Luck o' the Irish

Dear People,

I know it's been forever, and I've been slacking a bit about my blogging, which I feel horrible about, but I'm here now, so it's all better, and you can hear about my Irish escapades!! But first, there's just a few random things that I want to throw out there to enhance your reading enjoyment.

A few weeks ago, March first to be exact, the entire face of Kartnerstraße (the main drag in the first district) was changed. Apparently, it's the first day that outdoor cafes can be set up and the Austrians built them with vigor! Everywhere you look now, there are tables and chairs set up in front of their respective businesses. Some have tents over them or borders around them created by potted plants. Even Mickey D's got in on the act and has their outside seating set up. It's pretty impressive, and someday when it's a bit warmer, I'll be sitting at one of those little tables drinking my Melange.

There's also a bit of a carnival atmosphere on Stephensplatz, which is infront of Stephensdom. Artists, living statues, and millions of tourists gather there every afternoon. It's just so cool to see because up until this month, although the streets weren't empty, they weren't as populated. I know by the end of the semester I'm going to want to mow over the tourists with a Straßenbahn, but right now I think they're kind of entertaining with all their cameras. Especially the Asian tourists because they live up to all stereotypes including traveling in large herds and taking a bazillion pictures of EVERYTHING.

In not so happy news, I heard back from Boeing. Unfortunately, they don't need me to intern with them this summer, so I'll be at home. I was kind of upset by this because it would have been cool to live in Seattle this summer. But as it is, I can find a waitressing job somewhere and put together the amazing book/scrapbook that I'm building this semester. It's going to be a major project because I have super big plans, but pretty much it's going to incorporate this entire blog reformatted and the best of my pictures from my time abroad. I'm really excited to start it, and I think it is going to come out really good. :-)

Continuing on in the same not so positive vein, I was told by my internship boss that my German translation is "weak" and that he couldn't use my article as it was. He said that he would translate the articles for me. Now this was pretty devastating because I honestly thought my German was improving. I'd been receiving better marks on my graded papers and I've even been more comfortable speaking the language. But business German is in a league by itself because so much of it is made up of English cognates. And the online dictionaries don't have the words I need in the forms I need them. Of course, I also think that maybe he wasn't interested in teaching me the business German, which I would be fine with, except that the point of this whole internship is to work on my German fluency. I was down for about twenty minutes or so, and then I pretty much just got mad. I thought, "How dare he renege on his end of the internship bargain." So I went to a bookstore in the first district and bought a German-English business dictionary and one of those fold out vocabulary helpers. Then I got home, wrote the next article, and sent it to him in English with an email that said that I'd like to try translating it, and asking if he would take the time to read it over. My first article should have been published by this point, and although the ideas are mine at this point, the words are not and I don't feel like it's my work. I feel like I've been cheated out of something that was mine. And I'm going to fix it for the next article and every single one after that, because I don't like that feeling, and I refuse to allow it to exist.

And for bad thing three of three, I heard that Unkie passed away. It wasn't a really big shock because he had been so sick for so long, but at the same time, I wasn't told right away, which did hurt. There was no way that I could be home for the services, which is why I wasn't told, but it felt like I was being excluded. I know he's happier now because he's in Heaven, but I hurt for Aunt Dorothy, who had been married to him for over fifty years. It has to be hard for her to face everyday knowing that she isn't going to see her husband again. *tear*

Luckily for me, I believe that bad things come in groups of three, so by this point, I was in for a lot of good in my life. Which just so coincided with my lovely trip to Ireland.

Thursday, March 15, 2007

I went to three of my classes today and skipped the fourth because I had to pack. I was obsessed with packing within the weight limit (even though absolutely nobody checked my backpack) and probably underpacked a bit. Luckily for me, I decided to pack my fleece jacket. I have this thing that if it's warm in Vienna, then it automatically has to be just as warm wherever I'm going, and life doesn't usually work out that way. At least it didn't in Berlin or Galway. I also managed to write two essays for my German class and finish an article on the NASDAQ for the newspaper. It was a very productive day.

Getting to the airport was a bit of an adventure. I needed to take Straßenbahn 46 to the U6 and then the U3. When I got off at my stop from the U3, I walked out the wrong exit, but in doing so, found a magic shop in Vienna, which reminded me of Matt. On the front of the store there was a huge hat with a rabbit being pulled out it. It was really kind of cute and of course I took a picture of it. All my pictures from Ireland are up on my picasa site, by the way, and captioned.

