Article from The Eagle

I just read this article regarding studying abroad. The writer is currently in London, and I found the article to say everything I can't. It's a great read. Check it out!


Studying Abroad in England


I am trying to organize all 700 of my pictures in to albums I can post and the later write about. I promise they will be up soon!

4 Wheelers in Mykonos

This morning, after getting 12 hours of much needed sleep, Genna and I decided to go exploring. We walked for a total of about 3 minutes before I saw a place that rented vespas, mopeds, motorcycles, and 4 wheelers. I immediately knew that I wanted to rent one.

Apparently, you can drive a 4 wheeler here if you're over the age of 12, and after much convicing I got Genna to agree to get it. It literally cost 10 euros to get it for the entire day. If for some unknown reason, you find yourself in Mykonos, you absolutely HAVE to rent one. I have never been so happy in my entire life.

We have been driving around all day enjoying the scenery in our tank tops and shorts, getting some sun and eating greek food and thanking ourselves for choosing to vacation here. I know that I'll be back, someday, when I'm rich and can afford to vacation here.

After talking to the guy who rented us the 4 wheeler, I decided on what we're doing tomorrow. Apparently the island of Delos is a half hour ferry ride away and we can conquer the island in a few hours so that's what we'll be doing tomorrow. There are supposed to be some great ancient ruins and it'll be a good time and I can say that I went island hopping in Greece. HOW COOL IS THAT???

I don't have the time to post about Rome right now, because we are going to go back out and explore, but I promise I will. The only problem is I think I love Mykonos more than Roma and I would rather go on and on about the cute houses and churches and people on motorcycles and all the fun I'm having here :)

I'll post soon!

Love,

Miriam

The Longest and Craziest Day of My Life- Mykonos Bound

I was extremely excited to post in my blog and describe everything that has been going on in my life since I left for my epic holiday adventure in Roma and Mykonos. Instead, I want to intertwine the death of an accounting professor at my university, Professor Sue Marcum.

Professor Marcum was the head of the accounting department at American University, and was murdered yesterday in her home. I never had her as a professor and never had the opportunity to have a full conversation with her, but I always respected her. She is a faculty brother of Alpha Kappi Psi, and through my fraternity and my friends in the business school, I came to regard her as the best professor in Kogod and one of the most loved.

In life, there are people that do not play dominant roles in your day to day activities. They are on the sidelines, figures that you come to expect will always be there, that you expect to come in contact with every once in a while. The only times I came in contact with Professor Marcum was when she went to AKPsi events and whens he substituted for one of my professors last semester. Because I am abroad, I am unable to take accounting classes so I will have to take 4 my senior year. In the back of my mind, I always figured I would sign up for her classes because she is such an amazing teacher. To find out that she has not only passed away, but is suspected of being murdered has stunned me and has wrenched my insides. I can't describe how I feel, I just feel a huge loss, an emptiness in the pit of my stomach.

I am in one of the most beautiful places that I have ever been in my entire life. I have a hotel room with a balcony overlooking the beaches of Mykonos, Greece. This morning I was in Rome, had a layover in Athens, and am now in Mykonos. My life is already crazy and unreal and has been changing my perspectives on everything and to have this happen so unexpectedly has left me utterly and completely lost. It has made me realize how short life really is and makes me thankful that I am having these experiences this semester, traveling the world and seeing life outside of the states. I would like to one day impact people the way Professor Marcum has impacted me, and I will always remember her.

A few minutes ago, I was outside on the balcony with Genna and we were talking about the days events, and the passing of Professor Marcum. Through that conversation, I have decided to make a bucket list of everything I would like to do in my life. Genna rambled off a statistic that says the people who write down bucket lists are more likely to achieve their goals. Although some of the list is personal, I would like to share some that I would like to accomplish.

