where in the world... swansea, wales

It's Wednesday and that means it's time the lovely Jess over at Classy in Philadelphia's , Where In The World Wednesday!

If you participate, please take the button the fabulous Feris made to use in your post!

The idea of WITWW is to post a picture of you in someplace in the world...it doesn't have to be somewhere foreign or tropical. Just a picture of you somewhere that you consider traveling.

Looking through all my pictures, I realized I hadn't used anything from Wales yet. In February 2008 I went to visit my sister who was studying abroad in Wales.So here are a few of the photos from that fun weekend away.

we went out to mumbles, a gorgeous little beach and lighthouse close to where she lived in swansea

more mumbles

some boats at the marina in swansea

sadly the weather wasn't the best, but i would love to go back to wales, it was a really awesome country!

so participate with where in the world wednesday and go over to Jess's blog - Classy in Philadelphia and share your link :)

where in the world.... london

It's Wednesday and that means it's time the lovely Jess over at Classy in Philadelphia's , Where In The World Wednesday!

If you participate, please take the button the fabulous Feris made to use in your post!

The idea of WITWW is to post a picture of you in someplace in the world...it doesn't have to be somewhere foreign or tropical. Just a picture of you somewhere that you consider traveling.

and this week is LONDON.... specifically my favorite phone booth in london. i chose this because a year ago my parents hopped the pond to come see my graduate with my MA in history and we went to london and then all over ireland.

with my mom last december

when my parents were in europe

for my MA graduation

november 2007 when i spent thanksgiving

in london with a friend

first time in london december 2005

where i found my favorite phone booth

one of my favorite shots of london, december 2008

it was like we were giving out fake names...

Back from a fun weekend in London!

I absolutely LOVE London! It is my second favourite city in the world - after NYC.

I went this weekend for a little sorority reunion. I am a part of the UK/Europe alumni group for my sorority and when I have the chance, I pop over for an event. They meet about once a month for dinner in London and then another 3-4 times a year either a Saturday or weekend somewhere. Last April I went over for the first time for the weekend in Cambridge, which was soooo much fun! I loved getting to meet other sisters who were living in Europe, some there for a short time like me and others much more permanent. It is a very fluctuating group, as many people are only over for 1-2 years, so a lot of the people I met last year are no longer over. I hadn’t been able to make it over to anything recently, I was home in July for Race for Life and couldn’t go to Spain in October, but when I was in London in December I was able to meet up with 5 ladies for dinner, which was great! So I was really looking forward to this weekend, plus a sister from my undergrad who I am friends with is now doing a MA in London, and 2 other sisters from WAC who are also living in Europe were in London for the weekend as well!

Friday I headed to the airport for my flight and go into the London centre around 3 and easily found Jackie's place. We caught up - which was great because I hadn't seen her in 3 years!! And then we headed off to the Victoria and Albert Museum, but we got distracted walking by Kensington Gardens, and ended up frolicking through them and seeing Peter Pan!

Peter Pan staute in Kensington!

Then we headed to the V&A and enjoyed the museum, we didn't have much time but what we saw was fun! And it was just great to catch up with Jackie. The we met up with two other sisters who were spending the weekend in London - Ebeth and Leah and had a great dinner and catching up on life in four different European countries, funny memories from WAC and life. After dinner we headed out to a few bars, and it was fun. The cosmo I had with dinner was fab! I forgot how much I LOVE girly drinks, I only ever drink pints or cider here. And it was funny when a guy and his friend were talking to us and was like where are you from? And 4 American girls each respond with London, Ireland, France and Spain, it totally looked like we were making it up! The guy totallly didn't believe us. And honestly if I was told this I wouldn't believe it either! So it was a fun night!

