An Open Letter to my New-found Family

It is often said that it's not really about where you travel, but the company you keep. I came into this study abroad experience with my eyes half open I suppose, so excited to get going on the journey but so comfortable in the daily patterns of my home life. Let's be real: I know we all Facebook stalked each other before arriving on the trip, but how much can you really learn about someone from their Facebook page? Maybe their home town or college. Perhaps if their single or dating. Let me tell you what you can't learn. You can't learn how a person lights up when talking about the things they're truly passionate about, whether it's sailing or llama training or ice hockey. You can't learn how real the hanger truly is after getting lost in a foreign city for hours. You can't learn how it feels to just sit in a hotel room with someone after a really long night and talk about everything that's running through each other's minds. But all of these things and so much more are what I've learned through the past few months with yous. Yes, YOUS. Over our time here I've not only fallen in love with our city but all of you have become my family.

I think that life unfolds before you in a series of revelations. Your friendship has revealed to me things about myself I didn't even know existed. You all have opened my eyes fully to the point where I'm no longer concerned about what is happening at home or if the patterns are changing, but to just live in the moment because we are never going to get these days back. The memories I've made here will never leave my mind. When we go home, things are going to be different. There's absolutely no denying that. Our friends and family will never be able to fully grasp the things that happened to us here. That is a bond that only we will share and to me that's so powerful. Yes, we live scattered all over the United States, distances farther that the width of Ireland, but I can only hope that the distance will mean nothing when it comes to our friendship. Of course there will always be the college nights of getting far too drunk and acting a fool and then fondly reminiscing about it the next morning, but none of those nights will hold the same gravity as making it home from Dicey's at 4am before a bus trip the next day. The endless pregame selfies will never measure up to those taken as a tourist on the selfie-stick. For a while at least I'll look back on everything from study abroad and wish I was back again.

I cannot thank all of yous enough for being my friend over the past few months. Whether it was a night I was conducting the hot mess express or being there for me through the death of my friend, it was never a question of if I'd be able to turn to any of you for help. Thank you for being my travelling companions on this whirlwind adventure. Thank you for sharing your pizza with me, a most valued treasure. Thank you for listening to me complain about the same things over and over and always having a sympathetic ear. Thank you, thank you, thanks a mil.

Our time together in this amazing country is coming quickly to a close but hey, we don't talk about it right? I hope that none of us come out of this thinking YOU BLEW IT. I'm already counting the days until we are reunited.

I started writing this post weeks ago, long before I even considered writing our final papers, because i knew I would never be able to find the words I wanted to fully express my love and appreciation for all of you, but just know this: you've helped me live the life I've always imagined. You have taught me more than any of our professors in school. I've always thought that friends are there to help you become more of who you are. I came to Ireland looking for myself and found you guys along the way; and that's worth more than any other moment in my entire life.

One last time....
From Dublin, With Love.

The Long Walk Home

Have you ever taken the long way home just to think about things? That's what I did today. After finishing my exams I stayed at the IPA to finish my final paper on Irish elections. By the time I finished and started home it had just barely gotten dark. I took a step outside and felt the crisp winter air hit my face. I knew this was my last walk home. In the distance I heard the shouting of the water protesters and felt as if I was in Cathleen Ni Houlihan hearing the shouting over the hill. I started down Lansdowne Road, but something was different this time. I didn't pick up my quick pace as normal but instead found myself strolling along taking everything in, not worried about my face going numb from the wind. I walked by the Clydecourt and Ballsbridge Hotel. I crossed the inconvenient intersection on the Pembroke Road. I noticed the green glow on the wall of The Den Bar. I walked by the knock-off Chipotle and stopped at the ATM for hopefully the last time in Ireland. I turned left at the Wellington and began my journey down the canal. I watched the water lap against the bank through the reeds. I noticed someone had picked up most of the trash in the reeds. I watched the ducks float leisurely around. I watched the water flow over the lock, which I never actually got to see in action. I criss-crossed through traffic to avoid the missing piece of sidewalk. I watched the bikers fight the wind as they went by the Barge. I walked all the way home, noticing the paint on the houses and lack of leaves on the trees. It's crazy how much goes unnoticed on the roads you walk every day. Finally I turned towards home on Rathmines Road.

