Budapest - Prettiest City in Europe....so far

Katalin and I went to Architecture school together and used to work at AMAA together. She is originally from Hungary, so I told her if she ever went home, I would love to come visit her. Lo and behold, Katalin was going home. Ben and I flew into Budapest and Katalin was there to greet us. After a quick coffee we got on a shuttle to drive to Katalin's hometown of Szeged. It was so good to see someone from home, especially some one we both know and can appreciate architecture as well. After a two hour drive in great sunny weather we went from the north of Hungary to the very south, where we met up with Katalin's mom, Anna Maria. The transit system is efficient and comes often so we caught it out to the neighborhood she grew up in. After WWII the Russians were supposed to only occupy Hungary for a short time, but 45 or so years later, they finally left. The efficiently built Russian structures are either 5 or 10 storey housing, the same elementary school, the same high school and the same supermarket built all over their 'empire'. It was the same sort of buildings we saw in Slovakia. Of course now that the Russians have left they have painted them all different colours since they used to all be grey. We walked past where Katalin went to school, grocery shopped (where they could queue for hours in the winter to get that one banana for the year) and finally her housing complex. Katalin and her mom sweet talked a guy to unlock the door and let us into her old building so we could look around and get up onto the roof. If a family had 3 children (which they had three girls) you could get into this larger housing nicknamed the Baby Makers. The three bedroom places had a living room/kitchen area as well as a pantry which could not have been more than 3 feet wide. When the Chernobyl disaster happened, Katalin said she hid in the pantry to get away from the radiation for a few days. On a side note, most children who were exposed to that radiation have Thyroid problems now, as she does. It was great to get a first hand look at Socialism and how it really was like to live there. Just so different and oppressive then anything I have seen first hand. It does help to understand her better and where she comes from. We moised our way back to the heart of town to have a great dinner that was enough to feed 6 people and had more flavour in it then most of the restaurant food we have had here this year. Since I had been working such long hours before coming, I slept like a rock that night, isn't that what holidays are about?

The next morning we got up early and met up with the two of them to take us around Szeged. This day was not as nice, it started out as sprinkles and by the end of the day it was torrential downpour, the most rain they had seen in a very long time. It looks like we had brought some Ireland with us. We walked around the older part of town which has an interesting history. The whole city was flooded by the River Tisza just over a hundred years ago killing almost everyone, so they rebuilt the whole city by lifting everything up almost half a storey. In older buildings it i s interesting to see windows that used to be at ground level are now at basement level, or you have to go down stairs in order to get to the main level of a building. The night before we saw thewatertower all lit up, and they told us it is only opened to the public once a month. With our luck though, it was open that day and the skies cleared. We walked up the winding staircase up to the top and when we opened the door, it nearly blew us away. It was super windy, but it was a great view of the entire city. Next it was off to the main university where both Katalin's parents studied to be physicists. On campus it had a very old tower, Dömötör Tower, left over from an old church right with a new church build right next to it, the Votive Church. It also had a large clock sort of like the glockenspiel in Munich. We heard the music go off, but sadly missed the characters dancing. The rain was starting to pick up so we headed into a museum to check out a very innovative Hungarian artist, Victor Vasarely. He does some amazing work that was so ahead of his time! While circling downtown, we walked past a very closed National Theater of Szeged. Katalin once sang there in the choir and really wanted to show us where she had sung. We checked every door and we noticed they were making deliveries to a side door, so she slipped in and we followed. Everyone was staring at us wondering what we were doing there. She played innocent and talked our way out of there since when we went to leave, the doors were locked. Once again the family had gotten us into someplace we should not be. We also ate sweets, all over town. Baked good and sweet shops are such a part of Hungarian culture. They are everywhere and they are all fresh and of course amazing! I am just glad that we walked all over to work off those sweets. As the day drew to a close, we left Katalin's mom at her house, said our goodbye's and headed to the last few places we wanted to see. Gróf-palota and Reök Palace which are elaborate homes built in the Austria-Hungarian Art Deco Style. The palace has since become a museum which was currently showing a Picasso exhibit, how could we pass that up! We stopped for desserts one more time before heading off to the train station and into Budapest.

