still here

So nothing much is new. I've been in the old library at Trinity all week doing research for my dissertation. I did get to handle some pretty old documents, so of course that made me happy. The weather has been alot better here. Yesterday Isobel and I actually laid around in St. Stephen's Green and soaked up some sun, it was great! I'm jetting off to Edinburgh, Scotland on monday until wednesday, so that should be a good time. I'll definitly post some pictures after that trip. till then....

"The sun will come out...tomorrow!"

So, since i've been back here, 3 weeks or so, the weather has been absolutely great! I'm glad because when i left for my visit home, it was still quite cold and rainy. I took this picture on our balcony which gives you a view of my 'backyard' and of what wonderful sunsets we get here. I love pink sunsets, and this one was actually even better than the pictures lets on. I'm heading to the town of Limerick tomorrow to give a rotary speech, so I'll try and take some pictures there. My friend from Boston, Rosemund lives there, so i'm gonna try and meet up with her for coffee before the lunch meeting. Anyways, i'll talk about that tomorrow. Tonight andrew and i watched our nightly CSI, it's so addicting. Onto a new week...

Jose Quervo!

This blog is in honor of Jensi's new horse, jose. I'm am so excited to finally see some pics and even more excited that she now has a horse! Jensi, i've told you this already, but he is beautiful! As long as he doesn't kick me in the thigh the first time i see him, i can see us definitly being friends. I want one....

(Nothing much here on the homefront other than i think it hit 60 degrees today on the Isle, things are looking bright!)

PaPa

Unfortunately, this entry brings sad news of the passing of my grandfather, Jim Burns. Luckily, I did get to spend some time with him while i was home a few weeks ago, which helps make up for the fact that I wont be able to attend the funeral this weekend. He lived a long life of 84 years, and i'm glad he is no longer suffering. I will also miss seeing all of the Burns family who have gathered at my house. I haven't seen many of them in years and there are some second cousins i've never even met! I seem to always be away; soccer, Ireland, one of these days i'm gonna be there i hope. Farewell Papa

Easter March

I got quite i shock this morning when i walked outside and saw tanks and troops in the street. Not what i thought i'd see on easter morning in Dublin. In fact, this was the first time Irish Republic troops had marched on easter morning in 30 years. They were commemorating the 90th anniversary of the 1916 Easter uprising in Dublin just about a half mile from where i live. This uprising was the beginning of what would eventually earn the Irish their independance from England. In the past, this march was not held because of the fighting in the north, and recently because of the problems that were still trying to be worked out in the north. But, apparently, the Republic is holding elections next year, so this march was a political move. It was definitly neat to watch as every branch walked from where i live at Christchurch to the GOP building at the top of O'Connell street, where the uprising occured 90 years ago.

So, after the initial shock from the tanks, i walked to Trinity and attended their Anglican easter service, which was quite nice. Afterwords i went on a walk in St. Stephen's Green Park because it was actually quite a day. Tonight i went over to David and Miriam's house (the people i stayed with when i first got here). Mirriam made a great dinner and then we played parchese (prob spelled that wrong)for like 3 hours. yeah....i'm a dork.

Ennis Rotary Club

The Burren

Great sign

Ennis Rotary

So, on the first day of our trip, we drove through the town of Ennis to go to a rotary meeting. I was expecting a really large group since the meeting was in this old hotel with a large dining room. But, as you can see from the picture, there were like 5 men there. They dont have any women in the group at all, so they are a bit behind with the times. Regardless, they were really nice, and we had a great lunch. I did almost pop our tire trying to park, but other than that it went great. And, the Rotary men gave us directions to drive through the Burren, which is this natural limestone area that was really cool. The only thing was that for most of the time it was pouring down raining, and we got lost. But we did find a really neat purfumery in the middle of the limestone desert. Once we got out of the Burren, we were suddenly in a forest, then at the beach. Crazy terrain. Here is a picture of a sign outside of one of these beachside towns. Totally cracked us up. Oh, and this trip was like a month ago...so i'm just filling you guys in.

Dingle Peninsula

So, once we got to Dingle and found our hostel, we started driving around the peninsula. First we stopped at a leather factory where we found amazing purses that we could not afford. I did get a belt that is pretty cool. Then we drove around some more and found our way to the 'beehives' which are these prehistoric stone houses. They were really cool, and as you can see, we had a little too much fun prentending to jump off of them...So, next we found out way to some really cool cliffs overlooking the blasket islands which looked like they were straight out of jurassic park. On our journey, we stopped at almost every pottery and craft shop. Here is a picture of one of the cool signs outside the store. The drive was made even better by the fact that we had clear skies and it was actually kinda warm. We made our way back to Dingle for a night on the town....

Dingle

By far my most favorite location on me and Jenn's roadtrip was the town of Dingle in county Kerry. The town was very quaint and easy to get around. This is a picture of the main road with all kinds a great little pubs and shops. The other pic is of us standing in front of the hostel we stayed in. It was a great location right by the main street. We actualy got really lucky because we just stumbled upon the place while looking for the original hostel. There is one tourist attraction in Dingle and it's a random dolphin named Fungi that lives in the Dingle harbor. Other than that, the other best part of Dingle was the drive around the peninsula the town is located on...

My long lost blog

I know it has been forver since i last posted, but i've been jet-setting all over the place since then. I've given you an assortment of photos, of my trips in particular. The first one being Jenn and mine's wild western Ireland road trip, and the other of Reba and me in the Wicklow Mtns. I will post more of those trips and I will also have a special St. Paddy's Day blog, but it's gonna be all out of order. Plus, i've got to post some pics from the crazy carribean cruise and my home visit, that i just got back from. For now, I just got off the plane back here in Ireland and I have a paper due on monday, so i'll be working on that, and will try and post some stuff between now and then. If not, then i'll resume my 'normal' posting next week.