Turkey Day (or for the vegetarians, "day of much starch")

Turkey Day WOOOOOOOOH!! I just came back from dinner with most of the kids from my program. it was crazy. After helping out on a shoot today I rushed home to boil and mash potatoes for the potluck dinner. I made more than ten pounds of mashed potatoes. It was madness in the kitchen. Potato was flying everywhere, pots and pans filled the sink. there were butter streaks across the walls. But in the end the potatoes were made (thanks to Jac). Jac brought her mom's famous (and delicious) sausage bread, and I lugged the pot of mashed potatoes down to the cafe in the courtyard.
The food was unbelieveable!! Nia and Lexi ended up cooking the 30 pound turkey along with sweet rolls. monica brought (the best!!) chocolate truffles and stuffing. There were green beans, corn, tsatziki, three different types of potatoes and . . . everything. There was so much food that I hurt now. We shoved food into our faces, chatting and having a grand time. But now I am back in the room trying to stay awake, so I don't fall into a food coma . . .

This wasn't even all the food . . .

Nia carving the Turkey!!

Jac and the potatoes

Me and the Potatoes

I know what Kris and Adam are thankful for . . .

On another note. yes, I am yet again a bad bad bear for not writing as much as I said I would. But I had a nice busy weekend and week of partying and work.

My weekend began when Jac's friend Maddie visited from Paris. We had fun going to the Guinness factory ( I drank a whole pint of Guinness BY MYSELF!!) and exploring Ireland and going clubbing. It was great. I only wish she could have stayed longer but sadly she did not . . . oh well.

The Guinness factory speaks some beautiful words
Jac making her fingers dance.

The bar at the top of the Guinness factory

Jac and Maddie drinkin' pints

I became an emergency Assistant Director for a couple of shoots this week since all the music video kids are working on their music videos with their professional bands. It's cool. So I've been assigned the job of either grunt work, or AD (aka that chick who has to be like "um, guys . . . we have three minutes to set up the green screen, or else we won't have time to finish the movie . . . please don't hurt me . . .").

My week of crazy shooting started on Saturday night at 12 am, with my friend Anu's shoot. We traveled to Kells and slept over until Saturday staying at Darcey's (one if her band members) beautiful house's in the Irish country side. The band "Ham Sandwich" was great and we had a lot of fun shooting their music video, and watching them perform. Mrs. Darcey (Darcey's mother) was a wonderful woman who, when seeing a group of scraggly, manorished, sleep deprived film students cooked us a huge breakfast of brown bread, homemade Jam, coffee and apple cake. Than for lunch made fresh lasagna, mashed poatatos and apple crisp for dessert. Obviously the whole crew fell in love with Mrs. Darcey.

The Lead singer of Ham Sandwich

Ham Sandwich performing

Art direction for shoot

sleep deprived Anu and Sarah . . .

The next shoot was Tuesday when I ended up becoming a last minute AD when Sarah Rudoy's original AD ended up being unable to AD for the day. I have never really been an AD before so I tried to mimic what my friends did. I went over the shot list with Sarah and tried to make a rough time table. In the end it worked and I am officially an experienced AD. It was a lot of fun. I especially loved working with Sarah and her singer Wallis Bird.

Wednesday I helped out again on Sarah's shoot, but only for half the day. I had to leave early to search for paint thinner when the paint I was using to paint the set turned out to be oil based. eventually I went to a hardware store and they gave me baby wipes that worked!! nice thing to know for future sets. Than I headed ot writing class. We are getting close to the end of our screenplays. I am going to finish on Tuesday. I'm not ready . . .

Than today I ADed for Will's shoot. It was great. It was stressful but good. I feel like I'm getting the hang of ADing, whcih is good because it means I can finally be good at something on set!! I can be around people in film!! This is great, I won't just be holed up writing and editing like usual! After the shoot I helped bring everything back and than went off to make the potatoes of glory.

Now I really must go and store the leftover potatoes in whatever type of storage material we have in the apartment (ie. jars, bowls, pencil boxes . . .) So goodnight and a happy happy thanksgiving.

I am so baaaaaad (as the sheep of Ireland would say)

Hey all, yes. It has been too long because I am a bad bad girl. But I have a good explanation for not writing for the past 3 weeks. here I shall list my excuses.

1.) When I got back from midterm break, we had midterm projects due. All in the same week.

2.) We lost the power in our room, which made our bedroom flood when the power came back on and the people upstairs left their sinks on because they were big stupid heads.

3.) we had to move to a different apartment with no internet and Jac and I were too lazy to actually walk to the office and get internet access.

4.) My parents visited during that and I was busy showing my parents around Dub Dub and eating food that I normally couldn't afford.

5.) I went to Amsterdam shortly after my parents left.

6.) It is finals week.

so it has been crazy and I'm sorry I have not been consistent with my writing.

things have been good though, and it is getting pretty exciting as my screenplay is now more than half written and people around me are finishing their screenplays and music videos.

