From a Bee to Zinburger

My grandparents and Griff at Tohono Chul

Oops. There are three days left. Eh heh.

Well, on the 10th we had brunch at Tohono Chul. It was sunny and nice so I thought it'd be a good idea to sit outside. Ha ha ha. No. See, I forgot about bees. There was one in particular that wouldn't leave our table alone. We kept waving our arms at it and ducking and it kept coming back.

Tiny cactus with eyes! It's so cute!

It got it's comeuppance though. It flew into the spilled yolk from my egg-over-medium and got stuck. So I trapped it with the rest of my egg. We told the waitress so she could warn the dishwasher and she jumped backwards and made the bus boy take my plate.

We saw a hawk! 

Any ways, we wandered through the shops and then into the park. I had fun taking pictures of the plants and animals I got to see. I've barely gotten to play with my new camera so it was really nice to be able to play around with it.

Some of the Oaxacan wood carvings we saw. 

There was a sale going on of woven rugs, Oaxacan carvings, and Mata Ortiz pottery that Nana wanted to go to, so we made our way towards it. The carvings were cool.  Some, like the lion I took a picture of, were very cute. Griff actually ended up getting a spikey blue hedghog type thingy.

Some more pottery. Also a picture
I found on the internet. 

The Mata Ortiz pottery was amazing. Three of the artists were there showing off their stuff. They make the pots first (they're mostly ornamental pots). Then they take these metal tools that look kind of like dentist's pokey things and they slowly paint on these incredibly intricate designs. From the works in progress that I saw, I don't think they even sketch out what they're going to paint beforehand. Which is even more impressive when you see the geometric shapes they make. Sometimes there are stylized animals or scenes too, depending on the size of the pot. They said it can take a week just to do one. I'm not surprised, but I am seriously impressed with the steadiness of their hands and their patience.

Mata Ortiz pottery
Not a picture I took. One I found on
the internet. 

After Tohono Chul, we went out to La Encantada, the fancy pants upscale mall, for the express purpose of me getting to take Griff in Tiffany's. He'd never been in one before so he didn't understand why Tiffany's diamonds are special. Now I think he does. While we were there, I also wandered through Anthropologie really quick because it's a fun store and I never make it in when we're in Portland.

We were out of time after that so we hustled off to the grocery store and a pizza place. We grabbed our pizzas and salad making and hurried back to my grandparents' house to tidy up and make the food.

See, I'd realized a few days prior that I knew almost nothing about my maternal grandmother (I never got to meet her. She died before I was born). I know it seems like kind of a weird thing to just realize, I mean, how can you not realize you don't know anything about a family member? But... she doesn't come up very often. I don't think my dad knew her well and Nana and Bompa were only able to tell me a little bit. They did however, know that the DeByles, old family friends on both sides, were in town and that Mary De Byle knew Leah (my grandmother) when they were kids. So I asked if we could maybe call Mary and Norb and see if they were interested in meeting up so I could ask some questions. They were interested, and they were coming for dinner that night, hence the pizza and the salad.

So, Mary and Norb got there and we all sat down to eat. Mostly my grandparents and Mary and Norb talked during dinner. I did my best to be a good hostess and serve food, clear plates, etc. After dinner, Mary and I sat down on the couch, and I got out my laptop to take notes. I asked about everything I could think of, which, unfortunately wasn't as much as I had hoped I'd come up with. But... where do you start with something like that? After family names and dates and some basic biographical information, what do you ask to get a sense of a person? Mary was really nice and answered all my questions as best she could though. She also said she'd try to get me contact information for Leah's siblings that are still alive. All of which was really nice of her.

The 11th was our last full day in Tucson, and after some discussion it was decided that a bunch of short stops were our best bet for squeezing lots of things in. We started with the post office so I could mail the 17 postcards (I kid you not, there were actually 17) I had written the night before. We tried to go to a charity shop, Butterfly, that Nana likes, but they were closed. :/

The JC Penney's edition of
Dress Up Griff.

We headed to JC Penney's instead. Nana worked at JC Penney for a long time and so she has a permanent 20% discount there, which has made it a favorite place to shop over the years. I didn't have as much luck at this Penney's but I did get a black belt to go with my yellow dress. ^_^ I also played dress up with Griff. Basically you put random girl's accessories on him, like hats and scarves and purses and belts. The shoes on his hands were his idea though.

St. Augustine Cathedral

After a brief foray into the mall for chocolates from See's, we headed downtown for lunch at El Charro. It's a historic restaurant actually. Their website says they're the "Nation's Oldest Mexican Restaurant in continuous operation by the same family." Mexican food isn't my favorite, but this was pretty good actually. Griff definitely liked it (he likes Mexican food and doesn't get as many opportunities to have it as he'd like). 

It's so intricate and colorful! 

We tried to go to Flanagan's Celtic Corner next, but they were also closed  because it was Monday so we skipped to St. Augustine's Cathedral. As some of you probably know, I love stained glass windows. (Not really into those little scenes of things like hummingbirds and flowers you can hang in your window though) I have lots and lots of pictures of stained glass windows and am always happy to take more. The outside of St. Augustine's is pretty cool and the stained glass definitely didn't disappoint. The vibrant colors were wonderful. :D

Dress Up Griff in
men's accessories

Dress Up Griff in
girl's accessories

Our next stop was H&M in yet another mall. Nothing there fits me, so we were really just there for Griff. He's hard to find clothes for sometimes but since H&M seems to design almost exclusively for tall and skinny, their stuff actually fits him. Since we weren't looking for anything in particular though, it devolved into another couple rounds of dress up. Griff is remarkably patient with me sometimes. 

I bought this notebook because
it makes me smile. 

On the way out of the mall I saw a place called Typo that I just had to step inside (how can you not with a name like that?). It was mostly a stationery store. They had cards and stamps and pens and recipe boxes and all kinds of neat things. I got a notebook that says, "Some people just need a high five to the face with a chair." Griff got some pens that say, "This is the only weapon I need" and "My  pen is  huge." I kinda wish we had a Typo in Bend...

