"TO ARTHUR!" and "I think I'm lost. I'm in Munchen, not Munich" (Week 4: Sept. 21 - Sept. 27)

Hello once again! I apologize for not blogging the second I got home from Munich on Sunday, but a recovery was definitely in order. Prepare yourself for the what I know will be a shocking and loooong blog update, but this past week has been action-packed with enough kicks and punches to put some of those old-school kung-fu movies to shame. Let's rewind to last Monday, shall we?

Sept. 21

It started off like any other Manic Monday, except this time there was more "mania" involved. With the three history classes I'm taking, we have to sign up for "tutorials", which are like smaller, discussion-based lectures (lame and boring usually comes to mind). Well, my friend Sammie and I had signed up for a Monday morning tutorial for our "Irish Emigrant Experience" history class and got to the classroom right on time (10 a.m.) We are a bit confused because the classroom is dark and well what do you know? Turns out it was cancelled last minute--no email, nothing. Frustrating Irish Moment of the Day! Grrr. After a frustrating moment like that, the remedy? NAP TIME! And for good reason I decided to take a nap: the roomies are starting to get sick, and I definitely don't want to catch that if I can help it! One activity that we've come to discover is that on MTV UK over here, they play the Top 40 every day at 12:30 p.m. We've come to make a habit of watching it weekly and writing down good songs that are popular over here, since chances are, the States haven't heard of them yet. Definitely lots of club jams, but fun, bubble gum pop music nonetheless. Then once we return and these songs finally make it over in the USA, we'll already know all the words because we'll be like, soooo European! Ha ha. Since this morning's tutorial was a FAIL, I went to my other class later in the day and then went to the library and chilled. The James Hardiman library at NUI-Galway is similar to Boatwright, but definitely a lot more sterile, less friendly and not as bustling. The design and attitude I felt in that library (and I can't believe I'm saying this) made me miss good ol' B-1. Who thought that I'd ever miss a library? There was a looong line to get on one of the computers to print off stuff; I needed to start printing off stuff for OKTOBERFEST! After our Human Sexuality class, we came home and got ready to go out. Unfortunately, we encountered an annoying misty and windy night. Fortunately, we went over to our friends' apartment from Fairfield and then went to GPOs night club. It was really fun! From the outside looking in, it didn't really look like a big place, but looks were definitely deceiving. It was packed with people, and finding the bathroom was a big ordeal in this cavernous place. It was like you needed to leave a trail of bread crumbs to find your way back through the crazy maze. When it was time to leave, we were dying for something delicious, naturally. And where was our first request? The crepes place. And what did we discover? CLOSED. *Commence sad face* Waaah. But it was probably for the best that it wasn't opened, because who knows what kind of creations we would have concocted at such a late hour in the night.

Sept. 22

Since I only have one class most Tuesdays (I know, what a hard life), I decided to cook up what I thought was a very Irish breakfast/brunch. And indeed it was yummy. I scrambled up some eggs, toasted some potato waffles with cheese and cooked up some baked beans. Now the beans part may seem a bit strange, but for two reasons I wanted/needed beans:

a) PROTEIN!

b) the Irish L-O-V-E beans over here; tons of advertisements for beans on toast, etc.

After eating a fulfilling meal, I thought it would be good to go to class, and surprisingly, it was more interesting than normal. Normally, my friends and I have a hard time staying awake in these big, lecture style classes, but this time I didn't nod off once! Yay me! WIN! I think that the way Richmond engages students more in discussion, etc. is the way I like to learn best. After my success in staying awake in class, I decided to try and print off stuff again, but once again, FAIL. Hopefully the third time is the charm. Later in the evening, I went to NUI-G's Ladies' basketball training. It was really fun to do team practice stuff, transporting me back to the days of Rebel basketball. I think I was the only American there too, which was odd. The Irish girls play differently...it's hard to describe. It seemed like they were much more stiff and not fluid, not to mention that some of their form made me cringe. I'm not sure how this will sound, but here it goes: I think they were different in playing ball than American girls because there weren't any black girls playing with them growing up, unlike the States. I hope to go back to training again in the next week because it was fun and it's a great way to meet Irish people. Though they made an announcement saying that this squad was mainly for people there the whole year, I would rather practice with a team that knows what they are doing than play a bunch of random pick-up games. When I got home, the roomies made some Mexican fajitas since we had been craving them lately. Yum. I've been trying to figure out OKTOBERFEST and Arthur's Day in Dublin, so hopefully plans will be developing shortly.

Sept. 23

Went to class and printed some papers out in the library but once again, FAIL. I didn't have my passport information that you apparently need for on-line check-in for flights. Frustrating Irish Moment of the Day! Came home for some lunch and some Gilmore Girls, what a great combo for a pick-me-up in the afternoon. Then I went back to school to print and do some booking for travels, such as I booked a flight to Paris for my "fall break" at the end of October! Since NUI-G doesn't have a "fall break" per se, rather just a bank holiday on a Monday making a 3-day weekend, I decided to take full advantage of that and the fact that I don't have Friday classes. I'll be going to Paris and then traveling around western France with Martha and Rachel. Yay! After spending far too long sorting travel arrangements and such out, I went to the gym and dropped a note off at the Irish language center about the language course. Hopefully I can still sign up for the class! It will be awesome to learn a new language that not many people know about or have ever heard of, and yes, it is Irish, not Gaelic. Unfortunately, I missed Societies Day. Societies are like clubs without sports, so like dance clubs, International Student clubs, etc. Waah. But I'll be contacting them later, so hopefully I can be put on their mailing list, etc. Then I came home and packed for Oktoberfest and Dublin! A crazy weekend is brewing...

