Cork!

Well! I was feeling adventurous and I decided to jump on a bus and trek to Cork. I absolutely loved it! It was a day of wandering through busy streets full of people from all over. I did a lot of fabulous people watching! It was clear shopping was one of the big attractions in this young, fun city.
Also, now that we have begun reading poetry by Yeats I have found myself reading the poems over and over again. As much as I love reading poetry, I am not familiar with Yeats and I feel the need to look them up and read about each and every one of them! Yesterday morning I took my book of poetry to the lobby of the Park Hotel and ordered coffee for myself. As I sat there I ended up talking with a group of older women who all meet on Tuesday mornings and I absolutely loved their company! As I went back to reading I ended up reading some of the poems that weren't assigned and tried making them come alive as I tried tying them to all of the encounters I have had with residents of Dungarvan. People in this country undoubtedly have a way about them...whether it be their hospitality or their story-telling, that seems incredibly genuine. I get some of that from the poems as well. I hope to have a better grasp on the poetry we're reading as the days pass.
Tonight we also have our class with Tom Keith about the history of Ireland and hopefully will be able to attend a play following class. I imagine I will be writing about this in the very near future as well as some about our trip to Dublin this weekend! I am very excited.
All in all, thus far the people in this country have captured the majority of my interest; I absolutely love meeting new people here and start conversations whenever I can. Traveling to Cork has also ignited my passion to travel even more now. Not making plans just going...I hope there will be much more of these memories to be made!