Celia and Me

The Life of a Worker Bee

That's right; employment has taken over my life. The Starbucks store that I have been hired at is the flagship store for Ireland, and (as I understand it) their busiest location. This hasn't been a probelm or shock for me since I trained and worked in a high volume store in Toronto--thank goodness! The flow is actually pretty similar to that of 110 Bloor, my old stomping grounds, but there are a number of other differences; I'd write about them, but I rather doubt that anyone who has not worked in a Starbucks retail outlet would find this very interesting. Suffice to say that the differences have not stopped me from doing a "brilliant" job (and yes, that really is a direct quote from one of my supervisors). In fact, my experience and knowledge of the North American operations has come in very handy on several occassions here; for example, I knew what an American tourist wanted when he asked for Splenda!
My manager is an Irish guy named David; he is very nice, if a bit absent minded (though, in all fairness, the week has been a chaotic one of promotions and preparing for new store openings, hosting regional and head office meetings, and more). He has a thick accent and speaks very quickly, which sometimes makes understanding him (as we hurry past each other in the noisy store) a bit of a challenge. The other baristas and shift supervisors have been very nice to me, and hail from a variety of countries and continents. Many are Eastern Europeans, from Poland, Lithuania, Romania and such; there are a couple of Americans (apparently there's one Canadian at another store), and some Australians; and a large contingent of Irish natives.
The only real problem that I've had at work is that I have been hired full time, which I only discovered today, when David and I sat down to do my paperwork. I definitely checked that part-time box on the application, but it seems that they hire most of their baristas on a full-time basis here. I've decided to see how it goes for a while, but I am here to travel as much as to work, and I don't want to be limited by having to work all the time--that's why I spent the last year working non-stop!
I'm afraid that being gainfully employed really has taken up all of my time this week. I spent pretty much all of the past two days at the store, and then started again at 6am this morning (after closing the store at 11:30 last night)! All I've done other than work is eat, sleep and read. Not terribly interesting, but I have high hopes for the future.

Pubs and Clubs

Throughout my time in Dublin I have frequented a few pubs; they are a legion, and mostly alarmingly overpriced, crowded and rowdy. Not being much of a drinker, or much of a fan of beer, I haven't spent a lot of time in them, especially because the crowds are pretty emotional these days, what with the World Cup and all...it's better to be far away when various groups of grown men and women break into cheers or tears.
Last night, though, to celebrate my getting a job (I start at Starbucks tomorrow) and Celia having a night off, we decided to go out. We were joined by Jenny, a delightful and hilarious Swedish girl who works with Celia. We ate at home, enjoyed a few bottles of wine, and then went out. We had planned to go the Porterhouse Brewing Co., a pub-type place on College Green near Grafton Street, but our cab driver had other recommendations, and we started out at a pub called Finnley's (I think). We were vastly entertained there by a breath-alcohol analysis machine (1 Euro per use) and the trivia questions they had running on the TVs, but weren't thrilled with the crowd, even when it got busy. Deciding we'd had enough of Finnley's, we headed out toward Temple Bar.
Our first stop there was Club M, one of the big dance clubs. European clubs are rather different than I remember back home; the music is still defeaning, the drinks are still expensive and the dance floor is still hot and crowded, but the people are a bit different. The guys, in particular, are much more willing to dance--and actually dance, not just shift awkwardly from foot to foot (no offense guys!). There were actually groups of guys dancing...not something I remember seeing at home. (Then again, I'm not exactly a club expert, so this could just be a new worldwide trend of which I alone am completely unaware.) We enjoyed that for a while, but eventually got tired of trying to carry on conversations when we couldn't even hear ourselves think.
Another difference that I noticed at Club M and the Viper Room, where we went next, and really in Dublin in general, is that the people are from everywhere! Last night alone we met people from Senegal, France, Italy, Spain, Egypt, Britain, South Africa, the Netherlands, and yes, even a few from Ireland. And those are just the nationalities that I remember!
The Viper Room, our last stop for the night, was fun; we got in for free because Celia and Jenny told the doorman that we all work at Oliver St. John Goggarty (the pub where they actually do work). The owner and managers of Goggarty are evidently such regulars at this club that their staff people get in without cover. It was great, like being part of a secret and exclusive club! It can't have been early when we got there, but the club area in the basement was completely deserted. We enjoyed having the dance floor to ourselves for a while before people started to join us; after that we alternated between the bar upstairs and club downstairs. I wasn't wearing a watch and didn't have my phone, but I think it must have been around 4am when I really started to get tired. Celia and I made it home around 5am (by which time the sun was almost completely up!), had a pre-breakfast snack and went to bed around half past.
Thanks to my restraint in drinking and all the water I consumed (as well as some prophylactic Advil before going to bed) I felt fine when I woke up this afternoon. Celia's feeling a little pain but is recovering. It was a great night, and a bit of an adventure for me, but I'm glad I don't feel compelled to do that regularly!

