Before you go to Belfast

When preparing to go to Northern Ireland, I think about the practical things: using pounds instead of euros, how to get from place to place. It’s also necessary to bear in mind the politics and the history, both recent and ancient.

As Lonely Planet points out, Belfast was “once lumped with Beirut, Baghdad and Bosnia as one the four ‘B’s for travelers to avoid.” Why? Many people would point to the IRA, the bombings, the Troubles. As so many cities often do, Belfast is moving on and building up – starting with the celebration of the Titanic. Celebrate a sunken ship? A doomed voyage? Aye. “The Titanic Experience” is an exhibition focusing on the epic timeline from conception of the ship to recovering the wreckage. It’s something I will miss, given the timing of my quick visit North – but an interesting piece of Belfast history.

photo courtesy of myguideireland.com

When my students came home last summer from a month-long tour of Ireland and Northern Ireland, I was not sure what to anticipate. As with any first time returnee – I expected “awesome,” “sick,” “amazing” in response to my questions. What I actually received in return for my questions, was very different. The group of fourteen girls had met with locals who lived through the Troubles and as a result, learned more than they could have possibly imagined. Some turned to Ireland as heritage seekers, looking to the Aran Islands as the departure point for a grandparent or family member. Others turned to the country as a platform for their course: Intercultural Communication. To my knowledge, not one was expecting lessons in conflict resolution – but this is what they found on the Emerald Isle.

I hope to see the murals that my students photographed so much. Wikipedia reports that almost 2,000 murals have been documented since the 1970′s. I gravitate toward images and art as a people’s expression of time, and am looking forward to seeing these images up close. Both nationalist / republican and unionist / loyalist present colorful propaganda that I’ve read about in the weeks leading up to my trip.

Photo courtesy of Belfast resident Liam Moore via http://ow.ly/fxUJy

For a far more visual take on the Troubles, I watched the 1993 film In the Name of the Father with Daniel Day Lewis. Even now as he plays Abe Lincoln on screens across America, he played Gerry Conlon in this film, a wrongly convicted Irishman who served as a face for a revolution. Based on a true story, it is both fascinating and terrifying (and not so bad for a movie made in the 90′s!). Click here for a YouTube trailer.

On a far lighter note, Belfast also holds for me a dear friend and two years worth of catching up to do. So while I anticipate a far less historical visit than I first imagined, it will be my first touch with this controversial place – and surely not my last.

In search of craic

What’s the craic?

The best thing about this word is it’s spelling versus it’s actual English pronunciation: crack. This is why there’s a disclaimer at the bottom of the primary Urban Dictionary entry: “Note: Very tricky to get away with saying this in the US without getting strange looks [from] police officers.”

Craic is a term used in Ireland to describe everything from a great party to good conversation. We have several students in Ireland now and at least one has made a reference to the word in her blog. It is sprinkled throughout literature and used heavily in travel guides. It is one of the true words that say many things at the same time, without trying.

As you know, I’m off to Ireland in just two weeks. I’ll be headquarted in Dublin for my conference – The Forum on Education Abroad: “Reinventing the European Experience: Culture, Politics and Diversity in U.S. Education Abroad,” held at University College Dublin. Taking the opportunity to do some site visits with our international partners and (hopefully) see some of our students, the majority of my time in Ireland will be in the capital.

Of course it didn’t take long for the traveler in me to kick into high gear and demand exploration of further reaches of the island. Ireland itself is quite manageable, thanks to a public transportation system easily linking Dublin to other cities. With my work week bracketed by two weekends, I hope to take advantage of both north, and west coasts.

BELFAST, United Kingdom
Navigating to Northern Ireland appears easy, with buses and trains from the city. I hope to spend my first weekend in the city of Belfast, although it will be a short one. I have been reading endlessly about the Troubles, from the late 1960′s to the mid 1990′s, an intense political time in recent history. The challenge will be finding a nonpartisan view of said events between Catholics and Protestants. Fingers crossed a recommended local guide is available for a tour and some storytelling.

GALWAY
Points west lead to one of Ireland’s most massive tourist attractions: the Cliffs of Moher. When my last group of students was preparing to leave for Ireland, I saw so many photos of this stunning vista that I quickly found myself wanting to see it with my own eyes. The city of Galway is the largest in the West at a population of 72,000+, and is home to University College Galway, where it’s said a fair share of students are pursuing studies in the Irish language.

