"nothing"

When someone asks what I've been doing lately, my response is always likely to be, "Nothing." Or if I'm feeling more communicative than normal, "Writing," which is still as close to a non-answer as possible. I can think of a thousand reasons why I do this: because I genuinely do spend about 90% of my waking time at work and the other 10% watching TV; because I've got a self-deprecating streak a mile wide and rarely think anything in my life is especially interesting (not an attitude particularly conducive to keeping a blog); but mostly because it's the easiest possible response and that's how I do conversations.

But, within the walls of my own mind at least, I don't actually think I do "nothing." In recompense, then, for all the non-answers I've given - or implied, with my radio silence - here's my attempt at an actual response. I've (surprisingly incompletely) photo-chronicled two average days, this past Sunday and Tuesday, days about which I might ordinarily have said "nothing" happened. Here goes nothing...

Sunday
Jason and I went to an early matinee showing of the new Captain America movie in IMAX 3D. Captain America is... how shall we say, not my typical movie preference, but I actually really enjoyed this one. Probably thanks to the fact that the movie was almost equally about Black Widow, who is much more interesting in my opinion. I'll also say that, contrary to my expectations, IMAX can make almost any movie more entertaining.

I took all of these pictures on the roughly half hour walk from our apartment to the movie theatre (so yeah, didn't exactly photo-chronicle the whole day as I intended).

One of the best parts about our "neighborhood" is that it's almost completely empty on weekends. #antisocial

Not that it's ever *crowded*, but zero people on the sidewalk feels a little apocalyptic.

Here, too. St. Stephen's Green pleasantly empty on a cloudy Sunday morning.

Spring flowers!

Even the swans are unusually demure at this hour; I think they like showing off for the crowds. No, seriously, I once saw a whole bunch of swans fly, one by one, towards this bridge then stick their wings out and their feet into the water like brakes, turn around, and do the whole thing again. Bunch of show-offs. ;)

The corner of Dame Street / College Green and Grafton Street, which always feels like the literal centre of Dublin to me, because our hotel was just down the road from here when I first came to Ireland with the Honors College group in 2008, and the proximity to Trinity College (just out of frame to the right) was how I oriented myself in the city.

Cloudy view of the Liffey. It didn't feel this dark / cloudy at the time. You get used to it, I suppose. We were mostly just glad it wasn't raining. :)

After the movie, we had brunch at Lemon Jelly.  They make such good crepes, and beautifully plated - I would have taken a picture, but I'm not ready to be one of those people. It's one step away from selfies, and I just... no. ;)

Then we went to the food hall at Marks & Spencer (probably the closest thing to a Publix I've been to since I left SC) for the week's groceries. We don't usually shop with a list here - we buy what's on sale, come up with a menu to incorporate those items, then I go to Tesco some time during the week and get whatever else we need. Because we're such adults, we left the store with an apple pie, a key lime pie, a stack of profiteroles, and not much else, because that's what was on sale and it's okay to have pie for dinner. (We did end up eating real food this week, I swear. Just real food + lots of desserts. :D ) 

Tuesday

Tuesday was one of those work days that don't feel like work at all: I went to a workshop/seminar in the morning and a lecture in the afternoon, as part of the Irish Memory Studies Network. It's thrilling to be at a university where "memory studies" is not only something people have actually heard of, but a real community of scholars and students from literature, history, politics, social sciences, visual arts - and that's just the participants of the small workshop Tuesday morning. Events like this make me ridiculously happy to be doing what I'm doing, and so, so pleased that I decided to follow my personal interests in choosing an area of research.

Out of nowhere, we had this gorgeous weather! I sat by the lake outside the library eating my lunch (sushi from Marks & Spencer!), enjoying the sunlight and the circa-57°F temperatures. Sunny days are always nice, but they're luxurious when you're used to near-total cloud cover.

I took advantage of the 2-hour lunch break by going on a long walk around, and outside, campus. These are the playing fields on the edge of campus.

The one quality that I think most marks someone who genuinely loves to travel is the euphoric sense of being somewhere new. I'm only walking around the suburbs here - there's genuinely nothing in particular to cause excitement - and I'm nearly skipping down the sidewalk because I haven't seen this before, and I don't even notice that after an hour of walking around in cheap, uncomfortable shoes, I'm starting to get leg cramps. That sad realisation comes later. :P For now, I'm some kind of urban explorer - the safe, non-trespassing type - and I cannot get enough. If I were cynical, I'd say I were "easily amused," but I'm more inclined to believe that most people simply aren't curious / observant enough.

I came back from the walk and sat by the lake again, this time with a library book on trauma studies (sounds like a depressing time, but in my optimism it's actually uplifting...? I mean, the recovery part.) Even though the afternoon lecture was immensely interesting, I'm fighting off taking a nap by this point - "excessive" sunlight and physical activity will do that; I'm becoming more and more like my cat. I came home to a latte and a Ladurée caramel macaron that Jason surprised me with the other day. (Did NOT know you could buy these at Brown Thomas - this is dangerous information for me to have. ^.^ )

So this, in a nutshell, is an elaboration of "nothing." What did I do today, though? Spent the morning hours editing my thesis chapter, and the afternoon hours writing this. In other words, "writing," or, you know, "nothing." ;) I can't actually turn just any day into a blog post.

is that... the sun?

