Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: adventure, art, canada, crocus, daffodils, Dublin, garden, Ireland, Lauren Selden, secret garden, spring, study abroad, travel, Weather, winter
An open letter to friends and family back home:
Dear Loved ones, How I feel for you all, and your recent blizzards. Does Canada not realize it is Spring?! You should know that all this snow is only serving to enforce the ridiculous stereotypes of Canada that the rest of the world believes. (eg. Igloos and Polar Bears.)
Don’t be fooled by the cool blue skies, dear friends. Spring has officially sprung here in Dublin. Crocuses are poping up everywhere, even my little front yard in between the old dead detrius of
the winter. Daffodils line the streets in Milltown and make even the most overcast grey day sunny. Sometimes, as I walk to school over a cobblestone bridge, running my hands along the mossy sides – I have a sudden deep and penetrating feeling that I am in the Secret Garden. Tending to the plants and pruning back the deadfall from a cold cold winter (the coldest Dublin has seen in decades) and making room for the new blooms of spring.
xo Lauren
Filed under: Ireland, Lauren Selden, anecdotes, art, craft, film and video, food, gallery, installation, travel | Tags: 4 dame lane, adventure, architecture, art, art gallery, bookstore, Dublin, experimental film, food, gallery, IMMA, Ireland, Lauren Selden, national gallery ireland, Post, shopping, st. patricks cathedral, study abroad, tourist, travel, vegan, video art, wagamama
It’s been a busy few days over here. Last Thursday I was part of a media/art exhibition at a club here in Dublin known only by the mysterious name, 4 Dame Lane. It was a fairly low tech production, as you might be able to tell from the ‘vintage’ televisions our work was shown on, but it gave the night a fun bohemian flair. The piece I had included is one from 2007, called Waiting.
After the fun and excitement of Thursday night, and a great potluck hosted by NYU students on Friday night on Saturday we did the gallery circuit. Along with some fellow exchange students we headed first to IMMA, the Irish Museum of Modern Art. IMMA is located in the most beautiful building on a hilltop just outside of the city center. The grounds are beautiful and they have a wonderful sculpture garden. The main show right now is called Exquisite Corpse- and among all the great artwork there was also a fun room where you could draw your own exquisite corpses with friends. We all had great fun drawing them up, give art students a DIY project and they’ll go wild for sure! (you can see the results in my Flickr album)
After IMMA we strolled our way back into the city, stopping at a few unnamed hole in the wall galleries (which I find can often be the most interesting). We made a pit stop at St. Patricks Cathedral and then headed for a bite. Wagamama’s is a UK restaurant chain that serves up Asian style cuisine- we all really enjoyed it, especially Aino who is vegan. The restaurant actually has its’ own vegan menu which is perfect for her, and others like her!
We did visit the National Gallery after, but I admit we didn’t visit in the typical way. You see, the Gallery Shop is right in the entrance of the gallery- and by the time we’d checked out every nook and cranny (and bought most of it) the gallery itself had closed! Please forgive us and our retail therapy. We all made a pact to go back again for a real visit. In the meantime, you can enjoy the beautiful architecture of the gallery lobby. What great shapes!
Also: a tiny little p.s. but a BIG thank you to everyone who has sent me some snail mail- I think I’ve become addicted to both giving and getting it!
Filed under: Ireland, Lauren Selden, Whimsy, art, aura, colour, personal intrests, photography, travel, writing | Tags: architecture, Book of Kells, Clouds, Dublin, Ireland, Lauren Selden, Mail, memory, NCAD, Post, Post Card, study abroad, travel, Trinity, Trinity University, Weather
One thing I’ve noticed about Ireland is; the clouds move faster here.
Lately the weather here has been gorgeous every morning, only to turn to rain and wind the second I set out the door. Today there has been a break in the cycle of bad weather and I’m sitting in the classroom keeping warm from the sunlight streaming through the windows.
On Sunday, however, I was not so lucky on the weather front. I was determined though, after two days of hiding inside fighting with my washing machine to venture out into Dublin. So I braved the howling winds and headed for Trinity University which- even in the drizzly rain and howling wind was beautiful. Everything here is so full of character, but especially the buildings in and around Trinity. I’ve fallen in love with the architectural details- the rope trim, the carved flowers, and oh, the doors. The doors! Dublin as a city is famous for it’s elaborate and beautiful doors, and whenever I mention them to my classmates they just roll their eyes and go ‘yeah . . they’re nice’. I hope I never get so accustomed to Dublin that the beauty of these doors is lost.
