The Luck of the Irish?

Ireland was quite the experience.  Maybe I should start off with telling you how this trip even came about and the troubles we've had with Ireland since then! About a month ago my friends and I decided that we wanted to go to Dublin for a weekend.  We all looked around at different flights and such and all decided on a flight that would work for all of us.  As we were all sitting with credit cards in hand each of us on separate computers we all picked the flight, put our information in pressed the "book" button.  While waiting for the next page to load, some of us were prompted to a screen that told us the flight was sold out, while I was brought to a page that said my session timed out.  At that point we were all way too frustrated and decided to give up on Ireland all together.  Within two hours myself and my friend Jenna got confirmation tickets in our email saying that we had airline tickets.  Confused, we all decided to sit back down together and look at other flights for our friends to take so they could still come with us.  Unfortunately everything that we had found was too expensive and wasn't going to work out.  That left me and Jenna with plane tickets by ourselves to Ireland.

Our first problem with booking through this company was more than likely the fact that we used a third party website to book through.  It was similar to something of expedia.com or something along those lines.  After we had found out that our friends weren't going to be able to go we decided that maybe we should try calling the company and canceling our flight, it was actually the websites fault in general.  After being put on hold for over an hour we finally got to talk to someone only to be told that we could not cancel our flights.  We decided we were going to make the best of it and just stick it out and go to Dublin anyway.  As the weeks went by we made a joke about the trip and how awkward it was going to be that it would just be the two of us walking around Dublin by ourselves.  My credit card never even got charged for the flight so we also joked that they probably wouldn't even let me on the plane.  I probably said that maybe a few too many times, because I jinxed myself.

On Thursday we left school straight from my last class.  We took the tube to the train station and took an express train straight to the airport.  Thank god we got there early because all hell was about to break lose.  We got up to the check in spot, I gave them my passport, only to find out that I literally didn't have a ticket.  What ended up happening, bizarrely enough, is that cheapoair, the third party company we used managed to combine my ticket information with my friend Jenna's information (even though we booked on two separate computers with two separate credit cards.)  After about another hour on the phone with the company they finally scrambled around and got me a ticket.  We were incredibly close to turning around and going back to school and screwing the whole Dublin trip in general.  I've decided now that I'm home, maybe it was a sign from the Gods.

After a very quick plane ride over to Dublin, we were in for quite another treat.  We had no idea, but the day we decided to fly over there was Arthur Guinness day, so when we got there, everyone was drunk.  On our walk to our hostel we saw people brawling in the streets and drunk people stumbling around everywhere.  We were definitely not in the mood.  We finally got to our hostel, our first hostel experience by the way, and it was weird!  Because we had spent a decent amount of money on our plane ride we tried to find a cheap hostel and the cheapest one we found was in a 12 bed female "dorm" so we were rooming with 10 other females, some of which didn't even speak english! This was just adding onto our experience, but we just kept telling each other, "it's all part of it!" What good vacation doesn't have some fun stories to go along with it!  Who would have thought it could get better, or worse...

We went to bed, woke up the next morning, had a quick breakfast and decided to head out for the day. They have double decker "hop on hop off" tour of Dublin buses everywhere.  We decided since there was nothing really that we wanted to do that we would buy a ticket for one of those buses.  It was actually quite a good deal because you could get off at the stop that you wanted to get off at, tour whatever you wanted to tour and wait for the next bus to come around and hop right back on.  We decided that our first stop would be at the Jameson factory.  This was a pretty cool place! We got to learn how Jameson is made and what makes it different from scotch and Jack Daniels.  At the end of the tour we had a complementary drink with Jameson in it, which was actually my first time having Jameson.  To my surprise it wasn't that bad!  After that we hopped back on the bus and decided to finish up the rest of the tour that they gave.  We got off at one stop to do a little souvenir shopping which was fun and successful.  I got a really cute bracelet with clovers on it, a shot glass, a long sleeve Irish rugby shirt and some post cards! After that we went and got a really good dinner and then met up with our friend Megan who was there with another group of girls.

