I'll Miss It

aaah dublin. today was my last day here...so sad! but it was a good one, i made the most of it. well first this morning jess and i went over to say goodbye to kat..again, so sad! i'll really miss her but hopefully i'll be making my way to texas to visit her sometime. then jess and i went out to kilmanhaim gaol (jail) and took a really great tour and i got to see into prisoner cells and they took us out to the yard and everything...it was sad and somber but i'm really glad i saw it, i've been wanting to but just hadn't gotten the chance.
then we just walked around temple bar one last time and we went in urban outfitters b/c they had a tshirt in the window that said "i did justin three times" and i thought that was awesome so i wanted to see what else they had! (and no, i didn't buy the shirt...but i thought about it.). and we got lunch and ate it in st. stephen's green b/c it was so nice and sunny out! then we headed back home to finish packing and relax before we went out to dinner w/ susan and her sister, had fun, now i'm back home and all that's left to do is sleep! and get up at 6am for my 6:30 aircoach for my 9am flight that will land in paris then i take off again at 1:20p paris time, and i'm home by 3:30p!!!!!!! well, in philly at 330, then i have to drive home...so...home at6!!! WOO! i am so excited i cannot wait. cannot! and i'm trying to figure out what i will do with myself for 8 hours on a plane...and i still don't know. but i'll think of something! like sleeping? hopefully i will nap a little b/c it'll be 11p my time when i get home and i don't wnat to be in bed at 6. but anyway...
dublin was incredible i'm so happy i had this experience, i wouldn't trade it for anything! and getting to travel this past week...aaah so amazing. but it's time for home and i can't wait to be back in the states with my friends and family!

*it may not always be so;and i saythat if your lips,which i have loved,should touchanother's,and your dear strong fingers clutchhis heart,as mine in time not far away;if on another's face your sweet hair layin such a silence as i know,or suchgreat writhing words as,uttering overmuch,stand helplessly before the spirit at bay;* - it may not always be so...

travelling is fun...yet exhausting.

and HELLO! i have lots to write about b/c i've had a looong week...i don't know what you people did without my blog for a week...but no worries, i'm here to tell you all about my whirlwind week around europa! i'll break this up as easily as i can.
oh first of all, last thursday some people from the office took kat and i out for drinks, but we were supposed to meet her mom for dinner, so we downed our drinks in a very short amount of time, and were quite tipsy when we met up with her mom, who found it hilarious. we went to "thunderroad cafe" which is like..ireland's version of hard rock cafe which was really fun, then i just went home, packed and slept b/c we were leaving fairly early friday morning. so here we go then.
Friday, July 23rd: Katie, Rachel, Jess and I caught the 6:15am Aircoach to the airport, jess and i left one bag in left luggage to pick up on our way to Brussels, and we caught our 8:30a flight, the first of oh so many flights! and it was late...which we found is a trend with RyanAir, despite their slogan being :The On Time Airline...hmmm. About 2 minutes after we landed in Glasgow we had to run and catch the train going into Glasgow, which was only about a 35 minute ride (and the flight was only about 40 minutes). Glasgow was very cool, the builings were beautiful, but i kind of felt rushed the whole time i was there b/c our final destination was Edinburgh and we had our very heavy backpacks on, but we walked around and saw lots of stuff (not sure i could tell you exactly what...but we saw stuff!)...glasgow is more of an industrial city, but very nice nonetheless. and i love the scottish accent. LOVE IT! possibly more than the irish accent *gasp* there! i said it. we ate at the "BierHall Republic", where there were apparantly like 300 beers that we could order, but none of us ordered any alochol, which i believe resulted in us all waiting about an hour and a half for our food...when everybody else around us was eating away happily...grrr. Around 2 we walked to Queens St. Station and got there just in time for a train to Edinburgh, which only took an hour to get there. and there were cute little scottish kids talking in their little scottish accents on the train with us! aw! Got off at Waverley Station right in the City Centre...soooo beautiful!! so we decided to walk up to our hostel.....good feelings GONE! despite it being right off Prince St., it was a hooooooole. in a back alley, so awful. they only accepted cash as payment (what? hello mr. shady, how are ya!?), there were nooo locks on the doors, and the mattresses and sheets were grossssss. just a major creepy vibe from the entire place. none of us wanted to stay there, so we went to the Edinburgh Tourism Centre to ask for other options, but in the end we just decided to stay (long story...too long for blog.) so we bought our own damn sheets and stayed b/c the place is cheap and we're only sleeping there and it's in a really good location. And I had an awful night's sleep...it was so loud and i woke up like on the hour and it gets light out at 3am so i was so confused. and people liked to do really loud and really bad karaoke in the bar beneath our hostel. lovely.
Saturday, July 24th: Up early to catch a City bus and make our way to the Brittania, which is the ship that the Queen used to travel around the world on...very interesting, with pics of the royal family and everything (william! and he has a cousin that is equally as good looking...just a thought.). we spent about 2 hours there walking around the ship, and they gave us individual little audio tour things so we learned all about it and i took lots of pictures...although it all seemed pretty exorbidant (sp?), and it does make more sense to travel by PLANE...so i guess that's why she doesn't use it anymore. then we caught the bus back to the city centre and made our way up to Edinburgh Castle, stopping for lunch on the way. The castle was incredible, i had no idea it was so intricate and huge! it was up on a volcano that overlooked the entire city, and admission included a little 30 minute tour, and they all wear kilts and our guide was younger and so great! he pointed out main interests in the castle and made jokes, which were perhaps made funnier by the scottish accent?! then we just walked around and saw all thedifferent things by ourselves and once again, took tons of pictures! woo! but it was absolutely frigid out, we're talkin i could see my breath kind of cold. so what could i do but buy a sweatshirt that says "edinburgh university" on it?! teehee. then jess and i went to the Camera Obscura, which was very cool! you go upstairs in this old building and they have a...not periscope..or is it periscope? i don't remember, but either way, you could see the whole city through a pinhole size thing in the roof that had a mirror on it. and if you turn the mirror you can see different parts of the city and stuff...then the rest of the building just has all optical illusions stuff you can play with...it was cool i'm glad i went.  ummmm...then over to the hostel where we met katie and rachel and went to dinner! and when we went back to the hostel we could hear the westlife concert going on at the castle...hahaha. ah.
Sunday, July 25th: ok sunday was a big day b/c we did our mini-bus tour of scotland! but first we had to get out of the hostel. which would've been easy if there hadn't been homeless men sleeping (or passed out) in the stairway. yeah, that's right. and they had left um...other things in the stairwell also, and it was disgusting. but somehow the guy that worked in the hostel got them to leave, and we all went to meet our tour! our bus driver was in full scottish kilt gear, i love it! and he had been in the army for 18 years so he was very proud and full of scottish knowledge. he had tons of stories to tell about scotland and different areas we went to. we saw some highland cows...cutest damn cows i have ever seen in my life! they're so shaggy and cute! aww. we made our way up to loch ness, stopping for lunch and picture opportunities along the way...and unfortunately i was dissapointed with loch ness. its a pretty town and we took a pretty boat tour of the loch (didn't see nessie though..bummer.) but we paid like £6 for it and they talked maybe 4 times, so i didn't think it was worth that much. he didn't tell us nessie stories or anything...oh well, still pretty though. we passed so much stuff and i don't remember the names of it all :( oops. but we headed back to edinburgh and got back around 7p and went to eat at the hard rock in edinburgh...and we had a crazy waiter who made me order a Corona b/c everyone else ordered water (how dare he! mwaha.) so scotland was fun, i'd love to go back and stay somewhere nice and have more time to see more things.
Tuesday, July 27th: yes i realize i skipped monday, but i don't have monday in my notes from the week, therefore monday did not exist. just kidding! monday we flew into brussels but didn't get to the hotel til 430 b/c of delays and our airport was way out of the city. so we met kat at the hotel and swapped stories up til then, then we to see the Palais de Justice, Museums, Palais Royal, St. Michael's Cathedral, then stopped to eat on this cool street right near Grand Palace...it's a really narrow street full of resutarants, and they all have their tables set up outside, so cute! there was also a cool little walk through near there witha  huge chocolate store...belgian chocolate.mmmmmmm. then we went to the Grand Place which was GORGEOUS!!!!!!! aaaaaaah i loved it...it's a square with all these beautiful buildings around it...ah it was lovely. and i also saw Manneken Pis. which i the statue of a little boy peeing that is apparantly hugely famous??? weird but ok. so for real on tuesday, we took a train into luxembourg at 11am and realized that our hotel was about 20 minutes outside the main city so we just decided to wait til the evening to catch the bus there. we walked all around hte city, literally...so tiny! and we saw pretty much everything there is to see, including the Bock Casemates and we went on a tour of hte Grand Ducal Palace! beautiful yet again! ate dinner in Place D'Arms, overall it's a really cute city and full of history for such a small place. but i was so tired from walking around..and hte night before i had gotten a really bad leg cramp in my sleep, and when i woke up i could barely walk...so bad! don't know why! that never happens to me. anyway, luxembourg was fun for that day, and our hotel was lovely, OH! and we watched "the calcium kid" starring orlando bloom...so good! he's so adorable! go watch it.
Wednesday, July 28th: Took the train from Lux and were back in Brussels arond 12:30p..but on the way we saw this weird accident..there was a train stopped coming hte other way, and i saw a woman lying down on the ground and they had a big gold blanket on her? i guess to keep her warm? but it was really weird and it freaked me out. we walked back to the hilton and checked back in, but this time we got to go upstairs to the diamond suite and have a private check-in...i didn't even know those existed. yay for jess's dad. and we got free drinks! so we put our stuff away in the room and jess headed off to see more museums, and kat and i headed to the EU buildings...you can imagine how psyched i was to see those!!!! but it just so happends that the quickest way to the EU buildings is through the African part of Brussels...i mean there were like..neon signs in the shape of Africa and kat and i were the only non-africans in like a 6 block radius. so we felt a TAD out of place. to say the least. but we got to the EU and it was awesoome but we missed the tour by like 15 minutes which was annoying. but they had a whole information room full of brochures, which i took one of each. so i have about 15 leaflets about the EU, which i will be reading on the plane back home to educate myself on all things EU (or at least brush up my knowledge of it). then we went over to a big shopping street and i bought 2 very fun shirts from Mango! and one is kind of 80s but not in a scary way...anyway, then we met jess at Grand Place and went to dinner on that same street again, THEN...we got...BELGIAN WAFFLES!!!!! aaaaaaaah my gosh they were so delicious. then we had kind of an interesting experience b/c this guy came over and started talking to us, and he was talking to his friend in Arabic and told us he likes to watch Al-Jazeera for his news...ummm that's when the big red flag went up in my mind. and he proceeded to talk to us about how he tried to get into the states but he couldn't b/c he doesn't make enough money, but he REALLY (said emphatically by him) wants to seet he White house and the Pentagon.....scaaaryyyyyy.  oh and the most important part...he's from Morocco. MOROCCO. not to stereotype but that is quite a terrorist areaaa. then we wanted us to go get "english coffee" with him?! how bout NO. i'd rather not be drugged by you mr. moroccon man. then he tried to say he'd walk us back to the hotel and kat was like 'actually we're not even sure where it is..and we don't know the name..so..bye!' and the whole way back we kept checking to makes ure he didn't follow us...so creepy.
So now we're up to TODAY! right? yes, thursday! caught our 10:50a flight back to dublin, back in the apartment around 1p, got lunch, wanted to relax but didn't. went to hand in my phone to IES, mostly b/c i needed the €35 i got back for it..yaaaaay! food for the next 2 days! and we talked to the IEs people for a while and said goodbye, and then i came back to write this monstrosity of a blog. which if you've made it this far, congrats. you are truly my friend! yay you! anywayyy i should probably pack...b/c i'm kind of leaving on saturday...ha...eh. and it's kat's last night so they're having a bbq over there so i have to get some stuff done before i go do that. so alright!
i'll spare you the poem b/c this is already way too long.