Sept. 24

Bryeanna and I were up very, very early to catch our 5 Euro (yep, that's right. 5 Euro!) bus from Galway to Dublin. Once we were dropped off in the city centre of Dublin, we were a wee bit confused about where to go to catch another city bus to the UC-D campus. Dublin is definitely a LOT bigger than Galway! We made it to campus, had lunch and hung out for the afternoon. Then it was time. Time to prepare for Arthur's Day. For those of y'all who may not know, Arthur's Day was the 250th anniversary of Guinness. To prepare, we played some drinking games with Noah, Mary, Lauren, Bryeanna and Noah's roommates. Then we hopped onto the bus and went on down to the city centre. Little did we realize that it would be so CROWDED! The bus had a hard time navigating through the crowded streets. Time was ticking closer and closer to the official toast to Arthur Guinness at 17:59 (aka 5:59 p.m.). We jumped off the bus and ran to the closest pub. Unfortunately, the closest pub was so crowded that people were strewn about the streets drinking Guinness. We tried getting a real pint from the tap at the pub, but to no avail. Fortunately, there was a Tesco across the street. We sprinted into the store and purchased some cans of Guinness--not as authentic or ideal, but we were desperate. We made it in time for the toast! After we finished that, we decided to trudge onto the pub we were wanting to get to the first time, Messrs Maguire. It was huge! Similar to the King's Head and The Quays in Galway, but much larger and busier, probably because of this historic day. After a long afternoon and night of toasting Arthur Guinness, we returned home and went straight to sleep, after a quick stop to McDonald's, of course.

Sept. 25

I had to get up early to get to the Dublin airport to catch my flight out to Memmingen, Germany to get to OKTOBERFEST! I can't believe it is here already! Unfortunately, Bryeanna and Mary missed their flight out of Dublin to Munich! They overslept and had to catch a later flight. What a shame. Fortunately, I was on a flight with Jeannie and Kaitlin, so we were able to hop on a bus from Memmingen to Munich easily. Well, getting ON the bus was easy; it was a little confusing when I got off the bus in the city centre of Munich. I was so confused, I sent a text to Courtney that said: "I think I'm in the wrong place. The signs say 'Munchen', not 'Munich'". Oh Lord. Well, luckily for me, I'm a pretty independent traveler and decided to buck up and figure out how I was going to get to the hotel. And how did I do that? By following all of the people dressed in lederhosen and other traditional German attire! I then made it to the Oktoberfest festival grounds and figured out how to get to our hotel. When I arrived at the hotel, I tried looking for Courtney and Liz, but it turns out that they were at the same hotel, just a different location in Munich. Oops. Then I waited for Patty and Amy to arrive. Once everyone arrived, we decided to go exploring down by the festival grounds. We were so overwhelmed by the amount of people there! Literally thousands. And the rides! So many fun rides and tons of delicious smells of German food. But then again, there were plenty of unpleasant smells and sights too, due to the debauchery of Oktoberfest. When in Rome, I suppose. Or rather, Munich. We got our first GIANT pretzels of the day, which were amazing. As we munched in Munich, we scoped out the area in preparation for our planning of THE BIG DAY tomorrow. We then met up with some other Richmond kids and went to a bier garten, where we also made some new German friends. We decided to call it a night after our first stein, in order to prepare to wake up early the next day.

Sept. 26- RICHMOND TAKES OVER OKTOBERFEST

This is it. The day we've been planning and waiting for: Richmond takes over Oktoberfest! We were up before the sun rose (for about the third or fourth day in a row for me) and at the Hofbrau tent at 7:30 a.m. There were tons of people lined up outside of all of the beer tents before we arrived, I can only imagine what time they rolled up! If you're claustraphobic, this is NOT the place for you--very crowded and smoky. Ugh. Any who, we sucked it up and battled through the long line. When it was our turn to get in, we sprinted and got an awesome table--right by the traditional German band! Yet right as we were settling in and gloating about our epic table, we discovered our table was reserved (or something, I mean who reads German?!). Uh......oops? Never fear! Our beer maid said that we could stay at that table until the reservation came at 3 p.m. HALLELUJAH! I mean I guess it's ok to stay at the same table from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. right? So we're all chilling at our table, anticipating the unknown like children waiting to see what Santa brought them on Christmas Day, and all hell breaks loose. Suddenly, there are cheers upon cheers echoing throughout the entire tent, and mind you, these aren't "tents" but more like gargantuan halls filled with thousands of people and many liters of beer. Then, the heavens opened up and all of a sudden our beer maid was back with probably 12 steins of beer, and those are heaaavvy! What a champ. Remember, this was at 9 a.m. I think this was earlier than Pig Roast, which is quite a feat. Speaking of Pig Roast, this was like an international Pig Roast on crack, with a small portion of the "Richmond bubble" transported into Germany. Essentially, heaven. I was happy that I got to meet up with a lot of friends, since I won't be seeing most of them until January. Well, as the day progressed (i.e., much beer drinking and pretzel eating), I went to the bathroom but somehow got lost on the way back to our table. This was around 1 or 2 p.m. I guess I thought that my group left, so I went outside and wandered around the festival grounds looking for them. Then I ended up on the Munich metro in the hopes of running into them there or back at the hotel. It was scary being lost in a foreign country, where I definitely had no idea what the German people were saying or what the signs meant, but I toughed it out and figured out how to get back to the hotel. This, of course, all came at a price: a lost mobile phone and about 80 Euro. Oops. I guess this was one of those "learning experiences". I'm extremely grateful that my friends looked for me, but to no avail. Despite losing money, my phone and myself, I still had a GREAT TIME! It is definitely a "once in a lifetime" experience, that is, unless we have an Oktoberfest reunion...

