Maybe I was just tired yesterday... because I had a fantastic day today and absolutely loved everything I saw. In fact, I'm in love with the city, I just wish I knew the language better. I had the best nights sleep I've had yet last night and woke about 8:30, had a quick breakfast, and was on my way.
First stop: Opera Garnier which is actually a Palace containing 2 or 3 stages/opera halls. But it was commissioned in the mid 1600's after an unknown architect submitted the winning design, Misseur Garnier. The palace is spectacular. It rivals Buckingham Palace with is incredible arches and hallways. The Grand Staircase was simple gorgeous, if their is a more grand staircase anywhere in the world, I would love to see it. See video:
From there, I took a stroll to the Louvre and made it in about 11:00. I left at 5:00 only because it was closing. I did a really good job seeing most things but didn't make it to the very top floor. Yes, I did see the Mona Lisa as did every other tourist in the building. However, it was one of the pieces by which I was least impressed. But really, what an interesting museum. I was able to see so much and was so impressed by the sculptures. In fact that was by what I was most impressed and awe struck. I loved trying to guess what it was depicting before I tried to understand the translation which was more of a hint than an answer. Cain dying, the virgin mary's death, Hercules slaying the 3 headed monster, Hermes strapping his sandals... it goes on and on, it was beautiful. I literally started in the back right corner and worked my way around and up the floors until it was closing time =( if I had the energy and time, I'd go back.
After that, I forced myself, despite nearly convincing myself it probably wasn't THAT far of a walk, to learn the subway system. It was easier than I thought, just intimidating because everything is in a foreign language. I think I got it all down though, for the most part - I'll use it some more tomorrow. It's not as fast or as busy as London's though. Anyways, I made my way to the Eiffel Tower. It sort of dwarfs the CNT projection picture that we had during class; but, wasn't really that cool or interesting. I'll go back at night to see the lights and maybe take it to the top if it's not too busy.
All in all, today was a good day. It made me want to be an artist and to be creative and learn to depict famous scenes from history; to study the classics and epics and then interpret into some beautiful shocking masterpiece. Maybe I can save that for a side job. I am going to try to make it to Normandy tomorrow to see the beaches from D-Day, if not there, then Versailles. I've got 2 more days and hope to make the best of them.
It's not a barrier, its a wall. A big fortified wall. I suppose I knew I didn't speak a word of French, but didn't really know what that meant. Now I do. Today was the most uncomfortable I've felt all week. I'm alright, just had to get over it, sort of like baptism by fire.
I made it to my hostel, this one is much smaller, only 3 of us in the room (myself and 2 girls). Its nice though and for once I had some alone time which was absolutely great, traveling takes it out of you and its nice to just sit and be for a while - especially coming from a 12 person room.
The Eurostar over was really smooth, I would recommend it, no real problems or anything at all. I liked it and it was quite a bit more quiet than I expected and had more room and an airplane for the cheap seats. Literally as soon as I step out of the station, a Bosnian women tries to convince me to give her money then when I went to Sacre Coeur, I think 4 of the 5 scams I've read about were thrown at me. It was really overwhelming at all once. The Basilica was beautiful though and had this brilliant painting above the alter. The French style is definitely a bit different and I want to say more cartoonish and the stained glass is more bright pink reds and purples than the traditonal yellows blues and reds. Maybe that was just Sacre Coeur though.
Anyways, I am alright, feeling confident in tomorrow and excited to see the Louvre. On a light note, I went to go get some bread and lunch meat today and finally decided on Salami, not because I really like Salami, but because it was the only word I could read on the packages. =) Top: Sacre Coeur Bottom: View from Sacre Coeur
As I mentioned yesterday, today was a busy day. I left at 8 this morning to hop on the subway and head to the Houses of Parliament for a tour. It was actually very cool and I think I learned something. Apart from the Queen and the one time I saw the questioning session on CNBC, I did not know much about British government. The building is set in a very gothic style, atleast the one half of it. All the decorations were very elegant and thought out, very elaborate, and of course all covered in gold. I enjoyed the House of Lords more than the House of Commons because the House of Lords was elegant and gothic; but the House of Commons was, well, common. Left: atop the dome at St. Pauls, Wabash is famous.
While I was in there our guide talked about the old traditions they have and how they follow them but don't know why its just how its always been and I immediately thought back to Wabash. I would say we have a few silly traditions, but I would never give them up.
Note: I said Saint Peters - I meant St. Pauls.
