Adventures Overseas

A wet package from Ireland

2008-09-01T09:33:00.000-07:00

Got a wet package from Ireland that smelled like the nasty river water. Had my wallet, money and camera in it. The sd card in the camera still works so as soon as I get it up in Chico I can actually put up the last of my pictures that are of all my favorite places and places I was hanging out at a lot!

Last blog before a HUGE picture blog once I get home this weekend

2008-07-31T04:43:00.000-07:00

Sorry! I've been super busy this past week with finals and just trying to live it up in Ireland before I leave. I feel like everything started to come together this week and now I actually really don't want to leave...I'm not actually sure what I am going to do in the states once I get back since I've been living in a different country for the past 6 weeks...I think its going to be weird coming home!! I'm still excited to see everyone and eat better food...but I really want to stay haha! I understand why people do semesters now...it takes about a month for you to get yourself situated here. Ok well I'll be home tomorrow night!

Picture update

2008-07-23T07:26:00.000-07:00

Went out last night to listen to music at Monroe's (of course) very fun time. Table from Chicago next to us that gave us this HUGE thing of food because they couldn't eat it and hadn't even touched it actually which was chill. After music me and Jessie were tired so we went to grab a cab, well since it was only 11pm there were like no cabs out. Finally we got one, well no joke this cab driver was drunk or mildly retarded..or a sweet combination of the two. Definitely did not take us to Corrib Village at first so after making like a million wrong turns (none of which he charged us for thank god) we finally got to Corrib Village hahaha. His seat was so far forward that it was actually leaning into him. Well I just finished 977 words of my 1500 word research paper...probably the most poorly written thing I've ever done (even compared to these blogs...sad I know) and hopefully I can get another 600 words...but...ehh...I don't know. Kiinda over school hahaha. Especially school that has nothing to do with anything I am doing. I'm actually scared to go back and re-read...its all on sean-nos singing. Traditional Irish singing, look it up and listen. You probably won't like it though because its not like normal singing, they sing through their nose or something. We are going to see the new Batman movie tonight right after class because it just came out here and then go to the gay bar for karaoke night!! Should be fun, maybe I can get girls to buy me drinks since the guys don't here hahah.

LOOK! My friend took a picture of us hiking...this is where we were. If you click to enlarge you can see me...I'm right behind the girl in bright green!! Cool street art!
What?! Why am I doing this...all that cider hahaha.
Some guys playing at Monroe's that pub we are always at...

Something pretty I walk by everyday
Three Sarah's :) I've never been friends with someone with the same name...now I know 2. This was right before the parade.
I've been collecting street art here since they have a lot of it and I think its interesting..
more street art...
More street art...this was all shells. If you click on the picture you should get more detail. I couldn't get closer to take a picture because you were suppose to pay to take a picture but I'm cheap so I took it and ran.
3 Sarah's again after "Mexican" food...It was pretty good but that 'sour cream' as they call that they gave me definitely was not sour cream. They are too far away from Mexico I suppose. Never thought I'd be so happy to live so close to Mexico haha.
Another pretty picture of something I walk by all the time...
More cool street art...I have a lot more but I'll probably do a full post with them
The Church that's right by where I live. Its really pretty. My roommate goes to mass (mass right?) every weekend and this is where she goes...I am going with her this weekend just because I think it will be neat. Or maybe its because Ireland has converted me into a hardcore Catholic? Oooooo

Aran Islands, Inis Mór

2008-07-22T04:41:00.000-07:00

Sorry ahead of time...this is a long one and I didn't go back and re-read it so I am sure its full of errors and repeats since I kinda just typed what came to mind...enjoy!

