Galway Gab

Stay Tuned...

2009-06-14T12:06:00.003-04:00

So, here I am, back in action with the Gab. I am still going to update about Italy, and it's coming soon! In the meantime, have a little taste of Florence:

More touristy photos to come! Ciao!

Flight is delayed

2008-12-20T02:28:00.002-05:00

I'm in Shannon Airport and my flight is delayed two hours. I should be going through customs in half an hour and instead I have to wait until 10:00. Highly unfortunate. I'm going to go find breakfast since I left my hard boiled egg on the kitchen counter...go me.

Ready?

2008-12-19T18:37:00.002-05:00

I'm packed. I've got most of the loose ends tied up. And I've said good bye. I'm ready to go back to America. But is the Newark airport ready? That's the million dollar question of the night.

Blog Crack Strikes Again

2008-12-18T16:19:00.003-05:00

I can't not blog. I tried, but I can't not make a post today even though I said it wouldn't be until after Christmas. So, this is just a quick study break.

Today we had our Christmas party complete with Secret Santa Gift Exchange. It was lovely, I got to wrap (and unwrap) my first gifts of the season. I think everyone had a good time. We sort of said our final goodbyes because Molly is leaving in a matter of hours and Annie and I are leaving tomorrow night. Kirsten, Laura, and Heather fly out on Monday so they still have some Galway part-ay time. But for me (the only one with an exam left...boo-hoo) the next 30 hours will be spent studying and packing. I'm actually almost 100% packed which is impressive for me. But there are still those troublesome things that are bulky and not conducive to being shoved in an overpacked suitcase at the last minute such as my toiletry case and my box full of phone equipment for some lucky new study abroad student who wants to purchase my Ireland phone.

Back to biogeography. Island equilibrium theory, here I come.

My last 30 hours in Galway. That's weird.

How to exit the study abroad program with as little insanity as possible (3 easy steps)

2008-12-17T14:48:00.004-05:00

Step 1: Desperately cram for biogeography exam so as not to fail the best course of the semester.

Step 2: Begin packing in an orderly fashion, then panic and throw everything together at the last minute. Things will be lost for years in the depths of the suitcase, this is expected. It will be a happy moment when they are found next summer.

Step 3: Put blog posts on hold until a less busy time.

Sadly, I'm too busy trying not go insane in the next three days to write about Italy. Interested parties should check back after Christmas.

Chapter Thirteen: The End

2008-12-12T17:39:00.005-05:00

I'm sorry to have to do this, but I'm going to breeze through the rest of our trip in one post. It has to be done...I'm leaving for Italy in literally two hours and I need the blog to be caught up on this trip for my own peace of mind.

So, here goes nothing...

On Friday night we went on a pub crawl Barcelona style. We got free food, free drinks, and a free show. The picture is Laura, Kirsten, and Molly with our crazy tour guide Martin.

Our free show was flamenco dancing! It was so cool, they moved their feet really fast. And the music was awesome too!

On Saturday morning, we decided to give ourselves a tour of the city. We found a Starbucks which doesn't sound important, but there are NONE in Galway, so it was awesome. I didn't actually get anything at the Starbucks (I'm saving my first Starbucks sip in 4 months for US soil) but it was nice to see it nonetheless.

Next, we ran into this weirdo building. I don't actually remember the name of it, but there was a line a mile long to get in and admission was not free, so we gave it a miss, deciding to take pictures from the outside.

Moving right along...next we came to Sagrada Familia, a church that has been in construction for many years and it's still not finished! I think the projected date of completion is 2025 or something. It's a sight to see though, very artsy.

Molly and I had been dying to try one of these magnificent-lookig Magnum ice cream bars. We got Mayan Mystery flavor and it was delicious. Exotic spices in ice cream...try it.

Finally we made it to the place we had been waiting for all day. Parc Guell is a design park with hills to climb, sights to see, and photo ops to take advantage of. Best of all: completely free. That alone makes it my favorite place in Barcelona.

There is a bench that surrounds one of the main points of the park and the bench is made like a mosaic. Different sections of the bench are different colors...it was so neat!

As you can tell, Tourist Kristin came out again in Parc Guell and had plenty of photos taken of herself. This is just another, larger view of the bench. (I chose the blue and white for IND.)

We walked a mile (literally a mile...there were signs) to the Metro station and hopped on it to go back to our area of town. We found a restaurant near the water and ate paella. It was delicious. I want some right now, in fact.

And we made it to the beach! We ended our stay in Barcelona with a trip to the beach to feel the Mediterranean Sea. It was freezing cold, but we all took our shoes and socks off and waded in the water. So worth it.

My last photo of Spain! The lights looked really cool on the water. I loved the beach!

So, that was our big trip. It was tiring but exhilarating and stressful and amazing all at once. Tomorrow marks another day and another adventure!

Chatper Twelve: Feliz Navidad Numero Dos

2008-12-12T14:40:00.004-05:00

Barcelona (like every other city I've visited) is all decked out for Christmas. I can't let the opportunity to post Christmas photos pass, so I've chosen the best for your yuletide pleasure.

Barcelona's concept is the same as every other city, but each place uses a different light formation. This street was holly, candles, and trees.

Beam me up, Santa.

And then we stumbled upon the life-sized Bethlehem. The Three Kings were there.

A shepherd was there too, with his flock.

And obviously, the holy family made an appearance.

But the coolest part was the camel. Enough said.

Chapter Eleven: Palm Trees

2008-12-12T05:07:00.002-05:00

Barcelona is different from any other European city I've visited--and yet it's the same. It's different because it is coastal and warm and there are palm trees growing everywhere. Amidst the palm trees, however, the architecture and streets look like those of Paris and Madrid. Barcelona exists as both a tropical locale and a thriving metropolitan destination.

This building is two-tone...no idea why. Notice the palm trees growing ten feet from the building. Lovely.

Barcelona has a biking service, so there are bikers everywhere and they're usually riding the red and white Barcelona bikes. The crosswalks indicate both pedestrians and bikers on the lights...I thought that was pretty cool.

Speaking of the bikes...here they are. It's called bicing...assuming you'd abbreviate "Barcelona" as "BCN" (not sure that's how I'd do it but I'm not the expert) it makes sense to spell it that way.

We found the palm trees! We made it to Port Olimpic and were greeted by these shining symbols of light and warmth. We actually have palm trees in Ireland (biogeography teaches us that it's because Ireland is an island and coconuts can make it to the shore) but they don't compare to these. These are actual honest-to-goodness palm trees that are more fun to experience when it's warm and sunny instead of chilly and rainy.

Another welcoming sign of Port Olimpic is this smiling lobster.

There is a long walkway that leads to the harbor where all the fishing boats are docked. The path is lined with palm trees, and it makes for a very beautiful walk.

This shows how Barcelona can be both a beach town and a bustling city. On the right side, the cars would not stop long enough for me to take a decent picture...no doubt Barcelonans returning home from work. The left side, however, (the side closer to the coast) was clear.

We had more to discover in Barcelona, so we couldn't hang around the palm trees in summer bliss forever. We head off into the sunset to find another part to explore.

Chapter Ten: Night falls and the tour continues

2008-12-11T18:00:00.002-05:00

After our break, which involved small sandwiches in a little Spanish restaurant, we moved on to the final hour of our tour.

We stopped at the World's Oldest Restaurant. It's legit because it has a certificate from the Guinness Book of World Records and everything. It has supposedly been a working restaurant since the 1700s. That's crazy.

On the rest of our tour, the buildings in Madrid were all lit up and it looked awesome! I tried to take a lot of photos, but mostly they came out blurry.

This is a cool one because the lights were purple! It reminded me of Baltimore when the Ravens go far in the playoffs. Very cool.

This is a statue of Federico Garcia Lorca, a playwright who remains very important to Spanish people. People often put roses in his hands along with the bird that he holds.

After the tour, we went out for tapas y sangria. The food and sangria were both delicious! The atmosphere of the bar/restaurant we ate in was awesome...very authentic.

The next day, we boarded a plane and flew to Barcelona which is where I'll pick up later!

Chapter Nine: New Europe Tour of Madrid

2008-12-11T05:46:00.002-05:00

When we ate lunch (we ordered in Spanish and all that...very exciting) we also decided to get dessert. We got churros with chocolate sauce to dip them in! The churros were absolutely delicious!

After lunch, we wanted to go on a New Europe tour. This is the same tour company we had used in Paris and we had quite enjoyed our tour there. The best thing about New Europe is that their tours are free! The tour guides work on a tips-only basis, so we do pay something, but it's completely up to us how much we want to give them.

We found the Free Tour signs at the starting point and met our tour guide, Eddie. Eddie is from England and while he is very smart, he has a very strange sense of humor. I had a lot of fun on the Madrid tour, but some found it boring and too long. It was a bit long for my taste (supposed to be 3.5 hours and it ended up being 4.5...but we stopped and had food at one point) but I still really enjoyed hearing Madrid's story.
Eddie showed us the place where the Barefoot Nuns live. They never see anyone and no one ever sees them. Once they enter, they lose their contact with everyone. Tours do run through the convent daily, but only after the nuns retire to their rooms. When the bell rings, it means that all visitors must vacate the premises because the sisters will be reemerging from their chambers.

We also visited Madrid's opera house. The opera house was located very close to the hostel we were staying in. The Metro station we used was Opera, so we knew where we were, a rarity, especially for my terrible sense of direction.

Eddie also took us to the Royal Palace. We could not go in due to time restrictions, but it was beautiful to look at from the outside.

At one of our last stops in the first half of the tour, we went to Almudena Cathedral, which is adjacent to the palace. Construction on the cathedral was started in 1879 and not completed until 1993. The idea for the cathedral had been in the works since the 16th century, so this cathedral took a very long time to be finished.

Chapter Eight: Feliz Navidad

2008-12-10T14:10:00.002-05:00

One of the great things about doing all of our big traveling during the last few weeks of the semester is that we get to see how Europe celebrates the Christmas season. Madrid had a lot of Christmas things going on, so I wanted to put them in their own section.

The Christmas trees in Madrid are very cool. They look modern, like maybe each was done by a designer. There were several throughout the city.

This is another Madrid tree. The design on it is not Christmas-y at all, only the shape is.

Lastly, this is a photo of me with a Navidad flag in a park in Madrid. These were all over the city as well. I love Christmas!

Chapter Seven: First Impressions of Spain

2008-12-10T07:54:00.004-05:00

When we got back from our tour of Obidos and Fatima, we had only a few hours left in Portugal. Since our tour dropped us off at the Hard Rock Cafe and we were in no mood to go hunt down food, we decided to eat at Hard Rock. The food was excellent, though it wasn't traditional Portuguese cuisine. After dinner, we trekked back to Lisbon Lounge to pick up our luggage and from there we went to the main station in Lisbon: Oriente.

We had tickets for an overnight bus from Lisbon to Madrid. It left at 9:00 at night and did not get to Madrid until 6:00 or 7:00 in the morning. I was tired enough from the all day tour that I was pretty confident I'd sleep. As we were boarding the bus, however, the bus driver (who was not very nice) would not let us bring our backpacks on the bus. It's not that I really needed anything in there, but it would have been a comfort to have access to my things. For example, I rescued my mp3 player from the bag before I tossed it in the luggage compartment but I did not get any batteries. If my music had died, it would have been a very loooonnnnggg night. But luckily, I did not require any items from my bag.

We got to Madrid around 6:30 in the morning. We checked into our hostel and waited around for them to serve breakfast so we could reap the benefits of free food. With restored energy, we set out to explore Madrid. We were impressed, as we always are, with the architechture of the buildings. It reminded me more of Paris than of Lisbon, which was surprising. I thought there would be more similarities between Portugal and Spain, but the two are very different.

We continued to walk through Madrid, with no real plan in mind. We had to meet Kirsten, who was flying in from Dublin, around lunchtime, but we had several hours to kill in Madrid first.

The street signs in European cities are so pretty! I noticed them in Paris as well...they're almost like pieces of art in themselves.

As we walked through one of Madrid's parks, I saw lots of advertisements for the movie Twilight. The Spanish title is even creepier than the English one. Crepusculo. Pretty scary.

We found Palacio de Cristal, which means Crystal Palace. It was a small castle made out of glass! We went inside, but to walk on the floors (which are not made of glass) we had to take our shoes off and as it was all wet inside, we decided against it. It was still really cool though.

Chapter Six: Pilgrimage to Fatima

2008-12-09T12:32:00.004-05:00

Our last stop on the tour with Gonzalo was the shrine at Fatima. The place is HUGE or at least it felt that way to me because I was comparing it to Ireland's Knock.

Unfortunately, it rained really hard the entire time we were there. We still managed to have a good time, even if our photos didn't turn out bright and sunny.

This is a view of Fatima from the Chapel of Apparitions. The crucifix is very modern artish; Jesus is made up of a zig-zag line. Everything was very interesting to look at...not traditional like I would expect, but more modernized.

We wanted to go into the main church but there was a mass on inside and we were not allowed in. We stayed under the church's roof for a few minutes to see if the rain would pass and when it didn't we went off to find more things to look at.

Just as we were leaving, Laura and I saw this statue of John Paul II so we had to get our photo with him. Yeah JPII!

Chapter Five: The Fishing Village of Nazare and an Unfinished Monastery

2008-12-09T05:13:00.003-05:00

The next stop on our tour was a small fishing village called Nazare. We looked out onto the coast with our tour guide Gonzalo. The beach looked clean and inviting and if the weather had been nicer I think we would have ended our tour immediately and had a day on the beach.

Some of the houses are pretty close to the water. I'd hate to see what happens when the water level gets too high.

Gonzalo kindly took a photo of Molly, Laura, and me. I have a pretty sweet hair thing going on, but that's the danger of a windy beach town, right?

This is the church in the village. It reminds me of something out of Monkey Island. It would be cool to have a palm tree growing right outside of our church back home. Or maybe just to have a palm tree anywhere close to my house.

After we ate lunch in Nazare (lunch featured shrimp with the heads still attached...the nightmares continue) we went on our merry way to an ancient monastery. By the time we got there, it was raining in earnest and we had bundled up more tightly.

The monastery was never finished, so parts of it are without a roof. Even when we were inside we were getting rained on. There is a whole section that is not completed, so it was basically just a cylinder that was open at the top.

The inside of the church (one of the finished parts...no risk of getting rained on in here) does not disappoint. The ceilings are high, the columns are wide, all is right with the world.

Chapter Four: Obidos and the Christmas Village that Wasn't

2008-12-08T15:13:00.004-05:00

On Wednesday, we took a 9-hour bus tour from Lisbon. The first place we went to was Obidos, a small village about an hour outside of Portugal. Since I don't quite know how to describe it without overusing words like "beautiful" and "cool," I'll post the description from the pamphlet I picked up.

Besides its material heritage of the past, Obidos, a melting pot of historical tradition, is, still today, one of the main jewels of the country.

So, there you go.
Obidos has some sort of Christmas celebration going on. All over town, there were signs directing us to the Christmas Village, which we decided to save for last. Heading into the village, however, there were these Christmas trees, decorated by sponsors. There was also a red carpet for all the Christmas celebrities and such.

Portugal is known for its blue tile like this. It is everywhere around Lisbon and Obidos. Very fancy.

We walked through the streets of Obidos which were also pretty decked out for Christmas. And still the signs for Christmas Village continued and our excitement built.

We stopped in a cafe and sampled Obidos's signature alcohol: cherry liquer called Ginja. It came in a chocolate shot glass and it only cost 1 euro! Delicious.

We continued along through the path, seeing more wonderful things as we went along. The town was very small, I think we covered most of it in the hour and a half we spent there.

We came to one end of the town and saw castle. It used to be the Royal Palace and the flags still fly there. Now, it functions as a Pousada which is a hotel run by the state.

We explored around the castle some more, trying to dodge the rain. There was a group of school children on a field trip, seemingly there to see the Christmas Village. They were very little, maybe first grade, and they were adorable!

We finally made our way to Vila Natal: Christmas Village. I couldn't wait to see what Obidos had in store for us. We climbed a hill and found...nothing. Not one solitary Christmas light. It was very strange for them to have built up such an attraction only to have nada. We walked along the path where the Christmas Village supposedly was and continued to see absolutely nothing of the Christmas persuasion. It was a little bit of a letdown but we got over it. We returned to our van for the next part of the tour.

Chapter Three: Castelo de Sao Jorge

2008-12-08T08:30:00.004-05:00

Our tour led us to Castelo de Sao Jorge (Saint George Castle). It is an old ruin that looks out over the water.

Although we had to pay to get in (shock!) it was definitely worth the student price. I would have even paid full price to explore this place. Everything was so picturesque, with the shade on the ruins and the sun on the water.

This part of the castle is actually in good shape. We were able to go up and explore around the outside of the walls. We watched all the tourists and took pictures of them and had our pictures taken as well.

This is me at one of the best lookout points at the castle.

The water is so blue! It seems to be the theme in Lisbon to have a lookout over a bunch of houses and blue water. Not that I'm complaining because I took about ten pictures every time I saw something like this.

This is just another view with a tree hanging down. This part was shaded so pictures we took of ourselves did not turn out as well, but that didn't stop us from taking them.

This is a view from the top of the castle, looking down on all the tourists.

This picture makes it look so warm, what with the sun streaming in and my shades on. I still had to wear my North Face everywhere, though, so it was not summer weather. Some places were warmer than others, but Lisbon's weather was pretty much like Ireland's sans the clouds and rain.

Chapter Two: Touring Lisbon

2008-12-08T04:38:00.005-05:00

On Tuesday, we took the free walking tour offered by our hostel. We had beautiful weather and the tour guide was pretty good. He did not give us a whole lot of information, but basically just took a walk around the city and invited everyone to follow him.

The first place we stopped was a Church. We went inside and stood in the vestibule, but there was a mass going on and I didn't want to take pictures and disturb the congregation.

I did, however, take a picture of the ceiling because it looked cool. It is a small ceiling, but very ornate. The colors in it were beautiful.

On our way to the next stop (another church) I took this photo of the trolley cars that run through Lisbon. They're all attached to wires that ran above our heads throughout the city. It looks like a pretty neat, albeit old-fashioned way to get around.

