Times Flies When You're Having Fun

You know how the saying goes, time flies when you're having fun? Well these past 2 and a half, almost 3 months have flown by completely. Of course I have had those days where I either had so much homework to do or just so much to do in general for that day or that week, that it completely dragged on. Besides that though, I never really realized how fast the time was going until I stopped to admire everything I've already done.

Anyone that knows me, knows that I am a planner. I do not feel ashamed by it, I mean, I personally embrace it. Anyways, I have had countdowns for every trip and until my family comes to visit ever since the first few weeks went by at the beginning of the semester. It is very satisfying being able to scratch out, whether it be something that you just did or to check off somewhere that was on your bucket list. Now out of all the places I have been, and all the places that were on my bucket list, Nice and Monaco were the most mesmerizing.

Before I went on my trip to Nice and Monaco though, I had a break week. It was a break I was in need of, as I mentioned in my last post. So pretty much what I did was my normal weekly routine. I went to all of my classes the week of November 5-9, did all my homework and just continued on with my life. I had a listening test for my Irish language class, but with my teacher having to teach another class, we had subs for the entire week so we did not end up taking the exam, which that was kind of nice. I did study a lot for it, so I'm glad I'm more prepared for my final now though.

Once Friday hit and our week was over, it was time to do absolutely nothing and relax. My roommate Haley and I decided earlier on in the week that we wanted to go to the movies on Friday since we weren't going on a trip that weekend, so that is exactly what we did. We both had a few errands to run that day so we took a bus down to Grafton Street around lunch time. We ran our errands, in the pouring rain I might add, and then after that we walked up to O'Connell Street to the movie theater called Savoy. We both really wanted to see the movie Bohemian Rhapsody, which I would highly recommend everyone to go see it, whether you really love Queen music, or just if you are in the mood to watch a really good movie. Bohemian Rhapsody then is your movie. Typical Taylor though, right before the movie started, I accidentally spilled my popcorn, but besides that the rest of the time at the movies was enjoyable.

After the movies we were still wet from the rain outside and with the time change, it was already so dark out, so we were content with going back to campus. We waited for the bus, for about an hour and a bus never showed up. We finally got fed up because a driver said that the weather was forcing some buses to stay in other zones and apparently the zone we were in there were no buses. Anyways, we walked back to Grafton Street to try and catch the bus we normally take, but that one didn't show up either, so we tried going for another bus, but once we walked to the stop it had just left, so we were getting so mad that we opted for the more expensive, but easier option, which is mytaxi. I called a taxi and it brought us back to campus within 20 minutes. From then on I talked on FaceTime with my family for a bit and went to bed pretty late. Saturday and Sunday weren't very exciting for me because I didn't feel too good, so I did some homework, watched tv and just hung out in my room those two days.

The next school week started up again as per usual and I then did my normal routine again. It was the start of the third to last week of my classes here at UCD. It was weird to think about because on one side, it has for sure felt like I have already gone to school here for 10 weeks, well 9 weeks at that point in time, but it is still so crazy to think that I'm almost done here. Now leading into my third to last week, I went to all my classes, did a lot of homework to prepare for finals and just did last minute things. Monday through Wednesday were pretty normal days, I was able to FaceTime some of my friends as well as family from back home so that was really nice, but when Thursday hit, I felt like I hit a wall, and not in a good way. I woke up and went to my 10 a.m. history class. The class was normal. We talked about nuclear weapons used in wards and just discussed different topics, but after class we received our essays that we handed in a few weeks before. Now I'm not going to say what grade I got because it is still making me upset, but let's just say it wasn't a grade I was used to getting. Anyways with getting this bad grade especially with it being worth 45% of my final grade all together, it was like a hit to the stomach. Especially with not receiving any of my other essays back from other classes, getting a bad grade on my first essay I get back, it really brings your morale down low. Anyways I couldn't stop crying, so I called my mom and dad when they woke up that day and they both made me feel better, but once you're in that state and you get bad news, you kind of stay in a funk. To make it all better though, once Thursday night came around, I was able to get my mind off of it, by doing some homework and being able to talk to my Aunt Carrie, who I haven't talked to since I left to come to Ireland, so it was a nice surprise. After that, I did more homework, finished another essay and went to bed. I woke up Friday morning, showered and went to pick up my first essay, from a different class, from my tutor's office. Once getting my essay, I got a B+ so that definitely made me feel 10x better on the school grading front. Now after I got my essay, I got back to my dorm, then talked to my mom a little bit, finished packing and then met up with Haley and my friend Max and we all made our way to the air coach to get to the airport for our weekend adventure.

