2 Months? Woah. When did that happen?

Holy crap, I just realized I’ve been in Ireland for 2 months. That is so crazy for me to think about. My time here has gone so ridiculously fast. As much as I miss my dog, my cats, my family and friends, I can tell you right now that I’m going to be extremely sad to leave here. I haven’t had the time/opportunity to travel out of the country a bunch since I’ve been here, so I’ve gotten to know and love Ireland, especially Galway. I’m so glad that I chose Galway over Dublin. Not that Dublin wasn’t amazing and cool, it’s just that Galway has a homey, chill atmosphere that Dublin just doesn’t have.

Moving on, my roommate Paige just enlightened me on what the hell a Turduncken is. Basically it’s a duck inside a chicken, inside a turkey. I don’t know whether to be intrigued or disgusted. I think I’m going to just go with a combination of the two. Also our apartment seems to be best friends with breaking things. Between the four of us, we have broken somewhere around 6 things, four of which have been my fault. I think I should just keep everything on the floor or something, save myself the trouble of having to clean up the things I break.  Also we had a roommate Valentine's Day. We made dinner together and Paige bought us a wonderful cake to share. It was awesome :)



Roommate Cake <3



Now on to the different trips that I’m planning!  This weekend, I am hoping to go to Connemara (Irish weather permitting), then the weekend after I may be going up to Belfast. March also means that St. Patrick’s Day in Ireland. How sweet is that?! I’ve heard it gets crazy in town, which I totally believe. This should be interesting, and by interesting I mean awesome. Thank God I don’t have classes the next day. After St. Patrick’s Day, I’m around Galway until the last week since those are the last few weeks of class. The first week of April, I’m hoping to go visit my friend who is in Germany, and a friend who is studying abroad in Austria. If not, then I’m just going to just backpack around and see where I end up since there will be no more classes to worry about.

I’ve also noticed that I miss singing sooo much! When I’m at home in Cincy I can totally jam out in my car, in the shower, in my room when everyone else is asleep, you get the gist. But here the walls are like paper and I’m always surrounded my people and I’d rather not freak anyone out by random singing. I tried to join the choir society here, but the times they meet are times when I have class, which is totally inconvenient. I totally started lip syncing/dancing on the walk home; needless to say I got some odd looks from people considering it was like, noon on a Tuesday and plenty of people walking around. Later walking around town, I noticed a music store was going out of business sale (half off!!). I went in and bought a ton of new music for a fairly low price. I got Mumford & Sons, the 2 Adele CDs, Florence & the Machine 2 disc set, the new Radiohead cd, the best of Michael Jackson, and Imelda May. Not to mention the 2,000 songs I got from my friend Korali. Needless to say I’ve been jamming out to some great music while trying to do my homework J

Getting lost may be my new favorite thing to do

Yesterday I went for a 4 hour walk around Galway. I'm one of those people who, if with other people, will most likely pay no attention to where I am going unless I'm walking around alone. Until yesterday, I hadn't done that, so I figured it was high time I learned my way around the city I'm living in for another 4 and a half months. It was a beautiful day here yesterday, so out around town I went. I set off just me, my backpack, some chill music playing on my iPod, and beautiful scenery all around me :)



Galway Cathedral

 The first thing I wanted to do was visit the Galway Cathedral when there was actual sunshine. I'm one of those weird people who love going into Cathedrals and other places that have awesome architecture. Galway's cathedral did not disappoint. It has so many gorgeous stained glass windows and awesome paintings on the ceiling! I walked in and seriously just walked around inside for almost a half an hour (it's much bigger inside than it looks!) There is a small shop inside the church with a very nice older woman who runs it. She noticed my backpack and asked if I was visiting Ireland. We talked about how I was studying Psychology here in Galway, and how much I love it here. She was very friendly (even when she found out I was not at all Catholic) and told me that I was welcome back to talk to her anytime I wanted. After leaving the Cathedral, I literally just picked the first direction that looked interesting. I was not in any hurry, so getting lost was totally OK with me.



Houses along Galway Bay



I ended up by Galway Bay, which I hadn't yet had time to visit. It is indeed as beautiful as the locals say it is. It's there I witnessed possibly the most humerous of the day's adventures. There are a lot of swans and ducks that swim around the bay close to shore. One swan in particular decided it wanted to go up on land, which creeped out a lot of people sitting on benches close to the water. On a side note, swans walk really funny when they're on land. It's almost if there's cement on their feet and it's a huge effort to lift their feet. Anyway...a swan came up on land and waddled over to some fruit that's left out for the birds. Soon after it got to the food, a dog decided it wanted to go sniff/be friends with said swan. It's safe to say Mr. Swan was not a fan of Mr. Doggie. It hissed then tried to like, dive bomb this poor dog. Mr. Doggie quickly ran away back to his owner, who was laughing so hard he almost had to sit down. Lucky for me, I caught a picture of the two animals right before the dive bombing occurred.



Swans are apparently not fans of dogs.....

