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.