Londontown!

So I made it my goal to make sure that I posted about one country before going to another one, and seeing as I'm leaving to head to Scotland in about an hour, it's probably time that I post about my adventures in England, even though it could be argued that England and Scotland are kind of part of the same country...I digress. 

So Sam and I went to england the weekend of the 27th of March and stayed with her friend Camilla in her flat near the university that she is studying abroad at. We arrived at London Stansted Airport (the same airport Obama flew out of a few days later after the G20 summit) on Friday afternoon after my first flying experience on RyanAir. RyanAir is a budget airlines that flies around Europe, and it truly is a budget airlines. You pay for everything, including having to check in at the airport if you're not an EU citizen. Regardless, it still works out to be really cheap. The flight to England was a little over an hour, so it was a quick trip. We took a bus into the city center and met Camilla there.

We got settled back at her flat (which was absolutely beautiful) and then she took us out exploring a little. We went to the West End (theater district) and Trafalgar Square before getting dinner and going out for some wine. The strange part about being in London is the lack of British people. Everyone working in all of the stores and restaurants is an immigrant, which was very surprising. By the time I left London I couldn't remember having spoken to someone with a true British accent.

The next day Sam and I went out exploring on our own. We used the Tube a lot while we were there (subway system) which is wonderfully efficient. It was so nice coming from Ireland, which lacks good public transportation. The only problem was that there seemed to be a lot of construction so some of the subway lines we wanted to take were closed and we had to reroute some of our journeys. It just helped us get used to the tube quicker. Our first stop was parliament, because my only goal in London was to see Big Ben. We took a bunch of photos over there, of Parliament, Big Ben, and Westminster Abbey. We then headed down toward Buckingham Palace. On our way we passed through this beautiful park, I believe it was called Victoria Park, but don't quote me on it. There were flowers and cherry blossom trees everywhere and it was just beautiful. 

We then saw Buckingham Palace, which was absolutely beautiful. Lots of gold adorning the gates around it. One strange sight was the flags nearby the Palace, which alternated between British flags and what appeared to be Mexican flags? We couldn't figure that one out. We then walked through Green Park and then up to Hyde Park. There were lots of daffodils in bloom everywhere we went. It was lovely. In the afternoon we did some shopping near Oxford Circus. We went to the famous toy store in London, Hanley's and to TopShop and Burberry. It was a lovely afternoon, until it started hailing, but we survived.

On Sunday we went to the Camden Markets, which were soo cool. I think there is only one part that is specifically the Camden Market, but basically all of the Camden area closes down on the weekends and turns into a huge outdoor market. There were all kinds of vendors, from food, to clothing, to jewelry. It probably went on for a mile on both sides of the street. I purchased a poster of Trafalgar Square and the guys threw in some other London photos for free. We also purchased lunch there from some of the various cuisines they had to offer. If I ever go back to London, which I hope I do, these markets are definitely on my list.

Overall London was a great time. It's such a vibrant city in spite of its dreary weather. There's so much to do and see, and the public transportation makes it so easy to get everywhere quickly and efficiently. Two thumbs up for London! Off to Scotland for a few days! More when I get back!

Where to begin...

So it's definitely been way too long since I've written a real post. Things got very busy towards the end of the semester (which officially ended on friday). With a series of projects looming over my head it was hard to focus on much else...but I'm not complaining, it's still a lot less work than I would have had to deal with at Tufts. Next up is some traveling in the upcoming weeks followed by my finals...all six of them. Also, unlike at Tufts my finals are all worth more than half of my grade, with 4/6 being worth 70-100%. Scary stuff!

So, as evidenced by my last post of pictures, Pat came to visit for his spring break. It was good craic, as the locals would say. We managed to fit a whole lot into a week, and squeeze in some time to celebrate St. Patrick's day Irish style!

One of his first days here we went to the Cliffs of Moher (my second trip there) and the Burren using a tour service that I had used before. While the weather was supposed to cooperate, in true Irish fashion it did not. I always joke with my parents that I never know what the weather is going to be because even the weather service isn't quite sure. Usually on the news they just shop Ireland with a lot of misty cloudy-ness over it, which means very little. My computer is usually pretty uncertain too: 

(This is an example of a weather icon that can't make up its mind)

Anyway, the weather started out really nice but by the time we got to the Cliffs it was nearly raining. A really cool thing that we experienced while there was sea foam being blown up from the treacherous waters below. At first we thought it was seagulls flying through the air but once we caught some we realized it was just foam being blown up from about 700 ft. below. Pretty incredible!

After a couple of days of raininess we were blessed with about 5 days in a row of the most beautiful weather I have seen while in Ireland. This translated into the most perfect weather for St. Patrick's day. Galway is one of those cities that just absolutely comes alive at the first sign of sun. Even on a normal day all of the locals make their way into the city center to shop and eat and appreciate the scenery, but for St. Patrick's day the crowds were even larger. The pubs were open pretty much all day and all night long, with a lot of them having special traditional music performances for the holiday. Pubs are actually much more peaceful during the day because there's no struggle to find a seat or a table. Some of them even have outdoors seating when it's nice out. One of the pubs we went to pre-parade was one that I had never been to before and don't remember the name of (it's in Irish...I have trouble remembering what I can't pronounce). It's a really cute locals spot and it's cozy because they have little booths that you can go into to get a little privacy. I'll try and include a pic of this here:

After a pint or two we headed to the parade, which was very different from what I expected. I had been told that there would be a lot of local children and sports teams marching, which there were, but for some reason the Galway parade seemed to be a kind of celebration of multiethnicity? Strange in a town that is far from diverse. There was an Asian group marching, a group from Africa, and a group that held Obama masks over their face. Oh and of course the Jersey City police department! Wouldn't be an Irish parade without some Garden Staters. We actually saw them later on that night, at about 1 or 2 in the morning and it seemed that some Irish ladies had taken a liking to them, so I'm sure they enjoyed their Irish stay.

