someday i'll be living in a big 'ol city

my favorite spot in Dublin, the iconic Ha'penny Bridge in city center (because it used to cost half a penny to cross when it was first built!)

Last friday I spent the day getting to experience more of Dublin, the city I get to call home for these next two months! And if any of you know me, I have always wanted to see what being a city girl would feel like :)

Dublin is a really fun, vibrant city. There are a lot of internationals here (guilty) and the city is not toooo big that it is overwhelming. It is such a charming place with genuinely nice people and there are constantly things to do and new places to discover. So Dublin suits me well :)

First, Ariel and I went to a Mexican restaurant we had heard of that was...basically a Chipotle knock-off called Boojum. We were so excited find it, because as EUSA had said, "Don't expect to find Mexican food here."

Uhm. yeah. ok EUSA. ;)

It really was exactly like a Chipotle, although sorry Boojum, Chipotle's food is better. It was the first after all.


Then we went into Trinity College, Ireland's oldest college and right in the heart of Dublin. It is absolutely beautiful, but I think UVA holds it's own too. :) While there, we saw the Book of Kells, a 9th century printing of the Gospel and the Long Room, an old library now converted into a museum. They are some of Ireland's top attractions, although I don't think worth the 7 euro we had to pay, but it was one of the things you just can't go to Ireland and not see! (or your mom might kill you for not bringing her back a Trinity College sweatshirt ;) )

Trinity College photo courtesy of Pinterest

The Long Room Library photo courtesy of Pinterest

Afterwards, we met up with Tori and relaxed at the Queen of Tarts cafe on Dame Street. It is the most precious, ah-dorable, darling, insert-cutesy-adjective-here cafe ever! They had to-die-for Victorian sponge cake, and it immediately became a spot I have decided to frequent ;)

it's love. i'm SO gonna miss this place when I leave

After saying goodbye to Tori, Ariel and I went on the hop-on hop-off Dublin bus tour that EUSA had given us FREE passes for. (FREE! had to emphasize that again. hey, i'm a college student, it's in our blood to love free stuff). But because it was raining, imma be honest and say there was no hopping off of this bus for us! It was the hop on...and that was it. Apparently for everyone else too, because the bus was packed. Except for when we pulled up at the Guiness factory (heh, I had already been there, I'm such a dubliner ;) ) and everyone and their mother (literally, grandmas scuttled off of the bus for the glorified Guiness) got off, making more room for us!

I'm tellin' ya...Ireland and their Guiness...sheesh.

Later that night, we met up with Brian and Tori at the Merchant's Arch for some good food and traditional Irish music. I probably had the best fish and chips I've ever had there, and there was free wifi! Woohoo! Sitting across from us were some truly obnoxious Americans who discovered that the people next to them were also from their hometown Philly, and they all quickly became the loudest group in the joint. I now know where the loud, obnoxious American stereotype comes from. I was happy to be the calm, relaxed American sitting in the corner, listening to music, chatting to her friends, and munching on her fish and chips. Calmly.

All in all, it was a great day enjoying more of Dublin! EUSA had always been encouraging us not to go jetsetting all over Europe during our weekends, but to stay in Dublin for some of it and actually explore more of the city we're living in. I think this definitely has some truth, Dublin has so much to offer, I could never get bored! (at least not with that Victorian sponge cake I couldn't! ;) )

Blog post title - Mean by Taylor Swift

i took the path less travelled by and that has made all the difference

My first weekend in Ireland, me and several girls from UVA, Tori, Ariel, and Kelsey, decided to go to Galway and the Aran Islands for the weekend. Galway is another major city in Ireland that is literally straight across the country from Dublin, and the Aran Islands are off of Galway. We took a bus from Dublin to Galway that only took two and a half hours. It is crazy to me that you can travel across the entire country in two and a half hours!

Galway is a cute little seaside town that we enjoyed hanging out in, sitting by the sea, and eating really good food. You may here me rave about the Bailey's Irish cheesecake we had there when I get back home :)






On Saturday, we spent the night in the Aran Islands which is absolutely gorgeous!!! It has by far been my favorite part of Ireland so far. They are these small, untouched islands, completely secluded from the rest of the world. It is like Ireland's essence and nature has been preserved in the Aran Islands. It is not even that touristy, because at first I thought it would just be a tourist trap, but even though there are tourists (like us, duh), the island still has a way of maintaining it's authenticity.

