“The good thing about looking for your golf ball in Ireland is that there aren’t any snakes.”

Thursday September 20, 2007

1:40 p.m. IST

Dublin

It’s been a semi-eventful past few days. I spent nearly all of last Saturday with the Cullineys. I took the DART (Dublin Area Rapid Transit) up to the station near their house where John picked me up. Sitting in the left front seat of a Volvo made me feel not so far from home. We went back to his house where his Ann and Roy made soup and sandwiches, and I met the rest of the fam. After that John, Phil, and I went and played golf. I’d heard the courses over here were different, but I was not prepared for greens that had absolutely no give (seriously, there was not a single dimple or landing mark of any kind in any of the greens – amazing.) After golf we went to their friends’ house to watch Ireland squeak by Georgia in the Rugby World Cup (I’m getting pretty into rugby, mostly because the only Gaelic Football game I was around for was the championship game, which was really cool, but beside the point.) After the game we all went out to this awesome restaurant right on the water and had a delicious meal that lasted late into the night. It was a great day.

I’m getting into the groove of classes, which all fall in the spectrum of bearable to really good, which is always good news.

James said he might fly out in the next couple days, in which case he’d be able to bring my clubs (3 of my roommates already have theirs here, so it would be nice to get a chance to go out and play with them. Phil (Clauda’s husband) and I also made plans to play some more while I’m here, so that would be really fun.

We’ve been exceptionally lucky with the weather since we got in, since it’s only rained for about a total of 2 hours over the last two weeks. John and Phil were telling me this summer there was a stretch when they had 60 straight days of rain. 60. six-zero. Shockingly, John said it was pretty depressing (and that’s keeping in mind that he wasn’t even here the whole time).

As of now I’m planning on going to Dublin Castle with my history class tomorrow and then on a daytrip out to Kilkenny with the program on Saturday. Plans could change if James comes out, though.

Now it’s back to eating my sandwich and listening to Copland. Later.

Add to the list of things I miss from home: The School Street Barber Shop

Thursday September 13, 2007

7:05 p.m., IST (Irish summer time – thanks James)

Dublin

The guys are downstairs heating up a frozen pizza (which I’m pretty sure represents all 5 basic food groups…maybe). I bought a bike Tuesday, picked it up yesterday, and rode it to school for the first time today. It’s about a 15 minute ride, but on a beautiful day like today (it was about 70 – Fahrenheit, not Celsius) and it worked out great. Weather permitting, having a bike will save me a lot of time and money.

I’ve now had all my classes, and they’re not bad. 2 of my classes are almost all Irish kids, and one is almost all Americans. It should be interesting to compare them. The best news I’ve gotten all week is that my operations class has been moved from Thursday to Tuesday, leaving me with the originally-envisioned Monday through Wednesday grind of a class schedule. (9 hours of class on Tuesday, though. Should be pretty brutal.)

Today’s big adventure, besides riding to and from school, was getting a hair cut. My hair wasn’t all that long, but longer than I wanted it and I figured “hey, I’m an American college student in Europe for 4 months, of course I have extra money to spend on a haircut.” On the way back from the bike shop on Tuesday I passed a barber shop with a responsible-enough looking person inside, so I figured I’d give it a shot and walked up there after class today. Unfortunately, I should have gone to the barber’s barber, as this guy wasted no time in chopping off a large section hair on the top of my head, prompting me to have him just take it all off and send me out of there sporting “The Woburn”. My hair grows fast.

I’m playing golf with John Culliney on Saturday, I’ll let you know how that goes.

7:27

My itunes shuffle just switched from Meat Loaf to Robyn, it’s been one of those days

Sunday September 9, 2007

4:31 p.m. GMT (Dublin)

Today has been pretty uneventful. So uneventful, in fact, that I decided to make a post. I woke up this morning to see about twice as much foot at the end of my right leg as was there when I went to sleep and hobbled off to Church, which was pretty interesting. I went to the 9 a.m. at the Church of Mary Immaculate Refuge of sinners (www.rathminesparish.com) which sports a massive green dome that pretty much dominates the skyline in this part of town (I read that the tallest building in all of Dublin is something like 16 stories tall – pretty crazy.) The inside of the church was very impressive (it had a cross setup, as I’m sure you can see if you Google-earth it) and the pews and altar seemed to be the originals from the church’s opening in 1856. The congregation was sparse and I don’t think there was anybody sitting in the first 8 rows. Even the token front-row little old ladies were sitting in the 9^th row, with the Eucharistic Ministers behind them.

