I figured I would fill in the space between the last post and Aaron's upcoming one. Our friend Eddie visited last week and I'm sure he'll want to tell you all about that, but to make up for the time he didn't work while he was hanging around and pretending to be a tourist, he's been putting in some extra hours this week. And, I'm sorry to report, that I have given him the cold I had last week, and now he's feeling under the weather. Don't worry, I'm taking good care of him! Hopefully tomorrow he will have the day off to rest and recuperate. Until then, it's daily doses of lemsip and going to bed early. (Can you believe that we both went to sleep at 9:45 the other night?? What happened to us?!) We are obviously ready to become responsible adults. Going to bed early is one thing, but we've also gotten into a nasty habit of waking up before 8!
Part of that is Aaron's work schedule, but another part is the workload that I'm currently facing in school. March is absolutely ridiculous. Now that reading week is over, I'm in the last quarter of my time at Trinity and I am on reading/writing/research overload! We only have 3 weeks left of class!! I'm definitely going to cry at the end of it but right now all the work I need to do is a good distraction. It's hard to be so close to the end of the time when I'm going to have to leave all the wonderful friends we've made in Ireland, and to have so much to do. I just want to spend as much time with them all as possible but this reading-for-a-masters thing is really cutting in on my socializing.
Sir Terry Pratchett, the best-selling author of the Discworld series of fantasy novels (among many others) revisited us this past week for a class on his books. We were asked to read three of his novels: Guards! Guards!, Night Watch, and Thud! I'm personally a big fan of how two out of three of those have exclamation marks in their names. I found Thud! in cd form at the library, so I was able to listen to the story about trolls, dwarves, and the civil servants of this fantastic city in the varying and talented voices of a charming British actor. I should be getting my masters in audiobooks, really, not so much reading :) Sir Pratchett began his talk with a discussion on the character development of his favorite character that he's ever written, Sam Vimes, who, in the three books we read, goes from being an alcoholic in the gutter to a responsible, loving husband and father, and a very professional and assertive commander of the city police force. Character development indeed!
It was an eventual discussion. I had brought several talking points with me but they didn't really come up. Finally, I was thinking one of them needed to be phrased as a question to get Sir Terry to talk about it but I couldn't figure the right way to word it. Then my friend Ian "asked" his question--I put it in quotes because it was then that I realized that I didn't need to have it in question form, I just needed to begin a topic and the author would interrupt me and talk about what he wanted to! And after stopping a couple of my sentences, he did get around to talking about what I wanted to know, and I was very proud of myself afterwards for having a miniature discussion with a millionaire author. When my classmate brought up a point about two characters that he really liked, he got so excited about it he stood up and said "I think I could kiss you!" then ordered the head of our English department to give her all the gold stars, then said "I think I WILL kiss you!" And he did! At the end of it, I got my photo taken with him all on my own this time (he said "I don't understand this fan girl stuff!") and he signed my copy of Guards!Guards! which made it worth whatever I spent on it at Barnes and Noble which I hadn't wanted to spend at the time. Then he asked me and my friends how many pairs of shoes we owned and discussed with us the complexity of women's fashion. After that, his entourage announced he had another engagement and that was the end of all I will probably see of Sir Terry Pratchett in person.
It's been a really exciting and interesting opportunity that Trinity has given me, to not only read popular literature, but to chat with someone who has actually spent their life writing and making millions on it, and on his philosophy on fantasy in general. The last session was a big group of people, but this seemed a lot smaller. I believe it was only my program, a few of our professors, and a couple PhD students. Maybe 25 people, and that was it! A really neat experience all around, but I have to say, trolls and dwarves just may not be my cup of tea.
Our friend Stephen is arriving on Wednesday afternoon to stay with us for about a week, in between some jet setting that's going to be doing around Europe for the most awesome vacation ever. Speaking of awesome vacations, Aaron and I have booked our trips! We'll be spending four amazing days in Rome starting April 2nd, then on the 12th-14th we'll be in London with my class, wandering around the British museums and talking about how cool those Victorians were. Tentatively, it looks like we'll be home before April 30th... on that day, I'd have to take the Praxis test in order to have my results in by the end of May, and I need to be applying for jobs with those test results! It's kind of a big deal. Like I said, this date is tentative, but we're about 89% sure. We're waiting to be 100% before we buy the big tickets and start packing our stuff.
We're looking forward to seeing Arkansas and all of you again! We hope you're all doing well, and we can't wait to hear from you :)
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
March: Irish Awareness Month
So... not many posts for February were there? :( I've been reading all these amazing blogs for the past two years and have always wanted to start one, but now that I've actually had one for some time I realize how hard it is to keep up with it! Things happen and I think "ooo I need to write a blog post about that", and I always forget when I sit down to the computer. But right now... I'm on spring break! And it is the busiest spring break of my life!
If you look to the right, you can see that I've fiddled with our blog a little bit and I've added book progress meters! Now I'll also be able to update what I'm reading for class and how far I am with it. I think I'm addicted to actually seeing progress made. Whenever I was little, my mom would give my sisters and I personalized lists with our chores for the weekend. Each list was specific to us, for what we were capable of doing. I was always a little jealous looking at Jackie's list (she's four years younger than me) because her things were always so much smaller. "Pick up stuffed animals off the floor. Dust the window seat." While my list included the dreaded vacuuming. Mary (three years older than me) always had something more advanced and harder to do, so I could always look to hers feel better about my own! Without the list I would wander around the house not really knowing what to do--my initiative developed later--but with the list, I got stuff DONE. I loved checking things off and looking at the crumply piece of paper at the end of the day that was covered in scratches: my work was complete. A finished list always meant freedom; each scratched off task was closer and closer to getting to play guilt free! (Of course, let's face it, a finished list for me was a rarity. Like I said, the initiative came along later...)
