None of us were in any shape to wake up on Saturday at 10am for our planned tour through Waterford. We got up around two and went out to get lunch at Gino's pizzaria. The pizza was ok but the ice cream they had was incredible. My flatmate will go on special walks to Gino's just for a milkshake. After Gino's we walked around the city center to find some steaks from a butcher. We then made our way to Tesco's on the way back. We picked up more food for dinners. We usually pitch in a couple euro each for our meals and it's much easier that way. We had grilled cheese on Saturday. After dinner around 7:30p we walked to the greyhound race track to watch the races. We stayed there for a couple hours; watched about 6 or 7 races. I'm not too great at picking the winning dogs but we didn't bet anything so no harm no foul. We walked back to our building and on our way back there was a parking lot FULL of souped-up cars waiting to race. I don't think street racing is legal in Ireland, but they didn't seem to mind. No one gave any of us straight answers on anything so we couldn't figure out when the races were gonna start. We walked back to our building and got ready for the rest of the night. We went out around midnight to Doolan's again to see a different band. The band was on their last few songs when we got there. They too ended their set with the Irish national anthem in Gaelic. We left Doolan's to go to Ruby's Lounge for a while. We left around 3am to go back to the apartment. I hung out with some of my group from Brockport, another group from Clarkson, and a couple girls from Austria(?). I may have gotten to bed around 4:30a but others didn't get to sleep until later. We lounged all day today and cooked steaks with mac & cheese for dinner.

Again?

Went to T&H Doolan's tonight to check out some Irish band. The band was great. We were immediately introduced to a couple of older gents who bought us drinks and chatted us up. Thirty minutes later and I was on the dance floor with Mikey spinning and tapping my boots on the ground. This happened both times I've been to the pubs. I love this place. It depends on the pub you visit but the smaller pubs are the best ones. I met Tom tonight who owns a pub up in Ballybricken (which is just up the hill - things are broken up into neighborhoods here), sells fruit, and has a horse ranch. How much of this is true, I don't know. (Apparently one of the main crops in Ireland are strawberries. I wouldn't have guessed with the weather conditions but we'll see how they compare to Cobblestone Valley come summer.) The band ended by playing the Irish national anthem in Gaelic. Everyone in the pub stood up for the song and the pub closed once the band finished. We then went to another pub but it couldn't compare. Tomorrow we are planning on going to a hurling game in Upper Ballybeg. We'll tour Waterford tomorrow since our plans to go to Cork fell through. There is some sort of Viking settlement here that I want to check out. There are also rocks similar to stonehenge here that I'd like to visit. A lot of this stuff would be exponentially easier should we own a car.

Average: 44 degrees :)

It's springtime everyday here. The ground is soft and the birds are out every morning when I walk to work. My walk is only about 15 minutes through a couple different housing communities. The past couple days I've just gone in to work and helped kids with their homework. My group work with the kids will start next week and in the first week of February. The kids are still real interested in Obama. Adam is the most interested and mentions Obama everyday. Adam is also teaching me some Irish. Sloan = goodbye. It's pretty slow progress. I met Eva yesterday; she will be working with me at the agency. Eva is 20 and from Austria. She's been here since September and has been looking for a jogging partner. I have been taunting myself every morning waking at 8 for a run but somehow falling back to sleep. Tomorrow we will jog around People's Park which is down by River Suir I believe. (Modestly speaking of water, there was a humpback whale recently seen off the shore of Wexford which is about an hour from where I am. It made big news here since it's extremely rare to see, and from shore nonetheless.) We'll see how the run goes; I haven't run in quite some time. Eva also wants to get involved in a women's soccer league here so if she finds one I will join her in that as well. I JUST got a text from a buddy here who mentioned "caomgie" or hurling for women. Hurling is some Irish sport where (this is what I'm told) people hit eachother with sticks up and down the field. YouTube it. I'll look into it and perhaps I'll join. The placement that I'm in is getting easier. I have about 80 pages of work to do; 40 for Brockport and 40 for Waterford. Most of it is overlapping so hopefully one college will give in and take the other's paper. I'm real disappointed in Brockport's social work program and how they have dealt with those of us studying abroad. One of my issues: having to pay $400 for my Brockport advisor to come out and check up on us. (Biggest issue here being that we all paid that much - total of $2000- and Diane will only be here for two days, spending the rest of her time vacationing in London. Oh yeah, and that my plane ticket cost around $200 one-way. Not $1000 one-way. Ugh! Ok, enough ranting.) Things are what they are and I'm making the most out of it. I'm meeting a lot of great people here. Another big culture shock is that EVERYONE smokes here. It's rare to find someone who doesn't smoke. It's quite awful being stuck in a room with four or five people who smoke. (They allow smoking in the rooms here if everyone is OK with it.) Thankfully no one smokes in my room so I don't have to deal with it if I don't want to. I made dinner tonight for all the Brockport kids. We had porkchops, chips, and peas. There are a lot of butcher shops around here so we're going to get some steaks this weekend and cook those up. Should be great fun.

