LIFE IN IRELAND: I love water...

Unfortunately, I have none at the moment. There's a large ocean full of water just down the street, lots of water falling from the sky, enough water in the air to never use lotion again, yet there is a water shortage in Dublin, Ireland. You know the freezing weather/snow that I was telling you about? Well, people were concerned that their pipes would freeze, so they began turning on their faucets and leaving them on...so the government decided to turn OFF the water supply. They turn it back on periodically and for short amounts of time, but let's just say I haven't showered in a few days, and when I did, it was an incomplete 1 minute shower (Grandpa, your "Navy showers" up at the lake sound like a luxury to me right now :) It's amazing how we take for granted such a "basic" necessity...guess I need to remember to be grateful for the that which I consider a "right."

I apologize that I haven't written anything in awhile, and these last 2 posts have been rather depressing, but hopefully once things start to "normalize," I'll be a bit more consistent...and have better things to share :) This week has basically consisted of class all day long, since it's only 1.5 weeks long, but still 3 credits. Part of our tuition covers breakfast and dinner at our home-stay, so we make sure to go home for dinner to save money (not to mention Mary is an AMAZING cook). We're about 20 minutes away from the city centre and our other friends, and we have to pay for transportation, so a number of our nights have just been hanging out at home, playing cards or watching movies. The weather has been warming up, but the freezing cold weather has also contributed to our lack of desire to go out.

Last night about 10 of us went out in search of an authentic Irish pub that had Irish music and dancing, but to no avail. Unfortunately many of the authentic pubs have transformed into Americanized bars, much to my disappointment. We eventually found a pub that still had some authenticity to it, regardless of the fact that it had popular American music blaring through the speakers (c'mon, people...I wanted to hear LIVE IRISH MUSIC in Ireland...not Taylor Swift :P).

Because of the lack of activity, I only have a few pictures...