So I have been back home for almost two weeks, and it feels boring and weird to say the least.

Finals were alright, and by the end of the month I’ll have my grades back.

I left Ireland on December 19th, and thank goodness by flight was on time and everything was good except that we had to circle in the air for about an hour at JFK because of the “snow” storm. Canada and I packed up my whole life in two suitcases and two carry ons… this included some last minute sacrifices I made and left behind some things. Leaving was not stressful until after a few days where I started to feel lonely and bored with myself.

It is the strangest thing to go from living with 4 people in a little hole to reverting back to a comfy lifestyle. At first it was really exciting and fun, with Christmas right after, I was busy with everything and I enjoyed all the food and company, but most of all… a real shower. It was really good to see all of my friends and family and it almost felt unreal, because so much has happend and it’s really hard to explain to someone what “it” was like. The night I got back I spent it with someone special and we devoured chinese to celebrate my return.That wore off and now I’m debating about which classes to take for next semester and where to get a job.

I miss Ireland and it’s silly friendly people, and all of the great people that I met along the way ( we still chat on Skype as often as we can!) and in a weird way I miss our budget dinners and our fabulous nights out and weekends away filled with adventure. I feel that I learned so much about myself and others that can’t be found in books or in classes, but found within people. I came home calmer and older, and I can with out a doubt say that those were the best 4 months spent away from home, it tested so many of my friendships and realationships and taught me a lot of responsibility,and it’s something that everyone should consider doing.

All in all, I’m happy to be home, but there are times where I want to be back in the hole, eating fish n’ chips sippin’ wine and planning our weekend trip.

So this has been terribly delayed due to finals, school in general and our entire house being sick at some point and re-infecting each other.

So, Paris was Canada’s and I big trip for the semester, we didn’t really want to be Tina and Talina tourist and instead had a few select places we wanted to see and enjoy ourselves for the rest of the time there.

We flew out early thursday and returned sunday afternoon so it was a nice longer weekend. Now we flew RyanAir ofcourse because it is the cheapest and there are flights practically everyday and I must say it was the worst experience of my life. Maybe it was the combo of the Beauvais airport in France or because the seats don’t recline back but the whole travel part was way too stressful and painful than I would have wanted it to be.

Moving on we arrived at our Hotel and ofcourse we had the top floor- penthouse status. clearly. Thank god Canada’s french kicked in and mine came back to me a little bit so I wasn’t a total twit. The hotel was clean and okay.

We did the typicals: Eiffel Tower, Sacre Coeur, Champs D’elysee, Louvre, etc.

My favorite hands down was the Louvre, seeing many musuems in NY I was very impressed and could have stayed in there for a few days to see everything. We saw this one called I think the Mona something? can’t remember haha. Cupid’s Kiss is amazing in person and the Rembrandts were really good too. After having lunch in the cafe we finished off with the Picasso’s and continued on.

The food in Paris.. that’s another issue: the pastries, cookies, croissants, tarts etc are AMAZING and delicious and my mouth was happy but the rest of the food was kind of bland and limited in choices, maybe I’m a snob to this because I have so much variety at home but the selection was the same at every place we went to… fake italian or faker sushi?

Next day, we did some shopping and I got Mum a cute gift from Guerlain that I hope she likes haha, I just wish I felt better on the trip so we could do more walking and get to more places but for the circumstances it was really good. ( Shopping in France is amazing, it is way cheaper than Ireland and they have the best stuff.)

The metro helped ALOT. It is nothing like the subways, it is super clean and even easier to understand and it really does take you everywhere in Paris that you can imagine. At night we went to the Eiffel Tower for a romantic stroll and dinner. It was so SO big , I wasn’t expecting it to be so big and the light show they had going on was fabulous too.

I would deffinatley reccomend Paris, but maybe in the warmer months and spend at least a week lol.

