14 days.

About 4 months ago on January 6th I blogged about how I had 2 weeks exactly until I left for Ireland. To save you the trouble of going back and reading that post, I talked about how I was preparing myself to leave, packing, etc. That seems like a lifetime ago. But here I sit, another 14 days away from something and I have to say I'm not looking forward to the end of this countdown. Not even a little bit. I have not even thought about packing and am considering waiting until the Saturday before I leave to do it...this could have so many negative effects, but that's a risk I'm willing to take. Don't get me wrong, I am super excited to see my family and friends back home but at the same time, I don't want to leave Ireland; mainly the people I have met. I've been dreading the day when I have to look everyone in the eye, say goodbye, and give them a final hug until I see them again. The hardest part will be the fact that I don't know the next time I will see the majority of them after I say goodbye. It's very up in the air. Even the ones I know I will see again this summer or next school year, I'll still be a blubbering mess saying goodbye. I'm fairly certain of this fact and I am giving everyone plenty of notice. Okay well, this is as sentimental as I'm going to get on a public site for the time being. The real good stuff...the meat and potatoes, if you will, will happen the day before I leave or when I'm back home in good ol' Delaware County. Again, fair warning to all you people who have high emotional reactions.

On a happier note, I found twenty-some dollars in one of my wallets. Doesn't do me much good right now but OH, when I get back to America, I am going to tear Wawa a new one with that twenty-some dollars. Wawa hoagie and peach iced tea? Yes please.



As you might suspect, this has nothing to do with Ireland other than I was in Ireland when I found this on todaysbigthing.com That site is a gold mine, people! Basically, this picture is meant to lighten the depressing mood. Necessary? Probably not. Strange/Random/Hilarious? Absolutely. Enjoy! :)

20 Days...

Until I leave.





Um, what?

I play Ultimate because I am awesome

I'm just going to come right out and say it: joining the Ultimate Frisbee team has been the absolute best decision I have made while in Ireland. I wouldn't trade the experience for anything in the world. The people I have met on the team are some of the greatest people I have encountered. I have made lifelong friends with them. Since I'm choosing to write letters to most, if not all, of the members of the team, I'm forcing myself to think of the day when I have to finally say goodbye to them all and leave our next meeting up to fate. As one might imagine, this is a depressing experience but it has to be done and I'm trying to make the best of it. They have become my family over here; teaching me about Ireland and the culture every day and looking out for my SMC friends and I. I can not thank them enough and find it quite difficult to put into words exactly how much they all mean to me. Hopefully this post (and the letters) can give them all some insight. So to the frisbee team, if you're reading this, thank you all for everything! Can we make this last month and 3 days insanely mind blowing? That would be just GRAND.

"Can I live here!?"- Aran Islands

Our last Saint Mary's trip (and bus ride with Eugene) was to the Aran Islands. We left on Friday afternoon and stayed over night in a hostel. The next morning we woke up and headed for the Cliffs of Moher. They were, in short, epic. There really aren't any other words to describe them...perhaps beautiful and enormous would work too.

This one is for you, mom!




The most exciting part for me was when we actually arrived on Inishmore and rode bikes to the beach. I was reunited with the Atlantic Ocean and boy howdy have I missed it! We probably spent close to two hours on the beach. My second favorite part of the whole trip was the heart-to-hearts a friend and I would have. We would sit on a stone wall that faces Galway Bay and the view was just beautiful. I would have been completely fine with spending the entire trip sitting on that wall and looking at that view.

Natalie visits Ireland and epicness ensues.

I suppose it's about time to update this!


Natalie and I enjoying some Rocky Road bars on Easter. Happy Easter to us!

So about a month ago on March 31st I turned 20 (and my parents celebrated their 26th wedding anniversary)! I received the best present I could have hoped for besides my family and it came in the form of Natalie Burkart! She and Laura arrived from Rome for their 10-day long visit around 3pm. Kelly and I went to meet them at the Maynooth train station and it was probably the cutest reunion I've ever been a part of. That night, we had a taco extravaganza for dinner. My lovely flatmates joined my friends and I for dinner! Bless their hearts, they decorated with balloons and got me a cake! It was so sweet and I really appreciated it. Overall, it was a good night even though some people could not attend/went M.I.A. For the rest of Natalie's visit we kind of just hung around and enjoyed the time together. I can not tell you how much I enjoyed sharing a room with someone again...I miss my roommates! Natalie and I watched some much need roommate movies (but not Forrest Gump...what is THAT about?) and relished in the fact that we didn't have anything to do academically. The whole week with Natalie was fantastic. It felt like we were back in South Bend again. If only our ginger, clarinet-playing roommate and our little athlete could have visited too. It would have been the absolute perfect week filled with roomie bonding. On that note, Holy Cross Room 222 next year is going to be INSANE. CLOSESTS! WINDOWS! ETC.! I will see you all before you know it!