Sept. 27

Once again, I was awake before the sun rose. I haven't slept in days. I am tired. And hungry. But I must get home to Ireland. Since we weren't entirely sure how I was going to get from Munich/Munchen to Memmingen for my flight, I had to get up early with the Spain girls and ride the metro to the central station and figure out how to get a train from Munich to Memmingen. Luckily, it all worked out well and I met up with Mary and Bryeanna at the train station. After a short but boring ride through the German countryside (Ireland's countryside is waaay more beautiful, not that I'm biased or anything...), we made our way to the airport. On our flight to Dublin, we were seated near a bunch of rowdy yet friendly Irish guys. At least we had an entertaining flight home as opposed to a hellish one that it could have been had we been extremely hung-over, etc. We took the 5 Euro bus from the airport to Galway; this bus ride was very crowded and a strange French lady sat next to me who needed to go back to kindergarten (one of the few German words I actually know and understand) to learn about "personal space"--she kept creepin' in on me. No, no, no. Things I do not like. When we got back to Galway, I wanted to check out the Galway Oyster Festival. Sadly, I did not get to check it out because it seemed like an older people's event with expensive events that required ticket purchases, etc. Not your average fair or anything where you can just mill about and try out things. Oh well, perhaps when I am older (and richer).

Well that about wraps up a very cultural week! I would have posted pictures, but when I started to upload pictures, my computer is freaking out on me saying that there isn't enough hard disk space. I am FURIOUS. Hopefully I can fix this myself, otherwise a trip to the Apple store (if Galway has one... I hope!) is DEFINITELY NECESSARY. This week was definitely one to remember, even if I don't remember everything of every second of every day. Oh cultural life in Germany and Ireland--essentially centered around imbibing.

Sunday, Lazy Sunday (Week 3: Sept. 14 - Sept. 20)

Well, I think this week's post title just about sums up what the past two sundays have been like around here--L-A-Z-Y. And yes, I was paying homage to the greatest Irish band ever, U2, with the play on words for "Sunday Bloody Sunday". But I think that a lazy Sunday is just what the doctor ordered, in order to rest up for this week's upcoming adventures. But what do this week's adventures entail? Hopefully a day trip to Dublin on Thursday to celebrate Arthur's Day, the 250th anniversary of Guinness. Arthur's Day conveniently falls on the day before my flight leaves Dublin for Munich for OKTOBERFEST! I can't wait to be reunited with some great Richmond kids in Munich for a weekend full of German culture. And by German culture, I mean large steins of beer in the Hofbraus tent and pretzels and schnitzel with noodle (a la "Sound of Music" anyone?). I can't believe that I've been in abroad for almost a month and now I get to meet up with my friends in a different country, experiencing one of the most cultural events in the world. "Study" abroad is definitely racking up points on my "bucket list". But I guess now it is time to recount the events of this past week. Some days were boring but there were a few bright spots this week.

Sept. 14

Went to my first class of the day, only to discover about 10 minutes into class time, some rando Irish guy comes in and says that class had been cancelled. Seriously? Frustrating Irish Moment of the Day! Luckily though, this class was at 1 p.m., so it wasn't too frustrating, although I did have to trek over to campus for nothing. It was a tad annoying that no email had been sent out prior to class time, but I have come to accept the fact that I have very low expectations about Irish communications. If I get information communicated to me about when and if I have a final exam a week before the final exam deadline, then I'll be ecstatic, instead of scrambling at the last minute to find out where this essay needs to be dropped off by a certain time. Hopefully that is one adventure that won't play out in reality, because I don't think my heart can take that stress while I'm "studying" abroad. Nevertheless, we turned this situation from negative to positive by going on an adventure. The adventure: castle hunting. Castle hunting. How does one explain such an awesome thing? There isn't anything CLOSE to an activity like castle hunting in the States, probably because the closest thing we have to a castle is the White House, but you can't even get really close to it. Or maybe the "Castle House", as my sister and I like to call it, in Richmond on Cary Street Road is the closest Richmond comes to having a castle. Seriously though, check it out next time you drive down Cary. Directions: if you're headed into Carytown from campus, it will be secluded by trees and a brick wall on your right; the house has a spiral-y tower-esque thing protruding from the front facade. It's pretty cool. I don't know of very many cities that have castles strewn about the countryside, but in Ireland, there are castles everywhere. Even on my walk from our "village" (aka our apartment complex), there are the ruins of a castle. Sweet deal, walking by a castle every day to and from campus. Any who, we walked down by the River Corrib on this little path that takes you the back way to Corrib Village, which are basically the closest thing that NUI Galway has to dorms. It is where most of the freshers live, and it definitely looks like it! Imagine Gray Court, when boys lived there, before they renovated it, but after Pig Roast...with resort-colored, rectangular buildings. It turns out that this "stroll down the path" turned into quite the hike. But then we saw it: the castle in question. We're not entirely sure what the castle is called, but it was cool. Apparently, there are a lot of castles in the Galway area, but there is THE CASTLE. We're not sure if this one was it, but it was still pretty awesome to just be strolling along and then...BAM! A CASTLE! So beautiful. Actually it is on my blog already, but I'll post some more pics of some castles that I see quite often. The only bad thing about the castle that we found was that it was on the other side of the River Corrib, and apparently, even though it is on the same side of the river as our village, to access the castle is about 10 kilometers away. FAIL. But the view from the other side of the river was just as spectacular. And another cool thing about the walk was that we saw the ruins of the Tea Folly Room, which seemed like a little prison. This walk was lovely during the day, but it's definitely not somewhere to walk at night since the lampposts were few and far between. After our walk back to campus, I just chilled outside of the library until my next class started. The class, "Myth and Religion in the Ancient City", is a first-year's class and it turned out that the lectures actually didn't start until the next week. FAIL. But then at least I didn't have that class that week, so that FAIL turned into a WIN! Then I came home for a snack and then we went to the College Bar. Yes, I know that most college campuses have a "bar", but this DEFINITELY puts the Cellar to shame. Big time. It was RAGING in there! On a Monday afternoon? Welcome to Ireland! We went there for some drinks before our "Human Sexuality" psychology class. The class...was hilarious and very interesting! The lecturer is this gay grad student who is very funny and informative. We then headed back home to get ready to go out, since Monday is the new Friday here in Ireland. First we went to our friend Sammie's in Gort na Coiribe. Then we went to our new fave hang out spot, Hole in the Wall. After Hole in the Wall started to close, we went to the Roisin Dubh, which is a pretty hipster place that is normally jammin' on the weekends. But when we got there, it was not as crowded or crazy as we had previously experienced. So ends a wild and crazy Monday in Galway.