2nd day

Jordan is becoming a handful. He punches people and pinches them. I have not had either happen to me but I don't stand for his verbal outbursts let alone his physical outbursts. Megan has the most beautiful blue eyes you could imagine. She doesn't like me helping her on her homework. Jordan said he doesn't want me helping him with his homework because I voted for Obama and that America bombed Ireland in WWII. False. He then asked me why I wasn't black if I was from America. Aren't kids cute? They pick on me because I don't know what blaa is. One child was asking me all about my nose ring which I had forgotten to take out today. (I later asked and it is OK to keep my nose ring in while I'm working. It is also apparently OK to wear track suits to work...) There were only 6 kids at homework club today and there was no game room afterwards. Yesss. Homework club ended at 4pm and I waited until 5pm for the next group (the Baybeez) to come in but they never showed so I got to leave early. I didn't need to get to work until 2:20pm today. This will be a daily occurrence aside from Mondays when I'll get to work at 1pm for staff meetings. I think I'm really going to enjoy the free tea and toast that I get at work. After work I walked home and made some food. At 6:30p us Bport kids met up to go to Immigration to make it legal to stay here. They gave us an identity card to use when we leave/enter the country. Mine expires in late September. We went looking for food but everything closes around 7pm so we were out of luck.

1st day at my placement

Wake up and shower. I chose to wear black pants and a nice sweater for my first day. My college advisor in Ireland, Joe, picked me up at 10:30a and he drove me to my placement. We talked with my placement advisor, Pam, at the agency I will be working at. I will be working with kids who have typically refered by a juvenile justice system. I will be helping them with social skills to help them cope with their anger issues more effectively, their communication skills, etc. As soon as Joe left Pam and I got a cup of tea and talked some more about the placement. She mentioned that I may be working with the "Angels" group which is a group of girls who are phasing out of the program so I would help them in the phasing out process of group work. I think this would be a lot of fun as I can help them with self-confidence measures and helping them become more independent. I immediately started thinking of ways in which I could help them do this. I wrote down many of my ideas as soon as I could so that I could try to implement them. After we talked it was about 1pm and at that time on Mondays there is a group meeting with the workers and we go over what happened the past week and how to better the program or the methods. I worked nearly all day with Elizabeth who is maybe in her early 30's who has twin 11-year old boys at home. After our meeting at 1pm we waited until 2:30 when the kids would start arriving from school. All the kids in public schools wear uniforms. Adam was first in and once learning I was from America asked me who I voted for in the presidential elections. I had to ask Elizabeth if it was OK to tell him that since that same question may have struck a cord with someone in America. So I told him I voted for Obama and thereafter when someone came in he introduced me as Kate and that I was from America and I voted for Obama. He then went on to tell me that he loved when "George Washington" had a shoe thrown at him by a reporter. I helped kids out with their homework for a while. One girl told me that I didn't know how to spell because I was from a different country...witch maks cents. I could help them with everything except for their Irish lessons. I don't know any Irish so Elizabeth helps them with that. At 4pm we had the games room open which was the worst. I don't bode well with screaming kids. In fact, I'd like to say that I avoid kids at all cost between the ages of 3 and 13. Not too fond of that age period. Luckily I'm working with kids 8-16...phew. So I stood in the game room with more tea for an hour until the next group started. This group, "the Gangstaz," consisted