The days are winding down...

Hi again!

My semester is winding down, and I can't beleive how fast everything is going by! People in our program have already started to leave and the number of people who are still here is dwindling down. Now that I'm all done with college, I've still been having so much fun here and taking advantage of my time left in this beautiful place!

Last week, my roommate and my friend here both turned 21! We were able to go out to dinner at a mexican restaurant in town ( I've missed mexican!), have a little party at our house and then go out with everyone here. The weather has been really nice here. I've been able to wear flip flops around and it makes me excited and miss Sagamore Beach a little too!

This weekend I had some of the best times I've had so far here. On saturday we went to a part of Galway called Salthill. It's not too far at all but they have such a pretty beach with a diving board! It was a little windy the day we went but the sun was still out. The water was FREEZING but my crazy friend was the only brave one to jump off the diving board. You'd think with me being on swim team, I'd be all for it but really you couldn't pay me to get in that water! I was able to take lots of pictures too. Here's a picture of all of us at the beach and I was able to figure out how to take black and white pictures on my camera! woohoo

On Saturdays and sometimes on Sundays Galway has a market downtown where local artists, farmers, and anyone who wants to can set up a stall and sell things. On Saturday before we left for the beach we went and got delicious crepes and bagels, (there are also donuts too!!) On Sunday we went down to the market again, and sat along the bay and walked around town. I've also been working on a scrapbook I've been making of my time here. I've saved a bunch of random receipts, pamphlets, stickers, train tickets and odds and ends of all the places and things I've done this semester. It's been taking me a few days to go through everything but it's going to be so good (and sad) to look back and see how much I've seen and done here!

This week I'm VERY excited because my parents are leaving Wednesday and will be arriving early Thursday morning! I'm meeting them in Dublin and then we are traveling to Belfast, Donegal, Giants Causeway and then back here to Galway. It's going to be so nice to see my mom , dad and my brother. I think they are really excited too! Tomorrow, we have one of our last program meetings and we are going to have pizza together and maybe participate in some irish dancing...I haven't practiced in a while so I'll have to see just how rusty I am haha!

My friends at SMC have already finished their semesters and all of their finals! I hope everyone made it home safely and that they've already started a great summer! :) I'll be sure to keep everyone updated on the family's visit and everything to follow in my last few days! Talk to you soon!

One month left???

Hello again everyone!

So a few days ago I woke up and realized I only had one month left in Ireland. It was the weirdest feeling I think I've ever had. One, I'm really excited to go back to the states and see my family and friends and start a great summer again on the Vineyard. But two, I really don't want to leave at all and it's going to be so sad leaving this country. Really. It's such a bittersweet feeling and I'm not quite sure how I'm going to handle it...(Here's a picture of the light shining down on one part of a hill in Connemara..also very weird!)

I feel like I saw and did so much but I still need to see and do so much more. I went on amazing trips to London, Paris and Italy. And I especially love that I got to see and do so much in Ireland, the real reason I went abroad. Everytime I went somewhere, it was so nice to be able to come back to my my FAVORITE country and I realized I really did pick the perfect place for me.

Another "weird thing". I've been around the friends, my roommate, and the people in Galway since January. It's going to be so different to just go back to our own schools, go back to life in the US and not see them every single day.

And of course I'm going to miss Ireland life. The friendliness, Irish humor, and most importantly, Garlic sauce for my chips (fries). Oh and seeing cows/sheep on a daily basis...

Although I'm looking forward to summer, I feel like I have another "home" here to add to my list. I have my home in Sagamore Beach with my family, my St. Michael's home that I've missed so much this semester, another summer on the Vineyard-a homey place that feels so familiar, and now my abroad home, Ireland. Each of those places give me the same friendly, homey feeling and I wonder if its possible to call four places home. So if someone asks me where are you from? am I supposed to give the long winded answer, "well I'm from Sagamore Beach, I go to college at St. Mike's, I spend summer on Martha's Vineyard, but I also lived in Ireland?" I guess I can just accept that no matter where I go, I have four favorite places in the world (so far) and I can call each one of them home. Whenever we went some place, a friend would say "I could have studied here!" or "I feel like I could live here!" but the only place that really did that for me was Ireland and it made me realize each time how lucky I was to be here.

