i don't know, i just work here.

hello my adoring public-

well, not really but we can pretend. so here's the scoop for my research and such. so in ireland, your boss is not required to pay you for any breaks, a lot of jobs do, but mine doesn't, so even though i get an hour for lunch i don't get paid for it. i'm thinking about finding a different job because i'm really tired after 3, 9 hour days essentially is what it boils down to but, on the other hand, are 5 other fingers including, free organic food, i got some spelt pasta today. so not so sure what to do. but we'll see, i just pretend i am a little slow at work and just don't work very hard. i know this doesn't sound very ethical, but i don't get paid for my brains there.

so the next interesting detail from yesterday includes, i still have not finished my scarf yet. so maybe tonight, but i saw a commercial with some puppets, but my roommate paul was talking to me so all i heard was "no no it's a fishtank" and then a television came. so i asked paul what this commercial was for, he explained to me that it was for television tax...i said what is television tax...it is a 154 euro a year per television tax you pay to the irish government to own a television...excuse me, can you repeat the question...yes you are supposed to pay a tax every year to own your television set and how would you police this? so you can't really if someone calls your home and asks you, do you own a tv? you answer no, or as paul said, if anyone you don't know knocks on the door just pretend you're not home, because it could be the television police. so that was my excitment for yesterday.

i got asked yet again for directions today, this time while i had headphones on. apparently i look a lot nicer then other people out on the street.

so here are the names of the people i have met so far that i work with: Jack, he's the owner, Amon he's part owner...and makes no executive decisions and is on a horrible diet which i will divluge later in this segment, then there is Ruth, she is from Dublin and has worked at Down to Earth for 3 years, she's super helpful and nice, there's Jane, could definately be a "knacker" which is an irish slang term/derogatory term meaning a working class/lower class person. she has a hardened exterior, never smiles, looks at me like i am slow, but i just get out of her way or do what she asks of me. i think we'll be just fine in that sense. i also met, Gene, she worked for about an hour and then left, so not sure what that means. then there is another woman who does a lot of the ordering who is on vacation until monday, so i'll meet her on tuesday. so that's the word in the store. so there is no music except for the cd selling music thing that plays motzart for 30 seconds and beethoveen for 30 seconds, with nature sounds and whistles and such. so it is kind of boring and find myself doing my multiplication tables in my head to pass the time. i am finding where things go so i can tell me where to find things, it's kind of nice to just say "go ask blah blah blah" i really have no sense of responsibility when i can do that. i got to mop up a broken bottle today. interestingly enough, most things over here are made out of glass instead of plastic, i think it is less expensive or there is some sort of anti-plastic thing in ireland. maybe, i will ask paul, by the way it's paul's birthday today, hooray for paul he turns 29 today. fransesca and i both forgot like 3 times this week that it was paul's birthday this week. he said he was going to cork on friday, which i thought was weird because his brother was here on monday for a depeche mode concert they went to together so i asked him why he was going to cork, and he said "to collect my presents of course". and i looked at him funny and then the light bulb slowly started to glow above my head, as well as fransesca's, and we were both like "oh yeah, it's your birthday tomorrow".

this raises an important question "how many scorpios does it take to screw in a light?"

now on to amon's diet: on day one you eat: an egg, a piece of toast, 2 tsp. of peanut butter, for lunch: a 6oz can of tuna, 5 tuc(ritz) crackers, a slice of cheese, and for dinner 2 pieces of sliced meat, a slice of bread 6oz. of beetroot, 4oz. of icecream. for like 3 days you go on like this and you are supposed to loose 10 lbs. i don't know what the motivation is behind it, i don't want to know, but i think it has something to do with him going to the world cup semi finals, and finals the next 2 weeks. i think he said he and his "mates" each paid something like 600euro per person for the semi finals and 1000euro per ticket for the finals but he's really excited so i'm not going to knock him for that, just the horrible diet.

so a typical day for work: go in straighten the candybars and granola bars, then go and dust some shelves until lunch, go eat lunch, then i come back to the shop put away some product out of a trolley (grocery cart) and then sweep the floor and leave. wow...i found out today if i want to sit down and have a cup of tea whlie at work i can do that, just not when it's busy. so that's kind of nice, i asked ruth if there is a dress code and she said no, we're pretty loose here, so i asked can i wear jeans, and she said of course you can you're down on the floor and such so i got the green light to be grubby, wow sounds like a certain couple fo jobs i had in the u.s.

so i was going to look for pants after work today but instead i tried to call my grandma, the phone number i have doesn't work, so i will email my mo about that tonight. well peeps i am going to get home so i can have some spelt pasta tonight.

xoxo,
christie

i'm sorry the life has gotten kind of dull, maybe sunday and monday will be more interesting.

sadface:(

sorry people i wrote a big old blog spot and the computer crapped out on me and i'm too tired to write another one so you will have to use your imagination and hope for a better email tomorrow.

xoxo,
christie

good jorbe!

so for those of you who don't get the title you will have to go to homestarrunner.com and read a sbEmail.

anywho, my job. well i would have written on tuesday when i got done but i had laundry and a shower to do so the whole hygine thing occupied most of my evening. so my job consists of basically doing everyjob in the coop. i am in: store opps., bulk, health and body care, and dairy. no cash register training yet. i don't think they trust me with the money. so i start tuesday through saturday @ 9:30 am. so not too early, it's not like i have other plans. i figure i will work this job for a while and then quit early to travel. there are also possibilities of going home early:) so the place i work is called down to earth. (and are you people serious that no one cares that i saw bob dylan at a pub, and i smiled at him and i got a smile back? what's wrong with you minnesotans). so the morning consisted of restocking the granola and candy bars, followed by removing bulk items from the shelf and dusting the shelf, as well as getting rid of the expired merchendise. wow, but there was some excitment during the lulls, for instance i get an hour long lunch break, so i walk home, it takes about 10 minutes. so this is a nice benefit.

when i left for lunch there was a strange older gentleman in a suit reading the newspaper just sitting in the breakroom. okay...so when i returned Ruth, one of the people i work with told me there was an allergy consultation going on, the strange man in the suit tests people for allergies. now, for some reason this form of un-licsenced kind of doctor is really prevalent in Ireland, in fact my flatmate Paul had this kind of allergy test done at a different health food store. i dunno.

so during the allergy doctor's lunch he was out by the cash register area with a screwdriver and a toaster...yeah i just walked away because i didn't want to know what kind of electrical disaster was going to take place. so whatever he was doing to the toaster, he finished to toast his bread for his...only be described as mystery meat/meatloaf...i started to smell burning plastic and when i looked over low and behold he had set the toaster down on a bunch of paper bags wrapped in plastic. i told him to shut the toaster off because something was burning. the owner of the shop and the allergy doctor both looked at me and said huh? then a customer realized it as well and said the same thing to them. so they finally understood and moved the toaster. i thought to myself, oh great my first day and the allergy doctor is going to burn the place down. so i'm sure there will be other fun antics like this.

