America!!

The last time I posted I was wrapping up semester one, and now I am headed back to Ireland for semester two! My time flew by so quickly because I was having so much fun enjoying time with my friends and family, getting a badly needed haircut, and indulging in all things American that I had missed so much (especially Beanie's baking!)

First stop was a trip to Holy Cross to suprise my best friends for the night, they were suspicious but it ended up working out really well.

Seton, Me, Emily, Meredith 

Shortly after it was Christmas time and I couldn't believe how quickly it had snuck up on me! I had been waiting for it for so long and all of a sudden it was Christmas morning and I was giving everyone the presents that I had bought for them in various places around Europe and Ireland.

Dad and I taking a selfie with the Christmas tree in town 

My family all wearing the Christmas sweaters I bought for them at Penny's

Then before I knew it it was my last week home and I was starting to buy things to pack and bring back to Ireland. This consisted mostly of nice shampoo and food.

Mom helping me to pack all my favorite American treats

As hard as it was saying goodbye to my family again, knowing what it feels like to be away from them for four months, I was very glad that I had Matt to travel back with me so that it was not all over at once.  We will then be meeting up with my roommate from Holy Cross, Seton, in Dublin and while I am really excited for all that we are going to do travel wise, I am mostly just really excited be able to spend the next ten days with my best friend.

Matt and I leaving for our trip 

Happy Birthday Bean!

Happy 16th Birthday Beanie!! I can't believe the baby of the family will be driving but so glad that I am not in the country when that happens. 

Have a great day, can't wait to see you! 

XO

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I had a wonderful time here in Cork on Thanksgiving yesterday.  Julia's parents took the other Holy Cross girls and I out to dinner at a restaurant called 14a.  It was a great meal, but I enjoyed the company even more.  It was so nice to be surrounded by friends, and adopted by someone else's family for the night.

However, my favorite part of the day was definitely right before I was about to go to bed. I got a quick FaceTime call from Katie asking if I wanted to say a Hello to Grandma and Grandpa before they left for the night.  It was nice to see both of them but even better when they told me what had happened earlier.  Apparently, as they were cleaning up from dinner this year they were wondering why there were more leftovers than usual, until someone else pointed out that the only thing different this year was that I was not there. I guess is was really apparent how much I eat when 3/4 of the pie is leftover and you are the only one missing....oops. Don't worry though I'll be back next year, and twice as hungry!

Even though it was not a traditional Thanksgiving I really enjoyed spending time with new friends in my city, and the arrival of Thanksgiving means it is almost time for me to come home!

Here are a few of the things that I am thankful for this year:

My family:

The Cork Group: Julia, Caitlin, Me, Chelsea and Nicole

 My HC Family: Me, Emily, Amelia, Seton, Meredith

My best friend: Caitlin

(and rainy days in our beautiful city!)

Lastly, I am especially thankful to have sisters that spoil me. Upon arriving in Cork I found a gift that was snuck in my bag before I left. Katie, with help from Beanie, made the best gift I have ever gotten. She converted Dr. Seuss's book "Oh the Places You'll Go" into a personalized story for me, filled with photos, quotes and words of wisdom for my journey abroad from each of my family members and best friends.

Everyone did an excellent job of choosing things that represent our relationship and I feel as though I can hear each person speaking to me as I read their notes. It was meant for the days when I felt homesick and needed a smile, and it really does exactly that.

Thanks again to Katie and Bean, and everyone who made a page for me! 

xo

Trans-Atlantic Tuesday: Staying in Touch

After being abroad for 103 days I have come to the conclusion that Steve Jobs must have also studied abroad.  The use of my iPhone, and Mac computer, has made being away from my friends and family infinitely easier for two reasons: Snapchat and Skype.

Snapchat:

Snapchat is an app that allows you to take a photo (usually selfies) and send it to your friends for a designated amount of time, up to ten seconds.  After the time is up the photo goes away forever, unless you have a friend like me who screenshots the pictures!

This is a fun way to quickly send photos of you, or what you are doing to others and allows me to see my friends faces more frequently because during those times when you do not have the time to sit down and talk it can be easier to just send a quick photo to say hi.

The family during a classic family outing 

Emily, Seton, Matt and Meredith sent this to me because they were all hanging out at Holy Cross together, jealous that I missed it but glad they are having fun together! 

Katie and Bean sent this to me to remind me about the annual cornmaze, and how even at ages 15 and 22 it is still hard. 

Matt and Katie sent this to me to show me they were at the movies, and to make fun of the last time we all went to the movies together and I spilled the popcorn. 

Skype/Facetime: 

Depending on the mood of my wifi that day, I can use Skype or Facetime to have conversations with people back home.  It can be difficult because sometimes one party's wifi has a poor connection and you get a fuzzy picture, but for the most part it works really well.  

Matt having lots of fun talking to me! This was during his October break so he had some free time to catch up on his first semester at HC 

After hearing my voice Katie popped up from somewhere else in the house and joined the conversation for a little bit, so it usually doesn't matter who you initially call because others will join in/take over

 Mom and Dad pushing each other out of the way so they can each monopolize the screen 

This is Facetime on my phone, I was on with mom when she was working late one night and I chatted with her while she made her dinner

It can be really frustrating when you are talking with someone and the wifi either completely quits on you or gets so bad the screen goes almost all fuzzy.  During my last conversation with Seton and Meredith this is the screen fuzzy, and the bottom one is when it was working perfectly.  

