St. George's Market and the Glens of Antrim

St. George's Market

This market has many great booths depending on what day you go.  I've only been on Saturdays, when they have more produce and food.  I usually go about once every other week to get fruit for the next two weeks. I have yet to go on other days, but I have heard that Friday has more crafts and Sunday has useful items.  I plan on going on one of these other days before the end of my time here, but for now, I just wanted you to know about it!

Here is the address for the market if you are interested in learning more:

http://www.belfastcity.gov.uk/stgeorgesmarket/

Glens of Antrim

Carrickfergus Castle is a large castle built by the Norman John de Courcy who overthrew the kings ruling the north of Ireland thus establishing his prominent rule in the region. It was constructed in 1180 to guard the approach to Belfast Lough. The history of the castle and its role in defense of this region of Ulster is provided through exhibits and audio-visual facilities within the castle.

In the past, peoples of Northern Ireland lived in caves such as this.  Supposedly--according the bus driver anyway--this is where a school was held back in those times.  To me, these caves remind me of the 'hobbit-holes' described in J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit" and his later "Lord of the Rings" trilogy.

Carrick-a-Rede bridge is a swinging rope bridge spanning an 800 feet wide chasm connecting the main land to the Carrick-a-Rede island which is used by fishermen. The bridge crossing is quite thrilling and not for the faint hearted! It is open between the months of April and September.

Giant's Causeway is a World Heritage site. Here the visitor can witness a spectacular sight of about 40,000 six sided basalt column, estimated to be about 55 million years old, which were formed by cooling lava. The site stretches for 2 miles along the county Antrim coast where there are scenic walks that take you past splendid amphitheaters and fine rock formations. The visitors' center provides audio-visual shows and interactive exhibitions which explains in detail the formation of the causeway attributed to the giant Finn MacCool (mythology) and also the actual geology involved.

Old Bushmills Distillery is the oldest licensed distillery in the world where the renowned Bushmills whiskey has been distilled legally since 1608 when King James 1 granted its license. A guided tour of the distillery is provided where the secrets of whiskey production is revealed and the visitor also allowed to sample the distilled product.

Dunlace Castle was built by Richard de Burgh, the Earl of Ulster.  In 1584 it fell to the famous battle hardy MacDonnell clan who ruled this north eastern corner of Ireland in the 16th century.  In 1588 the MacDonnells used their helping of the treasures from the Spanish Armada ship the Girona, wrecked off the Giant's Causeway, to refurbish the castle.  However, in 1639, during a violent storm, part of the castle fell into the sea after which it was abandoned by the MacDonnells.  It has a breathtaking location perched on a cliff top along the spectacular county Antrim coast.

Game of Thrones

Game of Thrones is a popular and fairly new series--soon start it's second season--filmed by HBO.  A majority of the series is filmed in Northern Ireland.  Throughout my time in Belfast, I've met some of the extras that work on set.  On our tour of the Glens of Antrim, we saw several of the sights used during filming.  Unfortunately I was not able to get a great picture of the prop castle that was built/being built.  However, I was able to capture an image of the Wall.  If you've read the books or seen the show, you know how lacking this little white painted portion of stone is to the actual Wall, but with special effects and proper camera angles, you can use your imagination to see how this little bit would be used to portray the Wall.  Also below, I have a description of the show for all those who have not read the books or seen the show.

A Description of the Show

"Summers span decades. Winters can last a lifetime. And the struggle for the Iron Throne has begun.

"It will stretch from the south, where heat breeds plots, lusts and intrigues; to the vast and savage eastern lands; all the way to the frozen north, where an 800-foot wall of ice protects the kingdom from the dark forces that lie beyond. Kings and queens, knights and renegades, liars, lords and honest men...all will play the 'Game of Thrones.'

"A new original series based on George R.R. Martin's best-selling 'A Song of Ice and Fire' series. Winter is coming soon to HBO."

