emerald_away

101 Goals in 1001 Days

2009-07-15T17:01:00.005+01:00

Like Mum, I've decided that it would fun to join the hundreds of other bloggers out there and create a list of 101 goals to be completed in 1001 days (as part of the Day Zero Project). Now, this is going to be a real challenge for me to stick to and finish, because I tend to have a bad habit of abandoning projects halfway through. So I figure if I can actually do this, it'll be a good thing for me.

Here's my list:

1. ~~Finish Montessori training~~
2. ~~Knit a sweater~~
3. ~~Find an apartment and move in~~
4. ~~Find a roommate~~
5. Do the 100 mile challenge for 1 week
6. ~~Eat no refined sugar for 1 week~~
7. Watch 50 movies I’ve never seen before
8. Keep a dream journal for 1 month
9. ~~Keep track of all finances for 1 month~~
10. Go for coffee with a different friend every month
11. Surge training 3x/week
12. Visit 3 new countries
13. ~~See 3 concerts~~
14. Read 10 books (not for school)
15. Purge unused/unwanted clothing/items and send to charity 2x/year
16. ~~Bake bread from scratch~~
17. Renew CPR license
18. Try a hot yoga class
19. ~~Try a kick-boxing class~~
20. Keep an orchid alive for minimum 1 year
21. Get a professional massage
22. Go to the ballet
23. Go to the opera
24. ~~Go to the theatre to see a play~~
25. Host a dinner party once a year
26. Go 48 hours without a computer
27. Write at least 3 new recipes a year for the cookbook
28. Practice the Bodhrán 3x/month
29. Go 1 month without using the credit card
30. Make a Halloween costume without purchasing anything new (buying used things is allowed)
31. Catalogue all my books, movies, CDs
32. Use freecycle at least 3x/year
33. Go kayaking
34. Volunteer at an event
35. Raise at least $100 for Paws in Motion every year
36. Host a board game night
37. Get a job as a Montessori teacher
38. Write 5 new poems
39. ~~Eat a completely vegan diet for 1 month~~
40. Make all my own salad dressing
41. Bring my own shopping bags
42. ~~Feed Whimsy only raw (no canned food) for 1 month~~
43. Use only natural soaps and cleaning products
44. ~~Feed the birds~~
45. ~~Bring a travel mug to Starbucks instead of using paper cups~~
46. ~~Switch to energy-saving lightbulbs~~
47. Go horseback riding
48. Buy a piece of art from an independent artist
49. ~~See an NHL game~~
50. Take a class on cake decorating
51. ~~Wear a size 8~~
52. ~~Rent a cabin with friends for a weekend~~
53. Visit Dublin
54. Have teeth professionally bleached
55. Post to my blog at least once a month
56. Get lower back tattoo coloured
57. Learn to read rune stones
58. Learn to drive standard
59. ~~Try 10 new restaurants~~
60. Make 100 paper cranes
61. ~~Plant a tree~~
62. Take a multivitamin every day
63. Take time out for myself once a week (take a long bath, paint my nails, etc.)
64. Write a list of 25 things I like about Winnipeg
65. ~~Put more effort into my appearance (no more dressing like a college student)~~
66. Overcome an irrational fear
67. Make a scrapbook with pictures of Dad
68. Make a “mix tape” (burned CD) with songs that remind me of a certain person, then give it to them
69. Spend at least two days/nights a month doing something with The Boy
70. ~~Laugh until my stomach hurts~~
71. ~~Try 5 new wines~~
72. Try a new recipe once a week for 4 weeks
73. Buy Diablo III and play with friends
74. Rekindle a friendship that has been lost
75. Sew a tote bag with fabric I love
76. Hand write a letter to someone
77. ~~Watch the sun set~~
78. Attend a Pride Day celebration
79. ~~Buy a new mattress~~
80. Take a sun holiday in the winter
81. ~~Buy myself flowers~~
82. Have breakfast in bed
83. Celebrate all the solstices and equinoxes, plus Samhain, Imbolc, Beltane, and Lammas
84. ~~Improve my French~~
85. Learn to crochet
86. Vote in the next election
87. ~~Find a new TV series (on DVD) to watch~~
88. Buy prescription sunglasses
89. Attend 5 Folklorama pavilions each year
90. Create one picture in chalk pastels
91. Get the Prius washed at least once a month
92. ~~Take a road trip~~
93. Donate $1 for every goal not completed
94. Take Whimsy to the vet to get her teeth fixed
95. ~~Donate food to a food bank~~
96. Go to the Art Gallery
97. ~~Take a pole dancing fitness class with Stef~~
98. Avoid alcohol for 1 month
99. Adopt a pet from the Humane Society
100. Go to a Farmer’s Market 10 times
101. Grow my hair long

My project ends on 11 April, 2012.

Time to get focused! Wish me luck!

A note on timing...

2009-05-20T12:09:00.002+01:00

There's no use in wasting our time wondering why things worked out this way, but I can't help but be a little bit disappointed.

I suppose all there is to do now is try to enjoy the next two weeks...

Raindrops

2009-05-16T22:40:00.008+01:00

Rain, rain, go away, come again another day...

What's that? It's raining? In Ireland? IMPOSSIBLE!

Believe it, ladies and gentlemen. It's been rainy and cold for a few days straight now, though I suppose I can't really complain because it's not snowing. And in true Irish fashion, it's often raining and sunny at the same time. Very strange. I know I've mentioned this country's screwy weather before, but I don't know if you can truly appreciate just how absurd it is until you have experienced it for yourself. So until that day comes, you'll all just have to take my word for it and accept the fact that there's some sort of magical weather vortex over Ireland.

The simultaneous combination of rain and sun, as much as it makes me feel as if I'm in an episode of the Twilight Zone, creates a rather interesting setting for photos. Matty inspired me to start playing around with the settings on my camera because it has the potential to be so much more than a point-and-shoot. So I've been doing some playing, outside in the rain, and felt like I should share some of the results with you. But first an introduction. And by "introduction" I mean "rambling collection of my thoughts". I've suddenly been feeling like a writer again, after not producing anything besides academic papers for years. So just bear with me.

Friday night I was sick of being a lazy bum all day, so as dusk began to set in, I walked up Killiney Hill despite the rain (I suppose this was me following Jane's advice and taking advantage of the time I have left here). Dusk is my favourite time of day. Have you ever noticed how the whole world looks different at dusk? A thick grey-blue haze is cast over everything and there is just so much energy and magic around. I would just like to add that being in a forest on a mountain beside the sea in the rain allows one to bask in the most incredible smell of Green imaginable. The lousy weather kept most people off the hill, making it so quiet, aside from a huge number of very excited birds who were out celebrating the rain.

Has anyone ever experienced pathetic fallacy? I know we all know what it is and learn about it school and can probably recognize it in literature/film/art. But have you actually lived it? I have. Standing on the hill, just watching, as darkness crept over the sea and a flaming orange sliver of sunset was visible between the clouds and Dublin City, while a fine mist of rain covered everything. Perfect. Seeing my own reflection in the misty panorama had an incredibly calming effect. It was comforting to know that, just like myself, Dublin is having mixed feelings about my upcoming departure. That, my friends, is pathetic fallacy made real.

Most of these photos don't require much individual explanation, so I'm just going to post them.

Dusk. Rain. Mountain. Forest. Sea. Muse.

Today, I met up with Claire and Kalen to take a day trip down to Enniskerry in Co. Wicklow to see the Powerscourt House & Gardens. Again, it was sunny and raining for most of the day, but we managed to make the most of it. The gardens at Powerscourt are really gorgeous. So many bright colours! In some ways, it reminded me of the Butchart Gardens and made me feel all nostalgic.

Again, I feel that most of these pictures speak for themselves, but I'll throw in a few comments here and there.

Enniskerry is west of Bray, further towards the Wicklow Mountains. The mountains are visible from a few spots on the Powerscourt grounds.

Venturing out into the garden, and heading towards the lake.

The fountains are really lovely. There are quite a few of them.

The Winged Horses.

(From underneath the horses)

Into the Japanese Gardens...

We climbed up Pepperpot Tower. The name makes me giggle, not gonna lie.

There's a nice view from up there, even though it's not very high.

Cannons to guard Pepperpot.

Powerscourt is also quite well-known for its golf course.

Inside the house, the main floor is almost entirely shops and restaurants, but upstairs is more historical. This is the ballroom.

And the view.

Back outside to the Wall Gardens.

I found something so poetic about this tree...

And the walk through the Wall Garden brought us back to the lake. (As always, I apologize for the slantiness of my photos. I can't seem to shoot straight, no matter how hard I try.)

The front of the house.

Of course, the best part was the flowers, glittering with raindrops.

Strange weather, but we had a good day regardless.

I know it's a rare occurance that I ever follow any kind of advice given to me (my mother can attest to this, I'm sure), but I do plan on making the most of the rest of my time here, and enjoying it as much as I can. But I know I've mentioned before that I'll be back to Ireland someday. It's only a matter of time before the cold winds whip off Dublin Bay and suck me back in. I'm never gone forever.

Almost done...

2009-05-15T15:08:00.004+01:00

Four exams down, one to go! And that one isn't until Wednesday, so I can relax this weekend. (Sweet!) Also, I feel like I've done pretty well on all the exams so far! (Double sweet!) So I figured I'd put up a little post for you since I've actually got pictures this time. Shocking, I know.

Last Sunday, the weather was fantastically gorgeous. Warm and sunny and lacking that cold wind coming off the sea which always seems to ruin warm days over here. Kalen and I went down to the Sunday Market in Sandycove (just like every week) but this time was particularly lovely.

The tulips are out in full force, everywhere you look! Yes, they really are this bright!

As expected, the beautiful weather ensured that the market was PACKED. The good news is that there's always so much more to see (and purchase) when the weather is nice. Some of the vendors don't show up if it's crappy and rainy and cold out. Which, let's face it, is often. This is Ireland.

Mmmm...purchases. Yes, that is a locally grown organic watermelon. It's nearly gone now, and is super fantastic. Om nom nom!

After the market, we couldn't bear to just go home and sit inside while the lovely weather went to waste, so we walked down the pier...

It must have been a great day for sailing, despite the lack of wind, because the Bay was packed.

No wind meant that the water was super clear.

We went to a little beach.

Just our luck, the tide was on its way out. Play time!

HOORAY FOR SUMMER!

We found a super cool rock. I wonder what happened to it...

We spent a couple of hours wading in the ocean, getting mildly sunburnt. It was wonderful. Nothing makes me quite so happy as heat and sun. I'm very much looking forward to a good Manitoba summer. I will miss the ocean though.

We found all kinds of crazy creatures in the ocean. A teeny tiny little crab...

And a whole load of shrimp! Here's one! They were very quick and tough to spot, so they weren't easy to photograph.

What a great day. Unfortunately, I had to study when I got home from the beach. Bleh.

Aside from lots and lots of studying, something else has been taking up a fair bit of my time the past couple of days...

That's right, I (finally) bought a bodhrán! I love it!

I chose a design which I feel embraces my Scottish roots. :)

It's loads of fun! Obviously, I'm not very good at it just yet, but I'm getting there. Practice, practice, practice!

In other (sadder) news, Matty left yesterday morning, and the apartment is feeling awfully empty now. *sigh* On my own-y all alone-y. Again. Good thing Stef gets here in 6 days. Her visit might be a little bit mad. Haha.

I should have more pictures to post soon because Claire and I plan on going down to Enniskerry, Co. Wicklow tomorrow to visit the Powerscourt House & Gardens. I'm charging up my camera now and hoping for nice weather. The last few days, the weather has been absolutely rubbish, unfortunately, and it's meant to stay this way for at least a week. But on the other hand, you never can tell with Irish weather, as it seems to change on the hour. Crazy country.

I'll leave you with a demonstration of someone playing the bodhrán far better than I am currently able to. Enjoy!

No pictures, but a post nonetheless.

2009-05-08T13:59:00.002+01:00

I realize it's been ages since I've posted anything, but life has been quite hectic.

Houseguests became flatmates, and then one disaster after another ended with one back in Winnipeg and the other heading back next week. It's really a shame, but not something I'm going to get into now. All I'll say is that it's not because of flatmate tension. We're all still close friends and we'll spend time together when we're all back in the 'Peg. So I suppose it's all well and good, but it's still been a source of stress over the past couple weeks. All that being said, I'm really greatful to have been able to experience having flatmates. Yes, admittedly there were times when I wanted to smother them in their sleep, but for the most part it was just nice having someone around all the time to talk to and hang out with. I never enjoyed living all by myself, and found it pretty lonely most of the time. It was really nice having someone around to say randomly, "Get dressed. Let's go out tonight." or else just be lazy with and sit around watching movies. I guess mostly it was nice to have the company. I don't think it's any big secret that I miss the one who has gone back already, and I will miss the other one when he goes.

Luckily, there won't be too much time all by myself in the apartment, as Stef comes out in less than 2 weeks now! She'll be here for a couple weeks to help me get everything ready to move back and also to help me enjoy my last couple weeks in Dublin. Should be a blast, I'm really looking forward to it.

