These are a few of my favorite things

I'm no Julie Andrews, but lately I've found I have a ridiculous amount of favorite things.  And since it happens to be that time of year to be extra-thankful (because, heaven forbid, we're thankful ALL of the time)....
So here's my little diddy - don't even try to sing it Sound-Of-Music-Style.  Trust me, I tried.

* Friends. Abroad and at home.  You make it all worth it.
** Family.  For sending me pumpkin pie mix when Ireland grocery stores fail me, and for teaching me about slack-lining.
*** My Vancouver Olympics gloves.  Because I have come to the conclusion that it really is cold in Ireland.
** Tea.  My love for tea has quadruple-tripled since being here.  Yes, quadruple-tripled is a real number.  I'm a math major, so I know.
* Trad Music Sessions in the dorm common rooms.  Oh yes, that really DOES happen.  I was thoroughly impressed.
** Christmas Markets.  In Galway last weekend, I had the most amazing macaroon at the local Christmas Market.  I almost died.  Ask Sarah.

*** Harry Potter.  He really has taken over my life the past few weeks.  I may not have found a midnight showing in all of Ireland, but waking up at 6 am to walk to the movie theatre, hitting up McDonalds, grabbing a extra large cappucino, and catching a 9:30 am showing of the Deathly Hallows was one for the books :)

** Making cool patterns with *'s on my blog.  I'm having fun with this.
* Writing Letters of Rec for RYLA. Makes me fall in love with RYLA all over again.
** Saying "Thanks a Million!" when somebody gives me my change.  I love that that's a totally normal response here. 
*** Going to Catholic Mass in Ireland. 
** That awkward moment when you have to ask Europe to lend you 8 billion Euro.  Ok, so I don't love it necessarily, but I saw someone "liked" it on Facebook and I kinda had to giggle.  But then I realized, wow, that is actually really serious.  For all of those who are reading this and have no idea what is going on, please step out of your USA bubble and read up on your world news.  Ireland is having sort of a bad day. 
* Christmas Music.  Yep.  It's already started.
** Gort, Ireland.  Where the cafe owner of 25 years will sit and talk to you for 20 minutes about absolutely everything, and where the old church at the end of the block is actually a library.
*** Europe's idea of a "fashionable" winter hat.  This deserves a picture.

Really?  This is what's going to be fashionable?

** Buying milk that has more than a three day gap before its expiration date.  VERY hard to find here.  Milk and I have a love/hate relationship because of it.
* Kasey's Brita water filter.  Because without that, I would have shriveled up like a prune this semester.  Dromroe Village has the worst tasting tap water in the world!  And that's saying something, for any of you who have been to MY house in Lander.

So, these are just a few :)
I hope your holidays are wonderful, and that you all get to spend some time with your family... you sure don't know what you've got till it's gone!  I'm definitely missing my little family and my Denver family this Thanksgiving.  Next year better be EXTRA turkey-fied to make up for it!

Taking out the Bucket List and checking things off!

They say the Ring of Kerry is one of those "places you have to see before you die"... well, I'm not saying I plan on getting destroyed by a meteor thats crashing into Earth anytime soon, but I had to check it out for myself.

See what I'm talking about?

The Skelligs.  The largest was home to a Monestary centuries ago.  Really livin' on the edge, eh?

Um, wow.

That weekend, a small group of five of us from Limerick (+ our honorary Galway guy) set off for a tour of the Ring of Kerry and the surrounding area of the peninsula.  PB&J's were packed, classes on Friday were "taken care of" (don't tell the 'rents I didn't go...), and my camera battery was charged.  I'm such a good little tourist.

Fast forward to us meeting up with 40 Cork students in Killarney and Allie getting the VERY back seat of the bus.  Next to the toilet.  Yep.  Did I piss someone off in a past life or something?  Ugh...  But we did stop to check out some Irish wolfhounds and bog ponies and peat, plus, we were guaranteed a ginormous dinner at the end of it all.  So, I put on my big girl panties and I dealt with it ;)

Dinner was delish, but the evening wasn't over yet.  A wonderful local woman (gosh, I can't for the life of me remember her name, only that her last name was Coffee.  Go figure.  THAT'S what I retain) came to speak to us about life in the bog growing up in the 60's.  Oh jeez.  She was just presh.  Cutting bog all day harvesting peat, milking the cows, sewing her own clothes, getting electricity installed at home, dating boys with cars, getting packages from America... talk about knowing what "a hard day's work" is!  It was amazing to listen to her and watch her relive all of those memories.  Now I'm not saying we milk cows in Wyoming every day, but listening to her really reminded me of home.  It must have been the reminder of rural living... gosh I miss it!

