2 down..

Ahh, the first day of finals. They do them much differently over here. The college has a seperate examinations office that handles the operation and distribution of exams to insure that every student gets fair treatment, or something like that. Basically it means that you don't know when your exams are until 3 months into being here, and that your exam could be taking place 5 miles from campus in some random place. (No joke, some friends of mine are taking their exams in a place called "Leisureland" in Salthill. Think Chuck E. Cheese.)

Before I bore you to tears about how my first round of finals went, I'll tell you a bit about my weekend. I worked two jobs, which was cool. I had a promotion job thingy again this week at a reallly nice hotel nearby Corrib Village (the Westwood House for those of you planning to visit Galway in the near future.) Anyway, it was a "Cork, Dry Gin" promotion, where we basically made free Gin and Tonics for a local Rugby club, the Corinthians. The demographic consisted of huge, burly irish guys ranging in age from 19 to 70, and their rugby wives/girlfriends who were, well, pretty hot. Right, the job was fun though, I spent most of it stooped over opening up small bottles of Schweps club soda, but my reward was not only the paycheck I will be receiving, but a free bottle of Cork Dry Gin! Exciting! I haven't tried it yet, and my friends have warned me of the perils of gin, but free alcoholic beverages always look and taste better because they're free.

I studied hard last night for my Irish History class and my weather and climate class, and went to my first exam feeling pretty good. Now, I imagined the examiners to be a mysterious group, like the Ring Wraiths from Lord of the Rings or something, you know, they only come out once a semester to incur their wrath on unsuspecting students. It was nothing like that and soon I was underway describing the Williamite Wars in Ireland and the Treaty of Limerick. Booyah. The next final, the one I thought for sure was going to be the easiest, turned out to be the hardest one to do, and that was, of course, Weather and Climate. I blame myself for this one, though the professor I had for the climate portion of the class was the most monotonous...

Anyway, I digress. 2 down, three to go. Two are papers, and one last exam a week from Thursday. I'm not worried at all about this one either, considering the time I have to cram and get sources for it (plus it's "History of Science in the West," probably my favorite class here.) After my final I felt pretty poopy (emotionally draining, those finals are) so I went downtown and quickly lost 10 pounds. Yep, I got a haircut (sorry Jilian ;-). Then I gained 10 more pounds by visiting McDonagh's my favorite Fish and Chipper. This time I ordered the "Ray Wing" which I thought would be a funny fish and it turned out to be the actual wing of a Ray (like, a Manta Ray). It was tasty, but the onion rings I had with it left something to be desired. Nothing lifts my spirits more though, than walking downtown in Galway on a busy day. There's always someone playing guitar or performing poetry for money (they call it "busking") and there are always loads of interesting people and tourists just walking around, seeing Galway for the first time. I also got my work schedule for this week, and I'm working 4 days, which is the most I've ever worked in one week (And yes, John (manager dude) knows I'm leaving soon, I know how much that upsets managers when you don't tell them these things ahead of time.)

In genealogy news, I've been in touch with Theresa Milne, an 85 year old nun from Michigan who has been doing lots of work on the Fitzpatrick line and actually visited the farm house I want to visit in County Down. She has the name and hopefully number of a Bed and Breakfast owner up in Kilkeel who is a Fitzpatrick! We'll see if a) I can get a hold of her and b) I have the time to make the trip. I can't believe how fast the time has gone by. Maybe if I just finished my papers early....

Tonight the 21st birthday of Tom Powers, so I'm sure something fun and exciting will happen there, and then the next two days I'm dedicating to getting my Tudor Conquest final paper done and studying. We'll see how far I get ;-). Maybe I'll open up that bottle of gin.

Hope all is well back home, sorry for the long delay, I was, after all, studying.

Cheers,

-Nate
"Loving you has got to be, like the devil in a deep blue sea. Oh forget about your foolish pride, why don't you take me to the other side?"-Aerosmith

Website of the Day: No, I can't put Courtney's blog up twice, although it still provides hours of amusement for me. For all of you Star Wars nerds out there *cricket noise,* this spoof movie is absolutely hilarious: http://www.sequentialpictures.com/moviestarwarsepisode3.html

Schoolwork?

