Dennis Deery

Ukraine? In winter? I think I spent two months explaining to everyone who heard about it just why I was going to Ukraine on vacation over the holidays. But I had a good reason. My wife Kathleen is stationed there as a Peace Corps Response Volunteer. Peace Corps Response recruits experienced professionals with specific technical skills to provide short term (6mos – 1 year) support to a community in need. Kathleen left for Ukraine in early September last year and is completing a nine month project at the Ternopil Regional Center on Education and Rehabilitation, a school for children with disabilities.

It’s been quite a long summer, but we’ve survived and Kathleen has returned home from her long sojourn in Detroit. We decided a short break was in order before the fall semester starts, so we booked a last-minute deal to Washington, DC. Kathleen did her master’s degree at Gallaudet in DC, and I’ve worked there a lot, but we’d never been there together, so this trip was a good chance to share stories and favorite places.

This past weekend Kathleen and I headed up to Duluth, MN for a weekend getaway. It was a pretty low-key weekend, we just hung out in Duluth’s Canal Park neighborhood, wandered around a bit, caught an IMAX movie, ate out, walked along the lake. Check out some pics from the weekend. Click here for slideshow 

Well I guess I can admit it publicly - I celebrated my 40th birthday recently. Since this is supposed to be one of life’s big milestones (hasn’t felt like it!), we decided to celebrate in grand style. Kathleen planned a long-weekend trip to Malta for us. Kathleen had brought a group of students to Malta a couple of years ago, so had a good idea of where to go and what to see.

Our good friend Kat Lui is spending the fall semester teaching at the Wisconsin in Scotland program in Dalkeith, Scotland. This gave us the perfect chance to not only spend a second Thanksgiving in a row with Kat, but also to spend a few days and have Thanskgiving dinner in a palace. We flew from Dublin to Edinburgh on Wednesday evening, arriving to a rainy Edinburgh. We caught the airport bus to downtown Edinburgh, and my first glimpse of rainy Edinburgh was picture-perfect.

Click here for slideshow

Check out NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day web site for a very cool photo of an astronaut floating free in his manned-maneuvering unit (jetpack). He’s a long way from home!

After nearly a year driving on Ireland’s roads, we’ve learned that you have to pay close attention all the time because you never know what you might see. It’s not at all unusual to see herds of various types of animals being herded down the middle of the road between fields. So, you plan extra time for any trip, and stop and wait when you have to. This past weekend Kathleen had a meeting in Portlaoise, so early Saturday morning we headed up the road.

 Tramore Beach - 9:45PM

This past weekend we made a visit to County Cork to check out the little village of Cobh. Kathleen has a group of students visiting, so her helper on the trip, Dana, joined us for the day. We had been to Cobh for a brief visit shortly after we moved here, but decided it was worth checking out again. We’re glad we did, as we found much more to see on this visit than the last one.

The Wisconsin Historical Society has long held sales of photos from their archives, generally in a once- or twice-a-year sale in Madison. I’ve gotten several gems from these sales in the past. But now they’ve moved their sales online, and in the process greatly expanded the items available. The pic to the right is the first Wisconsin State Capitol in my hometown, Belmont. Click on the pic to get your very own copy!

This past weekend Kathleen and I were in Dublin for a couple of events. We managed a short visit to the Street Performance World Championship in Merrion Square. Though we didn’t get to see much of the show, we did see part of the final performance by the Space Cowboy, who won the competition for the second year in a row. The Space Cowboy is from Australia and actually earns a living as a street performer.

The Wisconsin Arts Board has come out with a new study showing the impact the arts have on local economies. According to the report, “in 2005, Wisconsin’s non-profit arts industry generated over 15,000 full-time jobs and $61,840,000 in state and local government revenue. Cumulatively, the arts contributed $418,055,786 in total economic activity.” The Wisconsin Arts Board hopes to use the report’s findings to improve public funding for the arts in Wisconsin.

I must say, one of the things I really enjoy in Ireland is the many foggy days we get. True, after 4 straight months of rain this winter, it did get a bit old. But nothing beats a good foggy day for picture taking, especially in an ancient landscape. Click here for slideshow

A company called Moixa is offering batteries with a built-in USB connector for charging. They’re not cheap, but given that you don’t need to carry a separate charger, they’re a great solution for people who travel with a digital camera and a laptop. Check them out.

This past weekend Kath and I went exploring an area called The Burren in the western part of Ireland. The Burren is named from an Irish word that means “stone place”, and that’s what it is - mile after mile of stone-covered landscape. It’s really an interesting place, and contains a lot of different plant types. I’ll let the pictures speak their thousands of words on this one, rather than trying to describe it.

Our month-o-visitors continued with my sister Kathy, her husband Tim and my two nieces Caitlin and Brianna coming to Ireland. Our timing was just about as good as you could get it. I dropped the Peltons off on the departures level of Dublin Airport, went downstairs to the arrivals level and met the new arrivals just a few minutes later, while Kathleen scurried home to Tramore to ready the guest rooms.

So it seems that the first of March kicked off tourist season here at the Deery getaway in Ireland. Our first visitors were friends Mark and Shaun Pelton from Reedsburg, Wisconsin. We’ve learned from our own experience, and that of visitors, that when folks arrive first thing in the morning, it’s best if we can keep them up most of the day. With that in mind, we ran some errands in Dublin before heading out to take the long way home to Tramore.

One of the great things about living in Ireland is the easy access it gives us to most of Europe. Flights to almost anywhere in western Europe can be had for less than $100, in many cases significantly less. Our first adventure to the continent to take advantage of this was a trip to Germany to visit an old friend of mine from Belmont. Jill grew up in the house next to me, and was always another big sister to me.

The weekend before Thanksgiving (that’s deer-season opening-weekend to you Wisconsinites) our friends John and Kat from Menomonie arrived in Cork for a week-long visit. Kat was here to do some training at Dunhill, and John tagged along to work on some business connections here for UW-Stout. It was good to have old friends around this week, as it’s usually a big family week for us - deer season with the Deery family, then off to Detroit for Thanksgiving with the Saura family.