out with her roommates, made gnocchi somewhat successfully for dinner and hit bed for our adventure the next day!

After taking a little too much time perfecting the pb&j sandwiches and losing my purse behind a window curtain….we booked it to the bus! Huffing and puffing we sat on the bus for 10 minutes feeling a little stupid.

Off to the Aran Islands aka the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen. A ferry trip (still no whales) to the islands to rent bikes for the day.

Stopped into the Aran Island sweater shop and found a tweed-colored sweater to pick up later.

We spent the entire day on bikes riding around the island. The views of the ocean were beautiful, the people living on the islands were lovely and the cows and horses clearly live the high-life in Ireland.

We had a PEANUT BUTTER AND JELLY (seeing a trend?) picnic on the beach.

Armed with a bottle of wine, a corkscrew provided by the nicest woman ever at a local safe and bars of chocolate we climbed up to the top of the cliffs. It was the most amazing view – I could’ve stayed there all day.

I inched, on my stomach, my way out to the edge of the cliff and then inched my way back. I was a little shaky.  It was worth to look for the whales. No whales reported.

We made a message in a bottle, chucked it off the cliff and booked it back down to the ferry – 30 minutes for a trip that took us 3 hours but we made it!!!

The ferry ride back with the sun setting over the hills we had just climbed was serious bliss. However there were still no whales.

We ate our fish n chips dinner on the way home so fast that I needed a break from fish n chips for at least 2 weeks post-dinner. I finally saw the movie Once – a movie about two people meeting on a street in Dublin and forming a two-person band. I can’t tell you the rest due to 5 hours of bike riding and a really comfy blanket.

The next day a train ride back to Dublin then off to Paris!!!

Despite my classes Mom and Dad were fully equipped with a meticulous schedule. I found it crumpled amongst Rolaid wrappers and Guinness Factory napkins in Dad's pockets later. Regardless they made it to the Tower of London successfully. They were  (un)fortunate enough to witness the execution of a pigeon by one of the White Tower raven. Long Live England!

After class I made my way to Leicester Square to pick up Billy Elliot tickets for the night! Unfortunately I couldn't join because of an Art midterm but we had a Bella Italiano dinner outside the theatre before. They loved the show! I have seen the show once and loved it - much better with a British audience...they crack up at all of the homeland jokes while you're still trying to make out the garble that just came out of their mouths.

The next day I had the morning free so a bus tour was on the schedule. Unfortunately Dad for reasons unknown (chocolate, Guinness and heavily-cheesed pasta) was very sick in bed. Mom and I got on the Original Tour Bus (highly recommended for visitors!!). The tour guide was British humor to the tee. We were "Boston" the entire tour and the two, sweet old ladies next to us were not only the "gangsters from Churley," but also the former Bond girls from earlier films.  I was not forgiven for wearing a bow the height of Big Ben's tower on my head either. The tour was wonderful - it was rewarding filling my Mom's ear with small facts I had learned and pointing out some of my favorite parts of the city. If it wasn't already abundantly clear: I am in love with London and all it has to offer.

I left Mom to tour Westminster Abbey with specific instructions to plot a sneaky entrance for the Royal Wedding. 

After Art I met up with Mom and Zana to do see Buckingham, Horse Guard's Parade (more below) and Trafalgar Square including the National Gallery and a quick trip into the National Portrait Gallery to see the new William and Harry photograph. We got Mom's picture by the Lions and saw the Olympic countdown for the first time.

The Queen is in!

2012 London Olympics Countdown

We stumbled upon the  Horse Guard's Parade changing of the guard. History gets a good laugh from some of the military and royal traditions, but this was bizarre - a mix between Mom checking to make sure everything is buttoned and neat to praying the horses don't down one of the guards or chew through their reins.

The next day I got more time with Mom and Dad so had breakfast and then buzzed over to the Imperial War Museum. We lost Dad for the entire visit - his mistake as he also missed the entire WWI and WWII exhibits downstairs. Show a man a life-size airplane and u-boat and he's entertained for hours apparently.  Mom and I meantime hit the heart of the museum in the ground galleries of WWI and WWII. Definitely my favorite museum so far in all of London. So much to explore and a really good insight to why London and Great Britain are how they are today from major changes in the last century.

