A Day in the Life

This has been a crazy last couple days. Between getting all the final work done, celebrating, and farewells-there is definitely a lot i could write about. but not right now. this post'll be dedicated to every normal day in Belfast that I never thought was worth writing much about.
SO HERE WE GOOO. welcome to my walking tour from rowan 1 (my glamorous student housing) to the spankin new queens university library.
so here is stop number 1: my building.
I live on the third floor (referred to as the second floor in this foreign land). It is what it is- freshman housing, but I have my own bathroom and a comfy bed so no complaints from this girl.
Next door to my building is the bar for our dorm housing. seriously, if only stetson west had a bar on the first floor. imagine the possibilities....
Next stop! reception! now the tours getting really exciting. this is where i go when I lose my key and get locked out of my room. if you lose your key 20 times a semester they charge you. let's just saying im pushing the limits on that one...two more days to keep that puppy in my sight.
okay, we are now exiting my student accomdation. ooo eeee. This is the fancy shmancy entrance to Elms Village (where i live.) located on beautiful malone road. mm yep.
Now this tour is just gonna get CRAZY. welcome to the spar gas station. roughly 30 second walk down the road from the entrance to Elms. This is where we grocery shop when we're too lazy to go to the real store. They actually have a ton of stuff- vegetables, baking stuff, cheese, milk, etc. told ya this tour was gonna get crazy.
Walking right along...welcome to Grant House. This is the international student housing right down the road from Elms. I don't really remember my reasoning for wanting to live in Elms instead. Whatevs
After this it's smooth sailing right to campus...well, after another 10 minute walk. lalala strolling down Malone road. this is the point where I realize I'm probably going to be late for class

Now we are at this place. I dont really know what it is, but it is SCARY. We live in a pretty nice part of Belfast with lots of big houses, but this one located right on the main road is all cemented up. eeekFisherwick church! This is about the halfway point to campus. Turning right on this road brings me to the gym while going straight heads right to classes and the library. straight we go.
Belfast is big on its club paraphernalia and chalk advertisements. exhibit A:
I've never been to Rain, but I guess according to this it is pretty gay so I'll pass.
Now we are pretty much on campus. This is the post office where I send all of you your postcards and presents. That is the bank that I opened a bank account in and never used ever. And that is some church that I've never paid much attention to. Best tourguide ever.
We can now bang a right into the Botanic Gardens for a scenic shortcut to the library. Sorry about that garbage truck thing.
In the gardens is the Ulster Museum, full of Belfast and county Antrim history. I've heard it's pretty good but I've never been in. Maybe today I'll check it out. probably not.
la de da, walking through the garden
hark! the library (straight on)! While to the left is the big green house in the botanic gardens. I've never been in here either. I actually do wanna check this out though. So pictures from here to come

And there's a lovely field across from the green house where people chill when it's not cold or raining (so like never.)
Now the fun ends. Library time. It's actually a really sweet library, just opened this past summer. There's a restaurant/cafe on the first floor and this scary statue out front. i HATE it. I have seriously had nightmares with this thing in it.
Thennn when I'm done doing my thang at the library, I walk through the campus to go to classes or back home. This is the Lanyon building courtyard. My philosophy lecture was next to this
After finishing all the school stuff, I usually take a different way home (up Lisburn road) to mix things up. This is also where I buy veggies/groceries/etc

Eatwell is the greatest store ever. but expensive :(
The best part of Lisburn road is the view past the shops and houses:
oh hai ireland.
so yep, that is my daily route. Nothing too exciting, but this is my travel jounral so I guess talking about how I get to campus in a foreign country is a legitimate thing to record.

So tomorrow is my last day. oof!
I'll update tomorrow about this past weekend and my packing progress

A Wine and Cheese Christmas

First off- FIVE DAYS LEFT?! how the heck did that happen. I mean, I know I've had a countdown for a while but all of a sudden I feel like the concept of being home is terrifying. Well, maybe terrifying isn't the word, but I just feel like there's so much left to do and see. It's also getting really sad as different friends of mine leave every day as they finish their final classes and papers. I know this isn't the end of anything, of course I'll be back and of course I'll see those who I'm really close to again but still. One week from yesterday I will be sitting in a dentist's chair in Nashua instead of looking out my window at the hills surrounding Belfast.

