The Longest Day Ever and Other Random Things

As the title suggests, today at work was the longest day ever. There wasn't too terribly much to do, so I just kind of trolled around the internet (namely news sites) for a while. Chloe, Evan, and I did get sent out to get Chinese food on Upper Baggot Street, an adventure that took way too long due to shoddy directions. But Upper Baggot Street is a really pretty place at least. Also, the weather has been unusually warm, so walking around gets mighty toasty. 


So, even though I spent most of the day surfing news sites, I managed to miss the Supreme Court upholding Obamacare. Now the US is a little less ass backwards. Only a little. But hey, some folks want to move to Canada because of it. Jokes. So I have just been sitting in my apartment watching CNN Live Streaming and drinking wine in preparation for the interesting interaction in an hour between the interns and our less than mature program director. Should be very interesting to say the least. 


Oh, I have forgotten to mention this the past couple days, but I wrote a blog for work and you should all read it.


In any case, that's been my Thursday. Nothing too exciting. But Belfast on Saturday. That's very exciting.

A History Lesson, As Promised

Today during work, I got to spend a lot of time reading online news articles and posting them to our website. Later on in the day, after I had spent most of the day raving about the recent goings on in Belfast, one of my fellow interns asked me how Martin McGuinness shaking hands with the Queen was related to youths rioting in Belfast and Belfast police men getting hit by petrol bombs. Well, I am so excited about going to Belfast this weekend that I am going to tell you all about why that is. 


So, in 1169, the Normans first invaded Ireland to help King Dermot get his kingdom back when he lost favour with the King of Leinster. But the Normans didn't leave. Fast forward roughly 500 years, and the English established Ireland as a total colony. In 1652, the entire Irish population was dubbed guilty of a rebellion and kicked off their land. So yeah, they were pissed. In addition, Catholics were discriminated against. (Couldn't teach their children, couldn't hold a government position, couldn't own land, etc.) There were a series of unsuccessful rebellions, where their leaders were convicted of treason, among them Robert Emmet, the Sheares brothers, Wolfe Tone, etc. 


The Republic of Ireland finally gained independence in 1921. However, six of the counties of Ulster were still under English rule. Things were tense, but shit didn't hit the fan until 1969. On January 1st, university students in Belfast started marching, demanding civil rights for the Catholic minority in Northern Ireland. These students were attacked on the last leg of their four day march by Protestant militants. 110 marchers and 30 policemen were hospitalised with injuries. The Irish Republican Army emerged in shambles in August 1969. The main goal of the IRA was to get the British the hell out of Northern Ireland, and the only way they thought this would happen was through violence.


The IRA didn't start actively assassinating people until August of 1971, when the British government starting interning people indefinitely without knowledge of what they were being charged for. This imprisoned a ton of IRA members, but really it just helped encourage more IRA enlistment. 


Then in January 1972, the British military opened fired on peaceful protesters in Derry, after they violated the Stormont government's ban on parades. This event became known as Bloody Sunday (yup, the U2 song). This added even more fuel to the fire.


Things continued in their current state. Bombings and killings way too frequently for it to be OK from both sides. Then Maggie Thatcher decided that IRA men in prison were simply common criminals and not political prisoners. This led a handful of IRA men to hunger strike in 1981. The most famous of these was Bobby Sands, a 27 year old IRA man, convicted of possession of firearms, who had recently been elected to the Stormont government. After 66 days, he was the first to die in the hunger strike. That was the last event that really caused the Irish nationalist community to unite against the British. Eventually, many tired of all the violence and just wanted to see peace in Northern Ireland. 


In 1998, they signed the Good Friday Agreement. However, the conflict has not ended. The IRA is still around, and as evidenced by the happenings yesterday, the hatred of the British by the Republicans has not faded. 


And I am going up there this weekend. I am actually really excited. (Mom, Nana: don't worry, things will calm down after the queen leaves.) It'll be interesting to see the place that I have done so much research on and get to learn about it first hand.

Mundane Goings-On

Hi gang. Today was a normal Monday, BUT it was nice out! Super exciting. I felt like just walking around outside until my feet revolted from the rest of my body. 