Other than the parade and some drinking, Galwegians pretty much spent all of St. Patrick's day sitting by the bay and just enjoying the amazing weather. At night town got a little crazy, we heard some locals complaining about it the next day. They should probably work on their open container laws.... Thankfully the nice weatehr lasted for the next few days. Pat and I had the opportunity to explore Galway a little bit. We headed to the Galway Cathedral, which is even bigger than I expected, and bought a frisbee to throw around one day by the bay. It seems mother nature wanted to hold out for his stay.

We then made our way to Dublin for a few days. I had received extra tickets to the Guiness factory on my first visit there so we returned and got to take advantage of getting in for free. We also saw St. Pat's Cathedral, Christ Church, St. Steven's Green, Trinity College and Grafton Street. We made a visit to Nude, for my second time, and got to sample some of their amaaaazing bangers and mash and their beef and Guinness stew. We also went to the National Gallery and the National Library, which was actually closed by the time we got there. Overall we made really good use out of time in Dublin.

Also while we were there the finals of the Six Nations Rugby competition were on. The six nations are: Ireland, France, England, Wales, Scotland, and Italy. This is the biggest deal in the world of rugby and Ireland hadn't won in many decades, that is up until this year! The final game was Ireland versus Wales and the whole time we were watching it on TV the commentators were talking about how Ireland wasn't the better team, so it would take a lot of heart to win it. The game came down to less than a minute, but by some miracle the field goal guy (that's the technical term) from Wales missed the goal posts by just a bit and it became an Irish victory. (My Irish roommates make fun of me for calling it  a field goal, it's actually a penalty kick I think). It was a great victory for Ireland and ended in a great moment where the captain from the Irish team traded jerseys with the captain from Wales. Touching, really.

After that it was time for Pat to head home. But as one Pat left, another arrived. I waited in the Dublin Airport for about an hour after saying goodbye to Pat to great my Aunt Pat and cousins Kelly and Karen. They were arriving on holiday and I got to meet up with them for a little while before they departed on their tour. I also got to meet up with them later in the week at their Galway  hotel which was right across the street from my accommodation. Aunt Pat bought us a round of drinks before dinner and we all got to chat and catch up. I also got to meet their tour guide, who was quite the character. They seemed to have a really good experience in Ireland and it sounds as though they're already planning their next European experience!

It was so nice to see so many people from home over that two-week period. The good news is only 5 weeks until I get to see everyone else!

Next post: My trip to London last weekend.

Pictures!

Pat and I at the Cliffs Of Moher

Pat and I at the Gravity Bar at Guiness

Sam and I on St. Patrick's day...matching.

While I would hate to leave my last post as something so depressing as the return of the IRA, I'm pressed for time in the lest two weeks of the semester so I can't manage to write a whole entry right now. For now I figured I'd post a few pictures.

I'm also going to go back and add pics to other entries now.

Northern Ireland Weekend- aka the return of the IRA

So once again I have a cancelled class, which seems to always be the ideal time to catch up on my blogging. Before I get into the specifics of my weekend, I have a complaint:

The members of the band U2 are from Dublin. I am in Ireland right now, however they have found this to be the apropriate time to do a super duper secret surprise performance right outside the Tufts University campus in Davis Square. They obviously did not consult with me first. More here.

This past weekend I was on a trip to Northern Ireland sponsored by my study abroad program, IFSA Butler. We left early thursday morning and drove the 5 1/2 hours up to Belfast. On our way up there bright red sheets were handed out to us advising us that Belfast is not necessarily the safest city to be in. Belfast was the site of much of the political (and consequently religious) conflict that took place in Ireland in the past few decades. While the country is now considered to be at peace, there still remain some areas which are unsafe.

The sheet we were given actually said 'Some areas of Belfast are unsafe, and some areas which are considered to be safe during the day are not at night'. Frankly this was a cause for some confusion on my part, I'd rather just be given a listing of 'where to go and where not to go', but apparently my program thought this would be more helpful. I think it is this historical concern about safety in Belfast that is kind of defining for the city. Some of the shops still require you to ring a bell before the door is unlocked to let you in, and the city is pretty much dead anytime after about 8PM. It's a little erie because there's no sign of anything unsafe going on in the city center, for the most part it's incredibly quiet, but I think perhaps people still have it in their minds that they have to be careful, and so they are.

Thursday afternoon was spent starting to explore the city, followed by dinner in our hotel. The chocolate cake for dessert was to die for. Friday morning we were up by 7:30 to have breakfast, get our stuff together, and load onto the busses for our tour for the day. Our first stop was the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge in County Antrim (note the name of that county, I'll mention it again later). The rope bridge itself wasn't anything too exciting, I would say (just terrifyingly high), but the surrounding landscape is absolutely beautiful. Next we headed to a castle that I don't remember the name of, but I do remember that it is situated on a cliff and at one point while it was inhabited the entire kitchen fell off the cliff and into the sea.