leah-spain, jackie-london, me and ebeth -france

Saturday Jackie and I headed into Windsor for the London sorority event. It was at one of the member's houses and there were 10 of us there and we got there about 1.30 and left at 8.30 and from the moment I walked in the door my wine glass was never empty! I must have had about 7 glasses of red wine, and it was great wine, mostly Spanish. It was great though getting to see a few women I've met a few times and getting to meet a few new ones. So lots of fun talk, about life, random events, we had on the 6 Nations rugby for a few of the husbands that came with, and I was totally keeping my eye on that! I was sooo mad Wales beat Italy, it really looked like Italy was going to pull off a major upset. But Ireland beat Scotland, in a good game, they played ehhh, the first half but pulled it off in the second. This weekends match against Wales determines the 6 Nations Champ! If Ireland wins, they are champs and they beat all 5 teams. If they loose, they still could win 6 Nations, but it depends on points and such. I'm going to miss rugby. So back to sorority, I had a great time and wish I was closer so I would have been able to see these women more, so I can't wait to join an alumni chapter wherever I end up!

Jackie and I took the train back with another sister, a much later train than we planned, but Jill kept opening more bottles of wine! And quickly changed and made our way out. I was honestly more looking forward to bed, than going out. Wine when drank quickly gets me drunk, 7 glasses over an afternoon makes me tired and slightly drunk. So we met up with one of Jackie's friends, and didn't stay out long. We were both tired and the guys with her friend were slightly sketchy.

Sunday Jackie and I had made plans to meet up with the other 2 girls for brunch along Portabello Road/Market (made famous by Notting Hill) but they changed plans and didn't really let us know... so time was wasted waiting for them. But we did have fun wandering about the Market, I bough a few things. I'm a sucker for markets and stalls. And we did have an amazing brunch ourselves! But with the waiting and such, we ran out of time so I didn't get over to the British Museum, instead I had to head back to Jackie's to get my bag and head to Heathrow.

So overall it was a fabulous weekend in London. Funnily enough I didn't go over to Big Ben at all, something I've done every other time I've been in London. I just love the area around Parliament and seeing it, always reminds me of my first view of it. It was great to see the London girls again and the next time I'm in London I'll definitely be letting them know and meeting up for dinner with whoever! And seeing Jackie was great, I've really missed seeing people I know, and it was a fun little reunion in London with the girls :)

So it has honestly taken me forever to write this, I don't know why?

Can't believe this is my last week. eeeeeeeek!!

i love internet circa 1998

so work has been omg busy the last two days. i usually get a chance to read my reader after i do all the morning things.. in between people coming in and phone calls which is most of the day after about 10.30. unless i've been giving something else to work on or can find something that needs to be done. but the last two days with awards yesterday and ticket sales today, i've been busy so my reader was neglected at work. so i figure when i have some time when i'm home after work... until my internet starts acting up. i can not wait to be in a country where internet is decent, here my internet at home is seriously like 1998 dial up. it goes down whenever it wants, looses the signal and could be down for 25 seconds or 36 minutes, usually the 36 minutes when i'm having a conversation with someone. so the last two days the internet just hasn't been reliable. grrrrrrrrrrr.

so london is tomorrow!!! YAY! i am so excited to see jackie o! and ebeth and leah! they are all a year younger than me in my sorority and all also currently living in europe and we (except jackie) all chose to come to london this weekend. i chose it because there is a sorority alumni event in windsor which i am looking forward to seeing all the amazing women i've meet before and meeting the one's i haven't. and as an added bonus seeing girls i loved from undergrad :) and LONDON! my second favourite city in the world!

i just got home from an amazing dinner with brenda, i had a voucher from work as a congratulations on my thesis, i'd been saving. and so we went and it was fantastic! and little did we realize 3 hours later we were still sitting there talking! and today at lunch i saw kara, steph and eibhlin for the last time. it was sad, but i know i'll at least see kara again and hopefully the other girls.

it is just crazy how fast time is flying!

and just to show you how craptastic my internet is it went out twice while writing this, once for 3 minutes and the second time for about 12. grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

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!

she's the girl from belfast city

Belfast was AMAZING! I loved, loved, loved it. A very interesting city in so many ways, historically, politically and the atmosphere. Like if you were to go in 7 years, the city would be so changed, and it has changed so much in the last 10 years. Like only in the last 7-10 years have they started building in the city centre. A brand new gorgeous shopping centre opened in the city earlier this year, there are starting to build apartments in the centre, hotels, and other people friendly activities. For a long time most of the 70s to early 90s the city centre was patrolled by armed guards and to get into the city centre you had to pass through metal dectors and the city was dead after 6pm. So with peace in the last 10 years, Belfast is becoming a place people want to live again, so a ton of development and trying to bring people and such to the city. 

