week from hell

Well this week has been fun! It's super stress time in the semester and of course I get sick! I have a million exams and papers due, and a million places to go for my cultural report. The good news is that after this week of hell I have my friend Priya coming for a week, and then my sister for 2 weeks. Me and Priya are going to check out some places here in France, me and Nicole are doing Paris (i'll be doing the touristy stuff for the 270000 time, but it's always cool to see other peoples reaction when they see the eiffel tower for the first time). Then me and Nicole have a week at an all inclusive resort in Majorque (Spain) booked! After Spain we will have one full day in Nantes together so I can show her the stuff aroud here. I can't wait to see her.
Some more good news to kick off my week: I got a house for next year in Waterloo. It's an 8 month lease which is awesome because I won't have to worry about subleting in the summer!
Now I just have to figure out whether or not i'm doing my course this summer, this will decide the date of my return to Canada!
Anyhow, i've got to go finish my laundry write a paper for history, do some reading responses for Philosophy and study for 2 exams before my 5pm class! Oh the life of a student!

Dublin for St.Pats

Well I know I still haven't given my detailed account of my trip to Germany (i'm at the crazy busy point of my semester), but I thought I would tell ya'll a little bit about Dublin on St Paddy's day weekend.

We arrived in Dublin on Friday morning and headed straight to Dublin castle to make an appearance on Canada AM. I bought a lovely green cowboy hat at the airport to wear for the occasion, and I also brought my Canada flag along with me! It was pretty cool, but it was cold and the other girls were hungry so we left before we got to say hi to our parents on the air!

after a nice little lunch we made our way to the Guiness Brewery to do a little tour. Because it was St Pats every floor (there are 5 floors) had beer samples and food! we got to try all the different brands of guiness and had salmon and cream cheese on Guiness bread! On the fourth floor we you could pour your own pint and drink it (you get a perfect pour gift certicate) and on the fifth floor you get yet another pint of guiness. There were three live bands playing throughout the building, it was quite great!

A few facts about guiness that I found interesting:

-The guiness book of world records from guiness the brewers. The book was created to help barmen settle disputes in their bars.

-The creator of guiness signed a 2000 year lease for the brewery in the 1700's, so we will be able to enjoy guiness for a very long time

-Guiness beer was actually created by accident, they accidentaly burnt the barley and thus created guiness beer!

next stop we went to dinner and called it an early night.

Saturday:

I got my st paddy's outfit on, and cracked my first beer at about 8:30ish am, we headed to the parade (which kind of sucked)then we went to some free outdoor concert and then off to get ready and pre drink for the night (not that it was really pre drinking since I had made sure to pack some travelers in my purse for the day!)

next off the pubs - we attended a sports bar to watch the rugby match. Later we went to Temple bar, and random other pubs. Lot's of live music and lots of drunk people in the streets!

At one bar I convinced a young gent in a leprechaun costume to lend me his costume for a couple of pics! He even helped my drunk ass get the costume on!

Sunday:

We went on a bus tour of the foothills. Which would normally be a great idea except for A) it was an am tour B)sitting on the top deck of a double decker bus going through the 'hills' of Ireland Hungover is NOT A GOOD IDEA!!!!! The tour was great, the sick feeling....not so much!

When we got back we went to another pub for din din, had a last couple of pints and then off to our hostel (the other nights we had the chance of staying at a friends house - THANK YOU KRISTEN!!!!!)

At the hostel the lovely people who worked the desk told us it was unecesary to book our cab the night before, that they would call for us at 4am when we needed to get one. At the said 4 am when we went to call the cab we were told that all cabs were friggin booked!!! Heart attack central....luckily we were able to hail one in the street and catch our flight back to Nantes in time.

All in all a very great weekend, one for the books!!!

Finally a little bit about Germany

Well my trip was amazing the brief recap is

Frankfurt, random street party dancing with strangers in costumes

Heidleberg - random castle and beautiful little town

Berlin - HELLOOOO THE WALL Friggin amazing

Muncih - beer beer and more beer ( I stole a couple of steins)

Dachau - very informative and moving

Neuchwanstein - Disney Castle - I want to be Cinderella and I wish I had a room dedicated to Tristan and Isolde

Salzburg - SOUND OF MUSIC TOUR AND the premier of Carmen (opera)

Vienna - Random sightseeing and Sissi museum

I will give actual details in my next entry - but for now here is the gist!