I'm back and better than ever!

Ok, not really. Everything is good in Ireland, and I am currently on the second half of winter break in Dublin. I just wanted to drop a few lines to tell you I'm not dead.

Just a few minutes ago, mostly for my own amusement, I was reading a message board on imbd.com regarding an upcoming J-Horror remake. I was, shall we say, perplexed and annoyed by some of the posts. Mostly, the postings degenerated into a sophomoric argument about what was better: American horror or Japanese horror. Neither side made particularly persuasive arguments, mostly relying on the level of pretension they could achieve to support their stance. For example, the J-Horror fans went with the unoriginal, unsatisfactory, and supposedly self-explanatory "J-Horror is psychological, while typical American gore-fests lack DEPTH" argument. This led to a battle over the whether all things American are inherently dumb because Americans have no culture (one person concluded that Hollywood lacked good script writers because of a failing education system, which was why major movie companies were supporting remakes instead of new scripts). This led to pointless, angry name-calling (including "Disney teeny-boppers"). A few sane individuals pointed out that the question of which nation made better horror films was a matter of personal preference, and no one was being forced to go see the damned film anyway.

So, why am I writing about this? Who cares? Because as much as I generally dislike "bad" movies (although sometimes I love them), I really dislike those people that fancy themselves connoisseurs de film. I'm sure you've met one, that type who believes you must be some kind of uninformed, uncultured MORON to even entertain the thought of going to see any of the rubbish produced by HOLLYWOOD, for God's sake, because they only go to see movies by Quintin Tarantino and post-modern left-wing lesbian Swedish films. Or whatever. (Not that there is anything wrong with Tarantino or Swedish films). I hate cultural snobbery too, or any sort. Even though I'm not really patriotic, I resent the notion that I couldn't possibly appreciate or understand anything with depth because I'm an American. Of course, I equally dislike the Americans that respond to such comments with the slightly embarrassing "You're just saying that because the whole world is anti-American right now." Anyway, the whole point of this little diatribe is that almost all of the people on that message board were absolutely certain that they had the most thought-out and intellectually sound opinion; in my view they sounded haughty and a bit stupid. Maybe that's because a back-and-forth of weak arguments almost always became a name-calling match. Which just shows that message boards are for insulting and mocking other people. I don't know why this bothers me so much, but it does! I feel like these wanna-be's use these kind of venues to have faux-intellectual pissing contests. As a result, they discourage interesting discourse and suck the excitement out of going to see a neat-o film. They just...stomp all over it, and it doesn't seem so fun to go see the movie anymore. The jerks. That's why they make me angry.

Anyway, that's my thought for the day, before the new year. Hate on the pretend-intellectuals, yeah!

Also, I'd really like if Megan and Terri in particular would respond to this post, if you guys are out there. But of course, I'd love it all my wonderful friends made a comment.

Also also, a question for all my pals: What's your favorite "bad" movie? Come on, there's no oversexed cliched teen movie too, er, cliched. Two of mine are the original film version of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Eurotrip. They're truly, wonderfully awful.

Also also also, look at the mood icon! Isn't the annoyed fox cute?!

I saw this while surfing the web, and it struck me as funny. This has absolutely NOTHING to do with Ireland.

1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (your first pet and street name)

Mickey Andy


2. YOUR MOVIE STAR NAME: (grandfather/grandmother on mother's side first name, favorite candy)

Nadine Sees


3. YOUR "FLY GIRL/GUY" NAME: (first initial of first name, first three letters of your last name)

J - Hin


4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite animal, fave alcoholic beverage)

Tiger Bulmers


5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME:(middle name, city where you were born)

Peterson Harbor (City)


6. YOUR OPPOSITE SEX NAME: (name of opposite sex parent, cell phone Company you use)

Michael Verizon


7. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (first 3 letters of your last name, last 3 letters of mother's maiden name, first 3 letters of your pet's name)

Hin-Son Mol

Today was a really long day. Long, long, looonnnggggg. First all the international students had to go to a student services meeting; it was informative if dry. They we were all supposed to go on a campus tour, but I skipped to get some crucial information from the International Student Affairs Office. I then took a tour of the shiny, new athletic complex -- I'm actually thinking about taking a yoga class. Then, on to another talk about life as a foreign student. I learned some interesting things, but I just wanted to GO HOME. And finally, after all that, a welcome reception for Int'l students that I attended for about 10 minutes. After all that, I walked home in the rain, stayed in for about an hour, and then went back out to meet my American friends for Mexican food. By the by, the grub was ok, but the prices were painful. I won't be returning in the future.