last day at work *sad face*

yes yes, very sad. so yesterday was wednesday, what did i doooo on wednesday...work as usual, i went home for lunch so kat could have some mama/daughter time...but it was really nice going home b/c i had the apartment all to myself and it was quiet and i just relaxed for a little while. oh i also went to the bank to cash the rest of my traveler's checks, and the woman totally tried to rip me off. they were already in Euros, and she gave me cash for the amount they would be from Dollars to Euros..and i was like 'whoa lady. don't try to rip me off.' i didn't really say that, i just politely pointed out that they were already in Euro and she promptly apologized and gave me the rest of my money! woo! ummm, back to work, did some work, left around 4:30 b/c we were done with stuff.
i walked over to the Tourism Office to pick up stuff for my mom (she didn't buy enough when she was here, apparantly), then i went to Carroll's irish gifts and bought myself a duffel bag that's Dublin colors and has the Dublin patch on the side and says...you guessed it...DUBLIN! but not in huge annoying letters, no worries. theeen i went to Marks&Spencers and bought myself some dinner and decaf tea bags for mom, went home, created a beautiful meal via microwave, then went to meet kat and her mom at the Savoy (movie theatre on o'connell) and we saw Spiderman 2...now i know i've already seen it, but i knew i'd like it better if i saw tobey's adorable face (and large muscles.) on the big screen. and whadda know, i did like it the second time around! i think b/c i didn't expect sooo much. i still think aunt may needs to go. but it was fun i'm glad i saw it in the movies. but the theatre was weird b/c when we walked in, the seats were in front of us...like you walk in down the bottom, so i was startled to see rows full of people staring at me as i walked in...
went home after the movie, started to pack but got bored, took a shower, went to sleeeeep.
today cathy (from work) took kat and i out to lunch at Fado, lovely. we sat outside and its gorgeous out today, had a great meal. then cathy gave us Labour coffee mugs (! yay!) and posters to take home, we worked on some stuff..and now i think we're ready to leave :( it's sad, i really liked working here. plus if i'm done with work, that means (wait, hold the phone...mike just came in and said that he'd take kat and i out for a driiink! wooooo!)...so i must go, we have to run to newman house, then back here, then away to do whatever we're doin tonight.

