One Day More

This post is about my last full day in Europe. Only one more day and I would be flying back to America. Oh so sad...and happy...and sad...and exciting...and sad...and wonderful. That is basically what my thought process was all day. I feel like my excitement for going home equaled the sadness that I had that my adventure was coming to a close. There were so many things I didn't get a chance to see, but there are always other adventures. Looking back I really feel that I used every minute I could to enjoy my experience abroad and see and do as much as I could every single day. This doesn't mean I went sightseeing every second of every day because after all I was in school. There were some days where I just stayed in my dorm room reading books and poems and writing papers about them. Sometimes I felt mad that I had to do this when I could be outside taking in the sights of Scotland, but my studies enhanced my experience so much. I didn't just SEE things while I was there, I UNDERSTOOD them. That is what I love about study abroads. It really is an experience like no other. You can never get the same type of experience just being a regular tourist. Being on study abroad was kind of like being half tourist, half citizen. I have lived in Europe. I feel justified in saying this because while I was in Europe I purchased groceries many times, developed a daily routine, made friends with the locals, went to school, found short-cuts to school, figured out the local transportation system, managed not to look like a tourist ALL the time. My decision to go on study abroad was one of the best I've ever made! Lucky for me I had an amazing year ahead of me back home so life just got better! Otherwise, I think I would have been kind of depressed coming home. Anyway, here is what I did my last full day in Ireland...

We had another day when we were free to do whatever we wanted for the morning and afternoon. I decided to go to Kilmainham Gaol, a former prison which has now been converted into a museum. It was first built in the late 1700s and was closed down in 1924. It is important because the majority of the leaders of the rebellions for independence were held here. It is considered a monument to the people who died in the 1916 Easter Rising and other rebellions between 1700 and 1920. 

Our tour guide

This is where they shot a some of the leaders of the Easter Rising.

Rainbows in Dublin!

On our last night in Dublin we had dinner at the hotel restaurant which was actually very well-known and expensive. We had a three or four course meal! mmm it was delicious! After dinner we went to see the play, "Major Barbara," by George Bernard Shaw (the same guy who wrote Pygmalion/My Fair Lady. I love Pygmalion, but this play was pretty dang dry. It was hard not to fall asleep. Kind of anticlimactic for our last night, but it was still fun! It was fun to walk back in to our hotel at night and see the city after dark. We tried to get home before dark as much as possible for safety reasons, so it was a nice change. (Luckily the sun doesn't set until late over there).

And that was it! The last official activity in Ireland. When we got home we called our cabbies and arranged transportation to the airport. Rebecca, Madi, and I shared a cab and left early in the morning. Rebecca and I were actually on the same flight to Chicago, but we got separated. When we got to security and we had to fill out the little cards that ask you if you caught any diseases,  been in contact with livestock, etc, etc. Well, Rebecca considered all the times we walked by cows or walked near a cow turd as coming in contact with livestock so she had to take her shoes off and have them blasted with water hoses. Oh Rebecca. Another random airport story- The girl in front of me in security had on almost the exact same Ireland sweatshirt as me so she asked when I was there, why I was there...you know the drill. Well it turns out she was one of Jan Glover's (my dad's cousin) students at the university she teaches theater at. So random! For a good part of the flight I wrote my final papers then that was that. 

Study 

Abroad 

OVER.