The Wall



Sources:
History of Glens of Antrim sites: http://www.guide-to-nireland.com/antguide.htm#Antrim
Game of Thrones information:  http://www.hbo.com/#/game-of-thrones/about/index.html

Belfast, the city, and it's City Hall

The day was decent, just overcast as usual.  All of the ISA students meet with Paul after classes to walk down to City Center to take a tour of Belfast City Hall.  Kelsey, one of the students, befriended a city council member, Colin Keenan (Colin's Council Profile), in one of their shared classes.  Colin set us up on a tour of City Hall.  The tour guide was very informative, giving us all of the history of the different parts of the immense building and the city that it was built for.  I'll try to give some of the great information he shared along with these pictures.

Before getting into the actual tour and pictures, I'll give a summary of Belfast itself.  For many centuries, Belfast was a small settlement.  Everything changed in 1613, when a Royal charter gave Belfast town status. It expanded rapidly, becoming an important port and manufacturing center.  By the end of the 19th century, Belfast had outgrown its status as a town and was a major industrial powerhouse, known for its shipbuilding, ropemaking, engineering, tobacco, and textile industries. In 1888, Queen Victoria gave Belfast the title of city and it was generally agreed that a new city hall was needed to reflect this change in status. 

The coat of arms of Belfast, which can be seen in several of the following photographs, originated in 30 June 1890 when the Ulster King of Arms made a Grant of Arms to the new city of Belfast. The meaning of many of the symbols within the coat of arms is unknown these days. However, images such as the bell, the seahorse, the ship and the chained wolf were all used by 17th century Belfast merchants on their signs and coinage. The seahorse, which is used twice, shows the maritime importance of Belfast, as does the ship at the base of the shield.

Now on to the tour. Upon first entering City Hall and looking up, you see into the huge main dome of City Hall.  The metal chandelier, that you can just see in the picture, is about the size of a small car. Under this, we started off on our tour.  On the ground floor, we were shown several artifacts, and given information about some of the city's history.  Quickly, however, the tour moved to and up the great staircase, seen here with the coat of arms of Belfast. The tour guide told us all about this and more a lot of the basic information about the building of City Hall.

          On the next floor, we were shown around the balcony below the main dome that you can see in the picture above. We were shown several more artifacts, and we continued on to the Council Chamber. This is where the City Council--made up of 51 members--meets on the first working day of each month.  At the beginning of February, we were able to attend one of these meetings, thanks again to Colin. We listened to them debate many different topics from the visitor section up in a balcony overlooking the Council Chamber. Seeing the how the different parties interacted was interesting, and it reminded me a lot of the meetings such as this that I have attended back in the US. See all that beautiful wood work? The same craftsmen that worked to create the insides of the Titanic did this, so looking at this room gives a taste of the inside of the Titanic. To the left is a picture of yours truly in the Lord Mayor's chair. I'd make a pretty good Lord Mayor, don't you think?

After seeing the Council Chamber, and several other pretty fantastic rooms, we came to the Great Hall.  During World War II, this room was completely obliterated by a German air strike on 4-5th May 1941.  After the war was over, the room was completely redone to the exact look as it was before.  Luckily, the city was smart enough to remove the stained glass windows before the war affected the city.  So here is the Great Hall in all of it's glory (at least as much as my phone can show)!

After the tour, Colin was nice enough to take us to his party's chambers for tea.  We talked about everything from school to politics to just everyday life.  We all really enjoyed our time here, and went home with a lot of great new information about this city that we have become a part of and will continue to embrace during our semester here.  Upon leaving City Hall after our great visit, Colin gave us a going away gift! We each got a City Council pen and a book all about the City Hall. This book has a lot of useful and interesting information; it even helped me write this post.  If you want to know anything else, just ask and I can look it up!

Ulster Folk and Transportation Museum

Disclaimer: The pictures aren't the best since I only brought along my iPhone...

Paul had all of the ISA students meet up early on this decent Saturday morning to travel by train to the Ulster Folk and Transportation Museum. Paige, Kelsey, Elise, Briana, and I met with him and walked down to the train station. There were not many people about, so we had the short ride mostly to ourselves.  

Upon arrival, we walked straight to the Transportation Museum.  Upon first entering the massive first room of this museum, you are encountered by many trains.  There were locomotives and also many other types of cars they would have pulled.  Mainly, there were passenger cars.  There were different cars that reflected the different classes of people that would have ridden in them.  Scattered throughout the trains were many scale models.  There were models of the trains themselves, ships, and even a model of an old-time local mining town.  Another interesting sight in this room (that I was unfortunately unable to take a picture of) was a two person bicycle that could be used to ride down the tracks!  We wanted to try it out, but it had a do not touch sign that would not have allowed us to.


