Hey hey hey! Im attempting to put up a couple posts but the picture uploader is taking forever so this will have to do! I am sorry I haven't posted in so long! But lots to come! Check out facebook for pictures as well. I am off to see FAME the musical at the Cork Opera House tonight: special 2 for 1 deal for UCC students. Ill be posting the major posts tomorrow hopefully! Peace!
Miss and love you all!
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Visitors from ENGLAND/SPAIN Part uno!
Hello hello!!! Sooo I know I haven't posted in over two weeks..It has just been a crazy/stressful/busy/fun two weeks! I am going to probably do a couple posts to catch you all up on everything that has happened. This first one will include highlights from travels here in Ireland while Connie and her two friends were visiting. The second one will be dedicated to Spain!
Sooo...where to begin? Connie and her two friends: Kelly (who also goes to St. Norbert) and Alyssa (Originally from Connecticut but goes to school in Florida) got here on Saturday September 18. It was quite a crazy week leading up to this visit as I was finishing up my pre-semester class lectures. But, I was very excited to have some visitors! The day after they got here, we went to the chapel on campus for a beginning of the year mass celebration followed up by a barbeque put on by the Chaplaincy (Campus Ministry sort of). After that, we went to a pub to watch the All Ireland Gaelic Football Final between Cork and Down! AND CORK WON! First time in 20 years! We ended up going to a pub later on that night and it was pretty crazy around town! UP THE REBELS! That's their call? I don't really completely understand it but oh well! hahaha!
My regular semester classes then started the next day on Monday which was quite hectic. I sent the girls off on a day trip to Youghal to see the beach and I went to class. It was a long day. The next couple days were just as hectic and quite difficult to balance my feelings. It was hard trying to keep everyone happy while also figuring out my classes. But, I did it and had a great time doing it. We all hung out with some of my friends here a couple times which was great!
On Tuesday afternoon, I got to take them to Blarney castle as well which was awesome!
Then, on Wednesday, the three girls and I went on a Paddywagon tour to the Cliffs of Moher! It was awesome! We traveled in a large van with about 10-15 other tourists! haha. Our tour guide was quite a riot as well. We got to make some cool stops along the way as well seeing sights such as a castle in Limerick, the Burren, and Poulnabrone (ancient burial tomb). We were able to walk around at the Cliffs of Moher for around an hour and a half which was great as well. The weather wasn't too great when we arrived, but it cleared up as we were there which was well let's just say, "INCONCEIVABLE" hahaha...Ill let the pictures do the talking!
Then, on Thursday we headed to the airport around late afternoon...To be continued!
Overall, it was great having them here! Just got a little stressful because I felt like I had to please them all! Sooo, for any of you future travelers..be careful of when you invite visitors!!
My regular semester classes then started the next day on Monday which was quite hectic. I sent the girls off on a day trip to Youghal to see the beach and I went to class. It was a long day. The next couple days were just as hectic and quite difficult to balance my feelings. It was hard trying to keep everyone happy while also figuring out my classes. But, I did it and had a great time doing it. We all hung out with some of my friends here a couple times which was great!
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| No idea who the lady at the bottom is. |
On Tuesday afternoon, I got to take them to Blarney castle as well which was awesome!
Then, on Wednesday, the three girls and I went on a Paddywagon tour to the Cliffs of Moher! It was awesome! We traveled in a large van with about 10-15 other tourists! haha. Our tour guide was quite a riot as well. We got to make some cool stops along the way as well seeing sights such as a castle in Limerick, the Burren, and Poulnabrone (ancient burial tomb). We were able to walk around at the Cliffs of Moher for around an hour and a half which was great as well. The weather wasn't too great when we arrived, but it cleared up as we were there which was well let's just say, "INCONCEIVABLE" hahaha...Ill let the pictures do the talking!
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| Treaty stone at castle in Limerick: haha |
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| In the mist |
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| In the Sun! |
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| Really close to the edge! |
Then, on Thursday we headed to the airport around late afternoon...To be continued!
Overall, it was great having them here! Just got a little stressful because I felt like I had to please them all! Sooo, for any of you future travelers..be careful of when you invite visitors!!
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Package from home!!
Well hello hello from Cork!
Just came home to the apartment to find a SAWEET package awaiting my presence! Thank you mom!!! You are the best! It was a package of shoes (which I will be wearing tonight at volleyball! perfect timing), skittles, sunflower seeds (which are actually really hard to find here!), starbursts, gum, icebreaker mints, and GUSHERS!!! absolutely amazing! I think it's quite funny to realize how much something that simple can mean so much to me! It was a great thing to come back to. Thanks again mom!