After the presentation, the party really started: can anyone say Irish Dancing???  Check #1 off of the bucket list!  Weeeeee!  To Martin, my partner, you were fab.  To the Irish man who dragged me out to center of the floor as an example, if you spin a girl any faster I swear her head will pop off.  Regardless, it was a blast.  And after just watching Leap Year a few days ago, I realized that one of the dances we learned was the one they perfomed at the wedding scene.  Cool huh??

Then it was more chillin' in the hotel pub with our new Cork friends, two of which were from Boston and wasted no time in giving us the full run-down on Whitey Bulger.  Very good stuff.  Between Sarah and my secret new handshake and Irish Mob stories, it was a swell night!

Early wake up call - rise and shine to a wonderful breakfast (COFFEE) and then we were on the tour bus again, heading up the Skellig Coast and over to Valencia Island.  Having a local as a tour guide turned out to be a great advantage because we were able to travel "beyond" just the typical Ring of Kerry experience.  Valencia Island was just gorgeous.  We were climbing around abandoned castles one minute and hiking in the pouring rain the next. 

The afternoon was free for us to explore Cahersiveen, the village we'd been staying in.  Small, but very inviting and fun to explore.  Between the old British Barracks, whose building plans were mixed up with building plans meant for India (your bad, England) and the Daniel O'Connell Cathedral, which is the only one in existence NOT to be named after a recognized Catholic Saint (it even had to be "ok'ed" by the Pope), there was plenty to see and explore in Cahersiveen.

I'm no architect, but this def out of place in Ireland

Downtown Cahersiveen

That evening, after another amazing dinner (can anybody roll me outta here?), we were given a crash course in Gaelic Football.  Okay, you thought Rugby was rough?  This is just ridiculous.  I don't know what's in the water here, but Irish guys are out of their freaking minds!  Morris Fitzgerald came to speak to us about the sport, and I guess that's a pretty big deal here.  He's kinda famous apparently.  Very cool.  Meeting a celeb? Check #2 off of the bucket list.

Then it was time for the Table Quiz!  Basically, Ireland's version of Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader.  Only, it's more like Are You Smarter Than an Irish Man Who's Already Had A Few Pints.  Limerick vs. teams from Cork.  Oh, we dominated.  Yes, the Sun is the closest star to Earth.  Yes, the Flanders do live next door to the Simpsons. And yes, Panama is the name of a straw hat and also the name of a canal.  And when it came time for party tricks, reciting the 50 states in alphabetical order in one breath earned me some Skellig's chocolate (which is now considered very rare seeing as the tiny little factory had tragically burned down the night before... )

Another early morning wake up call, COFFEE, and we were off!  This time, exploring forts built thousands of years ago, touring Daniel O'Connell's home (the man who brought religious freedom to Ireland), driving past golf courses only Tiger Woods can afford to play on, and a gorgeous bus ride home through Lord of the Rings territory.  Very, very epic. 

And what's an amazing trip without a few great quotes to remember it by???

...."Harry Potter is on TV! Harry Potter is on TV! "
           "Did you just SPIT on me?!"
...."I can vibrate my uvula" (really...?)
...."Allie, GET ON MY BACK."

So all in all, a very successful weekend.  Traveling to the Ring of Kerry?  Check #3 off of the bucket list.  I would say 3 checkmarks in one weekend isn't half bad :)

What have you checked off your bucket list lately?

Rediscovering the Emerald Isle

Hello All!!

It has come to my attention of late that apparently I'm not posting as often as I should be (erm, Bridger, among others).  I'm sorry! I've been out frolicking in Ireland!  Who has time to sit down at a computer and blog when there are thousands upon thousands of fall leaves to run through?  Yes, Fall is in full swing here in Ireland, and I have never seen anything quite like it.  Don't get me wrong, there are some pretty fantastic Falls in Washington, on the East Coast, and even in Wyoming when the wind doesn't blow everything away.  But Ireland is something else.  I didn't even know some of these colors existed!!!  Truly a gorgeous place to be....

Now that "International October" is over and done with, "National November" is in full swing.  Don't ask me how the scheduling worked out, but I'm spending all of my November travelling Ireland and "rediscovering" this beautiful country.  Ok Allie, enough with the " "'s....

Even though my travels had me falling in love with Italy, and Belgium, and England, my heart belongs to Ireland.  In these past ten days, I have had the most amazing Irish moments.  Let me take you back...

