Monday, November 3, 2008
Quick (long overdue) update...
Hi everyone...I know I haven't updated for like a month...eep. I have a huge back log of stuff that I want to put up and I have just been putting it off...yikes. I have the 2 week travel log with my parents, then the week getting back into the swing of things, an off week of homesickness and slight seasonal depression, and then this last Halloween weekend. I've also been waiting to post until I have my pictures up, which are another ordeal in and of themselves because I took like over 2000 pictures or something, and it takes forever to sort them! But I'm going to work on them tonight and see if I can get those finished, and once those are done I can start working on updating the blog little by little. Right now, things are good, I'm a bit tired and have a little bit of a sore throat and I can't find my student ID (ack...) but otherwise things are good. I can't believe ELECTION DAY is tomorrow!!! It will be very strange to be over here when that happens. Oh and Zach's coming over to visit in a week! Anyway, hope everyone is well and I will hopefully update more soon!
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Oh yeah, pictures!!
Pictures from this past week:
My first Irish rainbow! And pot luck fun and misc. scenes.
Céilí at the College Bar and scenes from the morning after
Enjoy!
My first Irish rainbow! And pot luck fun and misc. scenes.
Céilí at the College Bar and scenes from the morning after
Enjoy!
Early morning...
It is early in the morning (for me anyway haha, 8AM...) and I just wanted to post quickly before I had off about this week so I don't forget about it! I'll be traveling around Ireland with my parents for the next 2 weeks so probably little to no internet access, yay.
Wednesday:
The pot luck was SO much fun! Beforehand I went to lunch with Josh and then we went into town and did some shopping. I bought a drink (this blue vodka stuff called WKD) and cupcakes (Made out of Madiera cake? It's yummy! Like poundcake sort of...) and then I even finally bought some clothes! I figured if I'm going to be going around with my parents I should at least look decent haha. But yeah so the potluck was great, met a bunch of nice new people and old friends. We did move apartments as it got later and I watched some people do Absinthe shots...maaan. I didn't realize there was a whole ritual with the sugar and such and such haha, but they all did tiny shots. I was definitely too scared to try it haha which I think is a good thing. But the atmosphere was quite fun and then afterwards we went out to a bar called Róison (Ro-sheeen) Dúbh(dove) and hit the dance floor. We tried to go clubbing but we left a bit on the late side and by the time we got up there the lines were HUGE and we wouldn't have been able to get in for free, lame. But the Roison Dubh was fun - it was free which was the most important part. The music was different...like rock alternative so it was a bit difficult to dance to, but we still had fun.
Thursday:
Went to the Céilí at the College Bar and met up with Josh, Kat and her roommates. We went upstairs and watched the madness, although Kat's roommates went and joined in. It was neat because there was a live, traditional Irish music band, and basically everyone was just attempting to Irish dance (not well but it apparently was still fun haha) and basically just lots of grabbing of hands and leaping and whirling about haha. I had 2 1/2 pints of Bulmer's and tried Galway Hooker, a Galway specific pale ale, haha which was good. Had a lot of fun just hanging out and talking with people...we had intended to go out clubbing, but Erin had stayed home and Kat had to go home and book Paris tickets, and it got late before we left so we just scrapped it. Josh was a sweetheart and walked me home so I didn't have to pay for a taxi, which was nice. Got home relatively early (haha 12:30AM...) so it was a really nice night :)
Friday:
Went to Corrib Village to pick up my backpack which I had left there o nWednesday night. Then walked into town and had a late lunch with Kat, Erin, and Josh which was really nice. Ate at the Charcoal Grill which is basically just a burger place so I had chicken goujous (sp?? They're like chicken tenders but smaller) and fries mmm. Then I came home, relaxed, which was nice, and packed, and went to sleep relatively early! Haha...12:45AM is pretty early....
Then today I woke up early and I was going to call and get my ticket via phone, but then I realized I'd have to use a credit card and pay the conversion fee...so I think I'm just going to get to the station early and buy a ticket there...so long as I'm early I'm sure I'l be fine. I'm taking the bus to Shannon, meeting my parents at the airport, and then driving down to Dingle with them yay! I'll be back in Galway on Tuesday, so I'll update then I hope!
Wednesday:
The pot luck was SO much fun! Beforehand I went to lunch with Josh and then we went into town and did some shopping. I bought a drink (this blue vodka stuff called WKD) and cupcakes (Made out of Madiera cake? It's yummy! Like poundcake sort of...) and then I even finally bought some clothes! I figured if I'm going to be going around with my parents I should at least look decent haha. But yeah so the potluck was great, met a bunch of nice new people and old friends. We did move apartments as it got later and I watched some people do Absinthe shots...maaan. I didn't realize there was a whole ritual with the sugar and such and such haha, but they all did tiny shots. I was definitely too scared to try it haha which I think is a good thing. But the atmosphere was quite fun and then afterwards we went out to a bar called Róison (Ro-sheeen) Dúbh(dove) and hit the dance floor. We tried to go clubbing but we left a bit on the late side and by the time we got up there the lines were HUGE and we wouldn't have been able to get in for free, lame. But the Roison Dubh was fun - it was free which was the most important part. The music was different...like rock alternative so it was a bit difficult to dance to, but we still had fun.
Thursday:
Went to the Céilí at the College Bar and met up with Josh, Kat and her roommates. We went upstairs and watched the madness, although Kat's roommates went and joined in. It was neat because there was a live, traditional Irish music band, and basically everyone was just attempting to Irish dance (not well but it apparently was still fun haha) and basically just lots of grabbing of hands and leaping and whirling about haha. I had 2 1/2 pints of Bulmer's and tried Galway Hooker, a Galway specific pale ale, haha which was good. Had a lot of fun just hanging out and talking with people...we had intended to go out clubbing, but Erin had stayed home and Kat had to go home and book Paris tickets, and it got late before we left so we just scrapped it. Josh was a sweetheart and walked me home so I didn't have to pay for a taxi, which was nice. Got home relatively early (haha 12:30AM...) so it was a really nice night :)
Friday:
Went to Corrib Village to pick up my backpack which I had left there o nWednesday night. Then walked into town and had a late lunch with Kat, Erin, and Josh which was really nice. Ate at the Charcoal Grill which is basically just a burger place so I had chicken goujous (sp?? They're like chicken tenders but smaller) and fries mmm. Then I came home, relaxed, which was nice, and packed, and went to sleep relatively early! Haha...12:45AM is pretty early....
Then today I woke up early and I was going to call and get my ticket via phone, but then I realized I'd have to use a credit card and pay the conversion fee...so I think I'm just going to get to the station early and buy a ticket there...so long as I'm early I'm sure I'l be fine. I'm taking the bus to Shannon, meeting my parents at the airport, and then driving down to Dingle with them yay! I'll be back in Galway on Tuesday, so I'll update then I hope!
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Trying to get better...
Today was another relaxing day spent trying to get me better for the week! I guess the cold meds kept me up or something because I couldn't get to sleep until 3AM last night, and then had to wake up at 9:30 to get to class. Waking up was SO difficult, ugh. Particularly since it was windy and pouring rain outside. Not a good motivator. But I had to go to my seminar today, since I actually get graded somewhat on attendance and I had also actually done my reading and such, so I hauled myself out of bed to go to school. The walk to school was wet, but thankfully I actually FOUND my seminar this time.
Oh! I totally forgot to relay that story from last week - so last Tuesday was the first day of my Seminar, and it's in "Tower 1, Room 302." So I wander and wander and wander and I can't freaking find Tower 1! So I eventually find these stairs that lead to Tower 2 and I'm thinking well hey, this should work...because by that point I was just searching for any form of tower. And when I got up there, I asked this girl (Caroline) if she was waiting for my seminar and she said yes. She said that the sheet said Tower 1 but she was sure there weren't any classrooms in there and it must have been a misprint. I nod along and we wait in this room for awhile...just as we're about to leave to go see if there ARE in fact classrooms in Tower 1, this other girl (Maura) shows up for the same class. She says that she asked the secretary at the English department and she said to go over here. We wait awhile...but by 11:30 (was supposed to start at 11) it becomes evident that we are most likely in the wrong place. So we go back down to the English department secretary (the same girl that had told Maura to go to Tower 2) and she tells us that we need to go down a floor (the English department IS in Tower 1) and the classroom is there. GREAT.
Thank God they showed me to the English department because seriously! It (And Tower 1) are not labelled at ALL! There's a vague sign that says Tower 1 - but it could point to 2 theatres, a giant hallway, OR these tiny double doors off to the side that are unlabelled. Oh yes, because it's intutive to go through the tiny unlabelled doors to find Tower 1. WTF?!
Anyway, we got there 35 minutes late and it was way awkward because it's this tiny room and we had to climb over desks to get to the other side of the room to where the empty chairs were. Luckily the teacher was nice and we didn't miss too much since it was the first day. Phew.
So anyway, back to today. Basically, I kicked some serious butt in my seminar because it's a second year seminar, and apparently none of the Irish students have been taught to read Middle English at all. Beforehand they were all complaining about how completely lost they were...and I mean, I definitely felt lost at times too, but I got the general gist. So when the teacher was asking questions, me and the two other visiting students (I think they're American) were really the only ones to answer. I think 2 Irish girls answered 3 questions during the whole 2 hours...yeeaah. Sad part was though, that even though I woke up with no sore throat, I had more phlegm and coughing, and when I tried to speak the first time my voice totally croaked awkwardly. Woot. I spent the rest of class participating in an awkward, raspy whisper, but participating nonetheless.
Afterwards I rechecked out my book (checking out my book for my seminar from the library since it costs 30 euros and is HUGE) and had lunch by myself at the college cafeteria thing, which was INSANE because of the rain. Then I headed back home and have been relaxing ever since. Took a 2 1/2 hour nap which was nice. It was a fairly miserable day so I'm happy to be inside as the wind is howling away out there. Man, up in the tower the wind really rattles the windows and sometimes shakes the room. Eep.
Anyway, that's the update...hopefully I'll be pretty good tomorrow so I can enjoy the potluck dinner I'm going to, woohoo. Lunch with Josh tomorrow and then shopping, cooking, and then potluck with cool people haha yaaay.