1) Learn another language and be able to effectively communicate with native speakers. I would love to fluently speak Spanish and French.
2) Skydive
3) Own a house in another country
4) Perform or speak in front of at least 1000 people
5) See the 7 Wonders of the World

Tomorrow I will post about my crazy adventures in Rome. To give you a taste:
- I ate gelato twice a day
- I had a traditional Roman dinner in a restaurant with an old friend from Italy, Giacomo
- Rome wasn't built in a day, but Genna and I conquered it in 3
- Got lost in Travastere
- Our hotel was conveniently located close to a prison
- I ate dinner overlooking the Pantheon
- Genna and I got a bus driver who spoke absolutely no English to somehow find our hotel and drive us to the very front of it at night
- Ran into 2 different groups of people from the FIE London program at the Vatican and in Campo Di Fiori.
- Saw the Sistine Chapel

After literally walking around the entire city center of Rome, our plan for Mykonos is to simply enjoy the scenery, wander the streets, and appreciate that we are in one of the most beautiful places on the face of the planet.

Love,

Miriam

Heres to pizza bigger than our heads, but smaller than our hearts!

CIAO BELLA!

I am in Roma, and I have a little over 7 minutes left on my internet time so I can briefly write whats been going down. I cant find the apostrophe so forgive my grammar.

We got to Roma at midnight after a 38,975 hour delay at the airport and our taxi driver repeatedly told us our hotel was far. The entire country of France is on strike because the retirement age increased from 62 to 67, so we couldnt use their airspace. Suck it up France. You get 8 weeks of vacation a year. Anyway, our hotel is kind of in the ghetto, but hey, Ive been to Russia so I can handle it. Plus we have a four star hotel room with a jacuzzi bath. Who could ask for more?

Yesterday we literally conquered Rome. We went to the Colloseum, The Trevi Fountain, The Spanish Steps, The 5th Avenue of Roma, and the Piazza Navona. The food is incredible and I am thankful I didnt choose to study here or else I would come home 50 pounds heavier.

The sights are amazing. I mean, Ive seen Rome in the movies so it kind of feels like Ive already been here, but at the same time it really makes me feel like Im in Europe. London doesnt compare to Rome in historial value. Rome literally throws it in your face on every street that it is an ancient city and London is much more modernized.

Today we walked around, got pretty lost and then ended up where we wanted. The streets are adorable and the entire city SCREAMS romance.

Okay I have 60 seconds before I am kicked off of this computer.

I will hopefully post when Im in Greece.

SALUTE! (Cheers in Italian)

Miriam

p.s. I have already taken over 200 pictures and I have only been in Rome 2 days. Get ready for a picture overload when Im back in London!

Mid-Term Break

Hello All!

I won't be posting as often for the next week because it's midterm break and you know what that means!

I'll be in Rome, Italy and Mykonos, Greece, a gorgeous island off of the main country. I will be in Rome until Tuesday and Mykonos until Saturday. Genna and I will then have a day in Athens and come home Saturday night.

I'll do my best to update you with fun information, but I won't be able to post my pictures until I'm back in London.

Arrivederci!

Miriam

p.s. It's reaching highs of 45 in London here, meanwhile it will be 72 and sunny in Roma tomorrow! I'm so excited!!!

Hampton Court and Autumn in England

Hello my lovely readers,

I am, once again, stuck in the dungeon of Manson Place waiting for the 2 laundry machines for 1000 people to be free so I can do my loads of laundry before leaving the frigid cold city of London for the sunny and warm cities of Rome and Mykonos. Lucky for you, I have time to tell you about my adventures yesterday.

Anyone who is in the London area for an extended period of time should DEFINITELY go to Hampton Court Palace. It is south of London in a sweet little town and the palace is gorgeous.

The Palace

Although there is a whole lot of history associated with the palace, the main reason I went was to see King Henry VIII's apartments and what the it looked like during his time. I got to sit on his throne, see where he ate his meals, his kitchens, and other various fun facts about his history (although I knew a ton about his life).

Genna, Emily, and I got to wear those very embarrassing headphones with an audio tour, but to be honest the audio tour was very helpful and described the different rooms well.

