If I could walk 500 miles . . . or just 5

Holla everyone!!!

     Well now it has been a couple weeks which means that it is time for an UPDATE!!! Whoop whoop!!! Yes I know I said I was going to try to keep you updated a little more often, but between traveling so much and trying to improve my study habits/discipline with life stuff (working out, sleeping, eating right, doing devo's, etc.) it is easier and more exciting to let a few adventures happen and then tell you a bunch of stuff all at once!! Hahaha Or I'm just lazy at times and can only motivate myself to write one of these every other week lol! I'll let you pick which one :)

    This post is going to just be more personal updates and telling you about Dublin and this past weekend and some stuff to look forward to! So not as long but hey, don't worry . . . many more adventures to come!

     Alright, so last weekend I hopped a bus to Dublin after my module on Friday afternoon. The trip was two hours long . . . but considering I had gotten three hours of sleep the night before, I gladly welcomed the two hours to catch up on sleep with open arms and closed eyelids haha The rest of the crew had gone down the day before because they don't have friday courses :/ lame! haha So I made the trip down solo. Once I got to Dublin it was dark, windy and rainy and, not gonna lie, creepy. I had to walk around downtown Dublin for an hour and a half to get to my hostel! It was a good experience for me, but I would rather not do it again alone and at night haha! Once I found the hostel (The Bunkhouse) I got all my stuff squared away and chilled until the others got back from a pub and then hit the hay. The next day we hit up a hop-on, hop-off bus tour and saw the Christ Church and St. Patricks Cathedral, Guinness and Jamison Distilleries, walked around a few cute shops downtown and then relaxed at the hostel for a little while before heading out. We went to a sweet Pub later that night to celebrate Sam's 21st birthday and just danced the night away :) The last day was just a nice mellow morning and we caught a bus back to Belfast and then a train to Jordanstown! It was a fun-filled time of exploring and experiencing Dublin to the fullest! I'm excited to go back with my parents come April!

     Above are the photo's of the little chinese Guinness mascot guy at the factory and then me at the Jamison distillery where the bartender gave me and joylynn free Jamison and Hot chocolates!!! SCORE!!

                                        Our little leprechaun boys Donald (left) and Ivar (right)

     Tuesday night, my flat mates and a few of our guy friends went out to Mclub to throw Ignacio a going away party. He was studying here from Venezuela and just got an internship in France, so he had to leave us :( But him and Irenee and Maxim (pretty much all our guys) left for holiday or France so we all wanted to go out for dancing and 1 pound drinks haha It was packed and a blast and a good way to say goodbye. We miss them a lot already but luckily Max and Irenee will be back next week and we are going to go visit Ignacio in Paris during Easter holiday!

From left to right 

Erin, Me, Ignacio, Margaret, Sarah, Marionella (in the foreground)

Ignacio and Irenee

    Next was the adventure of this weekend!! It was actually a pretty chill weekend, not a ton going on. But a few of us did have an entertaining adventure on Saturday! A few of us decided that if we weren't going to travel, that we should at least see something around Belfast. The verdict: Belfast Castle and Cave Hill. The day was absolutely gorgeous! It was sunny and warm and calm, just perfect for hiking and exploring. We hit up the castle first, which was beautiful, but that was about it. Pretty to look at and take pictures of but not that exciting. I will admit that the view of Belfast was breathtaking though :)

Belfast City & The Locke of Belfast

Lovely view of the Belfast Castle

     And then from the castle we started hiking up Cave Hill, which, started out in this forest area that was lush and green and gorgeous. Then we broke through a clearing and there were these giant green cliffs that we had to climb and a sweet little cave about halfway to the top. 

The Cliffs we climbed

Of course I climbed up into the cave, DUH! Do you know who I am?!

     While at the cave we were praising our good fortune at having such lovely weather, when all of a sudden . . . dun dun dunnnnn! GIANT CLOUDS - RAIN - CRAZY WIND - AND HOLY SMACKS COLD!!!! But hey, we couldn't turn back now! No way! So we continued the perilous treck to the top, battling the elements the whole way there!!

Almost to the top!!