Well...this was by far the most interesting day here in Ireland. Lets set up the scene, when you get an emailing saying "wear sensible shoes because we will be doing light walking today" what do you think? I think don't wear flip flops or heels, so I wore flats. Lets note that it say LIGHT WALKING. Which too me means...light walking, not intense hiking through weeds and thorny bushes and up rocky hills. But that's just me and my California thinking, because apparently in Oregon (where Mark...our wonderful resident director is from) its means HIKING! Now we all know how much I not only love hiking, but how I love nature and being right up in it...oh wait thats not me at all. So you can imagine that I was just slightly pissed when we got to Inis Mór and I found out we were going on a TWO HOUR hike before lunch and then another, more intense hour hike after lunch. It was the start of the worst day ever, that can only be compared to my 5th grade camping trip which I had food poisoning for. If you look down at the pictures you'll see the shoes I wore for this light walk. So I tried to calm down and accept the fact that I was stuck with this hike in these shoes (which are now trashed and I need to buy a new pair when I get back :( ) the road our guide pointed to from what I could see (also in a picture below...how silly of me to think it would be forever like that) was paved, kinda rocky and hard to walk in with flats but I think I could do it. Well right around the bend of course the paved road stoped and turned into a rocky grass "road" which I was dying on since I kept getting crap in my shoes and just freaking out the whole time that I was going to get ticks! This tour we were going on was too see things that most people who come to these Islands don't get to see...not the normal tourist stuff...which yeah cool whatever! BUT! I'm only here once in my life and I would kinda like to see the stuff everyone comes to this Islands to see (especially since that stuff was off the the main road). Already I knew this 2 hour hike was going to turn into a much longer time since Mark (resident director) ALWAYS has to talk over the tour guide, interrupting all the time to say his own shit...and just repeats the same stuff over and over and over...he has one of the voices that makes me want to punch a baby every time I hear it. Plus that fact that he is completely unorganized and doesn't know ANYTHING about teenage girls...which is this whole trip doesn't help much either. Well after a 20 minute stop like 2 minutes into the hike where nothing important was sad what so ever...we continue walking on this "road"...all up hill. Well just when I thought this wasn't going to get worse...OF COURSE IT DOES! We get off the grass "road" and swear to go just start walking off too no where. This was not a path, this was straight up going through the grasslands which were filled with bugs and these thorny bush and up hill with random rocks everywhere so I thought I was going to twist my ankle. We do this for about 40 minutes climbing over the stone fences you see in the pictures...I'm basically in tears at this point because I don't do this, let alone in rolled up pants and cute flats. We finally get up to the top of this hill to see what?! OH WOW! the same rock formations that were right on the side of the road, but this one you see, this was a special rock grave for most people never get to see it because its out in the middle of no where not meant for mankind ever to find! So we are up on this hill listening to NOTHING for about an hour, Mark of course making it even longer then it would be cause he has to keep saying something about everything the tour guide says. And then of course we have this one girl on the group that is just a know-it-all who never shuts up, always has something to say about everything, always has a question about everything, and always fights back with teachers on tour guides thinking she is right...everyone loves her. Hahaha, no. At this point I'm with my friend Maddie and Sam and we are just pissed. Along with everyone else on the tour because nobody gets the point of this and no one cares. This was a study abroad trip, people signed up to do that not hiking group who is interested in rock formations. Now hang in there on this blog, this turns out to be one of the best days I've had here so it gets positive...but it stays negative for just a bit longer hahah. So after being on this hill for an hour we have to walk back through the grasslands a crazy way, scaling up rocky hills. Now imagine me trying to climb up a rocky hill covered in thorns and bugs. Keep in mind I'm dressed up because this is a great place to take pictures so I wanted to look cute and I have my huge purse too! So I look insane doing all this. Well someone goes up to the tour guide and was like we need to stop and eat lunch now because no one can do any more hiking with out food. Him and Mark were pretty upset that non of us wanted to keep going at that point but none of us cared because we are all over doing what Mark wants to do since its never anything anyone else wants to do. So we then have to walk for 45 minutes to get to this random cafe with like 3 things on the menu (nothing good of course...Mark has a great eye for picking places to eat). So there is word going around that the 2nd half of this hike is more intense then the first...which I can't even imagine since that was the most intense thing I've ever done. I said screw this. I was done, I was out and I was over all this crap. So was Monica and my friend Maddie (who has twisted her ankle at the beginning of this trip and was super pissed because Mark knew and neglected to tell her what this was going to be like) so we went to Mark and told him we were done. And of course he gave up dirty looks and the guilt trip which didn't affect me since I was too pissed at him for lying about this trip. We told him we were going down to the beach instead and he very rudely said no you have to stay at this cafe...which of course we did.

** Random things to mention about Mark that I coudln't fit into this blog. He is very rude and talks down to all the fellow staff in front of the students which I think is ridiculously disrespectful to demean your fellow co-workers in front of students! We actually over heard one of the teachers talking shit about him after class one day...pretty fun. And one of the tour guides actually got mad and told him he needed to stop talking because he was wasting her time hahah. Paul (the other resident director) also made a comment when we first got to the Island that he didn't know if this was something that people would appreciate on this trip since no one was an archeology major...pretty funny. **

Ha! And here is where it starts to be the best day ever. The moment they start heading up to the cliffs (which they talked about how people die here from falling off all the time...wow lets hike up to cliffs just so I have a chance of dying...no thank you) we start heading down to the beach. It was probably the most beautiful beach I have ever been too. There was no one there, it was soo clean not one piece of trash to be seen, the water was clear and bright blue. The pictures don't do it justice at all which makes me sad since I wanted to capture how amazing it was! For only an hour that day too it was hot and sunny (the rest of the time is was raining) and of course it was the hour we were down there!! So amazing. After we hung out at the beach for awhile we decided to go find one of two pubs on the Island. I needed a hard cider after that hike so I didn't kill Mark when I saw him again. We walked up this paved road, amazing, for about 15 minutes thinking we aren't going to find it since it only looked like random house here and there as far as we could see. We saw these 2 yellow houses at the top of the hill and decided we would walk there and turn around if we couldn't see the pub. Well we thought we were out of luck since it was just 2 houses up there but then we saw a sign hanging above it saying "licensed to sell spirits". I was pumped. If you look at the picture below you'll see the picture of this place and I'm pretty sure it was just some women who had converted her house into a pub. We get in there, thinking it was going to be super shady since it didn't look like anything but when we opened the doors it was a sweet pub inside! Very small, only locals all speaking Gaelic. The bartender was fantastic! Super excited we were there visiting since only locals ever come in to this pub (the smaller island is where tourist go to drink). I talked to her for awhile while drinking my cider, her and everyone in the pubs had just got back from a trip to New York and were planning on going to SF next which I told her would be way better since its on the right coast. This was probably the coolest pub I've been to my whole time here. Its what I was expecting to go to and hoping to go to. Just a chill local pub where everyone knows each other and is extremely friendly. So then we walked back to the group (a lot of people were pissed we ditched out on the 2nd half...my friends didn't even really talk to me and still have not but I could care less! I got to go to an amazing beach and a great pub. Plus you know they were just jealous...but its like you could have bailed to! None of this is required, you paid to get to this Island you should do what you want) who tried to tell us we missed out on the cliffs. Yeah right, pictures are good enough for me. Plus they didn't even get to go to the beach! The bartender was telling me about how the beach is a blue flag beach...I'm not really sure what that means, but she says its extremely hard to get a blue flag beach and its one of the only ones around Ireland. I guess it means its super clean and nice. Got back to the ferry where I got a Guinness (the 2 boys on this trip got ones on the way there so I decided I'd get one on the way back) turned out to be the cheapest Guinness I've found! Me and Adam got one, and of course got dirty looks from Mark. Don't worry I can't get in trouble for any of this because we are aloud to do whatever we want since we are legal here (and in the states!) but he just looks down upon it because he is rude. So we had this hour bus ride back, I have never had to pee so bad in my life! It was WORSE then the Foo Fighters night where I almost went behind a car but sucked it up and made it home. I held it for like almost the hour but when the bus stopped in Galway in a place I knew to let one guy off ( we still had like 20 minutes to our place) I jumped off and told them I'd get a cab back (the tour was over so we were on our own time starting at 5pm...it was 6) Monica got off too as I ran as fast as I could to the Aquarium. Made it! Barely. So then we got some snacks and a cab back to Corrib Village. Defiantly beat the bus there, so there was no way I would have made it home. So the worst day ever turned out to be a pretty awesome day.

