Adventures in the North

Hi Everyone!

So, as promised, a post with pictures!

On Wednesday, I went up to the northern coast to see some of the natural beauty of this country. I took one of those one-day tours where they drop you off at various points and then tell you to be back by a certain time before you move on to the next sight. We had a bunch of 10-minute stops at castles, etc., but the main two sights were the Giant's Causeway, which is a World Heritage Sight, and Carrick-a-rede, which is where there's a famous rope bridge (no, thank you). So, as they guided me, I will guide you. I will save you from having to watch a DVD of Michael Flatley's (of Riverdance and Lord of the Dance fame) new show. Instead, listen to these songs by Kate Rusby, which is what I listened to most of the way (trying to drown out Michael Flatley):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyFc-pbcO94
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBAq1gHU7L0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HHLj8rKrZ8

The first few stops before the Giant's Causeway were rather insignificant, except for Carrickfergus Castle, which was the landing place of King William III of Orange (aka he ruled over Holland). He's a short little dude, and kind of looks like Captain Hook. I took a picture of him just for you, Mom.

We then took the most beautiful drive along the coast, and a little inland. The scenery was exactly what you imagine the Irish scenery to look like. It was, from minute-to-minute, gorgeously sunny and then grey and rainy, giving a full range of atmosphere (excuse the reflections off the bus windows).

Then we made it to the Giant's Causeway. After a cheap and kind of gross meal at the hotel, I went off on my own, walking along the road at the top of the cliffs, then down some stairs and around near the sea to take a look at the actual Causeway.

The most popular myth behind the Causeway is this: A giant from Ireland decided to build a causeway to Scotland so he could fight his Scottish counterpart. When the Scottish giant came across the causeway to fight, the Irish giant saw how huge he was and asked his wife to disguise him as a baby. When the Scottish giant saw how huge the baby was, he could only imagine how enormous it's dad would be, and he ran back to Scotland, tearing up the causeway behind him. Scotland really is not that far away -- you can see it from the coast.

What makes the Causeway so special is its strange rock formation -- columns of hexagonal rock next to each other that create stepping stones. They were created in real life not by giants, but by volcanic activity along the coast. They're really quite beautiful:
I have many more pictures, but Blogger's photo upload kind of sucks, so if you want to see more, just ask!

Then we went to that rope bridge. I am NOT a rope bridge fan, so I asked the bus driver if there was anything else to do in the area. He suggested that I take a walk on a path along the cliffs. I think that was the main highight of the afternoon -- I was all alone on this tremendously beautiful path, with green fields to the left and the sea to the right.

There were cows:
Proof I was with the cows (not a great picture of me or the cows, but you needed proof):

As I walked back, it started to rain. So it rains almost every day here, but it's a nice rain, very gentle. So if you have a rain coat and a fleece and good walking shoes (like I did), you're totally fine, and it actually enhances the experience. And, because it was sunny AND raining, I saw a huge full arc rainbow going off into the sea. SO beautiful (by the way, that may be Scotland in the background, though also possibly not):

And then we headed back to bonny Belfast. Whewf. OK, I'm off to the library. Need to catch up on those emails!

Hope you're all well, and have a great weekend!

Sarah

Sunny Day

Hi Everyone,

First off, I'm going to apologize for not keeping the promise I made last time about having more pictures to share. I'll try for next time. And, just a warning, this will be a rather long post, as yesterday was very eventful, at least in comparison to all the other days.

Yesterday was a really good day. I got out of the house early (which is key. Otherwise I just lay around like a bumski), because I had an interview with a Professor at Queen's University. I had sort of forgotten who she was since I had made the appointment, but when I was preparing for the interview I remembered that she's really involved in integrated education, which is one of my main interests. Not only that, but she's worked with the foremost expert (that I've been able to find, anyway) on integrated education in Israel, AND I've actually used one of her papers in one of MY papers, so that was very cool. I was very excited to meet her and felt confident about the interview since I had more background on her topic of research than on others.

The interview turned out to be as great as I had expected. Just a bit of background on integrated schools: In Northern Ireland, schools for Catholic kids and Protestant kids are generally seperate, and had been almost entirely so until about 30 years ago, when a bunch of parents got together to create integrated schools for kids of both backgrounds. It took the government a while to back them up, financially, and since then, they've grown. Their integratedness depends solely upon a ratio of students -- the baseline has to be something like 30:70 Catholic:Protestant -- and not on an agreed upon curriculum or set of standards. However, there is an independent organization, the Northern Ireland Council for Integrated Education (NICIE), which has a statement of principles that many of the schools have agreed upon, at least on paper.

