Thursday, October 23, 2008

Merrion Square

Que dia para olvidarme la camara! Hoy estoy trabajando en Merrion Square. Esta que llueve a cantaros y para colmo, como sali de prisa de la casa, solo tengo una sombrillita que ya esta rota en mi cartera. Saben, no es la lluvia - es la brisa. No tengo ninguno de mis jackets de lluvia conmigo. Blah!

Pero, lo que queria mencionar es el tremendo sitio donde estoy. Una oficina por aqui es como tener una oficina por el parque central. Pero la oficina esta en esta casa Georgiana, super preciosa y enorme - la 'oficina' de la recepcion donde estoy, es el descanso de la escalera. el descanso es mas grande que mi habitacion en Brooklyn. Si me llaman para trabajar aqui mañana, le tirare fotos a todo. es preciosa!
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What a day to forget my camera! I've been working by Merrion Square today. It's raining like I'll be needing an arc, and to boot I only have with me an old and broken umbrella. I knew I should've grabbed my raincoat, but I left the house in such a hurry! And it's not even the rain, is the crazy wind that does you in. Blah!

But, what I wanted to mention is the place where I'm temping today. Across the street from Merrion Square (picture 5th ave, central park) in this beautiful Georgian house. The 'reception' area where I'm at? The landing on the stairs. I mean it. It's bigger than my room in Brooklyn, this landing. Beautiful oval windows behind me, a skylight... it's gorgeous. This house is six houses down from W.B. Yeat's house. I hope I get to work here tomorrow. I hope it stops raining by the time I leave today!


From Dublin - October
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Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Barcelona y a trabajar, pues/ Barcelona and to work then

La economia en los Estados Unidos esta que asusta a cualquiera. Huracanes por todos lados y yo por aqui, que a veces hasta se me olvidan las cosas. El fin de semana pasado fuimos a Barcelona. Los padres de I. estaban ahi y fue tremendo: la arquitectura es preciosa, la ciudad en si te deja sin aliento. Me pase los tres dias diciendome: "estoy en España," porque es que no me lo creia. Cuando llegamos a Reus nos encontramos con un tipo vestido como "El pajaro loco" recibiendo a los viajeros. Abordamos un autobus hasta Barcelona y despues de comer un bocadillo encontramos un taxi. Nuestro Hostel, aunque bello y en una parte de la ciudad muy accesible, dejo mucho que desear, especialmente la gente que trabajaba en el. Pero tratamos de no pensar mucho y nos encontramos con los papas de I. en la zona olimpica, cerca de la playa. Estabamos en camino a un restaurante cuando nos atrapo un aguacero y hubo que entrar en el primer sitio que encontramos. Las gotas eran del tamaño de un puño, casi, o por lo menos asi de grande se sentían. Las muchachas comieron Paella de camaron y los papas de Marisco. Yo comi salmón. Todo estaba muy bueno, pero con mucho mucho aceite.
El Sábado nos despertamos temprano y tomamos un tour de la ciudad. Pasamos por varios de los edificios de Gaudi y tomamos muchisimas fotos desde el autobus. Todo lo que comen es bocadillos, parece. Por la mañana tratamos de encontrar un sitio para comer huevos revueltos, pero solo los vendian despues de las doce. Bocadillos son sandwiches, y eran generalmente de jamón o de queso, sin mantequilla ni nada. De almuerzo entre museos, comimos mas bocadillos pues era antes de las una, y no encontramos un sitio que vendia comida caliente antes de. En la noche nos encontramos con un festival, y una caravana de tamborirelos. De cena comimos pizza, y el señor que nos atendió estuvo de lo mas sorprendido cuando S. pidió una pizza de queso con pedazos de tomate. Aunque I., S. y los papás hablaban un poco de español, me toco traducir la mayoria del tiempo.
El Domingo empezó temprano, con una caminata por el malecón antes de ver el museo de Picasso que estuvo perfecto. Almorzamos Tapas y de ahi para la playa. Hacia demasiado frior para nadar, pero estaba bien para tomar el sol. Despues de una cena ligera, las muchachas y yo nos fuimos para el aeropuerto. Regresamos a la casa en Dublin como a la una de la mañana.
Eso fue Barcelona. De lo mas divertido, y lo unico que encontramos fue que hubieron personas muy rudas. Los taxistas nos querian dejar en la esquina en vez de al frente de donde uno le pedia, y hasta se enojaron con nosotros por insistir que nos llevaran. Los meseros fueron todos, super rudos. Me encontré con un señor el Sábado en la noche que primero pensó que yo era mexicana porque pedi "una tortilla como las de los tacos" (tortillas en barcelona es un omelette) y luego cuando le dije que era Dominicana, me dijo " no... tu eres Dominicana? Aqui las dominicanas... pero tu no, tu eres super preciosa" y luego cuando este le informo al mesero que yo era Dominicana empezaron a cantar a Juan Luis Guerra "Frio frio" y despues a hacer bromas acerca de platanos. Bah.