But I didn't do that, because I had to sit at a desk all day. But at least work was interesting (by work standards) today. There was me telling my Irish boss, Chris, that some people in America don't believe in evolution and his response was a very confused and curious look and "well, then what do they believe in?" Even the Catholic country believes in evolution. Damnit America is so ass backwards. In any case, there was also the fiasco of the company that was scheduled for a demo, but we didn't know who scheduled it. That was jolly good fun too. 

Irish version of a TV dinner

Other than that, today hasn't been terribly interesting. I went to the grocery store and butcher shop at the Omni Shopping Centre and got dinner for 3 euros. #winning. Just another reason that I really don't want to leave this country. I feel like most of those reasons have to do with food, but whatever. I also got two more buckets of strawberries today. I ate the last two in roughly two days. To use Megan's phrase that I have adopted, I am a monster.


So that was my day. Pretty fascinating, eh? It'll hopefully be more interesting this weekend, after going to Belfast and all those shenanigans.

On Phoenix Park and Other Sunday Adventures

This morning I slept in for the first time since I have been here! It was amazing and probably won't happen again for a long, long time. But that's fine, because sleep when your dead and all that nonsense. 


Anyways, today,my housemate Megan and I went down to Phoenix Park, which is a large piece of very green real estate in Dublin 8. The Dublin Zoo is there along with many other things such as cricket fields, rugby pitches, a little tea kiosk, etc. We got there around 2 after talking the shiny, clean LUAS to Heuston station. Megan and I wandered a little ways (without the huge obelisk in it, we would have no idea where it was). Phoenix Park is a really neat place to wander around in. Even though it is in the middle of Dublin, you get that feeling that you could be anywhere. It's like a completely insulated green bubble in the midst of the city, and I don't think I have ever seen that before. Merrion Square Park comes pretty damn close, but it's just too small. St. Stephen's Green doesn't even compare. So that was pretty neat. It also happens to be home to the Wellington Monument, which is the huge aforementioned obelisk. You can climb up it a little ways, but the stairs are similar to walking on rooftop, so I cautiously walked up and down it, given my track record with stairs and everything. Afterwards, we walked over to the cricket fields and watched a match. I was so confused. I felt like a normal girl watching football, but I didn't have any knowledgeable guy to ask questions to so I just kind of cocked my head to the side and continued to look confused. 


We left the park around 3:30 to grab some food before we caught the 5:25 showing of Snow White and the Huntsman. We found a pub just off of O'Connell Street called the Oval, which informed us that it was established in 1820 but rebuilt after the Easter Uprising in 1916. It's a cool little multi-story thing with a few places to sit outside. We ate some sausages and chips and watched Gaelic football on TV, which is such a cool sport. Here's my understand of how it goes. So they play on a pitch roughly the size of a football field. There are football uprights with soccer goals under them. Each player has a stick which is roughly half the size of a field hockey stick with a flat face. You can carry the ball, but you can only go four steps (I think it's four...) before you hurl it or pass it or whatever. If you score between the uprights it's one point and if you get it in the goal it's three points. That's all I got. But it seemed pretty brutal since they don't have pads or anything. 


We watched that for a while and walked around to kill time before we met up with Kari to see Snow White. It was alright. There was dialogue with Kristen Stewart for probably 7-10% of the time, and that percentage is too damn high. But other than that, it wasn't bad. Chris Hemsworth made up for many of Kristen Stewart's shortcomings. :) 


Afterwards, we wandered around Dublin for a little bit, going by the Georgian District where I work and eventually ending up eating dinner at a burger place in Temple Bar. Sadly, they didn't have cosmos, but we sat outside and a street band started playing a show right in front of us. They were two guys from Portland, Oregon (and they looked like it, dirty hipsters) and one played the guitar and sang while the other played the drums on empty plastic buckets. They were actually surprisingly good. I think they are called Now is All We Have, but I don't really remember. 