Ahh exams. They're coming, and I've been in denial of their approach. I have two on Monday, one for a history class and then my "weather and climate" final. Both classes aren't too difficult and I'm in good spirits about taking exams for both of them. On top of that, though, I've been trying to get a 4,500 word essay for another class completed, so it's been loads of fun. The weather outside has been unbelievably sunny, but I've been shacked up in the computer lab trying to get papers done. Don't worry, I'm not complaining, just letting you all know that this week hasn't been too exciting.

Well, I guess that's not a fair statement either. I had some awesome dinners the past two days. Two days ago Dan's (my flatmate) mom came with her two sisters and they took us out to dinner at a pub called McSwiggans and the food was delightful, then the next day our program had it's "farewell" dinner at the Lemongrass (a noodle place) which was also quite scrumptious. But, it's back to grilled tuna sandwiches because there are no further free dinners on the horizon until work this weekend.

I also realized yesterday how much I feel like I live here now. I haven't really felt that way about a place, even Walla Walla, but here I really feel like I'm a part of the community almost. I was walking out of Eddie Rockets after trying to find my manager to give him my 2 weeks notice, he wasn't around, but I immediately ran into friends from work outside. We walked downtown and I just got a familiar sense. It's hard to explain, but it's the first time I've felt connected to a place like this (not since Harrington really.) It'll be cool to come back when I'm 70 and be like "I remember..." I'm sure I'll be back.

I also think I have a place to stay in Galway once I get back from Europe and after my lease runs out at Corrib Village. A friend of mine from work is heading down to Poland for a wedding and said I could use his room while he's gone. The reason for this is if I stay in Galway through the 2nd, I can do a gig with the barbershop group I'm in here at school and I'll get 300 euro for doing the gig, which is a nice sum of moolah. This all depends on when I need to be back to Washington for my internship, but I think everything will work out. I also found a place in Tacoma to stay for the summer through some subletters at UPS (University of Puget Sound.) Nice, low rent (a little over $250) so no complaints here. Now you can see why it's been tough to study lately ;-).

Cheers,

-Nate

"What would you do if I sang out of tune? Would you stand up and walk out on me?"-Ringo Star

Website of the day: courtneyf.blogspot.com Check out my friend Courtney's blog. She's in London right now and has the funniest blog in existence. Be sure to check out her epic quest to find the elusive "Ness Ness."

Dublin Revisited

(new pictures up under the blog album!)

First off, my congratulations to Amy KP, who won the election back home. I'm not sure how close it was, but I'm sure she'll do a great job.

I left with the choir on Wednesday and had my first experience with Irish trains. While the bus takes a good 4 1/2 hours to get to Dublin and results in a cramped butt, frequent stops, and a 50/50 chance of not getting a window seat, I found the train to be far superior and lots of fun, but I was also in good company. We arrived in Dublin from the train station and quickly caught a cab to our apartments, paid for by the Societies office at college (yes) and found our place to be great: Two bedroom, kitchen, living room, and a great view of Dublin. It was also in close proximity to all of the major downtown fun stops, but we had to get going before we could explore to DCU, Dublin City University, for a choir concert. Now, I was a little nervous about this concert. There were only 8 people from the choir that came (out of around..30ish) and I was the only tenor depending on what part our director sang. I also didn't really know a few of the songs, but the concert went fabulously. There were two other college choirs that just formed and they weren't very good, but we rocked the show. The only group that truly showed us up was an elementary choir. We all know how adorable 1st graders can be, but these were even better because they had Irish accents, and there's something about little Irish kids singing songs.

