May 2010
4 posts
Natural History Museum
Today was my first day off since I started working for Paddywagon Tours, and Colin and I spent the afternoon at the Natural History Museum - also known as the “dead zoo”. The museum was only reopened a month ago; it had been closed since July 2007 after one of the building’s staircases collapsed.
We spent a few hours browsing the museum’s two floors of preserved animals...
Working for Paddywagon Tours!
Well, I found a job. It was a bit random how it happened, but I’m now officially an employee of Paddywagon Tours in Dublin.
The company headquarters are located in the Paddy’s Palace hostel on Lower Gardiner Street in Dublin 1, only a few blocks away from the central Spire.
I’m going to be working part of the time as a reservations agent for the tours, and the other part as a...
Being a Vegetarian in Dublin
I’ve taken a bit of a break from my blog, but I think I’m ready to get back to it now. I finished up my internship on April 1st and went home for a three-week visit. It felt really good to be home - almost too good, because I had trouble making myself get on the plane to come back here. But I missed my Collie doggie too much to leave him in Dublin all on his lonesome. So I made it...
February 2010
1 post
January 2010
7 posts
Rain, Rain, Go Away
All the snow and ice melted away yesterday morning, and the dreary, drizzling rain recommenced. Now I’m back to sidestepping puddles and fighting the wind with my umbrella. The weather was particularly bad during my walk to the bus from work yesterday. As I was crossing my pedestrian bridge, an obnoxiously strong gust of wind and rain whipped across the river and practically knocked us...
Snow continues to wreak havoc on Dublin
It’s been snowing in the evenings here ever since New Years Eve, and the city has yet to take any action to clear the build up of ice from the roads and sidewalks. This afternoon it hailed and snowed pretty hard for about an hour, adding around 2 inches to the growing layers of wintry mess. Dublin Bus canceled all its services right before rush hour, leaving me, and plenty of others judging...
New interns at TTD
I met two Ricardo’s today: my trainer at Slender Health, and one of our two new interns at The Travel Department. The other intern is Rebbecca, an Irish girl who studied journalism at DIT and interactive media at Trinity—pretty similar to my choice of education. Except I wouldn’t quite compare Columbia to Trinity, but still, we seem to have a bit in common. She has a cool sense...
New Gym Membership!
I joined a gym in Raheny today, called Slender Health. It’s pretty small but they have everything I need—treadmills, ellipticals, bikes, stairsteppers and TONS of weights. Plus they have a bunch of different exercise classes that are included free with the membership (3 months for €169). They gave me a schedule of all the courses, with descriptions of what they involve. “Tone...
December 2009
5 posts
4 tags
November 2009
12 posts
Thanksgiving Bummer
Well, Thanksgiving was kind of a bust. The Wool Shed ran out of turkey dinners before we got there, so we had to order off their regular menu instead. I was pretty thoroughly pissed off and thought about just walking out, but the waitress offered us all a free dinner to make up for it, and we couldn’t really say no to that. So I ate spinach and ricotta cannelloni to commemorate the day the...
Celebrating Thanksgiving Overseas
It’s Thanksgiving tomorrow, but I don’t feel it. No one cares or knows about the holiday over here, and it’s sort of bringing me down. Usually this is my favorite time of year. It’s not too cold yet, but it’s getting there. Christmas is right around the corner, but it’s not too late to get your shopping done still. And most importantly, the family all comes...
No World Cup for Ireland
Last night Ireland played France in the second half of the World Cup Qualifier. During the playoffs, the scores of the 2 games are aggregated, and the team with the most points at the end of both games proceeds to the World Cup. Goals scored at the home field are worth 1 point, while goals scored away are worth 2 points. France had scored 1 goal in Ireland last Saturday, so Ireland needed to score...
Topping off the weekend with X-Factor Sunday
I didn’t do much this weekend, but I feel like I should write because I’ve been slacking off recently. Friday I went for drinks after work, and I was bought 4 pints of Bulmers by various co-workers. Having had nothing to eat since about 1 p.m. that day, I was pretty smashed by the time Colin showed up to collect me. I demanded Apache pizza and more booze, so Colin drove me to Tesco to...
