Week 3 marked the arrival of all first year students to classes, meaning my first full week of classes of the semester! Except when classes were cancelled, ha. I'm really excited about my history class, I think it will be really interesting and different from all the science classes that I'm used to. Bioethics has been fascinating thus far, the professor is really awesome. I also like my engineering classes, and we're starting to get in the full swing of senior design as well, which is nifty. We also had our first sets of homework assignments with lab and senior design.
On Wednesday my tissue engineering class was cancelled, meaning I had an extra two hours of free time. Thus, I decided to surprise my roomies and give in to their demands for baked goods. Plus I had a blondie recipe I'd been wanting to try. I though ahead and made sure my ingredient list was in SI units, and then got started on the baking! Then when they were ready to be put in the oven I realized two things 1) I forgot to preheat it and 2) the images and dials had worn off of it. So Matt and I guessed on what we should do. It did not turn out well. At all. I also think the fact that I put it in a broiler pan was another mistake. The top of the brownies turned this awful awful burnt black color, and then the bottom of them didn't even bake, after 35 minutes in the oven. The entire kitchen area steamed up, but thankfully no fire alarms went off. Nathan tried to tell people it was custard with chocolate on top...they didn't fall for it. And surprisingly, they still want me to bake for them.
On Friday Eric, Colleen, Bridget, Kristen, Annie, and I went to Dublin! It was awesome! We got there about 2:00 p.m. and checked in to our hostel, which was kind of out of the way but cheap, clean, and the 6 of us all shared one room and bathroom. So it was nice not having to deal with strangers. We went to the Guinness Storehouse first off, where we learned the brewing process and some history of Guinness. Then we learned how to "pour the perfect pint" complete with a certificate (woot woot) and a pint of Guinness. I enjoyed it, but I could not finish it all! Wayyy too rich for me, someone who's used to Coors light.
Figure 1: Me and the perfect pint in the Gravity Bar.
In the evening we decided to go to the Temple Bar district. We ate at an amazing pub that had delicious beef casserole, which was pretty much beef stew with mashed potatoes on top. The Temple Bar was a tad crowded and we were all kinda worn out so we headed back early and played a lot of car games. Since then we have learned that Eric is not to be trusted in Go Fish, and Annie doesn't approve of the rules of it.
Saturday Eric and I went on a tour of the Boyne Valley. It is home of Newgrange, an 80m diameter neolithic passage tomb of the Celts that is 500 years older than Stonehenge, 1000 years older than the pyramids, and 3500 years older than the Mayans. Needless to say, it's old. It's been completely preserved from the time it was built only the outside had to be touched up. We couldn't take pictures inside, but we got to go in and walk along a hallway to the center room with three recesses where the cremated remains of most likely high rated officials were buried. Inside there were various carvings, the most famous of which is seen below (don't know why this person got to take pictures and I couldn't). Some people believe the three symbols represent life, death, and rebirth, our tour guide said it was the sign of hallucinogenic drugs at work. Other carving we saw were more swirls, a feather, a rippling down the side of one stone, and jagged lines.
Figure 2: Famous spirals
Figure 3: Newgrange from the side
Then we drove around some scenic parts of the Boyne valley, and saw where the Battle of the Boyne took place (William of Orange vs James II). William of Orange won (woo Protestants!). Then we went to the Hill of Tara, which was where the old Celtic kings were crowned. On a clear day apparently you can see 3/4 of Ireland. We had a clear day, so apparently we did, I'm not so sure though.
Figure 4: Panoramic view from the Hill of Tara.
Then we met up with the rest of the crew, who had just spent the day in the city. We went to St. Patrick's Cathedral, which was where Handel's Messiah was played for the first time. It was beautiful! We then did some shopping and found new shoes for Eric, which was a lot of fun! In the evening we went to Temple Bar again. We ate at a place called Bad Ass Cafe, which was nice although expensive. Then we went to The Temple Bar, which had live music and was a nifty place :) We went home again and played more card games, and I learned how to play Kemps for the first time. I wasn't very good.
On Sunday we went to a Camogie game! It's the female version of hurling. It was really intense and a lot of fun! I've heard of the game before, but never seen it or learned the rules so it was a really neat experience. Sadly, our team lost, but it was a really intense game! And they wear skirts, which is awesome.
This week was awesome, and I'm so excited for the week to come!
All my love,
Amy
No comments:
Post a Comment