last day in galway

i can't believe our program is over tomorrow! we're flying to london around 8, so we'll check in to our hostel pretty late.

yesterday we went to the bogs and ended up hiking up 2 mountain things--it was not fun. of course the view was gorgeous, but it was not what we were expecting to do...our professor definitely didn't tell us we were hiking, and all of our shoes are completely ruined.

we all went out later to a few of our favorite places: the skeff, king's head, and kelley's. kelley's played blur (girls and boys) and it was really cool to be around people singing in irish accents.

tonight we're going to dinner at ming garden to say goodbye which will be SO weird. we've all agreed to order the most expensive things possible since the program is paying for it.

nothing else has really happened because we've all been to exhausted to get ourselves into trouble.

i'm going to try and update a lot in london since we're finally done with obnoxious school work.

miss you all

aran islands

yesterday was awesome. even though the weather was absolutely miserable, we still made the trip to the largest of the aran islands--only 800 people! we went to the highest part of the island and were able to walk up to a lookout tower...that was really cool. then we went to dun aengus and looked off of a few cliffs. there were no fences, so we had to lay down on our stomachs and peer over. it was over 300 ft, and i know mom will freak out. but i had to do it!

its been difficult to travel/please everyone in such a big group, but we're still having a blast. there's an ABBA thing at a bar tonight, and i REALLY wanted to go but we have a 6 page paper due on sunday and we're going to be gone all day at connemara tomorrow and trudging through the bogs. we'll see how that goes. (i still hate bill)

also, francis peed on one of my jackets last night. such a gem.

nothing else has really happened, but i'm sure i'll have another update tomorrow.

i miss you all!

almost an ending :(

we're still in galway, but our trip is sadly coming to a screeching halt. we've had an awesome time and we only have 1 more day in the classroom.

monday we moved to our last place for the trip...national university of ireland--galway. i have a swastika carved out on my door, we're a 25 min walk away from the city centre (with one bus running once an hour until 7pm) and there's black mold in the bathroom, so needless to say we could be doing better. you better believe the international center will get a piece of my mind when we get back. i used maureen's toothbrush to scrub the mold off, so we'll see how sick she gets. if it's hospital-worthy, i'm planning on licking the bathroom floor and then suing the international center.

monday night we went out, and a cat started following us home for 20 minutes. i'll skip to the good part...her name is francis and she's living with us until the end of the week.

if she has fleas, i'm suing the international center.

we've met with mary o'malley--a poet we have been reading, and she was awesome.

last night we watched this european dating show called "dating in the dark." aka absolutely fantastic.

sam and i are also in the galway independent! its a local newspaper. we bought it today, but if you go to galway independent on facebook, scroll down on their main page and you'll see us.

fame in ireland has been easy thus far, but it hasnt been too long since we've been published.

more things ive learned:

1) pregnant women smoke here. a lot.

2) i rely entirely too much on my cell phone

3) i straighten my hair too much

4) dogs here are never on leashes!

5) cats here meow in accents

per usual, i miss you all. as matt enthusiastically reminded me tonight: it's only single digits til i come home!

tour guide in belfast:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lV4dftcYUo

galway children attempting to break dance:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3LtGMx70VY

galway

so we got to galway friday afternoon, but we just got internet last night--very frustrating. our hostel is alright...our room is probably the size of my room at home. except there's 8 of us sleeping there. there's absolutely no room for all of our luggage, but it's been surprisingly a lot of fun.

we went on a pub crawl last night which was a really good time. all of us attempted to ride a mechanical bull. it took me, maureen, and sam 2 tries to even get on the bull...sam overestimated and practically jumped over it, and maureen and i completely underestimated.

we each stayed 0n for about 3 seconds, but it was fun while it lasted. videos to come soon.

tonight is our last night here and we've been doing homework all day--we're meeting up with our group tomorrow and moving into the dorms, so we'll see how much we like it.

its kind of hard to believe we've been here for this long, but at the same time it's flying by :(

so far, i've learned quite a few things:

1) i'm a worthy opponent for arm wrestling

2) their traffic lights go from yellow to green so you know when to get ready to speed off. i like it much better

3) irish guys don't know how to dance. although dirk doesn't, either...

4) the food here is not as good. the ketchup tastes weird. i would also like to reiterate that they don't have ranch

5) in derry, boys would walk past us and lift their shirts so we could see their (very pale) "abs." it was horrifying.