Exams are upon me now. Eew. I wrote my first one yesterday (Montessori Theory), and it was easy, no problems. However, I have Psychology on Monday and I think it's safe to say that I'm 100% screwed. The man teaching the course is absolutely useless. He's very nice, and he means well, and clearly tries really hard, but he's just plain stupid. I've learned nothing from him all year. And then unlike all the other profs, he didn't tell us what to study. So I can't help but feel like I'm headed for Fails-ville. Obviously I've been studying from the textbook, but it's such a vast subject I barely know where to start. And everyone else in the course is in the same boat because nobody learned anything this year. Greeeaaat. I'll let you know how this turns out, but I'm not overly confident to say the least.

I really can't believe it's almost all over. I'm crazy relieved about it and very happy to be heading back to a country where I feel like I belong, but at the same time, leaving is sort of bittersweet. I've made some really great friends over here who I'm sad to leave behind. Though it's safe to say that I'll be getting some visitors in Canada over the next couple of years, and I've always got places to stay in Dublin. As much as I hate this damn city, I know I'll be back. This dirty old town is a part of me now, and I know already that I'll eventually be called back to the green hills and salty coasts of Ireland. But just for a visit. Do I have regrets? Sure. But who doesn't? All I know is that it's definitely time for me to leave, but I'm glad I came. I can see in myself all the changes that this experience has caused. Some of them positive, others not so much, but I can say with confidence that I've grown up a lot over the last 9 months. Maybe no one else will see it, and I'm okay with that. Emerald Away is coming Home.

I must get back to studying, but I'll try to post again after exams and before I leave Dublin.

J'aime Paris!

2009-04-14T17:29:00.005+01:00

Ok, seriously, people...if you have never been to Paris then get on a plane right this second and go there. It's the most amazing city in the whole world and I'm so upset that I had to leave. I will most definitely be back there several more times before I die. It's got everything! And...well...it's PARIS! 'nuff said.

I'm having a hard time being back in Dublin and remembering to speak English. However, it was pretty difficult for me to find things to eat in Paris. Ended up eating a lot of bread. (Mmmmm....bread). But nothing quite beats sitting outside a cafe on the streets of Paris, sipping espresso and eating chocolate. *swoon*

I took over 500 pictures, just because there's so much to take pictures of. Obviously I'm not going to try to post all of them, so here are some highlights.

Kalen and I stayed in the Peace & Love Hostel in north-east Paris. It was amazing. It was a hostel - so the rooms were small and awkward, the toilet was down the hall, and there was no lift (and a lot of stairs, unfortunately) but it was the most fun I've ever had at a hostel. It's a youth hotel, so everyone there is under 35, and we met a lot of really cool people. Downstairs there is a bar, which also serves as the reception desk (to give you an idea of what kind of place this is), where they serve cheap drinks and the adorable bartender Julien is very friendly. It was pretty much party central. Awesome.

This was the view from our room at night.

We did a lot of wandering around, even though I was on crutches, and we saw most of the popular sights...

The Opera House

Grand Palais

The Arc de Triomphe

Assemblee Nationale

Notre Dame (during the day)

And at night from across the Siene.

We saw the tower where Marie Antoinette was held before she was beheaded. Spooky!

And did some random wandering. I don't remember what these buildings actually are, but they're beautiful anyways.

The Eiffel Tower (of course!)

We ate crepes there. They had butter in them and made me sick, but it was so worth it.

We went up to the top (thank goodness there was a lift!) and got a breathtaking view of all of Paris. *heart*

We had to come back at night to see it lit up.

Every hour, they switch on the twinkly lights for a few minutes. I love it.

We got to see the full moon shining underneath the tower.

There's a super sweet double decker carousel in front of the tower. We wanted to go on, but it appeared to be just for small children. It was sad.

On our last day in Paris, we went to the tower and took some goofy glamour shots.

Then we stuck around to watch the lights come on at dusk.

Not yet...

Now!

The we wandered along the Siene to take some more pictures.

We also went to the Louvre and saw the Mona Lisa! She's much smaller than I thought she would be.

We didn't see everything in the Louvre, and I didn't take pictures of everything, but here are some highlights. Apparently, if you were to spend 1 minute in front of every item in the Louvre, it would take you 4 months to get through the museum. Crazy.

Outside the Louvre is the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel.

We sat in the sunshine in the courtyard for a while and enjoyed the pyramids.

And from there we went to the St. Eustache Cathedral. For something that doesn't even make it onto the tourist maps, it was really impressive.

On Easter Sunday we went over to Sacre Coeur. This was a huge mistake. There was service going on and there were so many people I could hardly breathe.

The view was quite lovely though.

Once we went inside, it took forever to get out again.

Then we went to MOULIN ROUGE!!! eeeeee!

And then we went down to the river to take a little boat cruise. There was a really neat little market on the pier.

And then we boarded "Gavroche", the boat.

Off to see the sights from the Siene!

We took the Metro, which is extremely complicated and confusing, but convenient nonetheless.

We ate some very good food and drank some very good wine.

We looked in some tacky tourist shops.

And also did some serious shopping. I bought this fabulous giant handbag (which is actually more purple than blue, it just doesn't photograph well).

And I also bought these amazing shoes, which (in true Paris fashion) were very expensive. *sigh* But so worth it. I can't wait for my knee to be healed so I can wear these!

We also spent some time wandering the beautiful gardens in front of the Palais Chaillot.

We saw a mama canard and her babies.

Bonjour, petit canard!

Some cool trees.

And then unfortunately, we had to leave.

Au revoir, Paris! I will see you again as soon as I can!

A Rushed Post

2009-04-09T00:19:00.002+01:00

This post is coming in the very short amount of time in between England and France. However, I anticipate taking a ridiculous amount of photos in Paris, so I figured I should get this post out of the way before I leave.

First bit of news is that I'm broken again. I was out celebrating my birthday, and "missed" a set of stairs. Long story short, the kneecap isn't broken as was originally suspected, but there's pretty significant damage to the quad muscles where they stretch over the knee. Go me. So I've been on crutches since then and it's a pretty major pain in the arse. However, when I went to physio today I was told that I have just one more week on the crutches. Hooray!

The good news is that being injured has not been stopping me from my world travels. Last weekend I popped over to northern England to meet up with an old friend. Actually, this friend and I have a pretty interesting story. His name is Ian, and he and I were matched up via a penpal service run through our schools when we were 12. We've stayed in touch for the last 10 years and only met in person for the first time last weekend. It was very exciting. I didn't take many pictures on this trip, partially because this part of England isn't overly picturesque, but mostly because I was there to visit and not really to site-see. All in all, it was a fantastic trip and he's already working on obtaining a passport so he can come visit me in Winnipeg. w00t!

Anyways, on to the pictures!

Ian drove me up to the top of a big hill overlooking Chorley (near Liverpool).

And to the beach at Blackpool.

which has a windmill for some reason...

And then we went to the pub for drinking!

Tomorrow, Kalen and I leave for Paris, where we'll be until Monday. We are both très excited. Our French is slightly rusty, but we'll get by. Expect updates next week at some point! I'm off to pack and sleep!

Time for some healing.

2009-03-13T14:24:00.003Z

Definitely time for me to give my body a bit of a rest while it recovers from all the decorating I've been doing to it lately. Though once I'm good and healed, I make no promises about what I will or won't do next. Haha.

I decided it was time to re-stretch the piercings in my ears (say what you want, I love the way it looks). Back in the day I was wearing a 6 gauge (4 mm for all you Europeans out there), but over the past couple of years I had gone back to wearing a standard 22-gauge (apx. 0.6 mm) all the time, so the piercings shrunk down to that size. *yawn* Boring. I don't even really know why I let them close in like that. So now I have to start the whole process over again. Ugh. I'm back up in a 14 ga (1.6 mm) and had completely forgotten about the fact that stretching is kind of uncomfortable for a couple days. Ow. It'll be good once it's all finished though...probably at some point over the summer, or maybe early into the autumn. Can't rush these things, y'know. That's just asking for trouble. You can see the 14s in the pictures further down in this post. Also partially visible in these pictures is my new haircut (Yes, the fringe is back.)

As most of you probably knew already, I have a big tattoo on my lower back that I designed when I was about 16 and got put on when I was 19. Here's a refresher.

I love love love it. My only complaints were
1. It didn't look that big on paper. I should have spent more time planning it. Though, of course I'm used to it now the way it is.
and 2. I didn't do a photo-journal of the process. I didn't even think of it.

But I learned from my mistakes and decided to not repeat them the next time I got a tattoo. Three long years passed (almost to the day, actually) and although I talked and talked about getting more tattooes and even had designs picked out, I never actually got another one. This meant that I was waaayyy past due for more. (And more and more and more). And then the opportunity presented itself. Why not get a tattoo in Dublin to sort of mark the time I spent here? This how I do souvenirs, baby! Nothing ordinary or boring, ever.

So anyways, I slightly modified a design that I had already picked out about a year ago, and then I was off to find a decent studio! I found a very good one called Snakebite Tattoo & Body Piercing in Dublin City Centre. It was reccomended to me by people who had piercings done there, and I checked out the artists' portfolios. Very impressive. Clearly these guys know what they're doing. So I went and booked my appointment. I decided that since there was a very small design that I had been wanting as a tattoo for nearly 3 years, I might as well get that done at the same time. Snakebite said they wouldn't even charge me for it because it's so small and simple. Hooray!

Once my appointment was booked, I spent a very long week looking forward to it and getting excited and then the day finally came! Hooray! I grabbed my friend Steffi, and my camera, and we headed into Dublin. We met the artist who would be doing the tattoo, and he was painfully hot, just for the record. We were thinking of ways we could steal him. Unfortunately, we didn't even get a good picture of him because he was wearing a stupid hat, so you'll just have to take my word for it. And Steffi's.

Time to get started. YAY! OMGWTFBBQ SO EXCITED! (See what I mean about his stupid hat, though? Argh!)

All stenciled up and ready to go!

Starting!

I was maybe a little white-knuckled at this point, but considering how I reacted to getting my first tattoo, I think I was very very good this time. Go team me!

Look! I was even smiling this time!

Here's the outline pretty much done.

Time for some colour! This is my first tattoo with colour. Definitely not the last.

Colour colour colour. This part hurt. Really really.

"Are we done yet?" Nope.

Highlighting time. I just had to ask for shading, didn't I?

DONE! I'm so impressed with how well this turned out.

Amazing. Most people can't even produce this on paper. This guy does it on people. This makes me so so so happy. And it'll look even better once it's all healed.

For the record, "Éire" means "Ireland" in Irish. And the bow is just because I'm girly and crafty and retro-tastic.

Now for the second one. This took about 3 minutes total from stenciling to covering. Easy peasy lemon squeezy. Or so I thought. Haha. Every time he would touch my ankle with the needle, my leg would twitch. I couldn't help it. Luckily I had Steffi there to help hold me down. w00t! No pictures of the process for this one since it was over so fast. But here is the finished product. Again, it will look much nicer when it's healed.

I <3 that tattoo! Hahaha! Srsly though, I do love it. I've wanted it for a long time and I'm so glad I finally just went ahead and did it.

Now comes the worst part. The healing. So annoying. But oh well, it's worth it because it means I get to have my new art forever and ever. :)

Now to continue working on my ears...

And, to quote the wisdom of the man who did my first tattoo... "Ink is addictive. 1 lead to 2, and 2 leads to 30." Oh man, so true.

What Do You Need?

2009-03-04T20:43:00.002Z

Here's a fun meme for everyone. To find out what you need in life, go to Google and type in "(your name) needs".

This is what I need:

Elena needs blockwalkers & volunteers.

Elena needs our help!

Elena needs to be gone now!

Elena needs to shut up!

Elena needs our prayers.

Elena needs no make up at all, her natural skin is pure beauty.

Elena Needs Numbers!!!

Elena needs to play well, get a good draw, and hope Jankovic doesn't do as well as last year.

Elena needs to have these documents for her trip to Germany.

Elena needs a lawyer and medical help.

BAHAHAHA! Too funny. What do you need?

Cork uncorked! (Episode 3: Fota!)

2009-02-26T16:08:00.005Z

Previously on emerald_away: Adventures in Blarney on Saturday. Today's episode is the conclusion to this 3-part epic post on Cork.

On Sunday, after a disappointing breakfast (we had wanted to go to Quay Co-Op again, but it was closed, so we went somewhere else) we found the train station and just barely caught the train to Fota. I say "barely" because it involved us yelling at the automatic ticket machines to hurry up, and then running down the platform and jumping on the train just before it left. Because it was Sunday, we would have had to wait more than an hour for the next train if we had missed that one. But we made it. Hooray! We were going to Fota to see the Fota Wildlife Park. It's like a zoo, but with almost no fences. The monkeys all live on islands, and don't seem interested in leaving them, the non-predatory animals are behind small fences, but most of them can just step over, so you see animals just wandering around on the paths. The only animals in real zoo-like cages are the cheetahs (there must have been close to 20 of them) and the eagle. It was super cool. I've never been that close to some of those animals before. Here's some highlights:

As we came into the park, there was this mother capybara and her baby just chilling out near the picnic area. I've never seen these up close before. I didn't realize they were so huge. It's the world's largest rodent. It looks like a guinea pig, but it's the size of a sheep. Crazy.

