Of Marathons, Mountains and Moguls

I just got back yesterday from four days in Dublin. The city's clean, old and gorgeous, and the Mitchell Scholarship perks--such as the 5-star hotel, private tours and the reception at the US Ambassador's house--were nice, too. I was dumb enough to run the Dublin Half-Marathon without having trained for it, but still finished in under two hours. Needless to say, the hiking trip in the Wicklow Mountains the next day was murder on my legs, as were the stairs in the hotel.

I heard somewhere that the US dollar is at an all-time low, or at least getting there. Perhaps the only worse place for an American to be financially right now is the UK. I'm definitely taking a hit, but the scholarship gives a fine stipend. I just need to get over the fact that I'll have to spend money regardless.

My dormitory is enormous compared to most American dorms, and it has its own bathroom. I was telling someone this at the Ambassador's reception for the Mitchells two nights ago, and he threw his head back, laughed, and then said, "That's good to know, considering that I built them." I have his business card.

The downside to living in the dorms here is that it costs about $8.50 to do a load of laundry. I would imagine this might be because of energy/water costs or to discourage the squandering of environmental resources.....blah. But as I wash most of my clothes in my bathroom sink now for free and dry them on my room heater, I can't help be nostalgic for the $1.00 total cost of laundry back at Vanderbilt.

My classes start Tuesday the 2nd. I might try to take a day tour of the Hill of Tara and the ancient archeology sites in this area before then. There's also the possibility of something called the Moo-a-thon in northwest Ireland, Co. Donegal, in which the runners (of the half-marathon) must dress up like cows in order to run the race, which is supposed to be really scenic. I'll have to find a pair of horns somewhere.

Anyway, I'm settling in okay, after managing to sweet-talk the airline out of charging me for 175 pounds worth of luggage and learning the idiosyncracies of the grocery system here, in which you bring your own grocery bags. I'm in a battle with my university to allow Skype on their Internet network, as I have to go to an Internet cafe to call home, and this effectively mitigates the reason (cheap calling) for using it in the first place. If it works out, expect a call from me.

Some unpaid advertising....

I just thought that I'd post up here that Aer Lingus (www.aerlingus.com) is currently offering $199 airfare from New York to Dublin. That's cheaper than a lot of the flights within the USA, and would provide interested prospectives a relatively cheap way to visit me.

Also, I recently joined the Skype network (www.skype.com), which is a sort of Internet-based phone service for free. Once you create your account (provided that you have a microphone and speakers on your computer), you just log on at the same time as the person you want to talk with, and you talk (vocally) with him from anywhere in the world, without any charge. I'll avoid publishing my Skype address on the Internet, but please let me know if you get it, and we'll be able to talk.

Lastly, I'm beginning to swear by those as-seen-on-tv vacuum-pack bags. They freed up about 1/3 of my suitcase (but didn't make it any lighter). Sure, it probably wrinkles my clothes beyond recognition and makes me feel like I'm traveling to another planet, but at least I can fit my fiddle case in my luggage now.

Will I bleed green?

If you are looking at this webpage, you've probably received my email directing you here. The purpose of this blog is to share with family and friends all the things I'm involved with during my year in Ireland without crowding their inboxes with obnoxiously long emails.

What you will find here are accounts of the more interesting tales that I will have experienced (I have an uncle who refers to me as "Forrest Gump" for a reason, after all), and nothing overly sentimental, gushy, pushy, political, pontificating or polarizing.

I leave Saturday, Sept. 15th for Dublin, Ireland, from which I will find the most inexpensive way possible to transfer to Maynooth, a little town in County Kildare, on the outskirts of the greater Dublin area. The next nine months, for the most part, will be at the gracious expense of the George J. Mitchell Scholarship, and I will end my studies in June, 2008 with an M.A. in Music History from the National University of Ireland, Maynooth. I plan to return to the USA sometime next summer, just in time to continue what seems to be my new status as a professional student, and enter law school somewhere. As of this past August 16th, I'm a 2nd Lieutenant in the Army, and will enter active duty service after law school as a JAG lawyer.

But for now, I'm packing and bracing for the $50 or so that I'm going to drop for my bags being too heavy. I have visions of myself wearing seven or eight different layers onto the airplane in order to bring everything I need (how does one pack for a year, anyway?), but I don't even like taking off my flip-flops for the metal detectors.

Anyway, please check back every week or two for new posts, if you wish.

Until then.