You can't tell by the pic, but I made it to the top . . . put on my thug face of dominating the cliffs and then once I actually broke over the top edge to go stand on the point of the cliff, the wind about knocked my butt over the edge . . . slight panicky moment right before this picture. And then about 2 seconds after this picture my face almost froze off haha

     So for about 20 minutes we all admired the scene, but really were just shivering and quite frankly a wee bit miserable haha and then we decide to start the decent back down. Oh but hey, the way we took up would have been super risky to try and climb down so we decide to take an alternative route. Then the rain, sleet, snow and wind all die down abruptly.

Kaz (from Australia, left) and Evelein (from the Netherlands, right) bundled up and happy the rain stopped. 

     After about ten minutes the clouds parted, and heaven smiled down on us with glorious sunshine and blue skies . . . and I thought Spokane had ADD weather. Jeesh! So we went from hot, sunny, tshirts, to freezing, windy, snow, bundled, back to warm, blue skies, and sunshine all in the course of an hour. Crazy! Ok, so as we are taking this alternative route, we realize we have been walking an extremely long time, on this country, muddy path, that is taking us only God knows where . . . good. We ended up coming across some very pissed off ponies that had gotten loose and almost trampled us, that was exciting. 

     And eventually, meaning and hour and a half later, made it to civilization. Where we promptly hailed a cab, went back to campus, took off our extremely soaked and dirty clothes, and took a gloriously hot shower, ate a solid meal and ended our day with a fantastic nap!!! 

    Next weekend Me, Donald, Arami and possibly some others will be going to London and the next weekend off to Edinburg in Scotland!!! I will have lots to tell I'm sure so keep checking in and keep in touch with me! I love hearing from all you who contact me :) Much love to you all!!!

Cheers!

Breezy

One GIANT'S Step

Greetings to all of my loved ones back in the States!

     I know it has been way too long since I have updated you all, and I am so sorry about that. It has been a lot harder than I thought to get on a schedule here! But now that I am getting good sleep, exercise, and have a homework schedule and budget for groceries and travel, everything is finally smoothing out :)

     Let's see, I don't even know where to start because so much has happened in the past couple weeks. How about I start at the most recent activities and work backwards . . . that way I can give you the past few days in detail (while I still remember lol!). After that I will just tell you about a few of my flat mates and fellow international students, give you some tid bits about my academics and then tell you some new slang and popular items I have discovered here in Ireland.

     Alrighty, so this last weekend was actually a very eventful and productive one for me! (Those are few and far between haha) On Friday night it was Ivar's 21st birthday!!! Ivar is from Holland and is about 6'3". He has dark, shaggy hair and a really good sense of humor. All the Holland boys make weird, funny noises, which I can totally relate to . . . needless to say, we get along GREAT!! While turning 21 in Europe is not a big deal, since there are a lot of us American's here, we made his 21st a big deal. We went to the Botanic Inn (We call it The Bot), which is a classier Pub/Dance Club and had a Pre/Post Party at his flat (which is right next to mine). The night was full of stories, laughter and of course Spirits! I met two guys from Holland that were visiting Ivar. Jasper was 6'5" with shaggy blondish hair and Bob was 6'6" with short, dark hair. Both were crazy guys, but super cool and lots of fun to hang out with. I ended up going to bed around 5 am! Yikes! Ok, that was Friday.

     So, I woke up Saturday morning around 7 am to get ready to go on a hop-on, hop-off bus tour of the Northern Ireland coast with Donald (Maryland), Robert (Germany), Stephan (Germany), Martin (Germany), and another guy (France) . . . I don't remember his name (whoops haha). It was the best day ever!! Even though every single one of us was sleep deprived (and some of the boys hungover) we were energized and excited all day long! We saw all the Glenn's of the coast (and salmon farms), walked the rope bridge, hiked our butts off at Giant's Causeway, went to the Bushmills Whiskey Distillery (oldest licensed in the world, since 1608!), and saw a very old castle! We were on the tour from 9 am - 6 pm . . .  can anyone say LONG DAY!!! Hahaha But the boys couldn't have picked a better day. Jesus was shining beautiful sun on us all day long!! In fact, all weekend long. Which is a big deal considering the last two weeks has been solid rain and hard core wind (not even kidding). So, I got my testosterone fill this weekend, which was actually a relief from the amount of estrogen I've had to deal with from all the girls hahaha!

     In between my last post and this weekend my outings have been minimal, pretty much just going to a few pubs/clubs here and there. Also every Wednesday me and my flat mates go on an outing together, so a couple weeks ago we went into Belfast and went on a black cab tour of the Murals and Peace walls of the city and got a great history lesson from it all. It was awesome! After that we just went to the Victoria Center Mall and hung out for a bit.

