Settling In

Hiya!

I am all settled in. Finally unpacked everything and I have internet up a running in my apartment. I am in great location and many thanks to my housemate for finding such a great place. Work is going well for the most part. It has been interesting to see how a program like this is run and I am learning so much. There have been a few stumbling blocks in terms of organization from the head office, but nothing too serious. Right now since school hasn't started yet I am keeping busy with my own projects, before my real responsibilities start. Went to the Como Zoo this weekend, which was good fun. Also, met up with a few friends from college. So far, so good with getting to see people.
In other news, Sam is starting college in about week!!! So excited and happy for him. He was itching to get back into education, but couldn't do it until he was considered a mature student.
Nothing much else going on here. The weather is wonderful and such a nice change from Ireland. I hope all is well with everyone!

Pet Farm

I have no idea what kind of pigs they are...but they were the highlight of my last week in Ireland. I have had an amazing year here and a sad to be leaving. But, I am looking forward to being back in MN and starting my year of service with MN Reading Corps!

Moving back to MN

Hiya,
Just a quick post to say I got a job and am moving to MN! I will be working as a Family Literacy Member for Minnesota Reading Corps. I am so excited to be employed!

CELT

Hello all! As you may or may not know I spent the last month taking an intensive Teaching English as Foreign Language course. I will soon be a certified TEFL teach! I turned in the last of my work this afternoon. It was a 140 hour course over the span of a month. It was a ton of work, but I haven't had that much fun in school in ages. It was such a good group of people. I loved the teaching aspect of the course and I earned distinction in all my teaching practices. Long story short I am so happy I did it. I really feel like it gives me a worst case scenario fallback and a skill that hopefully I can put to good use regardless of what I end up doing.
I have a interview with Minnesota Reading Corps, which is a branch of Americorps, on June 7th. Fingers crossed. I made it through the initial interview round. I would love to be back in Minnesota for a bit. Georgia is off the list; the program has really changed since last year and I am no longer comfortable participating in it. Then the plan is back to grad school for a history PhD. I love human rights law, but is readily apparent that history is my passion. That and I really feel that one of the reasons human rights seems to be failing rather epically on some fronts is because history, economics, sociology and political science are not taken into account when analyzing a situation. That and conclusions based on bad history are going to be bad conclusions and there is a lot of poorly conducted history research out there. I would like to make some small contribution to curbing this trend.
Heading to Amsterdam to visit a friend of Sam's on the 1st. I can say that it is never a city I would have chosen to visit, but a free place to stay and I'll go almost anywhere. It does actually look like a beautiful city however and I am really hoping to see a flower market. I love all things botanical, can't get much better than Amsterdam for that kind of thing.
I am currently nurturing a few house plants. I have four lilies that Sam bought me. I am fairly sure they are going to bloom like crazy just as soon as I leave for vacation. Then I have some rocket, spearmint and cilantro which are happy as can be. My sage and basil are hesitant to spout, I keep hoping.

Happy summer! Hopefully the weather is better than the rain here!
Working on my thesis...it is crazy to think that I am only an 8th done. Seems like I've been at if for ages. But, it will get done and hopefully it will be something worth reading!

Organic Farming and calves

Two weeks ago we went out to Kinvara with Sam's mom and brother. It's just a bit outside of Galway. A beautiful little town, right on the water with a picturesque little harbor and an old castle. We walked around the town, played with a so little sheep dog for a while, and watched the tied come in. The we went on an organic farm walk. I had never seen anything like it before. Such a process. I had no idea how much works goes into running that sort of operation. He is constantly cycling crops through and has to have everything timed to the day, because of limited amount of space he has. He had a few huge green houses which he weeds by hand. This alone impressed me. Never mind the amount of work that goes into running and maintaining the whole process. Then on the drive back into town Sam's mom pulled over so I could pet some calves! They were sooo sweet. Then out to eat at Eddie Rocket's, which is the Irish version of the American restaurant Johnny Rockets. I always find eat there a little surreal. But, after a walk around an organic farm and petting some calves, nothing really satiate the appetite like some non-organic beef...(the irony was not wasted on me). Hope all is well with everyone!

AHH...Haven't updated in ages!

So, my mom pointed out today that I hadn't updated in ages. I was sure this wasn't possible, but unfortunately it is. Today was a great day. The weather here has been absolutely amazing. Sunny and warm! Sam and I started the morning going to a training session at the gym with Sam's mom. It was soooo much work. I really don't get much exercise other walking, so it was a bit of a surprise for me. But, good fun and a great way to kick off a Saturday morning. Then back to his mom's house for lunch and a bit of a hang out. Then on to the garden center. I bought pots, for planting herbs and Sam's mom bought me a mint plant. Then we got to feed the chickens which they have in a coop out back, which was really neat. There was a particular variety that had blue feet, something I had never seen before. It's a really strange set up, it isn't like a Lowe's type garden center. It started off as a families private house where they grew some extra plants to sell at the market in Galway on the weekends and from there it just kept growing. Now it is a huge complex, still family run, and it has chickens and rabbits and all sorts of plants and a tea room. The family still lives on the premise as well. It was doing great business when we were there. This weather must be so good for business.
Easter here was nice, but I did miss having Easter with the family. Sam's dad cooked some amazing lamb, which was such a nice treat. Opened my Easter basket from my parents on Skype, which was full of goodies from America!
I'll update soon and go through some of the backlog that I have built up of events that need to be covered. I am just to fried mentally and physically from papers and working out to do them any justice right now. Hope all is well with everyone!

First Visitor and Family

Hiya everyone,
I am moved in, settled and loving my new place. I had my first guest this last weekend! So happy I can put my spare bed to good use. Dora, a friend of Sam's that I met the first time I was here came to visit from Dresden. It was so nice to have a visitor! She is such a sweet interesting person and it was so good to see her. We went to Burren with Sam's mom for a hill walk, which turned into a bit more of a trek than I was expecting. Little pockets of sheer rock face, which were covered with a mixture of water and cow poop= extremely terrifying to climb up in wellies. I was convinced I was going to break a leg and mountain rescue was going to have to save me. But, it was totally worth it because we saw WILD HORSES! More like wild ponies really, but they were so cute and fuzzy and completely perplexed by us. They looked like tall Shetland ponies. And there was a white one, which Dora said looked like a unicorn :) We also did some shore walking and there were little tide pools all over the place with starfish and crabs and sea anemones. The weather could have been better for her visit, but at least it didn't rain.
Tonight I am going to see Women without Men at the college. This is a film I have been trying to see for ages and it just so happened they are showing it for International Women's Day here. I can't believe the chances of that. It is by an Iranian artist who lives and works in the United States. It is her first full length film so it will be interesting to see how her background in photography and short art films translates into a full length feature. Might be a bit weird for my taste, but should be good.
Just sent in my application for Teach and Learn with Georgia last night, so I need to start sending in my medical records and supporting documents and hopefully will hear back from them soon.
Then in big news...MY FAMILY IS COMING! They arrive in Dublin on Friday and I am so excited to see them. We are going to do a mini-tour of Ireland and we will be driving...watch out Ireland!
Hope everyone is doing well!