Well...I'm in Wales!

28 June 2012

Well like I said, leaving Ireland was really sad. It was just such a good experience, and I can’t imagine the rest of my trip living up to the expectations that Ireland has given me. But on to Wales I went.

We boarded a ferry in the morning (bus and all), and sailed the three hours to Wales. Once we had gotten off the ferry, we drove to Beaumaris Castle. Apparently, King Edward I had several castles built along the coast of Wales in order to control the people there. It was a really neat castle. I liked it better than the ones I saw in Ireland. And it was a lot of fun to explore!

After we left the castle, we went to a slate mine. Slate is really common in Wales, so they mine it like crazy. We got to ride in a cart down to some of the lower levels of the mine. Once we were down there, they had us walk through and listen to a recording that told the story of a boy who worked there. Honestly, I couldn’t understand the entire story because of the accent, but that’s okay.

Kylee, me, and Palmer in our hard hats!

 Once we finished there, we went to the lodge we would be staying at. We unpacked our stuff, and then the directors bought us all fish and chips from a market down the street for dinner. That was so nice of them! 

After dinner, we had a little bit of a slumber party and watched Shrek. It was so awesome! I kind of felt like I was at girls’ camp again. Haha. It was great!


29 June 2012

In the morning, we went to Caernarfon Castle, another castle built by Edward I. Well, in reality, it was a palace because Edward II was supposed to live there. That building has been my favorite! It was huge and ridiculously fun to wander through. I wish we would have had more time there because I didn’t get to check everything out, but that’s okay. Also, our guide was awesome. I loved his accent! It turns out that the Welsh roll their r’s. I think it’s because of the Welsh language. Eighty percent of the people speak it as a first language, and the r’s are rolled.

One of the rooms in the palace was a chapel, and the acoustics were incredible! One of our directors had suggested earlier that we all sing “God Be With You ‘Til We Meet Again” when we said goodbye to our bus driver, Declan. So being in this awesome ancient chapel, we decided to practice in there. It was so cool! We sounded a million times better than we would normally. It was so great that at the end of our tour, we invited Declan in, and we sang to him there. And it was amazing. Even more than the first time. The Spirit was really strong, and I just about cried. Someone said that it looked like Declan wiped a couple of tears himself afterward. :)

After visiting Caernarfon Castle, we stopped at a few towns just to look around. It was nice to get a feel for the towns in Wales, but it was raining the whole time (shocker, I know), so that made it slightly less pleasant.

Later, we arrived at our hostel in Bala, and we got to wander a bit. Some of the girls and I grabbed dinner and then walked down by the lake they have here. It was pretty, but again, the rain made it less than pleasant.

So far, I like Wales well enough, but it doesn’t compare to Ireland. I miss it there. I try not to compare the two countries to each other too much, but it’s really hard not to. Wales is a pretty place, but the people (in Northern Wales at least) haven’t been exactly friendly. They keep to themselves, like Americans do. And that makes a big difference. But hey, the fact that I’m in Wales at all is amazing and has to count for something, right?

Dublin: The Last of My Irish Memories

26 June 2012

Our bus driver, Deklan, stopped on our way to Dublin so we could get pictures here :)

Before making it to Dublin, we went to a place called Glendalough. It’s where St. Kevin settled over one thousand years ago. All that’s left are some buildings, including a round tower, and a cemetery. Walking through the cemetery was really awesome because it was just pretty. The gravestones and the crosses are all so beautiful.

Kylee walking through the cemetery

There was also a path that led to a lake, and everything was so gorgeous! Molly, who’s from Washington, said that it was all so green, even for her. It was absolutely amazing. I wish my camera could have captured how incredible it really was.

After Glendalough, we drove to Dublin City University (DCU), where we would be staying that night. Shortly after checking in, we drove to the city center so explore Dublin for a few hours. Strangely, I didn’t love it. Dublin’s a great city, but it felt just like another U.S. city. The people weren’t as open as the people in Cork, so we didn’t really meet anyone. But I still had fun with the girls. We walked around some shops, and then we went to dinner at a place called Quay’s.

