Bonmahon - Where my ancestors are from

Just before I left for Ireland, I got an email from my Grandpa telling me about where his grandparents came from in Ireland. And it just so happened that I was heading along in that direction on my roadtrip. So we headed towards Bonmahon and I knew that it was a small village. But I didn't expect to drive through it without knowing that I driven through it! It was so funny, we had to stop and turn around to get back to the town! It consisted of about 6 houses, one shop and that is about it. I couldn't believe how small it was! But the countryside was so beautiful. And it was right down the road of the ocean! I had to get out and take a photo by the one sign that said the name of the town. The funniest part was that we had seen so many signs pointing us in the right direction, from both directions, and then when we got there, we had no idea we were there!

Kissing the Blarney Stone

It was surprisinly scary!! You have to lay down on your back, then scoot over to the wall and lean backwards, while being held in place by that lovely character there in the photo with me. I wonder how millions of photo he is in across the world... And it was over so fast, that guy has the process down pat! But the grounds of the castle were great too. There was the wishing steps, where you have to walk up and down backwards with your eyes closed. I was so occupied with making it up the stairs that i forgot to make a wish! It was so fun exploring the grounds. Giants were suppoed to live here back in the day sometime ago, and from the size of the plants, I think I might just believe it!

The Gap of Dunlohe

After a great night's sleep in the Neptune Hotel in Killarney (which I totally recommend to anyone passing through the city), we headed out to the Ring of Kerry for a hike. We did a 4 mile hike through the Gap of Dunlohe, a beautiful valley between two mountains. The scenery was amazing, and there were tons of sheep. The traditional way of taking in the views is by horse and buggy, but that option was a bit spendy, and plus, it felt so good to get out and have a hike after 2 days of sitting in a car for so many hours. It is so amazing that driving can be so stressful and exhausting!! The drive was so beautiful, but the roads were soooo tiny!!! And there were so many tour buses and they tend to take up more than their fair share of the road!

The Dingle Peninsula

After the trip to the Cliffs of Mohar, we headed south along the coast to check out the Dingle Peninsula, just north of the very popular Ring of Kerry. We opted for this less popular spot, and we picked right. It was beautiful and very picturesque. We stopped of at this pub along the side of the road when I saw the sign over the door - Micheal O'Neill, considering that is the name of my uncle! We considered stopping for a Guiness, but decided we needed to continue on our trip since it was almost dark and had to find our hostel which was still about an hour away in Killarney. Apparently the peninsula is best experienced on foot. You can walk around the place in about 7 days, mostly along the amazing beaches. Maybe next time I will try it out that way.

Irish Countryside!

For the following 4 days, Maria and I hired a car and drove around the south coast of Ireland. We drove from Dublin to Galway the first night, then continued on to the Cliffs of Mohar (the second photo). The stone walls in the countryside were amazing and the ocean is so beautiful.

Not sure what i expected, but there were so many people at the Cliffs of Mohar (or Mohair as Maria liked to call it). Loads of tour bus and the wind was insane!! We were warned before we got there not to get too close to the edge, as the wind was amazing!

Dublin!!!

The week after I was done working, I flew to Dublin to meet up with my friend Maria, who I met here in London. He is now living and working in Dublin for 6 months and we decided to go traveling around Ireland for a few days. I spent 2 days in Dublin and we attempted to go the Guiness Storehouse, but ran out of time to do the tour, so just went to the gift shop and took our picture outside. I got to see her life in Dublin, went to a party with her work friend and even had dinner with her new guy. We had a great time!

Done with my job

Ok, so it was a few weeks ago, but this is the street that my office was on (well it is still there, but I am no longer there). It was about a 5 minute walk from Liverpool Street station - really close in to the city center.

It't REM!!!

For the month of July, there was a pavillion erected in Hyde Park, next to the Serpentine Gallery. It housed lectures and events celebrating London in architecture, politics, art and everything I guess. It was designed by Rem Koolhaas and Arup, and the day I went to visit Rem himself was there mediating a discussion. The talk was soooo boring, but it was exciting seeing him in one of his own buildings!

Ghost Cabins are finished!

I got an email from a friend that went up to visit the Ghost site in Nova Scotia and she sent me some photos that I would like to share. When we left the site last July, only one cabin was finished (just the structure) and the other three were just barely started. It is so exciting to see them finished! The new Ghosties lived in our cabins for this year's Ghost project for two weeks. Apparently they were quite comfortable. I can't wait to see them when i got back up to visit in 2010!

Sorry it has been so long!!!

After a long hiatis of being very busy with family in town, and also just being lazy...I am back. I hope you enjoy seeing some new photos of new trips and such that I have done recently. This is a photo of me and Mom sitting in a pub across the street from the flat that they rented while in London.

