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We were walking thru the Farmer's Market on Monday when someone stopped us and pointed out a clothes peg that was on us. We were super confused and kept trying to walk away but he was being persistent and so finally we asked what was going on and he explained we were on a prank youtube video that he was making. We helped him think of the title "Pegging in Galway" and then he proceeded to Peg all of us and record it and then naturally i thought it was hilarious so I asked if I could peg someone and be in the video... and he said yes! so i'm in it!
"we came to Galway as nobodys, and left as pegging professionals..."
Tuesday, December 18, 2012
Sunday, December 9, 2012
Two weeks left?!? Life Update
So I was originally supposed to fly home Dec 15th but I changed my flight to the 22nd to give myself an extra week. Just one step closer to never leaving and going back to reality hehe!
Thank you Mom and Dad for the extra week! This means I'll finish my last two finals this Thursday and Friday and then have a full week to relax and have fun and I can attend the 12 Pubs of Christmas :) The center of Galway has been decked out and is fully ready for Christmas. Eyre Square is usually a big empty grassy area in the middle of town but it's been transformed into a cute little winter wonderland, complete with hot dog stands (who knew BBQ hotdogs were Christmasy? I didn't) and tacky sweaters and ornaments and Christmas trees. It's really cute and all lit up and they have the best crepes and hot chocolate ever. There's also a big beer tent with 1lb steins so you can pretend that Oktoberfest is in Galway for a little while!
My roomies and I are doing a secret santa for eachother, and I got the perfect gift for my person.. Can't write what it is on here yet in case she reads it however I'll update this again soon to let you know how it goes! Sorry my writing is a bit random... I finally bought the new Taylor Swift album (which was stupid.. should have waited and asked for it for Christmas. Oops.) and of course it's so good and so I'm currently jammin to it and it's distracting me from blogging!! I have a love hate relationship with Taylor Swift. She's an annoying human being and I kind of hate her because I'm ridiculously jealous of her life, but i do love her music no matter how hard I try not to! Also currently obsessed with Ed Sheeran.. he's unreal. Listen to him if you haven't yet! SO good!!
I had my last visitor this weekend.. Miss Christina Prudenti from Spain!! Last weekend Kate Riley was here from Paris so that was really fun too. Love me some American visitors. On Friday we went to this little place called Hole in the Wall and were dancing to the music and having a good time when we realized that Jack, the bouncer from the Front Door, was there. Now this story might not be as great as it was in real life but bear with me and I'll try to explain. Jack the bouncer is maybe 35 and has a loong ponytail and a very unkempt beard and everyone else in the bar was my age- around 20 so it was just hilarious to see him there. He was dancing and jumping up and down going crazy.. I tried to teach him my infamous little dance move but he said it wasn't good enough and so then he proceeded to spin me around a million times and dip me backwards to show me a "Real dance move" and I thought I looked like I was on dancing with the stars but christina sadly told me later that i just looked like a rag doll being thrown around hahaha.. oh well, better luck next time I guess!
that's all for now.. more updates to come later when I figure out what exciting ways I'll be spending my extra week here - I've got to go to the store and buy cough medicine, I've got a wicked cold that's making me blow my nose every five minutes and given me one of those deep chest coughs. It's really ladylike and cute.
Thank you Mom and Dad for the extra week! This means I'll finish my last two finals this Thursday and Friday and then have a full week to relax and have fun and I can attend the 12 Pubs of Christmas :) The center of Galway has been decked out and is fully ready for Christmas. Eyre Square is usually a big empty grassy area in the middle of town but it's been transformed into a cute little winter wonderland, complete with hot dog stands (who knew BBQ hotdogs were Christmasy? I didn't) and tacky sweaters and ornaments and Christmas trees. It's really cute and all lit up and they have the best crepes and hot chocolate ever. There's also a big beer tent with 1lb steins so you can pretend that Oktoberfest is in Galway for a little while!
My roomies and I are doing a secret santa for eachother, and I got the perfect gift for my person.. Can't write what it is on here yet in case she reads it however I'll update this again soon to let you know how it goes! Sorry my writing is a bit random... I finally bought the new Taylor Swift album (which was stupid.. should have waited and asked for it for Christmas. Oops.) and of course it's so good and so I'm currently jammin to it and it's distracting me from blogging!! I have a love hate relationship with Taylor Swift. She's an annoying human being and I kind of hate her because I'm ridiculously jealous of her life, but i do love her music no matter how hard I try not to! Also currently obsessed with Ed Sheeran.. he's unreal. Listen to him if you haven't yet! SO good!!
I had my last visitor this weekend.. Miss Christina Prudenti from Spain!! Last weekend Kate Riley was here from Paris so that was really fun too. Love me some American visitors. On Friday we went to this little place called Hole in the Wall and were dancing to the music and having a good time when we realized that Jack, the bouncer from the Front Door, was there. Now this story might not be as great as it was in real life but bear with me and I'll try to explain. Jack the bouncer is maybe 35 and has a loong ponytail and a very unkempt beard and everyone else in the bar was my age- around 20 so it was just hilarious to see him there. He was dancing and jumping up and down going crazy.. I tried to teach him my infamous little dance move but he said it wasn't good enough and so then he proceeded to spin me around a million times and dip me backwards to show me a "Real dance move" and I thought I looked like I was on dancing with the stars but christina sadly told me later that i just looked like a rag doll being thrown around hahaha.. oh well, better luck next time I guess!
that's all for now.. more updates to come later when I figure out what exciting ways I'll be spending my extra week here - I've got to go to the store and buy cough medicine, I've got a wicked cold that's making me blow my nose every five minutes and given me one of those deep chest coughs. It's really ladylike and cute.
Monday, November 26, 2012
Forgot to mention my team of bodyguards
Just realized I forgot to mention how I basically had an entire team of bodyguards last week. Whenever we went out to a pub or to Mizzoni's (aka Heaven on earth... best pizza you could ever imagine, especially at 2am) or just walked around Shop Street.. It would be me, Adam, Keith, Sean, and Pat (who came all the way from Dublin to have Thanksgiving dinner with us and then stayed til Saturday.. so fun!!) walking next to me.. And if you don't know them, I'd say Adam is 6'2'', Keith is 6'3'', Sean is 6'2 maybe and Pat is probably 6'0 so regardless to say I had some good company around me and didn't have to worry about any drunk leprechauns bothering me at all when we went out!!! ;-)
Sunday, November 25, 2012
20 Days
I will be flying back home to Boston in exactly 20 days from today. I can't believe it. That's really not much time at all. Time seems to go by faster and faster every year but wow, this semester was one for the books. I think it broke a record it went by so fast. I've started making a list of memories that I don't want to forget.. from little quotes or inside jokes to the names of people we've met here that I don't want to forget. I've got 66 written down so far but my friends and I plan on sitting down and adding to it. That's the scary part I think - forgetting. I know that I've taken hundreds of pictures and that they're on my computer and Facebook and I have these blogs to go back to and reread but it's the little things like the little orange and white dog that roams around my block freely or the familiar faces we see downtown performing each week or whatever else
Coming here has been such a great experience.. not only because Ireland itself is beautiful but because I have lived life outside of the small St Mike's bubble and because I've lived on my own for four months without the safety net of friends I've known for years surrounding me or my mom down the hall willing to make my next meal and spoil me if I get hungry. I've had to find my way around a new city, a new country, find the correct bus station and get over the awkwardness you feel when you have to approach ten strangers in a row to ask for directions because you didn't pay good enough attention the first time six times someone told you where your destination was. Some parts have been kind of scary.. like waking up after dozing on a bus and wondering if you missed your stop and where the hell you are in Ireland (all cows and sheep and green fields look alike... no surprise there but it really makes it hard to try to figure out where you are haha) or getting ready to take my first exam after not having to work hard academically for months (yeah that's my current fear. more about that next week if I survive..) but mostly it's just been incredible getting to know my new friends here.. especially my Irish roomies and their friends along with the lovely 13 people who came here on the API program with me who have traveled with me, been exhausted with me, put up with eachothers shenanigans, booked and stayed in weird hostels with me, and everything else we've been through!! It'll be weird going from living with them to us separating and being in different parts of the country so far from eachother but I have no doubt we'll all reunite at some point or another!! Preferably in the Cape... at my cottage.. or better yet, when they come visit me in Galway after I move here forever ;-)
Coming here has been such a great experience.. not only because Ireland itself is beautiful but because I have lived life outside of the small St Mike's bubble and because I've lived on my own for four months without the safety net of friends I've known for years surrounding me or my mom down the hall willing to make my next meal and spoil me if I get hungry. I've had to find my way around a new city, a new country, find the correct bus station and get over the awkwardness you feel when you have to approach ten strangers in a row to ask for directions because you didn't pay good enough attention the first time six times someone told you where your destination was. Some parts have been kind of scary.. like waking up after dozing on a bus and wondering if you missed your stop and where the hell you are in Ireland (all cows and sheep and green fields look alike... no surprise there but it really makes it hard to try to figure out where you are haha) or getting ready to take my first exam after not having to work hard academically for months (yeah that's my current fear. more about that next week if I survive..) but mostly it's just been incredible getting to know my new friends here.. especially my Irish roomies and their friends along with the lovely 13 people who came here on the API program with me who have traveled with me, been exhausted with me, put up with eachothers shenanigans, booked and stayed in weird hostels with me, and everything else we've been through!! It'll be weird going from living with them to us separating and being in different parts of the country so far from eachother but I have no doubt we'll all reunite at some point or another!! Preferably in the Cape... at my cottage.. or better yet, when they come visit me in Galway after I move here forever ;-)
Family visit at Thanksgiving!
