all the way from galway.

I am now in Ireland and I have never been anywhere so beautiful. It's the kind of beauty that intermingles with rain and salt water and Norman architecture and makes me feel so old that I feel young. And awake. Plus, the people are so nice. Yesterday, we got stuck at Killarney National Park and the buses had stopped running and we started to get worried we'd be sleeping on the grass in front of the Victorian mansion on the lake (which, when I think about it, wouldn't be that bad). Then Caroline decided to walk up to this random man with three kids and ask him to borrow his cell phone to call a taxi. But, oh no, that wasn't enough. He decided he would drive us to the bus station and tell us all about Ireland on the way there. And his three kids were so adorable. They were calling each other "lads" and explaining what "class" they were in. So, basically, I am living.

silks n spices.

So my best friend from back home showed up in London yesterday afternoon, just after Nina and I had come home from shopping. We all went out last night, going from one place to the next, spending more money than I have. I have also taken up the habit of drinking cappuccinos and staying up all night thinking, just like the Europeans do.

lancaster and york.

So I'm pretty sure I'm doing really badly in the class that I'm taking here, but I'm seeing castles and drinking tea and getting drunk alongside James Franco and making friends and eating paninis and not caring about it too much. The day after tomorrow, I will be in London and then it's all museums and artists and double-decker buses galore. I'm having a good time, which will transform into a great time in my memory, but hasn't quite yet. It just makes me angry how much studying everyone does here. I did NOT pay $5,000 to come over here and sit in my hotel room curled around A Midsummer Night's Dream. I came here to live it, in a not so fairy-centered and creepy way. As an act of defiance, it may be back to the pub on a schoolnight for me.