Spring Break Euro Style

 

Hello everyone! I thought I had published a draft I had written a few weeks ago but apparently not...so I have to write it all over again. Oh well, it was probably too descriptive anyway.

London

     As you may have read from my previous post I went to London and met up with my old roommate from home, Jenna. It was so nice to see a familiar face! I didn't realize how comforting it would be to see Jenna, but it sure was. She currently is studying abroad in northern England and met up with me in London with a few of her current roommates and a fellow friend from home, Erin. Anyway, we were able to see a ton of cool things due to the fact that Jenna's roommate Tom had previously lived there and knew the way around the metro like the back of his hand...it was helpful to have our own tour guide! As the weekend came to an end it was difficult to say goodbye, but I know I will see her again when I come home which helped. It was so nice to be reunited and feel like roommates all over again since we stayed in the same room at the hostel together. As much as I loved London, though, when I returned to Dublin I felt at home. It was the strangest feeling being on the bus, driving through the city center, and having a self of relief. It was at this point when I felt Dublin truly was my home...and still is! 

Euro Trip!!!

     After being back from London only one week, spring break began the following weekend! The first part of our two week long vacation was a four day road trip around Ireland :) The first day we waited for Amaury and Jenny to pick up the cars from the airport....OMG when they showed up driving on the left side in the tiny little fiats we nearly died. We were SO excited to have the freedom to drive with our own car....for all of us it had been quite a while since we had driven and have been restricted by the bus schedules for getting around. I don't remember much of the first day except that we drove straight to Cork where we were going to stay our first night. The second day we walked around Cork where we saw the Cathedral, but did not go inside. 

     Around noon we left for Blarney where the infamous Blarney stone is held. After paying ten euro and walking through the incredible park we finally reached Blarney castle where the stairs were spiral and so narrow that some of the larger people had to go up sideways. Kissing the Blarney stone was fast and anti-climatic, but I was still very excited! I hoped to gain the 'gift of the gab' as they say. After Blarney we hit the road again where we drove threw Killarney so I could get a picture with a sign (Killarney is the name of the type of rose which is a symbol of Delta Zeta Sorority). Spending less then 10 minutes in this small, but cute town we decided to drive to the Ring of Kerry which was near by. The Ring of Kerry is this road that travels through a valley and mountains containing some of the most gorgeous views of Ireland. Driving through the whole loop takes over an hour so we decided to only drive up to the point of Ladies View, an infamous spot where one can see the entire valley. On our way out we drove by Inch Beach; it was incredible! The view of the ocean against the mountains was probably the top views I have seen in Ireland. Of course, the wind was brisk that day making it nearly impossible to take a few photos end enjoy the site, but we did anyway. 

     The sky was turning dark and we needed to head to our hostel as we did not want to drive with out the light. After some confusion of the whereabouts of our hostel, we finally found it...a quiet nestled building on a fairly empty and quiet street in Dingle. We were so impressed with the comfort of this hostel that we stayed in, made dinner and sat by the fire that evening. The staff even purchased us food and gave it to us freely. Sitting on the comfy leather couch and resting in front of a small fire we all began to tell ghost stories...it seemed fitting at the time. That night we all got a great nights rest (or at least I did) and were ready for the adventures the next day.

      The following day we woke up early and took a stroll in the town of Dingle, located less than ten 10 minutes from our hostel. It was a small fishing village complete with little shops, a wharf, and plenty of seafood restaurants even though most were closed. The view from the docks was amazing! Because the town is located on a peninsula you can see across the water to the other side where the hills were a bright green. I don't know why that day, but for some reason any dog I saw would walk right past me. It happened three times! It became a joke among our group that the Irish dogs must not like me lol. For lunch we ate at this cute little cliche seafood place...complete with netting on the ceiling and paintings of fish on the walls. There were so many options for fish and chips that it took me forever to decide! I am not normally a fish and chips person, but seeing that we were in a fishing town I felt obligated to try it. I got the smoked haddock and it was the BEST fish and chips I have ever had...and many of my friends felt the same. I cannot describe how tasty and fresh the fish tasted with the best flaky batter. After the best fish of my life we went to get ice cream from this place called Murphy's. It was pretty good, but wasn't my favorite...my friend Hilary loved it, though. After soaking up everything this town had to offer, we left the village in pursuit of Galway...where we knew we would have a fantastic time! 

