it rains here?

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

The Gate Theatre

Its just a 10 minute walk from my house which is what I found out when I went to Noel Coward's play Friday night. My first trip to the theatre...er...theater yet. (hehe)

Can you believe it took me this long to get an Irish flag on this thing?

All the kids wear uniforms

and you can't get away from them when its after school...they're everywhere. At least these were some cute ones!

Garden of Rememberance pool tiles

Looked a little Native American to me.

Next was the garden of remembrance

Dedicated to those who gave their lives in the cause of irish freedom.

The church next door to the museum

Abbey Church off O'Connell Street. I was standing there when a nice old Irish Lady asked me what I was looking for and then showed me the museum right next door. I like looking at old churches.

Inside the house...

that is now the writers museum. George Jameson decorated the place...lots of religion...everywhere.

This says

George Jameson, of Jameson Whiskey, owned this house which now holds all the rare first edition Irish writers books and lots of old typewriters.

Dublin Writers Museum

This is where I went today first.

Sunday, September 9, 2007

In just one week I will be waking up on my last day of freedom because school starts a week from Monday. And well, I think I am starting to feel a bit nervous about that. This last week has had its ups and downs. Overall, I have been focused on being relaxed and soaking up my ability to veg out either reading, watching movies (drinking lots and lots of hot cocoa and now tea), laying in bed till noon, eating lunches in parks, people watching (because there are just tons and tons of people here...sorta like in a New York, times squaresque, way with just much smaller streets) and strolling around museums. But soon my ability to do any of those things will be out the window, gone forever (sigh).

(The best thing so far are my sunset runs down the river. The light and colors of the setting sun reflect off the serene water and are more beautiful then anything else I have seen so far. Also, at dusk, bright green lights appear under all the bridges and I can't help smiling as I am reminded just what city in the world I am running in.)

One thing I did do this weekend which was awesome was go to see a play at the Gate Theater, famous for its love of Samuel Beckett and Oscar Wilde. Its just a 10 minute walk from my apartment I found out and I saw a Noel Coward play called Private Lives. It was one of those plays that there's really nothing not to like. Good actors, funny when they were supposed to be funny and I got really into it (I know when this happens because I forget that I'm watching a play). Its a small theater and I sat in the 3rd row and the building has a lot of history, quite old and beautiful. It had 3 acts, 5 actors and no curtain. They changed the set in between acts and you could watch the whole time.

Alright, so one weird thing about Dublin and my apartment building...to throw out your trash, you have to go to the post office and buy these stickers to put on each bag of garbage. Each sticker is 2.80 Euros ($3.80) that I have to put on the bag, bring it down and leave on the sidewalk. The catch is that you can only do this at my building Mon-Fri from 5-7 pm which means that if you don't remember to take out smelly trash from the week by Friday at 7 then you have to live with it all weekend. Kay so my trash started getting smelly Saturday morning.............ahhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!