Day 6: Tree, Catolic, Potato

So today was the first day of classes which was pretty uneventful. We were only there for about an hour then I spent the rest of the day at the beach in Bray. It was so beautiful down there! The water was so blue and there were green rolling hills surrounding us. There has not been a drop of rain since I got here..... and now tomorrow it will start pouring!

Anyway so to explain my title for today the 4 of us went into this tiny shop on a back road in Bray and each got a shirt with something written in Gaelic! Mine has the lyrics to "Jump Around" which the shop keeper played for me -- Léim Thart! Anyway so we were discussing the lack of pronounciation of the "heches" in the Irish accent.. like "three" is "tree" and "Catholic" is "Catolic" and then as he is thinking about it saying the words out loud he goes "Tree, Catolic, Potato." We just look at him and are all like there is no "H" in potato! You probably had to be there but it was hilarious!

After we got back from Bray, I worked on my homework and did my laundry. Big oops was that I accidentally washed my bus pass so we'll have to see tomorrow if it still works since you have to scan the bar code.

I'll let you know how that goes.

Day 5: Sports Bras Have Not Made It To Ireland Yet

Today we moved into the dorms. It's good because now I feel more settled and I have my own space to unpack and everything but it also means we are now outside the city. We didn't really do much, it is a Bank Holiday here so everything is closed so we all just stayed on campus and hung out in the dorms. We did go check out the Women's Mini-Marathon (really a 10k) that ran by campus which was kinda funny. It's the largest women's even in the world and men sometimes dress up like women and run in it. We also figured out that sports bras haven't made it here yet. I mean just watching them hurt sometimes! The few women that were wearing them we figured they were foreign. Some women weren't wearing any sort of bra at all!! Ouch!

Well that's about it for today. We have our first day of class tomorrow so we'll see how that goes...

Day 4: Maps? What Maps?

THE IRISH DON'T BELIEVE IN MAPS! Seriously, they don't. Torey and I slept in this morning after our late night in Temple Bar and decided to go explore Phoenix Park. We look in our tour books and decide "oo that'll be easy".. yeah no. It took us about 3 hours or so to get out there and we did A LOT of walking but it was really fun. We accidentally found the American Ambassador's house so that was cool. And in case you were wondering - he has a moat! YES, a moat!

Anyway, tomorrow we move into the dorms so it'll be nice to get settled in but that also means I have to repack all my stuff tonight. :(

Write more tomorrow!


the moat

Day 3: I Accidently Went to a Gay Bar and Got Licked....

Today was a very fun-filled day! I went on a 2 1/2 hour walking tour of Dublin which was pretty. After that we had lunch on a boat on the Liffey River and the food was really, really good! Then Torey and I came back to the room and napped for the afternoon. We woke up and went and got some sandwiches for dinner then went down to Temple Bar for the night. Temple Bar is like the 6th Street of Dublin. This is where the fun stuff happened.

So the first bar we went to we did not realize was a gay bar but looking back we should have! Looking back it was 90% guys (one was dressed like Susan Boyle) and they were all singing along with REM, Cher, and Grease. And there was the 2 guys who swapped ice using only their mouths... yeah I know, we were oblivious! We were also being bothered a lot there by all the guys who found it so much fun that we were American. Though none of them were Irish - they were mainly Dutch and Swiss. Anyway so right as we were finishing up our beers and thinking it was time to move on this guy came up and kissed Maia, Torey, and Sally's hands but when he took mine he full on licked the top of my hand! With that it was time to go.

After that we met up with Noel (the IT guy from UCD) and he said the area of Temple Bar we were in was all tourists and no locals so he took us to The Porter House. This place was really fun and we met a few Irish guys that Sally and I became friends with for the night. They were a lot of fun and taught us some tricks to sounding Irish but not "leprechaun" as they said I sounded when I tried to do an Irish accent. It was also fun because they bought us our drinks as well. I love being American here!


Fun Irish guys

Day 2: The First Pint

Sleep felt SOOOOOO good last night. I went to bed around 9 o'clock (which was much later than most of the others) and we woke up at around 8:30. Today after breakfast (super yummy at our hotel!) we went out to UCD and had our orientation and campus tour. They gave us Charm Alarms to protect against attack -- they are SUPER stylish :P Anyhoo after that we had some lunch and then the afternoon was free so a group of us walked to Dublin Bay and it was very pretty and a lot of fun. The water was surprisingly warm! I can tell already that I am going to lose so much weight with all the walking I'm going to be doing. I had my first beer in Ireland after dinner tonight! The length of day is freaking me out a little. It is after 10 and it is just now getting darker. This is the first time since I've arrived I've seen it this dark!

Hello from Ireland!

So I'm finally in Ireland!!! I arrived in Dublin a little after 7 a.m. local time and got to my hotel around 9 a.m. Luckily my room was ready for me to check in so I got to take a little nap until around 11, then I showered and around that time my roommate arrived. We chatted a bit then we had a meeting with the whole class at 1 where we got our cell phones and bus cards. After the meeting our professor, who has been here since Monday, took us all down to the shops and stuff nearby. His plot was to take us far away and keep us awake until a normal-ish sleeping time. So we all kind of split off into groups and did whatever for a couple hours. I just hung out with a few other girls at the park that was our meeting spot. It is called St. Stephen's Greens and is very pretty. The weather today has been wonderful. Sunny and clear skies! I was actually hot a few times and wished I had worn shorts. After that we all met back up at around 5 and went and had dinner as a group. It's fun getting to know the other girls more even just in this first day. I didn't get a chance to get to know most of them in the meetings. Anyway now it is about 7:45 and I am surprising not very tired but I think I'm going to be going to sleep pretty soon.

Tomorrow we are headed out to the UCD for orientation and a campus tour so I'll let you know how that goes.

Nighty Night!!



view from our window in the Ariel House

1 Day to Go!

Yay! I leave for Dublin on Wednesday but my travels will begin tomorrow. My parents and I are driving up to Memphis tomorrow night because my flight leaves early Wednesday. I am all packed and ready to go! I am really excited. I don't really have my weekend trips planned out but I think we are just going to wing it.

Next time I write it will be from IRELAND!!

Kelsey