Blaaaaaaaaaaa

On my commute to work this morning marked the first time I ran into a local that I knew on the sidewalk. She and I work together but I was heading in early for a meeting.

My ride to camogie last night could only pick me up at 5:45 so I took that opportunity to join in on Gaelic football training. Lindsay dropped me off at Mount Sion GAA and I stayed for an hour or Gaelic and an hour of camogie. I got a hurl from the receptionist, Diedre, and played with that. It's a little uncomfortable swinging since I've been made used to swinging, say, a baseball bat. With the hurl your dominant hand is on the end of the hurl and you kinda swing it backwards. It's loads of fun though and I made a few points scrimmaging. I may just move to Boston or Chicago for the camogie clubs there. Or I suppose I could stay in Ireland since the clubs here are undoubtedly better.

I've started to look into my Iceland trip. It's going to be quite expensive but if I don't do it now when will I ever? I'm planning a couple day trips through the glaciers and to the Blue Lagoon on horseback. The horses in Iceland are all a pure Viking breed. They have some sort of trot that they do that only the Icelandic ponies are able to do. I'm very excited to try this out.

I ate my first blaa this morning with butter and sausage on it. It's quite good. Blaa is a Waterford slang name for a roll of bread.

I've started to look at what I want to do once I get back to the States. I broke down a list of places I'd like to work: Vancouver, California, Kenya (not all in the US), Iceland, Egypt, China, Australia (quite a possibility as I now have connections there), New Zealand, Fiji. Ambitious but at least it won't land me in Rochester or, god forbid, Cortland.

Planning a road trip through the US for this summer. I'd like to put in some time at Cobblestone Valley Farms since that's the best place I've ever worked but maybe before that I'll tour around a bit. A buddy of mine from here is coming to the States for 3 months and renting an RV to tour the States as well. I told him I'd show him around Ithaca since Homer has 0 fun spots. Same buddy, Paddy, got into a cheese fight with me last night. Again, Wednesday nights are a great night to go out in Waterford.

Next week is RAG week which is unofficially dedicated to drinking. I checked out the schedule of events and I may only attend the Rock Paper Scissors competition on Wednesday. I may join in. RAG week will probably make my training much more difficult to endure but it's all about the culture, right?

Oooh Mom, I'm doing fine and minding myself quite well. I'm responsible, remember? ;)

On Friday I went into work at 11a to use the internet. At 1:30p we went to laser blast in Tramore. We stayed there for a halfhour game then went to Dooley's for chips. Hands down the best chips I've had over here. I can't wait to try to fish. After the food we walked along the beach. The tide was low so we were able to get out pretty far. After work I went over to Stefan's house to care for his dog, Sally. Eva accompanied us to the park for a bit then we all went to Eva's boyfriend's house for a BBQ. I don't think February was probably the best choice for a BBQ but we stuck out the cold anyways and ate outside. Grilled pears do not pair well with chicken and peppers. The night went well though. As I was leaving Sally bumped a table and knocked over a wine glass that broke and spilled red wine all over her white coat. Awesome. I took a cab back to Stefan's house where I had to give Sally a bath so they didn't think I was irresponsible spilling alcohol over the family dog. I didn't realize it until the next morning but the room that I was staying in had the window open AND the heat ran out. May have been why I slept in jeans and a sweatshirt. The next day I had to get ready to go to the Tipperary/Kilkenny hurling match. I only knew Joe who I was going with and even he I only know because we danced in a pub my first night out. (Joe is a farmer in Kilkenny whom I am going to hit up for some Irish farm action; I want to milk cows and sheer sheep.) Joe picked me up at 1p to go meet at a pub in Glenmore. It was a rural pup with a local dog roaming about inside. It was a big hurling pub as that was the only paraphernalia I saw hanging. I started with a real strong water. The day may come when Guinness is my choice. We met up with some people, mostly older, and got in a van that took us to Thurles. In the van was Curly, the local drunk who made everyone laugh. He was drunk before he got on the bus. The ride was about an hour and a half. When we got there we went to a pub for another drink. We stayed a while and ate dinner there. Chicken curry. Here Curly sat next to me as Joe left. It was uncomfortable when he fell and spilled beer all over the table and floor. Joe was picking on me because I always attract the older men, 50+. We left to go to Brennan's pub. This was the designated Kilkenny fan pub where we stayed until leaving for the game. When we did leave for the game it was snowing out. I was like a little kid getting as excited as I was to see the snow. I haven't seen snow in 5 weeks and it's February - I miss it. Anyways, we made it to the pitch and paid the 5euro to get in. We get to some seats and wait. The game is supposed to start at 7.30. The announcer comes on and says that the game will be postponed until 7.45 and will be cancelled if the snow doesn't stop. The snow starts to lighten up but the announcer cancels the game anyways. People went mental. We walked over and saw a crowd of people harassing the head referee who had multiple guards around him. Joe and I walked out onto the pitch. (The stadium is not nearly as big as I expected it to be for a televised game and people were free to walk around on the field after the game was canceled.) Joe made a snow angel with my help - he didn't know how to make one. We went back to the mob where 5 more guards had gathered. We eventually left and went to another pub to get drinks for the ride back. On the ride Curly was in prime form. I'm not sure I can even describe him...very dirty. We got back to Waterford and were dropped off at another bar. I'm really going to miss this place when I leave. Flight delay? Cancellation?

