Alyssa in Dublin

Wrap Up

2010-02-21T10:23:00.001-08:00

So as you probably guessed I arrived back in the U.S. quite a while ago:) I'm really bad about finishing this up. It was an amazing semester and I have met friends that I will remember for the rest of my life. I am actually interning this summer in Washington D.C. and Nikki (my Australian roommate) will be visiting family there. I am so excited to see her! I have plans right now for Erika (my Canadian roommate) to come visit me in August this year and go to the Iowa State Fair. And that leaves Mariel (New Zealander roommate), I think I will take a graduation trip to NZ to see her:)

This semester at Purdue has been so crazy. I'm taking 20 credit hours, doing Purduettes and the Purdue Contemporary Dance Company....that doesn't leave too much free time. I'm enjoying being back though, and had a great Christmas with my family. I am so blessed and have enjoyed every minute of my adventures this past semester. I guess this is the official end to my blog, so thanks for following along:)

London, take two!

2009-12-04T04:11:00.000-08:00

Yesterday Erika and I flew to London to fulfill my life long dream of seeing the Royal Ballet. We got off to a rocky start. We woke up at 5am in order to take the Aircoach to the Dublin Airport for our 8:10am flight. We had already checked in online and printed out our boarding passes so we asked two security people what the next step was. Both of them said to go through security and head to the gate. We did so and sat at the gate for about an hour. We got in line to board the plane and when we got up there, the Ryanair people wouldn't let us on! Contrary to what the two airport people had said we were supposed to have a stamp on our boarding pass. I was so confused because I've never had to do this before. They made us go back to the beginning and miss our flight. We not only had to wait until 11:40am to fly to London, but Ryanair charged us each 100 Euro as a "transfer fee." Excuse me, but that's the biggest load of bull crap I've ever heard in my life. I've missed a flight like this before with United and they transferred me to the next flight at the gate free of charge. The least I can say is I'm very dissatisfied with Ryanair and plan never to travel with them again.

But we finally got to London and took the Tube to our Hostel: Pickwick Hall. It was an adorable little place a few blocks walk from Holburn Station. It was great because we got dressed up all fancy and then took the Tube down one stop to Covent Garden. Finally one thing worked out that day and we picked up our reserved tickets! I was so relieved!!! We took a look around the gift shop; I bought a Royal Ballet tee and Erika got her mom a Nutcracker doll. Although it was raining we explored the Covent Garden market before the show. Our seats were in the upper amphitheatre but they were great! We were in the forth row and had a wonderful view down on the stage. The Sugar Plum Fairy and Caviler were absolutely wonderful! Their performance was flawless and the audience just couldn't get enough of them.

The next day we toured the Tower of London. We saw the Henry VII: Dressed to Kill exhibition. I find it slightly unsettling that they make such a big deal out of a guy who wasn't very nice. I learned from the exhibition that Henry VIII spent the modern day equivalent of one billion pounds on seeking out war. On top of that he killed all of his wives because they couldn't provide him with children (which was probably his fault anyway). I guess it was cool to learn about his many suits of armor he had made for him. I guess the only justice was that when he died at the age of 55 he had gotten pretty fat, but that doesn't bring his victims back to life.

After lunch we took a tour of the Globe Theatre. It is the third Globe. The first was burned down in the Great London Fire, and the second one was torn down by the Puritans because they thought theatre was evil. Our tour guide was an adorable man who was really excited about what he had to say. Overall it was the best tour of the day.

We swung back by the hostel to pick up our backpacks and then headed to Harrod's. We walked around the designer rooms and were in awe of the expensive prices. It was the poshest shore I've ever been in! I don't think they have it right in their slogan when they say, "All Things for All People, Everywhere." I think they really mean All Things for Only Rich People, Everywhere. I'm really glad I was able to see it though because it was the most beautiful store I've ever been in. And they had really nice bathrooms!

Now I need to get to studying for finals because my first one is next Tuesday. I have four next week and just one the next week. I can't wait until I'm done on the 14th because then I'm home free until I fly back to Iowa on December 20th!

Covent Garden decorated for Christmas

The Royal Opera House ceiling

The Royal Opera House stage

The Royal Opera House balconies

In our seats before the show:)

The Royal Ballet dancers

The Sugar Plum Fairy was AMAZING!!!

The Tower Bridge

The Tower of London

Shakespeare's Globe Theatre

Harrod's Department Store

Thanksgiving

2009-11-29T14:47:00.001-08:00

So last Thursday my American friend, Britt, and I attempted to cook Thanksgiving dinner for our friends. I'll cut the suspense and let you know it was kick-butt-awesome! We had a ten pound turkey with an herb honey glaze, stuffing, corn casserole, garlic potatoes, glazed carrots, broccoli with cheese, rolls, sugar cream pie, carrot cake with cream cheese frosting and brownies with white chocolate chunks. Needless to say I was in a food coma before dessert even began.

It was so much fun to prepare the meal together. As Britt said, we all now fully appreciate how much our mothers and grandmothers did for us in previous Thanksgivings! I was really worried about the turkey. We didn't know the rule about letting it defrost 24 hours for every four pounds so we ended up having to put it in a water bath the day of. We did all we could and the bird was still a little frosty inside when we removed the innards and extra skin and feathers:( But we didn't get food poisoning so that's a plus. Did I mention that our oven here in Merville Residences is crazy hot? Well the turkey finished about an hour ahead of schedule so absolutely nothing else was done! We scrambled to boil the potatoes, cook the veggies, and bake the corn casserole. It all got done and we just sort of reheated everything when we were ready to eat:)

Since it's been a couple of days since Thanksgiving I've had some time to reflect. I saw on the news Friday the story of the man shooting his family at Thanksgiving dinner. I thought to myself that the victims probably had no idea it was going to happen. They probably sat down to eat just like my friends and I had and it just happened. It made me think about how grateful I am to have such a wonderful family and great friends, and know that we would never hurt each other like that.

