On the Road Again

So I have been a massive slacker in posting and I apologize! This probably wont be the best post due to the fact that many of the events over the past two -three weeks have become quite a blur. Hence why I need to be more diligent in my postings.

I believe it was two weeks ago now that I got the full experience of going out in Ireland. The weekend started not of Friday or Saturday night as it would for most. But started on Thursday! I went out with two friends to a small pub in town and stayed out only until midnight. Not bad since I had to be at work the next morning.
After work it had been planned that myself and pretty much all the younger and single women of the department would go out for a night on the town! Now Tullamore is a small town, population of 11 some thousand people and the girls here dress up for a night out as if they were in vegas! I witnessed more of this just last night. My coworkers had all the hair and make up, heals and sparkles, they made a very classy dressed group of women. Then there was me! Skinny jeans, plan loose fitting kind of draping top, minimal make up, every day hair and a borrowed pair of heals. Started out the night with drinks at the house, took a taxi to a pub where we all had several drinks. Then it was off to the night club. Yes this tiny lil town has a night club. The night went well, didn't actually drink much more because the mixed drinks (which are referred to as cocktails even if its just a rum and coke in a boring short glass) are very expensive and extremely weak. Don't know what I was thinking with the heals either, they killed me, I couldn't walk normal for days. I'm also not a purse person or a "clutch" person for when you go out. I checked my jacket but kept my phone, money and I.D. on my person. However my phone as massive as it is ended up in one of the other girls clutches, which walked away and out of the club with out me! AH I ended up getting the late night fast food fix with the girls that remained and then split off to a house party. Not thinking about the fact that my phone was missing and my keys were at the house where the party originally started. The next morning was spent in frantic search for people and belongings. ha
That being Friday night was not the end of my weekend, I was out again Saturday night with a different group. Friends I had met from my housemates had family coming to visit from California and so I had been invited to come out, have a few drinks and listen to some good music. Which I did! However I was more than pacing myself since this was my third night in a row, I was in no hurry to drink. We went to two different pubs that night and stayed at the second pub until closing. One difference between Ireland and the US is that at closing time they don't kick you out. They actually lock you in!!! They close the front door and place a bouncer in front of it. No one is aloud in and if you want out you have to go out the side or back door. If you want you can stay and drink until the sun comes up. I however found the side door around 3am and got a taxi home.
Once again that was NOT the end of my weekend. I was out yet again on Sunday, with the same group as Saturday. Went to the same pub we'd started at the night before. They had rock and roll bingo, which I was two spaces away from winning!! Which would've gotten me three shots and all the money from people paying to play. Even though I didn't win the night was still a good one, the place was packed!! But I still managed to get myself home around mid night so I could rest up for Monday back at work.

Fun at the night club! 

Last weekend was yet another set of adventures. I had fellow Americans here in the north of Ireland for a festival. I had made plans to go up north to Letterkenny and visit my friends. Since I am without wheels I started by looking into trains and/or buses to make my journey. However Letterkenny doesn't have a train station. So I'd have to take a train from Tullamore to Athlone, then from there take a bus to Letterkenny. The amount of time this journey would take is around 7hrs! I then decided to just google map the distance and see how long it took by driving and shockingly enough it would only take 3.5hrs driving. So that decided how I was getting there! I was going to venture on to the other side of the car and road to get to Letterkenny. 

I was able to rent a car easily enough, a manual transmission, four door hatch back of a different make than I'd ever driven before. The make was a Seat and the model a Leon. I actually really liked the car, very comfortable, easy to handle and had a nice sound system! Almost wish I could bring one home. 

 Pulled over in a church parking lot along the way! 

 The drive home from the car lot was probably the rockiest part of the whole drive. Having to shift with my left hand, trying to find the gears on top of making a conscious effort that when turning left I turned into the near lane and when turning right I'd turn across traffic into the far lane. One of the things I found the most difficult was keeping track of the left side of the car. I found the curb many times and it was hard to even look across that side of the car. My peripheral vision is just not trained to keep track of that side of the car and I felt I had to keep my eyes plastered straight ahead and on the middle line. The first portion of the drive north was on the motorway, aka freeway. Two lanes of traffic traveling in either direction. As per the driving etiquette in the states I moved to the right lane as the slow lane (inside lane), but soon had a van right on my tail with no intention of slowing down. I quickly moved over to the left lane and realized that that lane was indeed the slow lane (outside lane). It wasn't long until I was quite comfortable with the car and had some good music jamming on the radio. Soon however the navigation had me off onto the tradition country roads of Ireland.

