Hello, March!

Just me and a bunch of swans hanging out by a
canal in Bruges.

They say time flies when you’re having fun… It’s been a month since my last post; sorry guys! But at the same time I’m not. We were playing cards last night with one of our Irish friends and we got to talking about how each of us hadn’t blogged in a long time and he said “Well isn’t that a good thing? That means you’re more engaged with life here” (or something like that…). So I decided, yeah, it is a good thing that I’ve been too busy and involved in my life here in Galway to be preoccupied with making sure to post a blog. So it’s a good thing for me but I guess less so for those of you who are living vicariously through my adventures (specifically you, mom :) ).

Grand Place

 Anyway! February went by real fast. I took a trip to Brussels, Belgium with my roommate Hilary, and it was amazing! We saw a bunch of really old buildings including the Grand Place in the middle of the city which is basically a courtyard enclosed by four really old important buildings, one of which is now the police station (which Hilary and I figured out on accident and it kinda freaked us out). I was amazed to see all the intricate carvings and gilded architecture that was accomplished hundreds of years ago. I was intrigued. 

Atomium! Each of the bulb parts are
rooms/exhibits and you travel through
the tubey parts via escalator or stairs

We also went to the Atomium which is a huge structure of a molecule but you can actually go inside of it. At the top is a panoramic view of Brussels which I’m sure is more beautiful on sunny days as opposed to the cloudy gray city-scape we saw. On Sunday we went to Bruges, an old medieval city in northern Belgium which was lovely. It was at least sunny that day so all the little canals and building faces were lit up. But it was cold! I didn’t have a hat or mittens or anything (like an idiot) so I’m pretty sure that’s why I was sick by the time we were back in Ireland. But overall, it was a splendid trip; the chocolate was divine, and Belgian waffles are arguably the best pastry I’ve ever tasted.

The end of the month brought lots of excitement. A little bit of Cobber spring break came to Ireland. Pat Ross came to visit from the states as well as our beloved professor, Dawn Duncan, and Holly hopped over from France! It was a lovely week of reunions and sharing what we’ve learned of Galway with the people who came to visit. We did SO MUCH WALKING that first weekend Holly and Pat got here. My feet were so sore. Also, my boots are totally wearing out from walking so much, but I’m okay with it because it shows that I’ve been experiencing life in the pedestrian city of Galway.

Nice set of waves coming in

This past weekend I went surfing! Yes, surfing. In the Atlantic Ocean. In March. You might think I’m crazy, but I’m pretty sure I’m not. It was so fun! Turns out I kind of have a knack for it! And by that I mean that I could actually stand up and catch waves in the shallower waters. Needless to say I was pretty proud of myself. It was a great experience, and I’d love to do it again. But only when the waves are small because when we were surfing the waves didn’t get much higher than maybe three or four feet, and I usually nose-dived on those ones. So I still need a bit of practice before surfing the big ones. But nearly my favorite part about the surf trip was wearing a wetsuit.

It was so comfortable, and I felt completely invincible in it! Also, it did a great job of keeping me relatively warm. We also got to wear these cool surfing booties and gloves and you could even wear a cool neoprene cap (which I totally wore). Long story short, if I fail at being an editor or a professor or whatever professional endeavor I decide to pursue after graduation, my plan E will be moving to Cali and being a surf instructor ;)

I’m off to Paris this weekend! Don’t hold your breath for an update because it might be a while :) 

After one month in Ireland... What???

So it's been quite a while since my last post. It's crazy how much time can just fly by when you're not paying attention! I can't believe I've been here for a month already. Since it has been two weeks since my last post, I'd better fill ya in ;)

The lovely Kylemore Abbey

Alright, so last weekend we took a day trip to Connemara and the Kylemore Abbey. As a precursor, that weekend was a start to a crazy weather week! I know back at home, Minnesota was getting hit with crazy snow and insanely cold temperatures, and here we were getting equally as weird weather. On our walk to the school on Sunday morning to catch the bus to Connemara, the skies in front of us were nice and blue. Wispy clouds, a little sunshine peaking through; it was lovely! Then I looked behind me to make sure the whole group was still there and I see these looming dark masses steadily approaching... So in about two minutes after I spot the dark clouds it starts hailing! Again, I know Minnesota is used to golf ball-sized hail, but just the fact that we had hail was so weird. And we were walking in it... so there was that...

