A couple of things before we get started:

1. There is a show that starts there title of there episodes “The One…” Which show is it?

2. You were given six eggs. You break two. You fry two. You eat two. How many eggs do you have left?

The first two people that answer at least one of the questions correctly will win a prize!

Please email your answer and address to this email: gflores@9811@gmail.com

This blog is going to be more pictures than words (hopefully) of friends/families who visted us!

Our first visitor was Sydney! She is friend of Quinn’s from back home. She is also studying abroad in Europe during her break she visited us in Cork. Which we showed her how it is done in THE OLD OAK and also she went to Dublin with us!(Some of these pictures have already been posted but it’s okay)During St. Paddy week Alyssa’s cousin, Maddie, visited us. Her and Alyssa went to Blarney. This time everything was blooming and more green. She got to see the busiest night we’ve seen there (St. Patrick’s) and some of the quieter nights there. She also went to the Cliff of Moher and Dublin. For the ones who know her, ask her how she got around Dublin and be prepared to be entertained.The Cordt’s did a pit stop in Cork. They took all of us out to eat for dinner to a well known pub called Gallagher’s Pub. We got to hear some embarrassing stories about Evan! Let’s just say when he was younger he loved to show off his butt. Before we headed off to THE OLD OAK we taught them some college drinking games!Alyssa’s mom, aunt and Jen’s bff Jenn. (Yes they are two Jen(n)s). Came down and Traveled around Ireland some of the stops were Dingle, Galways, Cliffs of Moher, Cobh, and Slea Head Drive. Even though Jen did a terrific job on driving around the island and had Jenn was an amazing co-pilot it was absolutely terrifying (and very entertaining) at times… mainly entertaining. Oh, and don’t worry they experience THE OLD OAK and tried some of the lovely, nasty shots that we all take.

Bikes, parks, waffles with ice cream, playgrounds, and good food. We loved it there.

We spent the weekend in Amsterdam, and we absolutely loved it. We flew out early Thursday afternoon and after a (very bumpy) couple hours we landed safely in Holland.

Even though it was getting dark, we didn’t hesitate to explore after finding our hostel. One thing that surprised me was the number of bikes there were everywhere we turned! In Amsterdam, there are more bikes than people. I was in heaven.

We decided to call it an early night so we’d have a full day of sightseeing on Friday. We had to get up early to buy tickets for the Anne Frank House, but it was completely worth it. (We weren’t allowed to take pictures inside, so we took a selfie outside instead.  The museum was a very cool experience.)

Afterward, we went to a park near the Van Gogh museum and found an adult-sized playground. I think it’s safe to say that we were all excited.

One thing we noticed was that it seemed like we were always walking in circles because of all the canals. Amsterdam really is a beautiful city! (Also here’s a picture of what I do best: photo-bomb Quinn’s good photo-ops and eat ice cream)

Saturday we decided to go on a canal tour, which was a cool and different way to see the city and still get in some history!

Since Amsterdam is famous for waffles, you know we couldn’t go without getting some. Also, I like ice cream. Reason 338826-B why I loved Amsterdam.

After reviving ourself with sugar, we decided alcohol would be the next stop (like typical college students) and I guess we all must miss the Midwest or something because we spent 30 minutes in a -40° room surrounded by ice.

Needless to say, we were all very sad to leave Amsterdam, (I may have even teared up at the airport,) but we were all very thankful for this short-but-sweet weekend away!

Currently in Cork it’s starting to become crunch time for essays and exam studying, and we’re starting to spend even more time in the library.  We have less than three weeks to go until Spring Break, and then it’ll truly be exam season.

The past couple weeks have been very busy with RAG week and Dublin and everything in between, so let’s just get into what we’ve been doing:

First off, RAG week: RAG week is technically “Raise And Give” week that a lot of Ireland/UK universities do. During this week, they’ll have a lot of different events/shops on campus that will benefit different charities.

