Turning 21 in Ireland

So last weekend was my 21st birthday extravaganza!  It was planned to be a weekend packed with fun because I had my first visitor coming... Maggie!!!  Maggie wasn't scheduled to come until Friday afternoon, but one of our favorite bands (Frantic Jack) was playing at The King's Head on Thursday night, so we obviously had to go see them play!  As usual, they were absolutely fantastic.  Sadly enough, it's going to be another month before they are back at The King's Head.  Hopefully we'll be able to be there to hear them play!
On Friday, I had lunch with Melon and her dad and great aunt who had come to visit her.  We went to the little deli we like so much across the street from the Galway Cathedral.  After lunch, I saw the inside of the Galway Cathedral.  The entire floor is made of Connemara marble and is absolutely stunning.  Even though it was only built in 1965, it has the appearance of a church that has been around for a few centuries.  For the next hour or so we wandered around the harbor of Galway until I had to head up to the train station to pick Maggie up.
Maggie and I went to Griffin's Bakery so she could get some lunch and so I could try out their hot chocolate!  Melon had gone to Griffin's the previous week with her great aunt and told me I could not pass it up.  And she was right; it was very good!  Maggie and I made the hike back to my apartment after lunch to put her things down and figure out what we would do for the rest of the day.  Melon called us and offered to drive us to the Salt Hill Prom because she was going there with her family.  We didn't hesitate to take her up on her offer and soon we were off the the prom. (For all of those who don't know, a 'prom' in Ireland is a beach.)  It was a perfect day for a walk on the prom.  Maggie and I wandered the beaches and took lots of pictures (as you will see below).  We then met up with Melon and her family to go to Lohan's for dinner.  We got two GIANT pots of mussels for appetizers and I got Guinness beef stew.  Maggie also had her first fish and chips in Europe!  It was about time that happened...

(Salt Hill Prom) 

(Mags and me at the Salt Hill) 

 (Beautiful Sunset)

(Mags) 

(Beef Stew!!!)

That night was my unofficial birthday night.  I got ready and headed over to Ashleen's to meet up with everyone before we went out.  Upon arrival at her apartment I was showered with balloons and streamers!  They gave me a shiny banner-thing that said "21 It's Party Time!" on it.  I draped part of it around my shoulders and the other part I tied around my head as a bandanna.  We all met up at The King's Head for my birthday celebrations.  Everyone in the bar kept wishing me happy birthday!  Allie even got the bank (The Naked Bears- really good cover band) to wish me a happy birthday and give me multiple shout-outs!  Once The King's Head started to close down we went over to The Front Door for about an hour before heading back for the night.  It was such a fun night and I'm so glad I got to spend it with Maggie and all of my Villanovans!

(Mags and me on my birthday night part 1)

On Saturday, Maggie, Ashleen and I got up and went to see Donut Man.  I couldn't let Mags come to Galway without seeing him!  She, too, was impressed by his donut-making abilities... I'm not surprised... they really are phenomenal donuts.  We walked around Galway city and then spent a an hour on the beach because it was such a beautiful day.  I collected more beach glass... of course... and now my collection has doubled in size!

(Maggie with her Butler's Chocolate drink and Donut Man donut) 

(Galway) 

(Galway Prom) 

(Mags on the Prom) 

(Ashleen on the Prom)

That night was a laid-back night.  Maggie and I made jalepeno burgers for dinner with Ashleen and Joe.  Then Allie and Erin made me a birthday cake (my first birthday cake since senior year of high school!) and everyone sang to me!  After that we just hung out at Gort with a few friends until midnight and called it a night since we had to be up really early in the morning.

(Vanilla and Oreo birthday cake!)

