i love air conditioning

Day 30 - on Saturday morning, i packed up my room in Roebuck Hall.

goodbye, crazy little community. goodbye, Ikea catalogue.

Hillary and i went and dropped our things at our new temporary home, The Ashling Hotel, before hitting the Temple Bar Food Market (or the Farmer's Market).

we met up with those remaining from our group. i had a crepe, a blueberry scone and a smoothie. last Saturday morning in Dublin, so i had to make it count :)

after stuffing our faces, we walked around Dublin for a while, just enjoying the city.

i will miss you, random Grafton Street performers.

we stumbled upon another Saturday street market where we made friends with a craic dealer.

thought seriously about buying these shirts, but they were 25 euro.

this guy was pretty cool though. he plays in an Irish band that had toured in the US. he's played in some sweet places on 6th street!

and he gave us some recommendations for where we should hang out that night.

anyway, Hillary and i were tired still so we went back to the hotel, cranked the air conditioning and passed out. best nap i've had in four weeks.

then took the best shower i've had in four weeks. (i will not miss you, Roebuck Hall toilet/sink/shower combination bathroom)

once clean and rested, Hill and i met with with B.Love & friends and the rest of the girls still in town at Sinnotts to watch the USA world cup game.

good thing there was beer, cause the game sucked. i don't want to talk about it.

before going out to drown our sorrows, we went with Cindy to get some of her stuff from Robin's Nest - the hottest new hostel in Ireland.

it was Gay Pride Parade/Celebration weekend in Dublin (i think it was a worldwide celebration, actually) so the streets were nuts!

we walked around George's Street for a while, had a few pints at Globe bar (off the craic dealer's recommendation) and then called it a night.

it was something unpredictable, but in the end it was right...

....we DEFINITELY had the time of our lives.

Day 29 – Friday was the last day of Ireland Maymester 2010.

people say this a lot, but I really can not believe how quickly this past month went by. lyrics from every cheesy “goodbye” or “ending” song ran through my head all day

(‘Closing Time’ was a close 2nd for the title of this blog post)

deep breath – okay. Friday morning we woke up early, finished the project and sent it off to B.Love. talk about a weight off of your chest, so glad to have it finished.

after some half-hearted packing, we went to The Sugar Club to watch Brazil v. Portugal.

every Brazilian in Ireland was at the Sugar Club. it made the game that much more exciting – plus, there was really good Brazilian food that someone was selling. yum.

naturally, some light day drinking ensued, which had to be followed by a nap.

that night we had our Goodbye Dinner (didn’t we JUST have the welcome dinner??)

the whole group went out to the Arlington Hotel on Dame Street. we had a 3 course meal, listened to an Irish folk band and watched traditional Irish dancing.

the dancers were brilliant. a few of them tour with Riverdance.

the musicians were hilarious. they sang some great Irish drinking songs and took requests from the audience.

our table had quite a few requests, all dedicated to B.Love, of course.

the band couldn’t get enough of our antics. they picked on B.Love quite a bit and essentially we became a part of the show (that tended to happen to us when we were out in our group of 14 loud Texas girls + Sly)

and i know you want to see pictures of the food, so...

goat cheese salad with sundried tomatoes and apples and nuts...

(i'm really going to miss having goat cheese on everything)

The Arlington Hotel's famous Guinness Stew (at least that's what it was called on the menu, ha)

and chocolate mousse for dessert.

the salad was by far the best part! ha

after dinner, the show and some after-show music at the bar with the band, the group moved to The Porterhouse for a pint (w/B.Love!).

 those with early flights left from there...and the group dwindled down slowly.

some of us went to Fitzsimons - where Steph and i had silly tequila shots.

slice of lemon and a packet of salt? i guess that works.

then more people went home...

the plan was to go all night, but after 3 days straight of project work, we were super tired.

back to Roebuck Hall for the last time...

couldn’t have asked for a better ending to the incredible journey that was this program.

the whole experience was one of the best of my life. I’ll never forget the time I spent in this incredible city or the strangers that became my friends.

I learned so much about PR, about this country, about these people and about myself.

a part of my heart will always belong to Dublin City <3

the land of saints and scholars...

Day 26 - Tuesday was just the right mix of school work and play.

we met B.Love at Powerscourt to hammer out some final project details and talk about our current status.

i’ve never known anyone better at giving completely nondescript answers to very direct questions (which was all by design, of course, as he teaches us to “think like professionals”)

after our meeting, some of our group grabbed take-away lunch and ate in St. Stephen’s Green.

i FINALLY found the Indian food I’ve been searching for. it was (not super expensive) Koma curry and it was delicious!

after lunch, we went back to get changed for our 3rd office visit, to take place that afternoon. we met with Wilson Hartnell PR, a section of Ogilvy.

it’s a very large, successful company and was one of the pioneers of the PR business in Ireland.

one of the executives sat down with us, told us about his career and talked with us about the current state of media and the PR business in Ireland.

it was interesting, though this guy could rival our Galway tour bus driver for the ability to speak in a monotone voice with out taking a breath for hours.

after the visit, we dispersed for a quick dinner. Hillary, Tracie and I went to the Gourmet Burger Kitchen. speaking of which, Irish beef is SO good.

to top off the day, B.Love squeezed just a bit more history and culture into our trip. we met up with everyone's favorite tour guide, Garbhán.

the coffee shop that we started the tour in, The Bald Barista, was fantastic!