Up through high school I was incredibly disorganized. I always lost papers, turned things in late, and unfortunately had very forgiving teachers so I didn't feel any pressure to get anything together. In college, I found that pressure, rediscovered the list, and became the organized student I was meant to be! I have carried the practice over to grad school and it is so helpful. I've learned that I need boundaries and rules, and most importantly a list of things to do--otherwise I will wander around, flip through books, write something that doesn't make sense, and feel unprepared in class. The progress bars on the side are a sort of "list" for my books. As much as I love to see things checked off I love to see where I am on those progress meters!
If you notice, after this reading week is over, we'll dive into young adult fiction with Harry Potter and Twilight. Very exciting, and I think it will be a very polarized week. Most people will talk about how much they just loooove Harry Potter; Thursday, we will all hate on Twilight! For my Lost Worlds options class, I'm reading Pharos the Egyptian, because the Victorians were obsessed with ancient Egypt! And finally, the exciting news: Terry Pratchett is returning to have a special class with us. In order to have this class and discuss fantasy with him, he wants us to read three of his books first (clever marketing strategy if you ask me!) from his Discworld series. Incidently, whenever I've typed Discworld, it always seems to turn into Disco world.
Aaron and I are both busy putting together resumes, applying to jobs, trying to make as many connections as possible for being on the other side of the world in order to be able to further our careers when we get back home. Prayers are definitely appreciated on this front. I think I have paper topics figured out, which was a huge burden on my shoulders--I've been worried lately that I wouldn't be able to find a dissertation topic with enough time to research it while we're here, but the past few days a couple ideas have been rolling around in my brain and I think they fit together really well. I may or may not be doing a dissertation on the dime novels of the American west. How fun would that be??
For the next blog post, you'll hear from Aaron. I've sort of taken over this responsibility and I don't know how that happened! I'm not even very good at it (see February) ;) Love you all!
If you look to the right, you can see that I've fiddled with our blog a little bit and I've added book progress meters! Now I'll also be able to update what I'm reading for class and how far I am with it. I think I'm addicted to actually seeing progress made. Whenever I was little, my mom would give my sisters and I personalized lists with our chores for the weekend. Each list was specific to us, for what we were capable of doing. I was always a little jealous looking at Jackie's list (she's four years younger than me) because her things were always so much smaller. "Pick up stuffed animals off the floor. Dust the window seat." While my list included the dreaded vacuuming. Mary (three years older than me) always had something more advanced and harder to do, so I could always look to hers feel better about my own! Without the list I would wander around the house not really knowing what to do--my initiative developed later--but with the list, I got stuff DONE. I loved checking things off and looking at the crumply piece of paper at the end of the day that was covered in scratches: my work was complete. A finished list always meant freedom; each scratched off task was closer and closer to getting to play guilt free! (Of course, let's face it, a finished list for me was a rarity. Like I said, the initiative came along later...)
Up through high school I was incredibly disorganized. I always lost papers, turned things in late, and unfortunately had very forgiving teachers so I didn't feel any pressure to get anything together. In college, I found that pressure, rediscovered the list, and became the organized student I was meant to be! I have carried the practice over to grad school and it is so helpful. I've learned that I need boundaries and rules, and most importantly a list of things to do--otherwise I will wander around, flip through books, write something that doesn't make sense, and feel unprepared in class. The progress bars on the side are a sort of "list" for my books. As much as I love to see things checked off I love to see where I am on those progress meters!
If you notice, after this reading week is over, we'll dive into young adult fiction with Harry Potter and Twilight. Very exciting, and I think it will be a very polarized week. Most people will talk about how much they just loooove Harry Potter; Thursday, we will all hate on Twilight! For my Lost Worlds options class, I'm reading Pharos the Egyptian, because the Victorians were obsessed with ancient Egypt! And finally, the exciting news: Terry Pratchett is returning to have a special class with us. In order to have this class and discuss fantasy with him, he wants us to read three of his books first (clever marketing strategy if you ask me!) from his Discworld series. Incidently, whenever I've typed Discworld, it always seems to turn into Disco world.
Aaron and I are both busy putting together resumes, applying to jobs, trying to make as many connections as possible for being on the other side of the world in order to be able to further our careers when we get back home. Prayers are definitely appreciated on this front. I think I have paper topics figured out, which was a huge burden on my shoulders--I've been worried lately that I wouldn't be able to find a dissertation topic with enough time to research it while we're here, but the past few days a couple ideas have been rolling around in my brain and I think they fit together really well. I may or may not be doing a dissertation on the dime novels of the American west. How fun would that be??
For the next blog post, you'll hear from Aaron. I've sort of taken over this responsibility and I don't know how that happened! I'm not even very good at it (see February) ;) Love you all!
Thursday, February 10, 2011
What We've Been Up To: Homework and Hangouts!
