Music Confessions

It's time for another round of Music Confessions.  Since I'd been such a slacker on blogging prior to this trip, it's been a really long time since I've done this, but here are a few of my muisc confessions:

I have a music crush on Sam Hunt.  I really like his music (at least the songs they play on the radio) and to be honest, he's enjoyble to look at too.  But yeah, I downloaded a bunch of his songs on my ipod recently and have been enjoying them.  

I don't love Justin Bieber, but every time I hear that song with the line, "Maybe you should go and love yourself" and "My mama don't like you and she likes everyone," I find myself singing along.  So embarrassing, right?  But I can't help it.  Thankfully, I only sing in the car when I am alone--ocassionally, I'll sing in front of my husband.

My latest obsession is a song called "Galway Girl," that I heard several times in Galway.  I think the song has been around for a while, but I recently became a fan of it, downloaded it on my ipod, and play it regularly.

The song "You Should Be Here," by Cole somebody or other makes me cry sometimes.

If the song "Shut Up and Dance" comes on when I'm home I'll start dancing around my house.  (The same can be said about the song "Cruise," but I don't hear that one so often these days.)  

And there ya' go, there are my most recent music confessions.  Did you lose what little respect you had for me after reading this post?

Back to Reality

I've traveled nationally and internationally before and thankfully, I've never had TOO much trouble with jet lag.  Usually just a day or two--actually, I forgot about my honeymoon to Hawaii.  I guess I did have a bit of jetlag with that, but that was my own fault.  I could have made more of an effort to go to bed before 2am when I got home.  A few days later, I was back on track.  Anyway, this trip, I definitely felt the time difference when I got home. I love my sleep, but I am a night owl more than a morning person.  I often get my second wind when I should be going to bed.  In an ideal world, I would go to bed at 12 or 12:30 and sleep until 8:30 or 9:30.  The night I got home from my trip, I went to bed at 9:30.  When my husband's alarm went off long before sunrise, I woke up and instead of rolling over and going back to sleep I attempted to have a conversation with him--just because I was awake and ready to roll at that early hour did not mean he was.  I tried to go back to sleep after he left for work, but didn't have much luck.  The next day I got up at 6am, had breakfast, puttered around for a bit, then went back to bed only to be woken by my phone ringing at 8am asking if I could come in to work to fill in for someone for the day.  I did.  Aside from that, I was pretty lazy the rest of the week.  I did a lot of laundry, some housecleaning, read a bit, watched tv, worked out, and ran an errand or two, but not much else at all.  I visited my parents on Friday and went out with some friends on Friday night and Saturday night.  The following week I was pretty much back on track.  I stayed up until between 11 and 12, slept until between 8 and 9 and saw various friends nearly everyday.  Yeah, instead of doing nothing that week, I think I did too much.  Lunch with a fried on Monday, had friends over for dinner on Tuesday, went out with two former co-workers/friends on Wednesday afternoon, dinner with friends on Thursday, lunch with a friend on Friday, and dinner with friends on Friday night.  Oh yeah, then a bachelorette party Saturday night and a cook-out Sunday.  And then I wonder why the number on the scale is so high.  UGH!  I do have a pretty decent social life, but last week was a little ridiculous even for me.  Don't get me wrong, I LOVED it, but I probably should have spread it out a bit instead of doing NOTHING the first week back and then stuff EVERY day the following week.  Oh, life!  I best enjoy it while I can because come September, work gets a "little" crazy before normalizing out a bit. During that time, I also celebrated my second anniversary, but we'll give that one it's own post in the near (hopefully) future.

A Few Random Final Thoughts on Ireland

There are a few random things I neglected to mention about my trip so I will throw them at you now.  Again, they are a bit random so apologies for being all over the place with this post.

I enjoyed being a student again.  I mean homework isn't exactly fun, but I enjoyed learning new things.  I enjoyed going out with my new friends.  I liked living in the dorms.  I didn't know the people I lived with prior to going to NUI, but they were good roommates and I learned a lot from them.  They were nice too.  :-)  My neighbors were wonderful too and they became some of my good friends while in Galway.

I brought several books with me because I figured after class, I'd sit in my dorm room and read.  I was sure I'd spend time blogging and Facebooking, but clearly, I needed books to read.  Ask me how many books I completely read in Galway?  ZERO!  I read part of one book.  I read most of another book on the train in England and plane ride home and part of a second book on the plane.  Oh, I did bring and read one magazine on the train to Bath.  I was clearly not expecting to meet so many wonderful people and go out with them so often.  It was a wonderful surprise!  (And I've been reading a lot since I got home to make up for it ha ha.)  