Jenna and me outside the Jameson factory

The next day we woke up, met back up with Megan and decided to do some more souvenir shopping.  After we stopped at the store and bought a few more things we decided to walk a little ways down the street to get some breakfast at a restaurant that we thought would be nice.  Unfortunately, what was a really good breakfast ended up being a really bad time.  At the end of our meal I went to pick up my purse and realized it was a lot lighter than it was when we walked in.  I had been carrying around my iPad because of the International plan that I have on it and was using it not only as a map but to look things up, where they were, etc.  That might have been bad idea number one.  I opened my purse and immediately saw that my iPad was no longer there.  I started searching through my bag and realized my wallet was gone as well.  I started panicking.  We quickly paid and went right back to the souvenir store, the last place I had had my wallet.  The owners were extremely friendly and helpful and went back and looked at the security films where they saw me put my wallet back in my bag, zip my bag and leave.  From there we went to the police station to report my things stolen.  Again, they were very helpful and told me that they would go back to the restaurant, where we all decided we thought it happened and they would look at the cameras there.  While we waited for the criminal report to be written up we decided to go have some Irish coffee.  Thank god for Jenna and Megan this weekend because I don't know what I would have done without them.  While we were at the cafe we then realized that my American phone was missing as well and that it was stolen with my other things.  Things just kept turning for the worse and I was not a happy camper.

After going back and forth to the police station and calming down a bit we finally got our day started.  We walked around a little bit and then decided it was only right to do the Guinness tour.  Surprisingly it was really fun and interesting.  It was also very similar to the Jameson tour, just different alcohol obviously.  We got to have a little sample and then when we finally made it up to the fourth floor we were taught how to properly pour a Guinness and got to do it ourselves! We of course got to drink the beer afterwards.  To my surprise, since I'm not much of a beer girl in the first place, I actually enjoyed the Guinness.  Whether it was because I had had quite the horrible day and was just valuing any type of liquid to calm me down or that I actually just have the right taste buds for it I drank almost all of it!

Megan, Jenna and me outside the Guinness tour!

:)

Its official!

At the end of the tour we went to a small little restaurant for some authentic Irish food and walked around a bit.  We got to see some street performers singing Irish music and watched some people in the streets dance.  That was by far a really cool thing for me to see and really made me think this is what Ireland really is all about.  Afterwards we went back to the hostel to get a good nights sleep.

This morning we woke up early, got to the airport and headed "home" to London. After Paris last weekend I was happy to be home in London, but after this weekend in Dublin I was ecstatic! It's really unfortunate that this had to happen and I don't want to have bad memories about Ireland at all, but nothing worked out in my favor at all this weekend.  I kept saying "it's all apart of the experience" and in my head I kept reminding myself to appreciate all my opportunities and experiences, but maybe I shouldn't value them all.  I've definitely learned a lot from this trip though!  If you're not fully charged for a flight, you don't have one.  Do NOT bring your iPad around with you anywhere, and if you do, don't let it leave your lap, EVER! And always, always, always keep your money and credit cards in separate places, it is not a fun feeling, feeling actually and literally broke.

Paris!!

What an incredible weekend! When I signed up to study abroad, the program that I was apart of was offering a weekend trip to Paris for all of it's members.  Going to Paris has always been something that I've wanted to do, so I made sure I signed up for that!  On Friday we left around 12 to take the EuroStar to Paris.  Everyone was so excited, it was hard not to be happy that we were leaving and going to Paris, some of us on our first weekend trip!  The getting there was quite stressful and unfortunately totally out of our hands.  The EuroStar was a half hour late getting to Paris, so the buses that we had ordered weren't there any more.  When we finally arrived in Paris, it was raining.  That definitely put a damper on our moods.  We then had to wait, in the rain for about an hour or so until our buses finally came and picked us up!  After a bus ride to the hotel we finally were able to settle in and see a little bit of Paris at night.  We decided to head out to dinner first.  After a long day of traveling we were all starving!  I was actually so hungry that I got steak.  If you know anything about me, you know that I don't like red meat and I especially don't like steak, but believe it or not, I LOVED this steak.  Whether it was because I was so hungry or because it was actually really good, I just don't know, either way I definitely enjoyed my first meal in Paris.  For dessert we decided it was only right to have a crepe!  We got nutella and banana and it was amazing!!  After that we had a nice night in our hotel hanging out with everyone and getting some good sleep for our day of touring the next day.

My yummy dinner!

Amazing!

On Saturday we all woke up very early and hopped on a double decker bus to take a tour of Paris.  The weather had done a 360 and it was sunny and nice out the whole day!  On the bus tour we got to see the building where Napoleon was buried, the Arc de Triomphe, the Eiffel Tower and many other well known places in Paris.  I loved that we were able to have such a tour and be able to see everything all at once.  If I had been there by myself there is no way that I would have been able to navigate and get to all these places!

:)

<3

Eiffel Tower!

