Kiss the rock!

After waking up after a lot of sleep at a late 11 am, we headed out to meet Alex at the bus station. The bus station was similar to a greyhound station with labeled placards and an electronic screen displaying the bus stopping by each placard with its respective time. While waiting, something strange happened. All of a sudden I saw a seagull flying above and heard a splat. Looking down, I see a demolished apple  strewn in its juices on the ground. People near me all noticed the splat and we carefully inched towards it to see if it actually really happened. Needless to say we all stood under the covered parts of the bus stop after this in case another seagull felt like attacking...Personally, I think the seagull was carrying more than it could handle, therefore dropping it midair!

The buses here are very nice and are much nicer than the MTS buses back home. They're clean and the seats are comfy. Instead of the yellow pull cords, there are "STOP" buttons on the poles by each seat, which made me feel a bit like I shouldn't press it since it's a big square red button and all...Luckily for me, the bus drivers usually announce the stop since you have to tell them where you want to stop prior to boarding the bus.

The entrance fee to the castle was ten euros, which wasn't too bad. We all got sucked into the touristy visitor's shop before even getting to the castle, but thanks to our limited funds, I only got a souvenir penny (I collect those wherever I go).

As we approached the castle, I noticed how green the grounds of the castle/estate was. There were giant grass lawns and trees everywhere. We first entered the dungeon of the castle, which was literally carved into the rock. The total opening was only about 4 feet tall, so we all had to crouch to get through to the end. Inside the dungeon/cave was colder air and some leftover puddles from an earlier rain shower. After the dungeon we got out and went into the actual castle, which was much bigger than I had expected. Perhaps the coolest feature of the castle for me was the stone staircase that was carved out of stone. The steps were polished and slippery from the usage by visitors. There were many bedrooms and out-jutting of windows and the occasional bedroom.

After much stair-climbing that got narrower as we went up, we finally arrived at the blarney stone! The story of the blarney stone is that whoever kisses the stone will be blessed with eloquence- I certainly hope this comes true for me! Luckily for my group, there was no line when we arrived, most likely due the fact that it was close to closing time.

Alex went first, followed by me and then Jason. We all placed aside loose articles of clothing/pocket accessories/etc before kissing the stone in case it fell down the 3 or 4 stories down. We lied on the rubber mat that was placed right before the opening facing up at the sky, grabbed the two metal bars attached to the wall behind us and was lowered down by an elderly gentleman. It doesn't seem far when others are doing it, but when I did it, I was oddly surprised by how low I had to reach before I could get close enough to kiss the stone. Good thing there was someone holding onto me!

We later went to the Rock Close, the name of one of the grounds by the castle. I must say that this is by far one of the prettiest places I've seen since being in Ireland. There were waterfalls, streams, trees galore, flowers, moss, water lillies, walkways and wooden bridges. Words cannot describe how breathtaking this place was. I felt like I could stay there forever, taking it all in, and secretly wished I didn't have to return to California where everything was yellow/brown and dried up. Hopefully the following pictures will help your imagination along!

After the Rock Close, we realized we had barely missed the 215 bus that had just left as we were crossing the street. Since we were all pretty hungry by now, we stopped by the Muskerry Arms Restaurant. I had the roast of the day, which was beef that day. Jason and I tried our first Beamish that night, and I think I like Beamish more than Murphy's. Though maybe it was just because I was hungry and thirsty... We all shared dessert afterwards, consisting of chocolate cake with ice cream and a Bailey's cheesecake (both were very delicious). Hope you enjoy the pictures :) Once again, I am quite behind on blogging and feels like I am leaving out a lot of adventures, but maybe I will write all the random tidbits up in a separate blog sometime. :)

Culture Night

On Friday was Cork's annual culture night, a night where museums, pubs and various attractions offer free admission, live music, free food, etc. The festivities started at 5 pm, but I didn't arrive at the butter museum until nearly 6:20 pm. Yes you heard that right...the BUTTER museum. Indeed it is a museum of the cultivation of butter through the years of Irish history. It showcased many types of churns and methods of making the butter as well as what butter used to be compared to now. Butter back then was more of a currency/measure of wealth for the folks, it could be used as almost a lottery ticket. Depending on the region of Ireland, there were different shaped churns. I didn't get to finish looking through the entire butter museum, however, as Jason wanted to go to the St. Ann's cathedral bell tower ringing which began at 7pm. We went at 6:50 pm and there was already a big line of excited people waiting before us. There were people of all ages, from six-year-olds to sixty-year-olds. The wait seemed to take forever, but when the great big doors were finally opened, we were let into the musty hallway to line up for the ascent to the ringing of the bells!