A Cultural Week

I have had quite the cultured week...I've visited the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin Castle, Christ Church Cathedral, St. Auden's Church, Trinity College (including the Long Room in the library and the Book of Kells), the Hugh Lane Dublin City Gallery, the National Concert Hall (for a performance in their summer lunch hour concert series) and spent a day touring the Wicklow Mountains, Glendalough and Avoca.

The Wicklow Mountains are just south of Dublin in Wicklow County, which is known as the Garden of Ireland. Sure enough, everything was appropriately green and lush and full of sheep and cattle and horses. It was beautiful.

Glendalough (pronounced Glen-da-lock) is a lovely valley site that features the ruins of a 6th century monastery, founded by St. Kevin (a local boy who had such a great spirituality that the monks of monastery where he was ordained left to follow him to this new site). The ruins are lovely, and feature a rather spectacular tower of unknown purpose. There's also a great cemetery there (you know how I love cemeteries), and the who thing is really set off by the lovely mountains and forests that surround it. I took a ton of photos, and will post some when I've sorted through them a little more!

Avoca is a tiny village that features the oldest working weaving community in Ireland. It was fun to see the weavers at work, and the more modern, automatic machines they also have. The scale was spectacular!

All of this was part of a bus tour, which was well done. We also saw a number of other sites in passing, including the smallest village in Ireland: 2 houses and a church! Our guide told us that he didn't really consider it a village since it does not include a pub, but also revealed that the stunning location of the church (right in the middle of the mountains) has made it the choice of so many Irish brides that it is booked 3 years in advance. In fact, if my guide is to be believed (and he swore that he was), women who don't even have boyfriends, let alone fiances, are booking the place in anticipation!

The Chester Beatty Library is a great facility, and one that I'd never head of before coming here; it houses the collection of manuscripts, books and artifacts collected by Sir Alfred Chester Beatty, an American mining millionaire who died in 1968 (I think). More info can be found at http://www.cbl.ie/. If you ever come to Dublin, I highly recommend it...the facility is great (and free!), the cafe is delightful and the gardens are lovely--full of lavender and rosemary.

St. Stephen's Green

Here are a couple images of St. Stephen's Green, a big park right downtown. It has some lovely scenes, and on a sunny day every flat surface is covered with people sunbathing.
The pond is very charming, and houses some cute ducks (and ducklings) and some rather awful seagulls--I saw one of the gulls try to steal a duckling for lunch! Fortunately, the parent ducks fought valiantly for their offspring and were victorious.
There are lots of flowerbeds, and even more were being planted when I walked through today. The whole place is very well maintained, as you can see.

Temple Bar

Welcome to Temple Bar!

It is a very popular part of Dublin, and seems to be busy at all hours of the day and night--some of the bars here don't close until 3.00 a.m.
It is usually packed with people, which, unfortunately, makes it hard to photograph (I haven't found a good perch yet)--I'll try to do better.