This particular weekend, as mentioned above, we went to Nice, France and Monaco. So Friday after getting on the bus, we had a few bumps in the road, literally. Before getting on the bus, we missed the first one because it came too early, but the second one came 45 minutes late so we were running on a bit of a tight schedule. While on the bus though and on our way to the airport, there was so much traffic that we were nervous we wouldn't get to the airport with enough time, but to make it even worse, the bus driver was turning a tight corner and on the side I was sitting on, he almost hit a car, but then on the other side, he hit a pole and completely broke off his left rear view mirror. It was a weird experience, but we just continued on our journey. We got to the airport, checked Max's bag, went through security, got some Burger King quick because we were all hungry, walked to our gate then made our way to Nice.

Our flight was a later flight so by the time we got to Nice it was around 8:30 p.m. so obviously it was already dark out. Haley and I didn't get a stamp upon arriving at the Nice airpot so that was kind of upsetting, but we made our way out of the airport pretty quickly. Max was staying in a hostel in Nice and Haley and I were staying in Monaco so that is where we separated. Haley and I found a bus to take us into Monaco and that's exactly what we did. We got the bus, talked to the driver for a bit and since we were his last stop, he decided to drop us off right by our hotel. We then checked in, showered, talked to some friends and then went to bed. The photos below are the views, at night and in the morning, of our view of Monaco from our hotel room. It was an amazing view to wake up to.

The first night we didn't get that much sleep, but we woke up early Saturday morning to eat some breakfast, then we made our way into Monte Carlo. We took the free hotel shuttle and got dropped off about a block or so away from the Monte Carlo Casino. Upon getting off the bus, I didn't have any service and it stayed like that for the rest of the weekend, but we walked from where we got dropped off and we made our way to the casino. We were meeting up with Max so until he got there, we walked around the casino, took some photos, admired the view for a while then met up with Max. Due to the casino not opening until 2 p.m., and it being 11 a.m., we needed to kill some time. We walked to the building directly next to the casino and it was another casino, but smaller, called Casino de Paris. Now on a different note, the hotel named Hotel de Paris, from the movie Monte Carlo, with Selena Gomez, is directly across from the little casino and next to the Monte Carlo Casino. Anyways off topic, but we walked in and a man came up to us telling us we could get a card with 5 euro to use to play any of the slot machines in that casino and then free access to the Monte Carlo casino, so of course we said yes. We are all now official members of the Monte Carlo Casino which is pretty cool. So after that, we walked down towards the harbor and admired all the boats and yachts. We saw a few Christmas shops and we also saw a small carnival. We stopped at this one stand in the carnival where you could win around 100-500 euro and I payed 15 euro because I was so close to winning, but it ended up being 100-500 euro in their money, so not actual money. It was upsetting, but I got over it. We all walked back up towards the casino and we walked to try and find some food because we were all hungry. We found this place called Tip Top where I got a margarita pizza and it was delicious. After that, we walked around some Channel and Louis Vuitton stores and then went into the casino. We walked around and admired everything. It was really gorgeous, but a lot smaller than I was expecting. We couldn't take any photos so we went straight to the bar to wait to start gambling. I got a margarita since I have been craving one for weeks and then I got a sex on the beach. After drinking those, we decided to gamble. Max played first, which we ended up playing roulette. I don't know which one because I was told it was French Roulette as well as American Roulette, but I was starting to catch on quick. Haley and I decided to try so we each put in 20 euro to play. Unfortunately both Haley and Max lost all their money that they put in, but I actually won some money. I won and made it up to 40 euro, then up to 60 euro. I then lost some money and went back down to 40 euro, then won some back and got back up to 60 euro which is when I should have stopped, but I could tell then where the appeal to gambling came into play. I then played again and lost some more money, but I left the table with 30 euro, so I kept my 20 that I started with and then won 10 euro. It was cool especially to have gambled at the Monte Carlo Casino, so that is something I will always remember. After the casino, we left and made our way to the Prince of Monaco's Palace. We had to climb several flights of stairs, but the views were absolutely amazing on the way up and once we got to the top. Once we were done with admiring the views, we made our way back to the bus stop and our hotel. We stopped for dinner at a restaurant called the Monte Carlo bar where I got gnocchi. It was different though because the gnocchi wasn't covered in sauce, it was plain and then it came with a piece of pork, which isn't what I was expecting, but it was still pretty delicious. Us three all ate our dinner, laughed and had a great time. After dinner, we went our separate ways again where then Haley and I got back to the hotel, I showered, talked to family and then went to bed. I slept better that night, but not too well.

