Claire Blabbing

April 30, 2012

We are watching NCIS again.

GIBBS DRINKS OUT OF JARS. WE DRINK OUT OF JARS.

April 23, 2012

I am procrastinating.

Claire O'Connor

Preceptorship Report #4

April 23, 2012

HAHAHAHA JUST KIDDING. Not my preceptorship report. But it should be! Because it’s due in under 4 hours. AND THIS IS WHAT’S ON MY PAGE.

April 18, 2012

Excuses: St. Paddy's Day in Dublin.

(Two posts in one day??!! This can't be real life.)

Trip summary:

Ashley and I went to Dublin for the weekend of St. Paddy’s Day and it was a ton of fun. I was expecting it to be the same level of wild as Mardi Gras in New Orleans, but (thankfully) it wasn’t quite that. It was, however, definitely where I met the most Americans outside of America (we also met Catherine and her boyfriend Pat, but we planned that). The highlights were our visit to the Guinness Storehouse (which had lots of special things going on for St. Paddy’s Day--and much more free Guinness around than usual), our visit to Kilmainham Gaol (really, really interesting. A great way to learn about modern Irish history, which may be a description that makes it sounds like a boring place to visit for some people , but I thought it was really good. I wish my family had gone when we were in Dublin because I think my dad definitely would have liked it. I left that place pretty convinced that the British were just major, major assholes.), and our trip out to Howth, a town on the Irish Sea (we had the best calimari I have ever had IN MY LIFE, plus the town was just really pretty). All of these places were the recommendations of our gracious host, Tatiana, whom it was also a pleasure to see!

Two bizarre instances of family resemblance:

1. At the pub we went to for lunch on St. Paddy’s Day, our bartender looked like my Grampie. Not his face, but the rest of his body could have been Grampie’s. He had what we call the “Grampie legs” and the same arms and same way of walking and standing. It really caught me off guard.

2. On our last day, we had a little trouble finding the bus stop for the bus that would bring us back to the airport. I asked a policeman for directions and we talked for a minute or so. As we walked away, Ashley was like, “That was really weird. He looked like he could have been your brother.” Which I thought was funny because, as the policeman and I were chatting, it crossed my mind that he was an attractive guy. So maybe that was some subconscious vanity coming out there.

Something delicious:

Guinness with blackcurrant liqueur. Try it. It's like drinking a cake.

Excuses: Edinburgh.

This past weekend was my first weekend in London with just me and no visitors since JANUARY 4^TH. I’m not complaining at all—my weekends have been full of lots of great trips and fun visitors. But it was really nice to just chill and do nothing more than general housekeeping all weekend. I did a ton of laundry and I cleaned our entire apartment …I hadn’t realized we were living in such filth. I’m currently being overcome by fumes of cleanliness…something I’m apparently not used to.

During my weekend of nothing-ness, I had grand plans of writing an extensive post for each of my adventures from the past few months. But I think I need to be honest with you, my faithful reader(s), it is quite likely this will not happen. Instead, I’ve decided to limit myself. Here are three small parts of my trip to Edinburgh, the next installment of my series of excuses for not being a faithful blog updater.

1. Driving

…was terrifying. If you are accustomed to driving on the right and are planning on driving from London to Edinburgh and back over a weekend, TAKE THE TRAIN…or fly. If you do decide to drive, TAKE THE M1 THE WHOLE WAY. DO NOT LISTEN TO YOUR GPS. ONCE YOU PASS DURHAM, IT WILL INSIST YOU TURN LEFT AND TAKE A ROUTE THAT ACTUALLY LOOKS SHORTER. IT IS NOT SHORTER, BUT IT IS MORE TERRIFYING. It reminded me of the last time I ignored directions from a person who knew what she was talking about (the time my mom told me how to get to JFK to pick up Will from the airport—stay on the Belt Parkway, she said. But the GPS (his name is Watson) wanted me to turn, turn, stop passing the turns. I finally turned so Watson would shut the hell up, and as a reward, he decided to take me through streets of burned out cars and used auto parts shops where people were just out on the sidewalks staring at the conspicuously vulnerable white girl in a red Jeep. I will never drive in the city again.) Granted, on the way to Edinburgh, there are fewer burned out cars and more of these beauties:

Hard to see, but it's a hairy Scottish cow.

It actually wasn’t so much the being on the left side of the road part that was really scary. It was more that the roads have no shoulder, are extremely narrow, and the other cars are all going really fast. Driving out of Edinburgh, I got passed by six cars. And I wasn’t going THAT slowly. My mom would have been pleased by the speed I was going.

2. My first hostel experience

…was interesting. Our hostel was a converted church, so that was kind of cool. Ashley and I had a funny thing happen. We went downstairs to the girls’ bathroom to brush teeth and get ready for bed. Ashley opened the door to the bathroom and a guy wearing just a towel was brushing his teeth. He was way more startled by us than we were by him. I figured the guys’ bathroom was full or something, and he had come down there to brush his teeth. Whatever. We made to back out and just let him finish, but he sprinted out the door with a mouth full of toothpaste. As we walked in, we were like, “whatever dude, he at least could have spit.” Then we noticed ladies underwear strewn on one of the sinks and a lady (who was presumably the owner of the underwear) hop back into a running shower. I was brushing my teeth by the time I realized we had likely just interrupted something. Ashley probably gathered this a little faster than I did. About a minute later, the girl emerged from the shower, fully dressed, and walked out. Ashley and I turned to each other and burst out laughing. Just as Ashley was saying, “AWKWARD”, the girl came back into the bathroom. Yes, it was awkward. We all kind of looked at each other, and then Ashley and I went back to brushing our teeth. The girl collected her things and then left for good.

3. The city

…IS BEAUTIFUL. I really loved it. We climbed up Arthur’s Seat, this dormant volcano right next to the city. Really, really beautiful. And there are Westies EVERYWHERE! Westies on every kind of paraphernalia you can imagine. I was tempted to buy it all. I was also sorely tempted to buy a real kilt for someone who would probably wear it. But real kilts are expensive. Sorry, Will.

Another thing that was really nice… the air there was sooo clean and fresh. Ashley and I wanted to bottle it up and bring it back to London. Get ready for some TMI…after an extended stay in London, your boogers will be BLACK. It’s gross.

Conclusion: The trip was TOO SHORT, but still tons of fun. Edinburgh is definitely on my list of places to return to!

April 11, 2012

Excuses, a preview.

Our car broke down in the French countryside. (Preview of posts to come.)

March 22, 2012

Happy, happy spring.

In hono(u)r of the second day of spring...(click here)

After living in London, I have an entirely new appreciation for this song (and springtime, and summertime, and heat, and the sun). I’m sure the Beatles were talking about UK weather blues. The winter wasn’t that cold—it was just really dark and extra blah. Ashley and I diagnosed ourselves with SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder—really, doctors…I hope you got a good kick out of that acronym), but we feel it slowly lifting. The sun doesn’t set at 4:00 anymore and that is a beautiful, beautiful thing. I think our attitudes are changing too, because we’re realizing we aren’t actually going to be here forever and we need to make the most of the time that’s left! I wouldn’t mind canceling British Daylight Savings (they call it British Summer Time) though. I’ve enjoyed being just 4 hours ahead of the East Coast and 5 hours ahead of Houston. But our time changes this weekend so it will be back to the normal time difference.

I still plan on writing posts about our trip to Edinburgh, Maureen’s visit, and our trip to Dublin last weekend…it will happen...eventually…