"alright then. decent, Charity."

Day 17 - Sunday was a lazy, futbol filled day in Galway.

we were going to go to the Aran Islands and ride bikes (cause that's really all there is to do there), but there were many flaws in this plan -

1. we woke up late 2. we were all exhausted from all of the....travel 3. the weather was bad 4. Kelsey doesn't know how to ride a bike 5. we were all out of money lol

so instead, we walked around the coast and enjoyed the islands from a distance

once it started raining, we went into the mall where there was a lounge set up with a big screen tv where we watched 2 world cup matches

"are you Slovenian" - if your english is so limited that it takes 5 full minutes to get through 'where are you from', we're not going to be able to communicate.

after a few hours (snoozing) in the lounge, we grabbed an early dinner and caught the bus back to Dublin.

it's so nice to be home.

Day 18 - on Monday morning we had another site visit.

we went to Edelman PR, an extremely prestigious, world-wide firm with an office in the City Centre.

we were briefed about the company (which wasn't actually brief at all), heard about some of their case studies (my favorite part) and then talked to the Director of Public Affairs (whose name is Seamus)

it was pretty interesting.

afterwards, we came back to the dorms. i went running (yay!), did some school work, then we went to The Porter House for a chill night.

turns out that the band playing that night was a guy that we've seen on acoustic guitar at The Purty Kitchen (on the far right- i posted a video of it a while back) with some friends

he recognized us and came over to talk after their set.

his 'full rock band' plays at The Purty Kitchen on Thursday night, so we're going to go see him there and then he's going to take us for a night out in Dublin "with some feckin locals"

also, we gave him an assignment - learn the song The Freshman and play it for us next time he's on acoustic.

Day 19 - class, running (2 days in a row!), shopping.

confession: i miss my wardrobe and my shoes (esp. my boots)

i am seriously lacking in cute clothing here and didn't bring any heels. luckily, some of my roommates can supply me with clothing (shout out to you, Daneman) and i broke down and bought some cheap pink pumps from Penney's

this was perfect timing, because Tuesday night we went to Diceys

(which is where Everyone in Dublin is on Tues because all drinks are 2 euro- very rare in this town)

i've mentioned the law school boys a few times- here are some pics with them at Diceys.....

me, Hill, Daneman and David (from the Bronx)

Gerard (from HOT-lanta)

Roger (from southern Illinois)

too much fun was had that night....

haha

FINAL NOTE: another blog title worth explaining. Krysten was txting with one of the British boys and he kept calling her 'Charity.' we finally asked what the deal with that was and he replied "because all American girls have stupid names like Faith or Hope or Charity."

also, British boy quote to remember - "are you yanks coming out with your sh*t phones tonight? shu up. X." - haha

the Shock factor

Day 13 - young professional day!

Tuesday morning we all got dressed in out best business casual attire (b.love calls them our 'adult clothes') and went to a site visit at Carr Communications here in Dublin.

the inside of the building is even prettier.

after some tea and biscuits, we met with the PR director and Managing director of the company.

we talked about the current media landscape in Ireland. essentially, they are about 5 or so years behind the U.S. and are cautiously moving into digital media.

we also went over some of the projects that Carr has been working on (basically we were learning through case studies).

for example, the directors that we met with are particularly passionate about road safety (which is a huge problem in Ireland) and they showed us some of the work that they have done for the RSA, including some TV commercials.

as you may know, TV in Europe is generally more graphic/violent/intense/etc. than what you see in the U.S.

this commercial was designed by Carr, the RSA, and other partners to have shock value for a European audience, so it kicks it up a notch even higher.

WARNING: this video is extremely graphic. use your own judgement on whether or not it is something that you want to see, especially if you are sensitive to traffic accidents. ((don't watch this, mom, you won't like it))

click here to see it.

(the target audience is Irish teenage boys)

needless to say, the video left 15 American students (that like to talk) completely speechless. we were all stunned.

we watched other videos as well and talked about messaging, target audiences and the effectiveness of the campaigns. it was incredibly interesting, i'm already looking forward to our next site visit.

after the meeting, Hillary and i went grocery shopping and then that night, some of the girls and i went out on the town with some of the law students.

i'll spare you from the debaucher-ous pics this time, but will include this because it made me laugh...

at a lot of the bars they have this straightener in the bathroom. you can pay 2 euro for 20 minutes worth of straightening- lol

it was another good night out (yay Q bar).