of a handful of boys. We made chocolate muffins. I had the chance to grate a candy bar to use as chocolate chips. I ate the remaining pieces that were unable to be shredded. The chocolate just isn't as good here and it is in one of the most obese nations in the world. I miss America. So the muffins I'm sure didn't taste too good. While they were cooking we played Spongebob Monopoly. I have never played and hopefully never will so I sat and watched them cheat their way through the game. After that was...game room. Dear god. This time it was worst. Jordan, a fiery Irish kid, would swear all the time. If he missed the cue ball while playing pool: "oh bollocks...for fuck's sake..." I was told that they all swear though and it's not a big deal. I'm not comfortable yet to reprimand kids but I have a feeling that Jordan and I will have a lot of face time. The other kids were pretending to be sea monsters or aliens or something. I have no imagination when I'm tired and was not pumped that they were throwing balls at eachother and all around the room. The music was up way too loud and I seemed like the only one who cared. Thank god for Skips who came in and we started making scones. I've never had a scone before and it was delicious. I think I'll make them here sometime...though it was disgusting watching them make the scones. There is something about sticky children hands that makes me nauseous. After all that was over I cleaned up and was talking to Ursula who is in a running club in Waterford. Stefan, another worker, also runs. I think next Monday I will take my running clothes with me and Ursula and I will head to the track to run for a bit. Ursula is maybe 60 years old and will probably kick my ass at the track. Stefan brought me back to my building on his way home (which he will do when I leave in the evenings). I got home around 7:30pm making it a 9hour day today. It was supposed to be another two hours but I opted out of it. It would have been another hour of sitting around and at 8pm would have been another game session. Once home I slipped into my moccasins and cooked up come chicken patties with a bowl of peas and some french fries. People here love their chips. Love them. Always the big steak fries, too. You can buy the thinner fries for 60 cents more at Lidl...not worth it. My roommate Lisa was cooking chicken curry with white rice. It. Was. Amazing. Had she not been sitting there I may have eaten it all. I took out my shorbet and ate the rest of it. Since then I've been "chillaxing" (a word that Pam uses 100% too much) in my room. I'm tired but I don't have to be at my internship until 2:30pm tomorrow.

Lidl trip

I woke around 1pm and got ready to go to the grocery store Lidl. The Lidl is about half a mile away from where I'm staying. I bought quite a bit of food today to stock up for this week. The shopping cart wheels at Lidl turn in all directions. All of them. It took a while to get used to it but it is much easier than the front-wheel-drive carts we have in the States. I took my groceries back with me in my enormous reusable bag and made room in the fridge/freezer for my stuff. I had dinner with the social work students from Brockport; we had hamburgers and fries (chips). I came back to my room where I met my neighboring roommate, Lisa. Lisa is from Cork and has a great accent. She is a first-year nursing student at the college. She's real friendly and will talk your ear off. She loooves TV and ran through her weekly schedule of shows she likes to watch. Personally, I don't care too much about the Irish soaps. I was asking her about Cork because us Bport folk wanted to go to Cork this next weekend. The Jameson factory is there, which I'm sure we'll visit among other things. While we were talking Darren(?) comes in for less than a minute and I am told he's my other suitemate. I shook his hand and that was the extent of our meeting. I was invited out on Wednesday with Lisa and her nursing buddies. Let's hope it was just as entertaining as Saturday night was.

What?!?

I don't believe my day so far. It's about 3am and I'm just getting to my room from the pubs. But I'll start at the beginning...

