Can you believe that 4 1/2 months have already passed and I sit here now among suitcases packed for America. It has been an amazing semester full of new challenges, growth, learning, and memories that will truly last a lifetime. It's cliche, but it's so true.
I'm not sure how I am feeling about coming back to the US. Of course I am excited to see my family and friends, and of course I am excited to eat a cheeseburger, but at the same time, I'm not sure if I am quite ready to leave Sevilla, my new home away from home.
This semester has been challenging for me. A new place, new people, a new language, new food, and a new culture. All of these things combined to give me the worst nerves ever when I first arrived, and now it's second nature. I walk around feeling like I've lived in Sevilla for years, and I finally speak Spanish with confidence. It's a great feeling to know that I have accomplished something so spectacular in my mind.
I'm going to miss Spain. I am going to miss Mama the most, our Spanish friends, siestas, tinto de verano, the tapas, walking everywhere, the city as a whole- but I know I will be back someday when the time is right. For now, I take with me the lessons I've learned and the memories I've made, and I look forward to starting the next chapter in my book of life.
I want to thank all of you who have read this throughout the semester- I have really enjoyed sharing my stories and pictures with you all, and I can't wait to share things with you in person. Thank you Mom and Dad for EVERYTHING you have done for me this semester. I seriously could not have done this without your love and support, and of course the helpful dinero :)
So tonight is my last night in Spain and you ask- "what will you do?" easy, we will live it the Sevillano way- tapas and drinks tonight with our Spanish friends.
10:30 tomorrow I will board the plane- destination the good ole U. S. of A. I will leave with tears in my eyes, and a warm fuzzy feeling in my heart, knowing that I will always have a home in Sevilla, Spain. I truly am happy and grateful that I was able to spend the last semester of my junior year in Spain. Thank you all for your love and support. It means the world to me.
I love you all, and I look forward to seeing you within the next weeks to come.
I leave you with this-
Happiness is like peeing in your pants. Everyone can see it, but only you can feel the warmth.
Friday, May 16, 2008
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
its been too long
I have to apologize for my lack of blogging lately. To be honest, I've been traveling a lot and I just haven't been able to find the time to sit down to update everyone. As I am writing now, I only have 11 days left in Sevilla- it truly is one of the most bitter sweet moments I have ever felt in my life. I'm excited to go home to see everyone and to sleep in my own bed, and to get a hug from my own mom, and to drink REAL diet coke- non of this coke light crap, but at the same time I am going to miss Sevilla dearly. It truly has become my second home.
I'm taking a break right now from finishing up a 5 page paper and two presentations to give you a quick summary of what has been going on since Feria- then its back to work for me.
Gareth visited for 10 days and we traveled to Toledo, and to Portugal. It was a great time all around. It was so good to spend time with him and to show him around Sevilla, as well as travel to different parts of the country and to Portugal. Portugal was AMAZING and so beautiful. It was so relaxing just sitting on the beach doing nothing. Unfortunately I don't have any funny stories so I'm sure you will find this entry rather boring.
The weekend after Gareth and I were in Portugal, I went back to Portugal with some of friends that are in a different program here in Sevilla. There were 10 of us and we rented two cars and drove to Lagos, Portugal. We stayed in a villa, and cooked our own food and it was SOOOOO FUN!! We did a lot of hiking through the cliffs and had our own little private beach. It was a great weekend, except for the fact that I had a near death experience in the ocean during high tide and high waves. I caught caught on the shore where the waves were breaking and I got sucked in and lost my bathing suit bottoms and couldn't breath or get out of the water. It sucked me back in twice and when I was finally able to get to the surface and get to shore, I was crawling up the beach covered in seaweed and sand clinging onto my bathing suit bottoms with my big toe. It was SOOO SCARY, yet after I finished gagging and vomiting up all the salt water it was pretty funny, and there are some pretty funny pictures of the whole thing that I am waiting to get from my friend's camera.
There are 4 new albums on my picture website for you to check out. I hope you enjoy all of them.
