Scotland photos

Here are some photos from yesterday. I will take some of Edinburgh tomorrow. The first is the Mercedes I drove all day, next is some pictures of sheep. They are all over the Scottish countryside. next would be a picture of some great Scottish countryside, and lastly a pic of me behind the wheel of the Mercedes. I know Heather will love that!

Today we randomly went to a rugby match between Leinster(Dublin) and Edinburgh. we left at halftime, as we didn't understand the rules and got kinda bored. Stupid american, i guess. Now I am in an internet cafe and using my time wisely...updating my blog with pics! Hope you all have a great day and that you enjoyed your extra hour of sleep!

Edinburgh....the last 2 days

Sorry I haven't been writing, I haven't found a good place to use the internet. Now...yesterday, we arrived in Edinburgh around 9am. We went to our hostel, and then went to find Ryan's friend (Justin) who had flown in to hang out for the 4 nights ew would be here. After finding him, we rested in his room before heading out to the town. The town is VERY old, and very cool looking. I don't have any cool pctures bc it was raining, and I didn't take my camera out. So...we walked around and checked out alot of sites. We actually are staying with justin, and cancelled our hostel bc he has a HUGE room (it is actually 3-4 rooms complete with 2 bathrooms, a kitchen, etc).

So...I stayed in the room last night while they went to some pubs. I felt awful all day, and just needed some rest. I fell great today. So...about today...

We rented a car (a tiny 4 door Mercedes) and drove north bc they wanted to go see some Scotch Whisky distilleries. We went to Dewer's and the Famous Grouse. I only went inside Dewer's, as I could care less about Scotch. We got to see some amazing countryside! I got some great photos of that, and some sheep. It was a great day, and get this...I DROVE the entire time. When we got to the rental place, no one but me had both their driver's liscense and passport. So i was the driver. I drove masterfully on the left side of the road, and conquered every roundabout I saw. It was GREAT!

I had a good day, and I hope you all are having a nice Saturday. Daylight savings time starts for Europe tomorrow!

Take care,

-J

PS. I will post pics later. not sure about this computer!

Tuesday, October 24

Today was more of the same...finish up projects and try and get ready to leave Dublin. We are still trying to iron out all the details of our travelling Europe. We are making progress, but it is always slow going. We are practically done with all our work at the hospital! Anyhow, I wish I had more to write about. Hope to hear from all of you out there!

Monday, October 23

Today was the beginning of our last week at the hospital. We had a good day today. We began our final of 6 projects we did throughout the month. We should be finished with all our projects tomorrow and have completed our 10 page paper that the school requires us to write for the rotation!!! That will be a huge weight off our backs when we finish.

I am going to post some pics I took today of the room that I have been in for the past month. I also took a picture of a drawing a little 7 year old boy drew for Ryan and I. He is a huge Manchester United fan and when we came home from the game, we brought him some cookies from the Manchester United Megastore. He was soo thrilled! He is the cutest little guy, and so out of appreciation, he drew us a picture. Anyhow, I thought you all would like to see where I have been living, and see a few pics of other stuff.

I realized today that I see Heather in 19 days!!!!! How amazing is that? I cannot wait!

-J

Sunday, October 22

Hmm...

Well not too much has gone on since my last update. We went out to a few pubs on Friday night, had a great time. Since we had such a great time, we weren't really able to repeat that last night. We went over to our hosts' daughter's apartment. She is a nice girl, who wanted to take us around town a little. We had fun, and went to a nightclub. That was quite an experience as European nightclubs are different than the clubs back home. Didn't do a bit of dancing, as I am not much of one. We stayed out fairly late (we got home friday night/saturday morning at ~4am) got home around 3 or so. I have been pretty tired. I work up, and prepared myself to watch the Manchester United vs. Liverpool rivalry match. Manchester won again, 2-0. That puts them back on top of the league. Anyhow, I know most of you don't care one bit about that. I am now about to do some shopping and maybe take some more photos of Dublin. I miss you guys, and hope to hear from you soon!

-J

Friday, October 20th

Well it has been a few days since my last post. Sorry about that...

