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.

Welcome to Galway

We made it! After seven hours of flight over the Atlantic ocean we arrived in Dublin and stepped outside into the wet air. No sunshine, but it was by far warmer than the Minnesota weather we left and the air smelt fresh. Three hours on a bus later, we were in Galway. The city is so colorful! There are stone walls lining the multi-colored small houses, most with cute shutters. The roads are narrow and wind, people walking everywhere. Simply wonderful.

We made our first trip to the store to get sheets and food essentials, successfully becoming damp to the bone on the way. It wasn't necessarily raining but the water was thick, as I said. After unpacking a little bit we went into town for dinner (It was by now 5 o'clock local time and I hadn't eaten since they gave us breakfast on the plane at seven in the morning). After a lovely plate of fish and chips we walked about town a bit then grabbed a taxi back to our apartments.

My room is quite big and has a fancy spiral staircase leading up to it from the main floor where the other two bedrooms are. Its awful chilly though!

Today's weather was a bit nicer. No rain!! I was so happy =) but it was a day full of international student orientation and walking to campus (about a 35 minute walk) and then into the city center (another ten minutes) and then eventually back to the apartments. It was quite a full day and I'm ready for bed to beat back the jet lag.

The thing that is most annoying to me is not knowing how to go about daily life. I hate looking like the ignorant American who doesn't know where anything is or how different things work. But people have been generally friendly and helpful, so I haven't been too discouraged. I'm really excited for classes to start, as nerdy as that sounds, but the start of classes will mean a few things: most of the Irish students will be back in the city. We were told most of them go home for weekends and breaks. Classes beginning will also mean forced interaction with students other than the other Concordia students and my roommates, which will be nice. I'm also looking forward to classes in general, the subjects and meeting the professors. But I'm assuming Monday will come soon enough.

Overall, I'm having a marvelous time and already working on my Irish accent =)

The Journey Begins

Today is the day! In a few hours I will embark on a fantastic life adventure to Ireland for a semester abroad. These last few weeks of packing have been stressful and exciting, trying to pack enough to live off of for four and a half months. Hopefully I didn't forget anything essential!


I have my passport, my luggage, some euros, and great expectations =) Time to cross the pond!

Follow my blog if you'd like to live vicariously through me! Happy 2013, happy Ireland!