This past week has been fairly uneventful. Broke up a fight between a couple 8-year-olds again. Went hiking last Thursday up Sugarloaf. I was unprepared for the hike since I was told we were going to the beach so I wore my dress shoes thinking I would take them off at the beach. No. I climbed that muddy mountain and cliff in my dress shoes, through the thistle bushes that were ripping at every part of my skin, through the inches of mud that were seeping between my toes, and to the top of that rock. At least it was raining and the use of my glasses was then useless. It was dark out and I couldn't wear my glasses due to the rain. Awesome night. I was then hit on by a 12-year-old as we were dropping him off at his house. Kidding aside though, I loved it. Not the kid hitting on me, but climbing the cliff/mountain thing at night in the mud. Nevermind.

I went to see KickAss and would have rather spent those two hours pulling out my fingernails. We went to the pubs after the movie.

I was supposed to go bog-hopping today with a group of kids. (The kids here have two weeks off for the Easter holidays so at the agency we plan day-long trips for each of the groups.) Had the weather been nicer we would have been sliding through the swamps in wetsuits. It sounded fun and I was sorely disappointed when it was called off this morning.

Patrick is in London now and comes out to Dublin tomorrow. I'm meeting him up in Dublin and we're renting a car on Wednesday morning. It's an ambitious trip but it should be a lot of fun.

Friday:
Dan came over from Brockport to see me on the 12th for ten days. He wasn't able to call me so I inadvertantly left him at the Waterford bus station for a couple hours until the tourist office called me with Dan on the line. I went down to pick him up.

Saturday:
We tried to rent a car but the cars from Enterprise was out of cars. We hung out and I showed Dan some of the pubs.

Sunday:
We got up and rented a car from Budget at the Waterford airport. We only insured Dan to drive since it was cheaper but once we got to Tramore we switched and I've been driving since. We first drove to Killarney but made such great time we went on to Glenbeigh where we found a bed and breakfast on the beach. We drove down a small residential road toward the closest beach. It was a rock beach with sand dunes in the distance. We walked around here a while before we decided to go to the actual beach. We parked at the actual beach and got out. It was gorgeous with the long curved beach and the mountains on either side. We walked the beach and climbed the massive sand dunes. The dunes were covered in some kind of grass and were real hard to climb up. Once up there the sun was setting and everything was absolutely amazing. It looked like a watercolor painting. We kicked it on the dunes a little longer then walked past the large animal carcass that had decayed on the beach and on to the car. We drove back to the B&B where we stayed until morning.

Monday:
In the morning we went downstairs and an old man made us our Irish breakfasts. It was a charactered B&B but the food could have been less greasy. We kept on the Ring of Kerry stopping every so often for the view. We finished the Ring of Kerry and went on to the Dingle peninsula. In Dingle we stopped at a couple wool stores and I got a wool jacket and a blanket. We stopped for some lunch and ice cream and we made a game plan for the rest of the day. We drove to Ennis where we looked around for places to stay. We found a B&B that looked open so we rang the doorbell. Got it.

Tuesday:
The breakfast in the morning was real good and was cooked by a middle aged woman who was quite chatty. We drove through Ennis and on to the Cliffs of Moher. It was crazy windy and cold so we took some pictures and walked the fence but left soon after. It was cloudy all day so we had to work with that as well. We drove through Doolin and kinda figured things out as we went. We eventually decided to go to Connemara. Once there I took a nap in the car on a pier overlooking the choppy waves crashing against the rocks. I woke and we drove back towards Galway (which is much smalled than I imagined) and shopped around for B&Bs. We went to our first choice and she told us a restaurant that was "cheap and good." We went. I had the vegetable soup and the shepherd's pie. The pie smelled almost exactly like shit. It was real hard to eat just because of the smell. We pushed the plates to the center and mashed it up so the stank could escape. After dinner we went back to the B&B for the night.

Wednesday (St. Patrick's Day):
Breakfast was good stuff. We went downtown to see the Galway parade. The theme was "Over the Moon" so the floats were kinda strange. There were stormtroopers from Star Wars and plenty of aliens. After the parade we walked around a bit. We had dinner at a chinese restaurant and took a nap before the evening festivities. We went to the pubs aaaand had fun.

Thursday:
Breakfast. Drove back to Waterford in the rain.

Friday:
Drove out to Woodstown, Dunmore East, and Tramore all to see the beaches. Dunmore East is my fav.

Saturday:
Dropped off the rental car.

Sunday:
Hung out.

Monday the 22nd:
Dan and I left at 6am to catch his bus at 6:30am. I'm great in the mornings and didn't realize until I was out in the rain that I had my slippers on; I was too far into the trip to turn back. Got back to bed by 6:45am and overslept until 9:30 when I had a meeting at 10am. Stayed at work until 9:30pm. Long day.

RAG week cont.

Day 3:
I wasn't feeling good this day. I skipped camogie training and went to bed.

Day 4:
There was a concert at the Dome Bar: The Coronas. Apparently people love this band. The band is just starting to "break the UK" which is a big deal for any Irish band bc England shits on Ireland alllll the time. People at the bar were just crazy about them though. I don't think it would be a band I would pay to see again as I left early during this set. I didn't pregame hard enough to hang out with giggly 18-year-olds. I walked the mile or so back to my place and stayed there. It was probably in the high 30's as I walked back and I was quite chilly so I didn't go back out for the night.

Day 5:
All the college kids leave on Friday so the nightlife is quite different. Me and my buds got together and went to the Wacky Apple and Woodman's. Marlee and I went back around 2am after grabbing some "food." We chatted for a few hours before realizing it was 4am.

Today:
Slept 'til 2pm.

RAG Week

Day 1 of RAG week:
Eva and I got tickets to the costume party. She came over after work and we used feathers and paint from work to dress as Native Americans. (Pictures are on Facebook.) The party was at the Dome Bar on campus. It's about a kilometer to campus from my place so we walked. Afterwards we went to what I call Ruby's Party Palace, it's Ruby's club upstairs from Ruby's pub. Soo many pubs here. It was a fun night.

Day 2:
I took a break from the festivities to go over to Eva's for laundry and dinner. Laundry is outrageously expensive here in my building so I do it for free at Eva's. We made chicken curry while the laundry pretended to work. I had stuffed all my clothes from the past 2 weeks into a bag and put the most needy items in first. This meant that all those things I acutally needed to wear were slightly wet and still dirty. After dinner and a showing of Angela's Ashes I walked home with an even heavier load of unclean laundry. I decided to wash my clothes in my sink and rinse in the shower. It's a nice setup I have in my bathroom. There are clothes strewn about my room now and I wait for them to dry. My jeans and one pair of socks are on the heater so they dry faster.

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.

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!