Updating

Hi everyone! Sorry it has been SOOOO long. I really did try to update a little over a week ago (last week was full of tests and papers, so blogging was definitely not on the top of the list at that point) and then my internet crashed and deleted everything I had up to that point so I got really frustrated and gave up. I am going to give it another shot tonight to see if I can get the pictures to load up, but in case that doesn't work out I thought I would do a little recap of what I've been up to since my last post.

Lets see...now, I believe I last posted about Dublin and my birthday. Since then we have thrown 2 big birthday parties (and gone to countless more), I went on an archaeology field trip to a few sites, we went horseback riding in the countryside outside of Kinsale, we had a few halloween parties, threw a huge election party, and just this past weekend I went back to Dublin. So, all things considered, it's been a busy...almost month.

The first birthday party we threw was actually for one of the Spanish girl's little brother. He was turning 10 and we plotted with his parents and threw him a surprise party at our apartment. It was sooo much fun and he started crying because he was so happy.

The next birthday party was the "Birthday Bash" for me, Jenna, and Joe (Jenna and Joe's birthdays were on Oct 17, so we just threw one big party for all of us). It was crazy and so much fun. We had birthday girl and boy pins (though Joe barely wore his because he was working on a project he had due the next day) and decorated the living room and had a ton of people over, then everyone went out to a club for the night.

The field trip I took was for my Archaeology of Early Medieval Ireland course. We went to a church site (with a 'cathedral' and a round tower), a ringfort (we actually had to hop a fence and get chased by cows to get to that one), and to see high crosses at a small cemetery in Tipperary.

Our trip to Kinsale for horseback riding was absolutely amazing! We went on the bank holiday (yay 3 day weekend!) and by the time we made it out there it was about 4, so we were actually riding and watching the sunset over the hills. It was absolutely amazing. We had an hour long ride (for only 25E!) and there were even little puppies that we got to play with at the stables!

Halloween was really fun and chill (especially compared to what I'm used to in IV) and one night we just taught the Spanish kids how to carve pumpkins and went to our favorite pub (The Thirsty) and we ended up staying until closing and making friends with the bartenders. The second night we went to a big party at South Mall (another apt complex) then went out to a few new clubs.

Next up was our big election party. We threw it for all of the American kids (or anyone who was interested in watching CNN for like 8 hours straight) and had all kinds of "American" food and only let people bring American beer/wine (the hot imports here). We actually got broken up after about an hour and a half, but a few people snuck back and we made sure to stay really quiet after that and we made it to 4 am to see the election called, then a few of us stayed up to watch the speeches. All in all it was a good night. Too bad that the party got broken up, but it could have been worse.

The latest thing that I did was go to Dublin for the weekend. My program required that I meet with my advisor (he needed to make sure that we aren't starving or hating it here and stuff like that) so they have everyone go to Dublin for meetings, then we had a big "Thanksgiving" dinner at a pub. It was like no Thanksgiving meal I've ever had, but it did have the basics...kind of. There was turkey and "stuffing" and mashed potatoes, but they were fried, and "pumpkin" pie that was square, tan colored, and tasted like cinnamon mouse. I was lucky enough to catch a show at a comedy club and see a very fun concert with some UC students (one from UCSB actually) by a band called Ham Sandwich (I am totally serious). At the concert they kept dropping confetti from the ceiling and in one batch they had tickets for their concert next week that is going to be broadcast on RTE (Irish tv stations 1-4) and I actually caught one, along with 3 of the other people I was with. I also caught a drumstick that they threw into the crowd. It was definitely a good time.

So, like I said, I'm going to attempt to upload pictures to better illustrate these stories, but I make no promises with our evil internet here.

Upcoming events:

From Nov 29-Dec 1 Jenna, Kelly, Laura, and I are going to go to London. Apparently they are having a "Winter Wonderland" in Hyde Park which should be amazing. We are actually staying at a B&B which should be a nice change from hostels. We cant wait.

Over Christmas I am going to travel with my UC friend (from UC Santa Cruz) Amanda. We are going to go to Prague first for a few days, then for the actual holiday we are going to go stay with her aunt who is an archaeologist in Budapest. We are most likely going to do most of the travel by train because it is REALLY expensive, but it's my only really big trip this semester and it will be my Christmas splurge. My flatmates here are either going home or having their families visit and I dont want to always be tagging along with them or have to be here alone, so when Amanda asked if anyone wanted to go with her for Christmas I jumped on the idea. She was in Dublin this weekend, so we started planning things there and it looks like it will be a really awesome trip.

So, that's it for this post. I'll work on the first batch of pictures and if they all work I might get really ambitious and post more random Cork pictures, though I'm making no promises!