Dublin

The best part about going to an international school is that most of my classmates are not from the United States. There are people from everywhere! Canada, England, Ireland, Ukraine, Lebanon, Israel, Cameroon, Germany, Nigeria, Russia, Norway, Somalia, India, Sri Lanka... the list goes on. Half the time I forget that not everyone is from the same place, because for the most part we're all so similar and after a while you can't hear the accent anymore.

One of my best friends just happens to be from Dublin, Ireland so when he went home for the All Saints Day Break, he was nice enough to bring myself and a few others to stay at his home. This was the second time I've been to Ireland, the first time was last spring with the same person. But, this time we stayed in Dublin the whole time and did way more touristy things.

Day 1: We left at about 10pm on a Ryanair flight, lucky most of us got to sit together despite getting on last. The flight was two hours so we got there around midnight. Just in time to see the most grumpy immigration officer ever (the way he acted, you'd think that illegal American immigrants were a common occurrence in Ireland). And then we headed to my friends house where we all promptly passed out.

Day 2: We woke up a bit late but headed into town around noon to meet up with some other friends and go on the viking splash tour. If you've never heard of it, the tour takes place in a retired world war two vehicle that can convert from a bus to a boat. While on the tour everyone is obliged to wear viking hats and roar at passerby's. It is really a good time and the tour guide gives an excellent tour of the city. On our way to the next attraction we stopped at a Chipper for a late lunch and then headed off to the Guiness Factory where we saw how Guiness is made. I wasn't much for the stuff, but it was a good tour.

Day 3: Lazy day. We went to see the new James Bond film and went for Indian food. I'd highly recommend both.

Killmainham Gaol

Day 4: Our Irish "tour guide" had to go see some people so we went into town on our own. We saw quite a bit this day. We started with the national museum and then saw the Oscar Wilde statue and home where he grew up. After that, I stopped for a burrito (a rare commodity in Poland) and then stopped at Trinity College to see the Book of Kells and the campus. Our last stop of the day was the Killmainham Gaol which is one of the largest unoccupied jails in Europe and has a ton of history behind it! It was nice to finally feel like I understood another countries history almost as much as I understand part of my own! We were supposed to have dinner at the Arlington Hotel, but they failed to mention that all of us had to purchase dinner (which was 30 euro a piece!!!) so we skipped out on the step dancing show and went around to a few different bars instead.

Day 5: After getting in at about 3am most of us were exhausted so we slept in and my friends mom made us a very nice proper Irish breakfast fry. We then went to the grocery store to stock up on things that we absolutely can't fined in Poland; for me this meant lined notebook paper and about ten packages of card-stock note cards. At about 4pm we headed to the airport and had a fairly uneventful flight home! (Oh gee I just called Poland home...YIKES!!!)

And now, four exams this week and two next week!!! Only a few more weeks till winter break!!!

Robbins Pathology First Edition