9:55am: We boarded a bus to Kilkenny but missed the stop so we caught the next bus Southbound from Carlow to Kilkenny. Lost an hour. Once we got to Kilkenny we ate at a restaurant that Rick Steve's Ireland guide said was the locals' choice: Langton's. It was delicious. I had a turkey/bacon sandwhich with tea. I tried my tea with milk and sugar and it just didn't compare to regular ole' straight up tea. After lunch we went to Kilkenny Castle and toured the inside. On the outside there was a display of decorated angels on the lawn which were pretty cool looking. There was one with an Irish flag and a golf flag that reminded me of my grandpa. The castle was great. Not much else to say about that I guess. After the castle we walked through the town. I wanted to find a pint glass so that I could start collecting them from each city that I visit in Ireland. We found one. We searched the town and found a cathedral of St. Canice and the Black Abbey. Both were interesting looking. We went to a pub for a drink and watched the Manchester United game in which ManU scored three goals in ten-ish minutes. After the pub we headed back to the bus station to catch our ride back to Waterford. Once back we all met up in Elizabeth (another social work student from Brockport)'s room to make grilled cheese and tomato soup. The meal was ok. In another hour or so we got ready to go out to the pubs. We went out to Kazbar first where I ordered what would normally be a $7 drink and it came to 12.50 Euro (maybe $16). Not pumped. We then went to the Wacky Apple where Jenn (another Bport student) bought me a couple more drinks. Some guy we had been talking to gave Garrett an apple which the female bartended took and threw at the man. The man took the broken apple and threw it at the bartender and it hit her in the face. The bartended then came around the bar and took the guy out and got him on the ground as she put the apple in his mouth. This was all in good fun and laughs were shared. What?! Did that really happen? I hadn't barely put my coat down when a guy (Joe) came up and asked me to dance with him. I took his hand as I'm not one to back down and we went dancing. We joined a conga line and jump/hopped/Irishly danced  to the traditional music playing. I was the only girl in the line but held my own. Many people here are just as aggressive as stereotyped. I don't fit in with the girls at the pubs here but I'm thinking that I don't care too much. I've had the time of my life dancing with the locals in an Irish pub so I'm not too worried about how (un)aggressive I am. Once we all came back to the building we ate chicken pattys and now I'm about to go to sleep. Today was an great day but it has tired me out completely. Tomorrow I will grocery shop and sleep. I'm certain I'm forgetting things from this night but perhaps that's for the best.

Hey.

I've been spending some time with the other social work majors from Brockport that came over to Ireland with me. We've pretty much explored the entire city center and are now venturing out further. Waterford Institute of Technology's (WIT) main campus is about a mile away but we live about a 4 minute walk away from a smaller campus where we will be based out of. Yesterday it rained all day. Today it has been sunny all day. I'm getting the feeling like it's all or none here with the weather. It will be difficult when I start my internship since the sun doesn't rise until maybe 8 or 9 (I don't know since I haven't been up that early yet) but it sets around 4 or 5pm. It doesn't help either when you wake up at 10am and it's still dark out due to the rain. All the shops close real early as well. We went out yesterday and shops were closing up around 5 and 6pm. We went out today to get outlet converters and to go to the main campus to the international office. We've really just been hanging out in town. Last night we made a real meal together; penne with sauce and chicken with bread and butter on the side. I've been making a lot of pbj sandwiches which is fine by me. I fear for when I run out of my peanutbutter though. Something tells me that it won't be nearly as good here as the pb back home. I may have people send me Jiff's extra crunchy peanutbutter. I'll send the address out when I figure out what it is. We're going shopping again tonight then probably going to the pubs. Wednesday night is the big night to go out here and everyone goes home on the weekends (which would be convenient since laundry is 10 euro per wash/dry). Walked past the Waterford Crystal factory today. That's about it. Things are calming down now that I've gotten here and am settled in. My placement starts on Monday so we'll see how that goes. Oh! I almost forgot to mention the abundance of candy shops here. I love every second of it. I bought an eclair-type danish today. It was ok. Next time through I'll get their actual eclair. Or their fudge cupcakes. Or their cake. Or...

