October: One Year in Ireland

I have been in Ireland one year now!  So much has happened, I have grown and learned so much!  I have made so many new friends!

The above photo is from the open mic night (poetry, song, and music) at The Guru Tea House in Ennistymon.  The lady with the silver hair all in black is Anne, Luka Bloom's sister and she put the evening together.  The man on my right, is my friend Alan who is a very beautiful poet (both his poetry and him!) and we collaborated (on the fly!), with me improvising while he read one of his poems.  Anne was in tears when he finished and announced that the true bards of Ireland still live.  I did pretty well, too!  Everyone thought we had worked on it and rehearsed, when in truth we hadn't.  We plan on doing more and in fact have given it a second go and the results were even better.  The improvising actually gave me a breakthrough idea and I applied it to one of my slow airs and love the results!  It needs polishing but has great potential.