     It was on this drive that we rode on some very winding roads which made the driver of my car very nervous. At several points we stopped to view the scenery and take some photos. While we were driving on this one path a sheep appeared strutting on the side of the road so, naturally, I wanted to take a photo with it! But just like the dogs from Dingle the sheep wasn't very fond of me either. After a diligent effort I gave up and we continued to drive toward Galway. By the time we reached Galway night had fallen and we were all very exhausted but excited to go out! We walked around, bought some alcohol, and returned to the hostel (one which we had previously stayed in on our ESN trip to Galway: one of the staff even remembered me from my 'evil eyes' and nice smile) where we stole some mugs from the kitchen and pre-drank in our room. We played several drinking games before we decided to leave for the club. It was that night that we all let loose a little because we drove for almost four hours that day, stopping many time in between. This was our last night on our road trip so we all wanted to have some fun. The next day we all woke up early in order to check out on time; we also gave that one staff member a very positive comment card which he then proceeded to pin on the wall. Mike and I bought a carton of orange juice each and I was the only one to finish mine :) We drove Hilary and her brother to their family friends house on the way back to Dublin. When we finally got back, around 7pm or so, we all went to our respective apartments and crashed. It was the perfect end to a perfect trip, but Saint Patrick's day was just around the corner. 

Saint Patrick's Day Weekend

     After a very long four days on the road it was nice to be back in my own bed with my own bathroom...alone, but only a few days later my friend Jenna and four of her roommates came to visit for Saint Patrick's Day weekend! I was so excited to see Jenna again after London and could not wait for the weekend festivities to begin. They showed up on Friday afternoon, just two days after I came home from the road trip. I had offered up my apartment for them to stay so for that whole weekend all six of us shared one bathroom. That day their flight got delayed and did not show up until 5pm, but arrived just in time for dinner, so we decided to go down town to eat! That night went by really quick and the streets were already packed with tourists for the holiday. 

     The following day was Saturday and Jenna and her roommates went on a Paddy Wagon tour to the Cliffs of Moher while I slept in and finished up some homework. When they returned close to 9pm we pre-drank at my place and went out to Coppers after. That night we all drank just a little too much in celebration of Saint Patty...so the next morning was a little rough on some of us. Waking up on the 17th of March was slow and painful, but we gathered some breakfast and went to town where the Parade was being held! I have never seen the streets so packed in Dublin since being here...there were Americans everywhere! I finally felt like the locals and was disgusted by all the craziness, but it was definitely something to experience. I would say everyone should try it once! That afternoon we were starving and ate at the best little Italian restaurant on the outskirts of the temple bar district. It was just what we needed! After lunch we walked around for hours until we ended up at Whelan's (the pub from P.S. I love you). They had some great live music playing and so many Irish people were there...which was a relief after a day of, I hate to say it, Americans...or we can just say foreigners lol. We were at Whelan's for over five hours when realized the time. After a long day of activities we finally felt ready to go home. And to think...we were only half way through spring break.

Week Two

    The night of Saint Patrick's Day we all went to bed ridiculously early since we had to be up at the crack of dawn to leave for the airport. My friends were going back to England while my group of friends from Ireland and myself were headed to Berlin. Running to the last minute packing we finally left my apartment and headed to the bus stop. Surprisingly we were the first ones there, but not long after we arrived did the rest of our group show up. It was raining and we were all exhausted, so I planned on sleeping on the bus to make up for the lack of sleep the night before. 

