New Addiction...

I've started knitting. Actually, Mom taught me to knit a few years ago, but I never really got into it. She taught me again when she was here in July. Since then I've been going to knitting club on Tuesdays in Rathmines at Cafe Moda. Laugh all you want, but it's great fun! I've gotten to be friends with this really cool girl named Harriet. She's a super knitter. I bet there's nothing she can't do! The rest of the gang is hilarious! Several of them have blogs that they actually keep up to date and last night they inspired me to be better about blogging.

Here's my attempt at upgrading this blog from a simple travel tales blog to a real, updated, open to the public blog. If you look to the right, you'll see my works in progress (WIP) list with photos. I've also added a list of things I've finished. My little brother has a blog now. Well, as it turns out he's had it for a while. It's an exercise journal type of thing. All you have to do it look at it to see I have the most physically fit brother on this planet. He's a stud. He's also the best foster dad for my precious Baxter. Baxter has enjoyed nearly a year of pampering by my Martin and Annie.

Back to the knitting...I actually knit myself a sweater. I'm going to start calling in "the jumper" though because in Ireland sweaters are generally called jumpers and since I knit it in Ireland...well...you get the idea. That's all for now folks!

Rain, rain go away...

Today is the 29th strait day of rain in Dublin.

Surf's Up!

For once, I was not looking longingly at the car with cool sports equipment tied to the top! I actually got to give surfing a go! The boards they gave us through the surf school were practically pontoon boats! Huge foam things. Even when there wave died, I could still manage to balance a bit. Might even get to go back next weekend. Hopefully the waves will be bigger and I'll have more exciting stories to tell about getting creamed by waves. Who knew I'd be surfing in Ireland!

Something for the environment...

Living in Europe, I think I might be exposed to a little more environmentalism in my every day life than I was at home. In Belgium you will be fined if you do not sort your recyclables form trash! In Dublin, McDonalds has drop boxes for battery recycling. In Portugal there weren't any simple trash bins. Every bin had 4 parts...plastics, glass, cartons and trash. In my house there are toggle switches for every outlet in the house so that even if something is plugged in (such as the stove) the power can be turned off when not in use. We have to turn the hot water heater on and off before and after showering. At the Patagonia store, you can even recycle your clothes. The grocery store prints on your receipt the percentage of your purchase that's Irish grown/raised/produced.

Have you ever calculated your carbon footprint? Your carbon footprint is a representation of the effect your human activites have on the climate based on the amount of greenhouse gas produced. This is measured in units of carbon dioxide. If you want to feel guilty about the way you live try this... http://www.earthday.net/Footprint/index.asp My carbon footprint is rediculously high because of all the air travel I do. (Sorry World)

So, I'm going to stop flying any time soon, I don't have a hybrid car, and I forgot to turn off the hot water heater this morning. I'm pretty sure we have to live our lives without feeling guilty, but we still have to be good stewards and take care of what we've been given. The world happens to be a pretty big thing to take care of! Here are just two things that are worth looking into.

Those curly-q lightbulbs really do save a lot of energy. They aren't that expensive anymore and you can get them in different strengths to match the light output form normal lightbulbs. Plus they last forever or something close!

Tide coldwater detergent is not a hoax! It's got enzymes in it (which are biodegradable) that break up stains in cold water. The enzyme will die (actually they denature) in hot water. In europe it's referred to as biological detergent and it's quite popular. Most brands have a biological version.

Those are the things I can think of for now. I'll keep a list of things I think are worth looking into and you can let me know if you have things you think are worth looking into.

Take care and keep in touch.

10 minutes at a time...

Today I ran a 5 mile race. Here were my thoughts...

Pre-race: I haven't run 5 miles since...right...this is just asking for failure. Well, there are walkers. I can always join the walkers. No. You will run. Oh great! I have to go to the bathroom. Bad timing. There's no time now. Dang it. Now I have to run 5 miles just to get to the bathroom! I'll just run it 10 minutes at a time.

Mile 1: I hope I can keep pace without my ipod. Those ladies are twice my age and wearing spandex pants. Hmm...well...more power to 'em. I wish I had my ipod. You know, you can always tell the good runners, but the mediocre runners like me...they all look like athletes so they are hard to pick from the crowd. Humph. How do people run without music blasting in their ears? Ok, so far so good. It's cold, but surely it will warm up soon. Oh good...mile 1 in 10 minutes almost exactly!

