Heigh-Ho, Heigh-Ho...

So today was the first day of our respective internships.

Whitney's day started first, so we shall begin with her. She left for the bus stop with Kelly at 7 am, and made her hour-and-a-half commute down to Dun Laoghaire, which passed pretty quickly thanks to Jane Austen's Persuasion, which has been engrossing her as of late. She was able to sit on the pier and enjoy the GORGEOUS morning, being that she got to work half an hour early. She spent the day wrestling with Quark (boo!), which kicked her butt because it is DUMB and obviously not created by anyone in the graphic design world. Then I came swooping in on a honeywheat stallion, bearing a bouquet of stunning flowers for the glorious vision of woman who stood before me.

...sorry, I got a little carried away with how special I think I am...

Luckily, I arrived just as she was about to go to lunch, and as I did not have to be at my placement for another hour, I stayed to have lunch with her and a co-worker named Helen. Helen is roughly our age, and had a lot of insight about the Irish culture; it was fun and enlightening to compare her culture to our own.

Then she spent the rest of the day just trying to stay out of the way until she got more into the swing of things.

The magazine only has one writer, one editor/occasional writer, two interns, and Whitney. She found the size of the staff to be a bit shocking.

And THEN, she proceeded to board the wrong bus on the way home (and she was worried about ME getting lost), so after she realized that the odds of her bus miraculously turning onto any road she recognized were getting increasingly slim, she got off the demon bus and called her hero. Duncan. Who could not save her immediately, but valiantly elected to stay behind in the city and rescue her upon her hopeful imminent return.

She eventually made it back to the city, and I "saved" her by carrying her bookbag (affectionately known as "Two-Ton Bessie," and we're not kidding here), and treating her to a meal.

At our restaurant, by the way, we learned how to be a complete ass from the man sitting with his wife at the table next to us. Never in my life had I heard a person complain about getting their food too SOON, nor being miffed and astounded that he did not get complimentary bread.

Again, complete and total ASS, so we tried to compensate for his ASSNESS by tipping our shared waitress a touch more than normal. Poor girl. Poor us. Poor his wife. And so on.

What did I do today? I slept in, and then had ice cream and played with kids. Seriously. My job rocks so far.

That's pretty much it, but I will be sure to be a little more in-depth about my placement experiences one more begins to happen.

P.S., the cat in yesterday's photo is NOT a stray we picked up and are going to smuggle home, but a kitty that the guards at the Botanic Gardens take care of. Sorry, Moms, I am sure you are sad that we will not be introducing a new member to the family.

P.P.S The spunk and independence of the Irish dogs we have encountered endears them to us more and more each day. Sadly, though, Isabelle would not make it here.