Pelicans! Kalen had never seen pelicans up close before. She didn't think they would be that big.

Leapin' Lemurs! (Sorry, just taking a time warp back to the Kratt Brothers...remember them? Anyone? Just me? Okay.) Anyways, These lemurs were actually in the lemur area, but there seemed to be random lemurs all over the place.

This monkey kept posing for the camera. It was pretty funny. Actually, it kind of takes me back to the days of wee Ian's "sweetie pie" face.

A whole family of monkeys!

A gibbon chillaxin' in the sun.

It's like a little person! Look at his little hand! And his little Beatles haircut! Crazy.

This baby gibbon was very silly.

The family of gibbons put on quite a spectacular show for us. They were singing. It was so neat, because when they were all sinigng together, it was like they were harmonizing.

"Ooohhh Danny Boooooy!" (Don't they look like they're singing bar songs? See how they've got their arms around each other? Too cute.)

Look how close these wallabies were to the fence! We were about 6 inches away from them!

This monkey does not look amused. I'm kind of glad this one was on an island.

A black swan! Super cool!

Awww...the cheetahs love each other! <3

Heeeeere zebra, zebra, zebra!

With some of the animals, I was wishing that they would come just a little closer...

...others were already too close for comfort.

Much better. Just stay over there, Mr. Ostrich. Don't come over here again, please.

The giraffes finally came closer.

They brought their baby!

This one came really close! I'd like to point out that it was not necessary to use the zoom on my camera for this picture. She was about 6 feet away from us. It was amazing.

There were some llamas (or maybe they're alpacas) hanging out on the path. Either way, I wanted to run over and shave them so I could make yarn. :D

A baby bison! Awww. Just like home!

An oryx. These guys have crazy horns. They look pretty lethal.

We saw some ugly, ugly emus.

And a very pretty duck.

And a heron.

And a PENGUIN! This seemed very strange at first, but I suppose if they can live in New Zealand and South America, then they can live here. This one seemed very confused, though. He was trying to build a nest. I didn't think penguins normally did that.

I <3 peacocks. I chased this one around for about 5 minutes trying to get some good shots.

And so concludes our trip to Cork. Basically, it was awesome.

The end.

Cork uncorked! (Episode 2: Blarney)

2009-02-25T13:46:00.007Z

Previously on emerald_away: Kalen and I had left St. Finbarre's Cathedral, and had an awesome organic vegan lunch, and hopped on the bus headed for Blarney.

Today's episode: Blarney.

We went to Blarney to see Blarney castle, and of course kiss the Blarney Stone, because we're lame tourists sometimes. Blarney is my new favourite place ever. Let me show you why.

We arrived in the town and walked over to the castle grounds. (Ooh, scenic!)

They had lots of really lovely flowers blooming all over the place.

There's the castle!

Getting closer...

Crossing the bridge...

Right up close.

Apparently they couldn't decide on just one type of window.

The castle wall.

There's a cave underneath the castle wall. Apparently it used to connect to a series of underground passages that led all over Ireland, but they're lost now. How cool is that?

The part of the cave that still exists is open for people to walk through. So we did. We can't resist a good cave.

It was not nearly as tourist-y as Dunmore Cave, so it was very very dark. Hooray for my ridiculously bright camera flash!

It was pretty treacherous. We just about fell in some pits. So we decided to head back out to where we could see again.

Then we took the path around and up onto the castle wall.

Peek!

Looking over the wall. There were some convenient steps built into the side of the wall so short people like me could see over...if I stood on my toes. (Auntie Jane understands!)

We walked along the wall until we got to the castle. The Blarney Stone is at the top of this tower (in the middle where those metal bars are). This is the part when I started having second thoughts. I don't like heights. "Wait, you want me to climb up where?? And then hang upside down?? Are you sure?"

Alright. *deep breath* Let's do it. Going up...

By the way, these are the stairs we were climbing. Spirally. They were very very narrow. Towards the top, they got narrower, and it was a challenge to get through with my backpack on. They were also very very steep. Needless to say, I felt a little less than safe.

But we made it to the top! Alive! (Bonus!)

Then we both hung upside down and kissed the stone, but you'll just have to take my word for it, as there are no pictures. They make more money if they say you can't take your own pictures, but have to purchase one the horrid ones they take for €10. They were really unflattering, and certainly not worth €10, so we didn't buy them.

The stairs going back down were much wider and less steep, so we made it down just fine. Hooray! Then we walked over to Rock Close, which is a wooded area on the castle grounds which was used centuries ago by the Pagans. (Starting to see why this is my favourite place ever?)

We couldn't resist climbing a tree or two.

I'd just like to point out that European robins look very different from the North American ones, and are about a quarter of the size.

Here's Kalen in the Druid's Cave.

This is the Witch's Kitchen.

There's a little hearth inside the cave. I brought home a little piece of her fire wood. I'm sure she won't mind.

The Witch's Kitchen is underneath the coolest tree ever.

And here is the Witches Stone. Do you see her face?

This is the Druid's Circle. It was used for all sorts of special rituals. The great big stone at the back (to the left) was a sacrificial altar.

I climbed up and sat on the altar to look down on the circle.

Walking round the woods.

This part of the woods is the Faery Glade. I'm a big fan of anywhere that has faeries.

Waterfalls!

This is the Dolmen. It's an ancient tomb portal. No one knows how that giant rock got there. (Oooh, mysterious!)

Kalen walking through the portal. There's not a lot of space.

The top of the Wishing Steps. The legend is that if you walk down and back up the steps with your eyes closed, thinking only of your wish, then the Witch will grant your wish within a year.

We tried it! Kalen's coming down!

There's a disclaimer near the steps saying that Blarney Castle is not responsible for people injuring themselves on the steps. We thought this was funny. Until I fell down the steps. But I'm okay!

And that was our trip to Blarney. When we got back to Cork we were exhausted and starving from walking around all day, and we really really wanted fish and chips. We walked around Cork City for like half an hour trying to find fish and chips. We went into this one pub and asked if they had it, and he said that he can't think of anywhere in Cork City that would serve it. SRSLY?? Since when can you not get fish and chips in Ireland?? That's just nutty! I was so frustrated. Anyways, we finally found some here:

It was a very strange little diner. The people working there had very thick Cork accents, which were difficult to understand. But the important part is that we got our plates of deep-fried goodness. And all was well.

That night we went to a free comedy show at a bar near our hostel. It was pretty good. I really got a kick out of the name of the show...The Craichouse. (In Irish, "craic" means "fun" and is pronounced like "crack". Get it? Crack house? Tee hee!)

Tune in tomorrow for the thrilling conclusion of this epic 3-part series!

Cork uncorked!

2009-02-24T16:54:00.012Z

Kalen and I needed a break from Dublin. We really needed a break from Dublin. So we packed our bags and took off (metaphorically...we took the bus) for an inexpensive weekend getaway to County Cork, which is on the southern coast of Ireland. It was a rough non-stop 4 hour bus ride (with no washrooms) to Cork but we made it alright. We stayed in Cork City at a place called Sheila's Hostel which we forgot to take a picture of (oops!) but I can assure was nice enough, considering it was very very cheap. I have to admit that I had never stayed in a hostel before, and it was a little like being at camp. More fun than camp though. One thing that Sheila's forgets to mention on their website is that it's on a hill. A very steep hill. Nearly vertical. This was not welcome news at 10:30 at night after sitting on a bus for 4 hours. But we did it! Hooray! We found out the next day that nearly all of Cork is on a hill. It was less than thrilling. I must say, I wasn't really taken with Cork City. It was very industrialized, not particularly clean, and seemed pretty rough. I have to admit that there are actually worse places than Dublin City. However, the rest of County Cork is quite lovely. Blarney is pretty much my favourite place ever. But I'm jumping ahead. There's a LOT of pictures to go into this post, and even more to go up on facebook (eventually).

Cork City is much prettier at night when all its flaws are hidden. This is what we saw as we got off the bus.

Not a river, unfortunately, but a quay. But you can't really tell at night so it's all good.

The next day, we set out to do some exploring around the city in the morning before heading to Blarney for the afternoon. This pretty church was just around the corner from the hostel.

We made our way over to the other side of city centre to check out St. Finbarre's Cathedral.

We saw some of the city along the way:

This is the Beamish Crawford Brewery. It is apparently known for its "eye-blinding architectural awfulness".

...Yeah, it's pretty bad (and this picture is just a tiny piece of the brewery). However, Beamish is really really awesome beer and if you ever get the chance to try it, I would highly reccomend it. For serious.

We made it to St. Finbarre's. Apparently, they're in the process of restoring the spires, so all my pictures are kinda ruined by the scaffolding. 'Tis a shame. :( Still, it was a mighty impressive church, and you get the general idea.

The front door. Do we burst into flames this time?

Nope! Hooray!

This pulpit (HA! I know the word now! Go me!) is made made almost entirely of red marble.

As are the walls. O.O

Pretty ornate for a protestant church.

The ceiling.

Love that shade of green.

That's a lot of different colours of marble.

David's Door

Cool cannon ball from the Middle Ages.

Could use a good dusting though.

Back outside, we walked around to the other side of the church.

The church (like many things in Cork) is up on a hill, so we got a view of the city. That weather vain with the fish was a very good landmark so we didn't get lost.

Then we ate lunch here. It was fantastically delicious. I heart vegetarian/vegan/organic restaurants. I would even go so far as to say that this one is slightly better than Mondragon in Winnipeg, and that's saying a lot because I love Mondragon.

Phew, this is a very long post. I've decided that it would be a good idea to break this up into 3 posts. So stay tuned! Coming up tomorrow...Blarney!

Valentine's Weekend

2009-02-15T20:16:00.008Z

Here's another picture-heavy post for you about my Valentine's weekend with Kalen. (Totally just realized that makes it sound like we're dating, but we're not. Really.)

We decided that we would make Valentine's Day fantastically morbid by going to see the real remains of St. Valetine himself. I had no idea that these were kept in Dublin, but apparently they've been here since 1826 when the Pope at the time gave them to an Irish priest as a strange gift. "Here, have this dead saint. I'm not using it." (?) Apparently, when that priest died a few years after, poor St. Valentine was shoved in a box and put into storage for a hundred years. In the 1950s, they decided to dust him off and build a proper shrine for him at Whitefriars Church in central Dublin. And that's where he stays now. Kind of an interesting story, so I just thought I'd share that with you.

We decided to begin our adventure at St. Patrick's Cathedral since neither of us had seen it yet, it's just around the corner from Whitefriars, and St. Patrick's closes earlier. Here's St. Patrick's from across the street.

And up close.

It has a lovely little garden on one side... (please ignore the surrounding super-slummy neighborhood)

with a fountain...

and flowers! In February! I had to go touch them to see if they were real. They are.

More flowers on the other side.

And a wee little cemetary.

We're going in. Here's the part where we hold our breath to see if we burst into flames. Hasn't happened yet!

This neat little crest is mounted on either side of the door.

We made it inside without bursting into flames! Hurrah!

The floor is like a tiled quilt.

Damn, I sure do love vaulted ceilings. (Yeah, that's right. Huge nerd.)

And I love stained glass. Not for the religious imagery, but for the pretty colours and appreciation of the mad skills needed to create this.

One of the impressive scenes just inside the door. I'd like to point out that this is built right into the wall and is about 20 feet high.

Down the mandatory Hall of Important Dead Guys.

This is a little wooden model of the cathedral. I'm guessing it was probably just as difficult to build as the real one, and the miniature was made by just one person.

The Door of Reconciliation. It's very old.

This chest dates back to the 12th century. I love it.

Part of the church. That (lectern? pulpit? uh...carved thing with the marble columns underneath) is quite impressive. Oh man, St. Mary's would be so ashamed of me right now.

Anyways, here it is close up.

This is a memorial to all the people who have died in all the wars, ever.

These flags are hella old. Pretty neat-o.

One wing of the cathedral.

Random super cool spiral staircase in the middle of the church. Kalen and I wanted to go climb up it so bad, but it was roped off. :(

Over on one side of the church is St. Peter's Chapel. It has a beautiful cloth on the altar.

From the chapel, you can look through these windows to the main church.

There are lots of references to St. Patrick's knights in the cathedral. Pretty cool. Also, I think I might have to start writing "of" like that from now on. I like it.

Do you see the knights?

Here they are up close. Sweeeeet.

I don't know who this Whatley fellow is, but he has the most frightening tomb I've ever seen.

Doesn't it look like he could just open his eyes, get up and walk away? *shudder*

Hard to see in the photo, but this is a stone carved with the celtic cross, and it dates back to the 10th century.

There's a lot about Jonathan Swift (think Gulliver's Travels) in the cathedral as well. This was the document that Queen Anne signed to appoint him as the Dean of St. Patrick's.

They also had some weird things, like his death mask...

and his skull.

And that was about as much St. Patrick's as we could handle. So then we left and walked around the corner to Whitefriars Church to go visit St. Valetine. Now, Whitefriars is a Carmelite church, and I'd like to just say right now that it is officially the strangest church I've ever been in. It was oddly modernized. Here, let me show you.

