London Bound

At the beginning of last week, I made a trip to London to wrap up some unfinished business. The last time I made it there, I had a long list of places I wanted to see and not nearly enough time to fit it all in. So I made a final solo trip - there are just some places an English teacher has to go when she's this close to England!!

I just missed the Chinese new year celebration when I arrived, which was a bummer - Chinatown was festooned with red and gold banners, and everyone was snapping off firecrackers and walking around with inflated pig balloons (in honor of the year of the pig). I did manage to get a picture of myself amidst the waning of the frivoloties, but I'll have to wait to post that. It's on my friend Amy's camera, and she's definitely not in a place to be messing with downloading photos from her camera right now - more on that later . . .

My first day in London was a museum day - I went to the British Museum and the British Library. I'd wanted to see the British Museum ever since our trip to Greece - it has some of the best artifacts from the Parthenon, known as the Elgin Marbles. I was able to see those in additon to a ton of valuable Egyptian and Assyrian artifacts. I left the BM with a fresh perspective on ancient civilizations, and quite a few photos.

The British Library was an English teacher's dream - the earliest surviving published works of Shakespeare, as well as hand-written and edited manuscripts from Jane Austen, Lewis Carroll (illustrated too!), James Joyce, WB Yeats - there were tons more, I just can't remember it all right now. I also saw the Gutenberg Bible and the Magna Carta. Understandably, I couldn't take photographs, so I had to suffice with a photo of the outside building - the statue is of Isaac Newton.

On my second day I made a much-needed day trip to Stratford-upon-Avon to see Shakespeare's birthplace - that's his house below. There aren't many surviving public records pertaining to Shakespeare - nonetheless, I thought the museum there did a good job of presenting all known information. What I found interesting was seeing the difference in the home where he was born, and the place where his daughter lived later on. Shakespeare definitely did well in life! After reading about so many authors who died in poverty, it was refreshing to see that he apparently lived well off of his literary career.

I stayed with my friend Amy throughout the trip and met up with her in the evenings - she was a fabulous host. She's been working in London since early January, but since her husband is still in Dublin, she's had to commute back and forth on the weekends - no fun. Well, my visit happened to coincide with the day she accepted a job back in Dublin and quit her London job. Not a great time for a freewheeling visitor to drop in! We had a good time despite the tumult in poor Amy's life. She even took the time to make it to a West End show with me. We saw Porgy and Bess - not the greatest show I've seen, but there was some good music, and I loved just having the chance to see one of those shows again.

Well, that just about wraps up February. With one month to go in Dublin, we are keeping busier than ever - I'll do my best to keep the updates coming!

I Rock the Kitchen

Last night I made chocolate chip cookies. Let me preface the rest of the story by informing you that I've never been one who's exhibited exceptional prowess in the kitchen. My home ec teacher in seventh grade used to laugh at most of my attempts at cooking, cleaning . . . and sewing, and well, just about everything else. So I considered it no small triumph when I managed to make three dozen cookies last night without burning a single one! Add that to the fact that I probably haven't baked cookies since high school, and remember that I'm dealing with Irish ingredients (the flour, baking soda, brown sugar here are slightly different from American varieties), and I'd consider this an outright miraculous success!

Another testament to how I've learned and improved upon my culinary abilities: my first batches were slightly too fragile and crumbly, but instead of freaking out and pouting like I would have in the past, I simply adjusted and added more flour - the rest of my cookies were the perfect consistency!

It's strange for me to talk about since I've always been so focused on various career and educational pursuits, but my time in Ireland has, if nothing else, helped me to improve my domestic capabilities by leaps and bounds. I, who used to abhor cleaning and cooking, still abhor cleaning and cooking - but I'm much better at it now, so I guess I don't hate it as much. Furthermore, I actually do it! My recipe repertoire now extends well beyond simple baked chicken and crock pot dishes, and I do far more cleaning than I used to. I even baked my first pie over here - and brought it to a pot luck for my expat club! The women in my expat club know their way around the kitchen, so I was downright gleeful when I received compliments on my pie.