 

sha sha

let's try this out for (font) size...haha! sorry, anywaaaaay...no i like this better. or maybe this is easier on the eyes..
alright so...just home for the night, had a good time! how can i not? i'm in dublin! had our last class tonight, which was not as good as i thought...not that i expected a super fun last class, but a guy from our office came in to talk about politics and i wasn't overly impressed...but nonetheless...no more class!
kat's mom arrived today after she missed her flight in newark and then the airline left her bags there...ouch. but after work she took kat, liz and me out to dinner at Captain America's...hahaha it was so fun! really cool place, kind of Ireland's version of Hard Rock Cafe. pics of u2 evvvvvvvverywhere, david bowie's guitars..then a random pic of brad pitt...which i enjoyed! had a pint of bulmers...aaaah going to miss that when i'm back home. has anybody even seen that sold in the states??? if you have, let me know so i can have a glimmer of hope.
we all walked kat's mom back to her hotel, then liz's friend andy called her and we all went to go meet him and some of his friends at the Exchequer Bar, where there was improv comedy going on! whee! sooo funny, good times, stayed there for about...2 hours. and the lead guy was hitting on kat but she wouldnt' go talk to him after the show, then we left the bar and started walking downt he wrong street but didn't realize it, had to turn around, went on the right street (keep in mind none of us had been drinking. well liz had 2 pints but we were all sober), then halfway down that street we had to turn around b/c kat was like 'no i wanna go talk to him' and liz had to use the bathroom, so we walk back in the bar...it's not a crowded bar, mind you, so people notice that we just left, went the wrong way, walked by again, continued the walking, and turned around and came back. then when we were leaving kat's man was leaving to have a cig and he turned around b/c liz said something loud and kat was like 'oh...hey good show' and she like sprinted past him hahahaha...then liz and i made fun of her for about 15 minutes. baaahaha!
ummm yeah just walked home, nothing out of the ordinary..except the guys on grafton waiting for the ATM who were pretend to hump each other...and they saw us giving htem weird looks and they were like 'oooh what you don't find this attractive?' and we all just started laughing b/c they looked/sounded so dumb...ha.
only 2 days left of work though..i'm kinda sad to tell you the truth, i've had fun doing it...even though i didn't get paid. oooh well!
alrighty (oooooo bulmer's light commercial! yahoo!) i'm off to sleepy (i feel like i end every blog with 'alrighty' or 'alright'...do i? am i boring? :( well that's what the e.e. cummings poems are for anyway.) niiiiiight!
 
*all history's a winter sport or three:
but were it five,i'd still insist that all
history is too small for even me;
for me and you,exceedingly too small.* - all ignorance toboggans into know

i got nothin

nothing clever for my title tonight, sorry about that people.
so apparantly when i thought my night was done last night, it was not! kat came over and told me they were going out, so out we went! oh and jess met us at kat's house...and kat's other roomie, also cat, had her guy friend over and he brought some guy friends...and i think they were just so ultra hyper (and drunk) and it was a little overwhelming to say the least. but we went out to The Barge and hung out there for 3 drinks (yes, i'm measuring time in drinks.), then we headed over to TramCo where Liz works so we could do some DANCIN! woohooo! and i finally had a Baby Guinness (a shot...it's kahula type stuff with baileys on top so it looks like a baby guinness! aw! and they're so delicous!)...well actually i had more than one, but that's no matter. hehe.
but it was such a good time, tons of people were dancing and there was awesome music on, he was playing such random stuff...i mean i never thought i'd be dancing to 'bloody sunday' by u2..but yet there i was, dancin away. then we realized it was 230am...oops. so we walked back home and i made my first, and only, trans-atlantic drunk dial. whaaaaa? crazy, i know. but i did it. sorrys all around for thaaaaaaat. so i've decided i am cutting myself off til brussels. yay!
today at work i just did the ies papers that are due tomorrow, a total of 8 pages of funnnnnnnn! yahoo. it really wasn't that bad, then after work kat and i went to Lush and i bought lots of fun stuff...not just for me...some lucky people are getting some super cool gifts!!!! la la la. i hope they open a Lush by me soon b/c until they do i have to make jess ship them to me from D.C. and that can get costly! who would think that soap could be so exciting?! then we went to eat at 'the alamo'..we couldn't resist. and it wasn't that good. oh well. then back home i went! took a shower, just relaxin...andt he one RA ian is here, i think he's doing his psychology experiment or something so i guess i'll do that in a little while...
i don't know if i talked about this in my other blog...but i'm coming home really soon! and it's sooo bittersweet. b/c kristin and lisa and vicky are making plans to get together for when i get back and i'm so excited to be back in the states, but i really love being here and it's been so awesome, i'm sad to leave :( but i'm making the best of the rest of my time overseas...scotland this coming weekend, brussels/luxembourg/brussels starting monday...back on thursday..possible visit from claire (!yay!), last minute buying and stuff on friday, fun plane ride on saturday. wheeee!
 
*(once like a spark)
 
if strangers meet
life begins-
not poor not rich
(only aware)
kind neither
nor cruel
(only complete)
i not not you
not possible;
only truthful
-truthfully,once
if strangers(whodeep our most are
selves)touch:
forever
 
(and so to dark)* - once like a spark...
 
 