Everyone keeps asking me if I'm excited to be home, and the short answer is absolutely. I miss certain people more and more every day, and traveling really does take a toll on you. I'm especially excited to be back for the holidays because my family does them really well. I feel like I'd rather bring those certain people from home back here with me though so they can see everything I've been doing for the past 3+ months. This happened when I came back from China too. No matter how many pictures I show or stories I tell, no one can ever relive the experiences, eat the food, meet the people that I did. Even though this is the longest I've been away, I'm glad that I'm prepared for this when I get home. Coming back from China last summer was really tough.

BUT ENOUGH OF THAT! time to highlight some FUN. Last night was the Queen's University Wine and Cheese Society Holiday Gala in the Great Hall. The Great Hall looks like something out of Harry Potter and is in Lanyon building (aka this bad boy on our campus) :

http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=6626870474334535785

It was brilliant. Free wine reception, 3 course meal, great convos, and then lots of dancing. It was a black tie event, all girls in dresses and men in suits or tuxedos. hot damn.

but OF COURSE, something had to go awry in my attempts to get ready just because I am me. My initial plan to curl my hair was an EPIC fail. I brought my american curling iron over in September but I hadn't tried using it yet. I knew the voltage would be off but I figured worst case scenario would be that I broke the electricity in my building (no big deal.. haha). But NO, it was much much worse. I plugged in the curling iron and it immediately smelled like intense burning in my room. I forget how my curling iron smelled in the US, so I didn't think much of it. I proceeded to curl a bottom strand of hair (THANK GOD BOTTOM). I knew something wasn't right as my room started smelling like burnt hair and the curling iron was making a loud hissing sound. THEN when I tried pulling away the devil beauty appliance, IT TOOK MY HAIR WITH IT, burnt to a crisp. and then the hair continued on to catch FIRE. Sorry for the disgusting picture to follow, but I don't think anyone's charred hair would look any more attractive.


BARF. SO yes. now I have a hot little bald patch/a lifelong fear of curling irons. I had bought a pretty good bottle of wine the other night to celebrate with friends on Thursday when we were all finished with the semester, but this traumatizing experience required a glass (or two) ahead of time.


wahh :( all i can say is, at least i didn't start with say..my bangs. oof. Not to mention, my entire floor smells like burnt hair, which is probably one of the worst smells in the world. I couldn't even eat breakfast this morning because the smell of burnt hair made me nauseous. So..sorry everybody.

BUT, the show must go on. I continued to get ready but with a plan B hair style. Anna Anna Dominika Florant and I met at the Scholars Bar for a quick drink on the way and then arrived at the reception at 7. Everyone was dressed to the nines. Girls wearing floor length gowns and guys in tuxedos. We were also happy that they assigned our group of friends to the same table. :)


Checking out portraits of past university presidents in the Great Hall
anna (france), dominika (germany), anna (sweden), florant (france). smokin.

a haw haw haw. woody banter with wine.time to take seats and await delicious things
cheers! being thankful for the hair that i have on my head that could fit into that ponytail.
course one: bomb split pea soup

they had those goofy Christmas party popper things. mine had a plastic spider in it. sweet.oh yea. and it had a crown.

course TWO: the main meal. turey with cranberries, brussel sprouts, SWEET POTATO mashd potatoes, carrotscheers, prost, salut, skal

course THREE! cheese sampler plate with grapes, celery, and chutney. incredible (oh yes, bottle of Riesling with all)WINE AND CHEESE!

after dinner chit chat. i'm gonna miss these ladiesMerry Christmas

Oh yes, and they hired the DJ from the Stiff Kitten (one of Belfast's best club) for some after dinner dancing. We were definitely the rowdiest ones there, can't always keep it too classy

SO that's that! It was a really fun night. Northeastern really needs to get its act together and allow a wine and cheese club. Such an educational experience.


