in dublin’s fair city

To start this post off, I just have to say that I've wanted to go to Ireland for years so I had pretty high expectations for it.  It exceeded all of them.  Seriously, it is the most amazing/gorgeous/incredible place on earth.  If I don't make it back to Ireland again I will probably be really depressed.  We took an early flight, so we left for the Stansted Airport at 3 AM (are you starting to see a pattern?  I am and I don't really love it).  We also flew with RyanAir, which is cheap and their service reflects it.  The plane is basically the equivalent of a public bus with wings and the entire flight they're trying to sell you stuff.  Other than one of us (luckily not me) having to go back into a little room and get strip-searched and interrogated, everything went smoothly.  It was crazy.  I was traumatized for her.  (Did I mention that as we were waiting for her some police officer guys carrying AK-47s walked past us with an Arabic guy in handcuffs?  The airport is hopping at 4 in the morning!)

We landed in Dublin, which is easily the happiest big city I've ever been in.  The bus driver was really helpful, the ticket inspector asked to see our tickets and then proceeded to tell us exactly what to see in Dublin and which bus to catch and where to get off, and it just happened to be Lollipop Day, so a bunch of little boys dressed in green were handing out lollipops (you had to make a donation to cancer research to get one, but it was still cool).  We only stayed in Dublin for a few hours on the first day and then caught a bus out to Glendalough (GLEN-da-lock), which is a national park type thing about an hour and a half outside of Dublin.  It was amazing.  The scenery was incredible and we got to see old ruins, a church and cemetery, a lake, and of course, sheep.   It was the most beautiful walk I've ever been on. We got to see a few deer and some ducks and about a billion and a half frogs.  Apparently it's baby froggy season because every pond contained more frog eggs than water, but it was kind of cool to see.

We stayed in a little B&B in a town about 20 minutes away from Glendalough.  The town's name is Laragh (la-RAH), and it's a really quaint little village where everyone knows each other and Friday nights everyone hangs out in the pub, Lynham's.  The owners were named John and Deidre and they were great.  They even gave us a ride up to the pub for dinner so we wouldn't have to walk, then gave us a "torch" (flashlight) for the walk down because the streets aren't lit at night.  I tried venison sausage and mashed potatoes (bangers and mash) and it was great.

The next morning, we ate a traditional Irish breakfast, including Black and White Pudding.  Google that if you don't know what it is, but I will tell you that it's in the blood sausage family.  Annie and I took a bus to Dublin while the other girls stayed in Glendalough.  I really love the country, but my first impression of Dublin was really good and I wanted to get to see it.  Even though it was really crowded because there was an Italy vs. Ireland rugby match that afternoon, the atmosphere was so happy.  Seriously, NO ONE in this city is EVER rude.  That threw me for a loop because I'm used to London, where generally everyone is rude. We got to see Trinity College, which houses The Book of Kells.  We've been learning about it in my history class, so it was great to actually see it.  It's basically a book of illuminated manuscripts by Irish monks containing the Gospels.  All the illustrations and writing are so intricate and beautiful.  Just google it because they don't allow you to take pictures.  After we saw Trinity, we saw Dublin Castle, St. Patrick's Cathedral, a Leprechaun Museum (we had to while we were in Ireland), and several churches.  Just a fun fact: Ireland is still very proud of its "fairie tales."  A tree growing by itself in the middle of a field is often thought to be a "fairy tree."  In 1999, one of the counties in Ireland tried to put a highway in, and a tree widely believed to be a "fairy tree" would be cut down in order to build it.  People threw such a fit and attracted such negative press that the highway plans had to be changed and it was actually built around the tree.