Anyways, the last couple days have been slow, but good! I finished the first draft of my first paper yesterday and started revising today. We, American students, really forget how structured our classes and assignments are until we get here! It has probably been one of the hardest papers to write...not at all because of the content but because there are no real guidelines! Nevertheless, I'm glad to have one pretty much down. Now, I just need to start on the second paper before this weekend when all the craziness begins!
Jordan and I have been wondering if and when our third roommate is going to show up. The rest of the American and other international students have been arriving the last couple days because their orientation is tomorrow...however there is no sign of our guy! We are listening for that knock on the door very closely! haha! And speaking of the other international students, I met two girls from near Cologne, Germany last night. One of them Britta, is now roommates with our friends Kendall and Catherine up two floors, and the other one, Lily, is Britta's friend living across the river. It was great talking to them about anything and everything for a couple hours last night. Kendall, Catherine and I kept laughing at how "by the book" their english was! And, it was also funny explaining certain words/phrases to them that they didn't know such as "cranky" and "an apple a day keeps the doctor away." hahahaha! Overall, it just got me really excited to meet more international students from other countries!
Alright, I'm off to make some steak burgers that I picked up at the English market...Fresh red meat for the first time in Ireland! hahaha No joke!! Here goes nothing! Then, off to volleyball! Ill check in again soon!
And remember, Moms are great!
Just came home to the apartment to find a SAWEET package awaiting my presence! Thank you mom!!! You are the best! It was a package of shoes (which I will be wearing tonight at volleyball! perfect timing), skittles, sunflower seeds (which are actually really hard to find here!), starbursts, gum, icebreaker mints, and GUSHERS!!! absolutely amazing! I think it's quite funny to realize how much something that simple can mean so much to me! It was a great thing to come back to. Thanks again mom!
Anyways, the last couple days have been slow, but good! I finished the first draft of my first paper yesterday and started revising today. We, American students, really forget how structured our classes and assignments are until we get here! It has probably been one of the hardest papers to write...not at all because of the content but because there are no real guidelines! Nevertheless, I'm glad to have one pretty much down. Now, I just need to start on the second paper before this weekend when all the craziness begins!
Jordan and I have been wondering if and when our third roommate is going to show up. The rest of the American and other international students have been arriving the last couple days because their orientation is tomorrow...however there is no sign of our guy! We are listening for that knock on the door very closely! haha! And speaking of the other international students, I met two girls from near Cologne, Germany last night. One of them Britta, is now roommates with our friends Kendall and Catherine up two floors, and the other one, Lily, is Britta's friend living across the river. It was great talking to them about anything and everything for a couple hours last night. Kendall, Catherine and I kept laughing at how "by the book" their english was! And, it was also funny explaining certain words/phrases to them that they didn't know such as "cranky" and "an apple a day keeps the doctor away." hahahaha! Overall, it just got me really excited to meet more international students from other countries!
Alright, I'm off to make some steak burgers that I picked up at the English market...Fresh red meat for the first time in Ireland! hahaha No joke!! Here goes nothing! Then, off to volleyball! Ill check in again soon!
And remember, Moms are great!
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Inis Oirr - "The Smallest and Most beautiful of the Aran Isles"
Well hello hello from Cork! I have seen a lot in the past few days so be ready to read!
Our class took our field trip to Inis Oirr, the smallest of the three Aran Islands off the coast of Galway this past Thursday. We left at 10:30 Thursday morning and got back around 3:30 yesterday afternoon! It was a great trip and I'm going to just highlight a few of the pictures that I took because there are way too many to include them all! (check facebook for more pictures!)
Anywho, the bus headed out from Cork at 10:30 Thursday morning. It was partly sunny in cork and looked like a great weather weekend was ahead of us....... We stopped for lunch in Bunratty actually at the Blarney Woolen Mills! I had a chicken and cheese panini..yum yum especially when it's paid for! Then, we had a little time to shop around the store again and I picked up my Tin whistle! hahahaha...I am going to be an expert by the time I leave. Elena and I also got this three cd pack of Irish Pub songs! Good stuff! As we were leaving Bunratty, the rain began....and it didn't stop!
The rest of the ride up took extremely long as we ran into traffic in Galway city. However it was pretty beautiful scenery the whole way. The ferry port to the Aran Islands is actually west of the city of Galway up the coast a little more at the town of Spiddal, so I was a little confused on the way there when we started going west! Take a look at a map and you'll understand why I was confused because to me it would make more sense to take a ferry from the coast directly east of the islands but we came from the north! Anyways, the ferry ride was something to remember! It was a very rocky ride to say the least and a bunch of us went up on top of the deck and got soaking wet from waves splashing on us and the wind and rain whipping around!! NEvertheless it was absolutely awesome! hahaha!
