/travel/ireland/The Irish Don't Either
The committed reader may recall that getting a smile from Finns was hard work. I've finally started running again, and it's pretty clear to me, the Irish don't smile much either.
They do the same no-eye-contact thing, and many seem to do the same I'm-smiling-because-I-think-you're-crazy thing. On Thursday, the only proper response I got was from a sharply dressed Indian boy, who appeared be late for school, and so was running in the opposite direction. I got a couple of reactions today, but most people dont' even look at you, and avert their eyes when they realize they've accidentally made eye contact.
I had convinced myself that my runners were too old, and combined with my iPod being hosed, running was too unpleasant. Now, my iPod is back, and away I go. Hurrah.
Yesterday we had an "offsite" with work. It was the sort of team-building exercises you might imagine it to be -- cooperation, leadership, blah blah blah. But we have pretty good input into what we do on our offsites, and this one was organized by another engineer, so we all have a good time. It's sorta funny how the people running these things seem to assume (1) we don't want to be there and (2) we're not used to working as happy team. The closing little "goodbye and thanks" speech from one of the event people was all about how they hoped we'd gained something from it all. Hah.
The offsite was in Carlingford, near Dundalk. Clare and I spent a weekend there with another couple just after I flew back to Ireland, so I knew it well. It's a really gorgeous setting, and there seemed to be some interest amongst my co-workers to go back there to do some sea kayaking.
Work is really good these days. The whole Dublin office is doing well, and we have some exciting stuff coming up that we're getting ready for. We've had lots of visitors over the last couple months, including a guy sent out to train me on some new stuff, which was great. He was a fun guy, and did a good job teaching me what I needed to know.
I found a couple of blog postings that never made it, from my trip to Ontario. They're below "Crude Awakening" or you can find them in the significant new /travel/canada category.
I've been working on an essay that I hope to submit to the Globe and Mail Facts and Arguments page, though it was rather longer than they ask for, and I like it less now that it's been shortened. We'll see.
In other news, a couple days ago I received the final, utter, total rejection to all things I applied to: I was on the waiting list for University of Victoria Law, despite having no intention of going (and I told them as much), just to see if I made it. I got the mail a couple days ago that I hadn't. My plan now is to take some distance ed economics courses from UW this winter. We'll see.