I'm going to miss this home of mine.


From Dublin, With Love.

The Week of Lasts

Hey everyone!

I know I missed Monday-Blogday but you'll have to forgive me as I was in the middle of taking a final! This past week has really flown by. This post is just going to be a quick recap, but I promised to keep you updated so here we go. On Saturday I got a tattoo! Surprise! I hadn't really told anyone at home about it but all my friends here were on board. Kelly and Anne were supposed to come watch it go down since they both have been at least considering some ink but they were a bit too hungover to make it down to the shop. Instead John came with me. I knew he'd be fine because he has some pretty big tattoos himself. I just got a triskele on my foot. The triskele is the Celtic symbol for personal growth and development. The three spirals represent your past, present, and future. I think it's a sick piece and it's healing pretty well! This started the long week of lasts. On our last Sunday, we decided to go back to where it all began, Dun Laoghaire. We had spent our first Sunday there and thought it would be a great way to bring it full circle. We did a little shopping and walked out to the end of the pier one last time. Riding the DART past all the beautiful scenery was a solemn reminder that we wouldn't be seeing it again anytime soon :( Sunday night was spent studying for our Politics, Society, and European Union finals which took place on Monday. Then on Monday night Arcadia took us out for our farewell meal. It was three courses and mighty tasty, but there was no free alcohol so we hit the pub afterwards. Instead of Blackbird we opted for the Bleeding Horse, another local place. The ManU soccer match was on so we kicked back with a few pints and enjoyed the game. Tuesday was spent studying for our history and literature finals. Today after finishing my finals I stayed at school to finish up my last paper and turn it in. I never have to make the long walk to the IPA again! It's a bittersweet feeling. Now, I'm just relaxing and trying to strategize how I'm going to pack. See you soon America. Only a few posts left.


From Dublin, With Love.

A Weekend in Bruss(ILL)s

Here we are. The second to last Monday blog-day! Woah! It's absolutely absurd to thing that in less that two weeks I'll be back on American soil. Who's excited?! Anywhoooo... This Monday is dedicated to recapping my weekend in Brussels with my boyfriend John. Yes, you read that correctly. I have been dating an Irishman. His name is John and we met at Blackbird, the local bar, where he's a bartender. But this isn't about that story. 

