Dublin, Rika and Lori

So adventure, adventure, adventure…never seems to stop. Rika arrived on Wed. at 10:30 in the morning…Whit gets the call from her at the airport at 10:45am saying that she’s sick and she can’t get there to Regents by herself…so we go off to rescue her [thank goodness Whit is with me!]. By 12:30 we’re off the train and in the airport trying to locate Rika [who we’d forgotten to ask where she was going to be waiting for us]. So we run all over the south terminal then go back to the north terminal in Gatwick, then back and forth again looking. Then we finally ask the lady at the information desk who says that they can page her in both terminals to find her. So they do…and then again. With no luck we venture down to the other terminal thinking maybe we’ll meet her on the way or something.

So at 2pm the phone starts ringing and guess who it is?….not Rika! It’s the paramedics at the hospital with her… they are really great and calmly explain she’s “at hospital.” So Whit and I take a cab to the hospital to find her. 3 hours later we’re on our way to Regents after Rika has “had bloods taken”, and a urine test we find out that she was nervous and has a urine infection.
But we arrive safely home and I go out to look for Jack Vettriano who is apparently doing a book signing to publicize a new book about his work. But I go to the place he’s supposed to be and of coarse, they have no idea what I’m talking about and tell me that he came a few weeks ago to a different store…whatever.

So Wed. night we put Rika to bed and Lori arrives at 11:45pm. We hang out and talk and whatever for a while and then I try to sleep. Rika and I then wake up at 3am [yup, it’s true] to take a taxi, to catch the train, to take another bus, to get checked into the airport and then sit and wait for our plane to Dublin. It departs on time [wow, way to go Ryanair.com], which is 7am and we arrive at 8am completely exhausted [both of us fell asleep before the stewardesses had started their spiel about the flight safety].

So we get on the bus to take us towards our hostel [which is near the Guinness Storehouse]. But get this! On the way there our bus gets hit by a taxi! LOL…how funny is that! Anyway, when we finally check into our hostel we find out that we can’t get into the rooms until 2pm [our plan of taking a nap before adventuring comes to a halt!]. So we rest for a little bit and then go out. First we took a tour of a castle which I can not remember the name of [go figure, I had maybe 2 hours of sleep!]. It was really impressive. Then we went shopping and to the national art museum when it started to rain. Then we had a nap before going on a ghost tour which was filled with historical facts and pretty entertaining. That night we went to bed as soon as we got back from the ghost tour. At 5am on Friday morning however, I was woken up to a “crap! Maryanne are you okay?!” and I look up and see the top mattress of another bunk in the room had fallen down onto the bottom bed. There’s this girl pushing the mattress back up and then the girl in the bed leans up from underneath it. It was really funny…but of coarse I was shocked that it had actually happened.

On Friday we woke up and went into St. Patrick’s Cathedral which was absolutely fabulous! Then we picked up a Hard Rock Café shirt for Rika and some other touristy items, ate lunch and found our way to pick up our bags at the hostel and go to the Guinness Storehouse, which we did not tour, but did look a bit in the gift shop [there wasn’t enough time to do the tour before we had to leave for our flight].

Okay, get this: while waiting for our bus to the airport we hear a group of 4 Irish guys talking and one of them busts out with: “Sure as a one legged dog swims in circles!”
I think that it’s the funniest thing that I have heard here ever! It was absolutely hilarious! So at 6pm we flew back home to London, where we ended up eating Pizza for dinner.

Saturday we went out for changing of the guards, which was awesome. While on the way there we met an older British guy who told us a lot of information about the queen and which building she lives in and stuff like that. He also told us that the Queen is meeting with someone from South Korea on Wed. morning and there is going to be a grand procession to Buck House [the Brit’s word for Buckingham Palace]. So Whit and Rika are going to go do that and take some pictures for me while I am enduring the pains of giving a presentation in Theatre class.
After Buck House, we went to the Marble Arch where we met Alicia and her sister Whitney for lunch. Then we shopped on Oxford Street for a while. Then on Saturday night we went to see Bridget Jones Diary 2, which was so cool!

On Sunday Whit and I did a quick tour of the city on bus with Rika, then we met Lori, Alicia and Whitney at the Tower of London. After some lunch we went together to Camden Market to shop. Then everyone except Whitney [sister], went to a choir service at St. Martin-in-the-Fields off Trafalgar Square. Then we came back to the college [Whit, Lori, Rika and I], and hung out in our room with Andrew and Robi listening to Christmas music. It was great.

Monday I went to class and Lori and Rika did a mix of things in the city. Then in the evening we went and saw the musical “Simply Heavenly”, which I thought was really good.
Tuesday Rika, Andrew and I went inside of Westminster Abby. Lori [and Alicia and sister] left, and we’re planning on going to see Trafalgar Square’s X-mas tree lighting.

And that’s about all for now [smile]. I can’t believe that this is the last week of classes! My semester in London is almost up! It’s absolutely unbelievable. Next week is finals and then I’m off to Germany with Mom [yeah!]. I love you all, and thank you for reading this. Apparently some people “don’t have time,” so for those of you that do read this, thanks. It makes me feel better that somebody cares enough to keep up with what I’m doing. Love to all and Happy Thanksgiving late!

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*maike rinaye*