Other than that, I have been doing to much. I just watched the season finale of The Legend of Korra, which all you people should watch because it's the best thing ever. But yeah, work tomorrow, blehhhh. I think I might be going to Belfast this weekend, though. Get to see some Republican murals and shit. Be ready for the history lesson that will ensue. Because if you know me, I will recount the entire Troubles in great detail. Isn't that something to look forward to? 

I Spend Most of My Time Thinking About Dead Things

Today, I shook a mummy's hand, but that story will have to wait as I recount the events of my weekend thus far. 

Work on Friday dragged on and on, especially by 2 o'clock. 2 o'clock is usually the time that all of my productivity goes to hell and I start looking at CNN Election Results Center and try memorizing the number of electoral votes each state has. That way, in November, as the states go for either Obama or Romney, I can be like Josh Lyman on election results night from the 7th season of West Wing. But that's neither here nor there. In any case, I got out of work at 4 and met up with Brianne and Kristen on O'Connell Street. We went to Penney's to get me some going-out clothing (because, shocker, I have none) and then went to a burger joint called The Counter, which serves some damn good mixed drinks. Burgers and cosmos...yum.  After the burger joint, we went back to Shanowen to get ready for our night. We got to the bus stop by 10:45...just in time for the West Life concert to get out. Traffic was brutal, and Kristen, Brianne, and I left to go to the bathroom, leaving the other girls on the bus. We then proceeded to walk across Dublin without jackets (a shining moment for all of us really). After the long trek, we made it to Temple Bar, where is was packed (fucking West Life) and left promptly after to meet the girls at Dandelion. Once, we got to Dandelion, we stayed for a little while and then headed over to the ever so classy Copper Face Jacks. So that was pretty much my Friday night. 

He's a looker.

Now, mummies. Those lovely creatures up there reside in St. Michan's Church in the medieval part of Dublin just north of the Liffey River. You can take a tour of the crypts or whatever you call them, which we did this morning at the way-too-early hour of 11AM. It was super neat, though. All of the following information is brought to you by our interesting and hilarious lawyer/fill-in tour guide, who said the title of this blog post. The underground tombs house the leaders of the United Irishmen, John and Henry Sheares. In 1798, they lead a rebellion against the British, which proved to be unsuccessful. They were then executed for high treason by being hanged, drawn, and quartered. Really brutal. That was my highlight from the first part. Then during the second part there was the me shaking a mummy's hand bit. The picture at the very top is the room that I stood in during the second part of the tour. There are 7 bodies in there (I think, it might just be 6). Each one has a different story to it. The one in the line of three on the far left is thought to be a nun because the clothing she was buried in resembled a nun's habit. The middle dude is supposedly a reformed thief. He had his right hand chopped off, but they think that he was buried in St. Michan's because he reformed his ways and became a holy man. The other woman on the far right is thought to be a nun as well. Then there is the bro in the far back (pictured above). He is called The Crusader. He is 800+ years old and was 6'3". And before my little brother Billy starts scoffing at that height as merely average, I will remind him that in those days the average height for a man was 4'10" to 5'3". So this bro was a giant. In order to fit him into his casket, they had to fold his legs under him. And since he was so tall, he was automatically put into the army. Which is why they call him the Crusader. They believe he fought in the Crusades, but they have no evidence to support it. It had a nice ring to it though, doesn't it? So yeah, I shook this guys hand. It felt weird. His mummified hand felt shocking like a mannequins hand, which weirds me out to no end. So that's about it for the mummies.

After that, 5 other girls from my program and I walked around the medieval part of Dublin and got some really good Italian food right across from Dublin Castle. The medieval part of the city is really gorgeous and just a cool place to walk around. We stopped in a heritage shop to look at the old genealogy things and then went to the Cow's Lane market, which had lots of vendors selling jewellery, pictures and all sorts of other things. We then explored the courtyard of Dublin Castle (which is really a 5 minutes adventure as there isn't too much to see), and then went back to Santry. Tomorrow, we plan on going to see Brave and just bumming around Dublin some more. So I'm sure I'll be posting lovely Scottish sayings about changing your fate and wanting freedom and what have you. Clearly, very exciting stuff.

