themegaloo: (Merlin- Merlin- It's magic!)
SO. I'm back to my usual Dublin routine now. [livejournal.com profile] duchessdollydot and I had a BRILLIANT time and I did end up back at the Guinness factory due to timing and shitty weather but it was all a resounding success! We also ate pizza and watched Eurovision, which was a huge bundle of laughs and I've basically been crashed out since she left. TOO MUCH TOURISTY STUFF. I'm about recovered now and back to the RPing and researching and fanfic and...all the usual when I lack lectures to attend.

Which reminds me that I should probably go catch up on comments from last night. I'll get to that eventually, promise.

BUT. Sort of point to the post is this: I have two DW codes if anyone is still looking, though I'd prefer they went to a good home of someone who'll actually use it as most of my reading page there...doesn't. Which makes me sad, a bit, because I love how the site is operated and I don't regret having mine for an instant. And it's shiny. So let me know if you want one, if no one does, I'll hang onto them until they're getting scarce again and re-post this. ;)
themegaloo: (Paddles- Dublin (where my heart lies))
So Trish ([livejournal.com profile] duchessdollydot) keeps beating me to updating about all the things we have done. And I don't think I mentioned on here that she was coming for a visit. IT IS SO FUN TOURING PEOPLE AROUND DUBLIN. Especially when they don't mind the....very constant walking everywhere. I have known her for yeeeaaaars. Literally. Longer than I've even known [livejournal.com profile] snuzzie &co. So yeah.

She got here on Thursday and we went around Campus, book of Kells, O'Connell street, Temple Bar, etc. Then chilled and watched TV for a bit because watching TV can be a bit novel before going to Roddy Bolands because...I like it there and everyone must experience the LOLARIOUS music selection there at least once in their lives. I listed off a bunch of songs that they would play and lo and behold, they did. It's very easy to predict. Shannon., Oana, George and I play a game of trying to guess WHICH SOME WILL BE NEXT. It works with frightening frequency. Clearly they need a new DJ or something to change things up.

YESTERDAY we had a big breakfast in Stephen's Green Shopping Mall and went around the Green as I looked up at the sky and cursed the shitty weather. But it got better! Then we walked around Grafton Street, Powerscourt Townhouse (briefly b/c it's neat), down Dame Street to Dublin Castle, Christ Church Cathedral, St. Patrick's Cathedral and ended up accidentally close to St. James Gate. Then un the train up to Howth which is always good fun. I like Howth. SEAFOOD YUM. Shannon got me hooked on mussels and if there is an oyster bar, oysters must be eaten, I'm sure you understand. Then the ever lovely La Cave in it's brilliant wine-bar-ness where the waiter flirts with us (Nez- you created a monster taking me there I love it so much) and swung by Murphy's to finish off the night. ALAS, Derek apparently has Fridays off. Woe.

TODAY we are going over to the North side a bit to see Jameson's Distillery and scooping up Shannon and Oana, possibly, to go into the mountains to see Powerscourt house and gardens. And then probably going dancing. I'm thinking Whelan's as it's the easiest to move around in, especially if you can get in the back area. And it has the best music. And is free before 10:30. \o/ IT'LL BE GOOD TIMES. And has been basically a tour of all my favorite places in the city. Without me going to the Guinness Storehouse a fourth time, which is probably good.

And now for a [livejournal.com profile] thecityrpg diversion: AHHHHG I AM WOEFUL THAT I MISSED THE SNAPE POST! I skimmed through it just a bit but. ;;. Also. WHAT IS THIS WHEN DID WE GET A LILY I am excited.

Portrush!!

Mar. 22nd, 2009 05:59 pm
themegaloo: (Last Exile- Claus- Clear skies)
I got here! The train ride was SO PRETTY. I twittered about it briefly but there was the ocean on one side of the train and these HUGE CLIFFS with PERIODIC WATERFALLS on the other. I got confused finding the Guesthouse, but I got here and it is LOVELY and...I'm the only one here tonight. However, the internet port in my room is broken so I'm in the room next door right now typing this. With permission, of course!

Where did I leave off yesterday? I think what I did after was go investigate a city tour, which had just left so I called it a pass and went across the street to the milkshake bar. Yes, a MILKSHAKE BAR. They had like, a bajillion kinds of milkshakes. BRILLIANT! I then took my milkshake and walked down the river, which was very pretty and made my way eventually to the Bogside Artists gallery, which was cool! I bought a print of my favorite mural. I dropped that off and went to look at the OTHER mural street, which is not nearly as big for a lot of reasons, but I hiked over there regardless! And then I got sushi and watched the rugby game.

IRELAND WON OH MY GOD YES!!! They won in a GRAND SLAM against Wales on their home turf so HA! TAKE THAT, WALES!! First time in 61 years! WHOO!! It is impossible not to be excited. I think people swarmed the airport to see them get back today, heard it on the radio in transit to the train station.

So I'm on a beach. In Ireland. This is awesome! There are people surfing! THE WIND IS OUTRAGEOUS. I decided to take a hike along the beach, not realizing it was a 2 mile stretch of beach and that I would then have to walk BACK but the cliffs and rocks at the end were so worth it! And I could SEE Dunluce Castle. I WAS SO CLOSE! But...the waves were kinda in the way of actually getting there. And even then it was up on the cliff and I was...not. But it is very, very pretty. Tomorrow I'm heading to the Causeway around 10 am, going to try and go from there to the Carrick-a-Rede ROPE BRIDGE and hit the castle on the way back. Maybe. If I can figure out the transportation for it. I SHALL TRY. It's the goal at least.

For now, I am going to take a nice shower and go find the harbor, get some dinner and then maybe grab a bottle of wine because there are wine glasses in my room and I strangely feel that they should be used. I might not, but hey. It could be fun! Wine and TV! And a very comfy bed. I am spoiling myself and it is LOVELY.

Oh I am going to be in such good shape when I get back to Dublin. ALL THE WALKING.

