Sweet, Relaxing Saturday

I slept in sooo late today. But it was just fine, since we got in last night around 4AM. We had so much fun, though. The club opening was a success, and it was packed! Lots of people dancing and having a great time. I went with Ruth, Dani, Marit, Bryan, and Josh, and all of us had a fantastic time. :)

After I got up and showered, the rommates decided to head into town and shop. I elected to stay behind, and ended up watching bits of the Live Earth concert on television. Then, I did laundry (and spent a bunch of money...again), which I needed desperately to do. I then proceeded to read Harry Potter and wait around for a friend to call me (which didn't happen).

It was really a nice day, though. The weather was gorgeous, so I read outside for a few hours. When the roommates got back, we just sat around talking and watching TV. It was great fun. I did make it out for a little bit that evening on the town, but nothing too major after last night. Tomorrow we plan to make a bus tour of Connemara...so that should be really nice. It's supposed to be beautiful!

Friday Adventures

Today was easy enough. Funny how Fridays always turn out that way. :)

We went to Ward's again for lunch. It was still just as good as before. It's a pity we'd forgotten that Fridays are barbeque days at the College Bar...so next Friday we'll go and get hamburgers and stuff. Yum! I spent my work hours just finishing things up before the weekend, and looking over the protocol for Pulsed-Field for next week. It sounds exciting, but really scary at the same time. I hope I can do it alright.

Also at work, I finally got around to planning out some of my adventures for the next few weeks. I'm definitely going to Scotland for the last few days after this program ends, and thankfully God Daddy Larry got me in touch with his sister-in-law, who lives in St. Andrews. I think I'll be able to get some good info from here, and maybe even a couch to crash on! Other than that, I'm going to go to Northern Ireland next weekend to see Belfast and the Giant's Causeway (as per Fred's suggestions), and then the next weekend I'm going to London to meet back up with Shelby, Staci, Lori, and Amanda from LSU! And hopefully I'll get to see Monty Python's Spamalot (the musical!). The only thing left to book is a random trip for the Bank Holiday weekend. Belgium is looking nice...mainly because the flights are so cheap. We'll see.

After work we hung out for a bit at home before getting ready to go out for a night on the town! One of the guys I'd met around at a pub is opening a new club tonight, so I think we'll check it out. Should be a lot of fun, and hey, maybe we'll get a discount or something! Yay for the weekend!

After the Party

Man...waking up today was rough. Had a lot of fun last night, but it was well worth it. Work was fine, everyone was excited to hear about our celebrations. We decided to walk to Ward's Corner Store, which is right across from NUIG and has excellent sandwiches. Definitely will make a trip there again. Oh, and I finally got some pictures of the Quad on campus! It looks like a castle - so very cool. :)



At work, I watched Jean finish Pulsed-Field, which was nifty. Sandra said we're definitely going to do it next week, so that's exciting. I ran some more gels, set up more PCRs - the usual. It was a pretty easy-going day overall. After work, we headed back to our apartment and lounged around (as usual). I know it sounds really plain and boring...but it's actually a lot of fun. I really like my roommates.

We decided today to just stay in this weekend...go out on the town tomorrow night and do a Connemara bus tour at some point. I think it'll be better than traveling, actually. It'll be nice to just relax for a while. Especially since I think I'll be traveling most of the weekends after this. Exciting!!

Independence Day in Ireland

Today didn't really feel like the 4th of July...mainly because it was pouring outside. It seems like somehow, some way, it's always 90+ degrees and sunny on the 4th back home. But we made it into work alright in the rain and got to work. Before I'd even loaded my gel, Dearbhaile found us and told us to go home. We got the day off because we were Americans! Haha. It was really unexpected and really awesome. :)

Dani and I went to town for a little bit to pick up some last-minute party supplies. Then we came back (got soaked in the process) and changed clothes. Somehow, we got into a cleaning mode, and mopped all our floors and removed the furniture - to rearrange later! I also started re-reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, in preparation for the movie (which comes out next week!). I went into town around one o'clock to get lunch with my Irish friend Oein. He showed me around a bit, and we had a good time chatting and avoiding the rain.