But in true college-student fashion, RAG week is also known as a week of day drinking and skipping classes. (Don’t worry moms, we still went to all of our classes!) When I told Gustavo, Quinn, and Evan about RAG week on Thursday the week before, none of us knew what to expect. We soon discovered how much fun the bar on campus is and how crazy all the pubs in the city centre can be. It wasn’t unusual to see a pub with a line going around the block!

Although RAG week was fun, I think we were all grateful for things to go back to normal at the end of the week.

That weekend we didn’t go out much, but we did walk to some new places thanks to Pokemon Go, including a used book store and an art museum. The boys still haven’t convinced me to play it yet, however, I like going on long walks and seeing new places, so I won’t complain.

That Sunday, we also went to Black Rock Observatory, which is a castle turned into a science center (Gustavo was low-key geeking out the entire time). We were the only college-aged people there, but we still learned a lot, got out of the busy parts of Cork, and discovered a beautiful walking trail!

This past weekend, we went to Dublin, but not until after we went to Latino Night at one of our favorite pubs. Latino Night has been on our calendar since we’ve heard about it almost six weeks ago. Quinn’s friend, Sydney, was also visiting, which made the night even more fun!

The next morning we took the train to Dublin (100% better than taking the bus, I might add) and explored some parts of the city. I knew that Dublin is Ireland’s biggest city, but I was not prepared for how busy everything would be! That night, we had traditional fish and chips and went back to our hostel fairly early.

Saturday morning after enjoying our hostel’s breakfast, we trekked to the Guinness Storehouse, which was an awesome experience. We learned what goes into making the beer, how to pour a pint, the proper way to sample beer, and so much more! If anybody is ever in Dublin, it’s definetley worth checking out!

After we visited Stephen’s Gardens and watched Quinn and Sydney pet a Swan (yes, really) we had ice cream while watching a street performer. And this was one of my favorite parts of Dublin: Evan’s ice cream scoop fell off of his cone, like what you see in cartoons and think “Oh, that never happens” BUT Evan had fast enough reflexes to bend down and catch it. I’m still not over this. It was the most impressive things ever.

That night, we went on a pub crawl that our hostel recommended, and it was a very cool way to see a lot of other pubs; a bonus was the discounted drinks! All in all, it was a very fun time.

The next morning Evan and Quinn took an earlier train back to Cork, but Mel, Gustavo, and I spent some more time in the city doing some shopping before heading back to Cork.

This blog had a lot of pictures because I have officially given Quinn photographer responsibility. He’s doing a great job.

In a couple weeks we will be heading to Amsterdam, so expect another exciting blog post soon!

Long time, no update.  Here’s what we’ve been up to lately.

We’ve settled for staying in Cork the past couple weekends. After all, there’s a lot of this city we haven’t seen yet, bad weather isn’t fun to hike/travel in (we DID learn something from Cliff’s of Moher,) and we’re all exhausted and traveling costs money, so we’ve been saving ourselves. I’m hoping this weekend we’ll go to Killarney.

So, you may be wondering, what have we been doing if we’ve just been in Cork? Well, here it is (in no specific order.)

• We went bowling one night to change things up and not go to the pubs. Although Quinn won, I think it’s safe to say we all had a great night. After bowling and pizza, we played some arcade games. (Gustavo thought he was going to dominate since he has 3 weeks of high school bowling under his belt)
• If you ever visit Ireland, especially a bigger city like Cork or Dublin, you’ll hear all about the “nightlife” and how great it is. While it is a fun time, I’ve been trying to go sightseeing in Cork too (and drag the boys along whenever I have a chance.)
• Have you heard of the TV show “Friends?” Because, if you have, Gustavo has watched five seasons in a week. We aren’t complaining though.
• We watched the Super Bowl! Quinn, Gustavo, and I only watched the first half and halftime since… well… we really don’t care that much. Evan, on the other hand, stayed out until the third quarter. This may just be a guess, but we think he had a lot of fun that night. (Until the bartender cut him off I guess.)
• The boys have started playing Pokemon Go. I hope that’s a good thing.
• WE BOUGHT TICKETS TO AMSTERDAM!! And we are working on planning some Spring Break trips. We’re excited to explore other parts of Europe very soon.
• Speaking of traveling, hopefully we go somewhere warm, because Gustavo and Quinn bought swimsuits. (Evan will probably buy a pair too, don’t worry)
• We met a Polish guy, Domion, who also is going to school in Cork. He’s a lot like Evan and Gustavo. He’ll always encourage us to go out.
• We found an awesome donut/ ice cream place.

