Another week gone by and I’m still happy as a clam… or as an oyster here in Galway!  Oyster’s are one of the main products out of Galway Bay, and all around the county they’re gearing up for the various Oyster Festivals.  The festival in Galway city starts next Thursday so we’re going to try to go on Friday when most of us don’t have any classes.  We had originally planned to go to Munich for Oktoberfest but we have a CEA trip to the Aran Islands planned for Saturday, and after talking to one of our german friends here she told us that Oktoberfest is really just a huge, over priced tourist trap that the locals don’t even go to.  We may still try to go the next weekend but I think at this point we’re planning on going to Paris or Berlin instead. 

So this past weekend we ended up on a spontaneous tour of Southern Ireland!  The original plan was really quite simple: the girls wake up super early on Saturday morning, take a 4.5 hour bus ride to Cork, take a taxi to Blarney, kiss the Blarney stone, take a taxi back to Cork in time to catch the last bus back to Galway at 5:45.  By Friday night this had morphed into: drive to Blarney with an irish friend (thus cutting the journey time in half), spend the day at the castle, drive to Cork, meet up with a friend of mine from UMD who is studying in Cork for the semester, spend the night in a hostel, explore the city on Sunday, and be back by the afternoon.  Saturday came and the first half of the plan went perfectly.  Then, as we were preparing to head back to Cork, we decided to go for a drive to explore the countryside… unfortunately the “tomtom” GPS system we were losing was not very reliable and we ended up horribly lost, driving around rotaries 8 times trying to decide which exit we needed, driving miles out of the way when we could have just made a u-turn, and finally ending up almost 2 hours away from Cork, in Killarney.  It was already getting late so we decided to just stay the night in Killarney, a tourist-y town along the Ring of Kerry.  It wasn’t by any means what we had originally planned, but sometimes spontaneous adventures are good, and we certainly made the best of it!  Unfortunately for me, I came down with a pretty bad cold Saturday night and spent the car ride back to Galway pretty miserable.  Thankfully I was able to stop in a convenience store near the bed and breakfast before we set out to get myself some cold medicine and tissues… “man-size tissues,” to be exact, because they didn’t have any normal sized tissues.  As miserable as I felt being sick, we all got a laugh out of the man-sized tissues… each one roughly the size of a small dog.

Sunday night started “Fresher’s Week” here at NUIG.  Whereas in the US freshman tend to show up on campus earlier than everyone else for orientation and such, here they start a week later.  They have all finally moved in and, lucky me, Corrib Village appears to be Fresher central.  Since classes haven’t picked up as much for them yet, they’ve been very noisy, coming and going at night (I know, I know, I sound like an old crone complaining about those young hooligans making so much noise) and, while usually I would be more understanding, they’ve taken to breaking into the apartment buildings and pulling the fire alarms.  They got our building Sunday night, when I was sick and trying to sleep.  The alarm system isn’t tied to any sort of response team, so we (all us boring old folf who wanted to be awake for classes on Monday) had to shuffle out into the cooooold night air and call security to come shut the alarm off.  Sadly, security was already busy taking care of other issues across Corrib Village so we were stuck waiting for almost half an hour.  Thankfully things have calmed down at least a little bit since then.

Other than those little bits, everything is flowing very smoothly here.  I have a nice little schedule for each of my days, going to classes, getting readings done, running errands (though grocery delivery means I don’t have to walk 40 minutes with heavy bags!), and exploring the city.  A friend and I went on a quest for a bookstore and stumbled upon the most fabulous little bakery!  Now, it isn’t much of a “classic” bakery with cupcakes and such, but it does have some yummy breads and a few pastry type things, and the most delicious sandwich station!  Whoever comes to visit is getting dragged to it.  You don’t get a choice haha.  I ended up getting a southwest chicken wrap kind of sandwich, and me and Dennis bought a loaf of banana bread to split.  It was yummy, but nowhere NEAR as good as mommy’s banana bread!  Plus, they put some kind of strange raisin-type fruit in it… I think it’s called a sultana or something.  Not my favorite but still pretty good.