...to Ireland

On Tuesday (yesterday) I woke up at 5:30am to catch the tube around 6:15a to Euston train station in London. On the tube I felt the effects of taking medication on an empty stomach and nearly lost it on the tube. I was able to get a seat and relax until the Euston stop. Once in Euston I got my train/ferry tickets and loaded the train to Chester. Once in Chester I boarded a train to Holyhead which is where the ferry port is in Wales. Taking the train through Wales was one of my best decisions. It was a gorgeous day (not raining) and all the sheep were out in the pastures. The farmland there was incredible. If I chose to look out the windows to the South I would see snow-capped mountains. I unfortuneately didn't take any pictures on the train. Coming into some city the train went under a bridge that was not a bridge at all but a castle! Neat! I arrived at Holyhead around 10:30am but had to wait until 2:10pm for the ferry since the noon ferry was cancelled. I got on the ferry and sat next to a window where I slept intermittently for the next few hours. We got to the ferry station where I picked up my bags and made it out to a bus that took me to a larger bus station in Dublin. At 6:15pm I bought a ticket for the next train to Waterford which was leaving at 8pm. I waited. The bus ride was long and it was already dark out so I couldn't see any of the countryside. It was also raining fairly heavily. I arrived in Waterford around 11pm and followed the shoddy directions that I was given. The directions were so bad that I stopped a taxi driver and asked him where it was and he told me that I'd be better off just riding along. He brought me to the student accomodation and we talked to the receptionist, Sean, for a bit. Sean led me to my room and while in the elevator told me how to say "lovely girl" in Celtic. He's a benevolent man though and was happy to show me to my room. The room is much bigger than the room I was staying in in London. I have my own bathroom, too. I'm living in a flat with 3 other people, one of whom introduced himself to me: Kiernon O'Brian. I can't understand much of what he says but he's nice enough to introduce himself to me. I situated my stuff last night and am completely moved in. I got to sleep around 1am and at 1:45am the fire alarm went off but it would come on and go off real quick and it wasn't consistent. I laid in bed until I thought for sure it went off. Went off again. This happened for what felt like 30 minutes. I eventually fell asleep and woke in the morning. I went downstairs to get my internet hooked up and I saw the other social work students here along with Joe Moran, my liason while here. The others had just gotten in and were tired so they all went to bed. Joe and I went out into town to see the grocery stores and other places. He dropped me off at the college where I walked into town to check some things out. There is a river that the town is located on and there are lots of small shops all throughout the streets. Inwards a bit there is a large shopping area that is blocked off to cars. I bought an umbrella at a JCPenny-type store. I then walked to a Tesco which is the big grocery store here. I bought some essentials including OceanSpray cranberry juice...which makes me happy since I can still buy familiar things. As a way to deter the over-use of plastic bags Ireland makes you pay $0.40 per plastic bag. While I was buying my goods I saw that the only reusable bags had ladybugs on them; whoever is reading this probably also knows that I hate ladybugs. I paid the forty cents for a plastic bag and went on my way. Since the bag was heavy and digging into my fingers I went straight back to the apartment I'm living in. It's a nice day though, in the 40's. I'll make my way out again but I'm cold and need to warm up in my room. Free heat!

Last day in London

I was going to wake up early and go to Abbey Road but realized it wasn't that important to me. I ended up sleeping in until noon then getting around to the day. I met Sarah out someplace in London for some hot chocolate that was supposed to be good. It was ok. Once it cooled down it tasted like chocolate pudding. Same consistency, too. We walked to St. Paul's Cathedral and to the Tate Modern where we saw many a painting including but not limited to Jackson Pollack, Monet, and Picasso. We then left because Sarah had class and I was to meet my friend Ben at the Royal Opera House. I met Ben this past summer on the cruise that I went on. He is studying at London School of Economics for international relations. We met up and went to the National Portrait Gallery where he told me a lot about the different paintings and who did what. There was also a "Beatles to Bowie" exhibit that we went into. When we left the gallery we walked around a bit, saw Westminster Abbey. We went to a pub to chat and I insisted on getting fish and chips. It was only when we went into a pub that served the fish and chips that I realized I had spent 6 pounds on my drink and didn't have enough money for the fish and chips. We then left once I proved him wrong and I settled on a sandwhich from Pret (something like a Panera bread). We parted ways shortly after and he pointed me in the direction of where he thought I should have een going. (I ended up getting pointed to a different Kings College campus and was lost. I could have taken the tube but I needed to get Sarah her keys...Sarah ended up meeting me and we took the bus home. I need to sleep soon since my train leaves Euston at 7:10am. I will be on the train for ~4hours where I will then transfer at Holyhead to the ferry and another 2 hours or so to Dublin. I'll then take a bus down to Waterford and ta da!

Making our way outwards...

