Saint Paddy's Day in Ireland!

The most famous Irish holiday and I happened to be in Ireland! I was surprised that it was actually a pretty mellow affair. I woke up at 9 30 and started with a drink while doing my hair. Colleen and her friend Mary made pancakes with nutella that were absolutely delicious. We then headed to city center to see the parade! It was kind of lame but we were late and basically had to chase it down and watch it as we walked with it. We got free flags! After the parade we just started going into random pubs. Got a half pint of Guinness for traditions sake, then kept moving. We went up to the top dome of Victoria Square, took some pictures then started walking to campus. We stopped at another pub, Robinsons, which we didnt stay long. we went to the restroom and when we came out we left because there was a classic Irish man wasted off his arse. He had thrown up in the hallway three times, picked up his pint and kept drinking before the bouncer escorted him out. Either way it was gross, so we left. Stopped and had lunch. Best burger of my time here! Then we headed back towards Elms. We came back and I power napped hard. Slept for probably 2 hours and woke up ready as ever to go out again! This time we only went to the Eg which is super close student bar. We actually found seats which was impressive. They had a live Irish band from the Republic playing that was awesome! they were so great. and we got to see some students even bust out in Irish dance!

I met a nice guy who bought be a couple drinks and chatted me up for most the night. He even walked me home which was nice. I stayed until close even though everyone else left early. I was having fun! Got home and made plenty of drunken phone calls. It was fabulous. Overall a pretty good Saint Paddy's Day. And thats not a typo. Here in the North that's how they say and spell it.

Since then it has been pretty mellow. The following day I missed my lecture but made tutorial. I was definitely NOT the only one. there were apparently 7 students in class that morning. The rest of this last weekend was a blur. I did pretty much nothing. Saturday I accidentally slept in until 3 30 pm because i was up so late skyping Nemmies. Then Sunday we had another group potluck! It was even better then last time! I made my little's recipe for enchiladas and everyone loved them! We also had fresh salmon, eggplant Parmesan, this yummy asian chicken, a delicious dip, cabbage/kale bruchetta type bread, and then multiple desserts! Colleens peanut butter honey brownies, banana something rather with ice cream, and more cookies with peanut butter cups in the middle and also apples with marmalade and chocolate in them. It was AMAZING! We decided to do it because this weekend we all leave for break and most of us wont be seeing each other for nearly 3 weeks!

Unfortunately this means i will likely be bad with updating this again but i will do my best. I know there is internet at some of the hostels. I will try and post picture also. I start my sub journey on Saturday where I fly to London. Spend the night there then fly out sunday morning to Porto, Portugal. We are there for 5 days, then Clarissa and I will be heading to Marsille, France for 4 nights. When she leaves to head back to the States I move along the coast to Nice, France where I get to meet up with Kenna again!! We spend 6 days there together. When she leaves I am either staying there for 5 more days or making a trip to Milan, Italy if I can afford it. Thats the plan so you all know and I hope to fill you in on the adventures of each place :) Miss you all at home a lot!

A Continuation of the longest update ever

As I promised to continue I will pick up where I left off, which was arriving on Inis Mor, the largest of the Aran Islands. We landed on this tiny dock and i must admit my first thought was that it wasnt a very pretty place. It was just a couple buildings, it was cloudy and pretty bare. We got off and moved our stuff into the hostel. Perfect number of beds, the four of us girls got to room together. Colleen, Sabrina, Emily and I. After settling in we got to rent bike for free! The idea is that you get to ride around basically the whole island on bike! That tells you just how small of an island this "largest" island is. We stopped and ate lunch first, I got tuna.. mine and my moms is way better. Then stopped by the Aran Sweater Store. It was amazing. I wish i had money because i wanted to buy a bunch of stuff including a really nice throw blanket. Ill have to figure out a different way to get it. :( oh well. We finally got on the bikes and began riding. I was not the only one slightly out of shape which was nice so we didnt have to go to fast. We stopped at the first big monument which was the Light house/ Castle. I didnt mention that I got sick this weekend. Stuffy nose, sore throat, tight chest. So needless to say, I could not make it up the GIANT hill. Everyone else hiked up it and I just kept on biking along the trail. As i rode I suppose I began to appreciate the simplicity of this place. Yes there wasn't much there, but it was beautiful in its own way. I rode around the whole island and got back early. I thought about trying to find them but instead went back to the hostel and found Sabrina who had also decided to turn back early. And then, being sick as I was I passed out and napped until dinner.

Dinner was delicious. Arcadia really does feed us well. After that we all ended up passing out by midnight because we were exhausted and had to be up even earlier the next day. We left the Island on the only ferry of the day at 8 15 am. Got on a bus in Rossaveal and drove about 2 hours to the Cliffs of Moher. These were amazing. Like seriously beautiful. It was also cool because our coach driver talked to us on the drive and gave us like a tour and explanation of what we were seeing. After an hour and a half at the Cliffs we got back on the coach, road another hour or so back to Galway, got on another bus that took us to Dublin (3 and half hours). Then another bus from Dublin to Belfast (another 3 hours) In total we spend about 11 hours traveling that day. It was awful. Got home at about 11pm and went to bed.