Dublin Castle Courtyard

Guinness for Strength

The Outside

Last night, a few girls in my program and I decided to go to the Brazen Head, a really old pub with a whole bunch of history. Nerd out time. It was opened in 1198 and is Dublin's (and I think maybe Ireland's) oldest pub. Many Irish rebels have visited there, such as Robert Emmet and Wolfe Tone. James Joyce and Jonathon Swift also used to chill there. 

It's infinitely better than Temple Bar, strictly because it's real. Unfortunately, as much fun as Temple Bar can be, it's just an artificially constructed area. And really friggn expensive. :(

After the pub, we went to the Working Man, which is just down the street. It was also pretty cool, but I didn't stay long, because I wanted to catch the 11:30 bus back home. 

Other than that, nothing too much to report. I spent the entire day of work calling potential clients, which got quite monotonous. It seems I will never escape being a telemarketer. It would be nice to get my soul back... But it is a good job to have for just finishing my freshman year in college.

But fortunately, it will be the weekend soon. We're seeing St. Michans mummies on Saturday with Kelli, our resident archaeology expert and perhaps the Guinness Factory after, or as Kelli says "ascending into beer heaven." On Sunday, we were tossing around the idea of going on the Wild Rover tour in Kilkenny, which promises to be gorgeous. (I have found myself saying gorgeous a lot. They frequently use the word to describe food, which I found interesting.)

Anyways, sláinte to y'all back at home. 

Organised Chaos: Clean Tech in India Conference and the Rest of My Day

So today, I woke up at the lovely hour of 5:30, and when I say lovely, I mean godforsaken. Evan and I took the 6:20AM bus into town. When we got to Merrion Square, nothing was open, not even a coffee shop. So I guess that's Dublin's why of saying, why the hell are you getting up so damned early. The answer: the 8 o'clock Clean Tech in India conference at the Alexandria Hotel. 

It was very cool. Everyone got a very official looking name tag with their name and company on it.  So professional. (God, I feel old.) The other interns at the WTCD office and I talked with a bunch of business people who deal with various forms of green energy in India. Then there were speeches by three different people, an Indian guy who represented EBTC, an Irish guy who represented PM Group, and a final guy who I think might have been Dutch who ran GreenAer. All of the companies were investing in various forms of green energy. EBTC seemed to have its hands in everything. GreenAer partnered with an electric car company called Reva but had to move on to making electric bicycles in order to be sustainable. All of the speeches were very interesting, but it would have been more interesting at 11AM. 

After the conference, we went straight to work, as everyone had a busy day of calling clients. I had little success, and it made the day drag on for a while. Especially with the really early wake up call. 

Other than that, not too much as has gone on in the past couple of days. It's all very routine. We take the bus in, do some work, and then come home. Nothing too interesting. I guess, I am just looking forward to my weekends. This weekend, Kelli is taking us to see St. Michan's Mummies on Saturday and then on a horseback tour of Wicklow and Glendalough. And the weekend after, my flatmates and I are heading to Galway for the weekend with a tour group called Paddy Wagon, which is supposed to be a craic. So good times to come at least.

Cliff Walkin'

Today we went on a cliff walk from Greystones to Bray, which are two coastal towns just south of Dublin. It was a 12 km walk and absolutely beautiful. I'll just show you the pictures, because words cannot describe. 

So that was that. All of the other pictures are on Facebook. Also as we were walking and eating lunch, Kelli was just telling us about her life. And she is a badass. Apparently, whilst in Newport, she threw a midget under the table at a bar. Casual. 

That's all for now. Early morning tomorrow for work, and even earlier on Tuesday for the Business in India conference thingy.

Eating My Way Through Dublin

So today I went to Taste of Dublin, a large festival held in Iveagh Park near St. Stephen's Green, where a bunch of local businesses come and showcase their products. It had all the free samples, and I was all the happy. It was super awesome. Iveagh Park is absolutely gorgeous, huge, completely green. The festival also had live bands, one of which was a cover band for God knows what. They sang Barbie Girl, The Macarena, Boom Boom Boom Boom, and Ice, Ice, Baby. Random 90s songs I guess. 