Also, I bought a penny whistle! They’re everywhere in Ireland, and they’re really cool. Since I already play flute, I figured it wouldn’t be too hard to pick up.

When we got back to DCU, we still had a couple of hours to kill, so Palmer, Kylee, and I went to the dorm lounge and made pizza. And I pulled out my brand new penny whistle to try it out. I was right. It wasn’t too hard to pick up. I’ll need to practice a little bit, but playing flute definitely helps. Oh, and we decided to name my whistle Tynan. Good name, right? It’s actually the name of a pub in Kilkenny. Haha.

Later, we met up with Molly and Shayla to walk around campus. We were hoping to talk to some people about the Dublin dialect, but there was nobody out. Weird, right? We finally found a group of guys, but they turned out to French learning English. So they weren’t much help. We finally gave up on that and headed to our rooms. But Palmer and I did get in a game of cards before going to bed.

27 June 2012

The next morning, we went to Trinity College, mostly to look at the Book of Kells. And that was really neat. But the best part was the library upstairs. OH. MY. GOODNESS. There were so many books, and they were all so old! It looked like the scene from Beauty and the Beast, but better. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. There were just shelves and shelves of books. They even had those rolling ladders. And in front of each shelf was a marble bust of a prominent philosopher or other influential person. People like Socrates, John Locke, and Shakespeare. It was all so awesome! The sad thing is that we weren’t allowed to take pictures, so if you want to see how amazing it is, you’ll either have to look it up online or go see it yourself.

After I finally decided to leave the library, I got to look around campus. Wow. Why doesn’t BYU look like that? The buildings are just elegant and sophisticated. But then again, if I went to school there, it would probably lose its magic, you know? So I guess I’m okay with just being a tourist.

Once we left Trinity College, our group drove over to Kilmainham Gaol. It’s an old jail that was used a lot during the uprisings and rebellions of Ireland. When our tour guide, Rosemary, came out, she said, “You’re the LDS group, right? I was assigned to do your tour because I’m a member of your church.” Awesome, right? It was neat to be able to meet her and to listen to her talk about what went on in the jail.

It was a pretty eerie place. The prisoners (many of whom, including children, were only in there for stealing food to feed their families) were not treated well at all. All of the cells were originally built for one person, but they usually had five or six. There were also a lot of public executions that took place there. We saw the room where that took place, and it was a strange feeling. I could see the trap door that would be opened for the prisoner to hang. It was creepy. Oh, and the prisoners were locked up for twenty-three hours every day, with only one to exercise. And their form of exercise was walking around in a circle with heads and eyes lowered. They weren’t allowed to speak to anyone or to look at anyone. The prisoners also thought that they were always being watched because the cell doors all had peep holes in them that could only be seen through from the outside. It was not a very pleasant place.

This is a room that was used to isolate people in complete darkness.

All of the prison cells

The next few hours were spent exploring Dublin. And when I say a few, I mean five and a half. As exciting as our little “fivesome” has been, we didn’t even know what to do with ourselves for that long. We looked around random shops for a while, then we went back to the college to sit down and rest. After that, Palmer and I played some cards and walked around some more. After wasting a significant amount of time, we found a guy to interview for one of our classes. He’s the one who told us that younger generations say like (so it’s not just a Dublin thing). After we asked him our questions and recorded his speech, he told us that he had studied languages himself, so he had tried to polish his English a little bit. That was tiny bit of a letdown (since we’re not interested in polished, “proper” English), but it was still fun to talk to him.

Finally, it was time to meet up with our group at the Gaiety Theatre for a River Dance performance. I wish I could have taken pictures, but they wouldn’t allow it, for copyright purposes. But it was incredible! The dancers are SO fast. I have no idea how they do it. It was so fun to be able to watch the show. They had some amazing musicians and singers too. I don’t even know what to say about it, but just know that it was extraordinary! And a good way to end Ireland.

Kylee and me waiting to see River Dance!

I am so sad to be leaving this beautiful country. I’ve come to love Ireland and its people more than I can say, and I hope that someday I’ll have the opportunity to return. While we were on the bus, one of my directors read to us something from his own blog about having to leave. It seriously almost made me cry. I just hope that Wales will be just as special.

