CHILDRENNN

there was a really odd weather change the other night. I was walking home from the bus and it had been cool all day, but pretty normal. somewhere along my bus route a pretty nuts north wind had shown up, and it was gusting leaves all over the place. the five minute walk from the stop to my door was pretty stinkin eerie, and the full moon didn't help in the least. anyway whatever it was it seems to have brought other creepy weather with it. today in the morning the sun was shining bright and the air was still, so I left my apartment to figure out how long it would take me to walk to the city centre. about ten minutes into my journey I was getting actually pretty warm in the sunshine and thought 'why on earth did I wear so many layers.' not five minutes later, the sky had clouded over and little raindrops began pelting me, which turned somehow into SNOW. I took a photo because I was that weirded out. then, as soon as it had begun, it was over. I continued my walk into town, now a little cold and more than a little confused, as again out came the sun and the warmer temperature. here in dublin I am pretty used to having to carry both sunglasses and an umbrella on the same day but come ON. I think that spring is battling to arrive and winter is like 'just hold on you, I'm not quite finished.'

I keep forgetting to post this: when I was staying in churchtown (yeah, three months ago) there was this take away food place called marsella's. I never went in but one night some hoodies knocked the 'm' off of the sign and I couldn't help it, it made me giggle every time I passed by.

I keep getting stopped by people asking me for money for all sorts of charities. I am a magnet for these guys with their little blue coats and clipboards. the other day whilst running errands, I was heckled by the same group of four guys a few times before they finally started recognizing me and just waving as I passed by. so today, a guy stops me to ask if I can give money for the children (which I can't, even if I wanted to, because you can only give if you are a permanent resident of ireland) and I say to him 'look, you guys hassle me nearly every day, and I am broke, and leaving dublin in a few months. so no dice.' and he says to me 'mavis' (actually he didn't say mavis) he says to me 'ah it's ok. you sound canadian, I'm from vancouver.' and so we chatted for a bit, and then one of the guys from the first day runs over and is like 'yo the canadian!' and so I have made some friends who pester people for a living. they are some fun guys. interestingly enough I found out that the company they work for needs volunteers for a few hours every week to do breakfast programs/painting seminars/building blocks 101 with a bunch of irish underprivileged children so I might check that out.