Athena Blogs

One of the lakes we visited.

I know it's been a while since I've last wrote a blog. I know you are all wondering why because everyone is obsessed with me and consumed with my life. I'm only kidding, I promise. For the past two and a half weeks, I have had pretty bad luck with the electronics in my life.

It all began with my laptop. My MacBook started going psycho and was acting like Cybil. One minute, she would be working and the next she would hate me. It's difficult owning a laptop with multiple personalities. I ended up taking it to the Apple store on Grafton street. I dropped it off, payed 75 euros for them to figure out the problem and then two days later I got a phone call from them telling me my hard drive had crashed. Just my luck! I'm having a great time in Europe and my laptop dies. So, they tell me it's going to be 149 euros to replace the hard drive. So I'm thinking "Ok, cool. That's it!" Nope. Think Again. I go back two days later and they tell me that they also have to replace a cord inside of the computer and that it may not have been the hard drive at all. Fast forward another two days, I get a phone call from them and they tell me it was the cord and not the hard drive that was damaged. Luckily, they said that they would refund me the difference in price, which was 100 euros.

Finally, this past Saturday, I go and pick up my MacBook and I get my 100 euro back! Womp Womp. I thought the Apple store had geniuses working there. Just to let you know, they don't. Instead of refunding me the 100 euros, they charged me 100 euros. So, now they owe me a total of 200 euro! I realized this when I checked my bank statement Saturday evening when I got back to my dorm room. After brunch on Sunday morning, I went back with my bank statements and showed them that they owed me money. It took a while, but they finally refunded me my money, or so I thought. It is now monday afternoon and the 200 euro (which is about 275 USD) still hasn't shown up. Ahh, what luck I have. I suppose if it isn't there by tomorrow, I will have to go back for the 5th or 6th time in 10 days.

Enough about my problems, at least I'm still having fun, so it isn't too stressful.

Classes have gotten into full swing and my first assignment is due this week for creative writing. I still have no idea what I'm going to write about, but it will come to me. The professors here are all over the place with their thoughts and it can be a bit difficult to follow. Sometimes it seems that their lessons don't correlate with their lectures and from week to week, it has been jumpy. Hopefully, things will get better.

Scenery from the bus.

Last Saturday, a bunch of us went on the Wicklow day tour. The scenery was amazing and our tour guide, Dennis, was so much fun. We saw where they filmed scenes from Braveheart (love that movie, despite the fact that it butchered Scottish history), P.S. I Love You (hated it), and Leap Year. A good deal of our time was spent on the bus driving, but our last stop was my favorite. It was at Glendalough, which is famous for the monasteries that were settled there in the 6th century. The churches that they built are still standing today, as well as the bell tower that was also used my the monks to hide in when the vikings attacked. It was so crazy to see something this old. Someone in our group mentioned how in America, what we see as old in terms of history, is young in comparison with what we had seen that day. After we viewed the monastery, Jenna, Whitney and I walked along a trail for a mile or so and even though the day was cold, we had a great time and even shot a few ad campaigns along the way. By that, I mean we took pictures and we pretended to model...even though everyone knows I'm a real model. Kidding.

The tower at the monestery in Glendalough.

Whitney doing some modeling.

This was at the end of the trail in Glendalough.
A scene from 'Leap Year' was filmed here.


This is my model pose. You know you love it.

Other then our day trip through Wicklow, we have been lying low for the past couple of weeks after we realized just how much money we spent our first 10 days here. Those 10 days are called the 'honeymoon phase' and symptoms include pretending that you have endless amounts of money, all of which is disposable. However, we have been back to Queen of Tarts a few times because you should always have enough money for a tart!

I will try and update this more often. Like I said earlier, I know you all follow my life so carefully and you all love me blah blah blah, I know. In two weeks, we're going to London, so I'll at least update then.

Until next time

Hope

Words cannot describe the past few days. It's gone by too quickly. Time flies when you're having fun, right?

I'll start off with telling you about my new friends, Jenna and Whitney. The title of this post and dedicated to them, and me of course, as we are all Carolina girls. Jenna is from North Carolina and Whitney is from South Carolina. Both of them attend the University of South Carolina and these girls know how to have a good time, trust me. They can just go-go-go non stop. It doesn't hurt that their both hilariously funny either. I'm definitely planning on visiting and going to a Gamecock football game with them! Enough about those tramps (in this case, tramps is a term of endearment), I'll tell you about my week.

My new friends, Whitney (middle) and Jenna.
Here, we are holding our traditional Irish breakfasts!

On Wednesday, all the American students met up with our coordinators and went over trip information (we're taking 3 trips together) and general information about the city. We then ventured out and went on a very touristy bus tour of Dublin. Loved it! That gets three snaps, my friends. It was so much fun to see everything from the top of an open double decker bus! It did get a bit chilly after about 30 minutes, so we had to go back down to the warmer first deck. I ended up snapping some pretty horrible pictures from the bus as it was moving, but will put them up nonetheless.