Picture of the place where we docked in Inis Mór
A horse...haha

Picture of us riding back to the dock after they got back from the cliffs...

same but the front of the van

the beach that only me maddi and monica got to go on! So nice!

beach again

back of the ferry on the way back to Galway
The beach again...
Me and Adam having a Guinness on the way back to Galway...it was the cheapest we've found Guinness in all of Ireland so I had to get one! Defiantly got dirty looks from the resident director...but after that hike I really could careless!
Walking back from the pub we found...on paved roads! How nice.
The pub is the house to the left hahaha.
Maddie down on the beach skipping rocks
some random house I found while we were on our own walk
Someone wrote this in the sand so I thought I'd take a picture
The shoes I had on for our "light walk"
Ooooo stone walls
Right when I found out it was a hike...but before I knew just how bad it was
WHAT!? More stone walls! Oh my god!
There is suppose to be a bunch of seals here...I told them they should all go to SF because you'll actually see seals haha
A cow
Look! More stone walls. This was after our hike on paved roads up hill to lunch...
At the top of the hill where we climbed up on the hike to see what? MORE STONE WALLS! Look how happy and interested everyone is.
Another cow? You don't say hahaha
Oh no...I posted this picture again...oh wait no it just looks the same...Cool the first few times but not worth hiking to see more of
On the ferry ride to Inis Mór before we knew what we were getting into....
On the walk back from the pub
Beach again! So pretty!
beach
A horse!
The begining of our hike...where I was still under the impression it would be a hike on roads
a lepracan house!
picture I took on the ferry
before the hike
picture of the docks from Galway

Arts Festival Parade

2008-07-22T04:23:00.001-07:00

Sunday night was the Galway Arts Festival kick-off parade so the streets were insane! We got to the bridge we were watching it from 2 hours early and it was already packed with people. Thankfully we got a spot right in the front because a bunch of people from our group didn't go out till like 30 minutes before the parade started and didn't get to see anything since there was no way to move passed all the people. Its legal for you to walk around with beer cans and bottles too and all the locals were super drunk just walking by with all their booze in their hands which was pretty entertaining since they were falling in the streets right in front of the police (Garda here) who didn't do anything just laughed. Very different from America, half the crowd would have been taken away for being drunk in public. The parade finally started at 10:30 pm (we got there at 8:30) and lasted about an hour. At the end of the parade it was so cooled that I couldn't even feel my hands. It was pretty tight though, I mean...no Disney parade of course hahaha but still it was really cool. Kinda of creepy, very interactive. Well after the parade we had to walk for an hour to get back because at 11pm they shut the back gates to Corrib Village so we have to go all the way around to get in...there was this random dog walking with us the whole way that kept running back and forth through the cars almost getting hit like 10 times. My friend Jessie was tripping balls...I was too cold and thinking of the delicious kebab I had with me to really care. It was a donner kebab and it was fantastic even after having carried it in the cold for an hour.

PICTURES!!
1. A clown...there were lots of clowns which creeped me out.
2. Some crazy flying monster that kept attacking the crowd
3. Monster again..
4. Crazy Clown tank!
5. Inside of the crazy clown tank!
6. Clown with a knife that came up too me...soooo many clowns!
7. Another clown car!
8. If you click to enlarge the picture you'll see a girl pushing the cage...that's my friend Sarah who got grabbed out of the crowd and was forced into the cage at first and then had to keep the monster in its cage for about 20 ft down from us. It was pretty funny!
9. The caged Monster right before it grabbed Sarah
10. Another clown car
11. Me and Sarah...a different Sarah...there are 6 on this trip haha
12. More of the parade
13. Parade
14. The crowd on the left of me an hour before the parade started...already packed!
15. This big tall crazy thing that I couldn't get very good pictures of but it was really cool in person!
16. Crowd to the right of me and hour before the parade.

Campus and more randoms!

2008-07-20T10:04:00.000-07:00

1. Campus! Its really pretty
2. Campus again!
3. Campus once more...this is where I take my class.
4. Campus again!
5. My messy room
6. Me with swans...I don't know why I am making that face
7. Galway!
8. Cool thing I saw in the Guinness Factory!
9. Guinness!!
10. They have really cool street art everywhere!

Random pictures! About time...

