"She's a bonnie lass"

Dublin - never thought I had any desire to see the great green isle of Ireland. What a beautiful place! I could have easily spent another week there. This past weekend we went to Dublin. It is such a gorgeous and historic city.

Our first night there I met up with Molly! What a great treat to see a good friend while abroad! We then promptly hit up the pubs of Dublin. Day number one consisted of the very touristy yet necessary hop on hop off bus tour. We saw Trinity College, Christ Church, St. Patricks (the original), Dublin Castle, O'Connell Street, the Bank of Ireland, the General Post Office and of course the Guiness factory. Followed by another night of Irish nightlife. Day two was a bus trip to the country side to see the coast and some castles and churches - absolutely breathtaking!! (and anchors everywhere!) After the bus tour we went to Kilmainam Gaol. It was a truly interesting tour about the history of Ireland and its many revolutions and wars, and we saw a movie being filmed (no idea which one lol). Then we made a mad dash to the Jameson Distillery only to miss the last tour by 5 minutes so instead we sat in the Jameson bar and has a glass of whiskey (my tummy didn't like the whiskey). I think that's about everything for Ireland. It was wonderful to be in a somewhat English speaking country and a beautiful one at that.

Back to reality and school and work. Classes are kicking my butt - studying in Brussels is not all fun. The internship, however, is AMAZING. I am interning at the Transatlantic Policy Network. They work with members of the European Parliament and Commission as well as members of the US Congress and Administration in coordination with businesses to come to consensus on ideas and issues. And to do such important work it is necessary to have many networking dinners and luncheons (my favorite part). We had the second dinner I have been able to attend last night. There are such amazing and interesting people at these events. They have great experience and vast knowledge from a great variety of different areas. The best part of last night was that the speaker, the President of a US thinktank, asked me to email him my CV (resume). I hope to leave Europe with a job lined up and maybe some offers to pay for my masters lol.

I'm off to pack for class trip #2 to Luxembourg and Maastricht.