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Hey again!
Soooo, I'm still alive! Yesterday was a pretty packed day- lots of fun stuff.
First thing in the morning we all went down to the U.S. Embassy in Dublin. I thought we'd get a tour or something, but it turned out we were just meeting and talking to some employees. Security is a little tight, but not as much as I thought it would be. Tammy triple checked all our names on the list she gave the embassy prior to leaving the States- the name on the list is supposed to match the name on our passports exactly. Except, when it came time for the guard to check my name, my nickname "Nicki" was on the list! But he didn't check my passport- I don't think they checked the names for anyone actually. So I got lucky! I was scared I wouldn't get to go in! Only one person from the group was allowed to bring in a camera- one of the guards shadowed her closely at first. I'm not really sure what the big deal is about it. You can't take pictures of the outside of the embassy either- another thing I don't get. I would assume it's some sort of terrorist precaution, but I'm not sure why since they DID allow one person with a camera. ::shrugs:: The only real pictures we took inside were of all of us in front of the podium. The embassy did not look as cool as I thought it would either- it looked like small 80s version of the Colisseum, lol.
The American Ambassador was not in unfortunately. I guess Obama appointed a new ambassador and he hasn't arrived in Dublin yet. The previous ambassador is the one that Tammy has met. Somehow she ran into him at a convention, and they got to talking about her study abroad program. He was really interested and invited the study abroad group to visit the embassy (and the next two groups).
We did get to talk to the employees- three of them. They're employed by the State. You actually don't need a college education to get a job with them. It helps, though, because you have to take a test. The test covers general American history, culture, geography, etc. Even if you pass, you don't necessarily get an assignment right away. One guy we talked to didn't get an offer until 3 years later. Job assignments can be anywhere in the world and can last from 1-4 years. They don't have long-term positions. I asked why, and they actually have a good answer. If a person were to stay longer, they may become more like a citizen than an American respresentative and their loyalties may change. So they keep the assignments short-term. I also asked if they were allowed to bring their families with them, and they said to some places, yes. Certain locations are "independent assignments"- all the examples they gave were in the Middle East. If you go to a place with a foreign language, you're required to know the language unless you get a special waiver for some reason. Language clasess can be 1 to 2 years long.
It was a fairly short visit. After that we had lunch at the Shelbourne Hotel (I might have called it the wrong name in the last entry- my mind kept wanting to call it the Sheraton). It was bittersweet experience, lol. It's an insanely expensive hotel. We couldn't afford the High Tea with the remains of our budget, but it was actually cheaper to eat lunch (amazing, because you get more food that way... in theory). I think it's the European culture of eating that makes the meals last so damned long here- it took us 3 hours to get our food and eat. I think some of it obviously has to do with eating in a large group, too, but even so... 3 hours is a long, long time. I was dizzy and starving by the time they started serving our food, and then they forgot to put in my order! Stupidly, I ordered the smoked salmon. All it said on the menu was smoked salmon. Sounded hella good, right? After I ordered it, I thought... uh oh... I'm in a rich people restaraunt... I may not get much food. And I'll be damned, I was right. =( When they finally brought my food out 15 min after everyone else was gorging on theirs... and I sat there.... hungry... watching... envisioning how amazing my salmon would be... I got one piece of salmon the size of a pancake! What the hell! Yes- it was freakin good. But I wouldn't even call that an appetizer! They decorated it with some pretty greens, but not enough to be a salad. Couldn't they have an included a salad at least? Markus ordered the same thing I did. Except he was smart when he realized we got effed- he got up, walked outside, walked down the street, ordered a sandwich, ate his sandwich, walked back inside, and sat back down like he'd never left. lmao!