These are some of my favorite pictures I took

clock in one of the courtyards

in my throne, no big deal.

King Henry VIII's bedroom. Notice the dorky headphones.

In the King's kitchens in front of an actual fire.

 We were really excited about the fire part.

Me, Emily, Genna

Other than the palace, we went to the palace gardens which were really pretty.

The gardens are modeled exactly as to what they 

would have looked like hundreds of years ago. 

Pretty snazzy, eh?

Genna and myself in front of the golden gates of the gardens.

This is the only tree that has shown any sign that autumn has arrived in England. Shocking, considering its already the end of October. There are no pumpkin patches or apple picking fields or, most importantly, ANY pumpkin spice lattes at Starbucks.

We did have fun with the fallen leaves though...

Emily and Genna

Alright, that's all for now!

WAIT. EXCEPT...

I got accepted at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia! It is official that I will be living there next semester. I am beyond excited!!!! Although, I'm not very excited for all of the paperwork and forms and whatnot to be able to go to the country. Oh well, I know it'll be worth it.

Cheers!

Miriam

"Better a witty fool than a foolish wit" - Twelfth Night

Some of you may not know that I love Shakespeare. Freshman year of college I wrote a paper called "The Man Behind the Myth" discussing the heated debate of whether or not Shakespeare was actually the author of all of the beloved plays.

Anyway, for our British Life and Culture class today, we took a field trip to the Globe Theater. It is right next to the Tate Modern Museum and across the Millennium Bridge from St. Paul's Cathedral. I was beyond excited to see the theater even though it is a remodel of the older one, which was up the river a bit before it was destroyed hundreds of years ago.

In front of the stage!

Stage

Some fun facts I learned today:

Shakespeare was absolutely LOADED and so were the actors that worked in his company

I am now convinced that it was actually Shakespeare who wrote all of the plays and sonnets

The Shakespeare actors performed a new play almost everyday and only had the night after the show to memorize their lines, then about 4 hours to practice the play before it was put on the next morning.

The performances were at 2 PM everyday because they had no lighting in the evenings

The globe which now holds around 2000 people comfortably, held 3000 during Shakespeare's time, making it more like a rock concert/mosh pit than a polite theater going experience

The actors had scrolls they read from that only had their lines on it. The scroll was a ROLL of paper, thus creating the term "role" in a show. The only other lines were their queue lines, which were three words and the actors didn't know who's lines they were or how much happened before their next talking part.

Along with the word "role," the phrase "part" in a show came to existence because "parts" create a "whole show"

The audience would put their pence (money) for their tickets in a box at the front of the theater. Where did they keep the box? At the BOX OFFICE, duh.

Overall, it was an amazing tour. Our tour guide was phenomenal and had all of us cracking up. Too bad the season is already over, I would have loved to see a Shakespeare show at the Globe Theater.

On our walk back in front of St. Paul's Cathedral on the Thames River

Other than the excruciating International Trade final I had in the afternoon, today was a wonderful day. Considering I've only gotten 10 hours of sleep in the past two days, I will be sleeping for the next 39 hours. Just kidding, I'm going to Hampton Court tomorrow which is the palace King Henry VIII hung out when he wasn't at the Tower of London.

King Henry VIII Armor

ANOTHER FUN FACT: When Sari and I went to the Tower of London we saw a lot of the armor the old kings and soldiers used to wear. King Henry VIII armor had a HUGE metal bulge in his man-region. We just laughed and said, "of course he would have done that to prove his manliness." Turns out that metal bulge was there because he had Syphilis and his penile region was extremely sensitive, so he had special armor made. It ended up becoming the fashionable armor during his time. Funny stuff.

I will leave you with some good Shakespeare quotes.

"All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many acts, his acts being seven ages." 

As You Like It

"As soon go kindle fire with snow, as seek to quench the fire of love with worlds." 

Two Gentleman of Verona

"Cowards die many times before their deaths; The valiant never taste of death but once.