We packed along some of the snacks at Anna Maria had sent with us and ate most of them on the 3 hour train ride in Budapest. Nelli met us at the train station and took us to our apartment. Since the blocks are so incredibly deep, there is a courtyard in the center of them that has residences or shops off of them. Ours was off the courtyard, sort of sketchy looking from the street, but I always felt safe in the city. Our Apartment was right across from the Opera on Andrassy Avenue which is one of the main thoroughfares. We stopped into a traditional Hungarian 'mom's kitchen' sort of restaurant, but they were out of food so we had some pálinka which is a moonshine sort of drink made out of fruit. That stuff can strip paint, and will definitely put some hair on your chest. Good though! Had a quiet night at another restaurant for some more traditional food that they picked out for us and headed in early that night since it was such a jam packed day full of site seeing.

On a side note, one thing that is so cute about Nelli is she when looking for a word in English she would say a Hungarian word or sometimes a French word for me to figure out, like this:
"Piolette. You know this word?"
I would guess, "Pilot?"
and she would say "Yes." and continue on with her story.
It was just a very original way of asking what words are in English. She would do this several time throughout the day and most of the time I could guess the word from her random language word and the context. I will have to try that in Spanish.

The next morning we went to the one place for breakfast in the whole city and since we slept in that morning, we of course missed breakfast. Hungarians feel like it just is not that hard to make breakfast, so they do not have restaurants that serve breakfast except for where the tourist are. We set out into the city in what else, the pouring rain. Jogi is an old family friend of Katalin's that rescued us from the rain by taking us out to eat at one of the best places in Budapest. All I have to say is Hungarian has to be on of the most difficult languages, it was hard just to get by with just simple things like yes, no, thank you, good appetite (something you say before you eat something) and goodbye. We had to learn the good appetite one, Jó étvágyat , since it was just polite to say before we ate with people. Took us several tries to make it sound even remotely correct. Most people we met could speak some English. Jogi did not really speak English to us, but he understood what we said and then Katalin would translate his response. He spoke really slow Hungarian hoping that we would understand what he was saying. With the right hand gestures, sometime we did. Since he had a car he drove us way out into the country to his newly built office. We got to see some local gypsies riding their horses down the street. He then drove us up to the highest point in Buda. The city of Budapest is historically two separate towns, Buda to the west is hilly where Pest is in the east is flat with the Danube River splitting the two of them. As we looked over the city, the sky opened up and there was a rainbow over the city that Jogi had ordered just for us. We had a great view and enjoyed learning some of the history of the many revolutions over the last several centuries against many different oppressors. Jogi dropped us off at the Shopping Centre, which dwarfed any other mall I have ever been in, so we could pick up a plug converter for Katalin's camera charger. We stopped for some tea before catching a movie. On Sunday nights there is not much to do so after the movie we had no choice but to go home.

The next morning ended up being the nicest day. Our first stop of the day was the City Park that included Széchenyi Thermal Baths, Vajdahunyad Castle, the Zoo, and Hősök Tere (Hero's Square). On the castle grounds was a statue of the Anonymous writer that wrote revolutionary inspiring letters. He was quite ominous looking with his deep cowl and as the three of us girls looked deep into his mysterious eyes, Ben walked up behind us and shouted boo, which made all of us jump and scream. He though it was so funny, stinker! The one thing that we were not able to do there were the baths since there are Men days and Women days, it would not have been fair for all us girls to do it and have Ben not be able to. We will just have to do it when we go back some day. The zoo was quite small, but I did spy a Rhino through the bars, so I could not resist taking Ben's picture by it. (About 8 years ago we were in Phoenix, Arizona and I made Ben go with me to the zoo when it was so hot, like 118 degrees or something crazy like that. He looked so unhappy by the end of the tour that he looked like a rhino so I took his picture by them since they all had the same look. Since then, whenever I see rhinos I have to take Ben's picture by them, it is now our little joke.) We also came across one of the largest hourglasses I have ever seen, it marks the passing of a full year. Which of course, we had to try and push over!

