Better Weather As We Sail Away

It was rough waking up this morning, since we all went to bed sorta late. We had breakfast supplied by the hostel (toast and cereal...), and then checked out. Most of the group stayed downstairs watching a movie, while Marit, Ala, and I decided to take a walk down to the southern part of the island. It was a much nicer day today - sunny and semi-warm. We walked along the coast until we got to the Black Fort. This fort was used by Oliver Cromwell as a prison for excommunicated priests before they were sent off to be sold into slavery. Harsh, eh?


From there, we walked farther along the road, past the island's only airstrip, to a cemetery. It was filled with beach grasses and contained a single church - St. Enda's. This church is half-submerged in sand and slightly dug-out. It's kinda random, but pretty cool to look at.


We next decided to climb up to St. Benen's church. This church is supposedly the smallest in the world, at a whopping 10.75 ft x 7 ft. It was quite a hike up the side of the mountain, but worth it for the views. The little church was neat too, though it's hard to see how more than five people could fit in it. The three of us had a time walking down the mountain, cutting through fields and climbing over stone walls.


When we made it back into town, we got lunch at Supermac's and went down to sit with everyone at the pier. The weather was gorgeous, and we sat around in the sun and had a good time. After some time laughing at local kids jumping off the edge, we went shopping at the Aran Sweater Market and other gift shops. Our ferry was supposed to arrive at around 5PM, so we waited around watching TV and walking on the beach for the last two hours.

The ride back was really nice - we all sat on the back end outside enjoying the wind, waves, and sun. The weather was definitely better for taking pictures of the islands, and we even saw the Cliffs of Moher. I can't wait to go see it, and take even better pictures for Mom! By the way, the rest of the pictures from my trip can be seen here.


After we got back to Rossavael we had to wait a bit for a bus to show up to take us back to NUIG. When we finally got back to Corrib Village, Marit and I watched the Big Brother elimination show. It was pretty amusing. They have, like, five shows for their Big Brother, and the obsession is huge. But it's just ridiculous. We watch it anyways...I might be getting addicted. Hopefully not.

My Irish cultural lesson for today is about telling time. Here, they like to use the word "half". For example, when it's 1:30, they would say "half one" instead of "one thirty". Took me a long time to catch onto that, but now I'm using it all the time. Funny how that works.

Well, I think we're going to go out again tonight. Should be interesting, at the least. Tomorrow will probably be a lazy day. Cheers!

Island Adventure...in the Cold and Rain

Today we got up early to embark on our journey to the Aran Islands, off the coast of Galway. We caught a bus outside the university at 9, and rode it all the way to Rossaveal. There, we caught a ferry out to Kilronan, on Inis Mór - the main island of the three. It was raining for most of the ride, but cold too. It made the ride interesting, at least.


We arrived on the island and picked up our lunches at one of the restaurants. They were sandwiches (ham and brie? lol). Then we got on a mini bus to tour the island. It was pretty cool. Our tour guide, Rory, showed us all the sights as we drove along the road to Dún Aengus. Dún Aengus is a fort on the island, built on a cliffside, that was used to defend against different groups of attacking peoples. It's built in a half circle, all out of stone. I got some really cool pictures of it (which you can see here, along with other pictures), along with the cliffs nearby (just for Mom).


From there, we hung out around the little shops nearby and walked around. We saw some "Leprechaun Houses", which are little model houses based on the ones that used to be on the islands before. After that, we tried to stay out of the rain and cold until Rory came back to get us. We went off to tour the rest of the island next, stopping at Seven Churches ruins to walk around for a little bit. The island is so peaceful and quiet, which makes sense since there are only 800 people on the island. And it's just so pretty, even though it's raining. We got back on the tour, riding along the coast trying to spot seals, and arrived back in Kilronan.


We checked into our hostel, and headed into it's pub for some drinks and hanging out. We spent the rest of the evening pub hopping and having a good time. We did take a dinner break, though, at the Aran Fish Market which served fresh fried fish and stuff. Pretty good. One of the pubs - Joe Watty's - had a guy playing guitar. He played some songs we knew, and then Nicky got the guitar and played some more. It was a lot of fun. We ended the night at the American Bar (lol), where it had turned into a disco, and we danced. Exhausted, we all pretty much went to bed after that. Hopefully the weather will be better tomorrow.


(P.S. God Daddy Larry - I'm going to answer your questions in the first comment on this post)

Irish Weather at Its Best

Waking up was rough today. Definitely did not want to do it. But today's my last day of work for the week, so that made it okay. The forecast for today did not predict a temperature above about 56, so that was quite a change. Pulled out the sweater and jacked and headed to work. It was cold, but a nice change. We'll see how long I say that.

Work was really easy today. I read the results of the API strips from yesterday - turns out all but one were E. coli - so we threw out that one and I extracted the DNA from the other 5. I spent the rest of the day tidying up, reading journal articles, going to the autoclave, and helping Sarah with extractions. Not too bad, but I'm ready to get started on PCRs next week.

