Central Hotel Mallow

i have a strange feeling that i will not be staying on top of this until i get home...i've been crazy busy with school and trying to maintain somewhat of a social life. well anyway, my mom will be here on Friday! i'm so excited, i just can't wait. my aunt and my cousin are coming too and we're going to have so much fun! well time to get more work done so that i'll be able to have fun while they're here! love you all and i'll be home a month from today!

... and got a great big "welcome home" from the guy who was working the kitchen/reception/doorman/guard, who we for sure woke up and got him to make us chicken salad sandwiches on the house, while we battled with each other on the floor (classy), and then battled with him about American versus Canadian accents, and Irish versus English versus Scottish accents. You cant tell the difference unless you are one of them or they are one of us. You just cant ...

so i haven't updated in a while and i have about 6 entries that i need to post, but i've been super busy with midterms! i miss everyone and this weekend i will hopefully be posting pictures and entries of everything that i did while i was in the UK. i just wanted to let everyone know that i'm ok and just trying to power through all this school work.

... as to Canada, Argentina and Australia. 3 million left from the early 1800's to 1970. It is also the port from which the Titanic and the Lusitania sailed on theri last vogages. <br><br>We ended up in Kinsale, visited an amazing stone fort there (Charles Fort), had dinner and headed for "home". Our only real adventure was getting though Cork on our way home- we literally went in circles under the guidance of the GPS. And thank God we had it or we'd be there still!<br>

... like maybe it was a woman)- he said no- burglary is a man's game here. Women do fraud and shoplifting, not burglary.<br><br>My favorite moment was walking out of the library with the policeman through the area where other guests were having afternoon tea. I wonder what they thought! <br><br>Wish I could have pulled my IPhone out to get a picture of Officer Buckley for you!<br>

... was playing a traditional session, and one room was dancing.  I told Sara that those were the two worlds of Ireland.  It was pretty cool.   The next morning Sara and Teddy went to Blarney.  They arrived back around 3 pm, and we didn't really have anytime to go to Cobh like we wanted to.  Instead, I took them around Campus at night, which was really pretty and lit up and had a Christmas tree.  (I swear. Cork has about 10 Christmas trees in a 2 mile radius ...

... place. It is built right into the side of a hill, if you look out its windows, you can see the rocky hills of the Burren. There are cattle that graze right on its grounds. It was really a peaceful place. After our too brief time here at the abbey, we got back on our bus, and it wouldn' t start! We had to wait for a new one to come and take us back to Galway ...

Galway has been a nice place to gather our thoughts and rest up a bit. Rachel and I are both fighting a cold and with the persistant rain there's not much else to do than hang out and make new friends. Today we walked down to the river during a brief interlude in the showers with our new found companion Sean. There are lots of happy little ducks and hoardes of proweling seagulls and a few swans. We just lay out on the grass with the wind tugging at our clothes ...

... bought by the Benedictine order after fleeing their convent in Ypres during World War One. He built a minature cathedral for his wife. Saw Joyce country and Connemara Area ( rocks, mountains and sea ) Went out to a tip of pensulia road, had rocks on both sides of road. Finally figured out we were Mweenish Island near Carna in southern Connemara. We had to get direction from three Irish lads.

Our arrival in Galway yesterday was fraught with some car problems. After driving on these tiny...TINY...roads with a smallish car, the size of a Geo Metro, if not smaller it was quite a harrowing drive from Dingle to Galway. There was a spot on the drive where it was like that James Bond movie where he's driving that small little Citroen down a winding hill. So humming ...