From there I headed to the Banqueting House which was built and furnished mostly by King George I who used it to welcome ambassadors and have masques. This of course was a very elegant hall with beautiful paintings and very lavish wall decorations. The building was also the site of his beheading for abusing his power which ironically was partly that building - along with a few other things like the abolishment of Parliament. Left: Banquetting House Floor
I went to St. Paul's Cathedral afterthat which had a beautiful dome and was neat to see. I didn't realize it was so big or such an integral part of British culture. I took a brief audio tour, climbed to the top, and tried to read the art and such as best I could. After this, I hurried to Buckingham Palace to make my ticket time at 3:45 to tour the Palace. It was really neat, there was a lot of stuff in the Palace on display that was given to the queen or like the dress the queen wore to Australia in 1989 - I could sort of care less about all that though. It was just neat to see the top notch castle/palace and all the imagery and art and elegance of it. It's really hard to imagine someone living there or using it as a house. It seems like something that should be in a story book. Right: Banqueting House ceiling.
While in the Parliamentary House, I realized a few things. The first being peoples hostility with silly traditions and how I feel its best to just let somethings go. It sort of makes life more interesting. Secondly, how a government building really reflects the laws of that nation. For example, the gothic style building was centered around the House of Lords and nobility meaning a lot of hereditary lines and royalty and such. Thus, the house was built to reflect how that was run. Directly opposite, a more plain, bland, House of Commons. That, compared to the US, which I've never seen but heard about, is the white house with the complete white outside and huge Greek columns who were the founders of Democracy. And for a third time, St. Pauls Church is an Anglican Church and was originally built without any sort of lavish decoration simply to spite the Catholics and to create a new identity. Thus the style of the church reflected the ideas of the people. Left: Saint Pauls West view.
I head to Paris tomorrow morning. I wish I had more time in London, but that is not so. I really should do laundry tonight.
I have never lived in or been in a city bigger than Indianapolis for a significant amount of time. I think I am jut now starting to grasp how big London is, it's pretty crazy. Even having figured out the subway system it is still a pretty significant walk to some of the places. On top of that, there is probably years worth of things to do and see in London and I've only barely put a dent in my list, I suppose I'll survive though and just have to save the rest for another trip back. Left: British Museum, its about 8 times that long
I did make it to the British Museum today and ended up staying for 6 hours, I loved it. It's basically full of ruins from Mespotamia to 1980 England and its huge. It is gigantic. I mean its really really big. I started with the Egyptian stuff and got to see the rosetta stone and some others before moving to the Greek part which I remembered some things from CNT. It did get me really excited when I saw all the artifacts and will be in Greece in less than 2 weeks now. The midieval ages stuff was my second favorite, behind the Greeks. There is just something special about that time period just before the Renaissance, a certain elegance that accompanies most everything. Plus its just a magical time of relics and crusades and this battle for control between church and state. I find it very interesting. Right: St. James Park - they have beautiful parks.
Once I managed to pull myself away from the museum which by the way its free to enter, I hopped back on the subway and headed to the Globe Theatre which was actually a replica. But a very good replica at that (the original burnt down and I feel like I knew that but somehow forgot), anyways, it was a very good replica down to the exact wood type and using pegs instead of screws for all the joints. The plaster for the walls even had cow hair in it. I took a brief tour of that which probably wasn't worth 7 pounds but still was neat. I was going to see a show tonight but they only had awful seats left, I suppose I'll survive.
I managed to make it to the Buckingham Palace just before close to buy a ticket to take a tour of it tomorrow so I'm looking forward to that, they're supposed to have some rooms open that aren't normally open to the public. It should be a busy day as I'm going to try to do a whole lot in a little amount of time. Left: London Tower Bridge from London Bridge, and no, its not falling down.
In a leap of faith of sorts, I woke up at 4 this morning to head to a bus stop for a bus I wasn't sure existed - it did; however, I ended up bargaining with a taxi driver to get a ride to the airport, I still amnot sure if that was a good idea or not. The point is I flew AerLingus to Gatwick (london) and made it safely. It was a very comfortable flight I might add. It actually was a 30 minute express (no stopping) train ride from Gatwick into the City Center in London before I took a bus to the north side of the city to get into my hostel which is actually an old courthouse - pretty cool. It's a lot more youth oriented which is both a good and bad thing - theres a bar in the basement and its a bit more messy, but nonetheless, for $20 a night and free breakfast, I can't complain. The picture to the left is my hostel the courthouse and the right is Wellington Arch.
