dodgy dublin, glass ponies, and what is an olive garden anyway?

So I am alive! Sorry its been so long since I've written. I had a busy first week back from break so Friday and Yesterday I just kind of took it easy and slept and watched movies. I think we all need that sometimes. I could probably write a book about what I've done in the past two weeks, but I know none of you have time to read that sort of thing, so I'll go ahead and just do random highlights~ it is pretty long so I mean whenever you get a chance.

Dodgy Dublin!
Dublin wasn't really dodgy at all, but there's a story. The first Irish person I met was on the plane and sitting next to me. She was cool, it turns out that her daughter is about my age studying abroad in West Virginia. What a random place to go? Anyway, we landed and it wasn't the smoothest transition to ground, she turns to me and goes, "that landing was a bit dodgy wasn't it! "(its a lot funnier if you picture the Irish accent) and I was like um, yeah it was kind of dodgy. Its a good word.

The fact that they spoke English was a little weird for us. We've gotten so used to having to speak to random people in Italian. Any little interaction is difficult here because you have to think of how to say things. And I'd get that feeling of a little nervousness before speaking to a stranger, then I'd realize I could speak English. We all accidentally spoke in Italian sometimes at first, but Ireland was about 10 times more like the US than Italy. They're culture seemed much more similar, they had American food (which we took advantage of -Starbucks, a diner that played Grease music, and TGI Fridays, and bagels and peanut butter), and spoke English, and they dressed more like us and just had a more similar mentality it seemed. Its funny though, in Italy we try to blend in by speaking Italian with an Italian accent and dressing like them for instance, but in Ireland we had to stand out a little in voice, b/c we didn't feel like we should speak with Irish accents, though by the end especially if we'd been to several pubs, we accidentally would say things with Irish accents. They probably hated us. haha. They didn't think we were American though unless we told them. They thought we were Italian, or I got Brazilian twice..which was kind of weird.

Social cues were more like the US too. In a big city in Italy like Milan or Naples you do not make eye contact with people while walking around, especially men, And you definitely don't smile at them, that's like saying I want to go sleep with you. And people are rude generally to you, they keep to themselves on the street. The Irish people in contrast were ridiculously friendly. They were so cool. I could smile at people! Something which is part of my nature I think. And you'd barely bump into someone and they'd start up a conversation with you. I guess we spent a lot of time with other young people too so maybe that has something to do with it.

We saw the new JAMES BOND. Which you should all go see because it has SIENA in it!!! its not really accurate on how they get across the city, but that shouldn't matter to you. I kind of liked Casino Royal a little better, I thought this plot was weaker, but the action scenes were great and again SIENA!!!! We met some cool people and our hostel was great. We mostly explored the city and really liked the Temple bar area with lots of restaurants and pubs. One of the later nights we were there, we were wandering around trying to figure out where we wanted to go. We ended up going back to our favorite pub where they almost always have live Irish music. We wandered in and got drinks. I'm not a big beer person, unlike most Irish, but I like Bulmers, its like hard apple cider kind of. And we go to find a spot and this guy spots my friend Jenna who has her JMU sweatshirt on and he says "oh my gosh you go to JMU! I go to the University of Richmond!" and I was like "WHAT!?", he looked familiar but I didn't really know him. He said there was a group of them, and a girl came around that had been in one of my classes, then I see Ned, one of my friends that pays Frisbee with me! It was crazy. He's studying in Milan and I hadn't seen him. We happened to be in the same pub at the same time in Dublin. It was crazy. So crazy. So I hung out with them the rest of the night. I didn't know anyone but Ned, they were Business school kids. very crazy though. The world really is small.

Tues Night I stayed up till about 5am to watch the election in the common room of the Hostel. It was amazing. I meant to only watch for a little while but I ended up staying up though his speech. I hung out with the old Irish guy working at the hostel and talked about politics. Ireland is a bit scewed up from what I learned. Being there though was just a really cool moment that I think I'll always remember.

We had a Wicklow adventure one night. We had this great idea to go out to the countryside but we got there kind of late and it was getting dark. I did see a fuzzy white German shepherd and we ate this amazing dinner with everything fresh and local, then on our way back to Dublin, we met Lenny. Lenny asked us if the bus was going to Dublin so we said yes, then he just started chatting. Within the first few moments of our meeting we learned that he wanted to write about 10 books, he was very interested in psychology and he has a nylon fetish, haha. He seemed pretty harmless and there were four of us and a bus so not to bad, but it was all pretty funny. He kept talking to us on the bus, and turns out he knows so much about psychology because he's been through the system so long and diagnosed with asbergus, a form of autism usually associated with being high functioning but socially awkward. He was definitely intelligent, he knew a lot about random things, but he was strange and talked to us the whole way back, at the time it was awful especially because I was getting bus sick, but later it was pretty funny. I don't know if its a good or bad thing, but the crazy guy said I'd make a great psychologist. He said he wasn't surprised it was what I wanted to do because he immediately sensed that I was a gentle and kind person. I guess he's seen enough psychologists to know?!

So I had 2 videos I put up on YouTube of Temple bar so you could see, I don't really know any easier way. The already not so awesome quality got worse though when I put it up. Its a lot darker than on mine and you can't see the crowd all around me singing so much. But they are, you can hear them. When i get home you can see al the videos they're great, but this just gives you an idea I guess. This was the night I found Ned and we were really close to the band and the crowd was so loud, and kind of drunk- hey when in Ireland~ the musicians were great~ they did play more Irish music than what I put up, they kind of gave non Irish songs their own twists too though and yes I am singing too and slightly out of tune sometimes, give me a break I was in a pub. Its not always me your hearing really loud though, just letting you know, there were people really close to me that were louder than me

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXdYd55qxC0 this one is hey Jude....the audience is great you just can't see it too well This one is ridiculous, there are these two loud drunk women that are hilarious and dancing around, then watch the girl on the outside of the window...hahahttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WMtfVz6xKU Anyway...thats Dublin, I want to go back to Ireland one day and spend time in the countryside. It was nice to get to my Irish roots a little this time though.

Venezia
I love Venice, its such a beautiful place. It was very amazing to see Linda too. I got to be tour guide/translator which was fun, and sometimes people in shops were so excited that I spoke Italian that they gave us discounts and things. I didn't realize how much Italian I really have learned. We met some Pigeons and went on a tour of the Islands where they make glass and lace. I ran into my friend from IES there too who was visiting with her family and we went on the tour together which was cool. I run into people randomly alot evidently. The Italians in Venice I think depend so much on tourism they were especially nice. Mostly we wandered around up and down tiny streets which was cool, went shopping for Christmas and all in all had a great time. Here is a video of a guy in Murano making a glass horse. He doesn't even have gloves on!!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTiQqdzV_Bglots of other videos of the same thing come up too that might be better quality if you want to look

Friday was pretty cool, we went olive picking then hung out at the groves. Which led us to consider, what is an olive garden anyway, its a grove not a garden isn't it. All in all good fun, we got food afterwards and one of the boys, Philip, plays piano excellently and the guy teaching us brought us out a kitten to pay with. The olive oil we ate was made Wednesday and it was amazing. All we need, olives, music and kittens. That's pretty much all for now, I put up new pictures you can check out, Signs mostly in Dublin, Dublin, Venice, and Olive Picking http://picasaweb.google.com/melaniebeth.martin
Have a great week! Miss you all!
Love,
Melanie