Smilin Ireland

There has been a lot to make me smile here in Ireland since my last post. I'm getting to know more people, the weather has been great, I finally got out of Dublin to see some country side and have been spending some time at the Goffs Thoroughbred sales! Yep, that would make me smile!


KILLARNEY!!!! I went with my friends Erika, Marial and Alyssa to Killarney for the weekend which included a tour of the Ring of Kells on Saturday, so a lot of country side was seen by all! It was truly beautiful and everything and more I would have thought of Ireland to look like. You truly have not seen green until you visit the Emerald Isle! Everything worked out perfectly! We never had to wait long on a bus, we found our hostel and all our destinations very easily, got some crazy good discounts and had a BLAST!!!!!





You may not believe me, but I felt as if I was partially on business for the Wesley Foundation at Purdue on Sunday. We rented bikes and biked a few miles to Killarney National Park where we saw the Muckross House and Abby, Turoc Waterfall and a lake. While admiring the beautiful country side, I was very intently evaluating the location for the next Bikers For Jesus location. Although I've never been on the trip myself, I think if they were to do it in Ireland, I would make some time in my busy schedule to go!




I saw a lot of my favorite four-legged creatures this weekend and week as well. Several of our stops on our bus tour included some horses in the scenery! The Irish Draft to the hardy Bog Pony- I saw the whole range :) Plus Killarney National Park was crawling with horse and carriages! We stuck to our two-wheeled transportation though.

Hmm... a few highlights from the weekend: Erika holding a sheep, meeting Seamus O'Connell (the Bog Pony), walking in quaint Killarney, finding the Killarney Methodist church, getting half of my souvenir shopping done and slamming on the bathroom door to open it until we realized you just had to push the handle down all the way! :)

I've also been to my first horse sales! And apparently I picked a good one for my initation! Goffs Thoroughbred Sales! The sale that just finished up this evening is the premier one and the top horses in this year's sale brought in up to 1/2 million euro! These were all yearlings being sold- so unproven on the track and the breeding shed. Pedigrees were the name of the game these past few days. Hours have been spent pouring through the catalogs and evaluating the black type by many before shelling out the dough on these horses. Crazy is all I have to say! I picked out a pretty grey, well balanced and a good moving filly in the parade ring, and sure enough looked her up and she had a sire that was pretty popular this afternoon and a proven dam- she brought in 140,00 euro. The popular sires from the ones that I saw today were Galileo, Holy Roman Emperor and Danehill Dancer. Saddler's Wells' mares' produce were raking in some big bucks as well. A manager from a stud farm came over and talked with us for awhile about the Irish Thoroughbred industry. He was filled with information after working in the industry all his life. He pretty much said that the Irish industry is pretty much monopolized by two stud farms and it is really hard to break into, especially if you're a nobody. He was encouraging my friends to look into the Thoroughbred Industry in either America or Australia- you can start out as a no-body, work bloody hard and make a name for yourself.

All and all I lack so much knowledge about the Thoroughbred industry, not to mention the Irish industry, so I was enjoying the atmosphere and the nice horses and just tyring to pick up whatever tid-bits of knowledge that I could. I still like my Quarter Horses and wish I was home to check out the Congress- the largest breed show in the World going on back in Columbus!

Alright- I have to do some homework and get things ready before my trip to Cork this weekend! I can't wait to see what puts a grin on my face this weekend!

Cheers!

Time

All time is no time - When time is past - Make time, save time - While time lasts.

This little saying has come back to my mind recently when I realized that this past Monday, I have been in Ireland for a month!!!!! I first found it on a sun-dial in a little garden by the track that I've spent a good amount of time on as well.

It totally does not feel like that long and I am taking that as motivation to start getting outta Dublin and to also experience more of the social college life and to also really start on my studies. Phew- I'm going to be one busy girl, but what else is new? This has been one busy year for sure and soon enough I'll have accomplished this crazy goal of mine that I set out to do last Fall and be back home again in Indiana :)

It also really occurred to me that I just want to make the most of this opportunity- to enjoy it and to truly make a heck of a good memory with it. And now for the cheesy analogy- you ready?My roommate Josh got some different roses before he took off for France this week as a prep for his upcoming internship in November there, and I have some in my window ceil. These two roses I picked out are beautiful! One is a big open yellow rose and the other one is a peace rose, yellow at the bottom, then flaring into red tips. Even though I can change the water, add a German version of 'Flower Fresh' to them- they are only going to last so long- just as my time here in Ireland is only going to last for so long.