Once I figured out the bus system, it's really easy minus no real maps showing the routes, I learned their is a thing called a subway that cuts time into like 10ths. Thus, I took the underground to the Buckingham Palace and caught part of the changing of the guard. I didn't quite get it, but there were thousands of people starting with open mouths in utter amasement - go figure. It was a lot of high stepping, arm swinging, and stomping. From there I went down to the Parliamentary Square (its such a long walk on 5 hours of sleep), and made it to Westminster Abbey.
I was rather disappointed in the church compared to what I saw in Italy. Inside it was very obvious the church has had serious political influence to the point that almost every wall space has been occupied with a tomb of some politician or political figure. It was very interesting, do not get me wrong, but sort of felt more like a museum than one of the most beautiful churches in the world (which it should be). The church has gone as far to include some of the more recent novelists from Britain such as Dickens - I guess it just seemed to me that it was reaching a point of commercialization that couldn't be undone upon which it becomes a museum rather than an actual church. Either way, I am going to hop on Amazon later and find a good thick book about the Abbey telling of whos buried there, and the rich history and such as you could probably spend 6 hours a day for 7 days with a good professor and not be bored in that place. On a side note, Darwin and Newton were buried there, along with Watt, the inventor of steam engine. To the left, the cloister of Westminster Abbey (I risked being thrown out for that picture) and the right, you guessed it, big ben.
I guess I am already taken aback by the grandiouse splendor of the Royal family. Having never really been around "royalty" it's hard for me to fathom the wealth these people possess(ed). Either way, its quite beautiful and has been a pleasure to witness so far. British Museum tomorrow morning and I'm not sure what tomorrow afternoon - maybe some more of the big "London" tourist monuments.
2 more asides - I have been corrected by my wonderful Professor Cook, the Book of Kells was written around 800 AD not 600BC (typo) and is only of the 4 gospels not the entire bible. And the RiverDance was pretty neat last night, very relaxing all the same but I don't think they did anything different in Dublin from what you would see in America if you went to a show.
Today has been a phenomenal day in the least. I awoke at 7 to get going and took a quit trip to the post office before hitting the bus center to learn my routes for the day and catching my first bus about 9:30. After about a 30 minute ride I got off in the southern town of Rathfarnham to stop at a castle which was a lot more modern than the one I saw yesterday and would best be described as a "Fortified House." More importantly - it came with a free tour.
Now I'll begin a long saga about how today was a great learning day - nerds and those bored, continue reading, and to everyone else - I apoligize but this stuff really fascinated me today. The castle was built in the 1500's as a true castle and several generations later when it was no longer needed for battle purposes made into a rather large home - 22 bedrooms to quantify it. One of the first rooms we entered has these plastered silhouettes of famous historical figures - Socrates, Dante, Cicero, Petrarch... the goal of course that when the youth became of age they would take a tour to Rome and Greece to learn the classics and become full of knowledge of the classical era - rather fitting for me, I know. From there we went to a room with a fantastic Roccoco(sp) ceiling before entering a modernized from with a more mathematical, room of symmetry. It even had a false door added leading to nothing but a wall of bricks in order to maintain perfect symmetry. As we moved up floors, the rooms went from Doric, to Ionic, to Corithean columns in the rooms and into a more elegant ball room and long room before the waiting rooms that included some really cool paintings on the ceilings of nothing other than mythological scenes - as I said, they were very well educated and everything - literally everything is a symbol of something else. Even the little pineapples on the frieze were to represent hospitality. So we enter a room and there is this painting of this very superb sort of looking englishman.
He was a prior owner of the castle whom recieved a bribe from England to deny keeping the Irish seat in Ireland and moved it to England thus bringing about the revolution in 1917. So I had a nice segue from about the 1500's to the 20th century and when coupled with the Dublin Castle I visited yesterday, I was really starting to gain a grasp for the Irish. So I hop on a bus and take it to the Kilmainham Gaol (prison) which was fantastic also. It was the best guided tour I've had yet. Anyways, it has all the cells of the 7 men who signed basically the Irish Declaration of Independence then were jailed, killed, and basically brought about the Irish Civil War leading to Irelands freedom from England in the early 1920s.
