Home Again...

Well, I made it home from Ireland safe and sound. Those two months went by way too fast, but in the end I was ready to go home. I wanted to share a few things I picked up on while I was abroad....

Food:
take away= to go
cream= whipped cream (I learned this when I ordered my first coffee I said coffee with room for cream and the lady had no idea what I was talking about so she only filled my cup up half full!)
chips= french fries
crisps= chips
biscuits = cookies
bangers and mash= sausages and mash potatoes (my favorite Irish meal)

Sayings:
Cheers= hello/goodbye, thank you
give way= yield
Thanks a million= thank you (I never once heard someone say a simple thank you. I guess the saying is based off of a Gaelic expression that means "thank you a million times over".)
TH= t, in the Gaelic language they do not have "th" words so anything with th in front (three, thanks) is pronounced with just the t (tree or tanks).
sorry=excuse me
you're grand= that's ok
mh= v (popular names such as Niamh or Caoimhe are pronounced neeve and quee-vah.

I hope everyone enjoyed following my blog as much as I enjoyed writing it! CHEERS!! xo -Colleen

Phoenix Park

On my last Sunday in Ireland I ventured out with 3 other girls from my program to Phoenix Park (the biggest park in Europe). It was a gorgeous day and the sun was shinning! The park is huge (1,752 acres!) and we knew we couldn't possibly see all we wanted to see on foot so we rented bikes! After a wobbly first few peddals my bike riding skills soon came back to me. I can't explain how at peace I felt riding through the park with the sun beating down on my face, the cool breeze through my hair, and the smell of blooming flowers all around me!

Gaelic Football

On saturday some friends and I paid 25 euro to see Kildare play Derry and Cork play Down in the stage 4 championship match at Croke park. The weather was amazing and we really lucked out since it's an outdoor stadium with limited covering!

Gaelic football is a strage mix of sports and kind of hard to explain. They score just like hurling (3 points if you make it in the net, 1 point if you get it above the field goal type thing) but the rules are quite odd. The ball is like a soccer ball but a lot bouncier, I guess like a large volleyball. You are allowed to take 4 steps then either bounce the ball once like a basketball, take 4 more steps and kick the ball back up to yourself, take 4 more steps and pass the ball like you are hitting it loke a volleyball. You can bounce and kick the ball for as long as you want as long as you don't take more than 4 steps at a time.In order to score they mainly punt the ball in to the field goal for one point.

The interesting thing about Gaelic sports in Ireland is that none of the players get paid yet are considered to be famous and are very well known within their community. The teams are made up by counties and you are only allowed to play on the team from the county in which you are from.

Causey Farm Excursion

20 of us from the program signed up for a farm excursion which was about an hour long bus ride outside of Dublin. The weather was cold and a bit rainy but we ventured out anyway. When we arrived we were immidatly greeted by a pig that could've been mistaken as a hippo and a young 22yr old tour guide. We started the tour by throwing on silly aprons and headed to the farm's kitchen where we paired up and learned how to bake our own brown bread. They don't use measuring cups and the young man would say "oooooh it's about umm like a half a scoop of flour and a pinch of salt" I've never baked by estimating measurments so I was a little nervous about how it would turn out. One of the traditions on the farm is for the tour guide to throw the eggs that are required for baking the bread and you have to catch it without breaking it! I of course was the furthest away and had to catch the egg that was lobbed over 10 other people and a very long table! It did'nt break though!

As the bread baked we headed to an old barn where we lined up to learn an irish step dance. We were taught 4 different "sets", one at a time, then put all the moves together to complete the dance. complete dance continued on for about 5 minutes and when it finished my legs were burning and I felt like I had run a marathon! The next part of the tour was the BOG but we got easily distracted by four 6wk old fluffy puppies that were scampering around. I think in unison all 20 of us let out a huge "AWWWWWW" and immediatly ran towards them with open arms. There were 2 black and white ones and 2 brown and white ones and each had a very different personality. Three of the puppies were intimidated by the other who pounced, bit, and wanted to wrestle with anything that moved....he even chewed through my shoelace!! The other three were so loving and one even fell asleep in a girl's arms like a little baby.

Back to the bog...a bog is an area of decomposed vegetation. It's basically like a huge mud pit. When we were told that we had the opportunity to take a "mud bath" I got a vision in my head of a luxerious and hot spa-like mud bath. This however, was not the case at all. A few girls and I stripped in to our bikinnis and were urged to race to the end of the pit. As soon as we stepped foot in the mud we immideatly sunk to our knees! The mud was thick and cold and not what I was expecting at all. When we finally reached the end of the pit (it took me several minutes) we climbed up the bank which was just a couple feet high then jumped right back in. When you jump in you shoot straight down in to the mud leaving you stuck at about waist deep. One girl shaped the mud to make it look like I was a mermaid! It was a lot of fun until...we were told that there are no showers on the farm and that you just wait for the mud to dry then put your clothes back on. OH JEEZE! By the time we were finished in the mud we were cold and shivering and only half way done with our adventures.