 

Country Back Road

Motorway

 

 Driving on the back country roads was very scenic and also quite terrifying at times! The roads were quite windy, it was like a road course that never ends but also has cars driving at you with what seems like not enough room to pass each other. Not only are there normal sedans but lories(semi trucks) and buses. If you manage to survive the other traffic you also have to manage the roundabouts. I've never had any trouble with them at home but just the fact you are going around them in the wrong direction and with multiple lanes can be unnerving. Even the simple things like using your "indicator" aka blinker is tricky, it's still a task for the left hand but now the left hand also has to shift. So I generally skipped the blinker so I could get the shift. I also couldn't eat or drink while driving. At home if I needed to shift I'd simply put whatever I was consuming into the left hand which also would steady the wheel while the right would shift. Having the opposite hands for the opposite tasks was not allowing this to happen. It wasn't long into the drive when my right deltoid/shoulder was getting a little sore, all the slight movements of the wheel that it was very much not used to were taking their tole on my right side. 

I took my time with the drive, stopping in areas where you could stop. Since there is no such thing as shoulder of the road. It's road and ditch or trees and bushes. But here are some pictures of the country side along the drive to Letterkenny. I was terrible and noting where I was when I stopped. I passed through many small towns and was way  more focused on the drive than taking good notes, so I apologize for that. 

 It looked like the sky was falling-could see pockets of rain all around.

 The church I pulled over to see. Wish Churches looked like this back home.

 Another look at the car and lovely land scape around it!

 They actually have wind farms in Ireland.

Looking down on a valley with happy sheep! 

I made the drive with no major incidences, only one with a narrow bridge and on coming traffic. Got close enough to the bridge trying to make sure there was room for the other traffic that I managed to fold in the side mirror and bounce the car off the stone bridge. This was another example of having NO awareness of the left side of the car. It's so strange, almost like that side of the car doesn't exist until it reminds you "HELLO!"  Other than this one booboo myself and car made it to Letterkenny in one piece. I found my fellow Americans and settled in for the night. 

 

The next morning we went into town and had a traditional Irish breakfast, which let me tell you is nothing like the breakfast slammer at Denny's. I swear the one thing I miss other than the people back home is the food. I've been making a list of all the restaurants and food items I want when I'm back on U.S. soil. The egg with the breakfast was perfectly cooked, fully cooked whites but just enough run left in the yoke. We also had "bacon" aka slices of ham like you'd have a Thanksgiving except smaller. Plus two sausages which had a strange flavor and extra soft texture, which was a bit strange. Then of course don't forget the black and white pudding, which is in actuality blood sausages. They are both very salty and have an after taste that can't be pin pointed. 

After our not totally satisfying "Full Irish" breakfast we hit the road to find ourselves some Irish coast line and see some of the country side. This adventure would've been much more enjoyable for everyone involved if all my passengers hadn't just been in a car accident upon arriving in Ireland. Thankfully the only thing injured was the cars involved. But as anyone was quite on edge about even being in a car, which is expected after any kind of accident. At first everything was fine and dandy, but as we spent more time in the car and the roads got narrower and narrower then tension in the car could've been cut with a chain saw. My originally calm state while driving the day before was no were to be found, with all my passengers clinging to the seat cushions for dear life. 

Finally we found ourselves a coastline and a break from the car. The beach we found ourselves at was Ballymastocker Bay. This however was not known to us at the time and thanks only to google maps was I able to find the name! YAY!! The beach was not really warm, it was totally over cast with a slight breeze, keeping a constant mist blowing over you. Even with it being slightly less than desirable conditions for weather and the water being frigid, the beach was awesome! Here as some pictures! Hope you enjoy! 

 Sheep in the road-It really happens!

 The grassy hills that boarder the beach.

 Eureka! The Atlantic Ocean

 Looking back at the gang as the make their way onto the beach.

 Some really cool rock formations

 I couldn't resist-Had to climb!

 They even have drunk snails in Ireland

 The waters edge in the distance.

 More rocks edging the beach.

After a lovely time at the beach we went to the next small town and found a water front restaurant where we had a lovely meal before heading back to Letterkenny for a performance put on by the festival! The performance was amazing and was a great way to end the day. We walked around Letterkenny which was a nice change for everyone, by this point in time I was even stressed about getting back into the dang car. However I wasn't scared to cross the road like some of my cohorts. All in all it was a good day! 

 

Then next morning we packed up all our belongings and crammed it all into the car! Making it impossible to see out the back window and probably not that comfortable to ride in the back seat. The drive from Letterkenny to Dublin was much last stressful than our road adventure the day before. The whole drive was primarily made of not so narrow roads and motorways. It wasn't until we got to Dublin that the stress levels shot through the roof again. Unfortunately the navigation system wasn't able to locate the hostel we need to find, so we were wholly dependent on the memory of my friends who had stayed at the hostel when they first arrived in Dublin a week ago. This meant we drove in circles, on the tram line and also in a bus lane. All these options weren't the best but we finally made our way to the hostel and then to the parking garage.

