Adventures in Dublin!

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A lot has happened since my last post so I figured it was time to catch up!
Dave and I moved into our new apartment on Wednesday night and we love it so far! It has lots of space which is hard to find in Dublin City so that is really nice. It is also only a ten minute walk from both my college and Dave’s. The only negative things we have found about it so far are that it doesn’t have a freezer or a microwave, but that hasn’t caused many problems!
Our first few days in town were quite fun. Dave’s brother Mike took us out for a welcome to Dublin dinner of amazingly delicious sushi at what he claims is the best sushi place in town. I hadn’t ever tried sushi before but it was awesome and I absolutely loved it!
The rest of our time this weekend was spent checking out all of the supermarkets, health food shops, oriental food markets, and farmers markets to try and track down some gluten free things that I could eat. It ended up being a great way to explore the city center and find my way around even though we didn’t have a whole lot of luck on the gluten free front. We have so far not managed to find any places that have decent gluten free bread. The only shop that carried it carries a tiny loaf that is so dry you can barely bite into it. From the looks of it coeliacs in Ireland cook their own bread. That may be the next thing I try…. we shall see how brave I am feeling. Dave and I have been cooking some which has been fun! We made a Frittata one night for dinner and it was a glorious breakfast the next day as well. We also made a creamy mushroom and asparagus risotto which was delicious 😀
The other news is that I started with my orientation classes for my course on Monday and they are GREAT! I already love it completely. There are 20 of us in the class, and all but two of them have no sign language at all so we are all starting from pretty much the same place which is nice! Another interesting thing is that almost all of my professors are deaf so we have been able to see loads of interpreting and signing in action! Next week we will start on our lectures which I’m really excited about. We have a sign language module that lasts three hours three times a week during which we are not allowed to use our voices AT ALL, and other than that we have some classes on deaf culture and language acquisition and linguistics which look like they are going to be awesome. I will have to take some pictures around Trinity sometime and post them on here because the campus is absolutely gorgeous. It is really amazing to be going to school with so much history surrounding it.
This week during orientation there are a bunch of societies that have set up tables around the main square in campus to try and get people to join. Some of them cost about 5 euro and others are free so I have been looking into some of those. They have a yoga society that I have already joined. It offers a yoga class 4 times a week and I can’t wait to go! They also have an international student one that I will probably look into joining by the end of the week. On top of that I am interested in a few others, they have knitting, meditation, scuba diving, sailing, and sign language. (which I half-joined, their main thing is a language course which I am already taking but they also have socials every once in a while to practice sign language so I signed up for that part!)
I also get to have an elective class that I have to pick by next Tuesday, and I’m torn on which one I want to pick. It is between a literature course (most of the books they cover I have read already though, so that may be a waste of time) and an Irish art history course which is the one I am leaning towards at the moment. They are both only a semester long so that is nice, and the art history one doesn’t start until next semester.
Dave started his actual classes this week, and already has a huge project due on Tuesday, poor guy. He has to make a model out of plywood that is at least 4×6 feet.
The weather here has been gorgeous so far. Fall is apparently very mild which is awesome. It has been sunny and warm for the most part since we got to Dublin! Yay!
Well I think that is all for now! Post and let me know what you all think of the apartment!!!!
Love,
Ali

Wearin’ Me New UGGS!

I have finally found some time to dink around with my blog again. I didn’t expect that in my first week I’d be so busy!

After only a day of looking on Friday David and I found an apartment! It is very lovely compared to all the other quite yucky ones that we saw that day as well. We are really excited about it! We are moving in tomorrow afternoon and I can’t wait! It will be nice to get unpacked and settled in the new place. Dave is planning to borrow his parent’s car because he has a desk that he wants to bring up so we are leaving Galway at about 2 tomorrow and we will be collecting the keys from the landlord at around 430. Thursday Dave will drive the car back down to Galway and take the bus back to Dublin and I will have some time to just hang out in our new apartment or maybe do some exploring!

As far as school goes I have an orientation schedule that starts on Monday the 20th so I will be going to all sorts of meetings and getting my schedule and registration all done up that day so I’m looking forward to that as well. The apartment that we found is only a ten minute walk from Dave’s school and only a ten minute walk from my school so that will be nice!

Well other than that I haven’t got any other news. I have spent the last few days getting ready for Dublin and school. I am looking into what insurance I need and filling out forms to turn in at registration and all that sort of thing. Dave and I also bought a duvet cover for 13 euros yesterday when we were in town. Its really pretty with little yellow and blue flowers all over it!!

