I might as well just open a hostel in my living room!

You know, when I look at other 'blogs maintained by other friends, my life just seems plain boring.

"But Ayla," you say, "you live in Ireland! That's a foreign country! Depending on who you ask, it might even be in Europe! How can that fail to be exciting?!"

Well, yes, I live in Ireland, which is a foreign country to an American like me, and may or may not be in Europe. But it is also a fairly prosperous English-speaking first world country. A lot of things are different from the United States, but they're all fairly small things. My overall lifestyle isn't all that exotic-- the biggest differences are things like when I buy cheese, I buy Charleville instead of Sargento brand. (Or, more likely, Dunnes store brand instead of Kroger store brand.) I look "right, left, right" instead of "left, right, left" before crossing the street. And I don't even try to order a whiskey sour, let alone a complicated mixed drink, when I'm in a bar.

Plus, I'm in grad school, and that is pretty much the same everywhere. I sit at my desk, I read books, and I write things. I could really be in any desk in any English-speaking country; the only reason I'm here is that NUIG has the faculty and resources that specialize in what I'm interested in.


Of course, I shouldn't be complaining about my life being boring: my friend Sara was just here for two weeks! As I'm sure I've mentioned before, having visitors is always refreshing, because they get excited about things you take for granted and give you a fresh perspective on your boring ol' life. When Sara was here, we went to the Galway City museum, which I had never done! We also did lots of shopping, ate lots of good food (both in restaurants and home-cooked), and went to a lot of bars. We even went to a club, something I had also hitherto never done in Galway! The verdict: clubs anywhere are overpriced, and the dancing isn't any better than the dancing you'd get at a regular bar. Still, at least now I can say that I've been to one.

Sara had to fly back to Detroit, by way of JFK airport, on September 11. Yeah. I was nervous that she'd have a security nightmare to get through, but she said it wasn't too bad. Though she added that the security personnel looked rather on-edge. She made it back safe and sound, though, which is all that matters.


AND! Speaking of visitors! My cousin Maggie and my aunt Barb are coming to visit me this weekend! Maggie is currently living in St Andrews, Scotland, working at THE golf course as a chef; Aunt Barbie is visiting her there. They decided to take a couple days to come visit me in Galway. They get here on Sunday, and I am super excited, because they are some of my most fun relatives to hang out with. Time to roll out the futon again!

Excelsior!

Well, I am back from my summer vacation in Michigan and Chicago. It was lovely! Beach time, good food and drinks, great friends-- pretty much everything a vacation needs to be.

After I got back, I spent a day getting back on my feet and then jumped back into the swing of things... for about four days. And then...

My friend Sara arrived! She is currently visiting me for the next ten days! Admittedly it would be a little more exciting if I hadn't just seen her two weeks before, but still. I love having friends visit-- it makes me look at my city in a whole new way. Plus, I like it when people stay with me. I'm a person who needs a lot of alone time, and overall I love living by myself, but waking up and having someone to chat with over your morning coffee is something that I miss. And having that kind of companionship, even (especially?) on a temporary basis, is really nice. It's like having a roommate, only without being slowly driven insane! (Well, maybe that's just me.)


Ok, off to exploring and adventure! Excelsior!

Dang, an update

Ooh hey, new layout! I think this is more thematically appropriate, don't you? Also more relevant to my interests, as I have a bit of an obsession with old maps.


Anyway, in case you were wondering-- the road trip was fantastic. I took over 200 pictures, so I'm still kind of sorting through those... someday I'll put 'em up online. There are a lot of gorgeous ones, owing nothing to my skill with a camera and everything to the rugged natural beauty. Anyway, Jenn and I spent our four days hiking, climbing, and/or rambling around on mountains and cliffs in Ulster. It was a wonderful time. Also full of firsts for both of us-- first time renting a car, first time driving on the other side of the road! I was really nervous about driving for the first two days, but by the end of it I was feeling confident and enjoying myself a lot.


Since getting back, it's mostly been business as usual. My friend Quincy, who lives in New York City, was visiting Galway this weekend, so I spent some time hanging out with him. And my friend Jenn broke up with her boyfriend on Sunday, so I spent some time hanging out with and consoling her. Tomorrow I'm going to a symposium (ie, two lectures, some discussion, and then dinner with bigwigs, with a liberal sprinkling of schmoozing throughout) on Imperialism and Media. This weekend, I'm helping out with a conference ("Empire and Education") at the college-- registering attendees, setting up rooms, directing visitors to the College Bar, etc. Grunt work, but that's what being a grad student is all about, really. After that, back to business until the end of July...

no rest for the wicked, eh?

Busy, busy, busy! Rush rush rush!

The visit from my beautiful and talented mother and sister was fantastic. We saw the sights in Galway, did some shopping, spent a couple days in Dublin, and ate at lots of delicious restaurants. I didn't take a single picture, because they had their cameras out constantly, but believe me when I say we had lots of fun.

This weekend, I am off to Letterfrack, a little town in Connemara about an hourish west of Galway. I'm going with the NUI Galway Orchestra-- we're going off for a weekend of practicing and drinking bonding, since we have a couple concerts coming up. I will bring my camera to that, though I'm not sure if I'll get many photo ops. We're leaving tonight after dark (7pm) and spending all day tomorrow practicing, so I doubt I'll have much chance to take pictures of the rugged Connemara landscape. Still, should be a good time! It's always fun to hang out with the orchestra.

fambly!

My mother and sister are visiting me... tomorrow! Wow, that came up fast! I am meeting them at the airport in twelve hours!

I'm super-excited, of course. Today has been a flurry of finishing up all the loose ends I needed to take care of before I could take a week off. Tentative itinerary includes visiting the Market on Saturday and going to Dublin for Sunday and Monday, as well as a possible day tour somewhere. I'm also taking Hanna out on Friday night, though she doesn't know it yet. This visit is going to be great... Mom has been over here three times, this will be her fourth visit, but Hanna never has! And, hanging out with your 22-year-old sister is slightly different from hanging out with your 61-year-old mother, though honestly not as different as you might think.


Anyway, I better get to bed, it's late and I have a full day of HANGING OUT WITH MY MOM AND SISTER to do tomorrow!

Jim's visit!

When last we spoke, a radiator had just fallen on my legs. (I still have very colorful bruises! And if I'm lucky I might end up with some scarring on my right ankle.) Since then, things have been considerably more exciting, because my lovely wonderful boyfriend Jim visited me!


Us in Salthill, above Galway Bay. I love this picture, despite my squinty-closed eyes!

Originally, he was only going to stay about four days. Then he made a Big Sale (or something) and his boss gave him the rest of the week off! So he changed his ticket and stayed a full week instead. With the extra time, we talked about going to Dublin or Cork for a day or two. We talked about taking a day tour to the Cliffs of Moher or Connemara. In the end, all we did was wander around Galway, go out to eat, and hang around in my apartment. And it was fabulous. Really, whenever I get to spend quality time with my love, it's a good time. ♥


I would ramble a lot more, but I have a history exam to study for... an exam. This actually really annoys me for a couple reasons. First, I'm a PhD! Ok, yes I took classes this semester, but we're not supposed to be actually evaluated on anything. That's what the PhD thesis is for. And, second, I'm a LITERATURE PhD. We don't take exams, we write papers! I wouldn't mind writing a final paper, I can bang that out in a day if you want. But taking an exam means I have to actually know things, like names and dates and places. As a literature person I'm used to looking up anything I might need to know, and then citing it appropriately. Actually memorizing things is just so foreign to me! Annoying.

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.

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!

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."