Internet is down at the house again, so I've not been online as much as I would like. I apologize to anyone I haven't e-mailed lately and to anyone constantly checking this page and not getting anything new.
I am currently at a computer lab on campus. Class got out with a few minutes ago, so I thought I'd try to find a computer free. I'm lucky to find one right now due to midterms. This lab (or at least the three computers I've tried to use) doesn't actually print papers from the four printers sitting in here....don't ask me why though. Makes the lab a little unpopular for anyone like me who had to print on Wednesday 30 minutes before the paper was due and not being able to find it because it was sent to another building. Go figure!
I just realized that you are a few days behind. Let me figure out what you've missed...
Wednesday 2/21 - printer fiasco
My big paper was due on this day, but since I have no printer, I have to run to campus. Now normally this isn't a big problem, but it is these few weeks due to midterms. I went to the library, spent 20 minutes waiting to copy one page (everyone else was copying text books) and then ran around campus trying to find a computer without a long wait in line. I went over to the Arts Millenium building where there's a lab on the second floor. There's a class there, but I can usually find a computer free, so that's where I went. I wanted to print a copy off before the final because I like to mark up paper...it's easier to lay out the whole thing at once and get it all figured out. In fact, I ended up laying on the floor with my four pages spread out in front of me, moving whole paragraphs to different pages....anyway. I was in a bit of a time crunch because Mom hadn't commented until 11Am here (5AM at home) and I had class at 12. After getting out of the house late, waiting for the copier, then getting over to the computer, I was really running behind. I printed the paper, whew! But something has to go wrong, right? Well, the printer settings send all jobs to a printer not in this room (despite there being 4 here)... instead the paper was printed off of the color printer over in the other building!! I ran over there to find it, but by this time I was really really late for class so I decided to head back to the house for lunch and to correct it. I made it to my 2PM class, and with an hour in between all I had to do was finish off the corrections (typing them in from the mark-up I did after lunch) and print again. I went back to AM to print, this time picking a different computer and a different printer. Yet the printers in the room didn't have it. I checked and found that each page had cost me E1!!!!! Ok, it's 10 minutes before this paper is due so (after e-mailing my prof the problem) I ran back over to the building with the color printer and almost started crying to the tech guy about my poor printer luck. He said that I had sent the paper to the acetate printer, used for making overheads on that clear plastic paper stuff. Ooops. He put the credit back onto my account AND he printed my paper for free!!! I could've kissed him, but that would've made me late for class so I settled for a grin as I ran to class. I was on time and it was handed in..whew! The rest of the night I relaxed, eating our American dinner (sloppy joes, Laura's mom's coleslaw recipie, corn on the cob, ez mac, apple pie of course, and Kool-Aid--Maire finally understands why we Americans were completely surprised when she gave us "punch" when we came and it was alcoholic!--), giving my Wisconsin presentation to the house....lots of pictures of my favorite peoples too :) Then I fell asleep reading my boring economics reading for my history tutorial the following morning.
Thursday-day of muscials
Turns out I shouldn't have worried about the reading for History, because the TA never bothered to show. We, the two that showed up, gave him 20 mins (well past the 15 minute rule!) and then we left. Whatever...the reading was boring anyway. I went home and watched/listened to Hello, Dolly! and Bride and Prejudice while finishing off my quillow and some other random stuff I've been meaning to do. I had songs from both movies in my head most of the day...although thankfully not "No Life without Wife"!! Hehe..Moogie... I also worked on the presentation for the leadership/volunteering conference that I will be attending this weekend in a conference center near Dublin. We leave this afternoon at 4PM and will be back sometime on Sunday. Lots of really cute pictures of the girls from the Saturday club. There's acutally another one...in a minute. I had class at 4PM, then I checked out some of the exhibits of the Spring Festival week that I've basically missed out on due to crazy schedule. After dinner...much much later...we discussed our Rome trip, what we want to do there and for fundraising. Then Jessica and I had to fix the VCR...getting hooked on "My Name is Earl" from the States about a guy trying to make up for everything he's ever done wrong....very interesting. Anyway, the VCR was easy to fix as a cable was unplugged. We watched "Sister Act"...man, I do love that movie! After it was the tail end of "To Sir, with love" with Sidney Poitier...60s/70s style and dancing made us giggle until well after midnight. It was kinda creepy how this "16-year old" girl kept making googly eyes at the teacher. He even danced with her, which we commented would never happen these days...un-PC. We wondered when that changed...
