Tales of Angry (Ginger) Women

Hey Everyone!

First let me say that I have no weird beef with gingers, most of my mom's side of the family has red hair and they are all fantastic (hi Mom!) but the Irish love to talk about angry read-headed women, all of which I will get into later.  I'm not really going to talk too much about class in this post cause well, if I did you would be so bored that you would stop reading these posts.  What I am going to talk about are the two weekend bus trips Marie, Lauren, and I took this weekend.   It was a long weekend that I am only now recovering sleep-wise from but it was worth every motion-sick second.

Day One began at 9:30am when I begrudgingly got my sleepy (maybe slightly hurting from the night before) butt out of bed to throw on some new clothes and head to the bus station.  This seems like an easy task, the bus station was very close to our apartment, but we didn't know where the station was so we wondered a little before landing ourselves in the right place. We were on the bus and on our way by 10.  Between the wind causing the bus to have an unsafe sway to it (we were driving on a cliff next to the ocean for goodness sake!) and the curvy road (there are no thruways) motion-sickness like no other overwhelmed me throughout the journey but for short amounts of time I was distracted by our bus driver Dave.

Dave added all sorts of useless random tidbits to the reservoirs of my knowledge.  Most of these, as the title of this post would suggest, had to do with angry read-headed women.  I learned about one woman (ginger of course) who was so ruthless that she 1) would not allow her almost-dead husband into the house because he didn't win the battle he came home from - he later died in their stable or something that night 2) Used to kick her servants off the Cliffs of Moher if they really made her angry (you'll see a picture of those in a bit so you know just you crazy that is) and 3) The servants that made her angry, but not Cliff-kicking angry, she would hang by their hair from spires of the castle she lived in - yikes!!  We also heard about a ginger lady who killed off her husband whenever she found someone with more wealth that she wanted... enough said about that loony.  There were several stories about other ginger women but those two were the ones that stuck with me the most from Dave.  A conclusion that we drew from Dave's warning to all the men ("Stay away from Irish read-head women!") was that his wife, that we heard some complaints about, must be a ginger. 

Stop one, the Aillwee Cave, was definitely unique.  This Irish farmer due stumbled upon it in the 1940's after chasing his dog who was chasing a rabbit into it.  Thinking it was no big deal he didn't mention it to anyone until some cave-survey people from England showed up in a pub and he told them of his find - in 1975!  It has since been turned into a really cool tour of a really deep, really big cave.  One of the kick-butt discoveries made in the cave were 2,000 year old bones of and Irish Brown Bear (the likes of which haven't been seen in 1,000 years) and its little hibernation hole.  We went down some stairs, across several rickety bridges, and past a waterfall before pausing for a brief moment of 100% darkness.  I will say that in those 30 seconds in which our guide turned off all the lights and had everyone on the tour put away all phones and cameras many things ran through my mind.  It kinda went like this: Holy @*!# I can't see my hand and it's right in front of my face!! ... Okay, I think I can handle this... Oh my goodness what if the lights break and don't come back on - I'm too young to die!!!  And then the lights came back on and I was saved.  As crazy and scary as that was, I recommend everyone try it at least once - unless you're scared of the dark, then stay far far away.  I had a flashback to our campus tour when the tour guide at the cave announced that she would not be accompanying us back to the exit and gave us very vague “go left, then right, the straight” directions but eventually we found our  way out.

Lesson Learned: I'm too tall to be a cavewoman!!

After buying some souvenirs and taking pictures of the landscape we were back on the bus and on our way to Poulnabrone.  I’m still not sure what exactly Poulnabrone is, just that is was excavated and they found bones enough for hundreds of bodies there but they were all scattered so the theory is that people were buried somewhere else so they could decompose until they were moved to be by this rock thing.  It must be of some importance because it has its own security guard - I feel really bad for this guy cause he has to stand all day watching the rock thing rain or shine, hail or gale force winds he's there.  However random, Pulnabrone was in a really beautiful part of the Burren which is a large mountainous part of the Irish landscape which is covered entirely in limestone thanks to farmers hundreds of years ago who would over farmed the land and left.  I was taking some photos of the rocky landscape and the Irish blue skies turned dark grey and the heavens opened up and poured rain and a bit of hail down onto me.  I rushed back to the bus thankful that the wind was at my back and not at my face and got safely to dryness right as the rain stopped and the sun came out revealing a beautiful rainbow.

