View from the Hill

Ok, so, for those of you familiar with the Marine Corp Marathon you'll appreciate this. I walk a hill every day that's like 2 miles of the Marathon. In the morning, it's grand, all downhill into Dalkey to catch the DART. At night, sweet Jesus. Its just over a mile, straight uphill.... the whole fecking way. One day I finally made it to the very, very top of Killiney Hill. Here you have the benefit of seeing the view without the hike.












My house is somewhere over here...













And that's the view at the top. Lovely, isn't it?

Ahh... Saturday

Wow, its been a little bit...

So last week I continued doing work for Jimmy. I didn't draft a letter quite the way he liked it but we got it taken care of. I must be doing something right because I'm supposed to go to Kerry now on Feb 15 for some event. Who knows what it is. This man doesn't seem to know if he's coming or going most days.

Last night we went to a pub down the street called the Druids. Now, by down the street I mean about a 3 min walk around the corner. Its really quite nice. So, it was Fay (my house dad), Ciara (pronounced Kira, host sister), Ashley (other host sister), Kelly and Jillian. Eventually Ozzie and Eamon showed too, Ozzie being Fay's friend and Eamon being Fay's brother. They kept ordering rounds and we had a good time.

I got up today and decided I was going to make cheesecake because we had all talked about it. Now, I had mentioned to Mary (host mom) some of the things I needed in passing and she picked them up at the store for me! God bless her. I learned a few things this morning while trying to make this cake...
1) There are no such things as graham crackers here. (yes, you read that right, they don't know what they are)
2) Cream Cheese is called Philadelphia
3) Everything is in metric and that is NOT the most efficient way to cook things.
4) There is a wall switch to turn on the oven and the temp is in Celcius

Now, I succeeded in making a fairly decent semi-cake like thing. I ended up cutting the recipe in thirds because I only had 400 grams of cream cheese (230 grams = 8oz.) It didn't whip up quite right (maybe too much egg) or fill the pan, but its ok enough to eat! I guess it is a learning experience.... I'm sending them proper measuring tools when I get home. Both Mary and Ciara quipped that the USA at least has that right.

After that I headed to see a play at the Abbey Theater. It was called the Recruiting Officer and it was eh. But I had forgotten how nice Dublin can be when the sun is actually out.

Came home, had dinner, slid down the stairs (I've been more accident prone here than I have been in ages) and am now filling you all in. I'm really tired tonight but that may be because I intend on reading a tremendous amount of Irish history tomorrow.... I still don't understand why historians feel the need to make history boring.

So, thats it for now! More soon!

The New Job

So I started work on Tuesday. I didn't know I was starting on Tuesday, I was just told to go meet the man, but it turned into a 6 hour work day. Jimmy Deenihan is a force of nature. He never stops moving! It turns out he's setting up an arts exhibition in NYC for artists from Co. Kerry. This is now my project. After being there for about 45 min on Tuesday he hands me a grant application and says, here, fill this out. Sure, ok, yah, no problem. I convince him to leave it with me and have a much better version for him on Thursday, one that's typed, not handwritten. Apparently, I've won him over because I now own this project and can actually write letters to people as myself on his stationary. So, what this says to me is this, I've been here less than a week and I have more responsibility than my previous job gave me in 3 years.... hmm...

The working conditions would be considered odd in the States. There is his secretary, Bernadette , and me. That is all the staff he gets. So I have to bring my own computer and share his desk... yes you read right.




See? Jimmy's chair is on the left... and mine is on the right. See my Mac sitting there?









That about covers it. He seems nice enough and riding the DART is like the metro, only slower. Oh yah, and the cheapest place to eat in the whole city is the cafeteria at the Dail. So that's a perk too.

Assignment!

I received my placement today and will be heading into the Dáil tomorrow to meet my TD. I now know that TD stands for Teach Dáil in Irish. It would mean house representative. I will be working for..... Jimmy Deenihan who represents North Co. Kerry.