I finally felt like I was in Ireland when I was in the Aran Islands - the pastures and little farms and sheep scream quintessential Ireland. (The security guard at Parliament laughed when I told him I was excited to finally see sheep in Ireland when I was chatting him up the next Monday back for work.)



We just had fun walking around, exploring the island. We kept saying, "ooo look a path!" because we kept finding little paths to explore and new sights to see. While walking around, we came across two horses, and you wouldn't believe it, but they walked right up to us and let us pet them! It was the most precious experience ever :)



I am either an unknown horse whisperer, or they just really liked my sweater, because they kept nuzzling their noses against me and coming up to me over the rest of the girls. Unfortunately, I'm gonna have to go for the latter, because I had bought my sweater at the Aran Sweater Market, and let me tell you, I knew that I smelled like a farm animal. Ireland is known for making really good knitted sweaters, and mine was definitely authentic...like it had been ripped off of a sheep right then and there and thrown on my back. So the horses probably smelled a familiar smell from my sweater, hence their friendliness.


Aaaand for some reason, my sweater also functioned as some sort of aphrodisiac for those two, because right after they let us put them, they got a little frisky with each other! Let's just leave it at that and say we all immediately walked away, hoping that image wasn't seared into our brains. Eww.


We stayed at this lovely, homey little hostel run by some older women who were so friendly, calling us "love" and chatting us up at night as we all put a puzzle together and watched tv. They asked us if we had "good craic," craic meaning fun, a good time, while we were on the island and we said of course! One of my favorite things about Ireland so far is just how extremely friendly and warm the people are here.


The Aran Islands are also known for their cliffs, and we all enjoyed exploring them and enjoying the beautiful sights.




As I sat out on the cliffs, looking at the expanse of the nature before me that God had created, I thought, this is how we were intended to worship, this is how we were intended to experience God.

Two roads diverged in a wood and I

Took the one less travelled by

And that has made all the difference

Blog post title - The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost

i'm (not) pretty good at drinking beer

During my first week in Dublin, on Thursday, June 16 EUSA organized a tour for us of the Guiness Storehouse. And let me tell you...

Ireland is obsessed with their Guiness.

You see Guiness everywhere here, and understandably so, it has brought in a lot of revenue and good PR for the economy. That's why Ireland even let Guiness use the nation's symbol, the harp, as the Guiness symbol too, because Guiness has been such a good industry for Ireland. But Ireland did require that they switch the Irish harp around :)

the guinness symbol and it's harp

I've never tried beer before, and I pretty much knew I wouldn't like Guiness but I figured it was worth a go, you know, cultural experience, do what the Irish do, and all that. Plus, it was FREE, so I had no qualms about immediately spitting the Guiness back out.

So as you can presume from my first picture...

Guinness. is. disgusting.

I'm sure hoards of Irish people will come to kill me now, but oh well! To the Irish, you are all quite lovely people, but I just cannot drink your beer. Yuck.

Aside from the Guiness itself, the tour of the Guiness brewing factory was really cool, there was great (FREE) food such as shepherds pie and Irish stew (all delish-ious comfort food mmm) and great views of the city!

Earlier in the day, before we had ventured over to the Guiness factory, me, and two other girls from UVA, Tori and Ariel went to Malahide Castle, a castle right outside of Dublin. It is one of the oldest and most historical castles in Ireland, owned by the Talbot family, who owned the castle longer than any other family in Ireland owned a castle.

It was a bit of an adventure getting there (aka we got lost, a pretty common event for me here in Dublin) so by the time we got there the last tour had left. But as the Irish always say, "No worries!" we just enjoyed the beautiful sights and it saved us 7 euro right? And as any college student staying abroad knows, every. euro. counts. Plus we ran into this cute 9 week old jack russell terrier puppy!

getting to pet this ah-dorable puppy? totally worth the trek to malahide!

Blog post title - Pretty Good at Drinking Beer by Billy Currington

Jesus bring the rain

Photo courtesy of Pinterest

Well the reason I have been in Ireland for almost two weeks now and have not posted on my blog yet, is because I have run into several challenges while first arriving here.

From delayed flights, to missed connections, my trip to Ireland immediately started out with problem after problem. I became anxious about how I was going to get in contact with the girls I was meeting at the Dublin airport to let them know I wouldn't be making my flight on time. Communication gets infinitely harder when you no longer have access to things like cell phones and internet when you are traveling internationally.