wed. was far less eventful just kind of stressful the last half of the shift because we had gotten our shipment late...and they check in everything by hand so it was a lot of old man owner sitting at a folding table saying to christie "what's that by your left foot?" or "do you see sanji miso soup gluten free mix?" sorry go fish. so that's was interesting. then i found out we get tofu from a local asian grocery store that makes it on site so it is really fresh. just what you want fresh tofu.

i forgot to tell you all that i had a piece of tiramosu from the wine bar my roommate fransesca works at. on my first day of work she was starting waitressing for the first time at this job. she started as a porter (bus boy) and then was a bartender and is now a server. it was pretty delicious, it is made on sight by a spanish woman and an italian woman.

so like that, when i got home from work my flatmate paul had just started working at the fransiscan monk homeless shelter. so i asked him if he dealt with any addicts today and he said "only the usual ones on the street." now this is a joke but it is kind of the truth because that's just kind of a big city thing. paul also knowledged me about the TV tax in ireland. apparently the country of ireland has the stupidest tax in the world, for every television you own you are supposed to pay a 154 euro a year tax on every television you own, but the tax for a black and white television is cheaper. now the only reason this came up was because there was a commercial with puppets on that had one of the puppets saying "oh it's just a fishtank." yeah not so sure about that, but i was pretty much dumb founded when i found that out.

so those are todays topstories. i am going to walk home from the internet cafe and finish knitting my scarf. 50 degrees is not exactly warm. and that is the average temperature these last few days, and is the normal high for this area. we got sun today though, so i'm not complaining.

the emails will probably not be very exciting for the next couple days seeing as i work, but you never know i might have a half day now and again.

xoxo,
christie

thanks, i made it.

So it is monday again, i made it an entire day without being on the internet, or with the TV and cable. wow, what an accomplishment. so here's the scoop, i will probably finish my scarf that i am making tonight and not a moment too soon, as i will be starting a job tomorrow at Down To Earth, a natural foods store as dunh duh...a shelf straightner. not the most glamourous job, but with something i believe in and love. so i will have some income. and depending on how things i may find a second part time job. but i start tuesday a.m. at 9:30am. so i will work an 8 hour shift and then be back to email in the afternoon. so that's the most recent news.

in other news shamus heany. so on sunday i didn't wake up until about noon, apparently a rough night. saturday evening Fransesca and i went to the irish independent film theater, where we saw the film, "thank you for smoking" about an american lobbyist who lobbys for the tobacco industry. kind of a satire of sorts, but pretty interesting and mildly funny. but if you don't know anything about american government, then you wouldn't laugh. let's just say christie and a couple of people were laughing while everyone else watched on, in probably a little non-understanding if you will.

sunday, well not too much, wandered out of the house at about 3pm and walked around by steven's green, more art out on the fences of the green. i got home about 7pm, when some ice cream, which plays a role later in this adventure. and Fransesca and i left for Shaums Haney, Liam O'Flynn, a famous piper, "piper and the poet" concert. So Shamus would read a few poems, give a little commentary, then Liam would play a song that he wrote on his uillian bagpipes or his tin whistle. shamus looked a lot older and crazier then i had imagined he would. he sparadic white hair and squinty eyes so it was a bit commical even when the poems were not commical. i feel that he is probably someone that irish citizens should admire, perhaps over joyce, just because he is more accessible as far as content of writing goes, and it was very cool because shamus wrote a poem written in response to 9/11 and the Robert Browning poem about upturning a mouse's home which i remember from a certain high school english teacher's class. so like that, no book signings though sorry:(

After that we went to a pub called the Mezz. it had a great band playing blues music. and mirion and fransesca were telling me about how they come here when they want to hear good good blues music, but only on certain nights of the week. this was also the place, where i had a bob dylan sighting. as we were walking out there was a man that looked absolutely exactly like bob dylan, and no i hadn't been drinking. i didn't ask though but i am pretty sure, if bob dylan was going to go to a pub in dublin, this would probably be the one he would go to. this pub is very music oriented, even the sloppy decor is music related.

Then at about 10:30pm we said goodbye to mirion and went home, where we had dun dunh...ice cream and as fransesca "ah yes...i will take a tea". it was pretty good ice cream, the first box a bought was crap but not this, it was great. so we had ice cream with strawberries, with a chamomile tea and then off to bed at a decent time, 12:30am is a decent time!

then it was job searching in the morning, and a library visit where i got the book "valoptuous vegan" and a book on england so i can figure out where i want to go that isn't london. so that's the scoop as of right now.

i got my pps number as well, which means i can submit my paperwork to the tax office and get paid next friday. which is fabulous to not need to wonder aimlessly everyday, looking for work. so hopefully this will be a good fit, i have found more galleries to go to as well, so this should be good. fransesca and i are having a cook off tonight with soups, and our roommate paul is going to a depeche mode concert with his brother so we can listen to whatever hippie music we want to listen too.

also at the end of the month, i am planning to go to the Irish film Center again to see the new film by Michel Gondry, the guy who directed eternal sunshine of the spotless mind, what an amazing artist. i absolutely love him and his style. so that's the word here in dublin, it is rainy and yucky so i am going to go home and perhaps make my brownies, we'll see i'd rather finish my scarf. so goodnight and see what you have written tomorrow.

xoxo,
christie

i will respond to your personal emails tomorrow afternoon when the cheaper internet cafe is available, and also the one with less irish rug rats.

glo sticks now back in stock!!!

the kids love there glow sticks here and there. so howdy my faithful readers...so today was organic food cook day or whatever it was called and Fransesca's friend who works for it gave me poor directions so i looked around for about an hour in a rough patch of dublin @ like 11:30am but it was no where to be found. so i hopped on the DART and went to Bray. Bray is on the east coast of Dublin and borders the irish sea and i believe is at the head of the wicklow mountians. Bray in irish interesting enough, means hill. geography lesson. so it was drizzly and overcast in the morning in dublin, but i was like i need to get out of the city for a little while.

if i would have been thinking i could have booked a ticket to killkeny on the bus and gone to see bob dylan play, but no i didn't see it in the paper until this a.m. where it read SOLD OUT. that as well could have been extremly kick ass. but Bray was nice too.

the "foot path" as Fransesca puts it is 8km long so you could walk from Bray to Graystone for all of you who can't do the math...carry the one...flip the denomenator...the square root of pi...it's about 5 miles each way. so i did not walk to graystone, perhaps a day when there aren't gigantic snails on the trail. yeah, one's as big as my finger, i have pictures just you wait, i thought it was a dead vole at first so i bent down to take a picture of it, don't ask it's one of those "art projects". and it was slimey and moving and then i found the antannea things. gross...XL gross.