Oh! I totally forgot to relay that story from last week - so last Tuesday was the first day of my Seminar, and it's in "Tower 1, Room 302." So I wander and wander and wander and I can't freaking find Tower 1! So I eventually find these stairs that lead to Tower 2 and I'm thinking well hey, this should work...because by that point I was just searching for any form of tower. And when I got up there, I asked this girl (Caroline) if she was waiting for my seminar and she said yes. She said that the sheet said Tower 1 but she was sure there weren't any classrooms in there and it must have been a misprint. I nod along and we wait in this room for awhile...just as we're about to leave to go see if there ARE in fact classrooms in Tower 1, this other girl (Maura) shows up for the same class. She says that she asked the secretary at the English department and she said to go over here. We wait awhile...but by 11:30 (was supposed to start at 11) it becomes evident that we are most likely in the wrong place. So we go back down to the English department secretary (the same girl that had told Maura to go to Tower 2) and she tells us that we need to go down a floor (the English department IS in Tower 1) and the classroom is there. GREAT.
Thank God they showed me to the English department because seriously! It (And Tower 1) are not labelled at ALL! There's a vague sign that says Tower 1 - but it could point to 2 theatres, a giant hallway, OR these tiny double doors off to the side that are unlabelled. Oh yes, because it's intutive to go through the tiny unlabelled doors to find Tower 1. WTF?!
Anyway, we got there 35 minutes late and it was way awkward because it's this tiny room and we had to climb over desks to get to the other side of the room to where the empty chairs were. Luckily the teacher was nice and we didn't miss too much since it was the first day. Phew.
So anyway, back to today. Basically, I kicked some serious butt in my seminar because it's a second year seminar, and apparently none of the Irish students have been taught to read Middle English at all. Beforehand they were all complaining about how completely lost they were...and I mean, I definitely felt lost at times too, but I got the general gist. So when the teacher was asking questions, me and the two other visiting students (I think they're American) were really the only ones to answer. I think 2 Irish girls answered 3 questions during the whole 2 hours...yeeaah. Sad part was though, that even though I woke up with no sore throat, I had more phlegm and coughing, and when I tried to speak the first time my voice totally croaked awkwardly. Woot. I spent the rest of class participating in an awkward, raspy whisper, but participating nonetheless.
Afterwards I rechecked out my book (checking out my book for my seminar from the library since it costs 30 euros and is HUGE) and had lunch by myself at the college cafeteria thing, which was INSANE because of the rain. Then I headed back home and have been relaxing ever since. Took a 2 1/2 hour nap which was nice. It was a fairly miserable day so I'm happy to be inside as the wind is howling away out there. Man, up in the tower the wind really rattles the windows and sometimes shakes the room. Eep.
Anyway, that's the update...hopefully I'll be pretty good tomorrow so I can enjoy the potluck dinner I'm going to, woohoo. Lunch with Josh tomorrow and then shopping, cooking, and then potluck with cool people haha yaaay.
Monday, September 29, 2008
Sunday, September 28, 2008
A whole week in one post!!...
Oooh man, I have a lot to update! Sorry I haven't updated all week, I've been crazy busy. So sadly, some of these will suffer some minute details, but I'll just get the gist across of what's been going on this week.
Monday:
Nothing special. Went to lunch with Alistair and Josh and it was way overpriced. Buut whatever.
Tuesday:
Clubs day! Went and checked out the Equestrian club. The president was once again useless, but I paid 2 Euros and signed up for the mailing list. Hopefully more will be explained at the meeting this week?
Then went into town and bought some alcohol for the night's festivities. But since I had forgotten my backpack I had to get something small haha so I bought a small bottle of Bailey's. Mmm.
That night, Kat, Erin, and Josh came over, and along with me and Alistair, we watched Mean Girls and enjoyed drinking and talking in my room. Mary was generally fine with it - she told us to quiet down once and got worried because she thought Josh was throwing up...but he wasn't so yaay. It was a very fun night! And definitely cheaper than going out, phew! We had intended to go out to the Cellar, but never made it haha.
Wednesday:
Societies Day! Went and signed up for WAY too many societies. But lots of them have really cool trips and events and such...so I figured even if I don't go to meetings I can still go to those! Signed up for ALIVE Volunteer group, Photography, Marine Club, Music club, Musical club, Choir, Traditional Music society...I think that's it, but I'm excited!
This is the day my power chord decided to stop functioning. I flipped out. But luckily, I went into town and bought a new one the same day, problem solved! Also had lunch with Josh at Riordans MMM more Bailey's cheesecake!
That night we went ooout! Went to this I.S.S. (International Student Society) "Dress as your country's stereotype party"[I wore lots of eye makeup and a low cut shirt - I'm a waitress who wants to be an actress auditioning for a director!! Hahaha.] at Mixer's bar, which was sufficiently awkward but fun. I bought a giant Bulmer's bottle haha, it was fun. At the end of the night at the bar, the DJ played some good dance tunes so we danced it up a bit. Then we met up with Alistair and he pulled us and made us run down the street haha and we went to Club Karma again. Alistair introduced us to all of his Irish friends (he was very excited - "These are my American friends!!") but we lost them once inside and Josh and I just danced by ourselves haha but it was quite fun. Except that it was super crowded and drunken people who were being tacky and making out on the dance floor continuously fell into me. Ick. But otherwise, quite fun - also met up with Wendelien and her friends, and so at the end of the night we moved upstairs to dance (less crowded by the bar) with them. Very fun night overall!
Thursday:
Went out to a play (part of the Arts in Action program) by Martin McDonagh, who I LOVE. I read a play of his in my Contemporary Drama class called The Pillowman. It was horrendously violent and twisted and dark, but I still loved the way it was written. So I was pretty excited to see this play, The Cripple of Inaashman (sp?). Met up with Josh and we sat together and the play was AMAAAAZING!! Incredibly well written, great actors, neat set...it was SO good. It was also much happier than The Pillowman. Still quite dark, but I laughed out loud quite a few times and the ending was somewhat happy but with a dark twist. Brilliant!
Afterwards, met up with Erin and her newly met friends, who turned out to be mostly people I knew, and we went and got dessert crepes! MMM yummy! We then stood in a circle and talked for an hour or 2. Pretty fun stuff. Shared a taxi home so that was nice not to have to pay as much.
Friday:
Went to class. Checked out a giant book from the library for my seminar so that I actually could do the reading yaay. Afterwards came home and relaxed, it was nice to have the night off.
Saturday:
Relaxed all day, talked to Mom and Dad. Developed a sore throat though in the afternoon :( Then went to Italian dinner with Josh. While the company was great, I ordered the pesto and ended up having an allergic reaction to it. Luckily I realized soon enough that the reaction wasn't *too* bad. Still not pleasant though, but I was able to stay at the restaurant, swap out my dinner for something else (I was still hungry!) and walk home by myself in the rain (BLEH that was unpleasant). So when I got home I was fairly miserable, being all wet, cold, sick, and having a rash all over my body. Took some Benadryll and passed out for 11 hours. It was lovely.
Sunday:
Woke up, sadly still with a sore throat :( It's been with me all day waah. Luckily I've really just stayed in bed all day doing nothing. Also took a bath so that was good. I'm going to sleep now (not too early, but not *too* late) and hopefully I will wake up better! I hope so at least...
So in a nutshell, that was my week! I look forward to another busy week! Mom and Dad will be here next weekend! Craziness!
As usual, loving it. Yesterday was the first day of rain in like 5 days so that was nice. They're predicting rain all week though. Bleh. But I can't complain, I'm in Ireland and still loving it!
Monday:
Nothing special. Went to lunch with Alistair and Josh and it was way overpriced. Buut whatever.
Tuesday:
Clubs day! Went and checked out the Equestrian club. The president was once again useless, but I paid 2 Euros and signed up for the mailing list. Hopefully more will be explained at the meeting this week?
Then went into town and bought some alcohol for the night's festivities. But since I had forgotten my backpack I had to get something small haha so I bought a small bottle of Bailey's. Mmm.
That night, Kat, Erin, and Josh came over, and along with me and Alistair, we watched Mean Girls and enjoyed drinking and talking in my room. Mary was generally fine with it - she told us to quiet down once and got worried because she thought Josh was throwing up...but he wasn't so yaay. It was a very fun night! And definitely cheaper than going out, phew! We had intended to go out to the Cellar, but never made it haha.
Wednesday:
Societies Day! Went and signed up for WAY too many societies. But lots of them have really cool trips and events and such...so I figured even if I don't go to meetings I can still go to those! Signed up for ALIVE Volunteer group, Photography, Marine Club, Music club, Musical club, Choir, Traditional Music society...I think that's it, but I'm excited!
This is the day my power chord decided to stop functioning. I flipped out. But luckily, I went into town and bought a new one the same day, problem solved! Also had lunch with Josh at Riordans MMM more Bailey's cheesecake!
That night we went ooout! Went to this I.S.S. (International Student Society) "Dress as your country's stereotype party"[I wore lots of eye makeup and a low cut shirt - I'm a waitress who wants to be an actress auditioning for a director!! Hahaha.] at Mixer's bar, which was sufficiently awkward but fun. I bought a giant Bulmer's bottle haha, it was fun. At the end of the night at the bar, the DJ played some good dance tunes so we danced it up a bit. Then we met up with Alistair and he pulled us and made us run down the street haha and we went to Club Karma again. Alistair introduced us to all of his Irish friends (he was very excited - "These are my American friends!!") but we lost them once inside and Josh and I just danced by ourselves haha but it was quite fun. Except that it was super crowded and drunken people who were being tacky and making out on the dance floor continuously fell into me. Ick. But otherwise, quite fun - also met up with Wendelien and her friends, and so at the end of the night we moved upstairs to dance (less crowded by the bar) with them. Very fun night overall!
Thursday:
Went out to a play (part of the Arts in Action program) by Martin McDonagh, who I LOVE. I read a play of his in my Contemporary Drama class called The Pillowman. It was horrendously violent and twisted and dark, but I still loved the way it was written. So I was pretty excited to see this play, The Cripple of Inaashman (sp?). Met up with Josh and we sat together and the play was AMAAAAZING!! Incredibly well written, great actors, neat set...it was SO good. It was also much happier than The Pillowman. Still quite dark, but I laughed out loud quite a few times and the ending was somewhat happy but with a dark twist. Brilliant!