After leaving the Bay, I somehow ended back up in the outskirts of town. There are a ton of "Mom & Pop" stores there that I loved looking through! Everyone there is so friendly and curious as to where you're from and what brings you to Galway. I made my way into the heart of town (Shop Street and Eyre Square) and went down a bunch of alleys and side streets where I found St. Nicholas Market. It's only open certain hours on Saturdays and Sundays, so I lucked out that I was still going on. There are so many stalls and vendors there of things from all over the world, plus a few vegetarian food stalls (which I'll have to check out more thoroughly next weekend).  I bought a scarf and a hand carved wooden elephant from an Spanish woman, a marble Star of David necklace from a Middle Eastern man, and a bracelet from a very chatty Irish woman. Money well spent I'd say.

Finally I talked with a shop owner about Blood Sports. There was a protest on Shop Street against the sports, saying that they are cruel to animals, which they are. For those who don't know what Blood Sport is, here's the wiki page on it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_sport. The shop owner explained it to me, than asked my opinion. Not really having a good grasp on what blood sport really was, I gave the "it's really not any of my business" answer. I told him I was a vegetarian, and against animal cruelty, since I'm basically the biggest bleeding heart when it comes to animals ( I would take every animal home from the shelter I work at if I could...), but since I didn't grow up around the "sport" my opinion was bound to be skewed.

Eventually, I left the store and continued on my way home since it was getting close to 5 p.m. Overall, I have to say yesterday was one of my favorite days that I've had so far while in Ireland. Some people may have been bored by just walking around, listening to music, and taking in the sights of Galway, but I loved it. I can't wait for another nice day on a weekend so I can have an excuse to do it again! :)

Procrastination? Yes Please.

Fancy hot chocolate from a cafe :)

After almost 5 straight hours of homework/ cleaning, I've decided it's music time. I've finally started to go through my iPod for the first time in almost 2 years, deleting/ renaming/ sorting the ton of music I have. I've also discovered that I either listen to the same like 20 songs over and over till I get bored of them, or put my entire iPod (which has over 6,000 songs) on shuffle and let it go crazy. This week it seems to be the latter of the two options and I'm loving it. Older songs that I haven't heard in years and obscure Indie songs keep playing and it's amazing. I need to do this more often.

The other night, my roommates Kelly, Michelle, and I had an amazing 90's music jam. We literally just sat on Michelle's bed, talked about our childhoods and all the music we listened to growing up. Like anyone remember the I'm Blue song? 'Cuz I do. And Spice Girls, NSYNC, 98 degrees, Barenaked Ladies, O-Town, The Graduation Song by Vitamin C? Ugh, why can't that music come back! Between the 3 of us, we decided that Boy Bands need to come back because their songs were about more than sex, drugs, and rock & roll. Plus we were all in love with at least one of them. Lance Bass- you broke my preteen heart when you came out as gay. Just sayin'

I went shopping with my friend Korali yesterday! We walked around Galway and found this awesome vintage store and a "hippie" (her words, not mine) store that I loved! The more I walk around Galway the more I fall in love with it. There is so much here that I never would find in the States. We wandered into the Galway cathedral, and it totally took my breath away. I have a strange obsession with architecture and this place was amazing. The stained glass and paintings were so so so beautiful. I fully plan on going back many a time :)

The fog from my apartment window!

I've also decided to get my cartilage on my left ear pierced (sorry Mom!). Korali and I had a long chat with the parlor about a lot of different things. I never thought I could have such an awesome conversation with a tattoo artist/piercer! She was such a cool person. Another random thought: it gets SO foggy here! I was walking to class today across the bridge and I could barely see 10 feet in front of me. Keep in mind this was at 1 p.m.....

     

Now that I've successfully procrastinated for a while, I feel like I should get back to work...but I really don't want to do. There's only so much psychological  research and profiles you can do without starting to analyze your sanity.

No joke.

I think it's safe to say that I never realized just how much planning and effort goes into planning a weekend trip. Like for real. You have to worry about the plane tickets, where you're staying, what you're going to do once you get there (and how to get to where you want to see), how much everything costs, how you're getting back, and the list goes on, and on, and on.

I'm currently working on plans to go to Scotland, Germany, Poland, Austria, London, Belfast in Northern Ireland, and a few other places around Ireland. Plus I'm going to all these places while I'm still in school, so it's taking much more time and effort than I originally thought. My sister, Holly, and I are planning an EPIC trip around Europe after my exams here are over, and are literally going to spend like 2 weeks traveling around, basically backpacking around Europe. To say I'm excited is an understatement.