Mile 2: I can run 3 miles. If I can get through this first two, then surely I can coax myself through 3 more. Woohoo...half way mark! The rest is all downhill. Well, except that it's not down hill. It's uphill. That stinks. Hey, I know where I am now. Home is just down that road. I could cut out now and be home in 10 minutes. That's not going to work, my bike is at the start line. Drat. So how much further? Hmmm...Martin always said to focus on your arms when your legs get tired. Maybe that will help. Yeah! There's the 2nd mile marker. 10 minutes and a few seconds. Not bad.

Mile 3: Ok, now I just have to make it 3 more miles. I can do that. I've done it before. Pace is right on track. At this rate, I have to run for 30 more minutes. 30 more minutes! I wish the pavement was even. Maybe the sidewalk is more even. Nope. Ok, this is kind of fun right now! I'm starting to pass a few people. Uh oh...mile three is a slow one. 10 minutes and several seconds. Pick up the pace!

Mile 4: Well, I've officially run my farthest in Ireland. Any bit over 3 miles is a Ireland record I wonder if anyone else in this race can say their cross training includes rock climbing and ballet! Ha! Here's hoping uniquely trained muscles and enthusiasm make up for lack of endurance! Some old fart directing race traffic just told me to put some effort into it. Jerk! I am putting effort into it! I thought those guys were just supposed to say things like "Good job! Keep it up! You're almost done!" Again, just over 10 minutes for that mile.

Mile 5: Only a mile left. Alternating the focus on legs and then arms seems to help take my mind off the rebelling muscles. I've come this far, there's no stopping now. Still have to go to the bathroom. Ha! everything is in miles and now they have an 800 meter mark. What's 800 meters? You shouldn't mix metric and imperial units in the same race. OK. Put the peddle to the metal! There's the finish line!

Finish Line: 50 minutes 16 seconds. Not competitive by any means, but at least I ran the whole thing. I think I'm going to collapse. Oooh. How nice. Old ladies passing out water and snacks. Maybe I'll survive after all. Now, who wants to race me to the bathroom!

Is this really Ireland?

There's been no rain in Dublin since last Sunday. I'm starting to wonder if I'm even in Ireland anymore! I can't complain though. The sunshine is more than welcome to stay!

The house across the street just sold and there are people moving in. I'd like to meet my neighbors who have 2.9 million euro to spend on a semi-detached house! Yes...that's right...2.9 MILLION!!! The house was in shambles and a developer bought it and 'flipped' it. The house two doors down is on the market for 1.5 million. It's not worth much, because there is no back or front garden. Isn't that amazing? This may be the only time in my life that I live in a million dollar neighborhood!

A friend of the family is in Ireland on Business this week, so I'll visit him for the weekend. He works for Eli Lilly and their plant is down south in County Cork in the city of Kinsale. I've not been down south yet, but I hear it's beautiful. There's a rugby tournament this weekend, so we're going to that. I have about a zillion guide books for Ireland that should help give us ideas for the rest of the weekend.

I'm working on being the most physically fit American in Dublin. In addition to rock climbing, I've started ballet again. I just take two classes a week, but it's a great workout! I'm also running a decent amount. Running is not usually my cup of tea, but lately it's been fun. I even signed up for a 5 mile race for next weekend. I've been running 2 and 3 miles on a regular basis. I'll have to kick it into high gear on Monday and then hope for the best next weekend.

Other than that, there's nothing to report.

Keep in touch!

Sunny Day

Today was a wonderful sunny day in Dublin. Yesterday our professors said they were unavailable today, so we had the day off. My theory is that they wanted to be out playing golf. One of my housemates suggested we go out to a town called Bray. There's a mountain of sorts there called Bray Head. We packed our lunches and took the train this morning out there. Bray head was...well...a little steeper and taller than we had imagined! We earned every morsel of lunch! The view was beautiful. Well worth the hike. I spent the afternoon in a little town called Dalkey. I go there on occasion to climb in the old quarry, but for the first time I got to explore the town. Lovely little shops, a castle, a few pubs, a church and a coffee shop or two. My friends actually had to work today, so to kill time I bought Pride and Prejudice, planted myself in a coffee shop and read for a while. Let me tell you that this is most surely NOT something I would normally do, but I quite enjoyed sitting there reading and sipping my latte. Kevin picked me up around 6:30 and we drove to the quarry. I climbed two climbs tonight, one called Thrust and the other Dipthong. Thrust is rated as HVS (hard very severe). HVS pushes me to my limits. Dipthong is only severe; comfortable enough but with a few tricky spots. Kevin will be my climbing buddy this summer as Chris and Richie are both jetting off on extended holidays.