so i walked on the path for a while but then wanted to go to the yarn shop, b4 it closed. so i was walking back and the sun came out on this drizzly day. followed by it raining, not drizziling for the next 2.5 hours that i was in Bray. i am cold and my throat hurts, so it may be bed rest for me tomorrow until the poetry reading. so that's the word birds. but it was very beautiful on the nature walk, and i didn't hear any cars, you have no idea what a sweet sound that is. the little walk was very much like being in the munger park, minus the slugs, but then when i would look down, you could tell it was the irish sea and not a lake or stream etc. there is just a different color about it.

so all in all a very nice walk. so while i was trying to find the info station, without a map mind you, i ran into the mermaid center, which is another art and dance, music, etc. city owned support the arts center. i also wanted to go here on my excursion so to find it without trying was great dumb luck. there was a small exhibition, including a pretty powerful 15 minute video about the reality of being homeless in this area the film was about a gentleman who, i'm not sure why can't get out of the homeless rut, but it is very real and prevalent in this area, but then again so is the heroin use. on a lighter side, there was an excellent sculpture made out of dryer lint, in the form of a stacked washer and dryer. and the title and artist i have written down but am too lazy to look at right now but something about what you put in is what you get out. so funny and quite ironic.

so the yarn shop, all you knitters should be jealous because i got a skein of chunky, irish yarn from Cork for 5 euro, which i will myself a scarf out of, it will help keep the chill off in the wind. that's really what makes it cold.

i also got a great baked flaky pastry thing with chesse and mushrooms and onions in it to snack on in my train ride home. so good.

fransesca and i might go to a movie tonight, but if not that is fine as well, i am pretty tired from my day, and the rainy sticky weather tends to just make you sleepy. i don't think it rained in dublin today, the streets were dry when i got back, which i just kind of laughed at but anywho. i will let you know about the poetry reading on sunday, probably not until monday though.

so goodnight and hope you all are enjoying your saturday.

xoxo,
christie

Guinness Brownies

or as i will make them in the near future

Murphy's Brownies: you can use a dark beer, a Stout might be better then a Draft, but i will know more when i try it.

4 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
8 oz. bittersweet chocolate
4 oz. white chocolate
6 T. butter
3/4 cup flour
3/4 cup cocoa
1 1/4 cup Guinness

so you melt the butter in a pan on the stove along with the chocolate bars. then you mix in the sugar, while or after melting, you can take it off the burner, then the four eggs,
followed by, if you want to sift, if you have the time and a sifter, the flour and the cocoa, then right before you dump it in the greased baking dish, you mix in the beer. i usually pour the beer in a measuring cup before i do all this because guinness foams alot. then you put it in the oven at 375 F for 20-25 minutes, wait for the toothpick to come out clean.

i have proportioned this recipe to use a whole beer, but i don't have that with me so you will have to do it yourself, if you like. i have also done half cream cheese half butter, and that was super good. also i want to try raspberries, but there are none here in dublin so maybe in a year. so good luck to all you bakers out there. i usually just put a little powdered sugar on top. but the last week of classes in may 2006, i was eating a guinness brownie with walnuts, chocolate sauce, and vanilla ice cream for breakfast. :)

fryDay

Hello my fellow americans-

not too much new but lots of art news. so i have decided to go to bray tomorrow a.m. after i go to the organic food thing, which i found out on wed. was not hiring. Bray is on the east coast, and is about a 40 minute train ride using the DART. i want to go 1st because it is out of the city and supposed to like the ireland we all see in pictures, and second there is supposed to be a wonderful yarn shop there. i want to make myself an actually warm scarf. i just have one of my think wimpy ones, and it really does keep you a lot warmer in the wind here. why don't you just buy one christie? because i have been looking and the ones you buy are so cheap feeling, i am hopping to find some nice yarn for under 20 euro but we will see. so i went to the tourist office today to find out more about bray, and the person at the desk was pretty useless for that. i said do you have a guide about anything going on or perhaps a map or a website i can consult. no you just ride the dart there and you will see everything. good to know, not helpful. you can ask the irish for directions but don't ask them about any activities.

also the poetry reading i am going to on sunday with Fransesca is SHAMUS HEANEY. only one of the most famous contemporary writers. she did not tell me that and now that i know i am super stoked. for you book nerds you should be jealous, he rewrote Bewoulf a few years ago, it is one of the most popular versions. his other book is called finders keepers. he is fantastic. yipee.

so i bought i ticket for the LUAS and illeagully rode a different one. oops. i didn't know that the train starts and ends in like 3 different places. so i thought i was catching a connecting train but once i got to the station, the woman told me i needed to catch it up by st. stephen's green, basically if i would have gotten caught they prosecute you and i would have been deported. thanks for playing...better luck next time.

once i got on the right LUAS i made it to one of the 'burbs and applied in a mall for some jobs. there are many vacancies at this mall so i am hoping. i also applied at some random shops around the city centre, including a Haagen Dazs on Wicklow Street! that ice cream scooping experience could come in handy:) i applied at few hotels, and got a call from a temp. agency to come in for an interview, so things i am hoping are fine. i am watching this guy sitting next to me type with one finger and know that i have some commmputer skills, sorry the keyboard is sticky.

so the art afternoon-by the way, when in ireland, do not buy dessert in ireland. they have no skills with the dairy! i bought a piece of cheese cake a few weeks ago, texture of crap, like skim milk whipped, not thick and creamy. i really wanted some ice cream with my strawberries, so i got some neopolitan from the grocery store, that said made from irish milk, aka skim milk texture again, not cream. so fyi: when in ireland do NOT get a dairy delight, it will be a dairy downer:(

art sorry, lots to say but on the other hand, remember the candy bar tour i was doing? well that has been officially stopped due to the BBC reporting that Turkish Delight ( i almost bought one on tuesday) is pulling its product from shelves due to Salmonella contamination from its product. gross. i am done with that experiment, i started laughing to myself when i heard this, surprisingly i was in a mall.
"Sesame seeds are contaminated with Salmonella based on the California Department ... a) Cadbury DAIRY MILK TURKISH *** Milk Chocolate with Turkish Delight ..." this is what i could find when i googled it.

but the art really this time. so i went to the gallery that is about 2 blocks from my house and found this wonderful northern ireland photography. i am going to do some research about her, because they didn't have much at the gallery, but her name is Janet Preston and she creates these beautiful photographs, i think using a liquid emulsion and on some multiple negs, but they could be digital, i couldn't tell, they were way gorgeous and were of decriped buildings in dublin and remains, and look like some were hand colored, but not sure. i will find out more...again if i had 500 euro just laying around i would buy a piece of her work as well.
@ this same gallery there was a large, 17 ft x 12ft painting of a flower and placed inside the flower which i think was supposed to be part of it, totally a fallic symbol, i laughed and thought, this must be painted by a man! the flower was so beautiful except for that random fallic symbol.

another artist i really liked was Piia Rossi, she painted on little blocks of wood (4 in x 5.5 in) in blue and white paint the front of a house like it appears in home building plan magazines and then the inside floor plan. she was making a comment about how small the housing is in ireland, but the fact that people still pay for it. it was so cute as well because at the bottom of each one she wrote "truthfully drawn and measured by Piia Rossi." LoL.