I headed back home after that and spent a little while napping, then started preparing for our party. Dani, the roommates, and I set out the food, drinks, and tables outside for ping pong. The neighbors quickly showed up and we started celebrating America's Independence. We'd declared that the Irish could only use our words for things today (for example, "jello" instead of "jelly"), which was a lot of fun. Chris and I were in charge of the burgers, so I seasoned them and he grilled them on a disposable grill. They're really interesting...I don't think we have them in the states. They're basically a tin tray filled with charcoal that you light and cook - supposed to last an hour. Ours lasted much longer, but it worked great, since there's no grill here.


We really had a blast enjoying the good food and good company. The only thing missing was fireworks! They're illegal in Ireland, so that was a sad discovery. The party lasted for quite a while, though. We started getting everything together around 6PM, and we didn't finish cleaning until after midnight! I think it was a great success - everyone had loads of fun. I pretty much crashed after that. But it was a great day! Yay America!

Party Preparation

Today was full of excitement. With a bit of our shopping done already, we were itching to finish it all and party! Work went pretty well, just the typical PCRs and gels. Jean also continued to show me bits of the Pulsed-Field procedure. I think I'm supposed to start it next week sometime, so that should be exciting. I almost forgot! I took some pictures of our lab the other
day, so I'll include some of them in the next couple posts.

This is the Molecular Biology Room - PCR and Pulsed-Field

And this is the Dark Room - where we run gels!

Lunch went well enough with Dani and Sarah - we walked to the Subway near the hospital. Dani and I each got footlong subs, and then saved half for dinner. Definitely have to do that again. Mine was chicken tikka - which is a type of Indian chicken. They're really big on Indian food here; curry's everywhere, and they even eat it on chips (fries)! I have a feeling it stems from the time that Britain controlled India, having all the spices shipped back that were readily available to the Irish. I'm not complaining, though. :)

Once we got off work, Dani and I gathered a group of people together to head to the Galway Shopping Centre for groceries for the party. Bryan, Chris, Josh, and Ruth joined us for our walk across the bridge. During our few hour shopping adventure, we made it to Dunnes, Aldi, a toy shop, and Tesco, and happened to get everything on our list. It was a fun time, really. We had to get a cab back home, since we had so many groceries. You should've seen the pile of food in our living room! But then again, we're planning on having a huge get-together for the Fourth, so we'll probably eat it all. Should be a great time.

Speaking of grocery stores, I don't think I've mentioned that bags cost money here. It's an effort to cut down on litter - they charge 15c each! (Actually, I think it's gone up to 22c by now). It seems like a good idea...but it'd never fly in the States! Another interesting thing is that it's a 1 Euro deposit to get a shopping cart; like, you put the coin in and it releases the cart, then when you return it the coin comes out. I don't think that would go over well back home, but I think both would be good ideas.

The rest of the evening I just spent hanging around the house being lazy. It's nice, though. I'm really enjoying my vacation. Fred, my boss from back home, invited me to Portugal with him the other day for the weekend, so I've been frantically searching for flights. I don't think it'll work out, though - too pricey for one weekend. We'll see.

Cheers!

Goodbye, LSU!

It's always an odd thing to get up on a Monday morning...just because it means my weekend travels are over and I have to get back into the swing of lab work. It's not all that bad, in reality, it's just work. Sarah, Dani, and I biked to work in the rain (again) and dried off with paper towels (again). Then we got to work. This week, Jean offered to show me a preview to Pulse-Field Gel Electrophoresis - a technique used to compare bacterial DNA to see if two isolates are the same or similar species. It seems sorta complicated, but I think I can handle it when I need to do it.

For lunch, I met Shelby at the library and then we walked together to the College Bar. We both got curry, and sat down with Richard and Chris - my neighbors from the states who are doing the biomedical engineering UREKA. We had a good time talking and visiting. I'm sure going to miss Shelby when she leaves tomorrow morning!!

After that, I went back to work and finished out the day's activities. I ended up taking longer than the others to run my gel, so Sarah and Dani headed home to catch the shuttle into town. We needed to do some preliminary shopping for Wednesday, when we're going to throw a Fourth of July party for everyone! It should be grand. After I finished my duties, I biked back to the apartments and caught the shuttle into town.

