caitielynn1

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 I can't describe how refreshing it was. Ally, the restaurant's general manager (who also has an amazing Scottish accent), was there as well giving me a fairly in depth run-down of the tapas bar's approach ... read more

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, I have yet to write anything in my blogs about my job, since my initial entry a few weeks ago. This has probably seemed strange being that the whole reason I'm here is for my ... read more

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 the Atlantic ocean which I got seasick in. We went to one of the three restaurants on the island to get a late lunch, but by the time we all sat down and looked at ... read more

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 chairs and tables- I am very impressed by all the layouts/designs of the pubs/nightclub/tapas bars. It's incredible how well they were able to make everything look fancy and modern, yet not pretentious or trying to ... read more

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 get all the touristy stuff out of the way now because I'd like to start focusing on the NOT being a tourist soon!!! I had my interview a couple of days ago with the brewery, ... read more