2008-07-20T09:54:00.001-07:00

1. Random pub outside Finnagins (the place we eat at the most because its cheap...)
2. I thought of mom when I saw this and thought it was cool. Also outside Finnagins
3. Right outside my apartment...we go here to sit out by the water and read...or at least I attempt to read my homework. I usually just get distracted by the people rowing by.
4. YES! Me with Tim Collins and Brian McNamara! They were the people that came in class to play for us that I talked about a few blogs ago...
5. Another lake shot from where we read with Katie in the picture...
6. This is the painting that's in my room! A CLOWN!!....and a horse head? Honestly one of the weirdest and worst picture, it creeps me out. I have a poster covering it that I took from a pub at the moment...
7. Kinda blurry...but a HUGE spider!! There are tons and tons of these guys here. They are soooo nasty!
8. A horse...this is where the shuttle from Corrib Village drops me off everyday so I thought I'd take a picture of what I see all the time.
9. Ewwww grossss spiders again!
10. Street we walk to get to Finnagins!

The walk right outside Corrib Village

2008-07-20T09:49:00.000-07:00

These are all pictures I took on a walk we went right outside Corrib Village (the place we are staying). Its a river walk that starts basically right outside my apartment.

Pictures will someday come...

2008-07-19T08:27:00.001-07:00

So they are on Monica's computer finally but I can't get them to upload on to this or photobucket because the Internet isn't super great here. Anyway, I've been super busy running around Ireland this past week so I never really got a chance to sit down and update. Lets see. The Arts Festival started this week!! So Galway is no packed everywhere we go. Which is kinda cool but then kinda not at the same time just because its a pain to go anywhere!! But there are now a ton of cool street performers everywhere! For the past few days three people on stilts dressed up like dinosaurs have been going around the main street here. They are pretty crazy looking, hopefully I can get a picture of here soon. But they go around with smoke bombs and flares and make crazy noises and their dinosaurs head lights up and makes noises too. They do it everyday at 1pm and 10pm. We saw them again today and one of the girl totally ate it on her stilts!! It was insane. Faced it super hard into the ground, we think she might have broken her dino head. Here is a link to their page where there is a video you can watch of them. http://www.galwayartsfestival.com/programme.php?category=11&id=1760

Lets seee! Me, Heather and Jessie went out with this guy Steve that lives here. He is a bartender at the pub Monroe's (which is where we usually go) so he took us around to some local pubs he likes. We went to this really cool one on the docks of Galway, very laid back...not filled with crazy Americans like the rest of the pubs are hahah. Around midnight this group of people from South Africa just got up and started doing this crazy Africa song and dance stuff. It was pretty cool to watch (Heather got a video so once she uploads it I can put it up) they are performing at the Art Festival later this week! But their show costs money and I am cheap so thank god I got to see them for free!

Other then that I had to write a few listening reviews for my music class. I am still awful at the tin whistle but its still really fun. The teacher is awesome so I enjoy the class for the most part. Me and Monica are going to go on the cliffs of mohr tour tomorrow and then me heather and jessie are going to coral beach on Tuesday. It's a beach where all the sane is tiny bits of coral, they went there last weekend with some people they met here but we are going to take a bus out there to go again. The weather has been pretty nice here as well, very hot right now actually but I am in the computer lab where the have the heater on full all the time.

Well its really hard to update without pictures!! So those will be up soon hopefully!

saaay what!!!

2008-07-14T09:47:00.000-07:00

someone ate my starwberries that I just bought today!! WTF?! So kinda a bummer...I moved my food into my room hahaha.

That's a picture of me and some of the girls at Salthill. Nothing to exciting happened this weekend. It was more just going on and Shop Street and walking around to different pubs to listen to music. Although we didn't get an exciting invite to a party on a boat on the Lough Corrib (River). But sadly it was like an hour away and the bus would not have made it in time.

Wellll...kinda a boring post. Its hard to talk about anything with out the pictures!! So I'll get those uploaded tomorrow and do a better blog!

Yes!

2008-07-14T07:51:00.000-07:00

I found and bought BBQ sauce. I guess I had been going to the wrong grocery store this whole time...still no honey mustard however, but I can live with just BBQ sauce. I also tried the "sushi" they had at the Saturday market. It was good...but by no means sushi since everything was cooked hahaha. And they only offer salmon. Well I'll update more with pictures later today, the labs hella crowded and hot right now and I should probably write a paper...

Avoiding HW

2008-07-09T03:51:00.000-07:00

I’m suppose to be reading stuff for class right now but it’s extremely boring and since it has a lot of music terminology and don’t really know what’s going on half the time.

We went to Taffes the other day to listen to tradition Irish music and it was really sick since I had just learned about all the instruments they were playing. The uilleann pipes (which are like bag pipes…but not since you don’t blow into them), the banjo…which I think American hicks play better, I’m still waiting for one of them to break out in the Deliverance solo but I don’t think it will ever happen and the bodhrán which is the Irish drums. Some old Irish woman started talking to me when I was there saying that back in here day all the musicians would have Guinness in front of them not water, so it was exciting when the bodhrán player grabbed one…he was also older. I’m starting to think it was the older generation of Irish people that could drink. Especially when I found out what she was drinking was not cider but straight scotch (mixed with Irish lemonade…which turned out to be scotch haha). I guess Americans really stick out here too, people will just yell "AMERICANS!!" at us sometimes, its pretty funny. But someone said they can tell by our teeth...since they are so nice and perfect. And our jeans, I think its because our jeans aren't crazy gay (all the guys jeans in Europe have like glitter and funny patterns on them hahaha...Jarred is in the wrong part of the world. )

Yesterday I walked along the Corrib River and actually did some reading there. I got some pictures of it but I still need to up load them. It was really pretty and I found this really cool pond in the middle of the forest that I was enjoying until all the Italian high school kids came through and made the forest smell like BO...I'm sad our people smell bad, so I am just going to continue to believe they are really French. I am going to “Trad on the Coast” on Thursday which has traditional Irish music and dancing which should be cool.