Today is my last day at work. I will be taking the month of August to travel a bit before heading back to Seattle via DC in the first week of September. My team went out for breakfast this morning before work, what a great way to start the day!!! And we are going out for leaving drinks tonight after work, the whole office this time, well at least everyone is invited.

I am excited about traveling out of the UK! I am going to Ireland to visit my friend Maria who is living in Dublin for 2 days, then we will rent a car and travel south to see the sights for 4 days. Then I am coming back to London for 2 days, and will be off to Paris for about 5 days after that. I have always wanted to see Paris, so I am sooooo excited! Then it is back to London to pack and see those things that are left on my list of things to do before I leave. And i just made my plane reservations last night, so i head back to DC on the 27th of August. I will probably be there for about a week, packing and repacking my stuff that is in storage before shipping it back to Seattle and stepping on yet another plane to come home myself around the 5th of Sept. Can't wait to see you all!!!! Hugs and kisses! Laura

Tourist London!

Mom and Dick came to visit for 10 days and we did tourist London - and we saw sooo much. The weather was sooooooo hot and there is no a/c anywhere here, espeically in the public transport. We all made it through, many, many, many bottles of water were drunk to stay hydrated.

We saw all of the big sites, Tower Bridge, the Crown Jewels, the Changing of the Guard, Westminster Abbey, the London Eye, Portabello Road Market, Leister Square and so serious amounts of walking and walking and walking. I had almost all of the days off that they were here, minus the days they popped up to Edinburgh.

It was so good to see Mom and Dick, it feels like it has been ages since i last got a proper hug. When they got into town, I met them at the airport and gave Mom a huge hug!!!

Kew Gardens New Greenhouse

This is the reason I went to the botanic gardens. It is the newest addition to the gardens, and I think it is a tropical or desert flower exhibit, but honestly, i didn't spend much time looking at the few flowers that are inside. I loved the building, it was great. Looking at it over the other flower beds and across the water, it is leaf shaped. It is by Wilkinson Eyre, who I really wanted to work for them. Maybe next time...

Kew Gardens

So amazing!!! I went out to Kew Gardens to see the new greenhouse (see the next entry), and I am so glad that I went, it was so beautiful. It is the British National Botanic Gardens and this greenhouse was built in the 1890's, when lots of these plants were, well planted. There were amazing lillipads, rose gardens, huge 100 year old trees, and cactus's. It was an amazing way to spend the day.

Looking out over Oxford

I went up to one of the highest spots in the city (not too hard, it is quite flat) which was the top of the cathedral. It had some amazing gargoyles up there. I ran into some tourists from Virginia up there too, it was crazy! That big building is Kings College, the main courtyard.

Hogwarts (Oxford University)

I visited Oxford for the day a few weeks ago, and am just now getting around to putting up some photos.

It was a fun day, but a bit disappointing at the same time. Oxford University is made up of many colleges, and they are all sort of seperate, not sure how that whole thing works. Each of the colleges are open to the public during very specific hours during the day, like 2-4:45. It is so limited, and to top it off, you have to pay to get in. I went into Kings College, the most famous and biggest of all the colleges. It is also where they filmed the movie, Harry Potter - it is the magical cafeteria.

World Cup 2006

It is finally over...and English football fans don't know what to do with themselves!!! The premiership games rolled into the World cup, and now they have to wait for a whole month before it starts up again.

I am so glad I was over here for it. I heard that the games were only showed on Cable in the states. Over here, the final was carried on 3 different broadcast channels, and I would venture to guess that about 3/4 of all of the viewing public was actually watching the game.

As much as they love their footie over here, they also love to tear down their favorite players too. The England team didn't do so well, and were basically banished when they returned home. All of the players were apologizing in the press, over and over. It was really weird. But I guess I am just used to a team that doesn't do well, so I wasn't too bothered that they didn't make it to far. I must say, I got some pretty good teasing about the US team. But no one really expected much out of them to start with, so it was alright.

07/07/06

Today is the one year anniversary of the London Bombings. I barely remember about them happening last year. But for the last few days, it has been all over the news and then yesterday, a tape was released showing one of the bombers from Al-Jeezera. My flatmates and I had a discussion about it last night and they were saying that they were going to stay away from the tube today just to be safe. I was saying that of all days, I am sure that today there would be really good security on the trains and busses (they didn't buy it by the way). I am sure since I didn't go through that whole thing last year, my attitude is a bit more relaxed about it.

So when I got up this morning, I was running late of course and decided that in order to make it to work on time, i had to take the tube (I noramlly take the bus, but it take about 20 min longer). It wasn't till i was well on my way to work when I saw some guy reading the newspaper with a headline about the 07/07 bombings, that I remembered about the conversation we had last night. I had a slight panic, until realized how many other people were also riding and felt a tad bit better. I was definately glad to get off the tube at my stop. And then i realized that one of the bombings happened at the next stop, Aldgate Station. Very eerie feeling.