In Israel, and I'll talk much more about this later, there are currently two seperate types of education (well, more than two, but two main ones), one for Arab Israelis and one for Jewish Israelis. And I'm not just talking seperate and unequal in terms of funding, etc., but they have completely different curricula. I could go on and on about how screwed up I think the system is, and how difficult it is to solve, and all the implications for Israeli identity the system has, etc., but I'll save that for a later post. In any case, there are just a few integrated schools (3 or 4) in the whole country, called the Hand-in-Hand schools. They're incredibly interesting, co-taught by Arabs and Israelis, taught in English and Arabic, etc., but tragically underfunded and, well, scarse. My friend Liz actually just spent much of the summer teaching in one. In any case, it was the comparison between the integrated schools in Northern Ireland and those in Israel that first made me interested in this whole comparison in the first place, so it's something I'm pretty passionate about.

So, this professor said interesting things. I think the thing that struck me most was that she said she thinks the integrated schools in Israel are actually BETTER than the schools in Northern Ireland, but that since they exist in a still conflicted (as opposed to post-conflict) society, they have a hard time making a real impact. But, she said she thinks that their techniques and principles are more effective, or at least more direct. It was really interesting to hear her say that, especially since it made me think about the efficacy of on-the-ground reconcillation period, if the society as a whole is still conflicted.

There are some major problems with the integrated schools in Ireland. For one, the government only evaluates them on that ratio, and not on their efficacy in reconciliation, which she said is entirely unproductive in establishing whether or not they're actaully doing anything. She also reiterated what she had written in her paper that I had used -- that a lot of the times, teachers will try to brush contentious topics and arguments under the rug, instead of talking about them or confronting them head on. She said that she understands why they do that -- these teachers were brought up in Northern Ireland when the society was still conflicted, have political views and baggage of their own, and may not know how to deal with those types of conflcits in their classrooms. She said that special training, and time each week for the teachers to refelect on the curriculum and their job (which the teachers in the Israeli schools have), would be really helpful in changing that practice. Finally, she told me that for various reasons, sometimes the integrated schools are not as strong academically as other secondary schools, and that parents who want integrated eduacation for their kids on ideological grounds might take them out of the school once they remember that school is for math and reading, too.

She also told me about a new project that sounds really interesting, called collaboration, whereby Catholic and Protestant schools in the same area allow their students to attend the other school for classes that they might not offer themselves. For example, if a Protestant kid wants to take German, but it's not offered at his school, he can go to the Catholic school down the street to take it. This not only mixes the kids together on a regular basis, but also emphasizes their differences (if they wear different uniforms, for example), so that topics will come up and will need to be addressed. Sounds great to me, if it works.

In any case. Very successful interview. Afterwards, I found the nice street in my neighborhood -- bookshops, cafes and all -- and then went to the library and worked for a while. Today I'm back at the library, writing to you, and tomorrow, I will take an all-day tour to the Giant's Causeway, one of the main natural attractions up here in the North. Very much looking forward to it.

One of these days when it's not the end of a very long post, I will write to you all about my general impressions of Belfast (just a start: it smells like Holland here, which is very comforting -- damp), and will hopefully accompany it with pictures.

Until then, thanks for reading!

Sarah

Belfast Part I

Greetings from lovely Belfast!

Today is officially my third full day in Belfast, although only the first had anything of interest to report, and the third hasn't really started yet. The bus ride up from Dublin was quite beautiful, rather rainy and very green, and I managed to accompany it with the right soundtrack on my ipod. In any case, very atmospheric. I took a cab to my dorm at Queens University, in the south of the city, and have found it so far to be extremely suitable (sink in room, toilet and shower not).

On Friday I had my (drum roll, please) very first interview with Mike Ritchie (not to be confused with Mark Ritchie, Minnesota's Secretary of State). He's the Executive Director of the Committee on the Administration of Justice (CAJ), a human rights advocacy organization that did and has continued to do quite a bit of work concerning the Troubles and in emphasizing the importance of human rights in the governance of Northern Ireland. I learned a bunch of interesting things from him. For example, he believes that a truth commission, or at least an objective, consolidated view of history might be very useful in moving forward in reconcilliation. He also said that the situation in Belfast might be considered a benign apartheid, in which people seem peaceful, but that voilence errupts almost every summer. He also talked about his previous job in which he worked with Republican ex-prisoners and engaged them in face-to-face discussion with Unionist prisoners and other "opposition" parties about important issues in the community. Great first interview, and gave me a lot of confidence that the rest will go well as well.