Sept. 15

Tuesday is essentially the mid-week Sunday here in Galway. I only have one class (ha, what a joke). So Tuesday definitely makes it a good day to get some chorein' done. And my favorite chore is....grocery shopping! PSYCHE. I haaaate grocery shopping. So stressful and expensive, even going to the cheap, sketchy places like Aldi and Tesco (open 24 hours, for convenience of course). Shout out to all the moms/other people who buy and cook their own food and live without the luxury of good ol' D-Hall. Oh Josh, the kingly Egg Man of the Heilman Dining Center, I miss you. And love love loooove your eggs. Two over hard with one slice of cheese, you know me all too well. But enough about that, it's making me hungry. On a more successful note though, I had NO issues with crossing the street. YAY! It's like I passed kindergarten again! I looked both ways, and darted across the roundabout without becoming roadkill, always a positive note in my book. I also switched my mobile service to Meteor, which was a good move on my part; now I can text and call everyone with Meteor FO FREE. And it makes meeting people a lot easier because we can actually communicate. Hollerrrr. Then I headed back to campus for Clubs Day, which is when all of the sport club teams set up booths and you can look around and sign up for whichever team you want to try. I signed up for basketball, something that clearly I am already a pro at playing, but I also decided to sign up for Gaelic football and rugby. I figured, I'm in Ireland, I gotta try a traditional Irish sport. I'm not sure which sport I'll do, perhaps I'll try both and then decide. They don't call it "practice" over here for sports teams, but rather "training". And of course, Tuesday means Gay Night, so to end our mid-week Lazy Day, we stayed in and watched the MTV VMAs, since it airs a day late. And whoa. Can we pause for a moment of enthusiastic clapping and praise for our beloved, Taylor Swift, aka T-Swift. Now I used to be a fan of Kanye because of his genius beats and sick rhymes, but I was never a fan of his award show antics. This stunt he pulled at the VMAs during T-Swift's acceptance speech was OUTRAGEOUS AND UNACCEPTABLE! Grrrr how can you be hatin' on T-Swift's "You Belong With Me", a power anthem for girls everywhere, but especially at Keystone Camp (holla back to the Pinnacle dances where we danced and raged on stage, feeling like we were rockstars!). Any who, Ireland gives T-Swift mad love abroad.

Sept. 16

Wednesday started out like every other Wednesday, with lots of classes. I went to Gaelic football "training", but it turned out to be a FAIL because not a lot of girls showed up because, according to the Irish girls, they had either gone home early for the week or they didn't have their "gear", whatever that entails... Gaelic football: it seems like a combination of rugby, soccer, and American football and it is only played in Ireland, so it isn't really popular worldwide like soccer or rugby. The "pitch" aka playing field, is really really far from our village. Then we came back and got ready for a night out where we pub and club hopped--King's Head, Hole in the Wall, GPOs, Bar 903, and many more. 

Sept. 17

Went to class on Thursday and then joined the gym and worked out. It was a very weird workout because I'm still getting used to a new gym. I decided to take a break from going out on Thursday because it was kind of a "blah" night. So I began to watch "PS, I Love You" (duh obvi for Ireland) and right before Hilary Swank heads to Ireland, graoihdsansdoifvadagrrralsdhnaoisdbnvaieorhbghrg. My computer messes up. FAIL. Ugh, Frustrating Irish Moment of the Day! What a bad way to end the day.

Sept. 18

Friday was a looong day. First I had to wake up early to go over to the Garda (police station) and register with the Immigration Unit. You had to have everything exactly spelled out and exact, otherwise they wouldn't take it. I got a little lost on the way and ended up sprinting the rest of the way because I didn't want to miss my appointment. If I missed my appointment, then I would have to come back the next day even earlier in the morning and wait with everyone else. But luckily, I made it in time and everything went smoothly. Then I trekked over to campus to officially register for my "modules" aka classes. Now I'm a more legit "study" abroad student, taking three history classes, a psychology class, and a classics class. I had to wait in line again like I did last week to register with the university. Remember when I met those girls from Georgetown while waiting in line for-ev-er? Well, coincidentally, they were behind me in this line, again! We reunited and exchanged numbers so we could meet up later that night. I also signed up for an Irish language course, though it doesn't really count as a legit class; I'm taking it for fun, but the only bad thing is that it meets on Fridays and I'll be missing the first lesson for OKTOBERFEST! Oops, not a bad trade-off. I came home and did laundry for the first time, but it definitely came at a price: six Euro to be exact...woof. Then I grocery shopped some more and took a much needed nap from the busy morning. That night, we went to the Galway United Football Club match since the pitch is just round the corner from our village. Now that was probably the most Irish sentence I've ever typed. I went with some of the Richmond girls and the Georgetown girls met up with us. Galway United played St. Patrick's Athletic Club and Galway won! It was pretty exciting for a minor league team. Then we went down to Monroe's Tavern, where they had a great band and we met a crazy local who danced up a storm.