<--written at the top of my Mocha in chocolate!

first stop of the tour was the Whitefriar Street Carmelite Church to see the statue of Our Lady of Dublin held in a shrine there since 1915.

the whole story behind the statue is pretty incredible. little tidbit – at one point, the back of it was carved out and it was used as a pig trough on a farm to keep it safe from the British.

after leaving that church we headed towards St. Patrick’s Cathedral, stopping to look at little things on the way. for instance, check out this residential building.

<- Garbhán haha

it has scenes from Gulliver’s Travels carved into it

close up ----------->

upon arrival at St. Patrick's, we admired the incredible cathedral, walked around the gardens (where St. Patrick baptized the Irish), listened to the afternoon bells, and settled into the grass so that Garbhán could tell us old Irish stories.

lounging in the gardens ->

the stories were really interesting and entertaining. they continued when we moved over to Christ Church Cathedral. want to hear a story/song?

the rest of the tour was filled with more stops and more stories.

POP QUIZ – how many people/bands can you name from the Wall of Fame in Temple Bar??

(don't cheat!)

once we were finished with the academic part of the day, Garbhán joined us for a pint….or two…at a pub off of O’Connell Street.

they have their own house beers. each of us got a tray that had a sample of all 5 of them.

maybe not fun for the bartender, but certainly fun for us.

after a day/night like this, it only makes sense for Garbhán to come back to the dorm and watch movies with us. that’s not weird, right? haha

just another brilliant night at Roebuck Hall.

i shall call him Squishy and he shall be mine - he shall be my Squishy

Day 24 - Sunday was a beautiful, sunny day. unfortunately, this was the day that my camera decided that it didn't want to turn on anymore.

luckily, there are 14 other people here with digital cameras :)

UCD hooked us up with tickets to a HURLING GAME so on Sunday morning, we bused it to Croke Park.

the stadium is gorgeous. it's in the middle of a little town. the Irish have a lot of pride in the sport and the stadium.

again, there is a lot of history there - the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) is historically one of the strongest Irish symbols of Nationalism.

we sat in the 3rd row. they say Hurling is almost a mix between hockey and lacrosse. the field is sort of set up like foosball table players.

it's the fastest field sport in the world. to me, it just looks like guys beating the crap out of each other with sticks.

the players are extremely athletic and the game was

really impressive.

a few older Irish men sitting behind me kept filling me in on what was going on and about halfway through, i started to catch on (though i think about 30% of the things they were saying was just to mess with me)

we came to support our "Boys in Blue," but Dublin lost - sort of miserably - to Kilkenny (the best team in the league)

<--- but MUTEFISH was there! haha

after the game, i came back to the campus and laid in one of the many fields listening to music. it was extremely relaxing and just what i needed.

we stayed in that night and had more YouTube watching party time in the kitchen. the last of the law school boys left early the next morning, so we hung out with them for a bit AND i had some excellent skype time with the family & Meredith Joe :)

it was the calm before the storm....

hidden in plain sight

later that night - after a long hard day of drinking Guinness, the girls and i went out to The Purty Kitchen to see everyone's favorite Irish singer/songwriter, Andrew Mann, play with his rock band - Totally Wired.

some of the girls -

Tori, Cindy, Kelsey, me & Hillary

Andrew got on the bar for the big finale :)

click here to get a glimpse of Andrew & Totally Wired singing one of my FAVORITE covers of all time :)

---Hillary has few comments to make during the clip haha

we even got to hang with one of our law school best friends, Bobby, at the Kitchen

(starts with a B, end with an obby)

after the band was finished, Andrew took us to one of his hangouts, Lillie's Bordello, off Grafton Street.

a small taste of the inside of the posh night club --->

supposedly, it is the place that all of the celebrities can be found when they are in town.

Bono had been there the week before - but we didn't see anyone famous...

<--except the rock star that we came with lol

it was a brilliant night.

Day 22 - the next morning (TGIF), we got up and headed over to Merrion Square to check out the Street Performers World Championship. nope, i'm not kidding...

needless to say, it was amazing.

it reminded me a lot of the fringe festival in Edinburgh (except this only took over a park, not the entire city)

Friday was "warm-up day" so the place wasn't too ridiculously crowded and we could enjoy some of the shows.

this is Pete Dobbing. he does his show from the top of a ten foot ladder.

this is him balancing on the ladder while he takes his shirt off, showing the crowd "what real men look like"

want to watch clips from his show? (trust me, you do)

click here and here :)

like at any good festival, there was an area set up for face painting.

we decided to take this opportunity to gear up for the World Cup game against Slovenia.