Tomorrow it's back to the old grindstone. I'll be in school most of the day...wishing I was out in the sunshine again! We're going to quantify the RNA we isolated the other day. The other day we isolated DNA and RNA from cervical cancer cells. This class is a lot more demanding than the last. A nice change of pace, I suppose. Biotechnology is pretty new to me, so I'll have to work extra hard for the next few weeks. Learning without struggle is not learning at all, right?

Keep in touch!

Wecome back party...

I arrived back to Dublin yesterday. After a crazy long week in Porto, I was exhausted. I have this amazing friend who happens to live in New Haven, Connecticut named Kristi. When I got home, on top of my mail pile was a green Nalgene bottle with a postage label and air mail stickers all over it! Inside was a really cute pink t-shirt. Talk about a cheerful welcome home present! Kristi is probably the only person I know who would think to stick a postage label on a Nalgene bottle and ship it to Dublin! Today a few of my friends took me climbing at Bullock Harbor. It's a small fishing harbor here. There were even seals! After climbing we went back to their place. Another friend joined us for coffee and hot cross buns. Later we had a feast of crepes with yummy fillings like fresh strawberries, chocolate sauces, maple syrup, etc. It was a perfect Welcome back to Ireland party Tomorrow it's back to school. This module is on global food issues. I'm excited. I still have to work on my paper from Portugal. It's a masterpiece in the making. We're hoping to submit to the Journal of Food Science in two weeks. We have until then to perfect it. Here's an excerpt from the introduction of the paper...

Oxygen management constitutes one of the most challenging and demanding tasks to the winemaker. Starting from grape juice to evolving wine during fermentation, finishing with the maturation process, several critical steps regarding oxygen exposure can be found where the quantities supplied will have a major impact on the organoleptic characteristics of the finished wine.

It has been reported that phenylacetaldehyde, 3-(methylthio)propionaldehyde (methional) and 3-hydroxy-4,5-dimethyl-2(H) furanone (sotolon) play a critical role on the perceived oxidative spoiled character of white wine. Several mechanisms may account for there presence in beverages but it has been demonstrated that the synergistic effects of increasing temperature and O₂ at lower pH increases greatly their rate of formation. Nevertheless, these oxygen dependent substances contribute positively on perceived quality in wines that derive their character from oxidation notably Madeira, Sherry and Tawny Ports.

Although monitoring molecular oxygen in wine during any stage of processing is relatively easy, this is not a standard procedure in winemaking and consequently a great deal of guesswork is still involved.

The chemistry of oxygen presents some particularities which makes its presence, if not controlled, a serious risk to wine sensory stability, molecular oxygen requires an oxidising agent, a metal catalyst to become reactive, like ferrous or cupper ions, afterwards the reactivity of the reduced species increases dramatically, superoxide anion <>

During maturation oxygen regimes are only limited by the permeability of the stopper if bottled or the permeability of the barrel, and the optimal amount will also depend on the “resistance to oxidation” of the wine, these two factors will dictate the shelf-life of the product.

Presently the paradigm of wine industry, taking into consideration the economic importance of the problem is that despite data being available regarding these two critical measurements, conclusive evidence is not available for practical application.

In order to optimize shelf-life three conditions must be addressed and become standardized for industry application; firstly dissolved oxygen must be known; secondly, both the quantity and quality of antioxidants present in solution need to be evaluated; and thirdly the permeability of the stopper need to be provided.

Actually, this was our first introduction. We're going to restructure the paper to focus on how new packaging techniques are going to modify the flavour/aroma of wine over a period of time. The new packages limit oxygen permeability and so instead of flavours/aromas developed by oxidation, we will have flavours/aromas developed by reduction reactions. I've learned a lot about chemistry, that's for sure. My next task for the paper is to look at all the methods for measuring antioxidant capacity and classify them as those which measure antioxidants in the Fenton reaction and those that measure antioxidants in the Weise reaction. It's just going to be so much fun. (I hope you can hear the sarcasm.)

In the mean time...keep in touch!

A document of world importance...

This weekend I was perfectly relaxed and hanging out at the beach again. That part of my life is over...

Today was mentally overwhelming. The course on wine started on Monday. The material is very well organized and I can't say I've been this excited about learning in quite some time. I was even excited about microbiology for maybe the first time ever! Today was intense though. I had three hours of lecture in the morning and two in the afternoon. We covered some microbiology, some biochemistry and finished up with organic chemistry. Let's face it, keeping the sciences balanced is important. I managed really well until the last 20 minutes when we were learning about diammonium sulfate as a preferred substrate for.....yup...that's when I lost it. I have no idea what happened after that. My note suggest we talked about the sulfate reduction system, mercaptans and ethanol toxicity. All of which mean basically nothing to me at this point. I can however describe the bottling process of sparkling wines! My brain was feeling deflated after five hours of lecture, but there's no rest for the weary. Dr. Cesar Ferreira requested my presence in his office after class so that he could discuss the paper that Justin and I will write. This paper just grew totally out of control. Justin and I will now work along with Bimal and Prateek to write a paper that will be published. It's an interesting concept...let me explain...

