Work

Things here have slowed down a bit. We have started getting some heavy work for class and there is a cold going around. Unfortunately I came down with said cold yesterday. The group is heading to Dublin for the weekend, so hopefully it clears up soon. Anyways, that is why I have not updated in a few days.

For most of the time since my last update our apartment-mate Fares had a friend staying with us. Fares is an interesting fellow. He grew up in Saudi Arabia and his father still lives and works there. The friend staying with us was named Kevin and grew up in Saudi with Fares but when it came time for them to start high school and Fares went to the states, Kevin returned to Ireland where his mother lives. He has lived in Dublin for the past five years or so, and I think it was a very interesting reunion for Fares and him.

So he stayed with us for a few days and it was a good time. He was extremely friendly and it is always a good time to hang out with locals [and he was able to explain the rules of gaelic football to me]. He returned to Dublin yesterday afternoon, but I think we are going to see him again this weekend while we are there.

Today we had a field trip to a Connemara marble quarry. Connemara marble is a wonderful green marble, but unfortunately is somewhat uncommon these days. Apparently it was very fashionable a couple hundred years ago, but has fallen out of fashion since. This is due largely in part to it being unsuitable for outdoor use because it stains. The quarry was small and somewhat unremarkable and they did not have much in the way of finished marble products, so I only got photos of the raw marble, which is not nearly as pretty. To give you an idea, however, here is someone else's picture of the three types of Connemara marble. The green is the most famous. Here is a photo I took of the raw marble:

And this is a photo of the quarry:

It is about time for me to get to bed. We are on our way to Dublin at eight tomorrow morning, so I should get some rest. Here are a couple of photos of the Connemara area, though, as it is quite gorgeous: