Today was our free day to explore Dublin on our own. Sammie, Diana, and I slept in until about mid morning because we went out the previous night and had loads of fun. We departed UCD and headed straight into St. Stephens Green to conquer the list of places we had set on going. Our list included places like H&M, Lush, Murphy’s Ice Cream, Penney’s, and Sub City Comics. Unfortunately we only made it to two of the several places on our list because of the fatigue we experienced due to our late night out. We ended up making it to Lush and H&M. Prior to this trip I had never been to Lush before, and Sammie convinced me that it was somewhere that I had to experience. I am a curious person (obviously, or else wouldn’t be on this trip) so I decided to go in and experience the experience the was Lush Cosmetics. I would call it a life changing experience to be honest with you. Pictured above are some [vegan] products I purchased today that I am extremely excited about. To tie it in, the concept of place played a huge role into how I saw myself in this store today. I had an idea of what Lush was, I knew what it sold and that it did have quality products. It wasn’t until I had actually experienced the products itself, the store atmosphere, and learned about their ethical standpoints and realized that this was a place I really felt connected to. The concept of place is extremely versatile, I find it interesting that I can have an idea of what a place is and even have feelings about it even though I have never been there. My perception of this place changed after my experience there and it will most likely continue to change the more I spend time there. I think this makes the concept of place very individualized because of it’s fluidity.