6) homework here sucks WAY more than it does in the US

7) i'm convinced people here do not speak english. some people are impossible to understand

8) the history here is incredibly rich; it has made me realize how young the US is

9) i see a ton of dads with their children--parenting seems much more egalitarian

10) pigeons are terrifying

11) seagulls in ireland...surprising yet logical

12) pictures do not do the least bit of justice for what the scenery actually looks like

13) jack russels and westies seem to be the dogs of choice. i even saw a scottie!! ::cries::

14) i always feel under dressed

15) thank god for american dentists

16) per usual, i miss you all.

i'm hoping to upload videos soon, so i will put the links up in a bit!

what do you think sheep talk about?

the title of this post is courtesy of sam hines...she seriously asked this on the bus the other day.

no real news here, except for the fact that maureen's toenail just fell off, i havent shaved my legs because she shower is literally too small for me, and dirk spent an hour attempting to hang the curtains in his room that fell down. we have to be some of the most dysfunctional people on the face of this earth.

after our awesome walking tour of the gates around northern ireland (martin mccrossan for anyone who wants to google or for people who plan on coming to derry soon...) we walked across the peace bridge (terrifying yet amazing) and got ice cream/crepes from this place called "maiden heaven." i got a nutella crepe, and it was SO GOOD. i'm going back tomorrow. and the next day.

afterwards we went out to a pub with live irish music, and it was a lot of fun! someone asked me if i was from argentina and my response was, "no....but do i look that tan?!!" she said no. so i walked away. i'm going to be super jealous of everyone who isn't transparent when i get back home...

we are traveling to belfast for the day--leaving in about 1 hour. we're taking some tours and going to a play later on, so it should be a good time.

on thursday a group of us are traveling to galway early. we're staying at the galway city hostel for 3 nights and meeting back up with our professor monday.

mom: there are 10 of us going, and the 4 guys will be there. we will stay in groups. i will even take someone to the bathroom with me. i will buy pepper spray if need be. don't freak out. if i get pushed into a lake for some reason, i will securely fasten maureen to my body and use her breasts as flotation devices.

miss you all!

this one is not as good of quality, but it shows how green everything is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYzQK37PJpk

"this your land is your land"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9vDph32VV4

i literally can't understand anything they're saying....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23CS06ZEWqM

Derry!

i would like to start by letting everyone know the reason maureen and i haven't been updating often is because we've been INCREDIBLY busy--which is both a good thing and a bad thing.

tues we had a james joyce tour, which was possibly the most boring thing i have ever experienced. we went to a few places he described in Dubliners, which was interesting, but other than that i struggled to keep drool from escaping my mouth.

wednesday we did the Kilmainham jail tour (awesome) along with the Guinness tour right after. i had anticipated getting a lot of souvenirs for people, but i ended up just buying things for myself...sorry! the guinness storehouse was amazing; very different from AB, but i don't know which i like better. though my loyalty should lie with AB, its pretty difficult...the tour is self-led and set up in the shape of a pint glass. each floor is something else, and it was a bunch of fun. at the top they have the Gravity Bar where you get a free drink and the view is gorgeous.

thursday we did a tour of newgrange...pictures are about to be uploaded :) this tour took 9 hours with all the traveling, eating, and actual tours, so we were exhausted. and because our professor is so considerate, he scheduled us to go to a play at the Abbey Theatre just 2 hours after we got back. needless to say, i looked like a scrub (ie--makeup melted off, swollen face, ratty hair). we weren't too happy about that since we sat next to the director of the play and it was opening night...disrespectful americans strike again! although, it wasn't our fault...

friday we did some walking around and went to st stephens green center for lunch. again, i planned on getting souvenirs for others. and again, i only bought things for myself. everyone will really like the way my new dress looks on me, though! we went pub-hopping that night where a pretentious bouncer wouldn't let one of our group members in because he "wasn't good enough." the pub name was Alfie's. so elizabeth--tell abbey and her family not to go there! a few rugby players also attempted hitting on me and jadee with pathetic pick up lines: "swans or pythons?" he then flexed his bicep into the shape of a swan. we laughed at them and responded with, "really? did you really just try that?" i expected to walk away, but jadee got distracted because one of the guys did a magic trick. i wish i was kidding.

one of our friends also got her cell phone stolen out of her purse :( it was zipped and in front of her body, but after he figured out he couldn't get into maureen's bag (she noticed him trying to "dance" on her), he successfully got Sam. that was definitely a downer.

but moving along! yesterday we traveled to Derry. as we were coming in town, we realized there was a celebration of the opening of the Peace bridge. it opened right as our bus was pulling up, and it was really cool. the reason for it's name is because it bridges the mainly protestant side with the mainly catholic side which is separated by the Foyle river. thats pretty neat!

we're currently staying in an adorable bed and breakfast with a bulldog named bertie, and i have full intentions on stealing him at the end of our stay.

other bullets:

1) of course i miss you all

2) i bought myself men's briefs from guinness to sleep in. i bought a medium and my fat spills over. either i have thunder thighs or the guys here are entirely too small. you can pick which you think is true...i guess it could be a mixture of both

3) maureen and i are currently sharing a double bed...we both had garlic nan last night. you can decide how the night went

4) every bathroom here is tiny. we're convinced the Borrowers family were architects for the bed and breakfast we are in

5) our bathroom trashcan is smaller than the bag of doritos maureen and i ate for lunch yesterday

6) olivia would hate the ungodly amount of mayo they seem to put on everything

7) i'm convinced my suitcase will weigh well over the limit when i come home.