I also went to st. stephen's green for a nap. i handed out CVs along the way. when i got up and walked outside the park there were all these painters who had their work up on the outside gate, all around the 188 acers. there were sailboats, and landscapes, and flowers, fairys, the liffey some quays etc. one in particular that stood out was an artist who made these black red and orange paintings of places in dublin. there is a lot of construction going on all around town, to make the city more industrial, so there are cranes etc. all around the city and he made these paintings showing that. but you could see all the violence and greed and etc. that the artist was showing. it was very discomforting, and i am sure he didn't sell any paintings but even all those "bad vibes" i was feeling from them were important, it made me remember i was alive. it's like if we never got sick we would never know how wondeful it felt to be well...kind of things.

so now that i have posted way too long again. i will try next time to be shorter. so have a great weekend, i hope i will, i'm sure i will, there is lots more to do here then in duluth, unfortuately not much at night besides pubs. so goodnight.

xoxo,
christie

forgot to ADd

so i forgot to mention, my roommates have a baking dish so i will be making Guinness brownies, or rather Murphy's brownies, Paul made the request that i make it from the beer from his hometown of Cork. since it is his birthday next week i thought i could muster that. interestingly enough, you can buy beer by the can over here. and like in america where everything is large, in Ireland the beer can is twice the size of an American beer can. so yep...random observation. forgot to mention these things and since i would probably forget, i thought i would mention it now.

Thursday or in Irish Tursday

TirtyTree and a Tird. yep just letting you know about the accent.

so here's the update for today. no job or calls, i called a couple of places today, no openings! i turned in my app. at 3 different recruitment agencies so hopefully soon...i also went to the FAS office, which perhaps i will try again tomorrow afternoon. they have telephones you can use for free, so perhaps i will use these landlines, seeing as they are more reliable then the cellular phones. and they are free as oppossed to the cellular phones.

i'm sure you all want to know about the concert...the afro-irish concert. it was very good. so this genre of music is pretty much a parallel to a jam band. for those of you who do not know what a jam band is please do some research and get with the program. but this jam band was exceptional...i do not like jam bands but this one was great. they had all the regular band instruments: drums, electric bass, acoustic guitar, keyboards. but what made them great is they also had: electric fiddle, acoustic violin, bongos, some sort of metal flute, tin whistle, uilliean (ilen) bagpipes (my roommate paul correctd me on how to say it, thank god another strange irish word.) and one of those cool traditional irish drums that you under one arm and tap on with like a whisk type thing. Somone was also playing the spoons! and to make it even more rastafarian etc. the bands name was KiLA. and the lead singer was wearing a KiLA shirt. my flatmate Francesca was buying a CD and i asked the lady selling CDs what the name meant, was it Gaelic or something. No it's a made up word, typical jam band style. Anywho, pretty fun stuff. If you have a myspace account you might be able to check them out online. i did not buy a CD as i did not enjoy it enough to purchase a CD, i liked it in the moment but i couldn't say it would be my favorite band ever. so that occupied most of the night, we wanted to go for a tea afterward, it was an outdoor concert but only the pubs were open, so we went home for some tea.

it was such a great concert to be at on the summer solstice, it really made me feel like i was in contemporary ireland celebrating the longest day of the year. and it didn't sprinkle until the end of the concert, there was even some blue sky during the outdoor concert which was probably meant to be in celebration of the day. nice all around. i also met some of Francesca's friends, the ones who work at Cultivate, hippies from the four corners of the earth.

then once we arrived home we sat down and had some tea with paul as he ate dinner @11:30 at night! Paul also showed me some of the websites he has put together, he loves doing the flash stuff. i have to say i was pretty impressed, he obviously has skills with the program, he just needs to work on some design principles, and learn something about typography and i really do think he could apply at any design firm, without a degree if he can get his foot in the door. one of his friend's contacted him about possibly doing an irish independent music label website. lots of work, and he wasn't sure he wanted to spend the whole summer inside working on it, so he was thinking of pricing it really high and if they want to hire him at that price great, but if not then oh well. he has started rethinking the whole working with the addicts thing, might be more violent than he really wants to deal with. i told him a few good band websites to check out for inspiration and a few bad websites of what not to do. we started talking about .gif builders and it was at that point Francesca said, "alright guys, i must go to bed." she is such a funny girl.

my roommates have been so kind and helpful since i have moved in. francesca realizes i have skills and has tried to steer me in directions for me to work. i found a bead shop with traditional celtic beads so for 3 euro i am going to make her a bracelet.

open air market...food market. so i went and purchased some fruits and vegetables today. For 5 euro i got 10 pink lady apples, 3 leeks, 2pints of strawberries, and a head of broccoli. broccoli is really expensive here so were the leeks. the strawberries are grown right here in dublin and they smell divine. i can't wait to have them tomorrow morning. the cherries i got last week were wonderful as well. The women selling the fruit have such hard and leathered faces, and sound as if they smoke more then a pack a day, but they are polite and rush the food into your bag which is fine. so i will be making a vegetable-tempeh stir fry tonight. i am looking forward to less protein, more vegetables.

and tomorrow i take the LUAS to the 'burbs to apply for a job in the Dundrum mall-hopefully there could be some employment opportunities there, but again 20 minute train ride outside the city, could get expensive. but one day won't kill me. the USIT office gave me a list of the stores hiring, so hopefully something will turn up. i called the Down to Earth health food store, and unfortunately he wanted someone who was going to be here permanently:( i would if i could-damn eurpoean union.

i have been watching some news programs in the mournings here in Dublin...you thought duluth news was bad, in duluth we can't text or email in to the show about how we feel about parking tickets of Alexander Court Street or how we feel about the new Nike ad in the Irish Times. Bizarre. and poor camera shooting as well. often times the tops of the news anchor's head is cut off. what makes this even funnier, is the fact that one on of the morning shows is on the BBC and has these same sorts of goofy things.

i have purchased some envelopes so will be sending some analog notes to those of you who don't do the email. i have gathered lots of thoughts and i have the time so i will be doing this in the next couple of weeks.

tomorrow a.m. 'burbs. friday p.m. grocery stores/convenience stores around the dublin city-centre area.

sunday evening, poetry reading/tin whistle playing concert with Francesca and Mirion(she is from Spain, Fran's friend). so that's the word here in dublin, tut tut it looks like rain.

xoxo,
christie

wed. P.M.

