is THIS the bus we need to be on???

Day 20 - these days are going by WAYY too quickly....

Wednesday we were blessed with gorgeous weather so we took full advantage of it.

after class, some of us hopped on the dart (along w/Mr.&Mrs. B.Love) for a day trip to Dalkey - a really cute small town on the coast.

**Dalkey is Maeve Binchy's hometown and she is going to be there signing at the book fair this weekend...i may have to stop by again.

this is just a pretty building that was on the (only) main road in the town.

we toured Dalkey Castle. instead of having a boring "and on your left" tour guide, it was done by actors in period costumes. almost more of a show than a tour - pretty cool, definitely entertaining.

i'm surprised that she showed up in the picture, seeing is how she is a ghost of a woman that was murdered outside of the castle.

she's standing by the yew tree. it is poisonous and used by the Archer to make his longbow.

birds eye view (from the top of the castle) of the Church of St. Begnet. we touched the Weeping Wall (from inside, back wall on left) where we left our sorrows behind us and made a wish for the future.

<- like my Claddagh ring?

back inside the castle, Master Henry Walsh showed us various rooms in the castle (mostly the murder room), taught/showed us about the Barber Surgeon and talked of his affinity for King Henry VIII

he recited a poem about King Henry VIII's wives.

"divorced, beheaded, dies - divorced, beheaded, survives"

after that, the Archer took us to the top of the castle, where we had the perfect view of the city (which was ideal for those that wanted to see when the vikings were going to be attacking)

all of this learning/activity made us quite hungry, so after the castle we stopped in at The Queens Pub next door before heading to the waterfront.

Krysten, Hillary, me & Ana

we climbed around on the rocks for a while and enjoyed the view of Dalkey Island.

little did we know that the adventure had only just begun...

on the dart home, we were stranded in Dun Laoghaire because of an "incident" at Salthill. from that dart station we were given (bad) directions to a bus home, which we chased down the street at a full sprint.

after going 1 stop we realized that this was not the bus that we needed to be on, so we walked to another one.

this bus took us to a place that we recognized (but wasn't going all the way to UCD) so we got off and waited for another one....and waited.....and waited......for 49 minutes.

((thank goodness there was a McDonalds close to this stop and some of the waiting was spent with 1 euro sundaes))

turns out some of the buses are more reliable than others - the joys of Irish public transportation.

luckily, a different bus driver told us he could get us to City Centre. we knew our way home from there.

so let's see, that was 4 buses and 2 hours to get home from a place that is 20 minutes away

hahaha

just another day in Paradise :)

"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

Txting European boys - 17 euro cents per message...

...time spent deciphering Irish slang words and phrases - priceless.

Day 16 - on Saturday, we spent some time exploring Galway.

Galway is nicknamed "Ireland's Cultural Heart." it's a little beach town that the Irish love to relax and play in.

it's also common destination for Irish people to have hen & stag parties (bachelor & bachelorette). i've seen some crazy things on 6th street, but these people go ALL out with their costumes.

this is a picture taken in the main pedestrian walk in the middle of the city.

it's lined with tons of shops, cafes and pubs.

look at the gold ring hanging from the red building on the right side of the picture. can you see what that is?

it's a Claddagh ring! Galway is where they originated. needless to say, we all got one from one of the many jewelry stores here.

after some brief shopping, we visited St. Nicholas' Church.

it's tucked into the middle of the city, so it was hard to get a good picture of the outside of it.

this is a shot of the altar from the middle. it wasn't very grand of a cathedral, and it really wouldn't be

something to write home about, BUT

Christopher Columbus prayed here before he left for the new world! cool, right?

other than that, we checked out the Latin Quarter...

which was pretty lively.

it definitely gives Galway some cultural credit.

and the Spanish Arch (which is so small that we kind of blocked it when we posed in front of it, ha)

there were lots and lots of swans by the water front. they made for pretty pictures.

(which would be even better if the colors showed up correctly)

other than the standard tourist attractions in the city, we lucked out and the Galway Speed Boat Festival and races were going on. it was sort of a mini Docklands Festival (which we went to in Dublin, remember?)

or maybe you feel like learning Falconry over the weekend. you can also do that in Galway at Ireland's School of Falconry.

because "flying a hawk is the experience of a lifetime"

(needless to say, we were more than a little amused by this)

that night, we scoped out a good spot to watch U.S.A. v. England in the World Cup

(U S A! U S A!)

we stayed in the most lively pub that we found...which happened to be where a group of about 20 Irish guys were having a Stag Party.

infiltrate Irish stag party? check.

we hung out with them for a while haha

one of them had a guitar and they drank, watched the game and sang songs all night (which later just turned into drunken slurring)

they sang mostly American songs (including a bit of Garth Brooks) but we also learned some new drinking songs like Dirty Old Town

i got a pretty good recording of them singing Molly Malone, but this is just a quick video to give you a taste of the mayhem (i have no idea what song this, i have to show it to an Irish person to figure it out)

this picture is captioned "i don't usually trade clothes with people at bars, but...."

and we'll just leave it at that :)

once the game was over, we left that party and met up with some of the other people on our trip that had come to Galway for the weekend.

