Designing on a Dime (Perfection with Only Pence)

Lovely sitting room: <60 e

First of all, please email me if you don't have our new address in the lovely city center! I'm actually sitting at the Starbucks across the street to write this. Don't hate me--I know it's cliche, but the wireless is free and the leather is sooo comfy.

Candace and I are super proud of the before and after status of our new flat. This week I went to Ikea for the first time. And then I went again. Frightening. Most people who know me know I'm not a shopper, and this is SERIOUS. SHOPPING. Also, most people who know me know that I am not much of a heavy lifter or "Sherpa" as C and I call it. Frank might know this more than anyone, as he hiked >60 miles with me and I refused to carry anything after the first day. Anywho, Candace and I might've blown through our cab money allotment searching for apartments the first few days, so we decided it was rational to take the bus to and from Ikea outside of the city. We managed to Sherpa 8 full Ikea bags, backpacks, and purses back on Sunday. I think Candace had 5 and I had 3. Unfortunately, the bus stop is 3/4 of a mile from our apartment, so Sherpa-ing between 60-80 pounds felt like the longest journey ever.

Then we get home and we are missing 2 pillows. Wounded soldiers, lost along the way perhaps? now used as cosy seat cushions on the 140 bus line in Dublin?A sturdy neckroll for a homeless person in St. Stephen's Green? All possible. So after setting up we realized a couple things: A) I was going to slowly freeze to death sans comforter and B) We needed a few details to perfect the place. SOMEHOW Candace convinced me to go back on Tuesday, despite my aching back and desire as of late to sleep until noon ( I am back in college!) SO the result you see in the pictures is from 2 days effort to make our home a happy one to be in, not only for us, but for all of you who are planning visits/extended stays! Hope you enjoy and remember that I was "Ikead" for you.

Cute window we made into seating! 28 e

I should add....Candace only made me carry bags of pillows the second day and then I waited for her on the stoop as she hobbled down Adelaide Road carrying things like mirrors, trashcans, hangers, dishes, rugs, etc. This, along with beans on toast and celery meals might account for the dramatic weight loss occurring in our home. Needless to say, if you're looking to hire a Sherpa, Candace is your woman. Off to cross the canal for a movie!

Proper (and warm) Archeologist bed. note greens, plaids, flannels, and wool 76 e

The Canal Behind our house

Irish Myths: Busted!

Here it is! The first post from the Old Country, what everyone has been waiting for! Rather than enumerating the travails of our travels (don’t you love that alliteration?) I’ve come up with a list of the Top Ten Myths about Ireland BUSTED after my first 5 days here. We’ll see if these hold up for the next year. I found out I defend my Masters Thesis on August 24th,  2012--my father's 64th birthday, and the day I left the U.S. in 2011-- so  I will be moving back to the US after a loooong vacation following said Thesis submission.

10.  The Irish are overbearing Catholics

Have you met the Keatings? I live 3 doors down from a Presbyterian church and 2 blocks away from a Lutheran church. I’m probably the only person in the city who carries a rosary on me regularly (Thanks to Ms. Elizabeth Keating). There really aren’t  any strong Catholic overtones that I can detect YET…but I’m making this #10 because I want the freedom to go back and revise this assertion.

9.  They’re all gingers.

Ok, I’ll give this one 50%. There are a LOT of redheads. Which is exciting, especially given my penchant for the carrot complexion. However, the most notable unifying characteristic I can see is the blueness of the eyes here. EVERYONE has blue eyes. You know how in the U.S. when you’re walking down the street, maybe every fourth or fifth person has blue eyes? It’s not so rare that people stop you like they might in India or Italy, but when someone has bright blue eyes in the states it seems to be a stand-out or at least notable characteristic. Everyone has those eyes here. Brown eyes are the rarity (don’t I feel special). Furthermore, the amount of men with curly dark hair juxtaposed against piercing blue eyes is unsettling.  I get excited when I see a fellow dark complexion, but without fail my excitement wanes when I see that this similarly black-haired, medium-skinned, “black Irish” brethren has eyes the color of the pacific ocean. Ugh. I’m so German or something.

8 .  Irish men are big and burly and wear wool sweaters….

Ohhhh, I wish. But it just isn’t so.  Maybe when I venture out to the country this weekend, this opinion will change, but as far as I can tell, Gerry Butler is not waiting for me in a peat covered stable somewhere. A lot of the men here look English and are small(ish) to average size.  But I’m happy with the dark curls and light eyes…who could ask for more?

7. The Irish speak indiscernible English.

In the city, this is not true. In fact, most everyone sounds English to me. (As in, from somewhere in Britain).  Of course there are transplants from the country, and a dude on the bus spoke to his friend completely in Gaelic today, but for the most part I understand even thick accents easily (Candace has her moments).


