Time For A Change

I've been blonde for the past 2 decades of my life. 2 years ago I decided to go even blonder. My hair was down to my mid-back. Here's a picture for those of you who don't know me.

I'm the one on the far left. Now I desperately needed a haircut because my hair was just plain fried. I decided it was time for a HUGE change. Ladies and gentlemen I went all out. HERE is what I look like now :)

I adore it and am going to rock this new look like there's no tomorrow. As my friend said "Emma you are a stone cold fox with red hair." Thanks Sydney. I hope everyone likes it as much as I do!

From Heaven on Earth to Hell... I mean Leeds.

"The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever." --Jacques Cousteau

The next day Lindsey and I ventured out to Howth. The first thing I saw as I walked towards Howth off of the train station was a giant shark. I took this as an indicator that the day was going to be pretty awesome.

As you can see I was pretty excited.

After I had my moment with the shark, Lindsey showed me the local seals. I was expecting something slightly smaller, but what I saw were seals of gigantic proportions.

Howth is really a fishing town that has a surprising amount of tourists. There are abbey ruins, a castle that we could not find to save our lives, and a really cool hiking mountain with a great view. We ventured up a very steep hill to see the abbey and I decided to Indiana Jones it and climb all over it. Sacrilege? Maybe, but it was still fun and the building is still standing... well let's just say I didn't cause it any harm. 

After we were done exploring there we decided to start the hike up the mountain. Halfway up I saw a rickety staircase leading down to a beach with mini caves, so of course we had to get down there and crawl in them.

Here I am getting attacked my spider webs.

And I survived without any mortal wounds to jump around in a different cave with Lindsey.

Back to the mountain we went! The weather held out on us long enough for us to get to the top and back and to get hopelessly lost on the way back down. How I can get lost when there was only one path to follow I will never know. The good things is we made it back in one piece!

After Howth we journeyed back to Skerries and I packed for my flight the next night. I arrived at the airport around 7pm for my flight. It was delayed by 30 min. This kick-started my lovely and adventurous night back to Leicester. I arrived in Leeds at 1130 thinking I was going to be picked up by the friend of a friend we had stayed with before departing to Dublin. After not returning my 5 calls, 2 voicemails, and 3 texts I figured that was a lost cause. When hearing from him an hour later and after yelling at him profusely I was on my own at the airport and in need of a hotel... I got the bus into town and arrived there at about 1230am. I followed the bus driver's instructions and walked 30 minutes to stay in the world's sketchiest hotel of all time for 4 hours to catch my 630am bus to Leicester. Needless to say I was not happy at all. 

To leave this post on a happy note below is a sign I saw in Howth...

 I swim... YIKES

"At the beach life is different. Time doesn't move hour to hour, but mood to moment. We live by the currents, plan by the tides, and follow the sun."--Unknown

I walked to an Irish island... No big deal

"Friendship is held to be the severest test of character. It is easy, we think, to be loyal to a family and clan, who blood is in our veins." --Charles Alexander Eastman

The second half of my trip to Ireland I stayed with a good friend, Lindsey, who I have known since Kindergarten. It's sad to say that we had not seen each other in years, but I was extremely excited to catch up with her and just enjoy a few days exploring Ireland with her. She works as an Au Pair in Skerries, which is a very small beach town outside of Dublin. After making sure Kelsey got on the right bus to her airport I set out for Skerries. The only problem was finding the correct bus station. To give whoever is reading this a mental image of what I was carrying around the following picture should be good enough.

 I lugged all 30 pounds of this everywhere I went.

There are about 5 bus stops in Balbriggin where I searched for the bus station. I walked to one end of the city following someone's directions, while getting looks something akin to "Why in the world is there a tourist in Balbriggin of all places?" This look also followed me to Skerries. Meanwhile, the bus station I needed was directly on the other side of town... 2 miles away. Off I went albeit slightly perturbed.

I managed to get to Skerries in one piece and even found the street and place where I was meeting Lindsey on the first try. Everyone who knows me and my amazing lack of directional skills will know this was a feat worthy of an award. However, I had gotten there 4 hours before Lindsey was scheduled to meet me. I walked around getting odd looks and explored. Then I found what might possibly be the most fun beach in Ireland.