At the second church, we were able to go in to take pictures and look around. I loved this building! There was someone playing the organ the whole time, so it was a multi-sensory experience.

The columns were so big! Also, the lighting was a bit weird inside. I'm surprised the photos from my camera came out relatively clear because usually shooting without a flash is not its strong suit.

We went into a store and these marionettes caught my eye. Creepy.

Our guide, Antonio, took us to a little patio/courtyard surrounded by houses. There were lots of clothes hanging on lines and the colors of the houses and clothes were very vibrant.

This is another scene from the courtyard. It's a strange assortment of a bird cage, a flower-covered table, and what appears to be a set of school lockers.

We went up to a terrace which was so cool. We had a view of the water below as well as of the houses of the city. The terrace had beautiful trees and a mural and everything was adorned with the classic Portuguese blue tiles.

This is a view of part of the city. I loved looking at these houses.

After enjoying the terrace view for a while, we set off to see what else the city of Lisbon had to offer.

Chapter One: Arrival in Lisbon (or, Getting there is Half the Fun)

2008-12-07T15:02:00.002-05:00

As I look over my photos from this past week (not an easy task as I took almost 1000 pictures...I don't want to talk about it) I realize that this is going to require a series of serious updates. I would have started sooner, but Blogger is not working and I've been doing other things and before I knew it, it was 11:00 at night. So, here is the first installment of my adventure.

Most of Monday was spent in transit. We took a bus to Shannon, a plane to Faro, Portugal, and a train to Lisbon. We got a bit lost between the airport and the train station, but shuttle bus driver kindly stopped in the middle of the road to let us off when we realized we had missed our stop. Again, I was blown away by how many people in Portugal spoke English (everyone I talked to did).

When we arrived in Lisbon just before midnight, the streets were deserted. We were glad for this because we were in complete tourist mode when we saw Lisbon. The streets are decorated for Christmas with lights galore. We saw lots of different kinds of decorations, like Christmas balls and snowflakes. It was glorious and it was exactly what we needed to see to get us pumped up again after a long day of traveling.

One of the pedestrian streets also had these arch-type displays. They made me just want to walk up and down the street music-video style singing a Christmas song. I didn't, but I wanted to.

Checking into our hostel made me even happier. Lisbon Lounge is the best hostel I've ever stayed in. The rooms were clean, well lit, and safe. We each had our own locker with our own key. It was made even better by the fact that Molly, Laura, and I got a 6-person room all to ourselves.

This is my cozy little corner of Lisbon Lounge 201. Looking at the picture makes me want to go back and sleep there, it was such a nice place to be.

That was our first day and night. There is so much more to say and I'm going away again in 5 days! Study abroad in December is more exciting than the other months and that is saying something!

The One Hundredth Post

2008-12-01T03:38:00.002-05:00

This is my one hundredth blog on Blogger. To celebrate, I'm going on vacation. In a little over an hour, I'll say goodbye to Galway until Sunday. First stop on our trip is Lisbon in Portugal. We'll be there tonight and all of Tuesday and Wednesday. On Wednesday night we're taking an overnight bus to Madrid and we'll arrive there by 6:30 a.m. We'll be spending all of Thursday in Madrid and then on Friday morning we're flying to Barcelona, where we'll be stationed for the remainder of our journey. On Sunday morning, we fly back to Shannon.

I'm very excited about this. I've already had to use a little Spanish (on the phone...it was very stressful) and I pretended to look up some Portuguese, but I didn't get very far. Luckily, one whole day will be in English for us, thanks to a 9-hour bus tour.

This will also be the longest time I've gone without posting in the blog. I will have many exciting updates upon my return, I promise. Estoy muy emocionada. ¡Adios!

On the first day of Christmas

2008-11-30T11:08:00.003-05:00

Today was the first Sunday of Advent. Though I haven't been going to Mass as often as I should here, the Catholic school girl in me still felt the need to drag herself out of bed and go witness the lighting of the first purple candle. Of course I should mention that though I did have to drag myself out of bed, it was not at a terribly early hour. The church I've been attending here has three Mass times, the earliest of which is 11:00 a.m. That's Ireland for you. And what's more, the 11:00 Mass is the equivalent of the 7:00 a.m. at my parish: there's hardly any singing, it's over in about 40 minutes, and the congregation looks more asleep than awake.

Catholic Mass in Ireland is pretty much identical to Catholic Masses I have experienced in America. Minor differences/peculiarities include: the congregation speaks very quickly so that even when I know the prayers they are saying I can hardly keep up, the Eucharistic ministers wear medals around their necks during Eucharist and take them off afterward, and there is a little pillow on the altar, but I have no idea what it's for. It's just a little white pillow leaning up against the chalice, in case the priest wants to take a little snooze during the consecration?

Also, all the little children of the parish run away during the readings and hang out in their Sunday school room, allegedly hearing the Good News kid-style. Today when they came back, they had a short presentation in which they hung paper ornaments on the Jesse tree and explained the significance of each. Even with said presentation, Mass was over by 11:45 and the priest had invited us all to the back room for tea and coffee. It's a shame I only have a few weeks left now that I know about this free coffee...

Almost Finished

2008-11-29T17:03:00.002-05:00

Today is three weeks until I go home. It's so strange, thinking that this whole thing is almost over. I had been anticipating this trip since Freshman year of college. And now, it's almost finished and I'll go back to SJU. I'm finished all my essays and work. All I have left is two exams, one in Philosophy and one in Biogeography. Our biggest "vacation" of the year is coming up. On Monday, we leave for Portugal and Spain. We've been talking about it and making plans for it for so long that it's weird that it's actually happening. Very strange.

An American Thanksgiving in Ireland

2008-11-28T18:04:00.003-05:00

When I came back from Dublin, I found that my friends in Niland House were in the middle of making Thanksgiving. We had everything: turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, green bean casserole, salad, sweet potatoes, and rolls. It was amazing.

Molly, Kirsten, and her boyfriend, Bob, were responsible for the turkey. It turned out very well. Heather and Kirsten presented the turkey to the table to sit among all the trimmings.

Here is our beautiful turkey. It really was awesome to have a traditional Thanksgiving meal even away from home. I think everyone had a really great time.

Molly and Kirsten were the two main chefs of the night (I believe). I only came in at the very end so I didn't see how hard everyone worked.

Lastly, this is a bird's eye view of our table. Look at all that beautiful food! We really had a wonderful time hanging out and sharing Thanksgiving dinner.

There was Guinness at the First Thanksgiving

2008-11-27T19:33:00.003-05:00

I have had my third successful trip to Dublin! Aunt Kathy, Uncle Donny, Ally, and I arrived in Dublin around 2:00 on Wednesday afternoon. We found our hotel (it's becoming easier and easier for me to navigate the streets of Dublin...I can't take all the credit, though, Uncle Donny and I did consult the map a few times) and set off immediately for the Guinness Factory.

The tour was almost as good as ever. While it was shortened slightly because one whole section was closed off (and yet the admission was still the same price...thank you, Ireland) it was also enhanced by Christmas decorations:

There were only regular ornaments on the tree. I had hoped it would be Guinness-themed, but it was regular, which is still great.

In the Sky Bar, Uncle Donny got his free pint of Guinness while Ally and I used our tickets for soda. I got to see the shamrock in the Guinness foam for the first time. I had heard that some bartenders add that little touch, but I'd never actually witnessed it.

We took some photos in the Sky Bar because we got seats by the window...another first for me. Usually it's very crowded and we can't get anywhere near the window to enjoy the 360 degree view of Dublin.

Aunt Kathy and I had a great time despite the fact that neither of us likes Guinness all that much.

Uncle Donny tried Guinness for the first time and I believe he did like it. At least he was enthusiastic about it under the sign. Sorry for the blurriness. My camera was confused about the lighting in this place.

I know you're wondering, Dear Reader, if we did anything besides drink Guinness for Thanksgiving. In fact, we did!

This morning we went through Christ Church Cathedral. I absolutely love this church and could walk through the dungeon many times without getting bored. (Confession: it's because it reminds me of Harry Potter.) Above, Ally is standing between Christ Church and our hotel, Jury's Inn at Christ Church.

We also walked down to the courtyard behind St. Patrick's Cathedral for more photo ops. We really could not have had better weather for this Dublin trip (actually, they've been very lucky all week).

Ally and me outside of St. Patrick's. I'm not quite sure why I decided to look like that, but it's what I did, so that's that.

Happy Thanksgiving, America! Four weeks from this day to Christmas! (Yeah, that's right, I'm still compulsively counting.)

A Bright and Early Post

2008-11-26T03:13:00.002-05:00

Good morning! I have my last section of Philosophy of Art (of Philosophy of Art and Literature) this morning from 9:00-10:00. After that, I'm hoping to catch the 10:30 bus to Dublin with my family. If I don't make it to the bus station in time, we'll just wait around for the 11:30.

We have the usual agenda for Dublin: Guinness Factory, cathedrals, etc. etc. I'm looking forward to doing it all again. As much as I don't like the four hour bus ride to and from Dublin, I really have come to like the city a lot. We'll be back in Galway tomorrow!

Craic at Cranes

2008-11-25T18:18:00.002-05:00

Tonight after I was finished my classes and my family had come home from their tour (which they thoroughly enjoyed, by the way) we went out for a night out in Galway. First stop was Supermac's. We all had good meals (I had real chicken tenders for the first time in a long while...there's nothing like those wonderful things) and split an order of dressed taco fries...delicious as always.

After dinner, I wanted to take them to hear some traditional Irish music because that's an unforgettable experience anyone who visits Ireland should have. We went to Crane's, a pub that hosts traditional music on Tuesdays nights, courtesy of the Traditional Music Society (affectionately called "TradSoc") at NUIG. Even though the music took forever to get started, it was great as always.

Ally had her first bar experience...at age 11. What can I say? We start them young in Ireland. While we were waiting for the music, we talked about random things over a few pints. The Irish call this casual, friendly conversation "craic" (pronounced "crack"). The company was great, the music was beautiful, and the drinks were cold. A good time was had by all (or at least by me).

Last week of Classes!

2008-11-24T17:54:00.002-05:00

Today I started my last week of classes. It's so crazy, I had my last Jane Austen class this morning. There's nothing left. No paper to turn in, no exam, nothing. We just said good bye to the professor and walked out. It was quite strange.

My aunt, uncle, and cousin seem to be having a good time so far. They visited Connemara today and had a great time with great weather, so I'm very happy the sun was shining for them. I was too busy in class to go (and I will be tomorrow too when they go to Inis Mor) but we're all going to Dublin on Wednesday.

Visiting with Family

2008-11-23T15:07:00.002-05:00

This morning, my Aunt Kathy, Uncle Donny, and cousin Ally came to Ireland for vacation (and to visit me). We spent an enjoyable morning wandering the streets of Galway, though not many things were open for business while we were out...Ireland has a slow start on Sundays. We enjoyed breakfast in Galway Bakery Company and watched the raging river for a while. The Spanish Arch was delightful as always, though it became very cold, rainy, and windy.

We all took a little rest in the middle of the day, as is the custom for people who come for visits. We went to dinner at Busker Brownes and had delicious food. I think (hope) they enjoyed their first day in this beautiful city! Tomorrow I have class (starting my last week...yikes!) and they are going to do a day tour of the Connemara region and Kylemore Abbey. I hope they have fun!

Time well wasted

2008-11-22T14:15:00.002-05:00

Today I should have been doing some more work. I have been incapable of concentrating lately, so not much got done. Last night I didn't get around to starting my paper until late, but once I started it, it didn't take me long to finish it. I'm hoping that when I start writing this last paper I'll knock out a first draft in one go. I'd especially like to have it finished tonight because my aunt, uncle, and cousin are coming to Galway for a visit tomorrow! They'll be here until next Saturday and I'm sure we'll have a good time.

Instead of working today, I went to the movie theater with Molly, Kirsten, and Heather. We saw High School Musical 3. It was a wonderful cinematic experience. I liked the first High School Musical but didn't like the second at all, so I didn't quite know what to expect from the third. My roommate Sam spoke very highly of it so I was pretty confident it would be good. It was better than good. I was quite impressed with everything the movie had to offer. The songs were great and the choreography was very fancy and fun to watch. I still have a problem with the fact that it's so unrealistic because no high school is ever like that, but if you can suspend your disbelief on that level, it's very well done. I would pay the 9 euro to see it again and I don't enter into 9 euro purchases lightly at this point in my study abroad experience.

It was true!

2008-11-22T07:41:00.001-05:00

My friend Ally found this on the Internet. It seems Tommy Hilfiger was actually in Galway. Now we know. Thanks Ally!

Number Crunching

2008-11-21T15:40:00.002-05:00

I love to count things. It's pretty much an obsession in my family, bordering on OCD a little bit. We should probably be worried, some more than others. Anyway, I've been thinking about counting lately because my days here are numbered (sorry about that). Today is November 21 which means:

yesterday was one month until I go home
today is two months until my 21st birthday
it has been more than one month since I went to Paris (feels like last weekend)

I have nine more classes to attend at NUIG (but ten class hours). I have two more papers to write but they only have a combined total of 3000 words (so why am I wasting my time blogging this nonsense when I could be knocking one of those babies out tonight?).

Happy November 21!

An EVENT in Galway City

2008-11-20T18:40:00.002-05:00

Today I was wondering around Galway after class. I was half Christmas shopping and half avoiding my work. I was about to go into a bookstore, Easons, when I noticed a very large crowd of middle school students clustered around the Tommy Hilfiger store. Other people were stopping in their tracks and craning their necks to get a look into the store. I had no idea what was going on, but I eavesdropped on people's conversations while I too stopped what I was doing to look for the source of the commotion.

I heard a few theories, but the consensus seemed to be that Mr. Hilfiger himself was there at that very moment. If that is true, that's pretty exciting I guess. I couldn't see anything, so I gave up trying and went back to my shopping. When I came out of Easons ten minutes later, the crowd had grown in size and there was a Garda car and a black car that could possibly have transported the celebrity. It seemed that no one could say for sure what had happened or was happening, but I think people still agreed that Tommy was in the general vicinity. I continued on my merry way and finished my shopping and when I came out of the Euro 2 store ten minutes later, the crowds and cars were gone but the Tommy Hilfiger store was blocked off and inside I could see people with major video cameras. Maybe they were filming a commercial? But not on a sound stage? Hmmmm, interesting... But if something big did go down today, I WAS THERE!

A taste of home

2008-11-19T15:23:00.002-05:00

Today while I was making dinner, I had my laptop out in the kitchen streaming music from 101.9 Lite FM. I try to do this sometimes, but usually my Internet doesn't like it. Tonight it went pretty well, though, and it only cut out a few times.

The music was only OK...they didn't have the best sets going on. My favorite part was hearing the commercials from home and the usual DJs and stupid things like the weather announcer. This was kind of a test run because I plan to stream their continuous Christmas music sometimes, as it starts soon. I wanted to see how long I could get out of it before it went out. It's still going now, though, so it's been pretty good.

Other than that, nothing interesting to report. I finished a paper today...woo-hoo! I still have two to go, but they're both pretty short, so it should not be too bad. Only one class tomorrow! I love Wednesdays and Thursdays.

Busy Day

2008-11-18T17:50:00.003-05:00

Today was a very long day on campus. I've actually had worse on Tuesdays. On days when I had lab and global issues seminars was I on campus from 10 to 8, so today was not so bad. Between classes, though, I was in the library working on my paper for my Romanticism class, so it felt longer than it was.

It is hard to believe that I only have one and a half weeks of class left at NUI. I don't have class as much as I do at St. Joe's (only ten a week compared to fifteen) and I felt like it took me forever to get a routine down but now I can't imagine not going to these classes. It's weird how I was on this campus for only one semester, but it became a comfortable place to be. I learned the fastest way to get around, the protocol for waiting in line for a computer, and the best places to sit in the library. Last week I even branched out and went to a different PC Suite (computer lab) instead of the library...it was great. NUIG will never be my campus in the way that SJU is my campus, but it became a big part of my life here and I'll be sad to leave it when the time comes.

Dance Dance Revolution

2008-11-17T18:00:00.002-05:00

Tonight I had another cultural experience, courtesy of the Arts in Action Program at NUI. This is the same group I saw Cripple of Inishmaan with in September.

On this bill this time was "Parallel Horizons" and "Under the Roof." It is a dance show that combines Irish dance with Korean dance. It was presented by Dance Theatre of Ireland and NOW Dance Company Korea. It was...interesting to say the least.

It really was quite interesting. The dancing and music were beautiful and exotic. The dancers also acted a little and while there was very little dialogue, the second half, "Under the Roof" was very vocal. People on stage were shouting in many different languages and accents. There was a long part in Spanish and a part in French...notably, nothing in Korean or Gaelic and very little English. It was very abstract, the dancers had props and at the end they all came together to build an igloo-type house (hence, "Under the Roof"). An enjoyable evening!

Food, glorious food

2008-11-16T15:25:00.003-05:00

Today, Molly and I went grocery shopping and we hope it is our last big grocery trip for this year. It's such a hassle to walk all the way across town for the cheapest store and then haul everything back to our apartment. We'll still have to make a few more small trips before we leave, but we only have 2 more weeks in Ireland before we go to Spain and Portugal for a week, so we won't need many groceries for then. We'll be back for a week, then away in Italy for the better part of a week, and then we leave, so we really don't need to have a ton of food in the apartment.

I've noticed some peculiarities in the food here, so I've decided to post them here, as a matter of interest.

I bought pomegranates today as a Wintery treat, but I hope they taste better than they look. Pomegranates in Ireland are tiny and yellowish. I almost didn't even see them in the store because I was looking for the big red things. You can see in the photo, a pomegranate is about the size of an onion, and the same color too. I plan on trying one tonight, hopefully it won't disappoint.

After weeks of noticing this on the supermarket shelves, we decided to try it. "White lemonade" tastes pretty much like diet lemon-lime soda. If it was a little more sour and less sweet, it would be pretty good, or at least worth seeking out, but as it is I don't think I'll be drinking a lot of it.

