Weekend Trip to Kerry/Dingle Peninsula

Kerry and Dingle Peninsula, the southwestern part of Ireland, were gorgeous. I felt like I was in an Irish Cape Cod. Definitely brought back good memories. Kerry was beautiful and we went to the Blasket Islands, which are kind of barren, but people used to live there and some still do. The wind was high and this guy from another program, Ian, offered me his coat to add to my four layers I already had on. (I know, five layers, but for those of you who know me, Hannah the reptile, it was damn cold on that boat.) What a charming display of old fashioned chivalry that made me blush actually. Hasn't happened to me in a while, although all the guys in this IES program are like that, so it's really nice. Oh, and no vomiting on the boat or train ride. Yay!
Anyway, Dingle Peninsula was just like Chatham. It was a small town, with fresh, very good seafood (I had mussels for dinner on Saturday night), and that special smell of the Atlantic Ocean that has always captivated me. It really was like Chatham. I went pubbing (love how I made pubbing into a word like clubbing, because Irish people don't club-they pub)with some friends and was force fed some Guinness when an indignant regular at one of the pubs insisted that I try Guinness instead of Bulmers, the brand that I ordered for a half pint. I'm not much of a beer person, so I pretended that I liked it, even though I still didn't like Guinness on my second taste, and still went for the Bulmers, which was sweeter. What can I say, I guess I'm not a true Irish person for not liking Guinness. Seriously, how do the girls on this trip not gain weight from all the Guinness they're drinking? Irrelevant. I met some really nice drunk Irish girls (drunk Irish people are always much more friendly than they normally are, which is still friendly). I did a lot of my jewelry shopping before dinner that night--I like to shop in small amounts of time to avoid shopping around, so I liked a jeweler and bought a lot from her. Condenses the shopping time.
Sunday, this girl I met on the internship program (I met a lot of interns and they were so nice! and had some kickass internships), Chelsea, and went to the Aquarium, which had a lot of false advertising. Since I was too far away from the puffins on the boat trip to the Blasket Islands, I wanted to see some up close, and some advertised penguins (my latest animal obsession. Not the case. The gift shop had an array of animals in it, but not the actual aquarium. Just fish, although the parrot fish was really cute with its baby cheeks. It was relaxing nonetheless. I felt like the whole weekend was relaxing, because it was definitely a vacation spot. Maybe instead of Cape Cod, the next time we family vacation, we can go to Dingle! They speak Gaelic in Kerry and Dingle, which is cool. For my drunk story (not actually involving me being drunk, but one of my roommates on this trip), ask Esther for details. I don't want to defame her on this blog, although she probably won't ever see, because I have privacy lines on this, but still. Long story short: drunk "Sally" got into bed with me while she was sleepwalking.
List of my adventures:
1. Almost losing my right arm on the monorail.
2. Fighting the laundry machine to give me back my clothes (the door wouldn't open)
3. Almost losing my jacket with the keys in it.
4. My computer not working for the first week and a half.
5. Realizing the computer needed a mike for Skype and having a one-voice skype instant messaging conversation with my parents. They thought I couldn't hear what they were saying (as they couldn't hear my voice) but I totally listened on their conversation between themselves, and also their joking remarks about painting my room Grandma purple and hiding all of my teddy bears/stuffed animals.
6. Not getting a library card during orientation or realizing that you needed a library card to check out books. I managed to check out a book without a card. Then I realized something was wrong, mainly me being an idiot.
7. Getting my key stuck in the gate lock, effectively jamming it in there and having to call a joking locksmith. The rundown: call Patricia, my RA-not there. Call Regina, the housing liaison. Get the number for Karina, in charge of the complex. Karina calling the locksmith. The locksmith accusing me of breaking the lock on purpose,jokingly of course, before he told me that this happened to someone before me, so it was already almost broken.

Tune in for more adventures and blogging!

Love,
Hannah

The first weekend

The first picture is of the actors on Bloomsday. The second is of Bailey's headquarters.

Well, I can't figure out how to open the washing machine, which has my clothes in it. The door mechanism is harder than it looks. But other than that, I'm fine. Some friends and I went to the James Joyce Festival, otherwise known as Bloomsday, yesterday. There were actors reading from Ulysses, Joycian music, and overall fun. We also went downtown and saw the shopping area, where they have two main shopping streets that are cobblestone and always blocked off from traffic, kind of like a reserved pedestrian shopping area. We could walk in the street without having to worry. So we basically window shopped, as we were still not use to the area. In the middle of the day, I fell asleep in a cafe when we stopped for coffee, as I do not remember an hour of the day. So I must have been unconscious. Damn this jetlag.

Trinity University is very nice here and very beautiful. I wish my campus was like that. I finished my first writing assignment, that restricted dialogue, which was really hard for me, but I know it's to work on the non-dialogue aspect to a story. Now I am going to finish reading the Joyce required reading. I went food shopping last night, and due to my bargain shopping knowledge taught to me by Mommy, I bought quite a few ammenities for only 29 Euro. Not bad for a full basket of food. They had turkey ham, so I bought that for deli, and they had new Activia, which has muesli and other yummy concoctions with its yogurt now. The store bought sushi for dinner was cheap and very yummy, which was pre-packaged from the famous sushi restaurant here, AYA.