• It’s RAG week here at UCC, which is a lot like Viesha back at Iowa State. Please pray for us. (the picture below is the line for the bar on campus)
• Gustavo and I had “Date Night” at a restaurant called Shake Dog. It was very good.
• We had a movie night, which was super fun!
• We’ve been studying and hanging out at the library. Believe it or not, we are going to classes and studying!

That’s all for now, but we still have a lot of adventures left for the rest of the semester!

What a busy and exciting week! Let’s dive into it…

This week was our second week of classes, so I think it’s safe to say that we finally got into a groove here. (Well, I did anyway.) For Gustavo and I, Cork is the first big city we’ve lived in. It’s taken me a while to get used to a lot of things here. Some I expected, such as people driving on the left side of the street, and others I didn’t, like rush-hour traffic or taking 20-30 minutes to get anywhere. Now though, I finally think that I’m used to living in Cork.

I was sick with a cold for the most of this week, so I didn’t go out on Tuesday like the boys did, but I did venture out on Thursday and still had a lot of fun. Thursday they had karaoke night at Old Oak, so of course, we had to go check it out. Quinn and Evan eventually got on stage and the crowd loved them. Gustavo had a lot of fun, so I made him sign a contract promising to not drink in Limerick. Spoiler: the contract had no effect.

We decided we wanted to go to Limerick and Cliffs of Moher, so Friday we took a bus to Limerick. If you have me on Snapchat, you already know that the bus ride was not a smooth one. (Let’s just say I owe Mel a drink.)

After we had checked into our hotel and I bought new jeans, we had a great time looking around Limerick. It was already after three when we got there, but we still made the most of it. Evan led us to St. John’s Cathedral, which was absolutely beautiful. Also, I got a picture of both Quinn and Evan being quiet at the same time! This has never happened before!!

We also went on a walk along the river and Arthur’s Park. We got hungry pretty early in the night, and even though it took us about an hour to find somewhere to eat, we eventually settled on a cafe that had so many different options. I had some amazing taco fries.

Of course, Friday night we went out. We quickly realized that Limerick’s nightlife is much different than Cork’s. After watching a soccer game in one pub, we found a smaller one that was really cute.

We still went to bed fairly early Friday night, because Saturday morning we woke up early to make our way to Cliffs of Moher (this time with motion sickness pills!) Once there, we realized how windy it was! Here’s a picture of my hair for reference:

After spending a few hours at the cliffs, eating lunch, and playing some card games, we loaded a bus to get back to Cork. We were all in and out of sleep the entire four-hour ride and we were still tired when we got back. We were all perfectly content with staying in, but Evan worked his magic and convinced the boys to go out again. Are we surprised about this? No.

Overall, it was a really great week! Gustavo has a few things to add to this blog, so here’s his part.

At this point many of you think some of us go out too much (Gustavo & Evan) I would like to let you all know that in the Irish college culture they go out Tuesdays and Thursday. Soooo we kind of take advantage of that.

Tuesdays Night: Men’s Night Part 1 –

I know I know going out on a Tuesday night sounds like a bad idea, but if you know Evan and I, we just love to dance and occasionally drink. We have a tendency to go Old Oak since we had so much fun there our first time there, but we decided to adventure out and visit a small local pub and then to a night club. Let’s just say that Evan and I had a great night.

