Last Week in Dublin

It keeps on hitting me that at this time next week I will be back in the United States. There is a lot that makes me sad about leaving but I am really excited to see people again. I really wish that I could spend my last week here enjoying it but I've been in finals for the past week and still have two to go. For our finals we have to go to this building off campus that looks like an airport coat hanger, then you go to take your test in this giant room that looks like a parking garage with everyone else who is taking a test at the moment, the room is filled with thousands of students. It's very intimidating.

Over the weekend I had a great little study break. On Friday night we had the API farewell dinner in Dublin city center, and during the dinner my friend Katie arrived in Dublin from Barcelona. After we enjoyed our lovely steak dinner from Fire Restaurant in downtown Dublin, a lovely restaurant. After that I took her to a pub so she could get the Irish pub scene, where she got to experience first hand how expensive Dublin is.

On Saturday Katie and I got up early so that we could go straight into the city center so she could see the city before I had my final. I showed her Trinity College, O'Connell Street, and the River Liffey. Then I hoped on a bus back for my final!After my final we went straight back to the city Center and I took Katie for some more site seeing, I showed her Grafton Street, Dublin Castle and Temple Bar. It was interesting showing Katie the touristy side of Dublin, it gave me deja vu of back in January when I felt like more of a tourist and it made me think about how fast this trip has gone.

Katie and I at Dublin Castle

I really wish that Katie could have seen better weather, it was pretty cloudy when she was there. It was raining a lot during the day. Though during the late afternoon the sun was starting to make an appearance so I took Katie to see St Stephen's Green, which is for sure one of my favorite places in Dublin. For dinner I took her to O'Neils this really great restaurant in Dublin that gives huge portions, with lots of potatoes.

Gorgeous St Stephens Green
Classic Irish Meal

Later that night Katie got to hang out with my friends Kadie and Stephanie, there was a lot of confusion with two Kadie's. We went out to TGI Friday's which was really funny, going to an American Restaurant in Dublin, I'm also really glad that everyone hit it off.

Early Sunday morning Ginny arrived into Dublin, she was stopping in Dublin for a night before she went to see her aunt in Cork. I'm really glad that the Barcelona group got to be back together again. We walked around Dublin a little bit showing off the same sights that I had the previous day.

There was one interesting twist in the day, Ginny had left her phone on the Dublin bus when we were coming into the city center.We had been afraid that she wasn't going to see it again, especially after we reported it to the Dublin Bus. Though when we were on O'Connell Street my phone went off it was someone who had found the phone on the bus and took the phone all the way out to this town he lives in which is about a half an hour outside of Dublin. The phone call had really bad reception so we really couldn't understand what he said, all we could here was some to go the Blanchardstown station, which we had assumed would be the bus station, though it turned out that there was no bus station, so the bus driver dropped us off at the fire station. We wandered in there to see if we could get directions. What ended up happening was that we were standing there for about 15 minutes with no one else standing in the room, though a fireman ended up coming in and was really confused about why we were there. So he called up the man that called Ginny up and he emphasized that we were AMERICAN, it made us look REALLY stupid. He was planning on bringing it the police so we ended up going back to his house to pick it up. Luckily we were reunited with the phone and it became a funny story.

Ginny left this morning and I was stuck to go back to finals. My last finals is on Thursday I can't believe that in 6 days I will be home again!

Blarney Castle, Malahide and Some Studying

Since classes are officially over last week was revisions week where we had the whole week off to study. Now finals are beginning next week, my first one is on Thursday. The idea of taking finals in a foreign country is so nerve racking I feel like they are never going to end. At Lesley I've always complained about not having enough time between classes and finals beginning to study so now that I have the time that I have wanted I should actually be studying but it is hard.

Since I only have about two weeks left of being in Ireland I'm really trying to make the most out of my last few weeks here while combining studying. On Wednesday Stephanie and I went on a paddy wagon tour to Country Cork. One of our first stops was to the town Cobh pronounced (Cove) Cobh has this really pretty harbor which is the second largest harbor in the world. Cobh is famously known to be the town where the Titanic last took off from, so me being a Titanic geek got great enjoyment out of that.

After wondering around Cobh as well as stopping in this other fishing village Kinsale we headed over to one of the most famous castles in Ireland Blarney Castle. Now I must say I was expecting that Blarney Castle was going to be over hyped but it was not, the grounds that it was on was this gorgeous garden. As well as even though I have seen other castles nothing compared being able to go inside one and climb to the top of the stairs, which was a long climb up really narrow stairs. The top of the castle has some amazing views. That was where I kissed the famous Blarney Stone. It is believed that if you kiss the stone you will have good luck, a good thing to do before finals I suppose. I was really nervous to do it especially afraid that I'd be dropped but I wasn't! All in all the excursion was well worth it and worth the study break.

Many people asked me what it was like watching the Royal Wedding out here in Ireland. Well to answer that pretty much the same as it would have been if I was back in the United States, especially since I watched it on a New York Times website, the only difference was that I didn't have to get up at some awfully early time to see it. Ireland does not care for the royal family much. In my tutorial from my Ireland uncovered class for tutor was saying how she was born on the exact same day that Prince William was born in Northern Ireland 5 minutes to midnight and her mother who considered herself to be on the Irish side of the conflict actually asked the nurse to record her birth five minutes later due to the fact that Princess Diana had said that every family of a baby born on the same day as Prince William would have a special spoon from the royal family and she wanted nothing of them.

On Saturday Stephanie, Kadie and I took a trip to this town Malahide which is north of Dublin a little bit. It was right on the beach which we got much excitement about I miss the beach a lot. I had so much sand in my flats when I came home. Malahide also had the castle that we wanted to just see quickly and snap a few photos of before we headed on the train back to Dublin but it turned out that walking to the castle involved this long walk through a park, which was pretty but we were tired.

I cannot believe that it is May already and that in two weeks from today I will be on a plane back to the United States. I really want to make the most out of the time left in Dublin when I am not studying because I have grown really fond of it here but I do truly feel ready to go home. It will be nice to use the dollar again and not have to worry about exchange rates as well as I really miss my family and friends and feel like I've been apart from them for too long now. I'm getting souvenirs these next two weeks, any requests?