Ireland Weekend Two: Epic Fail

This weekend has by far been the hardest ones here. I'm trying to stay positive and optimistic, but struggling big time. It started out with our second weekend to Ireland. Four of us girls decided we just didn't get enough of the Irish atmosphere and planned a trip to Shannon and Galway for Thursday through Sunday. We stayed in a hotel on Wednesday night by the airport because we had a 7am flight to Shannon on Thursday morning. When we got to the airport we went through security and I got a frisking that would never be allowed to be done in the states! awkward! Then we went through to get our passports checked and on to board. 2 of the girls were let through, but they told Brigette and I that we needed to go get our passports stamped at the Ryanair desk. So we went and got our passports stamped, all is good and then head to our gate. There was a long line and it was early so we sat on the benches and waited to board the plane. When we walked up, they let Nicola through (she's German and part of the EU) then Brigette, me, but they stopped Leah and told her she needed to get her boarding pass stamped by Ryanair which is what Brigette and I did. They said there is no way she is going to make the plane and it will cost us each £100 to change our flights. Which, is about 170 USD. Leah ran to try and make it to the plane and the three of us were left to decide what to do. We didn't want to leave Leah, but it was stupid for us all to pay, so I sent the other two and hung back with Leah. She made it back 3 minutes after they closed the door and Ryanair would not let us on. They were soo rude. Leah and I decided since the next plane wasn't until 10:45 about 12 hours later that it wasn't worth the cost we would have to pay of a new plane ticket, new bus ticket and only getting about 2 days in Galway. We were crushed. We tried to get our money back through Ryanair, but they would not give us ANY grace. We were also told by many airport workers that this company will try to do this on purpose so they make money off of people with the flight changes. I hate this kind of injustice. We're looking into contacting some kind of better business bureau here. Ugh! What a start to the weekend.

Then, last night my computer hard drive decided to crash. fantastic. I might have lost all of my notes, itinterary planning, and pictures from the last 2 months of being here. The pictures is what gets me the most. Thank the Lord I have mobile me so my contacts and calendar was synced to that. I am praying feverently that Apple will be able to salvage something from the hard drive. Ugh! Another huge bummer. I have an appointment on Friday at Cambridge so hopefully those geniuses can work some magic! To top it all off, I turned an entire load of whites gray. Not sure at all how that happened.

What a weekend. It can only go up from here!

Meliss

Ireland Part One

We traveled across the pond to say top 'o the morning to all the wee people! Of all the countries in the world, Ireland has always been on the top of my list. Maybe it's because I'm Irish, but I just love the heritage, the music, and the atmosphere of Ireland. Since we don't get a spring break, we get two long weekends while we are here. Our first long weekend was last week and I signed up to go on the school trip to Ireland for 5 days. We took a 12 hour long journey that consisted of driving a coach bus overnight to Wales, then taking a ferry to Ireland and driving another 4 hours to Blarney and then Killarney. It was a lonnnggg trip but thank God for ipods. Seriously I don't know what we ever did without ipods. Well actually I'm old enough to remember that we used to carry around cassette tapes and cds which took up so much space! Now, I have my cute pink ipod nano with all my tunes and an engraved inscription to remind me "you are LOVED" when I get homesick! (shout out to Craig for the amazing bday present!) The first stop was the Blarney Castle and we got to kiss the Blarney Stone, which they told us after that the locals pee on. Fantastic. Then we headed to Killarney and enjoyed the night life of Ireland. It wasn't at all what I expected. We paid wayyyy too much for drinks, and instead of quant Irish music a band played Muse, Journey, Bon Jovi, and wayyyy too many 80's songs. I was mad. All I wanted was to hear them play Galway Girl. Is that really asking too much?!

The following day we took a beautiful tour of the Ring of Kerry, which was my favorite part to the whole weekend! It was amazing and it was everything that I imagined when I picture Ireland. Lost sheep roaming the roads, waterfalls, green pastures, friendly Irish folk, beaches, and yummy homemade bread! I felt like I was in the Shire the whole time minus the hobbits. The next day we journeyed to Dublin and experienced the city life of Ireland. I have to admit I like the country better, but Dublin is very cool. We went to the Guinness factory and I tried Guinness for the first time! It was actually not bad, and we drank it in this overview of the city which was breathtaking. We also went to Trinity College which is very famous. When you walk in the city it's bustling with people and loud, but as soon as we stepped onto the college grounds, it was peaceful and quiet. It had a very prestigious feel to it. Unfortunately we did not have as much time in Dublin as I would have liked and we had to leave early the next day to make it back to school. Sunday was another 12 hour journey and I was exhausted when we got to Harlaxton. Nicola, Brigette, Leah and I all planned a trip to Shannon and Galway for the next weekend so we're looking forward to getting back to Ireland!

