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!