The seasons are definitely changing here in Dublin: the winter mid-40s is giving way to the spring low-50s, and that might sound like a joke, but it feels so much warmer. (Note: I might not survive my next visit back to South Carolina.) Plus, the sun has made an appearance every day for the last week and it's barely rained at all! 

One of the first sunny days we enjoyed, I blew off work entirely and went for a long walk down the coast. It was so lovely that I didn't stop walking until I got to Dun Laoghaire (about 7.5 miles), which was dumb, because then I was too tired to do anything else, so I just caught the bus back home. :P

Being blinded by the sun

This is why I do everything early in the morning - no people!

Blackrock Park

I feel like I'm being coaxed outdoors after a long hibernation - not that I haven't gone outside this winter, but I haven't exactly wanted to for a long time. No, it hasn't been freezing, but cold rain is about as gross as it gets. I can't really complain about winter, though, given that roughly everyone in America has had a worse one than I have. It might be sunnier now, but the -er is the key point; it's still probably 50/50 clouds or sun. That just means that the weather is now unfortunately even more unpredictable, which is at odds with my increased desire to venture out. This calls for spontaneity on my part, which... isn't going to happen. :P 

Instead, I give you pre-planned spontaneity: I have worked out basically full itineraries for a handful of day-trips and weekends away, so that if we wake up to a cloudless Saturday, we can just go, but without the stress of not knowing beforehand what we're going to do and how we're going to get there. ^.^ Some of our planned trips include: a day trip to Malahide Village and Castle (thanks for the idea, Ashley!); a weekend in Glendalough near the early medieval monastic city and national park; and a tour of Glasnevin Cemetery, recommended for anyone interested in Irish history - I'd never heard of it until recently, but the museum and tours are actually the #3 rated attraction in Dublin on TripAdvisor. These are all in the Dublin area, but I'm also planning some trips to other parts of the country - for all the time I've spent in Ireland, I've only made it to Dublin, Galway, and Sligo so far!

Near the top of the list: Cork, the "food capital of Ireland"

Of course, it's probably also no coincidence that my wanderlust coincides with the beginning of the editing stage of my first thesis chapter - and not just editing, but editing the introduction, which means looking at the big picture when I'm much more comfortable with the details. My brain starts hurting after about an hour or two of serious work. Actually, though, I'm starting to make my peace with the editing process, thanks in no small part to my inspiring advisor - she helps me see things from another angle and I get excited about the project all over again. Also, I feel like I'm growing exponentially as a writer: editing makes me focus on my writing with the kind of precision that's impossible to achieve when I'm focused on just getting my ideas on paper. It's crazy exciting to see this chapter take shape, too, because honestly, until my advisor read and approved of the first draft, it was hard not to feel like a fraud; producing something coherently argued and eloquently written is proof to myself that I do know what I'm doing, and I do deserve to be here. So, if you haven't heard from me for a while, it's because my brain is exploding with big words and bigger ideas. I hope to be more socially communicative when my school-related writing responsibilities start demanding a little less than all of my mental energy.

Pippin's loving all the sunlight!

fitzwilliam square

I do remember promising to post pictures of the apartment back in September, but it hasn't exactly looked habitable until somewhat recently - and actually, to be honest, each of these rooms were photographed on separate days and none of them look this nice at the moment. Of all the things I'm good at, "home-maker" is not one of them. :P I can fake it pretty well, though, so enjoy the nicely staged rooms below!

The living room. Items of interest: Irish crime fiction festival poster on the left (in red); the small picture in the middle of the mantel is of James Joyce; yes, that's a Guinness flag - no, I don't drink beer and neither does Jason; and even though there's a dearth of books on those fabulous built-in shelves, I'd say that's a decent collection for only having been here a few months. Whether we stay here or move back to the States after I finish my PhD, I'm going to have a hell of a time moving some books. What you don't see is the couch pushed all the way against the wall on the opposite side. I know enough about interior design to know that this is a terrible layout, but not enough to know where else to put things...?

A raven statue we bought in Chester.  

The kitchen, set up for a dinner party a few days before Christmas (note: I did eventually put more than one plate on the table :P). Normally, we have one of those tables pushed back under the window, sans tablecloth, with a drying rack for laundry occupying the middle of the room. The door on the left side leads to the bathroom. It's an odd layout for an apartment; I think it was previously used as offices. The biggest thing we don't like about the kitchen is the limited counter space - not good for cooking anything even slightly more complicated than putting pre-packaged meals in the oven, but we don't let that stop us! For said dinner party, we (and by we, I mean Jason) made 86 mini egg rolls (I made green tea and ginger mini-cheesecakes - I should post the recipe, no?).

