Mom's visit 2008 and MA graduation!

What a fun week!

Mom left yesterday morning, after spending the week at my apartment.


(All pictures taken by my mother.)

The first two days, Sunday and Monday, were mostly spent shopping and eating at nice restaurants. We had originally planned on spending a couple days visiting Belfast, but then decided we really didn't have enough time, especially with the days so short right now-- the sun goes down around 4pm these days. Instead, we went to the Aran Islands on Tuesday, to Connemara on Wednesday, and spent Thursday cooking Thanksgiving dinner.

Tuesday's adventure to Inis Meáin, the least touristy of the Aran Islands, didn't go quite as planned. The girl working at the ferry ticket office told us that plenty of things would be open-- she specifically mentioned B&Bs and a restaurant. So we decided we would spend the night on the island. Well, we got there Tuesday morning, the only visitors on the ferry, and spent the first hour wandering around looking for a place to stay. Gradually we realized that none of the accommodations were open... then we began to realize that nothing at all was open. Not a single shop or restaurant. Not even the pub. The only place of business, other than the school and post office, that seemed operational was the Knitwear Factory. The Knitwear Factory has a shop, but at this time of year you have to knock on the door and ask someone to open it. We did this, partly because by that time we'd been wandering around in the cold for over two hours, though we did manage to find some really nice scarves and sweaters to buy. Luckily we had brought some food with us, so we didn't go hungry, but we spent four of our five hours on the island wandering around in the cold. Of course, we did get to see a lot of beautiful rugged lonely island landscape...



Tuesday night, we went back to my apartment and cooked a big hearty dinner, before getting up the next morning for a tour of Connemara! The tour was beautiful. I have never really been up through that area, and we were both a bit blown away by the beauty of the countryside.






Thursday, we slept in a bit, then went shopping. We both got a bit of Christmas shopping wrapped up, then picked up groceries for a Thanksgiving dinner! Since there were only two of us, we didn't bother with a turkey, and instead bought a few turkey breasts, which we roasted with stuffing. We also made butternut squash, turkey gravy (from a mix), garlic-parsley mashed potatoes, and a pumpkin pie! Mom actually brought a can of pumpkin from home, since pumpkin is hard to come by here. There was no green bean casserole or Green Jello, but it was still a fantastic Thanksgiving dinner. And, since neither of us has ever cooked Thanksgiving food for two, I ended up with a crapload of leftovers, and have had another delicious Thanksgiving for the past three nights. :-)

Friday was the culmination of mom's visit-- my graduation! I am now officially a Master of the Arts. Or possibly Mistress. There was a lovely reception beforehand at the Irish Studies Centre, with wine and cheese and our theses on display; Louis gave a nice speech, though he mentioned my name enough to be a little embarrassing. (All good things, but still.) The conferral ceremony itself was nice, with just the right amount of pomp and circumstance (and just the right lack of "Pomp and Circumstance.") And the reception after the ceremony was nice too, with a cornucopia of buffet tables and mulled wine. (Yum!)


(Class photo, of about half of the MA Irish Studies class of 2008!)

(Me smiling like a dork with Dr. Nessa Cronin and Dr. Louis DePaor, Big Sister and Fearless Leader respectively to the Irish Studies Centre. Ok, their official titles are "Programme Coordinator" and "Programme Director," but mine are more accurate.)

(Since I talk enough about him... me with Dr. Lionel Pilkington, thesis advisor extraordinaire.)

Mom and I went out dinner that night with my friend Jenn and her father, who is also visiting Ireland for the graduation. We ate yet another delicious meal before turning in rather early, as mom had to get up very early Saturday morning to catch her flight. I accompanied her to the bus station and gave her a hug goodbye... that was considerably less tearful than normal, because I will be seeing her in a week!

Yes, this week I am coming back to the 'States for Christmas break! I fly to Chicago on Thursday 4 December. I'm going to spend the weekend there with Jim before taking the train up to MI on Monday 8 December. I will be on vacation for a whole month, leaving on 3 January! I'm really looking forward to the break. Of course, before that comes I have to write a whole conference paper this week...

semester of travel

Apologies for not updating last Sunday, though I suppose the election-y posts made up for that. My life has been busy, though not anecdotally rich-- I have been working quite hard the last couple weeks, and I have a lot of work to finish in the next couple weeks. Like writing the first draft of a conference paper. (Eeep.)

The only real exciting news is that, in exactly one week, my mother will be here visiting! Wow! I am graduating from my MA on Friday 28 November, and Mom is visiting for it. She will be here for a whole week, staying on my futon, and I think we might even go up to Belfast for a couple days. I am really excited about her visit! Of course, I'm going back to the 'States for Christmas on 4 December, so it's not like we'll have long to wait to see each other again, but still.

This has been a semester full of travel for me! I was in Michigan in September for a wedding and in Chicago in October for Mom's birthday, then Alex visited, now Mom is visiting. Crazy! Of course, next semester won't be nearly as travel-ful. I better not get used to this, because after Christmas I probably won't get to see any friends or family from the 'States until July or August.

Post-Electoral post

Dear America,

Thank you!

Love,
Ayla

P.S. But I'm not too happy about all the states that voted to Hate the Gays. Let's work on that, people!



Look around
We’re living with the lost and found
Just when you feel you’ve almost drowned
You find yourself on solid ground
And you believe

There’s good in everybody’s heart
Keep it safe and sound
With hope, you can do your part
To turn a life around

I cannot believe my eyes
Is the world finally growing wise
‘Cause it seems to me
Some kind of harmony
Is on the rise...

-Joss Whedon, My Eyes (from Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, a 'blog far superior to my own.)

special Tuesday election post! For America.

(I did, too! Two weeks ago!)

Dear America,

As you go to the polls today-- and come on! You better go to the polls today! And if you don't, you automatically forfeit your right to whine about anything the next president does for the next four years. Anyway, as you go the polls today, please remember this: "I'd have a beer with him" is not a qualification for political office, nor is "I'd tap that." And that last one goes for Obama fans as well as Palin milf-hunters. (I don't think there are many people voting for McCain because of his sexy body.) If When you vote today, vote for whoever you agree with most. If you're not sure what the candidates stand for, find out! It's not that hard.

Love,
Your absentee daughter Ayla

I'm going to be up late watching the news at Jenn and Bri's apartment. Even though we won't even begin to get results until after midnight here, and Bri voted for McCain while Jenn and I are Obama ladies, we are still going to make "American snacks" (whatever those are!) and watch the coverage. I'm hoping that one of the channels will have the Daily Show's live coverage. It's just not the same with out Jon Stewart's boyish grin and silly commentary!

