A summary of the last two months.

My body is being ripped into pieces. My torso is pulled backward by my backpacking backpack and my shoulders are wrenched forward by my school backpack. My right arm is pulled ceaselessly downward by the five pound bag of food I’m carrying. No, I’m not climbing Mount Everest or Hiking the Appalachian trail, I’m traveling home from Ireland. Only I’m not really going home. I’m headed for a whirlwind tour of New England before heading up to Kent Island in Canada for my internship this summer.

Anyway…I know it’s been forever since I updated my blog, but now I have a good eight hours on this relatively old 757 (without individual movie screens) to kill. Sooooooo let me take you back about two months.

It’s April 8^th, a Friday, and I’m about to disembark on an epic journey through Europe.  Ok that’s a lie, seeing as I was flying out of Dublin, I really had to leave on the last bus from Cork to spend the night in the airport. This was an adventure, but relatively unpleasant. They are constantly cleaning that place with mop segue machines that beep incessantly. I did find a comfortable booth to catch a few winks before my 6 am flight. At one point, I woke up and noticed another girl on the other side of my booth, at first I was offended that someone would take a booth that was obviously occupied, but after looking around, I noticed that every single booth space was filled with a sleeping body.

In any case…First stop: Italy. I flew into Venice-Treviso. Until two days before I left, my friend who I was visiting and I had assumed that I was flying into Venice proper, but it turns out that Venice-Treviso is actually in Treviso, therefore I had to find my way to the train station to actually get to Venice. At the train station, a guy asked me fore directions in Italian and I just stared at him blankly…poor guy. The train to Venice was uneventful, and then I stepped out into the glorious sunlight of a Venetian morning. The weather was perfect and warm, Mary was waiting for me on the steps of the Ferrovia (train station). She’s studying abroad in Padova, a tweny-five minute, two euro train ride from Venice, so she’d already been there a couple times and knew the sites. She showed me around.

It was interesting to go back to Venice, in fact it was interesting to go to most of the places I went because I’ve traveled to them before, only with a group of 300 on a band trip. Though there weren’t planned trips to see a glass blower or to the Tower of London or the Louvre, I definitely prefer traveling on my own or with a couple of friends, there’s so much more leeway for relaxing as well as just deciding what to do on a minute by minute basis.

So yeah, Venice was amazing. We just wandered for hours taking tons of pictures. We saw all the major sites, The Rialto Bridge, Saint Marc’s Cathedral – inside and out…so gorgeous. Venice isn’t very big so we’d covered a lot of it by the time our friend Danny, who’s studying in Paris, showed up. It just so happened that he and his friends were visiting Venice the same day I was there. So we did all the sites with them again, got gelato and then went for a drink before dinner. Apparently the drink of the youth in Italy is the spritz, it’s bright orange and kind of tart, but it comes with an olive and that’s always a win in my book! After drinks it took us a while to find somewhere we wanted to eat dinner. Most of the restaurants were super expensive and had two types of taxes, I don’t remember what they are. But we finally found a beautiful restaurant with seating in the courtyard. I got pasta…of course, there were red and white gingham tablecloths, candles, and we got a bottle of the house wine. It was a fabulous Italian meal. Then it was time to grab the train back to Padova for sleep. On the way back, we got kind of turned around. There are signs on most walls that point directions, but we went some weird way that led us through a neighborhood that Mary had never seen before, but we made it back safely. I was exhausted that night and immediately fell asleep.

The next morning we went to the center of Padova, a square called Prato della Valle. It’s a beautiful place, and on weekends they have an epic market. We met Mary’s friends there and then headed to the train station to go back to Venice to be able to catch a boat taxi to the islands. The first island we headed to was Murano. The boat there took a lot longer then expected so we only stayed for a little bit before heading to the next island. I honestly liked the next one a bit better. It was Burano and it’s a super cute place. All the houses are brightly painted and it’s just really picturesque. Mary and I could only stay like ten minutes though because we needed to get back to Venice to catch the train in order to make it to a ballet of Othello in time. So we grabbed some gelato – I got Rhum and cream (the best I’ve had) – and then caught the boat taxi. It was stressful, but we ended up only getting to the ballet about ten minutes into the performance. It was good, more like modern dance then ballet, but still really interesting. When it was over, because neither of us had eaten dinner, one of her language partners, who was also at the ballet, took us to one of the best pizza places in Padova. It was a whole in the wall place, but they were delicious. After food it was another home to bed night…we were having long days!

The next day (Sunday) we headed to Verona…as in Romeo and Juliet Verona yes. Verona is a gorgeous city! Mary is planning on moving there some time in her future. It’s got tons of history, including its own coliseum. We started the day by getting some Italian coffee. The coffee culture there is a lot different then anywhere else I’ve been. You go up to the bar/counter and order what you want, possibly a macchiato or a cappuccino, maybe with some type of pastry, and then you stand there and drink/eat what you’ve ordered. If you want to sit down you have to pay more. I liked it, and the coffee was delicious!

We basically just spent the day wandering around. We saw Juliet’s balcony, but there were tons of people there and you had to pay to go up to it. The best thing I think we did was climb up a huge flight of stairs to the top of a hill to see a view of the whole city…so beautiful. We ended up deciding that we were tired and headed back to the train station. We got there an hour early so went to the platform to wait for our train. In Italy there are no electronic signs on the platforms that show what trains are coming and going, they’re only inside, so right when our train was supposed to be leaving we realized that we had waited too long and the platform had changed. So we got there an hour early only to miss our train and have to wait another hour for the next one. This time we stood inside and watched the sign until ten minutes before it was supposed to leave and we made it fine. When we got back to Padova, we wend to Mary’s favorite pizza place for dinner. It turned out that a lot of people from her program were also there, so we sat outside on some steps and ate our pizza. In Italy you each individually get and eat your own pizza. I got a delicious potato pizza.

On Monday we stayed in Padova and saw more of the city. We wandered around to a lot of different plazas, got fresh strawberries (fragolas) and gelato. Then we just rested and people watched in Plato della valle, and got tan! After our rest we went to Saint Anthony’s cathedral, which was huge and gorgeous. Near the cathedral there is a botanical garden that we got into for free because we’re university students. It was a beautiful place (everything seems to be beautiful or gorgeous in Italy doesn’t it?!?!).

