Derry

this past weekend we went to Derry, which is in northern ireland. no worries, we all made it back alive! this year was the first year our supervisor could take the study abroad kids to northern ireland, and i'm so glad because it was such a cool experience! we saw W.B. Yeats' grave and had a tour of Derry (Londonderry), which is one of the only remaining walled cities in europe. on sunday we went to the bushmills distillery and had a tour that was really interesting along with a free sample at the end. fortunately for michael k. i don't like whiskey so he got my free drink. after bushmills we went to a rope bridge that we had to walk about 1 km to get to, and crossed it onto a little island off the coast of ireland...scaryyyy! our last stop was at the giants' causeway, which is at one of the most northern points in ireland. i'm not sure how the giants' causeway was formed, but it's naturally occurring which makes it even more interesting than it already is!
enjoy the pics!




the center of Derry


one of the main gates of the city walls


the cathedral


bagpipers on the wall


bushmills distillery!


me and molls before the rope bridge

the coast on the walk to the rope bridge

more of the coast line

=)

the rope bridge from afar

about to cross


slightly hesitant..


me and molls on the other side!




rock formations au naturale

Venice!

Dan and I went to Italy for a week when Dan came to visit over his spring break. We were in Venice from March 2-March 4, and then we headed to Rome until March 7. Venice was so beautiful - its crazy to think that places like it actually exist in the world! The weather was crappy when we were there but it made for some cool pictures..enjoy! =)

the cliffs!

the weekend after halloween mollie, charlotte and i went to the cliffs of moher since the weather was supposed to be nice and it was only 8 euro with the international student society! they were so amazing to see, and it was crazy how close we got to the edge! i would not want to be in the wrong place if the winds were really strong there...!

Halloween...and catching up

so i've been pretty busy lately with school work (believe it or not) but i figured i should take some time and update this thing. below is a picture of us at halloween...we were the disney princesses - mollie was jasmine, charlotte was tinkerbell, and i was mulan. julianna isn't in the picture because she didn't go out that night. so here's your halloween update!

the craic here is deadly

just a glossary of fun irish terms (and some pictures following)

craic - irish for "fun" (pronounced "crack")
as in: "what's the craic?" or "wednesday nights in galway are really good craic."

biscuit - cookie

deadly, brilliant, savage - AWESOME
as in: "your 21st birthday is this weekend? that's deadly!" or "the food at that bar is meant to be brilliant!" or "last weekend was SAVAGE!"

dear - expensive
as in: "cocktails at the bars are so dear."

trolley - shopping cart

car park - parking lot

chips - fries

crisps - potato chips

wellies - rain boots

mobile - cell phone

top up - add euros to your cell phone (typically in 20 euro increments)
as in: "if i want to be able to call dan this weekend, i'd better top up!"

'the form' - way of asking how are you?
as in: "how's the form?" (the first time someone asked me this, i had to have him repeat it 3 times until he finally got the hint and told me what it meant)



the very unimpressive but very famous spanish arch.


the claddagh at dusk


boat at the claddagh

dan's visit!

october 12-15: dan came to visit me over his columbus day break!!! we had such a great time and just ended up staying in galway for the duration of his visit. we were also really lucky - the weather was beautiful the whole time he was here! i met him at the airport and when we got back we went into town and i took him to the farmer's market and showed him around the shop street area. saturday night all of the holy cross kids got together and we had a big pot luck dinner, which was really great. everyone brought some kind of food and it was awesome! dinner was followed by a big party in my apartment, which was also a ton of fun, and then we went out afterwards.

we pretty much went into town every day...there's so much to see, so it's pretty hard to get sick of it. =) sunday night we went out to dinner at this cool pub/restaurant called The Quays (pronounced 'keys'). It had such a great irish-y atmosphere, and the food was also pretty decent. monday was more of the same, but on tuesday we walked down toward salthill by the galway bay and watched the sunset -- it was so beautiful and we got some great pictures. tuesday night was a lot of fun...we went to 2 of my favorite bars, hole in the wall and bar 903. there was live music at bar 903 and everyone was dancing - it was so so fun! mollie and our other friend mike who is also studying here came with us, and there were a few of our other friends who we met up with there.

then wednesday morning was the end of our visit =( i walked dan to the bus station so he could get the 10:15 bus to the airport, and then i had to go to campus for my 11 am class. back to the grind...booooooo.

**for some reason a lot of the pics won't upload, so i only have a few up for now.


pic i took in a side alleyway


the claddagh


me and dan in front of a cool green door


guinness at dinner with a clover on top!


at bar 903


also at bar 903

SURF TRIP - achill island, county mayo

october 3-5: surf club trip! yes, that is correct, me, mollie, char and julianna joined the surf club along with our friends steve and colin. none of us had ever surfed before but that just makes it all the more interesting.

so anyway, last weekend we went on the first weekend trip with the surf club and it was such a great time! our accomodations were beautiful, the people were super fun, and the parties were great! all of the irish kids are so friendly and really know how to have a good time!

saturday the 4th was really crappy weather - it was pouring rain and the waves were all choppy, but we still managed to surf a little bit. it was a good practice day because the waves were small and not really very scary. saturday night it cleared up (the stars that night were AMAZING; i've never seen anything like it before) and sunday was absolutely gorgeous and sunny, and about 65 degrees! the water wasn't too bad either, and we surfed for awhile. i actually stood up a few times, which was really exciting!

overall, it was a great trip and we made some awesome and fun new friends! pics below...


ready to go... left to right: colin, steve, evan, jordan, julianna, me, charlotte, mollie


field before the ocean


the beach....GORGEOUS


the lake in our backyard...sooo pretty


a few of us on the beach before we left


the other side of the beach


me and char =)


sheep in the field before the ocean...they're literally everywhere


on the beach getting ready to go!


our cottages!