After stopping for a bite to eat, it was back into old town. Katalin showed us the Hungarian Academy of Science where she had once worked on the remodel of the cafeteria before moving back to the States. Of course she convinced us that we needed to go in there and see it even though it is not open to the public. Once again we were where we should not be, but since we made sure that we looked like we belonged there, everyone let us go through the entire university building. The sun really started to shine as we left the university and crossed the Széchenyi Chain Bridge from Pest into Buda. I loved the big lions on the bridge. The engineer who designed the bridge said it was perfect, so for years people looked for a flaw and finally a young boy noticed there were no tongues in the lions mouths, so the engineer killed himself. At the end of the bridge was the cog railroad that took you up the mountian to Buda Castle. The views were breathtaking, and again the history of the buildings and ruins were as equally interesting. Mátyás Church was at the top of the hill next to the Fisherman's Bastillion. Inside was of the most interesting stained glass windows I have ever seen nestled into a corner in the back. The window was asymmetrical with a spiral curve within the stone, very ahead of its time. On the upper floor one of the cloisters contained the old crown of the monarchy. Since it was warm outside and even warmer in the church I had my sweater off, but when one of the women working at the church notices my v-neck top she touched each of my breasts, shook her head and motioned for me to cover up. I quickly put my sweater back on. I just did not realize how inappropriate I was, I should have known better since I have been to even more conservative churches in Spain. We climbed up the Fisherman's Bastillion to catch some great shots of the Parliament Buildings. Our architecture history professor from school never had a good shot of it in daylight and told Katalin he would pay her for a good shot, and she got one. We then wandered our way down snaking little paths to get back down the hill. The narrow streets were picturesque to travel down and we stopped for sweets along the way. We had to try one of everything while we were in Hungary!

Nelli had to be called into work, so Katalin took us to see the last things on our Must-see list. Parliament Building was our first stop back in Pest. Katalin took us past the TV station her sister used to work at MTV (Maygnar Television) and ended up watching the sun set on Szt. István Bazilika where it was just nice to sit, chat and people watch. Nelli got off work late and met up with us for dinner since March 3rd was Nelli's name day we we went to a dinner of her choice, pizza. Traditionally there are only so many saint names, that that is what children are named after. The name day is as important or more so then one's birthday. Nelli is short for Cornelia. She is definitely more of a Nelli. We made sure to bring her a little something from Ireland and treat her right on her special day. It's not that you cannot name your child something different, but it just would not be fair to a child to not have a name day when all of their friends would. Katalin is currently engaged to Omid who it Persian, so it will be interesting to see if their future children will have Hungarian or Persian names. We got some more pálinka on the house and the three of us girls had the sweeter stuff while Ben had the manly paint stripping stuff. The three of us split Ben's since he had to look like he finished it. One thing we have found around Europe that is very important when you cheer when having a drink it is to look people in the eye while cheering them or else they will be offended, and 7 years bad sex, and no one wants that.

The last day Nelli had to continue working even though she was supposed to have those days off with us, so Katalin was our tour guide for the day. It was just nice to wander around, and just stumble across things. We headed to the largest Synagogue in all of Europe. During WWII they locked up all the Jewish people into it and left them to die. The weeping willow is a tree found throughout the country, so it was an appropriate image for the memorial in not only its name, but in the basic form of the tree. It was made out of metal with leaves engraved with the names of those that died there that shimmer in the wind making an eerie sound. Next, we walked down the main pedestrian street Váci utca to see all the different shops and touristy things since what would a trip be without playing the tourist a little bit. At the end of the street was the Market Hall filled with hundreds of fruit and veg, clothing, meat goods, and dairy good stands. It was multi-leveled and we picked up some of our last items and had a great last meal. Nelli got off work so we met her in town for coffee and could you guess it, more sweets!

We quickly packed our paprika and sausages into our luggage and said our goodbyes to Nelli and Kati before heading to the airport. It helped having Nelli there knowing which of the confusing subway trains to get on and where to get off. We covered way more ground with her in those few days then I think we could have covered in a week. It was such a great trip having people know the language, the city and the food since we got an insider look into theculture. I know when Katalin goes home to the US they do not allow her to bring in sausages, but she figured Ireland is part of the EU I should be able to bring some home for Ben and I. When we touched down, I noticed a sign saying that the custom dogs were on duty, which made me suddenly fear for my meat and had images of a large dog tackling me and tearing apart my suitcase. All was well though, the dogs were knowwhere to be seen and we could take our meat home and eat it with great satisfaction. We loved Hungary, yet another surprise country we have traveling in, and hope to make it back for the holiday markets and some yummy treats! Maybe we can smuggle something home for Kati for Christmas ;)

Spain vs South America

The theory is that I am not working so much, so I have more time off. To fill some of that time I decided to take a spanish class. Just up the street from work is the Milltown Language College. Karen lives between the college and work, so since she is taking French at the same time, we have a lovely supper together before class at her house, cram before class and walk there together.

