Thanksgiving!

On Tuesday November 24th I only had my 3 hour archeology class.  In it we watched the movie "The wind that shakes the barley."  It was a really good film.  It was about the uprisings occuring in Ireland just before the political state of Northern Ireland was created.  It focuses on two brother who join and participate in the IRA and their struggles.  Then when the Anglo-Irish Treaty is signed, and Northern Ireland is created, the two brothers end up on opposite sides of a new political fight.  One of the brothers believes that it is all that can be asked for at the time and that it is time for peace, while the other believes that the whole island should be liberated and will keeping fighting for it.  The film does a great job depicting how, after this separation of Northern Ireland, and pinned brothers against brothers and friends against friends.  We had learned about this in history class, but it never really clicked as to why they were on opposite sides until watching this movie.  I highly recommend watching it.  Another great movie that we watched was in Theology class on Monday.  It was called Evelyn and starred Pierce Brosnan as a father who loses his three children to the government when his wife runs off.  Basically, the main plot line is changing the family law so that he can reclaim his kids without his wife's signature.

After class on Tuesday I took the bus into Galway for grocery and souvenir shopping.

Wednesday we had our family meeting as usual and I did homework all day.  Again, JP opened the pub for us that night.  That night was fun because there was a lot of family and friends that were visiting for Thanksgiving.  A total of 4 family members and 2 friends.  So we all had a great time mingling and meeting them.

Thursday=Thanksgiving!!!  This was a very long day.  First of all, we had class that morning...sucky.  It was only an hour and a half and we actually had a decent discussion, so I guess it wasn't too painful.  The only thing that sucked was that we didn't have our big meal for lunch like we usually do at home...so we were just waiting all day...it was a little torture.  Anyway, after class we decided that we had to have the traditional game of football.  So we walked all the way down to the pitch to play...much to our surprise we couldn't play on it.  They were actually filming a movie there...go figure.  So we walked all the way back to the PLH and ended up just playing in the parking lot.  We had to be careful because the parking is gravel and there were puddles in some places.  Only one person almost wiped out--so I'd call it a success.  I was very proud to be the first girl picked :)  

After the game we all showered and got prettied up for dinner.  At 5 we had to present our documentaries that we made for our senior seminar class.  It was fun to walk around and see what everyone else had made.  I just made a boring powerpoint that actually had quotes from my blog in it to describe my journey.  There were some really cool, creative projects however.  Nicole V made a cartoon of everyone on the trip and wrote a little kid's book about her adventures here and how she has grown on it.  Khris had a video of the landscape while driving that was accompanied by music---it was really cool because it actually gave the look/feel of Ireland.  One kid even used all the pint glasses that he stole to map out his travels.  After our presentations we had a hot port reception.  It's basically just hot wine--I didn't think it was too special.  Again, we all just got to mingle so it was nice.  Our visitors included Matt's parents, Ross's mom and brother, 2 of Jimmy's friends, a friend of Mallory and Katie, and 4 people from Jenna's family.  We also had 2 other profs (Gerard=lit and Mary=theo), our bus driver, a past student, Rory, and of course the Foyles.  

During the hot port reception we took a ton of pictures since we were all looking nice.  We even got a picture of our whole group, so that was nice.  After all of this, Geraldine's daughters and two of their friends put on a little concert for us.  First they played recorders, then two of them played the accordion, and then one of them played the violin.  They were all so cute and so talented!!  We were amazed at their abilities--feeling like we should know how to do more things.  After their music they even did a traditional Irish dance for us!  Overall it was just adorable.  Then Katarina--Jane Marie's daughter--came out and we gave her her present.  It was her birthday that night.  

Finally we all sat down for dinner and prepared ourselves for the meal.  It was delicious!!  First course was salad and a roll, then was the main dish, followed by dessert.  The main dish had turkey, ham, broccoli, a parsnip thing, and 3 different types of potatoes.  So good!  Then for dessert there was pumpkin pie with ice cream and baked alaska.  I had the baked alaska.  So like I said, the meal was amazing--they did a great job at making it a traditional meal...but then again they've had 25 years to practice!  We found out that we are the 25th group to come and study here.  That means that Jane Marie, Geraldine, and John Paul were all still kids when the program started coming here.  Makes you think..  