As an early Christmas present he flew me out to Belgium with him for a weekend of exploring the sites and shopping. We left on Friday morning, or was it Thursday night? Who knows because neither of us had slept. Both of us were absolutely wrecked (Irish for exhausted) but off we went. It was actually ballin to watch the sunrise from above the clouds. Check out my insta! When we got to Brussels we decided to take the train to the B&B that we were staying in. It was only one stop away so we figured it couldn't be that hard. After roaming the streets with a flimsy map for a little we finally found the place. We tried the door code several times but it didn't work! We later realized that we weren't supposed to check in until 2, but a lovely cleaning lady let us in. It was grand! It seems to just be my luck that every place I stay in is a fifth floor freakin walk up, so up we hiked. It was well worth the walk though. It was essentially a mini apartment. I loved it. After a quick nap we decided to go grab some food. This is where my trouble started. Most of you probably don't know but I have ridiculously low blood pressure and sometimes it acts up making me really sick. Of course it happened on this vacation. After almost passing out at dinner we decided it would probably be best to just go back to the apartment. I tried sleeping it off and we wound up watching Total Recall and Mean Girls. Overall not a totallll waste of a day but I was still annoyed with myself for being sick. John, as always, was very supportive and told me not to worry about it. The next morning we woke up to breakfast in bed! The B&B people even emailed us saying sorry for not being able to get in the day before. I was still feeling hella sick but didn't want to waste another day of our vacation. I put on my toughest face and off to the train station we went. We wanted to go to Brugge which is about an hour outside Brussels to visit the famous Christmas markets! I slept most of the train ride but even once we got to Brugge I thought I might pass out. Luckily just as we were trying to make a decision about whether or not we should just go home I finally perked up. John thought I was lying just to make him happy but I swear I was reborn! Hahah. Anyway we spent some time shopping and taking in the beautiful architecture. I grabbed some Christmas ornaments for some of the girls back in Dublin and of course my signature post cards. Instead of climbing the tall bell tower we elected to take in the views of the cities from the giant Christmas Ferris Wheel. I nearly died laughing while John clung on for dear life and just kept freakingg out that he wasn't strapped in. Amidst all that nonsense we really were surrounded by spectacular views of Brugge. We got back on the train shortly after. When we got back to Brussels we ended up stumbling upon the biggest tourist attractions by accident! While looking for somewhere to eat dinner we wandered by the Mannequin Pis, which has become the city's adopted mascot. I think it's a little creepy because it's literally just this little boy peeing into a fountain. The original statue is housed in the King's rooms of one of the two castles in Brussels. Yes two. One for living and one for showing off. Way to go Belgian Royal Family. Then we came upon the Grand Place and saw a breathtaking light show. Even though we were absolutely freezing we had a great time. John stopped at this Belgian beer shop to pick up a few new ones to try. Believe it or not I stayed absolutely sober this weekend! I didn't want to mess with the blood pressure any more than needed. We headed back to the apartment and took turns trying the big box of Belgian chocolates we bought in Brugge. We had told the chocolatier to jus give us an assortment of milk chocolate so we had no idea what we were getting into. Kinda like the movie The Vow if you've seen that haha. After absolutely stuffing ourselves with chocolate we watched a few British game shows on TV and a comedy special. Great Craic. John and I had a hilarious FaceTime session with my best friend at home, Bri. She said John passes the test so don't worry family! We turned in early to be rested for our last day on vacation. After another breakfast in bed we grabbed our bags and headed out to do everything we hadn't seen yet. Luckily I was feeling better. Neither of us were prepared for how arctic cold it would be! It was about freezing air and the wind was brutal. After blundering blindly for a while we finally found the hop-on hop-off tour and got on. We headed out to the Atomium first. It's a huge building that is modeled after an atom of iron magnified billions of times. Each orb on it is to commemorate a Belgian scientist who made some sort of significant contribution to the scientific community. After shaking and shivering for a while we got back on the bus and saw some crazy monuments and churches. On the second half of the tour we drove by the European Parliament and I got some interesting and helpful information for my final next week on the EU! John was bored to tears but knew I was into it hahah he's not big on political science. After the tour was over we grabbed some lunch and headed to the airport. Poor john lost his phone in the last few hours of the trip and was pretty pissed off but we successfully got on the plane and made it home to Dublin (even with some wicked turbulence) It's so sad for me to think that the next time I'll be in the airport I'll be going home! I am beyond excited to see everyone though. 

Overall it was a hot mess of a weekend but me and john both agreed that it was just nice to have a vacation before I go home. I can't thank him enough ( I know he's reading this) for everything he's done for me over the past few months. He's kept me sane and safe and taken very good care of me. I'm gonna miss him a lot but that's why I'm booking a trip back here over spring break! Woohoo! 

Anyway, enough blogging. I have three papers to write and a turkey to cook for friendsgiving tonight! 

From Dublin with Love 

Capes, Cops, and Cocktails: The Berlin Chronicles

Prost! 