Overall it was a great weekend. Although I felt like too much was trying to be crammed in it was fun and we did get to see a lot. I wish we had more time. I really wanted a chance to see Galway more. Maybe well try and go back before leaving. Unfortunately I am already running out of time here. I have been here exactly two months yesterday (the 22nd). Weird.

I'v been distracted, my bad. but heres an update

Once again, I finally get around to writing a post and have realized that I have not written since Makenna was here. That was a good two weeks ago. I apologize. I don't mean to get caught up in doing other things and then when I'm online i just don't have the time to sit down and write about everything that has happened or that's interesting. BUT now it is Friday night and I just got home from seeing Alice in Wonderland with Clarissa, her boyfriend Machi (whose visiting from NY) and Sabrina. It was really good! I am glad I got to go. Actually, I got to do both of the activities i wanted to this evening. It started with Acoustic night at this small coffee shop called Common Grounds. Its really cute with lots of delicious food, natural stuff, and fair trade coffee and teas. I went to that with Emily, Austin and Colleen. Overall a pretty successful evening where I got to hang out with all my friends.

Now to get you caught up on the last couple weeks and what you have missed:
Honestly I don't remember much of the week after Kenna left. There wasn't anything really exciting happening and overall it was a mellow week. Oh however I did fall off the trampoline at trampoline club. That was kinda funny. I under rotated on a back tuck so i landed short shotgunning myself forward. Silly me, i wore new socks so i had no grip and I simply just kept going. I felt kinda like spiderman. I jumped down off the tramp because i had to and landed pretty hard on my heels then right thigh. it stung but I just got back up there. I was bruised the next couple days but no biggy. After that on Monday, there was nothing to exciting to follow. I went to classes, did some crappy reading, and that was pretty much it.

Come Friday however things got a bit more interesting. It started by the mere fact that I didn't have to go to class! I mean technically we did, but our program didn't let us. We woke up super early, around 7, and headed to the bus station, it was our weekend trip! We all got there, bought tickets and then waited. As a funny side note we were all there except for Jason. He was also late for our last excursion but that time we had a private bus that waited for him. Apparently he didn't set his alarm, so even after about 6+ calls from 5 people and multiple texts he still missed the bus by about an hour. As we got on the bus we all were like "ahh well i guess were leaving without him, his loss considering we had already paid for it". Turns out about 15 minutes later on the bus, he finally calls Austin to ask if he missed the bus... were like umm yes for sure. Luckily need not fear, he caught one an hour or two after us and we still met up in Galway. Which I forgot to mention was our end goal. Luckily I was exhausted so I managed to sleep most of the way. The first bus ride was just to Dublin,about 2 and half/3 hours. We got to Dublin had time to eat lunch then went back and caught the 1 o'clock bus to Galway. I fell asleep again for most of the ride mostly because i was panicked that I would have to pee at some point and not being in control of asking to stop. I hate public transportation btw. I miss my car, I love my car and I LOVE being in charge. in charge of my music, temperature, noise, conversation etc.

Anyways, I found out later that we hit a lot of traffic on our way to Galway and actually arrived significantly late compared to what was planned (i didn't even notice so I really must have been passed out). We finally got there and were greeted my Grainne, Arcadia's wonderful staff member. She is just the sweetest lady. We walked to our hostel, settled in and then went out to dinner for freeee! I love free food. It makes it taste so much better. But that could also be because Arcadia definitely does not skimp on the restaurants they choose to treat us to. Its quite nice. After dinner we were on our own. We wondered into a pub called The Kings Head. Sat down, got a couple drinks and hung out. About when we weren't sure if we were going to stay, mostly because we were all exhausted, a live band began to play. They were great. They did tons of covers, everything from Journey (classic) to Beyonce and Lady Gaga. Some rock as well. It was tons of craic.

Both unfortunately and fortunately though, we did not get to stay long in Galway. We were up and out the door by 8 15 am the next morning. We got on yet another bus that was to take us to Rossaveal, a town that houses the ferry to the Aran Islands. Now this was supposed to be a "short bus ride away". um yeah i call serious BS on that one. not only was it just a normal tour bus but for some unknown reason we sat at one of the stops for nearly 3o minutes. I was not happy. and in that 30 minutes I kinda had to go to the bathroom but not bad... yet. We drove along for literally what seemed like hours, really it was probably 45 min to an hour. But this road was a TRUE country road. we sat on the top part of the double Decker bus which we later realized was an awful idea since all the dips and turns in the road were heightened. I have never gotten car sick, but this was for sure the closest I have been. As time dragged on I began having to pee worse and worse. By the time we were almost there I actually got up and went and talked to the driver to tell him i was in physical pain and needed to stop unless we were almost there. He claimed we were 2 minutes away, really we were closer to 5-7. which at that point was years. As soon as we stopped i ran out of the bus and left my luggage upstairs on my seat because i just didn't care. Worst bus ride EVER! From there we got a super small ferry boat and rode across the water to see the largest of the Aran Islans, Inis Mor. And here I shall stop for the night. It is 2 30 am and not only am i exhausted but my typing is becoming poor. I will continue with my update of that weekend and this week tomorrow and with some pictures! Sorry again for being spaced and not keeping up

