Amazing :)

I am in love with Ireland.

We just got home from the pub Clem Smith's and it was amazing. Clem is such a great guy and loves us! Him and I became fast friends and I told him about my new found love for Limerick. He offered me a job at his pub and said that if I ever did move here him and his wife would look after me. It might sound strange, but he is one of the nicest, funniest people I have ever met. I haven't been this happy in a really long time. Ireland is doing things to me, things in my heart that I can't even explain. I miss you all, especially my family. They are the only reason it would be so hard to move here, but I know that they would LOVE the excuse to visit :) anyway, I know this is short, but I had to post!

Tomorrow we are going to Adare and Bunratty Castle, can't wait! Goodnight :)

SNOW IN LIMERICK

OKAY SO THIS IS GOING TO BE IN ALL CAPS TO TRY AND CONVEY MY EXCITEMENT. TONIGHT WHEN WE WERE AT DINNER AT DOLANS IT SNOWED! LIKE REALLY REALLY SNOWED! IT WAS ABSOLUTELY AMAZING. I CAN'T EVEN DESCRIBE HOW HAPPY I WAS WHEN IT WAS HAPPENING! SINCE IT DOESNT SNOW IN IRELAND VERY MUCH EVEN THE WAITRESS WENT OUTSIDE AND DID A HAPPY DANCE. WE IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWED HER AND WERE GOING CRAZY! THERE WERE 14 OF US AND PEOPLE WERE DRIVING BY HONKING BECAUSE WE WERE JUMPING AROUND SO MUCH! I HAVE PICTURES AND A VIDEO AS WELL :D I WILL GET THEM UP WHEN I CAN. 

Anyway, wow it was amazing. Dinner was delish also! Maddy and I split smoked salmon bruschetta and traditional irish stew with lamb in it! It was amazing and I'm happy to say my first "irish" meal was REALLY good :D After dinner at Dolans we went to the pub next door called Clem Smiths and Clem was our bar tender! He gave us a sample of a drink and it was really good! I got a Blue Wicked tonight and it was SO GOOD..thank you Jenny..AGAIN :D 

So, to sum up tonight...it was full of good food, drinks and SNOW! 

I STILL LOVE IRELAND...I really might not come home (hehe).

GOODNIGHT!

OKAY so I lied..

I already have something to write! 

After showering, my new friend Maddy and I went to the store, but it turned out it was completely shut down so plans changed. We ended up going on a long walk exploring a part of Limerick we hadn't been yet. We found a fun looking pub called M. Fennessy that we will probably check out later in the week. While we were walking and talking we discovered that we have a lot in common, our faith just being one example. She is an extremely kind person and I think it's going to be the beginning of a great friendship! We discovered this Redemptourist Community Church called Mount Saint Alphonsus and it was absolutely amazing. I had been told by more than one person to visit as many churches as possible because they are nothing like anything I would ever see, but what we saw was so much more than I expected. It is indescribable. Everything from the stained glass to the mosaics were incredible. Another thing we both found really interesting was the confessionals. We had never really seen a confessional before and they were just like we pictured. It looked like it came out of a movie. I now understand why people said to go to as many as possible...we are going to try and go to a service and visit as many as we can! 

I feel so blessed and still love Ireland just as much! The cold is not that bad, I actually like it..as long as I'm bundled!

Toodles..for now! :)

Pictures thus far :)

OKAY so I figured out how to put up some pictures on FLICKR.COM

Hopefully this works...heres what you do:

Go to flickr.com and click "sign in" in the upper right hand corner.

For the yahoo ID type in jess.kain21@yahoo.com

and for the password type in ireland2010.

After you get to the page go to where it says "your photostream" in blue.

When you go there you should be able to see my pictures!

Please let me know how this works, I hope it does :)

We just got done with class...I probably won't post again unless something crazy happens at the pubs tonight. We are planning on going to get a good "Irish" dinner at a pub! Should be fun...now I'm showering and then going to the grocery store. Hope everyone has a good day! 

:)

"WE'RE JUST FUNNER!"

Hello everyone at home! For some reason it will not let me upload pictures so I am creating a flickr account and when it is ready I will post the info so that you can see the pictures I put up! 

Anyway, it is 8:30 PM here and I am going to get ready for bed soon! Jet lag finally kicked in...I did not sleep at all last night. I tried to from about 5 AM to 7, but it just was not happening! We had to wake up at 7 this morning to get ready to leave for Dingle at 8, but today the roads were really bad so we couldn't go. Instead we drove to Blarney and visited Blarney Castle where I kissed the Blarney Stone! It was an awesome experience and I even bought the picture for 10 euros (it is REALLY funny!). It was beautiful today, but one of the coldest days! After lunch in Blarney, where I had an amazing potato soup, we headed through Cork to see the castles in Cahir and Cashel. The castles were beautiful and one of my favorite parts of the trip so far was when we hiked down a short path at Cashel to see the ruins of an old Abbey called Hore (haha, I know..we laughed too). It was amazing and that was when we also saw what Ireland is really known for...its greenery. Up until today it has been really icy and the grass has been white, but today it was the brightest of greens! 