The next day, Melon and I took Maggie to the train station to catch her 8am train back to Dublin and then we headed off with everyone else to catch the bus to the Aran Island Ferries!  To get to the Aran Islands from Galway, you have to take a 45 minute bus ride to the ferry and then a 45 minutes ferry ride to the islands.  Once we were there, Melon, Ashleen, Joe, Owen and I rented bikes for 6e a piece and began our trek around the Inis Mor (the biggest island with a population of 800).  The sights were beautiful since we had yet another clear day in Ireland.  We stopped for lunch on a small beach off the route we were supposed to take. After getting back on the road we continued to make short stops along the way to see the sights or talk to the animals.  I made friends with four horses and a cow that day.  Melon named the cow Betty.  The horses' names were:  Seamus, Biscuit, Lavender, and Heather.  The horses liked to bite Ashleen's coat.  Joe has some pretty hilarious pictures of her attempts to befriend them!  We reached the farthest point that we could travel to, the fort of Dun Aonghasa.  We couldn't decide if we had enough time to climb up the hill to the fort, but after a few minutes of deliberating we decided it would be well worth it.  And it was.  The views were spectacular.  You could see the entire stretch of the 9-mile long Inis Mor island from that point.  It was a lot like the Cliffs of Moher there.  The cliffs were perfectly vertical from the top of the fort and you could go right up to the edge and look over.  We hung around the top of the fort for a little bit and then began our journey back to the main town where the ferries were.  On our way, Joe made us stop at the beach so he could jump in the water.  Yes.  He jumped into the Atlantic Ocean at the end of September in Ireland.  How he managed to handle the cold water I will never know!  Once back in town we had a little bit of time to explore the shops.  I didn't get anything else there because I had bought a few little things at the stores out by Dun Aoghasa, but there were so many beautiful items that I was tempted to!

(Owen on our little beach we found on Inis Mor) 

(Seamus) 

(The beach where Mike and Joe went swimming)

(Melon was tired at the end of the day) 

(Melon and Sam waiting for the ferry)

To finish out my birthday weekend, a group of us that went to the Aran Islands went to La Salsa for dinner back in Galway City.  It's a lot like Chipotle back in the States, and boy did it taste good.  Later that night I went out with some people to The Front Door for one last hoorah on my birthday!  It was a great finish to my 21st birthday extravaganza weekend.  I'm so glad I got to spend it here in Ireland where, yes, they do make it a big deal, especially for the Americans!

(Part of the crew out on my 21st!) 

(Me and Joe) 

(Me and Ashleen!!!)

"Leprechauns, castles, good luck and laughter
Lullabies, dreams, and love ever after.
Poems and songs with pipes and drums
A thousand welcomes when anyone comes.
That's the Irish for you!" 

Maigh Eo

A few things to start off with:
1. Maigh Eo is the Irish spelling of Mayo which is a county north of Galway.
2. Shout-out to Michael for being an awesome co-editor for the yearbook and essentially doing my job for me (and because you asked me to give you a shout-out...)
3. So sorry for the incredibly long entry.  A lot happened this weekend!!

We took our first 'Nova trip this weekend!  On Friday around noon, all of us packed up a coach and headed out of Gort to see County Mayo and all it has to offer.
Although the bus ride showed us some spectacular scenery, it also brought the plant life inside the coach...  Along the edge of my window there was some type of green, leafy plant growing.  It smelled wicked nasty, so I leaned away from it and tried not to look at it for the rest of the trip.

(One of the many streams we passed on our bus trips to and from Co. Mayo)

Our first stop was in Castlebar, Co. Mayo at the National Museum of Ireland, Turlough House.  A turlough, I have learned, is a type of body of water that dries up at certain points throughout the year.  Thus, turloughs are typically referred to as dry lakes.  At the museum, we ate lunch in the cafe, then toured the landlord's home as well as the museum of Irish history.  The landlord's home was huge and so much different from any home we had passed by so far.  The rooms that we got a chance to see were the library and the living room as well as the main entry way.  Mary told us about the purpose of the library as a place where tenants came to pay their dues.  The landlord also has a secret passageway into the living room from his library just in case.  The museum itself was cool because it had a lot of artifacts from the history of Ireland... though nothing quite as spectacular as Hennigan's Heritage which I'll talk about shortly.