Of all the wonders that I yet have heard, it seems to me most strange that men should fear;

Seeing that death, a necessary end, will come when it will come" 

Julius Caesar

"Friendship is constant in all other things

Save in the office and affairs of love;

Therefore all hearts in love use their own tongues;

Let every eye negotiate for itself

And trust no agent." 

Much Ado About Nothing

Cheers!

Miriam

Piccell Phones/T Mobile/FIE Sponsored Phones

My first day here, I was exhausted and mentally drained. Because my brain was on holiday, I stupidly got one of the phones the FIE program was selling.

HUGE. MISTAKE.

Not what my phone looks like. But from the same era... circa 2003.

It is a piece of crap cell phone and it costs a lot of money to use. If you are doing this program, make sure you bring your Blackberry or iPhone or Driod with you and use it. Apparently there is a way to "unlock" your phone, making it cheaper to use and call home from, as well as call people within the UK.

Calling people with UK cell phones costs me about 25 pents (.25 pounds) per minute. That means a 4 minute phone call to someone to discuss plans for the evening will cost me $1.60. My phone bill for last month was 60 dollars.

Text messages within the UK costs me 10 pents per text and for outside of the UK 15 pents per text message. Not only is it expensive to have, but there is no service inside of the house where I live. I have to go outside to have an actual conversation.

I told myself "Hey, I'm in London I don't need a proper cell phone. I'll manage!" That perky attitude got me no where and one of the things I miss most, after my cat Coco aka CocoBear, is my iPhone. *tears*

Coco. My baby. Str8 Chillin'.

Oh, and if you have a crap U.S. cell phone that you don't want to bring, that is totally fine. I'd recommend finding a cell phone store in the area and getting a pay as you go phone. You're going to want to call and text people within the UK, not home because you can easily just skype someone from home.

Okay, I'm done ranting =)

Internship and Ice, Ice Baby

I found out the hard way that one of the most difficult tube stations to navigate is Edgeware Road, otherwise known as my stop for work. It is a maze of underground sidewalks, overpasses and twisting roads, oh my!

I was TEN minutes late for my interview. I hopped off the tube and realized that the map I was given to find my building was utterly useless, I stopped a guy trying to persuade me to "save the children" and told him to "save my interview" and show me where I should be going. I showed up with frizzy hair, sweat down my back and a big smile on my face plus the white flats that did NOT match my black stockings at all. 

Turns out, I'm working for an American company, based in London, with a supervisor that's Australian! Who knew? She was really sweet and explained to me I'd be working in the Accounts Payable section, imputing data and processing invoices. Doesn't sound too interesting, but I'll be working with 6 guys who are 22/23 and I'm hoping they'll be fun and entertaining.

I was also a little disappointed to find out that I'll be working from 9:00 AM - 5:30 PM with a 1 hour lunch break from Wednesday to Friday. That's more than 20 hours, which is all my visa allows. I don't know whether to be a bitch and say they should let me out early, or suck it up. I'm probably going to suck it up and work the hours they tell me to, with no pay, and no stipend for lunch.

Anyway, on to the more FUN news, I went to ICEBAR LONDON on Friday!! It was literally a bar made entirely out of ice. SO COOL (haha, get it? get it?). It is kept at -5 degrees Celsuis. I went with Genna aka the love of my life here in London, British Dave, Genna's friends Camille and Elsha, and Elsha's boyfriend Scott. We put on our funny capes and gloves and got 1 free drink with entry. The glasses were square, which Genna and I found odd until Dave hypothesized that square glasses would be easier to hold on to which makes complete sense. Dave - 1 Miriam/Genna - 0. 

Frozen Glasses

Going Clockwise:

Me, Dave, Scott, Elsha, Camille, and Genna

The Bar

After getting sloshed at the ICEBAR, we went next door to a place called Strawberry Moon. It had a light up dance floor and played top hits and oldies. Speaking of - you know what's strange? British people don't know the lyrics to Journey - Don't Stop Believing. They can sing a long to Grease and Michael Jackson, but not Journey! SO WEIRD.