Sept. 19

Woke up and watched my ritualistic dose of "Hangover TV" while eating breakfast. Now mind you, I don't get hungover, but that is what they call it over here on some television station: they play grrrrr-eat shows like "The Hills", so we're getting all caught up on it before the new season comes out in October with the resurgence of Kristen from Laguna Beach...bitch. Then for our Saturday activity, Bryeanna and I went shopping to liven up our wardrobes. It was very successful! Although, I did have some buyer's remorse because I had set a rule for myself to try and not buy new clothes before mid-October, but I stand by my belief that they were necessary purchases. There are still a few staples I need to get, but I think I'm good to go for now. Ugh, I was missing college football like whoa. Go Spiders, Go Gators! What a great day for college football (from what I gather from ESPN.com) I swear that I will find a bar or pub that plays American football and go by myself if need be to watch some games toward the end of the season. We went down to the Hole in the Wall and the Georgetown girls met up with us. We had a great dance party on the dance floor, raging to some great American classics like, "Livin' On A Prayer". Then Shaylyn and I went to check out the Roisin Dubh, but it was very crowded. We left, and on the way home we stopped by Tesco, the cheap grocery store that is open 24/7. It was perhaps a bad idea to purchase "potato waffles". Potato waffles. Wow, delicious. Ha ha only in Ireland... 

Sept. 20

"Passed out at 3, woke up at 10, go out to eat and do it again..." Lyrics courtesy of one of my favorite all-American college songs, "I Love College". And I do love college, but I'm loving abroad as well. Woke up late and had our lazy Sunday, partly because I'm nursing a strained back muscle from something, probably an injury incurred by raging on the dance floor. I made a yummy brunch, paying homage to Josh, the holy Egg Man; scrambled eggs and potato waffles with cheese! AND I found Heinz ketchup here in Ireland, which made my breakfast even better. Of course they should have the best ketchup in Ireland since there are so many potato products. It was a great brunch to enjoy while watching more of "The Hills". 

Things I've done today:

1. I'm in the midst of planning a killer rendezvous in la France for the last weekend in October since we have a bank holiday; hopefully I'll be meeting up with Martha and some other Richmond kids so I can be nerdy and check out the Louvre and the Musee d'Orsays.

2. Watched more marathons of "Friends" and "The Hills"

3. Sent out emails and Facebooking

4. Ordered "take away" aka take out dinner and we baked cookie bars and are now watching "Clueless", one of the great American classics.

Next week may have to have a few installments since it is sure to be EPIC and full of stories. Things to get excited about: Arthur's Day, OKTOBERFEST! and the Galway Oyster Festival. I hope I can check out part of the Oyster Festival when I return from OKTOBERFEST! Let the cultural experiences begin!

It's Always Sunny in Galway....wait. WHAT? (Week 2: Sept. 9 - Sept. 13)

Hello again! I decided that since Sundays are usually lazy across the globe, that Sunday would be the best day to update the blog. So I'll catch y'all up on all the "craic" we've done this week (pronounced like "crack", but not the drug. Come on people, as Whitney Houston once said, "CRACK IS WHACK!"). Actually, "craic" is the Irish word for "fun". And I have had a lot of "craic" this week, becoming more and more acclimated to Galway life.

September 9

I was up early to try out the "Nazi Germany" history class with Kaitlin; perhaps it was a bit tooearly in the morning, considering that I was struggling to keep my eyes open. I decided soon after that class was over that it seemed like too much work for a study abroad class. 

*A SIDE NOTE* I mean, after all, from what I've heard, study abroad is not about pushing your limits. I feel that (and many of my friends feel this way too) studying abroad the fall of junior year is a great time to "take the plunge". Although I miss a lot of things aboutRichmond and America in general, it has been really rewarding to experience "real life" in a totally different country. Even though there hasn't been too much culture shock, there have been many instances that have been frustrating about not being back home. For instance, everything at NUI Galway is extremely disorganized and inefficient (refer to last week's blog post about standing in line for registration for a little taste of inefficiency). Also, having to buy groceries is a constant chore since a lot of the food has a small amount of time before it becomes expired (plus our mini-fridges don't quite hold the plethora of food that would make bulk-buying monetarily efficient). But all of these tiny, mundane events will help us all grow up and become even more ready for "the real world" (but not the one on MTV, and it's not like we're jumping for joy about the fact that when we come back we'll be second semester juniors...woof!).

Back to September 9

After our boring Nazi Germany class, we went to Gender, Work and Family in Ireland from 1850-1922. This history class seemed a lot more exciting since it's about Ireland. I'm taking at least two different history classes that are just about Ireland. I mean, if I'm studying here, might as well learn about the country. "When in Rome!" "That phrase doesn't really work there..." (Quick--movie trivia, what's that from? ANCHORMAN! Congrats to everyone who got that pop culture reference). Any who, by the time we finished up two history classes in the morning, we were famished (perhaps it was all that talk about "the famine" aka one of Ireland's most dire and trying times, practically the only thing people know about Irish history). We decided to go to Ward's Corner Store for lunch, a little sandwich shop right across University Road from campus. It was very delicious, but best of all, CHEAP! They have daily specials and a "Top 5" list of sandwiches for only 2.99 Euro. WIN! Then we had some more classes in the afternoon. Later that evening, we went over to Gort na Coiribe, the student-apartment complex right next door to our apartment in Cuirt na Coiribe. One of Bryeanna's friends from home lives with an Irish girl and she had a a birthday party with her Irish friends. It was fun hanging out with the Irish kids. The girls over here get REALLY dressed up, so that's a bit intimidating. Yet you can definitely point an Irish kid out on campus since they love wearing Abercrombie and Hollister sweats...strange. We were talking to them about college life in the states, and of course they were fascinated about Greek life and wanted to know if all of the crazy stories about sororities and fraternities were true. They also had never heard of "beer pong" or "flip cup" or other American drinking games. It's only a matter of time before we teach them a thing or two...