Back from the North

Um...that was a pretty amazing weekend if i do say so myself. and i am. amazing!
Thursday i did the usual, off to work, did some more campaign research for Cathy, talked about Belfast..hung out with Liz, Kat, and Erin during lunch, back to work, left around 430 so we could have enough time to pack and get ourselves to the train station, and we ended up getting there only about 12 minutes before our train was due to leave...yay for super fast walking WITH luggage in tow. booyah.
really nice train ride up to belfast, beautiful scenery and it's only 2 hours away, and the UK phone companys send you text messages when you cross over, so weird! and kat got one that said 'uncle jim bowen would be right proud'...we still are'nt sure what one was about. and there was this family next to us speaking another language..possibly japanese? not sure, but they sounded really annoying and their language was very like...sharp on the ears and i really didn't like it and they were so LOUD. then at one point the mom was saying something and she turned around to lookb ehind her and like..in the middle of her sentence she burped REALLY loudly! and just continued talking...i couldn't believe it i started to laugh really hard but tried to hide it b/c she was sitting right next to me and i felt bad! but kat started cracking up too and it was all over after that. so we had to get up and move to a different place on the train we just couldn't take it anymore. but the rest of the trip was very uneventful.
got to belfast, claire's mom was waiting for us in the train station! she's so nice and she drove us arond belfast quickly and took us on a wee tour, then drove us back to ballygally via the scenic route...soooo pretty. just gorgeous. we saw carrickfergus castle and the black arch and claire's little town is so adorable! we also passed through a bunch of towns that had union jacks and ulster flags EVERYWHERE b/c the july 12 marches had just finished last weekend...and one town had in huge writing on this big arch, "WELCOME TO LOYALIST LARNE" so it didn't take long. and all the sidewalks were painted union jack colors and whatnot...we got to her house but she was still at work, so kat and i sat and talked to claire's mom and dad for a while, and went up to the den (room above the garage with futons for us to sleep on) around 1130, claire wasn't due to be home until 1ish, but i wanted to stay up so we started to watch 'gladiator' and waited for her to come back!
around 115a claire came running up the stairs and we hugged and it was so happy! yaaaaay! she hung around with us til around 230am then she went back in the house and we went to sleep then she came to wake us up around...930a i think. jenna, claire's younger sister, made kat and i an "ulster fry" which is basically bacon, sausage, an egg, 'tatty cakes' (potato bread fried), a pancake, and soda bread. yeah, enough food for you? i wasn't hungry again til like 430 that day. but that was grand, then we took off for Giant's Causeway, again via scenic route..and we passed through a nationalist town that had tri-colors flying and more loyalist towns...oh wait first we went to...crap i don't remember the name but it was kind of like a state park, and we went on a 2 mile hike and saw all these beautiful waterfalls and almost got lost but we didn't! yay sense of direction! then off to Giant's Causeway...long ride lots of pretty things to look at.
Giant's Causeway was really neat i had fun just climbing all around..and you can see scotland up there which was weird i couldn't believe it was so close! we sat on the rocks for a while relaxing and listening to the ocean and takin pictures and people watching...then back to the car (can i just say it was so nice to be travelling in a car. not a bus, not a train, a caaaaar! so lovely.) and back to claire's and out to dinner with her parents to Matties pub. such good foood! and her dad kept buying kat and i pints...la la la! Magners (Bulmers) is sooo delicious! so we ate and talked then moved downstairs to the bar area and hung out there for a while...and we put some money in the juke box for songs, but halfway throught he ones we picked, this one man badn started to play...literaly, he had his double keyboard and the music was arleady on cd or something, and he played his little heart out! there was also a group of women there having a night out and they were soooooooo loud and the one woman's laugh just cut right through me...ugh. but other than that we had a great time, then claire's mom took the 3 of us over to um...i forget the name...a castle hotel that has a bar in it, and we had one more drink there then headed home, put on the rest of 'gladiator' and claire slept up in the den with us!
up saturday morning and off to our day in BELFAST! so excited. got there around lunchtime, and stopped in this really cool posh restaurant to eat, and it had pink lights and big statues inside...odd but cool. then over to city hall b/c we were supposed to have a tour there but somehow we were misinformed and we didn't get to do that..bummer. but we took pics then went up into the belfast tourist office and got into on a black taxi tour, which we booked i think for 4. so we met the guy outside city hall and he said he was well known for the tour in the u.s.? b/c some tour book guy had written about him a few times...so that was good at least he knew what he was doing. first he took us down Falls Road (Catholic) and stopped to show us murals that Sinn Fein had done supporting other rebellions around the world...Palestinian's for example. then we saw a Bobby Sands mural...it had his picture and one of his poem's on it...awesome. then he took us down a street by the Peace Line...which is basically a huge concrete wall that they added fence on top of twice...they had to make it higher b/c people kept throwing rocks onto the houses on the other side of it. we stopped on...bombay road? i think? damn i can't remember. but there was a memorial there and a mural depicting what happend in 1969 when protestants came over to the catholic side and set it on fire. then he took us back down Falls but there was a protest going on...people were protesting strip searches in prisons..and kat wanted to get out and see but claire was like 'hell no i am not getting out here.' so i stayed with her and kat went to go check it out..and as she was walking back some guy stopped on the street to talk to her...she was right outside a bar with a tricolor flying in it and across from a Sinn Fein protest....i was like oh my god...not good! but she politely declined his flirting and ran back to the taxi, and he took us over to Shankill Road and we stopped at the Peace Wall...where people write messages and whatnot, so we got out and all wrote something on the wall and read what other people had written and got scared every time a car walked by b/c we were the only ones there. back in the taxi and over to the middle of protestant territory...not gonna lie, i was nervous. especially when the first mural we saw was of oliver cromwell and some quotes about how all catholics should die. so the driver let us get out and walk around this area...there was like a big area of grass and houses all around it...and there was another mural of a protestant paramilitary...and it was huge and it was just him pointing a gun at you, and the gun followed us wherever we walked around there...it was intensely creepy. so we did a quick walk of that b/c....again..not feeling so safe. i mean i know it's not as bad now but still...
so back to the taxi and he took us back to city hall..it was really great i'm really happy i did that...although i wished i had gotten to see some more nationalist murals...but i would assume he didn't feel completely good about going into catholic area, being a protestant. but that's ok. after that we did some shopping (that sounds really weird and like...i don't know..after seeing all that stuff...anyway..) and wentb ack to the car...and possibly saw Bobby Sands' son...claire wasn't sure if it was him but she thinks it was b/c he was coming out of the restuarant where he works.
so back to the car, drove past the Europa (most bombed hotel in the world) and went out to the Oddessy  (huge building/mall type thing...restaurants, movie theatre, bowling, cool place), had dinner and went up to see 'the prince and me'...don't make fun, it was really cute and the guy is hot. meow. then we drove back through belfast at night and looked at all the drunk people stumbling around then went up to belfast castle (and went through south belfast on the way...huge murals of the red hand and red fist of ulster...and a paramilitary in a ski mask and gun painted on there...wheeee.) and that was cool, then back to claire's house! watched some of 'braveheart', claire went in the house and i passed ouuuuut i was so tired, and we wanted to get up early today and go down to belfast one more time, but none of us woke up til 11..whoops. so mrs. montgomery made us an ulster fry (mmmmm), we went up to claire's grandad's house b/c he has a really great view of her town and you can see scotland from his balcony..hellooo. then we drove to the train station and said goodbye..but claire is pretty sure she can come to dublin next thursday which would be funnnnn!
train ride was uneventful except that there happend to be an entire hurling team sharing the train with us!!!!!!!! hellooooooooooo there young hot fit men! and of course we didn't know they were in there but we went to go get a drink and walkd in the car in front of us and they were alllllll there and kat fell into one of them and i started to laugh. and when we got to the end of hte car the little train man was like 'we're not serving for another 10 minutes' so we had to turn arond and walk allllll the way back through. wheeeeeee! at least my face wasn't BRIGHT RED.
so now i'm back in dublin and i gave my dad a call and it was nice to talk to him..i'm getting really excited about coming home...i mean i love love LOVE being here but now that's my trip is ending i'm getting excited :) and august is going to be a busy month.
so....alrighty then! was this blog long enough for you?! i'll probably remember other stuff and add it in. but for now i have to get started on the um..3 assigenments i have to do that are due tuesday! yippee!
 
http://http://www.bobbysandstrust.org/poems/rhythm.asp
(bobby sands poem instead of e.e. poem...check it out)

Belfast Awaits!

Aaahhhh i'm so excited!! Tomorrow night i'll be up in belfast hangin out with claire and i can't wait! but let's focus on last night and today, then i'll get excited about belfast again :)
sooo ok, work yesterday wasn't anything super special, went home for lunch and watched the daily really bad movie, this time it was "Sanctuary", featuring melissa gilbert! so very bad! she was dating a guy and it turned out the guy's brother had killed her mother some years ago. and was roaming around town, then a hurricane came out of nowhere and the brother/killer was on the loose! eeeeek! but those movies are so fun.
i don't remember what we did yesterday afternoon at work, i guess nothing too exciting!
went to tesco with kat b/c we needed to get some drinks for the small 4 sussex get together that was going on...bacardi breezers...so delicious!
whe we were leaving tesco one of the girls that lives near me had like a HUGE bag of grocery stuff and was carrying stuff in the bag and in her arms, so i helped her carry stuff back (Good deed, take note.), collected jess, and went over to 4 sussex...
not too much happend, just hung out, talked a bunch, had a good time! and it seems that we left right before they had one of their nightly emotional breakdowns, so hurray for good timing! i told a bunch of centenary stories...i know, i didn't know i had centenary stories either, but apparantly i do!
work was really good today though, we had so much to do it felt so much like...a job! which it is but it was so fun...and we spent a lot of time talking to cathy, which is really when i feel like i learn the most...we just ask her questions about ireland and dublina nd how things work here and she's more than willing to talk to us about it, it's awesome.
(also..i just downloaded this really good song "see it in boys eyes" by jamelia...download it!)
after work i met up with jess and her mom, who just arrived today, and we ate at this lovely restaurant, Coopers..yummmmm! then back home. ah..this morning i sprayed cleaner in the bathroom, and some got on the bathmats (ok i sprayed it on the mats.) and there was bleach in it i guess, soooooo now they have pink spots all over..hahahaha oops!
today is rachel's birthday also! happy 21st to rachel! although i guess turning 21 over here just isn't the same as turning 21 in the states, but still fun birthday times!
i've also been reading about how the weekend i come home is the same weekend as the republican convention in nyc? and apparantly there have been "high terror warnings"..and we know how i love flying and that just adds to the FUNNESS!!!!!!!!!!!! :/ but i take all that with a grain of salt, and i doubt anybody would use an Air France plane. but i figure by the time i'm flying home i'll be a seasoned flyer so i'm not thaaat worried......eh.
anyhoo, again, so happy about going up north tomorrow, i really can't wait! well i mean i can...i don't really have a choice.
ok then!
oh wait, i don't know if i wrote this in here already but i just thought of it, the other day i was flipping through hte channels and i saw Spongebob, so of course i stopped to laugh at him and i realized...wait a second, this isn't in English...it was in Gaelic!!!! yaaaaay!! multi-lingual Spongebob!!! plus it was really funny, but i'm glad he's crossed over! adios.