We're getting into crunch time with school. Classes end on Thursday and finals start on Monday. I have 3 finals on Monday-boo!!! but with that being said I will be home 1 week from this Saturday! I can't believe I am saying that. This weekend is our last weekend in Sevilla. We're going to go to the gypsy market on Saturday. We'll see what else we get up too, its been in the high 80s low 90s this week and let me just say it is TOO HOT! its seriously unbearable heat. There is no ocean breeze that I am usually used to, so its definitely hard to handle. We sleep most of the afternoons because thats what you have to do in order to survive. Don't worry though I'm drinking lots of water and doing the best I can.
Oh I'm really tan right now- probably the tannest I have ever been in my life this early on in the summer.
what else...OH!!! bad news- on Saturday night Mama got mugged by two men and she broke her arm and has all these scrapes and bruises all over her body. Thankfully she held on tight to her bag, which is probably why she is so banged up, but they didn't take anything from her. She was pretty shook up, but shes in much better spirits now. I told her that in the US when someone breaks a bone and has a cast people sign their casts, and she was like OOOO OK!!! so we are all going to sign her cast!
So the things I am looking forward to the most when I get home...lets see
1.my family and my friends!
2.cheeseburgers- spaniards don't eat beef. I have gone through such a beef withdrawal here its insane. I neeeeeed a burger!
3. my own bed with soft sheets
4. a pillow- not a clump of rags in a pillow case
5. diet coke- not coke light
Thats all for now, I've got to get back to work and then I need to go to bed! I miss you all so much and I can't believe I will be seeing most of you in such a short amount of time! I hope all everything is well back in the good ole U.S. of A!!!
see you soon!!!
I'm taking a break right now from finishing up a 5 page paper and two presentations to give you a quick summary of what has been going on since Feria- then its back to work for me.
Gareth visited for 10 days and we traveled to Toledo, and to Portugal. It was a great time all around. It was so good to spend time with him and to show him around Sevilla, as well as travel to different parts of the country and to Portugal. Portugal was AMAZING and so beautiful. It was so relaxing just sitting on the beach doing nothing. Unfortunately I don't have any funny stories so I'm sure you will find this entry rather boring.
The weekend after Gareth and I were in Portugal, I went back to Portugal with some of friends that are in a different program here in Sevilla. There were 10 of us and we rented two cars and drove to Lagos, Portugal. We stayed in a villa, and cooked our own food and it was SOOOOO FUN!! We did a lot of hiking through the cliffs and had our own little private beach. It was a great weekend, except for the fact that I had a near death experience in the ocean during high tide and high waves. I caught caught on the shore where the waves were breaking and I got sucked in and lost my bathing suit bottoms and couldn't breath or get out of the water. It sucked me back in twice and when I was finally able to get to the surface and get to shore, I was crawling up the beach covered in seaweed and sand clinging onto my bathing suit bottoms with my big toe. It was SOOO SCARY, yet after I finished gagging and vomiting up all the salt water it was pretty funny, and there are some pretty funny pictures of the whole thing that I am waiting to get from my friend's camera.
There are 4 new albums on my picture website for you to check out. I hope you enjoy all of them.
We're getting into crunch time with school. Classes end on Thursday and finals start on Monday. I have 3 finals on Monday-boo!!! but with that being said I will be home 1 week from this Saturday! I can't believe I am saying that. This weekend is our last weekend in Sevilla. We're going to go to the gypsy market on Saturday. We'll see what else we get up too, its been in the high 80s low 90s this week and let me just say it is TOO HOT! its seriously unbearable heat. There is no ocean breeze that I am usually used to, so its definitely hard to handle. We sleep most of the afternoons because thats what you have to do in order to survive. Don't worry though I'm drinking lots of water and doing the best I can.
Oh I'm really tan right now- probably the tannest I have ever been in my life this early on in the summer.
what else...OH!!! bad news- on Saturday night Mama got mugged by two men and she broke her arm and has all these scrapes and bruises all over her body. Thankfully she held on tight to her bag, which is probably why she is so banged up, but they didn't take anything from her. She was pretty shook up, but shes in much better spirits now. I told her that in the US when someone breaks a bone and has a cast people sign their casts, and she was like OOOO OK!!! so we are all going to sign her cast!