Anyway I think that is all my news for now. I will take loads of pictures of the new apartment and moving in day and make a slideshow all about it once I have the time! Until then I love and miss all of you!

Love,

Ali

Not a shred of evidence exists in favor of the idea that life is serious.

Well I have made it to Ireland after an extraordinarily long day of traveling! It is beautiful here as always, and the weather has been pretty nice so far; it isn’t bitter cold outside just yet and it has only rained a few times for an hour or so in the afternoon otherwise it has actually been kinda sunny!

Our flights weren’t too bad. The first hop over to atlanta wasn’t very long, although Dave and I didn’t get to sit together. The layover in Atlanta was nice, we had lots of time to get a snack and walk around and stretch out some before the really long plane over the pond. For that one we did get a flight attendant to sit us together after only a small amount of hassle and they even gave me a gluten free meal! Once we got here immigration took ages because the line was so long and once we were through that we had to race to the bus to Galway. It is about a two ish hour bus ride so we got back around one which wasn’t too bad.

I have been having fun the last few days getting over my jet lag and hanging out with Dave’s family. We have been to see Lorraine a few times already and the neighbors have been dropping in the whole time which is always fun! Esther (Dave’s Mom) and I had a fun night together last night when Dave and his dad were golfing. We baked some gluten free bread and a gluten free quiche with mushrooms cheese and ham in it. Both turned out very well and the quiche was actually absolutely delicious!!

The other thing that has kept us busy is looking up and calling about apartments. We are going up to Dublin tomorrow to look for the first time! We have six lined up to go see tomorrow and we are leaving early in the morning to get up there in time for the first one! It is exciting looking for a place of our own! We also have left a few messages at places to see if we can squeeze any more in on Friday but we haven’t heard back from them.

Anyway it has been a really busy few days since we got here!!!! I can’t believe it has already been three days!

I think that is all my news for now, hopefully soon I will have photos of a new apartment to post! I can’t wait! We are hoping to have somewhere to move into next week. We shall see! I hope this finds everyone at home happy and well. I love you all!

Love

Ali

Aerodynamically the bumblebee shouldn’t be able to fly, but the bumblebee doesn’t know that so it goes on flying anyway.

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Three more days until Dave and I leave for Ireland. I keep jumping back and forth between excitement and nerves. I can’t wait to get started on this year, but it still all feels unreal to me. I guess it just hasn’t sunk in yet!
I thought that as the summer comes to an end I would make a post about some of the highlights. It has been a full summer that went by far to quickly. Dave and I had quite a few picture field trips where I was able to use my amazing film camera. Dave took lots of pictures using the digital camera that dad gave me so I will post some of those. Also Dave has scanned in some of his favorites from my film.
We visited the National Center for Atmospheric Research, which was designed by I.M. Pei, an architect Dave really likes. We also were able to eat at an amazing fondue restaurant that day and go to the Lady Gaga concert in Denver which was an interesting experience! We also went tent camping for a week at the end of August which was a blast. We spent a day in Glenwood Springs at the pool that is fed by the hotsprings and then we went to Manitou Springs and saw the anasasi ruins, garden of the gods, cave of the winds, seven falls and the chapel at the air force academy. It was a great trip and a really fun time for me and Dave to just hang out which was nice because he had to work so much this summer.
Another thing that we were able to do this summer was visit the Denver art museum on our two year anniversary. Dave wanted to see the architecture and I wanted to see the Tutankamun exhibit which was really awesome. Our favorite display at the museum was a whole room that was entirely red with all these gray fox sculptures spread around in various poses on dinner tables and stuff. It was great and we got some awesome pictures!
In addition to all of the things Dave and I were able to squeeze in I had a really great summer learning more about myself. I began going to more yoga classes this summer that were taught by a woman named Liz. She has helped me to feel encouraged and confident enough to pursue yoga on a deeper level, and I am planning to look into becoming a certified yoga teacher next summer! On top of that I finally found the key to my horrific stomach problems. Turns out that after all the doctor visits and an endoscopy a nurse gave mom and I the idea to cut out gluten (wheat) from my diet and I have felt a million times better all summer. It has been a learning experience that has kind of sucked because it was hard to cut out so much, but it seems to be worth it to feel this much better!
Finally I would just like to say that it has been so great to have Dave here this summer and be at home with my family and riley! It was so good to have a whole summer to spend with them before leaving for school!
Well I should get back to packing so until next time I wish all of you the best. I will miss you all!

Love,
Ali