I'm sorry that I haven't been able to keep up with my blog. We've been traveling with that trip to the north closely followed by Spring Break. This week we moved into crunch time with papers and a literature final. This coming week is also brings papers and other school work before we take another trip up north to Belfast. I hope to update everything soon. I just started working on the video for my spring break trip to Sardinia, so depending on how much time I have to work on it this week, I'll update about that trip soon.

Have a happy Easter!

I am uploading this video of our trip to Sardinia. I will write my blog entries for the trip while we are traveling to Belfast this weekend.

My Adventure of the Day
Traveling back to Greystones should have been a relaxing 3 hour bus ride. Phantom of the Opera was on the bus TV. The window curtains were closed to block the late afternoon sun. But at 5:30, it all went wrong. A back tire (spelled “tyre” here) blew. We pulled over, and Brian made a call.

We ended up pulling off the freeway to the country roads. Because there are double tires in the back, we could drive with the flat as long as we drove more slowly.

Around 7, we finally pulled off into a bus repair station to wait for a new bus. By now we were all starving. We poured out of the bus, and the remaining bags of crisps and packages of biscuits and fruit were pulled from the back. We attacked the food like famished wolves.

Brian told us where some a restroom was, so a few of us went to find it. We found it—a single bathroom. The repair shop was empty apart from us, so we leaned against the abandoned counter. The door to the bathroom did not latch unless you locked it. The first two girls didn’t try to use the key to lock the door to keep it shut, so one of us just held it closed. But I locked the door, not thinking anything of it. It locked very easily, and the girls applauded my success. I went to the bathroom and washed my hands. Then I tried to unlock the door. Nothing. I tried again.

“Hannah? Are you having some trouble in there?” I heard Emily say on the other side of the door.

“I’m just having some difficulty unlocking the door,” I replied. I was frustrated. The lock was a skeleton key. I think I missed the life lesson on how to properly use a skeleton key. I tried the lock again and again.

“Have you checked to see if anything is stuck in the lock?” Colin asked in a helpful voice from the other side.

“I just locked it. There can’t be anything stuck in it.” I checked anyway. “Which way are you supposed to turn it?”

“Try both ways,” Colin told me. “Take the key out between tries.”

“You can do it,” Emily cheered encouragingly.

I was on my knees now, trying to unlock the stupid door. I glanced around while I was doing this. There was no window. The bathroom was more like a closet than a bathroom. The crack under the door was practically nonexistent, so passing the key to the out to them was not an option. The ceiling tile above me was gone, so Plan B became going out through the ceiling.

“Try angling the key.” Colin’s voice reminded me to focus on the lock and forget about finding another way out. That door was the only way out.

It took another few times, but I finally got the door unlocked.

I started laughing. “I’m a biology major. I should be smart enough to unlock a door.”

“We’re bio majors not mechanical engineering,” Aric told me as he gave me a high five.

Emily, Caitlin, and Jordan were laughing with me.

“I don’t know why they were just telling you what to do,” Caitlin said. “I would have been there telling them to bust down the door! I was thinking to myself, ‘We could take the hinges off…darn it, they’re on the inside.’”

“Are you kidding?” Emily exclaimed. “I was about to bust that door down myself!”

“I wasn’t worried about getting out,” I told them. “I just was embarrassed that you guys knew I couldn’t get out.” I laughed. “I knew I’d figure it out eventually.”

Needless to say, no one tried to lock the door after that.

By the time we went back outside, the new bus had arrived. It was a big bus, so we ech got our own double seat. We were on the road again by 7:30.

Dr. Beulah Baker’s arrival meant that we were traveling to the north for a few days. The first stop on Monday was hiking Slieve League. It was super windy, but the landscape was absolutely stunning. For the three nights, we stayed in Donegal at a hotel.

On Tuesday we went to Station Island and Donegal Castle. The wind from Monday meant that Tuesday was a rainy, grey, tempestuous day. When you’re trying to get over a cough, having to be out in the elements all day means you’re only going to get worth. On top of my cough, I got a runny nose from the wind and cold.

Wednesday brought partly cloudy skies, but it was still cold and very windy. I was destined to not get over my cold anytime soon. We went to an old fortress before heading into Derry. Brian gave us a tour of the city’s sites and history. That night, despite my cold, I went swimming in the hotel pool because I was not going to pass up that opportunity no matter how sick I was.

On Thursday we visited the Yeats sites in Sligo: the Yeats museum, a waterful, a “river,” and a lake. It was still cold and windy. This coupled with the fact that I was sick did not make the day any more enjoyable. We did have an amazing lunch at a café in Sligo.

(I’m sorry this entry is so brief, but we’ve been very busy and I haven’t had the time to keep up with my blog.)

I never thought I’d say that I love crowds, but being crammed in Dublin with 750,000 foreigners plus locals today was one of my favorite memories thus far. I have never been in crowds like the ones I was in today. Let me paint the picture for you: there is a parade going on, so there are people lining the streets. The sidewalks aren’t made for viewers plus pedestrian traffic. There are people in green (tourists and Irish teens) and black (locals, typically dragging along children with green, white, and orange striped faces). The crowd of people is so thick you literally cannot move. There is no turning back. Once you go into that crowd, you are not able to escape until you make it to the other side. People are pushing from all sides. You are up close and personal with people. You’re trying not to be pushy and trying not to crush the children and nice elderly women that had decided to brave the crowd as well.