Kilkenny

25 June 2012

First of all, interesting name, right? The girls liked saying, “We’re going to Kilkenny” because it sounds like, “We’re going to kill Kenny.” Haha.

On our way from Cork to Kilkenny, we stopped at Cahir Castle. That was really cool! Our guide told us about some of the defenses that castles had in order to protect themselves. For example, the stairs were all built unevenly so that it was harder for enemies to run up them (and trust me, you really had to watch your step!). And going up, the stairs turn clockwise so that if you’re right-handed, you can’t use your sword very well. But if you’re coming down and turning counter-clockwise, your left hand is against the wall and your right hand is free.

After Cahir Castle, we went to the Rock of Cashel. But here’s the thing. It’s not just a single rock. It refers to all of the stone that was used to build the religious buildings that are there. It was a pretty neat place. I mostly enjoyed walking around the cemetery in the back. I found two graves with the name Johanna on them. I thought that was cool because my sister’s name is Johannah and it’s not a very common name.

There was also a giant cross outside with a myth attached to it. Our guide told us that if we can put our arms around it and have our middle fingers touch, then we won’t have toothaches for the rest of our lives. Well I hate tooth pain, so I thought I better give it a try. I didn’t make it. Not even close. So it looks like I’ll be experiencing some toothaches in my time.

Another myth is that if you hop all the way around the cross seven times in a row, then you’ll get married within the next year. Yeah, I didn’t try that one. Haha.

After leaving the Rock of Cashel, we drove to Kilkenny Castle. It was more modern than the others have been (there was actually a roof!). I think it could have been more fun, but we got there about a half hour before it closed, so the employees were really rushing us through. And we couldn’t take pictures inside, and that’s always lame. So there’s not really a whole lot to say about that.

We checked into our hotel, and then some of the girls and I went into town to find some more people to talk to. But Kilkenny is significantly smaller than Cork, and there wasn’t nearly as much going on. However, we did get to watch Gerard Hayes from Lord of the Dance for free! He was dancing in one of the pubs, so we went in and watched him. (He’s a really famous Irish dancer.)

Afterwards, we tried to find something else to do, but there just wasn’t anything going on. So we went back to the hotel instead. I got to Skype with my family again, which was especially nice because I could do it in my room and because the internet connection was a lot better.

That was my only night in Kilkenny (and to be honest, I’m kind of glad). We went to Dublin the next morning.

Cork! :)

23 June 2012

On our way to Cork, we stopped for a couple of hours so that we could go jaunting. Don’t worry, I had never heard of it either. But it’s a lot more fun to say with a British accent. Haha. It’s just a fancy word for going for a carriage ride. We drove through a national forest, and it was really pretty. And our driver, Mark, was super funny. He told us that summertime is his favorite day of the year. Haha. And at one point, we saw a grave just off the road, so we asked him about it. He said it was a tragic fishing accident, and we kind of laughed, but then we were afraid he was actually serious. So we asked him if he was. He said, “Yeah, she was my first wife. She tripped over the rock into the lake. I was going to jump in to save her, but my phone rang right at that moment.” We were dying! He was awesome.

At the end of the ride, we had gotten to Ross Castle. We just looked around for a while and took some pictures. Then we went over to the Muckross House (and when I say house, I mean mansion). The grounds around the house were absolutely beautiful! I would not mind living there. I think the tour guide said that the family had something like 10,000 acres of land. It was a ridiculous amount.

On the grounds of the Muckross house

The house itself was really cool too. Unfortunately, they wouldn’t let us take pictures, so I don’t have anything to show for it. But it was a pretty cool place. Apparently, the couple who lived there spent seven years preparing for the queen of England to come visit them. Seven years! That’s crazy.

Years later, the house was purchased by the Guinness family—the same one that the drink is named after. So that’s a fun fact.

Muckross House

After leaving the Muckross House, we went to Cork. When we drove into Cork, I didn’t think I would like it as well as I liked Dingle. It was more of a city, while Dingle was a small town. In the States, that would usually mean that Dingle would be easygoing and friendly and that Cork would be busy and unfriendly. But I couldn’t have been more wrong.