Afterwards, met up with Erin and her newly met friends, who turned out to be mostly people I knew, and we went and got dessert crepes! MMM yummy! We then stood in a circle and talked for an hour or 2. Pretty fun stuff. Shared a taxi home so that was nice not to have to pay as much.
Friday:
Went to class. Checked out a giant book from the library for my seminar so that I actually could do the reading yaay. Afterwards came home and relaxed, it was nice to have the night off.
Saturday:
Relaxed all day, talked to Mom and Dad. Developed a sore throat though in the afternoon :( Then went to Italian dinner with Josh. While the company was great, I ordered the pesto and ended up having an allergic reaction to it. Luckily I realized soon enough that the reaction wasn't *too* bad. Still not pleasant though, but I was able to stay at the restaurant, swap out my dinner for something else (I was still hungry!) and walk home by myself in the rain (BLEH that was unpleasant). So when I got home I was fairly miserable, being all wet, cold, sick, and having a rash all over my body. Took some Benadryll and passed out for 11 hours. It was lovely.
Sunday:
Woke up, sadly still with a sore throat :( It's been with me all day waah. Luckily I've really just stayed in bed all day doing nothing. Also took a bath so that was good. I'm going to sleep now (not too early, but not *too* late) and hopefully I will wake up better! I hope so at least...
So in a nutshell, that was my week! I look forward to another busy week! Mom and Dad will be here next weekend! Craziness!
As usual, loving it. Yesterday was the first day of rain in like 5 days so that was nice. They're predicting rain all week though. Bleh. But I can't complain, I'm in Ireland and still loving it!
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Ah the weekend...
I've had a WONDERFUL weekend, capped off by the wonderful early arrival of my internet!! I wasn't sure if the router had been delivered...I knew something had been delivered on Friday, and Mary said her son picked up the box and may bring it by...well he brought it buy today YAY and I installed it, and lo and behold, the internet worked! Shocking but I don't CARE, it WORKS!!! I'm ecstatic to say the least!
Working backwards, today was lazy, spent most of it talking to Jason which was nice. Yesterday was a lazy day as well, to recover from Friday night haha.
Friday night was SO much fun. Went out with Josh and Kat, and we went to Quey's pub first, and enjoyed 2 pints there. Oh, and Kat also got spoken to by a creepy man whose opening line after he found out that she was American was, "Oh! Have you seen Silence of the Lambs??" Hahaha. Anyway, I had a pint of Bulmer's and a pint of Smithwick's, which I did actually like (I can't believe I actually like a beer!). We were sitting right behind the band, which played covers of American songs...they're big on Dire Straights and Tom Petty I've noticed. They were good though, and we sat there and talked and listened to awhile before we moved on.
Then we went to The Cellar, which was a more upscale like bar. I got this drink called a Woo Woo, hahaha, which was quite good. It was vodka, cranberry juice, Triple Sec, and Peach Snapps. Kat and Josh each had Long Island Iced Teas, and we sat there for the drinks and then went to go hit the clubs.
Well, after we spent some time collecting stamps (they have these stampers that stand outside and when you have a stamp you get in for free), we went to Club Cuba, which Kat had said was fun. However, when we got there, there was no one there! On either of the two floors! Disgruntled, we moved on to Club L.A., where we also found only 3-4 people! We were shocked, appalled, confused, and sad to say the least. So we decided that clearly, the clubs weren't happening, so we went back to a pub called Tis Coli and had our last drinks. They had Gin and Tonics and I had some Bailey's on the rocks, mmmm. And then we headed home and Kat and I shared a taxi. Now, it doesn't sound like we did too much, but it was really quite enjoyable to talk with them and enjoy the drinks and the company, and it was definitely the most "going out" I have done since I've been here, haha. Can't wait to do some more! Well...I can't, but my wallet probably can, oooy things are expensive. But that's okay...the experience is worth it right?
Some pictures of the night:
Galway Adventures
It was quite enjoyable, and this weekend has been lovely...not a lot of rain, though it is rather cold tonight. Oh well, I don't care because I have internet!!!!!!!! YAAAAAAAAAY! No more hauling my laptop to class and spending hours in the library and on weekends finding somewhere quiet and awkward to Skype. NO MORE! Happiness in my own home :) Haha, and as Zach said:
"Nothing like giving crack back to an addict..."
Teehee!
Working backwards, today was lazy, spent most of it talking to Jason which was nice. Yesterday was a lazy day as well, to recover from Friday night haha.
Friday night was SO much fun. Went out with Josh and Kat, and we went to Quey's pub first, and enjoyed 2 pints there. Oh, and Kat also got spoken to by a creepy man whose opening line after he found out that she was American was, "Oh! Have you seen Silence of the Lambs??" Hahaha. Anyway, I had a pint of Bulmer's and a pint of Smithwick's, which I did actually like (I can't believe I actually like a beer!). We were sitting right behind the band, which played covers of American songs...they're big on Dire Straights and Tom Petty I've noticed. They were good though, and we sat there and talked and listened to awhile before we moved on.
Then we went to The Cellar, which was a more upscale like bar. I got this drink called a Woo Woo, hahaha, which was quite good. It was vodka, cranberry juice, Triple Sec, and Peach Snapps. Kat and Josh each had Long Island Iced Teas, and we sat there for the drinks and then went to go hit the clubs.
Well, after we spent some time collecting stamps (they have these stampers that stand outside and when you have a stamp you get in for free), we went to Club Cuba, which Kat had said was fun. However, when we got there, there was no one there! On either of the two floors! Disgruntled, we moved on to Club L.A., where we also found only 3-4 people! We were shocked, appalled, confused, and sad to say the least. So we decided that clearly, the clubs weren't happening, so we went back to a pub called Tis Coli and had our last drinks. They had Gin and Tonics and I had some Bailey's on the rocks, mmmm. And then we headed home and Kat and I shared a taxi. Now, it doesn't sound like we did too much, but it was really quite enjoyable to talk with them and enjoy the drinks and the company, and it was definitely the most "going out" I have done since I've been here, haha. Can't wait to do some more! Well...I can't, but my wallet probably can, oooy things are expensive. But that's okay...the experience is worth it right?
Some pictures of the night:
Galway Adventures
It was quite enjoyable, and this weekend has been lovely...not a lot of rain, though it is rather cold tonight. Oh well, I don't care because I have internet!!!!!!!! YAAAAAAAAAY! No more hauling my laptop to class and spending hours in the library and on weekends finding somewhere quiet and awkward to Skype. NO MORE! Happiness in my own home :) Haha, and as Zach said:
"Nothing like giving crack back to an addict..."
Teehee!
INTERNET!!!!!
I HAVE INTERNET IN MY HOUSE!!!!!!!!!!!!! EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
(Update on weekend coming as soon as I finish dancing around the house with joy!!!)
(Update on weekend coming as soon as I finish dancing around the house with joy!!!)
Friday, September 19, 2008
First foray into Asian cuisine in Ireland...
Yesterday was unventful...I registered for lectures and went to class. Today I had a bit of a time finding the Garda Immigration place...it took 45 minutes to walk there, and then I got lost because the directions are terrible and the place was totally not marked!! I had to call Josh because it is right across from his apartments, and he took me right to the building thankfully. We decided to have lunch so I said I would call him after I was done. I waited a little bit, gave the guy all of my documentation, and then when I went to pay the exorbitant fee of 150 Euros with my credit card, they didn't take American Express! ARG. I had it in my mind last night to grab my other card but I TOTALLY forgot. And he was like, well you'll just have to come back again...which I was so NOT looking forward to...but when I told Josh afterwards, he was SO sweet and paid with his credit card! I'll have to pay him back of course, but that is infinitely better than having to walk all the way down there again!
Then we went out to lunch and attempted Asian cuisine in Ireland which was...interesting. We went to this place called Ming Garden which is up a few flights of stairs in this building, and when we got there there was NO ONE there. Freaky. The food was completely overpriced...my chicken chow mein was okay, but not great...no flavor, not a lot of food, and bell peppers?! Josh got the lunch special which is a good deal...you get an appetizer, chicken/beef with a few choices of sauce, fried rice, fries (?!), and tea/coffee. Strange combo...but good deal.
I've been hanging out on the internet in the library since just catching up on things. Going out tonight with Kat and Josh...should be fun! Off to go home and eat dinner and change woohoo.
Oh! Some more pictures!
Galway pictures Part 2
Then we went out to lunch and attempted Asian cuisine in Ireland which was...interesting. We went to this place called Ming Garden which is up a few flights of stairs in this building, and when we got there there was NO ONE there. Freaky. The food was completely overpriced...my chicken chow mein was okay, but not great...no flavor, not a lot of food, and bell peppers?! Josh got the lunch special which is a good deal...you get an appetizer, chicken/beef with a few choices of sauce, fried rice, fries (?!), and tea/coffee. Strange combo...but good deal.
I've been hanging out on the internet in the library since just catching up on things. Going out tonight with Kat and Josh...should be fun! Off to go home and eat dinner and change woohoo.
Oh! Some more pictures!
Galway pictures Part 2
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
First come, first served...crazy registration and the fun night preceding it...
I am on my third day of sunshine today! It is PURE sunshine too! There are no clouds in the sky and it is a magnificent blue. I am stoked :D Not only that, but, after waiting in line for 3 hours (details to follow), I got the last spot in the English seminar that I really wanted!! Today is shaping up rather fabulously!
So yesterday before classes I went shopping in town and bought lingerie because it is SUPER cheap here! Seriously...stuff that would cost $15-30 back home is only 6 Euros (around $9!). And it's light so I'll be able to take it home :)
After shopping I went to class and the first one was good...the director of the English department is the lecturer and he is quite entertaining. Then in between classes, I met up with Josh (who, P.S. is gay, haha just in case you were all wondering about me spending so much time with him) and we wandered around trying to find out where to turn in our Arts in Action forms. Arts in Action is an awesome program where they take you to various performances throughout the year and you can pick which ones you want to go to. 40 Euros for the whole program or 10 Euros for each event. I'm going to 3 so it was only 30 Euros, but I'm SOO excited because I get to go see Martin McDonagh's new play! He is an Irish playwright that I studied in my contemporary drama class at USC, and I loved his play The Pillowman. It is creepy and twisted, as are most contemporary, postmodern (particularly Irish) dramas, but it was so well written and absolutely fascinating to study. Can't wait to see that. I'm also going to a dance show featuring and Irish as well as a Korean dance troupe. Also going to a string quartet concert with information and history on the string quartet.
