Day 42 & 43

First a map!!


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Okay double post for Monday and Tuesday!!

Tuesday was the designated day for me to give my BIG (not really) presentation to the Children's Medical & Research Foundation staff about the work I've been doing with social networking sites and how they can use them. Sooooo Monday was spent preparing like mad! I really just worked the whole day and got back around 8:30. I went and hung with Helene and Kelsey for a bit, then went to bed early.

The presentation was today! And it went really well. There were other people presenting, like Edel and Joe, and Sarah and I went at the end. Even some of the doctors from the research centre came over to speak! I was pretty nervous and intimidated, but I think it all went well.

After it was over I went home a bit early, but the bus got stuck in a traffic jam caused by a car and motorbike accident, so I had to walk pretty far. By the time I finally got home it was normal get home from work time and I was spent! I took a nap for what seemed like forever, but was actually only 15 minutes, then went for a run.

I ran for a super long time, I just had so much built up adrenaline from the day and stress from the past few weeks. It was still very light and the area I ran in was safe. The sidewalks were lined with big old trees and the houses were old brick.. just a beautiful scene in the fading day light. I went to the park for a little bit too, just to get myself beyond tired.

I returned, typed some blog, then Helene and Kelsey came over to my apartment for dinner. Helene cooked some pasta and noodles, which I will make in return for her on Thursday.

Now I'm just tired, but happy. I'm really proud of myself for getting up in front of people. It's something that you have to practice to get better at, though I hate it. I need to get into practice again for the school year and my new class :)

That's really all for today! Tomorrow I'm going to hang with Jimmy in Dun Laoghaire and go swimming in the sea! It's going to be cold! I'm so excited though!

Day 40 and 41

This is the rest of Saturday (yesterday) and part of today!!

Saturday, day 40 (seriously), was grand! Kelsey and I took a series of awesome buses to Dun Laoghaire for the Festival of World Cultures!!! The buses took forever, as usual, because they stop every 5 seconds, but we got to see a part of the city we rarely  spend time in. The South of the Liffey (the major river that divides Dublin in two parts) is very different than the North, though now less so than it used to.

The South is very clean and neat, with immaculate houses and shops, unlike the often derelict North, where I live. Though my neighborhood isn't bad, it is much more industrial than the ones we drove through in the South.

There were tons of people in Dun Laoghaire and the festival stretched out across the long pier area from parks to shopping centers and on the pier itself. The city is beautiful but the natural scenery is outstanding. The beach, as shown in the picture, is quite rocky and the water is clean and shallow. There are little fishing ships lined up next to the pier, their colors contrasting with the water, making every glance seem like a perfect post card. I can hardly believe my eyes.

When we arrived Kels and I were both super hungry but also wanted to find the best bang for our buck. We did a smell tour first, nasally sampling all the available foods. Then we decided to eat hot dogs (vegetarian shame!!) and fries (chips). Yum. Yum yum yum. We walked around more, looking at the international markets and wandering into the little kids are (and quickly speed walking out). We then found Kels and ATM and made a plan.

We walked south along the pier, with a few detours, to the main stage. The sun was finally coming out and the big fluffy Irish clouds framed the stage beautifully. I don't think I ever really saw the entire stage, we were so far back, but it was no matter. The sound was wonderful. The man playing was an international world music superstar named Khaled. Kelsey and I lounged among the beautiful people in the grass, listening and soaking up the sunshine. Kesley asked "if you were just transported here and didn't know it was Ireland, where would you think you were?" and truly, that captured the diversity of the crowd. I think sitting there, not necessarily talking, but just taking part with our presence was one of my favorite times I've had in Ireland.

After the music we got a brew and hung out for a bit. It was getting a bit cold and late for the buses, so we headed back up to City Centre to meet Helene after we ate a yummy burger! I haven't had one of those in years and years, and honestly, it just didn't do it for me. I think I might be a pescatarian, but continue to skip on chick and red meat. Back to the main story: Jimmy was going to meet up with us, but he had to work and wasn't feeling well. It was all fine though, because Kelsey and I wanted to go hang with Helene and her cousins anyway :)

Helene, Kelsey and I went to our "usual" spots: the Bleeding Horse (a small pub with good music and good prices), the Odeon (a dance club) and this awesome Kebab shop that I can never name. But it is so good and we always meet funny Irish people there. I think we finally got home at 4:30 or so.

