The old country has been good to me these last few weeks. Classes are good, friends are good, and general craic is good. It’s great here, but nothing incredibly noteworthy has happened, just overall enjoyment of everyday things.
Last Saturday we went to Connemara, which was cool, but the weather was terrible so we didn’t get to hike around too much. I did get to see a couple cool churches and an abbey, plus the Connemara Marble suppliers.
Sunday Molly, Sarah, Katie, and I went down to Monroe’s pub to watch the Gaelic football national finals: Kerry vs. Dublin. We had a great time, even though Kerry lost, and I ate some delicious bangers and mash. I wish they had Gaelic football at home on TV, it was so much more fun to watch than American football. YEAH, I SAID IT. Anyway, I’d definitely recommend watching a game to anyone if you get the chance.
I had to go register with immigration on Tuesday, so I got a new ID card. I’m probably on all sorts of watch-lists now, since I look like a serious threat to Irish national security.
Legal
I decided to join the NUI lacrosse team, so Thursday night I went to the first practice. I haven’t played in about 4 years, so I was afraid I was going to be the worst one there. Luckily for me, lacrosse is virtually unknown in Ireland, so I’m actually one of the more experienced players. If people here see you walking around with a lacrosse stick, they’ll ask you if you’re going fishing. It feels so great to play again, and the people there are so friendly and laid back, I’m really happy I joined. We have a tournament in Dublin in 2 weeks, which should be awesome. There are teams from all over Europe going. Even if we don’t end up having enough girls for the NUI team (which has happened for the last 2 years here- we’re currently at 7 players), at the tournament they put all the teams together then reshuffle them onto new teams for the weekend. They have such a different attitude here about sports, they just play for fun, at any level; it’s great.
Also on Thursday was Arthur’s Day, which celebrates the invention of Guinness. At 5:59pm the entire city (and world, I assume) toasted to Arthur Guinness. The streets were a mess the next day.
Today a few of us took a bus to the Cliffs of Moher, which are definitely the best thing I’ve seen in Ireland so far. I would’ve been more upset that we only got to spend an hour there, but I know I’ll be back so it’s ok. The bus driver was listing off a bunch of movies filmed there. Harry Potter 6, Inception, Princess Bride, and Saving Private Ryan are the ones I remember. We also saw some other cliffs of Doolin, which were smaller but still scary at the edge.
Cliffs of Insanity
I’m getting along great with my roommates, and a few of us from API have an Ireland dinner club at someone’s apartment every week. This week it was at Molly’s and mine, so she made chicken alfredo and I made pineapple pudding. Not very Irish, but that’s ok. Between API taking us to that Italian place and Anthony telling me his favorite food is pizza, I think we’re fine having pasta once a week.
Molly and I
This week API’s taking us out to Monroe’s for traditional music and dancing (and pizza, go figure), then it’s one of the girls’ 21st birthday so we’ll go out with her afterwards, and Katie and I are making her a Guinness cake. Thursday there’s a lacrosse scrimmage and party, then Saturday API is taking us all to the only place in the country with a Starbucks: Dublin. In between those things I probably have a class or two.
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