St. Patty's Day & a Trip to Scottishland

Halloween in Salem, Massachusetts? TBA
New Years Eve in NYC? TBA
Mardi Gras in New Orleans? TBA
Saint Patrick's Day in Ireland? CHECK!

A few bus loads of students from UL and I woke up bright and early the Thursday of St. Patty's day to make the journey from Limerick to Dublin in order to catch the parade. When we arrived, the streets were littered in green and I felt like a little kid going to Disneyland for the first time. Except, I feel like that every time I go... even if my wallet doesn't agree.

 O'Connell Street, the main street in Dublin

 Me, Emily, & Kelly waiting for the parade to start... hour 1 of 3.

 Enthusiasm.

 The parade consisted of... I have no idea, really. The strangest artistic costumes and creations from each county.

 You see what I mean? What's worse, no eye or one that is glass half empty?

 Of course dancing skeletons would be followed by a big pink dog with two heads, that's only logical. ?!?!

 Next, we took a tour of the Guinness factory. It was a lot of fun & packed with people dressed up and some of the marching bands and bag pipes from the parade even came in and played on the main floor.

 "Everyone's Irish on March 17th"

Paige, who I mentioned is my extremely good friend who is studying in Florence but was visiting Dublin for her spring break, & me.
Sad story short, we missed each other by 5 minutes meeting up before the parade and then a fat list of other things went wrong, including her forgetting my cell phone number and busses not working out, delaying our reunion until the following evening. Come to find out, we were about a 5 minute walk away from each other the  entire night of St. Patty's. It was just too good to be true, right? At least we got to spend one night together and I'll see her in Florence in less than a month!

On to... Edinburgh, Scotland!
John, Emily, & I bought our tickets weeks ago and finally the day came this past weekend. We also got the chance to couch surf! If you've never heard of it, its a way for people traveling to connect with people living in the area, and vice versa. Some people may be free for a coffee or tour of the town, but others are even gracious enough to offer their homes! So after attempting to couch surf around Ireland and in Sweden and nothing working out, a super sweet American girl studying in Edinburgh offered us space in her flat. It makes traveling an entirely new experience and it was so fun just hanging out with her and her friends and walking around the city.

 In front of Edinburgh Castle

 It wasn't as pretty as Irish castles, but shhhhh, don't tell Scotland.

 This gentleman here immediately asked us if we've seen "Pineapple Express" after he learned we were American. Apparently, he went to see it with his mother and just loved it. You don't say?

 Saturday we climbed Arthur's Seat, a hill in the city that provides a panoramic view from the top. This is a view looking back while climbing up.

 John at the top, probably pointing out his house in Illinois.

 Here's to girl power hour and not packing any exercise gear, because of course I own a plethora of that.

The only semi-decent picture of us 4.

Its been a busy last couple of weeks and every second of it has been on a scale ranging from some sort of enjoyable all the way to absolutely amazing. What's next? "SpRiNg BrEaK 11'!!!!!!" Otherwise known as Easter break and reading week (a week of no classes left open for students to travel... er, study). Emily, Kelly, & I have Rome, Florence, Venice, (hopefully Switzerland), and Paris on our minds and on our itinerary. Then back to school for 2 weeks of finals and then 2 weeks to travel around with my roommate Lauren (who I got to see in London) and .... dun, dundunDUN... my other roommate Vanessa who is planning on flying out early before studying in Dublin for the summer!! I am so, so thankful for this opportunity and am excited for every single stinkin second.

Swedish Fish

I'm going to blame my three week break on "school," except I don't even know what that is anymore. The whole system here is completely different than in the States and is definitely not my favorite. My classes consist of lectures (no attendance taken) and a tutorial (meeting in small groups with a tutor) every once in awhile. Several of my classes are taught on different days, times, and by varying professors depending on the week. Also, the majority of my classes are based 100% on the final... aka, not one single thing is due or asked of us during the semester. Amazing, right? Except for the boulder of stress that I'll have to carry around knowing that my whole grade rests on one exam, which is most likely going to be a completely different design and format than I'm used to. Ey, who said I'm here for school! That's the attitude that's going to get me into law school.

First thing first: Sweden
Emily & I flew to Stockholm for the weekend because... why not? We saw a cheap ticket and before we knew it we were looking at a screen with a confirmation code. This means two things:
A. We didn't know that the airport was 90 minutes away from the city, therefore requiring another 20 euro spent on a bus there and back.
B. I didn't realize there would be S N O W on the ground. Emily made fun of me for the next... well, still to this day, about my immediate reaction looking outside the airplane window and exclaiming, "I didn't bring my snow gear!" Apparently wearing ski pants and ski goggles wasn't "appropriate" or "necessary." I blame San Diego.

 What is that, ICE? That stuff belongs in drinks during the summer, and only there.

 Pretty buildings, pretty, pretty city.

 If I've learned one thing this semester in class: Null hypothesis, they're not all white.

 2 Emilys

 There were really awesome looking boats everywhere.

 We went on a mini cruise through the Archipelagos and drove through ice, it was insane.