Thanksgiving, Dublin Style
Well Halloween is over, and now I’m gearing up for Thanksgiving! After some google searching I found out that the Wool Shed is serving a turkey dinner and showing some NFL games for the holiday. Colin and I are going to do the double date thing with Becky and her boyfriend John. I hope we don’t overwhelm them with our American-ness. I told Colin he has to go, though, because it’s...
October 2009
16 posts
Halloween in Dublin
I went shopping for Halloween costume accessories this afternoon with a new friend, Becky. I met Becky online, after I joined the Americans in Dublin group on meetup.com and she sent me a welcome message. We’ve been emailing back and forth for a few weeks now and decided it was time we finally met in person. We have a lot in common, like both having Irish boyfriends, being American, and...
Dark Winter Days
I’m officially depressed. This was the first day I’ve worked since we set our clocks back on Sunday, and the sky gets dark SO early now! When I left work at 5:30 it was pitch black outside. It’s dark when I wake up, and it’s dark again when I come home. I feel like a vampire. This is going to be a long, dark, wet winter. I might actually prefer -10 degree temps and snowy...
I Need Modest Mouse Tickets!!
Modest Mouse is playing at the Academy in Dublin on December 7th and 8th, and I didn’t find this out until ALL THE TICKETS WERE SOLD OUT. I want to go to this show so bad! I’ve already seen them four times in Chicago, once in Madison, WI and once in St. Louis, but I haven’t seen them overseas, so I think it’s necessary that I go. The tickets were 27 euro when they went on...
Working for the Weekend
I feel a lot better about being here now that I have a job, but it hasn’t been very good for my blog. I’m so tired when I get home from work that the last thing I want to do is write. I haven’t even been cooking dinner anymore, just been picking up carry out instead. But I don’t want to make a habit out of that; it’s so unhealthy. I’m going to try to make myself...
Marketing Internship Job Offer!!
I haven’t written in awhile, and a lot has changed in the past few days. First off, I didn’t get the ticket scanning job. Ugh. Anyway, it’s his loss because today I was offered a job!! I had an interview for a marketing internship this morning at The Travel Department, an Irish travel agency. I was feeling pretty down going into it, since I thought the last interview went really...
September 2009
6 posts
Journalism Internship!
A month into my job search, the phone calls finally start coming in! I received another call today about an intern position at Outsider magazine in Dublin. It’s subtitled “Ireland’s Outdoor Magazine,” and it covers climbing, hiking, skiing and snowboarding, paddling and other outdoorsy sports that adventurous people participate in over here. I’m not sure what all I...
Volunteering in Dublin
I enabled commenting yesterday, so feel free to leave me some feedback if you’re reading this! (Click on “0 Comments” at the bottom of the post.)
Games night was a bit of a disappointment yesterday. Steph had to bail because of complications with her wisdom teeth, so we didn’t get to meet the infamous Owen after all. It was just me and Colin vs. Peg and Joe. Peg brought...
Saturday Night Fun on the Cheap
Last night was a success. We ate a delicious home-cooked dinner of chicken and steak fajitas, with chocolate cake for dessert, and Colin loved all of his gifts. There were three in total: a pair of gray/lime green Asic sneakers, a dark blue hoodie from PacSun and a gray striped polo from PacSun. He’s actually wearing two out of the three right now.
Tonight we’re having a Finn couples...
Job Search Update
SWEET RELIEF I finally got an interview! Here’s how it happened. Colin and I went to the FAS offices in Dublin and found a bunch of ads for jobs, which you can print out and take home to apply. We printed about 15 or so, and I headed home to get to work while Colin went back to school for his next class. The first position I applied for was with a company called Ticket Scan, and the job is exactly...
Looking for Jobs in Dublin = Soul Crushing
I’ve been actively searching for a job for three weeks now and still haven’t received one call back. When I started off, I had high hopes. I was looking mostly for glamorous jobs at places I love to shop: Urban Outfitters, Top Shop, River Island. Now I’m desperate for anything. I’ve handed in CVs at coffee shops, grocery stores, hotels, fast food restaurants, convenience...