And I leave you with this:

(click for full-size)

Marathon Man!

When last we spoke, I was in Dublin with my cousin Alex to watch him run in the Dublin Marathon. Since then, I have watched a marathon for the first time, ate at a bunch of new restaurants, spent most of the week with Alex sleeping on my futon, and did a lot of walking around Galway. (Also got internet in my apartment, yay!)

Alex is a fun guest to have, especially in a European city. He majored in architecture and worked as an architect for about ten years, then started working for Minneapolis Parks & Recreation. So the things he is interested in, when it comes to exploring a new place, are the buildings and the parks and the public spaces. This was cool because, first of all, he's easy to entertain, but more importantly because he made me look at things in my city in a different way. As I've lived here for over a year, it's easy to just take things for granted, so having him around was a nice way to remind me how lovely a lot of things here really are.

Watching the marathon was fun, too. I ran Cross Country (and Track, but I hated Track) in High School, but I haven't ever experienced anything quite like it. Alex is part of a nationwide team that raises money for cancer research, so he was there with about thirty people. I watched the race with two of his teammates that weren't running. We took the light rail and cabs to different points of the race, then stood for a couple hours at each point watching all the teammates run by. Alex's goal was to finish in under 6 hours, and he finished in 5:49, so he was quite happy with his time!


Alex (in the purple shirt, with arms raised) at mile 10.



Alex around mile 23


Coming in to the finish! (He whipped his hat off in excitement.)


Crossing the finish line!


Alex and I after the race. I'm so proud of my nouno!

Alex took lots of pictures while he was here, so if I get ahold of those I'll post them up. What a fun time!

Sunday post?!

A post on time?! Gasp! Shock!

I am in Dublin right now, at an internet café around the corner from my hostel. The hostel's wireless internet wasn't working earlier, so after a lot of trouble (and trouble-shooting) I finally found a place to use my laptop. (I still don't have internet at my new place, so I haven't been able to obsessively check my email every three minutes like I'm used to.)


Anyway. My cousin¹ Alex is in Ireland to run in the Dublin Marathon! I took the train into Dublin this afternoon, checked into my hostel, and met Alex at his hotel. We went out to dinner, then he had to meet up with his team for a shindig, and then go to bed early-- he has an absurdly long race tomorrow morning, after all! Since I am a slothful layabout, I wandered around Temple Bar for a while, ate some gelato, and then embarked on my quest for internet before ending up here. Tomorrow, I will cheer him on with the wives/girlfriends of a couple other marathon runners from his team, before heading back to Galway in the evening. (I have class Tuesday morning.) Tuesday afternoon, Alex will be coming over to Galway and staying with me for a few days! I'm sure a lot of shenanigans will ensue. Fun times ahead!




1: I use the term "cousin" here rather loosely, as the the custom among the Zachary family. Our family tree would give Gregor Mendel² headaches, so we just tend to call everyone who isn't in your immediate family "cousin." Alex, in this case, is actually my father's first cousin, but is much closer to my age. Also my godfather.

2: Oh yeah, I went there. Nerdy references FTW.

Maybe I should change it to "updates bi-monthly"

Hoo boy, have I been busy.

Let's see, since we last talked, there have really been two big events in my life.

-My mom's surprise birthday party! My mother turned sixty on October 10, and to surprise her, my father took her down to Chicago for the weekend. Upon checking into the hotel, he called down for room service. When the knock came at the door, mom opened it... to find Hanna and I! We all screamed, mom almost fainted, and then Jim handed dad the champagne. :-) My dad throws great surprises. He bought flights for Hanna and I back in June, and had Jim reserve the hotel in advance so Mom wouldn't see it on the credit card bill. Hanna and I stayed at Jim's apartment, and we spent all weekend hanging out as a family. We did a bit of shopping and a lot of eating at delicious restaurants. I have some great new ideas for food that I want to try out, including basil pesto hollandaise (over salmon, perhaps) and sweet rosemary cream reduction (over french toast or waffles.) It was wonderful to see the family, to spend time with my parents and sister and Jim. ♥

-I moved! (In which our heroine Gets Her Own Place.) This past weekend, I moved into my new apartment. I've only lived there two days, but I love it. I love the cute cozy space, I love the location, and I love love love living alone. I feel so much happier, freer, and generally more comfortable than I have since... well, since moving out of my old single dorm room. The apartment is small-ish, but not claustrophobic (like some places I looked at), which is fine-- there is enough room for all my things, including a place for my books, and a smaller space means less heating costs. It's one floor up, so there is less noise from the street and hopefully less bugs. Inasmuch as a city as small as Galway can have "districts," it's in the more artsy bohemian district. The only downside is that it doesn't have internet yet-- I'm currently writing this from my cubicle at the college-- but I'm looking into that and should have the router ordered by next week. In the meantime, I can check my email and whatnot here at school.

Upcoming events in ayla's life: this weekend, my cousin Alex is arriving in Dublin! He is running in the Dublin Marathon on Monday 27 October, because he's crazy, and then will be spending a few days in Galway, crashing on the futon at my new apartment! (Yes, I have a futon in the living room!) I will be heading to Dublin on Sunday, likely with a friend or two, and staying over to watch Alex run in the marathon. How exciting!

Indecision 2008 (Or, Vote for Tim!)

Sorry for the deluge of posts, but something even more interesting today happened, and I felt I should share.

I got my absentee ballot in the mail today! (I get to vote before you, nyah nyah!) This is what an absentee voter looks like:


I very glad that I'm voting absentee, actually-- I've been so out of touch with Michigan and Ottawa County that I was surprised by a number of things on the ballot. There are medical marijuana and stem cell research initiatives! Though, if Michigan ("The State That Banned Gay Marriage and Only Votes Democratic Because of the Labor Unions") passes a medical marijuana bill, I will be very shocked. Pleasantly so, but still. Also, it looks like Ottawa County is FINALLY trying to get rid of that "no beer or wine sold on Sundays" crap. (But liquor is ok. If they keep it, come Christmas break I'm going to go to a restaurant on a Sunday and order a glass of wine. When the server informs me that, sorry, can't sell beer or wine on Sunday, I'll say "Right then! Five tequila shooters. Line 'em up.")

Anyway. The most surprising thing I found on the ballot would have to be this:
(Click to enlarge)


Tim Winslow? As in, Tim Winslow, Spring Lake High School class of 1999, who sat next to me in band? Yep. According to timwinslow.com won the primary on 5 August.