So it was an uneventful day. Remember the saying for MN, "if you don't like the weather just wait 5 minutes." pretty much that has been how it is here. it gets gray and windy then rains for about 200 feet and then bright skys and sun. so it can be hard to be outside. you never know if you are going to need a jacket.

so here's the scoop as of right now. no job. i have sent my CV to 3 other recruitment agencies. I dropped off CVs @6 retail locations. I am now going to go and gather the phone numbers online. I also went to Origins Gallery today, the work of Mark Redden was on disply. Nothing stellar but it was worth a look. I love bogwood. Have I talked about bogwood? if ever you are in ireland and you have like 2 grand to blow on a piece of art, get a piece of bogwood art. This wood is really only readily available in Ireland. It is essentially fallen trees that are harvested from a bog, dried for 2 years and then carved into something. they are an amazing color and texture. beautiful and i have seen some nice things and some not so great things. Mark Redden, not so nice things, kind of a waste of a 4000 year old piece of wood, but what do i know, i couldn't make the crap he makes. the paintings were pretty abstract but pretty standard irish subject matter. the liffey, a quay or 2, horses, and the 9th gate of hell opening up...i don't know why that is such a popular subject but it is. there are ooddles of paintings about this subject, at all the art museums as well!

i have gathered almost all the things needed to make guinness brownies excluding guinness, paul wants me to use murphy's because it is from Cork, where he is from, and eggs. so i will make those eventually, i want to see if i can find some raspberries there might be some at the market, i will check tomorrow.

here's a crazy book thing, remember the book "the curious incident of the dog at nighttime"? well i saw a copy of it at a Waterstones called, "the curious incident of the dog in the NightDress". What?...humph?...yeah not so much.

also the ipod nation hasn't hit over here yet, not many people have the pod or mp3s for that matter. i love when i see people pull out big old discmans it makes me smile:) so that's the news from my neck of the woods peace out peeps. hopefully the concert will be good. Francesca is a fun girl so i am sure it will be great.

xoxo,
christie

p.s. digestive biscuits? does anyone know what they are? yeah they are an unlevened cookie with minimal sugar. how does this help you digest? no se.

wedAM

well people-

i have been traveling around this morning handing out more CVs. i got two emails from hotels, telling me i wasn't qualified to work at them. which i know i was but whatever. i am doing some more job searching as well as calling on a couple of CVs. i will stop by the health food store today. but i am pretty sure since the guy hasn't called me again he has filled the position but oh well. i know i will find a job eventually it just sucks being in limbo all the time. besides you can only hand out so many CVs and occupy your time by not sitting in front of the television. i think i will ask the usit program if they have any more suggestions on how to find a job and possibly call another temp. agency to see if i can get in on their book of possible employees.

not too much happened last night, nice and quiet for a change. i listened to some music on and read as well as write in my journal. i will look online for other places to stop buy. i handed out 5 CVs this morning, and i may have already handed CVs out to the businesses but i am not sure because they all start to look the same when there are 5 of the same store within a 2 mile radius of eachother! so doing that stuff today and perhaps call a couple of location this afternoon around 3pm.

so that's the word here. less exciting from previous posts because i went and saw lots of stuff. my flat mate Francesca invited me to a concert tonight, she had free tickets. so i will go with her later on this evening to that. it is a local group playing afro-irish music, whatever that means.

i am convinced this is like every city where you need to know someone in order to get a job. so that's the word on the Quay. talk to you alls later.

xoxo,
christie

PPS number

well, my friends and family-

i took the bus this morning to the office of social welfare to apply for a PPS number, no problems what so ever. my application is being processed and hopefully within 5-10 days i will have my number which means i won't be charged emergency tax of 42% of all my earnings. hooray. i also got myself a library card. so that means i can go to the library whenever i want and to whichever one i want to go to. so this is kind of fun and now more plastic to carry around.

i also got a call from the temp. agency to ask if i would mind having my CV sent into a job, that could be a week could be the entire time i am here. it is to be a junior administrative assistant at the National Lottery. so they are doing a background check on me shortly. so it would be kind of neat to work at thsi location, i will have to see. i dropped off the paperwork at the temp. agency because they needed my original signature as oppossed to a photocopy through the fax machine. on my way to the usit office, or as i refer to it as the useLess office, i was stopped by someone who wanted directions to the national gallery. i was happy to oblige i showed the young asian woman on the map, she thought she was in a different place so i was glad to let her know she was looking the wrong way, and showed her how to get there. she was so happy and of course i was like sure...no problem so as i was waiting for the stop light she took something out of her companions backpack and gave it to me, it is this little piece of paper that has like this beautiful paper chinese woman on it and it says "may peace prevail on earth". how cool. what a sweet and kind gesture for directions. wonderful. so even though it is windy and sprinkling out this happiness warms my heart.

so my time is almost up. everyone have a peaceful, wonderful day.

xoxo,
christie

Well...it's monday again...

So here's the scoop as of today...

I have a flat i told everyone the wrong address so i will need to re-email you with the write zip. oops. so i had my "skills" test at la creme office people agency. so here's my skills turn out:

i got a 65 on basic Microsoft Word skills...not so great in teh advanced I got a 78 kind of impressive. kind of funny that i am better at the advanced skills then the basic.

i got in the upper 80s for Powerpoint. Not really surprising considering how many powerpoints i have had to do.

and as for the typing tests, i got 55 words per minute, when i asked how this compared to other people i was told that administrative assistants type an average of 50 words per minute, which admin. assistants are the tops of the tops of assistants, again we all knew i had skills and not super surprised by the results so i am now in the lottery for clerical work. i can also mention this crap when i apply for hotel reception work. so over the weekend and today, i have applied at footlocker (lol) and an internet cafe, 2 hotels: one as a resturant assistant, the other as a receptionist and i will be checking irishjobs.ie and jobs.ie after this to see where i will plan attack tomorrow, i will also be making some calls on some applications tomorrow. so i have faith it just sucks kind wandering around aimlessly looking for places i would be williing to work, i really hope it doesn't come to Mc Donalds, i think i would rather come back to the US then work there, that's how unethical it is for me.

