Turkey Day and Belfast Weekend

Well, the previous weekend's plans mostly fell apart. I didn't go to Dublin or play basketball. I also missed the kenpo class. These all turned out to be blessings in disguise, since I had quite a bit of homework to do over the weekend.

Thanksgiving dinner was absolutely wonderful. I cooked a turkey (7 pounds), gravy, rolls, mashed potatoes, stuffing, and corn (and we had some apple crumble tart for dessert). I was serving eight that night: myself, Thomas, Arlette, and Hawkins, as well as Thomas's friend Thomas and his girlfriend Nicoli, Ita (a friend of the flat), and Cecilia (another friend of Thomas). Fortunately, Other Thomas used to work as a chef - he was a great help in the kitchen and made sure I didn't make too many mistakes. I also learned several awesome tricks from him, such as the proper way to chop onions without losing fingers.
We didn't eat dinner until around 7:30. This delay (the original plan was to eat at 6:30) was mostly due to our oven, which is conveniently devoid of any temperature markings - you basically guess and hope for the best. In the end, only the top half of the rolls were burnt - everything else came out nicely. The food comas lasted hours and I'm just today finishing up the leftovers.

Friday afternoon, Arlette and I joined the International Club on the Belfast trip. Belfast was a fantastic city. They had just put out all the Christmas lights as well. Since it was after Thanksgiving, I was in full-throttle Christmas spirit. These mixed together well.

Victoria Square is one of the shopping malls around the city center. Although it had more lights, the other main mall, Castle Court, had a much more Christmas-y vibe. Castle Court had a store called The Christmas Store (selling decorations, trees, candles, etc.) and another that had all those amazing old-fashioned toys (no batteries anywhere). In the center of the city, City Hall was all decked out for the holidays.


City Hall, with and without daylight. A traditional European Christmas market was being held here. We had dinner there Friday and Saturday nights (Polish sausage and churros, then raclette and fudge. Mulled wine to drink both nights.) After dinner, we went around to different pubs. Saturday night, Arlette and I went to the Crown Pub, the oldest pub still standing in Belfast. Great craic.

Saturday morning / afternoon, I went on a walk around the city. I had lots of fun stumbling across monuments and such. I wandered into a farmer's market, watched dogs playing in Ormeau Park, watched students playing at Queen's University, and walked through Ulster Museum.

I took some nice pictures as well.

This one was taken at 2:30 in the afternoon. We don't get much sun up here these days.

The old customs house. I saw this Sunday when I took a tour of the harbor area. I saw where the Titanic was launched from ("Built by Irishmen. Sunk by an Englishman.") and the more modern drydocks. Belfast is a real blue-collar town, so I felt some kinship with them. (Not that I'm blue-collar by any stretch. It just reminded me of Cleveland.) Afterwards, I toured the shopping districts and got into the holiday spirit. We had dinner in a small diner off of the main roads.

All said and done, it was an excellent and exciting trip. I think Belfast might be one of my favorite cities now. Although there has been violence (Belfast was the heart of the Troubles) and there still is tension, the city feels alive. The juxtaposition of centuries-old and new architecture makes Belfast quite the interesting place.

One month to go

I'll be leaving Ireland exactly one month today. There's a feeling of inevitability to that.

#18 / 21 Dayton beat #19 / 19 Georgia Tech. GT is in the ACC and plays Duke and UNC two times apiece this season, so this win will pay good dividends for the RPI and SOS.

Last Sunday I found out that the self-defense club trains on the weekends. We did some Jujitsu / Judo and a bit of Eskrima. My back was sore for a few days, since I haven't quite figured out how to properly break my falls yet. On the bright side, Saturdays are Kenpo days and I should be a little more proficient at that.

I've been much more busy with school. I feel like I'm in college again. I even had a microeconomics exam on Wednesday. Although I've been to two classes all semester, I still feel I scored around 75%. Good for a B over here.
On the bright side, I found out that, out of Sociology, Psychology, and Economics, only two of three classes will count to graduation.

This weekend, I'm also playing basketball with the Chinese students and might possibly be going to Dublin. If so, there will be more pictures. There's also some computer work to do.

My computer class has definately been my favorite. It's kind of a survey style class, so we cover a new topic every three weeks. Information Theory was okay, but the next subject was quite interesting. Multiple View Geometry involves feature recognition and some cool stuff called epipolar geometry. At the end of it, we were able to use two pictures taken from slightly different angles and reconstruct a three-dimensional scene from them. Cool beans.