The staircase was narrow, allowing only one at a time, and there were multiple floors of the tower, naturally. The stairs were made of stone, and as we went up and up, we could see more of the various gears used to ring the bells. When we reached the level of bell ringing, we all played a song from the book adjacent to the bells, which were marked by numbers next to their respective ropes. The 8th bell was the heaviest and hardest to pull. I've never rang church tower bells before, so this was all very exciting for me. I wish I could have been at the top of the tower to hear what I was playing while I was playing it though because much of the sound was muffled by the stone walls of the tower.

Afterwards the others and I went up to the top-most floor, with our red and squishy ear muffs on our heads to protect against the loud ringing sounds of the bells. When we arrived at the top, we were amazed by the view that was waiting for us. It was just after sunset, and the city's night life was just about to begin. From the top of the tower we had a 360 view of the entire city! It was so beautiful and amazing. I could see my house from up there, along with the streets I walk on during the day. There were also many cathedrals about, Jason and I counted 8 just from one side of the tower.

When we were finally finished watching Cork come alive at night, we stopped at The Four Liars bistro. The bistro was next to the cathedral, painted red with a glowing warm atmosphere. The quick story of why the bistro was called the four liars bistro. It was actually named after the church tower as it had 4 faces with a clock on each face. However, each clock had a different time than the other, earning itself the four liars because one could never tell which was the correct time!

At the bistro, it was cute but also fancy with candlelight and 40 euro suppers. However, I ordered the smoked haddock bruschetta, which ended up being smoked salmon as the kitchen ran out of haddock for the night. It was quite delicious and very filling. The service was great and we all had a fantastic time. Along the walls of the bistro were endless bottles of white and red wines, which I found to be interesting. I've also noticed that many restaurants and pubs put candles in the wine bottles to light the tables.

After eating, we proceeded to attempt catching the last culture night bus number 1 to the observatory for stargazing, but the bus stop was at the other side of the town, and unfortunately we did not make it in time. :( The chase for the bus led us to the Cork City Hall, which also had some culture night events. by this time it was 10 pm and we decided it would be worth a shot to see what film the city hall was featuring. Much to my fears, it ended up being short, 15 minute horror films. I've never seen a horror film, quite definitely because of the word 'horror,' as I am more of the happy-romantic-comedy type of girl that doesn't like nightmares right before bedtime... Since I've never seen it before, I figured it would be unfair to completely rule it out.

Taking a deep breath, I sat through the first 15 minute film. It was not good. I mean sure it was probably a good horror film but it was not good in that it was really scary!! Basically the storyline centered around a worker that was working late night hours. He got curious and walked about the warehouse-like place, in which he found a mysterious box that was the size of a bookshelf. However the box only had one small opening and when he peered into it, he found nothing. He decided to then get a furniture mover dolly device to move the box, in which after he rolled it out, a scary monster looking face suddenly looked out the back. Keep in mind this was all filmed with a countdown, so the scary scene of the worker opening the box wasn't supposed to happen for another 5 minutes, but the face appeared much before then, unexpectedly, and much of the audience gasped. The next film I only half-watched as it was much too gory and frankly I only sat through half because I was trying to figure out anatomically how the blood was dripping down the wrong leg, etc. (bionerd for life...)

Post the traumatic experience, I was very freaked out, but good thing I was with Jason and Alex and it was still pretty well lit. We attempted to meet up with Melina and Andrew at the Oliver Plunkett pub, but unfortunately barely missed them. The pub was featuring a band of which I have never heard of, but was quite good. Jason and I tried our first Hoegaarden. It was a very citrusy, light beer that came in a very stocky pint glass. I thought it was very good, but it was a bit too much for me to finish. It looks red in the picture but the pub lighting was very dim so it came out poorly in the picture. The actual beer is a light bubbly yellow. It came with a lemon slice each.

After Oliver Plunkett, we headed to Crane Lane, which was a half-outdoors-ish pub that seemed to connect to 2 other pubs. After showing the bouncer our UCC IDs (my picture is still derpy), we mingled with the crowds in an attempt to find Andrew and Melina. We finally bumped into them at the dance floor. It was very warm in there despite it being half outdoors, but there was more room on the dance floor to move around and everyone was relaxed and having fun. I don't think I have ever seen a couple as cute as Andrew and Melina except in Hollywood movies. We all danced (and Jason attempted to) for a while until it was about 1 am.

