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.

It's March!?!?!?!

When did this happen? What's going on? I don't really understand, I mean, I know February only has 28 days (which I had forgotten until my application was due the 1st of March and I looked at a calendar and it was much too soon), but how did those 28 days fly by so quickly?

I guess one answer is probably that I've actually been doing some exciting things with my life, so much has happened since the last time I wrote that I can't even really remember the order in which things did happen, but let's see what I can do.

So I moved, and it was the best decision ever! Thank you thank you thank you to my parents for okaying the spending of the money to move from a double to a single. But also, just to be clear, it's not the single that makes it the best decision ever, but the people I'm rooming with and close to. We've had like three or four group dinners (which I will talk more about) and just spend a lot of time together talking and being friends, whereas in my old room, I would spend most of my time on my computer alone. Basically I cannot gush about my friends or living situation now enough, so I'm just gonna stop because I think you get the idea.

Ok...so after the moving in. Well I guess the first thing is that Kasey and Jq watch tv shows together in the evening (kinda like Hannah and I do) and they're working on a show called Dexter. Anyways, that first night in this room they invited me to watch with them and since then it's become a nightly ritual for all of us, often joined by cookies or ice cream. We're also loading the show free from the internet so sometimes it can be an adventure. Jq will start loading it on her computer, but it will freeze, so we'll come to mine and watch on megavideo, which will say we've reached our time limit in like 10 minutes so then we go back to Jq's or try Kasey's...you get the picture. It's fun, but can be tiring...I think it may actually be why I've got a head cold, too much time spent chasing Dexter around computers and not enough time sleeping.

One of the huge plusses of moving is that we share the kitchen and everything in it here. We'll all go shopping together, or two of us will go and get what we need, often it's the basics: milk, eggs, bread, orange juice, and then we'll split the cost. It's so nice to not have to worry about having my own shelf in the fridge, because if something runs out whoever goes shopping next will get it. No ones overly worried about keeping track of who's spent how much money on what, because it evens itself all out. We also do dinner in a similar fashion. One person will have an idea and cook and we'll all eat and help clean and then the next day it's someone else's turn. Some nights we all do our own thing, but that's when we're busy.

Now I'm going to tell you about the fabulous things that have been cooked. Kasey made a really delicious pasta dish with chicken, basil, tomatoes and onions, on spaghetti mixed with balsamic vinaigrette, I've never put balsamic vinaigrette on my pasta intentionally, but it was fabulous. Another night Jq made pizza margherita...ahh so goooood. Because they'd both cooked, it was my turn, and I invited our friends from across the hall over for savory/dessert crepes. Sauteed some mushrooms and onions, asparagus with garlic (I love asparagus!!) and then baked broccoli with garlic, for the savory ones. For dessert I sauteed apples with cinnamon, brown sugar and a little vanilla, some people put nutella along with it, or just plain ol' whipped cream. It was a great meal, but man were there a lot of dishes. The next night, because Dan's friend was visiting from Paris, his roommates, two of which are French, made a fantastic french meal for all of us, and Dan made a cheescake. I don't remember what the meal was called, but it had potatoes and really good cheese and pork pieces, which I did eat because I've been really good, and it was a french meal made by french people...I mean c'mon!! Tonight Kasey and I are going to make buffalo chicken burgers with garlic mashed potatoes and are incredibly excited. Man, that was a whole paragraph about food, and it probably could've been longer, did I ever talk about our sundae and sangria night? Well that was delicious and fabulous as well....basically, we eat a lot, and well.

In the "not food" realm of being in Ireland things have been continuing on. Finally have assignments, for instance the marine environments paper due Thursday that I am procrastinating on by writing this. Also had two quizzes around the midterm, one in marine science and one in archaeology, I think they both went well, hopefully getting them back soon. Whistle and pipes continue to go well, also along the music vein, I've started teaching Kasey how to play the guitar which is fun! Basically school is school, not uber exciting.

However, this past weekend was fun. We had another archaeology field trip on Saturday which was really cool.

The first site we went to was the site of the largest wedge tomb in Ireland, the Labbacalle Wedge Tomb. It held three bodies, a child, a man and an old woman (old meaning in her forties), and it used to be even bigger, the first capstone would've extended even farther to the left. This monument is from the final neolithic, which would be between 2,800 and 2,300 BC...so a really long time ago!

This is the wedge tomb, you can't see the whole thing.

Inside the wedge tomb. There were different chambers that held the bodies. The first one held the child and man, and a woman's head. The second farther back one held a woman's body without a head...

Then we went to Glenworth castle, built in the 13th century BC by the Anglo-Normans. It was really falling apart, and had a lot of scaffolding all over it, but it was still mighty impressive

This was a cool waterwheel on the way up to the castle, I'm not actually sure when this is from, but it looks relatively recent seeing as the wood is still there.

One of the corner turrets on the defensive wall.

The tower part of this was actually built later. This section used to be the gate house, there was a dungeon below the ground on the right side. It's amazing to think that people put so much time into building this things stone by stone.

Our last stop was the Rock of Cashel. It was originally built to be a stronghold of the Kings of Munster in the early medieval period, but that building is gone and has been replaced three times over by different religious buildings. The site was given to the church in 1101 when they built the round tower (which you can kind of see in the right part of the first picture). The rest of that building wasn't actually there when the tower was built as a signal of this being a religious place now. Another church was built further away that has since been destroyed to build this bigger cathedral. 

