cork

so i had 4 absolutely wonderful days in cork. i was shocked that i was there for 4 days of sun. yes - it did not rain a drop when i was in cork. i was flabbergasted. but the sunshine in cork was glorious as there is nothing nicer than a sunny ireland. so i'm back in the states now and gearing up for some more travel (details to come) let's just say my life is crazy. i'm loving this year because it is turning out to be what i said a year of fun and travel with some work in there. but crazy. 

so about ireland. it was like coming home. i hung out with my friends, popped into work, and honestly it felt like a normal week. ate soo much food, bought ballet flats & tights, drank tons of tea, frolicked about my favorite place and just enjoyed being in cork. ending my trip in cork was the right thing to do. 

out for tapas with the girls from work :)

a little bit of heaven - o'conaill's hot chocolate in cork

st. finbarr's cathedral in cork - look at the gorgeous blue sky - i saw finbarr's from my window in my last house

along the river lee and the north side - i lived in the bright pink building on the right when i studied abroad

fitzgerald park - one of my favorite places - especially in nice weather

the quad at ucc - had fun walking around the university and remembering the memories

curry chips from lennox's - number 1 on my list of things in cork to do

kara and i out at my favorite pub - costigans

the trip back to cork made me remember my love for ireland - i could go on and on about it. check out the archives for more irish talk. and it just felt so normal. so happy to finally go back after almost two years and i can't wait to visit again.

so i'm back in the states and it was a great trip :) i'm writing a wrap up about everything and just so glad i said i need to go to europe and booked it. and traveled for 3 weeks by myself. lots of crazy going on - but hey just more fun to write about :)

how was your weekend?

22 months

i'm back in CORK!! it has been 22 months since i said goodbye to my little city on the lee after living there for almost 2 years, and crazily enough over 5 years since i first said goodbye. but i'm back, and while only for 4 short days i'm so excited.

flying into cork is one of my favorite things in the world. especially on a sunny day (see ireland loves me!) and to just see the field of green, the coast.... i am seriously jumping up and down like a child inside.

i'm just at the airport waiting for my bus into the city, and then i'm heading to meet my friend sharon so i can drop off my bags and then off to explore and say hi to my favorite city and a hot chocolate at o'connails, and then tonight i'm going out for pints and then tapas with my old co-workers! yay for a great first day back home!

and i'm so glad i'm missing the icey/snow fun that is hitting home right now. which is crazy that my trip is almost over. it went by too fast!

best of 09: night out

December 5. Night out. Did you have a night out with friends or a loved one that rocked your world. Who was there? What was the highlight of the night?

I had a bunch of great nights in 2009. But my favorite would probably be clubs and socs 2009. it was pretty much my unofficial going away party in ireland. it was my last week in ireland and all of my coworkers and mountaineering friends were going, along with brenda and other people i knew so it was a great night of dressing up, lots of free alcohol, a great theme, dancing and laughing. it was my unofficial going away party because all my coworkers were there and i kinda planned when i was going home by this night, because they are always sooo much fun! i was also called up and thanked for my work the last 2 years by the societies which was a huge surprise and was given the most gorgeous bouquet of flowers!

with brenda, one of my good friends

little bit of fun with the coworkers

runners up:

last night with my dc coworkers

amy's birthday

uuuuuughhhhhh. it is snowing, like we have about 2 inches right now. grrrrrr. i've had enough of winter. it can go away now. went christmas shopping with my mom, and pretty much picked out most of my presents. haha. i picked out a new strand of pearls and then gap was having MAJOR sales. all tops and sweaters were buy one get one free.... which is dangerous. so i ended up with 3 sweaters, 2 tops and 3 skirts. so that was fun :) i wanted to show pictures, but gap.com doesn't have a lot of the items, weird.

watching the florida-alabama game and grading. i wanted to get started on christmas cards, but didn't get to target. if you want a christmas card send me an email with your address :)

poker face

Last night was so much fun! Despite not feeling well (stupid head cold! I am soo congested!) it is getting to the stage where I'm going out because there are only a few days left. And with Kara leaving for a wedding/vacation on Monday, this was our last week to do something and it was going to happen. So we decided to do little black dress and see where the night took us. We all met over at Kara's for an amazing dinner. And sat around talking, Sex & The City was on in the background, drinking and just laughing. Right before we left to head out they made me cry with a card full of funny memories, and it was then it hit me how soon I was leaving. Yesterday marked two weeks left. So after attempting to use the self timer and get a group photo - this was the best we came up with...

eibhlin, steph, lorna, kara, sarah, me - not the best photo... oops!

kara and i

So Kara and I decided we needed to go to some of our favourite places so we naturally started at Costigans, one of my favourite pubs in the city and last year was the scene of many of our crazy/redic nights. So unfortunately it was quite quiet, but we still had fun. We had our drinks and talked mostly about boobs and sex... Kara and I also reminisced about the many funny occasssions over the last year and a half. Such as how we met, singing on the walk home from the pubs, thesis craziness, our countless nights out, chips at 2am, sex and the city wine night, pub quizes, all the dinners and countless trips into town. So while we were sitting there we were given free passes into a club - The Classic. So why not, it is one of the better clubs and it was free. So it was still only a little after 11, so slightly too early to go into the club.

kara, steph and i at costigans

So we decided to go the the Classic pub - there is a pub downstairs and the club is upstairs. The pub is nice, a slightly older crowd, often has good live music. So we went for a quick drink, and just as we were about to go upstairs. I hear someone call my name. I look up and it is Dave. My ex M'sbest friend. Now here is where it gets funny. So Dave and I kept in touch on facebook, random messages/happy birthdays... He was in NYC right around the time I moved to Cork, then he was in London and Spain. So in January when Amy and I were going to Madrid I sent him a message, and well he was back in Cork, so I suggested meeting up for a pint and just got his number like 2 weeks ago. And it was just yesterday (seriously) I got around to texting him,

and we made plans to meet up next week, because he was off to the US for a few days. So how hilarious, that I run into him in town. So we only talked for a second, but I'm now excited to see him next week. I was slightly nervous about meeting him, so it was great to just accidentely see him. Plus I looked really good last night! haha! So that was the random part of the evening, but welcome to my life!

