The Great American Bagel

Today we had pancakes for breakfast and the syrup was super good. It tasted like maple syrup with a hint of honey. During film class we watched a couple clips of some movies and discussed them. For lunch we split a BLT sandwich and a bag of chips and found a place to get water for free. We cut our lunch spending down from 7 euros to a little over 3. Hopefully spending less on lunch the days we have school will make up for the couple of times we have to pay more while we're not there. I found the lit class really interesting today. We talked about some of the things we seen at the museum and discussed the bog bodies more in depth. We also got assigned stories that we have to lead the discussion of the class in and Nick and I are sharing a story. For dinner we had another spaghetti kind of meal. It was spiral noodles and some sort of red sauce with sausage. There was also shredded cheese to put over top of it. Yet again it was a great meal. After dinner we headed out to Dun Laoghaire again to walk on the other pier and to get some snacks for the weekend. The pier was really pretty and we have pictures of it up. It took us a while to find the tesco store and we went through a 3 story mall. When i first heard they had a mall that was 3 stories i thought it would be huge but like most other things it's skinny and tall so there's really not as much as you'd think. It'd be like the equivalent of the Lansing mall. The town was still really cool and we're going to have to go back again especially to walk down the side of the coast and into the carnival area. We've been there twice and still not been around everywhere even once. We also found out today that the door we thought went to a closet actually goes to their grandfather's house. We still have to pack tonight and i'm really excited to stay over night in an irish pub and to be out in the country :) we won't have internet there so I won't blog again until Sunday!

Big City

Today we got up and toured the city of Dublin. We met at Trinity College which has a really pretty campus. The walkways are all cobblestone and the buildings are very old. We're planning on going back there to look at the book of celts and take more pictures. We then had a tour of different historical buildings but i don't really remember what they were. We also visited the Temple Bar area and then other shopping areas. We have pictures on facebook so you can look at those. After that we met back and trinity and then went to a pub called "The Hairy Lemon". Nick and I split a chili chicken twister which was just a chicken wrap but it was really good. Everything is so expensive and it was 10 euros which would be why we split one. We got free soup with it though and it was broccoli and cheddar. It was different than at home but still good. Daniel (our guide guy) then showed us some good pubs and night clubs to go to. I don't think i'll be going to any club because they said they're even trashier than the ones at home. I'm hoping to go to a few of the pubs he said even if we don't drink it will still be fun to go. The National History Museum was really cool and they had preserved bodies and stuff. I took a long time looking through everything but i'm not going to get another opportunity like that again so i don't care. I think nick got a little annoyed at how long i took but he got over it. For dinner we had rice with chicken, mushrooms and a sauce that looked like alfredo sauce but didn't taste like it. It was really good at usual. Both of us are pretty tired so we're probably going to head to sleep early. We're filling up our calendar with lots of things to do already and i'm really excited for the weekend trip ahead :)

Quiet Man

Today during our first class we watched the movie the "Quiet Man". Pretty much it was about a guy who used to be a boxer and killed a guy while fighting. He moved back to Ireland met a girl and wanted to marry her but her brother was a dick eventually he married her and she had money that went with her that her brother wouldn't give her. Her husband eventually fought him and won. At one point in time he drug her 5 miles by the arm and an old lady came up to them and said "here's a stick to beat the pretty lady with". The lit class went as usual but when we went to eat the cream of broccoli soup was literally broccoli creamed and it looked nasty so we got beef lasagna and fries instead. We booked a day trip to the Cliffs of Moher or something like that which i'm excited for. For dinner we had their version of spaghetti which had spiral noodles and mushrooms and sauce and it was really good. There was also garlic bread. After dinner we went out to the pub called O'Neilles. Nick will post pictures either tonight or tomorrow. We rode the double decker bus on the top part and it was kinda scary. If you've rode with me and think i rely on my beaks too much you should come here. they stop literally 6in from the car in front of them and the hit tree limbs. We missed our stop but figured out where we're going and we found out where we're supposed to go tomorrow morning for our tour. The pub was really cool and we both ordered a guinness. They didn't taste too great but we're in ireland so we had to have one. after that we split one other drink but called it quits after that. It's way too expensive and that's not what we're here for.  The bartender was super cute though and he was staying to have a drink with our group for the birthday girl after his shift ended at 12 but we left at around 10:30 because after 11:30 you have to pay for busses and we don't really want to be out late at night in an area we don't know. We'll probably go out a few more times but we won't drink most of the time. It was fun just to be around other people in our group. A kid with blue hair took a liking to nick. They sat there and talked for a bit and then when he got up he said to me "i'm straight but dang he's cute!" he then proceeded to ask me questions about lauren and what hair color she had. it was odd but whatever. We're working on our schedule for the rest of the time here and most of the weekends are pretty full. There's so much to do here :).


p.s. i tried to put a picture of guinness up here but i forgot how to save them on my computer so oh well if you'd like to see you can look them up yourself or wait until tomorrow when nick downloads them

Dang that's a big sailboat!

