I took a trip to Malahide on Sunday. I managed to figure out the DART (kind of like a metro) and made my way there. I walked around until I finally found the castle which was located on many, many acres of garden land. It was a very lovely walk. The castle itself was smaller than I was expecting, and I couldn’t figure out how the tours worked, so I passed that up. I then walked to the coast and just wandered, enjoying the weather. While I was walking, I fell into step with an old lady who was probably in her 70s who started talking to me. She had just gotten out of the hospital recently, and was trying to get her health up. We walked and talked for close to twenty minutes before she had to take a break and sit down; I walked on my own way then. I enjoy random conversations like that. It has a certain way of making a day better, even if it was a good day to start with.

Two nights ago I helped babysit four children under the age of five. It was crazy! I was so tired at the end of it! It was a good laugh though. I’m working this weekend so that next weekend I can take a long four day holiday. I’m planning a road trip out to the West coast with someone. I’m really excited for it; this will be my major sight-seeing travel trip.

Today was my last day in the near side; tomorrow I begin in African Plains. I can not believe that I’m flying home in less than a month. I can feel that I will be ready to when the time comes, though. My summer will have done its job and reset my life so that I can face Michigan State again. In my future plans are a trip to Colorado, and a kick-ass spring break.

Oh and my clumsy streak has come back with a vengeance. It seems to me that walls, doors, and first aid boxes mounted to walls are all of a sudden conspiring against me. Also, I do not recommend hitting your head on a swinging log hanging at head level. It will probably come back and hit you a second time while you are still recovering from the first. Also, Squirrel monkeys like to stick their fingers places like your mouth, eyes, and ears. This is after their lovely habit of peeing on their hands of course. And water pumps that you have to start by sucking on the end of the tube to begin the suctioning would be alright if you were using it to pump relatively clean water. I do not recommend using them to empty a fish tank containing fifteen water turtles that probably hasn’t had a proper cleaning in weeks. Just some helpful hints to help you survive life. I know all of these will come in handy one day for everyone reading this.

The Hangover is a good movie though. I went to see it last night, and I had a great laugh at it. Not quite as good as I Love You, Man, in my opinion, but I loved it all the same. It was such an original idea, and had great moments in it.

My dear friends…I didn’t want to burden you with this earlier, but I have been through a major trial these past six weeks.  I kept it to myself and suffered in silence, but it chilled my soul to the very core.  Or should I say it thawed my soul?  I suppose that is more accurate.  That’s right…I, Alyson, had to go without ice for the past six weeks.  The ice making part of the fridge here has not worked the entire time that I was here until as of yesterday.  But alas, I have ice once more!

I’m going to take this post to talk about observations of everyday life in Ireland.  The one that makes me laugh the most is the irrational fear that many Irish seem to have that they will not be the last to say ‘bye’ on a phone call.  The first person I heard to end a phone call with someone else made me laugh when they ended with “byebyebyebyebye.”  The second made me laugh even harder. It happens on both onds of the call, resulting in a very confusing moment of who will be the last to say bye.  I know people like to have the last word, but this seems to be taking it to a whole new level!

If they aren’t making fun of you, they probably don’t like you much.  Most people I have met are a group of jokers, and they take it to whole new levels sometimes.  Instead of a pleasant greeting in the morning, they could just tell you that you look horrible.  It’s how you know that you’re accepted though; it’s really just like a term of endearment.

If you turn on a radio here, most of the stations are playing American music.  If you turn on the TV, most of the shows are the same as what you would find elsewhere.  There are a few channels that are purely Irish speaking, or that feature Irish-made shows.  Cars are manual (I have yet to see an automatic car) and they drive on the left side of the road.  Movie theaters have ridiculously overpriced popcorn, and Coke is the main brand found here; Pepsi is in second place by far apparently.  People were shocked that I preferred Pepsi to Coke.  Houses are ridiculously overpriced compared to what you would get for the money in America, and most houses share a wall with their next-door neighbor.

Fries are chips, chips are crisps, cookies are biscuits, yard is a garden, dirt is soil, pants are trousers, sweatshirts are jumpers, restrooms are toilets, and cell phones are mobiles just to name a few.

People have “their” pubs, and it is so much more relaxed over here.  I have yet to be asked for an ID.  So many people tell me Americans look so much older than they are.  You can tell most of the people at a pub consider it their spot, and you see a lot of regulars.

