I am no longer in LONDON! I cannot believe this whole extravaganza is almost over. It is craaazy. Right now, I am currently on a train that is taking me to the airport, which will take me to Ireland where I will be gallivanting around the green countryside in search of leprechauns and pots of gold. Hopefully I will come back with a nice sack of lucky coins to spend =)

These past few weeks have been insane. I was not joking when said I would have no extra time for anything (sleeping was even cut back much to my dismay). I have basically been traveling for three weeks straight with yet another week to go. I have never in my life been on so many different trains, planes, taxis, busses, and various means of transportation. I am very much looking forward to driving a car when I get home. I might even drive to class.

Soo, the end of the study tour was not as fun as the beginning. This was due to the fact that everyone was beginning to get a wee bit cranky and tired. As for me, traveling with a suitcase that has a broken handle is not ideal. In order to roll it on its little roll-y wheels I had to hunch my back down reeal far in order to reach the handle that refused to go up any farther than about three, maybe four inches. It was awesome.

I do have to say the Liverpool was interesting. It was the last city we hit on the tour (right after Manchester (which was swarming with crazy football fans because of the match the day we left)). Basically, it is a city dedicated to the life and works of the Beatles. It was very cool to see some of the streets and places the “Fab Four” frequented back in their days as Liverpudlians. And yes, a person from Liverpool is considered a Liverpudlian. This is because a nickname for a pool of water is a puddle and OBVIOUSLY that is what you would change Liverpool to. Haha Puddlians. I wanted to buy a shirt that said that on it….but I could not find one. Sigh. I digress. Yes, the Beatles were a large topic of interest. Many of the different names in their songs can be traced back to street names in Liverpool (Strawberry Fields, Penny Lane, etc… (Abbey Road is in London)).

(HAHAHA A little kid in the seat across from me totally just peeked his head up over the back of the seat and growled at Melissa. It was funny.)

Anyway, Liverpool was entertaining. Unfortunately a slight damper was placed on the end of the trip due to other circumstances relating to drama-filled situations back at SCU. It never fails to amaze me how efficient drama is at following people around. I am on the other side of the globe and I still have to deal with this stuff. Wonderful.

We returned to London Friday afternoon. Completely exhausted, we had to unpack our bags, rush to do laundry, repack, and leave for Paris the next morning. And by morning I mean middle of the night. We left at 4am on Saturday. SO TIRED. But it was worth it. Paris was amazing. We went to the Louvre, the Eiffel Tour, The Arc de Triomph, Notre Dame Cathedral and many many other places. We met up with out two French friends Diane and Souad who took us out to dinner where we had the most amazing Crepes. Mmmm it was good. It would almost be worth going back to France simply to eat the food. After dinner, Diane took as on a walking tour of the city by night. It was beautiful. We saw almost everything there is to see and it was all lit up. It was awesome. We even saw the Eiffel Tower sparkle! (which it does every hour for five minutes—it was very cool). By the time we got back to the hotel/hostel we were so tired we all passed out within minutes. Sunday, we basically re-did everything we had done Saturday night, just during the day. We went to church at Notre Dame Cathedral. The church is amazing—inside and out. We lucked out with the weather as well—it was absolutely lovely out! I even got sunburned! Shocking, I know. Sunday night we found a little French restaurant that had been recommended to us by a friend. I would definitely suggest eating the duck at Chez Papa at one point in your life. The sauce was amaaazing. And for dessert, we had authentic French Crème Brule. HEAVEN.

We had to leave Monday morning at another ungodly hour in the morning—getting up at four to make our 6 o’clock train back to London, only to go to class right afterwards. We were sooo tired when we got back, I literally thought I was going to fall asleep walking. But I survived, and amazingly I am not sick. I am extremely impressed with my flu-fighting skills.

Basically Monday and Tuesday were spent napping, packing and studying for our final. Tuesday, we did take a break from the chaos to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. Us SCU chicas and chicos brought the kitchen table into our hallway so we could do a few Irish Car Bombs—a classic St. Patty’s Day treat! It was lots of fun. We were really able to bond with each other over the study tour and I am pretty sure that we will all be hanging out a lot when we get back to Santa Clara. The SCU London crew turned out to be a really awesome group of people. I am so happy that we experienced London (and various other locations) together! We dubbed ourselves MGM DCJ2 (Melissa, Gabby, Mary, Dani, Cameron, and J squared (Josh and Jenna))!! It is an awesome name.

So that brings me to right now. Which is me, typing whilst riding on the train. I am going to have to take a short break from my blogging here to turn my computer off and fly to Ireland. This will be continued later tonight.


It’s later tonight! I am in Ireland and about to go to sleep. The airport was annoying as usual. I don’t think it matters how early we get there to check in, we will ALWAYS have to end up speed walking/jogging to make it to the gate on time. People say that if there is one thing the British know how to do, it is to queue (line) up properly. This is not true. Getting into a line in England is utter chaos and pandemonium. We were there over an hour early, waited in a massive and disorganized line for about forty minutes, only to be told when we got to the front of the line that we had been in fact waiting in the wrong place. Joy. Because we would have missed our flight if we had gone to a different line, the woman (who was very cranky I might add) let us call the other location from where we were to give our credit and check-in information over the phone. It worked out fine, but was extremely stressful. This is the third time we’ve almost missed a flight or train. It happened on our way to Sweden, on the train back from Paris, and now. I HATE AIRPORTS. And somehow, I don’t understand why, I seem to set the alarm off EVERY time I go through security. I haven’t yet discovered what it is that makes it go beep…but it is quite aggravating. There are only so many times you want to let someone pat you down and search you while you are about to miss your flight!

Aside from the running to the plane in order to get on it in time for taking off (which is generally an important thing when flying) things went smoothly. The flight was uneventful…I bought a water bottle….and listened to music. That about sums up the flight. Grainne met Melissa and I at the airport when we landed, which was very nice. I am sooo over taking trains and busses when carrying bags. And yes, we have multiple bags each for this next week. It was our bright idea to bring as much stuff as allowed on the plane, so we would not be charged more than necessary for storing our bags. This means that both Melissa and I have large suitcases and a duffle bag…and we are only going to be here for six days. It looks like we are moving in!!

I am not too sure what the plan is going to be for the next week. We are staying at Grainne’s house in Bunratty. We might go to Dublin for the weekend…and at some point visit Melissa’s relatives (but I can’t recall at the moment where they are from). No matter what we do, I am sure it will be lots of fun!

ONLY ONE WEEK UNTIL I COME HOME!!!!!!