I'm off to do more homework-type stuff.

Basketball, volleyball, the rest of Paris

The Dayton Flyers won their season opener over Chreighton this afternoon, 90 - 80. It was quite strange not being in the stands for the game (I did get a little homesick...) I wasn't able to find a video feed online, but I did catch Larry and Bucky's dulcet tones on their online radio broadcast. Here are some random thoughts on our team.
Dayton has been ranked in the preseason for the first time in decades, so we get professionally-produced videos such as this to get us pumped up.
A lot of the preseason hype focuses on how little we lost from last year. After making it to the second round of the NCAA tourney, we only lost one senior (Charles Little) to graduation. Still, some of the statistics the powers-that-be choose to highlight are a little ridiculous. Example: "The Flyers return 10 of their 11 top scorers from last year." Among these "top scorers" are those such as Paul Williams, adding a vital 2.2 points per game last season. (Caveat - I fully expect Williams to be much more productive this season. He's already had 9 points in the season opener. Still, it just kinda shows how meaningless that 10 / 11 stat is.)
Chris Wright played a great game, scoring 25. Right behind him, the sophmore Chris Johnson seems to have broken out, scoring 18 and grabbing 15 boards.
I saw the highlights video afterwards, including London Warren's insane assist leading to a Marcus Johnson slam (15 seconds in). I watched that part again at least twenty times. If we can keep up that kind of game, we should be pretty good this year :)
This team almost didn't seem like Dayton. Last year, our identity was a defensive and athletic team. We out-jumped and out-rebounded the other teams and completely harassed them on defense (especially the point guard combo of London Warren and Rob Lowry, who are more or less clones of each other defensively, and on amphetamines). But for gravity, our shooters couldn't have hit the floor last year, but our defense really made up for it. Last season, we only scored above 80 four times and gave up more than 70 five times. (And I think only four or five teams were better than 40% shooting last year. Chreighton shot 48.3%)
Dayton shot 72.2% from the charity stripe today. Quite refreshing after for years in the 50, 60% territory.

So far, it's been a good week for sports (go Cavs!) Friday evening, the volleyball club went to Dublin to play IT Tallaght. We won the match in three close sets (scores of 25-21, 23-25, and 25-22). I was used as a libero during the match and had a very good time. I had a few particularly nice diving saves.

I actually have homework to do this weekend, which is a huge change from what I've become accustomed to.

I'll try to finish up Paris tonight :)
Thursday, I spent the day travelling around with Micheal, the English couchsurfer. In the morning, he showed me around Ile-de-France, the business district of Paris. With all of the skyscrapers, it felt much more like home. We walked around the northern / middle section of Paris and took a look at the Centre Pompidou and the Bastille. We both were hit with a strong craving for chocolate milk, so we set out on a quest to find some (we had to look through three different stores.) We drank it sitting on the steps of the Hotel De Ville and discussed EU politics. It was classy.
Afterwards, we left to see Luxemborg. The building itself was not extraordinary, but the gardens surrounding it were. The trees were brilliantly colored and crunchy leaves covered the pathways. My only complaint was that some of the trees were trimmed into square shapes, which I found unnatural and immoral. We then walked around the Latin quarter and checked out the Pantheon (or, "The Least Impressive Monument in Paris).
Micheal and I went our seperate ways afterwards and I met up with Julien again. We went back to his apartment and ordered Dominos pizza (it's much better in France - something about the cheese). We spent the rest of the evening chilling, playing video games, and watching the the Royal Tenenbaums.
Friday was Louvre day. Since this was one of two days with bad weather, it turned out to be a pretty good decision. Unfortunately, the metro from the business district was undergoing repairs, so I had to walk an hour into Paris. The Louvre was fantastic. Works of art where everywhere, although my favorite part of the museum was the museum itself. The wall decorations, facades, ceilings, and architecture were at least as beautiful as most of the pieces contained therein. I did get to see most of the famous pieces, such as the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo, but I was a little unimpressed with them. Too much hype, I suppose. On the other hand, the section of Egyptian artefacts and the preserved living quarters of Napolean III were fascinating (Napolean's rooms defined opulence.)
Wondering around a museum for five hours tends to make one thirsty, so I met up with Julien at a pub (surprise!) He was meeting up with some friends for a birthday celebration. I also met Aviv, an Isreali who would be staying with us Saturday night. Good craic.
On Saturday, I treated Julien to lunch. I figured that I haven't really been to a French restaurant that week and I probably ought to while I was in Paris. Julien took me to a place that did traditional Southwestern French cuisine. I had a very nice duck dish (perhaps scallop de canard avernogne, or something like that) with ham, cheese, and potatoes. Julien had foie gras, so I tried a bite of that.
After lunch, we explored the graveyard Pere Lachaise Cemetary in honor of Halloween. It was a very beautiful graveyard that's been around since the seventeenth century.

