Last Friday at 8am I boarded a bus with 28 other American students from NUIG and one Irish leader, an adorable tiny little Senior names Yvonne. After about four hours we arrived in Dublin, from which our flight left around 2. We landed in Eindoven, Netherlands an hour later. We then waited for another bus, this time a double decker with a bar halfway filled with Dutch and Spanish students. We were on that for 14 hours through the night (stopping in Luxembourg for dinner - how exciting) until 8am on Saturday at which point we finally arrived in the glorious and beautiful French town of Les Deus Alpes. The mountains were unreal - I have never seen such a landscape before.
We had orientation on little to no sleep and then went to town to explore and get some food since we couldn't get into our rooms until 5. It was beautiful out, insane blue sky and insane white mountains, a great pair.
We couldn't ski the first day, so we went to bed early after going to the pub at the resort for a little bit. I lived in a four-man with Meaghan and two people we met on the bus, Chris from Missouri and Jenn from Canisius in Buffalo, which was cool. We all got along really well and had a lot of roommate bonding time.
The trip for me has been the most challenging thing since I've come abroad. All my other trips have been for fun, kind of touch and go, see and do what you want, go to the beach, party, visit friends -- then I go to the Alps and yes there is an aspect to seeing the scenes and meeting new people and partying, but Meaghan had me out on the slopes at 9am the first day. I guess I didnt realize it, but when you learn to ski, you just go. You learn the basics (don't cross your skis, how to start and stop and turn, etc.) and then you just fly down a steep ass hill. I cried at the top of my first run, a green, which is the easiest, since I literally had just learned how to put skis on and get on and off the chair lift without falling, but I manned up and got all the way down without falling once! It was an amazing feeling.
I am not normally challenged in any physical aspect aka I don't like to work out, so to be presented with intense mountain sides and only one way to go down was really hard at first.
The first day after the green, we went back up and did it again until I was a bit more confident, but then Meg said we should go up higher. So, up we went to 3200 feet where she tricked me into going down a blue, which I thought was a green. I made it down that without falling again!! I was so pumped. The rest of the day consisted of two more blues which took me forever to get down since they were soooo hard and really icy. I fell like three times, but then realized that if I just trusted myself and went a little faster my turns would be smoother and I probably wouldn't fall. So it was a great learning experience.
Day two started with a green but then once I was back into things we took a ten minute gondola ride to the upper most part of the moutain where I then skiied down about 5 or 6 hard blues in a row. I only fell twice and once was not my fault, but a stupid out of control snowboarder's. I learned that if you just look about ten feet in front of you and not at the period sized people at the bottom, you can break it down and eventually make it down. My body was killing after day two, my calves and wrists (from using a stupid t-bar and a stupid rope pull) so I took the third morning off while Meg and Jenn went out. I got to go into town and use the Internet, etc. but by the time I got home for lunch Jenn and Meg were back because there was a literal whiteout on the mountain. It was too unsafe for them to take me up, so we watched Cruel Intentions and hung out instead.
Day four rained, and the entire mountain was closed due to conditions, which sucked, so we couldn't go out at all. We watched Shrek 2 and Crossroads, went into town and just hung out.
I was in bed before midnight every night and loved it. There was a pub crawl one night, a barbecue and sled race another night, chugging contests, dinners, a toga party, etc. We didn't do that much drinking or partying simply because we wanted to be up and out early. Everyone was really nice and got along well, so it was a lot of fun.
By the end of the week, I went down three reds, which is the equivalent of a single black in the U.S. I did these on the last day after a day of rain and snow leaving the mountains covered in about six inches of lovely powder. Meg and Jen have each been skiing for ten years and both said it was the best conditions they have ever skiied on.
So, all in all it was amazing and wonderful and totally great although my birthday began on the bus ride home and was spent mainly in the Eidenhoven airport...oh well. That's why tonight we're doing dinner and then going out.
I have a test tomorrow and two papers due on Friday and then Meg and I go to Amsterdam to meet up with a bunch of friends, do the Anne Frank house, Rembrandt museum, etc. I'm exhausted but it should be great.
Only a month left and then I'm home!
Monday, April 14, 2008
Friday, April 11, 2008
Les Deus Alpes 3200
Currently I am in the midst of the most beautiful and most ski-able mountains on Earth, and its raining. Its basically like being a seven year old on Christmas morning, sitting by the tree waiting to open presents. And then the presents burst into flames...
Our last day is tomorrow because we leave tomorrow night. It had better get nice out.
Oh, and then its my birthday. WHAT WHAT!!!
Our last day is tomorrow because we leave tomorrow night. It had better get nice out.
Oh, and then its my birthday. WHAT WHAT!!!
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Kindergarten Tales
I would just like to add to the mix that I went to student teaching this morning and learned from a five year old named Trenyce, whose 25 year old father is a pro boxer, that she has a baby brother named Rocky. No joke. Love it.
Then, I turned to the red-headed, freckled, toothless little six year old next to me, who comes from a family of tinkers and lives in a caravan, and asked him if he had any siblings. Yes, he replied, one sister name Gypsy.
Just something to brighten up your day.
Then, I turned to the red-headed, freckled, toothless little six year old next to me, who comes from a family of tinkers and lives in a caravan, and asked him if he had any siblings. Yes, he replied, one sister name Gypsy.
Just something to brighten up your day.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Venezia
So. Overall, my experience in Prague was a good one, but a very eye-opening and abraisive one. The lack of language skills was hard to work with, and left me feeling somewhat isolated from the rest of the people living and working there. I was never met with downright rudeness (reference Dublin post...haha), but people were not as eager to attempt to communicate using other means, as has been my personal experience in many Spanish-speaking countries/Italy.
I loved the hostel and we ate great food, but I was also somewhat confused about what "Czech culture" actually was. Oh, well. I am glad I went but probably will not be running back there anytime soon.
Moving on speedily to Venice, my new favorite place of all time. When Eugenie and I landed in the Venice airport, I naievely thought that I would immediately be transported to the Grand Canal and gondolas. I was mistaken. I only saw dirty, industrial warehouses and huge pipes with black smoke issuing from them. Disappointing. However, after an hour bus ride to the main bus station, some confusion as to how to get to our hostel/camping ground, another bus to the other airport, another bus to the hostel, checking into our hostel, realizing it was a trailer with two beds and a miniscule shower, and two buses BACK to the bus station, we walked ten feet to the left and saw before us the exact image that I had been expecting and unknowingly yearning for.
The Grand Canal. Venice itself. I can't even explain how beautiful it all is. And its not only the physical beauty of the place, but the overall laid back atmosphere. The gorgeous people with their gorgeous leather jackets and sexy, dark hair. The greenish blue tint of the water. The sense of community among everyone, the tourists AND the local Venetians. Even the homeless people looked happier and the street vendors were more cheerful. I swear.
At first, we just walked along the canal, taking it all in. But, it was not more than five minutes before I literally ran into one of my friend from home, Erin, who is studying in Madrid and was in Italy for break. It was so random that we saw each other and so great to see a friendly face.
After that we made a beeline for the first italian restaurant on the water. I got lasagne and Eugenie got gnocchi and they were both the best thing we had ever tasted. Literally melt in your mouth. We also had our first wine, which was delish.
We then deliberated if we were going to walk along the canal to San Marco plaza or if we were going to take a vaporetto aka the water bus.
I loved the hostel and we ate great food, but I was also somewhat confused about what "Czech culture" actually was. Oh, well. I am glad I went but probably will not be running back there anytime soon.
Moving on speedily to Venice, my new favorite place of all time. When Eugenie and I landed in the Venice airport, I naievely thought that I would immediately be transported to the Grand Canal and gondolas. I was mistaken. I only saw dirty, industrial warehouses and huge pipes with black smoke issuing from them. Disappointing. However, after an hour bus ride to the main bus station, some confusion as to how to get to our hostel/camping ground, another bus to the other airport, another bus to the hostel, checking into our hostel, realizing it was a trailer with two beds and a miniscule shower, and two buses BACK to the bus station, we walked ten feet to the left and saw before us the exact image that I had been expecting and unknowingly yearning for.
The Grand Canal. Venice itself. I can't even explain how beautiful it all is. And its not only the physical beauty of the place, but the overall laid back atmosphere. The gorgeous people with their gorgeous leather jackets and sexy, dark hair. The greenish blue tint of the water. The sense of community among everyone, the tourists AND the local Venetians. Even the homeless people looked happier and the street vendors were more cheerful. I swear.
At first, we just walked along the canal, taking it all in. But, it was not more than five minutes before I literally ran into one of my friend from home, Erin, who is studying in Madrid and was in Italy for break. It was so random that we saw each other and so great to see a friendly face.
After that we made a beeline for the first italian restaurant on the water. I got lasagne and Eugenie got gnocchi and they were both the best thing we had ever tasted. Literally melt in your mouth. We also had our first wine, which was delish.
We then deliberated if we were going to walk along the canal to San Marco plaza or if we were going to take a vaporetto aka the water bus.
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Prague
So after our delish lunch at the swanky restaurant with the view of the bridge, during which I ate caprese and pork fillet (a Czech specialty), we hit the bridge ourselves. We walked across it as the sun came out and the snow disappeared and it was lovely. We took some pictures and enjoyed the view, all the while heading toward the Prague Castle. After walking up nearly two hundred steps, we finally reached the best view of the city and the castle. We went inside the cathedral part of the complex, which was beautiful and then just sat and enjoyed the view.
That night we went out to pizza for dinner, which was surprisingly amazing, and then spent about two hours getting lost looking for a club that had been recommended to us by Eugenie's friend who spent a semester in Prague. After the second hour it was cold and dark and we were exhausted and whiny. After some rude people wouldn't give us directions, we finally stumbled upon it and ended up running into some kids from BC (of course...). However, it had sort of lost its glamour since it took so long to get there so we didnt stay long and soon headed home.
The next morning we had our last wonderful, hot shower and then took a cab to the bagel place that we couldn't find ourselves the day before. It had also been recommended to us and it was the best. I had a huge three decker everything bagel turkey club and about ten coffees. There were tons of Americans inside, which was a great break to simply hear English, and Meg ran into a family friend from home, which was crazy.
After that we headed toward the Jewish quarter of Prague to see the museums there. The first building we went into had the names and birth-death dates of 80,000 Monrovian and Bohemian Jews who had been killed during the Holocaust printed on the wall in red ink. It was insane and intense and draining. The upstairs had a memorial to the students who were killed, complete with drawings and photographs of the adorable kids. It was unlike anything I had ever seen before because there are not usually artifacts presented on behalf of the kids complete with photos of them next to their art. It could have been my kindergarteners in Ireland who had done the pictures...
After that we exited the museum to the graveyard which is also the most photographed place in all of Prague. It was gorgeous. The grave markers were all in Czech and other languages so I couldn't read what was on them, but they were heaped haphazardly all over the lawn, which was basically a hill since graves were made on top of graves since there was no place to put all the bodies. We went into two or three other museums after that, all full of Jewish ceremonial items and religious memorabilia. It was a good morning, and definitely my favorite thing that we did in Prague.
After that we headed to Wensislaus Square, which is much more touristy and very close to our hostel. We ate the recommended street vendor snack of a friend mozzerella sandwich, which was tasted just like what you would imagine, and then headed back to the hostel for some relaxing and warming up. Around nine we went back to the square to find dinner, but everything was either too expensive or didn't look good so we went back toward the hostel and found another pizza place, haha. We just went to bed after dinner since we had been up early and out all day.
The next morning we checked out and headed to the airport, which was sort of far away. Meg headed to her terminal to fly to Rome, and Eugenie and I headed to our gate for Venice.
We landed in Venice around 11:35 that day.
That night we went out to pizza for dinner, which was surprisingly amazing, and then spent about two hours getting lost looking for a club that had been recommended to us by Eugenie's friend who spent a semester in Prague. After the second hour it was cold and dark and we were exhausted and whiny. After some rude people wouldn't give us directions, we finally stumbled upon it and ended up running into some kids from BC (of course...). However, it had sort of lost its glamour since it took so long to get there so we didnt stay long and soon headed home.
The next morning we had our last wonderful, hot shower and then took a cab to the bagel place that we couldn't find ourselves the day before. It had also been recommended to us and it was the best. I had a huge three decker everything bagel turkey club and about ten coffees. There were tons of Americans inside, which was a great break to simply hear English, and Meg ran into a family friend from home, which was crazy.
After that we headed toward the Jewish quarter of Prague to see the museums there. The first building we went into had the names and birth-death dates of 80,000 Monrovian and Bohemian Jews who had been killed during the Holocaust printed on the wall in red ink. It was insane and intense and draining. The upstairs had a memorial to the students who were killed, complete with drawings and photographs of the adorable kids. It was unlike anything I had ever seen before because there are not usually artifacts presented on behalf of the kids complete with photos of them next to their art. It could have been my kindergarteners in Ireland who had done the pictures...
After that we exited the museum to the graveyard which is also the most photographed place in all of Prague. It was gorgeous. The grave markers were all in Czech and other languages so I couldn't read what was on them, but they were heaped haphazardly all over the lawn, which was basically a hill since graves were made on top of graves since there was no place to put all the bodies. We went into two or three other museums after that, all full of Jewish ceremonial items and religious memorabilia. It was a good morning, and definitely my favorite thing that we did in Prague.
After that we headed to Wensislaus Square, which is much more touristy and very close to our hostel. We ate the recommended street vendor snack of a friend mozzerella sandwich, which was tasted just like what you would imagine, and then headed back to the hostel for some relaxing and warming up. Around nine we went back to the square to find dinner, but everything was either too expensive or didn't look good so we went back toward the hostel and found another pizza place, haha. We just went to bed after dinner since we had been up early and out all day.
The next morning we checked out and headed to the airport, which was sort of far away. Meg headed to her terminal to fly to Rome, and Eugenie and I headed to our gate for Venice.
We landed in Venice around 11:35 that day.
St. Patrick's Day and Prague
This past spring break was twelve days of the most intense, jam-packed travel experiences of my life. Even going to El Salvador last summer was not as tiring as these past two weeks were. In the end, I am happily home, along with many souvenirs and great memories.
I started off my break on the 17th with a little trip over to Dublin for St. Patrick's Day 2008. Jenny, a friend from BC, was visiting us in Galway, so Meg, Jenny, myself and my roommate Eugenie made up the original crew. We jumped on the 9am bus to Dublin and promptly fell asleep. Upon arrival, three and a half hours later, we dropped our stuff at the train station and grabbed a cab. Because the parade had already started we couldn't get too close to the city centre, but we got as close as we could and joined the hordes of people lining the streets. It was a beautiful day and there were families and people all over the place. The first few paraders we saw were a couple of acrobats on a rotating, spinning contraption, which was so cool. There were lots of dancers and bands, etc. as well as huge floats that resembled bugs and monsters, etc.
We wandered the streets looking for a more fun, less family-oriented place to stand but were turned away from making it down to the end of the main street by police who told us that there were riots and mayhem down there so it was unsafe to let anyone else past. Boo. After the parade we headed to a restaurant where we got a table with an forty-something Irish couple from County Mayo - Charlie and Joanne. They were the sweetest Irish people I have ever met, which may or may not have been influenced by the number of rounds we shared. We had a fabulous time chatting with them and enjoying the crazy people walking around the city. Charlie even bought us St. Patrick's Day hats. It was the best.
The next morning we checked out of the hostel and headed back into the city, since our flights didn't leave until 4pm. My new travel outfit plan was put into action as I picked up a five pack of men's white undershirts from Dunnes. I figured they were easy to pack and easy to leave behind if I ended up not having enough room on the way back. We got some bagels/smoothies and used the Internet, and then grabbed the bus to the airport. At this point, Jenny was already back in Spain and Meg, Eugenie and I were heading to Prague.
Little did I know, since I never check the weather, that my white tees and I were heading into a snowy Czech wonderland... Whatever. We landed in Prague around 7pm and got into a AAA yellow cab, the only safe, honest and English-speaking cab company in the area. The driver was around 65 and was hilarious. It took him about ten minutes to gain his confidence to speak to us in English, but when he did he let us know that we had to "attention! attention!" when we were taking money out of ATM's, only use them inside a bank, and watch our bags since pickpockets were rampant. He was such a sweetheart. He told us about the address number system in the area and pointed out the mini Eiffel Tower and the Prague Castle along our route.
He took us right to the door of our hostel, a five minute walk from the main square in the city, and made sure we were safely inside before departing. We had decided to start our trip off in Prague because the exchange rate is so good for us and we had heard everything was cheaper than in Ireland, etc. Ten USD translates to somewhere between one hundred and fifty and two hundred Czech crowns. It was sort of strange to be dealing with thousands of crowns at a time, and to have to pay for dinner with seemingly hundreds of a currency, but we got used to it. A beer, for example, all of which were huge, was somewhere around 20-30 crowns. That's about a dollar.
