Checking in From the Emerald Isle

 Hello everyone!

Sorry I have been lax in updating you. I'm in Europe now, after a brief sojourn home to celebrate my Mom's birthday. There aren't too many pictures to show you - between my work schedule and the jet lag which is only just starting to lift, I haven't ventured much beyond my little neighborhood. I am right in the heart of Dublin, though, so it's not a bad neighborhood to stick to! 

Since there aren't any wild tales to tell right now, here's a smattering of things I've learned or noticed:

• This is a wildly international city. I can probably count on my fingers the number of actual Irish accents I have heard! Almost everyone here, myself included, seems to be from somewhere else. Maybe that's just my neighborhood (see "haven't been anywhere else," above), but it has certainly been a surprise. 
• Fireworks are a Halloween thing. I gather they are illegal in Ireland but legal in Northern Ireland, and with the open border you basically get fireworks going off all over Dublin for a solid month leading up to Halloween. On Halloween itself it was nonstop for hours. When I went out that evening, the whole city smelled of that unique smoke/ash that they generate. 
• Churches EVERYWHERE. 
• Frustrating but also supremely useful: they don't have American junk food here. Junk food aplenty, to be sure, but it's not American brands and even the ones that seem like they will be straight dupes actually taste quite different, and not usually in a way I enjoy. So my eating habits are being kept in check whether I want them to or not! My kingdom for a bag of plain unflavored potato chips. 
• Also on the subject of potato chips: they come in every flavor I've never even thought of - Balsamic vinegar. Curry. Shrimp. Cheddar and onion. And if it looks like a big US-style bag, it's not - it's actually a big bag filled with six mini bags. 

Double rainbow, as seen from my window

My time in Dublin is wrapping up here shortly, and from this point on I actually hop around quite a bit for the next couple of months - a week on the other side of Ireland in a tiny little town, staying over a pub, then a couple of weeks in London and a couple of weeks in Paris, then home for the holidays (again, a couple of weeks), and then I join my first Chapter with the WiFi Tribe! I'll talk more about them in another post, but in short it's a really neat digital nomad group full of people doing just what I'm doing - traveling while working remotely full-time - that sets up shop in various places around the world for a month or so at a time. I'll be spending January with them in Dahab, Egypt! 

Countdown

Flying out in just a few days, almost certainly via two days in Singapore. And, as these things go, I suddenly have lots going on!

 

Yesterday Pauline took me shopping for my saree- I needed one, intended to get two, and walked out with three. You know how these things go. I found the perfect saree for my last day at school, but I found it in two perfect colors! I knew I'd regret whichever one I didn't get, so I got both. They even have coordinating trim, so I can wear the blouse intended for one with the other and vice versa, so it's like I got four for the price of two! Right? They're insanely beautiful, and while spending more than 1000 rupees on a single item boggles my mind after a few months here, it actually works out to be $20. The third and final one is one I've intended to buy for years and years- sometime in high school I got it into my head to own a black and gold saree. And now I do!

After saree shopping, we went to a swanky little ice cream parlor (cookies and cream tastes different here, but is still delicious!), bought glass bangles to match my saree, and then rushed off to Boys Home on a dual errand. Tuesday night is normally when we go to Boys Home, plus one of their neighbors is a lady who could stitch my saree blouse! Rosalee, the house mother (as well as my favorite teacher), insisted on accompanying us, which turned out to be very fun and useful. She was suitably impressed with my selections, and she LOVED the black one and wants it for her birthday. Putting my hair up so it wouldn't get in the way of the measurements led to a five minute demonstration of my awesome hair comb. And she explained to the seamstress how soon I needed the work done!

My favorite picture I have taken at Boys Home- Gopi looks like in this moment, his life is as perfect as he has ever imagined

Today my big item was finally picking up the last of my churidars from the tailor. Just in time to wear everything once and go home! But now I'm prepared for return trips.

Check out the fancy detail they added on this neckline (using fabric from the pants):

 

Tomorrow is going to be hopping! Directly from school, Pauline and I are going to the small local mall for mehendi- those gorgeous intricate henna tattoos all over my hands. So excited!! Will probably also pick up some sort of necklace, because apparently it will be a tragedy if I don't wear one with my saree.

