Ireland and I had a bit of a tiff. Maybe it was because I went back to the States for three weeks (where I had a lovely Christmas in Santa Fe, a great time seeing family in California, and was delighted to get to catch up with old friends in New York) and Ireland may have picked up on my realizations that sometimes I do miss home, my family and my friends and got a bit jealous. Or maybe Ireland got jealous over my actual boyfriend since I had originally declared myself to be in a relationship only with Ireland. Anyways, Ireland decided to use its government and bureaucracy to give me a hard time with immigration. We're still trying to work things out but I've decided to take the high road and get back into my usual love of Ireland routine even though I'm still a bit annoyed.
Anyways, since I've been back I have been visiting some Dublin sights that I still had not seen in my year being here. I went to the Museum of Antiquities which has collections from various archaeological discoveries all over Ireland dating as far back as the Bronze Age. Given my love of Ireland and my love of history I was pretty excited and a bit surprised that I did not already know about this treasure of a museum. I also went to the Botanical Gardens which are really beautiful especially since all the greenhouses are built in Victorian style architecture. Finally I went to the National Gallery, which I have been to many times before, but this time they had a rare water colour The Meeting on the Turret Stairs by Frederic William Burton that is only on display for a month and only shown an hour at a time to keep it out of harmful light. I was lucky and got there just on time to see that painting.
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| Botanical Gardens |
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| The Meeting on the Turret Stairs by Frederic William Burton (Image courtesy of National Gallery of Ireland) |
I'm still working for the theatre company and it looks like we are going to have an exciting year ahead of us and we were very successful in all our grant applications for the past year so hopefully I'll have more good news soon!
We have had a very mild winter, no snow, so I'm glad I got to see some flakes when I was in Santa Fe because the evenings are getting brighter here and I think spring will be right around the corner. I got stuck in a rainstorm today and was significantly drenched, I guess that's just Ireland's way of showing me some love. I also found 50 euro in the back of a taxi the other night (winning!)
Last night I had dinner with some friends at a Chinese restaurant to celebrate the Chinese New Year. We had delicious food, although at times I admit I am not entirely sure what I was eating, and of course there had to be karaoke. Oh dear. I've decided that this is my take 2 for the new year since it got off to a rocky start. Besides, 2012 is the year of the dragon so it's my year and I'm going to make sure it's even better than last year! That's right, stay positive.
Happy New Year to everyone! I'll be back with more soon (I promise).
