My Very Own Cinderella Story

This is the story of how I went to a real live ball.  But first…

The weekend after St. Paddy’s I had another Dublin adventure.  This time I traveled with the NUIG Choral Society to Dublin to see a Beatles Musical!  Ok, this is going to seem blasphemous to a lot of people, but I’ve never really been a fan of The Beatles.  I’ve always kind of felt like they were over-hyped, and I didn’t understand the obsession.  But that all changed as the 10 of us danced in the aisles, grooving to “Hey Jude” and “Yellow Submarine.” I’ve been converted. 

Choral Society in Dublin!

We took the 3-hour bus from Galway to Dublin on that Friday afternoon and went to a fantastic restaurant called The Gourmet Burger Kitchen where I had a chorizo burger with sweet potato on it!  Absolutely scrumptious!  After our dinner we had to rush to the theater to see our show—we only had 10 minutes to get there!  Well we found it alright and as I said, the dancing in aisles commenced for the next two hours as we watched  a group of four guys essentially be a Beatles tribute band and have a few costume changes.  It was great.

After watching others sing for two whole hours, we all felt the urge to be little songbirds too.  I mean we ARE choir nerds!  So we did the only rational thing that a choral group can do which is go to the nearest karaoke bar.  Luckily we had spotted one earlier that day when we arrived to the city, so we high-tailed it over there!  We sang one group number rocking the socks off of the pub if I do say so myself, and then a bunch of us did individual numbers.  Now I LOVE singing.  Absolutely love it.  However, standing up with a microphone and a wordless karaoke recording in the background before a crowd of drunken pub-goers is intimidating, even to me who has been taking singing lessons for as long as I can remember.  But after a few of my friends rocked the mic, I couldn’t resist the call of the mic and I did my own rendition of “Wide Open Spaces” by the Dixie Chicks, a song that always reminds me of my mom.  I have a vivid memory of listening to this album in her car when we lived in Pasadena on my way home from tennis camp one summer.  It’s a gorgeous song and it was fun to just cut loose and not care what anyone thought!  Hell, I’m never going to see any of those people again!  If I cracked or truly stunk it up it really didn’t matter at all.

After karaoking our little hearts out until 2am we headed back to our hostel where we relaxed and talked for a while and then crashed.  We all got up early to hit the Dublin shops—not really what I wanted to do but I DID need a dress for the previously mentioned ball.  Don’t worry, I’m getting there.  Anyways the first store I looked in I found one!  It was a pretty green dress that made me feel like a glamorous 20’s flapper…always a cute look I think.  After spending the afternoon shopping up a storm we headed back home to Galway.

Now, continuing on towards the ball…

Early that next week Choral Society had another important milestone—our annual concert.  We teamed up with the Traditional Irish Music Society and put on a concert that raised money for the relief efforts in Japan after the devastating earthquake.  We sang some songs that you’ll recognize like: “With a Little Help from my Friends” and “Heartbreak Hotel” and then lesser knowns like “Wolf Song”—a traditional Swedish lullaby.  I even had a solo in “With a Little Help from my Friends,” and my friends Caitlin, Tara, and Kelsey came out to support me.  With this concert I actually reached an important milestone in every woman’s life—my first pair of red heels.  My Mom-mom (mother’s mom) always told me that every woman needed a pair of red shoes, well for years I had been searching for a cute pair.  I finally found them!  The Choral Society decided to wear all black with hints of red so one of my hints was a pair of sexy red heels…yay!

My Name in the Program

Anyways, as I’ve officially bored any male reading this I’ll keep going.  My Choral Society packed week was not complete yet!  The day after our successful concert that raised a few hundred euro for Japan (not even a drop in the bucket, but at least we tried!), we had the Society and Volunteer Awards that were presented to active students on campus.  I sat with my fellow committee members in the banquet hall for a  free lunch and received the Presidential Award for Volunteering for my work at the Scoil Bhride Homework club, and as the Vice-Secretary of the Choral Society.  It was a honor and definitely cool to experience another school’s incentive for student’s volunteering.  While USC has a lot of volunteer student groups, maybe something like this should exist?  People our age can do so much for our communities when we put our mind to it—we need to remember that.

