A Busy Spring Exploring Great Britain

The past month+ has been extremely hectic and our time in Ireland is really flying. The past weeks have been marked by the conclusion of Brayden’s spring semester- papers, finals, etc. and the 3+ weeklong visit of my mum and sister. Let’s talk about that.

The day before Easter Sunday my mum and sister Jessie arrived in Dublin via Boston. I was so happy to see them! The next day the 3 of us and Brayden took the tiny flight over to London to celebrate Easter with a tour of Great Britain! We were so lucky that the sun was shining in London and didn’t stop the entire 10 days we were over there! We spent the first few days in London and it was really a pleasant surprise. Not that we weren’t expecting to enjoy it, but we all really loved London! We did lots of the touristy things including The Tower of London, The London Eye, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, Kensington Palace, Westminster Abbey, and St Pauls Cathedral. All were awesome! And considering we were there the week of the royal wedding the city was so clean and decorated with extra British flare. The only underwhelming part of London was the Jack the Ripper street tour (think crazy old man with a limp telling insignificant info about London with very lose connections to JTR). Anyways all in all London was awesome!

Next we moved westward to Bath, England. It was a very cute town in the country with Georgian style buildings and a huge Italian influence, thus the Roman Baths. The baths were cool but otherwise there wasn’t too much to do there. From there we rented a car (I was actually allowed to drive this time!) and ventured up through the Cotswold countryside stopping in all of the cute little towns: Painswick, Sto-on-the-wold, Chipping Camden, and finally Stratford-upon-avon (birthplace of Shakespeare). Then we drove far up to lakes district (sort of reminded me of VT/NH area) and stayed over in Keswick at an old mansion hotel that reminded me of CLUE. The next day we had a lovely hike there surrounded by more sheep than I’ve even seen in Ireland!

Soon thereafter we got to Scotland (where everyone has accents like Sean Connery). We climbed the monument to William Wallace (Braveheart) and went to an old town called Stirling. Unfortunately our designated trip navigator, Brayden, had to leave us to fend for ourselves as he had to return to Dublin for his finals. We headed up to Glencoe in Scotland and it was just gorgeous- mountains and lakes everywhere! Then we spent 2 amazing nights on an island called Isle of Skye. This was by far my favourite part of the trip. It was so beautiful and literally everywhere was lakes/ocean/mountains/sheep/goats/horses etc. The ultimate highlight was the day we did a 50-mile bike ride around the Tratternish Peninsula and despite the non-stop hills it was filled with some of the most gorgeous views my eyes have ever seen! Definitely the best bike ride of my life (though my mum wasn’t the only one who was melting down around mile 45 lol, it was really really hilly).

From Skye we moved onto the Loch Ness area (didn’t see it) but did see the famous castle Eilien Donan, the most photographed thing is Scotland. That was cool and then we went further into the Highlands and did some hiking which was nice. Finally we ended our Great Brittan tour in Edinborough. We were also really surprised by how nice Edinborough was. Not a ton to do but very beautiful and we managed to get up early and climb up the Kings Seat (famous from Chariots of Fire) and then tour their big castle (which had a quite interesting take on the Scotland liberation attempts).

Overall it was a great trip! We headed back to Dublin where unfortunately work was waiting for me, but my mum and Jess went on a 10 day tour around Ireland, meeting up with her brother Frank and my cousins. They had a great time though were not as lucky with the weather (got their use out of the new raincoats I insisted they bring). In the end they spent a few days with me and Brayden to see Dublin and then sadly have to get back to reality. Miss them already

Destination: New Delhi

T-minus 48 days until we are in the slums of New Delhi, India. And who would think we’d be so excited about it?! As many of you have heard Brayden and I are traveling with a group of Irish volunteers on a Habitat Global Village (GV) trip. We are really excited about it, have spent the past few months organizing and preparing for the trip, and now that it’s finally within reach we thought we’d share a little more about it.