That night we had dinner with Mary’s host family. They are a really nice coupe and have a really cute two year old daughter. It’s the cutest when she speaks with her little voice in Italian! We didn’t really have a stereotypical Italian meal, but it was in Italy with an Italian family and I think that counts. Her mom made: potato salad, lettuce salad, peppers with garlic, and home baked bread, it was really good.

Tuesday I was leaving. So I packed up my stuff and we took it to Mary’s center in the morning. She had to take a test so I walked to Galileo’s tower. The night before we’d told Mary’s host father our plans and he said that it wasn’t Galileo’s observatory, he just used it for a little while, apparently the Padovians aren’t particularly taken with the man. It was a beautiful day and a great walk, the tower was also really cool. I ended up just sitting in a little park outside of it reading for a while. Then I met back up with Mary and we walked to the train station where she saw me off. I had to go to the Milan Bergamo airport, which was a bit of a trek. First a train to Milan and then a bus – which was hard to navigate to in dark, night time Italy – to Bergamo. I spent the night in the airport again. This time there were no booths with cushioned seats, only hard metal airport chairs.

In the morning I took a flight to Granada, Spain. Hannah and Malachi met me at the bus stop. It was really crazy to see them together in Spain, but also really cool!! We headed back to Hannah’s apartment and she had comida with her family. Then we headed up to the Albaicine (I’m not sure of the spelling) for her architecture class. It seemed really interesting, we went to a convent and then an old palace. I didn’t really understand a word of what was going on though, everything was really pretty. After class we walked to a plaza and had a great view of the city and the Alhambra. There were some gypsies playing flamenco…pretty cool.

We headed back to the apartment, and then by 8 it was time to get dinner, they eat huge lunches so aren’t ready for dinner until late, and then they only eat maybe a couple plates of tapas or go get churros. We got tapas and beer. In Granada when you order a drink you get free tapas with it. The beer we got was pretty horrible, seeing as I’m used to Irish beer, but it was still a cool experience. It was again a relatively early night…sleeping in airports really doesn’t boost your stamina too much.

The next day…Thursday…April 14^th…happened to be my 21^st birthday!!! Hannah had planned a lot of cool things to do for the day, some of which she tried to keep as a surprise. It was amazing to have my 21^st in Spain! Even though turning 21 in Europe isn’t as exciting as it may be in the states, it was still pretty epic. Hannah had class in the morning, so I hung out in a beautiful café across the street. I had café con leche, delicious. After class was over, Hannah, her friend, Elizabeth and I wandered the city a little. We went to some markets, there’s a really cool outdoor tea market that we saw and smelled and then we people watched in Plaza Trinidad (Hannah’s favorite plaza) until Malachi got out of class. At that time, we met up with her at their center. We played guitar on the terrace, what a view! You look up from their location and the Alhambra is just right there, it’s pretty epic!

We left in time to get to the hair dresser for my life changing appointment. At one point I’d offhandedly mentioned that maybe I should pierce my ear and chop off all my hair and get a tattoo for my 21^st birthday. I’d already gotten the ear pierced and Hannah took it into her own hands to make sure that I also got the haircut. Anyway, the appointment was at 1:30, which is when we arrived, but apparently they’d written it down wrong, and thought we were at two. Mali had to be somewhere so we really needed it at 1:30, Hannah’s host brother’s girlfriend’s father owned the place, so she talked to him and he said he could do it right then. He apparently had been doing hair and makeup at a fashion show the week before so he was the real deal. I showed him the picture of what I thought I wanted, it was really short and I thought it would be a good idea for him to do a little at a time so I could decide as we go…he didn’t allow this to happen, immediately after putting the bib on me, he sneak attacked from behind and chopped all of it off!!! I suppose it made sense because they washed it and it was easier to wash less hair. Anyway….I suppose it turned out all right, I do really like it now, even if it does flop into my face more then before. Also, in case you’re wondering, I have yet to get that tattoo!!

After the hair cut, it was back to apartments for comida. Hannah’s host mom, Maca, a very very nice woman, had invited me to join them. It was a delicious Spanish meal and though I couldn’t really understand everything they said around the table, their family discussions were great to watch. Hannah has a host sister in her teens who’s a riot. During siesta, Hannah and I went to the Lorca park – the Granadinos love Lorca – and played scopa (an Italian card game) and ate birthday cake. Then we met up with Malachi again and went to “Little Morocco” for milkshakes. Then it was time for tapas…a friend of theirs recommended a place that turned out to be fabulous, they had great falafel, and I drank my first glass of legal (stateside) wine.

Hannah had bought us tickets to see the Alhambra that night, so we headed up the huge hill to the castles/fort. We got there early so we sat and looked at the lights of the city and Hannah told me stories of the Alhambra. It was a gorgeous night to be outside. We went through the Alhambra and Hannah told me a lot of what she had learned in her architecture class about the history of the palace. Outside of the Alhambra is the Palacio de Carlos V, who was a Christian – the rest of the palaces were built by Sultans. Anyway, this palace wasn’t completely finished, but it’s round and has perfect acoustics …so amazing!

There was one more thing left on the list to do, and this one was the actual secret. Hannah wasn’t 100% sure where it was, but it made it. It was a salsa bar…perfect. She was under the impression that it really got started at 2am, but it turned out that people were dribbling out – not that there were that many to begin with – so not that many people were there. We got real mojitos and then we took turns dancing with each other. It was a lot of fun!

Friday we spent wandering Granada, got gelato, watched weird street performers, printed travel stuff and generally explored. We ended the night getting churros at Café Futbol…they were delicious, Hannah ordered two servings, which was a ton of churros, but they were so good…props to Spain!

Saturday was our last day before leaving. We wandered the Albaicine, took pictures, relatively relaxed and packed until our flight to Barcelona. The Granada airport is tiny, there’s literally one flight that leaves at a time so security doesn’t even open until half an hour before the flight leaves. We got to Barcelona super late and after asking some nice police men for directions, found our way to the hostel. There…we crashed.