The first night after checking in and realizing that our hostel was amazing - four beds for the three of us, high ceilings, a great, clean bathroom and separate toilet, a full kitchen, big screen TV and free Internet all within our suite, we headed out to find some food. Since it was somewhat later than most people get dinner, we asked for advice and the sweet guy who was running the hostel pointed us in the right direction. It was quite cold and really dark, so it was sort of scary, but we watched out bags and soon happened upon a tiny little restaurant with a good number of people inside. I got a salad and some soup, and we all got beers. It was insanely cheap and decently good, but then I started to feel sick so we went back to the hostel and went to bed.
The next morning we awoke to snow, so we bundled up as much as we could and hit the streets. We started to walk in the direction of the main square and found a little market selling trinkets and weird foods. We wandered around for a while looking for a famous bagel place, but found ourselves at the foot of the Charles Bridge. It was something that we all wanted to walk across, but it started to rain, so we hurried inside for lunch at a nicer restaurant right nearby. We were basically treated like VIPs and got cappechinos and huge amounts of food. Meg got a chicken that was literally an entire chicken on a wooden platter - it was delish despite looking like something a pirate would eat...
I started off my break on the 17th with a little trip over to Dublin for St. Patrick's Day 2008. Jenny, a friend from BC, was visiting us in Galway, so Meg, Jenny, myself and my roommate Eugenie made up the original crew. We jumped on the 9am bus to Dublin and promptly fell asleep. Upon arrival, three and a half hours later, we dropped our stuff at the train station and grabbed a cab. Because the parade had already started we couldn't get too close to the city centre, but we got as close as we could and joined the hordes of people lining the streets. It was a beautiful day and there were families and people all over the place. The first few paraders we saw were a couple of acrobats on a rotating, spinning contraption, which was so cool. There were lots of dancers and bands, etc. as well as huge floats that resembled bugs and monsters, etc.
We wandered the streets looking for a more fun, less family-oriented place to stand but were turned away from making it down to the end of the main street by police who told us that there were riots and mayhem down there so it was unsafe to let anyone else past. Boo. After the parade we headed to a restaurant where we got a table with an forty-something Irish couple from County Mayo - Charlie and Joanne. They were the sweetest Irish people I have ever met, which may or may not have been influenced by the number of rounds we shared. We had a fabulous time chatting with them and enjoying the crazy people walking around the city. Charlie even bought us St. Patrick's Day hats. It was the best.
The next morning we checked out of the hostel and headed back into the city, since our flights didn't leave until 4pm. My new travel outfit plan was put into action as I picked up a five pack of men's white undershirts from Dunnes. I figured they were easy to pack and easy to leave behind if I ended up not having enough room on the way back. We got some bagels/smoothies and used the Internet, and then grabbed the bus to the airport. At this point, Jenny was already back in Spain and Meg, Eugenie and I were heading to Prague.
Little did I know, since I never check the weather, that my white tees and I were heading into a snowy Czech wonderland... Whatever. We landed in Prague around 7pm and got into a AAA yellow cab, the only safe, honest and English-speaking cab company in the area. The driver was around 65 and was hilarious. It took him about ten minutes to gain his confidence to speak to us in English, but when he did he let us know that we had to "attention! attention!" when we were taking money out of ATM's, only use them inside a bank, and watch our bags since pickpockets were rampant. He was such a sweetheart. He told us about the address number system in the area and pointed out the mini Eiffel Tower and the Prague Castle along our route.
He took us right to the door of our hostel, a five minute walk from the main square in the city, and made sure we were safely inside before departing. We had decided to start our trip off in Prague because the exchange rate is so good for us and we had heard everything was cheaper than in Ireland, etc. Ten USD translates to somewhere between one hundred and fifty and two hundred Czech crowns. It was sort of strange to be dealing with thousands of crowns at a time, and to have to pay for dinner with seemingly hundreds of a currency, but we got used to it. A beer, for example, all of which were huge, was somewhere around 20-30 crowns. That's about a dollar.
The first night after checking in and realizing that our hostel was amazing - four beds for the three of us, high ceilings, a great, clean bathroom and separate toilet, a full kitchen, big screen TV and free Internet all within our suite, we headed out to find some food. Since it was somewhat later than most people get dinner, we asked for advice and the sweet guy who was running the hostel pointed us in the right direction. It was quite cold and really dark, so it was sort of scary, but we watched out bags and soon happened upon a tiny little restaurant with a good number of people inside. I got a salad and some soup, and we all got beers. It was insanely cheap and decently good, but then I started to feel sick so we went back to the hostel and went to bed.
The next morning we awoke to snow, so we bundled up as much as we could and hit the streets. We started to walk in the direction of the main square and found a little market selling trinkets and weird foods. We wandered around for a while looking for a famous bagel place, but found ourselves at the foot of the Charles Bridge. It was something that we all wanted to walk across, but it started to rain, so we hurried inside for lunch at a nicer restaurant right nearby. We were basically treated like VIPs and got cappechinos and huge amounts of food. Meg got a chicken that was literally an entire chicken on a wooden platter - it was delish despite looking like something a pirate would eat...
Friday, March 14, 2008
Spring Break Plans
This weekend will be spent in Galway, celebrating St. Patrick's Day.
On the day itself, myself, Meaghan and our friend from BC, Jenny, will take a train to Dublin where we will spend Monday and Monday night. On Tuesday, Meaghan and my roomate from Fordham, Eugenie, fly to Prague.
We are going to spend the 18-21 in Prague, at which point Eugenie and I will split off from Meg (who heads to Spain) and fly to Venice. In Venice, we will meet up with John (Huber) and Leanne (McDonald), two friends of mine from school.
We are going to spend the next five days (21-25ish) seeing Venice, Florence and Pisa (briefly). We arrive in Rome on the 25th and spend two nights there.
I am hoping to fly back to Galway on the 27th so I can have a few days to get some work done, but I haven't booked a flight yet, so who knows. If there are people I know in Rome (JENNA!) I may stay longer.
So that's that. I'll try to update, but who knows.
On the day itself, myself, Meaghan and our friend from BC, Jenny, will take a train to Dublin where we will spend Monday and Monday night. On Tuesday, Meaghan and my roomate from Fordham, Eugenie, fly to Prague.
We are going to spend the 18-21 in Prague, at which point Eugenie and I will split off from Meg (who heads to Spain) and fly to Venice. In Venice, we will meet up with John (Huber) and Leanne (McDonald), two friends of mine from school.
We are going to spend the next five days (21-25ish) seeing Venice, Florence and Pisa (briefly). We arrive in Rome on the 25th and spend two nights there.
I am hoping to fly back to Galway on the 27th so I can have a few days to get some work done, but I haven't booked a flight yet, so who knows. If there are people I know in Rome (JENNA!) I may stay longer.
So that's that. I'll try to update, but who knows.
Sunday, March 9, 2008
More Pics - Can't Help It
Tara and I in St. Andrew's Scotland.
Tara, Me, Meaghan and Molly - The BC Girls...
Future Roommates - Watch out!
Andrew on his 21st!
More Random Pics Just for Fun Cuz You Miss My Face
Michie and I and "BICING" in Barcelona!
Boston College takes over Madrid - Bobby, Johnny, Katherine and I at JOY!
The ladies on the BEACH in Cadiz.
Outside the locked train station at 5am in Cadiz, the morning after Carnivale.
Dear Dublin, Stop Hating, Love Caroline
These past two weeks have been loaded with visitors.
It was BC's spring break last week, so Molly's younger brother Billy, (a freshman at BC), and two of his friends (also from BC), Tom and John, came to visit. Then Meaghan's twin brother Dan and his friend Elizabeth from Georgetown both came to visit. EB, a friend of Molly's from BC, who is studying at UCD (in Dublin) also came to spend two nights with us, and brought Quinn, a friend of her's from home who is studying drama in London. We ate a lot, went out a lot and showed them all Galway. It was a lot of fun.
Meg and Dan had plans to go to Dublin, and since Molly and the boys were also heading there for the weekend to meet up with her sister and her sister's boyfriend, I jumped on board. It was a fun two nights, three days, despite what I will call some ups and downs.
Meg, Dan, Elizabeth and I took the 10:50 train on Thursday morning, checked into our hostel and immediately headed to the Jameson factory for the tour. We got in just as it was about to start to rain, but not before we ran into a large group of BC boys, half of who are at Trinity for the year and the other half who were visiting.
The tour was really interesting, the tour guide was great, Meg and I volunteered to be whiskey taste-testers at the end, and then we got a free drink, so it was excellent. I swear it was the friendliest place we were all weekend. Everyone in our tour group was from somewhere other than Ireland - for example, the other people who were taste-testers were from Finland, Sweden, Syracuse and Virginia. It was excellent. As we were finishing our tour we ran into Molly, Billy and everyone else and got to meet her sister, sister's boyfriend, and sister's boyfriend's friend. Yes, there were lots of visitors. Keep them straight.
After the tour, we went walking though the Temple Bar area and got Irish food at the Shack, which I went to the last time I was there. I had something called a seafood pancake, which was really good, and some potatoes and broccoli. Elizabeth's friend from home who goes to Notre Dame but is studying in Dublin met up with us also. Then we went back to the hostel to get ready for the night. Of course as soon as we step outside to find a pub, we realize its pouring rain and whipping wind. So, we get out the umbrellas and forage on. Unfortunately, we didn't realize that we were going to be hated on by every bouncer in Dublin.
Molly and fam were at a place called Messers MacGuire, so we went on a search for it. We had also been told by some nice people in our tour group that it was a fun place to go. After probably 15 minutes of asking for directions and having people either ignore us or ask us for money in exchange for directions, we found it. We went into the foyer, where there was no line and a practically empty bar inside, and the bouncer immediately told us that we would not be let in that night. His story was that he saw Meg throw a beer can in the garbage can outside the door before getting in the line. He then wrongfully assumed that we were drunk.
Well, we had a problem with that. We explained very nicely that the beer was an empty that Meg saw on the ground and had thrown away as an act of kindness (whether or not this was the actual truth is your own assumption to make). He insisted again that we were drunk, which we were not. We tried to be nice and tried to come up with ways to relate to him or prove that we were not drunk at all. Then we realized that he didn't want to let us in because we were American. So, I asked for the manager. When the short, nervous-looking man arrived, I explained that we had walked a long way in the rain to get to his bar. I said that we had been told it was a fun place and that ten of our friends were already inside. We said all we wanted was to know why we were not being admitted.
After the bouncer told his side of the story, the manager said that as long as we weren't drinking on his property, we were allowed to come in. Excellent. I have to say the mood was sort of killed, but whatever. We met up with everyone and had a drink, had some dances (requesting Born to Run) and then Meg, Dan, Liz and I wanted to head to another place that we had coupons for, since the pubs in Dublin are twice as expensive as Galway.
Again it was raining, again we got lost, again we were not given any help from anyone. Finally, we got into a cab and asked the driver to take us to CitiBar. He laughed and drove about half a block and stopped, charging us 7 euro. I was irritated, but what could we do. Two minutes later we walk up to the door at Citibar and the bouncer told us AGAIN that we weren't allowed in because we were drunk. AGAIN, all we had was one drink and let me tell you, even if I had had ten drinks before leaving the hostel, at this point I would have been sober based on how poorly we were being treated and my overwhelming desire to cry...
But, I held in my rage/tears and protested, telling him that he could ask us to do anything he wanted to prove we weren't drunk. I also told him that we were Americans and that it might just be our accents that made us sound drunk to him. He paused and then said that it was six euro for admission. We produced our coupons saying free admission. He told us that it was still going to be 6 euro. You have got to be kidding me! I swear to god it was because we were American, because later that night Molly and her crew went to the same pub looking to meet up with us and the guy tried to charge them too!
So, we stormed away in anger, finally got directions back to our hostel, and spent the rest of the stormy night in the pub under the hostel, making friends with the great people from Wales who were all in town for the 6 nations rugby match. I swear, I have never felt so discriminated against in my life. And that sounds so whiny and I understand that people live their lives like that everyday and what we were up against was petty in comparison, but it was still an upsetting situation.
And, if you haven't read anything that makes you think that the reason that we were being discriminated against was because we were American, take my word for it. The look in those bouncer's eyes were horrible! It was like they hated us and thought we were untrustworthy to come into their bar, like we were going to wreck it or something. I was truly upset. And I was TRULY sober.
Anyway, the night ended well at least, and the next morning we checked out of one hostel, walked across town to the other one, checked in, napped and then spent the rest of the day seeing the sights: Grafton Street, St. Stephen's Green, Marion Square, Trinity College and the Book of Kells, etc. We also stopped by the house in the city that the Notre Dame kids use as their home base, which used to be Daniel O'Connell's house. He's basically the George Washington of Dublin. We got pizza for dinner after meeting up with two of Dan and Elizabeth's friends from Georgetown, and then got the most delicious crepes I've ever had in Temple Bar.
After a long stop at the Guinness souvenir shop, we headed back to the hostel and went to bed, exhausted.
The next day everyone was staying to watch the Ireland/Wales rugby game and do the Guinness factory, but I took the train back early and hung out in Galway all day. Wales ended up winning, which I have to admit I was pleased about, simply to spite the stupid Dublin-ers who were mean to us.
To end, I have to say that this was my second visit to Dublin and it was the first time I'd ever been treated meanly. I don't think that all Dubliners hate Americans, I just think we had a bit of bad luck. I really like Dublin and I think its a great city. I am going back for St. Pat's day as well as with both my parents, and I'm still excited about it. It was just a let down that we went to pubs with bouncers who can't tell an American accent from a slurring drunk...
It was BC's spring break last week, so Molly's younger brother Billy, (a freshman at BC), and two of his friends (also from BC), Tom and John, came to visit. Then Meaghan's twin brother Dan and his friend Elizabeth from Georgetown both came to visit. EB, a friend of Molly's from BC, who is studying at UCD (in Dublin) also came to spend two nights with us, and brought Quinn, a friend of her's from home who is studying drama in London. We ate a lot, went out a lot and showed them all Galway. It was a lot of fun.
Meg and Dan had plans to go to Dublin, and since Molly and the boys were also heading there for the weekend to meet up with her sister and her sister's boyfriend, I jumped on board. It was a fun two nights, three days, despite what I will call some ups and downs.
Meg, Dan, Elizabeth and I took the 10:50 train on Thursday morning, checked into our hostel and immediately headed to the Jameson factory for the tour. We got in just as it was about to start to rain, but not before we ran into a large group of BC boys, half of who are at Trinity for the year and the other half who were visiting.
The tour was really interesting, the tour guide was great, Meg and I volunteered to be whiskey taste-testers at the end, and then we got a free drink, so it was excellent. I swear it was the friendliest place we were all weekend. Everyone in our tour group was from somewhere other than Ireland - for example, the other people who were taste-testers were from Finland, Sweden, Syracuse and Virginia. It was excellent. As we were finishing our tour we ran into Molly, Billy and everyone else and got to meet her sister, sister's boyfriend, and sister's boyfriend's friend. Yes, there were lots of visitors. Keep them straight.
After the tour, we went walking though the Temple Bar area and got Irish food at the Shack, which I went to the last time I was there. I had something called a seafood pancake, which was really good, and some potatoes and broccoli. Elizabeth's friend from home who goes to Notre Dame but is studying in Dublin met up with us also. Then we went back to the hostel to get ready for the night. Of course as soon as we step outside to find a pub, we realize its pouring rain and whipping wind. So, we get out the umbrellas and forage on. Unfortunately, we didn't realize that we were going to be hated on by every bouncer in Dublin.
Molly and fam were at a place called Messers MacGuire, so we went on a search for it. We had also been told by some nice people in our tour group that it was a fun place to go. After probably 15 minutes of asking for directions and having people either ignore us or ask us for money in exchange for directions, we found it. We went into the foyer, where there was no line and a practically empty bar inside, and the bouncer immediately told us that we would not be let in that night. His story was that he saw Meg throw a beer can in the garbage can outside the door before getting in the line. He then wrongfully assumed that we were drunk.
Well, we had a problem with that. We explained very nicely that the beer was an empty that Meg saw on the ground and had thrown away as an act of kindness (whether or not this was the actual truth is your own assumption to make). He insisted again that we were drunk, which we were not. We tried to be nice and tried to come up with ways to relate to him or prove that we were not drunk at all. Then we realized that he didn't want to let us in because we were American. So, I asked for the manager. When the short, nervous-looking man arrived, I explained that we had walked a long way in the rain to get to his bar. I said that we had been told it was a fun place and that ten of our friends were already inside. We said all we wanted was to know why we were not being admitted.