While I will be skipping the Blarney stone and the outlying Aran Islands, I hope slide around the tourists to get a glimpse of true Ireland: craic, rain and all.

photo courtesy of cliffsofmoher.ie

no smoking, Spain!

January 1 .. could it be true?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-11845158

According to this article, and plenty of Spaniards swearing that they will quit smoking on January 1, ¨tougher rules were announced in October which will give the country some of the strictest legislation in Europe.¨

I will believe it when I see it. Smoking is HUGE here in Europe. I cant walk out of the gym without the 30 something in front of me lighting up a cigarette. Students smoke outside our school. Mothers smoke in front of their children. People smoke while they eat. Its all very disgusting (to me). Did the Spaniards not get the memo about the perils of smoking? I did hear that last year they attempted this very same law and nothing happened, so again I say … I will believe it when I see it.

ap-o-what?

a-p-o-s-t-i-l-l-e.

Here we have another life incident where I am grateful for (1) the Internet, (2) wikipedia. According to the latter, an apostille is commonly used to refer to “the legalization of a document for international use under the terms of the 1961 Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents.” After reading this I still say … wtf? So let me try to break it down for you.

In order to obtain a Spanish visa, I need an apostille on my police clearance record. I’ve been thinking of it as an international notary, if that helps. The visa application process is pretty hefty, so make sure that you have every item you need. Give yourself enough time to collect all these crazy things, so you get your visa on time for your departure.  Bear in mind that EVERY CONSULATE IS DIFFERENT. I realize that’s not helpful, but I don’t make these decisions! As a resident of Pennsylvania, I am tied to the Spanish Consulate of New York, so I am operating under their rules.

So if you need one of these things, specifically in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, here are the steps:

NOW it's official ..

1. Get your document notarized. In my case I needed a police clearance from the State Department. I went to the University’s notary public and got it stamped.

2. You can choose to haul your butt to Harrisburg or mail them your document and wait for it to return.

Since my application is a bit time sensitive, I went to Harrisburg in person. Blissfully, the Bureau of Commissions, Elections & Legislation takes walk-ins. It only took 5 minutes! It was well worth the drive because now I have all the pieces I need for the visa application and can move on to the next step (NY: next week).

3. Fill out one of the Request for Legalization of Documents forms and get a personal check or money order for the $15 processing fee.

4. Get your shiny gold seal, and go on your merry way.

Phone call from a Representative of the House

Yesterday I shared an email from the Easton State Theatre regarding the upcoming entertainment tax. On the advice of that very email, I decided to write to our reps (you should, too!)

Dear Representatives & Senators of PA:

What a sad day in the history of the arts in Pennsylvania. It is an embarrassment and an absolute shame that Governor Rendell has included a provision in the PA budget to extend Pennsylvania’s 6% sales tax to include concert and theatre tickets.

Various organizations have reached out to the community to inform us, and ask for help. We are told that this new provision would apply to non-profit theatres, as well as commercial venues. Cultural events, dance programs, museums, zoos. Is it not clear that families have a difficult enough time taking their children to educational venues? Now in addition to some existing “entertainment” or “amusement” taxes, we are paying an additional tax for going out and give back to the local businesses we support. Many of these local businesses are non-profit organizations, and a tax like this means an extraordinary burden for the business and for it’s patrons.

Please speak out on behalf of the Pennsylvanian arts community, and on behalf of local families who save their paychecks to spend a night at the theater. Don’t let this provision pass.

—

Would you believe that I received a phone call in response to my email? It’s true. No more than 5 minutes after I hit the send button, my office phone rang and it was Representative Steve Samuelson (D-PA).

In the 15 minute conversation that followed, he gave a lot of information and answered all of my questions. Apparently the beginning of this arts budget battle began with the House asking for an 8% cut in arts funding, while the Senate Republicans wanted 100% (31 of them voted for this).  Now we are in a situation where the compromise is steep for both sides, but the resulting 34% is far better than 100%.

My understanding is that the objective is not to raise any broad base tax (like MA, AZ and other states). There is now an 8% sales tax in the City of Philadelphia and a 7% sales tax in Pittsburgh. Other taxing possibilities (in lieu of broad base taxation) could include raising business tax, cigarette tax. The end result is a negotiation completed by next week, and a final decision by next Wednesday at the latest.The tax would be effective immediately but it might take about 30-60 days for the entertainment tax to make a debut on our receipts for concert tickets, museum passes and other performances.

At the time of my conversation (22 September, 6pm EDT) Mr. Samuelson had already received 15 emails courtesy of the State Theatre.