After checking in at the hotel, a bunch of us started walking around the city. We found an awesome souvenir shop, where I found a Guinness spoon! Guinness is HUGE in Ireland, so I just had to buy it!

Once we had done our souvenir shopping, Palmer, Kylee, and I kept walking, looking for something to do. We found a shopping center, and there were a lot of people just hanging out outside. Well we decided that we wanted to talk to some of them, so we approached some people about our age and asked if they could tell us some of the local slang (being linguistics students gives us the perfect excuse to talk to locals!). We ended up talking to them for about an hour, and they were so awesome! They were all really nice and fun. They taught us some new vocabulary and told us about themselves. Apparently, people from Cork use like just as much as young Americans do. It’s something that identifies them as being from Cork. I never would have guessed that! (Later, when I went to Dublin, I found out it's not a Cork thing. It's a generation thing, just like in the States.) We also talked to them a little bit about the Church. I was surprised that they had actually heard of Mormons before, but it was cool to explain a couple of things to them. They weren’t interested in investigating, but they definitely respected our beliefs, which was great.

Our new Irish friends!

They also told us that the guys were in a band and invited us to go listen to them play in a pub later that night. Palmer, Kylee, and I decided to go check out a cathedral before, and the guys showed us where it was. While we were over there, we ran into Molly and Shayla. So the five of us went to listen to our new Irish friends play in their band, and they were good! We were impressed.

After they finished playing, one of the guys, Mick, asked us where we were staying. We’ve made it a rule to not ever tell anyone, just to be safe. So we told him we didn’t know what it was called. So he asked, “Well, are you going to get home okay? Maybe you should get a taxi.” That’s one thing I’ve noticed. Any time that people ask us where we’re staying, it’s not to be creepy or anything; they’re genuinely concerned, and they want to make sure that we’ll make it back okay. I think that’s awesome!

24 June 2012


The next day was Sunday, which meant we got to go to church in Cork. We invited our new friends to come, but they didn’t get the message in time. Church was cool. I’m pretty sure we about tripled their congregation. Haha. But I talked to a girl after Sacrament meeting, and she told me that they actually have about 200 people in their ward but people don’t really come unless they live in town or really close (a lot of people live farther away).

When we were leaving church, we saw some pass along cards and a number for the Cork missionaries, so we grabbed some cards and wrote down the number. Just in case.

After church, we went outside the city to Blarney Castle. And yes, I kissed the stone! It was kind of gross, but I had to do it, you know? It was weird because you have to lie down on your back (with a guy supporting you with his arms) and then tip your head back and kiss the stone upside down.

Palmer and me in front of Blarney Castle

Outside the castle, there was a cave that you could walk into. I had to hunch over the whole time, and it was really muddy inside, but it was really cool. And it goes back quite a ways, but it eventually comes to a dead end. Apparently, the cave was an escape route, and it used to go all the way to Cork and to Dublin. Pretty impressive.

After Blarney Castle, we went to a town called Cobh. It’s the last place that the Titanic docked from. There’s also an awesome cathedral there, and we got to sit in on mass for a few minutes. That was really neat. Only, it was sad because Palmer, Kylee, Molly, Shayla, and I were planning on going to mass in Cork with our new friends. But since we went to Cobh later than planned, we didn’t make it back in time. But we did randomly run into one of the girls, Taam. We couldn’t believe the coincidence! She was there with her grandma, so we talked to her for a few minutes and explained the situation to her. So hopefully, our friends don’t hate us for ditching them!

Later that night, the five of us wandered around town some more. We were thinking about going and looking some more at the cathedral, even though we had missed mass. On our way there, some guys stopped us and started talking to us. Turns out they were Welsh! One of them had a really cool Welsh name: Delfryn (the f is pronounced like a v, and the r is rolled like in Spanish). He and his friend John Paul asked if they could buy us drinks, so we told them that we don’t drink because we’re LDS. They were astounded. More so than anyone else we’ve talked to. But we let them buy us lemonades, and we talked about Welsh and language in general for a while. They told us that being in Ireland and being around the Irish accent, they could tell where the American accent came from. Interesting, right? It makes sense since there were so many Irish immigrants, but I had never thought about it.