(The outside of the landlord's house at the National Museum of Ireland in Castlebar)

After the National Museum we headed over to Ballintubber Abbey.  Fun fact:  Pierce Brosnan was married there! Ballintubber is a beautiful abbey that has a lot of history to it.  For all of the fun details, refer to the following website (it actually is fascinating... I just don't feel like writing all of the information out here).  http://www.ballintubberabbey.ie/  At the abbey, a woman named Mary (there are lots of Marys here in Ireland) gave us a short tour.  She told us the history of the building itself as well as the history of the town.  One thing that I thought was very interesting was that the stations of the cross were made specially for the abbey by Imogen Stuart. (See picture below)  

We were also told the tale of the priest-hunter, Seán na Sagart, John Malowney.  John was hired to hunt down priests and kill them during the Penal Times when there was a lot of political strife against priests, teachers, etc.  Priests would disguise themselves to hide from the hunters, but John managed to kill one of the priests of Ballintubber.  While attempting to kill the second priest, John was murdered by a beggar. He was buried on church grounds, dug up and throw in the lake, and then buried again with his body facing the North so that the sun would never rise on him.  Today, the only marker of his grave is a tree that grew out of his grave and cracked the headstone.

(The original alter in Ballintubber) 

(One of the Stations of the Cross at Ballintubber) 

(A candle I lit for Gram and Pope at Ballintubber)

That night, we all traveled to Westport where we would be sleeping for the weekend in a hostel just outside of town.  Our hostel opened up especially for us because it usually closes after August.  It was an giant, old home with very large ceilings and was probably once very beautiful.  There was some sort of French connection to it because a lot of French signs were hanging up in the house as well as at the end of the driveway, and the beds all had scribblings in French written under the top bunks.

We went out to dinner that night at a little place by the water.  We had a wonderful meal!  I had vegetable soup, salmon, and chocolate cake!  Definitely the best meal I've had since I came to Ireland.  The only issue was that everyone ate wayyyy too much... and then we had to go learn Irish Step Dancing.  So, with our bloated stomachs and food-comas we learned to Irish Step Dance... or well, we at least tried.  A few people had danced before, but the majority of us looked like buffoons out on the dance floor.  The man who taught us to dance kept getting frustrated with us because he had to show us the steps over and over again before we had any concept of what to do.  Overall, it was a pretty fun experience, but I can't say I am any better at Step Dancing.

The next morning, the ladies at the hostel made us a full Irish breakfast and then we headed on our way to bike around parts of Mayo.  It was freezing outside, so everybody was layered up in sweatshirts and jackets.  After an incredibly long delay, we finally headed out down the bike trail.  We were riding along for about a half hour or so going up and down a lot of hills through the country when we realized that we only had 19 out of 23 Nova kids and Mary wasn't with us.  We thought maybe they got slowed up so we stopped on one of the hills and took pictures with the beautiful scenery.  After riding on for another half hour we decided we should probably call Mary and figure out where they were.  It turns out, we went the wrong way about 10 minutes into the ride.  We had to back track up and down the hills to meet back up with Mary and the rest of the group.  Although we may have gotten lost in Mayo, it was well worth it because of the amazing countryside we got to see.

 (Me and Ashleen)

 (Me and Sam)

 (Me and Allie)

 (Mike on the hillside-sorry for creeping, Mike)

(SHEEP!)

That afternoon we went to Hennigan's Heritage.  Dad, you would have loved it there!  So many cool artifacts and the man whose home it was, Tom Hennigan, was incredibly knowledgeable and wonderful to talk to.  Tom grew up in a one room home in the countryside of Co. Mayo with his five siblings, his parents, and his grandmother.  They only had ten acres of land so when the government told him that if he farmed it he would have to produce as much as the surrounding farms (which had 100s of acres) he decided instead to build a small artifact museum and teach people about the way Ireland used to be.  He showed us everything from the tools that were used, to the straw boy costumes that uninvited guests wore to weddings, to clothing items that his mother made for him as a child.  He even took us into his old home and talked to us about his life.

