Shopping and Irish Television

We got up rather late today (our first day to sleep in...so it's totally allowed) and went to catch the bus into Eyre Square. We ended up missing the one from Corrib Village, but caught the one across the road. We stopped for lunch at a hotel near the Tourist Information Center, where I had a Cajun Chicken Melt (lol...I had to!). It was surprisingly good. I felt it was pretty accurate, actually. We crossed Eyre Square to head into the city, but managed to come across some Native Americans playing music for everyone. It was really...odd. Didn't expect to see that outside the states. From there, Josh and I wandered down Shop Street with Marit, who was determined to get a new outfit or a pair of shoes. She was relatively unsuccessful, but we still had fun.


We did manage to pick up some post cards, and also to pre-order copies of the 7th Harry Potter Book! Yay! We also got passes to go to the midnight opening party at the bookstore. lol. It should be fun, since we're so close to England. Some of my friends from LSU want me to go to London to see the movie premiere on July 13th, so I hope I can do that!


Finally, we headed into Dunnes, which we decided was like a J.C. Penney's but with a grocery department. I bought some t-shirts, because I didn't expect the weather to be this warm and hadn't brought enough, and Marit found some shirts too. Josh and I got some ice cream, and then we headed back to Corrib Village. We spent the rest of the night cooking and watching Big Brother. I'm really amused at the obsession with it over here. They have literally 5 television shows dedicated to it, and they have live coverage from about 11PM-7AM on one station. Craziness. I hope we don't get addicted (though we joke about it).

We decided to head down to Salthill tomorrow for the day, so that should be fun. It's a suburb of Galway, has a beach, and seems to be a very resort-y town. The weather's nice, so it should really be grand! 'Til tomorrow, then!

Note: I've posted these pictures and more on Facebook, and should update the album frequently. The link is here. Enjoy!

It's Friday!!

Last night, Josh and I met up with Marit, Niamh, Ruth, Tyler, Bryan, Ala, and an Irish friend of Tyler's. The Irish guy (who's from Galway) took us to Bierhaus, which was by the river, where we hung out and had some drinks. It was nice, but there was some weird Irish rapper there. After that, we went to the Living Room, a club, where we met up with Sarah and Greg again. There, we danced and hung out til about 2AM, where Niamh and I walked home (most everyone else had already left).


It was a lot of fun, but I was exhausted this morning. It didn't help that we had a lecture on "Good Lab Practice" which sounds self-explanatory, but is actually a whole government program of standardizing clinical procedures. It was really bad. Not to mention the room was warm (because the weather has been really nice by our standards, but hot for the Irish). So that was a bad combo. Afterwards, we went to lunch, and then headed off to work.

Today, Sarah and I went through the PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) procedure, which is a bit different than ours back at LSU. But I think I'll get the hang of it. We also got the chance to learn how to prepare a gel and run it out to get a picture. It was neat to finally get down to research - next week will be even better. After we had the gel set up and cleaned our work area, Sandra let us go early. Since we had a get-together at the College Bar at 5, I just hung around campus for an hour at the library. Sarah went back to the apartments to meet Greg, and they were going to catch a bus back to Cork for the weekend.

The social at the pub was nice. I got a chance to talk more with the NUIG students, which was nice, since they don't live in Corrib Village. I really like all the students in my program. I know I keep saying that, but I mean it. They're a good group of kids. They served us an assortment of fried foods and chips (fries), which was interesting, but not bad. I also had a cider to drink, which was excellent. I wish we had it back in the states! It tastes like apples. :)

Marit, Josh, and I stayed late talking to Aoife, the program director, Conor and Nicky about Ireland and America, and the differences between them, while getting info about Estonia too. It was really cool. At around 8PM, the three of us in Corrib Village headed back. We really didn't do much tonight, I think because we were all pretty tired. We decided to go into town to shop in the morning, so we watched some TV and went to bed. Yay for the weekend, though!

Work and Fun

Today started out with a talk on recording scientific data and reading scientific data. We were divided into groups to read a paper and come up with a title and abstract for it. It was an interesting activity. We got lunch after that at the canteen again, then I headed off to work. Sarah met me there, since she went home for lunch to meet her boyfriend, who had come up from Cork.

At work, we each performed our own DNA extraction, and then filled tip boxes and learned how to use the autoclave. It was semi-routine, but always good to get used to the new materials. Tomorrow we're supposed to run through PCR and gel reactions. We got off work and biked back to Corrib Village, where we met up with Greg, Sarah's boyfriend, and Josh.