So, what am I going to do about it? Well, I have weekend trips planned for the next three weekends, with hopefully more trips to come depending on how long my money holds out. This coming weekend I'm going to Killarney with my good girl-friends I have made here so far. A local Irishman told me the other day that Killarney is where everybody goes to summer vacation, so I'm hoping that means it will be beautiful! The following weekend we are heading southwest, not just west, to Cork for the Cork Folk Festival! I'm making this trip again with my girlfriends and should be a good craic for sure. One of my roommates is from Cork and he was really excited to hear that we were going to be checking out his home-town. Then probably the trip I'm most excited about, if that's even possible, is Carnforth, England. Sounds pretty random, I know, but my friend Brett from Camp Tecumseh is finally back home in Carnforth for a little while and has extended the invitation for me to come and visit! Not only will I be getting out of the city, but out of the country! Granted, I won't be seeing London, but I think of it this way- it is much easier to set up a touristy/ vacaction type thing to the bigger places and cities at some other time, but to go to these festivals and experience more of a local lifestyle- definitely priceless.

And yes, I'm forcing myself to stay in tonight to study, seeing as it is "Arthur's Day," I have had loads of peer pressure to celebrate with the rest of Dublin tonight. I haven't really cracked down on my school work a lot, so its about time. Oh- what's Arthur's Day? Well Arthur Genniuss's birthday, and this time he's 250 years old! Talk about making a lasting impresion on Ireland? Needless to say, town is going to be crazy tonight and big, drunk crowds tend to not be my thing. But, enjoy the celebrations everyone, I'll be having a party with Economics and Management :) That was the plan last night, but my crazy German roommate, Miriam, drug me out. I was totally not planning on going- but decided why not, it'll be an experience and ended up being a good time. I can now say that I have experienced a European rave now- glowsticks, flouresant paint, black lights, techno music and all. Still can't get over the fact that any night of the week is a night to go out! I thought going out on Thursdays was bad enough back home.

I believe that party with my friends Econ and Management is starting soon actually, so make the most of your time wherever you are, I know I sure am! :)

Writing Inspiration!

Being the fairly consistent blogger that I am, I go throughout my day not necessarily looking for things to write about, but they just occur to me. Some topics just pertain to my day and how classes are going and such and any adventures I go on, while others are just random little, and often funny or ironic circumstances that strike my fancy I suppose.

Examples of the random topics:
- I came back from classes today and had a short conversation with my Irish roommate Evan while I was fixing my lunch. He walked in with a D.A.R.E. shirt on. I thought to myself, "They don't have that here." So I asked him and he said that he just got it off of an Irish friend who bought it in Uganda this summer while he was working there. He then asked me what it was and I explained the concept of the program to him and what I remembered from it. My D.A.R.E. t-shirt has probably seen about 6 different Goodwills by now, while this particular D.A.R.E. t-shirt has been literally all around the world.
This conversation also included the topic of American peanut butter as I have found a new favorite snack- apples and peanut butter. I came up with this idea all on my own, and not through peer pressure when my American roommate, Josh, dared me to try peanut butter with an orange. At this rate, that 2 and half pound jar of JIF that I brought might not last me the semester.

- Lack of cereal selection. At home with our glorious, one-stop superstores, an entire isle is usually dedicated to cereal! Where in comparison, I think one isle in a Super Wal-Mart is bigger than most grocery stores here. So the cereal section or cereal row on the shelf is quite limited. Kellogg's is the main-stream company and my choices based on taste and economical reasons have either been Rice Krispies (the cheapest by far) or Frosties (also known as Frosted Flakes back home.)

- I have discovered the name of those birds that I mentioned in one of my first posts here- Magpies! What a hideous name for, in all fairness, a pretty bird? Apparently they are unlucky unless seen in pairs, so I sometimes search out a second one just to make me feel better.

Besides these random ponderings, there has been a lot going on. Monday is always by far my busiest day and yesterday was no exception. Classes all day, workout class with Shay where he pretty much rips us apart every week, but we love him for it, and then the Equestrian Club social last night. A lot of girls in my different classes are in it, so I actually went somewhere knowing people- which was great! I'm getting super excited for the Tetrathlon- training starts soon- so we'll see how 'fit' I really am.

Now, I'm trying to make plans for some different trips. I have a friend from Camp Tecumseh that is from England and he is home for a little bit, so I want to go and visit him. Then my friends here are planning trips to Killarney and Cork- so many options and places to see. I also found out that an old high school friend is teaching English in France, so that's another place to hopefully see while I'm on this side of the pond!!!!!!

Off to class and maybe some other random occurrences that will inspire some unusual, but interesting thoughts to share with you later!

