There's something incredibly sexy about this song, but I can listen to it while getting ready for a party atmosphere or when I want to feel good about myself. I used to think of one person in particular when I listened to it, now that person has changed and I am shocked. The beat is great, Selena's voice is breathy, the lyrics are sensual. Overall the song is about feeling good. I really think Selena's voice has improved as time has gone on and she has experimented with her music sound. I think she should stick with this type of music. 

I have been in America for over forty days. Last week I visited New York City for the fourth time.
Instead of doing a generic travel post talking about my visit to the 9/11 Memorial and walking across Brooklyn Bridge, I've decided to use these photos and talk about how making the move to the US for the summer has really made me open my mind. You have no idea how absolutely terrified, reluctant and anxious I was about the idea of spending three months - a quarter of a year no less - on the other side of the world. It had been at least five months planning to get to the point that I was able to legally live and work in the US. Do you think I had mentally planned for the move? Absolutely not.

The nerves hit me when my parents said good bye to me in Shannon Airport. I was actually leaving my safe place of green fields, familiar faces and most of the people I loved best. Could I manage it? What if I hated everything? I knew my blog would benefit from the move, having new and exciting places to share with you all. I was excited of the prospect of creating unforgettable memories. But I was so afraid. My fear was that this summer would be a repeat of last year when I WASTED it, feeling absolutely disgusting about myself. I am my own worst enemy, it wasn't healthy. So what if I went to America and did not let myself truly enjoy the experience?

9/11 Memorial Fountain

Piece of steel from the zone the plane hit in the North Tower

Something I have noticed is that I have well and truly left my comfort zone behind. This is a scary and thrilling thought. I certainly am not the same person that stepped on to the plane just over forty days ago. From time to time I sit and marvel at how my opinions of things have changed, just by moving to a different environment and immersing myself in new cultures. It really astounds me.

Megan and I - for some strange reason- were under the impression that we would not make any friends during this three month long trip. We laugh hysterically about it now because we were so so wrong. On day two of starting work in country club Southward Ho I found myself on a beach with a bunch of new people, all of whom were interested in interacting with us and bombarded us with questions on my home country. I am now terrified of leaving these people behind when I leave.

I now have memories of talking about love at two o' clock in the morning during a swim outside while rain poured down around me, dancing the tango badly to Spanish music and drives to lighthouses in the dead of night. I told myself that I would stay away from any sort of wild summer romantic thing - but Eilís' life never goes exactly how she plans it. And that is one thing that surprises me most. I thought I knew what I was drawn to... but I find myself in uncharted territory.

Near the World Trade Centre

Crossing the Brooklyn Bridge

I can say with some certainty this is mostly down to the fact that I hear it a lot of the time, but this is 
music that I would never have listened to before. What music do you mean? Spanish club - esque music, hip hop.. rap even? I have no idea why, but I have started to enjoy this. A lot of my co-workers come from countries such as Belize, El Salvador, Peru and other places that I have been nowhere near to. These co-workers are now friends, but it has been amazing to get some insight into their music, their language and culture. I still listen to my electronic, rock, folk, acoustic familiarity, but my goodness has my taste expanded. 

I suddenly have an interest in learning the Spanish language, despite having told people countless times that I had no inclination to start learning Español whatsoever. So I have enlisted the help of those whose mother tongue is Spanish to teach me bits and pieces of this lyrical and beautiful language. As you can expect I only know words at present and the odd phrase. Such as : sky, one, but, my blog's name, how is everything, and funnily enough, cookie. It is honestly such a beautiful language and I love hearing it being spoken, despite not knowing the majority of what is being said. Learning American slang has been fascinating too. Examples such as "lit, dead-ass, turnt" etc. I am also saying words like "kid" and "store". My pronunciation of the word "what" has changed. All things I swore I would not do or take on. But I don't care and that's what surprises me. 



I cannot tell you that I know what my aim in life, or pretend that I understood why my life is turning out the way it is, but I know for sure that I am learning so much. Lyrics from an my favourite artist who means so much to me are :

Hello! My J1 is going along smoothly. I have been to New York city twice now and both experiences have been interesting. The first trip was a test of sorts, to see could we manage to get from Bay Shore, to Babylon Railway Station and from Penn Station to the places in NYC we wanted to go! So far we haven't been to many of the places we want to see just yet, simply because NYC is so big and Megan and I have to get everywhere by foot. So our first trip was our introduction to the Big Apple.