so i ate at a resturant for lunch today they had a 2 course lunch special of 9 euro, which is a lot but i needed something besides what i had at home. so the resturant was called juice! and it was all vegetarian. so had a house salad with those little skinny mushrooms i have gotten at the coop that are really good and then for my main course i had pitas with hummus and the other with a kalamata/cashew patte. both really good, and complete source of protein with everything. so i had a nice meal then off to the USIT office to print off more CVs. You don't have to pay for them, so i take full advantage of it, considering they don't really help you find a job!

i also stopped by the museum gallery today, i didn't make it all the way through the first time, and i asked at info when the Caravaggio would be back and they told me in July, so i will see it before i leave...hooray. I also saw a few poussin's and a monet. i didn't recognize poussin's style off hand so i was kind of disappointed.

then out in the rain walking to more places to drop off CVs. I think i have dropped off so many i might start reapplying at the same places soon. not so good. but i know which stores i want to call tomorrow so i will get the numbers tonight.

so funny thing happened today, while i am out and about looking for work, i got a job offer from someone at the UMD for a design job. granted it was only one book cover, but i was just laughing at the irony that here i am in dublin trying to get myself a job paying minimum wage, and i got a job offer in the US for doing no work, because a professor recommended me. slap in the face...yeah a little bit.

so the plan tonight is go to bed early and then go to the post office at 9am tomorrow and get myself a PPS number. it's like a social security number, only in Ireland. i think i have just about everything for it. then job hunt commence.

so i suppose you are all wondering about my roommates. So there is Paul, he is from Cork, he has a degree in Psychology with a masters in addictive studies, so basically useless until he gets a master's in psychology. he is currently just doing odd jobs, and is going to volunteer at the state government to work with the addiction that is occuring in Dublin. Apparently the big drugs are heroin or opium, and to a lesser extent crack...i don't know. I said what about methAmphetamines and he said, "well, fortunately we're a little bit behind the US on drugs of choice." and laughed. so he's a nice guy i don't know what his interests are besides that but he does do some desktop publishing using Flash and Dreamweaver, so an ammature I am competing with in the field of GD. i find it also funny because he has more stuff in the bathroom then Francesca and myself combined, definately metro sexual. I had know idea there were so many man products for your hair and face!

And Francesca, she is my roommate. She is so friendly and outgoing i love talking to her. she holds three jobs! she is from italy and speaks great english, she told me last night she loves the american accent so she likes to listen to me talk! we were talking about dublin and nature and the lack of that in this city, as well as being vegetarians (she used to be for 7 years but became anemic). she answers the phone at an auction house, she also works on the weekends as a waitress, and she also had an internship for a company called Cultivate. This company applies for city grants and puts on organic events. including one last saturday that Francesca planned, i heard it was wonderful. so we had lots to talk about and i asked them some qs they asked me some qs.

i asked Paul if they had any irish drinks...like ones we have in the states. i asked him if he ever had a Black and Tan which is Bass ale or Guinness Harp and Guinness, it all depends on who you ask. i also asked him if he ever had an Irish Car Bomb which is where you take two shots of Jameson irish whiskey and/or bailey's irish creme and dump it into a Guinness. He had never heard of either of these, but was intrigued. (thank you to my roommates for clarifying these drinks to me b4 i came over) and as stated by Paul, you should probably not ask for them in a pub or Temple Bar.

I also talked to Francesca about the bar scene over here and she said she had never witnessed such violence and loss of self control as she had scene when in Temple Bar sometimes. She was leaving her waitressing job one night and she saw some drunk girl sitting in front of a building just pull her underwear down and start peeing. Unreal. She also couldn't believe the people she had seen in collared shirts with blood stains all over the front, from like fist fights or whatever.

Which brings me to my next point that it is against the law to even own a gun, let alone be in posession of one, you can not own a pocket knife either! i am so glad i didn't bring my leatherman. which is when i brought up the point that i had taken firearm safety and paul and francesca said that neither of them had ever shot a gun, and Paul has never held a gun. Crazy dudes. MN has a licsense so you can conceal and carry. Paul also said that the general Garda, or police do not carry guns! no way, i know it is less prevelant in the US as well due to an increase in tasers or what have you. we covered lots more stuff but i realize how long this blog is. lots of new things behind ever corner, like bums, begging at ATM machines...

Well people, i have talked your ear off and so now i will go back to my flat and make myself some quinoa with the blue cheese and walnuts i have at home, it will be delicious, and nutrious. i also bought some tempeh for another night.

last night i had a frozen pizza and a coke...it was sooo good. the coke here is only 500ml and it is like 1 euro .40 so it is really expensive. but i ate the whole 10 inch pizza with a salad and my coke and i felt really full but i didn't eat lunch so i didn't feel too bad about it. it was so good...product of germany.

so if no one is home tonight i will probably stake out my plan for tomorrow as well as watch some world up action that starte 2 minutes ago. so goodbye.

xoxo,
christie

Random Twitterings in a 24/7 world

So here's the scoop as of sunday afternoon-

Saturday was spent trying to find the hostel which I blogged about yesterday and then off for some more walking. I wanted to go to the open air market, but didn't make it, as you should go earlier rather then later. so i didn't go to that. Instead I went to the fabulous Museum of decorative arts and history! ta da! yeah i know doesn't sound super interesting but it was lots of antique crap, including but not limited to, clothing, furniture, things for the home, an irish designer, jewelry, and my favorite of all currency. it went through the entire currency of ireland starting with the coinage the vikings brought over through the Euro. Did you know that the euros for each country are slightly different with an emblem representing the country? ireland has the harp. i also learned about the irish bag pipes called uilliean bagpipes. if this is boring you, you should stop reading. acutally sounds a lot better then the scottish bagpipes.

the other exhibits not so influencial on my "irish studies". other intersting things i learned: for those of you who art historians and such the figure that reperesents the allegorical Ireland is called Hibernia and she has some attributes that I didn't right down so, you will need to research her if you feel so inclined. I also saw tons and tons of crucifixies crosses and everything catholic including a St. Brigid's Cross, which resembles a "gods eye" that i remember making as a child. these were made by people to celebrate the saints feast day of feb. 1 it was hung on the front of teh door to protect the family from illness and other misfortunes. and also at this museum, there was a special exhibition of the Sunday Killings of 1916. A really important time in the Republic of Ireland's history. This had lots of interesting information and a revisit of the neo-celtic traditions of art. So all on all a day of learning for sure.

I also took the LUAS, twice, by myself, without any help from anyone, I also saw some tourists struggling with how to operate the machine. They didn't speak english so I couldn't really help them.

