This River is Wild

Thursday, March 4th—

Finished up the first part of the semester with my Contemporary Irish Society final. It was pretty simple, finished first, which is always semi embarassing. Headed back to the room to make sure I had all of my things for the week. At 2 we had a meeting with Mark O’Brien, who is the academic director for the internship program. He basically told us about the portofolio and project that we have to do, which was pretty straightforward. From there, Amanda and I headed right to the airport for Spain! We got BK while we waited haha and it was much cheaper and better than the BK I got in City Center, which is kind of annoying. The flight itself was not bad at all, I actually kind of enjoyed it. We then met up with Amanda’s friend Cecilia in Girona and headed to our hostel there for the night. It was a pretty basic hostel, but had an amazing breafast included the next day, which was awesome.

Friday, March 5th—

After our free breakfast at the hostel, we headed to the train station where we hopped a train to Barcelona. We arrived in Barcelona around 11:40 and headed to Las Ramblas to try to find our hostel. This was more difficult than we thought, but we ended up finding it on Ramblas de Catalunya, which was a pretty nice area. Once we were settled in, Mike and Ben met us there, which was awesome! It was so great seeing them; the whole time I didn’t even feel like we were in Spain, we could have been in DC or Worcester and had just as much fun, I loved it.

Once we met up with them, Mike walked us around the city. We saw the Cathedral, which was beautiful, but under construction, unfortunately.

After that, we made our way to Parc Guell, which we we didn’t really know how to get to, but we knew it was far. We walked anyways. It took a long time, and it was hot, so I was sweating up a storm. But it was worth it because we got to see the city and the park was really cool. One of the America’s Next Top Model runway shows was there, which was cool, and it was designed by Gaudi, which is also really cool.

After the park, we took a bus back to Mike’s neighborhood, where we bought some cheap white wine (only 2 euro a bottle!) and headed to the beach (Mediterranean Sea). MY DREAM COME TRUE. I brought a bathing suit, but I didn’t have it on me at the time, so I just went in up to my knees. It was pretty cold, but basically the same as it would be in Maine during the summer. It was so nice though, it’s going to be perfect in April and May I’m sure.

That night we got dinner at a restaurant near the beach. I wasn’t quite ready to try any legitimate Spanish food, so I just got a pizza…it was really good though. We got free sangria with our meal, though, which was great! I officially love sangria after this trip. From there we headed back to Mike’s building and hung out in the basement room until around 1, when we went to this awesome place that had pichers of AMAZING sangria for only 8.50 euro. It was basically like a giant dining hall, but with alcohol—so much fun. We played king’s and tumbler there, which was son fun!

Saturday, Marh 6th—

Saturday morning Keely met us at the hostel around 11am. Amanda, Keely, Cecilia and I then headed back to the Cathedral and walked around a bit, got an amazing pastry. From there we went to Sagrada Familia, which is this really cool church that Gaudi began building a while ago a died while it was still under constuction, and it still is today. It isn’t supposed to be finished until 2020 at least.

We ended up paying 10 euro to go inside, but it wasn’t cool at all. It’s under construction inside too, so it isn’t awesome at all, but I’m sure it will be when it’s finished. We did go up to the top, though, which cost another 2.50 for the elevator. That was cool though, there was a pretty good view.

Mike and Ben met us there that afternoon and all of us headed to the Olympic Park from 1992. That was really cool looking, more great views of the city and the sea.

Then I headed back to the hostel with the girls to shower and change, then went to Mike’s for dinner with him and Ben. They made an amazing salad with chicken and homemade crutons while I napped (all that sun made me feel so sick!). I helped out by doing the dishes. We just hung out and caught up for a bit before the girls met us there to pregame. That was really fun, we played cards for a longgg time. Then we went back to the sangria place, where I caught up with Mike and Ben more, which was really fun. Then we went to a club on the beach, which was pretty cool. They played only Spanish music, which was expected, but still kind of a downer. We all had fun dancing, even though Mike, Ben and I lost Amada and her friends! But Mike and Ben took me home. I got the worst blisters ever that night—I hate my flats!