When people would hear I was an American or someone in my group was, they'd often ask us what we thought of Trump.  I couldn't believe how many people wanted to know our opinions of him.  I was intrigued to hear what they thought of him--and American politics in general.

I mentioned food a lot in my posts.  The food was pretty good in Ireland.  I love fish and chips and enjoyed that, but the salmon was good, so was the goat cheese, and I think I told you I tried a cronut and empanada which were both good as well.  As were the few desserts I had.

I walked A LOT in Galway.  I even got 30,000 steps one day.  I feel like a slacker now because since I've been home, there were some days I barely got 10,000 steps.

I stink at taking selfies, but I did try to work on this skill in Galway.  I think I'm making slight progress.

Galway has lots of pubs and restaurants (though finding food after 10pm is challenging).  If you like cider, try the Orchard Thieves.  It's all over the place in Galway and it's good.

It was an amazing experience! I hope to see my new friends again soon and I hope to have opportunities to do a program like this one again.  

Irish (Gaelic) is a hard language to learn--at least for me.

And there you go, those are my final random thoughts.  Slainte

Day 32 Heading Home (AKA Spending too much money on water bottles and not drinking enough water)

7am came mighty quickly on Day 32.  Less than an hour later, I was saying good-bye to Luke and Wolfie, and Karen was driving me to the airport.  And about an hour and a half after that, I said my good-byes and thank yous to Karen and headed into Manchester Airport.  Checked in, cleared security, poked around the shops, got a drink of water, and then went to sit at "my" gate.  Turns out I misread my ticket and I was not waiting at my gate.  I was wondering why no one was there.  So I rechecked my ticket and it turns out I was looking at the seat number NOT the gate number.  The gate number was blank.  So I went back to the main waiting area and checked the screen.  It said a gate would be posted in 15 minutes, then 10 minutes, and eventually 5 minutes, and sometime later than 5 minutes after that a gate was posted, which wasn't too far from where I'd been waiting earlier.  So I went back there and soon climbed onto the plane (yes, there were steps instead of the usual walkway thing).  The flight wasn't bad. It was around an hour. No one sat next to me so I had some room.  I had to change planes in Dublin.  I was not expecting to have to go through security again.  I had purchased a water bottle at Manchester Airport so I quickly chugged most of my water while I was in line and threw my bottle in the overflowing trash can--clearly, I was not the only person who had to chug a water bottle while waiting to unexpectedly go through security.  Got my passport stamped by a nice Irish man.  Then I went through security (even though I'd done it a little more than an hour ago in Manchester, but such is life).  I had a three hour layover so I bought another bottle of water, snacks, and poked around some shops.  Soon the message came on the screen for my flight to go to the US Customs pre-clearance area so off I went with my NEARLY full water bottle.  Guess what?  I had to go through security AGAIN  Now I am all for safety and security.  I would much rather go through security and be safe so don't get me wrong, but is it really necessary to go through security THREE times?  Two of those times were at the same airport.  Maybe it's a conspiracy with the bottled water companies (I don't really think it's a conspiracy, but I was annoyed with all the waters I had to get rid of).  So bye bye water bottle and bye bye money I spent on it because as you know airport food and drinks are overpriced.  That line was moving, no time to chug that water bottle.  Through security again, through customs and the US customs officer was not as friendly as the Irish one.  Oh, Ireland, I miss you all ready and I haven't even left yet.  Then I bought my third bottle of water and I was hungry so I had to buy food from the ONLY food stand you could access after going through US customs.  It was a good thing I had a decent amount of Euros left because the food was SO overpriced.  And over an hour later I boarded the flight only to find I did NOT have an aisle seat.  Clearly, I will not use this travel agent ever again.  (I've never used a travel agent before this trip.  I always book my own flights on-line and I ALWAYS request an aisle seat.)   You expect me to sit in a middle seat for 6 1/2-7 hours?  Are you serious?  Maybe it's a good thing I didn't get to finish any of my waters since I will be dehydrated and not have to climb over strange men to use the toilet.  And now I'm being really whiny, but the gentlemen to my right felt the need to use his arm rest AND my arm rest.  Buddy there's two arm rests there because one is for YOU and ONE IS FOR ME.  You do not get to take mine too.  Thankfully, the man on the other side did not hog the arm rest.  And I don't know what was going on behind me, but the man behind me sure liked to hit my seat a lot. And while I'm ranting, why is it the flight attendants can come by SEVERAL times with tea and coffee, but not water, especially, when it's actually hot on a plane--usually, I'm cold.  I finally asked for a water on the last tea/coffee round and got about 3-4oz.  UGH.  Next time I will buy two overpriced bottles of water to bring on the plane.  The food was edible, but not great.  It was definitely better on the way TO Ireland.  Anyway, I've complained enough.  I had a wonderful trip, I don't want to to ruin thoughts of it with rants about my flight home.  I should be happy I made it home safely, but can I please go back again?  It was so much fun!    