So basically I have a lessons in classics, english chivalry and upper class life, history, bribery, revolution, art, and even some poetry engraved on the walls of the jail where prisoners had wrote things like, "Beware of the Risen People, that have harried and held. Ye that have bullied and bribed." I guess it just really hit home with me seeing all of this history come together like that. But it wasn't simply history, it was not a few stories or tales thrown together but rather a culmination of arts and classics and money and rhetoric all leading to this great revolution. I guess I just felt really wrapped up in it all as I left the jail and really felt like I've gained a pretty good understanding of the cause and effect of Ireland - because after all thats how most of history has worked, cause and effect. The point is that it wasn't just one story or one way that led to the revolution, it was about 400 years, corruption, art, politics, poetry, persuasion, everything combined together - something I don't know if I would have picked up on without the education I've gotten so far.
In a quick bit of conceitedness, the tour guide at the castle was impressed by all I had seen in Dublin. I guess one of the family members of the castle was killed by a cannon ball while asleep in his tent and the cannon ball is on display in the familys chapel in St. Patrick's Cathedral - see even religion came full circle today. On a lighter note - we enter this small room called a cigar room in the castle where the corners appear to have been torn out. Behind the one corner, they found a skeleton of a woman still in her dress and the most famous legend is that two men were fighting over her hand in marriage and decide to duel for her hand. However, both men were fatally struck during the duel and well you get the rest - no one was there to rescue her - leading to another story of a haunting. I think that would make a great novel or short story.
The Guinness Factory was disappointing in the least. It was too expensive, incredibly commercialized, and flooded with tourists without a clue of what they were witnessing. There was a really cool bar with cool views on the top though - and a free beer.
I am going to see the Riverdance tonight and am incredible excited to see it. I hope its good - I'll try to record a brief video of it and have it up before I leave for London tomorrow morning at 6:40 AM Ireland time, 1:40 your time. Check out the album I posted! www2.wabash.edu/blog/photo_album/home.cfm
Today has been a very busy day to say the least, my knees and feet are very sore. This is literally the first time I've been able to sit and relax since 10 this morning. I guess the bus ride could sort of count but I was so worried about missing my stop that I was tense about the whole way. I think I'm good now though.
First up was a 30 minute bus ride to a giant park and Malahide Castle which really was neat.
The castle had been occupied until 1970 before being donated to the Dublin Tourism Society or something like that. It really reminded me of like English Royalty, in part because thats who occupied it. It was really neat seeing all the paintings and engravings. I guess I always assumed an aristocratic family to be very wealthy and sort of unintelligent, but with the library, paintings, and engravings all over the castle it would be hard to not be very well educated. Even the backs of the fireplaces had engravings of like the "Gold Fleece." And there is just something to be said for an old piece of oak furniture - it reaches a class unattainable by most.
Next was the Trinity College Library and Book of Kells. The book of Kells is just a really really old Bible from like 600BC which was neat, I mean I would have rather them handed me the book and let me flip through it for 6 euro, but I don't think that was possible.
Finally, I went to Dublin Castle here in the city which I should have done first. It gave a very good explanation of the history of the city and explained a lot of the statues and names I had been seeing around the city. Also, the city does not advertise the Guinness Brewery, the city symbol is the same, but turned the other way - just a subtle difference. I really just assumed Guinness was that popular. I wanted to sit in that throne so bad - but for sake of staying on the tour, I chose against it.
Other than that I just need to work on not assuming I'm in a country completely different from my own. At breakfast this morning, I saw they had hashbrowns (hotcakes) and in an excited tone asked, "Oh what do you call those here?" to which she calmly and politely responded, "Hash browns." It made me laugh a bit I guess. Overall, today was fun, I may have learned a bit, and saw an awful lot of neat things. Tomorrow brings the Guinness Factory, hopefully an old jail, and maybe the Jameson Whiskey Factory. Tonight - I'm headed to the Temple Bar area to hopefully meet some kids my age.
I meant to write an end of the summer/going abroad blog - but forgot/got too busy. Summer was fast, I took the MCAT in June, turne 21 the day after, and worked at Chase doing student loan processing until August 14th. I had one small vacation to go see my brother's white coating in Kansas City but was in Indy other than that; however, I'm now in Dublin.
I've got 2 weeks of travel before I head to Athens, Greece for the semester - fire permitting. I flew into Dublin from Chicago after a hectic boarding in Indianapolis and about no sleep in the past 24 hours. I am just waiting for 8:00 to roll around so I can go to bed, I'm exhausted.