Friday-crunch day
This morning I had prayed that the internet would work so I could read the homework for today, but no luck. Neif, Jessica, and I went to the primary school because we had no pictures of the study-group that we are presenting at the conference. So we borrowed a classroom for a few minutes and pretended. Who cares if they are real when there are cute kids anyway? Some were taking a test in Irish so it wasn't like Jessica and I could help them cheat. Neif did talk to a couple of them though, especially one who was having a terrible time...he was a cute little one :) We had a hard time getting there by 9AM due to traffic and a bus parked in Neif's favorite spot, so Jessica and I walked home while Neif rushed to get to work. Off to class where he thankfully didn't comment on the readings, and now to the computer lab for e-mails and posting.
on the list today-eat lunch (tummy grumbles can be heard by people on the other end of the lab!), finish presentations, watch a movie while doing random things (like marking socks), leave at 4
I hope the conference center has internet so I can update again soon.
Lots of love, Christi
Friday, February 24, 2006
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
Case of the Missing Black Socks
Well, yesterday I spent recovering from the climb - my left ankle and right knee were screaming not to go anywhere, so I spent the day in the house and preferably in my room (because it was the stairs that were the killer). I did a couple of interviews for my paper that's due tomorrow -- my friend Laura from Missouri and Mom. Today I interviewed Claire but I haven't gotten to sit down with Maire yet. Thankfully the paper's well over half done, and throw in a few quotes it'll be fantastic.
Today I spent in classes and reading the readings for my 4PM class outdoors in the sunshine. After dinner Claire and I discussed music, comparing Josh Groban and Westlife, both musically, crazy-fans, and cuteness factor. Josh Groban won the first and last categories, but we were unsure about the second. It's Grobanites (what his fans call themselves) vs. the lady with a tattoo of each member of Westlife on her back.....tough tough choice. Claire and I had a real laugh about the whole "paper Josh doll" from last year's Milwaukee Journal Sentinal. Sad news -- JG isn't touring currently. Boo.
Tonight I went to a small get-together with Prof. Donnelly from UW, he's a guest lecturer here for a year teaching, of all things, Irish history. Ok, so there's an Italian who teaches American history in Ireland and an American professor who teaches Irish history.....hmmmmmmm...... Anyway, he's very nice and I also met a woman from the States who is here setting up a community service for credit course for international students that will be up for next year. We discussed a lot about what we've learned/experienced while here, including housing, customs, and fitting in. He wanted tips to send back to UW and to Ann, the overseas officer here. I suggested that people before coming learn a little Irish, even if what "bathroom" is, because although most people speak English, a little help couldn't hurt. There is actually going to be an Irish lang course for credit back home, taught by one of the librarians with a degree in Irish (or something like that). He also said that if we needed any books, he's got library connections here and they usually can order up what is needed for him. I wanted to see if he'd be back in the fall, but alas he won't be back until spring. A very nice fellow, brought two bottles of red wine and everything!
I spent the rest of the evening hearing the tail end of the philosophy series, they were debating homosexual couples and adoption, the meaning of love, if there's really life out there, and why there is a God. And I was at the END of the two hour conversation! I decided to help them wait up for two people who needed to be let in (but both were past curfew..tisk tisk!). We were trying to figure out what to do for Pilar's birthday in a couple of weeks (we are already getting better on this whole birthday-planning thing...last time it was a few days, before that a few hours!). Also talked about politics and how sad the commission-things are here, looking into politicians spending/campagin money and finding out all about bribes but not getting into trouble for it. "Oh, I forgot" and "He was such a nice man that he would've given it to me anyway" were two lines that really stood out.
