I've been feeling crummy almost all day today because I inadvertently bought bologna (disgusting!) instead of ham...and had no other sandwich for lunch; so it left a queasy sensation in my stomach for hours. Then that feeling went away, and I had a chicken kiev...but that didn't sit well either (it was full of bacon and cheese instead of chicken and butter...didn't expect that either!). I guess I didn't do a very good job of reading labels this week at the store. Oh well. I threw away the bologna since even my roommates said, "Oh don't eat that! It's nasty!" Now I have regular ham for tomorrow...yay!
Radio was good and not-so-good. I pre-recorded a few segments for radio, pretending to be an NPR correspondent. It took about an hour to record seven minutes, but so is the nature of pre-recorded radio! And not so good--lots of kinks with the show, but those in the office seemed to like it, so maybe I'm just being hard on myself. The good part about radio is there's always another show, this week on Thursday.
And I can't escape the feeling that laundry days are terribly unproductive. By the time I sit down to do work between washing and drying or drying and retrieving, I have maybe five minutes of productive work time. That's sure better than smelling bad in cramped classrooms, though!
Okay -- off to be productive now that laundry is done.
Monday, October 20, 2008
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Hello! It’s been too long, I know. Sorry about that.
I write to you from my couch, with wireless Internet! The speed of the network here at my accommodation is painfully slow (we have a high-speed cable, but it transfers data at the speed of dial-up!). Today, I bought a broadband package from a mobile carrier here, and with the help of a small USB-flash drive, I can get wireless, high-speed Internet almost anywhere in Galway and Ireland. I am hopeful, too, that Skype will work more efficiently now, so that I’m not paying exorbitant rates on calling cards!
Since my last update, life has improved considerably! I have co-hosted several editions of “Flirt Over Coffee” on Flirt FM 101.3, our current affairs programme. The podcast of the shows on which I participate is available at http://foc.mypodcast.com -- there is a link to subscribe via iTunes.
That’s been a fun experience, mostly because of the people who work at the station with me. Emma and I have hosted several shows together, and it’s nice that she, the station manager Paula, and programme controller Louise let me try new things at each show. When I started, Paula told me that they didn’t really need help with the hourly news headlines, but one day I asked if I could write and perform them, and she had absolutely no objections! It was fun not just pretending to be Karl Castle from NPR, but to actually try my hand at what he does on the air! Some things didn’t go quite so well the first few times – such as referring to Kofi Annan as Former UN Secretary Colin Powell, or not being able to pronounce the name of several members of Parliament, but on the whole I enjoyed it. Friday, the second time performing the headlines, went much more smoothly, I think!
I didn’t realize how tough it would be at first to do a current affairs show in a foreign country. When talking about American politics, I realize that I take for granted knowing things like who Margaret Spellings is (Secretary of Education), or how a bill becomes a law, who the opposition party in government is, etc. Here, though, each show I have to ask how to say some word (for example, the Irish version of a Prime Minister is a Taoiseach—“Tee-shook”). But I’m learning, and each show is easier to do, so long as there is news about which to talk! A slow news day is a bit easier for a newspaper to print less pages – on radio, we still have 30 minutes of airtime to fill!
More than radio, though, my parents came to visit last week on their way to Dubai. It was very nice to see them—almost more so than I had expected. I only really had the chance to have dinner and breakfast with them, but when they left, I felt real empty inside. Maybe it’s just that I don’t much like change, so when that feeling of home came back, I didn’t want to let it go.
Now, though, I have lots of essays to keep me busy for the six days until Becky comes to visit. Time should fly by quickly, though, from here: one week until Becky comes, then Amsterdam, then a weekend in Galway, then Belfast, then Dublin, then final exams for a few weeks, and then home! I’m regretting having booked myself so full of trips, for I have a lot of reading and writing to do; but at the same time, I know that I’d regret it in January if I didn’t go on these trips.