After the bouncer told his side of the story, the manager said that as long as we weren't drinking on his property, we were allowed to come in. Excellent. I have to say the mood was sort of killed, but whatever. We met up with everyone and had a drink, had some dances (requesting Born to Run) and then Meg, Dan, Liz and I wanted to head to another place that we had coupons for, since the pubs in Dublin are twice as expensive as Galway.
Again it was raining, again we got lost, again we were not given any help from anyone. Finally, we got into a cab and asked the driver to take us to CitiBar. He laughed and drove about half a block and stopped, charging us 7 euro. I was irritated, but what could we do. Two minutes later we walk up to the door at Citibar and the bouncer told us AGAIN that we weren't allowed in because we were drunk. AGAIN, all we had was one drink and let me tell you, even if I had had ten drinks before leaving the hostel, at this point I would have been sober based on how poorly we were being treated and my overwhelming desire to cry...
But, I held in my rage/tears and protested, telling him that he could ask us to do anything he wanted to prove we weren't drunk. I also told him that we were Americans and that it might just be our accents that made us sound drunk to him. He paused and then said that it was six euro for admission. We produced our coupons saying free admission. He told us that it was still going to be 6 euro. You have got to be kidding me! I swear to god it was because we were American, because later that night Molly and her crew went to the same pub looking to meet up with us and the guy tried to charge them too!
So, we stormed away in anger, finally got directions back to our hostel, and spent the rest of the stormy night in the pub under the hostel, making friends with the great people from Wales who were all in town for the 6 nations rugby match. I swear, I have never felt so discriminated against in my life. And that sounds so whiny and I understand that people live their lives like that everyday and what we were up against was petty in comparison, but it was still an upsetting situation.
And, if you haven't read anything that makes you think that the reason that we were being discriminated against was because we were American, take my word for it. The look in those bouncer's eyes were horrible! It was like they hated us and thought we were untrustworthy to come into their bar, like we were going to wreck it or something. I was truly upset. And I was TRULY sober.
Anyway, the night ended well at least, and the next morning we checked out of one hostel, walked across town to the other one, checked in, napped and then spent the rest of the day seeing the sights: Grafton Street, St. Stephen's Green, Marion Square, Trinity College and the Book of Kells, etc. We also stopped by the house in the city that the Notre Dame kids use as their home base, which used to be Daniel O'Connell's house. He's basically the George Washington of Dublin. We got pizza for dinner after meeting up with two of Dan and Elizabeth's friends from Georgetown, and then got the most delicious crepes I've ever had in Temple Bar.
After a long stop at the Guinness souvenir shop, we headed back to the hostel and went to bed, exhausted.
The next day everyone was staying to watch the Ireland/Wales rugby game and do the Guinness factory, but I took the train back early and hung out in Galway all day. Wales ended up winning, which I have to admit I was pleased about, simply to spite the stupid Dublin-ers who were mean to us.
To end, I have to say that this was my second visit to Dublin and it was the first time I'd ever been treated meanly. I don't think that all Dubliners hate Americans, I just think we had a bit of bad luck. I really like Dublin and I think its a great city. I am going back for St. Pat's day as well as with both my parents, and I'm still excited about it. It was just a let down that we went to pubs with bouncers who can't tell an American accent from a slurring drunk...
Friday, February 29, 2008
Quick Update
I haven't updated in a while, and I still haven't written about Dublin, but here is a quick look back at my week.
I got an A on my first test here, care of Todd Morrison and the Social Psych department. Very excited about that.
We didn't go out at all this week except for last night, since we have all been working on a paper for "Problems in the History of Ireland (1580-1700)." I just finished it and printed it. Also excited about that.
Tuesday I went and saw (for free on campus) La Vie en Rose. It was amazing. You should all go see it, the actress absolutely deserved her Oscar.
Last night we went to see (again, for free) Transformers, and again I absolutely loved it, despite initial reservations and the amount of geeky guys in the audience.
Wednesday I taught in kindergarten and a little girl asked me "Is that English ya speakin?" It was hilarious, I was caught entirely off guard. She said I sounded weird when I talk. Also, her news of the day was that she's going to "pierce her belly" when she grows up. Keep in mind she is four years old.
Also, in the best news of all, my roommates and I got one of the last two Mods to live in next year on-campus. If you don't know what the Mods are, they are the best, most fun, most BC-traditional housing you can get, and mostly every Senior wants one. You live in a little 6-man house thats pretty crappy, but you get a yard and a patio and its all Seniors, all the parties and tailgating happen there, etc. I am sooo excited and still can't believe we actually got one!!!
This weekend is going to be mellow. Molly's brother and friends and Meaghan's brother and friend come on Saturday, so this upcoming week should be fun.
More soon.
I got an A on my first test here, care of Todd Morrison and the Social Psych department. Very excited about that.
We didn't go out at all this week except for last night, since we have all been working on a paper for "Problems in the History of Ireland (1580-1700)." I just finished it and printed it. Also excited about that.
Tuesday I went and saw (for free on campus) La Vie en Rose. It was amazing. You should all go see it, the actress absolutely deserved her Oscar.
Last night we went to see (again, for free) Transformers, and again I absolutely loved it, despite initial reservations and the amount of geeky guys in the audience.
Wednesday I taught in kindergarten and a little girl asked me "Is that English ya speakin?" It was hilarious, I was caught entirely off guard. She said I sounded weird when I talk. Also, her news of the day was that she's going to "pierce her belly" when she grows up. Keep in mind she is four years old.
Also, in the best news of all, my roommates and I got one of the last two Mods to live in next year on-campus. If you don't know what the Mods are, they are the best, most fun, most BC-traditional housing you can get, and mostly every Senior wants one. You live in a little 6-man house thats pretty crappy, but you get a yard and a patio and its all Seniors, all the parties and tailgating happen there, etc. I am sooo excited and still can't believe we actually got one!!!
This weekend is going to be mellow. Molly's brother and friends and Meaghan's brother and friend come on Saturday, so this upcoming week should be fun.
More soon.
Friday, February 22, 2008
Pictures from Sevilla
I think this is a huge hotel that was near our hostel. If it is, it runs E800 a night.
More gorgeous architecture. The Sevillian Cathedral. The largest one in Spain.
Christopher Colombus's tomb. For real.
The view from the top, after walking up a steep, dirt path for what seemed like 20 minutes...
Jenny and the bell! We were worried it would go off when we were up there...
Pictures from our first night in Madrid!
Alison and I at JOY!
Me, Molly and Cristin
Me and one of the dancers (she may be a he - we weren't sure...)
This guy was the only for sure male on the stage...
At the airport the next morning, headed for Sevilla. Note: Andy fell asleep with a sucker in his mouth...haha.
Finishing up Spain, and then on to Dublin
So I trailed off as the train from Cadiz pulled into Sevilla. It was about 10am, which meant that we had used up our time to rush back to the hostel and sleep. If we had gotten on the phantom 5:45am train, we'd have been back in time to shower AND nap for a good four hours before having to check out. Unfortunately, with our botched reading of the time tables to blame, we all cabbed back to the hostel, packed up and got outta there.
Our first move was to find some food, naturally, and boy did we ever find some food. We happened upon a glorious place that served food from all over and also had English speaking waiters. So, I chose Italy and Mexico(!) and got NACHOS, yeah baby, and some tomatoes with mozzerella (delish.) We sat in the sun recounting our night and basking in the gloriousness of it all, watching the horse drawn carriages going by, etc. Then, all of a sudden Cristin started to not feel well. Feeling well was a relative term, since none of us felt WELL, per se, but she felt pretty bad. This quickly moved to Cristin being unable to stand up and then about to pass out. We carted her across the cobblestoned streets to the steps of the cathedral (how appropriate) and laid her down, elevating her feet. After a few minutes she was fine, but it prompted us to pay our bill, say goodbye to Colin, Jenny and Suzy and move on.
Moving on meant buying some post cards and other memorabilia, hitting an ice cream shop and Starbucks, and then laying on the steps of the cathedral ourselves, homeless, until Meg came to collect us and take us to the airport. We hopped the bus to the airport quite early, falling asleep on the way, then arrived and found rows of empty seating on which to continue sleeping. After an hour or so, refreshed but by no means enthused, we checked in, blew through security, hit duty-free and got some lunch. Again. Olives, a pear, a banana, some nuts, you know, whatever. We played 20 question and other stupid games until we could go to our gate. Our flight was a little delayed, but we were so out of it that it didn't even matter. Once we were on the plane it took only an hour.
We landed in Madrid and I went to the first information desk I could find to request information about hostels nearby. At the start of our trip we had planned another all night extravaganza of partying, to save money on a hostel. Of course, we had not factored in all the in between nights of partying with no sleep, so we were idiots and ate our foolish words. We wanted sleep and we would pay anything for it. Eventually we secured a hostel that was nearby and would come and get us for free. Ten minutes later we were in a van. Twenty minutes later we were checking into Hostel Viki. Thirty minutes later we were in bed. Yesssss!
The next morning me and Meg got up at 10, showered (YES!!!) in the nicely heated and pressured shower, packed up and checked out. We met everyone else and we walked around until we found a small square with cafes. We chose one, got some sangria and went to town. Kidding. I didn't have any or I would have died. But, we had to pass the time from noon to 1:15 when they started serving lunch, so we did. Eventually we all ordered lunch, which was cheap and good. I have to say that I have no idea what the kind of meat was that they brought me, but I ate it all and loved it. Oh how adventurous I am...haha.
When 3pm rolled around, I had a sunburn, haha, and a sunglasses tan, but I was full, rested and happy. We got on the metro to head back to the airport, only one stop, checked in and got on our flight. We landed in Dublin to rain and cold, of course, having just missed the last train. Dammit. That meant we had to take a 4 hour BUS back to Galway, but we did. And we didn't complain. Much.
After getting to Galway, we cabbed back, said goobye I never want to see your faces again and went to bed. Haha. It was an excellent trip and I couldn't have asked for anything better. I loved it!
Coming soon: Dublin trip and RAG week
Our first move was to find some food, naturally, and boy did we ever find some food. We happened upon a glorious place that served food from all over and also had English speaking waiters. So, I chose Italy and Mexico(!) and got NACHOS, yeah baby, and some tomatoes with mozzerella (delish.) We sat in the sun recounting our night and basking in the gloriousness of it all, watching the horse drawn carriages going by, etc. Then, all of a sudden Cristin started to not feel well. Feeling well was a relative term, since none of us felt WELL, per se, but she felt pretty bad. This quickly moved to Cristin being unable to stand up and then about to pass out. We carted her across the cobblestoned streets to the steps of the cathedral (how appropriate) and laid her down, elevating her feet. After a few minutes she was fine, but it prompted us to pay our bill, say goodbye to Colin, Jenny and Suzy and move on.
Moving on meant buying some post cards and other memorabilia, hitting an ice cream shop and Starbucks, and then laying on the steps of the cathedral ourselves, homeless, until Meg came to collect us and take us to the airport. We hopped the bus to the airport quite early, falling asleep on the way, then arrived and found rows of empty seating on which to continue sleeping. After an hour or so, refreshed but by no means enthused, we checked in, blew through security, hit duty-free and got some lunch. Again. Olives, a pear, a banana, some nuts, you know, whatever. We played 20 question and other stupid games until we could go to our gate. Our flight was a little delayed, but we were so out of it that it didn't even matter. Once we were on the plane it took only an hour.
We landed in Madrid and I went to the first information desk I could find to request information about hostels nearby. At the start of our trip we had planned another all night extravaganza of partying, to save money on a hostel. Of course, we had not factored in all the in between nights of partying with no sleep, so we were idiots and ate our foolish words. We wanted sleep and we would pay anything for it. Eventually we secured a hostel that was nearby and would come and get us for free. Ten minutes later we were in a van. Twenty minutes later we were checking into Hostel Viki. Thirty minutes later we were in bed. Yesssss!
The next morning me and Meg got up at 10, showered (YES!!!) in the nicely heated and pressured shower, packed up and checked out. We met everyone else and we walked around until we found a small square with cafes. We chose one, got some sangria and went to town. Kidding. I didn't have any or I would have died. But, we had to pass the time from noon to 1:15 when they started serving lunch, so we did. Eventually we all ordered lunch, which was cheap and good. I have to say that I have no idea what the kind of meat was that they brought me, but I ate it all and loved it. Oh how adventurous I am...haha.
When 3pm rolled around, I had a sunburn, haha, and a sunglasses tan, but I was full, rested and happy. We got on the metro to head back to the airport, only one stop, checked in and got on our flight. We landed in Dublin to rain and cold, of course, having just missed the last train. Dammit. That meant we had to take a 4 hour BUS back to Galway, but we did. And we didn't complain. Much.
After getting to Galway, we cabbed back, said goobye I never want to see your faces again and went to bed. Haha. It was an excellent trip and I couldn't have asked for anything better. I loved it!
Coming soon: Dublin trip and RAG week
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
CADIZ! The Home of Carnivale 2008!
After stepping off the train in Cadiz, we walked outside into warm weather and palm trees to catch a bus to the beach. Yes, the beach, in February. Excellent.
We got off the bus after probably 15 minutes, grabbed some tapas and sangria for lunch, picked up some refreshments from the local liquor store and headed to the beach. At first we were put off by how windy it was, but soon the sun came out, brightening everything up, and the wind died down. We stayed and played on the beach for about two hours, building sand castles, walking in the water, playing soccer with some kids we met, climbing up this huge, random structure they had there, practicing our Spanish, talking U.S. politics with local Cadizians and getting to know one another better. The refreshments also helped...we went through that rum pretty quickly, let me tell you.
After we got tired of the sand, we wandered across the street to a couple of bars for some drinks and more tapas. (If you haven't yet realized, the theme of this weekend is Food and Drink...) By this time it was getting dark, so we got on the bus that would take us to the big square where the heart of Carnivale was located. As we got closer, we started seeing people dressed in ridiculous outfits. There were Smurfs, babies, bees, superheroes, Waldo, Shrek, mugs of beer, convicts, wizards, etc. Everything and anything you could think of, it was there. After exploring the area a little bit, we split up, with Meg and I going to watch a live concert given by a Spanish female singer whose name escapes me at the moment. She was so good, and everyone was dancing and having a good time, but it was getting colder and colder as it got later.
But then, amidst the thousands of people from all over the world, dressed like idiots and dancing and drinking at a world-renowned festival, what do I stumble upon but a red jacket hanging on a fence post. The jacket is cute. It fits like a glove. It appears to have no owner. Could it be another gift from God?! I donned it with quick-fire speed and was immediately warm. Then I was able to enjoy the rest of my night. Perfection...
After a small tiff (read: Caroline gets angry and yells because half the group refuses to leave another stupid Irish pub...) we were off down the streets.
Here are some of the main events of the night:
1. Seeing a really really drunk guy peeing on the street and then getting arrested.
2. Molly getting lost on her way back from the bathrooms. It took us 20 minutes to realize she was gone, at which point a manhunt ensued. We found her speaking to about five Spanish guys dressed as chickens...she doesn't speak Spanish.
3. Eating dinner at sort of a nice restaurant - Jenny dropping her wine glass on the floor...
4. Standing on this one street corner for about an hour just observing the insanity of the square, while making friends with tons of Spanish-speaking people.
5. Buying Carnivale tee-shirts, shot glasses, etc.
6. Me implementing a lot of my Spanish-speaking skills (J, you'd be proud), since nobody else besides Tara and I spoke it.
7. Running into Goldilocks and the three bears (all men), right at midnight when it turned into Colin's 21st birthday - they joined us in singing "Feliz Cumpleanos" on the street corner.
8. Molly freaking out when these three guys dressed as toilets, complete with toilet brushes (wands) started to come at her (jokingly) with their brushes.
9. Losing 10 euro. Finding 10 euro.
10. Calling Cara at least twice, effectively spending about 30 euro in phone charges, unknowingly...
All in all it was a tremendous experience. Everything went as planned, nobody got hurt, we all survived, etc.
At around 4:30 in the morning, we decided it would be best to start moving toward the exits, since our train back to Sevilla left at 5:45ish. So, we collected our friends from all their various locations and went to grab a taxi, having no idea where the train station was. But, of course, we had to wait in a queue of about 60 people. Well, Suzy was not happy with this concept, so she cut the line with Jenny and Meg, instructing the rest of us to hang back behind a parked truck. As she, Jen and Meg got into their cab, another one pulled up behind it. The rest of us bolted and stole the cab right out from under the noses of a bunch of people dressed as cows. Looking back, if someone did that to me, I would have been really upset, but we played the "we don't speak Spanish" card...and after all...they were dressed as COWS. How can they be taken seriously?