We got to the island at about 7:45-8ish...and it was raining, very windy, and dark! Sooo we scurried up to our hostel (which was actually right on the coast - just like everything else on the island! surprise!) Our teacher, Margaret, was literally jogging the whole way! hahaha and just picture a very small petite woman with curly hair leading 34 college students in the rain and wind in the dark! hahaha it was pretty hilarious! When we got to the hostel, we dropped our stuff off and then scurried over to the only restaurant on the island for dinner (amazing vegetable soup, roast chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, vegetables, and then bailey's cheesecake for dessert! amazing). After dinner, we all went back to our private hostel (hahaha...by the way the entire island knew we were coming and we literally took over the hostel...margaret and our bus driver didn't even stay in the hostel with us!) and just hung out in the common room area...some of us playing cards, banana grams, and watching a little tv. Then we all crashed from the long day of travel and rain!
Friday morning, I took a 2 hour walk with Roger and Colleen and we made it probably halfway around the island! And really the only thing to say is Rock walls everywhere! It was ridiculous! Just a couple sidenotes about the island itself:
-Inis Oirr is the name
-It is the smallest and "most beautiful" of the three Aran Islands.
-It has a population of approximately 250-300 (hard to tell exactly because quite a few of the houses are holiday homes I guess
-4 square miles of rock walls...haha
-approximately 5 miles around i believe - and there is definitely not a single path that goes around the whole thing!
-There is a fairy to and from the island twice a day 8:00 am and 6:30 pm
After the walk, Margaret (our teacher), had us walk to this old house (just like the ones at Bunratty folk park except legit!) where Darra talked to us. Darra is a true island dweller that still lives on the island today, and you can tell...hahaha...no offense to him but it looked like he had just rolled out of bed - hair going every which way, wearing a sweater and wool pants, crooked teeth (just like all the irish! haha). The house, which is now used as a show n tell museum thing, was actually his uncle's house! He used to visit that very house when he was little for family gatherings and such! It was soo cool to talk to him about everything in the house and about life in general growing up on the island. He actually lived on the middle island Inis mann. He told us how he went to school on Inis Moor growing up, and he couldn't visit his home during the term ever because there was no transportation. So, he and his friends would literally be able to see their houses from school but could not visit them! How crazy is that? I could probably go on forever talking about him but to sum it up, it was definitely a way to remember how easy I had it growing up!
After that, we had the rest of the day to do whatever we wanted until dinner at 7! Margaret is very laid back! Ashley, Amy, Elena, and I decided to take a walk as far as we could while seeing the shipwreck Margaret had told us about! And we weren't disappointed! The shipwreck was soo random yet very cool! I'll let the pictures do the talking:
Then, we headed towards the lighthouse following the narrow paths whenever we could find one that weaved in between the rock walls everywhere! It was very a very interesting and random landscape with the occasional horse or cow being found enclosed within walls. Nevertheless, it was quite breathtaking to take a step back and realize where I was. We could see the Cliffs of Moher from this side of the island as well. There really are no words to describe the feeling as we walked...just pure amazement that places like that truly exist!
After running into a few more dead ends (aka Rock walls)...we headed towards the highest point of the island where the ruins of O'brien's castle awaited! It was quite spectacular to take a look out from the top of the castle and think about someone "owning" and living there! After that, we headed back to the hostel because it had started to rain and I taught the girls Up and down the river which they loved!
Dinner was superb again...soup, chicken curry, chocolate cake! After dinner, we all headed to the one main pub on the island. Sean (our bus driver who I got to know pretty well) brought his guitar and (with the help of my singing) led everybody in a fun music session! I sat right next to him and he kept on asking me to sing because I was the only one that did sing....haha! So, I requested the one pub song I knew the words with and we sang it loud and clear! Then, we all requested various other american songs such as Leaving on a Jet Plane, American Pie, etc. and he played them all and we sang (or tried!). After that a few Irish musicians came in and Sean joined them. Then, he asked me to come sing Garth Brooks with him because I had requested the Dance so we did another duet! It was a great experience to say the least! Something I will never forget!
Saturday morning was of course the most beautiful of the three days...right when we are leaving. However, the ferry ride back was superb and a time to reflect on what I had just done! Elena and I started getting a little seasick so we went out on the deck again with a few others for most of the ride and it was beautiful! As we were heading away from the island and the sun was shining bright over the cliffs of moher, all I could say was "God is Good...All the time....All the time..God is Good" And that was definitely not the first time I have muttered that these past four weeks!
We were treated to a nice breakfast on the way back home in Galway too which sealed a great trip! Then, last night, watched a movie with a few peeps! It was a pretty amazing three days!
