Sorry for the long silence but I thought writing about the fact that I am studying, studying and studying wouldn't be that interesting. A brief summary of what I did the last couple of months; I went home for carnival, had two weeks of holiday and did nothing, celebrated St. Patricks' day and made a trip to county Kerry.

St. Patricks' day was different as I expected. There was a "big" parade through Dublin which I expected to be a bit like a carnival parade like we know it with big show cars. To my disappointment it wasn't like that. I have posted some pictures of what I think where the best show pieces. Next to that there were a lot of harmonies with the size of 50 to 100 people. That was impressive to see. They however only played a song of two minutes and then didn't play anything for the following five minutes. The parade was nice but nothing special I would say. I didn't go out as I had some assignments left and the city was overcrowded with drunk people (carnival is better I think ;)). So after St. Patricks' day I had one week left of holidays but as the weather was too bad I didn't really do anything.

From my trip to Derry last year I have a group of friends which we call the ISS family as the ISS (International Student Society) organizes the trips and that is how we met each other. One of them is going to India for 3 month for a charity project so we baked cookies and cakes together to raise money and we do other stuff (this is the same group with whom I celebrated Thanks giving). Unfortunately I am the only master student and all the bachelor students have summer Holliday as from next week. So I will be the only one left studying.

With a few people from the ISS family, I went on a trip to county Kerry which was again lots of fun. It was a bus tour from the 4th and until the 6th of April. The first day was mainly only sitting in the bus as we did the "ring of Kerry" which is a ring (road) in the national park of Kerry. Unfortunately the weather was bad so the view wasn't great. The waterfall of the picture was during this trip. The next day we did the "ring of Dingle". Which was the same idea but than in Dingle. We made a boat trip to see "Fergus" the dolphin. He lives there already for years alone. No one knows why he stays there as dolphins are social animals and he is free to leave. During the rest of the ring of Dingle we passed some areas used for filming several movies. Again the weather was very bad so we couldn't see a lot and everyone got soaked as it was pouring rain. The last day was much better. The sun was shining and we had the morning off so we explored Killarney where we were staying for the weekend. The national park was wonderful, like all national parks here actually. After that we went back to Dublin but half way stopped at a castle. In the end, besides the weather I had a great weekend.

The week after Kerry the ISS organized a bowling night and I won. The 25th I celebrated Kingsday at the Dutch embassy. When I arrived I could immediately see I was in the right place as there where bikes everywhere. Last weekend René came over again and I showed him around at the Univerisity and I finally made some pictures so now you all can see it. As the weather is becoming better I try to do more outside nevertheless the hiking trip I organized to the Wicklow mountains ended up in rain so we went back after a couple of hours.

So what is left; on Friday I have my exam of Logistics and after that I go to the airport to meet my Dutch friend in London to spend the weekend over there. On Monday my final semester starts with a consultancy project regarding track and trace for Irish Distilleries (I would say it is important to know the products involved so perhaps some tasting). This is a project which will take the full semester and I spend together with 3 fellow students (one German girl and two Irish guys). On the 26th my last course of "Technology and Innovation Management" start for two weeks and the 21st on June I have my last exam, whohooo . Hopefully I will finish my consultancy project the 15th of August which also means the end of my master (If I passed all my exams and consultancy project). So if there is still someone who wants to come to visit me. You have until the 15th of August .

Upcoming semester will be very busy so probably also not too much blogging for me.