(Tools used in the making of the Titanic) 

(Straw Boy costumes)

After the tour we went out to dinner together in Westport at J.J. O'Malley's.  Another delicious dinner followed by a night out at Cosy Joe's Pub.  At Cosy Joe's there were quite a few Hen Parties (bachelorette parties) and Stag Parties (bachelor parties) going on.  It was so funny to look at all of the funky outfits people had on.  One groom had on bright pink shorts, a pink leopard shirt and leopard shoes.  Absolutely awesome!

The next day, we had one last trip to make.  We went to Connemara to visit Kylemore Abbey.  This has to be the most beautiful place I have seen in Ireland.  It may even top the Cliffs of Moher.  Kylemore was built and used as a vacation home for the Henry family in the second half of the 19th century.  The main building consists of 70 rooms... 33 of those being bedrooms.  It is an incredible building with unbelievable detail.  It is now partially a museum and partially used by the Benedictine Sisters.  Also on the property is a gothic style church and a beautiful walled garden.  In this garden, all of the food that was eaten at the Henry's home was grown (even tropical fruits).  Today, they still use only vegetables and fruit from the garden for the food served at the tourist center.

(The lake at Kylemore)

(Kylemore Abbey) 

 (Panorama)

(Boat on the lake) 

 (The gardens)

 (Me and Allie at the gardens)

So there ends the journey to Co. Maigh Eo with Villanova.  It ended on a wonderful note....

And at the end of the rainbow I found 5 euro! (There you go Caroline... did that make it better?)

"May the Irish hills caress you.
May her lakes and rivers bless you.
May the luck of the Irish enfold you.
May the blessings of Saint Patrick behold you."

Much Moher Ireland

As usual, a lot has happened since I last wrote!  It's been a very busy week here in Galway.  So much has been going on so I guess I better start giving you the details!

Friday was a very lazy day for me.  I have no classes that day (which will be great once I can start traveling out of the country!).  I had planned on meeting up with Allie on campus after she had registered for her seminars, but when I got there she was at the end of the line and they hadn't even started taking people.  I took this opportunity to get my student travel card.  Basically this card gives you big time discounts on all of the buses and trains in Ireland as well as money off at different stores.  Everyone says that having a travel card is super handy when traveling around.  I also found out that in the SU (Student Union) Office they sell used textbooks.  This was perfect because I had to buy my book for Media and Marketing and the bookstore sold it for 66E.  At the SU Office it was only 25E, and I got the last copy!  Gotta love a bargain!

Allie, Melon, and I decided to try out the College Bar for lunch.  The College Bar is exactly what it sounds like, a bar on the college campus.  They serve food and drinks and host a lot of functions there.  It's quite a big space and it's wicked cool looking inside.  The food that they had was delicious.  I got some sort of veggie panini that isn't like a panini you would see in the States.  These paninis come on hoagies instead of regular bread and are baked instead of put in a hot-press sandwich machine.  Nevertheless, I quite enjoyed it... and will naturally be frequenting the College Bar for the rest of the semester.

After exploring the town that day, a bunch of us went to The Kings Head (as per usual) later that night.  While there, I ran into a few American students from Duquense!  Turns out, Cory (oh hey if you're reading this...) knows a bunch of my friends from home.  He essentially listed off names of all of my friends from high school.  Small world isn't it?  I'm sure I'll be seeing much more of them since Americans tend to drift towards the same places around Galway.  That's another thing.  It really is true.  Once the foreign students find a few places, they tend to stick to those places.  And everybody else from their country seems to be there, too.  Take for instance The Quays or The Kings Head.  Guarantee that if you go in to either place during the weeknights they will be half American.  It's just that these are the names of pubs that they had heard before they arrived in Ireland and so that's where they tend to drift... every night.  Don't get me wrong, both places are incredibly fun and I am certainly one of those 'typical Americans' who sticks to certain hot spots in town, but it is quite funny to think about.

Here comes the most exciting part of the week.

The Cliffs of Moher.

