All you need is love...

As many of you know, I visited Liverpool last weekend. I never truly appreciated Liverpool as much as I do now. It's astounding how much history there is in that city. At first, all I really wanted to go there for was mostly for The Beatles, for if I were there back in the 60s when they were a huge band, I would definitely have been a member of the Beatlemania (their fan group). But I didn't realize how great it would be, honestly. Excluding the famous Mathew Street, the Cavern, and the birthplaces of the Beatles, there was Albert Dock, the Royal Liver Building, the biggest Chinatown in the world, the Liverpool Cathedral which is the largest in the UK and fifth largest in the world, St. George's Hall and many more. All in all, it was worth the trip and I would really like to go again because I don't feel like I had enough time to see everything. I never knew how complicated the relationship of the Beatles was, with the childhood lives of John and Paul being hardships for the both of them, and the meanings behind each of their songs being so in-depth. If you get a chance, listen to their music and really focus in on the lyrics. It's truly amazing. "Hey Jude" was made for John Lennon's son by Paul McCartney to comfort him after the divorce of John and Cynthia and keep his spirits high. That, to me, is awesome. Gotta love Paul McCartney!

The Dean post

I promised Dean, an intern at work, that I would write a post about him. Well, today I finally figured out what I would write about.
We were discussing the title of one of the Q&A's of Robert Finnegan who is the CEO of the company 3, which apparently everyone's frustrated or they just all hate him enough to try and make fun of him. I don't have any suggestions, so obviously I don't really comment, and I honestly don't say much around here anyways since the normal conversation are things I don't understand. We were throwing out ideas around, mostly Glen with "Robert Finnegan: huge cock", "Robert Finnegan: 'Tiger in the sack'- signed, his secretary" or "Robert Finnegan: Chief Executive Orifice". All names we all found pretty funny, then Dean comes up with "Richie Rich." After not being able to come up with anything funny when we were all making up names for bands earlier on in the summer, I finally just said "Dean, you have terrible ideas."

I think that may have been the first time they laughed at me for something I said, instead of something that was said towards me like the sexist comment from Linton yesterday when he told me to go to the kitchen where I belonged, or when he called me a slapper earlier on in the internship, which means "whore" by the way. I blame Dean for that, telling him stories about when we went out with a bunch of people and he didn't know where I went for an hour. Don't make up rumors, turd.

But, I gotta say Dean is pretty cool, starting his own magazine and all. I gotta say I'm jealous of that, but not of his jokes.

So there you go Dean, a blog all about you! Hope your last day of this internship was a good one! :)

A little bit of change...

"The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to the community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning."- Mitch Albom

Passion is defined as any powerful or compelling emotion or feeling. So far I've mostly posted pictures on this blog, and though it is mostly to share my traveling adventures, I feel like I have yet to use it for its true potential- mostly because I'm afraid to. I've been talking to several different people about certain issues, and I've come up with some conclusions. First of all... I was, and still sometimes am, a pushover. I've established that. It's definitely the person I was in high school, and I still struggle with it sometimes. But I can't be upset with that certain fight within myself, because it defines who I am. With big thanks to a very important friendship of mine that many may believe has changed me for the worst, I've become SO much stronger than who I was. No, they didn't alter who I was because no one has that power, but they showed me a completely different perspective of myself that helped me pull through the weakness I portrayed before. Sure, I've made bad choices. We all have. Some may say they deeply regret the ones that they have made, but not me. Every mistake is just another step you take in life, and without the choices I've made I wouldn't be the person I am now, which for once, I'm happy with. Without my friends...new and old, best and worst...I wouldn't be who I am. All of my life I've been selfish; even when I thought that I gave up a lot for my friends or my family, I did it because I expected so much in return that wasn’t always given...but that I also never deserved. My family and friends are too kind to me, really, and I LOVE them for that. I will figure out a way to give back to them.
It's nearing the end of my internship and I've been living out of the country for only 37 days. I'm 21 and I'm just now digesting the meaning of passion. I took this internship with the culture and experience of it all only in the very back of my mind. The number one reason on my list: to escape home and all of the drama that went along with it. My confession? I was honestly scared to leave, thinking so much about the people I was leaving behind, and mostly about what I was going to miss while I was gone or if I’d be missed or replaced. It wasn't until I read my sister's note she left in the book I was reading that I let those immature feelings go. “Don’t worry about the people you’re leaving. WE will be missing YOU.” I had to get out and soak in the knowledge, and I knew that I would. I also knew that this trip would portray much more than the culture of Ireland, but it would show me something as well.
A couple of weeks ago I met a guy who had just broken up with his girlfriend not even a few days before. Not a truly attractive quality seeing as he was in search all night for a "rebound", but there was something about him that caught me in particular with how he spoke and stared into my eyes, or other girls for that matter. Maybe it was just because he was literally a stranger, but I could sense every ounce of passion just from his look. Yes, it was aimed at his ex, and I'm sure I could find no way to blame him, but the one thing I realized just from this unfamiliar person was how much passion I truly lacked. I push people away when I get afraid, or I'll stick to a person like glue when I don't want things to change. I was scared to move on with life.