One of my favorite things about work is our tea break at around 10:45. All the people in the lab go downstairs to the canteen, get tea/coffee/food, and sit around and chat. They're all really nice and a lot of fun. I realized today that I'm the only guy in the lab at tea (the other guy, Niall, goes elsewhere), which is interesting. Today, the ladies talked about the upcoming Justin Timberlake concert, and also about "Britain's Got Talent" (the UK version of America's Got Talent). Apparently the winner gets to perform in front of the Queen. It's grand, really (using a new Irish adjective!).

Sarah and I went to lunch at Supermac's, and I was, once again, disappointed. I need to stop going. lol. It rained for the whole break, so we got a bit wet on our walk back after lunch. Still no sheets of rain like back home, more of a drizzle, but Sarah says it's abnormal for Irish weather. The rain itself is pretty normal, though. We got out an hour early today, and I just came back to the apartment and relaxed. I relaxed so much, in fact, that I ended up sleeping for a few hours. It was nice. Then I got up and cooked some pasta, watched TV with the roommates, and came in to blog and go to bed. Fun times.

I'm going to attempt to answer some questions that have been asked of me here:
1) Random Irish Sayings - I'll try and include more of these as time goes on. One of my current favorites is "your man". It's the equivalent of "that guy". Example: I went to order an ice cream and your man was really rude, like.
2) Irish Rain - The rain feels different so far...mostly because it's been nothing more than a drizzle with the occasional burst of raindrops. I'll let you know if it gets anything like our Southern thunderstorms. But I doubt it will.
3) Irish Pop Music - The Irish seem to listen to a mix of American and British pop. I've heard plenty of songs I recognize from back home (especially when we went out last Thursday night), but also some that I don't know (or know only because I went to Spain a few weeks ago and heard it there). There's always the traditional Irish music, but I think that's more for show and the older people here.
4) Anaerobic Bacteria - GDL, I don't think I'll be studying anything other than E. coli this summer. But I have studied them in class. :)
5) NUIG Mascot - I honestly have no idea. I don't think they're really big on mascots/sports/rivalries over here. The whole "college football" type phenomenon I'm so used to at LSU is virtually nonexistent here. But I'll see if I can hear otherwise.
6) Green Clothes - Surprisingly enough, there is not an over-abundance of green in the clothing of the country. All the touristy shops, though, boast racks of green shirts. But the locals where it about as frequently as we do back in the states.


Well, this has been fun. I leave you with a picture of the Quadrangle of NUIG (modeled after Christ Church at Oxford, England). I'll be updating the next two entries on Saturday, since we leave for the Aran Islands tomorrow morning. Should be a fun trip! Cheers!

Limerick?

(Yes I realize this entry is backdated. But it makes it easier to keep up with things I did each day by doing so. Just a disclaimer before I start.)

Another full day of work today. It really wasn't all that bad. The main goal for today was to finish DNA extractions on the remaining E. coli isolates so we can start PCR-ing to find antibiotic-resistance genes as soon as possible. The E. coli we're using, by the way, come from an assortment of sites around Galway, from rivers to lakes, and even hospital effluent. So, no, they don't come from Supermac's (yet).

I also got to put my micro skills to work when we had some isolates grow on CLED plates (for purity tests) that were not pink. We pulled out the API strips, which are used for rapid identification of a bacteria, and set them up for each isolate to see whether or not we really had E. coli. I've seen one done before in lab, but today I got to set up 6. It was nifty...we'll see what happens tomorrow. Sarah and I got out early from the lab, which was nice, and we rode back in the rain.


I headed into town to meet up with a friend and we walked around for a bit before he said that I simply had to see Limerick and its university. So, we took a bus. The ride was a bit long, but it was worth it, I think. The university is huge (10,000 people, but that's massive for Ireland), spacious, and full of brand-new buildings. The student accommodations put American ones to shame. Their REC is also massive, and has one of Ireland's two 50m pools (Olympic Size). Pretty nifty.


We ate at a hotel restaurant afterwards, where I got a roast of bacon and potatoes with white sauce (gravy). It was pretty darn good. I keep forgetting, though, that Irish bacon is not the same thing as American bacon. It's more like ham, but has a hint of corned beef taste (I don't know how else to describe it...). We drove around the city a bit after that, stopping by to see the Shannon River - the longest river in Ireland - which runs along the edge of the buildings. The scenery really reminded me of Kentucky...perhaps this picture explains it better than words. It was really nice.


The ride back up was rough...just exhausting. Probably shouldn't go out on a work night (lol) again, but it was a good trip. Gotta see as much of this island as I can! I need to go back to Limerick, though, and explore more. I really wanted a picture of the skyscrapers (yes, it's a big city! wasn't expecting that) next to the river. We'll have to go another weekend. Well, I'm exhausted, so bedtime!

Full Day of Work, Check!