Finally, last weekend I went on a tour of the Aran Islands, just off the coast of Ireland’s west coast. Normally the trip would cost about €40, but I went with 80 international students as part of the International Students Society, so we each got bus fare, ferry fare, and bike rental for €16! Not bad at all! I was nervous before going on the trip, for I didn’t know anybody else who would be going. I decided to take a risk, though, and go anyway. Within a few minutes of waiting for the bus, I saw Molly—in my Irish class—and teamed up with her and her friends. The best way to see the island (specifically, Inis Mór—“In-ish-more”) is by bike, according to travel books and others who have gone. I was nervous about biking on my own, for people drive on the left, drivers are much more aggressive here, and I didn’t know what visibility would be like on the roads. Molly agreed to try a tandem bike, but when we got to the island we realized that wouldn’t work. Becky could explain this better than I could, but the physics require that the bigger person be on the front of the bike, and sadly I was the bigger person meaning that I would have to steer and brake…defeating the purpose of having a tandem bike! After trying to convince the bike guy that I really could bike on my own safely because I would be with the group, I got a bike that switched gears on its own and whose brakes were quite poor. Sadly, I didn’t realize this until we were about 20 minutes away from where we started! Molly kindly went back with me to return the bike, and it took another 20 minutes for us to re-convince the bike rentals person that we would be fine. On our way we went, and had a great time biking across the entire island and up to an ancient fort…supposedly the highest, most-Western point of Europe—though I haven’t been able to confirm that yet. It had to be about ten stories off the ocean, though, and we had a great lunch on the rock ledge! (I should point out, too, that was my cheapest lunch I’ve had in Ireland – just €4 for a great, fresh sandwich and a bottle of water…though I did bring my own sandwich too; that’s how hungry I was, but then again, when do I not eat two sandwiches!)
Well that’s all for now – thanks for reading!
I write to you from my couch, with wireless Internet! The speed of the network here at my accommodation is painfully slow (we have a high-speed cable, but it transfers data at the speed of dial-up!). Today, I bought a broadband package from a mobile carrier here, and with the help of a small USB-flash drive, I can get wireless, high-speed Internet almost anywhere in Galway and Ireland. I am hopeful, too, that Skype will work more efficiently now, so that I’m not paying exorbitant rates on calling cards!
Since my last update, life has improved considerably! I have co-hosted several editions of “Flirt Over Coffee” on Flirt FM 101.3, our current affairs programme. The podcast of the shows on which I participate is available at http://foc.mypodcast.com -- there is a link to subscribe via iTunes.
That’s been a fun experience, mostly because of the people who work at the station with me. Emma and I have hosted several shows together, and it’s nice that she, the station manager Paula, and programme controller Louise let me try new things at each show. When I started, Paula told me that they didn’t really need help with the hourly news headlines, but one day I asked if I could write and perform them, and she had absolutely no objections! It was fun not just pretending to be Karl Castle from NPR, but to actually try my hand at what he does on the air! Some things didn’t go quite so well the first few times – such as referring to Kofi Annan as Former UN Secretary Colin Powell, or not being able to pronounce the name of several members of Parliament, but on the whole I enjoyed it. Friday, the second time performing the headlines, went much more smoothly, I think!
I didn’t realize how tough it would be at first to do a current affairs show in a foreign country. When talking about American politics, I realize that I take for granted knowing things like who Margaret Spellings is (Secretary of Education), or how a bill becomes a law, who the opposition party in government is, etc. Here, though, each show I have to ask how to say some word (for example, the Irish version of a Prime Minister is a Taoiseach—“Tee-shook”). But I’m learning, and each show is easier to do, so long as there is news about which to talk! A slow news day is a bit easier for a newspaper to print less pages – on radio, we still have 30 minutes of airtime to fill!
More than radio, though, my parents came to visit last week on their way to Dubai. It was very nice to see them—almost more so than I had expected. I only really had the chance to have dinner and breakfast with them, but when they left, I felt real empty inside. Maybe it’s just that I don’t much like change, so when that feeling of home came back, I didn’t want to let it go.
Now, though, I have lots of essays to keep me busy for the six days until Becky comes to visit. Time should fly by quickly, though, from here: one week until Becky comes, then Amsterdam, then a weekend in Galway, then Belfast, then Dublin, then final exams for a few weeks, and then home! I’m regretting having booked myself so full of trips, for I have a lot of reading and writing to do; but at the same time, I know that I’d regret it in January if I didn’t go on these trips.
