A DORK-Y WEEKEND

dork = dublin + cork and now rachel = dork for such a lame word merge but i just couldn't help myself.

this past week was a quiet one, which was fine by me as it gave me time to rest up for my first big irish expedition which took place just this weekend.

it took me a few weeks to get acquainted with ireland and comfortable with the idea of traveling out of limerick.  i get a little intimidated by unfamiliar public transportation (a result of growing up in the rural midwest) and i'm a homebody, so once i got here and began to establish my routine within the city and my internship i was content with staying settled for a while.  silly, because, duh hello i am in ireland, but i just chalk it up as some coping mechanism of sorts.  a temporary one, though, and by the middle of last week i was itching for an adventure, welcoming new scenery and an exploration of unfamiliar lands.

i was invited by my supervisor to attend a seminar concerning crisis management and supporting international students during times of crisis in dublin hosted by ICOS, the irish council for international students, on thursday.  i was so giddy about the opportunity to meet other local professionals in the field and have open conversations and learn from them about supporting our students to the best of our abilities during challenging times and i was on a high all week from it - i love my job.  so thursday morning i happily hopped on a train (my second-ever train - my first real train i may dare to say, as the one other was a 12 hour overnight train ride from granada to barcelona, an entire beast of its own) and headed to dublin!  

it was my first time in the city and i'd planned to arrive much earlier than necessary so i could grab lunch and wander a bit before the seminar started in the afternoon.  dublin is quite lovely actually - i really liked it, and i'm not much of a city girl.  there were cute shops and restaurants on every corner, historic monuments, government buildings, parks, tourist attractions and local hang-outs all very centrally located.  considering its size, it felt very quaint and calm.  i grabbed a panini at a little cafe and spent the morning winding through city center.

after the seminar (which WAS AWESOME, ps) i made my way back to the train station where i met up with jordan, one of my close friends whom i met at work at eastern!  jordan just graduated from EIU and has been traveling around europe the last three weeks and so generously made a stop in ireland so we could spend the weekend together!  from the station, we grabbed a train to cork, where we'd planned to spend friday.

last fall, jordan and i worked together on fridays which we quickly deemed "rachdan fridays" to make a long friday afternoon a little more enjoyable.  we continued the tradition of little fri-dates during the spring and just so happened to be in cork together on a friday -the ultimate of the ultimate rachdan fridays.    

i did really enjoy cork, but it was not at all what i expected.  i don't know what i was thinking!?  it was bigger and hillier than i'd imagined and very shopping-oriented.  river lee runs through cork and parts around the city center, putting downtown on a little island in the middle of the river.  it only takes about 15 minutes to walk from one end of the island to the other, but the city is constantly buzzing between each end point.

we didn't have any serious intentions for cork or things we wanted to check off our list which are my favorite kinds of days in cities.  we scoped out a city map the evening before and got an idea of a few of the things we'd like to see - the cathedral, sit atop one of the hills for an overlook of the city, st. anne's church, the bell tower, university college cork (this list addition driven by yours truly #studentaffairsproprobz) the english market, st. patrick's street, and whatever we could stumble upon in between.  we decided we'd make a bit of a loop around the city to hit up each attraction.

although we had the best of intentions, we managed to get so turned around and spend 87% of the day lost and confused.  haha jordan and i both humbly consider ourselves to have fairly keen senses of direction, so cork was a total shot to our self-esteems.  we couldn't ever find our location on the map and managed to miss the largest, most happening shopping street smack dab in the middle of city center all day until our last hour.  so. much. confusion.

i think my favorite part of cork was seeing university college cork.  it's like something out of a fairytale land and it was lovely getting to interact with professionals on campus and see students in action.  the campus houses the most stunning little chapel as well as an inviting student center and modern academic buildings.

the president's office at UCC - if i didn't want to be a college president before, i think i do now!

by friday afternoon we said peace out, cork! and headed to limerick.  i was so pleased to play host and share my new home with jordan.  i took her out for the best fish and chips at bobby byrnes pub that night and we called it a night shortly after.  

we were both feeling a little run down saturday morning, so we took it easy that morning and slowly made our way to the milk market, my favorite part of limerick.  it was so special to share this with her and i think she thoroughly enjoyed it as well.

i grabbed my chocolate croissant, as per routine, and we easily convinced each other to sample all of the cheese samples, try an adventurous market snack for lunch (we each got a leek potato and cheese pastie - YES - and a lemon and sugar crepe for dessert) and grab some fresh market treats to have for dinner later.

after the market, we did a little shopping and we walked to see st. mary's cathedral and st. john's castle.  aside from a little drizzle in cork, we were lucky to have beautiful weather.  we went on a final mission to find the stormy teacup, a little nook of a coffee shop i'd heard about, and we spent the afternoon chatting over tea, a rachdan specialty.

we made our way back to our hostel where we had dinner - baguettes with ham, turkey, brie, and fresh strawberries, like the true europeans we both secretly are.

and doritos.  we also had doritos.  okay?  like true americans.  i'm only slightly embarrassed to admit that.

what a refreshing weekend this was.  there was something so fulfilling about having a familiar face and close friend to visit and explore the area with.  i don't think i realized how isolated i was feeling and how much i needed some friend time... friend time and company and adventure was exactly what this weekend offered, and my heart could not be left feeling more full!

