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!