Ben: Saturday Grafternoon

I love the smell of commerce in the morning, or in this case, the afternoon. It is Saturday and I got up this morning and headed for Grafton Street with plans to check out potential gifts for my family back home. I, like the rest of us in the program, have already been on Grafton Street many times, but Saturday afternoon on a sunny Dublin day makes all the difference. All the shops are open, the area is flooded with people, and the streets are alive with the sounds of performances. I have never seen anything like this on a normal day, with so many performers about.
I first got to see a spectacular street show with three acrobatic men tumbling around, flipping through the air, contorting and maneuvering in incredible ways. It was a very old-fashioned type show, complete with hats laid out to collect change, slapstick comedy, and circus-style audience interaction. The finale was a limbo underneath a burning limbo stick nine inches off the ground! I ended up donating €7 to them total because for about 20 minutes, they kept me laughing and smiling. Considering they were putting on this show for free, it seemed only right to compensate them for this, because this kind of entertainment was just as good and even more so than the average motion picture. If there is one thing that I have learned about my trip here, it is to always have my camera on hand, even when I’m just going shopping. I would have loved to capture this and share it with everyone.
Because our program members share the same class schedule and we all live in the same building, we spend a lot of time together. I have found that time alone sometimes is preferable because it gives us a chance to better reflect on our surroundings, without focus on conversation or anything else. I enjoyed just listening to music on my iPod, but even found after a few minutes that at this time of day around Grafton Street, I preferred not even having my music on. Buskers line the streets with live music—ukeleles, string quartets, guitars, flutes and others. My first experience with the human statue in the Temple Bar area left me under whelmed, because the people were rather sloppily made up, and it was very evident that they were humans, because they stood out too much. Today I ran into many specimens of the human statue, and they were much more impressive. I watched one for almost a minute and he did not blink. Another caught me by surprise when I wasn’t paying attention and he came out of his frozen stance and said “hello!” to a kid walking in front of me.
I’d encourage others to experience this, alone or with others before the end of the trip. It is one of the many personal reflections I’ve enjoyed so much.
On my way home, I saw a man across the street punch a homeless guy in the face.