Hello Blogworld.. So I'm having a very very lazy Sunday in order to recover from my long (but lovely) week of visitors so I'm going to post a few entries right now. Get ready.
To start, the family arrived in Dublin on Sunday morning so I took an afternoon bus to greet their jet-lagged selves for dinner! Keith, Adam, Mom, and Uncle Joe and Aunt Sandy came.. so we had a whole crew! It was really great to see them. Keith looked old - Stonehill is turning him into an adult, awww. We met at a little pub and they did their very best to talk in full sentences and tried to fill me in on how their flights went.. but it was a bit of a struggle since they were so tired haha. I had gone out the night before so I was tired as well but I think they won the Who's Most Deliriously Tired competition. For example, Mom was trying to tell Joe and Sandy where I'd traveled to so far... and apparently I've gone to Spance and Frain HAHA! So we couldn't get enough of that joke and every time someone stuttered or said a word wrong later in the week, we'd blame it on Spance or Frain and say "Well that must just be what they call it there!" Oh man, I couldn't get enough of it. It was classs.
Keith got to drink legally and the family got to experience their first extremely drunk Irish man who told us "When you see the big cat, don't get off the elephant." We're still not sure if we should wait to get off the elephant when we reach Spance, or if we should ride it all the way to Frain where there are no big cats.
We had the same driver all week who took us on all of the tours - his name was Maurice but it was pronounced Morris, but eventually we just called him Mossy or Mo. He took us all over, we saw the Cliffs of Moher, Connemara, went to a cute little pub called McGan's in a little town called Doolin that Mom and Bonnie ate at 25 years ago!! And then to lots of other places.
Thursday we had Thanksgiving Dinner at the hotel that generously offered to make us a 3 course meal with mulled wine included!! It was so so good.. There were a few options for meals but I started with corn on the cob, then had turkey and ham with mashed potatoes, and then there were a bunch of options for dessert including Banoffi pie.. my new obsession! YUM I'm not sure how I survived 20 years without it. It's amazing. And the mulled wine was so good, it reminded me of a warm liquified version of potpourri or a warm sangria without the fruit.
It was a really fun week and going out to the pubs with Adam and Keith was great - It was so so nice to hang out with them and have fun with them and see them in a new light/context besides a regular family party at Christmas or something. Gotta love the bro bros.
Then CJ came on Friday for two nights from Paris! So that was great.. He got to have some real Irish Guinness and shepherd's pie and could relax for the weekend without worrying about getting pickpocketed or robbed. Saturday we took a very long, winding and bumpy bus ride to go see the Cliffs of Moher and we got SO lucky - it was a perfect day. So sunny!!! We even got to watch the sunset go down over the Cliffs, it was amazing. Even better? I didn't fall off the Cliffs - which I had a dream about last week! Even better than that? I witnessed my friend Mary get shocked by an electric fence HAHAHA it was the funniest thing I've ever seen. No, I'm not a psychopath - she didn't get hurt. But she had jsut finished helping me climb over a wall (so heroic- probably would have fell off the Cliffs if she didn't pull me over) but one of her boots landed in a mud puddle, so she held onto the fence next to her to dip her foot into the puddle.... and as soon as she touched the water ZAP!! It shocked her. It took both of us a minute to realize what happened and when it did i DIED laughing Oh my God.. I was laughing so hard I couldn't even make any noise. CJ and Erin were ahead of us on the path and they heard her scream so they were concerned/asking what happened but I couldn't even tell them I was wheezing and cackling so hard hahahahahah.
Anyways that pretty much sums up my week! How was everyone else's Thanksgiving?
To start, the family arrived in Dublin on Sunday morning so I took an afternoon bus to greet their jet-lagged selves for dinner! Keith, Adam, Mom, and Uncle Joe and Aunt Sandy came.. so we had a whole crew! It was really great to see them. Keith looked old - Stonehill is turning him into an adult, awww. We met at a little pub and they did their very best to talk in full sentences and tried to fill me in on how their flights went.. but it was a bit of a struggle since they were so tired haha. I had gone out the night before so I was tired as well but I think they won the Who's Most Deliriously Tired competition. For example, Mom was trying to tell Joe and Sandy where I'd traveled to so far... and apparently I've gone to Spance and Frain HAHA! So we couldn't get enough of that joke and every time someone stuttered or said a word wrong later in the week, we'd blame it on Spance or Frain and say "Well that must just be what they call it there!" Oh man, I couldn't get enough of it. It was classs.
Keith got to drink legally and the family got to experience their first extremely drunk Irish man who told us "When you see the big cat, don't get off the elephant." We're still not sure if we should wait to get off the elephant when we reach Spance, or if we should ride it all the way to Frain where there are no big cats.
We had the same driver all week who took us on all of the tours - his name was Maurice but it was pronounced Morris, but eventually we just called him Mossy or Mo. He took us all over, we saw the Cliffs of Moher, Connemara, went to a cute little pub called McGan's in a little town called Doolin that Mom and Bonnie ate at 25 years ago!! And then to lots of other places.
Thursday we had Thanksgiving Dinner at the hotel that generously offered to make us a 3 course meal with mulled wine included!! It was so so good.. There were a few options for meals but I started with corn on the cob, then had turkey and ham with mashed potatoes, and then there were a bunch of options for dessert including Banoffi pie.. my new obsession! YUM I'm not sure how I survived 20 years without it. It's amazing. And the mulled wine was so good, it reminded me of a warm liquified version of potpourri or a warm sangria without the fruit.
It was a really fun week and going out to the pubs with Adam and Keith was great - It was so so nice to hang out with them and have fun with them and see them in a new light/context besides a regular family party at Christmas or something. Gotta love the bro bros.
Then CJ came on Friday for two nights from Paris! So that was great.. He got to have some real Irish Guinness and shepherd's pie and could relax for the weekend without worrying about getting pickpocketed or robbed. Saturday we took a very long, winding and bumpy bus ride to go see the Cliffs of Moher and we got SO lucky - it was a perfect day. So sunny!!! We even got to watch the sunset go down over the Cliffs, it was amazing. Even better? I didn't fall off the Cliffs - which I had a dream about last week! Even better than that? I witnessed my friend Mary get shocked by an electric fence HAHAHA it was the funniest thing I've ever seen. No, I'm not a psychopath - she didn't get hurt. But she had jsut finished helping me climb over a wall (so heroic- probably would have fell off the Cliffs if she didn't pull me over) but one of her boots landed in a mud puddle, so she held onto the fence next to her to dip her foot into the puddle.... and as soon as she touched the water ZAP!! It shocked her. It took both of us a minute to realize what happened and when it did i DIED laughing Oh my God.. I was laughing so hard I couldn't even make any noise. CJ and Erin were ahead of us on the path and they heard her scream so they were concerned/asking what happened but I couldn't even tell them I was wheezing and cackling so hard hahahahahah.
Anyways that pretty much sums up my week! How was everyone else's Thanksgiving?
Thursday, November 15, 2012
Vamos a Barcelona!
Hola amigos! I got back from visiting Barcelona this weekend and it was a really great trip.. especially because NO ONE GOT PICKPOCKETED!!! Woohoo! First time visiting another country and having everyone return with their wallets, so that was a big success. Major paranoia pays off! I went with Jo, Betsy and Laiken (Bacon and Letsy as I often accidently say) and we got there pretty late on Friday, around 10pm probably. But it was grand cause Spain/Barcelona people are such night owls! We checked into our hostel and found a tapas place for dinner that was still open by the time we got ready and went out, which was around midnight. We all got three small plates of food - I got nachos and guacamole, a potato casserole/cake thing, and then teriyaki chicken - it was pretty good! Then we set out to find the bar crawl that our hostel was hosting.. Their first stop was a bar called Grand Foc, which means Great Fire but got us some raised eyebrows and laughs when we asked people where the Grand Foc was.