We ended the bus tour at the Lourve and were given free tickets to enter for as long as we wanted.  Inside we got to see so many art pieces which was really incredible.  It was fun to recognize some of them from my Art History class that I took last year.  We were able to see the Mona Lisa which was quite the highlight for some of us!  After the Lourve we went and got some sandwiches and did some souvenir shopping.  After a couple of hours we met back up with our group and went on a boat which brought us around Paris as well.  That was really relaxing because we walked around so much in the Lourve, shopping and to even get to the boat itself.

The Mona Lisa!

That night we went back out for dinner at a really nice restaurant that had great Italian food.  It sounds silly that we got Italian food in Paris, but it was actually really good!  We were really excited at dinner because we were going back to the Eiffel Tower to see it lit up at night and to watch the light show that they put on every hour at night.  After dinner we left and made it to the Eiffel Tower just in time to see a show.  It was amazing.  Even with it just lit up at night it looked beautiful!  We were so happy and excited when it finally started twinkling.  The show happens every hour so after the first one that we saw, we decided to spend some time right next to the tower and wait for the next one.  We really had a lot of fun just hanging out, drinking some wine in the grass and looking at the tower.  I'm so glad I was given the opportunity to see it because it really was as amazing as you think it would have been.

Lit up at night!

& twinkling!

The next day we got up and were planning on going shopping.  Ever since we left America, I had planned on getting a Longchamp bag in Paris.  They're a French brand bag, so what better place to buy them than in France?! (not to mention after the money conversion they're much cheaper in France than in America!)  Unfortunately when we finally got to the store, we found out that everything is closed on Sundays in Paris.  I was not quite the happy camper when I found this out.  Instead we decided to wander around a bit and then make our way back to the hotel to meet up with the group and head back to London.

Since we came into Paris with a bit of stress, we ended up leaving Paris with a bit of stress as well.  Bus mishaps happened again and some of us ended up having to take the metro to the EuroStar.  By the end of the weekend we were all very ready to head "home" to London.  We really did have a great weekend though.  I loved Paris, it was so much fun to see the Eiffel Tower and everything else that was in Paris.  It was fun for me to put my French speaking skills, or should I just say my French reading skills, to use! Overall it was a fantastic trip and I'm endlessly grateful for all the opportunities I'm receiving!

London Fashion Weekend

This week in London, it was Fashion Week.  Every year they have huge events all over London with some of the biggest name brands in fashion showing off what will be new and in style for the spring and summer of next year!  Today I went to London Fashion Weekend, which is a much more low key fashion event for more trendy clothing and not so much high end.  I was literally in my glory.  The venue was spectacular, perfect for this event.

Me & the girls before we left!

When we walked in, we got to get a free tote bag that says London Fashion Weekend on it and had all sorts of free goodies inside including the cutest little diet coke can with the front design done by Jean Paul Gaultier, a french designer.  After that we walked into Somerset House, where the event was being held and walked right into the catwalk.  The place was amazing, I feel like I'm going to say that a lot, because it was! When we walked in I really felt like I was at a big important fashion show, and maybe kind of, I was! We got there at the perfect time because the fashion show started within 5 minutes of us sitting down.

The host then came out and introduced the fashion show and gave us a little low down on what had been going on with London Fashion Week during the week.  The fashion show part was amazing.  It really reminded me of Lasell and the fashion show that they put on at the end of the year.  The clothes were really cool, but I just cannot imagine people actually buying these clothes and wearing them out in public.  I guess that's what makes fashion shows so cool; you don't see the regular ordinary day-to-day clothing on the runway, otherwise it would just be boring!  There were a few items, however, that I found to be really pretty! Not anything I would buy though, mostly because I could never afford it, but still.

One of my favorites!

After the fashion show was over we got to go out into the venue and shop around a bit.  There were a lot of free stands giving out samples of food, tea, underwear and even pictures!! We went to a Diet Coke stand and got our pictures taken and put into a little paper frame.  It was a lot of fun just being able to walk around and see everything.

Most of the clothing was really expensive, but I happened to find a ring that I absolutely fell in love with and decided to get.  I got it at a really great price, which made me feel so much better about getting it!  After a little bit more of walking around we left the venue with big smiles on our faces! It was seriously one of the best nights we've had out here in London.

The ring I bought :)

On the way back I couldn't help but think to myself that this is something I don't think I ever would have done in America and I love that I'm going to be able to come home and say that I've done it before and better yet, in London! And what better way to end the night not only thinking that but knowing that in the morning I am leaving for Paris!! Au revoir! ;)

Disneyland Paris!

