Lisa in Europe!

I quit my miserable job and am off on a European adventure. And I want to share it all with YOU! Skype me at lisalaps or download Whatsapp for texting.

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“April is the cruelest month, breeding Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing Memory and desire, stirring.” -T.S. Eliot, The Wasteland

Not exactly lilacs, but walking through the streets of Santa Monica I stumbled upon this abandoned parking lot, and it reminded me of the poem. I think of these words every spring, but they are particularly poignant this April. I am slowly trying to reintegrate myself into “regular” life and the “real” world, but it is difficult with the last seven weeks in my mind, memory and desire, stirring.

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Beach Reading

Exhausted, a little sad, still so much to process. Thoughts swirling in my head, working to get it clear and down on digital paper. Instead of stewing, I spent the day at the beach trying to catch up on 7 weeks worth of New Yorkers. Here are some fun facts from my reading: -One reason we all might be so tired all the time is that sleeping for 7-8 hours straight is a relatively new behavior. We used to sleep after dinner for a few hours, wake up, have a smoke or pray, then go back to bed for "sleep 2". Ben Franklin liked to spend this time reading, naked. -Apple stock is down, in part because they are having trouble in emerging markets where "phablets" are all the rage. Bigger than a phone, smaller than a tablet, the functionality of both (and, thus, also probably neither). Apple won't have their phablet out for another year. Phablet! Haha, silly word!! -Ruth Bader Ginsburg works out with the same trainer as Elana Kagan, and can lift more than Kagan can. -Apparently the only people that liked Margaret Thatcher were politicians who find it politically advantageous to say so. I can testify to this seeing the street rallies in Europe commemorating her death, and hearing many renditions of "Ding Dong the Witch is Dead". A street movement in England purchased enough copies on iTunes to make it the #1 song. -Al Qaeda doesn't really exist anymore; it's really a bunch of spin-offs, some of which are dangerous and others of which are mostly composed of drug lords and other low-level mercenary hooligans. But we are still waging war on a now amorphous group called Al Qadea, and according to Steve Coll it is potentially dangerous to group them altogether. He finishes his piece with this: "The empirical case for a worldwide state of war against a corporeal thing called Al Qaeda looks increasingly threadbare. A war against a name is a war in name only." Food for thought.

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Not a bad way to spend my first day back...unwinding, coming down, sunbathing.

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To be continued...

I still have a lot of reflections and thoughts from the trip I'm planning to post here, so if you are interested, please keep checking back for further updates. Also, I've loved keeping this blog, and having a venue to share my experiences and thoughts, more than I could've imagined. The process, the writing, the critical thought have all been extremely fulfilling. So, at least for the time being I'm going to keep posting here about life beyond the trip as well. "Lisa in Europe" may be shorthand for "Lisa All Over the World" as I document my other travels (Mexico on Wednesday!), or a metaphor for my staying in the healthy, happy, free headspace I've been in these last 7 weeks. Either way, I'd love for you to stay tuned.

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Take off, 1, 2, 3.... Every time I fly British Air, I think "now that's an airplane bathroom I could shag in." They are so big! Also, the free wine doesn't hurt.

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Headlines at Heathrow. I just can't get over the differences in the food culture - the headline doesn't look promising, but the topic of whether to allow genetically modified crops in London is actually a conversation, worthy of a full front page. In America, we were never asked. Nor could we have the proper information if we did, not without a lawsuit anyway.

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Nick and I picked up supplies and he cooked Emily and myself a delicious last supper in Dublin. We also had, as usual, some incredible conversation. Those two are amazing.

I had planned to go out, but after all the wine and port, was a bit tired so decided to stay in before my early morning flight out. And just like that, the adventure comes to an end, not with a bang, but a quiet night at home.

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I spent the remaining spare hours of the day continuing to explore Dublin. I walked the area by the Grand Canals and the new modern theatre there, Merion Square and Connolly Street.

I also got to attend the Pan Pan theatre group’s production of the Beckett radio play “All That Fall”, currently playing at the Beckett Theatre at Trinity. The production has gotten a lot of accolades and is headed to the Fringe in Edinburgh this summer. It was a complete sensory experience - the seats rocking chairs, the lights beautiful and symbolic, the audio overwhelming, at times shaking from the strong vibrations made by the sound waves. I really enjoyed the show, and it was great to get to see a Beckett piece at the Beckett scholar’s stomping ground!