Again, some highlight pictures from the trip! There were so many!

Dancing the night away. Notice the pimp daddy in the background. hilarious

The greenery was beautiful
Excited to try Guinness
The shire.
The Atlantic Ocean! I was soo happy to be at the beach! Even if it was chilly!
My travel buds
No words.
Kissing the Blarney Stone.
Ireland is green and beautiful
On the ferry and very tired at 3:30am

Scotland

My friend Leah and I ventured to Edinburgh, Scotland the following weekend! It was really fun to go the two of us...she is my shopping buddy! Our night started off kind of a nightmare because on our train ride to Scotland the train in front of us hit a person so we were delayed 2 1/2 hours. It was really sad. This weekend was our first weekend staying in a hostel and let me just say it was definitely what you think of when you think hostel. Oh and when we got in it was pouring rain, we were totally lost and soaked from head to toe, but we did not let this damper our weekend! We saw the castle and walked around the beautiful city. There was a rugby game going on verses France so that was a really fun atmosphere to experience. I felt at home with so many redheads around. Oh, and the men really do wear kilts! Leah and I went to a very europe type club with techno music and strobe lights going. It was a nice break from the music we have been hearing in the bars and clubs, which is the Glee soundtrack. Apparently since Glee became really big, that's all they have been playing in the clubs. It's very weird to be dancing to Bon Jovi. We also went to a whiskey factory and tried whiskey because I guess that's really big in Scotland. Oh and we tried Haggis. Gross. One of the highlights this weekend was a tea shop called the Elephant Cafe. It's actually where JK Rowling wrote Harry Potter. It has this fantastic view of the castle and amazing traditional English tea. We went twice while we were there. Another highlight was our Italian dinner on Saturday night. Since the food is soo bad at school, we like to splurge on the weekends and indulge in our love for Italian. We pretty much eat pizza and pasta all weekend. Leah and I had really great conversation, delicious pasta, and wine. We had a blast together and I'm so glad that we are getting close! It's nice to have someone that is dating long distance because we can lean on each other for support.

Some highlight pictures from Edinburgh, Scotland....

William Wallace=Scotland's pride and joy

Vikings and Sheep are what Scotland is all about
Fancy Italian dinner
At the Whiskey Experience
While we walked the streets we could hear bagpipes all day..really cool!
Poor Leah! We couldn't figure out the key to get in our room + creepy hostel+ soaking wet+ 6 hours on a train=this thank goodness burger king was still open! =)
Just having tea where J.K. Rowling wrote Harry Potter.

London

Wow! I haven't posted in almost a month and so much has happened since then! I have been soo busy with RA stuff, traveling, school, and projects it's hard to find time to blog. I'm loving living in England and have continued to enjoy my classes and new friends. When I was warned about the food, they were right! If I never eat chicken and potatoes again, I will be completely ok with that! Since my last post, I have made several weekend trips. Our second week here, Matt, Corby, Brigette, Leah and I took the train to London on Friday to see more of the sites and enjoy the night life. We went to Lion King and it was not as good as I thought it would be. I guess we set the standard really high with Les Mis. We walked around all weekend and saw the "touristy" sites that we missed the weekend before because we were busy shopping. Some highlights were the harry potter platform 9 3/4 at King's Cross station, church in Westminster Abbey, trying Mexican food and realizing that the English do not know how to make Mexican food. As Craig says, it's too far away from Mexico to know how to make good Mexican food. This weekend, we really mastered the underground system and took that pretty much everywhere! It's so easy to use and a lot faster. We also saw Big Ben, The London Eye, and the outside of the Tower of London. We ended Saturday night at club zoo and it was a blast! I just love to dance and luckily Leah does too! It was a great weekend and London is now one of my favorite cities to see. It's huge and there is so much to see and I'm sure I'll be back before the semester ends.

The weekend after that I was on my first weekend of RA duty. There were a total of 30 students here that weekend so it was very quiet. I would like to say I was more productive than I was, but I think I just relaxed and watched a million movies, oh and slept in which I am REALLY missing here!

Here are some pictures from the weekend in London...

Getting ready to go out on the town

I love the contrast of the dark, drab colors with the red in the city.
The London Eye
The group in front of Parliament
For all you Harry Potter fans!