Today, I definitely played the keyboard at St. Vincent's church which was great! Apparently I'm on for next week as well, so I have to make it to practice on Wednesday...haha! And now, I'm just catching up with Jordan on his trips the last couple days as we watch the X Factor on tv. It's a pretty rough life here in Ireland! It should be a pretty interesting week finishing up my papers for this class and figuring out classes for the regular semester which starts next Monday! However, I think the stress will be eased a bit by the fact that I have some awesome visitors coming on Saturday night! Connie, Kelly, and Alyssa are arriving Saturday night so I look forward to that as well. We are booking our hostel for Valencia Spain tonight! WOW! Whenever I get down, I think I just need to think about what I've done and what I'm going to do...what a great opportunity for all of us to be here! We all have no idea how much this experience is changing us, yet I think we all know that it is changing us for the better! Now when one thinks of it that way, how can you get down? I need to remember this! hahaha!
Alright all for now! Hope you had fun reading! This may have been the longest post yet! I'll check in later this week...GO PACK GO! Super excited for watching the opening game tonight on skype! Peace!
Our class took our field trip to Inis Oirr, the smallest of the three Aran Islands off the coast of Galway this past Thursday. We left at 10:30 Thursday morning and got back around 3:30 yesterday afternoon! It was a great trip and I'm going to just highlight a few of the pictures that I took because there are way too many to include them all! (check facebook for more pictures!)
Anywho, the bus headed out from Cork at 10:30 Thursday morning. It was partly sunny in cork and looked like a great weather weekend was ahead of us....... We stopped for lunch in Bunratty actually at the Blarney Woolen Mills! I had a chicken and cheese panini..yum yum especially when it's paid for! Then, we had a little time to shop around the store again and I picked up my Tin whistle! hahahaha...I am going to be an expert by the time I leave. Elena and I also got this three cd pack of Irish Pub songs! Good stuff! As we were leaving Bunratty, the rain began....and it didn't stop!
The rest of the ride up took extremely long as we ran into traffic in Galway city. However it was pretty beautiful scenery the whole way. The ferry port to the Aran Islands is actually west of the city of Galway up the coast a little more at the town of Spiddal, so I was a little confused on the way there when we started going west! Take a look at a map and you'll understand why I was confused because to me it would make more sense to take a ferry from the coast directly east of the islands but we came from the north! Anyways, the ferry ride was something to remember! It was a very rocky ride to say the least and a bunch of us went up on top of the deck and got soaking wet from waves splashing on us and the wind and rain whipping around!! NEvertheless it was absolutely awesome! hahaha!
We got to the island at about 7:45-8ish...and it was raining, very windy, and dark! Sooo we scurried up to our hostel (which was actually right on the coast - just like everything else on the island! surprise!) Our teacher, Margaret, was literally jogging the whole way! hahaha and just picture a very small petite woman with curly hair leading 34 college students in the rain and wind in the dark! hahaha it was pretty hilarious! When we got to the hostel, we dropped our stuff off and then scurried over to the only restaurant on the island for dinner (amazing vegetable soup, roast chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, vegetables, and then bailey's cheesecake for dessert! amazing). After dinner, we all went back to our private hostel (hahaha...by the way the entire island knew we were coming and we literally took over the hostel...margaret and our bus driver didn't even stay in the hostel with us!) and just hung out in the common room area...some of us playing cards, banana grams, and watching a little tv. Then we all crashed from the long day of travel and rain!
-Inis Oirr is the name
-It is the smallest and "most beautiful" of the three Aran Islands.
-It has a population of approximately 250-300 (hard to tell exactly because quite a few of the houses are holiday homes I guess
-4 square miles of rock walls...haha
-approximately 5 miles around i believe - and there is definitely not a single path that goes around the whole thing!
-There is a fairy to and from the island twice a day 8:00 am and 6:30 pm
After the walk, Margaret (our teacher), had us walk to this old house (just like the ones at Bunratty folk park except legit!) where Darra talked to us. Darra is a true island dweller that still lives on the island today, and you can tell...hahaha...no offense to him but it looked like he had just rolled out of bed - hair going every which way, wearing a sweater and wool pants, crooked teeth (just like all the irish! haha). The house, which is now used as a show n tell museum thing, was actually his uncle's house! He used to visit that very house when he was little for family gatherings and such! It was soo cool to talk to him about everything in the house and about life in general growing up on the island. He actually lived on the middle island Inis mann. He told us how he went to school on Inis Moor growing up, and he couldn't visit his home during the term ever because there was no transportation. So, he and his friends would literally be able to see their houses from school but could not visit them! How crazy is that? I could probably go on forever talking about him but to sum it up, it was definitely a way to remember how easy I had it growing up!
