and the goodbyes begin..

Seeing all my aunts, uncles, grandparents and cousins on skype yesterday was the greatest!!!! You all look fabulous as usual! :)

Life has been craziness since tuesday! I started getting sad that I eventually have to go home and face reality so Melissa and I went for along walks around the city and reminisced! That night we started giving our farewells to our french roommates in our flat and had our farewell dinner with just the americans and our professors. We ate at a nice restaurant and went to this really neat apartment bar. Then we went to our favorite tuesday night club to see the frenchies.

Wednesday and thursday we finished up our final exams and presentations! One of my presentations was with Hadiren, Zoe and Thomas and we were selling hidden valley ranch dressing to our irish professor, it was great they loveeed it! haha classic. Then after school thursday we went to Trinity College to enjoy a pint in the sun! They have a great pub on campus and there were literally 2000 students just sitting out and hanging out with friends, weird. Good friday everything was closed but Melissa and I took the train to Dun Laoghaire to walk the peer and see the lighthouse. It was a really pretty yacht club and peer walk. We came back from the peer and had to start packing up our apartment... saddddddd dayyyyy. The french girls came home shocked because we took our maps off the kitchen walls and had our suitcases packed. Saturday we met our friend Sam and his mom and went to the farmers market and explored Dublin even more, it was a gorgeous day!! At night we got classy and drank wine, cheese, fresh olives and grapes in their luxury hotel, we felt great haha.. a step up from Griffith Hall id say. That night we went out and celebrated Sams last weekend in Dublin :(

Quite the experience at the Gaelic football matches Sunday!! Melissa and I thought the match started at 12:30 so we woke up early and headed to the stadium. After an hour of walking we found Croke Park and it was silent.. haha the match didn't start until 2! So we walked around a while and then finally went it. As the players started warming up on the field we realized this wasn't the traditional football (soccer) game we thought it would be.. they were throwing the ball, bouncing it, nearly tackling each other, and punting the ball through the rugby field goals or into the soccer net! It was a totally awesome sport. A mixture of rugby and soccer but with virtually no rules.


About halfway through the game more people started pouring into the stands and we realized it wasn't Cork vs Dublin on the field, rather Donegal and Louis haha.. the Dublin game was at 4pm! Soooo naturally we stayed and the fans packed into the stadium, in our section alone 12,000 in baby blue. Their chants were hilaroius "we love the boys in blue the mighty boys in blue, the mighty boys, boys in blueee" and they kept repeating it dragged out with their fabulous accents haha. very creative. Dublin was up by 8 and then let the lead slip away and lost by 1 in the very end. The fans literally just crowded the streets after but were totally calm, just walking in the middle of the road, no one comes to the games in cars.

The car rental fell through for today because ended up having hidden fees that we couldnt fork up, so we decided to take the train to the Dingle Peninsula tomorrow! We are renting bikes and doing the ring of Dingle (30 miles) by bike instead! We will be there for 3 days, then coming back and our french friends are throwing our last dinner party thursday night, celebrating our french friends birthday friday and our farewell dinner for the entire program friday night, most likely a crying day saturday, then taking melissa to the airport sunday and picking up jason!!

I'll try to keep you all posted, otherwise see you soon!!!!

xoxo mo

Life in Ireland

Okay so I haven't written on here in a month but here is what Ive been up to!

April 25th we had an international food night at school where the french, spanish, germans, and americans brought in food! It was a blast, drank, had a live band, and ate allllll different foods, some good and most bad haha. Ive mad such close friends with the french!!

April 26th Sam and I took the train to Malahide which is right on the coast. The tide was out so we walked along a really sandy beach the whole time and it was really peaceful. Ate the best ice cream ever, and found seashells on the seashore lol.

April 27th we took a Viking Splash tour around Dublin because Melissa had a friend visiting. It was just like the Wisconsin Ducks but better because we were 'vikings' and we yelled at all the tourists on the streets.. saw some great buildings and then got into the water on the canal and saw Bono from U2's office, apartment etc.














That next we did a lot more touristy things with Melissa and her friends, saw the Book of Kels, it was great! The library was amazinnnggggg... it is where the inspiration came from for Harry Potters library in the movies. 2 levels of ancient books and dome wooden ceilings. We went out with the french and irish friends as usual and on thursdayt the 31st we decided to go to Cork! We took a 5 hour bus ride to Cork which is the 2nd largest city in Ireland. When we arrived we got right back on another bus to go to the Blarney Castle! It was this really huge castle with caves underneath and its really well known for the Blarney Stone. The castle was surrounded by daffodils and little ponds and then we went up the castle to the top up these windy staircases. At the top is the Blarney Stone which you sit down and bend backwards to kiss, its tradition so that women may become eloquent.  Just that day alone (which was a slow day of tourism) over 500 people had kissed the stone, on a busy tourist season over 2000 kiss the stone in one day. Its a hot spot! After that we went back to Cork and meandered around the city. It really is just a miniature version of Dublin. The next morning we got on a bus and went to Kinsale which is a small fishing port town just outside the city. The houses were all up on a huge hill and the port had two really large reminents of stone forts that were built way back in the day. Althought it was very rainy and windy we walked around and went out to one of the forts. It was a really beautiful city and I've heard in the summer its very crowded with tourists and sea sports and such. After spending the night in Cork on the town, we headed back to Dublin to celebrate our french friend Zoe's birthday. Then on Saturday morning the 2nd we got on the bus and went to Belfast as a school trip!