But in any case, while we were searching for the correct buliding, we wandered into this amazingly creepy building along the way! We walked in and not only does the place feel completely deserted and under construction and very horror film like, but there is a huge case of stuffed dead birds. Walking down the hall revealed more creepy cases of taxidermy, skeletons, and other strang things. Apparently we had wandered into the zoology as WELL AS the math deparment?! What?! Our friend Erin is a math major and she actually has classes and advisement in that creepy building! Anyway, it was entertaining. We then went to the right building and were glad to turn in our forms. Then we went and got a snack in the concourse...I had to settle for a bagel because they had nothing else, but it was a nice pick me up between classes.
Then went to class (OMG with the really boring guy again, nooo! I have him twice a week and he speaks super slowly, monotonously, and he places strange emphasis on weird syllables and also separates syllables!! Like he'll say..."AND now we are going to TALK about the RE......formation." Anyway...) with Kat, when I found out that she and Josh are planning on getting to Seminar registration at 7AM!! Registration doesn't start unil 9AM....jeez! I wasn't planning on getting there until 8, but after hearing that many other people were arriving early, I decided to get there around 7:30ish.
Well Josh calls me later and says Erin wants to meet up for a pint in town at around 8:30, but I got done eating dinner at home around 7:15ish, so Josh and I decided to meet for dessert in town. I don't end up getting there until 8, but we found this cute little sort of Italian place called Buon Apetito. We both get dessert; I got vanilla ice cream with caramel sauce and toffee chunks, mmm, and it was in a basket?! Haha. It was premade but still quite good. However, afterwards, we both got super hungry for some reason! Everyone else in the restaurant was ordering food and it looked SO good...even though we had already eaten...so after lamenting for quite some time, we decided to get a drink because Erin still hadn't called us and it was like 8:45. So I saw in the window next to our table that they had Crema de Limoncello!! AAAH!! Had to have it! I had forgotten about it, but Josh and I both ordered it. Unfortunately, for some reason the waitress gave us just plain Limoncello instead, but hey, I'm not going to complain. So we both sipped it...I believe it was quite high in the alcohol content because it tasted quite potent and I was slightly buzzed after just sipping one shot. But it made everything warm and fuzzy which was nice. Then when we had to leave, hahaha, Josh had somehow gotten trapped because these Italians came and sat at this long table that was perpendicular to ours, and pushed their chairs back to the side of our table, and Josh was trapped between them and the window of food. Haha so that was fun to watch him clamber out.
Then we went to the King's Head, a famous pub in Galway, which was quite quiet since it was only a Tuesday night. Erin got there around 9:15-9:30, and they had pints of beer (I decided against it just in case the lemon, dairy, and alcohol reacted poorly together) and we sat and talked for about 2 hours, which was really nice. But Josh and I were still hungry! Hahaha so we went to Supermac's down the way, which is basically exactly like McDonald's, except supposedly better/classier, but not really when you go down there at around 11:45 at night and all the drunks are around. There was this one guy on the sidewalk outside who was quite violent and drunk, and was trying to punch out this other guy. We walked in and got greasy food (mmmm...I just got fries) and sat in the Supermac's hahaha and felt very American. I had a view of outside and I watched the drama with the drunk guy unfold. He kept trying to come inside and the manager kept kicking him out and the guy get causing trouble. Eventually it escalated into him trying to get physical with this other Irish guy, who was pinning his arms behind him and pinning him to the class outside. Then this other very tough looking Supermac worker went out and broke it up, and then the Garda (police) came and took statements. Didn't see the guy again, but it was all interesting to watch...
We sat and talked and then Erin got ice cream too and so we didn't end up finishing until around 12:15. I decided to take a taxi home just to be safe, although the other two walked home. I don't know, maybe I am paranoid, but Mary is paranoid and she made me promise to take a taxi home any time after 11PM, which I think is a smart idea. I mean, I'd rather pay to take a taxi then get robbed or raped or something terrible like that. So a nice taxi driver took me home, where I went up to my room and got ready for the morning since I had to wake up at 6:45AM bleeeh. Got to sleep around 12:45 and poof the alarm went off.
Arg early...the earliest I've woken up since I've been here in Ireland. Yuck! The sun wasn't even up yet. But thankfully when I looked out, there were no clouds...because man it would have SUCKED to have waited in line in the rain. So I got up and went to the university and sat/stood in this giant line of people. I couldn't believe it! Some people had been there since 3AM!! A few of my friends got there at 6:30...jeeeez. I got there at 7:40 and so I knew I was kind towards the back of the line, but I was hopeful at least that I wasn't last. So at around 8, they started giving people numbers so that we could go away and then come back, which was nice. So I got my number and then me, Josh, and his friend Molly went to go get coffee. Or rather, they got coffee and I got a croissant. Then we went back to stand in line and stood together for awhile before eventually separating, although me and Molly were next to each other in line so that was nice.
Once we eventually got into the building, it was so nerve wracking because they had giant sheets of paper with the names of all of the closed/filled classes, and a woman read them out. And everyone's just hoping that they don't hear their class. I was quite hopeful because I hadn't heard mine yet! I wanted to take Love, Gender, and Genre, which is about love (YAY!) and is at the perfect time as well. I was just waiting for it to close right as I got to the front, but I made it to the front, and I told the guy that I wanted that class, and I got the LAST spot!! AAAAAAH YAY!! I was SOO excited! Apparently though, the reason that they were all filling up so fast, was that they only allow 3 visiting students per seminar!! I mean, granted there are like 20+ seminars, but still! Quite crazy and I am SO thankful and very lucky to have gotten that last spot!
Then I wandered out and Josh and I sat and enjoyed the sun for a bit before I came back into the library to use the internet :)
So overall it's been a great (if slightly tiring) 24 hours, and I can't wait to be done with class at 3 and just go home and sleep and relax. Sigh, but tomorrow is MORE registration (for lectures) with more lines....gaaaah. Then on Friday I have to register with Garda/Immigration so yay MORE lines. After that I am going to be SO ready to go out and enjoy myself.
As usual, having a great time, even with the annoyance of in person, first come first served registration (HELLO?! Online registration anyone?!), but yes, enjoying the sunshine and the beautiful green grass very much :D
So yesterday before classes I went shopping in town and bought lingerie because it is SUPER cheap here! Seriously...stuff that would cost $15-30 back home is only 6 Euros (around $9!). And it's light so I'll be able to take it home :)
After shopping I went to class and the first one was good...the director of the English department is the lecturer and he is quite entertaining. Then in between classes, I met up with Josh (who, P.S. is gay, haha just in case you were all wondering about me spending so much time with him) and we wandered around trying to find out where to turn in our Arts in Action forms. Arts in Action is an awesome program where they take you to various performances throughout the year and you can pick which ones you want to go to. 40 Euros for the whole program or 10 Euros for each event. I'm going to 3 so it was only 30 Euros, but I'm SOO excited because I get to go see Martin McDonagh's new play! He is an Irish playwright that I studied in my contemporary drama class at USC, and I loved his play The Pillowman. It is creepy and twisted, as are most contemporary, postmodern (particularly Irish) dramas, but it was so well written and absolutely fascinating to study. Can't wait to see that. I'm also going to a dance show featuring and Irish as well as a Korean dance troupe. Also going to a string quartet concert with information and history on the string quartet.
But in any case, while we were searching for the correct buliding, we wandered into this amazingly creepy building along the way! We walked in and not only does the place feel completely deserted and under construction and very horror film like, but there is a huge case of stuffed dead birds. Walking down the hall revealed more creepy cases of taxidermy, skeletons, and other strang things. Apparently we had wandered into the zoology as WELL AS the math deparment?! What?! Our friend Erin is a math major and she actually has classes and advisement in that creepy building! Anyway, it was entertaining. We then went to the right building and were glad to turn in our forms. Then we went and got a snack in the concourse...I had to settle for a bagel because they had nothing else, but it was a nice pick me up between classes.
Then went to class (OMG with the really boring guy again, nooo! I have him twice a week and he speaks super slowly, monotonously, and he places strange emphasis on weird syllables and also separates syllables!! Like he'll say..."AND now we are going to TALK about the RE......formation." Anyway...) with Kat, when I found out that she and Josh are planning on getting to Seminar registration at 7AM!! Registration doesn't start unil 9AM....jeez! I wasn't planning on getting there until 8, but after hearing that many other people were arriving early, I decided to get there around 7:30ish.
Well Josh calls me later and says Erin wants to meet up for a pint in town at around 8:30, but I got done eating dinner at home around 7:15ish, so Josh and I decided to meet for dessert in town. I don't end up getting there until 8, but we found this cute little sort of Italian place called Buon Apetito. We both get dessert; I got vanilla ice cream with caramel sauce and toffee chunks, mmm, and it was in a basket?! Haha. It was premade but still quite good. However, afterwards, we both got super hungry for some reason! Everyone else in the restaurant was ordering food and it looked SO good...even though we had already eaten...so after lamenting for quite some time, we decided to get a drink because Erin still hadn't called us and it was like 8:45. So I saw in the window next to our table that they had Crema de Limoncello!! AAAH!! Had to have it! I had forgotten about it, but Josh and I both ordered it. Unfortunately, for some reason the waitress gave us just plain Limoncello instead, but hey, I'm not going to complain. So we both sipped it...I believe it was quite high in the alcohol content because it tasted quite potent and I was slightly buzzed after just sipping one shot. But it made everything warm and fuzzy which was nice. Then when we had to leave, hahaha, Josh had somehow gotten trapped because these Italians came and sat at this long table that was perpendicular to ours, and pushed their chairs back to the side of our table, and Josh was trapped between them and the window of food. Haha so that was fun to watch him clamber out.
