Holy freakin' amazing weekend!

Wow. This is.. mmm... actually Sunday morning, a bit after 1 AM. I'm using one of the computers downstairs in the hostel. There are eight girls in my room and the majority of them are sleeping, so I came down here since I'm not actually tired. And bloody thunder, do I have a lot to write about.

We're gonna do this a bit out of order, because I don't think I actually have enough patience for a chronological story-telling
thing. So bear with me.

At one point, the driver (we're all very proud of Patrick, our busdriver) actually let some air out of the bus suspension (or something like that that can be lowered a minuscule amount) so that the bus was able to fit under a stone bridge. I also have a beautiful photo of us meeting another bus on a narrow road... Patrick's a hero, I tell you. Our bus and the German bus emerged unscathed, though I swear there was perhaps two inches of air between us.

Our basic itinerary:
Friday- Thoor Balylee, Cliffs of Moher, Galway.
Satuirday- Quiet Man cottage, Kylemore Abbey, back to Galway for the night.
Sunday- We're leaving for Dun Laoghaire at 10 AM

Lets talk about food experiences:). Our host families all packed us a lunch for Friday, which we ate by the river outside the Tower. Now Friday night, we went looking for food in Galway. We found a traditional looking place called Riordan's, and a few of us piled upstairs for food. It was a bit more than 14 euro, for either a starter and a meal with tea or a meal and a dessert with tea. I got a seafood chowder for a starter.... and it was amazing. Inside this chowder I identified shrimp, mussels, and pieces of something with pinkish tentacles. I'm hoping it was octopus. So it all tasted amazing, and it was like a game to figure out what everything was:). The meal was good too, really garlicky Chicken Kiev.
So the chowder was actually the most exciting food experience. But I've ended up dropping the most money so far on this little trip, and I've had a few other good meals. Soup and cake at the Abbey Canteen today (When I say "Today" I mean Saturday) and Fish'n Chips at MacDonough's in Galway.

Now let's talk about pubs! Last night (by which I mean Friday) I was with three other girls: Kaitlyn (not my roommate), Jessica, and Elizabeth. We wandered around, and found a place called Paddy's. It was kind of out of the way, very quiet, and we were the youngest people by at least ten years. It was, however, a nice place to enjoy my half-pint of cider (and laugh at Elizabeth as she got bit silly while downing her whole pint). There was supposed to be music, but the lead singer was late, so we waited a while. We listened to a few songs and they weren't that bad, but they just played American music. We left to try and find traditional music, but I when I tried to muscle my way into Taffe's I couldn't hear anything, and it was super super super crowded, so we gave up and had an early night.

Tonight was a bit silly at first. We showed up at Taffe's way early, expecting to be able to find a seat, but it was already packed and there wasn't any music so we left. By "we" I mean... Quite a few of us. I think it was Caitlin, Jessica, Elizabeth, Jill, Jenna, and I at that point. We met up with more people (Pearl and the other Jessica) and tossed around a bunch of ideas.. walked around confused for a while, stepped in some pubs, bought some ice cream... eventually we ended up at the King's Head with even more of our group (Danielle. Janna, Kiana, Jeff, David, Jackie, and I think a few more.). King's Head was very nice. Three floors, and lots of room. There was a DJ showing up later, so we opted to stay. I bought a pint of cider, and eventually there was music... but it wasn't tradional, which was just depressing.

SO. Danielle wanted traditional music too, and she had been at Taffe's last night and said it was great, so we left the King's head and went in search of music. On the way we found a firethrower-dude, who was excellent. I threw 2 Euro in his hat. Then we muscled our way into Taffes. It's not that big a pub, and it's really popular, so you really just have to throw yourself into the crowd and slowly work your way to the front. It's like a river of people, with opposing currents...

At any rate, there was traditional music. We got right up to the front, and it was amazing. The whole room was full of what the Irish would call good craic. The three member band played and sang traditional Irish tunes. They had a banjo, an accordian and a guitar. And there was even a cute drunk Irish boy for me to dance with:) I'm sort of suspecting he was actually a vampire, though, because I definitely took a picture of him and when I looked at my camera later it was GONE. I'm hoping it's just hiding on the camera somewhere... but who knows. And just in case there was any doubt, it was confirmed tonight that I am a fox. In Irish, I think that means beautiful:-p

So it's after 2 in the morning, and I think I'm going to wrap this up and go to bed. Which is SILLY, because I haven't even said anything about how absolutely stunning the sights and the countryside were. I'm talking cliffs of Moher, you guys. I mean absolutely mind-blowing beauty. Enough to bring tears to my eyes. I guess I saved this stuff (the cliffs, the tower, the abbey) for last because there really ARE NO WORDS for how breathtaking it was.

