Whoops

Sorry for the lack of posts since Monday. It's been a busy couple of days, so I'll give you a quick rundown of what's happened.

Tuesday


Another day of placements. It was production day at the Recorder, so they had me put a story together in the morning and gave me the afternoon off so they could work on proofing without me around.

Sidenote: I brought copies of The Marquette Tribune with me to give to the newspaper staff here, and they were shocked that we produced two issues a week, while being in school full time. Props to any Tribbers who are reading.

I spent the afternoon hanging around the Saint Patrick Centre, writing postcards and helping Tim out by editing some education materials.

In the evening we went to watch a rehersal for a marching flute band.

Wednesday


Dublin.

The last time I was in Dublin, I was there for less than a day, and spent that time being run ragged by one of my uncles, who was on a mission to find a Starbucks. By the end of that day, my sisters and cousins who had come along were complaining their feet had been replaced with "bloody stumps."

Well, the bloody stumps were avoided this time. We left Dundrum at about 8 a.m. because it takes about two and half hours to get to Dublin from here. When we arrived, Tim managed to get us free tickets on one of the hop on, hop off double decker bus tours. So we hopped on and headed to Saint Patrick's cathedral, where we were given a tour by a very eccentric, but friendly, man in a corduroy suit named Reg. I took plenty of photos, which I will have on Flickr within the next 24 hours.

From there we went to Kilmainham Jail, where we were given a tour of the incredibly creepy old prison famous for holding and executing the leaders of the Irish Easter uprising. This time, our tour guide was very serious about all the information presented, and probably could have been warden when the jail was still operating if she really wanted to be.

Then we headed to Leinster House, home of the Republic of Ireland's parliament, where we met the minister for social development.

After a tour of the parliament building we got back on the bus and headed back to Dundrum because we needed to be back to meet with a man named Stanley Papenfus. Stanley is from South Africa originally and likes to play the bongo drums and laugh ... a lot.

OK, now you're all up to date. Sorry, this post was a bit rushed because we're leaving in 15 minutes to go meet Northern Ireland's first and deputy first ministers.