September 10

Woke up. Went to class. Boooorrring. But then I decided it was about time to try out the gym on campus. Galway mirrors Richmond because Galway just got a new gym on campus, just like Richmond did a few years ago. Plus, Galway is doing tons of reconstruction, just like Richmond. I feel like sometimes I'm in the Twilight Zone (cue music). Frustration about Ireland for the day: I opened up my bank account earlier that week and received my PIN for it, yet no card. Essentially useless. Grr. The gym was fun, but the one at Richmond is much better in my opinion. Yes, Galway has lots of treadmills, spinning bikes, ellipticals, weights and more, but there isn't any variety within these cardio machines like there is at school. Well, Jeannie and Kaitlin peaced out to Greece for a long weekend of fun in the sun, yet the weather has been similar here in Galway. Warm and sunny weather continued from earlier this week into the weekend, which was awesome. Bryeanna and I went and hung out with some new Fairfield friends at the pub/club/bar Hole in the Wall. It was a fun, cool little bar filled with locals.

September 11

It was strange being abroad on such a patriotic day. There wasn't any mention of it on the streets or really even the news, so that was a bit of a culture wake-up call that our news in America isn't always that important to other countries. I went to try out an archaeology class that morning. It was kind of interesting, but the class's only field trip conflicts with a trip that I already booked for Barcelona in November (a little birthday present to me!), so I dropped that class like it was hot. Then I came home for lunch and signed onto Facebook (per usual), only to discover that three of our Richmond friends from Dublin were coming for a pseudo-surprise weekend trip. That definitely livened up my weekend schedule, which had looked pretty dismal since most Irish kids go home on the weekends. We went to the King's Head, our typical jammin' place to take newbies. Like all of the other times going to King's Head, there was a great band playing tons of covers. Everything from Kings of Leon to Cyndi Lauper to Black Crowes was played. Instead of trying out some other pubs like we had originally planned, we stayed the whole time until the band finished. On our way home, we pass tons of "danger zones"--late-night food shops, such as McDonald's, Supermac's (Irish version of McDonald's/Sheetz but really, really gross), and a crepes place. And I was feeling super good since I had been in the country for two weeks and hadn't done any post-pub snacking...until that night. Bryeanna had been to the crepes place earlier that day and veered into the restaurant. But it was well worth it, considering that crepe was delish (Nutella, chopped nuts, and ice cream since they ran out of whipped cream). MMM MMM GOOD!

September 12

After our late night the previous night, we all slept in and watched a lot of Saturday morning TV. The Richmond kids from Dublin don't have TV's in their apartments, so they were thrilled to do nothing but watch TV that morning. After resisting the marathon of Friends and Scrubs that are always on here, we strolled over to campus and took them to Ward's for lunch. Then we went a different way to the Claddagh and the bay by going down by the canal. On our walk, we saw some graffiti artists doing their thang outside the Roisin Dubh (sometimes called the "Russian Dove"), an hipster, edgy bar on the edge of the City Centre. Once we got down by the water, we saw a very unusual game going on the water. There were big nets set up and buoys all around and people in kayaks playing with a water polo ball...turns out it was kayak water polo! It was really cool! For all the Keystone ladies out there: it reminded me A LOT about how we play Quidditch on the canoe lake. We continued on down toward the bay and adventured on the many rocks that line the shore. We even went out onto the sand and dipped our feet in the cool water. Since it was such a beautiful day, we didn't think twice about sunscreen. I mean really, who goes to Ireland and brings sunscreen?! Well, we all got a rosy hue to our skin. That is definitely one thing I did not expect about going to Ireland. "You got sunburned in Ireland?!" Clearly that is a testament to how white I really am... And whenever there is a gorgeous day down by the bay in Galway, there are tons and TONS of dogs out. Seeing all of the dogs, big and small, young and old, made all of us miss our dogs. Woof. We then came back and cooked dinner and went out again to Hole in the Wall. The Fairfield people came and met up with us again and that was fun. Aside from the small amount of us Americans, the crowd was mainly "freshers" (aka first year students out on the town since they are starting this week) and young Irish guys. It turned into a fun dance party and we met some Irish kids. As we left, yet again the Richmond/Dublin kids' late-night munchies influence struck. We wanted to go to the McDonald's that is close to our apartment, but only the drive-thru was open. We decided to "walk thru" the drive-thru and try it out. When we got up to the order window, we were REJECTED. We were appalled. All we wanted was some good ol' Amurrican Mickey D's! We started coming up with tons of excuses about why we weren't in a car, almost hopping into a cab and going through the drive-thru, but then we decided: No matter! There is still Supermac's on the way home. Supermac's. Oh dear. It seemed like a good decision at the time...it tasted delicious at the time...but in the morning it was not such a good decision. Oops. Poor life decision.

