Picture Galore!!

In my previous blog post, I said that I would have a blog that would be loaded with some pictures from my time here. As promised, here they are with a caption with them. Enjoy!

St. Patrick's Cathedral

Dublin Castle Courtyard

Inner Part of Dublin Castle Part 1

Inner Part of Dublin Castle Part 2

Veronica Guerin, famous Irish reporter

Grafton Street Shopping Mall

Picture op in Grafton St. Shopping Centre

Swans Galore in St. Stephen's Green

The ducks at St. Stephen's Green

The rooftop of Natural History Museum

Jam Session in Hostel Common Room

A lovely reminder around DIT

Getting interviewed for the Youtube video

Irish Stew

Comedy Crunch

Dicey's Garden on a Tuesday evening

Bag pipes being played at the end of TradFest

Secret Rooftop View in my Apartment Building

The after-effects of hail in Ireland

For any Big Brother fans, YOU could be on the next show!

Quirk Alert

Last night, I finally went grocery shopping and hung out at the apartment talking on Skype to my girlfriend and her family back in the U.S.

After doing that, it just goes to show that relationships have really evolved in the past decade. 

In the temporary apartment that I resided in, all three girls were in long-distance relationships and I have met a few others here and back home that are in the same thing as well.

In such a competitive and fast-changing world, it is looking like this occurrence will occur more frequently and, at times, is necessary although we will be faced with the following set of questions:

"Is the pursuit of the advancement of a career more important than the security of the relationship?"

"Can the decision that initially hurts you the most be the decision that actually helps you the most?"

A few years ago, I was always scared to take a leap of faith and try something new because I was satisfied enough with the comfort of my past life. Therefore, there were many challenges that I brushed off because I was worried about the impact it would have on my family, friends, my current life, etc.

Looking at it now, I see that I can honestly take the risks that I need to take to make things work for my career but, at the same time, I also strive to make the best effort to stay connected as best as I can as evident in this blog.

None of us knows what the future holds for any of us but I hope to have as little regrets as I can when the time comes to past.

I say this because this morning, I was embarrassed to ask the following question to my roommate:

"How do you use the shower?" 

I was so determined to figure it out on my own that I didn't even shower yesterday as a result because I was more satisfied with failing than having to admit to asking such a simple question. 

Anyway, this morning, I tried for 20 min to turn on the shower and... it did not work! It was driving me crazy so I decided to wait until my roommate woke up and would ask for him to show me.

Apparently, there was a quirk in order to get it to work. After turning it on, you had to take off the shower head and pull it down to about your waist. After you do that, the shower turns on. 

**For those that have no idea why that happened, it goes back to that physics and, for others, thermodynamics courses. The pressure near the faucet was not initially large enough to overcome the force presented by gravity. In order to correct it, height needed to be decrease in order for the system to work overall.**

Another quirk that is in the restroom is that the toilet only flushes if you do a full pull-down on the handle quickly followed by a half pull-down. It is the most bizarre thing but that is the only way that it will work. 

The first time, I tried to flush it 15 times before getting help from my roommate. Now, I usually do it in two attempts. Woohoo!! Progress!

Today was a really busy and productive day. I made it to my Spanish class and that leads to quirk #3 that I noticed.

For about 1-2 months before I left Purdue, one of my roommates would joke around and practice speaking to me with the Catalan lisp. Unfortunately, I did not get enough practice on getting adjusting to it.

My Spanish teacher didn't tell us where he was from but my guess is that he is from Spain. There were times when he would pronounce c with a 'th' and other letters that I haven't heard before and I was caught in my mind trying to figure when to use the 'th', especially because I got corrected on it a couple of times. 

After awhile, I just went with what was comfortable and did perfectly fine but I am really curious of when to use the 'th' sound because I couldn't establish the proper pattern of it. 

Staying true to my word, I looked it up and found out that it is usually used on the 'c' and 'z'. Yeah, if you can, try to pronounce Barcelona as Barthelona with th being emphasized and soft. I'm confident that it won't be too hard to adjust to but I thought that was an interesting twist to the course.