Sunday, day 41 was spent in recovery. I originally typed most of this on Sunday, but am finally getting around to edit it today (Tuesday). I ended up going back to Dun Laoghaire in the evening to hang out with Jimmy at his parent's house. We ordered pizza and made profitta rolls (they're like mini eclairs) after going to the grocery store and my first Dunnes (the coolest store in Ireland, kinda like Target, Ikea and Walmart all in one).

We watched some TV, including some hurling stuff, then watched this special channel on RTE (public TV company) that only broadcasts in Irish (Gaelic). It was really interesting because, first, I've never really watched TV here since they cost money and I don't really care to rent one. Second, the TV show was about American history, in particular, Tammany Hall and John Croker. So it was American History from an Irish perspective. Weird, right! I like listening to Irish being spoken and the show was awesome! Kind of surreal but really neat.

Jimmy drove me back after we listened to some music that's popular here, like The XX and Lisa Hannigan. I got to see the new stadium and part of Dublins docks, though it was at night.

The end for Saturday and Sunday!

Days 37-40 1/2

I have been very remiss in my entries lately. After spending the entire day at work on the computer playing with blogs, it's not a huge priority when I get home.

So Tuesday through Friday.5 (meaning part of Saturday). 

I'm going to be doing a presentation with Sarah on Tuesday for our entire organization. (Holy holy holy cow). I'm freaking out more and more as the time gets closer. That's why I'm spending part of today getting things ready though it is a weekend. I want to finish the slideshow and the document I wrote to be more ready that I was. 

I've had some problems with the internet at work, but bringing my laptop and working from the slower desktop and the laptop at the same time is helping. So now I have all the documents here, for better or for worse. I may be developing a problem with work... ie I'm a chronic overachiever and find happiness/purpose/identity in working. Hmm.

So yeah I've started running more which feels good, but I'm eating far too many carbs. I feel like I drink tea and eat toast for 90% of my meals. Especially after last week's eating of an invertebrate, I've become very wary of fresh food and only ate something unprocessed on Thursday, when I had an AMAZING salad with chickpeas, hazelnuts, feta and spinach at Cafe Bar Deli (new fav restaurant). Every time I think of eating fresh food I imagine that freaking worm and I get the heaves. 

I need to say one more time how much I LOVE love love Nutella. Yes, they have it in the States, but I've never had it or loved it until now. Toast will never be the same.

I can't believe I've written this much about food.

Moving on to non-dietary subjects, I saw Inception with Jimmy on Wednesday and it was fantastic! I have to see it again because everyone has a theory. I almost think watching it with a notebook to catalog the details would help. Or maybe I could just chalk it up to being entertainment and let it be. It is just a movie, a great one, but only entertainment.

Lets see, Thursday I went to dinner at Cafe Bar Deli with Kels and Helene, then came back here and chilled with the gals who went to London this weekend, chatting it up in our living room. Then last night Jimmy came over and I made him dinner while we talked. It's so fun to talk to someone who is Irish without the worry of being judged and just ask questions about what you see and what it means. For instance, there are signs for "ramps" everywhere, and I've been very confused. I see no ramps. But ramps are speed bumps and yes, those are everywhere. 

Or bigger stuff, like the class system. In the United States the class system seems to be more defined on terms of race and ethnicity, so it's easy to distinguish where a person fits. But here, with so many light skinned people, you can't tell based on color. It seems more common for people to talk in slurs about people's class and there are so many categories for these people to fit into, words rarely overlapping but truly capturing where that person is. 

In the United States these categories also exist, but to point out what a person "is" or where they "fit" is taboo. Here, it's out in the open. It makes me very uncomfortable when Irish people make these descriptions about people during conversation. But I wonder, if we all notice them and categorize people anyway, what does it matter if its internal or external. Don't we treat people differently because of that anyway? I don't know if there is a right or wrong way, but it's certainly something I've picked up upon and discussed with Jimmy.

I feel like I'm forgetting so much, but I think that's okay. At least I wrote :) 

Today I'm going to the Festival of World Cultures in Dun Laoghaire (pronounced Dun Leary.. don't even try to sound that beast out) after some yoga and perhaps running. It's pretty rainy though, as usual.