Yes, my first trip in Ireland was a bus tour to the Cliffs of Moher and the Burren.  Fourteen Villanovans signed up for the Galway Tour Co. trip to the Cliffs.  We left around 9am on Saturday morning with a full bus of tourists eager to see some of the most beautiful sights in Ireland.  It was the most perfect day to go to the Cliffs.  Warm weather and not a rain cloud in sight.  Our tour guide and bus driver was Desmond Murray (he's the #1 ranked tour guide in Galway on Trip Advisor if you were wondering).  We had heard about Des before our trip from the man we bought our passes from (Once you buy the 25E pass you can go on the Cliffs tour and the Connemara tour as many times as you want).  Apparently a German girl was studying in Galway last year and went on the Cliffs tour 11 times in one semester.  Each time she requested to have Des as her guide... he used to pinch her butt when she got off of the bus... or so the man told us.  And I would certainly believe it!  Des loves the ladies.  He is an old man with a witty sense of humor and a big smile permanently attached to his face.  He knows just how to make everyone happy and how to keep everyone's attention.  A few of his favorite things to say were:  "God help me...", "Are ya prayin' back there?", and "You walk up, you look around, you scratch your bottoms for an hour and a half, and you walk back down."  The "are ya prayin' back there' line was frequently said because the roads were very narrow, and very windy.  I'm not sure if anyone else was worried, but I was probably doing enough praying for our whole bus.  He also liked to change the words to Galway Girl- primarily to make it refer to Kiera, his new Nova girlfriend!

We made stops at a lot of different castles, a fairy fort, the Burren, Doolin, a church, the Cliffs, and Blackhead.  Doolin is an amazing little town!  That is where we stop for lunch at O'Connor's Pub.  It has the absolute best seafood chowder (salmon, cod, scallops, and much more) as well as an unbelievable Guinness Stew.  (Both are highly recommended if you ever make it there).  They also have the best brown bread I have had yet.  We asked them to bring us more and the waiter brought us a good six slices... he may be my favorite man in Doolin for doing that.  There is also a chocolate store in Doolin (which is the only reason I will be making this trip again... just kidding, Melon!)  I got a bar of rocky road chocolate and a bar of white and dark chocolate with pistachios, peanuts, and cranberries in it.  Can't wait to get some more!

(Des and his Nova ladies)

(Dunguaire Castle) 

(Me, Allie, Kiera, and Elizabeth at Dunguaire) 

(SO MANY COWS!  Allie and I were fascinated by them) 

(Our leprechaun friends that Des brought with us on the bus.) 

(Mike, Shannon, and me at the Portal Tomb in the Burren.) 

(Matchmaker festival all September!) 

(Hope, Erin, and Chrissy at O'Connor's Pub)

The Cliffs were beautiful.  It was so scary walking up the path, but it was also exhilarating!  You could see for miles in all directions from the top of the Cliffs.  You can even see the Aran Islands (which I'm hoping to go to by the end of September).  It only takes one person (in our case, Kiera) to calm the group down and start taking ridiculous pictures.  I mean, who wouldn't want pictures of them pretending to fall off the Cliffs?  It was fun while we were posing for the pictures... but looking back at them now, I can't believe I got that close to the edge!

 (Elizabeth trying to save Kiera!)

 (Chelsea is scared of falling, but apparently Allie and I find it to be fun.)

(Some of the gang on the Cliffs) 

(The Cliffs of Moher)

A few finally points about my week:

-->Sunday was my first time watching a hurling match!  It was Galway vs. Kilkenny and Galway was going nuts!  We all headed in to town to get donuts from Donut Man (of course) and then head over to The Kings Head (it's only natural...) to watch the game.  Everyone was going crazy in there; all of them decked out in their maroon and white.  The teams ended up tying the match and will have to play each other again on my birthday weekend (two weekends from now!)

-->I got my schedule all sorted out! My upper level Theology requirement will be filled by the class I wanted:  Landscapes of Cult and Kingship.  Now I know exactly what my academic schedule will look like this semester.

-->I cooked tacos for the first time :)  Melon and I went to the store on Monday and bought so much taco stuff.  We also made sangria to go along with the tacos.  Sangria might possibly be one of my new favorite drinks.  It's quite tasty with all of the fruit in there!