We eventually came back to the subject of the Church, and we talked about it for quite a while. It was way cool. John Paul was asking some deep questions. He wanted to know whether or not we would ever marry someone who was not a member and our reasons for that. He wanted to know whether a member who had broken the law of chastity would be an outcast. We had some really interesting conversations. When we left, we gave them pass along cards. I’m not so sure that Delfryn will do anything about it, but I think that John Paul might actually do a little bit of digging.

Oh, and while we were talking, Delfryn pointed at me and said something like, “You! I can tell that you’re dedicated to your religion because of the look you get on your face every time we ask a question.” Maybe I shouldn’t be so overeager, but I thought that was a pretty good compliment!

Less than fifteen minutes after we said goodbye to Delfryn and John Paul, we were stopped on the street by another guy, Steven. We had just been talking and laughing, and someone said the word awesome. So Steven came over to us and said something like, “Oh was it awesome? Where are you from?” We told him where we were from, and he told me that he thought I was Amish! I’m not sure why. We think it’s just because I look super innocent. Plus, Steven spent some time in Boston and encountered a lot of Amish people who had left their communities. So he told me that as a rebel Amish, Cork was the right place for me because they’re the rebels.

While we were talking to Steven, we showed him some of the slang words that we had gotten from the group we had met the night before. He made sure to tell us which ones are probably not the best for us to be saying. So that was helpful! Haha.

Steven also told us that he had gone to Boston to be on a hurling team there. Hurling is a sport that is huge in Ireland. I had never heard of it before, but it looks like a mix of hockey and lacrosse. Steven had broken his foot while playing earlier, and he was walking around on it! He had shoes on and didn’t have crutches on. Crazy! But he didn’t want to go to the hospital since the health care over here isn’t exactly ideal.

When we told Steven that we had to go home, he did the same thing that Mick had done the night before. He asked where we were staying and asked whether we would make it home okay. Don’t worry, we didn’t tell him the name of the hotel either.

When I came home for the night, I got to Skype my entire family! It was so fun to see my nephews, even though they were just confused why Aunt Jessi was on a computer screen. Haha. Oh, and I had to Skype in the hallway by the lobby because I didn’t get internet in my room. And while I was down there, some drunk guy kept walking through and asking my family if they wanted a pint of Guinness. I told him that they were in the States and that it would be pretty difficult for them to join him, but like I said, he was drunk, and I don’t think he knew what was going on. Three times he did that!

Anyway, we had to leave Cork the next morning. I was really sad to leave because I had met some really awesome people, and I had a lot of fun there! But life goes on, and at least I have some pretty amazing memories!

*Side note: Everybody says that Cork English is supposed to be super hard to understand, but none of us had a problem with it. But the girls we met told us that they can’t understand Scottish English because they speak so fast…so that should be an adventure!

Life in Dingle

22 June 2012

One thing we’ve noticed about the UK is that there are literally NO old, beat-up cars. Not a one. It’s not like everyone is driving Ferraris, but they’re all driving decent cars.

The other thing we’ve noticed is that there are sheep EVERYWHERE. Seriously, we’ll be driving in the bus and then look out the window to see a bunch of green fields, separated from each other by lines of huge bushes, and a million little white dots throughout. Come to think of it, they do sell a lot of wool here.

Also, they have their signs in both English and Gaelic/Irish. Cool, right?

Random tid bit: One of the girls told me that the man who runs the inn we stayed at said “No probs.” No probs? That sounds like something an American teenage girl would say, along with “tots adorbs” and “sups awk.” I thought that was pretty funny.

Anyway, my first full day in Dingle was pretty great. We took the bus out to a place called Dún Beag Fort. No one really knows the story behind it, but it’s probably as old as 800 AD. And it’s made entirely of stone since Ireland has TONS of stone. And it’s right next to the Atlantic Ocean, so the view is beautiful!

I also got to crawl inside one of the rooms at the fort. The opening was more like a window than a door, but once I was inside, I could stand up.

This is next to the fort, so you can't see the fort in the picture.

