Day 10 and Day 11- Dublin

Arrrg I'm writing these pretty late.

Day 10:
We went to McDonalds to eat breakfast with Karen, Kevin, Miriam, and Aiden.
I had orange juice and two and 1/2 hash browns.
We went to the gas station to fill up our rental car.
They were running late, so we didn't get to say goodbye to Miriam or Aiden.

We drove to our new place in Dublin, and yeah… The lady who's renting it to us is super sweet and I love the blue girly room I'm staying in. Plus, she said we can take a book to read
if we want.

Mom and I went to Penny's. Oh goodness.
I got 3 oxfords, 1 sparkly ballet shoe, two velvet skater skirts, 6 scrunchy hair ties, 2 earrings, 2 sunglasses, and 1 bag of Haribo Gummies. Total: 70 Euro.

Day 11:
Mom and I walked through Phoenix Park- which is legit the longest park in Europe. We walked for miles, I was getting tired… We saw nice climbing trees, dogs, runners, and a small bush maze.

Then we finally hopped on a green tour bus. The dude that sold us our ticket never actually gave us the ticket so we had to hop off and walk around to find him and ask for it.

We ended up going to Penny's later at night. For 8 Euros I got: a 1 Euro green skater skirt, a black cami for 4 Euros, and an orange cute purse for 5 Euro.

We then went out to eat at the Hole in the Wall- a pub within walking distance of our house. We all three got the roast beef with mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, carrots, and stuffing. It was so good.

When I got home I got to page 160-ish in my book I'm reading.

Day 9- King John's Castle and goodbyes

January 3rd,

Today was so perfect.

Zoe and I had crisps with cups of noodles for lunch.

Then Mom, Zoe, and I drove to King John's Castle in Limerick. I was surprised at how well kept it still was. We got to climb up all the towers, and see a lot of history stuff.

Here are some pics from the top of the towers.

We also went in a church where one of the king's was hung from the ceiling by his ankles-after being dug up from his grave….How weird...

When we got back I had a bowl of Aunt Karen's delicious chili. Then we went to the Russell Gallery, where we met up with lots of people. Mary got to see some of Zoe's great art on mom's phone, and Mary sorta convinced Zoe to make more art to sell here in the gallery. Some of the things for sale are ridiculously 500 Euros! We had hot chocolate, and then I went upstairs where I played darts and I saw the cutest most adorable cat I've ever seen. I can't get over this. Her name is Luna. She's 8 months old. She looks like she's Siamese and Persian. She's so cute!!

After hot chocolate at the gallery, and tasting my first wine ever called Porsecco(smelled nice, tasted gross), we went back to Karen's house. We played Don't Panic with the Malonie's, ooh and Zoe pulled out Miriam's tooth that had been wiggling all week!

We said our goodbyes to the village girls, and I honestly can't wait to see them again. It was so fun being with them. Mom is planning a trip to Dubai before Karen and Kevin move from there to live in Ireland all year. Also, Zoe plans to go back to Ireland in summer of 2015. Hopefully I can raise enough money to go too! 

Day 8- Cliffs of Moher

Today I went to the Cliffs of Moher! The views were spectacular and beautiful! My mom and sister each got  a ring from the giftshop but I got wool socks. :)

Day 7- 10k walk through New Quay

January 1st,

Ooh I like the sound of that….It's 2014!!
This morning I had a waffle dolled up in maple syrup and butter. Drum roll please…Then I started and completed the 10k walk through New Quay! That's about 6.2 miles!

I was with the village girls- one of them who had been doing this annual walk since she was 7. 

Yes, it was raining. Yes, there were hills to walk up. Yes it was beautiful!

There were lots of lovely dogs

Everytime we came near cows it smelled like bad cheese, but I was still excited to see them. 

I told myself that I wanted to have an exciting, adventurous, risky, fun year, and this was an excellent start. 

**

It's now almost 10 at night and I'm feeling quite gloomy. 

I wanna be back home, be back in my room. I wanna be able to pet the cats and go bike riding. I wanna go to school even though I hate it most of the time. I at least wanna have some great friends at school and have more confidence. Last year I shut a lot of people down and was shy and quiet. I'm sick of that. I need to have fun. 

Day 6-New Years Party

December 31,

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

We came back from Effa's house. I got stuck with making a lego spy house for HOURS. And then later at night it was crushed, destroyed, pummeled.

I had some Haribo gummies.

Also, I had some of Aunt Karen's ham and chili, which were both the bomb dot com.

I got stuck into sitting on the couch watching news bloopers and America's funniest Videos for a while…

Also, I saw a huge double rainbow around mid-day.

Ugh, and I got stuck eating leftover mac and cheese for lunch (too much of it).

All the village girls and it seemed all the village adults were there too.

In particular, my favorite village adult is Ellie. She had short grey hair and wore a red sweater. She greeted everyone with a hug, and sat in the kids' area at the couch. When asked what she would like to drink by Kevin, she responded with, "Whatever the kids are having, what is it these days, 7up?"

Also, she goes swimming EVERY morning. Reminder: the summers here in New Quay are around 60 degrees…So the winter water seems unbearable.

At 12 all the adults joined in this hand holding thing with a song.

Zoe got home around 2:30 and had a super eventful evening. She went to the 18 or older concert, got front row seats, met the band, went to a super fancy hotel in the minister's car, got served free awesome food and a strawberry dessert by guys with silver trays and white gloves, saw fireworks twice, and got to have crackers… Sigh…I wish I could've done that...