Oh yeah, I saw him. In Scotland. At the British Open. No Big Deal.

I've been waiting for this past weekend to come for what seems like years now. I remember when we booked the trip I didn't know Kaitie or Andrea very well, but I knew I was going to the British Open. Now we've all become good friends and I can't believe our trip has come and gone already.

Friday I waited. I did my laundry. Waited. Took a nap. Waited. Called Kaitie and begged her to leave early. Waited....she got home around 5:30 and we all took off for the airport to catch our bus. After returning to the apartments so Corrie could get her passport (which we didn't even need by the way) we were left with about 10 minutes to get from our apartment to the bus. Lets just say we had a great cab driver and we made it just before the bus left. It was a 3 hour ride that dropped us off right at the hotel. There were about 13 of us all together and 9 of us were going to the Open on Saturday so we just went to dinner at the really great Italian place and then called it a night around 11.

We had to be checked into the ferry by 6:30 am, so my day started around 4:30. I was the first one up and showered, and was coffee in hand when the cab came to pick us up at 6 (I guess I take more after my mother than I thought). The ferry port was only about 5 miles from our hotel, so we got there early enough to check in and have breakfast. The ferry wasn't a normal ferry, it was a freaking cruise ship...we spent the first 15 minutes of our trip (before they started the movie we viewed from stadium seats) learning all the amenities the ship had to offer including a casino (No Eric, I didn't play Blackjack), a children's playground, and a full service nail salon. We all watched parts of Bedtime Stories..an appropriate choice since most of us slept through the entire film...for most of the 2 hours it took our ship to cover the 8 miles between Ireland and Scotland. From there we went straight to an hour bus ride...again mostly spent napping...until we finally arrived at Turnberry!

The security check in was surprisingly casual, and Kaitie easily snuck in her camera (don't get too excited, we only used it before and after the actual tournament for fear we'd end up in golf jail). Of course we all headed straight to the "Official Merchandise Pavilion", lists in hand prepared to buy gifts for everyone we knew (Kaitie's list was at least a page long). We were there for a good hour and half and since the boys all ditched us in favor of food I found myself asking a lot of random strangers "If you were my Dad, do you think you would like this shirt?" and begging them to try things on.

We made it over to the food pavilion and ate quickly to make John Daly's tee off a little after 12. It just so happened that we were walking over just as he was walking out and we ended up being right on the ropes so I got to shake his hand. Luckily before hand I had dutifully applied lip gloss, knowing that if my mother saw me on TV with John Daly without any on...she'd kill me. Lana kept yelling "Hey John, I'm from Tennessee." while I just sat in awe...

We walked around for a while just looking at the course and watching bits and pieces of play until we found a sunny spot on the 5th green. We watched John (I can call him John now because we're obviously great friends after the handshake business) come through again, along with Sergio Garcia, Ernie Ells, some cute guy in a turquoise sweater and another French guy in tight pants who does one handed push ups on the green while lifting his leg like he's about to water the grass. We got up for beer and obviously lost our spots so we walked around for a while until we found another nice spot right off the 14th green.

We hadn't been there more than 10 minutes when the French guy hit a ball right off Lana's foot. We had to move back to he could play through right in front of us. We were all so excited we were going to be on TV (check your Tivo or YouTube for footage of the 14th green...I'm probably there) we probably looked like huge tools smiling nervously and acting all interested in the ball angle and the club number, and then finally nodding our approval when he hit a good shot.

We left grudgingly to pick up our purchases and make the bus on time. This is when Kaitie and I realize that we think we've bought the wrong size shirts for our respective Dads, and so ensues panic, nail biting, and wine drinking the whole ferry ride home. This was followed by an endless fashion show starring every boy on our trip who had to try on said shirts while we made comments like "Well he's a little bigger than you considering he's about a foot taller, but since it comes down to your knees, being a boy, do you think this would fit?" Until everyone got so sick of our worrying they went to bed (or maybe it was we got so tired of worrying that we went to bed....either way it turns out I got the right size. So no worries...)