Down by the Sea

Another week has gone by here in Dublin. This week was fairly uneventful, classes, a couple of 'international events' and just getting used to things here I suppose.

Probably the biggest highlight in my classes was when a representative from the Goffs' Thoroughbred sales came and spoke to us about their sale. It is a highly prestigious sale and it is coming up in a few weeks. I think some friends that I have made in my Equine Industry class are going to try and go when the actual sale is going on. We get to go as a class field-trip on the Monday before the sale, but there aren't any horses being actually sold then. Although about 97% of the horses sold here are Irish bred, there are internationally bred horses that are sold here as yearlings as well and buyers come from all over the world to get that special horse. So, pretty excited about that!

Classes are going well I suppose, there isn't much 'continual assessment' going on, so I suppose I've been slightly slacking on keeping up with readings as we go along. It is hard for me to stay motivated when I don't necessarily have an assignment due in a class next week. So, the goal for later today is actually read some of my econ and some of my readings for equine health.

I joined the Equestrian Club! They train for a competition called the tetrathlon where you compete in swimming, running, pistol shooting and show jumping! I'm crazy excited about this and hopefully can make it on the team. Apparently it is fairly popular, but what a thrill it would be to actually compete in this with students from all over Europe. The show jumping aspect is just a catch ride with a few practice fences allowed. Another American girl that was on my same flight over here is going to train for it too, it is going to be a great craic!

So far this weekend has been pretty chilled. Went over to a friend's place last night and watched a movie. Some of my closest friends here so far are not Irish, but either American, Canadian and in one case a New Zealander! Today was a nice little adventure as I got to see a different part of Dublin on purpose this time. My roommate Josh took me to Don Laoghaire today down by the sea. This is where my friend Alyssa and I accidentally took the bus our first night here when we missed our stop by the college. Reminded me a bit of San Francisco as far as the weather and the wind, but only in Ireland? There were people swimming in the sea, much too cold for me. It made for a nice stroll for sure watching the boats and my favorite, people watching. There were a lot of families out and about and lots of people walking their dogs! One lady sent in her Labrador Retriever to get a plastic bottle out of the water- so cute!

So I'm just taking everything in as it comes. I'm trying a new church with my friend Sarah J from back home tomorrow, it is suppose to have a more 'college-age' atmosphere, so that will be good! And plans have been made to go to Cork, southwestern Ireland, for their folk festival with some friends. Once my check comes through, I'm planning on making some travel arrangements to mainland Europe, Northern Ireland and Scotland! So many adventures ahead and so little time!

I'm kind of in the mood to watch "The Little Mermaid" now. Haha, random I know, but my friends were singing "Kiss the Girl" last night and being around the sea/ ocean today it sort of makes sense in my random mind.

A Walk in the Park

I had a great weekend here in Dublin! It was the perfect combination of chill and socializing! It started out with me discovering that I'm really going to like my Friday schedule! I have two one-hour lectures back to back starting at 9. So I'm out of classes by 11am. I think my dad is eating his breakfast about then? So then I have the rest of the day with that light-hearted, the weekend is ahead of me feeling that puts an extra pep to my step. I used this extra little motivation to do a good workout, some studying and laundry! And I think I've already told you about my story in the laundry mat, which led to meeting more people and playing frisbee. So I won't repeat myself anymore other than by saying Friday just set the tone for the rest of the weekend I suppose.

Slept in on Saturday :) Woke up to another unusual sunny day in Ireland! I went and rescued my phone that decided to stay the night in a friend's purse and took a nap for the next few hours and then got ready to meet my friend Sarah J for the evening :) We had a great dinner, once I figured out how the hob or the stove-top worked. The company of my roommate Josh didn't help matters much as he was just hanging out for the sheer amusement of seeing me fuss with trying to cook spaghetti. It wasn't even like a 4-course meal or anything, but to be in a kitchen with two fellow Boilermakers in Dublin, felt pretty good :) Dinner was tasty once it was finally done, and after that, Sarah and I hit the town! First stop was her place to drop off my stuff as we decided to go to church in the morning together and it would be easier for me just to crash at her place.

We walked down to the Temple Bar area and finally decided on a pub that had some good live Irish music. It was a fun little place and I tried a new cider. It was pretty good and cheap! With more emphases on the cheap side! We enjoyed the atmosphere for awhile and just had a good time catching up and feeling pretty proud of ourselves for making this huge step for the both of us to study abroad.

