The End.

The rest of our trip this weekend was great. The sun continued to shine and it was beautiful.
Our second day in Ireland, we met up with a friend of mine studying in Ireland. We went for lunch and had some nice Irish food then headed to see some cathedrals/crypts and a museum. Then we went to a pub and enjoyed some Bulmers. It's an Irish cider and a great substitute for people to don't drink beer. We were asked to leave the pub after Sadie tried sneaking in some store-bought Bulmers to drink there.. haha didn't work out so well but they were nice about it. So we headed to the park and botelloned until we ran out and really had to pee. We fixed both those problems. We headed back to the park to wait for Sadie's friend (an Irish man) to get done with his meeting nearby but after waiting a while we tried to find where the meeting was. Then Sadie really had to pee and headed to the park to do so but asked a guard along the way where she could use a bathroom but when she passed with a police man, Nicole got super worried and followed them. Really all that happened was he took her into a building that people aren't supposed to go in and let her use the bathroom. Hah. Anyways we met up with her friend and the people in the meeting went to the bar we got kicked out of so we headed to dinner and he met up with us there later. We ate some Chinese food - I got tofu and vegetables which was good although it didn't compare to home. Afterwards botelloned some more and went to a few pubs. Nicole and I headed back to our hostel around 1 or 2 because we had to be up for going on a tour.
We'd wanted to do the Wicklow mountain tour buuut they were full. So instead we took a celtic tour to historical places a little outside of Dublin. It was nice and learning about the history was interesting. We were a little worried about getting back in time to head to the airport, especially when he extended our amount of time we could stay at the last place. But we got back, got our stuff, grabbed some food, and got to the airport no problem and with time to spare. Then we were off to Scotland!

The people's accents there are thicker so it was hard to understand at first but I got used to it and didn't have too bad a time afterwards. Our hostel was nice enough - I'm almost positive it used to be a dorm building - but Glasgow in general is kind of a shady area. We didn't have any problems though.
On Sunday morning we went to Edinburgh and went to the castle and a camera obscura show with all kinds of optical illusions on the way. It was a fun day and the whole trip, we were just doing whatever we wanted without a pre-set plan which was actually a lot of fun. We were supposed to meet Nicole's uncle and family in Edinburgh but luckily we went to use the internet and he was on because he wanted to meet up in Glasgow instead. So we headed back and met them at our hostel. It was her uncle, aunt, and 2 cousins. They were so nice and easy to keep a conversation with. They took us out to an Italian restaurant where they got past and we got pizza then we all got dessert. I hope when they visit family in Chicago that I can come visit too! They walked with us back to the hostel and we went our separate ways. Then Nicole and I just walked around the city for a while before heading back, using the internet, watching some TV, and heading to bed.
The next day we went to see the cathedral, an art museum, walked around town, got our stuff, ate lunch at subway, and headed to the station. We got to the airport kind of early but that was fine because we played some card games, colored, read, etc. Then eventually we were on our last Ryanair flight back to Malaga. However.. the only time Ryanair has ever been late is the one time it actually mattered since we needed to go straight from the airport to the bus station. We hurried through the airport and took a taxi to the bus station. Although we were a decent amount late, thankfully our bus was still there. Unfortunately.. it was full but he still let us on.. we just had to sit on the steps leading to the bathroom and the side door.. for 1.5 hours. Oh well.. it could have been worse. Another bus wouldn't have left for Granada until 1 in the morning.

I would like to say I've been doing nothing but enjoying and relaxing during my last days in Granada but I've been packing and working on my math homework.. with some relaxing, sure.
Tuesday night we all went to eat out at a pizza place for our last get-together in Granada. We were all really full afterwards so we decided to just head our separate ways and took some pictures before doing so. Megan and Nicole left yesterday for Madrid and they flight home around noon today.
Kathleen, Liz, and I have been doing last-minute souvenir shopping and getting everything packed. Tomorrow we're meeting at 5 to take a taxi or two to the bus station and heading to Madrid at 6. We'll get there around 11 or so and either take the metro or taxi to the airport where we'll wait until our 6:20 flight HOME! I really hope we make it through everything alright, especially with such short layovers.

I can't believe it's finally here. Studying abroad has been the best thing ever. I've grown a lot, learned a ton, made amazing friends, gone beautiful and interesting places, and have just had a blast. I know I had my low points but that doesn't mean I didn't appreciate where I was and what I was doing.

Alright well my next update will be from my own room back in the good ol' town of Normal in the USA! :)