Then from the U3 I needed to take the Schnellbahn (S-Bahn) to the airport. You buy a special ticket from a machine for it. I was told it was only 1,50 Euro, so I brought exact change, and it turned out that it was 1,70. I had already asked a lady for help using the machine, and I didn't think I should try to bum another twenty cents from her, so I had to use my card. Not cool. Then it was a matter of finding the right platform and train. I got to use some German at this point (I used some with the ticket thing too) and eventually I found out where I needed to be. The train wouldn't be coming until about 6:30, and it was about a half hour ride to the airport. I had until about 7:30 to check in, but I was still a bit nervous about making it on time.

Check in at the airport was really cool. As I walked in, I had visions of coming home and having people waiting for me at the gate, and I felt just a little bit homesick. It's ok though, because it's only a few more weeks until Mom and Dad visit, and then Erika and Paul will be here a few weeks after that. Waiting in line was the best part because there were all these Irishmen who were talking to one another and their accents were just adorable. I think I fell in love with Ireland before I even made it out of the Vienna Airport, just because of their accents.

Two other girls from IES, Jenn and Ally, were also going to Ireland for the weekend, so I had people to hang out with while I waited to board the plane. It was really nice because we talked about what we were going to be doing during the weekend. Those girls were staying with friends in Dublin for the holiday, and were coming back the night before I was. There were also several boys that had dyed their hair green!! I think they must have bleached it first because it was a true kelly green and they had dark eyebrows. But it made for something to look at! Boarding wasn't a big deal; they checked us in and then we rode buses over to the plane and got on. The announcements were amusing because they came across in Irish/Gaelic, English, and German.

Because Aer Lingus is a discount airline, you don't get free anything. No drinks, no crackers, nothing. I found it amusing -- really gives life to the economic saying "There's no such thing as a free lunch." The flight lasted about two hours, and I think I just zoned out for the most part. I forgot to bring a book or some sort of amusement, so I got a bit bored. There's also a time change between the continent and the islands and they're an hour behind us.

I don't think I appreciated German efficiency until I tried to get through Customs in Dublin. Now, the Irish are a very wonderful people, but it's just silly to have two lines for non-EU citizens and eight for them, especially when there's about the same amount of people in both lines and about four or five flights arrived at roughly the same time. I think I spent an hour just trying to get into the country. But I did get a stamp in my passport, which was exciting.

Getting the ticket for the bus to the center of Dublin was my next big adventure. I had only taken out big bills from the bank, and the machine only accepted change and smaller bills. So I had to find an ATM, wait in line, take out twenty Euro, go to the airport bar, get change for the twenty, buy the ticket, and stand on line for the bus. The whole exercise took about half an hour. Realize by this time that it was about midnight and I still hadn't actually gotten to Dublin proper.

On the bus to the city were about four or five wonderfully drunk Irishmen who cursed with that lovely (luvly) Irish accent of theirs. There was also a couple who made the mistake of mentioning that it was one of their birthdays. So the lovely drunken Irishmen sang their lovely drunken hearts out to the tune of "Happy Birthday" about ten or twelve times during the forty-five minute trip. What made it even funnier was that they didn't know the guy's name, which turned out to be Philip, and called him Davy, Daniel, and Seamus before they got it right. They were the best kind of entertainment to start off a trip to Ireland.

I also sat next to a girl from Canada who was in Dublin for the weekend. She was studying in France for the semester and we had a nice conversation in between the bouts of "Happy Birthday."

Sidenote: It's generally a good idea to have a map with you when traveling to a foreign city. I kind of neglected this detail, and since I didn't get into Dublin until about 1:30, there was really nobody on the street to ask. Instead, I found a nice looking hotel, and asked the cute boy at the front desk where Gardiner Street was. I also made sure I smiled pretty. Now, I just want to mention here that I had my hair done up nicely and I was wearing my grey trench coat and my blue scarf, so I looked very pretty and very Continental. He pointed me in the right direction and even gave me the map. It was so nice of him. :-) It still took about forty-five minutes to find the hostel, not because it was far away, but because the numbering system in Ireland can be a bit absent. It was getting late enough that if I hadn't found something soon, I was going to look for another room. Luckily though, I asked directions at another hostel and they told me where to go.

Once I got to the hostel, check in was a breeze. The guy at the front desk even asked me if I was French or German. Now, I'm not sure where this came from, but I'm taking it as a good sign because it means I'm fitting it just a little bit. Because of the time change, I was actually awake until about three or so (continental time) even though Irish time told me it was only about two. I was restless all night and worried that I would oversleep and miss my bus, which would have been a pain to say the least. So I was up by six and getting ready to be at the bus station by seven. I honestly don't know how I did it, but I'm glad I did it while I'm still young because if I tried that in about forty or fifty years, I think I might die.

Part 2: Friday, March 16th, 2007 will be in the next posting.

Love,
Amanda