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!