Seeya Later

Well I’m back. It feels really weird to be in Texas again, it’s kind of nice though.

The last couple weeks have been great. We went to Limerick with Anthony and met his family. It was so sweet staying in an actual home again, and having a mom to cook everything. It was just a perfect last trip to have, we basically just hung around the house, played some outside games, went exploring their property, played cards and watched movies. So nice.

Me, Anthony's sister Catherine, Katie, and Molly

When we got back we spent the next couple days studying for finals on and off and watching a show called The Inbetweeners, which is huge here. We also went to the bier tent at the Galway Christmas Fair a lot.

Liter Steins

Monday we had a Christmas party at our apartment in Gort na Coiribe (fun fact: Gort na Coiribe is Irish for "student ghetto"), so Sunday we spent all day sitting around making paper chains and cleaning up, since it was hailing outside anyway. The party was great all but one person from API showed up, and a bunch of people brought their roommates too. It was great to see everyone one last time all together before people started leaving.

Our kitchen wall: paper chains, 2 chinese calendars, paper dolls, a "best roommate" totem pole, and 3 signs that say "Galway says crack a smile", "Occupy Galway", and "Yid Army"

API family at Christmas party

I’m so happy I got the chance to go to Ireland this semester, it really was probably the best time of my life. I was so scared to leave home in August. I thought I would freak out while abroad and want to come home because I missed everyone too much. Once I got there though, I only got homesick about 3 times all semester, and it never lasted long at all.

I did what I wanted to do in Galway, which was make friends. Thanks to lacrosse I have plenty of options for places to stay when (not if) I go back, and thanks to API I’ve also got places to stay all over the US. I didn’t make it to the continent, but that’s a trip for another time, I couldn’t be happier with how I spent my 4 months there. I feel like I’ve been “on” ever since I left. I didn’t want to waste any of my time, and I think I did a good job of that. Yeah, I watched some TV, but it was always with Anthony or someone else, never just by myself. I skyped with some people at home a handful of times, but not every single night for hours and hours, because I had things to do and people to see, and I knew the people from home would still be there when I got back.

We spent this last week doing all our favorite things in Galway. We hit up the Quays probably 3 times, went into town almost every single day, had one last meal at Monroe’s, and one last cupan tae at Cupan Tae.

It sucked saying goodbye to my friends. The last night I went the first couple bars on the lacrosse 12 Pubs of Christmas pub-crawl to see everyone one last time. Broke down on pub number 3, sobbed my goodbyes then went to the API final dinner (at Milano’s, the same place we had our first dinner). Finn and Kevin were both there, which was great because I’d wanted to see them both again one more time, but there were only 8/15 API students, so it was kind of weird. (empty chairs at empty tables ♫♪ ) After dinner everyone left went back to our apartment and we hung out there for a while before people started slowly drifting off. Irish Brendan and Alex came over after they finished the pub-crawl and brought me some Ben and Jerry’s to make me feel better. They also apparently stole the last pint glass I’d had at the pub and saved it for me. That nearly got me crying again. I’m going to miss those two so much.

Me, Irish Brendan, Alex, Laura, Rob, Adam, and Charco at pub number 3

The original plan was to get a job over there this summer, but the euro is on the verge of collapse, and jobs were scarce in Ireland already, so things aren’t looking too good. I hope I can go back and visit my friends at least sometime this year though. There’s a lacrosse tournament in Belfast over Spring break, maybe then would be a good time. Katie has to visit me in Texas within the next year because she lost a bet to me, and Cayla will be here in October for a wedding (which she’s already asked me to be her date for J). I hope I can see some of them in a couple weeks when we’re up in New York for New Years, because they’re all probably feeling just as weird as me and it would be nice to have someone to talk to about it. 

                                                                         

Favorite place in Ireland- anywhere with these jokers.

So that’s that. I’m glad to see everyone here again, but it was really hard to leave, and I’m still pretty sad when I think of not seeing my friends again for a long time. Hopefully my occasional updates on here kept you entertained, they were fun for me to write. And if you ever want me to ramble on about Ireland in person, it would be my pleasure.

Sin é.

Hopefully Not My Last Entry But No Promises

I know it’s been a very long time since I’ve written anything. At first I just didn’t have anything interesting to say. It’s gotten to the point where I wasn’t traveling for a while, so I’m basically just doing the same things here as I would be at home, and no one wants to read that I was hanging out with my friends AGAIN. A couple fun things happened though.

Brendan’s birthday was a couple weeks ago so Katie and I made him a cake.