Good times were had by all :)

"are you here for a long time or a good time?"

later that day...

the Cliffs of Moher tour was looong. we (unintentionally) took turns falling asleep on the bus and waking each other up when something good was happening on the tour.

the tour guide was a gas (some Irish slang for you there). he talked INCESSANTLY for 5 hours. after we were over being annoyed with his voice, it was kind of impressive.

once we got back to Galway, one of the tour bus drivers took us to our hotel (SO nice of them).

we stayed at the Holiday Hotel. it is run by an old Australian couple (shout out to Peter!) who could not have been nicer to us.

we went to a delicious Italian restaurant, across the street from our hotel for dinner.

don't you love all of my pictures of food??

after dinner, we walked around the town to get a feel for the place. did i mention that we were staying right on the water?

can you see the Aran Islands in the distance?

sort of??

oh, and we ran into Oscar Wilde and Eduard Vilde in town...

(lol at Cindy's face in this picture)

the first night we were there was a little rough. apparently Friday is not the night to go out in Galway. we had some interesting encounters with some crude European boys.

the city was crawling with bar/club promoters. on Friday night there were more of them than there were bar/club attendees.

we briefly popped into a bar called Coyotes (based on the movie Coyote Ugly).

it was a gross, over the top stereotype of American bar culture - but there was free champagne and road signs from Texas, so it wasn't ALL bad.

we called it an early night to prepare for Saturday......

Boys I ain't never seen nothin' like a Galway girl

Day 15 - Thurs was pretty chill, as we prepared for our adventures in Galway!

we had class - always fun - and i went for a run. i got a little lost and ended up at the track, where little kids were having gaelic football practice - coolest thing ever.

Thurs night we went out to Fitzsimons (in Temple Bar)

we saw a pretty sweet band (called MOFO) and ran into some of the law students. i (tried) to teach a few of them to two step. haha

<-Rachel D., Tracie, Hillary, me and Cindy

it was the perfect chill night.

Day 16 - at 6 o'clock in the morning (no joke) we got in a cab, then on a bus to Galway. once we got to Galway, we got on another bus to tour the Cliffs of Moher and Burren area.

i can't even talk about how incredible the cliffs were...

this was right when we arrived, before we went rock climbing.

i wish the pictures showed up in better quality so that you could get the full effect.

the first picture is to the left.

this picture is to the right from where we were standing. you can sort of see the path we can walk up (on the far right) to the castle ruins in the distance.

in case you can't read it, this sign says "please do not go beyond this point."

notice the people walking past it.

the following pictures were taken in the "danger zone"

laying on the edge :)

are you kidding me with this view?!

Hook 'em!

((side note: the Cliffs of Moher are being considered to be part of the new 7 wonders of the world. Vote for them!))

**more from Galway to come**

it's summer...right?

Day 14 - on Wednesday we had a loooong class day.

b.love called it Dork Day because we covered a lot of in depth material. i enjoyed it, but was excited to go out into the city afterwards.

almost the entire group went to visit Dublin's famous jail - Kilmainham Gaol Museum.

it was a huge place with an extremely sad history. we learned a lot.

the place has only been operating as a museum since the mid 80s.

side note- when discussing American history, it always seems like we're talking about things that happened a million years ago. in Ireland, sometimes we're talking about 50 years or less...it's sort of crazy of recent it all is.

anyway, more pics of the jail...

this is a model of the entire

structure.

it's quite large and made completely of limestone.

it was really cold inside - and this is supposed to be summer. i can't even imagine what the conditions inside are like in the winter.

this is Sly (my favorite guy on the trip) peeking into a locked cell.

this is graffiti inside the jail that was preserved.

it says "beware of the risen people that have harried and held. ye that have bulled and bribed," it's from a poem called The Rebel by Patrick Henry Pearse.

Pearse was one of the leaders of the Easter Rising in 1916. he was declared "President of the Provisional Government" of the Irish Republic. he was swiftly executed by the British at Kilmainham Gaol following the rebellion.

this room was really intense.

the cells were about 13 paces long and 4 wide (my dorm room is bigger than that) and the prisoners were not allowed to make any noise.

really interesting day.

wed. night it was cold and rainy so we hung out in our dorm and watched silly stufff on youtube. it was a good night with the girls.

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).