It turned out the train station was about two minutes away, but good thing we got there when we did (around 5am), because there were already about 100 people sitting outside on the ground. Apparently the train station wasn't open all night. So, we got some prime real estate near the front doors, against a wall to lean on, and passed out. It was freezing cold, miserable, dirty, etc. All I wanted was to get on the train and go to sleep. But, as 5:45am came and went, with no activity from within the station, we started to get nervous. Once 6:30 arrived, and the doors opened, everyone bolted inside. We thought they would all run down the stairs to board a waiting train, but we were sadly mistaken. Instead, all the costumed Spaniards ran for chairs in the waiting areas...puzzled, we inquired as to what the deal was and learned that the 5:45am train does not run on weekends...therefore, we needed to wait for the 8:50 train.
Well that just about made me cry. I was so cold that I was literally shaking. I was going on almost no hours of sleep from the past two nights. I was hungry. I was dehydrated. I was pissed off. Multiply that by the 8 other people I was with, and it made for a pretty dire situation. But, my tiredness soon took over and I fell asleep, huddled in a ball on the ice cold train station floor. I guess time must have passed quickly because before I knew it the train was there and we were running for seats. Thankfully we all got seats together, except (again) for Meg, who had to sleep on the floor. The train took probably two hours to get us back to Sevilla, and we all slept every second of that ride. I kept my red jacket on me the entire time...
We got off the bus after probably 15 minutes, grabbed some tapas and sangria for lunch, picked up some refreshments from the local liquor store and headed to the beach. At first we were put off by how windy it was, but soon the sun came out, brightening everything up, and the wind died down. We stayed and played on the beach for about two hours, building sand castles, walking in the water, playing soccer with some kids we met, climbing up this huge, random structure they had there, practicing our Spanish, talking U.S. politics with local Cadizians and getting to know one another better. The refreshments also helped...we went through that rum pretty quickly, let me tell you.
After we got tired of the sand, we wandered across the street to a couple of bars for some drinks and more tapas. (If you haven't yet realized, the theme of this weekend is Food and Drink...) By this time it was getting dark, so we got on the bus that would take us to the big square where the heart of Carnivale was located. As we got closer, we started seeing people dressed in ridiculous outfits. There were Smurfs, babies, bees, superheroes, Waldo, Shrek, mugs of beer, convicts, wizards, etc. Everything and anything you could think of, it was there. After exploring the area a little bit, we split up, with Meg and I going to watch a live concert given by a Spanish female singer whose name escapes me at the moment. She was so good, and everyone was dancing and having a good time, but it was getting colder and colder as it got later.
But then, amidst the thousands of people from all over the world, dressed like idiots and dancing and drinking at a world-renowned festival, what do I stumble upon but a red jacket hanging on a fence post. The jacket is cute. It fits like a glove. It appears to have no owner. Could it be another gift from God?! I donned it with quick-fire speed and was immediately warm. Then I was able to enjoy the rest of my night. Perfection...
After a small tiff (read: Caroline gets angry and yells because half the group refuses to leave another stupid Irish pub...) we were off down the streets.
Here are some of the main events of the night:
1. Seeing a really really drunk guy peeing on the street and then getting arrested.
2. Molly getting lost on her way back from the bathrooms. It took us 20 minutes to realize she was gone, at which point a manhunt ensued. We found her speaking to about five Spanish guys dressed as chickens...she doesn't speak Spanish.
3. Eating dinner at sort of a nice restaurant - Jenny dropping her wine glass on the floor...
4. Standing on this one street corner for about an hour just observing the insanity of the square, while making friends with tons of Spanish-speaking people.
5. Buying Carnivale tee-shirts, shot glasses, etc.
6. Me implementing a lot of my Spanish-speaking skills (J, you'd be proud), since nobody else besides Tara and I spoke it.
7. Running into Goldilocks and the three bears (all men), right at midnight when it turned into Colin's 21st birthday - they joined us in singing "Feliz Cumpleanos" on the street corner.
8. Molly freaking out when these three guys dressed as toilets, complete with toilet brushes (wands) started to come at her (jokingly) with their brushes.
9. Losing 10 euro. Finding 10 euro.
10. Calling Cara at least twice, effectively spending about 30 euro in phone charges, unknowingly...
All in all it was a tremendous experience. Everything went as planned, nobody got hurt, we all survived, etc.
At around 4:30 in the morning, we decided it would be best to start moving toward the exits, since our train back to Sevilla left at 5:45ish. So, we collected our friends from all their various locations and went to grab a taxi, having no idea where the train station was. But, of course, we had to wait in a queue of about 60 people. Well, Suzy was not happy with this concept, so she cut the line with Jenny and Meg, instructing the rest of us to hang back behind a parked truck. As she, Jen and Meg got into their cab, another one pulled up behind it. The rest of us bolted and stole the cab right out from under the noses of a bunch of people dressed as cows. Looking back, if someone did that to me, I would have been really upset, but we played the "we don't speak Spanish" card...and after all...they were dressed as COWS. How can they be taken seriously?
It turned out the train station was about two minutes away, but good thing we got there when we did (around 5am), because there were already about 100 people sitting outside on the ground. Apparently the train station wasn't open all night. So, we got some prime real estate near the front doors, against a wall to lean on, and passed out. It was freezing cold, miserable, dirty, etc. All I wanted was to get on the train and go to sleep. But, as 5:45am came and went, with no activity from within the station, we started to get nervous. Once 6:30 arrived, and the doors opened, everyone bolted inside. We thought they would all run down the stairs to board a waiting train, but we were sadly mistaken. Instead, all the costumed Spaniards ran for chairs in the waiting areas...puzzled, we inquired as to what the deal was and learned that the 5:45am train does not run on weekends...therefore, we needed to wait for the 8:50 train.
Well that just about made me cry. I was so cold that I was literally shaking. I was going on almost no hours of sleep from the past two nights. I was hungry. I was dehydrated. I was pissed off. Multiply that by the 8 other people I was with, and it made for a pretty dire situation. But, my tiredness soon took over and I fell asleep, huddled in a ball on the ice cold train station floor. I guess time must have passed quickly because before I knew it the train was there and we were running for seats. Thankfully we all got seats together, except (again) for Meg, who had to sleep on the floor. The train took probably two hours to get us back to Sevilla, and we all slept every second of that ride. I kept my red jacket on me the entire time...
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Sevilla and Cadiz - Carnivale Part Two
So with about five hours of sleep under our belts, we hit the streets for food. Our first stop was a tapas bar close to the hostel. It had an interesting set up, with the bar where you ordered your food on one wall and then step-like seating that resembled pretty, Spanish-detailed bleachers. We sat in the top corner, had some canas, or tiny beers that you drink with tapas, and began to eat. We had about five or six different things, which is traditional when eating tapas. I can't remember them all, but there were little circles of bread with delicious cheese, jamon iberica, which I had in Madrid the last time, a mayonaisse-y egg and potato salad thing, and some others. They were all good and the rule was that everyone had to try everything.
After that we began our hunt for a legendary pizza place that Colin's sister had recommended. We walked for kind of a while, stopping to decide how much we wanted this pizza versus how far we were willing to walk, keeping in mind that we were all still pretty tired and had to be up the next morning at 8. The nice thing about Europe, or at least most of the cities I've visited thus far, is that they post their menus outside the front door so you know what you are getting into. After basically giving up hope that we would ever find the place, and beginning to hear our stomachs grumble, we finally found it! We had to wait about 40 minutes before getting a table, since there were so many of us, so we wandered over to Pizza Hut to get some beers. (Not too high class, but who cares?)
We sat at a small table near the restaurant and cheers-ed Spain, while the temperature began to drop. By the time we got a table we were starving and pretty cold, but we ate outside anyway. Good thing I had forsaken a jacket to look cute...what a stupid idea. We ordered salads to start, which were absolutely delicious -- stocked with lots of different lettuces, sweet corn, some sort of fabulous white cheese, etc. Then we got wine and pizzas for dinner. My pizza had bacon on it, which turned out to be more like ham, shocking, since ham runs rampant in that country...but it was still good. Unfortunately Jenny's Hawaiaan pizza order was lost in translation and was about 20 minutes late. Of course we still had to pay for it, but at this point it was probably at least midnight, so we were pissed. We all ordered desserts, of which mine was the best, some cheese tart with fruit (their version of cheesecake) obviously, and then decided not to go out, but to go to bed instead.
Jenny, Suzy, Meg and Colin went to go meet some friends at a club, but the rest of us walked home, after not being able to find a cab big enough to take us all, and went right to sleep. However, it was not like we were turning in early, because it was about 2am already...people eat late in Spain!
Side note: There was a gay bar located on the street perpendicular to where we were eating, and they must have been hosting an "Angels and Devils" themed party, because all throughout our meal, gay guys dressed as either angels or devils would waltz by, eliciting cat calls and cheers from our table. They were decked out too, many of them wearing heels higher than I ever would! Maybe they passed on the news that we enjoyed their costumes to others, because soon angels and devils were everywhere! It was really great. (Although when they tried to speak to me I had no idea what they were saying so I just smiled and cheered.)
I was awoken the next morning around 8:30 by Meg coming in and announcing that there were omlettes, bacon, eggs and bagels for breakfast! After getting out of my tiny, somewhat hard bottom bunk and scurrying into the main hall, I was disappointed to see that what she really meant was that there was plenty of machine-made coffee and some toast. Grrrr. I guess it got us all up though...
We all got dressed in our Carnivale finery, the girls in dresses or crazily-patterned tops, the boys more normal, trying to hurry, since we hadn't been able to pre-buy train tickets to Cadiz, and left the hostel around 9:15 or 9:30. We took a bus to the train station, recieving weird looks from elderly men, and then got in the mile long line to buy tickets with about five minutes left before the train left. Standard.
Then, all at once, I see a mass of people in line turn around and just start to run. So, naturally, we all ran too. I guess the guy behind the counter had been so fed up with all the loonies trying to get to Cadiz that he told them all to just get on the train and buy the tickets once we boarded. So, we all were assigned budddies (care of me and Meg, former camp counselors) and threw some elbows to get to the front of the line to get on the train. We succeeded too, because when the train pulled in, Me, Andy, Cristin, Tara, and Jenny all got seats together, as did Colin, Suzy and Molly. Meg had to sit on laps, but it worked. Our section took naps and played the celebrity game, which made time absolutely fly. (You say a celebrity and the next person has to say one whose first name starts with the first letter of the prior one's last name. Exameple, I say Britney Spears (who always starts off our game), and you say Samuel L. Jackson. Then it goes to J. You can't repeat and if a person has the same letter start their first and last names, you have to go again (Sylvester Stallone...). It was a great time. We bought round trip tickets on the train also, so we were all set for the way back.
The train probably took close to an hour and a half or a bit more, but it was a nice day and warm weather and we were all so excited, so it was fine.
After that we began our hunt for a legendary pizza place that Colin's sister had recommended. We walked for kind of a while, stopping to decide how much we wanted this pizza versus how far we were willing to walk, keeping in mind that we were all still pretty tired and had to be up the next morning at 8. The nice thing about Europe, or at least most of the cities I've visited thus far, is that they post their menus outside the front door so you know what you are getting into. After basically giving up hope that we would ever find the place, and beginning to hear our stomachs grumble, we finally found it! We had to wait about 40 minutes before getting a table, since there were so many of us, so we wandered over to Pizza Hut to get some beers. (Not too high class, but who cares?)
We sat at a small table near the restaurant and cheers-ed Spain, while the temperature began to drop. By the time we got a table we were starving and pretty cold, but we ate outside anyway. Good thing I had forsaken a jacket to look cute...what a stupid idea. We ordered salads to start, which were absolutely delicious -- stocked with lots of different lettuces, sweet corn, some sort of fabulous white cheese, etc. Then we got wine and pizzas for dinner. My pizza had bacon on it, which turned out to be more like ham, shocking, since ham runs rampant in that country...but it was still good. Unfortunately Jenny's Hawaiaan pizza order was lost in translation and was about 20 minutes late. Of course we still had to pay for it, but at this point it was probably at least midnight, so we were pissed. We all ordered desserts, of which mine was the best, some cheese tart with fruit (their version of cheesecake) obviously, and then decided not to go out, but to go to bed instead.
Jenny, Suzy, Meg and Colin went to go meet some friends at a club, but the rest of us walked home, after not being able to find a cab big enough to take us all, and went right to sleep. However, it was not like we were turning in early, because it was about 2am already...people eat late in Spain!
Side note: There was a gay bar located on the street perpendicular to where we were eating, and they must have been hosting an "Angels and Devils" themed party, because all throughout our meal, gay guys dressed as either angels or devils would waltz by, eliciting cat calls and cheers from our table. They were decked out too, many of them wearing heels higher than I ever would! Maybe they passed on the news that we enjoyed their costumes to others, because soon angels and devils were everywhere! It was really great. (Although when they tried to speak to me I had no idea what they were saying so I just smiled and cheered.)
I was awoken the next morning around 8:30 by Meg coming in and announcing that there were omlettes, bacon, eggs and bagels for breakfast! After getting out of my tiny, somewhat hard bottom bunk and scurrying into the main hall, I was disappointed to see that what she really meant was that there was plenty of machine-made coffee and some toast. Grrrr. I guess it got us all up though...
We all got dressed in our Carnivale finery, the girls in dresses or crazily-patterned tops, the boys more normal, trying to hurry, since we hadn't been able to pre-buy train tickets to Cadiz, and left the hostel around 9:15 or 9:30. We took a bus to the train station, recieving weird looks from elderly men, and then got in the mile long line to buy tickets with about five minutes left before the train left. Standard.
Then, all at once, I see a mass of people in line turn around and just start to run. So, naturally, we all ran too. I guess the guy behind the counter had been so fed up with all the loonies trying to get to Cadiz that he told them all to just get on the train and buy the tickets once we boarded. So, we all were assigned budddies (care of me and Meg, former camp counselors) and threw some elbows to get to the front of the line to get on the train. We succeeded too, because when the train pulled in, Me, Andy, Cristin, Tara, and Jenny all got seats together, as did Colin, Suzy and Molly. Meg had to sit on laps, but it worked. Our section took naps and played the celebrity game, which made time absolutely fly. (You say a celebrity and the next person has to say one whose first name starts with the first letter of the prior one's last name. Exameple, I say Britney Spears (who always starts off our game), and you say Samuel L. Jackson. Then it goes to J. You can't repeat and if a person has the same letter start their first and last names, you have to go again (Sylvester Stallone...). It was a great time. We bought round trip tickets on the train also, so we were all set for the way back.
The train probably took close to an hour and a half or a bit more, but it was a nice day and warm weather and we were all so excited, so it was fine.
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Galway to Dublin to Madrid to Sevilla: Carnivale Part One
Even though it seems like forever ago that we returned from Spain, I haven’t documented it yet, so here goes.
Last Thursday morning, the 7th, Meaghan, Tara, Andrew, Cristin, and I got up around 8am and ran around doing last minute things (shocker that we weren’t ready to go…). We grabbed a cab, forsaking The Bagel Factory for train station bagels to save time -- see, we’re learning. We bought our student priced tickets to Dublin, saving mad cash, and after boarding the train, recognized a friend of ours from our apartment complex who was on her way to Belfast via Dublin. Excellent. Side note: She told us Belfast is amazing, and she goes there all the time to stay with family friends, so now we have plans to go soon! Yay!
Anyway, after two hours, many hands of rummy and some Mars bars, we finally arrived in Dublin. We jumped a cheap and convenient bus to the airport, which took twenty minutes, and then breezed through check-in and went to our gate. Molly met us at the airport, since she had been in Dubs two days longer than us visiting a BC friend who is studying there. Our RyanAir flight was on time, thank god, and we snuck on the back entrance to the plane so we could all sit together. Our flight went well and we touched down in Madrid around 5 or 6 pm their time.
I think we were all expecting to be immediately inundated by warm weather, but it was actually a bit nippy. Furthermore, once we actually got into the Madrid airport, we realized we had no plan. That’s right. We had planned to fly into Madrid and stay up all night, choosing to save money over booking a night in a hostel, since we had to be back at the airport at 6am, but we hadn’t actually gotten around to deciding what that thing was that was going to keep us occupied/awake. Since I had been to Madrid before and was familiar with the airport and such, I led our group to the metro and bought tickets. We got on going in the only direction possible, and got off at a stop near the centre of the city that I recognized. At this point, we still didn’t really have any plans, but were starving. However, unfortunately for us it was only about 7pm, much too early for most places to be serving dinner. So, we found a map, located where we were, contacted the States to secure my BC roommate Alison’s Spanish phone number, and called her. This is Alison’s second semester in Madrid, and we had plans to meet up.
After making tenuous plans to go out, we finally found a place that would serve us at 7:45, and sat on some benches outside it staring hungrily in the windows until they let us in. We were the only people in the restaurant at first, so we took full liberty to use their bathroom ten different times (toothpaste, anyone?), use their floor for all of our backpacks and bags, etc. We were so touristy looking it was ridiculous. We ordered “coronitas” to start off our meal, as well as steaming loaves of delicious bread. I don’t remember what I ate, but I do remember that it was delicious. So was the cheesecake.