Yes. Today, I had my first full day of work (sorta). I woke up at the lovely hour of 8:05AM, showered, and headed to the lab to start my day. My supervisor wasn't there at first, so I just sat around and gathered materials for DNA extractions. When she arrived, we looked over the plates I'd streaked out the day before, and they looked good. I'd used a special media, CLED (Cysteine Lactose Electrolyte Deficient) agar, to test the purity of the E. coli we had. They grow pink on the blue agar (I'm sure Allie would like that!). Since it all looked good, I started with some DNA extractions before our tea break at 10:45.

When I got back, I read some journal articles while I waited for the samples to heat in the water bath, then finished the extractions before heading off to lunch. I had a bagel from a nearby store, which cost 5 Euro. Seems expensive, but so is everything here; and the bagel was awesome. :)

After lunch, I streaked out some more E. coli isolates for tomorrow's extractions. We have 25 more to do, then we can start PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction - amplifies the DNA) to try and find genes for antibiotic resistance. The first one we're tackling is the tetA gene, that encodes tetracycline resistance. Should be nifty. We'll start that segment on Thursday. I'm just excited to get more in-depth into this project.

Sandra let me leave about half an hour early today, since I didn't have anything else to prepare for, and I'd read all the journal articles twice. However, she did say she'd need to give me more articles to read. *sigh*. Oh well. I had a nice bike home, and then just lounged around for a while. I did warm up some mac and cheese that I'd made the other day for dinner, which was good.

Now I think we're about to go see Pirates 3. I've already seen it once...but the alternative is sitting around here wasting time on the internet. Lame. Perhaps I'll understand most of the movie this time around? Haha. Well, better get onto that. I'm going to try and take pictures of the NUIG campus tomorrow and post them, and Fred wants me to take pictures of the lab. So expect those in the next few days.

And thanks to all that commented! Good to see people are actually reading. Cheers!

Rain Rain Go Away (or Not)

This was supposed to be our first day of full-time work...but I forgot we had another talk this morning. So I got to sleep in an extra hour, then attend a Lab Safety Lecture with Ger Fleming. It was a lot better than it sounds, though, because he decided to be awesome and take us outside to sit by the river and listen to it. Afterwards, Melissa, Ruth, Sarah, Nicky, Josh, and I went to get coffee in the canteen, then Sarah and I headed off to work.

It was a really easy day. Dearbhaile started us off reading background articles (bleh), which we did for an hour before lunch. We went downstairs to the hospital canteen for lunch, then sat on the grass outside to enjoy the weather. I felt a few sprinkles while I was out there - some foreshadowing. This is a picture of the building I work in, by the way.


When we got back into work, we finished reading articles and Sandra showed us how to take pictures of the gels we run using their camera. Then she got me to streak out isolates for her onto Blood Agar Plates, which was just fine. It's easy to do.

Then, it finally rained. More like poured. We could hear it while we were sitting in the lab. It was nice to hear, actually. I'm ready for some cooler weather (I might be eating these words later). After I finished that set of plates, I got to work on streaking out other isolates for DNA extraction tomorrow, and then did some onto a special agar to detect the purity of the E. coli isolates. Good stuff. Sandra let us leave after that, and Sarah and I biked back in the drizzly rain.

I was a lazy bum from then on, just sitting around the apartment. Sarah and Josh went to the store, and I made a few phone calls. Not too many people answered, but I got to chat for a while with Antoine and my mom. Molly too, but she said she could talk more on Wednesday night. It was nice. I miss everyone back home, and it's really hard being on such a time change, since nobody's ever online when I'm awake. Ah well. So look out for a random phone call, maybe.

After that, I hung out with a lot of kids from my program, and a few others. We watched TV, exchanged jokes, and had generally a good time. I'm glad they're so easy to get along with. Well, I'm being lame, so I guess I should get back to socializing. Til next time.

Salthill: The Beach!

Today Josh, Marit, and I got up and caught the Corrib Village shuttle to Eyre Square. From there, we caught a bus to Salthill after fighting our way through the crowd. The elderly can be quite rude, cutting in line, and people with lots of children can be too. But we made it on board and down to the coast just fine. Once we got off the bus, we walked along the coast, snapping pictures and enjoying the weather. It was really, really nice. I enjoyed feeling the breeze and smelling the salt air. It made me feel like I was at home. I have a feeling I'll be going there again soon.


We decided to explore a ways down, and walk out to this random peninsula we saw in the distance. It took a bit of walking, over a small stretch of rocky land, and through a RV park, but it was worth it. The view was awesome. We could see the Atlantic off in the distance, since Salthill is on Galway Bay. It was really gorgeous. More pictures from our adventure to Salthill can be seen here.


From there, we walked back to where we started, and stopped at a Supermac's for lunch. We went back into town, and then to Corrib Village, after that, and spent the rest of the evening sitting around. Josh and I did laundry, and I made macaroni and cheese. It was nice just taking a break.

Well, it looks like the fire alarm is going off in the building next door, so lots of people came over to hang out. Better head out to the living room. Cheers!