After dinner everyone rushed to the computer lab/classroom to Skype with all their loved ones back at home.  Dinner went a little long, so I was late for my Skype date...sorry guys.  Anyway, I got to chat with and see my dad's side of the family--so that was great!  I even got to talk to my grandma.  The kids were very excited about the whole thing--eager to show me a lot of stuff with the camera.  Let's just say I got a little nauseous with them moving the camera so much.  But it was great to see everyone, so that made missing Thanksgiving at home a lot better.  After Skyping, JP opened the fancy pub for us.  Julie, our director, even hung out with us there the whole rest of the night.  So, again, it was nice to mingle with everyone and their families/friends.  JP even kept the ballroom open for us and one of the guys on my trip taught me how to swing dance.  So overall great night!

Hamburg

So I got to the bus station in Galway at 1am Friday morning.  My scheduled bus wasn't until 2:15 but the people working there let me get on the 1:30 bus instead.  So..I got to the airport at 4:30am...  My flight wasn't scheduled to leave until 10:30.  So I had 6 hours to kill, no big deal.  I found a place to sit and I read one of the books for my seminar class.  How I was able to stay awake I have no idea.  Anyway, that got me through the first 3.5 hours.  Then I went to check in, go through security, and find my gate.  As I was walking through the airport, there was definitely plenty of people having pints at 8am...only in Ireland.  

I got into Lubeck airport on time and easily found my friend Tim who I was visiting.  I knew Tim from high school, and we've kept in contact over the years, he sometimes visits America during the summer.  The first thing we did was walk around the actual town of Lubeck.  I got to see what was left of the wall that surrounded the city (the city is also surrounded by rivers, so it's like completely closed in).  The front gates of the wall are still standing.  I got to see some pretty cool buildings that had survived WWII.  I also got to try marzipan...which is delicious!  It's very rich and reminds me of cookie dough.  We also sat in a coffee shop and just got to chat and catch up.  Then we drove back to his house just outside of the city of Hamburg.  His house was really pretty and his parents were super nice!  Granted his dad didn't speak any english, and his mom only knew some.  I took about an hour nap and then we had dinner.  For dinner it was him, his parents, three of his friends, and me.  We had meat fondue which was amazing!  I highly recommend it.  So it was a nice dinner full of conversation...that was about 90% in German...  His friends knew a good amount of English, but of course they were more comfortable speaking German.  It was actually really interesting to sit there and observe them speaking German.  After dinner we hung out with his friends for a while and then went to bed at like 2am.

The next morning I got up around 10am and we had breakfast with his parents.  I've got to say that Germans definitely eat slower than Americans...  It's basically slow paced eating, a lot of chatting, and not eating a ton.  I guess we do it a little bit different.  We sit down, eat a lot, chat a bit, and then we're done.  They make eating a social activity instead of a physical one.  Anyway, I digress.  Tim took me to downtown Hamburg and we spent the whole day walking around and exploring the town.  The first thing that we did was walk along the lake that is in front of the city.  It was gorgeous, and got to see a couple of sites.  There were a ton of people practicing crew and we went by the US embassy.  Then we went to the actual downtown and strolled along the streets.  The mall was decked out for Christmas already and there was a Christmas market being set up in front of the town hall.   We took a tour of the town hall, a bonus that it was in English!  I got to learn about the German government system, and Tim even told me a few things that the tour guide had left out.  Like the fact that the senators think they are just amazing and are better than other rulers.  When greeting people to the town hall they will be at the top of the stairs, even when the British Queen came and visited.  Also, the building survived WWII.  Britain tried to bomb it but the bomb that landed never detonated.  Due to other violence, however, the windows had been shattered and part of the tower destroyed.  Also, there is a statue there that had been melted by the heat--and they just kept it.   Also, a lot of the wallpaper was actually leather--weird.  None of the fireplaces have been used and are just for show.  