I treated myself to Tropicana orange juice a few weeks ago (it's extremely expensive...probably a one-time thing). OJ with pulp here is called "with juicy bits." I've also seen it "with bits." Varieties without bits are called "smooth." Interesting. We had a debate at dinner as to whether "juicy bits" or "pulp" sounds more disgusting. What do you think, America?

This one is so Irish. Molly and I bought a very big bag of potatoes last week (and we seem to be making good use of them) and on the back there is a list of twelve different ways to prepare the potatoes. Categories are mashed, roast, and chip. Mostly we just fry them up with onions like home fries, but I'm not opposed to trying one of the Irish recipes.

Finally, with all the food we buy, it would be helpful if we had a big freezer. Unfortunately, that is not the case. Our freezer is teeny weeny. Our friends upstairs have a major freezer complete with pull-out drawers. They also have TWO panini makers, a coffee maker, and a large screen TV. I think that the people without all these luxuries should at least get a freezer that's bigger than a microwave, but I guess this is not the case in Niland House.

(And, yes, you do see two gallons of ice cream. No comment.)

Study Break

2008-11-15T18:43:00.003-05:00

Today I spent most of the day writing my presentation for my Jane Austen class. I took a break around 4:30 to go the market with Molly and it was very interesting.

As we walked along Shop Street, we noticed these strange street performers. There was a group of 8 men, six of them were "dancing," one was playing the accordion, and one was doing something else, but I don't remember what it was. The dancers were dressed in white and they had bells around their legs and arms and as they skipped around, they jingled. They all held a long wooden stick and would stop skipping and hit them together in time with the music from the accordion. It was very interesting. I got a video too, I'll try to upload it next time I take my computer to school to take advantage of the speedy Internet there.

I also took this picture of a big Claddagh ring because I like it. There is a Claddagh museum in Galway, which houses the world's smallest Claddagh ring. I haven't been in to see it, but it sounds awesome.

I'm going to go watch a movie with my roommate Christina. Good night!

Buried in work

2008-11-14T18:28:00.002-05:00

I have so much work to do next week it's not even fair. It's worse than usual too, because I've been used to doing NOTHING for two months. And now we're getting our essay topics for our English class finals. I know it will be so great when I'm finished with the papers and I only have to take 2 exams, but right now I want it to all go away.

On Monday, I have my Jane Austen presentation which needs some major work before it will be finished. I've got 3 papers for my other English classes which I have not started yet. They're not due until December 4, but because of some very exciting circumstances (another visit from family and a whirlwind tour of Portugal/Spain--booked last week, very exciting) I'm trying to get a major head start if not finish the papers by next weekend, soooo that means a lot of time glued to my computer. It's a very unhappy prospect, but when it's over it will mean very exciting things to come!

70 is the new 100

2008-11-13T14:35:00.003-05:00

The grading scale at NUIG is very strange. The professors grade very harshly and consequently it is nearly impossible to obtain any grade over 70%. For this reason, a grade of 70 will earn you an "A" grade, which is quite nice. I got a grade of 70 on an assignment last week and my heart almost stopped until I remembered that it's actually an A.

The official grading scale is 70-100 A, 60-69 B+, 50-59 B-, and 40-49 C-D. It's very strange and a little disconcerting to receive grades so low. (Not that I get many grades at all. I've turned in 3 assignments so far and they were all for the same class.) For schools who only get Pass/Fail credits for study abroad courses, students really only need to aim for about a 45%. St. Joe's gives credit for all the grades earned, which means this semester affects my GPA so I still need to score as high as possible.

Just another oddity of school in Ireland.

SUAS Global Issues Seminars

2008-11-12T19:35:00.002-05:00

Every Tuesday evening, I've been attending Global Issues Seminars, hosted by one of the societies I joined in September. They were extremely informative and interesting, especially given the wide variety of people that joined. Last night was our last session and we had a mini graduation ceremony. The host (a representative from SUAS who attended every session) called each of our names and gave us a certificate which was endorsed by Irish Aid. We posed for traditional graduation photos, each of us shaking hands with the guy. It was kind of a spontaneous, funny way to end the seminar. We all went for a drink in the college bar afterward and we had a good time. I enjoyed the conversation over a pint of Bulmers, it was just the way going out should be, to me. It was just relaxing.

Molly and I had not eaten dinner so on the way back to Niland, we stopped in La Salsa, a Mexican food place. We had not sampled this cuisine before and I have to say it was a little disappointing. Everything was overly sweet. I had nachos with all the toppings. The guacomole was good, everything else was mediocre. They use regular tomato sauce for salsa which is very strange to me. I'm glad we gave it a chance though.

At the Harp

2008-11-11T19:23:00.003-05:00

After our tour, we were getting pretty hungry, so we decided to get something for dinner. Aubrey had recommended a place called Shenanigans, and, after getting no satisfactory suggestions (McDonalds? Really?) from our hapless hostel receptionist, we decided to give it a shot. It was a great decision. Shenanigans is a pub that happens to serve food as well so the menu was quite small, but we were all able to find a suitable dish. I had Bangers and Mash which was nothing short of wonderful. I think it's one of the best meals I've had in Ireland thus far, which, now that I think about it, is not saying much. The Irish are not known for their cooking. (I suppose this is unfair. The chips [fries] are always good. Seafood chowder is always a good bet. I can take or leave the burgers and most other meats and, surprisingly, the mashed potatoes never taste good to me.)

It was still early in the night but we were getting tired and still wanted to get a taste of Sligo's nightlife. We headed to the Harp Tavern in the hopes of hearing some live music.

It was only 8:30 when we arrived at The Harp, which is extremely early for going out in Ireland. Usually we don't even leave our apartment until 9:45 or 10:00. But, we were determine to have a pint in Sligo before bed, which was hopefully in our near future. The bar was almost totally empty except for a few amusing old men who engaged us in conversation for over two hours. The music was not due to begin until 10:30, so we sat around sipping our pints and shooting the breeze with all these old Irish locals who are friends by virtue of frequenting the same pub. They were all on first name terms with the bartenders who knew them as well. It was a very charming Irish experience. When the music finally did start it was subpar and we left, seeking thrills that could only be found between the cleanish sheets on a mattress that was comfortable enough (though best not to look at it too closely, no telling what those stains are) in White House Hostel.

We woke up on Sunday and departed the hostel (which did not serve breakfast...darn them) in search of breakfast. We searched in vain. Apparently, Sligo does not open anything until 12:00 on Sunday mornings. We peered in bakeries, restaurants, and cafes, hoping that something, anything, would be open. We succumbed to hunger and walked to McDonalds, knowing we could count on that to be open and found it closed. I have never known a McDonalds to be closed for breakfast hour in my life.

Instead of breakfast, we decided to tour the city to look for fun things to do that could not possibly be closed, like the Famine Memorial.

We found the memorial and took many photos but this was about all we could do. We walked slowly to the bus station with literally hours to spend and nowhere to spend them. Laura and I stumbled on a hot breakfast in a Spar (like 7-11) where we had gone in search of granola bars for nourishment. We enjoyed our potato wedges immensely while sitting in the bus station and watching the rain turn itself on and off every few minutes.

As it turns out, one day is the perfect amount of time for Sligo. We saw what we went to see and did what we went to do and it was great.

The Lake Isle of Innisfree

2008-11-10T16:33:00.003-05:00

True to his word, Aubrey was waiting for us outside the stable when we were finished with our coastal ride. We knew he wouldn't leave us stranded...we hadn't paid him yet!

We drove through Grange, the town where the stable is located, and took more photos. We pulled over to get a good view of the Benbulben Mountains, which are awesome. I really love mountains. I also saw this tree that looked good and ready for Winter, with all its leaves on the ground.

Here is the back of Benbulben across a lough. The clouds were thick but they cleared up a little and at least it had finished raining.

Here is another view of Benbulben, this time with less cloud cover. This side looks so green and there is a wee cottage in the distance.

We also went to see the Lake Isle of Innisfree. It was very cool but also freezing cold so I could hardly enjoy the scenery and photography.

Innisfree was a very important place to Yeats. Google the title of this post for his poem about the isle. If I ever become a high school English teacher (highly unlikely) this will be a wonderful story to tell my students. I doubt first or second graders will care about the Lake Isle of Innisfree so I'll have to tell them different stories of my travels.

Parke's Castle is at the lookout point where we could see Innisfree. It's very picturesque, especially with the backdrop of the lough and the island.

We had Aubrey take one last photo of us with Innisfree in the background. The tour ended up being a great value and the best way to see the area of Sligo. We could not have had a friendlier, more helpful tour guide and he really made our Sligo tour awesome.

Pony Express

2008-11-09T16:43:00.004-05:00

Aubrey dropped us off at Island View Stables and we gathered in the stable, excited to meet our horses. After signing the necessary forms ("Riding is risk sport") and donning appropriate gear, we were excited to get going.

The inside of the stable was the typical horse farm/stable setting. On one wall there was a pile of saddles, ready for riders.

There was also a shelf full of riding helmets of all different sizes. Boots are required, so there were lots of pairs of boots as well. We had worn our rain boots in anticipation of wet weather, so we did not need to borrow boots. There was a dog and several cats around, as well as a few little kids who had just finished riding sessions.

We went outside and found a line of horses munching on hay and looking content, despite the rain that had been falling all day. Luckily, the rain stopped when we got outside, so we had a dry ride.

I met my horse, a beautiful mare named Kitty. As I got situated in the saddle, the employee told me that Kitty liked to go slow so she would need some nudging along the way. As I was wondering what I had done to get paired up with the slow poke, Kitty looked around a little bit and was probably laughing to herself as people clumsily mounted their own horses, as I had done a few minutes before.

It took us a good while to get to the beach where we were to ride, but once we got there it was so nice. Kitty did have a little bit of a hard time keeping up and she insisted on wading through the deepest areas of water, while all the other horses tip-toed over the little streams and barely got wet. It was such a nice ride, though, and we got to trot for a bit and then Kitty was able to keep in line with the other horses. She was getting a little territorial because the horse behind us (Molly's, named Henry) kept wanting to pass her and she was having none of that.

The coast was beautiful and we could see little houses on the other coasts, across from where we were. It did not rain the whole time and it was an absolutely amazing view.

This is a line of horses on the way back to the stable. This time, Kitty was not the horse that could not keep pace. The horse in front of us, Chippy, was the slow one. On the beach ride, Chippy actually laid down on the sand. The rider (a local boy named Evan) came running up and then there's Chippy just walking around, covered in sand. Evan got back on and we continued on our way, trotting a little here and there.

After the ride, I took a picture with Kitty, who was camera shy and preferred eating hay to looking at the camera. But, it's all right, she was a great horse to have and we definitely bonded over her slowness.

Back in the stable, I found Kitty's bridle on a hook and took a picture of it to remember her name. She's a beautiful horse!

Yeats Country

2008-11-09T12:17:00.004-05:00

When Molly, Laura, and I arrived in Sligo yesterday at 11:30 it was pouring down rain. We hired a taxi to take us to our hostel, which would have been within easy walking distance in nice weather.

Once we had settled in our place (a somewhat sketchy little abode called "White House Hostel") we went out to explore the town. We were having a bit of a hard time finding things to do because a lot of places were closed for the weekend. We had never encountered this before because we usually go to cities that stay open, as opposed to Sligo, a very very small city.

We were directed to the Yeats Building, but the guy at the desk said no one was in because it was a Saturday. We trekked over to the Tourist Information building to find that it, too, was closed on the weekends. With nothing to do, we stumbled into a coffee place and defrosted over coffee, tea, and hot chocolate. We ended up rescheduling our taxi tour (which we had cancelled earlier due to some confusion at the hostel) and went back to the Yeats building to meet our guide.

Our guide, Aubrey, showed us around the finer points of Sligo. He is a Scotsman, hailing from a small town North of Glasgow. He moved to Sligo eleven years ago and now owns a modest taxi cab and touring company, Zero Cabs.

The first place we stopped with Aubrey was Yeats's grave at Drumcliffe. The cemetery there is so beautiful and Fall was in full swing. The colors on the trees were vibrant and lovely to look at.

We drove around Sligo for a while longer, stopping at Lissadell Castle and this mountain waterfall. When we booked our tour, we were unaware that the tours are traditionally three hours, and we did not have a full three hours to spare, having reserved a 3:00 riding time at a stable in Grange. Aubrey was exceedingly helpful, however, taking us to as many places as we had time for, driving us to the stables and waiting there to take us back. We were pressed for time, but we still wanted to get a picture of the waterfall, so we all sprinted up a hill (all three of us slipping around in our rainboots, I'm sure it was comical to see) and snapped a few photos before sprinting back down to the cab.

This picture is not from the tour, but as it's Yeats, I thought it fit in with these photos best. This statue stood about a block from our hostel, in case anyone did not know they were entering Yeats territory. He only has one arm in the statue.

Later: horseback riding and the end of our Zero Cabs tour!

Up early

2008-11-08T02:41:00.002-05:00

When I wake up on a Saturday or Sunday and it's earlier than any time I've gotten up for class all week, I have to ask myself, Why? That is the situation I find myself in currently.

At least it's for a good cause. Today, I'm going with Laura and Molly to Sligo, which is a county North of Galway. We're going to see what we can see, a little of Yeats Country, a little of Innisfree. We have reservations to go horseback riding this afternoon, hopefully the weather will be nice. It's freezing here now, and usually it actually gets colder throughout the day. My walk home from campus is invariably colder than my walk to it.

We're spending the night in Sligo, so I'll be back tomorrow, hopefully with a camera full of photos of a gorgeous horseback ride and Yeats' favorite places. Bye!

A dangerous trend?

2008-11-07T13:10:00.002-05:00

It's impossible to live in a foreign country for any length of time and not notice peculiar tendencies. Some of the things I've noticed include: leather boots-in, wacky clothes-in, going to class on Friday-out, beer-in, early mornings-out, regard for personal safety-decidedly out.

Yes, you read that correctly. Twice in the past week, I have been in a building in which the fire alarm has sounded and no one has moved. In the cafeteria, students looked up, surprised, but made no move to get out of the building. The alarm continued to go off for several minutes but no one moved. I was at a table with Americans and, upon hearing the alarm, we dutifully stood up and assumed fire drill position. Once we noticed no one else cared, we sat back down and tried to talk over the shriek of the alarm. It was weird. If the building had been on fire, who knows what would have happened.

At a separate point during the week, the alarm sounded in my apartment building. I immediately moved to turn the stove off and was ready to grab my essentials (laptop, passport, etc.) but then the alarm turned off. The situation was over fairly quickly, but not so quickly that some people should have been halfway down the stairs already, which no one was. Again, this was a blatant disregard of a warning signal. I have no idea what the deal is, but I think the people here should think long and hard about their priorities. Is it worse to be trapped in a burning building or look like a fool because you went outside when the alarm went off? A question we all need to ponder.

Day of Sadness

2008-11-06T18:18:00.002-05:00

Today, my thoughts are with my whole family as we mourn the loss of my Aunt Diane. She was truly a blessing in our lives and I know we all miss her and something will always be missing at family gatherings. I wish I could be home, but Perry Hall is in my thoughts and prayers tonight and for the next few days.

I miss you already!

Hey Galway, maybe you should look at a calendar once in a while

2008-11-05T15:10:00.002-05:00

People outside of the United States do not celebrate our Thanksgiving Day. I knew this. I was completely aware that the concept of a huge turkey dinner with all the trimmings on the fourth Thursday of November would not even be on the Europeans' radars. I was not prepared for the fact that Halloween acts as a catapult, sending us hurtling directly to Christmas Season. Do not pass Go, do not collect 200 euros. As I walk through the streets of Galway, I now notice elaborate Christmas displays complete with trees, tinsel, garland, lights, the works. My roommate informed me this evening that some people were in the process of putting lights up in the streets. The 2 euro store has replaced all of its Halloween merchandise with Christmas things (I'll be making a trip there in the very near future...tomorrow after class, most likely).

This is not to say that I really mind this extension of Christmas. It's more confusing than anything. Part of me-a very big part that is getting bigger by the day-wants to celebrate with the Galwegians and Turkey Day can take care of itself when the time comes. The other part of me, however, wants to hold off and wait until Thanksgiving before going all Winter Wonderland on the apartment. As much as I want to be blasting Nat King Cole right now, I feel like it would be selling out, as I always force myself to wait. I am content, for now at least, to enjoy Christmas out in town, even if the Americans in the buildings are struggling with this age-old conundrum.

P.S. Happy Birthday, Erin and Zack!

Election Day!

2008-11-04T19:31:00.003-05:00

Happy Election Day! It has been so interesting to experience the last months of the campaigning in Europe. The Europeans are as interested in American politics as the Americans are! They might even be more interested in some cases. They know all the facts, all the issues at stake, and all the stances of each candidate. It's impressive.

I've been attending a Globalization Issues Seminar on Tuesday nights and there are students from all around Europe that are there. They all study at NUIG and Molly and I are the only Americans. The first time we went we did not realize the diversity of the group but as we got to know everyone better, we began to hear the nuances in their accents and learn where they all are from. They are all more up-to-date on their American politics than I probably ever will be on theirs, which is another embarrassing, ignorant American moment. I'm just glad that I can keep up with them when we talk about America, because it would be truly terrible if I didn't have an understanding of my own country.

Anyway, these students all have their own, (very strong) opinions about the next American president. Tonight Molly and I were questioned by one young man who wanted to know how we Americans were feeling on Election Day. Yes, we were excited and dying for news. Yes, the time difference is killing us as we won't know anything until we wake up. And most importantly, yes, we voted by absentee ballot. It was so exciting to be the token USA students in this diverse crowd on this momentous day. I'm a little sad that, in what's shaping up to be one of the most precedent-defying and history-making presidential elections, I'm not in the country to watch and wait. It is really neat to have this perspective, though, and I'll definitely never forget that I was in Ireland during the 2008 elections.

Happy voting, America!

