I had 10-12 off today so I took a bit of time to read, nap and I tried to go for a walk, but it was too windy and cold, so I kicked a bit of dirt at some swans and headed back. I was on dishes from 12-2 so I didn't get to see any of the lunch rush which was kinda sad because I didn't get to interact with the customers, but it's still fun in the back because you can joke with people. Class today was with Kelly instead of Arden which was interesting because first off Ben was so tired that it took him 20 minutes into class to realize that it wasn't Arden (they don't even look that much alike) and Kelly's just a character straight from Kentucky with lots of random Southernisms that seem so out of place here. He's a good guy though even with his random laugh and confusingly simple questions. I didn't agree with everything he had to say, but I really liked the way he started off his closing prayer: "Lord help them to forget everything I said today, but to remember everything You said." I think that's a really good point for all of us, because I know I get lots of stuff wrong and even when working in God's service I can mess it up.
After class, I wasn't on clean up duty so I just chilled for a bit, reading some and listening to music, then about an hour after we closed I went down to see what people were up to and saw that there were still a few customers hanging about- three college age kids. The girl came up to me and told me to sit down. I asked her name (Mary Ellen) and she promptly asked for my life story. "So Ben, you were born and then what happened?" Not even kidding. I didn't know what to say... I think I mumbled something about being a rambunctious kid and going to school to learn my multiplication tables when she got distracted by some of Paul's antics. Anyway, she and her friends Ciaran and Kev were just chillin and happened to be messing around with a tract that we have here. It starts off with a quiz asking if you have perfectly kept all 10 commandments, then helps us realize that none of us have and don't deserve heaven... but wait! Jesus passed the test and wants us to take his perfect 10 out of 10 score! Isn't that awesome!? You know, that kind of thing. Anyway, they didn't really read it all through and kept getting hung up on how impossible it was to keep the Commandments. We tried to talk to them about it, but they kept joking and eventually one of their favorite songs came on and they sang and danced and were gone. I guess it can't all happen in an evening, but I prayed for them and hope they come back and maybe can continue the conversation more seriously. They're a good bunch though, lots of fun to talk to.
After everything was really closed up, some ofus went into town to get Butler's chocolate (to die for) then a bit of shopping. I found where I can buy a new memory card, and I think I'll do it Saturday when I can go to the ATM to get euros. Ben and I hung out with Paul most of the time. Paul is a sweet guy and he looks and sort of acts a bit like Dustin Montgomery- one of my favorite people I haven't seen for a while. Consequently, I like Paul but I hope to get to know him better so it's not just the Dustin in him that I enjoy. You know how it goes.
I'm gonna try to get to bed earlier tonight.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
First Day of work
That's right, I hate coffee even signed a contract saying that I wouldn't drink any during my years in college yet here I am working in a cafe. Basically all we did today we get trained on various jobs and I got stuck with the simplest ones. I started working the counter with Scott who ran the till (cash register for you Americans) while I got out cookies, iced brownies, and learned a bit about how to make some of the more basic drinks. In the first few hours from 10-12:30 things were chill with a few groups of adults of college kids trickling in, but the lunch rush hit with the boys from the local Catholic schools (the Jes and the Bish) and there was a line out the door for about 45 minutes and things were busy. It wasn't quite as overwhelmingly crazy as the rumors had it, but maybe today was a light day... we'll see.
Anyway, during the lunch rush I worked the floor which meant i hung out by the counter to deliver plates of food to the boys. I would look at the names on the docket and (if I knew how to pronounce it) would go around shouting it until I got a response. Worked pretty easily and none of them tried to mess with me or tried to steal the food. I had to tells some fools to stop throwing junk, but not much. Cleaning up tables when people were done and thus and such. It was a good time because you get to be out among the people and the more open ones will strike up a conversation or joke with you. Things quieted down pretty rapidly and we cleaned up from the rush while we got more tricklers. Now typically we would go to class after lunch at 3, but today Arden wanted us to get better trained so he canceled class to let us work more. As things wound down, it got easier to have conversations with people, some stimulated by the free specialty drinks we happened to have because Paul was teaching his cafe wizardry to Ben. It was a good time.
Later tonight we're going over to the interns' house in Salthill to watch an Irish comedey show called Black Books... apparently it's hilarious and I'm looking forward to it.
Update on the camera: I looked around on the internet and contacted some people and it would seem that I have two options: to send the card to Olympus for repair or to get a new one. Except Olympus keeps asking for my zip code as if I were in the US... not really too sure if I can mail it from Ireland. So later this week I might just have to go find a camera shop and buy a new xD card. Lame. Sorry about the lack of photos, but it's not like I could have my camera on me while I'm working so I wouldn't really have any for today anyway.