The henna will take some time, and then it's straight off to Boys Home again for final fittings for my blouse, and to confirm plans for Friday morning with Rosalee. Once that is done, it's back to the flat for a girls night in with Dominos pizza. Pauline has never partaken, and specifically requested to join in.

Friday morning, it's up bright and early to hustle back to Boys Home one last time so Rosalee can help me tie my saree, do my hair up with jasmine flowers, and anything else I need to be properly fancy for my last day. Then it will be my last day at Little Lambs! A few weeks ago I couldn't wait for that, but now it all feels a little fast! I'm very excited about what I'm moving on to, but still.

 

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Watch This Space...

Hello, world! It's been a while, hasn't it?

Maybe we should go somewhere... somewhere exciting... sometime soon...

...say, Chennai, India?

Upcoming Adventures

It's not international travel, but I'm going to post from the road a few times as I journey through the Southwest with Katie in June. After we both graduate, she is flying down to meet me in San Antonio, and we are winding out way through New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, California, and Oregon on our way back to Seattle.

I hope you will enjoy!

Upcoming adventures will feature:

Yours Truly

The Katiemeister

Candy (the car)

Going Back

Going into winter break, I realized that I was rapidly approaching my final Spring Break. Going all the way back to 8th grade, I have spent all but one Spring Break doing something exciting (9th grade being the year of hanging out at home for a week).

• 8th Grade: Class trip to Washington, DC (exciting, even if I was miserable because I had mono and the stomach flu at the same time)
• 9th Grade: N/A
• 10th Grade: NYC with my mom for a week of Broadway shows
• 11th Grade: San Antonio and Santa Fe with my parents, to look at colleges and see the Southwest
• 12th Grade: China for two weeks! Beijing, Xi'an, Shanghai, and Hong Kong
• Freshman Year: Dublin with Katie
• Sophomore Year: Spring Training in Arizona with my parents, along with a trip to the Grand Canyon
• Junior Year: Scotland for a week with Clarissa, and Santorini for a week with the girls! Extensively documented on this very blog.

So clearly, my Final Spring Break could not be a bust. But then comes along the affordability issue. Even if I could find some cheap way to get somewhere exciting, I'd still have to pay to stay there for 10 days! If only I knew someone who lived someplace cool....

And lo and behold, I have a friend moving to Paris in a few weeks. I brought the idea up a few times, but was sort of hemming and hawing.... Fortunately, my mom can be pushy and decided it was a perfect plan and I was going. So yesterday, after a hair-frazzling 20 minutes with the Air France "Reservations System" malfunctioning every time I entered my information, I booked my trip to Paris!!!

I'll be there in less than two months, for just over a week. I'm very much hoping to fit in a day trip to Geneva, London, or Amsterdam, or someplace similarly close. Since I have already lived in Paris, I won't need to knock myself out trying to hit all of the tourist spots. I can just enjoy being back in one of my favorite cities.

That said, I do have a little To-Do List worked out:

• Stop by and say "hi" to Shelley
• Get bread from my favorite patisserie
• Have a meal of fresh bread, goat cheese, and Limonata at the Eiffel Tower
• Walk the Seine at twilight
• Try and find The Magic Steps from Midnight in Paris
• Go to one of the flea markets, or at least a thrift shop, and get something
• Watch the Tower sparkle from Trocadero

At first, the reason I was a little hesitant to book a trip is that... well, I was just living there less than a year ago. It's not someplace new and exciting. But the more I plan my trip, the more excited I am getting. It will be so nice to show up and have it all be familiar! I will get to use my French again, walk my favorite streets again, and finally show off my little neighborhood to someone from home. And I will eat so much cheese. So cheap, and so yummy. 

Plus, the friend I am staying with are very into adventuring. So I should be able to experience Paris in a whole new way!

I'll keep you all posted ;)

Edinburgh, Entry I

We reached Edinburgh a little before midnight, and I checked into my hostel (Clarissa and I figured that 10 days of sleeping in the same room might wear on us, so I got my own hostel for 3 nights, then slept on her floor over the last weekend). A pretty cool place, right in the center of things. If I even decide to spend a month or two in Edinburgh (not out of the question, though I don't know what life circumstances would lead to such an event transpiring), it would be an excellent long-stay hostel.

Edinburgh was a much more relaxed time than running around to a new city each day. I slept in on a regular basis, and generally just walked around. 