The great distractors - Imperial War Museum 

After my actual history class we visited St James' Park and Buckingham with Dad and Trafalgar for HIS picture with the Lions and then went to Harrods. There may or may not be a Harrod Rewards card with the Clancy name on it. We can't be sure of these things. Souvenirs for hosts in other countries and two Harrods plastic bags later we were off. Dad had a bed to be reaquainted with but Mom and I had a St Patrick's Day to celebrate London-style....fish n chips and too much cheap wine! We sampled some overcrowded, rowdy with very cute Irish men who couldn't wait to drunkenly whisper (shout) "Americans" behind our back after leaving because of no food. The more responsible thing to do would have probably been to ask them to join us...their stomachs could have used a food lining.

Too cute to not add these guys to the post

St James' Park..Spring is here! 

Disney World of London

Any department store that dedicates an entire section to chocolate knows what they're doing

The Harrod's police bear with his two favorite shoppers

We finally settled on a typical fish n chips solely joint and had girl talk into the wee hours of St Patrick's Day over two bottles of wine. Rough life.

Well rough life for those of us who needed to be up at 3:30 a.m. to catch a 4:00 a.m. bus for a 4:30 a.m. train for a 6:00 a.m. flight. Ouch. And for those of us who were not packed, printed out or entirely sober. So much for those meticulous agendas.

Lovely Day for a Guinness

 "Why is American beer served cold? So you can tell it from piss."

LOOK WHO CAME TO LONDON!

Introducing: Mom and Dad - the Tube still doesn't know what hit it. Or if that guy works here.

These two.

After flying into London around 10:30 p.m. we hopped on a flight to Dublin the next a.m. for a quick excursion to the Emerald Isle to see Erin, Elise and UNH co.

View of Ireland from the plane!

Following a quick lunch of delicious farm vegetable soup, brown bread and ham we bee-lined for the Guinness Factory. We paid 13 pounds for a FREE Guinness...it also came with a tour, but somehow the gift shop saw more of us than the tour guides...Regardless the view from the top of the Guinness' Gravity Bar were well worth it. It was a beautiful sunny day and we were serenaded by Jack Clancy's version of "Whiskey in the Jar" at least three times. Possibly four. We're not sure...we lost him for a solid hour between the bar and the gift shop.

View from the top of the Gravity Bar over Dublin

Mom, Erin, Megan G, Elise and Caroline at the Factory

My perfectly shamrocked Guinness top

The (un)hired entertainment

We ate at the Brazenhead, the oldest pub in Dublin (fish n chips+Irish stew+Guinness). For any of you who were concerned we wouldn’t possibly be able to find a dinner location in Dublin, never fear. Dad made a reservation. Complete with his own email confirmation. Ireland knew the Clancys were coming.

Next stop was the Porterhouse. Great Irish trad music, great (strawberry) beer and great people. It was a craic (Elise can edit for correct use of that word.) 

Brazenhead Pub

For our second day we had exploring time minus our tour guides. Well plus our tour guide texting us during her classes because despite Dad’s purchase of 3 Dublin guide books, which he studied diligently during his lunch breaks at work, none of us remembered them. Or a map. But Dad could name every pub and bridge along the Liffey! Note to anyone abroad or in a new place: maps are always worth the investment. There’s only so many times you can ask the same already (or still) drunk at 11 a.m. pub-dweller where St Patrick’s Cathedral is.

But we found it! First Christchurch and a small photograph museum depicting upper class Dubliners from the 1800’s. Christchurch was beautiful – the sun came out just as we were leaving and paired with newly flowered gardens, it was very stunning. Especially for those two with me who have been sitting in a bowl of 2 feet of snow since December., My favorite was definitely St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Christchurch seem much more worship related, whereas St Patrick’s had a lot more of the history of Irish wars and conflicts as well as the history and figures of Dublin. Obviously Paddy and his snakes were littered all over the church – the stained glass window in green and blue was my favorite.

Christchurch just as the sun came out!

Inside St Patrick's Cathedral

Man of the Hour: St Patrick

Another favorite trip was to Trinity College. The campus was beautiful (it reminded me of the inner-city campuses of Yale and Columbia that are a step away from the outside city). We did visit the Book of Kells (not that impressive) but the library also provided in the tour was fantastic. There was a computer system to look up ancestors, but our best connection came with one of the statue busts who had the last name Wall (my mother's maiden name)! 

