Where In the World is Martzy?

The "elusive Martzy" has been spotted

2011-09-14T15:24:00.001-08:00

So, I'm sure my MANY blog fans out there have been wondering... "Where in the world is Martzy, INDEED?!" And I apologize for my extended absence. That last blog was from Summer Solstice and there is no possible way to fill you in on the activities, events and drama that has passed since then. I can tell you, however, that I've been BUSY! Very, very, very busy (Plus I have a substantial social life that I have to maintain).

This summer has been a rollercoaster ride of emotions, life lessons, psychology, patience, acceptance and climate. I speak of it in past tense because we are down to the last week of the season. When did it become September? I can't believe how fast (and yet dreadfully slow at the same time) this summer went by. I leave Copper Center next Thursday morning and it feels as if I just got here.

Beluga whale back, Beluga Point, Alaska

View from the boulder I was on

I did get to cross a few things off my list of things I've wanted to see in Alaska, and the big one is the Beluga whales feeding at Turnagain arm, outside of Anchorage. My friend, Melissa, had come from Ohio to visit and I told her my goal of seeing them. As we were driving towards Girdwood from Anchorage, I spotted a white back in the water and freaked out. Melissa said she hadn't even stopped the car before I was out of the car, crossing a "no trespassing" sign, running over the train tracks and scaling an extremely large boulder to get a better view of the water. About 10 minutes later Melissa showed up around the other side of the rock and explained that there was, in fact, a much easier way to get up there. But then she turned to see what i was seeing...and there were literally dozens of Beluga's feeding in the water below. It was spectacular! The picture above doesn't show you much, but that was just one of MANY whale backs I got to see.

After the Beluga's, we headed to the Wildlife Conservation Center that I had originally wanted to work at last year when I was applying for jobs. It was a really remarkable place. They rehabilitate wildlife and release them back into the wild. They have a herd of Bison that will be released in 2012.
http://www.alaskawildlife.org check out the link.

I got to see Salmon spawning in a nearby river after that and then we headed down to Homer, Alaska, at the end of the Kenai peninsula, where we visited the famous Salty Dawg Saloon, hob nobbed with local artists, walked diagonal in hurricane size winds, and skipped out of a restaurant after seeing the $72 appetizer on the menu.


Me and Melissa at the Salty Dawg Saloon in Homer, Alaska

After sneaking out of the incredibly overpriced restaurant, we hurried back up to Cooper Landing to stay at the Kenai Princess Lodge there and get some food. I have now stayed in all 5 lodges that Princess has in Alaska and I have to say that I liked the rooms at the Kenai lodge the best. Our lobby and seating area is the best though.

Anyhoo-Melissa came up to Copper for about a week and just left Monday morning. We even showed her the Northern lights, so she was content heading out of Alaska.

Now on to my next adventure...Hawaii. Yup, that's right, Hawaii. My friend Lauren and I are headed to Hawaii from Portland, Oregon on September 30. Our boyfriends may meet us there shortly after that. We're going to do theWwoofing thing that I did overseas in Greece and Ireland in 2007. Wwoof stands for worldwide opportunities on Organic Farms. We work in exchange for room and board, and get the chance to immerse ourselves in local culture, not to mention work a hard, honest days work and eat spectacular organic fruits and veggies. http://www.wwoof.org/ We can't wait!

I will hopefully have the chance to update this a little more often, but I can't promise that I won't rather be at the beach. And by the way, you may receive Alaska postcards after I leave here. I have a whole stack that I never had a chance to send out this summer. I will send those before i buy any from Hawaii.

Aloha everyone! Hope you had as great a summer as I did.

Don't give up on me!

2011-06-29T14:33:00.000-08:00

So, I'm imagining that no one is actually even looking at this blog anymore seeing as I NEVER add posts...of course, not sure if anyone looked at it to begin with.

But here I am. Alive and kicking! I have been (for the most part) healthy for about a week now (knock on wood). I made it to a town with a health food store and got some supplements that seemed to do the trick (this time). But I don't feel that I'm fully out of the woods yet. I will keep you updated.


The vegetarian grilling meat for the solstice celebration

We had our big Summer Solstice celebration that I planned, and I would say it was 75% successful. I had an entire day of events planned, and let's just say that I celebrated a night early, so I was moving rather slow the morning of the solstice. People weren't all that interested in the kickball game and hoola hoop contests. But roll out the free food, and the BBQ went great! There were, however, about 3 MILLION uninvited guests who would NOT go away! We had citronella tiki torches, citronella incense, bug spray and I have my own citronella essential oil...let's just say that we didn't actually think any of that was working until we blew it all out. I think I actually got air lifted for a few minutes by an army of mosquitoes.

Last night I went on a hike with a friend and neither one of us had put any kind of mosquito deterrent on. About a mile in, we started getting attacked. By two miles, I gave the warning that I was about to break into a slow jog (and anyone who knows me, I hate moving fast). A few minutes later, I wanted to scream at the top of my lungs. Sean and I looked like some kind of Three Stooges episode because we just kept smacking each other and making weird noises. By the time we got back, I think we were both in tears. I know I was whining to say the least. I had flashbacks to when i was a kid and my mom would put Calamine lotion on me. I would have KILLED for a bottle of that last night. I probably would have just bathed in it.

As, I'm sure you've gathered, the mosquitoes are pretty bad this year. Last year it was rainy most of the summer and I don't remember them at all. This year, yikes! I had to create a bulletin board about Alaska wildlife for the employees and I made an entire section about the Alaskan Mosquito (aka, the state bird). Don't worry about the Grizzlies and Moose, it's those damn mosquitoes that will get ya!

Hope everyone's summer is breezy and mosquito free. I'm taking one for the team up here!

Sorry for the delay...

2011-06-16T18:40:00.000-08:00


The only picture of me here so far. In front of Liberty Falls

Wow! Has it been over a month already since I've been here? It feels like a year, but at the same time, feels like it's gone by so fast. So sorry it has taken me so long to get on here and update you on my life.

My job as Employee Housing Supervisor has been an absolute whirlwind. It has been 100 miles an hour from the moment I got on property. The first week was training, the second week was planning the week of employee training activities and going to Anchorage to pick up the employees. Third week was to run the training activities, while becoming ill and losing my voice for 10 days...fun! Then the lodge opened and it's all been a complete blur.

Last week I took a group of employees to Anchorage for a getaway (mind you, Anchorage is 4.5 hours away), and I contracted a stomach flu to beat all stomach flus. It was two days of absolute misery (I won't go into gory details) and then another 4 days of not being able to eat. I had my first real meal on Tuesday morning (a solid week after getting sick). I'm on the fast track weight loss plan...yum!

I'm off work today and I'm pretty much hiding in my little apartment. It's rainy and dreary so I don't actually feel bad about it either. (Although, those of you that truly know me, know that I never really feel bad about spending all day in bed) I've been in bed, knitting and watching "Bones" on Netflix. It's fantastic! Tomorrow morning I get up and start getting things together for Summer Solstice, and I can't wait! It's going to be a huge bash with kickball, frisbee & softball games. Three legged races, BBQ, costume contest and a drum circle...I cannot wait! And I also can't believe it's already Summer Solstice (by the way, summer solstice is a big thing up here in AK...24 hours of daylight!).

So, I will try and get this blog updated a little more often. I don't have any real regular schedule so free time is few and far between, but I will definitely try. All in all, it is wonderful being back in Alaska.

I hope everyone's summer is warm and beautiful so far. I miss you all. -Reebs

Matanuska Glacier in the Chugach Mountain Range

Alaska...part deux

2011-05-07T14:27:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm back. 21 hours of traveling, 11 hours of sleeping at an airport and 7 months later, I am back in Alaska, preparing for my second season with Princess Tours in Copper Center.

This time I am the Employee Housing Supervisor, which gives me more freedom, more money and my own space. My job will be to make sure the employees lives are running smoothly when they're not working. And the best part of the job will be planning the day trips and parties throughout the summer. I think it's going to be a fun and exciting summer.

I almost forgot how much I missed the mountains and the fresh air here. There's just something about this land that gives me peace and ease. I have been fortunate enough to have 3 days to myself in Anchorage before heading up north and starting work on Monday morning.

These pictures are of 1: my ridiculous amount of luggage. I think this is the most I've ever packed to go anywhere. But after last year, I knew what I would be missing and decided that I couldn't go without those things for another 5 months. It's interesting what I consider the "bear necessities" of life, but I figure as long as I'm the one willing to carry them around, and until I start REALLY regretting it, it's worth it.

And 2: is a picture of 6th Ave in Anchorage from the skywalk of the 5th Ave mall. But I was really taking a picture of were the mountains...LOVE THEM!!!!


My luggage came in handy as a queen-sized bed in the airport for 11 hours

View of Downtown Anchorage from 5th Ave mall sky walk...look at those mountains!

Where, oh where, indeed!

2011-01-20T12:23:00.000-09:00

I got back to Ohio after a Summer in Alaska, and as much as I wanted to stay and help Gram out through the Winter, the depression quickly set in. The area she lives in is just soooo depressing! It encourages unhealthy eating, thinking and living. My Gram doesn't quite know this because she has lived there for 92 years and her lifestyle is very limited. (She also tells herself that the more butter, the healthier it is...).

So I had to leave. I was unemployed and not only aren't there any decent jobs in that area, but I didn't want anything to keep me there any longer than I had to. My memory of the past two Winters of dreary darkness, motivated me to get out of dodge before the perpetual gloom set in. (you think I may be exaggerating, but that is actually putting it lightly. At least from my perspective). It was hard to say goodbye to Gram, but I packed my things and headed East.

My plan was to stay with my Mom and Sister through the holidays while looking for a job and place to live, and then start my new life in the new year. Well, the universe has different plans for me. The holidays came and went and here I am. I even opened up my search to the entire country (except for maybe most of the Southern region...ick). But nothing. I won't even get into the miseries of the full-time work of job searching and the conundrum of not being able to find an apartment without a job, and not being able to find a job without being there. And then the bouncing between my families homes has also created an obstacle of taking care of business. Honestly, it's been unbelievably exhausting. Some of my friends tell me that they envy my freedom, and sometimes I can see why. But I think there comes a time when too many options becomes very suffocating. I'm the kind of person who likes the restaurants with very small menus. If they have pages and pages of options, I generally go with the servers favorite dish.