So, Tim Winslow officially has my endorsement for state rep! Vote for Tim!

(Man. You think you start feeling old when your friends are getting married and having babies? Try when people you went to high school with are running for government offices.)

What I've been up to, part 3: social life

(In which our heroine makes new friends and says goodbye to old ones.)

On Saturday 27 October, I went to Dublin for a concert. I was seeing Amanda Palmer of the Dresden Dolls, who has just released a mighty fine solo album. I went alone, not having any friends here that listen to her music. I was a little nervous about this, because I've never been to a concert alone, but I know Dublin pretty well and I was confident that I could find ways to entertain myself. I took the train down to Dublin on Saturday afternoon and booked a hostel near the venue. I hadn't made hostel reservations in advance, so it actually took a couple tries before I found one with vacancies. Citi Hostel had availability, though, and it was only €15 a night! (Most Dublin hostels are at least €25/night.) I'll just say this: you get what you pay for. It was the sketchiest, dirtiest hostel I've ever seen in... but, it had beds and a roof, so really what else do you need for one night.

Anyway, I went down to the venue about an hour before the doors opened, and right away made a friend in the queue! I was standing right behind a nice young (18-year-old) Welsh guy named Dominic, and we struck up conversation almost immediately. He too was there alone-- he had friends who originally were going to come, but then backed out at the last minute. We chatted for the hour before the doors opened, and then we became concert buddies, finding places to stand together-- there were no seats, just open standing room. Dominic, as it turns out, was doing a guest DJ set at a goth club after the show... and that club was right around the corner from my hostel! After we'd been chatting for a while, he invited me to the club. I accepted, figuring that since it was so close to my hostel, if it was boring or he got creepy, I could just leave without a problem. As it happens, it wasn't boring at all and he was a perfect gentleman, so we had a fun time chatting and dancing all evening. And now I have a friend who lives in Waterford!

Anyway, as for the concert itself... holy crap.


It was one of the greatest concerts I have ever seen. She just put out a solo album, called Who Killed Amanda Palmer?, and the whole premise of the show was that Amanda Palmer has been killed and this was a wake. There was an emcee who announced the opening acts, saying things like "We are gathered on this sad occasion to mourn the passing of our dear friend..." There was a table onstage with wine bottles surrounding a framed photo of Amanda, and both openers kept up the wake idea, dedicating songs to Amanda's memory. The first opener was a badass cellist called Zoë Keating, who played beautiful haunting instrumental cello pieces, and the second was a guy called Jason Webley. Jason Webley plays the accordion and sometimes guitar, and reminds me of a cross between Tom Waits in weirdo-mode and a crazy homeless man. (I loved him.) After the openers, the emcee made another speech, eulogizing Amanda Palmer, with a background of eerie violin and cello music, while the backup crew did slow interpretative dancing.

My attention was fixed on the emcee saying "But her spirit will always be with us, and perhaps if we all concentrate she will one day appear among us again..." when I felt hands touching my back and arm. I turned to see a ghostly, ethereal female figure, a gray lace veil covering her to the waist and a gray ruffled skirt trailing behind her. She moved slowly and silently through the crowd, between Dominic and I. We both stared, and then Dom whispered "Hi Amanda!" After she had vanished between the people ahead of us, Dominic and I looked at each other, identical giddy looks on our faces, and shared a moment of fangirly glee, pointing and mouthing "Amanda Palmer touched me!" and suppressing uncontrollable giggles. I would like to reiterate that: Amanda Palmer touched me! She made her way like to the front of the crowd, while the haunting violin-cello music played and her crew did their slow dancing. When she got to the foot of the stage, the crew reached down, pulled her up, lifted her over the piano, and set her on the bench. Then she ripped off the veil, flung it behind her, and began jamming on the piano. Best. Entrance. Ever.

The whole show was wonderful. She is an amazing performer with an absolutely mesmerizing stage presence. She played "I Google You," a song that (my favorite writer) Neil Gaiman wrote for her! The last song she did was "Umbrella"-- yes, the Rhianna song-- and she played a sparkly pink ukulele; then, for the encore, the openers came back on with her and they played Bon Jovi's "Livin' On a Prayer." Hilarious. Someone has kindly put together a youtube video with clips of the performance, so you can see bits of the whole show, including her fantastic entrance.


I returned to Galway the next afternoon, with just enough time to eat dinner before going out again. One of my great friends here, Meg Ryan (no relation) moved back to New York on Tuesday 30 September, so she, Jenn, and I decided to do a pub crawl before she left. We only went to about five or six places, and it was a pretty early night, but I did go to some pubs I'd never seen. The next night, Monday, I went over to Jenn and Meg's apartment (now Jenn and Bri's apartment) for dinner and movies and hanging out one last time. Meg made meatloaf and veggies, then we made caramel popcorn together for desert. The whole evening was full of loud jokes and rather edgy laughter. We were having fun, true, but the whole time we were fully conscious that Meg was leaving the next morning. Sure enough, saying goodbye was very, very sad, and we both were on the verge of tears when I finally left after midnight.

Meg is now back in Rochester, looking for jobs. I'm hoping that I'll be able to visit her sometime in the next year, perhaps next summer. Because when your friends and family get scattered to the winds, it's just an excuse to travel and see them.

What I've been up to, part 2: adventures in registration

(In which our heroine fails to pull one over on the Gardaí)

So, it's that time of year again, when I need to register with the Irish government as a legal alien. Last year, the process was fairly painless-- just a lot of waiting in line. I expected this year to be similar.

The only worry I've had about the whole thing is that one of the requirements for registration is health insurance that covers you in Ireland. Well, I'm an American in her mid-twenties, too old to be on her parents insurance, without a job that would provide it, and poor. Of course I don't have any health insurance! What I do have is my old insurance card-- expired, but nothing on the card indicates this. And last year, it worked just fine, and I was able to register.*

Well, this year, I once again gathered my registration materials (plus a book to read) and headed to the Garda National Immigration Bureau office at the buttcrack of dawn. Waited in line for two-and-a-half hours, alternately reading and dozing. Finally, when my number was called, I handed the stack of papers to the Garda. He looked at them all, and then picked up the insurance card. He stared at it so long I began to get worried, turning it over and over, and finally said "There's nothing on here that indicates that you're covered in Ireland."