     I actually felt well rested when waking up as we entered the airport, but some of my other friends were less lucky. We all entered the gate and went our separate ways...it was so nice to see Jenna again and I hated saying goodbye to her for the second time, but I was comforted by the excitement I had to travel to Berlin! Arriving in Berlin was a struggle since everything was in German and the train station was unclear on how to obtain tickets and where to go, and, of course, there was no one there to help us. Finally we reached Alexanderplatz and walked to our hostel just down the road from the station. The weather was not as cold as we expected, but there definitely was snow on the ground. For an early dinner we ate at this small Asian place where the food was amazing and the price was unbelievable! We had an entire dinner for less than 6 euro each...nearly unheard of in Dublin. An hour or so later my friend Brice met us at the Hostel. He was relieved to be with us and was excited for the rest of the week. We decided to walk around Berlin and visit the Jewish museum--recommended to us by Hilary's brother who is studying abroad in Germany. The walk was nearly torture; my feet were killing me and the city was so huge it took forever to walk anywhere- Not to mention at this point the weather reached a freezing temperature. 

     The next day we woke up early and ate breakfast at Dunkin' Doughnuts located just a few minutes walk from our hostel. This day we did a lot of sight seeing including visiting the Brandenburg Gate, Reichstag Parliament building, Tiorgarten Park, and the Topographie of Terror. We ate lunch in a little cafe called Leckerback and then went back to hostel to rest before going out for the night. After a very restful nap and hot shower we walked around this area where there was supposed to be some great bars, but on accident we found this hole in the wall place off of a dark alley. We don't even know what the name was but the theme of the bar was gargoyles and creepy stuff...difficult to explain but the decorations were insane! Brice was so kind and bought us all four bottles of champagne while we watched two performances of a contemporary dancer. We were literally mind blown by the place, and even better, Brice was having a great time too! As we left we saw this GIANT Dragon Statue that, if you paid one euro, it would do something...it scared the crap out of us as the wings began to flap and the eyes started moving! It was a very unique dragon as it was made from recycled materials. We all had a great laugh and took several pictures of it to remember the crazy night we had...but for some reason I cannot find any pictures of it! When I do I will post one :) 

      The next day we woke up by 5:30 and left by 6am in order to get to the bus stop in time which was supposed to depart at 7:30am. Long story short three of us (my fault) missed the bus by less then 1 minute...it really does leave exactly on time and does not wait for everyone. While Jenny, Marc, and I waited for the next bus at 9:30am we sat in the station playing on our phones. When we finally got to Prague we got off the bus and inhaled the fresh air in the warm sun. After the treacherous weather in Berlin we were so happy to realize it was warm enough to not wear a coat! With everyone in a good mood we met the rest of our group at the hostel. Eager to walk around we left after dropping our bags off and walked around the old town center and near the large museum. We walked through a festival complete with live performances and fresh food, and could not have been happier! Prague was beautiful...we could not believe how amazing it was. We went to the top of the tower and got a view of Prague right at sun set.  We ate dinner at the food stands just in front of the large museum and it was amazing! It was also extremely cheap...something we had looked forward to about eastern Europe. After our dinner and climbing the tower we crossed the bridge to go visit the Castle. When we reached the top of the hill we viewed the castle and large Cathedral. For drinks we went to a small bar and had some inexpensive cocktails...and they were so good! After a great day we headed back to the hostel where we got ready for following day :)

    **** I will continue this post later today as I have much more to add :) Enjoy!****

One Month Down, Four More to go.

I was late in posting my last entry by about 3 weeks, so for that I apologize! Today I am going to write an entry in honor of my one-monthaversary of being in Ireland!

My first weekend trip was to Galway with ESN and all of my friends. It was amazing! We got to see the country side of Ireland along with the Cliffs of Moher, and the Aran Islands. Some of the most beautiful scenery I have ever witnessed was on this trip. I cannot wait to drive through the country side on my spring break and visit Galway again! Below are some pictures from my trip :)

Anyway those are some pictures from my Galway trip...so much fun!

Now a little bit about Dublin in honor of living here for now over a month...

1. It costs money for EVERYTHING here...laundry alone is 3 euro just to wash and 1.50 to dry. Don't even dare try to eat or talk on the phone in the library otherwise you will be fined 20 euro. The student bus pass is a joke; it hardly saves you any money at all but always handy to have instead of change. I mean, Dublin is listed as the 26th most expensive city in the world. That number may not sound impressive, but when you look at the entire world and all of the cities that exist...it is actually quite remarkable.

2. I was surprised at how many women/girls here have husky voices. Back in the states I thought my voice was unique but after being here I just fit in with the crowd. It must be genetic because not all women here smoke...but then again, a large majority of them do (just to clarify I do not smoke lol).

