Racing towards the finish line

Well, I turned in my last paper, and I took one of two exams today. Phew. Almost there :) Here are some pictures from my last few days as I "race towards the finish line..."

Studying with Kim and Erin in a park in Dublin. The park was pretty, but our notes...not so much.

Pretty flowers in the park!

On Sunday, Mary, Leanna, Erin, and I had a last litte "house date" by going to a horse race about an hour away.

Mary had packed some food and we had a little picnic! So cute...and so good :)

Once again, we kind of match...whoops! (This one wasn't planned either)

"Celtic Soprano" races ahead of the rest...no significance to this picture, I just liked it :)

Mary gave us each some money to bet on a horse. I had NO CLUE what I was doing, so I randomly picked a number. Oh, and the horses name was "Great Wisdom" so I figured it was the wisest choice...see below for who I was betting on

Hoping our horses win (or places)!!!

I don't believe any of our horses even made it into this picture...yea, that was a bad race.

A few races later, Mary gave us each 2 euro to bet again. I was going to bet on "Popmurphy" (cuz I thought the name was sweet) to place, but then I changed my mind last minute...

...and bet on this pretty lady to WIN: "She's the Mark"

The whole race who was in first? Popmurphy. But then...

She's the Mark came out of no where (see her?) and WON!!!

And now I'm 20 euro richer :)

(I won 25 but Mary would only take 5 of it...yes, I was good and offered all of it to her, since it was her 2 euro that I had bet with)

I'm a high roller...holler.

Pretty blossoms! :)

We love our "second mom"!

THEN, because I couldn't have lived in Ireland without swimming in the Irish Sea, I decided to take the plunge...

Oh boy...we were nervous. We could actually see our breath OUTSIDE the water, and knew the temperature INSIDE the water was a heck of a lot colder...

This is the spot

Are we seriously gonna do this??

....yup

SO COLD. Pretty sure my heart stopped and I couldn't breath for a few seconds there...no worries, I survived :)

The crazies

Well, that's it for now...gotta go study for my other exam that's tomorrow. LAST ONE!!!

Then I'm off to The Netherlands and Greece!!! More to come on that one...