Living with an Actor

Things you can expect when your flatmate is an actor:

• She will knock on your door in the middle of night to ask for random objects that no normal person owns in their household such as plastic flowers or a viking ship, claiming that she needs them urgently for work by next morning.
• She will leave the house around 11pm to go to Tesco (the only place still open) and buy clothes, shoes or jewelry.
• She will randomly begin to run around the corridors screaming "I'm in! I'm in!"
• She will walk around the place murmuring, shouting, singing or whatever. Also, she will listen to very creepy random recordings.
• After a couple of months of living together with her, you will definitely know some full Shakespeare plays by heart.
• She will move around with a huge backpack all the time. Or with a folder. Or anything else that is capable of keeping CVs and headshots in it.
• She will talk to you in a different accent each time you start a conversation.

Get ready.

The Bodhrán Project

(image source)

Bodhrán: Irish percussion instrument. The name is a compound borrowed from Old English, bod meaning "command" or "precept" and hrān meaning "whale". The word refers to the sound of the instrument, which is similar to the grunts made by the leader (usually the dominant male) of a whale pod.

Hahaha, actually not. But it would be cool, wouldn't it? Did I mention that I LOVE making up fake etymology for existing words? This is what linguistics is for. But this one is too easy to see through if you know the pronunciation. (And if you've ever heard any whale songs and bodhrán players before and are aware of that they sound as different as possible.)

Actually, bodhrán has nothing to do with medieval things, it started to grow popular only around the 18th or 19th century. The name, of course, is Irish Gaelic, and is said to be related to the word bodhor, meaning "drum", though the exact meaning is unclear. The instrument itself is a very basic frame drum, it looks similar to a tambourine, apart from the fact that the latter is normally struck with the bare hand, while a bodhrán is traditionally used with a tipper called cipín (Irish Gaelic, meaning "kindling"). (information source)

Why am I giving this boring presentation about a silly Irish yoke? Because I officially fell in love with Irish music and this drum is just aaaawesome. So I made a deal with myself to buy one and learn how to play on it once I have enough money for that.

Since I moved to Belfast, I literally find money on the street every day, 3 coins per day on average, which is just crazy, I mean, there's money on the pavement wherever I step and nobody seems to care but me. I've been here for 12 days, and I already have more than 1 pound in total. So I decided to buy the bodhrán using the money I find on the street. It's quite expensive, the cheap ones start from 50 pounds, so it will take a while, but I don't really need it right away, now I'm concentrating on monologues and other skills to get involved in acting as soon as possible.

Kid Quotes

I haven't been around for a while, and I have no idea when I'll be back. Life is tough, and I don't really feel like talking about it now. But I came around to share a small collection of kids' quotes, because I left Drogheda a few weeks ago, and I miss those three little monkeys so much I think I'm going to die :(

I heard Dualta's (4) voice from the bathroom:

"My poos are very big, but Noinin's poo is even bigger."

Conversation with Noinin (2).

Me: "Where should we go today? Should we go to the toyshop?"

Noinin: "Yes. That's good."

Me: "And what about the bookshop?"

Noinin: "That's good, too."

Me: "Great. And what else would be good?"

Noinin, without hesitation: "Monkey."

Eventually, we still skipped the zoo.

Sibling love. Noinin came to me with teary eyes to tell a story.

"Dualta bit me!"

Me, searching for the bruise to kiss it better: "Where did he bite you?"

"In the kitchen."

Well, unfortunately I was unable to kiss her on the kitchen.

Dualta got a new toy.

"It's Superman," he explained to me.

"But he doesn't have a cape, where is it?"

He looked at the yoke for a moment, then said "it's gone in his belly button."

I should have known. I mean, come on, where else? :D

When I was quite new around and wanted to know a few things about the boys' schools, I happened to ask Dualta "is there a playground in your school?"

"Yes."

"What's in it?"

"Everything."

I needed a bit more specific answer, so I kept on asking.

"A slide, maybe?"

"No," he shook his head sadly.

"A swing?"

"No."

"Then what?"

Wide grin. "Everything else."

Optimism is the key. Well done, my boy.

Roan (6) was our oldest, and his classmate Robert (6), who lived close to us, somtimes came around to play with him. I was in my room, and they were playing on the corridor, so I couldn't see them, but this conversation is still epic.

Robert: "I'm the big brother now."

Roan: "Okay, what age are you? Are you a teenager?"

Robert: "Um... no."

Roan: "Then what age are you?"

Robert: "I'm twelve."

