Great!

This weekend was wonderful and fun after Friday was over and behind me. I had a nice chat with my friend, Dustin, on Friday night, and he really cheered me up. Saturday I just had a relaxing day, sleeping in and going for a walk by the sea. Sunday was busy, I learned to cook a special rice dish from Mauritius (where my friend is from) and it was really tasty - and I can bring the leftovers to work for lunch and save myself some lunch money! After that I met another friend for a coffee and had a nice chat. To follow, my dad and I watched the final Euro 2008 championship soccer match together. He called me and we stayed on the phone watching it together. It was interesting to watch a game that way with someone, but it was quite nice! I really enjoyed having his "company" :-)

I also looked into iPods -- I would really like an 8GB Green or Turquoise Nano, ...that and a bicycle are my current wish list items. So, if any rich people out there are looking to buy anything for someone, I'd like to put my name in the hat...!

TGIF

I'm so glad it's Friday. I need time to recharge myself and to think about life. This has been a rough week. My head is heavy, my eyes are tired, and my back and shoulders hurt... I hope to have a peaceful and restful night tonight.

Negative Energy >:-[

I don't normally complain on my blog, but today has me steaming with negative energy.

Whoever coined the phrase: "There's no such thing as failure, only feedback" clearly wasn't having to deal with trying to engage employees who don't want anything to do with improving their workplace's results from the American Gallup survey.

I thought this job duty would be fun. I'd intended to make sure everyone understood what constitutes each question, and I also had some fun activities that I thought would help people get more in touch with how important they are for the bank, and also ways to come up with ideas that would improve morale and overall happiness in the workplace and with their work. But not one person showed any interest, as usual. This was my second time holding this type of meeting, and I thought by being prepared with things to do, that it would help stimulate positive conversation and get people thinking about the kinds of things we might be able to do something about (rather than them just complaining about things that are out of our control to change). One girl was great and kept intercepting everyone's negativity with a few ideas, which helped keep the meeting somewhat at bay, but it really was just completely disheartening and unfulfilling to host this meeting where no one wants to be there, most people try to avoid coming to the meetings, and the atmosphere reeks of this attitude.

I feel like I fail in being a good leader... A good leader should be able to pull everyone out of this funk and engage others just by their words and enthusiastic thoughts... Mine weren't strong enough :-(

Table Tennis!

I'd forgotten how much I love playing table tennis until this week. After renovating the gym for two months where they have table tennis (so, that meant no access to playing the game) and after my trip to Peru, I'm finally getting back into the swing of things. I get to laugh and smile and have a really good time with all my table tennis friends, old and new, and I really enjoy that. I met a couple tonight who came to play for the first time at this gym, and they seem really nice (from Poland... lately so many people I meet are from Poland and they have all been incredibly nice and fun people). The girl and I were talking about taking classes at the gym together, which I think would be a lot of fun, especially having someone in the class to giggle with each other when we can't keep up with the instructor! The gym membership is really expensive, but to keep playing table tennis, I will have to now join the gym (a request the gym is making...). However, this might turn out to be a good thing, as the classes will enable me to meet people and keep healthy, while also continuing with my table tennis. The other gym I go to doesn't have classes and of course doesn't have table tennis... So, decision made, I will fork out a load of money for my sanity, health, and entertainment :)

Hope

Happiness comes from the little actions... And I hope these things among others keep me well fueled with happiness of my own

1) I did something daring today!! Sorry though, it's a secret and I can't disclose more... I was proud of myself for following through with it though. I had been thinking about it for quite some time.

2) I chatting on the phone with Emily (the girl in the wheelchair in my previous post) and it seemed to make her day. I also enjoyed our easy-going banter.

3) I trained the new guy at work, Dominic, on how to use a bank-specific program -- I also surprised myself today with the knowledge I have amassed about it thus far in the 4 months of using it!

Windy Weekend

Had a lovely, relaxing weekend...

It was downright cold, wet, and windy, but I still found a way to make it great and not to waste it.

On Friday night, I went to a leaving party for one of my co-workers, who next week will pick his belongings into a suitcase and travel across the pond to Canada for a year. It was a fun time, and I had good chats with a lot of my co-workers.