After town hall we continued on our journey through the city.  The next thing we came upon was the Saint Nikolai Memorial.  It is for the victims of war and persecution 1933-1945.  The church had been destroyed in 1943 during the firestorm "Operation Gomorrha."  The memorial was built in 1987.  There was also a sculpture depicting the tragedy of the concentration camps, the base of which uses actual bricks from the Neuengamme concentration camp in Hamburg.  

The next stop on our journey was the harbor area.  The Hamburg is in the top ten of the largest harbors in Europe.  The entire history of the city is pretty much based around the harbor.  So we just walked around the entire area and some other neighborhoods by it.  (We obviously didn't go to the actual machinery part of the harbor)  We even walked by a huge fair going on in the middle of the city.  Then we went to the St. Michaelis Church.  It is the largest, most famous church in Hamburg.  The inside was gorgeous and the view from the top of the tower was amazing.  It was a little foggy when we were up there, but it was still beautiful.  There was a great view of the city, that was actually even bigger than I thought.  

After the church we found a coffee shop and just rested for a bit.  Then we went and toured some restored historic houses of the city to see what an average house was like back in the day.  Then we headed back to Tim's house for dinner.  That night we had a traditional German meal cooked by his mom...and it was delicious!  It was basically beef and pork with brown sauce (like gravy), some weird vegetables, and these really good potato ball things.  I forgot what they are called, some really German name, but I guess it's half cooked potatoes and half raw potatoes mashed together or something like that.  Anyway, it was delicious.  Then later we had a homemade Black Forest cake.  Also delicious!  It had like three layers of chocolate cake, a layer of cherries, and some whipped cream.  I couldn't believe it was homemade it was so pretty.  Then after dinner Tim took me out for a night on the town in Hamburg and it was a lot of fun.

The next morning we got up at 8:30, had breakfast, said goodbye to his mom, and then went to the immigration museum.  It was a pretty cool museum, but I was a little disappointed.  It was mostly in German, however, so I have to take that into consideration.  Even still, it was cool to see.  After the museum Tim dropped me off at the airport for my flight home.  I made it back to the PLH around 9pm that night, took a shower, and crashed.  It was a long weekend and I was pretty sleep deprived...probably still am.  I'm really glad that I went to Germany, and I hope to return there in the future--to visit Berlin and explore the south, where my ancestors came from.  Going through customs when leaving Germany, the security officer noticed my German name and asked about my relatives and if I knew German.  

Today (Monday the 23rd) I had 6 hours of class and after uploading pictures, updating this blog, and other random tasks I am about ready for bed!  Like I said, I'm still a little sleep deprived--so I'll probably go to bed early.  Today is my dad's birthday and I sent him a mass amount of emails.  So, here it is again dad, Happy Birthday!! :)

Oh!  Tonight I also found out who my prom date is.  Our study abroad group is having an Irish prom on December 2nd at JP's pub.  (I guess we were just bored of the normal pub night)  So the guys on our trip drew the girls' names out of a hat to see who their date was.  Most of the guys have two dates, and I think only one has one date.  Then the guys have to come up with cute ways to ask their dates to prom.  My date asked me to prom through a love letter.  It was absolutely adorable, so how could say no to that?

Another Catch Up

Saturday November 14th:  I did homework and hung out during the day.  That night we had a group activity doing the most American thing we could think of in Ireland....bowling.  Ok, so we didn't sit down and brainstorm the most American thing, it just happened that way.  BUT--bowling was awesome!!  We had like 5 or 6 lanes to ourselves and it was...cosmic bowling :)  WE had a great time just hanging out with everyone and getting pitchers of beer.  Even our directors were drinking with us.  It was an overall great time and I'm glad that we went. 

Sunday morning I went into Galway to get groceries and also sat and talked at a coffee shop with a roommate.  Then when we got back, we all did a ton of homework.

Monday was again 6 hours of classes.  That night, however, there was a meteor shower and about 18 of us went down to the ocean at 1am to see it.  The shower was awesome, as well as being with everyone hanging out on the ocean.  The boys tried to start a bonfire for us--but Ireland proved to be too windy.  But it was an overall great night.

