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Dublin, Ireland

a travel blog by kmr788


Remember back in elementary and middle school when each new school year seemed to begin with the same assignment: Write an essay entitled "How I Spent My Summer Vacation." I had some pretty good ones in there over the years- trips to Disney World and Las Vegas, Colorado and Hawaii. So how am I spending THIS summer vacation? 8 weeks in Ireland! Sounds like the makings of a great essay already!

The downside to spending 8 weeks in Europe (aside from missing my 21st birthday at home with my friends and family) is that communication is going to be tough. I'm not quite sure what I'll do not being able to pick up the phone and call home five times a day to talk about whatever random thought has popped into my mind...

Luckily the 21st century has answered this problem for me! Over my summer I'll be using this website to keep everyone updated on what amazing experiences I encounter while abroad- Be sure to check in every few days to read my latest blogs and see all the pictures I hope to post!

Miss you all... see you in late July!! Muah oxox
view all 230 photos for this trip


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And So It Begins...

Boston, United States


I woke up around 8am, having only gone to bed two hours earlier. Yet with only a couple hours of sleep in me, I still did not feel tired. I was like a little kid waking up on Christmas morning- the excitement was enough to wake me up instantly!

In only a few hours I would be saying goodbye to my routine life in Boston and heading out for an eight-week adventure in Europe. So imagine my disappointment when I threw open my window curtains to greet the morning, but was instead also forced to greet the rain that had come in overnight! Of course the day I have to move all my boxes to storage is when it decides to rain (and after a previous week of beautiful weather). Therefore, the morning was a mildly stressful one with my friend, Chante, and I throwing garbage bags over all my boxes so they wouldn’t get soaked in the bed of the pickup truck we had rented.
But I did not lose hope! My adventure was still getting ready to take place-- I just had to jump through a couple of hoops before I could get there. All in all, moving all my things to storage only took a little over two hours and was relatively painless – take that, Rain! You tried to foil my plans but I have proved superior!

Before I left for the airport I ran into two of my good friends and was glad I was able to say goodbye. One of them, Kristen, will be attending Trinity University in Ireland in the fall for her PhD. so she may take a week to come visit this summer, which would be tons of fun! It wasn’t until I said goodbye to my friends and walked into my newly emptied apartment that it really hit me… Starting a new adventure is great, but it also means saying goodbye to the people and places that have been my home for the past school year. The only thing that comforts me is knowing this it is not a permanent goodbye. Yet before I even left Boston, I already felt homesick for it, however I was comforted to know I would only be gone a short three months.

But still as the cab pulled away from my apartment building I felt the urge to scream to the cab driver, “Wait! Slow down- you’re driving too fast and I need more time to say goodbye!” I know that I’ll be back in three months, but I also know that I will be coming back to a completely new environment in the fall. I will no longer live in South Campus, many of my friends will be spread out across the globe at new universities, and I have yet to find an apartment for September.

When I was in the sixth grade I went on a weekend school trip to Camp Maclean. When I returned, just a mere three days after having left, I found that the 7-11 that once stood behind my house was gone. It’s windows were boarded up, its sign taken down, a small piece of my childhood lost. This was just one of the instances where life took me by the shoulders and shook me hard saying, “See! Things change, nothing is forever.” And so I left Boston this morning with a sort of sweet sadness- knowing the adventure waiting for me on the other end was well worth whatever I may have to say goodbye to at my university home, but missing it all the same… It’s the same feeling I get every time I must leave my real, true home in Chicago.

I arrived at the airport and found three other girls that were also part of the Boston University trip. We sat together and talked before boarding the plane and it was comforting to know that when the plane’s tires hit the tarmac 3000 miles away, over 6 hours later, I already had new friends to join me in my adventure.

As the plane pulled away from the gate at Logan International Airport and it’s tires lifted from the runaway to glide through the sky, I said goodbye to Boston once more and I said hello to the possibilities I had waiting for me on the other end of my flight. As my dad told me before the plane took off: This is a once in a lifetime experience- enjoy it.” And I can’t wait!



permalink written by  kmr788 on May 27, 2009 from Boston, United States
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No...Sleep...'Till...Dublin!

Shannon, Ireland


It is currently about 6am Ireland time, which means its only midnight for those of you back in Chi-town, and 1am for my Boston people. This time difference thing is sure to be tough at first. We have just landed in Shannon, Ireland where we have about an hour layover before our final half-hour flight to Dublin!

I’m once again talking with the same girls I met back at Logan airport- Megan (who I already love!- she’s from Texas and attends the University of Texas there), Lindsay (a real sweetie who attends University of Michigan), and Tara (also a BU student), and another girl who’s name I sadly forget, she attends Cornell though so that’s how Megan and I now refer to her. Already we’re discussing what each of us wants to do over the summer- some of us are already planning trips we may take together!

I think the best thing about taking a trip like this is all the new people you get to meet that your world would not otherwise know. I mean we have someone from Texas, Michigan, New York, etc.- and all of us have been brought together because we all chose to spend the summer outside our little boxes of comfort back in the US and instead embark across the Atlantic Ocean for a summer abroad. Truly amazing!

