You might think I'm really competent...

But you'd be wrong. This summer abroad is my first time living on my own, completely. I have lived away from home before, but I've never been completely independent from my parents, my friends, and my general "comfort zone." This is my first time living outside of my hometown. On one hand, I am absolutely loving it, but on the other hand I am realizing how incompetent I am on my own. Hopefully, it'll get better as I learn how to be independent responsibly.

Today I decided to take deliberate action against my stupid mistakes after I made a completely avoidable one. (well they are all avoidable) After living in Dublin for a month and a half, I managed to take home the wrong bus. I think I was really tired and not paying attention or something, but all of a sudden, I was in a very unfamiliar part of town and being thrown off the bus because it was the end of the line. Oh. my. god. You do not want to not know where you are in a big city. What's worse is the ATM I stopped at on the way home from work wasn't working so I had no cash that I could use to hop a taxi. Imagine my roommate's shock when I call him with the words: "I just got kicked off a bus and I have no idea where I am." This story has a happy ending, though, but I've decided to be more cautious and to take better care of myself. No one is here to pick up my slack or watch over my shoulder like at home. I have to be my own mom here :)

I'd like to give you a list of some of the stupid things I have done, and hopefully learned from, while in Dublin (in no particular order):

1. Dropped a ten dollar bill on the ground
2. Lost all of my friends at a club and had to wait outside for them for two hours in fear of having to get a taxi home by myself
3. Got kicked off a train in Amsterdam...you can read further into this story in a previous post
4. Woke up having no idea where I was
5. Dropped a shoe on the side of the road, or a bus, never to be seen again
6. Dropped my phone in the sink while the water was running
7. Spent money thinking it was dollars and not euros and being horrified at my bank account after said purchases
8. Bought moldy bread
9. burnt meat in the microwave because I didn't know you had to put the microwave on "defrost"
10. Offended people from Northern Ireland with my ignorance
11. Lost a scarf that I bought only weeks earlier (sometimes I think someone stole it)


I will update this list as more stupid stuff arises. Hopefully, I have learned my lesson a thousand times over with these mistakes, however.