So here I am within my last few weeks and since I've been back in Italy I've been finishing up my last few final essays and trying to do as much as possible. I finished my last essay just this morning which means I have less than a month to cram everything in and take full advantage of my family coming in two weeks! :)

In the next month, I have a trip to Dublin planned with my family and we are also going to go up North to see Belfast, where my family is from. I also want to try to take some day trips and make sure I see all my friends one last time in Cork, Limerick and Dublin. I was talking to my Aunt from Galway at Easter, telling her how much I didn't want to go home of course and she told me that I can at least try to go back once a year. Now it's a stretch and I'm not sure if my financial budget will allow me, but I think it would be a nice goal to try to come back once a year or as much as I can. My friend who studied abroad in Galway two spring semesters ago, has been back 8 times already. I guess its just that kind of place. :)

So now that I'm officialy done with school, I'm going to take advantage of everything Galway has to offer. My roommate turns 21 in a few days, we're going to take trips to the Salthill beach not to far away now that the weather is nice and just spend as much time in Galway as possible. And then eventually, my study abroad trip will have come to a close. So, I've included some little pictures along the way here of Ireland. I'll keep everyone updated and talk to you soon!

Ciao Bella!!

Hello again!

I've lots to talk about from everything that has been happening in the past few weeks!!

SO BIG NEWS...I am now 21 years old!! Who would have thought?? I had an AMAZING birthday here in Ireland. My friend Cassy came to visit from Greece, (read her blog here!) and I had about three days of celebrations! My roommate threw me a great party here at our apartment with all of our friends and they even surprised me with a CADBURY cake! (We all know how much I love Cadbury!) Althought at first I was a little sad to not be spending it with my friends and family back home it made me realize how great the friends I met here are and how lucky I am to be in such a great place! :)

After my birthday, our lectures ended for Easter break. I traveled down to Dublin to spend Easter with some family! I went to Dundalk, Carlingford, and also stayed a night in the center of Dublin. I met some of my cousins, my great uncles and aunts, and it was so nice to be with such a welcoming family for Easter! Easter is one of my favorite holidays at home and I loved being able to spend it with my family here in Ireland. They were so funny and my great aunt and uncle had a delicious dinner and showed me around everywhere. I was also able to see some more of the country and it only reinforces the idea that I may or may not leave when May 25th comes!

After Dublin, I had two days to prepare and then I went off to begin my world travels to ITALY!!! Last Tuesday, we left Dublin Airport to Bologna. We then took a train, that very much resembled the train in Harry Potter ( we were all excited) to Florence. Florence was beautiful, again I don't know how Christine ever left! It was one of my favorite parts of my trip. We were able to meet up with my friend's friends who were studying abroad there. The weather was beautiful in the 70's and we were able to drink wine and watch the sunset from these steps that overlooked the city! Here's a picture of a few of us enjoying the nice weather by the river!

The next day we went to see the statue of David, and explored some of the outside markets. We had a great dinner with all of our friends and it was such an amazing time. The entire trip I couldn't help but feel how lucky I was to be able to see and do all these things!

The next day we started our tour of the Almafi Coast! We stayed in these adorable "bungalows" that were so nice! They had two different rooms, with a kitchen and bathroom and outside with a balcony and our very own lemon trees!! The place where we stayed was also an outside camping site and I felt like I was in a movie again! We took a day trip to the island of Capri where we took a boat ride all around the island, saw the blue grotto (one of the natural wonders of the world), jumped off the boat into the surprisingly VERY cold water, and went around to the beautiful little town of Capri! We also got some delicious caprese sandwiches which I miss dearly now! The next day we took a trip to Positano Beach, the bus ride getting there was a bit dodgy. It was twists and turns and the only thing holding us back from us, the massive cliff, and the water very far down below was a small metal barrier. I was clinging onto my roommate sitting next to me to say the least. Positano beach was amazing and we took another boat ride around the sea and saw how these houses were built right into the cliffs...amazing! The next day we went to the ancient city of Pompeii and saw of the ancient preserved ruins. After that we were on our way to Roma!

We only had one day in Rome so we tried to see and do as much as possible! We went to the Vatican and saw St. Peter's Basilica but the line to get in was so long and it would have taken all day! I was kind of upset that we weren't able to go in but I was lucky just to be there! We saw the colloseum, went to the spanish steps, and threw our pennies into the trevi fountain!! Here;s a picture of me outside the fountain! We stayed another night in Rome, had an amazing last dinner, I ordered fish and lets just say it's not the cape cod fish and chips I was used to the head and everything was on my plate. Luckily, our nice waiter helped me out with that... We woke up early and took our flight out of Rome and now I am back in Galway and back to the real world :)

I can't beleive I have only a little over a month left here. As time goes on I seriously don't want to leave! I have good news for next year though and I'm just as excited to return to my life at SMC where I'll be on Student Association as the Secretary of Communications and be doing a year long internship with the Marketing and Admissions departments! I'm currently on the lookout for a summer job too. I'd love to work back on the Vineyard again but getting everything sorted while your in a different country has definitely proved it's difficulties!