Hello all! I can't believe the emails I have been getting from my parents... 22 inches of snow in Northwest Arkansas! The photos my mom sent along from yesterday were ridiculous. The snow looked like it was going to swallow up their house--at least half of the windows were covered! I hope you all have stocked up on groceries and are settling in with your movie collection and hot chocolate. We would love to be there to celebrate the freakish weather with you all, but for now, we're enjoying what feels like springtime in Dublin. It's been overcast a lot lately, which I've discovered is something that I really enjoy for the days when I don't have to walk into city center. I used to think that I could only read in the post grad reading room, but lately I've found that reading at home is so much more productive/cozier for me. Typically I open the shades (and the sun doesn't make me too hot or bother me, because remember, this is Ireland and it's cloudy all the time) and maybe crack the window to get a little breeze. We have a nice little lamp in the corner that makes it feel homey and I make myself some tea, or hot chocolate, or coffee, and wrap myself up in my snuggie (which my older sister got us for Christmas--thanks, Mary!) and get to reading! Really, can homework get any better than that?
Lately, however, I've taken to a new kind of "reading"--that is, audio books! I've found a website that provides audio books to download for free, since all the books that they're recording are way out of copyright. I think the rule is that a book doesn't go out of copy right and become available to the public until the author has been dead for 80 years. Looks like I learned something from that research methods class! So authors like Charles Dickens will have his works all over the internet in textual or audio form, but James Joyce's works (who passed away in 1941, thanks wikipedia) won't be available to us to get for free (legally) until 2021.
Audio books are great because I can get a lot of stuff done around the apartment while still doing homework. I've listened to audio books while doing dishes, cleaning the kitchen, baking goodies, and my personal favorite: while doing crafts! I've been crocheting an afghan during our time here, and working on a hexagon quilt. Both have made a lot of progress since the discovery of audio books. The other thing that's great about them is that I can put them on my iphone and listen to them while walking into town or on the bus. I love being a literature major--I can do my homework anywhere!
In other news, Aaron and I were happily able to watch the Super Bowl here in Ireland after some dramatic finagling in city center. We made plans with a group of friends to watch it at a restaurant on Grafton Street called "Captain America's!" They are, you guessed it, an American themed restaurant with all the good stuff--burgers, fries, quesadillas, ginormous brownies and ice cream, etc. They were going to be playing the game and serving hot dogs at halftime! How American! Aaron and I got there first to hold our table and unfortunately found out that there was a ten euro cover charge per person. And that that hot dogs cost five euro at halftime. We definitely could not afford that, since we were hoping to eat dinner there and did not want to end up spending around 40 euro on one evening to watch a football game and some awesome commercials. We headed over to our friends', the Bees, apartment to use their internet and find a plan B. Plan B ended up being that we found a live stream of the game and were able to hang out in a cozy apartment with our friends, rather than sitting in a noisy restaurant or pub, and we saved a lot of money getting cheap takeout. We only stayed for half the game, since it was airing live, which meant that it started at 11 for us. We did get to catch a lot of funny commercials, Christiana Augelera forgetting the words to the National Anthem, and the crazy lead the Packers got in the first half. We heard it got pretty close in the second, but since Aaron had work the next day, we hailed a cab around 1 am and headed home.
Aaron's work is going really well. He really loves working at game and today he has his favorite shift: 8:30-3:00! He had to wake up early to get there on time, but he gets to come home early and relax for the whole afternoon! His boss and his wife had us over Monday night to watch a UFC match he had recorded, and we had a great time with them eating pizza and chatting. They're a really fun couple to hang out with, and I'm so looking forward to spending four days with them in Rome!
Enjoy the snow days, friends and family and stay safe! We love you all and we hope to talk with you soon :)
 |
| Here I am, trying out my snuggie for the first time at my parents' house over the break. Aaron's a huge fan of it, because it's actually long enough to go over his feet (he's so tall)! |
Lately, however, I've taken to a new kind of "reading"--that is, audio books! I've found a website that provides audio books to download for free, since all the books that they're recording are way out of copyright. I think the rule is that a book doesn't go out of copy right and become available to the public until the author has been dead for 80 years. Looks like I learned something from that research methods class! So authors like Charles Dickens will have his works all over the internet in textual or audio form, but James Joyce's works (who passed away in 1941, thanks wikipedia) won't be available to us to get for free (legally) until 2021.
Audio books are great because I can get a lot of stuff done around the apartment while still doing homework. I've listened to audio books while doing dishes, cleaning the kitchen, baking goodies, and my personal favorite: while doing crafts! I've been crocheting an afghan during our time here, and working on a hexagon quilt. Both have made a lot of progress since the discovery of audio books. The other thing that's great about them is that I can put them on my iphone and listen to them while walking into town or on the bus. I love being a literature major--I can do my homework anywhere!
In other news, Aaron and I were happily able to watch the Super Bowl here in Ireland after some dramatic finagling in city center. We made plans with a group of friends to watch it at a restaurant on Grafton Street called "Captain America's!" They are, you guessed it, an American themed restaurant with all the good stuff--burgers, fries, quesadillas, ginormous brownies and ice cream, etc. They were going to be playing the game and serving hot dogs at halftime! How American! Aaron and I got there first to hold our table and unfortunately found out that there was a ten euro cover charge per person. And that that hot dogs cost five euro at halftime. We definitely could not afford that, since we were hoping to eat dinner there and did not want to end up spending around 40 euro on one evening to watch a football game and some awesome commercials. We headed over to our friends', the Bees, apartment to use their internet and find a plan B. Plan B ended up being that we found a live stream of the game and were able to hang out in a cozy apartment with our friends, rather than sitting in a noisy restaurant or pub, and we saved a lot of money getting cheap takeout. We only stayed for half the game, since it was airing live, which meant that it started at 11 for us. We did get to catch a lot of funny commercials, Christiana Augelera forgetting the words to the National Anthem, and the crazy lead the Packers got in the first half. We heard it got pretty close in the second, but since Aaron had work the next day, we hailed a cab around 1 am and headed home.
