Philip and I both went to the workshop today. Registration was the first item on the agenda and I wanted to be there for it. I sat through the morning lectures, too, although it was often hard to understand the speakers. I haven't acclimated to the Irish lilt yet. It looks like there are thirty to forty participants in the workshop, and Lorna who is the coordinator also introduced some of the speakers and a few volunteers who will help throughout the week. She made a point of trying to get everyone talking to each other and said that Philip and I shouldn’t sit together but spread out to meet others.

We ate lunch in the student canteen down the hall from the lecture room. It was boring, but also cheap. Later we got on the bus with twenty-five or so others for the first field trip. We rode an hour east to Youghal. That’s pronounced sort of like y’all, but you have to make a tight, little round O with your lips for it to sound right. We did a walking tour of the old city and saw the Collegiate Church of St. Mary and Graveyard Walk.

We took a break at Moby Dick’s, a pub so named because the 1956 movie Moby d*** with Gregory Peck was filmed there. Next we met the bus for a short ride to the Walter Raleigh Hotel for a Dutch-treat group dinner and another lecture. The dinner was fine, but not particularly interesting. The lecture was about marriage customs in 19th century Ireland. The best part of the evening was getting to visit with the others taking the class. By the time we made the hour-long bus ride back to campus and the fifteen minute walk to the apartment, it was after 11 p.m. It was a very long day.