 

The next area of the Transportation museum was an exhibit dedicated to Titanic. In the very center, there was this a really amazing display.  If you haven't figured this out yet, I really like scale models.  I'm not sure why, just something about something so small that looks just like something life-size draws my interest.  Anyhow, this display showed Titanic as she was sinking.  I've seen copious models, movies, and pictures like this, but what was really amazing about this display in particular were the groups of tiny people in each corner.  These showed the number of people that died and the number of people that lived for each class, first, second, and third, and the crew.  From comparing, there seemed to be about the same number of people saved from each class, but the number of people that died varied greatly.  Many more third class passengers died than first class, but there were also many more third class passengers on board.  The most crew died during this great tragedy, likely because they were trying to save the passengers and the ship.

 






The final section of the Transportation museum was dedicated to transportation via land vehicle.  There were all the different sorts of buses used in the UK.  There were buses that seemed to be some of the first buses to ever be used.  There were horse drawn carriages to where this type of transportation started from. Also, one section had various random types of transportation and delivery vehicles, such as a milk truck.







The final section had cars.  From the old carriage like cars up to more recent cars.  Of course, there was a DeLorean, since the factory for the said DeLorean was in Belfast.  The car was only developed for about 2 years.  Due to some rather odd design ideas and a slump in the American automotive market (the car was being developed for the United States), this now infamous car did not go far, other than the Back to the Future movie of course.  Also, here is a picture of a three wheeled car, which has starred in several good episodes of Top Gear.

 

This then lead to the exit of this part of the Transportation museum.  There was another section down from it, likely with airplanes.  We decided though not to go to that part since the day was getting short, and to go ahead and walk over to the Folk museum.  This part was more of a small town than a museum per-say.  The buildings were antique buildings from other areas of Northern Ireland that were disassembled and reassembled here to create a complete picture of what life would have been like.  We went in several old cottages.  In one, we meet a lady that told us all about the history of that particular cottage.  She was very nice, and shared much information.  We also looked in an old church.  Instead of pews, there were little separated booths.  Unfortunately there was no one there that could tell us why there were booths, so that's something interesting to try to discover!

Once we left here, we took the train back home to Belfast to relax and get ready for another full week!

Titanic

This year is the 100 year anniversary of Titanic.  Since Titanic was built in Belfast, there are many celebrations for the accomplishment of the building of this ship.  One of which was the exhibit.  Also, Titanic Belfast will be opening this year.  Titanic Belfast is a building with everything relating to this great ship inside. During the month of April, many celebrations will be occurring here in Belfast during the Titanic Festival.  You may ask, "Why celebrate a ship that ended in such tragedy?"  I've the answer put thus:  Titanic was the largest, most luxurious vessel ever built during her time.  Therefore, of course the city would celebrate on of its greatest achievements in recent history.  There is always more to discuss about this famous ship, but I'm sure I will be talking about her much more as time goes by.

Week 1

At Queen's courses work differently.  First off, they are not called courses, but modules.  You have a couple of lectures every week, but not the standard MWF, TTh, or MW time slots.  These times appear more random, as you can see from my schedule below.  Depending on the area, different modules can have tutorials, practicals, field studies, or screenings.

In a tutorial, you meet once a week, starting Week 2, with several other students and a leader.  At this, everyone discusses what was learned in the lectures previous.  In some tutorials, you are given readings that help you to prepare.  I've never been in a course with anything like a tutorial, so this will be a new experience for me.

A practical is just a lab.  You are given an assignment that you must finish, or nearly finish, while you are a lab.  TA's and tutors are also there to help you with any difficulties during this time.

Field studies are just what they sound like.  I do not have any of these, but Kelsey, my fellow ISA student, has one.  During a field study, the students go out in the field and study.... Simple.

Screenings are also simple.  The professor screens a movie to do with the module!