Before I ramble on about the trip, the most interesting things for me was walking along Shankill (Protestant/Unionist) and Falls (Catholic/Republican) Roads. The wall murals were intense, especially a few along Shankill with the guns and just so powerful, in a bad way. I can't imagine seeing that growing up, most of them weren't too bad, just proclaiming their ties to Britain. I was mad that I was running out of time when I was on Falls road, so I didn't really get up far enough up the road to get pictures of some of the more famous ones - the Bobby Sands/hunger strike ones and a few others, but I got to see them when I was on the bus tour, but it was pouring, so I wasn't on the top of the bus and unable to get any pictures. The most intriguing bit was the peace walls, in the areas that have Catholics, they have walls erected to seperate the neighbourhoods, and it is weird becuase the city is checkerboarded, with pockets of Catholics, surrounded by Protestant neighbourhoods. So during the height of the Troubles, you knew not to walk past a certain block or risk violence, and in some of the strongest areas, the stones along the sidewalks were painted red/white/blue or green/white/orange. Along Sandy Row they are still painted red/white/blue. I didn't see as much from the Catholic areas, though I wasn't in them as much, but it seems like their murals weren't as intense, but then the murals do change. The pIRA (provisional IRA, which seperated from the IRA in the 1970s as the IRA wanted to be non-violent so a group splintered to form the pIRA, and now when you mention the IRA, it is really the pIRA) was extremely active as the pIRA set off all the bombs all over Belfast, Northern Ireland and the UK. I wish I had time to go to Derry, to see everything up there. Anyway, so enough of the history lesson. But it was really awesome walking around, and just thinking about how violent we can be. I hope as a teacher I can incorperate the Troubles into a lesson because it is just another example of how religion/political intolerance can lead to violence. It was intersting to pass a few integrated schools, and there is talk of taking down the peace walls. The whole issue while based on religion in reality has to do mostly with how the communities see themselves, as wanting to be part of Ireland or part of the UK. And while most just say Protestant/Catholic in realitly it isn't just religion. The whole history of partioning and 20th century Ireland is fascinating. Or at least I think so as I took a class on 20th century Ireland and then one on Northern Ireland when I studied abroad, so getting to see it first hand was great. I love history and travel for those reasons, getting to see these places I've studied, I love it. 

Ok, so back to my weekend. So left work at 1 on Friday, and legged it into town to get on the 2pm bus to Dublin.So the bus ride wasn't too bad... Driving through Dublin made me laugh, as I haven't been to Dublin in 3 years and seeing all the sights made me laugh and think of the crazy times I had with Emily, Becky, and Laura. So after finding somewhere close to the bus station for dinner, I hopped back on the bus for another 2.5 hours to Belfast. Got into Belfast around 10, found my hostel. Which google maps I was quite disappointed with, your walking directions totally sucked. There was a MUCH easier way, which I found on accident later on, when I walking around on Sunday and was like hey, thats the hostel where I stayed Friday night. Anyway...  so I got in and just crashed, I was tired after being on a bus for 7.5 hours and had to be up at the train station early. So Saturday I took a train from Belfast to Coleraine, about hour and fifteen minutes away up to the coast. Then I took a bus from there to the Giants Causeway. Now the forecast was quite shitty, gale force winds and rain. So I was lucky when I was at the Causeway there was just winds. So I spent about 2 hours walking around and enjoying the scenery, trying not to get blown away and taking pictures. I would have spent more time, but the path along the coast was closed due to winds. The rocks are soo cool though :) They are mainly hexagonal Basalt rocks from a volcano erruption, which how they cooled left them like this. There is a legend of Fionn mac Cumhaill built the causeway so he would have a way to get to Scotland, where he was to fight a Scottish giant, as there is similar geographical features on an island off the coast of Scotland. But they were just really cool to see, too bad the winds were crazy and it was a really high tide, or it would have looked cooler. Oh well. So I then took a taxi over to Portrush- the buses had the weirdest timetables now that it isn't tourist season, they came at 11 and 6.15... so I couldn't rely on public transport. So walked around Portrush in Co. Antrim and explored the little seaside town, one of the reasons I wanted to go was my education professor grew up here and I've heard it is gorgeous (which it was). It was cute, it forms a little peninsula so it has big beaches on both sides of the town and a lot of maritime history. It was quite dead as it was the end of October and horrible weather. Then I took a bus to Portstewart another cute coastal town in Co. Derry about a 10 minute bus ride from Portrush. I spent the night here, but the weather was miserable, so I walked around the shops, had dinner and took a few pictures, but it was lashing rain and super windy!!