So how could I possibly find this fun? I really do hate crowds--I will be the first person to say that--but today gave me a new appreciation for being in a crowd of people. First of all, it was an experience. Mary, Alix, Jordan, and I agreed that being in the crowd was exactly what we expected from our day in Dublin, and it was better and more fun than we had anticipated. Second, being in a crowd of people who are there by choice is much different than the usual type of crowd. Everyone is friendly (yeah, surprising, I know) unless they’re having a panic attack or worried about their children. Mary, Alix, Jordan, and I formed a chain to stay together in the flow (not a steady flow) of bodies. A walk that usually takes about a minute took us at least an hour. Third, we had no plan, so we were in no hurry, so we were there solely for the experience.

^ The picture does not do the crowd justice. ^

^ It was hard to get a picture of us because we were so close together. ^

We made it to the first side street in Temple Bar, and finally had a bit of fresh air. There were less people (a lot less people) on every other street. We went back over the river and stopped at H&M to kill time. (At this point we were planning on being downtown until the concert at 7:30.) We wandered around for a while, but we finally decided to go back to Greystones.

So we took the Dart back to Greystones. By the time we got to the house, we only had an hour—just enough time for a power nap. We caught the 6:30 Dart back to Dublin after getting drinks at SuperValu. We made it to the National Concert Hall without a problem. (This came as a surpise to us because we only had a general idea of how to get there.)

The concert was traditional Irish music by Sean Keane and his band. It was really good. There was even a little bit of Irish dancing for a couple songs. The best were the reels they played right before intermission.

At intermission, we learned that the show was going to go on for at least another hour and a half, which would mean we would miss the last Dart back to Greystones. Many of us decided to leave. Mary, Alix, Jordan, Elisa, and I headed to the McDonald’s on Grafton Street for Shamrock Shakes then went to the Dart station to make the 10:03 train back to Greystones.

Today was another gorgeous day in Ireland. We had nothing going on today, so I slept in. Elise, Jordan, and I grabbed blankets and laid out in the grass to soak up the Irish rays. I finished the book we’re supposed to have read for Dr. Baker on Friday. (The bio major in me won’t let me literally lay around and do nothing.) The three of us went on a walk along the coast, and Elise and I ran up to SuperValu to get some things for Lisa for dinner ronight.

The rest over the afternoon I worked on my history final essay…getting nowhere fast. It’s not due until Thursday, so I have time, but I’d like to get it done sooner rather than later.

For small group tonight we stopped at SuperValu for Diet Club and camel/chocolate digestives then spread a blanket on the beach. How many people can say, "Oh, I’m going to go have small group on the beach tonight." Okay, being from Indiana, maybe I appreciate it more than someone who lives anywhere near a coast.

OMG Tomorrow is St Patrick’s Day!!

This afternoon several of us hiked Bray Head. It was a beautiful day again, so the view was amazing from the top. The gnats at the top weren't so great, though. The hike did make for a nice Sunday afternoon.

Tonight we finally watched Braveheart, which we've been planning on watching since we got here. We took an intermission for Colin's birthday cheesecake. Chris and Paul cut the cake, and this picture is just too hilarious and priceless not to post. (Hopefully the 3rd West boys don't see it because Paul might just murder me.)

Tonight was also the premiere of Ben's music video that Skala made. It had us all in tears laughing so hard. For his next movie, hopefully learns some new dance moves.

Today was the absolutely perfect Saturday. With no plans, we slept in until 10:30 then took our time getting ready. At 1:30, Jordan, Elise, Mary, Alix and I caught the DART to Malahide. It took a little over an hour to get there, but it was so worth it.

We had heard about the castle and playground at Malahide, but we had no idea how to get there from the DART station besides going to the right out of the station. Well, we ended up taking a roundabout way around a golf course to get to the castle, but it was a gorgeous day so we didn’t mind.

Malahide was just as amazing as we had been told, and we spent the entire afternoon there. I’ll let the video how you what it was like. We decided that we’ll have to go back on a day besides Saturday so that we can play on the awesome playground.

The video is of our trip to Kilmainham Gaol and our daytrip to Wexford, where we visited a museum on the 1798 Rebellion, a famine ship, and a lighthouse.

Our big event today was the booking of our spring break flights. 10 of us girls are going to Sardinia. We decided this today and booked our flights before the afternoon session of class. Talk about spur of the moment. It’s great.

Tonight a few of us went to Supervalu (I needed another phone card) then went down to the beach. Aric and Matt thought it was a good idea to go into the water—mind you it’s barely above 40 outside. The poor boys froze walking back to the house in their bare feet, but it was their own fault.

This morning we had class with Vance. Is it sad to say that I was excited to have class? Okay, I was looking forward to class except for the not-being-able-to-sleep-in bit. Anyway, we had “class” with Vance today, but it was only in the morning. Our class consisted of us updating Vance on all of our adventures thus far (because I can’t post everything that happens here on this blog simply for the fact I don’t have time to be writing non-stop nor are some my stories to tell, like Colin and the Window or Skala Goes to Terminates).