And then it was back to Bookman's! Yay! As we walked in a bluegrass trio was rehearsing so Griff and I dropped everything and danced around for a couple minutes. It was really fun. Then I showed Griff all the cool things I found. We got his mom a present. I got Griff a second Riker (this one is in the middle of beaming somewhere so his pants are sparkly :D) and myself a Guinan. (It's all Griff's fault I'm a Trekkie now. No really!) Griff also bought a Nintendo 64. There were like 5 of them when we were in the before Griff got there, but there was only one left by the time I got Griff in the store. But, he got it and two games and we've tested it and it seems to work well, so all is good. 

The Dusty River Boys at Bookman's

Bompa was starving after we finished at Bookman's so we stopped at Zinburger on the way back to Nana and Bompa's house. We all got hamburgers (their specialty) and milkshakes. It was actually really good (by which I mean that often a burger is just a burger, but occasionally you run across one that's exceptionally good, and this was one of those times). 

We made it back to my grandparents' house with half an hour before the pool closed so Griff and I switched into swimsuits and Nana drove us over. We only got to swim for about 20 minutes before we got kicked out, but it was still really nice. I'm glad we got to go at least once. 

Griff helped me pack my stuff and then headed off to bed. I stayed up a bit longer to at least get some of the stuff I'd collected glued into the Adventure Book before finally going to bed. 

Aly, Griff, Books, and Jazz (Tucson 2013 pt 3)

Okay, so this is late. Oops. For simplicity's sake, and to keep the posts a manageable size, I'm going to combine the next two days of my trip too.

My balloon painting! :D

On the 8th, I got up and painted with Bompa. I've always loved hanging out with him in his paint studio. Back when my grandparents lived in Logan, Utah his studio was a tiny room off the storage part of their basement. I used to go in there, play with some of his paints (on paper, no canvas for me) and listen to Bompa's music of his stories. It was really fun. Now that they're in Arizona, his paint studio is in a building with a bunch of other offices. Bompa set me up with a paint shirt and a canvas (!) and we painted. I used some of his old acrylics (he paints with oils now) and just played around a bit. I had been going to try and paint one of my pictures from Ireland, but it proved too daunting (I'm a terrible painter) so I went with a balloon against a sky. Bompa worked on his wolf some more. We even listened to Jesse Cook, just like we used to in Logan. I managed to finish my balloon, with Bompa's help. It was a nice way to start the day and I'm so glad I got the chance to do it.

After painting, Aly came in from Mesa to hang out for a little while. She and I went out to lunch at Beyond Bread (which I had heard about just the day before). We got sandwiches. Mine was pretty good, except that the bread had a really hard and pokey crust which made it kind of hard to eat. Still, it was fun to chat and catch up.

When we were finished, Aly still had some time before she needed to head back so we went to the Foothills Mall. I found an arcade by accident and then we had to go in and play a couple of games. We played this taiko arcade game I'd only ever seen in Japan before, and, of course, some DDR. We also played air hockey (she beat me) and a couple of token games. We only got a few tickets so we gave them to a couple of little kids who were there.

Pharaoh Shannon and China Man Aly ^_^

Aly and I went to a party store next. We had fun trying on silly hats and looking at the wigs. I told Aly about wanting Griff to shave his head except for two Mickey Mouse ear shaped puff balls on top. She ended up getting him afro puffs (now he doesn't have to shave his head! :D) and a red wig for herself. We also had to get pixie sticks because... well, how can you say no to toxically colored powdered sugar?

We sat in Aly's car and talked for a while longer before she finally had to take me back to my grandparents' house. It was really fun to see her and super nice of her to come all that way just for a couple of hours. Thanks Aly!

It was getting close to time to head towards the airport to get Griff (now you see why we got busy and I didn't get to post until now), but I got a text from Griff saying his plane had been delayed right before we walked out the door. We sat back down and waiting for a bit longer before heading out in search of food. We tried a Red Lobster, but it was too full. We ended up at a restaurant in a hotel right by the airport. Bompa got a hamburger that he seemed to like okay, but me and Nana's soups were quite yucky.

When we got to the airport, Griff was already off the plane. We found him, grabbed his bag and got back in the car. Griff said he wasn't hungry, so we went back to Nana and Bompa's house. Nana and I were still hungry so we decided to have some food. Griff ended up eating with us.

I gave him his afro puffs (he was thrilled, as you can imagine :P) and his Riker figurine from Bookman's. (We've been watching Star Trek: The Next Generation and both of us were surprised to see Riker beardless in the first season. Griff remarked that it made him "sparkly" and since then I have take great delight in giving him a hard time about it. So when I found the figurine, I just knew that he needed it. ^_^)

Griff went to bed and I started working on Nana's iPad. It needed a system update, but first I had to make sure everything was synced with the computer. It turned out to be a bigger job than I'd hoped, but in the end I got the iPad and all the apps updated.

Jodi Picoult! 

The next day, March 9th, we all went to the Tucson Festival of Books to see Jodi Picoult. Picoult is one of my favorite authors and I haven't had the chance to see her before, so this was a cool opportunity. Before her presentation Griff and I each bought books and we got a copy of her newest book, The Storyteller, for my dad.

It was pretty crowded in the room she was speaking in, but I could still see okay, and I managed to get a few pictures that turned out okay. She's a good speaker and the stories she told about working on her newest book (mostly) were really interesting. I hope I get to read it soon.

When she was done speaking she relocated to a tent outside where she signed books. The line was pretty long, but it moved at a good pace (not like standing in line for two hours waiting for Tamora Pierce). I got my book and dad's book signed and Griff got his signed. Jodi Picoult was really nice about it all.

We needed to get a late lunch/dinner so we could get home and change before the concert. But first we had to stop at a Target and get Griff a new white shirt, since he forgot his at home. We got lucky and found one that fit him really well. For food, Griff and I voted for In-N-Out Burger. I've only been to one once before and didn't really remember it, but I know it tends to be a big deal with California-to-Oregon transplants. It was pretty good.

The concert we were going to see was Wynton Marsalis and Jazz at the Lincoln Center orchestra. Honestly, I'd only had a little contact with jazz before that night, mostly in the form of my high school's jazz band. It's not really my favorite genre of music. But I wanted to give some professionals and try and it sounded fun. Before the concert, we listened to a talk by Yvonne Ervin. She got to meet a bunch of the big names from way-back-when and she had some really great stories (even though I hadn't heard of most of these people).