I was up early Sunday morning to get to bus back to Coleraine to get the train back to Belfast. Got to Belfast, checked into a different hostel (as I only planned to come up on Tuesday, I had a hard time finding places to stay, but I figured out I'd just have to stay in different places). And then I started my adventure. I decided to do the bus tour, which I've never done, as things are pretty spread out in Belfast and they only have a bus system and public busses can be quite confusing if you don't know the area, I much prefer metros/subways, and a bus tour would be much easier. So I did the tour and it was rainy, so the bus wasn't open top. It was one of those 24 hour hop on/off ones, so I did the whole tour and then figured I would hop on/off the second time. It was still great to hear and see everything, especially since I had 3 different guides, so their commentary was slightly different. Saw the dry dock where they built the Titanic, and all the H&W shipyards, crazy that at the turn of the century they employed 35,000 men... and now less than 100. Belfast was such a working class city for most of its life with the linen industry, rope and shipbuilding, and then with modernization how fast it all disappears. So then after the tour, I decided to walk around the city centre, the city hall, the cathedral quarter, and victoria square where i got lured into h&m and bought a skirt and jersey material dress. It was only 35 pounds, and with the awesome exchange rate was only $55!! the dollar is at 1.52 to the pound, compared to the summer when it was about 2.10... and the dollar to the euro is like 1.25... over the summer it was 1.60... It is crazy how much it has dropped in the last month! So then I went to dinner and then Crown bar for a pint, this super cool pub. Light by gaslamps and totally victorian... the pictures I took in there didn't come out.. oh well. 

Monday I was up early for a walk around Queens University Belfast, omg, gorgeous campus. I could see myself at QUB. Then I hopped back on the bus to go out to Stormont- the NI assembly. Pretty awesome building, unlike most parliaments/whatevers... this one is outside of the city centre, so gorgeous gardens and everything. Hopped back on the bus and got off at Shankill Road, walked around there across to Falls Road and then back into the city to catch my bus back to Dublin. So Monday was a lot of walking around, taking pictures and just trying to get as much in as possible! Had a bit of a break in Dublin, then back on the bus to Cork. Got home around 10.30 and was exhausted!!

Overall it was an absolutely fabulous weekend, I love Belfast and the North!

Just trying not to freeze, as it got quite chilly in Cork over the weekend, and organise everything. Took out the winter clothes today and cleaned out the closet. Anyway, back to the usual.

HAPPY 21st BIRTHDAY KELLY!! 

pictures from the weekend will be posted later, as internet isn't cooperating.