Saturday was a lazy day, quite dark and dreary, but I had a good sleep and watched a movie in bed in the morning. Then, come evening, I decided to check out Tesco (a large grocery store) in Marion (about 20 min by bus). I thought it was going to be something exciting (thought it had 2 stories), but it wasn't any different from other Tescos. Still, I enjoy supermarkets, and I went up and down every single aisle and had a good time looking at all the different foods. Also got a shock when the cashier told me how much I owed, I did a double take and asked her to repeat the price!! To which she said with a smile and a smirk, "I guess that means you won't be wanting any cash back today...?" Well, now I'm well-stocked for quite some time!

Sunday was also lovely, the wind is blowing like crazy, never I have seen it so windy before! I met up with a friend, and we walked along the beach (about 10 minutes from my place). It was a great surprise to see the ocean so close to the path. Normally, the water a good distance out (about 15 minutes walk on the sand), but today, it was right up to the rocks on the shore. It was great to walk along and hear the water moving and feel the wind blowing strongly by. In some cases, I was able to "fly" with the wind pushing me strongly on my back! I had to hold onto my hat walking back though!! Now, I think it's a good evening to settle down to a movie and think about next week.

Hope you all enjoyed your weekends too!

Cookies! (revised) and Lessons Learnt

On second thoughts, I tasted a chocolate chip cookie this morning and they taste much better. I must have had too much sweet food yesterday... Although, on third thoughts, maybe this discovery is a bad thing. Now I've decided to keep one bag of cookies (out of three) at my apartment instead of bringing all of them into work. I definitely need to start going to the gym again...!

Well, the cookies seemed to be a hit amongst most everyone, but I couldn't enjoy that feeling. I was joking around with my friend and told everyone on our team that I made the cookies for his birthday and that I was proclaiming today to be his birthday (he won't tell anyone what day or month it is). Since we're always joking around with each other, I had no idea that he was upset with me for doing this. When I discovered he was mad at me for real, I felt so bad. I hate making other people sad or hurt with the things I do. And I guess I went too far.

I learnt 2 very good lessons today:
1) Be careful when joking around at someone else's expense (I should already know this from reverse experience in Korea), and
2) Don't try to make yourself feel better by buying a pile of junk food -- it'll only make you fat and it will put a hole in your spending money.

Cookies!

I spent tonight baking chocolate chip cookies. My right arm definitely got a workout from trying to mix the dry ingredients with the semi-moist ingredients. It would have been easier with an electric mixer, but maybe it's not popular to have those in Ireland. The cookies turned out okay, but for me, they don't taste quite as nice as another recipe I have. I found this recipe on the Internet. I don't think I'll trust recipes on the Internet anymore...

Whirlwind

This will be a week-long post as I haven't got myself settled back into life yet to where I write often on here...! I will get back into the swing of things.

Last weekend was an absolute blast. I had a lovely dinner with a friend from Mauritius on Friday night; we had a special rice dish that's eaten in Mauritius, fresh fresh with sweet and sour sauce, and some refreshing cucumber salad. It was amazing! Unfortunately, I was just coming down with a cold, and couldn't enjoy it to the full degree, but it was definitely worth getting to taste everything nonetheless. Saturday I spent the whole day and evening with my friend Sonja. It was relaxing, awakening, and a very comfortable day. I really hope she finds a new job here in Ireland, otherwise she will go back home to Germany in July. I would miss her terribly then... Sunday was another packed day with helping the disabled children; we had a picnic in a park and enjoyed the sunshine. Later that night, I met up with Sonja and her flat mates and their friend from Poland. We had so much fun chatting and laughing that evening, and I didn't get home until 3 am on Monday morning... This is what made the rest of the week hard -- trying to catch up on my sleep! But it was well worth it!

This weekend was also nice -- I went to visit my grandma in Sligo. We prepared a lot of meals for her freezer and had a lovely time together. I wish so much that I could live with her. But, she's 3 hours away, which makes it not so feasible with me working in Dublin. It would be do-able in terms of train times, but I'd hate to spend 6 hours a day on the train, plus have to pay a taxi twice a day... I left a postcard hidden under her pillowcase, where she keeps her cross and blesses herself every night. I know that will make her smile to find and read that -- once she tears herself away from the sudoku tonight...!

I still have so many mosquito bites on my lower legs and a few on my arms. I'm a devil for picking at them, and can't seem to stop. I hope they heal soon! I'm glad there's no mosquitoes in Ireland.