Sunday we slept in a little bit and had breakfast in the hotel restaurant. Most everyone else went home, but Kaitie, Corrie, Andrea, William, and I decided to stay and do a Black Cab Tour. The tour takes you through the major points of The Troubles. The hotel recommended a balanced cab company (some only take you through the Catholic side while others only take you through the Protestant) so ours included major points of both. It was eye-opening, to say the very least, and very informative. We saw the murals that are painted along the giant 48ft wall that divides the city and our cab driver got out and explained everything in detail, taking time to answer even the most basic of questions. We saw memorials, churches, and political buildings that still house killings and hatred. Ya'll will be very happy to know that we learned that the hotel right across the street from ours is the most frequently bombed in the entire city (going on 32 times now)...I saved that little tidbit from my mom until we got home. We took pictures, but respectfully decided against smiling in a sorority squat in front of some of the more horrific things we had ever seen (so basically our pictures are just of things....monuments and murals...instead of people). I honestly have never wanted to go to church so bad in my life.

Finally we grabbed the bus home and were back in time for Sunday Night Dinner and a Movie (featuring mexican and Juno this week) at Kaitie's. This past weekend was easily one of my favorites. Being so anticipated I figured it couldn't possibly turn out as great as we imagined, but it definitely did.

Fortunately we found out over the weekend that our website finally launched...just in time for our last week of work. GREAT.

Cheers, E

Ohmygosh...

I LEAVE FOR BELFAST TODAY...TOMORROW I WILL BE AT THE BRITISH OPEN!!!!!!!

The Cold,Cold Rain in Cork

Well I figure if I stop now I'll never get everything in before I leave for the Open on Friday and the pileup would make me anxious. (I know... surprise surprise the thing that was supposed to relieve my anxiety is causing it. Ain't that the way it always ends?) But I thought I would take a break, catch my breath, and let you get a snack or go to the bathroom or something before I continue. Consider this a commercial break in my life....

Now back to your regularly scheduled programming...

So Saturday morning after my parents left I got up early (try 6:30 early) to catch the train to Cork.  Kaitie wanted to go for her birthday so I promised to tag along and somehow we conned Cory and William into going with us.  So we caught a taxi and off we went to Dublin-Heuston. 

I love riding the train.  To book your trip you basically say "I want to take the train".  Though you book your ticket for a certain time, the stations aren't really sticklers about the time you actually choose to depart and you can pretty much get on any train you want no matter what your ticket says.  Its a lot less scary than flying (especially here after all the problems with AirFrance) and cheaper too. I would like to dub this particular train ride "controversial" not so much because we had any problems but because we literally talked about every topic you could think of that could possibly instigate a fight.  Those of you that know me know that this sort of bantering usually makes me uncomfortable because I don't like confrontation per say and it makes me nervous when people start yelling (or violently whispering) in public places. We talked about politics, foreign policy, the economy, and what we recommend that our obviously inadequate government due to right these issues.  Apparently their first step should be to talk to us since we know everything. Well, they should talk to everyone else that is, since I am shamefully uninterested (and therefore sadly uninformed) about all of the above a basically stuck to playing the game show host and took to yelling out "John McCain. Your Thoughts? GO." until everyone had pretty much talked themselves out and we moved on to significantly more entertaining topics like religion and race. Sounds horrible I know, and even though it ended with William whispering "I really want Cory to just come out and fight me." I actually enjoyed hearing everyone else's opinions and learning a little something as well.

Three hours later we arrived in the rain with no directions. It was only softly...but consistently...misting at the time so after we found our hostel we decided to walk around the city.  We stopped for lunch at a little place down the street and spread out all our tourist pamphlets to decide what to do. An hour and a half later, having scrapped the Ring of Kerry due to the torrential downpour that now covered all of Cork, we made the bright decision to just "see where the day took us." It took us to the beginnings of a flash flood.  The rain wouldn't let up for a minute and eventually we just gave into it and ran around soaking wet.  Though I can't exactly tell you what we did all day, we had a lot of fun.