So after that we headed upstairs to the club, now I'm not the biggest fan of clubbing. It is fun once in a while, and then I remember why I don't go that often. But it was fun to dance with the girls and it totally reminded me of the Dane Cook sketch. Dude, I just wanna dance! -

The girls go. Girls go to DANCE. You get ready with your friends,
"Let's go dance tonight! Let's just- fuck guys tonight.

Which was pretty true.. But it was quite amusing and we had fun. When Lady GaGa's - Poker Face came on it made me laugh, because a radio DJ on the station we listen to at work did this hilarious video (and it was the most watched video in Ireland the next day) and now honestly whenever I hear the song which is about 4 times a day at work - (each of the 4 DJ's during the day play it) I think of this song. As we all did last night with this picture.

poke her facing...

the hilarious video!

So I lasted until slightly after 1... I'd been at work all day, not feeling well, and tired of the clubbing. So we left and Kara and I walked towards home the way we used to last year. She was going to her bf's and of course we stopped at our favourite chipper and did what we did all last year a bag of chips, split it in two with vinegar on her half and just salt on mine. Sang the fish & chips song and walked down the street singing BBMak. And just laughing. So it was a really fabulous night and while our friendship had changed the last few months, last night wasa great way to end our time in Ireland together. And we know we'll see each other again and keep in touch.

So nothing else too unsual, had the best email when I woke up this morning. Jclark sent all of us the newest Rascal song - Here Comes Goodbye, which came out on itunes yesterday and a few memories of when we went to their concert in NC our senior year of college. So that made me smile. Had lunch with Karen from the club, and then met a fellow American in Cork for dinner. It is sad we only met about a month ago, I love hanging out with her and just talking. And I'm off to the pub later tonight to see a few club people.

Time to work on packing and going through all of my stuff - not fun. But London is this weekend!

that one time i wore my smarty pants...

I didn't get to watch the Oscars last night, as they started too late to show over here, so I was going to watch them tonight, which is when they were airing on tv here. But I got a text from Kara asking me to come to the pub quiz, and of course I chose that over the sitting at home painting my nails, writing a letter to Holly and watching the Oscars where it isn't suspensefull, just making comments about the dresses and the actual show. But the quiz was fun, I met Kara and Steph and two other friends. And for the first time we placed! We came in 4th so we won 45 euro, which as pretty sweet. So with my 9 euro it covered my pint and the quiz fee. I've played a lot at this pub quiz and the only other time was when Kara and I won for best name. 

So that was fun. Thought we didn't do too hot on the Oscar round, maybe if I had watched it, haha. 

Today was your usual Monday, we were busy in the morning and not so much in the afternoon. Though there was a funny moment when I got back from lunch. One of the societies had gotten bubbles delivered to the office for their ball next week, and the auditor gave us some to play with so Sharon assaulted me with bubbles walking into the office and then threw me my own little champagne bubbles. Which I was having issues with making the bubbles bubble. Sharon was laughing at me and then tried to make sure it wasn't broken. Nope it was me, so she said, you're blowing too hard. And of course the mature adults we are burst out laughing and joked about my blowing skills the rest of the afternoon. But I was able to blow softer and make bubbles. It was a good thing the office was quiet. Though I was productive I emailed my video resume, did some trip planning for Italia and a few other emails and then the stuff I actually do at work such as answering phones and helping people. 

I had a lot of random things on my mind yesterday and now I can't think of them. Ohhhh! I love how now gmail you can customize your theme color. Of course I changed mine and made it slightly different, I was using the cherry blossom, but now it is pink and green. and I love it.  And looking at everyone's birthday ball photos this morning at work kept me entertained for a good hour. Ahhh, crazy drunken birthday ball photos. 

So I can't think of anything else... night!

2008 in review

Wow, 2008 was a pretty good year. I lived in Ireland for all of 2008, wrote a 21,000 word thesis, graduated with my Masters in History, traveled, showed my parents around Ireland and had two fabulous vacations home.

So here is 2008!

January: Ended 2007/started 2008 out right with the club up in Letterfrack, started up my second semester of classes and loved my new professor Cindy, also got to go to a lecture by one of my favourite historians - JJ Lee,  a few super wet hikes, had a few crazy Thursday nights out with Kara followed by slightly hungover Friday mornings at work and abseiled off the science building on campus for charity with the club.

February: started the month out with the Sex and the City Wine night..., counted out thousands of euros because it was Ball season at work, had a completely epic hike with the club on the Reeks with 2' of snow and Curve Gully, our slight obsession with Pat Fitz (Irish singer), had the hilarious good idea/bad idea Wicklow weekend and the cloud inversion on Lugnaquilla, went to Wales to see my sister and enjoyed seeing Swansea and I also made out with the Welsh guy, the post Birthday Ball phone call with my crew loves, finally reading my fav book of 2008 - Eat, Pray, Love.

March: started out the month with a friend from college visiting for a night, then Kara's friend from home was also over so that was a crazy few days, then a great hike up my favourite Irish mountain - Mt. Brandon, the hilariousness of the post-grad ball and law boy, my twin cousins being born, a super long but awesome Cloon Lake hike, the rediculousness of clubs&socs - quadruple double fisting, wayy too much wine, lots of dancing and laughing with the club, the totally hardcore Reeks Ridge hike, celebrating St. Patrick's Day in Ireland, Easter and our yummy dinner, and ending the month in Donegal with the club where it was a fabulous 5 days and had some incredible hikes on the Blue Stacks, Slieve League (with the most gorgeous cliffs and a swim in the N.Atlantic) and Errigal.

April: Started out the month meeting up with my sister and heading off to Greece! I had an AMAZING week in Athens and Santorini. Turning the corner in Athens and seeing the Acropolis, words can't even describe, the 9 hour ferry ride to Santorini was to totally worth it with the view of the cliffs and spending 3 days on the pants island. from the cliffs, the view of the caldera, black beaches, and the most gorgous sunset i've ever seen, I loved Santorini, back to Athens where we continued to take in the sites before heading back to Ireland, working on my term paper and really missing rowing, finally getting to meet Jenna (the other girl from the whole M. saga from my study abroad) and it was great! Megan coming over for another visit, being done with classes for the first time since I was 4, my ZTA weekend in London touring Parliament and Cambridge and seeing the bonds of sisterhood really are amazing.