I have a few final essays to do and then my parents and brother come in a month! I'm soo excited for them to come visit!! I'll be doing little trips around Ireland hopefully and taking advantage of everything in the next month and a half! I'll be sure to keep everyone updated until then ciao!! :)

Paddys Day, Dublin and Cliffs of Moher...! (never leaving Ireland :) )

Hi again!!

Lots has happened since my last post....most importantly ST. PATRICKS DAY!! Here, they call it Paddy's Day or St. Paddy's Day. Padraig is Irish for Patrick. And it just so happens to possibly be my favorite holiday...and I was able to celebrate it in Ireland!!

My friends and I dressed up in our Paddy's Day outfits (which took some serious thought and planning, mind you) and headed down to the parade in Galway! I had my green, orange and white knee socks on and my friends and I invested in some temporary shamrock tattoos from the 2 Euro store. Great investment!! The streets were filled with people with shamrocks on their faces and everyone was having a great time. We also headed down to the Spanish Arch, an area outside right on the river, where we were greeted with a mass amount of Irish college kids, with their pints of course, kicking a ball from their balcony into the crowds and shouting...doesn't take much for them to have a good time here..haha!

The next day my friend visiting from home and I went to Dublin! It was a really quick trip but we were able to see the General Post Office, St. Stephen's Green, Grafton Street and we even went to Dublin's oldest pub, The Brazen Head! Of course, I did have to visit to the Guinness factory where I had my first full pint of Guinness. I have to say for a proud Irish-American, I am not fond of the Guinness. But I dealt with it and had a pint just so I could say I did. :) For dinner, we did however hit up the Hard Rock Cafe for my first plate of nachos in about 2 months, needless to say they didn't last long! The Hard Rock Cafe was really fun and I loved walking around the city! I'm also traveling to Dublin again this weekend with my program to do more in-depth tours, to see the Book of Kells, and Trinity College! I'm so excited! I also have friends and family in Dublin that I'm excited to see.

On Saturday, I took a trip to the Cliffs of Moher. We were so lucky to have such a nice day where the cliffs for completely visible. They were really high up, my mom would not have liked the look down thats for sure, but I got awesome pictures and I was really happy I finally got to visit! We took a bus tour that brought us to The Burren, and explored/explained a few little towns and sights on the way. I was happy we did the tour because they stopped at a lot of cool places and I was able to be my typical obnoxious photographer self!

I can't believe how fast this time abroad is going by. Everyday I say to myself its going to be harder and harder to leave this country! I feel like I fit in here so well, among the disorganization, lateness, tea drinking and very proud Irish :). I do miss my friends and family at home though sometimes, but I'm excited for my friends that have visited and those coming very soon! My roomie Cassy, currently blogging away from Greece, is coming next week for my birthday! I'll be turning 21 next Tuesday....so crazy!! My family is also coming in May, which I'm very excited to see Ireland with them. My grandmother is from Belfast, so we'll be taking trips to there and visiting some of my other family all around the country!

I'm also going to Italy for a few days after Easter. I can't believe how lucky I am to be able to travel and see the world. I love my little St. Mike's but being able to see how the other world lives is amazing! :)

I hope everyone is doing well! I love hearing from everyone reading my blog! I'll try to keep everyone updated with my travels and adventures. Talk to you all soon!

Paris, Hiking, Letterfrack, and rugby!

Bonjour!

Things have been pretty busy around here :). I have so many things to write about but first, I'll start with the API program trip to PARIS!!


We did so many things its hard to even remember:


On the first night we got into our hotel a little late and we decided to just walk around the area and get some dinner. We quickly found we were staying in the area affectionately labeled "the red light district" it was very interesting...but we were right down the street from Moulin Rouge and at night the city lit up was beautiful. So at dinner, I decided to be adventurous and order the dish of the day (in french, mind you.) Our waiter told me it was fish, and made the hand signal of something swimming. I was like hey, I like fish, I'm from Cape Cod, I can handle it. Needless to say my fish was DELICIOUS. A little bony, but delish none the less. So then my program director, Kevin, told me that it was in fact Stingray. Yes. I hate stingray, in France. We then walked around and saw the, again, VERY interesting sights and headed in.



On Saturday, we walked around, took a bus tour and saw all of the sights. We drove through the city, stopped at the arc de triumph, the Eiffel tower, the opera house, the louvre, etc. I also was able to take a few artsy pictures from afar of Chanel, Dior, (Insert favorite french designer here) etc. As fashion-savvy as I am, I had to look from a distance in fear of getting too close and forgetting my study abroad college student budget.






