Hello All! I'm back!
What a wonderful past three weeks it has been! I'll see if I can't sum it up in a few paragraphs:
Our first week was definitely the worst. The temperatures were below 20 over there and we froze for most of the week. Luckily, I remembered my long johns, so I was slightly warmer than the rest of my fellow travelers. Ah yes, there were four of us: Bobby, Amber, Sarah, and myself. When we got there a girl from Minnesota, Michelle, joined our group. It was a very good size. Being in a large group would have added so much stress to it. Anyway, back to the cold. It was frickin cold. Our hostile, Barnacles, were kind enough to provide a free small room heater. Everyone who worked there was so nice, if any of you ever find yourselves needing a cheap hostile in Dublin, go there. You get free breakfast :).
Classes started the next day, our teacher was an Australian man named David Scott. It was a great experience to work with him. He liked to tie in improv exercises to rehearsal, which really helped me. My favorite scenes that we did with him were the huge dance scene from Dancing at Lughnasa and the openeing scene of Play by Samuel Beckett. Oh, how I love Samuel Beckett! I gained more appreciation for him over the trip.
Anyway, we had David for about 2 weeks and the last week, worked with an older English gentleman, Mark Lambert. He had so much experience and had a lot of interesting stories to tell. However, I felt rushed with his scenes because we only had four days to choose and rehearse them. It was kind of stressful, but we did it. At the end of it all was our final showcase, which was kind of special, but everyone seemed to like it.
So enough of class, time to discuss the funs tuff! We did a lot of pubbing, and got to see some cool shows. The Seafarer was my favorite. I recommend that one :). Our favorite pub was a place called Gogarty's, which had a great atmosphere. Like every other touristy pub in Temple Bar area, however, it was very expensive. Prices went up as the night went on. Thankfully, there was an American bar and restaurant called Thunderoad right next to Gogarty's, which had cheap drinks.. So we haunted that place quite often. We also went clubbing one night at The Button Factory. That was pretty fun, but I'm not much of a club person, so I had to have a pint in me to really enjoy it haha :). Needless to say, I don't think clubbing will be a hobby of mine over here anytime soon. I will, however, miss my Guinness!
One weekend we went to Galway, where a lot of money was spent shopping. The shops close very early over there. And the pubs reopen at around 10. So all night it's LOUD. Dublin seemed like a library compared to Galway. We still managed to sleep. And I saw RENT for the first time, which wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.
On that Sunday we took a bus tour all around the west coast of Ireland. The highlight was The Cliffs of Moher, which EVERYONE should see before they die! One of the most awe-inspiring sights I've ever seen! Words really can't describe it, you have to be there.
All in all, I hope to be going back to Ireland some day. I just hope they don't have a National Water Shortage this time haha.
Well now I can go around and see what you have all been up too while I was gone.

Have fun otaku-ing!