Best Friend Weekend

Makenna came to visit me this weekend!!! One of my two best friends from WSU that is studying in Wales. It was so wonderful to see her I cant even tell you. It was also awesome to have her here as an excuse to go to the places I kept telling myself I wanted to go. We got to go shopping and I used her as an excuse to buy stuff, we went on the Belfast Ferris Wheel and also got a chance to go on the Belfast Black Taxi Tour which was awesome. If you want to see it you can check out my facebook. It was really interesting and the guy we had was very nice and knowledgeable. Along with fun touristy things we were able to do simple stuff like try Nandos, a Portuguese restaurant that was really spicy but really yummy, and this little Cupcake place that was delicious and SO CUTE! Overall it couldnt have been better. Well we wanted to find some traditional Irish music but since saturday is such a dead night around here there wasnt really anything going on so we ended up staying in that last night. She got to meet my friends and yet we had a perfect balance of just us time. Its just so nice to see the familiar face and have that comfort that were used to. Unfortunately about as the weekend ended Kenna started to actually not feel well and now shes actually sick. Hopefully I don't get it to. After she left me on Sunday I managed to be as unproductive as possible and laid in bed all day watching silly TV on my computer. It was nice and relaxing but possibly made me even more tired. Now its Monday and I dont like Mondays... So went to my one class, came back here, made some bomb pasta salad for this week and lunch, then read some and napped. Thats it. Tomorrow I plan to actually try Climbing Club now that my leg muscle isnt pulled and I am going to buy my rec pass. I didnt do my reading again, but its hard to be motivated, I feel like finals aren't going to be as hard as it seems... either way getting ready for bed now. I cannot wait until this weekend! We have our weekend trip to Galway :) it's going to be awesome!

Is it really only Wednesday?

Longest week ever. After my fun weekend I have to admit coming back to class was not ideal. Monday was Monday. Nothing exciting, just went to class, went to the library and found a way to waste multiple hours doing nothing. Well okay, not nothing. I starting thinking ahead and began to try and plan out my senior year at WSU. The funny thing is that I honestly have nothing to take. It took me hours to try and find something half meaningful to take to graduate. I will be done with my major requirements by taking 2 classes in fall... so that leaves miscellaneous classes to fulfill the stupid 120 credits for graduation... My solution has become that I plan to minor in Woman's Studies.

After Monday comes Tuesday, and I actually skipped my first class ever... I didnt go to my Irish Politics tutorial. I feel bad but i figure missing one wont kill me, or my grade. Which funny, we got a new adviser for political science at school(WSU), and she wrote me an email about how shes unsure if my credits here will transfer, even though i got them pre approved. awesome huh. So disregarding the fact that my grades could possibly mean nothing here, I didnt feel well and didnt go. In my other favorite class we talked about international institutions and in that tutorial one of the other American girls did a really fun simulation for her presentation that kept everyone intrigued. It was the first tutorial where we ran out of time and people were talking the whole time. I also discovered that none of the non American students had EVER i mean EVER done a peer review and seen another students work.. That fascinated me. Something we definitely take for granted and see as normal that really isn't in other school systems.

Anyways then now its Wednesday. I dont have class on these days so I slept in too late, hung around, then went grocery shopping which is always an epic adventure. I found the wholefoods store though! its literally the size of a small room. But it has some really good stuff. Stuff from home that just made me so happy and the comfort of familiar. They had the soap my dad uses, and echinacea, and the tea my mom has, and Toms toothpaste and silly stuff like that. It was awesome. I got some homemade hummus and some good organic chocolate and tea and other stuff to. I am very excited to eat it all. When I got home I decided to make this enchilada recipe that my little uses. She made it for Patrick and I before we all left for winter break and they were delicious, so she passed it along to me. I had Clarissa come over and eat with me because i made enough food for about 3 more people. Ill have leftovers for days but im excited because they were so good! Clarissa brought over a salad and we ate which ended up being quite fun. Sabrina came over after that and we all hung out in my room and watched Sixteen Candles. That brings you up to date almost to the hour on my eventful life in Belfast. It feels like a very slow week that's for sure. But need not fear because Makenna is coming to visit me tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I couldn't be more happy! I cannot wait to see her and were going to go out and its going to be amazingly fun! YAY! Ill take pictures and update when she leaves on Sunday :)