It's over...

Wow. Four months later...here I am. I have to say honestly that a year and a half ago I would not have seen myself going abroad, but I'm definitely glad I did it. There's a sense of accomplishment when you've realized you've lived in another country, attended a different university, traveled a fair amount, and really stepped out of your comfort zone. Scratch that, there's a HUGE sense of accomplishment for me.
Sure, in the grand scheme of things, Ireland is not that much different from the United States; but baby steps, right? I don't think though that it would be easy for anyone to completely throw themselves into a new setting with a new group of people and no familiar faces, regardless of which country you're in. Maybe I didn't experience as much culture shock this time around, but who said I won't be traveling anymore?
You would think I'd have some big post to sum up all of the life lessons I've learned through my experiences in Europe, but the truth is I don't. (Ironically, I had saved this post as a draft and Miss Critchley decided to tell me she expected a post with, of all things, life lessons. Sorry Sarah!) All I can say is that when I look back through these posts I've written throughout the semester, I can see I've been through a lot. When I think back to the first few days that I was here, it seems like forever ago. I almost can't believe that I made it all the way through. I wish I could explain this better but I feel like you must study abroad yourself in order to understand what I'm trying to convey. To sum up, I've seen a lot of things, met a lot of people, and best of all I had a fantastic time doing it.
These past few days have been filled with packing, cleaning, and saying goodbye to my friends. As excited as I have been for a couple of weeks to go home, I now have mixed feelings about leaving. I never thought that I would be as close as I was with the people in my study abroad group, and I also never thought I would be as sad as I was to see people go.
Some of the people I was abroad with this semester will be lifelong friends. Some I may never see again. But to all of the Butler kids, I love you guys and I wish you all the best. You all are the reason my experience in Ireland was so amazing and I wouldn't want to be here with anyone else. I hope that we are all able to be together again one day. I miss you already.

So with that, I bid the Emerald Isle farewell. USA, here I come!

Palma de Mallorca

To start, I must explain that Mallorca is a Spanish Island situated between Spain (to the west) and Algeria (to the south) in the Mediterranean Sea. It is home to many Germans and Algerians as well as the Spanish themselves, and proves to be a very touristy place with its hostels and restaraunts lining the coast of a cove in a city called Palma.

Here is a brief recap of the week first:

Saturday: Touched down in Palma and immediately took cabs to our hostel. Found that our "room" was actually an apartment-style living quarters complete with a kitchen (no oven and only two burners on the stove but hey, I can't complain), 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a living room, and of course a balcony. Even better than this was the fact that we were literally like 100 feet from the shore of the Mediterranean. Perfect. Dinner and drinking on the balcony completed our first night.
Sunday, Monday, Tuesday & Thursday: Hung out on the beach. The weather was around 22C most of the time we were there and there was a nice breeze over the shoreline so it was a pretty perfect time to sit on the beach all day. Our routine was to get there around 11am, lay around, play soccer, take a dip in the water (disclaimer: if you ever go to Palma, or presumably anywhere in the Mediterranean, BEWARE OF JELLYFISH. There were too many to count when we were there. Seriously.), lay out more, go home to shower, and get dinner. It. Was. Awesome. Sunday I think was the only day when we started out our morning by walking the strip along the beach, which is actually where I got my sunburn from. Other than that, pale Kate only got a little color because she was a good kid and used SPF 40.
Wednesday: Decided to break up the beach routine by renting bikes for a couple of hours, costing us around 4 euro. It was probably the best decision that we made the entire trip, even though my butt felt like it was bruised for about 3 days afterwards due to extremely hard seats. It was a fantastic way to see more of the coastline, though. We broke up into groups, so four of the guys and I went over to the southeast side of the cove, which turned out to be much more hilly and less populated than the northwest side. We went as far out to the tip of the cove as humanly possible before riding downhill the entire way back to the rental shop. It was a fantastic workout and we deservedly collapsed on the beach after returning our bikes.
Friday: The other three girls and I took a bus into city center to explore a little bit. We had heard that there was great shopping in the area, but to our dismay discovered it was closed due to the Spanish Labor Day, I believe (Sarah -- true?). Nevertheless, we were able to walk around and check out the Palma Cathedral before sitting down to a nice lunch and finally heading back to the hostel. From there it was the typical dinner and drinks on the balcony night we'd been having all week, followed by pictures on the beach at sunset.

Highlights of the week: biking, Del Sol restaraunt, tequila (eek), cheap and delicious gelato, beach, soccer, the balcony, and a serious bonding experience with the 9 other people on the trip.

We returned yesterday, and as we landed it was freezing and pouring rain. Welcome back to Ireland. We did, however, see a triple rainbow on the way home, so that was pretty cool.

It's so weird to think that I will be returning to the states in just over two weeks. All that stands between me and that plane ride on Aer Lingus home is a week off and then four finals. Wow. Yikes.

Anyway, I will throw a link in here when the pictures have been added on facebook, I've just been waiting to steal more from people since my stupid camera died.