After consulting the tourist office, and deciding against their recommendation to see the play Big Maggie, we ran back to our hotel to pull ourselves together before dinner. William had forgotten his jacket and an umbrella and was drenched from head to foot.  Kaitie and I's jeans were leaking water through the rolled up cuffs. In short, we were a hot mess.  We sent the boys home and ran to Penny's to fid pants for us and a coat for William.  I got a T-shirt and a pair of yoga pants for under 10 euros (Turns out I like to bargain shop when I have too), Kaitie got the same pair of sweats and we found William a cheap jacket.  Mission accomplished.  We ran back to the hostel dreaming about the dryer the hostels ad had promised.

As it turns out the hostel was doing laundry all day and had loads of sheets in the dryers so we couldn't dry our jeans.  I very literally just checked them and they are still wet.  Needless to say we didn't make it to anywhere fancy in Cork seeing as Kaitie and I were stuck running around in 5 euro sweats for the rest of the weekend.  Our hostel was relatively nice (meaning it had a private bathroom and our bed had sheets) and it had a bar in the basement. Good enough for us at least.  We attempted to dry ourselves off and we all took a little bit of a nap before dinner.  We got up and found this really great little burger place.  My burger even had guacamole on it (Oh how I desperately miss Mexican food.) and we sat and had appetizers and drinks and talked for a couple hours. Then we made our way over to a comedy club we had seen earlier and watched these 2 stand up acts.  They were hilarious...granted I might be a little biased because I love all stand up...but they really were great and the manager even let us in on some special student price. 

Sunday we got up early (again 6:30 early. What's a girl gotta do to sleep in around here? Jeez.) and caught the bus to Blarney.  It's a half an hour ride but we were the first ones of the day to kiss the stone.  We walked all around the Castle and the grounds and when the bottom 3 inches of my sweatpants became unbearably dirty I simply just cut them off.  Now I have new capris. 

We did a little shopping in town, ate lunch, and caught the bus back to Cork.  We got to the train station early and jumped on the train leaving 2 hours before our scheduled tickets.  No great conversation this time...we slept all the way home.  Now my clothes smell like feet from being in my backpack with my wet towel, my jeans are dirty, I'm exhausted, and my rooms a disaster since I'm in the middle of trying to unpack, but it was worth it.  I can't really adequately explain to ya'll why it was so fun...but rain and all we had a blast.  Its crazy to think I didn't know these people a couple of months ago...and in 2 weeks they'll all be gone.  

But we still have so much more to go really...UP NEXT: Belfast, the British Open, Beth and the BEACH!!!! 

T-minus 17 days and counting until Home. Mark your calenders!

.....E

They talked Irish to Me: My parents visit

Woah.  Its been almost 2 weeks since I posted...I'm sure you've all on pins and needles.....

My parents arrived safely, albeit a little flustered and without their luggage, on Thursday afternoon after missing their connection in London.  They picked me up in a cab on the way into town from the airport and we drove the half an hour to where they were staying.  And then came the big question...well you live here..what do we do now? I didn't know. I barely even knew where we were (which is kind of embarrassing having been in the city for 6 weeks. As it turns out though the hotel was right near one of our favorite bars and I used it much like a ship uses a lighthouse--as a beacon of hope that I was somewhere near home and for directions to almost anywhere). They wanted Irish food and asked me where we ate all the time and so I listed off every Italian restaurant in the city explaining that "real Irish people don't really eat Irish food". Well real Irish Americans from Ole Miss at least. We found someplace acceptable had a nice lunch and walked around.  Everyone but me (and my mother who had thoughtfully packed everything she would ever need in her carry on) felt dirty and tired, so after a bit of shopping and a quick pint my sister and my dad went back to the hotel for a nap and I showed my mom to my apartment.  When we got back to the hotel mom decided she wasn't tired and we went down to the hotel restaurant for wings.  She stayed up until 11:30...meaning it really was vacation! I had taken the day off work to meet them, and though I know they'll hate me for it I had a really nice day.  I knew they were off running around the London airport trying to find their bags and directions and everything else while I slept in. I spent the morning downtown by myself where I printed off my tickets to the Open, bought a sweatshirt I'd been eyeing, sat in the Starbucks and people watched for a while, then went home for a bit of grocery shopping and a nap. Pleasant is the only word I can really use to describe it. 