After that, we had the rest of the day to do whatever we wanted until dinner at 7! Margaret is very laid back! Ashley, Amy, Elena, and I decided to take a walk as far as we could while seeing the shipwreck Margaret had told us about! And we weren't disappointed! The shipwreck was soo random yet very cool! I'll let the pictures do the talking:
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| Cliffs of Moher from afar! |
After running into a few more dead ends (aka Rock walls)...we headed towards the highest point of the island where the ruins of O'brien's castle awaited! It was quite spectacular to take a look out from the top of the castle and think about someone "owning" and living there! After that, we headed back to the hostel because it had started to rain and I taught the girls Up and down the river which they loved!
 |
| Walls everywhere! |
 |
| Every house on the island! |
 |
| The crew! (Amy, Ashley, Me, Elena) |
Dinner was superb again...soup, chicken curry, chocolate cake! After dinner, we all headed to the one main pub on the island. Sean (our bus driver who I got to know pretty well) brought his guitar and (with the help of my singing) led everybody in a fun music session! I sat right next to him and he kept on asking me to sing because I was the only one that did sing....haha! So, I requested the one pub song I knew the words with and we sang it loud and clear! Then, we all requested various other american songs such as Leaving on a Jet Plane, American Pie, etc. and he played them all and we sang (or tried!). After that a few Irish musicians came in and Sean joined them. Then, he asked me to come sing Garth Brooks with him because I had requested the Dance so we did another duet! It was a great experience to say the least! Something I will never forget!Saturday morning was of course the most beautiful of the three days...right when we are leaving. However, the ferry ride back was superb and a time to reflect on what I had just done! Elena and I started getting a little seasick so we went out on the deck again with a few others for most of the ride and it was beautiful! As we were heading away from the island and the sun was shining bright over the cliffs of moher, all I could say was "God is Good...All the time....All the time..God is Good" And that was definitely not the first time I have muttered that these past four weeks!
We were treated to a nice breakfast on the way back home in Galway too which sealed a great trip! Then, last night, watched a movie with a few peeps! It was a pretty amazing three days!
Today, I definitely played the keyboard at St. Vincent's church which was great! Apparently I'm on for next week as well, so I have to make it to practice on Wednesday...haha! And now, I'm just catching up with Jordan on his trips the last couple days as we watch the X Factor on tv. It's a pretty rough life here in Ireland! It should be a pretty interesting week finishing up my papers for this class and figuring out classes for the regular semester which starts next Monday! However, I think the stress will be eased a bit by the fact that I have some awesome visitors coming on Saturday night! Connie, Kelly, and Alyssa are arriving Saturday night so I look forward to that as well. We are booking our hostel for Valencia Spain tonight! WOW! Whenever I get down, I think I just need to think about what I've done and what I'm going to do...what a great opportunity for all of us to be here! We all have no idea how much this experience is changing us, yet I think we all know that it is changing us for the better! Now when one thinks of it that way, how can you get down? I need to remember this! hahaha!
Alright all for now! Hope you had fun reading! This may have been the longest post yet! I'll check in later this week...GO PACK GO! Super excited for watching the opening game tonight on skype! Peace!
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Officially Legal!
Well I thought I would put up a short post to inform you all on the last couple days. There hasn't been much going on but I do have a few funny stories!
BUT, first of all, I am officially legal! I went to the Garda station today with a couple friends and we get our certificate of registration cards which are pretty sweet! As you can see I have included pictures of both my UCC student card and that card that I got today! I feel IRISH! hahaha! We were told to get there early and thank goodness we did because the line was long! We got there at 1 (it didn't open until 2) and we were about 7th in line so we were out of there by 2:30...but the line continued out the door. Crazy seeing all the different people coming in to the office however. There were people from all over the world crammed into a line inside this building! It was a sight to see!
Anyways, the last two days have been pretty laid back so I have been finding ways to fill in some time! Yesterday I went to the library to begin working on my first essay with some classmates. Then, we had an advisement meeting in which the process of registering for the regular semester was explained a little more. However, it is still going to be a little hectic getting situated! Good thing Connie, Kelly, and their friend Alyssa will be here to calm me down and get my mind off stuff after the day is over! They come a week from Saturday! Woohoo! Ok back to yesterday: after the advisement I had some more free time so I went to the cafe again across the street and got a hot chocolate! mmm mm mm!! Soo good again! After that, I came back to the apartment and luckily Jordan came back soon after...otherwise I may have had a rough time because I was just feeling down again! But, he did come back and we had a blast looking up lyrics to the Irish pub songs that the traditional music group plays on Wednesday nights! I'm going to be able to sing quite a few of them by the end of the semester! Then, my friends Amy, Chelsea, and Elena (all live in the same apartment) came over and we all hung out, watched a movie, played cards! That is one thing I need to realize too is that everybody is feeling the same as I am! We all get homesick from time to time, but that's perfectly ook! It was a great night!