Then we went to the King's Head, a famous pub in Galway, which was quite quiet since it was only a Tuesday night. Erin got there around 9:15-9:30, and they had pints of beer (I decided against it just in case the lemon, dairy, and alcohol reacted poorly together) and we sat and talked for about 2 hours, which was really nice. But Josh and I were still hungry! Hahaha so we went to Supermac's down the way, which is basically exactly like McDonald's, except supposedly better/classier, but not really when you go down there at around 11:45 at night and all the drunks are around. There was this one guy on the sidewalk outside who was quite violent and drunk, and was trying to punch out this other guy. We walked in and got greasy food (mmmm...I just got fries) and sat in the Supermac's hahaha and felt very American. I had a view of outside and I watched the drama with the drunk guy unfold. He kept trying to come inside and the manager kept kicking him out and the guy get causing trouble. Eventually it escalated into him trying to get physical with this other Irish guy, who was pinning his arms behind him and pinning him to the class outside. Then this other very tough looking Supermac worker went out and broke it up, and then the Garda (police) came and took statements. Didn't see the guy again, but it was all interesting to watch...
We sat and talked and then Erin got ice cream too and so we didn't end up finishing until around 12:15. I decided to take a taxi home just to be safe, although the other two walked home. I don't know, maybe I am paranoid, but Mary is paranoid and she made me promise to take a taxi home any time after 11PM, which I think is a smart idea. I mean, I'd rather pay to take a taxi then get robbed or raped or something terrible like that. So a nice taxi driver took me home, where I went up to my room and got ready for the morning since I had to wake up at 6:45AM bleeeh. Got to sleep around 12:45 and poof the alarm went off.
Arg early...the earliest I've woken up since I've been here in Ireland. Yuck! The sun wasn't even up yet. But thankfully when I looked out, there were no clouds...because man it would have SUCKED to have waited in line in the rain. So I got up and went to the university and sat/stood in this giant line of people. I couldn't believe it! Some people had been there since 3AM!! A few of my friends got there at 6:30...jeeeez. I got there at 7:40 and so I knew I was kind towards the back of the line, but I was hopeful at least that I wasn't last. So at around 8, they started giving people numbers so that we could go away and then come back, which was nice. So I got my number and then me, Josh, and his friend Molly went to go get coffee. Or rather, they got coffee and I got a croissant. Then we went back to stand in line and stood together for awhile before eventually separating, although me and Molly were next to each other in line so that was nice.
Once we eventually got into the building, it was so nerve wracking because they had giant sheets of paper with the names of all of the closed/filled classes, and a woman read them out. And everyone's just hoping that they don't hear their class. I was quite hopeful because I hadn't heard mine yet! I wanted to take Love, Gender, and Genre, which is about love (YAY!) and is at the perfect time as well. I was just waiting for it to close right as I got to the front, but I made it to the front, and I told the guy that I wanted that class, and I got the LAST spot!! AAAAAAH YAY!! I was SOO excited! Apparently though, the reason that they were all filling up so fast, was that they only allow 3 visiting students per seminar!! I mean, granted there are like 20+ seminars, but still! Quite crazy and I am SO thankful and very lucky to have gotten that last spot!
Then I wandered out and Josh and I sat and enjoyed the sun for a bit before I came back into the library to use the internet :)
So overall it's been a great (if slightly tiring) 24 hours, and I can't wait to be done with class at 3 and just go home and sleep and relax. Sigh, but tomorrow is MORE registration (for lectures) with more lines....gaaaah. Then on Friday I have to register with Garda/Immigration so yay MORE lines. After that I am going to be SO ready to go out and enjoy myself.
As usual, having a great time, even with the annoyance of in person, first come first served registration (HELLO?! Online registration anyone?!), but yes, enjoying the sunshine and the beautiful green grass very much :D
Monday, September 15, 2008
Not much to update...this weekend I guess...
So another quick update.
The weekend was nice and relaxing. Friday night I stayed in and rested and watched Saved. Saturday I went shopping with Erin and her roommate and we checked out the Saturday morning market! It's sooo cool! Tons of food, crafts, jewelry, etc. We went shopping (it was raining) in the mall and along shop street and I bought some stuff and gifts :) Then met with Josh, tried to buy books for our class at this second hand book store, but that FAILED since they didn't have any of them, so then we went to lunch at Cafe Roscoe's which was yummy, had Bailey's cheesecake again (haha) at Riordan's, and then we went to the cinema, but there were no good movies playing, so we just went back to his apartment (because we got lost trying to find mine haha) and hung out and talked and watched youtube videos haha. Then he went out with friends and I went home and slept lol. I swear I'll go out next weekend.
Sunday I braved the pouring rain and went to campus and found an open, empty building to use wireless in and talk with Jason on Skype which was quite nice. Barely made it out in time though! Haha, I heard keys and I ran out and the security guard was locking the door, and then opened it again for me to let me out.
Today is sunny!! I'm having lunch with a friend and then class from 4-6. It's a lovely day and I'm quite happy and rested :)
The weekend was nice and relaxing. Friday night I stayed in and rested and watched Saved. Saturday I went shopping with Erin and her roommate and we checked out the Saturday morning market! It's sooo cool! Tons of food, crafts, jewelry, etc. We went shopping (it was raining) in the mall and along shop street and I bought some stuff and gifts :) Then met with Josh, tried to buy books for our class at this second hand book store, but that FAILED since they didn't have any of them, so then we went to lunch at Cafe Roscoe's which was yummy, had Bailey's cheesecake again (haha) at Riordan's, and then we went to the cinema, but there were no good movies playing, so we just went back to his apartment (because we got lost trying to find mine haha) and hung out and talked and watched youtube videos haha. Then he went out with friends and I went home and slept lol. I swear I'll go out next weekend.
Sunday I braved the pouring rain and went to campus and found an open, empty building to use wireless in and talk with Jason on Skype which was quite nice. Barely made it out in time though! Haha, I heard keys and I ran out and the security guard was locking the door, and then opened it again for me to let me out.
Today is sunny!! I'm having lunch with a friend and then class from 4-6. It's a lovely day and I'm quite happy and rested :)
Friday, September 12, 2008
Nothing much to report...
Stayed up late doing nothing when I was determined to go to sleep early. Waking up was quite difficult...woke up early to talk to Mom and Dad before they left for Pennsylvania. Fell back asleep and waking up the second time was even harder...gah. But I made it out of the house on time (thankfully it wasn't raining...if it had been, I'm pretty sure I'd still be in bed) and went to lecture 9-10AM. Arg. Why why why on a Friday. (At least I grabbed an apple pastry on the way to class...) And the class is so cool too, bleeh. It's all about drama which is fun. Just like all the other English classes, all you have to do is read and there's no attendance taken and we only have to write one essay at the end of the semester. Sweet!Josh came and sat next to me and we had a nice chat since class started late and ended early. Then I came to addict myself to the internet some more, but it is boring since I've now uploaded all of my pictures and no one else is awake haha, yay time difference.
I have class from 1-2 (BLEH Victorian literature) and then using the internet some more, and then I thoroughly plan on going home and passing out so that if someone wants to do something tonight I'll be alive enough to do so. No confirmed plans as of yet for the weekend, but I'm sure something will come up. Catching up on sleep definitely high on my agenda though!!
It's not raining but it is cloudy...hope it stays dry at least until I get home!
Oh and I uploaded pictures! You can check them out if you're not on Facebook:
Galway Album!!
Except for being tired, everything is wonderful and I'm still having a great time! Missing friends and family back home of course, but time passes so quickly here (I swear, it passes faster here) that it won't be long until I'll be seeing all of you again :) Hope everyone is well!
I have class from 1-2 (BLEH Victorian literature) and then using the internet some more, and then I thoroughly plan on going home and passing out so that if someone wants to do something tonight I'll be alive enough to do so. No confirmed plans as of yet for the weekend, but I'm sure something will come up. Catching up on sleep definitely high on my agenda though!!
It's not raining but it is cloudy...hope it stays dry at least until I get home!
Oh and I uploaded pictures! You can check them out if you're not on Facebook:
Galway Album!!
Except for being tired, everything is wonderful and I'm still having a great time! Missing friends and family back home of course, but time passes so quickly here (I swear, it passes faster here) that it won't be long until I'll be seeing all of you again :) Hope everyone is well!
Thursday, September 11, 2008
My first experience clubbing! Hahaha...
The other night I didn't really do anything interesting...just helped Alistair do a survey, which was actually an interesting interview on work and life and such. Haha.
But then, man, I had SOOO much fun last night!! Started out skipping class haha because it was the first lecture again. I may not even be taking that class though…hopefully not, it’s Victorian literature, which I haate but would have to take in order to get 30 ETCS units. In any case, I went to campus to meet Erin (while I was waiting, Zach called me! That was pretty cool since it was my Irish number), and from there we went to dinner in city centre (walked there in the pouring rain…it was like, sunny when we came back of course) at this adorable café that was REALLY good. Cajun chicken chiabatta sandwich with potato wedges. It was a little expensive, but they gave you a lot for you buck. PLUS, then we each had Bailey’s cheesecake which was AMAAAAZING!! There was chocolate drizzled on it, but I really didn’t care, and it was quite orgasmic.
Afterwards, we walked back to Corrib Village, and I borrowed Erin’s internet briefly while she got ready. We were going to go to the party with her roommates, but her roommates ended up going to another apartment and the girls there weren’t ready, and Erin didn’t want to be super late (neither did I) so we left on our own. We walked to Eyre Square (again, a light drizzle on the way there), and wandered a bit trying to find the Skeffington Hotel. But we found it, and the place was crazy! Very loud, and very crowded. It was open like a regular night plus there was an international corner, but there were just tons of people. We both got a pint of Bulmer’s and then attempted to mingle awkwardly, but that didn’t work out too well. Saw a few people we knew but ended up talking together until my housemate, Alistair came.
Then we talked together for awhile and then people came to us! Haha, I was like, fuck mingling, I stand still and people come to me! Talked to some acquaintances I knew and met a few new ones, which was nice.
People were passing out free passes to this club down the street called Karma, and I didn’t really want to go because I was tired and my feet hurt. But Erin and Alistair wanted to go, and I mean, it was free, so we went. FYI, it was my first actual clubbing experience ever! Haha, mainly just because I've never thought it was worth it to have to pay to go to a hot, sweaty place to dance when I can just dance to songs I'm guaranteed to like in my own home, but whatever. Had to check my coat, but hung onto my purse since it was 1.50 euros per item.
