Kayt in Ireland

This is where it ends.

2006-08-11T04:06:00.000-07:00

Last nite we gave Dublin a proper goodbye...We went to Bruxelles for a bit and then to The Village... just brilliant craic, said some goodbyes felt like a very fitting close to a crazy trip.
This morning i awoke with dread....i dont want to go...i thought about seriously just saying screw it and cancelling my flight but i have a real life to get back to at home.
I can so handle this.
I thought about some ways that Ireland has changed me, heres list:
1. I am now morbidly obese...no joke its sick.
2. I have an even more odd way of talking now.
3. I have a serious appreciation for little things we take for granted like string cheese, taco bell and income.
4. I will be in love with light switches and outlets in the toilet...o yea...i call bathrooms toilets now...
5. Diet coke is no longer my vice.
6. I now have miming skills and allk inds of non-verbal communications tricks up my sleeve from having to communicate with people who dont speak english.
7. I have a deep appreaciation for black courrant.
Alright Time to visit...peace out...Cheers...off to Italia!!!

Last DAY in Dublin!!

2006-08-10T09:24:00.000-07:00

This morning i woke up with the worst anxiety of my entire life... i actually believe this feels worse than it did before i left the country. I shed a tear or 2 begrudgingly packing my belongings. This is brutal...i hate leaving places against my will.
The anxiety was only compounded when my mom called me ..."What r u going to do?" I assume she means luggage wise, so i go on and on about how i think i can make things work...and then she says "no...the terrorist situation" GRAND!! How the hell is it possible for terrorists to ruin my last day in Dublin...u've won this time fools.
We had breakfast...well lunch in this cafe we spot every day from the bus... Lovin Spoon. We have been meaning to go there FOREVER. I'm super pleased that we made it finally. It was everything i imagined...pleasant pregnant women behind the counter..it felt super homey. Just perfect.
Afterwards we picked up some last minute items around town....
Now im putting off finishing packing. I'm horrified, i dont want to come home, i dont want to get blown up on the way there. Its just insane. Couldnt terrorist attacks be put off for like 3 weeks until im safely on american soil...well i suppose we are never safe on american soil anymore...grrr...
I'm sorry this entrey isnt very pleasant, but im not feeling all that happy. I am looking foward to saying goodbye to Dublin in a huge way tonite. I have faith everything is goin to work itself out...magicly everything will fit in my suitcase, the trip to italy will be amazing and then i will arrive home refreshed and happy....

In Dublin's fair city......

2006-08-10T08:55:00.000-07:00

My internship came to a close today...i had extreme anxiety leaving my little computer room, o the grand craic thats taken place within those walls. Natasha and Geraldine took us out to lunch at Pepbo's wine bistro. It was a really great place. For all our hard work they gave us 40euro gift certificates to Top Shop. Which is grand especially since we work at a non-profit. Other people got gifts of money but i prolly have spent it on close anyway..hahha. I cant believe im done there...starting to seriously hit me that this really is the end. Soon enough i'll be done with my european adventure and back chilling on the couch in the states...gross.
After lunch we hit up top shop...i chose some shoes. Then we headed on home. I got my damn papers completed and shipped them off...very stress relieveing. Although they are absolute shit. Ahh, well. Ive been informed that my class is actually just pass/fail...so its pretty much guaranteed that i will pass since ive fulfilled all the requirements.
Packing is proving extremely difficult...having loads of trouble holding myself together and also packing efficiently. I have no idea what im going to do with all my luggage when i get to Italy...or even how i will get it to italy. Somehow i didnt invision myself strolling around Venice with 3 giant suitcases, layers of clothes on my body and 2 cowboy hats on my head...very depressing.
After packing almost all my clothes we headed out to meet our most favorite group of irish friends at Bruxelles...

i was dreading the goodbye...tried to avoid the whole goodbye scene all together but it didnt work well and in the end it had to be done... Inearly lost it. I hate this. It's like i know the likelihood of me seeing these people again is soo slim. How do people that were a huge part of the best summer of your life just end up not even in your life anymore?... So upsetting...
I have to go compose my life....

T -3 Days till Italia

2006-08-10T02:59:00.000-07:00

Tuesday I had a half-day at One Family... its odd im beginning to get anxiety about leaving my job. I've grown comfortable there, i like the work (when i have some). I just think its an over-all anxiety about leaving.
After work, we stopped at Tesco and bought cheesecakes to bring tomorrow to everyone we work with as a thank you for being so helpful...im actually pretty upset that i wont be eating it.
I worked on my papers for a bit and took a nap in my dublin bed...o i'll miss this diseased room damn it. im getting emotional now.
At nite we attempted once again to complete the top 10 list...we only made it to the Stag Head on dame lane...grand... it was a really cute place. Afterwards we went to 4 damn lane. Megan and I had loads of discussions about whats it gonna be like when we get home... the concensus it that its going to be freaking crazy to be back and completely overwhelming.
Inspired by the top 10 Dublin book, I'll list our top 10:
1. Whelans
2. Bruxelles
3. Goghartys
4. The Village
5. Hogans
6. Globe
7. The Market
8. Brogan's Bar
9. The Gaiety
10. Craw Daddy
I think thats fairly accurate...
Well off the enjoy what i have left of my time here...

Our final hours in Praha...

2006-08-09T03:12:00.000-07:00

On our last nite in Praha we began it in much the same manner as we began the others, at the hostel bar. It was there we learned that our barkeep from the following nite 'no longer was employed at the czech inn'... that means that yes in the course of our stay in Europe we have been directly responsible for the termination of employment of TWO barkeeps... not too bad for one summer. That just awful, I feel soo dodgey.
We didnt let that get us down, we hung out with some aussies, and then ended up in the 'casino' across the street with yet another canadian. Now i feel its worth mentioning that 'casinos' in prague though there are a great many are actually not casinos, they are more like a bar with loads of slot machines that dont actually work. We ended up hanging out in the 'casino' all nite, harassing the barkeep. It was actually a pretty good bit of craic, though we were the only 4 people in there.
We retired to bed rather late and woke up in a panic that if we didnt leave in the next 30 minutes we may miss our bus to BRNO, which is the city that we needed to fly out of. We somehow managed to make it to the bus in time. We all fell asleep on the bus, but i awoke once again in a panic that i would have missed my stop and was the only one on the bus. I couldnt see my travel campanions since the seats were so high...it was actually quite frightening. I began to devise plans but nothing seemed very plausible since hardly anyone speaks english. It turned out in the end that i had not missed the stop though and everything was brilliant. We arrived in Brno's bus station at about 3:00...the time we were supposed to be at checking in for our 5 o clock flight. We wandered aimlessly in the rain for about 15 minutes searching for a taxi which delivered us just in time for check in. We boarded our plane with the most annoying group of irish scouts...i didnt even know they had scouts here...i think it may possibly have been the worst flight ever!!
When we landed we once again had loads of time to kill in Stansted airport...then finally it was time to land in Dublin and escape the obnoxious scouts...its very odd to be think I cant wait to be home and be thinking about Dublin. It was also odd that I now get excited over finding irish chains in foreign countries as well...for example when we arrived in the czech i saw a tesco and a spar...they were equally as thrilling as the KFC and Mcdonalds...
Anyways...we had a super humiliating taxi ride home bc when we arrived at shanown the bill was much more than we anticipated it would be and we had to pay in like 5cent pieces and such...
I'd say it was a pretty savage bank holiday weekend... And now its time to spend our last 3 days in Dublin before heading off to Italia!!

Absinthe and Prague....

2006-08-09T02:52:00.000-07:00

After that extensive day of site-seeing, we stopped by the hostel bar for a drink. We were educated about absinthe there. Absinthe we learned has it never really has the power to produce hallucinations. Back in the day, people used to add abstracts of opium and thats when it makes u trip. Just absinthe with wormwood, it really nothing but 70% alcohol. After our lesson, we decieded it would be worth our while to give it a whirl....when in prague do like the czechs right? We took a lead from our young czech barkeep Mirk. When taking an absinthe shot one must first place sugar on a spoon, then dip the sugar in liquor then u lite the spoon on fire....after that u place the flaming spoon in the drink, setting the shot on fire while dispursing the sugar with the drink...then u wait a moment or two and blow it out...and then well its down the hatch... Let me tell u, its not a very pleasant experience. Not in the least bit. What is rather grand is Czech beer, apparently they are the home of lite beers which is refreshing because Ireland is not a fan. We continued to hang out in the hostel bar for quite some time... in the course of our conversations with the barkeep we learned that Mirk was a renowned squash played in his youth...a squash prodigy if you will but then he suffered a back injury due to the fact that one of his legs is 1 cm shorter than the other and it ended his promising career. I can not believe that ONE cm could ruin an entire life...we thought that if he saw a proper american doctor he could be fixed but he refused to get his hopes up, which is probably a good thing. Anyways we helped Mirk close up the bar and then headed out for a bit...just ot a few different clubs, nothing spectacular...then we crawled into our fabulous beds.
The next day we slept in abit and then headed out to into the rain to see some sites. We went to Prague castle...arriving just in time to see the changing of the guard, then we wandered around old town square a bit and then stopped in an italian place before heading home for the nite.

A lovely nite Time in Praha...

2006-08-08T13:38:00.000-07:00

Our first nite, we were a bit rushed...since we arrived soo late we only really had time to shower real fast before heading out to check out the city. We had a drink at the hostel bar and the headed to the main area where after a quick bite from KFC (hhaha..yea i know), we headed off to meet up with some canadians that were staying in our room. I feel it is worth mentioning that canadians sound american to me know, which i feel is odd bc in america u could always distinguish a canadian. It is also worth mentioning that we now sound Irish...grand. I also felt like a loser bc the canadian #1 could speak czech, spanish, french, english and canadian #2 could speak german, spanish, french and english. All fluently i might add...I myself have trouble mastering english...damn candians always trying to one up us. They took us to a club called Sabatage...Sabatage is VERY hip-hop...absolutely hilarious. o czechs and their mullets listening to hiphop... It didnt take long for us to grow tiresome of that club.. so we wandered a bit and ended up at a really brilliant club, i believed called the locust or something like that... they had really cool decorations. It was there that one of the americans we were with freaked out on us and stormed out..taking the canadians with him who had yet to pay for their nachos...darn nacho eaters....
I awoke the next morning to the canadian on the bunk bed below me panicing bc his wallet was gone. I of course checked for my own wallet and then went back to sleep. When i properly awoke, I learned that the canadian had left his jeans in the bathroom overnite and somewhere between 4:30 and 8 they were stolen. I became a bit paniced since we would have been suspects since we were awake and also because we were harassing him about not paying for his nachos. When we left for some site seeing he was still out of luck. We traveled about the city. Checking out charle's bridge, old town square. We stopped in the torture museum, which by the way was disgusting....NEVER GO TO A TORTURE MUSEUM!!! After the museum, we hung out on the bridge a bit more... where a damn spanish tourist who took a picture for us broke megans camera...very upsetting. Then we hit up a marienette show, Don Giovanni. I love watching puppets move, it is literally the most sure fire way to make someone giggle...hahha..puppets. After the show we ate dinner at the worst restraunt in the world. Where we discovered after they wouldnt take credit cards without chips that we had no money...czech crowns are soo worthless that u have to pay like 1000 of them for food. Its ridiculous. After a quick trip to the atm, problem was solved and we headed back to the hostel....

An arduous journey to Prague...

2006-08-08T03:11:00.000-07:00

Our journey to Prague or Praha as they call it (my newest pet peeve, why not have the city be called the same thing on the map and in real life...if u dont want it to be called Prague, then call it Praha...makes matters much less confusing)... proved to be much more arduous than expected. No flights from Dublin go to the czech republic so we had first to fly into London...since we made no plans about what we would do when our plan arrived at 10 until our flight left the next day at 1pm, we were forced to kill all 15 hours in the Stansted airport... a task easier said than done. Due to my prior overnite Stansted experience, I knew it would be necessary to pack provisions, such as blankets and drink. I also knew that in order to find the best sleeping places we would need to scout out a place FAST... we found a brilliant nook. The nook provided us solice until about 4am when they kicked us out, we then moved to the arrival section where we remained until our checkin time at 11. It may have been one of the most humiliating experiences of my life, having all the international arrivals peer over the wall and find me sleeping on the ground... Very disheartening.
Our flight from London took off at 1:35, so we arrived in Brno (a city outside of prague) about an hour and a half later. Brno is the smallest airport ive ever seen. Plus no one speaks english so it proved very hard to navigate our way to the train station...somehow though we figured out how to purchase a bus ticket, we then rode the bus for half hour to the train station. Where by the grace of god we found some backpackers who could guide us to our train. We then had to ride a train for 3 hours to get to Prague... Once we arrived in the city we had to take a metro to the proper tram and then a tram to our hostel... All and all we took 7 forms of transportation. It brings up the question was choosing the cheapest possible flights worth it, since we wasted loads of money on alternative transportation, as well as loads of holiday time... im beginning to think that the answer was probably no, but its all hind site now...hahha....
Our hostel was amazing, it looked like a hotel... had a bar, real nice rooms...that were amazingly comfortable...i mean i met someone who actually wrote down all the ingrediants to the bed so that he could recreate it back in canada. It was an amazing choice and well worth the effort to get there....