We fell asleep listening to the Purdue-Oregon game being streamed on the Internet. Unfortunately, we woke up in the morning to hear the final outcome was slightly different than what had played out in our dreams. But my spirits were soon lifted as we set out for church to yet another gorgeous sunny day in Dublin! This is where we walked through St. Stephan's Green instead of around it and it was fabulous! The park was very pretty and just peaceful. There were plenty of people there, but mostly families or couples just out for a Sunday morning stroll. It was the closest thing I've gotten to being outside of the city, even though it is in the very heart of it, so I was very happy.

Sarah and I attended the Lower Abbey Street United Methodist Church. To our surprise, the store-front church actually had a pretty cool traditional sanctuary to be found once inside its doors. We were immediately leached onto by an old Irish man named Richie, extending his warmest welcome. He showed us to an empty pew and about 5 minutes later the pastor's wife came up to us and started asking 20 questions in a very motherly way to make sure we were all set as far as places to stay and what not. Very sweet indeed.

The congregation would be one that my pastors at the Wesley Foundation back at Purdue would love! It was a very ethnically diverse congregation, with very few native Irish people actually. The main minister was not there, but the lady that filled in his absence was really good. She's an actress actually by profession and just got back from filming a BBC show. So, it was kind of cool to meet a local celebrity as well. Sarah has been invited to another Methodist church in town that we're going to check out next week before we make any decisions. Today's church was a sweet little church with some great big, loving hearts! The music was a wee bit rough, but it was beautiful at the same time knowing the joy that those who were off-key were singing to the Lord.

The rest of today entailed us walking back and stopping at a little cafe to have lunch. Once again, it was nice to catch up with Sarah and have a confidant while exploring this big old city, which I finally feel comfortable navigating. Which showed when I hopped on a new bus and made it back to campus without missing my stop! :) I had a great run, made up for a day off and scarfed some leftover spaghetti. Sounds like a great Sunday right? Don't get me wrong, it was, but it was made even better by catching the last quarter of the Colts-Jacksonville game with a little help from a friend. I'm not going to go into anymore details, but thanks friend, you know who you are and yes, I am slightly spoiled to have such good friends! I chatted it up with my two Irish roommates as they were returning from their weekends home and now I'm all ready for bed. Monday is my extra long day- 4 classes and my workout class with Shay! :)

All in all, I'm starting to feel more relaxed over here. I'm just hoping the rest of the semester will be as pleasant as today's "walk in the park."

Keeping on the Sunny Side

I believe it has been scientifically proven that sunlight helps to improve people's overall moods and makes them happy! Something to do with serotonin levels or something? I should google it. But anyways- it has sure had that effect on campus here at UCD. Even with classes underway- you can't help but at least half-smile when you step outside under a beautiful blue sky. I know this isn't going to last much longer, so I'm just excited while it does.

With this good weather, its made exercising much easier! Running in the rain last Sunday was a little rough. But I'm pretty excited about adding something different to the routine as I met a first year med student in the laundry mat (which is ridiculously expensive) yesterday and he mentioned that they were playing Ultimate Frisbee! I immediately perked up and said when and where? Now and follow me was his response! I wasn't particularly dressed for the occasion- so I went bare-foot and in sweats and surprised some with my pulling ability! My friends that were doing laundry with me came along as well, but chose to sit on the sidelines and observe. They were all really nice and the girl, Biatta, who was organizing it was crazy good. Maybe I could learn a thing or two off of her?

Classes went well this week. Only got confused once on the start time to one of my classes- but I didn't get lost and I wasn't late to any of my classes! The finance part of my Business Management class is going to be rough. Not in the sense of material, but the Prof is so dry. "Beuller ... Beuller ... Beuller, " doesn't even start to explain it. But I only have that Prof every other time for the first half of the course and the other guy is pretty good.

So the other night we finally got all 6 of the residents in Glenomena House 4- Apartment 8 together for dinner. It was a great time and the conversation continued on for about 3 hours :) We are all pretty different here in the 'house' but all got along very well. Hopefully we can continue to have dinner together at least once a week :)

Plans for today- hopefully playing frisbee again or resorting back to running, then meeting up with the one and only Sarah Jay Lewis! My friend from Purdue and Wesley arrived safely to Dublin for her exchange program with DIT. So I'm pretty excited to see her and share part of my Dublin experience with her :)

The 1980's?

Yes, I can claim to be a child of the 80's, but a claim is about all I can lay on that decade. Being born in the latter part of the decade, my greatest accomplishment by the time the 80's expired was probably either walking or being potty trained. You would have to ask my parents which one was a more momentous occasion. Where am I going with this? Well, when I was out on the town Saturday night with my roommate Josh and a friend of his, he was filling me in on Dublin, the culture, the people, places to go, places to don't go and women's fashion came up in that spiel somehow. He mentioned how they seemed "stuck in the 80's."