One of the coolest things about it was that in Ireland low tide really means LOW tide. There were a series of islands about half a mile off shore when the tide is in, but when it's out it's possible to walk to them. So I set off for one of them! It is such a weird feeling to walk to an island when something like that just isn't possible back home. The whole time I felt like I shouldn't be out that far, especially since no one else even bothered to walk there either. The picture should also be a good indication of how far from shore I was!

I must have looked nuts because I bent down every few seconds and almost fell each time I did it since I was slightly top heavy from my backpack and I really didn't want to fall in the random puddles. For those who don't know, I have an obsession with macro photography. I really liked the random creatures and plants I kept finding because of their textures and positioning so I tried to take as many creative ones as I could. I'll give you guys a taste of it. I am by no means amazing, but I really enjoy it.

I also crawled all over some very slippery rocks and managed to neither wound myself or fall. This should also be considered award worthy. Here's some of what I saw that day. I was amazed by the colors. It was just too gorgeous for words.

After trekking all day I finally met up with Lindsey! We went to a really cool pub and then called it a night. See part 2 for the rest of that trip!

"Our memories of the ocean will linger on, long after our footprints in the sand are gone." --Anonymous

St. Patty's Day Adventures in Ireland 2012 Part 2

"St. Patrick is one of the few saints whose feast day presents the opportunity to get determinedly whacked and make a fool of oneself all under the guise of acting Irish." -Charles M. Madigan

Face paint and clothed in all green?

 Check!

Waking up at the crack of dawn to get ready and head to Dublin to see a parage?   Check!

Miraculously finding a spot where 2 short girls could actually see the parade?    Check!

One RIDICULOUSLY tall asian defying all stereotypes who stood up at the last second as the parade started?   Check :(

Our reactions?   

We got to see the tops of the floats... we later watched the mind blowingly creative parade highlights on tv at a local pub in Balbriggin.... better than nothing I guess!

We left the parade early and discovered that 11am is a good time to start drinking. We found a pub that was PACKED with nothing but German and French guys. Kelsey and I were approached by 2 of them and we started doing weird dances. I got picked up and flipped! It was sooooo much fun. Kelsey wasn't as lucky. He tried to do the same to her but ended up dropping her. It was absolutely priceless. The whole pub busted out laughing. These boys were also obsessed with our face paint since the Irish don't go all out like Americans do. They rubbed their faces on our cheeks to get paint on them. Such as weird experience.

That day we visited Dublin castle where I cut myself on the date and was entirely unimpressed with the interior which was almost all modern. No wonder it only cost 3 euros. Trinity college was much more impressive. The library would take your breath away! There were thousands of books that were hundreds of years old packed everywhere you looked. It was definitely worth a visit. I want a library like that! We spent the rest of the day and night celebrating in the Irish fashion... I'll let your imaginations take you where it will with that.

 Yes. That is a huge pint full of whiskey with a hint of coke. Great night :)

St Patty's Day Adventures in Ireland Day 1

"Take me drunk I'm home!"  This was plastered on the shirt of someone Kelsey (one of my best friends of 12 years) and I saw as we departed our plane from Leeds, England to Dublin Ireland. We decided to make the most of St. Patty's Day and venture out to Ireland to party with the best of the Irish. We arrived in Dublin airport by 730am after waking up at 4am. This was not a pretty site as I'm sure I looked like I was practicing for a zombie apocalypse movie.

Our plane ride was uneventful, however the man who shared my row was quite entertaining. He looked like the stereotypical gangster from old movies. He was short, stocky, had ridiculous gold bling on his fingers and tattoos all up and down his arms. I'm convinced he was a gangster. His stories about how he missed Ireland since he hasn't been able to get in the country for 40 years helped my thinking too. In typical Irish fashion he also told us we were going to fall in love with Ireland and that Guinness is better than anything else in the entire world.

By mere accident and a misleading website Kelsey and I ended up staying in a VERY small beach town called Balbriggin 30 minutes outside of Dublin city center. By small I mean the population was 300 at the very most.

