Katie's Wanderlust

My summer traveling through Europe, then a year studying in Ireland/Northern Ireland.

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Networking-My Belfast Case Study

Networking is generally touted as a sure-fire method for getting a job. But the exact process to kick-start this mythical solution is often murky at best. The easiest way to take advantage of a network is to already be part of a well-developed and dynamic community of people who serve as your advocates and mentors, and who help smooth your path to new connections...

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This post is long overdue. These are a few photos from my magical Grand Canyon trip with my mom last September. This was one of my favorite memories of 2013, and one of the most gloriously beautiful places I have ever been. These photos don’t do justice to the place (of course) but I want them to hold a spot here as part of the story of my wanderlust and wanderings in this exciting part of my life.

I am so exceptionally lucky to live in motion in this glorious world.

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New job, new blog

OK, friends and readers, I'm back after neglecting you terribly. I hope you'll forgive me! I was busy with the move to Dublin, and then a trip back to Colorado (with bonus trip to the Grand Canyon with my mom!), and then getting into a groove here in Dublin. So there are two big announcements:

1. I got a job.

2. I've started a new blog.

The job is awesome. I'm a writer and researcher for a small company that does audio/visual design for cultural heritage sites. That mostly means museum displays--touchscreens, videos, animations, and websites. My first project is writing an 8 minute script for a video about a World Heritage Site over in the UK. I'm learning all kinds of crazy stuff about the writing/technical side of things, plus getting to learn about new places and history. They work all over Ireland and the UK, so I have lots to look forward to. I'm really, really happy about this.

So, the blog. I am really excited about it, and also nervous and jittery and proud. It's a professional-type blog, rather than a chatty one like I've built here. Here it is... http://www.mycollegeadvice.org/

I'm going to be writing about college and how to make it as awesome as possible. I'll be doing interviews and guest posts in the future, drawing on other people's experiences, strategies, and stories. I started it because talking about college is one of my favorite things, and I was recently talking to a high school junior who was so anxiety-ridden about the whole thing. I wish I'd had a source that could explain what to expect when I was that age, and I wish I had known as a sophomore what I knew as a senior. So I'm writing it down and hoping it helps some people.

Please check it out! Leave some feedback, send me suggestions. Pass it on to anyone you think might like it.

And as a bonus, here's a picture of me in a helicopter. Did I mention I've gotten a haircut?

Thanks, guys! I'll get some more pictures up here soon. Take care out there!

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Another adventure, another day

So, friends, it's been a while. I have been a terrible internet presence over the past months. I have an utterly boring excuse: I got busy. I had many delightful visitors this summer: family, old friends, and next-door-neighbors from my childhood home. It was lovely, and filled all my time not occupied in writing a thesis and snatching the occasional adventure of my own. I went to London. I learned to make homemade salad dressing. I cut off my hair.

And I moved to Dublin. I have reluctantly bid farewell to the view of the Corrib and moved to the big city to begin my post-student life. I'm not entirely sure what I'm doing (although I have a darn good feeling) and I feel the dual call of the wanderlust and the desire to put down some interesting, adventurous roots. I suspect this year will lead to both.

I'll be posting some photos from my summer before long, as well as from my new home beside Phoenix Park, overlooking the rooftops of Dublin and roaming through new corners of the world.

So don't give up on me, folks. Adventures are yet to come.

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Galway gives some good advice.

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The Galway Arts Festival turned my sleepy waterfront view into complete mayhem. This was alternately delightful and quite distressing

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The reason I haven't been blogging lately... Got to act like a Master's student and get the thesis written. Plenty of stories and photos upon my return to real life.

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A Year

Well friends and readers, it's been a year. One year ago today, to celebrate the 4th of July, I headed out for an epic adventure in Ireland, Northern Ireland, and Europe. I've lived in Belfast and Galway, and spent considerable time lurking around Dublin. And, with that mad dash that launched last summer in Eastern Europe, I've been to nine new countries in the past year, plus a re-visit to Ireland and the UK. I've been damn lucky.

Plus I've met some amazing people, been to some incredible music events, been barfably in love, been part of some powerful projects, learned about international human rights law, found out I don't want to be a lawyer, and discovered the best flavor of ice cream around (honeycomb. Why isn't that a thing everywhere?)

The absolute highlights of the year were: Prague, Istanbul, Barcelona, meeting the Bastille guys, the Frank Turner tour, seeing Lauren, Kelly, the neighbors, and my mom in Ireland, Little Sister's cabaret performance, my weekend on the Aran Islands with the Gentleman in Question, the day at Menlo Castle, and meeting Sunny and Peter. I am one extraordinarily lucky girl.

So anyway, enough looking back. This blog was originally sub-headed as "My summer traveling through Europe, then a year studying in Ireland/Northern Ireland." Which would be coming to a close here, one year later. But I'm staying. I've still got the wanderlust and am not ready to settle back in the States just yet. So for my celebration of July 4th this year, I'm declaring the start of another year abroad here in Ireland and with lots more wandering left to be done.

