As of Saturday, July 14th 2007, we have been living in Ireland one year. It really doesn't seem like it could have gone any faster, but when I think back we sure have experienced some great things. As a bit of a review and a way of sharing, here are a few of the highlights....
Travel:
August 2006 - Amy was our first guest and we went to Edinburgh, Scotland for a few days.
September 2006 - Reeves & I went back to Redmond, WA as he need to have work meetings
October 2006 - Reeves & I visited Salzburg, Austria - a first for both of us. It was a trip over my birthday and we went to the opera the night of my birthday - another first for me!
November 2006 - Reeves & I visited Rome, Italy - over Thanksgiving we had some great authentic Italian food.
Christmas 2006 - We stayed with Reeves's sister Beth & family and his parents and other sister and family all joined in the festivities
January 2007 - Reeves was back in Redmond again
January 2007 - I went over to Oxford University to do a weekend paleography workshop and Reeves met me with the car. We then drove into London where we stayed for a couple days, then a drive over to Wales for a few days and up to Hollyhead for our car ferry ride back.
February 2007 - I visited Amy in NYC and the two of us visited Boston for a few days - another first for me to see Boston.
March 2007 - We joined the whole Little clan in Akumel, Mexico for some sun, surf and sand.
May 2007 - Reeves & I were back in the states for 2 1/2 weeks. Reeves had two conferences and some work in SF, Seattle & Redmond and then we had a week in Mountain View/San Jose to visits friends and attend my graduation from SJSU for my masters.
June 2007 - We drove over to the West of Ireland, Connemara, specifically Westport, Delphi, Clifden & Cong to see some of the countryside for the first time.
Hobbies:
We have started getting into our family history project. While we are still in the beginning stages of research, we can trace Reeves's family back 8 generations on at least 4 lines and 5 generations on my side. We are looking forward to visiting some of the local Ireland archives to uncover some of Reeves's Irish relatives.
I have just started trying to oil paint. While I have done many craft projects throughout the years, this is the first time I have tried painting - so far so good...well, at least I am having fun even if you can't tell what I have painted yet! :)
While Reeves has enjoyed photography for quite awhile, I just got my own digital SLR camera with which to play. I am looking forward to our trip to Germany in September to practice with more techniques.
We have a ton of pictures I am trying to digitize. While I haven't gotten into a systematic method for doing them all, I have at least begun. I hope to get some of the older ones done before the colors completely fade - especially those from the 70s which were poorly processed and are yellowing.
Career:
I think the biggie in this category would be I finished and graduated from grad school! I still can't believe it is over after the extreme amount of stress at the end, but I have been relishing the ability to just sit and read for pleasure at a whim!
While I still can't find someone to pay me for working, I have been working hard volunteering at the National Gallery of Ireland since the end of February. I have really enjoyed working with the Pembroke Estate Project but mostly I have really enjoyed establishing my own sphere of being.
To occupy one day a week, I have also been volunteering for an archeological conservatory who works out of the labs at University College Dublin. Just this week we we to the National Museum to use their room-sized x-ray machine to x-ray dozens of artifacts. The reason for this is partially to determine what is worthy of conservation as well as to discover anything for which she need to be careful with while conserving.
I have also joined the Irish Society for Archives and the Society of Archivists, Ireland chapter (it covers the UK & IE) - I am going to the AGM this August which happen to be in Belfast this year. I am very curious to hear the discussions as what I have seen here seems to have a much greater emphasis on historical practices over the US's concentration on archival theory & practice.
While I also wanted to write about our Irish cultural discoveries, I am afraid I am typed out for the evening and that will have to wait for another day...