Seeing dead bodies in Dublin: round two...or is it three now?

On Friday Stephanie and I headed back up to Dublin on the bus, getting into the city around 6.30 pm. We were going up to one of the courses offered through our work and basically doing 'face-to-face-marketing' with the people enrolled in it, offering our extra materials at discounted prices. I guess this would be a good time to fully explain what the heck it is I'm doing out here.

I am working for the company i-to-i, based down here in Dungarvan, Co. Waterford. The company's main hub is in the UK office, but also has an Australia office (Melbourne), USA offices (basically run from the UK) and in Canada. There are a few different things that i-to-i does. The first one are TEFL courses, Teaching English as A Foreign Language. We have a placement service that people can use to find well-paid jobs abroad by teaching English, but we also offer different TEFL courses to get people a lifetime qualification if they don't already have one.
i-to-i Online TEFL Web site

Besides TEFL, i-to-i also is one of Ireland's leading travel companies which promotes volunteer work overseas. There are meaningful travel programs from 2 weeks to over one month where volunteers travel overseas and work with the community either building homes, working with orphans/children or community development and habitat restoration. Some of the most popular trips are taking care of lion cubs in South Africa, teaching Monks English in Nepal, teaching and caring for AIDS orphans in Mombasa, or conservation work in Kenya, Thailand, Honduras, etc.
i-to-i.com Travel Site

Lastly, similar to the volunteer work, there are also i-to-i tours; trips which are more of a vacation tour where you would travel around with a small tour group to do all the sightseeing and attractions. Then for a few days, or a day or two built into the tour, would be some form of volunteer work at a community site.

My internship is to write the PR mainly for TEFL courses, but I have also been focusing on some profiles on returning volunteers, etc. In addition to press releases, writing stories and profiles I am also doing sales and marketing for the TEFL courses. Having taken one myself now, Steph and I came up with the idea to go to some of the weekend courses to do some face to face marketing and sell some of the teaching resources we offer at a discounted price. So this is what brought us back up to Dublin...

DUBLIN
So once steph and I checked into our B&B, the Maple Hotel, we spent the Friday night out listening to live music at Fitzgerald's in Temple Bar and then met up with our two Aussie friends who were visiting family in Dublin. But probably one of the most hilarious moments we had encountered was at the pub Mother Kelly's near our B&B. The name should have been our first warning. As we walked by, I was waiting with Steph outside to finish her cigarette when two men around 60 years old started talking to us telling us that we should come in for a drink. While Steph was trying to converse with one of them, another man (around 75 years old) started into asking me where I was from and I only got as far as The States, when he busted out asking what ethnicity I was and started listing off the ones he did not like. I never got to answer but his guesses or dislikes where never close to what I am. Somehow his own conversation with himself, yet spoken to me, turned into the Twin Towers and Iraq, which is when I walked inside deciding it was time for a pint.


Once inside, I felt as if I was in a time warp and I saw my life 60 years in the future. Now I only say this because I was informed my Grandmother is readying my blog---but hey grandma, I found some good dancing Irish men you might be interested in! And like all my assembly lessons taught me (not to mention my mom) when one of the men, old enough to be my papa--(great grandpa) took my hand and asked me to dance...of course i said yes, and of course Steph took a video. There are a few of them but hang tough through the bad angle, Steph was trying to balance the camera while not peeing her pants.
VIDEO 1


VIDEO 2


After deciding that we wanted to find a pub with the average age to be lower than 50, Steph and I wandered out way into Temple Bar--which put us at Fitzgerald's, as mentioned above.
SATURDAY
Saturday, Valentines Day, we went to the TEFL course in Dublin to do some face to face marketing and then spent the day wondering around.

Steph did not want to play my game...
So I did it...

We found a nice Italian restaurant for our Valentines Day 'linner' and then went back to our B&B to get ready for the night. We had planned to get ready for the night and then walk over to the cinema to catch a movie but once we got there all the earlier shows were sold out and we didn't want to wait around for almost 2 hours for the later shows. So instead we decided to go to the Bodies exhibition that was showing in Dublin since we both had wanted to see it when it was touring The States and Canada.