My first day, I decided to orient myself with a bus tour. The guide had such a thick Scottish accent that I probably got just as much out of his narration as I do when I'm being guided in French! Which is to say, I followed it, but definitely missed out on many nuances. 

A proper-sized bustling hub of a city!

Aforementioned tour guide

This is where Robert Louis Stevenson lived!

Police box and a telephone booth! Love it. 

Clarissa and I met up for dinner and spent several hours catching up (apparently in 5 days of constant contact, we had barely tapped the barrel of available conversations) the first night. She kept trying to get me to order to vegetarian haggis, but I outsmarted her and got a Reeses shake instead. I was so insistent that they completely load it with Reeses that they actually served it to me with an entire monster Reeses on the side! 

Never did get to the castle, but it's on a list for future visits. It's good to leave some things unexplored, right? I need an excuse to go back! Something else I sorta meant to do but never actually did is take a Writing Tour of Edinburgh. So many notable writers spent formative and productive time in Edinburgh. Among them are Sir Walter Scott, Robert Louis Stevenson, and JK Rowling. I added myself to the list (self-aggrandizing, I know) with a day working on my writing in the main park that runs between Old Town and New Town.

An interesting part of my timing in Scotland was that it was in the two weeks leading up to the Royal Wedding. Every tabloid was all about it, and they had lots of engagement-ring knock-off jewelry in the stores. I actually considered a pair of 4-pound earrings based on The Ring, because it would be such a timely, topical souvenir, but I just couldn't bring myself to spend money on a copy that was so cheap the "sapphire" was see-through and light purple. Still, it was much good fun. I was in Greece for the wedding itself, and watched it with all of the other girls there. But more on that later...

Writing

Though I wasn't there for the Wedding, I was in the UK for another wonderfully UK-ish (British? Scottish? What on earth do you call something which refers to the entire UK?) thing: the premier of the new season ("series") of Doctor Who. Clarissa has a small viewing party that she would go to in the fall for new episodes of Merlin, and they decided to start it up again for Doctor Who. It was a fabulous time- we ordered pizza and flopped around on a couch, yelling at Dan whenever he messed with the TV, discussing various fandoms, and positing theories on the episode, while it was happening. It's been such a long time since I watched a TV show with someone. It's so much fun! 

The other main to-do of Edinburgh was our rainy climb of the craigs and Arthur's Seat, a dormant volcano. But that involves lots of pretty pictures, and my internet is quite slow right now. So it will get it's own post, then it's onto Glasgow and Greece!

Iceland update: booked the hotel, now to look into what adventuring I want to do. Add another European volcano to my list? Whale watching and glacier spotting? Geothermal hotsprings?

Quick Bits, May 2011

I'm still working on my Edinburgh post for you all to continue with my Spring Break chronicles, but I thought I'd pause in your regularly scheduled programming for a quick update on life in my last few weeks in Paris.

I leave three weeks from today, but make a 3-day stop in Iceland on the way home. Need to get on booking a hotel/hostel....

It was so hard going back to school after Spring Break. So hard. Especially when my professor who cancelled class decided to schedule a make-up class- for Friday morning. Bleck. But I made an exciting discovery over the course of the week as well: I can read French! As in, actually sit there and fully comprehend an article, with all of it's tenses and nuance, from start to finish. Granted, it takes me a lot longer than it would to read the same article in English (something I could scan in 15 seconds in English takes me maybe 2 minutes in French), and I do of course still have to look up the odd vocabulary word. But I'm properly reading French! I am also finally getting to the point where I can listen to and speak French without having to consciously translate everything. I wouldn't dare claim to be fluent, but I think I may very well be approaching proficiency. Wheeee!

I was also able to help a girl learn about adverbs and adjectives at my volunteer position- the same day that we worked on them in my own grammar class.....

Today was absolutely excellent. The Central Folk took an organized trip to Giverny, about 45 minutes outside of Paris. Giverny is where Claude Monet lived and worked for most of his career. His house has mainly Japanese art inside, which has a historical explanation but was still odd, but the gardens. Oh my goodness the gardens. I will have a full post on the visit at some point, but just know that today, I walked along the famous water lily pond. No blooms on the lilies at this point in the year, sadly, but it was GORGEOUS.