Also, I finally set up a bank account, which will let me avoid international transaction fees, and a student leap card, which will let me travel around Ireland at discount prices. 

Finally, I almost have all the classes set up for my schedule but I just have to confirm them by next week so it looks like school is finally progressing here. 

Before I depart, I do want to give credit to my temporary apartment family for showing me a simple and delicious breakfast that can be made in 1-2 minutes and eating within 5 minutes.

It is cheese with tomatoes and bread! Trust me... cut up some tomatoes and cheese. Toast the bread and melt the cheese if you want to and try it. Simple, cheap, delicious, and a joy to look at, too.

As promised, I will have photos in another post later tonight but I have to go to class now. Cheers!

Errands to do, Classes to Attend

Last night seemed like a very long evening with one of my Irish roommates talk a good 4 hours straight about health, life, morality, and various topics. 

I honestly tried to keep track of all the topics discussed but I lost track after awhile and became a nodding listener as the night wore on. In fact, I didn't depart to bed until close to 4 AM!? 

That wouldn't be such a problem if I didn't have to get up and meet up with a couple of people at 8 AM to go to the immigration services and extend our stay until June.

 

We heard horror stories of waiting in there anywhere from 2 - 6 hours so it was extremely pivotal to get there as early as possible to avoid having to wait too long. 

Fortunately, one of my friends woke me up numerous times this morning so that we could leave around 8 AM and print off some documents. 

After doing so, we had a tough time actually finding the place. The map looked straightforward but ended up being a pain to deal with in terms of locating the facility.

Upon entering, we met up with another one of our friends that is working here from the United States for 6 months and proceeded to take a number in line. Unlike the United States, it was also a challenge to figure out where to get a number. There were no signs saying 'Take a number here' so we ended up navigating around the entire waiting room before standing in a brief line that apparently was for taking tickers from a person.

Long story short, the process went really quickly and we were out there within an hour and then we went to this place called Munchies. 

I ordered this sandwich called the 'Munchie Brunchie' and it's really delicious. I really like the Irish relish that they put on sandwiches here.. it gives sandwiches a slightly sweeter and fruitier taste.

While at brunch, we compared passports and I soon realized that I was significantly the least traveled one of the bunch. Both of them had been all over Europe and had their passports nearly stamped completely.

As for me, I didn't have much in this one because my travels to Panama, Colombia, and other places were included in the previous passport. I have a lot of ground to cover here in Europe and I hope to be able to travel a bit before I head back to the States this summer.

It was also grand to listen to what really goes on inside the head of a Resident Director at a dorm. I couldn't imagine being in charge of 750 students, 16-20 resident assistants, the random events that occur on a weekly basis, and, somehow, finding a way to focus on my school work too. 

The most disgusting bit though was definitely listening to stories about the bathrooms and the remarkable (or terrible) things kids would do when they are wasted or under the influence of drugs.

For the rest of today, I have finally decided to attack my suitcases and unpack everything! It took a couple of hours but it felt great unpacking and organizing things around the room. A couple of things that I found were: an LED flashlight, my survival kit, and this magicJack phone.

My mom thought it would be essential to have a survival kit because I would never know where I would be at any time. Maybe one day they will come in handy but, for now, I will look at it as a gag gift from my mom.

MagicJack is a phone service that allows me to call anywhere in the world for FREE simply by plugging the USB device into the computer, connecting it to a phone, and paying a yearly fee of $20-30. 

After registering and playing around with it for a bit, I found a way to call my mom, grandma, and my grandma's patient, who has adopted me as one of her grandchildren too. No matter how far around the world I travel, I still see that it is important to at least attempt to remain in touch with the ones that you love you the most. 

Hopefully, I will remember to plug this thing in more often so I can make calls to others but, knowing how terrible I am with keeping tabs on my cell phone, I find it doubtful at the moment. 

Before I leave for my evening class, a couple of interesting Irish facts streamed through my head about the lecture yesterday.

Ireland is a place that was ruled for over 900 years by other countries with 800 of those years by Great Britain. 