Oscar Wilde was amoung those buried here. His grave is covered with lipstick from admirers. Between the feeling of the crisp autumn wind on my face and the cemetary's silence, I found a feeling of perfect contentment.
We met up with Aviv in the evening before heading off to a Couchsurfer party at the train station in Montparnasse. At this point in the week, my French had become almost proficient. I could make out almost half of what people were talking about, then guess the rest. But after anyone's been drinking, this ability fades rapidly. Thankfully, people were mostly happy to speak English (especially the people I met from Canada and California). After that party died down, we went to another party at Julien's neighbor's apartment. It was a much more relaxed affair (perhaps because it was already one-thirty in the morning), but very enjoyable.
Sunday was my last day in Paris. I hadn't been inside Notre Dame during daylight hours, so I paid a little visit. Enjoy some shots of the exterior.



Immediately after this last photo, it began to rain. Since I had to wait five hours for my bus, I was quite fortunate to find the coolest shop in Paris - Shakespeare and Company. This is an amazing bookstore. Bookshelves or ceiling-high stacks of books surround you. All of the titles are in English. The owners take the position that books are meant to be read and provide you with several comfy chairs and couches to do so.

I spent the afternoon going over a book of e e cumming's poetry and a collection of food essays from the New Yorker. (I must apologize for the substandard quality of these photos. My camera was on the fritz since Tuesday and I wasn't able to take enough pictures to get quality shots.)

They amazingly have a piano in the upstairs reading room and they encourage people to simply come up and play whatever. I was treated to several impromptu jazz concerts while reading, which was the perfect capstone to my week in Paris.
The flight back was okay, once I boarded. Before that, it was a nightmare. I waited in line for security for half an hour, at which point I was told to go to the back and wait again (another flight needed to get through before me). I managed to get onto the plane five minutes before it took off.
But even when I landed down in Dublin, my vacation was not over. I didn't get to the train station in Dublin until eleven in the evening. Since it was a Sunday, there was no late train to Maynooth. I had to spend one last night in a nearby hostel before I made it back. On the bright side, this hostel offered soda bread as part of its free breakfast. Also, everyone spoke English, something I won't quite take for granted so much anymore.

Thanksgiving dinner recipes

I'll be cooking a big Thanksgiving dinner for my flat and some friends. I've never basted a turkey in my life before, so if someone could post instructions on that I would be grateful.
Also for from-scratch pancakes.
And pumpkin pie.

Paris, mardi et mercredi

Waking up Tuesday morning, I bade my fellow couchsurfers a fond adieu and left to do some more touristing. After taking the train back, I saw the Eiffel Tower and the Champs de Mars, the park sprawled out in front of said tower. Here's your obligatory picture:

It was much taller than I expected it to be. I didn't pay the nine euros to get a good view - I'd rather have breakfast instead. Pan au chocolat, of course.
I walked by Les Invalides and was searching for the Seine. Unfortunately, I had confused the locations of Les Invalides with the Eiffel Tower, so finding the Seine was quite a bit more of an adventure than it should have been. It was all worth it, though. The Seine might be my favorite part of Paris.

It was an excellent time of year to be in Paris. Almost every tree had started changing colors.

I walked to Ile de la Cite. I had to meet up with Vio, another couchsurfer, in an hour. Until then, I chilled out on the park on the very tip of the island and did some quality peoplewatching.

Vio was not my next host, but a "coffee or drinker." As a couchsurfer, you don't necessarily have to let someone sleep over to host them. Another option the website gives is to simply meet up with surfers for a "coffee or drink" and show them around your town a little bit.