When people asked what my name was and I said Kaylee they'd get really excited because apparently Kaylee is an Irish name, so that was funny.  And I know I've already mentioned it about 25 times, but Irish people are so friendly.  They're honestly the greatest people I've ever met.  Everywhere we went, people were willing to say hello or give advice on what to see or directions or help out in any way they could.  Even vendors we talked to remembered us when they saw us later in the day and they came over to say hi.  I was so sad to leave.  We got back to the Stansted Airport and got in the wrong line to come back through immigration (apparently Ireland isn't an international flight, it's a domestic flight).  The lady at the desk acted like it was the biggest annoyance in the world, even though it was the middle of the night and there wasn't anyone else in line, and said, "Didn't you see the sign?"  Umm . . . obviously we didn't see the sign.  But at least we knew we were back in London.

if only britain had presidents

Happy Presidents' Day to all of you back in the States.  Unfortunately it turns out that England doesn't celebrate anyone else's presidents (American or otherwise), so today was a normal day for me.  Actually it was the first day of midterms week, which means it was spent studying and taking a two-hour final.  We watched the video I posted above in class today to celebrate, and even though I know my family has already seen it before, I thought it was a fitting tribute despite the fact that it's more about the Declaration of Independence than the presidents of the United States.  I can't wait to get back to America and celebrate them next year.  (Really though, I'll probably cry the first time I hear "I'm Proud to be an American." And that's not even a really meaningful song like the National Anthem . . .)  Happy Presidents' Day, everyone!

sunday

Here are a few of the terrors/sweethearts (it depends on when you ask me) that I teach in primary.  Aren't they cute?

a little wales and a lot of jane austen

Disclaimer: If you made it through all these pictures, it should be obvious, but just in case it isn't: No, I do not do my hair in London.  This is mostly because of the rain (which will be addressed at the end of this post) and the humidity and the general lack of outlets near mirrors or in bathrooms (that won't be addressed. It just makes me upset).  I will probably never do my hair in the entire time I'm in Europe.  You have been warned.

We left at 6:30 AM Friday morning for Wales.  Our bus driver was a chain smoker (not like our awesome bus driver last time, who was a bodyguard for Becks and Posh) so we all smelled really great the entire trip.  Our first stop was Avebury.  It's an ancient site just like Stonehenge, but unlike Stonehenge, it doesn't have herds of Asian tourists crowding around it, it's not built along a highway, and it's actually much bigger.  Apparently the stones surround the entire village, and in the 16th century after a string of bad luck the villagers buried the stones, thinking they were cursed.  They were eventually unearthed.  They're not as intricately put together as Stonehenge, but it was nice to actually be able to go up and touch them (at Stonehenge you can't even get close).

The next stop was Bath.  It's a city named after the Roman Baths built in the area in ancient times, and in Jane Austen's day it was a fashionable health resort.  If you've ever read Persuasion or even Emma, Bath should be familiar.  The baths themselves were really interesting.  Personally I wouldn't bathe in anything that particular shade of green, but the waters come from a natural spring, so they're warm and full of minerals.  They supposedly have healing properties.  After the tour, we got to drink some of the water.  I'm assuming it was sanitized somehow, but if not it's probably fine--I've had ice cream from a random stand on the side of the road in Mexico during the summer.  Twice.  Nothing could kill me now.  It was pretty gross, but I'm not sure if it's mainly because of all the minerals or because it was hot (not lukewarm, hot) and I only like cold water.

After an eternity of driving, we arrived in Wales.  We only had 45 minutes to take in the Welsh Life Museum, which was really cool.  I unfortunately left my camera on the bus so no pictures of that.  At Cardiff, we stayed in probably my first one-star hotel.  They didn't provide shampoo or conditioner or blowdryers (or even put sheets on your bed--you had to do that yourself, and they felt more like a shower curtain than sheets) and there may or may not have been writing on our bedroom and bathroom wall in either blood or lipstick.  Who knows?  We definitely got invited to some guys' hotel room as they walked out for the night and we walked back in, but instead we ate Krispy Kreme donuts and watched music videos.  We didn't see much in Cardiff because it was dark by the time we got there and all we wanted to do was eat, and we left the next morning at 7:30.  But at least if going to Wales was on my bucket list (and it actually wasn't, although I was excited to go there) I could check that off.

Then this morning we visited Stourhead, which is a large estate with gardens and a lake.  It's also the area where a scene for Pride and Prejudice (the new one with Keira Knightley) was filmed.  It was incredible.  I could have spent hours there, and not just because the movie was filmed there.  I can't even describe how beautiful the walk was.  