After getting settled in our room we went for dinner at the River Bar, which had some of the best fish and chips I'd ever had! Then rest of the evening was spent on my bunk relaxing and watching Oceans 11. 

Sunset over Dublin. 

Monday was the last day spent in Dublin, we had a lovely breakfast and spent the rest of the day walking the streets. And I must say Dublin is a dirty city. Its big and its loud and covered in trash! It has its nice areas that are very lovely but you turn a corner and its nothing but nasty. Hence why I'll never enjoy big city living. I stayed in Dublin until mid afternoon then it was back on the road home to Tullamore to settle back into daily life. I'll finish off this blog with some photos of Dublin. And call it Grand!! 

 Final morning in Dublin, breakfast and coffee!

 City Center of Dublin

 The river than runs through Dublin.

 Went to Trinity College, got yelled at twice by security. Ha

 Awww the streets of Dublin.

 Very pretty horses

The traffic leaving town!

That's all folks!!

 

 

 

A Day in the Life!

                 It's about time I actually gave you all some stories and insight into the daily life I have in Tullamore and the small adventures I've had around the local area.

                 I must say I love my job! My coworkers at the hospital are awesome! Everyone is very welcoming and generally in a good mood making for an extremely good atmosphere. Managers aren't intimidating or unapproachable which makes life so much better when you have an issue or a question. So far I haven't had any major need to speak seriously with my manager. However as the new target in the place, he has does a good job of giving me crap. Which apparently is the Irish way, they just don't know how to not give you a hard time. My manager has nicknamed me Miss. America, which really isn't bad when it comes to nicknames! I however will never sit with him at lunch and make a point of giving him as little information as possible. He has already harassed me about my dating life(which I don't have) and why I haven't found an Irish man yet after only being here for 4 days at that point. Oh and the fact I have a housemate that is a man is always a hot topic with my manager! He has also managed to talk about politics with me asking which side I'm on. Saying how much of an awesome person he thinks Obama is because he has connections to Ireland like 8 generations back. Doesn't know a thing about his policies or anything he is doing in the U.S. but still loves him! Oh and apparently thinks Hilary Clinton should be the next president. He really knows what to say to get a person going but also doesn't like it if you actually have a good retort! HA!!

                  I have probably the most ideal job, everyone whats that Monday-Friday 8am-5pm kinda job. Which I have now. And the funny thing with Ireland or at least at this particular hospital you get 3 breaks in a 8hr day. It really feels like I go from one break to the next! Get to work at 9am, you have two techs to an exam room and at 1030 the first tech goes for a 15-20min break. Once that tech is back the second tech goes for break. Then lunch is 1230-115 for one tech and 115-2 for the other. Then around 330 one tech would get there final break and the second tech would go when they return. Only to be off work at 5pm. On these breaks everyone has a cup of coffee or more likely a cup of tea and some kind of bread/pastry with butter, seriously! Never once have I seen one of my coworkers having a cup of tea with out some kind of bread.

                   On more of the technical side of things, Ireland is VERY aware of radiation exposure and do about half the views on a given body part. I'm sorry if I lose anyone at this point but I'm going to speak in Radiographer language for a minute. So the standard I've been taught in the U.S. is that on Hands/wrists, feet/ankles you do three views. Then with long bones (humerus, radius/ulna, femur and tib/fib) you only do two views. All the joints such as elbows, shoulders and knees can vary in the number of views and which views depending on trauma vs pain or what the actual order is requesting. Here Ireland they only do two views, unless otherwise requested by the doctor. And on hands and feet, in the U.S. if we were to do a two views it would only be a AP and Lateral, here they do AP and Obliques. With long bones if the point of injury is at one end, say closer to the hand and the full length of the forearm doesn't fit on the film they wont bother to include the elbow joint. Especially with femurs, most adult femurs wont be visible on one film but they generally wont bother to get the whole length as long as they get the point of injury! At this particular hospital they do a lot of hip replacements, so all of our hips/pelvis exams are "ortho" pelvis. Meaning you don't need the WHOLE pelvis. If a "hip" is ordered it is changed to a pelvis and we only do a lateral or frog hip view if there is a history of fall. With Spines the only do two views on all spines. Only doing three views if you need a specific joint space open or with a  cervical spine only have to do an open mouth view when the patient has been in a trauma. One other thing that really threw me was with skull work, in the US we were taught specific names for the views, which even for us there can be multiple names for one view. But if I was to hear a name of a view I'd know what they are looking for. Here the say OM or OF, so they talk projection of the path of the radiation. OM = Waters view Occipital Mental(mandible) or OF= caldwell view Occipital frontal. Was so confusing at first to make sure I didn't get it mixed up in my head.