Don't get me wrong. I love my life. Every day is an adventure! Good AND bad. I have faith that there is a plan for me and this is part of that plan. I left Gram's with the knowledge that I had no definite place to go. I even sold my truck because I want to move to a place with public transportation. So here I am with no job, no home and no car...all by choice (well, the job thing, not really). It's a very interesting place to be.

Yesterday was a really strange day. I had one friend ask me for information about Yoga Teacher Training and the school that I attended. I had another asking about my Volunteer work overseas and for the links to places I'd worked over there. I had a third friend ask me about meditation and if I could assist her in beginning a practice. Another called to thank me for recommending a great book to her. Another asking me for relationship advice (which I find the most ironic thing ever) and then I had one of my managers from Alaska call me to tell me about a position that I'd be good for next summer. I basically relived the last 5 years of my life through links and phone conversations yesterday. It was kind of funny creating e-mail's with links to my past...funny in an eyes glazed over, am I dreaming, WAS I dreaming kind of way. But it actually made me feel good. I've always felt that I could teach people to learn from my mistakes. But yesterday was a day that showed me that I can actually guide people through my positive experiences. I often wonder what the outside world sees of me. Sometimes, I feel like the fish so far out of water that I'm in space. But oddly comfortable there. I often think that according to Society standards I may be somewhat of a disappointment. But when people want to have experiences that I have had, I feel I may not be all that disappointing after all.

It's almost September already????

2010-08-29T11:39:00.001-08:00

I can't believe this summer is already over. The wierd thing is that even though it went by so fast, I also feel like it has lasted forever. Of course, my summer was not as "summery" as most, seeing as I spent the entire summer in a sweatshirt. brrrr.

I have 4 more days of work here in Copper Center. Then my roommate, Christy, and I are going to check out the other Princess lodges for a few days and head to Denali to help close them down for the end of season. Then, on September 17, I'm off to Gram's to recoup. Not sure where the next adventure will be.

Since I last posted here, the only thing I've really been doing is knitting...I know right? One of the girls here wore a hat on the bus out here that I absolutely adored. When I found out she knitted it herself, I freaked. When she suggested that I could possibly knit one, I thought she was crazy. Then I attended knitting night at Sarah's house a few months ago, and I pretty much haven't stopped. It's been a wonderful skill to keep me busy during my downtime. Of course, as with anything in my life, there's a story.

Unlike most people who start a new craft, I decided to make my first project a little difficult. I didn't want to start with a scarf...no, that's boring. I wanted to start with a hat (not the hat that inspired all this, that was TOO difficult). So I got some free yarn from the common area here, had a few people show me some basics and off I went. I was so excited that I had picked it up so well, that I started two at the same time. I was making such progress so early on. I ran over to Sarah's for her to write down how to finish these two caps, and ran back home to finish my first knitting projects ever. Instead of describing the outcome, I will show you a picture of Samantha holding them for you.

Samantha modeling my ITTY BITTY winter caps

As you can see, they finished a little small...

Just to reiterate the size

This has become an ongoing joke here. Everything is compared to my itty bitty baby caps. They became decorations in my room.

I tried again and made (what I like to refer to as) the adolescent size hat. Noooot quite big enough. Finally, after 3 or 4 tries, I made an aaaalmost perfect adult size cap (except I ran out of yarn and couldn't make it quite long enough). Here's a pic of Kendra modeling a few of them at once.

Kendra, you look like an icecream cone

After finally accomplishing the hat...I moved onto fingerless gloves, wrist bands and finally the hat that inspired this new obsession. I don't have a full pictures of them, but here are some examples

My sarcasm and dirty look deflecters

Kendra sporting my matching set

Megan wearing my fingerless gloves and me in my favorite hat

Needless to say, i still have not made a scarf.

So, other than that, I've been working and going on a few short trips. I went to Fairbanks for the day with some other employees the other day. (Which by the way, Fairbanks should never be a day trip). But we had a really great time and got to see 6 moose along the way.

I'm going to be sad to leave Alaska. I made some great friends here and had such an adventure. The only thing that I didn't really like was the amount of absolutely unhealthy food for the employees at the lodge and the fact that I've got about 15 extra pounds to try and lose when I leave here. But it was worth it.

I hope the summer has treated everyone well, and I will be back in EST shortly.

Love-Reebs

Made in China

2010-07-20T02:10:00.000-08:00

So here's a little thing I've been noticing and just need to comment on...

Why is it that some Americans, when on vacation, are so conscious of whether or not their little knick-knacky gifts are made in America? And not only in America...but locally.

I had a woman, from Texas, in the gift shop the other day looking at the wall of stereotypically tourist gifts. She picked up a stuffed Moose with the word "Alaska" embroidered on it's antler, and quickly checked the tag to see where it was made. She became irrate when she saw "Made in China" and LOUDLY stated that if she wanted something "Made in China", she'd visit China. I couldn't help myself and casually mentioned that she should start looking at labels at home...

She's not the only one though. Every day, all day I deal with guests who are appalled by how many of the cheap items are made in China and how expensive the handmade, made in America, local items are. And when they buy the expensive, handmade, made in America, local items, they want to know everything about the craftsman. Where they live, how they got into this business, how long they've lived here, etc... Aren't these things that should be happening everywhere? Why do we feel compelled to support local artists & businesses when on vacation? Why not at home?

Now I know this is a broad generalization. I know that there are millions of conscious souls out there supporting their local businesses, craftsman and artists, but I also know there are millions who are not. It's one thing to know that you may not be paying as close attention as you should be (I'm talking to myself now), it's another to be completely ignorant in thinking that the Tourism industry has single handedly kept the chinese sweatshops in business.

My Wildlife curse is broken!!!!

2010-07-18T00:59:00.000-08:00

EVERYDAY is an adventure! I can't even believe how much I love Alaska and how many adventures I've been able to go on. I haven't been able to update because I was waiting on various pictures to be able to post.

In the last few weeks I have gone whitewater rafting down the Klutina River, sea kayaking in Prince William Sound, walked a 5k on Fourth of July, walked 14 miles with my roommate last week and went to Kennicot-McCarthy (my future home). Some of my little adventures include learning how to knit and making a diamond willow walking stick.

Whitewater rafting with Megan, Melissa, Nicole and Sean from River Wrangellers

Sea Kayaking in Prince William Sound, Columbia Glacier. There are 11 miles of glacial ice, we kayaked through maybe a mile of it. We lunched on the bank next to the Glacier where we saw Mom and baby black oystercatchers (birds) and my favorite bird of the day was the Arctic Tern. What a beautiful bird. We also had a Harbor Seal follow us around a little. The icebergs were fantastic though.

Me in front of Worthington Glacier after a day of kayaking with coffee in hand

The pics of the 5K and my other pics of sea kayaking are on a disposable camera that may never be developed. We'll see. But the 5K was fun. It was nice to get to know some locals and be involved in a local event. Christy and I walked it and still got prizes. It was a nice way to celebrate the fourth!

I will put pics of my knitting in another post. Right now I want to tell you about the most amazing place I think I've ever been. And I've been around...

Kennicot-McCarthy!!!

This is Kennicot from the air

Kennicot is an old Copper mill that was in operation from 1911-1938. It is in the middle of the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park (which is 13.2 million acres). The town of McCarthy was created for the mill/mine workers. Both were unbelievable.

There are only two ways to get to Kennicot-McCarthy. By air, or by a 60 mile road that takes 3 hours to get down. It's so bumpy that all rental car agreements have that road off limits to drive on. I heard that 1 in 10 cars ends up with a flat. So, as much as I was not in a hurry to get on another baby planelet, I chose the flight. And man was it amazing! AND I didn't get sick this time. The most amazing were the Kennicot and Root Glaciers from the air.

Root Glacier (it was rainy, but gorgeous still)

Our first stop was the adorable little historic town of McCarthy which I can't even describe to you. What was once filled with miners families, is now filled with hikers, backpackers, ice climbers and bush pilots. And most importantly was the roadside restaurant called "The Potato"...Heaven.

"The Potato" used to be a hot food truck, and they built walls and a little screen porch around it. Can you see all of the Mr. Potato heads in through the door? LOVE IT!!!

Believe it or not, I got my Almond Soy latte and was on my way. (I say believe it or not for two reasons...1. That I did not order anything potato, and 2. because I'm in the middle of a National Park, in the middle of Alaska, in a historic (almost Ghost)town and I can still get a latte)

After exploring the town...

I headed over to Kennicot to take the Historic mill tour. I have no idea if the pictures say anything, but the mill is 14 stories of an abandoned mill with all tools that were last used there still there. The story is...in 1938, when it was decided that they were not making a profit on the copper anymore, the mill would be closed down. The workers and their families were told that there were two trains leaving that afternoon, and if they weren't on them, they'd have to find their own way home. When the abandoned mill and ghost town of McCarthy were stumbled upon 30 or 40 years later, there were still pies in some of the ovens and tables made.

I'm gonna just post the pics and save the stories for later.

After the tour, it's back on the baby planelet and out of the park.

The people I was driving with on this tour wanted to see the town of Chitina which is where we flew into. So I decided to indulge them....On the way is when my wildlife curse was lifted! I saw my first Alaskan Moose. It's official! They do exist. She was just having an afternoon snack in the lake on the side of the road. I'll attach a photo, but I kind of was too excited to even figure out the camera. So my pics make the Moose seem really far away and you can barely see her.

Between Kennicot and the Moose, my Alaska experience is complete...not really but I'm a happy camper. Below is a picture of Chitina which is situated in such a gorgeous area, but the town is something out of an old movie. It was home from there and the end of another adventure filled day.

Love and miss you all-Reebs

Wild Adventures...and a funny story

2010-06-27T12:07:00.001-08:00

So...I had a classic Martzy moment...or I should say, a few.

My managers worked it out that I'd be able to go on this Prince William Sound Cruise if I would drive the guests down there with me. (Driving the guests to the tour sites is one of my many hats) Awesome. I hadn't driven any of the tours yet so I was really excited. Not to mention, I was finally getting to go on one of the tours. One problem...I didn't know where to go.

Now, you think that this is an easy fix. Just ask for directions you say? Alas, I did. Many times, to many people. And the answer was always the same. "Oh, it's SO easy. You just take the road straight through town to the docks.". Ok?!? The docks are in a little lovely town called Valdez. You may remember it from the headlines back in the 80's of "Exxon-Valdez oil spill". The town is 2 hours away on one of the two roads out here. So I knew you only took the ONE road all the way there, but shouldn't you have to turn at some point?

