Leeds is for Winners.

I feel like it is important to note that one we landed from Paris the rest of the night is kind of a blur but I know I met a lot of people and I know that sleeping on the floor wasn't that awful and I slept really well.

The next day Shelli went to class and I explored the city center. That is right I know you are all shocked...I went shopping! I didn't make any purchases though! Really I didn't. I did however locate all the great shop which obviously I informed Michelle about like a good best friend would. DUH. Mostly I just killed time until I left Michelle for lunch. We has Subway. How....umm...exactly what we would do at home. I loved it. For real we are about 4,000 miles away from home and still managing to do the exact same thing. Champions.

Next there was the trip to Morrison's. Now for all of you who read Michelle's blog like I do, I was expecting some intense food shopping hand to hand combat. It is the only major food store close to her and it is in the middle of the city so I was prepared for the worst. Let me tell you something about this whole dreaded Morrison's thing it wasn't bad at all. Michelle told me it is because we went at a good time before it gets busy. Which I asked (I'm a smart ass I know) Why doesn't she just always go at the good time when it's not busy? Also my other complaint is that at least you have options. Their frozen food section stretched for miles. So while I'm learning to be like Betty Friggen Crocker (the Irish as far as I can tell are not big on frozen stuff) she has the selection of a life time. There was more bread in that store than I have seen in one place in the last two months of my life. Shelli, love what you got alright? Cause when you don't got it, life involves way too much intimate time with the stove. Which is gas and terrifying.

After that little to do I slept and wrote in my journal and went on facebook and tried to find out where Mom and Dad who were meeting me in Dublin the next day actually were since I hadn't heard from them yet. Michelle was at class. Michelle came back from class and we went into town to try to get her package but the post office lied about being open. It was not a waste of a trip though. I showed her the shops :) We went into one where I had accidentally fallen in love with a bag but talked myself out of it (see how much better I am at impulse shopping?) and then I purchased the bag (I took several hours to consider it). It is nothing like you would find in the States and a great color and a great interior. I justify this purchase because Michelle bought a pair of fierce high heels. We both had a moment of guilty shopping.

Dinner was made at Brian's because Michelle's roommates are DJ's and the turn tables were set up in the kitchen. Go figure she lives with people who produce drum and bass techno music. It was clearly meant to be. After dinner we were supposed to go out with her roommates but it got to be a large crowd and it seemed like a late night, Michelle had classes ("uni") all day on Tuesday and I had to get on a plane so we opted for a lazy night in and skyped with Erin :)

Over all Leeds was excellent. Mostly because Michelle was there and it is always nice to have a little piece of home when you are far far away from home :)

I called you from Paris.

It has been about two weeks since I last utilized the blog. Sorry friends. I was very busy traveling all over Europe and traveling with a laptop is less than preferable. My current goal is to break down my 10 day international adventure slowly and surely in several posts. So lets start at the very beginning...a very good place to start....we watched the sound of music last night sorry. Clearly Paris is the beginning though if you couldn't tell by my post title.

It took an entire day to get to Paris due to the bus transfers, waiting for the flight, and the bus into the city but once I saw that Eiffel Tower from the highway it was completely worth it. There is NOTHING overrated about the Eiffel Tower and I am so glad I decided to go. Once I was in the city center I said goodbye to my roommates and took a cab to meet Michelle and Brian at the Three Ducks Hostel.

Now this is an important side note. I understand I am broke and hostels are cheap and sometimes not the best, dually noted. I do not for the life of me however understand how the bathrooms and showers were outside in what was about 20 degree weather. And I mean OUTSIDE. NOT HEATED. AND NOTHING LIKE THE OUTDOOR SHOWER AT THE CAPE K THANKS. Thank goodness I was only there for two nights although on Saturday I had the saddest shower of my life. You had to keep hitting the button to keep the water going and if you didn't keep pushing it the water stopped and when you pushed to start it you got a blast of freezing cold first. I had to keep my hand pushing the button and shower with one hand. Sad sad shower.

That being said I was with Shelli which, honestly, being in Paris with you best friend on Valentines day? Once in a lifetime opportunity. I met Brian who is Michelle's travel buddy and he is a pretty cool guy and I am glad Michelle has such a good friend with her in Leeds. So the three of us stayed in a mixed quad which is four people, males and females mixed, in one room to sleep. When we were picking it out we figured with three of us we would have the upper hand no matter what. We actually really lucked out with the fourth roommate. Her name was Clare and she was from the Philippines and she had come to Paris to meet the man she has been talking to online for the last four months. She was about 35 and going back to school for her masters in communications. She could talk your ear off. Clare was a doll though and just a really good person so that was a win for us.

On my first day in below freezing cold Paris we went on a three hour walking tour where we saw the entire city and gathered a little bit of History here and there. I saw the opera house that Phantom of the Opera is modeled after and the fountain that Anne Hathaway throws her phone into at the end of the Devil Wears Prada. I saw Historical things too like the giant yellow crayon Napoleon stole from Egypt and the Louvre and Norte Dame and the Arc that is the middle of a round-about that connects 12 roads. Danger zone for sure.It was over all a really good time but it was FREEZING.

