Day 5

Our free day shopping in Dublin... free time vs. structured time

Today was probably one of the most relaxing and amazing days! Together, Maureen, Hannah, Jessi, Ireland, and I walked up and down the streets of Dublin… Shopping :) Compared to other days of the trip, I feel like we had so much fun because we had so much time. At the beginning of the day, we started off with a 3-hour bus tour, where we got time to explore St.Patrick’s Cathedral and the Trinity College, which included the Book of Kells. I actually thought it was amazing to see the Long Room Library in real-life, with my own eyes, instead of on a picture that I previously saw. Afterwards, we had about 6 hours to shop, walk around, eat lunch, and just simply have fun! We went to sooooo many stores, shopping for souvenirs and eating at an exotic café, where we tried Bruschetta. I personally think that Dublin is a really cool and unique city. It’s full of people, street performers, and stores. There was even a Women’s Marathon going on! I even went to a Disney store, where I got a special edition Dublin mug! Plus, there was a HUGE mall that we went into... I was blown away!Honestly saying, I thought today was pretty fun, as it gave us freedom to choose what we wanted to do, but a sense of responsibility as well!

Today’s highlights definitely had to be dinner! It was Maureen’s 16^th birthday! I had a lot of fun during dinner and I have to say, we had a lot of laughs, jokes, and smiles! We were a bit crazy... Hannah flicked her chicken off of her fork while trying to say something, landing right on Genesis, and Hannah nearly fell off her seat! We were later joined by Joe, Joe, and Jack and had a lot of laughs and inside jokes :) And when we started laughing so much and being so loud, Mr.Schagrin started to come over and Jessi nearly spit water out of her mouth! She thought we were going to get in trouble for being so loud; instead, he just asked us if we were having fun. After dinner at the two-story restaurant, we went over to Joe, Joe, Jack, and Kyle's room and hung out until room check, playing a bunch of games and Swedish Twister! I won a three-way tie with Joe and Hannah... I was hanging on for dear life haha. It was loads of fun!