Sunday was the day that we were going to be spending it in Nice because our flight was later on that day and we wanted to experience Nice while also being close to the airport just incase. Haley and I woke up early again, got some breakfast, checked out and then took the shuttle to the bus stop. We took the bus that took us back into Nice so once we got on the bus, we made our way there. We met up with Max once we got there and went on to admire the beautiful yachts in the harbor. There was one in particular that apparently a Russian billionaire owned that was 350 feet long and worth obviously a lot of money. It was absolutely ginormous, but also so cool to look at. After looking at more ships, we starting walking towards the beach. We stopped and took some photos at this ledge over looking the beach as well as the ocean and we stayed there for a while just sitting and talking. After that we continued on and stopped at the 'I Love Nice' sign and then we walked down to the beach. I took of my shoes because I really wanted to feel the water and of course I did. The water felt so nice, which as I didn't mention earlier, the weather was so beautiful the entire weekend. When the wind wasn't blowing and the sun was blazing on you, it felt like I could have gone swimming and it would have felt amazing. Don't get me wrong once the sun went down it got chilly to the point where I could have used something a little heavier than a cardigan, but it was doable. Now on the beach, or at least on this particular beach, it was a rock beach, not sand, so that didn't feel too good on the feet, but it was worth it. Due to me going in the water, the bottom of my pants got wet, but that doesn't bother me. I can now say though that my feet were in the Mediterranean Sea which is cool. After putting my shoes back on, we all decided we were hungry so we found this place called Movida French Riviera along the coast road so we stopped there. I ordered a mango frozen daiquiri for my drink and it was so delicious. I also ordered mini burgers for dinner because I couldn't really tell what anything else said since it was obviously in French. Now with that being said, my two mini burgers were different. One had the normal beef meat on it, but the other had fish meat. It was another meal that I was expecting, but it was so good. Now after lunch, we started walking towards the mid-town of Nice. One of my must do's while in France was to try macaroons because I never have so I thought, while I was there, why not. I found this place called Pierre Hermés so we walked there and got some macaroons. I got four different ones. Rose, raspberry and ginger, pistachio, and vanilla were the flavors I chose. Which after having them, they were good, but it's not something I was over the moon about, but I'm still glad I tried them. After eating those, we were sitting outside just watching Nice. We stayed like that for about an hour or so and then we walked around the mall where the macaroons were so we could warm up. After walking around the mall, we decided to go grab Max's bag from his hostel and just make our way to the airport. We walked to his hostel, got his bag, got an uber and then got to the airport. Since we were at the airport so early, we couldn't check Max's bag in yet, so we stopped at this place called Joe and the Juice. We stayed there for probably an hour and a half waiting, so Max and I each got a drink, but the entire time, Haley, Max and I were just laughing. We were genuinely enjoying each other's company and making fun of each other. All three of us definitely got closer this past weekend and it was something I really enjoyed. Now after we could check in, Max checked his bag, we went through security, got our passports stamped which I was very happy about especially since it wasn't stamped when we got to Nice, but after that we then started walking to our gate. Max bought his friend some wine so Haley and I just chilled out for a few minutes, but we then got to our gate. We were still there a good hour and a half before we were supposed to leave, especially since our flight was delayed a half hour so we laughed and hung out again. I had a fantastic weekend, but just laughing and not caring the entire time in the airport was one of my major highlights of the entire trip. While waiting to board the plane though I was trying to download a movie for the plane ride and I saw on Netflix that France had Harry Potter. Now anyone who knows me knows that I love Harry Potter. So I didn't bring the movies with me to save space in my bag and Netflix UK doesn't have Harry Potter so I haven't watched it in 3 months and I am going through withdrawals so I downloaded all of the movies so I could watch them back in Dublin so I was very excited. Now fast forward to last night, I tried watching the first Harry Potter movie and no matter if it was downloaded or not, I wasn't able to watch it, so it was a very sad time. Anyways back to Sunday night, we boarded the plane, flew back to Dublin, got back to Dublin, went through customs, which my officer wasn't the nicest to me, but I'll get over it. After getting through customs we walked to the air coach. We took the bus back to campus, walked in the cold back to our dorms, said goodnight to Max, I then got to my room, FaceTimed my sister then went to bed. Since it was a late night for all of us, I didn't go to bed that night until around 3:30 or 4 a.m., but it helped that my Monday classes don't start until noon.

The entire weekend it was so beautiful to see that Nice as well as Monaco were on multiple different levels. I know that some parts of Italy are like that, but with never being there before and only seeing photos, the real life views were just breathtaking. It was all together a really enjoyable weekend, but I'm glad that I am back in Dublin and almost done with my second to last week here at UCD. I just have to get through next week and finals and then I will be able to see my family. Just 31 more days and that to me is still crazy, but also such amazing news. I can't wait to see them and show them what I've been experiencing the past few months. My next adventure will be coming soon enough, so stay tuned! And everyone enjoy your Thanksgiving! Don't forget that we have a lot to be thankful for.