After our 10:30 tea break, we had a crash course in Irish history consisting of the Battle of the Boyne up to the Easter Rising of 1916. When I say “crash course,” I mean we were flying through history so fast that I had to resort to calling some people McDude and completely screwing up the spelling of the names I did catch as I frantically typed notes as Vance spoke.

We had lunch then headed into Dublin by bus to Kilmainham Gaol—Dublin’s old prison. If we hadn’t had our crash course in Irish history, we would have been clueless.

Caitlin and I got up at 6 and made it to the bus stop outside the Angel station by 6:40 to catch the bus to Victoria station. We took the Gatwick Express from Victoria back to Gatwick Airport.

At the airport, we discovered that British security is one of the best in the world. You do the usual scan-of-the-bags, followed by a pat down, and concluded with a separate scanning of your shoes. We got through without complications, luckily. We got breakfast, waiting for them to display our gate on the monitors. Once it was up, we booked it to the gate and made it with time to spare.

The flight back was just as short as the flight to England. We had to wait in a long line for getting back into Ireland thanks to the fact that we are not EU passport holders. Once we got to the counter, we were through in seconds. It was okay, though, because we would have to wait for our Aircoach to Greystones anyway.

We made it back to Greystones by 1:00 p.m. I didn’t even go in and say hi to the few people who had stayed for the weekend; I went straight upstairs for a shower. Elise caught me before I could get to the bathroom and gave me a huge hug. (She had stayed in Greystones, but her dad had come to visit.) I got a shower, and it was definitely in my top 5 best showers ever! I think I washed half of London off of me. I have never been happier to be clean.

It’s great to be back with everyone…well, the 17 that are here; four girls are still in Scotland. Tonight everyone was working on writing their newspaper article analyses that are due tomorrow. I did them before I left for London because I didn’t want to have to do them tonight. And I’m very glad I did.

We got up today and went straight to Buckingham Palace for the Changing of the Guard, which started at 11:30. It was definitely an experience that need not be repeated but had to be done once in a lifetime. People pressing up against you to see if you have a better view than they do…we were so ready to get out of there when it was over, but we were glad that we went.

We grabbed sandwiches at Boots Pharmacy on the way to Westminster Abbey. We ate outside the Abbey and enjoyed the still gorgeous weather.

Then we went to the British Museum. Jess and Amy wanted to stay at the museum a little longer, so Caitlin, Rachel and I went to Covent Gardens. The three of us stopped at a little place called Muffinski’s for muffins and tea in Covent Gardens. We met up with Jess and Amy back at Jess’s around 4:45. Around half five we heated up leftover spaghetti for dinner.

Tonight we went to a play called Three Days of Rain, starring James McAvoy. So yes, be jealous; I saw James McAvoy in person! From about 30 ft above, but still. The theatre was really tall and narrow, so we had to lean forward to see the entire stage, but the play was good and well worth it.

After the play, we wanted to go out for dessert, but no place was open or everything was already packed. Our alternative? Have dessert back at Jess’s. We got chocolate madelines, apples tarts, vanilla ice cream, and strawberries and made sundaes. It was great.

We went to bed around 1 because Caitlin and I had to leave by 6 and Amy and Rachel had to leave by 7, so we needed to get some sleep.

Today I got up at 3:30 in the morning (an ungodly hour, I know). I had to wake Caitlin up at 3:45 and Kelly at 4:00. When we were all ready to go, Caitlin, Kelly, Kirstin, Emily, Heidi, and I hurried—in the dark of the early morning—to catch the Aircoach outside the DART station. The bus was supposed to come at 4:30, but it was 10 minutes, so we shouldn’t have bothered rushing. We arrived at the airport about an hour and a half later. Matt, Ben, Caitlin, and I found our counter to check-in with RyanAir, while the other four girls headed to their counter for their flight to Scotland.

We left Dublin at 8 o’clock and landed in Gatwick Airport around 9. (The flight was so short that it seemed like half the flight was reaching altitude and making our decent.) The four of us took the Gatwick Express to Victoria station. From there, Caitlin and I bought our day passes for the Tube and made our way on the Tube to Caitlin’s friend from Messiah College Jess’s place between the Angel and Old Street stations on the Northern line. Jess, Amy (another girl from Messiah studying in Strasbourg), and Rachel (Amy’s friend also studying in Strasbourg) were just heading out, so Caitlin and I dropped off our stuff and joined them. The five of us stopped at the ATM then took the Tube to Notting Hill. We walked along the streets of Portobello Market, but we didn’t buy anything.

The next stop was Kensington Gardens and the Peter Pan statue. The weather could not have been more perfect; it was sunny with a few clouds in the sky, but it wasn’t hot. Perfect for pictures and trekking around the city. We enjoyed walking around the park, and if we had had more than two days to see the city, we could have spent the entire day just enjoying Kensington Gardens and the weather. However, we were crunched for time, so we kept moving.

We ate lunch at an Italian restaurant on James Street off of Oxford Street. I remembered it from when I travelled to London with my parents a few years ago. It was already three by the time we got to the restaurant, so we made it our main meal of the day. The pasta was amazing, so it was well worth the £8 for each of us.