Tuesday:  4.5 hours of class.  Then homework and hanging out.

Wednesday we had family meeting as usual, and then that night we had a dessert potluck.  After dinner every cottage brought a yummy dessert to the classroom and we all shared.  It was, of course, delicious and it was nice having lots of yummy treats.  After dessert, and during I guess, we watched the Ireland vs. France soccer game.  They were playing in order to get to the World Cup.  Unfortunately, and with some questionability, Ireland did not make it to the World Cup.  After the game we all hung out in the hotel pub with JP, his fiance, and our directors.  It was good craic as usual.

Thursday morning my cottage mates left to go to Paris for the weekend.  I traveled to Germany this weekend and didn't leave until very early Friday morning.  So, Thursday I slept, packed, and got things organized.  That evening cottage 6 had some people over for some after dinner conversation--that was nice.  Then after that I took the program bus into Galway for the evening.  There was about 8 of us from the program and one guy that had done the program 3 years ago.  He actually moved out to Ireland recently and is trying to live out here.  He knows a guy on our trip, so he came out and hung out with us.  The night was fun, we mainly just sat at a pub and conversed, pretty chill.  The 7 other people called and took a cab back to the hotel around midnight.  I stayed in town because I had a bus to catch to Dublin airport at 2am...  John stayed with me, because he lives in Galway, and we sat and chatted at Supermac's for a while.  At 1am I headed to catch my bus...

Catching up...

It's been a while..oops.  Anyway, here's a brief description of everything I've been up to from after Northern Ireland, up until now.  

Monday the 2nd I had 6 hours of classes, did some homework, and then watched a movie with some people of the group.

Tuesday I had 4.5 hours of class and then went into Galway for some groceries and hanging out time.

Wednesday I had the weekly family meeting with everyone and then worked on some homework.  That night all 30 of us got together and had a combined potluck in the classroom.  It was amazing!  Everyone did a great job making their meals and it was great having a really good meal again.  Every cottage made a main dish as well as a dessert.  Cottage 1 brought pasta salad and carrot cake.  Cottage 2 brought homemade soup and jello.  Cottage 3 made mini pizzas and peach cobbler.  Cottage 4 made a rice, chicken, and veggie casserole and homemade reese peanut butter cups (amazing!!).  Cottage 5 made fried rice and crepes.  Cottage 6 made soda bread, mac and cheese, and fudge.  Jackie's mom was also visiting that night and participated in the potluck--she brought some chicken.  Basically, when we were done we were full to the max!  Then that night JP opened the pub again for us (becoming a weekly occurance).  It was awesome, Jackie's mom came with us, and she had a ton of fun--didn't mind hanging out with college students.  She even stayed to witness Piano Man.

Thursday was pretty uneventful, I don't even remember what I did, probably went to seminar.

Friday night was really fun!  Our whole group went to the Galway United Soccer Game.  They played Cork and ended up tying--a little unsatisfying.  The fans for Cork were going crazy, they cheered the entire time and at the beginning of the game they had these sweet ground fireworks going on right by the field.  You know, the kind of thing that would get you arrested for or something in the US.  But yeah, it was crazy fun.  

Saturday I chained myself to homework and wrote a paper--so pretty uneventful.  Except, that night I went to the ocean to do some stargazing and I saw a moonbow!  (rainbow at night)  Only in Ireland...

Sunday morning I went into Galway with the group to get groceries and hang out in a coffee shop.  That day the Spiddal Gaelic football team had played in a championship and so they were partying in Spiddal that night.  So a bunch of us went down to Spiddal to hang out and have some good craic.  We hung out with some people that had made friends with my roommates.