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 :)

london calling

i had an absolutely amazing weekend. i went to london for my zeta's abroad - europe/uk ZTA weekend and it was so much fun. i really was looking forward to it and to meeting other ZTA's abroad.

so my flight was at 8.10 from cork, so i wanted to be at the airport around 6.30-6.45ish... so i am always good at waking up when my alarm goes off, and setting it properly - i never once missed a 6am practice for crew - never recieved the dreaded phone call, i was the one to make the phone call. so i set my alarm for 4.45 so i could catch the 6.15 bus to the airport. soo imagine my surprise when i wake up at 6.45 - i saw the time on my clock and was like thats not right, look at my computer - shiiiit. so i'm trying to put in my contacts as i'm looking up taxi numbers online. i call a taxi while i'm getting dressed - luckily i was all packed, i just needed to throw my makeup bag into my bag and i'm making sure i have my passport, camera and wallet. so the taxi arrives like 10 mintues later and we head to the airport. thank god for living 15 minutes from the airport, so i arrive at 7.10, making my flight no problem. so i did my makeup and hair in the bathroom and i think my heart started beating normally once i got on the plane.

it was a quick and easy flight to stansted, where i hopped on the train to london, and made my way on the underground to parliament, where it was a gorgeous sunnnnny day! yay! so i had about an hour before i was supposed to meet yorkie for lunch, so i sat across the thames from parliament and read. it was great and so nice to be in london when it was warm. so that was fun, met up with yorkie for lunch - where we caught up on everything and it was fabulous to see her. so it was too late to meet up with with a few ZTA's who invited me to a later lunch, so i decided to go drop my bag off at melissa's house (a sister who i was spending the weekend with), so i found her flat easily, a gorgeous area and met her husband. dropped my bag off and headed back to parliament, because i was getting a tour!

one of the london zeta's works for a mp - so i find the right entrance, and tell the security person, who i'm meeting and it's not on the list, i was like well this is the mp and this is the person who i'm meeting they let me in.. so i get in and i'm standing around and trying to see where i go next, and i hear an american accent on the phone - so after she hangs up, i tap her on the shoulder and ask are you a ZTA? luckily she was, and she was calling stacey - the one who works in parliament. so after we found everyone we went on a tour. soooooooooo amazing, the history of the building, and the ceremonial atmosphere and it was just reallly cool. it was also great, because she works there so she kept telling us fun stories, and just her thoughts about working there, so it was a lot different than a regular tour. then after the 7 of us on the tour went to dinner and met up with everyone else who was coming from work.

dinner was great, there were 12 of us there and it was great to hear 12 completely different stories of how we all ended up in england/brussels/austria/ireland. we were all different ages, from all over the country (but half were from texas!) and had been living abroad from a year to 15 years. so dinner was great, lots of fun conversation and everything. i was the only new person, so it was kinda weird at times, but they were all so welcoming and friendly. so after dinner melissa and i headed back to her place where we hung out for a bit before bed.

saturday morning we were off bright and early to meet everyone at king's cross to catch the train up to cambridge. it was a fun ride up with 10 of us talking, sharing stories and laughing. we met up with a few more people in cambridge and had a fun lunch, then set off for our walking tour of the town. i love cambridge, it was amazing and a really fun place. i can totally see myself living there. there were bike everywhere, which was cool and our guide was awesome and told us lots of fun things, we had fun enjoying the sunshine! and talking. after the tour we split, some were headed back to london, while i stayed with a few others to walk around more and to head to evensong at king's college, which was amazing, a semi-mass service sung by an amazing boys choir, and the little ones were sooo cute. but it was just ear candy and the cathedral in king's college, wow - i didn't know where to look, it was just so amazing. so cambridge uni is amazing, i loved trinity college and also st. john's. i would love to go there, just the history and the small college feel of the huge uni and the town of cambridge. ahhh loved it. after evensong we had a fun dinner and then train ride back to london.

sunday after a fabulous breakfast at melissa's i met up with kristen from austria to head to the national gallery, which was amazing! lots of picassos, van goh and matisse. it was fun to walk around and talk with kristen, we are toally different - she has been married for 15 years to an austrian, with 3 boys but had a fabulous day. she went to uni in texas, so she was dying for texas food, so we went to the texas embassy, which had amazing fajitas and strawberry margaritas. yummmmmy! then we did some shopping - i can't resist the gap when i am in the uk - ireland why is gap only in dublin? seriously. i miss it. so then we caught the train to the airport and caught our flights home.

