Southern Adenturetime

You can't get rid of me forever blogger world, even if I'm as sporadic as sprint cell phone coverage on Belmont Abbey's campus or the earth in general. While I will have to take a moment later this week to type up all my Ireland journal entries and put them online, I have some other exciting stories to tell in the meantime. Right now I am in the car on my way home from school, and by car I mean the family's 15 seater van with the whole family included in the vehicle. Yay! Thursday night, the chaotic Faraj family drove into Belmont and the hecticness began.

I hadn't seen any of them since Christmas break so it was a big treat to see them, let alone show them around my new hometown. We started off with a chick fil a run, which was a must for the northerners who've never tried a good ole waffle fry. Anthony proved to be quite the little politician when, upon meeting my suitemates, he shook everyone's hand and gave all the girls hugs. I've raised him well.

Friday morning, Alex, Bella, and Cesca came with me to two of my three morning classes in which one professor had the class applaud them and the other yelled at us to move out of the last row (the only row with four seats together) because he didn't have his glasses on so he didn't recognize me or that my sister were not old enough to be in his class, let alone his actual students. That was exciting. After a nice cafeteria lunch where my family finally was able to sample my fantastic selection of food (oh joy), we walked around the athletic fields and athletic buildings. We had planned on going to the baseball game, but after two delays I took them to the student commons where 5 of them took naps and 4 found the television. Eventually we did make it to the baseball game, and my family convinced themselves that they were a good luck charm as the Abbey scored run after run. Honestly it was probably all the pretty girls (my sisters if you can't handle subtlety) the boys were able to show off for. You're welcome boys.

Saturday, I had to go bright and early to my track meet. An hour later, my family shows up. In matching neon t-shirts. With "Gabrielle's Fan Club" on them. It was great they got to see me run but it was also a horror/exciting moment in my life. They also got to meet my team, which has become my second family at school and coach. They cheered so loudly even though I ran the slowest of my life, and Gianna bragged to everyone "She beat ONE PERSON!" Well, oops.

A couple of the crew

After a Saturday night Palm Sunday service, Jose, Timi, and Kaylie Mae joined the family for a nice, relaxing dinner at Old Stone Steakhouse and then coffee and treats at Caravan Coffee. It finished off a fun weekend and next thing I know bright and early we headed back to Michigan. The little kids are so excited Brianna, Jose, and Timi are coming home for Easter, and Baba already has the itinerary for their weekend here sorted perfectly. While I get back into the swing of being home, the next Family adventuretime is just around the corner.

Dublin

The National Museum

So here I am at 9:32pm on Friday evening already ready for bed thanks to good old jetlag and Irish beer. After getting in around 8:30am this morning, we didn't get through customs and to the hotel until around 10:30 or 11. The hotel we're staying in is very nice, and is has a view overlooking the immediate area of Dublin. It is fantastic! After working out and showering, I joined the group at the pub next door for my first legal beer, which was a lager called Tom Crean's. The culture here is so different! There are pubs every couple buildings, and when we asked the taxi driver the drinking age, he said six years old ha! But then Travis took us down St. Steven's road, on a tour of the National Museum, past the equivalent of the Irish parliament, and on a tour of the National Library (where we saw an exhibit of Yeats and his works), and finally through Trinity College to Temple Bar.

Dinner venue!

The Temple Bar area is very touristy and expensive but it was fantastic, and the girls and I stopped into a pub just down from the famous Temple Bar itself where we befriended the bartender and hung out with him for half an hour with a pint of a local beer (but custom says he couldn't tell us the name of it). He was a friendly guy, who told us about everything from how a guy buying a pint for a girl in Ireland is equal to a date, how to hide our purses from pickpockets, and that if we're not drunk by the end of the night the bartender hasn't done his job. We want to go back with him tomorrow night and he said he might be able to get us free drinks, but we will have to see. We ended up going down the block to eat dinner at Gallagher's Boxty House, which was very nice, but I fell asleep twice at dinner. The plan was for all of us to take a brief nap when we got back, which was around 8, and then go back out at 10, but both Leondra and I had to call it a night. Between our first legal drinks of our lives, the jetlag, and the fact we have to wake up at 7:30am tomorrow to work out, we called it a night. Have no fear, Ireland, this is not defeat! Tomorrow night and the rest of my time here will not be spent in bed sleeping. Just...need...some...zzzzzzz

Ireland!

Midterms are done, spring break has started, and I'm 20 minutes from landing in Dublin, Ireland! I don't think it really sunk in until I heard a few people in the Boston airport talking with Irish accents, then I almost peed my pants with excitement. One of my sports management classes is flying over to Ireland for some international sport learning :)

There are twelve of us, 7 girls, 4 guys, and our chaperone, Travis, who is both my teacher and advisor. I know everyone on this trip (perks of a small school) and like them. Us girls already had a fantastic bonding experience last night at Logan International airport at one of the restaurants there where the 7 of us girls were redeeming our $15 food vouchers since our flight was delayed three hours. Well long story short, the service was terrible, the waiter put us all on one check when we said we were separate, the manager tried to charge all of us gratuity for being a party bigger than six but only charged six of us gratuity even though only four of the girls bought alcohol with their own money so it couldn't be included with the vouchers, then the manager kept telling us we were wrong. We went back forth for an hour. Don't eat at vineyard grille at Logan airport! Haha but anyway, the plane is landing but look forward to lots of posts from me for the next 11 days of my time in the land of the shire. Also, some of the girls mentioned one direction is in town, so there might be some stalking coming as well. Yay! Laterz

First view of the Emerald Isle!