After the after-party of the concert, we went down to Temple Bar to find a late Pub, and grooved that evening up. We went to the Turks Head, which is a pub open late with free admission, and I always end up going there every time we go to Dublin (I'm 3 for 3 now.) The following day we woke up and after a big hassle about where the apartment key was lost (surprise! I wasn't the last one with it) I finally got to go "out into the town" and did the Guinesse Brewery tour. Now, alot of my friends have discouraged me from going, saying it is too over-hyped and really not worth the price of admission, I had a great time (then again, I spent three hours there reading everything: have to get my money's worth.) The whole tour tells you the processes of brewing Guinesse, the history of the founder, advertising, how to make barrels, etc. The building itself is really cool as well, and is shaped like a pint-glass with a bar at the top representing the foamy head of a pint of Guinesse. I found the tour to be enjoyable, and the whole ascent to the bar was one big buildup for what I would deem the ultimate pint of Guinesse. It was amazing. And the view from the bar was also great. I could see 5 of the 7 towers (two have since been destroyed) from U2's song "running to stand still."

That night we had the BICS (not sure what it means exactly) which were awards for the best societies in Ireland. We didn't win, but the dinner was magnificent and we got to hear an Irish senator speak. Also, DCU's campus was great. Very modern, and they had nice couches and a bright atmosphere that reminded me of Whitman, despite the assertions from my Galway friends that NUIG is still far superior.

The next morning we hopped on the train back to Galway and I spent an hour playing a terrible game of pool against Peter Mannion, our director and a girl in the choir, Mary Catherine. I realized I'm terrible at pool and also realized that Peter will go down in my memory as one of my favorite people. Quite a few people make this list, but Peter is hilarious. He has a distinctive way of talking and is always animated and cursing. The best part is, whenever something irritates him, as opposed to saying "I'm mad," Peter will say "oooh, I'm getting the rage." Priceless.

Last night I met up with friends from work. We had a secret diner come to Eddie Rockets and they gave us a 96%!! 2nd highest for the franchise! Guess who the waiter was? Me! This means I get an extra 20 euro. John, our manager, rewarded us with a tab at the bar, and, needless to say we had way too much fun. So now it's morning, I have work in about 45 minutes, and I'm still trying to remind myself that exams are a week away. I'm also still looking for housing in Tacoma, we'll see how my search goes. And yes mom and Aunt Annie, I'm trying the "Whitman" connection ;-).

Hope all is well back home.

Cheers,

-Nate
"Sweet the sin, but bitter the taste. In my mouth. I see seven towers, but I only see, one way out."-U2

Website of the day: Create your own blog! I did. www.blogspot.com .

Relatively Uneventful Week

Well this week hasn't been too exciting, just had the usual work and "back to school" grind going on. I've been hanging out with the choir kids alot though, which has been lots of fun. After the choir concert on Sunday that I couldn't make due to work, I met up with the kids from choir at a pub with a friend of mine from work, Maciek (pronounced "Mah-Chek" from Poland.) Cool guy, and he immediately took to one of the Irish girls in our choir. They're now texting eachother, which is cute, so my role as match-maker is apparently a successful one. Ooh, and Whitman got the facebook, which has consumed much of my "paper writing" time.

Papers have been coming back to me now from the mid-term assignments and in general I've been doing pretty well on them, except for one class. I had an essay for "The Tudor Conquest of Ireland" that somehow adressed all of the wrong points and I didn't do so hot on it. So now, my mission is to write my final essay and include everything I need to so I can have a grade that doesn't make me cringe in that class. All of the other classes have turned out fine though, so now it's just a matter of getting things together to study. With the exception of my Tudor professor, I think the others have been giving us a break. Why do I say that? Well, I'm your average abroad student: I go to lectures, take notes, and do the readings (though not as much as I would at home.) Most of my friends do much less, and yet we all averaged around B+'s for our papers in one History class. Or they could just write better papers than me, which is also a realistic possibility.