But it really is ever so pretty.
themegaloo: (One Piece- Ace- Sleepy: Leave a message)
So I woke up this morning with cramps from HELL. Uh, ow? UNCOOL. So I went out to the pharmacy, got Supplies, walked around for an hour and a half and decided I Need To Sit Down Now And Take This Panadol, thanks. So I figured, good a time as any to update again! And it gives the painkillers time to, yanno. Do their magic thing. Plus I figured out this morning walking around that Oh Look! It is Saturday! Things don't open as early! So it's just as well I'm holding off until noon. I mean, things were JUST STARTING TO ROLL UP THE METAL DOORS! Also, it apparently rained or something last night/early this morning as it was a bit cloudy and the ground a bit damp. But it's slowly clearing up so waiting ALSO means it gets sunny for me!

Seriously, you're all going to think Ireland is SUNNY or something instead of the overcast, rainy place it usually is when you see these pictures (of which there are about 100 right now, BE WARNED--it's feast or famine with me).

SO! Recap of yesterday, shall we?

Once I left here (which I returned to mostly to take a shower--did I mention that before?), I went up to the city walls. Which, by the way, are FANTASTIC. Let me tell you a bit about Derry: It was once an island, The walled part was the entire city. Then the river stopped flowing around the one side and it ceased being an island. The area where the river once was became a march, or as the Irish call it, a BOG. During around the time of the Famine, many, many native Irish catholics came to the city looking for work and food which is when BOGSIDE (you see now?) started getting populated and stuff. So the walled part of the city is what the city originally was when it was chartered by the English (and therefore mostly populated by the English who came and settled it--plantation is the word used. but not like the south with cotton, fyi) and it's like, up on this hill and then slopes down towards the river. Walled. And these walls are BIG. But the cool part is that you can walk all around the city and when you're on the Bogside side, you can look over the whole area and across at the hills and Craggan. Really nifty. Plus they've got those hella useful signs everywhere telling you cool stuff.

After I finished my jaunt around the walls, I went down to the Tower Museum. Went through this huge exhibit called the Story of Derry (note above information!) and surprisingly, the other half was about the Spanish Armada. Confused? I was. Until I found out that one of the biggest ships of the Armada ended up in the Lough that's just up the river from Derry and they, you know, found it. So the stuff they found and information about the excavation, etc is all there. Pretty spiffy, I must say!

So by this time, I'm getting very, very hungry. I grab my handy-dandy map and figure out where this place marked out is. Flamin' Jacks, it was called. So I went, I found it was actually a pretty nice restaurant, I got garlic bread, steak and vegetables, I dined, I ate almost everything. It was delicious. And after that it was coming on 7, things were closing, the sun was setting, and I was TIRED, so I came back, dozed, relaxed, went in the breakfast room and had tea and watched a show about urban gardening (socool) and eventually went to sleep. All in all, a lovely day.

Woke up this morning, cramps as mentioned, and lazed in bed for about half an hour before going over for breakfast. Which was delicious. Something about full English or Irish breakfasts will always make me happy. Went to the Foyle Center which is a really big shopping mall and wandered about, went back on the Wall briefly to orient myself and hiked over to the Long Tower Church because it looked pretty. And it was pretty. Lovely architecture! Then made the hike back here and well. Here I am.

THINGS TO DO:
- City Tour
- Bogside Artists Gallery
- WHATEVER STRIKES MY FANCY.

I love traveling solo!
themegaloo: (Merlin- Morgana- Hallway)
Okay so this trip? = lots of posts, probably, because I want to remember it all. With a follow up post of pictures when you finally get to see what I'm on about.

Last night I headed out to a pub recommended by Seamus, the B&B owner. This turned out to be a FANTASTIC idea because I had a truly excellent time after the initial pint of sitting there going "uhhhh." I met some guys from Chicago who had come over for St. Pat's and were touring about, chatted with them off and on through the night and there was FANTASTIC live music. I mean, really fantastic. It was traditional Irish music and it was really, really good fun. Stayed there much longer than I thought I would and came back home around closing. And then had the most brilliant night's sleep.

Woke up just past 9 this morning and went across for a full cooked breakfast before going around the corner to the Free Derry museum. I amend my statement of yesterday of "right by the Bogside" to "IN the Bogside" now that I know exactly what that entails.

Okay this bit? Will make little sense if you don't know about Bloody Sunday. Click. Read. Be heartbroken. Because that's the major event of Free Derry. What kills me though is that the man that runs the museum? His brother was one of the Butcher's Dozen. The youngest one. And there is a photo of him SEVERAL PLACES in the museum, lying on the ground dying with two other people who are going to die (one within the next few seconds, the other 6 months later). And he came over to me and pointed at the pictures and said "There's my brother" and I'm just standing there wondering what on earth you SAY to that. Or THINK about it. It's seriously surreal.

There's also a "walking" tour attached to the museum. "Walking" because the area is actually really tiny and you can see all of it from well, standing still in a few choice locations. Which is what we did. And by "we" I mean me and the tour guide. Because that's all there was. Which is nice because it's really informative and personal and okay yeah it was just cool. Learned a ton about the area from him then went out after finishing in the museum and took pictures. Won't go too much into it because the pictures will really help here and I need to leave myself SOMETHING to talk about when I post pictures, right?

Heading up into the City in a few minutes. There's a definite difference. The most obvious being, oh, THE GIANT WALL THAT SURROUNDS THE CITY. They've been there for ages and have never fallen to siege. Kinda cool, really. Gonna tour those too. And there's a few more museums. And. Okay I'm just going to go do my stuff now. I just had to get the bit about the museum out so I can stop THINKING about it.

I feel a little...wrong. Touring the places such tragedies happened. Standing where people died. But it is nice to see how things have gotten better, and that's what makes it okay, I guess. And I'm helping things keep improving by being here as a tourist. I'm going to...go do my happier things now. Yep. Later!

...Oops?

