The Final Countdown

Surprisingly, I had more time to write up blog posts when I was traveling around Europe than I have this past week while studying for finals. I’ve been suffering from eternal library damnation. It’s the price I’m paying for traipsing around Europe instead of being a student this semester. I am so not sorry about it.

Luckily my friends and I have been able to cross some activities off our Dublin bucket list between benders in the library. Last week we went to the Cake Café for breakfast. It’s this awesome little café tucked away in a courtyard behind a bunch of stores. You have to walk through a crafts store to get there. So cool! They bake all their cakes and pastries right there in front of you in their very tiny kitchen. It’s very cute and very colorful! We had a hard time dragging ourselves out of there. We’ve also crossed a rugby game off our bucket list! Just the other night we went to see Leinster duke it out with Glasgow. Leinster is an Irish team (I know, I didn’t know either) and they’re playing in the championship match this Saturday. If the Northern Ireland team wins this week in the semi finals, there could be TWO Irish teams playing each other for the title. Dublin will be on fire! Saturday will be the day after we’re done with finals so we’re planning on parking ourselves in a pub for the day and getting friendly with some locals. It’ll be great craic.

Speaking of which, this time next week I will be done with Trinity College Dublin forever ……. I’m going to need a minute to let that sentence sink in …… I cannot believe my time here is running so short. I’ll be honest and say that this past week in the library has been a bit of a drag. But in a way it’s a great thing, because by slowing down my last few weeks here in Dublin it’s given me time to appreciate my last moments in the homeland. We’ve got a lot of cool stuff planned for our last, post-final, pre-departure week here in Dublin. On Sunday we’re taking a train to Dun Laoghaire, where there’s rumored to be a great farmers market, and to Bray, where there’s rumored to be the #1 coolest pub in the world (I know. Bray?  I said the same thing.)That Monday we’re doing a three day bus tour that will take us to the Cliffs of Moher, the Aran Islands, Connemara, and Cong with two a two night stay in Galway. We’ve been waiting all semester for our Galway trip! And we’re all really excited to take in the countryside one last time before we ship ourselves back home. I may very well never see grass this green again. I hope I’m wrong. Once we get back to Dublin I think the general consensus is to spend our last few days and our last few dollars in our favorite places, having pints, and reminiscing about the most memorable five months of our lives to date.

Speaking of coming home, I have absolutely no idea how I’m going to manage to lug all of my stuff back to America. It was enough of a project to get it here, and now there’s MORE of it. I sense overweight baggage fees in my future. 

Two exams down and three to go! I’ve got one on Wednesday and my toughest two on Friday. I initially had an exam conflict, and apparently they felt like the best option was to reschedule the exam for later that same day. So my last day of finals will consist of me taking a three hour exam, waiting for an “invigilator” to “collect” me from the exam hall and stay with me while I have a “supervised” lunch (in case I decide to call everyone I know and tell them the answers, or ya know maybe jump off a building or something) and then sit through my next three hour exam at 2:00. Needless to say, it’s going to be a long one. But to celebrate my friends and I plan on heading straight to campus pub afterwards for drinks. They will be MUCH needed.

So that’s all I got for ya this time around. I’m thinking my next post will be sometime after finals and before our Galway trip. I don’t have many more posts left before heading home! I got to make them count!

Until next time, cheers friends!