SORRY I have been missing!

Dear followers,

I wanted to sincerely apologize for not keeping you up to date on all my daily adventures here in the UK.  I am back, hopefully for good this time; and I will do my best to catch you up on everything that has happened.  I don't even know where to begin! So much has happened in just a little under 2 months that I have been here.  I feel that I am a different person, more confident in myself, I feel that I have gained a life-time of experiences over here in London, leaving my ordinary, American and a little bit sheltered life in New Hampshire; I feel that here I am a new person who is more fun-loving, adventurous, independent, and mature.  Deciding to leave Durham was an easy decision, but the weeks and days that led up to me actually leaving were very hard, and when I finally arrived in London, those first few weeks were very hard for me.  I felt very homesick, I mourned the loss of a beloved family pet, alone over here (my friends here were very supportive) and I generally just missed home, and it wasn't until talking to a friend that I realized I wasn't the only feeling homesick, in fact everyone around me was going through the same stages as myself.  Anyway I think to sum up my feelings, I am VERY glad that I am here; London is absolutely the best place to study.  There are always so many things going on here, whether I spend the afternoon eating lunch in Trafalgar Square people watching, or walking along the Thames in a light misty rain and fog.  The classes here are great, as since we are in the city there are so many field-trips to go on, and places to explore and learn about!

The friends I made here, are extremely important to me.  I hope that our friendships will maintain once we arrive back on our home-shore.  I have had so many adventures with these people, and I won't name names, but there is a group of probably 6 of us and we have just been having the time of our lives.  I went to Ireland, Cork with a few of these people and I have a trust in them that I don't have with other people, I feel safe traveling with them and there is never a dull moment.  I also have been meeting a lot of non-UNH people here, and I really look forward to hanging out with my roommate and her friends, they are all just so much fun to be around, and I am truly happy that I have such a great roommate.

Two weekends ago I was in Cork, Ireland just visiting and being all touristy and stuff.  Ireland is such a beautiful country; rolling hills, rocky coast, green fields of grass, and sheep, sheep, sheep and more sheep, I thoroughly enjoyed it.  We stayed in a small hostel (right across from the train station for those who have been to Cork) it was pretty nice, and the only beds they had were bunk-beds so it was fun all sleeping in the same room on these really squeaky and unstable bunk beds, it felt like a big sleepover every-single night.  The second day we went on a tour of the Cliffs of Moher, it was so beautiful but also very windy on the cliffs.  I really enjoyed that day, because it was a long drive to the cliffs we were able to see much of the country side, plus our bus driver drove us on the rocky coast of Ireland and it was such an unbelievably cool experience.  At one point we stopped to check out a cemetery, and we were literally in the middle of nowhere, in Ireland!  That trip was also really enjoyable because my friend from UNH who is studying in Spain flew out to Ireland to meet us there, so I had so much fun seeing her.

The Guinness in Ireland was amazing.  I didn't get the chance to visit the Guinness factory in Dublin, but I swear the Guinness that you drink in Ireland is better than any Guinness that you drink anywhere else, it was delicious (and that's not something that you would say about a beer).  Luckily my friend and I visited the Jameson Whiskey Factory in Middleton Ireland, and that was a really fun adventure. We got there and we were walking towards the factory and it starts to rain lightly, we continue to walk, it starts to pour and of course we were not prepared for this little freak storm, the next thing we know it starts to hail, taking shelter we hoped to wait out the storm.  Continues to rain and hail, we decide to run for it (more like she runs for it, I stand there shivering for a few minutes realizing that it isn't going to stop anytime soon and then regrettably running in the rain to catch up to her).  Finally we make it to the factory and the tour was really cool, any Jameson Whiskey that you drink comes from the factory that we were at, which I found to be really interesting.  I am not a huge whiskey drinker so I was excited and nervous when I was chosen to be one of the 6 people in our group to be the whiskey tasters.  We sampled Scotch Whiskey, and Jack Daniels and Jameson.  I didn't like the Scotch Whiskey at all, it had too much of a smokey taste, and the Jack Daniels was alright, and honestly I voted that the Jameson Whiskey was my favorite (I wasn't pressured!).  Afterwards I received a "Professional Whiskey Taster" diploma and I proudly took a picture of it! 

The next day we went to Blarney Castle and I was able to kiss the Irish Blarney Stone! Kissing the stone was such a unique and cool experience; first of all you have to climb the castle steps (because the stone is at the top of the castle) and the steps in the castle were very, very steep and circular.  After reaching the top, about 500 feet up or so I learned what the "procedure" was to kiss the stone; you lie on your back and hold on to two metal bars behind your head and a little Irish old man (with no teeth) holds on to your legs and lowers you through the whole in the wall of the castle and lowers you 3 or 4 feet down while you are holding on to the metal bar upside down with your LIFE, and you kiss the stone, everyone claps and you are lifted up and done!  I was shaking so much when my turn was over, I was so happy afterwards to be on solid ground.  I will try and add pictures of us kissing the stone. 

More to come soon, especially about my trip last weekend to Amsterdam!