5 months, 10 passport stamps, and a million new friends and adventures later, I'm home from my semester abroad. My last few weeks in Galway were filled with final papers, more Ireland adventures, travel, falling in love with Paris again, and of course, exams. My Irish language exam was at the beginning of April, and two of my remaining four classes required final papers instead of exams. This allowed me to tag along with another American friend from NUIG on quick trip to Paris that happened to coincide with my birthday!

Obviously, Paris was just as amazing as the first time I visited six years ago. In addition to all the usual Paris must-sees, I also saw the Napoleon apartments in the Louvre, and toured the Paris Catacombs, which I hadn't seen on my previous visit.

Of course, I was completely geeking out over finally being able to speak French outside of school, and I was pretty proud of my ability to understand and speak without overthinking, as I'm known to do! All of those years of French courses (and that huge stack of French textbooks in my room), finally paying off!



Back in Galway, I finished my exams, saw my amazing French Society friends again, and finished out the semester with my crazy apartment community.

Saying goodbye to everyone was as strange as you might expect. I think it's important for me to say that at this point, I really was ready to be home. Just as I'd expected, I was sad to be leaving Galway, and finishing my first stint of living abroad. But I was also tired, and ready to see my friends and family again.

When most of the other apartment residents had packed up and gone home, it really set in that my time in Ireland was coming to a close, and I was ready to be back home. Of course, now that I'm back home, I'm starting to miss Ireland and my friends in Galway when I see their social media posts!



That being said, after a full semester of classes, travel, and fun in Galway, plus a week of touring the country with Brennan, I was pretty anxious to fly home!




Home sweet DMV- home in time for some nice Spring weather and the last of the flowers blooming at my house :)

I've been enjoying lots of time with friends, family, and my dog... plus some of my favorite "American" foods (Panera!), my favorite hometown spots, and doing some shopping, plus laundry for free :)

And finally, just three short summer classes until I can finish undergrad!

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Until next time,
XOXO Emily