The four of us went into Galway to get dinner and so I could buy a cellphone. We ended up going to Finnegan's again, and I got some Lamb Stew. It was really good, but really hot. From there, we shopped a bit, and wandered over to the Eyre Square Center. I got a phone from Vodafone, it was a really good deal! It cost 49 Euro for the phone, but I get 40 Euro free call credit over the next three months. So it works. My number is (353) 087-660-5512 (the 353 is the Irish international call number). If you want to call me, look into calling rates/plans to Ireland with your service provider. I'd love to hear from everyone!

We then went back to Corrib Village, where I am now. We're all relaxing for a little bit before getting ready to go out. It should be fun. Cheers!

Bacteriology!

Since work started at 10AM, Sarah and I got up early and left home around 9:30 to make sure we got there on time. We found the building just fine, and made it into work, where we met Sandra, a PhD student in the lab. She was going to be supervising my project, while Fiona, her assistant, would supervise Sarah's. We also were introduced to Niall and Genevieve, who work for the National Salmonella Reference Laboratory (based in our lab), and Claudia, who seems to be the office manager. Dearbhaile was in a meeting, so Sarah and I sat around for a bit waiting for her to get done.

When 10:45 rolled around, the lab took a tea break at the canteen downstairs, so we joined them. It seems to be a fun group of people, very cheerful. We headed back upstairs to the lab, where we ran into Dr. Cormican, the main lab professor. He's apparently also the microbiology consultant for the hospital as well, so he's rarely in the lab. It's cool though...that's how Fred is, and we get along fine. I'm curious to ask him about that sort of job. It seems appealing to me.

By the way, the lab website (accessible here) could give some extra information on what goes on in the lab. Also, if you go to the UREKA website I posted in the last entry, you can get more specific info on my project (it's Project 3).

Sandra showed us around the lab for a bit, and introduced us to some of the materials we'd be using. Dearbhaile was available after that, and she talked with us about our projects and some general lab rules. We were also introduced to a lady who works with the EPA office at the University, who I'll probably be in touch with since the E. coli I'll be looking at was gathered from water samples around Galway. From there, we went and got lab coats so we could start research.

First, though, we took a lunch break, and went to Supermac's. It's the Irish version of McDonald's (actually...really close to it). It was okay, but overpriced. Back in the lab, Sandra showed us how to extract DNA, which I'd done before, and then let us head home. I think this summer is gonna be really awesome. Sarah and I headed back to Corrib Village after that, to meet up with the others and see how their day was.

I think we'll take it easy tonight. I'll probably make some pasta or something. Should be a good time. We're supposed to start our work days at 9AM, but since we have a talk tomorrow, we don't go in til 10AM. Awesome. Til tomorrow, then!

Introductions

Today started out pretty well. I got up with the other roommates and we all walked to the Microbiology Department together. There were tea, coffee, and biscuits (cookies) waiting for us when we got there. We got to meet everyone in our program, plus the director Aoife (pronounced EE-FAH) Boyd and other faculty members. I'm going to be working with Sarah, my roommate, in Dr. Martin Cormican's and Dr. Dearbhaile (pronounced DER-BHIL-UH) Morris's lab studying antibiotic resistance genes in E. coli. I'm looking forward to it.

We headed upstairs to a seminar room for more detailed information and introductions. The group looks like a really good one - very diverse. We have six Irish students, 3 of which are from NUIG (Melissa, Conor, and Nicky), 2 from Cork (Ruth and Sarah), and 1 from Trinity in Dublin (Niamh - pronounced NEEVE). There are 4 non-Irish kids too - 2 Americans (Josh and me), 1 Polish girl (Ala), and 1 Estonian girl (Marit). I'm looking forward to getting to know all of them over the next few months. We also made a trip around campus to take pictures for the website, which should be updated soon. (By the way, the link to the program's website is here). From there, we went to the University store to try on lab coats, got bank accounts set up, and registered for the university.

On our lunch break, Josh and I went to buy bikes at a shop near the Cathedral. They cost 120 Euro each, but we get half of it back at the end of the summer when we return the bikes - an excellent deal, especially considering the usefulness of a bike since we are both without vehicles. For lunch we went to the school's canteen. The price wasn't bad, and we got some good food too. I'm sure we'll stop there again.