The free newspapers I read while over here tell me small select facts from the USA, like a drive-by shooting in Detroit, or a woman in Warren, Ohio who had a squirrel pop out of her bosom while being questioned at a police station.  It seems like lately the papers have been focusing on stories from our neck of the woods.  There was something from Toledo too, but I can’t remember what it was.  I laugh at these stories while hanging my head in shame trying to convince the people I work with that not everyone is like that in America.

Not everyone here speaks Irish; most speak random phrases of it every once in a while.  If you want to teach over in Ireland, you have to be fluent in both English and Irish though, and Irish is taught from the time you start school until you graduate.  Apparently they teach it poorly enough in most places that very few people walk out of it fluent.  It’s a complicated language, where there can be different words for “two” depending on how you plan on using it.

Well that’s all for now.  I don’t have the energy for more right now.

Yesterday I took my first official tour while here.  I went with a group called Over the Top Tours, and I went to Wicklow and Glendalough on it.  It was a small group of about 11 people and I had a great time.  I officially felt like I was in Ireland.  Everything was so green and purple, and it was a gorgeous day for the tour.  While on the tour we drove along the coast, went through the mountains, saw the Guiness Lake, saw places were movies like Ps I Love You and Braveheart were filmed, and saw the old monastery, graveyard, and lochs at Glendalough.

I smiled for most of the day because it was just so pretty and such a nice area.  I talked to quite a few of the people on the tour; a few were my age, and there were a few older couples too.  All in all it was a very good day.  I then met up with a few friends in the city for a night on the town.

I like my new section of the zoo so far.  The animals are not very exciting, but it’s a good section that keeps you busy with constant work.  While I liked the animals in the other section, I really feel like I’m always on the move with a small project in this section.  I like that feeling; I’m no good at twiddling my thumbs.

How is everyone’s summers going?  I like getting emails….. goodwi46@msu.edu….. Hint, hint!  But seriously, I want to hear how people are doing and what they are up to!  I plan on trying to get some postcards out soon, too, so you should get me your address if you want one.  If you do give me your address and you don’t get one, it means I don’t love you.  That or I just didn’t have time to send one to you yet.

Why hello my adoring fans.  How are you all doing?

Yesterday I attended a World Street Performers Championship that was taking place in Dublin City.  It was a grand time!  The people performing were so funny and charismatic.  I watched knife juggling, piano playing while juggling, contortion acts, and comedy skits.  I laughed so hard at many of the performances.

Well I move to a new section on Monday at the zoo.  I can’t believe a month has already passed me by!  My plan is to get myself scheduled on a tour for next weekend, probably Saturday.  Sunday I will spend going in to the Guiness Brewery, and maybe the national museums in Dublin.  I also want to go see the Bodies exhibit that is currently in Dublin.  I might do that after work one night this week, with a few of my new friends from the zoo.

I’m definitely starting to really miss everyone at home.  Before you know it, I’ll be back in your lives annoying you! 

I’m so sad; I can’t watch the TV shows online that I was planning to!  The local library, where I use internet a few times a week after work, blocks videos somehow, just like it blocks AIM.  I just found a way around that block though….gmail lets you sign in to your aim account so you can use it through their chat.  I feel sneaky.

The reason I’m not out and about doing things today is that it’s kind of a crummy day.  Drizzling and cloudy and chilly.  I was going to try a tour today, but I didn’t want to get rained out.  I’m glad I didn’t sign up for one.  It’s looking like I’m going to have an Irish summer after all.  I was spoiled with those three or four weeks of gorgeous weather, and now we get two or three seasons in one day!  The only thing I haven’t seen while here is snow, and I’m not going to say never.  I go from wearing a fleece jacket while freezing at work, to taking off the fleece and wishing I wore shorts, all in the same hour.

Another interesting point of the weather is trying to do laundry.  They mainly hang-dry clothes here, so I am at the mercy of weather for doing laundry!  I did some today, though it looks like it might start raining at any point.  If it does, I’ll run out and bring my clothes in.  I really needed to wash my zoo uniform though!

This internship is really teaching me what I want to look for in a job.  I love taking care of animals, but I find myself missing the public education part of my old job.  I liked splitting my day between animal care and then going out with an animal and talking to the public answering questions.  I would never be able to do just the educational part, but it sure is nice mixing it in with the animal care part.

I fail at updating, and for this, I’m sorry.  It’s just so hard for me to get internet access that when I do get on, I find myself scrambling to use it as best I can (facebook, email, looking up tours, weather, etc).

