St. Patrick's Day in Dublin

St. Patrick's Day is always quite the event in Pittsburgh so I was very interested to experience the holiday in Dublin this year. And who doesn't want to visit Ireland for St. Patty's Day? Although not as large as the parades back in the States, it was very enjoyable! The parade was based on a short story titled "Brilliant" by Dublin author Roddy Doyle. "Brilliant" can be downloaded here.

The celebrations after the parade were just as I expected and certainly rivaled those back home. More images from the holiday can be viewed on my Flickr.

Around Ireland and Northern Ireland

I am well into my second semester at UCD and have long forgotten my poor blog. I had the amazing experience of traveling around Ireland with my new husband and his mother in January. We were able to visit Galway, Connemara National Park, the Cliffs of Moher, the Burren and Blarney Castle, along with revisiting many places in Dublin. A week after we returned from this trip, Matt and I traveled to Northern Ireland with my classmates. We rented the Blackhead Lightkeepers' Houses in the town of Whitehead just north of Belfast. We visited the city of Belfast as well as the Giant's Causeway. This was another amazing experience. I fell in love with Belfast and can't wait to revisit the city in the future. I hope to be able to write about these experiences in great detail in the future but for now visit my flickr page to see more photos from the trips.

19,000 Words Later

Well my first semester of grad school in Dublin is almost officially over and I realize that I have not been very good at keeping up with this blog! So this will serve as my semester in review post (I will try to keep it short)!

After spending all month and countless hours on the couch in front of the computer researching and writing four final papers, I am ready for a break! It seems odd that I should want to type anything after 19,000 words. But I actually enjoyed writing my papers. For my U.S. Foreign Policy since WWII class, I wrote about how the Bush administration wrongfully used humanitarian justifications for the invasions and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. For American and Globalization, I wrote about the ways in which globalization is represented in stock photography. I had to write a bibliographical essay in preparation for my masters thesis which will consider the influence of cultural or social knowledge on photojournalism. And, saving the best for last, for my Media and U.S. Foreign Policy paper I wrote about how zombie films represent the dehumanization of the enemy in foreign policy! I really enjoyed writing that one! I just have to turn in the papers tomorrow morning and I am officially done for the semester!

I made some great friends this semester. We had a movie night every Thursday which was always fun and had some great class excursions to the local pubs as well. We celebrated Halloween and a very interesting Thanksgiving together. We also began a wonderful tradition of meeting once a week for delicious home-cooked dinners (which was great for me since I can't cook)! We are planning a class trip to Northern Ireland in January where we will be staying in lighthouses on the coast; it will be beautiful!

Matt and I had a lot of great times in Dublin and really enjoyed our weekend trip to Galway in October where we bought our wedding rings! He left Ireland on October 29 and I will finally get to see him again when I return home in a few days!

Dublin recently survived an intense snow and ice storm; the city was completely unprepared. This storm was nothing compared to what Pittsburgh would normally get, but Ireland is not used to that kind of winter weather. People didn't know what to do! The snow and ice has all melted by this point but I will be returning to the Pittsburgh winter in a few days so there is no escape for me.

Along with all of my paper writing, I am in the midst of planning a wedding. No matter how small or simple one wants a wedding to be, it will never turn out that way! Although I think most of the planning is complete at this point. The wedding is January 6 and Matt and I are very much looking forward to it!

All in all, my first semester of grad school was a success! Well, at least it seems to be; we do not receive our grades until the beginning of next semester so maybe I should not speculate yet! Nonetheless, it was good craic :)

Ten Things

Now that my first semester of school in Dublin is winding down and I have less than a month before going home for Christmas, I want to revisit a list I made before coming to Ireland. Before coming here, I made a list of 10 things I would miss about Pittsburgh and 10 things I would not miss about Pittsburgh. Let's see if my lists are holding true...