Now some of my friends and I are planning to go see a movie tonight since we can get a good student discount, and my roommate’s professor practically made seeing “Inglourious Basterds” an assignment.  And really, what kind of friend would I be if I made her go all alone?! 

So that’s my life here so far!  Still having an amazing time and soooo glad I get to be here all year!

 

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PS my address while here is:

 

Lauren Earl

91-4 Corrib Village

Newcastle

Galway

Ireland

 

(PPS- if you ever send anything that can’t fit through a mail slot, please let me know!  They keep larger items behind the front desk but apparently it’s “too difficult” to send us an email or something if we get mail.)

Slainte!

Here I am, a week into my Irish adventure, and life couldn’t be better.  Sure, the apartment isn’t great, and the weather (with the exception of today) has been cold and rainy, but then I look out my window and see the Corrib river in my backyard, and the green green grass, and usually a rainbow, and the ruins of an old church (yeah, archaeology nerd), and giant swans swimming, and leprechauns playing… really, how could I not be happy here?

           

            I arrived at Shannon airport last Tuesday…1.5 hours ahead of schedule, which was VERY nice because, really, who likes spending more time on an airplane than necessary?  I made it through customs and immigration fairly quickly, and was met outside by Brian, the director from my study abroad program, and three others from my program: Dennis and Colleen, both from NJ, and Steve from Colorado.  Brian gave us all student bus passes, and we boarded the bus to take us to Galway’s city center.  Oops! First problem.  Apparently, in order to use a student bus pass you need to give them an Irish student ID card.  Obviously none of us had those yet.  The bus driver was a bit grumpy and threatened to kick us off at the next stop if the bus inspector came on.  Luckily he didn’t, because then we would have been stranded in a small town somewhere between Shannon and Galway. 

            Finally arriving at the bus station near Eyre Square, in Galway’s center, we got two taxi’s to take us to Corrib Village, the apartments we are living in.  The two guys took one while Colleen and I took the other, along with Brian.  Unlike the bus driver, the taxi driver was very friendly, pointing out places to know (like grocery stores and pharmacy’s) and giving us fatherly tidbits (he has three daughters of his own so… even though Galway is safe, don’t walk alone at night, don’t leave your friends and go with someone you don’t know, watch your drinks if you’re out at a pub or club… the usual).  After we all got checked into our apartments (first impression: small, dirty, everything’s broken… well that’s just lovely) we met up again, joined by some of Steve’s apartment mates, a Canadian named Dylan, and a Luxembourgian (which is apparently the correct term according to Microsoft Word) named Laurent, and headed back into the city center, about a 15 minute walk through campus, across a bridge, and past a beautiful cathedral. 

            In town we stopped at Dunne’s so we could all buy sheets, towels, duvet covers, jackets (because the guys didn’t think it would be cold in Ireland…), and everything else we couldn’t fit into our bags when we packed.  After some shopping and exploring, we stopped in at a pub for our first pint!  It was nice sitting and talking with my new friends, just getting to know each other a bit better.  After sitting for a while, we set out once again to stock up on some groceries from the Dunne’s grocery store.  You know, the basics, bread, pasta, apples, and giant jars of nutella for the guys.  Enough to get us through the first few days until we could get some real shopping done.  Unfortunately, as happens with Ireland, it started pouring on our walk back and, try as we might, we couldn’t keep our bulging paper bags from disintegrating, resulting in a few casualties, led by the glass nutella, jar crashing to the ground.  The last ten minutes of the walk we were undoubtedly marked as outsiders, draped in sopping, shredded brown paper, with piles of things strategically balanced in our arms.  My crowning glory in all of this: I still had a fabric bag stashed in my purse to try to cut down on paper and plastic at the grocery stores at home.  Thank you, Pier 1, for providing me with this stylish (and inexpensive!) lifesaver!  I cannot even count how many times that little paisley bag has come in handy in just one week.