Megan and I hit it off really well and her, Lindsay, and I especially seem to be in tune on the types of side trips we’d like to take! We’re not sure of our housing situation yet but Megan and I are hoping we can room together!

The flight wasn’t too bad and I think I actually got about two hours of sleep. I had the cutest old Irish man sitting next to me. When he came to take his seat the first thing he did was hold out his hand, and in his thick Irish accent, introduce himself with his full name.

We’re only supposed to be in Shannon for about an hour but while originally we weren’t supposed to be switching planes, we now are so we may be here a bit longer. I’ll just feel better when were in Dublin and settled in our rooms!


permalink written by  kmr788 on May 28, 2009 from Shannon, Ireland
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Céad míle fáilte go hÉirinn

Dublin, Ireland


(Stop! The blog you're about to enjoy should be read after "No Sleep 'Till Dublin". The order got screwed up.)

"A Hundred Thousand Welcomes to Ireland"

I write this latest blog from my dorm room at the Dublin City University! We arrived in Dublin around 9am and got to the apartments shortly thereafter. I unpacked my things and then went with Megan, Lindsay, Tara, and ‘Cornell’ (still need to find out her name!) to get some coffee. We were also joined by one of my suitemates, name not remembered, who is really great.

The apartment is as follows (see the pics too!) We have five bedrooms connected by a long hallway.

There are two people in each bedroom and then we all share a common room that has a kitchen. But each of the bedrooms has its own bathroom so all in all its really not bad! Unfortunately, our housing was already decided for us so Megan and I couldn’t room together like we’d hoped. She’s not in my suite either, but is instead on the floor below me. However, I’m rooming with a girl named Neesha who seems really sweet, though we haven’t had too much time to talk yet. (She’s currently taking a nap on the bed behind me!)

We got a chance to see a bit of the university on our quest for coffee and we talked some more about what types of side trips we’re all interested in. My suitemate (Why can’t I remember her name?!) and I are both interested in taking a day or two in London. Megan wasn’t interested in that trip but its something ‘Suitemate’ and I may do.

Megan, Lindsay, ‘Suitemate,’ and I all want to go down to western Ireland as well. Megan has been to Ireland twice before and she knows some great places down there. All of us want to go to the touristy places too, such as the Blarney Stone. We were thinking of staying in hostels to save on hotel fares- plus we know this would be a much more ‘real’ experience than staying in some hotel. Plus who doesn’t love saving money?! A couple of us also talked of side trips to Scotland and Paris. But I’ll be the first to admit that my bank account funds are currently pretty low so my trips will have to be kept to a minimum. :(

Given my lack of sleep I’m actually pretty awake right now- though that’s no doubt due to the coffee and excitement currently in my system! We have some type of meeting at 2p but then I’m not really sure what else we have to do today. My guess is that most of us will probably be going to bed pretty early since we basically skipped right over Wednesday night because of the time difference.

I sent out an e-mail to my sister earlier telling her to go online if she got the e-mail relatively soon. Then I realized it was only 6am her time even though it was noon here!! So I had to send her another e-mail saying, “Never mind, you’re probably asleep!” Like I said- it will take a bit of getting used to.

(Wooh- I just found out that ‘suitemates’ name is AMY! Yay. Now I just need to figure out “Cornell’s’ real name!”) Oh and I just saw some of the other girls rooms and mine is a lot bigger- yay! Haha.

Okay- done for now I think. I’ll write more either tonight or tomorrow. Don’t worry, once classes and the internship start up I won’t have as many blogs up each day to bore you with!



permalink written by  kmr788 on May 28, 2009 from Dublin, Ireland
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First Night Out!

Dublin, Ireland


Dublin = amazing! Originally my plan for my first night here was to go to bed wicked early because I was so tired from my long day. Also, with the time difference I basically didn’t have a Wednesday night. But Megan wanted to go to City Centre for some dinner and drinks so I figured sleep could wait! I’ll sleep when I’m dead, right? Or my new motto: I’ll sleep when I’m back in Boston! Plus we found out it was our suitemate- Bobby’s- 21st birthday so of course we had to celebrate! (We have five bedrooms in our suite with two people in each and four of them are all girls and then we have one room with two guys.)

We took the bus down to City Centre and then wound up at a place for drinks and dinner.

