London London London!

This weekend API took us to London. It was my first time in England, and I must say I loved it. The city actually reminded me a lot of New York, except it was cleaner and not so crowded and the buildings were nicer. Here’s basically my whole weekend:

We flew out of the Galway airport, which none of us even knew existed, probably because it only has 2 gates. On the flight over I psyched myself up by listening to all the “The”s on my iPod. The Beatles, The Who, The Stones, The Sex Pistols, The Zombies, The Kinks, and especially The Clash. Our hotel was right off Trafalgar Square, so it was basically the middle of the city, which made it pretty easy to walk most places. API Cork and API Limerick were at the same hotel as us so we all walked over to the London Eye together. I heard two girls talking about the Katy Mills mall so I asked if they were from Texas. Not only were they from my state, they’re from my school. One was from Cork, the other Limerick, and they told me there’s one more UT student who’s in Dublin. Pretty funny. We were actually supposed to all meet up Saturday and take a picture in front of the Texas Embassy (yup, we have an embassy in London from when we were an independent nation), but we were all doing different things so it didn’t end up happening.

My favorite structure in the city

Get it?

Texas Embassy- now a Mexican food restaurant

Saturday I went up to the Portobello Road market with Danielle and Kelsey. I liked it a lot, typical street market set-up. They had a bunch of antique booths, which I didn’t spend too much time at, dresses, bags, souvenirs, records, leather jackets, and lots of food. I got bruchetta from an Italian booth, which was a perfect breakfast, and a sweet new bag to replace my fraying, 4-year-old Target one. We minded the gap on the underground back to London Tower- luckily Kelsey and Danielle are both from New York so they knew exactly how to read the subway maps and all I had to do was follow them through the station. We met up with everyone else and Kevin gave us all bus passes, so we basically just explored the city the rest of the day. Saw London Tower, Tower Bridge, Westminster Abbey, Fleet Street- all that good stuff. Later that night I saw We Will Rock You and got Chipotle for dinner, so obviously I was happy.

The beautiful Tower Bridge

We Will Rock You

We had to check out of the hotel Sunday at 11, so we only had a little time in the morning. I ran into Dan on my way to get coffee so we went and got breakfast together then ended up walking around Trafalgar taking pictures riding the giant lion statues there (actually only he was riding them because I wasn’t tall enough to hoist myself up, so I’m just in front of it). After that we saw Kelsey and Meg, and we took a taxi over to Abbey Road, where we got our picture walking across thanks to this hilarious Asian couple. We undergrounded it back to Trafalgar and got one last Starbucks (number 5) before checking out.

Attempting to climb

Couldn't even get it without the jacket

Settled for this

Our photographers

Now I could give you the blow-by-blow of each delay as it was announced, but I’ll just sum up our time at the airport by saying we got there at 12:00 and didn’t leave until 7:30. Air Eirinn gave us each £6 to spend around the airport, so Brendan and I hit the bar around 3:00, by 5:00 quite a crowd had gathered. It was a bummer we couldn’t have spent the extra time around the city in London, but really the airport wasn’t so bad, and at least we were stuck at the giant London one instead of the shed we flew out of in Galway.

So I had a good weekend. I plan on going back to London in a couple weeks with Katie, Brendan, and Colleen. The one thing I really wanted to do that I didn’t get to was the British Museum of Popular Music, because apparently all the other people in API are squares who hate real music (and yes, I realize some of you squares may be reading this blog). I also think we’re going to go see Shakespeare’s grave and the Globe Theatre, and hopefully even Stonehenge.

Me, Colleen, Brendan, Katie, and Sarah- going back November 19th

Not sure what I’m doing this weekend. Maybe going to Dingle, plans are in the works. Nothing really planned for Halloween though. Lacrosse practice/party tonight, I think Danielle made pumpkin soup so hopefully I can snag some of that for dinner.

A Day in the Life

People tell me to write more, but I haven't been doing anything super interesting. To prove it, here's what I did today:

This morning I woke up at 10 for my class at 11. Luckily Molly and Anthony both slept in so there was still hot water when I took a shower. Usually there’s enough water for 2 showers, then whoever wakes up last has to press the “boost” button and wait 45 minutes for the water heater to fill up again. My first class was Irish, which I love, but today we didn’t learn anything really interesting, just the names of rooms in the house. So now I can say that I’m from Texas, I live in an apartment in Galway by the river, and what time it is. I think the next vocabulary set we’re learning is about family members, so that should be more fun. Usually during the break in that class I go to the Gaeilge café in the building and get a cupan tae, and talk to the woman working there a bit in Irish, because she knows I’m learning it. Not today though. “Is as Texas me. Ta me i mo chonai i nGaillimh in arasan gar don ahbainn. Ta se a tri a chlog.”

Our "Seomra Teaghlaigh"

Molly making beans on toast

After Irish I went to the library to do some homework before my next class. Started reading “Measure for Measure” for my Shakespeare class, then spent the rest of the time looking up stuff to do in London this weekend. Our group is going to the London Eye and on a riverboat down the Thames, and also to see the Tower of London. Then the rest of the time we have a hop-on hop-off bus ticket to see what we want to. I think Saturday night I’m going to try to see We Will Rock You, which is like a broadway show full of Queen music. My parents saw it a couple years ago and said it was great. Besides that I don’t have too many plans. Double-decker bus, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace. I know some people who are all excited to go to Chipotle. I’d be happy with fish and chips.

Typical cereal I eat for breakfast/lunch/dinner

I bought these based purely on the packaging and repulsive-sounding flavor to make Molly laugh. Best decision I ever made, they're basically Funyuns but better.