Kelsey was going to the theatre that evening, so she opted out of face paint, BUT she loves hats, so we got her a balloon hat to show off her American pride.

Hillary and i went all out at Sinnotts, and enjoyed the game with buffalo wings and Coors Light.

the game was a lot of fun to watch (even though Slovenia plays dirty, the referee sucked and it ended in a draw)

<-- p.s. reason #347 why we love B.Love

after the game, Cindy and i went back to the Street Performers. law school friend Roger came with us....

a decision he would soon regret....

we stopped to watch the crazy Canadian woman, Sharon Mahoney

Cindy and i got right up in the action, but Roger stood moderately away from the crowd under a tree.

she called him out almost instantly.

it started small, with simply holding a flag....

but it soon became clear that Roger was going to be one of the main characters in this show.

she had four "volunteers," but he was definitely her favorite.

after she changed into her 2nd costume (in front of the entire crowd)

the real fun began.

the big stunt was pretty cool.

as was the finale.

so glad we stopped to see this show, ay.

it was quite a long Friday, but after a brief nap, we decided we'd do an early night in Temple Bar (this means going out around 9 and coming back at 11 so we can catch the bus).

we finally went to check out The Palace Bar - on B.Love's recommendation.

it's an old pub, pretty famous for the chill atmosphere. we went upstairs for a pint of Bulmers.

the room was just a little bigger than my dorm room and three young guys were hanging out, playing various instruments (guitars, a ukulele and some sort of drum) and just having a great time entertaining the small gathering of people.

one of them had a really impressive, deep, Johnny Cash voice. check out one of the songs they sang.

wow, what a busy day and loong blog post!

you should probably leave me a comment about it... ;)

Guinness is good for you.

Day 21 - (Thursday, June 17th)

instead of having class on Thurs, each project group met with B.Love individually for about an hour (there are 3 groups with 5 people each)

we met up in Powers Court (pictured here). it's sort of a hidden mall inside the City Centre. it used to be someone's house! a roof was put on the

courtyard and now lots of little cafes/shops operate inside of it.

ACADEMIC STUFF...

i've mentioned that our project is about the HPV vaccine launch/cervical cancer awareness in Ireland. each group was assigned a certain population to focus on/research.

the final project will be a compilation of information about our assigned group to be given to the HSE. they will use this information to design their communication strategy around the release of the vaccine, come September.

my group was assigned to fathers of girls 12-13 yrs old.

most of the primary research will be done through interviews ("hey do you have a second to talk?") with men aged 40-50 in Dublin to learn about where they receive/look for health information and what they know about cervical cancer specifically.

--i hope that my simplification/explanation of our project made sense--

anyway, back to what you actually want to read about.

after 'class' we had a delicious and surprisingly very filling lunch at a little Italian cafe - Al Vecchio Castello - inside Powers Court (one level up from where we met with B.Love)

the soup (veggie pesto) was incredible and this place had the best 'chips' that we've found in Dublin so far (though i got a salad instead)

Side Note: 'chips' means french fries. they serve them with everything here. i mean everything. this includes our chinese take-away and pizza delivery. even when we went to the nice Italian place in Galway, Hillary's meal came with chips. usually they are thick and "potato-y" but this place had thin cut, crispy chips :)

but enough about food, let's talk about alcohol...

Hillary and i finally made it to the Guinness Factory

they don't actually make Guinness here anymore and everyone that has gone already gave this #1 most visited tourist attraction in Dublin apathetic/mixed reviews, but

as i'm sure you'll be able to tell from the following pictures, we had a blast...

first we learned about the ingredients:

1. barley

2. hops

3. yeast

4. pure/clean water (pictured here)

and of course,

5. Andrew Guinness (or a specially trained Master Brewer)

we continued through the self-guided tour, which lead us to the Tasting Room.

it was here that we were taught how to properly enjoy the taste of Guinness Draught.

moving right along to storage and shipping....

the factory had the largest beer storage barrel and was completely centered around the largest pint glass in the world.

shipping was traditionally done by boat haha

my Favorite part of the factory was the whole section about Guinness advertising.

we watched famous Guinness commercials and learned the history behind the award winning ad campaigns the company has produced.

i won't get into the details, but "Guinness is good for you" is by far my favorite example of accurate market research :)

recognize this harp??

the final (and probablymost important) thing we did on the tour was learn how to pour the perfect pint.

step by step instructions were laid out for us,

then we took a brief class on the subject

and then the student became the master...

though i may have gotten a little bit distracted by taking pictures and spilled just a bit.

<- our instructor was laughing at me ha

but i still earned my certificate :)

i hope you enjoyed basically taking this tour with me!!

STAY TUNED:more to come from Thursday...