form and function find their junction

Central Ireland

>> Saturday, September 18, 2010 – Ireland, Travel

After a brief hiatus from Ireland, we're back with the next leg of our journey. After 3 days in Northern Ireland, we headed down to central Ireland to spend a night south of Galway. We stayed in the tiny town of Doolin, across from the Aran Islands. It was a looooong day of driving on some questionable roads, so we were happy to arrive at our B&B that night and go for a walk down by the water.

Dan, I took this picture for you :)

It was a cute picturesque town, but there wasn't much happening there. We found a pub with some live music, and tried to spend most of our night out there because our B&B turned out to be not as nice as they advertised on the website.

Brian had a coworker from Des Moines visit Ireland last year, and his wife gave us some awesome suggestions for places to visit! Just south of where we stayed were the Cliffs of Mohr, some stunning landscape meeting the water. First thing in the morning (well, after our big Irish breakfast that we stuffed ourselves with each day at our B&B's) we headed to the cliffs.

We spent a bit of time walking around on top of the cliffs before continuing our journey south. It was pretty gorgeous.

Brian trying more of his not-smiling faces.

The quickest way to get to the southern part of the country was to take a ferry across a huge bay - cutting out driving through the city of Limerick. It wasn't too exciting of a ferry ride, but I still felt like I should commemorate the event. One funny thing about this ferry is that before we left, we had a friend reccomend a book about Ireland to us called "Hitchhiking Across Ireland with a Fridge." You can guess what it's about. Brian was reading the book, and the day that we rode the ferry was the same day that he read about the guy riding the exact same ferry! It was pretty funny.

We've started reading more books about the places we visit, and it's made our experience of the country a better one, because we understand more about the people or the places we visit! I'd highly recommend it.

Driving around Ireland is pretty gorgeous, and I'm glad that we rented a car and got to see as much as we did! But, it was pretty nice to not have to drive either - We spent 3 nights up north and 3 nights in the south, with this one night in central Ireland, and I'd definitely say that I enjoyed the days where we stayed in once place for a little big longer. Still, all of Ireland is gorgeous and Brian and I do like our road trips!

If you're ever looking for some car-time entertainment, this is what we always listen to in the car. Does that make us nerds?

e.e. cummings

>> Friday, September 17, 2010 – Food for Thought, Turkey

this song has been in my head and rolling around inside me for days... i adore the music this composer creates, and the beauty it imparts to my soul. something about Eric Whitacre's music feels so right about it to me.

i thank You God for most this amazing
day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky;and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun’s birthday;this is the birth
day of life and love and wings:and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any-lifted from the no
of all nothing-human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

e.e. cummings, 1894 – 1962

click here to hear the song.

and take a bit of time to listen to some of the other ones, especially "A boy & A Girl" and "When David heard" (you have to hear the whole thing, even though it's long!)

Standing in the lake earlier this week.

Turkey!

>> Thursday, September 16, 2010 – Travel, Turkey

Hello from Turkey! I'm visiting my best friend and her husband as they prepare for the arrival of their first child, hopefully very soon! Lynn's due date is tomorrow (the 16th), and though I strongly suggested to her that the best birthday gift she could give me would be to see little girl's face, it doesn't look like that will be the case (though, I still have about 8 hours US time before it's not my birthday anymore...)

I arrived in Turkey over a week ago, spent 2 nights and a day in Istanbul, got to see a lot of cool stuff that I'll tell you more about later, and I've been with Lynn for about a week. It was a big holiday week here last week, and there has been lots to do! In addition to the joy of getting to hang out with my BFF, we've been busy with lots of stuff!

House Cleaning... (I'm washing the top of the refrigerator - when was the last time you cleaned yours??) Notice our three little helpers crowding around the bucket of soapy water...

Footrubbing... (this is a nightly activity, with hopes of speeding up Baby Girl's arrival!)

And LOTS of walking... (you can't tell from this photo, but we're on top of a large plateau that we walked 45 minutes to, hiked 45 minutes to the top, and did the same to return back to the bus stop.) Cheers for the 40 week pregnant woman for completing this with me!!

It doesn't look like it from this angle, but we are waaaaay high up, and behind us, where that yellow grass is a major drop off. Below, you can see the ruins of the castle around me, as well as a minaret they are renovating. HUGE lake in the background!

This is a picture of the "mountain" we hiked up...

And, today is my birthday! I'm so blessed to get to spend it with my best friend, though I'm definitely missing Brian, my family, and all my friends to celebrate with as well. I like having big parties for birthdays :) It's just so much fun!

We did celebrate on a smaller scale - Lynn sneakily found out that my favorite type of cake is carrot cake, so Sheryl made me one for my birthday! After going to the salon to get our hair cut, Lynn & I went to Sheryl's place to blow out candles and eat cake with the wonderful baker and her very enthusiastic 3 kiddos! I unfortunately forgot to snap a picture of them, post cake, running around like crazy on their sugar highs...

After a couple of quick calls home to family, Lynn, Dan, & I headed out to one of the nicest restaurants in town for a birthday dinner. Three yummy Turkish dishes later (though no singing waiters like at Hickory Park) we concluded my birthday celebrations!