Basically it's an old area of town that is absolutely packed with pubs, as well as with people. The streets are old and narrow and cobbled, and the visitors are a funny mix of locals and tourists. Part of the reason that the streets are so crowded is because of all the smokers, who are no longer allowed to pursue their habit indoors.

The area also tends to be quite full of "hen parties." For those not familiar with the term, these are (as far as I understand it) a sort of bachelorette parties for women about to be married. Whatever they are (and people correct me if I'm mistaken) supposed to be, what they are actually is an excuse for strange women to dress up in weird costumes (see photo), drink copious amounts of alcohol and generally be loud and obnoxious. That isn't just me being anti-social; Celia, who has to serve these parties, is not a fan either.

There are so lovely old buildings in Temple Bar, though, and they are generally very well maintained, because it is such a tourist attraction.

On Dublin: Part 2

Dublin the Trendy
When I say trendy, I really do mean trendy: not stylish, not chic, not well dressed, but instant, of the moment, cheap, disposable clothes. I thought Zara and H+M were innovative, but the are just two of the better examples of how people shop here. For the most part, people seem to buy super-trendy outfits which they will wear for 3 or 4 months and then either get rid of or throw out (the clothing having fallen apart by then). At first I was extremely puzzled by why people looked so different here from at home, but Celia and I were finally able to pin it down; jeans are not the norm here that they are in both Canada and Australia. It is fascinating, and a little disconcerting; everyone here looks so coordinated, because their shirts match their shoes and their belts and their jewlery and their hair clips. Going to the stores and seeing that this is the way they sell things (everything following a particular colour scheme or theme) explained a lot. Even the kids are all dressed up in miniature versions of the adult outfits!

Dublin the Congested
I suppose it's a mark of just how much the city has grown over the past few years, but traffic seems to be a major issue here. One sees a bit of the suicidal driving so common in the rest of Europe (and Israel!), but not too much, possibly because the streets are so congested. The pedestrians don't help anything, either: the traffic systems can seem very odd when walking (sometimes all 4 directions of traffic will be stopped and the pedestrian light will still be red...hmmm), so people tend to cross whenever and wherever they choose.

Dublin the Expensive
Because Celia and I moved into our apartment on such short notice, our landlord didn't have keys ready for us; in the end, he just gave us his set, and said that if we had copies made and got a receipt, he would repay the cost of the copies. This didn't seem like too much to ask, so I had the copies made and all was fine until I got the bill: to have 8 copies made cost 50 Euros (about $70 Canadian)! I was completely blown away, but the landlord repaid this without blinking an eye. Welcome to Dublin. Admittedly, not everything is that bad, but prices are such that I have done--or tried to do--most of my shopping at the "2 Euro" shops, where everything is E2. And I live in terror of losing and having to replace my keys.

Delightful, Tiny Apartment

Okay: ask and ye shall recieve. Here are some photos of my delightful, tiny apartment. Unfortunately, they are already outdated: I went to the National Gallery this afternoon and comletely lost control in the gift shop, so I now have, um, a few more postcards decorating my room and a poster up in the living room/dining room/kitchen. Sorry, but I was too lazy to take more photos...
Anyway, this is my bedroom. I'm calling petite, not small...it sounds better. Most of my things fit in, which is the important thing. It's actually quite charming, and gets a lot of natural light. I need to get some more decorations for the walls, and maybe some sort of night stand (I'm currently using one of my suitcases), and I'm going to try to stop myself there...but we'll see how things turn out.

Another view of my room, clearly illustrating the good natural light, and the amount of stuff I have already piled onto the window sill (hence the necessity of the nightstand). My window looks out over our little courtyard--our private little courtyard. Celia and I are looking for some little chairs to go out there. I'm afraid that the courtyard's privacy is really the only exciting thing about it at the moment, but I'm on the lookout for some plants, maybe a few tasteful statues, a pond for the goldfish...

Celia's room is right next to mine, but she was napping so I didn't take any photos of it.