We have done alot of work on our projects for the hospital over the past couple of days. Of course, no work today since it is Friday! We got up around 9am and went into town to take care of some business. We went out to Dundrum to a shopiing area. It was really nice, and I bought 3 shirts from H&M. (total spent ~ €25) I Did pretty well! Anyhow, Ryan and I went out to dinner with my folks last night to hear some "Irish Music" and see some Irish dancing. The Irish music was really just 2 Irish guys singing and playing guitar. Not really what any of us expected. Anyhow, it was nice to see them one last time before they left. They are in the air right now, and hopefully their layover in Chicago will be better than last time. They seemed to have had a busy, but still good, time.

Tonight, we are supposed to go out with some people from work. We aren't sure how many people will be going, but hopefully it will be fun. Tomorrow will be spent doing nothing. I will probably take some more photos and try to work on our paper for UT.

Over the weekend!

What a weekend I had!

My folks made it to Manchester just in time to take a shower and we headed to Wigan for the match. We arrived with about 20 minute until kickoff...we had 2nd row seats!!! Too bad we were told we couldn't bring our cameras. Anyhow, Wigan scored in the 5th minute, so the place was electric with energy. United had a great second half and won 3-1!!! Needless to say, it was a great day. Sunday was my 1 year wedding anniversary, and it was very hard being away from Heather. I was able to talk to her alot and that was nice. Not nearly as nice as celebrating such an amazing moment with the most important person in your life, but it will have to do until November 11th! I hope you all are well.

For the last 2 days I have been at a "Chemist's shop" or what you and I would call a community pharmacy. It has been really nice, and I liked it alot. tonight I ate dinner with my folks who are having a nice time in Dublin. They are headed on a train tour of southern Ireland tomorrow, and they are excited. I will continue to work hard at the hospital, as we have alot of work to do. we have completed 3 of the 6 projects for the month, and have yet to have even had 2 of the remaining 3 explained to us. Hopefully that goes well!

Here are some pics of one of the greatest places on earth, Manchester United's home stadium known as Old Trafford, aka "The Theatre of Dreams". Enjoy!

2 updates in 1 day!

Soo...

I went walking around all day, did a little shopping and now I am about to head back to my residence to get packed for the weekend. I hope Mom and Dad get here safe and on time. I know they are stressed, tired, frustrated, etc. I just talked to Dad, he is trying to get their luggage so they can get some warmer clothes. They have been freezing in the airport, and for some strange reason they haven't been able to get their luggage. It sounded like alot of people being incompetent. Anyhow, I took some photos and I will post some. I took pics of Trinity College, St. Stephen's Green and Grafton Street.

Hope you enjoy them, and everyone have a good weekend!

-J

Friday the 13th

Well I hope everyone's day is going ok. I know for my parents it has not been fun. Just an update, as I know some people may not have heard all this...

My dad called me yesterday to say their flight from Memphis was delayed due to snow in Chicago. Apparently the plane they were supposed to take to Chicago had yet to leave Chicago to come to Memphis due to weather problems. Apparently they missed their connections, and now they are in Chicago O'Hare airport until they fly from there directly to Manchester tomorrow morning. They get into Manchester at 7:10 am. I know they are tired and probably frazzled/stressed.

On a lighter note, we went to a bar last night (The Barge) with alot of people from work. Probably about 15-20 people. It was good fun, and some of us went to another bar/club after that called Whelan's. It has a stage for bands and apparently famous people have played there. I had yet very many Euro hipster/college kids, but I got my fill last night. We had a great time.
To lighten the mood even more, I have a great story for everyone. Heather heard it yesterday and laughed alot, so I hope you all do the same.

Ryan and I were walking to take our clothes to the dry cleaners after work yesterday. We were walking next to these 10 ft high shrubs/evergreen bushes. Not quite sure what they are, but they are thick and green. Anyhow Ryan says, "Watch this!" and spits his gum out of his mouth and is going to kick it. When he goes to kick it, his shoe flies off and sails up and over the shrubs. We walked around the bushes to the other side to retrieve his shoe. When we got to the other side, no shoe was found. The shoe was stuck in the giant bushes!!! We tried to find it, but could never even see it. I put Ryan on my shoulders, but that didn't work either. So...Ryan walked home with one brown dress shoe on, and 1 bare foot. I am sure the 100 or so cars that we past thought something was a little strange.