To whoever reads this I love and miss you so much!!! And I can't wait until we're reunited in December:)

Midweek Thoughts

2009-11-19T09:47:00.000-08:00

The weather is crazy here. I have never experienced wind like I have today. You may think you've had wind, but has it been gale-force, hurricane-like wind? I about got blown away today...several times. And it was raining. So of course you can't use an umbrella in a hurricane so I just got wet. :( Now that that's out of the way, I came to a realization today. I am a member of the Drama Society at UCD. It gets you discounts at all of the shows they do. I think it's so amazing that they put on at least one (if not two) plays each week! This semester I've seen "The Importance of Being Earnest," "An Ideal Husband" and "The Reduced Shakespeare Experience." They were all so good! And since I've seen just these three plays, I have noticed that I see their characters throughout campus every day. I find myself staring an extra second at a stranger only to realize they were the priest in a play I've seen. I bet they think I'm loony.

PS-I am officially finished with all labs for the semester, woop woop!!!

Galway & the Aran Islands

2009-11-15T10:19:00.000-08:00

This weekend was the BEST trip we've had so far in Ireland!!! It was forcasted to rain all weekend (imagine that) but it didn't rain once on our sight seeing! Thursday afternoon Britt, Mariel and I took a bus to Galway city. After dropping our stuff off and eating at the hostel we took a night walk around Galway City. We saw the River Corrib and the Cathedral of St. Nicholas lit up at night. It was so weird though, because there were scientists catching eels in the river...we watched them dump out their nets of eels into large garbage cans. There were so many eels and they were writhing all over the place! Gross:(

Friday morning we took a bus from Galway to the ferry that would bring us to the Aran Islands. We found our hostel and then rented bikes for the day. We biked around the largest island, Inis Mor, to see the best ringed fort in Ireland. It's called Dun Aonghasa and is perched on top of some seriously high cliffs. It's about 2,000 years old, an the walls are 10 feet high and 13 feet thick! We had some lunch at the only cafe around an then biked back to the town. There are only about 300 people who live on the island which is odd to think about. Well, we were exhausted so we went back to the hostel to take a nap. It was absolutely FREEZING in there so Mariel and I took a nap with our coats on...we woke up in time for supper at Ti Joe Watty's pub. It was the best feeling to get in there because it was so warm with a fire crackling in the fireplace. It was obvious we were "outsiders" so we got a lot of funny looks and questions. The people were very nice though. It was pitch black when we walked home two hours later, with no streetlights down the rock path to our hostel. Since it was the off season we were the only three guests in the hostel. It kind of freaked us out because there were no locks on any of the doors, but we managed to make it through the night. After a nice breakfast we took the 8:15am ferry back to the mainland.

On Saturday we took a bus tour to the Cliffs of Moher. We had wonderful, but windy, weather for this attraction. It was absolutely breathtaking!!! The Cliffs go along the coastline for five miles and are as high as 650 feet above the Atlantic! As hard as it is to believe, they are only the third tallest in Ireland. They're just so famous because they are so accessible to tourists. Our bus driver gave us the parting advice of not climbing over the barricades to get a better look. He said a couple of years ago a 20 year old Hungarian guy tried this and fell to his death. At that height it's just like hitting a cement floor. Then we drove back through the Burren region that the Cliffs are located in. It's a region of National importance and protected by their government. It supports the greatest diversity of plants in Ireland. Limestone, created from layers of coral, seashells, and mud, is the bedrock of the Burren. Geologic forces in the earth's crust heaved up the land, and the glaciers swept it bare and left boulders as they receded. Rainfall reacted naturally with the limestone to create a mild but determined acid, slowly drilling potholes into the surface. Rainwater cut through weak zones in the rock to create Europe's most extensive system of caves. The beautiful flowers that bloom here are grown on a special soil that's a combination of algae powder, bug parts and bunny turds.

When we got back that evening we checked into the Kinlay House Hostel. This place was magical and like a hotel!!! It's the best hostel we've ever stayed in:) After dinner we set out to check out the local pubs. We first went to An Pucan Pub where we receive a complimentary pint. We watched a little of the soccer match on TV before heading over to the Crane. This place has the best Irish music in town! We stayed for a couple hours to enjoy the spontaneous music before heading back to get to bed.

Sunday was spent looking around the town. Mariel gave us a guided walking tour (since none were going on) with the help of Rick Steves. She was wonderful! We did a little shopping and then caught the bus back to Dublin. Once again, this was the best trip ever!!! Now it's time to put my nose to the grindstone and get some work done because finals are coming up. The only other trip I have planned now is to fly to London on December 2nd to see the Royal Ballet perform the Nutcracker...a life-long dream of mine.

We three friends embark on our journey to the Aran Islands on a ferry boat...

First photo stop on our bicycle ride around Inis Mor of the Aran Islands!

There was no fence so I peered over the edge...thank God I'm still alive!

Crashing waves on the largest Aran Island: Inis Mor

A 300 year old thatched-roof Irish house

The Cliffs of Moher, they are only Ireland's 3rd highest cliffs...I'd hate to peer over the tallest ones!

Dunguaire Castle

Lynch's Castle: Now the Allied Irish Bank, Galway's best late 15th century fortified townhouse was home of the Lynch family, the most powerful of the town's 14 tribes (more than 80 Lynch mayors ruled Galway in the 16th and 17th centuries).

