"cheers to an unforgettable summer. & new best friends"

I will never with words be able to describe how amazing, unforgettable, and life changing this summer has been for me. Living in London for two months, weekend adventures [Belgium, Paris, Ireland], interning at Blazinstar, all the walking tours of London and british life classes, all of the amazing speakers, and most of all the PEOPLE i've gotten to share this experience with. I will never forget a second of this summer. It feels like I put my "real" life on pause and tomorrow I go back to that "real" life and it begins again. I have no idea what to expect. I have grown so much over the 8 weeks here and I hope that continues when I get back home. To my friends & family in Iowa ..I can't wait to see you!! But for now ..this blog is about my last night out w/ the people in London ..my best friends <3

------> Meghan H & I


-------> Meghan K & I


Of course on our last night in London it would RAIN. We all wanted to go to our favorite bar, which is probably about a mile down the road ..so we walked. Well for some reason Amanda & I decided NOT to use umbrellas so we danced in the rain the WHOLE way there ..that explains the next picture & why we look the way we do :)

-----> Amanda & I at the bar.


-----> never a dull moment w/ these two - Amanda & Jonny


-----> Paul & I


-----> Kyle, Jonny, Gill, & I


------> All of us girls w/ Reece (one of our uod staffers)


-----> Amanda & I - thankfully she goes to UNI so we'll still be close <3


-----> Rachelle, Al, Jenny, Meghan & I :)


I could not have thought up a better summer. It was perfect + some. I will misssssssss everyone & everything. But I have gained so much from this experience that I will carry with me forever.

UNIVERSITY OF DREAMS LONDON 2009 <3

"These are my people. This is where I come from" - Ireland <3

I finally got the chance to go visit the land my family came from, Ireland. I left London on Thursday, July 30th and we didnt fly back until Sunday evening. I loved every second of my trip. Dublin is one of the most expensive cities in Europe (7 euros a beer = 12 us dollars ..ONE BEER), but we also got to see outside of Dublin ..just wait til you see PICTURES. I would move to Ireland in a heartbeat. Gorgeous country, good food, and such nice people. I had alot of things I wanted to accomplish in the short weekend we had in Ireland, so being the organized person I am I made an itinerary for Amanda, Kelly, and I ..needless to say we didn't go in the exact order the itinerary told us but we did get to successfully cross everything off our list when we got on the plane Sunday night.

-----> The itinerary I made for Dublin. hahaha. ridiculous, I know.


Our hotel, the Trinity Capital Hotel was located right next to Dublin's Trinity College. Which is the oldest college in Ireland and is the home of the Book of Kells. I got a Trinity College sweatshirt for myself. I can pretend :)

------> Trinity College


Obviously the first things to do on our list were the Guinness Storehouse tour and Jameson's Distillery.

------> Amanda, Kelly, and I in front of the Guinness gate :)


-------> Making a wish at the waterfall in Guinness


-------> The Guinness Storehouse is shaped like a pint glass


------> "A drink helps me relax" had to, hahaha :)


------> Getting our 1 free Guinness at the Gravity Bar (mine had a shamrock design in the foam!!!) <3


-----> The view from the Gravity Bar


After our Guinness tour the most obvious thing to do was go straight to the Jameson's Distillery :)

------> Jameson's!!


We decided that since we had just got done taking the tour of Guinness we didn't need to do another alcohol tour so we went to the bar instead. The bar was any whiskey drink you could think of ..and me trying to get the full irish experience ordered my FIRST irish coffee (brown sugar, shot of Jameson's, coffee, and cream). VERY DELICIOUS.

------> My FIRST irish coffee <3


After Guinness and our drink at Jameson's ..we went for a stroll down the famous O'Connell street. It is the major shopping street in Dublin, where all the locals shop. Then back to the hotel to get ready for the evening. On our way into our hotel we spotted a sign "Happy Hour 2 for 1 Drinks" ..can't turn down a deal like that (mostly in a city so expensive). So Amanda & I headed down to our hotel's bar for a cocktail.

-------> Amanda & I ..my cosmo, her "woo woo"


Then comes DINNER ..we were on a mission to eat some traditional irish food. And that evening I had my first shepherd's pie. YUMM!

------> DELICIOUS :)


We then headed to a pub. I continued to drink Guinness as that seemed to be the theme of my day and it was cheaper than any other beer at the pub. We met a group of Dubliners and one of the girls gave Kelly, Amanda, and I some good advice ..add black currant to your pint of Guinness. So we did. And it was delicious!

-------> Our Irish friends :)


For Saturday we had scheduled a day long tour (9am to 5:30pm) of the coast, the countryside, and the mountains. The tour was called "Wild Wicklow" and our bus driver's name was Kev. IT WAS THE BEST THING WE DID WHILE IN IRELAND. And on this tour is when I truly fell in love! The bus made 4 or 5 stops around Dublin and then we headed to out of town. The first thing we saw outside of town was the COAST!!

------> My glimpse of the coast from the bus!!


The coast city we were in is called Dun Laoghaire. And then Kevin (the bus driver) let us out!! :)

--------> Soooo pretty <3


--------> Amanda & I even found a house.. that blue one :)


--------> Enjoying the scenery!


Then we drove up some REALLY narrow, winding roads to the top of the mountains. And although it was so windy we were positive we would blow off the mountain ..the view and the pictures were GORGEOUS and well worth it.

-----> Way down there is the Guinness Estate


-------> On top of the world :)


------> Amanda, Kelly, and I ..see how windy it is!


------> Honestly ..just breathtaking <3


Once we got all of the pictures we wanted ..we ran back to the bus to get out of the wind and were greeted w/ bus driver kev ..