While we were there, a dog started following our group around. He wasn’t a stray, but I’m not sure who he belonged to. He kept picking up a rock with his mouth and carrying it over to one of us. He would walk in between our legs and drop the rock by our feet, expecting us to pick it up and throw it for him. We tried to throw a different rock, but he only wanted his. I’m not sure what was so special about it. Haha.

He was so cute :)

After the fort, we went down the road to see a Beehive Hut. It’s made out of stone and shaped like a beehive, and it was inhabited anciently, clear up to as late as 1200 AD. So it was fun walking inside it.

Our next stop was the beach. The wind was blowing like crazy, which made it colder. But it was still cool to walk down to the shore. We found a starfish down there, and I touched the water just so I can say that I’ve touched the Atlantic Ocean in Ireland. 

This isn't where we went down, but look how pretty it is!

Also while we were there, some of the girls went surfing! The gift shop nearby lets people rent wet suits and boards for ten euros (about thirteen dollars). Most of us didn’t do it, but the ones that did said they had a lot of fun!

In the meantime, some of us spent time in the gift shop. While we were doing that, some random Irish man, probably about forty years old, came up and started hitting on one of the girls in our group, Kylee. We all think it was her red hair that got him. Haha. He told her they could go Irish dancing and that he would teach her how to do it. Luckily, she had to tell him no since she was here on a study abroad. Then he asked her what she was studying for her trip and whether she was studying Irish men because “that’s a good subject” (said while pointing to himself). Even after Kylee told him no, he still asked where she was staying (you know, so that he could pick her up to go dancing). Then Caroline stepped in and said, “We don’t know what it’s called.” No way were we telling him the name of our hotel. We’ve all seen the movie Taken. We know what can happen. Haha. Well, the man finally left Kylee alone, but it was hilarious! We were all laughing about it on the bus later.

Leaving the beach, we went back to our hotel in Dingle. We had the rest of the night to do whatever we wanted. So after brushing the knots out of our hair (they were SO bad) and doing some homework, a bunch of us decided to “go pubbing” as Palmer called it. First we went to a local restaurant and got some fish and chips. I'm not a huge fish lover, but I can't come to the UK and not eat fish and chips. Seriously. It was really good, and I split the cost with another girl, so it was totally worth it.

After dinner, we walked around the shops for a while. That was fun just to see the kinds of things they sell. There was a lot of wool and a lot of souvenirs with sheep on them. Haha.

Okay, this next part was probably the highlight of my whole day. We went to a pub! (It's called O'Sullivan's.) Every night in all the pubs, people start randomly playing music and singing songs. But it's impolite to go listen to the music if you don't buy anything. So all of us Mormon girls went in and bought 7UPs. They probably thought we were super weird. Haha. Then we met a couple from Cincinnati, Tony and Lisa, so that was fun to talk to them. But what made this night unforgettable was Philip.

Philip is an old Irish man and is about as friendly as they come. He memorized all of our names really fast, which was exceptionally impressive because he was definitely drunk. Haha. He said that one of the musicians who played at that pub had passed away on Wednesday, and the night before the funeral, it's tradition for everyone to go out and celebrate the person's death. So Phillip was out celebrating (AKA getting drunk). The requiem mass would be the next day.

At one point, Philip thought that we were all sisters and that the tony and Lisa were our parents. Yeah, definitely not. Haha. And later, he sang some Irish folk songs for us. It was great! Then he started going around the circle to try to get everyone else to sing a song, one at a time. And the first two girls actually did it! In the meantime, I was just praying that Philip would get distracted before he got to me. Luckily, Lisa started singing the theme song from "The Brady Bunch," and all the girls joined in. That seemed to satisfy Philip. Oh, and he also told us a story about hauling fish into a boat and how hard he had to work. He said the only thing that kept him and his friends going was Kylie Minogue, and he started singing "Do the Locomotion" and dancing. Haha. Best night ever. It was all just hilarious! And we all felt like we had had a real Irish experience after that.

Palmer and me at the pub!

We went to The Dingle Pub after that. That one was fun too but not quite as eventful. The music was really good there, but I definitely liked my experience at O'Sullivan's better.

