What? Really?

Some of the parade.

More of the parade.

We all got matching Ireland scarves.

Well, since I haven't updated since we went to Belfast, I think it's time for another exciting post about the life of Carrie. Honestly, I think the reason that I don't write too many blog entries is the fact that Coleraine, Northern Ireland is not the most exciting place on the planet. If you want a typical day/week in the life of Carrie, just think of sitting around inside a lot because it rains all the time, hanging out with other Americans because all the students go home on weekends, watching TV or just talking because we have no money to go out. We do walk into town every now and then, and sometimes we attend a small group Bible study (when it's not canceled), and on Thursdays there's the CU and then Spring Hill afterward. Otherwise, there just really isn't much to do.

But we did celebrate Pi(e) Day on March 14th. Wow, I haven't even written since then. Failure. Anyway, I love pie, and so do most people, so we thought it would be fun to have a little celebration. Seeing as how in the States, March 14th is 3/14 which corresponds to our favorite mathematical term of pi, 3.14, we wanted to share our American holiday with everyone here. Erin's mom sent her some measuring cups (they use the metric system here) and pumpkin, and both of our mothers sent recipies for our favorite pies. We had trouble finding pans for the crusts, but eventually found some foil ones that kind of worked. Then we made our own crusts and five different kinds of pie: apple, pumpkin, pecan, strawberry, and banana cream. No one here has ever had pumpkin pie, so that was probably the most exciting to share.

In the end, there were only six of us there to share the pies, so we ate way too much. But it was delicious. I think I might still have a couple of pieces left, actually... The funniest part of the night was later on when we went to the Irish Music Night that the International Friends put on, they had pie there as well. I had to pass on that.

Other than Pi(e) Day, the most exciting thing that has happened in the month of March was St. Patrick's Day. We are in Ireland, so we figured we might as well hit Dublin for the biggest holiday over here. It's funny, because actually, people in Northern Ireland don't think St. Patrick's Day is a big deal at all. And they kept telling us that Dublin is really overrated for the holiday. But we went anyway with about 30 international students. It's about a four hour drive from Coleraine to Dublin, so we had to leave at 6 a.m. This put us in Dublin at around 10, and then we settled in to watch the parade at noon.

It was very very crowded, and people in Dublin definitely enjoy St. Patrick's Day. Everyone was dressed up, and everywhere you looked there was a sea of green. We managed to get a decent spot to watch the parade, though I felt like I was in some kind of mosh pit the entire time. We were packed in quite tightly. The parade started on Irish time, meaning it was about a half-hour late. But it was pretty neat. I thought it was funny how many high school marching bands from the U.S. were in the parade (one from Indiana and one from Florida, weird).

After the parade, we got some lunch and then decided to walk around and look for other things to do. There was supposedly some kind of fair area or something, but we couldn't find it. The art museum was also open, but we didn't know that. So we just walked through shops, and then at about five o'clock when we got cold and tired and just wanted to go home but had three more hours to kill, we found somewhere to eat and sit. Not a pub, because those were all packed. Next time we go somewhere, we need to make sure we know what we can do. But all-in-all, the day was fun. Now I can check that off my bucket list. I have been in Dublin for St. Patrick's Day.

I've had a lot of homework this month. I've written four papers already, and have another one due this week, so I need to work hard on that this weekend. Once that is done, I just have a presentation and three exams, and that is the extent of the rest of my work for the semester.

I'm getting excited for Easter Break. Mom is coming today (crazy!), and she, Erin, and I are going to do some traveling. So far the plan is to hit Scotland, England, and Wales, so we'll see if we stick to that plan. The second week of break, I am meeting up with some friends who are studying in London and we are going to Italy (if we ever get it planned out). It's too bad we didn't have a little bit longer or we could have tried to go more places, but it gets expensive to travel in Europe.