Lies and the Lying Liars who tell them in Dublin...

I never thought I would be nostalgic for the curmudgeonly, reserved, so-called unfriendly Boston ethos...and I'm not...haha, jus' kidding...I really, really, am. I have to say that for all the shit-talking that goes on about our stand-offish ways, with a Bostonian, you always know where you stand. I'm finding that Irish culture, at least in the world of Business is more akin to California than Massachusetts. People are just far too nice, in a sometimes duplicitous sort of way.

I've had a bunch of interviews now and they have all gone well and people have been all smiles and promises but I have yet to see any job offers. This one woman interviewed me and at the end of the interview said, "Great, so we need to have you in for a second interview to meet the big boss, I'll call you on Mon. or Tues. to arrange it...blah-de-blah," and then I never heard from her again. A few weeks later, I got a pdf attachment from her which was a form letter with all the usual, "we didn't pick you, we'll keep your CV on file..." Another guy, I interviewed with last week told me he wanted me to come in and do a trial day someday this week, that they just had to fix some problems they were having with their spare workstation...and again, it's now Wednesday and nothing. This time I decided to email him and see what the deal was and he said that they were still having problems with the workstation but that he would get in touch when they sorted it and get me in there....hhhhmmmm, maybe, just, maybe, he wasn't completely bullshitting me but I'm not convinced that I would have heard from him if I didn't make the extra effort. A family friend of Tom's who is a native Dub told me that many Americans are frustrated by the way that business is done here...People are all sweetness and light but where's the beef?

I really, really, really, don't need people to blow sunshine up my ass. I really, really, really, would rather have it straight. I know that's probably a bit rich coming from me who leans in the direction of telling people what they want to hear but good god, a whole country of me's is not a good thing. I'm finding that being away from home in some way, makes me more aware of who I am and all the external things, work, city, culture, friends, family etc... that have in some part defined me. It's kind of interesting really...that is when it's not really annoying. Well, I guess this is what I signed up for when I decided to move country. Everyday is a rollercoaster ride of all kinds of emotions...I love discovering new things and finding my way through all the things that are just a little bit (or a lot) different but I have my moments where I really am a stranger in a strange land and I just don't get it.

Christopher (one of Tom's good friends from Belfast) said something to me a few weeks ago that I've been carrying with me since. He just moved to London and rides the tube to work, and for those of you who don't know him, he is Mr. Casanova with the ladies. I seriously can't keep up. Anyway, he's got this thing where he sits next to a cute girl on the tube and starts chatting her up and if she's receptive, he asks her where she's getting off and if she'd like to have a drink. I am amazed by his ability to just put himself out there and said so and he responded that, "You have to be willing to take rejection to get what you want." Now, knowing Christopher, he was in no way trying to be deep...he was just thinking with...well, you get it...but it is a good point. One that I have been trying to keep in mind while being strung along by various potential employers.

So now I've written a novel of complaints and haven't told you all about the lovely grocery I found, spiceworld, with all sorts of gorgeous middle-eastern and medditerreanean foods and I haven't told you about my relaxing weekend in Belfast and my day trip to Killough and Ardglass, two fishing villages in Northern Ireland that are lovely...Oh well. Sometimes you just have to bitch a little. I hope you all don't mind. Well, I'll see you all soon and be sure to tell you exactly what I think of you...haha. I hope you're all not smiling and being aloof and reserved like good Bostonians should...Miss it madly.

Be well. See you all soon.

Fishing Boats in Howth

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Originally uploaded by di_juice.

Howth (Rhymes with Both)

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Originally uploaded by di_juice.

Hi All,

Took a trip up to Howth which is about a half hour north of Dublin city on an outcropping of land which separates Dublin Bay from the open ocean. It's a strange mix of affluent township, summer resort and fishing village all rolled into one.

I took a long cliffside hike along Howth head, very picturesque, high cliffs, rocky coast and beautiful deep blue water. The hike takes you to Howth Summit where you can see Dublin Bay and the mountains of Wicklow to the south. Unfortunately it wasn't a very clear day - kind of blustery with sun coming and going as it does here - so my view was mountainless but still not bad. There's also a big island to the north of Howth called Ireland's Eye which you can motorboat over to in the summer and from there I'm told, you can see Wales. Good stuff. After my hike, I met back up with the main road and walked through the kinds of neighborhoods where people give names to their houses the way we give names to our pets - the old lodge, green ivies, pine hill etc... Serious old skool money. I saw a couple of beautiful horses, no doubt the playthings of some wellbred family.

