Finally, Oslo

The weekend after Galway, Rosa (from across the hall), Sarah and I traveled to Oslo, Norway. In November. Not exactly the busiest tourist time for Norway. It was cold, and dreary. The sun set even earlier than it does in Ireland; usually around 3:30 in the afternoon. That makes it really hard to get out and be active. It's even harder when most of the touristy things to do are closed during the winter. We still visited them of course, but we didn't get to take the tours of the Royal Palace or Parliament like we wanted to do.

Overall, the city was really nice. I would definitely go back during the summer sometime, and go to some smaller towns and see the fjords and things. We stayed entirely inside the city of Oslo which, in hindsight, was a mistake. There just wasn't enough to do to keep us entirely busy for the whole weekend. The highlight was the Ice Bar, which was one of the coolest things I did during the semester. Sarah had found out about it somehow, so we made reservations. At first, we looked in and saw a few people in suits and fancy dresses, and were worried we would be under-dressed and not fit in, but by the time we finally got in it was a normal, tourist crowd and we had a great time.

One thing I will say is that things are VERY EXPENSIVE in Oslo! At a pub one night I bought a pint for 92 NOK, which equals 15 euros, or about $20-25. I imagine that will be one of the most expensive pints of nondescript beer I'll ever buy. This came to be the theme of the entire trip, and by the end I wasn't even doing the conversions anymore just to save me the shock.

Anyway, my next post will be a description of this last 2 weeks or so in Ireland. I will do it hopefully before I leave on Thursday morning. I don't think I've ever been this upset over leaving a place.

Galway

Early in November I went to Galway with API. It's been a long time, and I've been really bad about updating my blog lately but I will try to be better in the future. I'm going to add one trip at a time, but we'll start with the one that's in the title, because that makes sense.

Galway.

Galway is one of the larger cities in Ireland, and is on the western coast. The city is much like any other town in Ireland, beautiful streets with neat shops, and some really awesome pubs and clubs. It is known for its party scene...and I can back that claim up.  I had a blast going to The King's Head, and The Quays. A few too many pints of Guinness, and shots of Baby Guinness possibly, but it's hard to care.

Also, there were a lot of neat stories that were relayed to us on our walking tour. There is an old wall, with a window in it where a man hung his own son because the town wished to free him before his sentence was completed, so the father (the head of law in town at the time) hung him for all to see. The people were on their way to free the son, whose surname was Lynch, and were called the Lynchmob, which is where the word came from. Also, lynching came from this story. There were several other tales similar to this one, but I can't remember all of them, which is really pretty bad.

We also had a nice lunch in a small town outside of Galway called Gort while we were out visiting Bunratty Castle (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED), Dunguaire Castle, and another monastery with a round tower. The countryside is very beautiful and the only negative part about the trip is that we were unable to see the Cliffs of Moher. Maybe someday I'll get to go.

The semester may be ending, but keep reading...the posts will keep coming.

Edwords

I swear I was busy...

Hello everyone,


I'm so sorry it's been so long since I last posted anything. I will try to go into more detail about each place I've been to in the last month as soon as I can. Right now it's study week at UCD, so I'm working "hard" on getting French learned so I can take the exam when I get back to Kansas State in January. Also, I have exams in Irish Politics and Folklore coming up that I need to do well on.

Sarah and I in Oslo, Norway

Since my last update I have been to Galway, Norway, my mom, Mike and grandparents have visited, Kilkenny, Glendalough/Wicklow, and done a few new things in Dublin. Also, I now am officially dating Sarah, the Irish girl that has grabbed up space in this blog on several occasions. Coming back to see her is one of my biggest motivators for doing well in French and, in doing so, graduating from KSU in May so I can begin my masters at UCD in the Fall.

This blog is going to continue when I return to America as an overall update on my life, a beer journal/adventure log, and, upon return to Ireland, the same purpose as now.