-----> Kev distributing shots of JAMESON'S hahaha :)


-----> Obviously couldn't say no ..us girls w/ our Jamesons


We then headed down the mountain and to a small town, where we got lunch. Lucky for us we got our second traditional irish meal ...Guinness & Beef stew, aka Irish Stew. If you've never had Irish stew before ..it has a scoop of mashed potatoes underneath the stew and its AMAZINGLY DELICIOUS.

-------> Irish stew.. potatoes underneath!!


We then headed to St. Kevin's monastery, which is one of the, if not thee oldest in Ireland.

------> The very FIRST Celtic Cross


-----> St. Kevin's Cathedral (or whats left of it)


------> I found some CAHILLS


------> Trying to be artsy!!


After our Wild Wicklow tour, we went back to Dublin and I was on a mission to find my dad a t-shirt. He asked for a shirt that you could NOT buy in the United States. Although that sounds like a simple task, it wasn't. Finally we made our way to the Temple Bar District and found that the biggest bar in the area ..ironically named Temple Bar had a massive souvenir shop. So I found my dad a t-shirt and took a picture with the shirt in front of the bar in the middle of Dublin.

-----> The t-shirt & the Bar :)


-----> Having a drink at Temple Bar


The next day before we had to head to the airport, we took a tour through the Kilmainham jail.

------> Inside the jail.


Then we got our stuff from the hotel, grabbed a taxi, and headed to the airport.

------> Walking to our plane


Back to London for 5 days ......

PARIS for the wknd <3

I got to spend the WEEKEND in PARIS. We left London on Friday July 24th, got on a train and headed to Paris. The train was crazy ..verrry loud with lots of dancing, sing, and alcohol (for some).

------> Amanda & I on the Eurostar :)


After only 2 hours I met Paris. With a group of 113 people it gets a little hectic & stressful when we are moving through train stations ..but after a successful transfer from the train station through the Metro in Paris we made it to our hotel. (People say the Metro is easier to use than the London tube. I say FALSE ..people in the Metro speak french, people on the tube ENGLISH). I was already excited to get to spend the weekend in Paris, France but to make it THAT much better ..our original hotel the University of Dreams had booked for us their air conditioning broke ..what to do? UPGRADE OUR HOTEL. We ended up staying at the Concorde Lafayette Hotel in Paris, sooooooooooo nice. (I'll tell you how nice in a sec, haha). We get our keys & blah blah blah, so I go to my room ..

------> my hotel room in paris


The first thing I do when I get into a hotel room is open the window and check out the view.. and this was by far thee best view of any hotel I have ever stayed at, EVER.

------> the view out my hotel window <3


My most important objective in Paris was to see the Eiffel Tower and lucky for me it was right out my window. But that wasn't enough. So a bunch of us met up and walked down the road for dinner. After dinner we wandered ..hoping we would end up at the Eiffel Tower eventually. Well to our surprise we found the Arc de Triomphe.

-----> the girls in front of the Arc de Triomphe


After many photos of and with the Arc, we continued our journey. Then we finally saw it ....

------> eiffel tower!!


------> This is a picture my friend, Meghan took (candid) of how excited I was!! hahaha


-------> just gorgeous :)


Clearly the most logical way to spend your first night in Paris is to lay in the park in front of the Eiffel Tower until the clock strikes 10:00PM and the tower lights UP! So we did just that ..

------> Amanda & I laying in the grass WAITING :)


------> Jonny, Amanda, & I


And then it happened ...

------> The lights ON ..& it was SPARKLING <3


------> Jonny, Amanda, Me (scarf in the face, haha) & Scott - jumping picture!


Saturday, July 25th ..we got up and made the decision to go to the Louvre & see the Mona Lisa w/ some people from our program! We are walking through the lobby and GUESS WHO I SEE? Amy Roloff, the mom from the TLC show "Little People, Big World". I am pretty sure its my 1st celebrity encounter hahaha. Then we were walking out of our hotel and who do I see coming in? Matt Roloff and 1 of his sons, (also in Little People, Big World). I was SO excited haha. I said "Hello" to him and he smiled & waved back. They weren't famous in Paris (obviously the show isn't aired their) but I knew them and they were staying at our hotel!!

-----> For those of you who haven't seen it, this is the Roloff Family!


We eventually made it to the Louvre.

------> Me outside the Louvre.


Obviously our first task once in the Louvre was to find the famous Mona Lisa. We hung out & walked around two hours + ..admiring all of the crazy paintings & sculptures!

-----> Here she is, in all of her small glory (big glory, small picture)


After the Louvre, we walked Paris for awhile. Eventually made it back to the hotel, got ready, and met at the bar in our hotel on the 34th floor (very top). The drinks were expensive, but good and the views were amazing.

----> My cosmo (w/ a straw) BEFORE


------> And after (& yes this is me trying to be "artsy")


------> The 34th floor bar.. romantic!


We then made the decision that we were going to have a dinner picnic in the park in front of the Eiffel Tower. So we began our walk. We stopped at a wine store to pick up the beverages for our picnic (ps - if you go to Paris..drink WINE, not to get drunk but because it is cheaper than beer, soda, and even WATER. crazy? yes!). And we found an italian pizza/pasta restaurant that had take-out and we headed to the park.

------> All of us almost to our park - Eiffel Tower <3


SUCH AN AMAZING WEEKEND :)

My days in Europe are winding down (only 10 left) but I have one more weekend trip ahead of me. This weekend (actually on Thursday) Amanda, Kelly, and I are flying to Dublin for a long 3 day weekend. We already have a ton of things planned (Guinness tour, Jamesons tour, a guided tour of the countryside, etc hahaha). And we are staying in a hotel right by Trinity College and the Temple Bar District. I am already too excited. Lucky for me we leave in a day!!