Crap. I'm not, of course. I'm not even covered in the 'States. So it looks like my clever ruse didn't work this year. Disheartened, I went home and looked up insurance policies online. I can get a basic policy for €40 a month, which isn't too bad, so I bought that online on Saturday (after depositing my stipend check). Now, I just need to wait until the card comes in the mail, and I'll be able to go back and register-- with real health insurance this time. If money gets too tight later on, I can always cancel it, and then buy a policy again when registration time rolls around next year.





*NB: I know why insurance is required-- Ireland has socialized medicine, with great medical services for anyone who needs them. In return, however, EU citizens pay taxes toward this service. Understandably, they don't want people who don't pay EU taxes to take advantage of the medical care they haven't paid for. I am entirely sympathetic to this. However, I can count the number of times I've been sick enough to need a doctor on one hand, if we discount high school sports injuries. I'm a pretty healthy, resilient person, so I have no intention of ever needing to use the hospital services here.

What I've been up to, part 1: Money makes the world go 'round

(In which our heroine might have the best advisor ever.)

Sorry I've been so absent from the blogosphere! I started PhD school last week, and things have been a little bit busy since then. So I'm updating this in three parts. Part the first: Money matters.

I met with my supervisor, Dr. Lionel Pilkington, on Friday 26 September, ostensibly to set out a course for my PhD work for this semester. We did that-- I'm spending now until Christmas reading all that I can-- and then I mentioned that I was worried about not getting my first stipend payment on time; it was supposed to come that day. At this point, I hadn't gone to the bank to check if it had come (it's a direct deposit) so I wasn't sure if it had or not. Lionel immediately started to get nervous, especially when I mentioned that I won't be able to pay my rent next week if it didn't come, and asked that I come back and let him know whether or not the stipend came through. I went down, checked, and found-- nope, it hadn't come through. Crap. So I went back and told Lionel. He immediately got on the phone with the department secretary, who informed him that, for unknown reasons, everyone except me got their payment. Lionel got very upset about this, calling it a disgraceful and unconscionable situation. I won't go into details, but he spent the next twenty minutes making phone calls and running from office to office.

The end result: I got my stipend check the following Friday, and until then he got me €150 out of the English department petty cash to live on! He was also very concerned that this wouldn't be enough to tide me over, and told me a couple times that if I need more, just go back to the secretary and she'd fork over some more cash for me. (I have to pay it back, of course.)

What an awesome guy! I was incredibly grateful that he immediately went to bat for me like that, jumping out of his way to help me. So I have a supervisor who is passionate about my project, who for some reason is very impressed by my work and believes in me, AND is willing to come to my rescue when I'm having difficulty with the school. What more could I ask for in an advisor?

So I picked up the check on Friday 3 October. They issued it as a check instead of a direct deposit because, theoretically, I should have been able to withdraw from it right away. I took it to the bank, set up a wire transfer to my American bank account (long story involving an overdraft, which should now be taken care of), and asked if I could withdraw from the check. "In an hour or two," was the reply. Ok, I could live with that. But about 6 hours later, I tried to take money out, and the check hadn't cleared yet. It hadn't cleared on Saturday at noon, and now it hasn't cleared yet, 72 hours after depositing it. I'm beginning to be worried that it won't clear for five business days, which is what normally happens with checks here, which will mean that I won't be able to pay my rent until this weekend-- a week and a half late. (Luckily, Julie is very flexible about that sort of thing.) There is, of course, more petty cash available for my living expenses, but still. Uncool.

I really hope that whoever made the mistake-- and last I checked, no one can figure out who to blame-- has straightened things out, and this doesn't happen every month.

A wedding? I love weddings!

Back in Galway. And man, I have had a weekend.

Firstly, and most importantly-- my good friend/former roommate Cary is married! The ceremony was lovely and simple, in a beautiful park in the morning. (I had been grumping about that, actually-- "Why the hell would you get married at 10:30 in the morning?!"-- because it meant I had to get up way too early in order to get ready, but then I saw the park at 10:30 in the morning, and how gorgeous everything was, and I understood.) There were a few snags, of course, one of which will be detailed below, but overall the whole thing was wonderful. (They got married. Beyond that, what really matters?)


The less fun parts of the weekend were in getting there, and, to an extent, getting back.

I missed my flight on Thursday morning. This is entirely due to the bus, and makes the second time that public transport has caused me to miss a flight. The bus schedule online said that it should get to the airport around 9:40 (a three-hour trip)-- for an 11:10 flight, I figured that was kind of tight but I have never taken more than 30 minutes to get checked in and through security at the Dublin airport. Well, the bus actually got there at 11:10 (almost a 5-hour trip). Yeah. I ran around the airport panicking for a while, asked about ticket prices-- my flight, being international, was an "unchangeable ticket" according to the airline (KLM Royal Dutch) so I couldn't just change it for a small fee. I was starting to think that I would miss the wedding entirely, and I called my mom, crying and incoherent. Called collect, actually, because I was/am broke. My mother, being wonderful, calmly told me to find the next one-way flight and gave me her credit card number. (Bless her!) So I got a flight for the next morning.

Of course, now I had twenty-two hours until that flight, and no money. I had €20 that I was planning on using for groceries when I got back. So I found a comfy chair, bought some cheap food with my grocery money, and hunkered down to spend the night in an airport. Luckily I had two books with me. Unluckily they were the second and third Harry Potter books, so I finished them both before the sun rose. Luckily I had put a season of Scrubs on my iPod, so I had that to watch. Unluckily watching videos drains the batteries, so I only killed about an hour and a half doing that before it ran out. I slept a little, but not too well-- especially when, at about 04:30, an airport employee came by and woke up all of us (by this point there were a lot of people camped out in the same area, presumably with early flights) and saying "No sleeping!" Um, ok. My flight wasn't for six more hours and I had no money for a hotel. Where do you expect me to go and/or what do you expect me to do? So I pulled out my book, knowing that I would fall asleep while reading it but figuring that at least it wouldn't look deliberate.

The upshot to all of this was that I flew in to Chicago, and Jim picked me up! ♥ Then we drove straight to Ann Arbor. This is a five hour drive, which would be sucky except that meant that I got an extra five hours to hang out with my love.