For now though, it is Christmas time in Ireland. The school has put lights up on all of the buildings in our square in the residences, which looks really nice. Also, there is a large blue-lit tree at the front of campus by the welcoming sign to UCD. I won't be here for Christmas, although I kind of wish I was as I've been invited to Sarah's house for the holiday (out of politeness more than anything I'm sure). I am looking forward to being home for the holidays though, and I'm sure I'll realize that I was more homesick than I thought when I arrive. I've decided that I want to get a Hopperoni pizza with a V-6 IPA at Wichita Brewing Company & Pizzeria immediately after I get home. This will of course be followed up by one of their tasty dessert pizzas.

I'm starting to do some of my Christmas shopping for my parents and others. I know that I'm bringing back a nice bottle of Irish whiskey for myself, and a few trinkets for family. Also, hoping to grab a few Cuban cigars before heading home. Sarah guessed what I was going to get her, so I've already adjusted and gotten something else. Hopefully it will remind her of me when I'm gone, and maybe make her more apt to visit the good old state of Kansas soon.

Anyway, I've probably wasted enough time from studying for the day (some tv, a long lunch, a few tea breaks, some Google Earth exploration, future trip dreaming, blog writing, planning to cook dinner, cooking dinner, maybe a movie tonight....). It's amazing that I've gotten anything productive done today at all, but I swear that I have. It's extremely difficult to learn French on my own, with no speaking and not a lot of real explanation.

Passport Stamps: 11

Next: I promise to talk some about Galway.
Preview: Lots and lots of drinking. Oh, and some other things.

Craic is Good, Laundry is Bad

Laundry has been the biggest hassle since being in Dublin. Complaints begin here: Merville Residences (the housing I live in) does not have its own laundrette. I walk to Glenomena Residences in order to do laundry, which isn't a long walk but I think it's the principal. There are four residences in Belfield: Glenomena, Merville, Belgrove and Roebuck. Three of them have their own laundry services. Roebuck is a few minutes walk from Merville, and Belgrove is about a 5 minute or longer walk.
Remember that small flood I told you Dublin had on October 26th? Well, Glenomena's laundry services have been shut down since then. So we're in week 3 of actual laundry hassle. Today my key card didn't work to get into the laundry room at Roebuck, so having walked to Glenomena to check if they were open, then to Roebuck for laundry I gave up. I would have had to go back to Merville to get my card fixed, and then back over to Roebuck. It's not really the actual act of doing this that makes me give up on it, I'm just tired of a simple thing like laundry continually turning into an all day process of walking all over the place to get one load done. Last time it took me 5 hours to do one load of laundry, and even then I air dried half of my clothes. That's all about that.

Complaints are over.

So, what have I done since I last wrote at you? I mentioned that I was going to Cork with Dan and Aymeric. That happened.

Cork was about a 4 1/2 hour bus ride from Dublin, so we saw a lot of good, Irish countryside. Cork is a beautiful small city. I'm not sure about the population, but I'll be honest, all the towns here are small. The first night we stayed in BruBar Hostel, which is just outside of the main city area. It was a pretty cool (although overpriced and crappy) hostel, which was above a rock bar. We hung out there for the beginning of the first night before walking down into the main pub area. Thomond's was a good, little sports pub where I tried my first Murphy's (Cork's version of Guinness). Murphy's is good. Really good. And I think I wish I could have it again, but it's tough to find in Dublin.
After that, we went to An Brog. It was a pretty decent place, but I had one of my best nights there because we walked into a set by a band from Kells called Ham Sandwich. They are one of the best indie-rock shows I've ever seen, and we had a ton of fun.
The next day we took the bus to Blarney, and walked out into the country looking for the bed & breakfast we were staying in. The family we stayed with was incredibly nice, and they even took us back into Cork so we didn't have to sit on the bus. The daughter showed us where the Crawford Art Museum was, so we went in and looked at all the paintings and saw an exhibit all titled "Gravity". After this we went to Shandon Church(St. Anne's) that has a huge bell tower that sees over the entire city of Cork. We got to play the bells with the music sheets they provided, and even climbed all the way to the top of the tower above the bells and I snapped a few pictures of the town.