Oh, you want to know about the socks, huh? Well, last week I noticed a really big pile of black socks outside of the laundry bags. I thought they were mine but I didn't want to take them in case they were someone else's. So I left them for a day, figuring out that they were indeed mine. By the time I got back, the whole pile was gone! I had only two pairs of socks left, and so wandered around yesterday until I got the chance to clean some myself (instead of the laundry person who normally does it). Tonight I went downstairs and found lots of black socks that look like mine. I'm not taking any chances, so I confiscated them and will compare to the last pair I have now. Kinda sad, huh? Oh well, at least I have socks now. Everyone kept saying that I should go and buy more, but why should I when I know I've got them here but I just can't find them? Why should I buy more when someone else has mine? Shouldn't they go buy more so I can have mine back? I think I'll sew a colored X or something on these socks so it is obvious that they are mine. And I know that this isn't all of them because I came with 10-15 pairs of the same darn sock. I got them for Christmas.
Oh well...time for bed!
Lots of love, Christi
Today I spent in classes and reading the readings for my 4PM class outdoors in the sunshine. After dinner Claire and I discussed music, comparing Josh Groban and Westlife, both musically, crazy-fans, and cuteness factor. Josh Groban won the first and last categories, but we were unsure about the second. It's Grobanites (what his fans call themselves) vs. the lady with a tattoo of each member of Westlife on her back.....tough tough choice. Claire and I had a real laugh about the whole "paper Josh doll" from last year's Milwaukee Journal Sentinal. Sad news -- JG isn't touring currently. Boo.
Tonight I went to a small get-together with Prof. Donnelly from UW, he's a guest lecturer here for a year teaching, of all things, Irish history. Ok, so there's an Italian who teaches American history in Ireland and an American professor who teaches Irish history.....hmmmmmmm...... Anyway, he's very nice and I also met a woman from the States who is here setting up a community service for credit course for international students that will be up for next year. We discussed a lot about what we've learned/experienced while here, including housing, customs, and fitting in. He wanted tips to send back to UW and to Ann, the overseas officer here. I suggested that people before coming learn a little Irish, even if what "bathroom" is, because although most people speak English, a little help couldn't hurt. There is actually going to be an Irish lang course for credit back home, taught by one of the librarians with a degree in Irish (or something like that). He also said that if we needed any books, he's got library connections here and they usually can order up what is needed for him. I wanted to see if he'd be back in the fall, but alas he won't be back until spring. A very nice fellow, brought two bottles of red wine and everything!
I spent the rest of the evening hearing the tail end of the philosophy series, they were debating homosexual couples and adoption, the meaning of love, if there's really life out there, and why there is a God. And I was at the END of the two hour conversation! I decided to help them wait up for two people who needed to be let in (but both were past curfew..tisk tisk!). We were trying to figure out what to do for Pilar's birthday in a couple of weeks (we are already getting better on this whole birthday-planning thing...last time it was a few days, before that a few hours!). Also talked about politics and how sad the commission-things are here, looking into politicians spending/campagin money and finding out all about bribes but not getting into trouble for it. "Oh, I forgot" and "He was such a nice man that he would've given it to me anyway" were two lines that really stood out.
Oh, you want to know about the socks, huh? Well, last week I noticed a really big pile of black socks outside of the laundry bags. I thought they were mine but I didn't want to take them in case they were someone else's. So I left them for a day, figuring out that they were indeed mine. By the time I got back, the whole pile was gone! I had only two pairs of socks left, and so wandered around yesterday until I got the chance to clean some myself (instead of the laundry person who normally does it). Tonight I went downstairs and found lots of black socks that look like mine. I'm not taking any chances, so I confiscated them and will compare to the last pair I have now. Kinda sad, huh? Oh well, at least I have socks now. Everyone kept saying that I should go and buy more, but why should I when I know I've got them here but I just can't find them? Why should I buy more when someone else has mine? Shouldn't they go buy more so I can have mine back? I think I'll sew a colored X or something on these socks so it is obvious that they are mine. And I know that this isn't all of them because I came with 10-15 pairs of the same darn sock. I got them for Christmas.
Oh well...time for bed!
