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Terrific Thursday


          
Like every morning, we started off the day with breakfast, except this time in a home economics class. There were two teachers who taught us how to make Guinness brown bread and scones. After they made both to show us how, they gave us the chance to make them ourselves. We were each assigned a partner, and had our own station. We all made scones, and it was a very fun experience for the BC High boys to cook and make food that is popular in Ireland. After they were ready, we all sat down together and ate the scones we made and the brown bread with Irish smoked salmon, ham, Irish cheeses, Irish jams, clotted cream, and homemade pickles. It was a very fun and enjoyable experience for all of us. 



Today we also went to the Irish Parliamentary building. There, we saw where the lower house and the upper house, or senate, meet. It was very interesting for the BC High students to see how similar the room where the Irish Parliament meets to where Congress meets. The students learned when the Parliament is in session, and what they do during session. We also saw paintings of former Irish Prime Ministers. Overall, the morning was a very fun and educational experience for all of the students.
- Christopher Reed




        After our visit to Parliament, it was only a short walk to the art museum, the National Gallery of Ireland. Inside were beautiful paintings, Vincent van Gogh’s, Charles Monet’s, Pablo Picasso's, and many more. One of the more stunning sights of the museum was the stained glassware of Harry Clarke, a Belvedere graduate. With haunting faces, stunning colors, and beautiful intricacy on each piece, they were simply sights to behold. After our brief visit to the museum came dinner. We ate at the Thunder Road Café, an American motorsport themed restaurant. The food was very good, and the table was lively with good spirit and fun. 
Harry Clarke's stained glass at National Gallery of Ireland




Thunder Road Cafe + motorcycle out front










                 The final stop of the day was the Abbey Theatre. We saw the show called “Here All Night”. The play itself was incredibly abstract and surreal, with a sinister edge to it through its use of minor chords in the score and the dark imagery on the stage, including a center stage prop of a corpse. However, despite the uncomfortable atmosphere and nearly incomprehensible script, the performance by the actors and musicians was basically flawless. Anything that could be perceived as a mistake was clearly carefully choreographed and rehearsed. With only one prose actor who never once minced words or stuttered, a lead singer who was consistently on note and knew all the lyrics and cues in the hour and a half show perfectly, and a beautifully well done chorus with incredibly difficult harmonies and jumbled lyrics all done without a single beat missed. Some people saw it and hated it for its lack of a consistent narrative and incoherent nature. Some people saw it and loved it for its incredible acting and the surreal experience it provided. After the performance, we walked back to Belvedere to be picked up by our host families, thus ending a day exploring the Irish culture through its art, food, and government.



 - Andy Cass

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