Malahide

This past Saturday Brian and I joined the girls for another train-trip to a town in northern County Dublin - an area I still haven't left from since arriving in the beginning of September.  The destination was Malahide, the purpose was to see our first castle.  

This is Malahide castle

And this is the group reacting to the sight of it.

The tour itself took about as long as it will take you to finish reading this post, and was a bit unorthodox.  It consisted of you and a random group of tourists walking yourself about the 8 room "house" as a voice recording continuously told you random facts.  The biggest letdown was the forbiddance of any flash photography, sorry guys.  You'll just have to take my word for it when I say they had some pretty intricately carved mantles back in the 1600's. 

Compensation for the lackluster castle was provided by the beautifully green, wide open area surrounding it.  There were hundreds of yards of untouched field capable of inspiring even the manliest of men to frolic.  Unfortunately though, Bryan has a bad knee that is aggravated by damp weather, so we were forced to settle for a jubilant stole in order to not make him feel left out.

Although our wanderings started out aimless, we ended up at a really amazing playground complete with a 40 foot slide, a really tall jungle gym that Jeanine and I conquered (seen below), and a huge tandem zip-line that made the entire trip seem worthwhile.

We also met an American couple from the East coast who just moved to Dublin no more than a week ago.  It seems the girls may be baby-sitting for them in the future - cha-ching! - but I'll let them tell you all about it.  Until next time, I'm Adam Kepa and you've just been updated.

  

Last weekend before this weekend

It's a slow Friday morning here.  Derrick and Brian are still asleep, compensating for the hours spent at a birthday for someone in our program,  and Joe left  for a  complicated trek to Amsterdam late last night.  Complicated because he had to catch a train from central Dublin to Belfast - where he was flying out of - only to kill 6 hours in the airport waiting for his plane to take off...I wonder how he's doing.  Anyway, before the activities of this weekend put me further behind in my updates, I thought I'd catch you up on the happenings of last weekend.

Saturday was a big day, and if it were a sit-com episode I think an appropriate title would be "Adam and the estrogen" because it consisted of me and 4 women parading around Dublin for the better part of the afternoon.  Starting from Kayleen's front-door, we walked to Dublin Zoo, where we were greeted by a sleeping lion, shy tigers, and phantom zebras.  

I can't say it was the best trip the zoo I've ever had, but it was worth it to see the Californian sea lions swimming around and yelping for no apparent reason.  I think we just came at the wrong time because it seemed like every animal was either being fed, or corralled inside for the night, but we still got some good views...

If you want more animal pictures, check National Geographic.

On our way back from the zoo, we stopped into The Brazen Head - Dublin's oldest pub - for much needed refueling before making the long walk home.  It was a nice, quaint place with a history so rich, you could smell it when you walked in and taste it in your Guiness.  Though it wasn't live (as the sign out front suggested it would be), it was the first time I had heard traditional Irish music being played in a pub since the first week we got here when my roommates and I sang with an Irishman.

  

In total, we clocked 9+ miles on the day, so you can imagine how excited we were to get home, heat up some food, and huddle around a laptop to watch the season premier of The Office!  The perfect way to end the day.

This just in...

A startling development has taken place in the course of Adam Kepa's study abroad semester. Approximately 4 hours ago he submitted a request to be selected for a completely random, one off, one-time job here in Dublin's fair city.  Considering it nothing more than a pipe-dream, he forgot about the entire thing almost immediately after hitting "send" at the end of the e-mail. 

Nearly one hour ago, that very same dream became a reality as his e-mail was quickly replied to with positive results claiming,  "You sound like just the type 

of person we're looking for - crazy!"  Out of complete joy, and a bit of shock, Adam then proceeded to exclaim to the entire living room he had been hired!  

So, what's the job?  Continue to scroll...

Shown directly in the center of this photo is the first participant of the 2006 Dublin marathon to cross the finish line.  Notice the graceful stride,  his hands jubilantly waving in the air, and the enormous smile on his face. Now shift your gaze to the right corner of the picture to the gentleman with the bright-neon vest eagerly awaiting the runner to cross the finish line so he can get his picture taken.  He's called a Finish Line Marshall, and that's what I'm going to be for the 2008 Dublin Marathon this October 27th.  

A big thanks goes out to my folks, without whom I wouldn't have had the experience to consider going after such a position.  

Catching Up

It's been a while since my last update, but it has not been due to a lack of activity over here. In fact, it's quite the opposite. Since I left you, A LOT has transpired.  So let's just get the apologies out of the way and move on, because I know you're sorry for wanting a constant stream of current information and you can't help it. All is forgiven.

Kayleen arrived, bringing with her 3 other females studying Dietetics at Purdue.  This means a number of great things, the most important of which is that they can all COOK! We've already taken advantage of this by organizing weekly group dinners between their house and ours, the first of which took place this past Thursday at their place.  