This was when it started raining/hailing on us
at the Victorian Gardens... Clearly they are
less than amused.

The abbey itself was beautiful. There were only about five rooms in the mansion open to the public because some nuns still live there (if you want the full historical story of the abbey, you can message me or e-mail me. Or wikipedia is a thing...). The sun came out for about five minutes, enough for us to snap a few pictures in sunlight but it mostly rained all day. And especially when we got out to the Victorian Gardens. It was a lovely, windy, wet experience  but they were beautiful nonetheless.

The next week was pretty uneventful. Just classes and such, and terrible weather. It was hard to get out of bed in the morning when all I could hear was the wind whipping rain against my window. I've never been in a hurricane before, but I'd imagine it would sounds similar to what I had to wake up to each morning last week. It ended up clearing up a bit for the weekend, which was nice!

Silent Disco! It was so fun :)

On Friday I had my second session for my seminar class on James Joyce, and it's turning out to be so great! It is really discussion-based, which is an odd comfort from home (good ole Concordia classes). We were discussing one of Joyce's short stories and the way the professor facilitated and pushed us was a new experience for me. She initially had us share what we picked for our small writing assignment and when I went she said, "I've never heard that argument before. It's very interesting, but I'm not sure that I agree with you." She then proceeded to encourage the whole class to turn against me and pick out the flaws in my argument. Not in any sort of malicious way, but she was trying to emphasize that a complicated argument is usually a more successful one; the more you have to defend yourself, you can either see how deep your argument actually goes or you'll see where your major holes are. 
It also surprised me that this professor was not at all hesitant to tell a student they're answer is wrong. I feel like a lot of schooling today is based on "everyone has their own interpretation" and "Well that's not exactly the answer I was looking for but you're on the right track" and all that kind of pandering and hand-holding language. Not in Ireland. She asked us a question about the significance of a random detail in the opening of the story and when one student responded that it set a mood of such-and-such she said "Blehck! No, that's a terrible answer. That's just a cop-out so I won't accept it" and she asked for more responses. Though a bit abrasive at first, I really like the classroom atmosphere her attitude sets. I really don't take it as an air of superiority or ultra strictness, she's is merely challenging us to be better students, deeper thinkers, and more challenged intellectuals. It was refreshing :)

The mountains here are so gorgeous. I wish we had
some in Minnesota!

On Saturday, there was sunshine!!! It was a wonderful thing to wake up to sun streaming through my window. I'm always amazed at how a little bit of warm light can improve my mood. I walked into town with Laura and Marie where we got coffees and spent a good chunk of time in the library, right next to the big windows so I could see the sun and the trees and water around campus illuminated by the rays. It was lovely. Looking back, I kind of regret being in the library all day when sunshine is so rare here, but it was a much needed study day. And it was reminiscent of my Saturdays at Concordia, waking up at 9 am and doing homework until I'm too hungry to concentrate. Needless to say, it was a productive morning/afternoon. Later in the day, some of our Irish friends called us up and took us on a drive to a small park just west of where we live. It was a cute little city park with lots of trees and cool rocks, a football pitch and such. Coming from Minnesota where we have walking trials up the wazoo and national parks within a stone throw, it was quite a small park, but it's amazing how different the trees are here. It's still winter, so they had no leaves, but the bark is so smooth where it's not covered in the fuzzy green moss that seems to grow on everything in the wilderness. We had a great time walking around until it got too dark to see the path. Our little wilderness adventure was a perfect way to end the day.