So, in an attempt to maintain some sense of proper chronology, I am going to first post about the things that happened last weekend. On Friday, we left Dublin for a town in the west called Castlebar to spend the weekend with a real Irish family. Another girl Megan and I stayed with Michael, a van driver, his wife Vera, a play school teacher, and their two boys Kelvin and Killian (11 and 8 respectively). It was all very...unremarkable for lack of a better word. Michael didn't interact with us at all except to drive us to and from the pick-up point, and Vera seemed eager to be rid of us. Not in an unfriendly way mind, more in a I've-got-my-own-things-to-do kind of way. I guess they were living their normal lives so that we could have the full cultural experience, but it was underwhelming. I feel a little like they could have at least offered to drop us off at a nearby tourist attraction or something. The only thing we really did all weekend was eat, sleep, and shop. I could have done that in Dublin. Saturday night, Megan and I planned on going pubbing with some of the other home stay Americans that came with us, but Vera said we had to walk into town and back if we wanted to go out. She also told us she didn't have any problem with us getting plastered! Since we didn't have a ride and we were both rather tired, we decided instead to stay in while Michael and Vera went out; we two would babysit. It was actually really fun, and incidentally, the parents were the ones who came home three sheets to the wind. I suppose that could qualify as the most interesting part. The next morning, we all got up after noon and had a "real Irish breakfast" -- a fried egg, lamb chop, bacon, sausage, broiled tomatoes, and toast. And tea. I'm surprised by how skinny all these Irish people are considering their appetites! That was about it; we returned to Dublin that evening.

Here's the breakdown for today's activities. First, my flat mates and I finally (finally!) went grocery shopping. We now have yogurt and carrots and apples like real people! And I can finally control what I eat a little better now that my meals can be self-catered. Nothing exciting really happened at the store, but we had to take the bus and our stop was right in front of the store. Exciting stuff when you have to walk everywhere and carry everything with you. We all seemed to like the same things so it made it really easy to split the bill. Also, as previously mentioned, you have to provide your own shopping bags in Ireland, or get regular plastic ones for a price. They are way more environmentally conscious here in Ireland than in the US, so this is an effort to reduce waste. I think it's neat, and you can buy the big sturdy sacks at the "till" (read: check-out) of most major grocery chains. After getting home and putting the food away, we then walked down to Trinity for the Club and Society fair. I "joined" the following organizations:

Werner Chemical Society
TCD St. Vincent de Paul Society (service organization)
Dublin University International Students' Society
Amnesty International
Dublin Cancer Society

I know it sounds like a lot, but the clubs are very casual here, so I've hardly made a pact signed in blood or anything like that. You're free to come and go as you please. In any case, after that, I went shopping at A Wear and bought a few things (they're pictured below in the previous post). I also went to a pharmacy for calcium supplements and hair clips. That was about it. Not very interesting I suppose, but tomorrow promises to be a full day, with introductions, tours, a reception, the whole lot. No one in our apartment is exactly looking forward to it, but we'll be given clearer instructions than we've received so far on questions regarding class registration, which we're all eager to hear.

Now I'm going to relate an incident which occurred last Thursday. The reason I didn't post about it last week was it was kind of personally upsetting and I needed time to put it in its proper perspective. So, without going into too many details, our entire study abroad group (12 people) decided to go out to a pub and hang out, but we left for the bar at 11 pm. I myself already felt a little hinky about going; many bars close at midnight, so all the drunk people were out wandering around packing the late bars. However, my non-drinking roommate seemed excited about the idea and explained it was because of the conversation, not the alcohol. So I was persuaded. We had previously decided to try a semi-famous pub called the Stag's Head Tavern (James Joyce used to frequent it, blah, blah, blah...). When we got there, it was wall-to-wall PACKED, standing-room-only. I refused to go in, while the 11 other people plunged into the mass of bodies. I wanted to stand outside until they came back, but there were very drunk smokers hanging out by the door, so I went up the block a little to wait. Unfortunately, I went too far so that I was out of sight. When the group came back out, 1 minute later, they thought I had vanished and started frantically texting and calling me. Before I could respond, a man approached me and asked for money for his "girlfriend in the hospital" which I interpreted to mean "drug habit". I know, I know, I'm cynical, but my mother didn't raise a fool, ok? I convinced him to go away, but I didn't answer my phone while I was dealing with him, which worried my little band even more. By the time I got back to them, I got a mini-lecture from one of the girls about walking around in a strange city after dark, which you know, I admit I kind of deserved. But it was still annoying. I really wanted to tell her, "I'm from L.A.! Get out of may face!" But that would have been a pretty lame argument, and really rude, so I yelled it on the inside. Anyway, after that, everyone still wanted to go out somewhere, but I was done. I got the keys to the flat from one of my flat mates, and headed for a cab stand near Trinity. As it turns out I was joined by two of them within 10 minutes, so we split a fare home. It was a pretty crappy night. I think I was most upset by two things. (1) The lack of real planning. (2) Why did they go in?!? WHY? It was clear that there wasn't any room for 12 people, and we had already kind of embarrassed ourselves by accidentally going to the toilets downstairs first, instead of the actual pub. How many signs from God do you need to finally split? Anyway, that was my bad experience. It's late here and my roommate is giving me the "it's bed time" look. I'll tell you more about last weekend tomorrow, and also how orientation progresses. It strikes me that this travel log is rather backwards. I'll work on keeping it properly up-to-date.

