Making Connections

Hello everyone! Conas Atá Tú? That means how are you? In Gaelic. I have been doing very well, I also have been very busy this past week. I have experienced a lot of fun times this past week and can’t wait to share with you all what I have been up to.

Daily Life:

            Last week there were two days where we had beautiful weather, like it was sunny out and not really windy and it just felt good to be outside. So I took advantage of those two days, and I went down to the ocean both days since the weather was too good to pass up (and got to make sure I get that vitamin D since most days are pretty dreary). When I went down to the ocean I say this a lot but it was so relaxing being by the ocean. Especially by myself I can just let go of my mind, and just stare out at the waves as they crash onto the rocks and feel how calming it is. I will never ever get tired of the ocean I know I talk a lot about being by the ocean, and how mind-numbing it is. However if only you could be here with me, and just feel what I feel you would definitely understand that some days you just need to have a time when you don’t have to think about anything important, and just let go of everything in your mind for a little bit until you reality sets in and you have to go about your day.

Also last week three girls, and I went to a retirement home and spent some time there for a service project we are doing for one of our classes. So that day was our first day of being there, and two girls went upstairs to put lotion on elders hands and massage them and just talk with them to get to know some people. While another girl, and I stayed downstairs and played a card game with a couple of gentlemen Patty (who is a resident there), and Mick (who comes in from Spiddal, and interacts with the residents). We also got to know them a little bit, and they asked about us like where we’re from, and other questions to get to know us. I felt a little awkward, and I had no idea what I was doing (for the card game even when they sort of not really explained it, so I just winged it) at the start of us being there, but then by the time we were leaving I felt a little at ease (probably more because I had someone I knew right next to me, and not just by myself I probably wouldn’t have done good by myself). It takes me a while to warm up to people that I don’t really know, so that works against me greatly but I hope that my shyness gets better as we go to the retirement home more often. Because I believe we will be doing things with residents one-on-one so I need to not be so shy and awkward around people (but in due time I am sure it will be okay). That was an easy day for us, because we plan on all going every Wednesday then the four of us would switch every Thursday of going there (so essentially plan on going once-twice a week and two go on one Thursday and the other two go on the next Thursday). The more we keep going the harder of things we’re going to have to do to make connections with the residents. So it is not like we’re going to go there and get to play cards and not do too much it is not going to be like that I am sure of it. But I can’t wait to keep going back, because everyone is so nice, as well as the atmosphere of the place is so friendly, and I can’t wait to get to know the residents a little better. And most residents speak Irish (Gaelic), but I think they can also speak English but since they more than likely grew up speaking Irish they may speak that more, so that will be a challenge since I am still learning Irish, but I will get through that.


One last thing I wanted to talk about is how I do laundry. Now over here I do laundry differently than I would do it at home (at home I would use my handy washer and dryer machines). But here I have two options to do my laundry; Option one use the washer and dryer machines that are here, but you have to pay to use them and one of my friend’s said that she paid £9 (in coins) to wash and dry her clothes (granted she did it by herself) also you can combine your clothes with other people so it would be cheaper (but I don’t want to do that) for most people this is the quick and easy option. Option two is hand wash my clothes in my cottage, in which it takes a lot longer to do, as well as it takes a long time to dry (like a day and a half most times) but this option is mostly free (I mean I have buy my own detergent so that is not free) this option is not quick and easy. How I do my laundry is option two I hand wash all of my clothes, and I am not sure if it actually cleans my clothes but that is okay because I am saving money, and I do not have coins most times to do my laundry by machines. When I wash my clothes it takes 45 min-1 hour to get all of it done (I usually only have two loads but I have to wash and rinse every single item) then I have to hang them up to dry, and if it is nice out I hang on a clothes-line my lighter clothes and hang the heavy clothes in the cottage. But for my clothes to fully dry is about a day and/or a half (long time it seems doesn’t it) which is unfortunate, but then again it is a cheaper way to clean clothes, so that’s how I do laundry and needless to say I miss my machine washer and dryer at home.   
 Well thank you all for reading my blog today, next week’s blog will be very interesting I will get to tell you all about the past couple of field trips that we just had. Until next week talk to you then!

 At the ocean, perfect way to spend the day!

 It is like a community of shells right in front of my eyes! It looks so fascinating!

 This is the perfect scenery for anything.

This wave though! Looks so pretty! Took me forever to get the perfect wave photo, the waves move too fast to take the right picture.