Me and Poulnabrone.. I like that boulder, that's a nice boulder 

Super windy Burren, right before the heavens opened up on me

After being told by our bus driver that the Cliffs of Moher staff closed up and left due to the 75 mph winds and that we might not be able to go I was mad and relieved at the same time.  Mad cause I spent 13 euro to see something that I wouldn't see and relieved cause it would mean less motion-sickness for me.  Dave's comment of "According to my boss, your safety is more important... Sorry." had me laughing and really wanting some lunch.  Awe hit me in the force as we pulled up the the pub we were supposed to be eating at and saw four other tour buses there.  Instead of going somewhere else Dave let us out and told us to be back in forty minutes. It took those entire forty minutes just to get my soup which was in a to go mug for coffee and I had to steal a spoon so I could eat the most amazing seafood chowder in the world on the swaying rickety bus.

We were driving to I couldn't even tell you where when Dave announced to us that he was going to take us to the Cliffs of Moher despite the extreme winds.  What happened to our safety being more important than the euro we spent Dave??  I have never been in winds that strong and hopefully I never will be again.  If there was no barrier wall I'm 100% positive that I would have fallen to my death, we were being blown forwards and backwards and side to side.  I am still mourning my scarf that was blown off and over the barrier, it will be missed until I replace it.  Not many of my pictures came out because the sun was in the wrong direction but those that I did get were amazing.  The only sad parts about that experience was that 1) We couldn't make it up to the castle and 2)We couldn't make it up over the tallest cliffs.  Conclusion: we have to go back when the wind isn't gusting faster than the speed limit on the I-90 in New York.

The Cliffs of Insanity... I mean of Moher
(bonus points if you get the reference)

The castle I'll have to go back to one day

Our next stop was at the Mini-Cliffs in Blackhead.  I'm not sure if they are actually called that or if that's just what Dave called them but they are half the size of the Cliffs of Moher and were very beautiful.  The wind was not as bad here so we could get very close to the edge and got beautiful shots of the sunset over the Atlantic ocean.

Our last stop was at  Dunguaire Castle which wasn't entierly impressive and all the pictures were too dark to really come out but it was a nice way to end the day.

Day Two the bus left at 11:30am which meant we got to sleep in for which we were all grateful.  We weren't quite sure what exactly we would be stopping at all we knew was that we were going to Connemara.  Although I would've been happy to never see that bus again after Day One I climbed back on it hoping that sickness would not overwhelm my day as it had previously.  Although the bus still swayed like grass in the wind the roads were fairly straight on our journey so the sickness was minimal and manageable. Looking out the window as we drove we saw vast rolling hills dotted with puffy white sheep (and even a couple black ones!).  The first several stops in Connemara were in the Twelve Bens Mountains which were quite amazing.  They jutted so high into the clouds that they were almost obscured by the clouds although I got a few pictures where the tops were visible although in a haze. 

The jewel of the day was going to Kylemore Abbey.  Rounding the corner and first laying eyes on the abbey and the chapel on it's grounds was quite literally breathtaking.  After stopping in the cafe to have the most amazing lunch on the planet we browsed the gift shop because it was too early for the next tour.  We ended up getting really sidetracked in there and missing the tour so we had to explore for ourselves, which ended up not being such a bad thing after all.  The inside was beyond beautiful and all I could think was "People actually lived here??"  The Abbey was first a private castle and was sold to Benedictine nuns in the 1900s who ran a boarding school from 1920-2010.

I totally want to live here!

After we explored inside the Abbey as much as we were allowed (several things were not open to the public) we went to the Gothic Church (no lie that's what it's called).  It was about a 10 minute walk from the main Abbey through the woods next to a gigantic lake.  We got the the church and were in awe of how beautiful it was.  Upon going inside I lit a candle and said a prayer before taking a lot of pictures highlighting its glory. 

However the real adventure happened on our walk back when after taking a couple photos by the lake the skies opened up again and hail began to pelt us.  Now as if that wasn't painful enough everything comes down sideways in Ireland so we were being pelted with hail that felt like rocks in the face. So with our scarves over our faces, barely being about to see, we made our way along the path praying to God that he would make the hail stop.  We tired bargaining everything from our grades to alcohol to our first born children.  The laugh was on us though because God ceased the hail and gave us rain instead.  Again with the sideways nature of precipitation, we got back to the bus soaked and laughing and a bit closer as a family.

Just a tad wet

I'm pretty sure I was asleep before the bus even left the grounds of the Abbey and I slept all the way to the wishing tree.  It is a tree in Connemara which you tie a piece of fabric to and make a wish before you leave.  Sadly I didn't have spare fabric to tie to the tree but I said a wish before getting back on the bus anyways - not that I could tell you all what is is or it won't come true!  Also, wherever this tree was located was absolutely beautiful (I don't know where it is cause I was asleep when we were told all about it).