My favorite story was about Woody Herman and Serge Chaloff. Serge was in Woody's band, and he was a drug addict and a drunk. Serge managed to get everyone else around him addicted to drugs too. And Woody got tired of it. So he was going to fire him. Woody told Serge before a show they were doing that after that night he was done. They played the show and afterwards, Serge grabbed Woody saying he wanted to show him something. Serge pointed to something in the river and asked if Woody knew what it was. Woody says something to the tune of, "I don't know, it looks like some trash floating in the river." And Serge goes, "That's the bari sax book. And I'm the only one who has it memorized." It took Woody six months to find someone to transcribe the book. Once it was finished, Woody fired Serge. Yvonne didn't tell us what happened when Woody fired Serge, only that it wasn't nice, but she said we could ask afterwards if we wanted to know. I wanted to know so Griff and I asked. Apparently, Serge showed up to a shower absolutely hammered. He was swaying around and slurring, but still insisting that he wasn't drunk. Woody got pissed, no pun intended, and he peed on Serge's leg. Then he fired him. By some miracle, neither of them got kicked out of the club they were playing at that night. Quite the story, no?

Me and Griff all dressed up

Any way, we got into our seats and the concert started. It was pretty good, I mean you could tell these guys were good musicians, but I just... I just don't like jazz I guess. The solos sound cacophonous to me. More like stacking two songs on top of each other, not accenting and adding to the basic beat or melody. There were parts of each selection that I liked, and I did like the one that was inspired by Dante's "Inferno" though. Griff liked the whole thing a lot, which was good. (You know, even to this day, I still think of Marsellus Wallace from Pulp Fiction, even though I never did see the whole movie, every time I heard Wynton Marsalis? Griff said he has the same problem. Kind of awkward, but kinda funny too...)

Wynton Marsalis and Jazz at the Lincoln Center Orchestra

Afterwards, Griff and I wanted milkshakes, but the only places still open were on the wrong side of town. So, when we got home I decided to go for a jog. Griff wanted to tag along and so we set off for Safeway. I assumed it would still be open, because it would have been in Oregon. Oops. Apparently Safeways in Arizona close at 11:00pm. Since it was two miles away, it took us until 11:40 to get there. Still in need of shaving cream and wanting a snack, we decided to keep going to a convenience store that was another mile farther out. They were, fortunately, still open, so we got snacks (no luck on the shaving cream) and started the trek back.

Griff and B'loon

On the way we found a random balloon floating above a side street. It had a really long ribbon that Griff was able to reach, so he grabbed it and brought it along. As we got closer to Nana and Bompa's house, Griff decided to set it free again. When he let it go, it drifted sedately across the street and disappeared again.

When we finally made it back to my grandparents' house we had gone almost 6 miles (we were supposed to do like 3.6) and we were quite tired.

I'll do the last two days of our trip hopefully tomorrow. Any way. Good night!

A Mouse About Tucson (2013 pt 2)

Oh look! A second post! During my trip! WHAT?! No way!

I'm going to condense two days though because we didn't do much the first day I was here.

Blue!

 Most of the things we're going to do, we can't do until Griff gets here on Friday, seeing as he's never been to Tucson. So, Nana and I got pedicures at a place she likes to go to. My toes are now bright blue. ^_^ It was fun to do, particularly since I never ever bother at home and have only ever done it once or twice before, but it was also kind of awkward. I am apparently uncomfortable with people waiting on me. And I don't mean like waiters or cashiers, I mean more personal services. I like to do things myself and I feel vaguely guilty asking (even if I'm paying, I guess) someone else to do things like wash my feet, clean up the calluses (something else I never bother with), and paint my nails. It's also kind of embarrassing because I don't take good care of my feet. Granted the people at this place seem to see an awful lot of older people whose feet are probably in much worse condition than mine, but still.

Other than that, we made dinner at my grandparent's house, a frozen cheese pizza to which we added chicken, olives and mushrooms on one side, and green bell peppers on the other side (my side had the peppers and chicken), and we talked. I also showed them some computer stuff.

A wall of glass samples.
The little signs on each shelf asking people not to
move the samples were pretty funny. 

Today we did a little more. Nana needed to go to an acupuncture appointment at a place 27 miles away. Whoever's idea it was to put parts of the same town 27 miles apart was a doofushead. It takes a good 45 minutes to get out that far. But we had plenty of time, so when, as we got closer, Nana remembered a store in a pink building that she wanted to investigate, we could afford to stop for a few minutes. It turned out the pink store was a glass shop, both selling glass pieces and providing supplies and classes for people to make their own stuff. It was a neat shop and a lot of the stuff in there was really pretty. I particularly liked some of the earrings and the blown glass balls.

Clever, right?

But my favorite part of the shop was probably the little signs they had on stuff. I mean, it's all glass so it's fragile. And yet people apparently like to come in and handle everything. So on sample glass bits shelves there were little signs that said, "Please do not remove glass samples." And instead of repeating that they got increasingly entertaining-- "Pretty please!!!" "I really mean it, now!!!" "Aw, come on...Now I'll never find where it goes." (Apparently the samples have a particular order...?) "Penalty for removing glass samples $200." "Each offense after that, memorizing the order of all 1,300 glasses we carry." "Each subsequent offense: $500 plus 3 months counting scrap glass shards." "Plus you have to get all of us lunch at Beyond Bread." They made me smile. I also liked the sign over on the display shelves that said, "Lovely to look at, precious to hold, but if you break it consider it sold!" Hee hee. : )  I think the employees may have thought I was crazy for taking pictures of their signs though.

After we took Nana to the acupuncturist's office, Bompa (my grandfather. I guess I called him Bompa instead of grandpa when I was little and it stuck) and I went to Barnes and Noble and got coffee and treats. We sat there and talked about his time in Nepal back when he was working for USU (University of Utah). It was really fun and interesting. I want to learn as many of their stories as I can by heart so that I can write them down and tell them properly.

Some boots I tried on as a whim

Really fun, but really tiny shoes
Too bad Charlotte wasn't here,
they probably would have fit her.

