The perfect pint

Hey y'all,

As promised, here's a post solely dedicated to Guinness. Dream come true, I know.

We went to the Guinness Storehouse on Tuesday, and I adored it.

I'm going to preface this with a little life story.

Guinness was the first beer I ever tasted. I studied abroad in Tours, France the summer after my freshman year of college. A couple of nights into the trip, we went to a bar. Aside from a sip of champagne from my parents' glass on vacation in England, I'd never had a sip of alcohol. Well, the sheltered kid that I was, I didn't even know what kinds of beers there were. So I walk up to the bar, trying to play it cool, and stared wide-eyed at all of the beers. I didn't recognize a single one. Uh oh. And THEN, I spotted the Guinness logo. The one beer I recognized. So I ordered a pint of Guinness. I watched, mesmerized, as the bartender poured the beer, and then made the little shamrock at the top. Too cool. I whisked away that beer, ready to plunge, and I took a sip (again, trying to look smooth).

Oh. my. goodness. That was the absolute worst thing I had ever tasted in my life. Little did I know that Guinness was the worst choice for someone who had never tasted beer before. I was scared of beer for a very long time, mainly because I thought all beer would taste like Guinness. Fortunately, my friends, Bud Light exists.

Life story over.

The Guinness Storehouse is pretty incredible. It's similar to the Heineken Experience and the Coca Cola World in Atlanta, but in my opinion, MUCH cooler.

Truth. 

Fun fact that I learned on my free walking tour on Monday. Originally, St. Patrick's day wasn't centered around drinking. It wasn't until the holiday was exported to the US that it became a big drinking holiday. Our Irish tour guide wanted to extend his thanks. 

I even made it into a Guinness poster. Framing this one. 

My favorite part of the visit was by far the Guinness Academy. Basically, we had the option of either having someone serve us our free beer, or we could attend the Academy and learn to pour it ourselves. I'm all about learning life skills, so I decided to go with the schooling. 

There are 6 steps to pouring the perfect pint. Basically, you pour part of it, then you have to let it sit for a minute. Then you top off the last 3rd. Then, you have to place it on the bar without spilling any (something I've seen many a bartender do...). 

Anyways, yours truly, passed with FLYING colors and is now an accredited perfect pint crafter. 

Just check out that form, folks. 

Poise.

Concentration.

Dedication. 

Expertise. 

There she blows. My perfect pint. 

Here is a picture of me and my certificate. Again, can't wait to put a frame on it. 

So I'm going to be honest. I was not looking forward to drinking my Guinness. You could even say that I was scared. I had already told Emily that we were going to need to budget a large amount of time to finish the beers. 

Anyways, I cringed as I took that first sip, and much to my surprise...it tasted good. More than surprised, I was shocked. Couldn't believe it. Guinness actually tastes good? QUOI?

En fait, I very much enjoyed drinking that pint and treated myself to a few more over the course of the rest of our trip. 

When in Rome. 

The top of the Guinness Storehouse is really cool because it's a 360 degree view of all of Dublin. We went up there after finishing our beers at the Academy, and it was really pretty. 

Cheers. 

Luv,

Sarah 

The Dub

Hey y'all,

So Emily and I got back from Ireland yesterday, and oh my goodness it was good to be back.

Here's what I have to say about Ireland : I was a little disappointed.

Don't get me wrong, I have a good time, and I'm really glad I went, but it just didn't live up to all the hype. Emily had really hyped it up (she'd never been), and I got excited, because who wouldn't want to go to Ireland? It's Ireland. It's supposed to be so cool and green and beautiful. I don't know how to explain it, but it was just underwhelming.

That being said, I got some good pictures and I can check it off of my bucket list. Holla.

We got into Dublin on Monday morning at about 8 am and immediately went to our hostel, hopeful that we could take a nap. Alas, we weren't allowed into our room until 2pm. Womp womp womp.

So we went on a walking tour which was actually really cool. It was neat to see all of the history. Apparently, Ireland revolted against the English A LOT. And apparently, Ireland failed in their revolts A LOT. It was pretty comical because something always seemed to go wrong. Still, that little country is tough, and gained their independence from England in early 20th century.

The tour took us to Trinity College, a really old college in Dublin, and supposedly a good school. Some pretty famous scholars and writers have studied there. Samuel Beckett, Jonathan Swift (wrote Gulliver's Travels), and Oscar Wilde. Wild. Here is a picture of the quad.

Pretty, but I prefer Hearn Plaza. 

One of the main roads in Dublin is O'Connell Street. It's neat because there's a large median where you can walk, and there are tons of statues of famous Irishmen. 

There's O'Connell

This sexy man is James Joyce. I had to snap a quick picture of him. I remember reading Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man in IB English senior year of high school. Just vomited in remembrance. Thanks a lot, Jimmy. 

This is Molly Malone. She sold fish and was a prostitute. 

There's a really pretty area of town that is made up of pubs called Temple Bar. There's actually a bar that is supposedly the original Temple Bar, but now the whole neighborhood is called that.

This was probably my favorite part of town. It was so bright and so colorful. There was music being played all day in all of the pubs and it was just really full of life. I think that's what I expected all of Ireland to be like. 