Ahora estoy en un nuevo trabajo - estaré aquí por tres semanas. Me encanta, es super sencillo (hasta ahora) y la gente que trabaja aqui es muy amable. No me puedo quejar! Te dan fruta gratis durante todo el dia, pan y mantequilla durante todo el dia, y puedo caminar desde mi casa (40 minutos mas o menos) asi que me ahorro el dinero del autobus y hago un poco de ejercicio.
Subire las fotos de Barcelona despues... estoy buscando una manera de subir mas en menos tiempo, no se como hacerlo todavia.

Creo que Alemania o Francia, despues.

Hasta luego!
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The economy in the United States is scaring us all, hurricanes everywhere and here I am, sometimes even forgetting who I am. This last weekend we went to Barcelona. I.'s parents were there, which was great. The architecture is awesome, there are veranda's everywhere, crazy monuments left and right: they really like and respect their architects there. I spent every day telling myself "I'm in Spain." It was hard to believe. When we arrived to Reus, there was some guy dressed up as Woody Woodpecker, out of all cartoon animals, welcoming the travelers in immigration. We had to run to take a bus to Barcelona, so we didn't eat till we got there, like at around 3 in the afternoon. We had bocadillos before finding our Hostel. The guys that worked there were creepy and annoying and kept making fun of us, but the room in itself was gorgeous. We met up with I.'s parents by the beach and were surprised by rain, drops as big as a fist (or so they felt) and so we ducked into the first restaurant we found. The girls and the 'rents had paella, Lobster and seafood respectively. I had the grilled Salmon. It was good, but very oily.
Saturday we woke up early and took one of those bus tours around the city. We saw a bunch of the Gaudí buildings and the church and what not- took a ton of pictures. For a while it felt like all that Spaniards ate was bocadillos. Sandwiches, mostly ham or cheese, with no butter or mayo or anything, not even heated. Anything heated was after one. We tried finding scrambled eggs for breakfast but Omelettes were only available in the afternoons. There was some kind of festival going on - a procession of 'groups' playing drums, (like bunch of drumlines, really) went down one of the main streets. For dinner we had pizza and the owner came over, first surprised and then to thank us because S. asked for cheese pizza with tomato slices. He didn't know you could do that! Even though S., I. and her parents all speak a bit of Spanish I did most of the talking. It was fun imitating the Spanish accent, but I prefer Dominican.
Sunday was another early morning and after a walk by the beach we stopped by the Picasso museum and then had some Tapas before heading to the beach. It was too cold to swim but still warm enough to lay about, taking in the sun. It was great. We had light dinner before heading to the airport and we were back at the Dublin house by 1 a.m.
That was Barcelona. A lot of fun and the only minus really would be all the rude people we ran into- the guy at the hostel, taxi drivers that would try to let us off at the corner instead of dropping us at the address we asked for. Servers were rude and temperamental. I ran into these guy, while the girls and I ordered a quick dinner Saturday night before trying to go for drinks. At first he thought I was mexican, because I had tried to explain to our server that what S. had asked for was indeed a "tortilla, like a mexican taco wrapper" and not the omelette that he was giving her. When I told him that I was Dominican he was very surprised and when I asked him how so ("don't I look Dominican?") he said that Dominicans there were.... but that I was beautiful regardless. Then he told our server that I was dominican, like it was some big news and soon enough they were singing Juan Luis Guerra songs (Frio Frio) and making platano jokes. Bah.
Now I'm at the new job. I'll be here for three weeks. I love it! It's super easy (so far) and the people here are very nice. I get free fruit throughout the day, toast for breakfast, and the place is close enough to my house (40 min.) that I can walk, so I save on bus money while exercising a little.
I'll be uploading some Barcelona pictures soon... I'm trying to find out if there's a way that I can install a slide in here, or just link 'em to my picasaweb pictures, because it takes too long to upload them here.
I think either Germany but most probably France will be next.
Later

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Picture Update/ Fotos mas fotos

Domingo, 5 de la tarde. Me la he pasado en la casa, haciendo nada: leyendo, chequeando el internet, pensando en comer pero sin suficientes ganas de pararme a ver que hago. Tal vez en un ratito. Ike ha pasado por Houston, aqui no deja de llover (excepto ayer. Ayer estuvo perfecto). En un ratito ire a devolver la pelicula que rentamos, buscare otra, me sentare a comer y a ver television. Un poquito de descanso es bueno para todos. Bueno, a las fotos.

