I've been back in Dublin for almost a week and I am so happy! We're in the planning stage for our Independent Study Projects. I'm thinking of doing something related to poverty, of course.
Not much to say about here but I can talk about Derry, because I never got around to doing an entry while I was there.
I really liked Derry, especially after Belfast. It's a very divided city, similar to Dublin, in that it's divided by a river. There's Cityside, which is mainly Catholic, and then there's Waterside, which is mainly Protestant. Within each side there are of course enclaves of the other side (ie: The Fountain in the Bogside (Catholic area of the Cityside) but is Protestant). I stayed in the Bogside area with a nice family that has six kids, three of whom I was able to meet. I lived with Moira while I was there and she was a great roomate. One thing I can say is that I'm glad I didn't get scabies...yes you heard me right, scabies. It went around the group, along with pink eye and bed bugs, plus Moira had bad heartburn all week. Craziness! Thankfully I didn't get sick at all, and I'm still healthy now.
We had a relatively relaxed schedule in Derry. We got St. Patrick's Day off and had a lot of fun going into the city for a parade and few pints...We planned to meet up again later at night to go out again but one by one we all dropped off saying we were too tired. I myself went to bed at something like 8pm.
I took the bus back to Dublin with the lone guy on the trip, Ian, and had a good time chatting. I can't believe I can cross the country in four hours. A nice change from the States. When I got to Carmel's house I was smiling all the way down the street to her door I was so excited to be back. We've had some good dinner and tv nights together since I've been back. She cooked a wonderful Easter dinner and had her daughter's family over for it, which was really fun. I got a massive chocolate egg outta it! Pretty sweet deal.
This past Saturday, carly and I went to the Guinness factory in Dublin. It's a touristy weekend I guess because we had to wait TWO HOURS to get in!!! It was totally worth it though. They've done a great job with designing the tour and its pretty much like ging to a museum. Plus, I don't like Guinness in the States but they have a bar at the very top of the factory called the Gravity bar and it has 260 degree wivews of Dublin. They serve the freshest Guiness you could ever get there and boy was it goooood.
On Easter Sunday we went to a small pub in the middle of nowhere on a tip from some guys in the area we know. It was one of the most fun nights I've had. Great craic (a saying here meaning a lot of fun, good atmosphere).
By the end of the night we had taught them Thumper, an American drinking game, and they were singing rival soccer club cheers. We met a guy we nicknamed Legend and he was def one of the highlights of the night too.
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