Today was my last day in Ireland and I’ll be heading off to Spain this afternoon!  I’m so excited for Barcelona!  I can’t wait to immerse myself in the Spanish culture and become fluent in the language.  It’s so exciting and different from everything I’ve done so far.  It will definitely be a change!

            We got to sleep in, which was really nice.   We then headed out to take a tour of the city.  Dublin seems like a really neat city, and I wish I had more time to enjoy it.  I’m not complaining though, I’m ready to get to Spain!  We went and saw this cross where the pope gave a sermon to over a million people.  The whole crowd was silent during the speech too. We had some speeches of our own after that.  Dr. H gave a beautiful speech about our time here.  It was very touching.  I’m going to miss her and everyone else.  We also gave out awards to everyone.  It was a nice sort of goodbye. 

            I have really enjoyed my time here in the U.K.  I have discovered that the cities here aren’t all that different from those in the United States.  The lingo is different though, and that has been really fun to hear.  I love saying “cheers” and all that.  I also have enjoyed hearing the history of the different places that we have visited.  The United States is such a new country, and we don’t have nearly as much ancient history as the U.K. does.  Everything is so old; it’s quite remarkable.  The history in Scotland and Ireland has also been full of tragedy.  So many sad things have happened to their people, often at the hand of the English.  Not that English people were bad; it was more so the people that were in power that inflicted so much harm on the neighboring lands.  Hopefully they can learn from the past and have a better future. 

            After the tour of the city, I went out to eat with the group one last time.  Then we wondered about for a while before heading off to the airport.  We lost an hour on the way there and arrived at 10:00.   When we arrived, the drivers from the university didn’t speak any English.  My host family doesn’t speak any English either.  I know some basic Spanish, so I can get along okay.  I think it’s probably a good thing they don’t speak English; I’ll be able to better adapt to the language if I’m not speaking English most of the time.  I’m so excited to start this next adventure!