It seems I have fallen off the study abroad blog bandwagon even faster than I jumped on! Here is what has been going on in my life lately:

Disclaimer: I had never really wanted to go to Paris. I think it was partly an act of revenge towards some of my less than delightful french teachers throughout high school and college. Anyways, I figured it was somewhat of a right of passage for study abroad students, so I booked the flight.

I get it now.

Note: this was two weekends ago. It took me so long to post because I was debating on whether or not doing one post entirely on the food I ate would be too much. I decided against it. 

We took a 6:20 AM (:-O) flight and got into the city around eleven. I managed to ask for a day pass to the Metro in French (“une billet pour deux jours”) but I don’t think I passed the test because the lady then told me "sign here". We made it to our hotel and went to Versailles, which was BEAUTIFUL. I would like to live there. At the same time however it's kind of disgusting how much money was spent on it given the time. But that's just the history nerd in me! After Versailles we went to the Louvre because it’s free on Fridays from 6-9! After seeing the Mona Lisa we went and found a French restaurant and ate snails and drank wine and then walked to the Eiffel Tower to see it all lit up! By the time we got back to our hotel I just kind of fell into the sheets so I could dream about all the cheese I had just consumed... 

I felt the need to purchase a red beret because I was under the impression that all of the French wear berets. Fact: they do not.

Just chillin' in my new backyard!

Me & Mona

On Saturday we woke up early and headed to the Eifel Tower. One crepe and a long elevator ride later we made it to the top. If you were wondering – it’s worth it. The view was incredible. Saturday was such a tourist day. We saw the Arc de Triumph, Sacre Coeur, Bastille, and most importantly LADUREE! 

Is there any better way to start the morning?

TRUE LOVE!

A necessary pit stop 

 Sacre Coeur!

On Sunday we saw Notre Dame and Montparnasse, and more importantly....ate more bread.

Just blending in!

Basically words can't sum up how wonderful a weekend it was. So I will leave you with this:

"That Paris exists and anyone could choose to live anywhere in the world will always be a mystery to me."

There are just not enough hours in the day! Between spending too much money at my favorite Thai restaurant, reading fairy tales for my Gothic Fiction class and taking pictures of the swans that live in the canal next to my apartment, it's hard to find time for me to blog!

The past two weeks have been extremely busy. Here, midterms consist mostly of papers and projects rather than exams, all of which seemed to magically pile up onto each other once we'd returned from Spring break. Here are other exciting things that happened:

Field trip to Causey Farm in County Meath: aka a day of playing with puppies, baking Irish bread, milking cows, walking in bogs, learning how to play hurling, and lots of farm animals.

Food Network should be calling me any day now...

Me and a new pal!

Silent Disco: exactly what it sounds like. A large group of people in headphones dancing around to music only they can hear. Not sure how else to describe it other than the fact that it must have looked extremely funny to everyone watching...

Hiking through Glendalough in County Wicklow: this was absolutely beautiful. Lots of nature and fresh air despite the fact the foggy weather - when we got to the top of the mountain we could see....absolutely nothing! Also a great form of exercise, even though the calories I burned off were probably put right back on after our program leaders bought us a pint after...

 

The view from the top of Glendalough can be seen best on an overcast day......

This past week was filled with even more anticipation as this past weekend was ST. PATRICK'S DAY! On Monday we went out to celebrate a friend's 21st birthday, despite the fact that here she is legal to drink! I always wonder how we look to the locals - a group of Americans screaming and shouting at midnight to celebrate the fact that one of our own is turning 21 in a country where the legal drinking age is 18.

On Wednesday we took a class field trip to see a series of plays called "Tiny Plays". The plays are written by the people of Ireland, lasting anywhere from 1-5 minutes, and performed by a cast of 5. Some were happy and some were sad, overall it was a really great night. I would tell everyone to go and check them out but I'm not sure how many of you will be in Dublin in the next couple of weeks...

St. Patrick's weekend in Dublin is even better than it's cracked up to be. On Saturday there was a carnival all day in Merrion Square. I ate what may be the greatest crepe I have ever tasted and also managed to come home with a myriad of Irish items (including, but not limited to, a foam finger!) On Sunday we woke at dawn to begin the day - felt just like home! From the parade to finding puppies on Grafton Street to finally coming home that night and feeling thankful that St. Patrick's only comes around once a year, it was a day i'll never forget.

My roommate Migella and I before heading out on Friday!

Pretty Dublin from the top of the ferris wheel! 

Showing off my new prize...

Walking through town looking like this was completely acceptable and actually encouraged...

Arguably the best part of the weekend - finding puppies on Grafton Street! 

NEXT UP: PARIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

For the record, this was probably the coolest spring break ever.

On the Wednesday morning after our flight home from Berlin, we went north to Belfast. Half of the classes I am taking here deal with the history of peace and conflict in Northern Ireland, and our program organizes a trip so we can kind of give a face to everything we've been learning about. Belfast is an interesting city, but also kind of sad because you can see how it was once extremely profitable and now not so much. We spent three days there talking to people involved in the conflict and touring the different Catholic and Protestant areas. We also visited the Titanic museum and then hiked a good couple of miles just to find Van Morrison's birthplace! (Sadly Van was not there as I had been hoping....)  

On Friday afternoon after touring the Parliament building, we took a bus further North to a little town called Portrush. Here we spent the weekend doing more touristy things!  Portrush is very small but probably one of the prettiest places I've ever been.  

Murals in Belfast

We witnessed a protest at the Parliament building! In actuality this wasn't that exciting.

Considered knocking....decided not to. 

Pretty Portrush!

Giant's Causeway!