This is the front door.

When you go in, there's a little room off to the side with this in it:

You guessed it, those little taps dispense holy water. Into...yogurt cups?

After finding more amusement in the holy taps than was probably appropriate, we went down the hall to the chapel. Through these doors...

Once through the doors, we discovered that, in this church, Mary lives in a styrofoam rock wall. (I sincerely apologize to the guy lighting the candles in the picture. But I'd also like to point out that I wasn't the only one taking pictures.)

Some things were sort of similar to a regular church. Very ornate.

That dome is all done in mosaic.

And those columns are made of marble.

They were missing a lightbulb. It really bothered me.

Love that gate.

Fancy Schmancy.

I liked this copper crest on the wall. The three castles is the symbol for Dublin.

There's St. Valentine! He's really in there. Creepy.

Happy Valentine's Day! <3

Back outside the church, I noticed this plaque. I think perhaps the church has changed a bit since 1274.

Today we went to the market and then walked down by the pier in Dun Laoghaire since it was a really nice day out. When we stumbled upon a little rocky beach area, we suddenly regressed to being four years old again, and skipped stones and left with lots of little rocks and shells and beach glass. *joy*

These ducks (or maybe they're terns?) were drying their wings in the wind.

These little birds were quite plain looking...

...until they spread their wings. Then you can see the neatest pattern on their backs.

There are no words for how much I love this picture. I couldn't even really tell you why.

There were tons of sailboats out in the harbour today. It was very pretty.

And there's my awesome Valentine's buddy! <3!

WTF?: A documentary on messed up Irish weather.

2009-02-08T19:57:00.005Z

The weather here needs to make up its mind. For serious.

It's been snowing here lately. Not usually enough to actually stick on the ground, but enough to make people freak out about the "blizzards". It makes me laugh.

Check it out though, it was snowing out my back window. Sure looks like a blizzard, doesn't it? BAHAHAHA.

And then we have the weather today...

I woke up this morning, and there was a good 2 inches or so of snow on the ground. I took this picture at 10:30 this morning out the back window...

That poor tropical plant. I don't understand how it's still alive.

And this is what it looked like out the front window at 10:30 in the morning...

Snowtacular. Wasn't that cold though. It was hovering around 0 to 3 degrees-ish.

These next pictures were taken at 2:30 in the afternoon. Only 4 hours later.

Out the back...

And out the front...

Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures, but in between these two pictures, there was a rain storm. Come on, Ireland! Make up your mind! What season is it?

Insanity.

Lucky for me, I completed some mittens a couple weeks ago to keep my fingers warm during this strange, strange weather. I knit them with Mirasol Miski. Awesome yarn. Made from baby llamas. Soooo soft. Scrummy!

The colour is even nicer than the photo lets on. Deep blue with flecks of jade. Pretty pretty. I'm currently working on a matching hat, but I need to pick up some size 7 DPNs, if I ever remember. It's not like I don't also have 1000 other projects on the go, as usual.

I need to get back in the habit of taking pictures and blogging more regularly. But I suppose first I'll have to get back in the habit of doing things that are interesting enough to take pictures of.

What Comes Next? not child friendly

2009-01-19T22:37:00.002Z

I know they say, "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade."

...but what am I supposed to make when life hands me a giant shitstorm?

I'm back.

2009-01-16T20:34:00.004Z

What's that? It's been a month since I last posted? Yeah, sorry about that. There's been a lot going on lately, some of which I'm not going to get into right now.

I went home for Christmas, and it was lovely to see everyone. I also made sure to steal bags and bags of yarn from Mum. She's not complaining though, because now she gets to restock her massive stash. If Nigel is reading this, that doesn't say "massive stash" it says "miniscule stash". Shhh.

I've been knitting, knitting, knitting lately. Mostly because I'm feeling rather uninspired when it comes to my schoolwork. Blah. Unfortunately there's a lot of that. However, I did manage to knit myself a supremely rad slouchy beret over the holidays. The yarn totally makes it. It's an Elana original via the Dublin Dye Company. We finally figured out that the colourway is called Sugarplum and it's the most gorgeous sock yarn ever created. No jokes. Take a look!

This is the yarn before it grew up to become a hat.

Fantastique, non?

Please excuse these pictures, as they're not great. Yvonne took some better ones last night, but I've not got them yet. But you get the general idea. Here it is all grown up as a slouchy beret of pure awesomeness.

Like I said, more pictures to come.

It's the same pattern as Mum's most recent beret (done in the yarn I dyed for her). Spin Me Right Round Baby. It's a Ravelry pattern for anyone interested. Super easy. I made the ribbing longer on mine, but other than that, it's not much different from the original pattern.

Other recently finished and unblogged projects include...

The silk eyelet scarf for MamaT (oooh, soft!)

The hand-dyed iPod cozy for The Boy (modelled by my old iPod)

The Party Lace Scarf for Colleen (my first lace project AND my first time knitting with beads!)

And one of a great many mug cozies that I made as Christmas presents out of my hand-dyed yarn. (Awesome pattern. Also on Ravelry)

I'm currently working on my braided scarf (I swear I'll finish it someday! and my Miski mittens (it's about time. I've only been planning on starting these for two months).

Winnipeg was freaking cold. 'Nuff said. And while it's not nearly as cold in Dublin, it is still fairly cold and (lucky me) my boiler crapped out this morning. Joy. So I have no heat and they're not sending someone to fix it until tomorrow afternoon. But wait, all is not lost! Elana came to my rescue with an electric heater she wasn't using! So I won't die of cold before tomorrow. Thank you, Elana! <3

I suppose I should go work on some papers for school that are coming up soon. Blah. I so don't feel like it. I'd just like everyone to know that. Kthnx.

Before I go, here's something I stole from Yvonne. It's a Wordle - a cloud of the 200 most commonly used words in my blog. I've noticed that most of these words are edible, or relating to food in some way. Oh dear.

Go ahead, try one for yourself!

And I believe I'll leave you all with a shihtzuknitzu. Enjoy!

**UPDATE!!**

Yvonne is a saint and sent me those pictures she took of my beret. Thanks, Yvonne!

Jingle Bell Rock

2008-12-17T17:47:00.005Z

The countdown to coming home for Christmas begins! 3 more sleeps! For serious! I'm pretty excited. Since Kalen and I fly home on the same day, we began our last week in Dublin on Saturday with our very own Christmas party. It was pretty super sweet. Here's some highlights:

I tried taking some pictures of the blinding lights on Grafton Street. Unfortunately, it wasn't dark enough, so the full effect is kind of lost.

Here's some neat-o pictures of the lights on Henry Street, on the way to Kalen's.

The rec room at Kalen's place has been decorated for Christmas for the last month because they've been having their Christmas parties there for work. Kalen describes the room as, "It looks like Santa's workshop threw up in here." And she's right. It's pretty hilarious. My favourite part, by far, is my tacky fuzzy friends who live on the Christmas tree. I found them once, lying face down on the branches, so I set them upright and we've been good buddies ever since. True story. Here they are...

The squirrel

And the Owl

We're hella tight.

We baked cookies! It's just not Christmas until you've baked some cookies. And eaten them.

Getting set up...

I baked dairy-free chocolate chip cookies, and Kalen made some chocolate-mint cookies, but they had dairy in them, so I couldn't eat them. They smelled really good though.

Here's the melted chocolate she used. Mmmmm....

The best part about baking cookies is eating them before you bake them!

Some of the cookies actually made it to the oven! Amazing!

Hurry up, damnit!

Warm cookies out of the oven! Hooray!

Then it was time for hot apple cider! "Very special" hot apple cider. :)

Heating up the cider in a rather festive pot.

Cider and cookies! Yum!

Then we watched one of the few Christmas movies that I can handle. It's pretty funny.

We also watched Shrek, but I didn't take any pictures because it was a rental, so the cover was boring.

Kalen has these pillows in her living room. I call them the "yak pillows" because they look like they're made of yaks. They're so hairy, my hands get lost in them. I have a love/hate relationship with the yak pillows.

We also did a lot of knitting, as we're both madly trying to get things done before Christmas. Obviously, no pictures since they're Christmas presents.

The next day, we went and did some yarn dyeing at This is Knit with Elana. It was totally rad. Unfortunately, no pictures of that will be posted either, since Christmas presents may or may not be involved.

3 more sleeps, though! Yay! :D

Holy Crap!

2008-11-30T19:50:00.006Z

It's amazing! It's a miracle! I actually have the time to sit down and post to the blog! Wow.

The last few weeks for me have been C-R-A-Z-Y. In November: I had an essay due on the 11th, and an essay due on the 25th. Also, there was one week when I went out on 3 of the 7 nights. Shouldn't have done that. Haha. However, on one of those nights, Claire and I did end up in The Evening Herald, just for being awesome barstars who were out clubbing on a Wednesday night. Sweet! I've only lived here 3 months and I've already been in the newspaper. Haha.

It's not a bad picture, either. The funniest part is that they spelled Claire's name wrong, but not mine. Her last name is McBride, not McBrice.

Earlier in November, Kalen and I found the time to walk up Killiney Hill while some of the trees still had their leaves in brilliant autumnal colours. It was very pretty.

We hiked up to the obelisk.

The view of Co. Wicklow was lovely, as usual (even though it wasn't as green this time).

And the view of Dalkey Hill and beyond...

Dalkey Island doesn't really look any different at all.

We came across this little stone house. We couldn't figure out what it was or why it was built on the side of the hill. (Elana...you seem to know about all this stuff. What is this?)

We couldn't make out what it said over the door because it was so faded.

The building itself is not very big.

We named it the Hidey Hole, and that's what it will be until we find out what it actually is. :)

Kalen had never been to the Guinness brewery, so we took a little trip down there yesterday.

On the way there, I took a few snaps of the Christmas lights on O'Connell Street. They built a giant bobble tree out of LED lights. It's quite cute. Unfortunately, it doesn't look as impressive as it could because they built it next to the spire. So I left the spire out of my shots.

It's not just white lights. It changes colour every few seconds...

Don't ask me what this means. I couldn't tell you.

They hung some big bobbly LED wreaths on Henry Street to match the tree. It's a shame it wasn't darker outside when I went to take these pictures.

This week I'll have to go take pictures of the lights on Grafton Street. You could see them from space. It's actually ridiculous.

In the brewery! I didn't take a lot of pictures, because I already had a bunch from when James and I were there in March. For anyone who hasn't been, you should really check it out when you're in Dublin. It's pretty freaking cool. And the cost of admission also gets you a free pint of Guinness at the end. Sweeeeet.

Mmmm...Tasting Lab. Tasting just happens to be my favourite thing to do with Guinness! Just send all those kegs to my apartment, kthnx.

Kalen under the waterfall.

Me under the waterfall.

Lots of neat Guinness bottles from different countries and different years.

Well if it says so on a poster, then it must be true!

There are no words to express how much I love this plate.

Have yourself a Guinness little Christmas!

Cheers! The best part...getting the free pint. And then drinking it.

Yummy! These didn't last long.

In other news, I've been doing a little bit of decorating for winter. Nothing special, just little things.

Some sparkly branches shoved in a vase. I immediately regretted this decision. There is glitter EVERYWHERE.

Mum sent me a little bird. He's quite cute.

I found this really cheap at the hardware store. I heart it.

I wanted something sort of snowy-looking, so I made a garland out of white and icey blue pom poms. I'm fairly happy with how it turned out. Like little snowballs.

I also bought a blender last week, and made some really awesome wintery vegetable soup over the weekend. Butternut squash, sweet potato, carrots, parsnip, onion, garlic, organic vegetable stock, spices, ground flaxseed, and soy yogurt. Thick and creamy and warm. Perfect for cold days. Yum yum!

December will not be any less busy. I've got a paper due tomorrow (finished already, obviously), and a presentation on Tuesday (also finished) and a presentation on Wednesday (almost finished) and a presentation on the 10th (not finished). Blarg! I'm going to be so exhausted by the time school finishes for the break!

But on the plus side, 21 sleeps till I get to come home! I wonder if I can just sleep through the next 21 days...

Photo Mosaic

2008-11-26T17:07:00.003Z

Hey all! I know I haven't posted in a ridiculous amount of time, but I've been very busy with school. VERY busy. I've started doing a little bit of winter decorating, but I'm not going to take pictures until it's done. Sometime within the next couple of weeks, I swear! The big news from today...*drum roll, please*....I bought a blender. Very exciting. I plan on making some vegetable soup this weekend. Hooray!

Anyways, I've stolen this idea from Mum and you can view hers on her blog. It was fun, and I think everyone else should get in on this too!

Here's how it works, go to The Mosaic Maker and create a 3 x 4 photo mosaic. Use only pictures from the first page of a flickr search. Your 12 photos will be the answers to the questions:

1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favourite food?
3. What high school did you attend?
4. What is your favourite colour?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favourite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favourite dessert?
9. What do you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One word to describe you?
12. Your Flickr name?

Here is mine...