Bonsoir for now.

J

Now on to one of my favorite subjects: shopping!

There are two main streets for shopping in Dublin -- Grafton Street and O'Connell Street. Grafton has quite a few high-end stores, Gucci and the like, and in general has nicer places to shop. At the top of Grafton there is St. Stephen's Green Mall. It's a little small by American standards, but it has a pretty entrance and nice stores. O'Connell Street branches off into other heavily-peopled shopping avenues -- primarily Henry Street. However, this end of town is not nearly so high end, and there are lots of fast food joints. It's also not a nice part of town to be in after the sun goes down, but in the daytime it's perfectly safe.

For those of you on a short stay the following information may not be so helpful; but those of you that will be staying awhile (like me!) or for my curious readers, it may be of interest.

WHERE TO BUY WHAT

I know, its seems so silly, but our little apartment had some trouble figuring out where to get things like groceries, coat hangers, and thumbtacks. Here are some mainstream English/Irish stores and their wares for any newbie to Ireland.

DUNNE'S

Dunne's really is a SUPERmarket -- the one in St. Stephan's Green Mall sells groceries, clothing, and home decore. Most stores will only have one of the following categories, so make sure you know what kind of Dunne's you're going into. You'd hate to walk in looking for celery and only find pea-coats or bathmats. The merchandise is nice, if a little expensive. Think Macy's, in terms of clothing and home furnishings. A hint for any of the day trippers out there: If you want a cheap and relaxed meal, go to the Dunne's grocery at the St. Stephan's Green Mall (bottom floor), get some ready-made sandwiches and a drink, and go sit on St. Stephan's Green or in the quad of nearby Trinity College (!!!) for lunch. Very nice.

PENNEY'S

Penney's sells only clothes and some home decore (towels, bed clothes, etc.). It's really reasonably priced, but some products are not as well made or as nice looking as matching items from Dunne's. Every display is in total shambles most of the time from eager shoppings digging through, but you can get good deals on things like "tea towels" (read: dish towels) and gloves.

TESCO

Tesco is a largish grocery store -- you can get cleaning supplies and food at the same time, but don't expect much else. Don't forget to bring your own shopping sack, or you can buy a sturdy tarp one at the checkout for a few Euro.

LIDL

Lidl is a German chain of bargain stores, kind of the closest you're ever going to get to Walmart out here. There's one up 'round O'Connell Street somewhere. The fruit and vegitable produce, the snacky foods, and the weekly specials make it worth going every once in a while, but I would never make this a primary grocery store. Also the weekly specials are really random products -- one week it'll be piano stools, the next tackle boxes or bathing suits.

BOOTE'S

Boote's is a drug store (called 'chemist's') -- makeup, over-the-counter drugs, hair products, hair dryers, vitamins, toothpaste, etc, and prescription drugs available here. Any other drug store or pharmacy will be much the same, and you'll know them by a green medical cross outside the door. As we've unfortunately discovered, most drug stores do NOT sell toilet paper, process film, or carry greeting cards. This is not a Savon or RiteAid. Sorry folks.

CENTRA

Centra is a convenience store, but you can get supplies like little packs of laundry soap, heat 'em up meals, and newspapers and magazines for probably double the price. They're handy when you're in a bind so don't count them out.

A WEAR

A Wear is a women's clothing store, and everything there is really, really, really cute. However, plus sized girls are kinda out of luck on this side of the ocean, so I'll have to settle for their accessories (which are still really, really, really, cute!). The clothes tend to be a little dressy, and prices range from moderate to a teeny bit expensive. The sales rack items are well priced though. On Grafton Street, the A Wear has all the sales items on the bottom floor AWAY from customers, so be sure to check it out if you're interested. Here's a purse and a pashmina scarf I got from A Wear just today!