Me and Kelsey seeking shelter from the rain
at the Victorian Gardens.

And finally on Sunday, the rain returned in true Irish style. But overall it was a good day. We went to an amazing church service in the afternoon. It was on the other side of town, so we had to take a taxi out there which cost 16 euros! It was split between four of us, thankfully, but it was still ridiculously expensive. I haven't missed having a vehicle while I've been over here, but yesterday definitely would have been a nice day to have one! Luckily there were some lovely church ladies (as there always are) who offered to drive us home. We followed up our church night with another night of tea and dinner with the lads (for future reference, if I say the lads i'm referring specifically to our Irish friends :)  ). Will made delicious seasoned meat for wraps and some of the other guys brought mince pies for dessert. We sat around playing mind games for a good part of the night. We made it back to the apartments in time to catch the last ten minutes of the second quarter of the superbowl and, most importantly, the halftime show. Way to kill it, Beyonce!! We were all very impressed :) And then with the power outage for half an hour, and the fact that it was two in the morning our time, we didn't make it to the end of the game, but I heard it was a great one.

This morning, I submitted applications for research grants for the summer, had some tea, and watched some of the notorious commercials from the game last night (the game was aired on BBC but we didn't get any of the American commercials, sadly). It was a bright morning, fresh start to a new week, looking forward to a trip to Brussels this weekend with my roommate. It'll be a good week :)

Thanks for reading!

All the craic makes for a class night

Another fabulous weekend. Galway just keeps getting better and better.

Saturday I went to the market again with my roommate Hilary, and I had the best doughnut of my life. Hilary had had one last week, so she told me how amazing they were, but I saw that for myself when we got there and there was a line of about ten people all waiting for these coca or cinnamon pastries. SO GOOD! It was nice and doughy in the middle and the sweet cinnamon on the outside; yum. When we got home, we started planning some travels for weekends to come. Portugal and Spain are in the line-up... I'll keep you posted :)

So Sunday! We found this amazing church that is just a twenty minute walk from our apartments (which I've learned is not far at all in the grand scheme of things). The atmosphere was great, everyone was so friendly. Worship and the message reminded me of my home church. Plus tea and biscuits afterward :) Who could ask for more!

I'm a big coffee person, but the whole tea and milk thing
has really grown on me. It's so yummy!

Now to the highest point of the weekend! Last week we met some Irish lads at Kelly's pub, and they invited us over for tea last night. That being lovely in itself, we then went over to another friend's house for a night of tacos and music. It was arguably my best experience in Ireland so far. Thirteen people, five instruments, and so much music. They would pass the instruments around depending on which Irish or American tune they wanted to play next and who could play the different parts. I was so impressed with all the musicality! Each person in the group contributed something musically. If one person started a song, the other instruments would join in (or improvise if they didn't know the progression) and sing beautiful harmonies on the chorus and verses if they knew it. I was so impressed! They were all surprised when we told them nothing like this ever really happens in America, even coming from a school like Concordia that is known for musicality of its students. Not that I don't think we have the talent, but the music last night and the atmosphere just can't compare with Open Mic night in the Maize (even though I love that too!). I was giddy the whole walk home. An absolutely amazing night :) Great way to end the weekend and kick off my fourth week in Ireland.

Another blog post, like

It's official... I'm sick :(  Just a nasty cold, but it kicks in right around ten o'clock when people are starting to go out. But I'd rather miss a few nights on the town than be sick for twice as long, so I'm staying in and am hopefully on the mend!

