PS I Love You & Abbey Road <3

I really do need to stay more on top of this blogging thing. I just realized I never even wrote about Ireland! How horrendous is that? Life is busy these days, but I’ll get to that after I say a few words on Ireland. So, Sarah and I left the 26^th a Friday night and got back 6 days later on Thursday night. It was incredibly fun! We went all over the South West. Dublin, Kilarney, Cork, Dingle and Galway, more places too but these were the main stops. If you have seen the movie “P.S. I Love You” you will understand how breathtaking the countryside in Ireland is. Everything is so green. Which is why it had to rain on us everyday we were there! Dublin was a fun city, very industrial. If you go to Ireland it is a must see, but you have to go to the country side as well. If you only go to Dublin you will be disappointed and miss out. My favorite city we stopped in was Galway, it was very quaint and full of character.

We were on a tour for the majority of our time there which I definitely recommend. It was not too pricey and you meet loads of people, of course they were all Australians! Haha Seriously, everyone I have met during my travels is Australian! But really, the tour is great. They take care of everything for you and you just get to relax and enjoy. This was a huge change to when I had been traveling alone, where I had to do all the logistics on my own. Nice break! I would love to go to Northern Ireland one day as well, didn’t have time to make it up there this time around.

We definitely had our fair share of Guinness, which is officially my favorite beer now, we had at least a pint a day! =) lol We ate loads of Irish Stew as well as Potatoes. I always want to be as “authentic” as possible. Our last night was our best night! We met the coolest people ever. A guy in our hostel named Will who had sailed from America to Ireland, along with an American-Irish couple. Sarah, Will and I met the couple at a great pub in Temple Bar. There was live Irish music, though it was in English a lot of it was difficult to understand. Fortunately our Paddywagon Tour Guide had taught us a few traditional Irish songs and we were actually able to sing along and that was wonderful. The couple we met at the pub had to be in their 50’s and they were in Ireland on “research” for the Irish pub they own at home in Indiana! They bought us rounds and we all hung out, dancing and singing along until 2am. We returned “home” to Oxford the next day. O did I mention how WINDY it was all the time, especially on the coast, I think this pic shows you!!

Since being back in Oxford: Wow..I don’t know where to start. I will tell you the things I am more or less involved in as of now (hopefully the list doesn’t grow, I don’t know where I’d fit much else!) Sundays: Church in the morning, fencing in the afternoon, the Oxford Union debate teachings at night; Monday: free; Tuesdays: small group dinner and hang out at night, loads of international persons; Wednesdays: photography lessons at night; Thursdays: Oxford Union Debate at night, Friday: and Saturday: rowing in the daytime, while the nights are up for debate! ;) O and I am also a member of the Oxford Caving Community-yes it is so! We are going on an adventure sometime soon I hope and we will have “social gatherings” once a week or so, that is IF I can manage to fit it in.

I study during the day, like a job 9ish-5ish (well that is my goal anyways!) I am in 2 tutorials, Sociology of Gender and Human Emotion, yes I meet one-on-one with the Profs, it is wonderful! And then I am in one seminar-C.S. Lewis. This seminar is great, it is a “break” from the rest of my readings. All in all, things are great. Oxford is a beautiful city and overly crowded I must add. During the weekends I feel like I’m at Disneyland on the streets, where everyone is walking incredibly slow, you feel like a sheep! I am meeting great people and getting involved, probably more involved than I am in Azusa even…

Last thing, how could I forget? I went to THE Abbey Road! It is in London, though some like to say it is in Liverpool. It is NOT! We tried our best to replicate the infamous pose, but mind you this is an extremely busy street, so it is hard to do with cars honking at you! Ugh! I even forgot to take off my shoes in the rush of it all! Lame! Though it is definitely far from perfect, it turned out rather well. This was one of the highlights of the last few weeks, I walked where the Beatles walked! =) Yes!

That is all for now. Hope you aren’t too tired of reading this! Thanks and I will write again soon!