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..
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..
posted by Nate at
1:36 PM
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