Anyway, during the lunch rush I worked the floor which meant i hung out by the counter to deliver plates of food to the boys. I would look at the names on the docket and (if I knew how to pronounce it) would go around shouting it until I got a response. Worked pretty easily and none of them tried to mess with me or tried to steal the food. I had to tells some fools to stop throwing junk, but not much. Cleaning up tables when people were done and thus and such. It was a good time because you get to be out among the people and the more open ones will strike up a conversation or joke with you. Things quieted down pretty rapidly and we cleaned up from the rush while we got more tricklers. Now typically we would go to class after lunch at 3, but today Arden wanted us to get better trained so he canceled class to let us work more. As things wound down, it got easier to have conversations with people, some stimulated by the free specialty drinks we happened to have because Paul was teaching his cafe wizardry to Ben. It was a good time.
Later tonight we're going over to the interns' house in Salthill to watch an Irish comedey show called Black Books... apparently it's hilarious and I'm looking forward to it.
Update on the camera: I looked around on the internet and contacted some people and it would seem that I have two options: to send the card to Olympus for repair or to get a new one. Except Olympus keeps asking for my zip code as if I were in the US... not really too sure if I can mail it from Ireland. So later this week I might just have to go find a camera shop and buy a new xD card. Lame. Sorry about the lack of photos, but it's not like I could have my camera on me while I'm working so I wouldn't really have any for today anyway.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
A slideshow of pictures is not worth 1000 words per pic
...Or else I'm gonna be here forever.
No really, now I have time to actually write stuff, so this is what went down. We moved out of our dorms in Upland a little later than we expected, but had a super lunch at my house of lasagna and fruit salad and such... thanks mom! At the Indy airport, we met up with Vance Maloney (the prof in charge of the trip) and he saw us off, while apparently I missed seeing my roomie Reno and my good friend Ellen getting back from their respective JTerm trips. Not cool.
Our flight to Chicago was one of those itty bitty planes that from the door I could see right over the top... no standing up for me! It didn't help that O'Hare decided they weren't gonna be an airport for an hour and we got to cool our heels for an HOUR on the runway in Indy before taking off. I mean really- actual flight time between Indy and O'Hare has got to be like 25 min tops and it literally took us two hours from gate to gate. Lame. Not to worry, we had a long enough layover planned so that we still made our connecting flight after tromping through the endless corridors of Chicago's largest and busiest airport.
The next plane was a sweet 767 that happened to be carrying about half the people it could have carried, so we each graciously had two seats to ourselves. Oh yes, I spread out and napped like a king... if kings nap. Although there was this guy in front of me who insisted on sleeping with his reading light on (not too troublesome since they're well focused) until his sleeping head lolled into the light and his white hair reflected blindingly and sporadically into my seat. Anyway, I slept over Canada and Greenland and woke up to a hot crescent roll and strawberry yogurt as I saw the west coast of Ireland come into view. Most of it was covered in clouds, but as we descended into Dublin (and we had circled around to come at it from the east) I could see out my window the familiar landmarks of Sugarloaf, Howth Peninsula and Bray Head, hiding my wonderful home of Greystones.
Customs went simply enough in Dublin as long as we sent Kelsie (armed with her innocent charm and passport picture with pigtails) to go through first and convince the surly customs agents that we weren't up to no good. We got our luggage quick and found ole Brian King and his Transylvanian wife waiting to whisk us away in the little red coach to Galway. For a while, I was filled with glee about being back and looked aroud the country with excitement, but after 5,000 sheep and millions of green blades of grass I was remembering my body clock and nodding off.
We made it to Galway and found ourselves being led through the most foolish labyrinth of corners, fire doors and ramps to our rooms where everyone sat around and chatted endlessly while I contemplated the fact that I hadn't pooped since Upland. Awkward? Nope, I was too tired. Most of the rest of that night was a haze of jetlag, but we went out with Maren (an American intern here) to keep ourselves awake. We fed the swans in the harbor and went shopping for breakfast foods, then we had dinner with our professor Arden Autry and his wife June. Arden is way cool and kinda reminds me of Dr. Harbin only less business like. I was already joking with him by the time dinner was done.
Sleep was glorious and I might have been lost and confused in the middle of the night, but who knows with me, right?
Monday is typically the second day of our weekend, so the three of us spent the day exploring. We went out for lunch at a place called Finnegan's then walked to Tesco on the north side of town for dinner foods, came back to An Tobar Nua to drop off the food and headed down to the sea for a bit of tourism. Most of the pictures are from this part, such as the Spanish Arch, the swans up close this time, the prom(enade), the panorama of Galway to Salthill, etc. We went out to dinner for fish and chips at McDonagh's and it was good food, but a lack of seating forced us to sit awkwardly with random people at a table. Apparently that's normal: something I had missed last time.
Later that night we met up with Cat and Scott (two more American interns) and we went to a coffee place and got the inside scoop and jokes and such... a good time.
Today was our first day with the cafe open, but we didn't work. We went to staff devos which was really good, then closeted ourselves in a room with Susan while we reviewed procedures and rules for like three or four hours. Tough. Killer. Lunch, then intro to classes with Arden, classic beginning of class stuff with syllabi and all. Now we have a bit or time to ourselves to have our dinner then Bible study at 7.