The rest of today was pretty mellow as I sent an email home and tried to stay off the foot. The Pats play at 6 and the pub just up the street has the NFL package, so all things permitting that will be my next big venture out.

For now I’m still listening to bad music and waiting for my latest OC episode to download it’s been one of those days.

p.s. Ricky just walked in wearing a north face vest and has the Nick Kubasek look down pat.

later.

4:52

It’s almost like we never left, only we don’t know anybody and plastic bags cost 22c.

Saturday September 8, 2007

6:50 pm GMT

Day 5

It’s about 7:00 pm right now and we’re all watching college football on Josh’s ESPN Gameplan (fortunately you can sign in more than once so Rory can watch the OU game, Josh can watch the Michigan game (although why would you want to), and Liam (McLovin) and I can watch BC in a half hour.

We all just got back from foodshopping. Unfortunately, we all didn’t know that the rest of us were also going, and we went to 2 different places and ended up with 5 loaves of bread, 8 liters of milk, 4 dozen eggs and 2 big bottles of cooking oil.

Dublin is great so far (but expensive). I got my class schedule (One each class on MWTh, 2 on Tuesday) and got all of the classes I requested which is going to be a big help. There are 76 American students in the Quinn School (The UCD undergrad business school), but we’re pretty spread out in the classes (at least it seems that way so far – classes don’t start until Monday).

Ricky and I were lucky enough to find a church to go to tomorrow morning, so I’ll try to write again after that to let you know how it is.

As for my foot, a day of sitting inside watch the first 4 episodes of the OC was good for it, and it feels better now than it has since I’ve been here. Yesterday was probably the worst for it, since we were walking all around campus for orientation. I gave in and went to the doctor on campus who gave me a prescription for anti-inflammatories and sent me to the hospital to get an x-ray. I naturally walked the exact opposite direction from where I was supposed to go, and the guy who finally gave me directions when I got to where I was not supposed to be got quite a laugh out of the thought of an American hobbling around Dublin trying to find the hospital to get an x-ray for a potentially broken foot (it’s not, luckily. Or as the doctor put it, “That’s one hellofah sprain you’ve got yourself there.) So I backtracked and walked the correct mile and a half to the hospital, got the x-ray, hailed a bus, got off when I saw the canal, and walked about another 3 miles back to the house. Despite the foot, it was a perfect day for a walk along the canal, and I ran into 4 fellow lost Americans from the UCD business program – one of them was from BC – so that worked out okay.

All in all it’s good so far. I’ll write more after classes, but for now the frozen pizzas just game out of the oven and the game’s about to start. More updates later.

7:16

In Dublin

September 4, 2007

6:10 p.m.

Dublin

I made it to Dublin with no problems. It’s been a long almost 24 hours, but here are some of the highlights/lowlights of the trip:

After strategically planning about a month ahead and selecting a seat along the aisle of the plane as to maximize my legroom, my trusty brown sandal was run over by the drink cart on my Boston to JFK flight, severing the front part that holds the sandal together. I got a water, it was lukewarm Upon arriving at JFK I took my backpacks (luckily my luggage was going straight through) and dragged my right sandal behind me as I limped across the terminal, asking anyone and everyone for a stapler or a piece of tape. After making it all the way to the gate with no luck, I found a FedEx box and ripped off the adhesive strip on the top of an envelope (by the way, try neatly ripping a FedEx envelope – easier said than done), ripped the strip in three, and effectively repaired my sandal while sitting on the floor near the gate. (When I mentioned “If this works I should get a patent” to the couple sitting on the floor next to me they turned away in disgust. Welcome to New York.)

The flight to Dublin was pretty run-of-the-mill as far as trans-Atlantic flights go. After flying Virgin Atlantic last time across Delta seemed unimpressive in virtually every aspect, but it got me where I needed to go without destroying any more clothing or footwear items. I sat next to an Irish woman who was about 40 years old and on her way back after a 4 week trip to the states to visit her brother and cousin. I don’t know her name, but she took her tea with one milk and no sweetener. She was very nice and was excited for me. The in flight movie was Fracture, a hot-shot-young-lawyer-gets-antagonized-by-clever-old-murderer-but-gets-him-in-the-end flick starring Anthony Hopkins and Ryan Gosling. I don’t feel bad about telling you he gets him in the end because it was a pretty bad movie with a pretty dumb, predictable ending (there’s a reason I’m not a film director).

