Last Weekend

As I mentioned before, I have had so much work to do lately! I was really surprised because I've only had a couple of assignments outside of class so far. Now I have a giant to do list for this week: fill out scholarship applications, memorize the 20 amino acids, write a 2500 word essay for my Irish Studies class, write a report on Bacillus cereus, watch the movie "Nora" and write a response, do my biochemistry lab report, work on my waste management project, study for the food microbiology final lab test, study for my statistics test, get ready for my phone interview with General Mills......ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!! Are you tired of reading this, because I sure am!

I guess I should have stayed in a little more on the weekends to do some of this work...but it was such a beautiful day:) On Saturday I toured the Guinness Storehouse. It's an amazing place to see. In the atrium we saw the 9,000 year lease Arthur Guinness signed for the St. James Gate Brewery. He paid 100 euro down and promised to pay 45 euro a year for the next 9,000....what a great deal! It was kind of disappointing (from a food science point of view) to see that the only parts of processing they showed us was their four ingredients: water, hops, barley, and yeast. Well of course there's much more the the process than that. They had flatscreens telling the gist of each process like roasting and fermentation and so on. Then on the upper floors they had advertising from bottles to TV commercials. The best part though was the Gravity Bar at the top of the building that resembles a pint glass. You get a 360 degree view of Dublin, and it was gorgeous!!!

On Sunday my roommate, Mariel, and I went to Howth. It's a cute little fishing village just north of Dublin. At Howth Harbor we watched people feeding the grey seals. They were so cute! I got some great pictures of them because they were directly below us, eagerly awaiting the next fish that was flung towards them. After the feeding of the seals Mariel and I began our journey on the Cliffs Walk. It was a foot-wide path that wound along the cliffs of the peninsula. It was a bit scary at times. I found myself formulating a plan of what I would do if I happened to lose my footing and fall towards the rocks and ocean below....I decided my best bet was to try and grab on to some of the small trees on the way down:) I didn't fall though, we survived the hike and ended up at Baily Lighthouse. We rested here for a well deserved break in the sunny afternoon. I was surprised to find that people live on every inch of this peninsula. I think that if my car stalled at the bottom of the mountain, I'd just stay there for the night instead of climbing up to my house. When we got to the bottom and back into the village we stopped for ice cream in Maud's. I got the flavor "Pooh Bear Delight." When I told my roommate, Erika, she sounded skeptical of the deliciousness of the ice cream, but I can assure you it was wonderful! We took a quick look at Howth Castle & Cookery School as well as the National Transportation Museum before we hopped back onto the train for Dublin. I must admit that we did not set foot inside the Transportation Museum, because Mariel and I could not stop laughing at our first sight of it: a giant RV parked right in front. We figured we'd already seen enough, so it was time to head home.

P.S.-Sorry there are no pictures. I tried to upload them but all that appeared was a paragraph of mumbo jumbo computer lingo. Hopefully it'll sort itself over the next couple of days and I'll try again. Cheers!