I then went next door to this cool gallery called Belfast Exposed and browsed through their extensive photo archive. I came across a photo (which I can't find online, but does, I promise, exist on their archive at the gallery), of one of those famous Unionist murals that I hope to tour this week with an Israeli flag waving in front of it. Mr. Ritchie told me that during the Intifada, Palestininian flags started to show up in Republican neighborhoods and Israeli flags popped up in Unionist neighborhoods. Just another interesting point of comparison.

I spent much of the rest of that day wandering through Belfast and buying a cheap lunch (thanks Marks and Spencer!), and then found what I believe will be my day-time watering hole for the rest of my stay here -- The Linen Hall Library. It's a wonderful, rather small public library with cheap wireless, a wonderful cafe, and a great Irish history collection in addition to the Northern Ireland Political Collection, which I'm hoping to dig through, starting this week. It's also right on the main square, practically across the street from my central Belfast bus stop. Seems like a perfect place to spend a lot of my time.

And that's the long news from Lake Woebegone. Not sure what's in store for the rest of today, as most of the city is closed on Sunday, it seems. In any case, please keep those emails coming. I know I sound cheerful, but it is pretty lonely here, and it's beginning to get to me. Also, I have Skype! My username is sturbow, so if any of you would like to talk to me voice-to-voice or face-to-face (engage in dialogue, so to speak, ha ha), I would gladly welcome that.

As usual, thanks for reading, and I promise more pictures for next time!

Until then,
Sarah

Dublin Town

Greetings from Dublin!

I finally made it here safely after a four and half hour delay at the airport (hey, thanks, AerLingus for that $15 meal voucher!). I realized when I was going through customs that I had been to the Dublin airport about 15 times but had never stepped outside, and I was very glad to do so.

After a lovely lunch and a stop back at her apartment to drop off my stuff, Hannah and I walked back into town and she showed me around a bit. We went to an interesting exhibit of a famous illuminated manuscript from the 9th century (the 9th century!) called the Book of Kells at the Trinity College Library, which itself has been around in some form since 1592 (1592!). Then we went to an exhibit on good ol' WB (Yeats, that is). PS, I saw The Circus Animal's Desertion in the flesh, Abby! And then, of course, as good Irish people do, we went and had a cup of tea.

I've been able to make a few project-related observations so far, though I haven't done anything formal yet. For example, Hannah told me that her more British accent makes her self conscious living in Dublin, and people sometimes ask her why she speaks like that, and have even made fun of her. We also watched this Irish sitcom called "Father Ted," which apparently everyone watches, about three rather ridiculous priests who live on an island off the west coast of the Republic. In one scene, the housekeeper and one of the priests have gotten in trouble and need to bailed out of jail, and Father Ted tries to get the police officer to let them off free because he's a priest. The officer replies, "I'm Protestant, Father," and Father Ted looks at him funny and then pays the bail. It's things like that that are making me realize how much attitudes are ingrained. Just from my first day!

And then there are more non-project but interesting things -- for example, abortion is not legal here. And two of Hannah's friends were telling us stories about their very small town in the west, where everyone from the bus driver to the maths teacher to the priest is a drunk.

So, it was a great and interesting day. And at the end of it, I'm happy to be in an apartment where I can talk to a fish named Albert:And curl up in bed with Hannah and a giant hippopotamus named Hittema:

I head to Belfast tomorrow, so my next post will be from there!

Until then,
Sarah

The Night Before

In exactly a day, I will be boarding my flight to Dublin! I want to thank everyone who's sent me emails over the past few days with suggestions for traveling alone and words of encouragement. I'm sorry I haven't emailed most of you back yet, but please know that it means a lot to me, and your advice has been very good. I'm now going off into the unknown armed with the advice of good people, and I feel significantly more prepared (though of course, my anxiety hasn't gone away entirely -- that would completely out of character).