There was another employee, Megan, going as well, but not only had she never been there either, but we were driving 2 vans (due to the many guests going) and she already claimed the "following" van because I "knew what I was doing"...huh? Who said that?!?! So, ok. We load 14 paying guests into two vans and we're on our way, with me in the lead. Everyone says this is easy, so I'll just go with it. It must be well signed down there. (you see where this is going don't you).

The drive to Valdez is gorgeous! We go by the Worthington Glacier, over the Chugach mountain range, across Thompson pass, and through Keystone Canyon (which is one of my favorite places here) with it's many waterfalls. GORGEOUS! We make it to Valdez (which I am absolutely in love with) with plenty of time to spare. I follow everyone's advice and keep driving straight through town...until the road ends...and there's no Cruise. So here I am sitting, sitting at a stop sign at the end of the road. I can go left, towards the water (which is obviously where we want to be, but I can tell this is not the right place) or right, further into town. I sit there. My palms sweaty, my heart beating, embarassment creaping up to my cheeks. Finally, I admit to the guests that I'm lost and decide to pull across the street into a parking lot and go back to converse with Megan...this should be good. She was so funny. I walk back towards her van and she rolls her window down only 2 or 3 inches. I can see the fear in her face as well. I try to quietly ask if she knew where we should go, but because she wouldn't roll the window down, I had to be kind of loud, and I can hear a heavy sigh come from inside her van...ugh. She just shakes her head "no" and pretends to not even know me as she rolls the window back up...with ME STILL STANDING THERE! Just because you don't want this to be happening, doesn't mean it's going to go away. I lip the words "You're dead to me" and go back to my van.

We take the turn towards the water and I PRAY we happen upon the cruise ship. No such luck. We end up at the Ferry landing which has a huge sign in the window "CLOSED". Yahoo! I swing through the parking lot and take a left by the Ferry terminal trying to think fast. Meanwhile the guests are all asking me questions like "What time does the cruise leave? Are we going to make it in time? Why didn't anyone give me clear directions?". I see a man getting into a truck behind me. I beep my horn and back up...I roll down my window...he comes over to the van and I start with "Excuse me sir...Can you tell me where the Stan Stephens dock is"...mental gulp. Luckily he does, although I can see his utter disgust in me as the worst tour driver ever. Phew! We know where we're going. And we're close. I turn to give Megan the thumbs up of relief behind me, and she's not there. Gulp!

I do a quick sweep and see her across the way in the parking lot...parked...letting all of her guests out of the van. Everyone's putting their backpacks on for the day, stretching their legs, looking relieved that we made it. But we hadn't yet. My heart sinks and I throw up a little in my mouth. I casually drive across the street and pull into a parking spot next to her, trying to make a non panicky face at her while I park. Although, I find out later that my whole van of guests were shaking there heads no and swinging their arms at her, so, so much for being subtle. She gives a lighthearted "just kidding" to her guests, shoots me a look of utter terror, and climbs back in the van.

With the help of the guests that took notes on the directions (we like to give the guests a fully interactive experience), we make it to the dock. Whoohoo! Now what? Do we check all the guests in? I guess. It would help if Megan hadn't forgotten the manifest in her van. One of the guests asks me where we load for the cruise and I ask if they really want to keep following us. The one guest named us "right" and "left" because of the ferry dock when I went left and Megan went right into the parking lot. We get everyone checked in and Megan tells them that they have a whole 7 minutes to walk around town...double smirk.

The rest of the day was utterly amazing. We rode the boat around the Prince William Sound with Humpback whales, Minke whales, Otters, Porpoise, Puffins, Sea Lions, Harbor Seals, Bald Eagles and icebergs. It was phenomenal!!!!! I love living in Alaska!!!

The trip home was uneventful and luckily the guests all had good humors about the days events.

Megan and I

I still haven't seen any Moose...ugh.

Have had many more adventures, but will write about them later.

Instructions on slideshow viewing

2010-06-16T23:47:00.001-08:00

Ok! Here's the deal-I have spent waaaaay too long trying to upload these pictures. All I have to say is, you'd think Google would have these programs worked out a little more user friendly.

Soooo...the itty bitty slideshow that you see off on the side is apparently not really supposed to be visible on this blog. If so, I believe it'd be a HAIR larger. If you click on the slideshow, it'll bring you to the Picasa Web album page and you can view all of the pictures.

...Now the web album page cuts the pics off on the bottom, so you want to hit the fullscreen button in the upper left corner and then hit the F11 key to bring them full screen.

Love It!

Good luck and Goodnight

Happy Wednesday

2010-06-16T21:14:00.000-08:00

Believe it or not, I'm starting to get used to the isolation...I can't believe I'm even saying that. Last week I was going absolutely stir crazy because I couldn't go ANYWHERE!!! But this week...not so much. Wierd! It's amazing how you improvise or go without when you have to.

I'm loving the guests at the lodge. Dealing with vacationers is so easy. And I love how much of a mystery Alaska is to everyone. The other day I overheard a guest talking to his friend about the price of something and said "you wouldn't get this for that price in the States"...I wanted to politely clear my throat and saunter over to quietly point out that alas, "you ARE in the States!".

But seriously, it is amazing here. Everyday I look out over the mountains and the treetops and just can't believe I'm here. Although, I have yet to see a Moose. In fact, up until yesterday, I had yet to see more than a Robin, a Seagull and a Raven. The big joke was that I hadn't even seen an Alaskan squirrel. My roommate, Christy, said she thinks she saw a squirrel, but it was so small she thought it was a chipmunk. I thought that was crazy because EVERYTHING is HUGE in Alaska. But two days ago, I saw an Alaskan squirrel. And man was it tiny. That was my first Alaska wildlife on this trip, can you believe it? Then, while hiking in my backyard :), a Bald Eagle flew right up in front of me. It was wonderful. Christy and I take midnight hikes during twilight to stalk Moose. So far nothing. There are Bears around too, but I'm not in too much of a hurry to see one of those up close. Maybe from a distance...in a vehicle would be nice.

Today we took an employee trip to a State Park called Liberty Falls. It was beautiful. Every turn on the road, every mountain, every tree is fascinating here. Unfortunately it is an average of at least an hour to get anywhere here...awesome. But it is always worth it.

I think that's about it for now. I'm hoping I will be able to attach a picture album to this blog so you can see more than just one or two pics. Have a happy Wednesday!-Reebs

24 hours of light!

2010-06-08T10:36:00.000-08:00

It has been rather interesting getting used to 24 hours of light, but it's also kind of fun. I'm not sure what it'll be like to go back to darkness after this. It's been causing havoc on my sleeping, but I already had sleep issues, so no big deal. But when guests at the lodge think that they can't go on a tour at 9 or 10 pm because they won't get to see anything, it's fun to remind them that there wouldn't be a time they wouldn't be able to see. They forget about the constant light. I went on a doglsed ride yesterday and the musher made a joke of "Mom says we need to be home by dark...so we don't have to be home until at least September"... The pics of the dogsled and the Lodge were taken at 10pm last night. As you can see, the sun is still very high in the sky. It's awesome.

The jobs are going well. It's been a rough start due to my scattered training. I didn't quite feel like I knew enough of anything to work at either job, but luckily, working with people who are on vacation, lends me a bit more patience and kindness. So I've been able to catch up.

I'm a little (ok...a lot) more isolated than I'd like to be, but I'm sure that will take time to get used to as well. My roommate and I talk about what it'll be like to see a Town and stores again in September. We sit and fantasize about being able to "run down to the store to pick something up". It's funny. She actually went into "town" yesterday with a few of our coworkers and had QUITE the experience. The town, Glen Allen, consists of a gas station "The Hub", that has a mobile Thai restaurant in the parking lot. We refer to it as the Thai-mobile. A Grocery store where everything is outrageously expensive and a Radio Shack, where apparently you can get anything from batteries, to guns and ammo, to jelly belly jellybeans and halloween costumes...huh? And oh yea, we can't forget about the espresso shack...A little (and I mean little) coffee hut in the grocery store parking lot where you can get your caramel macchiato... we Americans sure have our priorities.

In about an hour, I go for my driver training so I can escort up to 15 guests to the various tour locations. I'm not sure they were planning on Van training me, but I've basically badgered my manager to do it because I am dying to get off property and to drive SOMETHING! The guests are in for a treat.

That's about all for now. Gotta go get ready for work. Hope everyone is well. Love-Reebs

Onward and Upward

2010-05-22T17:46:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm reviving the 'ole blog. As most of you know, I'm off to Alaska to work at a Wilderness Lodge for Princess cruise lines. I left Ohio on Wednesday May 19 and came to Seattle to visit Miriam and her family for a week. I got to meet Cooper Michael (Mir's 9 month old) for the first time, and we fell in love immediately.

My flights were uneventlful to say the least. I know, sorry-no crazy stories. Except for the fact that I left from Pittsburgh and had a layover in none other than Cleveland...huh? Didn't quite think that one through I guess. The funny thing is that it was actually cheaper to fly from Pitt than Cle. again...huh?

So far my days in Seattle are filled with playing with Coop, listening to sarcastic banter between Mir's husband and his 15 year old son, Casey, and drinking coffee.(It's Seattle-that's what they do here). We're gonna take a Yoga class monday night and head downtown to Pikes place market for an adventure. I've attached a few pics of Cooper, Miriam, Casey and Me.

Happy Holidays

2009-12-08T17:41:00.001-09:00

Make a Smilebox greeting

Martzy has landed: The final chapter

2007-08-14T17:39:00.000-08:00

I am back in the States. I have been here for almost a week now and it feels pretty wierd. I stayed at the Shannon Airport overnight the night before I left, flew to Boston and stayed at my friend Brenda's house until last weekend. Now I'm back at my Mom's for another week or so until I head on my way for more adventure wherever the universe takes me.

Those last 2 weeks at Chrysalis were the absolute best way to end my trip. It was such an amazing environment and they gave me so much freedom to be myself. My friend, Polly, and I were the only volunteers and they treated us beautifully. I got to help finish work on the Meditation Sanctuary in one of their gardens. As I was working on it, I asked if they would allow me to paint something in there. They said "No problem". So the picture above is what I painted on the meditation hut floor. It was my mark on Ireland and a good one at that.

I want to thank everyone for all your interest and comments over the last 7 months. It's been wonderful knowing that you've been on my journey with me. I'm going to keep my blog, but probably won't update it until my next big adventure. So I'll send out a mass e-mail when that happens. Thanks again for all your support. Love-R

Die Hard 4.0 YAHOO!!!!!

