New Friends/Newgrange

This week has been full of ups and downs, and I've been keeping busy with work and going out, haha. Well, work has not really been busy, but it's alright. Better than no work. Actually, sitting around and not doing anything is really a bummer, I feel so unproductive. All I do is read the newspaper online, check facebook, check email, and repeat.

Lately, I've been hanging out a lot with Jeff and Aaron, whom I met about two weeks ago through April. They used to be roommates, but April moved out now. Anyway, Jeff is from Seattle, and Aaron is from Hawaii. It's pretty cool, and they are great people to hang out with. Once I told Aaron about Veronica and Spencer's wedding in Hawaii and that I wanted to go island hopping while I was there, he offered to let me stay at his house on one of the islands! YAY! Jeff is super cool as well. Him, Kathleen, and I went out last night and met up with Chris (the guy I was going to live with, but didn't) and his gf and some other new USIT people. We were originally going to go to this posh club near my flat, but I guess on a friday night when eeeeveryone was out, the bouncers were ID-ing everyone, and a bunch of people in our group were not 21. So we ended up going to a 19+ bar in the temple bar, and just hung out there. It was "legit"... as Jeff would say. Haha... Americans. Yeah, it was definitely a good time. Here are some photos:


(Me and Kathleen)


(Kathleen and Chris)


(Me, Jeff, and Sherri, from London Ontario)


(Me and Chris)


(Haha, this is a great photo! We're trying to be gangsta.)

Anyway, getting up this morning proved to be difficult, but the extra two hours I got to sleep in was better than nothing. Today, Martin, a coworker at the DDDA, took me to this place called Newgrange. Basically, it is an old Irish ruin built around 3200B.C and housed an old tomb. The structure was also built with one entrance, and in a way that the sun will enter only 6 days a year, during the winter solstice. The tribal people at the time worshipped the sun like a god. It was really neat. According to our guide, the window above the entrance is exactly the same level as the horizon, so that during those days when the sun rose at the exact angle, the rays would shine directly into the passageway right as it comes up from the horizon. I thought that was pretty genius. The whole area of Newgrange is beautiful as well, though not overly vast.


(Cows)


(Me and Martin)


(Sideview of Newgrange)


(Entrance to the passageway)


(The window above the main entrance is the same height as the horizon, on the opposite side)


(Newgrange actually sits on top of layers of rock, something like a foundation to any regular building. Except this foundation is huge!)


(At the main entrance. As you can see, it is not very big at all.)


(Entrance to the visitors' center)

When we first got there, we watched a short video clip on basic astronomy; how the Earth is tilted, causing seasons and day and night. Then with that information, they explained how the Newgrange mound relates to the axis of the Earth and the direction of the sun as it rose and fell each day. To get to the actual site, we had to walk about 15 minutes across a small bridge and through a pretty path that reminded me of vineyards.



Once we got inside the narrow passageway of the tomb, we weren't allowed to take any video or photography, so it's unfortunate that I have no photos of inside the tomb. It's mainly out respect. Immediately after our short tour of the passageway, it started to rain! Ahh... not again! But luckily, this only lasted about 10 minutes. On the way back to Dublin (oh yea... Martin drove us. No buses or trains! How luxurious!) We passed by a town called Drogheda, and that was where Martin grew up, apparently. So we drove through it, and he pointed out where various family members and friends lived, his elementary school, and even the hospital in which he was born! It was a really a nice little tour :) To learn more about Newgrange, click here!

Anyway, once he dropped me off back home, I just hung out in my room and read this book Suzi lent me. It's called Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, by Jonathan Safron Foer. Excellent writer. The story is incredibly heart-wrenching. I love it! And then eventually, Jeff texted me about hanging out, so I ended up going to their flat, just me, Jeff, Aaron and Suzi. Watched a movie and ate popcorn. I got back about an hour ago, and can't sleep, thus this post. But I am going to sleep now, it is 3:40am.