We did a brief shopping spree of Oxford Street. It quickly ended after experiencing Primark, which, in my opinion, is very close to hell on Earth. It embodies the Western mindset. It was huge, messy, cheap, crowded, and overall horrible. The stress of going there made us all ready to give up on shopping.

We made dinner back at Jess’s place. She lived in a dorm, and each floor had a kitchen. We made spaghetti. None of us were all that hungry, so we saved the leftovers for dinner tomorrow.

At night, we took the Tube to the Thames and saw London at night. It was beautiful seeing Big Ben, the London Eye, the Tower, London Bridge, and Tower Bridge all lit up. I think it was my favorite thing of the day.

We started our day early, catching the 9:52 Commuter DART into Dublin. We had a tour of Trinity College and the Book of Kells starting at 11:00. Our tour guide, who is a philosophy professor at Trinity, was hilarious. I would tell you a couple quotes, but out of context, you just wouldn’t be able to grasp the humor.

In the afternoon, I went shopping for a few things and returned to Greystones around 4:30. The evening wasn’t terribly exciting because we have two group papers and newspaper analyses due tomorrow. Because I have those done, I’m just getting excited about London.

Today was our first glimpse at the true Ireland that we have not truly experienced in the first month we’ve been here—rain. Can you believe that we’ve only had a few days of drizzling rain since we’ve arrived in Ireland? I know, strange, huh? Well, today the Irish clouds decided to make up for the past month, and it has been pouring almost all day.

For small group, we decided to go to The Happy Pear—a coffee shop in Greystones where Damien Rice is a frequent customer, but he had the common sense not to trek there today in the rain unlike us. It was only sprinkling when we went, but it was pouring by the time we left an hour and a half later.

Today is definitely the day to stay indoors in sweatpants and a sweatshirt and slippers. I curled up in the big, comfy red chair downstairs in the house with my laptop, history book, and headphones. Yes, I actually worked on homework. For the first time, I was actually toasty warm in the chilly house, and I was pretty diligent with my school work…the only distraction being the new Fray CD that I was listening to because some of the songs I just had to stop what I was doing and just listen to the lyrics. (My favorite song is definitely “Happiness.”) Overall, I felt very productive because I’m not working on stuff that’s due this week; I’m actually working ahead. This goes along with the fact that I’m going to be out of the country for the weekend.

Tonight we had a girls’ night. We did card making with Linda, who cooks here at the Y. We were in there for over two hours, but it was so much fun.

Today was a hiking day for our Hill Climbing PHP. The first hike was up Sugarloaf. The first part was just a typical uphill trek, but the second bit was literally climbing up to the top of the mountain. The view was well worth it. It wasn’t the clearest day, but the clouds stayed at bay long enough for us to see Wicklow County all around us. We had our typical photo shoot: group shot, picture of the girls, picture of the boys, and all of our other random pictures. We laughed about how we were out of breath, but we were probably no higher in altitude than Indiana is, probably lower even. It was a fun hike, but I will say I enjoyed coming down more than climbing up. The climb down was probably more dangerous because one misstep on a lose rock could send you tumbling down. Luckily, we all made it to the top and back down without incident.

The second hike was not as exciting as scaling a mountain. For starters, it was a path for mountain biking, so the path was probably about 6 ft wide. Second, our destination was a lake, but we took a wrong turn… 40 minutes later when we reached an impassable gate, we realized we had obviously gone the wrong way. We turned around and went back to where we started, having seen nothing worthwhile besides pine trees (that are not indigenous to Ireland), the deforestation of said pine trees, and plenty of mud. The bus took us to the loch we were supposed to reach, and we stopped there to take pictures.

Back at the house, Caitlin and I looked over our maps and guidebooks, planning our weekend in London. We’re leaving Friday and coming back Sunday morning, so we have two full days to do a crash course of touring London. We probably won’t completely stick to our itinerary, but that’s half the fun.

At eight o’clock Martin Nolan came and played the Irish pipes for us. He taught us a bit about the history of the Irish pipes as well. Irish pipes are similar to the bagpipes, but instead of blowing into the instrument, there is an air pump under the right elbow and the bag under the left. I suggest googling or Wikipedia-ing Irish pipes because I’m sure my attempt at a description would not even being to do them justice.

Tonight I have papers to write for the two hikes and two papers to edit for our group site visit papers, so I best get to work on those.

Quote of the Evening:
“In order to give something away you have to own it.” –talking about a present
“Not according to Obama.” Proving yet again how anything can be made political.

It’s great to finally be done with our cooking weekend. It was fun while it lasted, but it is quite a job cooking for 25+ hungry mouths. I definitely appreciate the cooking staff here even more.

Being on cooking crew is more time consuming than I had expected, but it is so much more fun. For lunch today we only made sandwiches and salad, but everyone liked it. For dinner we made pizza. We thought it was going to be a catastrophe because the dough was not wanting to rise (because we may or may not have killed the yeast on accident), but it turned out fine. Everyone loved it, and there were absolutely no leftovers of our 5 huge sheets of pizza.