After the bus tour, we all went out to dinner at an Irish pub that was not catered to tourists at all. Our lunch consisted of fried codfish, potatoes, potatoes, potatoes, and cole slaw (Irish love their potatoes). After lunch we ventured over to the famous Trinity College and went to the student pub on campus for a couple of drinks. It had a great view overlooking the campus and we spend hours in their just chatting away. By this point, the jet lag that I mentioned in my last post was in full effect. All day I wanted to pass out, despite all the fun I was having.

We eventually made our way back to Griffith and all went to our rooms to rest up before dinner. We wanted something quick and easy for dinner and ended up going to a small diner on Camden street. Afterwards, we all went for drink at The Bleeding Horse and Cassidy's, which is my favorite pub thus far. It's nice and dark and not too loud. An old Irishman named Sean is there every night and he is a trip. His personality is larger than life, but I can't understand a word that comes out of that mouth because his accent is so strong. During the week, bars close around midnight, so we headed back for campus and slept like babies. It wasn't too hard, considering all of the drinks combined with the jet lag.

Wednedsay night, I also met my new roomate, Agaite. She is from Paris and is so kind and funny. Her English is very good and she makes funny noises and faces quite often (It's a French thing). She is not like most Parisian girls at all. She tells me that most girls from Paris think that they are the prettiest girls in the world and that they act very stuck up, but I'll tell you, she is laid back and I really like her.

Back to my adventures. My new friends, Whitney, Jenna and I ventured to Queen of Tarts, a girly restaurant on Dame St. The decor was floral and shabby chic and the atmosphere was like eclectic/rustic/princess-like. The food was so delicious! I can't quite remember what my entrée was called but my dessert was delicious! I got the cranberry and apple spice tart. Yummy! I died on the spot because my life came full circle. However, I was revived by my delicious and heavily caffeinated cafe mocha. It's the little outings like this that are really great. They really help you get to know the city and to really feel like a true Dubliner.

Our main course at Queen of Tarts.


Our Dessert at Queen of Tarts. The one in the upper left hand corner was mine.
It was an apple and cranberry spice tart.


The outside of Queen of Tarts!

Another outing I enjoyed was Howth. It's a small fishing village in Dublin, just north of the city. Before we went to Howth, my friends and I caught the bus and then the DART (the train) to go eat lunch with Olwyn, who owns a travel company. Our program directors hooked us up with her because she's a great source of knowledge for all things Ireland and we definitely use her to our advantage. She's kind of like a cool aunt, I guess. Well before we left for Howth, she met up with us for a traditional Irish breakfast. It consisted of fried sausage, grilled ham, a tomato, poached eggs, pigs blood (yes, I'm serious), and more meat.

The most interesting part was the pigs blood, hands down. Once you get over that it is blood, it isn't too bad. After breakfast with Olwyn, we were off to Howth. It was so gorgeous. The bus dropped us off in the village and we walked to the cliffs where there were amazing ocean views. We actually climbed down the cliff on these very steep bootleg steps that were built who knows how long ago. It was incredibly scary. But, we made it and it was worth it. The climb back up, however... no comment. After we worked up an appetite, we walked down into the village and had authentic fish and chips! Yummy!

That is the cliff we climbed in Howth!

Another thing I have to mention is my late night food of choice: taco fries. Sounds disgusting, I know. They're french fries, smothered in chili, cheese, and some odd secret sauce. Move over cookout. I don't think I would voluntarily eat them when I'm sober, though. You need a few drinks in you before you are stupid enough to order them. Cookout is good any time of day.

Well, classes have started and all of the students have arrived. I'm really excited to get started and meet even more people! I'll keep you guys posted.

Until next time,

Hope

Ahhh! I'm finally here. I really can't believe it. I've been waiting for this day to come for so long. Too bad I can't enjoy it too much because I'm so jet lagged. I mean, I've been tired before, but not like this. My body aches, my appetite is off and my throat feels like the Sahara desert-so freakin' dry. The only way to get over it is to stay up and try to get on a normal schedule. There is a 5 hour time difference between here and the east coast and they say for every one hour difference, it takes one day to get over...that equals 5 days. No good, my friends. I'm going to try and beat it by keeping myself hydrated and eating lightly. I'll be living on fruit and salads for the next few days for sure. Sorry, I'll stop complaining now. Instead, I'll tell you how traveling went.

Actually, let me tell you how my packing went first. I decided to put off packing until the night before/morning of my flight (in true Hope Lee fashion). Usually, this works for me. Only thing is, I've never packed for 4 months of my life before (at least without knowing that something could be easily mailed to me or I could go home for the weekend and get it). Needless to say, I was a bit stressed out. Luckily, I made a detailed list of everything that I needed and stuck with it. It worked out well until I began looking for my blue jeans. I have about 3 pair of jeans that I love and wear all the time and they were nowhere to be found. I really can't imagine where they went. Seriously, who loses pants? I'm sure some of you have, but it's pretty hard, right? Well, I didn't let that phase me. I knew that I couldn't dwell on it, so I brought a bunch of my black J.crew riding pants that I am so fond of. They match everything, anyway.