1.Elena
2. Sushi
3. U of W Collegiate
4. Pink
5. Ewan McGregor
6. Soya Latte
7. Fiji
8. Pumpkin Pie
9. Montessori Teacher
10. Children
11. Obsessive
12. elenaprzibislawsky (the search didn't actually return anything, so I used my flickr profile picture instead.)

I quite like it. My challenge to everyone is to make your own!

2 weeks off school!

2008-11-09T18:27:00.004Z

And I was actually fairly prouctive! Can you believe it? That said, I really don't want to go back to class tomorrow morning. Blah.
I had two weeks off because the first week was reading week, and then the second week was teaching practice, which is going better now than when I started, but it's still not great.
In the last two weeks I finished an essay for my Montessori Theory class, finished knitting a scarf for my friend in Edmonton and sent it off in the post to him, got some Christmas shopping done, got a birthday present for Nathan and sent it off in the post, made a big pot of chicken noodle soup from scratch to get me through the winter, scammed myself some chocolate chips and made cookies, cleaned my whole apartment, and hand-dyed some yarn. phew! I also did plenty of sitting around on my ass playing computer games or reading or watching DVDs on my laptop. Yesterday I didn't even get dressed all day. But in my defense, it was laundry day.

Here are some pictures of the things I did that were worth taking pictures of:

Mmm...soup. I'm extra proud of it because I made the broth myself. Plus everything in it is organic. Yum yum!

"The Andrew Scarf". It's a mighty big scarf. As I was knitting it, it felt like I was sitting under a big wool blanket. Knit in Rowan "Big Wool" with the tassels in Debbie Bliss Rialto.

I tried it on and it nearly swallowed me!

All rolled up and ready to be stuffed in a big envelope.

My hand-dyed yarn isn't photographing well, unfortunately. It's actually nicer than the photos would have you believe.

My first attempt, in aran weight

My second attempt, also aran weight. These colours are super fantastic in real life.

And the big skein of sock weight. This colour pattern has now been adopted (stolen. lol) by the Dublin Dye Company and has been named "Whimsy".

Here they are hanging up to dry at home.

I'm totally hooked on yarn dying now. Damn you, Elana and Yvonne!!

A weekend holiday in Kilkenny!

2008-10-28T20:02:00.011Z

This past weekend was the October bank holiday weekend here in Ireland, so Kalen and I decided to take advantage of the extra day off and take a little holiday. It took us a few days to decide on a destination. We really wanted to go see the Giant's Causeway, but since the weather was supposed to be crappy, we settled on Kilkenny City. So, we packed up some clothes and our knitting, and took off on Saturday morning. We took the bus since it was a fraction of the price of the train, and it didn't end up taking much longer than the train would have (a little over 2 hours). The bus ride itself was quite an adventure. I had never seen Ireland outside County Dublin before. Now, you have to understand that over here, when you go to a restaurant, the menus all rave about how they only use 100% Irish raised beef and lamb and chicken and pork. Being that I had never left County Dublin, I couldn't figure out where they possibly kept all this livestock. For all I knew, the whole country was like one big city. However, as soon as you leave County Dublin, all you see is green and cows. It's not like Alberta, where every field is massive and has hundreds of cows in it, but there are just lots and lots of small fields, each with a few cows, and I suppose they all add up after a while. The countryside is very pretty.

We got to Kilkenny, and it was quite cold that day. And pissing rain. I mean really lashing. We were told by the woman who owns the Bed & Breakfast we were booked into that the train/bus station was only a 10 minute walk from the B & B. Maybe if you're a horse. It was actually a half hour walk for humans. In the rain. With our bags. We weren't particularly thrilled, to say the least. By the time we got to the B & B, we were totally soaked. But we decided we didn't come all this way to sit our room and be wet and cold and miserable, so we got changed and went back out to do some exploring. That way, at least we were seeing something interesting while we were wet and cold.

Good thing I had my new wellies!

Kilkenny is a really interesting city. Back in the medieval times, it was apparently the capital of Ireland, so there were a lot of important things built there. Then, after the capital was moved to Dublin, people sort of forgot about Kilkenny, and as a result, many of the ancient buildings were left standing because they didn't have to deal with as much urban sprawl. It's quite a tourist attraction now, and was very busy for the bank holiday weekend. Amazingly, we still ended up seeing everything we went there to see, and then some! While we were there, we met up with my friend Steffi from college who lives in Kilkenny, and she showed us around some of the lesser known but equally cool things in the city. Hooray for being friends with the locals!

Day 1:

We tried to go see the castle, but all the tours for the day were full by the time we got there, so we went and just wandered around instead. We found a lot of really beautiful old churches. Unfortunately, I don't know the names of any of them because we weren't paying that much attention. We only found them by seeing them over the tops of the other buildings, and then wadnering in their general direction. Sorry for the rain spots on the camera lens. Like I said, it was really really raining, and this is the best I could do.

Now really, how did they carve that out of stone?? Look at the draping on his robes! Incredible!

Love that big window!

These empty grave-looking things were supremely creepy, but kind of beautiful in a way. They were in the front garden of one of the churches. Any idea the significance of these? (James, I'm looking at you...)

It was so weird...this was the only one that was filled with water. There was something so peaceful about it. We really liked it. (You'd be amazed at how many pictures we both took of it. Couldn't really tell you why.)

It looks like a little heart at the top...

We also found St. Canice's Cathedral, but we didn't go inside on the first day.

That night we took it easy and just knit and watched a movie on my computer in our room. And ate chocolate muffins. We're cool like that.

Day 2:

The weather was much nicer (still cold though) so we met up with Steffi in the morning and took a cab out to Dunmore Cave. Steffi has lived in Kilkenny for 14 years, and even she couldn't believe that she'd never been out to the cave before. It was SO. COOL. A little bit of background before we get to the pictures: Dunmore cave is over 300 million years old, and made up of limestone and calcite. At its deepest point, it's close to 150 feet below the ground, but people aren't allowed to go that deep anymore. Still, it took us 350 stairs to get down to the bottom...then we had to get back up again. Ugh. Local people have known about Dunmore Cave for centuries, and there have been many artifacts discovered there, which are now in the National Museum. In the year 928, Godfreid the Viking and his men went there and committed a huge masacre of Irish people. They've since found lots of human bones and viking coins and jewellery. It was kind of creepy standing in a 1000-something year old murder site. Spooooky. Anyways, on to the pictures. I'm going to have to apologize again for the quality...not because of rain this time, but have you ever tried to take pictures in a cave? Doesn't always work so well. It's really much more impressive in real life.

Even the steps going down into the cave are sort of in a big hole.

Down we go...

In the cave

Sometimes the calcite deposits look like monsters,

or ghosts,

Or bison (do you see him?),

Or snow.

The ceiling looks sharp. Those tiny little stalactites are called "straws" because they're actually hollow inside. It takes about 10,000 years to form one, then it breaks off when it gets too heavy and starts again.

That pit isn't actually full of nuclear waste, it's just moss with a poor choice of lighting. Looks pretty cool though.

Weird looking holes in the ceiling

You can't tell from the picture, but the mineral deposits on this wall were actually glittery.

This weird rock on the ceiling kind of looks like a flower.

This part of the cave is called the Fairy Floor. It's where the fairies come to dance.

"Stalactites and stalagmites, only caves have got 'em. Tites are always on the top, and mites are on the bottom!" Thanks, Girl Guides. I've never forgotten!

Time to head back up. So. Many. Stairs. My legs still hurt. Really.

After the cave, we continued being tourist-y and went to see the inside of St. Canice's Cathedral. It's really beautiful, and there's so much to see, but my favourite part was the outside. It reminds me a lot of St. Andrew's in Manitoba.
Well, not the actual church part (St. Canice's is quite grand and was built in the 1200s) but the cemetary. (*Some of these outside pictures were taken in the rain on the first day.)

Part of St. Canice's is the Round Tower. Basically, it's a 30 metre high stone tube with a ladder inside. People can climb up it and stand on the top. Kalen was the only one of us brave enough to go up. She said the view was lovely, but it was quite windy and she felt like she was going to blow off the top. Scary.

Like I mentioned before, there are a lot of interesting things inside. Lots and lots of very old tombs containing various important people.

This one had his feet resting on a lion. Now, I know that if they have their feet on a dog, it means they were loyal to the church, but what does a lion mean? (Again, I'm looking at James.)

I gave his lion a pat. It was a very nice lion.

Some of the graves were in the floor.

Some of the stained glass was kind of generic, but I love the colours on the Christmas one. Also, it happens to be the only one that I actually recognized the scene. 4 years of Catholic school, and still all I know is Christmas and pretty colours.

These ones were all over the ceilng. I like the shape.

They have a big pipe organ. We were disappointed that we weren't allowed to play with it.

Gorgeous. I tend to appreciate churches from the point of view of someone who has studied art, because I don't really know too much about the actual meanings and purposes of things. Oh well.

This is me being holy (see? Ian's not the only one in the family!). Except by "being holy", I actually mean "Kalen, Steffi and I were messing in the church and it's amazing we didn't get kicked out." We sure had fun though.

I can't imagine how much skill and patience it takes to carve all that out of wood.

Steffi wanted me to go stand up there and pretend to preach, but it was roped off, so I had to sit on the steps instead. :(
Fun fact: the green pillars along the sides are made of Irish marble.

Steffi is the same height as me. That's how tall that eagle is. And very shiny.

This fish...plate(?)...thing is also very shiny.

The ceiling. That's made of stone, just in case it wasn't already impressive.

It's quite a large cathedral (as I suppose cathedrals tend to be).

After the cathedral, Steffi showed us around Kilkenny a little bit. This is Black Ferren Gate. It may not look like much, and the metal supporting beams take away from it a little bit, but this gate has been standing since the Norman era. It used to be part of the city walls. Long story short, it's very very old.

This is the tower/prison where they threw all the lepers in the middle ages. Scary. You don't see this on tourist maps. Thanks, Steffi!

That was about as much sightseeing as we could handle for one day. We went clubbing instead. It was awesome. No pictures.

Day 3:

Another cold and clear day. Kalen and I made it back to the castle in the morning and managed to get tickets for one of the tours. Hooray! Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take any pictures inside, but you'll have to believe me when I saw it was really really neat. Everything inside has been restored to EXACTLY the way it was in the Georgian days. Right down to the carpets and wallpaper. Some of the things were original, but most of it was reproduced. The original things like the Italian marble fireplaces were especially cool.

Here are some pictures of the outside of the castle:

The front gate

He guards the door to the information desk. I think he looks kind of Roman.

This is just a small part of the castle grounds.

And after the castle, we had lunch and then got the bus back to Dublin. We were exhausted, but the weekend was hella fun. Hooray for last minute holidays!

Milly.

2008-10-20T17:32:00.002+01:00

I am completely traumatized and never want to leave the house again.

I left this morning to catch the train to school. As I got to the station, I could see a train just pulling away, but it was going the opposite direction that I needed to go. So I went through the station, up the stairs over the bridge and down to the other side of the tracks to wait for my train. As I sat down to wait I could hear a dog yelping. I looked around and saw her. A big black lab crawling around on the tracks. Not so much crawling. She was pulling herself along on her front legs as both her back legs were clearly broken. She must have got down onto the tracks and had been hit by the train that had just left. She was crying and yelping and finally gave up trying to move and lay down on the tracks. Anyone who knows me would know how I reacted. Not well. I ran back up over the bridge into the station, where the man who works behind the desk was already on the phone to the Gards (the police...like the mounties). People on the platform started yelling that there was another train coming. I was among some people screaming at the man behind the desk to tell the train to stop before it got to the platform. He couldn't. I paniced. I couldn't breathe. I stepped outside the station because I couldn't bear to be there if the train couldn't stop. Some people ran down to the very end of the platform and somehow got the driver to stop the train. The train stopped about 6 or 7 feet from the dog. I went back to the platform, and the train driver got out, and the man behind the desk came out onto the platform and we talked about what we should do. We decided we had to move her. So the man who worked in the station went inside, rooted through the lost and found and came out with a big hoodie to put over the dog's head in case she tried to bite when they touched her, because she was obviously in pain. They didn't need the hoodie after all. She was very calm and probably just happy to be off the tracks. They lifted her up and then I pulled her onto the platform. Her nose and mouth were bleeding, but I checked her and her pulse was a little fast, but her breathing was very good, so I don't think any internal organs had been damaged, and she wasn't going into shock. We covered her with the hoodie to keep her warm, and we looked at her collar to see if there was a tag. Luckily there was. It said her name was Milly and had a phone number. I rang the number. The woman who answered sounded so relieved to hear that I had her dog and asked where she was. I had to tell her. I had the job of telling her that I was at the train station and her dog had been hit by the train and needed to go to the vet right away. She said she would be there right away. By the time I was off the phone, the Gards had arrived. I sat with Milly and talked to her and pet her. She was whimpering a little bit but not really crying anymore. The woman who owned Milly must live very close to the station because she was there within about three minutes. We moved Milly on top of the hoodie, and her owner backed the car up by the door to the station, then the two Gards, the train driver, and the man from the station each took a corner of the hoodie and carried her like on a stretcher into the woman's car. They took off for the vet.

