I once met an old man who told me great stories...

I once met an old man who told me great stories
Of legends of old who played hard for the glory
Of lifting the cup in that moment of triumph
His memories kept me enthralled

- Fields of Glory

So I know that all I've been doing lately is complaining about how sick I am and actually, I'm sick again. But then I realised that apart from my various illnesses and emotional breakdowns none of you have the slightest clue what I've been doing, and I've been doing quite a lot.

Facebook is still being mean to me so instead I'm going to just upload a few photos for now and some videos that I took.

This post is going to be pretty long so here's the SparkNotes version for those of you who don't have the time.

1. Jon and Phil visited!!! - Super fun and got to show them around Dublin and took a trip out to Howth. They were great company and I loved having them over.

2. Irish House Party - A night of traditional Irish music and dance in a lovely pub downtown.

3. CLASS TRIP TO THE WEST!!! - What a weekend! We went almost everywhere in the west in one weekend and did the whole Ring of Kerry. Undoubtedly some of the most spectacular pictures from my entire stay in Ireland so make sure to check those out!

THE MORE DETAILED DESCRIPTIONS

1. Jon and Phil's visit. - So when you consider how fragile my emotional state was in the days leading up to their visit their timing was nothing short of a miracle. It was so great to get to show them around and it was fantastic to have someone who knows me as well as Jon does around.

We spent Saturday, Mon and Tuesday in Dublin doing some touristy things (like the Guinness and Jameson tours) and some slightly more authentic things (like a trip to McTurcail's pub with Maura who is AWESOME and I'm so glad I finally met her). On Sunday we went to Howth and did the cliff walk and the weather was just spectacular!

So here are a few pics from those days -





IRISH HOUSE PARTY -
I'll let the video talk for themselves...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bC_9cdMNDko
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLb31Sm9-b0

CLASS TRIP TO THE WEST -

So last Friday - Sunday was our first of two programme trips in Ireland. This one was to the west of Ireland. We left early on Friday and had lunch in Adare (in Co. Limerick). We drove the whole Ring of Kerry over the course of the weekend and spent Fri and Sat night in Kenmare. At some point we stopped the bus and walked out on a bog to get idea of what a bog is actually like (mushy and shaky btw).

On Fri night we had a giant jenga and pool tournament in a pub there courtesy Senator Mark Daly (who's in the the right hand side of the picture with Allison pulling out the Jenga piece [first pic] so you can see why we all adore him).


The next day we did a walking tour of Kenmare and saw this ancient celtic stone circle and were given lessons in Hurling and Gaelic football (and I didn't suck at them)!!! It was awesssommmeee. Hurling is the coolest sport everrrr.

Anyway..then we hiked the hilly national park between Kilkenny and Kenmare.

We went sight seeing all over and sang the fight song on the beach Daniel O'Connell's summer home was on.
And then we went to DINGLE!!! (For some reason I adore Dingle, I think it's not so much to do with Dingle itself as the running jokes that come from it).