Over the course of the Fall I found myself constantly intrigued by the stories of my co-workers, who all work on the GV programme, leading trips to countries and locations most people would never think of traveling to. Annually, Habitat Ireland sends about 15 teams abroad to build in these severely impoverished communities, often in nearly inaccessible areas. In the midst of all my time being spent on the local Dublin programme I finally decided to propose that perhaps I could lead one of the Spring GV builds. I was so happy to be chosen for the India trip! First task at hand: recruiting Brayden to be on the team. That was an easy one!

Since then we have spent the past few months recruiting 10 other volunteers to join our team, holding team meetings, organizing the logistics, fundraising for our places on the team and our team donations to Habitat Ireland and Habitat India, and most recently getting tons of vaccinations that we never thought we would need!

One of our team meetings was a day of volunteering at our Local Programme site (ignore the unflattering safety goggles!!!).

We were both instantly excited about the destination (especially Brayden due to his love for Indian food). Originally the trip was scheduled to a small city on the SE coast of India called Pondicherry.

Then, there was a change of plans. The destination of GV teams always depends on the demand of volunteers and need for the team at the particular time. So all of the sudden a few weeks ago we were asked if we would consider taking the team to build in the slums of New Delhi instead of Pondicherry. Of course we said yes, though I can’t say I was a bit shocked at first. Though it is the same country (massive as it is) Northern India and Southern India differ a good bit. And as for the infamous slums of New Delhi… I anticipate it is a one of kind type of place. With that in mind we are actually more excited about Delhi, and know it will be an extremely eye opening experience. A quick stat just for a frame of reference: India has a population of 1.17 billion and of that 42% live below the international poverty line of $1.25/day. Yikes.

We will be doing the actual building in a community on the outskirts of Dehi called Bhalaswa. In an effort by the Indian government in 2004 to evacuate residents from the slums 7,000 families were relocated from the downtown city slums to this resettlement area. Without any real livlihood or capability to develop the land it in turn immediately became another slum area. To date Habitat has helped house 400 families in the area, with an ultimate goal of reachign 2,000. This mission is what we will be a part of!

A Habitat House in Bhalaswa

To wrap up, we wanted to say another big thank you to all of the people who have donated to our fundraising page and that if anyone else is interested in supporting the cause we would be extremely grateful. Looking forward to updating everyone post the trip!

Here is the link to our charity page:

http://www.mycharity.ie/event/alisa_brayden_india_build/

Final Basketball Update

Last week was the DBS Sports and Societies Awards Banquet, as well as the All-Ireland Intervarsities tournament. This tournament was the final basketball commitment I had for this year. But let's start with the banquet first.

Alisa and I at the banquet

DBS held the banquet last Thursday night at the Conrad, a 5-star hotel over near St. Stephen's Green. It was a pretty swanky place, so it gave Alisa and I a chance to play dress-up. The banquet was nice enough like*. Our team cleaned up on the awards, picking up Coach of the Year and Team of the Year. I was also lucky enough to win MVP, which was pretty nice. While most of the Irish people stayed at the hotel and got pretty messy as the Irish do, Alisa and I headed home early. She had work and I had the varsities tournament the next day.

After winning the MVP

The Intervarsities (or varisities) is a tournament where the best basketball playing colleges from all of Ireland come together for a weekend. It starts with pool play, then moves to a knockout-style playoff format. We won our pool, so we made it to the final round of 8. But because of the crappy draw we had to face the 3rd best team in the quarterfinals and and the 2nd best team in the semifinal.  In total it ended up being lots of games with 1 Friday night, and 2 on both Saturday and Sunday.

In the quarterfinal on Saturday we played the team we beat earlier in the league final, Cork IT. It was a close game early in the 3rd quarter when I jumped for a rebound and landed on somebodies foot. I wrecked my ankle and had to be helped off the court. I missed the rest of the game, but fortunately my teammates pulled out the victory. Our semifinal game against Carlow was at 9:30 the next morning, so I went home to rest.

