I am generally uncertain of the proper order of things, but here I can boldly state that to not be the case. Springboard was the right choice for a first event. The entire issue can be found summarized there, and the most important part of solving the continuing crisis can be found as well. We gained insights that would help us contextualize everything we heard from then on out, specifically insights into the different paramilitary groups and the micro level effects the continuing sectarianism had on young people in Belfast. It is much easier to avoid choosing sides once one hears stories about what had previously been their mutual hobby; murder.

Being able to evade this compulsion to choose sides is especially important for Americans, as we are so good at tribalism that we have created divides between people who see the same image as a different color and whether people hear different sounds in the same audio clip. Americans, though it is perhaps people in general, love defining themselves in opposition to others and taking labels.

On a vaguely more ehm…upbeat & positive note… I did have an amusingly uncomfortable “conversation” with one of the people at Springboard. I can’t really describe it apart from that, its been a while and my memory is slightly worse than abysmal. I just wanted to write something that says that I actually had a conversation with a random person because even I won’t believe that in a year.

Sidenote about Iceland: Has anyone noticed how many excellent Icelandic bands there are? The population of Iceland is under 350,000. That's fewer people than Wyoming. Do you have any idea how many bands have ever come out of Wyoming? None. Not one. I like to think that it is because they don't seem to have internal problems. I mean, if they do they aren't the same ones that other countries face. Their power is more or less 100% renewable, their gender inequity is nonexistent, and both their average and median income are well above $45,000 in US dollars. What I'm saying is that if it weren't so blasted cold and devoid of necessity for people with Political Science degrees, I'd totally move there. 

Before you say anything, I am aware that I may end up looking confused having a random sidenote about Iceland in a blog about travelling to Ireland. This isn’t Atlantis, there was no mistranslation of the Rune on a shield. (or was it a mistransliteration?)

Another sidenote: Has anyone watched Atlantis: The Lost Empire? I like it waaay too much. With all honesty it isn't even that good. The plot is used in about a dozen books and movies a year and their animation could have used a lot more time. That said the soundtrack is the best that you will find in any Disney movie. And they've got a few impressive scenes where the dubiously animation gets wholly overwhelmed by the sheer spectacle of awesome. (Launching the Sub & the Crystal Chamber)

Omg, it was a mistransliteration, not a mistranslation like they say in the movie. (I swear, Milo is the worst linguist ever...and yet he is able to learn that language in all of fifteen minutes...plot contrivances abound)

Anyways! Springboard – Good starting point. Belfast City Hall on the other hand…

Ok, look. I loved Victoria. She was short, she was willful, and she had great hair. That said, it takes more to win my approval of a building than placing in front of it her statue.

I think the most important outcome of going to Belfast City Hall was hearing the tour guide talk about history and politics. We got to hear exactly what someone who felt a little more British (the guy works in a building with a statue of Victoria in front of it (also…come on, listen to his accent)) thinks that a group of American tourists should hear, and perhaps think about the situation in Ireland. Aside from the building being made out of what I, quite frankly, wish all buildings were made out of, (Marble) it is roughly what one expects from a 19th century seat of power. I don’t really seem to ‘get’ much out of going to buildings, unless the building itself served a role that meant it couldn’t have been substituted for a middle school gymnasium.

More interesting than that is that once I was no longer being dragged around to see monuments to a long-fallen empire (Sorry Britain) or hear people talk about things that I honestly think could have been summed up in five minutes and yet seemed to last for five hours, (Sorry PSNI) I rather began to enjoy myself. Of course that wasn’t until a while after I was settled in Belfast that things began to turn around.