Ah, living in the center of Dublin has put Flogging Molly on the brain.

I moved into accomidations at Trinity yesterday and started work. The room is amazing. It is like a rather small hotel room but it has two huge windows (I am im a corner room). One opens out onto the rugby pitch and the other has a view of the garden and a cricket pitch. The campus here is gorgeous.

Sadly, it rained the whole day, which was ok because I was actually in the new physics building there working. I had to get the normal paperwork crap out of the way. Then, my computer arrived. Woohoo, a brand new dual core 17″ iMac! Now I can be all smug and stuff, haha. Anyway, getting things like IDL to work on it has been a pain. I did get to name it though, so I named it Hokie. Spreading the VT love all over the world. Thats my job.

After work it stopped raining and the sun came through. So, I decided to walk around the campus and the are of the City Centre (in local vernacular) that surrounds it. I didn’t get to put pictures up last night because the room in Trinity has no internet (!), but I put them up this morning from work. I have some snapshots to put up later, but I also took a couple of art shots this time. First is a row of colorful shops just off campus:

I also wandered up and around Grafton Street, where most of the shops are, and came across this scene near St. Stephen’s Green:

(Larger views can be had by clicking on the images.)

A few other interesting notes, all of the soda here has sugar in it, not high fructose corn syrup. Thus, it is all so much tastier than what we have back in the States (except during Passover, of course). Also, due to lack of internet in the room at Trinity, I won’t be on AIM so you’ll have to either post here or reach me by e-mail if you need me and I’ll get it during the day or at an internet cafe or something.

Peace, and back to battling IDL..

My first few days here have been really really nice. Peter, my advisor, so kindly let me stay at his place for a couple days before I move in to a dorm at Trinity for a week (which I do tomorrow morning). Peter and his wife, Emma, have a lovely house just off of the Irish Sea. Unfortunatly its been raining since I got here, save for last night, so I didn’t get out to take any pictures of it or the docklands or anything. Also, there isnt much of a view from their back yard, though here is what their yard looks like:

And here is a truer color view off to the side. I’m not sure why the first one is more orangeish.. I’ll have to be more careful processing I think:

Anyway, last night I watched the Eurovison Song Contest with Paul (the student I’ll be working with) and some of his friends. The songs were truely horrendous, well, most of them anyway and the voting is truely farcicle. But it really is a must see, I don’t understand how anyone can take it seriously. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, check out the wikipedia article on it. Later, I had my first real Guiness at a pub called Doyle’s. It was truely delicious. I’m not sure what the difference was, maybe I was just expecting it to be different, but it really tasted more creamy and less bitter than even the best Guiness I’ve had in the US.

Today was much lazier, but the jet lag is still getting to me. After lazing around all day, Peter and Emma invited me along to dinner at Emma’s parents place. Her parents are truely lovely people and dinner was really good and filling. I believed Emma when she said that I wouldn’t leave hungry, but I guess I still didn’t expect it. The scene reminded me much of stories my dad used to tell about how his grandmother and mother would always make sure he ate enough (or too much!). Later I met a classmate from UIUC for a pint in the city and hopped a bus home. Not before spending an hour trying to find the bus stop though. It reminded me of many a time with my mother when I was a child where we would go and lose our selves just to find our way around.

Anyway, naptime, I’ll be moving in near the city centre tomorrow so I should have many more pictures then, especially if the weather clears.

Or perhaps, Ireland Ho! or something like that.

As anyone may or may not know, I’ll be spending the summer doing research at the beautiful Trinity College Dublin in Dublin, Ireland this summer. It should be a really good time with good research and a good relaxing summer for the first time in a long time.

I’ll be putting up the best of my pictures here as my trip progresses and perhaps letting everyone know what I’m up to or something. In the mean time, here is one of the better shots from the past year..