I know I can't stay here, but I'm coming back. Dublin, you are amazing.

Day 36

From Monday...

Day 34 & 35

vlog again! blog + video = VLOG

didn't realize how loud the background music was.. apologies. 

you should consider watching this on mute. my hand talking is out of control.

i will upload tomorrow AM

Howth

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map of Howth... where I went on Wednesday

Day 32 & 33

a blog in two parts...

day 31

uuggg so I made a WONDERFUL video blog for today, but the sound isn't working so. I'm going to post it anyway. It's pretty funny without the sounds.

I went to work, then came home and went to Howth with Jimmy. I'm definitely going back. There's beautiful cliffs and birds. Jimmy said that I could see whales from there too, on a clear day. So I'm thinking, shoot man this Ireland thing is pretty cool. So I asked him what kind of whales. He meant Wales. Humble moment!

We walked down the pier a little ways and I tried to go touch the Irish sea, which then attacked me with big waves for my ocean inexperience. Silly desert girl. Then we went to a chipper and I had some fried cod and chips, complete with tartar sauce, vinegar and salt. I've become a pescatarian.. fish is so good.

I just had some late night tea and now it's bed time :)

Day 30 continued

just a picture from this weekend I wanted to share..

Day 30

I've been here a month! It seems like so much longer, but I have the same amount of time left as I've been here. Half way through and I can't believe it.

Today I went to work. Did work. Had break. Had lunch. Ate ice cream. Did more work. Came home. Went running then ate dinner. And some how its 9:20 and I feel like I did so little and have nothing to write about.

It was very rainy today, but a different kind of rain than I'm used to. First of all, it lasts forever. Second, its soft and pretty. Soft Irish rain is kind of cold, but very soothing. Perfect for some Simon and Garfunkel relaxation time. So here I sit, watching the rain, writing, drinking tea and cleaning my room.

I've been thinking about some of the reasons I like it here so much. One of the big ones is the life expected of young people. It seems like people date longer before getting married and they are discouraged from getting married more than once. Post college many people go abroad for a long period of time before returning and working in Ireland.

I think this creates a different feeling to dating and expectations for young people.. something that I relate to. I don't feel ready to be settled and often I feel cultural pressure to do that back in the US. I've felt that for a long time, that I'm no where done living and exploring and adventuring. Maybe it's Europe. Maybe it's Arizona. Whatever it is, I like not having the pressure on me.

Day 29

First thing that happens today, my phone dies. Sweet.

After work I met up with Kelsey because I saw her walking down the street as I rode my 77 bus, jumped off and caught up with her. Then I went to Hoggis Figgins (I totally spelled that wrong) and looked for this book by Ray Bradbury called The October Game, but to no avail. I think I'm going to head over to the American book store tomorrow to give it a search.

After a failing but lovely time in the beautiful book store, my personal international happy place, I met up with Jimmy at Starbucks. After a cup of coffee we headed over to the Irish Film Institute and caught the new Woody Allen flick, Whatever Works. I've seen almost all of his movies and this one was in the same vein as the other New York pictures, but was surreal characterization of a Woody Allen movie.

The theater the movie played in was beautiful, old and huge, with sunken red velvet seats. Just the experience of seeing a Woody Allen in that theater in Dublin was very memorable. I want to go back to the theater to see the Kristin Scott Thomas French film Partir sometime soon. Basically, I love the cinema.

Jimmy and I had tea then departed. That's all for today!

Day 25-28

Thursday:
Work, brews after work with girls at the Ivy House, Libby tired, went to bed early

Friday:
Work!

The girls minus Michelle (she had the day off) went to Mickey D's at a local shopping center for lunch. Great discovery: McDonalds here serves veggie wraps with falafel and they are SO GOOD and super cheap. So had a yummy lunch and went back to work. The conversations we have are always so interesting to me, hearing how they talk about things using colloquialisms I'm unfamiliar with or about the cultural expectations for dating or clothing or other girl stuff. They're such nice girls and a wonderful part of my experience here. 

I took my laptop in on Thursday and left it there Friday so that I could work from both computers cause I'm a super nerd. But I've been getting a lot of neat stuff done and I think things are really coming off quite nicely.

