okay ... back from a whirlwind weekend across the sea in ireland. i will start from the beginning (a very good place to start, don't you think?) and work my way forward (straight out of my journal)

thursday, july 28:

woke up today and went to breakfast. everyone was antsy because today was the last day of class until monday. everyone was late coming to class since most everyone had a really late night last night. class was okay - we didn't really cover anything difficult. we talked about the developments leading up to the euro ... pretty interesting, but it was hard to pay attention due to the combination of excitement and sleepiness! i got a chocolate croissant at the tuck shop. right after our second class we got ready to get on the 1315 bus to gatwick. i think about 50+ of the 77 people here are gonig to dublin, but most flew out of luton - hard to get to from oxford! anyway, we were rushing and barely made the bus - £26 roundtrip, it was packed. i met some peole from virginia going to venice on the bus. they have one of the same profs that we do. mostly slept on the bus (it was a 2 hour ride). we got there at about 1520 for a 1730 flight.

all these airports really make me like OMA and LNK - they aren't all claustrophobic and dark like the ones i've been through on my travels this summer. anyway, when we checked in they didn't have gat information yet. we got something to eat - pizza baguettes. yummy! i paid with US$ and it came to about 9.25 for a baguette and a coke. ouch. stupid exchange rate! then our flight info still wasn't up! we were supposed to board at 1650 and finally at 1650, gate info came up. gatwick is really big and so we couldn't have just walked around until we found it...so we rushed over there to board.

there were 9 ne people on the ryanair flight. it was very no frills. not even free drinks. boo. we got to dublin and it was rainy and cold. took an 8-person cab (5 euro ea) to the hostel. would've been 4.75 on the bus, so going straight there was worth the extra .25. the exchange rate for the euro is markedly better than for the pound ... $1 = 1.25 euro, so it's a lot better than $1=£1.80! our cab driver was hilarious! we checked into the hostel and went to mcdonalds (wanted something cheap). then we walked around a bit until we got to a pub.

there is a lot in our are because we are in the central business district of the city. we sat in the pub (it was pricey) for a while and then discovered a pool table in the basement. they had a jukebox too, so that was sweet! all their music is really old, and they've come out with so many "NOW" cds that they're on number 61! crazy. anyway, we were all exhausted so we went back and now i'm about to call it a night. guinness tomorrow!

my hand hurts,
grant