A video we recorded on Easter:

Howth is magic

On the first Saturday of Natalie's visit a group of SMC girls traveled to Howth in Co. Dublin. I was beyond excited to see a large body of water and beach. The whole day was perfect. It was a bit chilly but fairly sunny and everyone enjoyed themselves. We saw some seriously beautiful sights. Ireland never ceases to be beautiful and I fall a little more in love with it every day. We did a cliff walk while in Howth and while it was extremely tiring and I doubted we would ever see road again, it was incredibly rewarding. I also really appreciated the wind. I don't know why or when it happened, but I developed a love for wind...it's so strange but I can't explain it so basically, I really enjoyed the gale force winds that were happening on the cliffs.

Florence > Rome

I love Florence. It is my favorite place I have visited (behind Ireland, of course) so far. It was so much cleaner than Rome and very picturesque. The population of creepy guys is much lower than Rome which I appreciated.

Tuesday, March 16th :: Travel to Florence

Kelly and I bought train tickets to Florence the day before and so we got up fairly early, took advantage of our last free breakfast from the hostel, and walked over to Termini station. Our train was supposed to leave at 8:15am but we did not see any trains leaving for Firenze S.M.N. It wasn't until about 8:15:30 am when we realized the train we were supposed to be on was going to Milan but stopped at Firenze S.M.N. When we realized this, we ran to get our ticket validated just in time to watch our train pull out of the station. I can't think of a better use of 44 euro...so we had to buy another train ticket which was leaving at 8:43am. We waited around and once again couldn't tell which platform our train was at. Around 8:40 we realized platform 1 also has platforms a-e so when the board said 1E, we had to run for it. Thankfully, we weren't the only ones running (and I mean RUNNING) late and the train was held up. I've never been more grateful for a 3 hour ride. We both got some much needed rest. Our next adventure in public transportation was trying to figure out the bus and find our hostel. The directions said to take bus 22. The problem with those directions? They didn't say what stop to get off at...after a struggle to figure out our location via map and google, we ended up getting off at the correct stop and then walking in the complete wrong direction. The bus stop was directly across from our hostel but instead of looking across the street, we walked away from it. Around 2pm we were finally settled in the hostel which was more like a little apartment. It was really very nice (and we had two balconies!) but the internet left something to be desired...I felt like I was using dial-up again. Around 5 we both decided we were starving. We took bus 22 to the city center and stumbled upon the Piazza di Santa Maria Novella. This soon became my favorite Piazza. At this Piazza I was able to have Penne Alfredo (the menu actually said "Alfredo"! I almost jumped for joy! It's so difficult to find cream (alfredo) sauce in Europe.), peanut butter gelato (I definitely DID jump/scream for joy), and see an Irish pub which made me feel better about my Saint Paddy's plans.



Sadly, I do not remember specifics about what happened the rest of the trip, as it was a long time ago. I CAN tell you that I saw the David while in Florence (he is gigantic! His calf muscles are ridiculous! The overall detail in the statue is astounding; and all carved out of marble!), ate far too much food, and enjoyed Florence a lot. I do not have any pictures from this trip since my computer's final resting place was Brugges, Belgium (more on that later)

Thursday, March 18th :: Travel to Rome

Kelly and I went back to Rome so the next day Natalie and Laura could leave with us for Brugges. While in Rome, Natalie and I met up with a friend from elementary school who is also studying in Rome and we made a pilgrimage to the Saxophone Pub. It was well worth it. I just wish they sold t-shirts.

Friday-Sunday, March 19-21st :: Belgium

I really liked Belgium. The people were a lot nicer and Brugges was the cutest little town. Our trusty tour guide, Rick Steves (his book, obviously), told us the best places to see and visit in Brugges. We went to a candy shop called Dumon. The little old woman was one of the nicest ladies I've ever met and reminded me of my Mammom (My grandmom, for those of you who don't know that I call her that) if she was Belgian. She asked, since we are American, if we knew Rick Steves. We said yes of course and told her his son went to our school (more or less true) and that we are in the band with him (Irish Guard). In short, we told this woman we're friends with Rick Steves' son which is, in fact, not true but it was a little white lie and it made her very happy. I did feel slightly bad when she gave us free chocolate (only a piece each, otherwise I would feel horrible!) but I quickly drowned my bad feelings in the aforementioned chocolate and felt better. Overall, I really liked Brugges which is a good thing because there were a lot of things going against it:

1) Our hostel left something to be desired, namely, everything. The front office gives you the appeal of it being really clean and hip and cool but then you get to your room and use the sink and mystery sludge comes bubbling out...yeah, gross. Apparently it was rated "Best Hostel" three years in a row but I'm now thinking the hostel gave themselves that award...St. Christopher's Bauhaus Budget Hostel. DO NOT GO THERE.

2) St. Christopher's also happened to be the final resting place for Capitán, my computer. My computer just kept shutting down on its own but it would restart after a while. Well, one time it didn't restart and it has yet to come back to life. When I arrived back in Ireland I took it to the doctor and was told that the ac adapter plug lies right next to the motherboard in Dells and so if it surges, the motherboard could be damaged. Well guess what surged and guess what fried? Exactly. If it sounds expensive, that's because it is.

Next week I will try to get caught up on my blogs but I make no promises. Assignments and school work are piling up. It's that time of year I suppose!