After work I took my computer to Starbucks and handed it off to Kels and Helene, then I met up with Jimmy to go see a comedy show. We went to a Tex Mex restaurant for dinner and I had a margarita and a yummy enchilada. Definitely not the Mexican food I'm used to! The stuff wasn't very spicy and the ingredients are far from authentic Mexican. Dinner was very good though!

We went to The Academy afterwards to watch Michael McIntyre, an English comedian, do a trial bit. It was so interesting to see comedy from a different side though. Instead of jokes about the dumb stuff Americans do pitched to an audience of Americans, it was, of course, the dumb stuff Irish people and English people do. Stuff like the Irish phrase "What's the story" to "Gaelic" and gaelic sports... stuff that sticks out to me as a foreigner was brought to their attention through comedy and of course, was hilarious.

Then he started making fun of Americans and how we don't really speak English, but our own dumbed down version of it. Instead of pavement, we say sidewalk. Or rubbish bin its waste paper basket. Or, my personal favorite, aubergine being eggplant. I laughed so hard, but at the same time, felt somewhat out of place. I like being a fly on the wall and a pretend Dubliner, but I'm American to the core and will always feel a sense of national pride for my linguistically challenged country.

After the show Jimmy and I got drinks, then I went home to get ready for Galway!

Saturday:
Woke up SUPER early and packed for Galway. We took an early bus to catch the bus to Galway with no stops on the way. I slept almost the entire time, thankfully, and arrived in Galway ready to roll.

Helene, Kate, Kelsey and I didn't arrive with much of a plan, just a general outline of activities. This can add to the stress of a situation, but I think we all rolled with the flow pretty well. After checking into our hostel by the pier in Galway, we got a bus ticket to the Cliffs of Mohr. This bus took about 2 hours, going south around Galway bay and stopping in tiny cities along the way.

As I watched the rain pour down from the bus and listened to some David Gray, I remembered taking a bus through Connemara last year. The Irish landscape is striking. Last year it captured my heart with its green electricity and rhythmic vivaciousness. It's almost so green that it glows, even in the rain. The stone walls enclosing sheep and cows, wild grass and bog, grey stones covering rolling hills, still hidden by mist. It's like looking backwards, the continuity and timelessness brought tears to my eyes again. This scene is why I returned to Ireland: the wild beauty of its land.

The Cliffs, while sublimely beautiful were a hilarious adventure. It was absolutely pouring rain, sheets of sideways wind soaked us all to the bone. We got a few shots of the Cliffs, and I think this one really shows what the day was like. I could barely even open my eyes for the picture without losing a contact.

The visitors center was obviously packed with tourists, overpriced souvenirs and now, four soaking, cold and cranky American girls. I bought some shamrock boxers to change out of my jeans and we got a few other trinkets and food, then headed back to Galway, our attempt to see one of the most beautiful sights in Ireland defeated by the weather.

Upon returning to Galway we dried off, got some food and headed on to High Street for some craic (I'm trying to learn how to talk like I'm Irish.. hopefully I phrased that one right). I took a beautiful walk for my alone time along the Spanish Quarter and down the River Corrib. The sky was a moody gray and framed the river wonderfully. I saw forty swans taking shelter on the river, and a series of fly fisherman further up the river. The most beautiful thing though was the Cathedral topped with oxidized copper, a striking turquoise contrasting with the rainy sky and dark stone walls. My camera died, so no picture!

I went back to meet up with the girls and we had a great time drinking and talking along the High Street. I find the people of the West coast to be almost impossible to understand, both from their thick accent and tendency to speak at warp speed. We all had good craic (Irish for fun, I think) and went to bed quite late.

Sunday:
Today we woke up and got ourselves ready to head home. We had four hours to kill, so we went to the Claddagh area of Galway, which is a large park spanning from Wolf Tone bridge and the Latin Quarter over to the Bay. We walked quite a ways, then found some stairs leading into the sand and water of the bay. There were barnacles, shells, rocks, sea glass, dead jellys and all colors of kelp along the beach and we had a great time looking amongst the treasures. I haven't been to the sea in quite some time, maybe not since Ireland last year. I forgot how much I love the water and the beach, there's something so powerful yet calm about it all. It was probably my favorite thing we did in Galway.