Then went into the club, which was of course, very loud, crowded, hot, and sweaty…but we found some people we knew and danced with them. The DJ was good (the one in the Skeffington was better, but this guy wasn’t bad at all) and there were a lot of great songs played. We danced for a good hour (it felt like longer though because my feet were by that point REALLY killing me, but I was having a good time and loving the music and dancing…although I did feel very restricted dancing with my purse and crowded into corners and such) and it was quite fun. Erin got seriously hit on by this one guy, and she had to take him aside and show him the ring and say she was engaged. He was nice and understood. Man, she got stares everywhere she went though, she is so beautiful!! But anyway, it was quite fun to dance since no one was dancing at the Skeffinton and he was playing great music, so I was quite happy. Sexyback, When I Grow Up, Mr. Brightside, All The Small Things…much more American music than I thought, but it was good.
Then at about 1:20AM, we decided to had home and we all shared a cab. I’m glad Erin got a cab because Corrib Village is really dark and kind of creepy. Alistair was nice enough to grab most of the cab fee for me, which was sweet, and so were able to walk right in. It was nice to bond with him tonight and he is soo nice! All the people I met were though. Met a really cool guy named Josh who has a farm with horses (he’s been riding since he was 4!), loves writing, is an English lit major, and loves plays! I was like, oh my God, awwwesome hahaha. Met someone from South Korea which was new, met Erick and Marisol’s other Mexican friends who are very nice, and Wendelein’s other friends as well. Good thing Alistair came, he was the only Irish person I met all night! Haha, oh not true, the guy who was hitting on Erin was Irish, but I don’t really count him.
All in all though, it was a great day and night and except for the fact that my feet are KILLING me, I couldn’t be happier. I love it here and making so many friends even though I haven’t even started joining clubs and societies yet! Craziness. Once the internet gets to my house, I will be the happiest freaking person on the planet!! :) At least I have free wireless on campus now, which I am now using, woot!
But then, man, I had SOOO much fun last night!! Started out skipping class haha because it was the first lecture again. I may not even be taking that class though…hopefully not, it’s Victorian literature, which I haate but would have to take in order to get 30 ETCS units. In any case, I went to campus to meet Erin (while I was waiting, Zach called me! That was pretty cool since it was my Irish number), and from there we went to dinner in city centre (walked there in the pouring rain…it was like, sunny when we came back of course) at this adorable café that was REALLY good. Cajun chicken chiabatta sandwich with potato wedges. It was a little expensive, but they gave you a lot for you buck. PLUS, then we each had Bailey’s cheesecake which was AMAAAAZING!! There was chocolate drizzled on it, but I really didn’t care, and it was quite orgasmic.
Afterwards, we walked back to Corrib Village, and I borrowed Erin’s internet briefly while she got ready. We were going to go to the party with her roommates, but her roommates ended up going to another apartment and the girls there weren’t ready, and Erin didn’t want to be super late (neither did I) so we left on our own. We walked to Eyre Square (again, a light drizzle on the way there), and wandered a bit trying to find the Skeffington Hotel. But we found it, and the place was crazy! Very loud, and very crowded. It was open like a regular night plus there was an international corner, but there were just tons of people. We both got a pint of Bulmer’s and then attempted to mingle awkwardly, but that didn’t work out too well. Saw a few people we knew but ended up talking together until my housemate, Alistair came.
Then we talked together for awhile and then people came to us! Haha, I was like, fuck mingling, I stand still and people come to me! Talked to some acquaintances I knew and met a few new ones, which was nice.
People were passing out free passes to this club down the street called Karma, and I didn’t really want to go because I was tired and my feet hurt. But Erin and Alistair wanted to go, and I mean, it was free, so we went. FYI, it was my first actual clubbing experience ever! Haha, mainly just because I've never thought it was worth it to have to pay to go to a hot, sweaty place to dance when I can just dance to songs I'm guaranteed to like in my own home, but whatever. Had to check my coat, but hung onto my purse since it was 1.50 euros per item.
Then went into the club, which was of course, very loud, crowded, hot, and sweaty…but we found some people we knew and danced with them. The DJ was good (the one in the Skeffington was better, but this guy wasn’t bad at all) and there were a lot of great songs played. We danced for a good hour (it felt like longer though because my feet were by that point REALLY killing me, but I was having a good time and loving the music and dancing…although I did feel very restricted dancing with my purse and crowded into corners and such) and it was quite fun. Erin got seriously hit on by this one guy, and she had to take him aside and show him the ring and say she was engaged. He was nice and understood. Man, she got stares everywhere she went though, she is so beautiful!! But anyway, it was quite fun to dance since no one was dancing at the Skeffinton and he was playing great music, so I was quite happy. Sexyback, When I Grow Up, Mr. Brightside, All The Small Things…much more American music than I thought, but it was good.
Then at about 1:20AM, we decided to had home and we all shared a cab. I’m glad Erin got a cab because Corrib Village is really dark and kind of creepy. Alistair was nice enough to grab most of the cab fee for me, which was sweet, and so were able to walk right in. It was nice to bond with him tonight and he is soo nice! All the people I met were though. Met a really cool guy named Josh who has a farm with horses (he’s been riding since he was 4!), loves writing, is an English lit major, and loves plays! I was like, oh my God, awwwesome hahaha. Met someone from South Korea which was new, met Erick and Marisol’s other Mexican friends who are very nice, and Wendelein’s other friends as well. Good thing Alistair came, he was the only Irish person I met all night! Haha, oh not true, the guy who was hitting on Erin was Irish, but I don’t really count him.
All in all though, it was a great day and night and except for the fact that my feet are KILLING me, I couldn’t be happier. I love it here and making so many friends even though I haven’t even started joining clubs and societies yet! Craziness. Once the internet gets to my house, I will be the happiest freaking person on the planet!! :) At least I have free wireless on campus now, which I am now using, woot!
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Quick update...
A quick update as my laptop battery is dying:
*Getting home the other day was a nightmare! So cold, wet, windy...but I made it.
*Had a lazy weekend, it was nice to catch up on sleep.
*Grad student came, he's soo nice!
*Ordered internet! Will be here in 2 weeks.
*Got kicked out of classes yesterday haha because we weren't Irish students - they did Irish registration information and such.
*Had my first class today, it was soo nice! Only an hour, started 10 minutes late, had a 4 minute break, wonderful!
*Then went to College Bar with some friends, got wireless working (YAAAY!) and had some drinks with the girls
*They went to class, I stayed here haha because I figured the first class would be much the same as yesterday, and it's only Romanticism anyway....
*Maybe going out tonight. Party tomorrow!
*Having a wonderful time as usual! It's raining today, but that's okay because there wasn't much wind when I got here...we'll see what it's like when I leave here...
Loving it though!! :D
*Getting home the other day was a nightmare! So cold, wet, windy...but I made it.
*Had a lazy weekend, it was nice to catch up on sleep.
*Grad student came, he's soo nice!
*Ordered internet! Will be here in 2 weeks.
*Got kicked out of classes yesterday haha because we weren't Irish students - they did Irish registration information and such.
*Had my first class today, it was soo nice! Only an hour, started 10 minutes late, had a 4 minute break, wonderful!
*Then went to College Bar with some friends, got wireless working (YAAAY!) and had some drinks with the girls
*They went to class, I stayed here haha because I figured the first class would be much the same as yesterday, and it's only Romanticism anyway....
*Maybe going out tonight. Party tomorrow!
*Having a wonderful time as usual! It's raining today, but that's okay because there wasn't much wind when I got here...we'll see what it's like when I leave here...
Loving it though!! :D
Friday, September 5, 2008
Orientation and weather...
Misc. items I have forgotten to cover:
*There are wild swans here in the river! So neat.
*For some reason or another, my sense of direction here is not impaired! I made it home from city center on the first day all by myself! Have navigated to NUI, city center, and back home multiple times without incident!
So yesterday was orientation...it was a long day full of speeches. Of course, it was the most BEAUTIFUL day outside, all sunny and warm and nice all day, and we were stuck in this tiny auditorium from 9:30AM - 4PM basically. We had an hour and a half for lunch which was nice. I sat with these girls who were very nice, and then at lunch I ran into Anne and a few girls I'd met yesterday so I ate lunch with them. I've met many girls from Missouri, and they have all been super nice! After orientation, I went back to Corrib Village with Anne (who lives next door/with the girls from Missouri) and borrowed some of her internet. And boy am I glad I didn't live in Corrib Village, because not only do you have to walk along this really sketchy trail to get there, but the rooms are like prison cells and the internet is terrible!! You have to sign in, only one computer can be signed in at a time, it is slow, and cuts out all the time and then you have to sign in again! It's awful really, but I couldn't really complain at the time because it was free internet. While this internet here is not free, at least it is reliable.
After that I went back home and had dinner with Mary, who just got back from the hospital! She had surgery on her toe to get her toenail taken off because she had dropped something on it and it had gotten infected. It went well and we talked a lot which was nice. She is so sweet and wonderful. I had chicken curry with brown rice. Very yummy and healthy too! She's a great cook for me and won't even let me help with dishes or cooking no matter how much I try to.
Then I went out to Karaoke night at the College Bar on campus. On the schedule, it said it started at 7, so I left arond 6:45 planning to get lost and be fashionably late. But I didn't get lost and made it right on time, and then I found out that it wasn't startingn until 8! But there were a bunch of people there who had made the same mistake, so I sat upstairs with 2 girls, one from Missouri and one from Germany, and we talked for an hour and it was really nice. I eventually convinced them to come up and do karaoke with me, though they were both very reluctant because they said that they couldn't sing. I insisted that that was not the point, the point was to have fun! So they did come down with me and we sang "I'm So Excited" in front of like 80 people we didn't know (and a few that we did) and it was soo much fun! Not the best performance (the song is so long with so many instrumental breaks! I didn't know that!) but it was still fun. I also had a few sips of my friend's Guiness since my throat was sore (singing loudly and screaming to converse with people) and it's much better here! I don't know why, maybe it's Ireland, but I hear it's because they can put more alcohol into it, haha.
Since we were upstairs, when we came downstairs I ran into Anne and her housemates as well as Farzana and Naira (from USC) who saw me haha. Apparently Astrid and Amanda were there too and saw me sing, but I didn't run into them. Anyway, we sat around and talked and I met this girl named Erin who is amazing! She's similar to me in a lot of ways and super sweet and nice (also from Missouri!). She's engaged to a tenor Vocal Arts major back home and we had a lot in common.
All too soon though I had to go home, because I didn't really want to walk home by myself in the dark very late at night. One of the only major problems since I have no roommates. Oh well, if it's after 11PM I'll take a taxi. So I was very nervous at points, but I stuck to the main roads and made it home safely. Fell asleep at 1AM which was an improvement!