We should have been late picking up Nana, but she had just gotten out as we drove up. She (me too) wanted to go shopping so, just for fun, I looked up thrift stores nearby and found a Buffalo Exchange. The only one I've been to was in Portland, OR and since it's a bit classier than a regular old thrift shop (some of them any way), we went there. I didn't find anything that I needed or particularly wanted, but it's always fun to look around. Every time I go into a Buffalo Exchange, I always think of my friend Becca because she used to work in one as a buyer. Her thrift store rule always echoes in my head too, "Try on anything you like, no matter the size, because you never know." And she's right. Hence the boots. (I didn't try the cat shoes or the green ones. I measured the green ones against my feet and yeah... that wasn't going to happen.)

This mirror would work really
well for Belle's hand mirror

They're kind of weird, but I also kind of
like them. Plus the colors are fun.

A couple stores down the strip mall from Buffalo Exchange is a place called Bookman's. I had never even heard of Bookman's before today, but it's actually kind of a neat place. They have lots and lots of used books, some movies, video gaming supplies, CDs and even some musical instruments. There was also a knick knack room. I found some fun stuff in there, actually. Like a hand mirror that would have been great for my fairytale objects photo project a year ago, a hippo in the style of old Egyptian figurines we saw in museum in Europe, and vases with ancient Greek style designs. The best things I found were collectible Star Wars and Star Trek figurines though. Those were super fun to look at. I actually bought a surprise from Bookman's, but you'll have to wait until Griff gets here to find out what it is.

After Bookman's we went to JC Penney's. Nana worked there for a long time so she has a permanent 20% discount which is pretty cool. I wonder if they still do stuff like that... We had fun looking at dresses and I modeled a bunch for Nana and another older lady who was there with her granddaughter as well (I think she was the lady's granddaughter any way. She was trying on bras, hence the lack of modeling). I got two dresses, one is blue with white polka dots and the other is a really bright yellow (I like obnoxious colors). Thank you Nana! ^_^

Bompa was starving by that point so we drove to P.F. Chang's for dinner. I had never been to P.F. Chang's before and all I really knew about it was that it was a kind of high end Chinese place that also sells frozen versions of their food at the grocery store. Turns out the Chinese food at P.F. Chang's is kind of like what I tried in Ireland. For example the sweet and sour pork (and chicken, but I didn't have that), had pineapples, onions and red bell peppers in it, just like the sweet and sour dishes I had in Ireland. I'd never seen it made that way in the US before. I suppose it might be a tiny bit healthier because you're at least eating a few pieces of vegetables and fruit instead of a couple extra pieces of fried pork or chicken like you would be if it was the usual American version of a sweet and sour dish. I also tried a Lucky Cat Martini, just for fun. It was WAY too strong for me. It had vanilla vodka, pineapple juice and another kind of alcohol in it. All I could taste was the alcohol and so I didn't like it very much. I also had sips of Nana's Cosmo and Bompa's Martini, both of which were also icky. Interesting to try though.

And that was my first two full days in Tucson. : ) Feel free to be impressed that I actually wrote another post so quickly.

Grumpy Ladies at the Airport Day or I'm Baaaaaack or Tucson 2013 pt 1

Holy moly it's been a long time since I posted anything on here. I completely failed at keeping up with Europe and I intended to go back and add in at least some anecdotes, but yeah... that didn't happen. There were lots of short trips in the in between time I probably should have written about too, but, as you can see, I never got around to it.

But! I want to do better. So we'll start with today.

I'm in Tucson, Arizona! Yay! Not just randomly though. I'm here to visit my grandparents.

Yay hearts in my mocha! :D

Dad picked me up this morning and we stopped at Lone Pine to get coffee before we left. I'd never been in there before so that was kind of neat.

The drive to the airport in Portland was pretty uneventful. We encountered a tiny bit of snow, some bad drivers, and lots and lots of plotting cows. We know the cows were plotting because they were all huddled together around their trough. What other reason could they possibly have for standing so close together? :P

I got my bag checked and through security with minimal problems. I say minimal instead of no problems because I had to stand in line extra long because the airport security measures nowadays are stupid and ridiculous. I think we got to stand in line an extra twenty minutes or so because some lady forgot to take her travel size toothpaste out and put it in a tray. *sigh*

Yup

While I was waiting for my first flight (I had lots of time) I wandered through one of the stores near my gate and found these--

Who buys condoms in the airport convenience store? I mean, really. That would be so embarrassing. But also kind of hilarious. Which is why next time I see them, I'm going to get a few to send to certain friends. I'm sure they know who they are.

Griff's new favorite hat. 

I also found a special (not really in a good way) hat for Griff. I know he likes tie-dye and dressing like a hippy when he can get away with it, but this might even be pushing it for him. Plus, it would look pretty funny with his hair. (Sorry Griff, but it would.)

My flight to Las Vegas was probably the most turbulent flight I've ever been on. Not a bad thing, just a small point of interest. The turbulence, at least the level we had today, wasn't scary for me. It was for the lady I sat next to though and a few of the other women I overheard.

We got to Vegas on time. I wanted Jamba Juice, but I wanted to double check my gate first. I did and then I found my gate, but I ended up having to double back to find a Jamba Juice. Embarrassingly enough, it was right by the gate I originally came in by.

Vegas (and Portland really) were both kinda boring to sit around in. Nobody screamed and got mobbed by security only to have it revealed that they had simply hit the jackpot in slots this time (that happened last time I was in the Las Vegas airport). Fortunately several of my friends were happy to help entertain me by texting with me. Thanks guys!