When we got to the bar there were a ton of people there - turns out there are 3 Sant Jordi hostels in Barcelona so all three met up together to do this bar crawl, which meant there were a ton of people my age there! It was really fun. We met guys who were walking around Europe from Denmark, Australians who were traveling for 7 months, people from Scotland, Ireland, England, the US, and a bunch of other places I can't remember! We all were happy to go out and everyone was super friendly and excited to meet eachother and find out why they were backpacking/studying abroad/traveling or whatever. Two Australian guys were wearing tiger costumes (never found out why haha) but they were obviously the most easy to pick out of the crowd so they led the whole hostel group (probably about 50 of us!) from Grand Foc to our next spot, Soventa, a nightclub that was on the beach!! At one point the Tigers decided they needed a dance move to lead the group with, so naturally I had to teach them mine and Lindsey's (down down up up around around) and they loved it! So Lindsey, our dance move is officially international!! Everyone in the group was dancing their way to the club and I became known as the dance teacher, it was hilarious. The rest of the night was fun, we danced our little hearts out and then went out the back door of the club and onto the beach where we splashed in the ocean and yelled about how cool our lives are that we're on a beach in Spain at 3am haha. Never saw the Tigers again unfortunately but we got some good pictures!
The next day we walked around Las Ramblas and bought souvenirs then went on a free walking tour of the Gothic area of Barcelona and saw a lot of places Gaudi designed.. the architecture was really pretty! Our tour guide was nice, she was from Australia but has lived in Barcelona off and on for the last 4 years. We also met two Americans on our tour who met on Match.com and had been dating for awhile now, and they just decided to quit their jobs and move to Australia so they were traveling all around Europe on their way to their new home. How cool is that?? They were really nice, we had lunch with them after the tour.
Later that day we went to La Sagrada Familia but it was closing so we couldn't go inside unfortunately. So I'll be google imaging pictures of that later haha. Then we took a little siesta in the hostel after walking around all day and went out again later that night with the hostels again. Since the Tigers weren't there, I felt I had no choice but to continue the dancing alone hahaha so I led the group this time. The two men leading the bar crawl were so funny, they were dancing with me the whole time too. One's name was Hernan, but when we first met him he told us to meet on Roger Street, but his accent was so thick we thought his name was Roger, so we called him Roger all night and he thought it was a riot. We didn't find out his real name til we were halfway to the club we were all going to.
The next morning we woke up ridiculously early and went to Park Guell, which was beautiful, but we were so tired we were pretty much delirious throughout the whole tour. We kept taking ridiculous pictures and had a serious case of the Sleepy Hahas because we were so tired. That was the last thing we did in Barcelona then we made our way back to our beloved Galway.
I was so glad I got to go to Barcelona - it was a much different trip than my trip to Paris. In Paris we did a lot more tours and didn't really go out at night, so it was really cool to go out late and see the club life and the beach since obviously we have nothing like that in Galway.
Mom, Keith, Adam, Joey and Sandy are coming next week! So that should be great. I'm ready to go out to a few nice restaurants again, hehe! :)
Saturday, November 3, 2012
Versailles and Halloween.
Thought I'd make a new post since that one was getting pretty long.. Sorry I type/talk a lot!
Sunday we went to Versailles and did a tour of the gardens that King Louis 14th created in order to have the most "glorious chateau in France". It was absolutely breath-taking. and HUGE! It was something like 22,000 acres so naturally we didn't see it all but we did walk around forever and see the water fountain show that had its own soundtrack specifically composed for the fountains, and all of the original statues and perfectly manicured lawns. The thought put into the gardens and the symbolism behind everything was amazing.. For example there was hardly any grass in the gardens because grass grows wild and King Louis wanted to prove that he could control everything, even nature, because he was the Sun God and he basically thought that he ruled the world, even the way grass grew from the ground. Another thing that was amazing was the water pumps for all of the fountains didn't run all the time, so when King Louis was taking a stroll through the gardens he'd tell his servants which garden he wanted to see next, and they'd do a certain whistle to let the next servant know they had to sprint to go turn on that water before he got there.. then when he was moving on they'd shut that off and turn it on again quickly at the next one before he showed up.. So it looked to him/his guests that the water was running at all times. Everything was so impressive.
That night we went to Montmarte for our third and final tour.. This was the Moulin Rouge area and we had another awesome tour guide, Billy, who was Scottish and made a million drinking references haha. After this tour we met up with CJ again and got some delicious crepes and had a drink with him in a little French bar.
How was everyone's Halloween?? Mine was great! I was a pint of Guinness, so I had a black dress and used cotton balls to make foam go around the top and then I drew/cut out/taped a harp and the word GUINNESS across it.
Oh man I actually just learned about five minutes ago there was a boy in Galway who was in a sheep costume and his costume was set on fire in a nightclub here and he is now in critical condition with burns over 80% of his body. Such a sad sad accident, so if you're reading this, say a prayer for him. The article said he was a really motivated medical student here at NUIG. My thoughts will be with him.. hopefully he recovers fully.
Sunday we went to Versailles and did a tour of the gardens that King Louis 14th created in order to have the most "glorious chateau in France". It was absolutely breath-taking. and HUGE! It was something like 22,000 acres so naturally we didn't see it all but we did walk around forever and see the water fountain show that had its own soundtrack specifically composed for the fountains, and all of the original statues and perfectly manicured lawns. The thought put into the gardens and the symbolism behind everything was amazing.. For example there was hardly any grass in the gardens because grass grows wild and King Louis wanted to prove that he could control everything, even nature, because he was the Sun God and he basically thought that he ruled the world, even the way grass grew from the ground. Another thing that was amazing was the water pumps for all of the fountains didn't run all the time, so when King Louis was taking a stroll through the gardens he'd tell his servants which garden he wanted to see next, and they'd do a certain whistle to let the next servant know they had to sprint to go turn on that water before he got there.. then when he was moving on they'd shut that off and turn it on again quickly at the next one before he showed up.. So it looked to him/his guests that the water was running at all times. Everything was so impressive.
That night we went to Montmarte for our third and final tour.. This was the Moulin Rouge area and we had another awesome tour guide, Billy, who was Scottish and made a million drinking references haha. After this tour we met up with CJ again and got some delicious crepes and had a drink with him in a little French bar.
How was everyone's Halloween?? Mine was great! I was a pint of Guinness, so I had a black dress and used cotton balls to make foam go around the top and then I drew/cut out/taped a harp and the word GUINNESS across it.
Oh man I actually just learned about five minutes ago there was a boy in Galway who was in a sheep costume and his costume was set on fire in a nightclub here and he is now in critical condition with burns over 80% of his body. Such a sad sad accident, so if you're reading this, say a prayer for him. The article said he was a really motivated medical student here at NUIG. My thoughts will be with him.. hopefully he recovers fully.
Sorry it's been so long.. Lemme tell you about Paris!
Hey there blog-readers!
So sorry it's been so long since I posted. I've been busy traveling the world/having the best four months of my life, so don't be mad. Since London, Mom visited for a few days. That was fantastic.. going out to eat and having some glasses of Chardonnay with her and enjoying a few nice steaks as opposed to the chicken fingers I make myself way too often was definitely a nice change of pace. Not to mention she took me shopping even though it's her least favorite thing to do!
My friends here were all big Debbie fans, naturally. Especially after she came to The Cellar Bar with us and had a pint with us and showed off some dance moves never seen before in Galway! We also went on a trek at the place I rode horses before in Galway and luckily it was a beautiful day so we got some more pictures and Mom got to brush up on her riding skills before she starts preparing for next year's Oklahoma! ;-)
Meghan, Emily, Mary and I went to France last weekend for three nights because Ireland had a "bank holiday" or what I'm presuming to be an excuse to have Monday off after Halloween weekend... I'd say the motto here is work hard, play harder, but I don't think I can honestly say I've been working hard in classes... oops! I attend class and take some notes but it's nothing like St Mike's where there are constant tests/quizzes to prepare for.
But back to our trip to Paris.. We had a 6am flight out of Dublin, so we had to leave Galway around 1am to get a bus there early enough and we landed around 9am on Friday so we literally did not sleep Thursday night. I did try, but I just can't sleep on buses/planes. Can you??? Does anyone have advice for sleeping on them cause it would help me SO much! If I had a euro for every bus ride I wish I could sleep soundly on......