 That night, I went back to my inn to go to sleep, and I could still hear people playing music and singing. And they were actually playing a lot of American songs. I heard "I'm Yours," "Call Me Maybe," and "Hallelujah." And that's what I fell asleep to. :)

Ireland...FINALLY!

20 June 2012

I finally made it to Shannon, Ireland! My flight was about an hour and a half, but it felt like ten minutes because I slept the entire time (which is a big deal for me…I don’t sleep on planes, remember?). Once we got off the plane, our directors were there waiting for us. We walked across the street to the hotel…I’m pretty sure that was one of the longest walks I’ve ever taken! We got checked in, and I was so excited to get on the Internet and maybe even talk to my family. But of course, the hotel charged a lot of money to use it. Seriously, people? So instead, I got into my bed. A bed! Not a plane seat or a cold bench or a cement step, but an actual bed. I almost forgot they existed. You’d think that I would fall asleep in less than ten seconds considering how completely exhausted I was, but it actually took me a little while. I think it was because I’ve been a little sick. I started getting a sore throat a couple days before I left, and traveling for twenty-eight hours with very little sleep wasn’t exactly helpful. But I did eventually fall asleep.

21 June 2012

This morning, we got breakfast from the hotel. And guess what song was playing as we were eating? “God Bless America.” Don’t ask me why. I haven’t the slightest idea. But I didn’t complain. It was kind of nice. Maybe they just wanted us to feel right at home!

After checking out of the hotel, we rode a bus to Bunratty Castle. And that was awesome. Plus, I was feeling much better, so I was actually able to enjoy it. First, my friend Palmer and I wandered through the buildings surrounding the castle, including an old church. Those were all pretty cool, but none of them compared to the castle itself.

This is from the roof, looking to the other side.

In the center of each floor was a large room, probably used for banquets or something. Then there were spiral staircases in all four corners that led to bedrooms and other rooms. One of the staircases went down to the dungeon…tiny staircase. If you’re claustrophobic, you might not want to venture down there. When we followed the stairs to the very top, we could actually walk outside. And the view from the top was amazing!

Random tidbit: while we were at the castle, Palmer and I met a guy from Kentucky. When I told him we were there with a study abroad group from Utah, he said, “A bunch of Mormon girls, huh?” Then he told us that Mormons are the best people he knows and that he has a lot of Mormon friends. So that’s pretty great!

We easily spent two hours wandering around the castle and its grounds. Then we hopped back on our bus and started toward a city called Dingle. It was so fun to just sit and look at the scenery. The countryside is so beautiful! And the houses in town are so cute!

Part way to Dingle, we stopped to stretch our legs, and I met an old Irish man. After saying maybe two sentences to him, he said, “What part of the states are you from?” Apparently, my accent is super obvious. Haha. But hey, that’s alright!

When we drove into Dingle, this is what I saw:

All of the buildings looked like this in Dingle. Such a cute town!

Everything is super jam packed, but it’s really bright and colorful! I actually like it a lot. I would hate driving on their roads though. Ridiculously narrow. Our bus driver has some serious skills.

After we checked into our hotel in Dingle, I had to carry my suitcase up six flights of stairs. So that was fun. But the room I stayed in was really cute, so I guess it was worth it.

Later, some of the girls and I went to a place in town to listen to some local Irish music. It was really cool. One guy was playing some pipes that were quite fascinating. I had never seen the instrument, but I liked it a lot. But even though we were all enjoying the music, we were also falling asleep (that’s how good it was). After about an hour or so, we went back to our hotel to get some sleep.

But instead of sleeping, I finally got to Skype with my family! It was so great to see them and talk to them. It’s weird to think that I was with them the day before yesterday. It feels like it’s been a lot longer than that. Anyway, after talking to them for a while, I finally went and got some sleep. Some very much needed sleep!

Manchester: My Unexpected Adventure

19 June 2012

Good news. The first flight went well. I flew from Salt Lake City to Chicago in a few hours. No big deal. But then my flight to Manchester was delayed for an hour. Normally, that wouldn't be a huge problem, except that I only had an hour once the Manchester plane landed to get to the plane that would take me to Shannon, Ireland. So there was a good chance I could miss my last flight. But after talking to my mom, I figured that since it would be an eight-hour flight, we would be able to make up for lost time and get back on schedule. Plus, twenty-two people on the Manchester flight were supposed to be connecting to the Shannon flight (making up half of that plane). So maybe they would wait for us.

