The Best Parents Ever!!!!

In Ireland they don't have Macaroni and Cheese Top Ramen. Or Ranch Dressing. So I begged my wonderful parents to send me some mac and cheese and they did! My roommates and I love them so much! We have had some joyous meals with all of them! I just want to shout out to my great parents! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! YOU ARE THE BEST!!!! LOVE YOU!!!

Charlie Browns

Here is all the students home! We all live here if we are not in our apartments! They have the best beef burgers and chips. They also have some good home made vegetable soup! We can't decide if they hate us or love us. Because Athlone is a college town and in the summer they don't get the business they do when school is in. But we also eat all there ketchup they always know when we come in because we clean them out of there ketchup! For some reason its not a big thing here!

Storytellig Festival

My storytelling teacher set up a storytelling festival to go down in the town of Athlone where we are staying. Her and other people from the town got donations and set the whole thing up! This was there first one they had ever done here. It was called the 3 river storytelling festival. The three rivers were The Shanon, The river Suck (that's not how its spelled but its how it is pronounced), and The Salt river from Arizona! We had a story teller come and tell stories and a musician from Athlone who played a flute and a little pipe. Our teacher had three students from our class participate and I was one of them. We all did really well. We had a lot of fun doing it and listening to all the stories. Someone from the paper was there and so hopefully we are in the paper! There is not a picture of me sorry I am not talented enough to tell a story and take a picture of myself at the same time!! Here is our musician he was so nice and did a really nice job! I think that this was my favorite part about the whole night. It was beautiful music!
This is Amber! She did so good! She told us a story about A princess with too much pride.
Here is Jake telling his story about a boy that had no story! He is such a natural at it!
Here is the featured story teller, his name is Jack Lynch. He told us stories that he made up and that were ones that were greatly known. He had us laughing the entire night!

My Apartment (Flat)

Here are the out side of our Flats! There are two levels. I am on the second one.Here is our kitchen it is very tiny they don't believe in a lot of space!
Here is out toilet isn't it pretty!
And our shower! I don't think they know what room is when designing things here! Everything is so cramped!!
Our living room! with our comfortable couches!
My bedroom!

Church in Ireland!!

While I was in Dublin I was able to go to the Ward there! I went with two other girls that were LDS. We really didn't know where to go all we had was an address, so I asked the cab driver if he knew where it was and he said he thinks he does but if not we can find it. Well we went to the street and we couldn't find it, so the cab driver asked this old man that sold flowers and he told us that there was a chapel just up ahead but he didn't know weather it "was a Mormon or the Jehovah church" and I was thinking well we don't want the Jehovah church so hopefully it wasn't that. But we found it! It was a small ward they only had about 50 people in the Congregation and about half of them were missionaries! There were five different sets of missionaries in the ward! there was an old couple and two older sister missionaries that worked in the office. Then there were three different sets of missionaries to go and teach the gospel. The experience I had there was amazing! Everyone that was there was a convert and it was wonderful to hear all there conversion stories and all that they go through to live the gospel each day! They were so nice, and welcomed us with open arms and wanting us to come back the next weekend! There was a girl there from Tempe she was there doing a internship for school! So I talked with her and we found out that we have mutual friends so that was fun to talk to her! I loved being at church because it felt like home! I know I can go anywhere in the world and I can go somewhere and feel like I am home! Which I am very grateful for!!

Here is there sign that is in Gaelick (sorry I am not sure if that is the right spelling!)

Bloomsday and the Mural

On Saturday I also went to the bloomsday festival where they read excerpts from the story Ulyssis by James Joyce. They have many different people come to read and they dress up it was quite different!I also went to this mural it is the story of Cuchulan, its of how he got his name till he died. Its quite amazing because this artist did it all out tile! Here is Cuchulan fighting a lion, this is how he got his name!
I thought this was hilarious!!
The Mural
This is when he died the woman on the horse was Mav and Cuchulan tied himself to a tree because he was a great soldier and all soldiers were to die sitting up!
This is at the Bloomsday festival. This is a famous actor that plays in a lot of plays over here. Like I said above they had many different people come to read. They even had the representative of China there to read!

Monday Outing!

Om Monday I went to many different sites! It was a lot of walking! But each one was very beautiful! This is the church that is connected to Dublin Castle.
Here is par of Dublin Castle!
Here is the Bell Tower for the Castle and the church!
Here is the out side of Christ Church Cathedral.
This is there main hall where they hold the main service!
This I can't remember what this is but I just love all the detail!
And the stained glass windows!
Here is St. Patrick's Cathedral! You can't go to Dublin and not see it!
And more beautiful stained windows
And the floors! It was amazing to me about these cathedrals they were full of so much detail and they had so many beautiful things about them! I just couldn't believe them!

The Dublin Gost Bus Tour

So one night that I was in Dublin we got a group together and we went on a ghost tour of Dublin and we got a quick lesson of body snatching!! I thought it was okay but it wasn't 25 euro okay but hey you live and you learn! Here is a gated door going into the church they called it the leper door because this is where they would come to receive like a sacrament from the preacher and so they would stand at the door and they would hand it trough a tube that went through the door.
This is supposedly the scariest place in Dublin its called the 40 Steps and it was told that a woman was hung for murdering her child that was also the sheriffs child. And every now and then she comes to these steps and brings some friends with her to join.
This is the body that we snatched! do you think we will get a lot of money for it!?
Here is the grave that we are about to snatch the body from!!
Here is everyone that went on the ghost tour! The woman in the green jacket is Liz Weir she is my story telling teacher!

Dublin!!!

This weekend we all went to Dublin. It is the largest city in Ireland. It has about one million people in the city and only 1 out of 6 people are Irish! It is so crazy. The buildings are on top of each other! But yet it is still so beautiful! The buildings are amazing! They definitely hold there own there if you don't you get ran over. They also have the most interesting people there! I have never seen more drunk homeless people! This is O'Connell Statue! This guy is very famous here! He is considered to be just like Martin Luther King! Very respected here!
This is in Trinity College! This is one of the oldest buildings they have! How would you like to live or go to class in that building!
This is Trinity College bell tower.

This is a church that is connected to Dublin Castle!
I am sticking my finger in a bullet hole that was part of the uprising between Ireland and Britain. This was at the last stand which was at the General Post Office!
These are famous statues of the Blog people they are the people of the great famine in the 18Th century. Its amazing the faces they put on each of the statues they look so real!
This is just a random sign they had in the middle of the street! I guess the people in Dublin have to be told how to walk properly!
This is a sphere in the middle of O'Connell Street. I am not sure of the significance but it is very tall!!
Bell tower of Trinity College again!

Bullet holes in the GPO again!
Okay here is the story behind James Connolly. He was one of the men that started the IRA and rebelled against Britain. He was in the last stand at the GPO He was one of the first rebels and was respected very much. When they lost the last stand they put James in an ambulance and rushed him to the Jail and at the jail they sat him up in a chair and then killed him! I guess that was the civil way to do it! I am not sure if I am related to him or not but when ever I mention the name Connolly people go crazy and let me know who this guy was.
This is describing him and his statue. If you double click on the photo and enlarge it you can maybe read it!
Here is a sign at the GPO telling the last stand! With James Connolly as one on of the last people of the last stand! Again you may be able to read it if you double click it and enlarge it!




Her are just some of the group crossing the busy cross walk!
Night life! what did I say about the weird people! lots of men in dresses! For stag parties! Men are very secure about there man hood here!
One of the pubs that we went to in temple bar!
Of course we had to go in! but we didn't eat it was so expensive!!
This is the national bank of Ireland. They used to hold Parliament here! now it is just a bank!