Now for today, class was really long...but after class went to the Garda station and became legal! haha! And then, Kendall and I checked out the English Market which is AMAZING! I had heard about it but it was even better than what I was expecting. It is literally just an open market full of tons of fresh produce including fruits, vegetables, all kinds of meat, spices, candy, bread, cakes, etc. And it is ridiculously cheap! I bought some seasoning which I was in desperate need of for my for my various chicken dinners I have made! I will definitely be going back there! Then, I showed Kendall the cafe across the street and we both go a "Corkaccino"...mine was Irish cream flavored! mmmmm! That cafe is great....the only bad thing is the fact that it closes at 5 every night and is closed on Sundays and possibly even Saturdays for various church groups! But, oh well!
Well, now I'm off to go eat at Amy, Chelsea, and Elena's apartment before checking out some volleyball club thing tonight. It should be great! The weather here is starting to show it's rainy side the last couple of days. However, it is never a constant rain. Rather, it rains for 10 minutes, then it's sunny, then twenty minutes it rains again..and so on...pretty crazy!
Before I go (this has turned into a long post) I have to share a quick story from class:
Our teacher is a very unique woman who loves to talk! She can be a little boring for my tastes but every once in awhile she says something that completely catches us off guard. For example, yesterday, we were talking about gender roles in the early Irish peasant societies. Well, in the middle of her lecture she asked us this question, "What would you all have thought if the bus driver on our field trip last Thursday was a woman?" We all kind of looked around and shrugged our shoulders which apparently really surprised her and she then directed the question more directly at me (because I am one of the two people she knows the names of in class) and said, "Jake, you wouldn't have been even a little worried if the driver would have been a woman? What about a very small woman?" hahaha...and I didn't really know what to say so I just shrugged my shoulders and said no not really. She was very surprised at all of us (she was chuckling a bit but still serious at the same time). We could not believe how serious she was. After class, a few of us were talking about it and I brought up the fact that I have definitely noticed how much gender roles are still very engrained in Irish culture! All over the place! Especially in the Catholic church! I don't really have any specific examples off the top of my head, but there have been a couple instances where I have seen articles on women oppression in the church in the newspapers! Our teacher has said some very gender role comments as well! It is interesting to see this coming through still today! However, Ireland has a woman president at the same time? Very interesting stuff indeed!
Okkk, I talked way too much! Hope it wasn't too long! Ill check in tomorrow before our big field trip to the Aran Islands this weekend! PEACE!
BUT, first of all, I am officially legal! I went to the Garda station today with a couple friends and we get our certificate of registration cards which are pretty sweet! As you can see I have included pictures of both my UCC student card and that card that I got today! I feel IRISH! hahaha! We were told to get there early and thank goodness we did because the line was long! We got there at 1 (it didn't open until 2) and we were about 7th in line so we were out of there by 2:30...but the line continued out the door. Crazy seeing all the different people coming in to the office however. There were people from all over the world crammed into a line inside this building! It was a sight to see!
 |
| Official student! |
 |
| Official immigrant! |
Anyways, the last two days have been pretty laid back so I have been finding ways to fill in some time! Yesterday I went to the library to begin working on my first essay with some classmates. Then, we had an advisement meeting in which the process of registering for the regular semester was explained a little more. However, it is still going to be a little hectic getting situated! Good thing Connie, Kelly, and their friend Alyssa will be here to calm me down and get my mind off stuff after the day is over! They come a week from Saturday! Woohoo! Ok back to yesterday: after the advisement I had some more free time so I went to the cafe again across the street and got a hot chocolate! mmm mm mm!! Soo good again! After that, I came back to the apartment and luckily Jordan came back soon after...otherwise I may have had a rough time because I was just feeling down again! But, he did come back and we had a blast looking up lyrics to the Irish pub songs that the traditional music group plays on Wednesday nights! I'm going to be able to sing quite a few of them by the end of the semester! Then, my friends Amy, Chelsea, and Elena (all live in the same apartment) came over and we all hung out, watched a movie, played cards! That is one thing I need to realize too is that everybody is feeling the same as I am! We all get homesick from time to time, but that's perfectly ook! It was a great night!