The left side, actually most of the picture, is taken up by the gothic cathedral, the round tower (on the right) was built well before that and used to stand alone

The day was mostly beautiful, it was really windy, and rain swept through a couple times, but it mostly looked like this. Wouldn't it have been scary to be standing there when that corner fell off the building??

So Saturday was a day of education for me, my friends took the day to go to the Jameson factory and get a tour as well as taste test the whiskey, kinda bummed I missed out on that, but the field trip was definitely fun. Sunday, Kasey and I decided to go to Killarney national park. We are both frustrated with the way the mountaineering club runs their hikes. Their mission is to climb mountains as fast as they can, but that's not what either of us are interested in when we go on a hike. There's no wildlife where they go, just hills and rocks. I'll admit, it is rewarding to climb a mountain and reach the top, and I'm glad I did it once, but I'd rather hike through woods with birds and trees and such. So we set off for Killarney, having heard it was beautiful and well worth it. 

We woke up early, planning on catching the 10:30 bus, but wanting to go to the store to grab picnicey things for lunch. So we're out of the apartment by 9:30, the day is already beautiful, but no one is outside. I guess everyone was in church, but Cork, which is usually bustling, was completely dead! We didn't think too much of it, but found this fact applied to us when we got to Tesco and it was closed, with no indication of it's hours. All we have at this point are cookies and some trail mix, we definitely need food. So we try Dunnes, also closed, opens at noon. Last attempt is centra, a kind of 7-11 store, and it was open...finally. So now we have supplies and head to the bus stop. 

The ride was uneventful, there were some grey looking clouds ahead of us as we were driving, but the day ended up being completely gorgeous. We get to Killarney and expect to see signs pointing us towards the visitor's center, as our friend Christine told use would be the case. However, these are nowhere to be seen, so we just wander into the middle of the town. Which is very cute and small. Finally we find a sign board that has a map with the visitor's center on it and make our way in that direction. Come to find out, this is something else that is closed on a Sunday. So we have no map or any idea of what to do, or even where the entrance to the park is. But...there are a bunch of bike shops renting bikes to travel the park with, so we head over to one of those to see if they have a map. Turns out he does, it's not very good, but it's still a map, however, he's having a hard time letting it out of his hands before convincing us that the park isn't worth it unless it's seen via bike. There's apparently no way of seeing what you need to see if you just walk, because it's 10k down to where you want to go 8k around that lake and then 10k back. It is completely true that this would not have been doable, however, there's a whole other section of the park that is close by and completely walkable. So I grabbed the map out of his hands in the middle of him telling us for the fourth time that he would give us discount bikes if we didn't have a lot of money, said we'd think about it, and left. 

We wanted a better map, so we went in search of someone else who might have one. Ended up in a hotel at one of their racks of pamphlets and found a couple more maps, which altogether gave us a general picture of what we wanted to do. So we set out into the park. It was nothing like the hiking we do at home, on trails, the path was paved and it wasn't really wild. A lot of points of interest in the park could be driven to, so the path was near a road. But it was still nice. We decided that we wanted somethings between Killarney and the mountaineering club, but I think I preferred our laid back stroll through the park to the steam engine that are the serious mountaineering club people. 

I took my "Irish Wildlife" book and we identified a bunch of trees and birds and ferns and such, taking it slowly, stopping to eat and look at the surroundings. We even climbed a tree at one point. It was a perfect outing. We decided that when we get back home we'll try to meet up in between Boston (where Kasey goes to school) and Maine to go hiking and backpacking during the school year next year. Hopefully then we'll get our happy medium. We managed to walk a good distance a see a lot of stuff, and were even able to not have to retrace our steps (like the bike man said we would) to get back to the entrance, so we saw a lot of stuff. 

The beginning of the hike. If we'd been with the club they would be going up those mountains behind Kasey! 

This is Mac, a Common Frog. We're not sure if it was male or female because we only realized that we had to look at it's thumbs to see after I'd let it go, so we went for an androgynous name.

Ross Castle. There were a lot of people here feeding ducks and swans, it was really pretty.

Getting out of the tree we climbed, climbing this tree made us feel very accomplished.

This is Ross Island. In the mesolithic period, and on through the ages, people mined copper here. The mesolithic people would build fires against the rock face, throw cold water on it and then hammer it with a stone hammer over and over and over again to get at the ore. It was cool to see something we'd learned about in archaeology in real life. I really wanted to go down the hole, but there was a fence around it.

Look a bird! In a tree! This is why we went on this hike. This is a Treecreeper because it scuttle up and around trees really quickly to find insects. It was hard to capture a picture of it.

Beautiful day!

We took a different trail back, that was paved, and look what we got, a natural slip and slide. If I'd brought a change of clothes I would've been tempted...

Red Deer just chillin in the middle of a field. There was some bird scurrying across the field also, but it was too far away to get a picture, I think it was some type of partridge or something.

All in all life continues to go swimmingly. Leaving for a weekend in London early Thursday morning, will hopefully have all sorts of fun adventures there. Now it's off to finish this paper.

Irish proverb of the day:

The north wind's heat or the cold of the south wind, means rain.
Teas gaoithe aduaidh nó fuacht gaoithe aneas, sin báisteach.