All Good Things Must Come to an End

[Forewarning, I’ll try my best but parts of this are going to be cheesy]

Four months and four days later, the time has come.  I’ve been dreading it since the day after I arrived in Dublin and started the beginning of the best four months of my life.   The room I’ve used as home base for my travels is nearly empty.  My two suitcases and backpack are stuffed to the brim.  My passport is in hand.  With a heavy heart, it’s time to go back to Oregon.

Finals came to a wrap on Thursday.  Services Marketing was first up early Tuesday morning and I think it went quite well.  At night on the same day was my Irish History exam which I didn’t put much effort into because I had a high enough grade coming into it.  This was one of the only classes which had a fair amount of continuous assessment so 50% of my grade was already calculated.  Thursday was Business Information Systems which I also believe went well enough.  I don’t think I’ll ever complain about final exams in the US again after going through Irish exams and I couldn’t be happier that they’re finished.

Walking back to campus after my Thursday exam was when it really started to sink in that I would be leaving Ireland very soon.  It was also another one of those moments where it hit me how lucky I was to have been able to go abroad.  Not many people get to do this and I couldn't be more thankful that I had the opportunity!

On Friday, I headed into the city to do some last minute souvenir shopping and then walked around Dublin for one of the last times.  I also went to the archaeology division of the National Museum of Ireland which had some pretty neat/old artifacts and made my way over to the outside of the former recording studio U2 used for their first three albums.  Similar to the John Lennon wall in Prague, the outside of the old studio was heavily graffitied by fans.

National Museum of Ireland

U2's old recording studio

When I got back to my place, I started to pack which is always just an all around terrible experience.

After cleaning on Saturday, I met up with some friends in town to go out to eat and hit up a few pubs for those final Irish pints.  It was a great night but so bittersweet!  I'm going to miss my Dublin friends so much and can't wait to see them again!  It was incredibly sad on the bus back to UCD knowing it was my last time in town for a long time.

The last pint of Guinness

Laura and I

Going to miss them all so much!

I know the question I’m going to get asked the most when I get back to the states is “how was Ireland/Europe?”  I don’t think there will ever be an answer that will do this experience justice.  To try and sum up the last four months in a few words is impossible.  Amazing?  Unforgettable?  Exhausting? Educational?  Fun?  Surreal?  All are beyond true but to shamelessly quote my own blog title, “there are no words” (which, by the way, was an obscure Friends reference).

I think the chosen title for this last blog entry done in Europe sums up the biggest thing I’ve come to realize on this trip: All good things must come to an end.  Time is limited and no matter how much you enjoy something/someone, eventually that experience will cease.  It’s happened with the people I’ve met and the places I’ve been to not just here in Europe but also back in the states.  While kind of a depressing thought, it compels me to make the most out of every situation.  I think I did a pretty good job of keeping a positive attitude and enjoying every single experience even when things did not go as planned.  Sometimes the best stories are made when things go wrong, even if it may suck at the current moment.

I met my three most important goals: I wasn’t deported, I didn’t get arrested, and I didn’t die.  Success!  I didn’t make as many Irish connections as I would have liked but I met so many other people that live around the world through my travels, which is a good substitute.  I was fortunate enough to be able to go to multiple cities in Ireland, Scotland, England, France, Italy, Germany, the Czech Republic, Poland, Spain, Austria, the Netherlands, and briefly Switzerland.  The only other main places I wanted to try and get to were Sweden and Ibiza, Spain.  Guess I’ll have to come back…

I want to give a few quick shout outs to some people who made this whole study abroad experience possible.  Firstly, to one of my best friends and roommate Heather, who pushed me to go abroad last year when I was struggling with some life decisions.  Second, to my wonderful parents who helped me financially to get over to Europe and pay for the school part of my trip.  Third, the best former boss/current friend anyone could ask for, Laura, who employed me for 5 years which allowed me to afford to travel to so many places and experience so many new things.  Fourth, my resident director Eimear who made this whole experience the best it could have been.  I couldn’t have asked for a better resident director!  And finally, all of the awesome people I met both here in Ireland and while traveling.  I’m going to miss my new friends so much and can’t wait to hopefully visit people around the U.S. when my bank account isn’t so upset with me.  Any of them have a place to stay if they’re ever in Oregon or Colorado!

My flight to Chicago leaves in the morning and then after a few hours of layover, I fly back to Portland.  I’m thinking I’ll do one more blog entry in a couple of days after getting home so if you’ve made it this far in the blog (props to you!), there will be one more.

Goodbye Dublin!

Goodbye Ireland!

Goodbye Europe!

Slán!  

Until next time...