Now for those of you who don't know about the exhibition I urge you to follow the link I created above and read a little bit about it. It's an exhibition of real human cadavers from full body muscles, to tendons, veins, preserved skin, eyes and etc. Human skeletons are on display showing how the human body works and operates, along with basically all the internal organs. Going through the exhibition it's hard not to be detached mentally and emotionally because frankly if you don't you become extremely sick thinking about it. It's crazy trying to tell yourself that the human brain you are looking at, which looks identical to the fake plastic ones in biology class, is actually a real brain. The human bodies on display included real eyes, eyelashes, fingernails and more. Two of the most powerful sections of the exhibition were the smoking/lungs area and then the premature births/fetus area. The smoker lungs vs healthy lungs section was a very interesting display mainly because right in front of you were real smoker lungs compared to real non-smoker lungs. Somehow seeing pictures in a book or in anti-tobacco campaigns don't come anywhere close to this. There was even a big glass box that had one slit in the top placed near the end of the section for people who smoked to drop their cigarette box in there and decide to quit right then and there. I was actually very pleased and pleasantly surprised with the amount of cigarettes in there, but who really knows how long they lasted considering the next section was for abortion fetus'. Let's just say a lot of people could have used a smoke after that.This section was probably the hardest because as a women's rights supporter and personal activist, I felt like I really had to separate myself from what I was seeing and feeling. While I do appreciate the warning sign before the separate entrance into this section, no words could really describe what individuals may feel or internal emotions that may come about from what they were about to see. On one long display table were separate jars which each contained an aborted or lost fetus during the pregnancy starting from one week of conception all the way until about the 23rd week. Then, along the wall were two displays with actual premature stillborn fetus', aborted fetus' or miscarried ones. With a few more containers on each stand which contained fetus' from an 11th week pregnancy, 13th week and 16th week. The crazy thing here was even before the 11th week you could actually see the eyes, parts of bone through the skin and see a real body. It was just a really weird moment (for lack of better word) and made me question some of my foundations of personal beliefs...not enough to change them, for they are the way they are for strong reasons, but still definitely gave me a new perspective.

After leaving the exhibition, a fabulous way to spend Valentines Day, Steph and I headed off for a much needed pint back at Fitzgerald's. Feeling welcome with open arms when the bartender knew our drinks from last night (considering we only had one pint on Friday) we stayed for the live music all night before heading into Temple Bar to find some more live music.

Now this is where it gets interesting. We came across a pub and went inside the very overcrowded room for a beer and to figure out our next game plan. After finding a little nook in the corner and hanging out for a bit we ventured off to find the bathrooms. This is where we discovered the second floor. Now, upstairs was still crowded but a lot less crazy and has a little heated balcony area were we sat while Steph finished off her cigarette (she claims the exhibition didn't work on her since she had already disconnected herself from the images she was seeing). After she finished we walked inside to a booth where we met a very strange man who preceded to ask Steph why she was out alone and when she responded by saying she wasn't alone he turned to me and asked if we were a couple. Granted this was Valentines Day, we just looked at him a bit confused and that's when he told us about the secret third floor! We walked up the secret stairs in the back of the pub and there was a whole floor devoted to live Irish dancing and music. We spent most of the remainder of the night here where we listened to the live band and I even ended up with an Irish drumstick (it's a bit different then a drumstick but very similar).
VIDEO of Irish Music(edited from full video)

When the band was finished playing music we headed back downstairs where Stephanie and I in attempt to leave the bar and go home were trapped in by a mob of people doing the can-can. Not only could we not get to the exit, but the only way we were able to pass them is if we can-canned our way out...so yes, that is what we did....we literally can-canned our way out of an Irish Pub. (My mom will vouch for me, I called her right after!)