    Now to tell you a bid about school. I am studying Advertising, Interpersonal Communication and Communication in Groups. All three courses are very interesting and I am enjoying them tremendously. I must give a shout out to my Whitworth professor Ron Pyle for helping me prepare me for theses classes through my Theories of Human Communication Course I took last semester. I know almost 90% of what the professors are talking about already which makes the work a hundred times easier to keep up with! Thank you Ron!!! In our advertising class we are working on a campaign for Glayva, which is a Single-Malt Scottish Whiskey . . . so I have begun designing a billboard, Adshel (bus stop ad), and online ad for that. It is kind of hard doing group work here, even more so than at home, because the Irish are Polychromatic (time is not considered important). In the states we are more Monochromatic, time is an entity, we are all about schedule and being prompt, so to be here where people don't answer their emails, or meet for group work . . . is a little beyond frustrating for my Type A personality . . .  let's just say God has a sense of humor in teaching patience :) haha

     I have discovered a few things a lot of Europeans know nothing about from the states that I was actually surprised to find out. For example, since the drinking age here is legal at 15-17 years old, they can sneak into the Pubs at age 13 and so they had no idea what a house party was! That's like a teenager's party existence before 21 in the states. They also didn't know what beer pong or flip cup was . . . I've never drank before I came here and I still knew what those were! And the grand daddy shocking thing the Europeans hadn't tried . . . SMORES!!!! None of them have had smores! Craziness!!!!

    Some fun facts about Ireland . . . all my Irish girl friends and flat mates call me Darlin, how cute is that?! It has taken some adjusting to since I would never have figured that as a term of endearment for myself but it's grown on me, especially because it sounds even cuter with their accents! Nutella is HUGE here, everyone eats it . . . I mean EVERYONE!!! And Cadbury chocolate here is the equivalent of Hershey's in the States. Also, Lucozade here is the equivalent or Gatorade at home. As for fashion . . . I definitely don't fit in with my constant wearing of jeans and sweats. The girls here are all about tights, and leggings and jeggings (bleh!) and skirts/shorts with tights underneath. Pretty much anything I wouldn't normally wear :) hahahaha

     Slang!!!! Ok, Graham Crackers are called Digestives (don't even get me started on this because it still is weird and freaks me out a little haha). If someone offers you a buiscuit, take it. It's not a breakfast roll here, they are referring to cookies. If you ask for chips with your sandwich you aren't going to be getting any cheeto's, you will receive a plate full of french fries. If you do want chips you need to ask for crisps, it makes me laugh every time I ask. And everyone here calls jeans or pants trousers!

     Well that is my update since the beginning of February! Tonight, all of us girls are cooking dinner and enjoying spirits to celebrate Valentine's Day (boy free!) haha You can look forward to hearing about a few things: Next weekend a trip to Dublin, going to Rugby and Hurling matches, meeting with the volleyball coach who wants me to play (coolness!) and the celebration of another birthday!!!

     I love hearing from people via facebook, email, and my favorite MAIL!!!!!! Go ahead and leave me post's below of what you think of my blog posts or email me at bmoser12@my.whitworth.edu. I do have skype and my skype name is easybreezybeautifulcovergirl (just remember I am 8 hours ahead of you) Or even better, send me a letter at:

Breezy Moser
14.3 The Courtyard
University of Ulster at Jordanstown
Shore Road
Northtownabbey, BT 37 OQB
County Antrim
Northern Ireland

I love you all and wish you all a Happy Valentines Day and a fantastic week! I hope to hear from you all soon!!!!

Love Always,
Breezy

    

Tip o' the Scale

Oh good day to ye all!!!

    Tis a wee bit sad that it has been about two weeks and I am still up at 2:30 in the bloody a.m. writing a blog trying to get sleepy. I am hopeful that the sleep adjustment will come . . . sooner would be preferred to later. LOL! Quite a bit has happened since my last blog and I am sure you are going to enjoy all my discoveries and fun-filled frenzies.