Ten things I will miss about Pittsburgh (in no particular order):

1. the West End Overlook (oh how I miss the Pittsburgh skyline!)
2. the Pittsburgh Penguins (that's just a given)
3. my friends (of course!)
4. Oakland's restaurants (the prices and the selection)
5. Kennywood (sure missed Phantom Fright Nights)
6. Sheetz (oh those late night Sheetz runs...)
7. my family (of course!)
8. my pets (almost more than my friends and family haha!)
9. volunteering (I'm going to have to add 'working' here too)
10. Yuengling (Guinness is good, but it's no Yuengling)

Ten things I will not miss about Pittsburgh (again, in no particular order):

1. lack of public transportation (how true it is! and bless Dublin's bus system!)
2. Oakland housing (I don't miss the quality but I sure miss the monthly rent!)
3. soccer moms (they're here too)
4. SUVs (those are also here but there are not nearly as many, nor are they as gigantic)
5. winter (it did snow in Dublin last night but one inch is hardly a winter)
6. hipsters (they are few and far between here)
7. the Steelers (sorry, I'm just not a football fan)
8. fast food (it is different here, but it's still not very good)
9. rude people (in general, people seem to be more friendly here)
10. laundromats (I finally have my own washer/dryer!)

So, I think my lists have held up over these few months. Although, I will have to add 'cost of living' and 'business hours' to the list of things I miss about Pittsburgh. And, if my lists were in any order, those would probably be numbers 1 and 2!

Photos!

I finally uploaded my photos of Ireland to flickr! View them at http://www.flickr.com/photos/jessburger/

Back to School!

Sometimes I think I am the only person in the world who enjoys school this much! Maybe I just really enjoy learning about my interests and expanding my knowledge and school is an easy way to do just that.

I finished my second week of classes this past Thursday. Of course the first week was syllabus week so this past week was really the first presentation of material. I love that the program I am enrolled in is part of the Institute for American Studies; studying media and US foreign policy as an American in Ireland will be extremely enlightening and rewarding.

The program is small and there is a wonderful mix of students from all over the world and from many different backgrounds. I am beginning to get to know the students and professors inside and outside of the classroom. We had a great night out at The Porter House in Temple Bar Wednesday night after a three hour Post-Globalization symposium at the Institute.

I am looking forward to continuing my classes and getting involved with the Institute and everything it has to offer. I am also looking forward to spending over a year in a city that I am quickly falling in love with.
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A Grand Scam

August 31, 2010 was my first day in Dublin...and it was awful.

My "landlord" had arranged an airport pick up for me and Matt after our arrival. After waiting at the airport for 45 minutes with no one to pick us up, we took a taxi to Belmont Avenue where our new apartment awaited us. Our address was to be 45 Belmont Avenue, our landlord's was 20 Belmont, which didn't exist. How wonderful!

Our apartment, number 45, did exist but was already occupied and was not owned by our "landlord." I tried to contact "Michael Disney" and his "daughter, Dominique Eloi of 344 W. 81st St., Los Angeles, CA, 90003." I got no response of course.

With few options, I tried to book a room at the B&B on the corner which had no rooms available. But here is where the kindness and hospitality of the Irish come into play. The owner of the B&B took us up the street to number 26 where he thought we might be able to rent from someone he knew. It turned out that Mary had a one bedroom apartment available that day. And of course we took it since it was quite obvious that we had been royally screwed over by "Michael Disney."

The owner of the B&B, a complete stranger, took the time to help us when he didn't have to and our new landlady, Mary, also took the time to make us coffee, talk with us, take us to the bank and show us around the area. Now, I am not a religious or spiritual person but I do believe in the concept of karma. "Michael Disney and Dominique Eloi" will get what's coming to them, whether it's from Matt and I reporting the fraud or from one of the many other people they screw over. The B&B owner (who did tell me his name but I was worrying about far too much at that moment to remember it) and Mary will be rewarded for their acts of help and kindness.

And here is the moral of the story: all of those warnings about fraud on the internet are true- believe them! I thought I was taking all of the necessary precautions when arranging an apartment online but I was still deceived. I had a signed lease agreement, photos of the apartment, contact info, names, addresses, bank numbers. "Michael" even gave me detailed answers to my questions about the apartment and the neighborhood so he must know the area well. I have reported the fraud but I really don't know if I will get any of my money back. It is a heart sinking, terrible feeling to know you have been deceived and cheated and of course, to lose a fair amount of money.

It has been about two weeks since our arrival and we are all settled into our new apartment. But, with losing all that money and having to pay rent for our new place, we don't have much extra money to spend. Unfortunately, we have not been able to see all the things we wanted to see and do all the things to do in Dublin. It's been scary and stressful but we have a nice place to live, food, each other and...Guinness.

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