Yesterday was my first day at Celtrino. Its a IT-Solution company for automated trading. The office is in the highest floor of a old house near city centre, with about 20-25 employees. My first day consisted of a PC that wont boot over CD or USB and a slow notebook. We could not fix both but that wasn’t much of a problem. The „IT“ consist of Amit (IT System engineer) and now me. Amit showed me the „Server room“ and where i can find everything I might need. Overall was it a nice day and I look forward my next weeks.
Kategorie: Dublin
And. Here. We. Go!
Well not quite… It’s only Saturday evening and I need to tell you about what happened the last couple of days.
On Wednesday, we met Margaret for the first time. She seems nice enough and is – as far as I can tell – quite committed to making our stay here as enjoyable an experience as can be. I found out where I was supposed to be working, had it not been for a change in personnel in the Beaumont Hospital, which is only about 10 minutes from where I am staying now. They cancelled because, with the changes going on, they wouldn’t have the time to take care of me properly. Margaret however, told me not to worry because she was expecting to hear from another company that very evening. I was not concerned in the least because I was kind of looking forward to another couple of days of vacation. 😉
Thor’s day, was in fact so uneventful that I don’t even remember what I did except for uploading the report I had written on Wednesday but hadn’t have the energy to fill with pictures, yet. Ah! I bought a little container of Nivea Night Cream that was supposed to help with healing my lips and nose because I had actually rubbed them raw with the tissues and the Vaseline only made it worse. The cream helped a great deal although the first couple of times it burned like a sonovabitch but I guess they couldn’t just print:” Don’t apply on raw flesh; hurts like a sonovabitch!” on the container…
Yesterday was our last day of school here in Ireland though we’ll be learning a great deal in the weeks to come. When are you ever done learning, right?! We had a little exam and saw Due Date afterwards. It’s a movie with Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man) and Zach Galifianakis (Hangover) who plays a character that nobody could ever stand. It was a lot of fun and I actually didn’t remember this movie being that funny.
After being presented with a certificate for the completion of the course, Toni, George and I went to eat a burrito. We had about an hour after lunch, to get to the Guinness Storehouse and Margaret’s office which is right around the corner of the aforementioned. We decided to walk instead of taking the bus, which turned out to be a good idea because for one, it was a nice and sunny day and the other, we walked by Christ Church Cathedral. Now, I’m not religious but I do appreciate nice architecture and the Head of the Church kind of does, too.
CCC looks really cool with all its really interesting features that come from the repeated reconstruction and probably also adding of specific features, popular at certain times. Margaret later told us, that visitors are actually allowed into the crypt beneath the Cathedral and that is something I am definitely going to check out.
When we arrived at Margaret’s office, she gave us a small tour through the building which actually holds a huge variety of different start-ups and a lot of IT-based businesses. She also handed me the information concerning my work placement but I will write about that later [probably next week ;)].
The tour at the Guinness Storehouse was self-guided which was cool because you could set your own pace. While the process of brewing a Guinness is much like that of brewing any other beer (e.g. Kilkenny, Berliner Pilsner, Becks, Heineken, etc.), George, Toni and I had the opportunity to participate in a course, teaching us how to taste a Guinness the way it is intended.
We went on upwards to the Sky Bar after finishing the class with honors. Well maybe not honors but at least we had a small Guinness before now getting a bigger one. The view from Sky Bar is great. If it hadn’t been as crowded, I would have taken the time to read all the information provided on the glass all around the bar but we just barely managed to find a spot to take a few pictures before leaving there and finishing our pints in the middle of the room.
The Sky Bar being the end of the tour, we decided to go home and not linger on too long. I came home to a salad with eggs, ham and cheese and a cup of tea with Ann. We talked about a variety of different topics ranging from the way her house used to look 25 years ago when they first moved here to the disgraceful murder of a young woman in Galway who was stabbed by a 27 year old man, yesterday. Ann’s daughter Deirdre came by later to do Ann’s hair and I took that as a cue to go to my room. Before going to bed I booked a trip with Travelling Languages (our school here in Dublin) for the 24th and 25th of May for 145€ to Connemara. It’s supposed to play further into my language learning experience here and I’m looking forward to it.