After we got back and I was fast sleep, apparently shit went DOWN in the Real World house. Some roommates took a bunch of guys back to our flat and they ate all of our food, refused to leave, and were obnoxiously loud. I think all of our roommates are at the breaking point. We've been here for 7 weeks and the close knit bonds we once thought were airtight are now loosening up and testing everyones boundaries.

That's the problem with sticking 12 people together who don't know each other for 4 months. There will be arguments. There will be breaking points. Boundaries will get crossed. It makes for great television, but horrendous living conditions. I really hope things improve, because the last thing we need is for one roommate to disrespect another roommate. The good news is midterm break is starting on friday and we will all be traveling to the edges of Europe on our own.

Genna and I just booked our hotel for Rome and are almost done finding a hotel for Mykonos. I can't believe we'll be going! I am beyond excited!!!

Alright, I have to get back to more schoolwork. I know, schoolwork!? It sucks. I had two presentations today, and then a paper and final exam due tomorrow. Whomp.

Love,

Miriam

Experiencing More London

So, because I haven't written in a week, that mean's I've done a TON of stuff, right?

False.

Monday I went to one class, took a nap, woke up and felt like I had died. So, tuesday I missed class and went to the doctor for 40 pounds. She took one look at my ears and throat and told me that I had a bad ear infection and tonsillitis and put me on antibiotics. I could barely swallow and felt like total crap, so I was happy that something could help me.

Wednesday I did a whole lot of nothing, like watching tv and sleeping a lot to feel better. By Thursday, I had to get out of the house. Luckily, Sari Carter, one of my friends from American University who is studying in Copenhagen happened to be free in London so we met up. I put on a cute outfit to feel normal, and met her over at the O2 Center in North Greenwich. It's a musical venue as well as a sports arena so I took my time walking around and exploring before she was done with her tour.

O2 Center

After finding Sari, we decided to tour the Tower of London and see the crown jewels. Last year, Sari introduced me to the show "The Tudors" on showtime about the Tudor period of England and King Henry VIII. I got obsessed with the show and Anne Boleyn. It was only fitting we went to the tower together and saw where Anne Boleyn's head was chopped off and to see the crown jewels, of course. I was expecting awesome jewelry and was a bit disappointed when it was mostly silverware and crowns. But there were some gigantic diamonds, which were fun to look at and the guards were really nice to us. We got there at around 3:30/4 and the tower closed at 5 pm so we had to run. Everyone told us at the gate that we should give ourselves at least 3 hours to see everything, but because Sari was leaving the next day this was our only shot so we went for it. I have to admit, we did a good job running around and seeing what we wanted to see. 

After the tower, we went to dinner in South Kensington at a Japanese restaurant and got some sushi. I ordered a hot saki which was amazing. I've always wanted to get one while eating sushi so I accomplished a goal. Go me! Sari had to run to see Wicked in Victoria, so she ran off but was free later on.

We met up for drinks at The Zetland Arms, a pub our flat always goes to because it's just around the corner. We then went to O'Neill's to meet up with some of her friends from the Copenhagen program. It was fun, but I was still sick and tired so I decided to call it an early night. Friday was another lazy day, but Saturday was fun.

I met a guy a few weeks ago at a club and we've hung out a few times since. His name is Dave and we've become friends, so he invited me to go outside of London and hang out in his town. He's on the tube so I hopped on and went to the outskirts of London to meet up with him. He picked me up from the train station and I got to sit on the wrong side of the car, which is very very weird. I found out from him that they call 2 lane roads "dual carriage ways" and they use miles per hour, not kilometers per hour! I was shocked. Overall, it was a very fun day.

Yesterday I did something else exciting! My international trade class went into the "City of London" which is the square mile that makes up the financial district of London. My goal in life is to end up working there- too bad my internship is no where near it. Anyway, I took a bunch of touristy pictures and after walking 3 miles I felt like I was going to collapse.