Camogie kicked my ass. All the girls in the club were real easy on me my first night since I've never even held a hurley before. I wasn't awful but I certainly wasn't scoring any points. It's mandated to wear helmets now. The several people I know that play/have played hurling have all broken some bone(s). I wouldn't mind a nice finger break but I'll leave my nose intact this trip. I'll get a hurley on Monday from the receptionist so I can start practicing with that.

Not only did camogie kick my ass but so did binge drinking canned wine. Oooh Ireland, always on cue.

The internet shut down for a good 5 days on me here and I had to use the office computer at work to check emails, etc. Here are the updates:

This Saturday I had planned on staying in all day to work on my paper due the 22nd. Since my internet wasn't working and I need the internet to distract me when working on papers, I decided not to do anything. My suitemates have all gone home for midterms so I had the kitchen to myself. I sat in front of the TV with my plate of rice and fell asleep watching the discovery channel. I went out on Saturday to a club in town and had my first taste(s) of a Baby Guinness which is a shot of whiskey and Bailey's layered. I didn't buy one drink all night since I'm a girl and can get away with that here. It was a fun night out and as I was leaving I met another hurling player from Kilkenny. Kilkenny produces a lot of great hurlers. Sunday was Valentine's day and I got two boquets of flowers. Jeanie Mac! (Irish phrase alert!) I was asked to accompany a coworker and his family for dinner on Sunday. Stefan's family is great. He also has a little jack russell terrier that he's asked me to watch this coming Friday. On Monday Stefan picked me up and we went to the center where we were taking the Pre-Employment boys to the mountains for the day. It was about a 40minute drive out to the mountains though we were still in Waterford county. Once there we started up the mountain on a trail. We hopped a fence which kept the sheep within the farmer's land. We walked through the sheep pasture the entire way. It was a steep hike but we took breaks often. Everyone but Stefan and myself smoke so they would take smoke breaks, which seems a little contradictive but whatever. We made it to a small pond 3/4 of the way up. It was here that I sank into a peat puddle. My feet were nearly completely engulfed with the peat when I stepped into it. It was a strange texture though. Easily the softest soil(?) I've ever touched. We walked the next 1/4 and got to the lake we were aiming for. The lake was decent sized - maybe half the size of Preble Pond. It was surrounded by three sides of steep mountain and one side easily accessible land. Once there we sat and ate our lunch. It was real windy there, it was similar to the wind tunnel between Bramley Perry and Briggs in Brockport. It was windy, cold, and it started to rain. The rain was cold but not cold enough to snow. (Though there was a tiny bit of snow on top of the mountain peak that I saw. Enough for 8 snowballs at most.) We went back down the mountain and sat for a while deciding what to do. We were all tired so we went back to the center for tea. I walked home after I checked my email on the computer. At 8pm I went to see Invictus with some buds. Some people in the theatre were wearing their rugby jerseys. Good movie. The next day I woke up late and made my way to the library around 1:30pm. The wireless internet didn't work so I went to the office for a few hours. Around 6pm I walked to Lidl to buy some milk for my pancakes. I got home and made pancakes for Pancake Tuesday. Delicious! I don't normally like pancakes but today was magical. At 8pm Pam picked me up and I went into work. We made pancakes. This was the group of older girls. I really like them. They like to talk about boys and they like to drink. It's one of their 18th birthdays on Friday and they told me to meet up with them. I don't have any work today or Thursday but I am starting a camogie league tonight. I'm going to buy my hurley today. I was also invited to a hurling match this Saturday. Kilkenny vs. Tipperary. My buddy has a Kilkenny jersey for me. I guess that paper is due soon, too.