Anyway, just thought I'd take a brief moment to celebrate. Who knows how much of this will stick when I get back into fulltime work?

I Luv Hillwalking

Hillwalking is one of the great Irish pasttimes that I've taken up as my own. This country is chock full of fabulous places to hike, regardless of your hiking prowess. I've been a hillwalker for about a year now - I started about five months after we'd moved here, when it finally sunk in that I wasn't going to be able to secure a job. My expat club goes three times a month, and I do my best to make them all. The only factors that have stopped me have been visitors, traveling, and illness. It has by far and away been one of my favorite aspects of my life here. Great exercise, unbelievable views, and it's important to get out and talk with everyone too, as domestic life can get rather mundane. I return from the walks usually rather muddy, often a bit rain-drenched, and a little achy/sleepy in that satisfying way when you've had a good excercise.

Dublin alone has dozens of great trails, hills, coastlines, and small mountains to meander, all within a thirty to forty minute drive or train ride from the city centre. After ten months as a hillwalker, I finally bought hiking boots in the hope that I will continue the hobby when I travel in the US. I don't take hillwalking for granted, and I'll miss the easy access to such gorgeous countryside when we return to the flat plains, cornfields and billboards of the Midwest.

After a year of hillwalking, I finally remembered to bring my camera along on one of our journeys. The pics are from our hike around the Ballinastoe area - just south of Dublin. More on Flickr - Enjoy!

Farewell to Galway

Around the end of January, a friend of mine and I decided to make an impromptu one-day trip to Galway on Ireland's west coast. I love Galway - it's a great break from Dublin, very laid back. This was my farewell trip and Deborah's hello trip. We had a great time - I love taking spontaneous trips like this. We caught the Friday night train out, got dinner at an Irish version of a TGIFriday's, and had a pint at An Pucan, a pub on the road back to our B&B. Deborah got hit on by the first of three weird men who would accost her during our trip - they each got progressively weirder with each come-on. This guy was significantly older than either of us and had a monstrous beer belly. After shooing him away and gulping down our pints, Deborah and I headed off to our B&B where we nearly froze to death because we couldn't close the window in our room - can't win 'em all I guess.

The next day Deborah took her first trip to the Cliffs of Moher, and if her experience here is anything like mine has been, it won't be her last. She was off at the cliffs for the day, and I used the time to soak in Galway for the last time, taking pics and wandering up and down the scenic streets. It was quality alone time. I've been to Galway so many times I could practically lead my own tour of the area, but I wanted to see it one last time before taking off.

We caught the Saturday night train back in order to see our significant others. I'll put the pics on Flickr for all to enjoy. I look forward to seeing that town again, although who knows how old I'll be when that happens!

Northern Ireland/The Antrim Coast

Nate's company has provided him with a rental car to get to his client for our last few months here. It's made us appreciate again how much freedom a car gives you - we now have the ability to take quick road trips if we want, and we have access to better grocery stores! The sad irony is that Nate is now in his busy season - he barely has enough time to eat breakfast, let alone make it out for a countryside soujourn. So when he found a slight lull in his schedule over one weekend in mid-January, we leaped at the chance to make a quick get-away. Northern Ireland was our destination - Nate hadn't had the opportunity to get there, and I was happy to return.

On Friday night we stayed at Nate's co-worker Dermot's home about 90 minutes outside of Dublin - he lives in Carrickmacross, a small town near the border. It was pitch-black when we drove up there, but here is the view we had from the guestroom window when we woke the next morning:














What a retreat! You can't see in this picture, but there were horses grazing in the field across the road - it was quite the vision of pastoral bliss. I quickly understood how Dermot had been able to withstand the stress of a CPA's life for so long.

