Hard to believe it's already March!! Time is just flying by was too quickly! I don't like it! Now I actually have to start thinking about all these papers I have to write by the end of the semester. No fun...
Saturday February the 13th, a group of us went on a Connemara tour. Basically it's a huge national park. The scenery and landscape was absolutely beautiful! We drove through ridiculously windy roads up and down the sides of mountains and we had several stops at Ross Errily Abbey, Cong Village, Lough Nafooey, and Kylemore Abbey.
On Mardi Gras day, I brought out my Mardi Gras package my aunt sent me and introduced everyone, Americans and Irish, to serpentine! Everyone was confused on what it was a first, but once I showed them, they all thought it was great! In Ireland on Fat Tuesday, they have pancake Tuesday. They said for at least one meal, you have to have pancakes. All of us Americans were very quick in celebrating this holiday haha! But, their pancakes are more like crepes, but we were able to find some American pancake mix and had our own.
The weekend of the 19th through the 21st, we had our big group trip to Paris! Paris was as amazing as before! But, I was glad I had already been, or else I wouldn't have been able to see and do everything I wanted to. We had 2 hour bus tour of the city and then an hour and a half tour of the Louvre. Then we were able to whatever we wanted. A group of us decided to go to the very top of the Eiffel Tower right after sunset. We were trying to make it for sunset, but the queue was absolutely ridiculous! We waited in line longer than we spent at the top, I think! But, the view was definitely worth it! It was absolutely breathtaking!
This weekend, the 27th through the 2nd, 6 of us went to Edinburgh, Scotland. I loved the city! It was still very medieval looking with stone buildings, cobblestone streets and sidewalks, and tiny alley ways that were kinda like shortcuts to get to other streets. There were kilt shops everywhere! I looked for my mom's family name, but had trouble finding the right clan, but I was able to find the Young's for my grandmother. One day there was a guy playing the bagpipes on the street in a kilt. Papa, I thought of you and how much you love those bagpipes haha! We took a 3 hour free walking tour of the city and were able to see all of the hot spots we wanted to see like: Greyfriar's cemetery, the Grassmarket, Edinburgh castle, the Scott monument, Princes Street Gardens, St. Gile's Cathedral and so much more! That night we went on a pub crawl, which was a lot of fun! The next day, we walked down the other half of the Royal Mile and went to the Holyrood Palace, where Scotland's royalty lived. Along the way we saw John Knox's house. Right beside the Holyrood Palace, are a bunch of mountians you can climb and we decided to climb up to Arthur's Seat. We started hiking, and there were no signs telling you how to get up there, so we were blindly following random paths, and since it had rained the day before, all of the paths were so muddy and we were all slipping as we were climbing! But, we finally found some dry grass and the right path to take us to the top. It was an interesting climb up the mountain because there weren't really any defined paths, just a bunch of random ones. Once we made it to the top, the view was spectacular! You could see the water to one side, snow capped mountains on another, and the city on the other. The day was gorgeous, so we were able to see so much! Then we just spent the rest of the day just wandering around and soaking up the town. That night the other girls went on a ghost tour, but I stayed back at the hostel because I have a really bad sore throat and didn't want to be out in the cold with a really bad sore throat. They said it wasn't too scary, but there were a few stories they told that were pretty scary. While we were eating dinner one night, we met some people from Dublin and it was funny how excited we got because we felt like we had something in common with them since we're studying in Galway haha! They asked where we were from and when I said Alabama, they asked if I had a gun and then they started singing "Sweet Home Alabama" haha! Lately, when I've told people where I'm from, they all start singing that song! It's actually really funny!
This Friday night, we are all going to our first rugby match. It's supposedly a really good game and between 2 rivals. I'm interested to watch a match because it seems to be so different from any sport I know.
Mary Alice and Mandy are coming to visit me in 13 days, and I can't wait to see a familiar face form home and to hear southern accents again!! I heard some ladies at the airport today and they had a southern accent and I didn't realize how much I missed it haha!

I don't think I have anything else to update you on. I miss you all!!