Overall I think my first culture night at Cork was fantastic, and I can't wait to try all the other festivities the city has to offer later on in the year! (Ahem to Arthur's day on Sept 27!)

Reintegration

Today is day 10 of my adventures in Ireland. Completed days 2 of 3 of the UCC (University College Cork) Orientation. There were many adventures and pubventures I haven't been able to talk about, but I think it's almost impossible to write absolutely everything, and it may get boring to read after a while...

I'm still not used to being called an 'international student' around here on campus. For me, the term still reminds me of the seemingly abandoned buildings of the hidden international center at UCSD, making me feel like a rare specimen instead of the normal student I still view myself as. During orientation, one of the international student managers talked about the cycle of disintegration and reintegration when introduced to a new country, and later leaving the new country and returning to the home country. At the time I couldn't find myself on the graph, I didn't know if I was still afraid of all these changes or I was starting to embrace them. This was yesterday. Today at dinner, I suddenly realized that I had become reintegrated into living life in Ireland! From the cute blue polka dot dinner table to the odd habit of making banquet-like dinners, I have come to enjoy the way of life and my new niche here in Cork, Ireland. I'm excited to go to the English market to get fresh farm produce and meat from different butchers, fresh bread loaves and fillets of all sorts of scrumptious seafood. Sure, there are problems here and there, but that exists with anything and everything. I won't get to be here very long and maybe I will never be able to experience anything quite like this ever again, so I might as well take advantage of it now instead of swimming against the current of change. I want to look back later in life at this period and have no regrets.

I made the following tuna sandwich as a dinner at the house I live in in Cork. It was actually the first tuna sandwich I've ever made and it turned out pretty delicious. Quite proud of myself for not screwing it up! :) I also drink orange juice with everything it seems...not just at breakfast.

I have decided after much debate that I want to base my series of posts around one of my most favorite hobbies, and probably many people's actually....that is, of FOOD! There is no specific category of food I will be focusing on, but I will attempt to post as many interesting and delicious foods I've had while I'm abroad as possible. The following picture was taken at a pub while I was in Dublin. I went in because they advertised sangria in jugfuls outside, but apparently they don't offer it in pint-sized-fuls so I ended up getting a cider that tasted like sugar water and costed more than the Guinness...

To start things off, upon arrival at Cork, Jason and I went to a student-atmosphered pub called Sober Lane near the city centre for the first night. We didn't have time to get food or get settled into the apartments yet, so we headed to a good yelp-reviewed (yes there is yelp for Ireland) pub and spent the evening there. It was a nice place, casual but very crowded. I ordered bbq wings with a pint of Carlsberg, a light beer and Jason ordered a burger with a pint of Guinness. I think out of the beers here, I prefer a lighter brew rather than stout. Now don't get me wrong, Guinness is amazing when I'm in the mood for a darker brew but I don't think I can drink that stuff all the time. Jason and I had our first Guinness back in Dublin at a quaint little pub called Ha'Penny Bridge Inn. It wasn't until I was at The Barge with the other UC orientees that I actually was able to finish my first pint of Guinness, however. Back to the wings at Sober Lane...to be honest, I've always run into the problem of not getting enough wings for my money back in the US. If I pay ten dollars, that usually gets me about eight wings. EIGHT wings!? Here, I paid nine euros and it came in a giant bowl with approximately what must have been at least twenty wings! They weren't the crappy rubbery ones either. These were prepared with lots of love and needless to say, I was a very happy girl that night at the bar. The place wasn't too pricey, so I think I will definitely go back sometime if I get another wing craving.

Another good place that I greatly enjoyed was a cafe named Serendipidy, a cute cafe right outside of the UCC campus. A few good friends and I enjoyed some coffee and lunch there, and I ordered a smoked salmon with scrambled eggs for ~9 euros. When the food came, it looked so pretty I almost didn't want to eat it! At first I thought the fish was raw and was a little confused on how I would go about eating it without making faces in front of the others, but soon I discovered that the fish had a very good smoked flavor and was indeed not raw at all! The scrambled eggs added a nice texture and the dill on top completed the flavors. The dish, as you can see, also came with butter and toast, which I ate heartily and happily (yay for butter!). Not sure if I've mentioned this previously, but I've noticed that nearly everything here in Ireland boasts of being made as 100% Irish rather than from imports. I think this is a novel idea to support local farmers as well as reduce dependability and expenses by importing from other nations.

