I know it's been a while since I've updated, sorry!



As of yesterday, the 5th, I have been here a whole month!! That absolutely blows my mind! Time has flown by so so so fast. It's sad to think I only have 4 months left. I don't really have much to update you on, but here it goes...

Last weekend, the 29th-30th, we went to Dublin for the weekend. It was really fun, but it's definitely a big city. The kids from Boston kept saying it was like an Irish version of Boston. We left early Friday morning and took a 2 1/2 hour bus ride to Dublin. When we got there, we found our hostel, which was actually really nice! We ended up having a room to ourselves with our own bathroom. Once we got settled there, we just decided to go walk around. We were about a 10 minute walk from the center of town, called the Temple Bar area, and we just explored a little. That night, we met up with a friend of one of the girls who was with me. He had been there all semester and was leaving the next day. The next day we took a hop-on hop-off bus tour of the city. It was a great to the city because it went all around the main areas and you could get off whenever you wanted and get back on the next bus that came by when you were ready. We were able to see Trinity College, St. Patrick's Cathedral, the Dublin Castle, and the Guinness Factory. The Guinness factory was really cool! The inside is shaped like a Guinness glass and throughout the factory, they show you how they make the beer. They also have a 9,000 year lease on their property. Once you near the top of the factory, they have a tasting room where they give you a half pint to try. With you ticket into the factory, you get a free pint of beer. They have an area where they teach how to pour the perfect pint of Guinness. First, you pull the tap towards you and tilt your glass at a 45 degree angle and fill it up to the bottom of the word Guinness on the glass. Once you get there, you tilt your glass back up and fill it until it reaches the bottom of the harp on the glass. Then it has to set for exactly 119.5 seconds. Once it sets, you push the tab back instead of forward, and fill it up the rest of the way. Once you have poured your perfect pint, you get a certificate with your name on it and can drink your pint. At the top of the factory, they have a Sky Bar that gives you a great view of the city. That night, we met up with another friend of one of the girls with me, and he took us out to a fun pub. On our last day, we went to the Dublin National Gallery Museum and afterwards, we caught our bus back to Galway. The whole time we were there, we kept saying how much we missed Galway and how much we liked it so much better! We didn't realize how attached we were to Galway and how quickly we became attached to it!
The weekend before that, my whole study abroad program took a tour to East Co. Clare. We went to Bunratty Castle and took a tour inside the castle. They had a dungeon that had stairs leading down to it, but the last stair was a 15 foot drop into the dungeon. Around the castle were a bunch of thatched roofed houses that you could go inside and they had them set up like they would have been back in the day. After that, we went to Coole Park, which has the autograph tree which is signed by lots of famous authors, including W.B. Yeats. Our leader showed us a natural fairy ring and told that once you enter the fairy ring, you make a wish and then leave the ring. Once you leave, you cannot come back in and you cannot enter a ring at night. After that, we went to see the Round Tower of Kilmacduagh and some more Celtic crosses.
Last week, we went bowling with the Irish kids who live in our apartment. Apparently, every Tuesday, if you buy a drink, you get a free round of bowling, so that's what we did. It was a lot of fun until a bowling ball got pushed off the rack by another ball and landed on my toe! It was bleeding profusely. For all you sister squirrels reading this, think rush sophomore year and the heel I took to my toe haha!
On Monday, the 1st, we had a cultural event where we learned how to make St. Brigit's crosses. We made a bunch of crosses out of reeds and there is a certain way you have to "weave" them together.
I don't really have anymore interesting things to tell you. I have finally gotten into a routine with classes and such and am now getting used to everyday life over here. Yesterday was one of the Irish guys birthday, so we made him cake and then we all went out afterwards to celebrate.
Classes are going well, I'm finally staring to feel comfortable at school, because I see people I know haha, like the Irish kids who live with us and other Americans I've met. All of the American girls have noticed that the Irish girls get so dressed up for class and wear a full set of make-up! We hate not being able to wear sweatpants and such to class haha!! We are always so shocked to see a girl in sweatpants...we didn't think they existed for girls haha! We even asked the Irish guys who live with us about it, and they said they all know how much make-up Irish girls wear and how dressed up they get for class and they think it's ridiculous, too haha!!
Hmmm, what else to tell y'all... I can't think of anymore, but I will try to be better about updating! Miss y'all!!!