If you can tell from the picture, the city has very old and very new architecture. It creates a mixture of old world British Empire with the new financial aspect that has made London the number one city for finance, other than New York City of course.

The "inside out" building that holds most of the insurance companies. They insure BP and David Beckam's legs. The center holds the offices and the outside has all of the staircases, bathrooms, and elevators. Pretty snazzy.

That's my "professor," Frank. You can't tell from this picture, but he looks like Giles from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He is hysterical and whenever he takes us on field trips, at the end he brings us to a pub and drinks with us. My kind of teacher. I cropped another photo. Maybe you can see the resemblence.

Frank

Giles

Am I right? I'm right. Don't fight me on this. =)

The Bank of England. It takes up an entire block. It started off as a small building in the 1600's and then as time went on, it started buying the property around it and adding it on. We went to the museum which was pretty cool. We saw how currency was put into existence and the start of Britain's National Debt. And we got to hold a brick of gold that was worth over 300,000 pounds.

We ended the tour at St. Pauls Cathedral. As you can tell, it was a GORGEOUS day. Not a cloud in the sky. Apparently it's going to be like this for the next 10 days. I can handle that!!

In other news, my interview for my internship is this week on Thursday at 11 AM. I hope it's better than I'm expecting. I'll blog after I find out more information about it.

Cheerio Mate!

Miriam

Is This Real Life?

I am sitting in bed, I've just uploaded all of my pictures and I am questioning how my life ended up this amazing. I have been to England, Scotland, and Ireland in the past month and I can't remember what life was like before all of these experiences. Traveling so much is unreal; it's so much fun, but absolutely exhausting.

Thursday morning I was supposed to leave for Dublin. Only problem was I was 15 minutes late to check in and I ended up missing my flight. Stuck in Gatwick airport alone about to cry, I was faced with being a grown up, purchasing another 60 pound ticket and having to wait until 2:40 for the next flight out. I bought a book, ate, people watched, and was bored out of my mind. I had bought tickets to the Guiness Factory for that day and because I missed my flight I didn't think I was going to make it. I ran off the plane, hopped on a bus, prayed, and was able to make it in time before the last tour was allowed in. I wasn't really interested in how the beer was made, I was just interested in my free pint and so was Silvana, so after taking all of the touristy pictures you're supposed to take, we went all the way up to the Gravity Bar (the highest point in Dublin) and had our pint of Guiness.

That night, by fate, we ended up finding Kristin (our phones couldn't connect to each other) and went out to dinner and then hit the town. We bar/pub crawled but apparently Thursday's aren't that hopping so we decided it would be best to get some sleep in our hostel and be alive for the tour the next day.

One thing I have to say about Hostels - they are weird. You're packed in a room with complete strangers and if you've ever slept somewhere you were the slightest bit uncomfortable, you'll know the feeling of waking up and not feeling rested at all. There were three other girls in our room and we didn't meet any of them until the next morning. Imagine knowing two people are sleeping 4 feet away from you and not knowing what they look like because they're sleeping and it's pitch black.

Friday: We met everyone on the tour, and to our surprise we realized that the Australians on the tour outnumbered the Americans. The only other Americans on the bus were these two girls from Tennessee who didn't speak to anyone, and 8 random people from Wisconsin who make me believe no one is normal in that state. They were all awkward so we avoided them at all costs.

I met Aussies from Melbourne (pronounced Melbin), Brisbane, and Sydney. I liked every single one of them. They had awesome accents and were always down for a good time. There were also two guys from London who were absolutely hysterical. I can't wait to meet up with them while I'm here and hang out with them and drink some English tea.

Phil, Matt, Alan, John

John&Matt - the two Aussies from Melbourne who sat behind us and kept us thoroughly entertained the entire time.
Phil&Alan - the two Londonders who were friends from their job. What was their job you ask? They are  bookies. That's legal here.