Side story: I was nominated as the person who was the best as getting the lime all the way to the bottom of the Corona by sticking my thumb in the opening and flipping the bottle upside down. As I was doing this for the sixth or seventh time with someone’s beer, and clearly acting over-confidently, I messed up, causing beer to squirt all over two entering patrons. The youngish women shrieked and said something in Spanish, and all I could do was just laugh and say “lo siento” (sorry) a lot, but it was really funny slash embarrassing. Andrew told me later that he had seen them walking in and didn’t warn me, thinking it was funny…excellent. Haha.
After dinner, using our Irish pub radar, we found an Irish pub and had a pint. Then, feeling stupid for not expanding our cultural horizons, we made plans to meet with Alison and spend a night on the town!
Fast-forwarding through the minute details, Meg and I cabbed with all the bags to Al’s apartment to drop them off, then met the rest of the kiddos at a random McDonald’s where they had, more randomly, bumped into about six or seven BC kids who are studying in Madrid. It was hilarious -- when we walked up to the window, we were not expecting to see them: Bobby and Johnny Johnson, Alexia Schwartz and her friend from home, Katherine Dolan, this kid John, a girl named Jackie from my floor freshmen year etc. I was so excited to see everyone, but me, Al and Meg needed a quick refreshment, so we hit a bar where drinks were free for “ladies.” Holler. After one drink and some “Ella, Ella, Ella, Eh, Eh,” we met back up with the BC crew outside a club called Joy. Or Fever. I’m not sure. I think it was called both of those names actually.
We were in a pulsing/pushing mass of about 100 kids who were all trying to get in before one am for about ten minutes, until Alison pushed to the front and got us in, no problem. Sweet. The only problem came when I went to the bar to order some drinks for our group and was told too late that each mixed drink was eleven euro. I nearly died. Sooo we all had one drink, wishing we had saved our money, and then danced our butts off for about four hours. The place was huge, it was packed, and it had cross-dressing professional dancers. They were extremely pretty and they could have fooled me. (Pictures soon, I swear.) The music was great, everyone was having a good time…exactly what we needed to keep us awake!
Once the bar was closing around 4:40am, we hit the road, went back to Al’s to grab our stuff, bid everyone goodbye and hopped on the metro right when it opened at 6. It was then off to the airport on no hours of sleep to catch our 8am flight to Sevilla. After check-in, etc. we all passed out at the gate for a bit before getting on our once again on-time flight. We landed one hour later in Sevilla, dazed and confused, dirty and exhausted.
We had instructions to board a bus that would take us to a square near our hostel – easy, right? It didn’t take too long before we were told in broken Spanish that this was the last stop. Unfortunately, it was not any name that we recognized. Boo. After wandering around for a good hour, asking fruitlessly for directions and getting crankier and crankier with each other, we found the hostel. Of course it was down a cobble-stoned street where cabs can’t drive, tucked away behind a huge building, on as street with no sign, etc. But we had found it! And they had safes, towels, running water, friendly staff, free Internet, free international phone calls and free breakfast! We were in heaven…until we were told that we couldn’t check in until 2pm.
I don’t know if you follow, but this meant that we couldn’t sleep until 2pm. Damn it. I nearly cried. But, manning up, we dropped our stuff and went to meet three more BC kids for lunch. Jenny is Meg’s roommate from school – she’s studying in Sevilla and is crazy. She’s straight-forward and funny and great. Colin is studying in Madrid but was visiting for the weekend. He was really relaxed and nice. Suzy is living with Meg/Jenny next year and is studying in Rome currently, but was also up for Carnivale. So, we wandered down the WARM, SUNNY streets of Sevilla, trying to shake off our fatigue and enjoy the sights. There were big open squares where horse drawn carriages lined up for service, a huge cathedral that we investigated the next day, open air market type things, gorgeous architecture, flamenco dancers and small quartets playing on the streets, etc. It had the small town feel of Galway, but its actually much bigger. It also reminded me of pictures I’ve seen of Greece, since its near the water and all the buildings are smooth and pure white.
We passed up lots of weird looking food places before finally settling on one. I ordered some sort of shrimp salad and tortilla Espanola, which are both typically Spanish foods. They were both quite good. Then we got banana split ice cream, which was even better. We wandered around until 2, at which point we hit the hostel hard. After checking in, it was into glorious bed, where we slept until 7ish. Then we all took freezing showers, got ready and headed to dinner.
Last Thursday morning, the 7th, Meaghan, Tara, Andrew, Cristin, and I got up around 8am and ran around doing last minute things (shocker that we weren’t ready to go…). We grabbed a cab, forsaking The Bagel Factory for train station bagels to save time -- see, we’re learning. We bought our student priced tickets to Dublin, saving mad cash, and after boarding the train, recognized a friend of ours from our apartment complex who was on her way to Belfast via Dublin. Excellent. Side note: She told us Belfast is amazing, and she goes there all the time to stay with family friends, so now we have plans to go soon! Yay!
Anyway, after two hours, many hands of rummy and some Mars bars, we finally arrived in Dublin. We jumped a cheap and convenient bus to the airport, which took twenty minutes, and then breezed through check-in and went to our gate. Molly met us at the airport, since she had been in Dubs two days longer than us visiting a BC friend who is studying there. Our RyanAir flight was on time, thank god, and we snuck on the back entrance to the plane so we could all sit together. Our flight went well and we touched down in Madrid around 5 or 6 pm their time.
I think we were all expecting to be immediately inundated by warm weather, but it was actually a bit nippy. Furthermore, once we actually got into the Madrid airport, we realized we had no plan. That’s right. We had planned to fly into Madrid and stay up all night, choosing to save money over booking a night in a hostel, since we had to be back at the airport at 6am, but we hadn’t actually gotten around to deciding what that thing was that was going to keep us occupied/awake. Since I had been to Madrid before and was familiar with the airport and such, I led our group to the metro and bought tickets. We got on going in the only direction possible, and got off at a stop near the centre of the city that I recognized. At this point, we still didn’t really have any plans, but were starving. However, unfortunately for us it was only about 7pm, much too early for most places to be serving dinner. So, we found a map, located where we were, contacted the States to secure my BC roommate Alison’s Spanish phone number, and called her. This is Alison’s second semester in Madrid, and we had plans to meet up.
After making tenuous plans to go out, we finally found a place that would serve us at 7:45, and sat on some benches outside it staring hungrily in the windows until they let us in. We were the only people in the restaurant at first, so we took full liberty to use their bathroom ten different times (toothpaste, anyone?), use their floor for all of our backpacks and bags, etc. We were so touristy looking it was ridiculous. We ordered “coronitas” to start off our meal, as well as steaming loaves of delicious bread. I don’t remember what I ate, but I do remember that it was delicious. So was the cheesecake.
Side story: I was nominated as the person who was the best as getting the lime all the way to the bottom of the Corona by sticking my thumb in the opening and flipping the bottle upside down. As I was doing this for the sixth or seventh time with someone’s beer, and clearly acting over-confidently, I messed up, causing beer to squirt all over two entering patrons. The youngish women shrieked and said something in Spanish, and all I could do was just laugh and say “lo siento” (sorry) a lot, but it was really funny slash embarrassing. Andrew told me later that he had seen them walking in and didn’t warn me, thinking it was funny…excellent. Haha.
After dinner, using our Irish pub radar, we found an Irish pub and had a pint. Then, feeling stupid for not expanding our cultural horizons, we made plans to meet with Alison and spend a night on the town!
Fast-forwarding through the minute details, Meg and I cabbed with all the bags to Al’s apartment to drop them off, then met the rest of the kiddos at a random McDonald’s where they had, more randomly, bumped into about six or seven BC kids who are studying in Madrid. It was hilarious -- when we walked up to the window, we were not expecting to see them: Bobby and Johnny Johnson, Alexia Schwartz and her friend from home, Katherine Dolan, this kid John, a girl named Jackie from my floor freshmen year etc. I was so excited to see everyone, but me, Al and Meg needed a quick refreshment, so we hit a bar where drinks were free for “ladies.” Holler. After one drink and some “Ella, Ella, Ella, Eh, Eh,” we met back up with the BC crew outside a club called Joy. Or Fever. I’m not sure. I think it was called both of those names actually.
We were in a pulsing/pushing mass of about 100 kids who were all trying to get in before one am for about ten minutes, until Alison pushed to the front and got us in, no problem. Sweet. The only problem came when I went to the bar to order some drinks for our group and was told too late that each mixed drink was eleven euro. I nearly died. Sooo we all had one drink, wishing we had saved our money, and then danced our butts off for about four hours. The place was huge, it was packed, and it had cross-dressing professional dancers. They were extremely pretty and they could have fooled me. (Pictures soon, I swear.) The music was great, everyone was having a good time…exactly what we needed to keep us awake!
Once the bar was closing around 4:40am, we hit the road, went back to Al’s to grab our stuff, bid everyone goodbye and hopped on the metro right when it opened at 6. It was then off to the airport on no hours of sleep to catch our 8am flight to Sevilla. After check-in, etc. we all passed out at the gate for a bit before getting on our once again on-time flight. We landed one hour later in Sevilla, dazed and confused, dirty and exhausted.
We had instructions to board a bus that would take us to a square near our hostel – easy, right? It didn’t take too long before we were told in broken Spanish that this was the last stop. Unfortunately, it was not any name that we recognized. Boo. After wandering around for a good hour, asking fruitlessly for directions and getting crankier and crankier with each other, we found the hostel. Of course it was down a cobble-stoned street where cabs can’t drive, tucked away behind a huge building, on as street with no sign, etc. But we had found it! And they had safes, towels, running water, friendly staff, free Internet, free international phone calls and free breakfast! We were in heaven…until we were told that we couldn’t check in until 2pm.
I don’t know if you follow, but this meant that we couldn’t sleep until 2pm. Damn it. I nearly cried. But, manning up, we dropped our stuff and went to meet three more BC kids for lunch. Jenny is Meg’s roommate from school – she’s studying in Sevilla and is crazy. She’s straight-forward and funny and great. Colin is studying in Madrid but was visiting for the weekend. He was really relaxed and nice. Suzy is living with Meg/Jenny next year and is studying in Rome currently, but was also up for Carnivale. So, we wandered down the WARM, SUNNY streets of Sevilla, trying to shake off our fatigue and enjoy the sights. There were big open squares where horse drawn carriages lined up for service, a huge cathedral that we investigated the next day, open air market type things, gorgeous architecture, flamenco dancers and small quartets playing on the streets, etc. It had the small town feel of Galway, but its actually much bigger. It also reminded me of pictures I’ve seen of Greece, since its near the water and all the buildings are smooth and pure white.
We passed up lots of weird looking food places before finally settling on one. I ordered some sort of shrimp salad and tortilla Espanola, which are both typically Spanish foods. They were both quite good. Then we got banana split ice cream, which was even better. We wandered around until 2, at which point we hit the hostel hard. After checking in, it was into glorious bed, where we slept until 7ish. Then we all took freezing showers, got ready and headed to dinner.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Finishing up Scotland
Sooo, I ended with our final arrival at Dan's dorm in Scotland. Thank god.
Just to wrap up, we spent that night sitting around Dan's room laughing and making fun of each other, having some drinks and just catching up. It was fabulous to see people from home, and everyone got along really well so I was happy.
The next morning we got up at ten and Tara, Molly and I found our way into town (the boys were still sleeping). We got some decent lunch at a little cafe and then wandered around the rest of the town. St. Andrew's the town is tiny - think the town where Dartmouth is located. It has a few main roads with shops, etc., but that is about it. However, it's lovely. There is really no other word to describe it. Everyone drives slowly around the roundabouts, people are out walking their dogs past the intensely detailed architecture, and all the shops could be deemed "quaint." They have a movie theater, a Subway, and a few Starbucks, but the rest of the places are provately owned. There are a bunch of kilt-making shops, and we saw a butcher shop with huge racks of meat hanging and haggis in the window. Gross. I think my favorite store was the OxFam secondhand store where I bought 3 books for 2 pounds each. Can't beat that!
In the afternoon we played cards, read and drank coffee, enjoying the Scottish accents around us and waiting for the boys. When they finally came to town, we ate lunch and then went back to campus for a nap, while the boys went to see a movie. We ended the night at a delicious Italian restaurant where we spent probably three hours and a couple hundred dollars total. It was relaxing, delicious and just what we needed (alcohol-free). That night we hit the sack early, after watching music videos and commenting on the strangeness of being essentially alone in a massive dorm (all the other students were still home on break..)
Sunday morning we were up, showered and packed by ten, in time to say goodbye to the boys and head into town for some food. Forsaking regional cuisine, since most providers weren't open yet, we guiltily hit Subway and Starbucks before grabbing a taxi.
The day was then spent travelling back to the airport by means of four trains. It was quite uneventful, except for having all of five minutes to transfer from our third train to our fourth train...ohhh, and run to a different train station in the process. Yes. That's right. We got into the Queen Street station at 4:31 and had to run, full tilt, about four or five windy blocks through the centre of Glasgow to catch our last train at Central Station, which was departing at 4:36. We hustled. We made it. We also elicited screams of "RUN, FOREST, RUN!" from locals. We collasped onto the floor of the fourth train, out of breath and sweating, but entirely victorious. It was great.
The flight was fine, and then we grabbed another airport dinner before taking the Shannon bus home to Galway. That night we ate penna vodka care of Tara and watched all of five minutes of the SuperBowl pre-show before heading to bed.
All in all it was a great trip. We got to see a lot of Scotland on the trains, I introduced friends from home and friends from school, we ate good food, experienced our first weekend away, and did it all without complaining. Hah, yeah right -- all we did was complain. But we made it, and I was proud of us.
We also became professional "would-you-rather" players. Example: (while sitting in the train station waiting room in Glasgow, waiting for our last train) would you rather lick the floor of this waiting room or wander over and innocently sit on that strange man's lap? Yeah...think about it.
I am dying to update about Spain, since it was the experience of a lifetime and I fell in love with Sevilla, but I am freezing cold in my room and need a nap. I promise to write soon.
Just to wrap up, we spent that night sitting around Dan's room laughing and making fun of each other, having some drinks and just catching up. It was fabulous to see people from home, and everyone got along really well so I was happy.
The next morning we got up at ten and Tara, Molly and I found our way into town (the boys were still sleeping). We got some decent lunch at a little cafe and then wandered around the rest of the town. St. Andrew's the town is tiny - think the town where Dartmouth is located. It has a few main roads with shops, etc., but that is about it. However, it's lovely. There is really no other word to describe it. Everyone drives slowly around the roundabouts, people are out walking their dogs past the intensely detailed architecture, and all the shops could be deemed "quaint." They have a movie theater, a Subway, and a few Starbucks, but the rest of the places are provately owned. There are a bunch of kilt-making shops, and we saw a butcher shop with huge racks of meat hanging and haggis in the window. Gross. I think my favorite store was the OxFam secondhand store where I bought 3 books for 2 pounds each. Can't beat that!
In the afternoon we played cards, read and drank coffee, enjoying the Scottish accents around us and waiting for the boys. When they finally came to town, we ate lunch and then went back to campus for a nap, while the boys went to see a movie. We ended the night at a delicious Italian restaurant where we spent probably three hours and a couple hundred dollars total. It was relaxing, delicious and just what we needed (alcohol-free). That night we hit the sack early, after watching music videos and commenting on the strangeness of being essentially alone in a massive dorm (all the other students were still home on break..)
Sunday morning we were up, showered and packed by ten, in time to say goodbye to the boys and head into town for some food. Forsaking regional cuisine, since most providers weren't open yet, we guiltily hit Subway and Starbucks before grabbing a taxi.
The day was then spent travelling back to the airport by means of four trains. It was quite uneventful, except for having all of five minutes to transfer from our third train to our fourth train...ohhh, and run to a different train station in the process. Yes. That's right. We got into the Queen Street station at 4:31 and had to run, full tilt, about four or five windy blocks through the centre of Glasgow to catch our last train at Central Station, which was departing at 4:36. We hustled. We made it. We also elicited screams of "RUN, FOREST, RUN!" from locals. We collasped onto the floor of the fourth train, out of breath and sweating, but entirely victorious. It was great.
The flight was fine, and then we grabbed another airport dinner before taking the Shannon bus home to Galway. That night we ate penna vodka care of Tara and watched all of five minutes of the SuperBowl pre-show before heading to bed.
All in all it was a great trip. We got to see a lot of Scotland on the trains, I introduced friends from home and friends from school, we ate good food, experienced our first weekend away, and did it all without complaining. Hah, yeah right -- all we did was complain. But we made it, and I was proud of us.
We also became professional "would-you-rather" players. Example: (while sitting in the train station waiting room in Glasgow, waiting for our last train) would you rather lick the floor of this waiting room or wander over and innocently sit on that strange man's lap? Yeah...think about it.
