My last ever day at Public Achievement was so hard. Before work, I grabbed a bunch of ice cream
bars and two cards, one for everyone and one for my supervisor, Davy. I was emotional while writing in them that I
had to go upstairs to the training room and have a good cry. I thought I was doing a good job of keeping
it together after that until they presented me with a bunch of going away gifts
and I lost it while trying to express my appreciation for everything. They got me a Belfast sweatshirt, cupcakes,
an American cookie cake, an Ireland trinket box with a shamrock on it, a card,
my very own journal and a WIMPS Crew t-shirt, my favorite thing of all. I cried every time one of my coworkers came
to say goodbye for good. It’s amazing
how you can become so attached to people in such a short time. They said it was like I’d been there forever
and assured me that they were sure I’d be back.
I felt very loved that day. I
also wrote an article on Monsanto for the WIMPS site that day.
That night, I got to go out with a couple coworkers for my
friend’s 30th birthday. We
started at her house and had a couple drinks then headed to a club called
Mynt. We had a good time there and
danced the night away.
On Saturday morning, I got on a plane to London to meet up
with my bestie, Victoria for the weekend.
I was pretty nervous about getting around London by myself but I finally
made it to the hostel around noon and we got some lunch and walked around a
bit. We had both gotten up pretty earlier so we took a rest at the hostel for a
bit then rushed over to make our tour at the Harry Potter Studios by
5:30pm. It was amazing and a dream come
true!! We spent two and a half hours
that way, just freaking out and taking tons of pictures. Due to various transportation difficulties,
we got home about 11 and fell into bed.
The next morning we grabbed breakfast and checked out of the
hostel to explore the city. We took the
tube over to Waterloo and saw the London Eye, Big Ben and the Houses of
Parliament, Westminster Abby, the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace
and a bit of the British Museum. I had a
really lovely time and it was great to see Vicky again. Unfortunately, I had to rush over to the
airport a lot earlier than I wanted to.
I was worrying about missing my flight due to delays on the way over when
I met 14 Irish guys who had been in London for a stag party and were also
flying to Belfast. I pretty much stuck
with them till we all got on the flight. I got back to Belfast and we went our
separate ways though I ended up running into one of them on the walk back to
Stranmillis. It was funny.
On Monday morning, we reunited with the Derry people and
piled into the van to go down to Dublin.
On the way down, we stopped briefly in south Armagh to talk about the
violence around the border. We then got
to visit Newgrange, which is a famous burial site. It was really interesting to learn a bit of
history about it and how the Winter Solstice lines up with the small window
above the entrance to light up the tomb.
It was also a beautiful day and I really enjoyed it. We made our way down to Dublin and checked
into our rooms at All Hallows College.
It was super fancy and nice with comfy beds, private bathrooms, heated
towel racks and a huge window with a great view of the front lawn. That night was pretty quiet, we just had
supper at a pub and headed to bed.
The next morning, we were up bright and early for breakfast
before heading to Trinity College to view the Book of Kells. It was really interesting to learn about such
an ancient and studied piece of work.
They also had an amazing library there (I secretly want to be a
librarian for the rest of my life) and I decided I would’ve gone to Trinity if
I’d had the opportunity. We then headed
over to Kilmainham Gaol Prison to take the tour there and then over to the
Guinness Storehouse. We learned how to
pour the perfect pint of Guinness and then got to enjoy our pint in the Gravity
Bar which has a wonderful view of Dublin.
That night was also pretty quiet.
The next day we got to meet two politicians, one from Fine
Gael and one from the Labour party. They talked about their views on Northern
Ireland and what their party is up to in the Republic. Afterwards, we got a tour of the parliament
buildings and sat in on a debate of a transportation bill. I enjoyed the tour but the debate was so dry
and boring that I fell asleep multiple times up in the balcony. I was glad to leave and go get a yummy
burrito at Tolteca (just like Chipotle).
That night I went with a couple girls downtown to get supper and have a
drink at the famous Temple Bar.
On Thursday morning, we headed up into the Wicklow Mountains
to visit Glencree Peace and Reconciliation Centre. We got a tour, presentation and did some
activities there. It was such a nice day
out that we kicked soccer ball around
for a while then journeyed through the beautiful mountains over to Glendalough
to walk through and see the sights. I’m
so in love with the countryside here and I’m going to miss it dearly.
The next morning, we checked out of All Hallows and made
some stops in south Armagh again to talk about Nigel’s experiences with the
conflict. It was a lot of time on the
road that day but it was a good time. We
stopped in Belfast to eat supper at Build-a-Burger (amazing!) and then finally
got up to Coleraine back to our apartments.
It upsets me that I leave this amazing place only two weeks
from today. I think that if someone
offered me a couple more months here, I would take it. I’ve done so much and come so far and I’m
really proud of it all. It’s going to be strange being back in the United
States. There’s so much I’m leaving behind here.
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