Filed under: Ireland, Lauren Selden, art, craft, food, personal intrests, photography, travel, writing | Tags: art nouveau, Aubergine, Cafe en Seine, craft, DIY, Dublin, Euro, food, Grafton Street, Ireland, Lace, Lauren Selden, Marks and Spencer, ribbon, Rubanesque, SaBa, study abroad, travel
I’m having a great time in Dublin, my only trouble is trying to find the time to catch up with my blog as by the end of most days I’m so tired it’s straight to sleep!
On Friday I went out an about for a bit, with the primary goal being to find a replacement for my poor broken suitcase. Lufthansa has a connection with a luggage shop in downtown Dublin and I was able to go down there with the old suitcase and trade it in for a new one! I actually think the new suitcase is even nicer than the old one, and it’s such a relief no
t to have the heart-break of looking at the old broken one. After that, Johanna and I wandered through Dublin for a while. I’d been searching high and low for an eggplant (they call them aubergines here)and I hadn’t had any luck- we ended up checking a specialty food store and found my eggplant at last! Now I just have to decide what to make with it. Perhaps baba ghanoush?
Filed under: Ireland, Lauren Selden, NCAD, art, colour, photography, travel | Tags: amsterdam, antarctica, architecture, Dublin, Ireland, Lauren Selden, Lufthansa, NCAD, study abroad, trap doors, travel
It was the most beautiful day today in Dublin- It’s hard for me to even put it into words. The main thing is the score, which now is: Lauren: 6 | Umbrella: 0
4 Things About Today:
1. Bright blue skies, loads of sunshine, crisp air and beautiful cold grey green stone.
2. Dublin sidewalks are filled with trap doors and glass brick skylights- today I saw a restaurant receiving a supply delivery through their trap door into a basement kitchen. I think there is a whole other city underground.
3. Hanging out in the Media department with my soon-to be friends, now classmates. Talking about making cocktails and going to Amsterdam.
4. A lecture given by the head of media. All the students call him daddy. He showed us video from his trip to Antarctica and photos of penguins. He is organizing an artists’ trip there next Christmas. Only 6 grand for two weeks!(Free Parka)
Tomorrow I will venture out to a luggage shop in hopes of replacing my poor busted suitcase. Lufthansa has a deal where you bring the broken suitcase to a certain shop and exchange it for a new one. Sounds good to me!
Please Enjoy these photos of my new home, NCAD. The school used to be a distillery, which is where they make whiskey- but now it is home to a lot of generally hungover art students. A nice balance, I think.
Filed under: Ireland, personal intrests, travel | Tags: architecture, Dublin, Dublin Castle, emily carr institute, Ireland, Lauren Selden, Luas, NCAD, study abroad, travel
Today was the first day of classes at NCAD, I took the train in to school and, after getting slightly lost, I made it there at 10:20. The school seems tiny from the street but today the big gate was open and when you walk inside you realize the school is huge! It’s probably 3 times the size of Emily Carr University.
I met with my tutor for the semester, as well as some of the students in my year. Their system is much different from ours at home, instead of having classes with separate teachers each year is assigned one tutor who keeps tabs on you, mostly though bi-weekly meetings. There are also lectures you are able to attend, as well as technical seminars (so I gather). The media department seems quite small- I think there are only 16-20 students in my year. There are only 11 fourth year students. This might be because the media department here is fairly new- I think the program is about 6 years old.
The students seem very nice, I was surprised to learn that there are no other students on exchange from Canada- I think there is one girl from the US though. Apparently most students come here from Europe only- because its closer to home. I had lunch today with two exchange students from France, they were both very nice, and hopefully I will meet more people from school as the week carries on. Our café at the school is downstairs in the basement, the food is pretty gross- mostly potatos and beans and sausages- so I think I will be bringing my meals with me or eating somewhere else. The café looks like it’s a subway station- pretty cool. It’s all brick and there are little oval alcoves with glass block skylights above- you can see people walking on the street up above.
After school, I walked back to my Luas stop, taking my time and enjoying the sights. I stopped for a bit at Dublin Castle, which is beautiful and also right in the middle of the city!
Like my school, from the outside, the castle doesn’t look like much, but once you walk through the gates . . .