We meet at the huge glass pyramid in the Louvre. From there, we decided to go to Montmarte. Since it was a nice day, we rented a couple bicycles. (In Paris, there are random, automated bicycle rental stations. Using a credit card, you can rent a bike for a euro per hour. These stations are located all over the city, so it really is a convenient way to get around.) Riding a bike through Paris was an exceptional experience - I'd recommend it to any visitors.
Anyone who has been in Paris can tell you that Montmarte is on top of a really high hill. When we finally reached the bike station, there were no other bikes present (each station has space for fifteen bikes).
On top of Montmarte is the Bascillica de la Sacre Coeur, the big white church. Really beautiful inside. Unfortunately, my camera was out of batteries and I'd only be able to take pictures sporadically from this point on. There was a beautiful view of Paris right outside Sacre Coeur (and it was free!) We had some crepes for a snack, stopped by the Moulin Rouge, then found an Australian pub. After a few drinks, we parted ways. I was staying in another hostel that night, so I showed up, stumbled through some French phrases, and drifted off to sleep.

The next morning, the free breakfast offerred was especially classy. Instead of cornflakes, they had a crazy frakencereal - half oatmeal, half Fruit n Fiber. They also gave away milk. Since I was far more aware of Parisien prices, I had three bowls for breakfast (plus the bread). Sated, I was off to go see Les Invalides, the military museum.

Les Invalides was one of my favorite parts of Paris. They had extensive exhibits on WWI and WWII, military artefacts from the thirteenth century onward (like the arms and armor room in Cleveland's Art Museum, but an couple orders of magnitude larger), Napolean's Tomb, and the Cathedral Saint-Louis

Behind this main part of the cathedral, there was a special room for royalty. This way, they could attend the same mass as the common soldier. The sentiment was overwhelming.

After spending the day in Invalides, I met up with Julien, my host for the remainder of the week. He found a cheap bar and we had a few pints before meeting up with Micheal, an English surfer for the first night I was there. We found more beer and falafel crepes. A good night by any standard.

Paris, dimanche et lundi

It's been almost a week since I've had Guinness. That makes me a sad panda. The weather was really nice today. A good thing, except that it made me want to go for a run.
I'm getting a little cabin fever :)

Back to Paris.

I woke up Sunday morning and enjoyed my free breakfast - cornflakes (no milk), bread, and orange juice. Yum. Since I wasn't meeting my first host until five o'clock that day, I signed up for a free walking tour starting outside the hostel. First thing we did on the walking tour was take the metro to St. Micheal's fountain. Apparently, the real tour would start here.

The tour was given in English, so it was pretty easy to meet people. I grabbed a sandwich with some Brazilians and another American. It was a sub sandwich, but with chevre (goat cheese) and chorizo. Quite good. After that, the tour started.


We walked from St. Micheal's Plaza across the Seine to the Ile de la Cite. We didn't see Notre Dame, but we did get a history lesosn on Paris. We crossed Pont Neuf to the other side of the Seine.

You might be able to make out the faces on the bridge above. Apparently, King Henry IV had a party on the bridge after it was completed. A sketch artist had drawn pictures of this. The king liked the pictures enough to commision sculptures of his friends to be placed on the bridge. It's kinda like a facebook for seventeenth-century royalty.

We walked along the Seine some more. It's one of my favorite parts of Paris - it's banks are lined with artists selling their pictures. Touristy? Very. Fun? You bet. After stopping for lunch, we walked around the outside of the Louvre.

The Louvre is absolutely huge - this is just a picture of the one of the walls of the square inner courtyard.

I might not have mentioned this yet, but it was absolutely beautiful weather in Paris almost the whole week. Living in Ireland for the past month, I had pretty much forgotten what sunshine feels like. That week should get me through until I get back :)

After the Louvre, we walked through Jardin de Tuilleries, a beautiful park. There wasn't much grass in the park, which was a tad strange. As were the statues.

It was an odd juxtaposition of classical sculpture right next to these weird alien heads. I liked it.

There was an awesome fountain / pond in the middle. Cymbols covered half the pond, and people (read: tourists) would toss rocks, change, or small children at them.

We next walked through the Place de la Concorde, filled with fountains and statues and the Obelisk. The Obelisk is a little unique among the Egyptian works in Paris. Most things from Egypt were "given" to Napolean after he conquered Egypt. ("This man has conquered our armies, killed our men and our leaders, and was shamed us all. Quick! Give him our national treasures, along with the last of our dignity!") The Obelisk actually was a gift from Egypt. If I remember correctly, it was for returning most of the treasure and artefacts taken from Egypt.

