It has been a couple of weeks since I have posted. I have been getting settled in to classes and getting into the hang of things. I absolutely love all of classes! The professors are amazing and crazy helpful! All of my classes are two hours long except for one which is like a recitation for my creating writing class which is only an hour. Since the last post I have done a bit more traveling and tried to reign in my travel spending a bit….. not super easy! Honestly that is one of my main goals while I’m here though so as long as I have money for food until I leave then I am good to go!
Our first adventure was to a 500 year old tea house which was only a 45 minute train ride away and so worth going to! It was an impromptu trip, but has been one of my favorites so far. The people there were some of the sweetest I have met so far (which is saying something because everyone is sweet!). We also walked through some beautiful sheep fields and saw the classic countryside. Words can’t even describe the beauty!
Next… To Dublin! I definitely want to go back to Ireland to see more of the country side, but since Dublin was so close and we only had the weekend it was perfect! We toured the Guinness Factory and I am not much of a fan of beer, but the tour was incredibly interesting!! We snuck in on a tour of the Dublin Castle and we saw St. Peter’s Church. The night we got there we went to a little pub called The Celt for a traditional Irish dinner. I got the traditional stew and it was SO delicious!! I haven’t been a fan of lamb in the past, but the Irish have it down to a science. We also ran into a girl and her mom that had come over on the ferry with us (the ferry was amazing!) and spent the night with them listening to live Irish music. The next morning we walked into Dublin from our air B and B (about a 20 min walk) however it was POURING! Totally worth the walk though! We went to O’ Neills Irish Pub to get a traditional breakfast. I ATE BLACK PUDDING!! The one thing I had always said I wasn’t sure I would be able to eat! and I actually liked it a lot! Just goes to show not to turn something down because you are a little unsure about it! We went out in the Temple bar area that might and had a ton of fun! We danced and talked with a group of guys from Amsterdam and we made some more friends!! I LOVE FRIENDS! We got back in at about 4 am….. Europeans always stay out really late! However we didn’t let that cut into our next day! We woke up at 7 to go hiking at Howth. HIGHLY recommend! We didn’t have enough time to hike around the whole thing, but I for sure on revisiting! We came back and rode back on the ferry just in time to get ready for classes the next day!
Last week I traveled to Chester with one of my friends from here for the day and I loved it! It is a very classical old European town with loads of shops and cafes. I have made plans to go back to go look at Christmas lights in November! I can’t wait!
I guess I should talk a little bit about school since I am supposedly over here to study 😉 I love the style of teaching over here. It is a lot more self guided, which is hard to get used to, but it helps a lot more with learning to prioritize and to give more free time to explore other opportunities, instead of sitting in class.
I also love my flat mates! They are all so funny and living in the dorms has been a great experience! I love talking to them about their day and it really does help with adjusting to being away from family! I made a pumpkin pie the other day for all of them and they loved it! They were a little unsure about the texture, but I think with time we might actually be able to spread the pumpkin love enough so demand brings canned pumpkin to Europe! I ended up buying a pumpkin form the store and baking it in order to make the puree. They don’t have our types of flaky crusts pre made here either so I used there tart crust which I think next time I am going to make the crust from scratch. Also the perks of being on campus are also so worth it! I actually just signed up for a free roast dinner (an English tradition every Sunday). I just really love food… the fact that it is free makes it even more incredible!
I have decided to just start posting random differences of things that I notice about here and the states. I will start a new post with just the differences that way I can add as I go 🙂
Stay tuned for more Wales tales 🙂