Luckily nothing happened and after thinking about it, I did see much more police presence at al l the stations, but they just seemed to be looking around, and not really doing to prevent any attacks. I would have thought there would be bomb sniffing dogs or something. But I arrived safely and everything seemed as normal as possible. Made for a weird start to my morning.

I have had to have a huge think in the past few weeks about where I want to be for the next year+ and it has been really difficult. I really thought that I wanted to be in London, as I have been thinking since I got done with school in December. I figured that 6 months in London just wouldn't be enough. And after some long and hard nights thinking instead of sleeping, I have come to the conclusion that I do in fact want to come home. In the beginning I felt like i was chickening out, and just abandoning my life here and my plans that i had for myself. But after the big think, I realized that I am happy with my decision. I have really enjoyed my time here in London, it has been so much more fulfilling than I could have imagined it would be, and one of the most difficult things I have ever done. I have really been missing my friends and family back in the states (and Toronto!) and just feel that it is time for me to come home, and for now that means back to Seattle (sorry Sarah!). And I feel like I have accomplished what I came here to do, it isn't something that i can tick off on a checklist, but it just feels right. Even though my office is still interested in keeping me on and has offered to pay for part of the fees to get my visa, I have decided that I don't want to stay tied to the firm. I am enjoying the job alright, but the longer I am there, the more I feel like I am getting used, instead of learning the things that I will need for taking my exams back in the states. And the project that I am working on is very unorganized I feel that I am getting a bit lost in the shuffle. So my plan as it stands today (and like all my plans here, it changes by the day) is to work until August 4th. I have a lease on my place here through August, so i will stay until the end of August to keep my stuff in one place, and take the last few weeks to travel. I would like to see Paris and visit Maria in Dublin and maybe go to one other place, still haven't decided where yet. Then I will come back to London and pack up my life and hop on a plane back to the states, DC to be more specific. I have all my stuff in storage there, so I will go through it all again and repack it to be sent out to Seattle. I plan on being back in Seattle around the middle of September. I am not sure where i will be staying, but Carol has offered her extra bedroom, so that sounds good at this point. I will probably be looking for a job and a place to live in Seattle, and as I sold my car I will need to be as close as possible to the city with out transportation.

So I will look forward to seeing you all in the very near future!

Happy 4th!!!

I hope everyone had a great holiday! I gave my notice on Monday and am looking forward to coming home in the middle of September to hug everyone!

Lots to do before then, but I am looking forward to making my life back in Seattle for a little while.

The Welch Assembly Building by Richard Rogers

Pam, Lucy and I took a day trip to Cardiff, only about 40 minutes on the train from Neath where Paul and Pam live. We took the topless bus tour through the city, it was such a good tour. And Pam and Lucy didn't know much about Cardiff, so it was the perfect thing to do, we all had a fun time.

We got off down by the waterfront, where the city has done a bunch of regeneration, including the new Welch Assembly Building by Richard Rogers. It is amazing!!! We walked in the front doors (and through security) and the smell was amazing...like a cedar chest. They got all the wood lining the interior from Canada and it smells so good.

Family Fun in Wales

This past weekend, I traveled to Wales for a long weekend to stay with some distant relatives that we have living in Neath, about 40 min west of Cardiff. I had a wonderful time, it was so fun being around a family again. I didn't realize that I had been missing family and kids so much. Paul is very distantly related to Grandma O'Neill. He and his wife, Pam, along with their kids, Lucy who is 15 and Dan who is 13, put me up in their guest room for 3 nights. It was such an amazing short vacation for me. I didn't have to plan anything, not where I was was going to sleep, what I was going to eat, where I was going, or how I was going to get there. It was like heaven!!! After nearly 5 months of doing that every single day, it was so nice to have a break from all of that.

These pictures are of us on the first day that I arrived. It was an amazing spot, called Worm's Head at Rhossili Beach - we saw hang gliders fly off the cliff right behind us as we sat and had a cup 'o tea. It was so great.

England World Cup 2006

World Cup fever is nuts here!!! I love it!!! When England played at 5.30 pm last week we all got off of work at 4.30 for the rest of the day, it was great! Along with a few co-workers of mine and my flatmate Ema, we went to a bar near work that has an outdoor bar and huge outdoor tv screen. I just can't believe how many people go to the pub to watch the games, they are so packed - wall to wall people. And they are all pissed (drunk) and 90% men. I will be very interested to see what happens at the next game on Satruday, as England has made it through to the quarter finals. Just watched the France v Spain game - it was very exciting!!! France made it through with our main man, Thiery Henry. He plays for Arsenal in the English Premier League who play up the road from where I live.

Bye Marjie!