The next day we explored Barcelona. We walked everywhere, Barcelona is a large city with a lot of interesting architecture. We found a cool flea market, most of the stalls were selling stamps and old coins. It also happened to be Pal Sunday, so there were a lot of religious ceremonies going on. I hadn’t realized before that Palm Sunday actually meant real palm fronds, but there were tons of people carrying large pieces of palm trees and waving them…it was really interesting. Other then wandering, Hannah went to the Picasso museum, which I skipped having museumed myself out in London.

The next day, Monday, our goal was to get to the Sagrada Familia. It was huge and had weird architecture. There was also a line literally two miles long to get in, so we just walked around the outside before making the long long walk to the Gaudi park. He’s the guy that did a lot of the architecture there. It was cool and there were a lot of really good musicians around, but there were also those guys with their blankets selling trinkets all over the place which was not nearly as pleasant. We ended the night playing a game that was in the hostel called Roma, it was horribly complicated, but I won…twice!

Tuesda, we went to the market to get travel food – very important when you don’t want to buy airport food – and then walked to Barcelona’s Arc de Triumph. We also found a park, something which we had been looking for the whole time we were there. But we had to head back to catch our bus to the airport to head to Paris. When we arrived we navigated our way to our hostel, it was kind of confusing to get through their subway system, but we figured it out. We ditched our stuff at the hostel and then got ourselves to Danny’s house. He was actually just arriving back in Paris with his siblings, they had been visiting Ireland of all places. When they arrived we grabbed a bottle of wine from the store by his house then walked…WALKED to the Eiffel Tower to meet his friends. The Eiffel Tower sparkles every hour on the hour for five to ten minutes. We arrived at midnight and it was sparkling like mad, so beautiful (again with the beauty of Europe…I tell you what, wow!). We stayed talking and sipping on French wine (yes out of the bottle) until one when the lights sparkled again, only at one, right before they turn it off, they turn off the main lights and only the sparkly ones go…so pretty.

In Paris for the next couple of days we took a boat tour, and saw most of the sites we could get in. On one day, Danny found all the sites from the movie Amelie and we went around to all of them. This included going to her café, eating lunch on the canal, climbing Sacre Cour. It was a really great visit! In addition to seeing all sorts of cool historical things, the weather continued to be fabulous, as in 80 degrees and sunny…I even got tan. Probably the best trip of my life.

From Paris it was a return trip to Dublin and then a five hour bus ride before I could return to the place that I considered home. When I arrived, my roommates and friends had made a delicious meal of chicken parmesan. It felt so good to return to a place that held my own bed and bathroom.

My roommate, Kasey, and I had been planning on going on an epic camping trip in Connemara a couple days after I arrived home. We were going to bus and then the camp ground director was going to pick us up and at some point we were going to have to hitch hike, it was going to be a grand adventure. However, we were both feeling the money drain, and had to write papers and study for our upcoming exams.

At this point I would really like to go into a rant about how crazy different and weird the Ireland school system, I promise I’ll try to keep it short. First of all, the Irish students take all their classes, fall and spring and then sit the exams for all of them at the end of the year. This comes out to about 8 to 10 exams in about a month. Every time we would walk to campus we were astounded by the number of people in the library studying because we didn’t feel like we needed to prepare that much, but it was definitely because they had a whole years worth of material to study.

So anyway, I’m pretty sure exams went well, I felt good about the two I had to take, and the papers I wrote, as far as I can tell, were pretty solid. Another interesting thing about school in Ireland is the 40% is passing and 70% is high honors. In cases such as multiple choice tests, this allows someone to do really really well if they study, but it also means that they grade papers on a different scale. However, according to the grades that I did get back, I am definitely in the honors to high honors category!

Other then studying for tests, most of our time was spent hanging out and cooking. The weekend after everyone returned from travels was Easter. We really wanted to paint eggs, but the only chicken eggs in Ireland are brown, so we had to buy duck eggs. In the morning, we blew out the yolks, really Kasey blew them, Jq and I were not nearly as good at it as she was. Then they went to church and I baked the eggs to harden them and scrambled the insides and made banana pancakes for an epic easter brunch. The only other thing that happened that day was an epic easter dinner (you get the idea of our lives). Kasey made a delicious easter ham and the rest of us went crazy with mashed potatoes, casserole and onions. Actually, I lied, the Fransiscan Well was having an Easter beer festival so we went to that during the day in between meals. They had a bunch of local breweries come and set up in the heated beer garden outside and we all got a bunch of half pints to try a lot of different beers, it was a lot of fun, I'm definitely going to miss this culture part of Ireland where you go to a pub for four hours and drink maybe two pints but just sit or stand around and talk, it's great.

I did manage to take one more small trip in Ireland. Another friend, Alyssa, and I took a two night trip to Galway and Inis Mor, one of the Aran Islands. We left really early on the 18^th to get to Galway as soon as we could, thinking we would need a lot of time to see the city. It turns out that though super cute, Galway is also pretty tiny, and if you don’t want to pay to go to pubs or do anything, after you walk the whole city in an hour there’s not much else to do. So we ended up going to the local library and reading for three hours, I finished a whole book!

That evening we caught a ferry to Inis Mor. We were trying to be economical so we just bought a pack of spaghetti and sauce for our two night trip, it was fabulous. We made dinner in the hostel. This hostel, it’s called Kilronan, and is the only one on the island, is probably my favorite hostel of the whole semester. It’s basically just a refurbished house and it’s super cute. We went on a walk down the water and watched the sunset and then headed to bed. The next morning the hostel provided breakfast, win!, and then we rented bikes for the day and biked the whole island. There are a lot of cool ancient things on the Aran islands. The coolest on Inis Mor is Dun Aenghusa, an Iron or Bronze Age hill fort right on the edge of some cliffs. There were also seals (probably selkies) and some other really amazing and beautiful houses and countryside. Also, there were lots and lots of cows.

That night we took the ferry back to Galway. We were worried that we’d gotten on the wrong one when it left at 4:30 – we were supposed to be on a five o’clock ferry. But it was fine, it took us back to where we were supposed to be! We spent the night in Galway because there were no more buses to Cork that day. The hostel in Galway was also pretty nice. We thought about going out to a pub for some music, but ended up crashing early, spending a whole day biking an island can be pretty tiring.