O the joy of European Travels...

2006-08-03T09:44:00.000-07:00

Yesterday after work we killed some time before our retrobution dinner at Doheny and Nesbits (Baggot St. Lower...just around the block from One Family), another pub off the Top 10 list....we are knocking those babies off...
Our Retrobution dinner turned out not to be dinner at all but just 3 free drinks, which we were all more than happy to consume... i thought it was a very nice gesture, considered wearing my crown and going up the barkeep and saying ill have that jack and coke now thanks... but decieded that would just be an asshole move, so we were very gratious instead.
After Sine, we knocked another top 10 pub off the list...the Long Hall on Dame street... decent craic, basicly just a very long hall with old men drinking inside. Then we headed home for an early nite.
Now we only have 3 more top 10 pubs to hit up before i can pass full judgement, i feel my top 10 would be somewhat different but ill give them all a chance before i rush to any decisions....
Today was a very grand day at work... I FINALLY got some feedback on the work i've been doing... i believe the excact words used were "You really have been doing brilliant work, congratulations"...all that worry for nothing, im amazing at writing sessions for lone parents, i know exactly what im doing.. i feel very accomplished...not so critical of the irish internship anymore.
Tonite I am heading off for Prague...its rather unfortunate that i feel completely under the weather, i believe i may have the bird flu or maybe its just some crazy irish virus. Either way its very unpleasant. We are sleeping in the London stansted airport again...bc i loved it soo much the first time... damn poor planning, not cool. Then friday afternoon we are off to Prague....horray, im gonna purchase a puppet.... Updates when i return Monday nite... peace!!

Dublin Taxi Strike

2006-08-02T05:51:00.000-07:00

So since Monday nite, I wasted all my time sleeping... i literally passed out at half seven to wake flustered as hell at half ten..only to return to my bed an hour later for a sound nites sleep...It was necessary for us to head out to town last nite. We boarded the bus with will galient plans of a pub crawl... which is fine a good except that once we had already arrived in city centre someone asked...'hey aren't the taxis on strike again?' My first thought was 'again?' which was shortly followed by a little game of 'I spy a taxi'...There was not a single taxi to be found...I had no idea if the taxis were on strike since i am oblivious to the world around me apparently...this only added to my bad day (yes they have those in Ireland as well...cold showers, boring internships, lengthy bus waits are all direct causes.)But then we remembered no worries, there is a bus that runs late at nite...the nitelink. So we proceeded with the pub crawl as planned...attempting to hit all the top 10 Dublin guidebooks, top 10 pubs. First we headed to Mulligan's (near the Liffey on Tara STreet)..home they claim to the best guinness in the city... i had a guinness with black courrant, and im gonna say it was a darn good drink. Next we headed to Keheo's (off Grafton)..pretty decent Craic...had a nice old feeling to it. Following Keheo's was The Bailey (also off Grafton)...thats a really cute place, super comfy couches, nice decoration... We got sidetracked after that and just spent the rest of the nite at 4 Dame Lane (which oddly enough is on Dame Lane). It was pretty alright there, had grand potential for the weekend. Somewhere along the way we were informed that the Nitelink infact does not run on Tuesday nites... so we had to come up with a plan of action. We had several options... 1. Stay out drinking until the buses start at 7 2. Harass one of our irish friends into letting us crash at their place 3. Get a hostel 4. Wonder aimlessly until we find a scab taxi. We chose option number one...until that is we found a scab taxi....hahhha. The driver informed us that he may get in trouble for giving us a ride...it was all soo dangerous...hhaha. Apparently all the fuss is about the gov't wanting to do away with extra fare charges...meaning that they want to stop charging 50cents a head. The taxi drivers do not want this...obviously. I think there strike will be very effective, it ran from 5am yesterday until 5am this morning...im not sure the results but i do know the city doesnt work without their taxis...
Tonite is a very exciting nite...we are getting free dinner and drinks due to our 4th of July incident at Sine. The owners fired the barkeep who wouldnt serve us with out crowns and invited us all back to make it up to us. I feel this is a very nice gesture...of which i will gladly partake... Will let u know how it goes tomorrow...
Time to get back to the grind.... Cheers!!

The Dublin Bus... what an experience....

2006-08-02T04:20:00.000-07:00

Monday I had what i am nearly positive was the worst Dublin Bus experierence of all time... I wish i could take back all the time i've wasted either waiting for buses or sitting on them...i bet i would have at least another week... Anyways.... back to the story...Megan and I were attempting to get back to Santry after a long hard(hahha) day of work...we board the 13A near our work, expecting a pleasant trip home... but o no we were sorely mistaken. Somewhere near O'Connell the world's most obnoxious knackers stepped aboard all decked out in their adidas track suits and high tops... They climbed to the top of the double decker and chose a seat directly behind us... innocent enough right? So everything is fine and good until the knacks begin to scream at the top of their pubescent screaching voices... no they are screaming anything in particular..just nonense... it was the most horrendace sound i have ever heard in my entire life... i mean its day later now and i cant still hear it, and it makes me want to vomit all over my desk.... just utterly putrad. They continue to scream the entire way home... i had my head phones up as loud as they could possibly go but they were impossible to drown out... People were looking at them, which only fueled their obnoxiousness...made them interested in picking fights... we literally had to leave the top level to regain our sanity...though it wasnt enough bc u could still hear them down there...i could hear them even after i stepped off the bus... just horrible...
In an attempt to make it through the bus ride, I thought to myself of all the good rides and the reasons why the bus can be a joyful experience
1. For sure the best thing about the bus is it has this unique ability to null u to sleep... no joke..its almost literally impossible to stay awake... I'm not sure if its the rocking or the lack of oxygen but that bus has skills. Sure u miss ur stop a time or 2 but u got a good nap in the process.
2. It provides a simple method of transport to nearly anywhere u want to go... i dont think i ever want to have to drive myself again...its just too much work... why not take a bus EVERYWHERe?
3. You meet some very interesting characters... why just yesterday i met my favorite bus rider EVEr...well i shouldnt say met, rather i observed him. The fellow had just purchased a slue of new records and was soo excited about them his excitement oozed on to us... he opened each one and examined them carefully just soo happy... I'm actually really glad he was too enraptured by his lps to notice that I was watching him intently with a giant grin on my face. I also met an italian studying english at DCU from Rome, he's going to show us around the city when we arrive.... connections, its all about connections. Sure u meet some dodgey folks as well but they just make good stories later... its all about the stories...hahha
4. One certain bus ride provided me with one of my most favorite memories of the summer... It was on one particular day that Sarah and I boarded the number 4 bus... the bus takes us to our stop on ballymun street and then continues on to the dodgey area known as ballymun, the irish ghetto. So we ride along, and then all the sudden i realize we are about to pass our stop so i leap up and push the stop button and jet it for the double doors... someone behind had the same inclination..i assumed this person was sarah, so in my haste i forgot to turn and make sure i was correct... Well turns out I was mistaken... it was not sarah and as i glanced in the window i realized that sarah was still sitting happily in her seat, but she appeared awake, so i assumed that surely she would be getting off at the stop just across the road... i waited on the corner giggling to myself...but my giggles soon turned into full blown chuckles as i realize that Sarah did not depart the bus.. She's about to ride that baby right into the ghetto (thats an actual quote from my inner monolouge) Seeing as though i had incoviently forgotten my mobile that day...there was nothing i could do but head for home and share the tale with all who would listen.
5. The bus is actually a really great place to stage a photo or 2...
6. Its a place where u can hear like 4 different languages being spoken at one time... pretty intense...
7. And last but certainly not least, the silent joy u feel when ur hopping off the bus and give the driver a nod and say... 'Tanks a mil, cheers!!' or i suppose if ur feeling american 'Thanks'.. its feels nice
Just writing this entry has restored my faith in the Dublin Bus... I take back what i said... i would not like to take back all the time I've spent on the bus... nahh ....

And our last weekend in Dublin comes to a close....

2006-07-31T04:27:00.000-07:00

Sunday rolled around much to fast...our very last Sunday in Ireland... BOOOO!! It was a rainy day...as they usually are here. I slept in rather late, awoke ate a sandwich from Spar and then went back to bed for a nap. After the nap, I cleaned my room and prepared myself for the joining Megan and her visitors pubcrawl in progress...
We met up with them at The Temple Bar...Temple bar area was incredibly packed yesterday more than usual...apparently this is a grand time for travel to Ireland. Next we headed to O'Donahues right off Grafton, as it is on the Top 10 Dublin list but we had not made an appearance there as of yet. We watched a bit of Crickett there on the old tube...Learned some rules and such...the crickett ball is intensely hard, i imagine it to be something like a croquett ball, we saw some fellow get hit in the wrist with a ball and were assured that his wrist was now broken... SCARY!!
After O'Donahues we headed to the Hairy Lemon..i feel it must be mentioned that upon stepping foot in the pub it smells like lemon pinesol... perhaps thats the plan?... After the Hairy Lemon we dashed to catch the last bus back to Santry.. it comes at half 11. I bought some chips and salsa for the ride and we were very pleasantly surprised that they were quite delicious.
I felt it was a perfect close to the last weekend in Dublin... I shouldnt say that, there will be more weekends...we will be back.
I suppose I will get to work now, as i was an hour late. Though it didnt matter b/c everyone in the entire organization is currently in a staff meeting, that we were not invited to...Isnt that grand? I'm beginning to think im not such a vital member of the One Family staff....hahha...perhaps its bc i spend most of my time looking out the window...hahaha.

Midlands Music Festival....Wheres Van?!?!

2006-07-31T03:54:00.000-07:00

Saturday morning bright and early we headed down to County Meathe for The Midlands Music Festival...
The first thing i feel i must admit is that we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into, all we knew was at 8:10 Van Morrison would take the stage. When we got there we were rather surprised to find that we had just payed €70 to go to an Irish Country Festival...yes thats correct, we fell into the one place where there are irish rednecks. Upon entering the gates, we knew what we had to do...We purchased straw cowboy hats that said Midlands in the front, and the second thing we did was hit up the beer tent. I think i should point out here that in my entire life i have never owned a cowboy hat, just never felt the need, and since ive come to Ireland, I've actually aquired 2...I'm apparently an Irish cowboy.
Anyways..the day continued with loads of country acts... A song about a snakefarm, some gentlemen in suits,a young boy who played guitar. All of whom were greeted with the same obnoxious american shouts "Wheres Van?" We were delighted to find that Don McLean was playing there....I can now say that i have heard American Pie sung live next to a castle (though im ashamed to admit the castle was the least impressive castle EVER...i mean i actually had an argument about where it was made of plastic or not). The finally after alittle Glen Campbell, who may or maynot be the original singer of 'RhineStone cowboy' (I feel i must mention here that he was wearing a hot pink cowboy shirt with diamonds on it)...it was finally time for the man... VAN MORRISON!!
Van Morrison was deadly...i couldnt believe my luck to be viewing him in person. It was right around this time that the sushi i had eaten about 30minutes before began to combat my stomach...it became neccessary for me to pick up a cup off the ground and vomit...So there I was holding a cup of my own vomit as Van sang 'Crazy Love'...I didnt let it hamper my excitement. I will NEVER in my life eat sushi again, as now i have a person vendetta against it for nearly ruining my Van experience. As Van's set drew to a close, the question hung in the air "Will we be priviledged enough to hear...dare we even hope it?... brown eyed girl?".... I looked at my clock, time for one more song...and then i knew "Sarah...brown eyed girls will be next" and then within moments "Dodododo...." (use your imagination)...I'm not sure ive ever been more happy in my entire life. I was slightly disappointed not to hear some of my other favorites such as Caravan but the show was still the best thing EVER!!
After Van, Dwight Yolkem played...not entirely sure who the chap is...but your man was pretty good. Following that we headed back to the bus, a bunch of tuckered out cowlasses....

Republic of Loose is the best band EVer....