It's all in the presentation

2008-11-03T15:53:00.004-05:00

Today kicked off my ninth week of classes. It was also the beginning of the presentations in my Jane Austen class. In that class, we are responsible for reading four Jane Austen books (Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Sense and Sensibility, and Persuasion). Each of us has to present on one book and take a quiz on the other three. Today there were three presentations on our first book, Pride and Prejudice. All three were given by Irish students. I was expecting the presentations to be like I have always known them: highly visual with a Powerpoint slideshow, maybe some class participation, and a loose, free-talking kind of feel, like you know what you're going to say but maybe not exactly the way you're going to say it until it's been said.

Instead, the presentations were essentially short, unmemorized lectures. Each presenter had a paper which they read word for word. The papers were not merely guidelines for the presentation, they were the actual words the presenters were saying, right down to the "I will explore this topic in a few minutes" section. The presenters sat at their desks and simply read their papers aloud. All in all, it was very strange. I'm used to thinking on my feet a bit during presentations, coming up with interesting ways to get my points across, fielding questions, and leading discussions. It seems like it's more interesting for both presenter and audience. To each his own I suppose. This seems to be the case with other people I've talked to in different classes as well. It was one of those rare things I noticed as a big difference between school in America and school in Ireland. Another thing is the way in which American students in elementary school learn how to write. We learn to construct a paragraph with a topic sentence, supporting sentences, and a concluding sentence. The Irish students had not heard of this practice at all. Our professor pointed this out to us. Even though he is Irish he knows a lot of American elementary school practices. He's a very interesting guy.

I am doing some homework tonight. I have a biogeography lab due at the end of this week, a couple of books to read, and some papers to get started on for the end of the semester. Better go get started!

"Bunratty Big Daddy"

2008-11-02T16:15:00.004-05:00

Saturday morning, the family checked out of their Galway hotel and we all went to Shannon to be closer to the airport. The main tourist attraction around Shannon is Bunratty Castle so that's where we went. It was awesome. The castle is not open only by tours and guided walks. It's just a big building and once you're in, you can go anywhere. Rick, Katie, and I went up all four towers. Two of them led to open air and the view was amazing. Mom and Dad joined us for the first tower, but neither of them liked the cramped spiral staircases so they sat the other three out.

The castle is not very big, as far as castles go, but it's still awesome. They host medieval banquets there every night. There was a lady in costume in the Great Hall but we did not speak to her.

Katie sat in the head chair like she was some kind of royalty.

This is my papa and me on the top of the tower. The opening behind us was blocked off with bars but not all of them were. Some were open so we could look straight out at the scenery.

Here is Rick and me at the top of the other open tower. This was the last one we saw. It was connected to a lower part with a bedroom.

This is Katie looking out the Bunratty banquet hall window. The banquet hall also had stairs to the dungeon. It was a very small place between the stairs and the dungeon and down in the dungeon there was a spotlight on a rat. Pleasant.

Besides the castle, there was also a lot to see on the grounds of Bunratty. Everything was so beautiful, especially with the colorful leaves everywhere. There was also the aroma of peat fires in every cottage we explored.

We took some pictures outside the castle. If you look closely, you'll see that I appear to be holding a tiny Rick in my hand. It's not a perfect display of photo trickery, but I think you get the idea.

There were many animals in the area. We saw chickens, ducks, geese, pigs, sheep, Irish wolfhounds, cattle, ponies, and deer. The deer were really cool because the biggest one came up to the fence to eat ivy from our hands.

Above you can see Katie and Rick about to go deface some public property. That building is Bunratty Church which is very small but pretty.

After Bunratty, we had a late lunch/early dinner at Durty Nelly's. The food was great and the atmosphere was even better. It was the perfect way to end the day and my family's stay in Ireland. We spent the rest of the evening in the hotel and this morning were up before the sun. They caught their plane (I assume, I have not heard from them yet) and I caught my bus back to Galway. We had a fantastic week!

To Shannon

2008-10-31T18:19:00.003-04:00

This morning, we're heading to Shannon. The fam is catching their plane out of the airport there on Sunday morning, and they want to stay in a hotel there on Saturday night. I'm going with them because I haven't spent any great length of time in Shannon and I'd like to see it.

If all goes well we'll be exploring Bunratty Castle which is very close to the airport. It sounds pretty cool. I hope to take many good pictures there to share.

Is it really November already? Where has the time gone?! I cannot believe October is over, it felt so short! Time flies when you're trying to see and do as much as possible in such a short time.

Happy Halloween!

2008-10-31T18:08:00.002-04:00

Today we had a relaxed day of shopping in Galway. I had two classes so I took the family on a very short tour of the interesting parts of campus. After class, Mom, Rick, Kate, and I had lunch at Supermac's (my first yet!). It was delicious. Their "dressed fries" are awesome; we sampled taco and garlic with cheese varieties. It's a wonder this phenomenon has not made its way to the states yet. McDonalds could make a fortune on dressed fries.

We spent some time in the evening wandering the streets of Galway, watching the Halloween festivities. People here go all out, there were costumes a plenty. We ate in the swanky Skeffington Arms Hotel where the bartenders were dressed in gruesome costumes. One of the tour bus companies was advertising Ghost Bus Tours of Galway. We could hear their music all the way up the street. "Who ya gonna call? Ghost Bus Tours!" They had employees in their ghost-busting costumes in the streets handing out pamphlets.

Halloween in Ireland (or at least Galway) is a big deal. It's pretty neat that I got to be here to experience it because I thought they would not care about the holiday too much. It could be due to the fact that it falls on a Friday this year. Either way, it was a cool way to spend the night. I didn't dress up, but I enjoyed watching everyone else.

Eat lots of candy tonight!

Dublin Take Two

2008-10-30T18:51:00.003-04:00

We arrived in Dublin early Wednesday afternoon in the pouring rain. We were confused about where to find our hotel and the Tourist Information Center, but we asked around and eventually boarded a local bus. We got to our hotel and found it to be beautiful and quite suitable for us. Rick, Katie, and I shared a room (upgraded from a 3-bed to a 4-bed, we lived in luxury) and Mom and Dad had their own room two floors up.

We made our way to the Guinness Factory, across the city. The walk was long but there was a lot to look at along the way (though Katie and Rick's eyes were glued to the ground looking for money). When we arrived at the factory, we took the whole tour, enjoying our taste test of Guinness halfway through.

In the Sky Bar at the top, we looked at the view of Dublin and read some of the Irish quotes on the glass. Dad and Rick used their tickets for a free pint of Guinness while Katie, Mom, and I had Coke.

I think Rick enjoyed his Guinness, though not quite as much as Dad, who has been looking forward to drinking this particular beverage.

Here is the whole family minus me at our table in the Sky Bar. It was crowded, as I imagine it always is, so we didn't get the prime seats by the window, but we were able to snag a table to stand around.

After all the drinks were finished, we hired a taxi to take us to St. Patrick's Cathedral, not feeling much like walking all the way there. We did not go in the cathedral, but we went to the courtyard and took some pictures.

Here is Katie in front of St. Patrick's. She insisted upon taking one like this and then on taking one of me in the same pose. I don't quite get it, but here it is.

Rick attempted to throw Katie in the fountain in the courtyard. It may have been a plot by both of them to get the coins from the bottom of the fountain, but we had other things to see and they never went through with it.

We headed back to the hotel for a rest before going out to dinner. Katie, Rick, and I had the hotel coffee while watching The Simpson's reruns on TV. We also reviewed our purchases of the day and planned out our next plan of action.

We ate dinner in the Temple Bar area at a lovely Italian restaurant called Botticelli. We all ended the meal with dessert which was spot on.

This morning, we took a tour of Dublin Castle which was awesome. Our tour guide was very knowledgeable and entertaining and I think we all learned some new things about Ireland. Above you can see Rick, Katie, and Mom in the lobby of Dublin Castle, waiting for our tour to begin.

We also saw The Book of Kells, Trinity College campus, Christ Church Cathedral (I hadn't been inside before--it's amazing) and a few sites North of the Liffey. We had a long haul with all our luggage to the bus station but we made it and took a 5:00 bus out of the city. It took a bit longer than expected to get back to Galway, but we all made it safe and sound. Tomorrow we'll be hanging around Galway. I have classes to go to and I think the others are doing some shopping in town. We'll see how Galway celebrates Halloween!

Off to Dublin!

2008-10-28T16:26:00.003-04:00

Not much to report for today. While my family went on a tour to Connemara, I spent the entire day in class: Biogeography lab (in the rain), Biogeography, Renaissance Lit, and Romanticism Lit. A thrilling lineup. Actually, it wasn't too bad. We learned about biodiversity in biogeography today. ANYWAY...

Tomorrow the five of us are going to Dublin for Wednesday and Thursday. Provided we can get up early enough for a decent bus, we should have a good deal of time to spend in Dublin. I'm excited to go back and see the things I'm remembering from my first trip there in my second weekend here.

No pictures today because I did not do anything of great consequence (unless you consider sampling plant communities in a campus forest stand to be of great consequence). Depend on a few of the family from Dublin on Thursday!

Enjoy your Wednesday!

More Inis Mor

2008-10-27T18:00:00.004-04:00

Today, I returned to the island of Inis Mor, this time accompanied by Mom, Dad, Katie, and Rick. We got to the island around 1:45 and had until 5:00 (when the last ferry left) to spend there. Almost as soon as we set foot on the coast, we found a mini tour bus. Our guide was a wonderful local man who's first language is Gaelic and who therefore has a very thick brogue. Most people on the Aran Islands communicate in Gaelic, one of the last territories in the country to do so.

We rode up to the same fortress that I explored two weeks ago. After the hike up a steepish hill, we enjoyed the scenery while remaining far enough from the edge to prevent Mom from having a heart attack. We had four cameras for the five of us and I think we took about 150 pictures in one hour.
The way back down the hill is less strenuous, but still dangerous because of the slippery rocks and mud puddles. We shopped for a little while in some of the local sweater shops and had lunch at a picnic table while it rained.

One of the shop owners caught a ride on our bus on our way back. We dropped her off at her house, which was a perfect traditional Irish cottage. My Dad took this picture from the bus window.

Lastly, the bus took us to the Seven Churches which were the ruins of seven ancient churches. I did not go to this part of the island on my bike, so it was cool to see. The cemetery is gorgeous with all the Celtic crosses.

We came back to Galway on the last ferry of the day and ate dinner in Busker Browns. A good time was had by all.

I just enjoyed a Hershey bar from home and I think it was the best chocolate bar I've ever had. Hersheys are near impossible to find here so I've missed them. Galaxy, Cadbury, and Yorkie bars are good, but nothing beats a good ol' plain Hershey bar straight out of PA. What a Halloween treat!

Some visitors

2008-10-26T13:30:00.002-04:00

Today Mom, Dad, Rick, and Katie came to Galway to visit me! It is our family vacation this year...although I still have to go to school, how does that make sense? Rick has a lot of work to do too, so I suppose it's all right.

Their plane landed this morning at 5:30. Ireland moved their clocks back last night to Winter time, so there was some confusion (mostly on my end) about when the plane should actually land because of the time difference and the Daylight Savings Time. It all worked out though.

We ate breakfast and explored Galway for a little while because they couldn't get into their hotel until 2:00. After we finally did get into the room, we pretty much all took a nap. They're still jet-lagged and I can always find time for a good nap, so this was a pretty great plan.

Tonight we're taking it easy, probably just going to dinner and a pub, or perhaps dinner in a pub. We're taking a bus tour tomorrow because I don't have any classes so I think everyone is excited about that. That's all for now.

The City of Lights

2008-10-25T14:19:00.004-04:00

We went back across Paris via more Metro to the Eiffel Tower. We walked up from the Metro station and saw the tower immediately.

We wondered around for a bit, not really knowing where to go for the entrance. We waited in line for a public restroom but then ended up not using it anyway. We were concerned that the tower might close earlier than we had planned on (it was getting fairly late at this point) but we need not have worried. It was open until 11:00.

Unlike Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower was bigger than I imagined. It's massive. Each of the four legs have means of getting up to the top, either stairs or an elevator. We had planned on walking halfway up and then catching the elevator because that way is cheaper, but we were too late and the stairs had closed. It was probably just as well because it would have been a looooong walk.

This is a view from under the tower. We had to wait in a very very long line to get to the ticket counter. The people around us were openly laughing at us because we were acting like tourists and taking pictures of everything.

We finally made it to buy our tickets. Even after that we had to wait around for the next elevator and when it finally came, four of us had to stay behind. More waiting. It was like waiting in line to ride the Loch Ness Monster at Busch Gardens only it wasn't hot. After hours and hours (ok, maybe fifteen minutes) of waiting for the next elevator, it came and we boarded. It took us to the first level of the Eiffel Tower (there are three).

The view from the tower was amazing. The whole city of Paris is lit, there is not one dark spot. We milled about on the first level for a while before joining another crowd in yet another line for the elevator up to the next level.

The Seine River is particularly beautiful from the tower. The bridges are lit and so are the boats going by. It was really cool.

The second level of the tower is enclosed in glass. There are maps and descriptions of the sights you can see from the tower in the sunlight. The picture above was taken on the top level. Thankfully it was just one flight up from the second part, so we did not have to wait for the elevator. The top of the tower offers more great views of the city. There is also a champagne bar and a restroom. A flute of champagne cost 10 euros!

We decided to take the stairs down because, surprise surprise, there was an enormous line for the elevator. When we were about halfway down, the sparkling white lights came on. They come on every hour and sparkle for about 5 minutes before they turn off again. Molly and I were determined to get to the ground so we could take pictures before the sparkling lights turned off. We sprinted down the stairs and through the crowds and we made it in time to take a few good photos.

We walked away from the Eiffel Tower to try to get pictures of it lit up. The lights on it are blue now, but I don't think they are always that color. The structure itself gets its color changed too. Our tour guide said that people can vote for what color the tower should be painted next. They say hot pink is an option. Intriguing.

Cathedrale Notre Dame de Paris

2008-10-24T19:26:00.004-04:00

After our tour, we took the Metro back across town to see Notre Dame. There was a mix-up of times so we did not get to do everything we wanted to do here. We saw enough to get a good feel for the place, though.

Notre Dame is not as big as I imagined. That's not to say it's unimpressive. It's definitely eye-catching from across the river and it's visible from St. Michel fountain.

This picture is of the famous gargoyles that guard Notre Dame. I was surprised when I realized I was recognizing smaller details as well as the bigger picture from the Disney movie. The animators did their homework. Many of the details on the outside of the cathedral look exactly like my memory of the animation. I was humming The Hunchback of Notre Dame soundtrack all day after this.

I know this is getting old, but I have to do it. I'm the definition of "tourist." I need to get a picture of myself in front of every famous thing I see, it's just a compulsion. I've lived in Galway for almost two months and I still want to get pictures of myself hugging statues and standing next to signs Vanna White style.

This is an example of something Disney executed perfectly in animation. I looked up at these guys and immediately the lyrics "But you never can run from nor hide what you've done from the eyes...the very eyes of Notre Dame" popped into my head. If I am remembering correctly, there is a fairly creepy sequence of these statues with blank eyes staring out in the beginning of the movie. Looks exactly like that in real life.

We went inside (It was free! The rest of Europe is crying at this loss of entrance-fee-to-famous-monument. Most places even charge for use of complete unfamous restrooms. Reason #25,163 why I'm going to be broke in December: small bladder.) and there were signs all around warning us not to take pictures. People were flashing away anyway and obviously I joined them. I was quite tentative at first, turning off the flash and holding up the camera no more than necessary, lest a Parisian police officer be lurking in the third pew ready to arrest a tourist. The precautions were unnecessary, and soon I was snapping pictures with flash with the rest of them.

The famous Rose stained glass window. It used to let more light in and the cathedral was a lot brighter back in the day. However, the Rose is now victim to a thick layer of grime which the authorities do not remove. If more sunlight was streaming through the windows, the ancient tapestries and works of art in Notre Dame would deteriorate. This is the same rationale I use when I don't wash my windows.

One of the alcoves in the cathedral was a Chapel of St. Joseph! St. Joseph (Fullerton and/or University) in (Institute of) Notre Dame. Pretty much the best place ever.

Notre Dame was something I was not expecting to see in Paris, so it was a pleasant addition to my weekend. The Gothic architecture complete with gargoyles and the dark interior made it the perfect mid-October hotspot. I love connecting things with the time of year or season and Notre Dame was my most perfect match yet!

A three hour tour

2008-10-23T10:41:00.008-04:00

On Saturday, we took a free tour of Paris. There is a company that offers free tours of several cities all over Europe. The tour was awesome, even if it was a bit long. There is so much to see and so many interesting stories to hear that you need at least three and a half hours for it all.

The tours met at this central Paris point, the fountain at St. Michel. (Sounds a bit like "semi-shell" if you say it quickly.) The statue depicts the warrior, St. Michel, banishing Satan to Hell. This place is in the Latin Quarter, named so because the university students who lived there in centuries past communicated in their common language, Latin.

Our superb guide, James, took us to all the major sights in Paris and told us the little stories behind them. One of the bridges over the Seine was erected by King Henry IV (Good King Henry). He had his artist acquaintances add faces to the bridge. The faces are modeled after Henry's friends' masks at a party he had in his palace.

Some of the faces are very funny. The party guests were apparently not happy about lending their visages to the bridge.

Across the Seine, I saw this painter. I thought the scene so very French that I had to get a picture. This is what Paris is all about. The budding artists are as prevalent as the pastries.

The tour took us back to the Louvre, though this time only to the outside. I took more pictures in the sunlight of course. Above is the Sully Pavilion, the center wing of the Louvre. It contains French paintings and Napoleon's crown jewels, among many other things.

These are three statues on the outside of the Louvre. If you look closely, you'll see that the figure in the middle, Voltaire, is covered in a net. That is because his statue is crumbling! The French move so slowly, however, the only motion they've made toward fixing it is throwing a net over it to catch the pieces before they fall and hit tourists. (They are le tired.)

We paused for a while on one of the many bridges over the Seine and I took a few pictures of the Fall French leaves. Most of the leaves aren't turning in Galway, so it was nice to experience Fall. The weather in Ireland reflects it, but the colors do not.