We had planned on going to the Cliffs of Moher on the 20^th because I hadn’t been there yet. But the cliffs on the island, especially at Dun Aenghusa were epic enough for me, I didn’t find it necessary to spend a whole day and twenty more euro seeing something I’d basically already seen. So we caught the first bus back to Cork.

The last thing we had to do that was on our list - yes we made a list of things we needed to do in May - was to get a bunch of good food from the English Market and have a fancy meal. We also took this opportunity to dress up. We bought a bunch of olives and cheese and bread and opened the bottles of wine I'd brought from France, it was a really great night, all seven of us from our two rooms were there, it was the last time we were all together.

After that it was basically just a waiting game until we all left. Christine had already gone home on the 19^th so we were missing a piece of our puzzle. We spent one whole day practice packing. Also, Kasey and I made a stop motion video using the 16 bottles of Frank’s hot sauce that we consumed in basically two and a half months, it was really surprising and rewarding to actually finish, we did sound effects and music to it too, really cool!

Now I’ve been back in the states for a day. In that time I traveled from Cork to London and then to Boston. From Boston I took a bus to Portland Maine where a friend picked me up. I spent the night with him and then we went to Brunswick so I could move stuff around in my storage locker. We then spent the day there and I visited with friends from school and seniors who are graduating in a couple of days. It was surreal to go from Ireland one day and be at Bowdoin the next. Now I’m back in Boston heading to the Logan airport to meet my parents. We’re driving to New Hampshire to be able to be in Vermont for Marissa’s graduation from the Mountain School on Saturday the 28^th. On the 29^th we drive back to Bowdoin and I leave the 30^th for two months doing my internship on Kent island – a tiny island in the Bay of Fundy. There I’ll be doing some sort of research. Right now it looks like I’m going to be doing an insect census which will entail catching/killing hundreds of insects and determining what insects are prevalent on the island. I may also may be working with the Savannah Sparrow project, but I don’t really know what that would mean doing. It’s going to be a great summer though, I’m really excited!

On the island I will not have internet or cell phones, or a shower or really running water, it’s going to be rustic and great. My address will be:

Bowdoin Scientific Station, Kent Island

PO Box 742

Seal Cove

Grand Manan NB E56 3H2

If you want to mail me. I will happily respond to any letters I get.

Soooo I think that about sums up my semester abroad. I may continue this blog after Kent Island, we’ll see. I'll also try to post some pictures from the last month or so, but there are a bunch on my facebook. It’s crazy that this semester is over, for years we’ve been talking about our semesters abroad, and now I’ve done it twice, New Zealand and Australia and now Ireland, I’ve been gone for five months and I had one of the best experiences of my life so far. It’s made me realize how much traveling I want to do in the future. I’ve really appreciated living in a different country, not just visiting for a couple of days. We got to know some really cool locals, for instance, the crepe man, who we saw after each of our finals, or Fergal, the barkeep at one of our favorite pubs, The Corner House.

It really has been a life changing five months and I can’t be grateful enough for all of the amazing people I’ve met and friends I’ve made. They are at the root of why this experience was so wonderful.

So this is goodbye to Ireland, I will miss you dearly, but it’s also hello to the rest of my life and all the unknowns and new adventures it’s going to bring.

STOMP and into the end of the term!

So I'll combine the rest into one blog post because not that much has actually happened.

Tuesday, the 22nd, a few of my friends and I went to a STOMP performance - I'm pretty sure it's actually supposed to be in all caps, I'm not yelling, promise. However, now I will...IT WAS ONE OF THE MOST AMAZING THINGS I'VE EVER SEEN!!!!!!! I literally sat through most of the performance with my mouth hanging open and sometimes if I could tear my eyes away I would look around the audience and most everyone was in the same condition as me, at least my friends were. I don't even know how to describe it. The intricate rhythms and movements and music they were able to make using simple things like brooms, matchboxes, lighter, and basically trash was utterly incredible. It was awe inspiring!

The above picture is the set and all that stuff is not just for decoration. They literally hit every single thing attached up there, they all had their specific place in a set. Someone has choreographed and written, if this music can be written, their show to work all of that stuff in. I wish I could've taken more pictures from the performance. If you don't know STOMP or have never seen them, go to Youtube... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NhFmARAgu0  <- this one has some of the same people that I saw.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqJHjMCKhkE&feature=related <- and this one was definitely one of my favorites!! I want some of that pitched pipe stuff...soooo cooollllll!!!! What was especially cool, or at last I thought so, there were times when something would break, and then someone on the side would just throw a new one back in and whoever it was that had broke it would catch it flawlessly and continue on. Also...there were times when they would literally be swinging things at each other and hitting each other, basically dueling with things like trash can lids or big sticks, and never once did anything go wrong, and they were swinging full force....IT WAS SOOO COOOL!!

What was also great about Stomp is that it wasn't just rhythms and stomping and so forth, as you'll see, it's a performance, it was funny, you got to know the people on stage even though they didn't talk at all. There was also audience participation, see as everyone can make noise just by clapping or stopping. I would honestly love to be a part of Stomp or do something like it, seeing as my goal is to be able to play everything (lofty I know) I think I should add brooms and trash cans to the list!!

Okay, so enough gushing. The same week of Stomp, classes came to a close for the semester. I can't believe I'm basically done here. All that's left is to sit exams in May, and I only have two!!! So yeah, classes ended, this also meant that our Irish exam had to happen. This exam was in two parts, an oral and a written, the oral being the much much easier of the two. It's impossible to spell anything in Irish because it sounds so much different then the way it's spelled. For example: go raibh maith agat (meaning thank you) really sounds like "goraev mah agut"...blargh. Anyway, at least it's over. 

More excitingly, last Wednesday, Hannah came to visit me from Granada where she's spending this semester. It was so great to have her here and show her around the city that I've come to think of as home. I played the pipes for her and tried to teach her how to play...no offense to her, but she made me look fabulous haha! I gave her a tour of the city, we played a lot of guitar, I fed her boring food like pasta and grilled cheese, which she appreciate greatly as far as I could tell. 