I can not believe that it has been three weeks already.  I’m in my last week in the current section I’m at in my internship.  While I’m excited to move on and meet new people and work with new types of animals, I’m also very sad to leave behind everyone in this section and all of the animals I work with.  I hope to get a few more days in with the carnivores at the beginning of next week before I move on Wednesday or Thursday.

While I’m here on work experience, it makes me sad that work leaves very little time to explore the city.  For one thing, the transportation systems here are the devil to work with.  You can not find a decent map of the bus routes for the life of you, and the railway is confusing to try to figure out.  I think trying to get myself scheduled on some tours will be my best option.  It would be much easier if there was someone with me, but that happens I suppose.

I had someone buy me a drink for the first time, last night.  First off, last night was…..a typical night in the life of Aly.  I decided to meet up with my friend who works in elephants for a few drinks.  So I get off the bus a few stops too early when I get to city center (which is the big city area in Dublin.  Big tourist area, too).  I walked until I found what I thought was the bar she was referring to.  I had told her I’d meet her at some statue, which I thought she was saying was a bull, not a ball.  I could not find any such statue, and no one I asked had heard of one.  Maybe because I was asking about the animal, not the shape.  I tried calling her a few times while I stood around the bar but she didn’t answer.  I put my phone in my pocket.  I pulled it out a minute later to try again, and my phone had shut off.  No big deal, right? You just turn it back on!

WRONG.

My phone is asking me for a pin number.  Hell if I have that memorized!  I try a few numbers I think might be the pre-assigned pin, and the phone locks me out of the pin entry and asks for the PUK code now.  I now had no way of calling anyone.

*cue circus music, Jenny*

After about 10 more minutes I get desperate and decide to try a pay phone, though I don’t have enough coins, just a 5 euro bill as my smallest denomination.  My plan was to call the woman I’m staying with because I have her phone number written down in my wallet, and have her get the PUK code for me from my room, so that I can then get into my damn phone and call the girl.  I start to cross the street only to look up and see the girl I was meeting!  Thank goodness!  I swear the look on my face was priceless.

Now, back to the drink.  I had already had two drinks, and I was stopping because I worked the next day and I was already planning on going out Friday with a group from the zoo, and I didn’t want to spend too much money.  I was enjoying the live band who played covers of other bands, and waiting on the girl I was with to finish her drink.  All of a sudden the bartender is handing me a drink and nodding to let me know it’s mine.  It was a guy who was sitting a few seats down.  I introduced myself….Hell if I know what his name was.  His accent was too thick and the music too loud.  Anyways: he told me that I looked thirsty, so I laughed and told him I was really just waiting.  Then he told me “no offense or anything, but you looked completely lost.”  Apparently I looked like I wanted a drink but couldn’t get a bar tender?  At least that’s what he explained to me.  He really was nice; but then he told me “yeah it’s been twenty years since I’ve been to this bar.  It hasn’t changed but a lot of the people here have!”

Rewind.

Yup.  Twenty years.  As in….when I was born was the last time he was in there, ish.  Right.

Eh, we had a good conversation for a little bit, before my friend I left.  He made me laugh at least.  His friends were a riot, too.

THEN: on the bus ride home there were these two guys who were maybe….15?  I was talking to my friend, and one of them who was really drunk and one of those…obnoxious drunks was like, “are you AMERICAN?”  So I said yes, and he then went on this rant about stereotypes and asked if I believed Irish were all “top of the morning leprechaun wannabe red haired dancing on the streets with a pint in both hands” I believe was his exact wording.  I laughed and said no, I never had that notion.  He was good natured, but very drunk and loud.  His friend was so embarrassed.  I almost felt bad for him.  Almost.  Silly teenagers

THEN!   Okay, okay, just kidding.  I went home and slept after I got off the bus.  Those were all of my adventures for that night.

Well, I actually managed to give myself a sunburn while in Ireland!  I’m decently pink right now which makes me smile.  The last few days have been absolutely gorgeous.  I spent all of Saturday in town with a friend from work doing some necessary shopping (I now have a phone…it is amazingly cheap and durable) before she and I hung out for a bit at a local pub.  All of Sunday was spent walking around the park across the street, exploring.  It was much busier than I would have liked; there is some flower show happening and the beautiful weather brought out everyone.  It also is a bank holiday, something they have fairly often here.

The little girl that I’m staying with has now learned my name, and uses it like it’s the only word she knows at times!  If I walk by her, or she just sees me all of a sudden, it results in a flurry of “Aly! Aly! Aly! Hiya Aly!”  (Only she says it more like Ollie, so it’s even more adorable, if that’s possible).