Driving through Ireland today from Limerick to Cork, I really realized what a small town girl I am. I could see myself living here and loving it for all of its simplicity. I think everyone should come visit Ireland. Even after being here for 3 days I can tell that us Americans have so much, but appreciate so little of it. Life needs to be about the little things, the things that make us happy. I think the people here in Ireland appreciate the little things in life, at least those that live on acres of land and only appear to have each other. One of my favorite things to see while driving are the houses with smoke coming from the chimneys..I like to picture families sitting together drinking hot cocoa. I know that if I were in their shoes I would be doing exactly that. 

Anywho, thats all for tonight. Hope everyone has a great day!

I miss everyone, especially my family! It is strange not talking, but I am thankful you can read what I'm doing...I LOVE YOU ALL :)

OH I almost forgot..tomorrow is our first day of class! I forgot that SCHOOL is the whole reason why we're here! HAHA..oh well, I'm thankful it got me here :)

Ireland? Don't Mind if I Do :)

So, today was our first REAL day in Limerick! I absolutely love it here. We walked about 30 minutes into town and went to King John's Castle, St. Mary's Cathedral, The Hunt Museum and 2 different pubs! We also saw the River Shannon and it was so beautiful...probably one of the fastest flowing rivers I've ever seen. King John's Castle ended up being a LOT of fun. We couldn't go into St. Mary's Cathedral, so that was a bummer, but the outside was beautiful. The Hunt Museum was interesting, but we were a little tired because it was a guided tour and it takes a lot to concentrate on these accents! 

The pubs tonight were a lot of fun! People are nice, but we know that when there are 10+ of us they are all looking at us like we are the "crazy Americans." All I can say is we will definitely be known here before we leave :) I had my first pear cider and it was okay...I could still taste the beer though, so after a while it was hard to get down. We then had an Irish Coffee and that was DELISH :) but what has Bailey's that ISN'T delish? We met some guys with awesome Irish accents, man I really do love it! OH, and I almost forgot...Fat Frogs are AMAZING...thank you Jenny :) they will be my drink of choice for the rest of the trip! 

Final thought of the day...it really is painful to think about how many US dollars are spent when purchasing ANYTHING here. It's all worth it though :) I LOVE IRELAND! Off to Dingle tomorrow :) Goodnight!

PS. Trying to post pictures after this...hopefully it works!

24 Hours Later..

WOW! We finally got here at 7:21 PM. We got settled into the dorms at Mary Immaculate College then went to dinner at Scott's Bar. I got a hamburger and let me tell you, it tasted like meat loaf! Yuck! Good to know though, good to know.

Anyway, since I'm sure you're all wondering, heres a short version of what happened today...We got to the airport around 6:30 AM thinking that our flight was taking off at 9:40. Turns out our flight was delayed til around 1 PM, but we couldn't take that flight because if we did we would miss our connecting flight in Chicago to Dublin. The airport people then had to re book 37 flights to Chicago. Since Chicago is a popular destination they couldn't possibly fit us all onto one flight so we all got broken up on different flights. Take off was delayed about 40 minutes because of "mechanical issues" but not to worry, my friend Melanie and I met an awesome guy named ryan and laughed, talked and slept the whole 4 hours. All was well when we landed and met up with everyone. We then had 2 hours til our flight to Dublin took off, but because nothing was going our way we knew something was bound to go wrong. We got on the plane and it was SO small...I was not looking forward to sitting for 7 hours between 2 people with no leg room. We took off and during the flight we were fed, watched movies and I tried to sleep as much as possible. When we were approaching Dublin we noticed that we were over shooting it by a lot and were wondering what was going on. Just then they told us that it was snowing in Dublin and since snow is rare they closed the airport...yup, they CLOSED the airport. So we headed to Manchester where we would re fuel, defrost the wings and sit for 2 more unnecessary hours. The plane ride back to Dublin would have been bad if I hadn't forced myself to fall asleep. When we got there we landed, got off and then waited for our luggage that took 30 some odd minutes to come off because of the weather.

Side note: On the baggage claim there was a sign that said "Have you the correct luggage?" I found that funny :)

Anyway, after we got our luggage we got on a bus that brought us 3.5 hours to Limerick and here we are. It is COLD and strange because I should feel like it's the afternoon, but I can't wait to get in bed and sleep! GOODNIGHT!

I hope everyone had a happy new year! I tried to post pictures, but for some reason it isn't working. Will try again tomorrow :)