Also, the native language of Ireland, Gaelic, was the most prominent language used here until the early 1800s when jobs required Irish countrymen to speak English on the job. 

In fact, the professor discussed about a scenario he was in and a movie that displayed a similar scenario where some fellow countrymen are quick to call people that speak Gaelic 'foreigners' now because of its ancient roots and little use in everyday life. 

To imagine that in America, it would be like Spanish becoming the official language and us being told that English is no longer allowed to be spoken in general.

Finally, my professor told us that a lot of people would be surprised about how racist Irish people could truly be at others. As of now, I haven't encountered anything to that extent (or at least I haven't noticed it), but I will enjoy my experience here until such a thing occurs.

Alright then, I'm off to class and to relax some more this evening. Have a great day back in the States and to others that I met around the world. Now that I have everything set up, I plan on uploading pictures and posting them here so that there is more visualization to this blog. Cheers!

I have a home!!

So yesterday, I discussed about how I was homeless and how weird it was to not have a place to call my own.

A couple of hours after my post, I had another interview with another place and it went well enough that they asked me to be their roommate an hour later.

.......what a relief to finally come to a place to store my stuff, lay out, and now let myself to do other important things here in Dublin.

For example, I could not open a bank account nor extend my stay here through the Garda until I got a permanent address here.

My roommates are going to be three Irish guys and a French girl and I'm happy to live with thus far. The location is near the center of Dublin and the cost is low compared to most of the other apartments on the apartment search site.

Also, in my brief time in the apartment thus far, I have learned quite a bit about unique places in Dublin that are not highly publicized by tourist sites.

Hopefully, I can go to some of these places and take some pictures and post them on here.

Also, today was the FIRST DAY of classes!!! Yay!!

I had only one class today called Irish Cultural Studies II and the professor was very animated and passionate about Irish Culture and the topics that will be discussed about this semester.

One thing that was interesting was that the minority in the class were students from the United States.
There were a good bit of students from Germany and France, which prompted the professor to talk in French at random times during the class.

For example, Daniel Day-Lewis, the starring actor for the movie Lincoln, is from Ireland. Also, as noted in an early blog post, Jonathan Swift, creator of Gulliver's Travels, is from Dublin too.

Also, the professor was so fascinating with knowing every person in the room and where he is from. That just goes to show how much you can remember if you simply attempt to identify one particular fact or event with a person.

I really enjoyed the class and, despite being later in the day, I liked the class structure and openness of it as well.

After that, I went out to dinner at this Asian restaurant called Neon. My dish was a combination of yellow curry and noodles and it was delicious. The curry had an unexpectedly sweet taste to it and, by adding to the noodles, created a soup that was pleasant to drink afterwards.

On the way to pick up my stuff from my temporary housing to my new apartment room, my friend and I stopped by the Temple Bar area and relaxed and listened to the live music and banter by the bartender on the sound system during breaks.

Also, there is this map in the back of the place that shows how Dublin looked from the 9th century to about the 16th century. It was fun trying to identify streets and names of places that existed back then and remain to this day.

For those interested in historical places, Dublin Castle, St. Stephen's Green, and a couple of roads were listed on the map and there was considerably less shown on the map in comparison to the one now.

The most fascinating part was being able to picture how Dublin went from the wee little town it was in this town to expanding east, west, north, and south around noticeable landmarks over the years, decades, and centuries.

Finally, my friend and I picked up my stuff from the apartment by my friends from Germany and Mexico. It was a bittersweet moment because this truly meant the end of the 'hostel life' and the beginning of focusing on what I need to do. I told them that we will keep in touch and then my friend and I began to depart.

Initially, taking the taxi was the original plan but I decided to see how we feel about walking to O'Connell's Street and decide then if to take a taxi since that road has enough taxis for the entire population of Indianapolis haha. Somehow, we fought through and walked the entire trip to my new place. I measured it on Google Maps after doing it and found that it was about a mile walk between the places. By doing the walk, we saved about 10 euros in cost and got a tremendous workout and chat. Also, I saved myself a potential headache with dealing with another stressed-out taxi driver. Do I recommend doing it? Probably not. However, it was a great time and challenge to do to navigate through Dublin.