Now? I don't know. I find excitement in what's to come: life after college. I'm still not exactly sure of what I want to do, but I've narrowed it a little. I worked a lot today on editing, and I've realized how much I love it. I'm still torn between PR and journalism, but I lean more towards the PR direction, and sometimes I think about working as an editor for a publishing company. One thing is certain, though. A lot of the fervor I've held deep is starting to emerge.

I know too many people who have acted on their desires in all the wrong ways, although they may be the strongest, most passionate people I know.

"If there is no passion in your life, then have you really lived? Find your passion, whatever it may be. Become it, and let it become you and you will find great things happen FOR you, TO you, and BECAUSE of you." - T. Alan Armstrong

Edinburgh part two

The Queen's very own get-away castle in Edinburgh... yeah, I'd go there too.
That really pretty gothic architecture you see...turned into a visitor center! Really? Who turns beautiful art into an un-needed building? Come on, keep it refurbished... keep it how it was in the beginning!
St. Mary's Cathedral
It was between this guy and the fake William Wallace I met on the Royal Mile... but I wanted everyone to see the traditional Scottish clothing and of course the bagpipes! He was playing for the wedding, but it was still so beautifully played!

The beauty of Edinburgh

Yeah, we caught a Scottish wedding happening in the Edinburgh Castle! Can you imagine getting married there? Dream wedding, for sure.
The City of Edinburgh from atop the castle!

Edinburgh Castle! Glad it got sunny...

John Knox's memorial statue... so beautiful!

Among the Scottish's skills such as kilt-perfection and superb drinking habits, Edinburgh proved to be one of my favorite stops along the summer, yet I can't say my favorite yet since there is Liverpool and Paris to come! So much left on this journey of mine, and there is so much that I've already seen and learned!

You'll take the high road and I'll take the Low road and I'll be in Scotland afore ye...

Here is my favorite picture of Glasgow, the Cathedral from on top of the Necropolis.
Behind the Glasgow Cathedral lay an extravagant Victorian cemetery called the Glasgow Necropolis. 50,000 people have been buried there in approximately 3500 tombs. It was established in 1831 by the Merchant's House of Glasgow.
I decided to put this picture up out of all the rest of them because out of all of the stained glass decorations in cathedrals that I have seen so far, the details in the Glasgow Cathedral were my favorite, and by far the prettiest on the trip. If only you could see the detail on each and every piece of glass in that cathedral, you would feel the same way. Every single window was unique and told it's own story. Imagine the time it took to complete this cathedral so many years ago! This cathedral is the best reserved church that survived the Protestant Reformation that lasted from around 1517 to 1648
We are in the war memorial park just in front of the town hall (shown in the background of this statue). While we were there, a bunch of army and navy recruiters were stationed for show with their tanks and guns out on display. The war memorial was built in 1929 for those whose lives were lost in the first World War. I love it that every country we have visited so far dedicates statues and museums to those who lost their lives. Most cathedrals even have several memorials within their walls just as respect to war veterans.