Monday the 9th I had 6 hours of class.  That night was a pretty lazy night, homework and stuff like that.  Later in the night some of us took a break and started playing cards.  Then we found out that there was some sort of book club going on in the hotel and that the pub was open.  JP said that we could go to the pub and hang out since there was a live band there and no one else really.  So we went and the 5 of us played cards in there, listening to the live band.  Molly even did one of her Irish dances which was awesome.  Then some of the people from the book club came in and hung out.  We overheard some conversations in Gaelic, and then a guy stood up and started to sing a song in Gaelic for everyone.  It was really good and amazing to hear.  Then another guy stood up and sang a Gaelic song too.  We felt really lucky to witness and be a part of this true culture.  It definitely wasn't a touristy thing.  Just to see how alive their culture is in this part of Ireland was really inspiring.

Tuesday I had 4.5 hours of class.  Halfway through archeology our prof told us we would be taking a walk into Spiddal to point out some cool stuff.  So we walked into town and had a nice chat, just being able to talk about random Irish things--it was really nice.  When we got into Spiddal we first stopped at the Tesco to get some ice cream. :)  Then it started raining on us..sad..but hey that's Ireland.  And if I have to be stuck in the rain, at least I had ice cream.  Anyway, when the rain lightened up we went to the church in Spiddal and talked about that for a bit and then headed back to the PLH.  The walk went fast and I chatted with Shannon the whole time--good bonding.

Wednesday the 11th I had family meeting and then for dinner we had a chili feed.  (I did not participate, but I went and hung out with everyone)  Each cottage made some chili and brought it and everyone sampled a few of them. We also had a bunch of parents attending this potluck.  Pat's parents were here as well as Thomas's parents and Mollie's cousin was here.  So, to say the least it was a party, and everyone got very full once again.  Afterwords we hung out in the pub with JP--had a PJ themed night and took a group pic.

Thursday we had senior seminar class with Julie and then the rest of the day was free.  Half of our group went to Cork for the night so that they could visit Blarney castle and kiss the Blarney stone.  I used Thursday, Friday, and Saturday to work on homework and such.  Thursday night the people who were still here went into Galway for the evening.  It was good craic and we met up with some friends that we had previously met.

Friday was uneventful besides doing homework all day.

 

To be continued...

Northern Ireland

On October 29th (Thursday) we departed the PLH at 8am to start our journey to Northern Ireland.  It was a 4 hour bus ride to Derry, the destination for our first night.  We got there late...as usual.  Our first activity was an amazing lunch at a local restaurant.  It was amazing to actually have a decent meal for once.  It even included dessert!  It pretty much made up for the 4 hour bus ride that we had just endured.  Once we were done with our meal we met up with Martin who was to give us a walking tour of the city of Derry (or Londonderry, whichever you prefer).  It began by walking the still intact walls around Derry.  We got a great explanation of the history of the wall and of Derry itself.  Until about 15 years ago, no one was able to walk on the walls, but it is now open to the public.  (A sign of their change and growth)  I'm not going to explain the whole history of Northern Ireland but basically England came into Ireland, took over, and after a war they decided to give it all back except for 6 of the Northern counties which now make up Northern Ireland and is still part of the U.K. today.  Derry was no exception from this influence, it was renamed Londonderry by England and they are still trying to legally change it back to Derry.  So anyway, we got a insight of the town and their troubles.  After we had completed walking along the wall we descended to the Bogside which was the Catholic side of the wall.  In this neighborhood was where Bloody Sunday occurred and 14 people were killed during a civil rights march.  Now there are several murals at home in this neighborhood to commemorate this event, including a memorial statue to the 14 dead.  

The next day we went to the museum in Derry about Bloody Sunday.  The guy who runs it is actually the brother of one of the people killed on Bloody Sunday.  He told us all about his brother and it was really hard to hear.  The museum was very interesting and a very good learning tool for Northern Ireland and their troubles.  After the museum we packed up and headed out on our next activity.  Our next stopped just so happened to be the Old Bushmill Distillery.  Planned excursion to a whiskey distillery?  Alright.  We had the best tour guide ever!  He actually made me wish that I liked drinking whiskey.  The tour was also better than the Guinness one hands down.  So note that.  After our tour we were able to have a free whiskey drink.  I chose the Hot Toddy...hoping that it would hide the whiskey a little bit.  It was better but I'm still no whiskey drinker.  After our tour our next stop was at Giants C

auseway.  It's basically just another beautiful landscape...what's new :P  The myth is that the giants of Ireland and Scotland wanted to fight so they built a road between the two and then one ran away, causing the path to break away.  It is made up of millions of hexagonal shaped stones.  The real version?  Volcanoes.  It's basically a big jungle gym and you better not fall off!  When we went it was raining...go figure..and so it was a little scary.  When we were thoroughly wet and cranky and departed to our hostel in Belfast.  