May: I booked my flight home for my vacation in July, started seriously working on thesis, enjoyed a few days of good weather, bbq's, a great night climbing at Kinsale, realizing I've done a lot more work on the thesis than I though after seeing I read 105 books and notes on 62, going to the gym again, finally moving out of the house from hell,  celebrating a year post-wac and my rowers getting a NCAA bid, cheering on Munster as they won the Heinekin Cup, the fabulousness of seeing Sex and the City opening night (2 days before the US)!

June: I was in quite a funk in June, I blame it on the lack of summer weather, being disappointed when it looked like Hillary lost the primaries, summer housemate Brenda and I being crazy, being excited that I actually had 5,000 words of thesis written by the 13th, a few fun 21st parties, a fun rainy afternoon shopping with the girls, ending the month with 12,500 words on thesis, getting really excited about my trip home and a great hike in the Eastern Reeks.

July: soooo much rain, seriously even for Ireland, pub quiz fun, thank god for 3 weeks of real summer weather in the States! 3 absolutely crazy weeks with my DC trip, seeing my Worch girls, Coop's wedding and seeing some of my crew loves, meeting up with little, a relaxing week at the shore with the fam, the most incredible camping weekend on the Cape with my lovers, who I missed soo much, my 23rd birthday, the silly lionkitty breaking his leg, seeing jerz, becca and twin and getting back in touch with holly.

August: Back to wet Ireland, where I started working full time at the office, and getting serious on the thesis, so it wasn't a very fun month. by the middle of the month having the 4 chapters in draft, the OLYMPICS and watching my women's 8 win gold!!! the boys winning bronze, Michael Phelps, more fun with lawboy, work hitting the busy season but having a lot of laughs with the girls and not being soo stressed about the thesis.

September: I moved again, handed in a rough draft of thesis to my adviser, lots and lots of hours at work,  the whole Sarah Palin rediculousness, deciding to stay in Ireland until March, a fabulous day in Youghal, and computer breaking, 1 year in Ireland,  spent lots of time editing the thesis, finished the thesis, had her bound and handed her in 1 week early!! She came in at 106 pages and 20,995 words, and a gorgeous hike in sunshine to brough na binne, the financial mess and the first official hike of the year with the club.

October: uggggh sick, voted by absentee ballot for Obama, the hilarious night out lots of free beer, a fun hike in Gougane Barra, being a film festival volunteer, the wettest hike possible on Coumsaharan, a fabulous weekend in N. Ireland going to Belfast and the Antrim Coast, getting a postcard from Mary Whipple (my coxing idol), booking my flight home for Christmas, and a funny Halloween as Sarah Palin!

November: Was sooooooo ready for November 4th and the election. I stayed up until 5.30am to watch the coverage and was sooo excited and overjoyed at Obama being elected President, a fun but super wet Dingle weekend, my baking obsession started, the amazing Munster-All Blacks rugby match, finding out I was graduating with and thesis recieved 1st class honours!!, two very yummy Thanksgivings and a great snowy hike in the Reeks. 

December: A fun night out with the girls from work and the socs Christmas party, meeting my parents in London! and showing them all around one of my favourite cities, stepping over the Prime Meridian, lots of pictures with Big Ben and Parliament, a few crazy days traveling around Ireland - the Ring of Kerry, Killarney, Blarney, and all around Cork, my MA graduation and back to the states for a few weeks, where it has snowed way too much for me, a great few days in CT seeing my roomie, some crazy family times, getting to see Chelsea, the wonderfulness of NYC at Christmas, a great reunion with Holly in NYC, and yet again working on New Year's Eve. 

So some goals for 2009

-be happy

-work on a more healthy lifestyle

-enjoy my last 3 months in Ireland 

-travel as much as possible

-find a teaching job for September

-find a fun summer job

-start my 'big girl' life

- keep in better touch with family and friends

- become more crafty (knitting, scrapbooking)

- continue reading history books

- edit thesis for journal publication

- save money

2008 was pretty fabulous, 2009 is a year of endings and beginings. I'm getting a few more months in a country I love and then I'm starting my job search for both a fun summer and a teaching job starting in September, so who knows where I'll be next year? I'm ready for the adventure and crazyness that 2009 is about to bring!

first of the month...

so i've been doing this for a few years now and i love it. the first things posted every month for 2008 :)

january: 4th - edinburgh and letterfrack

back to reality... 

(written after my christmas holiday to edinburgh and then new years in connemara with the club)

february: 1st - crazy weather

ireland has the weirdest weather today...

(it the span of about 30 minutes it was sunny, pouring rain, huge wet snowflakes and sun)

march: 3rd - kinsale, mt. brandon, sangria

 busy. busy weekend :)

(a friend from wac spent thursday night with me, then kara's friend from home visited and then mt. brandon on sunday)

april: 2nd - going greek!

 off to greece for the week!!

may: 1st - may day!

 happy may day!!

(reminisced about may day at wac... ohhh the crazyness!)

june: 3rd - avoiding the thesis

 this weekend i completely avoided the thesis. and it was fabulous!

(bank holiday weekend fun of enjoying the sunshine and having fun!)

july: 2nd - life to do list

so amy and i were talking about our life to-do lists the other day and i realized the last time i wrote mine down was summer 2006, when becca and i were setting goals for our senior year of college.

august: 1st - already august?

 i can't believe it is already august. gah, where is time going? it has been a good last week in the states.

september: 2nd - gossip girl, thesis, new house, political rant

so i have started updating like 4 times this week, but never had gotten around to actutally finishing what i had to say.

(randomness about work, thesis, moving house, kara and politics)

october: 5th - random...

it is a gorgeous sunny day and i am not on a mountain :(

(silly being sick)

november: 3rd - i can see russia from my house... halloween fun.

 halloween this year was quite fun...

(all about the antics from halloween)

december: 2nd - turkey, snowy hikes, december.

i've started writing this about 5 times now and hopefully i'll be able to actually write it. i open blogger and then get distracted by a gchat, someone at work, or something...

so there you have it, my first of the months aren't that exciting this year.. oh well.

i'm a master

I was conferred today, so I am officially a graduate of UCC and I now posess a Masters degree.

YAY!