Disney is my favorite place on earth. End of story. I am a complete child when it comes to going to Disney, so much that I go almost every year.  Obviously when I saw that my school in London was offering a trip to Disneyland Paris, and for such a good price, I was all over it.

On Saturday we woke up at the ungodly hour of 5 am to get ready and head to the tube to take the EuroStar to Paris.  The EuroStar is almost like Amtrak, but goes all the way from London to Paris, under water and everything! It took us about 2 1/2 hours to get to Paris via the EuroStar, which wasn't a bad ride at all.  When we got to Paris we took the Metro straight to Disney!!

Once we got there I could definitely see that things were different here.  Their version of "Downtown Disney" was called "Disney Village."  They had Planet Hollywood and the big hot air balloon just like in Orlando!  Compared to Disney in Orlando, the one in Paris only had two parks and they were right next to each other.  Our tickets gave us entrance into both parks for the day, but by the time we had finally arrived to Disney and gotten our tickets, we didn't have all that much time to enjoy both parks.  Instead we decided that we would go to the main park where the castle and many characters were.  Walking into "Disneyland Park" which is Paris' version of Magic Kingdom, Main Street was exactly the same.  The little shops all the way down the streets looked exactly like in Orlando.  They even had two little restaurants that are the same in Orlando! I think that was a really fun part for me, to be able to see the similarities and the differences in both the parks.

Me and Megan in front of the Castle!

I don't consider myself to be this amazing Disney know-it-all, but I think I know Disney in Orlando well enough to say that I have never seen any Disney park this packed in my entire life.  The lines for rides were over an hour and 20 minutes each.  Unfortunately that only left us time to go on one ride.  The good thing about it was that this ride isn't in Orlando!  We still made the best of it of course because it was Disney!! The one thing I was looking forward to all day was the parade.  I really turn into a five year old when it comes to Disney.  I like to see the characters and experience the "magic."  I really don't even care that I am 20 years old with the biggest smile on my face when characters walk down the main street.

The parade was absolutely amazing.  I have never seen a parade like that in Orlando.  Surprisingly they were all singing in English, which I thought was really interesting.  I think my favorite part of the parade was seeing the Lion King float.  I can't remember the last time I had seen the Lion King or any float like that in a Disney parade.  I had such a great day at Disney, I'm not sure I could have a bad day there.

The Lion King float!

Mickey & the Castle!!

I'm so grateful for all the experiences that I'm having over here.  I don't think I could have ever gone to Disneyland Paris if I had stayed in America.  I don't really think that I would ever have been able to travel as much of Europe as I plan to this semester, which is the most rewarding experience of being here and I love it so much.  Although I miss home and wish my friends and family back in America could be experiencing this with me at the same time, I continue to remind myself of the opportunities that I have.

London Eye, Bath and Stonehenge

Obviously, when I decided that I was going to London to study abroad I had known that some of the most well-known touristy attractions here were Big Ben and the London Eye.  On Saturday, I got the chance to ride on the London Eye, and better yet, I got to do it for free!! This past weekend the Thames Festival was also going on so not only were we able to have a great day at the London Eye, we were also able to attend the festival as well.  After waiting in an extremely long line on an abnormally hot day in London, I got my chance to ride on the Eye.   It was definitely such a fun experience being able to see London from such a high view.  The ride lasted about 20 minutes and it gave us the chance to see everything from up high.  I've heard that it's a much better view at night so I'm hoping to get the chance to go out there again at some point and see it at night.  Maybe when my family comes to visit me! :) After we got off the Eye we went over to the festival.  I was a little bit more excited for that than the Eye just because they had a huge swing ride and I've been dying to go on one! The festival wasn't too big but it was fun to go and walk around and see everything.

On Sunday we all woke up bright and early and headed out to Stonehenge.  When we got there we only spent about 10 minutes walking around and taking pictures of rocks.  Although it was pretty boring I was happy to be able to say that I have been there.  After, we took a bus to Bath, another famous place in England.  First we looked at rocks for an hour, then went and looked at gross water.  The day was pretty boring, unfortunately, but we made the most fun out of all of it and it was free, so we still got to go away saying that we had seen Bath and Stonehenge.

Today starts another long week of boring classes.  I'm starting to get into more of a swing of things, which is good.  I like structure.  We're starting to plan lots of trips for the weekends that we will be here and starting to plan our fall break trip! I'm really excited to be able to go to some places that I've been dying to go to!