Sea side street in Galway

Cathedral of St. Nicholas in Galway

Weekend Around Dublin

2009-11-08T12:23:00.000-08:00

This weekend was a very cultural one at that. On Saturday Mariel, Erika and I went to see the Edvard Munch Prints exhibit at the National Gallery of Ireland. It was amazing! They had a collection of 39 prints of his, and the owner of "The Scream" let the Gallery borrow it for this exhibition. I must say that I would consider the majority of Munch's work as dark. A lot of it was about death and no wonder considering both his mother and sister died of TB. The literature around the prints also mentioned that Munch experienced a nervous breakdown in the early 20th century. I was surprised to learn that Munch only died in 1944; I think that's very recent for an artist so well known! Usually famous artists lived in the 17th and 18th centuries when I think about it. Does that make sense? After this exhibit we went to The National Wax Museum Plus. It was alright but not as good as others I suspect. We saw many people of wax such as Samuel Beckett, Oscar Wilde, Santa Claus, The Simpsons, Gollum, Jack Nicholson as The Joker, and Hannibal Lector. I think the best part was the vault rooms in the basement of the museum that had Irish history. We learned about the 1916 Rising, the Salmon of Knowledge, and Setanta.

On Sunday Mariel and I set out for another cultural day at the Irish Museum of Modern Art. It is housed in the old Royal Hospital Kilmainham, which was built in 1684 as a home for retired soldiers and continued for almost 250 years. After repairs in 1980 the building was fit for the Museum opening in 1991. We saw some very odd things, along with some cool stuff. The weirdest thing I thought was an artist who put powerstrips and plug-ins all over a room and that was "art." I feel like the problem with modern art (for me) is that often I feel like I could have done the same thing, so I do not appreciate it as much as an elaborate painting. Since we finished shortly there, we decided to go back to the National Gallery to actually take a look at the paintings there. Some of the highlights we saw were Caravaggio's "The Taking of Christ," Vermeer's "Lady Writing a Letter," Velazquez's "Kitchen Maid with the Supper at Emmaus," Monet's "Argenteuil basin with a single sailboat," and a Picasso. It was a beautiful building to look at. There was a security guard in one of the largest rooms who was dosing in his seat. It reminded me of the beginning of the movie "Bean" where Mr. Bean is slowly falling from his chair while napping at his post. Eventually he falls to his knees on the floor and as his head hits the floor a hallow noise rings out. It made me laugh to picture this! When we had our fill of the paintings we walked across the street to Merrion Square in search of the Oscar Wilde statue. We found him perched on a rock and climbed up there with him to snap a few photos. It was a great weekend at home in Dublin, but I can't wait until next weekend when we visit Galway and the Aran Islands!

Oscar Wilde made of wax

The Wax Museum in Dublin...The Simpsons!

Irish Museum of Modern Art

Modern art piece

Rabbit with drum statue at Irish Museum of Modern Art

Oscar Wilde statue in Merrion Square

Halloween in Derry

2009-11-01T13:57:00.000-08:00

This past weekend was spent celebrating Halloween in Derry, Northern Ireland, not to be confused with the Republic of Ireland. As we learned this weekend from our tour of Free Derry this was a long and bloody process to become what Derry is today. The civil rights movement in Ireland has its deepest roots in Derry. After countless attacks of British and Unionists on Irish civilians many riots took place in the streets. In January of 1969 the defiant slogan "You Are Now Entering Free Derry" appeared on a gable wall in the Bogside area of town. It still stands today as a reminder of Derry's history. The most famous event that took place here is known as Bloody Sunday. On this day 14 unarmed demonstrators were shot dead and 14 others injured by the British army in the streets. This was a defining moment for the IRA to gain more support in their crusade for justice and equal rights. Basically there was a plantation created here by the British who sent over protestants to take over the area. In those days you had to be wealthy to vote, so gerrymandering made it possible for the protestants to have 2/3 majority in the votes. The Irish Catholics were never allowed to vote and were kept down by the men in power. Our tour guide said it's not just about religion, it's just that the poor protestants didn't care about equal rights like the Irish Catholics. I learned how bloody and gruesome this portion of Ireland's history was. I was so surprised that I haven't really heard much about it before in school. The murals around Derry were very well done, and you could really see the fear on people's faces.

On a lighter note, we visited the Giant's Causeway. It's a World Heritage Site that stretches four miles of the coast. The shore is covered with large pillars shaped like hexagons that stick up at all different heights. Geologists say that the Giant's Causeway was formed by volcanic eruptions more than 60 million years ago. While the surface of the lava flow quickly it cooled, contracted and cracked into hexagonal columns. As time went by the columns were eroded and broke off into many stair-like steps. We also learned of the mythical origins of the Giant's Causeway. Supposedly, the Ulster giant warrior named Finn MacCool wanted to reach his love on the Scottish island of Staffa (as back then the Causeway reached all the way to Scotland). A rival giant ruined Finn's Causeway as he fled from Finn and tore it up so that he could not be followed.

After we explored the Causeway we returned to Derry to get ready for Halloween night. I was a detective, and made my magnifying glass out of an industrial sized toilet paper roll, a Ticonderoga pencil and plastic wrap. Twas an excellent costume!!! We enjoyed the Halloween parade, fireworks, and a night out at a local club. It was such a great weekend and I'd encourage people to find out more about the Civil Rights Movement in Ireland. Enjoy the pictures...

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Northern Ireland is so beautiful!!!

The train ride was gorgeous!

The Giant's Causeway

The rocks are shaped like hexagons.

I climbed the mountain of rocks!

Murals in the Free Derry portion of town. They represent the Nation Civil Rights movement that happened here just about 40 years ago. That's recent history!

Erika wanted it to look like I was eating the rocks...I don't think it worked.

The rocks were so tall.

I was a detective and Mariel was a pixie. We had great costumes:)

These kids were so cute! There was a band entertaining us with songs and the kids were dancing around. I think that dancing is in the Irish blood because these kids were great!

There was a parade at nightfall along the Foyle River. Here are some kids that walked in the parade.

There were beautiful masks.

There were fireworks over the Foyle River

I met a hot dog!!!

London pics!

2009-10-28T09:24:00.000-07:00

First stop: Platform 9 3/4

...entering the wizard world!!! A life's dream fulfilled...ahhhh:)

King's Cross Station

Covent Garden

The National Gallery

I found a Beatty at Trafalgar Square!!!! Woot Woot:)

View of Big Ben from Trafalgar Square

Beautiful view

Stereotypical British Guard

Wellington Arch

He lost his horse...