Mar. 19th, 2009 08:07 pm
themegaloo: (TW- John Hart- Sneaky evil sexy grin)
Did I by chance mention that I left Dublin today? No? Didn't think so. If you follow me on twitter, then you got several updates through the day as I was on the Bus Ride Of Doom. Seriously! Four hours on a bus. And when you're in the Republic of Ireland, this is all well and good as the roads are pretty okay. And there was even one point at the beginning where I swear we were going UNDER the city and bypassing ALL TRAFFIC! Seriously! Tunnel! Cool stuff, man. But then you cross the border and while the countryside gets GORGEOUS, the roads get AWFUL.

Part of this is probably because the countryside gets GORGEOUS as by GORGEOUS I mean lots of hills. The roads just get twisty and bumpy as hell. But it was a fun experience! I broke out the laptop for a while--watched Grey's Anatomy and House until it looked like I was going to kill my battery, but otherwise I dozed a bit and watched the world pass by the window. I would have taken pictures but like. Window pictures never turn out. And we were trucking right along. It's different from going through on a train because the trains sorta bypass the towns and stuff. The buses go right through them. I saw adorable little towns! And farms and....okay, it was just fun. If very long. I might take a train back. Go from Portrush to Belfast to Dublin...idk.

But yes! I have bought batteries from the camera and took a few pictures already. It started getting dark though so I had to stop. Derry's right on a river and then it's up on this biiig hill. It looks sorta big coming up at it, but it's actually really easy to get around. I got majorly lost for a little while at first, which is OF COURSE when I had my duffle bag slug across my back (I looked like some sort of strange backpacker, let me tell you!) but I did the smart thing after exploring briefly and hailed a cab. Ended up I'd gotten pretty close to my B&B, only cost me 3 pounds, lol.

SPEAKING OF THE B&B. It is so cute. AND RIGHT NEXT TO THE BOGSIDE AJHFGAHD. The Bogside is what I wanted to come here for. But yes. back to the B&B. Got here, rang the little buzzer, the guy comes out (his name is Seamus and he is very nice) and shows me to my room which is....the very easiest one to find. I'm RIGHT across from the breakfast room, by the front door. OH AND GET THIS. My key is like. ACTUAL OLD KEY. I have to jiggle it to get it in the lock and everything. I look a picture of the front of the B&B and held the key in the foreground. So you get to see. But I left my camera cable in Dublin so you don't get to see until Tuesday when I get back. Oh, and I ended up in a room that can sleep 3 people, what? I have a double bed AND a single bed. Roflll. I was like "...okay..." But it's nice, the bed is comfy, the bathroom is big and there is a plug NEXT TO A MIRROR. First time I've found that since I've been over here.

So Seamus gave me a map and marked out all sorts of places for me. Three pubs with live music, one that's th literary pub, the Bogside museum where they have tours from, a few good places to eat during the day, etc. This should work out wonderfully.

I'm here for three nights before hopping a train to Portrush, where I'll be staying another two nights while I explore Giant's Causeway. When I'm there I'll be in a place called Albany Lodge with another double bed in a room that faces the ocean (!!!). Apparently there's lots of fun stuff to do up there too.

So we'll see how my first adventure traveling all by myself works out! It's going good so far!
themegaloo: (Last Exile- Claus- Clear skies)
But we'll get to the question bit later.

I have officially finished classes, and depending on various different things, I might be done with structured classes for...well. Ever. At least ones that I'm taking. I don't know. I'm supposed to be writing a paper, but instead I'm having Epiphanies. Big shocking revelations about my life and what I want to do with it.

Actually, not that shocking if you really know me.

I've been talking for a while about staying on here, doing my PhD here. I have decided that I don't want to do this. The only reason I DID was because I was getting attached to people and I was comfortable here.

Well you know what? I don't do "comfortable." I've got wanderlust, man. It's time for something new. Plus Trinity, for as fun as it is, is a bit old-fashioned for my tastes and I don't think that's quite how I want to spend my researchin' years. It's been a great experience, eye-opening in many cases, but it's almost time to mosey on. Have to finish properly first, of course. But after that.

So I'm going home. Well, not home, because when I get back, home will be sold and gone (still a very weird thing to hear about, trust me). But back to the states. I'm probably going to stay with my parents for a while in North Carolina. Get a job. Re-take my GRE's, figure out what I really want to research, do some prelim work on said research, draft a few proposals, etc. Basically Not Be In School. I've been in school since I was 5 years old with no breaks. So many people take gap years, I've just been charging on ahead and I am TIRED. So I'm hitting the pause button. Taking a break. Going to find a nice library or something to work in. Take some pastry classes (and mom just told me they have a bartending school as well. Sounds good!) You know. FIND MYSELF or whatever.

Not that I don't know where I am. I'm in Dublin. With the wanderlust beast chasing me around trying to bite me.

So once I've done that, there is the Question.

Where should I go?

And I'm asking for suggestions here! What places sound cool? Know of any cool school with good departments for literary research with interesting areas of specialty? Etc, etc, so on and so forth. I've been glancing at Wales. Before I got obsessed with Ireland it was my area of choice in These Isles. Thinking about looking for something there, perhaps! One of the Unis has a specialty in Robin Hood, which amuses me. Serious, Robin Hood? Just throw me random ideas! Anything you like! Hey, I might make one of them work. How do you think I ended up here? A random idea, presented originally by an internet friend, that I got to thinking about and Made Work.

Tim Gunn would love me. MAKIN' IT WORK!

PS: New AIM name running on pidgin because it is chat compatible but for all other things, I prefer digsby, which isn't. So, MM folks, as I am rejoining TODAY, any chat invites you might be inclined to toss my way? Please aim them at themegaloooo. With four o's. Someone had yoinked my sn. >(

PPS: I'm getting piiiizza. *_* Dominos is so, so tasty.

oh god lol

Jan. 17th, 2009 07:35 pm
themegaloo: (KHR- Mukuro- Don't hate.)
So I HAVE to update about this. We had a biiiig storm today. And by that I don't mean like the sky darkens and lighting strikes the earth, I mean a rain and wind storm. Trees falling, bins rolling across the grounds! POWER OUTAGE. A tree fell on the power line to Halls and we were dark for a good several hours. It just came back an hour or so ago, I don't know the exact time as I wasn't here. It gets dark really early here too, so we only had minimal light and only for the first little while so everyone was in their living rooms where the biggest windows are just talking and laughing. Eventually Oana, Matt and I went down to Eddie Rocket's for food and LIGHT. We put money in the jutebox and ate huge burgers which made us look like fooooools, but were super tasty!

