Last Post from Dublin

Today is my last day in Dublin so let me catch everyone up on what I've been doing since my last post. I've spent alot of time just walking around the city. There are lots of statues and monuments to look at around town. One place in particular we visited was the General Post office.
Sounds boring right, like a bunch of stamps or something. Actually the GPO was the place where the Easter Rising of 1916 took place. Those who were trying to gain independence for Ireland barricaded themselves for almost a week and fought from this site. The GPO was destroyed in the process as the British troops were firing straight at the building. So they have a few monuments and plaques to that event. Sorry I didn't have my camera with me for alot of this!
Next we stopped by the Irish Potato Famine statues. They were kind of creepy. Everything about these sculptures was emaciated and elongated. But the famine is important to how Ireland and even the United States is shaped today as most Irish immigrants came to the US during that time.
Yesterday we went to the National Gallery of Ireland and took a tour that showed how the formation of Irish nationalism through art. It was a really cool gallery. I've never been to a legit art museum before actually. They had several paintings of very famous artists there. Jack Yeats brother of W.G. Yeats had an extensive collection there. I also saw a Monet, de Goya, and a Vermeer. They had this special exhibition of sketches including one by Raphael (what!), Albrecht Durer, and others. This picture is the Caravaggio that I saw called the Taking of Christ.
Every since then I have been trying to pack. We are leaving Dublin tonight/tomorrow morning at 4 AM! That's insane. Oy. Bigger problem. The airline we are taking has a weight limit on suitcases of 44 pounds. Eek. I'm just kind of hoping for the best. I thought about wearing two pairs of jeans on the plane but that in the end I decided against it. So we've all been planning how we can maximize our coat pocket space, etc because our carry on bags have a weight limit as well. So tomorrow morning I will be wearing a t shirt, sweatshirt, thick sweater on top of that and my heavy north face jacket over all of that. I think I saved like 10 pounds right there. Problem: it's hard to move with that much stuff on your body. Proof:
Kelsey couldn't move her arms. Just like A Christmas Story.

"The Country of Whiskey and Love"

I have now taken up residence at Trinity College in the lovely city of Dublin. We are actually staying on campus in one of the "houses." It's fun because our whole group can be close together. Trinity College is a beautiful campus. I'm hoping to take a tour of it so that I can get all the history and everything. Apparently Samuel Beckett and Sir Isaac Newton are among the many famous people who went to school here. Yesterday we were given the day off to get a feel for the city (and catch up with all the work that I had not done). Me and Kelsey explored the town and then met up with a group to take a tour of the Guinness Factory. Yay. For anyone who's wondering, the drinking age is 18 here so I am legal to drink. It was an interesting tour as the place we toured still makes beer for all of Europe and North America. Fun fact: when Arthur Guinness signed the lease for the building in 1759 he signed it for a 9000 year lease. Crazy, huh. This year they're celebrating their 250th anniversary so it's a pretty big deal.
The end of the tour leads you to the "Gravity Bar" where you have an almost 360 degree view of the city of Dublin. Actually this bar is the highest point in the city as they do not have skyscrapers (or anything over about 5 stories). The view was amazing.
This picture actually captures the essence of Ireland as it can rain on you at any minutes. I'll be walking down the street and it will be sunny, then pour for about 3 minutes, and then be sunny again. The temperature changes that drastically too. Included with the tour of the Guinness factory is a free pint of Guinness.Don't worry guys. I took like 3 sips of it and couldn't handle it anymore. Beer is not my drink. And I could never replace Diet Coke as the number one drink in my heart.