2007-07-22T03:53:00.000-08:00

Polly and I went to see my Brucie baby Friday afternoon...I LOVED IT!!!! I won't get into my evaluation of all the Die Hard movies, but I was a little worried about this one because I didn't like the third one very much. And although this Die Hard was a little more over the top than usual, at least Bruce didn't slap any fake hair on his head...

I'll stop now. I was like a little kid going into the theater. Then, later that night, standing in the Harry Potter line for 2 and a half hours, Polly was the little kid. She got the 7th and final Harry Potter book. I, however, not that thrilled. It was fun though, seeing all the kids dressed up and waiting in line for A BOOK! Not a video game, not a movie, but an actual printed book. Amazing.

And although nothing that exciting has happened out here in Dublin Suburbia, I mowed the lawn yesterday. Yes, I know, who cares, Right? Well, after going to get the mower out of the shed, I came back in to tell Polly that we had a problem. The mower didn't have any wheels. She said "Oh yea, it's a hover one"...what? I know I've been out of touch with the world for awhile, but it hasn't been THAT long. Apparently the UK has used these for years. It's an electric mower that blows air out the bottom and hovers over the ground. It sounds like a leaf blower, but quieter. It was quite the experience. I wanted to call Dad immediately. Unfortunately, it didn't cut the grass very well, so it took me double the time, but oh well.

That's about it. I'm off to Chrysalis in about an hour and will be back in the Spiritual world. I'll talk to you on the flip side.
Love-Reebs

Goodbye Dzogchen Beara

2007-07-18T10:04:00.000-08:00

I left Dzogchen Beara a little over a week ago with my friend Polly. We are house sitting for another DZB friend, David, outside of Dublin. It's been great having our own space again...and a Television. It's the first TV I've watched in 6 months and found that crap gets aired EVERYWHERE! Actually, it's mostly American shows. We watched "Dancing with the Stars", season 350, the other night...Yikes! I was, however, pleasantly surprised to see that DIE HARD 4 HAS BEEN MADE AND RELEASED!!!!!!!!!(If I could bold or enlarge the type anymore, I would, just to show how excited I am). What better welcome back to the 21st century, than by Bruce himself...heaven. So, I shall be dragging Polly to splurge on a matinee with me in the next few days. Then, as if television and a movie AND Bruce isn't enough for me, friday night, we're going to stand in line at the book store because Polly wants a copy of the new Harry Potter book. It's official, I am back. I feel like I am emerging from a cave like a blind cave fish or something.

And as exciting as all that may sound, it will come to a dramatic end on Sunday. Polly and I went for an interview today at a Holistic Retreat Center, to volunteer for my last 2 weeks in Ireland. It is an amazing place, but again, in the middle of nowhere. This time in County Wicklow, about an hour from Dublin. The name of it is Chrysalis and I can't think of a better way to end this trip. They don't have a phone or internet for me to use, so I'm not sure if I'll get back online before I leave for home. There is a local library with free internet access and I will have 2 days off, so we will see. But if not, I will update when I get back to the States to let you all know that I made it safe and sound. (That's IF anyone's still reading this blog).

The Pics are of the Dzogchen Beara entrance sign, Me and Blockhead, the resident Hostel Dog, Some friends sitting around playing a bit o' music, Polly, the Goof, with David behind her, me with my friend, Emma, and Vince behind us, and a Lotus flower from the Lotus pond at DZB.

I'll see you all soon. Love-Reebs

Dropped of the face of the Earth...again

2007-07-06T07:44:00.000-08:00

So, the Summer retreat with Rinpoche came and went. The Center needed the computer cabin for transcribers, so we had no access to the internet for about 2 weeks. But I'm back in the little tin computer hut in the woods. WHOOHOO!

The Retreat was unlike anything I've ever experinced. I got caught up in the organization of allocating 150 one hour jobs to 150 people, with another volunteer named Polly. It was quite a monster of a job and Polly and I wanted to basically throw ourselves off the cliffs by the time the retreat started. On top of that, we had our own daily jobs to do. During the Retreat I ran breakfast, which was estimated to be for 50-60 people at 7:30am. My manager put me on breakfast because she thought I liked to get up early...we're obviously really close. It wasn't until 3 or 4 days in, when I made a random comment of needing someone to basically flip my mattress in the morning to get me out of bed, that she revealed her reasoning behind that decision. I have no idea what EVER gave her the impression I was a morning person.

Anyway, moving on...I got to go to quite a few teachings, but the Rinpoche actually made it a point to humiliate people publically (how Buddhist of him) and extend the teachings as long as he wanted to. And as much as I LOVE public humiliation, I would rather it be self inflicted and NOT in front of over 200 people on a mindful Buddhist retreat. So, sorry, no humiliating stories.

A few days before the Retreat started, when Polly and I were holding each other back from hurling our bodies into the Sea, we decided to go on an adventure. We left one morning and decided to go hitching and see how far we could get. The first few people that picked us up weren't that amusing, except, if you remember way back to the man who asked me if I could recommend a good cheese in the supermarket, and found it hysterical...well, his nephew was one of our first lifts. It's so small town here. Then, outside of Bantry, we got a lift from a man in his sixties, on his way to Skibbereen. Yes, Mom and Aunt Nancy, I made it to good ole Skibs. It was an adorable place, much bigger than Castletownebere, but for some reason I thought it was on the sea. We went to an Art show that really had a vague resemblance to Art and had a pint in one of the local pubs. But, the interesting part is that, on our way back to Castletowne, we got a lift from the same bloke, Chris, that brought us to Skibs. And for the next 4 HOURS he became our tour guide. He drove us all over Mizen head and Sheep's head peninsula's and basically abducted us (sarcasm). We kept saying that we really wanted to get back, but he was so bored and starving for company that he just kept driving. We started to doubt that we'd ever get back. But alas, he finally let us go and we got one last lift from the most interesting people I've ever met in my life...Gypsies. Or as they're called over here, Travelers. They smoked with the windows closed, spoke loudly and with the strongest accents ever and told stories of their 17 brothers and sisters. They asked us a million questions about the "settled world" and asked me if NY and America were two different places. They even offered us some swigs out of their communal bottle of Coke. It was amazing. They drove us all the way back to Castletownebere, where we decided to have a pint to go over the days events. I think we may hitch again somewhere tomorrow. It's fun.

On to more important info. I just realized that it's been so long since I've put a blog up, that I haven't told you when I'm coming back. My flight lands on August 7. I'm comin' home. Get ready America, you are about to be reMartzified!

I'm actually leaving DZB on Monday and going to Dublin to housesit for a friend, with Polly. That's for 2 weeks and then we're going to look for another Volunteer opportunity for my last 2 weeks here. We're looking at some conservation work in Killarney National Park, but who knows where we'll end up. I swear I could circle the Globe just by meeting and talking to people at DZB, but I am afraid I have run out o' money. Next time.

I miss and Love you-Reebs

WHERE IN THE WORLD IS MARTZY INDEED?

2007-06-15T07:56:00.000-08:00

Well, Here I am! I'm sorry, I fell off the map there for a little while. A lot has been going on. I absolutely loved Italy. The pictures I've posted are mostly of Italy, but the last one is in Ireland. Yes, I'm back in Ireland. My friend, Fulcrum, and I traveled around Italy for a few weeks together and then headed back to Ireland. It turned out that Dzogchen Beara didn't need any more Volunteers so Fulcrum and I had to come up with alternative plans. He ended up going back to Philadelphia, which is where he's from, and I went on to a Zen Buddhist Organic Farm. And that's when I fell off the map.

To make a long story short, I stayed at the farm for 2 weeks and a friend from Dzogchen Bear (DZB) came to pick me up. I am now back at DZB for probably another month, but I will have a return date to the States shortly. The Rinpoche is coming here to do an 8 day retreat next week and I want to get in on some of his teachings. It's the biggest event of the year here and I am so glad to be a part of it. I will let you all know when I have a definate date. I miss and love you.

The top picture is of me and Fulcrum in Florence. The next one is sunset in Florence. Then me with the Leaning tower of pisa and then in Keal Kill Ireland with my friend Megan who drove me down from Dublin. Love-Me

Still in Italy

2007-05-17T03:54:00.000-08:00

WOW! I can't possibly fill you in on all I've been up to since my last blog, but I'll try.

I spent 5 days in Rome and absolutely loved it. It was weird though being the single person traveler in one of the romantic places on earth. I was about to start charging for taking pictures for couples in love. Actually, I started volunteering when I'd see two lovebirds trying to hold the camera out in front of them with some massive ancient monument behind them. After awhile, I started even taking pictures of them with my own camera.

I stayed in a campgrounds outside the city, that was just the most beautiful place. The accomodations were lacking a little, but hey, what can you do? My favorite thing in Rome was BY FAR the Sistine Chapel. Actually, the entire Vatican was so much more than I ever could have imagined. An Artists' dream. I am now a huge fan of Renaissance Art. I would go back there a million times over.

After Rome, I made my way to Florence, in the Tuscany region, where I stayed at another campgrounds. This one was in an ancient olive grove on a hill above the city. A friend of mine from Ireland met me there and we stayed in Florence for 9 days. We went to churches and museums galore. Each one outdoing the last with sculpture, architecture and artwork. I think I just walked around with my jaw on the ground. Seeing the statue of "David" and the Academia museum was a truly moving experience. My Art History classes came flooding back into my head. Pictures definately don't do any justice.

We took a day trip to Pisa to see the leaning tower, which is definately LEANING! That was an absurd experiece walking up to a building that is slowly falling over. That city was wonderful. It was smaller and less touristy and we got to play frisbee for a few hours on the green next to the leaning tower and the bapistry that was there. That was surreal.

Yesterday, we decided to leave Florence and maybe explore some of the coast. So without any real plans we got on a train and headed West. At one of the train stations along the way, we met a group of Canadians who were headed in the same direction, so we traveled along with them to the coast. Afetr talking and walking around with them in this beautiful little village, all five of us ended up renting an apartment for a night. The area is called Cinque Terre which means Five Towns and it's a National Park around these Five seaside villages. We are going to hike the next few days between the five towns and explore the region. It's amazing!