Thursday Night: International Night- Karaoke

Let just say that I had a little too much fun this night that ended up me signing a contract that I would not drink an adult beverage in Limerick…… Well that lasted about 7 hours….. Anyways the UCC IO does a really good on making events for us international students were we can have the opportunity to meet other international students. One of the events they hosted was Karaoke Night at Old Oak. As you predicted Evan and Quinn took the stage and blew the roof off the place. The next morning a couple of ladies went up to Evan at our apartment complex and mentioned that they liked their performances. Later in the night we went on a Burger King run and if you know me I am a very talkative/friendly person. So I made four new local friends and we talked for awhile until my group want to leave.

Saturday: Mens night Part 2:

After getting back from Cliffs of Mohr Quinn and I was already set that I was not going out. Since we were going to be exhausted from the trip. EVAN CORDT IS A VIRUS. Somehow he convinced both of us to have another Mens Night….. At this point the bouncers at Old Oak know us so they did not even ask for our IDs. Throughout the night we met up with a 2 locals and started to socialize with them and hit up the dance floor. I would say I was another great mens night. I got a feeling that there is going to be many more.

That’s all for this post!! This weekend I’d like to stay in Cork, but we’ll make sure to update you all again soon!

Christy and Tim: You should’ve known this was coming.

In case you don’t know Evan Christian Cordt, you should. But anyway, he’s this guy:

He met Quinn last year when they lived in the same dorm, and Quinn introduced him to us early last semester. We’ve been tailgating, hanging out, and studying at the library all semester. Evan is pretty much the reason why we’re in Ireland too. So, we do love him. And it’s because we love him so much, we decided to put together some fun facts about Evan so far on this trip. (Evan also read and approved the blog before we uploaded it, so we aren’t terrible people)

About the girl:

• He made out with a girl, Danielle, on Day 3.

• We blame Evan/Danielle for getting us all sick with a nasty cold that we STILL aren’t over.

• He WAS wearing Danielle’s scrunchies (but he’s since stopped– story yet to come.)

• Speaking of Danielle, once he and Quinn waked her back and Evan fell on him face three times.

About everything else:

• He only brought one pair of jeans on a four-month trip. (But don’t worry, he’s gone to Penney’s and bought a couple more pairs.)
• He dropped a class the first day BEFORE he even went to the class.
• He’s been to Ireland before, so he knows a lot about where to go and sightseeing.
• For each cigarette he smokes he has to run a mile. We’re at mile 6 currently.
• We will all be laying around, thinking that we are for sure NOT going out. Guess who convinces us otherwise, even on a Tuesday. This guy:

• He was also the one wearing the ISU shirt that a random guy noticed and started talking to us, and the random guy eventually bought me a drink. So, thanks, Evan!
• He knows a little bit of Gaelic and it’s kind of funny.
• Every once in a while he’ll also go on a “coffee run” where he’ll run to McDonald’s, get a coffee, and walk back to the apartment.
• He takes approximately 6.5 business days to answer a Snapchat or text.
• He brought hair gel when we went to Blarney castle because he knew his hair would get messed up. But he also brought Pringles and shared with Alyssa.
• He does an awesome Donald Trump impression.

So, in conclusion, we are definitely having a fun and an…….. entertaining time.

This past week was full of navigating our classes, sightseeing, and sadly, getting sick. Luckily, we’re all almost over it, and we’ve managed to power through and still have a good time!

Monday through Thursday we all had classes, but we also had fun at the pubs and tried to see the city a bit more. Classes in Ireland are very similar to what they’re like in the states, but I’d say Iowa State has some much bigger class sizes.

Friday none of us had class, but while Quinn and Evan were sleeping in (they got sick a little “harder” than the rest of us.) (We don’t actually know how/why they got so sick…. buuut we’ve been giving them crap about kissing random girls) (Tim/Christy/Cordt fam: Evan literally deserves his own blog post because wow…. he is very entertaining) Gustavo and I went to see Fitzgerald’s park and the English Market with my friend Melanie that I met in an astronomy class last year.

The museum at Fitzgerald’s was closed for the day, but we still got to walk around and see the college’s gym, which is nearby. After, we went to the English Market, which was very neat! It’s on the way to/from classes, so I think I know where I’m going to do some of my grocery shopping from now on! Also on Friday, I got ice cream for the first time since I’ve been here. I was a very happy person.

