Only 6 Days Left!

I can't believe it but I only have 6 more days abroad before coming home and it's looking like they're going to be jam packed!! We're going to be heading up to Galway this weekend and doing some exploring, then it's back to London for a pint at The World's End pub, followed by 2 shows in the West End: The Lion King and The Phantom of the Opera. After that we're on a plane home.

Before I get into what we've been up to the last few days (and believe me there's plenty) some of you might be wondering if I'm disappointed that things didn't work out the way I had hoped. In some ways I am simply because I thought working abroad was something I always wanted to do and when I got there and realized how ill equipped I was to be there it lost all it's appeal. I don't think I fully appreciated just how hard it would be or how good I have it back in Canada! Also, I spent a bunch of money just to get there and so that's a pain but really..I don't regret coming. I'm still getting a great adventure out of it and Teresa and I have been having a blast this past week. I feel like I've really learned a lot about the kind of life I want and the way I want my life to go. Yes it's too bad I had to get all the way over here to realize that it wasn't what I wanted but I love to travel so we turned it into a trip instead. Though it's been rather disorganized! Either way it was a crazy whirlwind adventure and I'll be ready for some stability when I get back home!

Anyways, here's the latest update of all the crazy shenanigans we've been getting up to! I have no idea of all the little things of course since we've been here for a week already! Hopefully we're not driving the whole family nuts yet....hah! As far as I can remember after the night we went clubbing the following day we stayed home in pj's all day playing Mario on the Wii and watching terrible TV on MTV, which was really quite enjoyable as all guilty pleasure shows are. The next day I believe we went into Dublin again and just wandered around some friends and we did manage to go out to Dundrum shopping center which was cool. It was absolutely HUGE! There were so many floors and a ton of shops. The shopping here it amazing compared with home, just ask my bank account! Also while we were there they  have a little place called Yo! Sushi where the sushi comes around on a conveyor belt which is old news I realize but since I've never eaten at a place like that it was a great time.

Following that I think we had another lazy day at home, although we did take the dog for a walk to the grocery store down the street and we tied her up outside while we ran in for a few things so I could make dinner for the family. Their dog REALLY hates the cold (lucky they live in Ireland eh?) so as we were coming out of the exit door we happened to look over to our right and there's the dog sitting in the entrance to the shop where it's nice and warm! Just sitting there...hanging out. It was so funny, she's such a goofy dog! My lasagna that night turned out really well so I was pleased that everyone enjoyed it. This was followed by even more Mario and bad MTV shows.

Ok...I'm probably skipping stuff since it's been ages since I last blogged but I'll just go straight to yesterday because we had a lot of fun yesterday. Teresa, Jenny and I went into Dublin to go to the Guinness Brewery which was really cool. I even managed to get the student price (I wasn't about to say anything!) and really it's a good deal. For 13 euro we got to go through the place and learn about all the ingredients used to make Guinness and see how it gets processed.

We even learned some of the history behind how it all started and we learned how to make barrels, which quite frankly was almost more impressive than how they make the beer. Barrel making takes some serious skill! Then on the 2nd floor there's a free tasting where they talk about the aromas of Guinness and what gives it it's distinct flavour profile and colour (which is ruby red and not black...who knew?! lol) then you're shuffled along into the next room with a teeny little glass of Guinness to learn how to drink it properly and believe me, if you don't look stupid doing it, you're doing it wrong. Just sayin. So that was a lot of fun and both Teresa and Jenny hated it! After the tasting we got to see the advertising that Guinness has been doing the whole time they've been selling beer and we also tested our beer IQ which was...ok lol. The advertising stuff was really cool though!

The public part of the brewery is so massive, it's 7 floors! This was the 4th floor I think. Also on the 4th floor was the Guinness Academy. That's where you go in and learn how to properly pour a pint of Guinness and then they give you a certificate. I thought it would be super fun so I decided to do it! Here's how it works: 1. Tilt the glass at a 45 degree angle and don't let the nozzle touch the glass or the beer, 2. Pull the handle down quickly so that there's enough gas coming through with the beer and as it fills you tilt the glass upright and stop when you reach halfway through the harp on the glass (because you're using a proper Guinness glass of course!) 3. Let it settle! It's a two part pour. 4. Once it's settled you push the handle of the beer tap away from you, this gives you more beer to fill the glass but not more gas. Let the head come just over the rim of the glass and you're done! It's pretty straight forwward, but it should take at least 2 and a half minutes to pour a Guinness. Apparently mine was the best pour my teacher had seen all day. Which he could've just been saying for the sake of the experience but I'm going to pretend like it was for real lol!

Afterwards I was able to take my pint up to the 7th floor so that Teresa and Jenny could redeem their tickets for a complimentary drink. But they both had pop since neither of them actually liked Guinness. It was very beautiful where we had drinks because you get a panoramic view of Dublin and lucky for us it wasn't raining so we actually got to see everything! Afterwards we walked through a slightly sketchy part of Dublin to get to the bus stop that we needed. Once we got home we had a lovely steak dinner and then it was off to the bowling alley! We had an absolute blast! The bowling alley was cool because it played the music videos of all the songs that would play which I thought was neat. It was pretty reasonably priced too. And they sell alcohol...we ended up sharing a bottle of wine haha it was kind of weird. Not that I minded though!

Well that's all for now! Tomorrow we're off to Galway for the weekend and then it's back to London. Like I said, it's hard to believe that our trip is coming to an end but we've been having a really good time. I'll be sad to leave Ireland for sure, but I am definitely coming back!

Cheers!
Holly
xoxo