Trying something new!

Hey guys!

It has been over a month since I last wrote on here so I decided to post video instead to make up for it! I didn't realize how much I look up in the air when I talk but you will have to forgive me. It's not easy talking directly to a computer :). I hope all is well and I hope you enjoy the video!

-Brittany

It's been way too long!

             Hello! Once again I apologize for not writing sooner. My days are getting shorter and shorter which is sad and making it difficult to find time to write! It has been a pretty dull these last couple weeks minus our trip to Limerick last weekend. That started off pretty eventful to say the least…

 I booked a hostel for five of us on Friday afternoon to Limerick for the weekend. There weren’t many options but it said it was 2 miles out of the city so I figured we were used to walking everywhere 2 miles would be nothing to us! A few more of our friends decided they wanted to come so my other friend booked another one at the same place (important information to know towards the end… stay tuned). We caught the 8:30 bus and arrived around 10:15ish. We decided we would explore the city before checking into our hostel. At first it seemed like it was a small town with not a whole lot to do until we reached the city and saw the castle and cathedral over the water. It was beautiful! We walked to Saint Mary’s Catherdial and walked the grounds inside and out. The outside was beautiful but the inside was breathtaking. I feel like in all churches and cathedrals there is a type of silence you acquire but this just had such a peaceful and authentic feeling to it; it made you feel warm inside. After that we made our way over to the Hunt Muesum. We got lucky and caught Mike (a volunteer tour guide) before he left to take us around. So worth the 3 euro!!  The Hunt Museum was a collection of a man named John Hunt antiques. It had collections of all sorts of random nick- knacks that dated back the Neolithic times! I saw a couple paintings from Picasso and Yeats. I am not an artsy person but when you see a painting from someone that creditable gives you an exciting feeling inside. We walked around for some more and then decided to make our way to our hostel to check in and drop our bags off. Well, what we thought was 2 miles out of the city quickly turned into about 5! Not terrible but we knew going out and exploring more of the city wasn’t an option because we were a good 45 min out of the city now. FINALLY we see our hostel! Perfect timing because it started to rain (this is where the important details come in from earlier). My friend checked and got the key to their rooms. I went to check in and they can’t seem to find my name anywhere… oh crap! Well, turns out there is a hostel on the other end of the city (a 35 min taxi drive) with the same name. Because we booked through a third party there was no way we could cancel. To this day we still have no idea how it happened!! Also, because we booked through a third party the hostel had no way of canceling our other location and moving over there unless we wanted to pay a cancel fee and rerent the hostel. We all slumped together and basically pulled the short straw on who would stay and who would go. We were also looking at a 30 euro taxi ride over to the other hostel. The lady felt SO bad for us she called every manager she could and they made a huge exception! We all ended up staying next to each other at the same hostel! She said she knows what it’s like to be a college student and she already thought we were crazy we walked all the way there! We wanted to buy her a pint we were so dang excited! We stayed in the hostel for the rest of the night considering it was miles away from town but we stayed up until 3 am talking, laughing and playing games. Best stranded time I have ever had! We woke up and checked out around 10am to walk into the city. We stopped into their market and had an Irish breakfast (by the way: black and white pudding… is good! I dare you to look that up!) and then made our way to the King John’s Castle. We spent a few hours there. The sun was shining and over the Shannon River and it was the most beautiful thing. We hit a few more places then caught the next bus home. Overall, an awesome trip!

I started volunteering on Monday at the soup kitchen and it was once again a wonderful experience. The lady who runs it has her masters in psychology and is the sweetest person ever. She has this little building that is cutely decorated. She makes the less unfortunate (I don’t want to say homeless because they are not all without homes… some simply just can’t afford meals) feel as if they are at more than just a soup kitchen. The volunteers serve them as if it were a restaurant. They get a big hearty cup of soup to begin then a meal (good solid meals. On Monday they served pork chops, fresh vegs, mashed potatoes and real gravy!)Then delicious dessert to end with. They all get coffee and tea to choose from as well as milk and OG. We made to go bags of two sandwiches and they get to choose from fruit and take home a loaf of bread. It is only open from 11:30-12:30 every day and is the only place in Cork that is open on the weekends.  It was very humbling and they are so grateful! I wasn’t able to go this Monday but I will be there next Monday for sure! I am hoping to get started with Monday and Friday’s since I have no class. The lady inspired me, I hope one day I could be that amazing and run something like that to help those in need without making them actually feel like they are getting slop and are part of a heard. They have an old man who volunteers there and I can’t understand him at all. Basically all I got out of him is his name is Paddy, he is picky and he eats more of the food then the people who come there who need it. I loved watching him look around then take one pie after another! Oh, I sure loved him… even if he was grouchy and hard to understand.