September 13

Once again, we got another late start in the morning after watching some "Hangover TV" (a legit program over here where they play random shows, such as the old-school "Bewitched", of which, I am a huge fan of now). Then we went out searching for food like scavenging vultures. Ok, perhaps a bit too graphic, but you get the picture. Since our Richmond/Dublin friends had a train to catch, we walked into Eyre Square and were thinking of going down to Quay Street to try out a new restaurant, but we first stopped into Paddy's, a seemingly innocent pub with pub food. Not so. The waiter was really sketchy and didn't seem to understand English slash may have been more than just "high on life". After ordering drinks, we all came to the consensus that Paddy's was a big "X" and peaced (after paying a fortune for water... 2.40 Euro, no way). But then it was getting closer and closer to the Richmond/Dublin kids' train departure, so we just hit up the Bagel Factory a few stores down from Supermac's (don't need to go in there during the daylight, although we did get yummy ice cream from the ice cream place within Supermac's, so that doesn't really count). Then we just hung out in Eyre Square until it was time for them to leave for their train. Then Bryeanna and I walked down to the Claddagh again to meet up with some Fairfield girls and just soaked up the Irish sun on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

Well, that wraps up my second week in Galway. The sunshine really does wonders to your outlook on life. Now, that may sound cheesy (and perhaps it is), but the weather has been such a blessing as I am still getting used to living in a foreign country, some 3,000+ miles away from home without my close friends and family, but I am confident that even if the sun disappears and the rains return, my love for Galway will continue to grow and grow, like the lush, green, Irish grass.

The Beginning of My Irish Adventures (Week 1: Aug. 31 - Sept. 8)

Hello all! I apologize for the tardiness of updating my blog, but that just means that I have been very busy getting acclimated to life in Ireland.

I guess I'll start off with recounting my travels. Well, luckily I didn't have to quickly rearrange any clothes, etc. from my luggage, seeing as it was all underweight! That could be a good thing...or a bad thing. After a smooth flight to Philly, I overcame my sadness and moved on to the feeling of excitement in a new place. On Tuesday September 1, I arrived bright and early in Dublin. No problems going through security, seeing as I look Irish yet act American (a.k.a., clueless and spellbound). Since my plane landed early in the morning and my bus to Galway didn't leave until later in the morning, I got some breakfast and a book on Ireland and read up on different places to go see during my stay. Once it was time for the bus to depart, I feel asleep straightaway since I didn't really sleep on the plane. When I woke up, I was surprised to see the very green and lush countryside, with TONS of sunshine! Definitely not the stereotypical image of Irish weather.

I arrived at my apartment building, Cuirt na Coribe, and just so happened to be greeted by two of my Richmond apartment-mates, Jeannie and Bryeanna. There are six of us total in our apartment: four from Richmond, a Belgian, and a German. My bedroom is very small, but nice; I also have my own bathroom which is baller. I made up my bed, complete with Biggie Bunny and my Keystone blanket, two comfort objects from home. Jeannie, Bryeanna and I went to our in-complex restaurant, Scotty's Steakhouse. It was kind of like an Applebee's or something like that, so no Irish food to begin our adventures. Since we were all very tired from traveling, we watched the movie, Love Story, a classic. We decided we would need it to rest up for the next day. Yes, in other words, we were being L-A-M-E, laaaame. Oh well.

On September 2, Kaitlin, our fourth Richmonder, arrived. It started off as a typical rainy day, and of course there were many errands to run. Luckily, we have a lot of stores close to our apartment. There is a Target-esque type of store right across from our apartment, Dunnes. It has almost everything you need: bedding, clothes, groceries, alcohol...ha ha. We have been taking many trips to Dunnes. We had a somewhat of a lazy day, just getting used to apartment life, which of course included watching MTV UK, once our TV was fixed. But we did manage to make it out that night! After drinking some very cheap wine, we trekked out to Shop Street, the center of Galway cultural and nightlife. First we went to King's Head, one of Galway's oldest pubs, established in the mid-1600s. There, we had our first Irish shots--"Butterballs", which tasted like a Bailey's concoction. I also had my first true Guinness there! Guinness is very thick, but not as bad as many people made it out to seem. We saw some of the other Richmond kids there too. Then we went around to Monroe's to meet up with some of Bryeanna's friends from home. Both King's Head and Monroe's had fun bands playing both traditional Irish music and covers of American songs.

The next day we were all up early for the International Students Welcome on campus. It was actually held in their newly-remodeled wellness center, the Kingfisher Club, located right on the River Corrib. The presentation covered everything from classes, to setting up an Irish bank account, to the all-important (and a tad bit intimidating) registering with the Irish immigration organization, Garda. It was a very long and boooooorrring day, starting at 9:30 a.m. and ending right around 1:30 p.m., with no lunch! It was kind of like freshman orientation all over again. It was also weird being called an "international student." After that, we walked around campus and took a tour. It was interesting to see what an European college campus looks like. For example, most of the lecture halls are all located in one main building. Later that day, Jeannie and Kaitlin cooked pasta and made a salad for us for dinner.

On Friday, I went to several academic meetings that gave a general overview of what classes are like, when they are, where they meet, etc. I went to the English, History and Sociological course selection meetings. After those let out, I did a bit more exploring of campus, and then headed into the City Centre from campus. You know, doing the whole tourist-y thing, snappin' pics for Facebook (shameless plug: y'all should check out ma pics on my Facebook if you want some visuals for this blog). That night Bryeanna and I made fajitas for everyone for dinner. We had some issues with cutting the chicken, peppers and onions--our "vegetable cutting knife" is duller than most of the TV shows shown on trans-Atlantic flights. After dinner, we went to King's Head again to start off, then to Coyotes, an American bar. It was...interesting. They had tons of Americana decor, American flags everywhere and even a mechanical bull!  We think that more Europeans like going there if they can't get over to "Amurrica". After taking in some of the homeland, we started heading home through Eyre Square, and we came across another pub, Fibber Magees. We hung out there for a bit and then came back.

