Saturday & Sunday: October 26 & 27 - Last weekend in Dublin

My motto for this trip:)

Even though I'm in debt a ridiculous amount from this trip... This saying sums up how I feel!!

Well once we woke up, something came in me, I got the itch back to run!  So I jumped on Cayla and said LETS RUN!!!  Luckily, she very rarely says no - and she got up and came with me!!  I told her we would do a short 30 minute, 3 mile run!  mwhahaa!  I ended up getting us lost so we did a 4 mile run - but as you can see from our time, it was very relaxed and we stopped for a ton of pictures!  We ran the opposite way I normally walk to work & found this amazing trail!  So awesome!:)  There was even a rainbow at the start of our run indicating it was destiny we do this!!!! 

I was sooo close to running this Dublin Marathon - if it was not for me getting sick, this would have been a road in the marathon for me!! 

sooo around the mile 2 mark we were supposed to head back, buttttt as you can see we made a complete wrong turn - oops!!!  Can't said I totally did this on accident:) 

When we got back, I was motivated to eat a decent meal now too!!  So I made me some pasta and vegetables!! 

Then, it was time to dress up for Halloween!!!! We purchased these costumes - we wanted to be Minions, but we also did not want to spend much money!  So we got these costumes for €5 ... now that is a deal!! Also, it was a meetup event - with 500 people responding that they were going!  We were quite excited!!

This was definitely a more successful meetup event!!  We had a lot of fun with everyone and met people from all over the world - Germany, Italy, America, Dublin, London!

Great night:) 

On Sunday, we decided to lay low since Monday we were doing a Paddywagon tour (it is a Bank Holiday - meaning like everything is closed:))!  Cayla had this sudden urge to dye her hair her natural color - BROWN!!!!  So we went to the hair salon who told her to come back on Tuesday - AAAhhhhh so excited for her - maybe when I get home I'll change mine to natural color too!!!

I was craving a good steak - so we went to TGI Fridays for dinner & I finally had my steak dinner.  I feel like I am iron and protein deprived from all the PB&J's I have been eating here!!  Definitely been on carb overload since coming to Ireland!! 

I cannot wait to have real meals again when I go home!!! I already asked my mom if my first meal could be steak, asparagus, zucchini & mash potatoes!!  AAAHH - Just one short week and I'll be back in America - soo crazy!



Irish word of the day:  "class," = great

Day 18: Friday, October 25 - RCSI, class day 2

I guess first things first - HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM... You're still so young for me but Maria and Sarah won't be able to say that when their my age.  Haha!!:). I love you and I'm so glad you came to Ireland to visit!!!!:)

This morning it was so nice out, we've had beautiful weather this past week in the 60s. We headed down to Dublin town center at 9 AM to spend another day at the RCSI pharmacy school! We sat in on 4 classes about liver disease, phytochemistry, microbiology, and Parkinson's disease. We never had a class called phytochemistry but we did learn a lot about medicinal uses of plants in Dr. Schiff's classes. Their class notes were printed out on power point handouts, they looked just like our notes at home!

I decided to be studious nerd and took a lot of notes:)). I'll share the ones for liver disease and Parkinson's disease!!! I loved listening to their professors because the accents but they teach very similar.  It is a lot more hands on lectures back home because today we literally sat in the same room for 4 hours and 4 different classes....and them just talking.  It was definitely very very good but very Informstion driven!!!!

The first lecturer was The original program director and she did a fantastic job with incorporating a case with the liver disease- otherwise though it was pure information and this was the 3rd year students!!

After lunchtime today... We went to the Guinness storehouse so Cayla could explore it!!  It was slight rain on the way but a nice walk!!

It is soooooo cool -- made up of 7 floors and in the very center of them it makes the shape of a pint, which is considered the largest pint glass in the world by the Guinness Book of World Records! If it was filled with liquid, it could hold 14.3 million pints of Guinness. 

We did the tasting experience and I felt bad for Cayla because the people were not as good as last time I came with my mom and Jeremy!!!

The foam at the top is very thick because it contains Nitrogen. It's important to bring the glass up to your mouth and tip it back so you get more than just the foam which tastes very bitter! The actual beer itself is a deep red!

With our admission ticket, we got a complementary pint of Guinness and actually got to pour it out from the tap ourselves! To start you had to pull the tap towards you to add the nitrogen in so the foam could form. After pouring it 3/4 of the way you had to let it settle, then top it off by pushing the tap away from you so no nitrogen would be added. The foam is so thick it reminded us of ice cream..

Cayla got some Guinness stew and mashed potatoes in Arthur's bar before we headed out into the beautiful day:)

I cooked us a delicious meal of tortellini and tea with honey for my dang cough won't go away..but it actually tasted delicious!!!!  I was quite proud:)

After dinner we went to meet up with my friend Ailbhe...:). We are excited I love hanging out with her!!!

We had a great night on the Terrance:). And made it home in time to catch a tram:)

Irish slang of the day:  bucketing outside == raining heavily