When I got off the plane they had “passport control” where I met Sam, a Cornell student from DC also studying at UCD this semester. Sam was very excited to meet me and even more excited by the fact that his Cornell buddy knew how to play the guitar (he wasn’t playing, mind you). Sam gave me the old “oh, Boston, I should have figured by the hat” number multiplied by about ten. Since he’s also in the business program, I’m sure I’ll run into him pretty soon, however I think it’s safe to say that if I was writing a book, the 15 minutes I spent in the same general vicinity as Sam would be one of those small moments to which an author would dedicate an entire chapter. Moving on.

I stood next to my old buddy Lance at the baggage claim and was “that guy” as I walked up after everyone and had to jump through the crowd as I proudly saw my bags come out as some of the first. I snatched them from the belt and when to find some internet station to email Mom and check my email for my landlord’s cell phone number.

After talking to the landlord I went to catch the bus to Kelley’s Corner outside the airport. At the bus stop I stood next to what looked to be a couple, their son, and his girlfriend/fiancée/wife. The patriarch seemed to be perplexed by each of the bus drivers telling him to wait for the other route (there were only two), while his wife seemed to think that either route would have been fine, but that his black hat with big block yellow letters that read “VIETNAM VET” screamed “I’m an American tourist who wants to take your bus during rush hour with my family and luggage!” just a little too loudly. After finally getting on the bus I sat next to 2 guys from Halifax who had graduated from college last year and were embarking on a 2 month Euro-trip. Their first stop was to see their friend in Rathmines, and upon discovering that we were both going to the same part of town and that I had a road map, they quickly appointed me their city guide to Dublin. They were good guys, Brent and his friend whose name I didn’t catch. We talked about coming to Europe, the NBA, Brent’s friend’s 12 hour layover in the Newark airport, and how it’s kind of a pain to live in Nova Scotia. After picking up and dropping off the rush hour crowd (the bus went from the Airport (on the north side) through the city centre, and continued on to the south side, where Rathmines is), Brent, his friend, and I all piled off the bus at Kelley’s corner (Brent’s friend helped me out with one of my bags.)

From there I made my way the roughly 5 blocks to the house. It’s pretty nice. For now I have a single (only 2 of the six of us are here so far, so we’ll see how things shake out). My roommate James and I (I know, not the first time, huh) went and got lunch and I got a cell phone. Then I came back here to get some more sleep. Depending on how my foot’s doing we’re going to try to go out tonight, so hopefully it’s feeling all right.

Some quick details on the house for inquiring minds (if you’ve made it this far, you undoubtedly my mother or father). Hi Mom and Dad.

2 stories on a really small one-car-wide lane that doesn’t really get cars down it (there was a car parked at the top of the street earlier, just sitting there with no one in sight. Nobody seemed to mind.) For college students it’s pretty much perfect: full kitchen and living room with a small tv and a separate room with a foosball table downstairs. Upstairs are 4 bedrooms, 3 singles and one triple. The house has 3 full baths (one downstairs, one upstairs, and one in the master bedroom. I’m sure the six of us will work out something reasonable, don’t worry). That’s pretty much it. Came with all linens and towels and everything. Right now I gotta go because I think James is hungry. More later.

Joe

Logan Airport

Monday, September 03, 2007

3:41 p.m.

Boston, MA

So here I sit at gate A16, listening to Sublime and beginning my 1 hour wait so that I can begin my 10 hour journey to New York and Dublin. Mom and Dad came to the airport with me where I checked in next to a kid named Lance who was sporting a trucker hat covering a mop of blonde hair, a black bandana around his neck, a scarface t-shirt, and Travolta-fit black jeans barely covering up his black boots. He’s flying to Dublin also. Awesome. (This is where Nicole gets mad at me for judging – it’s not a judgment, it’s simply an observation…)They just paged the “Unaccompanied child coordinator” for the third time in the last 10 minutes. Is there irony in that guy being lost? Perhaps. Boston has been good this summer, but this blog is about the next three and half months and not the last three and a half months. Boarding begins in 10 minutes (it’s 4 now), so I’m gonna hit the head. I’ll write more if I get a seat next to a power outlet at JFK, otherwise I’ll see you in Dublin.