This is a shot of our Lilliputian bathroom--the shower, in particular. (And yes, for those of you who caught that, that was a Swift reference--he was Irish, after all!) You have to climb around the sink to get into the shower, and of course, any sudden moves in there are completely out of the question! But it works...and I'm looking for some sort of miniature shelving unit.


This is the kitchen/ dining room/ living room, of course. As you can see, we really have everything we need, most of it supplied by our friendly landlord. Okay, the empty wine bottles are ours, but you see my point. It's a very cosy and useful kitchen, fairly well designed (though the sink is a bit awkward to access). The great thing, I have discovered, about having such a tiny kitchen with so little in it, is that it takes about 5 minutes to clean absolutely everything in it!

And yes, that is a washer/dryer that you see ... please, try to control your envy. I know it is a lot to take in, but...

This is my street, as seen from outside my building. It is rather a small street, and I'm afraid it doesn't have much to make it stand out. I will say this for old Emmet St., though; it is very convenient. You can actually see our local little store, which carries all manner of essentials, just two doors down! And it's only about a 20 minute walk to the heart of the city centre, which is essential.

So, in the end, it is an excellent apartment. We're having a great time with it, and have actually spent quite a bit of time basically sitting around, admiring our apartment! I will try to include more pictures as the little place grows up (that is, fills in!).

On Dublin: Part 1

Dublin the Dirty
I did not make that up; Celia tells me that "Dublin the Dirty" is what the rest of Ireland calls the city, and the epithet is unfortunately apt. People here--tourists and citizens alike--are terrible litter bugs. There are garbage cans (and a few--very few--recycling facilities) available, but they are either overstuffed or unused. It's terrible. They do have street cleaners, but not enough, and the work is done by hand (rather than by the funny ride-along vacuums we have in Toronto). People also fail to pick up after their dogs (which I rarely see!), and evidently see no reason not to urinate and vomit in the streets after the pubs close. Perhaps as a result of this, many of the sites and parks are locked up at night, which keeps them in decent condition. The Trinity College Campus is by far the cleanest and best kept place in the city, but their conscientiousness borders on mania--I actually watched a gardener chase people off the grass the other day.

Dublin the Polish
Celia and I both noticed that there are a lot of Polish people in Dublin. Many of the stores have signs written in Polish, the banks offer information in Polish, there are Polski Skelp (Polish shops) everywhere... We were unclear on just why this was, until it was explained to me today that Ireland was one of the very few (two, I think) countries that allowed Polish people to come and work immediately when they joined the EU. Naturally, with the abundance of work available in Dublin, many Poles moved to the city, and have become a powerful presence here.

Dublin the Drunk
While there are pubs everywhere here, what is more interesting to me is how readily available alcohol is, and how it is consumed in public. Just about every convenience store (and they are a legion, often on all 4 corners of an intersection--Spar and Londis in particular) has an "Off License" section, where they sell all kinds of alcohol. These are also in grocery stores. And it is acceptable to drink anywhere! People walk down the streets, sit on the corners, go everywhere, drinking! It is so different from North America, where such things are strictly regulated.

An Apartment on Emmet St.

That's right...I have an apartment! And it is fabulous!

Celia and I met with Colin, the agent from the real estate company that runs the building, yesterday just after 2pm. It was really good of him to help us out like that; it's a holiday weekend here (today was a bank holiday) and he gave up some free time to help us out. In any case, we met briefly, made a deposit, signed the lease, got our keys and we were off!

Celia and I waited for Colin's footsteps to receed before starting to jump around gleefully...very discreet. Then we ran around testing everything: the oven, the stove, the toaster, the kettle, the microwave, the iron, the toilet, the taps, the shower (which gave us some trouble--it turns out that you need to flip a switch outside the bathroom for it to run), the lights...everything! Then we went shopping.

Although the apartment does include a lot (cutlery, a knife block set, some dishes, 3 saucepans and a nonstick skillet, a set of utensils, and more), there were a few items we needed right away, including bed linens and cleaning products and some food to put in the cupboards. We were fairly restrained, I thought, but barely made it back to the hostel with all of our stuff, and had to order a van taxi to take us to our new place.