Also, WTCD asked us to go so that we could connect with the local businesses, give out some literature, and let them know about our Webport Global online business networking platform. It was cool to go and network like that for work. But really, let's be serious now, free food. :)

Reppin' WTCD

You'll Never Beat the Irish

Why Irish Fans Are Better

I'll just leave this fun little diddy here.

So after being a little berated by my mother for not keeping this up, I figured it would probably be good to post something (or better yet, two things). So, now to bring you all up to speed. The football game on Thursday. 


A bunch of my friends and I were planning on going to a pub to watch the game with Ingrid's Irish friend. However, four of us managed to get separated from the rest in the pouring rain on the way to d|two (a pub/night club just past St. Stephen's Green), so we just went our separate ways. We found Ingrid's friend after I was soaking wet and made our way through the massive crowd  (it seemed like they shoved a third of Dublin into this place) in d|two's basement. 


Then there was the game. Sad face. And now is where I throw in my whole spiel about how wonderful Irish fans are, which I will say with having knowledge of one game. Ireland got down early and there were very few times when they were even on the offensive, so the game was overall very depressing. However, the entire time, the whole bar stared at the screen intently cheering when Ireland even got close to going on the offensive and yelling "C'mon Ireland " or singing "c'mon you boys in green!" It was a really cool thing to experience, mostly because it would never happen in America. 


In America, people leave in the middle of the game if their team is down or they start booing their own players. There are almost no events that unify the whole country (besides maybe the Olympics, but I think that is pushing it). I know, I know, we're a hell of a lot bigger country, but still, we could at least, be better sports towards our team when they lose. 


And after the game instead of bitching like Americans do, they just said "feck it" and drank more beer. They knew that they had no chance; Spain is the best team in the world. It's just such a more laid back attitude, and I like it. 


So that's my spiel. Ireland's just kind of winning right now in my book, the strawberries, the sport fans. I really don't know what more I need. 

Nine to Five

So this post is going to be pretty short. I have to wake up at the ungodly hour of 6:30. Gonna be brutal. And the Shanowen internet isnt working on my computer. Again. They are the worst sometimes. Anyways, I started my internship, and as you can guess, I work 9 to 5. It wasn't exactly what I expected. There is only one paid employee, my boss, that works in the office, which is one large room in a three or four story office building in Dublin. There are 5 other American interns, and we all sit at our computers in our fancy clothes calling potential customers and doing market research. That's pretty much the jist of it. I didn't do too much today because they thought I would be overwhelmed on my first day. Other than that, not too much to report. I am going out to a pub with my group tomorrow to watch the Irelane v Spain game. And I just for a green shirt that says "Blood Sweat and Beers; the Green Army 2012." So yeah, more interesting things to come. Stay tuned.

An Ode to Irish Strawberries

My third day has been infinitely more relaxed than the past two. All of us are tired out from jet lag and going out our first two nights. Last night, our group went out to The Nubar, which is a DCU student bar where a bunch of American students from various programs hang out. There, we met a group of kids from ASU who are doing internships for another 3 weeks. After getting a few pretty cheap pints at the bar, we went back to Shanowen with them and hung out for a while. We got back at two AM, hence the me being tired out of my mind today. 


The rest of today was kind of a tired blur. We got lunch in a pub just outside the entrance to St. Stephens Green. While we were eating, some drunk local got into a fight with the bar man ("This is my pub! How dare you take that from me!") He kind of looked like the Dude from the Big Lebowski, which I guess means that he also looked like my real Sketchy Uncle. (Offense meant? Maybe.) Also after we left the bar, he came up to one of the girls in our group and told her this little gem: Why couldn't the life guard save the hippie? He was too far out. 


We walked around for a while north of the Liffey River, and then Kelli took us to get our Leap cards for the bus, which is great for 2 reasons. 1. No more change for the bus. Yay! 2. We're kind of like locals now, right? I mean, Kelli said that we were real people now. So I am going to go with her word. (Also, we definitely got asked for directions today. Looking so local.) So, that was our day in Dublin.