I realize although I will never choose to live in Dublin, I am going to miss Dublin and this program and the people who are in it. Sure we will all see each other at school again, but it's not quite the same thing. We're like this little group of film kids who have traveled, worked and played together all semester. We have all seen each other at our best and worst. I was lucky to spend this semester with this group of people. It will be a little sad to leave this small group, but at the same time really nice to see all my friends back in New York.

Anyway, clearly I am quite reflective right now when I should be writing my screenplay, so i will go and stop being sappy. I will write more later once I finish writing my 80 pages of screenplay that is due on Sunday . . . and my final history paper . . . and helping on shoots . . . wooh.

I'll try to write later.

Barcelona (part two)

So on our second day of Barcelona Lexi, Monica and I slept after a long time of not having the chance too. It was glorious. We woke up and went down for our free breakfast that came with our room cost. It consisted of toast, a palmier, and the best cup of coffee I have had since leaving the Mud Spot in New York City. I went back for seconds, it was this hazelnutty flavor. Rich and delicious. I had it black and it was perfect.

Than we met up with Elan and Will and went to the exhibit on Alphonsa Mucha in the CaixaForum. It was pretty amazing. I learned all about his life and got to see his works as they became more famous. He did works like elaborate posters for theater and film to individual pieces of his own liking. it was very interesting. I enjoyed it. After that we went back to the coffee shop we found the first day and had paninis and I had one of the best hot chocolates I have ever had. It was pure melted chocolate in a cup. I fell in love/lust.

Than we met up with Jac and Nia. They had arrived earlier but decided to get a big lunch while we went for paninis. Than we headed out to chill in our hostel and get settled. We headed out and checked out the market where they sold turtles and chipmunks. I had to film them. I had to.



After that we found this amazing restaurant that gave a prix fix meal to die for. Appatizer, entree and dessert. yum. I had a rice dish, a steak and fruit salad. And a craft of wine. i was toasty for the night. Than we all tried to get into a club that rejected us on sight (apparently our backpackers attire was not swanky enough) so we headed to the Bar Marsella. It is cool because it is were Hemingway wrote and Picasso was inspired to do his blue period in that bar, but i didn't enjoy the walk there because there were many a learing man who would reach out and touch. I was already a little tipsy so that just made me more on edge and in the end it triggered bad feelings so I had trouble fully enjoying the very cool bar.

The next day Jac, Lexi, Monica, Sarah, Nia and I woke up, decided to grab a croissant (and another hot chocolate for me) and head out to see Antoni Gaudi's Temple de la Segrada Familia. it was stunning. I am not normally a huge architecture fan (probably because I know so little about the subject) but Gaudi's work is some of the best artwork i have ever seen. it is like picasso in 3D. but not. It's beautiful and that's what matters.

We stopped and got a cheap lunch (where I had the best burger in my life!!) and run off to the Picasso museum. I loved it. Picasso has always been in my top 6 favorite painters in history. i cannot order which one I like the best. I just know that I can glom Picasso, Monet, Van Gogh, Frida Kahlo, Seurat and Dali. I miss painting, i think I should start that up again. if I could find time to do film too.

It was perfect. Picasso's work is so amazing the way it changes over time. His first paintings were so precise and realistic (he was 15 by the way and painting like that). So to see the progression into impressionism, to his blue phase, to cubism. It was fantastic to see in one place. Learning about his life and even seeing some of his family's work (pottery mom, his daughter was a potter). I loved the museum. I was the last to leave, because I was so sucked into his work.

Outside the museum there was an amazing guitarist palying as we all sat and listened sleepily. than we walked into the park nearby and watched dogs walk by and people perform capoera.


It was pretty cool but got repetative after a while. Than we headed back. Sarah R. Lexi and I went out to a cafe got snadwiches and very rich melted chocolate in a cup (chocolate is a very important part of the trip). yum. Sarah headed back to catch a movie and Lexi, jac and I headed to Adams to have wine and socialize before going out. We had a good time in his amazing apartment and then headed out. Sadly we realized too late that it was Sunday and no cabbies or subways were open to take us to the Elephant (a club we thought we might check out). Apparently it was "god's day" so transportation was nill. We decided to get late night falafels. we had to deal with the falafel guys trying to charge us twice and a customer trying to start a fight with Adam by smacking his fries out his hands. It was a weird night, but we made the best of it and headed home after eating fries and falafels.

Now I have written about two days there and I need to go to bed because I have class tomorrow but I will write more tomorrow about the Barcelona, Florance and Paris. And chocolate in general.

Barcelona (part one) pictures

In the airport looking like gypsies ready to board gypsy airline!!

Our 6 euro feast!!

Our apple/pear (do you see where the confusion came into play?)

Our outdoor feasting in the mountains.

Monica's best friend

They sold parrots in the marketplace!

and Garret the Farret
(I named him Garret because of my character Garret the Farret in my screenplay)

and baby bunnies. I want a baby bunny.

Beautiful architecture in Barcelona

My Mocha in Barcelona.
My first chocolate experience on my unofficially official chocolate tour of Europe.

Candied pears in the Bazaar.

This is so much candy in one spot it makes my teeth hurt looking at it.

Nuts. 'Nuff said.