ADARE-ING ADVENTURE

alternatively titled: an almost-never-ending bank holiday well spent.

this past monday was a bank holiday in ireland (yay, bank holidays!) which i decided to make the most of by taking a day trip to adare, a small village 20 minutes or so outside of limerick. 

i was a little worried with it being a bank holiday and all about the accessibility of this small village and whether it would even be worth the trip on a day like today.  will the buses still run?  if so, will they operate according to the regular route timetable?  will stores be open?  will there be food?  more specifically, will there be ice cream?  will the sun still rise?  very legitimate concerns about the workings of bank holidays i did have, you see.

i did my research as thoroughly as possible.  i grilled the four different hostel desk workers i encountered in the 24 hours leading up to monday.  i asked another guest whom i thought was irish but turns out she is south african?  i made phone calls.  i searched every bus website and travel forum imaginable.  after the irish south african simply reassured me that "oh silly, a bank holiday just means the banks are on holiday.  everything else is open and running."

so she didn't say the "oh silly" part but she was surely thinking it, because, duh.  bank.  holiday.  i pretended like i of course absolutely knew that i was just testing her irish south african knowledge and then i quickly grabbed my things, scurried away, and off to adare i went!

adare is the absolute sweetest, most quaint little town.  it is the epitome of rural ireland: rolling hills, castle ruins, abbeys, little cottages, and building fronts and doors representing every color of the rainbow.  it's simply lovely.  it's rather small and the main street is smattered with different boutiques, cafes, a hardware store, a couple of restaurants, a hair salon, some lodging facilities, the usual.  there's a creamery just outside of town, a golf course, and a beautiful park smack dab in the middle of the action.  there is also a really nice heritage center as you come into town that offers food, tours, light shopping, and free public restrooms!  a european rarity!

i spent the afternoon just wandering the streets, popping in and out of the shops on the main drag, walking a little big outside of town in every direction to scope out a hidden abbey or castle ruins.

one sign pointed very passionately towards the "creamery!!!" which triggered the ice cream alarm within me and instilled some sort of magnetic pull between us that led me swiftly to said creamery, about a half a mile outside of town.  it was a large, hot pink building with walls on each side and a gate closing off the front.  as i got closer, it turned out that the "creamery" was a fudge/gift shop?  and closed on mondays?  deceit is what i felt i tell you.

by then i was sweaty and dusty and hungry, but i made another lap around the little village before settling down at the bus station.  (PS, i'd actually considered running a 5k in adare that was hosted by the local abbey to raise funds for the school.  it was on my birthday and i thought, what a way to spend a birthday!  better things came up, but it was nice to see adare in action and try and imagine a 5k taking place in the little village.  hashtag hills hashtag i would have keeled over and died mid-run so i shall thank God for looking out for me on that blessed day).  by this time it was about 3:30 - the bus back to limerick was due to arrive at 3:45.  i'd seen one pass about 15 minutes before i walked back to the station, but i knew another one was expected in 20 minutes so i thought i'd take advantage of that time and walk through the park.

i should have trusted my instinct and taken that first bus - i'm not sure if they were off schedule or there was a hold up in the route, but i ended up waiting until after 5:00 for the next bus to come along.  i got caught up on a crowd of french students who couldn't speak english and an angry old irish man whom i accidentally gave away knowledge that i was the only other english-speaker in the group and got stuck listening to his angry ramblings and trying to translate them in to weak hand gestures to the french students.  we were all a little confused and i was definitely panicking inside, picturing myself walking all the way back to limerick because surely that 3:15 bus must have been the last bus that was ever running for the rest of eternity from adare to limerick and my phone was dying now i'm going to be stuck here - AND I HADN'T EVEN PACKED SNACKS.  I ALWAYS PACK SNACKS - rotting from hunger and loneliness.  have i mentioned i am a catastrophizer?

i remained externally calm and whilst internally cursing myself for not pretending to be french too so i could ignore mr krabs, the bus stop troll.  the funny thing is, just the night before i'd spent time with a french girl whom i'd met in the building i'm staying in... we giggled as she taught me how to say numbers 1-10 in french and i shared with her the difference between "kettle" and "cattle" and "three" and "tree."  i'm saying i think i could have passed!  before too long (and before i had to whip out my mad french skills, much to everyone's relief) the familiar big green bus rolled up and on i jumped, spending the short journey back to limerick reliving my beautiful day spent in adare.