On Saturday she and I, along with my roommate and neighbor decided to go to Clonakilty, a small seaside -ish town for the day. However, before we could leave, Christine (the neighbor of course) and I had decided a couple of days previously that we wanted to get our ears pierced. So I found a tattoo parlor that had good reviews and was close by and we headed over there before getting on the bus. I never thought I'd get any part of my body pierced, and I'm still not sure why I decided to go for it, I think Christine and I psyched ourselves up and then just did it, and I actually really like it, I got my left cartilage pierced and it looks pretty cool. It may not be a huge deal, but it actually kind of was for me, thus the sharing it on the blog. 

Anyways, afterwards, we headed out of the city for the day. We basically just wandered around for the day, found a cute bookstore with a really nice proprietress, had a picnic in the square, went in the church (which was not a cathedral because the bishop had died - apparently a bishop a cathedral makes) found the coast - the tide was super far out and it smelled kind of bad, but there were some cool birds. Then we took Hannah to her first traditional Irish pub, which actually turned out to be a super cool place. First of all, the bathroom smelled fabulous, like grapefruit or something, I went back three times just to smell it. Also, it had a lot of musical history, Neil Young had visited at one point of time!! There were also a lot of really cool instruments hanging up. And, the bartender gave us free pizza!! We all wished that we could somehow either move to Clonakilty, move the pub to Cork, or have some type of instant transport system into this pub. Hannah had her obligatory first Guinness and enjoyed it!

There was supposed to be a bus back at 5:05, it was on all the schedules, but apparently it doesn't run on Saturdays, so we were forced to head back into the town to grab dinner and wait around until the 7:05 bus. So we did, and then decided we wanted ice cream, or Jq decided we wanted ice cream (she always wants ice cream - we've had at least two cartons in our freezer until recently), but the only ice cream place was closed, and closed at 5 pm everyday...we were confused by this!! After five is the prime time to get ice cream!!

We finally caught the bus and headed back into Cork. I had planned to take Hannah into a pub for some live Irish music, but we got sidetracked by friends and ended up just staying up late and playing music for each other and chatting, it was pretty great. I have a feeling we also ate ice cream, or Jq made brownies, this is what usually happens on these evenings. 

Sunday, Dan and I tried to play pipes and concertina together, but it didn't work out too well, they were really really not in tune with each other, so we went to separate rooms to practice, probably for the best. The only other thing we really did on Sunday was head to another pub to finally get Hannah to some live music. There was a really cool group, it seemed like they spent a lot of time playing together, and it was super nice. 

Monday I had to leave early for a class that only happened this week - Environmental Science in the Field - so I left Hannah to her own devices for a couple hours before she flew back to Spain. She managed to vacuum the whole apartment and go shopping...crazy lady!

This past week the class I mentioned has been taking place. It's basically just been day trips where we learn a new type of field assessment technique in different places around Cork. I saw a bog and peat, and salt marshes, and the ocean. Today we were there and it was freezing, but crazy people were out with kite boards!! It's been really cool to get out of the city, and everyone in the class was really nice. I kind of wish it had been going on all semester, then I feel like it would've been more likely that I would've made some Irish friends, it was only today that we really started talking, but they were all super duper nice.

This week has also been full of everyone leaving. Kasey and Ricky left for Europe last Thursday, Jq left on Tuesday, Christine on Wednesday and Dan on Thursday, now I'm all alone for a few days. My goal is to finish all the assignments I have so all I have to do when I get back at the end of April is study for my two finals. 

Beautiful church in Clanakilty...so peaceful inside.

The kind of smelly estuary....lots of swans, herons and sandpipers though.

House...cool stonework...masonry?

Inside our pub...that's a wall of super cool instruments over there.

Hannah drinking her first Guinness!!

The toilet tank with a pulley in the really amazing smelling bathroom.

Down the street in Clonakilty...so Ireland.

Closed ice cream shop...sad moment...

Evening of jamming and singing and so on...so great!

The group of musicians in the pub on Sunday...possibly singing "little lion man" by Mumford and Sons at this point.

Peat bog, first day of field trip...trying to figure out if this area would be suitable for a wind farm.

Cut peat...

Beautiful serene lake that is the source of the River Lee that runs all the way through Cork and into the ocean. I wish I could go back there.

Another beautiful location on our second day of field trips. I loved the clear reflection in the water.

This Shetland ponies tried to befriend us, by eating our equipment, clothing and hair...they were actually really sweet. This one is pretty young.

More good reflections...such a gorgeous day.

On the third day we looked at geophysical features to try to determine the sensibleness of putting in another house here.

Lower salt marsh...a pretty location, but kind of a bummer of a day, the boots that I got for free from Margaret leaked...possibly she sabotaged them in revenge for me waking her up in the middle of the night.

Crazy kite boarders...reminds me of those Oregonians that go out on days like this. 

Life continues to be grand!

A week from today I leave for Venice!! Can't wait!

Also, I suggest looking at this blog, or other by typing "view" at the end of the url, like http://irelandspring.blogspot.com/view    there are some cool new ways to view them. 

Until next time...

How to make the perfect cup of tea

I'd like to start this post by saying I'm probably going to write three posts tonight but they need to be separated because different/important things happened that necessitate their own space. Soooooo to begin, let me take you back to the night of Monday, the 21st of March.

One of my roommates, Jq, had just arrived back from a trip around Ireland with her cousin and had some crazy sort of lung deal, like whooping cough or something (not really that serious, but it did sound like a lung was going to come flying out of her mouth any minute). So I told her that I was making her a cup of tea. Her response was that she had never had tea before. And I'm like "what?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! I definitely need to make you one now". However, in our apartment we only have black and green tea, neither of which were the appropriate color to sooth her throat. Thankfully, I knew that our good friend and neighbor had been sent sleepy time tea from a friend at home. I figured that for the sake of Jq's lungs, Christine would not be upset with us if we borrowed/took a tea bag.