This is one of the only photos I took of the Eiffel Tower in the day time. We didn't get there until sunset on Saturday, so I had to view it from a distance in the middle of the day. Our tour guide told us that it was originally built as an attraction for the World's Fair in 1889. It was only meant to be temporary but it was turned into a radio tower, so it provided a useful service.

It is very peaceful in Place de la Concorde. It's ironic that it should be called Place of Harmony because it is the place where many people were beheaded. It's quite a nice place to be now, though, complete with fountain and trees. In the distance, you can see the obelisk, which Napoleon stole from Egypt. It has a bunch of Egyptian writing on it.

At the end of the tour, we walked down part of the Champs Eylsees. We had a good view of the Arc de Triomphe. The picture doesn't do it justice. I had to be fast because I was standing in the middle of the street. There were a lot of other tourists too and we were all just chilling out between the two lanes of traffic.

And thus ended our three (or maybe four) hour tour. We were dead tired, but the day had only begun. More to come!

Loving the Louvre

2008-10-22T17:42:00.003-04:00

Last Friday found me at Le Musee du Louvre. On Fridays after 6:00, the Louvre offers free admission to people under age 26, so it was the logical place to be for me. I did not really know what to expect at the Louvre but I was psyched about going all the same.

Like all major buildings and attractions in Paris, the exterior of the museum is beautiful. We spent a while just wandering around the outside of the magnificent building looking at all the ornate sculptures and beautiful details that make up the building. Before it became a display for some of the world's most famous works of art, the Louvre building was home to most of France's kings. Many of the royal families put their own additions on the palace, so there are so many things to look at and each represents a different family or ruler.

The famous pyramid is also very cool to look at. If you're wondering, I did have a reflective moment as Tom Hanks did in The DaVinci Code. I've found famous museums are where I do all my best thinking, crime solving, and treasure saving. This picture shows me before I made my major world-changing revelation.

One of the first things I noticed about the interior of the Louvre was the spectacular ceiling art. The ceilings are high and elegant and many are works of art in themselves.

If the ceilings are not covered in art, chances are they have been designed to create the illusion of daylight. This photo makes it appear as though I visited the Louvre at high noon, when in reality I was there after dark. This picture was taken around 8:00 at night and it still looks as though the sun is shining brightly.

How could I be in the Louvre and not pay a visit to the most famous painting in the world? The Mona Lisa in person is incredible. If it were not for the throng of people crowding around her, it would be possible to miss this painting, however. Compared to many other canvases, Mona Lisa is quite small. The painting has a wall all to itself, though it takes up a very small percentage of it. It is, of course, protected by layers of security I can not even imagine, both visible and invisible. Surprisingly, though, we were able to take pictures.

This is an example of one of the very large paintings in the Louvre. Many take up entire walls, as you can see. It's certainly a contrast to the Mona Lisa (which was directly across the room from this painting if memory serves me) which is less than a meter high.

This is a dark photo but I like it because it gives an idea of the ornate detail that covers the Louvre from floor to ceiling. This room, which housed little goblets and beautiful things that had belonged to royalty, in particular was blanketed in wonderful paintings of Greek gods and goddesses.

Of course I had my picture taken in the Louvre. In theory, I should have found a painting with some particular meaning to me and used that as the backdrop, but really I just wanted the photo to show that I was really there. I believe the painting behind me is a Delacroix, who I have studied, so I suppose it has a meaning on a very small level.

This is another Delacroix painting which I remember studying in class last semester. It was neat to see paintings from my textbook in real life. Also, this is apparently the cover of the latest Coldplay album and I was asked to take a picture of it.

We walked around the Louvre for hours and saw many, many paintings. I loved seeing Picasso's work, though taking pictures was prohibited there. We were disappointed to learn that Monet's pieces had been moved to an Impressionist exhibit in another museum but we found other works and artists to admire. We finished off the night with a visit through the Greek Antiquities. They were awesome.

I enjoyed visiting the Louvre immensely. I saw so many things in person that I'd only ever seen in books before. It was definitely something I'll never forget.

A Dinner Here is Never Second Best

2008-10-21T20:49:00.003-04:00

France is famed for its food with good reason. We walked through a very large market street and I could not believe my eyes when I saw all the food. There was all kinds of food, from healthy things to quite a few things decidedly less healthy.

Everywhere I went in France, I could smell delicious aromas. There were pastries being baked at all hours of the day, it seemed. Every time we turned a corner, we got a whiff of another wonderful smell. We were walking down the street and everything looked so fresh and delicious.

My first meal in France was a "rosbif" sandwich. Sounds pretty standard, but it was exceptional. There were large chunks of tomato on the sandwich and the beef was thick cut and very tender. I enjoyed this with a Coca-Cola. Interestingly, Diet Coke in France is called Coke Light. This is not what I had, but I thought I'd mention it all the same.

Then, we walked through the marketplace. First, there were fruits and vegetables. There were so many different varieties!

I was tempted by some delicious looking bright red berries but I did not cave just yet. There was more to see and I knew the lovely smells were not coming from the fruits and veggies.

Next we encountered several bakeries. Everything looked better than the one next to it.

Croissants, scones, cakes, and infinite other possibilities were calling my name. I did not know so many kinds of baked goods existed.

The place we stopped at for a while had every variation on the pastry ever invented. There were even some plain chocolate brownies, though these were hidden in the back, not to be rubbing shoulders with the fancy pastry elite. I just had to try one of the more exotic looking ones. Delicious!

We also saw other food items, including a large selection of wine and an even larger selection of chocolate.

I decided against buying either of those, having had my appetite taken care of at the bakery. They all looked delicious, though. Ratatouille and company certainly knew what they were doing when they took up residence in France.

You can probably tell Blogger is still giving me problems. I'm still working on it, but I'll continue posting. I have too much to say about France!

Reflections on a Friday in Paris

2008-10-20T05:12:00.004-04:00

Paris is striking. The architecture is very fancy and the coloring is much paler than that of Edinburgh. I did not see one building that did not feature at least one dark balcony on its face. Flower boxes also abound and they are filled with all sorts of flowers, especially red ones. Buildings are fairly small and the individual apartments appear to be small as well, at least from the street.

Paris is peaceful. The Seine River is slow moving, creating a sense of relaxation rather than urgency. There are many green gardens to walk through and sit in. During our first afternoon, we sat for a while in a gorgeous flower-filled park with other tourists and Parisian families. The parks also feature lawn chairs, including ones that recline. There are water fountains throughout the city, not the least of which is the fantastic sculpture at St. Michel, a main meeting place in Paris.

Paris is awe-inspiring. It was still early in the evening when we caught sight of the Tour Eiffel. The colors of the setting sun created a perfect sky and the contrast of the tower against it was incredible. The full view, including the river in the foreground, is amazing to behold.

Sorry for the dodgy format today. Blogger is still not working properly for me and I am working with html codes instead of photos. It's not as clean as I'd like it to be. Keep your fingers crossed for the problem to be resolved quickly.

An Introduction to my Weekend in France

2008-10-19T17:49:00.001-04:00

I am hoping that by the time I have typed this out, the Internet will cooperate or perhaps some of the people using it in this building will go to bed and I will have a strong enough connection to upload photos. If I cannot, I sincerely apologize. There will be many Paris pictures for a few days, even if I can't put them up tonight.

Paris was awesome. I absolutely love the city and I enjoyed everything about it. We crammed so much into two days so I feel like I got to experience a lot of the city. It was very tiring, but amazing and I'm so glad I had the opportunity to go. We saw everything I think of when I think about Paris. I watched the sun set on the Eiffel Tower twice, walked along the Seine River, and visited The Mona Lisa at The Louvre, among many other things.

I learned how to use the Metro to go anywhere in Paris--it's incredibly easy, even for non-French speakers. I even spoke a little French, even though most people we encountered spoke fairly good English.

It seems as though this computer is not going to let me upload any pictures. I will try again later, if not tonight, then tomorrow morning. Sorry for such a boring post-trip update!

Every time we say good bye, I die a little

2008-10-16T16:21:00.002-04:00

Tonight I'm leaving for my long anticipated trip to Paris France. I have to catch a bus to Dublin at 2:15 in the morning, but I'm hoping our group of six will be the only people crazy enough to be out that late, so we will each get our own row of seats on the bus. I'm definitely want to sleep through that ride. We have an early flight out of Dublin and we will be in France by 10:00 in the morning!

Our itinerary includes the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, and a ride on a water bus on the Seine. I'm so excited to see these things that I've been hearing about and looking at in books for so long. I will take p-l-e-n-t-y of pictures, don't you worry.

So, farewell, until Sunday, mes cheries.

Lance Armstrong meets Ireland

2008-10-15T14:10:00.004-04:00

On Sunday, I took a trip to the Aran Islands with the International Student Society. We decided to rent bicycles because we've heard that is a very nice way to see the island. We went to the largest of the three islands: Inis Mor.

After we got our bicycles from one of the many shops renting them out, we set out for the easiest path around the island. We were not confident enough to attempt the steep ups and downs of the more advanced path.

We had not been on the road very long when we realized that we had indeed taken the exact wrong path. It was harder than it might have been on the other path, but it was not too bad. The scenery was so beautiful that we stopped frequently to take photos. There were a lot of animals on farms. Some of the horses were so friendly that as soon as they saw us, they came to the fence to look for food. We got to pet them and I wished I had brought food suitable for horses.

After we had been on the road for a few hours, we came upon a very old structure that was probably a house at some point. It is unlivable, now, of course, but that did not deter us from playing in it for awhile. The weeds are quite overgrown and it's full of thorns, but it's a nice little place to be.

I decided the place was a fairy fort, like those I'd heard about on my Cliffs of Moher tour. I endured much ridicule because of this comment, but I don't care. I don't want the fairies to come after me because I went in their fort.

Kirsten was able to coax a cow to come over to the fence so we could see her better. Again, we did not have food for her, but she let us touch her.

Here I am with one of the many, many stone walls that create a sort of lace on Ireland's countryside. While some of the walls used to serve the purpose of showing whose land was whose, they are not really used today. There are many more walls than are needed for boundary-making because when the British colonized Ireland, they needed work for the Irish people to do. They set them to make these stone walls all day. The work was tedious and useless, much like the work I do for many of my classes.

We got to one of the highest points of the island and had to leave our bikes in the bike park. The place was an old fort that had been used centuries ago to defend against invaders. We hiked to the top and the view was amazing!

At the fort, we found ourselves staring out at unadulterated ocean. It was just water and sky as far as the eye could see. It was so beautiful that we ate our lunches there and spent a long time exploring around the fort.

We had this photo taken of the five of us at one of the walls of the fort. We had another beautiful, sunny day for touring. We seem to get very lucky with our tour days, but the rain makes up for it when we're in school.

We all sat on the edge of the cliff (it was safe, Mom, there was a ledge beneath us) and stared out into the sea. I was looking for the next coast to the East but all I saw was water. Just as well, I suppose.

A post of no real consequence

2008-10-15T07:40:00.004-04:00

I'm currently eating lunch. Molly and I are refusing to buy groceries until next week because anything we buy will most likely go bad while we're in France (things go bad in about 2.5 seconds here). We have dinners for tonight and tomorrow night and breakfast for the ride to Dublin on Friday and that's about all we've got. Add to this problem my growing pile of worthless small change. No one wants me to stand at the till and count out 5 euros in pennies. And that's how I found myself dumping 16 five-cent coins into the lobby vending machine to buy lunch. How does one buy lunch for 80 cents? By purchasing "Flame Grilled Steak Flavour Potato Chips." I figure they almost taste sort of like some kind of unidentifiable meat product, maybe, and this makes them an acceptable lunch choice. For an added bonus, they are made using ridge cut chips, so they're hearty. Bon appetit!

The Knock-Knock jokes are too easy...

2008-10-14T18:12:00.002-04:00

Last Thursday, NUIG had Open Day and my only class for the day was canceled. Laura and I decided to make a pilgrimage to Knock in County Mayo to see what it was all about.

In 1879, Mary appeared to fifteen people in Knock and remained there for two hours. She had St. John on her left and St. Joseph on her right. There was a lamb on an altar behind the three as well. After the event, word traveled fairly quickly and soon people from all over Ireland started coming to see the spot where it had happened. A shrine was built there to commemorate the event and to revere and show respect to Mary. Many miracles have been attributed to water or soil taken from the grounds.

This is the inside of the Church of Apparition. To the left, you can see the depiction of the apparition as all fifteen witnesses described it. St. John is holding a book and appears to be teaching while St. Joseph is simply looking respectfully at Mary.

One of the best things about Knock is the tacky Christian paraphenalia one can buy. The popular thing to buy is little bottles to fill up with Holy water from the fonts. I also saw hundreds of rosaries, religious statues, thousands of medals of all different saints, and all sorts of things of that nature. Above, you can see me pictured with a very large set of rosary beads. I plan to take one like that to my next novena.

The most popular part of Knock by far is the holy water fonts. There are a bunch of them lined up, each with a different picture. Some of them are obviously scenes from the Bible, others are apparently random. I used one with a deer on it and one with some oranges. My roommate tells me the pictures mean things, like certain ones have been known to cure certain kinds of ailments, so who knows what I'm protected against now. Maybe lyme disease or scurvy or something.

Glasgow

2008-10-13T18:15:00.003-04:00

On Sunday morning, we woke up to catch an early morning bus to Glasgow. Our flight was leaving from Glasgow Prestwick Airport at 6:00 that evening. We planned to spend the day in Glasgow and we got lucky with a beautiful day!

My friend Laura actually knows someone who lives in Glasgow, so he became our tour guide for the day. He was very patient with us and we were lucky to have someone who knows the city. It does not feel as historical as Edinburgh and I'd say it's more trendy and hip. There is a big shopping mall there and the stores are not the same old tourist shops we saw in Edinburgh.

Despite the modern feeling of Glasgow, the buildings still look old and majestic. The architecture is much the same as those in Edinburgh and it reminds me of what I imagine London to look like, though I have never been there.

I saw this mailbox in the bus station while we were buying tickets to the airport. It does not look like any mailbox I have ever seen, even those in Ireland. It looks very old fashioned.

We finally got our bus. We had about an hour ride because Glasgow Prestwick Airport is about an hour from the city. We usually fly into and out of the inconvenient airports because they are much cheaper. I filled up the SD card that was in my camera and immediately put the next one in and continued taking pictures from the bus.

Another odd thing I saw in Scotland was the traffic light system. Just before the light turns green, the yellow light comes on in addition to the red so that there are about two seconds where two lights are lit at once. You have no idea how long I sat in the bus with my camera poised to capture this brief moment. The things I will do for the sake of this blog...

I was so happy to see the airport. After three days of constantly moving and bouncing around from place to place, I was ready to go back to Galway. We still had a ways to go though. We had to sit around the airport for another two hours before we could board. And I was disappointed because I never got a Scotland stamp on my passport, having come in by ferry and not by plane.

At long last, the hour of takeoff arrived and we went to board the plane. We didn't go in through a terminal or anything, we got to walk up the stairs into the plane! I thought only presidents and politicians did this, so I was psyched. I have rarely been so happy to ascend a flight of stairs.

After several more hours in transit (it's a two hour bus ride from Shannon airport to Galway) we made it back to Galway. I was exhausted but I still found time to look through all my pictures and purchases several times before going to bed. It was a wonderful weekend and, though I love Galway, I am looking forward to another excursion out of the country.

More Scotland!

2008-10-12T16:11:00.005-04:00

Once we had gotten our bearings in Edinburgh, we went straight to the castle to see what we could see. Since the commute from Stranraer to Edinburgh had eaten up half our day, we only had about an hour and a half to explore the castle before it closed.

Edinburgh Castle sits high on a hill. We had to crane our necks to see it from the street. At the bottom of the hill there is a church (St. Cuthbert's) with a very pretty cemetery and a garden.

We walked up the hill and tried unsuccessfully to take in the castle all at once. It is huge and the architecture and color are beautiful. There are all sorts of statues and commemorative monuments outside the castle entrance. Despite the lateness of the hour, there were lots of people milling about the outside and inside of the castle.

We paid our entrance fee and got into the open area of the castle. It was crowded, but still really cool.

We went in to find the crown jewels. I was not allowed to take pictures of the crown jewels, but it was so neat. There were also displays of wax figures depicting various scenes of famous kings and queens.

We all took pictures with cannons and churches and signs like the tourists that we are. It was raining on and off, but it was not too bad. There were places to go in and explore, like the Queen's sitting room, the Great Hall, and the war memorial. We had to wrap up our explorations early because the castle closed at 5:00.

After we left the castle, we explored the streets of Edinburgh some more. We found interesting shops on the Royal Mile and shadily took pictures of people in kilts. I wanted to try some haggis but since we did not get around until late, the cafe with free tastings closed.

This is a picture of the pointy structures in Scotland at sunset. I do not know exactly what buildings they are, but they make for a very sharp skyline.

I took this picture on the walk down the stairs from the castle. I forget what building that dark prominent one is, but you can see the clock tower lit up on the right.

After our long day of traveling, sightseeing, and shopping, we were so happy to see West End Hostel. After we had relaxed for a bit, we went out to explore Scotland's pub scene. We went to a small place where there were a lot of locals. We also ran into the only SJU student studying abroad in Edinburgh. Even though none of us really knew him, we chatted for a while. He told us we had come to his favorite bar, which was lucky for us. It's always nice to go to a place that people recommend. We ended up leaving that bar and went to a combination bar/club for some dancing. It was a good time.

We headed back to West End to sleep for what felt like 2 minutes before we had to get up to catch our bus to Glasgow. More on Glasgow later.

Saturday Night

2008-10-11T17:56:00.002-04:00

My lousy Internet is once again preventing me from uploading photos. Also, my Photoshop is not working so the file sizes would have been huge anyway. The trials and tribulations of being a study abroad student...

We stayed in tonight, having graced the bars and dance floors of Galway with our presence last night. Tomorrow we have to be up bright and early to go to campus for our bus. We're going on a tour of the largest of the Aran Islands, Inis Mor. Supposedly we'll be able to rent bikes to see the whole island, so that will be a different experience than sitting in the bus.