Also very exciting news! I found BBQ sauce!! Some insane off brand I’ve never heard in my life in a hole in the wall Irish 7/11. I didn’t get it of course because I thought it was hot sauce at first. I made turkey/beef burgers yesterday! They were amazing. And I found out why the meat isn't as good as ours, the cows only eat grass while in America they eat something delicious that makes them fat and wonderful.

I met a bunch of drunk Canadian girls, they were pretty entertaining and we were the only ones who got up and started dancing when Johnny Cash came on. Us and the southern boys that were there...all the way too Ireland to meet people from Canada and the south haha.

Pictures:
1. Tin Whistle! What I am learning how to play
2. uilleann pipes
3. bodhrán drums

Ok...I guess I'll go read.

Cameras dead

2008-07-08T07:26:00.000-07:00

My camera died, and I bought new batteries for it but the whole pack was dead!! I did get it at Ireland's version of the dollar tree so I guess there is no surprise there.
We went to the coast yesterday and it was really nice, but it was the first time I had been to the beach where it was cold
OK, I'm tired and don't want to update right now. ill do it later! my phone minutes are almost dead so call me.

I lied

2008-07-05T09:39:00.001-07:00

I lied, I think we are traveling these next two weekends not this weekend. So I'm killing time before we go out tonight. Plus I need to write about this the next day otherwise I totally forget.

So last night was definitely the funnest night I've had so far on this trip. It was Me, Heather and Jessie and we went to this pub called Monroe's because we thought they were doing the "INDIEpendence Day". Well there was no indie kids, or indie musicand we didn't find out until the end of the night that indiependence wasn't at the pub we were at but actually at town hall in the middle of the day. Apparently none of us can read. But we got to listen to local music all night and it was fantastic. The singer from the band actually came up and talked to us after words and was really nice. We are pretty sure they dedicated a song to us or something too because they said something in Irish to us and everyone in the bar turned and they gave a thumbs up. The band was called "Without George". When the singer came and talked to us after he explained the name. I guess they hand a pig named George but it died of gout. Hahaha. Not really funny...but it was kinda funny.
Then we went to the Saturday market today again. I got the donut this time. OH MY GOD! Best donut in the world. We got really cheap veggies there to which was cool since they are so expensive everywhere else.

PICTURESS!!
1. Me and Heather at Monroe's
2. Indie-pendence Day!!
3. The band playing. We were sitting on the side of them
4. Outside of Monroe's!!

Free day for me!!

2008-07-04T06:54:00.001-07:00

Everyone went somewhere to go hiking today and I'm just kinda getting sick and was in an awful mood from last night still so I didn't want to go. Also, everyone knows I can't stand hiking!! I'm all about trying new things here, but hiking is hiking no matter where in the world you are haha. Plus I'm having an awesome day with out everyone from the group. I think I needed time off from everyone to just go explore campus and stuff by myself. Plus I get to do a blog before I don't for awhile because I think we might head down to Dingle Bay and Cork this weekend since I don't have class till wed! ANYWAY! LAST NIGHT! AAHHHHHHHH! We ended up walking about. And the walk during the day is sooo pretty and I really like doing it because its right on the river. BUT at night time there are SOOOO many bugs. It was disgusting how many there were, just swarms of them! I am NEVER walking home again hahaha. Plus they close the gates at like 8 or 9pm (the ones from campus to our village) so we had to walk all the way around. So our 15 minute walk turned into an hour walk which none of us were to happy about. But the bugs! I RAN through them it was so nasty. I must be on a trip full of tomboys or everyone else was drunk (I was very much sober since I only could afford to drink water after my €30 seafood meal!! That's like $50! It was good, but they gave you that fancy place portion size and I guess I'm just a fatty because I was still way hungry after...I had the monk fish in a garlic cream sauce, it was pretty good! and a side order of fries THIS PLACE HAD KETCHUP! I guess you have to pay $50 for a meal if you wanna find ketchup out here...anyway on with the story!!!) because I don't think anyone else was having such a hard time. My friend Jessie was nice enough to walk me through but I freaked out and did that laugh/cry thing, where you kinda start to cry but I knew it was so freaking stupid that I was laughing too...so she starts busting up and kinda pees here pants cause she thought me freaking out was that funny. Well she is laughing so hard at me that she leave hers mouth open long enough for some bugs to fly in and she just goes to the ground and almost throws up. I guess its extremely funny now and even so then. I'll have to post the video they got of me at some point because I guess Heather recorded me freaking out at the bugs and running through them. ANYWAY. We get home and I just feel like they are crawling all over me still (I got bit a lot :( ) so I'm trying to calm down in our living room. Me and one of my flatmates (Laura) are talking when someone throws a rock at our window! Thank god we are on the top floor because its some creeper and he waves me to come down stairs and I just look at him and run away from the window. Well next thing we know he is walking up to our room and knocks on our door! So I just yell GO AWAY! And he starts with this crap about how he is security or something, so Laura opens the door (don't worry Grandma there were 3 of us home so we could have taken him) and he asks if we were the ones who called about the mice (or nic?? we couldn't even tell what he was saying because of his accent!) but we said no and shut and locked the door. I still don't think he was a security guard even though he had a vest on and stuff...because what security guards throws rocks at someones window? So I was freaked out the rest of the night. But now I am fine. I think the lack of sleep and food just had caught up with me last night, and then bugs and fake security guard in the same night was too much! Thankfully I got a bunch of food to make in our kitchen and I've food some frozen food here that's pretty good.