This past week has been hassle hassle with finals, I’m not used to studying that much for them and they are way more hardcore and serious about them here. I have only one left tomorrow at 9 am, and then Friday morning I leave for home. I don’t quite know yet how I feel but it’s not happy. We had our Family Christmas the other day and we all exchanged gifts, watched elf and ate goodies and it just made everyone a bit sad. As much as I am excited to go see everyone back home and go back to my life, I feel like we have turned our hole into a home and have lives here. It’s going to be really weird coming back. The girls and I all have skype so we will keep in touch but it’s still such a weird feeling.

I tried McDonald’s twice here so far and  I must say it is absolutley DELISH. The chicken was legit meat chicken not some sort of unknown whatever and service was nice and clean. Basically we have all been crazy here lately trying to get everything done and packing and such in order. The food in general is just really healthy and good, My fave place in town is Dolan’s and I could eat their fish n’ chips every day.

Tonight is more studying and I think we’re gonna get chabbatas for the italian place next door and try to relax.

Laduree, was our MAIN attraction and goal, which we paid about 50 bucks for coffee and some macaroons. When it rome, eh?

MonMarte, where the Moulin Rouge is located in, has to be hands down my fave spot, it is Porn City and there are strip bars, and the such EVERYWHERE, the laws are alot more lax there too so pictures of naked women are plastered on every wall. If we went at night it would have been interesting.

View from our room, an hour within arrival there was a fire next door. grand.

The importance of Maps.

Cuties at lunch.

So the ladies and I got back from Dublin on sunday night, but haven’t had the time to properly update til now. busy busy bee.

The bus ride to Dublin wasn’t bad at all but the weather could have been better. We got into Dublin friday morning and stayed the a really cute little B&B the TownHouse/Globetrotters, Canada organized it and we had a really cute victorian themed 3 bed suite. I was most pleased and then we found out that some famous writers actually lived in the georgian house before it became a B&B, really impressive.

Dublin in essence is like a mini NYC, but cleaner and nicer and much less hectic, sort of like the Village part of it I suppose.

First on the list was the GUINESS FACTORY!, as silly and touristy as it was, it was super cool to see. It’s really big, alot bigger than I had expected and the set up of it was awesome, pictures don’t do it justice, you just have to see it.  At the end we had a nice pint of guiness at the gravity bar that looked out onto dublin, which was super scenic at night with all the lights.

We got a package from our school that included some coupons/vouchers and with out a doubt we used them all.  This included, the Book of Kells, which was a total bust. Canada and I were under the impression that it was like this lit up magical wowing peice of something, its basically a bible with some cool writing and colors on it, It was nice to see and the way it was set up with the info about it was nice but deffinatley not what I had expected, However the Long Room upstairs which was a 2 floor library with some of the worlds oldest books was highly impressive and really interesting to look at. It had that old book smell and the current exhibition was on natural botanics. Trinity Collge in itsself is nice, but a little hectic, its a gorgeous campus but a bit crowded with tourists for my taste.

Next was the Liffey River Cruise, it was short and I could have lived with out it, but it was nice to see all of Dublins new construction hehe.

We also saw the Dublin Castle and walked around that area and Graffton street to shop, but took it kind of easy.

Now the icing on the cake was sunday morning. In the pouring rain Canada and I ventured to go to St. Patricks Cathedral for mass, as non practicing Catholics we were thrilled at the event. HOWEVER the nasty old man cab driver informed us that the Cathedral is NOT Catholic, it is indeed the Church of England and WHY would we want to go there? and that he can take us to a great Catholic Church. The religious divide was So strong for this man and we were both boggled. We had no idea that St. Patricks wasn’t Catholic and even so… we just wanted to see it. ANYWAYS we went to mass at a regular catholic church and it was nice, semi entertaining because it had some funny charectors in it but overall it was good.

My favorite part of the whole trip was M&S Restaurant… we went there twice and it was AMAZING. kind of like a little chic 59th & Lex cafe that I have at home at Bloomies but the food was out of this world delish and the service was hardcore. The Manager runs a tight ship for sure.