This is no big deal, we go over to their apartment all the time, mostly for cooking supplies (which actually normally ends in hour long hang out/discussion sessions), so I knock on the door. Dan answers, I enter and retrieve the tea bag, I'm unsure if we have honey (a necessary component in soothing tea) so ask Dan if it's alright if I borrow his. Important tangent: when Dan opened the door he had obviously just been shirtless and was halfway through putting one on...so as I'm leaving, he asks if I'll be bringing the honey back immediately or the next day so he'll know whether to keep the shirt on or not (I swear these details are important), I say I'll return it that night and head back to my room to brew some tea.

I like to imagine this is what it looked like when I make tea.

The water boils, I put the tea bag in the mug, add a generous amount of honey, this girl is about to lose a lung for goodness' sake) and let it sit to cool down a bit. While we wait for this, I decide to bring the honey back to Dan. Jq, for some reason, decides that it's important for her to come too and say thank you. A couple of days before this, we'd figured out a cool trick with our doors where you put out the bolt so that it doesn't close all they way, this makes the running back and forth between rooms a lot easier. So Jq put out the bolt, but apparently not all the way, and the door closed behind her. I did not know this, I'd already entered Dan's apartment and closed his door, so when I opened it to head back to my own, Jq was standing there, looking slightly pathetic and probably coughing. She hadn't brought her card and I hadn't either (though that would've been pointless because it had stopped working earlier that day), neither of us had our cell phones either and our landlady's phone number is at least in mine.

Margaret, our landlady, had previously told us stories (long long long stories) about previous mishaps that have happened at Copley Court, and told use explicitly that she doesn't mind being woken up or interrupted to let us in because it's her job. Soooo, we borrow Christine's phone, but neither her nor Dan have the phone number. So Jq and I have to run down the two flights of stairs in bare feet (it's 23:00) at this point, to get Marge's number. We call and no one answers....decide to call our other roommate who's out at a pub with her visiting boyfriend...no one answers. Meanwhile, Jq's mug of tea is still seeping and cooling in our apartment, the whole reason for this venture in the first place. Call Marge again, she picks up, very upset.
I say, "Hi Margaret, I'm so sorry to bother you, but we've locked ourselves out of our rooms!"
She says, "Are you joking?" in a not very friendly voice.
Me, "No, we forgot our keys"
Her, "Aren't your other roommates around, why would you lock yourself out of your room?" Apparently thinking that I personally had managed to lock myself out of my bedroom. So I had to straighten her out and try to explain the situation, but did not stand firm and said that we would continue to try to reach our third roommate and perhaps she'd come and let us in. Marge says that if we absolutely have to we should call her again and she'd come let us in. So we call Kasey probably ten times, we also spend some time sitting on our neighbors couch, and some time sitting in the hallway trying to study Irish from memory, and some time sitting on the window sill looking at the moon (which was particularly full and close at that point in time). So a good half an hour has passed before we decide to suck it up and call Margaret back again...she is not happy.

When she arrives she looks particularly grumpy, keep in mine it's only like 23:30 at this point, so not too late. But she says she had to take some painkillers for her back and was in bed mucho early. But still lets us in. Finally Jq is able to drink the tea...and it was at the perfect temperature!! She thoroughly enjoyed it and managed not to lose any lungs!

So in sum, to make the perfect cup of tea, there are many steps. Also, I had to visit Margaret the next day to replace my broken card, she wittily told me that next time I leave the room at night, I shouldn't forget my card. Argh...but even if I'd had it, we still wouldn't have been able to get in...oh well. It was quite the exciting experience. Turned out that Kasey had decided not to bring her phone with her because no one called her at night...perfect.

Sorry for the weirdly detailed account...I wanted to at least write it down for me because it was such an epic night!

Saint Patrick's Day...and more!!!

Life on the Emerald Isle continues to be absolutely swell. Since getting back from London I've mostly just been hunkering down into life in Cork, which has been really nice. I feel like I've been continuously on the go, and having two weekends in a row where I just stayed home and hung out with friends here has been fabulous. We've been doing a ton of cooking and baking and just hanging out. It's basically like living with a large family of people that all happen to be the same age, I guess similar to college, but also different because we cook for ourselves and are essentially just living in a city on our own.

I guess first I want to regale you all with the cooking successes I and we have had. Kasey and I, in the last two weeks, have successfully made four buffalo chicken meals. Our love for buffalo chicken, I think, has brought us ridiculously close...but it's been amazing, buffalo sauce is literally like heaven, there's no other way to describe it! We've made two batches of buffalo chicken pizza, and buffalo chicken sandwiches. I'm definitely not bored with these, but I'm wondering what else we can do with this amazing hot sauce!! We've also made some delicious chilis, meatballs, pasta, roasted garlic mashed potatoes, Smithwick's (beer) and onion roasted potatoes, chicken in wine sauce, maple glazed salmon, parmesan roasted potatoes, home fries, omelets, pancakes, apple pie, shortbread cookies, peanut butter/chocolate chip/oatmeal cookies, chocolate cake, Bailey's cheesecake...man, I'm making myself hungry thinking of all the delicious food we've eaten in the last week. I think someone's making bruschetta soon and we've planned for chicken parmesan as well...if anyone wants to come visit we will happily feed you, we love having an excuse to cook, which basically means dinner every night :) We've also got three french friends who are fabulous cooks...and I thought Bowdoin had a good meal plan!

Other then cooking, I've actually been doing a fair amount of homework. We have one more week of classes, a few finals for certain classes, then all of April off before coming back in May to sit exams. So I've had a couple papers due in the last couple of weeks, as well as studying for my Irish exam on Wednesday and Thursday (there's an oral and written section). I also have my whistle and pipes test, so I've been practicing a bunch, and I've definitely gotten markedly better on both instruments and have a fair number of tunes in my head/fingers.

I'm sure what everyone really wants to know is what St. Patty's day was like in Ireland. The answer being that my personal St. Patrick's day was fabulous!! First off, the weather has been really nice (until today that is, back to rain), but the past few days have been sunny and no coat has been needed to go outside. But we started the day off with a feast! The homefries, omeletes, pancakes from before were part of this meal. We also added bacon, fresh squeezed orange juice and Irish coffee (coffee with Bailey's in our case) to the menu. It was fantastic!!! From there, well we cleaned the kitchen first (something I love about the people I'm living with, we all work together to cook and clean!) and then we put on our green clothing and prepared to go out. We wanted to see the parade, but our breakfast ended up taking longer then expected, so we saw as much as we could from our balcony (yes we have a balcony, that I've actually been spending a lot of time on in the warm weather) while readying ourselves with some rum and coke and girl scout cookies.

