I was actually home sick both Monday and Tuesday with freaking strep throat. Grrreeeaaatt! Unfortunatley I think what made it worse was that I probably waited too long to go to the doctor. Instead of just going last week when I first started getting sick I stupidly thought I could just get rid of it on my own with over-the-counter meds. Not exactly my brightest idea. So by the time I finally realized it was strep it was much worse than it normally is. This of course meant that the antibiotics seemed to take foorreevveer to start working!

By Tuesday I was feeling a little bit better but I worried that if I went to work I would push myself and just feel sicker the next day. So instead I gave myself another day of rest and watched “Pride and Prejudice” for about the billionth time… yeah, it was rough!

It was sooo annoying being sick though because here I am in beautiful Ireland, stuck inside with strep throat! And of course both Monday and Tuesday were gorgeous outside!! Plus by that point I’d really been cooped up inside since Saturday so I was actually pretty glad to get out of the house and make it to work Wednesday. The weather wasn’t as nice out yesterday but I wore a dress anyway- I’ll be damned if I’m gonna be stuck in jeans and a t-shirt my first day out in four days! Hehe.

After work on Wednesday I went to the pub with some coworkers because one of them was actually leaving the museum and it was her last day. I actually had a fun time and talked with Alice (the adorable English girl I may have mentioned before). She’s moving to Chicago at the end of October so I had a blast talking to her about that. We also actually got into a really good conversation too about Pearl Harbor, 9/11, and the London subway attacks too- random, I know. But it started with my discussing wanting to be a history teacher and my interest in WWII and somehow it just evolved into this really great discussion.

Today Blair and I went back to the museum at Collin’s Barracks to finish working on our signage project. Unfortunately my two-day absence has put us a bit behind so we’ll probably need to work on it next week as well. Luckily my boss is really understanding and was fine with it.

Here’s where it really started to suck though… remember my museum stalker? Well heee’sss baaaccckkk. Crap.

I had told Blair about him before and how he would just magically appear in front of me when I swore he was in a different part of the museum. She didn’t believe me until she saw it for herself! We were in one of the exhibits when he came up to me and exclaimed, “I’ve met you before!!” Yes, yes unfortunately he had. Luckily Blair realized he was my ‘stalker’ and she got me out of the situation pretty quickly. But then two seconds later we turned the corner and suddenly he was in front of us again! Finally Blair understood what I meant when I said he would come out of nowhere. We had to work the rest of the day to avoid him and luckily we were rather successful. Now I just have to hope I don’t see him again next week when we’re back at Collin’s Barracks!!

Well it’s getting late and I leave for GERAMNY tomorrow so I should end by update here! So excited to be heading to Munich. Though my sister brought up a great point when she reminded me I don’t like German food: “Kelly, you’re going to starve.” Crap. Well I’m sure I’ll be able to find something that I like… hopefully!

(Oh and can I just add… it’s JULY?!?! How the hell did that happen!?)

written by  kmr788 on July 2, 2009 from Dublin, Ireland
from the travel blog: Dublin, Ireland
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Friday night I went out with Jahna and Meghan down to City Centre where we went to a bunch of bars. We started off at a place called Palace Bar that Jahna and Meghan go to ridiculously often and then went to some club that was filled with mainly all gay guys! Apparently this weekend was a bunch of gay pride parades and all the gay guys decided to go to this one club! Haha. Well Jahna decided to get a martini and we were sitting at the bar when this one very gay guy walked past us with a feather boa… Jahna looked at him and told him he looked fabulous (which he did)! So he proceeded to stop and buy us all drinks! We all did jaggerbombs and then talked for a bit. He gave me his feather boa too, which I was pretty stoked about! It’s the color of the Irish flag (Green, White, and Orange) and will be a great (free!) souvenir to bring home!