Woke up today at 10AM so the jetlag is getting slightly better. Hung around with Mary and her daughter and her 2 granddaughters came over. Very cute. One is 3 and the other is only 7 months and they are adorable.
Then I had to go to school to go to an advisory session on English classes, and as soon as I open the door a freezing wind slams my face. Oh dear. A taste of the true weather in Ireland. 50 degrees, pouring rain, and a ripping wind that turned my umbrella inside out multiple times. Yuck! But I made it to school and ran into Farzana who kindly showed me the way to the building I was trying to get to. The English advisory was short and sweet and I got time tables of all the classes and such. Then went to the Archeology department to get info and time tables (a few archeology classes look neat!) and ran into Amanda on the way back. Accompanied her to the French department, and then struggled against the weather to desperately reach internet!!
And that's been my day so far :) I'm planning on heading back after this and enjoying another quiet night at home because the weather is just so gross. Hopefully the rain will let up??? But I'm not holding my breath haha.
Oh and the graduate student is coming to rent the room on Sunday. Hopefully he will split the internet cost if we can get! I'm sure Mary will be fine with it, but I just wonder if her house is still technology equipped to handle internet...soon it will all be worked out!
*There are wild swans here in the river! So neat.
*For some reason or another, my sense of direction here is not impaired! I made it home from city center on the first day all by myself! Have navigated to NUI, city center, and back home multiple times without incident!
So yesterday was orientation...it was a long day full of speeches. Of course, it was the most BEAUTIFUL day outside, all sunny and warm and nice all day, and we were stuck in this tiny auditorium from 9:30AM - 4PM basically. We had an hour and a half for lunch which was nice. I sat with these girls who were very nice, and then at lunch I ran into Anne and a few girls I'd met yesterday so I ate lunch with them. I've met many girls from Missouri, and they have all been super nice! After orientation, I went back to Corrib Village with Anne (who lives next door/with the girls from Missouri) and borrowed some of her internet. And boy am I glad I didn't live in Corrib Village, because not only do you have to walk along this really sketchy trail to get there, but the rooms are like prison cells and the internet is terrible!! You have to sign in, only one computer can be signed in at a time, it is slow, and cuts out all the time and then you have to sign in again! It's awful really, but I couldn't really complain at the time because it was free internet. While this internet here is not free, at least it is reliable.
After that I went back home and had dinner with Mary, who just got back from the hospital! She had surgery on her toe to get her toenail taken off because she had dropped something on it and it had gotten infected. It went well and we talked a lot which was nice. She is so sweet and wonderful. I had chicken curry with brown rice. Very yummy and healthy too! She's a great cook for me and won't even let me help with dishes or cooking no matter how much I try to.
Then I went out to Karaoke night at the College Bar on campus. On the schedule, it said it started at 7, so I left arond 6:45 planning to get lost and be fashionably late. But I didn't get lost and made it right on time, and then I found out that it wasn't startingn until 8! But there were a bunch of people there who had made the same mistake, so I sat upstairs with 2 girls, one from Missouri and one from Germany, and we talked for an hour and it was really nice. I eventually convinced them to come up and do karaoke with me, though they were both very reluctant because they said that they couldn't sing. I insisted that that was not the point, the point was to have fun! So they did come down with me and we sang "I'm So Excited" in front of like 80 people we didn't know (and a few that we did) and it was soo much fun! Not the best performance (the song is so long with so many instrumental breaks! I didn't know that!) but it was still fun. I also had a few sips of my friend's Guiness since my throat was sore (singing loudly and screaming to converse with people) and it's much better here! I don't know why, maybe it's Ireland, but I hear it's because they can put more alcohol into it, haha.
Since we were upstairs, when we came downstairs I ran into Anne and her housemates as well as Farzana and Naira (from USC) who saw me haha. Apparently Astrid and Amanda were there too and saw me sing, but I didn't run into them. Anyway, we sat around and talked and I met this girl named Erin who is amazing! She's similar to me in a lot of ways and super sweet and nice (also from Missouri!). She's engaged to a tenor Vocal Arts major back home and we had a lot in common.
All too soon though I had to go home, because I didn't really want to walk home by myself in the dark very late at night. One of the only major problems since I have no roommates. Oh well, if it's after 11PM I'll take a taxi. So I was very nervous at points, but I stuck to the main roads and made it home safely. Fell asleep at 1AM which was an improvement!
Woke up today at 10AM so the jetlag is getting slightly better. Hung around with Mary and her daughter and her 2 granddaughters came over. Very cute. One is 3 and the other is only 7 months and they are adorable.
Then I had to go to school to go to an advisory session on English classes, and as soon as I open the door a freezing wind slams my face. Oh dear. A taste of the true weather in Ireland. 50 degrees, pouring rain, and a ripping wind that turned my umbrella inside out multiple times. Yuck! But I made it to school and ran into Farzana who kindly showed me the way to the building I was trying to get to. The English advisory was short and sweet and I got time tables of all the classes and such. Then went to the Archeology department to get info and time tables (a few archeology classes look neat!) and ran into Amanda on the way back. Accompanied her to the French department, and then struggled against the weather to desperately reach internet!!
And that's been my day so far :) I'm planning on heading back after this and enjoying another quiet night at home because the weather is just so gross. Hopefully the rain will let up??? But I'm not holding my breath haha.
Oh and the graduate student is coming to rent the room on Sunday. Hopefully he will split the internet cost if we can get! I'm sure Mary will be fine with it, but I just wonder if her house is still technology equipped to handle internet...soon it will all be worked out!
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Ah the weather...
Today has been a lovely day, lots of weather changes per the usual. I woke up early (haha and by early I mean 10AM because I couldn't fall asleep until 3AM) and went to go on the tour of the university. Met up with Anne, Amanda, and Astrid for the tour, which turned out to be pretty useless because there were tons of people and two very quiet tour guides who wouldn't speak up. So basically we couldn't hear anything the whole time and spent most of the time lamenting that fact as well as talking and meeting other people. That was nice to meet some other international students...there are so many! And this was only the first tour out of 3 that day. Met a nice girl from Kentucky, Astrid met a classmate from Belgium, and I met this guy from Mexico who is majoring in English and French! So crazy.
Aftewards, the four of us went to go grab lunch at the cafe. It was not very healthy (a fried chicken sandwich and fries) but the chicken was at least good. The fries, eeh not so much...tasted like they had been fried in bad oil or something, yuck. Ran into Annie from USC in the bathroom at the cafe and she is staying at Niland House, where I might have stayed, but have decided to stay with Mary because she is so sweet, makes great food (she cooks simple food because she has an ulcer - perfectly fits with me!!), and cancelled other people to keep my room for me. Only issue is not having the internet there...I may talk to her about getting it there if I pay for it for the 4 months...we'll see how it goes having wireless at the university tomorrow or Friday. I'm going crazy not having Internet at night...it means that I have nothing to do at nights currently (I will no worries, but for these first few days at least) which has led me to organize my room 3 times, do my accounting every night, and watch lots of TV. Siigh. What is the world coming to...me being responsible?!
Anyways, after lunch we went into the city center because the girls had a few errands to run. So we ran errands together, and split up at one point and Amanda and I walked down one of the adorable cobblestone streets with no cars and tons of cute shops and cafes. Then we met up with Astrid and Anne and went to go get some coffee. At least they did...coffee and hot chocolate, and we just sat and talked. Once we left, Amanda went to try and use the pay phone again to call her family, but they couldn't hear her for some reason and she was frustrated. I'm glad at least that Mary let's me use her phone to call home if I need it, since my Irish cell phone is currently not working (aarg) because for some reason there is an issue with the unlocking. Bleh. Oh well, hopefully that will be resolved soon.
It's POURING rain (or at least it was 5 seconds ago...now it is bright and sunny again and will probably rain again in 10 minutes) so I came back into the internet cafe to hide haha. It's fairly cheap here anyway, compared to other places, 4 Euros for 2 hours...not too bad. The other girls went home to their respective apartments because we are all still so tired/tired of walking with huge backpacks on/jetlagged! I'm sure soon we'll be meeting up and hanging out in each other's apartments, but for now it's a bit too far/too soon to be doing that I think. So I'm going to hang out here for a little while and enjoy the internet, and then head home for a relaxing evening while I still have time to relax.
Early morning tomorrow (8:30AM hahaha aah hopefully I can go to sleep earlier than 3AM...) and orientation starts at 9:30 woot! Then things will really get rolling. But I'm really loving it so far, even with the random weather, and I know it can only get better!
Aftewards, the four of us went to go grab lunch at the cafe. It was not very healthy (a fried chicken sandwich and fries) but the chicken was at least good. The fries, eeh not so much...tasted like they had been fried in bad oil or something, yuck. Ran into Annie from USC in the bathroom at the cafe and she is staying at Niland House, where I might have stayed, but have decided to stay with Mary because she is so sweet, makes great food (she cooks simple food because she has an ulcer - perfectly fits with me!!), and cancelled other people to keep my room for me. Only issue is not having the internet there...I may talk to her about getting it there if I pay for it for the 4 months...we'll see how it goes having wireless at the university tomorrow or Friday. I'm going crazy not having Internet at night...it means that I have nothing to do at nights currently (I will no worries, but for these first few days at least) which has led me to organize my room 3 times, do my accounting every night, and watch lots of TV. Siigh. What is the world coming to...me being responsible?!
Anyways, after lunch we went into the city center because the girls had a few errands to run. So we ran errands together, and split up at one point and Amanda and I walked down one of the adorable cobblestone streets with no cars and tons of cute shops and cafes. Then we met up with Astrid and Anne and went to go get some coffee. At least they did...coffee and hot chocolate, and we just sat and talked. Once we left, Amanda went to try and use the pay phone again to call her family, but they couldn't hear her for some reason and she was frustrated. I'm glad at least that Mary let's me use her phone to call home if I need it, since my Irish cell phone is currently not working (aarg) because for some reason there is an issue with the unlocking. Bleh. Oh well, hopefully that will be resolved soon.