Turns out Dani and Sarah were already done by the time I got there, so I stayed in Eyre Square and went off to the Quays pub to find Shelby and the other LSU kids. All of them were there (just like the first day they were here) having a loud, fun time. It was really amusing. I finally ran into Staci, who was on election board with me this entire year, and Mark, who I've known since freshman year in the Lavilles. It was cool seeing both of them and visiting with them. After a bit, Staci, Shelby, and I went to McDonough's for fish and chips - supposedly the best in town. They were pretty darn good. The only bad thing, was that it was 20c for ketchup! Imagine that!


We went back to the Quays for a while, before a group of us decided to go to Finnegan's for dessert. I had some Bailey's Irish Cheesecake, which was fantastic. I'll have to stop by again for more! Then it was back to the Quays to see if we could rouse some people to migrate to another pub. It was pretty unsuccessful, but a band came in and started to play Irish music. That was fun, but the bar got packed pretty fast. Staci and I quickly decided that it was time to go, and we said our goodbyes and headed back home.

I went to bed soon enough after that. It'll be odd waking up and realizing that my friends are on their way to Cork. At least I'll see a few of them when I make my weekend trip to London! I'm sure that'll be lots of fun. Ta ta!


Oh! And I almost forgot to mention - I found my car's twin!!! It's the exact same car, except that it doesn't have the little spoiler on the back that mine does. It's really odd...but very cool. I've never seen one like it before. :)

Into the Past in Cobh

Last night was a lot of fun. We went to three different pubs, and also to a dance club in downtown Cork. All of us laughed, danced, and had an excellent time! After we were exhausted, we made a stop at Hillbilly's (a fast food chipper that serves chicken - much like Cane's, but peppery - which was excellent) before hailing cabs to take us back to the house. Once there, I watched some of the guys play poker for a bit before, exhausted, heading upstairs to go to bed on the comfy couch. Dani and I stayed up for a while talking before falling asleep.

The next morning, I figured out times for trains out to Cobh (pronounced 'Cove'). It's a little historic harbor town suggested by my guide where half of the Irish immigrants to America left during the potato famine. It's also the last place the Titanic stopped before it hit the iceberg, as well as a spot where many survivors of the torpedoing of the Lusitania were brought for treatment. Everyone decided to come along on our trip, so we caught the first bus into town and walked to the train station. From there, we got our tickets and boarded for a short ride into Cobh.



The whole trip we wound along the coastline, which was pretty nice. Finally, we stopped at Cobh and looked out onto the harbor and land across it. It's a gorgeous place, and peaceful too! Sarah came with me to the museum in the city, which houses the Heritage Center as well as exhibits on all the things that have happened to Cobh over the years. This is where I thought I'd be able to check out my family's histories and find ancestors and such, but it seems to be just a place to pick up the forms to order them. Oh well. The exhibit was interesting, but lacking in information and photos and not worth the entrance fee.

The town itself, though, was lovely. We all walked around it for the next hour or so before we had to get the train back. It's right on the sea, built on a hill, so the town's all stretched about it leading down to the water. There was a huge church we saw at the top of the hill - the town's cathedral - that we decided to walk up to. It was gorgeous inside! And massive! And in this tiny little seaside town in Ireland! I was really impressed with it. Sarah, Dani, Josh, and I walked back to the train station together, making a stop at a convenience store for ice cream, then a candy store to stock up on snacks for the bus trip back to Galway.


The rest of the day's pictures can be seen here.

When we arrived back in town with the others, we picked up the luggage we'd left at the bus station and then left the rest of our group so we could catch our 6:00 bus back (their bus, with a different company, wasn't until 6:30). First, though, we stopped in the shopping center for food. We made the mistake of going to Quizno's, which was out of nearly everything - including lettuce - and had pretty bad service. Oh well...it was food.

The bus trip home was quiet enough. I just slept and listened to my iPod. When we made it
back to town, we took a cab back to Corrib Village and relaxed. Always nice after a busy weekend. Tomorrow I've got to hang out with Shelby and the other LSU kids, since they leave for Cork (the irony, eh?) on Tuesday.

And it does not feel like July already!