Bobby chose here because apparently the name had “a lot of vowels in it” according to him, which apparently made it a good place. (Oh yeah, I should probably mention that prior to heading downtown Bobby, Megan, and I had a couple beers so some of us were already a little tipsy.) Anywho, Bobby found out I’d never had a Guinness on tap (actually I’d never had a Guinness at all, or any other type of beer on tap). So he ordered a round of Guinness for everyone (there were 10 of us there!) We tried to explain that you’re not supposed to buy the drinks on your birthday but we figured if he wasn’t going to argue then neither were we! Also, there were more rounds we figured we could buy later! I had to laugh though because there’s a movie called 'Penelope' where James MacAvoy’s character is talking with Christina Ricci’s character and he asks her if she’s ever had a beer. And she replies, of course I have. He asks if she’s ever had a beer on tap and she says no. “Then you’ve never had a beer.” So I guess I have only now officially had a beer according to the James MacAvoy logic! But of course since I’m not 21 that was the first time I’d ever had an alcoholic beverage in. my. life! Honest. :-P

It was a pretty chill bar and we were able to take up a corner of it and all sit and talk. We wound up staying there to grab some dinner and I had a burger, which was delicious! Ooh, and yummy onion rings too! That combined with another drink made for a pretty amazing first Dublin dinner. After dinner we asked the waitress if she could split up the bill for us. Her reply? “It’s already been taken care of.” My reply? Um, what?! So naturally every head turns to Bobby with a questioning look. He claimed he didn’t take care of the bill, that would be crazy wouldn’t it? Another suitemate of mine, Jahna, asked the bartender and found out that yes, Bobby was the one who paid the bill. Okay, we are talking about TEN people who each had at least two drinks and everyone had dinner. So 5 euro a drink, 10 euro for dinner (and that’s on the low estimate) we’re still talking about 200 euro!? Crazy!

After dinner most people went home because I guess they were tired but Megan, Jahna, Bobby, and I went to another couple bars. The first was a great little place that had an acoustic guitarist who sang a song for Bobby’s birthday! Haha. We only had a drink or two there and then moved onto a different, pretty laid-back bar. By this point I knew I’d reached my limit so I didn’t drink anymore (see, don’t worry, I’m a smart gal!) Bobby had also reached his limit a couple shots of whisky ago, but he’s a guy so of course he wasn’t going to admit it and he ordered another beer. But by the time he had a couple sips I think he realized his limit was reached. Jahna and Megan had moved elsewhere in the bar so it was just Bobby and me as he sat with his head down holding the beer, looking like he was about to pass out! I stood with him for the next twenty minutes or so to make sure he was okay- I guess I was the ‘babysitter’ for the night! Haha, but no worries – still so much fun! Every once in a while Bobby’s drink would begin tipping forward in his hands so finally (after much coaxing) I convinced him to just give me the damn drink!

I motioned to Jahna and Megan that we should go because Bobby wasn’t doing too well and they said we’d leave after the next song – but of course that song lasted like ten minutes, I swear! So we finally got Bobby down the flight of stairs (of course we had to be on a second floor bar! Wth!) with Megan on one side and me on the other. So we get him downstairs and Jahna turns to him and says, “So are you ready to go to the next bar?” My thought process: Are you F’ing kidding me? He can barely stand up, I’d been with him for the last half hour, and I’m pretty sure he actually passed out/fell asleep at some point! I tried to talk some sense into him but like I said before, he’s a guy (!) so its not like he’s going to say no. But thank god on the way to finding another bar he admitted that we should probably go home. So then began the fun drama of finding the bus back to campus!

We weren’t quite sure which number bus we had to take so when one pulled up to the curb I ran to ask the driver which bus we should take. Well somehow (and I’m still not quite sure what happened), I completely (!) wiped out! Right in front of the bus! So embarrassing (but luckily I was in no state to actually be embarrassed). I now have this huge bruise on my right leg- but luckily that was the only harm done! Finally we just decided to take a cab home, which I tired to pay for but when I handed the cab driver my money Bobby took the money out of his hands, gave it back to me, and then paid for the cab! (Oh and did I mention, he paid for all our other drinks too!) Now here’s the real kicker- we paid 60 euro (!!!) for that twenty-minute cab ride. And why did we do that? Because we were drunk and didn’t know how much it should be and the cab driver was well aware of that. And what should we really have paid? According to the locals I’ve talked with, about 20 euro (F!). Kind of made me glad I didn’t pay for it! Haha.



permalink written by  kmr788 on May 29, 2009 from Dublin, Ireland
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Having Great Craic!

Dublin, Ireland


Well yesterday was another great day in Dublin- what a shocker! In the morning we had some orientation stuff, which I thought would be a lot worse than it actually was. Some parts of it were pretty cool actually; we had a woman come in to teach us different phrases in Gaelic. I think everyone’s favorite was “Craic” (pronounced Crack). In Ireland if you’re having a good time you would say, “We’re having great crack!” Which of course would have a whole different meaning back in the US!

After our orientation meetings we went down to City Centre for a “treasure hunt” where we split into groups and had to walk around the city answering questions. Before heading to that though a couple of us started off at this place and had some drinks and all talked for a bit.

The treasure hunt was kind of cool though because we got to see different sites and what not and learn a bit about the city. We were allowed to use maps and ask the locals (who are all so nice and friendly!) At one point my group was standing around trying to figure out the answer to one of the questions when a local came up and told us he’d tell us the answer if we donated to his charity! Haha. He was probably early to mid twenties and was collecting donations for a children’s foundation- I forget which one. So we all gave him a bit and then wound up talking to him for a little bit. The thing I love about the locals here is that not only are most willing to give you directions and what not. But then most of them actually take the time to stop and talk with you. Ask where you're from, how you like Dublin, etc. And they all usually have tips for us on what we should check out while we’re here! It’s great!