There are two long piers in Howth harbor - East Pier is all yachts and pleasure boats and west pier is all varieties of cool, old fishing boats in all sizes and colors. There are also a ton of shack-type places along west pier where you can buy fresh fish from the fishermen bringing in their catch. Apparently this is the center of the fishing industry in Dublin. In among the fishing boats were three seals. They seemed curious about the people watching them and came in for a closer look - which is when I snapped the above photo. If you click on the photo, you can see a bunch more pics of the fishing boats and things otherwise Howth related.

I also took a quick walk to Howth Castle which was strangely enough surrounded by a golf course...haha. There are almost as many castles as sheep in Ireland - I'm telling you they are everywhere. Must have been a lot of kings back in the day.

Now am back in town, getting ready to head to Belfast for the weekend. Went out last night with Tom and couple of the peeps he works with to The Market Bar. Huge place which is a renovated sausage (or shoes, I can't remember) factory with high ceilings and a pitched glass roof. We plunked ourselves on the upper level which looks down over the main bar and had a few not too exhorbitantly priced scotch and sodas. Actually it was whiskey and soda which I'm told is an entirely different thing and not to be confused...haha. Dominick, Tom's coworker was semi-horrified by my choice of drink so I made him taste it. I don't know if he's a convert but he didn't seem to hate it too much. The bar serves Tapas untill late which looked pretty tasty and might be fun to try out at some point. See all the exciting things you can do when you all come for a visit ;)

Well, I'm off to pack up a few things and sort out dinner. Found some absolutely kick-ass Italian specialty stores yesterday and made mass amounts of eye-tye lentil soup and other tasty Italian like treats last night. Gotta love leftovers like that. On the bean front, I found out that there's a mexican specialty grocer in a neighborhood on the northside so I may find my black beans yet...will keep you all posted as I know you're waiting with baited breath for black bean resolution.

Hope you're all well.

Where's the Bean?

It's amazing how some small task that takes me no time at all to do at home can somehow stretch to fill an entire Dublin day. Yesterday morning I set out walking as I usually do - on a mission of some combination of errands and tourist attractions and the occasional cup of coffee - and 8 hours later, my legs walked off me, I was only semi-successful in my errand running and soaking wet from an afternoon rain storm. I was looking for things that I thought would be simple to find, black beans and nice paper for my CV (along with a few other things that I did actually find easily.) I have seen all the great and small grocery stores in this city, from the highfalutin' Marks and Spencer to Tesco to Dunnes to the smattering of Asian grocery stores and even the Afro-Carribean grocers on Moore street who sell plantains and green lentils but no black beans. I went to the hippie health food, vitamin, store and the Indian market which had a huge array of spices and nan bread and other good things but no beans. The moral of the story is, Don't try to make any form of Mexican food if you happen to live in Ireland. Not only are there no black beans but there are no red beans and no pinto beans and no one, absolutely no one goes Goya in this place. I'm thinking of charging you all one bag o' beans as entry fee to my apartment when you come visit...haha.

Also difficult to find is the Irish equivalent of Paper Source or Pearl. I hit up every stationary store this side of Belfast and turned up Shite, absolute crap paper. I did find out that there's a fancy pants paper store in Dublin 8 but this was only after hours of walking and it's on towards a somewhat sketchy neighborhood that you wouldn't want to hit up after dark. I ended up buying some sort of okay, sort of resembling "cement" colored, Paper Source paper from the stationary store next to my apartment. It will have to do. Of course, I did come prepared with some lovely Paper Source paper from home but I did not account for this whole European A4 sized paper thing. I have lots of fabulous letter sized paper which is about as useful as an American dollar is in these parts. Everything really is just a little bit different.

Other than being black-bean deprived, all is well in these parts. It's actually sunny outside after a very icky, rainy, Sunday and mediocre Monday. Had lunch with Tommy Boy in the park and now am going to brave the world of European laundry for 8 euros a load. Wahoooo. Domestic bliss it is not. Someone give me a job please!

Hope you are all well.

