Groeten from Utrecht 2012: 19) Éire! (Ireland)

I have had a very busy past two weeks but the reason for being so busy has nothing to do with schoolwork... Yes, I may be on exchange and my purpose for coming to Utrecht in the eyes of the University of Victoria is that I fulfil all of the requirements of being an exchange student (as in do all of my readings and pass my courses) but that doesn't mean I can't put school on the back burner and have a little fun! Actually, to be honest ever since I got here I have put school on the back burner because life in the Netherlands is just that much more exciting than the school work! ( Don't worry I am still doing very well in my courses hehe).

So after suffering through exam week of the first block, I went to Germany! Spent the Easter long weekend with the Mildner Family in Bremen. I actually met Vivica and Barbara in the dutch city of Groningen as they wanted to do some shopping and then drove about 2 hours to Bremen. Easter in Germany is very different than what I am used to but it was neat to see how they celebrate the holiday. North America I think commercializes the holiday much more (as they do every holiday) but there still were some sitings of easter chocolate in the stores. As I am very familiar with the city of Bremen from my visits there over the years it was nice to not feel like I had to run around and see any sites but instead enjoy the family time and go for walks with their dog Juni.

I am glad I had a relaxing weekend in Bremen as the next week was going to be very exciting and full of activities. My good friend from home who is being an au-pair in Lille(France) and I wanted to go somewhere since we both had some time. I am lucky to have met two people from Ireland who are also studying in Utrecht and I am still not really sure how it all happened but it was decided that Erika and I would go to Dublin. Arthur, one of the Irish who I have become close with was playing lacrosse in a tournament in Dublin for his home university University College Dublin, called 'Dublin Fest' so he offered to show us around a little and invited us to the Dublin fest activities. And the other girl from Ireland after finding out we would be in Dublin invited us to her birthday. O and one of my Canadian friends who is also studying in Utrecht was going to be in Dublin and suggested a tour to Erika and I to Northern Ireland that she was doing. So basically without even planning anything ourselves but booking our flights and finding accommodation we had a week in Ireland planned.

I think my photos will speak enough for themselves about the beauty of Ireland but I will just say "wow"- and I was very happy to see the ocean again!!

The 5 days were filled with watching lacrosse matches, going to lacrosse parties, sitting on a coach for a day getting out a few times to see Northern Ireland, walking the streets of Belfast, shopping at Pennies ( Irish version of Primark SOO CHEAP), , walking the streets of Dublin, seeing the Dublin nightlife, seeing the Irish National Gallery, seeing UCD campus, seeing Trinity College campus, trying to learn some irish, o and fitting a little sleep in there.

Enjoy the photos!