So the things I am looking forward to the most when I get home...lets see
1.my family and my friends!
2.cheeseburgers- spaniards don't eat beef. I have gone through such a beef withdrawal here its insane. I neeeeeed a burger!
3. my own bed with soft sheets
4. a pillow- not a clump of rags in a pillow case
5. diet coke- not coke light
Thats all for now, I've got to get back to work and then I need to go to bed! I miss you all so much and I can't believe I will be seeing most of you in such a short amount of time! I hope all everything is well back in the good ole U.S. of A!!!
see you soon!!!
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Feria
Sorry it has taken so long for me to update about Feria. I have still be recuperating from the week's festivities.
Feria is a week long "fair" for lack of a better word. All the kids have off from school for the entire week. (yes, a second spring break for me!) At the end of my street there is a giant fairgrounds that holds thousands and thousands of casetas, or these little mini huts. Hut isn't exactly the right word for them because they are more than huts, but I don't really know how to describe them. Hopefully you have already seen the pictures. Well the casetas are owned by families and you have to be invited inside. Inside there is a bar and a kitchen where food and drinks are served and there is lots and lots of dancing. Of course my roommates and I have the hook ups and our Spanish friends have casetas, and have friends that have casetas so we rocked Feria all week long. During the day there are tons and tons of horses that parade around and people show off their money and status. Oh man- it was definitely my worst nightmare. Where there are horses there is horse poop, and where there is horse poop there is definitely a RANK oder. If anyone knows me they know that the one smell I can not stand in this world is the smell of horses. UGH!!! It was so hard not to walk around holding my nose, but I didn't want to be rude. AHHH I hope I never have to smell that again in my life! Jose kept telling me- its ok, once you have a few drinks you won't smell it anymore. haha I love the spanish way of life!
The typical drink of Feria is called a rebujito. Its manzanilla which is this white distilled apple wine that is really really strong and potent, but you mix it with sprite and it is DELICIOUS! probably a little too delicious since my roommates and I spent the entire week drunk. You buy it in jarros (jars) and everyone just takes turns buying one and then you drink it out of these little shot glasses. It is good stuff!
Along with all the casetas at Feria there is also the calle infierno (the street of hell). It is here where you find all the food vender's and the "midway." There are also the "attractions" as Spaniards call them, more commonly known to us Americans as the rides! Let me just say that the rides in Spain would NEVER pass in America. Half the rides you're not even strapped in and they all go WAY faster than they do in the states. Even the ferris wheel goes SOOOO FAST!!! What kind of a ferris wheel goes fast? That is suppose to be the slow romantic, or geezer ride (right dad? remember all our good times on the ferris wheel?) Man oh man I was shocked! But the best ride were the bumper cars, except in Spain they call them the coches locos (crazy cars) which is definitely fitting seeing as how you don't wear a seat belt and they go about 25 miles an hour! They really are crazy cars, but so crazy fun!!! My roommates and I hadn't laughed that hard in such a long time after being on the bumper cars!
Normally we would be out until about 5 or 6 in the morning and then sleep until about 2 or 3 in the afternoon, have lunch and then start to get ready for another night at the Feria. Now, you need to know that none of my roommates or I had taken Sevillanos dance lessons before the Feria, but of course that didn't matter because our Spanish friends would NOT take no for an answer when it came to dancing. So how did we cope? Well we bought a few more jarros, drank up, and away we went. All the boys taught us how to dance, and it was so much fun. It's really hard to coordinate your feet with your arms and your hands while not looking at your feet and adding "pasion" or passion as Pablo continually told us. It was a good time. We basically just spent half the time flailing our arms around and moving our feet like idiots! Except for when they pulled us all on the stage to dance in front of everyone that was in the caseta...oh boy....not a good idea! Needless to say we made fools of ourselves, but did it with a smile :) The spaniard women weren't too happy with us since we were "stealing" the spaniard men away from them, but hey- we can't help it if we know how to dance better than them!! We got so many dirty looks from all the girls, but the boys wanted to dance with us, so it's not our fault!