We spent all night cleaning and unpacking, settling in and getting to know each other better. (I will write a Celia profile soon; until then, she's from Australia, she was the first person that I met in Dublin, she too likes dogs, she works in a pub in Temple Bar, and we are getting on very well.)

This morning was wonderful. No one rushed me out of bed, I could use the bathroom whenever I wanted (and the shower is great, if tiny--really tiny), everything was clean, I didn't have to dig through a suitcase for anything...heavenly! I ran some errands this afternoon, a bit of a mistake since there was some sort of mini-marathon in the city centre and the place was complete packed with running groups and men wearing dresses, wigs and makeup (I think it was a women's marathong...or something). I bought a duvet, and had a very hard time making my way through the crowd with all my packages! But it's great to feel so settled, though I'm trying to restrain my nesting instincts, usually by chanting: "It's only 6 months. It's only 6 months. You don't need decorative pillows. It's only 6 months. It's only 6 months. You don't need extra shelves. It's only 6 months. It's only 6 months. You don't need fancy planting containers." And so on, and so forth.

I will post pictures of the apartment soon, once we are a little more set up there (though it's already pretty good) and I've put some things up on the walls. Which is what I'm going HOME to do now!

The Great Rubber Duck Race

Yes, you did read that correctly; yesterday I saw a rubber duck race. Or more accurately, the post-race chaos.

It was an event to raise money for a children's hospital; people could "adopt" a duck (for 4 Euros, I think), and the "owner" of the duck that won the race was to win a free trip to the US. They were also aiming for a world record by racing 150,000 rubber ducks. I think it was a great idea, but there were some problems with executing the plan: apparently as soon as they had put all the ducks in the Liffey river (the main river that divides Dublin East-West), they started "swimming" in the WRONG DIRECTION!

Unfortunately, I had no idea this was going on and missed the race itself, but happened to wander down to the river just as they were beginning to clean up; that's right, they were trying to retrieve all the ducks from the river! I had to ask what was going on, and was very amused by the story of the race. I hung around for a while, took some pictures, and was just about to leave when the people who were fishing the ducks out of the river (in little boats) started tossing some of the ducks up into the crowd.

Now, I know that people are naturally competetive and all, but this was a bit ridiculous -- people went completely crazy for those little ducks! I saw adults snatch them away from children, trample others while trying to catch a duck, shove pregnant women aside to grab one. It was not pretty. I waited until the insanity died down a bit before getting two (one of which I gave away to another hostel guest who had adopted a duck but missed the post-race excitement). Anyway, it was quite a sight to see, and now I have a lovely remembrance.

For more information, you can check these sites: http://www.dublincity.ie/press_news/events/duck_race.asp
http://www.childrenslifeline.ie/html/newsdetail.php?newsid=61&new=y

A Hostel, a Pub and a Courthouse

This photo is from our nighttime walk along the Liffey River. According to Erica and Miyoshi, this building is called the Four Courts, and houses the judicial courts. (They got that from a tour guide, who probably knew what he was talking about.) It's quite a grand building, as you can see.
And if you look closely, at the far end of the photo, I think you can make out the pink of the setting sun--at 10:30pm!

This is me, Miyoshi and Erica at the pub in the Bachelor's Walk hotel where we went to see the traditional music and dancing. Obviously, we weren't drinking Guinness--it's a cider of some kind, that was okay. You did have to drink it with some speed, though, or else it got warm and flat and compeltely unappealing.

This was my first room at Jacob's Inn...not much to write home about (or photograph), but I am in a sharing mood. My second room looks pretty similar, so I won't both sharing that! As you can see, they really pack us in. This room houses up to 8 girls, literally head to toe.
I will say this about the hostel, though; the staff have been great--friendly, funny, helpful, even supportive! I'm told that it's a good hostel (I haven't much, or anything, to compare it to), but make your reservations early!