Working Mama Bear’s taught me at least one very worthwhile skill: how to wash dishes efficiently. We had the dishes clean and sanitized and dried and put away in record time. After which, we made pasta salad and cookie dough for dinner tomorrow night. I was in charge of the cookie dough, and it was one of the best things I’ve ever made (perhaps not because we haven’t baked it yet):


Brown Sugar Cookies
2 cups of brown sugar
2 cups of butter
2 large eggs
6 cups of flour
1 tbsp of vanilla
2 ½ tsp of ground cinnamon
1 ½ tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt

Bake cookies at 375 for 6 to 8 minutes.


Tonight I was able to Skype with people, which was great. I also downloaded music from iTunes because I was absolutely dying without music. It’s funny how I had to pre-order the U2 album on the iTunes store, but I could buy the actual CD here in Ireland and already have it. So I’ll have to wait for that CD until it is released in the States on Tuesday.

We had our final exam for Celtic Christianity today. After our papers that are due tomorrow, we’re practically home free for the next week and a half when it comes to day-long classes.

Before leaving the hotel at quarter past 9, we had breakfast. The restaurant had nice breakfasts like a full Irish breakfast or French toast, but I settled for cereal and yogurt. When it was time to go, Brian came into the lobby and commented on how he couldn’t park the bus outside for very long. One of the boys said, “Is this a subtle hint for us to start boarding?” Brian looks at him with all seriousness and said, “No, this is me telling you to hurry the bloody hell up and get on the bus.” We all laughed and got moving.

Our first stop was Cahir Castle, and the first stop at the castle? The restrooms, which were located actually in the castle. This led to a stream of comments in the girls’ restroom: “We’re peeing in a castle!” “I’m on a throne!” After the bathroom break, a few of us paused for a quick photo shoot with the portcullis before meeting up with the rest of the group for the tour.

After the tour, we had a chance to explore on our own…and climb up the narrow, unprotected stairs. One misstep and you’d be falling from the castle wall to the green courtyard below. In America, there would be signs everywhere telling you to keep off this and not to climb that because otherwise stupid Americans would be falling and suing out the wazoo. In Ireland, however, you can climb wherever, it’s just at your own risk. We had too much fun taking pictures and exploring.

The next stop was the Rock of Cashel. We expected another fun castle to play around in, but the Rock of Cashel is the ruins of a cathedral not a castle. We don’t get very excited about cathedrals anymore, so once our guided tour ended, Dr. Harbin, Elise, Matt, Aric, and I descended the hill and went to the ruins of an old abbey that we saw from the top of the hill. We jumped a stone fence and crossed a muddy, uneven field to get to the ruins. Sure we’ve also had our fill of abbeys, but this one was different because it was unmanned. This means no rules…climb wherever you please. The boys loved this...

Our last stop was Holy Cross Abbey, which was more of a pit stop than anything else. We walked around the building, saw its piece of the True Cross, and left. We had a late lunch at McDonald’s (I know, very Irish) before heading back to Greystones.

“Kilkenny—a glimpse at medieval Ireland…or in other words, Ireland 9 years ago.” – Monty, Pastor at Greystones Presbyterian Church

Driving through the Irish countryside is hard to describe in words and to do the varying landscape justice. We left Greystones at half eight going south to Kilkenny. As we crossed the Wicklow Mountains, the sun silhouetted the “peaks” to our left. The pass between the mountains brought us to boulder-ridden hills that look like there were straight out of the Lord of the Rings. According to our bus driver Brian, part of the film (pronounced fil-um) King Arthur was filmed there. Soon the hills became the picturesque green pastures with grazing sheep and divided by hedges and stone fences. A cloud of light mist gave this third scene a mysterious glow in the sunlight.

Our first stop was Jerpoint Abbey. We were all so ready to get off the bus after our nice naps (by nice, I mean absolutely horrible because we all got motion sickness to some degree, and I never get motion sick). Our tour guide was more than knowledgeable when it came to the abbey. Having been trapped on a bus for so long, however, it was very hard for most of us to pay attention because our minds were already doing the independent exploration we so desperately wanted. Being a biology major, the only thing I caught on the tour was her reference to the abbey as the nucleus of the surrounding countryside. All the other details kind of went in one ear and out the other as the tour seemed to never end. (Don’t worry, Mom and Dad, I bought a visitor’s guide for future reference on all things Jerpoint Abbey related.)

The pictures I took could not capture the wonderful smells of the countryside. It smelled absolutely foul, and there was no escape from the putrid stench of something that was far worse than your average manure. Despite the smell, the day was gorgeous, and once we were free from the tour we were able to explore and take pictures.

Well over an hour and a half later, we boarded the bus only to be roasted alive the rest of the way to Kilkenny. When we arrived in Kilkenny, we went to St. Canice’s Cathedral. We had a short tour (which was fantastic after the previous one), and then we climber the high tower.

It’s a little nerve-racking going up one ladder after another to reach the top. As you get closer to the top, the dust that coats the tops of each step becomes more scattered with pigeon poo. (Needless to say, we all scrubbed our hands when we got back down.) The view from the top of the tower was nothing spectacular, and having 10 people crowded around a place that is about 7 feet in diameter was nothing to write a memoir on. The adrenaline rush of the trip up was luckily not repeated in the descent, but the bird poo was still there.