Sunday, March 7th—

Sunday Amanda and her friends were gone, so I met Mike and Ben around 11. We hung out at Mike’s for most of the day, had a silly time. They had fun drawing silly pictures of me. We also made potatoes and crutons, both of which were delicious (and by we I totally mean Mike and Ben). That night it started to rain, but we walked around Las Ramblas anyways and got tapas and sangria, which was really good. We played cards at the hostel until they had to leave around 11:30 to make the metro.

Monday, March 8th—

Mike had class monday morning, so Ben met me around 9 for breakfast. First we went to the store for bandaids for my blisters, then to find a Vodaphone store since my phone ran out of credit. We found one, but they said they could only top up Spanish Vodaphones, which I think is pretty dumb. Anyways, we ended up at this place called American Soda on Las Ramblas for breakfast. We both got eggs, bacon, toast and a croissant. The croissant was absolutely amazing. It was a really fun breakfast, Ben’s such an awesome person.

Mike’s second class ended up getting cancelled, so he met up with us there and we headed to his apartment. I figured out how to top up my phone online, so I did that then got in touch with Amy, who arrived around 1:30. Mike had class again at 2:30, but Amy, Ben and I played cards in the lounge in the basement for a few hours, which was really fun. I think Amy, Mike and Ben all got along really well, which was great.

After hanging out there for a bit, Amy and I headed to the hostel to get ready for the night. Then we went back to Mike’s where they made tacos! They were so good, and it’s so much cheaper than going out to eat, which is awesome. Then we pregamed and played cards for a bit, before heading out to a club. There was a 12 euro cover, whch sucked, but that included one drink, so it wasn’t too bad. I ordered vodka cranberry, but apparently in Spain that means vodka and Monster haha so that was funny. It was a really fun night though, Ben is the silliest dancer I have ever seen—I love it! We all danced together and had a great time, they even played “Fat Bottomed Girls’—only my FAVORITE Queen song ever! haha so good. Oh also, it SNOWED on Monday! In Spain! So insane. All the Spainards were freaking out because it NEVER snows in Barcelona.

Tuesday, March 9th—

Tuesday morning Amy and I went to the market on Las Ramblas. It was so cool! They had so much amazing looking fruit and candy, and also some crazy looking meet. We ended up getting food from “Organic is Orgasmic,” which was an organic Spanish food stall. It was amazing! I don’t really know what we ate…it was called a taco, and there was paella, and some pasta. I’m not sure, but it was so good and a little spicy, but not too much.

We walked around a bit and looked at the bunnys and birds they sell on the street there. Then we got ice cream from the market! It was really good. I then fell like an idiot on the street, murdering my knee. But don’t worry—I didn’t spill my ice cream.

After our fun morning experience, Amy and I met up with Ben and went back to Parc Guell, this time on the metro. Not so great this time because I was wearing flip flops and nice it snowed so much the sand was basically like quicksand. Needless to say, my feet have never been more dirty.

We then went to Sagrada Familia again, then walked to the Cathedral, where Ben went back to meet Mike and Amy and I went to the Picasso Museum, which was amazing! They didn’t have Guernica, though, which was kind of sad, but all the art was still so amazing!

From there we went towards Mike’s, but stopped for a bit to watch some fun old men play Bocci; they were too adorable. We relaxed at Mike’s for a bit, ate out leftovers from the morning and a potato pancake, before heading to the hostel to get ready for the night. That night we played cards at the hostel before heading out to Chupitos, a shot bar.

All the shots there are 2 euro, and they’re all so fun! Ben and I ranked up a pretty impressive tab, but it was worth it—such a good time! We had a Harry Potter shot (picture above, Ben and I), Finding Nemo (blue with whipped cream and a hidden m&m that you had to find with your tongue, Mike, Ben and I), devil’s advocate (red shot with a flaming cross on the bar, all four of us), sex (basically a shot of sex on the beach, Ben and I), monica lewinsky (just Amy and I), absinthe (Ben and I), one where you set your thumb on fire, put it out with your mouth then take the shot (all of us), one with a lollypop (Mike, Ben and I), there was at least one more but I can’t remember. It was so much fun though, such a cool place, I wish we had one in Boston!