After that, I'm not sure. I had decided not to get a job in Italy because I wanted to go back to Ireland, back to the Retreat Center. But unfortunately, the Retreat Center is full right now and they don't need me. So, I'm roaming aimlessly for the moment. I will kepp you all updated.
I miss and love all of you- Ciao!Me

CIAO Greece!

2007-05-04T04:23:00.000-08:00

This computer is in Italian and I just shut it down by accident after writing a long post of my adventures...fun.

The top pic is my postcard shot of a beautiful little church on a hillside by Brian Gillian's. the second one is me with Brian and Gillian, the day I was leaving for Usha's for 2 weeks. The next one is me lounging at the beach...rough, and then me with Usha, Suzanna and Roli. Suzanna and Roli are artists who live at Usha's house while she travels. And the last one is me (very tiny in the bottom right corner) at the Acropolis! That, my friends, was amazing!

I have changed my mind about my original opinion of Athens. The part I stayed in before, was obviously a bad one. This time, it was a completely different experience. Still a little dirty, but I loved it.

Leaving Greece however was truly a Martzy experience. After getting on the wrong train to the Airport, waiting a half hour for the next train to come and wanting nothing more than to check my backpack, to get RID OF IT! I scan the electronic departure board to check my flight, and there is only one flight with the word "cancelled" next to it. Can you guess which one? Well, let me tell you...MINE! Of course the Alitalia counter was on the opposite end of the terminal and the woman there was not very nice. Apparently the flight was cancelled due to a strike and there were no other flights out that day...YAHOO! But she put me on a flight to Austria where then I could pick up a flight to Rome. Air Austrian, everyone, is quite possibly the PERFECT airlines. The Vienna airport, for that matter, is pretty great too. After a few hours there (my favorite thing in the world to sit in an airport), I got a plane to Rome. I won't get into the nitty gritty details, but let me just say that I don't think that EVER in my life have I JUST missed so many buses and trains and walked so far for absolutely nothing as I did yesterday. I didn't get to the hostel until almost 1am...Yikes.

Today, I'm in Rome! What a beautiful city. The modern hustle and bustle around an enormous ancient city is quite the sight. Of course, it's been pouring down rain since I got here, but I think that just adds to the romance. I will be here until Monday and then hopefully I am off to Tuscany. I can't think that far in advance because my brain is mildly fried today.

Just a few little things before I leave you. In Athens, I saw a car with Massachussetts plates-WHAT? On the plane they played episodes of "Home Improvement" and "King of Queens" in German, and Mickey Mouse is spelled Miky. Also, I don't like Ouzo. And one more little ditty (this is for adults only). Usha was complaining because the Greeks don't know how to make French fries. She said they are always too soft like a ...and she couldn't think of anything. So I taught her the expression "Limp Dick". It was fun going through the description both verbal AND with hand signals...just doing my part (Sorry Mom). I'd be a great English teacher.

I love and miss all of you. Ciao.

Full circle

2007-04-21T07:24:00.000-08:00

Sometimes life just seems to come full circle. I'm at my friend Usha's house now and she doesn't have a computer. So I'm using her friends' computer, who is German. So guess what...so is his computer. Lucky for me, I've had to read this blog in German before, so I know what I,m doing now. Fun.

So, I have officially been in Europe for 3 months now. And Monday, I will have been in Greece for a month. I am leaving next week for Italy where I might have a job working in Olive trees in Tuscany. We'll see.

My time at Brian and Gillian's ended yesterday and the dogs were VERY sad to see me go. I was sad too. Although, here at Usha's, it's been nice and quite...except for the OBVIOUS construction going on down below Usha's house. But that's a given by now.

Usha has a completely self sufficient house. It's run by solar power and she collects rainwater in a cistern. She has gardens and rents out 2 rooms during tourist season. It's an amazing place and I have my own little apartment here. The only real downfall is that my shower is outside and outside is nice and cold right now. Conserves water though. I'm not running to take a shower anytime soon.

I had a list of things to tell you about, but I'm going to cut this short so I can go help Usha make dinner.

I just have one little ditty for you today...in Greece, they don't flush their toilet paper. YUP, you read right. You throw it in the trash bin. I guess the pipes are too small and get blocked really easily...YUM! Again, conserves paper.

I miss all of you and hope all is well.

One last thing. I wanted to wish Little Mary a GREAT BIG HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Remember to make a big wish when you blow out you're candles...I love you!

Love-ME

Happy Belated Easter!

2007-04-10T10:13:00.000-08:00

Easter is Greece's BIGGEST holiday. It was a little wild here. They actually white wash their houses for the occasion. They shot off fireworks midnight Easter morning. The dogs loved that one.

Things are going great here. The sun is out and it gets warmer every day. Today I sat with my feet in the water for awhile. It was freezing, otherwise I would have been swimming.

I've attached a few photos and I can't quite remember in what order they're in. I know one is of Rupert and Kukla on our morning walk. One is of my Easter socks from the back yard on Easter day. The sunrise (when the dogs get me up) from my bedroom, Me filling the water jugs at the spring. That's the ruins of an old Turkish house behind me. And the last one is from today. I'm on top of this island that used to be a Fortress in the Byantine Era. It's ruins of a whole town up there (the original town I'm staying in). I wanted to attach a picture of what the island looks like-but my next one I guess.

Brian and Jillian have changed their plans and are coming back tomorrow. Only two weeks, but I'll take what I can get. They said I can stay on and help with their gardens and then I might go stay with Usha for a week or so. After that, I'm off to Italy. I'm meeting a friend from Dzogchen Beara and we're going to explore a little. I figure, I'm all the way over here, I might as well...right?

I went to town yesterday and went with a woman here, Gloria, to the butcher...WHOOOOWEEEE! LET ME TELL YOU! The meat locker was right there and Gloria asked if they had any lamb. The butcher walked into the cooler and walked out with an ENTIRE HALF OF A LAMB! Cut right down the middle! The head, organs and even tail made it onto this half too...YIKES!!!! The butcher cut the head off to start (the eyelashes were still on) and hung it on this chain with about a dozen other heads. I hadn't noticed that lovely decoration until then. Gloria picked which pieces she wanted and he cut it right there. I started to look around, as to not get sick, and noticed they had pictures of happy cows, sheep, pigs and chickens all over the walls. WHAT KIND OF SICK...? Anyway-I stepped outside and waited for Gloria. Later, we went to get a drink and the Taverna had about 8 Octopus hanging on a line like laundry-double Yikes. They dry them out and then when people order them, they cut pieces off of them right from the line. YUM! Needless to say, I was not hungry yesterday at all.

The GOOD animal news is though that while we were in town, Gloria's cat had 4 kittens. We came back and she was feedin them in a little box. I have pics of them too, but the blog only allows me so many.

So, my alone time is up, but it's been wonderful. A crazy change from the constant buzz of the Retreat Center.

I miss you all and wish everyone well.

Oh yea, one little ditty-Apparently they make soup out of the sheep heads and the butchers' sister said they're really good baked. I'll take her word for it.

April Fool's Day!

2007-04-01T02:32:00.000-08:00

HELLO FROM GREECE! I made it safe and sound. I left Dublin at 8am, and got to the Hostel in Athens at 11pm. Wonderful. That includes a 2 hour time change and 6 hours at London Luton Airport. All in all, not too bad.

Athens, however, I would not recommend to anyone. It is huge, congested and extremely dirty. Actually, Greece is a pretty dirty place in general. And when I got to the hostel, I had a lovely surprise in store for me. They had "overbooked" the hostel, but told me not to worry. That they would put me up in the hostel next door. Well, let's just say that the hostel next door was lacking in just about everything. I'm not going to go into too much detail, well, because there's too much detail. Let's just say that if I hadn't slept on the cold, linoleum floor of the Airport the night before, I wouldn't have appreciated the bed I was lying in.

I got up the next day and made my way to the bus station which was, of course, another adventure. The bus ride was 6 hours from Athens (Yahoo!) and I had one minor incident with that too. At one of the stops, I got off the bus to use the bathroom. When I came out, the bus was gone. I started to panic because my bags were on the bus (also because I was supposed to be). An older woman started talking to me but it was all Greek to me...smirk (I had to get it in at least once). After a few minutes of her sentences becoming more pronouced and louder and me still not understanding a word, I walked away almost in tears. I walked up to the ticket woman and asked if she spoke English. She said she did, but that was an overstatement. The only thing I understood was "Come back in an hour". My eyes bulged out of my head. Just as I was about to completely lose it, a military guy walked up to me and said "He's just gone to refuel, he'll be back in a moment". I could have kissed him.

A man on the bus tried talking to me, but again, we didn't speak the same language. I pulled out my little Greek phrasebook (Thank god for that purchase) and we had a conversation that consisted of pointing at different phrases in the book. Boy was I glad to be off that bus.

So anyway-to make this the longest blog entry ever, I made it to Monemvasia. It's a GORGEOUS town in southern Greece. The people I'm working for are wonderful and the house is absolutely beautiful.

First of all, they rented me a car. And I feel like I'm driving my little Echo again, only smaller. I've attached a picture of it, I love it. I miss driving so much, it feels so great to be behind the wheel again. Of course, last night I got it stuck in a ditch at my friend Usha's house. I know Dad was there chuckling when I had to tie the back end of the car to the front end of Usha's van and she had to pull me out. Usha said I seemed like a pro at that. I just laughed and said "you have NO idea".

My day starts with waking up at 7:30 and looking at the Aegean Sea through the glass doors at the foot of my bed. I let the dogs out and feed the cats. (4 dogs and 4 cats). I then take two of the dogs, Rupert and Kukla, for a walk through a grove of Olive trees and wildflowers overlooking the sea. It's a great way to start the day.

Brian and Jillian (whose house I'm watching) have organic gardens that I'm allowed to eat my way through. Unbelievable. They have a few different types of lettuce, spinach, broccoli, onions, beans, carrots, artichokes, beets and many different herbs. For fruit they have banana, date, orange and lemon trees, grapefruit bushes and strawberries. They have Almond trees and of course Olive trees. Not all of the fruits and veggies are ripe yet, but I have had some unbelievable food so far. They also have a spring up the hill that I bring big glass water jugs up to and fill them. Now that's fresh.

But don't you worry, to keep consistent with my life, I was happy to see construction vehicles next door. Luckily for me, there is a Hotel being built about 100 yards away. The work starts at about 7am, 7 days a week, and goes all day. It's nice to see that my construction curse knows no limits.

