ireland while im here

ireland is amazing. time is about to run out, but i love you all. heres the email i sent out earlier.

HELLO!
I arrived in Ireland after an AWESOME train ride (somehow we ended up in first class with a meal and drinks and everything with a MOVIE!) the flight was delayed and a mess, thank goodness i can sleep ANYWHERE. the irish taxi driver = my new best friend. the hostel the first night was called PADDYS PALACE. wonderful, i tell you, coming in at 2am into a room of 10 snoring people.

yesterday we went and explored trinity college (watch out parents, i may want to go to graduate school out here!), the book of kells, dublin castle (not really a castle), the tax museum (so weird), the liffey river, this beautiful park and giant monument, AMAZING vegetarian food which finally curbed my craving for thai food -- got curry or something. BUT there is a thai restaurant right near our new hostel which is SMACK DAB in the middle of temple bar district which is bar haven and the center of night life. our hostel is the upper floors of a famous bar or something. we met up with stephanies sorority sisters who are studying in rome... her brother is staying with us and hes a cool guy. fun group im with.

as you all know, im not much of a drinker, but how can i come to ireland and not drink guiness? what a weird thick drink. i ended up watching the rugby game (leeds v st helens) at a bar with some people, and the main game IRELAND V WALES is today but its an away game, so we'll be going to the pubs. Today is the guinness factory and the jameson distillery, and st patricks cathedral. tomorrow we want to journey to somewhere out of dublin an dsee the country. steph really wants to see sheep.

there is a woman a few computer stations down SCREAMING in some asian language. is that necessary? no. its not. AND the keyboard here is different than either USA or spain keyboards. im going batty. and im listening to a band called ekolu on youtube to drown her out -- its hawaiian and wonderful and i like it. listen to it. just imagine the american who keeps trying to speak to people in spanish WHILE IN IRELAND listening to hawaiian music. im a whole mix of cultures.

the people here are SO nice, their accents are SO weird, and I met a guy in the bar last night who was at least 6foot 6 or 7 and we became friends based on our height. People are normal height here, minus a few leprechauns. However, just where we are in the city I feel like we have met a lot of English people -- apparently STAG and HEN parties are really popular. Theyre basically crazy bachelor and bachelorette parties where groups of people from England wearing matching shirts or costumes, getting drunk and singing loudly to the american songs. EVERYONE SINGS HERE in the pubs, and you know, that makes me SO happy. Or, we saw a KERRY IS 40 AND NAUGHTY party as well... very interesting to say the least. Steph keeps introducing me as Wonderwoman, which is slightly awkward, but it makes us new friends. It is interesting to see how I immediately go into speaking Spanish with people, forgetting that I am in an English Speaking country. Im hoping that means that my spanish is improving.