Aaron's work is going really well. He really loves working at game and today he has his favorite shift: 8:30-3:00! He had to wake up early to get there on time, but he gets to come home early and relax for the whole afternoon! His boss and his wife had us over Monday night to watch a UFC match he had recorded, and we had a great time with them eating pizza and chatting. They're a really fun couple to hang out with, and I'm so looking forward to spending four days with them in Rome!
Enjoy the snow days, friends and family and stay safe! We love you all and we hope to talk with you soon :)
Monday, January 31, 2011
Adventuring
Last semester we seemed busy enough just getting used to life in Dublin. We learned how to navigate the city, the transportation, and our respective schedules. Looking back, I feel pretty accomplished to know that we just packed up and moved to a foreign country and still have our sanity intact. Aaron and I feel closer, our marriage is stronger, and we both feel a new sense of confidence in ourselves as capable adults who can handle big, scary transitions. That being said, now that we feel settled in Dublin, this semester is going to be busy in a different way. We've got all kinds of trips planned so that we will be able to see Ireland and other parts of Europe in the limited time that we have left here. We've got to fit it all in so we had a pow-wow and figured out one big trip we want to go on for each month. This month was Howth (again)! Aaron and I loved our last experience in Howth, and this time we invited all of our friends to come along.
It was a pretty early call time for some (10 am at the train station!) but we had a pretty good sized group for our 3 and a half hour hike around the coastal mountain. We took a different trail that we had previously, and this one was much shorter, in order to accommodate the varying hiking skills of our group. Everyone had a blast, took tons of pictures, and had some good laughs. This trip was totally different from the last one, in that we had SUNSHINE! We love the sun, and I didn't realize how much I had missed it! It has been overcast for most of the time since we've been back, but since our trip Saturday, we've had glorious sunshiney days :) I'm so happy... At the end of the trip, we finished everything with delicious food, feeling that we deserved an excellent meal for all the walking we did. It's almost a requirement, that when you go to Howth, you have fish and chips, so that's what we all got! It was delicious. I'd never had battered haddock before, but I can say now that I'm a fan. After that, we headed back down to the pier and had some ice cream cones before hopping onto the train and heading back to Dublin.
For February, we're hoping to organize a big trip around the Ring of Kerry, which is the most scenic drive in Ireland. March, our friend Stephen comes to visit us for the whole week following St. Patrick's Day and we may do some travelling with him. April is our big month--that's when I finish the program, we have a class trip to London, and following London, Aaron and I will be going to ROME. We're going to be going with Aaron's boss and his wife for four days, and they found a great package deal that includes plane tickets and a three star hotel! We're so excited about this semester and we're doing our best to really appreciate all the time that we're spending in Dublin. It's so strange to see the end of our time here in sight, and we're really hoping to make the most of it.
I just posted all of our Howth pictures on my facebook account, so if you're friends with us, head over there to have a look! This has been a quick post because I have homework to do :( Talk to you all soon!!
It was a pretty early call time for some (10 am at the train station!) but we had a pretty good sized group for our 3 and a half hour hike around the coastal mountain. We took a different trail that we had previously, and this one was much shorter, in order to accommodate the varying hiking skills of our group. Everyone had a blast, took tons of pictures, and had some good laughs. This trip was totally different from the last one, in that we had SUNSHINE! We love the sun, and I didn't realize how much I had missed it! It has been overcast for most of the time since we've been back, but since our trip Saturday, we've had glorious sunshiney days :) I'm so happy... At the end of the trip, we finished everything with delicious food, feeling that we deserved an excellent meal for all the walking we did. It's almost a requirement, that when you go to Howth, you have fish and chips, so that's what we all got! It was delicious. I'd never had battered haddock before, but I can say now that I'm a fan. After that, we headed back down to the pier and had some ice cream cones before hopping onto the train and heading back to Dublin.
For February, we're hoping to organize a big trip around the Ring of Kerry, which is the most scenic drive in Ireland. March, our friend Stephen comes to visit us for the whole week following St. Patrick's Day and we may do some travelling with him. April is our big month--that's when I finish the program, we have a class trip to London, and following London, Aaron and I will be going to ROME. We're going to be going with Aaron's boss and his wife for four days, and they found a great package deal that includes plane tickets and a three star hotel! We're so excited about this semester and we're doing our best to really appreciate all the time that we're spending in Dublin. It's so strange to see the end of our time here in sight, and we're really hoping to make the most of it.
I just posted all of our Howth pictures on my facebook account, so if you're friends with us, head over there to have a look! This has been a quick post because I have homework to do :( Talk to you all soon!!
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Back in Dublin!
Hello all! Aaron and I arrived safely back in Dublin early early early Friday morning (like 6:00 early!). We have been so blessed in our travels, and we have yet to experience a delayed, missed, or canceled flight, and all of our luggage has always arrived with us! We left for our visit home on the 29th of December, and because of the time change, it was like we went back in time... we woke up in Dublin at 4:30 to grab our cab which arrived at a quarter til five, made it to the airport like three hours before our plane took off because we heard it was tough to get through security to go to America. We went through customs like it was nothing, and after all the standing in lines, only had to wait about an hour or so to get on the plane.