I mentioned texting above, and I think me owning a mobile (pronounced here "mo-bile") has opened me up to the cell-phone culture. Now, it is standard equipment to have one of these in Ireland because landline phones tend to be pretty prohibitive in terms of cost. I hardly ever make calls on my mobile though, I text. It's very handy for keeping in touch with friends and being like, "I'm at kings head. C u here?" or the best "what r u up 2 2-nite?" There's a whole code language that could evolve here. Now, since there is such a strong mobile culture, there are also commercials to suite said culture, and they're absolutely irritating. Ring-tone commercials are the worst, and there are two in particular that are just terrible. One is the "Crazy Frog" which makes motercycle noises and has the animation of a frog with a helmet immitating riding a motercycle. What's the appeal? I have no idea, but the advertisement is shown constantly. The other one is "Sweetie the Chick," which, I'll admit is pretty cute, a little yellow chick singing a song. Once again, these advertisements constitute every other commercial on MTV (which, yes, I've started watching in my off time or cooking time *doh*...before you know it I'll be a fan of "Newly Weds"..God forbid.)

Since the choir won "society of the year" we are in the running for the Ireland competition for "society of the year" in Dublin, so tomorrow I'm going with some friends from the choir for a transportation and housing covered trip to Dublin! Awesome! Dublin's a great city, and I'm glad I'll be there during the day and more coherent than I was the last time I was there during the day (St. Patrick's Day, need I say more?) The train leaves at 2 tomorrow, so that will be fun.

In other news, I'm starting to browse for housing in the Tacoma area, as I'll need a place to stay. Why? Oh, I forgot, I got an internship with the Washington State Historical Society! It's great! Basically I get paid to be nerdy, and it's only 200 hours for three months! My kinda job. The pay is decent too, and I'll probably have time to pick up another part-time job and not be so broke. Then again, I'll also have to pay rent, utilities, find a magic carpet or borrow a car (anyone? ;-), pay for gas, ahh..the responsiblities of really living on your own. I don't know how I've managed to avoid them these past three years, but this summer will be me truly on my own, maybe. I've signed up on roommates.com to find some potential ones, and actually a newly married couple sent me an e-mail, but the rent's a little steep (around $400/month with utilities)...but it's close to where I work (6 miles) and has a gym and pool! Well, I'll keep shopping around anyway. If any of you are reading this and happen to have a townhouse or friend in Tacoma, drop me a line ;-).

Oh, and the election is currently today, so we'll find out if I'm the future President of ASWC or not by tomorrow for me (I think it's around 1 a.m. that the polling stops, I'm not sure.)

Hope all is well with all of you. Guess this week was more eventful than I thought. Now to continue on my "Why the Gaelic Resistance was so Prolonged and Ineffectual"..fun.

Cheers,

-Nate

"Is there a line that I could write? That's sad enough to make you cry? All the lines you wrote to me were lies."-The Gin Blossoms

Website of the Day: www.thefacebook.com If your college is not on it, or you don't go to college, this page isn't that interesting.

Back into Academics

(New pictures in the blog album.)

School started up again on Monday and I experienced the last of my lectures for two classes, while my other two history classes will still be going strong for the next couple of weeks. This means I get to start the "fun" part: studying for exams. The library, which is normally crowded, is now filled to capacity, with people literally sitting on the floor. Things like that make me miss Whitman ;-).

Will and Dan got back from their trip to the continent (thanks Aunt Annie) on Monday, so they've been chilling out and telling some funny stories about their travels. I'm really excited to get going, and before I know it I'll be in sunny Barcelona.

Last night the choir had a concert for the "Society Awards" which go to the best societies on campus. The Choral society is such a society, thus we were invited to sing and got free dinner and wine for it. We ended up winning in the "Best Society" category, and got a shiny trophy from which we consumed wine from. Great fun. Also, downstairs they had a rock-a-billy band, which was really cool. I also ran into my friend Sara, who's also my neighbor and founding member of one of the coolest societies on campus: the chocolate society. I jitterbugged/swung the night away, and good times were had by all, but especially me.

Nothing too exciting happening this weekend, the usual work story applies, although tonight are the finals for the karaoke competition are underway, so Erin, Tom, and I should be there in full force singing covers of classic songs. I'll of course let you know how we do.