When we returned to Shanowen, 2 of my suite mates and I took a nap and then went to the Tesco to do some more extensive grocery shopping, and I am in heaven. Which leads to my ode to Irish strawberries and what little I have observed about Irish environmental policy in general. 

Fully Stocked with Delicious Irish Goodness

From the few things that I have observed from just grocery shopping and what Kelli has told us, Irish environmental policy is far and away superior to the United States. To start with my experience grocery shopping. The Irish don't have "organic food" like in the United States. They just have food. All of their meat, fruits, and vegetables are organic, because they have laws regulating what their cattle and other animals eat and using hormones and other enhancers in fruits and vegetables is illegal. Which makes their food so delicious. For example, I bought a box of strawberries and just died. They were so good. I haven't had ones this good since Nana stopped growing strawberries in the garden. They are smaller but with so much more flavour, and I ate the entire box. 

Nomz

On a related note, at the grocery store, you have to pay for your bags. At first, I was confused, but this is such a great policy. They are really cheap, like 70 cent for a large bag, but then you reuse them. That way, people actually have an incentive to buy the reusable environmentally friendly bag instead of just going through the plastic bags like it's nothing. I love it. 


So that's what I have to say on that. With each passing day, I'm loving this place more and more. Just the little things like walking everywhere (minus the blisters) or grocery shopping just make Ireland seem really wonderful. I kind of don't want to leave. Good thing it's only my third day. :) 


That's about it for my day. It's only 8:45 (and looks like it is 5:00), but hell, I am going to bed soon. I'm pooped, and I am starting my internship at The World Trade Centre tomorrow, so sleep is a necessity at this point. 

(Sort of) Mastering the Dublin Bus System: My Second Day in Dublin Thus Far

Today started at the ungodly hour of 7:30, which, combined with mild jet lag and the interesting previous night, was not particularly fun. After getting ready and completely ignoring our site director's incorrect instructions to get to stop #37, we managed to hop onto bus #11 and prayed that we'd know when to get off. Funny thing about the Irish bus system: they don't announce their stops. So even though we knew that we were going to Sanford St, we had to really pay attention to when to get off. Luckily, we got it right on the first try and didn't overshot our target. 

Our site director, Dr. Kelli Malone, was waiting for us at Champlain College - Dublin. She's a interesting lady, a doctor in archaelogy with a focus on the Irish Bronze Age, a Fulbright Scholar, western horse back riding teacher (the only fully qualified one in the entirety of Ireland), just to name a few things. She led us down to a freezing basement room, and gave us a lecture on Irish history and showed us how to use the bus system using the not exactly user-friendly Dublin Bus website. It made it better, though. 

After her spiel, we walked around Dublin for a wee bit, Grafton St. Saint Stephen's Green and the like, and then got lunch at the classier Irish version of BD Mongolian Grill. (I got really excited when I found out that it was like a BD Mongos...my group didn't understand.)

After lunch, we walked around for a little while longer, saw Trinity College and Kildare St with the Dáil Éireann (the Irish govt building) and such. We also went to the Heritage Centre to get "Heritage Cards" to visit all the famous old Irish sites for free (yay Glendalough!). There I bought a bunch of fun postcards. One informed that Guinness is good for me (I'm going with it) and another had a picture of Barack Obama drinking a Guinness, with the phrase "IS FÉIDIR LINN" ("YES WE CAN") written under it. 

New Campaign Poster?

After that, we were pretty much on our own. So three others and myself wandered around Grafton St. for a little while. We found a building that had all of the luxury stores (Louis Vuitton, Gucci, etc.) in it, and the three of them looked at the ridiculously expensive purses, ties, and scarves. I just kind of roamed around and day-dreamed. 

After a little while, we caught the 11 back to Ballymun Rd. The stop was right outside an outdoor stop called Outdoor Protection or something, so I fondled some gear before I got on the bus. Finding our stop was pretty easy since it was just across the street from where we got on this morning. However, as I was going down the stairs on the double-decker bus, I managed to fall down the entire flight of stairs and land on my ass, much to the bus driver's concern, who asked for my name and phone number (which my friend had to read, because I still don't have a clue what my Irish number is). In typical Sarah-fashion, super smooth. 