After that 8ish hour flight, we arrived in Atlanta at four in the afternoon, and then Little Rock around six. At this point, it felt like it was midnight to us. My parents, after all the hugs and teary expressions, took us out to the Purple Cow, always one of my favorite restaurants in Little Rock. I've been there on birthdays, dates with my dad, and it was also the location of my bachelorette party! There's always a million kids, delicious milkshakes and amazing food. It was fantastic. By the time we got back to Northwest Arkansas, we had been up for 25 hours! I didn't even do that in college!
While we were visiting Arkansas, we filled up on family time, hanging out with friends, and eating all the food that we can't find in Ireland. I think we had Wendy's on three separate occasions, and there was also a slight binge on candy that we can only find in the states (like Whoppers... mmmmmm) We ate out a lot, but we also had a lot of really delicious home cooking from both mine and Aaron's moms. It was just really nice to be around parents again and to not have to think about the responsibilities of making food and washing dishes. I think I really needed a break from taking care of my apartment and I'm very much looking forward to the day when I can have a dishwasher again! Everyone we stayed with were excellent hosts and we so appreciate you guys having us and taking care of us for the short time we were with you. We missed America so much more than we realized, and it was really tough to get back on the plane and leave all those wonderful relationships for a second time.
That's not to say that we weren't excited to go back to Ireland when we left on the 14th! Aaron's mom drove us to the airport and we again, had no issue with the airport or planes. Security was a little suspicious of Aaron's Christmas present from the Richardsons (the magic fushigi ball!) but when we told them what it was, they laughed and sent us on our way. The flight from Atlanta to Dublin experienced some really intense turbulence the last hour and a half of the flight. People were getting airsick and throwing up, the pilot told us to keep our seatbelts fastened probably twelve times, the flight attendants were looking super nervous and getting pretty snippy with each other, and a little boy almost knocked over my orange juice on his way to the bathroom to barf. All signs from a movie that something is wrong with the plane and we are going to crash. Thankfully we didn't (or we would have called you or you would have seen it on the news). Everything was absolutely silent, like the whole plane was holding its breath, while we were landing. You could hear a pin drop if it weren't for those pesky engines. Everything was wobbly and really intense, and when we finally hit the ground it was a hard thud, not the gentle easing down that you usually experience. Then the plane wobbled some more, then everyone started talking about how relieved they were!
We hopped on a bus, then hopped on a tram, then walked the rest of the way to our apartment. We crashed so hard, and didn't wake up until 2 or 3 in the afternoon, at which point we decided we needed food and internet to let people know we made it alive. Aaron attacked the technical set-up issues and I went out and bought a couple day's worth of groceries. The rest of the day we just sat around, and I worked on my papers, perfecting them until I had to turn them in on Monday by four.
I'm pretty proud of my papers, but nervous that there is a mysterious typo that I didn't catch, or that my professors will grade super harsh. The grading scale is different, so someone will definitely have to explain to me if I've done a good job. But, I did my best and that's about all I can do! Aaron started work Monday and yesterday I had my first class, so we're jumping right back into our routine! We're both looking forward to our next few months in Dublin and we hope to make the most of them.
After that 8ish hour flight, we arrived in Atlanta at four in the afternoon, and then Little Rock around six. At this point, it felt like it was midnight to us. My parents, after all the hugs and teary expressions, took us out to the Purple Cow, always one of my favorite restaurants in Little Rock. I've been there on birthdays, dates with my dad, and it was also the location of my bachelorette party! There's always a million kids, delicious milkshakes and amazing food. It was fantastic. By the time we got back to Northwest Arkansas, we had been up for 25 hours! I didn't even do that in college!
While we were visiting Arkansas, we filled up on family time, hanging out with friends, and eating all the food that we can't find in Ireland. I think we had Wendy's on three separate occasions, and there was also a slight binge on candy that we can only find in the states (like Whoppers... mmmmmm) We ate out a lot, but we also had a lot of really delicious home cooking from both mine and Aaron's moms. It was just really nice to be around parents again and to not have to think about the responsibilities of making food and washing dishes. I think I really needed a break from taking care of my apartment and I'm very much looking forward to the day when I can have a dishwasher again! Everyone we stayed with were excellent hosts and we so appreciate you guys having us and taking care of us for the short time we were with you. We missed America so much more than we realized, and it was really tough to get back on the plane and leave all those wonderful relationships for a second time.
That's not to say that we weren't excited to go back to Ireland when we left on the 14th! Aaron's mom drove us to the airport and we again, had no issue with the airport or planes. Security was a little suspicious of Aaron's Christmas present from the Richardsons (the magic fushigi ball!) but when we told them what it was, they laughed and sent us on our way. The flight from Atlanta to Dublin experienced some really intense turbulence the last hour and a half of the flight. People were getting airsick and throwing up, the pilot told us to keep our seatbelts fastened probably twelve times, the flight attendants were looking super nervous and getting pretty snippy with each other, and a little boy almost knocked over my orange juice on his way to the bathroom to barf. All signs from a movie that something is wrong with the plane and we are going to crash. Thankfully we didn't (or we would have called you or you would have seen it on the news). Everything was absolutely silent, like the whole plane was holding its breath, while we were landing. You could hear a pin drop if it weren't for those pesky engines. Everything was wobbly and really intense, and when we finally hit the ground it was a hard thud, not the gentle easing down that you usually experience. Then the plane wobbled some more, then everyone started talking about how relieved they were!