I am dying to update about Spain, since it was the experience of a lifetime and I fell in love with Sevilla, but I am freezing cold in my room and need a nap. I promise to write soon.
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Scotland Part Two
So we last left off in the bus stop at the Glasgow airport... After standing in the cold for about 35 minutes, laughing at our travels thus far, a two-tiered bus appeared, exactly as Dan had described it. We each paid five pounds and headed to the second tier. At this point it was pitch black outside, and Scotland doesn't waste money on street lights, so it was difficult to see where we were going. However, we were still excited, and our enthusiasm carried us right past any doubts about that 25 minute mark passing.
Yep...it passed. We were on that bus for about an hour and a half. Shit. We thought something was amiss, but we did continue to see the random sign here or there for the city centre, so we felt okay. Finally, after asking the bus driver what to do, he let us off at Buchanan Street in the centre of Glasgow. At this point we were starting to get nervous, since it was almost 8:15pm (beginning hour eight of travel) and we thought we were really far from St. Andrew's. We headed to Central Station, ran in and cornered some security guards, begging them for information. We were met with laughs and exchanged dubious glances. They quickly filled us in: we were idiots. We were probably not going to get to St. Andrew's that night. We were "VERY" far. Why did we even fly into Glasgow?
Great. Thanks for the confidence booster, boys. So, with tears almost overflowing, I asked them "WHAT DO WE DO?!" One of the nicer men, with an accent that we could sort of understand, instructed us that there was an 8:30 train out of Queens St. station, a 5-minute walk. We thanked them and started to speed walk. Out the door, make a right, to the end of the street, make a left, then another right, then another left. Queen's street. Excellent. Into line and bought a ticket to Edinburgh - only 19 pounds, sweet.
We even had time to grab a coffee (much-needed), before going through the turnstile and positioning ourselves at platform 3. We had chosen platform 3 since there was a 3 on our ticket, and it had been partially confirmed by a Scottish-accented attendant. We were sitting there, determined to be the first ones on the train, when we realized it was 8:29 and there was no train. Weird. As we started to freak out once again, a boy our age approached and asked if he could "join us." Since it took so long to understand exactly what he said, once we did, we invited him to sit. It was a great choice, since his next move was to pull out a fresh bottle of Jack Daniels and a 12 packs of mini-Cokes.
Now, let me interject, if this Jack and Coke had not been clearly sent from God, I would not have drinken it. However, this boy was a blatant angel, so who was I to pass up this little blessing? I couldn't. Grabbing the bottle and opening it (ensuring it had not been tampered with...), I cracked some Cokes and went to town. After about five minutes, I checked the time again, wondering where the hell our train was. I asked Tara if she would be so kind as to inquire as to the whereabouts of our train, and she obliged.
Two seconds later, as I sat there draining the last dregs of Coke, I see Tara sprinting toward me, full-tilt -- "PLATFORM SIX, PLATFORM SIX!" Oh no, she didn't. Yes, folks. We had missed our train. We had missed it, when it was about twenty feet behind us. We had missed it because we were not paying attention. The three on the ticket meant nothing. Awesome.
Still in high spirits, we laughed instead of cried, and asked a security guard what we should do. He mentioned that the next train heading that way was coming along in 30 minutes and we could use our same ticket. Excellent. We bid adieu to our friend, bought some playing cards and cemented our feet to platform 6. Aaaand, would you believe, the train pulled in at five to nine and pulled out again on time.
This was when our luck changed. We had time on our first train (about an hour) to play some great games of Rummy and make friends with a train attendant (Roger), who sold us train tickets for our connection, and also told us that he would ensure we got off at the correct stop (he literally got off the train and pointed to the stairs we had to take...haha). In Edinburgh, we had time to grab a slice of pizza and some bottles of wine before hopping our last train of the night to Leuchars. At around 11:55pm, we pulled into our last stop, only one taxi cab away from Dan and Micah's loving arms. Phew.
The cab ride only took ten minutes, and we were bursting with excitement. We were finally there!! Although St. Andrew's was dark and deserted at this point, there was a definite majesty about the place, an impressive feeling...
Yep...it passed. We were on that bus for about an hour and a half. Shit. We thought something was amiss, but we did continue to see the random sign here or there for the city centre, so we felt okay. Finally, after asking the bus driver what to do, he let us off at Buchanan Street in the centre of Glasgow. At this point we were starting to get nervous, since it was almost 8:15pm (beginning hour eight of travel) and we thought we were really far from St. Andrew's. We headed to Central Station, ran in and cornered some security guards, begging them for information. We were met with laughs and exchanged dubious glances. They quickly filled us in: we were idiots. We were probably not going to get to St. Andrew's that night. We were "VERY" far. Why did we even fly into Glasgow?
Great. Thanks for the confidence booster, boys. So, with tears almost overflowing, I asked them "WHAT DO WE DO?!" One of the nicer men, with an accent that we could sort of understand, instructed us that there was an 8:30 train out of Queens St. station, a 5-minute walk. We thanked them and started to speed walk. Out the door, make a right, to the end of the street, make a left, then another right, then another left. Queen's street. Excellent. Into line and bought a ticket to Edinburgh - only 19 pounds, sweet.
We even had time to grab a coffee (much-needed), before going through the turnstile and positioning ourselves at platform 3. We had chosen platform 3 since there was a 3 on our ticket, and it had been partially confirmed by a Scottish-accented attendant. We were sitting there, determined to be the first ones on the train, when we realized it was 8:29 and there was no train. Weird. As we started to freak out once again, a boy our age approached and asked if he could "join us." Since it took so long to understand exactly what he said, once we did, we invited him to sit. It was a great choice, since his next move was to pull out a fresh bottle of Jack Daniels and a 12 packs of mini-Cokes.
Now, let me interject, if this Jack and Coke had not been clearly sent from God, I would not have drinken it. However, this boy was a blatant angel, so who was I to pass up this little blessing? I couldn't. Grabbing the bottle and opening it (ensuring it had not been tampered with...), I cracked some Cokes and went to town. After about five minutes, I checked the time again, wondering where the hell our train was. I asked Tara if she would be so kind as to inquire as to the whereabouts of our train, and she obliged.
Two seconds later, as I sat there draining the last dregs of Coke, I see Tara sprinting toward me, full-tilt -- "PLATFORM SIX, PLATFORM SIX!" Oh no, she didn't. Yes, folks. We had missed our train. We had missed it, when it was about twenty feet behind us. We had missed it because we were not paying attention. The three on the ticket meant nothing. Awesome.
Still in high spirits, we laughed instead of cried, and asked a security guard what we should do. He mentioned that the next train heading that way was coming along in 30 minutes and we could use our same ticket. Excellent. We bid adieu to our friend, bought some playing cards and cemented our feet to platform 6. Aaaand, would you believe, the train pulled in at five to nine and pulled out again on time.
This was when our luck changed. We had time on our first train (about an hour) to play some great games of Rummy and make friends with a train attendant (Roger), who sold us train tickets for our connection, and also told us that he would ensure we got off at the correct stop (he literally got off the train and pointed to the stairs we had to take...haha). In Edinburgh, we had time to grab a slice of pizza and some bottles of wine before hopping our last train of the night to Leuchars. At around 11:55pm, we pulled into our last stop, only one taxi cab away from Dan and Micah's loving arms. Phew.
The cab ride only took ten minutes, and we were bursting with excitement. We were finally there!! Although St. Andrew's was dark and deserted at this point, there was a definite majesty about the place, an impressive feeling...
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Scotland! Part One
This weekend was two things: hilarious and a learning experience.
Tara, Molly and I made plans at some point late last week to fly from Shannon airport to Glasgow Prestwick, where we would then take the train to St. Andrew's where two of my friends from home (Dan and Micah) are currently studying. We needed a break from the same old thing here, plus most of our friends were also travelling, so the weekend would be quiet at home.
Thursday night ended up being pretty wild, with a flip cup tournament at a local bar, care of the International Student's Society, so we didn't get in until pretty late. Thus, Friday morning (departure day) dawned rather late, and we hadn't even checked the bus schedules to Shannon. Soooo, I got up at 10:45 on Friday, showered, packed, ate, met Molly and Tara and hustled to campus. We had about 15 minutes to print out our tickets and change our euros into pounds before jumping a cab to the bus station for a 12:30pm bus to Shannon. Yep. The only bus that would get us to the airport on time was at 12:30...oops.
Error number one: Molly headed to the first floor of the library to print her ticket, while Tara and I went to the ground floor. After going through about 38 steps online to check in with Ryan Air and get our boarding passes, we realized that only citizens of the EU were allowed this priviledge. So, irritated by the waste of time, we abandoned our efforts and went to find Molly. She found us first, boarding pass in hand. How, you may ask? Well, she explained, when she couldn't find United States on the list of countries, she just clicked United Kingdom. ARE YOU KIDDING?! YOU DON'T HAVE A UK PASSPORT!, we reminded her, but we had literally no time to worry about this error, and ran to the corner to catch a cab.
It was rush hour, so the normally five minute ride to the bus station took ten minutes. We sat in heated silence, wondering if we were going to miss the bus, which would cause us to miss our flight...
Thankfully, we made it to the station with five minutes to spare. We bought tickets and got three of the last seats on the almost-full bus. Although we weren't sitting together, we were happy. We had completed step one of our mission. Thank God we didn't know then what lay ahead, or we may have just turned around.
After two hours on the bus (almost 40 minutes extra) due to some traffic and construction, we got to the nearly empty Shannon airport with an hour and a half before our flight left. Perfect. We surveyed the scene and decided we had enough time to grab lunch. After delicious burgers and drinks, we hustled through security and got on our flight, no problem.
(Thankfully, the Ryan Air people found humor in Molly's passport "error" and let her through with just a shake of their heads...)
The flight was uneventful besides our conversation about the chances of the yellow flotation devices actually saving our lives if we crashed into water - the landing was incredibly fast and bumpy, and we landed in Scotland to freezing temps and flurries of snow at around 6pm.
We were all smiles and cheers, and I called Dan to see what to do next. He instructed us to find the buses on the first floor and get on the bus that would take us to the "city centre" in 25 minutes. We wandered along a walkway with a bunch of other people, down some stairs that looked like they led to a dungeon and outside to where the trains were...and stopped. For all intents and purposes it looked like the train platform simply dropped off, despite signs for the bus stops. After wandering around looking like touristy idiots (the theme of the day...) we discovered a staircase leading underneath the platform where we waited for our approaching two-tier bus.
After asking a random bus driver which bus to get on, he studied the schedule for us (since we can't read..?) and told us we had just missed the bus. The next one would be coming along in 30 minutes. So, we bundled up in all our warm clothes and huddled together in a small bus stop cubicle until the bus arrived.
Tara, Molly and I made plans at some point late last week to fly from Shannon airport to Glasgow Prestwick, where we would then take the train to St. Andrew's where two of my friends from home (Dan and Micah) are currently studying. We needed a break from the same old thing here, plus most of our friends were also travelling, so the weekend would be quiet at home.
Thursday night ended up being pretty wild, with a flip cup tournament at a local bar, care of the International Student's Society, so we didn't get in until pretty late. Thus, Friday morning (departure day) dawned rather late, and we hadn't even checked the bus schedules to Shannon. Soooo, I got up at 10:45 on Friday, showered, packed, ate, met Molly and Tara and hustled to campus. We had about 15 minutes to print out our tickets and change our euros into pounds before jumping a cab to the bus station for a 12:30pm bus to Shannon. Yep. The only bus that would get us to the airport on time was at 12:30...oops.
Error number one: Molly headed to the first floor of the library to print her ticket, while Tara and I went to the ground floor. After going through about 38 steps online to check in with Ryan Air and get our boarding passes, we realized that only citizens of the EU were allowed this priviledge. So, irritated by the waste of time, we abandoned our efforts and went to find Molly. She found us first, boarding pass in hand. How, you may ask? Well, she explained, when she couldn't find United States on the list of countries, she just clicked United Kingdom. ARE YOU KIDDING?! YOU DON'T HAVE A UK PASSPORT!, we reminded her, but we had literally no time to worry about this error, and ran to the corner to catch a cab.
It was rush hour, so the normally five minute ride to the bus station took ten minutes. We sat in heated silence, wondering if we were going to miss the bus, which would cause us to miss our flight...
Thankfully, we made it to the station with five minutes to spare. We bought tickets and got three of the last seats on the almost-full bus. Although we weren't sitting together, we were happy. We had completed step one of our mission. Thank God we didn't know then what lay ahead, or we may have just turned around.
After two hours on the bus (almost 40 minutes extra) due to some traffic and construction, we got to the nearly empty Shannon airport with an hour and a half before our flight left. Perfect. We surveyed the scene and decided we had enough time to grab lunch. After delicious burgers and drinks, we hustled through security and got on our flight, no problem.
(Thankfully, the Ryan Air people found humor in Molly's passport "error" and let her through with just a shake of their heads...)
The flight was uneventful besides our conversation about the chances of the yellow flotation devices actually saving our lives if we crashed into water - the landing was incredibly fast and bumpy, and we landed in Scotland to freezing temps and flurries of snow at around 6pm.
We were all smiles and cheers, and I called Dan to see what to do next. He instructed us to find the buses on the first floor and get on the bus that would take us to the "city centre" in 25 minutes. We wandered along a walkway with a bunch of other people, down some stairs that looked like they led to a dungeon and outside to where the trains were...and stopped. For all intents and purposes it looked like the train platform simply dropped off, despite signs for the bus stops. After wandering around looking like touristy idiots (the theme of the day...) we discovered a staircase leading underneath the platform where we waited for our approaching two-tier bus.
After asking a random bus driver which bus to get on, he studied the schedule for us (since we can't read..?) and told us we had just missed the bus. The next one would be coming along in 30 minutes. So, we bundled up in all our warm clothes and huddled together in a small bus stop cubicle until the bus arrived.
Monday, January 28, 2008
Sunday, Sunday
So, yesterday was a fabulous Sunday afternoon in the city. I awoke around 12:15 and had Meg come over to recap our previous night and take some laundry to do for me...we are such a team, haha. Then I had to briefly suffer through my two roommates recap of their previous night, which, suffice to say, was a bit more immoral than my own. After gagging a bunch of times and trying to not laugh at their idiocy from behind my book, I was relieved by the entrance of my third and best roommate. We ate lunch together, talked about our weekend, and then she offered me pure gold in the form of homemade French crepes drizzled with honey. Ohhhh, it was love.
Soon after, Tara, Andrew and I decided to take advantage of the SUNNY weather (oh yes, there is sun here, prior to what some may think -- including myself), and wander into town. We needed groceries, wanted to see some of our favorite pubs in daylight, and just wanted to generally take in the town. And that we did. First we walked down the main road, stopping to buy post cards and look for ping pong balls (to no avail), then we made it to Eyre Square, which was absolutely gorgeous in the sunlight. We walked into the main mall, where Tara and I immediately hit up a store that was having a sale. We walked out 45 minutes later laden with bags and huge smiles. I scored FIVE wonderful tops (since yes, that's all I ever buy) to wear in Spain, etc. and Tara got a cute dress and heels, also for Spain. I am saving all these clothes for non-Ireland weekends, so its worth it/more exciting.
Andrew waited patiently for us, and remarked that he just sat on the couch "with the rest of the dads...". Haha. After that we stopped briefly at Dunnes to stock up on essentials (bread, tomato sauce and beer), and then began to walk home. However, we found ourselves on Quay Street, near the harbor, which we had never before investigated. Since it was only four pm, and the sun was still SHINING, we walked along the water and took pictures. It was gorgeous. On the way back we were solicited by a local theater company to walk across their green screen to elicit some what of a city feel...I don't know why they didn't just film the centre of Galway, but it was fun nonetheless. Who knows, maybe that was my big break!
After walking home along the River Corrib, we broke for a bit and then rejoined at Andrew's for taco dip (cream cheese, refried beans, salsa and cheese - pop it in the oven) and taco salad (layers of taco tasting beef, lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, etc.). Yum! After deciding against going out, probably a great decision, we got pints of Ben and Jerry's and watched Wedding Crashers. I was in bed by midnight. Love it.
This week of classes is going to fly, as well as the nights, since we are celebrating Andrew's birthday both Tues and Wed nights (the big 21!) I am also hoping to go see some on-campus movies as part of the FilmSoc here, since they're showing Blood Diamond and one other good one. Meanwhile, I have finished Middlesex (read it if you haven't) and have begun We Need to Talk about Kevin, a weirdly titled piece of fiction written from the point of view of a mother who's son commits a Columbine-like crime at the age of 16. The book is written in letters from the mother to her estranged husband and documents her son Kevin's every move, from before his birth to after he is incarcerated, trying to look for answers. So far its amazing - well written and I can't put it down.