We all got a later start on Saturday, taking full advantage of sleeping in on a weekend. Since we didn't have any plans, we decided to go exploring even more and do a bit of window-shopping. We walked downtown through Shop Street again, but this time we actually went into the shops on the street. There are a ton of sweater shops, selling the famed Aran Island woolen sweaters. Another typical product sold along Shop Street is the Claddagh Ring, the ring where there are two hands holding a heart with a crown upon it. These two will DEFINITELY make my Christmas Wish List... We continued on down through Shop Street, down by the Latin Quarter where the Spanish Arch and Medieval Wall are located, right along the water. There are many memorials dedicated to those, mainly fishermen, who were lost at sea. The area down where the River Corrib meets Galway Bay is called "The Claddagh", hence the name of the rings. So we adventured on down to the Bay. It was beautiful, despite the cloudy and windy conditions. The trip down there helped spark our interest in booking a trip to the Aran Islands. Since we decided to go down on the trip the next day, we stayed in and watched TV. It may sound like all we have been doing is watching TV and being lazy, but that is far from it! We walk everywhere. Plus, the Irish kids had not yet arrived, so it was mainly locals and internationals out at the pubs and clubs.

Sunday was the day of our big adventure. We had to wake up fairly early in order to catch our bus from Eyre Square to the ferry. The Aran Islands are famous for their woolen sweaters that come in many different knit designs, and for their fishing. It is still very much a fisherman's area. There are three different islands: Inis Mor, Inis Meain and Inis Oirr. We left our apartment around 8:45 a.m. to head to the bus station to check in for our bus from Galway to Ros a Mhil, where our ferry was to depart.  It was a very rainy, windy, wet and cold day for our trip, but we decided to make the most of it. We decided to only go to Inis Mor, the largest and most populated island. When we arrived, we immediately went to the Aran sweater market and museum to look around. No purchases, but lots of fun trying the sweaters on and seeing which style suited us best. Then, due to the torrential downpour and whipping winds, we decided to take a bus tour around the island. We saw lots of countryside, with many of the common lands fenced off by stone walls that have been around for hundreds of years. On of our first stops was at a seal colony on the coast of the island. Sadly, we only saw one lone seal perched atop a rock. We also passed the ancient monastery, Cill Mhuirbhigh. The Aran Islands speak Irish (yes, Irish, not Gaelic) and English, but it is one of the last remaining Irish-speaking communities. Most of these Irish-speaking communities are located in Southwest Connemara, the heart of the Galway Gaeltacht. Our bus stopped for a long time at Dun Aonghasa, an ancient fort in which it used to be circular, but half of it fell away into the sea since it was made of limestone. It was a treacherous climb with the wind and biting mist to reach the top of the fortress, but we made it! It was a nice view from the top, looking out into the water. Once we completed our descent, we went into another sweater and craft shop after we ate lunch in the village located at the base of Dun Aonghasa. It served traditional Irish food, but since it was such a cold day, we all opted for the hearty vegetable soup and the brown bread. In Ireland, "brown bread" means wheat bread. The brown bread and butter was very delicious with the soup. The soup was nice to warm us up before heading back out into the wet and cold. When we arrived back near the ferry, we headed into another pub to warm up again with some hot chocolate and coffee. After taking naps on the ferry and bus, we arrived back in Galway City and went home to prepare for the first day of school.

Monday. The first day of school. Right? Well, technically... But most of us had to register with NUI Galway since the online registration was a big FAIL. Unfortunately, I got a later start that most, which was ominous for a not-so-stellar day. First, a button broke off on a brand-new shirt, but luckily I am a former Girl Scout and thus was able to make a makeshift button out of a thumb-tack, notecard and tape. Then I headed to campus to register. I had to wait in what seemed like a never-ending line. Like the line for the "Rock n' Rollercoaster" at MGM in Disney World was probably shorter than this one! Legit, this line was about two hours long, at least. But it wasn't too bad because I met two girls who go to Georgetowne who were nice. So I registered and got my student ID card. It was a great picture! NOT. But not as bad as my current driver's license or passport photo, so yay for me! Then I went to the International Affairs Office to get a letter to set up my Bank of Ireland account. I must not have been the only one who thought that this was a good idea, for there was yet another long line. But this line wasn't as long, probably as long as the line at D-Hall is at prime-time on Saturday morning for brunch. Manageable. I set up my bank account and deposited my traveler's cheques...score! I was going to join the gym on-campus, but I have to wait until I get my new bank card to do that. That night we decided that it was a much needed to go out and have a happy ending to a boring and stressful day. First we went to The Quays, another typically tourist-y pub. It was really cool inside because there are a lot of nooks and crannies to hang out in. After The Quays, we made our way back to King's Head and met some Irish guys there. These guys were a little bit older than us (like 23, 24) and they were grad students at NUI Galway. They bought us drinks and paid for us to get into the club CP's, so that was nice, saving some dolla dolla bills (or I guess I should say some 1 Euro coins yeaaaaaah). It was a fun night to start off a new week.

Tuesday was our first "real" day of class. Well, it started off not so well, considering that it was rainy and we got lost and confused about finding our first class...FAIL. I went home for lunch and a nap before our second attempt to our first class. We went to "The Irish Emigrant Experience," a history class. It seems very interesting. According to the locals, Tuesday is Gay Night, so it is not a very big going-out night. We went to Sonny's/The Front Door Pub for dinner. I had a chicken Caesar salad, but it was very bland. Oh well, note to self: no need in ordering that again. Since I have a lot of Wednesday classes, as do the other girls, we came back and went to bed early to get ready for school the next day.

That about wraps up Week 1 (official week, from Tuesday to Tuesday, ha ha). I hope it wasn't too long or too boring for y'all. Until next time! May your days be sunny and warm, like Galway is right now, a nice break from the erratic wind and rain.