 One of the 14 islands of the city

 Ya know, just cruisin' through the Baltic Sea, no big.

They love their 7-elevens... one on practically every corner.

Another cool thing: We arrived really late to our hostel and were told we were the 4,000th customers, so we got upgraded to a 2 person room from a 14 person room. I'm still going to shout "I never win ANYthing" whenever the opportunity presents itself. I'm holding out for the golden ticket so I can get my picture taken with an oompa loompa and place it on the mantel.  

I really loved the city and had a great time exploring and even hanging out with 17 year olds who gave us a tour of the city and taught us a few Swedish words. But, it's definitely a place where you need to be 6 foot, blonde, beautiful, and rich, so Emily & I have now made a plan to return when we're 30, flirty, and fabulous with pockets full of cash.

St. Patty's & Scotland to come... dun, dun, dunnn.

Not So Little London

Question: Did I watch Spice World and blueprint their every move and strategize a plan to live out all the dreams and hopes of my 8 year old self the night before I went to London?

Answer: I only do what's appropriate for my age.

Emily, Kelly, & I did in fact watch all 10 youtube movie segments Thursday night with big fat dumb smiles on our faces. I knew jumping over the bridge in the Spice bus as I raced to my sold-out concert after needing to desensitize a bomb would be a little tricky to reenact, but I wasn't intimidated by the idea. I know some people who know some people. 

Fast-forward to 5:15am Friday morning and my AIFS group & I were out our doors and on our way to Shannon airport for a weekend in London. Its safe to say that my weekend didn't stop until I crashed full force into my bed Sunday night with a raging headache, chills, and a fever. What wasn't included in the itinerary, oh wait- there wasn't one... What didn't occur was anything that even closely resembled rest. The only thing we had planned was finding Chipotle and shoveling burritos into our mouths and finding Ericka (my good friend from Point Loma who visited me a few weeks ago) & Lauren (my roommate and also confidant in life and bedtime stories), who's studying in Sicily for the semester but who was also in London for the weekend. This was planned. 

Flying out over Ireland 

It was the strangest thing to see everything and everyone getting ready for the wedding. The man at the internet cafe told me that Kate was a gold digger. Drama-rama.

Of course I had heard about the wedding from my Yahoo! homepage, but I didn't realize how important it really was until I found out I could buy a bell as my own save-the-date. Now I know what to send in the mail for my big day. Pavlov would be proud. 

Success equals managing how to work the underground system and endlessly wondering around a busy street two hours after arriving in London for your first time to find Chipotle.

Hey, I know you guys!! SO great.

The building that inspired the structure of wedding cakes.

Shakespeare, oh Shakespeare, let down your hair. 

Buckingham Palace. The Queen was probably out shopping at Target or someplace. 

Spice girl bridge! 

We most definitely stopped and had a Mary-Kate & Ashley Olsen type photo shoot with the phone booth and Mr. Ben. 

New friends & Old

Westminster Abbey, where the wedding will be

The Rosetta Stone!! Three of my friends & 1 did a project on it for History Day in 9th grade and replicated it. So many memories and it was super awesome to see it in real life. Another amazing thing about London: Most of the museums are free! 

Abbey Road

I don't read Harry Potter, but I was a phony and had to see this. Supposedly it used to be in a real brick wall. You could of fooled me though, this shiny plastic pin the tail on the donkey type material is practically the same thing.

The sun came out for all of 2 hours Sunday morning and it was absolutely beautiful.

It started to rain just as we got on the London Eye, but hey, that's life. 

It was an extremely fun weekend and I really liked the city. I was a little overwhelmed by how chaotic it was at first, but as I became more at ease with the tube and getting around, it became so much more enjoyable. There was always something to do and it seemed like everyone in my AIFS group spent the weekend doing different things. It was definitely not a city you could see in one weekend!

I've been feeling a little homesick lately, which was unexpected since I was fine the whole time I was in Costa Rica. I think the fact that I've been sick 3 times now has a big thing to do with it. The only thing that sounds appealing when I'm sick is my home and my mom. 

Another difference is that I'm living in an apartment where people are always coming and going and I can hear everything. Living with a host family in CR really did feel like a home for the most part. 

Studying abroad in 100% amazing all by itself, but its also pretty spectacular that there are so many programs and options: 3 months, 4 months, summer, apartment, host family, city, middle of nowhere, giant university, little school... you can do any of it! 

What's next? Emily & I are going to Sweden this weekend and have no plans really, so we'll see where that takes us. Next week is St. Patty's Day and I get to spend it in Dublin with one of my best of bestest friends who will be visiting from Florence. WORDS CAN'T DESCRIBE HOW EXCITED I AM. Following weekend, John, Emily, & I are going to Scotland. 

Oh, Okay. Right? These things are so simple to type but their meaning is beyond unbelievable. 

On another, totally related, adventure, I've become addicted to Jersey Shore and am currently watching season 1. I'm glad I have so much free time to do this and don't have a presentation and two papers to work on.  

Lastly, Chingy & I would like to thank the Holiday Inn for their amazing buffet of a breakfast that I didn't just eat, but devoured. Three meals into 1? Its possible.