Ring Ring!  London Calling!  Another weekend trip this past Thursday night through Sunday morning.  This time to the capital of the United Kingdom.  Four girls in the Dublin program, including myself, booked the cheapest flights we could find to London.  What we didn’t really realize was that cheapest flights meant we wouldn’t be flying in or out of London-Heathrow.  Instead we were landing in Southend and leaving from Luton; each of these about an hour and half outside of London city center.  But it worked out fine and we did a whirlwind tour of the giant city! We woke up Friday morning and had brunch at a small French Bistro…

My mom has taught me so many amazing things in my twenty years.  One of the least useful things she’s taught me is the French phrase “voulez-vous acheter une carte postale” meaning would you like to buy a postcard.  This was incredibly irrelevant during my weekend trip to France.  Long story short, I love my mom and I love Paris. I waited for 30 minutes after my flight from Dublin landed in Charles da Gualle airport for my friends Madison and Caroline to get in from Denmark.  Madison finally texted me to meet at baggage claim…in Orley.  So yeah, not the same airport.  After a day of travel I managed…

Unfortunately I couldn’t find any schoolhouse rock-esque videos to educate myself on the government in Ireland because those videos are basically how every American kid learned how a bill becomes a law.  Anyway, I’ve been reading up on the government because the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport and the Department of Taoiseach are some of bigO’s biggest clients.  In addition, one of my friends is interning with Josepha Madigan, a TD for Dublin Rathdown and also the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht.  Another one of my friends is interning with a Dublin City council member, who is also a former Lord Mayor of Dublin, and now works on…

Howth is a small town on a peninsula just east of Dublin; about a 45 minute bus ride, and it’s beautiful.  There are tons of attractions in the small town including a cliff walk, Malahide castle, St. Mary’s Abbey, and a bird conservatory.  But what my friends and I did for the day on our budget was simply wander around the seaside village.  After eating chowder and fish and chips right on the water, we walked along the edge of the coast and experienced an absolutely beautiful Dublin day.  Sailboats filled a marina and were constantly breezing in and out of their port, past a small lighthouse and out into…

Of course money can’t buy happiness, but my plane ticket wasn’t cheap!  Now that I’ve been in Dublin for almost two weeks, I’m getting a pretty good idea of where everything in the city is and what are some of the must see attractions.  So the best free things I’m talking about are museums and views!!  This past week I visited the the National Archeology Museum, The National Gallery, Dublin Castle and Glendalough in Co. Wicklow. The National Archeology Museum was fascinating and portrayed the history of the Irish island via objects.  With tools from the stone and bronze age as well as jewelry and Christian artwork, the museum gave…

The first thing everyone tells you when you say you’re going to Ireland is that it rains a lot there.  Well, I seem to have brought North Carolina weather to Dublin…but without the dreadful humidity!  So the first few days here have been beautiful: sunny and 70.  While I was most worried about rain, understanding accents and the metric system, what’s been really throwing me off is the jet lag and latitude change; meaning the sun rises at 5am and sets at 10 pm.  As weird as this adjustment has been, I have no complaints because the sunshine has given me time to see Dublin. One of the first things…

Boston, Massachusetts.  Home of the Freedom Trail, Fenway Park, Faneuil Hall, Pops Orchestra, and the Celtics (see that Irish connection).  Today I will be seeing none of those things, since I’ll be spending six hours in Boston Logan International Airport on my way to Dublin, Ireland.  I’m well prepared with two books and seven movies to pass the time.  I am excited to be spending six weeks interning with bigO production and creative agency, and eight weeks studying contemporary Irish society and sociology at Dublin City University.  While this isn’t my first time out of the US, it will be the longest I will have ever spent abroad.  I can’t wait to immerse…