CLOTHED AND BRAVE

a still shot from my personal diary camera during the fifth night - a rough one; our shelter took a beating during the storm, but we powered through. barely.
if only my partner would stop whining about his sunburn and start collecting firewood.
*rolls eyes.*

as i was reflecting on sunday's episode of naked and afraid, i had this very vivid, very seemingly-real visualization of what i would be like if i were a contestant on discovery channel's most bizarrely gripping new series. it was similar to those dreams you have on first-day-of-school eve - the ones where you're running around your "campus" (which doesn't look anything like your campus at all) and can't seem to find your classroom, or you wake up and you realize your schedule's gone missing; ridiculous and nonsensical but they feel so real in the moment and everything happening is so wrong but you've no control. in this day-mare of mine, my subconscious fear of leaving for europe in three days was talking, but instead of moving to spain, i was leaving for the filming of an episode of naked and afraid, and that episode was starring me.

i arrived at the most intimidating of locations: a burning hot, tropical beach (#palepeopleprobz) whose temperatures drop to dangerously cold levels at night time and whose coasts are crawling with snakes and buzzing with mosquitoes. i climbed hesitantly toward the meeting post where my single satchel and partner were both waiting for me. we get introductions and "first looks" out of the way (why are the contestants always so awkwardly blunt about the "look?") and he shows me the multi-usage machete/saw tool he brought. i pulled out my chosen item: a tube of chapstick.

at this point he hated me already and compared me to the man from last season who brought goggles but then refused to swim and catch fish (! offensive). why didn't i bring something useful, like a fire starter? i was hoping he knew how to start a fire bow-drill style. but! the chapstick has SPF! (fast-forward three days and i don't share when he is complaining about his sun-burnt lips).

*update!* i failed to mention originally that at the beginning of our challenge, my skills and intelligence were assessed, and i was given a primitive survival rating of 5.2. i honestly felt pretty good about this, but couldn't wait to prove i (cue dramatic jungle music) had what it took to survive naked and afraid. 

over the span of 20 days, we built a shelter, started a fire (after six cold nights sans flames), weaved a fish trap only to find it empty the following day, did a cheerleading stunt to pluck some coconuts off the nearest palm tree, ate said nuts, i got ill from dehydration, he picked firewood, i cried, we had a tussle about the roles and responsibilities of our "partnership," he cut his foot on a thorn, i caught a crab, he cried, he pouted about not being the breadwinner, i gave an over-emotional speech on feminism, we threatened to part ways but then realized we couldn't have done it without each other, etc.

on the twenty-first day, my partner and i (assuming i made it the entire three weeks, which is a stretch in itself) had to swim to the extraction point. swim.

i can't swim.

and after what couldn't have been longer than a few minutes but felt like twenty, i pulled my imaginative mind from the thought (before i got any specific ending or real closure, like any bad dream. did we build a raft? did i swim? did i make it?? WAS I EVER EXTRACTED!?) and realized, maybe a semester in spain won't be too bad after all.

i'll just be in spain. clothed. with purified water. and a trusty source of food. and a caring host family. and the opportunity to speak spanish all the time without driving everyone (my mother) loco. *quivers with excitement.*
it could definitely be worse.

granada, spain. fall 2014: clothed and brave. starring rachel.

first episode of the eighteen-week season starts this wednesday.
stay tuned!

PS: at the end of this little daydream of mine, i was dying to find out what my PSR would actually be, so i got online and took this primitive survival rating quiz. you guys, i got a 1.1. ONE POINT ONE. how is that an actual rating? does it even get any lower than a one!? scoff!! i even gave some really good, really honest answers, like of course i would take a machete as my tool of choice, and i would use my natural instincts combined with my katniss-like knowledge of all foliage to be sure the greens were safe for my partner and i to consume. i suppose my honest answer of  "i only experience nature through what i see on naked and afraid" maybe knocked my overall PSR down a few points. ;)

if you haven't ever seen/heard of naked and afraid, i'm sorry.

this is probably the worst thing you've ever read.

if you have seen naked and afraid,

this is still probably the worst thing you've ever read.

i'm sorry.

NEWBO MARKET

succulents for sale | my mom - the coffee shop model

we ladies of the family took advantage of a few mutual hours of free time over the weekend and adventured up to cedar rapids to explore the newbo and farmer's markets. the two markets are within blocks of each other, so our original plan was to hit up the newbo market and then make our way downtown to the farmer's market via the trolley. however, the agenda was unfortunately altered after a gloomy, lingering, rain cloud (practically literally) rained on our parade, washing out the farmer's market before we could make it there. still, we made the most of our time indoors, eating our way up and down the aisles of the big, mod warehouse. tucked together like puzzle pieces are a variety of vendors - most local, fresh/organic businesses, each with an impressive specialty of sorts. i was weighing my lunch options, vacillating between filling up on cupcakes and baguettes from the bakery, wood-fired pizza, or some form of noodles (because one can never go wrong with noodles!) when the clouds parted and a blinding beam of light burst through (accompanied by a faint yet bold humming of the hallelujah chorus rising in the background, naturally), illuminating la reyna, a food stand selling authentic mexican cuisine and groceries. the restaurant menu included none other than my favorite tacos al pastor with a bottle of apple soda to wash it down. i stuffed my face and then some because tastebud nostalgia. it was perfection.

thank you, newbo market, you scrumptious pretty thing you, for allowing me to relive some old memories and make new ones. and CR farmer's market - don't think you're off the hook just yet! we'll be back for ya.