This week has brought many new Irish experiences. Nothing new with classes, but societies and clubs started meeting this week. On Wednesday night I went to the Christian Union meeting where we had some worship and fellowship with the other members of the society. They also showed a video of different churches in the area so we could kind of get a feel for them and find out where they were. A couple of girls from the Concordia group and I are going to check one out on Sunday, so I'll let you know how that goes. Last night was the writers society. Becca and I went to that meeting and we played a word/writing game at the beginning that was similar to a free-write exercise. Then different people in the group read either some poetry or a short story they were working on and then the group gave them comments and feedback and such. Overall it was pretty cool. I liked the atmosphere of the place. And they gave us tea and biscuits! So I think we'll be going back :)

The highlight of my week, though, was probably Wednesday night after the Christian Union. The International Student Society paired with the Traditional Irish Music Society for a night at Kelly's. The Trad Soc played music in the corner which was awesome but then some International students and other Irish people who frequent Kelly's pub were there as well. We met up with a couple of Marie's Irish friends from orchestra. They won the VIP attendees for the night :) We ended up talking to these Irish guys for the entire night! We asked them about American stereotypes and perceptions and were quite enlightened. One of the biggest American traits is speaking up in class. One of the guys said that that is a way you can tell when an international student is in the class. When the lecturer asks a question, he said most Irish students will look around, scratch their heads, check the time, etc. But the American students are usually pretty quick to pipe up and answer the question or give their opinion, Don't worry guys, I defended us! I told him that in America, we're encouraged to share our opinions and answer questions because we want to stand out and establish ourselves as intelligent or capable students or something like that. Whatever I said was quite eloquent though because they were pretty impressed :) We also learned some Irish language! I leaned about three sentences but I only remember two of them now... "Dee-ah-gwich" (spelled phonetically of course, I have no idea how to spell it in Irish) means "hello". "Liz iss anom dohm" means "My name is Liz". And that's all I remember :)

We also learned some Irish slang as well! The first one that is essential to know is craic (pronounced like crack). No, it is not the drug! Craic means good fun or a good time. A common greeting is "what's the craic?" meaning "what's up" or "what's good". If you want to say that you are having an exceptionally great time you can say "The craic is ninety". Or if you are having a terrible time you can be sarcastic and say "yeah... the craic is ninety". Its a vercital term :) We also leaned "class". If something is class it's really cool or really great. I haven't mastered the usage of that one yet... I'll let you know when I figure it out. "Shifting" is slang for making out, which apparently happens a lot at clubs. Other commonly used words are grand and sound. Like our version of good or fine. Like if someone asks "How're ya gettin' on?" (which is a common greeting that threw me off for a while) you can say "I'm grand" or "sound". But if someone says "How're ya gettin on" or "what's the craic" in passing, if you're both walking opposite directions, you're not expected to respond... One of the Irish guys told me that you just keep asking how the other person is in as many ways as you can until you pass them. So start when you're closer rather than further away otherwise it might get awkward...

The most interesting revelation of the night was when Marie and I realized the Irish use the word "like" like Canadians use "eh". It's hysterical. They use it in regular sentences, like we do, but they also just throw it on the end of random sentences. "It was really cold out, like." "We went down to Limerick, like, for some good craic". Especially the guys we were talking to on Wednesday use it profusely. It was quite entertaining.

That's all for now! Have a lovely day :)

final sidenote: apparently Americans are notorious for using the words "lovely" and "awesome" way too much. Check yourself :)

One of the Wonders of Ireland

 Yesterday marked my first official travel experience in Ireland. I went to the Cliffs of Moher with the International Student Society through NUI. It was absolutely breathtaking! One of my roommates said that she told her Irish friend that she was visiting the cliffs and the Irish girl responded, "Eh, its just a bunch of rocks..." 

A sign reminding the spectators
that you CAN fall off

To someone who has never seen them before, the view was breathtaking! There was a moment when I was standing on the path, kind of in the middle of where the two taking paths on either side of the cliffs meet, taking it all in and I was reminded of how huge the world actually is. Since arriving in Dublin almost two weeks ago now (oh my gosh, has it really been that long??) I keep having these little moments of "Oh yeah, I'm in a different country " When you start to get into a daily routine, sometimes its easy to forget that you're half way around the world. Standing at the cliffs, seeing the water crash against the rocks, the birds swooping in and out of the strong winds, the sunshine illuminating the surrounding grass, making it almost glow, I remembered: I'm in Ireland :) and what a blessing that I can experience this!

