Culture shock

Wow, things are different here in Ireland!

Fist off, there's no Italian. Like none, really, to the point where I got
a warm feeling seeing the Italian version of the museum brochure we
visited this afternoon. I keep thinking little things in Italian like
"excuse me" and "are you in line" and such, and have to really stop myself
from expressing the addictive sentiment of "ciao". I wasn't sure what
that would be like, and it's been a bigger surprise than I expected.

Dublin is gorgeous, absolutely beautiful. I'm a bit cold here, but my dad
is coming out of an Ohio winter and thinks it's positively balmy. The
first impression I got of the city was last night, when I had a brief
window of opportunity to see it. I got to my airport hotel at about 8,
and there were buses making the 40 minute route until 11:30, so I grabbed
two hours to wander around downtown. It was absolutely stupendous to be
roaming the banks of the river Liffey, and I couldn't stop singing "The
Ferryman" to myself - "where the strawberry beds sweep down to the Liffey
you'll kiss away the worries from my brow".

The best way I can explain Dublin is that it's like a mini-London with a
healthy mix of Amsterdam (minus the whole drugs and prostitution thing).
Other than that it's such a unique area it's hard to describe. Our hotel
room is in the Temple Bar district, which is absolutely phenomenal, and
there is a lot of really thriving street life in the entire neighborhood.
This afternoon my dad and I took a bus tour, which was really
enlightening. I need to take more city tours; I think I've been missing
out on some really interesting details by insisting on wandering around on
my own elsewhere.

My dad brought me a new camera as a birthday present (thanks mom! The
last one was a Christmas present...) so I hope to have some more pictures
to send out shortly! I am having a fantastic time, it's really great to
see my dad, and things are going really well!