I was trying not to laugh too loud in my room, but then Roan went even further: "What?! That's an adult!"

Holy Mass on Palm Sunday, I was sitting next to Roan. The priest started to say the homily:
"Today is Palm Sunday."
I heard Roan giving a sigh and murmuring impatiently:
"Oh, we know that!"

Dualta was singing:
"I'm sixty and I know it!"

That's all, folks. Anyway, Belfast is quite a nice place. I hope things will turn better soon and I'll be able to see its true beauty behind all the shit that's been happening to me here.

Home, Sweet Home

I haven't really been online recently, but I have my reasons. Very good reasons, actually.

Last Tuesday I came home to Hungary to visit my family. I arrived to the airport around midnight and spent the following day in Budapest to meet some people. I finally obtained the Hungarian translation of Tolkien's Beowulf and I even got it signed by the translator, who is a very good friend of mine. One more book I can't wait to read - I think I've got too many plans realted to books for this year. I'm about to reread Terry Pratchett's full Discworld series as well, which means, oh gosh, 41 volumes.

Anyway, I finally arrived to my hometown, and it was quite a good feeling to see how much I was missed, my mom even baked biscuits with "hiányoztál" (which means "I missed you" in Hungarian) written on them. It literally made me cry.

Also, I met my parents' lovely cats. I've seen them before on skype, but seeing them in real life is different, I can pat them and all, and they get my clothes covered in cat hair :'D

Too bad my entire holiday at my parents' house is actually about getting prepared to go back to Ireland. I need to buy many things to bring them abroad, and next week I'll spend a whole day in town to arrange some official things. I wish I could just leave them until next time, but unfortunately I can't.

Ř

I had quite a busy summer, that's why I didn't really have time and energy to maintain this journal. Well, "summer". I wouldn't really call this summer, I had to wear long sleeve clothes almost every day and caught a cold two or three times in 2 months.

A lot had happened, anyway. I finally finished filming my short film, and this really was hard work. I had to work with two six-year-old, none of which had ever acted before, so, ugh... But they are pretty good actors, so I hope I'll make a great film. I don't know when I'll be able to start editing, though.

During the summer, I spent most of my free time travelling around with an au pair girl from the Czech Republic, who came to Ireland for the summer. This is why I gave this entry such a silly title; I was desperate to learn how to pronounce the Czech letter ř, which is an extraordinary speech sound and I'd never heard it before. But she said that I was very good at pronouncing it. Anyway, we had so much fun together, and we had visited a few places that are not so far from here but I had not seen them before. Of course I took dozens of photos, some of which I'm going to upload here.

First of all, I finally went to the Hill of Slane, which I had wanted to see ever since I moved to Drogheda. It looks super cool.

The weird-looking tree that you can see next to the abbey is a Chilean pine tree. It was raining when we went up there, so we couldn't stay for long, but I'll definitely visit this place at least once more before I leave Drogheda.

Because, yeah, I'm going to leave Drogheda very soon. I decided to move up to the north in the middle of October and rent a flat in Belfast with my best friend. I'll miss this place so much, but I hope I'll find a great drama club or whatever there. I haven't acted in months.

Another interesting place we've visited is The Battle of the Boyne Visitor Centre. We went into the museum and took a nice walk in the garden as well. The museum was a bit of a disappointment for me, I had expected it to be bigger... This was one of the most important battles in the history of Ireland, after all. But it was quite interesting, and the garden is beautiful.

As you can see, this photo was taken in the garden. I was told that it had not been the actual battlefield, but it doesn't really matter, it just looks cool with that stone in the grass. I took some pictures in the museum, too, but they didn't come out so well because it was too dark inside the building and I wasn't allowed to use flash.

Aaand, finally, another one of my favourite Irish landmarks: the Donaghmore Round Tower near Navan, Co. Meath.

So that's it. She left Ireland in the end of August, and I miss her so much because now I don't really have anyone to spend my days off with :( But I'll go to Hungary for 10 days in less than 2 weeks, and when I come back with my best friend, we will move up to Belfast, which is sooo exciting!

Just a Few Things to Share

Random facts from the last few weeks:

I finally got a brand new DSLR camera. I'm planning to visit some round towers such as Faughart, Lusk, Swords and Clondalkin in the next few weeks. And now I can finally make my short film as well!

Until that, here are some new (and better quality) pics of Monasterboice:

We've bought three chickens.

They're as lazy as they can be, we usually have only one egg per day or none at all. Pff. But at least they give me a farmhouse feel. The place I'm living now is an old farmhouse after all.

