The Floods of 2009

Last week it rained so much that there were floods all over the south and west of Ireland. Cork got hit pretty hard and on Thursday night the rivers overflowed and parts of Cork were submerged. We live in the city centre and the floods came right up to our street but luckily did not go any further. UCC's lower campus was completely flooded and there was so much damage done to the buildings and to some of the student accommodation that they decided to close campus for the next week, everything was cancelled. Thank goodness, because my final year research project was due this week and I would've been ready but I will definitely use the next 3 weeks to make it even better! So while half the city has no clean drinking water (we do) and are not loving life right now, I'm so happy I don't have to present my project until Dec. 17! So I decided I have time to update the blog. Here are some pictures of the flooding.

This is Grand Parade, right by our apartment.

Another view of Grand Parade, entrance to the English Market is up on the left.

This is UCC's brand new Gateway Building and that's the bridge leading to it. Destroyed the building's ground floor, just opened up a couple months ago.

This is Washington St, right by the Courthouse. Also right by us, but our street was spared.

This Washington St., the road we walk on to get to UCC. Yes, those are floating cars.

Stand Up and Fight!

For Andrew's birthday I took him to see a Heinekin Cup Rugby game, that's like the Champion's League of Rugby. It was Munster vs. Treviso, some french team at Thomond Park in Limerick. Munster killed them 41-10. Andrew loved it, it was his first time seeing Munster in person, now he wants to buy season tickets.

Here are the tickets.

This is Thomond Park. We were in the North Terrace, where there are no seats, you stand the whole time but we were lucky because all the action was down on our end.




And this is how they begin every game, Stand Up and Fight! With the 3 Irish Tenors.

Darby O'Gill and the Little People

Andrew and I went to a wedding of our friend's, Eric and Anne-Marie, a couple weeks ago. It was good fun and the reception was held here at Darby O'Gill's in Killarney. First time we'd ever been there. During the reception a great trad band showed up and everyone gathered round and sang Irish folk songs for a couple hours. There's just something about drunk Irish people singing. As they would say, the craic was mighty!

I'm gonna put some videos up but videos from a mobile phone are not the best...

The Wild Rover




Whiskey in a Jar

Fields of Athenry

Road Trippin'

Andrew and I took off for a crazy weekend road trip to South Carolina to visit the Axtell family. I met Aimee and Michael in Regensburg, Germany on my mission. Michael was working for Siemens at the time and they'd moved there for a bit. We had some good times together and now's the first time in forever that I got to see them, and their 3 kids. Aimee was pregnant with the oldest one when she was in Germany, so it was good to finally meet the kids. We only got to spend a day with them before we had to drive back to Philly for work. But it was definitely worth the 1300-mile trip.

So I used to live in Virginia, but never really ventured further south, but we saw some great signs along the way and here are some of the best of them for your viewing pleasure.

Guess they come in all sizes in the Carolinas, big, tall, short, small, 12XL, size 84!!!! There aren't really any people that are size 84 are there?

Unfortunately we saw this one too late, but it says: It's your choice... and the tree's covering up a picture with clouds and the word HEAVEN, and you can see the other choice...

Pretty much any store called Booty Brothers is a store for me.

You know when you're in North Carolina tobacky country...

And my personal favorite, who wouldn't want to eat there!

Andrew's thoughts Part Deux

Leaving New York, felt great to get outside the oven-like heat in the city.

The view from the boat, but why is it so famous?

Megan loves taking pictures of me...

Ya, saw the statue and it looks great. But tickets were sold out to go to the crown.



The madness trying to leave Liberty island, had people pushing their way onto the boat.

Spider Man does live in New York.

Megan really wanted another picture with the Late Show or Danny wanted to take a picture of us.

Danny picked a great place for desert, Serendipity3. It's possibly the only chocolate fudge ice- cream sundae I couldn't finish.

It rains worse in America than in Ireland!!!

What's in a blog?

So after creating this blog I've gone through a dilemma of what to fill it with. Some people use their blogs to update friends and family about their lives with witty tales and amazing photographs, some use it as a cyber dumping ground for their thoughts, some use blogs to sell products or as infomercials or as opinion pieces, some write poetry or review things. I do not yet know what I want my blog to be. And so, I turn the time over to Andrew for his first ever blog entry...

Andrew's thoughts

We went to a David Letterman show and could just about see him as we were put in the top corner seats. He was funny but we never watch his show when we visit here.

Alex says kids are a blessing. I was only playing with Nikki for a few minutes and was ready to sleep..think we are going to wait a few more years.

This is the only time Hersheys chocolate tastes good is when your making smores!!

Celebrating July Fourth weekend in Philly..but never celebrate St. Patrick's Day in Ireland.

Sang along to all the Cheryl Crow songs that I know!!

This is the real reason why I wanted to go into the city..to check out the fireworks. They were class...

So we went to Washington...and found out that this tall pointy thing is there for no reason!! But had to get a picture anyway.

This site is for WW Two..America has more recent history to talk about than Ireland's 1916 Easter Rising.

Should I know this guy?

Yep that's about as close as they will let you get to the White House..and then they have 4 cops just standing by these gates!!