Later on during the tour we went to the Giant's Causeway, a rock formation on the coast that literally looks like it could be made up of steps for a giant. Yin and I were able to get in a picture at the top of one of the tallest formations, I'll try to post it later. It was already drizzling while we were there but the waves were crashing so intensely that you got splashed fairly regularly. Needless to say we left there completely soaked.


On Saturday we got some shopping in. Belfast has come to be known for its awesome shopping and more and more people from the Republic are heading up there to shop due to ever improving exchange rates between the GBP and the EUR. After shopping (including a trip to the Avoca location in Belfast), we went on a black cab tour, which takes you to the areas most affected by the troubles (the conflict between catholic republicans and protestants who were loyal to the crown). There are still areas today that are completely catholic or completely protrestant. They are marked by various full wall murals which are entirely hand painted. The areas are fairly peaceful nowadays, but some of the houses near the peace walls (separating the protestant communities and the catholic communities) have to have cages around their backyards to protect them from items which may be thrown over the wall.

At the end of the black cab tour, our guide told us a little bit about his experiences growing up during the troubles. As one of five catholic brothers the British always suspecting him of being part of the republican activities. While he wasn't actually involved, sometimes they would pull him in to be interrogated for a day or two at a time. He said it never bothered him because they always fed him well.
Belfast City Hall with their ferris wheel.

Late saturday night while in the hotel we saw a report on the news of a shooting in County Antrim (near where we were on friday). The soldiers killed were the first to be killed in Northern Ireland in 12 years. On monday another man was killed. Saturday night on the news they were saying that this was a 'turning point in Northern Ireland's history', so it was strange to think that we were all there for that. There's a lot of concern that this may open up old conflict that was believed to have been left in the past. A lot of news outlets have been making it seem like the troubles in NI have been over since 1998, but a lot of the things we learned about on the black cab tour were happening up to 4 or 5 years ago. It's possible that things aren't as peaceful as they had once seemed.

Me by the rope bridge with a rainbow!

Pat gets here for spring break on friday! Much excitement in the air!

Weekend of 2/20-2/22

Last weekend we headed over to the east coast for a 3-day tour. The tour was hosted by the Galway Tour Company. They wanted to run a tour that was specifically for visiting students to get to see other parts of the country. It was nice because everything was arranged for us, all we had to do was wait outside our accommodations at 11AM friday morning and we were set for the weekend.

We wound up leaving a little later than expected on friday and that, in conjunction with some traffic (traffic in Ireland, it was a shocker), brought us to our destination a little later than planned. We got to county Wicklow around 5 and set off on a hike in the Wicklow Mountains. The Wicklow mountains are quite small as mountains go, but by Irish standards they're fairly substantial. They even had quite a bit of snow on them last weekend.

The hike, as I mentioned, was a little later than the tour guides had planned, especially considering the sun sets around 6 these days (our days are starting to end a bit later than they do in New York but the sun still rises significantly later). We set off during a beautiful sunset, which was quite the sight to see against the mountains and valleys. Our group had about 24 people in it so it was impossible to stay all together for the whole hike. At some points I actually got concerned that we wouldn't all make it back to the bus at similar times, but it did eventually work out. The tour guide, Declan, had sent out an email with our itinerary the day before, stating that we should all bring torches if we had them. Unfortunately, while we did eventually figure out that torches were flashlights, we're all visiting students, so none of us have flashlights with us!

It got darker and darker as we went along, but for the most part it seemed like an easy hike with well cleared trails. Along the way I got to stop and pick up some snow, which was the first I had really touched since December (I am aware that the NE is getting a Nor'easter as I write this...sorry!). We got to a certain point where we had to turn off the main trail and on to a less clear path, and Declan told us that it would be about five minutes "of complete pain". I consider myself to be outdoorsy to a certain extent, and in decent shape, so I wasn't terribly concerned. Some of the other people on the tour were not as...wilderness-friendly, we'll say.

The path was muddy and steep, and the sky was dark. The only thing helping us up to the top was the light of our cell phones. At that moment I was very grateful for modern technology.  When we got to a certain point along the path it turned into what they referred to as "railway steps" or something of that nature. These were wooden steps, about a foot wide, with nails on them to give your feet better grip. The steps were raised above the terrain and for most parts there wasn't anything to hold on to. People started to get very frustrated-- which wasn't helped by the fact that we had a few complainers on the tour-- and by the time we we got to the top tensions were a little high. On a clear day you can see across the Irish Sea to Wales, but by the time we got to the top it was pitch black so there was no view in sight. 