I was extremely excited heading off on that first trip on the 12th of June, despite having to wait for our booked taxi for over 45 minutes. We travelled to Babylon Rail Road and then boarded a train headed west, to Penn Station. It was really interesting to see the American countryside pass by outside our window. A place of note was Amityville. Horror fans will know that Amityville is linked to house where Ronald Defeo supposedly murdered most of his family members. This story inspired multiple films after supernatural activity was recorded in the home after new tenants moved in.

I really liked seeing the difference in the landscape the closer we got to the city. The houses became more crowded together. The buildings grew taller and we began to see skyscrapers towering in the distance. Jamaica, Queens in New York was an interesting place to observe. A really vibrant place. Penn Station was packed with people. And THEN, Megan and I stepped out right next to music stadium: Madison Square Garden. We squinted up at it for a while before wandering down the street where we could the Empire State building up ahead. We found ourselves outside the New York Public library so we ventured in for a look. What a beautiful building!



We decided to go to Times Square simply because it was so close to us and I think every one has to go there at least once. It was mindblowing. One of the busiest places I have ever been to and very very flashy. Multiple screens flickering with advertisements, screens with the news on it and some of the screens played trailers such as "Finding Dory". It was breathtaking and for someone who likes taking photos this was a great opportunity.

Megan and I decided to sit down at the rows of seats in the centre of Times Square and just observe our surroundings. It was very surreal to gaze around one of the most famous places in the world! On the way back to the train station I was stopped by some journalism students who wanted to interview one of us. Megan didn't want to be interviewed so to my dismay the microphone was turned on me. I managed to stammer my way through the interview and hopefully I can root around on the internet and find my clip somewhere. 

Other interesting things we saw were half naked cowboys, topless women painted in vibrant colours, and actually the first time we were in New York City there was a celebration for Puerto Ricans so the place was thronged with them. It was fascinating to see. It's important to keep your wits about you in the city, pedestrians are a nuisance to most drivers so if you're not careful you will be hit by a car. I couldn't imagine New York city silent, never in a million years.



 
 
Our second trip to NYC on the 19th of June did not go without a few hitches. We thankfully made our train with minutes to spare so getting to the city was not the issue. We had great plans to visit the American Museum of Natural History and I was so excited to take photos for my blog and create a whole big post about it. WELL. I pulled out my phone and used the Google Maps app to direct us to the museum, which told us we were 21 minutes away. Woohoo. We trekked for what seemed like forever in the warm city heat and when we "arrived" at our destination the museum was nowhere to be found. The app usually never lets me down so I'm not sure what went wrong. Not to worry though, there will be other times to visit the museum.

We've got plans to visit the Museum of Modern Art (expect a full post on this), the Empire State building, the Museum of Natural History, Brooklyn bridge, Coney Island, the Statue of Liberty and much more. Basically a lot of the touristy places. I really hope I can find some of the lesser known gems in the city so I can take lots of photos for Instagram. I'm trying to post a photo every day so do check my Instagram out!

Most of what we did on our second trip was browsing in the shops we passed by on our travels. I really do need to do more research because I certainly do NOT have my bearings in this huge city. We visited a MAC store, Forever 21, Mystique Boutique and Footlocker. We've made a list of all the things we want to buy. I want Nike runners, a new DSLR camera, new makeup, clothes and little trinkets for myself and as presents. Who knows what I'll buy really, the opportunities are endless in this mammoth city.




I hope to fill my travel notebook with lots of tickets, souvenirs and anything interesting I pick up on my travels. It has become a thing of mine that I document my travels or experiences. I have one for college which has filled up quite considerably. My American notebook is still quite empty so I will have to change that. I'm excited to see what my notebook will look like at the end of my J1, three months in USA. Then I will have a notebook for Belgium. I think this is a cool way of keeping memories safe and I can show these notebooks to friends, family and possibly any children I have in the far off future.

I finish this blog post with photos and a little note to say thank you to everyone. It's been a year since things took a swift down turn in my life. One event toppled me, and all the insecurities that I had let build up for years exploded to the fore of my mind. It was horrific. My self confidence is still building up again a year later, but I am so thankful that I am not in the same pain as I was this time last year. I am so grateful for everyone's support. I am proud of myself. I regret a lot of things, but it's been a learning curve of a year. Thank you to all those who have been a part of this year which has shaped me differently as a person. Thank you to those who came back into my life and the new people who have joined my life. I can't wait to see what the future holds.