The Guinness Jazz Festival was going on that weekend too, which made the town even more lively. there were stages with bands everywhere and the streets were filled with people and stands selling all sorts of things. We spent the rest of the day listening to music and wandering around the city (seeing the Cork Butter Museum but not going in, and seeing the Old English Market and St. Fin Barre's Cathedral) before going to a really nice restaurant and bar, Soho, and then hitting the town again. This time we went to Thomond's and An Brog again, but also went into Grafton's (not good craic), and then to An Bodhran.
The next day we woke up in Blarney to breakfast from the b&b. I had potato pancakes, beans and toast, and I highly recommend the potato pancakes...but do NOT put syrup on them. After that we walked the few kilometer's back into Blarney and saw the Blarney Castle and Gardens and kissed the Blarney Stone. The castle is more magnificent from the outside, and kissing the Stone freaked me out quite a bit because I had to lean out over a gap which was several stories straight down to the ground. After this we took the bus back into Cork, and went to a microbrewery called Franciscan Well that was right on the river. This place was insanely cool, and is exactly the sort of place that I love. Cobblestone courtyard in the middle where you can drink on-site brewed craft beer. I tried 3 of their beers, the Blarney Blonde, the Friarweisse and the Shandon Stout. The Shandon Stout was the best Irish Dry Stout that I've had, EVER. It may have helped that the location was perfect, and I happened to be smoking a Cohiba Cuban cigar while tasting it during the brewery's annual Octoberfest event.

There's another week that went by, and a trip to Galway and Clare...but since this post is already WAY too long, I'll go ahead and put it in another post soon.

Dublin Is Flooding!

Oh hey,

So earlier this week it poured down rain here for about a 48 hour period and caused really bad flooding. There are some videos online of Dublin flooding. Here is one of the shopping center near UCD:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YU659YPRVs0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TRsLWO7Nd4

Luckily I missed the first day of the rain because I was in London last weekend. It was great weather there, sunny and warm. I'd seen a lot of the tourist sites already, having been there just a few months ago but it was good going back. I love London. We flew into Gatwick though, instead of Heathrow...which is NOT in London. It says it is, but it's a good hour or two drive outside.

I've turned in a couple of essay papers now, and am working on a group project for Urban Geography. Also, I've decided 100% that I'm going to come back in the Fall for my MA in International Relations from UCD. There are great reasons - the cost is pretty similar to getting a graduate degree in the United States, and I think it might be time for me to move on to another place. An International Relations degree from an international university will also carry a lot of weight in the career path I want to enter.

Tomorrow Dan, Aymeric and I are going to Cork on the southern coast of Ireland for the weekend. It is a Guinness Jazz festival, so booking hostels was a bit of a mess but I think it will be a lot of fun. The Blarney Stone is just outside of town, and really close to where we're staying while there.

This is where the Other Stuff goes
I'm exhausted lately. I can't seem to catch up on sleep, and I don't know why. I think I'm sleeping plenty but I just don't really ever feel awake right now. My cough is finally subsiding, at least a little. I'm on a mission to get scissors. I've been wanting scissors since I arrived, and have yet to find anywhere that sells them. Who knew it would be so difficult? I'm sure I've just missed them...

Currently I want from Home:
Kraft Macaroni & Cheese, a ticket to Kansas State vs Oklahoma, scissors,  Scooby Snack, Oatmeal Cookie, and Shit Nanner shots; Left Hand Milk Stout, ANY kind of pumpkin beer, my big bed, ALL of my clothes, my mini fridge, my car - MY CAR.

I feel pretty bad for not taking any pictures in Wexford/Rosslare. I hope Sarah will let me go back with her again so I can fix that. Also, she really liked the flowers I gave her for her birthday yesterday. 1 is already dead, but the rest live on for another day.

Can't wait to see the family when they come in less than a month! Talk to the rest of you soon!

It's Been a Bit

Hello!

