During the week I hung out around the apartment a bit and chilled with my roommates from Fordham and UMASS Dartmouth since my other roommates were all at Oktoberfest. It was pretty uneventful except one night we all cooked a family dinner, watched a movie and went to O’Donoghues for a pint. We had a good time talking and really getting to know more about each other.

Training for swimming started on Thursday night. Practice is only an hour long and you just swim whatever you want to. Even though it seems a bit disorganized, I like it since my shoulder doesn’t allow me to swim as much as others and I haven’t swum competitively since I was on Barracudas. After training, we all went to a pub for a couple of drinks. I ended up staying out really late with the boys’ captain, his girlfriend and one of the other girls from the team. It was a fun time and I liked hanging out with Irish kids. Plus, the girl I know from South Salem that is here studying abroad in the Arts program also is swimming for UCD this semester.

This weekend I had two field trips for school. On Friday we went for a walk of the Wicklow Mountains. It was pouring rain and everyone was pretty miserable hiking up the mountain. But it stopped raining by the time we got to the top and it was well worth walking in the rain since the view from the ride was absolutely beautiful. On the way back we stopped at a tavern in Glendalough for a really good dinner. And we were all sitting near the fire which was extra nice since it warmed us all up. Then yesterday morning, we went to Kilmainham Gael which is the jail that all the political prisoners were killed in during the 1916 Uprising. After the field trip, I walked with Mary and Andrew back to the City Center this was a very long walk as we were in the outskirts of the city and the is on the other side of Dublin. We grabbed a bite to eat and then hit up the National Museum of Artifacts and History. Even though I was there last weekend, I am glad that I went back again because I was able to see upstairs which was closed last weekend and I took another look at the Bog Bodies exhibit. We also went to the National Gallery, which I also hit up last weekend. But we saw a bunch of paintings I didn’t see last time as I wasn’t there for very long last weekend.

The boys have four girls from Bentley visiting now, so we went out the past two nights to Zanzibar. It is a pretty cool club; although it was pretty empty on Friday night. That’s really all for now. I’ve been feeling pretty crappy the past day or two, but I think it’s just from being in overdrive lately and I just need a break. The only things I have coming up this week are getting to meet two more of my cousins on Tuesday night and then going on a mystery tour Thursday night which is when we go to three clubs somewhere in Ireland and are out from noon to 3am. But that’s it. I’ll keep you updated….