t - 27 hours

So sorry for dropping off the face of the earth. Hope everyone (abroad & at home) has had a great couple of months since I last posted.
Things here are going pretty well, I leave for the U.S. on Sunday. It's only been four months, but I can't imagine what it will be like to go back home after this experience.
I haven't been doing much traveling since spring break. Mostly splitting time between a few good friends (American, Australian, & Irish), Labour Party internship, classes, and endless YouTube surfing/skyping.
I will miss Dublin city centre, especially Grafton Street, and live music every few blocks. I'll miss people watching on double-decker buses and cars that park backwards against each other on the sidewalk.
I will miss chips and chicken goujons from the chippery and mid-day strawberry daquiris.
And, not to be too sentimental, I'll really miss a couple people here...
Hopefully it'll work out for Katie and Kyle to visit me in Oregon next month =D.
Can't wait for California weather and family and friends and driving and food and ddr and guitar.
Especially excited to get back to DC and to some amazing roommates and friends (and a basketball court).
Ashley and Katie have been especially good about tagging me on facebook since the untimely death of my cannon powershot SD1000 (cause of death: fatal lense error). Definitely getting a new camera asap for the purpose of chronicling my next set of adventures and to make a string of random YouTube videos.
Time to get packing.... is it bad that I'm bringing back a full suitcase of laundry?

Question: what should happen to this blog when I'm not abroad anymore?

Please Note: this post is dedicated to Ody.

Don't All Speak at Once?

Today, I received two comments (albeit verbal, and from my parents) that I should continue blogging. Fair enough.
Hi Mom and Dad.
So this has been an interesting week for me, culturally. Ireland is celebrating Easter and I am celebrating Passover. I learned (while at a party where luckily everyone was too drunk to be offended) that “Good Friday” is a big misnomer and to never combine the words “Good Friday” with “good.” Also, Ireland celebrates from Friday to Wednesday. At least, the National Labour Party does. I’m off until next week.
I’ve been battling spurts of boredom and hunger since some friends left for the weekend. As a response to both, I cooked fresh cinnamon applesauce, latkes, chicken and vegetable soup, creamy mashed potatoes, garlic vegetable stir fry, and Jell-O. Two days left and counting…
I’ll actually be in Northern Ireland with my study abroad program for the last night of Passover. Two weeks ago we went to Western Ireland (Westpoint, Aran Islands, Galway) and this Thursday morning we leave for Belfast! The last trip was a great time (I have Facebook pictures to copy/paste here should popular demand for my posts continue) and can’t wait for this one =).

Decision Time

So, it's been a month, basically.
Here's the issue- my camera broke. It seems there was a "lens error". I'll continue beating the living daylights out of it, as suggested in the link above, however; if the camera is fatally wounded- should my blog posts continue? I'll let the comments, or lackthereof, decide.

I think I remember....

that time I went to London, a week ago.
So much happened then, and even more since then. The biggest development is the fact that I left my phone on a shuttle bus from the airport to our London hostel. I tracked outgoing calls from the phone online & found out a Polish man named Paul stole my phone while vacationing in the UK!! How I know this is a really long story that involves tracing back phone calls and speaking to another Polish man who gave me some information in broken English...
Anyway, I'm extremely lucky because Ashley and Katie let me use their phones that weekend, and Ashley ended up giving me an extra phone she had! I just had to buy a charger (20 euro) but that's a whole lot better than the 85 euro I thought I was out at the time. Now, I just have to convince every person I've met in Ireland that I haven't been intentionally ignoring them for a week. Hmmm...
London in itself was amazing-- I had the best Chinese and Indian food of my life (the Chinese was fantastic, and it was my first time with Indian). Took some beautiful pictures of the River Thames illuminated by the London Eye (an enormous, permanent ferris wheel next to Big Ben). Saw London Bridge (Tower Bridge), London Tower, Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, the Peter Pan statue and Princess Diana Memorial at Hyde Park, Buckingham Palace, Platform 9 & 3/4, Westminister Abbey, Big Ben, Parliament, Greenwich Village, The Royal Observatory-home of the Prime Meridian-, Chinatown, and saw the play "Stomp!" performing at the Ambassador's Theatre in West End. But that's all.
I still have my 658 pictures to sort through and Trish,(most of you reading this know her but just in case) who is my roommate and really good friend, is coming to Ireland tomorrow!! She's staying with me in Dublin all week and I'm beyond psyched. Here's our itinerary so far:
sunday: pubs and stuff with friends, go into city centre until morning. hopefully meeting up with ali!
monday: wicklow mountains!! dinner in the city
tuesday: st patty's day!! dublin city centre to watch the parade and I booked us tickets to see a national hurling and gaelic football games at Croke Park!
wednesday: "recovery day" for Trish, too many classes and meetings for me.
thursday: showing trish around Leinster House (Irish parliament- love my internship btw, but that's for another post.) I'll try to get off early so we can spend the rest of the day hitting up the Guiness Factory or anything else we might have missed on Sunday. It's Katie's 22nd birthday today!! yay. Going out with her flatmates, boyfriend, his friend's, etc, to Andrew's Lane Theatre.
friday: bye trish :(.
And now I'll get back to the life that I so vividly depict in my posts.
Until next time (pictures still to come, really!! But hey I'll throw in a few because you've been so patient with me.)