I plan on updating you guys on the shopping (cool or interesting stores, etc) as time permits. More on my actual day later.

Love to all,

Jude

If you're on the west coast, the Cliffs of Moher are a must for the shutterbugs out there! They are appropriately dramatic and awe-inspiring. Also, you don't have to be an athlete to enjoy the Cliffs -- there are two paths and both are pretty easy uphill strolls, with stairs at the steepest bits. There is also a nice little variety of knick-knack shops built into the hills (I gave them a miss, but I'm trying to conserve dosh), and a free exhibit on the surrounding sights in County Clare. However, it is not the sort of thing that can provide a full day's entertainment. I would give it 2-3 hours if we include transportation time and general lollygagging time. Also, it's chilly, rainy, and really really WINDY. Bring your lined windbreakers for this one.

I loved it, so I give it an 8 out of 10.

I've decided to write a little review of each tourist-type attraction I visit overseas. A sort of Rick Steves thing but probably not as useful or as organized. But for anyone thinking about going to Ireland, it might come in handy when planning your visit.

Hello friends! Am at this moment sitting in an internet cafe with my some of my fellow American ex-patriots as we speak! Dublin is very...urban, for lack of a better word. It's all very nice, but there are lots and lots of people walking quickly to important places. Our little study abroad group (10 total) was very obnoxious because one of our local assistants kept stopping us in the middle of the sidewalk to point out grocery stores and the like. Everyone had to keep walking around us...oops! Last night we did the medieval banquet thing -- it was very enjoyable once I stopped worrying about looking like such a touristy dweeb. And the food was quite good as well. But more about that sometime later. We got into Dublin today, but moving in was postponed until tonight because the keys had not been made. I hope shops will still be open at 8 pm -- we've no groceries or sheets!

Must run, write more later.

J

Hello to all from across the sea! I arrived in Shannon a few days ago and have only just gotten access to the internet. I thought perhaps using livejournal was a more economical way of talking about my doings abroad than trying to phone my pals back in the states. I've only seen a few sights so far but the western part of the country is lovely and green. I can only hope the east is just as nice. The past weekend, I stayed with some old friends of my parents at their "vacation house" in Ballyvaughan on Galway Bay -- perfect! Right now I'm staying in Limerick for the programme orientation. Just today I met the other study abroad students -- they all seem like very affable, warm-hearted people, and I think everyone will get on just fine. We heard about housing assignments in Dublin (exciting stuff!). Most of our students will be cohabiting in a very posh apartment building than Jonathan Rhys Meyers lived in; a small minority of us (myself included) will be living in a slightly less posh, bohemian-type apartment building. All the previous students have raved about the accommodations, so I'm not too worried. Can't wait to see it for myself!

Tomorrow is the official orientation, where they talk at you for hours on end. I'm not looking forward to it exactly, but it's all important stuff that should be discussed -- what to do in emergency situations, what to expect academically, keeping yourself safe, the official line on anything and everything, etc, etc, etc. Then we get to go to a medieval banquet at a nearby Norman castle. The day after, off to Dublin to settle in!

That's about it for now from this end -- by the by, Happy Belated Birthday Megan. Have a great term at Cal.

Cheers!

JP

I haven't updated in quite a while, and this message technically isn't an update either. Just a "hi-I'm-still-breathing-if-you-care" type post.

Favorite quotes from a book I just recently finished (Megan probably would like it):

"In my opinion, tradition gets away with murder. Tradition needs to be questioned in a windowless cube in the bowels of Heathrow airport on a regular basis. Take, for example, Christmas. Why do we all have to come back, like some refugee crisis in reverse, to see our folks during this miserable mid-winter week?"

"Memory is dangerous. Memory is a drug. Memory is bad shit."

"Both what you run away from -- and yearn for -- is within you."

-- From A Sort of Homecoming, by Robert Cremins

As I am shameless copying Megan, here is my schedule for next semester:
CHEM168: Advanced Physical Chemistry: X-Ray Crystallography
CHEM052: Group Theory and Quantum Chemistry
CHEM056: Carbon Compounds
CHEM058: Carbon Compounds Lab (Friday)
ENGR059: Intro to Engineering: STEMS
ANTH179: Reading Culture
HIST179: Early Modern European History
PE001: Fly Fishing (no joke)

I will hate myself.

So today's lesson from Grey's Anatomy is:
The word MORBIDITY refers to illness, the same way that MORTALITY refers to death. Interesting, right?

Also, Dr. McDreamy is still an ass with the emotional maturity of a 13-year-old. But I knew that already.

I just wanted to post my "mood" as quixotic, because I have an interesting relationship with that word. Really, it is the root of the entire reason why I will never be good at Spanish. That's all, really.

