Life in the Fast Lane

I must apologize for the lack of updates recently; things have been a little on the busy side. I'll have to go back a couple of weeks to bring everything up to speed.

There's so much to see in just Dublin, alone, that I don't think I'll get to do everything here that I want before I leave. Fridays have turned out to be good sight-seeing days in that all four of us are done with classes by either noon or one. Two weeks ago, because no major trips were planned for the weekend, we decided to get several items crossed off of our "to do" list. First, we went to the Guinness Storehouse for the afternoon after classes that Friday. It definitely exceeded my expectations. I half expected just to walk through a factory of some sort, but it's actually set up more like a museum. The building itself is really neat, with a open-window rotunda called the Gravity Bar on the seventh floor that looks out over all of Dublin. What a view! We could even see the streets by our house, over three miles away!

Saturday, Adam and Brian joined us for a day at Malahide Castle. It's a smaller castle only about a thirty minute DART ride away. It was rainy and cold outside, but a fun afternoon nonetheless. We enjoyed seeing the castle, but I think several of us enjoyed the playground even more. Not far from the castle is the most magnificent playground I'v ever seen; a dream come true for any kid. I think we were having as much fun as the kids! Jeanine happened to meet an American family that just moved here the previous week. Ironically, they had just bought a house about half a mile from where we live and fortunately for us, they are in need of babysitters! They were pretty excited (as were we) that they had found four very eager girls wanting to make some extra cash! Jeanine and I are going to babysit this Saturday for a few hours! Yay for more spending money!

After playing at the park, we rushed home to get ready for an opera, The Magic Flute, that DIT was putting on. Brid Ann, the department head at our school, had gotten us tickets, so we were pretty excited. Apparently, DIT has one of the best music programs in country, and I could definitely tell! The president of Ireland had actually gone to the Friday night production! They did an amazing job. It was fun to dress up and feel cultured for an evening. :) The weather, however, was not on our side, and we had to walk the two miles home in the POURING rain in high heels. Sweat pants have never sounded so good to me before...

The plan for Sunday was to go see a famous prison after church, but we were all pretty tired from the previous couple of days and opted to save that for another day. In fact, I think that may be on the agenda for tomorrow...