Yesterday we went to Sarah's work at Tortilla and got a burrito. Eh. We then toured Canary Wharf. It rained hard all day so it was pretty bummy. We got in the car and drove to Farnham to Sarah's girlfriend's house. It's about 45 minutes away. We went out that night to The Queen's Head in Farnham for a drink. Pear cider rocks! We headed back to Vikki's house for the night. This morning we woke up and were out of the house by noon. We went to Stonehenge. The day was gorgeous so it was perfect to see the stones. Afterwards we went to Salisbury nearby to check out this church where the Magna Carta is. We then went back to London where I met up with my friend, Caroline, from Brockport. She is in London for a couple weeks with her broadcasting program. We met for dinner at a nearby pub. She's big into Harry Potter and did all that stuff today. Tomorrow will be my last day in London. I'm going to try and make it to Abbey Road and I'm going to meet a friend at Covent Garden.

Another night in London

Woke at 1:30pm. Went to Kings College and to central London. We left around 3pm and walked around for a long time. We went to the National Gallery to look at some paintings, fo free! Sarah was to meet up with friends at 8pm so we had to hang out until then. It was chilly and I was tired. We stopped to get food at some market and carried on. We stopped in some bar for a while waiting for 8pm to come around. At 8pm I met my friend Kyle whom I met on the cruise I was on this past summer. He and his parents are living in London currently but are from Queensland Australia. Kyle took me all around the city and it was amazing at night with all the lights, etc. Kyle and I walked around until we found a pub. We walked in and Kyle got me a drink and himself a cider. The cider is incredible here. We carried on walking around the city. Saw BigBen, Parliment, Buckingham Palace, the London Eye. I'm sure we saw many other things but that is what I remember. I'd say we walked close to 4 miles. My toes have blisters and my knees and hips hurt. Kyle's family is going to Iceland in February and I think I may tag along with them. I also asked him about Australia and his cousin works in Social Work down there so he thinks he could get me a job down there. We'll see where things bring me but it's definitely an option for me. I'm glad I got to see Kyle tonight. I met back up with Sarah and we headed home. I've been craving a loaf of bread with butter today. I finally got some bread from a local bodega. Eating it now. Tomorrow we have to wake up ealry (9am) and we're walking all day. It's going to be rough. Day: B+

London

Ello!

Tuesday:
    Left Syracuse at 7am on a train to Penn Station in NYC. I couldn't find the luggage area so I lifted my two 50lb bags into the luggage compartment over the seats. Great. I got to Penn and had about an hour until my next train left. I got on my train and was off in Newark in half an hour. I took a shuttle to my hotel and checked in. Aunt MaryBeth met me an hour later and we went out to a Portuguese restaurant where I ordered a steak that you cooked yourself over a hot stone. I made the waiter cook it for me. We were the only women in the restaurant aside from one lady with what looked like a pink snuggie on. Aunt MB dropped me off at the hotel where I then took a bath and went to sleep.

Wednesday:
     I woke at 4:30am to get ready for my plane. I missed the 5am shuttle so I had to wait for the 5:20 shuttle. I got to the airport, checked my bags (which were underweight!), and went on to security. I passed with nailclippers in my purse. And I didn't even have to go through the explosives check! I got to my window seat and soon enough a meathead Texas fan sat next to me. He smelled of fart. We didn't end up leaving Newark until 9am. I watched (500) Days of Summer on the plane, listened to some albums they had, ate an entire bag of chewy Spree, and read some of a book. We got to London at 8:30pm local time. I made my way through immigration fine and met my buddy Sarah on my way out of baggage claim. We took the tube to her place and we got there around 10pm.

Thursday(Today):
    Woke at 1pm. Sarah and I chatted for a few hours and went to the market for a sandwhich. We ate at some pier. Today was less exciting than the past couple days. London is good stuff. Chilly, but not nearly as bad as NY has been. It's 7:30pm here and I'll probably get to reading soon.

Begin!

T minus 10 days until I'm in London and 17 days until I'm in Ireland. I have no return flight yet but will figure that out much later. I'm leaving early on the 12th to go to Newark Int'l Airport via Amtrak. Should be a long trip from Homer to London but I'll be glad once I'm there. A week later I will take train/ferry/train to Waterford, Ireland where I will stay for 4ish months.


The basics:
-Skype name: kate13hughes
-Email: katherinelynn1313@gmail.com
-AIM: fdnkvdvmg

I'll try to keep this updated with things that I'm up to but I barely remember to take my medicine everyday so we'll see how this goes.