Trying to Settle In

So, having decided not to take the questionable apartment I saw the other night, Celia (my Australian bunk buddy from the hostel, who also celebrates her dog's birthday) and I did a little perusing of the local paper's classifieds. I had very little success when I made the calls the next day (on my new cel phone, by the way!), only managing to make one appointment. As it turns out, though, it was the right appointment. We hope. Celia and I went together to check the place out, and we were both pretty thrilled! It's a brand new apartment, the bottom floor of a house that has just been divided up. It's very small, but quite nice; fully furnished, including brand new appliances, beds, couches, table and chairs, etc. It's bright and pleasant, and includes a little courtyard out the back. It has an intercom, which is nice, and is quite centrally located; we would both be able to walk to work and back. We've let the landlords know that we'd like to take it (and move in tomorrow, if possible!), and are just waiting to hear back now, which is excruciating. I'll keep you updated.

Yesterday was a day of errands; I spent a lot of time trying to work out the apartment stuff, and then got completely lost looking for the Social Welfare Office (I had to go there to get my PPS Number--which is like a SIN or Social Security Number). I finally made it there, and was lucky enough only to wait an hour for them to photocopy my ID and proof of residence, stamp my application and tell me my number would be posted in 7-10 business days. (I'm not joking about the lucky thing--Celia was there over 2 hours!)

Last night was Erica and Miyoshi's last night in Dublin (they flew to London this morning), so we went to check out some traditional music and dancing, hosted by a hotel on Bachelor's Walk (on the Liffey). It was fun, though we barely understood any of the patter that went on between songs. We left there around 10:00 and wandered along the Liffey for a while. Something funny and unexpected about Ireland; there is still some sunlight until almost 10:30 at night! It's very curious.

This morning I dropped off my application at a downtown Starbucks, so I hope to hear from them within a couple of days. Not that it's a real measure of anything, but the girl (sorry, barista), who accepted my application seemed very pleased to have it. I am actually looking forward to working a bit; my days are so unstructured now that I find it a bit disorienting.

The weather continues to be amazing; clear and warm and sunny. The locals are taking it a bit further than seems appropriate to me--they're all out in shorts and t-shirts and such (I'm still wearing a couple of shirts and a jacket. I'm enjoying their excitement, but starting to wonder if this is as warm as it gets here!

The Early Days in Dublin

Trinity College ... obviously. It's right in the centre of Dublin, and is really lovely. I was there yesterday when they were cutting the grass (or which there is quite a bit), and it smelled amazing! The only downside is that they seem pretty strict about maintaining the manicured apprearance of the grounds, so no one is allowed on the grass. The buildings are all really well maintained, though, and even the newer constructions seem to fit in quite well (or are hidden behind the older buildings)!

The Liffey River runs right through the middle of Dublin's city centre. I haven't really seen any boats on it, but apparently there are tours that run along it, and such, so it must be functional. Some of the bridges look pretty low to me, though!

I'm sure you've notice just how blue and beautiful the skies are...the weather has been unbelievable ever since I arrived--warm, sunny, perfect! The Dubliners are all melting now that the thermometre has passed 20*C, but it feels good to me!

This is part of O'Connell St., one of the main streets in Dublin's city centre. My hostel is about 5 minutes from where I took this picture, so I've spent a lot of time in this area.
There are a ton of buses here; city buses, airport buses, tour buses, amphibious buses... The funny thing is that public transportation in Ireland isn't that great, according to what I've been told; it's rather expensive and not terribly reliable (though apparently it's better in the cities than outside them).



Hope you've enjoyed these...as you may have guessed, I have loads more, and I'll try to get some of them up for you!