so it was a fabulous weekend and it was awesome to meet other women like me living abroad and to be able to share in our sisterhood. this weekend really helped me to see that zeta is forever, and isn't just college.

so now i'm onto thesis, bah. work yesterday was crazy, because i was all by myself and today was just busy so i didn't get anything done. oh well. i read a few things today, and need to read more tonight. i went climbing yesterday for the first time in about a month and a half, it was fun and great to catch up with everyone. so off to finish reading :)

some of us at parliament

i'm catching the hogwarts express!

lots of bikes in cambridge

punting on the river in cambridge

trafalgar square on a busy sunday morning

swansea

had a good long weekend in wales visiting kel.

it was great to see her, as i last saw her in august, when we dropped her off at college and were finishing the road trip.

wednesday was a busy day, i had class in the morning, then kara and i did a cup of tea, before i caught the bus to the airport. i really hate relying on the bus to the airport, because it only comes once an hour, so i felt i was there forever before the flight. so the airplane was a super small, like 20 passenger plane with 2 propellers, kinda freaky, but not a bad flight at all. then i caught a bus to the train station, and then a train from cardiff to swansea, where i met kel at the bus station. lots of public transport!

wednesday we just hung out and went out to dinner, thursday after her class we met up with her friend melaney and walked along the beach into the city centre and then went and saw the bucket list, which was really cute. i liked it :) then we went to tesco to grab stuff for dinner and i made my fettichini alfredo with chicken. friday we went into mumbles, this really cute little village and walked along the beach and then out at low tide across the rocks to this little lighthouse on the island, then played on the pier. it was fun and cute :)
saturday we didn't do much, just hung out and watched movies and she showed me around campus, and we met up with her friends to go out. it was fun, we ended up going to the club on campus, which was fun, the music in the begining was making me laugh, think of a middle school dance.. seriously, but as the night went on it became more of the stuff i am used to over here. i also had a lot to drink, they were drinking these things that reminded me of smirnoff ices, and i haven't had those in a long time, so i was having a good time. and so we were dancing, and i see out of the corner of my eye, this cute guy who i happened to sit across from on the train on wednesday going to swansea from cardiff, who i thought was cute... so we danced and in usual erin fashion at clubs, we ended up making out. so i had a fun time at the club.. kel and i left around 2 and finished watching a movie.

sunday just hung out again and i called all my wac loves who were at ellen's for a post birthday ball breakfast. i missed wac, especially after that phone call. and after that i caught my train and planes home and then talked with my mom for a bit.
now i'm at work, almost done!
and figuring out my plans for the rest of the week.
it is a horrible rainy day :(
i want to meet up with kara for a bit since i haven't seen her since wednesday and possibly climbing if the weather is nicer.
and read for class and organise my life.

happy monday!

ohhhhh, and YAY for once, for winning best song last night with falling slowly at the oscars! it is one of my favourite songs :)


boats in the swansea harbour

panoramic of the lighthouse in mumbles

fishy face

kelly and melaney making fun of me

airplane.

edinburgh and letterfrack

back to reality.

its a friday afternoon at 4.20 pm and i'm at work. luckily the rain has stopped, it was pouring and hailing this morning and the sidewalks were slippy this morning walking to work. i've worked all day yesterday and today, and it hasn't been too bad, its been kinda busy, i've printed out so many copies of the available apartments and houses, because new international students have arrived. yesterday suzanne from the international office came by with 10 international students who all needed housing - i was like ahhhhhh! especially because there were 2 different couples who were looking to live together, somehow we found them both something together, and we've had one guy in like 7 times the last two days, not wanting to do anything on his own, he wanted us to call up all the places he was interested in and then call him back. ummm. NO. but otherwise its been good.

