Man, today was a full day.

So I've pretty much got my schedule all sorted out, and Monday is by far my busiest day.

I had a lesson in the uilleann pipes at 2pm. It's me and another guy named John Scott. Both of us are beginners, so we really don't know what we're doing, but I'm glad it's the two of us 'cause that'll give me more incentive to practice, I think--so I don't make a fool of myself.

My first impression is that it will be a bit hard to get used to, but the fingerings aren't to hard. It's just that while you move your fingers around, you have to move your elbows, especially your right one, to pump air through the pipes. You don't blow into it like Scottish bag pipes--there's a small bellows that you pump with your right elbow to get air flowing into the the bag and through the pipes. So... the trouble is that you have to move your elbows and fingers all at the same time. I'm sure I'll get it with practice, but I'm sure I'll have to practice to get it. I can't get away without practicing (like I do with the bassoon) because I don't know what I'm doing at all really. All I know right now is the D major scale. :P

Then I have three classes in a row--at 4, 5, and 6. At 4 is a Exploring the New, a music class about 20th, avant-garde, new wave composers--I think that'll be fun. At 5 is Intro to Irish Traditional Music, which is basically us looking at pictures of instruments and listening to clips of music--that'll be fun and easy. And then at 6 is a general Irish culture class that is less like a lecture and more like a class full of people listening and talking to a lively professor who tells cool stories--that will probably be my favorite class.

The only problem is that Exploring the New is in the music building, which is up on a giant hill like a 15 or 20 minute walk from the main campus. Irish Traditional Music is the Connolly Building, which is one of a group of buildings about 5 or 10 minutes from campus. And the last class is on the main campus. At least Traditional Music is in between the music building and the main campus, but I still have to hoof it from one class to the next to get to them on time. :P

So it's a busy day, but it's totally worth it because it's all of my coolest classes, and the rest of my week is pretty easy sailing.

On Tues/Thurs I have Aspects of Irish Folklore, which will be a typical lecture, with typical essay and final, but at least it's pretty interesting subject matter.

On Thursday I also have a lesson in the bodhran, an Irish drum. My first lesson is this Thursday, and I'm pretty excited about that one.

And then there is Intro to Modern Irish, which I think will be really cool, but we don't yet have the timetable for that one because they set it up according to everyone's schedules. Hopefully it won't meet on Fridays 'cause I'd really like to keep that day off. I also hope it doesn't end up in the morning, because right now I don't have any morning classes and that is awesome.
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In other news, I went with a group yesterday (Sunday) to Blarney Castle, which is just about a 15 to 20 minute bus ride away. That was great fun.

Yes, I kissed the Blarney Stone.

I also took a ton of photos. It was drizzling pretty much all day, but it was still a very pleasant trip. It wasn't too terribly cold, just a bit wet. I got to really try out my new waterproof boots and they turned out to be very convenient. I could tromp through puddles without any worries.
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By the way, I've been having trouble uploading all of my photos to the livejournal website I linked to earlier, so I'm trying out a new sit called Shutterfly. I think that will end up working much better, and it also has a journal entry section included on the share site.

So, bottom line... I'll probably be moving everything over to that website pretty soon, photos, journal, everything. Once I get it all updated and pretty, I'll post a link to it from here and then I'll probably just stop posting on here for a while--no need to have 2 separate blogs for the same span of time.