Gotta love Dublin

It's been two days since I last posted a blog and I'm trying to remember what I've done since then!

I'll update you on the chemistry quickly... yesterday I practiced measuring the surface area of a gold electrode, placing gold nanoparticles on the gold electrode, and measuring the new surface area. Because more gold nanoparticles are on the electrode, the surface area is expected to increase. This is exactly what happened (this has already been done, I was just practicing!!) Today the research picked up a bit. We tried to take the gold nanoparticles off, without destroying the rest of the electrode. This has surprisingly never been done before. Elaine and I have some ideas, but no concrete results after today. All day in front of a computer screen. Oh the joy of research :)

The real excitement of the last two days have been going into Dublin City. Yesterday I went with the whole DiaMonD Ureka program, had my first Guiness and enjoyed myself greatly! The students in the program are great fun, and I had a grand time (grand=great).

The World Cup is played on every TV screen in every bar. It's great! I watched the US tie Slovenia (even though they should've won) and Germany lose. Tonight I went and watched the English play in Dublin. Everyone was rooting against them (me as well) and it was such a jovial atmosphere!

Here are some pictures on the bus on our way to Dublin:

Check this next picture out: it says Beer and Optic Monitoring Systems which I don't understand at all. Any ideas anyone??




Jussi (Finland), James (Canada), and I went out for the night tonight. It was brilliant if I say so myself (brilliant=awesome). We went to a bar/pub to eat some dinner and finish watching England tie. We then headed to local bar. It had live music, which was awesome, and modern day hits such as Journey, Green Day, Goo Goo Dolls. I belted out the tunes as you all know. Here are some pictures of the pub and us inside it:



I also managed to sneak a picture with the Irish guy singing the songs (for all you P.S. I Love You fans, he sang that song that Geralrd Butler sings to Hilary Swank! It was pretty neat).


Here is a video of the pub:

After some intense singing sessions (and drinking games if you didn't know the lyrics) we headed to another more local type pub with Irish music. This was a lot of fun, and we clapped our hands and sang with the locals. (Dad, they also played John Denver, and I sang along!!!) Here is another video of this pub:



I love seeing cities at night, they take my breath away!! Here is a night picture of Dublin:


The night was great, I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Here is a picture of James and Jussi, pointing out the bullet holes in the Post Office (check out Dublin's history for more information).



More differences in Ireland:
1) In the bathroom sinks, the hot and cold water are completely separate, with separate faucets. If I want to wash my face with medium hot water, I can't!!! Madness...

2) Sweater=Jumper

3) When you're talking to someone (like before girlfriend and boyfriend) they say kissing. It makes sense, but when someone says their kissing each other, I usually thin in the present, right now...

4) Pregame=predrink

5) Every single socket has to be turned on and off. I can't tell you the number of times I thought my electronic was broken but actually the socket hadn't been turned on yet. Go figure.

I know their are more, as I think of some more differences I'll post them!!

I'm off to bed. Tomorrow is a more touristy day in Dublin, which means plenty of pictures to follow! I miss everyone back home.