Chocolate in the bazaar. Of course this would be a part of my unofficially official chocolate tour of Europe.

OCTOPUS!!

Our view of the mountains from our hostel.

Beautiful Barcelona at night.

Barcelona is lovely

Angry turtles climbing the mountain

Look closely and you can see the wild boars.

Barcelona (part one)

My trip began with staying up all night waiting to catch a flight that left for Barcelona at 6:10 am. Which meant I had to leave for the airport at 3:00 am to make sure we got there in time. Luckily I had my fellow gypsy travelers, Lexi and Monica, ready to fly with me. We blearily made our way from cab, to airport to finally the plane, where I experienced Ryan Air for the very first time.

For those who do not know, Ryan Air is a cheap quick way of flying around Europe. It is a great way for backpackers to catch a flight for prices as low as 11 euro (about 15 dollars). However, there is a reason that the planes are so cheap. because they are horrible. Everybody is jammed onto a stuffy bumpy plane that plays a horrible jingle every 15 minutes. Worse the jingle starts off with the sound of an explosion, which lead me to believe that we were crashing every 15 minutes. Not pleasant for the uneasy plane flying passengers.

My first solution was "I should just try and sleep through this mess of a mess!". However, as I lay my head down on the fold out table, I had to quickly jerk myself up again because the stench of stale dry vomit was too much to handle. There are no vomit bags, so people use their fold out tables. I ended up dozing with my head on my knees in the strangest fetal position ever, while the drunk Irish men around us cheered every time the jingle came on.

After surviving the flight, Lexi, Monica and I waited for the bus, which ended up breaking down so it took us two and a half hours to finally make it to Barcelona city center and than head to our hostel in the mountains. Our directions for the hostel was to take the metro there and than "climb the mountain 500 steps". So we did, climb the mountain that is. But I must warn you it was far more than 500 steps. When we finally reached the hostel, we had lost 20 pounds and needed nourishment badly. Luckily the amazing hostel owners offered a feast for 6 euro out on the terrace that overlooked the stunning view of the mountains. the meal consisted of fish sticks, risottos with tomato soup over the top, bread, salad, and a candied apple/pear (we finally realized it was an apple but it took a long time to figure that out). Meanwhile during the whole meal we made friends with the hostel's local cat as Monica fed it fish sticks and I pet it's skinny little head.

After lunch was siesta time, which was glorious. We met up with our fellow NYUer Adam, and our soon to become friend Emily. They showed us the AMAZING apartment they managed to rent for a week in the heart of the city. They took us on a tour of the bazaar where we saw more candy/fruit/meat in one place than I have ever seen in my life. After seeing so much grocery food, we all decided when in Barcelona, eat as the Barcelonians! That's right folks . . . Tapas. After much searching we found a place and ordered a big tapas for all and a pitcher of sangria.

During the meal we had our first encounter with the famous thieves of Barcelona. Always the paranoid one I had my purse on my lap for dinner but because most are not as neurotic people casually hung their bags an purses on the arms of their chairs. this is normally not a problem. unless you are traveling in Barcelona. As we sat, enjoying our Tapas, my paranoid eyes noticed a an sneak up next to Lexi's chair, and slowly begin to pull her purse of the arm of her chair.

Don't ask me what came over me, because let's face it I hate touching strangers, but I grabbed the mans hand and began speaking as much Spanish as I knew.

"HEY HEY!! NO!! NO!!!" I yelled holding on to the surprised man's hand. He promptly let go muttering "tranquilé . . . tranquilé . . ." (which means "relax") and ran away. I can proudly say, that for that moment, I was heroic. For the rest of the night everybody held on to their bags for dear life. Luckily this did not ruin our night, as we talked about politics and film and college life.

By the time we finished it was late and we were full of tapas and sangria so Monica, Lexi, and I said our goodbyes and headed back to our hostel in the mountains. As we climbed our 500+ steps we were welcomed back to the mountainous region by a small snuffling heard of wild boars. i tried to take pictures but it was so dark and the boars (and Lexi) got scared so we wished the boars goodnight and headed up the rest of the mountain.

And that was day one. Tomorrow I will write about day two and so forth.

The Midterm Trip Installments

Soooo my trip was so jam packed with different things that where done, and places that where visited, it might take a while but I feel like this trip should definitely be given large amount of talk time on the bloggy blog. If not because I think cool stuff happened but because considering my last entry was about microwaving my undies . . . I think we've hit a low point in Dublin's excitingt activities. so here are the installments. It may take some time so have patience.

Quick Writing from Barcelona

Hola!! Currently writing from Barcelona! It is amazing!! I am having so much fun and eating so much delicious food here. And things are so much cheaper hereit makes me sad to have to go back to Dublin and eat Campbells Soup every day. I am getting fatter and happier every day and looking at a beatiful city full of art. Even the buildings are amazing thanks to Gaudi, the best architect in the world. I saw the park he built and I dont think I have been productive enough in my life. I just thought I would try to write a short little blurb but I will definitley go into more detail when I can actually upload pictures and video footage! But I have to go and fly to Florance right now!