How's it going everyone?! First off prost is German for cheers so you now know another new language. Anyway this weekend I headed off for my second to last trip of study abroad (crying as I type that). Early on Friday morning, aka 4am, my friends and I traveled by taxi to Dublin airport. I might as well rent a bed there for the month of November considering how often I've been there! We discovered the Aer Lingus app had mobile check-in so we had boarding passes on our iPhones and breezed through security. After the mandatory coffee stop (I travel with a gang of caffeine addicts) it was finally time to board. I managed to catch some z's on the plane. If I hadn't, day 1 would have been struggle city. Berlin, like most other European cities has a ballin' metro system so we decided to be truly adventurous and navigate it blindly to our AirBnB. For those of you who don't know what an AirBnB is, it's basically someone privately owns an apartment and rents it out to travelers through the website. It's much nicer than a hostel and about the same price! We ended up having a penthouse type set up in one of the nicest apartments I've ever seen! Here's a link if you wanna check it out. If you're ever in Berlin and need a place to stay I highly recommend it. The only downside was the lack of elevator. It felt like we were climbing a mountain every time we got home. Our friend Catherine had flown in from Paris a little earlier than us and was waiting for our arrival. After regrouping for a few minutes we ventured to this market to meet up with Catherine's friends who were studying in Berlin. It was sweet to have our own tour guide who knew his way around and even spoke a little German. We went to the local grocery store and grabbed some beers. The beautiful part about Berlin is there are no open container laws (more on this later) so we casually strolled along the river drinking our Schofferhoffer admiring the city. You may be wondering if it was cold in Berlin? Well it was. About 35-40 degrees Fahrenheit while we were there but for the most part we didn't notice. For a late lunch we grabbed some burgers because, let's be real I'm essentially trying one in every country. The boys offered to cook us dinner at their apartment so we had those plans ironed out but wanted to get a little culture in on the first day. One of the girls I was with is a history major and we were totally geeking out over being in Germany. I've always had a strange fascination with WWII and Holocaust history. Anyway we headed over the Jewish History Museum which is designed with very deliberate architecture and exhibits. It was full of artifacts from actual people involved in the holocaust and persecution. It was so powerful. Everywhere you looked there was another art exhibit with a deep meaning linking to anti-Semitic themes. My favorite part was the garden of exile where there are these tall stones on slanted ground that make you feel dizzy and disoriented. It's hard to explain but it certainly is representative of the way Jews felt in Nazi Germany. After exploring the rest of the halls we headed to the boys' apartment where they had laid out quite the luxurious spread from a cheese tray with wine and a bangin stir fry. We certainly were living the high life this weekend. The plan was originally to have dinner and then head to a bar or club. Well that didn't happen. Our host ended getting a little too drunk and somehow took us to a random house party in the middle of Berlin. The best part was we thought that he knew the people but a few minutes in we learned that we were completely alone! We evacuated from there fairly quickly but still hilarious. We stopped at one more place before cabbing it back to our place. Speaking of cabbing it, god bless all the kind Germans who called big vans for us since we were a group of five and couldn't fit in a standard cab. The next morning we woke up determined to get a lot done. We had breakfast and coffee and this bagel place which was sweet because we don't get a lot of bagels in Dublin or Paris. From there we tried to take the metro to the Berlin Wall which was where our first and only bit of trouble happened. So in Berlin you have to validate your metro ticket before boarding but apparently one of us did it wrong and the secret metro police who were so shady and undercover made us get off and charged our poor friend Madeline 40euro! So lame, but again one for the record books. We ended up making it to the wall which is really intense. All along the top at various points there's these ghoul like statues but the wall itself is cool covered in interesting art pieces and messages. 

From the wall we found this really cool store full of handmade rings and retro things. The girl working there had just moved to Berlin from Maine and gave us great advice on how to get to Checkpoint Charlie. Off we went! After stopping at Starbucks (caffeine addicts I swear!) we saw the checkpoint which is actually just a little booth in the middle of the street. We got kinda annoyed when we realized the "American" soldiers were actually German totally mocking our servicemen and taking some risqué photos with tourists with our flag. We stopped at the souvenir shop so I could get some postcards and headed back to the apartment to plan the rest of the evening. We eventually formulated an itinerary that started off at the Kadawe, the largest department store in Europe. This place was massive. The whole bottom floor was all luxury stores that I could never even dream of affording but we worked our way through and ended up at the restaurant at the top and ate dinner overlooking the street. Then we decided we wanted to go to the top of the Television Tower. It's one of the biggest landmarks in Berlin and was built by the soviets. When we got off the metro though we stumbled upon a 5 euro cocktail place which is just too good to pass up. After enjoying the first mojito we realized we could get one to go. Literally we were five American girls strolling the streets of Berlin with Mojitos! So euro! The tower itself wasn't too hard to navigate to as you can see it from almost everywhere. The elevator takes you 260 meters up in about 40 seconds and the top is a 360 panoramic view of the city. So breathtaking. There was a bar up there so we hung out for a while just hanging out and talking about life. 

After that we were gonna go home to get an early jump on our last day but ended up in a club for a little bit which was an experience no doubt. It was mostly older people ordering bottle service of Absolut. Seriously go big or go home folks, but we had a great time dancing and enjoying life. 

