Bonjour party people; maybe this time I’ll actually be able to cover more than one day… Oh also, hello new followers. Welcome 🙂
Continuing in Ireland…
Saturday, November 17th: Got the doctor’s recommended amount of sleep, which felt amazing, considering we were still a frazzled from our three-hour amount on the airport floor. I think we woke up around 10h00 or so, and Emily and I went into travel mode and started to pack up our things and got ready to hit the road once more. Oh, in the room we were sleeping in, I found a sweet Russian hat and took a comical self-y. Here it is for your viewing pleasure. Unbearably seductive, I know.
I digress. Apparently Alan was not trained in the art of API students (he claims to have been rowdy last year, but this year has calmed down. Pishposh. YOLO), because Emily and I walked into his room to find him 100% passed out. After waking him up and saying our goodbyes, along with heartfelt gratitude, us vagabonds were back on the road, ready to explore Galway. We wanted to go visit these sweet cliffs, but a) it was supposed to rain and b) we slept too long. To our pleasure (and slight dismay), the weather today decided to be exceptional in Galway, Ireland… the sun was out! Hurray for us!
We took advantage of this fine break in the weather and walked into the center of town where we had gone the night before, except this time we weren’t drunk, and it was nice enough to actually explore. Everyone and their mother seemed to have the same idea as us, because it was bumping; but in the best way possible. There also happened to be a strike (go figure), and a cute little farmer’s market where Emily and I ate some delicious bonbons. Of course, though, at one point it had to start raining on us, so in an effort to escape the wet, we went to this restaurant for lunch to enjoy a real Irish meal. I must say, we were not disappointed.
We both chose to have sweet potato and lamb stew — it sounded Irish enough — and it was dank-a-lank. I practically licked my bowl clean, and we were able to pass the time until the sun decided to shine again. Unfortunately, though, as soon as we stepped outside, the clouds opened up and once again we were stuck in a soaking predicament (also Emily didn’t have an umbrella… fail). We went to go see some bridge, but eventually the weather got the best of us and we decided it was time to bid adieu to Galway and hop back on the train for Dublin. Huzzah!
The train ride was once again beautiful, and the trip flew by because before we knew it, we were back in the lovely city of Dublin ready to start the night. It took longer than anticipated to meet up with Emily’s friend, Ciara, and her amazing Irish pals, but eventually we made it, grabbed a quick dinner, and then headed back to Ciara’s house (after missing the bus, of course).
When we finally arrived at Ciara’s, we had about 30 minutes to get ready for the night’s festivities, but of course as we were getting ready we were served vodka-7up’s… such hospitality! Seriously, though, I love the Irish. We also had 2 jell-o shots in the kitchen before we hit the road, and Ciara’s dad, yes, dad, drove us to our pre-game destination while we casually sipped on another mixed drink in the backseat. Wait, what?
I don’t remember the name of the guy’s apartment where we pre-gamed, I was introduced to too many people that night, but it was a fun time. Once again, the Irish melted my heart by giving Emily and I a ‘welcome to Ireland gift’, aka a bottle of some green apple flavored alcohol. We were told to either bring it back with us to France, or drink it then and there… so of course we had to show them we meant business. We had a reputation to uphold, after all. It was actually hilarious because Emily and I thought it tasted delicious (like sour apples! But alcoholic!), so we just poured it in a cup and drank it straight. Apparently though, the Irish take shots of it, so one of Ciara’s friends noticed this mid-conversation and dubbed us crazy. I’m sorry, but aren’t the Irish supposed to be famed drinkers? Whatever, it tasted good, and between that, the mixed drinks and the jell-o shots, we were heavily buzzing by the time we had to leave for the club.
Ah, the club. What a fantastic time. I’m withholding details, but just take my word for it when I say it was a night for the books. 😉 Post-clubbing, we went to some noodle place and then took the best cab ride of my life back to Ciara’s, where the three of us promptly got ready for bed and passed out in a satisfied stupor. Did I mention I love Ireland?
Sunday, November 18th: Woke up at an ungodly early hour because Emily and I had to make the 8h30am bus to get to the airport. Of course, being the theme of our trip, we missed the bus. Like, seriously? Ciara was kind enough to drive us to the airport though, and it wasn’t a very long drive, plus I slept on the way, so it passed all the more quickly. Once at the airport, I ate yet another delicious bagel sandwich – there was a brief moment where I thought I was going to be hung-over, but the moment quickly passed – and then we were ready to get on the plane back to Lyon, France. Thankfully this time there was no connecting flight *wipes sweat off forehead*.
Once in Lyon, we had a solid 2-hour layover before our train took us back to Grenoble, so Emily and I just kind of shot the shit and chatted to pass the time, which breezed on by. Before I knew it, we were back in the lovely town of Grenoble, and I was exhausted from a weekend chock full of traveling. I’m pretty sure as soon as I got home I stuffed my face at dinner with Madeleine, then passed out for the duration of the evening. Despite our trip to Ireland having it’s pitfalls, it was an amazing time, and I wish I had the opportunity to go again this semester. Someday, Ireland, I will be back in your lovely grasp, someday.