And since I was no longer going to be meeting up with anybody at the airport, that meant I had to figure out how to get to my apartment all by myself, and I was not excited about that. I became even more anxious and stressed out at the thought of all of this.

In other words, I was having trouble trusting in God. I found it hard to pray, to put the situation in His hands and know it will all work out. I knew I was failing miserably at this whole test of faith as I just remained anxious, with butterflies in my stomach and an inability to eat or sleep.

When I finally arrived in Dublin, my baggage was delayed. Upon making it to my apartment safe and sound (it was not as difficult as I was worrying it to be, of course) I immediately set out on trying to recover my baggage. After several phone conversations with a rather snippy customer service woman and another day of just stress and waiting, I finally received my luggage

...only to find that my laptop was stolen from it.

I just wanted to break down and cry. From the moment I had said goodbye to my family there had been problem after problem. Figuring out my way around a foreign city and making it to interviews on time were the least of my worries.

I felt as if God was whispering to me, "You still haven't trusted in Me with this yet. You need to trust in Me."

After filling out insurance claims, only to find that my claim was not valid and the airline isn't held responsible for stolen items, I am still in limbo waiting for my own computer, which I desperately need for work.

My parents have mailed me my netbook, and just when I thought all of my problems were clearing up, it looks like I still have more hurdles to jump through. My netbook is having problems being delivered, and as I am trying to sort out another logistical mess, I am learning to do so with more of a peaceful heart.

After talking to the administration office about my package, I walked back to my apartment and opened up my Bible to Acts 5:41

The apostles were "rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer for His name."

We all go through times that we are in "a desert," but I know that it is only to make us learn how to rely more on Christ. Look at what the apostles went through! And they still rejoiced, because God had found them worthy for His purpose, worthy to glorify Him. We have all been chosen for this purpose too!

I'm working on being able to rejoice in this "desert", because it is worth it if it is pushing me that much closer and closer to the Father.

But if that's what it takes to Praise You,

Jesus bring the rain.

Blog title - Jesus Bring the Rain - Mercy Me

couldn't wait to get going, but wasn't quite ready to leave

This summer I will be staying in Dublin, Ireland for approximately two months for an internship! The program is through UVA, called University Internship Program (UIP) and UIP coordinate with EUSA, a company that helps American students find internships abroad. I also get college credit for my internship as well, which lucky for me will also go towards my Politics major!

Getting ready for Dublin has been a loooong process in many ways. Not only has there been a lot of preparation in packing, getting documents in order, and interviews for internships, but even before all of that, it took me a long time just to figure out where I wanted to go and what I wanted to do when I knew I wanted to study abroad.

I must have looked through every study abroad program in. the. book. before finally deciding on UIP's internship in Dublin.

I researched.

and researched.

and researched.

And the ironic thing is, Dublin is probably the last place I would have imagined myself going in Europe. I had always envisioned myself experiencing some chic, cosmopolitan city like Milan or Barcelona, but my goals for studying abroad were different than what programs there would offer. I didn't want to focus so much on learning a new language or studying more Spanish, or even taking more classes.

I felt like an internship was the best of both worlds. I can live in a foreign country while still getting valuable work experience! The UIP Dublin program had everything I was looking for except...

the Dublin part.

Dublin? I immediately thought of gray skies and seedy pubs and wrinkled my nose at the thought.

But who was I kidding, right? Ireland is gorgeous! I did some good ol' Googling and found out so much more about this beautiful country than what I had let determine my opinion on it beforehand.

Quaint little towns.

Beautiful green countryside.

Coastline.

I can't wait to experience it all! Since then, it hasn't crossed my mind why I wouldn't want to go to Dublin, and it makes me feel even sillier for disregarding it at first.

Just like Gerald O'Hara says to his daughter Scarlett in Gone With the Wind, "It will come to you, this love of the land. There's no gettin' away from it, if you're Irish."

I feel like Scarlett in this story, and I know as I journey to Ireland I will fall in love with the land just like her father talks about.

But if I wasn't scared about being away from home for two months then I would be lying to you. I feel bad about leaving my family behind when I am already away at college for the rest of the year, and I am nervous about experiencing the long distance part of a relationship.

Buuuuttt I know I will get through it!

And soooo....

Somewhere over the rainbow

Way up high

There's a land that I heard of

Once in a lullaby...

Ireland here I come!

Blog title - American Honey by Lady Antebellum