Then, as previously mentioned, we stopped at Stonehenge.  I am the girl who built a HUGE mostly-to-scale replica of Stonehenge as a project in fourth grade (remember that, Dad?  I think you did most of the work actually) so I was really excited to see the real thing.  Let's just say that although I wasn't exactly disappointed, it wasn't what I was expecting.  I'd heard that it was right by a highway, but seriously: it's right by a highway.  Like I said before, it's surrounded by people and you can't get anywhere near the stones.  So it's something you really should see if you're in England, but you only need five minutes to take pictures with the stones in the background and then you can climb back on board your smoke-filled bus and develop lung cancer inside, where it's not windy or raining.  Because trust me, England is always windy and/or rainy.

And speaking of windy/rainy, we got to visit Jane Austen's home in Chawton.  The "cottage" (personally I think it's too nice and big to be called a cottage) was really quaint, but they didn't allow photography so I didn't get any pictures of it.  One of our professors told us an interesting story about Jane.  I always thought she was just kind of sweet and quiet and a people watcher, but apparently in one of her letters she wrote about a neighbor who had given birth to a stillborn baby.  She said that she was sure that the child was alive when it was born, but then it saw its father's (apparently ugly) face and that must have been the cause of death.  I'm not sure stillborn baby jokes are ever tasteful, but it does show a side of Jane that most people probably never saw.  After we saw the house, we took a walk up to her brother's manor (he was adopted by a rich family, the Knights, and inherited their estate, which allowed him to give Jane and her mother and sister a cottage on his land) and the church where Jane would have attended worship services and where her sister and mother are buried.  The church in itself was interesting because so far I've really only seen extravagant cathedrals, and this was just a country church.  It was a really pretty walk, but we did have to brave the usual mud, rain, and umbrella-contorting winds.  Sometimes I think my life would be easier if I was British and therefore wore Wellington boots, but I'm American and wearing wellies just is completely outside of my comfort zone.  

But all in all, I loved the trip.  And I'm slowly satisfying the travel bug I've developed.  England?  Check.  Italy?  Check.  Wales?  Check.  Ireland next weekend and Paris the week after that!

bon voyage, buen viaje, i’ll be seeing you

Dear Goob,

You probably won't actually read this because you leave on your mission today, but I just want you to know that I'm so proud that you've decided to serve the people of Rancagua, Chile for two years. I'll miss late nights watching cartoons and talking about things we'll do to cure our boredom (transplanting all the weeds from our yard to our neighbor's was my personal favorite). I'll miss your guitar playing and laughing until you cry and general silliness and maybe even you drumming your fingers at the dinner table. Also I'm kind of convinced that you may or may not have gotten the wrong mission call because I personally think you would speak French amazingly (Would you like a . . . CROISSANT?? That's c*insert-gross-hocking-up-phlegm-sound-here*SAAAAHHH??*now-insert-wide-eyes-and-eyebrow-raise* for those of you who don't know). However, your Spanish will probably be nearly as good by the time you get home. I promise to email weekly(ish) and send you Scooby Snacks at least once, since I'm pretty sure they don't have those in Chile. 

In all seriousness, I admire your kindness and your concern for other people. You have always been the guy who will be friends with anyone and who goes out of his way to make everyone feel accepted and included. You are an amazing brother to all of your sisters and so patient with all the estrogen in our house. And most importantly, I am consistently amazed by your spirit and your testimony. You are more sure about what you believe now, at 19 years old, than many people will ever be. I know that you'll be an amazing missionary and you'll change lives. I'm sorry that I couldn't be there for your farewell or your setting apart, but I wanted to more than anything. I love you and I'll miss you so much. 

¡Buena suerte! 

See you in two, little brother.

that’s amore

After visiting the Tate Modern Museum today, I came home to find this on my bed, courtesy of one of the guys here at the London Centre. (He gave every girl--all 35 of us--a rose!  Thanks for being so thoughtful!)

And then, as if that wasn't enough, I found this sitting on the floor of our bedroom:

And these (real pearl earrings, bracelet, and two necklaces) are waiting at home for me.

He's probably embarrassed that I posted this, but it made my day and I just had to brag about him for a minute (plus this blog only reaches like 5 people so no worries there).  I figured that Valentine's Day in London would be just like any other day since we're on estrogen-overload in the Centre, but it was so much better than I expected.  Thank you!  And I love you all.

:)

Happy Valentine's Day!