Cleaning the house can be a nightmare sometimes. If you have children or are planning to have some, never ever buy them stickerbooks. Never.

According to my mom it's nearly 40°C in Hungary, but here in Ireland it's so cold and windy that I've just caught a cold. So have the children. I must tell you that Beechams tastes horrible. Coldrex is much better. And more expensive, of course.

Why do Irish libraries not have Old English dictionaries? Maybe I should try in Trinity College. Or I should just use the online Bosworth-Toller dictionary. (Or look around once more in the local library. They MUST have something, really.)

And I'll visit Hungary in three months, gosh.

A Few Holes

Okay, first I'll just upload a couple of pictures I took in the last few weeks.

The short and fat round tower of Dromiskin: the very first complete round tower I've ever seen!

An epic Viking ship, also from Dromiskin, right next to the graveyard where the round tower stands. Dromiskin is quite difficult to find, anyways. I drove around Dundalk a few times before I finally found the right way.

I also went to Baile Ghib, one of the two villages of the Meath Gaeltacht (the other one is Ráth Cairn). It's in the middle of nowhere, and there's nothing to see there. Unfortunately, there's not much to hear either. I went to the village's shop and asked when they have a Holy Mass in the local chapel, because I've been planning to listen to a Holy Mass in Irish Gaelic since I moved to Ireland. But the shopkeeper said they don't have Holy Masses in Irish Gaelic at all, and that local people don't really use Irish. He added that if I want to visit a real gaeltacht, I should go to Donegal. Thanks XD

But at least now I can say that I've been to a gaeltacht.

So Ráth Cairn is my only hope now. I was told that it's a bit bigger than Baile Ghib, so I hope I'll find something interesting there. I just need a full day off for driving there, because I heard that it's very difficult to find that place.

Yesterday I finally got my ears pierced! I had one earring in both of my ears since I was a baby, but I'd been thinking about getting one or two more pairs for a while. I wanted to get it done back in Hungary before I came here, but in the end I didn't. But now I have them.

Now that I know it doesn't hurt at all, I want another pair in a few weeks or months, definitely before I move from this town, because the guy in the salon was so nice and funny I just MUST go back there.

The Power of the Tower & To See the Sea

Most creative entry title ever.

First of all, I'll write a little bit about Monasterboice, as I promised... gosh, more than one month ago!? I have a very busy life here. Sometimes it's too busy, actually.

Anyway, we live quite close to the graveyard where the round tower and the high crosses are. I was taken there at the first weekend I spent here, and since that, I've visited it at least two more times. I took some photos every time but most of them are very bad. Yeah, I still need a new camera, but I must save money for other things :/

Here it is. It's about 35m tall (according to wikipedia, hahaha), the cap is missing, but apart from that it's complete and in quite good condition.

And this is one of the high crosses. Each little carving shows a scene from the Bible, though most of them are hardly visible because the weather and some stupid visitors ruined them.

Drogheda is about 10 minutes drive from our house, and it's quite a nice town. The only thing I really miss is a local drama group or drama workshops/courses or whatever. There are a few amateur groups, but they all start rehearsing around September, so there's nothing to do here during the summer. Apart from this I love living here, the area is nice, everything is close, and these old country roads are just perfect for a new driver!

Along with the medieval stuff, my other obsession is the sea. I've seen a few different beaches so far, and I took endless photos. Unfortunately we live close to the eastern coast, which means I don't really have an opportunity to watch a sunset at the beach, but I'm planning to drive out one morning to see the sunrise.

Crabs at the beach beside Coast Road, Co. Louth. These guys are actually dead, but they look as if they were fighting.

The above pictures were taken in Howth, Co. Dublin. The town is popular because of the seals living there, but unfortunately I didn't see any of them when I was there. The harbour was kind of amazing, though.

And these are from today. I'm alone in the house because the family travelled to Sligo to visit some relatives, so I drove to Skerries. I guess it was the most beautiful beach I've seen so far, and the weather was also lovely, so I had a very nice day today :)

Life Goes On

Gosh, so many things have changed since the last time I wrote here. I don't even know where to start, but okay, let's do it the simple way.

I moved to Drogheda.

I don't really want to go into details; it just didn't work. I don't think it was either my or my host family's fault. I had a great time in Letterkenny, and that's all what matters. I finished the drama course, and our performance was gorgeous, I really, really enjoyed it, and I'm grateful that I had the opportunity to do the course. It was a bit tough, though, because I moved the day after the performance (yay for travelling with hangover - of course we had had a few drinks at night after the show).