So my plans to work were foiled halfway through the afternoon for working on that essay as I was on JSTOR as the screen went into battery mode and the internet cut out. THANKFULLY the internet is back with the power and it's not another weekend of no internet because that SUCKED and was ALSO when I was working on a paper. I decided after that to work with my books and then realized--I couldn't SEE my books properly. Sort of a hazy half-light. Not conductive to, you know. Reading. Thus the trip into town. Plus I was hungry.

But! We get back from town to POWER and a great email from our JCR representative with PICTURES of the destruction. Along with a note about one of the bins speeding past reception. It's basically HILARIOUS.

A few of my favorites! )

Back to the essay! Since I can, yanno. See now.
themegaloo: (Merlin- Arthur- WHY ARE YOU THERE.)
And slightly GIP because Arthur amuses me.

Soooo back in Dublin and back to being human again! It's a nice feeling. I was mostly human at the start of the weekend but idiot housemates convinced me to not be for most of the weekend which is a bit of a story in and of itself that I won't get into because. Well because it's just not that terribly interesting.

So I missed every single class last week, but apparently didn't actually miss much outside of a bit of Joyce on account that it was mostly introduction all over again as its new option courses and the Joyce class is the only one that met twice so they got over that a bit. Which means I get thrown right into it now, but I don't mind so much, really. But! I got up and went today only to realize as I was ALMOST THERE that there had been an email. That might have said class was canceled today and moved to Wednesday at some time that I will have to look up again in a minute. I do not retain things read when ill, even vaguely important emails. But it was alright because I ALSO recalled on the journey there that I needed to pop in at the fees office and sign my financial aid checks. There are 3 of them, though I'm not really sure why. And the exchange is apparently better this go round which means I GET MORE MONEY IN EUROS! Huzzah! Roughly 2,000 to survive me til March and I DON'T have to buy ridiculous things like plates and shit this time around. Though I might buy a few because they like to grow legs and wander off, I've noticed.

Here there be a VERY LONG RAMBLE about the Fees Office and Getting Lost )

Okay I clearly need to update more often again because I have at least two three more points to expound upon and I am probably drowning you all in my verboseness on the subjects here. Oops. And clogging flists. Maybe I'll cut something.

Tangentially related to the fees office ramble (as I was up on campus at 1, not 2, when the damned thing opened again),Here I ramble about literature, bookshops and sex. In the books, not the bookshops )

The other thing I wanted to mention was this bizarre friendship that's sprung up between me and this undergrad who lives across the Halls and I've met face-to-face twice now. We mostly communicate via very, very random text messages but he asked me over for tea yesterday and I ended up staying and watching TV and exchanging very, very random questions throughout...well a lot of different things on the TV including The Simpsons, Southpark, City of Angels, part of Castaway and a few things I don't know the name of at all. I texted him about socks today. It's all very random and highly entertaining in a completely unexpected way.

Oh hell, one other thing. Merlin. This fandom has eaten my brain, chewed it up and spit it back out into pieces of insanity because I have the beginnings of an AU-But-Sort-of-Not sitting in Word right now that could be epic if I knew more about the workings of politics. I see pointless but entertaining research in my future. Hopefully after I've done something about that essay that's due next week.

Can I write my entire dissertation about sex in Irish lit and how it makes the best visual images? Because this entry shows that I seem to have a strange obsession in that direction.

Now to cut huge chunks of this. Holy god I'm sorry if you read all that.

[edited in facebook lulz] )
themegaloo: (KHR- Gokudera- Oh god work.)
So I didn't go to the Irish Language Speed Dating, I'm afraid. That time of month strikes and I'm pretty much immobile for a few hours unless forced by class. Which I wasn't at that point, so I was unconscious. It happens.

But the point of this entry is Christmas. Because I am TOTALLY getting into the Christmas spirit lately. They've put trees up--and I mean HUGE trees--at most of the major intersections in the city and have been decorating them with lights and ribbons, but that's nothing compared to Grafton street. Grafton street right now is just completely gorgeous, they have huge amounts of lights going across the street (it's a pedestrian street by the way, huge number of shops on either side of the road and down side roads. it goes from St. Stephen's Green to right in front of campus) with chandelier like lights hanging down in the middle. The side streets have canopies of lights across them and of course, there are the buskers. There's this one group of string instruments that is usually there and they're just fantastic on the whole, but in combination with the whole atmosphere of the lights and the early darkness (I was walking down this way today at just past 4 and it was getting dark) and Christmas music coming from the shops and the people on the streets playing music...it really gets you in the mood for curling up next to the fireplace with hot cocoa and a tree and lights and cookies...

So I went and bought a mixer, finally. And I got a big mixing BOWL in Belfast, so between the two, do you know what that means?!

COOKIES.

Yeah, I'm excited. This weekend is our Halls Thanksgiving and I'm going to start the cookie baking. It's going to be BRILLIANT.
themegaloo: (KHR- Dino+Mukuro- :O! omg!)
[Poll #1303528]

You have until 8pm GMT tomorrow to give me your answers, otherwise it will be TOO LATE.

Yes, it really exists.
themegaloo: (KHR- YamaTsuna- Shit I'm short)
Living in Ireland: Part Holy Hell Time Flies, or, I Don't Want This to End.