After the treasure hunt Amy and I split off on our own to get cell phones and do some shopping to get some things for the apartment and what not.

We also wound up catching up with a girl from a different suite, Hannah and then another girl Jess joined us on the way back.

We headed back to the apartment and grabbed some dinner, then around 9:30p went back down to City Centre for the night.

By now we were back in our big group of six or seven of us girls. As we were leaving some of our other suitemates were just getting back to the apartment so I guess they were having an early night.

We met Jahna and Megan at a bar down in City Centre but it was a little too quiet for most of us, so we left there and headed down the Temple Bar District. So this is the best part- we didn’t really know where we should go so one of us decides we’ll “stalk” this group of guys in front of us and go wherever they go. Well I guess one of them heard us say that so two of the guys stopped and turned around and was like, “Are you stalking us?” Haha. So we wound up talking with those two- James and Michael. But they were both from England and it was their first trip to Dublin so they couldn’t help us much on where to go. Still, they wound up hanging out with us the rest of the night!

We finally wound up at a place called “Doyle’s”, which I loved!

Let’s see though- by this point Ellie had been talking with Michael the whole time and they were off in a corner, then Denise wound up with James and they were off on the dance floor! Megan, Jahna, and Amy were at the bar talking to some guys too! Haha. It was beginning to look like Noah’s Ark. Lindsay and Kelsey were there somewhere too.

At some point I decided to go outside and get some air, so I was standing outside the bar sending a text on my cell phone when this guy behind me asked if I was okay. I just gave him the brush off because I didn’t wanna deal with it but then he said I looked upset or something, and I was like nope, I’m fine (which I was.) Well I have no clue how, but somehow he actually got me talking. And we wound up standing out there for like a half hour talking. His name was David and he was a native Dubliner and freaking adorable! Haha. He’s a photographer and I was telling him that I wanted to be a history teacher and he asked what type of history I was into. When I said American history I found out that he’s actually really into the American Civil War. I thought this was so cool- because I’d never met someone from another country that was interested in our history and stuff. I don’t know, it was just really cool. He was wicked smart too- he knew more US state capitals than I did, he had me quizzing him! I actually felt a little stupid after talking to him! Haha.

The best part was when he spent twenty minutes trying to guess Chicago’s football team because he couldn’t remember what it was! First he kept saying the Chicago Braves and I was telling him that A. the braves are baseball and B. that’s the Atlanta Braves! Then he said so confidentially, the Chicago Bulls!! And I laughed and said except that’s our basketball team! He did know the Cubbies though, which made my day! Finally I had to tell him the Bears because he couldn’t remember!

So you know in movies when the girl is in a different country and she starts talking with someone and then out of nowhere one of the guys girl friends runs up and starts talking really fast about whatever drama is happening in her life, and then they stop their rambling to turn to the other girl and say hi and introduce herself, and its just all so funny. Okay, maybe you think I’m making this up but I swear in like every movie where some chick winds up in England or something, that’s what happens. And that’s exactly what happened while I was talking with David. One of his friends came up and was going on about how she got locked out of her house, and something with her ex-boyfriends bike being there and her roommate is out of town and now she has to spend the weekend at her ex-boyfriends family’s house or something! Haha, I don’t know but she was so adorable!

The bar was two floors and after talking outside for a bit David and I went to the second floor where I met all his other friends.

We had a couple drinks and I got to talk with all of them, which was a lot of fun. And for all my loser friends out there- no, nothing happened besides him buying me a Guinness, and my family is reading this blog so get your head out of the gutter! :-P hehe.

Finally the night dwindled down and I made my way back to campus with the girls. By now it was past three and I’ll omit how many drinks I’d had (though I will say Denise and I did a couple of tequila shots throughout the night!)




permalink written by  kmr788 on May 31, 2009 from Dublin, Ireland
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Don't frown. You never know who's falling in love with your smile.

Killiney, Ireland


I’m attempting to take it a bit easy today- so it’s currently 1p and I’m still hanging out in my pajamas! Basically I’ve been working on my blog since I woke up for all of you to enjoy! We may go out again tonight, but for now I need some rest!

The weather has been great since we got here and all the locals tell us how lucky we are to have such great weather.

It’s been in the mid to late 60s but with no rain so I guess this is great weather for Ireland. Yesterday we decided to take advantage of the nice weather and head to a beach in Killiney.

All the people in the photo went and we took the train down there.
We took the bus to City Centre and then walked all the way to where we thought the train was, only to find it was the wrong one! Then we found that the train we needed was basically right where we had started with where the bus let us off. So we did a lot of unnecessary walking that ate up a lot of time, but we were all enjoying ourselves and no one was on a time limit so we actually enjoyed getting “lost.”

Killiney is about a thirty-minute train ride south of Dublin and is sooo beautiful! At first though we got on the wrong train (Apparently the rail we were on had both a commuter train and then the one we needed to take- The Dart). Luckily we got on the commuter rail and a local told us where to get off and which train to take to get to Killiney. So we wound up stopping in Dun Laoghaire

and getting on the Dart there to head down to the beach.