Since I have not discussed it yet, the story behind the taxi driver is really brief but pretty remarkable in my eyes.

So my friends from Germany and Mexico and myself were being taken to their flat with our suitcases because.. well.. I packed too much and needed a taxi.

Anyway, the taxi driver never engaged us in conversation and seemed to be a really upset fellow. Nevertheless, we arrived at the place and I was so relieved of all the help that I decided to pay the entire fare, which was 9 euros. Also, I was going to ask them if they could give a tip for his help but they were pre-occupied with getting the stuff out of the cab.

So I go up to the driver and I was just making sure that I got the fare correct while I waited on them to take the stuff out of the car and then he absolutely blew up on me in disgust saying 'Oh so no tip for all those bags.' My reply was 'Huh? Sir, I was going to get the ladies to give the tip but they are getting the bags out.'
His reply was simply 'Don't bother' and, as I attempted to give him something in remorse, he stormed to the car and nearly drove off before they got everything out.

I felt bad about the entire situation and looking back, I should have had the tip with it. However, the way he carried on was so sad and disrespectful. Oh well.. like the old saying 'You can't please them all.'

I have yet to unpack my stuff but I am tired and feeling lazy about doing it tonight. Until then, I hope you all have a great night!

And So It Begins…

Finally, I have arrived at my blog post for today. It is unreal… my first day of school is tomorrow! I remember going to registration this past Wednesday and being faced with the most unusual title: I’m an international student. No longer is it a title reserved for Chinese, Indians, Koreans, etc. but it is a title that also reflects Americans as well when we go abroad.

Being an international student, that means that I have students from even more countries such as Holland, Germany, Italy, and others.

The only class that I’m officially registered for right now is Irish Cultural Studies from 4p-6p on Mondays. I have to set up the rest of my schedule tonight but, fortunately, we do not have to formally register until two weeks into the semester so I have time but I want it done tonight so I can get an idea about all of the courses I am taking this semester.

The apartment situation may be taken care of in the near future or as a prolonged process but all I can do now is just take it with stride and fight on with the upcoming challenges of school, which includes developing my thesis.

Also, as shown in one of my photos on Facebook, my group and I got stopped in the middle of Dublin to do an interview for a video they are creating for energy sustainability. It was basically based around a video called ’50 People 1 Question’ on YouTube. It was really interesting and it was cool to be a part of the video at such an opportune time.

Hopefully, it will be something interesting to watch in the final product haha.

I’m Homeless!!

… I do not think I would have ever uttered those words but I am currently homeless. It is a very weird and surreal feeling to know what it feels like to not have a home. For starters, it is a sad and unwelcoming feeling to not have a place that you can truly say that is where you live.

Since Friday, 18/1/2013, I have searched feverishly on DAFT and set up countless appointments and visits to places around Dublin. The first couple of days went great and I had one place that was ready to accept me. However, I did not accept it because I was waiting to hear back from the responses of other places in better locations and at much cheaper prices.

Unfortunately, after the joy of having that initial opportunity, the process has been devastating and exhausting to say the least. Instead of searching for what class I am doing throughout the week, it has been filled with searching endlessly for another flat to rent or a room to share for 4-5 months.

None of it pales in comparison  to the disappointment that is felt to set up an appointment, clear the rest of the day around that appointment, get ready for it, head over there, and text to ensure that you are there to find out that they just gave away the apartment.

To date, it has happened five times and is painful to bear with every time. However, I remain optimistic and ecstatic to be able to get to live here for the next few months. Unfortunately, by not being able to set up shop anywhere, I am essentially living out of my suitcases for the time being.

I had the fortunate opportunity to be able to stay on the couch of a flat that is owned by two girls that I met in my hostel family. I really do not know how to respond by the sheer support and encouragement that I received from them and others but it is definitely encouraging.