My travels yesterday were not nearly as disastrous, but were still definitely annoying. My flight was from Detroit at 4:15 pm, but Jim, my ride to the airport, had to make the five-plus hour drive back to Chicago, so he dropped me off around 11:00. So that was another five hours to sit around an airport. Then it was a short flight to Atlanta, and a two-hour layover before flying to Dublin. Supposedly a two-hour layover, that is. The flight to Dublin was for 8:25 pm. At 8:20, there came an announcement that the flight had been moved to a different gate, at the absolute opposite end of the airport. So two hundred-odd passengers had to schlep across to the new gate. Then boarding was delayed, for reasons that were never totally explained, for another hour and a half. Then, when we finally got on the plane at 10:00, there was a problem with a door not being shut correctly, so that took another half hour to fix. Oy.

After that, no problems, other than getting to Dublin two hours later than planned. Luckily there are lots of buses between Dublin and Galway, which took four hours this time, getting me back at 5:00 this afternoon. Yes, that is more than twenty-four hours of travel.

Oh well. I made it both ways in one piece, and was there in time for the wedding, which is all that really matters.

(almost) back to school

Raise your hand if you completely forgot to update your 'blog yesterday?

*raises hand*

Ah well. I wouldn't have had anything to say yesterday anyway, because I spent last week-- my week off-- in complete indolent laziness. (Read: playing World of Warcraft.) But today, I registered for school! Which is another illustration of the difference between schools in Ireland and in America: in the U.S., you would usually register in April for a term that starts in September. In Ireland, you register the week before-- or, in my case last year, three weeks after-- classes start.

There were some Adventures in Bureaucracy involved in registering, of course. Basically, my registration path should have gone: Moore Institute-->Registration. Instead, it went more like this:
Moore Institute-->Registration-->Fees Office-->Moore Institute-->Fees Office-->Registration

Ah well. I am registered for college, my tuition fees are paid (thank you, stipend!), and I have a new student ID. It looks exactly like my old student ID except for the expiration date. I also chose classes! Last year, for my MA, the courses were all the same for everyone, but since everyone in the Texts, Contexts & Cultures (hereafter referred to as TCC) PhD is working on a different project, there are two required courses and a choice of two out of several optional courses. So my courses are:
-Imaging Ireland (required)
-Research (required)
-Studies in the History of Colonialism and Imperialism 1 (elective)
-Colonialism in 20th Century Cultural Theory (elective)

What the hours will be, of course, is anyone's guess.


Other news: I will not be updating this weekend, because I will be in America this weekend! I will be in Ann Arbor, Michigan, as a bridesmaid in my friend Cary's wedding! How exciting! Additional excitement: seeing my parents, seeing my bestest best friend in the whole wide world (Neil), spending not one but two nights with my wedding date Jim. Hopefully I'll have pictures on my return!

Submission accomplished!

That is three copies of a finished Master's Thesis, one hardback and two soft, bound and submitted.

Yeah, it's good to be done. ^_^

Now, I have three weeks until my PhD courses start! Free time? What the hell am I supposed to do with that?

Crap, it's almost September?!

Tomorrow is September 1. There are pros and cons to this.
Pro: My PhD funding kicks in at the end of September! If all goes according to plan I should get my first monthly stipend on Sept. 26.
Con: My MA thesis is due Sept. 5. Cue panic.

Actually all I have to do is write a solid conclusion, and that shouldn't take too long. (Shouldn't, but has... I've been trying to write it all weekend.) Then get it bound, and then hand the dang thing in!

So back to it. To apologize for this terse update, I offer this: a sample of my favorite comic, Piled Higher and Deeper.
(Click for full-size.)

It's a comic about grad school! And, for a bonus, one that is extra-relevant for me right now...

Required Reading

I didn't post Sunday, so I'm posting now to make up for it. Busy days. Lorenzo is here, and I'm finishing my thesis, so I've pretty much just been in a mad rush. It's of course terrible timing to have a guest, but Lorenzo is also a great traveler and explorer-- a few times he has just decided to go wander around Galway by himself, shopping and looking around, to give me some time to work. This weekend, he did the Cliffs of Moher/Burren day tour, and right now he is off to the Aran Islands. He is spending the night there, which is cool, and also gives me some time to work. It has been quite nice having him here, of course, even though I'm busy-- it forces me to get out of the house and enjoy some of the fun things Galway has to offer. (Last night, we went to a trad session at my favorite pub. I had missed it.)

So in lieu of any real news or updates, I offer you some educational reading and viewing materials.


Early Christian same-sex marriage ceremonies. Contrary to what some conservatives would have us believe, the "institution of marriage" has definitely changed quite a bit over the last thousand years or so. Not only were same-sex unions tolerated, they were actually sanctified, and the article shows an icon of the wedding of St. Sergius and St. Bacchus, with Christ looking on as the best man. Awesome. If I ever marry a woman, I am totally using one of the early Christian same-sex marriage rites.


Less serious but no less interesting is possibly my new Favorite Thing Ever: Drunk History.

People who are passionate about history get drunk and then explain an historical event. Actors (such as Michael Cera or Jack Black!) then re-enact the event, very literally, based on the (often somewhat confused and slurred) narration. The rest can be found here-- but be warned, the second video features some rather gratuitous vomiting.

So, it's, uh, been a while...

Man, I'm sorry about the scarcity of updates lately! I was in the 'States until 4 August, and I left my laptop's cord at Jim's apartment so I couldn't use it until this past Tuesday.

The vacation was absolutely lovely, though it went by much too quickly. I felt like I was constantly rushing from one place to another, and I only had about two days where I got to just lay around and enjoy the break. It was wonderful to see my family, and my friends, and to see Jim. It was also really, really cool to visit Washington D.C.-- I had never been there, and I hadn't seen Curtis in about a year and a half.

So now that I'm back, what have I been doing? Answer: writing my thesis. It is due September 5, and I have to have it done by September 1 or so. Eeek. If I miss some updates in the coming weeks, that is why. I'm sort of in the middle of a controlled panic about it. It will get done, one way or another, I know. But right now it looks rather insurmountable.

Also: My buddy Lorenzo is visiting this week! He arrives on Thursday. I told him that I will be too busy to spend much time with him, and he is happy with that-- he will spend most of his twoish weeks traveling around Ireland, and is only going to spend the first few days and the last few days of his trip at my place. I'm sure it will be fun, even if I can't be as entertaining a host as I would like.

Oh, you want to see some pictures from my vacation? Well, I suppose.

The Chicago skyline-- waiting for the Blue Line.


Me and my mommy!


Dad and I, modeling the sonic screwdriver and the laser screwdriver. (My parents got me Doctor Who children's toys for my birthday. They totally enable my nerdiness!)


The iconic Washington D.C. picture.


The Lincoln Memorial.


My man Abe.