That evening, almost all of us met downtown at Trinity College for another pub crawl. It was mostly for Vicky's birthday, but also for like a "last night on the town together" sort of thing that ended up being pretty awesome and lots of fun! The two guides were hella funny and energetic. I didn't get smashed or puke this time. =) I paced myself well, even though I only drank a little less than the last time. I also made sure I ate a little and drank water on the crawl. Poor Vicky didn't see it coming- on our way to the club (last stop), the guides pulled everyone into a side street, jumped up onto some window sills (or something raised), pulled Vicky up, and had her crowd surf across the 40ish people still remaining. A few of us (me included) ran up front underneath her when we realized what was going to happen to make sure she was okay with it. She went ahead like a champ, lol. At another point, one of the guides got yelled at by a cop. I'm not sure why, but I think it was for yelling at us run across the street when we weren't supposed to. The club was lots of fun again. I wasn't blacking out and I wasn't sober- I was at a happy medium. Loved dancing with my classmates!!! ("You spin my head right round, right round when ya go down, when ya go down!"). Btw, they play American music in the clubs. We got back home around 2am after a fully awesome night. =)
Today was a free day before most people head out tomorrow to various destinations. Some are going to Spain, some to London, some home, some elsewhere like moi. So most of us did last minute souvenir shopping downtown. For lunch we went to the best fish 'n chips place ever at a place called Burdocks. SO FREAKIN GOOD! Hella food too- I couldn't finish it. Then we went to a faire-type thing at Merrion Square entitled "Street Performance World Championship". It's like a giant green park full of pathways and trees and greenery, with open lawns in various places. The whole square and the streets bordering it were the faire. It's a neat location for a faire that totally beats our fairgrounds. It was a comedy, street performer faire with various shows all over the place and food stands. I have to say, Irish comedy mades us Americans look conservative. One of the performers (American oddly) was supposed to pull fabric out of a woman's shirt, but, instead (the joke part), pulled out a bra. lol. He also made sexual jokes, and, keep in mind, half the audience are children. And it was normal- no one was disgusted. (I have to say that the Irish really are less conservative. I was in a shop and a girl next to me wanted to try on a shirt. So, in the middle of the store, she yanks off her t-shirt. Atleast she was wearing a bra. Also, they show lots of boobage on their TV shows).
While we were walking around the faire, a guy walked up to me and says, "Hey! My camera's bigger than YOUR camera!" I laugh and I'm thinking, "Oh yeah?" I turn, and there's a big film camera in my face. Woah! He asked us if we'd been at the faire long. I already knew where this was going- he wanted to film the Americans at the Irish faire (I don't know how they do it, but the Irish pick up on us being American with excellent radar). Unfortunately prior to going on the trip, we had to sign a contract that we would avoid things like protests and media. I said we hadn't been at the faire too long, thinking he might move on to some one else. But he went right into his spiel about filming us and asking questions, etc. Thinking the school thing was a great excuse, I started to tell him that- "Oh... we can't... our school won't let us... we signed a contract..." And the dude's face was priceless- he just looked like what the hell?! The school excuse was one of those things that sounded great INSIDE my head until I said it out loud, lol. He was like, "Really? Are you SERIOUS?" I started to laugh and walk away, explaining as I went that yeah... I know... it's true. "What SCHOOL do you go to????????" I didn't answer that one, of course. lol. So funny.
After that we went to Oliver St. John Gogarty's again (we went there a couple weeks ago.. it's the pub with the awesome live music). We hung out there for a couple hours, drinking our cider and listening to the musicians. The two there tonight were really good and really into it!
Now I'm back home at UCD. My classmates leave in the morning at 6am. It's midnight now, so I'm gonna head back to the dorms so I can sleep a little bit before getting up to say bye in the morning. After that, I'm gonna try and sleep again for a couple hours. Then I drag all my stuff to the hostel. I'm not worried about getting robbed on the way- just apprehensive about everyone staring at me! I know they will! If I get settled in in a decent amount of time, I'm hoping to go hiking at the Howth peninsula. It's a little bit north of Dublin- we went there as a group a couple weeks ago, but only went to the farmer's market and lighthouse. There's a 3.5 hour hike I really want to do along the cliffs and cairns there. Monday I leave on my 3 day trip up north! If I get my hiking done tomorrow, then I'm thinking of taking a day trip either to Blarney castle in Cork or to the Cliffs of Moher south of Galway on Thursday. Friday I fly home! The hostel should have internet, so I hope to keep continuing the updates (or try and find an internet cafe in Dublin).
Love you guys!
PS. I updated the photo albums with some more photos stolen from classmates facebooks. Don't worry- I have over 600 photos of my own at this point, so they'll be plenty more to look at when i get back home. That's not counting the thousands we took as a class. We're all getting a joint photobucket account so we can peruse and download each others' photos.
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