He found his horse!

Mariel and I are at the top of the London Eye!!!

The London Eye

After the London Eye we rode a carousel:)

The House of Parliament at night with a half full moon.

Westminster Abbey

Newgrange

2009-10-28T09:14:00.001-07:00

Sheep at the Hill of Tara

This is the Hill of Tara. From this hill you can see 16 of the 32 counties in Ireland. Supposedly, if this rock roars at you it means you are the true king of Ireland...we waited patiently...

We ARE the true kings of Ireland!!!

The entrance to Newgrange. These carvings on the front stone can be found inside the chamber as well as at the back of the mound.

Look how huge this thing is!!! I stood by it so you can do a comparison.

Newgrange! It's an archaeological site older than the pyramids. Stone age people built it over 400 years as a burial chamber. At the winter solstice the light travels along the walkway to illuminate the ceremonial chamber for about nine minutes...I thought about going this December, but there's a waiting list of 36,000 people for next year!

This tower is one of the only structures left standing. If the monastery was under attack then the monks would take cover in here. If it got too scary then they monks could flee from here in a secret, underground tunnel.

One of the best examples of a Celtic cross in Ireland. It is covered with carvings from the Bible. They used to let cattle graze in the monastery for a thousand years, but they stopped when they noticed that they were scratching themselves and wearing away the base:)

Howth

2009-10-28T09:10:00.000-07:00

Howth Castle and Cookery School...how cool would it be to cook in a castle?!

We made it to the top!!!!

View of Ireland's Eye from Howth's East Pier

Mariel and I did the Cliff Walk in Howth. It was a gorgeous day for a stroll!

The adorable seals in the bay at Howth

2009-10-28T09:07:00.000-07:00

The view from the top of the Guinness Storehouse....The Gravity Bar gives the best view of Dublin!

Enjoying my free pint at the Gravity Bar at the Guinness Storehouse:)

Weekend in...LONDON!

2009-10-28T08:51:00.000-07:00

This past weekend was a long one for us. Monday, October 26th was the only holiday we will get this semester at UCD. In celebration of the Bank Holiday my roommates and I went on an excursion to London. My roommate Erika had a friend from Canada visit her named Andrea. She was so nice and fun to hang out with this past week.

On Saturday morning Erika, Andrea, Mariel and I set out for Dublin Port. We took a series of two buses to get there. Of course, it was rainy and foggy and dark outside and by the time we reached the Port we were soaked...the bus doesn't take you all the way there, only to the gates. Maybe next time (if there is one) we'll take a taxi:) We got onto the bus just in time to haul us onto the ferry. It was like a floating mall. We found a table in the food court to eat breakfast. Mariel and I ate our packed food while Erika and Andrea ate a full Irish breakfast for 10 euro each. Then we wondered about the ship to find a nice spot by the windows.

When we reached Wales the buses took us to the train station to begin our cross U.K. trek to London. I believe it took around four hours to get to Euston Station. It was so exciting to see the Tube and Underground this past weekend. We found the half price tickets vendor we had looked up before hand and bought tickets to Wicked for 20 pounds! It was such a deal because originally they were 80 pounds! We had about 2.5 hours until the show so we decided to head to the hostel in Northfield to change and drop off our baggage. We only got 3/4 of the way there before we decided we needed to hop in a taxi that instant to get back for the show. We had run into some unanticipated construction on our Tube line to the hostel. We checked our luggage in the coat check and were about 15 min late to Wicked. Really we were only 7 min late but they couldn't let us in until that point in time. It was one of the best shows I have ever seen! I've been fighting the Wicked craze for years, but I am sorry that I did because I absolutely loved it!!! I think I want to read the books now.

After the show we began our trek back to the hostel to check in. We got there at about midnight. We were supposed to meet up with Mariel's friend, Tessa, who had visited us in Dublin a couple weekends ago. We walked up and down the street of our hostel but there were no taxis out in the middle of nowhere. We asked in a pub and an old man called a taxi for us. We were waiting outside when his friend came out and told us not to go into London. We should go to the club down the street. Well, the cab came and we decided against going into the city since it was so late. He charged us 5 pounds to go down less than a block to the Spinning Wheel. It cost us 5 pounds to get in to this "club" where we found all middle aged men and women shakin their thing! It was one of the most entertaining nights of my life! And the upside was we didn't need to take a taxi home, after it closed we walked right across the street to our hostel:)

On Sunday we did some sight seeing in London. We went to Platform 9 3/4 in King's Cross Station...it was so MAGICAL!!! Then we met up with Tessa and her friend to walk around London. We did Trafalgar Square, Buckingham Palace, the Wellington Arch, the park, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, the House of Parliament, and then a night ride on the London Eye (the huge ferris wheel).

The next morning we had an unfortunate event in that our alarm was set to 6pm instead of 6am....so we (yet again) had to take a taxi into the city. There were so many close calls this weekend. But we made it to Euston in time only because our train was delayed from 8:50am to 9:10am. I really want to go back to London for about three weeks sometime so that I can see everything properly!!! It's such a beautiful city with so many beautiful buildings!

Last Weekend

2009-10-13T12:58:00.001-07:00

As I mentioned before, I have had so much work to do lately! I was really surprised because I've only had a couple of assignments outside of class so far. Now I have a giant to do list for this week: fill out scholarship applications, memorize the 20 amino acids, write a 2500 word essay for my Irish Studies class, write a report on Bacillus cereus, watch the movie "Nora" and write a response, do my biochemistry lab report, work on my waste management project, study for the food microbiology final lab test, study for my statistics test, get ready for my phone interview with General Mills......ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!! Are you tired of reading this, because I sure am!