I came to a startling realization this morning. I'm really, really happy here. Which I sort of knew, but it's generally one of those things you just don't think too hard about, you know? I didn't come here expecting to manufacture a new community of people that I genuinely care for, but it seems to have happened. Which is problematic because it's only for a year and then we're all going out separate ways but it's not like undergrad where people (except lunatics like me and the group of people that went to Hong Kong) don't usually go too far for a while at least and mostly stay in their comfort zone and work there to build up money before really going off...Ugh. You see what I'm trying to say, right? Everyone here IS out of their comfort zone- we came from all over the world to be HERE, but we aren't really going to STAY here for any real period of time. After it's over, it's just over. You can't prolong it. It's off and on to the next degree, the next job, the next place. Which is really quite odd when you consider it. Also there's the international aspect. In undergrad I was surrounded by people from my country, from generally ACCESSIBLE places that one could hop in a car and drive to if you had enough gas.

I was talking to my flatmate, Kali, yesterday about the holidays. Most of us are going home, which I AM looking forward to because I've missed my family and friends dearly but it's one of those odd things again. Like I said, we have a little community here now and we're all pretty cozy in the roles we've taken on. But it's like a halfway stop-off point. We dropped our lives back home, often in medias res of something or another--friendships, relationships, family...Poof! And we're not there anymore. Just gone for a while. So for hols we get to slide back into those holes for a while before leaving all over again. I can't decide what I think of that, really. Coming here was a bit like running away for a while, though I didn't realize it at the time. It's like a little paradise. Yeah, it's hard work with the goal of furthering education, but it's also a vacation from life as it was. A taste of something different. A completely, utterly clean slate in a brand new place.

I just can't believe I only have two weeks left of term, really! It feels like just yesterday that I was getting off the plane, losing my luggage, getting constantly lost---oh wait. I still get lost. Damn you, Dublin streets with your lack of visible signs of NAMES! and being completely incapable of understanding half the accents around me. Taking the bus for the first time and being completely sure it was going to get me more lost (it didn't), making that first walk back from Tesco to halls and realizing that is, actually, about a million miles away when you have a duvet, two pillows and a package of toilet paper to deal with. Joining the city-wide search for COAT HANGERS and ranting about the size of the bathroom. Discovering Murphy's, making the giant mistake of going to Copper's, dancing until they turn the lights on at Flannery's. "Yeah, these were the best days of our lives" very frequently playing in the background as we screamed along in huddle on the dance floor. Learning all the words to Galway Girl because dear god they never stop playing it.

Time flies. I don't want to lose this. So I've got to make every moment count! And hopefully when all of this is finally over, the relationships will be of a lasting nature and the people I've come to care for very much will be people I still care for in years to come.

Okay that said. Yesterday was Jess's birhday! She's one of my coursemates and is indescribably sweet. She ran the Dublin Marathon a few weeks back which is. Well, pretty insane but also hella impressive. We had a surprise party for her, which she very nearly sabotaged by trying to have a party on her own! But it worked and we made signs and hid behind a line of chairs and couches and lept out at her shouting "SURPRISE!" as is necessary. And then went in town to Tripod because Laura had a stack of free entry tickets, which was good times! Actually a very odd places because it was like, a SERIES of bars, each one with its own music. Very loud place on the whole, but the dancing was good fun!! If a little hazy on the memory side.

I got to return a rescue favor too! We look out for each other. I really do love it here.

Ugh, long. Sorry about that!

PS- contemplative Lambo is way cute.
themegaloo: (KHR- Dino- *facepalm*)
What the hell! Now I know why I never bothered with the anon memes before. You people are nuts when you get to be anon. It doesn't honestly bug me that much because, well. I know myself better than a bunch of people out in cyberspace that don't see my actually expressions and clearly can't tell that I'm very rarely serious about anything ever and that I play things up for humor like crazy. But really, if I annoy you so badly, go ahead and defriend, it won't hurt my feelings.

IN OTHER NEWS as I had a nap and woke up to that madness, today was the Long Day on campus with the four hour break between classes. There is absolutely no purpose in coming back to halls in between because it takes a good 45 minutes sometimes and you can't predict when it'll take that long or less time so might as well just stay and save yourself the walking or the bus/luas fare. The past two Thursdays I've gotten 4 hours of Terrence Brown for class, which is sort of an overdose on Terrence Brown, really! He's an interesting prof but 7 hours with him in a week is a bit much!! We move on to our next Major Authors prof on Tuesday, who is also teaching Yeats. Two more weeks of courses, holy crap! Then exam week and I write another paper and then HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS! WHERE IT'S WARM!!! I am looking forward to being WARM for once in my life, hahaha!

Quiet night tonight! Just sort of chilling by myself in my room. Going to turn on "Definitely, Maybe" and eat a few chocolate bars with air bubbles and drink tea and just be a girl girl girl. We were originally supposed to jam tonight, but then the boys were going to play football, but then the pitch was double booked by the badminton team and then we all just went "fuck it." But I think the band or whatever it is might actually get a gig together, which would be insanely fun. And has been insanely fun just in the jamming, though I found I had forgotten all the words to My Immortal yesterday, whoops. Had to look those up! Also working on 9 Crimes and Everything Burns. Why is there a disposition towards DEPRESSING MUSIC? Pretty, though.

Speaking of music, have you guys heard the song "Galway Girl?" I'll assume yes, I think it's in P.S. I Love You. Point is that there are three main types of places to go drinking: Pubs, which are quiet and mostly for talking, Clubs, which are pretty much a meat market, and this weird combination which is my favorite. It's a brighter atmosphere with loud music and dancing, but it definitely doesn't fall under "club" or "pub." They're good fun, though and there are two I rather like- Rody Boland's and Flannery's (though Flannery's VERGES on club-- there is no cover and it's pretty bright, despite generally being packed-- the packed being the verging bit). At BOTH of these almost EVERY time I go to EITHER of them, they play Galway Girl. It's a song I think I'm going to associate with this year for the rest of my life just based on how often I hear it! Good memories already. :D

MOVIE TIME!!

....oops

Nov. 12th, 2008 09:47 pm
themegaloo: (Default)
I forgot to update for like, a million years.