Well, concluded them for now... if you know me, you know that I looooove birthdays! I blame it on my mom for always throwing me the best birthday parties when I was younger. I'm looking forward to returning to Spain to celebrate as well! Brian's parents are arriving in Madrid this Friday for a month, and the day after I return from Turkey (I fly back one week from tomorrow), Brad, Mollie & Kez arrive!! I am SO excited to get to see everyone! This is going to be quite the month :)

And, one last piece of entertainment for you - Dan is amazing at writing and performing songs! I don't think I know anyone as talented as he is with music. I mentioned that I hadn't heard him sing me happy birthday today, and late this evening, when he was over-tired, he graciously performed one for me!

IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT THIS VIDEO:

1. My brother just let me know this week that I'm going to be an Aunt!!! Congratulations Mark & Marissa!

2. Brian and I are NOT expecting a child! (Dan references something about B and I having a kid... but I only think thats because it rhymes...)

3. Song writing is a typical occurrence in this household, and late at night it tends to get goofy :)

Dan's Birthday Song for Kate 2010 from kate on Vimeo.

My Generation

>> Monday, September 13, 2010 – Food for Thought

A few weeks ago, a reporter from the New York Times wrote an article about why, now, it is taking so many people from my generation to actually grow up. To stop relying totally on their parents financially or emotionally, to get real jobs, to start planning families and a future, and to become full-fledged, society enriching adults. I saw friends of mine post this article on Facebook, and Donald Miller, always a favorite of mine, wrote an editorial about it. There was a lot of conversation about among a couple friends of mine. I can't write as eloquently as them (well, maybe I could, but I don't have the desire to when the internet provides convenient things like weblinks that you, my reader could easily click on), and I thought it was worth sharing.

What is it about 20-somethings? By Robin Marantz Henig

(a short excerpt from the article)
The 20s are a black box, and there is a lot of churning in there. One-third of people in their 20s move to a new residence every year. Forty percent move back home with their parents at least once. They go through an average of seven jobs in their 20s, more job changes than in any other stretch. Two-thirds spend at least some time living with a romantic partner without being married. And marriage occurs later than ever. The median age at first marriage in the early 1970s, when the baby boomers were young, was 21 for women and 23 for men; by 2009 it had climbed to 26 for women and 28 for men, five years in a little more than a generation.

We’re in the thick of what one sociologist calls “the changing timetable for adulthood.” Sociologists traditionally define the “transition to adulthood” as marked by five milestones: completing school, leaving home, becoming financially independent, marrying and having a child. In 1960, 77 percent of women and 65 percent of men had, by the time they reached 30, passed all five milestones. Among 30-year-olds in 2000, according to data from the United States Census Bureau, fewer than half of the women and one-third of the men had done so. A Canadian study reported that a typical 30-year-old in 2001 had completed the same number of milestones as a 25-year-old in the early ’70s.

The whole idea of milestones, of course, is something of an anachronism; it implies a lockstep march toward adulthood that is rare these days. Kids don’t shuffle along in unison on the road to maturity. They slouch toward adulthood at an uneven, highly individual pace. Some never achieve all five milestones, including those who are single or childless by choice, or unable to marry even if they wanted to because they’re gay. Others reach the milestones completely out of order, advancing professionally before committing to a monogamous relationship, having children young and marrying later, leaving school to go to work and returning to school long after becoming financially secure.
Even if some traditional milestones are never reached, one thing is clear: Getting to what we would generally call adulthood is happening later than ever. But why?
Is this my entire generation? No, of course not! But, the writer brings an interesting, and I believe true perspective to a phenomenon that is happening in our generation... take a minute to at least scan through the first article, and think about it, or read through Don's short perspective. Is the "traditional life" perfect? No, but there are several reasons why this format of life for generations has made our society what it is.

I'm not an anthropologist, but especially after getting the opportunity to live in various countries, I'm definitely becoming more interested in culture. Why are things the way they are, and how will our choices affect the future (often more than we realize). We can't grasp it all, but it's fascinating to think about, and realize that I have to plan ahead and consider the consequences of my actions - good and bad.

And, Don Miller's thoughts on it as well... If 40 is the New 30 Then is 20 the New Junior High?

Including his suggestions for people of my age to not perpetuate Junior High... (which I would never want to live through again if I had the choice)

Northern Ireland

>> – Ireland, Travel

We spent a night in Belfast, but didn't really take much time to walk around and see things - it was just an easy place to stop and spend the night for us after the weekend in Dublin. On Monday morning, we got up at a decent hour and headed north along the Antrim Coast, seeing incredible views where cliffs met water, with a ribbon of a road running between it all.

We went on a little hike from a beach in front of our B&B and saw some incredible beauty. We brought a snack and our books, and found a comfy place to sit and read before we headed back to the B&B for tea time with the host. He was a nice guy, but a bit nuts, though it was the nicest B&B that we stayed in for the entire trip!

The first place we headed was Giants Causeway - one of the coolest natural sights in the world. I visited it in 2004 when I was working with Royal Servants in Northern Ireland for a summer after my sophomore year of college, and I wanted to make sure Brian would get to see it!

Most of the rocks are hexagonal shaped - supposedly by Finn McCool the Giant, but in reality, it was a volcano, and when the lava cooled, it broke into these shapes.