After that, we went to a club with some of Ben’s Paris friends who were also in Barcelona. It was so fun! They only played American music, so we had so much fun singing along and dancing. We somehow snuck into the VIP section, which was super fun. Ben had a dance battle with a silly old man, which was pretty epic. Basically, it was an amazing time, the most fun I’ve ever had going out, probably. Had to say bye to Mike that night, sadly, as he had class in the morning before I left.

Wednesday, March 10th—

Said bye to Amy around 9:30, as she was heading to Rome with Amanda. My flight was at 2:20, so I had time to meet Ben for an early lunch around 11. That was a really fun time, we definitely enjoyed looking at all of the silly pictures from the night before. Said bye around 12:10 and hopped a bus to Barcelona airport on my way to London!

The last weekend of February was a very relaxing and lazy one for me. Amy and Amanda were out of the country on amazing trips and I was still here, and not really willing to go out or pay any money whatsoever.

Friday I finally figured out how to watch movies on youtbue—big milestone in my life. So I watched The Wind that Shakes the Barley and Michael Collins—both RIDICULOUSLY AMAZING, especially TWTSTB. I now love Cillian Murphy. Also, love how Jonathon Rhys Myers pays Collins’ assasin in MC, so funny, he’s so young and silly. I also really think watching these movies helped me understand a lot of the history more; it was interesting seeing what we’ve been learning in action, even if the movies aren’t 100% accurate.

I stayed in that night, did some reading for fun, went to bed early. Basically, I marinated, to use the wise words of Adam Simeone.

Saturday I discovered there was free pizza at the Bernard Shaw for the Ireland/England rugby game, so of course I was there. I went with Casey, which was fun, as we haven’t really hung out yet. The game was amazing, Ireland won, and it was intense the entire time. The pizza was also delicious, and even more so because it was free. That night Casey and I made pancakes, which were delicious, and watched Miracle in honor of all the Olympic games we were missing.

Sunday I chillaxed, did my laundry, watched Mighty Ducks 2 and Heavyweights, and ate some delicious ice cream. All around a nice, relaxing weekend.

This week we had our final two days of core courses, kind of sad, but mostly insane how quickly it went by. Today I had History of Ireland final, which went really well, I answered on Daniel O’Connell and the Irish Free State, two things I was not planning on writing on, but it worked out in the end.

Tomorrow is the Sociology final, which should be pretty simple, then an internship meeting, then Amanda and I are headed to the airport for Spain! I’m going to be in Barcelona thursday night til wednesday morning, then London wednesday to saturday. I AM SO EXCITED! Mostly because I’ll get to see Mike and Ben in Spain, and Madelyn and Caitlin, and maybe Jackie Riso, in London! So it’s going to be wonderful. Packing has been a bitch, though, because I’m only bringing a backpack and I want to have room for souvenirs! But I think I’m going to be fine. So pumped though! Cannot believe it’s half over, Ash and the cousins will be here in four weeks! And another four weeks after that I’ll be back in the Woo..insanity.

Time is flying by!

On February 19th, Amy and I headed to Killarney, Co Kerry, for a relaxing weekend in nature. Because there is no direct route from Dublin to Killarney, we had to take a four hour bus to Limerick City, then a 2 hour bus from there to Killarney. But that was fine with me, as we had an hour to kill in Limerick and I got to see my namesake, the Shannon River! Turns out it was kind of grimy in Limerick, but that’s fine with me, since I’m a little ghetto myself! haha

So we ate our lunches by the river, accompanied by HUNDREDS of terrifying birds. I kid you not, it was a rough time in my life. But I made it through, and we got back on the bus headed to Killarney. When we arrived, we found a hostel, The Railway Hostel, and checked in. For roommates we had to Spainards who were quite silly, as well as Trevor, who goes to UMASS AMHERTS and is from IPSWITCH. So strange! So we went out with Trevor to a few places, but it wasn’t really too lively, and we weren’t that into it anyways.