In order to get into that club you had to let them put two streaks of red face paint on your cheek. Whatev! We didn’t really care but then after the 'gay' club we went to another bar that looked cool and were told they were “too classy” a bar for face paint. Seriously?! A 'classy' Irish Pub- isn’t that an oxymoron!? But again, not a big deal, we just moved on to the next pub! Hehe

We wound up at the Stag’s Head but they were closed. Luckily, Jahna is our sweet talker and she got the bartenders to give us a bottle of beer. We stayed there for a bit and talked to the bartenders as they closed up, and they actually wound up giving us a couple of free beers so it worked out well!

On our way to the next pub we ran into two guys from America and one of them was from Chicago! It turns out he’s from the Barrington / Schaumburg area!! Small world!! We talked to them for a bit and then headed to Doyle’s to hang out there, plus I think Jahna wanted to dance a bit. Around this point Meghan had gone home and it was just Jahna and me. We wound up meeting two Irish girls there and went back to their apartment for a couple of drinks, which was a lot of fun. It’s amazing how friendly the Irish are! We hung out there for a bit and then finally got back to campus around 5am… yeah, it was a looong night! But so much fun… until the next morning that is!

I counted it up when I was talking with my mom and it turns out I had eleven (!) drinks Friday night… luckily I only paid for about three of them so little harm came to my wallet. But I woke up Saturday extremely sick! I’ll save you the gross details but in the words of my dad, I spent most of the morning ‘praying to the porcelain god.’

I assumed I was just hungover but at the same time found this odd because normally I can hold my liquor and rarely actually get sick from it! Plus I didn’t have any other hangover symptoms, like a headache or anything. It wasn’t until about 7pm last night when I was still feeling sick that I began to realize something must be wrong. I began to notice that my throat was hurting really bad, which again I had just put off to being hungover and sick. But once I looked in the mirror I realized I had strep throat! I went to a clinic that night, which only confirmed what I already knew!

Unfortunately the pharmacies were already closed so I had to wait until this morning to be able to go and get my meds. Of course if I had realized earlier in the day that I was sick and not hungover I probably could have caught it sooner… but oh well! I was just glad to know that I can still hold my liquor after all! ;-)

I’m going to take tomorrow off of work because I’m still contagious and don’t want to get any of my coworkers sick. Also I don’t want to push myself too hard and just make it worse, missing one day certainly won’t kill me! I was just glad that the strep came this weekend and not next weekend when I’ll be in Germany! Oh, have I mentioned that yet? I’m going to Munich, Germany next weekend, which should be TONS of funs!! I’ll make sure to take lots of pics and update my blog once I get back… Hopefully I’ll be feeling much better by then!

Still though being sick in a foreign country so far from home certainly isn't the greatest thing in the world! Whenever I'm sick it obviously just makes me miss my parents and family even more, especially my dad! You know when you get to that point of being sick where you should eat something or it's just going to make you more sick (about the point I'm at now) but you don't want to because it either hurts to eat (owie, my throat!) or you're afraid it will make you more sick? Well I don't know how he does it but whenever I get to this point my dad is the only person that can ever get me to eat something! It's like a talent, hehe. My mom will tell me over and over that I need to eat something or I'm just going to get more sick and I never listen because I'm too busy thinking about how sick I currently feel. But somehow my dad will start talking to me and before I know it I'm eating the scrambled eggs he's made for me. Yummy, scrambled eggs! Anytime I'm sick and away from home all I wish is that my dad was there to make me scrambled eggs! Or when I got my wisdom teeth pulled a few winters ago and I wouldn't eat anything- my dad made me mashed potatoes I think three times a day for a week! My dad makes the best mashed potatoes!!

Anyway, being out on my own means that being sick on my own is just one of the many things I have to manage through... Like I said, hopefully I'll be feeling much better soon! Until then, I'll just imagine the mashed potatoes I'm eating were made by my dad (even though I know if that were true they'd taste much better!)

written by  kmr788 on June 28, 2009 from Dublin, Ireland
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So we talked with Nigel and now Blair and I are going to be heading up a type of focus group. Mainly we’re going to be going to the main Museum at Collins Barracks where we’re going to walk through it and see how ‘user-friendly’ it is, particularly in regards to signage and navigation.