                The most exciting news I can think of currently is my spring break is officially planned. I will be leaving April 2^nd and won’t be returning until April 24^th. The destinations I will be going to are:  Prague, Czech Republic; Vienna, Austria; Munich, Germany; Zurich, Switzerland; Venice & Rome, Italy.  I will be in each place for about 3-4 days so if you have any wonderful suggestions of things to do please let me know! I am so excited. Three things scratched off my bucket list just in that list alone. I am pretty sure I have already scratched 6 off since I came to Ireland. I never taken advantage of the idea that I am so lucky to have been able to do all this by 21.

                This weekend I am heading out to County Waterford and to Kinsale. Waterford is known for their glass blowing and Kinsale has some amazing hiking places so I am really looking forward to that. Then on Sunday I will be heading out to a pub where they are throwing a superbowl party! WAHOO! Finally some American sports. I am really excited! I hope all is well with everyone and I sure miss talking with some of you. I would love to see who is reading my blog so leave a comment! I know I always say this but I sure hope to write sooner than later. But I guess that should mean I am having so much that I am too busy to sit down and write. : )

xoxox

Britt

Week 3

I am sorry it has been so long since I last blogged! I have been super busy off exploring and having fun! Well the last time I wrote was right before my birthday. So I am officially a 21 year old. I have such wonderful parents. We skyped 6 am my time and they made me a cake and had some wine in my honor. As a gift they redid my bedroom in zebra things! And if any of you know me well enough you would know I was ecstatic. I finally have the bed spread I have been wanting forever plus a super rad lamp! The rest of the morning consisted of running around town getting my registration in order. That has been the most difficult part of this trip but funny enough 3 weeks later I believe I am actually done now. But I have said that four times so I don’t want to jinx myself. Then at night my friends took me out to this amazing Italian restaurant. I have never in my life tasted such delicious Italian food.  Then we went to a pub that is normally a pretty upbeat place. But since it was a Monday it was pretty low key. We still made the night of it by playing games. I didn’t have to buy a single drink (or dinner) that night it was super nice. I am so blessed to have such amazing friends here! I wasn’t sure what my birthday would consist of since it was only going to be the second week here. But the bond us ladies have is one that will never be broken. So to say the least I had a pretty awesome birthday. I mean who wouldn’t in Ireland : ). I had class at 9 am the next morning so we didn’t stay out late.

                On Friday me and a couple of us girls who don’t have class on Friday decided to take the city bus all around Cork. We were too cheap to take a tour bus so we caught a double decker and was lucky enough to sit at the top in the very front so we could see everything! It was a blast! After about 2 hours the bus driver asked us if we were ever going to get off. We told him we were just trying to the see town and he laughed and didn’t make us pay extra. We finally made our entire trip and ended up back in city center. We were all so car sick by that time! I know I have mentioned being a pedestrian is scary but riding a huge bus on one lane roads could maybe top that fear. But we had SO much fun and very worth the euro and 70 cents.