2006-07-30T08:49:00.000-07:00

Thursday began our last weekend here in Ireland, as next weekend we will be in Prague and the following one in Italy...and then...duh duh duh... the US
We spent the nite at our FAVORITE bar, Whelans, this time though there was closure... great tunes, nots of dancing. In fact I have a vivid memory of hearing that song that goes like "we are young...we are free..." the very first time we went there, our first Friday in Dublin and they played that song at our last time there...rather fitting i believe.
Friday we were awoken abruptly to find out that Republic of Loose would be putting on a free show from a pantoon on the River Liffey. We had about an hour to make it there, which in Dublin is no small feat... but we made it and had excellent seats. The lead singer is amazing, what a stage presence. not to mention the other members. It started raining mid performance, i couldnt care less that i was soaking wet. Definitly the best way to spend a friday afternoon. You should check them out http://Republicofloose.com
Following the show,we went to a few photo galleries around Temple Bar area...one of the exhibitions was super interesting...it was called the Ruins of American Cities. The photographer would capture the same area over spans of like 20 years and watch it fall apart. There was one series that was particularly interesting, it was in Harlem and it showed 2 store fronts and their progression from i think the 70s until now. About every 2 years the stores would change and eventually now htey are just one big matress store.... hahaha.
After the photos we had our very last Mexican Friday. Back at the original spot Acapulco....on Dame Street...mmmm... soo good.
Then we headed home... and began our last friday nite in Dublin. We started off at Bruxelles...great craic...just brilliant and then we attempted to head to the Gaiety a club that is open until about 4 but it didnt work out, so we headed across the street to Sutton's Bar, which in fact did work out and turned out to be a blast. Great nite...

Irish @ MSU?

2006-07-27T06:34:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a delightful day...after work i met up with sarah and we went to buy our bus tickets for the Midland Music Festival...Van Morrison here we come..only 2 more days.... YAY!!! On the way to meet up i stopped at Starbucks for a latte. I had forgotten how big a grande was.... jesus a medium coffee here is soo much smaller than it would be at home, its like the size of our small. I was astonished to realize how accustomed to the smaller portions I've become.
I found it rather odd that the bus station would not except my credit card yesterday bc i had no signed the back. Isnt that a matter of preference, my liscense has my damn signature on it....crazy!!
It upset me that yesterday when i was working on my paper, i kept wanting to spell program the irish way progamme. It was also upsetting today when i messaged Megan with the word behaviour...damn u's are creeping in to my life.
At nite we went to Brodans Bar on Dame street. The wine there is considerably cheaper than most pubs. While we were there visiting with one of our irish friends, it occured to me just how much fun our new friends would have back at STate. In working to convince the irish to visit us, ive come up with the following rationales
1. Things are open late... Food places till 4, 24 hour luxuries....
2. Target/Meijer... they wouldnt have seen anything like it
3. Tailgating... pretty sure they'd be real good at it
4. our campus... its size, its appearance.. very dif from their own
5. Loads of gullable americans.... footballers? why the hell not.
6. Mennas Joint... needs no explanation...that place is damn good.
7. Drinking games...
8. Basketball, American Football, hockey... sports in general i suppose.
I had loads of other ideas last nite...perhaps i'll add some on later.
Got to do some work now bc i plan to duck out a bit early today to catch a bus that wont take 10 years to get my back to santry.

A Nite at the Abbey Theatre....

2006-07-26T03:03:00.000-07:00

I really can't get over how grand the weather has been...or how low my standards have dropped for assessing the weather. I've become fairyly certain that the heat will kill me when i return, I could barely live in Amsterdam where the temp was like 85. Anyways...yesterday was a another lovely day. We ate lunch in the park as usual...then after work, i met up with the ladies for some dinner and drinks before heading off to the theatre (we are super sophisticated now, in case u hadnt noticed already)
After work we went to Dame Tavern, in hopes that the most beautiful bartender/accountant in Ireland would be dilligantly serving up drink, but sadly he was not... so after a glass of wine, we departed for some dinner.
We ended up at Cactus Jack's mostly because they had an outside table available. Its a good place. Decent mexican food as well as burgers. Although we were slagged quite abit for our americanisms...hahha...all in good fun. I find myself in times like that playing up my americanness, for example after he mocked out accents, i ordered a coors light (and drank it out of the bottle, which isn't really the thing to do here...ur supposed to go cup and ice...ice in your beer? now how does that make any sense?) and a cheese burger...mmmm...america.
When we were finished we booked in to the Abbey Theatre. Its right off the Liffey and is the National Theatre in Ireland. Pretty sure it is the oldest. We saw The Importance of Being Earnest, portrayed by an all male cast. I'm very interested in how those boys get there voices to go soo high. The play was really really good. I enjoyed in thoroughly. I also enjoyed the man who was sitting behind me bc he had the most jolly laugh, i love when people have good solid laughs.
After the play we caught the bus home.... it was amazing how short the ride was as compared to the morning... we were on the bus for prolly 8 minutes, when we head to work in the morning it takes about an hour. INSANE!!
I can barely contain my excitement for Van Morrison this weekend... I firmly believe it will be the best moment of my life thus far... I wonder what songs he will sing... im hoping for some Caravan...
Alright time to get to work... Maybe....Cheers!!

Why Ireland is soo lovely....

2006-07-25T06:53:00.000-07:00

As the end of my stay here in Ireland draws near, I am forced to reflect on all those things i will be missing...
1. Flytes... All the chocolatey taste without the calories..mmm...
2. A-wear... I've never seen one in the states...though i supposed its possible
3. Cliffs...
4. Knackers... when they arent stabbing people they are quite amusing
5. Snake-bites... you can get them everywhere but the states...hahha
6. Our secret identities... Layla the art student from Cali studying in NYU who hangs
with Joey the musician from Maine and April the art
art history major from Oregon just wont fly in the states
7. The novelty of public transportation that works...
8. Irish accents... the proper kind
9. The phrase "It's not like that at home"... though i suppose it could be replaced with... "its not like that in Ireland"
10. World Cup excitement
11. Whelan's
12. Tom Kelley... Who else can i blame all my problems on?
13. Business men with ice cream
14. Lunches at St. Stephens Green
15. Spar and its sandwiches
16. Cafe Sol... How u have improved my workday one latte at a time
17. The fact that its acceptable to go the pub everynite...
18. Not having a TV
19. Apt. 4 ... but now having realized i dont live in apt. 4 its not that thrilling, ill actually be missing apt 3..and by extention 4 as well
20. Recieving text messages on a regular basis
21. Paying for things with coins... and having it be acceptable
22. Tanks a mil...cheers!!...o how i love that phrase.
23. Tidy as a verb... As in.. Did u ever see him tidy the place all summer?
24. The computer room, the view out the window of One Family... where i 28 hours a week...
God...there is just soo much... I dont even want to think about all the people... damn it. Im really looking foward to this weekend bc of the Van Morrison concert but at the same time...this is my last weekend in Dublin...maybe EVER. Its way to upsetting... I really think if i didnt have obligations awaiting me at home... I would stay.
In other exciting news... last nite we saw The Break Up...it just came out here this weekend... decent flick. Today on the bus i realized that i had a stain on my shirt, so i planned to go purchase a cheap one to wear instead bc we are going to play tonite...then i spilled tea all over my dress.. spent the morning cleaning that up. On my lunch break i deciede to brave the stores...as im exiting a-wear, eating delicious irish strawberries (fruit is excellent here...who would have thought?) I get strawberry juice all over my white dress... defeating the purpose of the shirt purchase bc no one will be looking at that... they will be looking at my red stain on my dress... Why is it impossible for me to keep tidy? Its just really very odd....
Alright...now back to work... Cheers!!

One last shot at Amsterdam Tourism

2006-07-24T04:05:00.000-07:00

So as we had failed to see the sights of Amsterdam on Saturday due to poor planning we had bit hopes for Sunday. The plan was : Van Gogh Museum, Canal Tour and Heinekin Experience. Little did we know the city was against us.
We got up at 8am and had breakfast at the cafe next to our Hostel. Then we headed out toward the Van Gogh. Stopped at a tourist office to find the right way...they sold us tickets there (10euro) and sent us to a tram...the simplest way to get there. We made it there sometime around 10:30. The Museum is unbelievable. I really enjoy Van Gogh's work. Bought some posters and post cards and a colored pencil that rights with numerous colors. Grand.
We only spent about 2 -21/2 hours there. So we should have had plenty of time for Heiniken....but o no. It took us light years to find a tram and then it took us even longer to get on one that was going the right way. We ended up at there at around 1...but we needed to be heading back to our bus hostel to pick up our luggage by 2. The tour lasted an hour so we couldnt partake. Next plan was the take a canal tour instead. But we couldnt find an appropriate boat to take us. So we decieded to head back to our hostel area. We had over 2 hours to make it back but we rode the tram the wrong way three times. Each time passing the same 'I AMsterdam' sign each ride. It was very absurd. Once we finally arrived we stopped off in park to observe the canal a bit. There we met a Polish artists whos homeless but doesnt consider herself so. We bought some of her art and listened to her odd stories that moved her to tears. Needless to say its was pretty akward. The other strange part was that she seemed ageless...like her body was that of an old woman but her mannerisms reflected those of a young person...strange. She occupied like all our time so in the end we had just 20 minutes to make it back to our hostel to retrieve our luggage and make it to the bus stop at 3pm. It was a struggle....we made it there promptly at 3pm, only to discover that the bus was until 3:45...hahhahhaa.
I thoroughly enjoyed Holland...though i must admit i saw no tulips or people wearing wooden cloggs...though they did sell those things for the tourists. Had a great weekend but im definitly glad to be back in Dublin.
This week begins the home stretch...this weekend in our very last weekend in Dublin city...the following one we will be in Prague and the one after that Italy.
I'm sure this last bit of the trip will be amazing...topped off with the best thing EVER.. We had tickets to see VAN MORRISON in a CASTLE!!...not sure if ive ever been more excited for anything in my life. YAY
Alright best be getting back to work since im a horrible intern and was late this morning bc my damn alarm just never went off... CHEERS!!

A Delightful Saturday in Amsterdam

2006-07-24T03:51:00.000-07:00

Saturday we got up at 10 am. The weather in Amsterdam is lovely. Nice and hot...although since we are not accustomed to the heat anymore..we sweat profusely. GROSS!!
We ate breakfast on our way to the Anne Frank House at some absurd little shop where the server looked like Aladdin. Then the adventure began. It was unbelievable (and slightly ironic) how hard it was for us to find Anne Franks hiding place. Everytime we would check our location on the map it would somewhere insanely wrong... i cant even explain how odd the journey was. Once we finally found it, we waited in a massive que. It costs 7.50euro to go in and check it out. Its actually really cool. There is no furnature in there...but they have pictures that would show how it looked, its sort of odd to be in the actual place where she lived before she was killed. After Anne Frank, we headed to the Maddame Toursaut Wax Museum,it was horrifying. It costs 15.50euro to get in but its definitly worth the experience. It starts out simply enough...just alittle history of Holland, then out of no where u are thrown into a live Pirates of the Carribean show. Here I am walking along, about the capture a photo of what i think is a wax statue of Orlando Bloom, when suddenly it leaps out at me and the horror begins...sent into the pitch black maze where u can never know if something is wax or real. After the Pirates exhibit comes the celebrities...its real fun to take pictures with them. Although, they were still a bit dodgey, couldnt trust my judgement between wax and life anymore.
After the Wax museum our plan was to go to THe Van Gogh Museum but it closed at around 6 and we had wasted out entire day looking for Anne Frank. Every other touristy thing had closed so we were left to wonder about again. Hit up some Bars... great craic...went to bed early though bc we had many plans to see the sites of Amsterdam before our bus to the airport at 3pm.

Amsterdam...Day 1

2006-07-24T03:43:00.000-07:00

Just returned from a marvelous weekend in Holland, Amsterdam to be exact. We arrived in Eidenhoven Airport at around 7pm. Eidenhoven is super cheap to fly into and is only about an hour or so outside the city. We found a bus that would take us right into Amsterdam no problem. The bus costed 30euro round trip, but it was a nice bus and very convienent.
Amsterdam is a really beautiful city. The whole thing is covered with canals...instead of the hop on hop off bus tours they do hop on hop off canal boats. Its really grand. We stayed at the Youth Meeting Point Hostel. It was really a great choice. Loads of people, good security, 24 hour bar. Just savage. We had an 18 person room, but it was really not bad at all. They had oil bins with locks for us to lock all our stuff up, had absolutely no problems. After checking in to our hostel we explored the city abit. Checked out some coffee shops and then ate dinner. We ate at the place the 'Come Back'. It was delightful to find they had antipasto salads since i had been craving one for weeks...mmmm...salami. They also had excellent onion rings and desserts as well. I must admit i was never dissapointed by the food in Amsterdam...they had soo many things we had been missing. Although i must confess we never found nachos and cheese...like the kind u get at baseball games. After dinner we hung out a bit at the hostel bar and then went to bed early... we had a big day planned for saturday.