Portugal must export a variety of wines to the easter countries such as India and China. We live in a world that desires equal opportunity health opportunities. If soy seems to provide health benefits in Asian countries, then the western nations want to get their hands on soy. Wine seems to have health benefits for the French (French Paradox), so the Asians want Mediterranean wine. You might be surprised to find out that wine is not a terribly stable food. To ship great quantities of wine across the water to China poses many problems that degrade the quality of wine. Changes in temperature, for instance, will contribute to the spoilage of wine. In order to preserve the wine, we must consider the package, added preservatives, etc...all might help preserve the wine. The wine must be preserved so that the foreign consumer will perceive good quality, drink it, and receive the antioxidant benefits. Whew...

So yeah...that's what I'm up against. I have to write something from the nutrition perspective providing a reason why we need to get wine from Portugal to Asia, but also explain that we have to think beyond the antioxidant benefits to human cells. Before we can provide these antioxidants to far away places, we have to overcome the transportation/spoilage issues. Justin will tackle the chemical composition of the degradation compounds, aromatic compounds and chemical reactions that may be occurring. Bimal and Prateek will address the potential solutions based on other industries and make suggestions for further research projects.

I HAVE TWO WEEKS TO DO THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was expecting to write a nice little paper about how a glass of wine after dinner might protect your tender little heart. I was NOT planning to write about the distribution conundrum! And I was NOT planning on getting published in some food science journal. That being said, I'm kind of excited. Dr. Ferreira sees me as the nutrition expert who will provide the justification for the whole paper. Having a paper published would be an unexpected surprise. Dr. Kearny back in Ireland expects my thesis to be published, but I wasn't expecting to get published from a food science perspective. If this paper does get published, you can be assured that a copy will be provided for your reading pleasure. Then I really will feel like an expert on wine!

Keep in touch!

I earned the right...

So I think it's safe to call myself a colts fan. Let's be honest...I haven't had much interest in the game until recently but hear me out. It's 3am here in Portugal and the game just got over. I may have been the only person in all of Portugal with a Colts t-shirt on. Katharine is from Chicago, so we pretended we were rivals even though she could have cared less. The game was on some Eurosport channel and was broadcast in Portuguese. Do you know how much you have to pay attention to a game when there's no one there to tell you what's going on? Also, unlike all my American friends, I had to watch the guys stand around on the field during each time out and during each commercial break. When there was a commercial it was one of two...there's some handball tournament coming up and something about soccer. Not exactly the $2.6 million commercials you were watching. The other thing I missed out on was the Superbowl food. No chips and salsa...no velveeta chili cheese dip...not even a coke. I had some Oreos and Katharine had a bag of low fat chips. Yum. So all I had was the game. That being said...can't I call myself a Colts fan now?

Boa Tarde

So here I am in Porto. It´s like a dream. Porto is located on a river called the Rio Douro. The river is quite large like the Mississippi and leads to the ocean. In fact, parts of Porto are on the ocean. The other day, some friends and I went to the river. We sat at an outdoor cafe for a while. The weather is cool, but the sun is shining. It's like those first days of spring when you know it's cold out, but you refuse to believe it! I take the metro/subway train to school every day. It makes me feel like a city girl! Maybe the funniest thing is that my school is pink. It's as pink as pink can be. It's a Catholic university too, so there's a big pink cross on the roof!

I live in a very nice residence. It's basically a dorm. There are single and double rooms. The double rooms are nice...they have a separate kitchen, an oven, big refrigerator, and a couch. When you come up the stairs, my cell is the furthest away. It's like running a mini-marathon just to get there. Supposedly it's 15 meters square. I don't believe it for a minute though! Maybe the room is more like 12 meters square! My window overlooks the midddle of the building...there's a roof and some construction going on. I can see the metro train tracks too. Lovely view. If the sun is shining just right, I can see a reflection of the city in the windows across the way. I have a nice wardrobe with 6 clothes hangers and a little chest of drawers. My desk is quite large...no complaints there. Unfold the other closet doors and a mini kitchen is revealed. I have two stove top burners , a sink, microwave and a small dorm fridge. It's sufficient. Thankfully, I have my own bathroom too.