Bryant Park right next to New York City Public Library

A lovely lovely touch. Solidarity with the victims of the shooting in Orlando, Florida <3.

The Empire State building. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR READING!  Twitter / Facebook / Instagram All pictures are merely decorative and belong to their respective owners.

It hasn't quite hit me that I will be staying in this country for the next three months. I'm still not used to the American accents or seeing big flags wherever I go, but I suppose part of the J1 experience is learning to adapt. I'm still shy to speak loudly in case people notice I'm different or tell many people what my name is because it will be impossible for others to understand. I haven't explored much of the place yet but I wanted to document the journey from my little part of Ireland all the way to Bay Shore, NY.

I've tried to put off writing this post for a while because I wanted to save my 100th post for the day I set off on the biggest adventure of my life to date. More on that in future posts, so you'll have to wait longer I'm afraid. But then, I got thinking. 100 is a milestone for a lot of things in a sense. 100 years is a century, reaching 100 in age is phenomenal. This year, here in Ireland we celebrated 100 years since the 1916 Rising, an important part of Irish history. So to me, the number 100 is important, so 100 blog posts is a big deal. I also visited the Burren in Co Clare on the last day of my second year of college and to me that symbolises a lot so for that reason this post will be in two parts.

Hello there!

Disclaimer: I'm not looking for pity or attention here. I could have posted this months ago, but UL has a really good attitude on mental health so I'm hoping you will too. I hope it helps in some way :)

I felt it was time to discuss something that I have really wanted to talk about. I haven't written this sooner for many reasons. One: I haven't had the time, Two: I didn't want to own up to that fact that I suffer from this, and Three: I am absolutely terrified of people's reaction to it. I know a few bloggers that I am aware of have covered it but I'd like to do it also. So here's the word: ANXIETY.

I've been back to college just over a month now and I thought I'd fill you in on the things I've learned so far. It's been a wild ride so far. I can't say for certain that I've been overwhelming happy for most of the last few weeks but I've definitely attempted to take myself out of my comfort zone.

I've realized even more so this year how much of a community UL actually is. In times of loss, (So far this year two second years have unfortunately passed away), in times of celebration (Fresher's week, football and rugby matches and at International night). I remind myself all the time how proud and honoured I am to be attending such an amazing university filled with beautiful, intelligent, funny and creative people. Despite feeling alienated here at times, I wouldn't want to move to a different college when I really think about it. I've compiled a list of sorts, detailing a few things I've learned so far this semester.

Yesterday I watched "Legend" in the Odeon here in Limerick. If you know me you'll know that I am very picky when it comes to film choice and I will thoroughly reserarch a film before I think about watching it. It's just the way I am! However I'm always very interested in films based on true stories, and this is loosely based on two people who existed and died, not long ago.

(WARNING SPOILER ALERT).

I started writing this the day before I turned twenty, because I mean, it's my last day being a teenager. Lots of people don't care about turning twenty but I really really do. It's honestly felt like my teenage years have lasted forever. I'm writing this and I know that my perspective is tainted by a lot of negative things, but I guess this post will be something interesting to look back on, years later even.
It's weird talking about myself so much, it's safe to say that this is my most personal blog post. I wrote a personal one already this summer, some of you have probably read it. I guess all I can say is that I had to get my thoughts out at the time and I guess this post is the same thing. It's going to be a long one!

I actually wrote a post about my fears of going into first year and a diary of my first week in college. Of course, I was very excited about this new experience to come, but as a naturally very shy person I was freaking out at the thought of being around so many strangers. Going into a new course basically alone was a huge deal for me. Back home I had a few very close friends and heading into the unknown scared me.

In the past year alone Ireland has made monumental steps forward. Think the referendum in May, where Ireland became the first country in the WORLD to vote in Same Sex Marriage by popular vote. The world celebrated with us and it got me thinking. I began to think of what a modern Ireland meant to me. I haven't lived on this earth very long, I'm in my twentieth year of life, but I have seen so much change in my country. Positive change and it makes me very excited to be a young person in this country.

Hopefully a lot of people will have already heard about what's happening in Uganda. If not, I'll explain it briefly. Homosexual men are being persecuted by the law for their sexual orientation.