Hey all!

I'm going to be attending the week-long immersion course in Butte, Montana, this July, and I'm wondering if anyone here has ever attended that course and can give me some idea as to what to expect. I've done courses through Oideas Gael, and I've attended the San Francisco and Los Angeles DSGs for years, and I'd love to know how the Butte course compares.

Redwolf

I've been twice, Red. I think I told you about it before, but anyway it was great. The highest level (then, at least) was intermediate, but the teacher, Terry (who teaches at University of Montana in their Irish program) refuses to speak English, and he jabbers away at pretty high speed, so it's excellent conversational practice, both listening and speaking, since he expects you to answer only in Irish. Terry was raised speaking Kerry Irish (by grandparents in Cork who were native speakers from Kerry), and much prefers Munster Irish, but has no problem with you answering in any dialect (or none), and the times I was there the other teachers (who took the beginning class), were from Ulster and Connacht, so one heard other dialects, too (we often went to meals together and on a few local field trips -- the mining history there is fascinating). As he will admit, Terry is very conservative and fanatically Catholic, but he likes a good argument and enjoys it when people disagree with him (just be prepared to be called a heathen, jokingly).

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I'm not a native (or entirely fluent) speaker, so be sure to wait for confirmations/corrections, especially for tattoos.

I think you have told me about it, come to think of it. They have an upper level now...may God have mercy on my soul!

Now now...I'm not a heathen...I'm a heretic! Or, as Tony says, "a hairy tick."

Did you take the on-site lodging? I'm just mightily curious about the whole experience. I don't think I'm going to be able to afford San Francisco this year, so this may be all the Gaeilge I get for 2017.

Do you happen to have a link to the course information?

Sure! Here you go!

http://hs.umt.edu/friends-irish-studies ... efault.php

If there's now an advanced course, I may go again next year. It's been a number of years since i last went, but I learned a lot. Yes, I stayed in the dorms, which are very modern and a short walk to class. Montana Tech doesn't have a summer session, so they rent out the facilities to all sorts of programs for meetings, conferences, and clinics, and you may have all sorts of groups there, even high school cheerleading teams and football teams who are there for summer clinics, but it wasn't particularly noisy when I was there (and I was there with cheerleaders and football players at the same time).

There's a college dining facility with decent food, but unless there are other groups on campus to make it worth their while to stay open, it's sometimes not open for certain meals, but there's also a snack bar. The campus is on a hill and it's a long walk down to (and especially back up from) the town center, so it's a good idea either to rent a car or make friends with someone who brings one.

Actually, though, when I was there the Irish students often went to dinner together, and there are some very decent places to eat in town. The dorms also have laundry facilities and there's a drug store which is not too long a walk away, plus there was some fast food place within walking distance, the name of which I forget, but there's no traditional college strip or corner.

Say hi to Terry for me.

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I'm not a native (or entirely fluent) speaker, so be sure to wait for confirmations/corrections, especially for tattoos.

I'll have my own car. I'm doing this as part of a long road trip...first heading north to visit Tony's mom and to drop Anna off to visit her girlfriend in Seattle, then east to visit my dad in Spokane, then further east to Butte. When the week is over, I'll drive back and visit with dad for a bit longer, then drive home through eastern Oregon. Hoping I can get lodging for the last day, as I won't want to have to drive back to Spokane after a half-day's classes, but it shouldn't be too much trouble.

This will be the longest road trip I've ever taken on my own (well, I'll have Anna with me for the first bit)...kind of exciting!

Redwolf