We hopped on a bus, then hopped on a tram, then walked the rest of the way to our apartment. We crashed so hard, and didn't wake up until 2 or 3 in the afternoon, at which point we decided we needed food and internet to let people know we made it alive. Aaron attacked the technical set-up issues and I went out and bought a couple day's worth of groceries. The rest of the day we just sat around, and I worked on my papers, perfecting them until I had to turn them in on Monday by four.
I'm pretty proud of my papers, but nervous that there is a mysterious typo that I didn't catch, or that my professors will grade super harsh. The grading scale is different, so someone will definitely have to explain to me if I've done a good job. But, I did my best and that's about all I can do! Aaron started work Monday and yesterday I had my first class, so we're jumping right back into our routine! We're both looking forward to our next few months in Dublin and we hope to make the most of them.
Sunday, December 26, 2010
A Month of Updating!
Winter is here, and as you can see, we've been doing a little bit of blog-hibernating. This post promises to be a pretty full one, since several things have happened these past few weeks that have definitely been out of the norm for us.
First: it snowed. Winters in Ireland are supposed to be pretty mild. They only get snow once in a blue moon, and when it snowed this past January, it pretty much shut down the country because they don't have the infrastructure to deal with it. So they all chalked up January to some freak event, and thought that it wouldn't happen for another 30 years, since that's apparently how long it traditionally is between snowstorms for Ireland. But all they had to do was wait until December, and they would get the snow storm of their lives! The day after our Thanksgiving celebration, it snowed, as I told you in the last post. But when I wrote that post, I didn't know it would keep snowing daily for about 12 days, nor did I know that Trinity was going to close campus for two days because of it. I had only one day of class that week... that means a six-day weekend for me!
Game, however, never shut down. It never adjusted its times for opening and closing, and for a week straight, Aaron had to walk the 45 minutes into town through the snow. He had a really good attitude about it all week and I'm not going to lie, I am pretty proud of him!
Second, my computer died, which means Skype is currently unavailable to us. Randomly one night it just crashed. I tried to restart it and the start up screen told me that a Windows file was either lost or corrupted. It was the scary type of start up screen... not with the fancy logos but with the creepy computer type, like all old computers used to type in, so you know something serious is wrong! Aaron's been working on fixing the computer on his days off, but it looks like we might have to wait until we get home to get a Window's disk and reinstall Windows on my computer. We've missed Skype so much. We haven't had a chance to talk to anyone since Thanksgiving, and that's been pretty rough lately.
(Third)... especially since I got sick. The week after the freak snow storm on the following Tuesday, I was sitting in class, enjoying an excellent lecture on the Turn of the Screw (probably as vague as ghost stories get) and thinking, "this is weird, I feel kind of achey." My skin was all of the sudden super sensitive, like it gets whenever you have the flu. After class, I grabbed a sprite (my sick drink of choice) and met Aaron at his work so we could ride the bus home together. We picked up some Chinese food on the way because I definitely did not feel like cooking, and I realized my appetite was gone. I went to bed early that night and woke up feeling even worse. I definitely had a fever, and when I checked it that morning, it was 101.9! I haven't felt that sick in a long time... Aaron took great care of me, and I had yet another six-day weekend, since I didn't go back to class on Thursday. When Aaron had to go in to work, my friend Elizabeth, who also lives in Trinity Hall, came by and brought me food and medicine and movies to watch (I never thought I would enjoy 17 again so much). Finally, I went back to school the following week, which was the last week of school.
That last week was really interesting, since the core course covered Chick Lit, and my last Victorian Child course discussed The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. I had to read three Norah Roberts novels, P.S. I Love You, and several others. I've never had to read that much for one week... it was seven novels total! But now that school is over, I've been focusing completely on the papers I have to turn in by January 17th, and getting a first draft of them done before we leave on the 29th!
Aaron's boss had him work until close on Christmas Eve, which was 5:30, but he had Christmas and today off! Today is St. Stephen's Day (also known as Boxing Day in England) and Ireland's version of Black Friday. All week we've been seeing ads for all the deals the big department stores are putting up. We're happy to stay in today... I would hate to see what Grafton Street is like! The only shopping I did this morning was to our local Centra to pick up some milk and eggs so we could have french toast for breakfast. :)
Our Christmas was wonderful, but we missed our families so much. Christmas Eve we experienced an authentic Polish celebration, complete with periogi (a filled dumpling that's fried and eaten with sour cream) and borscht! (beet soup with dumplings floating in it, whose names I forget.) Our friend from Canada, Mika, is 100% Polish, so she introduced us to the way her family does Christmas. I went over in the early afternoon and together we made bread, carrot cake, and potatoes and helped Mika finish up the borscht. Her cousin from L.A. flew in, and a fellow resident of Trinity Hall also came over (and she's from Louisiana and had a cousin that went to UCA so we actually talked in detail about Conway... which was really cool) so there were five of us to celebrate Christmas Eve!
Christmas morning, Aaron and I woke up and I made us some cinnamon rolls. It was my first time so they weren't the most amazing things, but we have many more Christmases to go for me to perfect the recipe! Aaron read the Christmas story from Luke and then we sang Happy Birthday to Jesus. We exchanged presents to each other. I got Aaron a novel that I think he'll enjoy reading, since it's about adventure and hunting, and some chocolates and a little notebook, and he got me a jinormous book of craft projects!! After that, we went on a walk around Trinity Hall and played in the snow, and then spent the rest of the day lounging around. For dinner, we had quite a spread. I made a roast chicken with stuffing, roasted potatoes, braided bread, and cinnamon apple sauce! I'm pretty excited about the leftovers too...