I finally have some actual work to do. There's been plenty of assigned reading which we don't necessarily have to do. The classes are so big and there are no tests, plus the teachers read the important passages out loud in class. In biogeography, though, we had to turn in a lab write-up this past week. And after lab on Tuesday, I'll have another one to do! It's madness, all this real work and thinking I have to do.

Molly and I are going to watch a movie tonight. We have not fully decided yet, but we're thinking about The Princess Bride, because, with any luck, we'll get to see the Cliffs of Insanity from the island tomorrow, or at least a distant view from the bus on the way there.

In one week, I'll be in Paris!

Ferry and First Impressions

2008-10-10T14:32:00.003-04:00

On Saturday morning, we were up before the sun to catch our ferry. Buses were not even running yet, but luckily we had had the receptionist at the hostel call taxis for us. When we arrived at the ferry port, we were greeted by loads of rowdy football (soccer) supporters. There was a game in Scotland that day, so the ferry was packed with little boys in jerseys and older boys and men drinking beer. People were completely wasted by 8:30 in the morning, I imagine the bar on the ferry made a fortune.

Our boat was called the Stena HSS and it was an express trip to Scotland. We felt the boat rocking a little more than we would have liked, but it was a successful trip. It was a lot of fun in spite of (because of?) the wild drunk people. I've never seen anyone that drunk that early in the morning but they were Irish. I was sitting at a table and a boy about my age came and sat across from me and asked who I was rooting for. I explained that I was not going to the game and he was so drunk that it took him a few minutes for him to figure out that I did not sound Irish. Then he said, "You're AMERICAN?! Wow, boys, an American!" And then I tried my best to carry on a conversation with several extremely drunk boys from Belfast before we disembarked. That was one of the more amusing parts of my day.

We got to go stand out on the deck and it was really cool. It was not as cold as one might think but I remained bundled up. For one thing, I could not fit one more thing into my bag, so I had to wear two jackets the whole trip. The other thing was that I really just like wearing the hat and scarf.

We arrived in Stranraer around 9:30. We ran right out and luckily just made our bus to Edinburgh. The ride was long and tiring and we all had to sit next to random people. I'm sure I'm not the best seat buddy in the world because I can't stop fidgeting. Luckily, ninety percent of the bus got off at Glasgow and we were able to stretch out on our own seats for the last hour and a half to Edinburgh. When I finally got a window seat on the bus, I took some pictures. The building pictured above has a flags from many different nations of the world. If you look closely, you will probably be able to see Old Glory front and center.

We found our hostel with little incident and liked it instantly. West End Hostel was almost swanky, as far as hostels go. The view from the window in the lounge was excellent; the picture above is taken from there. One major fault I did find with the place was the bathroom. There were only 3 stalls for about 20 people and one of the stalls did not lock. Other than the poor restroom facilities, I'd say West End is one of the top hostels I've seen.

One of the first things we saw in Scotland was the Royal Mile. Pretty cool stuff, lots and lots of shopping.

Here is a view down the Royal Mile. There's a curve in it, so you can't see down the whole row. We shopped there for a pretty long while. True to form, I acted like a tourist and bought way too many postcards. I wanted to sample some haggis, but the place was closed by the time we got there.

I found a really cute little newspaper stand. The owner was just locking up as I took the picture. Also, there's a Scottish double decker bus in the background. They were everywhere. A more in depth look at Scotland will follow at a later date.

Black Taxi Tour at Night

2008-10-09T19:43:00.006-04:00

After we got back from our tour to Giant's Causeway, we hopped right into our black taxi for a tour with George. George was a great tour guide, and even though it was late and we could not take pictures of everything, it was very informative.

The first place we went with George was to a Protestant section of town. The neighborhood was very cheerful, despite a few alarming murals. Murals are everywhere in Belfast. Some of them were nice (like the Hope one above) but some were a little depressing or even scary.

This mural in particular is startling. It features a British army guy aiming a gun at whoever comes into the neighborhood. It is painted in such a way that it seems the guy's eyes and the gun follow you wherever you walk. It is there to remind everyone who comes in that they are entering Protestant territory. George said that the people who grew up in Belfast don't pay any attention to it because they've been looking at it every day of their lives. I still think it is scary.

Next, George showed us the peace wall that still separates Protestants from Catholics. To this day, some of the gates between the two sides are closed at night. There are ways of getting from side to side, but they are heavily guarded with security cameras and the gates can be shut at a moment's notice should anything go awry. We took a picture of all of us by the gate separating the two sides of the city.

The wall extends as far as the eye can see. It's covered in graffiti, which is mostly people leaving their own little messages for peace. George told us that some organization recently polled the people on both sides and a large majority of them said they felt safer with the wall up. So, there's no talk of taking it down yet, but things are definitely getting better there.

George pulled a stash of markers out of a secret compartment in his taxi and we all got to sign the wall. It was cool reading all the messages of people who had been there before us and leaving our mark for others after us to read.

This is my message. Short, sweet, and to the point. Really, I just could not think of anything to say. I figured this works as well as anything else.

We crossed onto the Catholic side and saw many more murals. There are murals commemorating all the major events in Northern Ireland's history. There are also some of current events, such as the depiction of George Bush above. It was dark at this point, so the pictures did not turn out very nice, but the bottom of the mural says "America's Greatest Failure."

After our tour, it was very dark and we had not eaten dinner, but we had to stop and take a picture of George. He was so nice to us, he recommended a place to eat dinner too, and it was delicious.

We tried to find a passerby to take a picture of all of us, but literally no one was around, so we did it ourselves. We had two cameras going, so not all of us got the memo of which one to look at, but I think it's a nice photo anyway.

Merry Derry (not very scary)

2008-10-08T13:18:00.006-04:00

After we left Giant's Causeway, we took a quick stop at Dunluce Castle to take pictures. It is one of the most picturesque castles in Ireland. The wife of the man who lived there refused to stay in the castle because it was so close to the water and she was terrified of falling into the sea. He built her a separate house that was much further inland.

Again, unfortunately these pictures are not mine. Next time I do this, I'll take more than one set of spare batteries on the bus. I had more batteries back at the hostel, so most of the ones after Derry will be from my own camera, but in the meantime, I'm glad my friends take good pictures.

From Dunluce, we continued on to Derry. There is still tension between the British loyalists (Protestants) and the Irish nationalists (Catholics) that live there, though it has not been very violent since 1998. The loyalists actually refer to the city as "Londonderry" and this is on the street signs on the loyalist side. The picture above is Derry Town Hall.

The River Foyle separates loyalist Derry from nationalist Derry. There are definite differences between the sides in terms of decorating and the murals.

As in Belfast, there are lots of murals in Derry. This is one from the Irish side. Our tour guide, Rory, is Irish and he grew up in Derry so he had a lot of personal history with the place. The background of the mural shows people gassing victims in a violent outbreak. There is also a woman pounding on the ground, which was a warning to the IRA (Irish Republican Army) that the British were coming into the city.

This is another view of the Irish side. Notice the green, white, and orange on the light pole? There's also an Irish flag flying in another mural.

I also have a picture of the British loyalist side. The colors are a little more clear here. A lot of the curbs I saw on that side were painted red, white, and blue. The colors are faded but they are definitely still there.

Our walking tour of Derry was very informative. We saw a memorial to those who died in the Bloody Sunday massacre and we learned about the IRA and the divided sides of the city. I'm really glad we got to do this in addition to the lighthearted fun of the rope bridge and Giant's Causeway. We also took a tour of Belfast and learned about the struggles there, but that is a story for a different time...like the next post.

More pictures of Giant's Causeway

2008-10-07T18:30:00.002-04:00

I stole these pictures from Laura's album. My camera's batteries were shaky on this trip so I tried not use my own camera for a while. I think I'm going to have to stop using the cheapo Euro 2 batteries. Guess I'll be paying top dollar for the Duracell ones because my camera has started to reject the generic ones.

Laura and I walked as far up the mountain as we could. It was a little bit of a hike, but it was totally worth it.
When we were almost to the end of the trail, we found someone take our picture. The view from the fence looks a little like the Cliffs of Moher, but smaller.

The walk is a lot safer than the Cliffs, though, because there is a fence the whole way up. It is so pretty to look over the edge. There was foam all over the place because it was blowing off the water. It even looked like it was snowing sometimes because the foam was blowing around so much.

There was a little piece of the mountain jutting out and it looked pretty easy to climb. So while Laura was taking pictures of the view, I climbed up and surprised her. It was pretty cool, but it was harder getting down than it was getting up.

The path ended very abruptly. I wanted to continue but I figured my mom would not approve of me hopping the fence with this sign clearly fixed to it.

We made our way back to the main part of the causeway. We decided to skip the shuttle that was there and wait 10 minutes for the next one, knowing we would be missing our opportunity for lunch by doing this. Again, it was well worth it because we got to climb all over the rocks we had bypassed to do the hike.

I climbed all the way to the highest point and I wanted to plant an American flag up there, but I left mine at home. And I figured the Irish might not love it, seeing as how one can't claim any land one wants.

So, I think I will leave Giant's Causeway to rest now. In our next installment: Derry and the continuing Protestant/Catholic struggles in Northern Ireland. Get excited.

An Irish Bedtime Story

2008-10-06T19:39:00.004-04:00

Once upon a time, many years before you were born, there lived an Irish man named Finn McCool. Now, Finn was not an ordinary Irishman. He was a giant and towered over all the other Irish folk of the day. Finn was a Renaissance man of sorts, that is to say that he was extraordinarily good at most things he did. He was a magnificent musician, an athlete, and a well educated man. The one thing Finn could not do well was swim. He was absolutely terrified of swimming in the water, which was unfortunate for him, seeing as how he lived on an island.

Another unfortunate circumstance in Finn's life was his inability to find a suitable mate. He was so big and tall that even though his nature was friendly, people were afraid of his sheer size. No woman in Ireland could even come close to his size to make a proper wife for him. Finn was deeply saddened by this and lived alone in misery for a time. One day, however, a man told Finn that he knew a lady in Scotland who just might be the woman for Finn. She was beautiful and eligible and, best of all, she was big and tall like Finn McCool. The man told Finn that her name was Maeve and that he could take Finn to meet her.

But alas, misfortune struck, as it has been known to do in such stories. In Finn's day, the only way to get from place to place was to go by land or sea. Ireland, as you know, is an island which narrows international travel options to one: sea. Finn was unable to fit in any boat known to the people of the time. He saw his hopes of finally finding a wife dashed. Swimming to Scotland should have been no trouble for a man of Finn's size and strength, but as you've learned, Finn McCool was a terrible swimmer. Disheartened, Finn sat down on the coast and tried to deal with his disappointment.

Suddenly, Finn had an idea. He picked up one of the very large hexagonal rocks and threw it into the sea. He threw another and another and kept throwing until, a short time later, the rocks formed stepping stones in the water. Finn kept throwing the boulders out until he could walk all the way from the Irish coast to the Scottish coast. He searched the towns for Maeve, asking any villagers who'd talk to him where he could find her. At last, he found her house on the top of a hill. She came to the door and she was everything he'd ever hoped for. She had red hair and was very pretty. Finn thought she was the most gorgeous creature he'd ever seen.

It did not take Finn long to convince Maeve to come back to Ireland with him. Together, they crossed the causeway Finn had made back to Ireland. They lived quite happily for some time until Maeve came to Finn with a confession. She told him that she had been in a relationship with a giant in Scotland who was bigger and meaner than Finn. This man would certainly be looking for her now. At just this moment, Finn and Maeve heard the thundering footsteps of Maeve's suitor coming across the causeway. Thinking quickly, Maeve wrapped Finn in a tablecloth and shoved him into the bedroom where he lay almost totally concealed.

The giant came into the house and demanded that Maeve come back to Scotland. She refused, saying she was married and the giant grew furious. He pushed through the house, looking for the man who had stolen his girl. Seeing his roughness, Maeve cried out that he was going to hurt her baby. The giant peered into the room where Finn was hiding in the cloth and saw only the bundle in the bed. The giant turned around and ran away as fast as he could calling back, "If that's the size of the baby, I'd hate to see the father!" He ran all the way back to Scotland but he grew fearful that Finn would come after him, so he destroyed the bridge by throwing all the stones back to the Irish coast where they remain to this day.

That is the legend of Finn McCool as it was told to me. I am quite sure there are other versions, but that is the one I learned. I visited Giant's Causeway on Friday in Northern Ireland and it was an amazing sight. The rocks are more like pillars and they truly are almost perfect hexagons.

We got to climb on the rocks which was a lot of fun. They are like stairs because they are of varying heights and they are flat so it is easy to walk all over them.

I suppose you'll want to know the other story behind these rocks. The other explanation is that a volcanoe erupted and formed the structure and shape of the rocks and pillars we see today. I suppose that could be true, but I like the Finn McCool version, even if it is a little longer.

It's up to you to decide which story you believe, but perhaps this will sway you. I sat in Finn McCool's boot, which he left behind on the beach one day. How do you like that? I don't think volcanoes wear boots, so explain that one away.

I had a lot of fun at Giant's Causeway. I took an extra long hike up a big hill to see more but I didn't take a lot of pictures with my own camera. When they become available to me, I'll post some more because the Causeway is really neat. It's weird that all the rocks are hexagonal and they fit together but there are small cracks in between. It was a really great way to spend the afternoon.

Walking on a Wire

2008-10-06T09:55:00.007-04:00

We arrived in Belfast at about 10:30 at night on Thursday. We made our way to the bus station to find that the last bus would arrive around 11:00 so we were grateful we had not met any delays coming into Belfast. It was freezing in Belfast and none of us had thought to bring any gloves or hats so we stood and shivered and hoped the bus really would come in this completely foreign city. It did arrive, though, and with some help from various friendly locals and a little luck, we got off at the right stop and found our hostel (Paddy's Palace, Belfast) by 11:30. We shared very few words with our decidedly unfriendly roommates and crashed into our dodgy looking bunk beds.

We rose early the next morning, ate a traditional hostel breakfast (burnt toast) and went out to find our PaddyWagon tour bus waiting. We were to spend almost the entire day on this tour which would take us to several points of interest in Northern Ireland. The first stop of the day was the Carrick-a-rede Rope Bridge.

The hike to the bridge from the parking lot is one kilometer but there was a lot of wonderful, natural sights to see along the way. One of the most interesting things I saw and heard while there was a man trying to herd his cattle up the hill. He was standing at the top of the hill and he had a herding breed of dog chasing the cows. We could hear the farmer yelling before we could see the animals, so we were a bit confused at first. I actually thought he was yelling at the tourists to get a move on up the hill. Since he was at the top of a very steep incline I was thinking "Oh great, we have to climb that?!" I was very relieved to see the cattle and to finally understand what was going on.

The dog was running back and forth across the hill, trying to get the cows to go up the incline a little at a time in a zig zag motion. He was not having a very easy time of it, as the cows were more intent on grazing and standing stationery than moving up the hill. The little guy stuck with it, though, and got them to zig and zag a little bit.

Our tour guide pointed out Sheep Island which is a very small piece of land just off the coast where the rope bridge is. It used to be called Puffin Island but I don't remember why they changed the name. I think he said something about rats taking over and killing the puffins but I think that was a joke.

We also spied some Scottish Islands through the ferns on the hike. They are bigger than Sheep Island and much farther away. This was one of the lucky times of the hike when it was not raining. By the time we got to the rope bridge itself, a storm was imminent. We could see the dark clouds headed our way and the wind had picked up considerably.

We watched a few people cross the bridge before descending the stairs to do it ourselves. Apparently, the rope bridge used to consist of literally two ropes: one to hold onto up top and one to walk on. It's much safer now, complete with wood panelling and a strong net on either side to hold onto while crossing. Despite how safe it looks, the guard at the bridge said he might have to close it due to the weather. In fact, just before we crossed, the weather was getting very bad. It was extremely windy and the rain had started and it was very cold. Just as the first in our group stepped foot on the bridge the guard said, "Pretty risky." We asked him if it was safe and he said that it probably was but that he wasn't sure if he should close it because of the weather. I decided it looked safe anyway so I crossed. The wind was very strong and the rain was coming at me horizontally, but I don't think it was ever unsafe. The bridge did not even sway with the wind, it was very sturdy and was not even a long way to cross.

There was not a whole lot to see on the other side of the bridge, so we came back across after a few minutes. By this time, the storm had totally passed and we laughed about how silly we had been, holding the rope with a death grip. We took some pictures and then had to hurry back to the bus. We passed the herd of cattle again and this time we saw that the farmer had come down the hill himself. It seems his canine ambassador was not doing the job and he had taken over the herding. It looked like he was having about as much success as his dog, though. The dog appeared to be grazing with the cows. When you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

First venture out of Ireland

2008-10-05T19:11:00.004-04:00

I am happy to report that I made it back to Niland House safe and sound tonight. We were on the move most of the weekend. I think I spent about half of my time in transit on countless buses, two taxis, a plane, and a boat. All in all, though, I had an awesome time. Belfast was a lot of fun and I learned a lot of history there. Scotland was also really cool and very pretty. I'll have more to say about each in detail later this week.

This is me in Northern Ireland. I'm by a clay wall at Giant's Causeway. More on this later.

A view of Edinburgh from Edinburgh Castle. It was cloudy and raining on and off the whole day we were in Edinburgh but it was still beautiful.

Say it isn't so

2008-10-02T08:53:00.003-04:00

It's time for me to take another blog break for the weekend. In an hour and a half, I'll be boarding a bus that will take me to Dublin where I will board another bus that will take me to Belfast. We're going to spend tonight and tomorrow night in Belfast. On Saturday, we're going to take a ferry to Stranraer in Scotland. We're staying in Edinburgh Saturday night and will fly into Shannon on Sunday evening.

To tell the truth, I'm a bit glad to be getting out of Galway at the moment. It's just about 2:00 in the afternoon here and the sky is dark like it's 7:00 or 8:00. And since I didn't put my wetsuit on this morning it was pouring down rain when I got out of class and it is still doing so.

I'll hopefully have time to check in here on Sunday. Beannachd leat.