                We had planned on going to Cobh last Saturday (Cobh is where the Titanic took off) but we found out that starting in February through April they will be having huge festivals because it’s the Titanic’s 100 year anniversary. How lucky are we! So instead we went to this really cool park next to our house. It’s called Fitzgerald Park and it’s right on the river. First thing we ran into was two swans! I know this seems funny but I have never seen swans in real life before. One of my friends wanted to pet it. But I just had vivid memories of the geese chasing us. So I told her let me get the head start because I have the shortest legs and I am not taking the consequence of her actions haha. They were not shy about coming towards us so we took that as it’s probably not a good idea. The park was so cute! It had random statues and gardens all over the place and it was aligned with these beautiful Victorian houses and you could see churches in the background. Easily one of the more romantic places around here! We came across a game of Hurling played by our very own UCC students. Talk about short shorts! Whew. They were so aggressive too! At the end of the park was a museum which looked fairly small but once you stepped in it was HUGE (and did I mention free… SCORE!). It was all about the history of Cork! We spent a good couple hours in that museum. As the Irish would say it was just lovely. That night we went to the Greyhound Dog Races (which by the way I every time I would say it I was say Ground hog races… imagine the guys face when I asked for directions).  We had SOO much fun there too. It was only 5 euro to get in and they had all sorts of cheap delicious food there.  You could bet on the dogs for 2 euros. I didn’t plan on betting until my friend convinced me to do one. So strictly out of peer pressure (riggghttt) I bet on Valentine Rebel.  And… She won! I was hooked.  Then we both told our other friend just do it once and then her dog won (we couldn’t convince the other two girls). But here are three American girls screaming and jumping as the dogs were racing. You could say we fit right in. We all evened out nobody left in the hole. On our way home we thought we missed our last bus so we sprinted until we realize there was one left. That was exercise I didn’t want to get.  Overall we had an awesome day.

                On Sunday we woke up early and about 5 of us went to a town called Midleton to visit the Jameson Whiskey Factory. By far one of the coolest tours I have ever done! I learned soo much about the history of Whiskey and specifically the history of the Jameson whiskey. It’s so smooth because they distill it three times (Scotland does 2 times and America does 1). They also don’t use coal when they distill their whiskey so it doesn’t have as much of a smokey taste. I would know because I was chosen to be a whiskey taste tester (ohhhh yea!!!).  I even received a certificate saying so. I was pretty proud. Oh and fun little fact: Whiskey is clear like vodka when first produced. They get their brown color by the wood that it sits in. So you can tell by the age of a whiskey by the color. A 25 year old whiskey will be almost a dark red. I didn’t know that! Also if you have ever had a taste or drink of Whiskey it has come directly from Cork. It is ONLY distilled in Cork. It can be bottled in Dublin or Northern Ireland but it is only made for the Cork factory. Pretty dang cool!

                Things have been wonderful here as you can see I am always seeking new adventures. I don’t have any homework which makes me feel uncomfortable at times because I am so used to having tons back home. But that’s the way it is here! My friend’s birthday was yesterday and she turned 21 so we bought a cake and I made chicken parmesan. We played a trivia game then headed out to the awesome traditional pub where they had a real live band playing folk music. Definitely a place I am taking my parents.  I am basically living off sandwiches and soup and on occasion we all make dinner for each other so we have some type of meal! Haha. Tomorrow the IFSA Butler University (the program I am going through) is taking us out to a really nice dinner and go karting as our welcome dinner. And starting next week I am going to start volunteering in the mornings before class at the soup kitchen. I fee like this community has given me so much that I want to give back and because I have so much time on my hands with not working that it’s good to keep busy.  We are planning our first trip out of the country and we are going to head to London for 4 days. Check this out round trip tickets to fly was 33 euros! Wahoo! We will stay in a hostel in the city so we have access to more things. But I will share more about that when we finally have it figured out. I better be going now left overs from last night are calling my name! : )

Take care and I will try not to make as long next time!

Britt

I have been here officially a week now!

Before I start telling you about my last couple days I would like to thank everybody who takes the time to read my blog. It feels good to know I have friends and family back home accompanying me on this journey.  And it also makes me more accountable of paying attention to the small details so I have more to write in my next blog.

                Thursday was my first time attending classes that I had signed up for and they both lectures were great. It is true that it is very different from home. You lecture from January to March then you have a month off (spring break) and in May you take your finals. So essentially I am only in school for 3 months! You do a lot of recommended reading (aka you better read it) and that is your homework. At the end of the course you typically write at 1500 word essay and take a test. So as long as I keep up on the reading I will be good to go. After lectures you attend seminars and not all of them are mandatory but it gives you the opportunity to sit down in a much smaller group of people and discuss in depth what you learned in the previous class. So if you took a seminar for each class that’s a total of 12 classes to attend. I asked a friend who I met at school how do the Irish students find time to work?! He said they normally don’t or they would work on the weekends as he does.  That’s the other odd thing all the students from different counties go back to their home towns for the weekends. So the best time to mingle with the college students are on Tuesday and Thursdays. So as it was Thursday we decided to get a group of girls and go out to a pub. We randomly selected one and it turned out to be one of the best ones students go to. We had a blast and danced ALL night long! My feet were aching the next day but it was so worth it.