When I got up in the morning my ankle was very swollen and blue. I could barely walk, but I brought my bball stuff just in case. The athletic trainer looked at it and said I hadn't torn any ligaments, just tendons. I had her wrap it up real tight, in case my team needed me.

I didn't start, but ended up playing most of the game against Carlow. We were down 8 going into the 4th quarter, and I had yet to score. I was in a lot of pain and could barely move. But I decided this was my last shot at organized bball for awhile so I figured I might as well get some shots up. I made some shots, and with about 25 seconds to go we had the ball down 4 points. One of my teammates made a boneheaded move and got called for the obvious travel, which gave the other team the ball. Things were looking pretty bleak at that point.

I should mention there were a lot of people watching our game because us and Carlow were the best teams in the Division 2 tournament. Carlow is actually Division 1, but for some reason they played down. Anyway, there were lots of people watching, and they all wanted Carlow to win. This is because everybody knew that DBS brought over me and Glenn. Apparently this pissed off the rest of Ireland, so the whole place was rooting for Carlow.

All the fans were pretty happy at this point, yelling things that I'd rather not write here. We came out playing tough defense, forcing a turnover on the inbounds pass. As our player was trying to pass ahead to Glenn he was tackled from behind by a Carlow player. The refs called an intentional foul, so we got 2 shots and the ball. Luckily we hit both free throws and now had the ball down 2. We inbounded the ball, but Carlow was playing really good defense. Finally I got open and caught the ball on the 3-point line. I immediately shot it in some big guys face, and it went in to put us up 1 with ten seconds to go. Carlow called timeout to draw up a play, and I switched onto their best guard because everybody in the gym knew the ball was going to him. He got the ball and tried to drive around me, but because I'm so tall he couldn't get where he wanted to get. He ended up shooting a fingerroll by reaching around me from about the free throw line. This shot hit the side of the backboard and ricocheted right to their big man. He put up a mildly contested layup that rolled off the rim and I grabbed the board and got fouled with 2 seconds to go. At this point their coach went nuts, yelling at the refs saying they were less than great and that my 3 was "way inside the line". He swiftly got 4 technicals and was kicked out of the gym.

We hit a bunch of the free throws and won by 7 or 8. It was a pretty crazy comeback, something I haven't been a part of since as long as I can remember. The coach later apologized to me, he thought I was inside the line because I was inside an orange line on the court, but the bball 3-point line was red. My 3-pt shot was about 3 feet behind that line...it was a ridiculous argument to the refs at the time!

After the semis we played in the final against a team that isn't all that great. We were never really pressed and ended up winning by 25. It was great to win the tournament though because DBS brought me and Glenn over for this, and I feel like I've gotten the better end of the deal by far. But DBS is happy, so therefore I'm happy. Now I can concentrate on school and getting my ankle better. It is really swollen and blue on both the inside and outside. Luckily it's the right ankle this time. I severely injured the left one a couple months back.

After wining the Intervarsities Division 2

*"nice enough like" or "handy enough like" is quickly becoming one of my favorite popular Irish sayings because it sounds so ridiculous to end a sentence with the word 'like'.

Basketball, Paddy’s, & Loads of Friends

We have had a very eventful, non-stop, packed last few weeks here in Dublin. Brayden is so insanely busy that I again will have to do the blogging. Let’s start with basketball. Brayden’s college team, DBS, made it to the National Collegiate Championships and killed it! Brayden was the leading scorer and led the team to an easy victory! As the school was in the 2^nd collegiate division they will now move up to the 1^st division for next year, which was the goal of bringing over American’s. Fair play to you Brayden! (that’s what Irish people yell during sporting events).

Fair Play!

Unfortunately the Tolka Rovers season did not end as well. Going into the playoffs with a No.2 seed Tolka was upset in the 1^st round by a team from Galway that they had previously beaten L Brayden did play really well though, and again led the scoreboard. None the less, tough way to end the season.

