Leuven

I returned yesterday from a week long trip to Lueven, Belgium. I was a little nervous about it since I didn't really know anyone going on this trip (a few of the boys had been in classes with me, but they were just acquaintances). We had an absolutely fantastic time! There were 6 of us (all M.A. students) taking it for our Research Skills credit and 5 more Ph.D. or beyond just along for the ride, plus 6 professors. The first day we went to the Belgian Archives and took a walking tour of Leuven. They had said it would be a small town, but I think their version of small and my version of small are two different things. It was probably the size of Galway - maybe a little bigger. We also discovered that Belgian beer is very good.

While walking around, we found that Leuven also has a spire...only there's has a fly on the end of it...

The second day we went to Aachen, Germany, to visit Charlemagne's Cathedral. We had lectures each morning so we didn't get to Aachen until about 1:00 and had our tour at 2:00. We ended up leaving right after the tour at around 5:00 so we didn't have much free time. Probably my only complaint of the whole trip would be that we didn't get all that much free time in our field trip cities. We did get sausages in the market square so that gave us time to explore for our hour of free time at least. The tour was really nice and the guide was very knowledgeable. I think he was pretty excited to get a tour group who was actually interested in all of the historical stuff he had to say! We saw Charlemagne's first coffin, his throne (basically 4 marble slabs put together into a chair - it was for church so he wanted to appear the humble king), and his final coffin (although it only contains 90-some of his bones).

The next day we went to Antwerp and the "big kids" went to Bruges. We went to the print museum in Antwerp, which was absolutely fabulous. Really, I suppose anything that puts me among lots and lots of books I think is amazing, but the museum really was cool. Again, we didn't have a lot of free time, but we did have enough to discover a chocolate drink shop. It was absolutely amazing! After we hyped ourselves up on chocolate, we made our way back to the train station, had the stereotypical running through a European train station to catch our train, and "missed it by that much." We then ran into the professors who had also missed the train so we all ended up taking the next train back together. We then had a group dinner ouy minus the PhD students who weren't back from Bruges yet.

Thursday, we went in to Brussels to tour the EU Parliament building. I wasn't sure how interesting it would be because A) my interests lie in the 400s - slightly before the creation of the EU and B) I'm an American citizen and don't have much to do with the EU (although someone did seriously ask me last year if America was part of the EU *facepalm*) The tour was actually really interesting and now I feel like I need to go to DC and see the American Capitol as well! Again, we didn't have much free time since we got done with lunch around 2:00 and had to be back in Leuven by 5:00 so we went to the Comic Book Museum (Mike and Josh - I would have gotten you Smurfs things, but everything was in French!), then walked around the area by the train station for a bit. We missed the first train we intended to catch back so we thought no problem, there's another in 10 minutes we'll take that. Evidently the one we missed was the express that took 20 minutes and the one we got took 40. We got back to Leuven at a quarter to 5:00 and raced back to the college. Fortunately, the reception at 5:00 was an Irish 5:00 and we had time to relax before the ambassador got there. The reception was for a talk from the Irish Ambassador to the EU, which was extremely interesting. Usually, I don't get into politics much, but she was a very good speaker and really explained a lot of how the EU works.

Friday morning, everybody else left for home and I went to the Henri-Chapelle American Military Cemetery. My Granny's brother, James Carlton, is buried there so I went to go see his grave. I'm pretty sure I'm the first relative who has been there since my Granddad visited on his way home from the war. It really was a very moving experience. The impact of how many men died doesn't really hit you until you're standing, looking out over 8,000 graves and knowing that there are at least 3 more cemeteries in the area that look the same. Caroline, my contact person for this trip, took me out to his grave, rubbed sand from the Normandy beaches into the grooves so that everything would show up in the picture, and placed Belgian and American flags in front of the grave. She gave me all kinds of information about where James was killed, the date he died, and gave me forms for finding out more information about his time in the army. She also asked for any information we had on him to be sent to her as they are trying to collect as much information about each soldier before they are forgotten. There are 8,000 men buried in the cemetery and they only have 500 pictures so far so if you know anyone buried in Henri-Chapelle (or any other foreign military cemetery for that matter), please pass on any information you have!

