What's in your wallet?

Our living room &
the Royal Canal - just steps away. 

When I left Boston, I pretty much emptied my wallet, figuring my Charlie Card, expired Blue Cross card, and City Feed frequent flyer card (on which I was speedily working my way up to earning one free, giant delicious sandwich) wouldn't be useful in Dublin. When I emptied out my wallet the other day - and being honest, this was in a hasty panic after misplacing my AIB bank card for the second time - I briefly noted the contents of my wallet: my GNIB card; Trinity ID; PPS (social security) card; valued customer cards at Fixx coffee shop and Tolteca Burrito; Dublin city library card; Dublin bikes card; and some Euro. Essentially, a compilation of what I've been up to for the last few months - already 2.5 actually! [English teachers, please take note: this could be a very fruitful writing exercise: How do the contents of your wallet reflect you?].

Abby & Eugene at O'Neil's Pub.

Cathal and I moved into a 2-bed apartment a couple of weeks ago, right near the canal, in the heart of the city, and a short walk/run to Dublin bay. The apartments in Dublin come furnished, so we didn't have to buy beds, a table, or couch, but we did need things like a coffee maker - we decided to go European and get a French press - and pillows, so we made the obligatory, yet soul-sucking, IKEA trip, after which we promptly rewarded ourselves with an ice cream cone. Cathal and I both walk to work in about 15 minutes, which is amazing. Sometimes we are even lazy and cycle in, using the Dublin bikes system - similar to NYC or Boston, where you pick up a bike in one location and drop it off in another. We also love being able to walk to pretty much everything - from museums to parks to restaurants. We even had our first visitors, Abby & Eugene, from Boston in our new place! We had a great time showing them around...well, maybe it was mostly showing them the pubs around.

Dublin Bay via a run. 

Things at Trinity are generally great; the summer holidays are over and like the rest of the
educational world, September is crazy. I've been attending many general graduate student orientation sessions, but I also feel already in the thick of the PhD work. I've been working with other members of my research group and teachers to help them set up projects with their students; attending various workshops and presentations; volunteering as a mentor at Bridge21, where I'll also be conducting my research; applying for funding; and reading, reading, reading. My research group is friendly, active, and optimistic, but also straightforward and constructively critical. I'm also considering getting involved on campus with the Graduate Students Union and maybe even taking some of the free Irish Language classes offered at here. And I'm beginning to start some classes this week, which I suppose I'll have to fit in somewhere in all this!

Alongside the exiting things happening, my mother-in-law, Bernie, has been suffering from an infection that came from a bite from unknown insect she got while sleeping a couple of weeks ago. She was in the hospital for a week and has been out of work for what's going on 5 weeks - pretty much the whole time Cathal and I have been in our new apartment. She's on the mend now, but of course this has been extremely difficult for her. This serious infection, however, did not stop the hostess with the mostess from having a feast for Abby & Eugene when they were over!

Homemade veggie burgers.

People keep asking, and yes, of course I miss home: mostly I miss my nephew Everett. He's just so darn cute. See below. But I try not to dwell on other things too much - like the fact that the veggie burgers just aren't standard practice or that good here. In my best moments, I make efforts to see things like this as an opportunity and I made my own veggie burgers. Must be healthier than the frozen kind, right? This is not always easy, and yes of course, I'm dying for Formosa's all-you-can-eat sushi for $20.

The cutest baby ever.

So, if you made it this far down this post, and if you were curious, yes, I located my AIB bank card; I am actually a Capital One costumer; and it's still in my wallet. No foreign exchange fees. Totally worth it.

At the Gaelic Football Semi-Final Game.
Dublin vs Donegal. Not the results we'd hoped for,
but we ended up at the Kerry v Donegal
All-Ireland Final after winning tickets in a raffle!
Kerry won!

Run out to Poolbeg light house.