Day 31 The Dog Days of Summer

Day 31 was my last full day in England.  Although I was looking forward to seeing my husband, I was not looking forward to the long flight or going back to reality.  I always get sad after vacation ends, even though this was a combo working vacation followed by a regular vacation, I was still a little sad to be done the next day.  We had a leisurely morning then decided to go take Wolfie for a walk on a local trail.  After the walk, we stopped by a pub that allowed dogs outside.  I tried the cider that Luke suggested and the three of us got sweet potato fries and french fries to munch on.  We were going to a BBQ later that afternoon so we just wanted something to munch on.  When we were done our fries and drinks, we went to the grocery store to grab some stuff to bring to the BBQ then headed back to the house.  Not too much later, it was off to the BBQ.   I had met many of Karen's friends who were at the BBQ the last time I visited her.  As someone who loves to travel, I enjoyed hearing about their trips.  There was good food, lots of hummus (half the people who attended brought hummus--I like hummus so no complaints here), and drinks.  A few hours into the BBQ, Karen's vet called and asked her to call back because he had results from one of Wolfie's tests.  The blood test had come back and everything looked normal, but they were still waiting on the swabs.  Since the blood test had been fine, no one was expecting anything to show up on the swabs.  The vet's message sounded urgent though so that was concerning.  It took a little while, but Karen finally got ahold of the vet and we left the BBQ so she could go get new medicine from the vet.  Based on the swabs, they finally figured out what was wrong with him and what medicine he would need.  We were quite impressed that the vet was still at work on a Saturday evening and stayed 'til we got there to pick up the medicine.  Then it was back home where we watched a couple of episodes of a British show called "Gavin & Stacey" (after Karen and Luke administered the medicine of course).  The show was really funny.  And Wolfie seemed to be getting his energy back.  He was certainly a memorable part of my trip.  (Does the title of this post make sense now?  I'm so funny--no, I'm not.)  And then it was bed time and the trip was nearly over.

Day 30: The Lovely Lake District

Day 30 we got up earlyish, got ready, then drove to Karen's parents' house to drop off Wolfie.  We were going to be gone all day and Luke was at work.  Since Wolfie had been ill, Karen didn't want to leave him alone all day so her parents agreed to baby-sit er dog-sit.  We visited with her parents for a little while since I hadn't seen them since 2009.  Then we headed for the Lake District. Karen had taken me there briefly during my last visit on our way to Scotland, but we didn't have a ton of time to spend there so we both were happy to go again.  It was about a 2 to 2 1/2 hour drive.  We found a place to have lunch--since it was so nice, we enjoyed eating outside--then began our hike of Castle Crag.  We didn't go all the way up because of the time, but we went partway up one trail and down another.  We got some nice views.  A few times we strolled from the trail (but as Karen said we were on a trail, just not necessarily the traill).  It was a good work-out and besides nice views, I saw lots of sheep.  Then we drove through a couple of towns in the Lake District so I could see them and we made a brief photo stop at William Wordsworth's home.  After that, we drove back to Karen's parents' house for supper.  It was really good (salmon, potatoes, veggies, and an ice-cream treat for dessert).  I think they were a little disappointed that I still do not like tea, but they gave me a cider instead.  :-)    We chatted for a while after dinner, had a nice visit, then headed home.  It was pouring.  I have no idea how Karen managed to see.  I give her major kudos because it was that awful rain that you hate to drive in because you can barely see the roads.  At least it didn't rain while we were hiking.  Got home and were pretty tired so we soon went to bed.  And here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure.  