                 On the funnier side is listening to people talk and people listening to me talk. I actually get made fun of more than I ever expected because of how I talk! So in Xray school, we had a teacher that pronounce thoracic as thor-astic. A couple that are even better here are how they pronounce skeletal as skel-eetal and cervical as sir-v-eye-cal! Cracks me up!! One of the techs said that even though he is from Australia he pronounces cervical the same as the Irish because other wise it sounds similar to another female body part. Really? Pretty sure if you got an order for a cervical spine or a patient comes in with a neck collar and the order says cervical you wouldn't think of a female body part.....I hope!

                  Okey, enough about radiology! I know you all want to see more of the country side and hear about the small adventures I've had so far. Just outside the city limits is a castle called Charleville castle! It has a beautiful estate around it with tones of sheep and cows. The long driveway to the castle which is probably about a mile is surrounded by trees and thick ground cover. You can't see the sky through the trees and it really feels like an enchanted forest, until you come to the speed bumps in the road. The castle itself is lived in and they use it for conventions  and things. It's also under a lot of repairs! As cool as the castle was you can tell it has been touched by the modern world and probably due to lack of funds some areas really looked a little shabby.  The part that bummed me out the most is that I didn't get to go into either of the towers or on the roof. The one tower is where all the living quarters were and the other tower needed its stairs repaired so they'd be safe to walk on.This castle is also claimed to be haunted! However I'm not quite convinced, apparently they did a super natural investigation. Our tour guide really sucked so I didn't pay much attention. Sorry I can't give you much on that.

 

Charleville Castle

The castle walls

 

The front door and the chandelier over the entry way

The Kings Oak

 At the very edge of the Castle estate is is this massive tree!

Apparently it is one of the biggest in all of Europe.

 I look so tiny and apparently like an elf according to my mom!

             There is one other place I've gone that is a little ways outside the city limits. Not sure I could find it again since the roads are slightly confusing. But it's called Glenbarrow. It is actually a forest that was man made and has the river barrow running through it. I didn't think to ask how long the forest had been there but with the size of all the trees and ground cover it looks to have been there for many years. Extremely beautiful! Gave my nerd self the feeling of being lost somewhere in middle earth! Just so cool! 

 The Trails surrounded by trees

 

Never found a four leaf clover. The river has a multilevel waterfall! 

 The country land scape near Glenborrow

                     So far I haven't seen much outside my little town, but I'll be planning some train rides and adventures out into the country! It's quite funny to talk about travel with the Irish, for them a 2hr drive is a long journey. Even an hour seems like a long time for them. I guess when it only takes 6-8hrs to get from one side to the total opposite side that would seem like a long time! Once I've gotten a chance to explore more of Ireland then I also intend to see some of the UK and main land Europe! I must say life without a car makes things interesting. You really have to be motivated to get some where and just hoof it or plan ahead  in order to catch a train or bus. If I had a car I could probably cover soooo much ground in Ireland! I do plan to rent a car at least once, if its not super expensive I may do that more than once so I can travel where ever adventure takes me! 

                      To finish off this post I'd like to share some Irish slang and verbiage that I've caught onto in the last two weeks. First off they use the word "grand" like we use the words good, fine, great, awesome or even okey. Everything literally is grand!! The housing development that I live in is called an estate. A cupboard is a press. One of my housemates says "whats the story" like we would say "whats up." When saying you're tired or exhausted they tend to say they're "wrecked." When someone or something is funny they say "gast" or "gas"? I'm not quite sure on that one because they talk SO flipping fast. They do actually call the restroom the loo and gas for the car is either diesel or petrol. When telling someone thanks very much or thanks allot they tend to say "thanks a mill." When saying that someone likes you or is into you, they say they "fancy" you. Using the word posh is very common! Which I actually didn't know for sure what that meant?! Just means upper class or something fancy. I guess the fact that as Americans we tend to collect cars it is very "posh" to have 2+ cars regardless of if the car itself is posh. One of the other things that they use to say something is very good or something is of high quality is "class." Like if I was to get some fancy clothing or anything that's very high quality that would be said to be class! Any drink that is mixed is considered a cocktail. Oh and the Irish don't pronounce their "th's" Think = tink, that= dat, three=tree  and so on!

                      Guess I could add the things that I've been made fun of for saying, the BIGGEST one is saying "oh dang"! I get a smirk when ever I say awesome. And just this morning I got mocked by my house mate for pronouncing the A in tomato differently. 

                        As much as I like allot of the Irish sayings they really don't feel natural to me so I don't say them much, if at all! Ha And of course the first time I said "oh" with an Irish twang (totally not intentionally) I got made fun of for that. I feel like I've become quite self conscious of how I talk now,  I just can't win! 

 Cheers!?