6.  It rains here all the time.

Correction. It rains almost every day, BUT NOT ALL DAY. Yes, it’s common to get caught in a drizzle or even a downpour in the evening or afternoon, especially now in late summer/early fall. But there is an abundance of sun during the day. I know this because it is the only way my apartment is currently heated (through the large floor to ceiling windows). For the last few days I’ve been comfortably wearing a long sleeve shirt and jeans to walk in, but that gets hot if I’m carrying something heavy or running (which is most of the time lately) so I would compare it to October in North Carolina. In other words, Perfect. For now ☺

5.  The Irish are fat?

I question this because I might’ve only heard this from a couple people….BUT I  include it because I think it’s important to note that Dubliners are incredibly trim. Not even in Boston did I find myself among such a slim population; one that rivals even Florence! Dubliners are some of the  fastest walking people on the planet and Lesbihonest….the food here isn’t amazing, so the slenderness seems to make sense, especially among people my age.


4.  Irish Girls are….less than attractive?

Totally false! I find the women here beautiful. Granted, most of them are either translucent or have hideous spray tans, but they’re all lithe and tall and fair (or trying not to be) and smartly dressed. ** What I’ve really noticed about women my age is the amount of make-up they wear. Admittedly, I have somehow tended to befriend women who wear little to no make-up. But these girls DO. THEMSELVES. UP. Thick, cat-like eye-liner, mascara, fake eye-lashes, BRONZER like there’s no tomorrow and lots of foundation. Maybe this is just being in a city again? But I’ve definitely found myself double layering my liquid eyeliner and flicking it up at the end ala Adele Laurie Blue . What can I say? I’m inspired.

** Women of all ages here wear panty hose. Not tights, but straight-up-your-grandmother’s nude colored pantyhose. Personally I like it, and I’ll also do anything to show off my legs and stay warm in a 50 degree September ☺


3. The Irish have Bad Teeth.

JK it’s totally true, but only in the older generations... it’s sad and unfortunate, BUT at least they have the true blue eyes to detract from it!


2.  The Irish have violent sports feuds.

This past Sunday there was a big Gaelic Football game. Donnegal  (my ancestral homeland) vs. Dublin, and we were sure there would be bar brawls, but people peacefully walked around in their shades of blue (Dublin) or Green and Yellow and were totally at peace. Our lovely cab driver told us that  all the rivalries were friendly and there was never a problem over sports teams in pubs.

1. The Irish are drunks.

Ok, So Maybe I haven’t been out enough….but everyone seems so productive in this fast paced city. The bars seem to be full of students and tourists, but I’m used to that after 5+ years in Chapel Hill.  I mean, people definitely go to the pub on the weekends early. Like 12 or 1? Pm. But I think they’re reasonable during the week! This place is close to my house...The Bleeding Horse

I can genuinely say that the Irish people have been so extremely welcoming and friendly this past week. From cab drivers to bus drivers to waiters and landlords, everyone here seems eager to help and equally interested in why we chose to leave America for (much cheaper) Irish education. It’s like being around a bunch of good-tempered, non-haughty Brits. I’m so excited about starting orientation and meeting more people my age! My School is only 3% International, so I imagine I will heavily depend on these blue-eyed Irish for friendships. Maybe I shouldn’t tell them about my blog...

Much love to everyone who has sent me well wishes since I’ve been gone, specifically my family, Especially Anna Kate and Sol who are getting married in 11 days and let me stay with them before I flew out; Veronica for flying down to NC to calm my nerves like only she can do; Joshy for packing me…approximately eleven times. ELEVEN; And Dela and Magan, tying for missing me most award.

What have I learned so far? Sweater weather is nice and I will enjoy it while it lasts. Where am I applying for jobs for next year? THE SOUTHWEST.

Here's a peek at the front door. The inside will come shortly with my "Elisabeth and Candace: Decorating on a Dime" post!

Forget Regret

It’s hard to believe that I’m leaving in less than 3 weeks. Panic is beginning to set in, as every item I cross off my To Do list multiplies into 5 new ones.  I’ve barely even had time to get around to the NC bucket list that is made up of things like “sit outside at Caffe Driade,” which I’m doing right now as I type this…

What I want to talk about in one of my last posts before I leave is the classic battle between (no, not good and evil) our hearts and our heads.  How many times has each of us witnessed the showdown between how we feel and how we think we should feel? For the record, I am the [final] product of two parents who went to pre-marriage counseling in their twenties and were told that they had the unique dynamic of one spouse (my father) scoring 100% thinking and the other (Mumsies), 100% feeling on the Myers-Briggs personality test. So, though the easy assumption is that I am always someone who follows my heart, let it be known here and now that genetically, I am 50/50 and in truth, my rational genes get stronger every day.