One our last morning in the apartment we all packed up our backpacks and headed out to explore Museums and the bigger tourist attractions. We had the most questionable breakfasts known to man ranging from an Irish breakfast to pizza. We're an eclectic bunch no doubt. From the breakfast place it was only a short walk to museum island which is where the national art gallery and all that jazz is. Honestly it was nothing special so we moved on. Once on the other side of the river some of the group stopped in the German History Museum to utilize the coat check for their bags. I just had one backpack (I'm becoming a really efficient packer!) so I carried it with me all day. We continued down the road to the Brandenburg Gate and took some obligatory tourist pics. Then we hung a left and ended up at the Holocaust Memorial which was awesome. There was a free museum underneath so of course we explored it. I could have stayed there all day reading the stories of those poor souls. Definitely a moving experience. A pit stop was need after that so we grabbed coffee. I finally found a Dunkin in Europe so of course I had iced coffee. I don't care how cold it was outside, you don't understand the struggle of trying to find ice anywhere in Europe. It's just not a thing. After the delicious DD break we walked down to the Reichstag which is the German parliament building. It was crazy to think we were looking at places that Adolf Hitler had been, as well as thinking how different the city would have looked even 25 years ago. The building itself is huge and imposing, a true must see. We knew we had to start heading to the airport soon so we hiked back to the German History Museum where the bags were checked. We had time to kill so we explored in there a little. I went and saw a killer exhibit called The Eyes of War which told the story of around 40 people who had been blinded in the war or shortly after from ammunition left around by troops fleeing. The stories were really sad as all of the blindings were just accidents. Most of the time when these people were kids they just didn't know that their "toys" were actually deadly weapons. It was truly heartbreaking. Finally we headed via metro back to the airport. I broke the tradition of having McDonald's in every country but did end up with some ballin Burger King. Let me just take this time to say how horrifying the Berlin airport is. It's a thousand degrees inside with no where to sit. Literally people just sprawled on the floor everywhere you looked. It was torturous to have to sit in there for a few hours. Thankfully though I got on the plane and sat next to a lovely Irish woman who gave me gum and offered me lots of snack. She wanted to hear all about studying in Ireland and what I thought about it. It was just another reminder of why I love this country so much. You won't find friendlier people or a more warm atmosphere. As the last days of my semester are winding down I'm full of so many conflicting emotions. I'm going to miss it here more than I could ever express in words on this blog. But I try not to think about the little countdown ticking away at the right of the screen. I still have plenty of time to love it up. I'll be back. 

From Dublin with Love. 

I fought the top bunk and the top bunk won.