I'm sure she'll probably be okay. Vets can do that these days. But it was completely traumatizing. I didn't stop shaking until some time in the afternoon. Claire showed up to get the train a few minutes after Milly and her owner had left, so I had to explain to her what had happened and why I was in such rough shape. I had contemplated just going home after all that and not going to school at all. I'm glad I ended up going to school though. If I had gone home, I would have been thinking about it all day and probably would have made myself more upset than I already was. After school, Claire didn't think I should go home by myself right away so she brought me to her house for tea and then we took her dog for a walk in Sorrento Park, which was nice.

But I still don't feel terribly confident about leaving the house to take the train tomorrow morning.

Dublin Zoo: my first real live giraffe experience, and the beginning of a fear of squirrels

2008-10-19T13:22:00.007+01:00

Kalen and I took a trip down to Dublin Zoo yesterday, and it's a pretty freaking cool zoo. They have all kinds of animals I'd never seen before in real life because they couldn't survive in Winnipeg. It even seems like it would be a little chilly for them in Dublin, but apparently they do alright. There was lots and lots of animals with babies, so that was pretty exciting.

Like in Winnipeg, they have peafowl randomly wandering around. Only they're not this friendly in Winnipeg. Maybe these ones are just younger and dumber. I was taking pictures of them, and I was able to get so close, if I had just reached out my hand, I could have touched them. But I didn't. I didn't want to press my luck and risk getting my hand taken off. Those beaks look pretty sharp.

There was a family of peafowl.

A Mummy

A baby

And a Daddy. Love those colours.

Unlike Winnipeg Zoo, there were also herons wandering around wherever they pleased.

There were lots of monkeys, chimps, marmosets, and lemurs. Apparently there were gorillas, but we couldn't see them. And there were baboons, but we couldn't figure out how to get to them. We could see their wicked tree house, though.

Chimps! They were pretty exciting.

That tail is crazy. It's like an extra hand.

Lazy lemurs

I love how he sits with his little feet crossed. Very cute.

I think gibbons are my favourite monkeys. They always look like they're deep in thought.

Elephants! The elephants were very tricky. They have a huge enclosure, but you can only actually see them at certain points along the path, and there are signs up at these points telling you to sit and wait patiently for the elephants to come, but nobody did. There was a whole bunch of people (including Kalen and I) who kept running up and down the path trying to find the elephants and get a good view of them. We finally caught up with them.

The little baby one was so cute. He had to run just to keep up with the other elephants, even though they really weren't moving very quickly.

He looks so happy here. :)

Apparently these elephants are rather hairy. They kind of look like they're all wearing wigs.

I <3 zebras.

Bongos are pretty cool too.

I can't remember what this guy is called, (an oryx?) but you could take out an eye with those horns. Yikes.

Giraffes! Very exciting. You hear about how big they are, but it doesn't really sink in until there's one standing two feet in front of you. They're like dinosaurs.

This one came right up to us. It made me feel very small.

There was a big flock of flamingos.

The babies sure were ugly.

I had never seen hippos before in real life either. They were pretty terrifying. They were massive, and would stay under water for a long time and then suddenly jump up and spit water everywhere. Basically what I'm saying is that I wouldn't want to cross one.

Same story with the rhinos. I had never seen them before, they were huge and scary, and I certainly wouldn't want to cross one. The two on the right kept fighting each other.

The baby was pretty cute though.

They had sea lions! They were very very loud.

There was a pack of wolves.

And a pack of African hunting dogs. They're much more interesting.

Look! Their snow leopard was actually awake! I don't think the snow leopard at the Winnipeg Zoo has ever been awake. It's probably just stuffed.

This lioness was very lazy.

The tigers were the coolest because they were very active. The big male kept spraying the glass where we were standing. It was gross. I didn't take pictures of that.

I sure do love my camera. I actually took these pictures.

There were also some animals there that I didn't even know existed. It freaked me out a little bit.

This is some sort of African wild pig. It's quite possibly one of the funniest looking animals I've ever seen. Thinking about it from an evolutionary standpoint...how do you even end up looking like that?? Unfortunately, they were very difficult to take pictures of, as their pen wasn't very well lit. But you get the general idea.

Basically, they were pigs, but with bright orange wiry hair, big floppy goblin ears, markings on their face to make their eyes look HUGE, and naturally occuring mutton chops. WTF?

Then there was these things...

From far away, when they were sitting down, we thought they were wallabies. We were pretty excited to see wallabies. Upon closer inspection, they didn't quite look like wallabies...

Then it stood up and freaked us right out. It has no tail, and four skinny legs that it uses to sort of walk/hop. It was very very confusing.

Turns out, it's called a mara, and it's a cavy. That's right, my friends, this is a GIANT guinea pig. It was quite large. It probably weighed close to 35 lbs. We decided they were too freaky and we didn't like them.

Another thing I don't like now...squirrels. They're evil. We were walking along, and this squirrel startled us because he jumped onto the garbage can. I took his picture, and then he disappeared into the bin and I leaned over a little bit to see what he was trying to do in there and he suddenly leaped out and tried to attack me. I screamed and ran away and now I don't like squirrels anymore. For serious. It was going to eat me. Look at that evil face.

And that was our trip to the zoo. We didn't even get a chance to see everything, so we'll have to go back another time. And you're all coming to the zoo with me when you come to visit!

Climbing Dalkey Hill. Twice.

2008-10-17T15:02:00.007+01:00

On Sunday last week, after the market, Kalen and I went to climb Dalkey Hill, which is just up the road from my apartment (when I say "up" I really mean it. It's quite a steep climb just to get to the hill). In the morning of course it was lovely and sunny, and then as soon as we left to go climbing, it suddenly clouded up and looked as if it would rain. We went anyways, and didn't get rained on, but most of the pictures didn't turn out very well because the hill was covered in a huge cloud that blocked most of the view. Very disappointing. But the next day I had nothing to do after school and it was extremely sunny and quite warm, so I climbed up myself. The pictures turned out much better, and the views were pretty spectacular.

Here's the cloudy day first:

Starting up, it's very green this time of year.

It's quite high up, but we'll make it. Not taking that route, though. We'll stick to the path. Some people do like to come here for rock climbing, but that's a little ambitious for us.

This part of the cliff is really neat, it's like part of it fell off, but I can't see where it could have gone. Very mysterious...

This is the big cloud that swooped in and blocked most of our view.

A cloudy view of Co. Dublin.

And a cloudy view of Co. Wicklow.

There's lots of things growing on the hill. Like ivy...

And funny looking trees...

And colourful berries.

There were blackberries growing everywhere, like on Bray Head. We ate some of these ones too, but they weren't as good. I suppose blackberry season must be coming to an end soon.

These little plants were growing everywhere too. We didn't know what they were, but thought they looked like something out of Dr. Suess.

There were some pretty little flowers, like this thistle.

And what could be more Irish?...

So that's pretty much all we got because it was so cloudy and we couldn't really see much. Stupid Irish weather. Though I suppose that the misty/foggy/cloudy pictures are probably more accurate pictures of Ireland than the beautiful sunny ones. :P
But I have to show you the sunny pictures anyways, because they're pretty impressive. I'd also like to point out that on Monday, I took a more difficult path up the hill. My legs had pretty much turned to jelly by the time I got home. It was very steep.

Here I go...

On the way up...I can see Dublin through the trees.

It's very green and lovely in some places...

While other places are hardly green at all.

This is the path I took. It's actually that steep.

As I climbed up, I saw a little tiny barely-noticeable path that sort of strayed from the real path. It looked like it led to a nice view of the ocean. So, I fought my way through the bushes...

And got much more than a view of the ocean...

I also got a very impressive view of Co. Wicklow...

A very impressive view. I couldn't tell what that church (to the right) is doing way up on top on the mountain, though.

Then the problem was that I had climbed around taking pictures, and had to figure out how to get back to path without getting killed by these horrible thorny bushes.

It took some time, but I made it back to the path eventually. *phew* Alright, time to keep climbing.

Over on the other side of the hill, you can see Co. Dublin.

I can see my apartment building in this picture. No, it's not the purple house, though I wish it was.

Things get awfully overgrown up near the top of the hill.

Back around to the other side of the hill, but staying closer to the path this time, up at the time there's a very nice little spot where I'd like to have a picnic.

This is the view:

to the right...

to the front...

to the left...

Very lovely. Now it's time to head back down.

Hard to believe I was just up there...

That white rock is so smooth...like it's been worn down by the sea. Only it's on a mountain. Odd.

There's some very pretty plants on the path back down.

Back at the bottom again. Looks like autumn to me!

So there you have it. Two trips up and down Dalkey Hill. My legs are still resting before the next adventure. I think we're off to the zoo this weekend. And the pubs. Can't forget that part. So I only get a short break from endlessly posting pictures. See you all again after the weekend, when there's another post due.

More photos! OMG so many photos.

2008-10-17T13:01:00.004+01:00

Now that my internet is up and running, I've been very busy trying to get all my photos organized for uploading and posting. It's hard to have time for anything else.

I've just returned from my first day of teaching practice at a..."Montessori" school here in Dalkey. How they get away with calling it a Montessori school I've no idea. It's not. And none of the children are older than 3. One boy will be 4 in January, but that's as close as it gets. And there are a couple who have just barely turned 2. Can you say "chaos"? I sure can. But I guess it gives me a pretty good idea of how I don't want my own school to be run. Just sayin' is all.

Anyways, back to the photos.

I've been going to the Sunday Farmer's Market at People's Park in Dun Laoghaire/Sandycove every week, and it's probably my favourite place in Ireland so far. It's pretty freaking sweet. There are tons and tons of stalls set up with people selling everything from books to clothing to jewellery to pottery and everything in between. There are a ton of food stalls with everything you can think of, some more like restaurants, where you buy food to eat right away, and others more like shops, where you buy food to take home. Seriously, you can go for a meal there and choose between Indian, Thai, Japanese, Crepes, Smoothies, Sausages, and lots more. There's a big big organic produce market over on one side, where I've been buying all my vegetables. Yum!

Here's some pictures of the market. You can see the leaves starting to change colour on the trees now.

The produce market:

The Raw Foods stall. You've never had chocolate like this before.

So that's where you can find me every Sunday.

A couple weeks ago, Kalen and I went wandering around and exploring in Sandycove after the market. It was cold out, but very pretty.

We walked down the pier...

That funny round building is James Joyce Tower. We wanted to go in, but apparently it's only open from May to September or something silly like that. The sign didn't say why.

I love this random sculpture on the pier.

That's Sutton and Howth on the other side of the bay.

There's Kalen!

The sun setting over Dun Laoghaire

We found a little beach where there was actually some crazy people swimming. In the Atlantic Ocean. In Ireland. In October. Not for me, thanks.

We left the beach and found this bizarre pay toilet/space pod on the side of the road. I can't even express to you how strange and out of place it looked there. So weird.

Further along we came across 40 Foot, which is an area along the coastline where people swim. Again, there was some crazies in the water. It was pretty rough out there, it didn't seem like the kind of day when swimming in the ocean is a good idea.

Splash!

And that was our adventure for the day. We walked back to the DART station after that.

A couple of weeks ago, there was a big party held as the Grand Opening for the new location of This is Knit. Their original location is in Blackrock, and that's where we meet on Thursdays for our weekly knitting night which is fantastic. They recently opened a new location in Powerscourt Mall, in Dublin. Knitters came from all over to congratulate Jaqui and Lisa on the new shop, drink some wine (lots of wine) and sit down to work on The Big Knit. For those of you who are umfamiliar, the Big Knit is a fundraising campaign put on by Innocent Smoothies and Topaz Petrol. Basically, they're calling on all the knitters in Ireland to knit up as many tiny little hats as they can before October 22nd. They're aiming to get 20,000 of them. Once they have all the hats, they're going to sort through them and start placing them on the lids of all their smoothie bottles and then ship the smoothies off the the shops as usual. For every smoothie with a hat that's sold, Innocent and Topaz will donate €1 to Age Action to help elderly people stay fed, clothed, active, and healthy over the winter months. The knitting group has been hard at work knitting lots and lots of little hats.

There's lots of room to get creative, as you can see. I knit 8 all together, and they're in the process of being sent off to Innocent now. Forgot to take pictures, sorry. They were awfully cute, though.

So there's this restaurant in Dalkey, that's supposed to be very good, but I'm a little confused by the name...

What exactly to guinea pigs have to do with fish?

Alright, this is already a very long post, so I think I'll have to save the Dalkey Hill pictures for a separate post. This is what happens when I have no internet for so long. I promise I won't usually make you read this much in one day.

Finally! I have real internet!

2008-10-16T16:13:00.004+01:00

Alright, my internet is finally fixed (no thanks to Vodafone) and now it's down to business. I've got masses of pictures that have been piling up over the past few weeks, so I had to upgrade my Flickr account.

The new apartment is very nice, but living all by myself is something I'm not sure I'll ever really get used to. To make a long, whiney story short, I don't like it. But that's not really what this post is about.

For obvious security-related reasons, I'm not posting up pictures of the outside of my apartment building. You'll all just have to see it when you come visit me. Also, I took these pictures a couple weeks ago, and I've made some decorating changes since then, but you get the general idea. I'll show you around inside. Come on in...

