Spring has Sprung

I'm one of those people who can't pick a favorite season. I love the summer for the sunshine and the sand and the boatrides. I love winter for the purity of the snowfall and the hot chocolate. Fall always captures my heart with the beautiful colors, and the pumpkins. And spring, for that feeling you get on the first warm day of the year. The feeling of endless possibility. That after all the cold and the darkness and the grey, that sunshine appears, and life emerges, and the world fills with color. That feeling has lasted all weekend, as I take every opportunity to seize the Dublin days as they dwindle and fall in love with all shades of green.

Yesterday, I got the chance to go hiking with the study abroad students in the Wicklow Mountains at Glendalough. We took a bus from UCD at 10:30, of which I slept and listened to my IPod. We toured the monastery dated back thousands of years after watching a video about the history behind it. It's basically a graveyard now, and it was somewhat strange to walk through it. All those gravestones, symbols of lives lived and loved ones lost.

All the baby sheep had just been born like a week ago. I wanted to keep one. All looked like little Lamp Chops... (the TV show, not the dinner)

We had somewhat of a picnic lunch, some girls played tag, we sang Lizzie McGuire, just another careless day. We walked around and I laid in the grass in the sun watching the wind blow by and the clouds dance in the sky. I could have fallen asleep in that perfect golf course green grass in the sun, but then it was time to hike. We had an older man as a guide but he was a diehard with his camelback and his zip off pants. He took us through the monastery and then through the woods. Like off the path, up a muddy hill, working the muscles for sure. We walked down the mountain towards the Upper Glendalough, so perfect it looked fake.

Then up another hill to a waterfall and around and back to the entrance. A two hour hike through the beautiful Irish forests. I can't describe it any better than the pictures can. Just beautiful. Peaceful. Serene.

As I walked through the path eating my apple (Pink Ladies, my favorite) I wonder why people spend so much time indoors. I'm not saying I'm about to pick up and hike around the streets of Mundelein, but the more time I spend outside the clearer life gets. Like its so easy to get wrapped up in your own life when you are in your own house, in your own room, in your own world. It's almost as if being outside reminds you of the world, big and immense, and that it'll continue to spin regardless. "I'm just hanging on as this old world keeps spinning and it's good to know it's out of my control and if there's one thing I've learned from all this living, it's that it wouldn't change a thing if I let go." Any day that can be summed up in Jimmy Buffet lyrics is a good day indeed.

All that fresh air wore me out and I spent the rest of the evening lounging. Only to wake up late and do the same thing. Dublin sprung its clocks ahead back to 6 hours ahead of Chicago so I lost an hour. (I am not sure why the whole world can't just do it on the same day). The sun was shining and it was time for a little spring cleaning. Time to open the windows (the whole 2 inches they open), turn off the heat, and clean up my room. It's been a mess since getting home from Spring Break. Taking advantage of the beautiful Dublin day, I hiked myself up the road to the grocery store. I was in desperate need of nail polish remover and some more rations for the week. I ended up with some cleaning supplies, face wash, nail polish remover, pears, blueberries, pasta, tomato sauce, yogurt, granola, and some digestives. A successful trip. I took a new way home, one of my favorite things to do.

The Irish Countryside (from the bus ride)

I got home and cleaned and vaccummed and put away my groceries and had some yogurt, fruit and granola for lunch. Before I knew it, it was time for my group meeting. We have a group presentation tomorrow and given that no UCD buildings are open on Sundays, something that still blows my mind since that's the day everyone studies... we planned to meet at 5 at one of the guys house' off campus. Worldwide guys living together means disaster. Eavan, the other girl in the group, picked up me and Stevie. We ended up working on the project for 4 hours, most of which was spent chatting about random things, like how the Irish love Lucky Charms but a box is like 8 euro ($11 America dollars or more) or about how they have TV license inspectors and how some people don't buy the license so they have to hide from the inspectors. I love the Irish. They are just so fun and lighthearted and easy going. We ended up ordering pizza and sitting on the floor eating and talking. Reminded me of being at home with my friends working on homework. We finally finished at like 9:15 and Eavan took us home. All in all it was a good study time and we got our work done while having a little craic.

Time to finish up the rest of my homework and go to bed. Early morning tomorrow.