Happy St. Patty's Day!!!

Hello!

It is March 18 which means I survived St. Patrick's Day in Ireland! It was so much fun and I wish you all could have been here to experience it! It was BY FAR the most beautiful day we have had since I arrived, not a cloud in the sky, sunny, and 60's! We were in t-shirts and totally comfortable which is unheard of for the past 2.5 months at least. My friends and I started out by making brunch at 10am which was a really great way to start a super fun day. The parade was at 12:30, and from what I have read and heard it is the biggest on in Ireland. There are like 50,000 spectators and the streets are not very big in the first place! It was weird, this weekend there were a lot of tourists downtown and I began to feel very territorial like it is actually my home which I think is good:) After the parade we stayed downtown and went to a few of our favorite pubs for the afternoon. They all had traditional music playing and the people were so much fun! We took a break for the evening and headed back into town at about 10pm for round 2, and the streets and pubs were still packed. Everyone was in such high spirits (I don't know if that was because of the weather or the alcohol, I think both helped :)) All of the green was crazy and fun. It honestly is more of an American holiday and it really isn't too much different here then any other day except it is a bank holiday so no classes and work for a lot of people. Of course as an American it felt totally different and was definitely a reason to celebrate! I promise, they all did there share of celebrating as well:)

Other then that the past week has been fairly uneventful. My semester is winding down quick, only 2 weeks of classes left, which means I am writing papers much more often then I would like to be. The weather today was another absolutely gorgeous day which makes homework even harder, but being happy so much easier! I got my final exam schedule last week and it was a little different then what I had planned. At first everyone told us that we had spring break from April 4-24, but it turns out that isn't the case! My friends and I had planned a trip to Italy at that time but lucky for us we didn't book anything just in case, so now we moved our trip to the first weeks in May. I am done with classes on April 2, then have a final April 17 and May 1 so April is going to be a long month! It will definitely be nice to get to go places around Ireland that I was worried I wasn't going to make it to, and to experience Galway to its absolute fullest. Since exams are different I moved my flight and am coming home a week early! May 17 at 8pm I will be back in MN exhausted and happy!

This weekend I am going to Barcelona for a short visit and am meeting up with one of my friends from St. Norbert who is studying in Spain so that will be so nice! It is supposed to be sunny and warm and relaxing! All of these opportunities are so amazing, I am so blessed that I get to do all of these things and experience all of these different cultures. It definitely makes me more gracious for what I have and take for granted every day. I am totally falling in love with it here, but there are things that are just better at home (like a clean bathroom/living space, blankets, and hugs!)or that they don't have here (i.e. corn chips and salsa, Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, and cheap ice cream haha) I have 8 weeks left which sometimes seems like an eternity and sometimes feels like it is flying by. Either way I am trying to live everyday as much as I can! I love you all so much, I hope spring is being nice to you! Write if you can!