So that's all for now folks. I could go on forever, but instead I'll try and update this more often. I've attached some photos, but I know they're pretty bad. The one of me is in town at a Taverna, having a coffee. The others are of the car, and then 3 of the dogs. Rupert's the one in the basket, Zoe is the blond and Kukla is the little one laying on the roof of the Horse stable, with my clothes drying in the background. And oh yea, by the way, it's cold as hell here. Thnk god I didn't get rid of all my sweaters.

Love you and Miss you-Me

Time in Ireland Running out

2007-03-23T17:31:00.000-08:00

Howdy Everyone! I'm Back! I have had an unbelievable amount of trouble trying to get on this blog in the last few weeks. Sorry.

If you can't tell from the picture, Tamarra and Katie have made it to Ireland. They showed up on last Monday afternoon. A little weird to have 2 of my world's come together, but it was also wonderful. Tamarra got to see where and how I've been living and to meet my friends there. She got to meditate in the amazing Shrine room and of course partake in my going away party...I'm collecting them.

Leaving Dzogchen Beara was extremely difficult for me. It's only been 2 months, but I have become extremely close to quite a few people there and if I decide to go back, most of them will be long gone. I will never be able to explain everything I've learned from the people there, but it was a life changing experience.

On a lighter note-you're all going to love this. On the way out of Beara, I took Tamarra and Katie through the Healy Pass. I don't know if any of you recognize that name, but it's referenced in the freaky farmer, who was looking for a wife, story. Well, guess what? Yup, you guessed it. I told them that we should not get out of the car, but there was a beautiful spot that Tamarra really wanted a picture of. I told her alright, but to keep an eye out for a blue beater car...not 4 minutes later...here comes a blue beater down the mountain. Tamarra starts walking towards the car quickly and katie and I are following behind. As the car gets closer, Tamarra recognizes the toothless grin from my blog photo. She turns around and says "Let's step it up a notch ladies" and we all take off running for the car. He pulls over and is out of his car in a flash. As we're now sprinting for the car, he's only a few feet behind asking us how are hoidays are. Still running, I say "Fine Thanks!" and we jump in the car. Just as he gets to the back of the car, Tamarra guns it and gravel flies up from under the tires. As we drive away, we look out the back window and katie says she saw him swing his arm and snap his finger like "Drats, another one got away!". The Freaky Farmer strikes again. So to all you ladies out there with the inkling to visit Ireland...DO NOT GET OUT OF THE CAR AT THE HEALY PASS!

We stayed in Killarney that first night and went to the Killarney National park the next day. We stayed in a little town called Doolin, by the Cliffs of Moher the next night, and the Cliffs are where the picture is from. It was too bad because the Cliffs are becoming a cliched tourist attraction. Still beautiful though. We made our way to Galway after that where we stayed for 2 nights. We went out to the Connemara National Park and hiked up Diamond Hill. 1400 ft-HUGE accomplishment for me. And after 2 days in Galway, we headed for Athlone, which is halfway between Galway and Dublin. The Hostel we wanted to stay in had been demolished 4 months ago and replaced with apartments, so we went to an old "traditional Farm Hostel" in the middle of nowhere. We thought it was just us out there until about 10 Irish Forestry guys walked in like the 7 dwarfs and entertained us for the rest of the night, in front of the biggest best fireplace I've ever seen.

Last night was our last night in Ireland and together. We drove into Dublin and had Indian food for dinner. We drove out to the hotel that Tamarra and Katie rented their car and took a nap in the car. Then we hung out in the Hotel lobby for a few hours, just prolonging the inevitable. We took the shuttle to the airport and hunkered down for the night because we were all leaving in the morning. I love sleeping on linoleum.

This morning I left Ireland. I'm sitting in the London Luton airport waiting for my flight to Athens in 4 hours. I'm extremely tired, but I miss Ireland already. What an amazing place. Stay tuned for stories from the land of sunshine and olive trees. Love ya-Me

Technical difficulties..again

2007-03-14T08:53:00.000-08:00

No PIcture, sorry. I'm lucky enough to get on this site, let alone to upload anything.

Why I'm writing is to let everyone know that something is wrong with my hotmail account. I'm getting all of your e-mail's, and was responding to them right along, but wondered why I hadn't heard anything back from anyone...until...I sent myself an e-mail. And another one, and another one...nothing. I've now tried sending them to some of my friends here...and still nothing. A few other volunteers also have hotmail and brought me down here to show me that THERE'S works. But then I pull up mine to show them what it's doing and they say "Oh...hmmmph. That's not right." No kidding. Anyway-I apologize everyone. I am very happy to be reading your e-mail's though. I'm just frustrated at the amount of writing is floating out in cyberspace with no place to go. If it keeps up, I may change e-mail addresses, so keep a look out for me in another form.

Tamarra is actually on her way to NYC to get on a plane to come to Ireland...YAHOO! She will be in my neck o' the woods on Monday. Just in time for my going away party (YES, ANOTHER ONE! I love it!). Then Tuesday we're off to explore. I'll hopefully find a computer that works along the way to keep you updated on those adventures. Two Martz's on the island. I don't know. You may not need to read the blog-you can probably watch it on the news. :)

Anyway-Then I'm off to Greece. I'm not sure what the computer status will be there, so don't be alarmed if you don't hear from me.

I'm off to town to collect some bits and pieces. Miss you all! Love-Me

Notice anything different?

2007-03-06T07:15:00.000-09:00

I couldn't figure out was so weird about this sheep until one with EARS walked up next to him...yikes. This picture was taken at Barley lake near Glengariff. It was a wonderful day.

I'm in town again, and today, I borrowed a friends' bike. I got here a lot faster, but the way back is going to be a bear. It's uphill pretty much the entire 7 miles. I never had to walk back last time because Harry (my boss) came and picked me and another volunteer up that afternoon.

Well, I have some exciting news. You're all going to hate me, but here it goes. I got a housesitting job...in Greece. For a month. My friend Usha, who lives there, has some friends who are going on holiday and need someone to take care of their house and dogs. She thought of me and called me a few days ago. I checked flights and things and I'm off.

It will, unfortunately, cut into my time at Dzogchen Beara, but this is an opportunity I don't think I can pass up. Tamarra's coming to visit over St. Patrick's Day and I will leave the Beara Peninsula on March 20 with her and her friend. We will travel for a few days and then we'll all leave Ireland from Dublin. Tamarra to the States and me to Greece. This also means that I had to extend my ticket back to the States. I'm leaving that open at the moment.

The place I will be in Greece is about 5 hours south of Athens. It's about 2 miles from the sea and it's an organic farm. I don't know much more right now because I only just bought the tickets and started planning. But don't worry, I will keep you all updated.

By the way, I wanted to thank you all for your fun comments. It's my favorite part about this blog. I look forward to reading them every time I come on here. I miss you all and wish everyone love and happiness. Love-Me

I will walk 500 miles

2007-02-27T07:12:00.000-09:00

A photographer came to stay at Dzogchen Beara and we went out exploring one day. He took this picture of me while we were out. He's also working on a project where he's taking portraits of people meditating for an exhibit he's doing in May. I got a chance to be one of his portraits and my mug will be on a wall in Dublin.

I walked to town today. Well, almost. I got an hour into it and a friend drove by and picked me up. But still, I got in some good excercise and the scenery's wonderful. I went into the SuperValue grocery store and was standing in the dairy aisle looking at cheese. There's a lot of Irish cheese and I've found that I'm not that big o' fan of it. So as I'm trying to decide between bitterly strong and something they call "Vintage" cheddar, many people are coming up and reaching past me to get their cheese. One of the men leans over, picks up his cheese and as he's walking by me says "Excuse me, which one of these cheeses would you recommend?" and bursts into laughter. Nice. The sense of humor here is priceless.

Things are going great still. I have today and tomorrow off and I'm roaming the countryside. No wedding bells with my sheep farmer, but something tells me that I haven't seen the last of him.

I'm sorry there's not much to report today. I'm going to take my random purchases and wait for another friend to come pick my butt up and take me back. Ciao

My Future Husband

2007-02-24T06:40:00.000-09:00

Now don't be jealous all you single women out there. He's ALLLL MINE!

A few friends and I decided to go to this place called Healy Pass one afternoon. Gary had been out there the day before and said it was absolutely beautiful. He had also met the farmer who owned a lot of the land out there and talked to him for about 45 minutes. His story of the farmer was amusing, but harmless. Well, off we go to Healy Pass and park the car by a beautiful river with a little stone bridge over it. Picturesque. When out of nowhere, this blue beat up Buick drives by us and starts to turn around. Gary says "Uh Oh!". I say what do you mean "Uh Oh!". Gary says, "Well, this is the farmer I met yesterday, and what I forgot to tell you about was that he said AT LEAST 20 times that all he wants out of life is a wife and kids. So beware when he walks up because I'm not sure of how many women he's actually been around.". And wouldn't you know it. He gets out of his car, shakes hands with Gary, BARELY acknowledges our other friend, Lucas, and comes straight over to me. You know how the French kiss on both cheeks? Well, he did that in the form of a hug. He hugged me on the right, really hard, and then let go only long enough to hug me on the left, equally as tight. He then placed himself between me and the guys and began his 100 questions. "Where are you from? What brings you to Ireland? How long are you in Ireland?" Now mind you-there's no time to actually answer any of the questions because he's firing them at me so fast. Not to mention, he has the srongest Irish accent I've heard so far and can barely understand him. At the same time he's looking me up and down, probably measuring me up for the wedding dress he has hanging in his bedroom closet. Just waiting for someone to come along who can fill it. Or WILL fill it. The questions continue. "How do you like Ireland? Do you think you could live here forever? Do you like farms? Do you have any sisters? How many sisters do you have? When are THEY coming to Ireland?". Now at this point, I'm backing up because he's also a very close talker and smells PUNGENTLY like sheep. I'm making eye contact with Gary and Lucas the whole time for help, and they're just laughing. Thanks guys. So finally, I stop the questions and tell the farmer I'm going to go take some pictures, and attempt to say good bye. The farmer turns to Gary and says, "Would you be so kind as to take a picture of us?". He takes MY camera out of my hands and hands it to Gary, grabs me around the waste and presses his head up against mine(I laughed because Mom always makes fun of Tamarra and I for doing that). Gary took one picture and then said " Oh no, the flash wasn't on, I need to take another one." I almost killed him. After the second picture, Gary offered for us to send the man a copy, but he could care less. He just wanted an excuse to hug me. We ended up finally prying ourselves away from him after another session of hugs.