Well, not so much FORGOT as just had no idea how to form everything into one entry because there was just SO MUCH over the course of one week that it just wasn't POSSIBLE to sit down and churn out a quick entry detailing a few days. Yeah. Halloween was fucking insaaaaane and awesome and awkward (occasionally) and hilarious and, well, rather intoxicated on the whole. And lasted more than just the one night for some reason.

Mom, I know you're reading this. Halloween definitely existed.

Okay, that aside! We're in what, like week 6 now? Considering there's only 9 in total that's sort of like. Crazy. I only have a few weeks left, then the exam week during which I get to write an essay on Yeats. I'm actually CURRENTLY doing an essay on Edgeworth but one can only research for so long before one's head explodes! So I'm taking my break and at least attempting to write a coherent blogly update.

*PSA*: if you don't read [livejournal.com profile] copperbadge but do read [livejournal.com profile] shoebox_project, note that it has been hacked. Do not click the link. Bad things supposedly happen. Keyloggers that can steal your password and erase your journal! Bad things. Go look at [livejournal.com profile] copperbadge and read comments for how to avoid these things. Hopefully it'll all be sorted soon enough.

So let's see! I've talked to a few people in IM about the soap-opera-ness of my life as of late so I don't think I'll rehash that, really. If you can catch me, you're welcome to ask and I might perhaps fill you in a bit. Depends on my mood! But all that seems to have calmed down and ceased to be an awkward mess of "what am I supposed to do" and has left me with some really great friends, being the butt of a good number of jokes from various other friends and just generally a grand time of things. It works, that's the important part.

And speaking of good friends! Me and a few of mine have worked out the perfect way to feed ourselves. Dinner rotation! We have four people (myself, Shannon, Oana and George) and we trade off nights of cooking a full meal. Someone who didn't cook does the dishes, we rotate between kitchens, etc. It works out really well because it means we get four GOOD meals a week (as we all can apparently cook!), three of which we don't do anything for and four nights of good company while we sit around cooking/eating/chatting. It's really great fun. The plan is to go to Belfast this weekend as well. We're renting a car and hitting the road! Time to explore the country! Excitement! We've been talking a bit about the possibility of using one of the real next term to go snowboarding. Possibly in Austria if we can work out the logistics, which I really hope we can! Shannon is also determined that we need to invade George's country and teach me to swim. Because apparently being in Crete will force me to actually learn. I call it an excuse, not that I'm complaining. Basically I have an awesome close-knit group of friends now. As opposed to just knowing everyone a little. Which I still do, of course, but hey. You get the idea.

Classes really are going pretty well, still. The prof that taught Edgeworth wasn't particularly interesting though, which made me sad. I genuinely like Edgeworth and she was making me want to fall asleep. Day two of it was better because we...didn't let her talk much. It got into a lot of discussion--much more entertaining. One of the classes was cancelled and we'll have it on Monday. Sort of amusing how they reschedule things at random times! Thing is, they know when all our classes are as we don't get to choose them, really. The set curriculum really can't be deviated from all that much except for picking which of the two options you want to take. I was saying in comments to [livejournal.com profile] ruriruri earlier that it DOES mean that I can't have 3597235 things set to be due at once, which is handy! I have this essay due Monday, then one Dec 12, then the option course essay on Jan 19 for this term. We get all of Christmas for the last one and all of exam week for the Yeats one! Not bad, I say! Similar going for Hillary term after Christmas. (This term is called Michaelmas, btw! We also have Trinity Term, which is a series of lectures, apparently? And meant for us to work on our dissertations.)

I've taken to watching House as of late in addition to my Grey's Anatomy and Bones. Of course, this means I actually had to catch up. I'm finished with all of season 1 and the first disc of season 2. The random episodes I caught on TV before make much more sense now in context of the storyline. Shannon with her enormous collection of DVDs has been my favorite thing ever in this venture!

I've sort of picked RPing a little as well. Not NEARLLLLY to the extent I was this summer, but I at least am sort of paying attention and commenting. Funny thing is that even though it feels like I've been here no time at all, as soon as I started typing IC again, I realized how much the speech patterns here have affected me. It wasn't all that obvious when I was just speaking or talking in my own voice, but trying to slide back into a voice I'd set and distinguished as a CHARACTER'S voice was really, really strange. I kept catching myself and thinking "This is not how I would have phrased this before!" So I think Dino's speech is turning a bit Irish. If you even notice it, forgive me! But I think it's just more of something that *I* notice. Quirks of speech and all. Bah.

Annnnnyhow. I've almost entirely stopped drinking soda except for on rare occasions. That actually started back in the first few weeks when it was just expensive and not readily available--which hasn't changed, honestly. But I still drank it because I needed the caffeine and wasn't getting it from anywhere else. It's a strange and terrible addiction, but one I've had for years and years and years. However! At this point, it has been replaced. With tea! Which...I hated before I got here. Have I mentioned how much I love Irish tea in here yet? Because I really, really do. Just the crappy cheap stuff (according to the tea connoisseurs in my acquaintance), also known as Barry's Gold Blend. But from this new obsession I have discovered a device that I never realized how much I needed. Because I'd never had one. This magical invention is the ELECTRIC TEA KETTLE. Boiling water in minutes! Beyond the use of MAKING TEA, it can also be used in cooking! A brilliant invention! No waiting for the burner on the stove to heat the pot to heat the water to boil! MINUTES! And the lovely sound of water as it heats and boils in MINUTES!

....You get the idea, I'm sure. Electric tea kettle. A+. $15 at Walmart. I looked. (CANNOT LIVE WITHOUT NOW.)