Now onto all the visiting friends! The Saturday prior to Paddy’s Day my good friend Laura and her boyfriend Chris arrived in Ireland. Laura was one of my teammates in college and her aunt lives in Galway - so Laura and Chris stayed with us Saturday night, then headed onto Galway, then returned to Dublin the Eve of Paddys. Anyways we had a great time with them and showed them a fun Dublin Saturday night.

That Sunday morning one of Brayden’s best friends from home, Peter, arrived in town with his girlfriend Allison. We hosted a typical big-weekend-morning breakfast for everyone, then Laura and Chris headed on, and Brayden and I took Allison and Peter to the Killmainham Jail (our favourite tour in Dublin). We then showed them all around the city, had a carvery, and headed home after a long day.

Peter and Allison went up to explore Northern Ireland for the early part of the week, and then everyone was back Wednesday for Paddy’s Eve! Including Brayden’s other best friend from home, Paul, and his girlfriend, Megan. We all went out on the town for one of the biggest nights of the year here, as everyone in the country has Paddy’s Day off.

Paddys Day. It was definitely a once in a lifetime experience to celebrate Paddy’s Day in Dublin, and especially with so many good friends from home! We had the huge group of us- 4 couples + Glenn (unofficial ‘x-wheel’ in this case 9^th!). It was sooo much fun. We all got decked out in green and flare (me in charge of facepaint) and headed to watch the parade.

My artwork... note the stick figure leprechaun

It was really packed but we met up with some of our other local friends here too and watched the weirdest parade I have ever seen!!! It was not what I imagined at all... a cross between circ-de-sole and a Tim Burton movie. I later found out that it was based on the short story “Brilliant” by Roddy Doyle.

The MI guys: Paul, Peter, Brayden, giant parade insect

Me & Miller reunited by Paddy's Day

It was a beautiful day and we all hung out by the river for awhile, visited some of the pubs in Temple Bar, and then called it an early night after a long and crazy St Paddy’s Day!

The Gang by the river

The most Irish couple... by present standards

Friday morning six of us - me and Brayden, Peter, Paul, Megan and Allison hit the road for Galway and County Mayo. We stopped on the way in a cute little town, then again at these caves in the middle of the countryside, and then drove through a strange desolate area called The Burren.

We then arrived at the famous Cliffs of Moher and watched the sun set there. Despite having heard that the Cliffs are a tourist trap we found it breathtaking and not too crowded. We then drove to Galway, all very tired, and caught up on sleep.

Us falling over the cliff wall... obviously

Saturday we woke up early to catch the ferry to Inish Mor, one of the Aran Islands. Brayden and I did this trip last summer and it was really great so we wanted to show our friends. The day started out lovely but unfortunately early on in our bike around the island we got torrentially down-poured on... can’t win ‘em all! We still had a great time, but the short ferry ride back to Galway didn’t feel so short all soaked wet... typical Ireland!

We enjoyed our last night together as a group by hitting the town in Galway, which is a great little city with a very musical night-life. Proving to be a small country in-deed both Brayden and I bumped into people we knew from Dublin. Anyway it was a great last night with everyone.

Sunday we got up and went for a nice drive up through County Mayo. Brayden and I hadn’t been up there before and it was really really beautiful countryside! So many sheep.... We stopped for one last hearty meal and in a village called Cong, where I had about the best Beef & Guinness stew I’ve ever had. There was also an old abbey in the town which was very nice.

We drove back to Dublin, dropped Meg and Paul off at the airport, took Peter and Allison through Phoenix Park, and wrapped up the trip with them departing the next morning. Overall it was a crazy 2 weeks - lots of fun, and lots of memories made :)

Skiing Italian Style!

Last weekend I took a little trip to go visit my cousin Lisa and her husband Benson in Italy. It was a great weekend of skiing, Italian food, and a bit of military persuasion mixed it! I arrived Friday morning in Milan and Lisa and I drove towards their little town outside of Venice. We made a stop at ‘Post’ on the way, marking my 1st experience on an active International US Military base. It was very exciting! It was sort of like a little American commune with its own hospital, schools, post office, grocery store etc. and where Lisa and Benson both work as well. Then right outside the guarded gates is small town Italy!