Now for today, class was really long...but after class went to the Garda station and became legal! haha! And then, Kendall and I checked out the English Market which is AMAZING! I had heard about it but it was even better than what I was expecting. It is literally just an open market full of tons of fresh produce including fruits, vegetables, all kinds of meat, spices, candy, bread, cakes, etc. And it is ridiculously cheap! I bought some seasoning which I was in desperate need of for my for my various chicken dinners I have made! I will definitely be going back there! Then, I showed Kendall the cafe across the street and we both go a "Corkaccino"...mine was Irish cream flavored! mmmmm! That cafe is great....the only bad thing is the fact that it closes at 5 every night and is closed on Sundays and possibly even Saturdays for various church groups! But, oh well!
Well, now I'm off to go eat at Amy, Chelsea, and Elena's apartment before checking out some volleyball club thing tonight. It should be great! The weather here is starting to show it's rainy side the last couple of days. However, it is never a constant rain. Rather, it rains for 10 minutes, then it's sunny, then twenty minutes it rains again..and so on...pretty crazy!
Before I go (this has turned into a long post) I have to share a quick story from class:
Our teacher is a very unique woman who loves to talk! She can be a little boring for my tastes but every once in awhile she says something that completely catches us off guard. For example, yesterday, we were talking about gender roles in the early Irish peasant societies. Well, in the middle of her lecture she asked us this question, "What would you all have thought if the bus driver on our field trip last Thursday was a woman?" We all kind of looked around and shrugged our shoulders which apparently really surprised her and she then directed the question more directly at me (because I am one of the two people she knows the names of in class) and said, "Jake, you wouldn't have been even a little worried if the driver would have been a woman? What about a very small woman?" hahaha...and I didn't really know what to say so I just shrugged my shoulders and said no not really. She was very surprised at all of us (she was chuckling a bit but still serious at the same time). We could not believe how serious she was. After class, a few of us were talking about it and I brought up the fact that I have definitely noticed how much gender roles are still very engrained in Irish culture! All over the place! Especially in the Catholic church! I don't really have any specific examples off the top of my head, but there have been a couple instances where I have seen articles on women oppression in the church in the newspapers! Our teacher has said some very gender role comments as well! It is interesting to see this coming through still today! However, Ireland has a woman president at the same time? Very interesting stuff indeed!
Okkk, I talked way too much! Hope it wasn't too long! Ill check in tomorrow before our big field trip to the Aran Islands this weekend! PEACE!
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Bunratty/Killarney/Waterford in 3 days? you bet!
Well hello! It's been awhile since I've posted so this one could be a bit long! but enjoy!
Wednesday night, a bunch of us went back to An Spailpin Fanac, the pub with traditional music and enjoyed the night once again! It was great! Then, the weekend started:
On Thursday, our class took a trip to Bunratty castle and folk park! It was great to see what we have somewhat learned in class in action! The castle was pretty astounding. Full of getting to know some more people, seeing some crazy things in the castle, and being thankful for my home today! There was one older woman in an old shop along the "reconstructed" market street that basically summed up our class up to that point in her life! haha...she talked about growing up on a farm in Ireland in the late 30s and 40s. She talked about her brothers and sisters getting on a ship to go to New York when they were 13, her mom and dad making "matches" for her and her sisters, and living with no electricity and all that good stuff! The one comment she made that really stuck was this simple statement: "We were poor, but we didn't know it! So we loved life" She was soo high on life and smiled constantly! It was a great day that was topped off with a very nice meal paid for by our teacher (well technically we paid for it but you know..) at a nice restaurant! We were all very hungry and it tasted amazing!! All in all a great day!
Friday was quite amazing as well! My friend Elena and I headed off to Killarney National Park at about 9 in the morning! It was great getting to know her even more. She is a very down to earth neat person who shares my love for service and God in general! We decided at the end of the day that we are very glad to be friends! We arrived in Killarney at about 11 and then we had to figure out exactly where we were. We eventually figured out that we were a good 2 miles away from the national park so we started walking! It was a long walk but we were so pumped and motivated seeing the mountains in the background! Once we got to the park, we kept walking on the trails and it was gorgeous. The amount of diversity in the trees and landscape in general was ridiculously gorgeous! The trail poked itself out to the lakeside every once in awhile so we took advantage of those views!
After about another mile or two of walking and climbing trees, we reached Muckross house! An absolute mansion of a place right on the lake viewing the mountains. SOOO beautiful!
Then, we continued on to Torc Waterfall - even more magnificent - the pictures simply don't do it justice!
After that, we decided to continue around the lake to Dinnish cottage. Little did we know how far it was! Along the way, there was literally maybe two other people! Once we got there, we got some much needed food and water and truly lucked out! There was a boat service back across the lake to the Muckross house! Woohoooo, we were soo happy because otherwise it would have been an extremely long walk back. That at least cut it in half!
After we got back to town, we walked around some more just to see the city a bit and got some ice cream! It was an absolutely wonderful day!