This might seem like an uninteresting picture, but you would be wrong. Do you see how much freezer space we have (the bottom half of the fridge)? That whole thing is FILLED with food we've bought as it approaches the sell-by date and goes on crazy-clearance. The wicker shelves we bought at an antique store nearby (they're sitting on an IKEA table to make them a useable height). Those are Oscar Wilde quote magnets on the fridge and a case of Bulmer's under the table (Éirinn go Brách! Loving my adopted country, lol).

The bathroom. No shelf space or anything, so the bench/ledge is kind of cluttered (don't be fooled, it's much worse than this on a regular basis). This is the one window in the apartment that isn't insulated, so it can be an unpleasant shower experience in the winter (the malfunctioning shower itself doesn't help, with its unreliable or, as of a few days ago, nonexistent, hot water... yeah, it's a nightmare, praying it's fixed soon). We've been on the lookout for curtains to fit the top portion of the window - I'd make them myself if I had my sewing machine with me! - but in the meantime we've put up a purple fleece blanket, lol. Needless to say, I wasn't going to photograph that atrocity. 

The window in the other part of the bathroom. One of my favourite features of the place.

The bedroom. It's excessively large - to the right of the bed, there's a sofa, and approximately half of the room is behind me. What are we using this space for? Pretty much nothing. It'd be the perfect size and place for a treadmill, but I don't think there's enough money in the world to convince someone to haul it up the three flights of curved, uneven stairs to our apartment, and I personally have enough trouble making it up with the groceries. :P

My clothes rack we got at IKEA. Yes, I brought all those dresses with me (I've only bought two since we moved here, if you can believe it!). Even though I work from home and never leave the apartment without a giant coat covering every bit of the outfit I'm wearing, this is all unquestionably essential. You have no idea how much I pared down my wardrobe to come here, honestly. :(

My bedside table: three books, a kindle, and a journal, because a girl can never have enough reading material; and the bounty of Sanctuary Spa merchandise I bought from the pharmacy in after-Christmas sales. That's also a table lamp hanging from the top of the headboard (behind one of my scarves) because I didn't have a better place to put it. :P

Part of my Hello Kitty collection that I deemed worthy enough to bring with me. And people I know are having babies? It might be a while before I reach that level of emotional maturity. ;)

Fun fact about our apartment: Irish artist Jack Butler Yeats, brother of WB, had a studio here! Well, in the building, not our apartment specifically, but pretty cool, yeah? I doubt most people outside of Ireland have heard of him (I hadn't until we looked at this apartment...). Here's an example of his work:

O'Connell Bridge, Jack Butler Yeats

The apartment is far from perfect, but I love (most of) its eccentricities and the location could not be better - close enough to the city centre that everything is within walking distance, but far enough away that it's actually quiet outside business hours. As we're reluctant to buy anything when who on earth knows where I'll get a job after I graduate, it looks like this will be home for the foreseeable future! 

Below-street view of our building

Christmas in a Castle

For Christmas this year, Jason and I weren't able to make it home to be with our families, which made for a very strange Christmas indeed - the first in my life I haven't spent at home. In addition to my parents and brother, I missed seeing all my extended family, many of whom were staying with my parents this year, and the last year we all piled into one house was one of my favourite Christmases ever, so it wasn't easy being the only one absent. My birthday is also on Christmas, and while a lot of people complain about Christmas birthdays - or ask me if I hate mine - I love it. I've always been anti-social so I enjoy the fact that Christmas birthdays mean I don't need / can't have a party. :P But seriously, I think I get more and more excited about it every year. The past few, I've woken up before 6am because I'm too excited to sleep, and thankfully, my parents are morning people too, so we all get up and wait for my brother. ;)

This year, though, Jason and I went back to Wales to spend Christmas at Ruthin Castle. The castle and grounds are beautiful, as were the Christmas decorations, and the meals were large and extravagant, especially the medieval banquet, which was everything a nerd and food-lover could ask for. Mostly, it was strange, because it didn't feel at all like Christmas, despite the decorations and "traditional" holiday food (traditional for me is the chicken with mushrooms and white wine sauce that my mom makes every year for my birthday!). That being said, it was probably the second-best way to spend Christmas that I could imagine. ^.^

Silhouette of trees outside our window when we [finally] arrived after numerous airport delays

Exploring the castle grounds the day after Christmas

Beautifully carved table

Aahh, peacock! What?! These huge guys were roaming around the castle grounds. You wouldn't think they'd be terrifying, but if you've learned anything about me from reading this blog you'll know I'm afraid of very nearly everything, gigantic birds included. 

Like, seriously, I barely made it down the stairs past this one. ^.^

We also spotted a pretty orange tabby who looked like he was posing for my camera but was in fact stalking squirrels. :)

Nantclwyd y Dre, Wales's oldest timbered townhouse. Also, the Welsh language makes no sense.

Little toy knights inside the timbered house museum, which was closed, so we went around and peeked in all the windows. >.>

Wandering around Ruthin village and spotted this interesting building

Once more wandering around the castle grounds

More spiral staircases, ahh! Jason went down with a flashlight but this is as far as I got. There was nothing but a locked door at the bottom...

Omg, the peacocks are coming! Pretty sure Jason is laughing at me.

This little one was SUPER glad when we got home. :D