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!!

On guard!

Pictures from Cork are up on Facebook!  But here's some actual proof that I kissed the Blarney Stone and that I started fencing lessons last night!!  I had no idea what I was doing but no one there did. We learned how to step properly, lunge, and stab and get into ON GUARD! position.  They told us to get a partner and one of us could put the gear on, so I did and I was so excited to start fencing until I realized that I was the one getting stabbed first! I was so nervous but it didn't hurt, it was like an aggressive poke in the ribs over and over haha.  My coach told me I did really well!  And when I say coach I mean the student who was running the club that night.   Afterwards they had a fencing social at a pub called The Scholar's Rest so Kerry, Aoife and I went and were the only new people there but we got a chance to hang out with the kids on the team! I lovee all my API friends but I  was excited to meet some more Irish students too! The next practice is Friday and then it's on Tuesday again and after they're taking us bowling!  Apparently for every pint you buy, you get a free game of bowling... pretty good deal!!

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]

I think that's about it.  life is grand here but those things would make it even better!! :-)

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!

Pictures!

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!

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.

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!