Soooo yes. this morning i wake up to a room smelling of burnt hair and a minor wine headache. I was assigned to do my final presentation for genetics this morning on the "future challenges facing metagenomics". I had not prepared for it AT ALL. Yes, it was part of the topic of my final paper, but I had no visuals or organized talk ready in the least. I was stressin. I tried to pull together last minute notes this morning and arrived in class just hoping that my ability to public speak would get me through it. Not to mention, all the kids in my class are overachievers and had awesome things prepared. Anyways, the minutes tick away as people give their talks and I just feel terrible about how poorly prepared I am. Everyone in the class knows that I'm the American girl who had a 6 month internship at the Harvard center of genetics so I knew they were looking forward to hearing me talk (maybe also just because my accent is cool). AND THEN, before I know it, the class time is up. The last presentation to go was the person ahead of me in line. The professor lets me off the hook and says he believes that I had something great prepared so I'll get full credit anyway.

There is a god.

Birthday Recap

What a fun two days. If the past 48 hours are any indication of how the rest of my 23rd year of living will be then there are definitely good times ahead.

So after Tuesdays Genetics, I did go downtown for some shop therapy instead of my philosophy lecture (seriously, who would want to learn about Heidegger's theories of angst and dread on ones birthday? exactly.) So I headed straight for Zara down by City Hall because there was a dress there that I had my eye on for the black tie holiday ball next week. It fortunately fit great and ended up being way cheaper than i expected. an easy sell. then i spent another hour or so just browsing stores until I spent the birthday budget I ended up with a new top that was on clearance and a sexy headband from urban outfitters. Their headbands are one of my favorite guilty pleasures. love em.

So yep, after that I headed back home and instead of working on one of my 4 papers due next week, I watched a few episodes of Weeds online. Kyle raves about that show and we have pretty much the same taste in TV, so I decided to check it out. What a great show. I can't wait until I'm done with the semester and I can dedicate lots of lazy hours to getting through some seasons. At around 3, the Annas were out of their classes so we headed to the bus station to catch our ride to dublin fort he Lily Allen concert. wooooo

The bus ride seemed a lot longer than usual. AND the bus was actually stopped at the Irish border for a passport check. I have made that trip 5 times in the past 3 months and never have the checked passports. Of course I didn't have mine with me, and after a brief scolding they let me into the country. haha gotta love that border security.

We arrived at the bus station just in time for the concert. The doors for the concert opened at 6:30 and we didn't end up getting there until about 7:45. The show started at 8, so TG we didn't get there an hour and a half early. I only had time to order one 7 euro beer before the opener came on, so if we had waited any longer I probably wouldnt be able to afford this week's groceries. ha.



So Lily Allen was amazing. I haven't been to a big showy concert in a long time, and the vibe was great. Lots of lights and effects and energy. The O2 Arena in Dublin was also a very cool concert venue. It was enormous and there really wasn't a bad spot to watch from in the whole place. Lily was really cute and rocked it. She had a keg of Guinness on stage and was pouring pints for the people in the front row who couldn't get out for a drink during the show.



The show got out a little after 10 and we caught the 11 oclock bus back to Belfast. 2.5 hours later I was happy sleepy 22 year old ready for bed.

The next day (yesterday) was pretty typical during the day and I got a lot done on my Genetics paper, but then the nighttime was more fun and games. A bunch of Belfast friends joined me for a birthday sushi dinner at Sakura, a Japanese place near campus. The food was great. I got an order of Red Dragon rolls ( i kinda forget what was in them: salmon, sweet potato, avocado, cucumber?) and a bowl of seafood hot and sour soup. mmmmmmmmm. Then for dessert the whole table got sake bombbssss. That's when the real fun started. One sake bomb each turned into 3 or 4 pretty quickly. At that point one of the little waitresses had to come over and tell us to stop because we were "scaring the other guests". hahaha oops.


I got great things from the Belfast friends :) Anna and Anna got me a super warm comfy scarf and a box of dark chocolate ferrero roche chocolates. do they know me or what. Jenn made me a hilarious card full of lots of memories from the past 3 months, and Laura got me a cool candle holder thing from the Xmas market. Thanks again everybody :) I couldn't ask for better abroad friends.