To anyone worrying back home, I am doing great and am not in a bad situation at all. However, it is just grand to think about how, without them or meeting others here, I could have potentially been in a tough situation of going hostel to hostel or hotel to hotel trying to find a room since the hostel I had was booked for the weekend. My hope is to remain here for a maximum of 2 weeks and, if still unable to find a place, I will bounce between places that have other students in my programs until I secure a place.

Therefore, be patient and courteous to those around you because you never know what may happen that may place you in a situation that relies on others to help you out.

Hostel Life & Cultural Infusion

I have NEVER heard of a hostel until I had to look up cheap ways to travel in November before this trip. A hostel can definitely be a wonderful experience or the worst experience of your travels. Either way, hostel living gives you an indication of your patience with others and how important personal space is to you.

I ENJOYED living in a hostel… I really said it… living in a hostel was a wonderful experience. I stayed in one from Wednesday, 16/1/2013 until Saturday, 26/1/2013 and thought it was going to be complete &*%*$*%&*$*$*%*&…. Yeah every expletive in the book based on the price. However, there is something special about bringing people with a similar ideal together for a brief time period.

Off the top of my head, I recall meeting and hanging out with people from Ireland, England, Finland, France, Brazil, Spain, Italy, Mexico, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, California, Washington, Virginia, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, and Belgium.

I never imagined meeting all of these different types of people during my stay, let alone in about a week’s time. One of my French roommates, for example, is married, has two daughters, and is here looking for work as well as to learn English. For most of my duration here so far, he has been like a father figure for me, even coming with me to a couple of my apartment visits, which I will discuss about later.

In fact, I had a wonderful hostel family that really came together within one day. Try to imagine this if you can.. a group of people comprising from New Zealand, Australia, Germany, France, Mexico, Italy and Canada as well as myself all working together for one another and hanging out around the city.

One of my fondest memories was when we went out one night as a group of about 13 people. That was a lot of fun and it was interesting speaking and helping others discuss with my ‘mother tongue’ (English).

Also, it really shows the immense interest that many people have in speaking English and the lengths they are willing to go to learn it. One Italian told me recently that, for you, learning other languages is something that you want to do.. English is a language that we MUST learn.

I try to take advantage of any opportunity that I can invest in and I really want to learn the basics of other languages. Therefore, I have started setting up deals with a friend that speaks German, another that speaks French, and another that speaks Italian to hopefully learn the basics of these languages over the duration that I am here in exchange for me speaking and helping them with English and, in one case, Spanish. There is a small chance of it working out but I do want to help them out by speaking in English as much as I can for them. Either way, I think by doing that, we both are invested in helping out each other and are more motivated to making it work out.

Another fond memory was one night when we had a family dinner. The Italian in our group cooked pasta and the French man cooked up steaks and we added our own touchings to the meal after it was done. In that moment, it really made me think… we were together for about one week but we really became a family that looked out for each other, cooked for one another, hung out with each other, and, most importantly, appreciated one another.

I miss the ones that have already left Dublin dearly but am excited for the future opportunities to meet them as well as the ones that I will still have with the ones that still remain here for the next 6 months-1 year.

One interesting topic that we brought up were stereotypes about each other’s cultures and what Europeans typically wanted to visit in the U.S. and what Americans typically wanted to visit in Europe.

For example, even though it’s a small sample size, Europeans typically want to visit New York, Chicago, California, Miami, and Orlando. When you think about it, those are the main cities that typically get broadcasted on an international scale about Americans.

From my perspective, I said places such as Barcelona and Madrid in Spain, Berlin and Munich in Germany, Paris in France, Budapest, Vienna, Dublin, London, Scotland, etc.

From there, we then broke down interesting places to go within some of these countries.

For example, Budapest is a very cheap and amazing place to visit for a great time. Also, in France, I was recommended to see a place called Carcersonne, which has a beautiful castle in the countryside.

Honestly, I probably could sit here all day naming interesting places in each of the European countries but I will leave that for other times in this blog.

Also, I learned about new ways to eat such as toast with tomato, cream cheese , and Swiss cheese for breakfast, and a meal based around gnocchi for dinner.