So when we got to Paris we were somewhat delusionally tired but found our way to the hotel in the north-east side of Paris. We had lunch, went to the Louvre to see a few pictures and the Mona Lisa [which was actually kind of small and disappointing, but still creepy because she literally doesn't take her eyes off you despite where you stand in the room] and then saw the Arc de Triomphe and then went to bed pretty early to feel human again.
The next day we did an awesome but FREEZING (it was barely 40 degrees and windy) walking tour of all Paris. Our tour guide was a young kid from NY who moved to Montreal when he was 18 and then to France, fell in love with it and never went home! I could totally see myself doing that in Ireland..... so if I never come home, don't say I didn't warn you all! ;-)
He told us all about the history of france during the world wars and about different tortures/guillotine beheadings and then we met up with CJ and had lunch with him for a bit..
ALSO best part of Paris -- i got to see Christina from St Mikes!!! She was visiting there for the weekend too. We had a GIANT loud squealy hug in the middle of the sidewalk in front of a restaurant with outdoor seating - proving that the loud americans stereotype is true but we couldn't help it!! I was so excited to see her. THat night she came with me and my friends on a sunset cruise around the Sein River where we got to see the Eiffel Tower all lit up/continued to freeze our butts off.
Bad news was Emily's wallet got pickpocketed that night.. it was like a magic trick, the guy went in her zipped purse and grabbed it while she was trying to cross the street and then disappeared.. luckily she canceled her card and had almost no cash in it, but unfortunately her passport was in it which made for a stressful night trying to find a copy of her passport and get copies of IDs together so we could fly back home. Thank you again Tom Murphy the irish immigration man who let her on the flight. Cheers, we owe you one.
So sorry it's been so long since I posted. I've been busy traveling the world/having the best four months of my life, so don't be mad. Since London, Mom visited for a few days. That was fantastic.. going out to eat and having some glasses of Chardonnay with her and enjoying a few nice steaks as opposed to the chicken fingers I make myself way too often was definitely a nice change of pace. Not to mention she took me shopping even though it's her least favorite thing to do!
My friends here were all big Debbie fans, naturally. Especially after she came to The Cellar Bar with us and had a pint with us and showed off some dance moves never seen before in Galway! We also went on a trek at the place I rode horses before in Galway and luckily it was a beautiful day so we got some more pictures and Mom got to brush up on her riding skills before she starts preparing for next year's Oklahoma! ;-)
Meghan, Emily, Mary and I went to France last weekend for three nights because Ireland had a "bank holiday" or what I'm presuming to be an excuse to have Monday off after Halloween weekend... I'd say the motto here is work hard, play harder, but I don't think I can honestly say I've been working hard in classes... oops! I attend class and take some notes but it's nothing like St Mike's where there are constant tests/quizzes to prepare for.
But back to our trip to Paris.. We had a 6am flight out of Dublin, so we had to leave Galway around 1am to get a bus there early enough and we landed around 9am on Friday so we literally did not sleep Thursday night. I did try, but I just can't sleep on buses/planes. Can you??? Does anyone have advice for sleeping on them cause it would help me SO much! If I had a euro for every bus ride I wish I could sleep soundly on......
So when we got to Paris we were somewhat delusionally tired but found our way to the hotel in the north-east side of Paris. We had lunch, went to the Louvre to see a few pictures and the Mona Lisa [which was actually kind of small and disappointing, but still creepy because she literally doesn't take her eyes off you despite where you stand in the room] and then saw the Arc de Triomphe and then went to bed pretty early to feel human again.
The next day we did an awesome but FREEZING (it was barely 40 degrees and windy) walking tour of all Paris. Our tour guide was a young kid from NY who moved to Montreal when he was 18 and then to France, fell in love with it and never went home! I could totally see myself doing that in Ireland..... so if I never come home, don't say I didn't warn you all! ;-)
He told us all about the history of france during the world wars and about different tortures/guillotine beheadings and then we met up with CJ and had lunch with him for a bit..
ALSO best part of Paris -- i got to see Christina from St Mikes!!! She was visiting there for the weekend too. We had a GIANT loud squealy hug in the middle of the sidewalk in front of a restaurant with outdoor seating - proving that the loud americans stereotype is true but we couldn't help it!! I was so excited to see her. THat night she came with me and my friends on a sunset cruise around the Sein River where we got to see the Eiffel Tower all lit up/continued to freeze our butts off.
Bad news was Emily's wallet got pickpocketed that night.. it was like a magic trick, the guy went in her zipped purse and grabbed it while she was trying to cross the street and then disappeared.. luckily she canceled her card and had almost no cash in it, but unfortunately her passport was in it which made for a stressful night trying to find a copy of her passport and get copies of IDs together so we could fly back home. Thank you again Tom Murphy the irish immigration man who let her on the flight. Cheers, we owe you one.
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
London!
Another weekend for the books! We flew over to London for the weekend with API and stayed near Hyde Park right by the Queensway/Bayswater area at a little hotel called Queens Park Hotel. We got there Friday afternoon and found a little italian place to get dinner (they charged us for the tablecloths... who does that?!) then explored the area we were staying at a bit and walked over to see Big Ben and ride the London Eye at night to see everything lit up!! It was absolutely beautiful riding the Eye (a giant slow-motion glass ferris wheel) and seeing everything lit up at night - you could see all of London.
Saturday we saw the Tower of London which was awesome because we saw all the crown jewels and fancy billion dollar swords with rubies and emeralds and DIAMONDS everywhere and all over everything from as far back as the 1600's. We also saw the chapel where Anne Boleyn and several other queens were buried, and the torture chambers/towers were they were held before they were executed. It was so cool seeing the places where so much of that history all took place.. the only bad thing was that we didn't see Jonathan Rhys Meyers from the Tudors walking around playing Henry VIII - I love him. It was all way bigger than I thought it would be.. I thought it'd just be one big tower but I didn't realize there was also chapel and a separate museum and little houses where the royal guards lived and the building for the crown jewels, etc. so it was nice that there was a lot to see!
Next we went to Westminster Abbey and the Chapel to see where the queen was coronated/ where Will and Kate got married! Then we went to Buckingham palace.. we weren't there at the right time to see the changing of the guards but we still saw the guards in their red outfits and tall black furry hats (reminded me of the poster Grandma has in the basement! Looked just like them)
After walking around for pretty much ever and taking a million pictures, Kathleen and I finally rested our legs and went to see Wicked! It was amazing, I looooved it. I knew most of the music from chorus but never saw the play and the lead who played Elphaba/the bad witch was PHENOMENAL. She literally gave me goosebumps everytime she sang. Everyone in the play was really talented but her voice blew the rest of them out of the water. I don't know if I've ever heard such a great singer in a play before. Unfortunately later that night our friend's wallet got pickpocketed (we missed safe galway) so that was the worst part of the weekend but overall it was a great trip.
Sunday we didn't have as much time to sightsee because we had to leave for the airport at 3:30 but we went to Oxford St.. fortunately for my wallet it was Sunday and we went early so the expensive stores were all still closed... then saw Trafalgar Square, St. James Park, the CUTEST FLUFFIEST husky puppy ever, a lot of art on display on the sidewalk that I wanted to buy but didn't, a rubber duck that has the british flag on it that I did buy!, and then lots of more dogs in the park that made me miss Bandit!
Mom comes tomorrow... AKA waiting til then to do laundry so i can do it in the hotel and not pay 5 euro for it! woohoo!!
Saturday we saw the Tower of London which was awesome because we saw all the crown jewels and fancy billion dollar swords with rubies and emeralds and DIAMONDS everywhere and all over everything from as far back as the 1600's. We also saw the chapel where Anne Boleyn and several other queens were buried, and the torture chambers/towers were they were held before they were executed. It was so cool seeing the places where so much of that history all took place.. the only bad thing was that we didn't see Jonathan Rhys Meyers from the Tudors walking around playing Henry VIII - I love him. It was all way bigger than I thought it would be.. I thought it'd just be one big tower but I didn't realize there was also chapel and a separate museum and little houses where the royal guards lived and the building for the crown jewels, etc. so it was nice that there was a lot to see!