I think at this point our tour guide felt a little bad for us, so he passed out shots of whiskey to the group to liven our spirits a bit. Little did we know that the trip back down the mountain was almost entirely made up of those railway steps. We made our way down in small groups, with those of us with cell phone light saying "step" each time there was a step down. Overall it wasn't that bad of a hike at all, but it served as a lesson that darkness can really change things. Plus side: it was so dark that I couldn't really see the several hundred foot drop that was next to me part of the way down :)

We spent that night in a hostel and woke up the next morning to head into Dublin for the day. We got into the city centre just before lunch time and Sam and I headed to a restaurant called Nude for some much needed nourishment. They're known for their hearty stews, but it was a tad to early for me to partake, so I went with the old standard, a bagel and a cup of tea. As Sam and I sat there I looked out the window until suddenly jumping up in shock. Rob Polizzo, my crew coach from high school and good friend had just walked passed the café. Now, admittedly I knew that Rob was supposed to be in Dublin for the weekend, but at the time that he told me I didn't plan on being in Dublin for the weekend, so I had simply wished him a good weekend. I ran out the door and caught up with him and got to chat with him and his girlfriend for a few minutes before they went on their way. For the record, Dublin may be a small city but not small enough that you would expect to bump into anyone you know. Also, last time I was in Dublin I wound up bumping into a bunch of Tufts kids. It seems Dublin is a serendipitous city for me!

After Nude, Sam and I went across the street to what looked like a cute shop, named Avoca. What a find! This store was started in County Wicklow as a producer of wool blankets and scarves and morphed into a well-known Irish chain. The Dublin store is complete with women's, men's and children's fashions, housewares, a café, specialty foods shoppe, and a restaurant. It's one of the cutest stores I've ever seen, and I can't wait to go back. Erin: go there immediately! Hayley: the only one in the US is in Annapolis. When I come to visit we're making a detour over there! Their mixed berry scones are heavenly, and inspired me to buy one of their cookbooks (titled "Tea Time"). I'm anxious to try out some of the recipes! (The stores website has an interactive tour of the stores, for those with good internet connections.)

That afternoon we were scheduled for a Guinness tour. We knew in advance that there was a strike of the public sector workers going on, what we didn't know was that there was a demonstration going on that day. And that the demonstration happened to be right around the time that we were supposed to be headed to the Guinness Factory. And that the demonstration was going to be made up of 100,000 irish people. Needless to say, we had a bit of trouble getting back to the bus and getting to the Guinness Factory, but we did ultimately get there...about a half hour after our scheduled time. The Guinness people were very understanding and took us in anyway. The tour was very informative and at the end we got two tickets for pints of Guinness. All I can say is I tried it, but I'm still not sold. I'll take a Bulmers over a Guinness any day.

That night we stayed in a really nice lodge in County Meath and then awoke the next morning to go see the Newgrange tomb, a UN protected site. It's an ancient tomb that's older than the pyramids in Egypt. It has a small light box (an opening in the stone) that lights up the whole interior of the tomb at sunrise on the winter solstice. For the other 364 days of the year the tomb is black other than some flashlights that the tour guides bring in. It's not the prettiest or most majestic historical sight I've ever seen, but the history behind it is pretty cool.

After that we went to the Hill of Tara, which was the ancient site of the Irish government, basically. The hills themselves aren't that pretty, but from the site you can see 20 counties of Ireland, nearly the whole country. It was quite the view.

After the Hill of Tara we headed home to Galway. Didn't really do much of anything exciting this weekend, but on Thursday we're headed to Northern Ireland for a long weekend! I'm going to try to add as many pictures to this as I can, but I can't guarantee that they'll work. The internet here is pretty slow.

25 things you wanted to know about Ireland

I may very well make this a 2-post day, but I figured I'd start with some fun facts about Irish life:

1) Teachers are way more lenient about cancelling class here than they are in the states. If they get to the classroom and not enough people are in it they'll just send you home. I was supposed to have 3 hours of classes today but wound up with just one.
2) People here pronounce the letter H as "hache".
3) While we're on the topic, good humor is called HB here. Or Hache Bee as they say. Noone can tell me what that stands for.
4) Lays potato chips are called Walkers
5) The main brand of potato chips here is called Tayto. As a result, Tayto has pulled a Kleenex. Everyone calls any brand of potato chips Tayto.
6) All vacuums are called hoovers, even if they're not made by hoover. Hoover is also a verb.
7) All outlets have on and off switches. To make an appliance work you have to plug it in, flip the wall switch, and then turn on the appliance.
8) Electric kettles are the greatest invention ever. Especially because...
9) Ireland consumes the most tea per capita of any country in the world. I'm down to 2 cups a day, but I had been doing 3 or 4.
10) Sandwich bread is bigger here. It's just all together taller. As a result:
11) Sandwich bags are larger. This is nice. But,
12) Toasters are not taller. the top of your bread will usually be untoasted.
13) General sandwich bread come in two varieties: white or brown. Brown is whole wheat.
14) I still have no idea how the showers work. You pull a string at some point to make the boiler heat the water. Our is always pulled. The shower will not start without it. However, only so much hot water is heated a day, so if you're not on of the first 3 (this is an estimation) people to shower that day your shower will be cold. This is all theory. Sam and I still don't have it figured out.
15) Traffic circles are everywhere. And they're named. Much like the squares in Boston.
16) Traffic circles are dangerous. Especially on bikes.
17) As much as I thought pale-ness would be embraced in Ireland, it's not.
18) All young women use fake tanner. They go overboard. They are orange.
19) Soccer is called soccer.
20) Football is Gaelic Football. Not quite sure how this one works yet...
21) All Irish people associate California with The Hills (a show on MTV)
22) They love American comedies, especially ones we don't like, like 2 and a half men.
23) They sing when drunk
24) They are aware that everyone thinks Irish people are alcoholics, and they do nothing to squash this "rumor".
25) Cider is alcoholic. The cider of choice is Bulmers. It's like beer except that it tastes good. It's on tap at every bar in Ireland and it's produced in England. It can also be found in pint bottles, so that it can be poured over ice in a glass. This is very refreshing.