The World War 2 memorial.


The Hope Diamond!


Looking down the street to the National Gallery, with the Navy Memorial in the foreground. (Taken, I believe, at the back of the National Archives?)


The Capitol Building! Fun fact: "Capitol Hill" is not in fact a metaphor, and when you've been walking around for three hours in 80some degree sunshine, that hill is very very tall.


The Library of Congress! This was my favorite part of the D.C. tour.


Inside the Library of Congress-- and I thought the National Library of Ireland was beautiful! The Library of Congress looks like a Byzantine cathedral inside, and for me it might as well be. I would love to do some research there...


Curtis and I, dressed up for a play. (Proof that I can clean up when I want to!) I think we look much better in sepia. He took me to see Moliere's The Imaginary Invalid, which was just wonderful. Also, we rode the subway to downtown Washington D.C., dressed like that. It was great.

Where does the time go?

Wait, it's mid-July already? How did that happen?

Well, that means that, by this time next week, I'll be in Michigan! On Thursday, actually, I am flying back to the 'states for a two-and-a-bit week vacation.

It is sorely needed by this point. I have been missing my family, and friends back home, quite a bit lately-- actively missing, not just that background not-really-conscious missing that goes on most of the time. I'm also starting to get a bit burned out with working on my thesis. I feel like it will be good to take a break, and then I'll be able to come back to it with renewed motivation.

My rough itinerary:
17-19 July: Chicago, staying with Jim and Megan.
19-27 July: Michigan! Harmony and Adrian's wedding, spending time with the fambly (especially my sisty!), a visit to Lansing, sixth annual Pirate Party.
27-31 July: Chicago, back at el apartamento de Megan y Jim.
31 July-3 August: Washington D.C., staying with Curtis.

I'm not sure if I'll have a chance to update until I get back. After all, like I said around Christmastime, this is a 'blog about Ayla in Ireland, not Ayla in Michigan. Or even D.C.

Before I go, though, I have quite a bit of work to do around here. I have a lot of writing to get done for Lionel before I go, not to mention laundry and packing for my trip!

Leabharlann Naísíunta na hEireann

Did I completely forget to post on Sunday? I guess I did! Oops. I slept in, and then watched the Doctor Who series finale. It was 65 minutes long and had some awesome moments, some heartwarming beautiful moments, and some absolutely heartbreakingly sad moments. So there is my excuse. :-P

(I hope you appreciate the fact that I generally keep this 'blog fairly on-topic, regarding my adventures in Ireland. Because I could very easily write nothing but reviews of Doctor Who episodes, with perhaps the occasional Smallville review thrown in there.)


Anyway. Last week, I was in Dublin researching! There is very little to tell, actually-- as my friend Quincy once put it, "my life is very busy, but not very anecdotally rich." I was there from Monday to Thursday, though I didn't get to the Library until Tuesday morning. I spent seven hours at the library on Tuesday, seven hours there on Wednesday, and about three hours there in the morning on Thursday. I would get to the library when it opened at 9:30, after stopping at Butler's for a coffee (and a free chocolate truffle!), and work until lunchtime. I would go get a sandwich at a café somewhere, reading the paper or maybe my notes from the morning, and then go back and work again until dinnertime. All I did was read old books, take notes on them, and think about them. It was great. I really do enjoy just diving in to a pile of literature and seeing what ideas and themes come to the surface. Long and uninteresting story short, I am much closer to having an actual focus for my thesis. I am pretty sure it's going to look at the way the British legal system is represented in Whitbread's dramas. I haven't found anything in the critical literature that really deals with this theme, and I think it's a pretty important one. Exciting stuff! (To me, anyway.)

I met with Lionel this morning-- bumped into him, actually, as I was drinking my traditional cup of coffee outside the library. We talked about my work in the library, I showed him my photocopies and some of my notes, and he was very excited by this idea. I am incredibly lucky, I think, to have an advisor that is so enthusiastic about my work and believes in me so much. Especially since I'll be working with him for the next four or five years!

I related to him my experience, how my library days were the sort where I would spend five hours sitting at a desk before realizing I should probably go eat something. Lionel smiled at me and said "You're going to have to write your parents and tell them 'I've found my vocation. I'm *sigh* an academic!'" I replied, "I think they've been expecting that for a while."

Updatin'

I'm updating Saturday night, rather than Sunday. 'Cause, why not?

-I have a new roommate! That happened very fast. Julie put an ad online on Thursday morning, listing my number as she left later that day for her two-week vacation to Florida. I got three phone calls on Thursday and one on Friday from people wanting to see the place! One girl came by Thursday night, and one guy came by Friday afternoon, and the other two never showed even though I invited them to come see the place. Julie had expressed a preference for a male roommate, but I wasn't going to let that be the deciding factor-- I really did like the girl that saw the place. But she was concerned about parking (there is only one spot, and it's Julie's) and wasn't sure when she could move in. The guy, Mathias, loved the place-- when he saw the room, he exclaimed "It's huge!" (In my head, I thought "Really?" Because it's, by far, the smallest room-- mine is significantly bigger, and has about four times the storage space. Julie's is bigger yet, and she has a huge closet. But I wasn't about to point that out.) Mhairi moved out today, and he was available to move in today, and was able to pay the deposit right away. So, new roomie! Mathias is German, probably in his late 20's, and works at a software company in Galway. He is very friendly and kind of nerdy. I think we'll get along fine.


-In the past week, I received my travel bursary AND got paid for invigilating! Finally. So, next week, I am going to Dublin for research. I am taking the train down Monday afternoon, staying in a hostel for three or four nights, and I'll be spending my days at the National Library of Ireland reading hundred-year-old plays. I'm quite excited to be getting on with original research. And, also, to spend time in Dublin. The hostel where I'm staying, Avalon House, looks very nice and comes highly recommended by my friend Meredith. I'm even hoping to do a little shopping while I'm there. I really do love Dublin. Even though I only lived there for not-quite-three months, I really felt a connection to the city that I haven't felt in many places-- certainly no other major urban centers.


-Also in the past week, I said goodbye to my friends Meredith and Beth, both of whom moved back to the 'States. I miss them already-- our little group, "the girls," isn't the same with just the three of us. Still, I have high hopes and half-baked plans to visit Meredith in Brooklyn sometime in the not-so-distant future. Beth lives in Minnesota, and I don't care so much to visit a state that is like Michigan only colder, but maybe we can meet up sometime in Chicago.