Next we went to Westminster Abbey and the Chapel to see where the queen was coronated/ where Will and Kate got married! Then we went to Buckingham palace.. we weren't there at the right time to see the changing of the guards but we still saw the guards in their red outfits and tall black furry hats (reminded me of the poster Grandma has in the basement! Looked just like them)
After walking around for pretty much ever and taking a million pictures, Kathleen and I finally rested our legs and went to see Wicked! It was amazing, I looooved it. I knew most of the music from chorus but never saw the play and the lead who played Elphaba/the bad witch was PHENOMENAL. She literally gave me goosebumps everytime she sang. Everyone in the play was really talented but her voice blew the rest of them out of the water. I don't know if I've ever heard such a great singer in a play before. Unfortunately later that night our friend's wallet got pickpocketed (we missed safe galway) so that was the worst part of the weekend but overall it was a great trip.
Sunday we didn't have as much time to sightsee because we had to leave for the airport at 3:30 but we went to Oxford St.. fortunately for my wallet it was Sunday and we went early so the expensive stores were all still closed... then saw Trafalgar Square, St. James Park, the CUTEST FLUFFIEST husky puppy ever, a lot of art on display on the sidewalk that I wanted to buy but didn't, a rubber duck that has the british flag on it that I did buy!, and then lots of more dogs in the park that made me miss Bandit!
Mom comes tomorrow... AKA waiting til then to do laundry so i can do it in the hotel and not pay 5 euro for it! woohoo!!
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
The first two visitors arrived!
I had my first two visitors here in Galway earlier this week!
Greg arrived exhausted (seriously, jet lag is horrible enough..and then the sad realization finding out you have a 2.5 hour bus ride to Galway after doing all that flying = brutal) and so when he got here we just relaxed so he could wake up a bit and then we went downtown to show him Shop Street and all the pubs and street performers there.
He did say it reminded him a bit like Church St in Burlington except an Irish version, but we had a fun time trying new restaurants.. I haven't been to that many yet.. hint hint Mom you can take me when you get here!!!
Later that night we met up with five of my friends here and went out with them. A lot of my other API friends here were either at Oktoberfest for the weekend so he didn't get to meet them all but it was nice that he got to know a few of them really well instead of being overwhelmed by a big group of random Americans! I introduced him to Supermacs late night food of course and then we pretty much did the same thing the next day and spent two nights at a B&B in Salthill which was nice cause it is right on the water.
He got lucky too it was actually sunny both Friday and Saturday when he was here!
Then Jeff came Monday so he, Greg and I went to a restaurant at the end of Quay St down by the water to have a few pints and get dinner... They have the best beef stew there ever. It was the first time I had a really traditional irish meal so that was good.
Greg left for the airport at like 4am Monday so then Jeff and I did a little family-bonding and spent Tuesday mostly being lazy at my house but we did go back out later that night to get food and listen to live bands and see irish dancers!
Mom comes next week so I'm looking forward to that!
I've planned some trips recently too: Paris and Barcelona for a weekend! And we go to London this weekend!!
Any suggestions for what to see in London/Paris/Barcelona??
Greg arrived exhausted (seriously, jet lag is horrible enough..and then the sad realization finding out you have a 2.5 hour bus ride to Galway after doing all that flying = brutal) and so when he got here we just relaxed so he could wake up a bit and then we went downtown to show him Shop Street and all the pubs and street performers there.
He did say it reminded him a bit like Church St in Burlington except an Irish version, but we had a fun time trying new restaurants.. I haven't been to that many yet.. hint hint Mom you can take me when you get here!!!
Later that night we met up with five of my friends here and went out with them. A lot of my other API friends here were either at Oktoberfest for the weekend so he didn't get to meet them all but it was nice that he got to know a few of them really well instead of being overwhelmed by a big group of random Americans! I introduced him to Supermacs late night food of course and then we pretty much did the same thing the next day and spent two nights at a B&B in Salthill which was nice cause it is right on the water.
He got lucky too it was actually sunny both Friday and Saturday when he was here!
Then Jeff came Monday so he, Greg and I went to a restaurant at the end of Quay St down by the water to have a few pints and get dinner... They have the best beef stew there ever. It was the first time I had a really traditional irish meal so that was good.
Greg left for the airport at like 4am Monday so then Jeff and I did a little family-bonding and spent Tuesday mostly being lazy at my house but we did go back out later that night to get food and listen to live bands and see irish dancers!
Mom comes next week so I'm looking forward to that!
I've planned some trips recently too: Paris and Barcelona for a weekend! And we go to London this weekend!!
Any suggestions for what to see in London/Paris/Barcelona??
Long Time No Post!
Hello friends! Sorry I haven't posted in awhile, I've been busy entertaining visitors!!!
So where did I leave off?
The Potluck dinner!
It was pretty amazing, there were about 18 of us who made meals and so we had to have people bring their own plates and silverware because my apartment is so small but despite the crowding around the table it was awesome to have home cooked meals!!!
Here's a list of our delicious creations:
-pizza rolls (made by me!!! I was so proud of them. I bought crescent rolls and then put pepperoni and cheese in the little triangles, then rolled them up and baked it all together.. genius!)
-salads: tomato and mozzarella, green regular lettuce salad, apple salad, fruit salad
-chocolate fondue
-chocolate covered oreos
-chick pea curry and rice
-fried rice
-chicken fingers
-chile
-fajitas
-cake
-garlic bread
-dip and guacamole with chips!!
So it was a pretty big success! We're definitely going to do it again sometime soon.
Also, while I'm on the topic of food, Mom and Greg pulled through and brought me five boxes of Mac and Cheese so I'm pretty much the happiest girl in Galway right now!!
So where did I leave off?
The Potluck dinner!
It was pretty amazing, there were about 18 of us who made meals and so we had to have people bring their own plates and silverware because my apartment is so small but despite the crowding around the table it was awesome to have home cooked meals!!!
Here's a list of our delicious creations:
-pizza rolls (made by me!!! I was so proud of them. I bought crescent rolls and then put pepperoni and cheese in the little triangles, then rolled them up and baked it all together.. genius!)
-salads: tomato and mozzarella, green regular lettuce salad, apple salad, fruit salad
-chocolate fondue
-chocolate covered oreos
-chick pea curry and rice
-fried rice
-chicken fingers
-chile
-fajitas
-cake
-garlic bread
-dip and guacamole with chips!!
So it was a pretty big success! We're definitely going to do it again sometime soon.
Also, while I'm on the topic of food, Mom and Greg pulled through and brought me five boxes of Mac and Cheese so I'm pretty much the happiest girl in Galway right now!!
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
Mi bicicleta!
This is going to be a quick post because I want to get to bed - I've got 4 awkwardly spread out classes tomorrow which makes for a very long day.
So first and most importantly, I rented a bike today! It's actually weird how excited I am about it. I don't know why, but after walking foreverrr every day back and forth to campus (it's 20 minutes one way to classes, and then 20 mins from my apartment to downtown, and I go back and forth a lot between classes and whatnot) I realized I really should just get one since I keep thinking about it and not doing it. So I basically felt like I was flying when I was coming down the hill on the way home from class today.
And the very best part is, you give a $50 deposit that they return to you at the end of the two month rental, so I'll have a tleast $50 to my name to go home with when I leave Ireland, haha! Which means I'll have enough to buy some mediocre airport food while traveling/and can say I didn't go completely broke on my trip.. woot woot!
I'll post more stories/pictures tomorrow or more likely Thursday about the latest adventures I've been up to (went to Dublin for a night, celebrated Arthur's Day, and more fencing lessons!)
Also I decided that my API friends here should do some bonding time even though we are all already a part of a happy little abroad family but so I'm hosting a pot luck dinner at my apartment tomorrow! I'm pretty excited. So I'll put up pictures of our meals and let you all know how that goes! I'm making pizza-rolls, courtesy of this amazing blog that makes me disgustingly hungry every time I look at it... http://www.the-girl-who-ate-everything.com/2012/01/pepperoni-cheese-stick-roll-ups.html
tata for now!
So first and most importantly, I rented a bike today! It's actually weird how excited I am about it. I don't know why, but after walking foreverrr every day back and forth to campus (it's 20 minutes one way to classes, and then 20 mins from my apartment to downtown, and I go back and forth a lot between classes and whatnot) I realized I really should just get one since I keep thinking about it and not doing it. So I basically felt like I was flying when I was coming down the hill on the way home from class today.
And the very best part is, you give a $50 deposit that they return to you at the end of the two month rental, so I'll have a tleast $50 to my name to go home with when I leave Ireland, haha! Which means I'll have enough to buy some mediocre airport food while traveling/and can say I didn't go completely broke on my trip.. woot woot!
I'll post more stories/pictures tomorrow or more likely Thursday about the latest adventures I've been up to (went to Dublin for a night, celebrated Arthur's Day, and more fencing lessons!)