On Saturday we decided to visit the Blarney castle and gardens, which was a fun day trip, as it’s less than a thirty minute bus ride (shout out to Mel and Gustavo who figured out how to get there.) While we were at Blarney we toured the castle, kissed the stone, checked out the poison garden, (yes, that’s a thing,) climbed trees, almost got attacked by “Lance and Ellie,” and explored the rest of the grounds. We spent over three hours there, and it was a lot of fun!

Once we got home, we all took a nap before deciding to go out. I only went out for a couple hours since the busy day caught up to me FAST. Regardless of being exhausted, I think everybody had a fun time.

Like last week, Sunday was spent recovering, sleeping in, and grocery shopping. Next weekend we are wanting to see the Cliffs of Moher and maybe some other attractions, so some serious planning will be taking place before then.

Today we start our classes, so the past few days we’ve been taking advantage of our free time by sightseeing, exploring, and trying to get settled in.  Here are some of our adventures so far:

Thursday morning we woke up early to walk the two miles to campus for orientation at 9:45. We learned a lot about Cork and UCC as well as more information about classes and student-life here. The university has over a thousand foreign students and we met a lot of people while we were there.

Last semester we spent a lot of time at the library studying and we often met there in between classes, so we made sure to find the library and some good study spots.  We also ate lunch at a café on campus, looked around at the campus shop, and got our student IDs.

That afternoon, I led us from campus to Aldi’s and we did not get lost! I didn’t realize how different grocery stores would be here.  I was very overwhelmed, even though there are only a fraction of the options we have in the US.  So far, we haven’t had too many issues making meals and we can find almost everything.

Of course, we went out again Thursday night, and we met someone who knew of Iowa State and made sure we knew it when he saw Evan’s sweatshirt! It turns out he follows collegiate football and the NFL.  We talked to him and a few of his friends.  It seems to me that the Irish like asking Americans about two things: Trump and Las Vegas.

Friday we let ourselves sleep in a bit before making our way to campus again.  This time, we focused on finding our way to all our classes.  Walking around and to/from campus there are so many beautiful sights, nobody minds the walk too much.

Even though Gustavo wanted to go out again Friday night, he was out voted when the rest of us fell asleep before eight.  There will be plenty of time for going to pubs this semester though!

Saturday I wanted to explore the city centre a little bit more, and Gustavo wrote a little more about our day:

Saturday morning we decided to go visit Fort Elizabeth which is only a two-mile walk from our apartment (and yes, I just said ONLY two miles). When we were on our way there we noticed that Cork has a lot of cathedrals. Unfortunately, St. Fin Barre’s Cathedral was closed, but there was a labyrinth, so we ended up doing that. Fort Elizabeth was right around the corner. We had pretty amazing views of the city once we were on top of the fort. For some reason, my friends thought I was “grumpy” (Alyssa compared it to Day 3 of RAGBRAI) so they contemplated leaving me there.

Now my favorite part of the day: THE PUBS. I would say Cork has a lot of nightlife having a lot of pubs, clubs, cinemas, and arcades. Old Oak would be our favorite pub so far. This pub has an amazing staff, the environment is astounding, AND THERE IS A DANCE FLOOR. We met with other Iowa State student there and Quinn’s friend’s friend and other gals ended up with us also. Later in the night we actually met a girl who was from Florida but has been studying in Cork for the past 7 years. Half of the group ended up on the dance floor and the other half ended up talking to some locals. It’s interesting seeing Irish people being so curious about our politics.

The people here are SO  NICE. They are very friends and more than happy to answer any questions. They will have a whole conversation with you and genuinely want to get to know you.

Sunday was a very laid-back day.  I went to mass at St. Patrick’s church, which is just a ten-minute walk from our apartment! We also all had dinner together and talked more about our classes and what we were expecting.

If you’ve read this long post, thank you!! For now we’re going to stop posting the link on Facebook, so make sure you’re subscribed to receive email updates! If you are unsure how, personal message me with your email.