I met George today at around 12 o’clock. We wanted to go to O’Connell Street to buy shirts and a tie for him at Penneys as well as postcards and stamps. I was looking to buy shoes that would withstand the Connemara weather but all they had at Penneys were flip-flops. We had lunch at Papa John’s, a pizza place, for 8€ each including a soda from the infamous Coca-Cola brand. It was a lot of fun, waiting for the little doohickey to vibrate so you know your order is ready. When I was walking home a couple of hours ago, it started to rain again, naturally. But as Roger Miller put it:” Some people walk in the rain, others just get wet.” I’ll let you be the judges to which kind of person I am in this case.
Have a good night!
PS: This post scriptum is actually only here so I can brag about having over 1000 words in one of my posts. I hope you’ll understand. It was a lot of fun! 😉
guinness storehouse
On Friday the 9 Mai Angelo, George and I visited the guinness storehouse. Its more like a museum but worth the trip. I made some pictures too.
One week down..Seven to go
Hey everyone,
the first week is nearly over and it has not been boring. I think the next seven weeks will be just as exciting. So far my experieces in dublin have been very educational. In the school we were split up into 2 classes. In my class we have learnt some phrases and about the tenses. We talked about life experiences and discussed some sensitive topics like data security and working with the Internet.
On Thursday Margaret has visited us and gave us the important information about where and in which company we will work. I am very lucky that my workplace is nearly 15 minuts away from home.
All other students are forced to work in the city centre, which means that they have a much longer way to commute everyday.
Today was the most exicting day of the week, because we went to the „Guinniss Storehouse“. It has four floors and a dome on top. In the dome we have recieved a free pint and had a very nice view over the whole city.
After that, Angelo, Toni an I visited the old monuments of old Dulblin and enjoyed the Friday afternoon.
Dublin Bus
For me it looks like the best way to get where you want is the Dublin bus. Taking the bus in Dublin is very expensive but fast. When i take the bus to the language and back I’ll pay 5,20€, 2,60€ each. But its getting really expensive if you have to change the busses because you have to pay for each access. So keep in mind the best route to your location is the one with the least changeovers.
Midweek Mashup
A mashup in a way, because I need to tell you about the last couple of days and I’m going to cram as much of it in here as possible. And also because I’m quite artistic and I enjoy writing in a rather uncommon fashion.
So let’s see… there once was a day called Sunnandæg in Old English which soon turned into sunedai and is known to us simply as Sunday. Now, as legend has it, there was this young man who was sent to Ireland to hone his skills and experience the beauty of this not so far away country… far away country… ar away country… way country… ountry…
I woke up quite early which was for one, because of the alcohol I had consumed the night before and secondly, because I was ahead of everybody else by one hour. So after washing up, recapturing the day before and coming to terms with the fact that I had just spent my first night in Ireland, I went into the kitchen to eat breakfast. After breakfast I tried reaching George, answered a couple of the other messages I had received during the night and… bravely sat around while the world turned without my help.
A little later I was on my way to George who had gotten back to me and agreed to venture into the city. The sky, though cloudy and ripe with rain, looked amazing. One would think that the sky looks the same everywhere but I now believe that is not the case.
George and I went to the nearest Spar-shop, which his host dad had kindly pointed us in the direction of, and bought two leap cards for the bus. We each topped off the cards with 15€ and went to the nearest station. After asking a young woman, who tried her best to ignore the persistent bastard I am, we found out that every bus would go to the city centre from this point so we took the next bus and got off at O’Connell Street.
After walking around the city centre, eating lunch and buying our O2 SIMs, we met up with Toni and headed to the Temple Bar to get a few drinks. As it turns out, Temple Bar is a major rip-off (/salute Major Rip-Off) as we paid almost 6€ for a pint of Guinness/Kilkenny and another 6,30€ for a shot of Jameson. It was a nice experience though and at least we get to brag with having had a drink there. We went home after that and I had dinner and went to bed.
Monday was a bank holiday in all of Ireland and I tried sleeping in, which did not work at all. I was up at around 7am, got dressed, had breakfast and then went back to my room and onto my bed to write another blog entry and a few postcards. I watched a movie, enjoyed a couple of YouTube videos and took a nap. It was quite the lazy day until George picked me up at around 16:30 and we went to see what Tesco had to offer and how Lidl would try to compete. I bought my favorite brand of facial tissue because I felt a cold crawling its way into my life here. The day ended as boring as it had started and so after having dinner, I went to bed.
We had our first day of school on Tuesday and it was… okay. I know most of the things our teacher is teaching and the rest I don’t care about. It’s not boring per se but it’s also not a lot of fun. I try and help the other students as much as possible and give explanations where they are needed. Since Monday was off, we had an afternoon-session which ended at 5pm. For lunch, Toni, George and I had a Burrito right around the corner from school and were granted a discount of 1€ with the ISIC.