So for now I'm gonna stop trying. Let's leave this at to be continued, and I'll tell you more about the cool stuff tomorrow, when I can be a bit more coherent.

Good night!

Happy Fourth!

Hello hello! Sorry I haven't updated in a few days. I'm gonna have to make this quick, because it's 7 and we're leaving at 8 and I still have to eat and pack.

Lessee, hightlights... 

Dublin Castle on Wednesday, fun walking tour with the whole group. I'm slowly learning names. Wednesday night we went out, first to the Temple Bar and then to Fitsimmons. I discovered Bulmer's Cider. Very very good.

Fun day at class yesterday. Then I found a grocery store and a post office, and took a nap.

TODAY we are leaving for a 2 night trip to Galway. Should be lots of fun. I'm not taking the computer, because it's heavy, so don't expect an update before Sunday evening. I'm looking forward to seeing some Irish countryside, and getting some real fish and chips!

Tuesday

Hello friends! Today and yesterday were my first day of classes. We have classes Monday, Wednesday, and Tuesday. Everyone in the program is taking 2 of the 3 classes offered, and each class meets for two hours each day. I have the first two classes, so I have to be in Dun Laoghaire at 9:30AM and I'm all done by 2:00 PM.

Classes are pretty cool. I don't feel like going into detail. Maybe later.

We did watch The Quiet Man in the film class today. I actually... didn't like it at all. Well, parts of it were good. But I didn't like the way the heroine was treated.

Yesterday we went into Dublin in the evening, and discovered that most shops close before seven. Even huge bookstores. A little disappointing, but we walking around town and still had a good time of it.

Today I got some lunch at the canteen after class and then headed straight for Dublin. I was going to check out Trinity College (book of Kells!) but I realised they charged admission, and decided to go back later when I had more time. I walked up and down Grafton Street a few times, and found a discount books etc. store where I bought school supplies and art materials. Caitlin has the last class, so she met me in town at 4:30 and we walked around and went shopping.

We come back to our host family every night for dinner at 6:30, which is always really good. Tonight we had sausages with onions and peppers and mushrooms, along with baked beans and a baked potato. Fruit salad and chocolate pudding for dessert. 

Tonight we went into Dun Laoghaire after dinner, to hang out at McCormacks with a few of the guys from the program. I had my first pint of Guinness:) It was a really quiet evening. It's one of the girls 21st birthday tomorrow, so I think we're going into town to a few of the more exciting pubs with live music. You all know I'm going to love the music. I can't wait.

Tomorrow in the daytime the whole group of us is going to Dublin Castle and some other stuff in town, so I should have an interesting report. Also, this weekend is 2 day overnight trip to Galway.

Tuesday

E 5.50 - canteen lunch

E 15.00 - art and school supplies

E 14.00 - towels (for hostel stay, and so I have my own)

E 2.00 - pastry

E 5.00 - Guinness and crisps

Money

This won't be interesting to most of you, so feel free to skip over it. I want to keep a log of some of my basic expenses, at least at the beginning where I'm still figuring out the value of the Euro and how much I can expect to spend for the rest of the trip. This will also help me figure out how much will be left over for traveling!

Expenses

Saturday

E 3.50  - smoothie

E 2.50 - paper to read

About E 8.00 - sandwich and water. 

Sunday

E 5.00 - grilled panini sandwich with ham, tomatoes, and goat cheese

E 9.00 - book (Angel by Cliff McNish. I started reading it in a bookstore and didn't want to put it down!)

Monday

E 5.50 - canteen lunch (hot thai chicken salad and an iced tea)

E 3.00 - postcards

First day in Dublin!

Hello everyone! Today was a pretty good day, though I'm super tired now. I went to mass at 12:30 today. It was raining, and my host mother and my roommate walked down with me. It's a small church but there are a lot of masses; the earliest Sunday mass is at 9:00 and there's even one at 6:oo PM. The priest was african, with a fairly heavy african accent. He had good speaking presence, and I liked him a lot. I found back to the house after mass all by myself, and I was very proud.