Rather than repeat what you may have already read, I'll just refer you to her blog for further detail/pictures.   Some might consider this lazy, or a bum's way out, but I think of it as my way of reducing waste.  There you can find a good summary of everything I've done in the last few days including our amazing trip to Howth (Hoe-th) for our first view of the gorgeous Irish coastline, fresh fish n' chips, and surprisingly, to meet some wild seals.  Photos for proof are there as well...

Just swimming freely in the harbor.

So while you get aquatinted with her blog, I'll get some photos organized from this weekend's trip to Dublin Zoo, and the Brazin Head - Dublin's oldest pub, and meet you back here soon.  Cheers!

The Things I Do for Free Food

Not much to report in the way of current events, so I'll clue you in on a few things I skipped over from last week. 

All of us, that is the 4 strapping young men currently residing at Wyckham 10, registered ourselves for volunteer positions in the Dundrum area.  We're tired of Irish people not coming to us, so we're going to go to them!  Derrick is looking for a place where he can write (he's an English major), Joe and I are interested in sports/recreation, and working with kids, and Bryan is just going to take what he can get.

Also,  I signed up for the IES student council.  Which is great because it's a chance for me to interact with the big - wigs of the IES organization,  make sure the student opinion is heard, but most importantly, it means I get FREE LUNCH once a month.  Yes, that's right.  For our monthly meetings, myself and 5 other IES students meet with the 3 administrative bodies of IES Dublin for an all expense paid trip to a local bistro!  I wonder if that includes pints...

Speaking of pints, here's a photo of me and Arthur Guiness himself. Thank you, Sir.

As for now, Joe and I are going to continue enjoying the smell of the cool air coming in through our bay windows and the muffled luster of the full moon that's currently hidden behind a stream of clouds.  Cheers.

Dublin Rocks

In lieu of taking a trip somewhere outside the city, the roommates and I decided to stay here and check out a 3-night music festival known as the Hard Working Class Heroes.  Held primarily in the Temple Bar area of Dublin, the festival offers a list of 90 unsigned Irish bands and gives them about a 40 minute set in one of 5 different "hot spots" within the area.  That area, by the way, is somewhat reminiscent of what I imagine bourbon street is like for Mardi Gras.  Just a bunch of secluded streets littered with people having a great time as they spill in and out of pubs, eateries, and over-priced shops.   The real bonus is that you only pay $20 for entry into 5 different pubs - far cheaper than the cumulative price you would have to pay to go into each on a regular night - and get live music of most any flavor from 7:30 - midnight. 

Highlights of the night included:

• The smashed 16 year old girl on the train ride into the show who insisted she was going to call the president of Ireland in order to find out which of her friends took the remainder of her alcohol and questioned everyone's knowledge of their own self identity by exclaiming, " NONE OF YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE...SLAGS"

• The size of the bouncer at the first club we stepped into, the Button Factory.  His waist literally began at my nipple.

• The music, of course.  We started the night off as strong as we ended.  Hybrasil wound us up by demonstrating their love for Duran Duran channeled through elements of their contemporaries the Killers and Minus the Bear.  While Frightened Rabbit (pictured up top) sent us home with a taste of chill indie rock a la Death Cab for Cutie in our mouths.  The funny thing about their show was we all agreed they sounded similar to DCFC within minutes of being there and found out they are opening for them in a couple of weeks after we got home. 

• Four Dame Lane (pictured below) - the coolest, and most popular pub of the night. It kind of felt like you were hanging out in someone's attic.

                                                 

Another band deserving of your attention is The Revellions. We were geared up to see them before we left, but were sadly disappointed to learn they were on the bill for the night before.  But in the end it didn't matter.  We boarded the train full of left over enthusiasm from the shows and plenty of $7 pints of beer.  Well worth staying home for the weekend and a great way to forget how poorly Manchester played against those sacks from Liverpool! 

Mission(s) Accomplished!

Friday was a whirlwind of activity.  Aside from the fact that it was the closing day of the first week of classes, those of us taking courses at the European Business School (EBS) were inducted into the program and taken on a tour of their facilities at 10AM.  It was here that I found two things I've been looking for since I got to Dublin:  

1. An outlet for playing football

2. A solitary place to read/study

EBS organizes football trails in early October to select up to 18 players for their school team that competes around Dublin throughout the year. This excites me because not only will I get a chance to play football in another country, but due to the fact the team will be made up of EBS students - an internationally varied bunch to say the least - I will be playing with guys from Germany, Italy, France, and Latvia at the same time.  Now all I need to do is find a ball so I can maintain my touch...

The second thing EBS provides is a state-of-the-art library for all things academic.  As some may know, I'm an avid patron of the Herman B. Wells library in Bloomington and have been missing it for some time now.  So having this available is like having a second home here in Dublin.  It also came at the perfect time as a couple days ago I went on a personal search for a public library that produced ZERO results.

Time for breakfast.