It was a long week, but so worth it! We didn't end up wearing Mama's feria dresses because we were too scared that something would spill on them or something would happen to them, but this weekend we are all going to dress up in them and take pictures so I will be SURE to post them haha!
Side note: 1 month from today I will be stepping off the plane in Boston!!! I can't believe it has gone so fast! It really is bittersweet. I want to come home because I really want to see Mom and Dad, and the rest of the family and my friends, but I really am not ready to leave Spain. It has gone too fast. I can't wait till I graduate so I can move back here! I hope everyone is well, and happy that taxes are over. I know Sean is stoked!!
I miss and love you all so much!!! I can't wait to see you and show you pictures in person and tell all my stories!
Gareth comes on Saturday. We will be spending the weekend in Toledo, a city south of Madrid, and then next week we will be in Portugal for a few days. I'm pretty excited about that!! OH! and... Mama's birthday is on Sunday so we will definitely be celebrating!
BESOS!!!
Feria is a week long "fair" for lack of a better word. All the kids have off from school for the entire week. (yes, a second spring break for me!) At the end of my street there is a giant fairgrounds that holds thousands and thousands of casetas, or these little mini huts. Hut isn't exactly the right word for them because they are more than huts, but I don't really know how to describe them. Hopefully you have already seen the pictures. Well the casetas are owned by families and you have to be invited inside. Inside there is a bar and a kitchen where food and drinks are served and there is lots and lots of dancing. Of course my roommates and I have the hook ups and our Spanish friends have casetas, and have friends that have casetas so we rocked Feria all week long. During the day there are tons and tons of horses that parade around and people show off their money and status. Oh man- it was definitely my worst nightmare. Where there are horses there is horse poop, and where there is horse poop there is definitely a RANK oder. If anyone knows me they know that the one smell I can not stand in this world is the smell of horses. UGH!!! It was so hard not to walk around holding my nose, but I didn't want to be rude. AHHH I hope I never have to smell that again in my life! Jose kept telling me- its ok, once you have a few drinks you won't smell it anymore. haha I love the spanish way of life!
The typical drink of Feria is called a rebujito. Its manzanilla which is this white distilled apple wine that is really really strong and potent, but you mix it with sprite and it is DELICIOUS! probably a little too delicious since my roommates and I spent the entire week drunk. You buy it in jarros (jars) and everyone just takes turns buying one and then you drink it out of these little shot glasses. It is good stuff!
Along with all the casetas at Feria there is also the calle infierno (the street of hell). It is here where you find all the food vender's and the "midway." There are also the "attractions" as Spaniards call them, more commonly known to us Americans as the rides! Let me just say that the rides in Spain would NEVER pass in America. Half the rides you're not even strapped in and they all go WAY faster than they do in the states. Even the ferris wheel goes SOOOO FAST!!! What kind of a ferris wheel goes fast? That is suppose to be the slow romantic, or geezer ride (right dad? remember all our good times on the ferris wheel?) Man oh man I was shocked! But the best ride were the bumper cars, except in Spain they call them the coches locos (crazy cars) which is definitely fitting seeing as how you don't wear a seat belt and they go about 25 miles an hour! They really are crazy cars, but so crazy fun!!! My roommates and I hadn't laughed that hard in such a long time after being on the bumper cars!
Normally we would be out until about 5 or 6 in the morning and then sleep until about 2 or 3 in the afternoon, have lunch and then start to get ready for another night at the Feria. Now, you need to know that none of my roommates or I had taken Sevillanos dance lessons before the Feria, but of course that didn't matter because our Spanish friends would NOT take no for an answer when it came to dancing. So how did we cope? Well we bought a few more jarros, drank up, and away we went. All the boys taught us how to dance, and it was so much fun. It's really hard to coordinate your feet with your arms and your hands while not looking at your feet and adding "pasion" or passion as Pablo continually told us. It was a good time. We basically just spent half the time flailing our arms around and moving our feet like idiots! Except for when they pulled us all on the stage to dance in front of everyone that was in the caseta...oh boy....not a good idea! Needless to say we made fools of ourselves, but did it with a smile :) The spaniard women weren't too happy with us since we were "stealing" the spaniard men away from them, but hey- we can't help it if we know how to dance better than them!! We got so many dirty looks from all the girls, but the boys wanted to dance with us, so it's not our fault!