Following sushi, Anna Anna Sean and I headed to Modest Mouse!!!!! at the student union. The student union on campus has a couple of bars and clubs inside, hosting a few concerts a week. Modest Mouse was great, playing about half old and half new stuff. They have TWO drumsets on stage which was ridiculous. We all shared buying rounds for each other and danced away. After the concert, the party headed over to the Bot for a few more drinks before calling it a night. They were playing live irish music so there was more dancing and and good convo. :)


Today i was on top of things. I headed to the library around 10 and just banged out my entire genetics paper. This puppy is worth 85% of my grade, and I think it turned out pretty good...at least for a first draft. It feels so good to have that one out of the way. Tomorrow I'm gonna start my immunology paper (worth all 100% of the grade), but it's the shortest paper so hopefully I'll have that one finished by Sunday. I am a paper writing robot. beep boop.

It's very weird to be leaving here in 10 days. I had been looking forward to going home so much when I had a ton of schoolwork left to do, but now that I'm getting it out of the way I'm starting to get sad. I have had some of the best times in my life in the past 3 months. Last night reminded me of all the awesome people that I met and really will miss when I go back to Boston/Merrimack life.

OH and tonight anna invited me over because she found out that they sell B&J PHISH FOOD FROYO IN BELFAST. where has that been for the past 3 months? not in my life obviously. but yes, oh so good. I think with that treat my birthday is now officially over. bring on 23.

Lá breithe mhaith agat!

Good mornin! It is December the 8th, and that means I am now a whole year older!

Time certainly has flown since the 21st birthday extravaganza.

It's currently 8:15 in the morning and I'm getting ready for the day. You know it's going to be a good day when it starts with oatmeal and presents :)
Oatmeal was 1 packet Quaker oats cooked w/ skim milk, cut up small apple, chopped banana, couple spoonfuls greek nonfat yogurt, pumpkin & flax seed, spoonfull of peanut butter. i am SO full from it. power breakfast.

So yes, I opened the gifts from the family, and they were great :) very cute. They sent over socks (because i never wear them hence why I CANT STOP BEING SICK), the PS I love you soundtracl (???? was my reaction too but then i realized the movie is set in ireland, haha cute), bracelets, a cool scarf from this craft shop in peteborough, LOTS of swan chocolates, and some shepard fairey OBEY stickers to litter Belfast with before I go. Jack also sent over an arrowhead that he picked up while working in Bryce Canyon this past fall, so cool!
I also got an envelope w/ some cash (already converted to UK pounds! my parents are the greatest), so instead of my afternoon classes I"m going shopping downtown :)
The wine and cheese club is having a black tie holiday gala next week so I'll go find me a new dress or something awooo

then tonight anna anna and i are going to see Lily Allen in Dublin! I don't know much of her stuff but I've been listening to her more and more lately cause she's huge here. I dig a lot of her stuff so I'm pumped. And look! She has a whole song called 22. hot damn.


I couldn't embed the real music video, but this gets the point across :)

So yea! I'm off to Genetics now (yeaaa i'll actually go to one class today...).
Do I look different?!
THEN (circa 1993?):
NOW (literally right now on the webcam. gotta keep this accurate):
OH YA. And I got this greatest beer stained bar napkin birthday card in the whole world from my fabulous friends back home. Miss you guys :) 13 days left in Ireland, holy cow.

Lám Dearg Éirinn

The O’Neill family is like no other.

I finally got around to meeting my long lost family down in Dublin, and it was easily one of the best weekends of my life. It blew my mind how at home I could feel with these people who I had never met before and it put the idea of family in a whole new light for me.

First, a little O’Neill history (well, from what I understood from stories last night): during the Great Depression my grandpa Jack and 2 of his brothers shipped over from Ireland to US to find more opportunities and raise families. They were all between 17 and 20 at this point. Jack settled in White Plains, NY and started a successful AC/heating business. During this time he married my grandmother Mary Larson and they went on to have 10 rambunctious children: Maureen, Susan, Tara, Deborah, Rory, Timmy, Peter, Brian, Sean, and Kevin (my dad!). I think it was around the 60s (??? Gotta check this) that grandpa Jack went down to Florida to check out a piece of land that was for sale near the Everglades- a part of Florida that was hardly developed up to this point. That is when the O’Neills became one of the first ever families on Marco Island, Florida and it has remained a homebase for the family ever since.