We headed over there Wednesday and it was kind of cool because Blair walked through the whole museum trying to find all the different exhibits only asking people for directions and ignoring all signage. I, on the other hand, walked through the museum trying to navigate with only signage and a floor plan and wasn’t allowed to ask anyone for directions. This allowed us to assess how easy it would be for a map-illiterate person to walk through the museum versus the ease for someone who may not speak English and thus must go strictly off the map.

It was actually frustrating at times because I found there were some exhibits I couldn't easily find, and all the maps seemed to have incomplete data and contradict each other. At one point I was standing at a point where two walls meet and on each of the walls was a floor plan map and then I also had a floor plan in my hand- and all three of the maps said something different!

We later found out many of the map troubles- such as the floor plan and wall maps being different, and certain exhibits not being on the map at all- were due to lack of funds. I found out the floor plan I was using was over two years old! Which meant it didn’t have many of the recent exhibits the museum had opened.

So now it’s our job to try and figure out how the museum can make navigation easier when they don’t have the funds to do the easiest thing- which is print new maps! Next week we’re going to walk back through the museum and come up with a list of what we’re calling “cheap fixes.” Basically it will be simple things the museum can do to make navigation easier for its visitors. In some cases it’s as easy as printing out a laminated sign and posting it to the wall to give direction to an exhibit or whatnot.

Oh man, yesterday when we were walking through the museum I had a museum guard stalking me! Sooo creepy! I was on the third floor walking through the exhibits when I had this younger security guard come up to me and we had the oddest conversation as follows:

Him: Where are you from? (No hi or how are you- simply this blunt question!)
Me: America.
Him: What are you studying?
Me: History.
Him: What type of history?
Me: I don’t really have a focus yet, but mainly American history.
Him: Have you studied the Indians? (What is he talking about?!)
Me: Yes.

An awkward goodbye occurred and he went on his way. I continued walking through the third floor but ran into the same security guard in a different exhibit. So I’m walking past him to the doors to head to the next exhibit when he stops me…

Him: How long are you here for?
Me: Until the end of July. (At this point I’m trying to figure out why I keep answering truthfully!)
Him: That’s a long time. Are you studying here?
Me: Yes, at DCU.
Him: Oh. (Brief pause) I’m an artist (Okay, random!)

At this point I nod and smile and continue on my way. So I get into the hallway and breath a sigh of relief as I walk towards the next exhibit because at least now I know he’s behind me… or so I thought. I continue into the next exhibit and all of a sudden he’s standing in front of me! I honestly have no idea how he got there! I swear he should have still been in the room behind me… creepy! Once again he approaches me…

Him: I have a book launch here in July do you want to come? (What?)
Me: Um, when is it? (Why did I not just say ‘no’ and walk away?!)
Him: Sometime next month.
Me: Um, I don’t really know what I’ll be doing next month. It’s here?
Him: Yes, it’s at the museum. I’ll be here just come back.

I nod and smile, miss out on the rest of the exhibit and whatever else is on that floor, and then proceed to run down the stairs to the Café to meet Blair for lunch. And that is the story of my creepy museum stalker. I’m praying I don’t see him again while I’m working there these next few weeks- especially since I don’t want him to think I’m there to see him!!

We ended our week with the signage project I talked about above. The beginning of the week though we helped one of the museum workers (I can’t remember her name) catalogue… SPIDERS! Ick. Katie would have hated it! We had to open up their cases and lift up these huge, ugly spiders so we could put their information into the computer for later cataloguing. The woman asked if we would help her because she really hates spiders. I said they didn’t bother me as long as they were dead but once we got up there I realized those things were too creepy to deal with even if they had been dead for a hundred years!! Luckily Blair was less squeamish than me and she picked up any spiders that needed to be. The more we worked on them though the easier it was to deal with them. Still, all I could think about was how much my sister probably would’ve freaked out at them- Seriously, Katie, gross!

