County Donegal

One of my friends from Santa Clara has a cottage in the North West Coast of Ireland, she invited about 8 of her friends to stay there for the long weekend. The house is in Co. Donegal. It was a beautiful ride to her cottage. It took about four hours to get there and although it was a cold and raining weekend it was amazing to see this part of the country. This picture is taken on the way to the horns head cliff. It was really windy but absolutely beautiful. We were in the small town of Dunfaneghey and it was a very relaxing weekend!

FIRENZE

One weekend, I took a trip to Florence to visit my friends that are studying there. It is a beautiful city. I loved how the streets are so skinny and how everyone hangs there laundry out the window. I ate great food, seriously amazing food and I also took a day to go to Siena, which was about an hour bus ride. Siena was also a very cool city. I saw the Duomo in both Firenze and Siena and I also went to most of the famous museums in Florence. I saw the statue of David at the Art de Academia and I spent a ton of time in the Uffize, which was amazing. On my last day, I went early to Pisa because thats where my flight left from, and I saw the leaning tower which was really cool! I loved Florence and hope I can do more traveling in Italy in the coming months!

Powers Court Estate

One day we took a day trip to the Powers Court Estate, It was beautiful and there were tons of Gardens that were absolutely spectacular. We got a sunny day... so it made it all the more enjoyable. We also took a bus tour to the Wicklow mountains and saw the Wicklow gap which is a beautiful Valley in these mountains. We also went to a monastic site, Glendoulogh, which was very cool, and gave us a good history of Irish and celtic tradition.

Home-stay in County Gorey

My home-stay was about an hour south of Dublin. This picture is taken in Courtstown, which is a popular vacation spot for Dubliners and tourist. It was cold, but definitely a treat to see the Irish sea! I stayed with a family that had 3 little boys all under the age of six. One day after doing some sightseeing, I came home to find my suitcase totally unpacked, underwear and makeup everywhere! It was hilarious, and the middle boy, David, had a streak of eye liner down his forehead for the whole weekend! haha he was the culprit!

Whiskey Taste tests

I am officially a qualified whiskey taste tester!!! I was chosen to be a whiskey taste tester at my tour of the Jameson Distillery in Dublin. Jameson definitely has the upper hand when it comes to taste compared to Johnny Walker and Jack Daniel's. My new favorite drinks to get on a night out on the town are Jameson and Lemonade or Jameson and Ginger-ale... absolutely delicious!

Trinity College Dublin

This is front square at Trinity College. The buildings are so beautiful, basically the polar opposite of Santa Clara's adobe style. According to the undergrads here, it is really really bad luck if you walk under the Bell Tower (the center structure in the photo) more then once, or if you get caught under there when the bell rings... basically you are doomed to fail your exams. I have class in the museum building, which is unreal, and many of my classrooms look like 18 century living rooms with high ceilings, chandeliers, and huge windows. It is a very different academic system compared to the one on one attention at Santa Clara, but it give students the opportunity to really learn on there own.... or not learn at all...

Paris France

Paris was my first trip in Europe. I saw many of the famous places like the arc de triumph, the louvre, the eiffel tour, the pompidou and many others. It was an amazing first trip in europe and a beautiful city. I spent a lot of time with my friends that are studying there and it was nice to have some people to show me around. We ate great cheese and drank great (cheap) wine!