Extra-ordinary Moment #1: Visiting Guerin's Pub in Castleconnell.
   Can I just say, that in all my time here in Ireland, there was always a part of me who felt like I was still waiting for my real Irish moment?  This was it.  No tourists, no bells and whistles... just rich, genuine Ireland.  My Canadian friend (yes, I have one) invited me to join her one evening, since she was headed out to a pub with a local she'd met on a plane to Paris.  Ok, side-note: who meets a local Limerick guy in Paris?!  Anyways, of course I wanted to go, because it meant putting off my folklore essay even more.  So off we went to a little town just outside of Limerick City.  Cian (pronounced Key-In for all you Americans out there), led us in the back door of this tiny little pub, where a group of his friends had gotten together for a pint.  My jaw literally dropped.  I had walked into what I would compare to the Lander Bar in the middle of January: the locals' spot.  There was trad music in one corner, and the rest of the pub was packed with people laughing and storytelling and having a grand ol' time... and of course all with a pint of Guinness in their hands.  At one point, the little old lady behind the bar shouted over to Cian to grab her something in the back, like it was no big deal to be ordering around her customers.  I turned to him and asked if he knew everyone in the pub.  He laughed and told me "yeah, pretty much.  I mean, Mary owns this place, and that's my dad over there."  I couldn't believe what I had walked into.  This was the true rural Ireland that I had been searching for.  It was one of those moments where you go "I am going to remember this forever". 

Extra-ordinary Moment #2: Limerick Milk Market.
   I just love this place.  It is bubbling with activity... even on a cold Saturday morning.  I've been to some pretty amazing farmer's markets back in the States, but nothing quite like this.  It feels soooooooo local. Like those people woke up that morning, dug up some potatoes, and brought them in fresh for me to snatch up!  Contents of Allie's bag after the market?  Farm fresh eggs (the most ginormous ones you will EVER see... poor chicken), broccoli, eggplant (that's right, eggplant.  See: extra-ordinary moment #3), Italian flatbread, goat cheese, and scones.  Success?  I think so.

courtesy: Google Images. Note to self: take my own stinkin' pictures next time!

Extra-ordinary Moment #3: Allie learns to broaden her cooking repitoire.
  Cooking in Ireland is very tricky.  Especially in a kitchen shared by five other individuals, one mini fridge to store everything, one frying pan that's slightly dented (ok, really dented... drunk roommates destroy the most random things), on a stove that only knows "off" and "burnt".  Let's just say it's been an adventure.  I'm definitely not cooking any pizza casserole or baking any crock pot cake these days... so you don't even have to worry about missing out, Matthew.  BUT!  I did tackle eggplant parmesan and egg fried rice!  Gordon Ramsay would be proud :)

Extra-ordinary Moment #4: Kissing the Blarney Stone.
  Ok, maybe the actual kissing of the stone wasn't extraordinary... actually, it was kinda tacky and not very exciting at all.  And as for "the gift of gab" it's supposed to bestow?  If you've read ANY of my lengthy blogs before this, you'd know I've never needed some stone to give me that.  But I kissed it anyways, paid an arm and a leg for a picture, and moved on.  The Blarney Gardens surrounding the Castle were the really amazing part of this trip.  I know, you're probably thinking "enough with the Irish Fall already!"  But I'm not kidding when I say it's different from any other Fall.  Come, and you'll see.

Blarney Castle in the distance

Well this is special...

Extra-EXTRA-ordinary Moment #5: Making a Wish
   Legend has it that if you walk up and down the wishing stairs in the Blarney Gardens with your eyes closed, thinking of nothing else but your most sacred wish, that wish will come true.  This is serious stuff, guys.  So myself being the one who wishes on every birthday candle ever blown out, on every shooting star, and on every eyelash on the cheek, of course I had to wish on the wishing stairs.  I don't think my wish would be ruined if I shared it here (trust me, I've had plenty of wishes ruined by telling them to other people, so consider yourselves lucky to hear this one!).

 As I was fumbling up those stairs, all I could think about was how badly I wished and hoped that I could come back home in January, and find happiness in Bellingham.  Don't get me wrong, I am very happy and very lucky to be going to school where I do, but sometimes I find myself feeling lost and alone and insecure both in Washington and in Wyoming.  And to be truthfully honest, I often let those feelings get the best of me.  So, as you can imagine, I was concentrating sooooooooo hard on my wish.  Guess what happened?  No, I didn't fall... thanks for your concern.  No, I was distracted by my group of friends at the bottom of the stairs cracking jokes as I was trying to focus.  At first I was mad that they were butting in to my wish, but then I caught myself laughing at their jokes.  It became virtually impossible to focus on my thoughts because I was so caught up in what my friends were talking about.  And then it hit me like a freight train: I was happier in that moment than I have felt in years.  I was surrounded by some of the most amazing individuals I have ever met in my life, in one of the most beautiful places I have ever been in my life, having ten times the adventure I thought I would be having.  Why should I be wishing for something in the future when what I have in the present is so perfect?  Yes, the time will come for me to close this chapter in my life and return to the States, but not right now.  Right now I am living in the moment, and it is amazing.  So no more wishing in Ireland for me.  I am happy. Just. Like. This.