The Kelly-Hart's live right below this Church steeple

We then headed to their cute little town and the weather was great so I enjoyed a nice lunch and a long run (ending in me being chased by a little dog). Later we had dinner at their friends’ house and had a good night sleep for the skiing ahead. Of course before bed I had to get a bit of American TV in and very much enjoyed the many military ads and PSA’s which replace commercials (ie 'I will not use smokeless tobacco, drink and drive, abuse my spouse, or dress overly American while abroad - but I may join the military and seek counseling for PTSD'). Ok I joke but it was very cool and interesting to see the military life-style.

Onto the ski trip! Lisa and I headed out on a girls ski weekend. Saturday started out lovely with a few hr drive into the Dolomites of Northern Italy. The mountains were absolutely gorgeous and the skies were a perfect blue. Despite the narrow and curvy roads up in the mountains the drive was quite nice until a certain traumatizing incident... (queezy stomachs move onto the next paragraph!). We were driving along, and got quickly passed on a corner in typical Italian fashion, when we then see Bambi prance into the road... the aggressive SUV that had passed us plowed into her and didn’t even flinch! Though the scence was extremely disturbing we were very lucky no one was hurt (except Bambi). I haven't seen anything like it before.


Finally the skiing. So we skied the 1st day at Araba/Marmalada. It was a massive resort, connected as they all are to many other seemingly endless skiable mountains. The day was amazing, snow was great, powder was plentiful! At one point we had to take 3 cable cars to get to the top of Marmalada (3.3K m, a glacier!). The most exciting part of the day was when Lisa and I decided to ski a bit of what they call ‘off pista’ I think- backcountry or off trail basically. We found this epicly massive powder bowl for which we were the partakers! Ultimately I think it was worth it, however the hike back to civilization (though done by a few other tracks earlier that day) was very sketch and time consuming to say the least. All in all, a great ski day!

Lisa and I with a view that almost reminded me of a snow covered Grand Canyon

Lisa coming down solo in the pow!

We then headed about an hr away to Cortina, where we stayed in this old very nice, but kinda creepy hotel overlooking the mountains. Since the guys couldn’t join us we had a 2-rooom suite... it was awesome! Of course we were so exhausted so we had some good Italian and fell asleep.

Sunday we skied the famous Cortina and again it was a picture perfect day! The top had a great view and skiing was great again. Not too much to say here, just a great day... We headed back after skiing, had some good pizza for din, and wrapped up the weekend. I headed back to flat 'ol Dublin on Monday... wishing I was still in the Dolomites!

Cable Cars

Me at the top of Cortina

Hasn’t been too much to blog about lately, just business as usual here in Dublin. I guess we should still keep you posted on what we’ve been up to, but I’ll keep it brief.

A few weekends back we had a nice visit from Brayden’s friend Katie, from back home. Katie’s parents are living in Germany so this was a nice long weekend trip for them. Katie arrived on Friday evening and we took her to the National Basketball arena to watch Tolka’s under 19’s team play for the national championship. Despite a great game (and even greater performance from our friend and acting mascot Sean) Tolka finished 2^nd. There was also a disappointing ½ time show from a Harlem Globetrotter... they aren’t what they used to be!

(Sean being a Tolka mascot)

Later that evening, despite the Tolka loss, we took Katie to the local Tolka hangout, McGowan’s. Located on the North Side in the heart of Dublin’s classist, McGowan’s is a typical Irish pub filled with locals. Due to the high ‘class’ of the clientele this is not Brayden’s favourite hangout, but none the less we had a good time and showed Katie the real Dublin!

(Katie and the Guys)

Saturday was a rainy day and since Katie’s parents were joining her for a few more days of sightseeing we just layed low, relaxed, played more than a few games of hearts... Then later we had some of our friends over and showed her the Temple Bar area.