Lots of love, Christi
Sunday, February 19, 2006
Croagh Patrick
Last night Pilar tried to convince me that we should leave at 9:30AM, but I told her that we'd be lucky to get out at 9:30AM even if we told people we were leaving at 8:30AM. We settled for 9AM departure time which is when most people made it downstairs for breakfast. Pilar was last, coming down at 9:30AM...so much for leaving early. We were out by 10AM and only got lost twice on the way there, stopping to ask directions a few times. We ran into a cyclist marathon, and so of course I had to roll down my window and encourage them a bit by shouting and clapping. We laughed every time I did it, which was 4-6 times! haha...tons of fun....
We parked at a cemetary and started our climb toward C.P. at about 11:30AM. We were following a book of Maire's which was supposed to take us the scenic way. However, with descriptive markers as "houses on the right," "grassy pathway", and "Y and T junctions" that all didn't work because of poor markings, too many Y and T junctions, and the mud which had ripped up grass, we ended up going about a half an hour up someone's driveway...the wrong way!! No one was home, which just made the whole situation funnier. We did finally get the right way and stopped for lunch somewhere on the far side of C.P. Some of us had thought we were actually going to climb it, but the original plan was to walk around it, not up it (which is why we parked over a mile away from the base of the actual C.P. nearer its sister mountain which we had been climbing for a couple of hours). Ooops. We decided we did indeed want to climb up it, so we got another section of the book to try and help us. It kept trying to take us AWAY from C.P. so we gave up on the book and asked at one of the many remote houses that dot the landscape. They were kind enough to let me use the bathroom (hooray!!) and to take our two drivers back over to the other side of the mountain to get the cars and bring them over to this side so we could get up and down easier.
During this time, two of the group had kept going (and didn't know the plan) when the rest of us stopped at got so far ahead that we couldn't find them! Of course they had forgotten their cell phones so we had no idea where they were except for that they were in Co. Mayo. While the drivers were getting the cars the rest of us tried to track the two missing persons down a long road where a car park was located (where we were to meet up with the drivers). There was a field of sheep and I kept yelling "Here, sheepy sheepy!" and "sheeeeeeeeeeeeeep!" and amazingly they started following us! Just call me the "sheep whisperer!" They probably would've followed us farther but a fence held them back. Further down the road Maria Paula was fascinated by the geese in the road and started waddling and chasing them! It was hilarious, although the kid in the backyard across the way didn't see it as such and yelled at us to leave his poultry alone. By this point the geese had gotten underneath a wire fence and were well out of reach from Maria Paula.
When the cars got back, we went farther down the road but they were long gone so we figured they were climbing (since there are no bears, they couldn't have been eaten by one, thank goodness!) I was in the car running out of petrol so we stopped it and turned it around towards the car park. I tried to run after the other car (which by the time I got out was well down the road) to tell them to stop, waving my arms frantically. They kept going, but eventually had to turn around anyway because they had hit private property.
We got to the car park and started our climb. It reminded me a lot of climbing in the hay up in Grandpa's barn as a kid, so I was doing pretty well. My knee was bugging me but I was determined to get to the top. I stuck behind the others to be with Laura, who was moving slower than usual. When I noticed she was crying about 1/4 of the way up I knew that I wasn't going to the top. Her hip had sorta popped and was pinching a nerve when she stepped the wrong way. I would've pushed my knee more to get farther but we were under a time crunch and I knew I wouldn't make it all the way up in my condition (it was 3:15PM when we got started at the bottom and it's about at 2 hour climb up and 1 1/2 down with sunset around 5PM). We together made it to the 1/2 point and stayed there while everyone else climbed to the top. Yep, I didn't go all the way up. So close. The small children (we saw at least two) had made it but I had not. Boo....
I know the view was spectacular up at the top (everyone told us this, I kinda felt like it was being rubbed in even though I know they didn't mean for it to sound like that). We still had a nice view from where we sat for over an hour. At that time we asked a couple coming back down if they had seen the others and they said that they had just made the top. A jogger and his dog made it up and back down in about a half an hour after that. At that point it was starting to get dark and cold, with grey clouds moving fast to cover the sun and part of the mountain so Laura and I decided to head down because we knew they'd catch up soon. As soon as we saw the bright yellow of Claire's coat we started down. Going down was annoying because of the loose rocks. Laura slid on her bum at a grassy patch and I had to laugh at tell her that at least I was the only one who had seen her and I didn't have my camera! (I had loaned it to Maire to shoot some footage at the top so I could see what I missed). I got my foot stuck in the bog up over my boot (a bog is 80% water) so I had a cold right foot until the others made it down. Jumping from dry bog hill to dry bog hill, Laura said "I feel like a mountain goat!"