After the bus tour, we took a small guided tour of the Louvre museum and saw all of the highlights. I was able to sneak through the crowd, (one benefit of being short), and take a picture of the Mona Lisa. Afterwards we headed to go up the Eiffel Tower. The tower was so beautiful and I am so glad we went up. It was windy, and basically freezing but a beautiful view and something I will remember forever. Here's a picture of me kissing the tower ;)

At night, a few Friends and I walked along the Champs D'Elysee, the main shopping street, but again, no bargains in Paris. We saw the city again all lit up at night and then headed back to the hotel!

On Sunday our last day, a few friends and I headed to Notre Dame Cathedral. It was so beautiful and something that you literally have to see in person to know how AMAZING it is. It was one of my favorite parts of Paris. Paris was such a fun city, but I was really happy to return to Galway again. I actually liked Paris better than London. It had so much culture, and the food was so good. Throughout the entire trip, I ate about 5 baguettes, 4 fromage (cheese) quiches, and so many pastries I can't even count. I would stay in Paris for another week to just eat.



When we got back from Paris, we were all super tired and went through another week of classes and hung out in Galway for the weekend. I attended a silent disco at one of the bars downtown, which was hilarious/great craic (fun) What's a silent disco you ask? Well, its where everyone has headphones, there's no music outside the headphones and their are two DJ's playing different songs and you take off your headphones and realize everyone is dancing and singing to different music!! Kind of weird, but so much fun...



This week, we had a small break in classes and my friend Meg and I traveled to the countryside with one of our friends and spent a mini "holiday"-vacation in Letterfrack, Connemara about an hour away from Galway. It's literally the smallest, but still prettiest towns, I've ever seen. We spent a day hiking up Diamond Hill, where I realized how much I miss my swimming lungs, and spent a night in the small town bar listening to the locals compete in a talent show, great fun in itself. I loved seeing the countryside, getting away from the city, and being with such fun people. Definitely made me realize why I came to Ireland and how happy/lucky I am to be here. (I will be posting pictures soon once I steal them from my friend!!)



And on a final note, I went to an Irish rugby game tonight Connacht vs. Glasgow, Scotland!!! It was so exciting and so much fun. My friends were even interviewed for an online TV channel...I think they thought it was funny that we didn't really know what was going on. They ended up tying but it was a great game and the crowd was awesome and so into it!!

Tomorrow, our API program is taking us on their excursion to Connemara. I think it will be fun and different from our own little personal tour this week, and it will be fun to be with everyone!! Next week is College week, with so many events going on for the university students to raise and give money to charity. It used to be called RAG week (raise and give) but they've changed the name this year and it's a pretty big deal around here. Google it ;). I'll have lots of stories coming up in the near future. Hope everyone is doing well and talk to you soon!

Happy Pancake Day!

So I just wanted to write a quick little tid-bit about the delicious holiday and new tradition I discovered today :)

In America, today would be the most hailed of all days- Fat Tuesday. So when I woke up this morning, I decided that for lent (beginning tomorrow) I would give up my daily Cadbury Carmello's and Buttons. But as a last hoorah I would indulge myself with them today, as any normal chocolate lover would and just as I have for every Fat Tuesday before.

Instead, I found that in Ireland, the tradition is quite different. It was instead..Pancake Day.
I had a message from my Irish friend, and she told me to "Enjoy my pancakes today!" Confused, I asked around and indeed found the rumor to be true. If you do not have pancakes for at least one meal today...you're committing a sin. Just kidding...but everyone does it, its tradition. :)

So I woke up at 6am to travel to the immigration office so I wouldn't be "thrown into a dungeon" like my Garda officer affectionately advised me and I received my Irish student ID. Afterwards, I went to classes, went downtown and then went to Tesco (supermarket) and strolled the aisles for pancake mix. After getting sidetracked as usual by popcorn, strawberries, MORE chocolate etc. I asked an employee where the heck the mix could be. He pointed me to the large crowded display in the front of the store. Feeling slightly like an idiot, I made my way through the crowd and bought the two packets that everyone else with an Irish accent seemed to buy.

I then came home, and informed my roommates we were having a pancake dinner. At first, we realized the recipe was a tad milky. And then realized we were making crepes, the mix was titled "PANCAKE MIX" and everyone else was buying it, so we pondered for a while and decided this must be what "Pancake Day" is all about. At first, we nearly burnt down the kitchen or suffered from smoke inhalation injuries before my roommate Kelly had to take over. But after about 65 crepes later, I was making them with no problem. :) And they were honestly so ridiculously good, I was happy to have a new found love for "pancakes" and "pancake day".