When we got home I swiftly collapsed into bed and drifted off to a very deep restful and beautiful sleep.  I will leave you with that and a promise to have a much shorter posts in the future!

Until next time,
Sarah

Finally Legal!

Legally allowed to stay in Ireland that is!! ;)

Hey Everybody!

I know its been a while since I have written you all but there hasn't been that much to report. The first week of classes came and went and the weekend was a mix of the market, going out, homework and sleep.  I have decided to give myself some breathing room by only taking four classes this semester instead of five so that will free up my mornings and give me four day weekends (allotting more time for sleep and exploring!! Err.. I mean homework).  So the classes I'm taking are as follows: The Development of the Castle in Medieval Europe, Theories of Personality, Imagining Modern Ireland: An Introduction to Irish Culture Studies,  and Memory and Cognition.  I figured I'd let you all know what they are so that when I talk later about earthwork castles and Freudian theory you'll know it didn't just fall from the moon and land in my blog.

Monday I had my appointment with Irish immigration, the appointment it self I was not concerned about it was getting there that was the problem. Oh what an adventure that was!  I did learn a very important lesson though, if given the choice between vague directions and a hard to make out map from your school and even vaguer directions and no map from your landlord listen to your landlord!!!!! Keep in mind that this place is a good 30+ minute walk from my apartment, not exactly in town.  Thinking that there is no way I could follow Oliver's (my landlord) directions because he basically said to get to the town square and then go straight for a long, long while and that there would be a cemetery on my right a bit before it came up on my left.  Now who would go off of just that??  Not me, it made me nervous.  So I walked 15 minutes to campus just so I could walk the route that the school had told me to.  Long story short I got really lost and confused and eventually found myself back in the town square heading on Oliver's route.  I'll tell you, after walking for what felt like forever and almost getting killed in a roundabout I was never so happy to see a cemetery.  One day I'll walk back to explore the super old church there but who knows when that will be.  I eventually found my way to the immigration office which was tucked away in between a sandwich shop and a printers.  I walked in, pulled out something to read and waited.. and waited and waited.  Eventually I was called back to an overwhelmed but still friendly Garda officer.  He took all my documents and 300 euro, gave me a cute little license-like identity card and told me that if caught without it I would be arrested and fined out the wazoo.  Needless to say that card is like never ever ever leaving my wallet! (Bonus points if you read that sentence and now have the T-Swift song in your head like I do)

After a very long walk back to campus I sat through several long lectures.  I didn't know that there was so much to say about mounds of dirt that people built 'castles' on but now I know a whole lot that will probably never come of use to me.  Basically, mounds of dirt = protection for the wealthy, the more wealthy you are the larger dirt mound you have; that is all.  I also learned Freud for about the millionth time.  I don't know how many of you are psycho-theoretically inclined but if you are you'll know that all classes love to teach Freudian theory. I don't know if its because he himself was one leap over the cuckoo's nest or because he was sorta onto something about the subconscious but it is done to the point of overkill.  I swear if I get home and have to "learn" about penis envy or the Oedipus complex one more time I will go off the (proverbial?) deep end.  Either way, it has been a week of lectures that have been less than stimulating but social life that has been quite fun.

Something I have discovered about Ireland is that it doesn't matter what day it is, people will be out at the pub.  Monday, when I was feeling a bit down for a whole load of reasons I won't go into, Lauren and I decided to go out to our beloved Taaffe's as well as the Front Door to hear some music and kick back.  We were lucky to find seats when we got to Taaffe's it was so packed, we were quite shocked at the number of people sharing in pints and music and merriment on a Monday evening.  It was at the bar bobbing our heads to some Irish folk song that we met Emily.  Emily was at the bar by herself so we adopted her into our conversation and low and behold she was from Australia and had been traveling all over Europe on her own for 6 weeks!  We moved over to the Front Door and had another drink with Emily while she told us about all her grand adventures throughout Western Europe as well as a bit about Australian culture.  All and all it was quite a pleasurable evening and we were sad to part with our new-found friend.

We didn't do much Tuesday night, we call kinda needed some time in to do school work (yes Mom and Dad we are doing school work) and I feel like tonight will be much of the same.  Tomorrow we have our first get together with the international student society at our university and we are excited to expand our friend circle and plan future trips around Ireland.  I guess I will leave you with parting wonders on what we will do next (rest assured in the fact that we don't really know either).

