"Your friend is asleep, I think he needs a Guinness"

I'm quite aware that I've been putting off the Ireland blog post for a while, but here it is nonetheless.

On Friday the 13th, the last day in the last week of tutorials, Kellie, Caitie, Kenzie, Lauren, Alexia, Sean, and I headed to Gatwick to catch a 13:45 plane to Dublin. Lauren's friend Matt, who's studying abroad in Alba, Italy this semester and came to Oxford a week or two prior to this trip, joined up with us in the airport after a journey considerably longer than ours. From there we caught the Airlink bus to the central train station to catch the train to Galway. It ended up being a bit more expensive than we thought since in order to get a student discount for the train in Ireland you have to have an Irish Student Rail Card as opposed to any student ID, but it is what it is. The train ride to Galway (and then back to Dublin) was great: rolling green countryside, flocks of sheep, little stone walls. We got to Galway around 19:30 or so and found our hostel, just a quick walk from the station. The hostel was GREAT and exactly what I've always wanted from a hostel experience, but I'll give that it's own paragraph.

We checked into the hostel and waited for Alexia's friend Kiera (who's in Galway for the semester) to come meet up with us. From there, we walked around a bit and ended up getting fish and chips--my first!--at a bumpin' place called McDonough's. I'm not big on fish so I didn't think that part was so hot but the chips were great; everyone else thought the opposite. From there we headed to a pub named The King's Head for a few pints. Once we got there we found out there was going to be live music at 22:00! So we decided to wait and hear a few songs...except that by 22:45 they had just started sound checking, so we dipped. After that we headed to another bar called The Living Room which was a bit more upscale and we accidentally ended up in the "VIP" section which got us a few weird looks so we didn't stay long. It rained a bit for the half hour or so that we were there but that's all the rain we got the whole weekend! Which my seminar professor assured me upon our return was quite the anomaly. After the rain subsided (after only 10 minutes) we headed back to the hostel, met some of our Austrailian roommates, and went to bed.

We got up in the morning for breakfast, ie toast and OJ (although we did capitalize and made PB&J sandwiches for the afternoon) and headed out to walk around, accompanied by two of our new Australian friends Brent and Alana! We'd actually met them the previous night but we were all about to go to bed anyway. We walked all over the town and it's markets and down to the coast!


We walked around for quite a while until 16:30 or so when we made our way to the grocery store to get supplies for familly dinner in Ireland! Our hostel had a great kitchen and, as much as I like eating out, cooking for ourselves was a good way to chill out and save money simultaneously. After dinner we hung out with people in the hostels common room and pregamed a bit, after which we went to a bar named Quay's (pronounced "keys") which was GREAT. There was a short bar right as you walk in and almost immediately a set of stairs down to another bar and what would've been a dance floor had it not been so packed, and then another set of stairs up to yet another bar. On a few different occasions people heard us talking while ordering drinks and bought us drinks simply because we were American and they wanted to talk to us! And it wasn't just guys buying girls drinks either, although a guy or two was quite taken with Lauren's beautiful teeth. They all were just excited to talk to an American, saying how much they'd like to visit and how they don't necessarily get a lot of us in Galway since most people want to go to Dublin. Basically, it was just a great day and subsequent night out.

The next day we walked around a bit more and hung out at the hostel before a supermarket lunch on the train back. When we got to Ireland we met up with Chris, another guy from St. Mary's who was in my seminar. He had been in Barcelona a few days prior and had arrived in Dublin that morning, and was basically a godsend since he found our hostels (two separate ones, since Caitie and Lauren came back on Tuesday rather than Monday) and helped us get there. We wanted to do another family dinner but our hostel was tight on security so not all of us would've been allowed past the reception, so we decided on Eddie Rocket's who claim Johnny Rocket's as their "American cousin". We were all pretty pooped after that so we all headed towards our respective lodgings (Chris was also in his own hostel). Those of us in Globetrotters met a few Americans from Virginia Tech there on spring break. They were nice enough meeting them at the time, but the girls were royal douche bags the next morning. To be fair they did warn us they had to leave the hostel by 06:30, but they didn't make much effort to be quiet.