The conferring was nice. Kara came over, we had mimosas and got ready together, walked over to college and the crazyness! Struggled to make our gowns and hats look acceptable, luckily Kara had been told to bring pins, or the gowns would have been open, as they didn't have any zippers, buttons or anything! Then the ceremony, it was short, the main part of the ceremony was in Latin. Then they just called up the names, we got our degree, signed the university register, the conferring speaker and then we were done. So the only person not to finish was Catherine (known to Kara and I as Grandma) - Paula, Olen, Cian, Michael and Aine all finished. Kara and I thought someone else wouldn't finish, so it was good to see everyone and catch up. After lots of pictures, then I ran over to work to say hello to everyone and then back to meet up with my parents to show them around my lovely little city :)

The vacation with the family has been good, only driving me slightly crazy over the last week. But the post about those adventures will be once I am back in the US. 

me

the parents and little bro

kara and i

outside the presidents door

why would she put little russian men in our drinks?

Super wet disgusting day today! Just ugggggh!

So everyone in Ireland is anticipating the Budget. The Minister of Finance presents the budget for the upcoming year and it will be on TV this afternoon and with everything going on in the financial world people are curious to see what he has to say. It is interesting because I feel in the States we don't really have anything similar, like I had to look and see when the US budget is passed, apparently the President has to submit it to Congress by the first Monday in February, and then it has to be approved by both houses in Congress and then signed by the President, and goes into effect starting 1 October. The one thing I can think gets this type of attention in the States is the State of the Union, which is always interesting to hear what the President has to say. Anyway, enough financial talk.

Fun weekend :) Thursday I went with Brenda to see How to Loose Friends and Alienate People. It was funny and made me laugh. It was good to catch up with her, I miss our movie nights in the house, relaxing and watching whatever bad movies were on TV, and catching up on our day. Friday was a usual day at work, nothing too interesting. So Kara, Lorna and I decided to go out. I haven't been out in a while as I've been sick and busy finishing up the thesis and Kara was home for a few weeks. So Friday night was supposed to be a quieter evening, I had to work the Open Day on Saturday for prospective students.

But of course that was the opposite of what happened. So we started out at costigans, but it was a weird night there as the general age was quite older, as there was a Munster rugby match one (really good game, munster won 19-17 with like 2 minutes left) . So we decided to go to the Quad, so we get our drinks - this beer called Desperado, it is beer with tequila (quite good) and so we just got our beers and started people watching and talking. So then a girl comes over and goes do you girls want a pint of miller? So we go yea, why not. So she leaves and we laugh and go I hope it is a promotion, and we better not have to pay then Lorna then says I hope she doesn't put any KGB in our drinks.. Kara then asks, why would she be putting Russian men in our drinks? So we all laugh and she brought over the pints, and we decide to start drinking the Miller and save the good beer until later. So a super drunk guys comes by and we ignore him, he was trying to talk with us. So his friend - seriously the tallest guy I have ever seen in my life, comes over to appologise. So we were just like whatever, so they bloody sit down next to us.. we were like uuughhh. So we start downing the Miller, reminded me of the Bird, except I was drinking out of a pint glass, and not a pitcher. So then we drank the good beer quite fast and booked it out of there... that was bad idea #1. Especially since the last time i drank was 3 weeks ago when i went out with work friends (and that night I had 3 pints and was fine) so we wanted to go to the Brog. So walking there a group pf guys starts talking to us, and I don't exactly remember how this started, Lorna goes we are in a band, I'm Frankie, this is Kiki to Kara and Lulu to me. Our band was called KGB, so they were like where are you going, and we replied i'm not sure yet as trying to elude the second group of sketchy guys. So we decided to go to Old Oak... i haven't been there in 3 years! i wasn't a fan of it when i studied abroad. So nothing fun really happening there so we head to the Brog and i was getting tired so at like 1 i decided to head home. So it was a hilarious evening :) And a lot of fun!

Saturday morning, not so much fun. But the Open Day went well, I gave out lots of information about accom to prospective students, and then after it I ran into town to do my errands. I finally bought knitting needles and yarn, and have decided to start knitting again, so lets see how long this lasts.

Sunday went hiking :) We went to Gougane Barra, the source of the River Lee. It is usually a very pretty hike, but the weather wasn't really co-operative, so there were no views. It was wet and misty, and bogtacular, so the usual Ireland hiking weather. It was a fun day, despite being wet. I did manage to get a few good pictures of the lake and the monastry though :)

I love the reflections!

The monastry

:)

something intelligent out of texas, for once...

At work today I was trying to catch up with the weekend in news. Since my connection at home is soo slow I didn't get a chance to watch the debates over the weekend, and I only watched a bit of it at work today, beccause we were busy, but I was trying to watch it along with a few other things. The SNL Palin skit made me laugh, I also watched some of the actual interview with Katie Couric. But the thing I was most intersted in today was the economic talk. I looked over the proposed economic package (ok, skimmed it as it was 110 pages and pretty confusing, as we well know economics is not my thing) but I am glad the House defeated it. Why should we bail out uber greedy Wall Street? The people who thought granting rediculous loans to people who they knew couldn't afford it? So they could get their multimillion dollar bonus? And with all these banks/investment firms failing, and bigger ones buying them up like JP Morgan buying WaMu, isn't that creating a monoply? So what happens if one of these megabanks fails? It would be even worse than what is happening now... So I just don't get the buying of a failing bank, won't it create a domino effect? And the stock market... While something needs to be done, I don't think the proposed plan is the best, it seems like Wall Street is getting away with nothing, not even a slap on the wrist. So I was looking at the article on CNN and this quote popped out to me, and it really does sum up the last week, and in my opinion this bill...

"Like the Iraq war and patriot act, this bill is fueled by fear and haste," said Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas

One thing I did find extremely interesting was to see the breakdown of the vote, Democrats had a higher yes vote, which is interesting. Like I know Republicans are more conservative when it comes to financial issues, but it seems like this would have been something that the Republicas would have supported. And also interesting that the Dems have a House majority and the bill was rejected and that Bush was really pressing this bill and the majority of his party went against the bill. My rep in Jersey went against the bill, and he is a Republican. So it will be interesting to see what happens over the night with everything, and how it effects everything over here in the morning, as the passage of the bill, was at the end of the working day here....