Anyway, Friday we saw the gorgeous Irish countryside in the south and went to Blarney Castle, some pretty beaches, and ended up in Killarney that night. Our tour guide brought us to this bar called O'Connors where we had a night of storytelling by this guy named Pa. Apparently so many men in Ireland are named Patrick that they have at least 5 different nicknames. Pa, Pat, Patsy and so on. He was hysterical and literally chugged 4 pints of Guiness and a shot of whiskey while performing. When I say chugged, think of a pint of Guiness. He was able to drink the entire thing in 3 gulps. It was the most impressive thing I've ever seen, and what's funnier is that's actually how Irishmen drink their Guiness.

Jackson from Wisconsin on the left, Pa on the right

After the storytelling, we went to the Grand Hotel where we danced the night away and drank even more. I found out that both the Irish and Australians don't grind. I'm beginning to think grinding is solely an American dance style...

The next morning we were off to see some beaches with crazy high cliffs surrounding them, and the town of Dingle. It was such a quaint little place, except we spend most of the time in a pub with all of our Australian friends and London boys that we didn't see much of it. That was probably the highlight of the trip. Sitting in this cute little pub, laughing our asses off and talking about the differences between Australia, England, and America.

Dingle

FUNNY STORY! We found out from our mates Matt&John (Aussies) that in Australia guys that hang out and that play footy (soccer) together like to hang out and watch the games ... get ready for it ... completely naked. They said that when they're with their guy friends they just take all of their clothes off and hang out (pun intended). It is completely normal and not gay in any way. Silvana and I were literally on the floor laughing about it.

Can you imagine any of your guy friends (if you are a guy, you and your pals) just hanging out and having someone be like "hmm, I feel like getting naked" and proceeding to just chill in the nude? No, I didn't think so.

Sheep, Sheep, and more Sheep

That afternoon we saw some more Irish countryside and took pretty pictures. That night we ended up in Ennis, another cute town, where we were put in a room with 8 other people. Silvana and I had it good - the other room was filled with 14 people. We got ready and went out to a pub where we just drank and had a good time, again. Let me tell you, we were in heaven. We were surrounded by the most beautiful accents in the world - the british, irish, and australian accents. Not only that, they were all guys (minus the awesome couple from Sydney) so there was no drama and, of course, we got free drinks. At 4 euros a pint, that's a pretty awesome thing to have.

Sunday was absolutely exhausting. We saw the Cliffs of Moher which were really impressive. It was where part of the 6th Harry Potter movie was filmed. It was towards the end when Dumbledore took Harry to those creepy caves where he had to use his blood to enter and whatnot. It is ALSO where the Princess Bride was shot - cliffs of insanity anyone?

Cliffs of Moher

Us & Our London Boys!

We ended up in Galway for lunch, I did some tourist shopping, and we headed back to Dublin! It was sad saying goodbye to all the people we made friends with, but it's awesome to know I have people in all the cities I want to visit in Australia. I was hesitant about whether or not I wanted to go, but this solidified my opinion.

I'm not going to get into detail but it was a shitty flight home. It was delayed, then someone committed suicide by jumping in front of one of the subways so my travels got delayed even more, and then there was a tube strike to the subway stopped way before South Kensinton and I ended up taking a 18 pound taxi ride home. To make it worse, I took a nap today and then woke up feeling like a bus had hit me in the face. I am extremely sick and have to postpone my trip to Paris. Being sick SUCKS.

I'll leave you with some Irish and Australian slang:

Irish:
grand - "how has your day been." "oh its been grand!" they say it all the time
feck - the nicer way of saying fuck. it's not really a curse word apparently.
craic - they're way of saying a good time. if you say the craic was 91 it means you had a fantastic time.

Australian:
slab - a 24 pack of beer
cube - a 30 pack of beer
getting a feed - going for a bite to eat
bird - way of saying chick
and they say aluminum - al-eh-mean-i-yum. so weird.

Have a Grand Night!

Miriam