Okay- Amy and Jahna just knocked on my door and want to head to City Centre for some shopping so I’m gonna head down there with them! I’ll finish this up later!

Alright- I’m back. Shopping turned out to be not so much fun because I was so bloody tired. But anyway, back to what I was talking about…

The day at the beach was great, though I wound up with a bit of sunburn. I didn’t put any suntan lotion on because I stupidly didn’t think I’d need it.

Though it’s good weather in Ireland terms, it was still only about 68. But I guess that’s hot enough to get burned! We came home after the beach and all grabbed some dinner, then headed back down to City Centre for the night.

We wound up at a great bar called “The Auld Dubliner,” which was two stories with live music on the second floor.

So here’s the best part- Amy and I went up to the second floor and grabbed a seat as we waited for everyone else to make their way up. While we were waiting we saw this guy walking up to us. And both her and I were sort of liked, ugh we don’t want to deal with being hit on right now. Well then we looked at his face and saw that it was James! Okay, remember the other night when we were “stalking” the English boys and two of them wound up hanging out with us?! That James, the same James that Denise made out with figuring she’d never have to see him again!

Oh my gosh, it was the greatest- I started laughing my head off!! Well remember they got separated from their bachelor party the other night, well they were actually at the Auld Dubliner with that party so we got to meet all their friends. We actually wound up hanging out with their party the whole night, and we were basically the only ones on the second floor so it was actually a lot of fun.

The bachelor was adorable too (or as they call it in English- the Stag.) We were talking for a bit and comparing slang dating/hooking up terms in American and Britain, haha. We were talking about what 1st base, 2nd base, etc are in Britain- I forget exactly what he said, but he said a “homerun” was something silly- ugh, I wish I remembered! And then we were talking about how “making out” in America is “snogging” in Britain and a bunch of funny things like that. He was actually a really great guy- he reminded me of one of the boxing coaches where I workout back in Boston actually with some of the things he said, and his whole positive, life-is-great attitude! It was just a fun night overall. We hung out there until around 2 or 3 and then made our way back home for some major SLEEP TIME!



permalink written by  kmr788 on May 31, 2009 from Killiney, Ireland
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Nudist |'n(y)oodist| : A person who engages in the practice of going naked wherever possible

Dalkey, Ireland


Okay- be honest! After seeing the name to this blog you just can not wait to read it, right!?! Well, enjoy...

Yesterday was a “Bank Holiday” in Ireland so we didn’t have class or internship things to do. It’s amusing because no one here actually seems to be able to tell me what a ‘Bank Holiday’ is other than the fact that the banks are closed. Most people describe it as a Sunday because the banks are closed, and most places open late.

It turned out to be another great weather day so some of the girls decided to head to the beach again.

The locals had told us about this little beach called Whitecliff (or something like that), which was a bit off the beaten path so it was less crowded and had more locals over tourists. So we decided to take their advice and we took the train down to Dalkey,
which was just one stop before the last beach we went to.

The town was gorgeous! One of those little towns that you just have to fall in love with immediately.

In fact when we got off the train the town was blocked by a building and when we all turned the corner and got the first view of the town we all let out this unanimous, ‘Awww!’

It was a bit of a walk to the beach, but we enjoyed seeing more of the town and all the houses.

The thing I loved was how each house was uniquely different from the one next to it. Unlike a lot of the suburbs in Chicago or Boston where they’re built by developments that basically plant the same house down next to each other.

When we looked up Dalkey on the Internet to find this beach it read that Dalkey is the “Beverley Hills of Ireland!” Haha, too cool.

At first I didn’t understand why this town would be given that reputation, but as we walked more and saw some of the amazing houses I completely understood!

We finally got to the beach and had to walk down a bunch of stairs and through a couple paths to get to the water.

So we turn the corner to see the beach and what greets us? Why, about fifteen completely naked men!! Turns out- we wound up at a nudist beach! So here we are, about seven girls, with a bunch of naked men all at least forty years old! Can you say: AWKWARD! But we’d travelled all that way so we weren’t about to turn around- haha, so we wound up staying the whole afternoon and still had a great time! I was talking with Megan towards the end of the day and we were saying we didn’t know what was scarier: That we were surrounded by a bunch of naked men, or that by the end of the day it didn’t even bother us! Haha, a naked guy walks past us and it’s just like, “no biggie!”

We later found out that the beach we stopped at was not the one the locals had told us about. (At first I thought they just told us about the nudist beach so they could get a big laugh out of it!) But it turns out that the beach we stopped at was an informal beach before the other one.

We may take a weekend to go back there and actually find the other beach the locals had meant us to go to, but we’ll see.

Although it was a beautiful day out and I got lots of sun, the water was absolutely FREEZING!!

A couple of the girls went in and came out about two minutes later with all their limbs freezing, and as Jahna put it- with their internal organs about to shut down! A little while later they decided to jump back in and since I was pretty warm from the sun I figured I’d go in too. I was used to swimming in cold water so I figured it wouldn’t be a big deal and I’d just stay in for a bit. However, there was one MAJOR thing I forgot about… and that’s a little thing called: asthma!

