Dublin

ah so Dublin was a lot of fun! I stayed at a pretty cool hostel in the four courts area, which was so nice. my hostel was very near the Temple bar district and city centre and all that jazz. The oldest pub in Ireland was right near my hostel, too. I went there with a friend that I met and we got to see a traditional Irish band play. A man sang a song about World War I and like almost every man in the room had tears in his eyes or was just crying openly. It was nuts!

Yeah so I met a girl at Gatwick who was also going to Dublin for a few days. She's from Canada and she was really cool so we hung out while in Dublin. She has a friend who lives there so her friend showed us ropes haha. It's always nice to have an insider's view of a city. I found a really neat bookstore while there too and bought a book to read on the way home. I was amazed at how artistic and cultural of a city Dublin is. I didn't realize they had such a big theatre district and little book markets everywhere and stuff. It was a lovely surprise

The trip home was interesting. I flew out of Dublin airport and got to Newark with no problems. However, we got stuck for a couple of hours in Newark because of plane maintanence problems. I missed my connection in Denver because of the two hour delay in Newark and was forced to stay overnight in Denver. Then I had an early flight home but it also had plane problems and then got delayed and then cancelled so I didn't get to leave Denver until pretty late and got home pretty late at night. It was all very interesting to say the least. I really miss Swansea, though. Ugh I hated leaving so much! It was all so depressing to have to say goodbye to everyone. Everyone made it home safely, though, which is really good. I definitely see myself going back to the UK to live for a while, though. Hopefully sooner than later!

aw goodbyes :(

ugh and so it begins. everyone pretty much is leaving here today or tomorrow. most are going home. some are doing some traveling and then leaving but either way, it's so sad! I'm leaving for Dublin tomorrow morning and then I'm going home on Tuesday. I've had such a blast here! I so don't want to leave but I am so ready to see everyone at RSU and be back there again.

I am excited to go to Dubin, though. The land of my people! haha and I'm so excited to be finished with all of my classes, too! I finished my paper for one class, took my final for German and did both of my online classes (A's in those! woohoo!)

I can't believe I'm all packed up and cleaning my room and everything to leave. It doesn't really feel over and like I'm leaving. It's beginning to feel more real today, though.

I feel so lucky to have been here at all! The American Studies office has been wonderful to all of us. I've met some amazing people and gotten to experience so many wonderful things and see so many great places that I've always wanted to see.

My friends and I went out to a final dinner the other night. It was nice. we went and ate some Indian food and had fun.

I went through the botanical gardens on campus again today for a final time. it's such a gorgeous place!

Well anyway I'm going back to packing and getting ready to leave all bright and early but will definitely write about Dublin!

hmm..I should probably be writing a paper...

Well yeah about the title. I should be writing a paper but I'm taking a break to eat some more dinner and write on this thing, ya know? haha my brain needs a rest anyway.

So I'm officially finished with my two online classes. Yay! I took the finals already and so now it's just a matter of finding out if I made A's in them. Though I'm pretty certain I did haha!

I take my German final on Wednesday and all I have to do for my other class is write this massive paper. Luckily, I'm not really much of a procrastinator at all so it should be fine. I've already done quite a bit for it, but it is a bit challenging. oh well. I'm sure it'll all work out.

I'm mailing some luggage home on Tuesday so that I don't have to cart tons of stuff around with me when I go to Dublin. Hopefully it all ships fine and everything. It's not too much different than if I were to have it with me when I left. It's getting there by airplane either way; this is just more convenient. It still makes me nervous, though, to give my suitcases to a stranger and trust a bunch of people to get my stuff home for me...eek. I've already paid for it and everything so as long as the truck shows up on Tuesday (and in time for me to not be late to class) and everything, we should be good! hopefully...

I just ate some more British food. I had beans and cheese on toast (yeah I'd so never heard of that before I got here) and it was actually pretty good..strangely lol. I also tried corn(ed?) beef pie. yummy! My flatmate made it! ah the things we do to procrastinate from doing our work haha. It was strangely delicious, as well. I had a roast thingy at the carvery across from where we live the other day. It was pretty delicious, as well. It took me a while we I got here to acquire a taste for the food but maybe my tastebuds are acclimating. hmm.. haha

Well anyway, I put some more pictures from Freiburg here and now I suppose I'll get back to my work!

ich liebe deutschland!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. A bunch of my friends and I had thanksgiving with our wonderful British friends. Hopefully they enjoyed our lovely little holiday.

so I have returned from Germany. woohoo. we had a blast there. the way down was pretty great. We all got a good amount of sleep and arrived at a wonderful hotel! super cheap and super wonderful. the way back was not so good, though. we got basically no sleep because of loud people and were home for a very short amount of time before a fire alarm went off and woke us all back up. so yeah last night was not a good one for sleep. eek

but yes Germany was very cool. We had wonderful food. Freiburg is a really neat little city, too. We went to the Christmas market and went on a hike up a mountain in the black forest. We walked all around the city. Our hotel was a little out of the way, but it was ok because we just walked to and from it every day, which was really healthy and allowed us to get a good view of the town. aw our last trip together. sad sad sad :(

it's crazy to think that in like a week and half, I'll be leaving wonderful Swansea to go back to wonderful Oklahoma. This semster has flown by so quickly. it's just crazy