A weekend in Dublin

We haven't really been living up to our 'World Wide' moniker lately, with in the first four months of the year having traveled to Tunisia in January (okay that was pretty cool) and then back home to the States in April. In an effort to make up for the dearth of travel lately, we've got some trips lined up for the coming months - some officially scheduled, some scheduled only in our heads.

To kick it off, we took a quick jaunt to Dublin the weekend before last - arriving late Friday and leaving mid-day Sunday. We had been once before, which was nice because it meant we already had our bearings and didn't need to do the first-time tourist stuff. It was a decent enough weekend - sunny but chilly - which was better than it had been in London for the weeks leading up to it (mainly cloudy and chilly). We headed out to the Kilmainham Jail and took the tour there. Interesting mix of Dublin history - especially as the jail played a prominent role during both the potato famine & the 1916 uprising - and jail theory, the latter of which we are becoming knowledgeable in given our recent visit to the Eastern State Pen too.

Afterwards we wandered around looking for a cafe that either doesn't exist anymore or we had bad directions to, and in doing so passed by Trinity College green where a cricket match was on. So we pulled up a patch of grass and took in the game. This was the first time I've watched live cricket, and I have to say I didn't think the players were very good.

In the evenings we drank lots of Guinness (obv.) and tried to seek out some smaller, more local haunts. We had some luck and enjoyed time with the Dubliners - or, at the very least, near them. We don't have many pictures from this trip - just from the jail and the cricket match - but have a look, the link's at the right.

USA! USA!

(Title in homage of upcoming World Cup events!!!!!)

I've been delaying writing this post, though I'm honestly not sure why. I think I was looking for something profound to say about our 11 days in Philly / New York at beginning of April, but when it comes down to it, it was simply a fantastic trip that felt about twice as long as it actually was (and when does that happen?!). It might have been that it was in the mid-70s and sunny the entire time, or it could have been the fact that we got to see bunches of dear friends and even some dear family too. Probably a combination.

We started with 4 days in Philly, where we stayed at a B&B a couple blocks down from Greg & Kaity's place (they're on Rittenhouse Square), which was also one door down from Jason's old place on Pine. Who says you can't go back? We spent our days wandering down to the waterfront and up to Penn, hitting some old haunts like Mad Mex & Roosevelts, and even grabbing a New Deck Chicken Sandwich with Geoff & Shanna and their 3 frighteningly clever kids and taking a wander up Locust Walk to see what's changed... and what hasn't. The mom & dad came into town for the Easter weekend, which we spent eating cheesesteaks, perusing the Italian Market, and checking out the Eastern State Penitentiary. Greg & Kaity made a delicious Easter eve dinner and we all went to brunch at Parc before going our separate ways.

On Sunday we took the Amtrak up to NYC. Monica & Hayle were gracious enough to let us crash in their spare room in their northern-facing Chelsea apartment for the entire week. Heck, they even left us the place to ourselves when they jetted off to Mexico on Wednesday morning! We did work at our respective offices during the week, but made the most of all our evenings. We enjoyed catching up over drinks & dinners out and were treated to a couple dinners in (a special thanks to Ed for hosting his last dinner party in his now former apartment while we were in town - themed 'Upscale Trailer Park', and to pregnant Lisa for putting together a delicious meal while Hal stood by continuously opening new bottles of wine for the rest of us).

Finally on Saturday, we took a bus out to Brian & Jamie's in New Jersey for the first (annual??) Penn '00 and Friends mini-reunion. This was great because we made our entire mom & baby tour in one stop. It was a very chill event, with yummy burgers & dogs, one hotly contested poker game, and a good time catching up with old friends & seeing their little ones getting bigger and bigger. This happens to be the 10-year reunion year for most of us who were there, but oddly enough no one mentioned sitting in the rain on Franklin Field, listening to an incomprehensible Irish poet give our commencement address, so I'm doing it here. Memorable in its own right.

And THAT, ladies and gentlemen, wraps up my account of our trip home. We left wishing for more time and realising that we really meant it when we told people we plan to be back for good in about a year's time. The reality check, though, is remembering it's not always 75 & sunny, and we're not always going to be a novelty to have around.

AAdvantage me!

In the name of social media, I thought I'd share...