We're both so excited about coming home in just three days!! More than any other time, we've really missed everyone during Christmas. We hope you all had a great Christmas and we look forward to seeing you :)
First: it snowed. Winters in Ireland are supposed to be pretty mild. They only get snow once in a blue moon, and when it snowed this past January, it pretty much shut down the country because they don't have the infrastructure to deal with it. So they all chalked up January to some freak event, and thought that it wouldn't happen for another 30 years, since that's apparently how long it traditionally is between snowstorms for Ireland. But all they had to do was wait until December, and they would get the snow storm of their lives! The day after our Thanksgiving celebration, it snowed, as I told you in the last post. But when I wrote that post, I didn't know it would keep snowing daily for about 12 days, nor did I know that Trinity was going to close campus for two days because of it. I had only one day of class that week... that means a six-day weekend for me!
Game, however, never shut down. It never adjusted its times for opening and closing, and for a week straight, Aaron had to walk the 45 minutes into town through the snow. He had a really good attitude about it all week and I'm not going to lie, I am pretty proud of him!
Second, my computer died, which means Skype is currently unavailable to us. Randomly one night it just crashed. I tried to restart it and the start up screen told me that a Windows file was either lost or corrupted. It was the scary type of start up screen... not with the fancy logos but with the creepy computer type, like all old computers used to type in, so you know something serious is wrong! Aaron's been working on fixing the computer on his days off, but it looks like we might have to wait until we get home to get a Window's disk and reinstall Windows on my computer. We've missed Skype so much. We haven't had a chance to talk to anyone since Thanksgiving, and that's been pretty rough lately.
(Third)... especially since I got sick. The week after the freak snow storm on the following Tuesday, I was sitting in class, enjoying an excellent lecture on the Turn of the Screw (probably as vague as ghost stories get) and thinking, "this is weird, I feel kind of achey." My skin was all of the sudden super sensitive, like it gets whenever you have the flu. After class, I grabbed a sprite (my sick drink of choice) and met Aaron at his work so we could ride the bus home together. We picked up some Chinese food on the way because I definitely did not feel like cooking, and I realized my appetite was gone. I went to bed early that night and woke up feeling even worse. I definitely had a fever, and when I checked it that morning, it was 101.9! I haven't felt that sick in a long time... Aaron took great care of me, and I had yet another six-day weekend, since I didn't go back to class on Thursday. When Aaron had to go in to work, my friend Elizabeth, who also lives in Trinity Hall, came by and brought me food and medicine and movies to watch (I never thought I would enjoy 17 again so much). Finally, I went back to school the following week, which was the last week of school.
That last week was really interesting, since the core course covered Chick Lit, and my last Victorian Child course discussed The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. I had to read three Norah Roberts novels, P.S. I Love You, and several others. I've never had to read that much for one week... it was seven novels total! But now that school is over, I've been focusing completely on the papers I have to turn in by January 17th, and getting a first draft of them done before we leave on the 29th!
Aaron's boss had him work until close on Christmas Eve, which was 5:30, but he had Christmas and today off! Today is St. Stephen's Day (also known as Boxing Day in England) and Ireland's version of Black Friday. All week we've been seeing ads for all the deals the big department stores are putting up. We're happy to stay in today... I would hate to see what Grafton Street is like! The only shopping I did this morning was to our local Centra to pick up some milk and eggs so we could have french toast for breakfast. :)
Our Christmas was wonderful, but we missed our families so much. Christmas Eve we experienced an authentic Polish celebration, complete with periogi (a filled dumpling that's fried and eaten with sour cream) and borscht! (beet soup with dumplings floating in it, whose names I forget.) Our friend from Canada, Mika, is 100% Polish, so she introduced us to the way her family does Christmas. I went over in the early afternoon and together we made bread, carrot cake, and potatoes and helped Mika finish up the borscht. Her cousin from L.A. flew in, and a fellow resident of Trinity Hall also came over (and she's from Louisiana and had a cousin that went to UCA so we actually talked in detail about Conway... which was really cool) so there were five of us to celebrate Christmas Eve!
Christmas morning, Aaron and I woke up and I made us some cinnamon rolls. It was my first time so they weren't the most amazing things, but we have many more Christmases to go for me to perfect the recipe! Aaron read the Christmas story from Luke and then we sang Happy Birthday to Jesus. We exchanged presents to each other. I got Aaron a novel that I think he'll enjoy reading, since it's about adventure and hunting, and some chocolates and a little notebook, and he got me a jinormous book of craft projects!! After that, we went on a walk around Trinity Hall and played in the snow, and then spent the rest of the day lounging around. For dinner, we had quite a spread. I made a roast chicken with stuffing, roasted potatoes, braided bread, and cinnamon apple sauce! I'm pretty excited about the leftovers too...
We're both so excited about coming home in just three days!! More than any other time, we've really missed everyone during Christmas. We hope you all had a great Christmas and we look forward to seeing you :)
Monday, November 29, 2010
Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving has come and gone already! I can't believe how fast this semester has gone by already. It seems like just the other day we stepped off the plane and gathered up our bajillion suitcases and set up house. We came into this empty dorm-ish apartment, and after purchasing the necessary kitchen items, bedding, and the beginnings of a craft stash for me, it finally started to feel like home. At this point, I feel like we're finally established in Dublin, to sit here comfortably for many more months to come until the dissertation in completed and I get that special sheet of paper I came here for. What has really settled it for me--what really makes it feel like it's our place--is playing hostess!