Hey friends, family, and acquaintances,

So I CZECHED another country off the list this weekend when I visited Prague in the Czech Republic. ****PARENTAL WARNING- things got a little messy this trip and I will be nothing but brutally honest in this post hahah**** On Friday I woke up early and hopped on the Dublin Bus to take me into city center where I was catching the Aircoach. The Aircoach is an awesome service here in Dublin where a shuttle bus will pick you up and take you to the airport for around 6 euro. I was meeting my friend Paige from home and her roommate who are studying at UCD. Because we had checked in using the Aer Lingus app we could bypass all the typical waiting around and head straight to security. The flight itself was a little over two hours long. Upon arriving in Prague there were immediate signs of the communist and soviet era. Everything seemed a little colder and there was certainly a feeling that the country was playing catch-up in their post-communist state. I continued my tradition of tasting the McDonald's in every country before hopping in the cab towards the hostel. One of the biggest difference in the Czech Republic is their currency; they aren't members of the European Union and therefore don't use the Euro. Instead, they use the Czech Koruna. I took out about 2000 koruna which equates to about $97 US dollars. We got to our hostel, The Czech Inn, which is on the newer side of Prague. Ironically the newer part is not as nice as Old Town because it was built up during the Soviet Era. After settling in we tried to venture out to find food. There wasn't much around but we found a Chinese place. Even that was a struggle though. The shop owners first language was Chinese and her second language was Czech, so we ended up pointing to the menu and hoping for the best. We got back to the hostel and met up with our nine other roommates who were on the trip with us to get ready for the Clock Tower Bar Crawl. Prague is the nightlife capital of Europe and the thing to do on Fridays is crawl. This is where the trouble started. This crawl was 18 euro and included a four hour open bar. I felt like I was back in an international frat party. We played beer pong with people from Spain and Liverpool among other places. By the end of the night was had the whole bar chanting USA as we dominated every opponent in pong. They also just carry around trays and trays of free shots for you to grab as you party. We left the first bar and walked across the street to stop number two. Did I mention that at every bar they give you a welcome shot? This one was an underground dance club type experience where everyone was on the stage dancing around enjoying their 3 for 2 euro Jager bombs... The third bar was about a 20 minute walk. Along the way we almost got hit by the tram; that was the first near death experience. The third place got really weird, really quickly so we didn't stay long. We decided it would be best to hop off the crawl before the last stop so we wouldn't be too hungover for the next day. After cabbing it back to the hostel I attempted to get back into the top bunk but missed a step on the ladder, kicked the bed HARD, and fell, injuring myself pretty badly. In all honesty I probably should have gotten stitches but they aren't so easily accessible in a foreign country where you don't speak the language. I went to bed and dealt with it in the morning . Everyone woke up around 9 to go to breakfast and get ready for the walking tour. My injuries forced me to walk a little slower but I toughed it out and made it through the day. We went down to the water and viewed the city, saw the Charles Bridge, and even made a stop at the John Lennon Wall. The wall was my favorite part. During the Velvet Revolution, which was the movement to pull away from communism and eventually allowed the country to become a republic, young activists and students would come to this wall and write secret messages about protests and meetings. Every day the communist forces would come to the wall and paint over them. If you were caught writing on the wall you would be arrested and tortured. Today though, the wall serves as a symbol of the country's progress and people come from all over the world to leave messages. Our trip leaders brought some spray paint for us to write our own messages. Paige and I decided to leave an Irish message and wrote Slainte. I also put #NBLB on the wall in memory of Sara. For lunch we had a traditional three-course Czech meal which was, well, interesting. The first course was a weird soup, followed by beef goulash. Not horrible but not my favorite European meal. For dessert we had apple strudel. After lunch we traveled by tram up the hill to Prague castle. The castle itself is pretty small and is really just a group of building surrounding what people thing is Prague Castle, St. Vicar's Cathedral. St. Vicar's is a huge Gothic building and is actually the second largest cathedral in the world. We explored there a little bit and had Starbucks on the side of the cliff. Then we headed back to the hostel for a rest. For dinner we found a place by the metro where some of us had burgers and other had more traditional Czech food like pork knuckles and cheek. Very bizarre. On the last day in Prague we woke up and headed to Old Town Square to see the Astrological Clock which was voted the second most disappointing tourist attraction in Europe, next to the Mona Lisa, While beautiful, the clock doesn't do much except the parts move on the hour for a small show. Each piece of the clock represents something which was interesting to learn about. We stopped at a place called the Bakeshop for a light lunch before heading off to the airport. One interesting fact about the Prague airport is that there is no security until you get to your individual gate. Each gate has its own mini security check. While I had a very fun time in Prague I am always excited to go home. It's actually starting to scare me that when I think of home I think of Dublin instead of America. It is just such an overwhelming feeling every time I get off the plane in Dublin knowing that I am back in a place that brings me so much happiness. I have had very few bad days here and I'm not ready to come home. I wish I could just come home for Christmas time and come back for the spring. In any case I am going to live it up for the rest of my time here and I know I will be back as soon as possible. Berlin next weekend!


From Dublin with Love.

Fly High Shaquita

Hello everyone,

I told myself that this blog would be a representation of my time abroad: the good, the bad, and the ugly. I'm sad to say that today is one of the saddest days in my life. One of my good friends has passed away. Sara Sawick was an infectious spirit so full of love and life. From volleyball to softball, royal masque to kairos, parking lot dance parties, to late night conversations we used to be inseperable. You always were there to make everyone around you laugh. No matter how mad I was at you, you would always make me laugh and everything would be fine. Our relationship was a unique one: the definition of love/hate. I'll never be able to look at a squirrel or sing Baby It's Cold Outside without thinking of you. Your death was a tragic reminder of the fragility of life. I only wish I could be home to say goodbye to you one last time. You lived a life full of laughter and YOLO-ing where you always told every one around you "why blend in when you can stand out". You certainly did that and no one will forget you. Sara, you stayed k&k until the very end. So much untapped talent and potential and love. May angels lead you in. NBLB. BSC. BBs.