Thursday, August 6, 2009

GREEN!....and a bit of red = D

Dear friends,

I'm extremely tired at the moment. School has become intense...and I mean, intense. 3 papers, 2 finals...all in 2 weeks? Ridiculous.

BUT there are still many things to look forward to and enjoy!

This past weekend, I visited IRELAND! As the title suggests...it's very green. I flew on Ryanair (one of the scariest landings I've experienced) and made my way into my very first hostel in Dublin.
It wasn't too bad. We had a mixed 8 beds room with people we knew, so everything was safe = D. I felt like I was at a huge slumber party = D. It was fun.

The next day, we decided to visit Howth (seaside). We took a bus over the the summit and walked along the "Bog of the Frogs" path. This took us along the coast where we saw lighthouses and cliffs. Beautiful = ).


We spotted a stone staircase (very narrow and hidden) that led down the cliffs to the pebbled beach below. A dog led us down actually. So, we followed the dog down and decided to hang out on the beach. There were rocks that we climbed over to see if we could get around to a little pool area in a cove, so we started climbing over the slippery rocks. Once the dog saw that all of us were migrating, he started following us. When we stopped, he'd stop. When we took a step forward, he would try and get in front of us...kept looking at us...we decided to turn back around because it would be too hard to get to the other side. As soon as we turned around, the dog ran back to his post on the beach, facing towards land. We attempted to skip stones...but whenever we'd pick up the stones and faced the ocean, the dog would become extremely rigid and stare intently at us. It was as if he were guarding the ocean...I looked past him and stared into the waters. There were 3 seals, simply floating in the same spot. One by the rock jetty where we climbed, one further to the left, and one further to the right where we tried to go...all floating there...not moving...as if they were at a post as well...

we decided to leave. We let our imagination take care of the rest of that adventure, but I wouldn't be surprised to hear some ancient Celtic story about that place. I mean, it is near one of the oldest lighthouses of that area...= )

Anyway, we continued our trek in the ridiculously windy day, at in the town, then made our way back home.

At night, we visited a pub with traditional Celtic music = D. They were REALLY good! Fiddler and Guitarist. The pub was called O'Sheas = ). (How Irish = )) Apparently they had phDs in music and one of them was asked to sign with Sony or something...the guitarist I think. Very cool! = D

The next day, Jessi and I decided to explore "The Garden of Ireland" - Wicklow = ). Yea, I know. We were in Dublin...but we wanted countryside = ). Wicklow was beautiful. This is where everything really was GREEN. We had a fun tour group as well. We met 3 girls from California (one of them was from UCLA!!!) who were at the Sussex travel abroad program, 2 men from France, and 6 gals from Brazil. = ) We all exchanged emails to send each other pictures =
). AND our tour guide was super cool as well...Manus. He taught Jessi and I some Gaelic. Ready?

Cunas ata tu?
-(How are you?)
Ta me go maith. Go raibh maith agut. Agus cunas ata tu fein?
-(I'm well, thank you. And how are you yourself?)

It was fun = D.

Sadly, our trip ended after Wicklow. Too short of time in such a lovely place. Everyone's EXTREMELY friendly! People will wave to you even if you're a stranger...oh, another interesting thing...I don't think many Asians migrated to Ireland...cause I think we were the only ones (lol) or majority of the few. I had forgotten I was a minority (after being at UCLA = )).

And that was Ireland...or a bit of it.

SO...the little bit of red is from...MANCHESTER UNITED GAME!!!
Rooney and Cleverly scored the 2 goals for ManU. They played Valencia in an exhibition match = D. It was pretty cool to see, especially in their own stadium. Everything was red...and I don't have ANY red clothing...I guess being a Bruin does that to ya. = ) It was fun. Valencia's team came out and were stretching on the side, and as they were stretching, everyone was whistling and hooting. AND the crowd seems to have a "United!" clap clap clap cheer = ). I had to ask a Brit next to me to tell me what they were saying. = ) Of course, the crowd did the wave = D. It was a great time...unfortunately, I returned at 6 am!! Soooooooooo late...or early. The traffic was horrible and our bus was somewhat small. Yea...so I'm pretty tired. I don't get to rest much though because tonight I'm heading into London to visit...

BIG AND JARED!!! Yay!! Their time in Ghana has finished for the time being and they're going to be here! It's weird that the first time I'm seeing them will be in London...they're going to have MAJOR culture shock...yea...

Alrighty, well, that's all for now. I shall update next week. = ) Please tell me if you've received your postcards or not. Apparently some have not made it...so yea, everything should be given to you by next week. If not, do tell me. = )

Have a great week everyone!

Love,
Christina C

2 comments:

  1. wow. you guys are doing quite a big of travelling! that's awesome. you should post up some pics of you guys in them as well! hope you guys have fun with big and jared!

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  2. man, the cliffs and countrysides of ireland are beautiful! awesome that you get to check so much stuff out there and make such a great time of your trip!

    I think like Ireland sounds like the first place I would ever go in my life and feel like the majority like America tries to tell me I am. San Diego & LA for sure don't...

    btw, go Pompey!

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