-->I signed up for clubs (sports) and societies (clubs/organizations) today.  The clubs I joined are Sub-Aqua (scuba diving), Golf, and (thanks to Melon) Mountaineering.  I figured I would get put on the e-mail list for them and decide which ones were worth it.  As for societies, I joined The Harry Potter Club (sorting is at 6pm Thursday; if I go I'll let you know what house I'm in!), Business Society, Photography Society, and International Student Society (they plan trips around Ireland).  I'm also tempted to join Nom Society-- essentially it's a food club... how cool is that!?

Okay, well I must get going now since I have class in the morning!

"May you always have walls for the winds,
a roof for the rain, tea beside the fire,
laughter to cheer you, those you love near you,
and all your heart might desire."

The Irish certainly have a way with words.

So Much To Say About Such A Short Time

I've been in Ireland for a little over a week now!  And I've made it through a whole week of classes.  But before I get ahead of myself, let me rewind to where I left off.... last Thursday.

(Ashleen's Carbonara!)

Ashleen made her first meal for Mary Helen and me last Thursday night.  It was... interesting... to say the least (sorry, Ashleen).  She made pasta carbonara....with mushy Irish peas from a can.  Word to the wise:  don't buy 40 cent peas from Ireland.  It simply won't turn out well.  It was a good first try though!

Friday was our second day of orientation.  We really didn't do much and it was in no way helpful to us at all.  I'm pretty sure they left out all of the important details, which meant that all of us were confused about registration and had to e-mail people left and right to figure everything out. (More to come later in this post about classes).

The weekend was very fun!  Saturday morning, Mary Helen (henceforth to be referred to as 'Melon'), Mike, and I went in to town around 9:30am to check out the market.  It was unbelievable!  I'll have to take pictures for you guys later on.  It had foods of all sorts, clothing, and handcrafted items.  I will definitely be going there every weekend that I'm in Galway!  Probably the best part of the whole market (and the reason I was told to go by Diana and Nick) was the Donut Man (that's how I got Melon to come with me that early in the morning... all I had to do was say the word 'donut' and she was in).  Yes.  There is indeed a Donut Man who is there every Saturday and Sunday at the weekend market.  He makes the donuts right in front of you and puts either cocoa, cinnamon or plain sugar on them.  You haven't eaten a true donut until you've had one of Donut Man's donuts.  Donut Man sells his donuts for 70 cents a piece, so it's tempting to buy two... but we haven't yet.  Maybe one day we will.  Also, Melon and I plan on making friends with Donut Man and taking a picture with him before we leave.  So maybe you will see him up here someday!

After the market, the three of us waited for the rest of the 'Nova group to go meet up with Mary Madec for coffee.  Mary is our leader and teacher for this semester.  She is an Irish woman who married a Frenchman.  They live here in Galway together with their son.  Mary is hired by 'Nova to guide the study abroad students during their stay in Galway as well as teach a class to them.  The class is Irish Culture Seminar.  For me, it will count as my international social science requirement for my International Business minor.  She meets with the group once a week (Tuesdays 6-8pm).  I'm not sure what to expect because we don't start her class until this upcoming Tuesday, but I'm sure I'll let you know! We also take two trips with Mary.  The first is two weekends from now to Co. Mayo.  We have a full weekend planned for us!  I will save the details of that until after I get back!  Our other trip is to Dublin some time in November.  I'm so excited for both trips because the activities we will be doing sound incredibly fun!

(Chelsea, Allie, Me, and Hope at coffee with Mary)

Sunday was a beautiful day in Galway!  Ashleen, Melon, and I went in to town and walked over the the beach on Galway Bay.  Along the way we met an old man named Joe.  Joe called us over to the bench he was sitting on and talked to us about Galway and the history of the city.  He also told us about the different running clubs that we could join at NUIG and a man that we should go see about the running clubs (he apparently lived up the street from where we were...).  Joe was a very sweet man who had quite a foul mouth.  Ashleen was taken aback by the number of times he dropped the f-bomb.  (Though I must admit.. it doesn't sound nearly as bad with an Irish brogue)  After our chat with Joe, we headed down to the beach.  There is so much beach glass here!  I'm in heaven!  I had to pick only the best pieces because I know I'll keep on collecting more everywhere I go.