So that's pretty much a summary of my day, thus far. I think tonight, we're going to go to Comet again to play in their weekly Monday night beer pong tournament. Clearly, good things to come.

Looking Like an American and Other First Day Adventures

Sidenote: Supposed to be posted last night, but my internet was on the fritz.

And what an eventful day it's been. In the time that I have been awake (a whopping 36 hours), there has been much shenanigans. Early in the morning, I got through customs and met the people on my trip (I think there are 10 of us--9 girls and 1 guy). We got settled in our apartment (a really nice complex on the northside of Dublin called Shanowen Square), and spent most of our afternoon looking for the elusive Tesco (a grocery store in the equally elusive Omni Shopping Centre). 

Our adventures did not conclude being lost around Ballymun, however. Later, that night we decided to hit up a bar to watch the Ireland v. Croatia football match; we figured we'd go to a local pub and turn in early for the night. We sat in the pub with a bunch of other hardcore football fans decked out in Ireland apparel, while we all wore our normal street clothing. That combined with the fact that most of the girls in my group were not at all interested in Irish football made us stick out quite a lot. However, Comet, is kind of a low-key affair with quite a few old-timers, so the group decided to hit up the more bustling Temple Bar-area in Dublin City Centre (Aren't you proud of me, Dip? I found it on the first night.) for a more lively time. We got on the first bus we found (the 41a outside the Comet, if I remember correctly) and rode it down to Dublin City Centre. 

Having no idea where we were going, we wandered into a pub called the Auld Dubliners, which had a large man singing traditional Irish folk songs and Johnny Cash. The pub got pretty packed within a half an hour of our arrival, and everyone was dancing to the Wild Rover and basically anything else that gregarious man played. Our group got split up, and eventually my friend Evan and I lost all the other girls. Despite our best efforts, we couldn't find any of them, so we left and looked for a bus to take us back to the northside of town. However, we weren't entirely sure which bus that was. Or even which direction the buses were going in. After much and great fretting, we eventually took the 11 bus towards Wadelai Park, and got off when a pair of kind old ladies told us to. Unsure of where Shanowen Sqaure was from the bus stop, we wandered into the only restaurant open, a take-away place called Marcedi's Take-Away or something. We asked the lady for directions and she kindly gave them to us, when most of the rest of our group came in. We all eventually made it back, and now I am sitting in my bed, exhausted beyond belief from this insane first day. (And this is just the Sparknotes version, imagine if I had actually included details.)

PS It says light until roughly 10:30PM. This place is magical.

Musings from Philadelphia's International Terminal

After a particularly interesting morning (mainly due to Bank of America and my ineptitudes with technology), I have made it to Philadelphia airport's international terminal. Now only 3 more hours and I'll be boarding my plane for Ireland! That's not fake enthusiasm either--I'm excited and have plenty of Mad Men to watch in the mean time. Or I could watch Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. I have kind of been on a Hunter S Thompson kick lately. So, if, for some reason, you are actually interested in my travels, I'll update you. I left Chicago at 1:50PM Central time. Inevitably, I saw someone from my high school, as always happens with USM. He was on my flight to Philly. Really weird coincidences. But anyways, here I am sitting in Philadelphia's moder-looking international terminal, waiting for my nine o'clock flight. Well, that seems pretty boring. How about I tell you about what I am hoping to do in Ireland, besides, you know, work. Well, you don't really have a say in the matter, so that's what's going to happen. 1) The Wickelow Mountains and Glendalough: super pretty and I really want to hike them. 2) Guinness Brewery: self-explanatory and free beer at the end! 3) Book of Kells: I like Irish history, so this is one of those things. 4) Temple Bar: Dip told me I had to. 5) Belfast: Jackie told me I had to go see a Titantic exhibit somewhere in Belfast. But I also know way too much about the Troubles for it to be healthy, so needless to say, Belfast is happening. 6)Galway: seems like a cool place OK, I'll stop boring you. Besides some Chinese food in the food court was calling my name. Sláinte