More fun facts to come some day soon! Oh, one more:

26) The beer is not warm. No matter what anyone tells you, it's all about forty some-odd degrees. Even Guinness.

Killarney National Park

Just wanted to upload a panoramic I made of the national park. It's four or five regular photos put together.

Killarney Part 2!

Saturday morning we woke up nice and early and got breakfast (a bagel with preserves for me) and then enquired at our hostel about tours for the day. They have arrangements with a local tour company so that they come to the hostel and pick us up and bring us to the tour site and also give us a discount. While most tours of the ring of Kerry run about E28 we paid E17.50, which was a lovely discount. Our tour guide was the owner of the company and he had brought his nephew along for the ride. The ring of Kerry all in all was very beautiful, but I would venture to say that Killarney National Park was significantly more impressive (though the park does make up a small portion of the ring). The Ring of Kerry itself is a loop of secondary road that goes throughout the county of Kerry. It is known for it’s majestic views, which, I imagine, are more majestic in the spring and summer, or when it’s sunny. For a large portion of the tour there was some drizzle going on and it didn’t make for the best photographs.

I’ve come to realize that Ireland has various kinds of beauty in its landscapes, and not all of those are appreciated by every kind of person, myself included. My favorite kind of landscape is one filled with bright colors: green green grass, some scattered bright wildflowers, and blue skies. Often when the sun isn’t out you lose the blue skies but the colors simply show up brighter against the grey sky. Being on the west coast of Ireland, an area that is known for being rocky, this isn’t always the kind of beauty you come across. A large portion of the Ring of Kerry is very rocky and not as green. The interesting part is that a lot of the water that the ring passes by is a tropical-looking turquoise color, very out of character for the water in Ireland. One example of the areas that include this kind of water is the area surrounding the dingle peninsula. While these areas are very beautiful, as are the mountains surrounding them, unless it’s sunny out they don’t photograph as well. So, while the Ring of Kerry was very beautiful, the lush greenness of the Killarney National Park made for far more incredible photographs.

We had a lot of fun playing around with our cameras this weekend. I always wished I had taken a photography class in high school, but in the age of point-and-shoots, there’s so much that amateur photographers can do that previously was left to the experts. My camera even has a mode for “light skin tones”. It helps me to not glow as much in pictures ☺ .

One nice thing was having the room in the hostel to ourselves last night. No more of the midnight-yeller (who, we determined, was claustrophobic, which may have explained his yelling).

We had the opportunity to watch a couple of traditional music sessions while in the pubs in Killarney. I hadn’t spent much time at any trad sessions previously, so it was nice to just sit back with a pint and enjoy the music. I equate trad sessions to the jam sessions of jazz musicians. They’re the coolest thing to watch because all of the musicians just jump in as they arrive and drop out whenever they please. Everyone knows the standards and they will occasionally say a word or two to one another to make each other aware of when they’re moving on from one section of the song to another, but other than that the only thing keeping them all in sync in the stomping of their feet. They also have remarkable intonation for non-classically trained musicians; they can tune their instruments in the midst of a handful of other musicians playing with no problem at all. They also improv very well with one another. The group we saw Friday night included to violinists, one of which was jumping all over the place with melodies, counter melodies and just chords.

The All Ireland Irish Step Dancing Competition was this weekend in Killarney, so the town was filled with teenage girls, the most noticeable ones being the Americans. There were a ton of them out at the pubs both nights that we went out (though I’m 99% sure that most of them were not 18). Last night was adorable because a group of them was step dancing while the musicians played. At one point they were dancing with a group of old men doing Irish dancing that’s done in pairs (think of the Titanic scene with Rose and Jack dancing in steerage). It’s nice seeing a culture that embraces its heritage so much.

I’m writing this Sunday night, though it won’t be posted until Monday due to the aforementioned lack-of-internet. Cross your fingers for its prompt return! (Though at this point we’re pretty far past prompt…)

Killarney!

So yes, I know I'm missing large chunks of my time here, but my mom is getting impatient for an update, and I happen to have internet access, so why not?!

I am currently in Killarney, a town in County Kerry which is in the southern portion of Ireland. Kerry is known for its beautiful mountains and views, and so far it has lived up to this idea. Today we spent the day biking around Killarney National Park. So I will start at the beginning:

We hopped on a 6PM bus last night in Galway headed to Limerick, though "hopped on" is a huge overstatement. We ahven't yet mastered the Irish bus system yet, and for this there are a few reasons:

1) The bus usually has the final destination lit up on the front of it, but sometimes the bus driver forgets to turn the sign on, or sometimes when you look at it it is written in Irish so you're not quite sure what it says.

2)There may be more than one bus going to your destination and the drivers of the buses may disagree about which one you should take. This happened to us last night and resulted in me almost leaving my bag on the wrong bus more than once.

3) If you're lucky the bus driver will shout the name of the town as you arrive in it. So far I have only been lucky about 16% of the time. Bascially it can be really dark and you may have no idea what town you are in and wonder if you missed your stop. This is an even bigger issue if you are not the most outgoing person in the world and would prefer not to speak up to the driver...

