Killarney. BooYah!

Last week on Thursday and Friday I volunteered at the teddy bear hospital; this is where all of the 4-7 year olds from around town come on a field trip and the college students take care of their stuffed animals. The purpose of this little shindig is so they are less scared when they have to go to the real doctor. It was pretty fun :) We made the first THREE pages of the Irish Independent on Friday which was pretty sweet (because it is one of the bigger national newspapers). Anywho, after that I left for the weekend and here's the story:

This weekend we went to Killarney. It is a little town in the southwest part of Ireland and five of us went. We took the bus and it was about a four and a half hour ride (if there were no delays). However, on the way there we missed the connecting bus and had to wait in a town called Limerick for about an hour and a half. It ended up working out because we ate dinner there. Anywho, once we got to Killarney we went to our hostel and it is a delightful little place :) Then we went out and ended up at a pub that was in a hotel, had a live band, and was connected to a club. We listened to the band for awhile then went dancing. It was fun :)

On Saturday we rented bikes and rode around. We went to Ross Castle and the Muckross House and took a few detours in between. We were on those bikes for quite awhile and it ended up being a pretty good time :) By the time we got back to the hostel we were all exhausted so we took a nap. Then we went out again last night BUT for the sake of not going into a huge, long story, we ended up getting into the same club that we'd gone to the night before for free. There was supposed to be a cover charge that night, but we were able to get in as a group (Paddy Wagon! Woot!) and get VIP access to the back. It was sweet.

(*For clarification purposes, the club to which I am referring didn't play any nasty rap, or rap at all for that matter, and there was no scandalous dancing. SO, it wasn't sketchy and ended up being a lot of fun :) )

That brings me to today. We came home on the bus and a few hours later, here I am. I'm sleepy, so I'm going to bed. Lata.


Muckross House. This is a side view; this house has 65 chimneys.


Ross Castle.


The hostel.

Hola

The past three days have been pretty uneventful. Pretty much the only thing that has happened is that my roommate told me that sandwiches, cereal, and yogurt should not constitute my entire diet. So what did we do? We made pasta. She said that I have to start cooking at some point, and now was a good time to do so (and alas, she is right. I'm glad I have someone looking out for the well-being of whoever I have to cook for in the future :) Haha.). Moving on to the end of the story. We ended up with a white-sauce and corned beef pasta bake that tasted best when drowned in ketchup (however, it was still kind of sketchy. I think that's the last time I'm putting corned beef and pasta together...). Yeah, buddy!

As far as school and all of its glory, I found out that I'm probably going to Rome some time in May. SWEET! That and I spent a lot of the day doing homework. So that's all I've got for now. Peace out.

Foggy Day (In a Galway Town)

Last night the roomie and I went to a concert. It was all music composed by Schumann-- I think it was called "Fantasies and Fairytales"; I must say that it was very good indeed. That's not the sweet part of my story, however. It was at 8 p.m. and not that far away (just across campus plus a little more) so we walked. It was SUPER foggy and I had some fun taking pictures. Here they are :)

Foggy Weather and Failed Karaoke

This is me procrastinating. I should be doing homework, but it is BORING. That said, I will continue to put it off for as long as humanly possible. Booyah. Anywho, for the past couple of nights I haven't gotten in before 12; we've been out and about all over the place. A bunch of us went to sing karaoke on Thursday night, but it was canceled. Lame sauce. So there was a change of plan that included us walking to the other side of downtown. This sounds pretty simple, right? Wrong. I was the only one that did not have impaired judgment and was also the only one who did not know the specific location of our destination. Hmmm...problem. However, it wasn't that far so we made it just fine after taking a slight detour. Woo hoo! When we got there, we ate at a delightful little chip shop and I had some amazing garlic fries. Yeah, buddy. Then last night I was doing homework and once again got distracted by going over to a friend's house, ordering take-out Chinese and a watching movie.

Ok back to where I was, here's the deal with my homework; it's not actually due at anytime, nor collected. Not much of an incentive to do it, eh? Yep. That's what I thought. Take for instance, Thursday. I was doing my homework like I should have been (so I do not get more confused than I already am with finance) and karaoke comes up. Then last night, you already know. Today I wasn't actually planning on getting much done--I was going to go kayaking in the river with a bunch of people, so I woke up, got dressed, got all ready to go and then looked outside. Flippin' everything was covered in frost and there was fog. Game over. I was not going to go play in the river when I could see my breath when I was INSIDE (this in itself should have tipped me off that it was a little frigid out). So there was the end of that plan.

Now we'll go back a little bit. On Thursday I had my first meeting for the BaconSoc. I joined it mostly because of the name. When I asked them what they did I was told, "Oh, we're just a group that does a bunch of general art stuff", ok, sounds like fun. So I went to the meeting and apparently one of their main activities as a group is a capella. I am now a member of a 12-part a capella group. Wow, uh...It should actually be pretty fun. Next week we are singing at some charity event for little kids, so we are learning a bunch of little kids songs :D Sweet.