People Who Meet People

I arrived in Dublin yesterday morning without really knowing anyone here. My hostel was less social than I had expected, and if I hadn't gone out with the one person I know here (Erica), I would have had a rather lonely night indeed. Today, however, things felt a little different. It was a quiet day (in terms of conversation) until around 5pm, when I went back to the kitchen of the hostel for my dinner (or tea, I guess I should call it). There I ran into two of the girls I am currently sharing a room with; Jackie, who is from outside London and has come to Dublin in pursuit of a dream of a new life, and Celia, an Australian girl who is my age and has plans quite similar to mine (she actually got a job at a pub today). I met them both briefly yesterday, long enough to get to like Celia (she loves Siena too, and is reading Jane Eyre) and find Jackie a little odd (she's been sick with the flu since she got here but--if you let her--will talk your ear off, without pausing for input). In any case the three of us started talking, and soon everyone else in the kitchen (two Australians, a man and a woman, and a German woman) joined in too, as did Stephanie and Sharon (from North Carolina) when they came in. It was great! Stephanie and Sharon are also in my room (it can fit 8 girls), and when I met them back there we had another nice conversation, during which I discovered that they did a Birthright trip to Israel last December (and Sharon leaves shortly to lead another one)! Talk about a small world...

I also had an interesting conversation with Carolina, a French/Italian girl who is trying to rent out her room (or really, her half of a room) on Mountjoy Square. That's right; I went to check out an apartment today, all by myself, for the first time! I'm not yet sure what to do about the place; the apartment itself was pretty drab and dingy, and quite dark, and I'd have to share a small room with a Japanese girl (though I'm told she's very nice), and the rest of the apartment with her and two South African guys. On the other hand, the rent isn't obscene (though it certainly isn't cheap), and an apartment in Dublin is turning out to be much harder to find than I expected. Also, it's a good location and right across the street from a nice park (where people walk their dogs!), on a courtyard (that's full of kittens!), and I can stay for as long (or short) as I want (though I would be responsible for finding a replacement tenant). Celia walked up to the building with me, and mentioned something about our potentially finding a place together if the Mountjoy place didn't work out. That might be nice, since I do like her, and we seem to have a fair bit in common (e.g. today is her lab's birthday). We both have places to stay until Sunday morning, so we don't have long to figure it out, but I think it might be worth a try.

Exploratoring

I spent most of yesterday afternoon wandering around; I did explore O'Connell St. pretty thoroughly, and also managed to wander through Temple Bar, Grafton St., and Trinity College. I got a map and just wandered, which was really fun. I got lost in the sense that I didn't know or really care where I was, and it worked out fine--with the help of my trusty map (which, strangely, calls itself a 'rough guide map') I was able to find my way back.

There are some beautiful old buildings here, most of them really well maintained. I love that so many of them are now housing modern businesses; they are an active, functional part of the city, not set aside just to be admired. It is a very multicultural city, as I guess most large cities are these days. There seem to be a lot of Eastern Europeans who have come here looking for work, which is plentiful because of the economic boom that Ireland is experiencing. Apparently the language barrier is creating some difficulty, though--most job postings require English speaking ability and not much else. I don't think I'll have trouble finding a job here, if that's what I decide to do.

A word on hostels, or at least, my hostel: utilitarian. There is just enough space for the essentials in each room, and only the essentials are available. It's fine for a few nights, but pretty awkward when you've packed for a more homey environment...there's so little space that I can only open my suitcases one at a time, so I have to try to remember where I packed everything whenever I want anything. And if you've ever seen my packing...well, you know how prone I am to suitcase explosions, something that I really can't indulge right now!

I met up with Erica and her friend Miyoshi last night for dinner. For those of you who don't know, Erica and I met just a couple of weeks ago on our Birthright trip to Israel. We hit it off, and then discovered that we'd both be in Dublin at the same time! She and Miyoshi are here until Saturday, so I'm hoping to see them again tomorrow. It was so nice to see a friendly face among all these strangers. We had a very nice dinner at a Japanese restaurant, and then ended up going to see the new X-men movie. Not exactly the most cultural experience, I know, but they've already been here for a while, and have had enough of pubs and such, plus it really helped me stay awake to reset my internal clock. By the time I got back to my hostel and found everything I needed in various suitcases and got ready for bed, it was midnight, and a new month.