this isn't good bye, it's see you later

After returning from Euro2k14 with just under 12 hours until my Psychology exam, I rested up, did a little last minute studying, and aced the two essay question exam (or so I hope). Caroline and I spent the next few days with little exposure to the real world as we spent our time writing up final papers and catching up on some much needed sleep. Not kidding, most of those days we didn't even leave our apartment, but hey, it's not like we'd be seeing any sun out there anyway. After a long day of trying to crank our final papers for our Castles class, the Euro2k14 crew finally finished and spent Monday night celebrating to kick off our final week in Galway. A big group of us went to the Hole in the Wall which has become one of our favorite pubs this semester. After that a few of us went to Electric for a little while with some new friends we met at the pub.

After staying in bed until 12:30 the next day, flat 56 went into full-on Christmas mode. After some Christmas cookie baking, Caroline and I helped our housemate, Stephanie, cook a huge Christmas dinner for our apartment. When I say huge, I mean it. We had a ham, a chicken, 4 kinds of potatoes including roasted potatoes, mashed potatoes, potato croquettes, and pringles (yup, pringles), stuffing, turnips, brussel sprouts, carrots, peas, mushy peas, and 3 different dessert items. I've been full since then. It was originally just going to be a housemate dinner but based on the amount of food that filled our table, we called the guys over for the real meal instead of just the scraps we planned to give them later. It was a perfect Christmas dinner in Ireland spent with the people who have really made this experience all that it was.

What else to do after stuffing ourselves with an outrageous amount of food then to hit the pubs? We headed over to a pub that does a silent disco every Tuesday night. It was something that has been on our bucket list since we arrived so it was a perfect choice. Basically, after paying a cover charge, you receive 2 drink coupons and a set of headphones. There are two DJs located at the front of the room and you have the ability to switch back and forth between the stations to listen to what you want. It's all fun and normal until you take off the headphones and hear a room of 100 people singing different songs in the absence of music. It was a weird concept but loads of fun. After a stop at the kebab place for the second night in a row (I still think kebabs are stupid), Ben and I, along with some other Americans from Merrimack College went back to my apartment and spent the next few hours hanging out. Why I thought staying up until 5am with them was a good idea, I'm still not entirely sure.

Wednesday morning we had our last program meeting with our professor and then I was off to the bus station to meet my Mom and Grandma! They flew in early that morning and were in Galway by late morning. I've never been so excited to see anyone in my life. We hugged, we cried, and of course it rained. We had a bite to eat at the King's Head and a walk down Shop Street. Despite their exhaustion I showed them around the city and back to my apartment where they met all my housemates. I applaud their ability to keep up. I remember how rough that jetlag was so the fact that they even made it to 3:00 was impressive.

That night, our professor and his wife invited our whole group over for one final pizza night at his apartment. My mom and grandma came along to meet some of my friends as well as my professor before heading back to their hotel to finally get some sleep. Me, Caroline, Ben, Dennis, and Cara hit the Quays (a pub) before turning in for the night.

Thursday morning after a delicious brunch with Caroline and a wet walk downtown, I met up with my family again. We spent another rainy day walking around Galway and exploring the area. We had tea in one of my favorite cafes and dodged the rain for a bit before they went back to their hotel to rest and I went back to my apartment to cry over the fact that Caroline had packed up her entire side of the room while I'd been gone. The emptier the room got, the more it started to hit us.

That night, my Mom and Grandma took me, Caroline, Ben, and Dennis out to dinner at The Front Door. Again, it's one of our favorite pubs in Galway. Caroline and I actually ate at the Front Door one of our very first days here. I remember us asking the waiter to recommend a drink for us, since we were still unfamiliar with Ireland at that point. He immediately brought us Bulmers, an Irish hard cider. Since then, it has been our go-to whenever we're at a pub. It was only fitting that we got one that night at dinner too. It was a perfect last traditional Irish pub dinner in Galway. I'm glad they all got to meet my family and my family absolutely loved them, maybe more than me. They can definitely see where I get my sass from now because gma definitely wore her sassy pants out that night. After dinner, the four of us started what is called the "12 pubs of Christmas" here in Ireland. It's basically what it sounds like: you and your friends pick 12 different pubs to go to while dressed in festive holiday wear. In a city like Galway, it's not too difficult to find 12 pubs. You could probably find 12 pubs in one block to be totally honest. We used the opportunity to pick our favorite pubs, and a few new ones, to end the semester with a night that we'd remember (or not depending on how many pints we had). We counted The Front Door as our first since we all had a pint with dinner and then my Mom and Grandma joined us for our second which was the King's Head. I got my Mom to try a Jameson and ginger, a classic Irish drink made of Jameson whiskey, ginger ale, and lime, and one of my personal favorites. My Grandma got a Galway Hooker, a pale ale based on Ben's recommendation. They headed to bed after that as our night was just beginning.