I took so many pictures of this place... more on Facebook
if you want to look!

Cobber shoutout: This is what it means to be responsibly engaged in the world. To realize and appreciate the natural wonders of the world and have the ambition to seek it out! I am so thankful that I have the opportunity to experience things like the Cliffs of Moher and many other things in the semester to come.

The narrow path to the far end of the Cliffs

Last night when we got back (all of my roommates went on the same trip that day) the internet in our apartment complex was down... big shocker... It was amusing to me to see how flustered the all got about it. I was sitting on the couch, listening to my iPod and journaling about the day, and my three roommates were frantically trying to think of places where they could get internet access. Within forty minutes, I was the only one left in the apartment. One roommate went to her friends apartment (halfway across town, she took the bus) and the other two walked to Subway to use the free wifi. I stayed at home, finished my book and watched a movie. I would say that I'm proud that I could wait to post pictures on facebook and blog about my trip, but I really don't think its something I have to be proud of, I just think it's kind of sad that we freak out when we don't have out electronics. Oh well, to each his own!

We also stopped at Dunguaire Castle on the way back
from the Cliffs. Only the tall part was lived in, the rest of
the walled part just covers the courtyard... seemed like
a small castle to me :P

I think I might be getting sick. I have the sniffles today and a tad bit of a sore throat. Maybe Ireland is in the middle of a flu season of its own, but just simply colds. I was in the library earlier doing some reading and every couple seconds there would be a sniffle echoed by a cough, followed by another sniffle and so on. Time to pump the vitamin c and get more sleep. No complaint there :)

Thanks for reading!

Six hours of walking - So worth it!

Oh my goodness! What a whirlwind of a week. Classes started last week, which wasn't anything too stressful. I spent last weekend making up my schedule (or "timetable" as it's called here) and found all my classes without a problem. My professors seem very intelligent but in a bunch of different ways. My American History prof is very hispanic and adds a pronounced "e" at the end of each word. It makes him somewhat hard to understand, but i like his enthusiasm. My Irish history prof seems too intelligent to be able to follow a singe train of thought. He starts saying something then stops to give context, and then jumps to something else... At the end of the first lecture i finally understood what he mentioned at the beginning of the class. Oh well =) My celtic myth lecturer it from Britain though I'm not sure which part. He comes into the classroom smelling like stale tobacco which adds an oddly comforting aroma to the classroom. He's the type of intellectual who really thinks before he speaks, often stopping to organize his thoughts before he shares them with us. 

Camped out, waiting to register for seminars

On Friday morning me and four other Cobbers spent three hours waiting in line to sign up for our seminar courses. The Irish students are required to take one seminar each semester and there are usually three spots saved for visiting students. So we were told to get there at least two hours early to make sure we got a spot. We arrive at 8:15 (registration started at 11...) and we were probably fiftieth in line. It was ridiculous! But we all got either our first or second choice, so it was worth it. After finishing our first full week of college in Ireland, we were feeling pretty good.

Lookout/diving board at Galway Bay

This morning, I woke up to sunshine peaking through the curtains! Which was wonderful because we had planned to walk down to the bay today. By the time I showered and ate breakfast though, the inevitable cloud cover rolled in, but it was still fairly warm outside. We began our walking adventure with a stop at Galway Bay, and although I'm sure it's more beautiful in the sunlight, it was breathtaking. We walked on the beach and walked onto the lookout that doubles as a diving board when the tide is high. I found a little golden shell on the beach among the seaweed and water-streaked sand. There were barnacles attached to the steps leading down to the sand that would be covered by the high tide eventually. 

I got a hazelnut cappuccino. It was
so good!

When we were sufficiently chilled from the wind coming off the water, we set off toward Salthill to find a coffee shop. We stopped at a place called Mocha Beans, and I had the best cup of coffee I've had since arriving in Ireland. It warmed my very soul, it was so good! We spent a good forty-five minutes in the cafe warming up and drinking our coffees. 