After visiting Spain, I realized how rusty my Spanish is. I have a large vocabulary, but to put a sentence together is something completely different. And to top it all off, I just do not understand those Spaniards. Their accent is so different from South America since they put in this strange lispy thing. I have a difficult time understanding my teacher, but I am getting better. Halfway through my 12 week course now, she has me read out loud often since I have such a sweet accent and sound so different compared to everyone else. She is even letting me know some of the differences between SA and Spain Spanish that she would normally leave out because most Europeans are learning Spanish to go to Spain. My teacher is also surprised with my extensive vocabulary for knowing random words but still have difficulties putting sentences together. I also surprise myself with how many words I remember since my last class was over 10 years ago.

Hopefully when Ben and I go back to Spain we both can manage the whole trip without any English. We just need to practice together more. Off to do my homework!

Strange Anomaly #14

Bumpers are for bumping. That is why they put them on cars, but in the last 10 years or so, bumpers have not really been made to bump things, just to look good. But nonetheless, they are still used to bump another bumper gently when trying to fit into a small parking space. Yet another reason why I should not drive here, I am the world’s second worst parallel parker. I would be doing lots of bumping. I just need on of the old Mini Coopers or my favorite the Fiat 500!

Here is me with one in Hungary, it is almost as long as my open arm span. I just love those old Fiats.

Mariah’s Top 5 Most Missed Places to Eat

5. Taco Bell (ANYTHING!) I miss Mexican food of any kind really. This being one of my top choices shows my desperation of wanting Mexican food!

4. Red Robin (Crisp Chicken Tender Salad)

3. Papa Murphy’s (Family Style Pizza preferably cold the next day or cold when coming home from the pub before going to bed)

2. Clay’s Smokehouse (BBQ Ribs or anything smothered in their sauce)

1. 24-Hour Original Hotcake House (Proper Pancakes, not that crêpe stuff!)

No, not posh, but still good!

Museum Adventure

After January being one the most grey and depressing months that I have ever lived through, February has turned out to be much cheerier since it is now light out when you go and come home from work and it has not been as cold and dreary. Whilst in Scotland I got to know one of my other co-workers, Katrin, much better. She is from Germany and understands the whole foreigner thing (when I get home I will definitely reach out more to foreigners I work with now that I understand how difficult it can be to live somewhere where you know so few people and have no family close). On a nice sunny Saturday afternoon, Katrin drove to our house to park in our free parking space (the second time it has ever been used), and then we walked the 6 miles clear over to the Northside of town to the Museum of Decorative Arts. It is located in the old Collins’ Barracks so it is interesting to see a place like that reused as a museum. We had to stop for coffee once we got there and the food was ridiculously priced, but since all museums are free here, I guess that it the trade off.

We picked this museum since they were having an exhibition of 1950s and 1960s Haute Couture by Neillí Mulcahy which was one of Ireland’s leading fashion designers, producing haute couture garments to the highest Parisian standards for her international and Irish clients. Neillí was one of the first truly Irish designers, she was known for her pioneering use of Irish fabrics, and tweed in particular. Neillí collaborated with the weavers, fabric and print designers and knitters to produce innovative fabrics in vibrant colours. She could make tweed look comfortable and fashionable. We could both appreciate fashion as designers, and it was great to see. We also stumbled upon a exhibition on Eileen Gray (1878-1976), who became one of the most influential designers and architects of the 20th century. She loved working with lacquer and did some great metal and glass furniture later in her career. A movie was playing showing her still designing furniture when she was 97 years old. Very creative woman! It is sad that she is not know that well in Ireland except in designer circles, but she lived and worked in Paris for so long that she was well recognized there.

After walking all around the museum checking out other exhibits, it was time to walk home. I figured we walked about 15 miles, no wonder the next day I was sore. Now I just need to get out and check out all the other museums, especially since they are free!