3. The weather is literally bipolar here. One minute it's raining and ten minutes later is sunny or there is a rainbow. Below is a series of pictures that I took outside my window within a time frame of 15 min.

4. Fun fact: There are more Irish people calling the United States than are calling within Ireland itself. Ireland only has 4 million citizens.

5. The roads in the city have painted on them "Look Left" and "Look Right" because there are so many foreigners who are used to driving in the opposite side of the road that come to visit.

6. Slancha is an Irish term meaning "cheers" and is often used by non Irish speakers and non-speakers.

7. Rugby is HUGE here, along with Irish football.

8. Whatever you do, don't ask for a ride or say you shifted something.

9. I have been here a month and I am still struggling with which side of the sidewalk is most appropriate to walk on...seriously they need to just pick a side!

10. And for my final ten I would say that it seems no matter where you go and how cold the weather is there will always be girls in the evening walking around the streets of the city wearing hardly anything at all.


*** If there is anything you would like to know PLEASE comment so I can answer any of your questions!!

Update: This weekend I will be traveling to London and meeting up with my old roommate from San Jose State! Two of my friends from here will be going as well. I can't wait to update you!

Thanks for reading :)

A Week to Remember

Since the last time I wrote so many things have happened, but now I finally have found some time to sit down and describe it all. The first event since my last blog was Australia Day. Since my friend Sarah is from down under we all wanted to celebrate by cooking some snags, and drinking tinnys (sausages and beer). We all dressed up and started by pre-drinking at my place, as they call it here. Gold and green jello shots shaped in the outline of Australia covered my coffee table while everyone listened to Australian music (I don't remember the artists). Below are some picture from Australia Day!

The evening was very epic and all of us had blast! It wasn't until after we left the pub and went to McDonald's when the night took a steep turn. My parents had been trying to reach me for over and hour and I had multiple missed calls and messages on my phone, skype, and even Facebook. When I took a look at my phone while eating my chicken mcnuggets I decided to give them a call back. I was shocked with the news my grandfather had died. The whole night just came to a complete stop and I am so thankful to have my group of friends who supported me and make me feel better. I cannot have asked for a better group of friends that night here in Ireland. SO, if you guys are reading (yes that means you Marc, Jenny, Mike, Emmanuel, Sarah, and Hilary) then I thank you so much! Anyway, the night before this point was quite a great night! Below is a picture of me and my Grandpa Ken when I was a little girl. His service is this Saturday and it makes me sad that I will not be able to attend.

The next day was Sunday and I spent most of the time in my room reading for class, skyping my family, and doing laundry. Later that evening my friends all came over and we enjoyed each others company on a quiet school night. 

Monday was a great day because I went to my class and then went to the gym right after. The gym here is amazing! They have more than one gym in the same building complete with a rock climbing wall, squash courts, 50m pool, and so much more. I will be so sad to go home to San Jose State's gym....it is seriously nothing compared to here. Monday night my friends and I all went to a stoplight party hosted by ESN for international students. They even surprised us with a party bus for only 2.40 euro per person (same as the public bus)! It was nice to blow off some steam after hearing the news of my grandfather, so my friends and I  focused on just having a great time, which we did! 

The following day I went to immigration so I could continue to stay in Ireland. I spend about an hour an half there which wasn't too bad compared to my friends who went and had to wait five hours! I had to spend 300 euro for a card which basically says I am allowed to stay here...ugh such a hassle. Anyway at 6pm that night Marc, Emmanuel, Jenny, Hilary and I all decided to go to this cardio boxing class. It was definitely not boxing by any means!!! The only "boxing" we did was learn some of the moves, but the rest of the class was spent doing circuits and our trainer was so intense! He did not let any of us slack around and I am pretty sure took everyone by surprise. We decided that it was a great work out and to go every week! 