This is a picture outside of the Glasgow town hall, through the arches shown is a square area with similar beautiful buildings surrounding it, all different meeting points of the town hall.


Glasgow was an adventure in itself. We started out the trip thinking that we had booked the Holiday Inn Express in Glasgow, but it was actually in an even smaller town outside of Glasgow. Little did we know, the airport that we came in on was way the hell out of the way, so we rode in a taxi for over an hour to arrive at our hotel. We had very little time as it was, so we were a bit frustrated about the commute. On top of that, we were a little disappointed at how Glasgow looked at first glance. It was crummy looking and dirty as well, but we were lucky to find the best view of Glasgow, the Cathedral and the Necropolis. I can't say Glasgow was a complete waste of time because I very much enjoyed that last area, but there was a lot more to see in Edinburgh and if you get the chance to visit Scotland, spend most of your time there.

I've got a lot of catching up to do...

This past weekend, I made my way over to Liverpool with a few friends to fulfill what can only be called my Beatles craze. Let me tell you something, for such a small city, Liverpool is OVERFLOWING with history! I can't give everything away right now, though. I must catch up to this point in my trip so I'm not out of order. Coming up.. Glasgow and Edinburgh, Scotland.

This is Giant's Causeway, named the 8th wonder of the world.
On the outskirts of Belfast, on the way to Giant's Causeway
The Titanic was built in Belfast... unfortunately this is the only remembrance of it. There were barely any tours! HOW do you not have a big memorial for the Titanic?!?!

Albert's Clock, though you should never go by it, because it's never on the right time...
The biggest Celtic Cross in Ireland at St. Anne's Cathedral in Belfast

Cork and Galway

What's left of the four Spanish Arches built in 1584 in Galway. The other three were destroyed in a tsunami.
The Cliffs of Moher. Unfortunately my camera died right after this, so I didn't get a lot of pictures :(
The legend of this beach is that once you stick your feet in the water, you are leaving a part of your soul in Ireland.
Not the same beach as the other picture, but still beautiful!
Us Texans leaving our mark in Ireland :) Yes, I drew that in the sand, don't judge me.

Why kiss the Blarney Stone?

The legend goes that when you kiss the Blarney Stone, you are give the gift of "gab" or speaking with great eloquence/flattery. The meaning of "blarney" as "flattering" first derived from Lord McCarthy and Queen Elizabeth I. Elizabeth wrote McCarthy to request an oath of loyalty to her as she was going to reoccupy his land. McCarthy wrote back with respect to her, saying that she was welcome anytime she wanted to escape to Blarney, but he never answered her completely. The Queen wrote back thanking him for his offer, but still asked for the previous orders; McCarthy again ignored her letter, respectfully offering her a place to stay. After going back in forth a few times, Elizabeth finally responded to Lord McCarthy saying he was giving her a "lot of Blarney", thus the tale was born. Is that true? I don't know, but I hope so because it's funny to me. But who wouldn't want to have the chance to maybe gather a disease from TripAdvisor.com's "most unhygienic tourist attraction" by kissing the stone along with the other millions of people in the world? My older brother Chris kissed it a few years before I did, do you think that counts as incest? yikessss

Killarney, Ireland

This is Ross Castle in Killarney National Park, it was a very huge park and we got lost so it took us about two hours to find this place.
This was taken in Killarney National Park, as you can see it's gorgeous!
This was also in the Blarney Castle... there was a very small opening that I had to crawl through and a pathway that I'm not sure if I was supposed to go in, but I did anyways with my friend Jill and we came to a dead-end. Unfortunate, but still entertaining.
Next stop was the famous Blarney Castle. I know I have a pretty bad picture seeing as it is one on the "must-see" list of Ireland, but the Castle itself was under construction and we weren't allowed to take pictures of us kissing the Blarney Stone because it was done professionally. So my dungeon picture had to be good enough.
My first weekend in Dublin, we went on a 3-day trip over the weekend before we were all going to be stuck behind desks for the remainder of our days in Ireland. Our first stop on the trip was Archbishop McGrath's Cathedral in Killarney. The importance of the Archbishop? I'm not sure, there wasn't really a story from it. But it was a really pretty cathedral and it overlooked a small graveyard.