Pullin a 'Fake Sickee'

2006-07-21T03:39:00.000-07:00

Yesterday with the encouragement of some of our irish friends, Sarah and I pulled a 'fake sickee'. It was a brilliant idea. We slept in a bit. Then we headed to Burrito and Blues in Rathmines for some nachos. Not the best nachos i've ever had, im not gonna lie. The decor in the place was odd, mexican food served with a side of blues music. Very cute though.
After the nachos, we went to Seaport. Its about a 10-15 minute ride on the dart south of Dublin. We hung out at our friends house that overlooks the sea (or as we would call it the ocean).
We mostly just hung out and watched TV. We caught a show on E! called "Stranded with a star" where u choose between celebrities who would be best to be stranded on an island with...it was very interesting to see things from an Irish point of view...hahha. Then we watched...wait for it... the English version of PRICE IS RIGHT. It was horrifying. We were mocked incredibly for the looks of disgust on our face. The whole thing is modern and the host is horrible nothing at all like Bob. The show is only a half hour. The person with the highest spin on the wheel does a showcase showdown by themselves. They push a button and get a range for their bid... for example last nite it was 2,000pounds so the contestant had to guess within 2000pounds of his showcase without going over. It was certainly interesting but i wouldnt reccommend it.
Today we leave for Amsterdam...very exciting. Will be back on Sunday!! Cheers!!

THE Hottest day in Ireland in 10 YEARS!!

2006-07-20T13:10:00.000-07:00

The weather the past few days has been just lovely... mid 70s pushing 80s.Spent the past few days just laying out at lunch and after work. We have been hitting up the park behind DCU. Spent the past few nites at THe Pav... its a pub on Trinity College. You buy your drinks and then go drink them outside at the Cricket Pitch...its marvelous. Just brilliant craic.
Yesterday at work we took a field trip to the courts... Began the day at the four courts, learning from a barrister the difference between barristor and solicitor..and other things.Then we went to the Dolphin house where they hold family court cases...we couldnt sit in on one bc they are all 'in camera' meaning there is no record of them and no one is allowed in the room but the people involved. Then we met with some administrative staff to learn how the whole thing works...it was all pretty interesting, just wish it hadnt been on a sunny day when i would have rather been outside.
After work Morgan and I went to The Market for some nachos, and wine and then headed home to lay out in the park...
After laying out,Sarah and I headed down to the cricket pitch, and then to Bruxelle's. Great craic....

Odditys of the Irish

2006-07-19T11:47:00.000-07:00

I may have made the word oddity up but i thought this would be a good opportunity to expose some of things about the Irish we find quite odd....
1. The thing that inspired this entry was the bathroom facilities at OneFamily. There are 2 bathrooms...side by side. One of which has no toilet seat on the toilet, yet people still use it....How is that possible? Keep in mind there is not a male worker in the place. ODD!!
2. They always hold their knives when they eat using it was scooping tool...regardless of whether or not a knife would be necessary ....ODD!!
3. They walk on the right side of the sidewalk while they drive on the leftside of the road..ODD!!
4. They think their country is shaped like a teddy bear though it doesnt resemble anything even remotely related to a bear...ODD!!
5. They have no common courtisy.... bumping into u at their free will... and never EVER saying sorry..ODD!!
6. They say your man instead that guy... abit jarring at first... ODD!!
7. Bitch about the heat when its nice...(bear in mind its only like 70) and complain about the weather when its not hot.. ODD!!
8. Butter and Mayo is an essential in most sandwiches.... ODD!!
9. There is corn on everything... salads, sandwiches, and pizza...ODD!!!
10. They think telling a girl she looks like Bette Midler is a compliment... ODD!!
11. The ATM machines... your card comes out before the money... ODD!!
There are soo many more things that escape me now... prolly will pick it up later...

Summer Festival in Bray

2006-07-17T01:53:00.000-07:00

Saturday after the distillary we met up with some friends at D/two on Harcourt Street. Its a pretty decent club. Very very crowded..club type music. A bit of craic.
Yesterday we took the Dart down to Bray. Bray is about a 35 minute ride south of Dublin. It was the last day of their summer fest. We exprienced an Irish Carnival, complete with rides, free music, vendors and FIREWORKS!!! We got down there at about 4pm and just walked around for a bit. The festival was right on the coast...like literally on the beach...well im not really sure u would call that a beach. It was more a like a bed of rocks...it was very odd to see people laying out on top of rocks... apparently sand just isnt a prerequiste for beach here. They had some amazing vendors...ended up purchasing a couple of pretty awesome necklaces. We also managed to find a tent that had like 8000 different kinds of olives and peppers and such for snacking on. I chose 2 of the hottest peppers ever stuffed with feta cheese... pretty delicious though water was definitly necessary afterwards. Then we walked around a bit more before stopping for dinner. Nothing like sharing a apache pizza, cheese chips and garlic mushrooms with ur good friends while looking out at the ocean...it was just lovely. After dinner we hit up the rides.A ghost train, that basicly consisted of riding 2 ft in the pitch dark...a roller coaster, (while the coaster on any american standards would have seemed like it was lacking...it dawned on us that the irish prolly dont know anything about costers...they have no amusement parks or anything...poor irish folks), a fun house with 2 mirrors and finally the frisbee an odd spinning ride. After rides we headed into Porterhouse (yea theres one in Bray as well) for a bit of drink. I tried to temple brau this time...pretty darn grand...sarah tried the haus weiss which is supposedly flavored like banana and bubble gum...not my style but im sure there are people that would dig it. While drinking we caught some of Brian Kennedy...an irish singer that reminded us of Rex Manning from Empire Records...I wasnt too keen on him but the irish seemed to really enjoy him so i guess thats all thats important. And Finally then it was time for the FIREWORKS...I was a bit fearful that the irish didnt know how to hold it down with fireworks...but they did not disappoint. It was a spectacular showing... None of us could help up smile enormously...the excitement was barely containable. Some of the works were even red white and blue..the only thing missing was america the beautiful in the background. They had some works i had be never been witness too before. My favorite was the ones that shot up, and sizzled and just when u thought they were done they would explode one or 2 more times nad just lite up the entire sky over the ocean and just sizzle...o man im giddy just thinking about it. O man it was perfect. just absolutely savage. AFter the works we headed home via the last dart back to Dublin.
It just occured to me that exactly a month from today i will be back in the states... BBBOOO!!! This has been such an amazing summer, I really dont want it to end EVER!.
We had to come to work at 9am today instead of 10...it was brutal...i think im gonna nap at my desk for a bit...CHEERS!!!

Old Jameson Distillary

2006-07-15T12:46:00.000-07:00

Last nite.... we went to Whelan's...im fearful that it might be our last time there. Man that club is spectacular.
Today we checked out the Jameson Distillary... costs 7euro for students, price including a free jameson on the rocks afterwards. The tour was decent...the guide was prolly the most obnoxious human being on the face of the earth. Its just a down-scaled version of what the distallary used to be. They dont actually make any whiskey there anymore though it stands on the original site. We learned alot about whiskey.... the main difference between american and irish whiskey is the amount of times it is distilled. Irish 3 American 1. I guess it was worth the trip....but its not as grand as Guinness, if pressed for time i would definitly choose Guiness. The irish coffees there are unbelievable. Also discovered that ginger ale and whiskey is a good mixture...who knew.
Well i have to get ready to head out for the nite... big nite with all our irish friends....Cheers!!

OOO...Dublin Zoo...

2006-07-14T14:56:00.000-07:00

The weather the past few days has been beautiful. I'm pleased to admit that my standards for weather have become shockingly low. The other day while walking to work I thought to myself "What a lovely day"....it was cloudy, no sun in the low 60s...the only positive thing about the day was it wasnt raining. I felt very irish. Anyways...lately its been sunny...oo sun how ive missed u. The temp is prolly low 70s. Not too bad...it does get a bit chilly though when the breeze blows and there is always a breeze. Its been perfect ice cream eating days.
Thursday we celebrated Amy's 21st bday with dinner in La Caverna. An italian place in temple bar area..i believe ive spoken of it before...pretty decent. Then we went to The Village... it was suprisingly empty....but still a good time. The music was grand. Once the village closed we headed to The Capital...a cocktail bar just around the corner... Good craic there...music was oldies..american oldies...very nice.
Friday...Today we went to the Dublin Zoo. I decieded before even getting on the bus, that i had to enter into this day with a fresh zoo perspective.Forget about the many other fabulous zoos ive visited and admire the Dublin Zoo for what it was a rather small zoo in the middle of Phoenix Park. With that attitude in mind...Dublin zoo was brilliant. For a student it costs about 11euro to get in...i believe thats pretty on par with Detroit Zoo. We saw some of the sickest looking birds ive ever seen....i believe i will have nitemares about them. There names escape me now..something with a hornbill and something else. We also saw Red River Hogs (pictured above)...o god were those disgusting. I was very amused my them. The main problem with the Dublin Zoo is their viewing areas...mainly u are viewing animals through fences or over bushes....not cool. They also allow for viewing in the animals cage area...sort of depressing. Alot of the animals were sleeping when we went.. i dont reccommend going around 4pm. We didnt get to see the tigers that malled someones arm the other day or the baby snow leopards...damn it. There was a Tim Hourton inside the zoo...CRAZY.
After the zoo we had Mexican Friday at TGI Fridays.... I lost all my diginity there when i tripped and fell walking up the stairs...damn club foot. The Nachos were absolutely savage...they involved Coby cheese...mmmm..i love u colby. We all ordered Fajita Towers as well...VERY STELLAR!!
On the way home we spotted an off-license that sold LABATT...its labatt ice...but hell ill take it... We also found Rolling Rock...o simple canadian/american beers how we have missed u in our bellies.
Alright its time to go out and celebrate a bit more... PeacE!!!

An American in Dublin?

2006-07-12T14:40:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was the visitors last in Ireland...They went on the Dublin hop-on, hop-off tour...reports are good..well worth the euro. They stopped for lunch with me at a Turkish restraunt right across the street from One Family..Laylas. I had hellim sandwich turns out hellim is quite lovely. We met again for dinner at Porterhouse...added oyster stout to the many porterhouse brews we've sampled..decent. Then we headed to The Oliver St. John Gogarty in Temple Bar area for some live irish tunes...they play music from 2:30-2:30. Watch some elbow pipe...an instrument native to Ireland...very interesting. Finished the nite in O'Sullivans with some acoustic american tunes. Definitly a bit of craic.

Upon the departure of our lastest batch of visitors... i began to ponder could i see myself living in Dublin long-term? The answer... (although this is VERY hypothetical...no plans whatsoever to stay) i feel would be YES. Before our departure, we were warned of the culture shock we would experience...how different things might be...and yes while things are at times quite different than they are at home...there are many things that are similar...I dont think any one in our group really experienced severe culture shock at all. In my experience thus far traveling around Europe...and i havent been many places...Dublin to me feels the most like a city in the US. While to a European that might seem like a bad thing...to me its lovely. Yes there are some alterations i would make to the irish culture...such as effective pills, drinkable diet coke, or variety in general. There are many aspects of the culture i would love to bring home to the US as well... relaxed work ethic, social approriateness of grown people eating ice cream in the middle of the day while walking down the street, or black courrant. I really dont feel like adjusting to a life in Dublin would be all that different from adjusting to a life in any unfamiliar city in the US (if that makes any sense?. I dont know....just thought i might share my thoughts....
Time to go to bed...cheers!!

A Nite @ Harold's Cross Dog Park

2006-07-11T07:26:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we went out for an evening to the dog races at Harolds Cross. I really love that racing...think i should raise one of those grey hounds...how hard can it be? I think that their may not be an age-limit for gambling here..since i saw like 10 year old knacker children placing bets. I've come to realize that the dog parks are heavily populated by people over the age of 60 and knackers. Since, i am neither, i generally dont fit in very well. Ahh, well its great craic. I was definitly a loser last nite though... i may have lost something like 4euro...my brother lost like 40 so i dont feel as bad.
After the races we hit up our local pub...THe Comet. Its located just a block or 2 away from our flat. The scene in there is pretty mellow...mostly older gentlemen but its a decent place to hang out... only open till half 11 though. Prolly for the best since i have to rise early in the am for work.
Thats about it for now.... Cheers... o and plans to add picture to london trip very soon.

OO...The World Cup comes to a Close...