So anyway, besides being political, I had a great weekend. It felt fabulous to be done with the thesis :) Friday night Kara came over for dinner, then we went over to hers to watch movies with the girls. It was fun and we caught up since we've been in 4 different places over September. Saturday did the usual and ran errands, and then I sat out in the garden reading because it was sunny. Sunday was glorious! A gorgeous sunny day! Perfect for hiking :) Especially since it was the first hike of the season, and I love Boughil. Especially on a great day, the views of the Reeks, Black Valley, Kenmare Bay and Kerry are fabulous. And surprisingly a lot less showed up than we were expecting, only 45 people. So there was 2 groups of people, a longer group of 30, and then I went in the shorter (but I think we ended up doing the same, as we continued to hike more) had 15. So much fun, and everyone was pretty awesome. So YAY! for that. 

So other than that, just up to the usual working, reading lots... Enjoying the few days of sunshine in Cork :)

she's so pretty!

picked up bridget (yes, i named my thesis) from the binders today! and then went to the exams and records office and handed in 3 copies of her along with the 2 forms i needed to fill out :)

she came out very nice! 

i am still quite excited about her!! 

and at the fact i am done!

YAY!!!

the finished product!

i really like long titles... thanks for the help amy!

bridget and i

also kara is back! so fun should start up again soon. next friday evening is the pub crawl. we are bringing along printed out copies of the thesis, taking pictures with them at every pub, getting the bartenders to sign them.... the goal of this week is to map out the crawl. we will be starting at 5pm when i get out of work and proceeding to the old bar, then the new bar on campus... and from there into all of our favourite spots in town... i am quite excited for this!

and congrats to the little sister for getting a bid to phi mu! yay! talking to her all this week about it reminded me of my recruitment for ZTA and what a fabulous week it was and how much fun bid day was, along with my amazing pledging, getting my super fab big and then initation...  YAY! for greek life!

gossip girl,thesis, new house, political rant

so i have started updating like 4 times this week, but never had gotten around to actually finishing what i had to say.

so here is my life the last week:

- work is good, i've been working a lot. a few days i've worked from 9-8pm and i don't mind. it actually gave me a chance to work on the thesis as it is super quiet from 6-8. and also it is quite quiet during the day as well. we have been watching home and away most days around 3 online, and this morning i was able to watch last night's gossip girl and one tree hill. i love watching tv online :) also the girls and i have fun talking and laughing most of the day. and seriously there are some redic crazy landlords out there and they are so much fun to deal with. and even better are crazy parents. they make me laugh pretty much every day.

-thesis is fabulous! i have a month until it needs to be handed in. and i handed into andy a complete draft of the thesis on monday. it was 106 pages, and 27,800 words total. 21,600 words is my thesis, the other 6,000 are the footnotes (219) and bibliography. so YAY! so hopefully there aren't too many edits to make, and andy likes it. i just want it to be done! but andy did say i was the first person to hand him something this complete. so that made me feel good.

-i moved into my new house on sunday. it is a cute little house midway between the city and the college. i'm living with 3 professionals who all are nice. the house is clean and cute. my room is quite small, but it works. and i have a pretty view of the cathedral. and there is a cute back garden, which i'll probably never get to use.

-last week kara was living with me, as she needed to be out of her house on wednesday and couldn't move into her new one until monday. so that was fun. i would go to work, she would do things and thesis, we would do lunch and h&a together, when i got home from work we'd have tea, then i would do some thesis, we'd do dinner and then at night we'd hangout. so that was fun. friday evening we started watching gossip girl and i got kara hooked! so that was fun. saturday i had a few errands to run in town, then we thesised, and took breaks to watch gg. then we dressed up and went out to dinner and for a drink, which was fun :) and then we watched the last few episodes of gg. sunday was spent thesising, packing and moving some of my stuff to the new house thanks to karen and her car, which made it like a million times easier :) then kara and i just sat around talking while i was editing. it totally remined me of college, she was sprawled on my bed, i was sitting at my desk and we were talking. and it made me miss all those nights in college amy and i sitting there talking, or running down the hall to avoid doing work, lying on someone's bed and talking until 2am... i miss living with friends and just knowing each other... oh well.

-politics. it has been an interesting week. i watched all of the big speeches on youtube at work. loooooved hillary's, bill's made me laugh, the more i hear about biden i like him more and more, and obama's was good too. now sarah palin, the republican vp nominee. seriously? she is redic crazy. i do not like her one bit. she is super right wing, super pro-life, evangelical protestant, gun loving (and i'm not a gun hater) and pretty much on the opposite end of the spectrum from where i am politically. and she is from bloody alaska, no offense, but 12 people live in alaska. she was the mayor of some small town and then governer for only 2 years... what does she know? i know obama might be slightly unexperienced, but at least he was involved in state politics, then at least a senator. so he knows how dc works. gaaaaahhhhhhhh... and then the media has had a field day with the baby and pregnant daugther... seems like she might have some more important things going on in her life then to worry about campaigning for the next few months?
i mean seriously mccain, if you were trying to go after the women who would rather vote for a women, at least go for a little less crazy of one, there has to be a better republican women out there? how about condaleza, or i don't know anyone else? should be an interesting few months...

anyway that is enough of my rambling for now. happy september!

i love finding things online!

so today at work i made an amazing discovery! i was editing chapter two and andy made a note about using the dillingham commission report for a few things, in 1911 the senate issued this report on immigration and he told me i could use his copy. we'll he didn't have it in his office and couldn't find it. so i was hoping i could find it online, so i wouldn't have to go figure out if (and they probably don't) the ucc library has it. so i searched and i found it online! yay! for stanford! and to make it even better it is completely searchable, like i can type in irish domestic servants or second generation irish and it shows me the pages it is on!! so that totally made my day!!
(ok, enough of me being a dork)
so the thesis editing is going well, chapters one and two are edited, i need to do three and four tomorrow, so thursday i can write the conclusion and then friday/over the weekend i can check and do all the footnotes/bibliography - which i think might take forever! so then on monday i can print it out and give andy the 2nd draft of the thesis! and i noticed today i hit the 20,000 word count. i've added about 1500 words to 1/2 and there will be some slight additions to 3/4. so i'm quite happy with that, so really i just need to get like 1000 words for the conclusion and i'll be happy :)

so work has been good, we've been kinda giggly at work. its quiet and the girls and i like to joke around and laugh, so we play pranks on each other, watch home and away, and talk, especially about crazy mum's that we deal with on the phone! so that has been fun, i'm glad work makes me laugh, i can get some thesis work done and the people i work with are class. the workgirls, andrew and i are having a bit of fun on thursday evening, so it should be a laugh!

