Goin to the Movies!!

So our first night in Dublin instead of getting a pint at an Irish pub we saw "He's just not that into you." It was good!! We wandered around Dublin for a bit... lookin at stuff... then we somehow ended up at the theater! We waited in line and got our tickets. The funny part about this theater (and as I have heard, many theater in England) Is that they assign seats! The guy ways like " do you want to sit in the front or the back?" and I was thinkin... that's an odd question. and I was like "I dunno yet?" and he then informed me that we had to decided and it was then we realized we were to be assigned to a seat--- in a movie theater-- it was so weird! ( Just typing that word I realized it breaks the i before e rule in every way... huh) Anyways we decided the best option was in the middleish nearer the back, so we got our tickets and wandered back out into the streets of Dublin. We found a nice little restaurant and had some dessert! That was good. It was also at this time we realized we didn't have a place to stay. I talked to my parents on the phone and they were very concerned about this. Deanna and I who had decided to play our trip by ear, were not concerned and knew we would find somewhere to stay.

After figuring that all out we continued on to our movie and instead of just going into the theater they had a little waiting lobby where there was a screen that showed you when your theater had begun seating people. It was so bizarre! After sitting there for about 7 minutes we decided we should just go check ourselves. On our way into the theater we saw a poster for the most ridiculous looking movie I think I have ever heard of - "Lesbian vampire killers". yea. De and I were both like What?! Who would ever think that's a great idea for a film! Lets pump thousands of dollars into the production of this masterpiece!" ???????? Anyways we get into the theater and the ushers direct us to our "seats" we sit down, and enjoy a very american film, in a very Irish city. It may seem like a silly thing to have done while in Ireland but- it was fun and it was late- we got out of the movie at about 12:30 ish and made our way over to our hostel for the evening. A nice placed called Isaac's Hostel- it was very crowded because the Rugby tournament had been going on - but we made due- got a good nights sleep and woke in the morning to a light layer of beautiful Irish snow covering everything and falling in quiet and graceful flakes. :)

Dublin was great.

FIRE DRILL!!!!

So a few nights ago we had the fire alarm go off in Astbury... at 4:38 AM.

The weird part was I was mysteriously awake! This is the first time I have been awake at 4:30 in the morning so I was quite pleased I'd timed it so well.
The reason I was awake was that I was chatting with a friend from home when all of the sudden the alarm starts freaking out! I was like "Hillary- I think I got to go--- I think the fire alarms going off!!" So then we all shuffled outside- me wrapped in my rugrats blanket and slippers :)
We sat outside for about 15 minutes then we found out Naomi ( another american girl on the second floor) had been cooking toast and burnt it ( cooking toast at 4:30 AM?... okay?) and that is what set it off.. so we all shuffled back inside. All my friends were like half asleep but luckily I had been wide awake!

Anyways a few nights later- about 2 nights ago now- it went off again! This time wasn't as exciting but I brought my camera and took pictures! There were so few people at home in my dorm! it was odd. This time is was someone smoking in their room ( brilliant...)

Anyways- that was sort of exciting! It was more suprising than anything - the best part was, of course, the fact that I was wide awake for the first one. :) okay cherrio!

crossing the street or commencement of galactic battle?

One very small part of our Irish experience was the crosswalks. At the crosswalks in the bigger cities of Ireland you stand there and the signs are constantly beeping. so when you're waiting its like " beep beep beep beep beep" THEN when its time for you to cross it kinda goes into warp speed, its like "zhommmeee beepbeepbeepbeepbeep!!!" If you listen to this video you will be able to hear it. The video is from Dublin (a absolutely lovely city. we sadly didn't get to do much exploring of it because we thought we were gonna end our trip there for 2 days but we came home early, it was great though and I can't wait to go explore it someday!!)

More Irish experiences in later posts, this was just a quick quirky little fact.