The following day a few of my friends came over and we booked our spring break! The first week (march 9-14) will be spend on a road trip around Ireland :) We still have to plan our itinerary for the road trip, but at least we know generally what we are going to accomplish. After we get back from the road trip my old roommate Jenna from back home will be coming to visit with her flatmates from England!! She and her friends fly in on March 15 and will be staying the weekend for St. Patrick's day!! After Jenna and her friends fly out Monday the 18th my friends and I will be leaving for Berlin! Two days each will be spent in the following places: Berlin, Prague, and Budapest. All of our flights, train rides, buses, and hostels are all booked :) I cannot wait for spring break!!! 

Discovering Dublin

Hey everyone! Welcome back to my blog lol...

So to follow up from my last post I will start with Saturday the 19th :) My group and I decided to go see the Book of Kells located at Trinity College in down town Dublin. I don't know about you, but I had never heard of this book before and neither did some of my friends so we felt compelled to visit it. The weather was pretty nice for Dublin...clowdy and cold, but hey, no rain! We paid 8 euro (a student rate) to go in this museum which was actually quite small. There were blown up images of this book which was made in the early 800's and is very intricate with art and the way it was bounded together. They showed video clips of how they made the book and it was actually pretty amazing to watch. After viewing the book of Kells in its holding place the stairs led us to the "long room" which is actually a huge library complete with statues of famous people's heads, wooden ladders, an incredibly high ceiling, and books generations older than myself. Bellow are a few pictures that I got offline because you are not allowed to take photos inside...

After the book of Kells my friends and I were starving so we went walking down the streets of Dublin to find the cupcake shop that Sarah and I had previously found. First we had to stop in McDonalds, Mackers, or whatever other nick name they came up with to get a quick "real" bite to eat lol. The cupcake was so satisfying! Jenny got a group photo of us all eating our cupcakes but I currently don't have it to put up. We wanted to have an authentic Irish meal while watching live music so we walked around looking for a cheap pub in temple bar when we stumbled upon the Old Storehouse. This place was reminded me of the pub in P.S. I love you because there were two young guys performing in the corner singing modern rock/alternative songs with an Irish twist. We all sat down and ordered our first Guinness in Ireland :) Sadly it took that long for me...anyway, we had the best vegetable soup ever! It was the perfect day for soup as it was freezing outside. The atmosphere was just what we wanted: relaxing, calm, warm, and pleasant. Finally when we were done eating we walked around the streets by the bridge. It was a great way to see the city on a clear evening. We walked along the river crossing bridge after bridge zigzagging to get views from both sides. My friend from Ontario, Jenny, had a professional camera and was able to take some amazing photos on our night walk! We saw the bridge shaped like a harp, the train bridge, a building with puzzle pieces painted on it, and some other cool architectural designs. Below are some pictures from our walk... :)

***please don't take offense to the "tim is well gay" graffiti...we just found it funny because it sounds too polite to be used as graffiti!***

The following day was Sunday the 20th and was spent going to Tesco, the local grocery store, getting food to fill our apartments and ingredients for our "family dinner" that night. We made tacos!!! It was fun going to an Irish grocery store buying Mexican food materials lol...very strange. But regardless of our struggle, we were able to make some pretty good tacos! I had so many groceries that not only was my Ikea bag completely full, but I had to use more bags AND get a taxi because we had walked all the way to the store and my hands nor arms could hold the weight any longer...after a block. It worked out because we just put everyone's groceries in the trunk and went on our way. We originally were going to head to Dicey's again, but we were so tired and had our first day of classes the next day that we decided to have a quiet night in.

First day of classes...miserable...jk. SO...I woke up super early so I would have plenty of time to get ready and leave for class, but I was over confident about the whereabouts of my classroom...I could not have been more wrong. I went in to this building thinking it was where I needed to be but in fact I was in a completely wrong building and took forever to find the correct place. I ended up being 15 minutes late for my first day and rushed in to find that my teacher was not Irish, but Australian lol...he was even wearing board shorts!! The class was pretty interesting but stuff I already knew. What a different experience from San Jose State...usually back home everyone is fighting for a spot in the class and nothing is taught on the first day. My lecture was one hour and fourty-five min long but luckily is only once a week...same with every other class I have haha. I am quite a fan of my schedule...