658 Reasons

...That my next post will be longer. Got back from London (an amazing trip, except for a Polish man named Paul, whom you will learn more about soon.) I have 658 pictues from the trip and some much needed condensing -AND SLEEP- before I can provide the blog post London deserves.

Until tomorrow (Thursday, at the latest!)

Pink Tape

So I went to the GNIB (immigration bureau) today to apply for a national ID card. After waiting in line for a number to wait in another line, I was promptly rejected for failure to produce a "required" letter I hadn't known about.

Brian suggested I have a cup of tea and come back later. So, that's what Ashley and I did. We enjoyed a lovely lunch and dessert at nearby cafes and window shopped for awhile. Three hours later, we returned to a very sweet woman who asked for my passport. Upon learning I attend DCU, she replied, "Oh how lovely! Take a seat and we'll be callin ye up in a minute." (Maybe she didn't know about the required letter either.) I know red tape well, but in Ireland it seems to appear and vanish with such fluidity. Same for Ryanair, but that's a whole other story...

Everything else is going well-- joined the DCU Gaming Society. Got my chess fix and learned a new train game in which I monopolize European railways. Also fighting off a cold at the moment so I'm drinking OJ by the *blue cardboard* carton. Due to another (unrelated) protest, I'm not starting this Thursday, and can hopefully pull together a last minute trip this weekend =D (before the national bus strike on Saturday, of course.)

Cork & Kinsale

Sorry it's been awhile, forgive me -_-?
Maybe I'm better off blogging every weekend and once or twice in between; I'm not sure my life is exciting enough to recap more than tri-weekly.

So we took a 5 hr bus Friday morning to Cork and spent the day touring around Cork city centre and making dinner in the hostel. The hostel was surprisingly clean and the people there (staff and guests) friendly. We decided to make a frozen pizza (or rather the budget decided that for us.) Unfortunately, the hostel had one tiny oven that we had to manually light (or have someone manually light for us). After a half hour attempt, we moved the pizza to a bunsen-like burner and from there to a microwave. Somehow, it ended up tasting great. Went out that night and found some cute shops along St. Patrick's Street and picked up a few pairs of sunglasses from Penny's (to be seen repeatedly throughout all Cork & Kinsale shots.) The next morning we took a 40 min bus ride to Kinsale, home of the oldest Fort in the Republic of Ireland, Fort Charles. We got off the bus "right in front" (according to our driver) of the site. And, about a mile uphill later, there we were.
Easily the most beautiful thing I've seen in Ireland (and maybe ever).
The four of us, Amanda, Katie, Ashley, and I, proceeded to stage a mini photo shoot.

(More to come on Facebook).

All national buses are going on strike next weekend so we'll likely stay around here. And one weekend later, off to London!! Unfortunately, we're getting back on Monday, March 9th-- just in time for the first of a two day bus strike. I can't even guess how many people, especially in Dublin, will be affected. Particularly interesting time for me to be interning with the Irish Labour Party... Supposed to begin that this Thursday, I'll keep you posted!

Kill-EYE-(k)ne(e)y

After hours of failed attempts, I figured out how to say (and semi-phonetically spell) Killiney, a small costal town near Dublin. Katie and I took the DART (Ireland's above-ground metro/train system) there today. We walked along the beach and put our feet in the ocean.

After regaining feeling in our toes, we walked through a passageway and uphill for nearly an hour.

It was a shockingly beautiful, sunny day and we got some great views of the coastline.


Also unexpectedly passed by the official South African residence in Ireland.

Once we reached the town we ate at a little -very little- cafe and enjoyed walking down the (singular) street in town. From there, caught the bus to Don Laogharie (sounds like "leery") where we checked out the harbor and found Katie her deeply-coveted hair straightener.
Hoping to visit Cork next week, and London after that!
Oh, so I also actually go to school here. Maybe I'll talk about that next time.

Hi Chelsea, Katie, Rohan, Scott, & Ankit,

I realized this afternoon that my readership is small enough to interact with more personally.

So today I visited the Irish Parliament building to meet with my internship coordinator at the National Labour Party. We sat down to tea in the formal sitting room (where else?) and discussed what's expected of me: research global crises, write newsletters and briefings for party members, observe parliamentary sessions, lick envelopes (all four were specifically mentioned.)