Finally, last weekend I went on a tour of the Aran Islands, just off the coast of Ireland’s west coast. Normally the trip would cost about €40, but I went with 80 international students as part of the International Students Society, so we each got bus fare, ferry fare, and bike rental for €16! Not bad at all! I was nervous before going on the trip, for I didn’t know anybody else who would be going. I decided to take a risk, though, and go anyway. Within a few minutes of waiting for the bus, I saw Molly—in my Irish class—and teamed up with her and her friends. The best way to see the island (specifically, Inis Mór—“In-ish-more”) is by bike, according to travel books and others who have gone. I was nervous about biking on my own, for people drive on the left, drivers are much more aggressive here, and I didn’t know what visibility would be like on the roads. Molly agreed to try a tandem bike, but when we got to the island we realized that wouldn’t work. Becky could explain this better than I could, but the physics require that the bigger person be on the front of the bike, and sadly I was the bigger person meaning that I would have to steer and brake…defeating the purpose of having a tandem bike! After trying to convince the bike guy that I really could bike on my own safely because I would be with the group, I got a bike that switched gears on its own and whose brakes were quite poor. Sadly, I didn’t realize this until we were about 20 minutes away from where we started! Molly kindly went back with me to return the bike, and it took another 20 minutes for us to re-convince the bike rentals person that we would be fine. On our way we went, and had a great time biking across the entire island and up to an ancient fort…supposedly the highest, most-Western point of Europe—though I haven’t been able to confirm that yet. It had to be about ten stories off the ocean, though, and we had a great lunch on the rock ledge! (I should point out, too, that was my cheapest lunch I’ve had in Ireland – just €4 for a great, fresh sandwich and a bottle of water…though I did bring my own sandwich too; that’s how hungry I was, but then again, when do I not eat two sandwiches!)
Well that’s all for now – thanks for reading!
Friday, October 10, 2008
Flirt-FM Update
This one will be quick, for I am not in the mood to write at the moment (sorry!). I have been confirmed on Flirt-FM on our afternoon current affairs programme, called Flirt Over Coffee. I'll be on the air on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Fridays at 5:15 p.m. Irish time (12:15 p.m. US/Eastern). You can tune in at http://www.flirtfm.ie or 101.3fm in the Galway area (our signal reaches about 30 miles each direction, much larger than Stevenson High School Radio!).
I promise more later, and soon!
I promise more later, and soon!
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
NBC News, Homework Help, and Flirt-FM
Somehow almost a week away from the blog seems like a long time. I have had frequent thoughts about writing in general, and I’m always taken back to my Creative Writing class two years ago. There’s something about writing that I find peaceful, and after I write I find myself refreshed and ready to go again. Maybe that will serve me well if I go into journalism.
On a journalism note, I have been watching NBC’s Nightly News podcast daily since coming to Ireland (and a few days per week during the summer). Tom Costello reports for NBC from Capitol Hill, and therefore has been on-air for the past few weeks about the proposed—and albeit failed--$700 billion bailout package. On a hunch, I guessed at his e-mail and sent him a note about how I enjoy his reports and am looking for journalistic internships in Washington. (MSNBC’s website talks only about internships at Rockefeller Center in New York.) I hit send, and wasn’t expecting a reply for a few days. If the e-mail went through, I assumed, he’d see on his Blackberry, file it for later, and respond in a few weeks when the news settled down. To my amazement, he wrote back within three minutes, with the first line of, “Always good to hear from a fellow Irishman!” I was so happy that I’m pretty sure I had a bounce in my step walking to my Money and Banking class! I just found it fun and telling that a man who works at a prestigious company and reports for millions of people took the time to write back a college junior about an internship. He even invited me to a studio tour when I return. We’ll see where the process goes, but right now I am pretty excited and hopeful!