Yes, they are both wearing blue and white striped shirts, seeing that made me laugh so hard! 

And my personal favorite, when Dad put me on the TV 

I am spoiled that I can see, and talk to everyone with the push of a button but, it is not perfect. The time difference makes it hard to find times where both parties are free.  Then, when you can talk to them, it can be really frustrating to have to wait for slow connections and even more infuriating trying to scream the same things at the screen five times to ensure that they heard what you were trying to say.  

But it is all worth putting up with because when you have had a good or bad day, there is nothing better than hearing a familiar voice to make you feel better, or share in your excitement. 

Amsterdam Day 3

First stop on Saturday was the Anne Frank House. We did not realize that it is recommended to buy your tickets about a month before your trip so we decided to get there early to be the first in line. We arrived fifteen minutes before it opened and this was smart because after 9am we were inside within five minutes.

Our group for the day:

Me, Will (Scotland), Caitlin, Nicole, Betsy (Scotland)

Anne Frank House

The museum is cool because they built the outer exterior (above) in front of the house to preserve it. You enter the front to buy your tickets and then go through the new building to the back where they have kept the house almost exactly the same as it was when the Frank family was hiding there. 

The house did a great job of explaining the story of Anne, as well as going further to tell why it is so important to know it.  I found it fascinating that her diary, written at the age of thirteen, is the second most translated book of all time; second only to the bible.  We were able to see the actual bookcase that hid the family, as well as climb the steps to the attic.  They boarded up all the windows so that you felt the dark and enclosed space they were cooped up in for two years. Overall, I thought the museum was really well done. 

After the museum we decided to get coffee.  It just so happens that we looked up a coffee shop that is known for their Dutch apple pie.  Grandma, I LOVE your pie, however, this was so delicious it may have almost made up for missing Thanksgiving this year. 

 Walk to Cafe Papeneiland 

My slice of apple pie

After that massive slice of pie, we needed to walk it off a bit. We made our way to the the Museum square where the famous IAMSTERDAM letters are. This was the perfect stop because it is the closest thing to a playground for adults. 

I am super impressed that I was able to climb up there in my boots!

This lady was completely oblivious and bombed all of our photos...that's what happens when you try to get a photo in one of the busiest tourist destinations

Just playing around 

Nicole and I trying to get a fun photo for our off campus house next year! 

Because the letters are located in the Museum square there was a multitude of museums for us to pick from to try that afternoon. We ended up deciding on the Van Gogh Museum.  

The Van Gogh Museum does not allow photos so I do not have a lot to share about that except for one picture that I risked the life of my phone on to get. 

I saw this photo and almost didn't realize what I was looking at for a second. I felt as though this was something I had seen a million times. Well.... that is because I have. This photo was an art project that everyone in the second grade had to recreate.  My parents framed each child's rendition of the painting and they are hung in our den. Possibly the highlight of my trip seeing this, could not wait to get home and tell the rest of the family! 

Giuffrida's try Van Gogh

Top Left: Jane

Top Right: Matt

Bottom Left: Katie

Bottom right: Bean

Later that night we headed to the Red Light District to see what it is like at night.  While it was not something that I would say was "fun" it was really interesting to see.  It is another one of the reasons that Amsterdam is one of the most unique places I have ever been to. 

Happy Birthday Mom!

Hardest part about having a mom so wonderful is when you are 4968 miles away from her! 

Love you Mom

West Hartford in Cork

To celebrate surviving our first week of classes at UCC (and the fact that we have none on Fridays!) Caitlin and I went out to lunch with Grace Hallinan.  Grace is a friend of Caitlin's, and her older brother went to preschool with my older sister.  She is studying in Cork for the first semester and oddly enough, all three of us live in West Hartford!

We keep hearing the Cork is a very "foodie" city, and being a food fanatic myself I want to continue to try all the fun places there are to eat. This time we had our eyes set on a creperie called Paradise Crepe Restaurant.

Paradise Creperie 

I decided to get the Apple Surprise which was homemade stewed apple with cinnamon, whipped cream, and a house made carmel.  It was lunchtime but I saw that on the menu and couldn't not get it! 

Caitlin and me 

After my nutritious lunch I decided that I clearly had not had enough dessert for the day, so we went to O'Conaills, which was conveniently located across the street. This time I got the milk and white chocolate praline mix, also delicious!

Hot chocolate #2

   

Paradise Crepe Restaurant on the left and O'Conaills on the right

Me, Caitlin and Grace

Over lunch the three of us talked about it, and when we got back we booked our trip to Belgium in October!  Can't wait for this trip! 

Happy Drop-Off Day

Good luck to my best friend and little brother Matt as he goes to college today! So excited for you to start your incredible journey at Holy Cross.

Can't wait until we can repeat this again next year!
xo

A Taste of Home

At the local coffee shop The Wholly Grain I saw my little sister in this sign! 

Love you Bean! 

Happy Birthday Dad!

Love you
xo