Fun with Phonetics and a lot of Wine

Irish is the language of unpronouncable vowels and mysterious consonants. For example, the letters mh (as in Niamh) are pronounced as a v sound making the name niamh pronounced as "Neeve." This makes for some potentially sticky situations when trying to pronounce people's names and neighborhoods. Tom keeps making fun of me for my inability to get right the name of the neighborhood Ranalagh. First things first, those gh's at the ends of words are always silent, unless of course there's a u in there (like augh) in which case there's a k sound to the word (as in McLaughlin.) So, I got the gh thing down right away but I keep saying Ron-a-lah which seems intuitively right to my Americanized brain, but no, it's Ran-a-luh which I somehow can't make stick. I have a job interview next week in Ranalagh Village though so I'm practising...haha. Ran-a-luh, Ran-a-luh, Ran-u-luh...Ha, ha.... Here are some other tricky Irish words which defy the roman language pronunciations we're all used to: Failte, Caiomhe, Aoife, Baile Atha Cliath....(Fall-Cha, Kee-va, Eef-uh, and last but not least, Bally Atta Clia which is the Irish word for Dublin for any of you who might be interested.) Craziness. Everything is written in both English and Irish around here and I find myself attempting Irish words that I pronounce so very wrongly, it's amazing. Well, I've got garbage can, bus lane and Belfast down which seems like a good start (Bruscar, lana, and Biel Feirste.) I'm on my way to fluency.

Anyway, aside from pondering the mysteries of Irish grammar, I have been exploring new parts of the city. Went to this brand new, fancy-pants, shopping center in Dundrum yesterday (pronounced the way it sounds...phew) and wandered around looking at stuff I shouldn't buy with money I don't have. It's the largest mall in Europe apparently and it was kind of fun to check out all the european chain stores and get my fix of H&M (That's Haich and Em to you.) I did buy a sweater for job interview purposes. I have to go to this networking event next week which I am dreading beyond belief. I have visions of myself, sweating through my H&M sweater, obsessively hitting up the cheese table and hoping no one notices that I don't know a soul...oh the joys of self-promotion are many.

Went to a wine tasting last night which, aside from being free which is a beautiful thing in Rip-off Dublin, was quite fabulous and the bar was fast and free with the bottles. Went with Tom and we ran into some of his coworkers who were actually pretty cool. Got to try 6 different wines (three whites and three reds) and learn a thing or two about grapes and tasting from a sweet and slightly nerdy presenter guy who was just so Sideways. The bar was called Odeon and is in a renovated building that used to be the main train station in south city centre. It's huge and absolutely beautiful and I'm told they have great brunch and cult movies on Sundays. (Strange combination but I'm all for it.) Said wine tasting also included a small, but delicious cheese plate. Strangely enough, Monterey Jack is an unusual (and imported) cheese around here but there it was, some vaguely, highfalutin' form of Monterey jack on my cheese plate. Who knew? I think I'm going to have to find all the free wine tastings in the city. Gotta love the freebies in a place where they charge 7 bucks for two Cokes. Yup. Tom and I went for lunch yesterday and got 2 fountain sodas from the bar for 5 euros to go along with our smallish and mediocrish paninis for 11 euros. I am doing some serious restaurant research. If I'm gonna pay these prices, my food damn well better be amazing. You'll be happy to know that I've started a restaurant (and other activities) book so by the time you all visit, I will have the hookups. Am going to a Noodle Bar in Ran-a-luh tonight that's supposed to be really good so we'll see. You know it's really all about the food for me. Yum.

Love to you all. Be well.

Kilmainham and a Coffee

IMMA garden detail
Originally uploaded by di_juice.

Hi All,

Went to the Irish Museum of Modern Art today which is on the grounds of the old Royal Hospital built in the 17th century. (This pic shows part of a flower pot in the formal gardens on the hospital grounds.) If you click on the pic, you can see other images of the IMMA and of the Kilmainham Gaol (jail) - one of Ireland's oldest jails which housed many of the politcal prisoners who fought for Irish independence back in the day. There were all sorts of cool primary sources - letters, newspaper clippings, medals, etc... in the Gaol and a guided tour which gave a more in depth history of it's famous prisoners and dubious history.