We choose between our heads and our hearts on a constant basis; when we apply for jobs, choose relationships, move between cities, peruse menu options… It seems that we’re always choosing wisely against our will or just “going with our gut.” I’ve been wondering lately, what does the perfect marriage of the two look like? And how do I get there? As a chronic impulsive, I’m tired of going with my gut just because it feels right and “following my heart” because that’s the only vapid and useless advice people can come up with when there’s no clear answer.  I’ve been making gut decisions since I developed a gut, which (let’s be honest) came in sometime around 3 ½ with epic Dirty Dancing marathons and a bottle diet (the oral fixation caused by 6 years in this Freudian stage will be illuminated in a later post one I'm in Ireland). The decisions I have coming up in the next year will determine my career as an archeologist, and I want to know just how these two juxtaposed organs of mine should weigh in and compliment, rather than contradict each other for once. So, I asked a few of my friends...
Which do people most commonly regret; impulsive decisions made with their hearts or  logical decisions made with their heads?

The most thoughtful response I got was from my dear, and very recently married, friend Lilly Lampe. She seemed convinced that she lived without suggested regret, but came to question the mentality that fueled those more logical decisions. Enter the perfect target for my questions: Lilly, the logical thinker, who compliments me so well as a friend for that very reason. She thinks when I feel, and I guess I'm drawn to that because I need it in my life. I’ll quote her,

“What draws me to you is not (or not just anyway) the fact that we are opposite thinkers and that my rationalism is balanced by your romanticism. What I love about you is that as long as I have known you, you have always been yourself.  Honestly, joyfully, at times brutally and even painfully, you are true to yourself and who you are and you make no apologies about it.”

What Lilly found in her reflection on my questions was not that exclusively logical decision making is wrong for her, but that it often comes with fulfilling some sort of expectation that a person or society puts on us.  Perhaps then, “following your heart” or "going with your gut" *cliche cliche* is just another way of saying that the more emotional decision is based on self-interest and personal desire rather than any outside perspective. And isn't this what we should aim for since we are the ones living the daily effects of our decisions? I don't think self-interest is necessarily selfish. Lilly said that her wiser decisions came from a place of self-knowledge, and I would argue self-love, a state in which we can not "forget" or "lie to" ourselves.  She writes,

"When I look back on college and the immediate past, what I see is a chronology of me forgetting about myself, of working on myself, of working away from my self, and re-realizing my self and trying to celebrate that person and live the life that person needs to thrive.  And although your road has in many ways been a bumpy and uncertain one too, I don't think you've ever forgotten about yourself or tried to lie to that person."

A compliment that I'm not sure is true...but does it seem true because of my emotionally-driven decision making?

What everyone can agree on is that the mind and heart work together in some way when we make big decisions, and perhaps each person has his own “perfect storm” of rational and emotional thinking. I  don’t yet know what I think of this. Perhaps I’m just an extremely intuitive person, and the strength of that intuition takes over for my lack of logic whenever I’m stuck.  I suppose we do survive by playing to our strengths. So maybe I shouldn't try to change?

I invite you all to self-reflect (NOW!) with these timeless and wise words from Polonius that my mother and Paul North often remind me of:

“This above all, to thine own self be true and it must follow as the day doth the night, thou canst not  then be false to any man.”

So this is what you’ve been waiting for, MY current heart vs. head dilemma…prepare for total nerd-dom because I’m about to get Archeological. In about 4 weeks,  I have to choose my stream in graduate school. Will my intensive focus be A) The practical Heritage Management which includes classes on dig management, grant writing, and Heritage rights (think awesome job with the World Heritage Organization, and the freedom to move to Boston or London or Asheville and manage/curate heritage sites) or will I B) Follow my heart and stream in  Prehistoric Civilization, classes that include studies on Bronze Age burial tradition, Neolithic farming, and Prehistoric art and religion (think stone henge, bru na boines). The truth is, I’m not sure I want to get my Phd. And what I’m most afraid of is that that fact (combined with job market) makes the answer to my decision very clear.

Contrary to what you might think, I’m not writing this to bore you. I’m writing this because I want your opinions! Please leave me messages with thoughts on how you make decisions AND any advice you have for me, Elisabeth: the romantic, emotional, gut thinking, heart-following archeologist (quite the epithet) as I make this decision before September 2nd! How could I trust anyone more than my friends?

Farewell! My blessing season this in thee,

e