One of the nights, we went to the oldest pub in Ireland (recommended by my brother David.) It's called the Brazen Head and dates back to 1198. Throughout the pub they have dollar bills with names written on them. Apparently David and some friends wrote their names on a bill way back in 2007 when he was studying abroad. I looked and looked for a good twenty minutes, but there were literally thousands of bills...so I couldn't find it. Oh well. 

That's the essential of Dublin, with the exception of our Guinness Storehouse visit. This was absolutely my favorite part of Dublin, so I'll dedicate a whole post to it. I have tons of pictures, and not to brag, but I received a certificate saying that I learned how to and succeeded in crafting the perfect pint of Guinness. 

No big deal.

Luv,

Sarah 

Get me to Galway.

Hey y'all,

So yesterday was a great day. It included a visit to the Guinness storehouse, a visit to the oldest pub in Ireland, and lots and lots of walking.

This morning I got up early and went for a run along the river Liffey, which was gorgeous. Even though we've been waking a lot, it felt good to get some real exercise.

We're taking a bus this morning to Galway, which is about two and a half hours on the opposite side of Ireland. Pretty funny that all you've got to do is drive 2.5 hours and you've made it all the way from east to west. Anyways, Galway is supposed to be the "real Ireland", so it'll be nice to check that out.

Tomorrow we're taking an early flight back to Brussels. It'll be good to get back.

Luv,
Sarah

Conquered the pub crawl

Hey y'all,


Yesterday, I sat in my 8-person dorm room in a hostel in Dublin and had a phone interview for a summer job. Life is too funny, I think. The man asked me "so are you in France?" And I obviously responded "technically no. I live there, but I'm on vacation in Dublin..."


Anyways, post interview - Last night Emily and I did a pub crawl with a bunch of other tourists and it was a ton of fun. It's 9:30am here and we're heading to the Guinness warehouse to do a tour!

Luv,
Sarah

It's five o'clock somewhere

Hey y'all,

I'm currently on a bus from the Dublin airport to the city center. We had a 6:50am flight from Brussels which meant we had to take a 3:20am bus from lille. OOF.

We arrive at the airport around 5am, were chilling in the food court area when we spotted a man drinking a beer. And this wasn't a random homeless man -because that wouldn't be weird. This was a regular guy just waiting for his flight and drinking a cold one. Out of control.

I turned around a few minutes later and lo and behold, I saw ANOTHER man drinking a beer. Unbelievable.

It was definitely 5 o'clock in Brussels.

Luv,
Sarah

French news

Hey y'all,

My roommate and I made the news last night where we offered our thoughts on what happened in Boston.

http://www.weo.fr/Emissions/Le-JT

We're right around the three minute mark.

It might just be up for 24 hours, but don't worry, I recorded it on my phone.

Luv,
Sarah

Tractor drivers strike

Hey y'all,

I come from a farming family so I got a kick out of this. Last Friday, the tractor drivers of France were on strike. I was out and about and when I walked by the Musée des Beaux Arts ( art museum in lille), I was shocked to see this picture.

There were tons of tractors out in front of the art museum! There were even two cows and little pigs running around! What?

The juxtaposition of the farm life with the "classy" art museum was hilarious.

I guess the Ch'tis were really living up to their hick/backwoods reputation. I loved it.

Luv,
Sarah

Marathon de Paris

Hey y'all,

Just like for the Brussels Half Marathon, I did a little writeup for the Paris Marathon and and it was published on the Running Shorts blog in Greensboro!

Marathon writeup

I had a great time hanging out with the family for the weekend.

A MAJOR congrats to my dad on his PR. You da bomb.com.

Here's a picture of my bib. Legit.

I mentioned in my writeup of the race that Stephen, Boots, my mom and I walked up the stairs to the top of the Eiffel tower. Mistake. My dad was the only smart one of us. Oh well, yolo.

On Friday nights, the Louvre is free for people under 26, so Stephen, Boots and I went. It was really neat to see everything lit up. 

Boots and I had a little too much fun...

This is all of us grabbing a little café. I'm always astounded by how attractive Stephen is.

This is where the race started and finished. Incredible. My favorite monument in Paris. 

This is Deb running out onto the course to give me my NC flag. Pride. 

I adore this photo. 

Here's all of us after the race. I can't lie. I had completely forgotten how miserable marathons are. OOF. 

Can't wait to put a frame on it.

Hope all is well at home. There's been a slight change of plans, and now I'll be heading home on June 3.

Luv,

Sarah 

Vacances!

Hey y'all,

I'm currently on vacation. Holla.
It's mildly comical. My contract ends on April 30th and I'm on vacation until April 28th. So, that means I only have two days of work left. Now that is wild.

This week I don't have much planned, but next week I'm going to Dublin with Emily! I cannot wait. I've always wanted to go to Ireland.

It's starting to warm up here and I love it. The rain has ceased a little bit. Yesterday we went to a park and just laid in the sun. It was magical. I was so content.

I snapped this photo in Grand Place this afternoon. Loved it.


Luv,
Sarah

Evaluation

Hey y'all,

Today the kiddos had an evaluation in my oldest class. I snapped a quick photo since I haven't posted many pictures from inside the classroom!

Luv,
Sarah

Farewell

Hey y'all,

Stephen and Boots are leaving Lille today to meet up with my parents in Paris. I'm working tomorrow and then going to Paris on Friday morning.

We had a farewell breakfast off of Grand Place today. It's been fun having these nuts here, for sure.

Luv,
Sarah