St. Brigid = Pancakes?

Yesterday was my long day: 1pm-10pm with a two hour break at 6pm. At 8pm I went out with Stefan with the pre-employment guys who are all 16-18yrs old. We went out about 10km to the woods. I forget the name of the woods but it was grand. The road we took to get there was the first country road I've been on in Ireland. The road that I initially thought was bad was, what Stefan said, one of the better roads in Ireland. The next road we took was about 3x as bad as the back road to Preble Pond. Plenty of potholes and the road was just narrow enough for one car...should another car come toward us someone would have to back out until there was an opening large enough to pull over. We finally got to the "entrance" where we pulled over and got out. There were probably 6 boys and three leaders including myself. Each leader got a flashlight and we staggered between the guys. The path was muddy but I was prepared with my "wellies" or boots. The guys were tripping over roots and rocks so I kept my distance from whoever was in front of me. We got to some more narrow paths and figured out that they were dirt bike paths. We walked over a bridge made out of farm crates. I almost lost it walking over the crates. Stefan had said they were rotting. Luckily I made it over without falling, two of the guys helped me with the 3' jump I had to make at the end. We continued through over jumps and ramps until we made a turn down a beaten path. The path lead us to an old dilapidated rock wall. The wall was of an estate. The wall lead to an arch that lead to a balcony looking over a lake. I wish it was daylight so I could have seen more of the woods from there but it was pretty nonetheless. The vines hanging off the arch and the moss on the rock wall were the highlight of the walk. We made our way up a steep hill to a resting place where Stefan had previously tied rope around trees for us to find our way through without using flashlights. The task was fun and we ended up falling down the hill as a group and into sharp sticks. It sounds worse than it was. We backtracked a bit from the walk before and had to climb the steep hill again to the ressting place. We headed out after that back to the van and then home. It was another late night but next week we're planning a day trip to the mountains. I'm real excited for that day. Also next week is Pancake Tuesday. What?!? Yes, it is a day devoted to pancakes - morning, noon, and night. Someone was trying to tell me that it was to celebrate St. Brigid but I find it hard to believe there is a pancake saint. Ireland has got it goin' on. Today was fine. I went over to Eva's in the morning to do some laundry. (Laundry in my building is about $13 to wash and dry so Eva suggested I launder my clothes at her place fo free.) Then we walked around town hanging up flyers for her - she is offering German lessons to anyone interested. Work went well today; I was only there for an hour and a half for homework club. After work I went to Tesco to buy cooking supplies. I made oatmeal/m&m/almond/pecan cookies to give to Eva as payment for my laundry and lunch. I don't have any measuring cups here since they weigh all their measurements (and my flatmates don't have a measuring scale) so I had to eye everything I put into the batter. People here don't eat batter. The 5 people I told to taste the batter looked at me like I'm nuts. Am I the only one who enjoys a good spoonful of delectable cookie batter?! Probably not. I had extra cookies so I left them on the kitchen table in my flat. Ciaron (pronounced Kier-on) came into my room asking about the cookies. He devoured one cookie and asked how much sugar was in it...after hearing my answer he told me he was going to put his diabetes on hold for tonight while he ate the cookies. I wonder how Ciaran will handle Pancake Tuesday...