The rest of the week was pretty uneventful as we all were getting ready for our classes and having low-key nights in, except of course on Monday. The first day of classes each semester is called Black Monday...one of the biggest nights of the semester! My friends and I decided to pre-game and hang out in our friends apartment first, then go out to Dicey's after. The security was SO tight that getting in to the dorms they had to watch you swipe your card and sometimes even looked at the picture to make sure you belonged...they also only had one entrance open so everyone would flow in and out of one place. After playing a loud, hilarious, and one of the most interesting games of Kings Cup we hopped in some taxis and went off to Diceys...mistake. It was incredibly crowded beyond belief. How we were able to stick together is still an amazement to me. Trying to go to the bathroom was literally a battle. Girls and guys being shoved every which way and the lady in the bathroom yelling at girl for not making her trash in to the bin. It was a crazy crazy night and we wanted to leave within 30 min, but decided that we had paid already and wanted to get our money's worth. How we all got home is an interesting story..at least for my friend Mike. Most of us just cabbed back, but when Mike second-guessed his decision to stay he tried to walk home. From the temple bar. At night. Alone. He had our friend Sarah txting him directions until his phone died..After walking around for an hour or more he made his way back to Dicey's and split a cab with some random Irish people. My version doesn't do the story justice. Anyway so that was our Monday night...but like I said, it is one of the biggest nights of the semester and the rest of the week was spent sleeping, going to class, and preparing for new lectures.

Some of my Friends and I are taking a class called Ireland Uncovered which teaches us about Irish history, archaeology, language, and overall culture. I am excited for our field trip in a couple of weeks!

Today we went down town to get some items for tomorrow...Australia Day! We have the flags, vegemite, green and yellow jello-shots, sausage and bread. We still need face paint, balloons and some other last minute items. We are planning on celebrating in Sarah's apartment in the early afternoon, hopefully with some back yard cricket, and then going to the Australian Pub down town called Woolshed. It should be a pretty fun day :) Then Sunday is our friend Megan's birthday. We are already beginning to plan our Spring break! First we are going to do a road trip around Ireland for the first half, then come back to Dublin for St. Patricks Day! My friend Jenna who is studying abroad in England just booked her ticket to come visit! The day after st. Patricks day we are going to make our way to Berlin, Prague, and Budapest over the whole rest of spring break.

Well I should get back to planning, but as promised...here are some pictures of my room (not completely up to date now that I bought 3 posters)

Shortest Week Ever

Hello everyone! Thanks for reading my blog...this evening I am going to cram as much information in about my first week as I can fit on to one page :)

Since my last post I went to IKEA and got a few things for my room such as coat hangers, sheets, duvet cover (almost all girls from our group got the same one for 4 euro), bins, shower caddy and various other items. After a long day at IKEA the group we have now formed went out with a bunch of other students to a pub called Dicey's where they had a special deal on certain drinks. The place was packed!! It was so difficult to move and the place was enormous. This pub on Tuesday nights is more of a night club with different areas to hang out like the basement, inside, upstairs, and the courtyard where we were. 

A little interjection here: Most of the international/study abroad students have signed up for this group called ESN. They basically plan a bunch of events over the course of the semester including weekend trips and nights out! We paid 14 euro to go to the club Tuesday night, the GIANT pub crawl on Wednesday night, and then a welcome BBQ on Thursday night. It was a pretty good deal because so far they have been great in planning everything...and I will get to the details of the events later, but I just wanted to clarify how this is all set up!

So the club was really fun Tuesday night. We all took a cab and split the cost (about 3 euro per person). Wednesday was a bit more fun. It involved a shopping tour of Dublin where the guides would show us Grafton Street where all of the major shopping is located. The only Forever 21 in Europe happens to  be on this street! They also have stores such as H&M, Yankee Candles, Claires, and many other stores we have here. After Shopping tour was over my friend Sarah,who is from Australia, and I went to the cell phone stores to compare rates. I also bought myself a much needed hair dryer! We were walking back to the bus when in the shopping center we saw this cupcake store that we could not resist! I have to say the raspberry drissle cupcake I had was probably the BEST cupcake I have ever had. Here are some pictures:

 Once we got back all of us began to get ready for the pub crawl. Around 300 people signed up for this event! Basically we all went to the first pub where they gave us a special deal on beer and cider for only 2 euro. About 40 minutes later we all walked to the next pub where there was a deal that every drink that you buy you got a free shot. This place was amazing because it had almost five stories! All of the inside was wood and looked beautiful, but was also extremely packed. The third and final pub of the evening included free drinks and free tequila shots! We all went inside and enjoyed this pub because it had many layers like the previous place. If only I could remember the names of these pubs I would write them down, but I was not paying attention at the time :/ The third pub had a night club attached where we all ended for the evening. I nearly lost my voice the following day from all the screaming due to loud music. It was sooo much fun! 