The beginning of the week was also a bit rough because I woke up Monday with a bad chest cold. Blair had strep throat last week so I’m really hoping I didn’t catch it from her! I went to the pharmacy though and got an over-the-counter decongestant to hopefully break up this cough before it gets too bad. Although I’d love to go out tonight I’m going to give myself one more night of rest and then I should be good for the weekend. I’m already feeling better from Monday so hopefully the meds I’ve been taking have been working!

written by  kmr788 on June 25, 2009 from Dublin, Ireland
from the travel blog: Dublin, Ireland
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Welcome to Galway!

When we got there we took an hour bus tour of Galway- because the three hours we’d just spent on a bus from Dublin apparently wasn’t enough for us! Hehe.

Eyre Park- the center of Galway City.

One of the many cathedrals in Galway.

"St. Mary's College"- An all boys secondary school... freaking huge!

Since we knew we wouldn’t be able to make it to Sligo this morning we figured there was really no reason to stay overnight in Galway because there wasn’t anything we were going to do there during the day today.

Galway Bay

It was still really early though at this point- only about 7pm. But we hung out there for a while and had some drinks and eventually the place got busier and we were able to mingle with some other people. We met one group that was there for their friend’s birthday and we talked to them for a while. Ellie and I talked mostly to Connor, who was the birthday boy, and his friend Kyle who was adorable. At some point in the night they left though and I joined Jahna in talking with this guy Paul.

Well Paul decided that he really wanted to go dancing and he wanted us to go to a nightclub with him (even though I repeatedly told him I don’t dance! Haha). Jahna and I kept trying to explain that we had all are bags so it wouldn’t really work. So he suggested putting our bags in his car while we went to the club. Okay, can you say shady!?

At the end of the night in Galway as we get our things from Paul's car! haha

So the five of us that went to Galway put our stuff in Paul’s car and then went to a local nightclub- Central Park I think was the name, or “CP” as they called it. Haha. We actually had a pretty good time there and I even danced! Shocking, I know! I think as long as the place is dark, really crowded, and I’m with friends then I actually don’t mind dancing because I feel a little less self-conscious about it. I think it’s more when we’re just hanging out in a bar and there’s only a little bit of dancing going on where I feel really uncomfortable!

Claddaugh (like the ring!)- an area by Galway Bay close to the center of Galway City.

Well anyway, we didn’t stay at the club very long and then we went to Paul’s car and got our stuff. He stayed at the club so we just got our stuff from his car and left the keys in the front seat for him! Haha. We had some time to grab some food then- greasy fast food is always the best when sobering up! Then we took a 3:45am bus back to Dublin.

The bus ride back was actually great, I basically fell asleep the minute I sat down and when I woke up it was suddenly three hours later and we were in Dublin. We caught a cab ride back home (the buses weren’t even running yet) and then I collapsed in my bed and got some more sleep. I could probably easily still be sleeping right now but I purposely made myself get up after a couple hours or I knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep tonight. I’m hoping I still will be able to!

The Galway group in front of Galway Bay (L-R: Ellie, Me, Kelsie, Jahna, Lindsay)

written by  kmr788 on June 21, 2009 from Galway, Ireland
from the travel blog: Dublin, Ireland
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Twice while we were working with Nigel the Museum's fire alarms went off so we had to exit the building for obvious safety reasons. One of the times when we exited Alice came with us. Alice is this adorable women, probably mid-twenties, from England. She came to Ireland about a year and a half ago and is actually moving to CHICAGO at the end of the summer with her boyfriend who's going to be working at the planetarium. Anyway, were all standing outside and in her adorable accent Alice looks at the building and says: "Is the building really on fire? Because that would be a shame." Haha, too cute! Luckily the building wasn't on fire! but the alarms did take up about ten minutes each from our work day!

Tuesday was a lot of fun because Nigel took us to the museum at Collin’s Barracks for a meeting they were having there. About ten of the “bosses” got together to walk through the museum and look at the signage- what worked well, what was confusing, what was too wordy, what had too many colors. We spent over an hour just looking at the signage and only made it through two areas of the Museum. It was really nice though because they also asked Blair’s and mine opinion so we were really able to contribute to the meeting!

