Cork, Ireland

I've been in Ireland for five days and want to share the following slang I've come across while here:

gauntlets = gowning sleeves for processing,

rubbish bin = waste/trash bin,

canteen = cafeteria,

car boot sale = trunk sale, and

mozzies = mosquitoes.

Update:

"DINE in CORK" restaurant week is occurring while I am here! The city's top restaurants are offering a special promotional rate of €25 per person for traditional three course dinner menus with tea and coffee. PERFECT! On Thursday, we (Linda, Harold, and myself) had a fabulous meal at the Cornstore Wine Bar & Grill. I ate:

Portabello Flat Mushrooms with basil pesto, rocket salad and grated parmesan.

Rich Duck Liver Pate with apple and grape chutney, toasted sour dough bread.

Roast Haunch of Venison with beetroot confit.

Eton Mess with fresh raspberries and passion fruit coulis.

Side Note: If you decide to go with the "fried potatoes", instead of a side of rice at a Chinese restaurant in Cork, you'll be served French fries (I have seen it).

After dinner on Thursday, my friend/co-worker, Harold, managed to locate our first Irish geocache (GC2F4WQ - Knee of the Lee)! We had attempted to find two other geocaches without any luck (I need to locate a four-leaf clover to carry around); these city caches are difficult. However, our Blackberrys and my iPhone took us to the right place. The cache was near the amazing looking Trinity Church.

The Emerald Isle

Well blog readers (I hope I have a few fans left out there), after nearly 19-hours of travel time, I made it to Ireland! First impression of Ireland: wet, cold, and green.

Since my last blog, I have made three business trips to Colorado and one training trip to California. I regret not having time to update the blog with our experiences in Tokyo; if you'd like to hear a few stories, we have plenty to share.

As for this business trip I am currently on, I flew into the Paris-Charles De Gaulle, France airport for the first time. OK, talk about a HUGE airport and confusing! My layover was ~3-hours, no panic, right? WRONG... The plane lands in France and we exit onto the tarmac out in the elements; everyone boards a shuttle bus and we are transferred to Terminal 2, which has seven sub-terminals. Connecting flights are listed by departure time, on ~nine different screens; my flight is not on any of the screens (I kept on looking over them, thinking I was too tired to figure it out)... this area has no information booths or any airport personnel to question... I took an escalator to the next level and located the Delta counter (YES!). After explaining I required communication in English, I discovered I needed to be in Terminal 1, which required another shuttle ride. The person at the counter could not give me the gate number nor could they give me a boarding pass (when I left Utah, I was given one of those tickets stating a boarding pass must be obtained at the gate or at the counter). The shuttle ride to Terminal 1 was like a bus ride to another city. After exiting the shuttle, an employee checked my pseudo ticket and explained my flight was in Section 10 to 18 of the terminal. Access to Section 10-18 requires going through another security check, well this is a problem in France if you don't have an actual boarding pass. The supervisor over the security checkpoint had to grant me access. The gate associated with my flight wasn't assigned until it was close to the boarding time; up until this point, the gate has been empty and I am waiting with no boarding pass. My stress was relieved when the employee at the gate handed me my boarding pass. In the end, the flight left late due to weather and I fell asleep on the plane.

For this two week trip in Ireland, I am staying at the Clarion Hotel in Cork. It reminds me a lot of my hotel in Denmark, since it is right next to a river channel (in this instance, I am next to the River Lee South Channel). Below are a few pictures of my accommodations:

View from my balcony.

Those two ovals above the toilet are for flushing (i.e., large oval for a big flush and mini oval for a little flush - how environmentally friendly).

I am missing everyone back in the States; check back for an update...