For my random description of Irish people, I'm going to go into some differences in speech patterns that I've noticed. Americans tend to use the word "like" entirely too much. The Irish do as well, but they place it differently. Here's an example: (American): "So, like, you wanna go to a movie?" (Irish): "So, you want to go to a movie, like?" Example 2 (and my favorite) (American): "She's, like, such a bitch!" (Irish) "She's a bitch like!" There are more. For example, aluminum, they pronounce aluminium, which is apparently how it's really spelled and they get quite defensive when corrected on that one. Trunk=boot, fries=chips. We say "tomayto" they say "tomahto," etc.

Hope all is well back home. The ASWC elections are coming up on Tuesday, so we'll see what happens. I have someone very special helping put up posters around campus right now (you're the best Jilian ;-).

Cheers,

-Nate
"We're gonna rock this town, rock it inside out. We're gonna rock this town, make them scream and shout. Yeah rock. Rock. Rock. Rock. We're gonna rock to the bottom gonna rock to the top we're gonna rock this town, rock it inside out."-Stray Cats

Website of the day: http://maps.google.com Type in an adress, play around with it. You'll get a map, but then, hit the satellite tab and you'll see actual sat. photos of the area you're looking at. Cool!

Historic Weekend

No, what I did this weekend wasn't historic. But Pope John Paul II's passing is definately an historic event, and being in a part of Europe for it has been very powerful and moving.

After my mountain adventure, I met up with Erin and her friend Lauren and we went to a local pub to sing karaoke. It turns out that the semi-finals are this coming Thursday, so really we just had fun singing and preparing for the main event of next week. The top prize is 300 euro, so that would be pretty tight. It would all go into my Euro-trip pack-plan.

Yep, that's right. I'm going to the mainland now, just about for sure. I've been doing research online and getting my flights booked. It'll cost me around $90 with airfare and bus fare to fly from Ireland to Spain. That's quite a deal huh? I wish we had cheap airlines that did the same back home. Thus far, the plan is to start in Barcelona and head into France. I got an e-mail back from a friend of mine from Germany who now lives in Switzerland, and he invited me to come see him if I have time as well, so that would also be a good opportunity. We'll see what happens there.

I'm also running for president of ASWC (the student council at Whitman College.) I have my posters online and if you're interested, my campaign platform is at http://nate4prez.blogspot.com (pretty cheesy I know, but hey.)

Yesterday after work I had a great time hanging out with my co-workers. I met my friend and fellow North American (she's from Canada eh) near the Spanish Arch on a beautiful, sunny day. I was surprised to find a large number of people there just hanging out, playing the guitar, juggling, drinking, or chasing after ducks. It was great. Everyone there was probably from a different country as well, and we had a seat next to some Polish girls who we know through work and listened to a girl named Agata play the guitar and sing some Polish songs. It was just one of those nice evenings. Later on we ended up at my friend Dave's apartment in Salthill and hung out there as well. I'm really enjoying getting to know my employees here, each of them has a very different but equally interesting story to tell about why they're in Ireland and whether they want to stay or not. Right now Ireland is one of the richest countries in the EU, so people from the poorer countries (such as Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia) flock to Ireland for good jobs. For the Irish it's a mixed bag, as their country has never had the success economically that it does now, so they tend to be racist on occasion, especially to the Asian employees. I haven't seen too much of it myself, but even watching two or three instances of it is pretty painful..(you know, the typical "You don't even know what I mean! You can't speak English. Go back to your country!) We find the same thing back home, unfortunately, but being a foreigner and working with foreigners gives you a unique perspective. And not all Irish are like that, it's only a loud minority (and a tiny one at that.)

That's all for now guys. Hope everything is going well and I will keep you posted on the campaign and whatever else is new.

Cheers,

-Nate
"It's been so long, since I've seen her face. You say she's doing fine. I still recall, a sad cafe. How it hurt so bad to see, her cry. I didn't wanna say 'goodbye'." -Journey

Website of the day: http://forums.fark.com/cgi/fark/comments.pl?IDLink=1423530 What history's greatest minds would have done with ebay..hmm..