the last two weeks were fabulous :)

spending a week in edinburgh over christmas with laura was fabulous!
it was so great to see her, it has been way too long.
seriously it was exactly 2 years since i last saw her and it felt as if it was like a month ago.
we caught up on our lives, the crazyness of it all and everything.
and we explored edinburgh, which is just fabulous!
we did museums, castles, walked around, i met a lot of her friends, did a ghost tour, had a great christmas eve and christmas dinner and then we went to st. andrews!
we walked around the campus, the cathedral, the old course and the town and took a ton of pictures.
i was really sad to leave edinburgh, but hopefully laura will come visit me in cork soon, or we can plan an adventure away somewhere.

i got back home about 11 pm friday night, with a killer headache and lots of laundry, and was meeting friends at 11am the next morning to head up to letterfrack in co. galway to celebrate the new year with the mountaineering club. so i did laundry and attempted to pack, aka threw some hiking gear and real clothes in my pack and hoped for the best.

letterfrack was amazing!! left on the 29th with amanda, jack and karen on the bus, and spent a lovely day riding up there. met up with everyone, then the 4 of us who rode the bus decided to go for a quick night hike. the stars were just gorgeous! we did diamond hill, the only handicapped accessible mountain in ireland. we broke all the rules for diamond hill and pretended it was everest. it was great craic, took lots of funny photos. then after our hike, we just relaxed and talked with everyone in the hostel.

sunday morning we all woke up early to go hiking, a group of 11 of us did the sheefries mountains and it was so much fun!! after putting rocks in colin's pack and then finally figuring out how to get to the mountain we hiked, the first hour was hell, straight up hill, pretty much 780m in one go, and after that walking along the ridge was grand, some great views, the clouds are so awesome in connemara. after hacking our way through the forest we got back to our cars. we made dinner and then hung out more, talking, drinking and we decided to head to the pubs, had some great conversation and went to all 3 pubs in letterfrack. whoohoo!

monday morning i went with a smaller group of 6 to do croagh patrick, its ireland's holy mountain. it was fun, but actually a lot harder then i expected after hearing stories of nuns climbing it. it was mostly uphill, and complete scree, especially the final ascent. but it was fun and some gorgeous views! the highlight had to be the girl in the miniskirt and boots, and here we are in our climbing gear all tough. haha.
but it was a great hike, lots of laughs.
then after that and dinner the new years eve fun began, we all started to drink and just hang out, i had some poitin (the illegial irish whiskey) and man was it strong. and then after finishing that headed down to the pub with everyone, which was fab! there was a guy playing guitar singing, so we were all singing along, dancing and just having fun, we were pretty much the only people there, there were about 20 of us, and about 10 locals. after the pub, hung out back at the hostel.

tuesday, most of us were lazy and just relaxed around the hostel, reading, having fun and talking. we played a few games and had fun at night, including who am i and the charades. it was pretty funny, and great craic, a perfect way to spend the end and begining of the year. wednesday took the bus home, and then because we are crazy and didn't just spend enough time with each other, i met a bunch of people at the pub, because its wednesday night, and what else do you do?

so now i'm just talking with my dad and sister, and off to climb and then the pub.

geography

so i'm slightly obsessed with the traveler iq game on facebook. its the map game, where you have to find places, and you get points for how close you are and how fast. i'm dominating it right now, i've gotten to level 11 on the world, and in the US i've gotten to the final level, but i haven't been able to beat it, they give you the randomest places possibly ever. i've also gotten to level 7 of 8 in the world capitals, it is the stupid caribbean that messes me up. grrrr. so it is slightly addictive and i suggest you all play, :)

i love geography and maps, so this is the perfect thing for me, i'm learning lots, especially about africa and the pacific.
i love the fact i can play at work too :)

so i have been completely lazy this weekend, and i don't like it.
it was so weird this morning waking up and not hiking, grrr.
i've watched some sex and the city and wrote christmas cards, as well as emailed my friends and family.
i've read some for fun and spent most of the day curled up in bed, very comfy.