     First and foremost, I have an extremely important announcement to make. One that I am sure will please the pants off of more than half of you. Can you handle this momentous, milestone of a moment? The main event has indeed come to peek it's head into my 'non-rebellious' life . . . I DRANK MY FIRST BEER!!!!!! Yes, I, Briana (Breezy) Moser have tasted what some would call the 'Mac Daddy' of all beers in Ireland . . . A Guinnesss. And all I have to say is NAYASTY! I love that I can say I drank my first beer in Ireland, but after trying Guinness, Corona, Blue Moon, and a variety of other foreign beers I can't pronounce or spell the brand of, I can say that I absolutely do not like it. Bleh! However, I have discovered I enjoy hard alcohol and of course the chic beers everyone makes fun of you for drinking because it tastes like juice and only has about 4% alcohol in it. :) As a final note in this topic . . . No, I have not, nor do I plan on getting 'shmammered'.

     Enough about my discovery into the world of drinking, on to my adventures and observations over the course of the last week. We'll start with my slaps in the face I have encountered while adjusting to cracked out European life. Or in a more polite way, the little details of Irish life that have taken a little longer to come to terms with. First, the fact that in the gym I have to figure out my weights in kilograms and my speed and distance in kilometers . . . what a joyful treat, let me tell ya. Second, the currency that not only eats american dollars for lunch (aka - our money is worth pittance here), but also is made up of a million coins that don't even coordinate their worth to match the size of the coins!!!! Stupid pounds and pence! Third, there are no T.V.'s and when there are . . . all Soccer channels. Dumb. Fourth, there is literally zero Wi-Fi. And Fifth, and finally, men wearing shorts that are (WAYYYYYYY) way too short for them in the gym . . . it's literally like watching guys run in speedo's. *Cue: Breezy stabs eyes out of head to stop the burn

     I am finally picking up more on the lingo and enjoying the little things the Irish say like instead of 'Good' they say 'Brilliant' and instead of 'knock on wood' they say 'touch wood'. Other little things like how they same time, has been entertaining to get used to. Instead of saying 3:30, they would say "Half-Tree." Or 'Half Nine' for 9:30. A pint is referred to as a scoop or a jar, a poke is an ice cream cone, snattered is another word for intoxicated, and they say cheerio instead of goodbye. My favorite slang is that even if it is a complete stranger . . . they call me Hun or Love. (Heaven!)

     Courses here are complicated to pull together, and I'm not quite done organizing all my modules, but it looks like I will only have courses from Tues-Thurs!!!! I am for sure taking Advertising and Interpersonal Communication, the two I am figuring out are Communication in Groups and Narrative & Motion . . . I'll let you know how that all turns out. But I've learned quickly that class room etiquette and campus rules here are very diff. from home, the biggest differences: a) nothing starts on time b) interruptions/distractions during lecture are overlooked and let slide c) being specific about assignments and reading are apparently unheard of d) NO ONE USES LAPTOPS! Pen and paper are apparently huge here e) there is a bar and dance club on campus . . . (I know right! I have literally seen kids walking around campus with open beer bottles) f) You can drink in your flats/rooms and the most entertaining thing . . . g) I am literally a giant here. I kid you not, in all my classes I am the tallest (not only girl, but person) by at least 3 inches. Girls in 4 inch heels still only come up to my shoulder. So to say I stick out a little and get stared at a lot . . . slight understatement!

     I have been going to many dance clubs and pubs like The Box, Laverey's, The Crown and MClub to name a few and this last Sunday a group of us went to Jon Harvey's Pub and drank some pints while listening to LIVE traditional Irish Music (to say my heart was happy wouldn't even begin to describe it). This week will be full of exploring Belfast and Jordanstown and hopefully visiting Belfast Castle!!! We are slowly learning where to find the cinema's, shopping centers, good food (like Mexican and Sushi and Irish), and convenience stores . . . not to mention Belfast's best kept secret Pubs and Restaurants!!!!

     Joining the campus youth group iCaf has been great and the Chaplaincy feeds us lunch every Tuesday, God Bless them :) They know what poor, starving international students enjoy and need lol! I am still looking into joining some clubs/events, joining a church (attending a traditional Irish Catholic Mass at least once), and trying to figure out future travels and day trips. Budgeting has been a real eye opener and a skill I will get acclimated to very quickly if I hope to survive haha!