"M in a vicious world-to love virtue
A in a craven world-to have courage
R in a treacherous world-to prove loyal
I in a wavering world-to stand firm

A in a cruel world-to show mercy
N in a biased world-to act justly
N in a shameless world-to live nobly
E in a hateful world-to forgive" - Marianne Moore

*sniffle*

i am sniffling b/c i'm at work but i'm still thinking about the movie i saw last night..."the notebook"...sooooooo good. so good. i knew i was going to liked it b/c it looked like such a fun romance story..but it really turned out to be so much better than i expected! i think you should go see it...not the boys b/c i think they'd just be like...kill me. but maybe not b/c it really is a good love story. ANYWAY...
yesterday kat and i took early lunch b/c there was nothing to do (well not really..we made a bunch of phonecalls but cathy wouldn't have stuff ready for us to do til the afternoon) so we went home and watched Spiderman 2 b/c one of her roomies got a bootleg from someone she works with! yay! so we ate lunch and watched that and i have to say...i was not impressed. i mean the ending was good and the setup for the next one was good, but there was about 30 or 40 minutes of filler that could've gone..and i'm done with aunt may. she's gotta go. and there was too much of people screaming in this one...or it was focused on too much or something b/c i don't remember the last one being like that. i still love tobey though...but james franco either turned into a horrible actor, or they're just making his character worse and worse and giving him awful lines. i think it's that one. so...i give it a C+ or maybe a B- but i really wasn't impressed. and i had high hopes. wah.
sooooo back to work we went and i got the unlucky job of calling a 2 page list of people who are members of the labour party and are signed up to get emails about different events, and a bunch of emails had been bouncing back so cathy wanted me to call these people and get their correct email. so i did that for about, oh i don't know...3 hours?! baaaah. so not fun. but soon enough work was over so i headed home where jess and i made fried rice! so clever! and we put egg in it and it was soooo delicious i'm so proud. i have the leftovers for lunch today wheeee! i love cooking.
ummm right so cooked, but didn't have time to eat b/c kat called me to go to the movie and i had to leave and didn't have time so i only had a taste of the yummy rice. but dublin movie popcorn is really excellent. and that movie was out of controllll good. kelly i think you'd really like it...i'll buy it when it comes out on dvd and we can watch it! yaaay!
ummm got home around midnight, talked to jess, called mom, got in bed, sleeeeept, woke up, showered (i know! morning shower, so not like me!), put on a cute outfit and now i'm at work waiting for lunch. oh no wait we just got bagels..damn. i guess we can't take early lunch then :(
mmmmmk bye bye

"it may not always be so;and i say
that if your lips,which i have loved,should touch
another's,and your dear strong fingers clutch
his heart,as mine in time not far away;
if on another's face your sweet hair lay
in such a silence as i know,or such
great writhing words as,uttering overmuch,
stand helplessly before the spirit at bay;

if this should be,i say if this should be-
you of my heart,send me a little word;
that i may go unto him,and take his hands,
saying,Accept all happiness from me.
Then shall i turn my face,and hear one bird
sing terribly afar in the lost lands." - it may not always be so...

back from the coast

Ah, such a weekend, so much fun in the west of ireland!!! i mean i love dublin but really you can't beat going out to the west and staying in a town where the cows and sheep outnumber the people...i'm not even joking.
So friday we got up nice and early and walked over to Newman house where we were catching the bus at 9 and around 1 we stopped in a town called Ballyvaughan and stayed there around an hour for lunch, we ate in a pub, i can't remember the name but it was tasty! and the town was so little and cute hehe! then we headed to the Aillwee caves for a guided tour at 3. it was realllly cool but a little scary b/c the pathways were really dark and the space to move in wasn't so big, but we saw where prehistoric bears used to live! and there were waterfalls in there and just so much pretty! then at one point the tourguide had all the lights off (they had a few lamps in there) to show us that our eyes could never adjust b/c no light can get in at all, then she joked around and said 'so everybody has their flashlights, right? ok great let's get going' and i kind of laughed but some of the girls were like 'OH MY GOD I DON'T HAVE MY FLASHLIGHT!!!!!' and then i laughed harder b/c they were dead serious. baaahaha. after the tour a bunch of us decided to trek up the huge mountain that was on top of the caves...again, so beautiful, i took many pictures do'nt you worry! kat and i wanted to get all the way to the top, but everytime we thought we got tot he top, there was like another little mountain to climb so we only got about 3/4 of the way up then had to turn back to catch the bus, but it was awesome and i was imagining people having to climb up there hundreds of years ago and i was wondering if mountain ponies could really climb up there b/c it was quite treacherous.
then we drove to Doolin and checked into our hostel, which was so nice..4 girls to a room and our own bathroom and shower in there..and there are so many girls in the IES program (only 7 boys) that we took up their one entire building! crazyyyy! so in my room was me, jess, susan, and kat - room o' fun! then we walked through Doolin (one road. no kidding) on our way to McDermotts with all the IES people for dinner. and on the way there i saw the CUTEST (!!!) little donkey and i was going to pet it b/c it was right near the road, so i put my hand out so he could smell it, and kat like, karate chopped my hand away from the donkey and scared the crap out of him and me, and i asked her why on earth she did that and she said, 'meghan...donkeys smell their own poo and you had your hand near his mouth.' there you have it.
dinner was awesome, mostly b/c we didn't have to pay for it, and we ended up hanging out there for about 4 hours b/c they had traditional irish music which was cool and we had a good time hanging out and such.
next morning it was off to the Cliffs of Moher...and really i can't even explain how incredible that was for me. look up some pics of the Cliffs online and you'll know what i mean..just absolutely gorgeous, but scary at the same time! kat and i hiked all the way out almost til the end and she kept getting close tot he edge to try and take pictures and i was freaking out b/c it's really windy and people have gotten blown off the clifs before! i knooooow, crazy! and there was one part of the path that was literally...2 feet from the drop. but i got awesome pictures and it all just took my breath away! but i'll tell you what it says on our itinerary about the cliffs: "sections of the cliff often give way so please be extraordinarily careful and do NOT stand beside the cliff edge. Fatalities have occurred here." wheeeee!
back to doolin for lunch and jess, susan, kat and i went to Mario's (italian restuarant) and it was so very delicious!!!! yum. then back to the bus to go to our walk/hike of the Burren.
so...ok the burren is, again, gorgeous...it looks like a bunch of slabs of rock going up this hill, and there are old stone fences everywhere and i really enjoyed walkinga round, but i didn't enjoy our tourguide..so much. megan (ies leader woman) told us that he has a history of not being nice to the girls on the tour, and i found it painfully obvious that it's true. he made so many snide comments about women and the only people he asked questions too were women (granted there were only 7 guys but still.) then at one point he came over to me and was like 'so your claddagh ring is pointed out, huh?' and he said it in a really mean way like 'wow you're a loser' and i just kind of said 'yeah...thanks for pointing it out to everybody!' and he said some mean things to some other girls as well. so he wasn't cool but walking around up there was. yay burren! and that was right by the ocean so i gave a little wave across the Atlantic to you all :)
back to Doolin and once again the 4 of us had dinner at a pub, this time it was McGann's..best hamburger i've ever had, hands down. i only ordered it b/c another girl from the program was in there and said it was awesome, they don't serve it with a bun or anything, just the burger with sauce and onions on it..wow good stuff. so we ate there then went over to O'Connors b/c everyone else was there drinking..so i have officially been to every pub in Doolin!!! hahah! yay! hung out there for a while, had fun, met some other american students who were studying at trinity, small world! so that was fun, back to hostel, fell asleep, 2 awful awful nights sleep in a row, then this morning we packed it up and went to Galway! but only for about 3 hours, which was plenty of time for me to see some awesome Galway sights! another really nice town, but some fun stuff theeeere! a really nice wool sweater for my dad, really nice scarf for meee..then the longest bus ride EVER back to dublin, but i'm back and i'm ready to sleep even though it's only 9pm. damn. but i have to make some phonecalls (maybe one of them is to YOU?!)
night night all
oh p.s.: lisa you got it right! and of course i will pay you in men, what other payment is there really? whee!