Pink Bunnies on the Streets of Dublin

So this last weekend was the great adventure in Dublin on the day/night of the Ireland vs France rugby match. Like I mentioned on my past blogg, Steph and I decided Friday night to book a place (the last 2 hostel beds in all of Dublin...really) and get our North American butts up to the city for one of the most hectic times. This meant that we had to catch our bus at 10 a.m. and one transfer later we arrived in Dublin around 2:30. Now let me tell you that I LOVE all the cobble-stone roads in Ireland and find them very aesthetically pleasing....but when you are on a bus for four hours and all you want to do is sleep you really start to hate them. Really, really hate them. Because we stop through all the little towns along the way (why it takes so freaking long) we do get to see a lot of the countryside and towns. There was one point where we both had fallen asleep and when I woke up I looked out the window and noticed that my green fields and clover hills were covered in snow! At this point I threw my jacket at Steph's face to wake her up and look out the window. Now see a part of me was really excited cause I had just woken up to snow outside, where it hadn't been before. This is an exciting event to a native southern Californian...but I kinda forgot it would be depressing for a Canadian who came to Ireland to escape the snow....sorry Steph!

When we arrived into Dublin we found out hostel right in the Temple Bar section and checked in. With about 2 hours before the match started the streets were filled with people and it was hard to tell if you were in Ireland or France...except for the mobs of French walking around with blue (their team color) big and furry chicken hats on (why I don't know) and all the green and Irish shamrock hats and shirts. Not to mention big pink bunnies.. but we will get back to them later.

Temple Bar basically lives up to its name. A block devoted to bars and pubs, and this is where our hostel was. Sweet huh? Now, I would recommend Temple bar for a night or so when travelling through Ireland because it's a fun and outgoing atmosphere, but it is also very touristy and priced higher than other places. If you can book a B&B in Dublin as they have more character and an authentic Irish feel (what we are doing this weekend). We decided to grab some lunch since at this point we were starving and in need of a good meal. I hate to admit it but we did eat at a more touristy place, Thunder Road, which was like a Hard Rock (ironically across the street from one) but we didn't want to mess with our already low blood sugar levels.

After eating and a bit of walking around we had about an hour before the rugby match began. So we did probably the smartest thing yet and went back and took a quick 30 minute nap. This was the only thing tat saved us from passing out somewhere between 6 p.m. and 4 a.m. Yeah, it was a late night...or I guess you could say we had an early morning start?

After napping our plan was to meet up with the guys we knew who were at the game at Croke Park, about a 15 min walk from where we were. So Steph and I decided we were going to have a mini pub crawl from Temple Bar to Croke Park. We dubbed it "drink til Croke pub crawl" and wished we could make shirts. At our second pub the game ended (IRELAND WON!) and the guys decided that they were going to come toward us so out pub crawl kinda fizzed out, but the night kept going. The streets suddenly got busy again and sure enough the blue chickens were walking around again...however much sadder than before.

We met Ollie (our Irish friend) at the O'Connell Bridge statue (see picture below) and during our waiting we saw a clan of kilts (I couldn't get my camera out fast enough!) and some straggling pink bunnies! This is when we decided we must find the bunnies by the end of the night and take a picture with them. We ventured into Hogans pub where we met up with about three other friends before continuing onto another pub/night club.

Now to really get a feel of this pub-club you need to picture a Metallica concert mosh-pit crowd on a dance floor the size of a classroom where mysterious liquids and beer bottles fall from the ceiling. By the end of the night Stephanie and I became expert 'moshers' and found out that pints should NOT be allowed and only bottles in that environment. I'm still not quite sure how I managed to come out of there alive and with both shoes but by 3:30 we were wondering back to good ol' Barnacles (the hostel).

After almost getting in a fight with 14 year old punks in the Centra (7-11 type store) we took our early morning breakfast back to the hostel where we happened to run into three of the nine pink bunnies!! We were so excited to see them but felt really bad since we clearly realized they were sad French pink bunnies. To answer those of you who are wondering why pink bunny outfits for the rugby match, the answer we got back from the bunnies was "why, not? It's funny." And that it was my little bunny friends, that is was.
I don't know these people...clearly everyone wanted pictures with the bunnies

After eating in our hallway because the kitchen and common room was closed, we passed out in out smelly hostel bed room around 4 a.m. We didn't realize how much we hated life until 9 am when we had to wake up for our free hostel breakfast (aka toast and orange juice) and check out. Once again when I looked out the window it was snowing---It snows everywhere I go with the Canadian. After breakfast the snow started to clear and we went wondering a bit through St. Stephen's Green park which was now covered in a light layer of snow, but that didn't stop the strolling of people and frolicking of ducks. This was probably my favorite location so far in Dublin, which reminded me a lot of the scenery and a bigger version of the park like area surrounding the Eiffel Tower in Paris. We came across a fountain where we both tossedin a coin and made a wish, and also found a sign which outlined all the rules and regulations while being in the park. Among some of the obvious rules was also no cursing, musical instruments or theatrical performances of any kind or dancing. This is when Stephanie and I both said each others name at the EXACT same time and started dancing where we stood. "Hey Stephanie!" *wiggle wiggle wiggle*
Imagine explaining that one to your parents as you are deported.