Also I decided that my API friends here should do some bonding time even though we are all already a part of a happy little abroad family but so I'm hosting a pot luck dinner at my apartment tomorrow! I'm pretty excited. So I'll put up pictures of our meals and let you all know how that goes! I'm making pizza-rolls, courtesy of this amazing blog that makes me disgustingly hungry every time I look at it... http://www.the-girl-who-ate-everything.com/2012/01/pepperoni-cheese-stick-roll-ups.html
tata for now!
Sunday, September 23, 2012
Don't worry everyone, I found mac & cheese.
The circus came to Galway this weekend! So we went to the 4:30 show and I was a little worried at first because we were the oldest ones there without children that it would all be musical chairs with clowns and mini horses going in circles (although i did love me some minis - horse fix!!) but it was actually really good! There was a crazy contortionist guy whose body bent in ways no man's should ever bend... at one point, he did a handstand and then bent his knees so they were down by his face and drank a cup of water using his feet to bring it to his mouth while he held himself up with his arms.. it was crazy! Then there were tightrope walkers, a 60 year old lady in a thong who walked upside down on these monkey bar handle-things, jugglers and everything else you'd expect to see.
I went out with Aoife and her friends on Thursday night and then Friday I spent the night attempting to ride a mechanical bull (I stayed on for almost 15 seconds one time!!!) at a pub called Coyotes and talking about the Morgan world with Sara Sebring! We finallyyy found each other and got to hang out at night together. We're a good pair. I think we gave the irish dancing-bacholerette party girls a run for their money at one point too, hahaha.
I'm going to Dublin this weekend! So more pictures will be up soon from that.
Also, cooking update: finally found some mac and cheese, so I made some tonight for dinner and then cut up some tomato and some chicken fingers to add to it. BAM, it's almost as good as Our House in Burlington, VT... except not even close, but i'm pretending!!
I went out with Aoife and her friends on Thursday night and then Friday I spent the night attempting to ride a mechanical bull (I stayed on for almost 15 seconds one time!!!) at a pub called Coyotes and talking about the Morgan world with Sara Sebring! We finallyyy found each other and got to hang out at night together. We're a good pair. I think we gave the irish dancing-bacholerette party girls a run for their money at one point too, hahaha.
I'm going to Dublin this weekend! So more pictures will be up soon from that.
Also, cooking update: finally found some mac and cheese, so I made some tonight for dinner and then cut up some tomato and some chicken fingers to add to it. BAM, it's almost as good as Our House in Burlington, VT... except not even close, but i'm pretending!!
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
On guard!
Monday, September 17, 2012
In need of a giant care package
Things I need and cannot seem to find in Ireland:
- kraft mac n cheese
- cheezits
- solo cups that are less than almost 5 euro for 20 cups
- turkey... it's all about the ham here.
- sunshine
- my horses!!!!
- bud light
- normal avocados [they're weird colors and shapes here]
Sunday, September 16, 2012
Our weekend with Sheila
Helloooo. Tomorrow my classes start for real, which means I actually have to go. Very sad. but fortunately after that is Tuesday, which I think is the first day I'm going to my fencing club!! Yup, I joined fencing and by the time I come home I'm gonna be a true sword fighter. it's gonna be awesome. I'll be like Inigo Montoya from the Princess Bride. which is the best movie ever, and neither of my Irish roommates have seen it!! So disappointing. I'm gonna force them to watch it this week!
I'm taking two psych classes, a philosophy one called Bioethics which should be pretty interesting.. it's all about ethics and he gives us a lot of crazy scenarios and 'what would you do' type situations, then i'm taking two classes about Ireland.
This weekend my friends from API and I went to Cork to go check out the city compared to Galway and to kiss the Blarney stone and whatnot. it was a long 3 hour bus ride and we got there around dinner time so we checked into our 14 bed room at Sheila's Hostel and headed downtown. The whole hostel experience was hilarious. First of all it was at the top of this ridiculously steep hill, and then there were atleast one million stairs to our room so I'm pretty sure Sheila was trying to kill us before we even got there, whoever she is. We almost had the room to ourselves except there was a random older guy and a young asian kid. Older guy was creepy, my poor friend Mary woke up to him staring at her both nights hahahah but the asian kid thought we were pretty funny even though we came in late and loud that night. THEN at like 3:30AM on the first night, two more Irish guys came in and that morning we got up at like 8 to go to the Blarney Castle so we looked over at our two new arrivals... and they were basically Calvin Klein models. I mean their muscles had muscles.. oh my god. But we had to rush and get ready to catch the bus so we couldn't enjoy the view for long, but it was great while it lasted!! :) Unfortunately they were replaced by two random french guys the next night so we never saw them again.
The Blarney Castle was really cool, I felt like it should be in Game of Thrones climbing through its spiral stairs to the top and then exploring the cave there. I kissed the stone even though someone said not to because the Irish supposedly pee on it?? But I couldn't get all the way there and not do it! That night we went to a pub and my friend Jo dragged me out onto the dance floor so naturally I had to whip out my signature dance move (thanks Lindsey King) that goes to everyone song... and she helped me get the entire dance floor to do it. it was hilarious, everyone was jumping around and doing this one stupid move like a bunch of lunatics. then I realized this was absolutely necessary to get on camera, so I made everyone face one direction towards a screen and had my friend record it hahaha.
anyways, i'll write more in a bit but i'm pretty much falling asleep right now. staying with 13 other people in the same room for two nights and a ridiculous amount of walking around all weekend was exhausting!
I'm taking two psych classes, a philosophy one called Bioethics which should be pretty interesting.. it's all about ethics and he gives us a lot of crazy scenarios and 'what would you do' type situations, then i'm taking two classes about Ireland.
This weekend my friends from API and I went to Cork to go check out the city compared to Galway and to kiss the Blarney stone and whatnot. it was a long 3 hour bus ride and we got there around dinner time so we checked into our 14 bed room at Sheila's Hostel and headed downtown. The whole hostel experience was hilarious. First of all it was at the top of this ridiculously steep hill, and then there were atleast one million stairs to our room so I'm pretty sure Sheila was trying to kill us before we even got there, whoever she is. We almost had the room to ourselves except there was a random older guy and a young asian kid. Older guy was creepy, my poor friend Mary woke up to him staring at her both nights hahahah but the asian kid thought we were pretty funny even though we came in late and loud that night. THEN at like 3:30AM on the first night, two more Irish guys came in and that morning we got up at like 8 to go to the Blarney Castle so we looked over at our two new arrivals... and they were basically Calvin Klein models. I mean their muscles had muscles.. oh my god. But we had to rush and get ready to catch the bus so we couldn't enjoy the view for long, but it was great while it lasted!! :) Unfortunately they were replaced by two random french guys the next night so we never saw them again.
The Blarney Castle was really cool, I felt like it should be in Game of Thrones climbing through its spiral stairs to the top and then exploring the cave there. I kissed the stone even though someone said not to because the Irish supposedly pee on it?? But I couldn't get all the way there and not do it! That night we went to a pub and my friend Jo dragged me out onto the dance floor so naturally I had to whip out my signature dance move (thanks Lindsey King) that goes to everyone song... and she helped me get the entire dance floor to do it. it was hilarious, everyone was jumping around and doing this one stupid move like a bunch of lunatics. then I realized this was absolutely necessary to get on camera, so I made everyone face one direction towards a screen and had my friend record it hahaha.
anyways, i'll write more in a bit but i'm pretty much falling asleep right now. staying with 13 other people in the same room for two nights and a ridiculous amount of walking around all weekend was exhausting!
Saturday, September 8, 2012
Friday, September 7, 2012
Smoothies and quesadillas
Aoife made the best purchase ever. A blender. this means smoothies all day baby! Last night she made us some and so I made quesadillas (she'd never had any!!) so we shared a lovely little dinner together while attempting to watch TV. I say attempting because we only have 18 channels (which is apparently a lot compared to normal.. go us....) and so we all usually end up watching Who Wants to be a Millionaire (i'm gonna know so much british trivia by the end of the semester) or an australian soap opera everyone here is obsessed with called Home and Away.
Actually some guy just won a million dollars, it was awesome. I've never seen anyone actually win before. And he got the last six questions or so all right on his own cause he had already used his lifelines. Case you're wondering... lake baikal is the deepest lake in the world. and the majority of the french kings were crowned in Rheims. Just two of the answers I can throw out there. also trout are caught by 'tickling' them. Some guy got that one right cause he once went to a pub called The Tickled Trout.
Anywho tomorrow we go to Connemara, so hopefully I'll put up some pics of ponies and more green grass and limestone and all the other exciting things that are in abundance here in Ireland.