Hope everyone enjoyed that! Hopefully i will have a good bit of pics to add later on in the day.

Thursday, Oct. 12th

Almost my 1 year weddnig anniversary! I am picking up my parents from the airport in the morning. Hope they enjoy Dublin while they are here. We are going out tonite to a pub to celebrate the 2 girls finishing school. Should be a fun time. Anyhow, we are going to Manchester tomorrow and will be taking in the Man U vs Wigan Athletic match on saturday. I don't think it is on TV, so that is too bad. I hoped to get on the TV broadcast...

Anyhow, I hope everyone is doing well.

-J

Quick update

Well, Ryan's mom and brother are here. We are showing them around the city a bit tonight. I would rather be watching the Euro 2008 qualifiers, but they appreciate our help. My folks leave tomorrow to head here! Should be fun and interesting...I hope they like it.

Miss you all!

galway photos

This is Galway's main street in the early morning. It is FULL of people at night. Also, there is a photo of the river running through Galway. Lastly, a picture from the lighthouse area on the big island in the Aran islands. Hope you enjoyed them!

more photos

These are all from the Aran Islands. One is of the highest point on the island, the lighthouse. One is of me next to the Celtic fortress, and one of me on my bike. I also added one of the view from the highest point on the island. I will add some of Galway.

Aran Islands

Too much to write about our day, but it was awesome! these Islands are very isolated from the mainland of Ireland. They have some really old celtic ruins, and alot of history. I will post pics instead of writing. We rented bikes and explored the main island. It is about 5 miles wide and 1-2 miles wide. VERY COOL. The main attraction is a Celtic fort atop a 100 meter cliff. It dates from 2000 bc! Hopefully the pics are good!

Galway Weekend

Friday (10/6)

Got up around 9am, ate and left around 10:30. Stopped in town for some internet business that took around 1.5 hrs. we now have all flights booked for the start of our travels after the month is over. (Dublin to Edinburgh to London to Prague). I wish we could go to Berlin in our trip, but there is too little time. Bought our round trip bus tickets to Galway for 18 euro! 4 hour bus-ride each way, and we have crossed the country! We left at 2 pm and arrived around 6:30. The country-side along the way was green...bc of all the rain. Galway is a really nice town that is one of the fastest growing in Europe. It is small enough to walk around in, and really quite nice. We checked in at the B&B and headed out for some dinner. We ended up eating and just checking out the town. We had a few drinks and headed in. A nice town!

October 5th

It was another rainy day in Dublin, and once again the bus was late. We were late again, but still no one seems to care. We visited the hospital's ICU today which has only 9 beds!! They also have a PACU that they use as an ICU overflow of 2 beds. We followed Catriona (pronounced Katrina) who was really nice and smart. Her birthday is Sunday, and so everyone is going to a pub tonight in celebration. The pub is in Rathmines, an area we have yet to visit. We got home after work without a problem, and went to the local pub before heading to Rathmines. We told the bus driver where we were headed (a pub called Roddy Boland's) and he was kind enough to let us know when to get off. I actually was asked my age before we were let in, which is not too uncommon in the USA, but in Dublin it is rare. The drinking age is 18, so I answered that I was 25 and that was that. The pub was really cool, and a college hangout. It was the best pub we have been to, thus far! There were about 20 people rfrom work there, so it was nice to hang out with them. After a great night Lisa, one of the girls who came to the US last year, offered to drive us home. She saved us some $$ since we would have had to take a taxi home. The girls have been a God-send.

October 3rd

There is actually no room at the B and B. Maura has a full house, which is a little strange. I never imagined others staying while we were there, but there has yet to be a night where someone else wasn't there. It has all be fine though.