Exhausted and needing to head back to Dungarvan for work in the morning, Steph and I caught the bus back and didn't even notice the cobblestone road this time.

Her eyes...they know too much

In between the space of who you are and who you want to be
WARNING: random thoughts about what the hell I'm doing with my life and what it all means.

After my experience studying abroad I know first hand how fast the time can go and how quickly you feel you have lost everything you just made. So going into this opportunity to create a life in Ireland has put me in a really unsteady, and for lack of a better word, funny mind frame. Not only do I know how fast my months will go, but how broken hearted and misplaced I will feel when I return home. But then again...where is home to me?

I've realized within the last eight years that home isn't a building, not a room you have always grown up in or an object. If that was the case my family would be basically screwed since everyone knows how often the Flores family shifts around. So in my defense I've decided home is a place where you are always welcome, where a part of your heart will always sit. Where a bottle of wine will be waiting for you, a dog will be jumping up and down to see you, where you create lifetime college memories, blow bubbles in the living room, catch flies out of a car or simply find comfort with the person who is sitting with you. So you see, when I'm "home" I never feel content because home to me is Palos Verdes, San Diego, Chico, Maryland, Monterey, SLO, LA, Australia, Sacramento, a dirt road off highway 99, a dark basement in Tehama Hall, Tahoe, Walmart and every place in between. I feel like I have to be in all places at once to feel complete, to feel like me. Feel like everything and one who makes up who I am is with me.

I'm not sure what it is about traveling abroad but it's like once I leave the country where everyone I love is-and I'm completely alone, that I start to feel relaxed. It's like I can finally escape a town of quicksand. Maybe I'm just suppose to keep moving, keep drifting with the wind until it blows me back at the right time. Where my life finally falls into place and makes sense. I'm tired of 'bad timing' and maybe this is my escape until it catches up to me. Some alternative time warp I'll stumble across and when I enter everyone is there waiting; waiting to say "about freaking time."

Then again, maybe I'll always feel like running; running away from things I can't decribe and running toward things I can't see. If I don't return you can find me wandering; searching for a treasure I may never find, like a pirate on the run.

New Friends, New Destinations

Earlier this week Steph and I went out for a few drinks for our friend Ollie's birthday where our list of locals and new friends grew rapidly (having friends outside of work and our household makes us very excited). Not only did I find two Aussies living in Dungarvan for three months (what's better than both my favorite worlds colliding?!) but we discovered that this weekend is the big Ireland Vs France rugby union game in Dublin. So of course what did the little North American explorers decided to do? Yup!! We are catching a bus tomorrow morning and getting into Dublin around 2 p.m. Unfortunately we can't get any tickets to the big match, but we figured what's even better than that? Hanging out with the 'fun people and crowds for the pre-party and after-party. Basically our Saturday will consist of Dublin festivities and rugby conversations. Don't worry, we will quiz each other on the essentials of the game on our lovely 4-hour ride. Oh how I love public transport...aren't you proud of me daddy? No really, he is reading this now and laughing. But hey, if it's my option to get me in a city with nothing to do but eat, drink and shout at the TV like I know what's going on then darn it I love the bus!

So, in effect I will be out of touch until Sunday where you can expect some great pub, sport and Dublin mischief pictures to be posted.