If you look closely in the photo, this man's zipper is wide open and there's a huge hole in his sweater right over it. Another friend back at the Hostel refers to "My Farmer" as "Quick Draw" and said, after hearing the whole days events, "You could be the new EWE!" buh dun bum bum.

So no worries folks. I'm well taken care of over here. If you need me, I'll be over at the Healy Pass. At least I know I have options right?

Did anyone miss me?

2007-02-19T04:33:00.000-09:00

Hi Again...I'm back! We've had technical difficulties at Dzogchen Beara, so I'm in town right now in an internet cafe. I guess the way things work here is that they pay for a certain amount of downloadable space a month and if you go over it, it's extremely expensive. Kind of like our cell phones. Well...one of the volunteers here (and NO it wasn't me) was apparently downloading a TON of stuff WHILE streaming american radio and making online phone calls. Every Day! So it was a big hubbub and it all came to a head the day AFTER I downloaded my ONE picture onto this site...nice. I thought maybe I had let in a virus that was eating the info or something. Luckily, the guy fessed up. So, the consequence was no internet for awhile.

Anyway-on to the fun. The other night I hitchhiked for the first time. Don't worry-here it's actually a very normal thing, but as you can imagine, I was a little hesitant to try it. But, as luck would have it, a friend (Niall) and I were somewhat abandoned in town by another friend (Mimi). We had all gone into town for dinner and Mimi decided she was gonna run "around the corner" to a friends' house and come back to get us in a "few minutes". She left her car in the car park (Irish for parking lot)and walked away. After about an hour or so, Niall and I decided to go looking for her. We figured she couldn't have gone far seeing as her car was still at the pub, so we started walking. In the meantime a police officer was driving by and Niall said he'd ask him if he knew where Laura lived (Mimi's friend). I, of course, chuckled and made fun of him for thinking that the cop would know where LAURA lived. And whatta ya know-HE DID! He gave us great directions except for the fact that he said LEFT-when it was really HIS left, not ours. So unfortunately we got lost beyond belief. When we made our way back to the pub, the pub was closed and Mimi's car was gone...nice. It was 11pm and we were 7 miles from town. So we started walking. Niall tried thumbing a lift a few times and the cars just whizzed by. So the 3rd or 4th car coming, I stood right out in the road with my thumb high, and they stopped...on the way up to the center, we talked to the driver who turned out to be the owner of...are you ready for this...none other than...Lovey and Dovey! I asked him if they had names and he said he doesn't have time for things like that. So I told him their names. Fun huh?

Things at Dzogchen Beara are going wonderfully. I'm working my butt off (Really I am) but I'm learning so much and just loving the environment. I've met just the most interesting people and had so much fun. It's not the peaceful, free time experience I thought it would be, but I'm loving it. I've been here a month already, isn't that nuts?

The picture I've attached is of the full moon from my back yard, about 20 feet from the back door. Gotta love it.

I hope everyone is well and I miss you all-Love, me

My day off!

2007-02-06T04:27:00.000-09:00

So, I was going to go into town today so I could download a whole bunch of picturess, but it is ABSOLUTELY FREEZING and rainy and miserable today. And seeing as town is about a 2 hour walk from here, I decided to try and get a picture or 2 out of this computer in the woods. This is all you get. It's taken me a good 40 minutes to get this one on here and I'm freezing my tookus off out here in the aluminum can.

BUT! That picture represents my day off yesterday. I wasn't feeling too well, so I decided to stick around here. I went on a short walk and ran into these 2 lovely animals...I call them Lovey and Dovey...they are wonderful. They couldn't get enough lovin' and then went about their day grazing. After lunch I went and lied down for awhile with a cup o' tea and then after dinner I went outside to see the sky. It actually took my breath away. Every night there are a million stars, but last night, I've never seen so many stars. I went down to the meditation garden, where there's less light polution (not that there's much to begin with here), and I lay on the ground surrounded by the Milky Way. I know that might sound corny, but it doesn't even come close to the actual description. I finished off my day off by hanging out in the living room while 3 or 4 guys played guitar and flute for a few hours. It was the perfect day off...

Today however, is cold and rainy, but I still managed to get down to see Lovey and Dovey. They were down closer to the sea today and when they saw me coming down the hill, they came running over and met me at the bottom. I hung out with them until I was almost completely frozen and then decided to finish the job off by sitting out here in this meat locker. I think the rest of this day off will be me with a book and a cup of tea.

Tomorrow, I start my week with a split shift in the kitchen. There's a Retreat going on right now and we have to work a little harder than usual. I'm not a big fan of the kitchen duty. It's a lot of vegetable chopping and washing dishes. But anytime I think I don't like what I'm doing, I look out the window-(one whole wall of the kitchen is glass)-and it's ALL better. You guys will love this, Today the Retreat is in silence, so the whole place has to live in silence...including me.

Love and miss you all-gotta go suffer... :)

WHOOHOO!!!

2007-02-03T09:38:00.000-09:00

I wasn't prepared to be able to get onto this site today, so I don't have my notebook with all my funny notes to write about. But thanks to VICTOR, I have a link that will hopefully allow me to get on the site more often. WHOOHOO! THANKS VIC! YOU ARE MAHVELOUS!!!

So, anything good going on here? Well, some things. I am now the senior volunteer member here. Yup, that's right folks-I'm THAT good! Or it could also be attributed to the fact that all the other Volunteers that were here before me, have gone. I actually trained a new volunteer yesterday in the art of bathroom management and bed making...go figure. I was just happy that they found me a sidekick. You all know how much I LOOOVE having a sidekick. Now, if I can only train him to bring me breakfast in bed. We'll see. The power of the MARTZY is awful persuasive.

Other than that, things are great! I'm suffering through with the LOOONG work hours and HORRIBLE scenery. I went on a 3 hour walk the other day and kind of got lost. Of course, my theory is that you can't really get lost if you don't have anywhere to go, right? I made friends with some cows and sheep, I climbed a few fences and crossed a few cow pastures to get to the other side of the peninsula. I came upon the ruins of an old farmhouse by the sea and hung out there for awhile. It was amazing...until it started to get dark and I realized that I was not only nowhere near Dzogchen Beara, but I was nowhere near a ROAD! So back through the cow pastures and over the fences I went, in a mad rush to get to the road before dark. You see, the land here is very deceptive. It looks flat in places, but it's really hilly and filled with these bushes that look soft and fluffy until you fall on one-they are SOLID PRICKERS! So I didn't want to have to feel my way through a mile or so of those bushes-although, that would make for a better story. I made it. It started to rain as I walked back and by the time I made it back, I looked as though I'd been at war or something. It took 2 days for my shoes to dry out and I don't think they'll ever be the same.

So far though, believe it or not, I think being surrounded by four leaf clovers and leprechauns has actually cleared me of my bad luck (I can't believe I just said that), but it's true. I'm still a clutz though. The Irish must all be really short people, I hit my head just about everywhere I go.

Well, that's all folks-I'm outta here and hopefully I can get on this site again soon. I miss all of you-me

FINALLY!

2007-01-31T03:17:00.000-09:00

Hey everyone, I'm back! I finally found a computer that can pull up this website. So unfortunately, I'll probably only get to update this about once a week or so, hopefully.

Things are going great here. I've had the last 2 days off and basically have been exploring. Today, a friend from the Hostel took me down to an old castle ruins where he then jumped in the water...I was tempted until I felt it-the Irish are NUTS!

So far, not much craziness. The people here are wonderful. I finally found a place where my sarcasm fits in perfectly...maybe too perfectly. The Irish have great sense's of humor.

I'm gonna try and put a picture on here today too-we'll see. I wish I had a crazy story for you, but oddly enough, things are running rather smoothly. I've had a million things I've wanted to write about, and now that I'm finally on my blog, I can't think of any.

I understand why Mel always wants her tea HOTTER! The Irish drink SCOLDING hot tea. I also now understand Grandma with her neverending butter dish and constant toast-it's an Irish thing. There's just a brick of Butter that sits on the counter next to a loaf of bread in the Hostel. If I thought I was going to lose any weight here, I was sorely mistaken. I went to the grocery store with a friend yesterday and she said "I forgot my glasses, can you tell me how much fat is in this?" I looked and cringed as I said "24.48 grams..." She said "Great! The more fat, the better." I really AM in another country. They cook with Butter milk (which I think comes straight out of the cow) and even the lowfat milk tastes creamier than our Whole. They pour yogurt on just about everything and eat cheese by itself...(the wisconsinites might understand that). I love it here!

Those are my tidbits for the moment. It's weird being a place where no one knows anything about the US. I am the ambassador---look out America! I've been filling people in on the important things like the "Hot Coffee McDonald's lawsuit" and that the "F" in "Fifty Cent" is silent. That it's not PC to say "Merry Christmas" anymore, and that Starbuck's basically has their own language. I've also held a workshop in the art of Southern Drawl, you can only imagine what an Irish accent in Southern Drawl sounds like. It's way too entertaining. These are all good things to know if they come visit America.

I'm gonna try and put a picture in here now. John, a husband of one of the other Volunteers was visiting and I asked him to take a picture of me. Before I could even let go of the camera, he started taking pictures. He wouldn't stop. This is one of those pics. He was having way too much fun.

I miss all of you and sorry for the delay on my blog...you should see the computer in the woods...let's just say that it probably remembers the 80's better than I do. Love ya-me

I have no idea what I'm doing

2007-01-25T09:30:00.000-09:00

I hope this works...Everything is in German, so I don't quite no what button I'm pushing.

I just sent out a mass e-mail to everyone, but I'm going to copy and paste it here too. I'm loving Ireland and especially loving the Dzogchen Beara. It's so beautiful, it actually brought tears to my eyes. I wish you all could see what I wake up to. I picked the bunk directly across from the window, so the first thing I see every day is the ocean. I start work at 10:30 am (after the days first meditation), have an hour for lunch and then end work around 3pm...ending with the days second meditation. Not too shabby. I get cereal and stuff for breakfast, a delicious vegetarian lunch and then soup for dinner. Everything is organic and healthy and I love all of it! I've warned the staff to stop me if they see me walking near the cliffs, even though I've already done all that, or trying to cook. Either thing is VERY BAD! I'm attaching the mass e-mail to this, so sorry for the repeating myself. Of course, I'm not sure which button to push to actually publish this post. Hopefully "VEROFFENTLICHEN" means Publish. Never a dull moment eh? Oh yea, by the way, my plan of being Canadian over here has been foiled. There are Canadian's everywhere. I heard Bush on the radio yesterday and sunk down in my seat.