Some things I found in the Las Vegas airport--

As Charlotte said, "Starts here. Leads to condoms. What happens in  the Vegas airport..."
I added, "Follows you all the way home  in the unfortunate form of STDs. :P"

Many much slots

*headdesk*

The first title of this post comes from the fact that in Portland and in Vegas I saw several grumpy ladies today-- from the one who was late to her flight in Portland and practically pushing people aside to get to her gate, to the one huffily chucking other people's stuff down the roller ramp after the x-ray machine, to the snotty woman in Las Vegas. The snotty woman was probably the grumpiest. Just as we were getting ready to board our flight to Tucson, the guy at the big Southwest kiosk asked everyone to keep clear so that he could still conduct transactions and so that the counter didn't get bumped and crash the computers. Now, computers touchy enough to crash because someone touched the counter they're resting on sound like they have a problem and should be replaced. Nevertheless, I didn't really fancy being stuck at the gate for however long it took IT to get the computers back up so I obeyed the warning. This one woman didn't. She went to stand super close to the kiosk. I watched her sway back and forth and almost bump it several times. The clerk saw her too and asked her to move away. She got angry at him because she didn't see why she couldn't get in line to board (the funny thing is that it wasn't even her turn yet. She was the next set of passengers to board). She did eventually stomp off, but then she threw a couple stage muttered (is that a thing? Well, now it is) comments at the clerk, which he heard and responded to as best he could. What made her really unimpressive was that she immediately started pity mongering (ie, "That clerk is so mean," "Did you hear what he said to me?" "I was just standing in line.") and the people around her indulged her.

Fortunately she sat elsewhere. The flight to Tucson was also uneventful except for the sunset. We were above the clouds when the sun started to set and it was making really pretty orange and pink and yellow streaks and it sank into the clouds. When it was below the clouds we started to follow it down. Somehow, I've never been aware of flying through clouds. I'm sure I have before, but I can't remember it. I thought it was cool when everything went light gray and cottony looking. We broke through the first layer of clouds and saw more of the brilliant colors from the sunset between the lower and more scattered clouds. When we were through the bottom layer of clouds there were still lots of pretty colors to look at, which is fortunate because they made us turn off our electronics really early and I getting bored.

 A few of my favorite Sky Mall items--

I totally need thi

This would have made some of my photography class projects so much easier. 

It's a computer mouse shaped like a car. My dad needs one. 

In the end I got to Tucson safely, met up with my grandparents, and even retrieved my check bag. We got some food, spent a lot of time chatting and catching up, and I tried to fix their computer (I was unsuccessful though).

Now, I'm super tired and I would like to go to bed. Good night.

Guinness Hearing Aids (Dublin Excursion)

So, I know this is WAY overdue and for that I apologize. In order to keep it from getting any more overdue, I'm just going to jump in then:

A street in Dublin.

Our excursion to Dublin began before the sun rose on January 13, 2011. For the first little bit of the trip, I just watched the countryside fly by. In the pre-dawn darkness, it was almost like being back in Oregon. The famous low stone walls were the only reminder that I was in Ireland. After just a little while, I ended up falling asleep. I woke up again to our stop at a gas station. We all got out to use the bathroom and look around. Some people bought breakfast food in the attached store. It was probably the biggest and nicest gas station store I've ever been in. I only looked around though.

Back on the bus, I looked out the window and listened to my headphones until we were coming into Dublin itself. Then I pulled out my camera and started taking pictures of the city through the bus windows.

The first place we were going was listed on our itinerary as the GAA. I had no clue what that was and so I was really confused when we pulled up outside of a big building that had Ulster Bank and Guinness ads on it.

The entrance to Croke Park

We got off the bus and went inside. It pretty quickly became obvious we were at Croke Park, which is probably the most famous stadium in Ireland. It's there that traditional GAA (or Gaelic
Athletic Association) games are played, like hurling and gaelic football. Other events go on there too, but those are what it's known for. We got to spend a little while exploring the museum inside the stadium before our tour was due to start. The exhibits are mostly about the history of traditional Irish sports and the GAA. Basically, Irish sports, like their culture in general, were disappearing because Ireland had been occupied (first by the Vikings, then the Normans and finally the English) for so long. The GAA was started to keep them from disappearing completely.

One of the "magic" blue curtains

The first part of our tour was watching a video. It showed what hurling and gaelic football actually look like when played. It was so cool! Most of you know, I'm not much of one for sports, watching or playing. But this was so neat! They both looked super exciting. I really want to see a game in Croke Park now. Hopefully I'll get the chance before I have go back to the US. If not, then it's just another reason to come back.

Our guide and what might be the
 Muhammad Ali Tunnel someday.

Our guide took us around the stadium. We started by going down underneath the stadium. There we learned about all sorts of things like the magic blue curtains that are used to keep the tour buses separated so the teams never see their opponents until they're all on the field. We saw a tunnel that Muhammad Ali has used to enter the stadium twice. Apparently, the second time he came back he requested the same tunnel and he was all upset when he got down there to find that there wasn't a plaque or anything up in his honor. I don't envy the person that had to tell him that the Irish only put statues and plaques up for dead people. Although when he does die, he very well might get a plaque or something.

Galway's jerseys

We went into one of the dressing rooms. They had the official county jerseys of all the teams hung up on the walls with the ones who won last year's national tournaments above the others. There we learned that Croke Park is a neutral stadium. It's home to no team and so all the dressing rooms are exactly the same. Then the guide let us look around and take pictures with the jerseys. I got a picture of me with one of the Galway jerseys. Turns out that Galway is the only county that has a different jersey for hurling and gaelic football. I'm not sure which I had my picture taken with though. It was also neat to see that London and New York had jerseys up too. Apparently there are big enough Irish populations in both places to merit teams of their own. After the dressing room we stopped off in a practice room and then headed out to the pitch itself.

We weren't allowed to walk on the field but we stood on the edge. We also sat in several different locations around the pitch. The place where the cup is awarded to the champions was easily visible and our guide told us that acceptance speeches are supposed to be in Irish. Unfortunately most people can't speak enough Irish to give even half a speech in it so they'll say a token few words and give the rest in English. One year a coach was determined that his team was going to win and when they did, his team captain was going to give a real speech in Irish. Problem was, the guy didn't speak any Irish. So the coach wrote out the speech in Irish phonetically and coached the captain on how to say it. Lo and behold his team did win the championship that year. The captain went up to the podium to make his speech, the papers were all there for and whoosh! A gust of wind blew them away. Moral of the story: always use blue tape.

We went up and around, stopped to look at the view of Dublin, which is fantastic by the by, and went into a corporate box. It wasn't as fancy as it could have been nor was it as cushy as I remember the ones in the Seahawks Stadium being, but it was still pretty nice. An interesting note about gaelic football and hurling: both are amateur sports. No one plays them professionally and none of the athletes get paid. While we were in the corporate box our guide told us this great story about a one of the guys who won the national championships a few years back. He was from a county that hadn't won in a while so it was a big deal. He went home and spent some time with his family and just kind of enjoyed things for a bit. When he went back to work at the bank, you would've expected him to be greeted like a hero, except for the fact that he actually worked in the county he helped beat. Oops...