We only made it to 8 pubs instead of 12 because we started a little late but I had so much fun. It was one of my favorite nights in Galway by far. During the night we went to The Front Door, The King's Head, Taffees, The Hole in the Wall, Monroe's, Fibber McGee's, The German Beer Tent at the Christmas Market, and concluded the night at Karma. It was the best way to bring the semester to a close with the four of us together hopping around to the different places where we spent most of our nights in Galway. It was also great because along the way we ran into the majority of the people we've met over the course of the semester including some other people in our program as well as pretty much all the other Americans we'd met at one time or another. Ben, Dennis, and I also ran into our supervisor from Foroige, where we did our service learning. 8 pubs later and after another stop at the kebab place for the fourth night in a row (shout out to Ben for dragging me there yet again), we turned in for the night, dreading the final day that was to come in the morning.

Friday was a rough one. That morning my Mom came to my apartment to help me pack up all my stuff. We ended up having to mail a box of stuff home because of the size restriction on our luggage to London. At that point everyone in our apartment was in packing mode as our Irish housemates planned to leave that day and Caroline and I the next. I had my first sob fest when Stephanie gave Caroline and I a Christmas gift. She gave each of us an ornament with a small frame on it and within that frame is a one euro coin. She said "it's to go toward your next trip to Ireland." Jenna also gave Caroline and I such a heartfelt gift: an Alex and Ani type bracelet with a shamrock and stone on it. We are so so grateful to have been put with such incredible Irish housemates. Stephanie and Jenna have been so wonderful to us this semester, helping us navigate through a new country, and most of all being the absolute best friends and housemates we could have ever asked for. Saying good bye to them on Friday was one of the hardest good byes I've had to say. While I know I'll see my HWS friends in a month and Union friends so soon as well, not knowing the next time I'll see these two ladies made the good bye that much harder. All I can say is that they truly made this experience what it was and I can't thank them enough for all they have done for Caroline and I, and all of our friends as well.

Friday night, Caroline, Ben, Dennis, and I had one last hurrah. We had dinner at McDonough's and then got one last drink together at the King's Head. After that we met up with the majority of the rest of our group at Monroe's to spend our last night together. We had a grand time listening to live music and hanging out as a group for one last time. I'm so lucky to have been part of such a great group of people. I have made some truly great lifelong friends that I thoroughly enjoyed spending the semester with in Ireland getting to know each of them.

I started writing this blog on Friday and as it is now Saturday night, I'm now in the hotel in London. This morning I woke up at 5am to say good bye to everyone. The group flight took the bus to Dublin to fly to JFK this morning. I was hoping I would be too half asleep to realize what was going on and would be able to avoid the tears, but of course, that was not the case. It was a really emotional farewell and though I know I will see most of them in less than a month, it was still hard to say good bye to not only them, but this whole experience we shared. After trying to go back to sleep after that, I was only able to get about one more hour of sleep before getting myself back up and completely moved out of the apartment. It was a weird feeling leaving the empty apartment by myself. I met my Mom and Grandma at their hotel, and after one more stop at the Farmer's Market for a donut, we took a bus to the Shannon Airport where we waited for our flight to London. We got to London around 7pm and my brother just got here a few hours ago as well. I'm excited to spend the rest of the week as well as my 21st birthday and Christmas with them in London but I'm still pretty heartbroken about leaving Ireland. I guess the fact that it's so hard to leave just means that it was that much more meaningful of an experience.

The past semester has been without a doubt the most incredible experience of my life. I can remember the nerves and anxiety I felt my very first day here and it's crazy that four months have passed since then.  I'm now left with an intense mixture of sadness and happiness as I depart from this journey. I have had the time of my life living, learning, and loving every second of my time in Ireland. I write this with tears streaming down my face at the thought of leaving the true home I have found in Ireland and the many experiences that came along with it but I'm happy knowing that I'm leaving with so many new and wonderful memories and some equally wonderful friends. It's hard to put into words what these past four months have meant to me and how much I have grown and learned about myself. I saw a quote that summed it up pretty well:

"you get a strange feeling when you leave a place, like you'll not only miss the people you love, but you miss the person you are at this time and place because you'll never be this way ever again."

While I have a head full of memories and a heart full of love for this place and the people I've spent the time with, it's hard knowing things will never be the same as they are right now, in this moment, where I am totally and 100% happy. There are few times in my life I can say that about. I have had an unbelievable amount of fun and though I definitely spent more time in pubs than I did in classes, I learned an immense amount about a culture that has me wishing I could live in it longer than a semester. Although today has been a tough one with a lot of goodbyes and 'last times,' this last week has been one of the best. Thank you to everyone who has been a part of this journey and made it possible. I am so grateful to have had such an unbelievable experience. I don't want to leave but I'm coming home a much happier version of myself because of it. As for Ireland, this isn't good bye, it's see you later!