PICTURES!!
1. Me and Heather at the "Living Room"...this was RIGHT AFTER I accidentally snorted some of my cider! and oh m y god did it burn! So they thought it would be funny to take pictures with me while I was trying to recover.
2. Heather, Jessie, Me and Monica by the swans!! I wanted to pet one but I think they probably would have attacked me...
3. Me and my favorite person on this whole trip! Jessie! She is an Internet nerd I love her.
3. Live music at this cool pub called "Monroe's" We are actually going there tonight to celebrate 4th of July!! They are having a bunch of Indie bands and calling it INDIEpendence day ahahaha. How clever.
4. Me looking over this wall that I think is really cool, it looks like castle walls. That's the entrance to our village we are staying at. very pretty.
5. Me and Monica at the pub Monroe's...I don't know why I am making that face. I don't think I knew we were getting our picture taken haha.
6. SWANS!!!!! I think its insane how close we can get to them. I am going to go this week with bread so I can feed them. I guess a long time ago there was like a Queen of Ireland and something happened where she turned all of Galways children in swans and that's why they hang out today. Heather told me that.
7. Yes, its a Dragon penis. It was at the Gardens and I thought it was sooooo funny.
8. I was in the middle of talking when Jessie took this picture...she doesn't really wait or count so I have terrible faces in almost all of them. This is at the sat market where we got the crepes! MMMM!
9. Me, Monica, Heather and Jessie at Finnegan's traditional Irish food! This place was really good and had cheap cider.
10. Downtown Galway
11. Heather, Jessie, Me, Lauren (she is the hippie one I mentioned in the previous blog, super funny) and some Irish guy's arm (that was noooot cute at all) at the "Living Room" again.

Ok well I am going to go take pictures of the campus since its sooo pretty. I think we are on the river but they have really cool mini forests here and all the buildings are really tiny houses its pretty funny. Sorry about my grammar and spelling. Apparently Ireland doesn't have spell check either hahahaha

Galway so far...

2008-07-03T07:09:00.000-07:00

Well I just started the music class. I think its going to be really fun, we have a lot of performers coming in. I guess one that's coming in is really famous here, she is in the only Irish speaking soap haha. Plus I'm just excited to learn the tin whistle (we are learning how to play the tin whistle if I didn't mention that already...). It should be awful, my playing that is. So I hope everyone is ready when I get back to listen to me play.

I went downtown today and ordered an Irish coffee (that's coffee with whiskey in it for those of you who don't know...). EVERYONE in the place kinda looked at me and gave me dirty looks. There was this Irish family just staring me down, then when she brought it out to me she like announced it "WHO HAD THE IRISH COFFEE?" Hmmmm....I wonder? The only freaking American girl in there who ordered it! The place was super tiny so I know she knew who ordered it! And there were some guys my age sitting next to me that made some comments about how early I was drinking. It was after 12 thank you very much. And it was only the size of a shot glass! Plus this cafe was only open for lunch. Why put it on your menu at all if you are going to judge the people who get it? Hahaha. Oh well, it just proves to me more and more that the Irish can not drink.

I guess in Ireland too (I don't know which of you've I have told this...but here is the story again!) guys don't buy girls drinks unless you are interested in them and if your not you like have to buy them a drink. Which I think defeats the purpose of having guys buy you drinks in the first place. They guys we were hanging out with in Dublin, one of them, was getting his drinks bought by the other guys so I was giving him crap about which one he was going to go home with hahaha. He said he had a bike so it would have been hard to take any of them home. At least I've been meeting Irish people who can take a joke! The creepy middle eastern guy could not take a joke. He was from Algeria and his name was Ali. The girl Jessi from LA that I've been hanging out and really like was like "ALI FROM ALGERIA? You're bullshitting me! I'm not Amy from America!"...I thought it was pretty funny but maybe you needed to be there. He didn't get mad at that but he got made when I asked him if he was living in Ireland. I think he was already really drunk though. Then he thought we stole his jacket.

Lets see...We are going out tonight after class because its Monica's (the girl from Chico that I came with) 20th birthday today so we are going to try and find a nice seafood place...however for somewhere that is suppose to be know to have really good seafood they sure don't have a lot of places. No sushi places either, I was reading through some forums trying to find one but I guess one was open for a brief time but didn't do very well and closed down. The only place to get sushi is this stand on Saturday mornings in the sat market downtown. The market was really cool. We went there this past sat and got crepes which were really good but they put way to much cheese in them. Also, it smelt of hippies because there were well a lot of hippies.

They play Sex in the City, Charmed, and Scrubs all the time here so I've been watching that when I am home. Sex in the City marathons every night which has been nice since I can't afford to go out every night...also I'm lazy and I think the cold/rain makes me sleepy. We have 15years come and clean our sheets and towels everyday but we all are creeped out by them since we think they will steal our stuff since they are so young...also I think because deep down no ones use to room service people that aren't Mexican. Haha! Too far? JK Mexican people reading my blog. Its funny to hear "room service" not in a Spanish accent. Anyway, they are pretty nice. I keep ending up being the only one that is home when they come by so I think they are starting to think that I'm a big loser with no friends.