Now, for yesterday: Waterford = the oldest city in Ireland!
The travel group this time was a bit bigger but great! There were about 8 of us I think! The day consisted of: checking out Reginald's tower, one of the remaining city wall towers from the 9th century. Most of the city walls are still in place too!
Then, we checked out the Waterford crystal museum which was pretty amazing. It was very neat going through the tour and seeing how they make the crystal!
On our way back to the bus, we went to "Ireland's #1 historical museum". It was a very neat museum that went through the city's entire history. I learned a lot about the Vikings and the kings and queens. However, we probably would have liked it more if we weren't soo extremely tired. But all in all another great day!
Last night actually turned out to be a tough night after doing fantasy football with the fam! I just got extremely homesick and still am a bit today...so im trying to figure out why and work on changing that! :) But, went to church again this morning at St. Vincent's and there was a bit more of singing from a choir today. And, I got lured into playing piano next Sunday I believe! haha...the normal choir directors are out of town for a few weeks so they need some help. I'm supposed to call this one woman about what night would work best to practice this week soo yeah we will see how that goes. Today has been slow - just putting up pictures, getting groceries, and now about to skype some friends! I'm ready to go back to class tomorrow! Alright more to come soon! sorry for the length of this post! peace!
Wednesday night, a bunch of us went back to An Spailpin Fanac, the pub with traditional music and enjoyed the night once again! It was great! Then, the weekend started:
On Thursday, our class took a trip to Bunratty castle and folk park! It was great to see what we have somewhat learned in class in action! The castle was pretty astounding. Full of getting to know some more people, seeing some crazy things in the castle, and being thankful for my home today! There was one older woman in an old shop along the "reconstructed" market street that basically summed up our class up to that point in her life! haha...she talked about growing up on a farm in Ireland in the late 30s and 40s. She talked about her brothers and sisters getting on a ship to go to New York when they were 13, her mom and dad making "matches" for her and her sisters, and living with no electricity and all that good stuff! The one comment she made that really stuck was this simple statement: "We were poor, but we didn't know it! So we loved life" She was soo high on life and smiled constantly! It was a great day that was topped off with a very nice meal paid for by our teacher (well technically we paid for it but you know..) at a nice restaurant! We were all very hungry and it tasted amazing!! All in all a great day! |
| Pretty sure the early Irish were very short! |
 |
| Kitty |
Friday was quite amazing as well! My friend Elena and I headed off to Killarney National Park at about 9 in the morning! It was great getting to know her even more. She is a very down to earth neat person who shares my love for service and God in general! We decided at the end of the day that we are very glad to be friends! We arrived in Killarney at about 11 and then we had to figure out exactly where we were. We eventually figured out that we were a good 2 miles away from the national park so we started walking! It was a long walk but we were so pumped and motivated seeing the mountains in the background! Once we got to the park, we kept walking on the trails and it was gorgeous. The amount of diversity in the trees and landscape in general was ridiculously gorgeous! The trail poked itself out to the lakeside every once in awhile so we took advantage of those views! 
After about another mile or two of walking and climbing trees, we reached Muckross house! An absolute mansion of a place right on the lake viewing the mountains. SOOO beautiful!
Then, we continued on to Torc Waterfall - even more magnificent - the pictures simply don't do it justice!
After that, we decided to continue around the lake to Dinnish cottage. Little did we know how far it was! Along the way, there was literally maybe two other people! Once we got there, we got some much needed food and water and truly lucked out! There was a boat service back across the lake to the Muckross house! Woohoooo, we were soo happy because otherwise it would have been an extremely long walk back. That at least cut it in half!
 |
| Foooooood! |
 |
| Boat ride back! ahhh relaxing! |
After we got back to town, we walked around some more just to see the city a bit and got some ice cream! It was an absolutely wonderful day!
 |
| Naughton's have a B&B in Killarney apparently! |
Now, for yesterday: Waterford = the oldest city in Ireland!
Then, we checked out the Waterford crystal museum which was pretty amazing. It was very neat going through the tour and seeing how they make the crystal!
 |
| pocket change? |
Last night actually turned out to be a tough night after doing fantasy football with the fam! I just got extremely homesick and still am a bit today...so im trying to figure out why and work on changing that! :) But, went to church again this morning at St. Vincent's and there was a bit more of singing from a choir today. And, I got lured into playing piano next Sunday I believe! haha...the normal choir directors are out of town for a few weeks so they need some help. I'm supposed to call this one woman about what night would work best to practice this week soo yeah we will see how that goes. Today has been slow - just putting up pictures, getting groceries, and now about to skype some friends! I'm ready to go back to class tomorrow! Alright more to come soon! sorry for the length of this post! peace!
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