The two missing persons were found at the top of C.P. where they had rushed to be the first there. Down at the car we all changed shoes and socks, and some of us pants too (like me)....poor Pilar was covered because she'd fallen in the bog face first so her hands, knees, and shoes were covered in mud.
With gas fumes and a lot of prayer, our poor petrol-deprived car made it to Westport, about 20km/9 miles on very little gas (like, when on level ground it was low, but up and down hills it would die if we paused for long and sometimes it got a freaky burning smell. No smoke though so we assume everything's fine). We made it back to RG by 8:40PM, 10 minutes later than our ETA (but not so bad considering how late we were getting going!). We are all exhausted, but did manage a late dinner. Unfortunantly for Laura, Jessica, Claire, and I everyone left before clean-up because they forgot we have to set the breakfast table, so we ended up unloading and loading the dishwasher and setting for breakfast which took us at least a half an hour (until 10PM). I could've fallen asleep on the stairs on the way up (all my joints feel squishy) or on the floor while looking for my phone charger (I can't find it anywhere!). I was going to take a shower, but I could probably fall asleep here at my computer too. I didn't want to forget much so I did stay up for this. Since I have a paper due on Wednesday that I haven't really started working on, I really do need to be up and writing tomorrow instead of sleeping in! I can tell I'm going to sleep REALLY WELL tonight though!
I hope to go back to C.P. sometime in April/May and climb the whole thing. I think I'll climb the other side of the mountain because I think that side is easier to get up (no bog, well-worn path). I also hope to leave much earlier...like 8AM and be climbing the thing by 11AM. That way I can enjoy most of the day there. I hope we have another lovely day like today although I may have gotten a little burnt from too few clouds! I've just got to earn the right to wear a homemade "I Climbed C.P." tee-shirt!! There's also a Famine Museum in Westport I'd like to see next time.
I'll get pictures from today online soon. Until then, please check out the ones already there for viewing!!! Lots of love, Christi
We parked at a cemetary and started our climb toward C.P. at about 11:30AM. We were following a book of Maire's which was supposed to take us the scenic way. However, with descriptive markers as "houses on the right," "grassy pathway", and "Y and T junctions" that all didn't work because of poor markings, too many Y and T junctions, and the mud which had ripped up grass, we ended up going about a half an hour up someone's driveway...the wrong way!! No one was home, which just made the whole situation funnier. We did finally get the right way and stopped for lunch somewhere on the far side of C.P. Some of us had thought we were actually going to climb it, but the original plan was to walk around it, not up it (which is why we parked over a mile away from the base of the actual C.P. nearer its sister mountain which we had been climbing for a couple of hours). Ooops. We decided we did indeed want to climb up it, so we got another section of the book to try and help us. It kept trying to take us AWAY from C.P. so we gave up on the book and asked at one of the many remote houses that dot the landscape. They were kind enough to let me use the bathroom (hooray!!) and to take our two drivers back over to the other side of the mountain to get the cars and bring them over to this side so we could get up and down easier.
During this time, two of the group had kept going (and didn't know the plan) when the rest of us stopped at got so far ahead that we couldn't find them! Of course they had forgotten their cell phones so we had no idea where they were except for that they were in Co. Mayo. While the drivers were getting the cars the rest of us tried to track the two missing persons down a long road where a car park was located (where we were to meet up with the drivers). There was a field of sheep and I kept yelling "Here, sheepy sheepy!" and "sheeeeeeeeeeeeeep!" and amazingly they started following us! Just call me the "sheep whisperer!" They probably would've followed us farther but a fence held them back. Further down the road Maria Paula was fascinated by the geese in the road and started waddling and chasing them! It was hilarious, although the kid in the backyard across the way didn't see it as such and yelled at us to leave his poultry alone. By this point the geese had gotten underneath a wire fence and were well out of reach from Maria Paula.