The food here is amazing. A lot of fruit in Europe is grown in Spain and Portugal. There's an overabundance of fruits and vegetables in the grocery store! Today I tried some sausage. Doubt that I'll be eating that again any time real soon. The flavor was nice, but the texture was funny because it had bread in it. There's a mall near school with a nice food court. The food I've had there is nice. Since Porto is a sea side town, the fish is wonderfully fresh! I hope to learn to cook more seafood dishes.

I'm really excited about the language here. Portuguese is much like Spanish, but words that look like Spanish words are usually pronounced a little different and words that sound like Spanish are usually spelled different. I've picked up enough Portuguese that I can order food in a cafe and ask for things in stores. Not too bad considering I've only been here 5 days.

Today has been full of culture shock, but not Portuguese culture...Hindu culture. Two of my classmates have rooms near mine. I joined them for lunch even though I had already eaten. They ate vegetable curry and rice with their hands. It was so hard not to look baffled. In a few minutes, I will take one of the Indian boys to the laundry room and show him how to use the washing machine. He used a washing machine for the first time in Dublin. He's never heard of a clothes drier though. I've never met anyone who hasn't heard of a tumble drier! I wonder if he has any laundry soap. I tell ya...some days are more than I bargained for!

I'll let you know what else is going on soon! Keep in touch!

Latest adventure...

I know I have lots of catching up to do, but a few stories from my latest adventure must do for now. Ryan (my boyfriend) came back to Ireland with me and we had a blast! We spent the first bit of the trip in Ireland. Having him see where I live was really important to me. We spent a few days in Vienna, Austria too. Neither of speak any German, but we managed pretty well with our German phrase book. Thankfully most people spoke English! There were some funny things...like we didn't always get the food we were expecting. At a pizza place, we ordered pizza with pepperoni. Turns out pepperoni is a pepper, not a sausage! We visited a lot of churches. They are so beautiful. Very ornate. The funniest thing that happened was at Charleskirch. The church is under renovation, so they charge to get in. The cool thing is that you can take the elevator up to the scaffolding and the some stairs to the very tip-top of the dome in the church. I've never been so scared in my life! I thought I would fall to my death for sure! This is coming from the girl who jumps out of airplanes and climbs rocks! My legs were shaking so much that they started cramping up! One thing's for certain, I don't plan on working construction any time soon! Ryan wasn't any less scared than I was. We were pansies. I guess there's a lot to be said for solid ground.

I'll be without my computer after tomorrow. There's a loose connection in the power cord and it's causing sparks and melting plastic. I have to send it in tomorrow and won't get it back for 8 business days. So frustrating. Tomorrow I'll have to figure out how to get it shipped to my school in Portugal. Grrrr. In the mean time, I'll try to enjoy my technology free life. I leave for Porto, Portugal either Friday or Saturday. That's something I must figure out soon! One adventure to another!

That's all for now... Keep in touch.

Thanksgiving in Europe

I never knew what it takes to have Thanksgiving in Europe.


Thanksgiving Number 1: Ireland
I found the biggest turkey I could. It was 4 kg, so about 9 pounds. There may be a few reasons you can't find a big turkey in Ireland. First, they don't celebrate Thanksgiving here. Second, do we really need 20 pound turkeys? Third, the ovens here are so small that a 9 pound turkey almost didn't fit in the oven! I had to put the turkey in a casserole dish, because the pan I bought for it wouldn't fit in the oven. What a sight!

Marshmallows aren't the same here. They come in a small package and include very fruity flavored pink ones too. Plus, it's $2 for a tiny bag of marshmallows! I was determined to have candied yams though. Katharine was in charge of finding sweet potatoes at the grocery store. They were all out! I was amazed! Later, I jumped on my bike and rode about a mile to a street vendor who I had seen with sweet potatoes earlier in the day. She was out too! There was another vendor a bit up the road. Luckily she had 6 sweet potatoes and I bought them all. She was also having sweet potatoes for dinner. I guess half of Dublin was having sweet potatoes that night!

Everything turned out really well. We had turkey, stuffing, carrots, green beans, mashed potatoes, candied yams, and apple tart (no pumpkin pie here). Most of my classmates turned up plus some of my climbing friends and all my roommates. There were 13 people total. I think that's the biggest Thanksgiving ever for me! We had a great time.