I know it's been a while since I last wrote a post. I've been fairly busy on weekends lately, which is usually when I sit down and write these. Classes are going well, though I'm a little lost. I don't always know when assignments are due or what to do on them. It's extremely hard to get motivated to do schoolwork over here.

I finally took a day to be a tourist in Dublin city. I'd talked about it for a while but had never actually done it, but I went to St. Stephen's Green, Iveagh Gardens and walked through Temple Bar again with a camera snapping pictures the whole time. I also went onto UCD's rival school's, Trinity College Dublin, campus. The Book of Kells is in their library, so I paid the fee to go look at it and the Long Room. The Book isn't really all that interesting, nor is the museum that went with it but the room upstairs was incredible. It's packed with old books and is really something quite cool. After leaving, I went to Gallagher's Boxty House for a late lunch and had rabbit stew and a Beamish. It was really good, and the first time I'd had rabbit.

One weekend I went to the Aran Islands, which are three tiny islands in the Atlantic to the west of Ireland. Irish is still spoken heavily there, which was kind of neat. It's full of big, rocky cliffs and was fun to ride a bike around for a day. It was super windy and wet when we were there but it was still a ton of fun. On Saturday night we celebrated Karin's birthday, and did a short pub crawl through the 3 bars on the island, having a Baby Guinness shot at each one (along with many, many other drinks).

This most recent weekend I went home with my Irish roommate Sarah to Rosslare, a small town south of Wexford. Her family was SO nice that I felt a little awkward at first, but it was a lot of fun seeing where she was from. Saturday we went for a walk down the country road to Rosslare and she showed me around the town, which is right on a beach, and then we went into Wexford town and walked around the main areas. I even finally bought a cheap jacket with a hood, so I can finally keep my hair dry when it rains (it's too windy for an umbrella really, and it rains almost every day). That night Sarah's parents took us to a pub in Kilmore. It was a pretty good time, and even more fun because of how little Sarah wanted to go out with her parents but I think even she had a good night in the end. The next day we went to Johnstown Castle and walked around the gardens and lakewalk, which was beautiful. Then we saw Hook Lighthouse, which is either the oldest lighthouse in Ireland or in Europe, no one seemed too sure. The lighthouse wasn't too spectacular but the area around it was, with the sea cliffs and stereotypical Irish landscape...it was one of the first times I realized that I was actually in the same place everyone sort of mythologizes in their heads. I'm really glad that I was able to go to Wexford, and even more so that I was able to stay with her family. It made me feel like I was home at least for a few days.

It's been a busy week so far with homework and things, but I'll be going to London for the weekend and Meath tomorrow for a class field trip. I'll have some new things to tell you then. Today, Sarah and I went for burritos in the city. She had never had one before, and I was craving something similar to home. The place is an exact replica of Chipotle, which makes it extremely easy to order.

I think that is all the big news I have right now. I may have to reread my last post and post another short addition to this, but I'll do that a little later. I've been writing essays today and am somewhat tired of looking at the computer screen.

Bye everyone!

P.S. I've decided that I want to apply to come to UCD next fall as a full time student in the International Relations masters course. I've been thinking about it a lot, and have been considering a lot of different factors. The longer I've been here, the more I feel at home, and the more I feel like maybe this is the place I want to spend at least the next bit of my life, and possibly more. My hope is to apply for an internship at the American Embassy here in Dublin while I go to school, but obviously all of that will have to wait until later.

Three Weeks In

So...I'm in Ireland. They have a little chart thing about the "rollercoaster" of studying abroad. It seems more day by day than an overall trend in any direction emotionally. The way I look at it though, it's the same way at home. Some days you're having great days, some days you're not in the best of moods. Today has been a good, relaxing day of nothing. I caught up on some American television shows online, did laundry (which is outrageously expensive to do on campus - 4.50 euros), and Dan and I cooked some beef and tortellini for dinner. It's probably the first entire meal I've eaten that hasn't been out at a restaurant since I've gotten here.

