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.