That is a pretty accurate synopsis of the past couple of days. By the way, I still need votes for human chess. I have ONE vote so far. This means that at least one of my lovely sisters has NOT put in her input. As an unrelated sidenote, I am currently doing a load of laundry and it sounds like the washing machine is gearing up to take flight. It's actually semi-frightening. Yeah...peace out.

What Happens When I Don't Have Class

It is currently in the wee early hours of Thursday here on the grand ole Emerald Isle (versus the US where it is late afternoon), so first and foremost, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! to my wonderful oldest sister :) Secondly, I just got home. For the past couple of days what have I been up to? Let's see...Yesterday I had a couple of classes, came home and had some lunch and had another class in the afternoon. Then I came home, cleaned myself up a little bit and had a blind date of sorts. He was nice, and it was fun, and that is that.

That brings me to today (which is technically yesterday now). The way my schedule works out I don't have class on Wednesdays, so I got up and went to campus. It was societies day--this is where all of the societies on campus set up booths and students go and join them. Which is exactly what I did. I am now officially part of the art, choir, nothing specific (random fun activities. next week we are playing human chess. look to your right and vote on which side I should play for), international students, classics (study ancient Greece and Rome and take a trip :D), best buddies (mentoring program with mentally handicapped students in the area), flirtFM (college radio station), BACon (some art society that does sweet stuff), business, and President's challenge (involves 13 weeks of a learning a skill, volunteering, and being physically active) societies. Whew. I needed something to fill up my time and I figured this should do it :) Haha! I'm actually pretty excited.

After all of that hoopla, I decided to go out exploring. It was a B-E-A-UTIFUL day, so that is exactly what I did. However, there was a small kink in my plan. The shoes that I left my house wearing weren't exactly suited for trekking long distances. So I went shoe shopping. I am now the proud owner of some of the sweetest multi-colored Keds known to man. Oh yes. They are purple, green, yellow and pink. Back to the story at hand. After I got shoes that I could actually walk in, I started walking down all of the little side streets that the main crowds were generally passing. I ended up finding some pretty nifty little shops and restaurants and eventually ended up at the docks. It was the first time that I had seen the Atlantic Ocean. Whooo! I don't know if it counts because it was a bay, but I'm counting it. But it was gorgeous and not that many people were out. I think there might have been about five of us in the entire area. I was there for awhile and started wandering around again. I went in a few of the big churches and those were cool, found lots of fun graffiti, got lost downtown some more, watched street musicians play, happened upon 2 guys juggling, did a little bit of grocery shopping and came home. Oh and I took lots and lots of pictures.

That covers everything up until early evening. Blah, blah, blah, and then there was a meeting of sorts for the international students society at a pub downtown. Ok, the pubs here are more like Ireland's answer to a coffee shop. People don't really go there to get drunk, a lot of them just go to socialize. So this little shindig was downtown and there were tons of people. I ended up meeting up with some peeps that I met this week and last week and we had a grand old time :) (just orange juice for me, don't you worry). Then I got some food and came home and that pretty much closes down the night.

So, now I am really tired. My little excursion today was a good few miles long. No joke, I was all over this town--the historical part of it at least :) Have a super duper day!

Nope.

As in "Wouldn't it be nice to find a leprechaun?" I was told that I should go looking for one and was fully planning on it. Then I read this and changed my mind.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leprechaun_%28film%29

Read the plot for this sucker and you will never, EVER want to go look for the end of the rainbow ever again. I promise. Yikes.

Haha! Happy Tuesday, everyone! :)

Monday is Here Again!

It is Monday! Whoo! So that means yesterday was Sunday and what did I do with my Sunday? you ask. I will tell you. I went to church and then one of the Relief Society counselors invited me to her house for dinner. So the elders and I went to her house and I have no idea what it was that I ate, but it was scrumptious. It involved peas, corn, cabbage, some kind of gravy with vegetables and chicken and mashed potatoes. Sounds pretty normal, right? The thing was, apparently instead of eating them individually, you eat them mixed together in whatever strange combination strikes your fancy. I had never actually had peas and cabbage and gravy all mixed together, but it was surprisingly delicious. So that was the afternoon, then I went to institute. There are three of us in the class and it is taught by the senior missionary couple in the ward.

So that pretty much brings me to today. I had my alarm set so that I could be on campus by 9. This was because I had to register today and the word on the street is that to register you have to stand in line for HOURS (literally hours). So I figured I could get there 3 hours before my first class and be fine. This wonderful planning, however, did not actually happen. I shut off my alarm, slept in, and made it to registration promptly at 10:15. Anywho, I stood in line for a solid 10 minutes then someone from the office came by and just collected all of our forms. Woo hoooo! None of this 'wasting my morning by standing in line waiting to register business' for me! I got to sleep in and hardly had to wait at all. I love my life. So then I walked around campus and took more pictures and went to class, where I met two delightful boys and learned about mottes, which are a kind of pre-castle fortification (basically). Then the rest of the day...lunch, class again, came home to find my roommate getting her hair cut, considered doing homework, and that about covers it. OH! One more thing--I discovered that there is another snail living on the same grate as Harold. His name is Kumar. Here is a picture of him.




