Clever Title

On Friday this week, a group of my friends took an early morning DART train to the coastal town of Greystones.  We then went on a 6 km hike that took us along the coastline of the Irish Sea where we ended up in the town of Bray.  The hike was incredibly picturesque and it was nice to get out of the city for the day.  It was probably the best weather we've had since being in Ireland.  I actually had to take off some layers! 

Favorite picture of the day

Panorama (with rainbow) as we were nearing Bray

When we got into Bray, we went to have lunch and I got my first fish and chips in Ireland.  It was delicious!  The weather started to get bad so we hopped back on the DART and back to UCD.

On Saturday, the API group went to the Fighting Words center where we were trained as volunteers.  The organization has primary and secondary school kids come in and do a creative writing workshop.  It's up to us if we want to come in and volunteer and I'm hoping I'll be able to at some point while I'm here.

Eimear then took us out to a pizza lunch followed by a surprise she had been hyping up for the last few days...a Gaelic football match!

Gaelic football!

I had gone to see UCD play Trinity in Gaelic football earlier in the week so I had a basic understanding of how the game works.  It's kind of a combination of soccer and rugby.  It's also about 20 million times more exciting than American football (or any American sport for that matter).  Gaelic football is pretty much nonstop and the players don't wear pads.  It was incredibly cold out so I didn't stay for the whole match but it was definitely worth it!

I ended the day with some dinner and a pint of the black stuff with some Trinity friends.

Other notable things this week:
-Had my first presentation in a class...it went well
-Got registered at the GNIB so I can get back into the country when I leave...kind of important but they make you pay 300 euro.  Not cheap!
-Signed up for the UCD mountaineering club!  I'm going to try and go climbing at the UCD wall on Tuesday.  Haven't climbed since I left and am feeling antsy!

Next weekend is Amsterdam!