Which brings our current situation. Yesterday morning we were burglered. Someone broke our living room window and came into the house… TWICE. Canada saw his shadow walking down the stairs and Norway heard him twice, I slept through it all but it was scary none the less. He didn’t steal anything and we’re all okay but it was very weird. I’m convinced that something was protecting us because none of us actually came into contact with him and we are all usually pretty vocal if we hear something. Another house in the village close to us also got burglered. I personally think it was someone on a bad high just kind of roaming and doing whatever, but still it was strange. We barracaded our selves last night with a chair against our main door and everything was on lock down. Security has supposedly been tightened but I don’t know… seems like they should do even more, to me this is pretty serious.

Today is mental health day as well as finish up some loose ends on school work because tomorrow is PARIS!!

I fed the outside cat ham this morning… I hope it eats it.

Super pretty rose Carpet!

Their music seroisly brought us to tears.

I petted him, he made a nice noise after.

Hi!

So far this weekend has been semi-eventful, it started off with us having a guest on Thursday night, I was casually watching a movie when Canada called me over to ask if her room smelled like burning plastic… and indeed it did, Norway was called for further inspecition and she too confirmed the situation. We waited a little bit and investigated making sure everything was off, etc, but nothing. So finally we called Security and he came to check it out, he how ever did not smell anything after he was shown the evidence. He called the RA of our village, who was rather displeased and upon further inspection nothing was found. In the end they told us to stop having a meth lab. Very intresting. So as a group we concluded that we have a ghost in the room, and this suspicion was made certain when both Canada’s and mine lappy’s shut off over night again tonight, Canada knows these things and says he’s harmless and might be just passing through and having a good time. I don’t feel anything negative yet so I’m letting it be, BUT we have only two little dinky fire alarms in the house so I complained about that and they came the next day to service them, carbon monoxide detectors are next on my list.

Last night we went to Dolan’s ( traditional Irish Pub) for some drinks and live music, because it’s Norway’s Birth week and her family came to visit so we thought it would be nice. It was really cute and a cozy atmosphere, and then we went to a differant Pub to meet the boys, but that turned out to be not so cute.

And today, our main trip of the weekend was Cork, we weren’t particularly intrested in roaming around, we wanted to see the Blarney Stone and peace out. It was rainy as it has been this whole week, but we were bored and brave and traveled through the storm, I must say out of all the places I have seen so far this was the most fun as well as authentic and preserved as much as they could. I got such good vibes the whole time and it was really a fun spot to visit. We both kissed the stone, and they had nice helper men there so we wouldn’t fall and die and it was grand.

The week has honestly been quite dreary because it’s gotten cooler and it’s been raining, we have been nesting at home, knitting and watches movies hoping to gain motivation to write our papers, tomorrow is the big party for Norway!

M.

I’m hooked up to the site, finally after a month!

I’m all settled in and dandy in my little hole, the roommates are grand and I can make my way around campus, hehe.

Today it hailed, literally hailed the size of peas, and then a combination of rain/hail/sleet happend so that was just great. Canada and I wrapped our heads with our scarfs because we didn’t have hoods and only one umbrella between us along with our purses and shopping bags from the market.

The school system here is really something differant, and just a simple day in class is full of laughs and good times, for example our Lecturer today had no idea about the project that was due, and then the Tutor apparently didn’t know the details, but Canada and I quickly made some friends and formed a little group and chose Norway as our country for the research on Erasmus. Also, our mature student Ester today had another outburst, during the lecture about feminism, towards the end she felt the need to comment; yelling about how women must wear revealing and “not for the weather” dresses to winter time events!, Literally this women was yelling and screeching like a bat about this, while Canada and I sat there giggling. I was tempted to ask her if she ever heard of wearing a fur coat over this so called dress or maybe if she considered the fact that some women enjoy dressing pretty, but I too tired and hungry and knew I would get heated so I let the poor soul go.

Today has been just kind of a lounging day, I got my package from Mum back at home and have been feverishly knitting away, and attempting to get motivated to do some research for my two papers that I must start this week, the rainy weather doesn’t help.

More Later with Pictures of Kerry and the Cliffs!

M.