Take a Peak -- Here's Peru!

Well, Peru was absolutely fantastic! I loved speaking in Spanish all the time (the locals even thought that I speak well -- initially I would tell people that I only know a little bit of Spanish since I haven't practiced it for 11 years, but soon they'd tell me that I know a lot and speak it well, so I guess I'll take that as a compliment!). The Amazon jungle was amazing and I learned a lot of interesting pieces of information. The Inca ruins were also incredible, and it's unbelievable how they were able to build such brilliant cities with granite rocks.

I wish I could be back in Peru now! I don't want to get in the mode of thinking what it'd be like to live in another country, but Peru sure looks like it'd be great: lovely people, wonderful food, and a genuine atmosphere that seems to invite happiness. Well, it's something to think about for way off in the future. For now, I still like Ireland.

You can have a look at a few pictures (down below after the "facts I thought were cool"). I'll gather an album soon, but for now at least you can have a taste of what I experienced.

Thought I'd share some interesting facts that I thought were cool:
- In the rain forest, there are Snake Trees, which are sensitive to parasites, and if it feels like it's being attacked by one, it will shed all it's brown bark and underneath is a beautiful, shiny, moist, green bark (which later turns brown again). It amazes me that it's able to do this.

- Giant River Otters are at the top of the food chain and love to eat baby alligators for dessert if they can find one! There can also only be one family in a lake at a time, they're very territorial (so siblings must vacate to a new lake when they feel they're old enough to start their own family and hope that another otter makes his/her way to the same lake).

- There's such a thing as Garlic Trees! Very strange...!

- Alligator's eyes glow red in the dark when a flashlight is shined on them.

- In Machu Picchu, 80% of the ruins are original work of the Incas. Only 20% is restored. That's impressive!

- Salt mines in Peru date back to pre-Inca times, and are still operating today via a natural spring that continuously runs from the depths of inside the earth (my hat blew off my head and landed in the very salty water here, but luckily our guide was able to retrieve it for me -- it still tastes like salt now!)

- Squirrel Monkeys are the coolest little creatures and scramble like crazy by the hundreds across the branches of the trees.

- The people of the Amazon believe that eating vegetables causes laziness (some monkeys, sloths, etc). Leaves and plants are so easily available that they think it promotes lack of motivation and so practice a virtually carnivorous diet.

- Ceviche is a meal that consists of white fish that is "cooked" in lime juice. Actually, the lime juice is poured on the fish and the acid "cooks" the fish. It is absolutely delicious, and that's saying something since I don't like Sushi!!

Home Sweet Home!

I got home a couple hours ago, and am getting sleepier by the minute, but I want to unpack and stay up until a normal bedtime (it's only 4 pm).

My flights were fine today, but I was scared I wasn't going to make the connections each time (Lima to Miami -- Miami to London -- London to Dublin), so I ran and got all sweaty (took a shower when I got home). I ended up having plenty time after running to the gates though. It's just that I never knew if the lines would be long for checking in bags, security, immigration, collecting my luggage, rechecking my bags, etc. Plus, I'm not familiar with the airports to know if the terminals / gates are miles away and I have to take a train or shuttle bus or if it's a 20 minute walk. Anyway though, I made them all fine and with time to spare.

In Miami, I bought a Pizza Hut pizza with my credit card since I don't have dollars (only euros) and then later saw a nice banana at a little kiosk store that I wanted to get. But that store wouldn't take my credit card and threw the banana back at me and told me to put it back (she was quite rude). There was a guy behind me that was awfully nice and he paid $1.06 for me to have the banana. I told him thank you very much. And on the Miami - London flight, I was sitting next to a really nice girl about my age who's from Jamaica. She was telling me about the island and she seemed really nice. We watched the same movie and shows on the flight, and we exchanged email addresses, so maybe if I ever go to Jamaica, I will have a friend.

I'm glad to be home, but I miss Peru at the same time. I really liked talking in Spanish, plus I just really enjoy the people in Peru; they have such a different and lovely view on life, they're all mostly happy even if they don't have much. It really makes you wonder about the quality of life that exists in the Western world cultures. I do like the lack of humidity here in Ireland though, I don't miss that part of Peru in the rain forest!

I will write some more about my adventures in Peru tomorrow, for now, I need to clear the mess that I've made on my bed so that I can sleep tonight!