I had my second favorite class at 3, which is my Shakespeare class. My professor for that one is an American guy, who’s pretty interesting. But not interesting in any way that you would care about. Kind of just a have-to-be-there kind of way. Anyway, after that I went to Tesco (the grocery store) with Anthony to get stuff to make cornbread for the Fall-themed dinner club happening tomorrow. Unfortunately they don’t sell the little Jiffy cornbread mixes from home, and they don’t sell plain cornmeal either so I can’t even make it from scratch. I think instead I’m going to make cupcakes that look like pumpkins and some cinnamon coffee to go with them. I think we’re also having apple-brandy glazed pork, pumpkin soup, homemade applesauce, and pumpkin bread. Should be good.

I had lacrosse practice tonight, which was good for about 10 minutes, then it got really cold and started raining and the lights didn’t come on so no one could see the ball or catch any passes. It started at half six, we played ‘til seven, then stood around for another half an hour waiting for the lights to come on at half seven, since that’s what time they came on last week. 7:45 rolled around and we called it a night, since it was still miserable weather. It was fun, but not the most fun practice I’ve been to. On the way home we saw an ice cream truck so my friend Brendan got us all some, because no matter what, it’s never too cold for ice cream. 25 minutes later I finally made it home, where I sat in front of our “fireplace” for a while (which is really just a heater with a picture of a fire on it) then made myself a grilled cheese and an Irish coffee. A little while later my friend Katie came over and we played cards for a couple hours and made hot chocolate. I still had some left over heavy cream in the fridge from the Tres Leches cake a couple weeks ago so we even made some whipped cream to top them off. It was a good night.

"Fireplace" and halloween decorations

Tomorrow I have to go back to Tesco to get cake mix, then I’m making the cupcakes before class so they’re cool by the time I get back. I have my Imagining Modern Ireland class from 11-1. It’s definitely and interesting class, but I would like it a lot more if it wasn’t 2 hours long. After class I’m supposed to go with Molly and some other people to get lunch at a place called Mr. Waffle, which sells waffles, crepes, and sandwiches. Then hopefully I’ll make it to the gym, but I might take a nap instead, since it’s now 3:30am and I’m planning on getting up at 8am. Then I have to ice the cupcakes and go over to dinner club at 8pm. Full day.

Halloween decorations from Nana. Mine's the owl (Jerry) and Molly's is the skull (Bart)

Cyclamen flowers when I bought them about a month ago

Cyclamens now (and Jerry)

So there you go. I'm having a blast, still loving it here. I can't believe it's halfway over. 

Dublin was pretty cool. It was basically just like a big city at home though, so I’m really glad I’m living in Galway instead. Kevin gave us all 2-day tour bus passes, so we could get around the city and hop off to see whatever we wanted. My two favorite things we saw were the Guinness Storehouse and the Book of Kells at Trinity College. The Storehouse was huge. On the route the tour bus took it was right past two giant Cathedrals (Christ Church and St. Patrick’s), so the bus driver kept referring to the brewery as “St. Arthur’s Episcopal, the biggest Cathedral in the city”. It was great though, I loved seeing all the ingredients and old equipment, and there was a whole floor dedicated to advertisements and the origin of the Guinness Book of World Records. Each person also got a pint and a half of free samples of the product. The Guinness family seemed like a decent bunch. They apparently were big into worker’s rights and took good care of their employees, and they also donate lots of money all over town and the rest of the country. No wonder Arthur gets his own holiday.

We saw the brewhouse Saturday afternoon, then went to Charlie One’s Chinese fast food for dinner to complete the Irish experience. Then we went to Whelan’s Pub, which is where they filmed PS I Love You, because one girl here is on a mission to re-live that movie I guess. It was a cool place, and pretty cheap, especially compared to the Temple Bar where the other API people went to, which is apparently the most expensive bar in the entire country.

Thanks for that pocketknife Old Granny

The next morning we went to St. Patrick’s Cathedral. It was beautiful but there was lots of stuff in there. It wasn’t “cluttered” per se, but it was more like a museum than a church. Lots of graves/memorials/displays all along the walls and floor. It was cool to see Jonathan Swift’s grave though. Afterwards we went to the Kilmainham Gaol, where they executed 14 Irish rebels, thus spurring the rest of the country to revolution in response. The history majors I was with loved it, but it was no Alcatraz, so I ended up leaving halfway through with some other people to see Trinity instead. They told me all I missed was seeing the courtyard where they lined prisoners up to be shot, so wasn’t terribly broken up about it.

The Book of Kells was by far my favorite thing on Sunday. The exhibit had a ton of information on how the monks wrote it, how they got the different colored inks, what the pages were made of, everything. It was fascinating (to me at least). The detail on the lettering and pictures was so incredible. You aren’t allowed to take pictures in the exhibit, but I pulled some from Google that are higher quality than mine would have been anyway. The gift shop on the way out sold Book of Kells coloring books, but unfortunately they didn’t quite capture the same awe as the original.

After that we bused it home. I finished Irish sock #1 on the way. So Dublin was nice, but like I said, I’m glad to be where I am. I’ll be back there again tonight anyway for the lacrosse tournament. Lacrosse is still going great. We had a scrimmage Tuesday night, then went out to the college bar for some bonding. The scrimmage was a blast, it was raining the whole time and half the players didn’t have cleats so we were falling all over the place. Anthony annoyingly informed me that Irish people say “boots” instead of “cleats”, so I started saying that to the lacrosse people, but because they hang out with Americans so much they actually do all call them “cleats”, so I was wrong anyway.

The sky was a really strange color today, I’m not sure what it means. There was also a weird yellow circle floating above us all day. Weird.

                   

                                                                Not my picture, but this is what the sky looked like.

Extra pictures here.