2006-07-10T05:17:00.000-07:00

Yesterday for the big match we headed to The Globe on George Street. It was super super crowded...however we did manage to score an amazing table. Well it would have been amazing if so many people werent standing in front. I decieded to cheer for Italy...which in the end proved to be a wise decision as they were the winners. Yay Italia!!! Found it odd that people chant the tune from the White Stripes Seven Nation Army....beginning to wonder if the white stripes ripped the beat. Hmm...conundrum. Soo exciting that the match ended in a shootout...i wouldnt have it any other way. After the match we went to Eamon Dorans again...as it a sure bet for a being open late. It was a good bit of craic. I cant believe my luck for being in Europe during the World Cup...if only Ireland had qualified...now that would have been intense or if the US had won it all...o man.
I'm starting to get real stressed that I only have a month left here. It sucks that we planned all our trips for the end bc we have like no time in Dublin in July. Its gonna be one depressing day when its time to go.
Today was a beautiful day so we ate lunch in St. Stephens Green again. I think i may have burned myself out on mozarella, tomatoe and pesto...bc it just didnt taste as good as it usually does today. I finished up with an ice cream bc the sun was shining. I had a feast...soo chocolately. I think i like it better than the magnum...those are so rich. Wow..im such a fat american...
Tonite we are checking out the dog races again...im pretty excited. Will let u know how that goes...peace...

A nite in Stansted Airport

2006-07-10T04:58:00.000-07:00

Saturday: Got up around 10, headed out. We got tickets for the London hop on, hop off tour bus. I thought it would be lame but it actually was super interesting and a very convenient way to see everything. Our first guide was actually quite funny, making cracks about Tony Blaire and such. At one point we passed a statue of Abe Lincoln that the US gave the UK as a gift, the guide said "we are gonna give them a gift next year, tony blaire and i dont mean a statue"...hahha. After the tour we ate from the pizza buffet at Pizza Hut...mmmmm...so american. Then we walked around Piccadilly Circus. Piccadilly Circus reminds me of New York time square...very busy lots of tourists. pretty awesome to see. We then headed down by the River Thames. We went into a brilliat art gallery, the Hayward. It was my favorite thing we saw in London. They had an exhibition based off a french surrealist magazine from the 40s. They had a lot of Picasso, Miro, and other great works. They also had some photography and sculptures. Basicly anything written about in the magazine was fair game. I really really liked it. If you are in London it is for sure worth checking out. With a student card it costed about 6 pounds. After the gallery we checked out a skatepark for a few...and then headed back to the hostel for our bags.
Since our flight was at 8am Sunday morning and their would be no way for us to get there early enough for check in, we decieded to sleep at the airport...what a poor decision. We booked a train to the airport at 11:30...so we chilled in the trainstation pub to watch the match. (I was very pleased that Germany came in 3rd place since all the matches are being held in their country.) Anyways... after a few pints we boarded the train...we got to Stansted at about midnite. Which meant we had 6 hours to kill before we could check in. Stansted is nothing like DTW, there really were no chairs to speak of. Many others who were sleeping there had planned ahead and brought sleeping bags...no not us. We ended up sleeping on piles of our own dirty clothes...now thats class. I believe the shame is still burning inside. hhhaha. The worst moment arised when we were shued away from the front of a store. Nothing like waking up suddenly on the floor of an airport and abruptly told to gather your pile of dirty clothes and prepare for movement. Then we napped infront of an airline that didnt open till 4. At 4, we moved finally to some vacant chairs. and slept until our plane at 6. When we stepped off that plane to dublin, it was the happiest moment of my life. hahhah
All and all i would say that the trip to London was a success. It was quite an adventure. Although i think its worth mentioning that i much prefer Dublin.

London on 7/7 anniversary

2006-07-10T03:33:00.000-07:00

This weekend was spent in London... it was grand.
Thursday: Flew with Ryan Air ... man, that was certainly a trip...definitly so cheap bc of their lack of "frills" like i dont know it was necessary to board the plan on the tarmack via staircase...hhaha. plus there are no free peanuts..damn it!!
Our flight arrived around 11, it is then necessary to take a train for 45 minutes to london and then we took an underground to Kings Cross station to get to our hostel. By the time we arrived at our hostel (Ashlee House), it was about 1. The hostel was very decent. We had a 10 person room...which actually wasnt as bad as i imagined it might be....although some found it extremely difficult to relax....poor travelors...hahha. The only real disturbance of the night was the sleep talker who felt the need to yell out "super nudey"...hahha.. hilarious.

Friday:It was the anniversary of the bombings in London last summer. Super intense. We got up early and began the day with some breakfast. We then bought day passes for the underground..i think that is a very good idea...saved us some money and made getting around much simpler. The stop near our hostel (Kings Cross) is actually one of the places that a bomb went off.They are still working on repairing it fully but its definitly functional. We took the tube to Westminster stop. We saw Big Ben, (which we were actually standing next to when the moment of silence to commerate those who lost their lives in the bombings took place.) the Westminster Abbey and chapel. The Parliment Square...and after many misguided attempts The Buckingham Palace...which by the way isnt nearly as impressive as you would imagine it to be. Then after eating lunch, we headed to Oxford street, where there is grand shopping. So many stores...actually torturous bc i am broke again. Then we headed back to the hostel for a nap..and then out for the nite to canary wharf. Canary wharf is in the financial district of London...many people in business suits and dresses. It was a really savage area. We had a drink or two there and then headed back to the pubs around our hostel. I dont find the little pubs as friendly as I do in Dublin.

Heading to London for the weekend....

2006-07-06T05:37:00.000-07:00

Not much exciting news to report today..
My brother and his girlfriend arrived yesterday. They were quite surprised how american friendly Dublin is. Compared to Rome where they felt foreign and tense, Dublin is more like a New York City. I'd say thats pretty spot on. Everyone speaks your language, the food is not that different (there are many american chains here as well), and the people are usually nice. If I were ever to move to Europe, Dublin would definitly be a place that I would consider.
Last nite we went to ThunderRoad Cafe...an american chain...drew couldnt make it any further without food. Its on fleet street, right across from the Hard Rock Cafe. It really had a Hard Rockish vibe, as well as HR prices.
Then we headed further down the temple bar area...and made a stop in Temple Bar. We met some canadians there, that were actually pretty cool. After a few drinks we proceeded on.
We ended up at Bruxelles again, mostly bc we know that it is a late bar. Its open until half 1 at least sometimes later. Wednesdays are acoustic open mic nites...although i couldnt help but notice that the participants are the same ones ive seen there twice before...BOOO...not that they arent good but i would've like to see some new talent..
Tonite we are heading to London for the weekend...im pretty excited about that. Not sure definitly what we are gonna do there but it should be grand...YAY
Well must go prepare myself for a presentation to my supervisor about what i have been doing for the past 6 weeks....Peace

Fourth of July in Dublin

2006-07-05T08:14:00.000-07:00

Our 4th of July had a definite bad start but ended up being quite lovely.
First after work we headed to TGI Fridays (on Hartford St.) for a special cocktail. Turns out they give 10% discounts to Americans on our special day. Too bad we werent planning to eat there. Also made the discovery that they have colby cheese at TGI...o colby how i have missed you. After one pricey cocktail we headed home.
Picked up an "American Style" Hot Dog from the spar..drank some cans of Budwieser and got all decked out with crown and glowys then we headed back to city center.
The first pub we went to was Sine (right off the liffey, they refused to serve us bc of our crowns so we peaced out. The bartender found our crowns offensive. When questioned further his reply was to point to a picture of the soldier who murdered and raped people in Iraq. Like as if that was what we were celebrating. Luckily one of the girls on our trip knows the owner and will be making a complaint...
After that upsetting incident we went to Dame Tavern off dane street. After there we went to grafton...where we ran into another huge group of MSU study abroaders very odd. We tried to go to Captain Americas but they were closed, so we went to Bruxelle's. Good bit of craic there. We managed to come across one sparkler..it was amazing... all and all it was a pretty satisfactory fourth.
Today was the graduation ceremony for one family adult education programme participants. It was at Dublin Castle...real nice place. The ceremony was good. I actually really enjoyed seeing the people who are involved with the charity. Made me feel like my work was mattering to someone...may motivate me to actually put more effort into my tasks. Grand.
Alright just about time to leave work...its a beautiful day outside. Very exciting. Prolly in the mid-seventies with a bit of sun. Peace!!

No Sparklers in Dublin

2006-07-04T05:36:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was Sarahs 21st bday...but she is ill so there wasnt much celebrating. We went to dinner at a little italian place in temple bar area...the name escapes me but thats fine bc it wasnt anything spectacular. House wine was good though. Then we went to Eamon Dorans which is just down the street. Pretty empty bc it was a Monday nite. We had just a bit of craic and then headed home early. Poor Sarah...things would be much better if they had effective cold medicine in this country. I am beginning to feel that the irish is bit stingy with its pill popping. hahhah
We saw our first irish thunderstorm last nite...didnt even realize i had missed them. Put me right to sleep.
Today is Fourth of July!!!
Very exciting. I feel as though i am making myself a target for ridicule bc i am wearing all red, white and blue and i have a ribbon in my hair that is stars and stripes. Nothing compared to the outfit planned for this evening though...that includes crowns and glowing objects...Hoorah!!! Very upset to discover that there is pretty much no such thing as sparklers here in Dublin...ooo the joy of seeing your name written in sparkles...very cruel. The weather is here is not very 4thish but its not raining too hard. For lunch today Morgan and I went to Burger King and ate in St. Stephens Green...delicious. There was a german orchestra playing in the greens...pretty interesting. Afterwards i got a snickers bar bc im american and i like to eat 8000 calories in one sitting....yay for obesity. The spar beneath our apartment is having american style hot dogs for us tonite as well as "ginger beer" which i assume is root beer....very nice of them.
Alright well back to work...though it is very hard to concentrate when i know i should be at a picnic or on the boat. Will produce more 4th of July details tomorrow..Cheers!!

A lovely Sunday spent in Killarney

2006-07-03T02:59:00.000-07:00

Sunday morning we got up early, had the free breakfast in our hostel, checked out. They had free luggage storage...pretty grand. We hopped on a bus to Killarney (cost 20euro)...the trip there is a bit lengthy about 1:30 but soo worth it. We hired bicyle for about 12 euro and cycled ourselves to the Killarney Nat'l Park. I was bit nervous riding my bike here bc u have to ride with the traffic, a bit difficult when u still havent mastered the way traffic works here...plus ive seen many a car/bus tail a biker in dublin which added to the stress. Another thing that hindered my biking ability was that i only had one contact in. I had thrown out my contacts the nite before and of the 3 replacements i brought 2 of the packets were for some reason empty..i just have bad luck. But i arrived at the park safely none the less. Not to far of a ride, actually pretty nice. The park itself is beautiful. It has lakes, waterfalls, cows and all just grand foliage. I really enjoyed it there. We climbed to the top of the waterfall which was quite a hike but an amazin view. After a few hours in the park we headed back to the city for the bus. The town of Killarney is actually really cute. Its super clean and has really cute little shops all over. They actually have an outlet mall as well. hahhaa...the only recognizable store was Nike Factory (a knacker's dream come true..hahha. After the bus ride we walked around cork for a bit, went back to our hostel and then headed for the train station.
The train back to dublin was not a bad ride...the train was actually pretty empty. The best way to pass the time on the trip is to have a few drinks...lesson well learned from our last train from Galway by some irish friends.
Mmm...i think thats about if for this weekend...will def add some photos in a day or two... Peace

A Visit to Cork

2006-07-03T02:44:00.000-07:00

On Saturday morning we took the 9:00 train down to Cork. Its on the Southwest side of Ireland. With out student travel card the train costed about 40euro, about half off from normal price. The city of Cork itself is like a mini-dublin. Complete with river a bit smaller than the liffey, same stores, etc. We stayed in hostel called Bru Bar Hostel. It was a lovely choice for our first hostel experience. It was pretty clean and the staff was very nice. They have a bar underneath and they give u free vouchers for pints. Good idea for getting people to stop in their bar, although it was among one of more popular bars not just for tourists. We roomed with a 3 German girls, who im pretty sure were talking mad shit about us in German...hhahha...slightly akward but they were very nice. After checking into the hostel we walked around city centre abit. Ate lunch it a restraunt called Zanzibar on St. Particks street, haha...def not the one from the song. But it was decent. They had a very wide variety of food. From burgers, to mexican etc. Then we caught a bus to the Blarney Castle, (bus cost about 5euro.) The Blarney Castle is amazingly beautiful. We kissed the Blarney Stone, explored the Castle, made wishes on the wishing steps, and checked out the grounds around the castle. Very good craic. Definitly worth the trip.
After that we headed back to city centre and then back to our hostel to get ready for the night. We started out in our hostels bar...very crowded with lots of locals. Then we went to Banaza, extremely crowded almost uncomfortably so. Since we were pretty wiped out that waant a very good choice. We left there and went to The Bailey. They played really great tunes, and while it was still a very full bar it had walking room and was defintly great craic. We finished the nite with a nitecap at our hostels bar which after a certain point is only open to people who are staying in the hostel...pretty sweet.
Then.....