As we waited for our mud covered bodies to dry we met a baby pig named wilber and watched as he was fed a bottle of milk. Now i know why people are called "pigs" when they eat fast and make a mess because WOW, Wilber scarffed his meal and left the ground covered with milk! It sure was a sight to see. We also were introduced to Wilber's parents who could've been the size of an adolecent hippo, and that is not an exageration. I was stunned when I saw the size of them! The next part of the tour was milking a cow! I've always wanted to milk a cow and remeber expressing that interest to my parents at a young age. I finally get to check that off my list of things to do! The technique was a tad complicated and if you go at it wrong the cow twitches because she thinks you are a fly.

After the irish dancing, the pigs, and the cows, the puppies, and the bog, we were craving our brown bread. I brought meat and cheese to make a sandwich and ate the entire half of my loaf. After a long day at the farm the warm bread seemed like the best thing I have ever eaten!

Orange Recruitment LTD

I thought for all my friends and family back home you may be interested in what i'm doing on the weekdays! Every Monday through Thursday I work from 9-5 (for free) at Orange Recruitment.

Orange Recruitment is similar to a temp agency in the states. Basically we partner up with companies and businesses that need positions filled but that don’t necessarily have the time to conduct interviews and search for possible candidates. Most of the positions we offer are temporary or contract. We post available jobs on a website where people can apply and focus mostly on administrative work and catering/restaurants. Their CVs and applications get sent to us where we print, review, and contact each applicant to either inform them that they don’t have the experience our clients are looking for or we call to set up an appointment to register with us. The jobs that get posted can get up to 100 applicants so we always have something to do. Once a candidate is registered with us we have to collect specific documents and conduct reference checks. In order to keep track of what we have or what we need from our candidates we have a checklist of all the employees who are registered and currently working for us which gets updated on a daily basis. We also have to make sure that our candidates get paid correctly and we are in charge of ensuring that they receive their pay checks.

My first duty is to manage the telephones which ring constantly throughout the day. Before I transfer the call I need to get first name, surname, what company they work for or are calling from and what their call is regarding. While the phones are not ringing it is my job to complete reference checks on newly registered candidates. We also have about 4 scheduled appointments a day where I welcome and greet each candidate, get them started on filling out paperwork, make copies of appropriate identification and answer any questions they may have. I communicate with the consultants to let them know they have someone in the interview room and fill them in on any information I may think may be important to them. My day also consists of printing and organizing the CVs we get in each day, updating the checklist to make sure each candidate has turned in appropriate documents, contacting candidates who have not turned in all of their documents, contacting people for appointments and interviews, and contacting applicants who did not have enough experience for current job positions they applied for.

CV = resume

http://www.orangerecruitment.ie/index.aspx

Giant's Causeway and Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge

The giants causeway was one of the sites I was looking forward to the most when I was researching Ireland. It looked so fasinating and it really was! The only downside was that it's a huge tourist attraction and the rocks were littered with people. It was hard to get a decent picture but it was still really neat to see, not to mention the weather was gorgeous! Kelley, and I found a nice spot away from everyone where we sat and watched the ocean. The sqeals of tourists were drowned out by the ocean waves which was great. I sat down on a couple of the rocks and was suprised with how comfertable they are! It was like sitting in your own sofa chair!

Now THIS was an incredible experience. Just up the road from our hostel was Carrick-a-rede Rope Bridge.Carrick-a-rede means 'rock in the road' and was built by fisherman to get from one rock to the other.We paid 5pounds to cross the bridge which was definatly worth it. The rope bridge rocked and bounced as you crossed it and it was pretty scary to look down. The water below was almost a light teal color and very magestic! On the other side was just a huge flat rock covered with the softest and bounciest grass i've ever felt! We walked up to the edge of the rock and had a nice relaxing and brief nap in the sun.

Ballintoy

I was actually excited that we weren't staying in Belfast when we arrived at our hostel in Ballintoy. Ballintoy is on the North Antrim coast and about as north as you can get! You can actually see part of Scotland if the weather is clear. Our hostel looked right out to green fields scattered with sheep and the beach...I was ready to spend 2 nights there! We arrived at our hostel on Friday just in time for dinner which was provided for us. We had noodles with red sauce, bread, french fries (chips), and cheesecake! The owner of the hostel was more than gracious and kept offering us more and more food. After dinner we set out to one of the two pubs in the town but were easily distracted by the immaculate sunset that was right in front of our eyes!! I have never in my life seen anything like this sunset. The way the sun hit the ocean and the green fields is indescribable. The sky was purple, orange, and pink and it contrasted so well with the bright green fields. I tried to take lots of pictures but they barely do justice to the beauty of the sunset! It was so peaceful to just sit and watch the sun go down and listen to the baaaaah's of the sheep!

The next night the sky wasn't as clear but the sunset was still beautiful. Instead of staying up by our hostel we took a 30 (or so) minute walk down to the beach. The walk itself was satisfying. You winde around a small road in a residential area that takes you right down to a dock with just a few small boats and a sitting area. A few girls and I walked around the beach and watched the sunset on top of some large rocks.