Much of these next 20 hours will be spent packing, photocopying passports, getting new holes poked in sandal straps, negotiating with myself about the reasonable number of books to bring, trying to figure out what kind of adapters I need for each respective country, and to chose a traveling wardrobe that takes into consideration a more than 40 degree F temperature difference (the low in Belfast is 48, the high in Tel Aviv is 92).

I'm also trying, in these last countdown hours, to figure out what I, personally, want from this trip. Academics and conflict resolution aside, I've found summers especially (and these past four summers even more especially), to be times for personal reflection about what the hell I want from my life. The solitude of this trip will be particularly conducive to this, I'm sure. It was a somewhat conscious and happy decision to split my summer between two of my major interests -- domestic politics and foreign affairs -- and I'm hoping to see which one tickles my fancy more. But beyond that, I'm sure I'll learn plenty about myself when I have so much time to just listen to my inner monologue. The last time I really had time to do that was three summers ago right before college on my typical-college-age backpacking trip through Europe. I spent so many hours on trains with headphones on that it was hard not to concentrate on what was going on in my head. Hopefully, that same sort of feeling will be produced by walking around the streets of Belfast.

Speaking of headphones, though. I've gotten to the point where almost all the music on my ipod reminds me of some other place or time or person or situation. I'd like to have sort of clean slate music to listen to on this trip, if you get my drift. Music to attach new memories and thoughts to, music to be in the present with, instead of constantly letting my shuffled songs carry me to the past. So, once again, I ask for your advice! Any good music that has seen you through traveling? Anything especially evocative of a Northern Irish landscape?

And so, I leave you with that query. The next post will be from the Republic!

Keep those emails coming and be well,
Sarah

First Post

Hello to all who are patient and lovely enough to be reading this blog! In summers past, I've tried to write massive emails, but this year, I'm adding my voice to the deluge of wonderful summer travel blogs the rest of my friends are writing. This is my last college summer, and I've chosen to spend the second half of it doing research for my senior essay and traveling really by myself for the first time.

For those of you who haven't heard me talk endlessly about my essay, I hope to write about on-the-ground, grassroots-style reconciliation efforts in Northern Ireland and Israel. To prepare, I'm going to Belfast for 3 and a half weeks and Israel for 9 days to interview groups, organizations and individuals who attempt to preempt or supplement political solutions to conflict by creating peace within communities and between people. In the end, I hope to be able to establish a set of best practices, especially from Northern Ireland to apply elsewhere, especially to Israel. I'm hoping that I'll learn interesting things worth sharing with all of you, but I also hope you'll allow me to use this blog as a space to air all of my feelings about the trip. If my last stint in Israel was any precedent, this will be an emotional 5 weeks.

In any case, enough of the academic talk. I hope it's an interesting trip. I'm absurdly unprepared so far, but I'm making a little progress (ie yesterday I bought a Rough Guide to Ireland, and I now know where I'm staying my first week in Belfast. Success!) But, no matter how prepared or unprepared I am, a week from today, I will be in Dublin to see my friend Hannah and have a pint with my friend Smug before I head way up north.

Anyone who knows me knows that I worry maybe a little too much. But besides being afraid that no one will want to meet with me (I mean, really. I wouldn't respond to an email with the title "Inquiry from a Yale University student"), the things I'm most nervous about are traveling alone things. I've traveled by myself, sort of, before. And I've traveled a lot, generally. But almost all the other times, I've been with another person, or in a country I know fairly well, or near people I know. The one time I traveled really by myself was for three days in Northern France. And though it was beautiful, it was SO lonely. And I consistently made my way back to my hotel by 8:00, afraid that I would get lost and mugged in the dark (OK, that's a little absurd, I know).

I've asked a few people for advice about traveling alone. The best so far, I think, was to not get drunk by myself (thanks, James). I've gotten a bunch of good pointers from smart, great people who have experience in this sort of thing. But my friend Liz once spent a week on an Italian hillside with goats and was happy to be by herself and with goats, and I don't think I could be like that. I get bored with myself. I need all the help I can get.

So, gentle readers. Before I leave on this European-Middle Eastern adventure, any advice from avid solo travelers? Ways of keeping yourselves occupied? Ways of making friends? Ways of not being nervous to walk around after dark? etc.

There will probably be another post before I leave, but in the meantime, please stay in touch! I'd love to hear from you while I'm away. Just comment, or email me at sturbow@gmail.com

Until then,
Sarah