The next morning, we woke up and headed to Killarney National Park for some bonding with nature. We were going to rent bikes (I was going to take one for the team here) but it ended up being like 12 euro, which was too much for me, so we decided to just walk. We then wanted to climb the highest mountain in Ireland, but there was snow on it, so were were advised against this, sadly. So we ended up walking in the park, where we saw Ross Castle, with was cool, some lovely lakes, Muckross House and tons of awesome mountains. It was really beautiful, and an INTENSE walk for sure. We rewarded ourselves with some great, but expensive, Chinese food on our walk back to town.

That night we weren’t really feeling going out, so we ended up at the movie theater for Valentine’s Day, which was pretty horrible, but it was nice to just relax and see a movie. When we got back we played some cards in the common area at the hostel and ended up talking to the nice Algerian hostel worker, who told me to avoid drugs and alcohol and even if you love someone to let them go if they are going down a distructive path. Some of the things he said were right on, but the letting people you love go if you aren’t on the same path was pretty terrible, I thought, but to each his own.

We headed back pretty early the next day and just relaxed Sunday night, which is always nice.

That week I had my interview tuesday, and two sociology field trips on wednesday and thursday. The interview was with Aileen Rogan of Tennis Ireland, which is actually located in the same building I live in, making for a short commute. It went very well, I thought. It was very informal and the organization seems very friendly and relaxed, but it seemed as though I would be given a lot of work and responsibility, which is awesome. She said I would probably be writing press released, updating their Twitter and Facebook, as well as helping to plan their next big tournament, which all sounds perfect for me! So I’m very excited about that.

Wednesday night we had a sociology field trip to the Abbey Theater to see the Irish Premiere Christ Deliver Us, which was so ridiculously amazing. The direction was wonderful, even the way they changed the set was choreographed and so beautiful. There was one scene where two scenes were actually taking place on the stage and the actors switched off, using the same props. It was so cool and it really reminded me of Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia, which I loved reading and would be amazing to see performed. The play was basically about questioning religion and how you can still be moral and a good person without it and you shouldn’t let it or other people dictate your life. It was just compeltely amazing. There was a gay kiss, suicide, rape and a girl dying while giving birth—very graphic, but so well done. Definitely my favorite trip by far.

Thursday morning sociology met again at Dail Eireann, the Irish Parliament, located in Leinster House near Trinity College. We got to see both the Dail (House of Commons) and the Seanad (Senate) in action, which was so cool because they got into pretty heated arguments, but also joked around a lot—it was highly entertaining. We also got to speak to Senator O’Toole, who basically told us he thought American students were stupid because they don’t keep up to date on world events, or even their own events. Some people were offended, but I totally agree. I know at least I don’t pay attention to the news, which is horrible, so I’m really trying to start. I made the Boston Globe my homepage and am making an effort to read things other than local news and sports, but it will definitely take some time to get into the habit of news!

Week five brings us to February 11th—the night of Simon Says.

Thursday, as said in week four, we had a lecture about the GAA (which was awesome). After this, Amy, Amanda, Amanda’s friend Alex and I went out for what ended up being a really fun night.

This was an Eastern European themed night from the beginning. We attempted Pravda, but it was closed at 11:30. Not okay, Russians should party all night. So we headed to the Czech Inn—best name ever. We just got one drink there, it was pretty relaxed, but definitely somewhere I’d want to go again.

From there we went to Doyle’s, where all of my dreams came true. There was a midget girl there and she was AWESOME. She was clearly wasted and was dancing up a storm. It was amazing. I actually saw her again the next night, and AGAIN last week at the mall…clearly we are meant to be best friends.

