NOT study abroad, but abroad...

My dad and I landed in Dublin this morning bright (well, the sun was just starting to rise, so not quite) and early at a little after 8AM. After getting very little sleep on our 5.5 hour flight from Philly to Dublin (we had to connect after a flight from NYC to Philly) we were both pretty tired, but since we couldn’t check in to our hotel until 2PM, we decided to hit the ground running. After driving around the city for awhile, we decided to go to the Guinness Storehouse…

where I learned about how Guinness is made, the history of the company…

watched some funny Guinness commercials from the 1950s, and…

learned how to pour the perfect pint of Guinness. We also had a great view of Dublin from the bar at the top of the storehouse…

We had made our way through the storehouse at a fairly leisurely pace, stopping for breakfast (scones, mmmmm) and of course, for the pint of Guinness included with our tickets, so by the time we left, it was about 1PM. After awhile spent figuring out where our hotel was and how to get there, we checked in. I must say, coming to Ireland during the “off-season” means you get great deals. Our hotel room is only 90 Euros a night, the room has a balcony with a great view…

…the hotel has a pool, and right after we settled in we had a bottle of Prosecco delivered to our door.

After I ventured out to find us lunch at a nearby supermarket, and got on the internet to check in with people back home, both my Dad and I conked out for a few hours. When I woke up, it was almost 7. We decided to walk over to the center of Dublin on O’Connell street and explore Temple Bar, a known tourist hub with lots of pubs and nightclubs, which serve an interesting contrast to the the medieval cobblestone streets. On the way caught a glimpse of the “Occupy” movement outside of the Bank of Ireland. We sat down at one of the many pubs for dinner, and I enjoyed some delicious Guinness battered beef pie with mashed potatoes…

(since I started the day with Guinness, I figured I should end it the same way).

Then we found a Starbucks! Hooray! It’s always interesting to me the things that are different at American franchises in other countries, but one thing that’s the same is free wifi! We whipped out our Kindle Fires and took advantage of this (the internet I’m using right now is through an ethernet cable). I looked up tipping in Ireland, since we had been uncertain at the restaurant (we left a tip as we should have, but apparently tipping for other services as you would in America is not expected).

Then we walked back to the hotel, and hopefully we’ll get a good night’s sleep so we can be fresh to take on Dublin again tomorrow. We’re going to see if we can get out hotel room for another night in the morning.

Kaitlyn

Vacation?

The holidays are over. :( I hope everyone had as much fun as I did.

I am not taking a winter class this semester. I did last year, and although it was an interesting class, it was such a pain traveling in the aftermath of the blizzard. I advise all those planning to take a winter class to do so only if its offered online or if you really need to take it. Perhaps you should consider staying at hunter because it was quite difficult to travel from Queens in the snow.

I am planning on using this month to start prepping for the GRE. The GRE is essentially an SAT-style exam for graduate schools. I bought a few books and hopefully will be prepared by the end of this semester because I want to apply to schools in the fall. Most people brush off the GRE because a lot of it is review, but if you are planning on going to graduate school, you should take this exam seriously and prepare for it. I looked at some prep classes and most are around 1000$!! I am not willing to pay that much money. I will be prepping on my own with the help of practice tests. I think that is a great idea as long as I stay focused and actually do the work! (Which may be a bit harder to do without the structure of a class.) But I will devote one day a week to studying and I hope I stick to this plan.

Anyway, I hope you are all keeping warm! The weather is beginning to get very harsh.

xoxo

Happy New Year

Hope everyone had as much fun last night as I did :)

Since my last blog entry I have completed two huge research papers, received an A on both, taken finals, received my first grade other than an A in a class (a B in Political Philosophy - which I consider pretty good considering how much I struggled with the subject) and celebrated Christmas! Oh, and I made a short "film" for my Imagining the End of the World class with my bff and classmate, a Macaulay @ Baruch student. Here it is for those interested - it's amazing how many hours went into such a short video, and how amateurish it still is! But considering our lack of experience, I think we did a good job. And we had alot of fun.

ttfn

Kaitlyn

kt.ohagan@gmail.com