8) we are deprived of sleep. some nights we'll go with about 3 hours. as soon as i hit the bed, i am out within about 1 min. seriously.

i'm currently uploading photos and videos, so the next update will be really in about 5 min and include a link to the 4 videos im posting. i cant promise they'll be good, though

day 4

tonight for dinner we went to the porterhouse, and it was a bunch of fun! i accidentally ordered ranch because i keep forgetting i'm in ireland. julianne would HATE it, but they literally do not have ranch dressing. it's horrible. forget my statement about wanting to move here.

just kidding.

we havent been able to do very much because of all the homework, but we have the tour of the jail and guinness wednesday, so that should be fun.

we're about to go out, so i should be chalk full of embarrassing stories tomorrow as well.

miss you all.

day 3

I think I may move here. Everyone is so friendly, and the city has such a great vibe. There are so many things to do. And their butter is warm, so it spreads so well on bread...unlike CPK's butter. but they do seem confused about how bathrooms work. rather than having a divide between the shower/tub floor and the actual bathroom floor, our shower is level with the entire bathroom floor. so if everything doesn't go into the drain, it ends up flooding the entire bathroom--if that makes sense at all. its extremely inconvenient and gives me another excuse not to shower. which is not good for my hygiene.

so far we've been able to walk around a lot. they city has been crowded, but some of the things we've seen have been awesome. Dublin's highest building is only 16 stories, and each represents a life that was lost in a union fight...pretty cool. we've done a literary pub crawl tour (amazing) and a rebellion tour today--both had hilarious tour guides. very entertaining!

in general, the atmosphere is great. i took a video of a group of younger guys playing on the street downtown. it's so weird how many performers there are...but it's something i have really appreciated while walking around. i tried uploading a video on here, but for some reason it didn't work. here is the link for youtube. it's not very long, but i'm sure some of you will still love it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPYgCvjk2p4

1st day!

after a full day in atlanta airport and a 7 hour flight, we finally arrived in Dublin! And I have already proved myself a dumb American for the below reasons.

1) Delta lost my luggage. what I didn't realize was that my bag is in fact blue...not black...and it had been circling the carousel for a solid half hour.

2) I have talked to 2 Irish people thus far, and have not understood a complete sentence.

3) I walked into the bathroom stall for blind women--and since I couldn't figure out how to work the door, I had to switch stalls.

4) Since I also couldn't figure out how to use the sink or soap dispenser, I tried figuring it out for about 30 seconds, but realized the entire women's bathroom was staring at me, so I had to ask.

in addition, maureen just googled: "should adapters smell like they're burning?" because we can't figure out European outlets.

let's just say I made a wise decision going somewhere that speaks English. Had I been anywhere else, I may have passed out from anxiety.

insomnia

if anyone has seen the movie Taken, DO NOT think about the plot before you travel abroad. unfortunately, I didn't take my own advice last night, and have repeatedly (and vividly) pictured getting kidnapped because Maureen thought it'd be a good idea to give some Irish guy our address and room number...

if you have not seen Taken and you are a family member who frequently worries, DO NOT see this movie while I'm gone. all you need to know is that I will do everything in my power to make sure I do not end up addicted to drugs and simultaneously forced into prostitution.

on a lighter note, I'm wearing all green to the airport and painting my face the colors of the Irish flag. there isn't anything wrong with enthusiasm! just kidding--kind of. I have a headband with leprechauns bouncing on springs, and it will be securely fastened on my head for the flight. pictures coming soon.

shout outs:

mom and dad--you guys have helped me tremendously, and I really appreciate it!

julian--don't watch any episodes of 30rock without me. I will find out, and I will not be happy.

jc--I took note of your request. you're welcome.

9 days before i go overseas...

hopefully i will be able to post pictures and update this for everyone who is interested in my life (most likely brittany randolph) while i'm gone! before i leave, here are my main concerns:

1) being tan enough that the irish think im latina

2) the e-coli breakout which i'm sure will inevitably attack my immune system

3) real life when i get back, which includes the GRE

and when i'm there:

4) helping maureen drag around the massive amounts of clothes that she will unnecessarily pack

5) the ants in dirk's pants on a regular basis

6) of course, missing you all.

7) jc correcting erroneous details of each blog i post