Thanksgiving 2: Toulouse, France

Katharine and I couldn't get a taxi Friday morning. It was terrible! We ended up missing our flight because it took so long to get a taxi. We even tried calling for a taxi, but they were so busy they wouldn't send for us. We got re-routed to Paris. That ended up being fun, because our roommate Taryna, was flying to Paris as well. We found her at her gate and we all had a Coke together. Lots of laughs over that! From Paris, we flew to Montpillier. That's somewhere on the east coast of France. John picked us up and it took 2 more hours to get to Toulouse. Talk about a scenic route!

John special ordered a much larger turkey. It was 11 kilos, so about 24 pounds! Very American. It was fun going to the market to get all our fruit and veg for the dinner. We had hoped for a crowd, but there were just four of us; John, Katharine, a guy named Bill, and me. John and Bill deep fried the turkey. You can imagine the reaction of the neighbors. They've never seen a 24 pound turkey, let alone a couple of guys deep fat frying on in the courtyard. The neighbors were all peeking out their curtains. Katharine and I took care of the rest of the meal. Green bean casserole, pumpkin pie, candied yams, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes...the works!

Let me tell you about the fried onions that go on top of the green bean casserole. My mom lovingly put a package together for me and took it to John's parent's house. John took them form there and this is the path they took to get to Toulouse for Thanksgiving...

(Try to listen to Johny Cash: I've been everywhere while you read this)

West Lafayette to Chicago by car, then by plane to Paris (CDG) to United Arab Emmirates to somewhere in Africa to South America to Toulouse to Paris (ORY) to Paris (CDG) by train to Dublin back to Paris (CDG) to Montpillier and by car back to Toulouse! If I get more details on that from John, I'll try to let you know. Seriously though...those crunchy onions went all the way around the world just to make my Thanksgiving perfect! Thanks mom!

Keep in touch!

A relaxed weekend in Dublin...

This seems like the first weekend I've had in Dublin in ages! It's also my last weekend in Dublin for quite some time. The module on nutrition has been interesting, but there is a lot of work involved. I've had less time outside of class to get projects done and there have been more projects than usual. Almost all my time is spent in that crazy looking purple building. That's DIT Kevid Street...home away from home. Sorry about the library services thing...I should give credit to the library webpage where I found the picture. Anyway, this coming week...
Monday: group presentation on Folic Acid supplementation
Tuesday: group presentation on Vitamin D and immunology
Wednesday: present essay on bananas
Thursday: turn in essay and take exam

Whew! I get tired thinking about this coming week! Originally, my paper was going to cover fatty acid oxidation disorders. That got to be too complicated too fast! So now I'm writing a paper on bananas. There was an article recently suggesting that the reason monkeys are so energetic, yet relaxed is because they eat bananas. My paper is an investigation of current research on nutrients found in bananas that can support or repute that claim. Plus, I've thrown in a piece on the dietitian's role in nutrition communication. Did you know that the number one source of food and nutrition information is not the internet? It's the television. Being from the technology generation, I figured everyone was looking on the internet for information. I was wrong.

In my precious little free time, I'm still managing to have a good time. Last night some friends and I went to a birthday party for a guy named Brian. We all had a great time. I even had Irish people dancing like red necks to Cotton Eyed Joe. That was a good laugh. My roommate and I went to a concert with some girls on Wednesday. The Blizzards are an Irish boy band. They play punkish music and little girls go absolutely crazy over them. Even the girls I was with who are 22-23 years old were screaming and going ga-ga over these guys. Basically I felt really old and out of place.

All of the girls from class, plus the Irish guy (Collin) eat lunch together most days. Mostly we eat in the canteen at school, but sometimes we go out. I ended up going out for lunch most days this week. Monday, I bought my lunch. Tuesday, we had Indian food. Wednesday, we had Korean food. Thursday I went to a vegetarian resteraunt with a girl, Marsha from climbing club. She's going home to Holland in 2 weeks. I'll miss her a lot. Friday, I had sushi with Paul. He used to be a campus minister at IU and knows all my CMC minister friends. He's a cool guy. Anyway, at first I thought it was kind of funny how much ethnic food I've been eating. Then I realized that it's all ethnic food! McDonalds, Burger King, KFC, Dominos, Quiznos, Subway, Pizza Hut and Johnny Rockets are the only places to get American Food. But since those places aren't in America, it's considered Ethnic to whoever I'm eating with. Think about it...funny concept, don't you think. The food that's home to them is foreign to me and the food that's home to me is foreign to them.

Well, it's time for bed. I'll be home in 31 nights! I lookforward to lots of things at home. More on that another time.

Keep in touch!

So many stories...