I guess I should have stayed in a little more on the weekends to do some of this work...but it was such a beautiful day:) On Saturday I toured the Guinness Storehouse. It's an amazing place to see. In the atrium we saw the 9,000 year lease Arthur Guinness signed for the St. James Gate Brewery. He paid 100 euro down and promised to pay 45 euro a year for the next 9,000....what a great deal! It was kind of disappointing (from a food science point of view) to see that the only parts of processing they showed us was their four ingredients: water, hops, barley, and yeast. Well of course there's much more the the process than that. They had flatscreens telling the gist of each process like roasting and fermentation and so on. Then on the upper floors they had advertising from bottles to TV commercials. The best part though was the Gravity Bar at the top of the building that resembles a pint glass. You get a 360 degree view of Dublin, and it was gorgeous!!!

On Sunday my roommate, Mariel, and I went to Howth. It's a cute little fishing village just north of Dublin. At Howth Harbor we watched people feeding the grey seals. They were so cute! I got some great pictures of them because they were directly below us, eagerly awaiting the next fish that was flung towards them. After the feeding of the seals Mariel and I began our journey on the Cliffs Walk. It was a foot-wide path that wound along the cliffs of the peninsula. It was a bit scary at times. I found myself formulating a plan of what I would do if I happened to lose my footing and fall towards the rocks and ocean below....I decided my best bet was to try and grab on to some of the small trees on the way down:) I didn't fall though, we survived the hike and ended up at Baily Lighthouse. We rested here for a well deserved break in the sunny afternoon. I was surprised to find that people live on every inch of this peninsula. I think that if my car stalled at the bottom of the mountain, I'd just stay there for the night instead of climbing up to my house. When we got to the bottom and back into the village we stopped for ice cream in Maud's. I got the flavor "Pooh Bear Delight." When I told my roommate, Erika, she sounded skeptical of the deliciousness of the ice cream, but I can assure you it was wonderful! We took a quick look at Howth Castle & Cookery School as well as the National Transportation Museum before we hopped back onto the train for Dublin. I must admit that we did not set foot inside the Transportation Museum, because Mariel and I could not stop laughing at our first sight of it: a giant RV parked right in front. We figured we'd already seen enough, so it was time to head home.

P.S.-Sorry there are no pictures. I tried to upload them but all that appeared was a paragraph of mumbo jumbo computer lingo. Hopefully it'll sort itself over the next couple of days and I'll try again. Cheers!

Irish Dancers

2009-10-05T12:52:00.000-07:00

Well, this last week has been just CRAZY with school work! It's taken me a while to get into gear to get updates done on the blog. Last Tuesday I took an Irish Dance class. It was sponsored by the Irish Society. We got together and learned dances in a group. We did five traditional dances in all, and it was so much fun to meet Irish students. There was even a fiddle player:) I was pretty tired after dancing for two hours. I'm really glad I went though, because the next night at the Student Bar they were having people do Irish dances and my roommate and I could do them!

County Cork

2009-10-05T12:20:00.001-07:00

We went to Blarney Castle! It was a 20 minute bus ride from Cork City. We arrived in the morning and the weather was a bit cold. But we grew warmer as we walked around the beautiful Blarney grounds.

This is to show how many stairs we climbed to get up to the Blarney Stone! It was so many stone stairs on that spiral staircase. I was getting a bit worried towards the end because the staircase narrowed.

Getting ready to kiss the Blarney Stone!!!

The man's job here was to hold onto my waist so I wouldn't fall to my death whilst attempting to pucker up. He did quite a nice job and asked me, "Let's see how she kisses in the morning?"

You probably have a hard time seeing but I'm kissing the Blarney Stone! My lips are just beside the guy's head on the right side:)

Mom, this picture is for you! It's a giant rock resting on another one. I bet it'd look great in our yard but I'm not exactly sure how we'd get it back to Iowa.

This is the grave of Nano Nagle. She was a nun who did many great things in the 18th century, especially with schools for children. We found it by accident. While in Cork City we were wandering around looking for a great second hand shop that was in Erika's Ireland book. We looked and looked and finally a nice man asked us if he could help us (we obviously were lost). It turns out that the shop had gone out of business, but we were right where it should have been. He talked to us for 20 minutes telling us the things we should see. We ended up visiting Nano Nagle's grave which was situated in a beautiful garden.

Here's me in the garden smelling the beautiful flowers:)

We listened to some folk singers in the downtown! I think these people were Russian or something because the language was not Gaelic. It was such a fun kind of music to listen to, really happy!

On Sunday we went to Kinsale! It was the most gorgeous town I have visited so far! It's a cute fishing village south of Cork City. We took a walking tour with this man. He had graduated from University College Dublin with (surprise, surprise) a degree in history. He knew so many stories and facts about Kinsale.

This is the main street of Kinsale. We walked all over to see historic houses that lover's had bought for their significant other. One time it worked and the other it didn't. We saw statues of explorers, an old stagecoach house, the oldest pub in Kinsale (from the 17th century), and the house where a giant eight foot tall man lived.

This is the fort that was built by the Normans at Kinsale. We hiked up to a hill to see it. All in all, it was an amazing weekend! There were 14 of us who came to see Cork and stayed in the hostel. In our spare time we heard music at the Folk Festival events in downtown. Each night we went out to several pubs who had live music. Friday night featured very traditional Irish folk music. There was a wooden fllute, a guitar, and other instruments that I did not recognize. I think they were traditional Irish instruments. On Saturday night we saw a country-like Irish band. They played Irish songs mixed in with American hits. The band was on a stage and all of us were down on the floor dancing around. After they finished we went to another pub to hear a woman folk artist. She was really good! She had a really strong singing voice. We didn't stay there long though, because we were packed like sardines in a can in that tiny pub. I am looking forward to staying in and around Dublin this weekend. I think we'll go to Howth to check it out!

250th Guinness Anniversary, Killarney, and Ring of Kerry

2009-09-29T12:29:00.001-07:00

The tunnel to the waterfalls

The beautiful waterfalls in the National Park

Whew, we biked a couple miles to the National Park where Muckross House was!