I hosted my first ever Thanksgiving on Friday. We couldn't find a turkey in Dublin (they're usually not available until around Christmastime) so we settled for a prestuffed chicken (thank you Donnes stores!) and a roast to feed about a dozen people that had confirmed that they were coming. I spent all of Friday cooking and cleaning in preparation for the afternoon's festivities and I had a blast putting everything together. I made two loaves of braided bread, an apple crisp, and my Momma's famous pumpkin roll! It was a potluck style celebration, so everyone who came contributed a dish. Mrs. Bee brought stuffed mushrooms (amazing) and Mr. Bee made an authentic green bean casserole! Mika worked hard peeling, boiling, and mashing three pounds of potatoes and it paid off! They were delicious. Other friends brought the utensils, plates, and decorations, puddings, tarts, and meringue cookies for desserts, and yummy appetizers like meat trays, cheeses, and smoked fish! We had an abundance of food and a great group of people to share it with.
Aaron and I are incredibly thankful for the opportunity to be here and have the relationships we have made in this city. It's been a great ride so far! We are so lucky to be able to celebrate like this. Before we started eating, Aaron led us in prayer, thanking God for the food that we were eating that many people in the world would never get to experience. Of course, we followed this up with the Thanksgiving tradition of going around and telling everyone what we were thankful for. Mrs. Bee mentioned Skype--it's amazing how appreciative we are of that!!
Aaron and I both got to talk to our families on Thanksgiving day. At ten pm our time, we saw the Knetzer side of things, as the family celebrated in Indiana. It was really tough for me not to be with them for the second year in a row. Then, an hour later, we talked with the Kopfs--this was the first time we've had a chance to talk to Aaron's brothers since we left, and it was so great! I alternated between laughing and tearing up. It's tough enough to be away from family, but the holidays make it even tougher! We're so looking forward to coming home... one month from today!!
Now that Thanksgiving is over, I'm so excited about Christmas. Everyone knows the day after Thanksgiving is when you start decorating for Christmas, right...? Well, that's what Ireland did for us on Saturday.
It snowed!! We were totally caught off guard (those are the best snow days). Aaron still had to go to work, none of the city really shut down, the buses were still running, so it didn't snow that much... but it was enough to be exciting and to make everything look beautiful!! As of today, Monday, school is still on and students are still leaving Trinity Hall for their classes. I don't know how much snow it takes for school to get canceled, but I heard it wasn't supposed to be much. Ireland doesn't really have the infrastructure to deal with a lot of snow/clean up the roads, etc. Maybe someday it will happen...
For some reason, blogspot isn't letting me post pictures, so I'll upload the most recent ones to my facebook page so you guys can see what we've been up to! Maybe later I'll come back and add some photos here... Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We are counting down the days until we're in America!
I hosted my first ever Thanksgiving on Friday. We couldn't find a turkey in Dublin (they're usually not available until around Christmastime) so we settled for a prestuffed chicken (thank you Donnes stores!) and a roast to feed about a dozen people that had confirmed that they were coming. I spent all of Friday cooking and cleaning in preparation for the afternoon's festivities and I had a blast putting everything together. I made two loaves of braided bread, an apple crisp, and my Momma's famous pumpkin roll! It was a potluck style celebration, so everyone who came contributed a dish. Mrs. Bee brought stuffed mushrooms (amazing) and Mr. Bee made an authentic green bean casserole! Mika worked hard peeling, boiling, and mashing three pounds of potatoes and it paid off! They were delicious. Other friends brought the utensils, plates, and decorations, puddings, tarts, and meringue cookies for desserts, and yummy appetizers like meat trays, cheeses, and smoked fish! We had an abundance of food and a great group of people to share it with.
Aaron and I are incredibly thankful for the opportunity to be here and have the relationships we have made in this city. It's been a great ride so far! We are so lucky to be able to celebrate like this. Before we started eating, Aaron led us in prayer, thanking God for the food that we were eating that many people in the world would never get to experience. Of course, we followed this up with the Thanksgiving tradition of going around and telling everyone what we were thankful for. Mrs. Bee mentioned Skype--it's amazing how appreciative we are of that!!
Aaron and I both got to talk to our families on Thanksgiving day. At ten pm our time, we saw the Knetzer side of things, as the family celebrated in Indiana. It was really tough for me not to be with them for the second year in a row. Then, an hour later, we talked with the Kopfs--this was the first time we've had a chance to talk to Aaron's brothers since we left, and it was so great! I alternated between laughing and tearing up. It's tough enough to be away from family, but the holidays make it even tougher! We're so looking forward to coming home... one month from today!!
Now that Thanksgiving is over, I'm so excited about Christmas. Everyone knows the day after Thanksgiving is when you start decorating for Christmas, right...? Well, that's what Ireland did for us on Saturday.
It snowed!! We were totally caught off guard (those are the best snow days). Aaron still had to go to work, none of the city really shut down, the buses were still running, so it didn't snow that much... but it was enough to be exciting and to make everything look beautiful!! As of today, Monday, school is still on and students are still leaving Trinity Hall for their classes. I don't know how much snow it takes for school to get canceled, but I heard it wasn't supposed to be much. Ireland doesn't really have the infrastructure to deal with a lot of snow/clean up the roads, etc. Maybe someday it will happen...
For some reason, blogspot isn't letting me post pictures, so I'll upload the most recent ones to my facebook page so you guys can see what we've been up to! Maybe later I'll come back and add some photos here... Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We are counting down the days until we're in America!
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