Pubs and Rugby Matches

Judith, Alex, Brian, James

Just a quick update regarding a fun evening I had last weekend when James (the post-doc I'm working for) invited both myself and another undergrad working in the lab to join him and his friends at a pub downtown to watch the 6 Nations' rugby match between France and Ireland. I was quite excited as this would be the first time I watch a 6 Nations' match and nonetheless, I would get to watch it at a pub in Ireland! So I drafted Judith and Alex to come out on the town with me and we made our way over to O'Neill's pub downtown, which is a great old Victorian-style pub and was packed with expectant rugby fans to the point where it was hard to move, let alone find a seat! Luckily, James and his friends had been there for a while and had managed to snag a table!

To be honest, I wasn't sure what to expect as I was walking in to join my supervisor and his friends at a pub and it did make me a bit anxious as I've heard that mixing work and play is not always the best of ideas! But it turned out the be a fantastic adventure, as the rugby match got cancelled (to my great dismay and that of many others at the bar) and we decided to head over to a nightclub called Dandelion for a bit of dancing! We ended the night at good ol' McDonalds (I know...) for a burger and fries and were all feeling quite tipsy at the end of it all!

As an aside, I do believe it's worth mentioning that, in order to get to the ladies' room at O'Neill's, one has to walk down a narrow flight of stairs for which the walls are covered with old school paintings and advertisements for beer and such! This pub is also a complete maze in every way possible. It is very easy to lose your way, but wherever you DO get lost, you'll be sure to find another bar from which you can order drinks, so there's no need to worry on that front! ;)

Expanding on this restroom adventure, and seeing as how I was beginning to feel a bit tipsy by the time I ventured out on my own to find the toilets, you can imagine my amusement when I realized that the stalls are equipped with fluorescent lights... Now I told myself I wouldn't post this picture on the web and would keep it for my own entertainment, but I have quickly come to the conclusion that it would be rather selfish of me not to share what I think would amuse a number of other people out there so to finish off this wonderful post, here's to hoping your inner child is as amused as I was!

... and that is just the toilet paper in the bowl FYI! -_-



P.S. Also had my first Guiness in Ireland... and it was FANTASTIC!

School and Labwork

I figured I would go through a week of school before I wrote down what my impressions of it were in order to allow myself to come to a more substantial and comprehensive judgement of Dublin City University and classes in Ireland.

So far, I have noticed that, contrary to what they told us at orientation regarding the rigidity of the Irish education system, it seems to me as though many of the students in our classes don't take school very seriously. In fact, we have one prof that has not shown up to class on time yet! He is a very nice prof and a lot of fun to talk to, but when telling us what he expects from us on the exam, he states that all we have to remember is the bare minimum! As it turns out, this will suit me perfectly since I have quickly come to terms with the fact that doing my thesis here is going to be A LOT of work!

Last Monday, I finally met my supervisor at DCU (Dr. Fiona Regan), who brought me over to her lab right away and introduced me to James, the Post-Doc student I will be working for throughout the semester. I am expected to be at the lab every day of the week between 9-5 and whenever I don't have lectures to attend. It's already quite challenging and I am mostly stressed because I want to live up to James' expectations and fulfill all the tasks he assigns to me as efficiently as possible. But I am quite fortunate, I think, to be working for him as he treats his undergrads like equals and even expects us to throw around our own ideas for the project we're working on, which I will describe in more detail at a later date.

The one lab story I DO want to share right now is the sampling trip I got to take part in on Tuesday with James and Ciprian, a doctorate student also working in Dr. Regan's lab. I met up with both of them at the lab and they gave me the least heavy things to carry to the car (although I fully expected they would load me up since I'm the little undergrad). And we drove about 5 minutes away from the University to a park through which the Tolka river flows. Once there, Ciprian was the lucky one to have to get into the freezing water to take sample, while I distracted the malicious and territorial swans by getting them to nip at my purple boots instead of Ciprian's hands, with James rounding up the expedition by taking videos and pictures on his iPhone  while laughing at us both. After this challenging 20 minute task, they both agreed a coffee break was in order so we stopped at a local coffee shop and spent a good 30 minutes chatting! All in all, quite a fun way to start my days at the lab.

In other news, the suitcase saga has yet to be resolved and I am feeling more and more frustrated by my restricted wardrobe, but I am fortunate to have Amila on the other side of the ocean harassing the airlines for me! <3. But we did manage to move into an apartment on Friday, which turned out not to be the one the manager had shown us, but a much bigger one, which is costing us 10 Euro/day in electricity and we're being extremely conservative! It's a very old, badly insulated, huge space and we've complained to the manager in order for him to give us the apartment he said he would in the first place... More news to follow on that front soon enough.