Friday morning me and a couple girls were up way to early as usual and decided we just wanted to have a home cooked breakfast. So we walked up to the store (the one that’s only 5 min away! Haha) and bought some food. We had toast and one of the girls made potatoes (so delicious!!) and I cut up apples, bananas and pineapple. Which by the way the pineapple was only 1 euro! I was SOOO excited to see that. We then drank our orange juice and proceeded to watch trashy British talk shows (equivalent to Maurry. The title was “Cheated 4 times.. .Who’s the daddy?”) while eating our delicious breakfast. The rest of the day I just relaxed and around 3 walked into town and caught up with a couple of the girls. We shopped for a while and I bought a skirt for 5 euros. I went to bed that night around 8:30. I think no sleep is catching up to me!

Saturday (which was yesterday for me now) we got up early and went to the Blarney stone! I am not going to lie and at first I thought this is so touristy and I don’t want it to be something that will in the end make me feel like I wasted my money. IT WAS NOT AT ALL! We had a blast! You do a ton of walking but everywhere you walk you have something to look at so it doesn’t feel like it takes as long.  It cost about 10 euros to get inside the castle and walk the grounds. You easily spend all day on the grounds and in the town. Once we got to the castle we could go into these hidden doors. I walked half way through a couple but I was feeling a bit suffocated with no light and small areas so I walked out.  Then when you get inside the castle we have to climb up these SUPER narrow stairs. So narrow you have to hold a rope for support.  Thankfully every 10^th step it led you into a room where you could take a break and explore and read about the particular room you are in.  After about 6 or 7 pit stops later we made it to the top and it was beautiful! Once again I fell in love! The grass is neon green everywhere and the houses are so colorful it makes for a grand picture.  After going through the castle and walking the grounds we walked into town for a bite to eat and some shopping. It’s a very small town but we seemed to spend all day their just looking at everything. I have to admit I have never actually experienced not having time to be somewhere or no plan of what’s next. If we saw something we did it! We arrived back into town around 5ish and walked home. It was an exhausting day so we all went back to our dorms and called it a night!

I have been blessed with a great group of friends over here. They are so different from each other but that’s what makes it so nice.  Today we are all going to the store to buy stuff for a dinner and birthday cake (since tomorrow is my bday!) and just hang out. I didn’t know what my birthday plans had for me since I figured I would still be new and making friends but I am so glad they already care enough to make my birthday special in Ireland. Two of the other girls turn 21 as well on the 16^th and 29^th so I will make sure to do something special for them as well.

I am catching on to the bus system pretty quickly which is nice around here because I don’t have to spend the money on catching a taxi with my groceries.  I can’t imagine driving over here!! I joke around some of you about when they see a pedestrian they speed up… well that’s not a joke I am pretty sure were 20 points! Haha I am also confident pedestrians don’t have the right away. I did however find out it’s not illegal to jay walk. But I can also see why it’s not because you would be stupid to do it anyways. Haha. Also I am not used to looking the opposite direction when crossing either. So to be safe I stick with sidewalks and the little green man.  And I am sorry but I need to confess I had Subway.. and it was DELCIOUS! I hate subway at home and would rather starve myself then eat it but here it’s to die for! Which is bad because it’s pretty expensive here.

Anyways I better get going I need to begin getting ready for the day. I am excited to have another dinner tonight. I think the menu is chicken, salad, veggies and bread. We are all pitching in and cooking together. I haven’t told them I am a terrible cook so maybe I will volunteer to make the salad.. or just pour the water? Haha. None the less it will be tasty! I have skype up now and even though the time difference doesn’t allow anytime access I would love to hear from you all so please, please, please set a time up to chat with me!