Dublin so far...

This is the strangest legend I've seen here so far: The famous Molly Malone, on the streets of Dublin. The song tells the tale of a beautiful fishmonger who plied her trade on the streets of Dublin selling "cockels and mussels", but who died young of typhoid fever. She is typically represented as a hawker by day and part-time prostitute by night. In contrast she has also been portrayed as one of the few chaste female street-hawkers of her day, and she's a legend on the streets of Dublin. The first part of her song goes like this:

In Dublin's fair city,
where the girls are so pretty,
I first set my eyes on sweet Molly Malone,
As she wheeled her wheel-barrow,
Through streets broad and narrow,
Crying, "Cockles and mussels, alive, alive, oh!"


This is the beautiful St. Patrick's Cathedral founded in 1191, and is the largest cathedral in Ireland. The background story is pretty neat, but way too long to even shorten onto here.
Just a pic I took along the river of the city.
I just thought this building was so cool with the vines and the plants growing out of it.
Christ Church Cathedral, founded by the Vikings in 1028.

Do the Irish live up to their reputation?

We've all been stereotyped by where we live....

In Texas it's assumed we all live on ranches, wear cowboy hats and boots, ride horses to school and we all love George W. Bush. In California, they're all really tan liberal surfers that have the happiest cows. Georgia MUST have the best peaches because that's obviously the only thing they're known for as a state. Wisconsin is full of rednecks that eat cheese. Canadians say "eh?" and the only thing they do is hockey all year, and if you watch South Park then they all only have half of their faces attached to their heads. One of my all-time favorites has to be Family Guy's description of the Russians: bears on unicycles. Anyways, you get the picture, just to name a few.

Which begs these questions from most people: Are the Irish out every night drinking? and Is Ireland full of gingers?

Sadly, the latter is a no. Not everyone is a red-head. There are a lot, yes, but not as much as you would think. Though I do find it interesting to hear different cultures speak with an Irish accent. No, I'm not racist. Like I said, it's just interesting. The Irish, do, however, love to drink. They aren't drunk all of the time, despite what some people think, but they do like to drink after work, and mostly all of the pubs are packed by midnight every night and stay open past 3am.
I have never met people more friendly than the Irish, however. They love to talk to you about anything and everything, and they will always help you out no matter what. Just be careful, because sometimes when you ask them for directions, they'll be so eager to help you that they lead you all the way to your destination. And don't be surprised if they ask you to stay for dinner, and maybe get you to sign adoption papers while you're at it. :) They aren't THAT friendly, but that would be pretty funny.

Anyways, to put it in a few words, I'm having a blast in Ireland soaking up the culture and the country's beauty that surrounds it.

"It's hard to soar like eagles when you're working with fuckin' turkeys"- Linton Walsh

It's 10:15 here, so I'm at work waiting for my next assignment for the day. It's taken some getting used to working only with guys not much older than myself. Its hard to catch up to their slang, and they just laugh at me when I say "y'all" even though I don't have much of a Texan accent. Instead of saying "y'all" or "you guys" they say "yous." I've caught on, though. "How ya gettin' on?" is "how are you?" and they never say "bye", it's just "see yous later." And I can't help it, but I've gotten to that point where I start talking in the accent too, so I'm sure it's just deafening to the guys at work to hear me attempt to say anything with an Irish accent. Oh, and another big thing, they cuss a LOT. Words that we think are bad in the American dictionary are used very frequently here. So on the off-chance that I cuss in front of them for one thing or another, it's just a laughing matter. Especially for my boss, Linton. Now, I'm used to being mostly professional where I work (I can't really say working as a waitress at Wings N More is exactly the most professional atmosphere), but here its easy to say that acting professional is NOT normal. Linton, the one you should thank for the brilliant quote that is the title of my blog, cracks me up. He is professional and gets down to business, but he's always messing with me as the American, and when I'm sarcastic right back, he thinks it's funny. The guys around me said that once Linton calls me certain curse words, it means that he likes me. Let's just say I'm fitting in just fine now haha.

