IT'S SNOWING!!!!
Just thought I'd let you all know that snow is WAY better in London than it is in Orem. Couldn't tell you exactly why...it just is. This is the first snowfall of the year, and it's beautiful! And sticking! To cars anyway..
It probably won't last long, but it got all of the Centre in a huge frenzy. One minute we're all cursing our papers and homework load, and the next we're all screaming, running outside barefoot and looking a little dumb. Haha, but it's SNOW! In London! What do you expect? We all had our little popcorn, hot chocolate, and Christmas music moments, and now I'm back to work again.
Bummer.
However, I figured that I needed to take another timeout and write about the most recent events.
Ireland.
I'll try to make it a fairly brief itinerary.
Last Thursday afternoon, right after classes, we headed for Dublin. SHVEET! We took the tube (underground/subway), followed by an airport bound train (The Gatwick Express), and finally, a plane to Ireland. Our plane was slightly delayed, and we were there more than 2 hours early, but hey! We were prepared, on time, and started the process of finishing homework. Yay for us. We got to Dublin, and as soon as we stepped out of the plane onto the ladder we were almost blown away! It was SO windy!! We took a bus to a main station, walked to our hostel, checked in, and left to see the performance of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde The Musical!!!
We tried the bus. Big mistake. First of all, bus drivers are not nice. Ever. I avoid busses at all costs. The bus didn't go on the path our map said it would, so we got lost, went off the map, and had a grand old time finding the National Concert Hall. We eventually got there, luckily, and I went to get my ticket. No such luck. They didn't have any purchases under my name.
Lovely.
I was pretty stressed out about the whole thing, but it turns out that it wasn't that busy and it was easy to get a ticket. Oh, and get this...because I'm a student, and they had a 'standing student discount', instead of my ticket being 30 Euro...it was FIVE. Yup..I got to see an AMAZING performance of Jekyll and Hyde for about 7 dollars.
The next day we had our Wild Wicklow Tour of AWESOMENESS!! Our tour guide, Stephen, was extremely funny, smart, and just great. I learned so much about Irish history, it was insane. I didn't expect that at all. It was a really good time and we saw so many beautiful sights we couldn't have seen on our own. It was a great way to spend the day (9am-5pm) and we didn't have to worry about anything. We just sat, listened, looked, and explored the Wicklow countryside of Ireland. Incredible. And incredibly windy!! We got to see places where they filmed 'P.S. I Love You', 'Braveheart', 'Excalibur', and so on...good times. We also got to explore the ruins of a monastic city, and take a stroll through the woods and along the banks of two lakes (including three waterfalls). Need I say more?
Our evening was spend walking around Dublin city, exploring, and doing souvenir shopping. Second souvenir purchase ever for me was a sweet Ireland shirt! Yay! Four of the girls went back to the hostel after not too long, but the other four of us actually wanted a real meal over the weekend (we'd gotten out of the musical at a time we thought was too late for real food, so we went to a tiny grocery store we spotted and got rolls and bananas. Turns out Dublin is a way later city than London and everywhere else. Things stay open past 6..and even 8pm!). We decided on the cutest American Diner-type place called 'Eddie Rockets'. I think him and Johnny are brothers. It was so good, and I had an oreo shake for the first time in SO long. Delicious! The hamburger was heavenly too. They actually put lettuce, tomato, and pickles on it! No one does that in England! Plus, there was a BONUS--Eddie's Sauce. Cha ching! No idea what it was, but it was yummy. Oh so good! It was such a good time to sit, relax, eat American food, and not be in any sort of hurry whatsoever. It doesn't happen much. Afterwards, we considered going to a movie (it was FREEZING outside), but it was too expensive and there wasn't anything we all wanted to see--so we walked around some more, bought a homemade doughnut for 60 cents, and headed back to the hostel before we froze.
Saturday was our day of city-doing. We were split into different groups, with plans to meet up in certain places throughout the day. It turned out to be a crazy blustery and rainy day. When I say blustery, I mean gale force winds!! Ireland is NOT the place for umbrellas, but Ashley and Dasily seemed to be determined to use theirs. Natalie and I got the BIGGEST kick out of watching them struggle to flip it back the right way when it got turned inside out! SO FUNNY! We practically laughed all morning. In between laughing, we bought Percy Pigs (a fabulous candy only sold in a department store. Imagine that.), stopped by a cute little pastry shop to look at our map (the food looked way too good to eat anyway), saw Dublin Castle, St. Patrick's Cathedral, Christ's Church Cathedral, the oldest shop in Dublin, an ancient wall in Dublin, and some random other odds and ends. All within an hour or so. We get-er done! Then we ventured off to see Kilmainhim Prison, a really cool historic Irish prison. On the way there we saw a funeral, strolled through Guinness country (included factories and other unknown buildings in the smelly area. Beer does NOT smell good), and got lost. Help was offered to us by an old man that we weren't sure whether to believe or not...but he ended up being right, and it all worked out. Minus the fact that it took us FOR-E-VER to get there.
The tour of the jail was interesting--more history, yet again. And a really attractive, really tall man. Haha, what can I say? We all agreed that he was fine, and you can't ignore the facts. We spent the rest of our time at the Archaeology Museum. They have what's called 'bog bodies', which are crazy interesting. If you're eating right now, you may want to stop.
...They are bodies from the 400's that have been discovered buried deep in the bogs of the 'coutry'. Not that interesting?? Notice how I said bodies, and not bones. They still have skin, hair, nails, and internal organs. Scientists can tell what they ate! It's ridiculous! The bogs work as a kind of mummification, because it's so moisty, dense, and so sealed off from air. They're pretty gross though. I wouldn't recommend looking at them for too long; especially since one doesn't have legs or a head. They can be a bit disturbing.
Then it was time to get back to the airport again. We were, again, there more than 2 hours early, only this time our plane got delayed an hour and a half. Yippee. I used that time to finish my book, which was about the only homework thing I had with me. It was nice though...not having to worry, or haul, anything more than that. I got home safe and sound (my Italian and [weird] American roomies in the hostel didn't try to injure me or steal my stuff in my sleep), and we even got home early enough (by 2 minutes) to run into Tesco and grab something to eat for Sunday. Success!!
Sunday was a fabulous day. Daylight savings, Stake Conference, sleeping in, only having two hours of church, only having to travel for 20-30 minutes to get there, and having the whole evening to accomplish 'things'. This week we have our regular homework load plus 3 papers, and something going on every day.
Monday was a reading of a play and a movie in the evening.
Today was a matinee of Oedipus (played by Ralph Fiennes aka Voldemort and hot guy on Maid in Manhattan)
Tomorrow we're taking a day trip to Canterbury and Chartwell (Winston Churchill's home)
Thursday we're seeing a performance of Mozart
Friday we're taking a day trip to Greenwich (pronounced Gren-ich), and I'm seeing Quantum Solace!!!
Saturday we're seeing a matinee of 'An Ideal Husband', and that night I have a top secret date with Sabrina. I'll tell you about that later. It should be fun!!
Can you say crazy busy??
Sorry to be so long and boring, but that's what's been going on. I've finished 2 of my 3 papers, am halfway done with the third, and have zero motivation at the moment to finish it. Especially when it's 11pm and we have breakfast at 615 tomorrow morning.
Things really are so good, though! I got my first letter in the mail, and it was from Hannah. She is so cute to write me! I got it just as I was walking out the door to Ireland, and it was the perfect way to start my trip. THANKS HANNAH!!
I'll post Ireland pictures SOON!! And snow pictures :) Naturally.
I love you all!! Thanks for everything!
-Talyn
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