All my loving, I will send to you.

Round one of postcard sending is about to begin.  If you would like one, make sure I have a current address please & thanks.  Either email me at jeana_macleod232@hotmail.com or facebook message me! 

miss and love you all.

Vitamin D

Been feeling more than a little deprived.  Even stayed clear through the night that the moon made a rare appearance.

Galway Bay

Only a three hour bus ride separates Dublin from the gorgeous city of Galway, along the west coast of Ireland. Pictures along the canal leading down to the Atlantic ocean.  The houses remind me of photos of Newfoundland.

Drinks at Taffeys with some fellow travellers from west coast Canada, U.S., and Germany!

a few of my favorite things.

Finding a timmies!

My favorite flower along the side of the road.

Ruby Sessions at Doyles--fabulous live acoustic music.

The rain outside my bedroom window.

For your listening pleasure:    My favorite things - Julie Andrews

Bon Appetit!

Having a chef for a roommate has major benefits.  Dan had a catering function at the Polish Embassy on Friday, which led to awesome leftovers on Saturday!

Just a casual lunch of bluefin tuna & strawberry mousse.  You can check out more of his stuff at relishcuisine.ie.

Employment.

As of yesterday, I am officially allowed to stay in the country and work.  I have a nice little ID card to prove it.

And conveniently enough, today I got my first job!  I will be starting at The Counter restaurant as a waitress on Monday.  The Counter is located in the most amazing/beautiful mall complex that I have ever been to, Dundrum Town Center--unfortunate for my paychecks.

Calf Muscle

With the amount of walking I have done over the past 6 weeks, my calves muscles had better be growing.

A hike through Seefin circuit--a series of four different peaks in the Tallaght region of Dublin, bordering Wicklow county.  With the exception of a few minutes toward the beginning of the hike, it was basically a rain and wind storm the whole rest of the hike.  The entire circuit took 5 hours to complete.

The brief moment of sunshine.

The final peak had an old tomb at the top.  Some of the group taking in the view of the fog and being thankful that the hike was almost over.

Today I took Doug on an adventure.  Apparently it was the longest walk he's ever been taken on; explains why he was so slow moving by the end of it.  After taking a few wrong turns we arrived at Sandymount Strand beach.

Douggie's beach house that I constructed for him.  Unfortunately it only survived a few minutes before Doug decided it was more fun to jump on top of the house and broke my umbrella.

Bliss.

Roller Disco!

I thought this was a hilarious Friday evening activity and worthy of note.  Old school disco roller skating adventure with some randoms.

Weeeeeeee!

Some words of wisdom.

Top three things I have learned this week:

1.  Irish english is not english.  I only understand about 50% of what people are saying to me, although we are apparently speaking the same language.

2. Always wear shorts under any kind of dress.  It gets bloody windy.  However, I somewhat made a friend through not knowing this; a lovely old man down the road now says hello to me everytime I go by.

3. No matter what the weather looks like, take an umbrella.  As far as I can tell, there is a 99.5% chance it will shower at some point during the day.  If you get stuck in a rain/wind combo, you're screwed no matter how prepared you were.

Here are some pics of my room :) 

Close-up of the family pics! awww.

And in honour of the birth of Bailey Oake, a glass of Guinness!  Hope you're having a great day wherever you are.  Cheers!  Or as the Irish would say, Slainte!

Oh whiskey and wine you've messed up my mind, whisky and wine you've got me this time.

Photo from the Old Jameson Distillery in downtown Dublin.  The deepening in colour corresponds to the age, where here it ranges from 3 months in the bottom left to 18 years in the top right.  Although I'm not really an advocate of whisky, Jameson's stuff is pretty good.  A little too smooth perhaps...

And a song.  If you're interested.
Whisky and Wine - Matt Costa

The Last Leg...

Our time in Dublin was packed with apartment viewings, siteseeing, shopping, eating, and drinking.  Lots of drinking.  Went out to an Irish Canada day celebration which was hilarious but unfortunately no good pictures came from it.  Hope you all had fabulous Canada day's full of fun times!  Here are a collection of Dublin moments.

Grafton Street in the center of Dublin on a Friday afternoon--jam packed!

Went on a beach day trip down to Greystone along the coast south of Dublin; however, the clouds and rain rolled in pretty fiercely.  Here you see the division in the sky where the good weather and gross weather meet.  We were turned off from swimming by the rain/wind combined with the freezing irish sea water.

Dad & I in our new irish wool caps. :)

I have a place to live now!  Pictures of the house and area to come soon, but the real highlight is our household pet dog.  Doug is just the cutest.

This morning, mom & dad left to complete their last leg of the around the world journey back to homebase.  Thanks for everything parents!  It was definitely an adventure to remember.  See you at Christmas. xox
One of my grad photos by cousin Ed.

Today is the official beginning of my Dublin life.  A quote from Oscar Wilde as seen on his monument downtown: