Birmingham Photos

Have a click on the link above for photos from Saturday night out in Birmingham. It's not my site despite it saying Steve's Site...another Steve from that night. I'll be getting more eventually, there were over 400 taken from that night.

Interview on Thursday

I was checking through emails and found one from the hiring folks for a winter job in France. I have an interview scheduled for noon on Thursday the 28th which I hope goes well because I haven't been able to schedule any other interviews yet with similar type jobs.

Dublin - Meet with Liz

A rendez vouz with Liz at the airport took much longer than expected. Her flight into London was delayed over 2 hours and she missed her connecting flight. I was on the phone with Lisa-Anna trying to figure out when she would arrive but she wasn't much help and knew as much as me...nil. At about

We finally make it to the LPA where Liz and her friend Rebeka are studying for the semester. I spend some time waiting there while Rebeka sorts our her lost luggage from her transfer in Charles de Gaul. Arriving back towards the centre of town we pick up a taxi and head to the main building of the LPA. The girls find out that they will be living in the same house together and are of course very excited. Just a few minutes earlier I was informing them of my experience in France where my friend and I were the only two who had a family that lived near each other.

The drive to the host family in *** was scenic. We were driving along the coast of Dublin by the *** Sea. The family was quite receptive and offered myself dinner and future accommodation if I were to return to Dublin and need a place to stay. Paul was Christine's??? partner whom had a son named Peter and Sue who joined us for dinner. Peter is about 20 years old while Sue is 29 and a curator at the National Gallery. Paul is retiring as a partner from Ernst and Young after over 20 years of service.

Liz and I made our way towards the Temple Bar area and met with Chris from couch surfing at ??? Bar .. She was with Dan whom she met earlier in the day. Chris had just returned from a few weeks in Morocco and had just become an Irish citizen after many years of effort.

Upon returning I was walking along the south end of the river and I noticed many drops of blood on the corner of the street. After the 5 minute walk from that point to the Hostel I came to realize that a group of German students from Frankfurt were the recipients of an attack over a mobile phone.

There was what I believe to be a representative of the Garda (police) taking notes of the incident. The whole exchange of information is quite interesting as the Germans are not completely fluent yet in English so their supervisor was translating as the students were speaking in German.

Dublin - Day 2

There were some cultural events going on at the tournament including some Chinese dancers and singers that I had the opportunity to watch and hear. Around 2pm I decided that I had watched enough and it was time to get something to eat. As I was leaving I walked past a game going on at the cricket grounds that I first passed by before getting to the football pitches. I took about an hour to watch what was going on and picked up on a few parts of the game. Still don't understand it fully though of course.

While walking to the bus to get back into the city centre, I noticed the Guinness building towering above all the rest in the distance. I took the bus back towards the polish internet café where it is only €1 per hour. The hostel costs €1 for 15 minutes!

I went and ate at Eddie Rockets and had a tuna melt along with some fries. (€5.75, 3.45). Their wireless internet, that seemed to be open, refused to allow me to connect.

Dublin - Day 2

Note to self – Don't get to breakfast at 9:45 when it finishes at 10...there's no milk left by then....well on a busy Sunday morning anyways

After a few pieces of toast with some of my favourite jam, blackcurrant, orange juice, and a small bit of cereal I could manage to eat with the drops of milk that was left I made my way out to Dublin. I hopped on the first bus that came by the stop and I knew it was headed off my intended path once it turned right across the river. I had a nice stroll in front of me, maybe 20min, through some residential areas of Dublin on the east side of Phoenix Park, where I was headed. I'm guessing that it was the Polish part of town from overhearing the mothers speaking to their children. There was also a church service going on it what seemed to be Polish as well.

After finding the park it was a long walk towards the pitches that the games were being played at for the tournament(see below). There seems to be 7 pitches of games going on. Not a huge tournament from what I can tell but it is in its 10th year.

Arrival to Europe

No delay on the flight arrival this morning into Dublin. There was some trouble with the airport crew trying to align the stairs for us all to get off the plane. Once that was complete, I was then heading through the airport to pass through customs. The last time I came through to London I was of course in the non-European Union line and there's quite a bit of inspection of ones passport, maybe an inquiry or two of what you will be doing, where you're staying and what not. This time however it was the EU line for me, not a sole waiting in line. I walked right up and the agent didn't glance at it for more than 5 seconds and I was on my way. I suppose the only bad thing with the new passport is that it seems I won't be getting any stamps of all the countries I'll be visiting.

After waiting for what seemed to be everyone else's luggage to come off the plane I finally received mine. I realized I might have been better off with a larger roller suitcase to consolidate the backpack and small roller one I used all into one. I made my way out of the airport towards the bus, taking the 748 to the hostel I am staying at, Four Courts Hostel. I opted to buy the 3 day Rambler pass for €10.50 instead of the €5.00 one way. I took the bus past a few parks where some youth football matches were going on. There's a tournament this weekend that I'm going to go and watch tomorrow.

After dropping off my luggage at the hostel I walked around Dublin until about 4pm. I went and picked up a UK plug for my new laptop because the power converter I bought did not have the typical 3 prong US but only the 2 prong. Luckily the laptop adapters are 110-240V switched, as is my mobile phone charger as it turns out. The Isobar power strip I brought with unfortunately is not 110-240V so I'll need to get one of these sent over.

I spent an uneventful evening at the hostel. Getting in bed around 10pm sleeping until the next morning.

Departure Day

After a fun filled morning spent at city impound lot for a car that was parked during street cleaning times things finally came together and I was on my way. As usual it was last minute scrambling to get things packed up and moved out of the old apartment. Still have a few things if anyone is interested.

My flight out of O'Hare is scheduled for 7:25 and I'm waiting around the departure gate right now. The 6 outlet power strip came in handy as there were a few people looking to charge up their phones and laptops from the limited outlets available.....