This week was definitely the most interesting week I've had since I got here, but I'm not really sure how to describe it fully. Or even what to tell.

Last weekend I went to a cooking demonstration at an awesome restaurant called Gallagher's Boxty House in Temple Bar. The owner and head chef taught us how to make potato dumplings, loaf, and a cream sauce to put over the dumplings. The dumplings were incredible...and I'll definitely be going back to that place again to have some. After the demonstration a group of us went to a pub to watch the GAA All-Ireland Final for Gaelic Football. Dublin was playing Kerry, and it came down to extra time for Dublin to win it. It was the first time in 16 years they had won. The town went nuts. Banners, flags, and jerseys were everywhere. Pubs had tv's set up in their windows so that the crowds that couldn't fit inside could still watch.

Guinness Brewery was another place I went to this week (twice)...and it was every bit of amazing I thought it would be. The place is massive

This week also contained Arthur's Day, which is the celebration of when Arthur Guinness signed the lease on St. James' Gate Brewery in 1759. I went out that night, but wasn't really feeling up to it so I'm sure I didn't get the full experience. It was definitely still fun though to be out with so many other people. A guy that works for Guinness bought me a pint which always makes things even better. "It's good to be lucky," he said to me, "and a little bit handsome."

This part should probably be a totally separate post because it is almost a week after I wrote the things before. I've gotten all my classes sorted out for good now. I'm no longer in French here, which is a big disappointment but I'm taking Irish Politics in its place, so at least it is still interesting. Things have gone well for the most part. I'm not sure where to start with things that aren't going so well, or whether they're really not going well in the first place. They sure seem to be sometimes. It's great here in Dublin though. My weekend has begun, and I have a busy one this time around. Friday I'm hoping to get some minor things done such as getting my student travel card and city bus pass and doing laundry. Also, I want to go back to city centre on my own and actually take some pictures. It seems that I always have somewhere to go whenever I'm in the city and haven't been able to take any. Saturday I've got a hurling and GAA football lesson at one of the big clubs in Dublin, and Sunday I have my first field trip with my archaeology class to Carlow/Wicklow.

Anyway, I feel like I've rambled on...and really didn't have much to say. It's difficult to describe feelings, or share them in the first place, but I'll keep doing my best when I can.

Edwords

Failte

Last Friday we took a day out. We woke up not really knowing where we wanted to go except that we wanted to see the sea. The "we" were my housemates Dan and Jirina. Elyssa joined us at the bus stop to complete our quad. We started on Google and decided to walk the 20-30 minutes to the nearest DART station and took the train to a town north of Dublin called Malahide. It had a castle that was marked on a lot of maps, so we figured it had to be good.

Once we got to Malahide it was a short walk to the castle grounds, which turned out to be a massive park with winding trails, playgrounds, and even hurling grounds. After winding our way through some small forests, and asking a woman for assurance that we were indeed going the right way we turned a corner to an awesome stone castle that had been lived in all the way into the 1900s. We decided that it wasn't quite big enough to pay the 7.50 euros to take a tour of the top floors so we took some pictures of the outside, walked around inside where we were allowed and then began our trek back into town. Malahide is pretty busy with traffic, but still feels like a tiny village after being in Dublin for a week. We stopped into a pub where we got a meal. I had a Guinness as my main course, deciding to wait for a fish and chip shop by the sea I had built in my mind.

We took the train from Malahide to Howth, another small seaside town. I've posted some pictures to my Facebook for those of you that have access...it's hard to describe the feeling you get being in towns that seem to be straight out of the movies. We walked the harbor, sat on some rocks and watched the water for a while waiting for Dan and Jirina to explore the sea caves along the coast. Caught the next train back to Dublin, where I received a goodbye smooch from a very drunk Irishman. Yeah, I said man...a shock to the system to say the least.

