sadly...

i am just about to leave for my last final... which means i am about to leave the house and the country as a student in this program for the last time... sad, very sasd i know, but i am excited to see the family and friends when i get home!

i have...

less than 24 hours left in this country and it is a really depressing concept... one more final and then i run off to go catch a plane home! but i am still glad i did this- i made friends and enemies and have had a good craic... now that i know what that means...

this...

is my last night staying in notting hill with my program. after this i go home tomorrow and my semester here is over. i am really going to miss it and i am extremely sad to leave, though i don't have any regrets and i know i packed a lot into this last three months. what traveling to other countries i did was awesome and i got to see a lot of london and a lot of england... i can't say i have anything that i didn't like or didn't get to do that i really wanted to! tonight i have a last dinner with my program and then i go on the london eye- a fitting end to a great time. i am going to miss it here. goodbye 21 pembridge gardens, see you soon 741 school line drive! see you guys soon!

three days...

is all i have left. there is an air of solemn melancholy over the house- everyone is trying to have a great last weekend but we all know it has to end... very sad... but it has been a great run and i have gotten to go to an amazing amount of things in london, mostly thanks to the parents and the family, and i have traveled as lot! amsterdam, bruges, calais, scotland, dublin, madrid, portsmouth, hampton court, northampton... and more i am sure... everything was totally worth it and i only regret i don't have more time to stay!

so SAD...

i am going home... in 5 days... this is NOT OK! i mean i love my family and friends, but NOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I DON'T WANNA LEAVE! NOOOOO! but at least i get to do some more sightseeing this weekend... i am going to hampton court today and possibly the London Eye later or the Absolut Ice Bar... or both WHO KNOWS! I STILL DON'T WANNA LEAVE!

PICTURES YAY!

so the pictures from Dublin and Madrid are up and in sets so they are viewable. the ones from Portsmouth won't get developed until i get home, so those may be a bit...

Dublin and Madrid!

Dublin was amazing. i took a walking tour of the city, went to guiness and took pictures of Rainsford street, took a tour of the wicklow mountains, partied it up in Temple Bar, wandered around Dublin, went to see the Book of Kells, and went to Jameson! all in three days!

Then this weekend i went to beautiful, amazing Madrid. I went to the Plaza de Espana, saw much of the Parque del Retiro, wandered around the city and saw El Cortes Ingles, the crazy huge department store, went to the Palacio Real, saw the Cathedral of Madrid, saw the Museo Reina Sofia, a great little modern art museum, and generally wandered around the city taking in the beauty.

pictures of both will be up as soon as i can cajole the internet here to load them to flickr. they were both amazing! i want to go back!

also, i officially have housing for next year! i realize this may not sound as exciting, but as i forgot to give my roommate for next year my ID number so she could register on thursday and we were saved from crappy housing only by the fact that i had an early flight and we were able to remedy this early today- thanks to kait's quick searching and registration. so it's a bit of a big deal! and it's exciting that i get to be in Merion Gardens this year so i get air conditioning! yay!

again, pics up soon.