Weekend Trip to Kerry/Dingle Peninsula

Kerry and Dingle Peninsula, the southwestern part of Ireland, were gorgeous. I felt like I was in an Irish Cape Cod. Definitely brought back good memories. Kerry was beautiful and we went to the Blasket Islands, which are kind of barren, but people used to live there and some still do. The wind was high and this guy from another program, Ian, offered me his coat to add to my four layers I already had on. (I know, five layers, but for those of you who know me, Hannah the reptile, it was damn cold on that boat.) What a charming display of old fashioned chivalry that made me blush actually. Hasn't happened to me in a while, although all the guys in this IES program are like that, so it's really nice. Oh, and no vomiting on the boat or train ride. Yay!
Anyway, Dingle Peninsula was just like Chatham. It was a small town, with fresh, very good seafood (I had mussels for dinner on Saturday night), and that special smell of the Atlantic Ocean that has always captivated me. It really was like Chatham. I went pubbing (love how I made pubbing into a word like clubbing, because Irish people don't club-they pub)with some friends and was force fed some Guinness when an indignant regular at one of the pubs insisted that I try Guinness instead of Bulmers, the brand that I ordered for a half pint. I'm not much of a beer person, so I pretended that I liked it, even though I still didn't like Guinness on my second taste, and still went for the Bulmers, which was sweeter. What can I say, I guess I'm not a true Irish person for not liking Guinness. Seriously, how do the girls on this trip not gain weight from all the Guinness they're drinking? Irrelevant. I met some really nice drunk Irish girls (drunk Irish people are always much more friendly than they normally are, which is still friendly). I did a lot of my jewelry shopping before dinner that night--I like to shop in small amounts of time to avoid shopping around, so I liked a jeweler and bought a lot from her. Condenses the shopping time.
Sunday, this girl I met on the internship program (I met a lot of interns and they were so nice! and had some kickass internships), Chelsea, and went to the Aquarium, which had a lot of false advertising. Since I was too far away from the puffins on the boat trip to the Blasket Islands, I wanted to see some up close, and some advertised penguins (my latest animal obsession. Not the case. The gift shop had an array of animals in it, but not the actual aquarium. Just fish, although the parrot fish was really cute with its baby cheeks. It was relaxing nonetheless. I felt like the whole weekend was relaxing, because it was definitely a vacation spot. Maybe instead of Cape Cod, the next time we family vacation, we can go to Dingle! They speak Gaelic in Kerry and Dingle, which is cool. For my drunk story (not actually involving me being drunk, but one of my roommates on this trip), ask Esther for details. I don't want to defame her on this blog, although she probably won't ever see, because I have privacy lines on this, but still. Long story short: drunk "Sally" got into bed with me while she was sleepwalking.
List of my adventures:
1. Almost losing my right arm on the monorail.
2. Fighting the laundry machine to give me back my clothes (the door wouldn't open)
3. Almost losing my jacket with the keys in it.
4. My computer not working for the first week and a half.
5. Realizing the computer needed a mike for Skype and having a one-voice skype instant messaging conversation with my parents. They thought I couldn't hear what they were saying (as they couldn't hear my voice) but I totally listened on their conversation between themselves, and also their joking remarks about painting my room Grandma purple and hiding all of my teddy bears/stuffed animals.
6. Not getting a library card during orientation or realizing that you needed a library card to check out books. I managed to check out a book without a card. Then I realized something was wrong, mainly me being an idiot.
7. Getting my key stuck in the gate lock, effectively jamming it in there and having to call a joking locksmith. The rundown: call Patricia, my RA-not there. Call Regina, the housing liaison. Get the number for Karina, in charge of the complex. Karina calling the locksmith. The locksmith accusing me of breaking the lock on purpose,jokingly of course, before he told me that this happened to someone before me, so it was already almost broken.

Tune in for more adventures and blogging!

Love,
Hannah