so i got a christmas package friday from my aunt and it was so surprising :)
she sent me a gorgeous cashmere sweater, a cute little christmas tree sculpture, a yankee candle. i was very excited.

saturday, i decided it would be fun to head into the city centre, despite the crazy christmas shoppers. it was fun to walk around with everything all christmasy. i also went and saw enchanted. it finally came out over here. i love happy little movies like that, and it was pretty good in the princess theme, because she was the one who ended up saving herself in the end, kinda. and patrick dempsey, is always a plus. and it was pretty funny. it made me miss nyc, though, i loved all the scenes in central park, they had a lot of it in my favourite places in the park.
also its kinda crazy this wil be the first time in probably about 10 years, that i haven't gone into the city for christmas.
but i'll be in edinburgh :) so yay!

its crazy i leave on thursday :) i am soo looking forward to it and seeing laura!! eeee!

off to watch friends and seriously finish these christmas cards!!

turkey for you, turkey for me

thanksgiving in england with megan was so much fun :)

i played at windsor castle on thanksgiving while megan worked. i loooooved windsor castle. completely amazing! so awesome its been the royal residence for the last 900 years! the rooms they had on show were gorgeous and my favourite was the crest room, its used today as a banquet room and has about 900 crests of different dukes and kings along the ceiling and walls. after playing in windsor castle i walked into eton and got all giddy when i passed eton's boathouse and the college, but sadly they don't do tours in the winter. so then meg was done with school so we went into london to see avenue q on the west end. it was hilarious, its a completely inappropriate sesame street meets family guy on speed. i totally recommend you see it. it got rave reviews on both broadway and in london. we also crashed at brad's place in london for the evening. it was great to see him after not seeing him in 2 years.

friday we played in london, including going to my favourite telephone booth in london.

seriously, how much better of a place can this phone booth be?
and we just walked around, played in st. james park and also went shopping in h&m. i forgot how much i loved london, last time i was there i was in an emotional state, where i enjoyed it, but i was so upset about leaving ireland that i couldn't really take in london. but i love it.

friday night was our thanksgiving dinner, which was yummy. after the dinner we played karaoke revolution, which is absolutely hilarious.
meg and i were partners and we did an amazing rendition of i will always love you, and then i beat brad to oops i did it again, i could probably even take on britney spears and beat her :) and then i met meg by 1 point to unchained melodies. it was so much fun and we all we laughing so much.

saturday after i got home i was so disgusted with the house, especially the kitchen. it seriously looked as if no one had done the dishes since wednesday, they all went home on friday and there was seriously 2 clean forks and 2 plates. the rest of the pots and dishes were all in the sink or around the kitchen, including the pots with stuff still left in them. so i went on a major cleaning rampage.
i scrubbed the kitchen, cleaned the sitting/dining rooms, bathrooms and vacuumed the entire house. it was so nice to have a clean house, if only for a few hours until people came back on sunday to mess it up. i just don't understand how hard it is to wash your bowl after you eat or if you spill something to wipe it up? grrrrr.

sunday was an amazing hike with the uccmc. we did a few peaks on the reeks. my group did beenkeragh, then carrauntoohil,. the highest mountain in ireland at 1038m, and then caher. it was great going across the beenkeragh ridge and some of the climbing over rocks was grand. we hiked in a cloud for most of the hike so it was misty and slightly rainy, and we got soaked, but it wasn't too cold. about hlafway down caher it got dark, so we donned the headtorches and hiked the last 40 minutes through the wet, wet bog in the rain, seriously i was so wet, i half slid down caher because i couldn't see where i was going. then we walked down the hydro road and to the bus. we got back to the bus about 7pm, the other group had got back a little after 5, oops. they were supposed to do the opposite, but they did caher, carrauntoohil and then back down caher, because they realized it was getting too late to go onto beenkeragh. it was fabulous to change into dry clothes :) it was a great hike and i had a blast.

i can't believe saturday is december. i have sooo much to do, i really need to get started on my essay so i'll be spending a lot of time in the library this week. time is flying by.