One of the things my sister ([livejournal.com profile] birdythenerdy) was most concerned about in regards to me Going Off On My Own was that I have a brilliant hair cut, but she feared that I would never actually style it. I have noticed something rather hilarious in this regard. My hair cut, as it should be styled, involves simply using a blow dryer and a round brush to curl it under. This country, as a general rule, has a lot of rain. However, MOST days I do NOT in fact get rained on for whatever stroke of luck. BUT. Any day on which I take the effort to DRY and curl my hair under, I inevitably get rained on. AS SUCH. I style my hair with a combination of bobby pins, hair spray and a bit of dexterity. Which everyone seems to think is difficult and fancy, but in reality only takes me about five minutes. Do disregard the bathrobe, it is warm and comfy and actually just thrown on over my sweater and jeans. I think it works well enough. It also keeps my hair out of my FACE with the giant gusts of wind. You can also see a few of my collection of books that litter the window sill and shelf behind my bed. They're everywhere, quite literally. Some are bought, some are from home, many are from the TCD Library where they have 4.5 Million books and at least one copy of basically anything published in these isles since about 1960 when they figured that they possibly should just expand the library as opposed to pawning off sacks of books at random people like hospitals and soldiers just because they lacked space. Rather defeats the purpose of being a copyright library and entitled to a copy of All Things Printed, don't you think?

....How off topic did THAT paragraph get! Perhaps I should stop. I'm in your interwebs, cloggin up your flist. >D

LEEEEGAL!

Oct. 24th, 2008 07:33 pm
themegaloo: (Paddles- Book and glasses)
As mentioned on my facebook status earlier (because updating that takes far less time and I WAS TIRED, OKAY?!), I am now LEGALLY living in Ireland!

By which I mean I spent all day at the GNIB, which if I ever have to do it again, it will be too soon.

Not that it was like, horrifically painful or anything because I was super prepared and all. Mostly it was waiting for many, many hours. I've had this Magic Red Folder since I left Georgia into which goes all vital paperwork. So things like proof of fees paid, bank statement, receipts of big things, letters from the college (those from home, those collected here), handbooks, you name it. It all went into the Magic Red Folder that I took to carrying around all week as I collected MORE THINGS. The bank is sorted, by the by. The account exists and the check is IN it but not cleared yet because it's from the bank ACROSS THE STREET. Oh, banks. How I despise you! I should get my ATM card on Tuesday OR SO (and the check should clear by then) and I will be able to PURCHASE THINGS like...dishes. And pay my rent. Apparently I word things just right so that the financial officer like, is really nice to me about it. This is not the case for all unfortunate souls with banking issues, as I frequently have to prop the door so Kali can get inside the flat. I have no idea what I said, but I'm glad I said it!

I was going to segue neatly into something of importance or interest here, but I can't remember what. [EDIT: I was going to talk about BANK HOLIDAY meaning NO SCHOOL on monday and go from there, doh!] Instead, I will move towards Living in Ireland Part God Who Know: In Which Megan Goes to School at a Tourist Attraction

And general notes about attending Trinity College Dublin on the whole. (as requested by Gabby) )

But ALL THAT enormous amount of stuff being said, I think I'll cease. As I've been typing for rather longer than I meant to and I'm due to turn up across the hall in a few minutes. I hope a few of you actually made it through and enjoyed that enormous ramble of epic proportions and that I've maybe given the curious a better idea of what my schooling is like, BECAUSE I DO GO TO CLASSES: FACT! It's not all pubs. The pubs just make better stories. ;)

More next time!

....Hi?

Oct. 17th, 2008 12:21 pm
themegaloo: (KHR- Gokudera- Oh god work.)
I fail at the internet lately. If you've caught me online at any point, that was probably the only time that whole day I was about.

So what can I say! I've just finished my second week of classes and I think I've picked my option class (oh my god, so hard to choose!), which is Literature and Violence-- even if this IS the class that requires me to sit around for 4 HOURS on Thursday afternoons with nothing else to do!! I've gotten to be pretty good friends with some of the people in my course though, and we have this really wicked common room that's entirely yellow and oh-so-comfy with tea that I now apparently LIKE (...what is happening to me oh my god), so it's not so bad, really. Yesterday was completely soused in literature for me because of the two classes, that break (where we talked shop) and then when I went out to Murphy's (fourth night running! The owner said I'm winning brownie points and I'm sad I won't be there tonight. ;_;), Alex and I spent the whole time talking literature AS WELL.

Guys. HE KNOWS PRUFROCK AS WELL AS I DO. NO ONE CAN QUOTE PRUFROCK LIKE I CAN, EXPECT APPARENTLY ALEX. Oh man, it was good times. Like a stare down waiting for the other to mess up and then cracking uppppp. Excellent.

I'm slowly getting ready to head to Cork for the night/morning so I can take my GRE Subject test (puuuuke, whyyyyy?!) and spend an ass-load on train fare. Bleeegh. I had to sit here and figure out exactly HOW TO GET TO THE STATION too, which was fun times (I got it worked out, it involves either a lot of walking or two tram lines or a combination, but I think I'm lazy and it's cold).

As mentioned previously, four nights running at Murphy's, mostly because it's nice, local and sociable. I never have more than two pints (except wednesday where I had my two pints on top of god-knows-how-much wine and had to be propelled home. Wednesdays are not good for me. Stop it with the wine receptions, GSU! You make me drunk. ;_;)

I was talking to mom last night and in conjunction with conversations here, I'm going to try my damnedest to get back for Christmas hols. Basically NO ONE will be here and we have a decent-sized break so I'd really like to, yanno, go home. Where it's warm.

I really am adjusting to that! A little. It's getting COLDER which I'm not at all sure I'm okay with. Also, the bank is a pain in my assss, I need them to mail me my account number so I can deposit my refund so I can register with the Garda by the 24th but THEY REFUSE TO SEND IT TO ME. Megan's gonna have to choke a bitch or something if it's not here by Monday. Tuesday (bank hol on monday, I think) I will be IN THEIR MAIN BRANCH GOING WTF GUYS NEED ACCOUNT NOW PLS?

There are a lot of parentheses in this entry.
themegaloo: (KHR- Dino- HEEE.)
I am bizarrely fond of this photo taken by Colleen at the Guinness Factory.



Just had to share!

(yes, I am in there, CAN YOU SPOT ME.)
themegaloo: (KHR- Mukuro- Don't hate.)
I've come to the conclusion that I hate grocery shopping. Because I KEEP HAVING TO DO IT. Which is annoying. We also need things like potholders and skillets still. That would make life much easier.