Friday: leave Waterford at 7:30pm on a bus to Cork. It's dark so we couldn't see anything out the windows. We get to Cork around 9:30p and walk off the bus to the station. There is a stray dog there. Of course I pet the dog and we love eachother. The dog, whom I named Mick, followed us the half mile to our hostel and walked on into the hostel ahead of all of us. The woman at the counter put Mick behind the desk and told us she would take care of her. We all went up the three flights of stairs to our room. It was a 6-person room that we had all to ourselves. I had the top bunk in the first room. We left shortly after settling in to go explore the city. As we were walking down the river-adjacent sidewalk some trash got caught up in my feet and I booted it into the road. Not even seconds later I realize it was not trash but a rat that I had kicked into the road. The rat had crawled across my foot, scooted into the road, then came back and ran into Dana's feet, then jumped into the river. We named the rat Darrell and assume he drinks Guinness. We kept on into the city. It's a decent-sized city with a big shopping district. We pretty much just hung out in the shopping district and the side streets. I think we went to a pub but I'm not too sure. We came back early to get ready for bed. We were waking up early on Saturday to catch a bus to Blarney. We got over to Blarney in the morning and the fog hadn't completely cleared from the massive lawn in front of the castle. It was gorgeous. The price to get into the estate was paid off walking thorugh the gardens. There were ancient Druid caves there with a large sacrificial stone. I took lots of pictures but as I've said before the internet here isn't spectacular. We went to the castle next. The castle steps were real narrow and I was with Dana, who has a fear of heights. The castle was great though. Lots of small rooms jutting out from the stairs. A few floors were missing but had they been there it would have been about four or five floors. Once at the top you could see everything. The whole estate was beautiful. The wind was blowing and you feared slightly of falling off the top. I walked over to a small group of people where I assumed the Blarney Stone was. There was an older gent, Dennis, lowering people down backwards into a small hole in the castle to kiss the blarney stone. I was shaking since I could see my death five stories below me. Dennis lowered me down and I kissed the spit-slathered stone...on a dry spot. We came back down equally frightening stairs and got to the bottom. We walked around to find the dungeons and caves. I hit my head walking through the cave but it was worth it. The cave went back pretty far and it was real muddy in there. I'm not sure of its purpose. The dungeon was even better/worse. I hit my head about 4-6 times in the dungeon but it was more interesting. The dungeon went back real far and you had to squat to get all the way through there. Once out I didn't go under any more rocks. My head hurt. Garrett is an EMT so I feel safer traveling with him. We were on our way out of Blarney when I ran into a woman with a Jack Russell Terrier puppy. I asked her all about it and am now 95% sold on getting a JRT puppy. We left to get back to the bus but stopped for lunch at a small restaurant. The bus came soon after and we went back to Cork. We split ways and Jenn and I went shopping together. It was fun but there were much too many people. We went back for a bit and I decided to take a nap. I fell asleep quick and Jenn had gone outside to smoke. I woke when three strangers were walking out of my room. They came back in and I was a little freaked out. Apparently one of them was going to be staying in the room with the 5 of us. This posed a problem since I had used his sheet as a towel that morning and used his comforter as a pillow and Jenn took his pillow to use herself. I asked him to left for a minute so I could get out of bed. He did and I quickly made his bed with the spare parts strewn across the room. He came back in and it was uncomfortable for the both of us. He was French and was talking to his friends. I had no idea what was going on. Jenn came back and the other 3 came back. I slept more. We all left to get some dinner. Dana and I got some chinese while they went to some other restaurant. We all met up and went out to the Old Oak which is a pub down a side street. It was ok. I think I was stressed with all the interpersonal conflicts going on in our group. I left early to go to bed. Woke up today around 9am, showered, and caught a bus to the Cork city gaol. The gaol was built in the 19th century and was only open for about 100 years before closing in the 1920's. The jail was real cold AND there was glass on the windows. I would have frozen had I been a prisoner in there. We left the jail and went back into town to get lunch and catch the bus. I got back to Waterford around 6pm and had enough time to go grocery shopping quick before heading home. I've since been keeping warm in my room finishing some work I had to do. Apologies for the lack of pictures.

On Monday I had an early meeting with my two advisors here. The meeting went well and to fill some time my agency advisor, Pam, brought me and Eva to Tramore Beach. My internet connection is not letting me upload photos but the beach was incredible. The tide was low and the waves were fairly calm. On one side of the beach the shore consisted of cliffs with three light towers. The middle light tower had a man on top ("Metal Man") which men used to hop around on one leg on the last day in February on a leap year. If they did this they would supposedly be married by the end of the year. This is no longer allowed since the cliffs are eroding. On the other side of the shore there were fatal sand dunes! During the summer the beach is real touristy and busy with rollercoasters etc. We went back to the beach on Tuesday to eat at Doolan's Fish and Chips. We only got chips but they were the best that I've had since I've been here. We're planning on going to Cork this weekend since it didn't work out this past weekend.