After quickly getting ready, we finally got our full Irish breakfast. We then checked out and very nearly ran to meet up with everyone else at Trinity College. We walked around the college which was beautiful but didn't go into any of the buildings, notably the Book of Kells exhibit since it cost 10 euro! From there we walked to St. Patrick's Cathedral, which we also did not go into for monetary reasons, but we did enjoy the archictecture from the garden. Then it was across the city (and through various other gardens) to the Guinness Factory! We ended up waiting outside for almost an hour for Scott, another American we met in Galway who's in Dublin for the year. Although I'd been to a brewery before *wink wink* I still had a great time and thought the tour was really well done.

One thing the Guinness Factory had that the Heineken Brewery did not was a section on coopers and the business of cask making...specifically for Guinness, of course. Another highlight was the Perfect Pint bar, where they teach you how to pull the perfect pint of Guinness! You must of course tilt the glass (coughLaurencough) and pull the tap towards you, until the foam reaches halfway up the harp logo. It then has to sit for two minutes, after which you top the pint off by pushing the tap away from you. The difference in the two is that when pulling it towards you, it releases nitrogen and oxygen into the stout whereas it's just Guinness when you push it away. Voila!

From there the only place left to go was the Gravity Bar! Dublin must have laws severely limiting the height of it's buildings, and the bar on top of the Guinness Factory is one of the highest points in the city! You could see literally everything. I really wish I could've gone on St. Patrick's Day, since the factory was going to have bars set up on all seven floors of the Factory. But alas, my last seminar was on St. Patty's so we had to make our way back to the airport. Kellie, Kenzie, Alexia, Sean, and I said a cheery bye to Lauren, Caitie, Matt, and Scott and got on the bus back to the airport.

My last seminar meeting went well and I got good feedback (although no grade...) on my paper, but now integral is well underway! It's not a horrid schedule, really: a 09:30-10:30 and an 11:00-12:00 lecture Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday and all day field trips on Wednesdays. Yesterday we went to Hampton Court Palace which was cool (I have yet to upload pictures) since it's part Tudor and part baroque but I've had enough early modern-19th century buildings to last me a while. Kellie's mom also got here yesterday and is here until Tuesday, so we've been going out during the day and then to dinner. Tomorrow we're going to the Mini Cooper factory and London this weekend! I'm not looking forward to the integral exam, but my post-semester travels are just around the corner.

The Beginning of the End

Tutorials are OVER! I had my last meeting with Dr. Philpott on Tuesday morning which was alright. At the end of the meeting he asked how I thought I'd done throughout the semester and what grade I thought I deserved. I said either a B+ or an A- and he said he'd been on the fence between the two, and while my paper wasn't bad this week if it had been just a smidge better he would've just gone ahead and given me the A-. That was a little annoying considering throughout the whole meeting he acknowledged the fact that it was 8th week, that I'm tired of it, he's tired of it, and I did admit that I wrote my seminar paper at the expense of my last Heresy and Authority paper since it was the only paper for that class instead of one of eight. In any case, he said to bring him what I thought was my best paper of term so I'm hopeful for the A-.

On the other hand I'm almost positive that I'm getting an A for my Family, Sex and Marriage tutorial. I had the last meeting for that class this afternoon and at the end my tutor said that my papers have been consistently strong throughout the term. We even got to talking about my plans after the semester ends (since she thought I was done after this week) and she even offered to let Kellie and I crash at her place if needed! That, or she'll book us a room at Keble for ~£15 a night if she's on holiday.

I also turned in my ~3,700 word beast of a seminar paper on Tuesday, which I feel pretty good about. I wrote it on the effects of the Protestant Reformation on marriage in England but I won't bore you with the details. I do think it's a bit silly for the paper to be 80% of the grade for the class though, as strong as my discussion participation was. In any case I'll find out on Tuesday how it went over.

More excitingly is the impending trip to Ireland! Quite a bunch of us (Kellie, Caitie, Kenzie, Sean, Alexia, Lauren, and myself) are heading out tomorrow on a 13:45 plane to Dublin. We're taking either the bus or the train straight to Galway for two days and then back for one more in Dublin. Most of us are coming back on Monday (I have my last seminar meeting on Tuesday) but Caitie and Lauren are coming back on Tuesday, or St. Patrick's Day! But I need to go pack and get to bed. Expect pictures from the Guinness Factory.