But we do have ketchup? :D?

So the past two nights I've been entrenched in birthday celebrations! Aaron's was on Thursday and the guys threw him a party. I got to help. FUN TIMES. This being the party that resulted in my waking up hungover yesterday and doing that meme, haha. There was a window that was crawled through, boys being silly with a football (soccer ball), a lot of chilling and drinking beer and some impromptu jam sessioning again. I was pissed because my voice was not even CLOSE to back, so I was like, croaking along on the songs I did know and just sitting like an idiot for those I didn't.

I now have a nice pile of music that I'm learning for these instances. It's really, really good stuff! Listening to Dream Theater right now and really quite fond of it. I literally just brought George a flashdrive and said "Give me things I need to learn." There are one or two that I'm supposed to learn to sing. CAN DO. But yay, new music! And I really love the nights when we're sitting around making music. it's so retardedly chill and fun and SUPPOSEDLY we're going to one day do it NOT after a night of drinking. We'll see how that goes.

Today is Niki's birthday, so we had another party in HER apartment last night! There were BALLOONS. And flip cup. And cake. Dangerous, I know. I actually did not partake in the drinking games. I was too distracted by balloons and throwing them at people and playing those games where you try to keep them all in the air or attaching them to ALL MY FINGERS....uh. You get the idea.

But then after, we WALKED to Flannery's. Or my part of the group did. That is a bit of a hike, guys. Everyone else hopped in cabs. It was an alright walk though, good company and conversation!

But apparently Flannery's is someplace with bad luck for our group as Shit Happens that is Not Always Happy at the ends of the nights. So either we need to stop trying, or keep going til we get a good night. Parts of it are always a lot of fun? George's jacket got lost with his glasses in the pocket, which is Very Not Good. So Jason and I waited while he talked to people and looked for it and we put our very drunk compatriots into cabs and sent them home. And ate chips.

Got home at 3 am, slept quite well and now need to shower and go shopping, blast.

asjkfhf

Oct. 7th, 2008 05:18 pm
themegaloo: (One Piece- Ace- Sleepy: Leave a message)
Living in Ireland: Part Not Adjusting At All.

I am sick and it is cold and it is wet and it is unpleasant.

However! I am not alone. George and Anton apparently have the same damn thing. I think it hit those of us who wrecked our immune systems the worst and are having the biggest climate shocks first (Georgia, Greece and South Africa and very bad at sober all weekend). Just you watch, by next week it was have made it's rounds. Just you watch.

In other news, classes are fun, I'm sort of adjusting to the temperature (or was before ILLNESS struck), and we're planning Halloween and Thanksgiving for the house via facebook.

Which I am now hopelessly addicted to because Tall David made a group and now we're all FB friends and people post on the walls and I must know everything.

Back to sleep. ♥!
themegaloo: (KHR- Tsuna- ERRR!)
Since according to the tour today, 90% of Irish Social Life is in the pubs, rofl.

I have told the tale of Copper Jacks and my rescue by George. Last night we went out AGAIN to a place called Flannery's. MUCH BETTER. So, so terribly fun. We had a spot of us up between the bar and the bathrooms which was basically perfect and it was hilarious (but different!) music once again and another fun group of people.

But the point of the matter is that with all the girls running around with massive exposed cleavage and short skirts which I CANNOT DO YET AS IT IS COLD, you would think they would be the ones with this problem more so than me.

Within a minute of walking in as we're making our way to the back where our people are, I'm being grabbed. I was following George through the sea of people and thus can pull away quickly and be FREE of that one. No big deal but holy shit I'd been in there for less than a minute?!

Then at the bar as I'm just trying to ask a question, some guys attempt to buy me a shot. I go "UH, NO. LIQUOR=BAD. But thanks, I'm flattered?" So then I went back to George because it was initially his question.

Then a guy decides to dance with me! He was spinning and spinning me and that one was jsut fun. No rescue or escape actually needed. He amused me.

Thennnn...got chatted by a few guys while up buying a pint. Went back to my "group of lunatics," as the called them, which included George and was only a few feet away.

And then in the end of the night out, I had another persistent one who claimed to be my "biggest fan" and was STILL not so bad as the one at Copper Jacks, but clingy and drunk all the same.

And guess how I got free.

George was making his way towards the door. Excuse to bolt!

So even though this time he did not have to step in, he has indirectly been the cause of my rescue from even unwanted attention.

Except for one.

The shower curtain.

---

Okay story number two. (@_@) So last night was a night of much drunken revelry. FRIDAY NIGHT, HOORAY! We were initially staying in, so I drank a cider before we left. Then we weren't! So I had two pints at the pub. Then we were going to bed so we came back. then we weren't! So I ended up in another apartment with people talking and drinking straight from a bottle of wine until 5 am. At which point my eyes crossed and I went "Sleep. Now."

THIS MORNING, I woke up at 10. The alarm on my phone is horrifically annoying. I took a shower. I got dressed. I went up to the college for a tour with Oana. I was still vaguely intoxicated. For the first hour of the tour, this was the status quo. Vaguely intoxicated. byt the second hour that had faded to "HUNGOVER, OH GOD GIVE ME FOOD NOW PLEASE STOP THE TORTURE OF WALKING PAST ALL THESE SMELLS."

The third hour and the end of the tour, was in a pub. It was all postgrads, again. I got fish and chips and oh it hit the spot but I am morally obliged to drink a pint in a pub with a meal. OBLIGED. So I had a Guinness. Before I finished eating, it was the hardest beer I've ever tried to get down. After, it was a piece of cake.

And after it was downed, I returned to tipsy.

So that wore off a little while after we got back (having stopped for groceries on the way) and I stumbled to my room to sleep because I NEEDED SLEEP.

And I think I feel normal for the first time all day.

The door knocking to start back up should begin shortly.

Yes, I know. My liver hates me.

Guinness brewery tomorrow! Whoop!

August 2012

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