We spent Saturday wandering the area surrounding Carrickmacross with Dermot - we saw a lot of sights significant to Patrick Kavanagh, a famous Irish poet. We also drove across to a lot of the border towns, took a scenic walk around a lake-strewn forest park/golf resort, and had lunch in a well-preserved castle. Apparently David and Victoria Beckham were married in this castle - the place books up years in advance. There was a group still lingering from a wedding the night before, and they were having a ceilidh (pronounced kay-lee - an informal traditional music session), which was a great atmosphere to have lunch to. By late afternoon we said our goodbyes to Dermot and took off for Portrush, a town on the Northern Irish coast.

After a classic Sunday breakfast in our seaside townhouse B&B, we headed off to explore the coast, meandering through Dunluce Castle's ruins and scrambling over the hexagon-shaped rocks of the Giant's Causeway (pictured at the top of the post). It rained just enough at the Causeway to chase the majority of the tourists away, but Nate and I stuck it out, and were rewarded with a few moments alone to admire the dramatic coastline and reflect on our lot in life. The tide was in, which made for turbulent waves - great for taking pictures. We tried to cross the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge, but it was closed for the winter. Then we raced to Belfast, where we had enough daylight and energy to walk around a few blocks and say "nice!" before heading back to Dublin. So now Nate's had a glimpse of Northern Ireland, and a rare moment to escape the hustle and bustle at work. With so few opportunities to get out and see the countryside from here on out, we did not take this quick sojourn for granted.

The Rain Game

I'm still in a daze over what happened last night. I was not in bed until 3:45 am. Nate and I found it ironic that the St. Louis Cardinals won the World Series the one summer we weren't in town, and joked that one of our teams would win the Super Bowl this year. Not only did it actually happen, but my two favorite teams ended up playing eachother! Nevertheless, I had to go with the Colts, and what an amazing game it was. I don't have any overly intelligent commentary to give, at least nothing more than what you could read in any of the hundreds of articles online right now. I just needed to celebrate the success of my team on the blog. Hurrah Colts!!!

Final Holiday Post From 2006

Well, I'm pretty sure our Christmas visits weren't too different from anyone else's, aside from the seven-hour flight. Lots of fun and eating and merrymaking. I was able to see my best friend from high school and her sweet baby Ella, who was eight months old during her visit - she's almost ten months now. It's amazing to think of my childhood friends as parents, but I guess we're all getting to that stage in our lives now! We also paid a quick visit to our friends Adin and Almedin, who were the ringbearers at our wedding. They are growing up so fast - we had a great time seeing them again, as is evidenced by the serious video gaming pictured below.



In addition to seeing my family again, I was able to visit Nate's folks in Kansas City, and had the chance to see Digger the Miracle Dog. DiggerDog has been in Nate's family for quite some time - Nate has a permanent reminder of Digger in the form of a scar near his ear when Digger bit him long ago. Last Christmas, however, he was so sick we weren't sure if he would make it through our visit. In a last ditch effort to save him, Nate's parents gave Digger some kick-butt human antibiotics that somehow cured the sturdy little fella. He can't see anymore, but he's moving around just fine, and his disposition is even a little nicer than I remembered! That's good to know, because Digger will be having two temporary four-legged roommates named Bob and Josie in a few months (our cats - can't believe this blog has existed for seven months without a mention of them).

On New Years Eve we took Nate to his earthly version of heaven - probably his heavenly version of heaven too - a Chiefs game at Arrowhead Stadium. Nate and his brother should commend themselves over getting me into a pair of non-figure-flattering winter bibs - I looked like a big puffball, but was warm and cozy the entire game. And the Chiefs won too! I won't go into what happened to them later - just remember who's playing in the SuperBowl this weekend, that's all that need be said.














After the game, we headed to our old college town of Columbia, where we had a great New Years gathering with some friends. This cinderella was not ready to leave the ball when the time came for us to depart - we are just excited that at least two of our friends from that evening will be paying us a visit before we leave the Emerald Isle!

This concludes my holiday update, a month in the making - bet you're glad you waited for that!

Up and coming: We're taking a lot of short road trips with our final weekends here. Stay tuned for Northern Ireland's Antrim Coast and my farewell visit to Galway.