Blogs from County Londonderry, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom, Europe - page 10

Today I woke up late… roughly 1:00 PM. Forgive me... that’s 7:00 AM Kansas time. I have faint memories of Sean and Dan trying to wake me up to play softball with the Marley Marters (the Dublin softball team), whom we met the night before. I guess I said ‘no.’ When I finally did wake up and get moving, Tyler and I walked 15 minutes to the shopping mall to buy groceries. Observations made: (1) Limerick has a TJ Maxx clothing store, but they call it TK Maxx (???), (2) the Burger King here tastes exactly like the Burger King in the U.S (I had a spicy tender chicken crisp sandwich value meal). After Dan and Sean returned from playing four games of softball, Tyler and I joined the entire Dublin crew and ordered out pizza ... read more

Unpacking is easy with no luggage. Dan brought three sets of clothes in his carry-on, I brought two sets of clothes in mine… Sean didn’t bring anything (just his cowboy hat). Off to the Limerick shopping mall. Observations made: (1) Ireland has Burger King, (2) Irish people can’t stop staring at Sean’s cowboy hat… some guy even made a quick draw gesture… some woman asked him if it was his birthday (???) (3) A BLT sandwich in the United States is NOT the same thing as a BLT in Ireland (irish “bacon” = thick, greasy ham). After a couple of hours, I’d say we left with the bare necessities. ... read more

It sucks leaving the airport with no luggage in hand. First stop… the ATM to withdraw some euros. Our traveling professor, Stacy Leeds, was nice enough to set up cab rides for the dozen students in our program. There is something comforting about seeing your name on cardboard. Our cab driver was good coversation. Two things we learned: (1) his favorite beer is budweiser, (2) Limerick has the best-looking women in Ireland (or so he says). Also worth noting: (1) sure enough… the Irish drive on the left side of the road (no surprise there), (2) there doesn’t appear to be a single stoplight in this place… it’s all round-abouts. The cab ride was 40 euros, or roughly $47. Yes… that’s expensive. We saw Tyler as our cab pulled into our apartment complex. Our accomodations Brookfield ... read more

Car's getting fixed, so I'm just going to hang out for a bit in this glorious little 1 euro an hour cafe. My gypsy caravan is seriously amazing, guys. It's like something straight out of the Boxcar Children books - I have a little gas stove, and a kettle, and a set of little dishes and spoons and such that match the little kitchen window curtains. It's really more of a tiny cottage. And an actual iron - like.. made out of iron into the shape of a triangle. If I wanted to, I could heat the woodburning stove and use the iron to unwrinkleify my clothes but... I don't know, I'd feel like I was playing around with an antique. I have breakfast on my own - tea, coffee, cereal, toast.. whatever. I have a ... read more

I can't believe my semester here is almost over! I can't say it's gone by quickly because I've done quite a lot, but I don't think I'm ready to leave just yet! I am very much looking forward to seeing my family and friends again-- you don't realize just how much you've really missed them until you realize you'll soon have the chance to see them again-- but I also realize I will miss the friends I have made here! So, I think it will be hard to say good-bye and go back to a life where I can't hop on a plane and go to Copenhagen for the weekend, and it will be hard to leave some of these people knowing quite likely I'll never see some of them again. However, life goes on, and ... read more