Thursday July 14 - IDA Ireland, Grocery

Thursday we had shorter classes which was totally awesome because my attention span is crazy low. Not even that, but after a solid 15-30 minutes of my teacher talking I get sleepy. It's not that the information isn't interesting, it's just like when I drive long periods of time I get tired. It just is.

We had such a short class because we were meeting with the Industrial Development Agency of Ireland or IDA Ireland. They mainly focus on getting companies to headquarter their businesses in Ireland via Foreign Direct Investment. It's a really cool company, actually. I didn't think I would like it much because investment isn't my thing, but in essence it's all a sales pitch to convince companies to move. Ireland has a 12.5% tax rate which is one of the lowest overall, so many companies find that part very attractive, but also it seems that Ireland houses highly talented and educated people - all fairly young. The bulk of the population is under 30. When we were entering the building we actually walked into the wrong building! Turns out Linked In has a headquarters there that is housed just next to where IDA is. Among many, it seems that technology businesses like Facebook and Twitter are also housed in Ireland.

We got to ask some questions and listen to a presentation, and overall it was great. One person asked how they managed to get Google to move and we are told a representative walked into the office in the US with a six pack of Guinness. That's how business is done.

Oddly enough it does go to show how important building relationships (which often seems to be done quicker with alcohol) in the business world is. This doesn't mean it's okay to get crazy. I think if your moral compass points close to North, you get what I mean.

After we left we went by another TESCO - yes another. We forgot something and I wanted to get more sprite in their big bottles because the Centra on campus only has small bottles. It seems that when people ask what we do for fun, my answer is going to end up being "I like long walks on the beach and grocery stores". Really, though. It seems that one of the easiest ways to compare countries is by the products they sell. Ireland has a vast amount of different cultures - Italian, Spanish, British, Scottish (all of Europe, basically) and a decent amount of Americans. Mostly this is evident in that I am living on a college campus and see all of these cultures in one place - but they're definitely out in Dublin.

They even has a huge range of Indian and Asian products. Aside from just things like soy sauce, they have different flavors and spices and overall just some really cool things. I even bought leeks for an Irish Potato and Leek soup I hope to make. Sure, we have leeks at home. It's just cooler here.

Did I mention that I haven't found cabbage for sale anywhere? I've been to a SPAR (like a CVS, not a lot of pharmacy though), a Donny Brook Fair and a few other places I forget.. Yet the Irish are known to eat it and I can't find it?!

I've heard there's a mall area and a T K Maxx (yes, K) and there's supposed to be a wal-mart type store there and oddly enough I'm sort of excited. Mostly because I forgot to bring a brush even though I bought one specially for this trip. Funny how that works.

I made ground beef and pasta with a red sauce, onions and mushrooms sort of reminiscent of what my mom used to make that I love. There's no Ragu here and I'm cheap, but the sauce and all wasn't bad - it's just not my mom's. We went to a bar - Foley's. Apparently it was the two year anniversary of the bar and first 50 cocktails were free. Well we didn't get free cocktails, but they still had the free 'barbeque'. This mostly meant a SQUARE - yes square, burger with some condiments. Pretty lame when you're from Texas, but they did pretty good. They had live music and a photographer and all-in-all it was a fun night!