American Airlines' AAdvantage frequent flyer program just sent me the following email:

From the American Airlines AAdvantage® Program

Dear Jessica Willey,

We know you have a choice when it comes to air travel and we appreciate the business you have given us over the years. Today, we'd like to extend a special thanks to you as you celebrate your 10th AAdvantage® Anniversary.

Since we launched the world's first frequent flyer program in 1981, we have worked hard to provide great value whether you earn your miles by flying or through products and services offered by the wide range of companies participating in the AAdvantage program. And now, your miles are redeemable for award travel on more than 20 participating airlines to over 700 destinations worldwide.

Thank you again for your business. We look forward to seeing you on an American Airlines flight soon!

Rob Friedman
President
AAdvantage Marketing Programs

To which I replied:

Dear AA Customer Relations,

I'm writing in response to an email I received, titled 'Happy Anniversary!' and notifying me that I have been an AAdvantage member for 10 years.

As a Marketing professional, I am disappointed that American Airlines fell so short here with such a self-serving campaign. If you really want to thank a customer, you should consider offering a gesture of goodwill, something of value - the obvious in this case would be 10k bonus miles for 10 years.

As a customer, I am annoyed that AA populated my inbox with email that offered me no value - be it useful information or an offer of some sort. Annoyed enough that I decided to send you this note.

Thank you for the refresher lesson in CRM. I do know I have a choice of airlines, and while American is usually in the top 2 or 3 of my list, my esteem for it has slipped slightly.

Kind regards,
Jessica

Into Africa

We're nearing the end of the first quarter of 2010, and alarmingly we've only done one weekend away so far this year! We deliberately didn't plan anything for end Feb / early March, which has lived up to expectations of being a very crazy time at work. But now, we're overdue for a vacation! Thankfully we've got a trip to the States coming up - including a nice 5 1/2 day break over the Easter weekend holiday that we booked within days of our return after Christmas.

When we did manage to get out of dodge, we ventured south to Tunisia - our first trip to Africa. For those who have as little idea of where Tunisia was as I did before booking the trip, it is on the north coast of Africa, nestled between Algeria & Libya, and on googlemaps appears to be a stone's throw from Sicily & Sardinia. Known as one of the most moderate Muslim countries, there is little to no English spoken (Arabic & French), and for these westerners it was definitely one of the most 'foreign' places we've traveled. (Notably, it's also where Star Wars was filmed, but we didn't make it to the deserts in the middle of the country.)

We chose Tunisia because it promised to be warmer than London at the end of January, and because I won a beach vacation in a bet with Jason, having beaten him in our Fantasy Football league finals (the wager was: loser has to take me on a beach vacation). Jason thinks this counted - see evidence below:

From Tunis - January '10

The picture above was on our day trip out to the resort town of Sidi Bou Said and Carthage, where we walked amongst Roman ruins from the area's hey-day. Please note that, while the view was beautiful, I was not dressed in anything close to a bathing suit.

Back where we stayed in Tunis, the capital, there were a few things we found particularly notable:

• While we found plenty of interesting things to look at (mosaics, mosques, market stalls), Jason appeared to be the most interesting thing for the locals to look at.
• As definitive 'outsiders', we found that when we did have the opportunity to interact with the locals, we found them to be warm & welcoming -- and even more so when they found out we are American.
• It's not a place that gets many tourists (hence the 2 first points) - but that was very nice. Unlike Istanbul (where we've visited) or Marrakech (where we haven't), we didn't feel like someone was out to rip us off at every turn. We encountered some entrepreneurial sorts, but very little pushiness or swindling to be found.
• It is nearly impossible to find a place to sit and have a beer or other drink. We did manage to find a hotel's rooftop bar, 'Bar Jamaica', and ended up going multiple times. It is possible to find restaurants serving beer or wine, but never in view of the public (in fact, one place we went had the windows papered over).
• Women and men socialise in different circles, which was brought home to us when we went for dinner on our first night, and I was the only female in the busy, rather large restaurant ... for the entire evening. This also made it seem a little strange that I was the only one to speak directly with servers during our trip, given French was required. I should note, though, that I encountered absolutely no hostility.
• So as not to appear out of touch or offensive, we kept PDA to a minimum (even more so than normal) - meaning not even any hand-holding while walking down the street. This proved remarkably, surprisingly difficult.

Overall, it was a delighful and eye-opening couple of days in a completely different culture, and we definitely recommend brushing up on you French (or Arabic) and checking out Tunisia! Meanwhile, be sure to check out our pictures!