I will talk to in a couple days… not as a 20 years old either!! YAYJ

Brittany

                

Finally Settling Down

Hello! It’s about 6:15am in Ireland and once again I can’t sleep past 5:30. No matter how early or how late I go to bed. The benefit to this is I get to speak with many of you since it’s the evening time and I get a head start to my day! Today I officially start classes. I wasn’t able to sign up for them until yesterday. But on Wednesday I was able to go to the school and sit for an orientation with other visiting students.  There are about 200 other visiting students on estimate from all around the world. The school is HUGE! I mean were talking I am used to about 2,500 students and this has 25,000 students. A little different for me then what I am used to. My school looks like a cathedral and it’s about four blocks in length and I still can’t tell you how deep it goes back. I will put up pictures of the school hopefully within the next couple days. I have to take six classes at UCC (University College Cork) in order to fulfill the 15 credit requirement at home. Since I normally take 5 credits at home this should be pretty easy.  I am taking French, Social Psychology, Community and Social Work, Intro to Irish History, Irish Folklore and Celtic Religion and Mythology.  I have three classes where I will have Irish students and three classes where I will have mainly visiting students so it’s a great way for me to also meet different people.

                My room is really coming together now that I have bought and organized everything. I am not in my dorm much because there is not a lot to do up here especially with no internet. No complaints because it forces us to get out and do things. I have finally met my dorm mates and they are both Irish girls. One’s name is Clair and the other Marisa. They are not in their dorms much either so it has only been in passing that we have talked. I can’t wait to get internet in my room! I am missing you guys because I feel like I haven’t had the opportunity to really have a conversation besides on the computer for 10 minutes.

                My second grocery store trip was much more successful than the last.  I bought lots of things and spent only 36 euros. It should be enough to last for a couple weeks. The only down fall is I had to pack it all home with me!! Then my bag broke and it started piss poor raining. We grabbed a taxi but he couldn’t understand where were trying to explain so he dropped us off at the wrong place and we had to walk another 15 min! It was an experience to say the least but we laughed about it the whole way home thinking THIS IS LIVING! haha.  Once we got home and we told our stories to the other girls they said, “oh don’t you know that there is a grocery store just 3 minutes from your dorm going the other direction?” I am sure you can only guess our reactions to that. We also found out that the grocery store we shopped at has delivery! But that’s how you learn things… do them the hard way the find out the easy way later haha. None the less our goal was completed we know how have food to eat! We visited the English Market yesterday and I can't wait to go back. It’s similar to Pike’s but bigger and fresher food. All the farmers and their wives are selling all the yummy foods of Ireland. I just want to stay there forever and buy it all!

                We have been exploring Cork as much as we have had the time and it seems to get bigger and bigger every time we go into the city. This weekend my friend and I have made it a goal to hop on the buses and just ride everywhere we can to learn where things are. We have all weekend to get lost so what the heck! As soon as we start classes officially next week and get our schedules worked out we are going to plan on going to different counties in Ireland. My friend lives with Irish girls who wanted to take us out! So we lived the life of an Irish student and they took us to the best places only locals know about it. It was quite the experience to say the least haha. I wish I had the time to write our entire night out but that would be 8 pages long so if you talk to me remind me to tell you all about it! In Ireland going out is very common and hearing about hangovers is a second part of every conversation. At home if you were to hear that it would be so taboo. In Ireland it’s the way of life. It’s not a stereotype to say they are drunks haha because even they admit it but in Ireland it’s more of a social gathering and if you don’t drink beer you drink tea or watter(much cheaper too!!) and that’s ok! It’s very hard to explain the way of it here. I just hope every one of you has the chance to experience this life… even for a week! You will experience more of Ireland hanging with the locals then you ever would taking tour buses.

                I can’t wait for the weekend to explore the beautiful parts of Ireland and visit more of the smaller towns around it. I should better sign off the now even though I wish I could write more. I need to shower and get ready. Also eat breakfast not that I have food :). I still need to register with the Garda and I should be done with all my major tasks (wahoo!) I finally got a phone here and it’s a pay as you go. Fun fact: All of Ireland has pay as you go plans! They said they wouldn’t prefer any other way because they don’t pay that much money a month. I don’t know if I could do it haha. But I will be for 6 months so I guess I have too!

                My computer is registered so my internet will be up in 48 hours. I CAN’T WAIT TO SKYPE!!! Love you all and miss you gobs!

