Wow

It's been wild.

Back in Dublin for one more afternoon before we return to Exeter (and my parents arrive to visit me tomorrow morning-- ..!). Just realizing that I meant to write and send postcards this afternoon and now I may be out of time. Oh well. If any of you receive postcards from Dublin or the Aran Isles but postmarked from Exeter, please forgive me.

The Aran Islands-- bleak, stark, beautiful. We were really blessed by the weather, which has been consistently patient with us the whole week, shining and clear every time we're out and waiting patiently for those times when we're inside or on the bus to begin raining.

But the islands. They're just... large hunks of rock. I have pictures for later, when I'm at home. I cannot honestly imagine why any people would settle there except to bear witness to the raw power of the sea and stone. Waves crashing hundreds of feet up the cliff faces. Biting winds. Ground so stony that in order to create soil, the inhabitants have needed to clear the ground of rock, and then extract dirt from deep crevices between slabs of stone, and then spread it over a bed of gathered kelp. All this to grow potatoes.

The biggest island is Inishmore, nine miles by two. It is covered by a latticed network of over two thousand miles of stone wall. Think about that for a second.

There have been many thoughts running through my mind over the last few days about who I am, where I'm going, and what I'm going back to in a few months. But I'm not sure I feel inclined to be ponderous at an internet cafe at noon-thirty on a Friday morning. I am, as always, forward-thinking, as my thoughts run up and down over the summer to come and the following year at Kenyon College, which is looking more and more enjoyable with each day that passes.

My mind is scattered-- been traveling a lot. I'll write more later. I hope y'all are still listening, I know I haven't been able to update much lately.