After Doyle’s, we went to the Porterhouse, where Amy met Simon. Before I get to that, though, I have to express my excitement and pure joy that Porterhouse had margaritas! And they were only 5.50 euro that night because it was 2 euro off night. They were delicious. So back to Simon, the DJ. He played some pretty sweet jams, like “Build me up Buttercup,” and the like. He was also cute, and sober, a new criteria for Amy. She asked him to play “Love Shack” and he said—wait for it—HE HATES THAT SONG. I don’t understand. Best song in the world. We told him it was Amanda’s 23rd birthday, and eventually he played it, such a sweetie. He talked to Amy for a bit, and ended up offering us a ride home, which we gladly accepted. (He was tiny and there were four of us, so we were completely safe). The way back I amused myself by making as many Simon Says jokes as humanly possible. It was a good time.

Friday morning we headed on a group fieldtrip to Glendalough—the glen between two rivers—in Co Wicklow, south of Dublin.

It was really pretty, but the weather was dreary and we were all exhausted, so it was less enjoyable than it should have been. The best part, weirdly enough, was the bus ride back, as only 6 of us returned to DCU, with the rest heading to Co Kerry on a weekend trip with Caroline.

That night we went out again and had a really good time. Convinced Mike F to come out with us, as we were basically the only people there, and it was definitely a fun time. Pravda was hopping that night, although the band was pretty terrible.

The next day Amy and I met Amanda, Alex, and another one of Amanda’s friends, Keely, at a pub near the Bernard Shaw for the Ireland/France rugby game. The game was entertaining, but Ireland got their asses handed to them, unfortunately. From there, we were supposed to meet Marcus (the Canadian Amanda is seeing) for dinner, but he got held up at work, so the five of us got thai food instead, which was AMAZING. Then we headed back to DCU, pregamed, and headed back out for the night. Amanda had Krispy Kremes Keely brought from London for Marcus which she had been holding onto all day, so she brought them to The Foggy Dew where he was meeting us.

I kid you not when I saw every single person in the pub had their eyes focused on that box of doughnuts. They were all about them; it was so weird. That was the first time I met Marcus, though, and he was really nice. He’s from Canada and he looks like Jemaine from Flight of the Conchords, so he’s alright in my book. Amy met up with Steven (the tour guide) for a little pre-Valentine’s Day action, then met us at the Porterhouse, where we saw the midget (!!!) and Simon! Best experience ever—no free ride this time, though.

Valentine’s Day was that Sunday, clearly a quiet day for me. I think I watched a movie and ate ice cream to soothe the depression…just kidding about the depression but totally serious about the ice cream!

That week we had three field trips, which were all awesome. Monday we went on a walking tour of the city with Lorcan, this wicked awesome, semi-crazy history buff. We started at Trinity, headed to the GPO, saw the Four Courts and finished at Dublin Castle, discussing the 1916 Easter Uprising along the way. He was so interesting and hilarious—called Amy, Amanda and I a “clique” and called me out saying “all Irish Catholic girls have their wedding planned from the day they’re born—don’t tell me you don’t!” haha it was embarrassing but awesome. Best part is that we then got Pa Pa’s pizza after—delicious.

Wednesday we had another history field trip, this time to Kilmainham Gaol, a jail over 200 years old which held the most notorious political prisoners, including Parnell, DeValera and all the leaders of the 1916 rebellion, who were also killed there.

The jail is no longer in use, but many movies are filmed there and lots of artists record albums there. They also have a really cool museum about the jail, 1916, the War of Independence/Civil War, and the Irish Free State.

Thursday night we went to a play, an optional field trip. It was free, so of course I went. It ended up being like community theater, but it was still amazing. The play was “Playboy of the Western World,” about a kid from Cork (?) who kills his father and then brags about it to everyone, only to find out that his father isn’t really dead. It was kind of weird and I’m not sure I completely understood it, but the acting was really good, and I got to talk to this really interesting old man who sat next to me. He told me about his kids and where they went to school, and how one of them lived in NYC for a while and was actually right near ground zero on 9/11, so crazy. He was a sweetie though, asked me if I lived near the Kennedy’s! So cute. I told him he definitely has to come to Boston, all Irish people would love it.