The End

Well friends, the end of the most memorable semester of my life is here. I am currently typing this on the flight home… only 2 hours left, ughhhhh. So far I have tried to sleep, had a chicken dish for ‘dinner’ although it is not dinner time in either time zone, watched the movie seven pounds, read some magazines, and played Sudoku on the screen in the headrest in front of me, now I will recap the last few days of Ireland and if my computer has enough battery and they don’t come around with our light snack too soon I will keep typing probably random stories that nobody really wants to hear, awesome!

Ok so the majority of the last 2 weeks of my life have been spent at the library. My library buddy Celia and I had quite the intense schedule. Andrea usually made her way there at some point during the day but her exams were not as coordinated as Celia’s and mine were. Ally showed up a couple days too! So every day I left Roebuck around 10am and left around 2pm for lunch. Returned to the library at 4:30 and stayed until about 8 or 9 when we left, had dinner, and hung out until we went to bed only to get up again and do it over.

Ally and I went out once during the study week with the other Americans and it was so much fun! I really didn’t hang out with them that much all semester so it was kinda sad to start hanging out when we only had a weekish left.

While most people finished their exams on like Wednesday or Thursday, I was fortunate enough to have the last final on the last day. It helped that a lot of the other Americans I know were in it as well as Violeta and Celia. Celia had an exam at 12 that day so she didn’t want to leave the exam center and waste all that extra time so I went to the city centre in the morning to do some last minute errands and picked up some lunch for both of us. I got there at around 2:30, we ate together, then studied on and off until the exam at 6.

We obviously went out immediately on Saturday night after the exam. We ended up at Turks Head for the ERASMUS party. It was fun, as always, especially because it was a party held by the ERASMUS so all the international students were there. That also meant that Celia knew absolutely everybody.

For my last night the girls and I went out to dinner. We went to the Hard Rock Café because I wanted to go to dinner and they had been wanted to go there. We met Sandra there because her parents were visiting so she was already in the city centre. Celia brought a bag to our apt and didn’t leave it there but brought it to the city centre. I asked her what was in it and she said it was something for Sandra, I totally accepted it. When we were all sitting down after Sandra arrived they told me they had gotten me a little something for my birthday. I was so surprised! They got me a little Ireland stuffed animal and a giant 21st birthday card that they wrote in and all signed. It was the cutest thing. It was completely Celia’s style, starting with “Hey American!” and everything, haha!

After dinner we got a giant brownie sundae, it was delicious. Then we headed to Blackrock to the Wicked Wolf to say our goodbyes to the Spaniards. It was karaoke night and a lot of fun, but the place closed at 12 so we were only there for about an hour when it closed. Afterwards everyone congregated outside. It was a very long process for Sandra to say goodbye to everyone and Andrea, Celia, and Vio to say goodbye to all the people who would be gone by the time they got back from Germany. I know most of the Spanish but am closest to Maria, Blanca, Fifo, and Vicki so I only had 4 people to say goodbye to. Eventually we exited before the water works started but the taxi ride back to campus was pretty somber. It was starting to set in that we were all leaving. =(

We hung out in Andrea and I’s kitchen for a few hours because none of us wanted to say goodbye. The girls were leaving at 7am for the airport and Sandra had to wake up to meet with her parents, I had to finish packing, vacuum my room, check out, etc but we didn’t care because it was our last night and sleep was not important.

We finally got too tired to avoid it any longer and I started to say my goodbyes. It was the worst moment of my entire trip. We were all so sad =( I promised to visit Spain and they promised to visit the US. Someday we will see each other again, until then we will have to get by with Tuenti, Facebook, MSN, and Skype.

The next day I finished packing, vacuumed my room and bathroom, tidied up the kitchen, and checked out. I called a taxi to take me to the airport because I had way too much stuff to handle myself. My cab driver was so friendly and talked to me the entire way to the airport, he was so funny!

I got to the gate pretty early; luckily another kid from my program, John, was on my flight too. He got there early too and we talked for an hour while we waited for our plane to start boarding. It was a good time killer, I know I would have been bored out of my mind sitting there alone.
That brings me to the flight which I described at the beginning…..

I am now at home and still unpacking. Trying to get used to the time but no matter what time I go to bed… even past 1am… I always wake up between 7 and 730am. This has to stop asap. I am missing all my Dublin people and places already. What a great semester it has been. I hope you all enjoyed reading my blog as much as I have enjoyed writing it for you. I don’t really know who reads it but if I see you around then let me know! Since the blog is called jen in Ireland I guess this will be my last post.

I have had the experience of a lifetime. I will never forget the places I have been, the people I have met, and the things I have learned. I know I am a better and more well-rounded person because of this semester. I am much more cultured and less of an “ignorant American”. I’m glad to be home but I will talk your ear off about Europe if you let me. I recently found a quote from James Joyce, I think it is a good finale to my blog. Bye bye!
Love, Jen

“When I die, Dublin will be written in my heart” –James Joyce