I can’t believe I’ve only been here almost two weeks now.  It feels like I’ve at least been around for three or four.  If the weather is nice this weekend, I might try to get out on a tour and travel somewhere for a day or part of a day.  I really wish I had someone to go with though.  It would make it that much better.

I’ve read 3 books so far this trip.  Two of them were in the last two days, too.  It’s been so nice to be able to sit outside and just read.  I really need to find a way to make a small group of friends though who will do stuff with me…..hmmm maybe I just need to get creative.

Every so often I look around myself and realize, my goodness I’m in Ireland!  It’s easy to forget sometimes, especially where I am living.  I’m in a typical city with typical ranges of people and typical traffic.  At the zoo I get so busy that it’s easy to not really appreciate the fact that I’m in another country working at a zoo.  Things are run pretty similarly as they are in America from what I’ve seen.  Even the accent is becoming commonplace for me to hear.  I don’t struggle quite as much with what they are saying.

I’m on “the islands” this week, which consists of monkeys and lesser apes.  I’m having fun with it so far, but I can tell these are not animals I’d want to work with for a long time.

Last night I went out with some of the people at the zoo; we went to a roller disco!  I did much better than I expected to.  I was expecting to limp out of there after falling and breaking myself!  I managed to not fall at all, and I actually was doing quite well.  I am having a good time so far, and I’m often tired!  Between work and trying to keep myself entertained, I’m walking a lot and busy most of the time.

Over the weekend I met up with my plane buddy (Jen) and I went to my first pub Saturday night.  Actually we went to three different pubs.  It was weird not being ID-ed, and just walking in and being able to order anything.  Sunday Jen and I hopped on a bus and rode up to Howth, Ireland.  There is a summit there that is absolutely gorgeous to walk around.  We probably were in that summit area for at least an hour just walking .  I would love to go back there one day and just relax and explore it some more!  I would post pictures, but apparently the card slot in my computer for my memory stick isn’t working now.  I will have to fight that and try to figure out why it hates me.

Oh and I love that everyone here uses the word “love” to me…as in “having a good day, love?” or “see you, love,” or “can you help me with this, love?”  It makes me feel so….well…loved!

Well I should go; the library is closing soon.  I’m sad; I can’t use AIM or  yahoo messenger here.  They must have a block on the router that keeps you from using it.  I can’t figure anything else out.  I can use MSN though, I guess. I need to go grocery shopping soon.  Currently I’m living on eggs, turkey sandwiches, salad, and yogurt.  I also need to do laundry…that will probably be tonight.  Anyways, I miss you all, and I hope your summers are going well!  Let me know what you are up to!

Go raibh míle maith agat  (Thank you very much) for reading

Well it’s Friday. I have weekends off, so I’m just relaxing for the evening, and I get to sleep in a bit for tomorrow. Hopefully I’ll catch up and get rid of this bit of jet-lag I still have. I officially had an amazing first day. I worked in elephants and met a world-renowned elephant expert. I had heard of him before, but I had no clue that he would be at the zoo at the same time as I would be. He was in for three days to work with the keepers in a new training technique and Wednesday happened to be his last day. He gave me his business card after we talked a bit, and he encouraged me to email him soon so he can have my email address and keep me updated on jobs and new information from the field! I walked in to the zoo today and it is a lovely walk. It is mainly through a large park in which the zoo is situated, and it is only about a 20 minute walk. A good way to wake myself up in the morning!

I guess today was my last day in elephants; after my weekend I’m moving to large cats for a week, then moving to apes, etc. I’m really excited about the variety of animals I get to work with here. I got to help train the elephants for a bit today (a very small portion of course). I’ll be sad to leave this section; I was starting to talk a lot to a few of the keepers there. I’ll still see them at meal times though, and they are inviting me out to do things.

The weather really is slightly ridiculous here! It goes from sun to rain to sun, to both! I have yet to see a day where it doesn’t drizzle at least two different times.