This is the sunset from today. It's pretty, but still hard to compete with Montana ;) The grass is also really green still. SWEET.

On an unrelated note, I've gotten over the little emo stint that I was having. The combination of being homesick, terrible weather, and the days being RIDICULOUSLY short resulted in a not a very happy 20 year old. I was stuck inside in an unfamiliar place and was not very happy about it. This has changed and I am doing much better now :)

Oot and Aboot on a Saturday

So not that it's Saturday anymore, 'cause it's technically Sunday, but that does not change the fact that I am in bed and can't sleep. Again. This whole 'seven hour time change' thing is KILLING me. I mean, let's be honest here, I never go to bed at a reasonable hour anyway. Take that and pair it with the fact that I can now stay up until 3 a.m. and not feel the least bit drowsy? HMMMMM......I think we all know where this is going. For the past week and a half I have not gone to bed before two, so really, I am still getting over the time change. Slowly but surely it will happen eventually :) Haha.

Anywho, as for the rest of my Saturday, I went out and explored Galway and it is SWEET! I walk everywhere, so I get to see some pretty cool stuff. However, last night I accidentally never turned my camera off so the battery was dead this morning. Sad day. So that means in all of the exploring I did I only have ONE picture. That is ok, it was still a blast ;) On my way home it started raining and so I had to walk quite a long way in the rain and it was delightful! Then my roommate and I went to the store, came home and cooked a TON of delicious and random food and had a girls movie night. Woo hoo!!! Those are the best :) Now I think I should try to go to sleep.

What's the Craic?

Doop-doop-a-doop. Today was another rather uneventful day (I seem to have a lot of these with no job, church only once a week, friends that go to bed at a reasonable hour on weeknights, and no homework yet.). But don't you worry, no complaints about that here :) I went to class, learned about some Celtic mythology from Caesar's perspective, picked up my student ID, went to the post office, took a bunch of pictures, hung out with my roommate for awhile, we went to another girl's house and watched a movie, ate some Chinese food, and I think that about covers it.

In other totally FANTASTIC news that was by far the best part of my ENTIRE day, I found out that my adorable little REDHEADED nephew gets to go home! Yeah, buddy! Almost two and a half months after coming into this wonderful world, he will get to finally leave the hospital and go home :) I really cannot adequately express how excited I am! Fo' shizzle.

Here are some more sweet pics. Today I was messing around not so much with taking pictures of big things, like buildings or scenery, but little things. I wanted to try out some of the different settings with my camera--I really haven't messed around with it since I got it. I hope you like them!!!


This is a snail that lives in this little brick grate. I have taken the liberty of naming him Harold. He is there every day.


These are vines growing up a pole.


The top of the older wing of the business building.




This is the little path I take to get to campus.

Yippy Skippy, Lemon Zippy!

Today was, once again, fairly uneventful. Nothing much new to tell. I went to a meeting today for all of the international students (it's still weird to me that I'm an 'international student') and when I walked in the room there was only one person in there. We started talking and I found out she was from Montana! I think we might be the only two students from Montana at NUIG this semester ;) Then as we kept talking, I found out that her aunt is my neighbor. Crazy, eh? Yep. That's all the news from today.

On an unrelated subject that is not news from today (and not referring to this little excursion in which I am currently participating), there are times in life when things definitely maybe could have taken a turn for the better, if we only had the gumption to pursue it. Decisions are made and there are consequences. However, the thing that is worse than dealing with the consequences is sitting back and not doing anything. There are times when it may just be better to put yourself out there (whatever the endeavor is), take a chance, close your eyes, and hope for the best. There is always the possibility that things will work out. OPTIMISM is key here ;)

In doing this, you will never wonder "Hmm...I think I could have done more with that opportunity" or "Hmm...I'm an idiot. Why didn't I do that?" or "Hmm...I really should have let them know how much they meant to me" (shout-out to all the homies and the fam :) ).

I've finally realized that I'm at a stage in my life where my decisions and choices I make actually have consequences that matter (they've always mattered, but now they are starting to shape the immediate future as to where I will end up in life). But let me leave y'all with...this song. It kinda describes how I feel. Not necessarily the situation, but the first two lines :)

I just get the feeling I should really guard what I say
This might not turn out good for me
We see it in the movies, it captivates us every time
I wish I could remember one helpful line

I’m afraid to say why I’m afraid to date you,
cuz you might hate me and I’d really hate that
I would love to say why I’d love to leave you
But once we’ve said it there’s no turning back
This is something normal people just don’t do
So think it through, before you do what you think you gotta do

This is quite the situation, I can’t say that I like it much
There are lots of places that I’d rather be
I didn’t see it coming, the forest for the trees
But it looks like you’re the one who appears to have the drop on me

Don’t go saying that it’s my fault, there’s only one in control
You know you’ve spent more time on this than me
You’re wearing your invisible armor, it makes it hard for me

"Chill Out" by The Clintons