i am happy to announce that ireland, being a fellow ex-colony of britain, is willing, able, and happy to help us americans celebrate our independence holiday. american flags abound in temple bar, which is where we elected to eat dinner tonight at a restaurant called "thunder road cafe." it was quite similar to hard rock cafe in decor, menu, and attitude...so we all had burgers and cocktails and toasted to our country.
this weekend was delightful in its simplicity. i woke up around eleven on friday and thought "wow, i have nothing urgent to do." friday was the first time that i haven't had a bus to catch, people to meet, meals to eat, or classes to attend since my arrival in ireland. needless to say, it was quite a treat. of course, i immediately made plans with a friend of mine, maura, to wander about the city for as long as we saw fit.
i'll interject here with an exciting announcement: i was selected for a $1000 scholarship from the CGIS program and a private donor. as such, i am able to attend to the financial obligations that this study abroad trip requires. (read: i can now travel more, and feel much more comfortable handing over my debit card). as such, maura and i spent most of friday shopping. what fun!
we returned to campus around five and decided to run to the computer lab to check our emails. there, i found a message from elise with her london phone number and news of her arrival in dublin! what a beautiful surprise. so, i ended up spending the night catching up with her and meeting some of her groupmates from her london study abroad. it was amazing to see her and to hear of her exploits since arriving in britain the week before.
saturday was howth day. a group of us had decided that, since we had stayed in dublin for the weekend, we should at least take a little bit of time to explore the surrounding areas. so, we hopped on the train and headed north for this little fishing village. it was quaint and full of tourists, but we found some seals to watch and a lighthouse to walk to. and, of course, a great little hole-in-the-wall restaurant to eat lunch in. after getting back to dublin, we napped and got ready and then headed out on the town. it was mackenzie's birthday and, as such, the entire group of us (probably twenty kids in all) decided to go clubbing. when we got to the club and found an obscene cover charge and age limit, we went to a bar called whelan's instead. it was amazing! my new favorite place in dublin. rather than playing the typical hip-hop/top40 music that i can only stand for so long, they played a range of music from arcade fire to bob marley to david bowie to...i don't remember what else! it was waaaay too much fun. i felt completely at home there and danced until my feet could dance no more.
today, our entire program went to the national hurling championship games between kilkenny and galway. we arrived not knowing what to expect, and we didn't quite follow the game but had fun anyway. hurling wiki kilkenny won the match, as they have for the last five years...an unprecedented event. we witnessed history! it was a good time, but most of us were exhausted and a bit bored, unfortunately.
so, all in all, a spectacular weekend. i'm happy to have some downtime again tonight, and it's back to class at 10am tomorrow. we have a fiction reading to attend tomorrow night that i'm very excited about, and some more group events throughout the week that i'll comment on soon. next weekend, i'm going to hop the train to cloughjordan on friday and go to a music festival, oxegen, on saturday. on sunday, we head to belfast for our week on classes in the north!
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