Thanksgiving

It is been a super busy week, and I am finally getting around to posting. Thursday was my big Thanksgiving dinner at the apartment. Andrew was a big help and we made mac n cheese, friend okra, turkey, sweet potatoes and apples, and pea salad. We had 9 people over. Miriam and David were the couple i stayed with when i first got here. Riona and Jessica are Irish scholars leaving to go abroad next fall. Amit, an Indian/Irish guy in charge of Roteract in Dublin, Mytchio a scholar from Japan (she brought sushi and it was sooo good) and Maggie she goes to Georgetown and i met her in the immigration office (we have lunch every friday). So, as you can see there was quite a crowd in the little apartment, but it was alot of fun. My Irish friends had never had MacnCheese and pretty much everyone had never had okra before. It was great fun, and fun to get people together like that, especially on Thanksgiving.

Arctic Polo-Cross

I am aware that this picture of me is highly goofy, but i'll deal. Tonight was my second (and last) week of polo-cross (which is a mixture of polo and lacross). Last week was lots of fun, but this week was one of the most miserable experiences ever. First, tonight was the coldest it's been here so far, -4 below Celsius. So if 0 is freezing, it was a bit below that. We were out in that for 2 1/2 hours getting there, playing, waiting for the bus, and getting home. The cold made it bad, but the horse i got made it worse. He almost bucked me off and basically refused to get above a trot no matter how hard i kicked him. Jensi, i really needed you there to slap this horse. So, that kept me from really being able to play because people are galloping all around me. Now, i could blame this on my inexperience as a rider, but last week i was fine, and was galloping and cantering all over the place, so i think the cold got to both the horse and rider this week b/c we were both unhappy campers. The night did get better because once i got back, got warmed up, and fixed some hot chocolate (thanks again olivia and jens) andrew had downloaded the latest desperate housewives, and it was GREAT!!!

Humble Abode

This is the entrance to my program at Trinity. You have to duck down to get into the door, i dont know why it is so tiny. Then you go up 2 flights of stairs and you are in the seminar room. All of our classes are held in this one room. One more flight up is the Director's office and the "library." So, that is where I am 3 days a week. We have 17 gals in the program and 1 guy. The class is extremely interesting to say the least, there are some definite characters. 2 1/2 more weeks and I am home!

Age Old Beauty

Walking within the gates of Trinity College is a very, mind my corniness, magical experience. The coblestones, the statues, and the 400 year old buildings are reminicent of a time in Europe's history when the most powerful person in the west was a woman, Queen Elizabeth I. She commissioned the building of Trinity College in 1592. Ironically, this masterpiece of a University didn't allow women to attend until 1904. These are 2 pictures that show a few of the amazing buildings on campus. The first one shows the campus buttery on the left. This is where the main dining hall is located. To its right is another building that houses clubs, mainly the Philosophical Society (The Phil) and the Historical Society (The Hist). The rooms in this building have around 20 foot tall ceilings and are just a spectical to view.
The next photo is of the 1937 reading room, which is for the use of postgraduates only. It is actually alot bigger than it looks, comprising of a very large reading room and a computer lab downstairs. I dont know why that construction bin is there, but it's not too flattering.
Today I just went to the market for lunch and in search of some green tomatoes for thanksgiving. I came up empty handed, so i dont think fried green tomatoes will be on the menu. While there. getting my weekly mexican fix, i met a guy from Florida who goes to Tulane and is studying this year at Trinity. He said he had planned this trip long before the hurricane, but his timing could not have been better. The rest of the day i stayed in and worked on research for one of my 2 essays. I am still hoping to get those done before i get back. The history one is taking much longer than i anticipated, mainly because i know little about irish history. In the other essay I am looking at the show "Extreme Makeover" in terms of the philosophical idea of hyperreality. That one will be much more fun because the research involves me watching the show, which i am really good at. Hopefully the rest of the weekend will be productive.

So much going on

Well, i know its been a bit since i posted, i seem to be forgetting lately, but i'll be better now because i have some great pictures to share. The first one here is of a little garden area in the Trinity campus. I pass by it on my way to class, and it's really charming. The other is of me, Riona (left) and Jessica (right). Tonight was the Dublin Central Rotary Club's big charity Race Night event at a pub called Ron Blacks. Riona is an irish outbound scholar going to south africa next year and jessica is in charge of Roteract which is the college and young professionals version of Rotary. The event tonight was so much fun. Basically, beforehand the club sold 70 horses and jockeys. They are organized into 7 races and people bet on horses during the night. Taped races (from like 1960) are shown and the alot of money is raised for charities. The last race is auctioned and i think it alone brought in over a 1000 Euros. Riona, Jess, and I were in charge of trying to get people to bet on horses for each race, and to keep the older men away from the Jameson Whiskey, which was one of the prizes. Surprisingly i called the winners for the last 3 races...maybe i have a future in betting...
All in all everything is going well. I am coming back home for christmas break in 3 weeks from today. Time is dragging by. In the meantime, i have 2 essays to write and a GRE to take. So hopefully it will go by faster than i think.

The Pav

This is probobly one of my favorite areas of the Trinity College Campus. This is the very large playing field right in the middle of college. The "Pav" is the yellow building in the background and is the college pub (something I think BSC needs). You can pretty much find the whole soccer team there after every practice or game (also something BSC should adopt). I have no idea what is in the building next to it. I go past it on my way to class, so its always a refreshing walk.

Its getting colder here now, with a small shower pretty much every afternoon. I've lost my umbrella, so i've almost gotten use to getting wet on the way home from Trinity. This weekend I will probobly stay cooped up in my apartment (besides going to get the package that olivia and jensi sent!!! Thanks guys!) working on my essays, studying for the GRE, and writing admission essays to various schools. I'd like to sit and read in one of the benches the line the field at Trininty, but it's a bit too blustery for that these days.

National History Musuem

I took these the other day when i went to drop off my resume at the museum. It is such a nice building. I dont know if i will hear back from them, but i like going over there because they have very interesting lectures.
Nothing much is going on right now. I have started on one of my two essays due in about a month and i'm studying for the GRE which i take a few days before i go home in december. It is really rainy here tonight, and although there have been a few cold days here and there, the weather is actually holding up quite nicely so far. This week should be intersting because i have my first equestrian lesson. Hopefully I will get some pictures of that, it might be pretty funny.

Trinity College

I finally decided to take my camera to school with me today and since it didn't rain until the afternoon, i got some great shots. This is the main entrance to the college. The blue clocks are my favorite, there are several on different buildings around the campus. I really dont know much about the school expect that it was founded by Queen Elizabeth I in 1592 in grand protestant style. I need to take a campus tour to learn all of the history. I took some more, so i will try and upload those later.

Other than class and the gym, i had rotary tonight, and i just got back to do some reading before bed. Andrew gets back tomorrow. His school had a fall break this past week and he's been at home. It will be good to have someone around again!