Muckross House on the outside....we weren't allowed pictures on the inside

My first "Hostel Experience" It was great! Who can complain at 6 Euros a night?

Me at Ladies View...this is where Queen Victoria's Ladies in Waiting decided the best view in Ireland was.

We visited Sneem!!! They won the Tidy Towns Competition in 1987...too bad there were two Heineken bottles next to the sign:)

Adorable family at the beach...the water was about 40F

A round fort

Daniel O'Connell's old place, he's the liberator of Ireland

Me in front of the Atlantic! Twas a gorgeous day:)

My first Irish Coffee

Downtown Killarney

Sorry, here's my first blog in over a week!!! I've been so bogged down with readings and group projects and, of course, traveling!!!

So last Thursday was the 250th Anniversary of Guinness. It's the celebration of the day when Arthur Guinness put the 9,000 year lease down on the brewery for not very much money...great deal!

Friday my roommates and I took a 6 hour bus journey to Killarney. It was a magical town! We at dinner in a cute pub and the food was excellent. Then we found our hostel and had a good night's sleep. Saturday morning we set out on our bus tour of the Ring of Kerry! It's a peninsula on the southwest part of Ireland. In total we saw Killarney, Killorglin, Glenheigh, Kells, Cahersiveen, Waterville, Caherdaniel, Sneem, Moll's Gap, and Ladies View. It was such a beautiful day with great weather!!! We basically rode the bus around the whole day and stopped in these places for pictures and shopping.

On Sunday we rented bikes in town and rode out to the National Park near Killarney. I was really worried because I seriously haven't ridden a bike since my accident in 2nd grade...there were scabs in my school picture that year. Granted, my roommate, Mariel, has more reason to be terrified of bicycles because she has braved three accidents in total. As she described them to me I felt like my one accident on that gravel rode was so insignificant compared to her experiences. But the old saying about stuff coming back to you prevailed and I escaped the day with one minor scourge: I was standing beside my bike and it fell over on my foot. We biked to the waterfalls in the park to take pictures. Then we took a tour of Muckross House. It was an amazing old Victorian home. It has had three different owners including a couple from California. They ended up giving the house to their daughter when she married an Irish man. I would love to get a house for a present! It was sad we weren't allowed to take pictures in the house, so I have none to show you. There was a Waterford crystal chandelier in every major room downstairs! The library has a great collection of books ranging from Encyclopedia Britannica to Charles Dickens. Queen Victoria even visited the occupants of Muckross in her time. They had a special part of the house for her including her bedroom, bathroom, and sitting area. We didn't have time, but you could have also toured the farm and gardens of this estate. All in all it was a very enjoyable first weekend away from Dublin. It felt good to get out of the city and visit the country. The people really are different there, very nice. We'll see what Cork brings this coming weekend!

Dublin Zoo & Willy Wonka Elevator

2009-09-20T10:04:00.001-07:00

In front of the Willy Wonka elevator

Meerkats in a huddle

Bunny-like creatures

An adorable bunny:)

A guinea pig...we want one for our flat!

Elephants

Giraffes

Today my roommates and I took the number 10 bus all the way to the end of it's route to visit the Dublin Zoo. We saw many animals and it was so cute to listen to the little Irish children oooh and aww about the animals. My favorite was the meerkats because they are just so darn cute! I love how one of them is always on watch for predators. I do find it slightly sad and ironic that they do this because nothing is going to harm them in the zoo...but they don't know this. I was thinking that the zoo officials should make fake predators as puppets or cardboard cut-outs. That way, every so often they could stage a fake attack on the meerkats so that the look-out meerkat would feel worth while and earn his keep. Just a suggestion.

After the zoo we trekked to find the Willy Wonka elevator. We walked soooo far...you know how everything looks close together on the map, but we must have walked for 45 minutes. When we finally got there we took pictures in front. When we actually walked over to ride to the top of it there was a sign on the adjacent hotel saying, "We are closed indefinitely due to unforseen circumstances." I was so disappointed that we couldn't ride to the top! It's suppposed to be a really good view of Dublin from the top. Sadly, we got on a bus to come back to UCD. It was a great day though:)

Various Instances

2009-09-17T08:23:00.000-07:00

This week has been hectic because my schedule changed again. But now I have got it figured out, which is good because the last day to change is tomorrow. I have switched my Early Christian Ireland elective to Waste Management. As weird as it sounds, I am really interested in this course. Waste isn't just poo. As our professor described it, "it's everything that gets thrown down that someone else doesn't want to pick up." So that includes litter and all sorts of things. We are in small groups of four or five people. I am the only girl in a group with three post-grad guys. They're all Irish so I'm excited to get to know them! Most people in this course study Green Technologies. I've never heard of that before, but think it's a really good thing to do!

On Tuesday night we had an International Buddy Social. It's a program where six or so international students have two Irish buddies to hang out with and ask questions. I wasn't too pleased with my group because only one of our buddies showed up. A few of my group members couldn't speak english either. There isn't anything wrong with that I guess, but basically no one wanted to hang out which is the point of the whole program! My roommate, Erika's group seems pretty cool though so maybe I can tag along with them when they do things.

There's an International Student Reception tonight that we're going to before the comedy routine we're seeing. The comedian is part of the Fringe Festival that's going on in Dublin. The Fringe is all sorts of arts activities that you can see September 5-20. The Veggie Circus we saw last week was part of the Fringe. We watched a clip of the guy online and he seems pretty funny. It was about a nun and a donkey in the bathtub and the nun dropped the soap...we can't remember the comedian's name so we all just refer to him as "The Donkey Man." Hopefully he's really funny! I hate it when you see a preview for a funny movie and then all of the funny parts were in the preview, so you've already seen the good stuff. I'm sure it'll be good though!

I can't believe I've been here three weeks already! Wow, the time has flown by. I was just so excited about my new UCD sweatshirt that I decided to post a picture of it on here.