the pub quiz at the brog last night was fun, we did ok. but the american invasion of cork is on in full force! the early starters all arrived thursday/friday and they all were at the brog last night. but the quizguy kicked out a huge table of them who weren't playing, and the girls and i swooped in and grabbed the table, it was pretty funny. so it was a good laught :) tonight was private practice and grey's with brenda. i reallly like private practice, tonight was the finale of that so now i have to wait! grrr. but it was also the rose of tralee final, which is a pretty big deal in ireland. it is an international irish competition and kinda like miss america, but different. so it was fun to watch that, and it was cool because each girl, there were 31 at the final from all over ireland, england, us, aussie and the world, had a 5 minute on stage interview where she just talked and gave an insight to her personalty, and thats what the judging was based on, so it was neat. there was a jersey rose this year, so look out. it could be me next year, hahha!

time is flying by...

i can't believe it is sunday night already! the days keep going by sooo fast, especially the weekends!
it has been a good week, productive on the thesis, fun with friends and work has been good. i was busy most nights this week, which was fun. wednesday evening was sam's goodbye party and getting to see everyone from the club, thursday was a productive thesis evening, friday kara and i hung out and karen and i met for lunch. saturday i ran all my errands in town. that is the only thing i don't like about working full time now, having to do everything on the weekends. but i finally got a battery charger, so my camera is back! and i also got my favourite pair of black heels fixed! i completely ruin shoes when i walk. i wear down the heels super fast and unevenly. like every pair of heeled shoes i own, and it is so frusterating! worked on the thesis in the afternoon, it was such a yucky day, rainy but the annoying misty rain. luckily it cleared up for the evening though.

kara, lorna, steph and i had a hilarious evening. i went over to their house, where we sat around talking and drinking, playing drinking games, which i haven't played since college (which totally made me miss wac) and general laughing/crazyness. the 'we don't know the hustle' dance, being vikings all night, meeting 'leo' at the brog (we saw a guy who looked like leonardo decaprio, who turned out to be quite dull), and other things i can't remember.

today was one of the most unproductive days i have had in a looong time! i had no motivation to work on the thesis, gaaah editing! so i read a book for fun, watched the cork-kerry football match, cleaned and then once brenda got home, we watched a movie. so a nice sunday :) but i want to have chapter one done with editing, so off to work on that before bed. it should be a good week, pub quiz monday, pp/grey's tuesday, climbing wednesday, work shenanigans on thursday evening and can't forget the thesis! plus i'm moving this weekend.

i really like exclamation points!

thesis meeting with andy today went well :) no major issues with 3 or 4! just a few suggestions for each but overall he said the rough drafts of the four chapters are good. yay! so by the end of the month i will be giving him the 2nd draft of the thesis! i'm on schedule to not be freaking out come mid-september! go me! so that this afternoon put me in a super great mood. and it is tuesday, so private practice and greys, so it was a great day! except the whole work thing, but it wasn't as bad as it could be, seriously. like we are busy, but not omg, super stressful busy, but like busy enough that it isn't boring, but yet i can still gchat with someone. and i like it that kinda busy, because then the day goes by faster.

so CAO results came out monday, so seriously at 9.15 when i walked in. the phones were ringing off the hook, like all 5 lines and i think i just talked on the phone until about 11. when people started coming in. but then it wasn't so bad after that. it is funny how we are busy for 20 minutes, then quiet for about a half hour, then busy again. but it was good yesterday. the only thing i don't like is that i feel like i am saying the same thing over and over. seriously i feel like i go into auto-piolet when i answer the phone. i keep wanting to say good morning, even when i answer the phone at 4pm. oops! but we've been funny in the office lots of laughing, dave and i making fun of each other, the usual.

yesterday after work, relaxed and then kara, steph, brenda and i went to the brog's pub quiz. so funny. pub quizes are usually a laugh, and this one was even funnier for some reason. we did pretty good. got a few round with perfect 10s. my favourite was though the picture one. we did it seriously in like 30 seconds, so steph goes i should see if we get a bonus for handing it in first. so we got all 10 right and so quiz guy gave us candy. he knows us, and thinks we are funny. then kara and steph stayed out but since brenda and i are working girls, we went home. but it was a fabulous way to start out the week :)

nothing too exciting this week, just working, thesising, climbing and lots of gchatting... the usual.

back to the daily grind

so it is friday morning and things are back to normal. i've been back in cork since tuesday afternoon, and have been working since wednesday so i'm getting back to the routine.

my flights over were good. my flight from newark to heathrow was actually fabulous. i was the lucky person who didn't have anyone sitting next to the on an almost full flight. i read a little, attempted to watch some movies and this is the big one! i was able to sleep for like an hour. so we land in heathrow and it is all dreary and wet, i was sad to be leaving the sunshine. so they changed heathrow in the last 3 weeks and now if you have a connecting flight you don't have to go through immigration to the departures to go back through all the security lines. you go a different way through your own lines and it was soo much easier. though because the lack of sleep i was just confused as it has been changed since my last trip through the airport. so then i'm waiting at the gate for my flight to cork, and a woman on her phone next to me was like oh they don't have power at the cork airport. i was like fabulous. so luckily flights were still coming and going, but slightly delayed. so the flight wasn't too delayed, but at this point i was tired and was getting a headache, so the flight from heathrow to cork was not fun. and then once we got to the airport we had to wait 30 minutes on the plane for them to bring us stairs, then once we got off the plane and through immigration we had to go wait outside the main entrance to get our bags. so we waited another 20 minutes to get our bags and it was so crazy. i was so excited to finally get home and sit down and do nothing for the afternoon. kara came over and we caught up, gossiped, i got the home & away update and then i just relaxed and unpacked. watched private practice and grey's with brenda and i was totally falling asleep around 11.

wednesday was my first day back to work, getting up was rough, but i was ok for the majority of the day. work is just starting to get busy, with results coming out next week but this week has been ok. after work on wednesday went climbing. it was good to see everyone and like usual climbing turned out to be doing a few climbs then we all were sitting around talking. so that was fun. thursday at work we were crazy. all 4 of us worked, so there really wasn't enough work for us all. so we had fun laughing. then i decided to do some work on the thesis. so i read a few books i had at home, and after lunch i am going to go to the library to grab a few books andy suggested to me at our last meeing. so today at work it has been super quiet, so i'm not complaining. i must go grocery shopping after work this afternoon, and this weekend will be working on the thesis, so lots of fun ahead! ohhh and the cork-killkenny hurling match on sunday!

