Ireland - Luck 'o' the Irish

So I'm sure you have been waiting for me to update my blog. I have already finished my tour of Ireland. One word: marvelous! Ireland was so beautiful! The flight to Ireland was a nightmare. After a five hour delay in Chicago, we arrived in Manchester and then flew in to Shannon, Ireland around 10 something at night. It was a long two days because we technically lost a day by travelling to the UK. Just so this post won't be a novel, I will tell you the big, cool things we did and I will try my best to not bore you. First of all, it was almost a culture shock to see that the roads were being driven on the opposite sides compared to how we drive in the US. The bathrooms are kind of weird. Most of the sinks have two faucets. One for hot and the other for cold. They don't come out of just one faucet. The weather is wonderful, mostly. It was a bit windy, but it did rain a little bit, except for one day. That one day in Dingle poured!! It was cold and wet. Luckily, it did help me appreciate the nice weather with the wind a lot more. Also, The accents are so cool!

We saw a few castles while in Ireland. The first one was Bunratty Castle, but since my flight was delayed A LOT me and some of the other girls that were on the same flight missed it. The other castles we went to were

Ross Castle

Blarney Castle

Rock of Cashel

They were so cool and very interesting. Of course we saw all of them in a span of an entire week instead of just one day.

While in Ireland we toured and stayed in the city of Dingle as well as the Dingle Peninsula and

the city of Killarney and Blarney. These three cities were mainly in the countryside. They were small, but absolutely stunning!

When we got into the big city of Dublin, we walked so much. It was almost insane. Every night when we would return to our hostel, I thought my feet were going to fall off! We had a couple days of free time in Dublin so we walked around pretty much most of the city.

St. Patrick's Cathedral

The Ireland Bank (it doesn't have any windows)

Liffey River

At an awesome pub! (no worries, I didn't drink; I just listened to Irish music)

The Building where the Book of Kells and the Long Room is located at Trinity College in Dublin - AMAZING!

St. Stephen Greene Park

Riverdance performance!

Outside of Riverdance - SO GOOD!

Listen to This!

This song is incredibly amazing!! I guess it kind of relates to me at this moment.

Extreme Room Makeover Surprise

When my younger sister left for Girls Camp this past Thursday, my mom and I began to redecorate her room. And I mean seriously redecorate. We wanted to surprise her for her sixteenth birthday, and also, she had been wanting to redecorate her room and paint it. My mom and I tried to be very discrete about trying to get things that Emily would like without her knowing what we were doing. Luckily, it was successful. In order to get the room all done, there were only a little less than three days to get it finished. The first day we spent half of the day cleaning her room and moving furniture. Then we painted constantly for that day and the next day. Let me tell you, it was not easy, but it was fun. There were a few setbacks, but overall it was worth it to see her face. She was extremely excited and happy. Here are a few before and after pictures of the room.

{Before}

{During the Room Makeover}

{After}

{Emily's surprised face}

A New Adventure

I can't wait!!! I'm SO excited!!!This month I will be leaving to Study Abroad in Great Britain. This study abroad program is through BYU and we will be travelling to Ireland, Wales, London, and Scotland. I am so excited!!! The classes that are offered are linguistic classes because the program is the English Language in Britain. So the majority of the trip is going to be listening, talking to native people, and studying the different dialects of English. If you have seen the movie/musical of My Fair Lady, it is almost just like that. Sort of. Instead of teaching people how to speak well, we're just listening to them and learning about their dialects. I seriously can't wait and I'm really looking forward for this trip. Can't you tell?

I've never been out of the country unless if you count going to Rocky Point in Mexico, but actually going overseas is going to be an adventure. It's going to be a new adventure, and I have begun my blog once again to post pictures and update it, hopefully more frequently.