Skiing on Mud

My office yet again is amazing and set up one more office trip for the year. It was a skiing trip in Glenshee, Scotland for 30 of us. Thursday morning we all met at the airport to fly to Aberdeen where the debauchery began. Since we got paid mid December, it has been over 5 weeks without pay, and I was broke. I came with my fist full of euros and once I exchanged them in to pounds, I had a fist full of change. We checked out bags into the Train station and walked around the city. Catherine had been a college student there so she gave us a great tour, and we ended up at the local students pub where we began drinking for cheap. We got to check out some local boys in their kilts, which was a treat and just have the craic. At 8pm we met up with our drivers to take us to the lodge, about 2 hours from the city. We had the quiet lame bus, where everyone else sang all the way up there. I think our bus driver was quite happy to have the sleepy group. The rain began on the way where and we were all hoping it would turn to snow! We arrived about 10pm to Gulabin Lodge and we found our rooms which were all named after birds. The wild boys all ended up in Eagle and they came up with names for each one of them. There were six of us girls in our room, Curlew, but the rooms ranged from 2 to a room, to 8 to a room. The rooms were about 15' high, with a single bed, a bunch bed and a sink right when you open the door, and then when you climb up the scary ladder, there were two sets of bunk beds up above on the mezzanine. I took the upper floor with Claire and Catherine, and had Karen, Emer and a different Jaqui on the bottom floor. We took over the whole lodge which was perfect, because if we had had anyone else there, we would have driven them mental. It was just a large house that had tall ceilings so they could convert normal sized rooms into the 'suites' they were. There was a piano in the main living room and one the lads brought his guitar so we had a sing along next to our roaring fire. I just wish I knew how to play either of those instruments, or had an amazing good voice. Just because I have the same name as a famous singer does not automatically make me a good singer. I hit the sack about 4 since I wanted some sleep before my first day skiing on snow and we had a 7am breakfast call, but that did not stop most from staying up all night.

I should have just stayed up with the group since the storm did not let up all night, and the rain washed a lot of the snow away. There were 100mph winds so even though we all got up for the 7am breakfast, there was to be no skiing that day. Most of us went back to bed for a few hours and got up for a hike. I am so glad I bought some wellies since we were trudging through mud, sheep poo, small creeks and huge puddles. We climbed halfway up one of the hills too get a good look of our surroundings. It was such a tranquil place and very picturesque. The hills just rolled and were covered in lush grass and craggy outcroppings with small streams winding down them. After our walk, most of use got back into the vans and headed into a local town, Dundee. We grabbed some lunch, hit all the local pubs and picked up some treats and spirits for later, since there is no bar in our lodge. We had a hot cottage pie dinner waiting for us when we got back and ate until we were stuffed. We did find out that there was a local pub about a 5 minute walk from place so we headed there. We played some pool which I did amazing at because I had that perfect balance of confidence fueled by beer and what talent I do have. We headed home after the pub closed and I decided to hit the sack since we were going to go skiing that next morning!

After a full breakfast of eggs, rashers, sausage, hash browns, cereal, juice, tea and toast, we were back on the buses to drive to the Glenshee ski resort. When we got off, I was amazed! Amazed of how little snow where was. There is 100 times more snow on Mt Hood during a drought season in the middle of July then there was there, and it was packed with people. I have had a few lessons so 5 of us girls and 2 overly confident boys headed off to the advanced beginner classes. We got on the button lifts and I happened to be in the back, so the first 7 up kept falling and I was the only one to make it up on the button lift the whole time and never fell. I was quite proud of that. All of the advanced people were waiting at the top of the lift so they cheered as I got off, I looked more advanced then I really was. It was so windy up at the top that although it was not snowing it was blowing around what snow there was. Our class was an hour and a half with most of it just doing little turns in the snow plow. The girls were the stars of the bunch as he took us down the large main hills. I stayed in my snow plow, leaned forward and headed down the hill falling every 5 or 6 turns since I would pick up so much speed that was the only way to stop. Claire is ultra competitive which is great for me, because we push each other to do better and go faster. She had been skiing before, so I tried my hardest to keep up. We skied over grass, heather, mud, ice and maybe a little snow. Let me tell you, it is impossible to ski over mud, you just stick into it and the top half of your body still wants to go forward while the lower half has stopped. I had a huge 8" round black bruise on my hip that took about 2 weeks to heal from landing on rock and ice, it was a beauty! We exhausted ourselves and headed back to the lodge for a nap and a shower before heading into yet another town. We had to split up in groups of around 10 to eat dinner since no place was big enough to hold the whole lot of us. We went to all the pubs ending up in the one dance club. We were definitely the outsiders, and it was so obvious that we were also outnumbering the locals in the club. There was a small dance floor all of us girls took over and we had quite the night. By the time we left we were finally outnumbered and we were all surprised that we did not end up in a scuffle since they were all eyeballing us, but we were all on our best behaviour and headed back on our buses.