It's POURING rain (or at least it was 5 seconds ago...now it is bright and sunny again and will probably rain again in 10 minutes) so I came back into the internet cafe to hide haha. It's fairly cheap here anyway, compared to other places, 4 Euros for 2 hours...not too bad. The other girls went home to their respective apartments because we are all still so tired/tired of walking with huge backpacks on/jetlagged! I'm sure soon we'll be meeting up and hanging out in each other's apartments, but for now it's a bit too far/too soon to be doing that I think. So I'm going to hang out here for a little while and enjoy the internet, and then head home for a relaxing evening while I still have time to relax.
Early morning tomorrow (8:30AM hahaha aah hopefully I can go to sleep earlier than 3AM...) and orientation starts at 9:30 woot! Then things will really get rolling. But I'm really loving it so far, even with the random weather, and I know it can only get better!
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
First few days in Galway...
Yay! I made it here safely and without any incident :) My parents walked me through check-in and everything which was quite painless. Then we sat and ate ice cream and then they watched me walk through security. I had to concentrate pretty hard not to start crying hysterically. But I didn't, went through security without issues and then got to my gate. I called Jason and we talked until I boarded.
The flight itself was great - I had two seats to myself on the window. A girl originally sat there, but the flight was so empty that she moved (she wasn't particularly friendly anyway) and so I had two seats. They showed Ironman (YAY!) and Ugly Betty and Scrubs before that so I watched all of those and then tried to sleep some. I somehow managed between the crying baby and the little boy that kept running up and down the aisles and kicking my feet. Arg.
Then before I knew it I was over Ireland and then landing in Dublin! It took awhile to get my luggage because I thought one of my suitcases was red...but in fact...it was not. Lol. Got my luggage on a cart and asked people where the bus left from. They told me and I asked the driver (since my plane got in an hour early) if I could take the earlier bus and he said it was fine.
Bus ride was pretty - lots of sheep, cows, horses! Sheep and cows were huge and the horses were so shiny and pretty! I slept a bunch on the bus ride. Then arrived in Galway where it was pouring rain! As soon as I walked into the station though and out again, it had stopped! I then had just a little trouble figuring out where/how to hail a taxi, but a taxi saw me looking lost and stopped and picked me up :) Made it to the house and woman was very nice. She got a little angry at first when I told her about looking at the apartment, but then came back later and told me she just wanted me to be happy. And that's when I decided to stay there. She's so sweet and I had a friend the first day and I did make an agreement with her to stay until Decemeber and she canceled other people so yeah. I am happy there except for there being no internet. I'm in an internet cafe right now whee.
But there's free wireless at the university, so once I get my user name/student ID I should be able to use it and use it more often.
Last night I had major jetlag and so fell asleep at like 5 until 9:30 ish. I woke up and Mary told me my parents had called so I called them back and got to talk to them which was nice, even though I cried a bit. Then I was up so I watched Shrek 2 (Her version because my DVD's don't work in her system) and then stayed up watching Will and Grace and SVU reruns. I felt kinda lonely though without internet or anything and I was at a bit at odds and ends...and kind of sad, but I eventually fell asleep at 3AM and woke up at 1PM haha. I saw Mary, ate something, and then went into town.
I didn't have a map so I wandered my way into NUI and straight away saw the International Affairs office! Of course I thought it would be a good idea to stop by, and there were two girls standing outside. I asked if the office was closed, and they said yes but that it would reopen in 15 minutes. We got to talking and long story short, me and Amanda (from US) and Astrid (from Belgium - they are roommates) and this other girl Anne from Germany ended up grabbing lunch together and going into city center together. Astrid and Amanda had been here for a day or 2 and Anne for only 4 hours, so Astrid (who has a great sense of direction) took us to all these places that we needed to go and it was so wonderful to have some friendly conversation and direction.
We parted ways since they were going home and I was going to an internet cafe, but we're meeting tomorrow for the tour. So today has been a great day (yesterday wasn't bad but I suffered a lot of homesickness and loneliness) and I'm excited for the tour tomorrow and meeting more people :)
So that's all for now, by Thursday or Friday I'll have wireless at the university and will be able to go online a little more often, yay!
Hope all is well with everyone!
The flight itself was great - I had two seats to myself on the window. A girl originally sat there, but the flight was so empty that she moved (she wasn't particularly friendly anyway) and so I had two seats. They showed Ironman (YAY!) and Ugly Betty and Scrubs before that so I watched all of those and then tried to sleep some. I somehow managed between the crying baby and the little boy that kept running up and down the aisles and kicking my feet. Arg.
Then before I knew it I was over Ireland and then landing in Dublin! It took awhile to get my luggage because I thought one of my suitcases was red...but in fact...it was not. Lol. Got my luggage on a cart and asked people where the bus left from. They told me and I asked the driver (since my plane got in an hour early) if I could take the earlier bus and he said it was fine.
Bus ride was pretty - lots of sheep, cows, horses! Sheep and cows were huge and the horses were so shiny and pretty! I slept a bunch on the bus ride. Then arrived in Galway where it was pouring rain! As soon as I walked into the station though and out again, it had stopped! I then had just a little trouble figuring out where/how to hail a taxi, but a taxi saw me looking lost and stopped and picked me up :) Made it to the house and woman was very nice. She got a little angry at first when I told her about looking at the apartment, but then came back later and told me she just wanted me to be happy. And that's when I decided to stay there. She's so sweet and I had a friend the first day and I did make an agreement with her to stay until Decemeber and she canceled other people so yeah. I am happy there except for there being no internet. I'm in an internet cafe right now whee.
But there's free wireless at the university, so once I get my user name/student ID I should be able to use it and use it more often.
Last night I had major jetlag and so fell asleep at like 5 until 9:30 ish. I woke up and Mary told me my parents had called so I called them back and got to talk to them which was nice, even though I cried a bit. Then I was up so I watched Shrek 2 (Her version because my DVD's don't work in her system) and then stayed up watching Will and Grace and SVU reruns. I felt kinda lonely though without internet or anything and I was at a bit at odds and ends...and kind of sad, but I eventually fell asleep at 3AM and woke up at 1PM haha. I saw Mary, ate something, and then went into town.
I didn't have a map so I wandered my way into NUI and straight away saw the International Affairs office! Of course I thought it would be a good idea to stop by, and there were two girls standing outside. I asked if the office was closed, and they said yes but that it would reopen in 15 minutes. We got to talking and long story short, me and Amanda (from US) and Astrid (from Belgium - they are roommates) and this other girl Anne from Germany ended up grabbing lunch together and going into city center together. Astrid and Amanda had been here for a day or 2 and Anne for only 4 hours, so Astrid (who has a great sense of direction) took us to all these places that we needed to go and it was so wonderful to have some friendly conversation and direction.
We parted ways since they were going home and I was going to an internet cafe, but we're meeting tomorrow for the tour. So today has been a great day (yesterday wasn't bad but I suffered a lot of homesickness and loneliness) and I'm excited for the tour tomorrow and meeting more people :)
So that's all for now, by Thursday or Friday I'll have wireless at the university and will be able to go online a little more often, yay!
Hope all is well with everyone!
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Pack pack pack...
I am now frantically packing late at night (once again) because I ditched out of my responsibilities to go see John Williams and Stanley Donen at the Hollywood Bowl and to see Tropic Thunder before I left. Woot. It's going to be a looong night. So much stuff...so little space!! I'm almost done assembling everything and then it's the logistics of putting everything in there and weighing it, etc. etc....
Haven't unlocked my phone (couldn't find anyone with a Cingular SIM card!!) so I'm praying that it works when I get there. Found my health insurance, so that was good. Haven't found the envelope with extra Euros that my aunt and uncle gave me...that's for tomorrow morning along with copying maps and stuff so I don't get lost when I get there.
I'm procrastinating packing (taking a break I like to call it) to write this blog and a Facebook note along with it to say goodbye to everyone. There were definitely quite a few tears today as I said goodbye to my horse (possibly never to see her again), the barn, my friends, my dog, etc. I have part of the day tomorrow, but not enough. And it just hit me while driving home that in 24 hours I'm leaving the United States and not coming back for 4 months. I kind of freaked out. The major freak out hasn't come yet, but I'm sure it will...probably around 2AM or so. I've been tenuously holding myself together all day...not long until it cracks I don't think.
But in any case, tomorrow it will all be packed and the tears hopefully will stop long enough for me to get on the plane without incident.
I have the hiccups right now and I can't get them to stop and it's very very annoying.
Alas.
Back to packing!
Haven't unlocked my phone (couldn't find anyone with a Cingular SIM card!!) so I'm praying that it works when I get there. Found my health insurance, so that was good. Haven't found the envelope with extra Euros that my aunt and uncle gave me...that's for tomorrow morning along with copying maps and stuff so I don't get lost when I get there.
I'm procrastinating packing (taking a break I like to call it) to write this blog and a Facebook note along with it to say goodbye to everyone. There were definitely quite a few tears today as I said goodbye to my horse (possibly never to see her again), the barn, my friends, my dog, etc. I have part of the day tomorrow, but not enough. And it just hit me while driving home that in 24 hours I'm leaving the United States and not coming back for 4 months. I kind of freaked out. The major freak out hasn't come yet, but I'm sure it will...probably around 2AM or so. I've been tenuously holding myself together all day...not long until it cracks I don't think.
But in any case, tomorrow it will all be packed and the tears hopefully will stop long enough for me to get on the plane without incident.
I have the hiccups right now and I can't get them to stop and it's very very annoying.
Alas.
Back to packing!
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
With the first dream of fire they hunt the cold...
A quote from Trevor Joyce (contemporary Irish poet) as well as the title of his anthology and poem.
This blog is for my experience abroad in Galway as well as cataloging these last few days of preparations before I go. Eep it's coming up soon and I'm so not prepared and I'm still terrified.
I'm procrastinating heavily on Ireland preparations per the usual. I have lots of things to do today, most of them at USC. Hopefully things will work out. We shall see. I'm also calling the woman today for house letting. I'm praying to God that works out or else I don't know what I'm going to do!
Here's hoping.
This blog is for my experience abroad in Galway as well as cataloging these last few days of preparations before I go. Eep it's coming up soon and I'm so not prepared and I'm still terrified.
I'm procrastinating heavily on Ireland preparations per the usual. I have lots of things to do today, most of them at USC. Hopefully things will work out. We shall see. I'm also calling the woman today for house letting. I'm praying to God that works out or else I don't know what I'm going to do!
Here's hoping.
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