One last fun ditty before I attach the e-mail...a girl here yesterday asked me what an SUV is? How wonderful! Ciao, here's my e-mail:

Hi everyone,

I know the blog is supposed to eliminate these mass e-mail's, but at the present moment I can't seem to get on my blog. When I do, it's in German-go figure. I sure hope that's not permanent...I have gotten all your comments though and love it that I can kind of talk to you across the Atlantic.

Well, I'm here. I did finally get in touch with Harry at the Retreat Center and he was thrilled that I was coming a day early. And things surprisingly enough went rather smoothly. I got up at the butt crack and got on a bus. As it turns out, there was a woman on the bus also going to Dzogchen Beara. Unfortunately, her friend that was picking her up had a car smaller than my pack. So they offered to take my pack and drop it at the Retreat center for me...I know, mini series material here. Her friend then waved down another car and asked the driver to take me out there. She said she could take me PART of the way there. SO, I hand my belongings for the next 3 months to complete strangers and watch it head down the road, as I climb into the back of another complete strangers' car...they drop me off in THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE and point out which way to head. I'm glad I walked. When I came to the entrance of the Retreat Center and came up over the hill, I had to stand there for a moment. It was breathtaking. I can only tell you that the pictures on the website ARE NOTHING compared to what it really is. No Money Pit here.

So far, everyone is wonderful and the weather has been great! I slept for about 13 hours last night in my bunk that I've kind of made into a little cave. Today I woke up at the ripe ole time of 10:45...yes that's right Auntie Ceil, I slept in. I know that's hard to believe. I had a spot o' tea and headed off down the road. I walked through the sheep pastures and climbed down the cliffs and touched the Atlantic Ocean. It was amazing. I took a million pictures and one of these days, I may be able to send them to you. I don't know though-I may have to wait until I get home for that, we'll see.

My one thing is...As some of you may know, I have a tendency to ALWAYS live next to some kind of construction site. I think my presence promotes demolition and renovation...well, although I am MILES away from ANYWHERE, they just broke ground on the new Spiritual Care Center RIGHT next to the Hostel...so...the peaceful sounds of silence continue. I chuckled as I came up over the hill and heard the beeping and crashing of the big digger. I feel at home.

Well, that's all for now folks-I'm freezing. You should see where this computer is. It's down the road and in the woods in a little construction tin can cubicle. I can't believe I'm online in here. Needless to say there's no heat.

I will leave you with these little ditties...The local Pub also sells groceries (America is so far behind), I haven't drank out of a straw for 2 days, I'm so glad I cut my hair (the winds are ferocious here) and Ireland recycles EVERYTHING! I love it here.

I miss all of you and hope all is going well for everyone. Love-Me

Day # (who knows)...in Cork

2007-01-23T07:56:00.000-09:00

Howdy again. I have no idea what day or time it is or how many days I've been here. First of all, there has not been ONE clock that shows the right time since I've been here. Not in the Buses, the Train station, Hostels or pubs. Today I asked what time it was because there were 2 clocks with different times on them. One said 8:28, the other said 1:10. It was 2:45. Nice. I guess I should have bought a watch. I do however like the idea of a place that doesn't really care enough about time to make sure their clocks are right.

The rest of yesterday and today have gone MUCH smoother from the previous day. After Khara left yesterday, I was one of the only people at the Hostel last night. So I went to a movie, there's a SHOCKER! You know what though? It was so nice. The theater was full, but there were no popcorn CHOMPERS, no chatty Kathy's, no cell phone's ringing, no BlueTooth lights or texters. No one sat directly behind me when the rest of the row was empty, or directly next to me for that matter. I felt like I was the only one in the theater...AH now that's the life.

They don't use straws all that much here. I asked for one yesterday and they had to go into the storage closet looking for one. Khara made fun of me, even though by the end of the day, she was drinking her hot tea through one...my job is done here. Martzifying the world one person at a time.

I got up this morning and got on a bus to Cork. I was going to go to Castletownebere, but as it turns out, the Hostel I made a reservation at, went out of business...another Shocker. And that was the only Hostel there. So, I'm staying in Cork and trying to get in touch with the Retreat Center to see if I can come a day early. Again, as it turns out, the ONLY bus out to Castletownebere is tomorrow. YIKES! And unfortunately, I can't get in touch with the Retreat Center...this should be good...do I take my chances and just go? No buses leave there again until Friday and there's nowhere to stay...EH, why not? What else do I have to do?

Well, i could keep going on forever, but I have no idea if anyone's even reading this. One more little fun ditty though. Today, walking around in Cork, there was a sign in a Pub window that said "Tuesday night's Texes Hold'em"...I wonder what they think Texes is?

Keep your fingers crossed for me-R

Let the Martzy fun begin!

2007-01-22T08:59:00.000-09:00

Alright-so here it goes. My first night in Ireland was, as you can only imagine…eventful. And I’m sure it has just begun.

After, what would have taken about an hour in the States, 4 buses and 6 hours later, I finally made it into Killarney and and the Hostel. Needless to say, I was exhausted. By the time I got off the last bus, I could barely pick up my pack anymore. A busdriver helped me with it and asked me “Why in the World would you want to carry all of that stuff with you?” I responded with “I’m starting to wonder that myself.” I’m seriously rethinking quite a few things I’ve brought. However, my favorite purchase for this trip so far are my thermal leggings. The Irish don’t seem to need to be as warm as us cold blooded Americans.

So anyway-on with the funness. I was seriously pathetic and after going out for dinner, I got into my PJs and hunkered down for the evening at the ripe old time of 7pm. I had one roommate named Khara and she seemed pretty nice. She checked in and went out for awhile, so I thought I would lay in bed and read or write. About 10 minutes into writing, another woman came in the room. She didn’t have any things with her and she just leaned against the bathroom door and stared at me. I introduced myself to her and she just grunted and continued to hang out in the doorway. I went back to my writing, but was a little uncomfortable with her watching me. She circled the room and checked under all the beds and around the windows. I finally asked her if she was staying in our room. She said “Well, YEA. How do you think I got in?” OK. She then sat down and said her name was “Ester”. And trust me, there’s a reason for the quote marks. She started to talk to me about her travels and ask me about my travels, we had a mildly “normal” conversation for about a half hour. Then the conversation took an interesting unexpected twist. She moved further away from me and began by saying “I actually haven’t been honest with you. I haven’t only been here for a week, and my name really isn’t “Ester”. I have to be careful because I’m being tracked and stalked. A few weeks ago “THEY” sprayed my car down with Piloneum 2000 (a form of some kind of nuclear poison…god only knows)”. As you can imagine, the expression on my face stayed about the same, but my brain did a major tail spin. She continued to tell me about the different conspiracies she’s uncovered, particularly with the Russian government and all the terrible things that have happened to her because of it. And yes all, this is my roommate. I was very excited about it.

In the middle of one of her stories, as I’m running out of the room screaming in my head, Khara comes back in. “Ester” stops talking and makes things extremely uncomfortable. Khara introduces herself , but “Ester” doesn’t even make eye contact. So Khara just goes about her business and goes to take a shower. “Ester” finishes her story and tells me she’s going to her car to get me some literature on her cause. She leaves and never comes back…so we hoped. Khara came out of the bathroom as soon as “Ester” left and we discussed the freakiness. We both saddled up in our beds surrounded by ALL of our belongings.

Around 1:30am, “Ester” comes back and even though Khara and I didn’t speak, we both knew the other was awake. “Ester” stood between our beds and hovered over us making the signs of the cross over and over again for about a half hour. We both lied still. Finally Khara pretended to wake up and asked if she needed a light on. “Ester” then accused Khara of drinking too much that evening, even though we had both gone to bed around 9pm and had drank NOTHING. When Khara told her she hadn’t drank, “Ester” said that it must have been me. She said that the room smelled like 6 Molson’s…exactly. She opened the window, after checking all around it for god only knows, and finally went to bed. I lay there, eyes wide open for at least 4 hours. Even though I could hear “Ester” sleeping, I didn’t quite trust it.

This morning Khara and I planned on going on a tour of the Ring of Kerry so we set the alarm for 8am. When it went off, “Ester” JUMPED out of bed, dressed and ran out the door, leaving behind 2 grocery bags she had brought in with her in the middle of the night. We got dressed and went down to the front desk, where they had already been VERY aware of her presence. I guess they had a minor issue with her when she came in late last night. She had foil across her windshield to stop any satellites from tracking her and she wouldn’t give the front desk her name. I told him that she said her name was “Ester” but then said that it wasn’t her real name. That is when he told us that HE had named her "Ester" because she refused to give him any info…nice. He then apologized profusely and said that she has been removed from the premises and will not be allowed back. As we walked out the door for our Ring of Kerry tour, he said “I don’t understand it, weve never had a crazy like THAT here!” I thought “of course you haven’t. Then again, you’ve never come in contact with Martzy”, We walked out the door where we then came in contact with SNOW! A man on the tour with us said “I’ve lived here for a few years, and NEVER have I seen it snow.”…Black Cloud anyone?

The rest of the day went well. It was cold, but the Ring of Kerry was beautiful. I even got to see the Beara Penninsula (where I’m going to live) over the Atlantic Ocean. That was pretty cool. I now have a room to myself tonight…YEAH!!!!!

I Made it!!!!!

2007-01-21T07:43:00.001-09:00

I just woke up and somehow found myself in Ireland....Well, I'm here. I can't quite focus on anything after 13 hours of travelling and carrying 50 pounds on my back (not sure what I was thinking there). But let me just say that Ireland is absolutely, positively beautiful. It's wet and rainy, but I love it!

I miss all of you and can't wait to take some pics and post them for you. Love you guys-R

Getting Ready

2007-01-18T22:03:00.000-09:00

I'm checking in, but no one has this web address yet. So I guess I'm talking to myself...again. I have one day left and I'm feeling a little frantic. I spent the ENTIRE day trying to fit my WHOLE world in my backpack-but unfortunately you didn't all fit. By the time anyone reads this, I will have my feet firmly planted on Green Irish soil (hopefully). I'll see ya on the flip side-R

Rebecca's First Blog

2006-12-20T15:55:00.000-09:00

Let's see if this is going to work...

Blah Blah Blah Ireland Yadda Yadda Yadda Buddhist.