Dancing around Dublin

I love studying abroad! This week was quite brilliant and was complete with cool classes, shadowing English doctors, and going to Ireland. Every Wednesday is my Practice of Medicine Class, and last week, as apart of the class, we went to the Tate Britain to go look at a painting of "The Doctor" by Sir Samuel Luke Fildes. It was an cool class because along with learning about the painting, we also learned about observation techniques and getting accurate data. I also thought our guest lecturer was quite fascinating because along with being a doctor, she had an impressive amount of knowledge regarding a lot of the paintings in the famous museum. I even got to see and explain "Ophelia" by Sir John Everett Millais to the rest the class. I am really excited about tomorrow's lecture though because professional actors are coming in to teach us how to communicate with patients. The class type seems to be similar to when I participated in "Behind Closed Doors" as an RA, and I am sure we will all get a few laughs out of pretending to be doctors with difficult patients.

Immediately after class on Friday, Jason and I headed off to Dublin, Ireland. It was quite an adventure to get there, because in order to get to the city, I had to take the tube to the bus station, a bus to the airport, a plane to Ireland, and another bus to Dublin. Once we got into the city, we went to a traditional Irish pub called the Blarney Inn. At the pub, I order the best fish and chips I have had so far. We then went to the Porterhouse where we met quite a few interesting people. My favorite encounter from the night had to be meeting a couple from Dublin. The man told me that along with looking like I was 12 that I also looked like Hermione Granger from Harry Potter. His date disagreed with him on both accounts, but nevertheless the experience was quite amusing. We then made our way to the Four Courts Hostel, which was a very clean and friendly place. It was nice staying there for a few nights in a row, purely because we could safely leave our backpacks in secure areas.

Saturday morning we explored the city. Sadly, we could not a find information about the free tour, so instead we walked around and saw the city on our own in the morning. It was such a beautiful sunny day, and it was one of the first sunny days I have seen since I arrived in Europe. As always, I took a ton of pictures that I posted on facebook. We saw beautiful churches, gorgeous shopping streets, green parks, and various monuments. We also saw Trinity College, which was a fascinating campus. After we were done exploring, Jason and I made our way over to the Guinness Storehouse. While I am not a beer drinker, the place was amazing and had 7 stories of interactive exhibits. My favorite part was learning how to pour the perfect pint of Guinness. The secret is waiting two minutes in between pours to provide the thick creamy layer at the top of the pint. I didn't drink much of my complementary pint because I was not a big fan of the taste, but I did give it away to a girl who was more than happy to drink it. After we were done at the museum, we went to an Italian restaurant where I ordered Irish Salmon that also incredibly fresh. However, one of the my favorite experiences was when we decided to go to the International Comedy Club. The place was packed with Dubliners, and we quickly learned that we were the only Americans in the place. Of course, we did not identify ourselves in fear of getting ridiculed, but many American jokes were made, mostly about how we didn't drink nearly enough :-P.

Since we had seen the majority of Dublin on Saturday, Jason and I decided to participate in a day trip to Wicklow and Glendalough to see mountains, waterfalls, lakes, and greenery. Since there was only room for 14 people in the van, all of us got really close and I made a few friends. I even met few other American girls, Annie and Michele. It was really cool meeting them because they were also studying in London. Annie even lives in the building next to my building! The all day trip was so nice because we were able to get out of cities for a day, and all the views were breathtaking. Our driver/tour guide was such an incredibly nice old Irish man, and he reminded me a lot of my Grandpa Ray. He was always giving us wisdom, and told us that just by going on the trip we added 3 months to our lives (since we breathed such pure air).

That night after we got back, Jason, Annie, Michele, and I went to the Arlington Hotel for Live Irish music and dancing. I was so excited to see Irish dancing because I have always loved watching Riverdance. The show was everything I hoped it would be, and all in all, the weekend was truly a success. We had an amazing time, but I am looking forward to spending next weekend at home in London.

Finally, my other last bit of exciting news is that yesterday I shadowed an English doctor for the first time with Cliff (Cliff goes to school with me at CWRU too). We saw a variety of patients, with some being very serious and others being quite jovial. I can't wait to do more shadowing, and I am so excited to be learning so many wonderful things. I love this experience, and everyday I am thankful that I have this opportunity to study abroad.