This semester I am taking three full courses and one half course.  This leaves me with 70 hours, 20 hours a module.  Transferring to the US, this would equal about 17.5 hours since each course 60 full time hours transfers as 15 standard US hours.  Transferring to Mississippi State was a little more difficult since I had to find courses that these modules would transfer as.  Therefore, in MSU's eyes, I will have taken just three full time course adding up to 12 total hours, but at least I'll get all of the courses!

Power, Ritual and Symbol: the View from Anthropology:
The room that we had was too small for our class, so a couple of the late arriving students had to sit on the stairs at the side.  The professor of this module was a very interesting teacher.  He was energetic and fun to listen to.  The first week of this class, we learned about what anthropology is and a basis of what we would learn about for the rest of this class.  The definition for Social Anthropology is as follows:

"The search for an explanation of people’s social behavior and the search for the consequences of this behavior."

As the title of this course eludes, we will be studying all about rituals, along with everything else that has to do with religion.  We will be studying these behaviors from an anthropologist's perspective, which I have never done.  Also, this course will have tutorials, which I have never had before.  This will be a new experience, for sure!

Artificial Intelligence:
This course is a computer science course.  We will be learning all about what makes up an artificially intelligent machine, and how to create one.  We will be learning the logic based programming language PROLOG.  Using this language, the developer just gives logic to the machine to use to answer various questions.  Let's not get into all the computer jargon though!  During the first week, we learned all about what artificial intelligence is.  Here is one idea of what it can be:

“Artificial intelligence (AI) may be defined as the branch of computer science that is concerned with the automation of intelligent behavior.”

Can we really create artificial intelligence?  Was posed to us.  Different view points give different answers of course, but in this class we just learn the basics of what is currently considered artificial intelligence.


Software Development for the Web:
This class is probably the easiest to explain.  We will just be learning how to create super awesome websites!  We will be learning HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and ASP.Net 4.0.  This is my half course, so it should not be too demanding.

This course will have practicals, but those don't start until week three.  That gives me a couple of weeks off before I have much work for this class.  In practicals, we will just be creating websites, starting very simply of course, and practicing our skills at creating websites.


Human Nature (Philosophy):
I actually missed the first week of this course, since I did not add it until Thursday.  However, since it is obviously past my first week, I have looked over the module guide, and know what the class will be about.  Here is what this guide describes the class as:


"An introduction to some fundamental philosophical problems arising from theories of human nature in the western philosophical tradition. Reference will be made to the ideas and arguments of many important figures in the history of philosophy, including Plato, Descartes, Hume and Kant."

I believe this class will be rather interesting.  Like anthropology, I have never taken a course from a philosophical perspective, and this course also has a tutorial.  Something different about this module is that there is a module convener, the guy who runs the class and grades everything, and a lecturer, the guy who actually teaches the material.  This is the only course that has many assignments.  Biweekly, we have what are called Friday Questions.  The class is split in half, and each week one half turns in a question with a description of this question, and differing answers to it.  We take what we have learned from that weeks lectures and run with our philosophical ideas.  Here is the blog: QUB Philosophy Blog.




Sociology of Work:
I dropped this class to add my philosophy class when I decided that I did not need both it and anthropology since they both count as a social/behavioral science elective whereas philosophy will count as a humanities elective.  Obviously I enjoyed my first week in anthropology more, but I am mentioning this course since I did spend a week in lecture.  I would have learned all about what happens at work, the behaviors of people, the relationships, and more.  However, I am no longer in this class, so don't ask me to describe the sociology of work to you!

Movie Time!

Bernadette
On Monday night of my first week, Paul took all the ISA students to see Bernadette.  This movie was more of a documentary about the life of Bernadette Devlin McAliskey.  She had a radical role during the troubles fighting for civil rights.  She became the youngest MP at the time (at the age of 21), and went to London to plead Northern Ireland's case.  At one point, because she was a leader of the IRSP (Irish Republican Socialist Party), she was attacked in her home.  During this attack, she was shot 7 times, but she lived.  In 2003, Bernadette was barred from entering the United States.  The State Department declared that she "poses a serious threat to the security of the United States", but she insisted that she had no terrorist involvement.  This was a very interesting film about a very dedicated woman.  Research her, I'm sure you could learn alot!