I've scrapped my plan to take a day trip to Geneva next weekend. When I first conceived of the idea a month or so ago, I was worrying about only going to a few countries while over here. Now that the time is upon me, however, I am far more worried about not being able to fully enjoy the rest of my time in Paris! It is so lovely out now, and there are so many picnics I still want to have! I've located an available rooftop for the evening picnic my foyer-mate Vanessa and I want to have, and I have several girls who are amenable to at least one more picnic along the Seine, and under the Eiffel Tower. Probably also a return visit to the Bois de Bourlogne. I need to watch the sunset at Sacre Coeur, and get another crepe! I haven't had one in probably two months- it's an absolute travesty. I need to see Elise at least once more before I go. And I need to pass all of my finals. Psh, details.

Finally, I leave you with a picture I stole off of another girl's Facebook. It is probably the only photo that exists that proves that I indeed swam in the Mediterranean while on Spring Break. This one's for you, Daddy:

Random Tidbits

Just thought I'd swing by and give you guys an update on some upcoming travels:

• Doing a whistle-stop tour of the South of France this weekend. Dad, I'll make sure to at least dip my toes in the Mediterranean for you!
• Spending my first three nights in Scotland roaming about the countryside with Clarissa. Scottish highlands!! And then almost a week of wandering around the capital of Scotland, seeing castles and listening to Scottish accents. I'm a happy girl.

And now a bunch of random pictures, because I feel like I've been neglecting you...

The alligator I made at my benevolat. Yay for Friday being arts and crafts day!

The extremely suspicious statue in the Tuileries

Little motorized sailboats in the Tuileries

If I'm getting my monuments right, I believe you can see straight down the Champs Elysee to the l'Arc de Triomphe from the Tuileries

This is one of my favorite pigeons thus far

The Louvre Palace/Museum, complete w/ Pyramid

The Seine

Zen and Future Travel

I've come to a new philosophy just over the past couple of days, and I'm pleased with it. I'm no longer going to stress out over getting to all of the places in Europe I want to go before June. I'm only twenty. I will be back in Europe. This means that my Spring Break will be much more relaxed (also likely cheaper, which is a bonus), and the rest of my time in Paris will be more relaxed.

This weekend, I am not biking the Loire Valley. This is mostly due to the random foot injury of London Day One , but I'm actually very okay with the decision. I am certain there will be a few regrets when I see all of the pictures of chateaus that the girls will post, but it means I am not gone two weekends in a row. I've done that before, and it is very tiring.

This is how Spring Break is shaping up:

After my classes that Thursday (I have no Friday classes), I am going to take the Eurostar up to London again, then catch the overnight bus to Edinburgh. The other option was an overnight train, and this is much less expensive and apparently not sketchy. I will be sleeping on Clarissa's floor for a few of the nights, but then Katie will be arriving and booting me, as she made her plans first. So I'll move into an excellent hostel I found nearby. Need to confirm the exact nights I'll be doing that....

While in Edinburgh, my plans are to laze about and sight-see and enjoy the city for several days, then take a trip to the Highlands (probably the first weekend, with Clarissa, but that part is still in the planning stages) for a day or two, and I think I will also take a day trip to Glasgow, the coast, or a good castle on a different day. I doubt I will do all of them, because I'm finding that I like having slightly extended vacations places, rather than jumping about like crazy. Spring Break freshman year, I spent the entire week within the city boundaries of Dublin, and had a wonderful time.

Then, in the wee hours of the following Sunday (a little over a week later), I will fly first to London and then to Athens via EasyJet, and meet up with a group of Central Folk who are doing Greece together. I'm not sure of the exact timetables, but I think we have a night in Athens (Sunday night), then 4 or 5 nights on Santorini, then another 1 or 2 in Athens. So, I'll have time to see some sights in Athens, but spend most of my time lazing on a Greek island and swimming in the Mediterranean!

I think it sounds like excellent times.

That all starts up in a little more than a month, and in the meantime, I have a weekend in the South of France coming up in about two weeks, I think. I think any additional traveling might take place the week after classes end, if I can find someplace to stash my stuff in Paris, or taking an extended layover in Iceland on my way home, or just the next time I travel to Europe! I'm no longer stressing about hitting Barcelona and Italy and Prague and Amsterdam and Berlin and somewhere in Scandinavia and... even making the list gets me tired and stressed.

