Joys of Moving

Last week a new speechie moved to Dublin. She is currently staying with us because she can't find affordable accommodation and I thought it was silly to use all her relocation money on B&Bs. It has also been really nice having someone besides John to talk to. Not that he isn't fun to talk to but it's fun to talk to a girl! Since J left, I haven't had much girl contact and don't really have any good girl friends here. I have some friends but no really close ones.

N's shock upon moving here has also reminded me how I felt just one year ago and how much I have settled into my new country. People have questioned me why I am having N stay with us but I couldn't let her stay in a hostel (not that hostels are bad but you shouldn't live in one if you don't have to). Also, when coming to a new place where you don't know a soul, it is just nice to have someone reach out to you and help you. It is what I would have liked when I moved over. M helped me a bit but there wasn't anyone saying "OK, do this, look here, try this, I know it sucks but you are doing all you can..." That is what you need when you move to a new country with no direction or help (the recruiters did a terrible job). So, that is what I try to do for new people. It is all part of my trying to make my corner of the world better.

Jihad declared on US auto market

John here, just making a quick post on something from CNN. If you're looking to sell cars in the tough US market here is a sure fire marketing campaign. After all, who could resist "Fatwah Fridays"? You can't make this kind of stuff up.

Verona

Towards the end of our trip, we visited Verona for a day. It was nice city but I liked Venice much better. We saw an old Roman coliseum which was interesting. We also toured a castle and a couple churches. We also saw an old whale bone hanging from a building which supposedly if a holy person walks under it the bone will fall.

More Nature

Here are a few more nature pictures taken around the Italian Alps.

Nature

Since the web is actually cooperating today, I thought that I would post some more pictues of Italy. These were taken in the Trento-Adige area of the country in the Dolomite Mountain range. It was so beautiful.

Wineries

While wandering around wine country, we tried to tour two wineries. The first, the Ketmier winery, which produces the wine that I drank back home, only does tours for tour busses. It looked like a large winery. They let us have free samples and so we tried a bunch of different wines and bought a few. While we were there, a tour bus finished so the place was packed with people on the tour buying wine.
















The second winery that we visited in was in Tramin and makes the wine that I drink here in Dublin. It was a really interesting tour even though it was in German and I didn't understand anything the tour leader said! I just liked to see where "my" wine was made. John translated a little bit for me but he wasn't able to hear the tour leader a lot of the time because of the noise. The winery was pretty busy because it was just before the harvest and they were getting ready.

The Tramin winery is a small cooperative of local growers. I believe that they grow organically as well. The Celtic Whiskey Shop in Dublin sells at least two of their wines. This summer they were frequently out of stock, however. We picked up a couple bottles while at the winery.