Hard to believe that tomorrow marks one month since I've been here in Dublin. It's weird because the first week felt like it was a month long and now that a month has officially gone by, it feels like we've been here for a week. With only three months left, it's clear to me that this is going to go by super fast, especially when things start getting busier. My biggest hope for the next 3 months is that the weather gets better. It pretty much hasn't stopped raining since we got here which is sort of a downer, but I guess it's better than snow. Nothing too exciting happened last week, but we did go to the Guinness Factory on Saturday. It was super fun and exciting! There wasn't a structured tour, it was more of a self guided thing which was a nice change of pace. We went through out the tour which showed us how the Guinness was actually brewed. After that, we got to have a tasting and learn how exactly you're supposed to taste the beer when you drink it. Apparently, you're supposed to hold your breath, take a giant gulp of the beer and exhale after you've swallowed it..or something like that. It did bring out all the different flavors of the beer which was kind of interesting. The next exciting part was getting to learn how to pour the perfect pint of Guinness. We went into a room where a man taught us how to pour it and we all got a chance to try. Mine was obviously perfect. After that, we got a certificate stating that we crafted the perfect pint of Guinness. After learning how to pour, we went up to the bar to drink our perfect pint. The bar was pretty much in the sky and had the nicest view of Dublin. Being that we're in Ireland and the weather is crazy, we experienced sunshine and a downpour and a rainbow all within the time we were up there. After that, we went to the store and bought some touristy things, then we went to get some food at a near by food court looking thing. At the end of the weekend/beginning of this week, we started to plan our spring break trip which was super exciting. We finally booked our plane/train tickets but we haven't book accommodations yet. We have two weeks off for spring break but the Monday of the second week is St. Patricks day so obviously we're going to stay in Dublin for that. The day after St. Patricks day (bright and early) we're leaving for Rome and staying there for two nights. From there we're taking a train to Florence and staying there for another two days. From Florence we're flying to Paris, staying there for one night and then flying back into Dublin. I'm really exciting to start traveling outside of Ireland and experience more of Europe (and hopefully find some sunshine). A lot of us have some friends in Florence too, so that will be really nice to see them. This weekend, we are going to Belfast with our program. Belfast is in Northern Ireland but is actually still part of the UK. When we are there, we are going to the Giant's Causeway, Titanic Experience and taking a tour of West Belfast. I'm pretty excited to see Northern Irealnd because I've heard it's absolutely beautiful (not to mention the 3 course meal we get). It's crazy to think that most of my weekends are booked up with taking trips and doing various things with our program, this time is going to go by way quicker than I can even fathom, just gotta make the most of it!
Cheers-
Olivia
Cheers-
Olivia