Limerick

I got Jan O'sullivan as my TD she's the spokeswoman for Health for the Labour party in the Dail and a huge woman's rights advocate. she's a member of the Church of Ireland and that's pretty much all I know about her for now, I'll meet her tomorrow at 12 noon sharp! 

Look her up. 

PMA - Positive Mental Attitude

Well this week was the first week of real classes. We had really interesting lectures about Irish Lit, most people were falling asleep which I can understand some times their voices just lull you into a daze, but I really enjoyed Yeats' Lake Isle of Innisfree.  The way he explained it was super interesting and engaging.  Now I want to go up toward Sligo and Donegal one weekend and see it, because now it will mean so much more. The problem is that it is still winter and seeing all of these things that I want to see is probably not the best idea right now because of the temperature. Also not many things are open in January in terms of museums and such. 

I haven't gotten my TD assignment yet, but that should start probably on Friday. We went to Leinster House yesterday to get a tour and a little bit of history. We got to see both chambers and even sit in the Seanad which is the senate. I will be working with the Dail. Which is pronounced Doyle. The houses of parliament were originally built for the Fitzgerald Family who had 19 children and were from County Kildare. The house was named Kildare house, but when Mr. Fitzgerald was named Earl of Leinster it became Leinster house and has remained. The fitzgerald's sold the house to the Royal Dublin Society and was turned over to the Irish government in 1963. In 1963 President Kennedy opened Parliament and gave the Irish Government a Flag that represented all the Irishmen that fought in the American Civil war and it still hangs underneath the Senate Chambers to this day. What surprised me the most was how small the Senate chambers are. It is where the Fitzgerald Family Ball Room was so it is extremely small, but beautiful, the ceiling was very Georgian and had the most intricate molding I have every seen I'll take pictures once I start working there. I guess it just goes to show that Ireland really is small. so small that it is the size of Maine. Everyone was really nice to us as we were walking around the houses. We got to go into a committee while it was in session and it looked like they were meeting to discuss a world strategy for nuclear defense, the room felt like it was underground and everyone sat in a circle with their names on LCD screens with a large flat screen TV in the background and a light above them that spanned the entire circle of desks. So it gave the feeling that it was a meeting of world leaders, when in fact it was only a meeting of TDs to discuss the effects of people buying cheaper cigarettes from other countries. The room was very modern/futuristic in other words. The building that it was in was built in 2000 and is called "the 2000 building." creative. 

Anyway that's about it for now, I think Sarah and I are going to wander around Dalkey for a little bit today. Then we'll see what's in store for tonight!

Europeans Always think everything is ending soon and in tears

Well it's the end of my first week in Dublin.
and I haven't died yet and I haven't gotten sick of the rain.

Actually we figured it works like this. When it rains over night, the morning is going to be Sunny and then Rainy in the afternoon. If it rains in the Morning, the Afternoon will be Sunny. So half a day of sun isn't that bad. Ireland is gaining 6 minutes of sunlight every day so it should be light out until 10 or so when April comes.

We got here an hour early, we must have had some wicked tail winds or something because the flight went by pretty fast. Probably because we played multiplayer in flight trivia the entire time. There was this guy named Ken and he literally got every question right except for one. Even the one about which country Shakira was born in. We got in at 5 am to the Dublin airport, hopped a bus to town and followed our fearless leader sarah to the IPA. Where we waited in the coffee area for ever for Michael Mulreany to get there. So we munched on biscuits and tea until the sun came up. At 8:40 am...depressing.

We finally got in a taxi provided by the IPA to our respective home stays. I looked at the paper and I was super surprised and excited to see that sarah and I were going to be living in Dalkey. Dalkey is where Bullock Harbor and Bullock Castle is and everyone in my family has been, I think except for me. So we get there and the lady we are staying with comes out. Adriene O'shea. Her grandchildren and sons and daughters had all stayed the night before because they didn't want to drive home to Cork all the way from Dublin. So. We are greeted with tiny feets and sticky hands. and loud loud noises. We don't have our rooms to go to or our beds made because they had slept in them last night, so Mrs. O'shea strongly suggests we go for a walk. We eat a tiny breakfast/lunch/dinner and go for a walk around Tiny Dalkey.

We are on a mission to find Bullock Harbor, but we find Colimore Harbor in stead, we see a lot of dog poop on the side walks, tons of friendly people, and lots of blue sky and sunshine. At this point we had been up for 36 hours. We were doing realtively well considering we were probably certifiable at this point. Took some pictures, Ventured to the other side of Dalkey and then decided it was time for a nap. a long long nap. But no, we had accidentally been placed in Mrs. O'shea's Reformatory Academy for Debilitating Dreadful American Girls. We were to stay up without napping forever. OR until I fell asleep on the chair in the living room while watching super American TV with Dylan their grandson.

Second day we had School in the morning to begin introducing us to Dublin, The IPA and our classes. Everything for our classes is awesome, History, Literature (well not so much), Politics and Society. All Irish style. all our teachers are super funny with the except of our Lit teacher because he is a lit teacher and really how much fun can a Lit professor be. The IPA is a school of government equivalent to the Kennedy School and has 1,300 students ranging from undergrad to Doctorate students. It has a seat in the treasury in the Irish Executive wing and many High Ranking Officials often come to the IPA to get a higher degree. It's apart of the National University of Ireland. So there, we had finally figured out we were not going to a community college in Ireland. haha. We are being introduced to the Irish history and Politics which is in no way biased...right.

We've walked around quite a bit and taken a few picture here and there, I'll link my picture site now.....with a few pictures. http://picasaweb.google.com/home?tab=mq


ok that's all for now, have to go meet everyone at finnegans in Tiny Dalkey!