All the Irish kids go home for the weekend, so it just cleared out and got really quiet here really quick. But me and my lovely American friends are still gonna venture out tonight! Everyone gets so much more dressed up here than home. I wore flip-flops out once and had to go back and change into heels cause I looked so out of place!! I bought a little card though that lets me cut the lines at all the clubs... best purchase ever after the blender.
Last night API took us to see Trad on the Prom, which was a live show in a hotel that runs a few times a week that had singers and irish dancers, it was awesome. Almost all of the dancers were multi-time World Champions and have been in Riverdance and Lord of the Dance so it was awesome. [side note: sorry to my parents for pursuing horseback riding and quitting dance... I do realize that new horses are much more expensive than new shoes and that traveling to Oklahoma City for Worlds isn't as cool as Ireland hahaha]
i'll write again after Connemara!
Actually some guy just won a million dollars, it was awesome. I've never seen anyone actually win before. And he got the last six questions or so all right on his own cause he had already used his lifelines. Case you're wondering... lake baikal is the deepest lake in the world. and the majority of the french kings were crowned in Rheims. Just two of the answers I can throw out there. also trout are caught by 'tickling' them. Some guy got that one right cause he once went to a pub called The Tickled Trout.
Anywho tomorrow we go to Connemara, so hopefully I'll put up some pics of ponies and more green grass and limestone and all the other exciting things that are in abundance here in Ireland.
All the Irish kids go home for the weekend, so it just cleared out and got really quiet here really quick. But me and my lovely American friends are still gonna venture out tonight! Everyone gets so much more dressed up here than home. I wore flip-flops out once and had to go back and change into heels cause I looked so out of place!! I bought a little card though that lets me cut the lines at all the clubs... best purchase ever after the blender.
Last night API took us to see Trad on the Prom, which was a live show in a hotel that runs a few times a week that had singers and irish dancers, it was awesome. Almost all of the dancers were multi-time World Champions and have been in Riverdance and Lord of the Dance so it was awesome. [side note: sorry to my parents for pursuing horseback riding and quitting dance... I do realize that new horses are much more expensive than new shoes and that traveling to Oklahoma City for Worlds isn't as cool as Ireland hahaha]
i'll write again after Connemara!
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
not a very eggcellent first impression.. #cheesytitle
So I have two Irish roommates.. Orla and Aoife (pronounced Ee-fa) and they're grand. Actually they both lived in Hyannis this summer which is hilarious. Such a small world.
Anyways they moved in on Friday and of course Orla walked in when I was attempting to make breakfast by myself for the first time here. All I wanted was a little fried egg sandwich, but apparently it takes YEARS for the stoves to heat up here and I didn't wait long enough (i was hungry!!!) so she watched me crack the egg and then desperately push the disgusting gooey uncooked egg [and i already hate eggs to begin with, it was so gross. worse than the stupid monkey] around the pan for like ten minutes before it even started to turn a little bit white..
So embarrassing. I was dying. She was super nice though and we were getting to know each other and finally she was like, "What exactly are you trying to make...?? You should probably just give up and scramble them at this point." But finallyyyy they cooked and they turned out well but oh man it was funny. I was so embarrassed. She told me that my training in the kitchen starts Monday hahaha.
Just thought I'd share. Figured mom and dad would get a kick out of that one.. and also probably the rest of the world who actually knows how to cook eggs and be self-sufficient.
Anyways they moved in on Friday and of course Orla walked in when I was attempting to make breakfast by myself for the first time here. All I wanted was a little fried egg sandwich, but apparently it takes YEARS for the stoves to heat up here and I didn't wait long enough (i was hungry!!!) so she watched me crack the egg and then desperately push the disgusting gooey uncooked egg [and i already hate eggs to begin with, it was so gross. worse than the stupid monkey] around the pan for like ten minutes before it even started to turn a little bit white..
So embarrassing. I was dying. She was super nice though and we were getting to know each other and finally she was like, "What exactly are you trying to make...?? You should probably just give up and scramble them at this point." But finallyyyy they cooked and they turned out well but oh man it was funny. I was so embarrassed. She told me that my training in the kitchen starts Monday hahaha.
Just thought I'd share. Figured mom and dad would get a kick out of that one.. and also probably the rest of the world who actually knows how to cook eggs and be self-sufficient.
Saturday, September 1, 2012
there must be no market for sprinklers in ireland
updates!!! basically I'm never coming home....
Galway has been amazing so far! It's only been a few days but it's awesome. Finn and her husband Kevin, our resident directors, are actually the nicest people i've ever met in the entire world. They're seriously so helpful and totally encouraging to go out and do/see everything ireland has to offer. Everyone in my group was laughing because theyre just SO ridiculously nice.
I think we have an irish roommate moving in right now, which is exciting. I'll know soon when I make myself get out of bed hehe. The last few days and nights have been super exhausting, I feel like i've gotten five hours of sleep since I've been here but everything's so "grand" and "class" and "coo-well" (how they say Cool. i've mastered it, don't worry!)
the first couple nights i've gone into town with the kids in my group to explore the pubs.. New favorite is called The Front Door. Then the other day I took a bus to Limerick to crash the Seamus O'Shaughnessy's grad party cause he just graduated from the University of Limerick. Getting there was an adventure.. a cab to a bus station then a two and a half hr bus ride then a cab to the hotel they were at - which wasn't bad except the irish lady on the bus next to me just kept saying "Geeez I hope you're on the right bus.... that'd be too bad if you were going the wrong direction.." so I was freaking out the whole time that I was going the wrong way, but I finally made it! The party was so much fun, [thanks for the invite oshaughnessys!!!] we hung out in the hotel restaurant until maybe 2am then went to a "disco" or like a nightclub and ended up going to bed at 530am. Yeah...no sleep ever. but it was a great craic anyways.
Also should add that my roommate &I made our first dinner last night. Salad and pasta and chicken cutlets and it was delish.. so I can officially say i'm not gonna starve and that i'm going to survive. YAY I'm so grown-up.
Well that's all for now.. sorry, I suck at blogging but that's the update if the fam back home or anyone cares to know!
Galway has been amazing so far! It's only been a few days but it's awesome. Finn and her husband Kevin, our resident directors, are actually the nicest people i've ever met in the entire world. They're seriously so helpful and totally encouraging to go out and do/see everything ireland has to offer. Everyone in my group was laughing because theyre just SO ridiculously nice.
I think we have an irish roommate moving in right now, which is exciting. I'll know soon when I make myself get out of bed hehe. The last few days and nights have been super exhausting, I feel like i've gotten five hours of sleep since I've been here but everything's so "grand" and "class" and "coo-well" (how they say Cool. i've mastered it, don't worry!)
the first couple nights i've gone into town with the kids in my group to explore the pubs.. New favorite is called The Front Door. Then the other day I took a bus to Limerick to crash the Seamus O'Shaughnessy's grad party cause he just graduated from the University of Limerick. Getting there was an adventure.. a cab to a bus station then a two and a half hr bus ride then a cab to the hotel they were at - which wasn't bad except the irish lady on the bus next to me just kept saying "Geeez I hope you're on the right bus.... that'd be too bad if you were going the wrong direction.." so I was freaking out the whole time that I was going the wrong way, but I finally made it! The party was so much fun, [thanks for the invite oshaughnessys!!!] we hung out in the hotel restaurant until maybe 2am then went to a "disco" or like a nightclub and ended up going to bed at 530am. Yeah...no sleep ever. but it was a great craic anyways.
Also should add that my roommate &I made our first dinner last night. Salad and pasta and chicken cutlets and it was delish.. so I can officially say i'm not gonna starve and that i'm going to survive. YAY I'm so grown-up.
Well that's all for now.. sorry, I suck at blogging but that's the update if the fam back home or anyone cares to know!
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
So far so good
Hellloooo Americans,
Just woke up for day two! Our apartment is really cute.. There's a full kitchen with a little living room and it's got everything - tv, dishes, chairs, so we really just had to buy toilet paper and soap and towels and things like that. It's just me and my roommate Kerry here for now, but there are three more rooms so we think Irish students are gonna be moving in sometime this weekend! Today we just have a tour at 3:30 and a welcome dinner at an italian place tonight so that should be fun. I've still gotta unpack which I'm gonna get to in a minute..
Last night after our tour about 9 of the kids in my group went downtown and we found a pub to eat at and have our first guinesses in! That was fun, downtown galway is awesome. There's a million little shops and pubs and we peeked into the original Claddagh store!
Anyways I'm gonna try to make today productive!