i'm home

so after a super long wednesday, seriously it seemed to take forever - i'm home!

my flight from cork to heathrow was slightly delayed and then once we got to heathrow we had to wait for a bit before we could land, so we ended up being almost an hour late. so i went in to check into my second flight and when i look down at my ticket it says 2.45, i looked at my watch 2.35, i was like what? luckily the flights were all delayed, so my gate wasn't being announced until 3.15, so i went down to my gate after getting some food and we were waiting there until about 4.15 when they started to board. so i was supposed to call my mom when we were boarding, so i call her and the stupid voice goes - i'm sorry we cannot make your call. i was like wtf. so i try again, thinking i dialed wrong, nope. then i try my mom's cell and the house. nope. so i'm like freaking out, and i was like well let's call kara. so i call and leave a voice mail and a text asking her to call my mom and let her know i was on the plane and leaving. so way to stress me out, and it didn't help i was getting a headache. so most of the flight i was just trying to read or watch movies, the last hour or so of the flight was a killer on my headache. it was almost as bad as my flight last summer from pheonix to home after vacation last summer when i had a migrane. i love flying into newark and seeing the nyc skyline and statue and everything. that's when it hit me i was home - so weird.

so the lines were taking forever at immigration. it takes less time for me to go through immigration in ireland than it does getting into the us. how silly is that? so then i wait for my luggage, luckily they were some of the first off the plane. it was so great to see my parents and the first thing i said to my brother was, holy shit you grew. he is now officially taller than i am. so we walk outside and i just stopped because of the heat, i forgot what it was like to be hot outside. i love it. it finally felt like summer. so we went to carmine's for dinner for my favourite italian. and then once we got home, i was kinda tired, but it was only slightly after 9 and i wanted to stay up longer. so my brother got a wii, so him, my dad and i were playing for a bit. it's hard, i'm not very good, but i think the hand-eye cordination issues might have something to do with it.

so yesterday, i woke up and watched some tv and then decided to clean my room so i could use it, my parent's use my room as the random storage facility. so that took most of the day, and also it was gorgeous outside. i kept looking out the window and being surprised that i was sunny and not grey and cloudy. after dinner my mom and i went to get my sister's car, for my weekend trip to dc. it was weird to drive after not driving for 10 months.

so i'm off in a bit to head down to dc for cooper's wedding and to see my worcester loves. YAY! it should be a fabulous weekend! it feels so great to be home :)

if a couple from west cork divorces are they still cousins?

so kara and i last night won the best team name at the pub quiz with:

if a couple from west cork divorces are they still cousins?

it was a pretty funny night, we won €33, which was pretty cool. the hilarious part was we were given a pint glass full of change - seriously.

it was a really funny night. so after work, which was good, not too busy, but just doing random things - getting the new flatscreen tv to work and then making a slideshow of society pictures for the office, i also attempted to write my thesis, and i wrote about 300 words at work. so kara and i were meeting for dinner and lorna met up with us. so we went to captain america's for burgers and shakes, and it was good. sooo full. but dinner was hilarious, we just kept laughing and telling stories and such. so kara and i had made plans to do the pub quiz with a few other friends, but they ended up not coming, so we headed to the brog and had fun with it. so we were trying to think of our team name and kara has gone a few times and she was like we need to it be be funny, a joke. so she was like i've got it, but at first we had west virginia, but we changed it because people wouldn't have gotten it. so we did pretty well in the actual quiz, it was funny i knew most of the general knowledge/random/geography and kara knew all the movies/people ones. so we make a pretty good pair. i think we finished with 225 points? and the winning team has 265, and the 5th place had 240. so it was fun and a great night :)

it was a pretty good weekend too, despite the fabulous weather. so saturday night kara and i had lennox's chips and then watched movies and popcorn. it was a fun saturday night in. sunday was great. so the cork-kerry football match was crazy. we went to costigan's and the first half was rough, after the first 15 minutes, it was like ouch. cork wasn't doing too hot, once kerry scored their goal, they just kept scoring points. so at halftime the score was 1-08 to 0-03. so kerry was winning by 8 points. well cork stepped it up in the second half, they scored a goal out of know where, and after that they just kept getting points. it was pretty crazy, there was a point about 55 minutes into it that they were just going back and forth scoring points, and this is when they tied it up, and from there they went on to score 5 more, so cork ended up winning it 1-16 to 1-11. so they are now munster champions. so that was pretty cool, especially since kerry had been munster champions for the last 3 years. kerry is very strong in football. so it should be a good summer with the football and hurling, cork plays dublin this weekend in the qualifier in hurling, because they lost a few weeks ago to tipp. so how it works is each province has their championship, and those teams who don't win that then have qualifiers to get into the all matches leading up to the all-ireland final in september. its different, but makes sense.

so sunday after the pub with kara, i went home and watched the wimbledon final. sooo the tennis is shown on TG4 - the irish channel. so my commentary of all of wimbledon has been in irish. i watched a few of the quarter/semi finals and i like playing tennis, but watching it is slightly boring. so i would read and have it on in the background, but unlike how i do this normally, i couldn't understand the commentary, so that was frustrating. but i wanted to watch the final, so after like 10 minutes, they went into the first rain delay, i was amazed at how fast they covered the court, i thought that was cool. so during the first rain delay they were showing the women's final from saturday, and i fell asleep. so i napped for a bit, it was a yucky, horrible rainy day, and then watched some of the 3rd set after they started playing. then kara called me, so i went over because they were on rain delay again. and i stayed over there a little longer than i thought i was going to, so i didn't actually see the final part of the match. oh well. the little bit i saw was great, so that was cool. it just makes me laugh, how i forget i'm in a foreign country, until i turn on TG4 and its totally in irish, and i'm lost.