We got to the bus stop to find a broken down bus where we normally hop on. It probably was one of the buses on our morning route, as another bus didn't arrive until 8:45. We ended up a little late bc of bad traffic and a late bus. No one seemed to notice, or care. Anyhow, today we started our first of 6 projects that we will work on while we are here. It was a little monotonous, but it is important to the folks here.

We decided that we are going to Galway in the west of Ireland this weekend. It is supposed to be a great place to visit, and actually one of the girls from the pharmacy that we know will be there as well. So we can hang out with some other folks. I got my phone to work today, after calling Cingular, so if there is an emergency, call me and I can check my messages. Otherwise email me, and I will get back to you.

Take care, and Cheers! (as they say)

-J

October 2nd

Today was our first day at the hospital. We arrived right @ 9am, although we thought we might be late. The bus is not 100% timely, but we made it. We found the pharmacy just fine and jumped right in to helping with dispensing. Every pharmacy is different, and this one was as well. Everyone is VERY nice, and Ryan and I are 2 of about 6 men in the pharmacy. There are about 25 women as pharmacy employees.

We enjoy a 30 minute break each morning (basically a tea break) at around 10:30 and then 1 hr for lunch around 1:00. We love this! The day was a little frustrating as things are sometimes done in quirky ways, but no big deal. We went to the grocery store after work and got some food to make sandwiches for lunch. After that we went home, ate dinner and went to a local pub about a 10 minute walk away. We watched "Monday Night Football"...Wigan vs Fulham, that is. (English Premiership Soccer for those who don't know). The game was great, as it ended 3-3 with 5 goals in the second half.

We walked home and I called heather. I have been able to call her alot, and I am certainly glad about that.

A long day, but a good one...

October 1st

Thus far today....

We slept in until around 11:30! Can you imagine me doing that??!! I was tired, but Mrs. Maura served us breakfast, and hot tea of course, and that livened me up. We cleaned up, took the bus to the hospital to check out where we have to go tomorrow. It was easy enough, then we rode into the center of the city to see the Guinness Brewhouse. IT was very modern and neat, with all the history of Guinness. They had all the different bottles from like the last 100+ years. Then they serve a complimentary pint at their 7th floor Gravity bar. It was really nice up there, as the view was great. You could see all of the city. After checking out all that, and buying a magnet, we left. We went by a pub to see if the Man U game was on, but it wasn't. I am sure it is on somewhere. now we are here.

I will update again soon!
Love you all!

Sept 30th

I slept about 2.5-3.5 hrs on my nearly 7 hr flight. They served a light breakfast and my plane landed ~ 08:45. Went through customs rather easily, then waited about 40 minutes for my luggage. After exiting the baggage area, Ryan and the Irish girls were nowhere to be seen. I called them (using Alex's leftover euros!) on a payphone, and they came and got me about 30 minutes later. With all Ryan's luggage (and the 3 bags I brought) her little car was stuffed. The girls likened it to a Mr. Bean episode. It was, of course, raining and it continued off and on for the duration of the day. They then took us to a great Irish breakfast, and insisted on paying. They have been the greatest hosts. Anyhow, we came to our Bed and Breakfast, and met our host. Mrs. Maura Leahy, she is the nicest lady. She is very Irish, and loves to talk to us. She has told us alot of good information thus far. Ryan and i have seemed to master the bus system. We unpacked our stuff, and then headed to town. We explored some, stoppe dat a pub to watch 1/2 the Chelsea vs. Aston Villa match, and then headed back to clean up. We took showers and went to dinner to meet the girls. They took us to an italian restaurant, and it was pretty good! We then went to 2 different pubs, and then came home aroun midnight. We were beat, of course.

Sept 29th Chicago O'where?

How did I end up here, and wit ha 3 hour layover??? Rain/storm delay in NJ re-routed me to Chicago via American Airlines on a midget plane. (no offense) Now i arrived 2 hrs later in Dublin, and had no idea what Ryan was doing in the meantime. I miss Heather tons, and have enjoyed talking to her alot today. On a good note, I saw "Henry Rowengartner" from "Rookie of the Year" in the Chicago airport. How hilarious! Airports are weird and creepy when you are alone. At least for me, it is a first.