            We finally made it back, just as the rain stopped, and I met my new roommate!  Niki from Colorado, along with one of our apartment mates, Delphine, from France.  We met the other two in our apartment, Geoffrey and Guillaume, both from France as well, the next day.  Niki and Delphine were just on their way out to do some shopping of their own when I got back, so I spent the afternoon finishing unpacking, and just settling in.  We all met up again in the evening and headed back into the city center, to Market Street, for dinner.  After some delicious fish and chips we decided to head back and catch up on some sleep since we were all jetlagged and thoroughly exhausted.

            Over the next few days we all got together for CEA and NUIG orientations, city tours, and our own nightlife tours, visiting a different pub each night (because contrary to apparently popular belief, I have actually been embracing my Irish heritage and going to pubs!).  So far our favorites have been The Quays (pronounced like ‘keys’) and The Front Door/Sonny’s because of the great atmosphere in each.  I had an especially fun night at The Front Door when, within minutes of arriving, I feel a tap on my shoulder and hear “wait, Lauren?!?!”  I turn around and whom do I see?  Katherine Simpson, an old high school acquaintance who had moved away during our junior year.  As if that wasn’t cool enough, she tells me she had seen Mike Gardner, another guy we knew from high school, just minutes before.  We see him heading upstairs a few minutes later, so we grab him and have a mini high school reunion, at a pub in the middle of Galway.  How.  Cool.  After celebrating for a few minutes we left to rejoin the groups we had come in with.  Mendham was wonderful and all, but we’re here for the international experience, making new friends and all.  It’s nice to know I’ve got some connections to back home if I need them though (doubtful that will be necessary, but still comforting). 

            After almost a week of orientations, tours, karaoke (for international students), and exploration, we finally started classes on Monday.  So far I have only had two of my classes, but I couldn’t be more pleased with them.  This semester I will be taking three archaeology classes and two celtic civilization classes.  From now until mid-October I am taking Public archaeology and a course on Hunters and Farmers in Mesolithic and Neolithic Europe.  Once those end I will start a course called “Landscapes of Cult and Kinship in Early Medieval Ireland.”  The two celtic civ classes, “Families, Fili and Fools” and “The Stories of Medieval Wales” last the whole semester, though they only meet once a week on Thursdays so I won’t have either of those until tomorrow. 

            Tonight I’m going to an ISS meeting, the International Students Society, where we will think of activities to do during the semester to help bring the international students together, as well as introduce us to more Irish students.  Following the meeting we’ll be having an ISS meet and greet type event at a Pub back in the city center, complete with freebies and, most importantly, free food!  I’m getting terribly bored of pasta, though I’m certainly impressed with my creative ability to mix together whatever is lying around the kitchen and come up with a dish of carbohydrate-y deliciousness.  Other meals consist of spreadable cheese on toast, muesli and yogurt (my favorite breakfast) and, if you’re my roommate, peanut butter and trailmix sandwiches.  Meanwhile, my French apartment mate Geoffrey cooks amazing dishes like chicken cordon bleu, elaborate pasta dishes with fancy vegetable salads, and roast chicken… for LUNCH.  After laughing at our pathetic excuses for dinners he promised Niki and I that he’ll cook occasional meals for us, and he’s even taught us some easy and inexpensive delicious side dishes.  Should work out pretty well, I think!

            Now that we’ve all settled in, my fellow CEA-ers are planning our first excursion outside of Ireland… a trip to Munich for Oktoberfest!  Hopefully we can get all the details figured out and start another adventure!

            Now that this post is over two pages in Word (single spaced… more than I usually need to write for homework assignments!) I’ll leave off so I actually have something to blog about later!  I hope you’re all doing well and I’ll talk to you soon!

 

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