Arriving in Dublin was fine, no real big problems. It was hard to figure out the bus system - atleast I thought so. They have an express service to and from the airport and then daily buses to and from the airport. Since the daily bus seemed more likely I bought a ticket for it, only to find they wouldn't let me on since I had luggage and then had to pay again to use the express - now I know to read the fine print. I rode my first double decker bus into town and then checked into my hostel (basically 6 bunk beds in one room sharing a bathroom) before walking around Dublin for the afternoon.
I got to see the ChristChurch Cathedral and Saint Patrick's Cathedral before finally crashing and taking a small nap after lunch. I spent some time trying to "read" the stained glass like Dr. Cook taught me last immersion trip. I think I got some of it but theres still a lot of Latin left untranslated and imagery undeciphered - I'm still an amateur. I guess I didn't really think about it, but Guinness is literally plastered all over the place here. I don't drink much Guinness back in the states, but the beer I had tonight was pretty good - maybe it had just been a long day and any beer would have been great. Either way I had some sort of steak tips cooked, who guessed it? in Guinness before roaming a bit more and heading into the hostel, I've got to get some sleep before tomorrow.
I've about figured out the traffic signs and all here and only had one or two close calls. The memory of Samer following me across the street in Italy and literally just missing getting hit made me smile. So yeah, nothing too exciting today, I don't think I did anything too silly - just glad to be here I guess. I've looked forward to this all summer and now that its finally here its hard not to just enjoy walking around the city. Big thanks to the Givens Award for making this possible.
From here I'll go to London, Paris, Berlin, and then to Athens by Sept 6. I'll try to keep the blog updated daily.
Maybe I was just tired yesterday... because I had a fantastic day today and absolutely loved everything I saw. In fact, I'm in love with the city, I just wish I knew the language better. I had the best nights sleep I've had yet last night and woke about 8:30, had a quick breakfast, and was on my way.
was closing. I did a really good job seeing most things but didn't make it to the very top floor. Yes, I did see the Mona Lisa as did every other tourist in the building. However, it was one of the pieces by which I was least impressed. But really, what an interesting museum. I was able to see so much and was so impressed by the sculptures. In fact that was by what I was most impressed and awe struck. I loved trying to guess what it was depicting before I tried to understand the translation which was more of a hint than an answer. Cain dying, the virgin mary's death, Hercules slaying the 3 headed monster, Hermes strapping his sandals... it goes on and on, it was beautiful. I literally started in the back right corner and worked my way around and up the floors until it was closing time =( if I had the energy and time, I'd go back.
not as fast or as busy as London's though. Anyways, I made my way to the Eiffel Tower. It sort of dwarfs the CNT projection picture that we had during class; but, wasn't really that cool or interesting. I'll go back at night to see the lights and maybe take it to the top if it's not too busy..jpg)
alright, just had to get over it, sort of like baptism by fire..jpg)
overwhelming at all once. The Basilica was beautiful though and had this brilliant painting above the alter. The French style is definitely a bit different and I want to say more cartoonish and the stained glass is more bright pink reds and purples than the traditonal yellows blues and reds. Maybe that was just Sacre Coeur though.
bway and head to the Houses of Parliament for a tour. It was actually very cool and I think I learned something. Apart from the Queen and the one time I saw the questioning session on CNBC, I did not know much about British government. The building is set in a very gothic style, atleast the one half of it. All the decorations were very elegant and thought out, very elaborate, and of course all covered in gold. I enjoyed the House of Lords more than the House of Commons because the House of Lords was elegant and gothic; but the House of Commons was, well, common. Left: atop the dome at St. Pauls, Wabash is famous.
for abusing his power which ironically was partly that building - along with a few other things like the abolishment of Parliament. Left: Banquetting House Floor
could sort of care less about all that though. It was just neat to see the top notch castle/palace and all the imagery and art and elegance of it. It's really hard to imagine someone living there or using it as a house. It seems like something that should be in a story book. Right: Banqueting House ceiling.
was run. Directly opposite, a more plain, bland, House of Commons. That, compared to the US, which I've never seen but heard about, is the white house with the complete white outside and huge Greek columns who were the founders of Democracy. And for a third time, St. Pauls Church is an Anglican Church and was originally built without any sort of lavish decoration simply to spite the Catholics and to create a new identity. Thus the style of the church reflected the ideas of the people. Left: Saint Pauls West view.
think I am jut now starting to grasp how big London is, it's pretty crazy. Even having figured out the subway system it is still a pretty significant walk to some of the places. On top of that, there is probably years worth of things to do and see in London and I've only barely put a dent in my list, I suppose I'll survive though and just have to save the rest for another trip back. Left: British Museum, its about 8 times that long
about that time period just before the Renaissance, a certain elegance that accompanies most everything. Plus its just a magical time of relics and crusades and this battle for control between church and state. I find it very interesting. Right: St. James Park - they have beautiful parks.