Until next time,
Sarah

Snakebites, the Best Cure for Homesickness

Hey Everyone!

First let me clarify, by snakebites I mean the drink not the puncturing of some extremity of mine by the fangs of a slithery reptile.  It has been a dreary week thus far in Ireland and that has affected my mood to a slight.. okay moderate extent.  There is something about rainy weather that just makes me want to curl up under a blanket and either watch sappy movies or read a good book all day long.  There are three problems with this practice: 1. if I did that every time it rained here I would never leave my apartment which would be bad because I'd miss class and everything else Ireland has to offer, 2. I've sworn off reading good books for now as to not distract me from school and Ireland's charms, and 3. I didn't bring any movies with me to Ireland and Netflix doesn't stream here (and I will not buy a subscription to European Netflix) so that's a no go as well.  Don't get me wrong, I love it here but sometimes I just miss home and want a hug from my mom or my "other brother" Adam - very adult-like huh?

The gloom seemed to hover over the apartment over the last few days so we decided that we needed to go out and have some craic (an Irish word for fun, not the drug).  We walked around trying to pick what bar to go into, we were going to start off at our first bar (and our favorite) Taaffe's but it was a little packed so we left in search of a new experience.  We ended up strolling into The King's Head which is a pub literally two or three doors down from our beloved Taaffe's.  Walking in it was immediately a different experience.  I mean first off the place was much bigger (size of the room and height of the ceilings) than what we were used to and secondly there was live music but it was all American oldies.  Don't mistake me for someone who can't jam out to "Proud Mary" (the CCR version) because I totally can. Sidenote- there is nothing more interesting than hearing some American classics done with an Irish twist, I kinda love it a lot.  When the bartender (whose name I never got) asked us what we wanted I told him we had already tried Guinness and asked him what the next quintessential Irish drink we needed to try was.  His response was Galway Hooker (a locally brewed beer, not the other kind of hooker) so in the name of trying everything new and Irish Lauren, Marie, and I all had a pint.  It was a good beer but probably won't be my go-to drink while I'm here because of the weird gingery aftertaste, so far I'm a Guinness girl.

After finishing our drinks we decided that we wanted to go back to Taaffe's and our trusty bartender Johnny and the night got much more fun.  Because Johnny is the only bartender we will get drinks from at Taaffe's we went straight to him when we got in.  "Okay Johnny," I said "We've done Guinness and Galway Hooker, what's the best way to have Jameson?"  Johnny, never one to lead us to something bad, suggested the way he and his friends used to have it when they were in college -  Jameson with red lemonade.   This may be one of my new favorite things in the world, just sayin'.  We got our drinks from Johnny, found our way to a table (which was quite the accomplishment because it was still pretty packed), and settled in to enjoy some of the Irish music (which was mixed in with some American music, I stand by my earlier statement regarding this).  When we finished that drink Lauren and I waved Johnny over to the end of the bar, because that was the only open spot to talk to him, "Okay Johnny," we said, "What next?"  It was then that Johnny introduced us to the snakebite.  We heard him tell us something about it being lager and cider mixed with something else but we never did get the last part - after looking it up this morning I now know that the mysterious third item was a blackcurrant squash (or flavoring syrup).  Marie and I split my pint of it and Lauren had hers to herself mostly (Marie and I helped her finish it in the end).  This might be my other new favorite drink, it was so good!!

Me, Marie, and Lauren with our Jameson and red lemonade drinks!

Our glasses were empty, the band was getting ready to cease playing, and it was getting close to closing time (which here is like 12:30 not like in Buffalo where places stay open until 4am) so we thanked Johnny for yet again steering us in the right direction and headed home.  I can't even begin to talk about how much I needed a night of good, clean craic but it lifted my spirits immensely and now I'm ready to head out into the rain and walk to school.. well as ready as I'll ever be anyways.

Until next time,

Sarah

Not in Kansas Anymore

Hey Everyone!

Not that I have ever actually been to Kansas but the black and white to technicolor shift from Kansas to Oz is about the closest overwhelming transition I can currently think of.  I spoke before about how the sheer size of my new campus is overwhelming in nature but the classes are just as foreign to me.  HUGE (Billy Fuccillo kind of huge for those of you who get the reference) lecture halls have been taking over my life and suddenly I am longing for my seminar class of four people last semester.  Trying to find my way around the library feels similar to forging my way through an undiscovered jungle (I'm stretching it a bit but you get the idea) and I still have yet to find a place to Skype (doing it from my apartment is inconceivable due to horrid connection).  I have had no better idea  since arriving in Ireland than coming to campus yesterday and finding out the location of all my classes.  That was an interesting experience in the rain but eventually I got my bearings (mostly) At least I don't have that to worry about today and got to explore the Oxford-replica (but I like to refer to it as the Hogwarts building) on campus (see below).