This is what you see as you come in the door. Straight ahead is the bathroom, to the left is the sitting room/office/dining room/kitchen, and around the corner is the bedroom.

Here's the sitting room...

And the rest of it... (the bookshelf wasn't made yet)

Here's the beginnings of the bookshelf

Ta-da! It's still standing today! Even with books on it! I'm amazing.

Here's the office area. I <3 my computer. Don't worry, that tacky vase of styrofoam fruit was one of the first things to go.

Here's the dining room area.

This my ninja kitchen. There are appliances hiding in there, you just can't see them. They're like ninjas.

Where's the fridge?

Surprise! Ninja fridge!

Where's the washing machine?

Surprise! Ninja washing machine!

This is the ninja dishwasher, but I didn't take a picture of it because it was on at the time. However, I'll never use it again becuase it's a piece of crap and doesn't actually wash the dishes.

This is my super awesome tea set. I <3 it. Except that the teapot doesn't so much pour the tea...it's more like it spits the tea. Or throws it. It kind of goes everywhere no matter how carefully you pour it. Oh well, as long as it looks pretty. I also have two mugs that match it. I keep meaning to go get two more.

Here's the bathroom. The tub is huge

Here's some more of the bathroom. I'm thinking of getting an aloe plant to put on that windowsill.

And the bathroom again.

Into the bedroom! I got these little plastic drawers to keep my stuff organized.

My awesome giant closets. I finally got a chest of drawers to put in there, but I haven't taken a picture yet. It fits pretty damn perfectly though.

I <3 my new bed linens.

I also love this big shelf/windowsill above my bed. I've since removed the stupid fake plant and put a real one there. Hooray!

So there you have it. This is where I live now. I'll try to make another blog post later with pictures of the Sunday farmers market that I go to every week, and the pictures from when Kalen and I climbed up Dalkey Hill. But now I need to go make some supper before knitting.

Not much longer

2008-09-29T21:26:00.003+01:00

I'll post pictures of my new place soon, I promise! But it'll have to wait until Wednesday because apparently I've reached my upload limit for the month of September on Flickr. It's all full of English Gents. (tee hee!)
Anyways, maybe by Wednesday I'll also be a little more settled and unpacked and can then take better pictures than the ones I've got.
All in all, it's a pretty great place. Even better right now because it smells like the cookies I'm baking. Mmmm. Dalkey is a very nice little town, full of organic food which is actually super affordable compared to the price of organic in Canada. So I've definitely been eating well! I've finally got the cupboards and fridge well stocked so hopefully I won't need to buy groceries again for a few days.
School is starting to pick up a bit in terms of work load, but I suppose I would be a little less stressed out about it if I could actually get my hands on my textbooks. I don't understand why they have to be so difficult to find.
I'm off to take the last of my cookies out of the oven and finish up some homework. Hopefully I'll be posting again on Wednesday with pictures!

I live here now!

2008-09-26T19:46:00.001+01:00

Hooray! I'm all moved in! No pictures yet, as I'm still unpacking, but keep watching - I'll try to have some pictures up by the end of the weekend.

But for now...my unpacked bags call...as do the dishes, and the laundry. Ugh.

Good News!

2008-09-21T01:04:00.009+01:00

I have a home! A real home of my very own! I just don't live there yet.
I found a perfect little apartment in Dalkey, fully furnished, all brand new, and very close to the train and the bus. Hooray! My landlady is this old Italian woman, the kind that wears diamonds and pearls at the same time, who I know is going to wind up driving me batty, but she's nice all the same. Her husband is English and I swear to god he looks EXACTLY like Michael Cane. He probably is Michael Cane. Next week I'm going to be getting things all sorted with the letting agents (get ready, Mum) and then I'll actually sign the lease and the landlady said I should be moved in by the end of next weekend. Hooray! So much to do, so much to buy! Most things are included, like nice dishes and cutlery and a little bit of cookware and all that, but there is still a list of more-or-less essential things that I'll need to buy yet. Most of them aren't too pressing and can wait until after I've moved in. Today I went and bought bed linens and a big cozy duvet, which I'll take pictures of after I'm all settled and everything looks nice. Very exciting. I'm quite anxious to just move in and stop living out of a suitcase. And use my pretty new tea set (as seen on .Mum's blog). I found a shop in Dalkey, just down the road from my apartment that stocks the exact same tea set, the mugs, the matching salt and pepper shakers, and the scented oil burner. I think I may go get two more mugs and the oil burner. Just for fun. I'm not getting the salt and pepper shakers because I much prefer to have freshly ground pepper than the powdered stuff, so I'll get a mill instead. But now I'm boring you...you'll have to excuse me, I'm just a wee bit excited. And Stef...Bono lives down the road. For serious.

In my last post, I told you all to stay tuned for Kalen and Elena's Adventures at Dublin Culture Night, which was last night. Culture Night quickly turned into Drinking Night, and became a total gong show. Drinking in Temple Bar area tends to do that, I suppose. I don't have many pictures to show you from the Culture Night spots we did see, because (being nighttime and all) it was very dark and my camera doesn't like to take pictures in the dark.
First we went out for dinner at this really tasty Italian restaurant in Temple Bar called Botticelli. Really good four cheese pizza. Mmmm. And wine. (yes, we started drinking early). We started Culture Night at the Blackchurch Print Studio (right next to Botticelli) and looked at some art, and saw some of the print-making process. Quite cool. Didn't take any pictures, though. Whoops! Then we went took a detour and went to the Brazen Head Pub, Ireland's oldest pub, dating back to 1198 (I'd like to point out that I've also been the the oldest bar in the US, but that one only goes back to 1772). Brazen Head was like 3 or 4 pubs all connected around an open courtyard. Very nice. Some of the people there were clearly regulars. So we had a drink there, relished in the fact that we were in the oldest pub in Ireland, and then went back to Culture Night. We walked up to St. Audoen's Church (no small feat considering it was up a steep hill, on a cobblestone road, and I was wearing 4 inch heels - maybe not the best decision on my part but I didn't expect to be doing so much walking). St. Auden's (pronounced AW-den) Church was built in 1190 and is the oldest continuously used church in Ireland, having changed denominations several times. I couldn't get a good picture, because it was nighttime, so I'm going to cheat and use the picture I took of it in March. The only thing different now is the garden.

We took a quick tour of the church, but didn't get to see the whole thing because they were painting in the actual chapel part. Yes, they still hold services there every Sunday. And every Sunday morning, they ring the bells for half an hour before the service. Manually. Quasimodo style. The six bells in the top of the church also happen to be the oldest church bells in Ireland. They had a spare one out on display inside the main hall.

Looks heavy. I don't envy those bell-ringers. We got to go inside and see the stone carving dedicated to Sir Roland Fitzeustace of Portlester. Sort of looks like a tomb, but it's not. He and his wife were both still alive when it was built.

He commisioned a seperate chapel on one side of the church. The roof is gone from it now, but that just makes it even cooler to be in after dark.

Again, please excuse the poor photo quality because it was so dark. Blame my camera, not me. It's actually much prettier and more impressive than these pictures would make you think. You'll just have to come see it for yourselves.
In the background of the pictures of Fitzeustace and his wife, you can see a similar stone carving, only this one is a little worse for wear. The features of the face and upper body and arms have been removed at some point through the years, possibly when it was illegal to practice Catholicism in Ireland. So nobody knows for sure who it's supposed to be, but if it's who they think it is, then that one is actually a tomb. Poor thing.

Some other interesting objects in the church...
An old broken door. Quite intricately carved.

An old container for communion wine and a cup and plate for communion. I'm sure the little description said they dated back to sometime in the 1600s.

I'm not sure what this is, or was supposed to be, but I liked the way it looked. If anyone knows what it is, let me know.

This was pretty cool. This is the Lucky Stone, which has been kept in the church since 1307. You can see the celtic cross etched into it. Kalen and I rubbed it for luck. Hooray!

After St. Audoen's, we decided to call an end to Culture Night and go bar-hopping instead. Again, these 4 inch heels were not working to my advantage. One pub we went to that was worth mentioning was Porterhouse. They're well known in Dublin for their selection of beers from around the world. Aside from brewing their own selection of beer (I tried their red ale, very nice.) they also have a multi-page menu of bizarre and exotic beers from all over the place. Kalen and I discovered a way to unite two of our vices with this, from England.

Yes, you read that correctly, ladies and gentlemen. That is chocolate beer. First it tastes like beer, then it tastes like chocolate. Seriously. And it wasn't as gross as it sounds, it was actually really good. We would both drink it again at some point. However, I blame this drink in particular for the hangover I had this morning. Ugh. Also, Kalen tried this weird beer from Belgium. It was raspberry beer. Made with real raspberries, as the bottle informed us. It smelled like jam. It kind of tasted like jam too...only...beer jam. I didn't much care for it. But honestly, it's a really cool bar. Definitely a place to check out when you're in Dublin. (That's right, WHEN. Not if. You're all coming to visit me!)
The rest of the night was spent drinking at a couple different bars.

In other news (or non-news) I've just been sort of wandering the city, getting my bearings and such, and I've found some neat things. This little church in Dun Laoghaire has quite possibly the most gorgeous door I've ever seen.

I <3 it.

In knitting news, when my mother was here, she bought me some really beautiful Manos Del Uruguay Silk Blend yarn in blues and greens, just lovely. I am going to make a shawl with it. However, last week I set about winding the yarn into a ball so that I could use it. Unfortunately, I had to leave it for a little while, having only spun about a quarter of it around the back of a chair. The family I'm staying with right now has 3 boys, aged 12, 8, and 6. The 6 year old, Daniel, came across my yarn in the kitchen and decided to "help" the way only a hyperactive 6 year old boy can. This was the result...

NINE HOURS LATER (Really. This was worse than the time Whimsy got herself covered in burrs.) this is what it looks like now.

Much better. But honestly, I have never seen anything so tangled in all my life. I don't even know how he did it.

Hopefully the next time I post, it will be with pictures of moving into my new place! Wish me luck!

Kalen and Elena's Adventures in Bray (and Greystones)

2008-09-14T12:40:00.012+01:00

Yesterday, Kalen and I had planned to go to a Fringe show, as the festival is on here right now. We picked a show, but it didn't start until 9 PM, so we needed something to do to fill the day. She had heard that there is a hill you can climb in Bray (south of Dun Laoghaire) called Bray Head, which is not a really difficult climb, and once you get to the top there's a really spectacular view. So, because it was a beautiful warm, sunny day, we figured we'd go give it a try.
We took the DART to Bray, which is a very pretty little village by the sea (it actually smells like the ocean!)

We walked along the road by the beach

until we came to the heart of the town. That gorgeous hotel with the turrets is a Best Western. Go figure.

We found Bray Head quite easily (it's huge) and started up the path.

It was a very pretty walk, the path up the hill is right along the ocean. We turned around and looked back towards Bray. Goodbye, Bray!

There are some old old stone walls on the way up. The sun was very bright.

And an old old gate. Clearly it's seen better days, but I quite liked it.

The walls just keep going, up and up, following the path.

Looking down over the edge (I didn't fall in! Yay!). I love all the layers in this rock. Makes you wonder just how long it's been there...

Look up. Waaaaaay up.

The Irish Sea is really quite a fantastic colour in the sunshine.

Here you can see how the path winds around the side of the mountain, and you can just barely see where the train runs straight through down below.

Nice colours...

It just keeps going....

At least it was very clear where the path was, so we couldn't get lost.

Mmmm...blackberries. We ate some, because we're hardcore like that. We didn't die from pesticide poisoning, and we didn't arrested. Yay! And they sure were tasty.

It's a long drop. We tried really hard not to fall. Mission accomplished!

Can you tell which side of this tree gets more sun?

The sea is still down there! Still not lost! Hurrah!

We liked these little baby ferns growing out of the rocks. They look like snakes. Or perhaps something slightly Tim Burton-esque.

Some areas were quite wet and muddy. Watch your step!

There were sheep up there!

These leaves were impressively shiny.

Lots of big trees...

Some with berries. We didn't eat those.

This tree is too cool. The tree itself is dead, but it's covered with things that are alive. Love it.

Hey look! A waterfall!

Can't see Bray behind us anymore...just mountain.

This used to be a fence post, until the ivy ate it.

Peek! I can see the water through there...

We saw lots of pretty flowers...

Watch out for this plant. It's not very nice.

We also found a snail

And a ladybug

But wait...
Oh my...that town over there is Greystones. We walked all the way into the next county! Bray is in Co. Dublin, and Greystones is in Co. Wicklow.

This was after walking for two hours. Kalen was told that the climb up the hill took about 20 minutes. Also, we never actually reached the top, we kind of just looped up and around. Way around. So we decided to just walk into Greystones, have some tea, and then head back to Bray on the bus. So that's what we did.

Back at the beginning, we think this is the path we were supposed to take to get to the top...

...but we both agreed that we would have to be in much better shape before we attempt that one. Yikes.

Once we were back in Bray (which was a much longer bus ride than we expected - we didn't think we had walked that far. But apparently we did.