I love having days where I can just sit and read...it's so relaxing. I love that I still haven't spent any substantial amount of time in front of the TV. And I love Todd Morrison. (Just got out of class with him again).
Things I miss: Hillside panninis, ketchup that tastes like ketchup and not like tomato sauce, ketchup that is free and not 25 cents a packet, Caesar salads, BC football games, having everyone on the same time zone as me, not having to use three different keys to get into my room, and having a car.
However, not having these things is forcing me out of my comfort zone, which is inevitably why I chose to study abroad in the first place. And, reviewing that list (although it is not complete, obviously) I am lucky if these are the only inconveniences I can list right now...
Well, tonight Tara is making penne vodka and then I am off to judge a competition between Molly and Alex: round one - drink making; round two - bowling competition; round three - rock, paper, scissors, best out of 101. Haha, we are mindless at times. And I love it. (Loser has to wear the same shirt (chosen by the winner) on the outside of their clothes for one week.)
BYE!
Soon after, Tara, Andrew and I decided to take advantage of the SUNNY weather (oh yes, there is sun here, prior to what some may think -- including myself), and wander into town. We needed groceries, wanted to see some of our favorite pubs in daylight, and just wanted to generally take in the town. And that we did. First we walked down the main road, stopping to buy post cards and look for ping pong balls (to no avail), then we made it to Eyre Square, which was absolutely gorgeous in the sunlight. We walked into the main mall, where Tara and I immediately hit up a store that was having a sale. We walked out 45 minutes later laden with bags and huge smiles. I scored FIVE wonderful tops (since yes, that's all I ever buy) to wear in Spain, etc. and Tara got a cute dress and heels, also for Spain. I am saving all these clothes for non-Ireland weekends, so its worth it/more exciting.
Andrew waited patiently for us, and remarked that he just sat on the couch "with the rest of the dads...". Haha. After that we stopped briefly at Dunnes to stock up on essentials (bread, tomato sauce and beer), and then began to walk home. However, we found ourselves on Quay Street, near the harbor, which we had never before investigated. Since it was only four pm, and the sun was still SHINING, we walked along the water and took pictures. It was gorgeous. On the way back we were solicited by a local theater company to walk across their green screen to elicit some what of a city feel...I don't know why they didn't just film the centre of Galway, but it was fun nonetheless. Who knows, maybe that was my big break!
After walking home along the River Corrib, we broke for a bit and then rejoined at Andrew's for taco dip (cream cheese, refried beans, salsa and cheese - pop it in the oven) and taco salad (layers of taco tasting beef, lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, etc.). Yum! After deciding against going out, probably a great decision, we got pints of Ben and Jerry's and watched Wedding Crashers. I was in bed by midnight. Love it.
This week of classes is going to fly, as well as the nights, since we are celebrating Andrew's birthday both Tues and Wed nights (the big 21!) I am also hoping to go see some on-campus movies as part of the FilmSoc here, since they're showing Blood Diamond and one other good one. Meanwhile, I have finished Middlesex (read it if you haven't) and have begun We Need to Talk about Kevin, a weirdly titled piece of fiction written from the point of view of a mother who's son commits a Columbine-like crime at the age of 16. The book is written in letters from the mother to her estranged husband and documents her son Kevin's every move, from before his birth to after he is incarcerated, trying to look for answers. So far its amazing - well written and I can't put it down.
I love having days where I can just sit and read...it's so relaxing. I love that I still haven't spent any substantial amount of time in front of the TV. And I love Todd Morrison. (Just got out of class with him again).
Things I miss: Hillside panninis, ketchup that tastes like ketchup and not like tomato sauce, ketchup that is free and not 25 cents a packet, Caesar salads, BC football games, having everyone on the same time zone as me, not having to use three different keys to get into my room, and having a car.
However, not having these things is forcing me out of my comfort zone, which is inevitably why I chose to study abroad in the first place. And, reviewing that list (although it is not complete, obviously) I am lucky if these are the only inconveniences I can list right now...
Well, tonight Tara is making penne vodka and then I am off to judge a competition between Molly and Alex: round one - drink making; round two - bowling competition; round three - rock, paper, scissors, best out of 101. Haha, we are mindless at times. And I love it. (Loser has to wear the same shirt (chosen by the winner) on the outside of their clothes for one week.)
BYE!
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Student Teaching/Update
So, Thursday was my first day at the Schoile Brihol (sorry, but I am totally winging it on the spelling, and I have no idea how to pronounce it either...) elementary school. I was up at 8am to get ready and walk a looong way up some hills, etc. to the school. Good thing it wasn't raining. I got there around 8:50, wandered in the unlocked door and aimlessly stood in the hallway, watching all the kids walk in. I had been given instructions to go to the office of the secretary, but since the door seemed to be locked (shocked that someone in Ireland would be late to work...haha) I just observed. Finally, after about ten minutes, I located the principle's office (Frank - great guy), and he introduced me to my cooperating teacher.
My CT's name is Susan and she's probably not even thirty, very thin and pretty. She was dressed sort of nicely, somewhat unlike the usual kindergarten teacher, but she was very nice. She brought me to the classroom and introduced me to the other student teacher who is doing the last segment of her masters, so she's like thirty, and also really nice.
There are about 20 kids in the "Junior Infant" classroom, ranging in age from four to six. About half are boys, half girls, and about half are white and half are black. The room is very sparse, with not a lot of things on the walls or supplies,
although the school is in a nice area and relatively well off. The kids are adorable. There is one little boy named Mike O'Donnell who comes from a gypsy family and travels in a legit caravan. He is pretty rambunctious and loooves to test your limits, but with his red hair and freckles (and the fact that he was the only one who remembered my name), he is quickly becoming one of my favorites.
The day was very open and unstructured -- much less structured than at home. This could have been due to the fact that the kids were getting their immunization shots that morning, but I think it's just generally much more lax. The kids are young enough that they don't do much reading/writing/math, although some of them don't even know how to write their names, which at this point they should be able to do.
All in all I had a good day and I'm excited to go back. The kids are sweet, the school is great, the teachers seem smart, and everyone is nice. I also get to wear jeans and sneakers and play outside for at least an hour each day, so what beats that?
In other news, I have fallen in love with Aero bars. I haven't seen them in the states, but they are delicious. They are chocolate with little bubbles inside so it melts in your mouth. You can get them in mint or with caramel and...I love them.
I also have booked a flight to Scotland for next weekend to visit Dan. Molly and Tara are coming with me...whoo hoo!
This weekend has been really fun. I met the boys who live downstairs from me, finally, and they are awesome. They both go to schools in VA but are from NJ and CT. We went out last night to a pub called Monroe's for some authentic Irish music, and I discovered my new favorite drink (sorry Mom and Dad) - Powers whiskey with lime and black current. Oh, my, God. It's absolutely delicious. And you get to pour it all
yourself. After all that beer (sorry Mom and Dad) it was a welcome change. However, it is definitely classified as a girly drink, because it's so sweet, so I can only really drink one or two per night or I feel stupid/sort of sick, haha.
Classes are good - some are boring, some not. The weather was horrible for two days and then nice for two days. Tara has friends from BC visiting from Cork this weekend...Jim is in London...Andrew's birthday is Wednesday. I registered with immigration and finally registered for classes on Friday...productive.
So yeah, everything is going well. I'm getting into the swing of things here and now I'm looking forward to travelling.
My CT's name is Susan and she's probably not even thirty, very thin and pretty. She was dressed sort of nicely, somewhat unlike the usual kindergarten teacher, but she was very nice. She brought me to the classroom and introduced me to the other student teacher who is doing the last segment of her masters, so she's like thirty, and also really nice.
There are about 20 kids in the "Junior Infant" classroom, ranging in age from four to six. About half are boys, half girls, and about half are white and half are black. The room is very sparse, with not a lot of things on the walls or supplies,
although the school is in a nice area and relatively well off. The kids are adorable. There is one little boy named Mike O'Donnell who comes from a gypsy family and travels in a legit caravan. He is pretty rambunctious and loooves to test your limits, but with his red hair and freckles (and the fact that he was the only one who remembered my name), he is quickly becoming one of my favorites.
The day was very open and unstructured -- much less structured than at home. This could have been due to the fact that the kids were getting their immunization shots that morning, but I think it's just generally much more lax. The kids are young enough that they don't do much reading/writing/math, although some of them don't even know how to write their names, which at this point they should be able to do.
All in all I had a good day and I'm excited to go back. The kids are sweet, the school is great, the teachers seem smart, and everyone is nice. I also get to wear jeans and sneakers and play outside for at least an hour each day, so what beats that?
In other news, I have fallen in love with Aero bars. I haven't seen them in the states, but they are delicious. They are chocolate with little bubbles inside so it melts in your mouth. You can get them in mint or with caramel and...I love them.
I also have booked a flight to Scotland for next weekend to visit Dan. Molly and Tara are coming with me...whoo hoo!
This weekend has been really fun. I met the boys who live downstairs from me, finally, and they are awesome. They both go to schools in VA but are from NJ and CT. We went out last night to a pub called Monroe's for some authentic Irish music, and I discovered my new favorite drink (sorry Mom and Dad) - Powers whiskey with lime and black current. Oh, my, God. It's absolutely delicious. And you get to pour it all
yourself. After all that beer (sorry Mom and Dad) it was a welcome change. However, it is definitely classified as a girly drink, because it's so sweet, so I can only really drink one or two per night or I feel stupid/sort of sick, haha.
Classes are good - some are boring, some not. The weather was horrible for two days and then nice for two days. Tara has friends from BC visiting from Cork this weekend...Jim is in London...Andrew's birthday is Wednesday. I registered with immigration and finally registered for classes on Friday...productive.
So yeah, everything is going well. I'm getting into the swing of things here and now I'm looking forward to travelling.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Todd Morrison
Since I left my camera cord at home, I haven't been able to get any of my travelling pictures off my camera and onto the computer. However, with the genius problem-solving skills that the Boston College Carroll School of Management has placed within her, Meaghan soon discovered that if I put my memory card in her camera and linked her camera to the computer, it would work. Amen.
So a brief collection of pictures from Madrid and Barcelona will be coming soon. I will do Ireland pics soon too.
Also a little post script about my new favorite professor, Todd Morrison, of Social Psych:
Throughout class last night he would randomly break off on a tangent about one unrelated thing or another. By the end, we had been told that there were three important questions to work on for next class:
1. Why has Britney Spears begun speaking with a British accent as of late?
2. Why does his KICK! energy drink only cost 52 cents, while a Red Bull costs more than 3 euro.
And finally...
3. Is there any place on campus that is actually air-conditioned and not 92.5 degrees all the god damn time?
He is absolutely hilarious and I can't wait to take the rest of these classes with him.
So a brief collection of pictures from Madrid and Barcelona will be coming soon. I will do Ireland pics soon too.
Also a little post script about my new favorite professor, Todd Morrison, of Social Psych:
Throughout class last night he would randomly break off on a tangent about one unrelated thing or another. By the end, we had been told that there were three important questions to work on for next class:
1. Why has Britney Spears begun speaking with a British accent as of late?
2. Why does his KICK! energy drink only cost 52 cents, while a Red Bull costs more than 3 euro.
And finally...
3. Is there any place on campus that is actually air-conditioned and not 92.5 degrees all the god damn time?
He is absolutely hilarious and I can't wait to take the rest of these classes with him.
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Laundry and trips
Saturday was laundry day. This means that I have not done any laundry since leaving the United States on December 29th...yeah, I brought a lot of clothes with me. However, once it came down to buying another set of new socks or doing my laundry, I chose laundry (finally).
So, I awaken to (what else?) but rain, and call up my friend Andrew to come along. We wandered along the empty streets of Corrib Village toward the closed registration building and tiny mini-mart, to the laundry room. The room itself resembles a prison cell. Its large enough to fit 6 dryers on top of 6 washing machines, as well as a row of folding chairs and a pop machine. Excellent. We took our positions, sorting and separating. As soon as I put in my two loads, I was hit with some news...three of the washers and three of the dryers were so jammed with money that they didn't work. I learned this after putting in a two euro coin and having ten cents roll out. Fun. So, we got some pen caps and went to work making some extra change...hahah. We are going to go back with a wire hanger and make bank soon.
Anyway, this basically meant that there were only three washers and three dryers for my two loads and Andrew's two loads. To end this pointless story, we ended up sitting there for almost three hours and finally got everything done. We went from talking about our night, to our roommates, to BC, to sports, to our hometowns, where we've travelled, the Discovery Channel, animals we don't like...everything. I feel like I know that kid really well now, haha. It was fun I guess.
In other news, a bunch of us booked tickets to fly to Madrid and Sevilla in February to meet up with a lot of friends who are abroad there and celebrate Carnivale. I'm so excited. That is February 7th-11th, the first weekend in Feb. The second weekend we are all going to Dublin on a BC-sponsored weekend with Margaret and her husband. I'm sure it's going to be a riot. The third weekend in Feb. is when both Meg and Molly's families are coming to visit, so that will be nice. It's also incidentally "Rag Week" at school that week, which stands for "Raise a Grand" week. Basically, it's a drinking festival on campus used to raise money for the school. Apparently none of the teachers hold classes and instead everyone participates in events to raise money for NUI. Last year they made $100,000 in five days. This should be great.
I need to get to London and Scotland soon to see Ashley/Tim, etc. and Dan, respectively. Other than that, I'll probably go on the International Student Society trip to Belfast, and I'm sure I'll make it to Cork and Limerick on weekends when we are here. I also need to plan Spring break which will probably lead to me to Greece and Italy.
I expect to be in serious debt upon returning to the states. And probably about ten pounds heavier after Italy/Greece.
I start student teaching on Thursday and this weekend two BC friends of Tara's are visting, so it should be fun.
I'm also considering applying to spend a weekend in an Irish homestay, which could be a great experience.
Everything here is still really fun. We went out every night this weekend except for Tuesday, and it all starts over tomorrow. The people here are so friendly and welcoming, the Irish boys all love to dance, we've found some more great places to go, and I am getting used to all the walking.
Everyone should really come and visit me ASAP. <3 Caro
So, I awaken to (what else?) but rain, and call up my friend Andrew to come along. We wandered along the empty streets of Corrib Village toward the closed registration building and tiny mini-mart, to the laundry room. The room itself resembles a prison cell. Its large enough to fit 6 dryers on top of 6 washing machines, as well as a row of folding chairs and a pop machine. Excellent. We took our positions, sorting and separating. As soon as I put in my two loads, I was hit with some news...three of the washers and three of the dryers were so jammed with money that they didn't work. I learned this after putting in a two euro coin and having ten cents roll out. Fun. So, we got some pen caps and went to work making some extra change...hahah. We are going to go back with a wire hanger and make bank soon.
Anyway, this basically meant that there were only three washers and three dryers for my two loads and Andrew's two loads. To end this pointless story, we ended up sitting there for almost three hours and finally got everything done. We went from talking about our night, to our roommates, to BC, to sports, to our hometowns, where we've travelled, the Discovery Channel, animals we don't like...everything. I feel like I know that kid really well now, haha. It was fun I guess.
In other news, a bunch of us booked tickets to fly to Madrid and Sevilla in February to meet up with a lot of friends who are abroad there and celebrate Carnivale. I'm so excited. That is February 7th-11th, the first weekend in Feb. The second weekend we are all going to Dublin on a BC-sponsored weekend with Margaret and her husband. I'm sure it's going to be a riot. The third weekend in Feb. is when both Meg and Molly's families are coming to visit, so that will be nice. It's also incidentally "Rag Week" at school that week, which stands for "Raise a Grand" week. Basically, it's a drinking festival on campus used to raise money for the school. Apparently none of the teachers hold classes and instead everyone participates in events to raise money for NUI. Last year they made $100,000 in five days. This should be great.
I need to get to London and Scotland soon to see Ashley/Tim, etc. and Dan, respectively. Other than that, I'll probably go on the International Student Society trip to Belfast, and I'm sure I'll make it to Cork and Limerick on weekends when we are here. I also need to plan Spring break which will probably lead to me to Greece and Italy.
I expect to be in serious debt upon returning to the states. And probably about ten pounds heavier after Italy/Greece.
I start student teaching on Thursday and this weekend two BC friends of Tara's are visting, so it should be fun.
I'm also considering applying to spend a weekend in an Irish homestay, which could be a great experience.
Everything here is still really fun. We went out every night this weekend except for Tuesday, and it all starts over tomorrow. The people here are so friendly and welcoming, the Irish boys all love to dance, we've found some more great places to go, and I am getting used to all the walking.
Everyone should really come and visit me ASAP. <3 Caro
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Classes, etc.
Soo that Social Psych class I mentioned? We went to the wrong room and missed the whole thing, so we walked over to Tesco's for beers instead. I mean why not?...haha. We each got four or five big cans of different beers and then tasted them all to see which ones we preferred. A lot of the beer here is literally black and looks more like a milkshake than actual beer, but they don't taste too bad. Anyway, we decided Smithwyck's was the way to go.