-Britt

Day 3 in Ireland

It has been on the go since Thursday 12/30/11 so I apologies now for not writing sooner. My parents and I drove to Seattle and stayed in a hotel so it would make things easier once it was time for me to catch my flight. This was the second time I have ever flown by myself (minus a small trip to Pullman). I was feeling really anxious but super excited. My mom and I spent almost the whole night talking and we had to be up by 3am. Needless to say I had no sleep on Friday. Once 3am hit that’s where it has been nonstop since. My mom and Doyle said their goodbyes to me at security check and that was it. My mom said she had a few “ugly cries” as she would call them after I left. It was sad for me for sure but I was just so excited to start my new adventure. I guess you could say I was on a high and I still am.:)

                My first plane ride was 5 about hours to JFk in New York City. I was so lucky I slept the whole way through and nobody was in the seat next to me so I had plenty of sleep room. I had a layover in JFK for another 6 hours. Talk about huge airport I had to take a bus to get to my next terminal. The unfortunate part about my 6 hour layover was I was in a really small terminal so there was only about 3 stores and 3 restaurants. In the waiting areas next to each gate they had iPads everywhere for people to use. You could sit down play games on them or get on the internet. The coolest thing was you could order food from the restaurants and they would deliver it right to your seat! Everything was super expensive to eat so I mainly just snaked on foods I brought with me. They even charged $7.99 to use the wifi in the airport. I was so angry I just used my phone’s 3g instead.

                My last flight was about 6 hours and I finally arrived in Dublin around 8:30am! Considering the size of Dublin I was expecting the airport to be huge with lots of people. It was huge for sure but not that many people. This could have been because it was also New Years. None the less it was super easy getting through everything because nobody was there. CUSTOMS was what I was most afraid to go through and that was a cake walk. I met my group and then we took a 3 hour bus ride down to Cork. Everybody fell asleep on the bus but I just couldn’t stand the thought of missing the scenery as we went by. It is nothing like I have ever seen before.  It has some features of Washington since it is green and all but so many differences that it unique and beautiful. I noticed that even the largest houses in Ireland are still fairly small. All I could think is “Quaint” is the best way to describe this country. It is so difficult to describe what I am seeing. After only 3 days of being in Ireland I recommend everybody see it before they die.

                Once we arrived in Cork we were to stay at this hotel called the “River Lee Hotel”.  They treated us like Queens and Kings!!! Our dorms were not ready for us to move into but it gave us all an opportunity to meet everybody in the program. We had a group dinner at 5:30 and by this time I was so tired I could have fallen asleep in my food dish. The food is very different here… its true when they say its pretty bland. But it’s still delicious. TONS of Seafood and vegetables. Two of which I am not fans of at all but I have been so good at trying everything and I have already discovered I like butternut squash! I am glad because they seem to eat it with everything! In Ireland they eat everything in large portions compared to the US. Surprising huh?! Example… at the hotel for dinner we had a very large bowl of soup, a huge plate of dinner of our choice (chicken, fish or pasta) with vegetables on the side then your dessert consisted of 5 different things on a plate. At first I thought we were sharing them until they brought out 22 plates of dessert!! For breakfast it was a buffet and it was THE best buffet I have ever had. You can taste the real food compared to home. It is illegal to add any hormones to food and some may have antibiotics in them but they are strictly for if the animal has a cold so not all animals get them. I never thought I would be one to say what a difference it is to eat beef here verse home.  Then for lunch we got a huge bowl of duck soup (not bad actually!) and 3 large half sandwiches! One was a shrimp wrap, chicken wrap and smoked salmon sandwich. WOW! I haven’t been able to finish a meal yet!

                I am all moved into my dorm now. It is set up in pods so I have 5 people down a hall way and at the end we have a kitchen that we all share. I am one of the lucky ones and I have my very own bathroom in my room. I have decorated my dorm as much as I can but so far I haven’t been it much. We are constantly taking adventures into Cork. I live about a 30 min walk to the city which isn’t bad. I also live on the main drag so its not sketchy by any means but I am still using the buddy system wherever I go. I have made many friends through my program and I love it because they are so adventurous as well so everything we do is spur of the moment. I am not nearly as afraid to do things as I am at home for some odd reason. It’s a very different feeling and atmosphere and by that I mean its very comfortable around here everybody is relaxed. After orientation yesterday we all walked downtown into Cork (which is huge!!). We bought a couple clothes and some stuff for our dorm. I have to go grocery shopping and for 8 months I was prepared until I walked into the grocery store and literally had no idea what to buy. I walked out with some toilet paper and yogurt. HAHA. Hopefully round 2 will be more of a success. I can’t wait until I get to visit the English Market! Everything is fresh and locally grown. It is very well known throughout the country and is the best (only 30 min walk from my house yay!).

