Circles & Squares

Hello all.
You may have thought (or hoped) I was abducted by the IRA or rubbed out in a drunken Irish brawl, but in fact I'm clinging on to survival and still kickin' around across the pond in Dublin City. It took very little time to acclimatize to the daily epicurean tradition of Guinness and taters since arriving two weeks ago. It took even less effort to get to know the locals and their pubs of preference.

So far, Dublin is the bees-knees. There are so many folks out puttering around all day - the streets are constantly packed, and even at midday, when you would assume folks would be working, the whole place is bumpin' with activity. It's like Ottawa-meets-Tokyo...I've never seen Tokyo, but if it met Ottawa, I think they'd hook up and create Dublin. Just as striking (and often inspiring) is the fact that it's nearly impossible to walk along any street without passing a pub. Coincidentally, the Ottawa pubs 'Elephant & Castle' and 'The Auld Dubliner' may also be found in Dublin. Ofcourse acknowledging this coincidence equates to tipping a pint of Guinness with a wee Irish jig to boot.

Since arriving, I've been on a mission to get settled. I haven't really had the chance to do any touristy stuff yet. I landed and immediately started passing out CV's and finding a home or a sugar mama. Luckily I was able to get a job in the first week but still no place to live - or Mrs. Robinson. By word of mouth, I was able to squeeze in to a 3-person firm called Kearney & Kiernan Architects. It's putting food on the parkbench, as I continue searching for a place to live. This whole issue of finding a flat has (de-)evolved from an initial state of over-confidence to humble desperation. It is incredibly difficult to find a place in the city centre - and the city centre is hands down the best place to be (for obvious reasons). Unfortunately, apartment flats and house shares go like hotcakes here. To illustrate, a vacancy posting on the web can disappear in a matter of hours. This is incredibly annoying, as it keeps me barred behind a hostel which has quickly lost it's novelty. The facilities themselves are secure etc, but lately I've been sharing a room with the foulest smelling people I've ever encountered. Ever.

So here's a shot of my new office. Pretty swank, I gotta say. Extremely lucky to be working here for now. It's in an old friary, as the sign suggests, which was apparently used by monks in the year...errr, 0. It's connected to a monastery at the back. The building has about 5 other design firms and some law offices - appropriately quarantined within heavy barred gates to keep us locked up. They have me doing some conceptual mock-ups of a house in Dublin as well as some interior renovation jobbies. So far it's working out fairly well, but unfortunately they have me on a 1-month trial period. This means work like a fiend to secure 9 more months of bacon and stout.

But work banalities aside, I caught Ryan Odell's (friend from school) brother's wife, Emm Gyner's concert on the second night I was here, as well as a TV on the Radio concert on Tuesday. A number of Canadian bands are chalked up to play on a number of nights this month. Also caught the International Rules Rugby final match between Australia and Ireland (they're the only teams in the league). It was the best entertainment I've seen in a long time. Before the ball dropped, the players were at each other's throats. About 4 fights broke out immediately and then the game started, with no end of play. They just kept on pummelling each other throughout the whole match. In the end, not only did Ireland lose bigtime on the scoreboard, but got whooped in all the fights too.

This was all played in Croke Park, which is the only stadium of its kind in Dublin, and a symbol of nationalism (and chauvanism) as well. The Gaelic Athletic Association doesn't allow anything but Gaelic games to be played on the grounds. That narrows things down to Gaelic Football and ummm...Hurling. Yet amazingly, the stadium fills up with 80,000 crazed fans. The game rules were far from the point of interest in the match - we just wanted to see fists fly.