So I jumped in the water… My lungs immediately closed up… And I wet into a massive asthma attack! There are a couple of places where you really don’t want to go into an asthma attack and I would say that the water would be at the top of that list! So I’m now in this freezing water, and I can’t breath, nor can I easily swim because I’m too busy not breathing. To really top it off, my breathing is so bad and my lungs are so tightly closed that I can’t even scream for help! I was literally doing my hardest not to drown (seriously!) and I’m desperately trying to get gasps of air as I kick to stay above water!

People on the beach began to notice that I was having trouble and somehow I was able to spit out that I was having an asthma attack. (Why I didn’t just scream ‘help’ when I could actually get breath to talk, I don’t know?!) Well luckily I hadn’t swam too far from the coast (mainly because I didn’t have any time to before my lungs closed up and I stopped breathing) so I was able to pull myself out of the water!

Of course because I’m the biggest idiot in the world I didn’t have my inhaler with me! (And I know Mom, it is now permanently in my purse and will not leave there and I know I’m a big dumb-dumb for not having it with me!!- Trust me, you’re voice was in my head the whole time!) Luckily there was a guy there that had an inhaler and I didn’t have time to think about whether I should take it or not, because I knew I needed it!! So I took two quick puffs of the inhaler and once I sat down and was out of the cold water, my lungs were able to open up and it was much easier.

It was seriously one of the scariest situations of my life. Because like I said, not only was I fighting the fact that I couldn’t breathe but I was also fighting the fact that I was literally beginning to drown! OMG!! I swear just thinking about it makes my lungs close up again!

After leaving the beach the other girls decided to walk around the town a bit. But once I got up and started walking I felt like my lungs were going to close on me any second, and since I didn’t have my inhaler with me I just wanted to get back to the apartment. So I headed back, completely exhausted, and did absolutely nothing the rest of the night! It was actually great- because after spending the past four nights out late at the pubs, I knew my liver (not to mention my wallet!) needed a break!!

Earlier today we had our first class at Dublin City University- it was great! But I’ll write more on that later… right now I have to head to some internship meetings!



permalink written by  kmr788 on June 2, 2009 from Dalkey, Ireland
from the travel blog: Dublin, Ireland
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Turn Your F'ing Music Off

Dublin, Ireland


Let’s see- what has happened since the last time I wrote?

Well I had my first couple classes in my ‘History of Ireland’ course- which have all been fabulous! I’m so excited to get to experience taking a college course in a different country. I’m interested to see what kinds of similarities and differences I see between the American and Irish teaching styles. Also, I’m interested for the overall subject matter. But even more than that, I’m interested to learn the history of Ireland from an actual Irish perspective. (But mostly I’m interested in finding another word for interesting because I just said that one about five times!) Anyways, I’ve obviously taken history courses on other countries and regions before but they’re still always from the foreign, American perspective so it’ll be cool to take this Irish history course in Ireland!

The first thing to note is that in Ireland college “professors” are called ‘lecturers.’ The term professor is saved for someone who is truly accomplished in the academic field and is not tossed around as much as in America. My lecturer is great and she really makes all the lectures interesting. Plus, she always ends with a full-class debate/discussion where she really works to get everyone involved, and I really love this. The first day she addressed how many mixed abilities there were going to be in the room because everyone was from different colleges, different majors, and different ages. I liked this because catering to mixed abilities is something we talk about so often in my education classes. So to hear this Irish lecturer address the issue was actually kind of cool. So far I think she’s done a good job of catering to the different abilities. Although I’m a history major I don’t find the class too easy and I think it is probably a great level for those that haven’t taken history in a couple of years.

We recently had our lecture on the Irish potato famine, which led to a great discussion on if it was misguided policy or passive genocide. I tend to lead towards the former of the two. We also watched a bit of Irish Riverdancing, which I loved! The first week of July the history class is taking a walking tour of Dublin while the music class is going to see Riverdance. Well the history class is now really interested in going to that also, so some of us are going to look into how much it would cost for us to go!

I also had my interview on Wednesday for my internship. For those that aren’t aware, I’ll be doing my internship at the Natural History branch of the National Museum of Ireland. I was a little bit nervous because the day before we had someone come in to talk to us about the interviews. He was talking about the differences between the Irish and American workplace and for the first time I really began to grasp that I’d be working in a culture entirely different from my own!

Some of the things he brought up seemed so weird to me. For instance, in Ireland it’s customary to ask a question three times, because once just isn’t enough apparently. So if I were to ask someone if they wanted a cup of tea- I’d have to ask it three times if they say no the first time. Because apparently chances are they really do want the tea but it’s polite to say no two times first. So do you want some tea? No I’m good. Are you sure, it’s no problem. Oh no thanks. Oh come on, how about you have some tea with me? Okay, that sounds nice. I thought that was pretty funny when he told us about it!