"(So,when kiss Spring comes
we'll kiss each kiss other on kiss the kiss
lips because tic clocks toc don't make
a toctic difference
to kisskiss you and to
kiss me)" - there are so many tictoc...

muffins is sniffum

which ever one of you smarty pants out there can figure that one out, you win a prize!
so i'm at work doing the blog b/c somebody was hogging the computer all last night. i won't say who. but by the tone of my typing you should be able to figure it out. and if you can't then ask me and i'll tell you the whole story.
anywayyyyy here i am to tell you about...TUESDAY! right? yes. let's do this.
yesterday was tuesday...i went to work and actually worked pretty hard, was busy all day. took lunch at the normal time, went to kat's, ate lunch while watching our daily really bad tv movie (last week it was "co-ed call girl" featuring tori spelling, so awful!) which yesterday just happend to be "blackout effect" staring eric stoltz. it was about an airport control place that was really old and their machinery kept blacking out, and one day 2 planes crashed into each other b/c of it. yeah, smart of me to watch that, WASN'T IT!? no, bad me. but it all worked out in the end..the movie was so corny but we couldn't help but watch it all. and today we'll miss our corny movie b/c we get a free lunch at ies! pizza!
anyway, after work we had class and a woman who runs an art program for underpriviledged kids came to talk to us...and good for her for starting the program...but i felt bad b/c i have no interesting in how the arts are run and how they get money and all that stuff...and there are 3 girls doing arts internships and they were really the only ones giving input and fully understanding what was going on. so i felt like that was kind of wasted time.
after class, kat, jess, katie, rachel and i all went out to eat, and the service was really bad but the food was good! then we went to Botticelli's for super delicious ice creaaaaam! they had a tiramisu flavor! i mean HELLO! TIRAMISU!!!!! mmmmm. so that was delicious. then back home to find the computer hog hogging up the computer. when we finally made her stop hogging, jess and i booked out flights to Brussels (which had gone up about 40 euro...i was so pissed. SO PISSED.) and found out that her dad could in fact get us rooms at the hilton all 3 nights we are over there (Brussels, Luxembourg, back to Brussels)...the hiltooooon. and yes i know i feel bad i'm support the paris empire but i can't help it! jess's dad wants us to stay in a 5 star hotel, that it what we will do! and it's free for him too b/c he has all these points from when he stays in them in teh states. so it's a good deal all around.
and i slept like crap last night. tossing, turning, waking up a lot. not fun in the least. so now i'm tired but i must work!

"Spring is past, and Summer's past,
Autumn's come, and going;
Weather seems as though at last
We might get some snowing.
Spring was good, and Summer better,
But the best of all is waiting,-
Madame Winter-don't forget her.-
O
You
Skating!" - Skating

Lord Mayor of Dublin, I presume?

Work was fun today, as always! well no, not as always, but as it always is when cathy has something planned for us!!! in the morning kat and i just finished colm's spreadsheet work (and apparantly he has more for us to do...yayyyyyy) then we started some things for cathy and she asked us if we wanted to take a break to go to a press conference at the lord mayor's house! ummmm yes please! so we walked over there around 4 and he lives in this gorgeous 18th/19th century house with all authentic old furniture in it, and there was a huge oak room with the sheilds (the family name things) of all the previous lord mayors! and they had free cookies and tea! AH! so exciting! so we listened to the press conference and the lord mayor and the deputy lord mayor (who is such a cute little man, and he talked to kat and i afterwards for a couple minutes...awww yay little irish deputy!) and some dublin city council guys talk about their plans for dublin...very cool. and they formed an alliance type thing with fine gael and the green party so they can get even moooore done! yaaay! so after the press conference one of cathy's journalist/photographer friends was going to get a pic of kat and i w/ lord mayor, but he had another interview so we couldn't, but she did get a pic of us by his microphone stand and we're standing behind it like we're giving a speech hehehehe so fun! and on our way out cathy showed us a few of the rooms, and apparantly they had their christmas party in there last year when dermot was lord mayor...uhh hello fun times. then on our way out we met the lord mayor woooooooo! and cathy asked him if it would be ok if we came back to see him sometime and he said 'yes of course i hope you do' and we wre like YEAH! soooooo then we headed back home and i was going to go to Tesco to buy taco seasoning, but kat's australian friend was at her house (she just met him in cork this weekend) so i went to go eat pasta over there and meet him..which turned out to be interesting b/c her one roomie was stealing him away from everybody and not letting anybody else talk to him, then her other roomie came home and started screaming at her b/c of something one of my roomies relayed to her roomie in the complete wrong way..but i'm sure it wasn't on purpose or anything..yeah, i'm sure.
we decided tonight would be a good movie night, and the savoy on o'connell street has €5 movies for students, so jess, katie, kat and i all went to see Shrek 2! yes, i know i've seen it and so has kat, but katie and jess hadn't and i love that movie so i didn't mind seeing it again. plus €5 is cheap! for here. so that was really fun and i laughed really hard. oh and so funny, there is only like one part in the movie when it gets really quiet, and at that one part this little kid let out a really loud burp, and the 4 of us started cracking up;..and also, they use different voices for the ugly barmaid and joan rivers...which i thoughtw as weird. they made it english voices! why? oh and nobody laughed at the white bronco joke except us....anyhoooo back here after the movie where i had a weird ESP family moment...i was sitting on the couch and all of a sudden i was like 'i have to call home' and i got up and called and the answering machine came on and halfway through it my dad picked up and was like 'we just walked through the door'...weird! but mom and brother had a safe flight and are back at home! and dad was quick to remind me i have only 26 days left here in ireland :(
ummmm...took a shower...writing blog...time for reading more of my book about 'the troubles', then sleeeepy time! night! xoxo!