In the afternoon, we went on a tour of the University and the city with three grad students from NUIG. They showed us the important on-campus sites, as well as the bacteriology building where I'll be spending the summer working - it's a bit off campus, on the hospital's grounds. Sarah and I will have to get up early to find it tomorrow! We walked by the Cathedral and down the banks of the River Corrib to the Spanish Arch. Galway is a really pretty city, actually. And it's very full of life. We headed down into shop street next, where we stopped at a pub and I had my first pint of Guinness - c/o the University. Stuff like that would never happen in the states...but it's pretty cool. The tour ended in Eyre Square, in the center of Galway, and we headed back to Corrib Village. I cooked some pasta for dinner, and pretty much took it easy the rest of the night. It's an early morning tomorrow - first day at work!

Bank Holiday

Monday (today) was a Bank Holiday in Ireland. Thus, the University was closed, and everyone got the day off. Our program officially starts tomorrow, so we have another day to explore the city and get adjusted to everything.


We went into the city with a group of two Americans next door (Jason and Richard) who are participating in another UREKA program - one on biomedical engineering. Jason goes to Boston College and Richard attends Rice. We had originally met up to go get breakfast in the cafe in our apartment complex, but since it was closed, we went off in search of food in town. Upon reaching the Galway Cathedral, we decided to take a peek inside. The place was massive! And it came complete with a green dome. :) We stopped at an Irish place called Finnegan's for breakfast/lunch, where Josh and I got sandwiches and the others got Irish Breakfasts. There was so much food, though! It was really good.


From there, we wandered along Shop Street, looking at the musicians in the street and all the tourists. Everything's really lively here. I'm sure we'll find tons to do. After that, we walked down to the Spanish Arch and Galway Harbor. It was pretty neat. I've heard there's a beach here too, so we'll have to check that out. When we got tired of that, we headed back toward
Corrib Village. We relaxed around the apartment for a while with the internet (lol).


Oh yes, I forgot to mention our cultural experience last night! We had dinner over at the apartment of a couple Indian Students, participating in another UREKA site. They made us potatoes with some curry seasoning, as well as some type of Indian tortilla. It was really good, and we promised to make some American food for them at some point. I figure I'll try to make some good ole fashioned Southern cookin' at some point. I'll have to ask Mae Mae for some recipes, though. Now back to today.

We also met our other roommate, Sarah, from Cork while we were hanging out in the apartment. She and her friend Ruth, also from Cork, hung out with us for a bit. We offered to take them into town to show them the grocery store, and also get some food. Ruth brought along her two roommates Tyler and Bryan. Tyler is from Vancouver, Canada, and Bryan is from Chicago, but goes to school in New Mexico. The other Americans we hung out with before - Richard and Jason - joined us with another one, Austin, who goes to Rice with Richard. The nine of us set out in search of dinner. We wandered around the shopping district and headed into the city. We finally stopped at a place really close to where we ate this morning, and stopped. I had some lamb stew, which was quite good. And it was cheap.


After that we went shopping for some more groceries, and headed back to Corrib Village to hang out. We spent some time just sitting around with everyone, watching TV, and having a good time. It was a lot of fun. We also got to meet our 4th roommate, Marit, from Estonia. She's pretty cool. Now I'm just relaxing before we all get up for tomorrow's introduction to the program. Should be nice. Cheers!

I've Arrived!

Well, I finally made it to my apartment at the NUI campus in Galway. I traveled with the other American student participating in the exchange - Josh Bell from UGA. Our flight landed in Shannon around 7:30 this morning. From the airport, we caught a bus through the Irish countryside all the way to Galway. The drive was really nice - through all the green countryside, past sheep and horses. It was all very stereotypically Irish, but it was nice. Very expected.


Once we got to the city, we hauled our bags across the city to the university campus, and proceeded to look for the apartments. The whole process was interesting, since I was lugging two large bags around. We finally made it, though, and Josh got us checked in. The place we're staying, Corrib Village, is pretty nice, minus the semi-musty smell of our apartment. The place was nearly all furnished, except for sheets and towels, so that made it easy.

After we settled a bit, Josh and I wandered a ways off to get some groceries from the local Tesco. It was an interesting experience, especially since we didn't have a car. Instead, we walked all the way back from the store with boxes of our groceries. I'll remember to bring a backpack next time!


Unfortunately, we can't get internet access until tomorrow morning, so I can't post this until then. I think we're going to go off in search of food for a bit. Should be fun.