After the show, Nick took me for an aperitif at the Common Room, a private speak easy-like bar for Trinity professors who have been at the university for at least five years. I had a delicious Irish coffee, and sampled Nick's peet infused Irish whiskey.<\p>

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Every restaurant I've ever been to with mediocre service has made me want to invent one of these. Brilliant! At the Science and Art Gallery on Trinity's campus where I dined with Nick and his very sweet colleague Chris for lunch.

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My last day in Dublin, my last day in Europe. Sigh. I stopped at the organic, delicious sandwich shop and deli KC Peaches, owned by Miss Katie Caldwell, Clarke's (basically) niece. We chatted for awhile and had a lovely time getting to know one another - look forward to seeing her again in Seattle or Switzerland!

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Back at Trinity, Nick took me through a brief tour (upon entrance we had four minutes until the place closed!) of the Book of Kells - an 8th century version of the gospels - and the Long Hall library. The library was stunning, lined wall to wall with preserved old books, a still working library with librarians who climb little ladders to pull said old books, a haven for book nerds like me, permeated with the sweet musty smell of...old books. I absolutely loved it. Nick and I then attended a play at the National Abbey Theatre - a show called "Drumbelly" with stunning production design, a fantastic cast, but a script that could use a little work. As we walked down the streets of Dublin to the theatre, Nick ran into someone he knew every 20 meters - a student, a former student, an actor he'd cast, a colleague. It is so much fun getting to see his life here, and the community he has made for himself. Dublin seems to be a place small enough you can really make a home, but big enough not to get boring. It is clear why he has fallen in love with this town.

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Irish Pride

Man, Irish people really love being Irish. Irish music, Irish food and Irish beer may not be the best of their genres, but that's what they play, eat and imbibe. Everywhere. (I didn't include Irish whiskey, cause I'm a Jamison kinda girl). NO ONE speaks Irish (Gaelic) as their first language, but all the signage is in both languages and it's a requirement in school. 100% Irish campaigns plaster the country - Irish beef, Irish cheese, Irish everything. It comes from a darker place - the Irish need to exert and protect their own culture in the face of English dominance - but they've done an exceedingly good job. On every corner and in every pub, there is no mistaking you are in Ireland.

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If you don't like the weather, wait five minutes.

A Dublin adage. Rain. Wind. Sun. Wind. Pouring Rain. Sun and Light Rain. Rain and Wind. Clouds. Rain. Lather. Rinse. Repeat. The weather in Dublin is manic! It's almost comical how often it changes - I have on more than one occasion found myself literally laughing out loud at a sudden unexpected change in the weather.

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More of the awesome Irish duo. They blend traditional Irish music with more modern alternative rock. Listen long enough to here them sing!

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After the talk, Nick stayed at the symposium, leaving me free to wander around and explore Dublin. I walked through the the fancy shops of Grafton Street, through the hipper Wicklow Street and George Street Arcade, and up to the touristy Temple Bar. I stopped in the Quay Bar for a pint and listened to an awesome Irish duo on guitar and Irish bag pipes for an hour or so before heading back to meet Nick on campus. Photos in clockwise order: the "front of college" entrance to Trinity University, the dramatic interior of campus after passing through the entrance, the actual Temple Bar, the streets of Temple Bar, the awesome Irish duo, Dame Lane.

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I am completely at ease with my irrelevance.

Nick, speaking on the panel in response to another panelist expressing his terror at becoming irrelevant. I loved this moment.

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I took the early train back to Dublin so I could get back in time to hear Nick speak on a panel about “educational choice and the invention of a career path” at a one-day symposium on Education & Society at Trinity University, where Nick is a professor. The symposium examined the role of education in today’s economic environment, and tangentially the economics of education and the economics of happiness, i.e., the likelihood a particular education will lead to career satisfaction or dissatisfaction. A particularly poignant topic given my current state of existence.

The conversation was fascinating, and it was so much fun to get to hear Nick speak. All the panelists, including Nick, have had such interesting and haphazard career paths which, as they all attested, only amount to a linear & cohesive story in retrospect. It was an inspiring morning, and, again, particularly poignant given the confused trajectory my own career path has taken.