Finally by 4:20 we checked into the Kilkenny Hibernian Hotel and were free to explore on our own. I walked around the quaint city streets, popping into the cute shops. I bought a couple of books and CDs (yeah, not very Irish souvenirs, I know). Then I went into a little hole-in-the-wall gift shop full of little Irish shirts and trinkets. I was the only person in the store, so I struck up a conversation with the owner—a nice elderly Irishman. (More so, I said hello and my American accent gave me away.) He was so nice and showed me on a map where Braveheart had been filmed in Wicklow County. I told him about the Irish Studies Program (people are always so interested in this and desire a full explanation) and how I was liking Ireland thus far. He also told me what pubs were good and what types of music they would have tonight.

We went to dinner at a restaurant that was incredibly delicious. I got breaded chicken with salad and chips. We all got desserts, of course. It was hard to bypass the chocolate desserts, but the apple tart with vanilla ice cream sounded so great. It was delectable.

After dinner, Aric and I walked around and met up with Emily, Heidi, and Kirstin at Ryan’s, one of the pubs the Irishman had recommended. The music was okay but nothing special. (I still need to go to a pub with authentic Irish music.)

We’ve had class with Dr. Harbin all week for Historic Celtic Christianity. Class 9 to 10:30, Break for coffee, Class 11 to 12:30, Lunch at 1, Class 2 to 4. What a grand daily routine. Tomorrow we’re leaving for a weekend trip south to Kilkenny, and we are all more than ready to be out of the classroom and on the road.

For church this morning, I went to Hillside. I definitely think I will be going there from here on out. I really enjoyed it. Eric played guitar and Kirstin sang with the praise band because had gone to Hillside last week. Before the service started, Chris noticed that the band had a drum set, but no drummer. He went up to the lead singer/guitarist and told him that he could play drums for the service next week. Julian, the leader, told Chris to come up and play for this service. So Chris played the drums. The message was also good.

After lunch, a few of us went to a pub in Greystones to watch the Ireland v Italy rugby match. All of the boys have their O2 Ireland jerseys on, sporting the green and white. Ireland killed Italy, of course, 38 to 9. I am very impressed with the sport, but having no idea what the rules are or even what the real goal of the game is, I am still quite confused. It’s like a combination of American football, soccer, and hockey. I’m very intrigued.

This morning Jordan and I went into Dun Laoghaire to go shopping. After a long bus ride to be able to catch the DART (as usual), we were more than ready to walk around and explore the city. We were planning on making it back by one, but we decided to aim for 2:30 since the traveling bit takes so long.

Tonight we had our pick-a-date for Valentine’s Day. We went to Diva Restaurant down the road for dinner at 4:30. Around 6:30 we had a bus pick us up to drive us downtown to the National Concert Hall. When we got to the concert hall, we were told the location of our seats: in the choir seats behind the orchestra. In other words, everyone in the audience could see us. (Then again, we could see all of them, which was great for people watching.)

^ This is a picture of the program. ^

^ Eric and Ben loved the concert. ^

The concert was so much better than I expected. I knew it was love songs by the likes of Frank Sinatra and the swing era, but I did not think there would be singing along with the songs. This was a pleasant surprise, and the guy who sang had a great voice for the type of music. I now want to buy a Frank Sinatra CD because I can’t get “Come fly with me. Let’s fly, let’s fly away” out of my head.

After the concert, we came back to Greystones, then Elise, Matt, Ben, Andrew, Jared, and I went to the Joker’s to get some chips (in American, that’d be fries). We walked along the coast, listening to the waves of the Irish Sea crash on the beach in the darkness.

Today we had our midterm for Celtic Christianity over A Faith for All Seasons. It was a lot easier than I was expecting, which was nice considering it was an essay test.

Jordan, Elise, Caitlin, and I went into Bray. While they went to a coffee shop to read, journal, and write letters, I walked around to explore the streets right around the coffee shop. We made it back to the house just in time for dinner.

This morning we went to St. Patrick’s Cathedral for a Eucharist service at 11:05. Afterwards we had a tour of the Cathedral. I didn’t know this church had so much history going from Protestant to Catholic to Protestant, depending on the governing power.

We also went to Marsh’s Library, which is still a working library with 4 collections of books that date before the 17th century on every subject from medicine to history to the East to mathematics to witchcraft to law. I would have enjoyed seeing it more if I weren’t already a little bit tired. The smell of old books is very calming, and had I sat down, I would have been out.

Getting up early on a Tuesday morning was not the most pleasant thing in the world, but our site visit today was totally worth it. We went to Glendalough, which is about an hour away from Greystones. The only bad thing about the trip is that we were literally walking on ice. Because Glendalough is located in the mountains, there was still snow, and it was going nowhere fast. The snow on the main paths around the site had been packed down so much that it was just pure ice. The only way around the site was by either skating in hiking boots on the uneven ice or jumping across the paths to stay in the snow and holding on to the old gravestones for dear life.