Sick

I have learned the virtue of being prepared for sickness before the sickness actually hits. I have a cold, and will be using this medium to whine about it. I could feel my throat becoming scratchy on Tuesday, and I should have stopped at the campus pharmacy then and picked up medicine. Unfortunately for me, I did not. I was in successful denial until Friday, when I finally had to admit that my nose was plugged, my throat was on fire, and my sinuses hurt. I have both Dayquil and Nyquil, but I'm supposed to use those "sparingly" because I'm on Warfarin. I also have cough drops and Sudafed, which have both helped quite a bit. This morning was the worst - my face hurt. Not my head, mind you, my face. I could tell my sinuses were completely filled up and all I wanted to do was burrow my head in the covers and not come out til my cold was done.

Of course, I put off going to the grocery store so I don't have much for way of food in the house. I'm sure if I desperately needed something, Matt would go get it, but I feel bad asking him. Hopefully tomorrow I'll feel well enough to take the bus into town to get some nasal spray, soup, and possibly whiskey (it's been suggested more than once!) I really wish colds were like the flu - 24 hours later, you're not necessarily well, but you're on the mend. Colds you just have to wait out until they've run their course. Maybe this is my punishment for getting a flu shot - I can't get the flu so I get a cold instead!

1 year later

This post is a little late coming, but better late than never, right? This past January I celebrated a year of life that I almost didn't have. For those of you who don't know, a few days before I was supposed to leave for Italy in January of 2010, my roommate took me to the hospital because I couldn't breathe. We were both sure it was some sort of panic attack that I would get a breathing treatment for and be on my merry way. Wrong. Thanks to a doctor who refused to believe that it could be anything but blood clots and would not give up until he found them, I remained in the hospital, did not board a 10 hour flight to Italy, and started the regimen of Coumadin that would heal the clots.

I promised myself then that I would truly live my life and not sit and wait for my life to start. In this past year I've made quite a few changes. I moved to Dublin, started graduate school, moved into my first apartment, and started volunteering more than working. While I'm always adding to my bucket list of things I want to do, I feel very fortunate that I'm crossing things off of that list as well. So many people develop a list of "Someday I want to do" but few people actually get around to doing these things.

So, today my post is meant to challenge you to accomplish something on your bucket list (and if you haven't made one, do that, too!) Remember that in the big picture, we are just a spec in the huge scheme of things. Our life is fleeting and too short to spend sitting around waiting for it to start. Go out and live it!

These aren't Irish quotes, but they encompasses this post well:

"Dance as if no one were watching

Sing as if no one were listening

and Live every day as if it were your last."

"It's not dress rehersal. Live the life you imagined."

"Life isn't about finding yourself. It's about creating yourself."

"Do one brave thing today. . .then run like hell." (Ok, this one might not be as inspirational, but it provides comic relief ;)

And we're back

So much for my getting better at blogging in the new year! Let's start with Christmas break - no there is too much, let me sum up (Princess Bride fans, you're welcome.)

I got home on December 6th rather than the 11th. I figured since I was done with classes, I would go home and surprise my parents. I had it all arranged for two of my sorority sisters to come pick me up at the airport, then for my sister-in-law to come from Topeka and take me to Concordia. Thank you Bre, Laura and Joni for making that work! We went up to my dad's office at the hospital first - the look on his face was priceless! We could see the wheels in his head turning...I'm pretty sure the thought going through his mind was, "Was I supposed to pick her up TODAY?" We then went home because we fortunately found out, through Facebook, that my mom was home sick that day. She was a little drugged on Nyquil so her reaction was a little more low key than I expected, but she was still excited.

I spent most of break making various visits to Baldwin, Jennings, Salina, and Greeley and just enjoyed being at home. I got almost everything on both Mom and my 'to do' lists done - woot! No matter how enjoyable it was, January 15th came and I had to come back to Ireland. My journey from the airport to my apartment was not nearly as exciting as the first trip between the two, but I'm definitely ok with that. My cab driver had no idea where Beechwood Court was so it was a good thing I had already been here.

Classes started yesterday for me. I only have one class - how awesome is that! It's called Medieval Dublin and looks very interesting. The bibliography is about 20 pages long (no, I"m not exaggerating) so it's a good thing it looks interesting. This whole having one class a week thing should give me plenty of time to work on my thesis (key word: should).