Meanwhile, while Jack was having lots of little babies and being a pretty successful business man in Florida, HIS parents had more children. So Jack had a brother who he had never met before. This brother had children of his own in Dublin, and THESE are the people who I met last night. Therefore it was my dad’s cousins and their kids who I visited. Yes, quite a distant relationship, but they remarkably felt just as close as any relative I have.

I headed down to Dublin yesterday at about 330. My dad’s cousin Brendan picked me up at the airport (where my bus got in) and we headed to his house. I chatted with Brendan and Annette (his wife) for a while over a couple of beers. Brendan is a splitting image of my dad but with hair. It was unreal. They showed me some home videos of when they visited the US in the 90s, which was really cool as well.

Shortly after, we headed to Marie’s house (Brendan’s sister and my dads other cousin). Marie had a FEAST waiting for me. I had no idea that they would give me such a warm welcoming, it was amazing. Marie, who is EXACTLY like my aunt susan both physically and personality wise, cooked up a big lamb roast with potatoes and veggies. It was out of this world. I met tons of people. Robert was Marie and Brendan’s other sibling. He came with his wife, and they were just as awesome. Helen is Brendan, Marie, and Robert’s mother. She was a doll- really the sweetest little old lady I have ever met. She just kept going on and on about how my dad was one of her favorite people and she was so happy to see me all grown up. Her memory was going and her hip really bothered her, but other than that she was full of life. She sang me some Irish songs, which made most of the people in the room cry. Basically it was just a big fun O’Neill party- just like the ones I remember as a kid on Marco Island. My big regret was not taking more pictures of the whole family. I just got so caught up in the moment that I didn’t even think about my camera.

There were also lots of kids there my age (my dads cousins kids). Orlagh was Brendan and Annette’s daughter, and I have pictures with her when I was a baby and her family visited in like 1990. Marie and Rob had Kate (25) and Ciara (22, pronounced Kira), and their boyfriends (Mick 1 and Mick 2) were all around. We all had a ton in common, and I wish we lived closer cause I’m sure we’d have a blast going out in Boston. Around 1am they took me out to a club in Dublin, the palace, and I knew it was going to be a good time when the first song I heard was All I Want for Christmas Is You. It was a Christmasy themed night at the club, and at this point pretty much everybody there was drunk so the DJ was doing whatever he wanted. I was amused. The “cousins” were awesome, and they kept buying rounds- never letting me pay for a thing. We were out until about 4 in the morning before heading back to Marie’s house and crashing.

I woke up at around 10 this morning to the smell of an amazing breakfast. Marie made eggs, sausage, bacon, toast, the works. It was delicious. Me and the girls were prettttttty tired from the night before so we just bummed around on the couch watching TV until Brendan took me back to the airport at around 1. I slept the whole bus ride home, and now I’m back in my little Belfast room writing papers for the next two weeks.

In other news- I got a package from my parents today! 22 in 2 days yeayy. The box had tons of delicious Swan chocolates and a couple other wrapped things that I can’t open until Tuesday. The theme of this entry is how I have the best family in the world.

Also got a letter from Olga :) Cant wait to open that Tuesday as well.

Oh yes, and I know I kind of gave up on making this a “food blog” because I really just got bored of writing about all of my meals. I know none of you care, and neither do I. BUT tonight I made something awesome.

BUTTERNUT AND QUINOA CHILI!!!

It was fantastic. Super spicy as I was generous with the chili powder. I had to take off my sweatshirt while indulging.

Okay, I really gotta do work now.

Outline the achievemens of the plant genetic engineering industry to date, and discuss the challenges that it faces in the next decade in 3000 words. REAAAADY GO. I wanna be done by Thursday. I’ll report back.

That's What She Said

I'm siiiiiick :(

I feel feverish, and it hurts to swallow.

It's currently pouring (and i mean POURING) rain in Belfast, and my classes today aren't that necessary so I'm staying in to recover/ get a good amount done on my genetics paper.

Also- my combination of 1hr bodytone/pilates followed by 1hr core strengthening classes on Monday night has left me totally paralyzed. Every muscle in my body is sore.

Currently sitting in my bed with oatmeal & tea, watching TED videos to warm me up for this paper. Life isn't too bad.

watch this. very cool.