Moral of the story: We made it on time, and in one piece. We arrived at our hostel at shortly before 11PM and made our way up to our room. Two of our roommates were already asleep and the other one was not in the room at the time. The three of us (Sam, another girl named Yin and I) are in a 6 person en-suite room. Needless to say I survived my first night in a hostel, though things were touch and go when one of our roommates started shouting in his sleep. (Just kidding, it wasn't really touch and go...though he was shouting in his sleep).

This morning we woke up early and got some lovely scones and tea. We then made our way over to a local bike shoppe which has discounts for people staying at our hostel (euro 12.50 for a full day rental). We chatted with the old man in the shoppe (though admittedly could not understand him) and got a map and some guidelines from him.

Then we biked, and boy did we bike. As we speak the three of us are in very fragile states. If butts can bruise, then mine is certainly there. The ride was a reminder that I should take my dad up on his offers to go bike riding more often, because if I went I wouldn't be so out of shape. Rough estimates are that we rode somewhere between 15 and 20 miles over about 7 hours with some breaks for food and bike adjustments. We went to a castle, an old mansion, a waterfall and a bunch of spots with great views of the mountain range in the area. I will add pictures to this blog as soon as I get home.

We just went and had chinese food for dinner, which was good, and in about an hour we're headed out for some traditional irish music in some of the local pubs. Hopefully I'll update tomorrow with more about our killarney adventures.

In other news: it seems our internet is out again at our apartment. I just got an email from our program director with lots of complex info saying that the server has another virus. If you would like to attempt to decipher this language, please let me know and I'll be happy to forward it on to you :) .

Home-stay

So, as you may have noticed, I've been MIA for a bit now. I lost my internet connection in my apartment last tuesday and haven't gotten it back since. As a result, my free time has been passed by making trips to university to use the wireless here. Apparently the Irish do not feel the same sense of urgency towards having internet access that Americans (or at least I) do. Either that or they are not good at fixing internet-y things.  Some may say that the latter is hard to believe because of the large quantity of Dell computers that are manufactured here, but I would venture to say that that fact only reinforces my point...I digress. I'll pick up where I left off:

Two weekends ago was my home-stay in a town called Tuam (pronounces Tomb, I believe) in County Galway. My host family was a family of 6, two parents, named Liz and David, and 4 children aged 3,6,11 and 16. Their house was significantly larger and more modern than I expected. I was there with another girl from my program, named Meghan, and she and I stayed in a guest bedroom each with a bed to ourselves and our own bathroom. The house ahd about 7 or 8 bedrooms and 3 or 4 bathrooms. They had a beautiful kitchen with a fire that we spent a lot of time standing in front of.

We arrived friday evening and settled in before sitting down to dinner. We had chicken, potatoes and some vegetables followed by tea and lots of cookies...and then more tea...and then chocolates. Needless to say we were well fed. The first night was a little chilly because, as we later found out, the skylight in our room had been vented so cold air was coming in the whole time. The next morning we woke up to very stormy weather. The wind was howling so loudly you felt like it was in the house and it was pouring. Liz drove Meghan and I to a bookstore in town but came to pick us up after less than an hour because the weather was getting so bad. She and her sun had actually gotten stuck in the grocery store for a short time because it had been struck by lightening. We went home and dried off by the fire and had more tea and cookies, before David offered to take us to a rally.

We certainly had no idea what a rally was and later found out that it was car racing that took place on the backroads which were closed off for a short period of time for the races. From what Dad tells me it's huge here in Europe but not so much in the States. Apparently they tried to bring it over for a little while but it didn't catch on. I guess I can see why, because it involves a certain amount of patience in finding spots to watch from and changing position to follow the race, but it certainly seems more exciting than watching cars go in circles on tracks. They have marchalls standing on the sides making sure you don't get to close, but in essence you always have to be ready to run. By the time we got to a spot to watch from it had cleared up, but ti wasn't long before it started hailing, and then raining. David kept asking Meghan and I how cold we were on a scale of 1 to 10, and by the time we got to 7 we decided it was time to go. We made some friends while we were there though! Some of the marshalls huddled with us under our umbrella. They had been standing out there since 7 AM and were starting to feel the effects of the elements. After the rally we headed over to Liz's sisters house to warm up with tea and biscuits. 

For dinner we went authentic...burritos! With french fries! The irish don't really care how they eat there potatoes, they just have to be there...with every meal. Saturday evening we went to mass with Liz. One of the children was in the choir, which was lovely. The Irish like their mass short, and the older woman sitting with us kept getting frustrated that the priest was taking too long. Not much congregating post-mass either. Everyone pretty much just gets in and out as quickly as they can. 

Overall the weekend really was lovely. It was nice to be able to sit down and chat with Irish people and really get a sense of how they live. It was also nice to get tips from Liz on the best places to go shopping and what's good at the different grocery stores. It was also really cool how integrated their family was. Over the weekend we met all three of Liz's sisters, visited David's family's farm, and heard their cousin talking on the radio. That type of close-knit family makes me want to move to Ireland. But then I realize that my family isn't in Ireland...oh well.

By far the most entertaining part of the weekend was their 3 year old daughter, whose name escapes me at the moment. She was quite a piece of work or in their words "a monster". It was funny because she would climb all over Meghan and I and eat off our plates, and drink from our glasses, and spill puzzles all over us. It kept things light, to say the least.

