Studying Abroad | Ireland

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In honor of my commencement that's happening tomorrow, I just wanted to take this Thursday and throw it back to the happiest four months of my life

Most of you might not be aware of the four months I spent studying abroad in Ireland during my Junior year of college. It was hands down the best experience of my life, and I would give just about anything to experience it again. I actually met Chris, my boyfriend, while abroad. Who would have known I had to travel to another continent to fall in love with someone who lived about 2 hours away from me? Anyway, the memories I made studying in Ireland and traveling to Poland and France were some of the best memories I can recall. I wanted to share some of my experience with you guys via photos I took throughout my journey.

These photos will be from my time in Ireland. There's simply not enough room to include pictures from France and Poland as well, so I'm going to break my journey up into three separate posts. Enjoy!

The whole group with our supervisor, Paul, in St. Stephen's Green in Dublin

A couple of pubs in Dublin. Yes, that's Chris in the corner of the second one.

We biked 10 miles (if I'm remembering correctly) of the Aran Islands with this hazy/gorgeous view

Theeeeeen we reached the top of Dun Aengus and tried our best not to be blown off

St. Fin Barre's Cathedral in Cork, Ireland

Rachel and I in front of St. Fin Barre's Cathedral

University College Cork

Tiny me in front of a far away Blarney Castle

Beth and Chris on the way to the Cliffs of Moher 

 The Burren and some cows

The Cliffs of Moher

My feet at the Burren

Murals and Magners in Belfast

Chris and I snuck off from the group to take a picture with this horse dog (Irish Wolf Hound)

Queen's University, Belfast Ireland

Chris and I waiting to walk across the Carrick-a-Rede bridge

Yup, I walked across that

Pretty damn proud of my accomplishment

On the way to Giant's Causeway

Beth being artsy in Giant's Causeway

First night out in Galway

Live music on the streets of Galway all the time

Thanksgiving Dinner in Ireland

The Galway Christmas Market! 

Me with my coffee and French Macarons, and Chris with his kangaroo (?) burger.

This is the most accurately representative picture of these three.

Mom and Aunt Donna came to visit! (Aunt Linda, too, but she didn't get photographed with her Guinness mustache

Many, MANY more pictures were taken, but I just wanted to share a handful with you guys from my time in Ireland. It really was the best experience of my life. I urge anyone and everyone to travel abroad somewhere and really take in everything and cherish the experience. Thanks for looking/reading! Like I said, two more posts will come with my photos from Tours, France and from Warsaw and Krakow, Poland. 

Have any questions about my time abroad? Or maybe you're planning on traveling to Ireland and want come recommendations for restaurants, pubs, and sight-seeing? Definitely leave a comment below and I'll be more than happy to answer/help out!

Happy travels, everyone!

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Update | Sorry... again

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Just when I think I have a handle on updating this blog regularly, a bunch of random things come out of left field and knock me off of the roll I've been on.

I just got out of my last written final as an undergraduate and am now waiting to go into my next final which isn't technically a final but we're required to sit and watch the rest of our class present their research projects even if we already presented. Going out with a real bang, huh? I decided to take this time until that "final" starts to explain what's been going on in my life to whoever cares to read about it.

I'm not sure if I've mentioned it on this blog yet, but I'm employed after graduation! Which is generally a really rare thing to hear of, especially employment within the field you've been studying for the past four years. I'll be working in direct care with children and adolescents with different mental and/or developmental disabilities who also have severe behavioral disorders/exhibit aggressive and self injurious behavior.

The decision to accept the job offer was possibly the most difficult decision I've had to make in quite some time. It's really going to be an amazing experience and will prepare me for the direction that I eventually want to take my career in down the road. I'm excited to start and I'm excited to hopefully have a positive impact and make a difference in these individuals' lives!

Along with the acceptance of this job offer came a lot of confusion and paperwork and loss of paperwork and missed phone calls... not to mention trying to find an affordable apartment to lease since living at home would be too far of a commute in both an environmental sense, as well as for my sanity. Driving for a total of over two hours, 5 days a week, and not getting home until well after midnight each night? No thank you.

Yesterday was the official day that everything for my job and apartment was finally settled and I can feel the weight slowly lifting off my shoulders. I'm going to dedicate tonight to get some blog posts done and queued up for you guys for at least the next few days.

Thank you so much to those of you who stuck around during my brief hiatus, and to those of you who are newly becoming accustomed to the chaos which is this blog. You guys are the bomb dot com!

I hope you're all having an awesome day! You can expect that recipe utilizing the grapefruit vinaigrette to be up soon, along with some other fun posts I have planned. Yay for motivation!

- Sam

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