I still haven't been to the Guinness Storehouse, which is starting to drive me nuts but I know I have plenty of time. Even on nights when I don't go out to the pubs, clubs and other late night places I find that I'm still up late talking to someone about various things. Finally Skyped with some friends from home which has helped with the homesickness a little. I hadn't been feeling it too much, but now that I finally have a little down time I can tell that I'm missing it a bit. I think what's bothering me the most is that I can't go to Kansas State football games. Every time I think about home, KSU is what comes to mind first. I think tonight I'll probably stay in and listen to the Kansas State vs Kent State game, which I believe starts around 10pm for me. Thank God for KSUHD...since ESPN360, Hulu, and Netflix don't work here. There is a bar on Parnell St that shows NFL games every Sunday so that will always be an option as well.

Tomorrow I get to go to a cooking demonstration in Temple Bar to learn how to do some traditional Irish cooking. I'm pretty excited...though that just means I'll have to cook something for my roommates soon after. I owe them. Also, in a couple of weeks I'll be going to a club for a hurling and Gaelic Football lesson with the team. That will be awesome, and I'm sure I'll embarrass myself more than a few times. Also on sports, I'm thinking about joining the UCD softball team just for something to do. Every time they hear an American accent they immediately start pitching for you to join.

There's so much for me to say every time I get on here. So many stories I want to tell. It's incredible here. Being here is making me even more determined to get into George Washington, and eventually end up back in Dublin or London. (It's hard to go to class here though, where I feel like I'm just wasting valuable time. It will get easier as I feel more settled, and get into the correct classes. Or I'll just have an extremely tough semester at KSU when I get home.)

Slan,

Nedwords

A Quickie

This is going to be a short one because I need to leave for class in a few minutes but since I haven't written in a little while I think I might need to give signs of life. I'll do a little longer post later today or tomorrow (hopefully).

I'm about halfway done with the first week of classes here, and have found that I'm in more classes than I need to be in so I'm working on dropping a few. I can't get Kansas State to email me back, so I've been waiting on them. Also, I've figured out I definitely enrolled in the wrong French class...as there are French kids in it and most of the students had already studied in France for a year. I'm changing to the correct one today. I've been on one trip outside of the city of Dublin, though I didn't really leave the area. I'll talk about that in more detail a little later on because it was the most fun I've had in a very, very long time. My roommates and I are still getting along great. I need to start learning to buy more food at the supermarket when I go because I'm used to going more often than I want to go while I'm here. Also, I should have packed more clothes...

I should have packed more clothes.
Nedwords

Welcome

I've been in Ireland for two days now and have been having a blast. I don't know the city all that well yet, obviously, since I got on the wrong bus yesterday. The bus turned out to be the right numbered bus, but I was at the wrong bus stop. My friend and I got home perfectly fine, and without much delay though.

Currently most of the students on campus are international or first years. Everyone is moved into my apartment. There are four people, counting me, living in our apartment. We come from America, Ireland, and the Czech Republic. We've already made friends with the 4(soon to be 5) people living across the hall from us. They include Swiss, French, and Irish. We make up a veritable UN when we're all together and so far have gone out to several things, including a soccer match the first night we were here. UCD played Shamrock Rovers, which are the Irish League champions and currently also playing in the group stages of the Europa League. The crowd was rowdy with drums, and since Shamrock Rovers are the most successful club in Ireland and based in Dublin most of the crowd was supporting them. UCD ended up losing 6-1.

Yesterday I went to the city centre with my program group and walked around some to get familiar with the city. We spent time on Grafton Street and St. Stephen's Green. Also, we found a really awesome hidden park called Iveagh Gardens that has only 2 gates and both are hidden in alleys and backstreets. It has a lot of ornate statues around it and has fields where concerts and comedy festivals take place. While wandering we found a microbrewery, which I absolutely LOVE....and found out they won't serve you Guinness there. They must be the only place in Ireland that doesn't serve the black gold. I tried their Oyster Stout, and it was extremely good.