When the cars got back, we went farther down the road but they were long gone so we figured they were climbing (since there are no bears, they couldn't have been eaten by one, thank goodness!) I was in the car running out of petrol so we stopped it and turned it around towards the car park. I tried to run after the other car (which by the time I got out was well down the road) to tell them to stop, waving my arms frantically. They kept going, but eventually had to turn around anyway because they had hit private property.
We got to the car park and started our climb. It reminded me a lot of climbing in the hay up in Grandpa's barn as a kid, so I was doing pretty well. My knee was bugging me but I was determined to get to the top. I stuck behind the others to be with Laura, who was moving slower than usual. When I noticed she was crying about 1/4 of the way up I knew that I wasn't going to the top. Her hip had sorta popped and was pinching a nerve when she stepped the wrong way. I would've pushed my knee more to get farther but we were under a time crunch and I knew I wouldn't make it all the way up in my condition (it was 3:15PM when we got started at the bottom and it's about at 2 hour climb up and 1 1/2 down with sunset around 5PM). We together made it to the 1/2 point and stayed there while everyone else climbed to the top. Yep, I didn't go all the way up. So close. The small children (we saw at least two) had made it but I had not. Boo....
I know the view was spectacular up at the top (everyone told us this, I kinda felt like it was being rubbed in even though I know they didn't mean for it to sound like that). We still had a nice view from where we sat for over an hour. At that time we asked a couple coming back down if they had seen the others and they said that they had just made the top. A jogger and his dog made it up and back down in about a half an hour after that. At that point it was starting to get dark and cold, with grey clouds moving fast to cover the sun and part of the mountain so Laura and I decided to head down because we knew they'd catch up soon. As soon as we saw the bright yellow of Claire's coat we started down. Going down was annoying because of the loose rocks. Laura slid on her bum at a grassy patch and I had to laugh at tell her that at least I was the only one who had seen her and I didn't have my camera! (I had loaned it to Maire to shoot some footage at the top so I could see what I missed). I got my foot stuck in the bog up over my boot (a bog is 80% water) so I had a cold right foot until the others made it down. Jumping from dry bog hill to dry bog hill, Laura said "I feel like a mountain goat!"
The two missing persons were found at the top of C.P. where they had rushed to be the first there. Down at the car we all changed shoes and socks, and some of us pants too (like me)....poor Pilar was covered because she'd fallen in the bog face first so her hands, knees, and shoes were covered in mud.
With gas fumes and a lot of prayer, our poor petrol-deprived car made it to Westport, about 20km/9 miles on very little gas (like, when on level ground it was low, but up and down hills it would die if we paused for long and sometimes it got a freaky burning smell. No smoke though so we assume everything's fine). We made it back to RG by 8:40PM, 10 minutes later than our ETA (but not so bad considering how late we were getting going!). We are all exhausted, but did manage a late dinner. Unfortunantly for Laura, Jessica, Claire, and I everyone left before clean-up because they forgot we have to set the breakfast table, so we ended up unloading and loading the dishwasher and setting for breakfast which took us at least a half an hour (until 10PM). I could've fallen asleep on the stairs on the way up (all my joints feel squishy) or on the floor while looking for my phone charger (I can't find it anywhere!). I was going to take a shower, but I could probably fall asleep here at my computer too. I didn't want to forget much so I did stay up for this. Since I have a paper due on Wednesday that I haven't really started working on, I really do need to be up and writing tomorrow instead of sleeping in! I can tell I'm going to sleep REALLY WELL tonight though!
I hope to go back to C.P. sometime in April/May and climb the whole thing. I think I'll climb the other side of the mountain because I think that side is easier to get up (no bog, well-worn path). I also hope to leave much earlier...like 8AM and be climbing the thing by 11AM. That way I can enjoy most of the day there. I hope we have another lovely day like today although I may have gotten a little burnt from too few clouds! I've just got to earn the right to wear a homemade "I Climbed C.P." tee-shirt!! There's also a Famine Museum in Westport I'd like to see next time.
I'll get pictures from today online soon. Until then, please check out the ones already there for viewing!!! Lots of love, Christi