. . . you realize how huge the place is! It’s really beautiful just to walk around outside and admire the architecture. What I like about Dublin is that there are loads of beautiful old brick and stone buildings, and then right next to them you can see brand new, modern glass and steel structures. It’s a great combination, I think. Walking around Dublin is really nice, but I’ve been having a lot of trouble crossing the streets. It’s tough remembering which way to look for oncoming traffic- even though at some crosswalks they have arrows painted on the streets to show you where to look. There are walk/dont walk lights at the crosswalks- but they take forever to light up- and no one seems to pay attention to them. Everyone jay-walks and crosses whenever they can, I felt like a bit of a dork standing at the corner waiting for the walk sign. As if crossing the streets weren’t bad enough, the buses here are double-deckers and its insanely terrifying to watch the bus come hurtling towards you on the road, especially as it turns sharp corners onto the tiny little one way streets that cover downtown.
Tomorrow I think I might go on a bus tour of the city, maybe it will help me get my bearings a little bit more. I’ll leave you with some photos of my walk to and from school to my house in Milltown. Today started out grey and windy but by mid-afternoon the sun was able to peak out of the clouds! I haven’t even had to use my umbrella yet! If you would like to see more photos of my trip you can visit my Flickr page, here
Filed under: Lauren Selden, aura, emily carr institute, food, personal intrests, travel, vancouver | Tags: Dublin, emily carr institute, Euro, food, Ireland, Lauren Selden, NCAD, study abroad, travel
Things are great here in Dublin, its actually much warmer than in Vancouver, and very mild – although it is chilly and windy. No snow to be found, and actually my roommate says that it hardly ever snows in here. (yay!)
My flat is super nice, a bit away from the city but still very nice and in a good, safe area. We have a cute little garden and the kitchen and bathroom are beautiful and modern (thank goodness!) For now I’m sleeping in the spare room in the attic, it has 4 skylights! The the stairs leading up to it are quite steep and narrow- but I’m sure I will get used to that. I move downstairs into the bigger bedroom on the 13th January.
Yesterday I arrived home(here) around 3pm, exhausted and frustrated because of my poor shattered and completely destroyed suitcase. (you can see from the photo above that one wheel was torn off- and that’s not even the worst of the damage!) The airport people were not very helpful but my taxi driver was extremely nice, thank goodness! Johanna my roommate (whose room I will be taking over later on) was home and we sat and had tea for a bit, then I cleaned up and we ran some errands in a cute little part of town (reminded me a bit of 4th ave or maybe Main street in Vancouver). I had a great warm salad of grilled vegetables and red pepper cous cous which was delicious, at a little cafe/restaurant there and we had my key made and did a bit of grocery shopping.
EVERYTHING here is expensive. Euros are scary!! Plus they have weird amounts of coins, 2 cents, 20 cents, along with the usual 1, 5, 10 and 50. Strange!
Today I slept in, then headed downtown to the tourism office in search of a map of the city. The tourist office is in a huge old church, pretty amazing! All the buildings here are beautiful.
I forgot to bring my camera out with me today so you’ll have to trust my descriptions of Dublin. When I first noticed I’d forgotten my camera, I was crushed, but then I realized that I will have the next four months to take photos, its nice to be able to just walk about and relax without having to worry about documenting everything.
Found a map, and a power adapter and then headed for a walk to my new school, being Sunday it was closed of course- most smaller shops and institutions in Dublin are closed Sunday. But I had a good walk around the city and enjoyed looking at all the architecture, even if it can be challenging to walk on the cobblestone streets.
Another strange thing about Dublin is that there are NO STREET SIGNS ANYWHERE! Some of the buildings have the street name written on them along with the number, which was helpful when I was trying to find my way to school. Thank god I had a map to follow the streets along with, as well as a good sense of direction- or I might have gotten lost.
Above, you can see the area that I’m living in, downtown Dublin is further up and to the right of the area in the photo. If you can tell, behind our house there is a beautiful little river and hills, with a trail that goes along it. I will have to cross over the river in the mornings as I go to the train station. It’s a picturesque walk. The train here is very similar to the skytrain in Vancouver, and is called Luas. It takes only 10 minutes, maybe less to get to the city center probably the equivalent of 3 stops or so on the Vancouver Skytrain.
Now I’m settling down with my computer for a while, and planning a relaxing night in. Tomorrow morning I will have my first day at school- I’m very nervous about it, but hopefully all goes well!
