I do have a neat story to contribute!

[Deleted]

I spent fall semester junior year of college abroad in Ireland. It was fabulous! The semester was winding down - I was going to be heading home and getting ready for spring semester, where I would be living in a house with a girl I went to high school with and another friend of hers. Their original third housemate had decided to transfer somewhere closer to home, and they were in need of someone to take the extra room, so it worked out perfectly. It was going to be my first time off campus!

Towards the end of my time in Ireland, I decided to spend an extended weekend in Scotland. I flew into Edinburgh and had some time to kill that day because my 3-day bus tour did not start until the following morning. I decided to try out several of the walking city tours. I went on a couple of different ones and then my last one was a ghost tour that started later in the evening, after dark.

I was standing at the meeting spot, waiting for the guide and others to show when a couple of people walked up. We started chatting. They were brother and sister and from the States too. Then things just started to get weird. The sister actually had gone to my university. And just transferred out. She was supposed to share a house with a couple of other girls. I asked her their names and asked her her name again.

Then I just laughed and introduced myself as the girl who would be living in her bedroom, lol.

Crazy stuff!

[Mrs.Beagle]

Wow, that is weird.

Where in Ireland did you study?

[Deleted]

I studied at the National University of Ireland in Maynooth. Not far from Dublin. Best thing I've ever done. I wish I had been there longer really.

[alzi]

it really is a small world.

[ErinExpat]

That is crazy! Small world.

[Deleted]

Ok, maybe not the best thing - marriage and kids rate up there too.

[Mrs.Beagle]

Awesome! I studied at NUI Galway in college. Best thing I ever did for myself in terms of my education and personal growth.

[Deleted]

Did you live on campus or with a host family? I was with a family, which was an interesting part of the experience for me.

I did get to see Galway, which was beautiful. Did you make to to the Aran Islands? That was probably my favorite part of the whole semester. So incredible.

[Mrs.Beagle]

I lived off of campus in an apartment/townhome community. There were 5 of us in the house, 2 were irish students.

I made it to Connemara, but not to the Islands. Maybe one day. I loooved Galway. My BIL and SIL also lived in Dublin for 3 years, so I got to go back and visit.

[Deleted]

One of my girls' daycare teachers just spent a year studying in Belfast and did the apartment/townhome thing too. He loved it there as much as we did and didn't want to come home.

I'm trying to remember if I went to Connemara, and I just don't recall. I know I did the touristy thing and kissed the rock, lol.

It seems like a lifetime ago!