All in all, a fairly long an tiring school week, which Tra, Judith and I decided to end in style with dinner at the Thai Orchid downtown, which was completely worth it and a good start to a fun weekend. I also had a Tiger Beer, which was really tasty! Sure could go for one of those right now! ; )

The Irish Countryside

Hello all,

I was simply too tired to write about the second outing organized by the school AND I didn't want to overwhelm everyone with a 20 pager all in one shot. So I got some rest, ate some spicy penne arrabiate and munched on chips and chocolate, which means my fingers and brain cells are ready to spit out some more fun adventures!

Judith and I got up early Saturday, after having gone out drinking with Alex the night before, in order to get to school and catch the voyager bus (bus eireann) to Causey Farm -  http://www.causey.ie/ - where we would get a chance to experience some of the more traditional aspects of Irish Culture! As I still have not received my suitcase, I didn't have access to my new super rainboots, so I did the next best thing in order to preserve my beloved purple boots: go to Pennys (the Irish equivalent of Winners) and buy a pair of runners for 2 euro! This turned out to be the best option since they are now covered in muck! -------->

It was about a 45 minute bus ride through 2 toll stations and on a 120km/h motorway as highways are called here, which presented us with quite a number of landscape viewing opportunities.

Once we got to the farm, the main farm operator, Matt Murtagh, began our visit with a demonstration of his Border Collie, Patches' impressive sheep-herding skills! He rounded up and led the sheep to the gathered students in about 2 minutes under Matt's careful commands, at which point we formed makeshift pen around them using our bodies. As sheep are scared of everything, they just ran around in a circle, pushing and bumping into each other, each one vying for a spot in the middle of the flock where it is 'safest'! It was quite a sight!

The group was then split into two and everyone was paired up; I became partners with Fabian, a German chemistry student. At this point, our guide, Kevin (who was around our age and not too shabby looking I might add), taught us the basics of Hurling - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgEMvRrOCRI - which made my day since I've been watching youtube videos about it since I first applied for this exchange program! It's played with a hurley, which is like a short hockey stick made of oak and a baseball-like ball... AND helmets as I think concussion are not uncommon in this sport!! I think I did pretty well too, considering we had a short carry-the-ball-on-the-paddle relay with our partners and Fabian and I won by a landslide! I did manage to slip on the wet grass and get mud all over my pants though! All in all a GREAT start to the day!

Mary (US), myself and Judith

Next up, we learnt how to made brown soda bread, which we later got to eat, along with home-made jam, scones and hot tea. It turns out that a chemist and an environmental scientist DO make good bakers... We were then taught the steps to a traditional Irish jig and it can only be described as an artistic mess when 24 international students try their hand at it with only 20 minutes of learning beforehand. But it kept us warm on that cold and rainy day and made us laugh, so no complaints!

We were also fortunate enough to play a beat on the bodhráin, which is an Irish drum and I must say everyone got the hang of that one quite quickly. Finally, we were all stacked into a tractor-pulled cart and brought to visit a bog, which is traditionally one Ireland's main economic resources. It was too cold for any of us to venture into it though.

In conclusion, despite being cold & wet, dirtying 1 of my 2 pairs of pants, and making a fool of myself dancing & slipping all over the mud, I'm glad I went as it was such a wonderful and enriching experience. It also provided some distraction from the fact that we are having a substantial amount of difficulty finding an apartment here as it seems that the Irish really do live on their own schedules, or "Irish time", as in things will get done... eventually! Which can be frustrating at times when they say they will call you right back! Hahaha

First Friday

Hello all!

On to my super adventurous Friday! In fact, all the days of the week are sort of meshing together right now as all I'm doing is checking my e-mails, sending e-mails to potential landlords, organizing school stuff and trying to figure out what's going on with my luggage! I AM running low on the ever-so essential socks though and my feet are hating me for it!

The three of us got up early to make it in to school for a FREE international student breakfast! Never thought I'd see the day where I would actually get up early, get dressed and go out in the cold in order to get free food! It was a good networking opportunity, however, and I got to meet a number of the other exchange students. Despite 50% of them being from the US, there are also students from France, Germany, Thailand, Sweden,  Moldova and Russia. We even got "maple syrup" with our pancakes... Ah how I should have brought a little can of it from Canada to show the Irish what REAL maple syrup is like.

Natasha from Moldova and Samuel from Qc City!

After breakfast, the school had organized a guided bus tour of the city, which took us all around the most historic sites for 2 hours and provided ample opportunity for beautiful pictures (we sat on the top floor of the double decker of course). The driver was quite witty and somehow managed to provide us with a guided tour and not flip the bus or run over any pedestrians, which I consider to be quite an accomplishment. As might be expected, the smell of the Guiness Factory hit us some time before we actually caught our first glimpse of it! Fun fact: the psychiatric ward was built just down the street and this is where those who had mental and physical ailments, namely alcoholism, were sent there to be taken care of. Imagine trying to overcome a drinking problem with the smell of malt in the air 24/7?