He also talked about how the Irish are less direct than Americans. So in the past they had an intern who was listening to her iPod at work and the boss said, “You really like your music, don’t you?” The intern assumed he was just making conversation and said that she did. Apparently, what he really meant by that was “Turn your F’ing music off” and the intern was let go after that! Crazy!

So I was pretty nervous going into my interview- but it wound up going great! I talked with the ‘keeper’ of the Natural History Museum for over an hour and a half! He gave me a tour of the museum, which is currently closed for renovation.

Apparently about two years ago one of their staircases collapsed (with eight people on it! Luckily they were all okay). Well after that the microscope was put on the building and they found that it wasn’t up to many fire codes- though it was built back in the 1850s so that’s to be expected! Finally they had to close the building in order to take care of all the problems.

The building is supposed to reopen in September but with only the first of the three floors opened. Apparently to bring the second and third floor up to code is still going to take another five or ten years! So they figure in the meantime they’ll open up the first floor. Which means they now have to decide what exhibits to bring down to the first floor and display, and which to not display at all.

It sounds like I’ll have quite a few tasks throughout the summer, including cataloguing items and assessing exhibits. The keeper, Nigel, is really big on the idea that I’m free labor, which means he’s very open to whatever I’d like to do. He said that if he has me on a task but I see another one that looks interesting to just tell him and then I can do the other task! He also said that he could get me into the other museums for a couple of days if I want and other areas as well- such as their educational programming department and preservation of artifacts. FYI there are four branches of the National Museum-- Natural History, Archeology, Decorative Arts & History, and Country Life.

I start Monday and I can’t wait! It should be such an amazing experience!



permalink written by  kmr788 on June 4, 2009 from Dublin, Ireland
from the travel blog: Dublin, Ireland
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Me... at a monastery?! I guess it can happen!

Glendalough, Ireland


The last two days have been great fun, but I’m glad it’s the weekend so I can just relax! We all went out last night but by the time we had a couple of drinks we were all exhausted and wound up calling it an early night!!
Today, I really just want to lay around- do some reading, writing, maybe watch a movie. Everyone is always so shocked when you say you just want to relax and not go out- “But you’re in Ireland!!!” Yes, and I’ll be in Ireland for another seven weeks! Lol.

Anyway, Ellie had heard about horse racing going on Thursday night so some of us went to that for a couple hours. I’d never been before so it was kind of cool. The track was freaking huge! But the horses only ran half of it. We didn’t make any bets- though I should have because the horse I picked for the second race actually won!

On the train ride home it was a bit weird though… we had some Irish guy come up and talk to us (with this crazy thick accent so he was hard to understand). He’d clearly been drinking a bit and was with some of his friends. He started making fun of one of his friends and that friend got mad and took it out on us! He said some mean stuff to Denise and then called my other friend a whore. It was rather interesting… like I said he was clearly drunk! And we basically told him he should go home and sleep it off! We were a little worried they were going to follow us when we got off the train since we got off at the same stop- but luckily they went their own way.

We went to Captain America’s after that, haha, and got some drinks and dessert. Then we made our way to Cassidy’s where we met up with a bunch of other people. They have a really great acoustic guitarist there and we spent most of the night listening and talking with him.

There was one old guy there that I swear was Ireland’s Hugh Heffner! Haha. Somehow he kept getting the girls to dance with him- but as I told him, I don’t dance! (Though Bobby did get me to dance for the last one of the night… a rarity, trust me!)

Yesterday we went to Glendalough, which used to be a monastery. It was a monastery about 1400 years ago! And I think was one for about 900 years.

There’s a really tall, circular building there- over a hundred feet high! It was originally a bell tower but was probably used as a lookout during the Viking attacks as well.

There’s also a cemetery there with graves ranging from 1400 years ago (!) to today!

(Mom, you would’ve of loved it!) They’ve closed the cemetery so that no one else can buy plots; however there are still some people alive that have plots there. I guess about thirty years ago they made a list of all the people that were still to be buried there and their name had to be put on the list. Today, there are only seven people left! On the way in, during our guided tour, there was an elderly gentlemen that we let pass who stopped for a minute to say hi to our tour guide. We later found out that he is one of the seven people to be buried there! Apparently his wife is buried there as well, and he comes in most days to see her grave… he also used to be the caretaker of the cemetery!

This is a picture of the monastery’s cathedral.

Pretty plain for a ‘cathedral’ right? Well, I guess it was built back in the 10th or 11th century! We learned that for a building to be a cathedral it doesn’t have to be big and grand- all it needs is for a Bishop’s throne to be there. I guess this monastery had a Bishop for hundreds of years- at one time Glendalough was higher in religious status than Dublin.

This is a building called “St. Kevin’s Kitchen” I believe. It was misnamed because originally they thought that small bell tower was a chimney and they assumed it had been where the monks used to cook. In fact, this was actually a small church. It’s really famous in Ireland and some even refer to it as the “Mount Rushmore of Ireland.” Btw, it’s named after St. Kevin because he is the priest who founded the monastery back in the 6th century!