After we warmed up a bit, we continued our walk to Galway City. We didn't think it would be that long of a walk but it took us a good forty minutes to get there. We followed the bay and came in by the Spanish Arch at the end of town. We walked around by the old docks and went into the Galway Museum. My favorite part was a small exhibit on Jack Yeats, WB Yeats' younger brother, who was an artist. He used such a variety of mediums, and each of his subjects/landscapes were so precise and detailed. One of the biography blurbs said that he never painted anything he hadn't personally seen, so it was super interesting to see each of the paintings or drawings and know that it was a real scene captured by Yeats' art. It was fascinating.

Near the old docks in Galway

 By the end of the museum tour we were quite hungry. We spent about fifteen minutes walking up and down shop street trying to find this one restaurant we wanted to eat at, but finally we settled for an Italian restaurant which was arguably the best decision we made all day (second only to our coffee stop). We ordered three small pizzas for the five of us and ate all of it. It was delicious =) To top off an amazing day, we stopped at a candy store on our way home. We were literally like kids in there, so excited about chocolates and gummy candies sprinkled with sugar, little surprise bags for two euro. We each had a sweet treat for the walk home. Now I'm home, exhausted, but quite content with how the day turned out.

And...... GO!

Another glorious day of sunshine!! This is the view from our little living room. We actually have a nice view of the west side when the sky isn't clouded in mist or rain. Fortunately though, I'm adjusting to the weather. Actually I think I'm finally adjusting to a lot of things. I woke up this morning feeling quite rested and not freezing! I would hope that after sleeping almost all day on Saturday (oops?) I would be mostly over the jet lag. I'm getting used to the weather too. The first day we got here was miserable because it wasn't quite raining but the air was just think with moisture and since then the days have been pretty nice Occasional showers are expected, so I've learned to enjoy the time in between and also relish my time walking in the Galway rain =)

Classes started yesterday! I didn't have any lectures, but I have two today. So to avoid another day of sleeping like Saturday, I went in to campus just to walk around, find some of my classes and just see the campus in full swing the with Irish students back. It was a completely different place! When we were there last week the place seemed dead and quiet because everyone was still on break, but yesterday there were students everywhere. It was a bit overwhelming, but I stuck with a couple students from Dunaras, our housing complex, and a few Concordia students. It was nice to be able to recognize a few faces whether they were other international students we'd had orientation with the previous weeks or some of the Irish students and staff that welcomed us during Orientation.

That's the outside of the cathedral. I didn't know if we
were allowed to take pictures inside, so I didn't.

While we were waiting for a few girls to be done with class, Becca, Jelmer (our Dutch friend from the Netherlands) and I toured the Galway Cathedral. It was a beautiful old building. The frescoes and mosaics in this place were breathtaking! Each of the four main areas had its own masterpiece as well as a station to light a candle in remembrance.

Since we've been here, it has been pretty obvious that we're the Americans. Aside from looking confused most of the time, I've learned from some of the Irish people I've met that there are a few things that make us stick out right away. First is the way we dress. Apparently there is a specific style of boot that Irish people either don't buy or don't have access to that most Americans bring with them. Stylish boots and rain boots. One of the Irish girls I met yesterday said "Yeah, we're pretty impractical when we dress. We don't wear rain jackets, we don't wear wellies (rain boots)." In regards to regular attire, Americans seem a lot more casual in everyday dress than the Irish, especially the girls. What we would wear out to a bar or just looking cute for a dinner with friends is what the Irish girls normally wear to class. What we would consider semi-formal, like nice dresses and heels, is what the Irish girls wear to the pubs. Super fancy compared to use girls who walk into the pub in a sweater and a scarf! I would love to move past the awkward foreigner stage of not knowing where or how to do things, but as far as my dress code goes, I'm fine being the American.