Campus of Trinity College

It was time for me to leave after a quick trip to Phoenix (hey Elon!) Park, but Mom and Dad stayed for the night.

Off to London - see next post!! 

Tell me and I will forget, Teach me and I will remember, Involve me and I will learn

Some updates: (pictures to come once I have the patience for Blogger)

Despite lots of work (oh hey I haven't finished FALL semester btw) I am LOVING my London classes. Art we've visited the National Gallery, National Portrait, both Tates and will see the Saatchi Gallery soon! GST we visit a new museum once a week. Theatre we see a show once a week. History had some museum involvement, but will have even more with a new professor (see below). We are constantly on our feet exploring all of the resources a tube-ride away. It is brilliant!!

• visited Canterbury!!! (about 1 1/2 hr train ride from London) We walked around the adorable little town with lots of shops and cute restaurants and then went inside the Canterbury Cathedral. Wowzers. It was very impressive. Just to keep the Cathedral running for ONE DAY it costs 14, 500 pounds. Needless to say the Cathedral had a big campaign going for preservation and expansion costs.
• Imperial War Museum. Just a quick brief tour but now another museum added to the "revisit" list! The museum explores most of Britain's modern warfare, but especially World War I and World War II. It is filled to the brink with lifesize exhibits including some of the earliest airplanes, bomb shells and a reenacted trench experience (smelly, dark, loud) from WWI. One of the best stories we heard was a giant boars head on a plaque had become a pet for one officer. When the ship sunk all but the boar were killed. The was found swimming in the Atlantic Ocean and was rescued by another ship who brought it to London where it lived another decade or so. 
• Tate Britain. This is a collection of all British work from 1500-onwards. We have been studying the YBA's (Young British Artists, movement from late 1980's-2004) and got to see Damien Hirst's Away from the Flock (Sheep) and pieces from his butterflies exhibit. While his work is typically just taking ready-made objects (ie: dead sheep, dead shark, butterflies, etc) and displaying them, paired with his titles the work has got a lot of thinking-potential behind it. His thought behind putting a dead shark in a tank titled The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living. It really is difficult to wrap your mind around that the shark was once swimming in the ocean, chomping on fish, with little knowledge that he'd be plucked from the ocean and put on display for twenty years in a glass case for millions of visitors to see. 
• Discovered Whole Foods, London. Ah yes. I've been avoiding Whole Foods at the fear of not culturally diversifying myself and not spending a heck of a lot of poorly-converted British pounds. But it was well-worth the trip. The store was HUGE. The bottom floor was mostly groceries, the middle floor fresh produce and the top floor a massive restaurant filled to the brink with diverse choices. It was pretty spectacular and I'll be back. Let's face it...compared to Elon, NC...where it takes a solid 2 hours to reach the closest WF, a 20-minute tube ride is definitely something to be taken advantage of. 
• Tate Modern. This is the art museum built by the Tate Britain to be filled with modern and contemporary British Art (mostly stuff post-1900). Really stretches thinking as to what is art. Some of it I was pretty unconvinced it museum-worthy, but other pieces I really saw the unique artistry and thought behind the work and wondered if they weren't in a museum if I'd appreciate them as much/find them as revolutionary. 
• New History teacher. After way too many group meetings with every representative of our school service and 300 different names coded by the FBI including "the situation" and "the incident" we were welcomed with a new history teacher on Thursday. After spending 4 days writing a paper on the Entente Cordiale, I personally cared a little more about my long-awaited nap then hearing "the situation" referred to one more bloody time, but finally the man of the hour was introduced (Fat chance I remember his name). It's a bummer because I loved the last teacher, but it's all for the best. This "new guy" hates America (obviously...he's from there. No one in London actually hates America unless they're escaping some weird complex they have with the country with 50 states), can be a little overly-critical and has NO idea why he's there. Such a warm welcome. But really he's fine, the class will be interesting, we'll take lots of field trips and I need to just pretend with Spring Break just comes a new History class rather than dwelling on the past. 
• The Brunel Museum. Despite the fact that we were the first visitors who weren't a.) Delivering a package b.) looking for a job c.) soliciting donations or d.) lost...this teensy-tiny museum ended up being pretty neat. One of the museum volunteers took us into the "shaft" which once led to the first tunnel to ever go underneath a river (the Thames). It was very revolutionary and quite the stir (think new I-Pod stir) when it finally opened after 18 years of construction. We were the first visitors in a year and those visitors were the first in 150 years to get into the shaft. They opened the shaft allowing thousands of visitors to come down for one day last year, but because we didn't fit any of the above criteria (see a-d) we were privy to a tour! 
• MOM AND DAD TOUCHDOWN IN LONDON IN LESS THAN 12 HOURS!!! First a trip to Dublin, Ireland to see Erin (and UNH co.) and Elise! Then back to London for 5 days of exploration. Spring Break officially starts Thursday at 2:30! I'll spend the nigh in London with Mom and Dad then back to Ireland (Galway, Dublin, Cork, the ocean!) and Paris to see Steph and Sarah Kelley (!!) for vacation! 