I realized I haven't been doing this in the last few posts so here is my Irish quote of the post:

"It's not that the Irish are cynical. It's simply that they have a wonderful lack of respect for everything and everybody." ~ Brenden Behan

How do you not get discouraged with humanity? A friend asked me this awhile back, but I didn't really know what he meant. I think I get it now.

We closed Oxfambooks early today because, in case you didn't know, it's snowing like crazy in Dublin. I walked to the bus stop across the river and arrived around 5:15. I've found that my boots are definitely not waterproof, and trudging through the mud and muck made them quite wet. I was wearing two pairs of socks underneath, but they were completely soaked by the time I got to the bus stop. When the bus finally did come at 6:00, my feet were so cold they absolutely ached. As I sat on the bus - scowling and complaining to myself about my cold, aching feet, I looked out the bus window and saw some trash bags in a doorway. Then I saw the trash bags move. The realization hit me that what I was seeing weren't trash bags at all, but a homeless person under a black blanket, huddled on the threshold of a building. All of a sudden, my cold feet didn't seem so bad. This person was laying on the ground - if his/her whole body felt like my feet. . . I can't even imagine how horrible that would be. While I was slowly thawing on the bus and had a nice warm apartment to go home to, this person was facing 15 more hours of intense, bitter cold with no sun to even pretend to shine. I'm not sure what street we were on, but we were still in the city centre so people were passing by. Not one person walking by even gave the lump on the threshold a glance. Maybe they thought it was trash bags like me. Maybe they did notice and simply rationalized that the person was probably a drunk who deserved laying out in the freezing cold. Either way, no one did anything. Are people really this desensitized to each other? Rather than stopping and helping, we just keep on moving with our ear buds firmly blocking out the outside world - waiting for someone else to step up so we can applaud them. Do people really not care?

And now, after I've pitched my little fit, can I really talk? I didn't get off the bus - I don't know what I would have done if I had. Maybe that's the problem everyone has. They want to do something, but they have no idea how they can help. They drown out the injustice of life with their ipods and mobiles because they don't want to feel that guilt that comes with noticing the unpleasantness that affects someone else's life. If they don't see it, it doesn't happen, right? Maybe that's my problem - I see it.

Oxfambooks

I had my first day volunteering at Oxfambooks today! For those of you who don't know, Oxfam is non-profit organization based in Oxford, England. It started during World War II as the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief and was geared towards civilians in Greece to help them receive food and medicine. Today, Oxfam works mostly in Africa, working to bring Economic Justice, Essential services (e.g. healthcare and education), basic rights, and gender justice to people in need. They believe that all human beings have the right to: a home, enough to eat and clean water, a way to make a living, education and health care, freedom from violence, and a voice and an identity. There are several versions of Oxfam shops. All of them take donations of gently used goods to resell. The profit then goes towards the organization.

This morning was a really good experience! The bookshop is located on the outskirts of Temple Bar, down the street from Dublin Castle. I didn't do too much today in regards to customers (I'll get trained on the till next week) so I mainly organized books and made sure everything was picked up and looked nice. It was very interesting to see how the shop is run - it is completely dependent on volunteers to function (as are all Oxfam shops). If there's a shop near you, I would highly recommend you looking into their volunteer opportunities! I work in the shop once a week for 4 hours - just goes to show you don't have to have a ton of extra time to make a difference!

"But the greatest love - the love above all loves, even greater than that of a mother - is the tender, passionate, undying love...of one beer drunken slob for another."

Halloween

I have decided that Ireland is the best place to be during Halloween. I swear, everyone gets dressed up - and apparently, they all go to McGowan's, too! On Saturday night, I went with my friend Jordan (from Texas) to her friend's house (also from Texas - I've noticed the Americans tend to band together) to meet up with Angela, her boyfriend Niall, and a visiting friend, again, from Texas (I think her name was Jacqueline?) When we got to McGowan's, we thought it was a hopeless cause as it was already past midnight and the line was insanely long. Insert another VIP moment :) Niall knows someone who works at the pub so we got let in first! Woot! But, as I stated before, everybody was there so breathing room was a little on the tight side. We had an awesome time - all in all, a very good Halloween!

"Now, just like alcoholism and Catholic guilt, the Irish brought [Halloween] traditions to America with them around 1846 due to the big famine we still bring up when we want to shout at the British." Full article: http://www.needcoffee.com/2009/10/31/halloween-ireland/