Ireland Adventures

Fall Break is over and I haven't wrote in ... a long time! Woops sorry (I kind of forgot that we would actually have to be doing schoolwork over here) I had so much fun with Mitch and Jeffrey on Fall break. My favorite  place we visited was probably Miltenberg Germany because it was such a cute little town and everybody there was named Faust!! I also like being in Ireland with the boys because I knew all of the main sights so it was kind of like showing them around my second home. It was nice to get back to Spiddal after a fantastic break, and get back into a routine of things. The day we got back, it was gorgeous and a group of us decided to go for a dip in the Atlantic! It was... Freezing, but So worth it! I didnt plan on going in past my knees, but JD of course came up behind me and picked me up and threw me 10 feet into the waves! It was definitely a memory that I will look back on  and be thankful for doing despite other people in our group saying we were crazy and staying back.

We have had a long two weeks of classes! We have not gone on any excursions since fall break, so it has been nice being able to stay in one place for a while, but that also mean 6 hours of classes a day! My favorite classes are literature and our Study Abroad class that our director teaches. We spend the days going to class, making dinner, doing homework, and then watching movies! We have been excitedly getting ready for Halloween which means watching lots of scary movies and making our costumes!

Our cottage decided to be Zombies for Halloween because it was the easiest to make! We got white t-shirts and fake blood in Galway and decorated them on Tuesday night. Yesterday, we had 6 hours of Theology and were all super antsy by about the 5th hour. We got done and started getting ready for Halloween!! At 9:00 our whole group went into Galway. We went to our usual pubs that arent usually crowded, but they were Packed last night!! It was A lot of fun and we all had a really good time!

Germany

We finally made it to Germany!! It has been a long day of travel and we are all very exhausted, but excited to finally be here! We left our bed and breakfast in Ireland at 7:00am and were instructed to just flag down the airport bus and it will stop... Never stopped, so we had to take a taxi to the airport . When we got to the airport,we already had our boarding passes on our phones so we just checked our bags and went through security! We got on our plane to Amsterdam, and it was only an hour flight until we were there!! We then collected our bags and found our train platform. The train to frankfurt was about five and a half hours and made about thirty stops along the way which was super annoying. As we for closer to frankfurt we realized that none of us knew which stop to get off at or where to go once we got there. I was kind of nervous, but throughout my study abroad experience thus far, i have learned that being flexible and going with the flow is an important quality. We got of the train at the central station, and went to the tourist information booth to ask what to so next. We got on a bus that brought us to our hotel, and checked in. We are staying at the meineger hotel which basically just looks like an ikea warehouse! Our room is soo nice too and we have a tv (although everything is in German). We then went to a little restaurant and I had a hamburger and Mitch and jt had schnitzel. We even tried some German beer. We can't wait to explore more of the city tomorrow!!

The fun continues!!

We have had a couple of busy days here in Dublin!! On Friday, we got up found coffee and then walked through the botanical gardens(there weren't actually any gardens there, just a big park). Then we went to the museum of natural history and then the museum of archaeology. We walked around in another park after that soaking up the beautiful day!! After that, we came back and had lunch at a pub near our bed and breakfast, and then went back and took a nap before the soccer game!! We found tickets for the World Cup qualifier that morning between Ireland and Germany, and were really excited to go. The game was at 7:45 and we left around 6:30 (having no idea of where the stadium was) halfway there, we realized that we forgot to write down our confirmation number for the tickets. Once we finally found a wifi spot, we read the email and found out that we had to pick up the tickets at this hotel which we had no idea where it was. After asking around, we learned that the box office was about a mile down the road and that it was closing once the game started!! We made a mad dash for the hotel running the whole way there, but luckily got there just in time to collect our tickets!! The game was really fun as it was in aviva stadium, which has a really cool design. Our seats were really good too, although there were German fans sitting by us and as the game was not going in the favor of Ireland, they were rather annoying! In the end, Germany won 6 to 1 with Ireland scoring the one point in the last few seconds. After the game we walked home and went to bed!
We woke up early on Saturday (5:30am)!! To go to the bus stop for our day tour of the cliffs of moher. Along the way, we stopped at st.johns castle in limerick, corcomore abbey, and the burren. Last time I was at the cliffs of moher, I stayed mostly to where the castle was on the right side, however this time, Mitch jt and I hopped the "danger" zone fence and went all the way to the left side of the cliffs. It was pretty scary as at some points there would only be a couple feet between you and the edge!! We had a good time and got some really good pictures. We got back to Dublin around 7:30 pm and found a pub called the boars head to eat dinner and have drinks in. We then went back to our bed and breakfast and went to bed!! Fun day!!!!