This next picture is the inside cover of the book I checked out of the library. For my Gender, Culture & Society class we read an Irish book every week and then discuss it. This week we are reading Elizabeth Bowen's "The Last September" (I highly recommend it!) There are all sorts of crazy things written in the back cover of this book so I posted the picture. My favorite is the Darth Vader sketch and written beside it, "Never underestimate the power of the dark side." :) Another weird quote is, "Brian Adams is a sad, old git. People like him should not be allowed to make 'music.' Their 'music' is boring, sorry, and pathetic. For may as well listen to the theme tune of Dallas or Home and Away or something." Poor Brian Adams!

Mountains to Sea dlr Book Festival

2009-09-13T12:53:00.001-07:00

Today my roommates and I traveled to Dun Laoghaire to attend the Mountains to Sea Book Festival. Here we heard readings from Sadie Jones, Jill Dawson, and Claire Kilroy. They were all fantastic authors and I am excited to read their novels. I will say though that Claire Kilroy's novel seemed very dark, and I think it's the one I liked least out of all of them. After we walked along a huge concrete pier. It was such a glorious, sunny day so we took our time and enjoyed it. Below are some pictures and a short video of my roommates.

The ocean!

From the left: Erika (from Canada), Mariel (from New Zealand), and me

The stage at the festival where three women authors read excerpts from their books

The adorable town of Dun Laoghaire (pronounced "done leery," who knew?)

Here's a cute video of my roommates by the sea

Review

2009-09-12T13:21:00.000-07:00

So the Cirque de Legume was pretty good. It was funny when the girl was hypnotized by a turnip. A man and a woman performed typical circus acts with veggies like a Spanish horse and the Seal of Poland (whatever that is). All in all I'm glad we went because it was definitely memorable.

Last night my roommates and I went out to a club with some American med students we had met in the laundry room earlier that day. I guess the laundry room isn't a good place to meet people because it wasn't very fun. The place where we went was meant for a crowd older than us so dancing was kind of weird with 30-year-olds strutting their stuff, trying to win the affections of my gorgeous friends:)

Today has been the forth day of sunshine in a row!!! It's been so great because each day we make a point to go out and lay on the grass to soak up the sun. After a bit of shopping in the downtown today we sat at St. Stephens Green park and ate a muffin by one of the fountains. A guy with a little, scruffy dog kept throwing a rubber ducky into the fountain and the dog would leap in after it, splashing the slimy water everywhere. This game came to an end when the dog got out on the opposite side of the fountain from his master and shook water all over a blond woman enjoying an ice cream. It was pretty funny to watch though:)

Tonight my roommates and I will enjoy a movie together. Then tomorrow we are going to a Writers' Festival just outside of Dublin. We have tickets to attend a reading of three Irish women authors. I'm glad it's forecasted to be sunny for the next two days!

Below is a picture of the ADORABLE owl earrings I bought at Topshop today:

The Cirque de Legume

2009-09-10T11:32:00.000-07:00

This evening my roommates are celebrating the Fringe Festival here in Dublin by attending The Cirque de Legume. We heard about it at the market last Saturday. A man asked us if we liked to laugh and then invited us to it....now this is something I just cannot resist because as soon as he described it I immediately thought of the Muppets when the veggies sing in Muppet Treasure Island! So I am so completely stoked to go!!!...and I hope it's not a let down because my hopes are so high:) So here is the description in the Fringe booklet:

"Quite simply the Greatest Vegetable Circus on Earth! In this piece of comic absurd theatre we meet Mister & Missus, two genius performers who find a hidden beauty in cast-off vegetables from which they make a wonderful show full of excitement, danger, and sensuality! Marvel at the Veget-animal! Gape atthe Magical Carrot! Enthrall at the Leek of Power! Fantasise over the Onion Strip Tease! The Cirque de Legume shows us how beautiful life can be if we only stop to play with it. You'll never look at an onion the same way again."

...I'll let you know how this turns out.

Pictures from this weekend in Dublin

2009-09-07T15:02:00.000-07:00

St. Stephens Green on a rainy day :D

Cute family at Trinity College (Oscar Wilde & Jonathan Swift studied here)

The River Liffy

Christ Church

The Chester Beatty Library (woot woot!)

Dublin Castle

Dublin City Hall

First Day of Classes

2009-09-07T08:27:00.000-07:00

Well, today was the first day of classes and the weather was glorious:) The sun shined for the first time in a long time...I was beginning to think they had photo shopped the sun into the international students' brochures. Since labs and tutorials (like our recitations) don't begin until next week I only had one lecture today at 1:00pm. It was for Early Christian Ireland. My lady professor was very nice and I'm looking forward to the class.

After this, I began my expedition to locate my other lecture halls and labs. It's good because my six lectures are confined to three buildings. I was lucky to find all of the classrooms, before tackling the labs. I have never seen the Conway Institute (for biochemistry lab) or Ardmore House (for food microbiology lab) on my map. I asked for help in the Food Science main office and the woman was very friendly. With directions in hand, I set off in the direction of the Conway Institute. I found my lab room in the back corner of a giant building and started back towards campus. I took what I thought was a scenic detour on a nature path which let me into a construction zone. After getting through there I found my last lab in a building which I thought was a house behind the AIB bank.