Speaking of school, I managed to forget all about it last post. I was accepted and am now attending the National University of Ireland Galway (aka NUIG). So far I love most of my classes. It's very interesting to hear about topics from a non-American view point. For example, in my Psychology, Society, and Human Values class, we discussed how people come to form their view, morals, and ethics. Topics like gay marriage, human medical testing, religion, and other "taboo" topics came up and I found that Ireland is MUCH more liberal and accepting than I previously thought. It was very refreshing. The different thoughts and opinions I heard were ones that I had never really heard openly expressed in America. As for my other classes I'm taking there's: Forensic, Abnormal, and Clinical Psychology, Social Psychology, The Rise of Modern America (they talk about things I've never even heard of!), Studies in Medieval Drama, and Celtic Mythology, Religion, and Folklore. They're all pretty interesting as far as classes go, but I totally love my psych classes the most :)

I walk by this on my way to class :)

On a more random note, one of the main things I want to do while I'm here is hold a baby lamb. They're adorable and are my favorite farm animal besides horses. If I could take one home with me, I would in a heartbeat. Also Glee is 1/2 a season behind here. What am I going to do without my Glee!? I better find a website that I can watch it online or something because Hulu doesn't work in Ireland. Neither do netfllix or Pandora. I was not happy when I figured that out..

Seriously, how could you say No to this face?

I was walking around town the other day, and stopped to notice just how many buskers there are here. For those who don't know what busking is, its basically a street performer. There is practically one on every street in downtown Galway. I've found so much great music since I've been here ranging from Jessie J (a newer British artist. She's amazing, YouTube her), to Imelda May, to the Dubliners. It's great just to walk around town, grab a tea at a cute cafe, and read a book while you listen to the buskers on the street.

I Love Ireland. I may never leave.

1 Month down, 4 to go

After being in Ireland for a bit over a month now, I've decided that starting a blog would probably be a good idea. I've never really been one for journaling, always preferring to keep memories with pictures, but I figured "writing" about everything that's going on would be a good idea. On that note, this post is going to be S
SUPER long since I've got a month of information to get through.

I can honestly say that I don't remember much of the first day I got into into Ireland. I had been up for something along the lines of 30 hours (I can't sleep on planes...) and was so jet lagged and in shock that I wasn't in America anymore. I remember getting off the plane, going through immigration, where the man was very nice to me when I had to ask him to repeat himself a bunch of times, meeting Coleman (the "go to" man for my program in Ireland), and then meeting up with the other kids who were staying in Cork. We all went out for a drink to get to know each other, than walked back to were they were living. I caught a cab, went back to my hostel, and promptly fell asleep after being awake for a grand total of 38 hours!

The next day my Interstudy group went to the Blarney Castle where yes, we kissed the Blarney stone. After an afternoon out, Coleman drove Matt (the other kid who is in Galway with me) and myself to Galway where we were settled into our housing for the semester. I live in a building called Cuirt Na Coribe which is SO nice! It's like 10 times nicer than my housing back at UD. I feel like I'm living in a 5 star hotel or something. I have my own room, which is pretty awesome. I live with three other American study abroad students- Paige, Michelle, and Kelly. They are all awesome people and I'm actually really glad we're rooming together. It was nice to be able to complain with someone who understood when you were frustrated that you didn't understand something (like how class registration is completely different here than in America). Walking to class is also much different than at home. I walk max 5 minutes at home, where as here its around 20 minutes walking along a major road and over a bridge to get to school. It can be very hard to convince myself to get my butt out of bed and walk to class when you can hear the wind and rain hitting against your window, that's for sure.

Now onto living in Galway. I love it! It's a cute town, and I've yet to meet one mean person. Seriously. Everyone here is so friendly and welcoming, often asking where you're from and starting a conversation with you. That might be one of the biggest differences I've noticed. At home, when people say "Hi, how are you?" they are not looking for an answer longer than "I'm good." Here in Ireland, people seem genuinely interested in how you're doing and what your story is. It's beautiful here to put it plainly. Yes, it might rain when its sunny, and the wind sometimes threatens to blow you over, but to be honest you kinda get used to it after a while. The grass is greener, the water is clearer, and the air doesn't always smell like smog. It's glorious.

Since getting here, I've been to see a few notable things. For example, the Cliffs of Moher, the Aran Islands, and Dublin where I visited St. Patrick's Cathedral, Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin Castle, the Guiness Factory, and the Abbey Theater.

 Sunlight coming through the clouds on the Aran Islands

View from the top of the Blarney Castle

Sunset at the Cliffs of Moher

Mr. Horsey from the Aran Islands came to say hello. Then promptly tried to eat my hand.

Oddly enough, some of my favorite things I've done/found have been found completely by accident. Like when I was in Dublin this past weekend. My friends and I had split up for a few hours so we could wander around and do any last minute things we wanted. I walked randomly around town and walked into a church near my hostel. It was absolutely amazing. I didn't take any pictures since I didn't want to be disrespectful, but in my opinion, it was better than St. Patrick's and Christ Church Cathedral by a long shot. Also the best pubs, cafes, and shops I've found are no where near the tourist spots, tending to be more off the beaten path. If I could give one piece of advice to any traveler or study abroad student, it would be to wander aimlessly. Get lost. Because when you do that, you tend to find the best treasures.

Kerry, Matt, and I sitting on the edge of the Aran Island cliffs (so cool!)

Kerry and I on the Aran Islands