                The people here are so different in the oddest ways. First of all I stand out as an American by just wearing jeans! It’s all about the dresses, wool sweaters, leggings and BOOTS around here. I need to make a small shopping trip so I don’t stand out as much. They all have a sense of humor which I love! Very sarcastic and always have something clever to say. I am seriously picking up the accent and its embarrassing when I talk because I don’t want them to think I am mocking them haha. When I get home I am going to walk in to the grocery store and pretend I am an Irish lady. They are so kind when I mess up saying things wrong or if I ask the wrong questions.  A friend and I went to the pub for the first time and we made many mistakes and this old man next to us started laughing and taught us a few proper ways of doing things the Irish way. He was SO cute and SO nice. We sat in the pub for quite a while just listening to him tell stories as he drank tea and we drank our beer. It’s exactly what I have always heard what happens in a pub and it happened our first night! He lived in a little town about an hour away from Cork on a farm. He had a super thick accent and talked very fast but I kept up well. He kept asking do you actually understand me? Haha. I couple times I said “pardon me” like three times  then I would give up, smile and move one. His name was Michael O’Sulliven. I don’t think he realized how much we appreciated his company and advice.

                I know this is extra-long because I haven’t had the chance to write in a few days but this is the gist of things. I have so much more to tell and say but it’s 5:40am in Ireland and I couldn’t sleep anymore. I have been doing well so far with the time minus getting up really early but I do stay up late so its not much difference from home. Thankfully my mom snuck some on the go Starbucks in my bag so I will be drinking that after I get done blogging.  I hope everybody at home is doing well! I miss you guys but right now I am having so much fun and have so much more exploring to do I can’t stop and think about being sad. I have fallen in love… with Ireland. I hate to say that I keep falling for it every day the more people I meet and the more places I go.  I start school tomorrow and get my classes which I am a little nervous for but once again I am so excited for the new adventure!  I can’t wait to hear from you all!!!

Until next time (which should be soon now that I am settled in… so stay tuned!)

-Brittany 

8 Days

I can hardly believe I leave in 8 days!

This week has been my goodbye week. I celebrated my early 21st birthday and going away party last Saturday. What a great success! But it still feels surreal when I say goodbye... like is this really happening? Bittersweet is the best way to describe how I am feeling. The more I spend time with my friends and family the more I realize how much I have here and how much I will miss it. But I am SO excited for this adventure!!

Tonight I said goodbye to my best friend (sounds dramatic but were like sisters!) and I have been dreading this sad day! We spent all day together doing what we do best.. eating and shopping. It's funny because I thought I would have cried but I am so excited that all I could say was we will see each other soon enough! As she was crying I realized.. why in the heck am I not crying? I need to be sad I won't be seeing my best friend for months! But it dawned on me... it's not my time to be sad or be crying its my time to be happy and excited! I have a good feeling this will be the best thing that ever happened to me.

This coming up weekend is Christmas which is my favorite holiday ever! I am so excited to spend time with my family and take a small break from it all! I have plenty to do before I leave. I have been getting two emails a week from my adviser with instructions on what to do next. I would have never thought that it took this much work to leave the country... let alone live in another country. I have to show documents for EVERYTHING! I just received an email today saying I was able to to actually study in my major. In Ireland they are way ahead of us.. so essentially if you are a junior in college in the US you are barely a freshman over in Ireland. That doesn't make us look so hot.. but none the less I qualified to study in my major which was very exciting for me. That means more homework but I am excited to learn psychology from a different perspective.

I won't have time to write again until I get to Cork but I thought I would update you guys on whats going on. I fly out of Seattle December 31st. I have a long lay over in New York (6 hours!) then I will be in Ireland Jan 1st. It's funny because on my bucket list I have "Celebrate New Years Eve in New York." Whoever thought it would be in an airport. Ha. As Soon as I get to Ireland I plan on updating this as often as possible! So stay tuned and have a very Merry Christmas!! :)

-Britt