I actually wished we’d had more time to look around the cemetery but with the guided tour it was sort of hard to do. Then afterwards we went on a two-hour hike up the mountain. At first I wasn’t going to go because it was already thinner air and the night before I’d woke up not being able to breath. But I had my inhaler with so I figured I would give it a shot. It wasn’t too bad, but I did need my inhaler a couple of times. I think it was only about three miles, but the scenery was beautiful! I kept trying to take pictures to capture how beautiful it was- but I think it was one of those scenes where you truly can’t capture it unless you’re actually there!

(Oh and our good weather has finally left us- the cold came in yesterday, and the rains began today. Welcome to Ireland!)



permalink written by  kmr788 on June 6, 2009 from Glendalough, Ireland
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Night at the Museum

Dublin, Ireland


Well the first week of my internship has come and gone and so far it’s been great. The first two days were the best as I feel I got to see a lot of the different museum aspects. On Monday the Keeper (/curator) of the Natural History Museum took us with him as he ran some different errands among the different Museums. (The National Museum has four branches along with several storage facilities.)

First we went to the Museum of History at the Collin’s Barracks and got to see some of the “behind the scenes” stuff. The Museum is always closed on Mondays so we got to see a lot of the internal work that goes on. We went past the conservation room and saw them repairing some old furniture, and then saw the small Natural History exhibit they had there (since the main Natural History Museum is closed) and met some of the people who are working on cataloguing all the Museum’s specimens.

Next we went to one of their storage facilities, which is massive! There are so many boxes of specimens and artifacts there that Nigel (the Keeper) told us some of the crates that they acquired as far back as the 1960s still haven’t even been opened! Crazy! It was amazing to realize that the “small” amount of artifacts and specimens the Museum has on display is really only one small portion of all that they really have.

We got to see one area where they were working on cleaning different bones they had gotten and a store room that was filled with animal bones, such as huge antlers and whale ribs and what not. I don’t think I ever mentioned too that when I went in for my interview and took a tour of the Natural History Museum I got to see some of Charles Darwin’s actual collections that he himself gathered and labeled and then donated to the Museum. I LOVE working in a place that has so much amazing history! Even the building itself holds tons of history with it being over 150 years old.

Tuesday we worked a little bit in the galleries helping to catalogue specimens. It was amazing- we were opening cases and handling specimens that literally hadn’t been touched in a hundred years! Then we closed up the cases that probably won’t be opened again for another hundred years! It’s just amazing for me to look at some rare coral specimen and see the record number on the side of it’s base, knowing that I was the one who placed that label there! Hehe.

We also had an opportunity Tuesday to take a tour of the Archaeological Museum, which is just down the street from the Natural History Museum. I was actually a little disappointed in this Museum- I had been so excited because I’ve always been interested in archaeology, but I was actually a little bored with it. Plus the tour wasn’t very good. Instead of giving a tour of the expanse of the museum they really just focused on ten or so key items and really went in depth with them. I would have rather the tour been highlighting more items and not going as in depth.

All my coworkers are really nice and really good at including us in on tea breaks and whatnot. Oh, that’s the other thing I love! The Irish LOVE their tea breaks! Which means not only do I get an hour lunch, but also a half-hour tea break around 11a- it really helps to break up the day. They’re all really chill and relaxed here too. We were asking how long our lunch break is and they said they at least take a half hour, but normally an hour or two! Then they said if we ever wanted to take a three-hour break or something to go have lunch with a friend in town then that would be fine! The other day we all went to the café in the Archaeological Museum and had an hour tea break! Hehe

By the way, when I keep saying “we” I mean Blair and I. I’m not sure if I mentioned before that there’s another girl from the BU/Dublin program who is also interning at the Natural History Museum with me. But Blair doesn’t actually go to BU but some small liberal arts college in North Carolina (?). It’s kind of nice having someone else there with me as we experience all these new things together.

Wednesday and Thursday were much less eventful as we basically spent the entire day cataloguing and archiving old museum correspondence. This is fun for the first couple hours, but then gets pretty boring after that. I’m currently working with the correspondence between 1966 and 1970. So what I’m basically doing is reading all the letters that were sent to and from the museum during this time period and then writing up the key information (date, sender, receiver, letter summary) in an excel spreadsheet. Nigel says the point is basically so if some family member of a contributor ever comes and wants to get a specimen back that their great-grandfather or whatever gave to the Museum, we can easily find the correspondence showing the grandfather actually donated, not lent, the specimen to the Museum.

A lot of what we read is people wanting different things identified though, or scientists looking to borrow different specimens for their research. Some of them are pretty interesting though- I got to read one letter from Charles Darwin’s great-grandson! My favorite by far though is the person who sent in a spider asking for it to be identified. The Museum proceeded to send him a letter back saying they couldn’t identify it given that it was actually a fake ‘joke’ spider from a toy store! Haha. I laughed pretty hard at that one! Imagine how stupid that guy must have felt when he got that response back!

After work on Thursday Nigel said we’d be working on some different things next week to help diversify the day a bit- so hopefully next week will have a bit more variety!


permalink written by  kmr788 on June 11, 2009 from Dublin, Ireland
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