"my mind is
a big hunk of irrevocable nothing which touch and taste and smell
and hearing and sight keep hitting and chipping with sharp fatal
tools
in an agony of sensual chisels i perform squirms of chrome and ex
-ecute strides of cobalt
nevertheless i
feel that i cleverly am being altered that i slightly am becoming
something a little different, in fact
myself
Hereupon helpless i utter lilac shrieks and scarlet bellowings." - my mind is...

Hurling, anyone?

Ummm so i think my plan of action when i get back to the states is to try to make hurling as popular as possible. i had soooooo much fun at the game yesterday!! Wexford vs. Offaly, Croke Park, so awesome! we got our students tickets and found our seats, which were waaaaay up there, but they built the stadium so very steep that we could still see fine so it was no problem! But the steepness did scare me just a little. it was a really close game the whole time, some guys were injured...and some looked like they really got hurt but they just got up and kept on truckin. tough cookies they are. at halftime we went to go get hotdogs (4th of july, at a stadium, we felt a hot dog was necessary) and by the time we got to the front of the "line", which was really just a mob of people, they were OUT of hotdogs :( so sad. then back to watch the second half, which was so exciting. and it helped that most of the fans were Wexford fans, and every time they did something good the whole place went NUTS. well Wexford ended up winning only by 3 points i think, and when the time was up, all the fans starting running out onto the field! if we hadn't been in another atmosphere i would've run out there. but i took lots of pictures of that b/c it was so great! then chris and i went back to dinner then back to the hostel to watch our moms try to pack all the new stuff they bought on top of all the old stuff they brought that they didn't need. that was entertaining. but i only stayed for about an hour and a half, then my mom, chris, and i all went to a pub for a Bailey's, then we parted ways and i went home!
then to kat's for the july 4th partay, which was ok. tiddly got really drunk and that was really funny. but kat was not having such a good time b/c living with 7 girls is having its toll on her, as you can imagine. but it seemed as the night went ont he party was getting better (isn't that how it always goes?), and by the time jess and i left it seemed to be in full swing. So i will get the details of that today at work, mwahaha gossip.
possibly booking of the brussels trip today at work! wheeee! but we found ou the airport is really far from the city...so we have to double check on that and make sure the train tickets aren't really expensive or anything. mmmk time for work!

"making me feel
how myself has been coarse and dull
compared with you, silently who are
and cling
to my mind always" - i go to this window...

USA, USA, USA!

happy 4th of july people!as i'm sure you can imagine, dublin is just all decked out to celebrate their favorite holiday! just kidding. no red, white and blue decorations are up...no 4th of july parades...no BBQ...it's so sad. BUT, it's also ok b/c we're going to a hurling game and we'll feel american b/c we'll be rooting and cheering at a sports team (kat and i were joking that we should just start chanting USA, USA! out of nowhere and see what people do) even though hurling is ireland's most ancient sport so it's really not american at all..but work with me.
so where did we leave off last...oh right, i wasn't sure if i could make it for another night out. so jess and i started watching a movie and like 5 minutes into it, chris called and said 'i'm dressed and ready to go, i'm coming over so we can go out.' and i was like 'alrighty then.' and jess and i rushed and got dressed and out of the apt by 11, and we went to Q bar! i know we've already been there but it's funa nd chris hadn't been there yet. so we went in and it was really crowded and there were tons of people on the dance floor so we all got drinks, put out stuff down and got right to the dancing! and we've found out that when irish people dance with each other, i guess it's normal for you to start making out with the person like 5 minutes after meeting them? b/c that's what EVERYBODY was doing around us and i was like where am i? twilight zone? what's happening?! and it's not like...let's kiss while we dance..it's like..let's stand perfectly still and feel each other up in the middle of the dance floor! OK LETS! no. chris had a creepy stalker while we were there, and everytime he came nearby we'd shuffle our way to another part of the dance floor, and like 10 minutes later he'd show up..so creepy! then jess met this cute little irish man (and i mean man..he was like 30/35?) and he offered to buy her a drink so they went off by the bar and pretty much stayed there the rest of the night, chris danced with some people...a scary guy watned to dance with me so i did for like 2 minutes then i was like..um i have to find my friend and i ran away. we stayed there til about 3am and all decided that bouncers are always the hottest people in the club (which i hear is even true in the states..*wink*).
and we decided to walk home, which was quite interesting. oh! and chris stole a glass from Q bar that said "i stole this glass from the pub" hahahaha i thought that was awesome. so anyway, walk home..passed several college rickshaw pullers, one of which chris wanted to take home, then when we got to leeson st it got a little scary, b/c apparantly it turns into like...the red light district late at night. the only places open are these "vip lap dance" clubs and weird strip clubs, and we passed one and a guy came stumbling out of it and i heard some weird noises behind me and all of a sudden chris comes running up beside me and like pushes me forward and out of the way of his flying vomit. yeah. very close to a bad situation on that one.
walked the rest of the way home with no incident, fell asleep arond 330 and got up at 1130 to meet our mom's around 12 at the hostel. then we all went to lunch, then souvenier shopping (i've only bought one so far..i'll just wait til the end of my trip to do that.), then back to the hostel where i fell asleep and woke up with drool all over myself. i never do that and i was very grossed out by myself. ew self! then we had dinner and jess met us to go on the GHOST BUS TOUR! (which i think is such a clever name! ghostbustor! hehe!) anywayyyy, so hte bus pulls up and it has these purple curtain all covering the windows and right away i was like..this was a bad idea. i dont' do well with scary. so we get ona nd it's all dark and we sit upstairs in the front few rows, and the guy that was doing the tour came up and proceeded to tell us really creepy stories about places around dublin (and i think he was flirting with my mom. i'm not even kidding. she videotaped so if you watch the tape i bet you'll see. FLIRTING!) and we stopped at a few graveyards and found out dublin has a "hellfire club" that is run by the rich and elite..and they do sacrifices and stuff...soooo scary. and he told us stories about how during the cholera epidemic they used to accidently bury people alive b/c doctor's thought they were dead..so family's would have a death watch by the coffin in case the person woke up and knocked on the coffin to get out! SO SCARY! then he said they used to bury people with rope tied to their wrists, and that rope was attached to a bell above ground, so if and when the person woke up 8 feet underground, they could ring the bell and someone would come dig them up. so the two phrases that came from this lovely thing are: "dead ringer" and "saved by the bell". i kid you not. and he also said that parts of dublin used to be called Hell...the four corners of hell and people called dublin "hell"...so if you tell me to go to hell i'll just say to you, 'i've already been there, thanks.' and also that body snatching was the most popular here in dublin..and he told some LOVELY stories about that......and how they used really gross fish hooks to pull dead people up from their graves but sometimes it didn't worka nd their faces would like...come off. k i'll stop there.
but ANYWAY...it was a good tour, i recommend it if you ever come here, worth the money, especially fi you're into that type of thing. then jess and i walked back to the apt, i had a reallly good night's sleep finally. and jess got bagels from the jewish bakery so i have one of those wating for me and i'm just gonna go take care of that now! adios!
(i just saw a thing for fireworks online and now i'm really sad b/c i want to see some.)