We have to sing in the music class too which is the only thing I'm worried about. I met a girl from Oregon (well from Seattle but she goes to Oregon State). She is a hippie and goes to naked hippie parties, but she isn't a smelly hippie and is really nice. But she is upset at the food here because I guess that don't have all the weird hippie food she eats. I food normal ketchup today! It was at like a specialty store though. Still no honey mustard or BBQ sauce...I don't know how we are going to have our 4th of July BBQ without BBQ sauce. So now you know if you come to Ireland bring your own bbq sauce and honey mustard.

I've been hanging out with all the California girls which I think is funny too. I come all the way too Ireland and end up with a bunch of people not only from the states, but I section off with the people from MY state. We happen to be the best state so maybe that's why...also one is from Chico State as well! 10 hrs on a plane to meet Chico State students hahaha. At least I get to hang out with her now when I go back, and the girl from LA (Jessie) is really tight. She is a film major down there and was just working on high school musical 3.

So yeah...I was told to do a more happy blog so there you go. Hope it wasn't too gay. Speaking of gay!!!!!! AHAHAHAHAHA funny story. Well first we are going to the gay bar (They have a gay bar but no sushi bar?) tonight because I don't want creepers up on me but I want to meet Irish people, plus they have karaoke which is going to be fun. But Monica went out for a smoke when we were at this night club (ewww grosssss everyone smokes here thank god they passed that ban before I came over) and she asked for a cig. Well it was these two dudes she went up too and I guess I'll just type the dialogue...
Monica: "Can I bum a cig?"
Dude 1: "You mean a fag?"
Dude 2: "Nooooo! That's what they call us in America"
*everyone laughs*

Hahahaha. Not funny? Maybe you had too be there again.
Sorry if that was too much Grandma and Grandpa hahaha but you wanted to know stories of what was happening to me and there you go.

PICTURES:
1. The girls that I am hanging out with...it was us at the Guinness factory. Heather (other girl from Chico) Jessie (LA girl) Monica (Chico girl I came with) and wonderful Me.
2. ME! Pretending to be a religious leader...I think I look rather fantastic. Also look at that sweet golden eagle.
3. Pretty stained glass from that church we went too.
4. U2s HOTEL!!!!!! (U2 is a band...like the only famous Irish band for those of you who don't know which I think you all do...but they are obsessed with them because its their claim to fame...they don't say that but I do hahaha.)

Stuff from Dublin

2008-07-03T06:57:00.000-07:00

1. Its the mall in Dublin. It was so pretty, although they don't call it a mall its a shopping center because when I told one of the Irish people we met that we were staying by the mall they had no idea what I was talking about so I had to explain it to them. They of course made fun of me most of the night and kept calling it a mall.
2. Downtown Dublin right outside the place we stayed.
3. Some guy on the streets in Dublin that was just waving his wand everywhere...not as good as the bush man in SF hahaha. I don't think the Irish have perfected street performance yet. Also I don't think he is Irish since they say its all foriegn people that come and beg and do weird stuff on the street.
4. Trinity College where we did a tiny tour. The Irish people we met in Dublin actually go to this college and were celebrating the end of final exams when we met them at a pub.
5. The Irish Bank. Did I talk about this already? It doesn't have windows because I guess at one point the English were having a sun tax on all the windows Irish people had so they filled up all the windows in the bank so they didn't have to pay it haha. AND! I didn't even learn that on any of the tours I went on, my freaking taxi driver told me! The one thing I learned not even from a tour guide haha. Although he also recommended this place for breakfast which turned out to be creep central with a bunch of old drunk men...best mushrooms I've had though.

Gardens and Galway

2008-07-03T06:40:00.000-07:00

I can't remember if I talked about the Gardens we went to in Wicklow when we were in Dublin. Its like an hour drive outside of Dublin. I forgot what the place was called. I have better pictures but I can't get them to upload. It was probably the best thing we did on the Dublin tour because it was so pretty and huge there. I have a lot of pictures and videos that I'll eventually put up. But we were allowed to walk around on our own which was nice. There were a ton of different gardens and then a pet cemetery which I have some funny pictures of (like one of a cows grave that talks about how much milk it made in its life time).

Pictures.
1. Some flowers that I thought were pretty in the Garden.
2. There is only 2 guys on the trip and they are both from the South. This is the first time Adam didn't wet his Cowboy hat...it got ruined in the rain one night in Dublin. But he found a cat in the Japanese garden there and it was so cute and nice. All the cats are nicer in Ireland...they've I'll been coming up to me and having me pet their bellies. I actually got lost on campus yesterday and a cat came up to me (It had a collar, don't worry grandma I'm not touching random cats I find on the street...only random garden cats haha) but I started petting it and talking to it. It kept meowing, it sounded like Bella, so I kept meowing back...but then people started to look at my funny and stop. One guy in a car actually stoped and just stared at me meowing at this cat...so I ran away because I got embarrassed.
3. A view from below the gardens of the pond it over looks.
4. I thought this tree was hella tight because it looks like a Mario 64 tree!!
5. ME! Somewhere in the gardens climbing through a tiny walkway.
6. I don't actually know what "Hairy Legs" is but I thought it was a funny store name so I had to take a picture. I'll be sure to go in there sometime while I'm here and find out what kind of store it is.