After that the tour was pretty much over and we went back to the museum. I finished wandering through it and then got some food at the little attached cafe. Our whole group got back on the bus and we left for our next stop: The Guinness Storehouse.

The zoo animal Guinness mascots

The Guinness Storehouse is a built on what used to be a Guinness Brewery at St James' Gate. The building that's there now is seven stories and is shaped like a giant pint glass. Inside is a museum all about Guinness. It's self guided so you can go as fast or as slow as you like. The bottom floors are all about how Guinness is made. As you get higher you get into how Guinness was made the first time and the Guinness family legacy. There are exhibits about its distribution in Ireland and around the world. Included in your ticket into the museum is a free pint. The fourth floor is your first chance to take advantage of that generous offer. There you can learn to pour your own pint. (I took a picture of the directions and kept wandering) I think my favorite part might have been the exhibits about Guinness paraphernalia. It seems like Guinness has been advertised on everything at some point or another: from tiny harps to posters of Irish celebrities to playing cards to tiny toy cars. The most famous Guinness mascots are zoo animals like the toucan, turtle and bear.

 

The Gravity Bar

Finally I got to the top floor, the Gravity Bar. I didn't have a lot of time so I went straight over and got my free pint. A kindly stranger took a picture of me with it. As I looked out over Dublin I really did try to drink it, but it just didn't taste good. The foam on top, or head, is just awful and the Guinness isn't that much better. I only ended up managing to drink about a fifth of it before I had to run back down seven flights of stairs. I sprinted through the store and got in line to buy my stuff. I made it so I was only a couple of minutes late, but in the end it may have been a good thing I didn't drink my whole pint. Can you imagine running down seven flights of stairs with that much alcohol in your stomach?

Kilmainham Gaol

Our last stop of the day was Kilmainham Gaol. This was another place I didn't really know anything about before I got there. Kilmainham Gaol is historically significant for a number of reasons. It's where people were put during the Famine. It was actually better to be inside the Gaol than out on the streets because at least inside you were guaranteed food. It's also where political prisoners, like those involved in the 1916 Rebellion were held and executed. I stood where people like Patrick Pearse, Eamon de Valera, and Countess Markievicz stood. It was more than a little surreal. It was especially eerie to see where some of them had been executed. Our guide was really good, but unfortunately I don't remember any of the particular stories he told us. All I can say is that you really need to see Kilmainham Gaol for yourself. It's an amazing piece of living history.

The hostel we were staying in was called Kinlay House. I shared a room with Minn and Angela. After we all dropped our things off, all of the girls decided to go out to get food. We ended up at an overpriced Mexican place. The food was only okay. After that we went looking for a pub. We ended up in a little smoky place that had really good desserts (I didn't try one, but I have it on good authority). I stayed for a little while and watched everyone else drink before deciding to head back to the hostel. That was pretty much the end of my night. I was going to see if I could find some Irish dancing to go to, but there wasn't any that was anywhere near enough.

The St George stained glass window from Christ Church

The next morning I got up and tried to make the shower work. We were apparently on the other end of the building from the water heater, so a little sign posted in our bathroom said to leave the water running until it got warm. Well, you know how in some public bathrooms they have those sinks where you push down on the  handle and water comes out for as long as the handle stays down? Our shower was like that. There is no way to leave a shower like that running. Which means that I took an icy cold shower. Unfortunately I wasn't destined to warm up at all that day either. The first thing we did was take a walking tour of Dublin. We started at Trinity College and made our way around downtown Dublin. Our guide, Donal, was adorable and obviously very passionate about what he was telling us. He made the tour fun and interesting. What made it less fun and interesting, was the fact that it was cold, windy and half-way raining on us. It wasn't actually coming down consistently, but neither was it misting. It would just send a couple drops your way whenever it was most inconvenient or uncomfortable. After the walking tour we all went into Christ Church, a huge Protestant church right near our hostel. It was really pretty. I spent a long time wandering around inside and taking pictures. I found my favorite single piece of stained glass ever in there: a window with St George and his dragon that had really nice detail. It was really cold in the upper part of the church though so it was kind of a relief to go down into the crypts. I know crypts have a reputation for being chilly and drafty, but these were actually a lot warmer and friendlier feeling than the upper part of the church. I wandered around down there until I got too hungry.

My authentic Irish food. It's beef in a
Guinness sauce underneath a pastry
with some chips. It was yummy. 

I went to the Temple Bar district and found a restaurant (The Shack) that served authentic Irish food. I ate there and then kept wandering. I was kind of waiting to hear from Wendy or someone about going to see the Book of Kells. I never did hear anything (turns out it was a cell phone or network glitch) so a little before the Book of Kells was due to close I took myself off to see it. It was really cool and I did manage to see the Book itself, but I got kicked out of the library above it so they could close. Oh well. I'll go back eventually. Maybe I'll even get to see a different page of the Book of Kells.

I went back to the hostel and started getting ready for the play. We were all going to see Jane Eyre at the Gate that night. I thought it was a pretty good show, but then I kind of liked Jane Eyre as a book and they did a really good adaptation. I was pleased. Rita and Wendy were less impressed, but I'm still not sure if it was because of the acting or because of the story in general. After the play, I went back to the hostel and just hung out until I went to bed.

The next morning we got up early and I took another icy cold shower. We all piled back onto the bus and headed to Newgrange. Newgrange is a Neolithic passage tomb that was on my list of things to see well before I got to Ireland. We went in the Visitor's Centre first. It's quite large and there's a lot of information there. After a little while we walked out to another small bus and from there we were driven out to where Newgrange actually is. A guide took us into the tomb itself and told us what little they think they know about everything in there. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, which was really disappointing, but it was still magical and surreal to actually be there. It's another thing you all should go see for yourself. After the quick tour inside we were given 15 minutes to wander around and take pictures outside the tomb. It wasn't very much, but apparently it was a lot better than we would have gotten were we there during high tourist season.

