In no instance did I expect time to move this fast in Ireland, I know we are five hours ahead of EST, but dang! With so many events coming and going, I can not express my gratitude and feeling of pride towards my choice of coming to Ireland. With great luck, I was able to make so many new great friends from different universities, a new family at Financefair, and a whole lot of stories to tell to my friends when I come back home.

As always, lets recap my week! Something I have started to appreciate here working in the founders district is the cafe. Recommend by one of my intern coworkers: “The Garlic Chicken Hot Baguette”. It is absolutely amazingly good, 100/10 if I were to rate it. Since her recommendation, a couple of us or at least even one of us everyday heads down and grabs one for lunch. With that being said, on Thursday, we all got Garlic Chicken Hot Baguettes and with such nice weather outside, we sat in the garden terrace room in the middle of the district. Might have been a mistake to wear long sleeves in there because it was boiling hot, but the views and vibes were amazing, so with one empty Ballygowan bottle and a dream we had propped the door open to let some air in.

Later that night, the Bucknell cohort and I had headed down to the Irish House Party for dinner and music afterwards. In all honesty, the sausage soup was not the best, I would mostly say that because the sausages tasted kind of off, and when talking to my other intern coworker who had went there weeks prior, they had also agreed on that. But, with great turnaround the main course (the stew) was super good! It reminded me of back home when my mom used to make Irish stew for St. Patricks Day back when I was in High School. Moving towards the entertainment for the night, I would say it was pretty good! Downstairs in The Lansdowne Theatre, I was able to experience Irish music and even was able to see some amazing Irish tap dancing. Even though the show was two hours long, the music group had made it move quickly due to their humorous jokes and catchy beats.

On Friday, I was able to try Riley’s chicken adobo and it did not disappoint! It really reminded me of my moms cooking, and I love my moms cooking. I think it was mostly because of the amount of vinegar and onions she put in but I’m not complaining! After internship, Riley, Erin and I had headed down into the city center to get a spice bag (at Xian’s)!! In my opinion, I thought it was so worth it, it was so tasty. I am not a person to like spice, but this was the perfect level for me! I loved how they added onions into the bag too alongside the chips and chicken, really made for a good combo. However, when I went yesterday it was kind of disappointing since they barely gave me any chicken, so maybe it depends on the day you go. We then went to Trinity College Dublin to walk around its campus and take in the views. I loved how they had a quad area where you can just sit and chill with friends, but of course the seagulls will always keep you on your toes as they lurk around confidently for food. After, we headed to some pubs and my star of the night was O’Donoghue’s because of the vibes and the amazing atmosphere. Even without the live music that night, I think the outdoor seating area really helped given it was so hot that day. At the end of the night, I was able to try Bambinos! Even though I am not a pizza lover, that pizza was surprisingly really good, no crumbs left over, and I would say its defiantly best when its hot.

On Sunday, I was able to Experience Gaelic Games. With a chaotic start to the morning trying to catch the E1/E2, Google Maps had given us directions to walk through a construction site! With 4 minutes to spare, we started sprinting and ran into more people from Bucknell trying to catch the same bus. Full out sprinting, we barely caught the bus, and what made it worse was that the bus was steaming hot! But with good graces, we had arrived and had the chance to try out Gaelic football, Hurling, and even Handball. Even though all the games were actually way more fun than I expected, during Gaelic football (I wasn’t even sprinting!), as someone from the other team was running down, I tried to pivot myself to stop them, and all I hear is a big tear. I look down and my shoe is ripped! I haven’t even had these even half a year yet! It was absolutely crazy, I have to submit my warranty request form today but wow! All in all, I thought all three of these games were so fun to play and it was kind of competitive if I am being honest. Also I find it so interesting that if you want to play when you are younger and older, you have to play at your local town club (I think). So when the big GAA matches come, and for example its Dublin v.s. Cork, its all Dublin people on one team, and all Cork on the other. When comparing it to America, people travel all the time to switch teams, and even get offered to play for a team in a different state!

That’s it for now!