Heineken-Sponsored Friendship

Ah Amsterdam. Last weekend was my fourth time there, but each time I've been has been different. The first time I was there was with the National Student Leadership Conference "Diplomacy Abroad" program in July 2005. That trip was overall a good first time out of the country, but in comparison to other traveling I've done and how I'm able to travel now the directors of the program held our hands through the entire thing. Granted, because of some of the people that went on the program they pretty much had to, but that's a whole 'nother story.

The second time in Amsterdam was great! It was right after I graduated from high school, with my mom and sister. The only downside was that we didn't have enough time to explore the city and see and do everything we wanted to, especially considering all the World Cup excitement going. There were so many people there because of the World Cup and it was already tourist season, but we admittedly wanted to take part in the festivities. My third time in Amsterdam was fairly abysmal, considering I ended up going by myself and I got food poisoning during my stay.

I don't think this trip could've been much better, with the noted exception of a little mix-up on the tram on Saturday afternoon. Kellie, Caitie, Lauren and I left from Gatwick (which is so much farther away from Oxford than Heathrow) on Friday around 17:00 and got off the plane at Schipol Airport around 19:30. We ended up grabbing sandwiches in the train station because we had to break bills to get train tickets to coins. For the record, grocery store eating is probably the best way to eat cheaply while traveling. You can usually get a freshly made sandwich, a piece of fruit, and a soda for about 3 euro. So we got on the train to Amsterdam Sloterdijk station (pronounced "slow-ter-dyke", not "slaughter dick") and thankfully a guy sitting across from us noticed that we all looked a bit confused when the conductor said something in Dutch; he then explained that the train was going away from the city and if we wanted to end up remotely where we were supposed to that we should probably get off. We did, and quickly caught the bus to Hotel Slotania where we were expecting to be in a 10 person dorm room but upon arrival we discovered we had somehow scored our own four person room with a private bathroom! So needless to say we were pretty stoked, and got down to mapping out our weekend.

Saturday we got up and went to breakfast, which was included with our two-night stay for only 35 euro(!), which was really good for a complimentary breakfast. None of this continental crap; this place had cereals, hard boiled eggs, toast with a multitude of jams, cold cuts and cheese, juices--even an esspresso/cappucino machine! Our first stop on Saturday was the Amsterdam Tulip Museum:

This is the museum in its entirety, minus a little film room (read: three stools and a small projection screen) to show the process of tulip cultivation. There was a shop on the street level (this was below ground) that sold all kinds of beautiful tulips which Kellie took dozens of pictures of, which I can post if she doesn't. (My old camera that I gave her when I got my new one pretty much died completely on our first day there so we're splitting the pictures that we took on my camera) The guy running the place was extremely friendly and spoke great English--but then again pretty much all of the Dutch do--in addition to French, German, and Italian and we talked for a bit about how he used to live in Connecticut and started a sister museum there and about the CMRS program, studying abroad, etc. There was also a German woman who was visiting and started chatting with us during the cultivation film. Lauren wanted me to prove that I actually spoke German, so I did (suck it L-Ramz!)! She was pleasantly surprised and said I wasn't half bad. The consensus among us was that she was trying to chill with us and go to the Anne Frank House across the street since she was on her own...but we didn't want to wait in line and it's not part of the I amsterdam card.

From there we had to make a quick trip back to the hotel and afterwards set out to the Houseboat Museum, during which we had our tram snafu. I feel like something in our little guide books was misprinted, because the tram stop listed on there was NOT one that we passed, and we ended up on the east side of the city. So we ended up walking south and accidentally found the Foam film and photography musuem (which upon seeing I remembered I had been to with my mom and sister), but it was on our agenda for the day so no harm done! Luckily we got there right as a huge line started to form behind us. By the time we got out 30 minutes or so later, it was around corner. From there, we hopped across the stree--err, canal to the Museum van Loon, which was basically a swanky 17th century aristocratic house. After that we got another grocery store lunch and ate it on the canal. The weather on Saturday was also phenomenal; nice and sunny and a little warmer during the day.

From there we walked south to the Museumplein/Vondelpark and hit up the newly renovated Van Gogh Musuem, but not before frolicking a bit.