Fun Fact: The British believe we overuse the word "awesome." 

Full Review of "The Heretic" (aka Sarah's new favorite contemporary play) to come soon! 

"Hey let's drink from the cup share some luck, go ahead and laugh cause it don't cost much" -Two Coins, Dispatch

Dear ARP,

Thanks for reading this blog.

Love, Sclanc

"Sometimes,' said Pooh, 'the smallest things take up the most room in your heart." -Pooh Bear

Some highlights of London since the last post

• Saw Billy Elliot at the Victoria Palace Theatre with Jenna and Zana. The show was some of the best professional theatre I have seen. Billy really blew me away. He was flawless - his performance came from his vulnerability, fearlessness and boldness. His dancing was not just a memorized routine, but a real, lived-through expression of the pain and confusion this boy was going through. Other notable performances were Billy's father, Michael (Billy's friend) and the grandmother. The dance teacher was also great, but her dialect went in and out, which could be distracting. In terms of the show itself I was surprised how light-hearted it could be at times. The movie is much darker, but the musical did a nice job of combining the playfulness and joy of youth with the under-toning sadness.  It never felt too over the top. I highly recommend it! 
• Visited the Museum of London with my GST class. The museum was set up as a timeline of London from the earliest settlers through today. I was really impressed with the organization and content the museum covered. Unlike the British Museum with simple display cases, it was much more of an experience to walk through the exhibits with unique ways to introduce and involve the viewer with the topic. I especially loved the St Paul's exhibit, World War II exhibit and the fashion of London in the 1950's-60's. 
• A trip to the National Gallery with my art class. I'm starting to like this stuff! I have decided what I love most about art is finding my own story in the picture - whether it directly relates to my life or something I have imagined. 
• Found a coffee shop off of Baker Street tube stop to do homework in! Following Zana to her internship on Mondays has been a blessing to make sure I get through all of my London homework and make-up work from home while still feeling like I am soaking up this city. The shop is cozy and quiet in the morning, but bustling by lunch time. I love to be around people while I do work so the shop is the perfect combination of people-interaction without distraction. Sometimes I sit downstairs, but sometimes I come upstairs to sit in the big front window and watch London bustle by. 
• Going to the British Museum to see the Living and Dying exhibit. The past few months had hit me with a realness I hadn't felt yet the night before. But I went into this exhibit and read about the ways people all around the world deal with tragedy and loss and it was really enlightening and just what I needed. This world shares in common that we will all go through pain and suffering, but as my history teacher insightfully pointed out - we are the one species that can adapt to even the worst situations. This can be both frightening and in a way wonderful - we suffer, but we do not forget what we lost, instead we carry it with us. 
• And finally...feeling like London is home! While visiting Venice, thinking and speaking of London felt like a second home and when I got back it felt like crawling into a familiar, comfy place. The language barrier was new for me and challenging in Venice - I've learned if we're going to a country with a different language to come more prepared with key phrases, maps and other visual aids to communicate with the people. Most spoke at least a few words of English, but comprehension on both sides could be difficult. Of course the second I stepped off the plane in London every person around me was speaking Italian, Spanish and Russian. 
• Other small things: when the sun pokes through the clouds at Trafalgar Square, coffee, eating dinner with my flatmates every night, finding a seat on the Tube, reading the newspaper every day, going for long walks in the parks, stopping by the British Museum for a quick peak, Hyde and Regent's park with lots of birds, horses, walkers and runners, peanut butter despite warnings there would be none, Tesco next door and yes, even typical rainy, cloudy days. 

Arriverderci!