the Seventh Week...again...for the first time...in Ireland.

And so we've made it through yet another week, this time with a taste of Ireland mixed in. It was a great experience. It's so weird to be here, go to a different country over the weekend, and then come back and actually have to go to school. I say that a lot, but the feeling never goes away. I still wouldn't say that I have a travel bug that gets me to want to go to every country I can possibly go to, but I do know that I have found the traveling to be a rather enjoyable experience. Surprisingly, I've been able to keep my stress level relatively low even with all of the checking in, checking out, passports, and hostels. Now, I didn't spend all of my week in Ireland, but for the sake of the reading public I'll just skim through the week until Ireland. (By the way, take note of the irony of me saying that it's for the sake of the "reading" public)

SATURDAY-WEDNESDAY: All that really happened during this period was school and getting back grades for tests, as well as taking a few. I doubt any of you read this to keep up with my grades, so you probably don't need to know all of that boring stuff.

The important thing was that I didn't fail anything, and for the most part I stayed relatively consistent. One funny story. I went to the convenience store on Saturday and spent 30 minutes looking at 3 items not being able to decide what to get. So I went with something completely different.

THURSDAY: Thursday was the day I left for Ireland, though I did have to take a science test right before we left (got a B+ on it by the way). The test itself was not very fun. The flight to Ireland wasn't much fun either actually. But it was extremely short.

The one thing I will say is that it's not amazingly fun to show up at a new place at midnight when it's around 35 degrees and you get dropped off from the bus about six blocks from where your hostel is. But somehow we made it through alive and I was able to get a relatively decent nights sleep before the long day ahead.

FRIDAY: We spent all of Friday checking out the sights on the south side of the Liffey. It was pretty cool. I had fun noticing a couple locations from the movie Once while I was there, though I probably looked kind of dumb when I was pointing at random spots and saying,

"He played guitar right here and then a guy stole his money and ran right through there and then he chased him and caught him right there." Yeah. I felt mildly nerdy. But it was about a movie, so that makes it okay. We had dinner with some people from Spain and a guy from Italy. It was really fun and probably the most interesting dinner conversation I've had in quite some time.

SATURDAY: I spent Saturday on my own walking around the north side of the Liffey. It was my first experience walking around a different country on my own, but it was a great way to get my feet wet as a world traveler. I got to eat at a little plaza area that had small independent bands playing, which was really fun for me to watch. Then I walked in Phoenix park, which is about 1750 acres.

Needless to say I didn't actually see the whole park. After two and a half hours in the park I decided I'd seen enough green grass and fun stuff like that. My day on my own was everything I could have hoped it would be, especially the freedom of being able to see something random and just change my direction to go check it out. Freedom is a good thing. Someone should tell important people that.

SUNDAY: We had to leave for the airport at 4 in the morning, which wasn't exactly the most fun part of the trip. What made it interesting was that I decided just to stay up all night so that I didn't have to worry about waking up.

I hung out with some guys from San Francisco who happened to be staying in the hostel and we watched the Giants game online. I didn't get to see the end though because I had to leave. We got back to the house in London around 9:30 and I must say that it really did feel like home. Thinking back on my first trip that wasn't planned by Pepperdine I must say that it went about as well as it possibly could go. And that's all you can ask for.

MONDAY: Here's a day that isn't super interesting. Going back to school was absolutely no fun, but it was weird to realize that I am now officially over half way done with my time in London this semester. How far can a dog walk into a forest? Halfway. After that it's walking out. And that's me for studying abroad. Except I'm a human, not a dog. And I'm studying abroad, not walking into a forest. Yeah. I suppose I'll allow the rest of the world to continue with it's business now that I've caught everyone up to my own world. It seems that the sun has now set on my time in Ireland. Here's to the future that seems like it will never come.