On my last Monday before I moved, I went to visit Derry again, and this time it was a lot nicer trip than before. I bought a few things - I wanted to get a new pair of shoes for spring, and I ended up buying everything but shoes... But at least I finally found Vera Brittain's Testament of Youth in a bookshop! I wanted to buy this book for a while but never saw it in Letterkenny. Now I have it!

Also, I went to Free Derry Corner.

Unfortunately, the museum was not open, so I couldn't look around there, but I saw a few murals around, and wow, they are fabulous.

I really need to get a new camera. Really.

Next time I'll write about my first impressions of Drogheda and County Louth. I have a lot to say. I live in Monasterboice, so we have a round tower!

Derry - Armagh - Monaghan

I got 4 days off from 13 to 16 of March, but unfortunately I had to work on Patrick's Day, so I thought I deserved a little treat before that. Guess what this treat was: a trip to Northern Ireland!

First of all, I have to say that it's very difficult to plan a trip either in the republic or in Northern Ireland if you don't own a car. The island has quite a poor bus service. I mean, it's confusing and very difficult to understand, and wherever I want to travel, it's 90% sure that I have to change at least once. I thought that Hungary had the most terrible bus service in the world, but no, it's nothing compared to this.

My other big problem was the accomodation. Originally, I planned to spend all four days away from home, but I couldn't book the room for the whole time, so I ended up staying in the Charlemont Arms Hotel in Armagh for only one night.

So, here is what I did: I left Letterkenny on Sunday morning and travelled to Derry, where I had more than an hour to look around. After that, I took a bus to Armagh, had about 2 and a half hours before checking in to the hotel. I spent the night there and the following day I checked out at 12pm, then in the afternoon, I went to Monaghan, then back to Letterkenny.

Derry

I arrived to Derry very early on Sunday, it was extremely quiet as all of the stores were closed. But the bus station was right next to the city walls, and it's a very nice area with a wonderful view on the whole city.

The Guildhall is right next to the bus station. It looks amazing; I really need a better camera for beautiful buildings such as this.

I took this photo on the Peace Bridge, a footbridge close to the Guildhall.

View from the city walls.

I also wanted to go to Free Derry Corner, which was nearby, too, but I happened to choose the wrong road, and by the time I realised this and got back to the bus station, it was already too late, so in the end I wasn't able to see any murals :( Fortunately tomorrow I'll have another chance to go to Derry, and I'll definitely bring a map with me this time!

Armagh

My first day in Armagh was more or less the same as Derry, because I got there around noon on Sunday. In Ireland, shops are usually closed on Sunday, and if they're not, they only open at about 1pm.
Armagh is a small but very lovely city. Actually, it's rather a town, they only call it a city because it has two cathedrals. Also, there are several small churches, and every hour, you can hear dozens of bells dinging.
I went to listen to the Holy Mass in the evening at the Catholic St Patrick's Cathedral.

The building looks wonderful from the outside and from the inside as well, I really loved the carving of St Patrick on the altar. I couldn't take a photo of it, unfortunately.

Another church. I don't really know what its name is, but it looks gorgeous.

The Armagh County Museum was closed on Sunday, but I had enough time to visit it on Monday, and it was worth it. It's a small museum, but very interesting, and the staff is friendly, I had a long conversation with a guy about the life of George William Russell and the possibilities to learn acting in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

Armagh has quite a small shopping mall with one hypermarket in the city centre, but I think it's more than enough. There are plenty of other shops on the main streets. I bought some stuff such as a new shoulder bag, an umbrella (gosh, I'd been in Ireland for almost two months and I didn't have an umbrella up until now!) and a pair of sunglasses. I also wanted to buy shoes, but I already had lots of bags with me and didn't really want to bring too many things.

A pretty Celtic cross. I think I'm in love with those things, I always keep looking for them around churches or old graveyards.

"Sorry about your wall." Seems that Armagh people have a weird sense of humour :D

My hotel room. Quite neat and comfortable, isn't it? Anyway, hotel staff was very friendly and lovely; the lady at the reception suggested me places to visit and talked a little bit about the history of the city while I was having my breakfast.

Monaghan
I spent a bit more than one hour in Monaghan on my way back from Armagh to Letterkenny. It's a nice little town, about half the size of Armagh, I think.

The Diamond, decorated for Patrick's Day.

St. Patrick's Church of Ireland. I wanted to see St Macartan's Cathedral, too, but it was quite far away from the bus station, and I didn't have enough time to walk there.

I think this was Dublin Street, but I'm not quite sure. Anyways, it looks lovely.