Last night i was a little homesick sitting in bed before going to sleep but i quickly fell asleep and got over it.  We woke up this morning and our host mom had toast sitting out for us with bowls and cereal. We weren't that hungry so we just ate the toast and headed off to school. It was only a 2 min walk like they had told us it would be and thank goodness it wasn't raining or that cold because the only thing i had in my carry on was shorts. At school we started off with them just explaining everything and then going to the library. The library was really boring and he explained a lot more than we needed to know but oh well. Our film class was first and we both really like the professor. The teachers here don't like being called professor though so we just call him by his name shamus. He's really nice and he seems like a laid back teacher. We each got movies we have to watch and write a critique on and then there's also one paper we're going to have to write. Then we have a 2 hour break while the history class takes place. During that break we walked down the street to a pub on the corner to eat lunch. We walked in and went and sat down at one of the tables. Neither of us knew what we were doing so after about 15 minutes of just sitting there talking and no one coming up to us we were just going to leave because we had no idea what to do. As we were walking out someone asked us if we needed help and then he explained how everything goes there. After we ate we went to class and the lit class wasn't as great but the teacher is still nice. We're going to have quite a bit of reading in that class and we've already got some for tonight. We'll have 2 papers, a quiz every tuesday, and a presentation for that class. After class we came back and started planning out what we were doing for the rest of the trip. We made a calendar and put all of our excursions and everything on it and started looking at places to go in galway. We had another delicious dinner tonight. It was chicken with stuffing (i'm normally not a fan of stuffing but this was good) bacon wrapped around the chicken, some broccoli, celery, mashed peas, and then some orange thing that i'm not sure what it was. They give you so much food it's ridiculous but it all tastes really good.  After dinner we went down to the pier and there's pictures of that on facebook. We seen a boat that said "Dick Dastardly" and also a tiny little sailboat. On our way there we took the bus and forgot that we had to stick our hand out to stop it. The first one zoomed right past but the next guy must have known we were tourists because he stopped and told us we had to flag it down. Then we didn't know what to do with out bus cards and he got a little frustrated with us. Then when we were sitting down i pushed the stop button on accident. I was glad he couldn't tell who pushed it. Now we're back and we've got some reading for homework and then have to get up for class that starts at 9:30. Oh and i forgot to say yesterday that when i was talking to them about how i ran over a turtle during my driver's test they said "A turtle! We have nothing exotic like that running around here." I found it very funny that they thought a turtle was exotic. :)

Airports Suck

We made it here safely which is great but our luggage got lost. I was the dumb one that didn't pack much in my carry on because "my luggage would never get lost". So i have a pair of shorts and a couple t-shirts and a sweatshirt for tomorrow no matter what the weather is. We have no toothbrush no toothpaste no brush and any of that but we did get here safe so i'm not really complaining. Our host family is really nice and right now there's also a boy from France here but i think he's leaving soon. We had chicken/pineapple and mushrooms and peppers on a stick off the grill for appetizers and then a burger and potatoes and egg salad for dinner. It was all really good. The family had their grandma and aunt come over to eat and Nick and I stayed out there for a while but were completely exhausted so we came inside a took a nap. We both slept for a little over two hours but are still pretty tired so we'll probably call it an early night. The college we're going to is only a 5 min walk at most from the house so that will be really nice. We have to be there tomorrow morning at 9am for orientation but we seen the schedule our host family has for us and it looks like we'll be getting a lot more free time than we had thought. We have 1 class for around 2 hours and then a 2 hour break and then one more 2 hour class and then we're done for the day on Mon, Tues, and Thurs. Every Wed we have excursions and next weekend we're going on an over night one. Our host family told us about all the different areas we're going to and they all seem pretty interesting so i'm really excited :).

It's About Time

We're finally leaving tomorrow and it really snuck up on me. It's 8:30 at night and we leave tomorrow at 5 and there's still nothing in my suit case. I'm super excited to be leaving but I don't know what I'm going to do without being able to text Nichole every time a thought comes to my head or hanging out with laurence every day. I'm hoping when I come back I'll bring back a sweet new accent along with tons of new memories. Hopefully I'll be posting on here once a day or at least every other day for my family, dakota, nichole, and any other random creepers out there. :)