Blair was sick on Wednesday with strep throat so it was just me and Nigel for the day. We went back to Collin’s Barracks where they were hosting a school class that had one some kind of contest, which gave them a day in the museum. It was fun to get to see Nigel and some of the other people work with this group of ten year olds. I could really tell that Nigel had his own children and grandchildren because he worked with them so well. Matthew, the museum geologist, on the other hand was obvious that he didn’t often work with kids! Still though, he did a really good job with them. Katherine was also there and she’s the head of the Museum’s educational programs so obviously she worked great with them also!

It was funny because once I spoke they could obviously tell I wasn’t Irish. At lunch I saw a bunch of girls whispering around their table and then finally one of them came up to me and asked if was American. I said yes and she skittered back to her group where they whispered some more. Than another girl came up and asked where I was from. Once they realized I was open to asking questions about seven or eight of them came running up to me asking me all sorts of things. It was actually a lot of fun- they were so adorable!

We spent most of the conversation talking about the differences in our language. Such as the Irish calling it “toilets” while we call them “bathrooms.” The kids were really perceptive too and noticed things that I had missed. For instance, they always call stores “shops” while we often say “store” – I’m heading to the grocery store.

Our day ended around two-thirty and Nigel knew I had class that evening and normally left early anyway so instead of having me head back to the Natural History Museum for an hour and a half he just let me go home, which was really nice. This gave me some time to catch a nap- the only problem, however, was that I woke up from my wonderful nap with a wonderfully awful migraine!

Class was pretty brutal and I had to force myself to make it through the first half of class, which was the lecture portion. Luckily the second half was watching a movie and when Caroline (our lecturer) saw how sick I looked she told me to just go home and get some rest.

I was hoping to knock my headache out overnight but I woke up this morning to find it was still there! I forced myself to go to work but we were cataloguing all day and looking at a computer screen for hours on end wasn’t exactly conducive to getting rid of my migraine. I actually wound up leaving for the day around one and came home to nap. My headache’s probably a little bit better but I’m definitely not heading down to City Centre tonight! It’s just so annoying because obviously I don’t want to be cooped up inside when I’m here in freaking Ireland!!

I have class tomorrow morning but no internship, which is good. I’m hoping one more good night of sleep will be enough to knock this headache out for good so I can at least go out tomorrow night and enjoy my weekend! Here’s hopin’!

written by  kmr788 on June 18, 2009 from Dublin, Ireland
from the travel blog: Dublin, Ireland
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I should probably note that things never really go according to plan for us, which meant we never did actually make it to Galway! Haha. It turns out the tour we booked went to Cork instead of Galway (though I still say they had it listed wrong on their website!) In the end it didn’t really matter since Cork was also a place we wanted to visit at some point… plus this mean we got to kiss the Blarney Stone! I guess you should be worried- now that I officially have the “gift of gab” this blog could go on forever!!

Well we woke up the next morning completely awake and refreshed! Okay, that’s a lie. Let me rephrase. Well we woke up the next morning to a freaking bright room all suffering from too much sleep and a major hangover! Yes, that’s more accurate. I did actually have to wake up around 4am though to let the rest of the group in because we only had one key to the hostel’s main door, which Meghan and I had taken when we headed home early. So the girls called my cell phone and after about the third ring it finally woke me up and I very sleepily made my way down the stairs to let them in. The more I though about it I was kind of annoyed that we had to leave the pub early the night before. But I knew if I had been in Meghan’s position I would have appreciated someone leaving early with me, so in the end I know it was the right thing to do. And lord knows there will be other nights out in the pub!

So that was my first hangover of the trip so I guess I should at least be proud that I was able to go that long without getting one. It really wasn’t too bad, just a bit of a headache. And once I was able to get a bit more sleep on the bus I felt much better!

We visited a couple different places yesterday- the first was a waterfall in Killarney, which was beautiful!

Waterfall in Killarney area.

At a waterfall in the Killarney area.

After the waterfall we had about an hour and a half drive to Cork, which was a perfect time for us to grab a nap and really hammer out that hangover! At Cork we visited Blarney Castle where we got to kiss the Blarney Stone! Yes ladies and gents that means exactly what you’re currently terrified of- I now officially have the gift of gab!!