Still working on those selfies

Day 29 The Anatomy of a German Shepherd

My friend Karen's dog had been sick.  (Side note:  he is much better now, but at the time they weren't entirely sure what was wrong with him.)  He had a rash, which the vet had recently given him medicine for and that morning before I got up, he threw up.  Let's back up for a second and discuss the rash.  I've never had pets.  I've pet sat for relatives a couple of times.  Various friends and family members have pets, but aside from a few pet sitting gigs, the closest I've ever come to having a pet was when I was in grad school.  My roommate had fish.  So I haven't spent a lot of time around animals.  I have nothing against them (well, most of them, there have been a few suspicious characters over the years and my allergies do not enjoy cats), but I think because I did not grow up with them, I can get a bit nervous around them.  I think the animals sense that and do not always warm up to me right away.   Karen's dog didn't seem to love me at first, but later that night when she and Luke tried to put medicine on his rash, he was NOT happy and suddenly he came running to me for comfort.  It was like he was thinking, "I don't know this woman and I didn't love her when I first met her, but so far she's the only one in this house not putting painful cream on me so I'm running to her for protection.  She will save me."    Okay so I tell you all this to set the background for the day (and give some explanation for the title of this post).  Karen had called the vet and he called back a bit later and said to bring Wolfie (her dog) in for a check up.  So we headed to the vet and let's just say it was an experience.  Karen felt terrible about making me go to the vet on my vacation.  I assured her that it was fine.  I was there to see her, it was okay if we didn't do touristy things all day, plus I'd seen much of York on my last visit.  Wolfie got quite hyper at the vet and he was not happy when the vet tried to take his temperature.  I imagine if someone tried to take my temp by sticking a thermometer in my bottom, I would not be happy either so I can't blame him.  Eventually, the vet got what he needed and I saw more of a dog than I think I'd ever seen before.  Between the vet and Wolfie running around the office, I had a few close calls in my corner chair.  I think that was also my first time in a vet's office.  I was in a waiting room once, but first time in an exam room.  I'm not sure I'm in any rush to get a pet right now.  So back to Karen's house to drop off Wolfie and then we headed into York for some sightseeing.  We went to a cute museum, had lunch (fish and chips), and poked around a few shops.  Karen even bought me a book, which I look forward to reading soon.  She showed me a few more spots in York, then we stopped by to say hi to Luke at work, then went home.  We had a nice evening in with pizza, sides, some "famous" chocolates, and Love Actually.  Karen couldn't find the British movie she wanted to show me so we settled for Love Actually, which is one of my favorite movies so I was happy.  So I saw some fun places and learned more about dogs and dog illnesses.  It was a memorable day.  :-)

Inside the museum

One of the "famous" treats, it was pretty good.  (Don't worry, we all shared, I did not eat the whole thing.)  