After that little event we went back, took power naps, and went to the Eiffel Tower. Michelle broke her camera right before we went up. Guuhhh Shelli. She was cranky but once we were on our way she got excited. The view from the top was AMAZING and we even saw a proposal (she said yes!) and it was everything it was always supposed to be in my head. What more could a girl ask for? Dreams come true. I stood on top of Paris at night and saw the brilliant city for miles around. Perfect.

After we got down we met Miss Kathrine Hom for dinner! Mind you it was like 10pm so a late dinner but I was super excited! She brought her friend Matt with her who is living in Paris and had such great information for us. We went to a diner kind of a place and then took pictures underneath the tower like classy American tourist are supposed to do. Then we said our goodbyes and off to bed it was.

Sunday we went to the palace of Versailles. It was beautiful! After working so hard on that ridiculous 20 page Marie-Antoinette paper for a whole semester it was nice to see some of it come to life! I was disappointed with the way it was a museum instead of like a tour inside the palace and it was ridiculously crowded and difficult to see things but I loved it anyway. I took a picture with Michelle inside the Hall of Mirrors. Excellent. The Trianon and the Petit Trianon were exactly what I expected. It was left more in the condition where you walk in and out of rooms and I loved it. I stood where Marie-Antoinette used to sleep. How cool is that?

After this adventure it was back to Paris where in true Parisian fashion we munched on Crepes and a whole bagget for lunch. I am not kidding you the Parisians walk around eating whole baggets for lunch. It is outrageous! And the crepes and croissants where the best i have ever had! Also it is important to note that there are really no such things as traffic laws in Paris, I mean they have lights but lights are completely optional so eating and wondering is exceptionally difficult in Paris. You must ALWAYS be paying attention! Finally when the time was right it was off to Charles De Gaulle airport and too Leeds I went!

The Tin Whistle

So yesterday was a wonderful lazy Sunday. Murphy's opened in town (the ice cream store) and we went and had wonderful ice cream. Any place that serves me ice cream in a martini glass so it is at a higher elevation to my mouth is a good place. Other than that I cooked and studied. I know, thrilling.

Mondays are music days. I really enjoy my music class. Our professor tells us about all the traditions and lets us listen to music and we always have a good time. Then the second half of the class starts: tin whistle playing.

If we ever had a doubt in our lives that the musical talent may have touched my blessed soul...stop doubting...David has all the musical talent in the family and then some because I cannot for the life of me manage to capture the art of tin whistle playing.

Go back to the third grade and picture the recorder. Now make it thinner and silver with a skinny mouth piece. Ahh the tin whistle. The sounds that escape my tin whistle would probably kill all the sheep outside my window if I played in my room. It is something like my fingers aren't nibble enough or maybe they are too porky. Or maybe music is a gene and it seriously skipped me because my singing is not any better, although I try.

My roommate told me the other day my voice was a music between Fergie and Jesus and I thought she was oh so clever and then she had to admit that she stole the quote from Step Brothers (which I have clearly never seen) but to the point I'm not much of a singer.

Besides my oh so musical Monday, I also work on Monday mornings. Between 11 and half 11 I go to the senior center. It was my first day. I met Eileen, Joan, Josie, Other Josie, Lily, and Bridget. They were lovely. Bridget didn't talk at all at first and about 15 minuets in proclaimed it was a shame I was an American because I would have made a lovely Rose of Tralee. I have no idea what that is but I am pretty sure it was a compliment and that I like Bridget a lot. Joan is funny too, doesn't say much but she really loves to color and she was always smiling :D The rest were all lovely but I was mostly with Bridget and Joan today.

Tomorrow: Conquering of the first official Hill Walk take 3. I bet it rains again!

...and then I was inspired

So I keep a Journal but clearly I just spent my last several extremely boring hours reading Michelle's blog and was like wow. I could be writing on of these. So then I did. For real I love Google and g-mail and now my g-blog. Straight up Google is my homie G. Thanks for the inspiration. (you give meaning to my lifeeee you're the insiprationnn....bahahaaa)

I have been to Ireland, Germany, and the part of the UK that is in Ireland. Holler. I could not possible try to recap from the beginning but I will explain the name of the Blog and then proceed forward from there.

Once upon a time I went to Dublin where I feel in love with the city. Not like objectum sexuality or anything creepy like that but I am pretty sure that Dublin is in my top five favorite places in the world. So right. Now in Dublin there is my own personal Disney world. It is a very magical place called the Guinness storehouse. This is in fact the place where they store the 3 million pints of Guinness they create per day. It remains uncertain of how many of these 3 million pints per day I have actually consumed, but lets just say I might actually own part of the company with the dedication (and investments) I've made in the form of a pint of Guinness.

I pretty much LOVE Guinness. Also I love fashion, so clearly I had to combine my love for Guinness and fashion by heading to the gift shop. That is where I was introduced to the most wonderful phrase in the world:" Every women needs a little black drink." This phrase is perfection. It was also the inspiration for the name of this blog. Love it.

Otherwise I've been living in Dingle for a month and I am starting to get the hang of things and am having some good craic while I'm here :) Legit the other night I had part of my music class in the pub. Life is amazing. More adventures to follow I'm sure as it is, tonight is a Saturday night!