Perhaps my favorite day of work was today- wanna guess why it was my favorite? Probably because it was the first time I was cooking in a kitchen since I've been here. Not only that, but I was talking to someone who truly cared about food and how it was prepared and presented. I was only there for a few hours before they opened, helping Karl (who's name is deceiving for being Argentinian with above average English but a pretty confusing accent), Bar Pintxo's head chef, do prep for the day, doing simple things like cut eggplant, shred lettuce, etc. but [View Full Entry]

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Wow. This weekend was crazy. We left our apartments at 630 am, and all ten of us loaded into two van taxis to take us to the airport. I don't think I really realized the full quantity of people I was going to be traveling with all weekend till we were waiting in line at the ticket counter to check in. And to think it was originally just to be Laura and I that would be heading off to Europe for the weekend. The plan was landing in Belgium, take an hour long bus ride into Brussels, then catch a bus [View Full Entry]

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So I've been sick for a little over a week now. It started with like a 48 hour flu type thing, then I felt better for a couple days, then I got one of the worst soar throats of my life, and by the time that Theresa and Cassandra got here I could barely talk. I actually lost my voice for the first time in my life. It was mostly annoying and really painful, but KINDA cool at the same time :). Because I've been sick though, I haven't really worked for a week. As many of you may have noticed, [View Full Entry]

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Cassandra and Theresa got here on Saturday to visit me for a few days before they made their way all the way back to the good 'ol US of A. Both groups were nervous about how well the transition of their arrival would go- being that we hadn't actually made contact with each other in weeks, so we were both just hoping the other would be there when their flight arrived in Dublin. I made a sign using borrowed airport paper and sharpie (and made the sign at a car rental desk which I successfully stained when the sharpie bled through [View Full Entry]

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This weekend has been amazing. Yesterday Laura, Josh, Ally, and I went to the Aran Islands (specifically Dun Aonghasa) by bus and then by a very bumpy ferry to see the cliffs there. The weather was terrible, and I'm an idiot and didn't want to take up precious backpack room to pack a rain jacket OR real shoes for the weekend so I wore a zip-up sweater and flip flops. Sometimes I wonder about my intelligence honestly. It took us two hours to get there which included a kinda gross bus that I got carsick on, then a rocking ferry in [View Full Entry]

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Our ever-large group of Americans decided to go to Galway this weekend to explore the city and surrounding western coastline. I am especially glad to be getting out of the city for a few days, because although Dublin is a great city, sometimes you almost feel like it's an outlier to the rest of Ireland (as in not much green, lots of foreign tourists, and a severe lack of sheep). My friends Josh, Laura, Ally, and I left Friday morning on the train, a little earlier than the rest of the group, not really knowing what we were going to do [View Full Entry]

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Today was my first day of work!! Well- it was only a half day... but one of my bosses took me around the city center to show me around to the various Porterhouse owned locations. There's a lot. Two tapas bars, one that we went into and I fell in LOVE with. It's extremely cute/romantic/comfortable. The walls are lined with vintage wine bottles behind class and candles that they light at night. Everything is very dimly lit, and I can only imagine how gorgeous it looks when it's open. They have an outdoor seating area as well that has low-sitting glass [View Full Entry]

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Holy fancy shmancy! This is the link to the "celebrity nightclub" my new boss told me I'd be doing events and promotional stuff for... suhweet! http://www.lilliesbordello.ie/ [View Full Entry]

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We had a big BBQ today in the green outside of our apartment complex, put on by the EUSA program for all of the Americans. It was entertaining to see what all they included as being "American": hamburgers and hot dogs, chicken nuggets from who knows where, lots of ketchup and mustard, "American Style" hamburger sauce, "Born in the USA" played by the DJ, and lots of peanuts. It was the first time that we met a lot of the people from the other programs though which was fun! Went to Dublin Castle yesterday, and the Guinness factory- I'm trying to [View Full Entry]

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I'm settling into bed after my second day in Ireland, and I cannot describe how content with life I am at this very moment. Immediately after getting off the plane Monday I was greeted by helpful and friendly people. The living arrangements for the summer are great- although thoroughly concentrated by Americans. However, of the other American's I've met, they all are really nice and I've connected well with a couple of them. We went out as a group to the Temple Bar area last night (one of the most popular/touristy areas of the city) and on our way into the [View Full Entry]

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