A few weeks ago, I signed up with a few volunteer organisations in the Galway area. One of them that particularly captured my interest was Ballinfoyle Family Services, a group that provides intervention services to low-income and underprivileged families. One of their weekly activities, at which I volunteered yesterday, is tutoring 7-9 year olds with their homework after school. That had to be one of the most rewarding parts of my time in Ireland! I worked with a very intelligent fourth grader on her multiplication and spelling/word usage homework. (And I learned that a “spanner” is a screwdriver – she had to teach me that!) On my walk to the school yesterday, I tried to think how you teach addition. Multiplication, it seems, is easier to teach if students grasp addition. None of the other students or supervisors were able to explain how to teach addition either – but it did prompt them to an idea that next week, we might have a meeting with a math teacher to ask!
Oh, and by the way, remember the days of subtracting 25-7? And you’d write it vertically, like:
25
- 7
-----
18
Then, you couldn’t do 5-7, so you’d have to borrow a 1 from the 2, change the 2 to a 1, and then proceed? Yeah – they don’t do that anymore. The supervisors tried to explain to me the new way, but they weren’t successful. They told me to ask one of the students next week! (Luckily, the girl with whom I was working didn’t have to do subtraction the long way!)
That’s all for now. I’m heading to training at Flirt-FM 101.3 (http://www.flirtfm.ie). Their station is pretty state-of-the-art, at least compared to WAES-FM at Stevenson High School where I worked for four years. Flirt-FM has digital recording of all shows (so it will be podcast – stay tuned for details!), computerized playlists, and the ability to use another studio to pre-record bits (or all!) of your show. Fancy, I’d say!
On a journalism note, I have been watching NBC’s Nightly News podcast daily since coming to Ireland (and a few days per week during the summer). Tom Costello reports for NBC from Capitol Hill, and therefore has been on-air for the past few weeks about the proposed—and albeit failed--$700 billion bailout package. On a hunch, I guessed at his e-mail and sent him a note about how I enjoy his reports and am looking for journalistic internships in Washington. (MSNBC’s website talks only about internships at Rockefeller Center in New York.) I hit send, and wasn’t expecting a reply for a few days. If the e-mail went through, I assumed, he’d see on his Blackberry, file it for later, and respond in a few weeks when the news settled down. To my amazement, he wrote back within three minutes, with the first line of, “Always good to hear from a fellow Irishman!” I was so happy that I’m pretty sure I had a bounce in my step walking to my Money and Banking class! I just found it fun and telling that a man who works at a prestigious company and reports for millions of people took the time to write back a college junior about an internship. He even invited me to a studio tour when I return. We’ll see where the process goes, but right now I am pretty excited and hopeful!
A few weeks ago, I signed up with a few volunteer organisations in the Galway area. One of them that particularly captured my interest was Ballinfoyle Family Services, a group that provides intervention services to low-income and underprivileged families. One of their weekly activities, at which I volunteered yesterday, is tutoring 7-9 year olds with their homework after school. That had to be one of the most rewarding parts of my time in Ireland! I worked with a very intelligent fourth grader on her multiplication and spelling/word usage homework. (And I learned that a “spanner” is a screwdriver – she had to teach me that!) On my walk to the school yesterday, I tried to think how you teach addition. Multiplication, it seems, is easier to teach if students grasp addition. None of the other students or supervisors were able to explain how to teach addition either – but it did prompt them to an idea that next week, we might have a meeting with a math teacher to ask!
Oh, and by the way, remember the days of subtracting 25-7? And you’d write it vertically, like:
25
- 7
-----
18
Then, you couldn’t do 5-7, so you’d have to borrow a 1 from the 2, change the 2 to a 1, and then proceed? Yeah – they don’t do that anymore. The supervisors tried to explain to me the new way, but they weren’t successful. They told me to ask one of the students next week! (Luckily, the girl with whom I was working didn’t have to do subtraction the long way!)
That’s all for now. I’m heading to training at Flirt-FM 101.3 (http://www.flirtfm.ie). Their station is pretty state-of-the-art, at least compared to WAES-FM at Stevenson High School where I worked for four years. Flirt-FM has digital recording of all shows (so it will be podcast – stay tuned for details!), computerized playlists, and the ability to use another studio to pre-record bits (or all!) of your show. Fancy, I’d say!
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