First Week of Classes

Well, my first week of classes in London is finished! It's been a pretty hectic week actually.  So far, most of my classes seem like they're going to be enjoyable, which I'm pretty excited about.  I'm taking a mixture of courses like Video Production, PR and Self Presentation in the Media, and a few other COM and Psychology courses.  I think my favorite course here will be my Fashion in the Media course. I really like the teacher and what he's told us we will be learning this semester.  I've always had quite an interest in fashion and even toyed with the idea of changing my major to be Fashion Comm, but I stuck with PR.  I know that in the future even with a PR degree I can still find my way into fashion.  Being here, taking this fashion course, and seeing all the fashion displayed here really makes my mind spin with how much I do want to get into that field.  It's definitely going on my list of possible jobs! :)

Last night was by far one of the best nights here.  We started the night off going to Vogue's Fashion's Night Out.  This is a huge night for many name brand companies.  Vogue puts on this event in major cities all over the world on the same night every year.  Stores everywhere get ready for a huge night where they showcase some of their new clothes for the fall season offering free drinks, discounted prices, and sometimes free gifts!  The street was packed with people everywhere.  The scene was insane.  We didn't stay there long, but it was so cool to see everything and be able to say that I went to Vogue's Fashion's Night Out in London!  Being there has really got me excited for the fashion show that I got tickets for in a couple of weeks as well.

This weekend, the program that I'm apart of here is offering us two free trips.  On Saturday, we will be going on the London Eye!  Obviously, this is a huge thing in London, so I'm extremely excited to go!   The Thames Festival is going on this weekend as well, so along with our free ride on the London Eye we're able to attend the Festival which is right around the corner from the Eye.  We saw the festival from a distance last weekend and they had a swing ride which I'm incredibly excited for! I'm such a child sometimes.  :) On Sunday, we're being offered another free trip to Bath and Stonehedge for the day! I've heard a lot of things about both of these places that they're definitely somewhere to visit, so I'm really glad that my school is giving me the opportunity to go, and for nothing!

Everything else here has been going pretty well.  The weather, believe it or not, has been BEAUTIFUL!  It has been sunny every single day this week and it has not rained ONCE! *knock on wood*  It's actually gotten to the point where I am sweating! I definitely did not pack for this kind of weather.  Although, I know I will complain when it gets super cold out!  I'm starting to miss home more and more, but I know that where I am and what I am doing is going to be extremely beneficial for me, so I'm trying to push through and forget about all the things that are making me sad.  :)

First Weekend!

The past few days have been non stop-craziness.  There isn't much more of a good way to describe it.  On Friday night we got to go on a boat party with the school.  We were able to see so many things from the boat, my favorite being the Tower Bridge.  It was amazing to see something that I've been looking forward to for quite a long time now.  It was absolutely gorgeous especially when we passed by it late at night and it was lit up all different colors and patterns.  It was the most amazing thing that I've seen here so far.  It's not something that I think I'll ever forget!

On Saturday I got to visit my future home, Buckingham Palace!! ;) I really enjoyed having the experience to go inside and tour through the rooms.  Because the Queen's Jubilee was this year the main showcase in Buckingham Palace was her diamonds.  We were able to see her crowns, necklaces, rings, broaches and even a sword that was decked out in diamonds.  I'm not too much of a history person, so most of the time I skipped over the dates and the history behind many of these objects, but just knowing that the Queen wears these pieces of jewelry made it really memorable.  I wouldn't mind finding a replica of one of those pieces! :) It was unfortunate that we weren't able to take pictures within the palace, but at least I'll have the memory.

Me & Christina in front of Buckingham Palace

Today we've been busy walking everywhere over London.  Early this morning I was able to go on a walking Olympic tour.  We weren't allowed to actually go into the park which was a bit disappointing but it was nice to be able to see everything from a distance.  I don't think I'll ever get the opportunity to be around the Olympic park ever again, unless of course on the off chance I go in the US the next time it's around.  Later on in the evening we went on a Jack the Ripper walking tour.  I was pretty nervous for this to be completely honest.  I'm the biggest baby when it comes to scary things and I was convinced this was going to be the scariest thing I was ever going to have to do.  Of course, I was proven wrong because it was not scary what-so-ever.  It was actually really interesting to hear about the killings that Jack the Ripper did and to find out that they still don't know exactly who Jack the Ripper is.

Tomorrow starts the first day of classes here in London.  I'm really excited to have some structure back in my life.  Summer was great and all, but I usually love just the beginning and ending.  I think I'm taking some really interesting classes here so I'm actually looking forward to learning a lot with it obviously being in a totally different environment than I'm used to! I'm looking forward to making this semester really worth while in every aspect!