Yes that's a chocolate cake in a Guinness glass, not just a really curdled beer.

Went into town for Halloween and saw some interesting folks, apparently blackface is accepted and encouraged here.

Nicki Minaj and the Jamaican bobsledders. Cool runnings mon.

I won 2 tickets to this thing at school called “Mega Music Munchie Monday” or something. Basically it was a huge international food festival, so Katie, Anthony and I had our dinner there. Tickets were only 2 euro, but mine were FREE so it tasted that much better.

Danielle and I passed our rock-climbing test, but ever since then one of us has been traveling every week so we haven’t gone back yet. Hopefully next week we’ll both be around.

Alex, Adam (from lacrosse), and I went to a Connacht rugby match about a month ago, which was a lot of fun. Some guys took our picture, yadda yadda yadda, we three are now the face of Connacht rugby.

Come on Connacht

Alex and I did actually end up going to Dublin for the Irish lacrosse trials, but we got rejected :( they wouldn’t even let us go out and play for fun because we didn’t have Irish passports. Luckily we realized we could just marry a couple Irish guys to get some, so this time next year we’ll be fine to try out.

Mom and Dad and Erin were here last week, which was great. It was sweet traveling around the country by car instead of bus. We went up to Northern Ireland and Donegal, then down through Mayo to Galway for a bit, then down to Dingle, Cork, and Kerry. We went to the Slieve League cliffs (which are higher than the Cliffs of Moher), saw another church claiming to be the smallest one in Ireland (it totally wasn’t as small as the one on Inismor), and went across a sweet old rope bridge. My favorite might have been the Giant’s Causeway though, it was just so cool sitting out there watching the waves all crash on the rocks.

Giant's Causeway

In County Mayo there’s a mountain called Croagh Padgraig, where apparently St. Patrick fasted for 40 days before banishing all the snakes from Ireland. Ever since, people have climbed this mountain as pilgrimage, and there’s a little church at the top. Anyway, you climb this thing to repent, so if you’ve been really bad you’re supposed to climb it with no shoes on. Erin was the only one to go for it. She and Dad made it like a third of the way up the mountain before they quit, Mom and I made it to the sign then went down and had tea while waiting for them.

Thursday we had Thanksgiving dinner in Galway. Katie and Anthony came with us. It was Anthony’s first Thanksgiving. After that we went around town, so Erin now knows exactly what I do here all the time, and why I never write about it.

Thanksgiving seafood

Saturday they went to Dublin to catch their flight so I came back to Galway and went to another rugby match with my friends. The next day there was a 5k/10k run for charity that some people from the lacrosse team did, called the Santa run (run for a good Clause!) I hurt my knee the night before so I didn’t do it but I went down and took pictures of them. My friend Sonny got 2^nd overall for the 10k, and my other friend named Katie got like 8^th, but 2^nd for women in the 10. The rest of them did really well too, especially for having to run the whole thing in a felt suit, hat, and beard.

This event deserved 3 pictures

Santas on the Salthill Prom

Irish Brendan, Alex, Sonny, Ryan, and Lacrosse Katie

Right now I’m in London with Katie (from API, not lacrosse). Last night we saw Les Miserables, which was awesome, especially since I didn’t fall asleep like the last time I saw it. Then today we went up to the Tower Bridge and worked the underground like pros. Tomorrow we’re going to Stonehenge then home, hopefully. There’s a strike planned for public transit so that may not actually happen.

*Update, we made it home without a hitch despite the strike at the airport. Also, Stonehenge was underwhelming.

A 3 hour bus ride, freezing rain, and a pile of rocks we weren't allowed to touch. Great.

Tonight is my last lacrosse practice, then tomorrow I’m going to Limerick with Katie and Molly to stay with Anthony’s family, and when I get back on Monday I’ll only have 12 days left here. I’m expecting an emotional breakdown any time now, though I’m really hoping it doesn’t happen in Limerick. I’ll be in New York for New Years so hopefully I can see some of my API friends around there while I’m up, but as for everyone else I’ve met here, God knows when I’ll see them again, and even when I do see them it’ll never be the same as it was for the past 3 months. Anyway, that’s life I guess. I’m so lucky to have had this time here, I just don’t want it to all feel like a dream when I go back to Texas, that’s what I’m really afraid of. Anyway, maybe I’ll be back someday, who knows.

What I really need to start doing is collect the rocks I’m giving you all for Christmas presents, I’m way behind on my quota.

Not even my favorite picture of Erin at Blarney Castle...

Because this is :)

The countdown begins.