Tara and I ready for the Ball

Anyways, as I’ve officially bored any male reading this I’ll keep going.  My Choral Society packed week was not complete yet!  The day after our successful concert that raised a few hundred euro for Japan (not even a drop in the bucket, but at least we tried!), we had the Society and Volunteer Awards that were presented to active students on campus.  I sat with my fellow committee members in the banquet hall for a  free lunch and received the Presidential Award for Volunteering for my work at the Scoil Bhride Homework club, and as the Vice-Secretary of the Choral Society.  It was a honor and definitely cool to experience another school’s incentive for student’s volunteering.  While USC has a lot of volunteer student groups, maybe something like this should exist?  People our age can do so much for our communities when we put our mind to it—we need to remember that.

At the Ball!

Gasp!  No no, not the kind of drive-by shooting we actually think about in South Central, a drive-by WATER GUN shooting.  Right smack dab on my face.  Some jerks were driving by and targeting anyone dressed up for the ball, let’s just say I was not amused.  Some water even got on my dress!  I rushed up to a nearby bathroom and literally stood under the hand dryer begging some higher being to turn the evening around.  God Bless Tara, she was trying so hard not to laugh at the absurdity of the situation, knowing that if she laughed I could’ve just downward spiraled into pissy-ness.  But it all turned out ok, and my dress dried.

From there we went straight to the banquet hall unencumbered and unmolested.  And the rest of the evening was a FABULOUS night!  I ate way too much, and danced until my feet were so sore they wanted to fall off.  We had a great live band and once they stopped playing we danced to the tunes of the DJ.  

All in all it was one of the most memorable nights I had in Galway; I truly felt a part of not only Galway and Ireland, but also of NUIG.  That’s what I wanted to achieve here.  I didn’t just want to come to Ireland, only hang out with fellow American study abroaders, travel, and barely attend class. I wanted to leave Ireland with a sense that I became integrated into my new school.  The Socs Ball was the ultimate achievement of that. 

Not only was the Ball amazing though, my entire experience with the Choral Society was wonderful.  It was so great to become involved with group singing again in a noncompetitive, and non-catty environment.  Singing at both of my high schools was a highly competitive and drama-inducing experience; everyone wanted to be the soloist.  Everyone wanted the limelight.  And let’s face it, anyone who sings at USC mostly wants to be discovered…it IS Los Angeles, kind of comes with the territory.  This was purely about the sound, the group, and the experience.  It was incredible.

Just because I'm home doesn't mean I'm done!

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A Sea of Green: St. Paddy’s in Dublin

I was lucky enough to be in Ireland for one of the most quintessentially Irish days of the entire year.  That’s right, March 17th, known through the world as…  St. Patrick’s Day!  To start this week of green shamrocky shenanigans I went with two of my friends Tara and Kelsey to see Michael Flatley’s “Lord of the Dance” in 3D at the movies.  Let me say two things about that movie, #1 Michael Flatley is incredibly talented.  His feet move faster than my eyes can even comprehend.  #2. Michael Flatley is also incredibly egotistical.  “Lord of the Dance” is this man’s way of petting his ego: the storyline has him as the twinkle-toed hero saving the world and the art of dance itself from an evil army.  Yeah…it was a bit much.  Not grounded in reality at all.  I love his previous work at Riverdance…he should go back to his roots.

Anyways, St. Paddy’s…this day has been forever associated in my mind with my younger brother, appropriately named…Patrick of course!  But now that I’ve celebrated it in Ireland believe me it has taken on new meaning.  Before I get into the day’s events I’ll give everyone some background on Ireland’s Patron Saint!

To start with, St. Patrick was actually NOT Irish!  He was actually kidnapped from Wales by the Romans and was thrust into slavery for 6 years in Ireland before he escaped.  After his escape from slavery in Ireland, Patrick joined a monastery in France.  From here it becomes the well-known refrain.  After his sojourn in the monastery, Patrick returned as a priest to his captors’ country in order to convert the Irish to Christianity.  He described the Holy Trinity to the Irish using the shamrock, which subsequently became one of Ireland’s symbol.  Each leaf of the shamrock stood for a member of the trinity: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  With this visual, the Irish people were able to understand Catholicism and accept it within the land.  It is from this history, and the subsequent legends that created St. Patrick’s Day (or St. Paddy’s Day for the Irish name Padraig).