After exploring the site, we went on a hike. I don’t know if I would actually qualify it as a “hike” because the path was at least 5-ft wide. Most of the path was fairly clear of ice, which was nice especially considering there was a fairly steep drop off on one side.

A few of us turned back mid-way through because we were absolutely frozen and the bottoms of our jeans were soaked. We went back to the hotel and drank tea. It was a very relaxing day overall.

(One thing about the video... the titles at the end decided they wanted to malfunction and cut of the last letter of the last words. I couldn't figure out how to fix it.)

Music is blaring from the kitchen where Colin, Heidi, and Tot are baking chocolate chip cookies (with broken up chocolate bars because the Irish apparently don’t believe in chocolate chips). Today we had our first “class.” It wasn’t too bad; I’m still not in the school mindset, thought. This afternoon Elise and I went to a coffee shop in Greystones called Nosh Coffee. We studied for a couple of hours.

Tonight our site group (Aric, Mary, Alix, Ben, and me) met to write our paper on Newgrange. The requirement for a site paper is as follows:
1) History of the site
2) Historical significance – How does it answer the question: Who were the Irish?
3) Significance for modern Ireland – What does it mean to the Irish today?
4) Personal (collectively as a group) reaction to the site (thoughts, etc.)

Needless to say that we took the liberty of adding a little bit of humor to our paper for Vance Maloney, who has probably read hundreds of student papers on the site. This is a sample of our paper on the significance for modern Ireland:

For modern Irish culture, Newgrange and its builders are significant because it shows how long people have inhabited the island of Ireland. The passage graves of the Boyne valley symbolize the timelessness of the Irish culture. Newgrange itself says “Wassup, wassup!?!” to the Irish people, a calling for them to remember their Neolithic heritage. This reverberates off the burial mounds in the valley. The significance of Newgrange has been best explained by one anonymous Irish teen: “Newgrange represents how Ireland used to be, but no one goes to worship there anymore.” The student went on to say that Newgrange had important implications to the pride of the Irish. The site is a major tourist attraction, and the triple-spiral has become a recognizable symbol of Ireland here and abroad.

Back at home in Indiana, waking up to snow is not unusual. I’m sick of the winter, so I probably would hate the sight of snow even if it were to be expected. Waking up to a snow-dusted Ireland this morning was a quite unpleasant surprise. I thought the irregularity of snow in Ireland would be a one or two day exception every twenty years or so, but I guess I was wrong. The sight of snow was also unwanted in the fact that we have to walk to church. This coupled with the fact that I was tired, I honestly contemplated the old standby of Bedside Baptist. I was already out of my warm toasty bed, so I decided to go to church. I went with a few people to Greystones Community Church. We walked through the slush—that had nothing on the nastiness that we have back home—up to the main street.

I found it mildly ironic that the church was located in the same place as the concert I went to on Friday night. I don’t think I’ve ever been to church in a place where the bar was ten feet away and within eyesight. Actually, I know I never have been. Once I got past that first impression of the church’s local, I loved the service. Because of the snow, Ireland practically shuts down. This meant that the normal pastor wasn’t able to make it in. The music was great, and, given he had a few hours notice, the assistant pastor (not sure on his actual position in the church) had a good message over Psalm 13.

The afternoon finally felt like a normal Sunday afternoon. Many of the girls took long naps after lunch, and some of the guys went into Greystones to one of the coffee shops. I sat in the Coffee Room and read. I finished my book There’s No Place Like Here (which is a very strange read. It’s by the author of P.S. I Love You, which was a really good novel.) I started on a paper we have to write by Friday and read a little bit of the book that our Friday midterm is over.

Dinner was an Italian olive oil pasta, chicken, and bruchetta. For dessert tonight we had an amazing apple crisp. After eating, some of us girls—and the couple boys we roped in—watched two episodes of the 7th season of Gilmore Girls. I’d never watched it before, and I have to say that I have a headache from such a high-paced show. I enjoyed it, but I think I’ll stick to Lost, CSI:, House, and Grey’s Anatomy.

We started small groups tonight. We just met and found out who was in our groups. There are four small groups total—two girl groups and two guy groups. I think it will be good. (Except for the fact that the guys decided to start late and therefore decided to kick us girls out of the Coffee Room, so we couldn’t use the computers with Internet.)

Now sitting sipping spiced chai tea, I’m getting a little sleepy. I should probably finish reading A Faith for All Seasons, but I know that once I start reading it, I’ll be out. Maybe I’ll go see if they’re going to start a movie up soon.

There is still snow on the ground in Dublin. According to Brian, our bus driver, they haven’t had this much snow in twenty years. They’ll usually get a dusting of snow a few times each winter, but it melts by noon. This snow, however, isn’t going anywhere. Of course, it’s nothing like the snow at home. If you tried to scrape a snow ball together here, you wouldn’t be able to without it having bits of grass and mud in it. I would say Ireland looks pretty with a soft coat of snow, but I am so sick of the cold that snow looks absolutely appalling.