     My flatmates and several locals/other international students celebrated one of my flatmate's (Marionella - from Venezuela) birthday monday night and all six of us girls are going on  a day trip to Belfast tomorrow. They really are warm, cheery, and pleasant girls. It is going to be great getting to know them and travel with them. Both of the girls that live in Ireland (one further North and one from the Republic of Ireland) have invited me to stay with them at some point while I am here, which I am REALLY excited about!!! (in case you couldn't tell haha)

     Well, those are my bits and pieces for you this time around!!!! I hope you all have a great week and enjoy the read!!! Click to actually become a follower and supporter of my blog :) And a final note: Prayers for strength, sleep, and health would be much appreciate. I love you all and wish you the best from my post here in Ireland!

Cheers!!

Breezy

Hop, Skip & A Jig

Greetings to all from Belfest, Ireland!!!

     I actually made it and am getting settled in and adjusted as we speak. From the time I landed a week ago till now has been a whirlwind blur of fun, new experiences and lot's of laughter and entertainment. My room is not very big, but it has a bed, desk, closet, and sink . . . so it's all I need :) 

      My flight over to Heathrow was about 9.5-10 hours long and then I had a 3 hour layover and then a 1 hour flight to Belfast. I actually flew without tranqs and thankfully the peace of the Lord was with me and I was able to stay calm the entire time. It was truly a blessing. I wasn't in a place to sleep more than 2 hours the entire time, but I didn't panic once . . . so I will take it haha Then, from the Belfast airport it was an 18 pound, wrong-side-of-the-road/car, taxi drive to the University of Ulster Jordanstown Campus. That is where I currently reside and will remain for the duration of my stay this semester. 

     I am not the best at consistently writing updates, but I will make an extra special effort to keep updating this blog every couple of days so that you all can keep track of all the goings on here in Ireland! So, between the Saturday before I left and now, with the exception of 2 nights, I have gotten about 2.5 hours of sleep every night . . . so one night I got 5.5 hours and last night I got about 11 hours haha Hopefully soon I will be able to adjust to the new time zone and get some normal sleep. 

    The culture here is just as everyone has described it to me. Every single person I have encountered has been nothing but warm, welcoming, and in good humor. Even all the international students have been outgoing and up for experiencing new adventures right off the get go. It is definitely true that 6 out of the 7 days a week people will go out to experience the nightlife Belfast has to offer. I have only stayed in my room two nights since I have been here!!! Going to Pubs to drink with your friends and staying out until 3 am to dance the night away at a club are the most popular activities amongst people my age and the Pubs are definitely the place to be for the older generations. Going to the cinema, opera, and just hanging out at other people's flats drinking is popular as well.

     Yes drinking is the favorite activity here and I'm sure most of you are wondering . . . and no I have not drank yet. I don't think I am going to make it to my 21st because it is legal here. But seeing as I have a limited budget to live off of and am kind of the designated sober one I don't feel obligated to do so for a while yet. It has been fun though going out with all my new friends . . . they are all fascinated by the fact that I don't drink lol mainly because I am the only one out of about 18 of them hahaha!! 

    I live in a flat with 5 other girls . .  . 2 locals - Erin and Margaret; and 3 other international students - Marionella, Sara, and Kelli. All are super sweet, outgoing, respectful, and funny and never hesitate to include me in whatever they are doing. I will tell you about more of the students each time I post . . . but Donald is from the East Coast . . . Maryland I believe and him and I are pretty tight. We are shopping buddies and he lives in the flat next to mine. And one of the Dutch girls, Evelien . . . is about 2 inches taller than me and super cool; she has kind of taken me under her wing and has been an enjoyable woman to get to know. She is one of 6 Dutch kids that came together . . . I just call them the Dutchies haha They are all super chill and hilarious!! I might be going to stay with them in Amsterdam at some point.

     The metric system and the currency are a pain in the behind but I am slowly catching on . . . but the slang and accents have been so fun to listen to and figure out. I think I have the accent down lol . . . one of the kids here says if he didn't know any better he would have thought I was a local lol The main line they use is 'What's the craick?' (pronounced crack) and in US terms it's the equivalent to What's up? haha And instead of saying 'thank you' or 'have a nice day' they say 'Cheers!' They also curse like sailors here, which is hilarious when you add in the accent. 

     Well, for now that is what has been going on here :) I will continue to post photo's and video's and keep you in the know of my foreign affairs lol I love you all and appreciate the notes of encouragement, warm wishes and prayers. 

Always,

Breezy