One interesting thing here, that doesn't have to do with food, is that it is cheaper to text-message than to actually call someone. You get charged for every call, even if it's local. Although in-coming calls are free. I haven't used my phone except for the alarm on it, but that was interesting to know. Anyway, I have to go read some more Joyce. Tonight is cheap, fresh mussels night, and tomorrow we see The Crucible, wihch isn't Irish, but oh well. Check in for more later!
Cheers!
Hannah
P.S. And edited version: to placate Mom: I did have for my first meal, salmon and potato cakes (similar to crab cakes) at a pub that were really delicious.

First two days in Ireland

This picture of the apartment is of the kitchen, obviously, because I was impressed with its size and counterspace.
The other picture is of a pub we went to tonight, which had a funny name, as you'll see, (hopefully you've read this book in American Literature classes).

Dublin really is beautiful, but because it's booming, there is a lot of construction, making it look less than beautiful. Kinda like summer in Syracuse or Binghamton. Other than that it is gorgeous and rustic, like European cities. Dublin is very eco-friendly, so they charge for plastic bags at grocery stores, the hot water has a timer on it, and so many people ride bikes that there is a bike lane right in the road on the side of the car's lane next to the curb. The toilets have two flush settings--a smaller amount of water for pee and a larger amount of water for poop. Saves a lot of water in the long run.
My apartment is very nice. It's like a condo and would cost, by my estimate, $5,000 a month if this were in NYC. The flats are rented out to businessmen normally. There is a kitchen with a washing machine in it, a decent size with good counterspace. There is an open dining room/living room. There is a broom closet with cleaning things, but not the actually fluids, just the brooms and such. There are two double rooms, the bigger one having its own full bath, the smaller one (Kilby's and mine) having dibs to the common bigger full bath across the hall, like two or three feet across the hall. It's really nice and was just built (the complex) last year. Everything is art-deco/modern in style. My flat is kind of far from the center where the class is, like a 35-45 minute monorail ride away, but it's a nicer place because of that. The closer flats are not as nice. The one good thing about being also a stop away even from town, is that we have a mall with Europe's (or maybe just the UK and Ireland) most popular grocery store chain right in it, Tesco's, that is open 24/7.

Anyway, I am going to bed earlier than usual, because I find I can somehow stick to a nice bedtime schedule abroad. I really should adapt that schedule to school and home, but oh well. Cheers!

Love,
Hannah
P.S. Craic, pronounced crack, means fun in Gaelic, so people will often be heard saying, "Did you have craic last night?"
P.P.S. Some flat buildings, the ones attached to each other on the sides, have a different color for each door, not just blue or red as people would think. It was pretty cool. The doors of Dublin are famous for the multi-colored system.

London!

Picture: These guards are what I wanted to see, but didn't get to, because these uniforms are too hot in the summer.

Okay, so after a horrible flight, it was too late to do anything on Tuesday, so I ate dinner, read some of my required reading and went to bed. I couldn't get in touch with my British friends, so unfortunately, I didn't get to see them. Maybe I can see them on my way back. Anyway, after having bad effects (stomach and head) from jetlag, I got off to a late start this morning, Wednesday, and took the tube to Green Park. I proceeded to go to Buckingham Palace, following signs all around the park that contradicted each other in terms of directions. The guards weren't wearing their traditional garb, because it was a warm day :o(. Because of the sign contradictions, I ended up (after the palace) in St. James Park and attempted to find Westminster Abby. After learning that it was a thirty minute walk from the park, (and after walking over 3 miles to find the park exit to Westminster), I decided it would be another time and left to go back to my hotel, The Royal National Hotel, which sounded better on the British Airways site than it really was. But I had an okay time in London.

Pre-Trip Stuff in NYC and LI

I went to NYC on Friday to visit Aunt Laurie and my twin sister Esther. She's working with a German fashion house, Heike Jarick, a rising fashion designer in the US and Europe. She's also looking for fashion jobs, so if you know any in NYC that pay, please let me know. I had a great time with my aunt and sister, and got to housesit and dogsit for the cutest maltese lapdog. There was a cat too. The apartment in Manhatten was a NYU faculty complex and was really nice. We walked around and just spent time with each other. Esthi took me out on Monday before my flight. On Sunday though, for the first time in two years, I was able to go to this Bing people BBQ on LI, hosted by Matt Saunders. I saw most of my friends and it was nice to see the ones that graduated. I love you guys--you know who you are! Anyway, tomorrow's the flight and spending time with Esthi, so I'll try to update asap with pics from my two day, pre-program London trip and Ireland. For now, I'm signing off, but I miss everyone so much! Wish me luck!
Love, Hannah