Oh, and they hate our chocolate. Like…Hershey’s chocolate. The elephant keepers bought some Hershey’s kisses to give the elephants as a very, very special rare treat, and the elephants wouldn’t eat it. The keepers claimed it tasted like it had wood chips in it and made fun of me for eating it! They all thrive on Belgium chocolates I guess. I just laughed and said it’s what I grew up on; hell, I got a whole bag of kisses out of it. Speaking of food, I can tell I’m going to be losing weight here. I haven’t had a chance to get out and buy myself food, but the woman I’m staying with has been making sure I have things to eat. I don’t want to intrude, so I’ve been eating small portions (though I haven’t been that hungry lately) and I’ve been eating a decent amount of salad and fruit. I got to witness a real Irish breakfast today, apparently. We get a mid-morning “tea-time,” or break, and today the keepers cooked up packages of meats that were stored in the fridge at work; this included ham, sausage links, some type of sausage patty maybe, and bacon. I just laughed when I saw it. They offered me some, but that much grease didn’t seem to be a good idea this morning. One of these days I’ll experience it first hand, I’m sure. I did try lamb for the first time ever though. It was in a “casserole” which was actually a type of stew she cooked in the oven. I enjoyed it; it was a very tender meat, at least the way it was cooked.

I wonder how long it will take me to stop having mini freak-out moments when I’m in a car here. I keep forgetting that whole….left side of the road thing temporarily, and that leads to a scary moment for me sometimes! Thank goodness I’m not driving around this country. People are crazy drivers! I had to re-learn how to cross the street also! Right and then left, not left then right! Another thing I’m still getting used to also is the money. I still forget that their money is so different from ours; it’s easy to think “what is this piece of paper in my pocket? Oh right…that’s my survival for the next week.”

Oh and they take their tea and coffee offering very seriously. Hang on…..let me think….since I’ve been here I’ve been offered tea or coffee………18 times? Maybe more? I lost count. But the sad part? The coffee is instant. I think if someone gave me a mug of brewed coffee, I might kiss them.

Now for a list of things in Ireland that remind me of home:

Kids mentalities, the righty-tighty lefty-loosey rule, iPods, flies, Judge Judy, overpriced food, gossip, McDonalds (though they pretend to be McCafe from what I’ve seen. And no I haven’t eaten there yet), Burger King, Starbucks, zookeeper humor, cell phones and texting. Oh and I’m already starting to think with an Irish accent. What are the odds?

And so the adventure began.  I made a flight buddy; a girl about my age going to Dublin also.  We plan on maybe meeting up this week before she leaves.  I didn’t sleep at all on the overnight flight.  Okay, I lied.  I think I got maybe 15 minutes of sleep, literally.   I’m crashing so badly right now, so this posting is not going to be an amazing one. I was so tired and so unaware of how flying works that while we were flying over the ocean, at 12:30 your time, this morning, it took me 2 hours to realize that the lights I was seeing were not from other planes flying towards us; they were lights on the wing of the plane.

Also, the same girl used the bathroom 7 times.

So I get to Dublin, and get directions on how to get to the zoo for cheaper than the woman I’m staying with said.  I get on a bus, and two stops later the guy tells me it’s the end of the line!  I was lost in the middle of city center.  I had to ask a woman how to order a tram ticket, and take a tram to a stop, then get a taxi to the zoo.  Once at the zoo the security guards were laughing at me (in a nice way; I was laughing too!) because I looked ridiculous with all of my luggage standing at the gate of the zoo trying to figure out where to meet Kathleen.  They finally decided to drive me up in a golf cart, all the while laughing at me.  One of the security officers was cute, so I’ll let that one go

I met Kathleen’s kids, too.  They are adorable and love me.

Oh and when I met the director of the Dublin Zoo, his first statement to me was “You talk funny.”  He’s a really cool guy it seems.

Tomorrow I begin work at 8:30 AM sharp, so we’ll see how that goes.  I get to help with elephant training!

And on that note, I’m letting you all go for now.  I’m too exhausted to do this.

It’s like a fairy tale but better.

Hey everyone!

I promised a blog, and I delivered a blog.  Well, I delivered the template of a blog…the actual meat of the blog is yet to come.  Or should I say potatoes?  I hear that I’ll be eating a lot of those in Ireland.

My plane leaves at 4:35 PM today, with or without me on it, so my first adventure will be navigating the crazyness that is an airport.  Not just any small airport, either.  Detroit airport!  I have never been on a plane so an international flight with a layover is quite the endeavor for my first one!  I suppose my next blog post will reveal if I actually succeeded or not.

Personally, I don’t hold high hopes for myself.  Maybe I’ll end up living in a terminal like that movie….yeah….that one called…….The Terminal….

Alas, I must go finish my last minute packing, and meet up with the parents so they can drive me away!  Just for the record, neither of them are happy with this whole idea.