London Town!!!

Here we go again!! London-bound!! 

Basically by now I'm so far past exhaustion it's become ridiculous.  But who cares?  I was on a flight to London with the American crew and we were ready for Londontown!

At this point I have just become a PRO at packing my backpack... half the time I don't even bother UNpacking it because I have to turn around and do it all over again!  So with the backpack ready to go, the PB&J's in one hand (a staple in Allie's travels), and homework in the other (I had to at least look like I was taking school seriously, right?), we headed out late Friday night.  Fast forward 7 hours, and you'll find us checking into our uh-mazing hotel at 2 am.
           Okay, 1) I would just like to reiterate the fact that it was 2.  AM.  That's 2 hours after midnight.  Cinderella's carriage turned back into a pumpkin hours ago. Exhausted Allie doesn't find that very appealing.  And,
                     2) Hotels are ridiculously cool.  Trust me.  After spending more nights in hostel beds rather than my own bed during the month of October, suddenly hotels seem like the cat's pajamas.  Yeah, I just put "cat" and "pajamas" in the same sentence.

Anyways, by the next morning I had had my rest and was itching to go.  As by our Irish Mammy's instructions, we had a huge breakfast (she said it was free... why not take advantage?) and practically had to roll ourselves out to the hop-on-hop-off buses: aka your real life London double-decker buses.  Holla! 



Big Ben and the London Eye

 Off we went to the Tower of London:  home of the crown jewels, site of multiple be-headings (think of King Henry VIII), and teeming with thousands of tourists... which made it hard to spot MS KENDAL SWANSON!!!!  Can you believe it?  Thousands of miles around the world and I still manage to run into my old suitemate!

Castle, anyone?


After the Tower of London came the Tower Bridge: one of the more famous bridges in London.  I know, I know, you're thinking, "what about London Bridge?"  I mean, there is a nursery rhyme and pop song written about it.  I hate to break your heart, but

Tower Bridge

London Bridge.  Yeah, that cement thing.

By now it's already late afternoon in London, and we had to get to Abbey Road before the sun set.  So off we went again!!  Maybe if we'd gotten on the right bus, hadn't stopped at KFC to pee, didn't get lost down the streets of London in the rain, and hadn't walked straight past the recording studio without realizing it, we would have made it while there was still light out.  But hey!  It was an adventure and I wouldn't have had it any other way :)  Besides, we still made it to Abbey Road.  That's one more for Around-the-World Bingo!

I'm basically a Honorary Beatle

Then race back to the London Eye, navigating the Tube and running between stations.  I'm telling you, this was a whole different experience at night.  Definitely amazing.

Instead of staying in London like everyone else, Kendal and I headed to her campus in Reading.  Too bad it was dark.  I couldn't tell you what Reading was like to be honest.  Guess a second trip is in order hahaha.... but it was so great to see a familiar face.  I miss you guys at home!!!

Day 2 in London: wake up an hour late for the train, rush back to London to pig out on another breakfast, sneak through the Tube because my day pass went MIA... and that'd be my morning.  Then it was
   > the Globe Theatre,

        > the Tate Modern (queue Picasso, Warhol, Dali),
             > across the Millenium Bridge (don't worry, I wasn't freaking out or anything.... it's not like the Millenium Bridge wasn't in Harry Potter or anything....),

                  > St. Paul's Cathedral ("oooooooooooooo, ahhhhhhhhhhhhh" ... really wishing I was as legit as Princess Di so I could get married there)

St. Paul's

                       > KING'S CROSS STATION (everybody FREAK OUT)

I guess Hogwarts will have to wait another year... my magical powers couldn't get me thru the barrier

                            > ordering a London Fog in London.  Yes, it can be done.  But don't call it a London Fog.  They get all confused and flustered.  Calmly explain that you would like an Earl Grey latte with vanilla flavoring and then they can handle it,

                                 > and then heading over to the Camden Market, where we conveniently lost track of time and MISSED the bus to the AIRPORT.  Shit.  Well, I can honestly say that I am now fully competent at navigating London transportation.  Learning experience?  Most definitely.  Talk about cutting it close.  Weee!  Again, not an adventure until something goes wrong, eh? 

The trip just whizzed by, and now, sitting at my computer back in Limerick, I can't help but feel a little bummed that my month of crazy travels has come to a close.  What a month it has been!  Not even people who live in this part of the world travel as much as we did!  Across two time zones, three languages, four countries, and six new stamps in my passport, we managed to do it all. 

Now what?  Now I guess school gets a little bit of attention.  And I might have to rediscover Ireland.  It is where I've chosen to study after all.  And especially after all of this travel, it feels more and more like home.  And I love being home.