Major catch up time!

Wednesday -- the Olympics, Parliament, and the Abbey

Wednesday we didn't have class.  Instead, we toured the future site of the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic games. That was a really interesting tour, it was just so long. The building where a majority of the games will be held is really interesting. They haven't been able to come up with a name for it.

We left the Olympic site and headed over to Trafalgar's square, where the premiere of Harry Potter was going to be taking place the next night.  The line was ridiculously long and Molly, Carrie, and I had somewhere to be, so we left. We decided to walk from the tube stop to Parliament, which we thought were close to one another. BUT THEY DEFINITELY WEREN'T. I swear it seemed like we walked 2 miles to get to Parliament, but our lovely route took us by Buckingham Palace.

This is the yard in Westminster Abbey.  Monks that used to live there went out here for recreation. 

From there, Molly, Carrie, and I went to Parliament to listen to a Select Committees Meeting.  That was pretty interesting but it was kind of difficult to understand what they were saying because they were talking so fast. When we'd heard enough of that, we left and made our way to Westminster Abbey.  This time we actually went inside.  There were these two guys that were handing out the audio guides and they were so amazed by all of our accents.  They kept asking us to say water. It was really funny.  The walk through Westminster Abbey was so beautiful.  You're not allowed to take pictures inside so I don't have any to put up.  I was able to see the tombs of Queen "Bloody" Mary and her sister Elizabeth I.  In the room directly beside where they are buried (together, in the same tomb with Elizabeth on top), lies Mary Queen of Scots.

Geoffrey Chaucer is buried in Westminster Abbey, so is Oliver Cromwell, Charles Dickens, Edward the Confessor (who had the church built), and several former kings and queens of England.

After we finished the tour, Molly and I went to a little pub right across the street from Parliament. There, we got the best burgers! From there, we went back to Parliament where we were meeting our Parliament teacher, John Rose, to listen to our guest speakers, Lord Tim Boswell and MP Dennis Skinner.  My favorite of the two was definitely Mr. Skinner.  Even though he was very extreme in his beliefs and didn't care what he said (he's been suspended from Parliament at least ten times for comments made in the chambers), he was very charismatic and funny.  He made several jokes while we were talking to him, mainly about the Tories.

While at Parliament, we were also able to listen to debates in the House of Lords.  They are very civilized and respectful. I wish we'd been able to go to a debate in the House of Commons. They aren't so respectful and they definitely aren't civilized.

This is Westminster Hall, the only part of Parliament where you are allowed to take pictures. This is part of the original Parliament building and dates back to 1097.  It survived a fire that destroyed the rest of the original Parliament buildings and a bomb in 1974.  

I love the ceiling in this building! It is so pretty! 

This is what happens when we get bored. 

Thursday -- A good day that ended terribly. 

Thursday was a pretty calm day.  I decided to hang around school to get all of my journals done before they were due at midnight.  It was rainy so I didn't join Molly and Maegan at the Harry Potter premiere, plus I didn't want to be cramped into Trafalgar's Square with 10,000 other people. I decided to figure out my journey to the train station and went ahead and bought my ticket for the train that would take me to the airport Friday. I figured it out pretty easily and then headed to Covent Garden to meet Sarah and Kathleen for dinner. We went to a super yummy, cheap Mexican place. It was so good! Then we walked around in a few shops, where I bought this really cute shirt. After walking around for a little while, we decided to go ahead to go back to school because it was getting late. The tubes were really crowded. When we got back to school, I opened my purse to get my wallet out so that I could get my key to open the door; however, my wallet was not in there. I immediately called Oasis, the store where I got my shirt and they said it wasn't there. MY WALLET HAD BEEN STOLEN! I called my mom and asked her to call Suntrust to cancel my card with them while I called State Employee's Credit Union and cancelled my card there. Luckily, no purchases had been made and whoever had my wallet didn't have it long. I'm very glad that I discovered it was missing very soon. SECU is now fed-exing me a new card. Hopefully it will be here soon (fingers crossed). I decided not to dwell on someone else's bad character for too long and started to pack for my wonderful weekend trip to IRELAND! 

Friday -- Is this a trip of bad planes? 

I freshened up a little bit and then Irene and I went on a little ride through Dublin and down to the coast at  Dún Laoghaire.  Irene was impressed because I knew how to say it correctly, but then she laughed when she found out that I knew because of the movie PS I love you. It was so pretty!  Here are some pictures! 

This a picture of me with 2 99s from Teddy's. It was so yummy. A 99 is soft serve ice cream in a cone with a Cadbury flake bar in it.  It was so good! 

The water was so beautiful!

A seal! 

After a little tour of the town, we went back to Irene's house and took naps before dinner. We went to dinner at a delicious Italian place called Paparazzi.  I had some really yummy lasagna. We got back from dinner really late and went straight to bed. I slept so well! 

Saturday -- Wonderful from beginning to end! 

I woke up the next morning to the cutest thing. It was nice to be around a dog again. They make you so happy! Lucy sure made me miss my sweet, crazy Zachary! 

When Lucy and I finally decided to get up out of our cozy bed, we went downstairs for a yummy breakfast.  After breakfast, I showered and got ready for a day full of sight seeing.  As we were making our way into the lively part of town, we started to think about what tours we wanted to go on.  We decided to try and book tickets for the Viking Splash tour.  They were booked all day until about 5:15 so we decided we would come back for that.  In the meantime, we bought tickets for a city site seeing tour. We also went on the Dublin Eye. 

This guy was so amazing, as you can definitely tell! 

Hahahah, this is the Viking Splash tour.  Part of the tour is on land and the other part in on the water, hints the life jackets. You have to wear viking hats; however, unfortunately (or possibly fortunately) there weren't enough. 

You can see all of the life jackets in the rear view mirror! 

After a long day of tours, we headed home so that I could get ready for a night out with Irene's daughters Sue and Jenny and their friends Gary, Michael, and Sinéad Walsh.  They were so much fun.  We went out to dinner at a Mexican restaurant and then got drinks afterwards at a pub that played AMAZING music.  I will never forget Gary singing "Don't Stop Believin'" into a coke bottle.  I had so much fun with all of them.  

Sunday -- I was starting to think Sunday would never come, I feel like I've been trying to catch up on blogs for HOURS. 

Today, I woke up, had breakfast and made my way to the airport. I was very sad to leave Dublin. It was so much fun and I really enjoyed spending time with Irene and her family.  They were extremely friendly and welcoming! 

When I got back to school, I told Molly and Carrie all about my trip.  Then we decided we wanted food and nail polish.  We went to Boots to get the nail polish.  Then we ended up going to Whole Foods.  We bought a sweet bbq rotisserie chicken, tons of mashed potatoes, and corn. It was so delicious.  To top it all off, we went to Ben's cookies and got 7 cookies for 7 pounds! We came back to the dorm, ate our yummy meal, and then we had cookies and milk.  

Overall, this weekend was so amazing and wonderful. I really think I could live in Dublin. Every one was so incredibly nice, the weather was beautiful, and Ireland is absolutely gorgeous. Having my wallet stolen was only a minor set back in my week.  

I'm reaching the halfway point in my trip and while I'm having fun here, it is also making me miss home. I can't wait to go home and see my family.  Being away from them for this long has really made me appreciate my family, Jeff, and friends. I can't wait to go home to all of them! <3