Fall break!!

Fall break is finally here!! I could hardly concentrate yesterday in the one class that we had. I woke up this morning at 4:30 and roary our taxi driver took me Amanda Abby and Megan into galway to catch the bus to the Dublin airport. About halfway into Dublin, Mitch messaged me and said that he had already landed! His flight was early by about an hour, so I was really anxious to get to the airport. By the time I got to the airport, I said my goodbyes to my other cottage mates and went looking for Mitch and jt. It only took about 5 minutes of looking around and then I spotted them! I was so excited !! It's crazy how I was just talking to them 10 hours before in the United States!! We got on a bus to the Dublin city center, and unfortunately by the time it was our stop to get off, started pouring rain!! We searched for our bed and breakfast for about 30 minutes and after being completely drenched found it! Our bed and breakfast is so cute, the old lady who owns it was taking a nap so her son showed us in and told us everything we needed to know about Dublin etc. We then got settled in our room and rested for awhile before going out in search of coffee. We found a cute little coffee place to energize us and then went to boojum burrito!!!! I went to boojum about 4 days ago when I was in Dublin and it was sooo good!! I was excited to take the boys there. After our burritos, we walked to the Guinness store house and took a tour. When we got to the gravity bar, we got a free glass if Guinness. I have yet to have a full glass of Guinness here and I don't think I will be having any in the future! It was still really fun and the storehouse was so cool. After that, we walked around in the city, and then came back to our hotel. I'm really impressed with the guys as they don't seem to have any jet lag! I woke up at 4:30 and am dragging! We are going to rest a bit before going out again tonight for dinner!!

Dubliners

This weekend, we went on our excursion to Dublin. My first impression of Dublin was the day that we arrived in Ireland and I was jet lagged and sick. I didnt like it too much at the time because I think I was just too tired to venture out as it was only our first day in a new country. This time however, I absolutely loved Dublin! We got to see all the corners of the city and being here for a little more than a month, I was not afraid to venture out into the big city. We arrived in Dublin on Thursday and visited the Rotunda Maternity Hospital. Our director Kathy is a nursing professor so she is really interested in health care. We toured some parts of the hostpital, but werent allowed to go into the actual ward. However, Kathy picked 6 of us to do a special tour through the ward. Since I love babies and kids and am always talking about Annie and Lucy, Kathy picked me as one of the 6. We got to see a baby that was just born named Jayjay, and even a baby that was the size of an iPhone in the intensive care unit :( I really enjoyed touring the hospital as it was a nice change from the museums that we always tour! We then got checked into our hostel the four courts hostel and went out shopping for the rest of the day. Dublin has a lot of the same stores that we have in America like Forever 21, Gap, and H and M. It isnt as fun to shop when you know you can get the same things back home so I didnt get anything. On Friday morning we met Brother Colman to take us around to a walking tour of the city. It was A LOT of walking! We saw the book of Kells, Trinity College, Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin Castle. It was a fun day, but very exhausting! I was so tired when we got back, and took a nap in the hostel but was awoken by everybody getting ready to go out for the night. I didnt really want to go out to the pubs so decided to go to a movie with some girls from cottage 6. We saw the movie Taken 2!  I though I was going to regret seeing the movie afterwards being in a foreign country and all and what happened in the first movie, but the plot line was totally different and I wasn't scared at all after watching the movie! The movie was so good and now I can say I saw Taken 2 in a foreign country! On Saturday, we got up and went to some sights with portal tombs and early shrines. We didnt have a guide for the day, and there was no visitor center to tell us anything, so we were a little lost as to what we were seeing haha! It made for good entertainment however and the long bus ride to the sites allowed us to catch up on sleep. On Saturday night, I went out to a bar called the Porter house. The porter house is bar with rare beers (and High prices) I had a hollows ginger beer and it was really good! We had a really good time there and I cant wait to go back in a couple of days! On Sunday, we got up and headed back home. We stopped along the way however to go horseback riding. I said I was an 'experienced' horseback rider even though I have only ridden a horse maybe once in my life haha My horse was named tipper and he reminded me a lot of Rylee! haha He was really slow and lazy and loved to eat! When we were walking out in the field, he would stop every 3 feet to grab some grass or drink water out of the puddles. Every time he would reach down to grab something to eat, I would almost fly off the front of him! My arms are soo sore this week from pulling his reigns back to always re-direct him! It was really fun though and im so glad we got to do something besides going to museums!! In 1 day, I leave for fall break, and Mitch and Jeffrey fly to Dublin to visit me!! I am soo excited, it will be really nice to have a break and see my brother and cousin. We will be spending a few days in Ireland, Frankfurt Germany, and Amsterdam! When I get back from fall break, it will be the 22nd of October, and then there will only be a little over a month left until I leave! The time has gone by soo fast and I cant imagine leaving, but cant wait to get home!!!

