Sunshine On My Shoulders!

On Sunday I was planning on going into the geology department to study, but we were locked out. My friend Gianna invited me to join her to take her dog for a walk to the park, so I did that instead and managed to not study at all. I needed some sun though! She brought her contact juggling balls and she started to teach me while we sat in the sunshine. 

"It's so grey in Ireland it's like living underneath an elephant."

Gianna and the cool image in the ball. As it turns out, this 

ball acts like a magnifying glass in the sun, so you have to

 be careful not to scorch yourself!

The sun is different here than it is in Montana. I don't know if it just 

seems different here because I'm not used to seeing it, or what, but 

Ireland is one of the most beautiful places in the world when the

sun shines.

I think it's so neat how the image gets turned upside down!

Obviously this isn't sunshine, but I took this on my way to a party

on Saturday night. It's unusual for the river to be this calm and also

to see stars. That's probably a planet, but that's pretty rare as well.

Sunshine in Cashel

The last two weeks have been filled with nothing but studying. I had seven exams in two weeks, four of which were back to back. Twelve hours a day in the geology department for 12 days consecutively is enough to drive anybody insane. Yesterday I finally got a chance to have some fun, and the weather played along! The sun has been shining here for the past couple of days and it's been fantastic! My friend Max invited me to go with him and a few of his friends to a town called Cashel, and it was the perfect break!

Our first stop of the day was the Rock of Cashel. It's a huge castle on top a limestone hill.

After our tour at the Rock of Cashel, we grabbed our picnic lunch and headed down the hill to Hore Abbey. The sun was shining and we picked a comfy spot in the grass for lunch. 

This is Lisa from Germany, Emeric from France, and a girl from Finland whose name I've forgotten. We were the traveling League of Nations yesterday.

Siesta time.

Blue sky in Ireland! What a treat :)

Hore Abbey from a distance

This is the view from our third and final stop. Our plan was to go for a little hike through the woods, but the trail was completely shaded and nobody wanted to leave the sunshine, so we ended up sitting in the grass at the trailhead and never going walking. This was the view from the car park at the trailhead.

Jugglers

This is my friend from Juggling Club. She's the resident contact juggler.

One final trip to Dublin.

I have been in Cork studying my buns off for the past 2 weeks, so I took a break at the end of the week and I went to Dublin with my friend Gianna to see Cirque du Soleil. For those of you who don't know what that is, look it up on YouTube immediately. For those of you who do, check to see if they're coming near you and buy a ticket! It was by far the most perfectly executed performance I've ever seen in my life. The costumes were stunning, the music was beautiful, the comedic relief was hilarious, and the stunts were breath taking. It was way too entertaining to be bothered with taking pictures, plus the camera patrol was out in full force, but I did sneak one video of the hula-hooper. The video is pretty poor quality though, so if you really want to see it, click here: Cirque du Soleil Website or look it up on YouTube.

I taught Gianna how to play Cribbage on the train. We had to make our own board by drawing the "holes" on a piece of paper and instead of pegs, we used 1 cent pieces. 

Bog Bodies at the Natural History Museum! Gianna was really grossed out, 

but I thought they were incredible!

Just a tiny door at the museum. Notice that I'm squatting.

Street artist. I really got a kick out of this guy. He was incredibly still!

Fun stuff while looking around at a street market in Dublin

This was in the bathroom at one of the pubs we went to. I just thought it was funny and very retro.

What a year!

Study month is in full swing. I have been sitting in the geology department every day for over a week, hating finals. I only have 6 weeks left here, but I have to prepare for 11 exams! It's nauseating and the timing is truly awful. All this study time has given me plenty of time to procrastinate and think about other things. I can't believe how quickly this year has passed. That's a common phrase, but it really seems like I just moved into my apartment and that I'm still getting comfortable in this country. I've gotten used to a lot of things though. Lots of things I think I'm going to miss (Lennox's fish n' chips, Barry's tea and digestives, biscuit cakes, the Irish accent (oh how I'll miss that!), every single one of the people who I've gotten to know, the laid back attitude with deadlines and time, the list goes on and on), and a few things I don't think I'll miss (the weather, the smell of the city, public transportation), But one thing has been really driven home this year. I am from the most beautiful place in the world. I have had the privilege of seeing quite a lot this year, and nothing I've seen is as beautiful as Montana. My appreciation for a big state and a small population has been completely renewed. I cannot wait to be back. :)

Friend Reunion in Trier

A friend of mine from Libby is studying in Germany right now, so the two of us met two of our friends from Germany, Julia and Jorina, who spent a year in Libby while we were in high school. Chris and I haven't seen Julia and Jorina in 5 years, and I haven't seen Chris in over a year, so it was a great reunion. It was much too short, but we did a lot of catching up with the time we had. We met in Trier, the town where Julia is going to college, and she showed us all around and gave us a really good brief history of all the places we went to. I have to give credit to Chris for most of these pictures. I was exhausted from traveling and I wasn't very snappy with my camera, so he sent me his.

My first döner kebab.

Julia & Me.

The Basilika.

In one of the town squares there were big crates filled with gravel, and stuck in the gravel was this colorful array of painted sticks standing straight up. We couldn't figure out the purpose, other than it had something to do with Easter. It was very festive.

Porta Negra - the only one of 4 gates in the city still standing.

The Dom (pronounced 'dome' but spelled dom in German)

Liebfrauenkirche - Thanks again to Chris for the spelling of this one. 

It's connected to The Dom.

The courtyard behind The Dom and the Liebfrauenkirche

Off to Norway

After the adventures in Scotland, I jet-setted to Norway to visit Gunhild and her parents after 7 years without seeing each other. I was still fortunate with lovely weather, and even more fortunate to have a great tour guide and lovely hospitality! The trip was really relaxing and I didn't take a heck of a lot of pictures, but here's some of what I have.

G$ and Me on the ferry.

Norway.

Sheela standing in the glacially-rounded granite cobbles on the island of Jomfruland, which is a glacial moraine.

Cute little outdoor church on the island of Jomfruland.

Sheela basking in the spring flowers. G told me that these flowers are a sure sign of spring in Norway.

G's family's barn and the party van parked in the front.