This last course in ecology kept me really busy. Part of the reason I was busy with school was because I made a few too many social engagements! Work hard, play hard! The ecology course was really interesting. I wrote a paper on the ecological aspects of poultry farming. My research examined the benefits of organic farming in Ireland. The European Commission has published a directive that suggests organic farming as a way to preserve the heritage (environment) of Europe. There will likely be a big increase in monetary incentive for farmers who are willing to grow organic. To be honest, I'm still not sure where I stand on the whole matter! Maybe I'm just stubborn.

Three weeks ago, I was on the west coast of Ireland for a three day trip with the mountaineering club. About 50 of us were out there together. Mostly foreign exchange students from all over Europe. There were a fair number of Irish. I was the only person from the USA. I got in one good day of climbing. The crag we were climbing was across the road from a short field of rocky area. At the end of the rocky area was the sea! It was cool to be climbing and hear the waves crashing on the rocks! I went to the Cliffs of Moher while I was there too. Absolutely amazing! There are these enormous cliffs that drop strait into the sea. You can walk dangerously close to the edge if you dare. I stayed a body lengths away...just like I learned as a kid at camp! Thanks to David Fiala at Lutheran Valley Ranch! Although I really enjoyed the climbing, my favorite part of the trip was a caving adventure. Our climbing coach is certified to take groups climbing, caving and kayaking. He's a neat guy. Anyway, he took a bunch of us to Pol na gColm Cave. No laughs about the spelling...it's correct! This is the cave that Tolkien was in when he was inspired to develop the character, Gullom. The cave was great! It was tall, so I didn't have to crawl through long, small spaces. I got to splash through a muddy river, climb up a water fall and see some of the most beautiful rock structures. Wearing a helmet and a head lamp made me feel like a real explorer!

Last weekend I was in Paris. John McKinnis and I had a whirl-wind tour of the city. My proudest moments where when I actually arrived at my intended destinations via the metro. I still don't speak enough French to be useful, so navigating the metro was a little nerve wracking. The thing about Paris is that nearly everything you'd want to see takes your breath away. That, along with all the walking I did made me so tired. I stayed in a hostel near the Cathedral of Notre Dame. From there, I walked for a good 30-45 minutes to the Eiffel Tower. Being a little cheap and a lot crazy, we took 57 flights of stairs(674 stairs, I think) to the second level and the elevator to the top. The 674 stairs are way worse on the way down! My calves were killing me for days! From the Eiffel Tower, I walked to the Arch de Triumph and then to the Louvre. It was dark by then and the Louvre was closed, so we hiked home. Sunday, I went to mass at the Cathedral of Notre Dame. Words cannot describe the wonder of Notre Dame. It's beyond belief amazing. After church, we hiked all the way back to the Louvre. It's by far the largest, most easy to get lost in museum I've ever been in. I only saw parts of two wings and I was there for several hours. The most important thing was seeing the Mona Lisa. You might tend to think that if you've seen the poster, the painting wouldn't be that magnificent. You're wrong if you think that! The painting practically glows and her smile made me want to smile! That was basically the end of my Paris trip.

I will try to be better about logging my adventures. 'Til then...keep in touch!

I have a gift...

Today we had our first class in the new module. This time I'm studying ecological aspects of food. Loosely translated, I'm learning about how farming does bad stuff to the environment. We've all ready been assigned a 4000 word report on one aspect of food production and the environment. I seem to have a gift for picking horrible topics. After a quick internet search, it seemed like a paper that reviewed organic chicken farming would be brilliant. The first thing my professor said was, "ooh...that aught to be a tough topic." Great! I just finished a doozy of a paper that looked at the unintentional introduction of allergens in genetically modified foods. The last thing I wanted to hear was that I had picked another junk topic. My professor keeps saying she thinks I'm on to something and doesn't want me to change my topic. Lovely...just lovely. So now I'm stuck. Let me tell you about my current relationship with poultry farming - I eat chicken, eggs, turkey, and once I ate duck liver. (I won't be doing that again!) Yup...that's my relationship to poultry farms. I don't have the slightest clue about farming techniques, regulations, or environmental risk. So here I am, once again writing about something with absolutely no previous knowledge base.

On a happier note...I got to leave Dublin on Saturday. Six of my classmates and I went on a bus tour to the Wicklow Mountains and Glendaloch. It was beautiful. I learned a lot about Irish history from the bus driver. She was great. I'm hoping to read more about Irish history in my free time...between 2 and 4 in the morning. Ha! Maybe when I'm retired! There are pictures of the trip if you click my pictures link.

If anyone has insight in the poultry business, please let me know!

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What a joke!