Later that day I bought flip-flops and a pair of sweatpants at Penneys because I didn’t bring any, not seeing the need that was now painfully clear to me. Dinner consisted of a Quiche and a nice, hot soup. My cold was in full swing and the night was terrible but at least I had Vaseline to keep my lips and nose smooth and keep the irritation at bay.
You, who so bravely read every word and giggled over every little joke, probably want to know how this story continues… Well, you’ll just have to tune in again on Sunday. 😉
My workplace
Today, after our language school, we met Margaret the first time. She told us where we will work for the next 7 weeks. I’ll work for a company thats named Celtrino in the city centre of Dublin. Its a IT consulting company for Electronic Sales/Purchase Processing. I’m really looking forward to work with them.
..not enough time on a single day
On my second day in Dublin Angelo and I explored the city. At first we tried to figure out the public transportation via bus, which was more diffucult than we expected it to be. We drove to the city centre were we saw „The Spire“.
From there we walked to the ministery district were we had a great view at „The Custom House“ and „The Ulster Bank“.
Standing on a small bridge that crosses the „River Liffey“ we were planning the rest of our day. Since we were really hungry we decided to go to the „Temple Bar“ district and order some delicious italien food.
After that, we picked up Toni and went to the famous „The Temple Bar“ in Temple Bar.The drinks were good but the prices not, but it was worth it.
I would have loved to see more of Dublin, but there was not enough time on a single day.
A Very Warm Welcome
To say it was cloudy when we arrived at Dublin Airport would be quite the understatement. However, the carpet looked beautiful from above and kept us warm from below. I don’t know what the temperature was but I had to open all 3 of my jackets on our way to the bus.
After hunting down our luggage we made our way outside where Damien, our driver from INTERNSPLUS, waited. He gave us our welcome pack including an Irish sim (which I’m not going to use) and instructions for the first week in school. We have to attend classes at a language school near the Trinity College in the city and since Monday is a bank holiday, we have to stay the whole day on Tuesday. Wednesday through Friday it’s supposed to be 4 hours from 9am to 1pm so there’s time to see the city afterwards. There is also going to be a welcome meeting on Wednesday after class.
I was the first one to get off the bus and Damien brought me to the front door of 31 Elm Mount Heights where Ann O’Connor is now harboring me. She showed me to the room where I put down my bag and backpack and took off my jackets. I went down to have a cup of tea and a sandwich in the kitchen. I talked to Ann for quite some time and asked her about the things I would have to keep in mind while staying with her and her husband. She told me that there is also a guy from Saudi Arabia and a guy from Switzerland in the house and that she has been a host for about 2 years now. She mostly has full time students here and I’m the first one to have a work experience.
After my second cup of tea Ann told me that she had to run some errands, gave me the key to her Wi-Fi and I went up to unpack. My room had obviously belonged to some girl before because she kindly left her hair all over the wooden floor. I got rid of the hairs and started unpacking.
Later that evening Ann’s daughter and two of her sons where supposed to join us for dinner. I sat in the kitchen while she prepared lamb chops with potatoes and assorted vegetables and an apple pie. We talked a lot which I really enjoyed.
The evening was great and the food awesome. I stayed up until long after 2am that night, talking to Ann, her son Patrick, his wife Denise (who both kindly invited me to their house warming party and Denise’s Birthday) and the rest of the family. Patrick told me about the national sport Hurling and said that the championship is about to start. He offered to take me to a game one time and I’m looking forward to it.
Patrick also offered me a chance to have a Guinness and after having three Heineken already I felt reluctant to refuse the offer. So after 2 Guinness, a couple of jokes and singing Dubliners songs, Patrick and Denise where the last to leave the party and I went to bed after they had left.
I felt very welcome that day and considering it was only the first day and they had just met me, I’m looking forward to the days to come.
First time and first impressions
I have heard a lot of Ireland, but today it is the first time that I can form my own impressions.
The pleasant flight took 2 hours and a very nice guy picked us up from the airport. He drove us to the house of the host family. A jolly middle-aged man opened the door. His name is Paul an he has two sons at my age and a little cute dog. After the greetings Paul shows me my room. It is a very comfortable room in the attic. The view is amazing, despite of the bad weather. I hope that sunbeams will wake me up tommorow.