Saturday morning in Belfast we went on a bus tour of the city.  This was really interesting, and again we got to learn all about the history of the city and Northern Ireland.  Some of the stops of the tour was where the Titanic was built, Stormont Parliament, and a ton of murals.  The tour lasted about 3ish hours and then we had the rest of the day to ourselves.  The murals were absolutely the most interesting thing about Northern Ireland.  You could definitely tell what kind of neighborhood it was by the murals depicted.  Everything there is just so out in the open, I was actually expecting for them to be pretty closed lipped about it.  But I guess this is why they have made such great change.  Although they still have a ways to go.  There was a corner, I think called "Freedom Corner," where there were murals but they were world murals instead.  They depicted crises and issues throughout the world.  So that was also really cool to see and apparently those change every now and again.  So after our tour ended most of us went to St. George's Market near downtown.  There was a lot of good food and some other shopping.  We all had a good lunch there (including crepes!) and then roamed around downtown on our own.  The city hall was unique because right next to it was a ferris wheel.  Random?  But hey, it helped us navigate ourselves around town, so I guess there's a purpose.  One thing that we noticed about Belfast was that it looked incredibly like London.  The ferris wheel (the London Eye), statues of Queen Victoria everywhere, style of buildings, a huge clock tower (Big Ben).  So the presence of England was obvious in Belfast.  Derry didn't give that impression hardly at all.  It just seemed like a cute little city (excluding all of the history and murals, downtown was pretty picturesque).  A hassle that we ran into in Northern Ireland was having to change money to pounds...not fun.  But a lot of things were actually cheaper in Northern Ireland than the Republic of Ireland which was weird.  Oh, another thing that was mentioned on our tour was how a citizen of Northern Ireland could have either an Irish passport or a British passport or both.  Talk about an identity crisis!  

Halloween in Belfast was very interesting.  We all threw some costumes together at the last minute and walked around town.  Some of the costumes that we saw were pretty intense.  And everyone who was out had a costume on.  Apparently one of the biggest Halloween celebrations in the world is in Derry.  Too bad we missed out on that.  But Belfast was very fun and we met a lot of interesting characters.  I was even proposed to by a Irishman...  Sunday morning we departed Belfast and started our journey back to Galway.  After 4 hours of driving we reached Strokestown House and Famine Museum.  The house belonged to a landlord back in the day and we learned about the tenant/landlord relationship and what life was like for the landlord.  After the tour of the house we went through the Famine Museum.  It was cool because it contained documents between the tenant and landlord that showed their relationship at that time.  At this point of our excursion, however, I had about no attention span left and so did not learn a whole lot here.  I feel bad because it is a huge part of Irish history.  But what can you do?  Anyway, when we were done we drove another 2ish hours back to the PLH.

I had a great time in Northern Ireland and feel very privileged that I was able to visit and learn more about it.  We had several people tell us that they love when people come and visit and learn about them.  It means that they no longer consider Northern Ireland a dangerous place with bombs flying everywhere.  They feel that they are making great strides in change and are happy to see it.  I now have a new understanding of Northern Ireland.  Before coming to Ireland, really the only thing I heard about it was the Troubles.  Now I know that there is much more to it then crazy people just throwing bombs around.  I hope that everyone can learn more about it and take a good look and what's going on there.  