After a crazy night out, we went to my favorite park and hung out in the sun. This is Marjie taking full advantage of the sun at Primrose Hill Park.

We had some crazy adventures along with some really fun times here in London together. She was my travel buddy and now she has traveled back to Toronto. I will really miss her!!! I am excited that she is going back to her friends and family, she really missed them a lot, but I am sad at the same time. London won't be the same without her.

On a lighter note, now I have a friend in Toronto to visit! I have always wanted to go to Toronto, so now I can and will have someone to show me around. We were talking about me coming to visit on my way back to Seattle from DC. It is on the way, sort of. So i might look into that. It would be so fun!

World Cup 2006 Fever

For all of those who aren't familiar, this is David Beckham, the capitan of the England Football team. And the World Cup action is in full swing. We got off of work an hour early today so that we could watch the match. Almost everyone in the office took off to go to the local pub to watch the match. I talked my work mates into going to an outdoor bar where they have a giant screen tv to watch the game. And the best part of it was that England WON!!!!

Decision time again

I had a meeting with my boss the other day about my work here over the past 3 months. She seemed to be very happy with my input on the project and my general presence in the office. We discussed my visa options at length and she is still interesed in having me stay beyond August when my current visa runs out. But here is where the tough stuff comes in. In order to get a new visa and work permit, i have to come home to the states - which of course means no working for about a month while all the paper work gets figured out and such. And then getting a ticket to come back, all the while paying rent in a house where I am not living.

And on top of all of that, I still am undecided if I want to stay here - so that definately complicates things. So many decisions! And I am so sick of making them on my own!

If I want to stay, i need to leave before August 8th or risk becoming illegal. But Sara is coming to visit at the end of July though August, so I might miss her completely. If I want to do any traveling, I need to do it now and of course don't have the money. It is all so complicated - why does everything have to be so complicated!!!

Summer in London

It came and went so fast! For 8 days straight, the temperatures here were in the lower 80's and even though the temps stayed pretty much the same, every day seemed to get hotter and hotter. I thought it would be exactly like Seattle summers, but it was much muggier. But that could have to do with the fact that the city is so dense and the air doesn't move much. And it is so flat, there is no where for the air to come from or go to. Anyway, it got really hot. And no one has any air conditioning, including my office. We just had to roast for a few days, with the windows open and lots of fans moving the stale air.

And then yesterday it all vanished. Back to grey skies and rain. The 10 day outlook says upper 60's and rain. There is this great commercial for a drug store called Boots. It shows this woman latering up her kids with tons of sun block and they are standing in the doorway looking outside. Then all of the sudden there is a break in the clouds and everyone goes nuts and runs outside into the sun. And then 5 mintues later, the sun goes back behind the clouds and it is over - the summer that is. I am beginning to think that isn't too far off!

The Gossip - My new favorite band!

I went to see my new favorite band last night in a tiny club in London. I was searching through the weekly newspaper Time Out and came across this band that sounded interesting, so I surfed over to ITunes and checked out their new album. The review in Time Out was raving about how great they are live, so i hoped for the best and went and saw them. AMAZING!!! The are originally from Arkansas, and have recently moved to Olympia! I am sure I am behind the time with this band, but being halfway around the world will do that to you I suppose. I will attach their website for you to take a listen to. And they are playing at the Capitol Theatre in Oly on August 2nd and at Bumbershoot that same day - definately check them out!

http://www.gossipyouth.com/

Weekend fun in Regent's Park

After being at the Beach on Saturday, Emma and I walked to Camden Town (in London) and down to Regent's Park where there was a sustainabilty fair going on. It was great! Lots of people and great information, not to mention free stuff! We got free re-usable grocery bags, and a bag to carry my shoes with me to work so I can walk home. The small things and get me excited these days!

The weather was perfect, sunny and beautiful, I even got burned on my sholder - yeah, finally some color so that I don't blend into the color of the grey cloudy skies!

So the photos - that is Emma as we were having our picnic lunch in Regent's park and the other one is a cool marianette puppet that was about 20' tall.

Whitstable, England

After a long and crappy week last week, my flatmate Emma and I decided that we needed to get out of the city for a day. She has a car, so we decided to drive to Kent, the county to the east of London. It is called the Garden of England and was a beautiful drive. It was about 2 hours away and was on the Ocean, or as Emma was calling it, the Sea. It was a beautiful day, sunny and lovely, so we had a drink at a pub on the rocky beach and walked all along the waterfront for the afternoon and had a great dinner in a seafood restaurant. We were going to stay over night, but decided we would head back to our own beds since we were so close.

These beach huts are right long the waterfront and people use them like little cabins, with a kitchen and some storage, and not much more. It really reminded me of St. John's Bay in South Africa, the same beach huts. It was great to get out of the city for the day, smell the ocean and feel the breeze.