And so blah, blah, blah, I finished packing and was off to the airport Monday afternoon for a 5:55 pm flight to Philly. There, I met Deena, who is from Chicago. She is studying through the same program as me, so we had added one another on Facebook and spoke some a few months prior. It was nice to have someone to travel with and to talk to. There were also about 4 or 5 other girls that were flying to Dublin to study at various colleges, so we chatted for a few minutes. While we were waiting for our flight to Dublin, we met an American woman who overheard all of us talking about studying abroad. She said to us "You girls be careful. I studied abroad in Ireland 7 years ago and started dating a guy while I was there. We're getting married next month." She now lives in Ireland with her soon-to-be husband. I thought that was pretty funny. Don't worry, I don't think I'll be getting hitched anytime soon!

Let's see well...the flight was umm...errr...uhhh...not too great. Usually I sleep through flights, but I was seated in between two pretty large men with wide shoulders. I ended up keeping my arms so close by my side for so long, that my muscles were cramping up! Since I couldn't sleep, I decided to watch a movie on my laptop. Well...that wasn't gonna happen because my bag was shoved so far back in the overhead bin that I couldn't reach it without stepping all over sleeping people. I was totally bummed, but the flight attendant put on a movie. Oh wait, my headphones are in that bag, too. Womp, Womp. Couldn't hear a thing, so I ended up watching two mediocrely written movies with no sound. Luckily, I entertained myself with my own dialogue for each character. Six hours and 45 minutes later, I finally got my first glimpse of Ireland. It was so green and misty! Beautiful really. It didn't sink in that I was really there. It still hasn't.

Coming off the plane, I was relieved because I could move again! I looked down at my feet, though, and they looked like they belonged to a pregnant woman in her third trimester-They were swollen from the long flight. I thought customs was going to be a bitch, but it ended up being the easiest and fastest that I'd ever been through. I literally just went up to the window with my passport, the guy cracked a few jokes, asked my when I was leaving, winked and gave me my Visa! Usually, for international students, you have to show an acceptance letter from the university, a bank statement, insurance forms, pay 150 Euros and all that jazz. Some of the other students had to do that or they only got entry until Feb. and have to get an extension, but my customs agent was really cool. I'm pretty sure Deena and I were the only ones who were able to get stamped into the country until our departure (May 28th).

Deena and I collected our bags from the carousel and met John, our go-to guy (he isn't Irish, but he works for the program that we are going through). He was holding a sign with our names on it and I was so pumped about that, haha. It was like a movie! Anywho, there, we met a few other American students traveling to our same college and one guy from France. I don't think he understood much English because whenever I would ask him a question, he would just smile and nod. Too adorable (the smiling and nodding part)! So we arrived at Griffith and it went directly in to fill out some paperwork. They gave us bed linens and plates, bowls and utensils and we went up to our rooms. It is much different from most American dorms because of it's size and the biggest difference is the bathrooms. The bathroom in my room is like a shower/toilet/sink all in one. (I'll post pics of it later).

After we were settled in, we grabbed some lunch at a small cafe, bought some much needed toilet paper, and headed back to our rooms for a quick nap. Around 4:30 about 7 or 8 international students met with our American program directors and a couple of faculty from the study abroad office in the student center. By the way, the student center is made up of a FULL BAR and a cafeteria. Yes, you heard me. They were basically introducing us to the university, how things work and telling us what we've heard a million times-"Beware of culture shock" and "Don't drink too much". First impression of the Irish people? So kind and funny. I've only met a few so far, but they were all willing to tell me anything and cracked jokes in the process. I know that I have only been here for a little less than a day, but I have a feeling I'm really going to like it!

Sorry I ended this so abruptly, but it's getting too long, haha. I promise, my posts won't be this long again. Congrats if you've made it far enough to read this. Tomorrow, I'm going on a bus tour of Dublin, so I'll post pics within the next 48 hours on here and/or Facebook.

Talk to you soon!

Hope

Ok, so this is my first blog post! As many of you know, I'm studying abroad in Dublin this semester and, like many others, have decided to create a travel blog! I'll be filling everyone in on my life and how everything is going as well as putting a few pictures up each time (hopefully, but I'm kind of slacking with my camera game...I'll try and step it up these next few months).

Well, I leave for Dublin tomorrow afternoon and I have yet to pack. So, I suppose I should go do that now. Sorry about the boring blog post, but I need to get used to doing this at least once a week starting now!

P.S. this is blog will be very informal, so don't judge me. Mkay?