I also looked at 2 flats, neither on i liked, one was like 425 euro plus utilities, bi monthly, the other was 325 euro per month with a deposit of 700 euros! a little to rich for my blood. After that i went back to the hostel, did some laundry, watched some futball, which by the way is my new favorite sport. I watched the USA vs. Italy game which started at 8pm my time 2pm your time and it was fantastic a real nail bitter. Unfortunately it was a draw, but the US should have one. They got a goal towards the end that didn't count because someone on the Italian team was injuried. Bummer. Is any one watching any of the games? i get to watch them close to real time, does anyone else get to. They are on everyday @ 1pm 5pm and 8pm, some days only 2 games someday 3. It all depends on the day. It is definately a great sport to watch. you don't need to know a whole lot to watch.

Random things i have noticed: now that I have my notebook I can write these down and then blog about them.

So last week I went to the National Gallery of Art and I was so excited because I would get to see a Caravaggio painting up close and personal, it is actually the painting on the brochure for the galery, but it was out on loan to a different exhibition. Talk about diappointment. All the Caravaggio works I learned about during Tom Hedin's class and I would finally get to see one but alas it was not there. I also interperted a painting that was a bible or greek story that had the whole story in the painting. Usually the beginning of the action in the left foreground, the rise of action being in the middle of the painting, and the possible conclusion being at the right hand side. I impressed a fellow hostel member with my knowledge of telling the story. I also started talking about vanitose and identitfying it in certain still lives, and sure enough later on in an exhibit there was a discription of vanitose. Christie 2 points.

I have noticed that the people of this area like to put buiscuits, or cereal in their candy bars. I had a double decker candy bar with nougatine and crispy cereal in it. I am getting really sick of the candy bars so I am sure this brush with industrail foods is short lived, and i will be back to whole foods only soon! so that's what's happening in my neck of the woods, I also finished one of my fingerless gloves today, rainy day, let Maureen know if anyone sees her:) I also gave the Yarn Harbor web addess to two women from Scandanavia who were so excited to see such small circular needles that I was knitting with, by the way I now know how to knit on circular needles, I struggled at first but know I've got it. Everyone let Meg know!

So keep up the comments or email me, because the telepathy isn't working.

xoxo,
christie

Friday Show

Hello Everyone-

So here's the word about Friday. Pretty uneventful I applied at a few more jobs, called on a few jobs as well as looked at a flat and went to the Irish museum of Modern Art, as well as the Photography Archive in Temple Bar where there were 4 MFA photography shows going on. The Irish Museum, I'm not sure that this museum gets much in the way of funding because it was really waining compared to the other museums. But I saw lots of great modern blocks of painted squres etc. And there was a great exhibit about Louis leBrocquy, he was a painter in Ireland for a long time and this gallery had a retrospect of his show, there was some beautiful modern paintings! I also saw a Joao Penalva show. His art includes mixed media, digital video, and plain old photography and painting. He did this great show in London entitled "Mr. Ruskin's Hair" in which he had a real lock of John Ruskin's hair in a frame, and then he created 6 fakes and hung them up all together. In London someone stole one of them off the wall. Fortunately they just stole a fake so only Penalva knows which one is the real one. This was exhibited in the gallery. Interesting and funny idea. He also had a table with 3 thimbles set up, one with a pea under it as part of this exhibit.

Another set of great work by Penalva was "David's Mother's White Bowl" This was a project where he asked his students to each bring in something to photograph, a man named David brought in a white bowl. The story behind it was creepy. David's mother had her friend over, along with a friend of that friend who was visiting from out of town who was blind. The mother seved some strawberries in the bowl. After the strawberries were gone the blind woman picked up the bowl. And said, "this is a lovely bowl, I can tell just by feeling it." "It is slightly irregularaly shaped." and David's mother said oh it isn't anything special I got it second hand somewhere. And the blind woman said, "Well, it's a lovely bowl, how I wish I could see so that I could see the white bowl, and the one black speck in the surface." yeah I know ESP for sure. So there were a few little stories and photographed objects so pretty interesting weird stuff.

The MFA shows were good to. There was one photographing illeagally in the Berlin Airport in several places. There was a photo exhibit focusing on the Natural History museum with all the taxidermied animals and our interaction with them. There was a third one on the suburuban sprawl of Dublin and human interaction with nature and our now "natural surroundings" out in the burbs. The fourt exhibit was about the sexual identity being lost when one works in a job not usually associated with one's sex, for instance police force or military. So not too many opinions yet on this one. It just opened so I think I might go back in a few weeks.

And I also got asked for a 3rd time how to find a street. I didn't know so I let the gentleman look at my map. Apparently I don't look as lost as I feel sometimes. Or I look irish.

I was talking with someone at the hostel last night, and he was telling me about this antique store in the city centere that I could go to and find out where in Ireland the last name Culliton originates from. So I might check it out, who knows.

So the museum of Decorative Crafts and a headband, those are my goals of today. As well as look at 2 more flats. I also have another candy bar in my Irish candy bar tour, made by cadbury called a Double Decker: milk chocolate with nougatine, and crisp crucnchy cereal filling. They like their biscuits and cereal filling over here! I need to try some digestive crackers as well, one of these days!

I found a mini notebook as well! I have been looking for one casually since I got here, I have gone into drug stores, grocery marts, dollar stores or (2 euro stores) as they are called over here, but to know avail finally at a Spar, which is a small convenience grocery store I found one. I was so excited I told the young woman at the counter, and I'm pretty sure she thought I was crazy, no more loose pieces of paper yippee. Now I can make lists like mad!

xoxo,
christie

you guys should post more or email me more.

where's my job?

Hey estuados unidos-

Christie here to give you the heads up about what's up. I haven't gotten a call back yet from anyone but the GoodFood place, one of the natural food stores. The guy said he would call me back next week but I have my doubts. On monday i go into the temp. agency and find out if i have any skills to be a secratary. Not my first choice, but it would pay better then other locations. I am going to stop by eason's today because they said they would call me today. also i am applying as a receptionist at a few hotels around the area. And i will call on a few more apartments today. I know it's only been like a week but i feel a little pathetic for being a native english speaker and not being offered a job like right now. so that's what's up right now, i am switching hostels today, so i will drop my stuff off and then go and apply at some of the hotels. so that's what's up. and not much else i think i might go to a museum this afternoon.

I walked from one side of city centere to the other yesterday, about an hour total. saw all the developments but they can only build a buildings so high here. They don't want it to look to metropolitian, interesting. Also I have been asked on 2 seperate occasions by 2 seperate people directions to somewhere. And surprisingly i knew where they wanted to go and gave them directions.

I met some people in my hostel last night from south korea and they were impressed i could say their names on the first try! Also after talking to them they said, "wow your english is really good where are you from?" and i laughed at them and told them i was from the US and my english better be good because that's all i've got! so onward and upward and that's about all that is going on with me.