When I returned from my trip to city centre I was expecting to take a short nap but decided instead to go to a tapas night in the international student center. The Cuban salsa club spent the time grabbing people from their meals to teach them to salsa dance on the other side of the room. It was all very good food, though most of it I had tried before but it was fun to go out and hang out with all the other students. I met two new people from Switzerland, one from Germany and talked to a guy from Afghanistan for a while. Later, we all went to the student pub where I had my first Guinness in Ireland, which I honestly think tastes the exact same as in America except that the head might be a bit creamier which is always good. My roommate had to get up early this morning to go to orientation for her program, so several of us came back for tea and bed while some went to a club in city centre that had a big college party. We ended up being awake until around 2am, much longer than anyone expected (becoming a theme here) talking about the differences in the grading systems and other things between all our countries. I have a mostly free day today, though I'm not sure what I'm going to do quite yet. I'd like to go back to bed possibly and try to catch up on all the sleep I've been missing lately. We'll see...there's a lot of new things to do here...

Until next time!
Nedwords

Classes

Hello All,

After several tries I have finally gotten registered in all the classes I'll be taking while at University College Dublin. -That just reminded me, I should lay out some basic information about where I'll be. Just in case you're curious. I'll do that at the end of this post...

The classes I'll be taking in Ireland are:
Discovering Ireland: Landscape & Heritage - It's a class that is based entirely on field trips to archaeology sites near Dublin. I'm hoping for castles, burial sites, churches.
French 3 - needed for me to graduate from Kansas State
Introduction to Folklore
Irish 1 - not really to learn the language, but I want to know how to pronounce place names/words I see around.
Discovering Ireland - a class entirely for international students.
Political Geography

I don't know my actual schedule yet, but hopefully will within a day or two. I don't know a lot of things right now, except that I'm supposed to get a ton of information once I arrive on campus. I did find out that I'll be living with Irish kids in my apartment on campus, instead of other Americans. I'm pretty happy about that, but also a little nervous for obvious reasons.

I didn't expect that this month I've been living at home in Halstead was going to be the hardest part. Yeah, it's the last month before I leave so no matter where I was it was going to be full of excitement and anxiousness, but because I've been doing a whole lot of nothing besides thinking about leaving it's only added to my anxiousness. I had a few days in which I wasn't sure I even wanted to go anymore, and thought it would be easier if I'd have just stayed in Manhattan for my last couple of classes. I've thought about the worst possible scenarios for this trip, and have stressed about every single detail (my mom hears about it all the time). I feel a bit like a bum right now - in my parents' basement, no job, with nothing to do except wait.

I guess at least I'm GOING somewhere soon. I felt like I spent all year telling a lie, "I'm going to Ireland." "I'll be in Ireland."...and my plans kept hitting roadblock after roadblock, and every time I thought it wouldn't happen. I mean, at one point I was going to France. Part of the reason I felt like it was all in my head is due to the amount of times I've talked about transferring from Kansas State and either chickened out or had it fizzle out for some reason.

Anyway, it's finally here. I'm more excited for this than anything in my life, I think. I can't wait for my first Guinness in its homeland. Here's where I'll list some of that basic information on UCD for you:

Location: South Dublin, in an enclave named Belfield. Belfield is almost entirely made up of the UCD campus. Originally in the center of Dublin and known as the Catholic University of Ireland.
Students: ~14,000 undergraduates

That wasn't near as much information as some of you may want. In fact, it wasn't very much information at all. If you have any questions, leave them in the comment section on this post.

Slainte!

In the beginning...

I'm leaving for Dublin in one week. Seven days.

Basically, I've decided to keep a blog because I feel that I probably should. People might like to read it. I may end up enjoying writing these posts. As for this first entry, I really don't have anything to say except that I am not looking forward to packing, and have extreme anxiety about moving to another country for four months without having ever been there before. I can't imagine I won't have a blast. I can't imagine I won't make new friends. It's none of that anxiety. It's more like, where am I going to get a haircut? Anyway, we'll see what this blog becomes in time.

I hope you're all ready for a demonstration in evolution.

Forget me not,
Edwords