Hooley Nite @ Johnnie Fox's Pub

2006-07-03T02:33:00.000-07:00

Whoo...It been a few since i updated so im gonna break it up abit.
Thursday: Went to the doctor for my foot. Again i find the Irish Health Care System very unsatisfactory. This time they want to me to get an ultrasound, and blood work done. Not sure how that has anything to do with the fact that my foot is half broken. They also gave me a prescription for a pain pill that is just above advil, something at home u could buy over the counter. I think they are a bit hesitant to prescribe pills here. At nite, we went to the flat of some fellow Americans. Had our most impressive beer pong preformance EVER. Then we headed to Craw Daddys on Hartford street. Its a really nice club. They had the only drink specials we have seen in the country. Pretty cool.
Friday: We went to a Hooley Night at Johnnie Fox's pub. Its the highest pub in ireland, set way back in the mountains.You pay 55euro and get a 3 course meal, and entertainment. They had an irish band play...def got to hear our favorite song, molly malone. Also we saw authentic irish dancing. Pretty grand. I feel its worth mentioning that we learned from some friend on the train that people dance like that in ireland bc they werent supposed to be dancing when they were being supressed by the english. They tops of their bodies dont move so that the english couldnt see them dancing through the windows. Pretty interesting huh? After Johnnie Foxs we stopped at the Corner stone...its in the Camden street area. Nice pub but pretty empty, although we didnt get there until fairly late.
Pictures LATER

A Night at the Dog Races

2006-06-29T02:14:00.000-07:00

Greyhound Racing @ Shelbourne Park is absolutely savage.... Literally had an amazing time. There were a total of 11 races with 6 lanes each time. Not knowing anything about greyhound racing, it was very difficult at times to pick a dog. My strategy quickly became pick the dog whos name amuses me the most. I won with dogs like Cookies on Fire, Do Me DAnny and Rathyvlls Best. I usually bet a euro on a dog to place and found pretty decent results. I dont think i lost any money although im not sure that I made any profit either. O well..its definitly something everyone visiting Ireland should experience. We are told the dogs are treated super well here. Only dogs in top form can even race. The only problem is after their done racing in Ireland, they ship them off to Spain, where they have no standards and they basicly just race them to death. That is really sad. Our friend that happened to be working at Shelbourne told us that Saturday nites there are deadly. Not so many grannies and just loads of people. May have to go back and check it out.
Afterwards we stopped off at pub just a block from our house. Its called The Comet. I had yet to pop in there...it was fairly decent. A bit of an older crowd...
Today, I'm supposed to have a discussion with my supervisor about my work...AHH...What work? ...uhoh. haHa... Also i have a doctors appointment to finally get my foot fixed. Here come the crutches...Cheers!!

Damn...Feeling abit bitter towards Ireland....

2006-06-27T16:29:00.000-07:00

Today i spent the entire day at the hospital...St. James to be specific and nothing was accomplished....i hate the ireland health system .... they asked me if ......
this is sarah now. and something is askew with katine's foot. that's what the irish call her. it's twice it's normal size and they send her on her way. f*** the irish health care sysem! I'm currently making kayt ice and elevate her foot on behalf of jan's command's. Don't you worry Jan, I'm on it! It's grand, and we'll contact those EUSA wankers tomorrow and strongly voice our concerns!
Excuse the interruptions ...Anyways...they asked me if it would be ok to send to the results of my xrays to my gp (dr) in 7 days...like what good would that do. Since there is no broken bone, they did nothing for me and as a consequence im still in excruciating pain. Have another dr apt. tomorrow....hopefully this one will go better for me.
In other news...yesterday we found a chinese food restaurant...It wasnt the most proper chinese place ever, it did lack almond chicken and crab rangoons. I had King Prawn Chop Suey. I dont really understand the difference between prawn and shrimp...they taste absoutlely identical. Then we hit up the sale at Arnotts in an attempt to improve my sullen mood. Things went well, got a savage dress. Then we went to a pub (Dame Tavern) to watch the world cup matches. We caught France vs. Spain. France won. sound match though. We also saw a bit of horse racing. Couldnt help but notice that the jockeys were practically normal sized people, the horses were buckling under their weight...i mean they couldnt even jump the short hurdles without hitting them. The barkeep told us that the jockies were meant to be small but they are not at all what we are used to seeing.
Very excited bc today after work we are going to the dog races with our EUSA group. Im feeling lucky!! Will let you know how it goes later...Peace

Irish Health Care System

2006-06-26T13:10:00.001-07:00

So today i finally went to the doctor to get my foot that is swollen to twice its size checked out... I can't believe how unsure my doctor was of the procedure to follow. She tells me that i probably have a stress fracture and that i must go for a x-ray which at home would be super simple, refer me and im there. But o no not in Ireland...she spends 30 minutes trying to come up with the plan that will take the least amount of time. If i go to a private practice to get my xray, then they will send me to the hospital anyways...so would it be faster for me to just go the hospital?....it was unbelievable...after 50 euro, all i came out with was a 50 euro charge and a referral to the hospital and the assurance that things are not as fast here as they are in the states...DAMn iT!!
Today in conversation with my friend and flatmate Amy, she mentioned how in the first week here people told her how great the US was because things worked....at the time she thought it was odd...but now we have come to understand...THINGS DoNT WOrk here....nothing gets fixed..if its slow or broken DEAl WITH it...i think that is the most important thing u can realize before coming here...SLOW DowN...
Cheers...

Another Weekend Full of Mayhem in Dublin

2006-06-25T11:36:00.000-07:00

Friday: Being that it was Mexican Friday, we headed to THe Alamo Cafe in Temple Bar area..mmm...not the best mexican ive had. Pretty pricey...the vegatable mix they used was grand but the guacamole left something to be desired. Next we headed to Anseo on Wexford Street...thats a nice little pub. We were educated there on the differences between Culchies (people from the country) and Dubs (People from Dublin). The main thing i gathered is their accent. Culchies speak much faster, and mumble...therefore they are generally much more difficult to understand. Apparently culchies can drink more than dubs but im not sure if that is true...only time will tell. Then we ended the nite in a club called RiRa (its off George Street)...pretty decent. Nothing spectacular...although they did have a fooz ball table. (is that how u spell fooz?) Which i fould quite brilliant. I like to think that we americans had much better skill than the irish.
Another difference i feel the need to comment on is the difference between irish men and american mens behavior toward each other. Irish guys...it could be european guys in general...are much more physically affection with their mates. Its actually quite odd. Just a little heads up because its rather shocking to see heterosexual males behaving in that manner.
Saturday: Since the weather was very unpleasant, our tours were put off and we decided to catch a movie. We saw Friends With Money..(not that it really matters).
At nite, we went to Temple Bar Music Centre to see DJ HYPE...it was an amazing show. TBMC is a grand venue for that type of music but I dont know that it would be that great for a band.Doesnt sound the acoustics would be that great.
Today this far we went to Eddie Rocket's which is the European version of Johnnie Rockets...pretty decent greasy fast good...hahha. It was another appearance of Ranch, so that was exciting.
Got to go do more productive things with my life....Peace

Celebrities in Ireland.

2006-06-23T10:54:00.000-07:00

Last nite I met my very first Irish celeb @ The Village (Wexford St.). It was pretty amazing. Paddy Casey has an album out called Amen So Be Tt.Havent heard his music...but im i dont really care. Check it out www.paddycasey.com.
In other interesting news Pamela Anderson and her new boyfriend Eddie Irvinne are in Dublin this week. It was very odd to pictures of her in the same places I walk everyday. Unfortunately, i have not seen her, though one of the other girls on the trip did. Last nite she threw a party at St. Stephens Green. Thats the park where i eat lunch every day...CRAZY!! Some 150 VIP guests were invited including Bono. WE tried to play it off to our irish friends that we would be attending, and that we had to go bc we couldnt let Pam and the crew down but i dont think they bought it.
Another fun game to play while you are abroad is pretending to actually be a celebrity. They key is to act shocked when they dont recognize you, and then refuse to take pictures. HaHaHa. They dont know the difference. With all the reality shows and such, its entirely possible to be D-list celeb in Dublin...hahaha.
Anyways...We planned to go to Cork this weekend but all the hostels were booked. So turns out we will be staying in town this weekend and heading down there next Saturday. We may hit up some touristy things this weekend, because as we have realized our time is dwindling...its already almost July...AHHH!!!
Alright...have to get ready, its Mexican Friday and we have reservations at The Alamo Cafe in Temple Bar Area. ... Cheers!!

UsA Out of WoRlD cUp!!!

2006-06-22T13:54:00.000-07:00

Gross!!! The UsA is out of the World Cup...im real sad...now i have to pick a new team..Damn It!!...any suggestions?
Just thought i would advise today on some things you will not find in Ireland and i dearly dearly miss:
Cheese...all they have here is very very dry chedder
What i wouldnt give for a piece of colby or a string cheese
Neutrogena makeup...i ran out of healthy skin blush blend and my life
has not been the same since
Target...
No SUCH thing!!!
Variety...There is no such thing...maybe one or two choices..
Everyplace there is the same choices...o america
Cheetos...Sarah talks of them all the time...Hilarious
Gallons of Milk...we buy milk and drink it in .5 seconds..one sitting
Shout!!...damn stains do not come out
Baseball... Tigers
Reese Pieces...Anything peanut butter
JIF... Peanut butter does not exist as u know it...you want a
spoonful?...NEVER gonna happen....Its pracically White!!
Coney Island.... O man
Real Bacon.... No way!!...bacon isnt crispy!! Its HAM!!!
Taco Bell.... You'll never have fast food mexican
Ranch... I've seen in once in the month ive been here @ a Pizza Hut
none the less. No such thing as Ranch in the grocery store.
Hmm...Thats all i can think of now...Just a little heads up, stock up before you come.
off to hobble around the concert on my broken foot.... Gotta get that checked out
Peace

Dublin Bus

2006-06-21T15:40:00.000-07:00

Today since nothing much went down, I will waste my time critizing the Dublin Bus system. I despise how long it takes to get to city centre from santry each day... I would venture to say that i sit on the bus for a good 3 hours a damn day. It doesnt matter which one you take either...4, 13,13A,16,19...its all the same. On a more helpful note, i recommend getting a bus pass if you are here for any length of time. With my Student Travel Card, I get a 30 day pass for 64euro. Which isnt bad if you think about how it costs about 1.50 each ride, I ride it at least twice a day on the weekends 3 times. Another problem i find with the bus system is that it shuts down at 11:30. There is a nitelink bus that begins at 12:30 and runs until 4:30 but the bus pass doesnt count for that and it costs 4euro...if you have more than 2 people its prolly best for you to get a taxi instead, it will prolly be cheaper. Taxis are another story...once the pubs and clubs let out it is very difficult to catch one, and it is very important to look sober, even if you are not. There are taxi ques on various streets, O Connell, Dame...but those can be extremely long, so its probably a better bet for you to just try and catch one on the side of the street. Hmm...do I have any other helpful transportation tip?...NAhh...
Today we went to The Market after work to kill some time, so that traffic would die down, so the bus ride wouldnt be as long. Its on George STreet and is very nice. Lovely time. Gets real crowded around dinner time.
I'm very sad bc i will be at work tomorrow during the USA vs Ghana World Cup match...why do they have to play in the middle of the day?? Looking forward to seeing the outcome of that match.
Well im off to bed....Nite

Damn Irish Weather

2006-06-20T15:34:00.000-07:00

I swear the weather here is more absurd than Michigan. The last few weeks were super warm...sunny and mid-sixties. We were warned it wouldnt last long...but its very depressing now thats it gone. Today it couldnt have gone much above 50..and it rained all day...just like yesterday and prolly tomorrow... I miss the sun and warm weather. Another point worth mentioning is the sun is SUPER intense and always up. It rises at like 5am and goes down around 11pm...and you get burned doing practically nothing. Its horrible.
Today we had a meeting with EUSA concerning our safety. They took alot measures to assure it here at Shanown Square...the gate will be faster, security better, and the Spar is closing now at 11. I feel satisfied with these precautions...stuff happens.
After the meeting we headed to a pub to catch the England vs Sweden match...they drew. Since Trinidad and Tobago lost today to Paraguay....England and Sweden will be advancing out of that group. They show the funniest budweiser commercials during halftime....(FYI there are no commercials during the game AT ALL)...since bud is the official beer of the world cup, they have ads where american announcers are trying to announce the game...and making stupid comments...and then the slogan is "We'll bring the football, you just bring the beer"..or something like that...its super funny.
Alright im very tired and i have to get up early and go running bc im like the only person in the history of the world to come to Europe and get fatter...SICK.