Put a face to the name

2008-10-01T14:49:00.002-04:00

This is the picture we took with Oliver last night. I have the utmost faith that you can determine which one he is. The creepy head with the eyes in the back is another of Oliver's friends who demanded we teach him to play the drinking game Quarters. Euro coins, it seems, are just not suited for this game and it ended with people just throwing coins around the room. This is the risk one takes going out in Galway.

Tonight I am going upstairs to finally watch the movie P.S. I Love You. I have heard so much about this movie (it is apparently set in Ireland) since coming here that I am so excited to see it. The girls upstairs who own it have already watched it twice today but are kind enough to view it a third time for the benefit of Molly and me.

Partying with Oliver

2008-09-30T19:33:00.002-04:00

Tonight I was planning just to come back to Niland and crash because I was on campus for 10 hours. I did decide to go out and I did have fun after all, so it was all good.

We ended up at Bar No. 8, which was one of our stops on the pub crawl a few weeks ago. It is right behind our apartment, so we had the pleasure of running into our landlord Oliver! He is friends with the man who owns the bar so he bought us all 2 rounds of drinks (I was having Coke...9:00 class tomorrow) and we sang some Irish drinking songs. It was definitely a really good time. He actually remembered who we were and where we go to school, so that was impressive.

I'm so tired. I had lab this morning at 10:00 and then I had to be at school until 8:00 for classes and choir. It was a good day, though, despite the rain. I looked like a typical wimpy American with my rain boots, umbrella, and raincoat complete with hood. But, hey, I bought the stuff, so I might as well use it. Have a nice day.

Why did I buy a new umbrella...

2008-09-29T13:29:00.004-04:00

...when I don't even bother to look out my window to see if it's raining? I've been so spoiled for the last two weeks because it has not rained at all. It was basically a drought in Ireland. This morning when I went to class it was a little colder than usual but dry. This afternoon when I left for my evening class, I got wet. And I hadn't even chosen my raincoat today so I was wet in my North Face. Luckily it wasn't too bad and everything is dry now. I will have to be more careful in the future so I can actually use that umbrella I paid 12 euro for.

In other news, tomorrow is my first choir rehearsal and we get pizza! It will be my first pizza in Ireland so I am very excited. I'm sad though because the first choir concert is in Sligo for the weekend of October 17-19 but I'll be in Paris. I guess I should just be happy that I'll be in Paris, haha.

I'm trying to make it to Thursday without going to an ATM because last week was an expensive week (did some hardcore shopping in town and Eyre Square mall...my closet was happy, my wallet was not). I've been collecting all my loose change in a pile and today I just noticed that it was getting to be a pretty big pile. So, I counted it and it was 15 euro! All right, gotta love those 2 euro coins that look like quarters. I also like looking at the coins because there's always a chance I got one from a different country. For some reason we get a lot of Spain's coins up here but I've also seen some from countries who, oddly, don't put their name on the coin. What's up with that? This weekend in Scotland I'll be using the pound which puts a lot of fear in my heart because, as terrible as the US dollar is against the euro, it's absolutely killed by the pound. That is another reason we have not planned a trip to London...it's really depressing on our debit cards.

A pile of euro change. The 1 euro and 2 euro coins are two tone and the pennies are very tiny and cute. There are: 1 cent, 2 cent, 5 cent, 10 cent, 20 cent, 50 cent, 1 euro, and 2 euro. Glad I don't have to teach first graders to distinguish from among all of those types of coins!

Gonna go make some dinner now. We're having sausage and vegetables and maybe some potato wedges tonight. Yum.

Connemara

2008-09-28T09:55:00.005-04:00

Yesterday I visited another popular destination in County Galway: Connemara. I was not really sure what the attraction was to Connemara, not having heard much about it, but the tour buses go there so I decided it couldn't be too bad a place. We tried another tour company this time. O'Neachtain Tours got our business but I'm not sure I would take their tours again. The guide was not as good as the one from Healy Tours.

The Connemara tours have more photo stops along the way to the main destination. At our first stop, we saw a few houses with thatched roofs.

The cozy Irishness of this house is marred slightly by the telephone lines, in my opinion, but I suppose we shouldn't deny the Irish modern comforts to keep them picturesque.

Molly and I hung back from the group when they went back to the bus to get good pictures of ourselves in front of the Irish cottages. As a result (and because I stopped to take pictures for my flower post) we had to sprint to catch the bus. In all likelihood they would not have left without us, but we were not taking chances.

We drove through bog land. This picture (taken from the bus) shows what is called "blanket bog" because it covers the land like a blanket. There is also a bottomless lake which I did not manage to get a photo of.

At our next stop, our tour guide pointed out this leprechaun house, which is about the size of a dog house. We looked for gold hidden in the grass but we didn't see any.

Across the street from the leprechaun house was a little waterfall and we all took turns taking each other's pictures in front of it. There was no gold here, either.

Kylemore Abbey was our main destination for the day. We spent a total of two hours there and that included lunchtime. The abbey was once a castle built by a surgeon from Manchester. He lived there with his wife who fell in love with the Connemara region. When she died young, he could no longer bear to live in the castle he had built for her so he sold it. It changed hands many times before finally becoming the Benedictine abbey it is today.

The view of the abbey from across the water is very impressive. As the bus got closer, we could see it better and better. It is set at the bottom of a mountain and about three quarters of the way up the mountain is a white statue of Jesus. I could not get a good picture of the statue because I was too far away, but it's really cool to see.

The inside of the abbey is a sort of museum where things are set up as though people still live there. The sisters do live in the building but not the part where people walk through all the time.

There was a very old piano so I had my picture taken beside it. I put my backpack down to take the picture and when I bent down to pick it up again I almost knocked the chair and the partition over. It would have been a very unfortunate circumstance if I had dismantled the entire drawing room with my tourist backpack.

At the end of the short tour through the abbey, I lit a candle and put my name in the guest book. I was an idiot and spelled my own name wrong, but not as much of an idiot as the twenty people before me who wrote the wrong date on the paper.

We also visited an old Gothic church on the grounds of the abbey. It was very small but very pretty and built with different shades Connemara marble running through it.

On our way to eat lunch, we were fooling around and generally acting like Americans on vacation and we took really corny pictures of ourselves on this big flat rock. There are mountains in the distance and the cloud cover was pretty neat. We had a different weather day than we had for the Cliffs, but not necessarily bad. We didn't see the sun all day, but it didn't rain either. I like the clouds sometimes.

We met these older tourists because they offered to take a group picture of us. Most of them are from Oklahoma, but a few are from Utah and they were so awesome. When we were posing for our picture, they kept saying how they wanted us to marry their sons and how beautiful we all were. They all had the midwestern accent and it was so funny. We took their picture, too, of course, and we all sang a few rounds of "Oklahoma," "Goin' to the Chapel," and even "Amazing Grace." These are my new favorite tourists.

One of our last photo stops after Kylemore was at a place where we could see the mountains really well. I absolutely love mountains (one of the reasons I love West Virginia) so this was really cool.

And here is me with the mountains. There was also a very big rock to climb on during this stop and that was fun. I have many more pictures from Connemara, but these are the best. Although I enjoyed my trip to the Cliffs of Moher more than the one to Connemara, it was still a great day. It's hard not to have a fun time in Ireland.

A Survey of Flora in Connemara

2008-09-28T05:47:00.005-04:00

On our bus tour to Connemara yesterday, we made many photo stops before and after spending time at our main destination. At each photo stop we had ten minutes to take pictures of everything we found interesting. I noticed a lot of cool flowers so I decided to take pictures of them for all you botanists at home.
Yellow buttercups were growing in with some pretty ugly weeds but I liked the way they looked up against the stone wall.

These are some more berries that were growing along the path (well not so much a path as a main road, but it would be considered a path in the states) like at the Burren. I wasn't sure what they were or if they were really blackberries so I didn't eat them but I would have liked to.

I don't know what kind of flowers these are but they are a very pretty blue color. They were growing on a big bush outside someone's house. Taking pictures of them almost caused me to miss the bus.

This, in fact, is not a flower. It is actually sheep poop but it is like a flower in that it is on the ground and it is everywhere in Connemara.

These flowers were everywhere at our main stop of the day, which was Kylemore Abby. They look like little Chinese lanterns and are very bright shades of pink and purple.

These were also at Kylmore Abbey. There were big bunches of them growing outside the gates to the pathway. They didn't look very well cared for, though, because there were a lot of dead/dying flowers among the living ones.

I hope you have enjoyed this look into the plant life of Connemara, County Galway.

Internet woes (again)

2008-09-27T15:07:00.003-04:00

I have been trying for a while to get pictures uploaded from my trip to Connemara today, but everyone must be on the connection. Every time I try to get pictures, Firefox just closes. So, I didn't forget about posting, I just can't yet. I will try again after dinner and after going out if we don't get back too late.

But, while I'm here, I'll fill you in on another trip: Belfast and Scotland next weekend! I'll be spending Thursday and Friday night in Belfast, taking a ferry to Scotland early Saturday morning, and spending all of Saturday day and night in Scotland. We'll fly back to Shannon airport on Sunday evening. It's a relief to fly into Shannon instead of Dublin because it's a much shorter bus ride back to Galway from Shannon than Dublin. So, that's official because I've booked flights, ferries, and hostels.

Hopefully this will not be my only post for the day. I'll try to get a stronger connection after dinner.

A Taste of Irish Music

2008-09-26T06:45:00.005-04:00

In every single place I have visited in Ireland, there has always been street performers. In Galway, there are singers, guitar players, harp players, Native American musicians, Bible readers, magicians, comedy teams, violin players, the list goes on and on. I also saw quite a few performers in Dublin during my short stay there. The path surrounding the Cliffs of Moher was also lined with musicians playing for money. I took some video of this flutist because he was quite good and the music sounded very Irish.

I apologize for the shaking of the camera. It's very difficult for me to hold it steady and walk and zoom. I really only meant for this to be an audio treat, so turn up the volume and close your eyes if you get seasick.

Also, please let me know if the video does not play. It is currently working for me, but I don't know much about video-uploading dynamics, so I'm not sure how well this will work. It's merely an experiment.

"You'd see nicer eyes on a goat"

2008-09-25T18:02:00.005-04:00

Tonight, I saw a play at Town Hall Theatre. The play was The Cripple of Inishmaan and we had tickets through NUIG. The characters were colorful Irish people and it was very funny at times. The banter was reminiscent of Waking Ned Devine so I loved that part of it. It was a little sad at some parts too. The story takes place on one of the Aran Islands (Inishmaan). The villagers get news that a movie director from America has come to the biggest of the Aran Islands (Inishmore) to cast a new movie. Many people want to travel to Inishmore to land a part or at least get to meet the American director. Among them is the crippled boy, Billy, who lives with his "fake aunties." Much of the darkish humor comes from people making cracks at Billy which is both funny and heartbreaking at the same time. The title of this post is a line said about Billy by one of his fake aunties. It's mean, but not mean spirited. Everybody likes Billy even if they make fun of him.

There are lots of Irish antics, including many broken eggs, references to the town slut, and lots and lots of whiskey drinking. While it was very funny and charming, it was also quite disturbing at parts and overall not what I was expecting. It was good though and I recommend reading it, although I think it is much different to see on stage (as with anything).

Before the play started, we had a chance to go to a pre-show talk about The Cripple of Inishmaan and the playwright. It was informative, but for me it gave a bit too much of the play away. We had about an hour to kill between the talk and the beginning of the play, so Molly and I explored a little bit around the theatre. We found a new Euro 2 store (the dollar store of Ireland!) and got some ice cream at the Supermac's (the Irish McDonalds, although there is still a McDonalds in town).

Euro 2 has a lot to offer in the candy department. 5 candy bars for 2 euro?! Sign me up.

Ah, Supermac's. I have yet to try anything but the ice cream, but I hear the fries are a real treat. They make them with all sorts of sauce on them, flavors include taco and garlic. I think a trip to Supermac's for lunch is in my near future.

Here I am taking a picture of myself outside the Town Hall Theatre. I was very excited because I love plays and I love Ireland, so it stands to reason that I would love a play about Ireland.

Soc Hop

2008-09-24T14:51:00.003-04:00

Today was the Soc Fair at NUIG. Soc is short for society. Societies at NUI are what we would call clubs at SJU. The clubs here are sports clubs, so I guess their way makes a little more sense. Anyway, as it turns out, the Soc Fair is basically a room full of free stuff. Most of you probably know that I will put my name on almost any list for free stuff. Two days ago, in fact, I joined the Literary and Debate society for a bag of goodies which, except for a box of cereal and a pen, turned out to be pretty lame. Here is a tally of societies I joined today and what they gave me in return:

Young Greens Society: I was not aware this was a political organization. I thought it was just a way to spread the news about saving the Earth, but it turns out they also try to convert people to the Green Party. They gave me a postcard with a polar bear on it, some vegetarian recipes to try, lots of paperwork on 100% recycled paper, and an apple. I might actually go to a few of their meetings.

Choral Society: I legitimately wanted to join this. Rehearsals are Tuesdays from 6-8 and it sounds pretty cool. I got a cookie, but I guess it wasn't really free because I had to pay 2 euros in dues.

Law Society: For law students. Everyone wanted to join this though because they were giving away those drawstring backpacks full of unknown treasures. For writing my name down, I got my bag which contained a newspaper, a student planner in poster form which is hanging on my wall now, a mechanical pencil, and a device designed to keep one's razor in place while one travels. Apparently there was a market for that. I also got a Mars bar which was delicious.

Polish Society: Another one I was actually interested in. Unfortunately most of the members of the society are actually Polish, as in they live in Poland. They invited me to their first meeting which, in true Irish fashion, is at a bar this Friday night. I might go because they gave me a Polish chocolate and it was tasty.

North American Students: I don't know why I joined this one. There was nothing free and it actually cost me money because it was another 2 euro deal. They host sporting events to watch though and there's a rugby game next weekend. I could maybe go for that.

SUAS: I couldn't understand everything the girl was saying, but I think it has something to do with teaching underprivileged children. There is an after school homework program I am interested in doing. Also, I got free pamphlets and a pen.

Nothing Specific Society: A soc that prides itself on not really doing anything. I only got a lame sticker but I expect the meetings to be pretty fun and everybody else was signing up, so...

International Student Society: I was already a member of this and it is the best soc on campus. Tonight they are hosting their 3rd event of the year which is very impressive. They have given me nothing free as of yet, but they did take me on my first pub crawl.

I realize that I have been neglecting the photo element of my blog, but really, there has been nothing interesting of which to take pictures. So, I leave you with this picture of a beautiful cow. She and her friends were grazing in a field by the Cliffs of Moher. There are cattle and sheep all over the Irish countryside and on our way home from the Cliffs, we even saw some llamas. I love llamas, but I couldn't get a picture from the bus window. So, I guess I'll have to settle for this picture of Old Bess. I figured maybe someone would like to make it their wallpaper or something. Enjoy!

Don't drink the water

2008-09-23T18:24:00.003-04:00

Today we had another delicious "family dinner" with the girls from upstairs. We had homemade macaroni and cheese, chicken fingers, and steamed veggies. It was, in my opinion, our best yet. We've decided that next week is going to be taco night...I'm already excited. After dinner, we were planning to watch the season 4 finale of Grey's Anatomy at 9:00 only to find out that it was not on until 10:00. So, we sat around and watched Vault Classic, a music video channel that usually has hits from the 1990's (we love it). At 10:00 we successfully watched Grey's Anatomy and a good time was had by all.

After Grey's, the news came on and the lead story was that the water in Galway is contaminated. Fantastic. Apparently, parts of the city are getting water that is full of lead and it cannot be boiled away. Even more fantastic. We're supposed to have been contacted if our supply is among those to be worried about, but our landlord is so strange that it seems unlikely he would inform us. My Villanova roommate is calling as I type. Even if our area is not affected, I still intend to drink only bottled water and juice for the next few days.

Update: I personally spoke to Oliver. He told me that there is nothing to worry about, that it is only the old parts of the city that are affected, and that if anything should come up I will be the first to know. I may or may not have woken him up to bother him about this, so it's a good thing he does not actually know who I am. (Though I still would like to be at the top of the list to notify when anything goes wrong.)

I only have one class tomorrow but it's a drag: Philosophy of Art and Literature. Ugh, it's the only class I really don't like. Better get to bed, though, it's at 9:00 which is early in Ireland. The city doesn't get moving until 10:00 or 11:00.

Planning Trips

2008-09-22T16:47:00.002-04:00

I had my first Jane Austen class this morning and I have to say that sitting in that line for 5 hours on Wednesday was completely worth it. The class session this morning was the best I've had so far at NUIG. There are only 12 students in my class and 9 of them are Irish. We spent most of the two hours getting to know each other and everybody is so interesting. The Irish students have all traveled to exotic places and have had adventures like sky-diving and rock climbing and working in Romanian orphanages. The classwork itself seems to be pretty manageable as well. Jane Austen might just overtake Biogeography as my favorite class.

I'm in my friends' apartment now trying to plan out our trips to various destinations in Europe. Our Internet is acting up again so it's not going so well, but we're working on Prague at the moment. Last week we booked Paris and this week is Prague but we were much faster on Paris. I'm going to sign off this to lessen the load on the Internet and maybe it will go faster for those who are being productive.

You can't always get what you want

2008-09-21T17:12:00.004-04:00

Sometimes studying abroad is not all it's cracked up to be. In fact, many of the challenges I face daily fall under the umbrella of what's known as "roughing it." For example, today the Internet in my apartment has been maddeningly slow. No matter how I tried, I could not do anything: no Facebook, no blogging, no e-mails, no Skype. I was in the middle of a Skype chat with my mom and the Internet kicked me off and would not let me back on for HOURS. I'll say that again: HOURS with no Internet. Makes you shudder, doesn't it?

In a fury, I stormed out of the building and walked aimlessly around the streets of Galway until I finally ended up at the edge of the River Corrib. I stood there with a dramatic, "good-bye cruel world" attitude for a while. And then, I realized that I was on the edge of the River Corrib and decided that maybe having no Internet (for HOURS) was not the worst thing that could happen to a person. And they all lived happily ever after.