There was also a horrendous line when we walked around to the entrance because 1.) it was Saturday and 2.) an exhibit titled "Colours of the Night" had just opened. Luckily for us, I noticed that people with I amsterdam cards could queue in a separate lane and bypass everyone else! I had seen the main part of the museum before, but the exhibit was nice and tastely done, if I do say so myself. From there we hoofed it to the Heineken Brewery and barely made it in time for the last ticket sales. I had also been to the "Heineken Experience" as it's called before but I was by myself and food poisoned so I wasn't really in the mood to drink beer, as much as I love Heineken. It was also newly renovated with a couple nice new touches. This was probably the favorite activity of the weekend, and I really can't recommend it enough. I think it's one of those "must do" things in Amsterdam.


Afterwards we went to grab tickets for a canal cruise--which are SO much better at night--and walk around before we had to board. Again if you're in Amsterdam go on the Blue Boat tour at night. They have a person explaining the different parts of the city instead of a recording, and since it's at night you can see into peoples houses! After the cruise we went to the Leidseplein (the hip part of town with all the great ethnic restaurants) for a dinner out at an Argentinean restaurant.

In getting back to the hotel there was a little trip up which I will grudgingly mention because I'm sure someone else will if I don't. We took the tram from the Leidseplein back to the Centraal Station since it would be easier to navigate the trams back from there. I was pretty sure I had it figured out, but figured I'd hop on the tram and ask the ticket checker before I told everyone to get on the (potentially) wrong tram. After confirming that it was indeed the tram we wanted, I turned around to signal everyone else to get on, only to see the doors shutting as the tram pulled away. All I had to do was get off at the next stop and catch the tram back, but the looks of horror exchanged between us were pretty funny. We eventually crawled into bed around 01:30.

Sunday wasn't nearly as packed as Saturday, but we were all pretty tired (Saturday was more walking than I make it out to be) so I guess that's not so terrible. We got up, had breakfast, and checked out of the hotel. Our first stop was the Rijksmuseum (Rembrandt and Dutch history), but unfortunately the weather wasn't as nice as Saturday so we didn't hang out on the Museumplein for as long. We headed back to the Centraal Station via tram to take the second of the two canal cruises (Holland International) included in the I amsterdam card, which was pretty lackluster in comparison to the Blue Boat tour. I guess that assertion is a bit biased considering:

a.) it was better at night
b.) I was the only one of us that didn't fall asleep
c.) all the tour information came from a recording and
d.) the weather wasn't as nice

However, we did notice what was essentially a three-story parking garage for bikes which we all thought was pretty silly. After that we had another grocery store lunch in the Dam Square and went to the New Church (Neue Kerk...I think). We should've gone to the Old Church, which we were planning on bit it closed before we would've been able to get there, because the New Church isn't really a church anymore--at least from what I could gather. Inside the Church there was an art exhibit about the use of religion in modern art. I'm not really into modern art, so that kinda sucked, but I liked the inside of the Church or at least as much as I could see.

After that we swung by the hotel to grab Caitie's bag and off to the airport! Once we got there we polished off the rest of the food we had in an endeavor we lovingly refer to as "Snackfest '09". When we got to Gatwick we thought we'd missed the bus and would have to wait another hour for the next one which would've put us back in Oxford at 01:00 but luckily we caught it about 20 minutes after landing. We still didn't get to Oxford until midnight, but whatever!

This upcoming week is the second to last week of tutorials and essentially the same for my seminar since my 3-4,000 word essay is due on the 10th. So I'm in crunch mode to crank that paper out with tutorial essays at the same time buuuuut once I turn in my seminar paper on that Tuesday I've got a long weekend in Ireland with a bunch of people. Kellie and I have also booked our trips to southern Germany, Prague, and Spain as of this morning! I'm particularly excited about Spain; we get in to Barcelona at 14:00, have a day trip to Valencia planned for the next day to see the worlds biggest aquarium, another day trip to Figueres to see the Dali Museum, and then another day in Barcelona with our return flight leaving around 21:30 that day.

I'm gonna go make a sandwich and then head to pub quiz, and possibly call my mom afterwords! Toodlepip!