Do We Really Have To Leave? Day 12-By Kiley & Emily

We're on top of the world!

Both figuratively and literally!

This trip has been filled with multiple on top of the world experiences, today being our first literal one. 

Seventeen of us started off our day with a plentiful Irish breakfast to prepare us for our "high" endeavors to come. Once we loaded the bus everyone realized that Meghan and Alex were not with us. James ran into their room to find them and to his surprise found them still asleep. While they got ready, Kristen in her motherly role grabbed yogurt and granola bars for breakfast on the go. Once everyone was on the bus, we set out for Croagh Patrick.

As we approached the statue of St. Patrick, at the base, no one really knew what we were getting ourselves into (except for Kristen). After taking a group picture, we took a minute to look up at the mountain we were about to embark on, convincing ourselves that we could do it. Unlike the rest of us, James looked up and said, “That looks easy!” So he decided to hike up the mountain barefoot for a spiritual penance. An hour and five minutes later Elliott was at the top, followed by sixteen of us within the next half hour. We all took a minute to catch our breath and acknowledge the feat we just conquered. We looked around taking in the beauty of the mountain and the cloud that we were now inside of. Although the view was blocked by the fog from the morning, we managed to take hipster pics on top of the mountain. Not only were our pictures unreal, but we were able to truly captured the essence in a “victory dance” Vine.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eQOlfF2CPc

Once our celebration was over, we were forced to prepare ourselves for the journey down to the bottom. We initially thought the way up was the hard part, but once those rocks started slipping on the way down, we knew we had a tough task ahead of us. Kristen and Annie proved that taking the slow route was the way to go; neither of them took a fall comparatively to the rest of the crew tripping over rocks on multiple occasions. Despite a few tumbles and scratches, we all made it to the bottom by 2:30 and enjoyed a much deserved lunch.

The only thing getting us out of our chairs after lunch was the thought of taking a cold shower and a long nap (extra long for big girls). While some of us napped, others ran into town to pick up a few last minute souvenirs for those at home. At 6:15 our favorite bus driver drove us into town for “The Last Supper.” We all shared our favorite memories of the trip and spent our last meal relishing in the glory of being “On Top of The World.”

While we were here enriching ourselves in Irish culture, we experienced many aspects that we thoroughly enjoyed while there were others that we could live without.

This is a collaborative list of our favorite (and not so favorite) aspects of Ireland.

Will Miss	Will Not Miss
Our group	Tomato sauce (ketchup)
Wheaten brown bread	Brown sauce
Joe/the bus	Dungeon bathrooms
Big Girls	Crowded public busses
Napping in public	Chips at every meal
Pauric	Fat fries
Joyceans	James’s open mouth chewing
Coffee at every meal	Meghan’s tissue
James’s bleats	Elliott’s tardiness
The scenery	Annie’s open-eyed sleeping
Jay’s stories	Being jealous of Kiley’s naps
Dessert at every meal	Waking up early
Skyping Juliette’s boyfriend	No nap days
James finishing all of our meals	Constantly feeling like a “big girl”
Selfies with sheep/ cows	The search for wifi
Constant hipster pics	Heavy loud doors
Paparazzi *cough cough* Elliott	Ordering bacon and receiving ham
Meghan’s singing	Living out of a suitcase
Laura’s piano pieces	Sharing a room
Brian’s comic book knowledge	Adaptors
Christina’s facts	Blood pudding
Juliette’s dancing	Separate faucet handles
Late night meetings	Checking the balance on our debit cards
Being on top of the world	Whipping out our debit cards
Jay, Liana, and Kristen	Mr. Lind, Ms. Bracker, and Ms. Holtschlag

Sincerely,
Big Girls
(Kiley & Emily)