So I boarded the plane and tried not to think about it. Luckily, I had a window seat so hopefully I would be able to sleep. But none of the girls in my group were near me. Instead, a man named Nick sat by me. He's from Wisconsin and pretty quiet. But we talked a little bit, and I ended up giving him a pass along card. So that's pretty good, right?

Oh, and when the sun was setting, it seriously made a perfect rainbow in the sky. I have no idea how that happened, but I could see every single color. It was absolutely gorgeous! The night was terrible though. I had the HARDEST time sleeping. I would fall asleep for a half hour or so, then wake up, then fall asleep for another half hour, wake up again. Oh, it was terrible. But I did get to see the sunrise (kinda). There was a red light coming up from the clouds that were beneath us. So that was pretty neat.

Then I realized that we would not be getting there on time. We would be an hour late. Great.

20 June 2012

Once I was off the plane, I went through immigration. That was fun. The guy wanted proof that I was really a student (like a customs letter from the ISP Office at BYU, which they told us we did not need). I explained that to him. I'm not sure whether or not he believed me. He kept asking me random questions, to check out my story, I think. Well then another girl in my group pulled out a customs letter. From the ISP Office at BYU. So I have NO idea why the ISP Office told ninety percent of us not to worry about it yet told one person how to get it. Luckily, it was good enough to convince the worker to let me and the rest of my group through.

When I got that over with, I found out that the flight to Shannon had not waited. My day just kept getting better and better. The next flight didn't depart for another TWELVE hours! So that's the flight they put all of us on, and they gave us each two meal tickets, so that was nice. But still. Kinda annoying.

Well, the girls and I went and got our free lunch, found a place to leave our bags, and went out to explore Manchester! We rode a train to Piccadilly and picked up a map, and then we just started walking. There were lots of cool buildings, most of which I haven't a clue of what they're used for. But here's one of them:

And it was fun to people watch. These people have some strange fashion ideas. Just saying.

While we were walking around, we found the Manchester China Town. There wasn't really a lot, but it was cool to look around.

My favorite part about today was the library. OH. MY. GOODNESS. This library was founded in 1807, and there are tons and tons of books. And they're all super old. It was beautiful! And being the English lovers that we all are, we just about died. Unfortunately, you have to be a member in order to actually handle the books. So we didn't get to touch them. But I did the next best thing and took pictures. They also had an exhibit on Charles Dickens that was pretty interesting. I'm glad we found that place!

This is only part of one of the four walls!

Look how old they are. :)

Our last stop was the Manchester Art Gallery. It was really cool, and there were some awesome pieces. But to be honest, we were all so exhausted that we couldn't really appreciate it. The jet lag was killing us.

So after the art gallery, we went back to the airport, which is where we are now, waiting to board our plane. Only a few more hours until we'll FINALLY be in Ireland, and we can go to sleep! I cannot adequately express in words how blissful that sounds right now. Traveling for more than twenty-four hours tends to wear you out, especially when you get hardly any sleep.

But even though I'm exhausted, I'm excited to be here! And the extra day in Manchester was fun. It gave me a chance to see some things I wouldn't have seen otherwise, as well as a chance to get to know some of the girls in my group a little bit better.

Well that's it for now. Next time you hear from me, I'll be in Ireland! :)

My New Adventure!

18 June 2012

It's finally here! I'm leaving tomorrow for Ireland, and I can hardly wait! My family and I had a barbecue tonight so I could see everyone before I leave. I said bye to most of them after...and yes, I was holding back tears. I know it's only a month and a half, but when your parents, three brothers, two sisters, one brother-in-law, two sisters-in-law, and three nephews all live in Orem and you go to school in Provo, you still get to see them a LOT. So this is kind of a new experience for me. But even though I'll miss them all like crazy, this is going to be such an amazing experience, and I cannot wait for it to start! :)