Mary, Bobby, and Caitlin

So anyways, my roommate Caitlin and I took a bus to Dublin on the Wednesday before St. Patrick’s Day (a National holiday and a day off from school) where we then got off of the bus and wandered around for about an hour until we found the bus that took us to her great-aunt  Mary Judge’s house.  Well, Mary isn’t actually Caitlin’s great-aunt, but we don’t know what else to call her, because she is Caitlin’s grandmother’s cousin.  So yeah, we stayed with Mary for the weekend, and boy was it a blast!  First of all, I felt like I was walking into my own grandmother’s house.  One weekend two years ago I brought a friend to visit my grandparents and my grandma just automatically handed me the keys to her car and told us to go have a good time.  Mary handed us her house key and told us to be careful, but to feel free to come and go as we please.  AND she made a full Irish breakfast each day we were there: sausage, eggs, tomatoes, black and white pudding, brown bread & butter, and tea!  After getting settled and eating dinner with Mary and Caitlin’s cousin Bobby (who even knows how they’re actually related), Caitlin and I decided to go and look around Dublin.  We wandered across the river over to the popular destination for college students in Dublin—Temple Bar. There we met up with our friend Jason who was also in Dublin for the parade, and we walked around together.  However, none of us were quite ready to hit the pub scene.  Instead Caitlin and I hit the hay early so that we could make sure we were up early enough to actually be able to see the parade!

One of the floats!

The next morning after being force fed a HUGE and delicious full Irish breakfast complete with my favorite pork sausages and eggs, we set off on the bus to the parade route.  We met up with a huge group of Galway friends on O’Connell Street (the main street in Dublin—the one with the huge needle looking thing).  It was CROWDED!!!  It was like the Thanksgiving Day Parade in NYC.  Little girls sat on their daddy’s shoulders, small boys’ faces were pressed against apartment building windows above the parade route, and the energy was incredible.  Suddenly a figure in a long robe, with a staff, and traditional Catholic priest garb was seen walking down the street—this man in green robes was the chosen 2011 St. Patrick himself.  The parade had begun!  Each of the island’s 32 counties were represented, regardless of national allegiance.  It was a true bringing together of the Irish people. School children chosen from each county wore costumes that seemed more akin to Carnival or Mardi Gras than to anything Irish pranced and danced up  the street, waving and throwing flowers to the enthralled crowds.  Of course, my favorite presentation was the Galway group.  Those kids glowed!  I felt like a real Galwegian proudly beaming at them.

A group of Australian Leprechauns
we found at "The Living Room"

After the festivities on O’Connell Street ended at about noon, our large group decided to find a mellow pub and celebrate the day the way the Irish do—with green beer!  We found a pub called “The Living Room” right off of the street and I got myself a green Heineken.  It looked a bit strange, but the dye doesn’t change the yummy taste.  The place was sheer madness…there was a bbq for those who wanted to pay for it and kids were running EVERYWHERE!  That’s right you read right…kids. In a pub.  Kids are allowed in Irish pubs until 7pm, so parents were definitely taking advantage of that fact- I nearly got run over by a particularly jubilant gang of hide-and-go-seekers. 

After “The Living Room” the group kind of split up and me and a few friends wandered to Temple Bar.  Ok, the only way to describe this is INSANITY.  This was beer everywhere- on the sidewalk, in the road, on cars, and even spritzing through the air.  The pubs were crawling with people, we literally couldn’t find a single place to comfortably sit down.  So, we ended up meeting up with a friend of a friend who was studying at Trinity College this semester.  We went to his apartment and met up with all of his friends then headed to their favorite, more low-key, pub. After a few drinks and some good conversation again the group split and more wandering ensued until like midnight.  At which point Caitlin and I were simply done.  It was way too long a day! 

After the shenanigans of St. Paddy’s the next day we took it very easy.  Caitlin and I went shopping in Dublin and explored a bit, but mostly we just relaxed.  Then Mary took us out to dinner…she was too sweet!  The next day we took a bus back to Galway and our St. Paddy’s adventure was complete.  All in all, utter green, glittery, shamrocky glory was achieved.

A toast to all of you! <3