My mom wanted me to write here about the lack of daylight in Ireland this time of year. The sun pretty much rises at 8:30 and sets around 4:30, although it has been getting better. What's more, the sun pretty much stays at that awkwardly-in-your-eyes angle all day long. That being said, I will not complain about the sun in any dimensions any more. Something about being in the land of cloudy-ness names you appreciate it a bit more. Let just say that whenever the sun does find its way out from behind those clouds I am positively giddy.

I'll try and get as many of these in this week as a I can, for real this time.

One of the cars at the rally...for you, dad.
Meghan and I at the rally.

NUI Galway

I feel it's time for the obligatory school post.

Classes have been on for just over a week now and so far things don't seem too different from the states. We even use blackboard (an academic website used for hosting information about your various courses), just like at Tufts. A major difference is that I'll be taking 6 courses here, which is considered a full course load by NUIG standards. Unfortunately this translates into Tufts making my life difficult and only giving me half a credit for each.  At the moment my courseload is as such:

Marketing and Media Communications

Brand Management

European Economy

Economics of Technological Change

Intro to Financial Econ

Economics of Financial Markets

One of those (brand management) is subject to change because at the moment Tufts will not approve it for credit towards my Communications and Media Studies Minor. We have a two week shopping period so I do not officially register until next week, but classes still move forward in spite of the fact that you can jump in two weeks late. Some of my classmates are taking english seminars which require them to wake up at 4AM to wait in line to register one day this week. Thank God the department of business and econ is soo much easier. The big difference that they tell you about between European and American universities is that European classes come with a reading list sometimes three pages long from which you have to select your reading for the semester. Once again, not in the econ department. We just use textbooks the way that American schools do.

All of my lecturers are Irish which, for the most part, has not proved to be an issue at all. Every now and then I do find myself a bit lost, however.  One of my first days of class I sat there listening to the professor talking about "paytons" over and over again. I kept thinking there must be someone named Peyton that I've just never heard of (I can't imagine Peyton Manning has anything to do with economics) until I heard him start talking about copyrights. Apparently Irish people call patents paytons. Where they get that pronunciation from I will never know. 

My schedule is very do-able so far. The only day that I have classes before 1PM is Monday, which consists of a very painful 9AM.  

One funny observation I made here: when a fire alarm goes off Irish students don't move. And when they do finally move, they move outside the room, but make no attempt to go OUTSIDE outside. Yesterday when one went off during one of my classes noone moved until the professor went out, evaluated the situation, came back in and then told people to go ahead and get out. Once the alarm stopped going off and it was safe to return to the class, half of them never came back in. They either stood outside chatting or left. The lecturer kept thanking those of us who actually came back for the last twenty minutes of the class.

The only painful part of school is the trek there from my accommodations here. It's about a 12-15 minute walk when I'm really determined and involves crossing a rather busy bridge. By nature this bridge is always incredibly windy with cars crossing it at approximately 100kph. The walk is 2km, by google's approximation, but when the weather's fighting against you it feels like a whole lot more. Yesterday we were lucky to have 2 hail storms. I actually think this was the first time I had ever experienced one, and it got quite intense. That's the last time I go out without my waterproof coat.

Today I registered with immigration, so I am no longer an illegal alien in the eyes of the Irish government! The process involved a myriad of paperwork and many sleepless hours on my part. It seems they don't like to make it too easy for us students. It went much more smoothly than I anticipated but it did involve me getting soaking wet. I thought I was lost, because the Irish aren't big on street names, but actually wasn't, but wound up retracing my steps anyway and in the process stepped in many puddles and got splashed by many large trucks. My feet were sopping wet. I didn't really get a chance to actually remove my wet socks and shoes until about 5.5 hours later which made for an unpleasant afternoon, but whose fault is that.  As a result my mission to purchase wellies (rain boots) has been renewed. If only I could find a pair without sparkles on them...

On the bright side two things happened: 1) I got to experience the Galway Marriot Courtyard, when I went in to ask for directions and 2) I had a lovely inaugural experience. The Marriot is lovely and I highly recommend it for your next celtic adventure!

For the inauguration Sam and I were headed to the campus bar for a party that promised news-watching and donuts. Well, had I been able to move past the approx. 500 people in the room I certainly would have enjoyed a donut, but that didn't happen. Instead Sam and I bolted into town and ran into the nearest pub. We each grabbed a pint of cider and cozied up next to the fire just in time to catch Obama's speech. Regardless of your feelings about Obama (or mine, for that matter) there is no denying that the speech was inspiring. I'll admit that I had chills throughout most of it. It was really cool to watch it in an international setting, too.

On that note I will conclude. Next post: my home-stay this past weekend.

Along the river Corrib...

Wednesday morning we woke up bright an early to meet coach buses to take us to our home for the next 4 or so months (the other day I heard someone use the word "fortnight" in a sentence, coolest thing ever). I am living in Gort na Coiribe (pronounced gurt nah kuribah if you want to sound authentic), "self catered" student living accommodations about a 15 minute walk from shop street in Galway center and a 15 minute walk from the University. The name has something to do with the river Corrib (which we are nearby), although I can't remember the exact translation from Irish to English.