The Place de la Concorde leads directly into the Champs-Elysees. I was a little underwhelmed by this.
Yeah, it looks nice. Further along, there are shops where a jacket sells for more than I make in a year. Needless to say, I didn't do much shopping. The Champs-Elysees ends with the Arc de Triomphe (as did the tour).

Apparently, the roundabout around this is amoung the worst in Europe, with a car crash happening every half hour.

It was almost time to meet up with Christophe, my first host for the week. I hopped on the metro to Montparnasse. This district has Tour Montparnasse, the tallest and most hated building in Paris. After this fifty-story building was erected, laws were passed to stop any more skyscrapers from popping up in the city proper.

It turns out that Christophe was hosting two others for the nights I would be there. Philip and Maeve were a couple from Ireland backpacking their way towards a farm co-op in southern France, where they would spend two months working and practicing their French. We went out for food and drinks. I ordered the "Aussiette de viande froid." Although I knew what it meant (Plate of cold meat), I expected it to be much better than the translation suggested. I was disappointed.

Christophe lives in Saint Cyr, which is a suburb forty minutes away by train. We bought picnic supplies and had a typical French dinner when we got back (wine, bread, cheese, pate). Quite a day.

Monday morning, Philip, Maeve, and I went to a flea market on the East side of Paris. There were all manner stalls, tents, even people with goods on a towel on the ground. Although the market spanned several blocks and a park, I was still unable to find a good hat (the tragic story of my life).

We met up with Christophe for drinks while Philip went to a drumming class. I had a few good Belguim beers and good times. Afterwards, we did a little shopping and went back to Saint Cyr. Maeve and I made some potato / tomato stew along with red pepper and wilted spinach. We hung out with Christophe and his roommates again that night, listened to some music, and fell asleep once more.

Paris, le premier soir

I went to the doctor today. I've had a cough for the last month or so (although it got better for a week in October). I've been diagnosed with tracheitis, a non-serious bacterial infection. I'm on a course of amoxicillin for a week. Worse yet, I can neither exercise nor drink for that week. My evenings were just canceled :(
On the bright side of things, I should be ready for our volleyball game in Dublin next week.

But on to Paris. I had planned on couchsurfing my way through Paris. However, I wasn't able to find a host for Saturday or Tuesday night, so I would be in a hostel both times.
I should probably explain what couchsurfing is. It's kinda like a facebook for people looking to meet people from other cultures. But you actually meet up in real life, so there's more of a sense of community. You can either be a host or a surfer. If you are a host, you offer up a couch / bed / sleeping bag in your house for the surfers to sleep on. Although hosts don't have to do anything else, most hosts try to show the surfer something about the city. One of my favorite parts about surfing was that my hosts were able to show me cool parts of Paris - hole-in-the-wall restaurants, music shows, and cheap bars. (It's important to know where you can get a three euro pint in Paris, where most places charge six or more euros. Paris est tres chere.) The hosts can act as free tour guides, either showing you around the city or suggesting where to go. You get much more than the typical tourist experience through them. And the hosts are genuinely happy to meet you, spend time with you, and learn about you and your culture.
And it seems really safe as well. There is a farily elaborate reference system on the website, so you can check out a person before you host them or surf with them (really important for dealing with strangers).
Another bonus is that it's much cheaper as well :) I spent less than two hundred euros for nine days in Paris, and sixty of those were for two nights in a hostel. That really works out to about fifteen euro per day for Paris - not bad.

Anyways, I took Ryan Air over to Paris. Ryan Air is notoriously cheap, but just as inconvenient. I was able to get a round-way flight for 70 euros (plus thirty for the shuttles). Of course, the plane left at night and landed an hour away from the city (Beauvais airport). I didn't arrive in the city until midnight and made it to my hostel around one o'clock (I got lost on the streets only once :)
I must admit I was a bit nervous then. I was walking around an unknown city at night, and everyone speaks French. Although I've been improving my French for the last month or so, I still was far from fluent or even converstational. Before I say anything, I'd have to think for half a minute or so. So before I wandered into St. Cristopher's (my hostel), I had my conversation lines well-rehearsed (J'amapelle Josh Galecki. J'ai un lit ici ce soir.) Unfortunately, or fortunately, the hostel clerk was English. I'd have to wait until tomorrow for my first French "conversation." I stumbled up the stairs and promptly fell asleep.

Good craic, not good crack

I just got back from Paris this morning (safely) and will be doing a series of posts about that later on this week.

Also, craic is Irish slang for good times, not the drug. "How's the craic?" is a fairly common greeting.