Newgrange

Back in the Visitor's Centre, we all got some lunch. On my way out I put my name in the drawing for a chance to be at Newgrange during the next winter solstice (you should really look Newgrange up if you don't know what I'm talking about, it's really cool). I hope I get it. We all got back on our bus and I settled in for a nap.

When I woke up again we were almost to Clonmacnoise. I had never heard of Clonmacnoise before I came to Ireland, but it's probably my favorite thing (though by a very narrow margin) we did on any of our excursions. Clonmacnoise is a monastic site that was founded on an important crossroads. It was quite rich at one point. There are several churches (apparently they didn't used to expand their buildings, they just built more), some high crosses and a graveyard. There are ruins of a Norman castle right nearby and two big towers on the river side of the site. The weather was beautiful when we got there. The sun was out and the sky was a bright blue with just a few fluffy white clouds. It was still rather cold, but then it was January so that was to be expected it. We watched a quick and cheesy video and then we got to go outside and wander around. It was wonderful. I can't really describe why I liked it so much except to say that it was what I needed right then.

Part of Clonmacnoise

The Old Woman's Chapel or Teampall na gCailleach

Another really cool thing is that there's a nun's chapel nearby. I don't think any of us really understood that it wasn't within the bounds of the main site. Rita wanted to see it though so she asked the lady manning the desk and got directions. She happened to walk past me on her way to go find it and so I got to tag along. We did end up finding it and I took a whole bunch of pictures for her. It's probably a bit petty, but regardless, it was still cool to get to be one of two people in our group to see the Teampall na gCailleach.

Once Rita and I got back, I managed to take a few more pictures and then I ran out of time and space (again! I forgot to take an extra memory card with me, a mistake I did not repeat) on my camera. I got back on the bus and we all headed back to Galway as the sun set.

I forget who exactly said it, but at some point after the Guinness Storehouse someone was talking about beer goggles and another person in our group jokingly said that Guinness gave you hearing aids instead. I thought it was a really entertaining phrase so I wrote it down and saved it for the title of this post. ^_^

Also, one other thing. I mentioned last time that I would upload my pictures on the internet so that anyone who wanted to could see all of them and not just the ones I post here or on facebook. I've been working on that, but it's kind of a problem because none of the free sites give me enough storage for all of my pictures. So  a large portion of my pictures from Galway are all I can offer you right now. I'm working on getting the rest of the Galway ones up another site but I honestly don't know what I'll do about the excursions. Any ways, here's what I've got so far: https://picasaweb.google.com/101144792375307557663/Galway#

"Strictly no parking-- as opposed to leniently no parking?"

On my third day in Galway we had orientation at NUIG. Juice boxes and folders with more information in them were waiting for us on our chairs. A parade of people talked to us, everyone from one of the Vice Presidents of the school, to a couple of Garda sergeants, to those in charge of the students clubs and societies (which are abbreviated socs, pronounced 'socks'). About half an hour into the thing, a guy came in and sat in the empty seat next to me. He asked me what he'd missed and I explained. Turned out his name was Ryan and he was to become my first real friend in Galway. It took from around 9 until 11:45 or so, if I remember correctly. There was a coupon in our folders for the College Bar and so pretty much everyone trouped over there. The College Bar really is a bar, but it's also a place to eat. There's sandwiches and soup and pizza or there's whatever they're serving in the Carvery. The Carvery line was a lot shorter and so I went through that. I got beef, steamed vegetables, mashed potatoes and milk for 5 Euros. After orientation I wandered around campus some and found the banks. I went in the All Ireland Bank (AIB) to see their application and find out how many fees were associated with their student accounts. Then I went to the on-campus branch of Bank of Ireland and looked at their app. I liked Bank of Ireland (BOI) better so I signed up with them. I got a laser card, which is a debit card and they said it'd get to me in a week. That ended up being a problem, but for the moment, I was just happy to have it set up. I wandered off campus and spent some more time exploring. I got a phone. And when it started getting dark I headed back to my apartment.

My Irish apartment-mate had come back early for just a night and so I got to meet her (she was going to Berlin with the Art Soc until Sunday). She offered me a cup of tea and we sat down to talk. The first thing I found out is that she makes a good cup of tea. She actually managed to make it taste good. Apparently the secret is no sugar, but plenty of milk. Her name is Lauren Dooley and she's a first year. She lived with two girls from New York the semester before this one. She's studying history, French, classics and English right now, but will concentrate on French and English next year. (They pick two courses of study here) We seemed to hit it off pretty quick and we ended up watching Cool Runnings together (she hadn't seen it and it's been years for me). "Ya dead mon?" is now a running joke and we want to get a Jamaican flag for the apartment.

The next day I went back to school and listened to professors from different departments tell us about the classes we're allowed to take and how to get into them. Afterwards I spent a while wandering around campus collecting time tables for the classes from the departments I was interested in. Eventually I went back to the Quad and snuck around inside. I came back out and found Lindsay, Lauren, Minn and Angela waiting to take the campus tour. I joined them and we all followed one of the guys in charge or the Student Union around while he told us about the different buildings. Ryan happened to be in the same tour group and he talked to me for a bit. We got separated as the group moved to another thing to look at and I got distracted collecting people's phone numbers. Eventually most of the Willamette girls left the tour, so I found Ryan again and we talked some more. After the tour was over, Ryan was hungry so we headed back towards the restaurants on campus. Unfortunately none of them were serving food anymore. We wandered downtown, looking for somewhere to eat and didn't have any luck. In the end we went to Scotty's Steakhouse, which is really close to Gort na Coiribe.

I spent Saturday just kind of hanging out in the apartment relaxing because it was nasty outside and I hadn't just spent a day doing nothing in ages.

On Sunday I wandered around with Ryan for a while and then we met up with the rest of my group to have dinner at the Petersen's. It was a lot of fun. We had mac and cheese and smoked salmon and crackers and fancy cheese and whiskey and Bulmer's (an Irish cider) and soda. I tried Bulmer's and the whiskey but both were really icky. Lucky for me, Ryan was happy to drink the rest of them. Emily made cookies that were really yummy. Around 9 pm, we all headed out. I wanted to help clean up, but they assured me they didn't need it.

