Who says it rains in Ireland??

It's been another wonderful week here, sorry I haven't posted in a while! I've been out and about, exploring more of Ireland and all that fun jazz...

This last week at the internship was fairly relaxed. We are making great progress, Elaine likes all of the work that has we have been able to accomplish. This Tuesday I have a meeting with my professor... dun dun dun!!! Don't know exactly how I feel about that. John (the master's student in my lab) says it's AWFUL but I think he's just messing around with me. Robert is so nice I couldn't imagine it being that bad. Plus, I do have somewhat of an idea of what I'm doing (electrode in this, put gold on it, measure it's current vs. potential jada jada jada).

Now the exciting stuff!!!

Last week we headed to Phoenix Park, the biggest public park in Europe and conveniently located right in Dublin! It contains the Dublin Zoo as well which is supposed to pretty neat, but it was closed by the time we got there. We chose to walk there thanks to James's bright thinking instead of taking the bus, and let me tell you it was quite a walk! We walked along the Liffey, the main river through Dublin. When we arrived, I was so exhausted I plopped down right in front of the monument and started looking up places I wanted to travel in Ireland.



There are soo many places, I didn't find anywhere particularly grabbing but we decided to head to Belfast (up North) this coming weekend.

On Thursday my mentor invited me to dinner with all the chemistry PhD students which I would later learn means a 5 course meal followed by drinking a lot and chilling out in the hot tub. I had a great time and an awesome meal which consisted of things such as smoked salmon and pureed prawns, followed by a sorbet to "cleanse my pallet" (whoa... Top Chef status for sure), roast beef and potatoes, and then two delicious desserts: apple crumble and a lemon pie. All of this is homemade by the way... like by hand. We then proceeded to have a few drinks. I was so full from the dinner, I literally couldn't drink that much alcohol. Elaine's boyfriend stated that I had a lot of learning to do, but not to worry because he would help me get there :) Elaine warmly said I fit in wonderfully in the Irish culture, which I thought was very kind given my poor performance in the alcohol drinking. Thanks to this lovely barbeque, there was no work for me on Friday! Thank goodness for sleep.

The next day was the chemistry barbeque. Over a hundred people from the chemistry department were there, but I generally hung around with John and some other UREKA students.

We then went to IKEA which James was super excited about, he had been wanting to go since we got here. We spent 80 euros for essentials that our apartment was missing such as a big pot which will be essential for the Irish stew we plan on cooking (oh yeah James had unofficially moved in. He brought over everything he had bought for his apartment, and eats with us and helps us cook every night. He just sleeps in the other place, which we all don't mind at all.)

That night after cooking some dinner we decided that we would stay in so we could wake up early and head to the Guinness factory!













The Guinness factory was wonderful. They have transformed the old brewery storehouse into a place where you can get a taste for how the beer is made. It is designed in the shape of a pint glass, the largest in the world. I learned quite a bit about the history of Guinness, which was all interesting. Most notable was that Arthur Guinness signed the lease of the current location of the factory for 9000 years. He was that confident that his idea would be successful. And boy was he right. Also, the GUINNESS Book of World Records is from the Guinness factory. One of the brewers was drinking beer and wondered what was the fastest bird in the world. No one had ever made a book about that, and he though it would be great to have to talk about while having a drink or two. And the GUINNESS book of world records was born!

The gravity bar on top of the factory was where you could enjoy your pint of Guinness and a 360 view of Dublin. It was quite awesome, being up there sipping on a beer and overlooking the city. I enjoyed it greatly. I've also included a video below of us drinking our Guinness and how they were enjoying it.









After that we headed to Dublin castle and several churches located throughout Dublin. All were beautiful especially the surrounding gardens.













The Natural History Museum followed. It was supposed to be absolutely amazing, but several exhibits were closed due to renovation. The best part was the first skeleton of the Irish deer. It's antlers were HUGE. Sooo big. We then headed home.

Jussi made us Finnish food that night for Midsummer's Day, a holiday in Finland celebrating the longest day of the year. He made meatballs, potatoes, salad, and an excellent pancake like dessert. It was all so good. I salivate just looking at the pictures...












During this time the USA vs. Ghana game was on. I was an absolute nutcase running back and forth from dinner to the game streaming live on my computer. Laetitia was laughing at me (at least USA made it out of their pool ;) but I really really wanted the USA to win (didn't we all!!) Until next time...

Then time for a night out!! Another great night, this time we decided to drink a bit more in the apartment before heading out so we wouldn't have to spend so much money on alcohol while out. And it worked out wonderfully!! My drink of choice right now: Bulmer's apple cider. It is so good, but I have to be careful because I could literally drink it like apple juice. It was a lovely night with great friends. Michelle says my irish accent is coming along smoothly especially when I say "grand". I hope to have it perfected by the time I come home :)



Today (Sunday) James and I woke up despite our late night, sucked up the slight hangovers, and headed to Glendalough by a private bus. Even the drive was beautiful, though I was trying to stay awake. Everyone told us it was supposed to rain today, but everyone's been saying that for the last two weeks, and still no rain! Only wonderful Irish sun, kissing my skin trying to live up to the sun in wonderful California.


It is a valley known for it's monastery (very old I might add, the church was built in the 1200s!)


We hiked around the lakes and up to the top of the ridge. Sooooo many steps, but well worth the effort, the view was absolutely amazing. We were trying to figure out what made this valley so beautiful, and we decided that it's because it looks untouched. You would have no idea that humans were anywhere around. I felt like I was on the Sound of Music on top of the mountain. If James weren't there with me, I probably would have started singing "The Hills are Alive". We also decided that no pictures could put into words what it was like, but that it was the best we could do for the people at home. Here are some pictures of the valley:








After all of that walking and hiking around (in flip flops for that matter!) we slept the entire bus ride back to Dublin. What a day...

All is well, as you can see from my long blog. I'll try to update this a bit more often, doing it all at once, once a week is quite daunting and I can't include important details that I want to because it would make it so long. Also James is doing a blog... he has a lot of pictures on there that I don't have, so if you want to read another person's perspective and see some more pictures, check out his blog. There's a link on my facebook.

Things I've noticed recently:

1)can't buy knives in Ireland unless you are 21 because they are afraid you would inflict bodily harm... keep those away from me!!

2) Braid (like hair)=plat

3) tire=tyre

I am still having a wonderful time, and I don't think that's going to change. This week I hope to play some soccer (football) and James is cooking pancakes for a Canadian holiday. I'll be back on here soon...