On Friday, we got a 1 hour break to go have lunch on our own in Dublin. We heard of this burrito place called Boojum Burritos and after searching for almost the whole hour and half of the group that went with us giving up and going to McDonalds, Me Abby, Amanda, and Ben Finally Found it!!! So Greatt!!!! 

Me and Pat with our Hollows Ginger beers at the Porter house

Me riding Tipper

Northern Ireland, Trad on the prom, Galway

WOw! So Sorry I haven't been timely on updating this thing! Now that school is in full swing, it seems like I am writing a paper every night! Our last excursion was to Northern Ireland. We left on Wednesday (the 19th) and drove the long drive to Northern Ireland- about 5 hours. Along the way however we stopped in Sligo, and visited the tomb of W.B Yeats. Our literature professor is obsessed with Yeats, and our whole literature class is dedicated to him! We got to our Hostel later that night in Derry which was actually a house! It was so cute and we had the whole place to ourselves. We had dinner at a cute little pub and then finished off the night with some shopping. Northern Ireland is considered part of the United Kingdom, so we had to convert all of our money to Pounds for the weekend- which really sucked because the pound is so terrible right now! (For every dollar in the u.s the pound is about 1.60). On Thursday, we woke up and met Jacqui, our archaeology proffesor and she brought us around Northern Ireland. Jacqui lives in Derry so she has a lot of history behind all of the places she took us to. Being in Northern Ireland was very interesting because there is a long history of fighting between the Catholics and the Protestants. Jacqui showed us the Catholic part of town, but since this conflict still resides today, neglected to show us around the Protestant area. There is even a wall that divides the city in two and marches go on everyday by the Protestants in which they walk through the city singing anti-Catholic songs. Jacqui brought us to the Derry Free Museum which is a museum of all the people that died in the bloody Sunday massacre. Jacqui's brother was 14 at the time of the massacre, and his best friend who was standing right next to him was shot dead! It is crazy to think that this happened just 40 years ago! After visiting the museum, we walked the wall which divides the city, and Jacqui showed us the exact spots that she used to sit in protest. After dinner, we went out in Derry and enjoyed the night life! 
On Friday, we woke up and got back on the bus. We drove to Bushmills distillery and took a tour of the distillary. At the end of the tour, we got a free sample of whiskey- which is not my favorite! We then stopped at Giants causeway which was the spot of a volcanic eruption and all the rocks are shaped like hexagons. It was such a beautiful day and we had fun climbing on all the rocks. We then drove another 5 hours to Belfast where we checked into another hostel. Belfast is another area of Northern Ireland which is in conflict between the Catholics and Protestants, we were advised by our directors and bus driver to not tell anyone that we were a group of students from America studying at a Catholic College as this time we were staying in the Protestant area of town. On Saturday, we got up and took a bus tour of Belfast. It was nice not having to walk around as it seems like all we do is walk! After seeing so many museums throughout the trip (some boring) we went to probably the most exciting museum- TITANIC! Titanic was built in Belfast, and less than a year ago, they opened the Titanic experience museum. I've been looking forward to going to this museum since before the trip and was so excited to finally get there! We walked around the museum for about 2 hours and it was so crazy to visit all the exhibits and read all the accounts of the people who were on the Titanic. At the end of the tour, there was a section dedicated to the movie Titanic, and a guide told us that James Cameron visited the museum just 2 weeks ago to bring the costumes that Jack and Rose wore in the film! On Sunday, we headed back to the park lodge, and it felt so good to be back after such a long excursion!
This past week, we had a free week/weekend and it was so great to have some time to relax! On Thursday we went to a show called Trad on the Prom which was so awesome! It was a combination of traditional dance/singing/and instruments of Ireland. We all got dressed up and went into Galway for the show- it was a great night! 
For our free weekend, a group of us went into Galway. We did a lot of shopping and walked around a lot . It was nice to be in Galway for more than 1 hour at a time and not feel rushed to get groceries like we are every Sunday when we come back from excursions. On Thursday we leave for Dublin for an excursion, and in a week is our fall break! I cant wait for Mitchell and JT to get here and to explore Europe!!!!

Being a Diva at Giants Causeway hehe

The original Costume Rose wore!

Cooking Class with Geraldine : )