I stayed Thursday night with them in the hotel with the intent of getting up early the next morning to simultaneously take everyone shopping on the way to the airport to look for their lost luggage  Luckily, all their bags arrived by the morning which made things a lot less stressful, so we went and had breakfast up by my work which my parents so kindly deemed "the ghetto." We finally got to the rental car place around 12 and this is where the fun begins.  I'm not even a good driver in America where cars are on the correct side of the road so I would have never attempted this trip, but my Dad did surprisingly well (at least during the parts that I was awake...) and didn't even almost kill us until we were making a right turn into our B&B and he pulled out into oncoming traffic where he promptly threw his hands up in the air and just shouted "get this thing in reverse" as cars sped around us.

Mary, who owns the B&B told us about a really nice place to eat dinner and so we took her up on her recommendation. She was right and it was probably one of the best meals (if not the best) that I've had since being here. Kelsey and I (I realize now I've been referring to my family as if all 7 of you don't know them) split the chicken deliciousness (I don't remember its proper name but it was served on top of pasta stuffed with blue cheese and garlic and covered in a dreamy white alfredo sauce so deliciousness fits I assure you) and the crab claws.  Stuffed and happy we found a bar that boasted Irish music.  The 2 guys were amazing and we stayed and drank for a while before walking home. 

Id been telling my mom how nice the weather had been lately, so of course the day we get up to hike the sky burst open and poured forth a river like you had never seen.  It rained all day (the good thing about this only being that Mom didn't make us get out of the car at random places along the road to take pictures with any sheep or tree that she exclaimed was beautiful). We drove over to check out this really old Abbey and its grounds, and then just drove the rental car through along a scenic road that runs through a bunch of little towns. We stopped and ate and shopped and basically just looked around at the scenery.  We all took naps, especially Dad who was tuckered out from driving, and then went to dinner where we proceeded to walk in and out of almost every restaurant in the town until we finally decided one was worthy. We actually went back and listened to the same guys at the same bar (yes, they were that good).  This time we had better seats and stayed all night until the bar closed as I attempted to down Irish coffee and Baileys (Lets just say even the thought of whiskey makes me want to vom so I ordered wrong) and sign up for the Irish drum class one of the singers was offering. Sunday it rained again, this time throughout the whole drive into Galway.  I had to catch the train to Dublin from there and Mom and Kelsey wanted to shop.  It rained and poured until we finally gave up on shopping and sat down to eat lunch. As luck would have it, the sun came out right after we ordered. Figures....

You'll have to ask them as to what happened the rest of the week since apparently my parents and I had flip flopped responsibilities. I had to stay home and go to work, pack, and clean my apartment while it seems they spent the week playing outside and occasionally fighting with my sister. The highlights I received consisted of them attempting what sounds like a triathlon and visiting the Arran Islands and what my Dad now affectionately calls the "smores".

They all came back in town Thursday night and I took my sister with me to yet another birthday dinner (this time for my new bff kaitie) at TGIFridays. We moved onto free shots next door...and things progressed nicely from there until we got home around 3am.  My parents said they had a nice night too...hanging out and apparently trying to identify people they know at the Temple Bar.  Friday morning came early. I forgot that the Dublin Public Transportation system doesn't stop and go at my every whim, and though I thought it was a good idea to leave around 9:40 to meet my parents at 10, the bus schedule decided it would be better to leave around 9:10. So with wet hair and a full suitcase we ran for the bus and Kels got a real taste of what its like to live in Dublin. We rode the 44 out to Enniskerry where Powerscourt Gardens is located.  Its this huge old mansion with every different type of shrubbery known to man. (It was really pretty and I'm probably not doing to justice..but I mean how many ways can you describe plants?) We rode back to Dublin and ate dinner at one of my favorite restaurants (Bewley's Oriental Cafe...the one that houses neither a cafe or orientals) And then I took the bus home to watch a movie since I was getting home late without my phone and I was leaving early the next morning for Cork.  I talked to them yesterday and they had another safe flight and arrived with all their luggage.  All and all....it was a really fun trip and I was so excited for them to get to be here and share this crazy experience with me.

 Tune in for more about our trip to Cork...

Love to all...E

PS--Again I would post pictures but all of the new ones from this weekend are on my Mom's camera since she informed me I was a bad photographer.

I guess it takes all kinds...