A Brilliant Day for Touring

2008-09-20T15:21:00.007-04:00

Today I woke up with the sun streaming in past the curtains and I knew it was going to be a great day for the Cliffs of Moher. Molly and I met up with Annie in the lobby and we headed down Merchants Road to the tour buses. We were looking for Galway Bus Tours but instead we were stopped by a guy from Healy Tours and were roped in to booking that bus. We opted to do the walking tour of the Burren as well as the Cliffs. Those of us walking were dropped off at an Irish farm on the Burren and were led on a tour by a man who has lived on the farm his whole life.

John Connolly (the tour guide and resident on the property) invited us to partake of the blackberries that grew along the edges of the path. We walked a long way up the hill (mountain to me) taking breaks along the way. John does this every day so he was fine giving a tour and hiking at the same time, but I was exhausted every time we stopped.

The view from the top of the hill is worth it, though. Everything is green, green, green. John's family owns a lot of cattle and we could hear them lowing wherever we were. (They were confused because the family recently took their calves away...how sad.) About halfway up the hill/mountain, the grass disappears and it becomes the porous, limestone rock that the Burren is known for. It is not hard to climb on the rocks, but the heather and other flora that grow there can be deceptive. It looks like solid ground, when really one could be headed for a hole.

Annie, Molly, and I were very excited to be at the Burren. As you can see behind us, the whole mountaintop is covered with grey stone. Little flowers and things can grow through the cracks, though. The limestone is porous and full of calcium. The tufts of grass that are able to grow through the cracks are rich in calcium from the ground so farmers take their cattle to graze there. Cows that have eaten that grass (apparently) produce more milk and that milk is higher in calcium.

Fun fact: John's family does not milk the cows. Their calves drink the milk while they are young and then the calves are sold.

At the end of the tour, John showed us a really cool flat rock that is like a wide sliding board. One simply sits on a rock and pushes off and then woosh! Down it goes. John said he knows that his great grandfather used to play this game as a boy and it was probably going on before then too. It was a lot of fun, even if I did slam into a dirt pile at the bottom.

The hills in the background of the Burren and the greenery provide a good backdrop and it really makes it hard to take a bad picture. I took almost 200 pictures today. After the tour we were invited back to the little shop where John's mother had made apple pies and we could buy a slice. I only had a coffee since I'm not into apple pie, but it looked very good.

After the tour bus picked us up again, we drove to our next picture spot. I do not remember what this is called, but it is a little like Stonehenge. It's one of the most visited sites in Ireland so we could only stay ten minutes to regulate the tourist flow. After that, it was on to the Cliffs!

We only had an hour at the cliffs (I could have spent more time there) but we definitely made the most of it. First we walked on the "safe side" which was not really the cliffs. It had a railing and allowed us to take pictures of the Cliffs of Moher without actually being on them. It offered a great view and was decidedly the much safer way to go.

Fun fact: Recognize those cliffs? The Cliffs of Moher are the Cliffs of Insanity of Princess Bride fame. If I had seen the Dread Pirate Roberts scaling the side, I would have died of delight, but alas, I did not. Ready to continue with the post? As you wish. (Do you want to go watch the movie now? I do.)

Before I even set foot on the Cliffs of Moher, my mother knew this sign existed and warned me to stay VERY VERY far from the edge if I decided to ignore this warning. I'm here to tell you that I was completely careful and obviously I am alive, and yes, I did venture beyond the sign. There were very daring people sitting far too close to the edge for even my taste, but I did not get that close. We did take a lot of pictures of all of us and it may look like I am hanging ten over the side, but I promise I did nothing of the sort.

The sun was so wonderful today. We really could not have had better weather. It did not rain one drop the whole day and I was very pleased about that. Above, you can see me at my touristy best, backpack and all. This was my first venture past the sign and I was a little too freaked out to take the time to remove my backpack. I did lighten up eventually, but one can never be too careful.

And here I am again in the sunshine and the wind. The waves are crashing against the Cliffs and everything is right with the world. To my knowledge, no one fell off the edge today, so the Cliffs of Moher had a very successful Saturday. Word.

Dinner in Galway

2008-09-19T19:19:00.004-04:00

Tonight we decided to go out to dinner for the first time in Galway. We went to a place called Finnegan's which offered good traditional Irish food and some other favorites, such as pizza. It was a very non-touristy atmosphere. There were locals there who knew the waitresses and it was very small. The food was pretty good and very cheap. I got Traditional Irish Stew. I would not go so far as to say it was a great meal, but I enjoyed the stew itself. The mashed potatoes left a lot to be desired and the cabbage was tasteless. The definite benefit, though, was getting a ton of food for 9.90 euros. Each entree came with mashed potatoes, baby potatoes, cabbage, carrots, and turnips.

We could have gotten dessert at Finnegan's too (the Bailey's Irish Cheesecake sounded tempting) but we were so stuffed we opted to walk around a little bit before getting dessert. We ended up at Zatsuma for "lovely crepes." They have a wide variety there: dinner crepes, dessert crepes, dessert waffles, hot drinks, etc. I got a Melted Marshmallow crepe which had marshmallow, hot fudge, M'n'Ms, and ice cream. It was very tasty.

Zatsuma claims to have lovely crepes. They do.

After dinner we went back to Niland House and watched Grease. It was definitely a very low-key night but it was good to stay in. Tomorrow if the weather is nice I'm going to take a bus tour to the Cliffs of Moher. It's going to take up most of the day, so I need to be rested! Have a lovely day.

Pub Crawl

2008-09-18T10:24:00.003-04:00

Last night the International Student Society hosted a pub crawl through Galway. I had a lot of fun. I was in Group 2 with people I had never met before. I made a few new friends including an Elementary Ed major from TCNJ and a girl from Germany who's in Ireland for the year. We had 5 pubs on our agenda, four of which I had never been to before. The night began early (in Irish terms) so the first pub was kind of dead. We all sat around a few tables talking and getting to know each other. The beer was cheap because the pubs had specials on for students so we were all pretty psyched about that.

This is part of our group waiting between our third and fourth pubs. We started out with a very large group but lost half of them at The Kings Head, our second stop of the night. With a smaller group it was a lot easier to talk to people and keep track of everyone as we walked around town.

We carried an egg around the whole night and had to get the bartender from each bar we visited to sign it. If the egg was still intact by the end of the night, we would get a prize. I was in charge of the egg for most of the night because my purse was deemed a very safe place for it. At our last stop, we had all our signatures and our egg was still whole, so that was good. I never heard anything about a prize, but I did leave the last pub pretty early because it was too crowded to move. That final stop though, was really cool. It was a basement bar and club called De Burgos and I bet it is a lot of fun when it is not packed with people.

Contrary to popular belief...

2008-09-17T20:14:00.004-04:00

...I do actually attend class in Ireland. In fact, I'm so intense about school that I camped out at 4:00 this morning to register for a class. I woke up at 3:30 with my alarm and immediately wanted to go back to sleep. The thought of being shut out of my first choice English seminar, though, was enough to make me drag myself out of my warm bed and greet the pre-dawn air. Molly, Kirsten, and I were the only three from Niland House to make the commitment so early.

Here we are waiting outside the quadrangle. We were numbers 8, 9, and 10 in line which pretty much guaranteed us our first choice. The first few hours consisted of me shivering and complaining and listening to the Sweeney Todd soundtrack on loop until my mp3 player died.

By 5:00, there were at least thirty people in line. The smarter ones had worn hats, gloves, and scarves or brought blankets and snacks. I amused myself for about two minutes taking some nighttime pictures, very few of which actually turned out.

This is the line of people at around 5:00. We started a list with the exact order of everybody so that no one could cut the line. The list ended up getting suspiciously lost but we made another one because there was NO WAY we weren't going to be among the first in that building.

In the end, everything worked out. Everyone I knew who was there before sunrise got the classes they wanted. By registration time (9:00) there were over two hundred students waiting and I know most of them at the end did not get their classes. I heard from my roommate that the English department was inventing new courses on the spot because they ran out of room in the others. It was a very different registration experience than those we have at St. Joe's. I am so glad I got the seminar I was hoping for. (For all who are interested, it is a study of Jane Austen and her works.)
The final image for today is of the quadrangle building before dawn. There's a picture of this same building in daylight in one of my earliest posts. I thought it would be interesting to see a nighttime picture of it.

Dublin Part 5: The Last Night and Day

2008-09-16T06:16:00.003-04:00

We came back to the Brewery Hostel to rest for a while before going out. We wanted to eat at a place with traditional Irish food and we found one! The restaurant/pub is called the Brazen Head and allegedly it is the oldest pub in Ireland.

We got a little lost on the way and had to consult our map in the middle of the sidewalk. In truth, we did this with 100% of the locations we wanted to see. The map was in our hands more than it was in our backpacks, but it was a good experience. The picture is Kirsten being our navigator and Molly being our map stand.

This is a blurry shot of the sign outside the Brazen Head. They were not lying about the traditional Irish music. A group a few tables over from us started a sing-a-long with everyone in the bar. People were swaying side to side in a big group singing their Irish songs and playing whatever instruments they had. It was really cool and very similar to things I've seen at the pubs here in Galway.

This is our whole group at the Brazen Head. From left to right it's, Heather, Kirsten, Molly, Annie, Laura, and me. The food was very good. I got traditional fish and chips which were spot on. Other options on the menu were traditional Irish stew (featuring lamb), a stew featuring mushrooms and Guinness, and mussels in cream sauce. It all sounded so good it was hard to choose.

On Sunday we went to an 11:15 service at St. Patrick's Cathedral. The service was really great, especially the singing. There was a great choir of all boys and men. I thought the little boys' voices were women's at first, but it was an all male choir. The church is Anglican so there were some traditions we did not know but it was a good time anyway. The celebrant thanked the Flower Guild for decorating the altar. I would love to have a Flower Guild.

After church we went back to downtown Dublin to finally purchase my dome umbrella and I was successful. Now if only I could find rain boots... We made it just in time for our bus and we all slept on and off the four hours back to Galway. Even though it was raining as we pulled in to the station, I was glad to be back in the apartment. It was a great weekend, but I know I like Galway better than Dublin. We're going to try to take another trip somewhere else soon. I'll keep updating this as long as I have interesting things to say.

Dublin Part 4: Trinity College

2008-09-16T05:55:00.004-04:00

We walked from St. Patrick's Cathedral to Trinity College, passing through downtown Dublin. There is lots of shopping there and many, many people. There are also people who stand in costumes and act like statues. They move when you least expect them to and startle tourists. It is very strange, and reminds me of something I saw at Disney World, but it's still cool. We met up with the SJU boys at Trinity and stood for a little while taking pictures of all the buildings.

The buildings on Trinity College campus are huge. They all look so old and majestic. There was a wedding going on in one of the buildings so everybody was standing around taking pictures. I saw a man in a kilt.

This is me standing under an arch at Trinity. The arch is extremely tall so I look tiny. The whole thing is not even pictured because it's so big. I am holding a Guinness bag full of goodies from the Guinness Factory gift shop.

Here is the rest of that arch I was standing under. There is a cross on top with some statues and a lot of designs in the stone.

The sky looks dark and threatening, but it did not rain the whole day! This is another building on the campus. There are also a lot of trees and green grass. It's a really beautiful place.

We went in to see the Book of Kells. There are signs everywhere saying that no one is allowed to take pictures so you'll have to come to Dublin yourself to see the Book of Kells. The Book is really cool and I'm glad I got to see it, but even better than that was the Long Room. The Long Room is just after the Book of Kells and it is a fantastic old library. The walls are lined with books from the ground to the ceiling. There are fancy ladders where one can imagine Trinity College's famous graduates scaling the towers of books. There are busts of all sorts of people. We were hardly allowed to touch anything, almost all of it is closed off. Again, this was a no picture zone.

Bonus! On our way back to the Brewery Hostel we detoured in to see Dublin Castle. The tours were finished running for the day but we got to take pictures of the outside. Like everything else, it is so pretty.

The outside of Dublin Castle. I like that rounded tower, I think it looks really cool.

Dublin Part 3: Cathedrals

2008-09-15T19:56:00.004-04:00

After touring the Guinness Factory, we had wraps at an O'Briens sandwich place. The food was very good (I had a spicy beef and cheddar wrap) and fairly cheap. The sandwiches here usually come with "Tayto" brand potato chips which are cheese and onion flavored. It sounds weird, but it's tasty. We decided to visit the cathedrals we had passed on Friday night on the way to the pub. They were very neat.

Our first stop was Christ Church Cathedral. It is beautiful from the outside but it is so big it's hard to get a good photo of it without things being in the way. It has a lovely courtyard where people can sit and take touristy pictures and I suppose eat a picnic if they wanted. We did not go in as there was a fee and we felt our euros were better spent elsewhere.

I think that was a good decision because I like St. Patrick's Cathedral a little more than Christ Church. It is only a short distance from CC, maybe a couple of blocks. There is a gorgeous green park in the back of the cathedral, complete with fountain and frolicking children.There is a small playground off to one side with swings and a sliding board. I have no proof of this, but it strikes me as a spot for both locals and tourists and was a nice little oasis in an otherwise crowded city.

The park is in place to commemorate the place where St. Patrick baptized a lot of Irish people many centuries ago. Very old, very cool.

The outside of St. Patrick is similar to the outside of Christ Church, but there is more greenery around it. It's easier to view the whole thing at once, too.

This is a view of almost all of St. Patrick's from the back. If you look to the top right corner, you'll see some scaffolding. That is because there is major construction happening on the right tower of the cathedral. It's unfortunate because, again, it made it hard for me to take a nice photo.

I'll end this post with an inside look at St. Patrick's. A few of us decided to fork over the 4.20 euro to get inside and I think it was worth it. I'm sure you could find a better lit picture than this on a postcard of this cathedral but I do not think any picture could capture its magnificence. It is truly amazing on the inside, complete with statues and ornate carvings and paintings. I really enjoyed this part of our Dublin experience.

Come back tomorrow for part 4!

Dublin Part 2: The Guinness Factory

2008-09-15T06:21:00.002-04:00

On Saturday morning, we took advantage of the free breakfast at our hostel and then were off to see Dublin in the daylight. Our first stop was the Guinness Factory at St. James's Gate Brewery.

There are plenty of signs telling tourists where they are at the Guinness Factory and Storehouse. If you ever forget you're in Guinness Country, shame on you.

About halfway through the tour, everyone gets a chance to taste a small amount of fresh Guinness. Now, I don't normally like Guinness and I don't see what all the fuss is about, but I can tell you that the little bit I tasted in the factory was DELICIOUS. It was very sweet and if all Guinness tasted like that, I would probably have a pint every now and then.

This is Molly and me in the Guinness Tasting Lab.

The tour ends in the highest part of the building: The Gravity Bar. It offers a 360 degree view of Dublin and everyone is given a free pint of Guinness or a soft drink. I drank Coke because I just do not enjoy Guinness that much, but that Coke was fantastic.

The view is not actually so great from the Gravity Bar. There is a lot of construction going on in Dublin right now and it just kind of looks like a dirty city. But, there are quotes from James Joyce's books on the windows so it gives it a more Ireland-y feel.

Side note: Anyone can now comment on the blog without an account should they so choose. I changed the settings to include Anonymous posters. If I had known this was an option, I would have done it ages ago. Sorry to everyone who made an account to post comments. But thank you for the comments, I love them!

Dublin Part 1: The First Night

2008-09-14T16:20:00.002-04:00

Hello after a long blog break! I had a wonderful time in Dublin. I definitely did not save any money by going there--I did not know a city could be more expensive than Galway, but Dublin certainly is. Dublin has an entirely different feel from Galway as well. It's more of a city, for sure, and more crowded. I'd say it's a little less accessible, too, but that could be because our hostel was kind of far off from the main center of the night life.

The bus ride was four hours long and while we passed some interesting scenery, it was tiring. I tried to sleep on and off, but I also took some pictures.

We passed lots of sheep and cattle. The stone walls that keep the livestock in are very pretty and they look like every picture of Ireland I've ever seen. The pictures don't lie--the Irish countryside is every bit as pretty and wonderful as it looks.

After we got off at the wrong bus stop in Dublin, we had a long hike to The Brewery Hostel. It is very close to the Guinness Factory, but not really to anything else. After passing several "Booze2Go" stores, we were so glad to finally see this fine establishment.

The Brewery Hostel was home to people from all around the world this weekend. We stayed in a ten person coed bedroom. There were six of us girls from NUIG, 3 boys from Switzerland and 1 boy from France. The Swiss boys were very funny but we overheard them saying they did not like Americans. The French boy was just beginning his studies in Dublin, where he'll be for two years. He was very sweet and lent us his excellent map of Dublin to plan our day.

This is one part of our room. You can only see three sets of bunk beds in the picture, but there were five sets in all. Note, if you can, the hole in the wall above the top bunk in the furthermost pair of beds. We're not sure where that came from, (maybe from our "Swiss Cheeses") but it added to the "roughing it" theme the hostel seemed to be going for.

After hanging out with the other hostel guests in the backyard, we went out to the Porterhouse Bar, which was very crowded. It was a nice bar, but a little touristy with bad lighting and mediocre music (in my expert bar-judging opinion).

This is Molly and me having a pint of Bulmer's at Porterhouse. I'm not quite sure why I look so excited in the photo because really the bar was not so great. Must have been the Bulmer's.

These are two of the coolest people we met at the hostel. They are brother and sister and they live in Northern California. They are backpacking through Europe for two months. I thought they were awesome, so I took a picture with them. Dave, Amber, and me at Porterhouse.

We ended the night at the actual Temple Bar (we were in "Temple Bar Area" all night, this is the real deal). It was also crowded, but it had a more local, neighborhood feel. We sat in the outside part under the sky and though it was very smoky, it had a nice atmosphere.Temple Bar sign in the night. It's very bright; I'd say Dublin (or at least Temple Bar area) is flashier than Galway. Still fun, though.

There's more to come on Dublin, but not tonight. Soon, though!

Away

2008-09-11T15:40:00.003-04:00

As I will be in Dublin this weekend and as I am not taking my trusty laptop, I will not make any more posts on the blog until Sunday or Monday. I'll take lots of pictures! Slan agat!