Another Wonderful World Cup Weekend!!!

2006-06-19T03:13:00.000-07:00

This weekend was jam-packed with world cup matches and it was lovely.
Saturday, we hurried down to city centre to take in a few matches from Group E. First we watched Czech Republic vs. Ghana at Citi Bar on Dame Street. It was a low-key place to take in a match while eating dinner. For the US vs. Italy game we had something alittle more rowdy in mind, so we wondered over to The Globe on George Street. It was packed!! I was very impressed by the draw with Italy. Hoping the US can pull out a victory from their match with Gana and have a chance to proceed to the next round. As I understand it, if we beat Gana and the Czechs beat Italy...then we may advance. Go CZECHS!!...hahaha. After the world-cup excitement we headed to a party at a house actually inside of Phoenix Park. It was literally surrounded by the zoo....very cool. They had a bouncing castle (AKA MoonWalk) and everything. We were told that the president actually lives like 2 doors down, I feel pretty good about that.
Sunday. We once again headed down to city centre for a little World Cup madness....its too bad we dont have a TV, things would be much easier than. Anyways, we went to Porterhouse Central on Grafton Street. Porterhouse is actually really cool bc it is a microbrewery. I believe the ad says the largest genuine brewer in Ireland, i assume that doesnt include Guinness. They have some really good brews though, I reccommend the Porterhouse Red and also the Chiller. The Chiller is definitly lite, prolly the litest beer I've had since I've been here, which is definitly a good thing. Anyways the Brazil vs. Australia match was pretty exciting. I think Brazil is one of the most intense teams to watch. They also have the most amazing fans. After their victory, their was a celebration in Temple Bar Area, complete with drums, singing and dancing. Very nice to see. Then since we have some visitors we decieded to do a pubcrawl and hit up a few other new pubs. We went to O'Doules near O'Connell, ONeills on Suffolk and ending in the Czech bar at Isolde's Tower. Pretty nice little crawl. Nothing too crazy.
In other news, I have discovered that i am ethnic enigma for the Irish. Thus far I have been labeled (in alphabetical order) as Bette Midler ( ifeel thats a enthicity..hahhaa), Brazilian, Canadian, Chinese and Irish. HAHAHAHA.....its nice like. What a disappointment it must be when i begin to talk...damn American.
Alright time to get down to business.... Cheers!!!

Steer Clear of the Northside of Dublin

2006-06-17T08:41:00.000-07:00

Whenever anyone finds out where we are residing in Dublin this summer, we get the same reaction..."Be careful the northside is a bit dodgy"....until last nite i hadnt realized that the roughness involved our area as well.....
The nite started off grand...we went to the pub Eamon Dorans, which is near the Temple Bar area...it was definitly a bit of craic. ..It was when we returned to our apartment complex that things got a bit shady. Recently like maybe 2 weeks ago they opened a 24-hour Spar just below our complex....like right under my window in fact. The Spar has been attracting many of the people who reside in Ballymun which is the ghetto of Dublin, its about a 10 minute walk from where we live in Glasnevin. Anyways so last nite there was a bit of sparring outside the spar. And by sparring i mean stabbings, with a pen none the less. I feel it is a very good thing that no one really has guns here to speak of that could be disasterous. It was unbelievable, i heard yelling out my window around 4:30am and when i looked outside i saw a group of 'knackers'(as far as i can tell a knacker is a person who wears track suits all the time and slicks their hair back, comparable to the term white trash), running away. When i went to join the rest of the group in the living room, they were watching a man bleeding rather profusely from several little wounds, on his arms, his side,,,adn there was one on his head. We went down to help him out, bring him water and such and find the security for some first aid. Turns out the 'knackers' asked him for a ciggerette and when he said he didnt have one, they attacked him. His friends has several minor injuries as well. The garda showed up promptly bc their station is only down the block. Turns out im a witness bc i saw them run away...i had to make statements and everything. My statement was i saw 10-15 young boys in royal blue track suits, running right down shanowen avenue. Hahaha....very helpful, im sure. It was a bit crazy.....
We emailed the people who placed us in our location right away....they have already called the people who run our complex and they decieded to close the Spar from 12-7 and get more people for security. Thank God......
Now its time to go watch the world cup USA vs. Italy....GO USA!!!
Peace....

A little site seeing on a Friday off.....

2006-06-16T15:04:00.000-07:00

Today we made our way down to Christ Church Catherdral Dublin....pretty sweet place. Very large...although not as decodent as i imagined it might be. I've seen prettier churches in America. It was really cool though that they had crypts underneath. That is something I've never seen before. We were there when a service was going on...it was actually kind of cool to witness something ive seen so many times at home in a different culture. I noticed some of the prayers were alittle off....but ya know same meaning. We also witnessed something that could best be described on shittystories.com ...u may want to check that out. I dont know why everything is underlined right now but i cant figure out how to stop it so ill just continue on.
We discovered a grand mexican restraunt on George ST. called Acapulco.....so good....absolutely savage guac...mmm....That are is quickly becoming my favorite lots of good bars and my mexican food fix.....thats good stuff.
Next we headed to Aldis which is an amazing german supermarket where everything is 10x cheaper than tescos.....its def worth the trip. I recommend picking up some joysticks...they are like mambos or now and laters...super delicious. Plus we got magnum ice cream knockoffs which were very good and at the price of 3 for 1. mmmmm.....YAY for Aldis we have decided its a blessing.
Well time to head out for the nite....I'm attempting a dress over jeans today as that is the style around here..i've worn it a few times but this is the big dublin debut.....Wish my luck.

Internships Abroad

2006-06-15T08:48:00.000-07:00

I would like to take this opportunity to HIGHLY recommend doing an internship in Ireland rather than just at home for the following reasons:

There is no such thing as being on time....EVERYONE is late...I am usually the one who is late for EVERYTHINg...but not here, I'm always early in comparison to my coworkers.
You have to do an internship to graduate anyways...why not kill 2 birds with one stone, travel and be productive at the same time.
You wont need am extensive professional wardwobe...since most places here are 'smart casual' attire and they all repeat outfits as well. There have been many reports from fellow interns of people wearing the exact same outfit 2 days in a row...I'm against repeat outfits in the same month let alone the same week but if you have no probs with that then this is your place.
Not awhole lot of stressful work to be done...its grand...Since we are americans we are used to a fast pace...there is no such thing here....They will assign you simple tasks and give you weeks to complete them.

I am thoroughly enjoying my internship experience. I work at an charity called one family. You can check it out at the website: http://www.onefamily.ie. Its actually a pretty great group...they help out single parent families, giving the parents adult education programs and assistance into finding support. I feel like my karma has improved just working here for the summer. Currently I am helping to develop sessions to run in the adult education programmes. Pretty good stuff..right up my alley for community psychology. Brilliant!!

Well work is done now..so its time to play.... HEaded for some afterwork drinks mostly just to kill some time so that traffic dies down.....CHEERS!!

More lessons straight off the Dublin Streets

2006-06-14T05:59:00.000-07:00

Since yesterday was a pretty uneventful day, I'll post a few more tips I learned from through some rather ridiculous experiences:

PAY CLOSE ATTENTION TO TRAFFIC....learned this when struck by a vehicle yesterday
THE BIRDS ARE VERY BOLD...witnessed a fellow travelor attacked by a bird over a cookie
ENGLISH BIG BROTHER IS THE BEST REALITY SHOW EVER...I just read that they made Susie the dictator of the house...she wears a miliatry outfit and everyone is forced to pledge alliegance to her and sing her fav songs and eat her fav food...its just brilliant... although ive only seen a few minutes of them sleeping (since we have no tv) i am very intrigued.
FORGET WATCHING OUT FOR CRIMS...IT IS THE IRISH CHILDREN YOU SHOULD FEAR...those kids are very VERY bold..As a group we have learned this various ways...
1. Being called a bitch by a 5 year old eating blue ice cream
2. Sexual assault by a gang of 10 year old bikers
3. Sidewalk verbal assualts by 6 year old little girl
4. sparring outside the Spar with Alex the security card
5. 7 year old girls with scabs on their faces attempting to pick
fights at the gate
6. Rowdy bus rides
I think that is sufficent evidence.

I'm being mocked now bc i actually have work to do and still spend my time playing with my blog....Peace...

PS Excuse the 1000 extra bullets....i could figure out how to escape them

OOO....THE WORLD CUP

2006-06-13T03:01:00.000-07:00

O man....the world cup is in full swing here. Unfortunately for the Irish, Ireland didnt quite qualify. I have about a week left of bragging rights over them bc the United States, though they did qualify, is not putting on a grand showing. Last nite we went to Big Tree (a pub on dorset street) to catch the US match. It was certainly dodgey. We lost 3-0 to czech republic...down right humiliating. Things dont look too promising for our next matches, Italy and Gana. We caught a bit of their game against each other as well and both teams looked rather impressive. I guess I'll have to pick a new team to cheer for....
I tried to post some pictures yesterday but it got quite boring...so i quit. I think it will be easier if i just make a webshots account. Plus its very difficult to select particular pictures...I want them all up.
Alright...i need to get back to work now...I'm writing up sesson outlines for an adult education programme....who knew i was qualified for that?...its actually rather enjoyable.
Cheers!!!

Great Craic in Northern Ireland

2006-06-12T05:52:00.000-07:00

WOW!!...it definitly just took me like 10 years to get into this damn blog. Apparently Im a bit slow and have problems remembering my actual name is my user name...i can see how that could easily confuse..
ANYWAYS....
Super glad, i took a chance on heading away with strangers for the weekend...i feared it might turn out abit dodgy but it actually turned out to be absolutely amazing. The birthday celebration we attended was in a small town (warren point i believe) just about 40 minutes south of Belfast. Friday nite, when we arrived there was a bbq...o god how i have missed the taste of bbqed chicken...and then we ate the most amazing strawberries and ice cream with butterscotch sauce..o man it was fabulous. But the best part of the evening was actually the wooden horse races at the fundraiser we went to. Little wooden rocking horses were attached to strings which were then wheeled in by a jockey who was facing the wall opposite from it. (ill put pictures up explaining soon). I actually convinced one of the jockies to part with his first place ribbon, which turned out to be my most favorite accessory of the weekend. Such a great nite. The next day we helped to decorate the banquet room for the party, though i wasnt much help bc im actually not capable of blowing up balloons. At nite loads more people came down from dublin, and the celebration began. Dinner and dessert at the house, then we all hopped on a bus and drove to the pub. 21st bdays are very exciting here, it involves 21 kisses and speeches....amazing. I learned how to snorkel, a new and exciting way of chugging fruity drinks. All and all i would say it was a very successful nite. Sunday we tidyed up and headed to a pool, for a little sunning. I believe i actually heard on the irish girls say "i feel like im on the oc"...hhhaha. We missed the hunger striker commerative march, but i imagine it was pretty grand. Then we returned to Dublin, all rested and ready for the work week...that makes me sad...hahah.

Look Out Prague...here we come!!

2006-06-09T07:03:00.000-07:00

Very excited bc last nite instead of drinking ourselves into oblivion, We sat down and planned our second bank holiday. After much deliberation, and shopping around. We settled on Prague... though its rather expensive to fly there, its insanely cheap when u get there. And since Ryan air doesnt fly to Prague out of Dublin, we elected to fly into London and will be staying a nite there...all for around 200 euro....not too shaby.
Just spent some bob on henry street...that damn street will be the end of me...ill soon be selling myself on the street. The H and M here is pretty alright....i enjoy a-wear.... Top shop...uhh...o so many other places. Grafton street has some fine shops as well. I swear i only peruse....no obscene spending.
Well this weekend i am headed out of the city to a birthday celebration. should be good times with a group of strangers...ahh who knows...If you dont hear anything from me within a few days, ive prolly been sold into slavery.
Alright...i need to start packing now.....Cheers!!!

A Few Valuable Lessons Learned in Dublin.....

