Everyone's Irish on March 17th

A couple weeks ago, I got to spend 5 days in the beautiful country of Ireland, starting on St. Patrick's Day! My group of 6 students from Keele flew only 50 minutes Ryan Air to Cork and arrived just after the parade (which we heard wasn't so great, so didn't miss much there) and were greeted with crowds of people from all over, many dressed in lots of green. Even saw a few leprechauns, too bad I did get their lucky charms... I miss those. ha, well the Irish pubs were fun, they served green beer that night and we got to see traditional Irish dancing. I went to Blarney Castle which was beautiful, especially the gardens, and got to kiss the Blarney stone at the top of the castle-- some sort of Irish tradition for good luck in love. I even got a Claddagh ring, my favorite souvenir!



Then we went to Dublin and explored lots. I was sick for this part but kept going of course, time to get better later at home. We had such a fun and diverse group and the whole trip would not have been the same without them! Our hostel got us a free walking tour of the city so we learned lots about Irish history, then we just had to go to the Guinness Brewery, and yes I drank the complimentary pint- not too bad (better in Ireland of course!) Only wish I could have seen more countryside of Ireland, but I definitely loved our trip regardless.I had SOOO much work to do right before I left and lots just last night too. Essays I left for last minute because of all the trips and excitement going on here at Keele. But I'd rather stress hard for one or two days over essays, and spend my quality time enjoying being abroad. Like a friend of mine said, 90% vacation, 10% study haha.

I spent this past weekend in Portsmouth, on the southern coast of England, with my friend Bennett -who was an excellent tourguide : ) -and his family. Saw Southsea, Spinnaker Tower, the Solent waters, Gunwharf Quays, Portchester Castle, went ice skating, driving through the lovely countryside, and had a proper homecooked English Sunday Roast, compliments of his mum. It was certainly a fun, relaxing weekend just before the crazy European adventures awaiting me in 2 days! Grace, Kate and I depart April 1 Wednesday afternoon for 33 days, traveling with our Eurail Passes to Spain, France, Austria, Italy, and Greece. Words cannot describe how anxious I am, I know this will be the trip of a lifetime!


And what is even better, one day after I get back to England, one of my best friends from home, Alex, is flying here to spend a week with me at Keele!Wish me luck, I won't be able to have much internet access over the next month so feel free to leave me email or facebook messages and I'll check them when I can! (and let me know if there's a "must-see" for me to remember) I love and miss you all, bon voyage! xxx

Butterflies aren't fading....

Just got out of a long day's worth of class, one of which we have a new lecturer who is very Scottish, therefore I understood only every other word due to his thick accent. Again, been quite a while (about 2 weeks) from whence I last wrote. Since then, I've been to York, the Black country Museum in Dudley, Newcastle-upon-Tyne (and Ashington) as well as kept up with Ultimate Frisbee, and still learning something new about England every day! Classes have gotten much more stressful (especially combined with planning all these trips!) and these papers aren't as easy as I expected them to be. I also finally changed rooms, moving across campus to Horwood Z7 -but you can still send mail to the student union address : ) - it's a flat with 7 other girls who are all very fun and welcoming. Though it was hard to pick up and move after a month into school, it's nice being settled into a permanent room of my own! I've become a rugby fan after watching 2 games so far of the Six Nations rugby tournament (and 6 roommates play it here). It's so intense and has lots of contact and everyone here gets so into it when we watch at the bars on campus.

Trips:

• day trip to York: what a beautiful city, very cold/windy day, loved York Cathedral, almost attacked by geese haha, had wine on a lovely river boat ride, saw lots of incredible architecture, and just had fun!
• British Culture class trip to Black Country Living, an old recreated mining town in Dudley; went down into an old but real coal mine (kinda scary) and learned lots about the industry - called the "black country" because of all the coal and pollution-, took a boat ride through underground canals of limestone caves which was very cool, and had some amazing (best yet!) fish and chips
• spent 4days/3nights in Newcastle-upon-Tyne (well actually just north of there, in Ashington). Claire, a friend of a friend, invited Grace and I. We stayed with her, she was an excellent tour guide and cook, and since it's on the cost of NE England, we put our feet in the sand and freezing ocean! (they say "freezing me bits off" haha), she drove us to Bamburgh Castle (WOW) which is just on the cliff overlooking the water, absolutely gorgeous view, toured there, and couldn't believe people still actually live there! Grace or I plan to marry the owner's (Lord of Northumberland) son (the Earl) . Good plan huh? So back into Newcastle, we saw a great art museum and Yoko Ono's exhibition which had some cool participatory art. One night we watched Love Actually (my first time) which was twice as awesome because it's a British film that we watched IN England! : )

Currently, I will be hibernating this week/weekend to complete all of my essays before going to Ireland... OH YES! I get to spend St. Patrick's Day in Ireland!! March 17-21, going to Cork then Dublin, and am sooooooooooo excited!! And don't worry, I will kiss the Blarney Stone ; )
Received my Eurail Select Pass in the mail today, Grace Kate and I will be traveling 5 countries in 1 month for Easter break: Spain, France, Austria, Italy, and Greece! Already have our flight there starting in Barcelona, booking hostels, and researching more. This is all still so surreal, and I can not believe how incredible it all is or how lucky I am! Thank you for being there for me.
On our 7 hour coach ride home yesterday, I was thinking about whether or not I've "changed" so far, and I honestly don't know if I have or not. Hope so, and hope for the better! I'm still truly missing everyone, and wishing I had more letters... ; ) feel free to skype anytime still! krystal_trout
love you all! xxxxx cheers