"it is at moments after i have dreamed
of the rare entertainment of your eyes,
when(being fool to fancy)i have deemed

with your peculiar mouth my heart made wise;
at moments when the glassy darkness holds

the genuine apparition of your smile
(it was through tears always)and silence moulds
such strangeness as was mine a little while;

moments when my once more illustrious arms
are filled with fascination,when my breast
wears the intolerant brightness of your charms:

one pierced moment whiter than the rest

-turning from the tremendous lie of sleep
i watch the roses of the day grow deep." - it is at moments after i have dreamed...

tram co

first of all, vicky is an evil person b/c she sent me 2 really sad emails, 1 was that marlon brando died :( :( :( and i'm really sad about that b/c i love him in 'streetcar named desire' and if you haven't seen that you should b/c he was incredible. and 2nd (not as sad for most) ist hat derek jeter's beautiful face was maimed in a game vs. boston the other night! poor babyyyy! and vic sent me a link to a slide show so i could get a play-by-play and it was just awful.
but moving on.
last night we all went to a club called TramCo, where liz from 4 sussex works, and at first it was really empty and i didn't think it was going to be that fun, but around 1030/1100 it got really crowdeda nd people started dancing and it was so fun! and i had a white russian (drink, not man)a nd it was sooooo good...like alcoholic chocolate milk. but the sad part was that no irish guys realy danced, i guess they're shy? but christine (my cousin) was like super cool dancer girl and she got guys to come dance with her and stuff. anyway it's a very cool club but we stayed out realllly late...id idn't get home til like 2am yet again, and i had to be up by 8am b/c the fam and i were doing a Coastal Bus Tour...joy.
but i woke up this morning and i was fine, yay for dancing and water! so i met the fam at the bus stop and we started our 3 hour tour of the coastal area around dublin! which was awesome b/c it took us through Dublin North which is really residential and people have real houses there, not just apartments like in the city, and i'd really like to live there...please? PLEASE?! please.
then we stopped at Malahide Castle and it was really nice and i'd like to have that as my weekend getaway home. that'd be great! but it was neat and there was a cute guy on the bus w/ us which is always fun! aaaand bought some souveniers (and just realized i left the new cross i bought with my mom...damn! but the cross is reallly nice, it's bigger than i usually wear but still not to like...LOOK AT ME I HAVE A CROSS NECKLACE! size. it's purdy.) then back on the bus and to some of the most beautiful towns and coast i have ever seeeeen! aaaaah! we went through Howth and all these little towns around it and it was so gorgeous just like..what you would think a typical oceanside fishing town would be like, i absolutely loved it. and you could see "ireland's eye", an island, off the shore and it was so pretty...well all of it was so pretty, not gonna lie.i took lots of pictures..we also drove by lots of expensive houses (i think it's mostly a wealthier area?) including some famous racecar driver who had a helicopter parked in his front lawn...yeah. cool.
then back to dublin...chris and i were soooooooo tired i could barely walk so she and aunt jeanne went back tot he hostel so they could nap, and mom, alex, and i went to Marks&Spencer to get ingredients for...PASTA! and pasta sauce..but they didn't have everything so we had to go to Tesco also, then back tot he apt where we made pasta sauce and pasta and yummy warm breaaaaaad mmmmmmmm it was so good. comfort food.
so here i am, mom and alex went back to the hostel and jessa nd i aren't sure if we can go out again tonight...well jess says she can but chris and i are so tired...well she probably napped...ok I'M SO TIRED. i don't know if i can go out! wah.
oh, my mom also made me take her into hte IES building so she could meet all the teacher people, so she met ashley, and she says he's too old for me! :( i think the grey hair made her think that...
mmmm right then, sunday we're going to a hurling game! wheee! and it's 4th of july and kat is having a party at her house but we might just go to an american theme bar, like Captain America's...well i think they're american themed. i could be wrong. i'll let you know.

"in spite of everything
which breathes and moves,since Doom
(with white longest hands
neatening each crease)
will smooth entirely our minds
-before leaving my room
i turn,and(stooping
through the morning)kiss
this pillow,dear
where our heads lived and were." - in spite of everything...

i love politics

i really do! and i'll tell you why!
went to work, did the work thing blahbiddy blah, met jess and went out to dinner with my mom at The Gotham Cafe, which was so cute and really yummy, then off to the Dail at 645. kat was there with this girl, denise i think?, who had just joined the labour party so cathy invited her to the dail, neat! then cathy got there and said we were just waiting for Simon...who is this simon you ask? super cute irish boy! yaaaaaaay! so that was fun and he was really nice and we all went inside and got our seats in the public gallery. rhonda also showed up (rhonda is another labour party person, she works for them somewhere i don't remember where but she is hilarious and really eccentric with lots of jewelry, makeup, and crazy hair, she's great) and we listened to the labour TD's make their arguments and they're such good speakers i loved it! and this one woman was so awesome and we ended up meeting her after hte vote! aaah! i was so excited i was like 'wow your speech was great' and she said thank you and kat and i were like WHEE! anyway during the debates kat saw the TD that she loves, willy penrose, who she says if he were american he'd be from the deep south..which i have to agree with. he's a larger man and he just gives off that deep south air about him! so for the rest of the night i was making fun of her and willy and i told rhonda and then rhonda joined in the fun and told kat she would try to get him to meet her hahaha!
so they do the vote, which went in the way of labour but with an amendment which they weren't thrilled about but at least it's something. and we all went outside downstairs and we were waiting for another TD, and she came over and we introduced ourselves, etc. and then she took us to....the members only BAR!! hehehehe it was AWESOME! and she bought us all a drink, so nice! and she sat and talked to us and she was really great it was so much fun. then simon bought us all a round of drinks (so for those of you paying attention, that is the first drink a guy has bought for me. not that i'm counting. but i am.) and when we finished those rhonda said that david (adorable red head) was meeting us outside to go to another bar! so we met him and went to Bruxelle's and sat outside drinkin and talkin and makin fun of kat's love for willy penrose (although i think that kathryn edwards penrose is a perfect southern name) and trying to get kat to chat it up with david, but as luck would have it, jess and david spent a lot of time talking b/c they had both spent a lot of time in the same random place (in the phillipines or something i don't remember) so they were talking about that. and cathy was telling us about stuff that goes on in the office and how apparantly the woman we share an office with really doesn't like her and all this stuff. juicy gossip. so eventually they have to clear the outside b/c the bar didn't have a permit for people drinking outside after a certain time, so we moved it inside (oh real quick, when i went in to get a drink there was a man from new york who was asking me where i was from, then it turns out my bartender was also from new york...WHERE ARE ALL THE IRISH PEOPLE???) and went downstairs into a smaller bar room and stayed there til about 130am. yeah no joke. but it was sooo awesome we all just talked about stuff and had such a good time! oh and this is when kat started to steal glasses. she said they needed glasses in their apartment, so when i finished mine she put it in her bag, and rhonda saw and was like 'oh you need glasses? ok you can take mine too' and at the end of hte night she walked out of there with, i think, 5 glasses! hahaha!she had them all stacked up in her bag it was so funny. so finally we headed out and when the 3 of us passed burger king...well we couldn't pass it :( we had to get booze munchy food! which was quite good. then we walked home and i fell into bed b/c i was so tired, woke up at 6am b/c it was really bright in the room, couldn't fall back alseep, got out of bed around 830 and here i am! but now i have to go get kat and go to work! and we're taking my cousin out tonight so i'm looking forward to that :)

"i shall imagine life
is not worth dying,if
(and when)roses complain
their beauties are in vain

but though mankind persuades
itself that every weed's
a rose,roses(you feel
certain)will only smile" - i shall imagine life...