I just checked the weather back in the states. There's a chance of flurries in Chicago and Logansport and it's cold in Lafayette. This may be my only chance to brag about the weather in Ireland. Ha! Today, I walked to school wearing a skirt and a long-sleeve shirt...no jacket! It's 60 degrees and sunny. So, to all my friends back home...bundly up and stay warm! You wouldn't want to catch a cold!

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Bonjour!

I've been busy writing my research paper and haven't gotten a chance to tell about my trip to France. I flew into Carcassone last Friday and my friend, John, picked me up there. I got to go to the castle in Carcassone. We ate lunch at a cafe inside the castle, but had rather American food...pizza. There are pictures of the castle if you click on my pictures link. The castle was amazing. I can't believe the detail in the architecture. Really...I think our architecture is losing something. We've gone from artistic tile floors, beautiful woodwork and brickwork to vinyl siding and plaster. Something's wrong with that! Friday night, I experienced a traditional French dinner. A good three hours of eating. I had froi gras. It's some kind of duck liver patee. When in France, eat what the French eat, right? Well, since I'm sick now, I think I'll skip the weird stuff next time.

Saturday was the best. We went to the street market and bought everything we needed for an awesome breakfast. After that we drove out in the country and visited a few vineyards. At the first vineyard, an older guy came out to our care. John speaks 100% more French than I do (I don't speak any!), so he asked the guy if we could try the wine. The wife came out and treated us to a wonderful wine tasting experience. She, speaking precious little English and John speaking precious little French made it all the more interesting!

Ben Harper happened to be in Toulouse on Saturday night, so of course we went to the concert. It was awesome. Quite possibly the best concert of my life. I was surprised that there were so many fans in France. There were 7 or 8,000 people there I'd guess. It was a huge sports arena type of place. It was general admission, so I was pretty close to the front. Nearly all my favorite songs were played, so I was ecstatic! John's never really listened to the band before, but he enjoyed the concert too.

My big paper is due on Friday. I have a test on Friday too. I guess life is back to normal. Not that being a grad student in Ireland is normal!

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Splat!

Today I stopped at the grocery store on the way home from school. All I needed was some meat to have for dinner tonight. Simple enough. I found a pack of two porkchops that came with a packet of applesause. Then I decided that a grilled cheese would be nice too. I was standing in front of the cheese, trying to decide what would be best...not an easy chore...all the cheeses have funny names here. As I stood there, I was kind of flipping the package of meat back and forth in my hand. Emmental cheese is my favorite right now and even after pondering all the others, I still chose emmental. When I got to the checkout counter, I realized there was a big slit in the pork chop package. Upon examination, I noticed that only one pork chop remained in the package. Uh....I smiled and told the cachier that I didn't really want an opened package of pork chops. Of course I paid for the cheese and the other little things that weren't needed, but ended up in the basket. Now I just wonder who is going to find the other pork chop and where it is...splat on the floor of the supermarket. Pork chops turn out to be cheaper at the butcher across the street anyway.

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Climbing Rocks...

All work and no play is no fun at all! I've joined the DIT climbing club. It's proved to be a great way to meet new people and have a good bout of physical exhertion too. The club meets each Monday and Tuesday from 7-9pm. The gym is next to the Broohaha library, so it's pretty convenient. Usually...well, I've only been 3 times now, but I go to the library to study and then head to the gym. Today I bought a pair of climbing shoes. As any girl knows, having the right shoes makes all the difference in the world! Today I did a lot of climbing and belaying and a little bit of bouldering. I was able to make it to the top of 5 or 6 climbs. My first climb tonight I only made it half way up. Belaying is not as exciting, but it's important. Basically, there are two ends of every rope. One end is secured to the climber's harness. The other end is secured to the belay harness. The belay person is in charge of keeping the rope tight so if/when the climber falls off the wall, they don't fall to the ground. The belay person is also responsible for safely lowering the climber to the ground. Bouldering is a way to work on technique. No harness required. Ideally, your feet are never more than about 10 feet off the ground and there are lots of mats underneath. There's a game we play called "add on." Person one goes and grips two or three different grips. Person two copies the hand positions of person one, but adds on another hand position. It's great fun. At the end of October, we're going on a trip to the west of Ireland for a three day weekend. I'm excited about my first outdoor climb! I hope to be a little stonger and have better technique by then. We have a coach...Ronan...and he's helped me a lot already. It's cool because sometimes he'll come up to me and give me pointers about a previous climb. Usually I didn't even know he was watching! If I stick with this, I can be in the intervarsity competition in the spring. All the Dublin univeristy climbing teams compete. I don't know what the prize is...most likely bragging rights! The pictues is of our climbing wall.

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