At an entrance to some cellar areas / small rooms of Blarney Castle.

Blarney Castle- home of the Blarney Stone.

For those of you that don’t know, kissing the stone is a bit of a feat in itself.

At the top of Blarney Castle where you kiss the Blarney Stone.

Blarney Castle- come get your gift of gab!

After the stone we had some time to grab lunch in town so we went to a little café and all got breakfast. Most of the group got the traditional Irish breakfast but I went for some traditional pancakes and eggs instead… sooo good!

We actually had pretty good weather for most of the trip, and although the rain came down pretty good at times it always happened to be when we were in the bus travelling to our next destination, so all in all we were pretty lucky!

After Cork we made our way back to Dublin and were supposed to stop at two rocks along the way (see, we already hit the waterfall and the stone, now it was time for the two rocks). We stopped at the side of the road to get a picture of the Rock of Cashel, which is where the kings of Munster County sat for hundreds of years.

The Rock of Cashel- where the Kings of Munster used to sit.

Even though we’d only been gone for one night it felt like we had been gone for days (!) and it felt great to get into my comfortable bed! I went to bed about nine and so I was able to get lots of rest after our great weekend!

written by  kmr788 on June 16, 2009 from Cork, Ireland
from the travel blog: Dublin, Ireland
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Throughout the summer there are three school-sponsored trips that you can go on that will take you throughout Ireland. One to the North, West, and South (and then we live in the east!) The problem is they’re 200 Euro each and my friends and I knew we could do the same thing but cheaper! So that’s what we decided to do!

At the burren. (L-R: Amy, Lindsay, Kelsie, Me, Jahna, Meghan, Ellie).

Our bus driver was great! And he told some great, funny stories throughout the day that kept us laughing. One of the first places we went on our tour was The Burren,

Standing out on a rock at The Burren.

Ellie standing out on a rock ledge at The Burren.

At some point in the day we switched bus drivers and moved onto a smaller bus for the overnight portion of the trip. Here we picked up a new bus driver and were now on a small bus with only about seven other people (plus the seven from our own group).

Meghan and Jahna at The Burren

After switching buses we headed to the Cliffs of Moher, which were absolutely amazing!

At the Cliffs of Moher.

Amy and me at the Cliffs of Moher.

Sitting at the Cliffs of Moher.

Oops- we must've missed the sign! :-O

The whole while I was up there all I could think was how beautiful it was… and how much my dad and grandma would have hated it! We were sooo far up and when you look over the edge it’s just a straight shot down to the rocky waters. Dad might have been able to make it took look out a bit, but I’m not sure Gran-mi-ma would have made it as far up as we did!

We headed to our hostel after visiting the Cliffs of Moher, which for a hostel actually wasn’t too bad. It was in the town of Killarney, which was a pretty small town with most of the main pubs and shops on just one little road. Five of us were able to stay together in one room at the hostel and then Kelsey and Lindsay staying in a different room with three other people from the tour. The only downside was that their hot water wasn’t working so they could only put it on for an hour at night and an hour in the morning. Which mean very cold showers! Us smart ones just decided to shower when we got home the next day- but Meghan and Jahna braved the cold water and we could literally hear them screaming the whole while they showered! No thanks!

That night the fourteen of us from the tour met at a local pub for dinner, along with our bus driver. It was nice because the tour we used (Paddywagon Tours) goes there often so we actually got a deal on our drinks! Always a plus! After dinner then our driver took us to another local pub to hear traditional Irish music and then at 11 a live band came on.

This second pub was actually a lot of fun. We also wound up running into three (!) different bachelor parties! We love our bachelor parties because it’s a whole group of guys out looking to have fun… it meshes well with our whole group of girls out looking to have fun! Hehe. Oh but I forgot, here they’re not called bachelor parties they’re called “Stagdoos” because the bachelor is a “stag.” We learned that from our first stagdoo way back in our first week- remember that? Oh, good times!