I read a letter written by an 18 year old boy a few hours before he was executed. It was written to his mother and he keeps saying how much he wishes he could see her face one more time. He was killed for possession of a firearm without a permit. Crazy. It was really interesting to see the human imprint on all of these pieces of history - handwriting, clothing, tattered photographs, shoes, ration cards, etc...It makes all these historical figures real. There was graffiti on the wall taken from a poem written by one of the men executed after the Easter Uprising. "Beware the Risen People, Ye that have harried and held, Ye that have bullied and bribed."

After my adventures in Kilmainham, I met up with Jane, (a friend of a friend who lives here in Dublin) and ended up back in town and had a (good!) coffee in this little cafe and discovered an asian grocery (almost as good as the super 88) and a fabulous used bookstore down an alleyway. I am going through novels like water these days. Got so much time on my hands.

After touring the damp, dark jail, I was so very much appreciating my modern comforts and free reign to wander the city. I've been discovering new things everyday and am compiling a mental list of things to do when I get some visitors. Can't wait for company. Miss you all lots.

Be well.

The Evil Empire Abroad

They are everywhere...Yankees baseball hats in all sizes, shapes and colors...bastards. Now I know why they can afford to go over the salary caps every year. They are marketing geniuses! I swear to you that half the people wearing the Yankees gear don't even know the difference between a ball and a strike. It is purely a fashion statement...poo. Even the bouncer at the club I went to last night was wearing one. I asked him if he was a Yankees fan and he answered me in this terrible fake American accent that he sure was. Bitch, please. Man probably couldn't even name a single one of the players. And while I'm at it. Another guy that Tom and I were out with last night kept responding to everything I said with a fake American accent, like, Dude, totally. He was a complete complainer who proudly showed me the 27 million text messages he had from different girls on his mobile. Wanker. He bore a striking resemblance in looks and personality to that guy I used to date, Brad, and to those of you in the know, that is no compliment. haha. Alas, Whaddya gonna do? (And that's a rhetorical question btw.) Happy Saturday. I'm off to Topshop to buy some snazzy gear for my second interview next week...wa-hooo.

Detail of Shakespeare's House

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Originally uploaded by di_juice.

Here are some pics from my travels to England. Click on the pic above to see the rest of the images.

Adventures in Kiddie

Hi All,

I have spent the last couple days staying in Kidderminster, England with Averi and Tim. I flew into Manchester (due to my flight booking idiocy) and caught the train to Birmingham. It only took two hours and was moderately scenic so it wasn't that bad... When I arrived in Birmingham, I was in a gigantic and quite modern shopping center built recently with EU money. The building undulates on the outside and looks like it's been built with giant silver thumbtacks...sounds wierd but it kind of works. There's an open plan food area with noodle bars and homemade bread vendors and the like where we ate sushi off of a long conveyer belt. Afterwards, we hit up a local old-man bar for my first taste of scotch and soda on English soil.

It's been a very relaxing holiday. Slow mornings drinking giant mugs of coffee in bed and lots of pub crawling. We went to Stratford-upon-Avon on Saturday and I got to check out the birthplace of ye olde William Shakespeare and the home of Anne Hathaway, his wife. It was a beautiful, sunny, day and we walked around town before having high tea at the Crabtree and Evelyn (who knew they did tea) tea house. Clotted cream is my new favorite food...who would have thought of spreading whipped cream on a scone in addition to butter and jam...mmmmm...I can feel my arteries clogging. They gave us our tea in blue and white china pots with extra large teacups and saucers. Good stuff.

Have been eating my face off. Averi is an amazing cook and we have been feasting. She has a coveted jar of real (non-palm oil based) peanut butter which has been much appreciated by me. She also turned me on to a kind of wholewheat sliced bread to buy here that can't be rolled into a big squishy ball. (Thank god-I've been trying every brand I can find without finding anything halfway decent.) We have barbecued, eaten an Italian Feast and multiple big breakfasts involving bacon. Yum. I have missed home cooked meals.

Today, we took the steam train to a picturesque town called Bewdley. It was hilly and had lots of old school Georgian architecture. It is on the banks of a fast-moving river that people surf on in some parts...hard to picture but true. The steam train is a full on chugga-chugga train with upholstered compartments and porters and restored stations and is completely run by volunteers. Very cool. We got fish and chips from the local chippy and visited Tim's sister who lives there.

Tomorrow, it's back to Dublin and a job interview on Tuesday. Wish me luck!