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Sunday, 5 pm. I've spent the day at home, doing nothing: reading, looking up things on the internet, thinking of eating but not hungry enough to get up and see what I'll eat. Maybe in a bit. Ike just passed Houston, it won't stop raining here (except yesterday. It was perfect yesterday.) In a little while I'll go return the movie we watched last night (the son of rambow... totally recommend it), pick up a new one, shall eat, watch tv. Some rest is good for us all. Well, to the pictures.




Telefono publico
One of the buses that runs by the house/ uno de nuestros autobuses
Big Wheel up at Belfast
Taxi negro, pero es como un concho dominicano/ Black cab, almost like a bus

Saturday, September 6, 2008

Una Semana/ One Week

Llevo una semana aqui. Ha ido bien pronto, pero lento - casi no lo creo! Hoy estamos en Belfast, para celebrar el cumpleaños de S. Belfast esta en el norte de Irlanda, y en realidad cuenta como parte de Inglaterra, aunque no lo es. Todavia hay que acostumbrarse al sol y de repente lluvia. Bueno. Estamos en un cafe, asi que, hasta luego!
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I've been here a week. It's gone by really fast, but also quite quickly... I almost don't believe it! Today we're in Belfast, celebrating S's birthday. Belfast is in the north of Ireland, but really counts as UK. That's still baffling to me. I still have to get used to the sun and then suddenly rain. Well. we're at a cafe and they're almost closing so, toodles!

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Otro dia/ Another day

Mi primer dia de trabajo. He estado super nerviosa, pero parece que todo va estar bien. Ya tenemos casa y estoy un poco mas relajada, pero no tenemos internet, asi que las fotos y demas vienen despues.
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My first day of work as a temp. I've been extremely nervous, afraid I wouldn't be able to handle it, but so far so good. Or Grand, as they say here. We have a home, and I'm a bit more relaxed, which I'm sure my girls are glad about, but we have no internet yet, so pictures and a bigger update come later.

Sunday, August 31, 2008

Bienvenida a Irlanda / Welcome to Ireland

Bueno, es mi segundo dia en Dublin, y para mal parafrasear a Shakespeare, "Todo va bien que empieza bien." Mi espanol esta super rustico, y la computadora que estoy usando no me deja escribir en Espanol correctamente, asi que lo siento, mientras tanto, hasta que aprenda que estoy haciendo.
Hoy, nos la pasamos buscando apartamentos con nada de suerte, comimos comida china y caminos por el area llamada "Temple Bar." Tengo un celular, y una entrevista con una agencia de trabajo el martes, ya veremos como va todo. Son las diez de la noche - a las 9:30 tenemos que ir a ver un apartamento y luego una reunion con la agencia que me consiguio la visa, para despues registrarme con imigracion. Aqui van las fotos del dia.
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I shall try to be bilingual. Sorry if the English side is a bit more verbose. Well, it's my second day in Dublin and to badly paraphrase Shakespeare, "All's well that begins well."
Today we spent most of our time searching for apartments (flats, mind you), without much luck as the two that we wanted were taken. Ate chinese food as our first meal together in Ireland (by we I mean Ida, Stephanie and myself) before getting a cell phone and walking around the area called Temple Bar, which is the city centre. I've got an interview with an employment agency on Tuesday, and tomorrow (Monday) I've got a meeting with the agency that set up our visa as well , and an appointment to see a flat. I also need to register with the GNIB, the Irish immigration peeps, to get a tax number and what not. I expect to bring on the witty later on, when I get used to this blogging thing. In the mean time, pictures.
The Spire.
Esta en el medio de la calle O'Connell, es una aguja super larga y alta. Muy buena para ubicarse. Todos los edificios son de cuatro pisos al frente, seis u ocho por atras.
This huge needle is quite helpful when you wanna find your way, as there are no skyscrapers here, you can just look up and be "ha!"


Frente al rio Liffey/ By Liffey River

Rublos? No son platanos!



Nuestra primera foto en Irlanda... frente al H&M.
Our first picture together in Ireland... in front of H&M