I love Belfast! The architecture, the people, the character of the city...I have to pinch myself sometimes to remember I'm in Ireland. This has been an amazing experience so far. I have been spending a lot of time at the office this week in meetings and working on some projects. I spent a few hours with the programmers for the eclipse2 software and was astonished at what all goes into the software. Watching all the coding for the program, and for my coworkers to understand it was incredible to me. I sat there with my jaw on the floor as I tried to comprehend a few simple facts about coding and software programming. I was very impressed and interested but let's just say that I don't think software programming is my calling. I'll stick to the business administration side of the company! Nonetheless it has been helpful to spend time in each department of the company in order to truly understand every element that makes up NiSoft. This company is a well-oiled machine that works together to produce a complicated and important product.
I have the priveledge of sharing an office with my (now) good friend Andy McIvor. Today he picked me up to have breakfast with him, his brother, and his daughter Naomi. She is a beautiful half-Malaysian one and a half year old. I have heard a lot of stories about Naomi from Andy so it was fun to meet her and get to play with her. After breakfast we took her to the park to play.
It has also been fun because there is a new employee at NiSoft who is my age and in the middle of university as well. Her name is Natalie. In Ireland, in a four-year university, the third year is spent working in a company. She has just begun her third year and will be with NiSoft for the next twelve months. She and I became fast friends and even spent the night out last Thursday. She took me shopping and to dinner. We made more plans for this coming week. I have a full social calendar! I could see myself coming back here one day. The people have been absolutely wonderful and I have really loved exploring the small city with awesome architecture.
This weekend has been full of adventure and exploration. Friday Doug and I left work a bit early to head to the horse races at Dunn Royale. We were invited to a charity event by the company who works below us in our Belfast office, Momentum. The event was supporting mentally challenged children and supplies them with computers, which is considered to be their hypothetical wheelchair (if they were phsyically disabled) as it gives them more opportunity to explore the world. It was a very posh event with a three course dinner, drinks, and betting on the horses. Doug and I made a few small bets. My method was choosing the coolest horse name and hoping they would win. I wasn't very successful. Doug won one race and just about broke even. It was a fun evening meeting lots of Irish businessmen, the insurance agent for NiSoft, and Belfast locals who shared their tips about Ireland.
After the races, Chris Ead, the head of IT in the Belfast office, picked Doug and I and his wife, Laura, up from the races and took us to a local pub for dessert. It was fun to get to know Chris outside of the office. It gives me perspective on him as a friend rather then just a coworker.
Saturday I was able to sleep in until 9am and then met Doug at the local St. George's market. There were stands set up selling food, art, trinkets, and there was even a local band performing. We felt like we were back in Seattle, just surrounded by people with strange accents. We met a nice family and ate breakfast with them while enjoying the Irish band. After poking around the market we headed to rent a car and drove up to the North Coast. We ventured into the Ballygally castle (even went into the bedroom of the supposed ghost that haunts the castle), ate lunch in a quaint pub, and explored a beautiful harbor and fishingtown. We finally made it to our destination of the Carrick-a-fergus (or something like that) bridge. This is a somewhat rickity rope bridge that you hike to. I gripped the ropes tightly as we crossed the swaying bridge over the water. It was a beautiful view and a fun experience. After that we drove on to Giant's Causeway. This is a natural attraction right on the water of stacks of stones that used to be tall chimneys and have broken off to create a series of steps to explore. It's difficult to explain so I will have to post pictures. Anyways, we spent a couple hours exploring that area which was really fun and it was nice to get some exercise hiking! We worked up an appetite and then ate at the Buschmills Inn. We passed right by the Buschmills distillery (just so you have some context as to where we were). It was a great little inn that had an Irish folk band performing and fire-burning stoves as the heat source. We had a wonderful and satisfying meal then around 10pm decided to start the hour-long journey back to Belfast. I was very impressed with Doug's ability to drive a stick-shift car on the wrong side of the road! Also, I was very impressed with my own ability to be the navigator with a paper map and strange street signs. We made it back just fine and I headed straight to bed. It was a long but great day!
This afternoon I am going to spend a few hours with my flatmate, Cara, before she heads to her boyfriend's mother's house to celebrate father's day. I might spend the rest of the day exploring on my own. One of their friends offered to meet up with me as well though, I will have to see how much energy I have!
Tomorrow I am headed to Dublin for the day and I'm sure I will have a lot to report on as well. Cheers!
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