That night, the boys had a party at their apartment and invited everyone in the three buildings around them, so we met a lot of nice new people, including a girl who is on the rugby team here and who had just flown back from spending her break in Nepal working at an orphanage..so cool. We just chatted and met new people and I finally learned how to play Guitar Hero, however poorly I may have been at it. (Though it did help that I was playing along with a kid who wins contests as a professional GH player...no joke.)
After the party dwindled we took off for town, going to two or three pubs in the rain before calling it quits. We met some kids from Villanova (there are 30 of them here this semester...), including one who's twin brother goes to BC. I also saw a delivery truck outside Dominos and ended up being handed a pile of raw dough. Sweet.
Tuesday was my first real day of classes. My first one was called "Problems in the History of Ireland, 1580-1700" or something along those lines. I wanted to take at least one Irish history course while I'm here, and this one seems fine enough. The prof is a cute, bald Irish guy who seems nice and very welcoming. It also doesn't hurt that Jim, Molly and Meg are in it as well.
After class we grabbed lunch, and then I almost got hit by a van since I was looking the wrong way when crossing the street(since the cars drive on the wrong side of the street here...duh, Caroline). I tried out a class called simply "The Habsberg Empire", which I quickly decided was not for me. However, the professor was hilarious looking. He is almost seven feet tall, bald, with glasses, and was wearing tannish-brown pants, a white and red checked shirt, a navy sweater, a tan blazer with red and green details, and to top it all off, a bow tie. I loved it. The next day in class, Meg told me he was wearing the same outfit again, just a different bow tie.
After Habsberg, Molly and I went to the second session of Social Psych, which seems interesting and is taught by a hilarious prof named Todd (an American). We decided against going out, since the weather was horrible and we had early classes the next day, and instead ordered pizza and watched the Discovery Channel for probably three hours. It was great.
That night I was awoken at one am by loud roommates, who kept me up until 3am, at which point the fire alarm in my building was pulled again. Fabulous. I guess thats what we get for living in a residence area with mostly first year students...
Yesterday was supposed to be my day of having classes straight from 9am to 4pm, but my first class at 9 was cancelled, since the prof had a family emergency, and my ten and twelve don't start until next week I found out. That meant that I didn't have class until 2, (whoo hoo!!) so I slept late and then went to campus to check out Societies Day. After wandering through all the tables, I signed up for the International Students Society, the Media Society, the Film Society and the Food and Drink Society. A lot of them seem to have great events planned, including trips to other countries, so I'm excited.
The International Student Society was throwing a bar party that night, so we all signed up to go.
After Health Psych, another interesting class, Molly, Tara and I headed back to change and get ready. We met Molly and Tara's other two roommates finally, and were so happy because they are fabulous. SingWay (thats the way you say it, I have no idea how you spell it) and Charmaine are their names and they are both from Singapore. They had been travelling for 27 hours, so they were exhausted, but still so nice and welcoming.
Around 9 we met up with some Irish boys and then our other guy friends and walked to town. We found the bar where the party was, grabbed a table and ended up having a great time. A lot of times the bars here are so crowded that you can't move and definitely can't get a drink, but this one (since it was rented out by the club) had just the right number of people in it. It was great. After a couple of hours some of us went to another bar, splitting off from the larger group, and finally Meg and I took a cab home along with some delish french fries.
This morning I went to the school where I am going to be student teaching. I only went for about two minutes to introduce myself to the principle, but it seems like a really fun and relaxed place. I can't wait to start. Now I am in the interim between the first and second parts of my English class, and then I am returning home to nap for the rest of the day.
Note: the Irish word for fun is 'craic', pronounced like crack. Don't mistake it in someones conversation for the drug, or you will be entirely freaked out...they use it all the time.
So that's what I leave you with.
That night, the boys had a party at their apartment and invited everyone in the three buildings around them, so we met a lot of nice new people, including a girl who is on the rugby team here and who had just flown back from spending her break in Nepal working at an orphanage..so cool. We just chatted and met new people and I finally learned how to play Guitar Hero, however poorly I may have been at it. (Though it did help that I was playing along with a kid who wins contests as a professional GH player...no joke.)
After the party dwindled we took off for town, going to two or three pubs in the rain before calling it quits. We met some kids from Villanova (there are 30 of them here this semester...), including one who's twin brother goes to BC. I also saw a delivery truck outside Dominos and ended up being handed a pile of raw dough. Sweet.
Tuesday was my first real day of classes. My first one was called "Problems in the History of Ireland, 1580-1700" or something along those lines. I wanted to take at least one Irish history course while I'm here, and this one seems fine enough. The prof is a cute, bald Irish guy who seems nice and very welcoming. It also doesn't hurt that Jim, Molly and Meg are in it as well.
After class we grabbed lunch, and then I almost got hit by a van since I was looking the wrong way when crossing the street(since the cars drive on the wrong side of the street here...duh, Caroline). I tried out a class called simply "The Habsberg Empire", which I quickly decided was not for me. However, the professor was hilarious looking. He is almost seven feet tall, bald, with glasses, and was wearing tannish-brown pants, a white and red checked shirt, a navy sweater, a tan blazer with red and green details, and to top it all off, a bow tie. I loved it. The next day in class, Meg told me he was wearing the same outfit again, just a different bow tie.
After Habsberg, Molly and I went to the second session of Social Psych, which seems interesting and is taught by a hilarious prof named Todd (an American). We decided against going out, since the weather was horrible and we had early classes the next day, and instead ordered pizza and watched the Discovery Channel for probably three hours. It was great.
That night I was awoken at one am by loud roommates, who kept me up until 3am, at which point the fire alarm in my building was pulled again. Fabulous. I guess thats what we get for living in a residence area with mostly first year students...
Yesterday was supposed to be my day of having classes straight from 9am to 4pm, but my first class at 9 was cancelled, since the prof had a family emergency, and my ten and twelve don't start until next week I found out. That meant that I didn't have class until 2, (whoo hoo!!) so I slept late and then went to campus to check out Societies Day. After wandering through all the tables, I signed up for the International Students Society, the Media Society, the Film Society and the Food and Drink Society. A lot of them seem to have great events planned, including trips to other countries, so I'm excited.
The International Student Society was throwing a bar party that night, so we all signed up to go.
After Health Psych, another interesting class, Molly, Tara and I headed back to change and get ready. We met Molly and Tara's other two roommates finally, and were so happy because they are fabulous. SingWay (thats the way you say it, I have no idea how you spell it) and Charmaine are their names and they are both from Singapore. They had been travelling for 27 hours, so they were exhausted, but still so nice and welcoming.
Around 9 we met up with some Irish boys and then our other guy friends and walked to town. We found the bar where the party was, grabbed a table and ended up having a great time. A lot of times the bars here are so crowded that you can't move and definitely can't get a drink, but this one (since it was rented out by the club) had just the right number of people in it. It was great. After a couple of hours some of us went to another bar, splitting off from the larger group, and finally Meg and I took a cab home along with some delish french fries.
This morning I went to the school where I am going to be student teaching. I only went for about two minutes to introduce myself to the principle, but it seems like a really fun and relaxed place. I can't wait to start. Now I am in the interim between the first and second parts of my English class, and then I am returning home to nap for the rest of the day.
Note: the Irish word for fun is 'craic', pronounced like crack. Don't mistake it in someones conversation for the drug, or you will be entirely freaked out...they use it all the time.
So that's what I leave you with.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
More about Ireland
Hi again-
As I have about fifteen minutes before heading over to my Social Psychology class, I thought I'd post a bit more about things I've done since being in Ireland.
After the first night of staying in, we all went out Thursday and Friday nights. The group of kids I've been hanging out with are from BC, Swarthmore, a French university, Scranton and some other PA colleges. There are six of us from BC: Molly Ceglarski, Tara Hynoski, Meaghan DeGuisto, Jim Gordon, Andrew Sanders and me. We all get along really well, and since none of us were good friends at school, it's interesting to get to know each other here.
Thursday night we headed into the city early, and since none of the Irish students were back from holiday, everyone was either American or in high school... We went to King's Head, which is quickly becoming our favorite place, and watched a fabulous live band play covers from the Killers and Gorillaz, among other things. Then we went to a few more pubs before locating a fast food place called Supermac's, which is open all night and seems to be cheap and delicious. (However, it doesn't even come close to Mighty.)
Friday night we hung out longer in the rooms before heading out, since it was rainy and cold, and this time brought along a kid who was here last semester as well. He guided us to some new pubs, which were pretty fun, including one that has three levels.
Going backwards, Friday during the day was Orientation for all visiting students which meant sitting in a lecture hall from 9-4 hearing presentations from faculty, staff and anyone else they could find. Although it was long, most of the presenters were welcoming and funny, and the information they gave us was incredibly useful.
Other than that, I've just been getting used to all the walking, going out a lot, meeting a ton of new kids and getting adjusted to the campus. It's sort of like being a freshman again, you feel a little out of place, but everyone is so excited to become friends.
Well, I'm off to class and I have six classes to try out tomorrow, so I'll post again hopefully on Thursday.
<3 Caroline
As I have about fifteen minutes before heading over to my Social Psychology class, I thought I'd post a bit more about things I've done since being in Ireland.
After the first night of staying in, we all went out Thursday and Friday nights. The group of kids I've been hanging out with are from BC, Swarthmore, a French university, Scranton and some other PA colleges. There are six of us from BC: Molly Ceglarski, Tara Hynoski, Meaghan DeGuisto, Jim Gordon, Andrew Sanders and me. We all get along really well, and since none of us were good friends at school, it's interesting to get to know each other here.
Thursday night we headed into the city early, and since none of the Irish students were back from holiday, everyone was either American or in high school... We went to King's Head, which is quickly becoming our favorite place, and watched a fabulous live band play covers from the Killers and Gorillaz, among other things. Then we went to a few more pubs before locating a fast food place called Supermac's, which is open all night and seems to be cheap and delicious. (However, it doesn't even come close to Mighty.)
Friday night we hung out longer in the rooms before heading out, since it was rainy and cold, and this time brought along a kid who was here last semester as well. He guided us to some new pubs, which were pretty fun, including one that has three levels.
Going backwards, Friday during the day was Orientation for all visiting students which meant sitting in a lecture hall from 9-4 hearing presentations from faculty, staff and anyone else they could find. Although it was long, most of the presenters were welcoming and funny, and the information they gave us was incredibly useful.
Other than that, I've just been getting used to all the walking, going out a lot, meeting a ton of new kids and getting adjusted to the campus. It's sort of like being a freshman again, you feel a little out of place, but everyone is so excited to become friends.
Well, I'm off to class and I have six classes to try out tomorrow, so I'll post again hopefully on Thursday.
<3 Caroline
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Intro to Ireland
Back again, this time using the Internet services provided by none other than Ms. Meaghan DeGuisto (another BC student abroad with me).
Anyway, I left Madrid on a Tuesday evening after another horrible (but cheap) night bus ride coming back from Barcelona. I flew to Dublin where I stayed in a great hotel for a night before flying from Dublin to Shannon. Upon reaching Shannon, a tiny airport about two hours from Galway, I ran into a group of students who were also headed for Galway. There were kids from Duquesne (thought they didn't know Claire...too bad) and one from St. Louis. We hopped a 14 euro bus to Galway and promptly all passed out. When I woke up, we were at the bus station and it was dark and rainy. Great.
Over the next two hours I cabbed to Corrib Village, my residence for the next four months, signed in, met with the rest of the BC kids (we are six in all), and got lunch with our BC on-site coordinator.
Margaret Daly. God, what can I even say about her. She's our coordinator while we're here, so our go-to person for anything and everything, as well as my supervisor for my student teaching stint. She's an energetic ball of fire, who seemingly has travelled everywhere in the world. Example: at midnight on New Year's Eve, Margaret and her husband were in South Africa in the "bush" on a safari...poppin bottles. Haha, she's fabulous.
After lunch and a quick tour of campus, which is pretty in some areas, but for the most part is old and institutional-looking, we headed into the city to buy the essentials (sheets, a cell phone, energy adaptors, etc.) After two hours we had walked the streets, gotten soaked, but gotten what we had come for.
Galway City is great. It's adorable. There are cobbled streets where cars can't drive, with little shops and bars all around, and then there are more regular-looking parts, with cars coming from the wrong direction being driven by people on the wrong side of the vehicle. Weird.
That first night was spent packing and going to bed early. My apartment is located on the second floor of a yellow-ish building. It's one of four units per building and there are probably twelve to fifteen buildings in Corrib Village. We also have a mini-mart, an expensive laundry room, a registration building and maybe one or two little eateries that always seem to be closed...but the upside is that all the kids from BC live here and we are only a seven minute walk to campus.
As for my roommates, they are fine. One is from Fordham, we share a bathroom, another from UConn and the third from just outside Paris, France. I think we are going to co-exist well, but probably not hang out that much, with the exception being the French girl, who shares my name, but says it much prettier than I do. I've only had one conversation with the non-French girls and I've been here five days.
My room is great. It's a good size with a double bed, ample shelving and a fine view. I share a bathroom, but that's not a problem for me, despite the cold water. We also have a small common room with couches and a TV (which has yet to be turned on), as well as a tiny kitchen with a tiny fridge, tiny dishwasher, freezer and stove. I don't think much cooking is going to be taking place there...
To wrap up for now, since we have to get into the city to meet Margaret for dinner, I am very happy here so far. Classes start tomorrow. I get along with all the BC kids and we have met a lot of other great kids from the States. The Irish kids are all on holiday until tomorrow, so we'll see how they are when they arrive. I'm looking forward to classes, but also have plans to travel to London, Greece, Spain for Carnivale, Dublin at least twice, and who knows where else.
Please keep me updated with what everyone is doing at home. I really miss you all!
Anyway, I left Madrid on a Tuesday evening after another horrible (but cheap) night bus ride coming back from Barcelona. I flew to Dublin where I stayed in a great hotel for a night before flying from Dublin to Shannon. Upon reaching Shannon, a tiny airport about two hours from Galway, I ran into a group of students who were also headed for Galway. There were kids from Duquesne (thought they didn't know Claire...too bad) and one from St. Louis. We hopped a 14 euro bus to Galway and promptly all passed out. When I woke up, we were at the bus station and it was dark and rainy. Great.
Over the next two hours I cabbed to Corrib Village, my residence for the next four months, signed in, met with the rest of the BC kids (we are six in all), and got lunch with our BC on-site coordinator.
Margaret Daly. God, what can I even say about her. She's our coordinator while we're here, so our go-to person for anything and everything, as well as my supervisor for my student teaching stint. She's an energetic ball of fire, who seemingly has travelled everywhere in the world. Example: at midnight on New Year's Eve, Margaret and her husband were in South Africa in the "bush" on a safari...poppin bottles. Haha, she's fabulous.
After lunch and a quick tour of campus, which is pretty in some areas, but for the most part is old and institutional-looking, we headed into the city to buy the essentials (sheets, a cell phone, energy adaptors, etc.) After two hours we had walked the streets, gotten soaked, but gotten what we had come for.
Galway City is great. It's adorable. There are cobbled streets where cars can't drive, with little shops and bars all around, and then there are more regular-looking parts, with cars coming from the wrong direction being driven by people on the wrong side of the vehicle. Weird.
That first night was spent packing and going to bed early. My apartment is located on the second floor of a yellow-ish building. It's one of four units per building and there are probably twelve to fifteen buildings in Corrib Village. We also have a mini-mart, an expensive laundry room, a registration building and maybe one or two little eateries that always seem to be closed...but the upside is that all the kids from BC live here and we are only a seven minute walk to campus.
As for my roommates, they are fine. One is from Fordham, we share a bathroom, another from UConn and the third from just outside Paris, France. I think we are going to co-exist well, but probably not hang out that much, with the exception being the French girl, who shares my name, but says it much prettier than I do. I've only had one conversation with the non-French girls and I've been here five days.
My room is great. It's a good size with a double bed, ample shelving and a fine view. I share a bathroom, but that's not a problem for me, despite the cold water. We also have a small common room with couches and a TV (which has yet to be turned on), as well as a tiny kitchen with a tiny fridge, tiny dishwasher, freezer and stove. I don't think much cooking is going to be taking place there...
To wrap up for now, since we have to get into the city to meet Margaret for dinner, I am very happy here so far. Classes start tomorrow. I get along with all the BC kids and we have met a lot of other great kids from the States. The Irish kids are all on holiday until tomorrow, so we'll see how they are when they arrive. I'm looking forward to classes, but also have plans to travel to London, Greece, Spain for Carnivale, Dublin at least twice, and who knows where else.
Please keep me updated with what everyone is doing at home. I really miss you all!
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