This is when I take a moment to apologize to anyone I've ever corrected for referring to the language that the Irish people sometimes speak as Irish. I always assumed the Gaelic was the way to go, but I have since learned that this is not the case. Gaelic can refer to any number of dialects between Ireland, Scotland and Wales, so best to stick with Irish. Also, Irish people will never refer to their accent as a brogue, though some fellows thought it was "neat" when I did.

Back to my accommodations. I'm living in a double room similar to a dorm room in a 4 bedroom 2.5 bath townhouse. The townhouse is 3 levels with a kitchen and living room on the 1st floor. I'm living with my American roommate and the other 3 girls in the house are locals. Irish students attend university for 3 years, generally in the national university closest to their hometown (there are 8 universities total). 3rd level education, or college, is free to Irish residents. Generally the students live in accommodations like mine during the week and pack up and go home on the weekends. This leads to American confusion as to why Irish students go out to the bars on Mondays and Wednesdays, not the norm in the states.

Galway is nothing short of charming. The road that I live on is not so much. It is the major highway that enters into Galway center, and is what I would consider Ireland's equivalent of Long Island's  Jericho Turnpike. Plus side! We live directly across the street from a supermarket/department store hybrid, and there's another one just down the block. No more planning for a week to go to the grocery store. The main grocery store here is Dunnes, but it's more of a Stop 'N Shop combined with Macy*s. Alcohol is only sold until 10 in the evening, though Dunnes is 24 hours. There are no open container laws, and there is no need for brown paper bags. When folks leave the bars they are handed a plastic cup to pour the remainder of their drink into...pretty funny seeing people carrying alcohol out in the open!

As you walk down the road from my accommodations the town gets more and more traditional. In the distance you can see the Galway Cathedral, a very handy landmark for finding your way around. The main road also follows along the river which runs straight through the town. In the spring I believe they stock the river with salmon. The shopping area in the city center is partially closed off to cars. All of the stores are brightly painted and the area is filled with a myriad of restaurants with food from around the world. Of course there are also loads of pubs. Galway is situated on a bay so the air smells salty and there are seagulls flying about. The area is known for its oysters; there is an oyster festival later in the year.

That's all for now, but possibly more later tonight or tomorrow! Leave comments!

In the beginning...

I know I kept telling people that I'd be writing a blog while I was here, so here I am, sticking to my word. I'll try to write these entries about once a week, but hopefully more frequently. For now I'm going to attempt to fit all of my first week into this entry, and maybe I'll be able to get some pictures in too.

When I touched down in Shannon airport on Sunday (approx. 6:10 GMT, or 1:10EST) I met up with several girls from my program who were on my flight over from JFK. We went through customs together, which took almost two hours. I take it Shannon is not used to having  large quantities of folks coming through at 6 in the morning, so customs was highly understaffed. They also apparently aren't quite in the 21st century so their computers are awfully slow. Customs officials don't have real regulations on what information they need from you before you enter, and my official seemed to want a lot of info. This man now knows way to much about my family. In the end he was very friendly, called me "beautiful" (he was like 60, dad and Pat) and said "welcome home" when he heard that I had ancestors from IE.

We took a bus down to Limerick which was a bit of an adventure. The bus driver was super quirky and did everything he could to fit approx. 30 students and all of their luggage onto the bus he was driving (Bus Éirann, for those who are familiar with the system). The ride was about 20 minutes to Limerick, give or take, and helped me to make some discoveries about the irish:

1. They LOVE traffic circles, even more than Massachusetts (google tells me they're called "Bay Staters")...I think it's because it keeps them from having to slow down EVER, which leads me to...

2. They will almost always drive inappropriately fast, even on extremely narrow, rural roads.

3. They don't really have traffic (although I cannot vouch for Dublin yet)

When we made it to  Limerick we still had a walk to the hotel. Most people took a taxi cab, but myself and a few other girls were cheap and walked. Let me just say, I got my work out on Sunday. 75 pounds worth of luggage pulled about 3/4 of a mile was sufficient to last me a few weeks. The hotel we stayed in in Limerick was called Jury's Inn, a chain over here. It was right on the river Shannon and pretty much in the heart of Limerick. I met my roommate Sam, who is also my roommate in my permanent accommodation in Galway. 

We got to explore Limerick over the next couple of days. It was exhausting because we were all adjusting to the time change but they had us up around 8 every morning. I later found out that Limerick has historically been referred to as a "stab city", generally not the nicest area. Now a days its reputation is changing and it's definitely safe to walk around at night, but Galway is definitely a step up from Limerick. Limerick has been in the news lately because it is the home of the Dell factory. I believe they just announced that they are laying off 1900 people due to the recession (as one local told me "in a country of only 4 million, 1900 people is huge"). 

During our time in Limerick our Program took us up to the Cliffs of Moher (this is geographically counterintuitive because the Cliffs are much closer to Galway than Limerick). The cliffs were absolutely beautiful, and it was great to see them on a really clear day. Unfortunately some of the pictures are a little dark because we got there in the late afternoon and the sun was pretty low in the sky. I'll try to spare you of those.

Our first night in Limerick we went out to a pub named Dolan's. Our program had recommended it so unfortunately there was a group of about 25 American students sitting in a very locals-oriented bar. One of the guys even had them turn on the Eagles game (yes, Hayley and Pat, I watched a game from Ireland). It was a little embarrassing to seem so American but they had great live traditional music so it was a good time. 

I'll stop there for now and make my next post about Galway.