It was a long week, but so worth it! We didn't end up wearing Mama's feria dresses because we were too scared that something would spill on them or something would happen to them, but this weekend we are all going to dress up in them and take pictures so I will be SURE to post them haha!
Side note: 1 month from today I will be stepping off the plane in Boston!!! I can't believe it has gone so fast! It really is bittersweet. I want to come home because I really want to see Mom and Dad, and the rest of the family and my friends, but I really am not ready to leave Spain. It has gone too fast. I can't wait till I graduate so I can move back here! I hope everyone is well, and happy that taxes are over. I know Sean is stoked!!
I miss and love you all so much!!! I can't wait to see you and show you pictures in person and tell all my stories!
Gareth comes on Saturday. We will be spending the weekend in Toledo, a city south of Madrid, and then next week we will be in Portugal for a few days. I'm pretty excited about that!! OH! and... Mama's birthday is on Sunday so we will definitely be celebrating!
BESOS!!!
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Guinness- I've acquired the taste!
We spent our last day in Ireland back in Dublin since we had to fly out at the butt crack of dawn on Tuesday morning back to Sevilla. Michelle and I really wanted to go to the Guinness factory, so when we got back into the city, we stored our bags at the hostel and away we went. On our way over to the storehouse we stumbled upon Christchurch Cathedral which was BEAUTIFUL! Just when I thought I had seen all the cathedrals I would ever be able to handle in my life, we came across this one. It's so different from the Cathedrals in Spain. It was a lot simpler and much prettier. I liked it a lot if you can't already tell.
Guinness was SO SO SO fun! we toured the 7 story factory and learned all about the ingredients and the history behind this world famous beer. We did some taste testing and ultimately made it to the 7th floor which is a bar with 360 degree view of the entire city of Dublin. AMAZING! not to mention at the top you get a free pint of Guinness. I mean does it get much better than this? I THINK NOT!
All in all our trip to Ireland was fantastic. I loved every single minute of it, however I know my bank account didn't enjoy it. Ireland is MUCH more expensive than Spain. We were definitely happy to return to 1 euro drinks, and free meals at Mama's house. However, now that we've been back it hasn't stopped raining at all! I don't have school until next Monday because right now its Feria. I will be posting about next week once its all over. All I will say now is that we were out until the wee hours of the morning last night, drunk and dancing Sevillanas. I LOVE SPAIN!
Guinness was SO SO SO fun! we toured the 7 story factory and learned all about the ingredients and the history behind this world famous beer. We did some taste testing and ultimately made it to the 7th floor which is a bar with 360 degree view of the entire city of Dublin. AMAZING! not to mention at the top you get a free pint of Guinness. I mean does it get much better than this? I THINK NOT!
All in all our trip to Ireland was fantastic. I loved every single minute of it, however I know my bank account didn't enjoy it. Ireland is MUCH more expensive than Spain. We were definitely happy to return to 1 euro drinks, and free meals at Mama's house. However, now that we've been back it hasn't stopped raining at all! I don't have school until next Monday because right now its Feria. I will be posting about next week once its all over. All I will say now is that we were out until the wee hours of the morning last night, drunk and dancing Sevillanas. I LOVE SPAIN!