Just woke up for day two! Our apartment is really cute.. There's a full kitchen with a little living room and it's got everything - tv, dishes, chairs, so we really just had to buy toilet paper and soap and towels and things like that. It's just me and my roommate Kerry here for now, but there are three more rooms so we think Irish students are gonna be moving in sometime this weekend! Today we just have a tour at 3:30 and a welcome dinner at an italian place tonight so that should be fun. I've still gotta unpack which I'm gonna get to in a minute..
Last night after our tour about 9 of the kids in my group went downtown and we found a pub to eat at and have our first guinesses in! That was fun, downtown galway is awesome. There's a million little shops and pubs and we peeked into the original Claddagh store!
Anyways I'm gonna try to make today productive!
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
I'm here I'm here!
I think I've been awake for 30 hours. I'm pretty sure I'm halfway unconscious so forgive this post but I wanted to write a quick one to let the world know I'm alive and tired but well. Logan airport was uneventful for the most part except for Jeff sneaking me in the crew/staff lines because he was in his pilot uniform so I kind of got special treatment so that was cool! I got to JFK yesterday at like 12:30pm and my flight didn't leave til 6:30 and I couldn't get wifi or my phone to work so I did pretty much NOTHING for six hours. It was miserable so after three I went and got a massage at the random XpressSpa in the airport hahaah but it was so expensive and now my shoulders are sore even though it was nice at the time.
I made a friend at the jfk airport. Yay. Her name's Erin and she's studying here in Galway for the semester too, but not through my program.
The flight to Shannon was wicked long but I had a nice lady named Kay next to me. She kept asking how excited I was when I was trying to sleep so that was awkward but she was really nice and we cracked up together a couple times about the airport meal they tried to serve us because it was gross [obv] and then the water they gave us was in a little plastic container with a tinfoil cover on it...aka not a water bottle or cup at all. I took a pic of it, don't worry I'll post it later.
Going through customs was really easy too, I was kinda surprised. we pretty much just had to show our passport and acceptance letter to NUIG and now we're waiting for one last student to come meet us.. Kevin from API met us at the airport. he's irish and really nice. Him and his wife Finn run it together so they'll be the ones helping me survive for four months on my own here, yay.
anyways gotta go make new friends bye!
I made a friend at the jfk airport. Yay. Her name's Erin and she's studying here in Galway for the semester too, but not through my program.
The flight to Shannon was wicked long but I had a nice lady named Kay next to me. She kept asking how excited I was when I was trying to sleep so that was awkward but she was really nice and we cracked up together a couple times about the airport meal they tried to serve us because it was gross [obv] and then the water they gave us was in a little plastic container with a tinfoil cover on it...aka not a water bottle or cup at all. I took a pic of it, don't worry I'll post it later.
Going through customs was really easy too, I was kinda surprised. we pretty much just had to show our passport and acceptance letter to NUIG and now we're waiting for one last student to come meet us.. Kevin from API met us at the airport. he's irish and really nice. Him and his wife Finn run it together so they'll be the ones helping me survive for four months on my own here, yay.
anyways gotta go make new friends bye!
Thursday, August 23, 2012
Three pounds too heavy..
SO... four days until I leave. Yikes. I've filled one bag so far with a ton of stuff and it ways 53 lbs and the limit is 50 so it's now unzipped and laying on the floor waiting to be sorted again but I had to take a break cause I was sweating. Keith is also packing cause he leaves for Stonehill Saturday and he just came in the room asking for my fan because he was hot in his room.... Uh, no way get your own lil bro! We did have some bonding time today though because I've started watching Lost and he came in part-way through an episode so then we watched two more together... aw cute sibling time.
Watching Lost.. the show about the plane crash that they keep showing OVER AND OVER.. was actually a terrible idea though because 1- I don't wanna pack, I wanna lay on my couch and watch it. 2- Jack and Boone and Sawyer on the show are all ridiculously good-looking so it's another distraction/reason why I neeed to keep watching and finally 3- it's about a plane crash and i'm flying to Ireland Monday. so that's kinda scary. But I'm sure I'll be fine and if it does crash, let's just hope there are equally good-looking doctors and guys on the plane/deserted mystery island with me!!! (Sorry Greggy;) )
Tonight's the final family dinner.. we're going to Tremonte's with Adam and Grandma tagging along because I decided I needed one more good filet to eat that I don't have to pay for and because their cheesy potatoes are amazing.... especially if I do end up in a LOST type situation, I gotta enjoy the good meals while they last!!
Countryfest is tomorrow so that will be great. I've only been counting down the days since December... Tim and Kenny on one stage? Yum yes pleeease. And thanks to Wikipedia, I can look at their setlist and freak out even more because I know all but like 3 songs which were random covers anyways so they don't count.
The goodbyes have already started but I won't talk about those for now because more are coming and they're gonna suck even though the trip itself will be amazing!
stupid leandro is packed, as promised.
Watching Lost.. the show about the plane crash that they keep showing OVER AND OVER.. was actually a terrible idea though because 1- I don't wanna pack, I wanna lay on my couch and watch it. 2- Jack and Boone and Sawyer on the show are all ridiculously good-looking so it's another distraction/reason why I neeed to keep watching and finally 3- it's about a plane crash and i'm flying to Ireland Monday. so that's kinda scary. But I'm sure I'll be fine and if it does crash, let's just hope there are equally good-looking doctors and guys on the plane/deserted mystery island with me!!! (Sorry Greggy;) )
Tonight's the final family dinner.. we're going to Tremonte's with Adam and Grandma tagging along because I decided I needed one more good filet to eat that I don't have to pay for and because their cheesy potatoes are amazing.... especially if I do end up in a LOST type situation, I gotta enjoy the good meals while they last!!
Countryfest is tomorrow so that will be great. I've only been counting down the days since December... Tim and Kenny on one stage? Yum yes pleeease. And thanks to Wikipedia, I can look at their setlist and freak out even more because I know all but like 3 songs which were random covers anyways so they don't count.
The goodbyes have already started but I won't talk about those for now because more are coming and they're gonna suck even though the trip itself will be amazing!
Monday, August 20, 2012
Stupid Monkey
So I got a new duffel bag to take with me when I'm on the mini trips and whatnot in Ireland... and attached to it was a little monkey key chain. I hate monkeys. They're creepy and they eat bugs. This one is equally as creepy. His name (according to the key chain tag... or maybe it's the brand name of the bag??) is Leandro. So I guess he's some kind of italian monkey? I was going to throw him away, but Leandro might just make the trip to Ireland afterall..
Here's a pic of it....
Do Irish people like monkeys? Do YOU like monkeys?
Here's a pic of it....
Do Irish people like monkeys? Do YOU like monkeys?
Sunday, August 19, 2012
One week and counting...
Hey!
So clearly this is my first blog post.. I've never done it before so bear with me as I figure it out! It's Sunday night - I leave a week from tomorrow HOLY COW. I haven't started packing yet.. Last night I had my America-themed going away party with my friends so I spent today on the couch recovering :)
It was wicked fun, a bunch of friends came and I got to see everyone and more one more time before summer ends. I'm currently watching Breaking Bad (addicted!!!) so I'm keepin this post short but my game plan tomorrow is to start going through all my clothes and takin note of what I might want to pack.
I guess the goal is to pack the bare minimum then cut that in half... Yeaaaaaah easier said than done. I am not good at packing, and even worse at packing light so we'll see how that goes.
Thankfully i don't have to buy too much more I don't think.. [thanks again jill noonan for the hair dryer!] but I do need to find a plain white sweater. I dont have one and it's such an essential and I can't find one anywhere - so annoying!
So anyways it's time for me to go to bed! See ya later.
So clearly this is my first blog post.. I've never done it before so bear with me as I figure it out! It's Sunday night - I leave a week from tomorrow HOLY COW. I haven't started packing yet.. Last night I had my America-themed going away party with my friends so I spent today on the couch recovering :)
It was wicked fun, a bunch of friends came and I got to see everyone and more one more time before summer ends. I'm currently watching Breaking Bad (addicted!!!) so I'm keepin this post short but my game plan tomorrow is to start going through all my clothes and takin note of what I might want to pack.
I guess the goal is to pack the bare minimum then cut that in half... Yeaaaaaah easier said than done. I am not good at packing, and even worse at packing light so we'll see how that goes.
Thankfully i don't have to buy too much more I don't think.. [thanks again jill noonan for the hair dryer!] but I do need to find a plain white sweater. I dont have one and it's such an essential and I can't find one anywhere - so annoying!
So anyways it's time for me to go to bed! See ya later.
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