I finished my masters' degree in december of 2000; in the same month I was catapulted back into the top spot of my old union after the resignation of my successor. So, I was still working hard on campus every day even after I was supposed to have been done. When my term ended in June of 2001, a lot of other things in my life also came to an end: most notably, the death of one of my best friends (although at that time, I hadn't seen her since the previous fall). I also became somewhat disillusioned with Canada after attending the Quebec City Summit of the Americas in April of 2001.

An opportunity came up for me to do my Ph.D at Wilfred Laurier University, in Waterloo Ontario. I would have been the first Ph.D student in the programme, and the fellow who would have been my advisor was a brilliant social theorist from Santiago, Chile, who had seen first-hand Pinochet's rise to power. However, at the same time, one of the profs at Guelph who was a good friend said that he knew someone at NUI Galway, and that he would put the two of us in contact.

So, I decided that if I did my Ph.D in Laurier, I would be doing more or less the same stuff in more or less the same place, with more or less the same people. On the other hand, if I went to Galway, I had an opportunity to "start again", as it were: in a (nearly) completely strange place, surrounded by strangers, doing things that I had never done before. So, I quit my summer job early, left my apartment, cancelled my bank account and phone and pretty much pulled up every stake. Then I flew to Shannon on 5/6 August, caught Bus Eireann from Shannon to Ennis to Galway, rented a bed in a B&B, walked down into the sea and roared at it, and then (completely drenched with sea spray) promptly walked into the first pub from which I heared trad music playing for my first pint of Guinness on Holy Ground.

Would you like to see some pictures?

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