Our first stop was The Old Oak, a bar/pub that I haven't yet been to, but which was actually really nice. There were crowds of people on the street, all in green and Irish get-up. When we got to the pub there were layers of people in front of the bar that had to be waded through to get our traditional Irish beer, Guinness, Murphy's and Beamish all around! Once we had our pints in hand we just found an empty place and chatted for about an hour. We met a really nice couple with a really cute small child who we played with for a bit. There were tons of small children running around underfoot in the pub! After finishing our first pint we headed to another bar, Rearden's, and got another. At this bar there was a life Irish band, which was really nice seeing as we'd been considering going to a performance that you needed to buy tickets for...this music was free, or at least the price of a pint!

We needed to get to Tesco, the grocery store, before it closed, so we left the second pub and headed back into the center of the city to grab some grub, and stuff for the evening. We'd decided we wanted to try Irish Car Bombs, a drink that real Irish people don't actually do, but which ended up being quite delicious. With our groceries, baguette, brie, Jameson, Bailey's and Guinness (the necessities really) we arrived back at our apartment for an afternoon of snackage and sing alongs. I grabbed my guitar and played the songs that I hoped at least a couple of people would know. Turns out I'm not too far off the beaten track of music that everyone knows. It was really fun, and the guitar got passed around to a few people. Christine (who I've been teaching how to cook) made FABULOUS guacamole, and fried tortillas to make chips (or crisps I guess) which was all scarfed down in about fifteen minutes. After this, time just seemed to fly by and it was dark outside. We played some card games and all drank an Irish car bomb before heading back out to one of our favorite pubs. We didn't end up staying very long, it was really crowded, and while everyone wanted to keep going, Dan, Christine and I headed back to our apartment. Christine and I were considering heading out and meeting up with the group again, but they called and told us that lines were crazy long to get into places (up to an hour) so we decided to stay in and maybe watch a movie. We ended up just talking for a couple of hours, which was really nice. Then everyone came back and we had a midnight (actually more like 2 am) snack before heading to bed. All in all, I would say that it was a successful St. Patty's day, I thoroughly enjoyed myself and the group of people I was with.

In comparison to Thursday, yesterday was really low key. We went out to brunch, got some fabulous sandwiches and then Kristen (Dan's friend who's taking a semester off in Germany) and I decided to bake. I don't think either of us realized what a serious undertaking we were in for, but it was a lot of fun. We made (from the list above): chocolate cake, apple pie, white wine chicken, Smithwick's roasted potatoes...it was a fabulous day and evening of good smells and delicious food.

Let me just add that this blog post kind of makes it sound like we're crazy and consume alcohol all the time. This is not the case...St. Patrick's day was a special day in which we were trying to embody the Irish culture and lifestyle :) However, this is not a normal practice (don't worry parents!!)

The shortbread cookies I made. Honestly, other then buffalo sauce, I think the best flavor in the world is creamed butter and sugar...

Sunset from our balcony...another Mary Poppin's moment.

St. Patty's day breakfast preparations...notice the oranges being squeezed to the right!!

The delicious spread. From left to right: chocolate chip pancakes, eggs scrambled with spinach, mushrooms, cheddar and zucchini, home fries, bacon, and Irish coffee. So delicious!!

The perfect plate, however it's not mine because I don't eat bacon, though it smelled really good.

The bit of the parade that we could see from our balcony, it sounded like fun...

Irish didgeridoo player...Australia and Ireland meet! He was super good too!!

Live band with keyboard, accordion and flute...good stuff!

Delicious chocolate cake.

Smithwick's potatoes...sooooo goooood!!!

Cake and pie...what a beautiful night!

So life continues to be great. I can't believe March and classes are almost over! Soon I'm going to be traveling around Europe and visiting friends who are studying all over! Can't wait!!!

Irish proverb of the day:

Hunger is a tasty sauce.
Is maith an t-anlann an t-ocras.

London Weekend

Yep that's right. A week ago today we were out exploring the city of London. Europe is such a crazy place...everything is so close together!!

Our adventure began late Wednesday night when we all met up at one girl's apartment to spend the night, which does not necessarily mean that sleep happened. We tried to get a couple hours of winks, but her couches were tiny, I was sprawled across the couch and part of the table onto a chair, kind of uncomfortable. So then we woke up around 5 to get taxis to the airport. We basically napped there, and then on the plane then on the bus from the airport into the city. Thursday was actually pretty uneventful, we found our hostel, bought lunch and then took naps. We thought we'd just rest for a couple of hours, but we were out until 5:30 and by then it was dark. So we headed out for dinner and to wander. Our hostel was down the block from Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens, so we meandered through those, found some cool statues, and then when it got too dark and cold, looked for someplace to eat. And we found the best thai place ever! It was cheap, delicious and had huge portions. In the four days we were there, I went three times!

Then it was back to bed. Which was actually really nice seeing as I was getting over a cold. However, we were in a twenty person, mixed gender room, with triple bunk beds instead of just two. It was kind of a crazy space, it looked almost like a bunker in a ship. Each bed had individual curtains, which was really the only plus to this room. Seeing as it was Thursday night, though it really could be any night of the week, some girls were taking FOREVER to get ready to go out, and just had to be blasting loud music at the same time. I don't understand why people don't get the whole being respectful of other people when there are twenty people living in the same room!!! The next two nights, guys from France and Spain and Mexico were up late drinking and chatting loudly, in our room, not in any of the many common areas that are available for that sort of thing, no, right next to my bunk. And then, one night, when they finally did go to sleep, they had a farting contest....what!?!? Oh hostels...I guess that's what you sign up for, but let me tell you...I was sooo glad to get back to my own bed.