Day 28 Spiral Staircases

Day 28 was my last day in London.  Later that day, I was heading to York to visit my friend Karen (another English friend from my days in Canada).  My train wasn't until 3:00 so I'd decided to go to St. Paul's Cathedral in the late part of the morning then head to the train station.  Be impressed people, I made it to St. Paul's WITHOUT getting lost.  Yes, I went the right way out of the tube station.  And then I could easily see the cathedral so I just kept walking toward it and found the entrance.  Woohoo!  I got there around 10:45/50 and there was a guided tour at 11:00 so I wandered around for a few minutes and then did the guided tour, which was very informative.  It was about an hour and a half long, but it did not include visits to the top sections of the cathedral.  Unfortunately, you were only allowed to take pictures in one spot inside so apologies for the lack of indoor pics.  You'll just have to trust me when I say the inside was cool.  If you ever get the chance to go to St. Paul's Cathedral in London, you should do it.  After the tour, you could climb many spiral staircases to various sections.  Since it wasn't 1:00 yet, I figured I'd give it a try.  I climbed the first sections and enjoyed the indoor views.  You could look down inside the cathedral and get a cool view from above.  Then it was up some more stairs that were narrower to the next section.  As I was climbing, all I could think at one point was that if I fell down there'd be no one to rescue me.  Okay, that's probably a lie as there were tons of people visiting and many employees.  I'm sure if there were a real emergency and I did fall, someone would ask if I were all right and maybe call an ambulance if needed.  When I was in Galway, one of the women in my program stopped by my "famous" window one evening and told me when she was in town a little while ago, a young woman had fallen down and injured her ankle.  She was traveling alone so some strangers stopped to help her.  She said she worried about people who were traveling solo if they fell and got hurt. So yes, these are the things I think about as I'm climbing these crazy stairs.  Anyway, I got to the top (or so I thought) and enjoyed some more views outside.  I figured I'd head back down now--wait, what does that sign say?  There's still another section?  Oh, boy, time to climb some more stairs.  Up up up--you get the idea and again more nice views, but it was after 1:00 and my train was at 3:00 and I still needed to go to the hotel to get my luggage so a few pictures later and it was back down the stairs.  Down, down, down--you get the idea.  I'm not sure which is worse going up or going down.  Then out to the exit where I finally got smart and asked a security guard where the tube station was.  Back on the tube to the hotel, got my luggage, the concierge got me a taxi and it was off to Paddington Station.  (I'd checked out earlier, but stored my luggage.) I wasn't thrilled with the idea of lugging my luggage on the tube so I decided I'd just spend the money and take a taxi.  It was between $20 and $25, which was annoying, but definitely worth it.  I was a little early so I walked around a bit, watched people dress up in Harry Potter attire to have their picture taken in front of the sign for Platform 9 and 3/4 and then decided to grab some lunch to go.  I was planning to eat it before I got on the train, but they called the train to board a few minutes later so I ate on the train.  I was so nervous about fitting my luggage on the train, but I succeeded.  It was a little squishy because I was seated at a table of four with a big purse, lunch, and strangers, but I managed.  The train was nice enough otherwise.  I made some nice progress on my book and 2 1/2 hours after leaving London I was in York. A few minutes later Karen met me and then we found her boyfriend Luke who drove us home.  We had a nice evening in complete with yummy fajitas, good conversation, and a bit of tv.     It was an enjoyable last day in London and a nice first night in York.

These are NOT the stairs I climbed, but this is one of the only spots inside where you are allowed to take pictures.

  See how high I climbed.  Look at that view.  

Day 27 Delightful Downton

Day 27  I loved the tv show Downton Abbey.  I blame some of my co-workers.  They used to talk about it all the time and got me interested in it.  I ended up borrowing the first couple of seasons from someone and watching the later seasons on regular ol' tv.  Anyway, when I mentioned to my co-workers that I was going to be in London and CONSIDERING doing the day tour to Downton, they were all about it.  It was more than I wanted to spend, but they reminded me it was a rare opportunity.  How often do I really go to England?  Well, I guess technically, I've been twice in the past 2 1/2 years, but that's not typical.  So long story not quite as long, I booked a day tour to Highclere Castle.  The bus picked me up at 7:30 (mind you they said they'd be there at 7:35 so to be there at 7:30, I got there at 7:25 and they were all ready loading the bus, impressive timing).  Anyway, the bus took us to a bus station to meet up with everyone else--I guess they pick up from several spots then everyone congregates together and send people off on their various tours.  So we had about a half hour to wait.  I got to once again experience the joys of paying to use a bathroom er toilet or loo if you want to be British about it.  :-)  Then it was off to Oxford for a tour of part of the city and some free time to explore.  I used the free time to poke in a couple of shops and to purchase lunch at cafe in a book store.  I had a quiche, which was good, but I though it'd be warm. Oh, well.  I'm still not sure if they were supposed to heat it up and forgot or if it really should have been cold.  I finished a little early so I poked in the museum next to where the bus was picking us up for about 15 minutes since it was free.  Then we went to the village of Bampton for about 45 minutes to poke around.  We saw some of the places that were used in Dowton Abbey and peeked in a gift shop--I bough 4 postcards.  Took quite a few pictures.  Then it was about an hour ride to Highclere Castle.  You are not allowed to take pictures inside the castle so that's why you won't find any below.  Anyway, it was pretty cool to see the castle.  I enjoyed it.  Inside there is a mix of stuff from the show as well as things from the family that owns the castle.  It took under an hour to go through the castle and you don't see any of the servants' quarters so I spent the rest of the time visiting the gift shop and the beautiful gardens.  The flowers were so pretty--much better than my flowers ever do at home.  Then it was back on the bus to London.  I bought a sandwich at the hotel and had another quiet evening in--I also discovered Law and Order:  UK.  I was a big fan of the original Law and Order so of course I was intrigued by the UK version.


Oxford

 Bampton Village

Highclere Castle 

 

 (I'm still working on my selfie skils)

  Just because