So, I'm back from fall break. I had an absolutely WONDERFUL time at my friend's place at Berkeley, but sadly had to leave Tuesday morning for home. I did purchase a nifty sandal-shaped key chain to remind me of the trip, though.

Err...to explain the subject line, well, my roommate bought me a maroon corset for my very belated 19th birthday. I've tried it on with a white button down and a pair of olive cut-offs, and decided I looked kinda like a pirate. Well, a girl pirate. Ok, ok, a sorta slutty girl pirate. But that's not too bad right? I mean, I can hardly imagine wearing it in any other situation that doesn't involve a long-time boyfriend or spouse (of which I have neither) so I should do something with it, I would think. Anyway, I thought a certain person who is ALSO going as a pirate this year would think this was funny. I'll send you a picture. Maybe I'll even post a picture, if I can figure out how.

Chem girl out.

This post wasn't too far behind the other, I must be improving. Maybe.

Err...hello all. Here is another periodic message from Judy, trapped in the wilds of Havey Mudd College and fending for her life against Physics lab reports and tin folk art research projects. In other words, she has too much work and not enough time to post. And apparently she likes to talk in the third person.

Lucky me, I get a whole week off for fall break, so I drove up the coast with a few of my friends to Berkeley, where I am staying with my very very good friend from High school and having a blast! Yesterday we went up to San Francisco on the BART; we did a little shopping and went to a movie...just spent time catching up and laughing at all the silly things we remember from CHS. We saw "The Illusionist" which was good if predictable. Edward Norton was fantastic as usual. Actually, while we were there, we walked past this totally SHAMELESS CRAZY lady on the sidewalk yelling and cursing into her cellphone presumably to her boyfriend. I hope she didn't think she was shaming him by giving him an earful (maybe two earfuls, she was really screaming at the poor guy), because she was only embarrassing herself.

Today we're just cruising around Berkeley. My friend gave me a tour of campus this morning, and later this evening we'll find SOMETHING to do; so far it's been a highly relaxing vacation, and I'm very happy to see my oldest ami again. (We've known eachother 14 years!)

'Til next time, Chem-Girl out.

Ok...finally finished P-Chem hw about two minutes ago. It is a masterpiece that is about to be brutally attacked by the red pen of death. Fear the red pen of death, all ye that hear me! Fear it! Lucky for me, I have no classes tomarrow afternoon (morning only), so I can have a nap instead.

For all three of you who took the poll...the corrent answer was Antoinette Christine.

Goodnight!

Poll #812699 Guess the name of Judy's New (to her, not new-new) Car
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 4

What has Judy decided to name her 03 Nissan?

Ok...so this is just for kicks. I want to see if you guys can guess. Megan, YOU already know, so don't give it away. I changed my free basic account to a still-free plus account, but there will be ads appearing atthe top of the screen, I think. Well, if it's too tacky I'll just change back. But then I can't make anymore nifty polls. Errr...Happy beginning of the school year! Bye!

Ok, so I've never actually made an icon before...this is just a pic of my current lab project (points to icon thing). By why isn't it a square? I know I fail at making icons, but not bad for a icon-handicapped person, right?

Yay! Finals are finished, my crap is packed...and I'm going to summer school. The only change in locale will be my dorm room, which is an Atwood single instead of my current Sontag double. Not a bad rooming situation I suppose, but I only know ONE person in my suite pretty well, and I've heard some bad things about one particular suite-mate. Still, the best thing to do is go in there with an open mind, and a good set of earphones. Nothing helps you ignore irritating co-inhabitants like loud music. I hope I did ok on my tests; the goal this semester is to get above a 3.00 GPA (fantastic for HMC!).

Yesterday I met someone from high school while in my hometown that I hadn't seen in ages and had an excellent evening. (If you're out there and reading this "CARO", leave a comment.) It left me feeling vaguely sentimental about the ol' CHS. Too bad my car broke down on the way back to HMC, so I had to sit in a strip mall parking lot until 2 am for a tow back to the dorm. Also, cell died before this little issue, so I had to find a payphone. My roommate was totally frantic, and her boyfriend slightly disapproving that I had left and not told them where I was going. He had a point, but he explains things in a way that just makes you want to sucker-punch him sometimes...he can be unknowingly condescending. In any case it's all been resolved, and the guilty party of this misadventure? A clogged fuel filter. Really crap-tacular night.

Summer Must-Do's
1. Finish scrapbook
2. See a few movies
3. Organized mounds of papers in room
4. Go to DL with Megan
5. Get summer job at the mall in Rio Rancho