Orientation was very similar to the one at UCSD, where they give us lots of free brochures (pronounced bro-sures here) and various other useless items along with tours everyday for the campus and library. I really like the UCC campus, with the river being a big part of that. The campus is very beautiful and green (as is with everything else here), the people seem very friendly, and I am very excited to start classes. In terms of classes, the first plan was to take some psychology courses for a tentative minor, but the applied psychology dept did not approve 4/5 classes that I had applied for, so I will have to resort to some anatomy and biology classes instead to fulfill some major and med school requirements.

Everyday here is so busy and packed of sights to see and things to do that they all seem to be running together now. I hope you enjoy the pictures I put up and hope they don't make you too hungry! More to come later!!

Brisky Morning

First, a little explaining about the butter...on my way to Dublin from the connection at Boston Logan Int'l, we were given dinner on the flight aboard Aer Lingus, beef brisket to be exact. I happened upon this little butter packet that is customary to usual flight meal trays, and thought nothing of it at first. I was bored, it was there, saw some bread, decided might as well.... Maybe it was the sleep deprivation and strange cabin air, but the butter tasted like actual...well...butter to me! It was so rich and creamy and before sounding like some advertisement, I will stop there and leave the rest to your imagination. It's probably really bad for my health but good thing I will only have it for 4 months...right? I did consider taking some back with me minus the small problem of it melting everywhere and not sure if it's supposed to be declared as a liquid... first world problems...

It was a bit strange getting off the plane at 7:05 am in Dublin. The airport looked half grown over by grass, making me a bit apprehensive until I realized there was another whole portion that we were still taxi-ing to. I got off the plane like anyone else who has been flying overnight and sitting too long- disheveled hair, crooked shirt and a tired but excited expression at finally arriving. I was in some comfy pants covered in plane seat lint, my oversized UCSD Revelle sweatshirt that I had packed (thankfully) because it couldn't fit in my bag and flip flops that were in absolute tatters by the time I had arrived. Clanking my way through the waxed floors of Dublin International, I was met with a blast of cold air and realized my flip flops from San Diego would not do.

The airport looked like any other airport except with more languages and symbols that I couldn't understand, but the people seemed friendly enough and the cafes were still money sucking as usual, this time in euros instead of USD. One of the first things that surprised me about Ireland was the different toilets. It sounds weird but when I first saw the toilets here, I did a double take as I wasn't used to how perfectly circular they were! Restrooms are also called Toilets here, which I found a bit strange as well.

The first day was really long since it was actually 2 days put into one with all the time changes and everything. I got to walk around Dublin and the city centre, have lots of tea in various coffee shops and look at all the pretty bridges. Maybe I've been cooped up in California for too long but I just can't get over the rivers here with their bridges. I can't believe that almost all the buildings and sculptures are older than 200 years old with their own stories of how they became the way they are now and what parts they took in the wars, etc. It makes me wish that the US had things like that, with rustic and quaint cottages, turrets and rivers galore...but then when I think about it, despite the modern buildings and all the skyscrapers in the cities, they still all have a story behind them and is part of a history being built.

Living in a hostel for the first few days in Dublin was a combination of emotions varying between intrigue, annoyance, confusion and excitement. Another one of the first things I noticed before too long was the lack of free wifi and internet accessibility in general in Ireland. At the hostel, wifi never worked at night, and only got wisps of it in the morning when I woke up. Showering was slightly difficult as I trudged down 2 flights of stairs to a public shower. Despite the annoyance of the lack of internet, it made me realize just how technologically dependent I've become by living in the US all these years. Here, people actually read the paper with their coffee in the mornings and take time to converse with each other instead of being constantly absorbed in their iPads, laptops and phones. The one thing I was glad about the hostel was that they had warm comforters that were soft and comfortable. It gets down to the lower 40s at night, so a good thick comforter is definitely a need for me!

Blogging has been a bit difficult to catch up on this first week as everything seemed to happen so fast. There were many attractions and museums to visit but almost no time to visit them all! As it is, spending 2 days in Dublin were much too few to visit all of Dublin, and another visit must be planned soon to visit the free museums/art galleries and the Guinness Storehouse. I can't describe all the amazing things I've seen and experienced in this one entry, so I shall include them in the next seeing as this one is rather lengthy already!