GO GREEN GO!! :)

"Does California even have snow?" --Sarah, my UK roommate

So for all of you that I laughed at when you asked if it snowed in Ireland....you can start laughing at me now! Apparently I have this power to bring snow with me to places that normally shouldn't snow at all. Either that or my Canadian roommate brought it with her, which is a BIG possibility! After getting snow into Marseille in the south of France, a place that hadn't seen snow in over 25 years, I should have been prepared. A storm that is going through the UK has decided to drop some snow into Ireland...or as the locals call is "Island." They literally call Ireland 'I-land'. It's not that it sounds like 'island' because of the accents, but they call it that...i mean it makes sense if you think about it....But anyways, so my little island has decided to snow! :) The snow only sticks at night when it drops down real cold, but in the day large snowflake-clusters fall pretty hard. Everyone at work was really excited because it never snows, (and probably because it was snow and not rain) so we all ran outside to take some pictures!

But before the pictures let me walk you through what my morning was like when I woke up to this white Monday. I had woken up and was getting ready with my blinds open because it was blue skies and sunny...something that doesn't happen here very often. So I'm super excited and shut my blinds, headed to the bathroom to brush my teeth and then downstairs to leave. Since I was on the later shift at work I was the only one home, and in the time it took me to do the things I just mentioned it somehow decided to start snowing. I had walked into the kitchen to grab my lunch and was literally in shock as I just stood there staring out the window. I honestly thought it was just ashes from a fire, that's how San Diego I am.
Here's my first video:


Now after I took that video, in the time it took me to run upstairs to get my "California-girl-is-scared-of-Europe-in-the-winter jacket," gloves and head to the front door....it had stopped snowing and was basically sunny again! I really don't understand this place....

Sarah, me and Roisin outside work with i-to-i brochures

The town square from the office window...


Sarah, Rosie and me
Vic-the-van (aka: "The beast") with snow on his head out my window...yes this is our company van..oh trust me more pictures of him are to come.
Outside the office doors...did I mention they were bright orange??
Silly girls playing in the snow
Sara eating the snow..
We think we should be on the next brochure cover titled
'Imagine the Possibilities'

"Your Obama makes me like America again" --some Polish guy in a pub

So this post is by far very late but hey, come on give me a break. I am trying to hold down a job while I'm over here, ya know. Or as my Canadian roommate would say "yeah, eh?!"
No really, she does say that a lot. I will keep count this weekend and report back to you guys without her knowing...this should be funny. But anyways...

It's been really interesting comparing my experiences from living in Australia (06-07) while Bush was in office to living in Ireland now, with the historic change in government with Obama. (So new in fact that the spell checker in this blogg doesn't even recognize the name 'Obama'). Granted it was a hard being a democrat living down under in a country that was more than willing to spew out their (anti) feelings about your current government and you really couldn't even give them a good answer as to WHY he was still the President. Nothing you said in effort to defend your situation sounded good, so in essence you just gave up and bought the next round of pints. (Note: yes Bush, I did try and back you up sometimes....OK while maybe once or twice just because I'm stubborn, but still) But now I find it so different to walk down the streets of France and see an Obama shirt on non-Americans or an Obama face painted on a stone wall in Dublin. It's like I no longer feel the instant need to agree with any local who mistakes me for being Canadian..."Oh yes, I'm from Toronto," as I was known to say and then change the subject quickly.

It's like we are no longer an "image" of freedom, democracy or an ideal that anything is possible. We have taken that step to show that yes, anything is possible and we as Americans do want change in the current state of our country and nation. While it was frustrating not being able to get information right away during Inauguration week, I almost feel like I was more informed of what was going on in the States while I was over here. Even til now, the news, radio stations and talk shows are replaying everything and talking about Obama's plans, structure and the direction of American government.

In fact I felt SO connected having had my co-workers surprise me with an Irish Obama cake right before watching the Inauguration. (It streamed live from CNN at 4 pm our time so we were still at work). Now, I doubt that would have happened back home :)
During that whole week everyone kept asking and checking up on me to see if I was homesick or really sad for not being able to be home in the States for this historic event. And while I was VERY jealous of my parents for being on Capital Hill for it all, I hadn't really thought about it like that, or felt like I was missing out. What they don't realize is that living abroad now and traveling during this time I've been able to listen to foreigners talk about America and how inspirational it is now. I get to actually witness opinions and negative judgments upon my country turn into hope with international support that I didn't really experience before. And to me, that's historic.