Update!

I haven’t blogged in a few days so I just wanted to give a quick recap of some of the things I’ve done, and update you about what’s going on!

To recap: 

•  Last weekend we took a bus to Glendalough which is a beautiful mountainous area just south of Dublin. It has two gorgeous lakes in the mountain valley and some really interesting ruins from an old monetary that was built there hundreds of years ago. There are also some cool hiking trails that led us by waterfalls and gave us incredible viewpoints of the whole site. I’ve got pictures posted on my Flickr for your viewing pleasure! (For those of you that missed that, the word ‘Flickr’ in the previous sentence is a link to my page where you can look at my photos.)

• Last weekend we also ventured over to Temple Bar in Dublin which is this really cool area with lots of fun pubs. It’s notoriously tourist-ridden, but we still had a lot of fun (probably because we’re still tourists. Womp.) We ended up at a pub called Fitzsimmons (pronounced fitzsEYEmonds, as we’ve been corrected) where there was live music, lots of dancing, lots of people from all over Europe, and LOTS of beer. We made friends with some guys from London who had just “popped over for the weekend”. You can do that in Europe!

That’s about all I have by way of recap. I’m currently in the midst of “class shopping” (and when I say in the midst, I’m actually in the library between classes as I type this). Trinity has this funky registration program where the first week of classes students go around to classes they might be interested in and audit them to see if they want to continue taking them for the rest of the semester. It’s very different and VERY useful considering I sat in on a senior level sociology class that was a bit over my head. By a bit, I mean I decided in the first five minutes I wouldn’t be going back. It seems like I’ll be taking five sophomore/junior level sociology classes and one art class. The average Trinity student takes about six classes, so it should be interesting to see how that pans out for me. In other words, how I manage to fit in six classes worth of work between drinking and traveling . (Don’t worry Mom and Dad, it’s under control!)

This upcoming weekend we’re planning a trip to the Rock of Cashel or to Galway, yet undecided. The weekend after that, we’re going to Cork where I’ll finally kiss the Blarney stone! I know what you’re thinking. I’ve heard it a million times: “I heard the locals pee on it at night!” Well I’ve got some travel sized mouthwash I’ll bring with me then, okay?!

Many more pictures of Ireland to come, so stay tuned!