The last picture is the only one that's in Galway and not from the Gardens.

Hmmm

2008-07-02T11:31:00.000-07:00

I signed up for the Theater class apparently...but I thought I was in the music class. So I didn't go to the Theater class but I went to the Music one then realized that I had made a mistake. But I'm switching into the music one now.

There are a bunch of high school french kids staying here and they smell. Is it because they are in high school or because they are French? Ahahahahahah

Boo Photobucket and Flickr

2008-06-30T03:08:00.000-07:00

I'm going to have to figure out the photobucket and flickr thing because they are both kinda making me mad right now and I can't get them to put picture on here without posting ALL my pictures. Anyway I'm in Galway now and we are having our class orientation today at noon...so in like 50 minutes. I'm sure it will be awful and boring but oh well HOPEFULLY it will go by fast but if I've gotten any sense of the people that run this program it will probably take FOREVER. I just found out I am going to be learning how to play the Irish tin flute...or pipe or something in the music class too which I think is really funny!

Pictures:
1. The river that runs near our campus that we walked along yesterday.
2. Swans that you can just walk right up to along the river...there were like 20 of them and you could go stand right in the middle.
3. Me and my friend Jessie standing along the river.
4. Another swan haha
5. Thats what their walking guy looks like here and I just thought it was funny.

Weird Food things

2008-06-30T02:40:00.000-07:00

They keep their eggs unrefrigerated...isn't that gross? I guess they have a special casing on them but I still think its nasty.

kittensoft toilet paper!! Awww! I just thought it was sooo cute :)

Tayto chips hahah

Weird ketchup that took me forever to figure out that one was spicy.
They have a really small selection of mustard which I didn't like, and they don't have any of the teas I drink back there. They also have pre-made pancakes in the bread section that you can buy. The grocery store is in a department store too which I thought was funny.

Dad's favorite fashion

2008-06-27T11:45:00.000-07:00

For some reason is won't let me rotate that first picture...but I thought I'd share the fact that I've seen TWO guys in cut of pants. How terrible haha.

Christchurch

2008-06-27T11:37:00.000-07:00

We went to Christchurch in Dublin. It was ok...as you all know I'm not really into touring let alone churches. PLUS! There was dead bodies here that you could see but they made it private so I was super dissappointed. The first picture is of the outside of it and the 2nd is me holding hands with some dead guy. This was the first day we got here so I think I had been up for almost 24 hours by this point...very moody

Dublin, Ireland

2008-06-27T06:26:00.000-07:00

So this is the first time I've really been able to use a computer. We just got our log in info for the school computer labs.
Dublin, Ireland was pretty nice. I like Galway a lot better even though we've only been here for a day now. Dublin had too many tourists from other countries and people from the European Union that just came over here unannounced who I didn't care for as much as the Irish people.

We went and saw Three Sisters a classic Russian play...maybe Czech. I'm sure there is a difference but I fell asleep for one act of it (as well almost everyone in my group). It was one of the worst plays I've ever seen and it was from 8-11pm. Very long and very depressing. Basically about 3 sisters who all hand bad lives so they cried about it the whole time. But they also happened to be like the richest people where they were...soooo.

There are about 30 girls on the trip and only 2 boys. We have not met the other boy yet since he didn't come on the Dublin tour but they one here is a cowboy from Arizona. All the girls seem really nice so far, but I always like everyone the first time I meet them so that might change in a week or two hahaha. I really like the other Chico State student that's on this trip (not the one a came over here with either) and I met a girl from LA that's really fun so we've been hanging out the whole time.

We went to McDonald's here and it was just the worst thing ever. And not bad like the American McDonald's but even worse (We only went because after that awful play got out Burger King and McDonald's are the only 2 places open, Irish people don't really eat past 8:30pm). It was also really expensive too, almost $10 for a burger and fries. All the fries over here taste like they have egg in them as well. We went to Quiznos one day for lunch too because so far everything hasn't tasted great and I wanted something I knew was good but theirs over here is awful.

We went to the Guinness Factory one day in Dublin too. They have a really nice gift shop and at the top of it (which is like 6 or 7 stories high) they have the gravity bar which has one of the best views overlooking Dublin which was cool. The Guinness taste a lot better over here but I still don't really like it.

Once I get my pictures uploaded I'll go into more detail about the places we have toured so far.

Weird facts: they don't use ice or toilet seat covers.

Contact Information

2008-06-21T23:20:00.001-07:00

Address:
Sarah Delucchi
Corrib Village
Newcastle
Galway
Republic of Ireland
(no numbers or anything? How weird!)

Skype:
sarah.delucchi

Irish Cell:
0879631696

Getting ready to leave.

2008-06-20T13:14:00.000-07:00

I leave this sunday morning and will get to Dublin, Ireland Monday morning. I will be staying in the Mercer Court hotel which is in the Dublin City Center. Here's a picture of the hotel I found online since I am not over there yet to take my own pictures! Hopefully this blog will be easy to update with photos and what not.

Some information I got on where I am staying:

"Mercer Court is located on the original site of the Royal College of Surgeons, located on Mercer Street just off St. Stephens Green, near the top of Grafton Street, Dublins main shopping district. The Colleges beautiful main building has stood unchanged on the corner of St Stephens Green and York Street since the Colleges inception in 1784. The Mercer Court building is one of the neighborhoods architectural and historic landmarks, notable for its remarkable stonework and for its distinctive clock tower and blue-faced clock looking up Kings Street toward St. Stephens Green."