Here's a bio on him:

Deputy Deenihan was appointed Fine Gael Spokesperson for Defence, September, 2007.He served as Spokesperson on Arts, Sports and Tourism, 2002-07.

A Dáil deputy since 1987, Jimmy was appointed as Advisor to the Leader on Northern Ireland Policy and Party Spokesperson on Sport in February 2001. He was Fine Gael's Junior Spokesperson on Environmental Information and Protection from June 2000 to February 2001.

He was a member of the Gaelic Athletic Association. He won All-Ireland football medals with Kerry in 1975, 1978, 1979, 1980 and in 1981 the year he captained the team. Jimmy Deenihan received a GAA All-Star Award in 1981.

I'm hopeful that all this sports stuff means that I'll get to go to a few matches while I'm here (for free). Mulreany told me that this man only gets grad students because he requires high quality of work. In my mind this means he's probably high maintinence.... so we'll see how this goes.

Also, Jen figured out how to call me... you have to put 011 353 in front of my number which means I now have the longest phone number in the world.

Dalkey

So the little town we live in outside of Dublin in Killiney is known as Dalkey. Yesterday a group of us walked down to the harbor to see Dublin Bay. Apparently there are about 300 seals that live along the coast and the local fisherman fed a few of them for us so we could see them. There were some cliff faces and rocks that the rest of the group climbed on as well.




Again with the crooked photos, I'll figure this out I promise. This is the door to 6 Glenalua Tre.







The view from my room.... note the donkey on the hill.







Coastline looking into Dublin Bay.









Local fisherman feeding the seals!








The girls from the group. For some reason in every picture we take this semester my eyes are closed...







The group climbing the cliffs around the bay. I was too much of a chicken to go. :)






What more does one need at the end of a long day?

Kilmainham Gaol

This was the jail that was used for political prisoners from the 1803 rising, the 1916 rising, and the 1920 civil war. Eamon De Valera was held here twice but never killed because he had an American Passport (he was born in New York). De Valera went on to become Ireland's first "prime minister" or Taoiseach.



This is the more Victorian style wing of the jail. The movie Michael Collins, and the show the Tudors have used it for filming. Also, music groups like to record here because the acoustics are good.





I'm not really sure why blogger won't let me turn these, even after I've saved them the right way. So turn your head 90 degrees to the left. This is the entrance to Kilmainham. They used to have public hangings at the front door.





This is the older part of the jail. Solitary cells, similar to Eastern State Pen. in Philly. Smaller, and darker, during the famine they had anywhere from 5-7 people per cell and some sleeping in the corridors.








There are two black crosses in the courtyard that mark where the 14 leaders were shot. One marks where 13 were killed and one for the last one shot.






This is a plaque commemorating the 14 that the British executed that were involved with the Easter 1916 rising.

Pictures!

Ok, so here are some pictures for you all. The captions are below them. Enjoy! I think this weekend we're exploring Dublin so I'll have more to come! I'm also debating a trip to Egypt for spring break (don't worry too much, I'll be going with a group.)

My eyes are closed... but this is about half the group out for a nightcap.

Sneak shot of Kelly, my housemate and fellow classmate from CUA.

The front door of the IPA where I am taking classes. It is right next to Lansdowne Stadium where the soccer games are, but Lansdowne is currently being renovated.

My host doggie, Poppy.

This picture is my room at my host family's house. The room that Kelly has is pink... you can understand why I didn't pick that one. Its a little chilly but a comfy place altogether!

Above you see Grafton Street, which is the main shopping street in Dublin. It's still all lit up for the holidays.

More soon!

Internet Finally!

Ok, more later but I do have Internet now at my homestay! I'll be posting pictures and stories soon enough, thanks for your patience. I've received texts from some people but not from others so let me know if you've texted and I haven't responded, just drop me an email. I'm off to bed since I'm fighting off a cold, or its just cold here. At any rate I'll talk to you all soon!