J.A.M.: April 2014

April 25th, 2014

I've been home for a week and a half and I am still jet lagged. How is that even possible?! I started my job at Thompson Orthodontics and I love it a lot but I am exhausted. I also started play practice for Cinderella so that adds to the exhaustion. The first couple days home I literally fell asleep as my friends were talking to me. Sorrrrry. It will get better right? Right?! That's the reason I haven't written about my last week abroad and I finally buckled down, chugged diet coke and started. Here we go!

On the 6th was my BIRTHDAY! My friends the Kewl Gurlz, took me out to dinner the night before at the Great Burger Kitchen.

The Kewl Gurlz

On the morning of my birthday we went to The Pancake House where we ate average pancakes.

After, we finalized packing up our little room and getting ready for Ireland. We also had a end of program ceremony at the chapel with everyone in the program. People bore their testimonies and shared their gratitude for the amazing experiences living in London has brought. Later that night, Camille and I strolled down the street to Royal Albert Hall to see…..THE…..1975! Which turned out to be LITERALLY the BEST night of my LIFE. Not joking.

I love Matty Healy so much its dumb.

After the show, Camille and I got guitar picks that the boys used. This could have been enough to make me the happiest girl in the world… but no….my life got 100x better. The 1975 are chain smokers basically (unfortunately) so even though we were tired and wanted to go home I had the thought that after the show they would need a smoke break. Camille had found this secret tunnel thing when she was looking for Ed Sheeran after his concert. We decided we would go look to see if they were there and if not we would just head home. We headed down the ramp to a fence covered with a clear tarp thing. We saw shadows of people moving behind it but no one else was around outside the fence. We peeked through the tarp and could see George the drummer smoking and hanging out. He came over and talked to us about the show and why we were in London. I was talking to him about how Matty started crying during the show because it was a really emotional and huge thing to be playing at that venue. Matty heard me say his name and came over and started talking to us. He remembered us from when we met him at the BBC radio and wished me a Happy Birthday, and was overall the greatest guy in the world. Two random girls spotted us and started making their way towards us. Matty said lets take pictures and then I gotta go. After camille took a picture with him she said, "Matty I know Gemma ( his girlfriend who was just feet away from him) is gonna hate me. But I am twenty years old and I've never kissed a boy…" Matty cut her off and said, "Come here baby" and puckered his lips through the hole in the fence. I watched in awe and shock as Camille and Matty Healy kissed. on the lips. right in front of me. LIKE WHAT!? NOT EVEN REAL LIFE. THAT DOESNT JUST HAPPEN. Matty Healy is 100x better than Harry Styles. Ryan Gosling and Johnny Depp. Combined. HE IS THAT GREAT TO US. So you can only imagine how freaking crazy this was. Camille and I turned and ran home freaking out. Screaming. Crying. (swearing) Because WHAAAAAAT!

After Camille stopped crying and her breathing returned to normal we broke out the beautiful birthday cake she got for me.

Audrey and Ali got be custom made chocolate with all things I love in it including potato crisps. Love those kewl gurlz of mine. My ladies!

Camille also got me cute cards and a pretty white rose. THANKS FOR THE BEST BIRTHDAY OF MY LIFE CAMILLE. I AM SO HAPPY THAT YOU HAD YOUR FIRST KISS ON MY BIRTHDAY!

The next morning, we moved out of 37 Hyde Park Gate and headed to Wales. We had a loooong day filled with many stops and no sleep. The first stop was Tintern Abbey. It was wet, rainy and cold, but Wales was pretty cool. They had all signs in both English and Welsh.

Caerleon Roman Fort and Amphitheater. They had a cool effect that made it look like people were really swimming in this roman bath.

St. Fagans Open Air museum, which was just this cute little town straight out of a fairytale.

Cardiff Castle

Birds eye view of some kewl gurlz

After dinner at Pizza Express we headed to the ferry that would take us overnight to Ireland. The ferry didn't leave till around 2 am. I slept on the ground and was in and out of sleep all night due to it being uncomfortable, cold and someones crazy kid was running around screaming for the better part of the night. We arrived in Ireland around 6 am and with hardly any sleep started another long day of "adventures". But I was in Ireland! Land of my people! Where the McKeon, originally McEwans, came from!

Good morning Ireland!

We arrived in the town of Kilkenny to view their Castle. Camille and I snuck away before the tour and got the best jelly filled sugar donuts from a grocery store. Dang those were good. I had two. Deal with it. We started the tour of the Kilkenny Castle which was decorated and pretty dang cool, but unfortunately we couldn't take pictures inside.

After the Castle we walked through the town to The Rothe House.

The Rothe house is one of the only original houses of Ireland from the 17th century.

This is the skull of a extinct Irish Deer. Where it is placed above the fireplace is where its head would really be if it was standing. HUGE.

Ireland really is as green as I imagined.

Literally the only pictures I have from this place called Rock of Cashel which was this cool castle. I don't know why I didn't take other pictures. dumb dumb.

We drove to Limerick and checked into our hotel. Even though we were SO SO tired (I'm tired all the time apparently) we were starving and headed out into the city to get dinner. Of course our first meal in Ireland would be…. an american themed diner!

