All aboard the Hogwarts Express!

Taking the train into work every day feels like I'm on the Hogwarts Express. You know the shots from the Harry Potter movies where the train is travelling through the countryside? I took a picture on my way in today, the train was moving so it's hard to get the full experience, but you get the idea. Very magical :)

View from the DART in Dublin

Hogwarts Express

Speaking of work! Let me tell you a little bit about what I do... I am a Marketing Manager for boxPAY,  an innovative mobile payment platform for web merchants and game developers. The boxPAY platform utilizes SMS technology to bill customers making online purchases in games or apps through their cell phone bill, instead of having to use a credit card. Recently I have been writing press releases, and trying to get some media attention for the company. My stories recently got picked up in the Irish Times,  and here's one in Silicon Republic! We even got printed up in the Irish Independent Biz Section, see below:

Here is a picture of my desk area at work:

And a shot of the office:

And a view from our window:

What you are looking at is Grand Canal Quay. (Quay is pronounced Key, so think key like a waterway between docks or ports for ships. Note: There is a pub in Temple Bar called Quays, do not sound it out like "kuh-way", people will laugh at you and call you a tourist.) Anyway, the Grand Canal area is considered the tech-hub for Dublin, like of like the Silicon Valley area is to San Fransisco, California. In fact, Google is right across the water from us, and Facebook's Euro headquarters are around the corner. 

Check out Google's brand new building (an addition to their already massive campus) that they recently purchased. I can see this out my window. It is the tallest office building in Dublin, and the most expensive, sold for 100 Million Euro! 

The best part about this is that I am going to get a private tour of the new building from a Google employee tomorrow! Simon McNally and I are having lunch then going to check the building out. I met Simon when he interviewed for an internship at my previous employer, Launch Creative Marketing, last year. He was an Irish exchange student studying at University of Illinois on the same program that brought me to Dublin City University just a few years before! He is back in Ireland now working at Google as an Online Media Associate.

Speaking of LUNCH... yesterday I went on an adventure for a favorite Irish meal, but one that is very hard to find gluten-free, Fish & Chips! In Ireland, chips mean fries, and crisps mean potato chips. I will have to do a blog later on funny word exchanges. Peadar thinks it's funny that I call an adapter with multiple outlets a "power strip". The cultural differences never get old!

Anyway check out my delicious (and huge!) lunch, all totally GLUTEN FREE, thank you Beshoff Restaurant on O'Connell Street:

This was my view from the table:

Another thing I am struggling to find is good sushi. There just aren't Shintos and Kikus around every corner like back home. Irish people wouldn't be as big into it as Americans. I will do a blog post documenting my search for sushi as well.

Well lots of information here, so I am going to sign off. On a last note though, Sunday was Summerfest in Peadar's hometown of the Naul. There was bbqing, live music, and lots of drinking at the local pub, Killian's. This is affectionately referred to as the K-Club by the Whyte family, as a "piss-take" (meaning, to make fun of) the actual K-Club, which is a famous fancy golf course and country club nearby. 

Love you and miss you all! XOXO