As soon as we dropped off our stuff we made a beeline for Dublin. Taking Monsieur O' Gangsterhan's advice we decided the Guinness Storehouse would be the perfect place to visit first. Apparently that's what every other tourist wanted to do also. It was pretty impressive with 7 floors devoted to nothing, but processing beer. We even got a free pint and a half! When we first got there we saw photobooths and anyone who knows me will know that I never pass up a photo opportunity with friends. We learned that the Guinness Storehouse was trying to set a world record and make St. Patty's Day the happiest day of the year by taking pledges to be happy and do something nice on that day. Kelsey and I both signed up for this and got free pictures!

After that we ventured out and tried something new! We got a horse drawn carriage and we taken to Temple Bar where we had lunch. We toured the famous Grafton Street and took pictures in St. Stephen's Green. On our way from Stephen's Green we noticed a HUGE festival with Irish jigging going on. We immediately ran into the center and joined all the dancing for about 30 minutes. We probably looked spastic, but we had the time of our lives. We even got on local tv along with about 200 other people in the street. A professional photographer kept laughing at us and we got our own mini photoshoot. I can't wait to see those pictures. After that we went back to the hotel to relax and prepare for St. Patty's Day.

St. Patty's day toast:  "Here's to a long life and a merry one. A quick death and an easy one. A pretty girl and an honest one. A cold beer and another one!"

An Epiphany of Sorts

"Distance not only gives nostalgia, but perspective, and maybe objectivity" -Robert Morgan

Lately I have been thinking about home and my friends there and how the saying 'you don't really know what you have until it's gone' is so true. I have come to realize who my true friends are and who is not willing to make the attempt to keep in touch. It's not the easiest of realizations, but it is also welcome in some way. My best friend and I have been talking about the things we miss about being home and how we noticed certain friends have fallen off the face of the earth so to speak. 3000 miles seems to be a huge distance for some and for others it is more of a speed bump.

I have been able to take a step back and see who and what is important in my life and it seems a lot of people back home have too. People who I never thought I meant much to have pleasantly surprised me by keeping in touch and just saying hello because they haven't heard from me in a while. Unfortunately this also comes with the unpleasant feeling when someone you thought was close never seems to find the time unless you're penciled in to their calendars. This is by no means a one way street. Time management is not easy here, but I make it a point to keep in touch with the ones who mean the most to me. 

I do not want to rant all day, but I felt it was necessary to express my gratitude towards the people who I know truly care and who have kept in touch. It was always one of my goals to make sure I kept ties with everyone back home as much as possible. Hopefully some will see this and contact me again. To those who I have never had cause to doubt their intentions, thank you. You mean the world to me. To the friends I have made along the way, I hope we keep in touch no matter what country we end up in.

"Lots of people want to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down." Oprah Winfrey

Inspiration

"I don't dream at night. I dream all day; I dream for a living." -Steven Spielberg

For anyone who knows me, there can be no doubt that acting, film or theatre, is one of my biggest passions in life. I have been acting ever since I was 3 years old and have worked my hardest throughout college to get a degree in theatre. I have auditioned for anything and everything that I have been aware of.  I have even begun to write my own monologues.

Many people wonder why anyone in their right mind would want to do acting. I always get the response of "it's such a hard industry to break into" or "it's just so easy why would you bother?"  Those comments just fuel me more. It's one of the hardest industries out there and I enjoy the challenge. Anyone who has not been a part of a movie or a play has absolutely no idea just how much work goes into it. However, this is not why I am writing this.

I saw a picture my friend posted on facebook showing the notes from a theatrical play:

 (I do not own this picture)

That is why I act. 

I don't do it for the money or the fame. There is no better feeling for me and no better euphoria than being on stage or on film doing what I love to do. I may not be the best at it, but I will always give it everything I have. More importantly, the movies and plays that touch people and make a difference in peoples' lives make it all worth while. When I read that note I was extremely touched and proud to be a part of this industry. 

I don't act to seek money, fame, millions of fans, etc. I do it for the pure love of it. You get as much from it as you put in it. I want to make a difference in peoples' lives and I feel like this is best way for me to do that. 

"Acting deal with very delicate emotions. It is not putting up a mask. Everytime an actor acts he does not hide; he exposes himself."-Rodney Dangerfield