The next morning, Wednesday, we visited the Cliffs of Moher, which were AMAZING. They filmed that scene in Harry Potter when Dumbledore and Harry have to go to that cave and Dumbledore hurts his hand or something…its been a while since I read/saw the last Harry Potter films/books.

#nofilter but really

After, we went to the Strokestown House in Roscommon and Famine Museum. I didn't take any pictures. But did you know before the famine in Ireland, Irish people would eat 14 pounds of potatoes everyday because it was all they could eat. like. dang. We checked into our hotel in Sligo and headed to dinner to a little pub.

Kewl Gurlz 4 life

On Thursday, we took a bus ride through a beautiful area of Ireland and ended up going to a place called Dooney Rock. Obviously I lost my mind a little bit because that the coolest thing ever. Dooney Rock was this smallish hill that we climbed up to see a nice view of the surrounding area. I made like 8 twilight related vidoes while walking around.

Next, we drove to a waterfall... where again I made more twilight related videos. I should also add during this week I managed to watch all 5 twilight films. They are so good I dont even care. It is what it is.

3 leaf clovers!

That night we arrived in Dublin. I was hotel roomies with Camille, Ali and Audrey. It was a party for sure. I certain kind of party. Wink wink to my ladies. We had our last supper together at Nandos ( I miss Nandos sooo much) and went shopping at this place that was Primark but wasnt named Primark. Irelands weird. I feel like its fake England. I couldnt buy anything because I was too nervous about going over on my luggage weight so that was a bummer because Primark is the best store in the world.

Friday morning, we woke up to this beautiful sunrise and headed out into the city.

St. Patricks Cathedral

Coolest stair case ever. It looked straight out of Hogwarts. Its kinda hard to tell since it looks like just a column but it was a spiral stone stair case going straight up into somewhere in the middle of this room.

Trinity College

After our tour of Trinity we had the whole day to ourselves. We went to stores, ate lunch at Pizza Express, people watched and watched weird street performers.

That night we boarded a ferry back to Wales. We played dumb games, ate junk food, danced out on the deck, thought we saw a UFO (It wasn't one unfortunately) and arrived somewhere in Wales around 1 or 2 in the morning.

Saturday, we went on a walk through the beautiful hills of the Snowdonia Mountains.

I love crazy Shupe.

Thanks Shupe for taking the worst photoshoot ever. lol.

Shupe and I are 100% convinced we saw a Fairy in these woods. We both saw a black flying thing sneak behind a tree at the same time. We didn't see any other bugs the whole time we were there. So it must have been a fairy. Right? We kept chanting "I do believe in Fairies. I do I do."

Definitely a fairies house.

most awkward tree in the world

We got to our hotel next to the airport later that night and after saying goodbye to most everybody, Camille and I reorganized our suitcases which weighed way more than 50 pounds, then went to the only place we could find....McDonalds. My last meal in England was McDonalds. So much hate. But it was so fun and I got a free Apple pie because of Monopoly or whatever. We went with Tyler, Savannah, Taylor, Audrey and Emily.

Camille, Audrey, Emily and I left for the airport early Sunday morning, and after flirting our way into letting us check in 2 suitcases for free we got on our hour long flight to Paris! We had this awesome guy named Tom who was our driver in Versailles pick us up from the airport and drive us to our hotel in Saint Germaine on Rue Dauphine. Tom is so cool. He is the type of person you could talk to for like 439 hours and you could still be entertained. He is besties with tons of celebs which is pretty awesome. We only had 24 hours in Paris. That sounds like it could be the title to my next screenplay. 24 hours in Paris. I like it. Anyways, after the easiest flight, check in, drive to our hotel Camille and I went out into the city. We stayed like 30 feet away from where we stayed with our family, so we knew the area well. Its right by the Notre Dame and La Seine, and probably my favorite area in all the world. Theres just nothing like Paris.

We ate a lunch consisting of Nutella Crepes and 4 cheese sandwiches while people watching at Shakespeare and Company. Weird that I have been to Shakepeares home, The Globe Theatre and then go to this famous bookstore named after him.

Lucky bride. I want my Bridals done in Paris too.

I feel very lucky that I got too see Paris in the winter and in the Spring... I prefer the spring though. Nothing beats beautiful trees and flower surrounding the Notre Dame and Eiffel Tower.

Camille and I took the Metro to the Eiffel Tower because I thought it would be easy since we are pros at the tube. WRONG. The metro is SO confusing and in French obviously so I couldnt really understand what was going on or the directions that people would give us. After switching trains 3 times we finally got there. Oh, how much I love the Eiffel Tower.

I love this sign. Obviously we had to get some "Cotton Candie"

so close

We took a taxi back to the area by our hotel because I wasn't dealing with the metro again. We walked around the city in the setting sun.

Could Camille be any prettier?

We ate dinner at an adorable Pizza place outside. Went to bed around 10 and headed home to America in the morning. I cant believe my adventure abroad is over and I'm back to reality, working everyday, not going on a millions tours through Cathedrals, not having a catch buses or tubs, not walking past royal Albert Hall everyday. It all seems like a very long, amazing dream now. I am so thankful for my experience in doing this Study Aboard and seeing places I thought I would never see. THANK YOU MOM AND DAD. Youre the best. Thank you for letting me live out my dreams.

xx Jac

J.A.M.

Friday, April 25, 2014

115 days - 115 things

Day 115. The Last Days.