Paris

We arrived in Paris at 9am local time on the EuroStar train.  The ride went really fast...we definitely slept the entire trip.  When we arrived we had a big wake up call.  French did not help.  We needed to change money and figure out which train we needed to take to get to our hostel.  All of the French aside, we made it quite easily to our hostel.  After booking it online, they had sent us an email which included specific directions from the metro.  Seriously by the end of our trip we had mastered the metro system.  Anyway, we made it to the hostel, sent an email to our parents, and then began exploring the city.  We started out by walking to the Seine River.  We walked along the river to Notre Dame.  Notre Dame is gorgeous!  We took our time walking in it and then as we were in there they had mass.  So we sat down and stayed for the whole mass...even though we had no idea what they were saying.  So that was a really cool experience.  Another thing that we saw this day was the Bastille.  It was pretty cool, but nothing amazing.  After all of this we went back to the hostel, napped, made dinner, and just laid low.  The "kitchen" of this hostel was ridiculous...it was basically a dungeon.  

The next morning (Wednesday) we got up, enjoyed our free breakfast (which consisted of a roll, croissant, and juice), and started out on our very busy day.  We began the day by going to the Louvre...knowing that there would probably be a huge line to get in.  We spent a good couple of hours wandering around and being amazed at all of the art.  It definitely kicked the National Gallery of London's ass.  My favorite was the sculptures there.  We got to see the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo, the pyramid sculpture, the 3 graces, Aphrodite, etc.  After we had been thoroughly overwhelmed by art we walked down the Champs-Elysees.  At the end of it was the Arc de Triomphe.  The view from it was gorgeous.  Our next stop was the Eiffel Tower!  When we got there we went up to the second floor...so not the very top...but it was still amazing.  Took about a million pictures of it.  I couldn't find anyone to kiss under it--like my boss told me to.  Oh well, next time.  Then that night we decided to go out for dinner in Paris.  We went to a place right by our hostel and it was nice to just sit, relax, and have some good food.  It was also cool to be able to observe more of French culture there.  One thing we noticed...people making out everywhere!  Seriously at about every place we went you could find a couple making out.  I guess that's why they say Paris is so romantic.  

Thursday--Nicole and I slept in while the other two girls went to Versailles.  They said that it was amazing to see--but sleep sounded really good to me that day.  So we slept until 11, got up and got some eclairs from the bakery nearby, and then took another nap until the girls got back.  What a life!  When the girls got back we went to some famous cemetery in Paris.  Our big goal of going there was to find the grave of Oscar Wilde.  The cemetery was huge and we had a little difficulty in navigation but eventually we found it.  There were a ton of kiss marks on it (showing their appreciation) and Catherine was brave enough to kiss it as well.  We made it out of the cemetery and then headed over to Sacre Coeur.  It was beautiful and in a very interesting part of town.  There were shops and people everywhere.  We would have stayed and looked around but the girls that went to Versailles were exhausted.  So we headed back to the hostel, got some yummy pastries, and took a nap.  That night we decided to go to the Eiffel Tower at dark.  On the hour there is a huge light show on the Tower that is absolutely amazing!  Anyone who goes to Paris needs to experience this!  I took plenty of pics and videos that I can show when I get back to the States.  Basically, it was the perfect way to end our trip to Paris.  I will never forget it.

The next morning we got up at 4:30, took the metro at 5:30, took a shuttle to the airport at 6:15, departed on our flight at 9:30, arrived in Dublin and took a bus to Galway at 11:30, and then took a cab to the PLH.  We got back to the cottages around 4:30pm.  That was 13 hours of traveling!! (Including the time difference)  The metro was interesting because at 5:30 people are just leaving the bars and wanting to take the metro home to crash.  We ran into a group of teenagers who were just wasted...very classy.  The Beauvais airport was ridiculous.  It's the tiniest airport ever and it took at least an hour to get through security.  Basically, if you want to make your flight you absolutely have to be there two hours prior just to check in and make it through security.  But yeah, that was my adventure to England and France.  Overall everything went extremely well.  We didn't have any bad fortune with transportation which was amazing!  We got to hear about all of those stories from other people on our Ireland trip.  So we feel very lucky--must have been that 4 leaf clover that I found. :)