In any case, following Irish custom, we went out for drinks at 5pm on our first Friday night in Dublin... and the bars were already packed! ;) Judith and I later met up with our personal tour guide, Alex, who brought us to JJs pub where we were the only 2 girls among a crowd of much older Irish men! I am happy to report that we started with a shot of Jameson, per Alex's request and continued into the night with smooth and tasty draft Smithwicks. All in all, a fairly successful first Friday night in Dublin I think! And my liver is not hating me too much... yet!

More news to come shortly regarding our trip to Irish farmland!

Cheers!

Getting to School and Orientation

84 hours! --> That's how long my suitcase has been missing! Moreover, my Teddy is in it... along with most of my clothes! Ha!

I'm thinking I must be entitled to a substantial amount of money at this point. How hard it is to find the biggest, greenest suitcase you've ever seen? Especially as it weighs about 48 pounds!

10 hours! --> That's how long we were at Dublin City University (DCU) today listening to the longest orientation speeches and oral presentations about how to use the library, log into your online account, be safe when walking around campus, etc. And the last 2 hours of the day (5-7) were spent attempting to fit courses into our schedule manually, while half the courses don't even have timetables posted yet and the other half present time slots that don't even make any sense. In conclusion, I haven't really made any headway.

On the flipside, I did find out that I will be able to do my thesis with Dr. Fiona Regan without much issue (now I have to decide what courses to drop) and the one useful thing I learnt is that chewing gum, of all things, is banned on DCU campus! We did get a lovely tour of the whole Campus, which is much smaller than Ottawa U and seems to have much less slush than the latter as well; that is none at all. In fact, the Campus reminded me a lot of Carleton U and, FUN FACT: was founded in 1980.

Judith, Tra and I took the bus (yes it's a double decker) to DCU for 1.90 euro and managed quite well I think! We've also not had much luck regarding apartments so far as most are already rented out (although they are still being advertised) or undergoing renovations and won't be available until a later date. We visited a place this morning, which turned out to be pretty run down considering the amount of money (100/week) he was asking for, but it might be a good place to stay in if we don't find anything by next week! I'm not giving up hope though as I'm sure something will come up; hopefully before Sunday!

All in all, a fairly stressful day, but we did meet a number of the other exchange/study abroad students, most of which are from the US and France. We will be seeing them all again tomorrow for an International Breakfast hosted by the school and a 3 hour tour of the city!

First Impressions

Hello all,

Figured I'd avoid spamming people with mass e-mails they might not want to read and create this blog through which you could follow my daily... or rather weekly adventures! So here it goes!

Most of you know how much I LOVE flying! That is to say not at all. But I have to say the 3 plane rides I had to take to get here were all quite pleasant! The British Airways one overseas was the most entertaining ans the head flight attendant was a typical British humoured person. You know the one that makes fun of you politely so you can't really tell they are doing so? In any case, I spent the majority of the flight just watching him interact with people and felt like I had my own live British comedy skit going on! Ironically enough, my brother and I were just discussing this aspect of British social interaction on the car ride to the airport.

One thing that was quite striking to me was the contrast between take-off in Ottawa and landing in Dublin. While everything was all white and sparkling in Ottawa, all the surrounding land was a lush green in Dublin! I expected it, but it was still quite a shock!

Next annoying, but kind of fun piece of info is that my large suitcase (containing most of my stuff) got lost on the way over. Probably as a result of the amount of planes I took. Funny enough though, the last flight I took was with a company called Aer Lingus and since they haven't managed to retrace my luggage within 24 hours, they've given me a daily allowance of 60 euro to spend on clothing or essentials I might have had in my suitcase for a total of 3 days! :) I'm pretty sure I had a coat, hat and umbrella in that suitcase... and maybe even shampoo!? Not... but I was going to buy these things anyways, so perhaps I can pull this one off! :)

In any case, so far Dublin is COLD! and that's coming from a Canadian who can stand cold Canadian winters! I think the fact that it's so humid makes it so that the cold really chills you to the bone! The people are all extremely nice and always regret not being able to help you, especially the case in my apartment search, which is turning out to be quite fruitless thus far. I'm staying at a hostel called the Holyhead with two other girls from UOttawa (Judith and Tra) and we are currently bundled up in our blankets because the heating simply isn't efficient... or perhaps it's the insulation?

The first two nights have been great though! Walking around town with one of Sylvie's friends who has been studying here for almost 3 years now and knows the place well. He brought us to The Porterhouse Pub on the first night and we drank great Irish beer accompanied by Irish stew! The streets are still confusing though because they definitely don't follow the ol' American grid-like pattern, so I've found out that my sense of direction isn't as good as I thought it was. I'm sure I'll get used to it though!

Anyways, pictures to follow on facebook! Now to head back to the apartment search!
Cheers,
Ria