Kensington Gardens at sunset

Anyways...enough complaining. Friday was great. The weather was nice, if a bit chilly. We headed into Trafalgar Square to catch a tour bus that we'd bought tickets for. It was a cool system, you just get on at any stop during the day and then can get off wherever strikes your fancy. You also get a ticket for a boat tour. So we tried to do everything, which is impossible. But we hopped on the yellow line and saw Buckingham Palace, the Tower of London, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben....basically just a ton London. We also learned a lot of interesting facts, but since I didn't take any notes I don't remember because the tour guide was just talking non stop! We ended up getting off at the Tower of London to take the boat ride to Greenwich. At this point a bunch of us really had to use the facilities...but in London you have to pay to use the public bathrooms! One negative thing about Europe, it's the case in Cork too. There are public restrooms, very easily accessible, but it's like 25 cents or pence, depending on where you are, to actually use them...boooo.

First view of the city on Friday morning.

Me standing over the Prime Meridian

The boat ride was really nice. Also pretty cold. It took us out to Greenwich and we walked up to the Royal observatory to stand on the Prime Meridian. There's this red ball on the top of the building, kind of like the Times Square one for New Years. But this one goes up and down every day. At 5 to 1 pm, the ball rises, and then exactly at 1 it drops to set Greenwich Mean Time. Kinda cool. That was basically all the happened there, oh...there were some really cook old telescopes, and a really nice view of London. Then we walked back down to catch a boat back to Westminster. However, it took forever to get back to the Tower of London, which is in the city of London proper (from what I gather, what most people think of as London, is really Westminster, and the city of London is only one square mile, I'm not 100% sure though). So we got off at the Tower of London and got back on the bus which moved a lot quicker then the boat. We hoped to be able to see the Globe from the bus, but they drove past it super quickly and we missed it :(

Telescope in the Royal Observatory

As part of the tour, you could pay £3 to get fish and chips from the Sherlock Holme's pub that were normally £7. So Dani and I ran back to the bus station to get that deal so we could grab fish and chips quickly. We needed to be quick, because that morning when we'd arrived in Trafalgar Square we saw signs for Mozart's Requiem being performed at St. Martin in the Field's church, so on a whim we'd bought tickets, we're both music minors, and no one else was interested. So we ate our fish and chips, which were quite good, had the Sherlock Holme's ale to go with, this wasn't as good...but oh well. Then we headed back to the square where we found a bunch of people gathered for World Book Day 2011. We didn't know this was happening, but it was really cool. They had a bunch of well known authors read selections from their work. We had time to stand and listen to Margaret Atwood and another good Irish author. We couldn't remember why we knew Margaret Atwood, but finally (after looking her up on Wikipedia) figured out that she's the author of The Handmaid's Tale. Pretty cool. But then we had to head into the church for the performance. The first half was not Mozart's Requiem, and we were worried that it may just be the title of the performance or something because we didn't want to pay for a program. But it turned out that the second half was the Requiem, and it was really really cool to see live. It was a really cool thing to do on a whim, very cultured if I do say so myself!! After the concert we met up again with everybody else at the Parliament Building to see Big Ben at night. It was beautiful.

Margaret Atwood reading at World Book Night.

Big Ben, glowing at night.

The next day, Saturday, we woke up relatively early to see the changing of the guard. Which was cool, they played "putting on the Ritz" and then marched. There were people marching oboes and bassoons!! Which is crazy to me! 

After the changing of the guard we split up. Some people had bought tickets to the Tower of London, but Rafa and I didn't want to spend the money so we headed out to the Tate museum of modern art. Another sophisticated activity! It was really cool, I saw some pieces that I'd learned about by helping friends study for art history, like Three Standard Stoppages. 

We lasted for a couple of hours, but by the end we weren't doing any of that standing and contemplating stuff you're supposed to do in museums, we were basically just walking through trying to see everything. Which we did successfully, and then headed around the corner to get a view of the outside of the Globe theater.

This is basically all we could see because you have to pay to get inside. But it was still cool to see. Then it was off to the British Museum. Which we honestly didn't last too long in either. Though there is a lot of really cool stuff, and I was able to recognize some things from my archaeology class. 

After the BM, Rafa and I met up with the rest of the group to try to find Platform 9 and 3/4. Which was actually quite boring. they're doing construction at King's Cross so they'd moved it into an out of the way hallway. It was basically just a fake brick wall with a trolley sticking out of it, and a really long line to get a picture with it.

Sunday we stayed around our hostel so we wouldn't have to buy metro tickets. We headed to the Natural History Museum, which was pretty cool. Since it was a Sunday there were a lot of families with young children, yay for free, educational activities, but man, after three days of walking and seeing tons of people, a crowded museum, no matter how interesting, is just overwhelming. So we only stayed for a couple hours, then headed back to the hostel for lunch and a rest. Colleen and Rafa had bought tickets to a Dr. Who experience, so they ran off to that, and Dani, Katie and I navigated our way to Portobello Road, featured in Bedknobs and Broomsticks. It didn't look like it did in the movie, but it was still a cool market. We shopped around and then walked up the street heading back to our hostel. ON the way back we ran into a car show that had cars from movies like Ghostbusters and Back to the Future, it was random but really cool.

Sunday night we stayed up all night again, watching movies in the common area and generally hanging out until checking out at 2 in the morning to walk to the bus stop. This happened to be right next to Baker Street, so Alyssa and I ran over to take pictures of 221B Baker Street, Sherlock Holmes' supposed living space. Then we boarded the bus and headed back to Cork. This leg was also full of napping on buses and planes.

Overall, it was a successful and very fun trip. I'm glad to back here until April, but it's nice to have the experience of flying around Europe so I know what to expect when I head out for April break. The plan right now for which is, head to Padova to spend a few days with Mary, then to Granada to stay with Hannah and Malachi for my birthday!!! Then Hannah and I will fly to Barcelona for a couple of days before heading over to Paris to hang out with Danny. I think that may be where I end my European travels, because I'm thinking of coming back to Cork to hang out with my roommate who will be here alone for most of the month. We actually just bought a backpacking tent and will hopefully be utilizing it in Connemara national park, which is by Galway. 

Anyways...another update, finished. Hope everyone, wherever you may be, is well.

Irish proverb of the day:

Never take advice without a woman's guidance.
Ná glac pioc comhairle gan comhairle ban.