At first I thought the fashion was a more urban, hodgepodge with some funky colors thrown into the mix, but now with an attuned eye - the tights, big hair, Chuck Taylors and (to me) the missed- matched neon colors started to stand out. Even the fliers (which are everywhere) for the discos or clubs have an 80's feel to them.

The good old fallback of jeans and a T-Shirt might as well be me rolling out of bed and going to class with my pajamas! I have seen more skirts and tights than I ever have at any dance recital. A look I don't mind, and think it is actually fairly modest and cute and one that I did back in the States as well, but not EVERYDAY! So I'm going to be a standout here at UCD, academically of course, but in other ways as well. I haven't busted out the belt buckles yet, wore my more reserved 'bling belt' today but looked totally American with my Ariat sweatshirt that said- "Wild West Show." :)

The flip of the coin to this issue is the double standard about the guy's dress. Coming over on the plane my seat buddy from England said something about pants being trousers instead. Jeans were fine to say though. Now I understand why he made such a big deal, because jeans are not necessarily the norm for guys as well. Athletic apparel is though. I have seen more jerseys than I ever have and other kinds of trousers as well.

This double standard is seen of the evenings as well, when groups of people leave for their "social activities." The girls are dressed up and I mean dressed up- sequence and all, that hasn't come and gone like it has in the States. Little skimpy dresses and some forgo the fashionable tights and have to be freezing! Make-up and hair done up as well to finish out the look. Then there comes the guys straggling behind them in a graphic tee maybe and then possibly a decent pair of jeans! Seems kind of strange to me, but then again, so does the extreme "social atmosphere." Monday on campus was ridiculous! Kids were in "high spirits" since 10 am with parties and such going on all day and campus was crawling with drunk kids and neon yellow-vested security. Eat, drink and be merry with the focus on the latter two I think was the purpose of the day.

Even with classes in session, I feel like there is a lack of concern for studies around campus and more socializing going on. Maybe that is because classes are just getting underway, but all of my classes have been full lectures from the words "Good Morning/ Afternoon." Granted they don't start until at least 5 minutes after the hour, but there has been none of this "Hi I'm Professor X, here is the syllabus and I'll see you later," like we do back home. Oh and another extreme difference is the type of assessment that we'll be having- almost all my courses' final grades depend either fully or at least very heavily on my finals :(!!!!!! December is going to be a stressful time!

So, I had two new classes on Tuesday- Farm Management and Introduction to Irish Folklore. Farm Management is another small class and is going to be another good one I feel. All the kids in the class seemed to have known each other already and I haven't really cracked into that yet, but this class will include a lot of problem solving and some case studies where we get to actually go out to farms!!!!!

My other new class that I had yesterday was Introduction to Irish Folklore, a fairly popular elective by how full the classroom was. I'm just taking it for attendance only, which will be one less stressor come December, but a class I can attend for the sheer pleasure! lol! Actually, the lecturer is super cool and I had a moment to talk to her afterwards to explain my situation and she seemed pretty impressed that I would still participate and take the course for no credit. I met a California girl in my class who is also a senior and I've ran into her twice now randomly on campus, so another new friend made :)

Speaking of friends- all 5 of my roommates have moved in! Gearoid, an Irishman from Cork is studying law and business. Miriam, from Germany, is a Chinese Studies major. The most recent addition is Evan, another Irishman, is a politics and film major. Then the three Americans line one side of the hall. Ally from Boston doing her post-grad studies in European Studies is sandwiched by two Boilermakers. Myself and Josh who is also a post-grad student in some sort of computer security. There is a fancy name for it, but I can't remember. I busted out my markers this afternoon and made a sign for our first house dinner tomorrow night. I kind of took initiative and going to order pizza :) I'm pretty excited for all of us to sit down as 'family' and get to know one another. Any mixers or get to know you games that come to mind- let me know :)

So my out of class activities have mainly been dedicated to working out and my body sure feels it! I haven't been this sore in a long time! I finally gave myself the day off and have been drinking lots of water in efforts to flush out all this lactic acid that is polluting my system. I have also been napping a lot, trying to re-coop that way as well. I haven't found a scale over here yet, but I kind of don't want to. If I keep this routine up, that moment I get on the scale back home will be pretty sweet! But I can tell I'm already loosing inches. Some of my jeans haven't fit this well since high school! :)

So that has been my last few days in Ireland. I want to wish my friend Sarah J safe and happy travels over here to Dublin as she is starting another exchange program through her course of study at Purdue. It'll be nice to have another Boilermaker in Dublin :)