Top of the mornin' to ya! ( and the rest of the day to yourself!!!)

yay!! We are off for the lovely land of Ireland in about... 30 minutes! I am very excited to see the moors and the pubs and the little houses and the fields and the cliffs... oh it will be so nice! We are going to try to rent a car... we are not sure if that is going to work out becasue Deanna is only 20 1/2 but we are going to try because in the long run it would be cheaper and more pleasant than training and busing everywhere. Anyways just thought I would let you all know I'm headed out to me homeland (Mc Gough!!!) maybe I will find some cool family crest or something - or get an Irish kilt! that would be so cool! I will post pictures and stories when I have them. Our first stop is Dublin then we might head down to Cork this evening. We have kinda planned it so that we can do whatever we want and aren't super time or scheduel bound so hopefully that will work! :)
Sláinte chugat!!!

MORE PICTURES!! and a video of THE CAVERN CLUB!

Fork and Knife

At dinner (or Tea rather as they call it) one night Deanna made an interesting observation. Every British person at our table used their fork and knife to eat everything. I just use my knife strictly for cutting but what they were doing was they would stab at something with their fork and then scoop it onto the BACK of their fork with their knife and eat it off the fork many would say- upside down. It was so weird! I commonly use my fork to scoop things up like in a spoonish way, because it is dipped- and that makes sense to me. But when we observed that they were eating their potatoes on the BACK of their fork they got kinda defensive! It was funny- they were very particular about how they eat. Deanna and I have since tried the whole utilizing the knife thing but it just seems so much simpler to eat and pick food up with our forks. They also almost always eat their cakes or whatever the dessert may be with their spoons...curiouser and curiouser... :)
Anyways- just an interesting observation of one of the many differences between English and American.

Basketball, Ireland, Wales, and Random British Things

We had our first basketball game wednesday! we lost by like 40... but apparently the last time they played that team they lost by 80! so we did much better this time :) I have another game tonight I am looking forward to! I think it will be a much closer game. The girls on my team mostly haven't played but there is this one Italian girl- Jade- she's quite good and Amy makes a good point guard. Anyways I will tell you outcome of our game tonight- hopefully we will dominate!
I am going to Ireland this saturday for a week with Deanna- I am sooo excited! We are going to take the train to Holyhead Wales then sail over to Dublin!! :) OH! If anyone reading this knows people in Ireland let me know! We plan on starting dublin then going south then west then north then back east to Dublin. I am sooo excited! Any Ireland travel advice is totally appreciated! I am soo excited!
Yesterday Deanna and I went on a field trip with our Archeaology of Great Britain class to WALES! It was so cool! I actually was officially in the country for a significant amount of time! We went to a medival church that was soooo cool. We got to wander around the churchyard and it reminded me of Gray's Elegy written in a country churchyard... it was interesting looking around. Then we went to the ruins of a monistary! That was sweet! There were huge parts still intact and it was just amazing. I can't imagin what it was like in its prime. It seems like such a shame so many things were quarryed. But at least there is still some of it left. Then we went to this cool like 12 foot stone monument thing and it was just out in the middle of a feild and it had cool markings on it- it was kinda vikingesque- and they have dated it to around 1000 AD!!!! 1000!!! Thats like 1000 years ago!!! It was so cool. :) The only bad part of this adventure was the fact that Deanna and I both didn't really know we were going to be hiking around ( we stood outside on a bridge in this like marsh land thing for about 30 minutes while we learned some interesting facts about how Chester used to be costal and about trade and about "wicks" and how most "wick" names meant that the city was a place of trade...) but anyways- so we just wore canvas shoes and sweatshirts .. it had snowed the day before and there was still a lot of it all around... needless to say our feet were frozen! It was okay though because it was way worth it- but it was still more difficult to concetrate standing in a Welsh field in 2 inches of snow... well it was also difficult to concentrate because Wales was georgous! It was soooo pretty- everwhere I looked - it was just rolling hills and cute houses and trees... it was very green, besides the white snow :) I have a friend (jesse) who loves Wales and Welsh and all that, and once I was there I could see why! A woman told me we weren't even in the pretty part and I couldn't believe her! I can't wait to explore Wales some more- apparently they have the most castles of any other country! Yay!! I love Castles! I love Wales! :)