V.I.P. in Castlebar
We took the train from Dublin to Castlebar on Saturday morning. Its about a 4 hour train ride across the country and it is a gorgeous ride! We saw tons of sheep, and cute little country homes, and lots of green grass, and for a little while, blue skies :) My two roommates and I stayed at the same B&B that Dad stayed at when he was in Castlebar, the Carragh House. It was so cute, and so cozy, and definitely worth every single euro! After a nice long nap, and nice long hot showers, Michelle, Raquelita, and I went to explore! Dad has sent me a list of the pubs and the people we needed to see so off we went. We started our night at Byrne's Pub, and met the infamous Mick Byrne. We was so excited to meet me, and instantly started pouring us beers. Before we were even half done with one beer a new one would be poured and brought to us. Needless to say I'm pretty sure I'm still full from all those beers. We watched a rugby match and met lots of Irish men! After Byrne's we went over to Cox's for dinner, where we had chowder and chicken sandwiches. Then we were off to McHale's where Dad said they pour the best pint of Guinness in all of Ireland. There I was suppose to meet Dom Malloy. When we went in it was around 8:30 and I asked the bartender if Dom was there, and she said yes and pointed him out to me, and off I went. I introduced myself and man oh man I have never seen so many Irish men more excited to see me! I met Dom Malloy, and Paul Doyle, and the Headmaster, and The Grimmer.
And then the drinks started coming. Guinness' and cokes for all! The best part is that Dom Malloy, Paul Doyle, and The Grimmer are Dad, Uncle Jim and Peter Ford in Irish form. Its just so fun to watch them all interact! After many drinks, and many comments about how much I look like dad, and many laughs, we decided to call it a night.
The next morning, Dom Malloy picked us up in his Mercedes Benz and chauffeured us to Westport, the next town over from Castlebar. We went to Croagh Patrick, the mountain where St. Patrick first arrived in Ireland and drove out all the snakes. Its really cool because on the top of the mountain there is a small white church and once a year at the end of July about 25,000 people make a pilgrimage to the top of Croagh Patrick for mass given by the Bishop. We didn't climb it- I forgot to pack my hiking shoes and my walking stick, but its definitely on my list of things to do before I die. We climbed up a little of the ways to see the view of Clew Bay, where there is an island for every single day of the year. The view was AMAZING. Ireland is BEAUTIFUL! After we went to The Westport House, which is this estate from the 19th century that is now preserved and still has all its original furniture. It was really cool to see the inside. We even go to go into the dungeons! Weird and definitely creepy, but cool! We had Chinese food for lunch with Dom back in Castlebar, and then went back to the B&B to rest up for another evening at Byrne's. When we went back to Byrne's we hadn't even taken our jackets off and our beers were poured and waiting for us on the counter. Talk about V.I.P! I got to see the dummy page that dad made for Mick pretending that we won the masters. We met these guys in the pub and I told them about the page, and they didn't believe me for one second that it was my dad who had made it. But Mick verified and then my cool points rose through the roof. We took lots of pictures, and Mick even let us come behind the bar! After a few beers, and a few Guinness' we headed over to this Indian restaurant (Mick's favorite). Mick insisted that he take us for dinner. It was my first time having Indian food, and surprisingly, it was rather good! Of course we all ate way to much, and when Mick wanted us to come back to the pub for more drinks I really had to draw the line. Of course he played the "your a Higgins' and your Irish, drink up" Low blow Mick. Low blow!
We finally dragged ourselves home, and packed up our stuff for our early train back to Dublin Monday morning. Oh, I can't believe I forgot to mention...while we were in Castlebar...IT SNOWED!!!!! man oh man I thought I had fully escaped the winter, but nope! It found me. It found me in my "homeland"!
And then the drinks started coming. Guinness' and cokes for all! The best part is that Dom Malloy, Paul Doyle, and The Grimmer are Dad, Uncle Jim and Peter Ford in Irish form. Its just so fun to watch them all interact! After many drinks, and many comments about how much I look like dad, and many laughs, we decided to call it a night.