Congrats if you actually read this far.
PS There will be no more pictures ever. Just kidding, but really, for the time being my computer decided it would be funny to destroy my memory card and now I get some error about write protection whenever I try to take pictures. If any of you have any idea how to fix it let me know.
Much love
No really, now I have time to actually write stuff, so this is what went down. We moved out of our dorms in Upland a little later than we expected, but had a super lunch at my house of lasagna and fruit salad and such... thanks mom! At the Indy airport, we met up with Vance Maloney (the prof in charge of the trip) and he saw us off, while apparently I missed seeing my roomie Reno and my good friend Ellen getting back from their respective JTerm trips. Not cool.
Our flight to Chicago was one of those itty bitty planes that from the door I could see right over the top... no standing up for me! It didn't help that O'Hare decided they weren't gonna be an airport for an hour and we got to cool our heels for an HOUR on the runway in Indy before taking off. I mean really- actual flight time between Indy and O'Hare has got to be like 25 min tops and it literally took us two hours from gate to gate. Lame. Not to worry, we had a long enough layover planned so that we still made our connecting flight after tromping through the endless corridors of Chicago's largest and busiest airport.
The next plane was a sweet 767 that happened to be carrying about half the people it could have carried, so we each graciously had two seats to ourselves. Oh yes, I spread out and napped like a king... if kings nap. Although there was this guy in front of me who insisted on sleeping with his reading light on (not too troublesome since they're well focused) until his sleeping head lolled into the light and his white hair reflected blindingly and sporadically into my seat. Anyway, I slept over Canada and Greenland and woke up to a hot crescent roll and strawberry yogurt as I saw the west coast of Ireland come into view. Most of it was covered in clouds, but as we descended into Dublin (and we had circled around to come at it from the east) I could see out my window the familiar landmarks of Sugarloaf, Howth Peninsula and Bray Head, hiding my wonderful home of Greystones.
Customs went simply enough in Dublin as long as we sent Kelsie (armed with her innocent charm and passport picture with pigtails) to go through first and convince the surly customs agents that we weren't up to no good. We got our luggage quick and found ole Brian King and his Transylvanian wife waiting to whisk us away in the little red coach to Galway. For a while, I was filled with glee about being back and looked aroud the country with excitement, but after 5,000 sheep and millions of green blades of grass I was remembering my body clock and nodding off.
We made it to Galway and found ourselves being led through the most foolish labyrinth of corners, fire doors and ramps to our rooms where everyone sat around and chatted endlessly while I contemplated the fact that I hadn't pooped since Upland. Awkward? Nope, I was too tired. Most of the rest of that night was a haze of jetlag, but we went out with Maren (an American intern here) to keep ourselves awake. We fed the swans in the harbor and went shopping for breakfast foods, then we had dinner with our professor Arden Autry and his wife June. Arden is way cool and kinda reminds me of Dr. Harbin only less business like. I was already joking with him by the time dinner was done.
Sleep was glorious and I might have been lost and confused in the middle of the night, but who knows with me, right?
Monday is typically the second day of our weekend, so the three of us spent the day exploring. We went out for lunch at a place called Finnegan's then walked to Tesco on the north side of town for dinner foods, came back to An Tobar Nua to drop off the food and headed down to the sea for a bit of tourism. Most of the pictures are from this part, such as the Spanish Arch, the swans up close this time, the prom(enade), the panorama of Galway to Salthill, etc. We went out to dinner for fish and chips at McDonagh's and it was good food, but a lack of seating forced us to sit awkwardly with random people at a table. Apparently that's normal: something I had missed last time.
Later that night we met up with Cat and Scott (two more American interns) and we went to a coffee place and got the inside scoop and jokes and such... a good time.
Today was our first day with the cafe open, but we didn't work. We went to staff devos which was really good, then closeted ourselves in a room with Susan while we reviewed procedures and rules for like three or four hours. Tough. Killer. Lunch, then intro to classes with Arden, classic beginning of class stuff with syllabi and all. Now we have a bit or time to ourselves to have our dinner then Bible study at 7.
Congrats if you actually read this far.
PS There will be no more pictures ever. Just kidding, but really, for the time being my computer decided it would be funny to destroy my memory card and now I get some error about write protection whenever I try to take pictures. If any of you have any idea how to fix it let me know.
Much love
Monday, January 28, 2008
Failte go Gailhimm
Welcome to Galway! I don't seem to have lots of spare time here, we're about to leave again... but for those of you who really want to see pictures, here's a slideshow of the past few days with captions... enjoy!
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Heading out in a week
Here I am, nearing the end of JTerm and I have plane tickets to hop across the pond in 177 hours (that is a week and 12 hours... Dad, check my math). Not too much to report now except we've learned lots of valuable stuff from the girls who were in our place last semester and I'm getting pretty excited. This is mostly a post to let you know that you can start paying attention to this blog now cause things are about to start going down.
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