6/1 - 6/3

6/1/09

Today was my last day in Ireland. Drew had booked an earlier flight home than the rest of us. He wanted to see some things before he left, so i decided to go with him. Several people in our room were not happy that we had gotten up early. Oh well its not like they didn't keep me awake so I don't really care. Drew and I headed to Trinity College. We wanted to see the Book of Kells. We had gotten to Trinity College about 20min before the exhibit opened. We walked around the campus for a bit, and then went to get in line. There was a big group from France already in line by this point. I figured I had taken some French over the years and tried to hold a conversation. I am a bit rusty to say the least. The convo quickly switched to English but the lady I was talking to was pleased that I had tried to speak French. The Book of Kells was written on calf skin in 800ad. Its pretty old. I wanted to take a picture but I wasn't aloud to. Oh well.
The rest of the day was spent enjoying this nice weather at one of the local parks. We just laid out in the sun and took a nap. There was a 10k cancer walk going on that ended near the park we were at. There was a band playing at the finish line. We enjoyed the music and the dancing of a drunk old guy. It was very entertaining. It was now time to get to the airport and head back to Bristol. I didn't have any troubles with security this time. However, our 45min flight ended up being delaid by 2 hours which sucked. When we got to the airport we looked for a cab to take us back to Bristol. The airport taxis wanted to charge us £80 for a cab of 4 people. To get to the airport it cost £25 for a cab with 4 people. We said that was highway robbery and refused to pay. Luckily I still had the cab company's number in my phone from our trip to the airport. I called them and they came and picked us up for £25. Our cab driver was appalled when we told him how much the airport was going to charge us. I am just glad that it worked out.

6/2/09

Lets see, today we had to start doing the whole class thing again. Our sessions were on globalization for both companies and cities. This professor was actually able to keep my attention and wasn't a boring economist. We played a game in class to give us a view of world trading. We were divided into 4 groups and given an envelope with resources in it to make paper cut outs that could be sold for money to the bank. My group got the most money to start with and the most resources. The other groups had to come trade with us so they could make money. One of the groups did a shady deal with us. We were trying to get more paper so we could make more money and we traded a pair of scissors for it. The paper that was given to us was not usable for the game, so we kinda got screwed. It all worked out in the end because my group had the most money in the end.

After dinner, I met up with the rest of my group to work on our project that we are presenting on Thursday. We got a good chunk of it done pretty quickly. When we were done working, i convinced Evan to come the casino with me. Going to the casino probably wasn't the best idea but i hadn't been to one in awhile. I ended up loosing £40 on the night. Well technically £39 because I kept a £1 chip to add to my collection of casino chips. When I was in the bus on the way home, I realized that I had forgotten the book that I was reading at the casino. I called up the casino and they had found the book and told me I could come back the next day to pick it up.

6/3/09

This mornings session started out pretty boring. I think it was on international alliances and why competitors work together. Once again it was an interesting topic but it was delivered in a monotone voice that just read everything off of a powerpoint slide. I wasn't the only one struggling to stay awake. In the afternoon, we went on a field trip to take a look at a local business. This business made glass and is called the Bristol Blue Glass company or something like that. We got to see how the glass was made and Dan was even given the opportunity to try blowing the glass because it was his birthday. Besides the building being extremely hot due to the furnaces that are kept at a temp over 2000* F to melt the glass, it was an awesome experience.

After we left Bristol Blue Glass, Paul (our program coordinator) took us to a bar and bout a round. We just sat around in the bar and gave him feedback on the program. When i finished my drink i ran to the casino to go pick up my book that i had forgotten there the previous day. Today was also Dan's 21st bday. So we made sure we went out and that he had a good time. We started at the coronation tap the has a special cider there that is only sold in half pint glasses due to its alcohol content. We then headed to a couple more bars. The girls had gotten pretty drunk so me and Sean ended up being the soberish chaperons. Andrea ended up getting sick at the bar and got kicked out. We took that as the cue to get everyone home. When i got in the taxi i discovered that i did not have my phone. I had used once all night and put it back in my pocket after i used it. I searched the cab, the bar, and the city centre and could not find it. I'm pretty sure i did not leave it anywhere, and think someone stole it. I am really hoping that one of the girls turns up with it tomorrow. oh well.

Temple Bar
Monk Ruins

Bday Boy Shaping Glass