I've had some of the best nectarines ever this week, from spain. So I think that i have had 2 everyday this week. They get better everyday! That's the word here in Ireland. I just want to find some stability so that i can travel from there. I hate living out of a suitcase and not being able to buy any nice office attire for job interviews because i have no where to put it. Also, they have really soft water here so i need to find some styling crap to put in my hair. It just won't stay curled at all. I end up with a headband on everyday. Well that's the word from across the salty pond.

xoxo,
christie
i miss green grass!

Day2: no news is good news eh?

So hello-

I haven't heard anything from the places i applied to. I also made some online applications to apple.com, as well as posted my resume to a coffee shop. they advertised online but did not give the address so all you could do was apply online. I will be calling the temp. agency tomorrow but as for today i will look at a few flats. I have 5 lined up.

I also found some more organic shops and put my application in at these locations. i also put in my application at a place called The Bakery which duh makes baked goods. it didn't sound like they were hiring but i talked to the head baker. I also applied at Penny's and Dunnes Stores. Penny's is like a Target or something of that sort, and Dunnes is like a department store. Not my favorites but i need something. i am thinking about applying at some movie theaters, as that would be none too stressful. there are many bar/pub jobs available but i don't want to be walking home by myself at night and they only want experienced staff.

In the temple bar area i found a couple of art exhibitions and a concert. inside the center square there was this horrible reggae band playing but it was entertaining to hear a reggae band up here in Dublin, Ireland. I also went to two art exhibitions. So the first one was pretty lame but the art was based on this artist that i can't think of right now that put polyeurathane all over her art, and it ended up giving her cancer or something from all the fumes. And before i knew it was based on this i walked by the shalacked rope thinking, i hope this person is aware of the dangers and that there was an artist who died doing this. There was also a bunch of info about the 4 students who died in the 60s during a peaceful protest at a campus i can't think of right this second but you should remember. so overall kind of a lame exhibition but it was free so whatever. The other exhibiton was called Borderlines. it was about the border towns on the Republic or Ireland, Northern Ireland border. there was some poorly edited video, but some great photos as well as audio interviews. i almost cried when i heard this story an older gentleman was telling about how when he was a child he split a sausage with an officer on a dare and then when he went back to where is friends were they said stuff like "why the fuck did you do that?" that's the enemy. And he said it was not the person you should hate because he knew the soldier did not believe in what he was doing. Wow, no grudges no nothing. Needless to say there were some other stories that were not as touching including stories about parents being in Sinn Fein (said shin faen). So hey there might be hope for me learning irish after all!

i don't know if i have mentioned that i have been trying different candy bars from this country, i had a "yorkie" yesterday which is a milk chocolate bar with raisins, buiscuits and chocolate. not bad. and today i had a "crunchie", crispy honeycomb covered in milk chocolate. i don't recommend the second one, just tasted like burnt sugar on the inside. so off to see apartments. talk to you peeps later.

xoxo,
christie

Day 1: the hunt is on

ccTravelAbroad: June 2006

well people back in the states, wholly overwhelming for this that and the other thing, not to mention i was in a hostel room last night with 23 other peeps-a few too many if you ask me. i can handle 9 other peeps but not 23. mixed dormitory too-talk about future sight of an adult film career. no i kid i kid. although i was the first person to use the clean shower and i'm glad, can you say gross germys everywhere yuck. i got them to change my dorm to a 10 person suite for the next 2 nights but i will be back there again on thursday night. but i made it through the first one so i will probably make through the second one. someone yelled at some french guys last night for whispering way too loud. kind of funny when you're awoken to that.

so job search day. they told me at USIT to show up about 10am to 12pm because after that it is way to busy and lunch is at 1pm. so good luck getting someone during that time. so i dropped my CV and letter of recommendation off at all 4 major bookstores in Dublin. i also stopped by a temp. agency but couldn't get in to see someone so i emailed my resume or CV as they call it here and then i searched for sharing a flat or an apartments at daft.ie. i have lots of locations close to town so i could get a job anywhere in town and pretty much walk from every location. i also found out which neighborhoods NOT to live in as they are full of drugs and gangs from the USIT office, but lots of the locations i have already walked to on my many journeys. 2 of the biggest bookstores said they were hiring so i will stop by in a few days to find out what is up.

i also stopped by the museum of natural history while on my walks about the jobs findings. The giant elk was kind of disappointing in a sense. They didn't give it some color like they thought it should have, in fact there wasn't even a drawing of it. Just a wooden model of its bones and antlers-lame. but i saw lots of other taxidermied things like bugs, birds, monkeys, and bunches of other animals from different countries. i still love the halibut, and they had several of those 2 eyes one side of the head who knew. also i was trying to find a stuffed bird of the one i see all over stephen's green, i think it's a magpie but i could be wrong. Oh well i'll just keep telling other people it is a magpie and hope someone corrects me. But the giant irish deer was about 20 feet tall with an antler width of about 10 feet. so that's pretty big. the museum also had a lot of weird little stories about things like this fish that was caught in 1873 that they thought was the biggest something but then was later in 1911 proven to be a salmon and it was only half the size of the largest one caught in 1858. who cares? well obviously i do otherwise i wouldn't have rememberd. The taxidermed elephant was a little sad, it had some of his ear missing...sadface:(

well peeps i guess i am going to call on some of these apartments, what i found out is that people want me to live with them so that they can practice their english, i can't tell you how many ads said no polish or italian or spanish, we want to practice english. so away we go, i also found an ad with some irish people so we'll see what i can find. once i have an apartment i can apply for the irish equivalent of a socail security number a PPS number. hooray. so all the apartments are fully furnished, something way different from the states so we will see. so that's all for right now still trying to get in contact with my mom. if anyone can help her with a calling card and the international area code for ireland, which i will look up shortly, please help her.

xoxo,
christie
it looks like the weather is not so sunny anymore sadface:(

Testing 1, 2, 3

hey my dudes back in corn country-

it was suggested to me by sarah phonenix that i try to set up a blog, so that i can communicate with all of you and you can see what all of you say. you can still contact me via email but i thought i would give this a shot and see how this technology works.

i couldn't understand it in 2d digital studio but hey i'll try round 2.

so here's the scoop today i went to my job and tax class for 2 hours. lots of info to process i am going to update my CV apply for a job at Easons tomorrow, book store, and also sign up at an agencies maybe getting secritarial work and then i will try to find a flat. it is the beginning of the toursit season so my hopes are high to find a job somewhere, as well as a flat, college students are just starting to leave.

and then off to the museum of natural history, i need to see the giant elk of ireland that lived 7000 years b4 any human was on this land.

so that's it peeps,
maybe something exciting will happen, like i will try to pick up coins that were glued to the ground, that didn't happen to me but someone i met. haha.

xoxo,
christie