Don't mind my wedgie in that photo. My pants were actually pretty loose that day but the wind up there was crazy! This blogging thing is harder than I thought. I've read other people's blogs (ahem...jodie and jill...ahem...) and they keep saying things like "Its so hard to keep up with my blogging". In the beginning I thought..wow this is easy all I have to do is write about my day. Now I'm to the point where I sit down and think...well what in the world did I do today?

It was another successful weekend here in Dublin. I was sick Wednesday and Thursday (not from drinking...I can almost see ya'll thinking that but no I was really the old fashioned kind of sick. I know...go ahead and feel very sorry for me, its fine). So I didn't do much those nights, and I was still recovering on Friday so my new friend Kaitie and I stayed in and rented He's Just Not That Into You on iTunes. I've seen it before but it was just as fabulous this time around and I cried all over again. I highly recommend it...even for guys. I knew Saturday was going to make up for it.

Lana and I took Caitlin shopping so she could unknowingly pick out her birthday present. We knew she wanted shoes, but we'd forgotten which ones. So I dragged her into some store with neon mannequins claiming I knew they had great birthday dresses while Lana snuck off and bought them. We had already discussed a payment plan with our whole group (sometimes its nice to have a lot of people) and it was fun to be able to actually get her something she wanted. We went home and got ready and headed back downtown to a predetermined birthday dinner location, Brewley's Oriental Cafe.

Don't let the name fool you as Brewley's Oriental Cafe serves neither oriental food or cafe-like pastries. It's actually a really good Italian place, that is relatively cheap by Dublin standards. We all ate a lot and drank a lot more. Though Caitlin had forgotten about it, she had asked Lynn a couple weeks ago to make her this amazing banana bread in place of a cake (Caitlin is the only human being on the planet that doesn't even like birthday cake on her birthday). Without Caitlin knowing we had dropped the banana bread off with our waiter along with candles, and he brought the lit loaf down as we sang Happy Birthday. Lana, who had gotten up to stand across the table for this very reason, asked Caitlin to hand her the camera out of her purse. When she reached in she pulled out the shoes wrapped in a decorative bag the store had given us. She opened them...and cried. Nice, right? She kept going on about how we were such good friends and this was her best birthday and I'm pretty sure the whole story got repeated on Skype about 15 times.

After dinner, we walked around and went from bar to bar until we ended up at M.J. O'Neills. Now for those of you who don't know, I've been promoting this bar since the first day we got here since its the bar where my cousins went when they were here and its named O'Neills so it has to be a pretty good time. It was. We all had a ton of pints on the rooftop patio and proceeded to sing happy birthday again...at 11:55. Still it was fun and Caitlin said she had a pretty good time so that's all that really matters.

Melanie and I have actually had some work to do this week. We've drawn up 2 fliers and gotten to walk around Dublin handing them out to businesses in an attempt to get special promotional offers to post on the website. This is hard to do since the website still hasn't launched yet and its tough to try and get people to understand the concept of promoting on a website that neither they nor their customers can get too. It couldn't have bothered us less. The weather was really nice this week (I've even got a bit of a farmers tan...a weird thing to be excited about but I'll take what I can get) and it was amazing to be able to get out of the office and explore.

The odd fashion sense here stood out to me more than ever yesterday on the bus. I mean I've noticed they wear a lot of neon and that that they like their clothes tight and small....no matter how large or pregnant one may be. But there was this group sitting in front of us...a couple friends I'm guessing from what I picked up by eavesdropping on their conversation...and the girl was wearing a suit coat with chopsticks stuck through the bun in her hair and the guy was wearing fingernail polish and a headband (the tight halo kind that's usually reserved for feminist hippies, not the 80s sweatband style that is traditionally unisex).

It's times like these that really make you miss all your friends and family at Home who still dress according to traditional gender appropriate styles...which is why I'M SO EXCITED THAT MY FAMILY WILL BE HERE TOMORROW MORNING! I can't wait and I'm taking the day off work to show them all the sights I can find around Dublin...especially those that are riding around on the city bus.

LOVES! E
(P.S.- I can't post pictures this time, even though I just learned how to add multiples to one post, because I'm writing this at work. I'll be sure to add some in later)