This evening I thought I'd be a good idea to take a class at the gym with my roommates. We were the only five girls there, and people for that matter. This guy was an ex-drill sargent named Seamus and he worked us like I had never exercised before! He kept yelling things at us like "smile and breathe as I walk by ladies," and "blitz, Blitz, BLITZ!!!" I kept wishing there was a clock in the room because the time seemed to pass so slowly. We did the plank position four times and push-ups and squats and lunges.....whew now I am beat. We made stir fry for supper with veggies and such to be somewhat healthy while rewarding us for the awful pain we had just endured. Now I'm getting ready for my three lectures tomorrow in the Chemistry of Macronutrients, Applied Biostatistics, and The Biochemistry of Nitrogen.....I don't think I'm going to like Tuesdays very much here:)

Exploring Dublin

2009-09-06T11:54:00.001-07:00

All this week my roommates and I have been going into the city to buy things like kitchen supplies and food and cell phones. These trips are very short and to the point. Today, however, we took the New Europe tour of Dublin. It's a free tour given in the major cities of Europe, and you just tip the guide at the end. It rained during the whole tour but was amazing! The guide was a Ph.D student at Trinity College, which is the oldest college in Dublin. Starting at the City Hall, we wound our way past Dublin Castle, the Chester Beatty Library, and Temple Bar. Here we stopped for a 15 minute brake at the Queen of Tarts. I ordered a raspberry cheesecake tart and tea. I handed the cashier a 10 Euro note and it turns out it was fake...she took it and gave me nothing in return, and I had to pay with other cash. I was so mad! But I'm glad it wasn't a 50 Euro note instead. We continued on for another hour, ending up in St. Stephen's Green.

After the tour was over the tour guide went to O'Neill's in Temple Bar to watch the championship hurling match. It was Kilkenny versus Tipperary, and Kilkenny has won the past three years straight. This is the first time I have truly been engaged in a sporting match for the entire time! To me, hurling is a mix between soccer, baseball, and american football. The men all have sticks and they hit this small ball around the pitch to either score a goal like in football (above the posts) or in soccer (into the net). Above is worth one point and below is worth three. It was a pretty bloody match but the two halves of 35 minutes flew by in the pub. The atmosphere was electric and all the Irish people were cursing at the TV. In the end, Kilkenny triumphed for the forth year in a row. I was sort of sad because I always like to root for the underdog!

Tomorrow is the first day of class, and it's hard to believe because it's felt like such a vacation so far. Yesterday, my roommates and I made plans for the semester and were booking tickets for shows and festivals. I guess it's time to get ready for tomorrow and get in gear for a semester of work!

First Attempts at Cooking...

2009-09-04T04:20:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a busy day...I went to St. Stephen's Green with my roommates to get cell phones and stuff for our flat. It was a beautiful, sunny day until a giant downpour broke out. It did that off and on for the rest of the afternoon. We finally got home at about 6:30pm, but still needed groceries (because I have been eating Frosties and cheese sandwiches for the last three days). We took the bus to a nearby Tesco and got this week's food for our flat. After getting home at about 8:30pm we began cooking a delicious soup. Since our range has no markings on the dials, we then proceeded to try and get the soup to a boil (on low, I might add) for the next two hours. Finally our roommate's friend Alex told us we had the burner on the lowest setting.....:( When we had gotten the settings sorted out we marked the hightest setting with a big "H" to prevent future food catastrophes. Our soup was so tasty though, and we enjoyed it as a late night snack at 10:45pm.

There is nothing on the orientation schedule today or this weekend so who knows what will happen next!

Random Thoughts

2009-09-02T06:24:00.000-07:00

Today is my third day at University College Dublin (UCD) and it's been raining all day. I know it's supposed to be rainy here but come on! I read in the paper this morning that this has been the soggiest summer in history for Ireland.

I've been adjusting nicely to the time difference here. I go to bed at about 10pm and wake up at about 9am. I sleep with ear plugs in because there is zero insulation in our walls. I'm on the third floor of the building and I can hear every word of the conversations going on down below. The first night my ear plugs fell out in the middle of the night so I could hear my alarm go off. However, last night they stayed in so I didn't hear my alarm. I did wake up, by the grace of God, five minutes past my alarm to find that I couldn't hear it with my plugs in...guess I need to get used to sleeping with much noise going on.

I have finally been registered for all six of my classes. I am taking the following: food microbiology, the chemistry of macronutrients, applied biostatistics, the biochemistry of nitrogen, early christian Ireland: society & history, and gender, culture & society in Ireland. It's going to be a full course load but that's how many I have to take by Purdue's rules. I hope the last two about Ireland are fun and I learn about their history.

Right now I'm watching some guys playing American footbal in the rain. One has a Brett Farve (spelling?) jersey on. I've noticed in comparison to the Irish footballers who run around and do soccer drills that the Americans are much more concened with their cool looking plays. They stop every 30 seconds to confer, about what I do not know. While the Irish guys spend every second of their practice running and doing drills. Yes, I love my window:)

First Day in Dublin

2009-08-31T07:33:00.000-07:00

The flight over was uneventful. On the trans-Atlantic journey no one sat beside me so I got extra room in addition to two blankets and pillows. It happened that I met two other students from Purdue studying at UCD. As we got off the plane, went through customs, and bought bus tickets we met more and more Americans going to UCD. I was so proud to have packed only one suitcase to bring over here, but I am beginning to feel like I under packed. Of course it was great when I was pulling my lone green suitcase and all the rest of the people were lugging along two huge ones plus a backpack and purse:) In our apartment there are five bedrooms, two full bathrooms, a kitchen, and a living room. It's a lot nicer than I expected so I am very happy with it. It didn't take me long to unpack before I met up with two people I met on the bus. It's so weird to not have a cell phone and have to actually make plans in advance. You really have to count on people to show up because if they don't come there's really nothing you can do about it at the time. Since I have nothing in my apartment like food and toilet paper I am needing to go out and do some shopping. Wish me luck!

Here are some pics of our apartment:

The kitchen table

The living room

Bathroom

I approve of my room:)

The view ouside my bedroom window

My closet...it's about a foot wide

My bed

...the door to my room is green, how perfect!

Pre-Dublin

2009-08-19T21:23:00.000-07:00

Hello, as you know on August 30th I will be flying over to Dublin, Ireland for a semester abroad. I will try to keep this blog updated as much as possible:) I've been preparing with Rick Steves' Ireland 2009 edition so I am feeling pretty good. I am looking forward to many new experiences and am so excited for my adventure to start!!!