So that's that. One year down and so many adventures yet to come. I am extraordinarily lucky and can't wait for all that comes next.

Bring it on. Whatever comes.

(That's me grabbing the full moon at the summer equinox)

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Swans at sunset... I live in a gorgeous place.

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Landscapes

One of my favorite things about living in Galway is how close I am to so many different kinds of beauty.  I can walk out my front door and be right at the river. A few minutes more and I'm out on the Bay, watching the waves and all the people going by. And if I head the other way, in search of a different kind of landscape, I'm on Shop Street and witnessing the rush of people across the cobble stones or drinking pints on the patios in front of the pubs. I regularly feel like the luckiest girl in the world.

And then I go on day quests to the middle of nowhere and find myself in places like this (although you can't count on this kind of sunshine):

And then, just around the corner, you're surrounded by moss-covered boulders under twisted trees

I spent most of an afternoon roaming from one glorious spot to another, reading a book or just watching the day go by. It's really something to live in this small city by the sea, and to have this kind of natural beauty just right outside my door. The only downside is the sense of guilt when I don't take full advantage, which is about the right kind of price to pay.

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Castle Ruins

The other day I had a glorious adventure into the middle of nowhere, walking out on country roads and exploring these ruins.  I love living here.

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High tide in Galway.

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Kylemore Abbey in Connemara on a rainy afternoon. Gorgeous.

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Galway being awesome: this guy escaped from his straight jacket from atop this seven-foot unicycle. And my favorite quote of the occasion, "this isn't magic, it's just weird."

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A sunset over the Twelve Bens in the wilds of Connemara.

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Baby swans in the canals in of Galway!

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Wandering Colorado

I was back for a week.  The primary purpose of the visit was to see my little sister's cabaret: a final theater performance for her musical theater major, just prior to her graduation from university.  That's a blog post for another time: for now, I want to talk about Colorado.  The mountains, the beauty, and the chance to see a little bit of my home state that I had never before laid eyes on. 

This was the starting view:

I hate the way the mountains look in photos.  They're so far away that there's no way to capture how the look from Littleton, which was my childhood home.  The Rockies were the dominant feature of my geography as a young person.  They loom in a perfect line, always to the west.  I navigated by them and always felt lucky to see them on the way to school in the morning, lit in beautiful early light, and then filling the rearview each afternoon.  Nights come fast on the Eastern slope: the sun goes behind the mountains and that's the end of that. 

I'm a bit of a mountain snob because of these mountains.  I try to keep it in check: I've chosen to spend my adult life in different places with different mountains.  Oregon, with both the Coast Range and the Cascades, offer a combination of lush forests and dramatic volcanoes that took my breath.  The Irish mountains show their age a bit: not so grand in scale but absolutely beautiful when they break out of the rainclouds.  But the Rocky Mountains define the term for me: beige-red-green foothills, the mid-range 'purple mountains majesties,' and the snow-capped fourteeners in the distance.  They divide the North American continent and they leave visitors dizzy with elevation.  Small towns prefer to advertise footage above sea level, rather than population, on the welcome signs. 

So I was glad when my Colorado trip necessitated a drive over the mountains to Grand Junction, where Kelly was graduating from Mesa State.  So off we went.

Colorado being the place it is, we had a sunny, cold day to start the journey.  We passed the ski resort, Loveland, where I learned to ski as a little kid.  Then we hit the more 'uppish' part and our ears started adjusting to the pressure difference, and we were really in the mountains.

Glenwood Canyon is now my favorite part of the drive west.  Photos don't even come close, but it's worth a bit of a try.  The rock faces of the mountainsides made me want to leap out an make a dash for some bouldering, or just a chance to play in that much beauty. 

Once we got through to Grand Junction, we were in mesa territory.  For those not hanging out in the Southwest, that's basically the base of a sandstone mountain, only with the top cut off.  I didn't get any good pictures, but they certainly are a site to behold. 

So then we took a spin around Colorado National Monument.  We didn't have as much time as it deserved, but it's a place I've wanted to go to for a long time and had never made it until this trip. 

It's the American West at it's sandstone-infused, dry landscaped best.  Most of it looked like a movie set: like something fake that was set up to fool some naive audience.  But it was real, and larger than life.

And here's what the Monument is really known for: the huge, eroded cliff sides that end up looking like dribbled sand.  The sun was at entirely the wrong angle for me to make it look anything like as spectacular as it was, but I did my best. 

And that's that: another beautiful corner of 'home' which I haven't explored as it deserves, and which merited far more time than I had.  Someday I'll go back and hike all the paths and maybe even climb some rocks.  For now I'm just grateful to have seen my place of origin for what it is at its best: a beautiful place with so much yet to see.