First day in the studio

Today was our first official day of class! We all took the shuttle (the van driven by Robert) to the college bright and early and met Anna (a person of importance, but I don't recall her official position) in the school's cafe for coffee and biscuits before the day began.

The Cafe would soon become our favorite place.

After an introduction by Mary, the president and co-founder of the school, Tim showed us a great little informational movie about the Burren which reinforced a lot of the points he made about the landscape on the tour. He reminded us to take advantage of the unique landscape and look at our art work in ways we have never seen it before.

Then we were off to see (and pick out) our studios! On our way to school, Robert (the van driver/head of maintenance/art shop guy/wood shop guy/and all around does everything guy) asked us if anyone like the color green. At first we thought he was just making an Irish joke, but it turned out that there was a studio that had been painted mostly green that he hadn't had a chance to paint white yet. He thought he would ask us if anyone wanted a green studio before he went through the trouble of painting it.

The green studio

After I saw the green studio I loved it! And immediately volunteered for that one. But I had to either find someone else you liked green to share it with me, or paint one of the walls white for the other person. Luckily, Naomi liked the green studio too, so now we're roommates and studio mates! Noz for life!

View of the studios.
Can you find mine?

After we got settled and Robert went to take the wall paint back to the work shop he asked one more time, "Are you sure you like it all green? You don't want any white walls?"

"Well, can I paint half of a wall white?" I asked.

"Sure, it's your studio, paint it striped if you want!" was Robert's response and left me with the paint and roller. So I decided to paint half of one wall white.

It felt really good to be able to get right to work on something.
Even if it was just painting the wall.

I left a little green stripe on the outside edge so I wouldn't miss my studio.

 The back area and sinks had windows with beautiful views to the meadows all around the school. There are so many animals at the school that they deserve a blog post all their own! (Look for that one later)

Can you spot the cow out the window?

 After a productive first day Naomi and I decided to walk back to the village instead of taking the van. After all, it's only a little over a mile and half and it was another beautiful day.

Walking down the driveway of the school.
Yes, that's the school back there, castle tower and all!

 Robert, Tim, and Martha all told us about how dangerous the road was. So we were prepared and knew what side of the road to walk on, and to cross over if we were coming up to a blind curve, and to make ourselves seen to drivers and so on and so on... but man! We were not prepared for actually walking it! The road is only about as wide a one way street at home, but cars drove down it both ways! There is no shoulder at all, none! There are literally stone walls covered in thorny scrub right next to the road. And the speed limit is 100 kph! Ok... so that's only 60 mph, but still! 60 mph on that tiny ass road!?

My wide angle lens makes this little road (and its non-existent shoulders) look much larger than it really is.

In the end, we made it home without incident, but it was quite an experience. Luckily drivers expect people on the road in this area because there are lots of hiking trails through the Burren and slowed down and pulled over for us, but it was still quite a nerve-wracking walk.

Tomorrows goal is to explore the "back way" to get to the college, which involves a wooded trail... I think I can handle that!