After McDonalds and some more veggie wraps, we got back on the bus to Dublin. This bus took much longer because it wasn't a direct bus but we got to see lots of little Irish towns along the way home.

Finally, I'm home and recuperating before tomorrow and some more time at CMRF.  Amazing weekend for sure

Day 23 and 24

This is a pretty good explanation of the past few days, taken from an email I wrote to my mom today:

"Like I said, I'm super duper busy at work. By the time I get home in the evening, after over two total hours of commuting, missing my tea breaks and only taking a half hour for lunch, I'm spent. I literally sit in the office staring at a computer in the same position the entire day and staring into a computer screen when I get back is the last thing on my mind.

Work is going well. I really like who I'm working for and the people in my office. Slagging, or teasing, is a bit strong here, and the line is hard for me to find. They exaggerate a lot too, so it's hard for me to find the truth, and the proper line between things that are ok and not ok to slag about. 

That being said, the actual work work part of my job is going well. 

Today I set some people up on Twitter, Tumblr and Facebook, then integrated all three of these sites for them, changed colors and layouts, pictures and user names, then wrote a user guide for all three systems, tested each phase to make sure it was perfect, then got the okay from my supervisor and published them. It doesn't sound like it would take so incredibly long, but I have a tendency to be very thorough and it literally takes the entire day.

I've also been flagged as a spammer by Facebook. We've messaged tons and tons of people and finally FB has caught on. Now I can message about five before I get messages about verification of my humanity and blah blah. Its pretty fun though."

In other news I'm going to Galway this weekend and to the cliffs of Moher. Supposedly they're incredibly beautiful! I'm so looking forward to not being in the city. I miss the wild deserts of Arizona, haha, but really, the land that isn't claimed and fenced. Hopefully I'll get to do a bit of hiking on Saturday. I want to get down to the wildlife preserve in Wicklow sometime in the next few weeks, or go surfing over in Kerry. Yeah, I said surfing. 

Last thing I want to add is this thing that happens to me daily. It's called my humble moment. Everyday, without fail, I do something absolutely stupid. Like last week I zoned out at the bus stop and fancied myself some one who people would mistake for a real Irish person. Then I got on a bus going the wrong direction, had to get off and wait for the next one. Ohhh humble moment. I did another one today, sitting on the top of the bus, big smile on my face, sunglasses on, some Jimmy Eat World on my ipod, when I realized that the bus had been sitting in one place for a LONG time. The bus driver was yelling at me to get off. I was in Dolphins Barn, pretty far off the original bus route. Once again, wrong bus. Humble moment.

I literally have to factor these silly moments into my daily life because inevitably, they will happen. And I laugh a little bit, then just move on to the next one. I'll be sure to keep telling you all my humble moments and you can relive the humility and hilarity with me. 

Day 22

Well I've been here for four Mondays now and I've still managed to escape doing laundry. I did wash stuff in the sink last week, but yeah, I need to do laundry something awful.

I'm actually not feeling so hot today, so this will be really short. I ate some curry mess thing for lunch and I think my stomach is trying to kill me. I think some water and reading should do the trick.

Today was good. I'm very very busy at work and I love it! Can I stay longer?

weekend 3

Day 18-21

Well I've obviously been busy considering I haven't posted for a few days.

Work on Thursday and Friday was good. Things keep getting better. I've been able to track the impact of the social networking experiments I do using some empirical data that Facebook provides and I've really increased their numbers since I started. That always feels good!

Still playing with stuff at work to make it operate more simply, but I think I'm getting there. Sarah gave me a memo to write for Tuesday with recommendations for my coworkers and is now proposing that I make a presentation to the higher uppers of what I've been doing. It's fantastic!

Went out after work on Thursday and Friday but Friday was much more intense.. in a good way. We got all prettied up and went to some bars on Grafton and Leeson street. Then we played some American games in the courtyard of the apartment complex yesterday and celebrated America! Gooo USA

Today I'm cleaning, because my room is super gross and I need to clean up the living room. Then we're all going to Croke for the hurling championships! It's a beautiful day and I'm looking very forward to this.

In the words of the Irish... bye byebeyebeye bye bye (they say bye over and over.. it's a crack up)