The plaster for the walls even had cow hair in it. I took a brief tour of that which probably wasn't worth 7 pounds but still was neat. I was going to see a show tonight but they only had awful seats left, I suppose I'll survive.
not sure if that was a good idea or not. The point is I flew AerLingus to Gatwick (london) and made it safely. It was a very comfortable flight I might add. It actually was a 30 minute express (no stopping) train ride from Gatwick into the City Center in London before I took a bus to the north side of the city to get into my hostel which is actually an old courthouse - pretty cool. It's a lot more youth oriented which is both a good and bad thing - theres a bar in the basement and its a bit more messy, but nonetheless, for $20 a night and free breakfast, I can't complain. The picture to the left is my hostel the courthouse and the right is Wellington Arch.
wrong, but sort of felt more like a museum than one of the most beautiful churches in the world (which it should be). The church has gone as far to include some of the more recent novelists from Britain such
as Dickens - I guess it just seemed to me that it was reaching a point of commercialization that couldn't be undone upon which it becomes a museum rather than an actual church. Either way, I am going to hop on Amazon later and find a good thick book about the Abbey telling of whos buried there, and the rich history and such as you could probably spend 6 hours a day for 7 days with a good professor and not be bored in that place. On a side note, Darwin and Newton were buried there, along with Watt, the inventor of steam engine. To the left, the cloister of Westminster Abbey (I risked being thrown out for that picture) and the right, you guessed it, big ben.
9:30. After about a 30 minute ride I got off in the southern town of Rathfarnham to stop at a castle which was a lot more modern than the one I saw yesterday and would best be described as a "Fortified House." More importantly - it came with a free tour.
h seat in Ireland and moved it to England thus bringing about the revolution in 1917. So I had a nice segue from about the 1500's to the 20th century and when coupled with the Dublin Castle I visited yesterday, I was really starting to gain a grasp for the Irish. So I hop on a bus and take it to the Kilmainham Gaol (prison) which was fantastic also. It was the best guided tour I've had yet. Anyways, it has all the cells of the 7 men who signed basically the Irish Declaration of Independence then were jailed, killed, and basically brought about the Irish Civil War leading to Irelands freedom from England in the early 1920s.
his tent and the cannon ball is on display in the familys chapel in St. Patrick's Cathedral - see even religion came full circle today. On a lighter note - we enter this small room called a cigar room in the castle where the corners appear to have been torn out. Behind the one corner, they found a skeleton of a woman still in her dress and the most famous legend is that two men were fighting over her hand in marriage and decide to duel for her hand. However, both men were fatally struck during the duel and well you get the rest - no one was there to rescue her - leading to another story of a haunting. I think that would make a great novel or short story.
engravings all over the castle it would be hard to not be very well educated. Even the backs of the fireplaces had engravings of like the "Gold Fleece." And there is just something to be said for an old piece of oak furniture - it reaches a class unattainable by most.
explanation of the history of the city and explained a lot of the statues and names I had been seeing around the city. Also, the city does not advertise the Guinness Brewery, the city symbol is the same, but turned the other way - just a subtle difference. I really just assumed Guinness was that popular. I wanted to sit in that throne so bad - but for sake of staying on the tour, I chose against it.
fast, I took the MCAT in June, turne 21 the day after, and worked at Chase doing student loan processing until August 14th. I had one small vacation to go see my brother's white coating in Kansas City but was in Indy other than that; however, I'm now in Dublin.
taking a small nap after lunch. I spent some time trying to "read" the stained glass like Dr. Cook taught me last immersion trip. I think I got some of it but theres still a lot of Latin left untranslated and imagery undeciphered - I'm still an amateur. I guess I didn't really think about it, but Guinness is literally plastered all over the place here. I don't drink much Guinness back in the states, but the beer I had tonight was pretty good - maybe it had just been a long day and any beer would have been great. Either way I had some sort of steak tips cooked, who guessed it? in Guinness before roaming a bit more and heading into the hostel, I've got to get some sleep before tomorrow.