so i'm home tomorrow!! sooo exciting! i'm at work now and just have to finish packing and such tonight. i can't believe i'll be home for 3 weeks, it doesn't seem real. and i still don't feel like i'm going home. the only thing i'm not looking forward to is the 14 hours of traveling. i need to be at the cork airport around 10 for my flight to london, and i arrive in newark at about 7pm east coast time (midnight irish time). but i'm flying virgin, which is a super nice airline, i just get really antsy on planes. i remember when i went to greece, i was going crazy on the 4 hour flight, especially since all of my flights this year have been like an hour. oh well. i'm excited for home, so i can deal with a long flight, at least there is the option of flying and it doesn't take the long time it does on a boat. even though i think that would be fun. anyway. i've rambled enough today.

thirty three euros in fifty cent and lower coins...

excited about our hilarious evening :)

rain, rain go away...

ok, so i know moving to a country like ireland it would rain, A LOT.
but seriously.
its a lot more rain then i prefer.
especially in the summer, when it is supposed to be slightly less rainy.
we had less rain in the winter.

so it has been raining a lot, and not just rain. wind and rain.
like huge crazy rainstorms, then a few minutes of sun, then more crazy storms.
it is ridiculous.
it is not as bad as last summer though, something like 85 straight days of rain, began in june and then finally stopped in august. thank god i was not around for that, i would have refused to leave my house.

anyway, enough of a rant about the weather.
i'll be home in a few days to warm weather and sunshine.

so things here are good, nothing really super fun. mostly thesis and work.
i reached 14000 words on thursday, and i'm trying to summon the motivation to write another 1000-1500 today. my meeting with andy went well on thursday. chapter one needs some work, but i had trouble writing some of it, so his advice was helpful. chapter two is grand, just need some minor adjustments. so yay! thursday evening i was going to be all cozy and read a book with a cup of tea, but kara texted me wanting to go grab ice cream. and who am i to refuse ice cream? so we met up with steph and had some fabulous ice cream. and then after getting back home we deided to head back into town to go to the brog. not my favourite pub, but it was still fun.

friday was happy independence day. went to the gym, then work. and then kara and i met for lunch and had bagels and ran some errands in town. and on the walk home it started to pour, and so i decided the afternoon was perfect to curl up with movies and tea. then a friend from wac is in cork for the weekend, so we hung out and caught up on all the wac gossip. then we talked about history and edublock. damn, i miss wac. so the original plan kara, steph and i came up with on thursday was to go to captain america's for dinner, and be all american. well the weather kinda detered us, so dave and i just went over to their's and we ordered in pizza. so that was fun. then dave and i headed into town for a few pints.

so today i've been enjoying my saturday, reading and cooking up a fun lunch for dave and i. and the attempt at the thesis failed. so we'll see how that goes. kara is coming over in a bit and kara and i will be watching movies and chatting. so a nice saturday night in. tomorrow we are going to the pub to watch the cork /kerry munster football final. and it should be goood, they are huge rivals. they played each other in the all ireland final last september and cork lost. kerry are amazing at football, and cork is pretty good. but hurling is cork's sport. so that should be good craic. and of course the thesis.

happy saturday!

so fab to go hiking again...and its the end of june?!?

um so tomorrow is july?
seriously?

june flew by, like. i guess it still doesn't feel like summer for me. its not warm out, i'm not going somewhere to work at camp and i'm still doing college work. i guess once i'm home thought it will finally feel like summer.

so things are great here, i had a fabulous weekend! thursday it was such a yucky dreary day and i did some thesis work in the morning and i met with karen for lunch. and since i had the afternoon off we went back to my house to have tea and chat, and well we completely lost track of time and next thing you knew it was 5.30. it was soo good to properly catch up with her, especially since she is leaving for the alps and i'm going home. so that was fun. then kara came over and we made curry for dinner. it was fabulous. so needless to say thursday wasn't as productive as it could have been on the thesis, oh well.

friday i worked in the morning and then met up with kara and we had an adventure over to blarney. i wanted to go to the blarney woolen mills to get wedding presents. i wanted to get big something and and also i needed to get coop something, so i figured waterford would be nice. so i got big a vase and cooper a set of wine glasses, both are in special ireland only patterns. so then since it was sunny and nice kara and i got some food for a picnic and decided to be slightly knackerish and drink cider with our picnic, but stupid me had to get a bottle. and of course we didn't have a bottle opener, so we attempted to open it to no avail. but it was funny anyways. so then friday night catriona was celebrating her 21st. so that was great craic with everyone from the club, and a great chance to see everyone before we all go on our holidays. a bunch of people from the club are headed to the alps and i'm headed home.

saturday i worked on the thesis, i wrote another 1500 words. so i'm now up to 12,500. yay! chapter 3 has 3000 words, and i need about another 1000 for the chapter but of first i need to get more sources. gah england. so i'm meeting with andy to discuss it wednesday anyway, so we'll see if he has any ideas. so another 4000 words to write before i go home.
then saturday evening i went over to kara's for a wine & cheese. it was fun and great to just sit around drinking wine, taking and eating great food.

sunday was fabulous. i met up with some friends and we went hiking! i haven't been hiking since donegal the last week of march, so seriously forever. so karen, catriona, k2, brian, jack, tim, tom, denis, maurice and i set off for kerry, not sure on what we wanted to do, so we decided once in killarney to do the eastern reeks and it was fabulous. we did the second half of the reeks ridge hike, so up to the grotto, over the ridges and then down the bones. it was actually reallly funny, once we got to the bones a few of the lads were like lets go down the zig-zags, which were a 2 peaks over, so when we decided to split up, the girls all ended up choosing the original plan, and the guys all did the extended hike. we had to laugh at that. but it was great fun. and a mostly gorgeous day, the clouds came down a little at the end and it rained for like 5 minutes, but it was really awesome to see cahir, carrauntoohil and beenkeragh, because i haven't seen the tops from this side, they are always in the clouds. and when we did the reeks ridge in march, we did this section, but today we did it from the opposite side and last time it was sooo cloudy but this time it wasn't and the ridge wasn't as scary because you could actually see the drop, and not just the mist. and it looked really cool. so that was fun. but i think the highlight of the day was jack bringing a bottle of wine, where we toasted to catriona's birthday. it was pretty funny. we are some classy mountaineers.

so today just worked and i'm relaxing and might start thinking about what i'm bringing home, so i can try to get some of that organized. i'm trying to bring a ton of stuff home now, just so it is easier later.

carrauntoohil and beenkeragh

me

the ridge

cheers

the group