Bushmill's Whiskey Distillery tour was great because it's still a working distillery, unlike the Jameson factory in Dublin. Also the bartender gave us extra drinks because he liked my roommate's panda iPhone case...

Looking down from the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge!

Me and my new friends...

Dunluce Castle

Me and my wonderful roommate Clara! 

Ironically, the best feeling ever was being back in Dublin because it's home now, and I can't believe I have less than 2 months left here! Which reminds me - I found a store that sells ranch dressing. Now if only Redcoat Tavern could start an international chain then I really would have no reason to come back to the US! 

The past four days were so fantastic that I am not even angry about returning to Dublin poorer and fatter!

On Friday night we flew to Amsterdam. It's the cutest city but I'm not sure if I could actually live there: every street looks exactly the same and 98% of the time I had no clue where we were. On Saturday we visited the house where Anne Frank hid, which is now a museum. It was definitely sad but extremely well done and something everyone should see. On a less melancholy note, we then walked through some markets and visited the Heineken Factory - obviously not as cool as Guinness but a close second! On Sunday we did a wine/cheese tasting which was nothing short of wonderful; I even tried taking some of the cheese with me but had to throw it out once we went through airport security. Despite the fact that this was technically our spring break, it was freezing cold. But maybe we were just biased because the blankets provided at our sub par hostel were about as thick as a kleenex.

We left Amsterdam on Sunday night after being warned by a woman at the cheese tasting that Berlin was kind of a dull city. So, the only things we were really expecting included cold weather and lots of sauerkraut. We were pleasantly surprised! Berlin reminded me so much of Detroit, and being there in general was so surreal because of all the history it holds. On Monday we did a walking tour of the city and then hunted down authentic German food. Maybe it was because our hostel gave us real blankets or that the beer was cheap (!), but Berlin might just be my favorite place i've visited so far.

Amsterdam Canals!

Cardiac arrest served in a nice little paper dish.

Planning on forwarding this baby to Heineken's advertising department.

 Arguably the greatest hour and a half of my life

Atlaaaaasssttt, my looooove has come along.....

Getting my tourist on during the walking tour.

Ironically enough the Berlin wall is enclosed by a wall. 

In other news, I am truly immersing myself in European culture: got the 6 piece McNugget meal today at the airport! Tomorrow morning a group of 8 of us leave for Belfast to tour the government buildings and talk to former participants in the Northern Ireland Conflict. This will be such a great experience but I'm really only going so I can try to hunt down any/all of Van Morrison's immediate family members. 

Auf Wiedersehen!

I am happy to say that this past week ran quite smoothly. My biggest dilemma was on Tuesday, when I was forced to purchase a pathetic jelly donut for .65 euro in an attempt to channel my polish roots and celebrate Paczki day. Polish people here eat pancakes to celebrate Fat Tuesday but a Paczki free Paczki day just wasn't worth 500 less calories.

On Friday we had a field trip for my Gothic Ireland class to a church with crypts buried beneath it. We weren't allowed to take pictures but if we were I would have tangible proof that I touched the hand of an 800 year old mummy! We were also lucky to have decent weather which made the entire experience a bit less eerie.

On Saturday we walked to Phoenix park, which is kind of the Central Park of Dublin. We rented bikes and rode around and then walked to the oldest pub in Ireland. Later we all piled into our Mexican friend's apartment where she made everyone authentic margaritas that were FANTASTIC. We are trying to think of an American themed way to repay her but so far all we have is beer pong which seems pathetic in comparison.

My valentine to....myself

Another monumental part of the weekend - cleaning our apartment! 

THE CRYPT!!!!!

Phoenix Park

 Funny story: a friend of mine asked for a Shirley Temple and all the bartender could say was "who?"

Friends making Jimmy Buffett proud!

Sunday brunch - so good I nearly shed a tear!

Finally, I have composed a short list of things from home that I miss - feel free to figure out a way to get any/all of these things to me ASAP: Redcoat Tavern, ranch dressing, a drying machine, my shoe collection, real coffee and Michigan weather (NOT!)

This weekend we went to Cork, which is 2.5 hours south of Dublin on the train. We arrived on Friday morning and fulfilled our duty as tourists by going to Blarney Castle to kiss the Blarney stone. There are pictures below but basically you lay on your back next to an old man who holds onto you as you grab two poles and lean backwards over the side of the castle to kiss a stone that my mother later referred to as "cold sore city". This apparently gives you the "gift of gab" but frankly I haven't noticed anything different or particularly eloquent in my speaking habits so my ten euro ticket was really for nothing.

The next day we went to some of the local markets and I probably would have spent half of my life savings on all the food we saw but our hostel didn't have a refrigerator (there was water pressure this time though so I can't complain). I found a necklace for 5 euro and was quite impressed with myself for being a bargain hunter until my roommate bartered and ended up only paying 3. Regardless i'll still feel cool if people ask where my necklace is from and I can say "a flea market in Ireland"!

By Sunday morning we were ready to come home and also lucky enough to be in the same area on the train as a troop of screaming boy scouts! This was made a little better by the fact that the food cart sold Pringles and we also passed about a hundred huge green fields filled with baby sheep!

Blarney Castle!

 The grounds of Blarney Castle.

I didn't catch his name but he did make sure I didn't plummet to my death off the top of Blarney Castle. ALSO the Blarney stone is the small chunk of rock near the ends of the black poles.

Scenic Cork! 

Last but not least - finding true love at English Market

Otherwise I had a wave of homesickness earlier this week when U of M played OSU at Crisler Arena and it seemed like everyone and their brother was at the game BUT ME! Regardless, from across the pond, go blue!