Spent some time in the National Gallery, had lunch at Little Caesar's (not the pizza delivery place- though that is what first drew me there), saw lots of churches, and walked to Dublin Castle. Dublin Castle is Google-colored (red, blue, green, yellow) and it shouldn't be.

Fig A:

But, the cathedrals were stunning and "big ass," (according to Katie Bower).


Then I found Jesus somewhere by the bus stop:


Dublin's really special for all these reasons and more. Still, it's important to travel a bit; here's my itinerary (mostly for bragging purposes):
*Feb 14: Killiney (Irish seascape and castles!)
*Feb 21-22: Probably Cork (Southern Ireland)
*March 5-9: London
*March 21-26: Italy (Turin, Milan, Venice, Florence, Rome-hopefully!!-)
*March 26-29: Barcelona
*April 4-?: Northern Ireland
*April 16-??: Western Ireland
*May: Way too early to tell, but we're definitely thinking Galway.

This takes work

I already have infinite respect for people who take the time to consistently chronicle their study abroad (or just general life)adventures.

Today was pretty relaxed for my first day of classes. Had a global communication class (with five other people from my program). My schedule's still a little crazy so I'll finish working it out tonight.

Planning on interning with Ireland's third party, the Irish Labour Party. The current president, Mary McAleese, is the first to be elected from the party. I guess where I'm not getting the culture shock language-wise, I'll definitely feel it politically; never thought I'd be interning with a socialist party. It'll be a pretty interesting point of comparison when I get back to the U.S. though, especially with ideas of "universal healthcare" and increased federal involvement in the economy going on at home.

I did take lots of pictures this week and feel guilty leaving them all out. I just can't seem to find a smooth way to incorporate them into my monologue. Eh, close enough. Here are a few I took from our walking tour this week:

and


THE SPIRE:


While on the tour we stopped by Trinity College. There was a fairly big protest going on (I know, something I have no experience with as a GW student) because the state is implementing fees (tuition) for students. Yeah, Irish kids don't pay to go to college. Really. All of them, and anywhere in the country. Well, not anymore I guess. There's always been a small registration fee ($1500 euros) and cost of books, but universities in Ireland are going broke, as opposed to their American counterparts. People here seem to be most worried about the new policy cause: 1. Losing free stuff sucks 2. Education, or "knowledge capital," is seen as a national resource. Without the incentive of free tuition, it's hard to say whether Ireland's economic and social progress will take a hit.

Trinity's campus is gorgeous though-- and right in the middle of everything. Hmmm, there's always grad school..

So this is the blog

Hello!

Guess I'm a week overdue here but better late than never, "ye tink"?

Dublin's great so far-- took a walking tour of the area on Wendesday and went out to a few pubs (and a gelato shop =)) with some local Irish last night.

Right now I'm living about 10-15 minutes by bus from the city centre. It picks us up right in front of campus and drops us off in the middle of town so it's really convenient.

Everyone on my program is actually really cool and we've been spending time together this week since it's been winter break for everyone else. I've mostly been hanging out with two girls from my program and we make dinner at each other's places and are currently looking for dirt cheap airfare to travel around europe.

I don't have too many adventures yet, except one embarrassing story that will leak out anyway so I may as well cover it first for the spin control (poli comm major speak.)

A few friends and I got locked in the mall (Omni shopping centre) our second night here. We were at the Tesco (major grocery store in Dublin) and left right as it closed at 7pm...apparently also right as every single other door in the mall complex closed too. After standing around for a few minutes without any other signs of life, we were relieved to find an exit sign. We knew it was an exit sign because it was little and green and hanging over the doorway. There was a man on the green sign walking out a door- he seemed to be doing it a little briskly but maybe the people just walk faster in Ireland.
We exited that door.
It lead us to a small, (8 foot) gate-lined outdoor patio that was surrounded on all sides. I should also mention that we were each carrying crazy heavy rolling suitcases that we had stocked up during our shopping trip. Also, it was the coldest night in Ireland yet. The hail was coming down, painfully, and the windchill- unbelievable. Luckily (relative term I guess?) we had apparently exited a fire escape and two (pretty attractive I must say) security guards came and listened to us blubber about being trapped and helped us leave eventually.
Three of us went back to Omni yesterday and saw one of the security guards. I guess we were all trying not to laugh and he picked up on it. While walking past him, the three of us turned around back at him and he immediately recognized and laughed a bit. At least we're making an impression, maybe even a friend (that's pushing it)?

I've downloaded some pictures but didn't find a way to better incorporate them into the blog. I think I'll start posting on facebook. Much more to report but you're tired of reading, and I'm tired of writing. So we'll do this later, k?