The next morning we were back up at the mountain and it was even warmer so there was even less snow and more sunshine. We had yet another lesson which was great since it was just the four of us girls, Claire, Ruth, Catherine, and me. By the end of our lesson most of us could parallel ski down the mountain. I could almost keep up with some of the other girls since I got so good at getting up so fast and could keep going. We had a race by the end of the day and I came in third. I just wish we had one more day since I started getting decent at it! It was a lot of fun once I got the hang of it. Our last night we spent at the local pub where we had a great dinner all of us and a final night of pints. We were all exhausted and after partying way too much and skiing way to hard, we were looking forward to going home. At six in the morning we all had to be one the buses back to Aberdeen. It was a great trip and one I will never forget!

OMP Dinners

Just before the Christmas break, our Team Hussey got together for dinner and a Kris Krindle present exchange. We all met for a very nice dinner, so Karen and I got all dressed up at her house before going straight from work. She lives about a 3 minute walk from work, so we had about 12 minutes to get changed, dressed and reglorified before hopping in a cab and meetting people for early pints before our 7:00 dinner. After our starters we exchanged gifts. I had Ruth who is quite girly so again Jacquie had advised me on what to get before she left. I got Ruth a small tea pot that has a matching cup that fits below the pot. She loves it and uses it everyday at work. I got a great gift from one the guys on our team after Jacquie telling him that I need something to organize my jewelry. My necklaces have been sitting on a pile on my dresser so Michael got me this lovely black (of course) victorian dressed maniquin that instead of a head, has these branches that come out that you can hang the jewelry off of, it is about 12" high. He did very good, and did not even have his girlfriend pick it out. After dinner we went for more pints at two different pubs, and then by this time, the guys had enough to drink that they thought dancing would be a good idea. We headed to a dance club where we met up with another team from work after their dinner. Good turn out with about 20 of us dancing up a storm on a Wednesday night with the bosses!
The Friday before that was our company dinner. I got my hair cut at the salon so that way I could look good without having to do it myself. I met up with Tullia at her house to change really quick and we headed north. Great meal, open bar all night, no partners invited and no speeches. It was great to hang out with some of my other co-workers I don't normally see on other floors outside the office. It was general mayhem and madness. I gave up around 1:45 when I could still catch a cab back over to the Southside since I was in ridicously tall heals and an hour plus walk was not sounding very appealing to me. Especially since my toes were already bruised from some many drunk people stepping on them while dancing the night away. Luckily there is only a handfull of pictures from the night since it was a mental session!

Comedy Night Out

There is one comedy club in town and it was having its 10th anniversary party it was a huge thing. Karen's boyfriend's grandfather died* on a Thursday night very unexpectedly so since she had an extra ticket at the last minute on Friday, so I decided to be her date for the night with a group of about 15 of her college mates. Coincidentally a group of 10 other OMP people were also going, so all in all, we ended being quite a large group. The first performer came out, Dermot Whelan, and he was hilarious. At the time I did not know, but he has a morning radio show and is just inherently funny. He was asking where people where from; Any Germans in the audience? Any English in the audience? and then he would of course slag that country for stereotypes, but it was not harsh, except for the love/hate between Ireland and England. He then began talking about Irish porn, and how it does not exist in such a catholic society. This in-turn led to him asking if there were any Americans. Now at this point in the evening I am on my 4th or 5th pint and feeling pretty good so I raise my hands and yell, WOO HOO! The whole place was silent. I was the only one who cheered. And your man said "Of course ye are! Feckin loud Americans!" He then began to take the piss out of the Americans and then h e asked where in the US I was from and I said Oregon, which he had no idea where that was. He then asked Karen where she is from, Kerry (which is a small Irish town) that according to him is right next to Wisconsin. After chatting with me in front of everyone, he asked my name, which I said was Bambi without hesitation. First his mouth hung open and then he laughed so hard. I thought that Karen's eyes were going to pop out she was so shocked and Sean even spit out his beer he was so shocked. Now what possessed me to do that, I will never know, but it caught him off guard and I guess that was the point. So the comedian figured Bambi came over for the Irish porn. Later in his routine he was talking about how people in Ireland throw money at the gym all year long, but only go that one day a year. He was pretending to be working out and while flexing his butt checks, he asked " Hey Bambi, you know what muscle I am working now?!" Of course we all had a laugh and I was cheeky and gave me a big smile and nod.