Ryan and I went to Corrib Village (where he lives. It's closer to campus than Gort na Coiribe, more expensive and also where even more insane partying goes on) to see if any of his roommates had shown up yet. We ran into a girl going into another apartment where a couple of his roommates were. She invited us in and so we met a bunch more Irish students. It was vaguely uncomfortable because a bunch of them were drinking and one guy was smoking. They were friendly though.

After that, the exact sequence of events gets a bit muddled. Lauren got back late Sunday. We all met Rita at 10 am on Monday. Then we started trying out classes. Putting together a schedule was a fun game because we aren't allowed to pick any classes that start before 11 am and we can't have any on Fridays either. This is because Professor Petersen's class, Irish Pilgrimage: Ancient, Medieval and Modern goes from 9:30 to 11 every Tuesday and Thursday and our Irish Life and Culture class goes from 9 to 11 on Mondays and Wednesdays. Fridays are off limits because we have several weekends excursions that often start on Friday mornings. The first one I tried was Development of the Castle in Medieval Europe. It's an archeology class and I've never taken one of those before, but it was nice to have the professor immediately acknowledge that he had a lot of visiting students and that he knew most of us weren't archeology majors. The next class I tried was Medieval Drama later that day. It was supposed to start at 5 so I showed up at least 5 minutes early. There weren't very many people there. We waited... and waited... and waited some more. The professor never showed. I had heard that happened sometimes and so eventually I just packed up and left. The next day I went to the castle class again (from here on out, it's Clastle, as it was eventually nicknamed by Lindsay) and tried one more time for Medieval Drama. This time the professor and a lot more students showed up. The class itself sounded fairly interesting, but what really convinced me to stay was that the class would be putting on one of the plays at the end of the semester. I'm looking forward to that and hoping I can be in it. On Wednesday I tried (you'll notice a pattern here) Medieval History: 5th to the 9th Century. I like the professor for this class. He's got a wonderful dry sense of humor. Without changing expression or tone of voice he will slip in these little comments that, if you're paying attention, are hilarious. On Thursday I tried out Celtic Civilization: 'A Field of Gods and Men'. The main problem with this class was that half of it was on Friday.

See, how classes work here is kind of odd. There are two hours of class a week (sometimes plus another hour of tutorial). They are almost never both in the same place though. For example, my first hour of Clastle (Monday) is in the D'Arcy Thompson lecture hall. The second hour (Tuesday) is in IT 125. A lot of them are also at different times. Medieval Drama goes from 5 to 6 pm on Mondays and 3 to 4 on Tuesdays. It's strange. The problem with the Celtic Civ class, which was one I really wanted to take because it's all about mythology, is that one of the hours was on a Friday. I talked to the professor after the first class, because realistically it's about five Fridays I'd be missing out of twelve, and he said that it had been done before even with all the missed classes. I also wanted to sign up for an English seminar which is a smaller specialty type class. All of the classes I had been in so far were big lecture type classes (hence the lecture halls). The seminars though are little classes like we have at Willamette and more interactive. There were several I wanted to take but firstly, you can only take one seminar per term and secondly, only one of the ones I wanted really fit into my schedule. It was going to be on Spenser's The Faerie Queen. I got in, but Professor Petersen recommended I not take all of the classes and so I ended up just keeping Clastle, Medieval Drama and Medieval History because all of those fit into my schedule and I had liked them so far.

That weekend we left for Dublin, which I'll tell you all about in another post. Once we came back our Irish Life and Culture class. I didn't understand how this class worked until it started. There are actually 4 hours a week. On Monday we have Irish Literature in English with Professor Kirry O'Brien. Immediately after that we   have Irish History with Professor Mary Clancy. On Wednesday we have Sociology with Professor Marilyn Moylan and then Irish Literature in Irish (translated) with Professor Ailbhe Ní Ghearbhuigh (her first name is pronounced Alva). All four of these classes are mostly focused on modern Ireland (aka Ireland after 1900 for the most part). I was kind of disappointed by this, particularly for the history class (I wanted to do ancient Irish history), but as it turns out that one's my least favorite any ways. 


In and around going to classes I mostly explore, do laundry, eat, clean, do homework, upload pictures, take Irish dance lessons (not the kind I do at home, more like Riverdance type stuff) and explore. I've been meaning to go explore more bars and pubs but because of money and not really having people to go with or an interest in drinking, I haven't really done any of that. I do set dancing, which is kind of like the Irish dancing I do at home, on Tuesdays in Monroe's but that's one of the only bars and pubs I've been in. I've looked around in some stores. I've seen the outsides of plenty of places. I've tried out a couple of restaurants and several grocery stores. I found out that laundry prices are outrageous here. It's 10 Euros for two washer and two dryer tokens. I rented a bike and have ridden it around a bit. The group has done things together like a potluck and going to a hurling match. We've also done things in smaller groups. I bought my first ever alcoholic beverage, a Mixed Fruit Kopparberg (it's a cider) and drank all of it even though it was only good (aka, it tasted like juice) for the first third. It didn't do anything all that interesting to me either, it just made my head feel hot for 20 minutes or so. I've only been to one céili here so far because they're only once a month.

Besides that girl, Bridget, I met one my first day, I made friends with an American guy named Ryan Fitzgerald. We hung out a lot more at the beginning of the term. He's the one who made the comment on the No Parking sign that's the title of this post. We haven't seen much of each other recently though. Lauren, my apartment-mate is also my friend. I haven't seen a lot of her either recently. I made another Irish friend and his name is David Crowe. We met at the first Irish Dance lesson. He was tapping his feet around at the lesson during a pause and I asked him if he did sean nós (yet another kind of Irish dancing I don't know how to do yet) or tap. It turns out he's a set dancer and what he was doing is called battering. Technically I am a ceili dancer, but we do sets and the basic steps (minus the battering) are the same in both types. He was the first person my age I'd met who did any kind of traditional Irish Dancing (not the leap-y Riverdance kind that is) and so we got to talking and now we're friends. I've met other Irish people through Lauren and David and more Americans through various means, but there aren't really any others I'd count among my friends just yet. 


And that's mostly what I do when I'm in Galway. Anybody have any specific questions they want answered?