I'll try not to overload you!

Hmm.. since the pictures come in backwards as you post them, and I have thousands of pictures and stories to post... I'm going to try and spare you the trouble and post a few pictures of each place I've been to, and a not too long of a story with each. And since I'm so far behind in my blog, I'll just post a couple of pictures a day so it's not too much of an overload. I know you've enjoyed reading this useless post, but I'll blog again later.


< Told you I've seen a leprechaun :)

Two Pictures of the St. Stephen's Green Park above. So pretty!

Some of my fellow Aggies... Hannah, Jill and Laura!

Me with my first Guinness, probably the city's biggest appeal to people outside of the country. Though, I have to say, it tastes much better than in the U.S. that's for sure.

Better late than never!

So I may be halfway through with my internship, but I'm still going to go ahead and blog my excursions. So far, I have made my way throughout Ireland, hitting places such as Killarney, Galway, Blarney, Dingle, and Belfast so far. I've even gone outside of the country to Scotland, and I'll be going to Liverpool and Paris soon enough! (Pictures to come as soon as I figure out this website!)

I've been working a month with Golf Digest, which provides entertainment enough. When the internship asked me to specify what field I wanted to get into with journalism and public relations, I chose sports immediately, thinking hmm...maybe I'll end up with soccer, basketball, rugby or even hurling, all sports I knew enough about to get me by. Needless to say I was a little bit disappointed when I ended up with the number one golfing magazine in Ireland, a monthly paper devoted to a sport in which I know absolutely NOTHING about. HA! I pretty much received the same reaction from my closest friends and family (Thanks for the support!) Just kidding :). However, I knew that it was going to be a tremendous opportunity, so I flew off to Dublin with high hopes, reading up on the Golf for Dummies book I thankfully accepted from my mom.

I got into Ireland early Thursday morning, and I had the weekend off from work until Monday. I was shown a bit of Irish hospitality for my birthday from my two roommates Jill and Sara, both I came in knowing from A&M. Lucky me haha. We went out to the pubs the first night so I could get a glimpse of the nightlife in Dublin and meet some of the interns from other schools. I didn't have much time to settle in before I volunteered to disappear for the weekend, taking a 3-day tour of eastern and northern Ireland in Killarney, Blarney (Of course I kissed the Blarney Stone!), Dingle and Galway.

It was an interesting, and VERY exciting tour. There were several different countries on the bus, including Australia, Taiwan and Canada. Every one was extremely friendly though, and the Aussies were by far my favorite. Hilarious. So many beautiful sights and gothic architecture, it definitely proved to be amazing.

After a fun weekend with my new group of friends, we came back for work. I was supposed to have an interview on Monday morning with my boss, Colin, but unfortunately I had left my phone at a pub in Killarney and it was being sent back to me so they could not call. I received an email to come in at 1:00 to meet with Colin, but he was not there when I finally got there after the hour and a half commute. He had tried to call, but of course I couldn't answer. So after all of the trouble, I left about 30 minutes later and was home for the rest of the day. Colin finally got a hold of me, so we just agreed to meet the next day, although the job was already given to me so it wasn't necessary to interview. So far, during the internship, I've been given player profiles, golf tournament pieces and several transcribing tasks. Also, I keep getting the scut work, like washing dishes, typing names and emails up, and binding notebooks together (but that makes sense for an intern). Though what I'm really excited about is what's to come: a fashion piece (yes, I get to write about golf fashion, jealous yet?), some hotel/spa reviews where I get pampered for free, and I get to be involved in a huge tournament coming up later this month where not only the best golfers come to play, but several celebrities like Samuel L. Jackson and Michael Douglass come too. Now THAT will be fun! The writing style is definitely not what I'm used to, here, but I can't wait to learn more as I go. I'm used to the fast-paced rush of the daily newspaper industry; the magazine realm is a lot more leisurely, but also extremely tedious in comparison.

I know that was a lengthy post, but I figured I'd get everybody caught up :)

More to come soon!