Really, when you think about it, this is the way people approach being anywhere except Europe on study abroad. In New Zealand or Australia, it would be very expensive to go most anywhere else. I don't hear too much of people doing inter-Latin American travelling. If they do, it is one place, for one week, on Spring Break, and that's it. And it's a big deal. Whereas, by the time I fly home at the end of May/early June, I can be assured of having done the following:

1. Walked across the Thames
2. Walked across the Seine
3. Hiked the Scottish Highlands
4. Swum (swam? I honestly have no idea which goes here) in the Mediterranean
5. Eaten a crepe in front of Notre Dame
6. Visited the Parthenon 
7. Seen castles
8. Lived in Paris!

4 countries, the capital cities of all. Not too shabby. I am counting Scotland and Great Britain as different countries, but I'm not really sure how that works. And this is assuming no final week of traveling. 

I predict that this will lead to a significantly less stressful rest of the semester. And I'm not really missing anything- I'm just not smashing it all into the next three months. As previously mentioned, I like having longer periods of time places. Time to develop a favorite restaurant, to see all of the little things to see, to not feel guilty when I want to spend an evening in. I was able to see a really impressive amount in London, but let's face it- most places don't have those tour buses. I tried to look for something comparable in Paris, and they all run over 100 euro each. For a day tour! Ridiculous. [Side: I did find some English-language walking tours though, which I am excited to try as soon as I buy some flats that aren't flip flops] And I didn't get to see plenty of places in London- Greenwich, Notting Hill, or the insides of most of the places we passed. So not running around for more 2-day stays in major cities works for me. Yes, it would be nice to have a list 12-strong of countries I visited when I fly home, but I think I've found a nice mix of stretching my boundaries and comfort level and doing what will make me happy and keep me zen. I value my zen. 

Thoughts?

To finish, the formatting was being weird when I was finishing up London Day Three, so a few pictures got left out. Once we made our way to Trafalgar Square, we wandered the National Gallery for about an hour, mainly in the Impressionists, and then she departed for her train and I spent my last free hour walking around the Tower of London (though not actually in it). Behold:

Soaking wet and lugging an extremely large backpack in front of the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square

Can you see Big Ben in the background?? From the steps of the National Gallery

   

Inside St. Pancras. It seems so wonderfully International Traveller, doesn't it? I felt very grown up and glamorous. 

Pre-London

About to start my first inter-Europe traveling! Very early tomorrow morning, I hop a train for London. There, I will spend a day wandering on my own, and then meet up on Saturday morning with my friends from the good old USA who are also studying in Europe- Katie in Spain, Clarissa in Edinburgh. We're seeing a play in the West End! And staying in a hotel for the night. I have also given myself the first part of the day on Sunday, and then I return to Paris via train late Sunday afternoon. Pretty excited!

In a few weekends, I am going with a few Central folk (I think there will be 4 of us) on a bicycling tour of the Loire Valley- we are visiting somewhere in the vicinity of 4-6 chateaus, I believe. Chatelets?

I will try to at least give you a quick text update from London!!

Planning Stages

No pictures for you today, sadly. (Well, not entirely sad for me. I'm having some difficulties with the ethernet internet at my foyer, so right now I'm subsisting on a less-than-stellar wireless connection. This means that every single picture I post on here takes between 10 and 30 minutes to upload. Which is a tad annoying. I'm hoping to finally get it fixed tomorrow, however.)

Got together with several Central folk this evening for an extended Spring Break planning session. Though I have yet to actually buy anything (fares will likely be lowest on Tuesday, which gives us all time to double check everything before committing), it looks like we will hit Greece on Sunday, April 24th en mass, and then do a little island hopping before heading back to Paris as a group. The week prior to that is still up in the air, depending on the schedules and desires of my US friends studying in Europe (Scotland and Spain). Yes, there are two weeks of spring break!! Regardless of who I go with, however, Central folk, US folk, or a combination of the two, the plan for the first week is Italy! I'm trying to decide between a whirlwind tour, which would then be countered by the week of beach lazing in Greece, or a slightly more relaxed trip that only hits a few areas.

But which ones? Possibilities abound: Rome, Milan, Tuscany, Florence, Naples, random countryside/castles, Venice, Riviera, etc.

Decisions, decisions....