Irish Adventures
So here I am in brilliant Ireland. From the moment I flew over the coast to the moment I sit here typing away, this place has been beautiful. I arrived Monday morning and had no troubles getting a taxi into Ennis. The driver was quite nice (not surprisingly, we spoke almost exclusively about Guinness and President Bush) and knew exactly where to take me despite the fact that I had no address for the hotel. Though it was 9 am when I arrived, I was able to check into my hotel and immediately passed out on my bed for about half an hour. Feeling a bit more awake, I walked around town looking for Guinness, ultimately settling on the hotel bar.
Guinness was, is, not what I expected at all. In my head I had imagined that it would be this explosion of creamy goodness unsurpassed by all imitators. What's worse is that I somehow expected that it would be EVERYWHERE. I mean, doesn't it rain Guinness here? Can you walk down the street and NOT see rivers of heady beer flowing through the narrow streets? Little Irish boys in yellow raincoats and boots, stomping in puddles of the stuff and singing in Gaelic?
Wi' nae wee bairn ye'll me beget
Untwinkle, little ee
My ainly pang'll be regret
A maiden I will dee
Ok, so maybe I got a little carried away there. I'm not even sure if that's Gaelic. It might simply be babyspeak, but it is true that Guinness is not as intertwined with Irish life as I had imagined. To be fair, I'm only in one little town; and, just as it is the states, Guinness can apparently differ quite a bit from place to place, and even bar to bar. Maybe I should train up to Dublin for the weekend and see for myself.
For fear of writing an entire post devoted to Guinness I'll move on, but not without the intent to revisit the topic later. Late Monday afternoon I met some of my work contacts for a coffee and a hike out to the training site. The site is pretty nondescript (however the soon-to-be-complete building is very cool) so let's move right on to talking about the Irish lads, beginning with some gross generalizations. They're quite pleasant - though not in an overly saccharine sort of way - and very nice/accommodating. The men (especially the older ones) are quite jovial and a bit difficult to understand, the ladies are much quieter and so a mystery.
The people starting up this paper are fantastic. They're all relatively young and very bright. The editor is my favorite. He's very grounded and at the same time driven to make the most of this opportunity. They're doing some pretty neat things; the paper will be the first in the country to have color print on every page. If that doesn't sound impressive to you just pretend it is... Today we were discussing different things he wanted to do with the paper and how our software could accommodate his needs and I thought, "I should just stay here and work for this guy for a while."
Anyway, so that's pretty smashing. And by the look of the clock I see it's time to get back to work. More to come soon.
Cheers!
Guinness was, is, not what I expected at all. In my head I had imagined that it would be this explosion of creamy goodness unsurpassed by all imitators. What's worse is that I somehow expected that it would be EVERYWHERE. I mean, doesn't it rain Guinness here? Can you walk down the street and NOT see rivers of heady beer flowing through the narrow streets? Little Irish boys in yellow raincoats and boots, stomping in puddles of the stuff and singing in Gaelic?
Wi' nae wee bairn ye'll me beget
Untwinkle, little ee
My ainly pang'll be regret
A maiden I will dee
Ok, so maybe I got a little carried away there. I'm not even sure if that's Gaelic. It might simply be babyspeak, but it is true that Guinness is not as intertwined with Irish life as I had imagined. To be fair, I'm only in one little town; and, just as it is the states, Guinness can apparently differ quite a bit from place to place, and even bar to bar. Maybe I should train up to Dublin for the weekend and see for myself.
For fear of writing an entire post devoted to Guinness I'll move on, but not without the intent to revisit the topic later. Late Monday afternoon I met some of my work contacts for a coffee and a hike out to the training site. The site is pretty nondescript (however the soon-to-be-complete building is very cool) so let's move right on to talking about the Irish lads, beginning with some gross generalizations. They're quite pleasant - though not in an overly saccharine sort of way - and very nice/accommodating. The men (especially the older ones) are quite jovial and a bit difficult to understand, the ladies are much quieter and so a mystery.
The people starting up this paper are fantastic. They're all relatively young and very bright. The editor is my favorite. He's very grounded and at the same time driven to make the most of this opportunity. They're doing some pretty neat things; the paper will be the first in the country to have color print on every page. If that doesn't sound impressive to you just pretend it is... Today we were discussing different things he wanted to do with the paper and how our software could accommodate his needs and I thought, "I should just stay here and work for this guy for a while."
Anyway, so that's pretty smashing. And by the look of the clock I see it's time to get back to work. More to come soon.
Cheers!
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