He went off and there was an intermission between the next few performers. Then every single man rushed up to talk to Bambi, who knew that name would be such a hit. Sean had to fend them off for me, but for the single girls in the group, they were loving it! Then for the night, most of us girls picked a different name and alter ego to go by. I love having such an effect on people and getting them to do things they would not normally do, I am the corrupter of the group (in a good way, Mom, I promise!). Tullia was Morgana from Oregon who was 22. She is has a very thick Italian accent, but she still had the boys lining up. The next two performers were funny, but just not in a laugh out loud kind of way. As they were wrapping up the last comedian, in the background they set up a DJ table and just has he walked off , the dance party started. We danced for hours, with Sean still being our "bouncer" for the night getting rid of our unwanted suitors. Needless to say, when I am being bold, the Bambi Love name has stuck with my friends. Now who says Blonds have more fun, with a name like Bambi, there is fun galore!

*Just a side note, it is interesting that they still have wakes here. So Dave's grandpa died Thursday, they had him embalmed by Friday and brought him back in his coffin to his house where he was laid on the dining room table. The whole family and friends came over for drinks and nibbles late into the night. And with only four rooms in the whole house, you had to either be in the living room/dining room with the coffin or in the kitchen. The next morning Dave went out with his father and uncles to dig the grave at the cemetery since the funeral was that afternoon and apparently out in the country it is quite common to have the gravediggers be a little late or not really do it at all. This custom is just so different from how Americans treat death and burial.

Architects vs Technicians

There are two distinct professions within architecture in Ireland, an architect that goes to school for 5 years and learns how to design and a technician that goes to school for three years and learns how to put together a set of construction drawings, understands construction, detailing and drafting. In America we are only taught the 5 years and then have to some how on our own figure out how to do the other three, which iscoincidentally the three years that we are required to intern before taking the architect exams. They do not have drafters here since what the country is in dire need of architects and technitians knowing how to do the building, hence Ben and I being here.

It is nice to finally do a job that my degree is actually for and I can finally design. I am rusty and a little self conscious, but with the pace that things are moving, I can only hesitate for 2.123432 seconds before I have to make a decision and get cracking on a design. Should be good for my confidence when I come back to the US to do architecture there, or I will just have to work with my friend Michael again since he is always good for bouncing ideas off of, and only being made fun of a little bit. With the departure of Jacquie and two other architects throughout the year, our team now only has three architects besides my Director, so on a team of 20 I have a lot of help trying to get a set pulled together. But at the same time, there just are not that many people to ask questions to, so there have been a lot of educated guessing that so far have been right. I just had my yearly review and they are happy with what I have been doing since with all the projects they have been throwing at me it was sink or swim, and luckily I know how to swim! I will try to post some stuff on some of the other projects I have been working on eventually, but sadly Ben has to remain confidential, if we told you, we would have to kill you. Secret government stuff!!

The Next Day Of The Rest Of My Life...

So...I'm 30 now... Yay!...

This wouldn't be much of an issue really, except I have been feeling old lately. My knees hurt. Probably this is from working out, but it doesn't make me feel any better about it. I'm growing my hair out, but some of it heard about the writers strike in Hollywood and has gotten on board... You know, the usual.

Fortunately I am still alive.

Despite these facts, I had a fairly enjoyable birthday weekend. We went and saw a few movies (Cloverfield and Juno - I recommended both for different reasons, but Juno was really great!) on Friday night. On Saturday (my birthday) we went clothes shopping for me most of the day getting a variety of different new work clothes. I haven't gotten anything in a while, so I was due. Nothing too flashy. Some new jeans, button up shirts, a few sweaters. Most of it from H&M (for those of you sad Oregonians who have never heard of this store...it is a great trendy clothes shop with reasonable prices). This, for the most part is just making up for not buying anything for a while, but the birthday was a good excuse.

For the real deal birthday present I am looking at upgrading to a proper SLR digital camera (a full sized pro-style digital camera) so we can have even better pictures of our travels. I'm still not sure I will want to be carry around that kind of monster, but I think I will enjoy taking pictures with it. I'm doing some research on types and brands and whatnot, though, so the verdict is still out.

We ended the night hanging out at Bruno's for a bit to have some good craic.

All in all a good day. I reflected upon it today eating candy that Mariah's mom sent me for my birthday...all day long... Pleasure and pain all rolled into one!

I'm going to go be sick now...