As Gustavo said, It is kinda crazy and funny how easily you can forget about the “study” part of study abroad and only focus on the fun we’ll have while we’re abroad! Wish us luck on our first day of classes!

Well everyone, we’ve arrived! Let’s take a look at our journey these past couple days (we apologize for the lack of pictures, as it’s been very hectic. Today we did much better at taking pictures, so our future posts should be more fun to read)

Getting on the plane in London that would bring us to Cork, I could tell 75% of the passengers were college students that were going to study abroad at Cork along with us. The flight to Cork was very smooth and it was a good time to catch on sleep. One thing I noticed is that it was so foggy on the plan was that we couldn’t see anything!

Immigration and Customs decided to squeeze about 35 college students into a small space to check passports. You could tell that all of us were really tired but that did not stop us to socialize with each other. There were students all over the country like California, New York, and Minnesota. The Guarda, the national police, were really nice and friendly to us. To be honest they were nicer and less intimidating than ICE and the Mexican federal when crossing the border. (I would know!)

We end up making a friend at the airport who also living in the same apartment complex as us so we decided to take a taxi together. The taxi driver, Frank, was really nice and talkative. He told us a lot of the history of Cork and some place to site see and places to avoid. He also asked us about our opinions of Trump, which I think most Irish people are interested in.

As we got to settle in our apartment, we tried really hard to stay awake, since we had gone around 24 hours without sleep and it was only 8am in Iowa time! After Quinn and Evan came, all four of us decided to go shop and eat in the city center. After getting a few things for the apartment, it was time to pick a restaurant. There was so many options it was hard to pick; the city’s streets are also laid out like a maze too, which didn’t help us. We ended up eating at a local sandwich restaurant and IT WAS GOOOOOOD (or maybe it was because we had gone HOURS since breakfast?)

After that we grocery shopped at a neighborhood grocery store and oh my it was a hike to the store. The store kind of reminded of the local stores in Mexico, it was very family oriented and small, with not too many options (although it did have homemade bread!) 

Lastly, we went out to the pubs. Honestly, I (Gustavo) was really excited to purchase my first legal alcoholic beverage. The first pub that we stopped by was Murphy’s, which was my favorite pub. Mainly because it was small, it felt homey, and the staff was very friendly. It also had an older, intoxicated man who wouldn’t stop singing, which added a good vibe. We stopped at other pubs as well to meet up with other Iowa State students.  We decided to go home fairly early (we were all in bed around 10) since we had orientation this morning. (Alyssa also came, but was on the other side of the camera)

Another blog should be coming in a few days, so keep your eyes out! If you’re subscribed, you should have gotten an email telling you that we posted. If you want to be subscribed but are not sure how, comment or PM Alyssa with your email and we will sign you up!

We’ll have another update soon!

First and foremost, if you’re here, you’ve figured out we’ve started a blog! We’re going to be keeping really busy these next few months!

As of 12:25 today, I am officially done with my third semester at Iowa State! Although I had a few tricky classes, I enjoyed most of them and definitely learned a lot this semester!  I am still on track to graduate early and I’m starting to look at graduate schools, which is both scary and exciting.  This semester I got a job at some of the cafes around campus, and I got to meet some great people, get free food, and I tried coffee once! (I’m not a fan) I was also treasurer for the Cycling Club and the secretary for Mariachi Los Amigos.  I had a blast in both of these clubs and working with some really great people!  And of course, I tailgated.  A lot.  Although it got cold at the end of the season and there seemed to be a lot of home games, we had some fun!

         

As most of you have probably figured out, Gustavo and I will not be returning to Iowa State next semester, as we have the amazing opportunity to study abroad at University of College Cork, Ireland.  I’ll be taking some interesting psychology and social work classes, which I can’t wait to start.  We’ll also be going over with two of our friends, Quinn and Evan.  It’ll really be a blast!

     

Stay tuned to have more updates on our crazy life! We fly to Cork on January 8th!

-Alyssa