2006-06-08T05:54:00.000-07:00

While eating a cold irish "chicken fajita" in St. Stephens Green this afternoon, I was inspired to pass along a few cold hard lessons I've learned in the first 3 weeks of my trip:
#1. Though the bottle says "diet coke" on it...it is not in fact the "diet coke" we all know and love, well at least i love, It is certainly lacking that special crispness, and contains for some odd reason vegetable extracts....those things definitly do not belong in my beloved nutrisweet filled beverage.
#2. While reading, it is good to keep in mind that there is no such thing as a z here...well maybe there is but i have yet to come across a word containing the last letter of the alphabet...forget about organized, or minimize...o no...now its organised and minimise. This brings about an interesting question, whose answer is still alluding me: Zebra or Sebra? O and practice...its definitly spelled practise. Center, just reverse some things Centre...Program...just add a few more letters...programme...drag it out abit. No such thing is "th" either...thanks is now tanks, that is tat...in both spelling and speech. I believe u get the picture now...
#3. Vanish is not the same thing as Shout. IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO REMEMBER: do NOT touch vanish...i can tell u from personal experience it is not pleasant. It is not correct to rub the stain remover into the stain here, just let it set otherwise u will end up with hands with white speckles all over them that burn like hell. And it is also valuable to know that vanish is not supposed to dry on your clothes...get that shit in the washer before 10 minute is up. Just once more for clarification: VANISH DOES NOT EQUAL SHOUT!!!!
#4. Hi Ya, tanks a million....any irish slang in general only sounds cool when Americans say it to other Americans...Do not attempt to pull it off to Irish coworkers....just sounds stupid.

Must get down to the business of writing a programme about sibling rivalry now...
I hope lessons can be learned from my foolish behaviours.... PEACE

Amazin Discoveries on Dawson Street....

2006-06-07T16:55:00.000-07:00

Work is still not going superbly....but i have found a brilliant place to enjoy my lunch...St. Stephens Green is packed around 1 with business men in suits and ties....GRAND....although today i went around 12:30 and only found tourists...not soo grand.... Tomorrow im thinking about hitting up Merrion Square, another great park located near where i work. My fake internship is in such a KEY location.
After work tonite we went out to dinner with Megan's Dad who is here on business. We began at a pub in Temple Bar called Gogarhty's (prolly spelled incorrectly...but its very identifiable bc it is green and yellow and covered in flags.) Then we hit up the Temple Bar ....which i must admit is much more enjoyable on a weekday than it is on the weekend...way too crowded with tourists on the weekends. We walked around for a long while...who knew places like Gallaghers in Temple Bar area needed reservations?...and ended up in a place called Fire on Dawson's Street. Very classy....but super delicious food...I thoroughly enjoyed it. We then head to Cafe En Saine...which is across the street...decorated rather tacky (alittle over the top) but maybe worth checking out.
I plan to attempt picture posting soon...so keep that in mind....i have got to pass out now....Cheers.

Galway....its Grand

2006-06-06T14:21:00.000-07:00

First bank holiday of the Summer was a definite success.....Traveled to Galway via the cram-packed sweltering train and spent 3 fabulously warm days there. It hasnt rained in days and days...Brilliant.....
Saturday we arrived at around 5 and hung out for a few in the hotel and then headed out for the nite. We hit up the Kingshead pub...one of the most jammed places in town, i believe they also said it was the oldest but dont quote me on that. We met up with the other MSUers there, they were stopped for the nite in Galway while on a paddy wagon 3 day tour. We parted from them and made our way to quay street (oddly enough quay is actually pronounced key), seems in Galway is it totally kosher to drink on the streets. Enjoyed a snake bite there and the headed off for Cuba, a brilliant nite club where we witnessed a real live irish pearl jam cover band...who knew they even existed? Actually they were mindly impressive...sarah believes they were titled "the pearls"... but for their sake i hope she made that up. I think its worth noting that someone asked me if i was asian on this nite...apparently i have squintly eyes and have now switched my accent from canadian/mexican to chinese...quite an accomplishment if you ask me.
Sunday we woke up super super early...and took a bus then a ferry to the Aran Islands, most specifically the largest island Inis Moore....super super spectacular....prolly the most beautiful place ive seen in my life. We rented bicycles...the dream was for me and megan to rent a tandem bike but no such luck, i had to embark on meerly a one seater. The ride was unbelievable....nothing like a good breeze off the ocean blowing on while u enjoy the scenery...ahhh...the memories..ahhaha. If i had to choose 2 words to sum up the island i would for sure choose, cows and stones. Lots of rocks used to build walls, forts, huts for monks....very well constructed. I believe this is the first time in my entire life that i was kept amused by rocks for 7 hours. The Cliffs were the most impressive part of the whole trip. 300 ft tall...o god horrifying...i layed on my stomache and looked over the edge...i couldnt believe the drop. They told us that no one has ever died by falling off....i find that rather hard to believe. It was great craic. We then returned to Galway with brutal sunburn...who knew u needed sunscreen in ireland? (FYI sunscreen costs a biggillion euros here)...Forced ourselves to get ready and go out...hit up the worst place ive been to prolly EVER...gpo is not cool...then we went and drank on quay, where we actually tricked some natives into buying us all cowboys hats and roses off the street vendor. The hat is pink i was pretty pleased with it.
Monday, after the rest of group left, me and sarah stayed behind to hit up the beaches. We went to Silver Strand...enjoyed it immensely.....though saw a little too much of many of the men, speedos are soo not cool. Although its better than the guy on the Aran Islands who felt it was appropriate to just remove his pants on the beach and walk around in his whitie tighties,,,which were actually not white at all but grey. GROSS!! Anyways...afterwards we caught the late train home nad made new irish best friends with some native galwayers who know live in Dublin. They actually met on the train down there and decieded to ride home together and as luck would have it, they sat down next to us. Which turned out absolutely savage bc they fed us budweisers the whole way home. And then we all want to The Market for a few pints afterwards...ease into the work week ya know?.....
All and All i would say it was a very successful trip....good craic...I highly reccommend a trip to Galway or at the very least the Aran Islands....wish we could have checked out the other two but no time....i need to catch up on my sleep for sure..CHeers!!!

Guiness Storehouse Tour - Brilliant!!

2006-06-02T13:43:00.000-07:00

Last nite...definitly won a shirt showdown....a girl at the bar was wearing the same shirt i bought but she had it on backwards...everyone mocked me,,but then to my satisfaction when i approached her for discussion she was like "that makes soo much sense"...she had cut out tags and everything....GRRAND!!
Today we went to guinness storehouse tour....amazing.....definitly worth the dollar....recommend student travel cards...save soo much money with them. The guinness there is amazing. gravity bar has awesome views.....spectacular. We also went to the Brazon Head pub....one of the oldest pubs in dublin......super cool.
Tommorrow we are headed to Galway....im soo excited....talk to you in a few all about it......
Cheers, Kayt

Ireland Internship

2006-06-01T05:51:00.000-07:00

Wow...my very first post that isnt actually a private email...Its grand!! Currently at work, have been delegated no tasks to speak of so i mostly just mess around on the computer and pretend to read things. I believe they think im doing research....the topic?... im not too clear on that. Next week i have to actually produce things though...sort of horrifying.
Super excited for galway this weekend....have heard many good things. I feel like i talk now like i text message...texting is super huge here...I think my phone has actually only rang like 5 times in the last 2 weeks. Hopefully when i get back ill have some super fast texting skills. Though i suppose it doesnt really matter. Anyways....galway is on the west (ithink) of ireland and is allegedly super beautiful and a fantastic time, especially on saturday nites, which happens to be the day of our arrival. This weekend is a bank holiday so we have no work on monday...Brilliant!!!
It's actually sunny and pretty warm here today....felt the need to fit in with the rest of the irish and walk down the street eating ice cream. Its actually very amusing to watch all the grown men in business suits eating magnum ice cream bars....super delicious.
Yesterday was Morgan's 21st bday...very exciting. From work we went to ONeills, then we ate at porterhouse...super good burgers, and then we went to Bruxelles where they had a singer/songwriter open mic nite. I think people enjoyed our american antics....hahhaha.
Alright well i best get back to pretending to work... Cheers!!

Guiness a sign of Americans?

2006-05-31T11:58:00.000-07:00

Hey~
A. Ill have u know that i have barely even gotten lost here at all...not once when i was by myself. And you are definitly going to need me bc u wont even be able to understand the irish and their accents. The people from the city are not soo bad but if they grew up in the country, they talk fast and have a super heavy accent. For the first week, i feel pretty much everyone we met heard the phrase "i cant understand you", the other problem of course is the slang...everyday i learn something new. Beginning to incorporate some of it into my everyday speech, like grand and spot on...hahhaha

B. There are 10 people here from MSU...we all get along really well. Good times have definitly been ***CENSORED***We have been the 2 art galleries nad seen some great shit and also the botanical gardens.

C. Last time i try and help you out.

D. hmm... london is up in the air. Im starting to panic alittle. Paris, Barcelona, Prouge, and Amsterdam are already on the agenda. Although its starting to worry me that this is getting a bit extreme and i will run of out money if i hit up too many places. I was thinking if you guys went to london on a weekend i would come with bc i def want to go. London is prolly the cheapest place to go to so i dont really worry abotu that. I may pass on Paris, since its a pretty expensive city to be in for the weekend. I dont know...I have to also keep in mind that we are spending 4 days in Italy at the end of the trip. AHH!!....may have to open a new credit card and have u bring it over if you come.

E. THe Guinness and Smithwicks here are 100x better than at home....much fresher tasting though alot more expensive..there is no such thing as drink specials. We have hit up many bars nad have already established some favorites..Whelans is really great...we try and stay away from temple bar area bc its super expenisive and mostly tourists. We like to mingle with the
locals. Hahaha. Stopped drinking alot of guinness though because it was pointed out that it is a sure sign of americans. especially for a girl to be drinking a pint of guinness. Alot of folks here actually drink american beer here like bud or mgd...hahha pretty funny. Our whole group has gotten into a drink called a snake bite...its hieniken, bulmers, and black courrent juice..pretty damn delicious. mmm....

F. Have no idea what im supposed to be doing at my internship...today i worked from home but i had little work to do bc ive been mostly reading the whole time. I have no idea what i was suppose to be doing today. I definitly an intern loser. Ahhh well

Ireland Travel Tips from a genuis

2006-05-30T08:51:00.000-07:00

Hey....
Just killing time in the internet cafe writing some emails and such. Thought i would let u know it is cool if u stay with us though i feel i must warn u the place is pretty small. your guys could take my room though and i could sleep in either sarahs or megans. It shouldnt be too bad. I dont know...its up to you. If you guys are planning to travel at all while u are here, u should prolly look into that now bc prices go up as the date approaches...hahha...u prolly already knew that. If u wanted to check out other parts of ireland or even london..it wouldnt be too expensive at all.
You can do bus tours and stuff and flights to london are super cheap...flights are all pretty cheap...we just booked a flight for paris in june and it was only 80euro...london is alot cheaper than that even like 30 or so. check out ryan air. Last nite some guy told us that we talk like otto from the Simpsons...hilarious. I guess they mostly watch american television shows here. We dont have a tv so its hard to say. Its been horrible the last few days bc we our internet is down and we have no tv or radio. I feel like we are on the real world or something. Anyways...just a random comment. i dont know....im gonna get out of here now...and go to the botanical gardens. By the time u guys get here, i should have this city down...hahha. Its already getting easier to navigate. Talk to u soon
Kayt

Checkin in with the parents....BORING!!

2006-05-17T08:58:00.000-07:00

Hey~
Safely arrived in Dublin...the airport looks like the inside of QP..no joke, definitly not like DTW. I can't really figure out how to work my phone yet...none of us can...hopefully they will tell us at the orientation tomorrow. Our apartment is AWESOME...its me sarah, megan and this girl amy...the one who was at the airport. They drive from the passanger seat here...sarah made a fool of us when she went to go get in the taxi from the airport on the driver side. We wondered around our neighborhood today looking for a place to eat..its crazy..apperantly it is VERY obvious we are american. We made fools of ourselves at the pub we went to b/c it was some absurd buffet style and we couldnt understand...i just ate soup..its tasted like gravy. Then we napped for awhile and headed down the city centre. IT is AMAZING there....so pissed they changed our residence location from there to here. We went to a restraunt where the waitress happened to be canadian and helped us out. She was super nice. I actually had a really good burger..it had like sundried tomotoes and basil mixed in the meat...super good choice..though it was hard to deciede between the burger and bangers and mash...which was acutally on the menu. We went to a pub after that where a musician was playing all american music...theres something very nice about drinking some smithwicks in a foriegn country listening to piano man at the same time...super fabulous. Im waiting right not for the hot water to come back on...though we all have our own bathroom..it appears that only one of us can take a shower in a 3 hour span. Will probably call sometime tomorrow after orientation. Turns out one of the other girls on the program is wokring at the same place as me...its great. Everyone is super fun adn i
think we will all get along well.
Talk to u later
love,
Kayt.