We made it back to Kalen's apartment around 8, made a really quick but really tasty supper, and ran off the the theatre venue to catch our fringe show. It was called Saori's Birthday, and was...interesting. It was not at all what we expected. But oh well. At least we can say that we went to the Dublin Fringe Festival.

Next week's Kalen and Elena Adventure: Dublin Culture Night! Stay tuned!

But first...College starts tomorrow. Wish me luck!

Updates with pictures! (Finally)

2008-09-14T11:35:00.010+01:00

Hello All!
I've FINALLY got around to uploading all the pictures from my camera onto the computer and found the time to post them all. Hurrah! Here we go:

Sometimes it gets a bit windy over here...

This swan posed very nicely for me at St. Stephen's Green Park

I love swans

We happened upon The English Gents performing in City Centre

Rupert and Mr. Pendleton enlisted the help of a very cute little girl from the audience for their act

Rupert lost his trousers!

Mr. Pendleton quickly joined him. Stylin' knee pads!

Then they decided it would be that kind of show...

Oh dear!

Must take some practice

The pipe totally makes it.

Move your damn hand, woman!

Teehee! Is it awful that I kind of want this picture to hang on my wall?

Yeah, I could totally do that too, if I wanted to. :P

No wires! No safety equipment!

Rupert celebrates for Ireland!

Who took that picture?! Certainly it wasn't me....;)

This is actually pretty crazy. Rupert is quite a bit smaller than Mr. Pendleton.

Show offs...

Mr. Pendleton lifted Rupert over his head with one hand while moving from a lying down position to a standing up position. It took them two tries, because the first time, he dropped poor Rupert. This is the successful second try. Here he goes...

Ta da! Hooray!

Alright, enough naked acrobats (no such thing, I just ran out of pictures). Here is St. Anne's Church (Cathedral? not sure)

It has a very lovely door

This is the park at Merrion Square

Eddie Rockets is a chain of 50s-style diners here in Dublin. So cute. And the jukeboxes on the tables really work!

Love the decor!

Best. Milkshakes. Ever.

Hey, if it says so on a clock, it must be true!

Yes, it really does say what you think it says. Not entirely sure what that means though.

I had no idea that magpies could be blue. I found this one in Glasthule/Sandycove.

This one was just a few feet away...and is not blue. Weird.

Glasthule is very pretty. It's a shame the house I looked at there didn't suit me.

More of Glasthule

This is the smaller half of Dalkey Castle. On the other side of the road is the larger half, where they do tours, and every Friday morning, they hold a Farmers Market. In the castle. Too cool.

This is Rockie, a corgi-cross. He belongs to the family I'm living with right now. He's my buddy.

Alright, that's all I've got for now. Later on, I'll try to post about my adventures in Bray yesterday.

Still Looking

2008-09-11T14:01:00.002+01:00

Mum left me this morning, so now I'm here on my own, and soon I'll be off into the great big world all by myself really and for true.
I've moved in with Tom and Carol now, and they're pretty much the nicest people ever. Srsly. Carol came with me today to see a small one-bedroom house that was for rent in the area. I'm considering it, though there are some aspects that are putting me off. For one, it's not really on a street, so the only access (without walking through the landlady's garden) is down a lane that's just off the main road. The lane isn't paved, it's all dirt, so it would be extremely muddy in the rain, which is most of the time. Also, there are no street lights in the lane, so it would be very very dark at night. The house itself has security lights, but I'm just not sure how safe I would feel walking through the lane at night. Just saying is all. The other thing putting me off about the house is the fact that the bedroom and only bathroom are upstairs. If you can classify this as stairs. It's more like a winding staircase of ladders. Quite treacherous. Yikes! The kitchen appliances were sort of old, but looked like they work just fine. The bed is massive (king size). The furniture is mostly ugly, though that's not really a huge issue at this point. It does include a television and DVD player, which none of the other ones I've seen so far have had. I've got appointments to view two more apartments tomorrow, both of which were reccomended by the letting agent. Maybe I'll like one of those ones. Hopefully. I would really like to have a real address.

I've been sitting, waiting, knitting...

2008-09-09T16:56:00.007+01:00

I officially live here now (without having a permanent address, but I'm still working on that). This morning, Mum and I went down to the Garda station (they're like the Mounties combined with the Immigration Office) to register me. We brought our knitting because it's usually a very long wait, being a government office and all. We got pretty lucky, and we had got there pretty early in the day, and then the whole process only took a little over an hour (I got finger printed! It was crazy!). So we didn't get much knitting done, but getting my immigration card was more important anyways.
Tomorrow morning, I move in with Tom and Carol and the boys, and I'll stay there for a couple of weeks until I find my own apartment.
Today Mum and I headed back out to Dundrum Town Centre and did some shopping. I got some towels at Next, and a beautiful pink wool coat and coordinating flowery umbrella at Hobbs, and some boring stuff at Tesco (like a hairdryer). While walking to the train, Mum and I found Molly Malone. I must have walked down that street a dozen times already, and yet I had never seen her before. She's quite...boob-tastic. The Tart with the Cart....love it.
On Sunday, Mum and I wandered around city centre with Kalen from knitting. We saw St. Stephen's Green - both the park and the shopping mall, and the park at Merrion Square, which was surrounded by artists selling some very nice paintings. We didn't buy any because none of us happened to be in the market for original art. But it was quite lovely nonetheless. We had lunch at the mall and looked at some of the shops. Then we happened upon some street performers called the English Gents (though they were actually Australians pretending to be English). They did some AMAZING gymnastics/acrobatics - very Cirque de Soleil-esque, only on the street with no safety harnesses. They were adorable and hilarious. Especially when they took off their clothes and performed in their undies. Best part. Don't worry, I took pictures! Lots of them! I'll post them up when I'm a little more settled and can dig out the cable to connect my camera to the computer. We also discovered Butlers Chocolate. Oh. My. God. They make hot chocolate with real melted chocolate. Oh Baby. They also sell truffles and chocolate bars. Oh Baby Oh Baby. So good. This is dangerous, as Butlers is a chain, and they're located all over the city.
Now, I'm off to play Spore (awesome game!) and possibly eat some chocolate.

More things...and still nowhere to put them!

2008-09-06T10:26:00.002+01:00

Okay everybody, still no apartment. I do have the option of moving in with a family for a couple weeks until I find a real place to live, just so I have an address, and so I don't have to move into a hostel when Mum leaves next week. I'm still actively looking, of course, but everything seems to already be taken as soon as it's posted on the internet. I don't understand how this happens.
However, I did get new glasses, because I broke my old ones. *tear* They're purple. I don't like them as much as my old ones, but they'll do. Aparently, ALL the glasses here are really really wide, so I had to get kids glasses. :( Oh well.
Also, I got my very own computer! Pink Sony Vaio, BAY-BEE! I heart it. It's beautiful. It matches my phone. Hooray!
Yesterday, Mum and I went to the Dundrum Town Centre to get my computer. This is Europe's answer to the Mall of America. It's the largest mall in Europe. Stef, when you come to visit me, I am SO taking you there, and then you will die of happiness. (Example: GIANT H&M, also a really big L'Occitane and about a million other goods stores. It's heaven, really.)
Not much else to report on right now, so I'm off to call about some flats. Wish me luck! Miss you! *hugs*

Updates!

2008-09-04T21:32:00.002+01:00

Hello everyone.
Mum and I just got back to the hotel from my new-found knitting group and it was fantastic! I have friends now! Hurrah! Also, some of them are helping me find a place to live because I am still homeless and Mum leaves in a week. Eek! I have a phone now, so anyone who needs to know the number can either facebook message me or email me or get it from Mum once she's home. (Obviously, being a little girl in a big city I'm not going to post my phone number on the internet for all to see). My phone is pretty and pink and it slides (ooh, fancy). You can see it here: https://www.vodafone.ie/df/prepay/new/index.jsp?handset=J700P&manufacturerSelected=ALL
On the apartment searching front: still no luck, but here's the story...
As I told you before, I saw flat #1 and it was beautiful, except that the bathroom was on another floor down a communal hallway and staircase. Ick. Then, I saw flat #2 which was a smelly hovel. Flat #3 in Dun Laoghaire was very tiny, but with a little tidying could be...not too bad. Flat #4 was a little out of the way of things, and nowhere near the train, and the kitchen was crappy, but I liked it as much as #3. Today I had an appointment (with a real letting agent, not just a landlord) to see flat #5. I was very excited, because online it looked PERFECT, aside from being expensive, but whatever. So we went. It was really out of our way. It was not near the train. There was really nothing nearby besides more houses, a pub, a newsagents, a pharmacy, and a barber shop. We waited. Our feet hurt. We sat on the curb. The lady never showed up. Fan-fucking-tastic. So, no apartment for me. I'm thinking now that I'll need to just rent out a room in someone's house until I find a real apartment. I'm getting desperate.
Then we went to the bank to get me set up with a bank account. Well here's the deal: You can't have a bank account if you've got no address. You can't have an address if you've got no bank account to write a cheque from for deposit and first month's rent. I don't know what exactly they expect people to do... Long frustrating story short, two VERY nice ladies at the bank worked really hard and made all sorts of special exceptions and probably broke a few laws and now I have the beginnings of an Irish bank account. It's pretty magical.
I would say that everyone has to start coming to visit me, but I don't actually have a home for you to visit. But I miss you anyways. It feels like I've been here for weeks. I still want to come home.

Who's coming to get me?

I'm here...can I come home now?

2008-09-02T17:03:00.002+01:00

We made it to Dublin in one piece. Well, I suppose it was two pieces, because Mum and I are each separate pieces. But we made it here regardless.
Currently, we're both exhausted, but accomplished a fair bit today. We found a really great yarn shop in Blackrock called This is Knit (very cute) and the girls who work there are very sweet.
We took a look at the flat in Monkstown, but it turned out to be not what I thought it was. As in, I thought it had a bathroom. Oh well. Now I've got a list of about 20 other places I can call about apartments I'm interested in. Let's all cross our fingers that one of them can be what I want. I don't feel like sharing a bathroom with people I don't know. It's gross.
I miss everyone terribly already, so everyone needs to update me on their lives CONSTANTLY. Starting....Now.

Tomorrow is the day...

2008-09-01T03:11:00.002+01:00

...And I, for one, am not particularly excited about it. There are plenty of other words I could choose to describe my feelings, but excited is not one of them. Some these words I won't use, because I have discovered that there are children reading my blog. However, the words I will throw out there are: terrified, confused, upset, and already missing everybody, including my now hairless shih tzu.

On the plus-ish side, I may have found a place to live. It's in Monkstown, right near Dun Laoghaire (apparently only 20 minutes walk to the College). So long story short, I have an appointment to view the apartment the same day Mum and I get to Dublin, and if it really does look like the ad, then I may end up living there. Everyone cross your fingers for me. kthnx.

I'll contact everyone via facebook once I have an address and phone number and let you all know what it is. Then I'll need everyone's address and postal code for postcards and letters and the like.

With tearful goodbyes, I'll see you in Dublin. Love you!

Down to the wire

2008-08-27T04:43:00.002+01:00

We're down to less than a week now, and things are more or less ready to go. Aside from getting some Euros from the bank, doing some laundry and then cramming the last of my worldly posessions into my suitcases, things are pretty much done.
I've got all my paperwork in order so that they let me into the country. Actually, I shouldn't say that. What I should say is that I've got all my paperwork in order that the Irish Embassy in Ottawa told my mother that I would need to be allowed into the country. Here's the part where all I can really do is cross my fingers and hope that this really is what I need. I cannot even express to you the kind of language that I will let fly if it turns out that the embassy has led me wrong. Again. But for now, I've got everything in order.
I've got everything that I need ( I think). I'm sure I'll remember no less than five things that I've forgotten within hours of arriving in Dublin. Just wait. It'll happen. Not that I'm disorganized, because I've got pretty mad organizational skills. It's just that trying to move one's entire life from one country to another results in a wee bit of frazzle-ization. Rly.
I've got one suitcase packed, and another one mostly packed, and most of the rest of the things I'm taking stacked out in neat(ish) piles, eagerly awaiting the return of Ian and Nigel from Alaska, so that I can have my last suitcase. I don't know whose idea this was to have them leave and get back THE DAY BEFORE Mum and I leave for Ireland, but it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. Just saying is all.
Oh, I almost forgot. I'm also losing my mind completely. I'll leave you with the words that have been playing through my mind over and over for the past 2 weeks....

WHAT THE HELL AM I DOING?????

Stupid livejourmal...

2008-08-03T17:28:00.002+01:00

Alright, I've broken down and given up on livejournal. They kept changing everything and it was making me angry. So here I am on blogspot, which I never thought I would be. But that's not really the point. I suppose that I should update everybody on how the whole moving process is going, because I'm down to T - less than one month. It's going like this:
I've almost completed the ridiculous scavenger hunt-like list that the embassy told me I would need to complete instead of getting a student visa. I've really only one thing left, and I'm going to do that this coming week. Then comes all the things that aren't on the list for immigration, but still need to be done. Things like deciding what to pack, buying a giant suitcase, and all that fun crap.
Just FTR, still not looking forward to this any more than I was before.