Other developments in my life since Saturday are as follows:

1. In Ireland, it often rains while you're walking about and then gets sunny whenever you go inside - this can get very annoying sometimes

2. We figured out how to laundry in the apartment's combo washer-dryer machine (but it takes like 6+ hours per load)

3. I found out the hard way (via an ice-bath like shower) that we have to wait at least 10 hours after doing laundry to shower if we want to have hot water

4. Carrot-parsnip with ginger and orange soup is my new favorite thing to eat (it was magical and life changing)

5. It will take me months to get over what happened in the 5th book of the Mortal Instruments series that I finished yesterday which is alright because the next and final book doesn't come out until May (so maybe by then I'll be ready by then - not likely though)

6. Cooking with an oven that works only when it wants to is almost more frustrating than when it starts to pour when I'm around the corner from home... almost

Until next time,
Sarah

Getting to Know Galway - Is This Real Life?

Hey Everyone!

I haven't written in a couple days so this is probably going to be one of my longer posts.  So Thursday and Friday we had Orientation at NUI Galway which was an experience to say the least.  First of all the walk to school itself is breathtaking, secondly campus is HUGE - beautiful but huge.  Never before have I appreciated so much my tiny campus at home. Thursday was all about the social side of campus and Galway with talks by a handful of different students and staff as well as talks from the police and an immigration officer.  Now if you're anything like me a talk from a police officer is a scary sounding thing but both the Sargent and the officer joked around and we super friendly and approachable.  Instead of getting a "Don't do anything or we'll arrest you" kind of talk we got a "Galway is a party, enjoy it.. but be safe" kind of talk.  They also encouraged us to talk to officers around us - for causal chats and jokes not just for problems!  Not at all the rigid cold officers we were used to.  Friday was all about the academic side of things with talks on how to register and from most of the major departments on the classes being offered to international students.  I'm going to skip over how little my home school prepared me for this because none of you want to read a whiny blog so I'll just give you some pictures of campus and the walk there instead.

The walk to school

Not a bad view from the Student Center huh?

Hanging out in the campus bar (but not drinking) in between academic sessions

Welcome to the day of PowerPoint presentations

The Quadrangle

Martin Ryan Building.. that's one big turtle!

Cool sculpture

Wednesday night the Student Union of NUIG had a karaoke night for all the international students.  I have never wanted to do karaoke in my life but when we got there free pints were offered for singing so Lauren, Caitlin, and I got up and sang All Star by Smash Mouth and greatly enjoyed having a beer on the school!

School bar

Free pint!!!

We got a campus tour on Friday which was so overwhelming that I just wanted to hop on a plane and fly home right then.. but I got over that.  What wasn't fun was that the tour guide walked us all the way to the other side of campus (doesn't sound far but it is) and the was like "Yep, I'm done. See ya!" and we had no idea where we were or how to get home so we just kind of followed other people.  We could see the Cathedral so we knew in general what direction we needed to go in but we also spotted the ruins of some building on our way (that happened to have ivy in the shape of a heart) so we made a tiny detour to check it out.  It looked really cool but we didn't stay long cause it was littered with broken beer bottles, just long enough to take a couple pictures.

Even ivy loves Ireland!

Someone come bail me out? Anybody? Hahaha

The walk back was very scenic but also pretty and we did eventually find our way home.

Today (Saturday) has probably been my favorite day thus far since getting to Galway.  On Saturdays and Sundays there is a market in the city and it is filled with all sorts of amazing homemade goodies like breads, cheeses, teas, honeys, and soaps as well as food stands, a fresh fruit and veggie stand, meats, and fish.  Accompanying all of that were several stands for handmade items like jewelry, paintings, scarves, socks, slippers and countless other goodies. However, above all the other things my favorite part of the market would have to be the doughnut man.  These homemade doughnuts were probably the best thing I have ever tasted and without a doubt will have to be my weekly treat to myself.

After dropping off our obtained goodies at the apartment Marie and I decided to go on a walk by the water. Words fail me trying to describe it so I will just share pictures of the beauty instead.

And it is with these beautiful pictures of Galway Bay that I leave you today. 

Until next time,

Sarah