On Thursday I woke up late and went to a meeting for my exchange group. Afterward we went to the final ESN event of the week...the BBQ. We all gathered outside the Global Lounge on campus where they surprised us with party buses! At the BBQ we were given free burgers with fries...but the line was soooo long because they had to check our names off the list individually. My group and I left around 10pm  because we were all so tired from the night before. We ended up going back to my apartment and watching Bridesmaids where there was non-stop laughing. 

Today I went back to the bank and got my information there, and my group met up at 3pm to go downtown...well once we all met up at Centra (the local store on campus, like a 7/11) we decided that the weather was wayyyy to rainy and windy to go down town. My umbrella kept flipping inside out and I was freezing!!! We bought some wine and pasta at Centra and went back to my apartment and hung out watching youtube videos, comparing things from our countries, and just having a good laugh. The evening ended early as we are all still tired. Every night this week we have stayed up till at least 2 am and have been waking up late. Tomorrow we plan on meeting up at 1pm and later in the afternoon/evening going to a pub down town to eat dinner and to stay dry. My group consists of one Australian, a girl from chicago, a guy from Connecticut, two guys from Belgium, and three Canadians! It has been fun learning about the other countries and the lingo they use, such as jumpers, stockings, duna, and biscuts in Australia, and various french phrases I cannot spell from Belgium (apparently their frogs go "quack" instead of "ribbet" lol). 

I would show you pictures of my room but it is too messy since I am not completely set up yet, but I promise I will once I am ready! That is all for now!

Day 1

Wow. All I can say is that so far my travels to Europe have been overwhelming and adventurous. I left home Saturday the 12th and did not arrive in Dublin until Sunday night at 6pm local time. I flew from San Jose to Chicago and then to London where I had nearly a five hour lay over. I waited in the International Lounge for my flight while I watched the movie "The Terminal" which I found quite fitting. Below is a couple of pictures from the London Heathrow Airport...

Finally I arrived in Dublin at 6pm local time Sunday evening. A taxi driver named Paul picked me up an was extremely friendly and helpful. What a character!! Paul is a stereotypical irishman who curses like a sailor and has an accent so thick you can only understand half of what he is saying. He sure made the ride to the hotel fun as he talked about his wife "happy wife, happy life." He dropped me off at the Raddison Blu Saint Helen's Hotel across the street from University College Dublin. What a beautiful place! Below are pictures of the hotel at night, during the day, and a view from my room...

My first night at this hotel was amazing...great customer service and of course, great hotel. I had dinner at the bar and then went to bed around 10pm. Today I woke up at 9am, walked to the bank, met some people, went on a walking campus tour, moved in to my apartment, met some more people, signed up for events, watched a free screening of the five year engagement and then went on an adventure to get dinner with some other study abroad students :) So far I am loving it here! The people are wonderful and I cannot wait for my shopping trip to Ikea tomorrow. Time to go to bed...its already after midnight here. Goodnight!

Let the Good-byes Roll

It is hard to believe that in just a day and a half I will be leaving my home for a place full of greenery and adventure. I am almost all packed, but still have a few more last minute items. On my last day in the States I will be going on a hike with family, getting a pedicure with my mother, then saying my final goodbyes to family and close friends at dinner on Friday night. I am still trying to grasp the idea of me living in another country and that it is actually going to happen!

I cannot wait for my adventures ahead and the people I will meet. My sorority big sister, Alissa, gave me an "Ireland survival kit" today complete with shamrock stockings, beer-shaped goggles, delta zeta apparel, band-aids, and various other survival items. Please continue to read my blog as I hope to update it every other week, if not more. 

See you from the other side!