Easy come, easy go

It is officially summer. And yesterday was overcast and rainy and autumnal all day long, and today it's sunnier but I'm still wearing a sweater. Ah, Ireland.

Two of my friends-- Beth and Meredith-- are leaving this week. Meredith, originally from Boston, figured out that all the books she needs to finish writing her thesis are at the Boston College library. She also has a good job and a good boyfriend waiting back in the 'States, so she'll be moving back and submitting her thesis through the mail. Beth, on the other hand, is just plain insane-- she is done with the first draft of her thesis! She just needs to revise it. (Just so you know, I am considered to be ahead of the game because I have one chapter [out of about five] finished.) She is eager to get back to her family and find a job, so she'll be heading back to Minnesota.

Because of this, the last week and a half has been full of socializing. We've been going out a lot and just generally spending a lot of time with "the girls"-- Jenn, Meg, Meredith, Beth, and myself. Last night, I hosted a dinner party! It was quite lovely, just us sitting around the table drinking wine and eating delicious food. (I made my favorite pasta dish, Meredith made some amazing teriyaki chicken, Jenn brought mashed potatoes, and Beth brought chocolate pudding. Yum.) I really am a good cook, and it's nice to be able to cook for other people sometimes.

Today, we had a big "swap meet," as I called it. Meredith brought over a few bags of clothes to Beth's house, where Beth had large piles of her own, to give away. Both of them have more things than space in their suitcases, and are planning on giving a lot of things to charity shops, but they gave us first pick. I scored three large shopping bags full of things like clothing and office supplies and bread pans. Nice.


The leaving-town bug must be contagious, because I found out yesterday that Mhairi¹ is moving out! She has some family issues going on back in Australia, so she's leaving to be with them on July 1. (So we're now looking for another roomie. Anyone know someone who needs a place to live in Galway?) Julie will be gone for the next two and a half weeks, too-- she'll be traveling for work this week, and then on Thursday she's going to the 'States for two weeks to visit her fiancé. It will be rather nice to have the place to myself, I'm not going to lie... but I'll also have to take calls and (hopefully!) applicants to look at the place. And I'll (hopefully!) be busy working on my thesis. Ah, life.


As much as I miss my family, it is nice to know that I have a place to live and a life laid out in front of me for the next four years. I really do love adventure and travel, but I also definitely crave that sort of stability.




1: My third roommate was originally introduced to me as "Mary." I'm not sure if that's a nickname version of her name or what, but she goes by Mhairi, which I saw on an envelope for her once. It sounds like "varry," rhyming with "starry."

Happy father's day!

Instead of a card, I decided to make a little video to express father's day wishes for my dad. Because I'm both creative and cheap.



Right now, my family is having a bit of a barbecue. Lots of my extended family is all gathered together eating grilled food, and I miss them.

(Really, twice a year is not often enough to see one's family.)

from a sunny Sunday in Galway

You know, even though it is generally a bit annoying to have a washing machine but not a dryer, there is something about the sight of clean sheets hanging on a line in the sunshine and blowing in the wind that makes me feel happy and summery and domestic.


In other news...

This week, I finished the first (draft of the first) chapter of my MA thesis! Yay! It's twenty-two pages long, 5,600 words, and as such is about a quarter of the required length. You know, 20,000 words sounded like a lot, but if I can write 25% of that without doing any original research, I have a feeling it will go by pretty quickly.

Anyway, it's more or less a literature review. I read about nine or ten books that are either directly or indirectly related to my topic and then wrote reviews of them, focusing on how they would be useful to me and pointing out areas where research hasn't been done-- basically, finding blanks for me to fill in.

Now, I can't really do any more for the thesis until I can go to Dublin for research. There are four Whitbread manuscripts at the National Library of Ireland, so I'll need to go there and read them, taking extensive notes. To do that, I will need to either get the money I applied for in my travel bursary or get paid for invigilating, so I can afford to spend five days in Dublin! Nessa gave me train tickets already-- apparently the Centre for Irish Studies has a stack of Galway-Dublin train tickets on hand for students who need to go there for research! So that is €30 saved already, but I still need funding for hostels and food.

It's cool, though, that the school will pay for me to do things like that. I mentioned to my adviser, Dr. Lionel Pilkington, that there are nine more Whitbread manuscripts at the British Library, but that I doubted I could get funding for two weeks in London for a MA project. He said "Well, you'll be doing plenty of that next year!" Awesome.


Oh, and if you like absurdism and dark humor, check out Blackpool. It's a BBC miniseries, with the Doctor David Tennant. I watched the first episode last night and I'm hooked.

This Tuesday morning, coming at you LIVE from the James L. Hardiman library!

Am I a bad female scholar, in that I'm not particularly interested in feminist criticism? Seriously, being both a woman and literary scholar, I sometimes feel like I'm almost expected to be fixated on the representation of women in whatever text I'm looking at. But I really, honestly, don't care... not that I don't think it's an important area, just that it's not my thing. That and it's really been done to death. Postcolonial theory, that's where it's at.


(NB: Remember I don't mean any sort of political¹ meaning of the word "feminist." In literary criticism, it simply means "looking at the way women are represented.")




1: That is, insofar as anything to do with literature can be apolitical.

workin' hard (and/or hardly working)

We have a new roommate! A lovely young lady named Mary has moved in. She's from Australia and is a friend of Julia's, and she's really nice. Also, she has five tattoos... so now there are three dark-haired tattooed women living at 6 Earls Island.

This week has been almost entirely devoted to working on the first chapter of my thesis. With the exception of seeing the new Indiana Jones film on Tuesday, going out dancing on Thursday night, and spending much of Saturday reading for enjoyment and watching old episodes of Doctor Who (hey, I have to get something out of the weekend), I have spent most of the week at the library, reading and writing. (I have about 13 or 14 pages so far, and the chapter is about half done, I'd say.)

Today, it was gorgeous outside, hot and sunny, so for most of the early afternoon Julie and I laid out in the garden in our bathing suits, enjoying the sunshine. I took the time to work on my thesis some more, bringing my laptop outside. (And I discovered that the wireless signal is just as strong out there as it is in my room!) After getting too hot, I went and sat at Java's for a couple hours, where I got a pot of tea and worked on my thesis a bit more.

Things learned today:
-Stephen Watt is one of the best critical writers on Irish melodrama.
-My favorite black tea is Assam.

lazy sunday

It actually hasn't been that lazy, really...