Caitlin and I decided to go into the city this afternoon. We took the bus to Grafton Street, which is a nice shopping district with cobblestone streets that's blocked off for traffic. We had a good time wandering around and watching street performers. We actually ran into a few of the guys from our program, and walked with them for a while. We found a bookstore, and I bought a book to read while I'm here. Grafton street is right by St. Stephen's Green, which is a park. We walked around there for a a while, and sat and listened to a traditional Irish band that was playing in a pavillion.

We were both pretty tired, so we decided to head back home. Good thing we left a bit early, because we got on the wrong bus. 46A is the one that goes by our house both ways, so we thought if we got on 46A anywhere it would loop back around, and go back through Stillorgan (original Gaelic is Stigh Lorgan:)). This was not entirely correct... We were the last people on the bus, and the driver told us we had to catch it at another street. So we started walking, and for some reason walked right by the right stop... and farther down the street there were a lot of bus stops but none of them said "46A". This was where we met the drunk Irish boys:-p

There's a world cup game tonight, you see, Spain vs. Germany. So there were a lot of people walking around in football (that's soccer, you crazy Americans) jerseys, coming out of pubs and the like. There were about five of these guys, and they started talking to us... we didn't quite realise how drunk they were when we asked for directions. They had no idea of course, it was rather amusing. Then they asked how long we were staying (having already ascertained that we were Americans) and asked for our numbers. When we explained that we didn't have cell phones, the most coherent of the bunch said, "Tha's alright, you can take mine. We'll give you a ring tomorrow." Then he takes a rather nice and shiny cellphone out of his pocket, and tries to give it to Caitlin. We explained that we had class, and left to find our bus stop. And that, friends, is how we passed up a free Irish phone:-p

We got on the right bus eventually (after running after a 46A bus for half a street, and asking someone sober for directions) and actually ran into a couple girls from our program on the bus. There was yummy chicken with mushrooms, onions, and potatoes waiting for us when we got home.

So, I was gonna upload all the photos I took (there's even one of me, so I can prove I'm actually in Ireland and this isn't an elaborate hoax) but blogger doesn't seem to want to load them. I'll figure out a way to get them online soon, but for now you'll have to content yourselves with text. Tomorrow's our first real day of scheduled stuff (orientation at 9!) so I'll probably be turning in rather soon. Goodnight!

Internet Access:)

Well, whaddaya know. I have wi-fi at my host family's house! This means I can blog regularly, and since I have skype... I can even call people for the same amount of money that I pay at school!

I've had a few hours nap, and I'm feeling considerably better. I just had dinner with my host family and my roommate. My host family, by the way, is wonderful. Very welcoming and friendly, funny, and lots of fun to talk to. I also like my roommate, Caitlin, a lot. I think we're going to get along very well.

I don't have any scheduled activities tomorrow, so I think our host family is going to show us around the city a bit. There's a catholic church within walking distance, so I'll also be catching a mass. Our situation here is very nice and convenient. There's a bus stop a very short walk away, which we can take either in to town or out to the college at Dun Laoghairé (pronounced dun leary, folks). We have a bus pass for our whole stay here that works for all the buses and trains. This is ever so very excellent.

At any rate, I'm very happy to be here. We still haven't received a schedule for classes and outings, so everything's still a bit up in the air, but it looks like getting around is going to be easy and I can't wait to start seeing everything and exploring the city. But first, a shower and a little bit more sleep;)

Safe in Ireland!

Hello Friends! Gotta make this short, as I'm using a pay per minute computer at the Dublin International Airport. That's right, I made it here safely. After exiting, I noticed that my plane had "Saint Brigid" painted on the brow. Very happy.

So, there are subtle differences between Irish and American keyboards. It's interesting.

The other good news is my card worked fine in the ATM, so I have all the cash I need.

I'm also doing a pretty good job of pretending it's 8:25 in the morning and not... lessee... 3:25 in the middle of the night! I haven't gotten any sleep, but it's no worse than finals week or something like that, so I'll be fine. Now I just have a few hours to kill before I meet up with everyone else from my program. There seems to be a lack of chairs around to sit in... but I saw a smoothie shop back aways. That's probably my next stop. I don't know how consistent my internet access will be from this point on, but I will try to keep you posted!