Saying Goodbye to Our Boys

Six posts in 2 days. After this I apologize, but it will probably be a while before I post more because I have 1345 pictures of my trip to sort through and that will take a fair bit of time. At least I'm almost up to date!

So, we had a few very close friends over here that were, sadly, only here for the semester, so after one of our finals one night (it ended at 8 pm, ick) we all went out for one last fun night together before we went our separate ways. This ended up definitely being one of my best nights in Cork and I am going to miss these boys soooo much!

Naturally, we started out the night at Thirsty. Most of the boys went home to drop off their things so only John came with us at this point. This is him and Laura making weird faces for the camera.

After that we moved on the the Washington Inn (typically call the Wash Inn). We went here because they have karaoke on Tuesday nights, and what's a celebration without a bit of karaoke?

We started off by singing Jack and Diane by John Mellencamp.


It was here that the rest of the boys showed up. The first couple were Dan the Man and Matt.

Then Mike Dooley showed up!

He was hilarious all night.

I forget what song it was, but we signed up John to sing without telling him. He surprised us all by actually going along with it.


Singing along to Friends in Low Places.

John got pretty into it.

Finally Dave Didn't Die showed up! We ended up losing him and running into him on and off all night.

Laura had a final the next morning so she left early, but the boys were sure to say goodbye in style.

We originally were going to go to Old Oak because it's free to get in, but there was a band on the dance floor so we left and headed over to Club Classic where we had tickets to get in free. This picture was taken on the way somewhere on Oliver Plunkett.


At the club.


All I Want for Christmas is You came on so Jenna and I ran from the dance floor back over to the boys and sang to them and ended up staying and making our own dance party over on the other side of the club with them for the rest of the night.


Kisses all around!



Finally the night was over and it hit me that I wasn't going to see them again and I made it through saying goodbye to Dan (barely) and then broke down on the sidewalk saying goodbye to Mike. Being the great guy that he is he got someone to take this terrible picture of me.

So, overall this night was absolutely great. We went to some of our favorite places and hung out with our favorite people and sang and danced on the street and did karaoke and went to a club. It was wonderful and I dont know what we'll do without them!

Thristy Christmas Party

There is a pub in town that we are regulars at, the Thirsty Scholar (the Thirsty to locals), and we've befriended the bartenders. We go on nights when they have live music and often go in just to talk to the people there. After a while Damien, the manager, asked us if we'd like to go to their staff Christmas party, so naturally we agreed. It was at some pub out in the middle of nowhere in Co. Tipperary and it took an hour and a half by bus to get there. The night was pretty much just one big hang out. It was definitely a good time.

Jenna was taught how to play various instruments by members of the band. She ended up sticking with the spoons for most of the night I think.

You can barely see it but they made shamrocks in the foam when you bought a Guinness at the pub.

The guy with his thumbs up is Dáithí. He's a bartender who Jenna has had a bit of a crush on for about 2 months now. After the party they started dating a bit, but I dont know how it's going because I was gone for so long.

The pub had some fun decorations.


And a juke box! We only played one song on it though because the band was there and started playing after a while.

This is Damien, the manager at Thirsty.

I dont actually know who this man was. He was a local with a cool hat who was willing to take pictures with us.

This is Patrick. He plays with the band every once in a while.


The Blue Steel! (Zoolander reference) That's Laura in the front with Aiden behind her and Martin in the back. They are a couple of locals that we met and hung out with for most of the night.

I didnt really take too many pictures that night, which was a shame because it was pretty hilarious, but we were talking to the boys for most of the time. It was definitely a great night and a really fun time hanging out with the people from the pub. We ended up baking them snickerdoodles and gave them a card for Christmas that they still have hanging in the pub.

Weekend in London!

About a month ago Laura, Jenna, Kelly, and I all went on a quick trip over to London. We left early on Saturday morning and returned even earlier on Monday morning. It rained most of the time were were there, but we still had a great time. It was a tiring weekend for me as I kept falling everywhere. I had bought new shoes the day before we left and they proved to be fairly problematic. Ironically enough, after all of the falling (in the street, on the sidewalk, in the park, down the stairs at the hotel, in Harrods, etc) the one place I managed to stay upright was when we were ice skating...in the rain. Go figure. While the weekend was definitely very fun, by the end we were all missing Cork and were very glad that we hadn't chosen England for studying abroad.

Kelly and Jenna on the Stansted Express.

And me and Laura.

Me in Victoria Station, the birthplace of the infamous "What are all of these people doing in my station" joke my dad made and reminds people of every chance he gets.

A few old cabs and a double decker red bus.

We found a little clock in the street.

At our hotel. It was actually super nice and the people that worked there were great.

Teeny tiny car!

The outside of the hotel.

A walk through Hyde Park!


We found the Winter Wonderland!

They had a Christmas haunted house...kinda weird, but the lights were cool. We didnt go inside.


Buckingham Palace

Big Ben at night.

Some good old fish and chips and a Guinness. I was temped to get something more local, but I'm glad I didnt because Laura got an ale that was awful.

That night we stayed in at the hotel, wore our antlers, and watched X Factor.



Up and ready to go out the next morning!

Big Ben during the day!



This is the restaurant that my dad and I got fish and chips at when we were in London.

Back at Buckingham Palace.

Ice skating in the rain! The puddles on the ice made things interesting, but it was still really fun.

Wearing the antlers on the tube. All weekend we confused people by wearing the antlers in strange places and practicing our Irish by describing the people around us on the underground. There were a lot of weird looks. It was fun.

And then we went to Harrods for pretty much all of Sunday afternoon.

In the pet section they had animal dressing rooms so that your pets could try on clothes.

This cost £18,000. It was encrusted with diamonds. Absolutely insane.

The red telephone booth!

We found a fun pub for dinner on Sunday night and got some cheap sandwiches and drinks.

Laura was appalled by their failure to be able to pour a proper stout, and with good reason. They were truly terrible at it.


After the pub we went back to our hotel and had hot chocolate and got a few hours of sleep before we had to leave at 3:30 the next morning to make it to the airport for our 6:20 flight. It was a crazy weekend, but it was fun to go on a quick trip after watching all of our friends flying all over Europe for the entire semester.