On Saturday, Mary and I met the students and our three other colleagues at the Dublin Airport, loaded them on the bus, slogged through the bank holiday traffic – including a two-hour back-up outside the town of Moate – and then got them more or less settled in their apartments. Poor Gavin and his house-keepers were scrambling right up to the last moment. The Athlone Institute of Technology students had only just left during the previous few days.
On Sunday morning, Mary led an orientation and the rest of us chimed in as needed. The students were all there right at 10:00 a.m., which we took as a positive sign. They seem like a very good group. Mark Klobas, who teaches the Irish History course, then took them on a walking tour of Athlone and all the faculty went along. The photo at the beginning shows Bob Farwell trying to wrangle them for their first group photo by the Shannon. After the group shot, I nabbed this one of Bob and Mark vamping it up.
We have a new colleague this year. Elizabeth Ursic
is teaching The History of Religion in Ireland since Barry is not here. Here is one of her claims to fame: She made it into the Guinness Book of World Records in 1993 for “Solo Long-Distance Tap-Dance.” She tapped a half marathon, thirteen miles of the Tempe Marathon which was the pre-cursor of the Rock and Roll Marathon. She was profiled in Sports Illustrated, too. Her master’s thesis was on labyrinths and now she is doing her Ph.D. on Christian Communities who refer to God as “she.” Her goal for this trip is to learn to play the spoons. The photo shows her practicing – or pretending to practice since she doesn’t actually know how to play them yet. Smart and funny – what could be better?
We are, of course, committed to supporting her in any way we can. You never know when you’ll need a good spoons player!
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