I was awoken this morning by crows outside my window, as I am most mornings. I made some eggs and toast and tea, my normal breakfast, and while I was eating it my housemate came in and said "I'm going to have to ask you to make yourself scarce in about ten minutes!" She works from home and was meeting with a client, and understandably didn't want me underfoot. So I finished up, threw my laptop in my backpack, and headed out. Originally my idea was to find a coffee shop and get some work done, but after walking past two I decided just to meander about for a while.

I walked past the market and across Bridge Street. At the bottom of Dominick street, I could smell the sea on the wind, so I followed it down to the Claddagh. I walked out to the end of the walkway and sat on the wall, with my feet dangling over, listening to music and watching the gulls diving into the bay. I probably sat there, watching the sea and smelling the air and feeling the wind in my hair, for almost half an hour, before my hands started to get cold.

I walked back, crossed the Wolfe Tone bridge, and wandered through the Docks for a while, before my meanderings took me to Shop Street. As I walked through the pedestrian areas, I passed two friends sitting outside at Neachtain's, the oldest pub in Galway. I chatted with them for a minute before continuing on. I looped back around, crossed the Wolfe Tone Bridge again, walked up Dominick Street, and ran into one of the same friends again. He gave me suggestions for how to kill time, and then I headed back up to Mary Street.

On Mary Street, which is no more than five minutes from my flat, there is a coffee shop that I pass a lot but have never gone into-- I think it's just called "Java." I went in, had a cup of coffee, and updated my CV. (I'm hoping to get a job soon.) After putting the final formatting touches on the CV, and marveling for a moment at the weird job history I have, I put the laptop away, paid for the coffee, and walked back, past my flat to the college. I printed the CV at the library, checked my email using the wireless there, and then headed home.

... And that's been my day! This week has been far more interesting than that, really-- two poetry readings, a great concert, new friends, &c.-- but readers of the 'blog are surely quite familiar with my tales of indie bands at the Crane and poetry jams at Sheridan's and don't really need to read another.

something a bit different...

I should change the update schedule for this 'blog dealy-bopper from "updates Sundays" to "updates sometimes," shouldn't I? And once again, I have no excuse for not updating yesterday except laziness. (After a busy week and an eventful weekend, I spent the day watching old episodes of Doctor Who and Torchwood and crocheting a new scarf. It was lazy and lovely.)

So, to make up for it, I have something a little different for all (both?) of my faithful readers: a walking tour of my apartment!



(Because what's the point of having a mac if I don't use it to make silly little videos?)

Enjoy! ^_^

New apartment!

... aaaaaand I'm moved in!

My new housemate, Julia, is awesome. She is 33 and has done a bit of everything-- lived in Australia, New Zealand, Europe, and New York City. Now she's a sales executive for a major cleaning company (she said she doesn't deal with contracts less than €2.5 million), as well as being a part-time publicist. She's very laid-back and friendly, outgoing but not a partier (though she does enjoy a drink down at the pub.) She even says she's going to help me find a job; while we were drinking a cup of tea together, she was throwing out ideas of where I could work.

Already I like living with her much more than with Virginie. Virginie was nice, but also kind of weird and annoying, and we never talked-- I think I can count the number of actual conversations we had on one hand. Also, this apartment is just goddamn beautiful. The living/dining/kitchen room is huge-- it's on the ground floor, and right next to the canal-- if I throw a stone out of my window it will land in the water. There's a large (fenced-in) garden outside, and we have a door to it from the living room. Oh, and it's across the street from the cathedral. Lovely.

The only problem I can see so far is that I haven't been able to figure out how to get the wireless internet to work. Julia isn't sure of the password, but she'll ring the internet guy tomorrow if we can't figure it out. Right now, I have my my lappy in the living room with a cat-5 cable plugged into the router-- if all else fails, I have a 50-foot cat-5 cable that we can run to my room. But that would be a little annoying. Anyway, the internet is also fast! What a luxury.

here and gone

Just a quick note-- I'm moving tomorrow!

It came up quite suddenly. On Tuesday, my friend Seanna called me to tell me that she'd moved out of the apartment that I'm moving into. On Thursday, I got the move-out paperwork in the mail from my current building manager. On Friday, I talked to my new housemate Julia, and we decided on Monday at noon. She has a car, so she's going to come pick me up and help me move! That's particularly excellent, because otherwise I'd be paying for a couple cab rides across town.

I packed most of my things today, just leaving the things I'm going to need tomorrow morning. I'm very excited to be away from the outskirts of town and closer to the city centre. The apartment is gorgeous, the rent is reasonable, and the location is ideal-- equidistant between the College and the city centre, and less than a ten-minute walk to either.

It's rather odd, though. I've lived in this apartment for almost nine months, and I can be packed and gone, leaving no sign I was ever here, in a couple hours. I've never quite gotten used to the temporary, semi-nomadic lifestyle that tends to be common to college students. Well, I have four years ahead of me in Galway, and I'm pretty sure I can stay in this new place as long as I want.

Weekend in England

So, this past weekend, I was in Bath, England! I was giving a paper at the Bath Spa University Irish Studies Symposium. Katie O'Driscoll, another girl from my MA, gave a paper as well. Another classmate and friend Grace Shalloo came along for moral support and to sit in the audience and ask intelligent questions. The symposium was very small and informal-- only three universities took part, only about twenty-five people attended, and only six people (two from each school) spoke. The schools involved were our hosts Bath Spa University, University of Lille (in France), and NUI Galway. Lille had the largest representation, bringing along six people who weren't speaking, and Grace, Katie, and I hung out with some of the Lille girls a bit, even going out for a drink with them on Saturday night. All in all, it was a great opportunity. I got to give my first paper, which even though it was such a small venue was still an exciting thing. I met a good number of people from other universities, making some potentially useful contacts. And, of course, I got to go to England! Southern England is beautiful, and the weather was absolutely lovely the whole time.

So here are some pictures! There are many more available here, but I'll give you some of the highlights...


Me lecturing! (And wearing my fancy new suit.)


Katie (left) and Grace (right)-- what a pair of troublemakers!


I had to take this picture for Dad.


To prove I was in England-- me in the Royal Crescent.


Our hotel.


The grounds of Bath Spa University. Fun fact: the land actually belongs to the Duke of Cornwall, otherwise known as the Prince of Wales, otherwise known as Prince Charles. The University pays him a small rent every year to use it.


A cool use for an old fountain.




The Bath Abbey, one of the famous landmarks.


The closest we got to the Roman Baths that gave the city its name. (They were closed when we went.)




The green fields of England, and its dramatically yellow fields of Rapeseed.