So the moral of the story is, I intended this day to be just as every other Fat Tuesday but instead ditched my usual chocolate hoarding for the day and greatly appreciated the tradition that I discovered in my new home. :) Happy Pancake eating everyone, talk to you soon!

London and Cork college week !

Hi everyone!

Sorry for the little break in post-age. I had a busy last weekend in London and yesterday I just got back from visiting some friends in County Cork!

Last weekend, a group of about 12 of us went to London for the weekend! The city was absolutely beautiful and very big. It was hard to try to fit everything into three days but we walked EVERYWHERE and saw some of the major fun places. On Thursday night we got into London really late, so we woke up on Friday morning early and traveled to some of the free galleries and did touristy things! I loved the National Gallery and seeing Van Gogh's paintings up close. We then went to Buckingham palace, Big Ben, Westminister Abbey etc. I loved Buckingham Palace and we really lucked out with the weather! :) Here's a picture of my friends, Kelly, Meg and I underneath one of the famous Lions in Trafalgar Square. I was being a scaredy-cat and they had to do some serious convincing to get me to climb up there:

The next day we broke off into a smaller group and a few of us went to Harrod's department store. Harrod's was one of my favorite parts of the trip. You could honestly spend HOURS in that place. It's about six huge floors and you could seriously get lost if you weren't paying attention ( I did, about three times.) We saw the pet store, food hall, the Princess Diana and Dodi memorial and all of the luxurious fashion... (Although, I had a strong feeling most of the brands are not targeted to study abroad students on a strict budget...sigh.)

The food hall was literally nothing like I've ever seen. They had gelato, fudge, candy, meat, pizza and absolutely everything you could ask for. I had some gelato and fudge, the best lunch a girl could ask for, right?

After Harrod's, we went to the Tower of London and then we went to the London Eye. The London Eye is that massive ferris wheel that towers above London. We went at night so it was so pretty to see the entire city lit up. They take you into these little capsules and you can see absolutely everything. It was so much fun!! Here's a picture of my roommate and I infront of the London Tower Bridge :)

On Sunday, half of the group had an early flight but a few of us stayed for an extra day. My friend Kelly has a friend studying abroad at Imperial College in London so we went to stay with her and saw a play, Jersey Boys, and went around to a few of the shopping centers. I LOVED the play. The play was about the group The Four Seasons and we were surprised how many of the songs we knew and how fun it was! After the play, we went down to the college to watch the Superbowl with a few of the other American students before we left for our extremely early flight back to Galway. As much as I loved London, I was so happy to return to our small, familiar town of Galway :) It made me so happy to know that I consider this another home now, and how happy I am to be settled into such a quaint, friendly town.

I unpacked, got myself into the swing of classes and then on Wednesday night my friend and I traveled down to the south of Ireland to visit Cork. My two Irish friends from the summer, Susie and Aoife, go to University College Cork and it was UCC RAG (Raise and Give) and College week. It was soooo nice to see them and I missed my Irish friends so much!! We went to a few of the pubs and walked around the college and shops. It was a quick little trip but I had so much fun having them show us around Cork and meeting all of their college friends. It was so nice having Irish friends that could show you around, tell you where to go, and the best things to order at food places. For example, I was introduced to the piece of heaven that is "Garlic, Cheese Chips" . They are fries (or chips as we call them here) covered in cheese and garlic. Honestly, I need to find them in the US when I get back because my life's forever changed after having them. At the college, they had so many activities during the day to raise money for different charities around the area. One daring student raised over 150 euro to shave one of his eyebrows off. Another, shameless participant had his chest waxed in the college bar and raised about 300! Anything for charity I guess :) We also went to a Ceili, which is traditional group Irish dancing, on top of the medicine building. A little embarrassing when other students walked by, but I was happy to have a background in Irish dancing so I could keep up with the others :)

This weekend, we're relaxing and hanging around Galway. Next weekend is our program's trip to Paris! I'll be sure to keep everyone updated on all of my travels and adventures :)

On another note, the SMC Bloggers are holding a contest for high school seniors!! We want to know what you guys would like us to write about. We want fun, interesting topics so leave a comment on any of our blogs with what you'd like to hear. We'll gather them all together at the end of February and decide the best ideas!

AND we have another video/youtube contest for SMC Students and a chance to win 500$!! Read all about the rules and info for these on Ross', our social media interns blog:

http://ross.smcbloggers.com/

Thanks guys and talk to you all soon!!