Belfast is Northern Ireland that is part of the UK. There has been riots and battles going on there for hundreds of years between the catholics and protestants, trying to make Northern Ireland part of the Republic of Ireland. It was really amazing we got a tour of the city and they literally have a wall separating the city, one side all green, orange and white, on the other blue red and white. There were tons of murals on the walls painted by both sides that were either about peace or how the protestants will never conform and call themselves part of the Republic of Ireland. Crazzzyyyyyy.. Anywhoo, got a tour and it was a very very interesting experience. We also went to a little market walked around the city with my closest french friends! Did you know the Titanic was built in Belfast? They have the exact cranes still standing from when it was built. They pride themselves on that even though it was the 'unsinkable' ship.. haha


That night the bus left and took everyone back to Dublin but Melissa and I stayed so we could do another tour the next day of the Carrick-a-rede rope bridge, giants causeway, and derry. Melissa and I chilled that night at some pubs near Queens college, one in particular was Van Morrisons bar which was very cool. The next day we hopped on the Paddywagon tour bus and went further north!! The countryside was beautiful as usual and when we got to the rope bridge it reminded me a lot of the Cliffs of Moher. The earth just stopped and there were a bunch of cliffs, the rope bridge connected a mini island from the mainland, really short though.










Then we were off to Giants Causeway. These rocks at Giants causeway were cylindrical and totally amazing. They say volcanic eruptions from 10 million years ago made the rocks like that, but they also say the giant of Ireland and the giant of Scotland had a bridge built so they could fight eachother over a woman. The Scotish woman giant was in love with teh Irish Giant and the Scotish one wanted to fight him for her. The Scotish giant came to fight and the Irish one pretended he was the baby in the bed. The Scotish giant thought that must mean the Irish one is huge so he ran over the bridge and destroyed it so they would never have to fight eachother... just a story haha..

We then went to Derry which is known for the Bloody Sunday battle which was really the start of all the fighting in Northern Ireland. To preserve the city when the fighting was happening they built a huge wall around the city hence its nickname "the walled city."

April 8th had another school trip to hike in Glendalough. That has a bunch of trails in the Wiclow Mountains. We had two buses full of french and americans and we hiked all day in the mountains. It turned out to be a fantastic day outside so we lucked out! After we went to the highest pub in Ireland, Johnny Fox's which had a really antique feel to it.


That weekend was a blast as usual, I signed up for kareokee with a bunch of my friends at a gay bar called The George and I wanted to sing Bon Jovi living on a prayer.. two singers ahead of me and they closed kareokee at midnight. soooo bummed! I have to say though there were quite a number of interesting singers and dancers on stage! haha very entertaining. That sunday it was absolutely perfect day! It was probably 70 degrees outside and it was as if the city just stopped. No one was productive that day, everyone laid out in the parks and there was ice cream everywhere and cotton candy and live music in the squares, it was perfect!


Just this past weekend the 15th Melissa and I took the train to Powerscourt gardens which is 45 acres of gardens, flowers, beautiful trees and stuff. It was again a really nice day and we walked around for a few hours in the gardens, right next door was the hotel the Ritz Carlton! It was beautiful overlooking the mountains, we definitly walked inside and acted as if we were staying there so we could see how nice it was! haha always classy

April 18th I made dinner for my french friends Zoe, Thomas and Hadrien. I made lasagna (without an oven) haha it was a piece by piece lasagna slapped on a plate, delicious though! Thomas made brownies and he messed up the recipe and put too much flour in them.. needless to say when we threw them at the wall they stuck! hahaha so naturally we had a contest on how many we could fit in our mouths at one time.. I won!

This week I have exams, I CAN NOT BELIEVE ITS OVER ALREADY!!!! Saddest week ever. We had our CEA farewell dinner last night, followed by drinks and it was really fun to hang out with our professors and just chat. I seriously think the time has just flown by and can't believe I am leaving Ireland in just 12 days. I have had the best time ever but I just can't believe the time went by so fast! Totally mind blowing.

Anyways, this weekend will be fun, Saturday there is the UCD ball we might go to with our Irish friends. The Universities here have Balls where everyone gets really dressed up and there are bands and stuff.. the one at Trinity not too long ago seemed amazing. It was something out of a harry potter movie. This sunday we are also going to a gaelic football match against cork! Then monday melissa and I leave for our very last excursion in Ireland :(

We are renting a car Monday-Thursday and driving to the southwest coast to the Dingle Peninsula! Our professors are in love with it down there with plenty of beaches, slayhead, countryside, skellig islands and a lot of other places to see! When we get back we have our farewell party with all of the frenchies on that Friday the 29th and on Sunday the 1st Melissa departs to go back home and Jason joins me in Ireland!

We are staying in Ireland for 2 days and then leaving May 3rd to do our backpacking excursion in Italy and Croatia! We are flying to Nice, France, taking the train to Cinque Terre for 3 nights, Rome for 2 nights but 3 days, Naples for 3 nights, then to Bari to catch our ferry to Dubrovnik Croatia for 3 nights, then Split for my 21st birthday woot woot! Then to the prettiest site of all, Plitvice Lakes! There are over 90 waterfalls in just that one national park, its amazing look it up on google! Then after one night there we go to Zagreb to catch our plane for the 18th of May back to the states! It will be an amazing last trip but sooooo sad I am not going back to Ireland afterwards. I will arrive May 18th in the Chicago airport at 8pm.

See you all soon!!!!

love you, Mo