Sunday Katie’s parents arrived and we joined them for a Sunday afternoon carvery. Carvery is one of the most exciting food options in Ireland. It is basically like a big Thanksgiving meal where you can pick which meat you want freshly sliced and then chose all the sides. It’s amazing and we all enjoyed!

Now onto the next weekend, the weekend of 5^th-6^th of February and the National Intermediate Cross Country Championships! This was the biggest race for my team, Donore Harriers, all year, and finally my last of a long season. Since it had been raining all week the conditions were less than desirable, ie 6-inches of thick mud. It was actually a really unique experience which I’m sure I will never elect to do ever ever again. In the end I was extremely muddy and cold, but really glad to have raced and helped my team to achieve a Silver Medal! It wasn’t my best race but it was good enough for a silver! Very relieved to finish off the season as the second best team in Ireland!

(This was actually a good part of the course)

In other sport related news Brayden’s school team, DBS, continues to be undefeated. Just Friday they played in the semi-finals and won by something ridiculous like 58 pts! If we haven’t explained already in Ireland the collegiate sports would be much more recreational and less competitive than the clubs, which would be like the professional teams. On that note the club team, Tolka, is on a winning streak and also won this weekend, clinching a no.2 seed for the National tournament! Brayden’s once unrecognizable ankle is doing much better and played in the last two games. We will keep you posted on our ‘March Madness’.

Visitors, Visitors, & Sprained Ankles

This is a bit delayed but last weekend (before last) we were very lucky to host some lovely visitors… my cousin Lisa and her husband Benson! Coincidentally Glenn’s little brother was also in town/country visiting, so our flat was almost full to capacity!

As Lisa and Benson are currently living outside of Venice it was just a little Ryan Air flight over the water to visit us in Dublin. They arrived in on Friday, and as soon as I got out of work we headed to one of my favorite local pubs for some delish beef pot pies… mmmh! After the travels and a bit of walking around the city we decided to call it an early night so they could rest up for a big Saturday of sight-seeing. After visiting some of the main local sights (Kilmainham Goal, Guinness Storehouse, and Jameson Distillery) we had a nice dinner and wee bit of a house party with some of our friends here before hitting the town. I think my fam was impressed with the crazy night-life that Dublin has to offer… as the reputation suggests… Irish people looove the weekends!

Sunday we did some more walking around the city and as we had mild weather we took a bike ride around Phoenix Park.

We stumbled upon the resident 300+ deer that live in the park…always shocking to see how close they let you get.

Anyways later that night we all went to the one sports pub in town that shows American football to watch the playoffs (enough said there). Overall it was a quick trip but I think everyone had a ball! And I am very excited to go visit them in a few weeks time and try out the slopes in Italy!

Onto the ankle. So that next Tuesday the guys had a big big game. Opponent: a team called ‘Ballin.’ Earlier in the season the Tolka Rovers had an unfortunate severe loss to Ballin, which is the 2^nd best team in all of Ireland. This time around, after a few months of practicing together, Tolka proved to be a worthy opponent for Ballin. With Glenn’s little bro in town, and the usual cheering crowd of our friends Franzie and Marine, the stands were packed! The game was excellent, back and forth, with Tolka leading by a few points almost the entire game. Then the worst thing happened: in the mid 3^rd quarter after jumping for a rebound the big guy, Brayden, landed on another guy, and Brayden was out of the game w/ a terrible sprained ankle! As Brayden sat on the sideline for a few minutes the team started to struggle and got down as far as 7… then… a pained Brayden on the bench starts to tape his own ankle (no physio at the game) and lace up an ankle brace. Hobbling out onto the court Brayden played the last 8 or so minutes and the team rallied to win by 1!!! It was a tremendous effort, but in the aftermath lay Brayden’s un-recognizable ankle. Dave and I accompanied him to the hospital to confirm there was no fracture thankfully… but as you can see this was quite the injury… We will keep you posted on this one!