Today was our first day of site visits. We loaded onto our bus around 10 this morning and drove north of Dublin to Monasterboice. It was founded by St. Buite who died in A.D. 512. The oldest monuments on the site are the three high crosses and the round tower, which all date from the 10th century. The round tower was built by the Irish in response to the Norse raids on monasteries during the 10th and 11th centuries. It served as a watchtower, belfry, repositories for church valuables, and as refuge for the community. The two churches on the site were probably built at the end of the 14th century. The high crosses may have been used to tell the stories of the Bible to the congregation. Muiredach’s Cross is one of the most perfect in Ireland. Below is an illustration of the stories depicted on the cross.



The next stop was Mellifont Abbey. It was the first Cistercian abbey to be founded in Ireland in 1142 on the banks of the River Mattock. The abbey was closed in 1539 when it was turned into a fortified house. William of Orange used Mellifont as his headquarters during the Battle of the Boyne in the late 17th century.

The third and final stop was at Newgrange in Brú na Bóinne (Boyne River Valley). Newgrange is the best known Irish passage tomb. It was built around 3200 B.C. It was excavated between 1962 and 1975 by Professor M. J. O’Kelly and has since been restored. At the winter solstice (21 December), the rising sun illuminates the inside of the burial chamber as shown below.


We made it back to Greystones in time for dinner. Around half eight, we went to a theatre in Greystones for a concert. One of the members of the band The Raglans works at the house on the kitchen staff. The Raglans are off to London at the end of next week for a record deal. If you’d like to check them out, their website is: http://www.theraglans.com/.

Murphy’s Law states, “Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.” Tell me why this has to apply now that I’m in Ireland. For the second morning in a row, Elise and my alarm has not gone off. (Not only ours, but also Heidi, Tot, and Jordan’s room has had the same problem.) Considering we were supposed to be ready to leave by 9:15, waking up at 9:05 is not the best idea ever. On top of the fact that we were rushed by the simple fact of our faulty alarm clock, a rock slide had blocked the Dart tracks between Greystones and Bray. This meant we had to catch a bus to Bray and then catch the Dart there into Dublin. Luckily, everything went fine once we left the house.

When we arrived in Dublin, we went to Trinity College to get our Irish student IDs. Then we went back to the DART station to get our DART passes for the month of February. Finally, it was time to start the activity of the day: a scavenger hunt. We split into our assigned groups. Of course, being college students, the scavenger hunt was soon abandoned and my group and another group joined together and just explored the city at our own accord. We stopped at Penny’s (which if you don’t know what that is, you can get fake Ugg Boots there for around 8 euros) then sat down at Bewley’s on Grafton Street for coffee. I was good and didn’t buy anything today. Actually, I don’t think any of the girls bought anything today. The guys on the other hand… a few of them have this idea in their heads that they are going to become “European.” So they bought new coats, hats, and scarves today. As long as they avoid wearing cardigans (which guys do wear over here), I couldn’t care less.

Tonight we watched P.S. I Love You on the TV in the Red Room at the house. Watching that movie is depressing. First of all, as Karin puts it, they took the only two good-looking men in Ireland and stuck them in that movie; and second, Ireland is not that sunny! Yes, it’s green, but we have yet to have the blue skies and sunshine.

I went to the Presbyterian church down the street this morning with most of the other students in the program. It’s funny how sixteen of us was about a fifth of their entire congregation. The churches are small here. Tonight we watched the Super Bowl. It started at 11 o’clock, so we did not get to bed until late.

We landed in Dublin around 9 in the morning. After rounding up all of our luggage, we met up with Ruth, the program director, and headed out to our bus. Upon our arrival in Greystones, we dumped our stuff off in our rooms, ate lunch, unpacked, and then had a walk around of the town of Greystones. It was miserably cold and wet. Even the house is cold inside. I’ll have to get used to it.

It feels like just yesterday that I was filling out my application for the Irish Studies Program. I clearly remember putting my finishing touches on my essays at one in the morning. Now I am here in the car on my way to Chicago O'Hare International Airport. In only a few short hours I will board a plane bound for Dublin. Yes, I am very excited. With every breath my anticipation grows. I cannot believe that the day has finally come.

As I look out the car window, I realize how much I am going to miss it all: the snow-covered cornfields, the patches of trees, the flat land, the farmhouses that seem out of place in this barren winter world. I know that compared to the Green Isle, the Midwest is a wasteland, but to me it is home. There is nothing extraordinary about it. The Midwest is not a destination like the East Coast or the West Coast or even the Rocky Mountains. Unless you consider cornfields a perfect vacation spot, I don’t know what would attract anyone to come here. But to me, I don’t think I will ever find a location quite like it. I am going to one of the most gorgeous places in the world—and I will enjoy it with speechless awe, I am sure—but this grey, frigid plot of land is home to me. As I travel to foreign lands and am surrounded by breathtaking landscapes, I will still remember where my heart truly lies—in Indiana.

My bags are packed after spending a day and a half squishing sweaters, jeans, and everything else I’ll need for a semester abroad. With my passport and boarding pass in hand, I will board that plane with 20 other students bound for Ireland. I know I will cry at some point, but at the moment I am smiling because I know that I am about to spend the next few months in a place that will change my life forever. I know I will look back over my shoulder one last time at the world I am leaving behind, but there is no turning back. I am going to have the time of my life. When I step on that plane, life as I know it will change. So what do I have to say to that? Bring it on.