The pub in town was quaint and crowded when the group of 25 of us arrived. We all drank Magners which is a cider drink and really refreshing! My favorite flavor is pear and I'm hoping I can find some when I get home to the states because it's a great hot weather drink! We also had an amazing dinner the second night. A group of us went to the second pub (directly across from the only other pub in the town) which had a large selection of courses that came with side dishes. I had beef and guiness with cheesey mash AND king pranws. Some friends had sizzling chicken, sweet chilli pasta, cod with garlic mashed potatoes, and salmon fillets. It was a very reasonable price for what was included which is always good!

Belfast and Derry

We started our journey to the north with a brief stop in Belfast.The original plan was to stay a night in Belfast but all American citzens were advised to seek lodging else where due to the recent riots and violence. I was wearing my green Ireland sweatshirt and was advised to wear something that doesn't resemble the Republic of Ireland or anything related to Ireland. While we were in Belfast the protestants were getting ready for the 12th of July which is their day to celebrate King Billy's defeat over King James I. There were stacks of wood that reached close to 40 feet that the protestants light all around the town and they party all day and all night until the fire goes out. It's a very hostile environment and most of the Catholics end up taking a vacation to the Republic of Ireland during the parade because the festivities are difficult to be around.

Murals in the protestant side of town.

On our tour in Belfast we visited the Peace Wall which is a high cement wall with barbed wire at the top that divides the city in half. It keeps the protestants on one side and the catholics on the other. In my opinion peace cannot be reached by erecting a wall and I think it just adds to the hostility. People are able to write notes on the wall and most of them were wishing for peace and the destruction of the wall.

Colleen loves peace!

The "Peace Wall"
In Derry it was the same scene. There was a side of the town called the "bogside" where the Catholics were allowed to live. Just two weeks ago a "peace brige" was opened across the river that allows protestants and catholics to freely walk from one side of the town to the other. Both cities were hard to visit. You could feel the hostility and there was threatening graphitti on both sides. It's depressing to know that there is still descrimination in this world and that as long as there are Catholics and protestants living in the same area the violence probably won't end any time soon.

The Peace Bridge

The Protestants renamed Derry "Londonderry" and the sign reads "West Bank Loyalists Still Under Siege NO SURRENDER"

Galway Girls

Kelley and I loved Galway so much we decided to book a hostel, grab a bus tick and go again for the weekend! The bus ticket only cost us about 13euro and the hostel was 25euro a night!The weather was incredible (sunny and warm, which doesn't happen often) and our daily adventures were great...

As soon as we arrived in Galway we ran into Luighdai(louie)who is our history professor's cousin and was the one who took us on the pub crawls and the tour of their farm. He immediately recruited us to join him on Friday's pub crawl. We first grabbed dinner at a small cafe which we instantly fell in love with and knew we would be back the next day for breakfast! The night of the pub crawl we met some interesting new people. Most of them were from the Air Force and were just here for the weekend. We had a pretty wild night and I even rode a mechanical bull!

The next day we spent wandering around town and browsed in the little shops. We were basically killing time before the Hurling game which was at 7pm. The town is so cute and has so much character. It's a very different scene than Dublin and has way more charm.

It was a perfect day for Hurling. 13,000 people filled the stadium to watch Galway play Clare in the championship phase 2 game. Kelley and I got into the spirit and supported the Galway team...

It is such an intense sport and I was on the edge of my seat the entire time! The final score was Galway 4-25 and Clare 0-20. The way you can score is to either hit the sliotar (ball) over the goalpost for one point(that's the second score) or under the crossbar into a net guarded by a goalkeeper which equals 3 points (which represents the first number of the score). So Galway scored 4 three point goals and basically dominated Clare.

Sunday morning was really rough because we didn't want to leave! We couldn't get over how incredible the weather was and how nice it was to get away from Dublin. After we checked out of our hostel at 10:30am we had a couple of hours before our bus ride so we spent it outside on the waterfront.

Our trip to the South

To be honest our adventure to the south was more like the mis-adventure to the south. Our trip started off with clouds and rain and it didn’t get much better. The entire 5 hour bus ride down to the coast we couldn’t see a thing out our windows because the fog was so thick which was very disappointing.

We did however visit Dingle to hangout with the famous dolphin, Fungi, who has been living in the bay since 1983! You don't see many dolphins in Ireland but apparently there's a warm current that comes in and that's how Fungi can survive!

We had a pit stop at a beach, it was gorgeous but the weather wasn't all that great.

On Sunday the rain and fog finally let up and it was blue skies and sunshine! We stopped in Cork for breakfast and had time to walk around town.

Next stop was Blarney Castle. If you kiss the blarney stone you are given the gift of "gab" or "the ability to deceive without offending." It was a pretty intense process! You have to lean over backwards to kiss the stone but when you do so you are looking down hundreds of feet to the ground!

One of the reasons why I called it a mis-adventure was the fact that our tour bus broke down twice during our trip. One of the times it was in the middle of the road and we actually had to get out and push the bus to get it started again!