Wednesday, June 9th to Thursday, June 17th

So, if you didn't know, I am not in France anymore. I left last week. The days leading up to the departure were not very pleasant. I just had a lot of things to do. I had to close my bank accounts, talk to the French administration about my departure, cancel my phone plan, tell my residence that I'm leaving, clean my room, and pack ALL my stuff. I definitely thought that I did not accumulate a lot during the year. I also sent home a couple of packages for the stuff that I knew that I accumulated during the year, since my suitcases were full when I came to France. SOMEHOW, I still ended up with way too much stuff, so I had to donate whatever I could and trash the stuff I couldn't. Advice for next time: definitely underpack. If you have too much stuff, you end up throwing or donating things. If you're underpacked, then it's not too much of a hassle to buy an extra t-shirt or a pair of jeans. I need to remember that for next time. :)

Wednesday, June 9: I had to leave for the train station at about 11:00am, since my train took off at noon. I spent the night at Liz's room, since I checked out the day before. I checked out on Tuesday because the secretary's office is not open Wednesdays. Liz and Anna were nice enough to help me to the tram stop. I knew it was going to be a HORRIBLE trip when I found it hard just getting to the tram stop with half of my stuff. I somehow got all my stuff onto the TGV to Paris and slept for the duration of the trip. I got off at the Gare de Lyon but had to get myself to Gare du Nord within 2 hours. The information people told me that it would take about 20 minutes to get there. In the end, it took me over an hour and I was absolutely disgusting. I had two suitcases (40 pounds each), a small handbag (10 pounds), and my backpack (20 pounds). My shoulders and forearms felt like they weren't there anymore. I finally got myself onto the Eurostar and slept once again on that. I finally got myself to St. Pancras International in London at the end. I never want to do that again. I was so exhausted at the end, that the floor even seemed extremely comfortable.

Thursday: I slept in that morning. I wanted to go check out the Queen's Club tennis tournament, but the weather was real shitty, so I decided not to go. My allergies were acting up for some odd reason. I think it's the pollen that I'm not use to. I had to go to the chemist to get some medicine, but I'm all good now. My Yung, Peter, and I went out to eat at a Vietnamese Place. I had phở. Delicious. My cousins paid for my meal, since it was my birthday the next day. I love my cousins. After dinner, we went to the Enterprise bar where my cousin's friend was having a gig. The first act was a young guy with his acoustic guitar. The second act, my favorite, was Old School Tie. They were damn good. The last act, was my cousin's friend's band. Once again, my cousins paid for my drinks. I love my cousins!

Friday: My Birthday! I met Laura at the Liverpool station in the morning. We went to Shakespeare's Globe. It was very informative and interesting. We had lunch at EAT. After, we went to Harrod's. We wondered around and ate a donut at Krispy Kreme. It was goood! We went to dinner in Chinatown. After all that, I went back to Laura's home for the weekend.

Saturday and Sunday: Spent the weekend in Colchester with Laura. It was nice. :)

Monday: Flight at 9:10 to Dublin. I was supposed to catch the bus to the airport at 6:00am, but got lost in London. Definitely not what I wanted to do at 5:00am in the morning. It was supposed to take me about half an hour to get to the bus stop, but it took me over an hour. I did catch the next bus at 6:30am and got there with enough to spare. The flight only took an hour, so I slept the way through it. I got to my hostel and met some Americans/Australians watching the soccer game. I stayed in an 8 person room. It kind of got annoying when people were getting up in the morning or people coming back late at night, but I got enough sleep. I went sightseeing with another American. We went to the Guiness Storehouse. It was quite expensive (11 euros for students), but it was definitely worth it. I even got to pour my own pint of Guiness. That night, I went out for drinks at Porterhouse with Louise and Steven. The beer selection at Porterhouse was quite impressive. I had a Sol, which is surprising to find, since it's from Mexico. Alcohol in Dublin is damn expensive.

Tuesday: Second day in Dublin. I met up with Louise and she was my tour guide for the day. It was soo nice to see Louise again. We went to the Dublin Castle, which is extremely ballin' inside. After, we had lunch at Munchies and we went to Trinity College where Louise goes to school. It's a really nice university. It looks like one of the Ivy Leagues. We saw the Book of Kells and the Old Library, which was free since Louise was a student at Trinity. It was nice. Then, we got lost trying to find St. Patrick's Cathedral. We did find St. John's along the way, thinking it was St. Patrick's. We finally found it, but it was 4 euros to enter St. Patrick's, so we didn't. Instead, we sat in the gardens. We were definitely in need of a rest. Then, we decided to go to Gourmet Burger Kitchen for their "5 euro, any burger" deal from 2pm to 5pm. I got an avacado bacon burger. It was so delicious. After, I said goodbye to Louise.

Wednesday: I woke up early and took the train, Enterprise, from Dublin to Belfast. It took about 2 hours. I left my things at the hostel and did some sightseeing. I visited Queen's University, the Botanic Gardens, and the National Museum. After, I went into town and saw the city hall. We got to sit in the seats where the Northern Irish parliament takes place. Real cool. Belfast isn't too big and there really isn't too much to do, so I had a short day and went back to the hostel to rest up.

Thursday: I did a black cab tour of Belfast. We entered the suburbs of the city to see all the divided parts of Belfast. It was kind of scary to see these huge murals of people in balaclavas with guns and text saying, "You are entering the Unionist/Nationalist part of Belfast". The divide is very concrete, since there are actual walls between the two areas. It was really interesting to see them though. We also saw the Peace Wall, dividing once again the Protestant/Catholic populations. It is very interesting to see it. The driver told us a very interesting fact. Only 5% of the kids in Belfast go to integrated schools. The other 95% go to their respective religion's schools. It's insane that there's still this huge divide between the people of Northern Ireland. After, we also saw the ship yards and where the Titanic was built. I only had the morning to do the tour, so after, I went to the airport to fly back to London.