(Villanova Loves Ireland on the beach on Galway Bay!  Melon and Ashleen)

That night, a few of us had dinner together.  Mike cooked chicken parmesan and pasta!  It was so delicious and everybody loved it.  I'm hoping that we'll do more dinners like that over the semester so everyone gets a chance to cook dinner.

Monday began classes... well... sort of.  For the first two weeks we just 'sit in' on classes that we are interested in to see which ones we want to take.  We don't actually register for classes until September 17th... which I find to be very bizarre.  Of the four classes that I am taking at NUIG, I have three locked down.  I know I am taking Irish Economic History, New Enterprise Development, and Media & Marketing Communications.  As of now I'm still waiting to hear back about a class called Landscapes of Cult and Kingship.  Diana took it last year as her upper level Theology requirement, but for some reason it's not on the list of approved courses, so I have to find a way to get it approved.  If not, I will be taking The Cultural Impact of Christianity on the Celtic World.  I sat in on that course today and it wasn't too bad.  The teacher is a bit bland, but the information seemed to be interesting enough.  Either way, I guess it will work out.

What's great about my Media & Marketing course is that it has a project that is almost identical to the one I did for Competitive Effectiveness last year.  So I guess it was worth saving all of my papers for that project after all!  That class seems like it will be the most work as of right now because we have a quiz every week, a project, a presentation, and a final exam.  Every other class just has a final exam or essay so I'll only really have to buckle down once the semester starts to come to an end.

I feel like I'm not taking enough classes because each class is only two hours per week.  Therefore this is my tentative schedule:
Monday- Cultural Impact 3-4pm (tentatively), Irish Econ Hist 4-5pm
Tuesday- Landscapes of Cult and Kingship 1-2pm (tentatively), Media & Marketing 4-6pm, Mary's class 6-8pm
Wednesday- Landscapes of Cult and Kingship 12-1pm (tentatively)
Thursday- New Ent Dev 10am-12pm, Irish Econ Hist 1-2pm, Cultural Impact 2-3pm (tentatively)
No class Fridays.  So, technically if I take Cultural Impact... I won't have class on Wednesdays or Fridays... that's once in a lifetime... I'll need to pick up a hobby here.

The poor engineers.  What to say about them.  They had quite a scare at the beginning of the week!  Last year, the one civil engineer on the program ran in to the issue that the two hardest courses she HAD to take while here overlapped one day.  This meant she had to choose which one to go to each week.  Anyway, the adviser for the CivEs came to NUIG last spring to make sure that that would never happen again.  Well... it did.  The eight CivEs that are here has one class Monday Wednesday 9-11am and the other Wednesday Friday 9-11am.  Thankfully, Mary and the CivE adviser kicked into gear and sorted the whole matter out and got one of the times changed.  Yay 'Nova for taking charge!

The only other things that have happened this week deal with food.  Melon and I made our first few meals together (Chicken, rice, and veggies one night and chicken, potatoes, and veggies another night).  Mary took us all to The Spudhouse for dinner last night.  IT. IS. SO. DELICIOUS.  Melon and I split cheesy garlic bread and potato lentil soup for an appetizer and then I had a potato loaded with chicken, peppers, garlic, and of course, cheese.  It was to die for.  Melon and I have decided it is definitely a place we will frequent... even if we just stop to get some of their scrumptious chocolate cake!

I'll end with an overview of the night life.  By this point (night 10) I have been to a few different pubs and one night club.  I would pick the pubs any night.  Hands down. The night clubs just aren't my scene!  Sorry to all of the Irish folks who love to go there!  The pubs are just a more welcoming environment (and I can wear what I had on for class!).

(Erin, Hope, Melon, Me, and Ashleen at The Front Door)

Sorry I was so long-winded in this post!  There was a lot to cover because so much has been happening!  Hopefully I'll write shorter posts more frequently from now on!

Off to bed it is!

"May the sun shine all day long, everything go right and nothing wrong. May those you love bring love back to you, and may all the wishes you wish come true."