While we were there Kelsie caught the eye of someone but was having a bit of trouble breaking the ice! He’d come over to talk to us for a bit but then the conversation sort of broke off. So when I saw him and his friend were up at the bar I pulled Kelsie up there to get them talking. It turns out I’m actually a pretty good wingman, hehe! I got the conversation going and then sort of passed him off to Kelsie so they could talk as I talked to his friend. He turned out to be Scottish and though he was adorable, there was something about his accent that actually made him less cute to me when he talked! Haha…. I guess I prefer those Irish accents. Anyway, he turned out to be not so exciting after we actually talked to him so we moved on to other people throughout the night… though I did get a free drink out of them!

I spent the rest of the night with Meghan talking to a guy named Shane; he was also with a stagdoo! We had a good time but at one point he said he had to ask my age, even though you’re never supposed to ask a woman that, and I think he was a little unnerved to find that I was only twenty-one… he was twenty-nine. Oh well.

I actually wound up having to leave the pub early because I went to the bathroom at some point and when I came back Meghan was somehow about to punch the “stag” from the party, who had been bothering her all night. I didn’t want to leave because I was still having fun talking to Shane but you gotta put your girls before your boys, ya know? So I got her the heck out of there and we headed back to the hostel a bit before everyone else.

The bed was the most uncomfortable thing in the world… but by the time I hit it at past 2am- and with too many drinks and shots in me to name- it basically felt like the best thing in the world!

written by  kmr788 on June 15, 2009 from Killarney, Ireland
from the travel blog: Dublin, Ireland
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In front of the castles door in Malahide.

Lindsay going down the slide at the park in Malahide.

Fun swinging, cable, contraption thingy! hehe

The park was great- it was as though we had all suddenly turned five years old again! We were all joking around that here we were, a bunch of twenty year olds, on their way to a castle but getting distracted by a park instead!

Oh to be five again!

Well we finally did turn back into grown ups and we made out way to the castle.

A castle at Malahide.

Yeah no big deal- just me chillin' in front of the castle! hehe

Lions, and Tigers, and Bears... oh my!

The beach at Malahide.

Tomorrow we’re heading to Galway for a two-day trip that I’m uber-excited about. The only downside is that the bus leaves at 7am so we have to leave the apartment by 6! Oy, I think the only thing that’s making us all feel better is the thought of sleeping on the bus! Well since I have to be up early tomorrow I guess I’ll cut this blog short!

In front of the castle at Malahide. (L-R: Ellie, Amy, Me, Lindsay, Kelsie, Jahna, Meghan).

written by  kmr788 on June 12, 2009 from Malahide, Ireland
from the travel blog: Dublin, Ireland
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First we went to the Museum of History at the Collin’s Barracks and got to see some of the “behind the scenes” stuff. The Museum is always closed on Mondays so we got to see a lot of the internal work that goes on. We went past the conservation room and saw them repairing some old furniture, and then saw the small Natural History exhibit they had there (since the main Natural History Museum is closed) and met some of the people who are working on cataloguing all the Museum’s specimens.

Next we went to one of their storage facilities, which is massive! There are so many boxes of specimens and artifacts there that Nigel (the Keeper) told us some of the crates that they acquired as far back as the 1960s still haven’t even been opened! Crazy! It was amazing to realize that the “small” amount of artifacts and specimens the Museum has on display is really only one small portion of all that they really have.

We got to see one area where they were working on cleaning different bones they had gotten and a store room that was filled with animal bones, such as huge antlers and whale ribs and what not. I don’t think I ever mentioned too that when I went in for my interview and took a tour of the Natural History Museum I got to see some of Charles Darwin’s actual collections that he himself gathered and labeled and then donated to the Museum. I LOVE working in a place that has so much amazing history! Even the building itself holds tons of history with it being over 150 years old.

Tuesday we worked a little bit in the galleries helping to catalogue specimens. It was amazing- we were opening cases and handling specimens that literally hadn’t been touched in a hundred years! Then we closed up the cases that probably won’t be opened again for another hundred years! It’s just amazing for me to look at some rare coral specimen and see the record number on the side of it’s base, knowing that I was the one who placed that label there! Hehe.