The next morning, Dom Malloy picked us up in his Mercedes Benz and chauffeured us to Westport, the next town over from Castlebar. We went to Croagh Patrick, the mountain where St. Patrick first arrived in Ireland and drove out all the snakes. Its really cool because on the top of the mountain there is a small white church and once a year at the end of July about 25,000 people make a pilgrimage to the top of Croagh Patrick for mass given by the Bishop. We didn't climb it- I forgot to pack my hiking shoes and my walking stick, but its definitely on my list of things to do before I die. We climbed up a little of the ways to see the view of Clew Bay, where there is an island for every single day of the year. The view was AMAZING. Ireland is BEAUTIFUL! After we went to The Westport House, which is this estate from the 19th century that is now preserved and still has all its original furniture. It was really cool to see the inside. We even go to go into the dungeons! Weird and definitely creepy, but cool! We had Chinese food for lunch with Dom back in Castlebar, and then went back to the B&B to rest up for another evening at Byrne's. When we went back to Byrne's we hadn't even taken our jackets off and our beers were poured and waiting for us on the counter. Talk about V.I.P! I got to see the dummy page that dad made for Mick pretending that we won the masters. We met these guys in the pub and I told them about the page, and they didn't believe me for one second that it was my dad who had made it. But Mick verified and then my cool points rose through the roof. We took lots of pictures, and Mick even let us come behind the bar! After a few beers, and a few Guinness' we headed over to this Indian restaurant (Mick's favorite). Mick insisted that he take us for dinner. It was my first time having Indian food, and surprisingly, it was rather good! Of course we all ate way to much, and when Mick wanted us to come back to the pub for more drinks I really had to draw the line. Of course he played the "your a Higgins' and your Irish, drink up" Low blow Mick. Low blow!
We finally dragged ourselves home, and packed up our stuff for our early train back to Dublin Monday morning. Oh, I can't believe I forgot to mention...while we were in Castlebar...IT SNOWED!!!!! man oh man I thought I had fully escaped the winter, but nope! It found me. It found me in my "homeland"!
the grass really IS greener in Ireland!
The rumors are true, the grass really IS greener in Ireland!!! but thats probably because in most places they don't let you walk on the grass! When we first arrived we checked into our hostel in the city, the 'Bunkhouse.' Then we were on our way. The first day we went to Trinity College, and to the Temple Bar district. The college was BEAUTIFUL! I think I am going to transfer there! The Temple Bar, which is one of Dublin's most famous bars was cool too! Michelle and I had our first pints of Guinness there, but of course we had shots of grenadine in it to make it a little sweeter! It definitely is an acquired taste, but I must say, after my trip to Ireland, I think I have acquired it :) We met these three guys from Switzerland, who ironically were also staying at the same hostel as we were, and so we had a few drinks with them and I learned the swiss german word for poop: goggle! haha I'm sure that will come in handy one day. After drinks at the Temple Bar we went souvenir shopping and of course the very first song I hear in Ireland is Oh Danny Boy! fitting of course :) It was really fun being in a foreign country but seeing "Higgins" on everything. I felt so important! Our first day we lucked out and never got caught in the famous Ireland rain, but day 2 wasn't so lucky. Our second day in Ireland we went to explore Dublin Castle, and spent a lot of time in the castle gardens. Make sure to check out the new pictures!!! After the gardens and some more shopping it began to rain...REALLY HARD...so we made our way back to the hostel and rested up for dinner. We had dinner at Johnny Rockets, except in Ireland its called Eddy Rockets, but is literally the same restaurant, and after we went and saw "The Other Bolyn Girl". It was a good movie, and I definitely recommend it. After two nights in Dublin it was definitely time to make our way to the west coast to a small town called Castlebar...
Thursday, April 3, 2008
what can I say- I'm a Higgins
Tomorrow I am off to Ireland!!! I will be spending three nights in Dublin, and two nights in Castlebar (where Dad, Uncle Jim, and Peter Ford go to chase whitey). I'm super excited, and I can't wait to see my "homeland." On that note it's only fitting that I leave you with this:
I love and miss you all-
Old Irish Blessing
May the road rise to meet you:
May the wind be always at your back,
The sun shine warm upon your face,
The rain fall soft upon your fields,
And until we meet again
May God hold you in the hollow of his hand.
Also, I leave you with a short video that Dad sent to me, that I want all of you to watch. He says "it really does look like this" and next Tuesday I will be back to confirm.
http://www.e-water.net/irishblessing_en.html
I'm off to the land of green grass, Guinness, and rain. I'm Irish by blood and Higgins by name and like a good Irish girl and a devout Higgins, on Friday I will raise an Irish glass of Tullamore Dew Irish whiskey and make a toast to Gram, to Nan, and for the Bandits; to the Grand Old Girl.
I love and miss you all-
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