Let’s talk about packing

I haven’t been blogging much lately, or at all ever, but that’s ok.  See, I’ve been reading other people’s blogs instead!  Pretty much the same thing.

I’ve been looking at self-image blogs, baking blogs (need to make those chai cupcakes ASAP), silly cartoon blogs, and my new favorite, fashion blogs.

I am pretty far from the most fashionable person around:  many times, such as right now, I am content to lounge around in a t-shirt and gym shorts or pajamas and contemplate how long I can get away with not showering.  

Standard Shannon attire

But these fashion blogs have intrigued me.  I want to dress pretty when I leave the house.  I’ve even been making more of an effort to do that.  I want to feel happy and photo-worthy in whatever I wear.

Or so I think now.  It does seem like a lot of work.  Either way, I do not currently have the wardrobe or the reasons to make an effort each day with what I wear.  After all, I have a master’s degree to finish!  I will not be attempting a fashion blog.  I will continue to waste hours looking at blogs like this one, where people talk about how nice they look while working on their graduate degrees.   Oh…

But I will not let this go completely!  I have felt somewhat uninspired in much of my blogging, but I keep doggedly writing “travel/living abroad” dribble every month or so and shoving it into the faces of my facebook friends.  No more!  Well, maybe some more…

 

But now I am also going to talk much more specifically about certain aspects of my travels!   About what clothes I packed, how they worked out with the activities that location has to offer, and what I wish I had had on that trip.  And then I'll take some pictures.  And hopefully by doing this, I will start to put more thought and effort into the way I look, and that'll make me happy!

For the next few weeks, I am going to be writing about the trips I’ve taken since September, and when I’m done going through my travel archives, I will start posting stuff for trips before they happen.

That’s the plan, anyways.

Summahtime!

So, just over a month later, I have been to Bosnia and Spain and have finished all of my work for the spring semester.

Woot woot!!!!!!!!!!

Now all that is left to do is my dissertation, which will be completely finished on August 23, exactly 4 months from now.

In the intervening time, I'd like to:

1.  Go home for 3 weeks.

2.  Be visited by Sarah, Sarah, and Ariel.

3.  Be visited by my parents.

4.  Be visited by my sister.

5.  Go to Amsterdam.

6.  Go to Italy.

7.  Go to Scotland.

8.  Go to Croatia.

9.  Go to Budapest.

10.  Go somewhere farther north in Europe.

11.  Go to a music festival.

12.  Go to Northern Ireland.

13.  Write my dissertation.

So that's the plan!  We'll see how much actually happens.  Some of it will take place in the time between August 23 and September 10, when I'm planning on going home.  Any other suggestions of what I should do?

Wallowing

I want to go home...

So it's been about an hour since I posted that first, rather whiney, sentence and since then, I've showered, put on some clean clothes, eaten breakfast, and overall decresed my wallowyness.  It stemmed in the first place from sadness that Phil had gone home after his week long visit, and morphed into homesickness and a bit of jealousy that he got to go home but I didn't.

But rather than focus on all that, I'll talk about what we did while he was here!

The afternoon of his arrival we ate at a pub (the super touristy King's Head), and then I had to have a group meeting for my Bosnia project group at my house, but that was alright because Phil just ended up sleeping.  The next day, I fed him porridge and tea to get him started with the Irish breakfast food (which I think he is now obsessed with).  We then wandered around town, but the weather was horrible (typical Irish weather...) so we didn't do that for very long.

Saturday and Sunday we spent on Inis Mor, the largest of the Aran Islands.  I have been to all three of the islands and the smaller ones have less tourist influences, but there is also less to do.  We stayed at Noirin Ui Ghoill's B&B and it was great.  Our hostess was friendly and helpful and the breakfast was perfect.  Phil had a full Irish breakfast (something he's been looking forward to since I told him about it last summer) and I had beans and toast, along with cereal and brown bread.  Phil became jealous of the fact that I had beans and toast and he didn't, and insisted that we have it another two times for breakfast while he visited.

We rented bikes on Inis Mor from the place underneath Supermac's, and the first day rode past the seal colony, up to Dun Aenghus, and then went to the Wormhole.  Those are the three main must-sees on the island.

Phil looking down at the Wormhole

We had dinner at Ti Joe Watty, which is a surprisingly lovely pub.  I had vegetable soup and Phil had seafood chowder which amazed him.  He got seafood chowder at two other restaurants while visiting but nothing matched up to the chowder at Joe Watty's.

The second day we rode to the southeastern tip of the island and wandered around the beach and cliffs.  There was nobody around and it was gorgeous.  The weather took a turn for the worse that afternoon, but considering we'd had over 24 hours of clear skies, we were pretty damn lucky.


That was the main event of Phil's trip.  Monday I did homework, Tuesday we wandered around town and I did homework, Wednesday I went to class and then did some homework.

But Thursday was St. Patrick's Day!  I didn't even think about doing homework.  I had heard that St. Patrick's day in Ireland is actually a much smaller event than in the US, and while this was true, it was still a much bigger celebration than what we have in Tucson.  Phil and I went into town in the afternoon and watched the parade, and the crowd was full of people wearing green leprechaun hats and being silly.  We had some Guinness cake at a tea shop, and then wandered around the streets and had shamrocks painted on our faces by a random lady.  We got a pint with a couple of my classmates at a pub, then bought some frozen pizzas and beer and went back to a classmate's house to celebrate the evening.  While that might seem lame, it was actually the best choice because all of the pubs were PACKED with people that evening.

While I am writing this blog from Ireland, I know that stuff about Ireland is actually pretty lacking here.  So that is a little bit about traveling in Ireland!  Go to Inis Mor and come for St. Patrick's day and it won't be lame!  I also went to Portugal a couple of weeks ago, and that was awesome!  Go to Guimarães!  There's a castle!

Castle!

I'll probably do another travel review looking in more depth at everywhere I've been in the summer, but until then my posts will be rambly and random :)