We also had an opportunity Tuesday to take a tour of the Archaeological Museum, which is just down the street from the Natural History Museum. I was actually a little disappointed in this Museum- I had been so excited because I’ve always been interested in archaeology, but I was actually a little bored with it. Plus the tour wasn’t very good. Instead of giving a tour of the expanse of the museum they really just focused on ten or so key items and really went in depth with them. I would have rather the tour been highlighting more items and not going as in depth.

All my coworkers are really nice and really good at including us in on tea breaks and whatnot. Oh, that’s the other thing I love! The Irish LOVE their tea breaks! Which means not only do I get an hour lunch, but also a half-hour tea break around 11a- it really helps to break up the day. They’re all really chill and relaxed here too. We were asking how long our lunch break is and they said they at least take a half hour, but normally an hour or two! Then they said if we ever wanted to take a three-hour break or something to go have lunch with a friend in town then that would be fine! The other day we all went to the café in the Archaeological Museum and had an hour tea break! Hehe

By the way, when I keep saying “we” I mean Blair and I. I’m not sure if I mentioned before that there’s another girl from the BU/Dublin program who is also interning at the Natural History Museum with me. But Blair doesn’t actually go to BU but some small liberal arts college in North Carolina (?). It’s kind of nice having someone else there with me as we experience all these new things together.

Wednesday and Thursday were much less eventful as we basically spent the entire day cataloguing and archiving old museum correspondence. This is fun for the first couple hours, but then gets pretty boring after that. I’m currently working with the correspondence between 1966 and 1970. So what I’m basically doing is reading all the letters that were sent to and from the museum during this time period and then writing up the key information (date, sender, receiver, letter summary) in an excel spreadsheet. Nigel says the point is basically so if some family member of a contributor ever comes and wants to get a specimen back that their great-grandfather or whatever gave to the Museum, we can easily find the correspondence showing the grandfather actually donated, not lent, the specimen to the Museum.

A lot of what we read is people wanting different things identified though, or scientists looking to borrow different specimens for their research. Some of them are pretty interesting though- I got to read one letter from Charles Darwin’s great-grandson! My favorite by far though is the person who sent in a spider asking for it to be identified. The Museum proceeded to send him a letter back saying they couldn’t identify it given that it was actually a fake ‘joke’ spider from a toy store! Haha. I laughed pretty hard at that one! Imagine how stupid that guy must have felt when he got that response back!

After work on Thursday Nigel said we’d be working on some different things next week to help diversify the day a bit- so hopefully next week will have a bit more variety!

written by  kmr788 on June 11, 2009 from Dublin, Ireland
from the travel blog: Dublin, Ireland
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Ellie and Jahna at the racetrack.

At the racetracks.

We went to Captain America’s after that, haha, and got some drinks and dessert. Then we made our way to Cassidy’s where we met up with a bunch of other people. They have a really great acoustic guitarist there and we spent most of the night listening and talking with him.

Jahna and the Hugh Heffner wannabe at Cassidy's

Dancing at Cassidy's

Yesterday we went to Glendalough, which used to be a monastery. It was a monastery about 1400 years ago! And I think was one for about 900 years.

The Round Tower at Glendalough- one of the tallest in Ireland!

There’s also a cemetery there with graves ranging from 1400 years ago (!) to today!

The cemetery at Glendalough- some graves are 1400 years old!

The cemetery and cathedral at Glendalough.

This is a picture of the monastery’s cathedral.

The cathedral of Glendalough's monastery.

"Inside" the cathedral of Glendalough's monastery.

"St. Kevin's Kitchen" - really it's a church though but was originally misnamed!

Looking down at the lake at Glendalough.

Beautiful waterfall at Glendalough- little dark because my flash wasn't cooperating.

Pretty stream in Glendalough.

Looking down at the monastery from a couple miles up.

(Oh and our good weather has finally left us- the cold came in yesterday, and the rains began today. Welcome to Ireland!)

written by  kmr788 on June 6, 2009 from Glendalough, Ireland
from the travel blog: Dublin, Ireland
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