Monday, November 19th: Errr, school. What a drag. Someone up in the sky decided to like API today though, because our culture and society class got cancelled due to the professor being ill, hurray! Not to her being ill (though I do mildly detest her), just to not having class. During the break, I went into Centre Ville with the usual gang to kill some time. It was kind of a while ago though, so I don’t exactly remember what we did or where we went, but I’m guessing we went to the coffee shop, since that is our go-to destination.
Sadly, I had to go back on campus for my art history class, and then went home afterwards to do some homework and have some dinner. Madeleine left for a few days, so I had to fend for myself for dinner, but thankfully she left me a bunch of food, so I was able to gorge and read Game of Thrones at the same time… so that’s about it for Monday; mostly I just really needed to catch up on some Zzz’s.
Tuesday, November 20th: Another long, drudging day of classes. I did however find some sweet graffiti on one of the tables in my building on campus, so I figured I would share them with you. They made me giggle at least, which is a nice thing on a Tuesday morning.
When the million hours of class was over, I went home to do the usual routine of homework, food, and Game of Thrones. Madeleine was still gone, and I actually had the urge to go out and celebrate life, but then no one wanted to go out with me. Well, turns out Ian and Maddie did want to go out, but at that point I decided to hunker down and conserve my energy for the upcoming weekend. Can’t complain about that, it was relaxing.
Wednesday, November 21st: Yay, easy day of class! I was done by 10h20 per usual, so when we finished I went to the French Coffee Shop to get access to the Internet for a little bit. Natasha told us about this cheap Mexican place in town, so a bunch of us met up at 13h to go and test it out. Unfortunately, it was closed for renovations until that Friday, LAME, so instead I went with Natasha, Maddie, Mike and Max to Burgers & Cie for some nomnoms. I ordered the special of the week, the honey burger, which was heaven on a bun with cheese, onions, honey and other tasty morsels. Not quite as good as cheap Mexican food, but I’ll take it.
Post-lunch, I met up with Emily to go shopping for Thanksgiving! It’s not exactly a celebrated holiday in France, but our program was hosting a potluck dinner (they supplied the Turkey and drinks), so Emily and I decided to cook a turkey day classic: stuffing. Once armed with the materials – onion, bread, celery, spices, chicken stock and cranberries – we went to Emily’s apartment and started cooking up a storm, whilst munching on the ingredients, of course. As it turns out, we are fantastic cooks, and gave ourselves gold stars for our cooking prowess. Also, she had a cat, so I was over the moon about having an animal to fawn over.
Madeleine was supposed to be gone until Thursday, but she finished painting up north early, so she was home for dinner this night, so we had a nice meal and were able to catch up since we hadn’t seen much of one another in the recent past. Afterwards, I started reading 50 Shades of Grey (taking a small hiatus from GoT) and instantly realized what all the fuss was about. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve read much better, but it’s still a quick, entertaining read, so I powered through some of that before going out for the night. La-la-la.
I had every intention of slightly raging, but I think I caught the Grey fever, because I only met up with Max, Maddie and Natasha for one round of drinks at Subway. Well, I guess technically two. There was this giant sheet of paper hung up outside of the bar, and people were painting on it, so I decided to paint my name on it, in blue of course. Afterwards, an employee congratulated me and poured me a shot, urging me to drink. Who am I to turn down a free drink? There was also this slightly creepy guy who painted a vagina on the sign (…weird) and then painted a green dot on my face. Needless to say I was annoyed, especially when he kept insisting on painting my face some more. No thank you sir, go stick your head in the dirt. Soon after I called it a night, read some more 50 Shades, and went to bed.
Thursday, November 21st: THANKSGIVING!! Although not a big deal here, it was still nice to have something to celebrate and be thankful for (everything). I thought I was going to be really homesick, but I think I’m just totally infatuated with Grenoble, I really am going to be heartbroken once I have to leave.
Anyway, after class I went out and just walked around town with Richard, Emily and Hannah to enjoy our lovely city and window shop. Around 15h00, we all parted ways, and I went home to read some more 50 Shades and get ready for our Thanksgiving Dinner with the API family. Nina and Emily came over at 17h00 to drink some wine beforehand – we aren’t allowed to drink with our RD’s, but what’s Thanksgiving without wine?
Per usual, Nina and I wound up slightly drunk, which made the dinner that much more entertaining. I thought I was hiding it well, but of course those who know me were not fooled. ‘Tis the season! It was a really adorable dinner (the people in our group sure do know how to cook, it was delicious); we all went around saying what we were thankful for… it got pretty sentimental. Or maybe that was the wine talking. Whatever. Then we took some pictures of us as a group, and I called my family back home in the states to wish them a Happy Thanksgiving and touch base on this lovely holiday. It was weird not being home, but you only live once, right?
In typical Thanksgiving fashion, we all suffered from bloated stomachs due to wayyyy too much food, so Nina and I went back to my apartment to try and digest for a little bit. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to relish in that for too long, because within 45 minutes Hannah was calling me telling me it was time to go out and party; gotta love my German. I called Max, Ian, Maddie, Evelyn and others (I can’t remember anymore, too long ago) and we all met at the balls to figure out a game plan for the night. We ended up hanging out there for a while, actually, and I came to the conclusion that I just couldn’t drink anything alcoholic after the dinner, and plus I really didn’t have the energy to go out due to my semi-food coma. Hannah was not pleased, but Nina and I called it a night pretty early, and I went home to fall into a deep, sweet slumber. Boy, do I love the holidays.
azuremarie 