Week 3: New Places

Hello everybody, how are all of you guys doing? I’m doing pretty awesome this past week has been crazy fun, and have some pretty interesting things to talk about. Going back to last week last Tuesday was Shrove Tuesday (for some if you’re not sure what this is Shrove Tuesday is it’s a catholic tradition that it’s the day before Ash Wednesday, and typically people feast on pancakes because they try to use up all their dairy products to make them before their Lenten fast. This is my understanding from one of my classes). So in spite of Shrove Tuesday half of our group of students went to Galway to get pancakes for the occasion. When my friends, and I got to Galway we walked around for a while then after a little bit we tried finding a place that was serving pancakes, but we unfortunately couldn’t find one so we ended up not being able to eat pancakes which was kind of sad, but oh well. Instead we ate at a chicken place called Hillbilly’s (we laughed too hard at the name of the place since we come from Nebraska so it was pretty fitting) but it was a really tasty place, and for cheap as well which is always a plus. Later in the week was the most eventful part of my week, last weekend (Thursday afternoon-Saturday evening) a group of friends, and I went to explore a city called Kilkenny! It was exciting to go somewhere different besides Galway, and Spiddal. So we traveled the Thursday afternoon we took a train (a train! That was a pretty awesome experience to be on a train!) From Galway to Kildare then from there to Kilkenny. The adventure was going great until our stop in Kildare we had a problem when me, and the girls in my group went to the bathroom and when we came back the guy in our group had accidentally got onto a different train, and left us so that was crazy trying to contact him only by Wi-Fi (in order to do that we had to go into the city of Kildare into a pub to contact him) after we were able to get a hold of him we waited for him at the train station, and were able to get onto the correct train to Kilkenny so we got to our hostel a little late but we were just glad to have everyone in our group together. The next day we got up at 7 in the morning to go explore the city we were actually able to go see a lot of things since we got up so early. We had toured a castle called Kilkenny Castle (which that was amazing there was so much history!) we also saw 3 different churches (all of them were catholic I believe) the inside of the 3 of them were similar yet different in their own way, but oh so beautiful they all were. We also did some shopping, and went to different stores, as well as a big outlet mall that they had there. We also walked all over the city, and I took so many pictures it was great! It was very astonishing that we saw pretty much almost all of the city in that one day which was pretty good to get accomplished. The day after the girls, and I got up at 7 again to go on a morning walk we went on a walking trail, and that lead us to see some intriguing things! We saw an old abandoned mill, and oh my goodness the inside was so fascinating! It looked like a rainforest inside a building, like it was breathtaking. I also noticed the graffiti that we had seen, and this may be weird to say but the graffiti here looks stunning! I’m not sure why I feel this way, but I think it just looks better than any graffiti I’ve seen in America. Anyway that afternoon we left Kilkenny to go back to the cottages, and it was a struggle coming back because we weren’t sure which connecting train to get on and it just took a while to get back, but we eventually did. That evening I was able to Skype everyone at home for my niece Emaleigh’s birthday party, and it was incredible to be able to see everyone’s face when I talked to them, it helped my homesickness to be able to talk to everyone, but at the same time I still miss everyone however it gets better every day. Looking back to our time in Kilkenny whenever we talked to locals about politics in the United States mostly with the election that’s going on, and who they think will win in the end, it always surprises me that people say they want Donald Trump to win and their explanation for why. I just can’t fathom why anyone would want him to be president, but it certainly is interesting to hear the perspective of someone who doesn’t live in the United States on this topic. Also one last thing this past week I have planned everything for my spring break!! I’ve booked hostels, and bought tickets for everything I am so relieved to finally have all of that done! But in order to know where I’m going for spring break you’ll have to wait a while I can’t spoil that quite just yet, even though a lot of people already know where I’m going. Thank you all for reading my blogs it means a lot to me! I’m glad I can bring my Ireland adventures to everyone back home! I’m excited for my next post because I have a lot of field trips that are coming up, so can’t wait to tell you all about those!! Well until the next blog post I will talk to you all then! Bye!

 

 Kilkenny Castle

 Sculpture that's close by Kilkenny Castle when we were walking down a walking trail, it's dedicated to all missing people of their hand prints.

 This is the most beautiful graffiti I have ever seen!! Saw this while on a morning walk.

 An outside shot of the abandoned old mill we saw

 The inside of one of the catholic churches we saw

Inside shot of the abandoned mill, it looks so beautiful and it was drizzling a little so it felt like a rainforest.

 

 

Round Two! Week Two!

 A river leading to the ocean at Galway at night

 Rainbow after rain! Do you think there was a pot of gold?

Starfish photo credit: Sydney Norris

 

Dia Dhut! That’s hello in Gaelic. It’s been week two of my journey, and boy do I have some fun stories to tell you! Going back to last week, on last Friday our class went to Galway at night to see the nightlife, and what was there to do. My group of friends and I started off our night by going to a little Italian restaurant, in which it was a really good place with great food we all liked it a lot. After we had food we walked around for a little bit until we found other people in our group, and we walked with them. We all eventually went into a pub, and hung out there was a live band playing so we just stood by the front, and listened the band was pretty good. Then a random guy asked one of our friend’s to dance, and she danced with him that guy would keep coming up to ask her to dance with her. As well as another guy kept asking girls in our group to dance with him, including me (which surprised me but I danced with him) but those guys were entertaining to dance with, and they were nice. Soon after we were all done with dancing our group left to go to another pub, and that was a quite eventful pub to go to it was called the King’s Head. That pub also had a live band, and the songs that they played were quite familiar (for all us American’s that were there) such as, ‘Sweet Home Alabama’, ‘Highway to Hell’, ‘Wake Me Up’ and plenty of countless songs that my friends, and I danced to. We all agreed that we really liked that pub, Galway on Friday nights, and the music that the band played that is definitely a place to go to again! The next day we went back to Galway for grocery shopping since we badly needed to get groceries. Before we got those we went to other stores first, and I got a pair of waterproof hiking shoes, and I’m so glad that I got them because they’re so comfy, actually waterproof, and they are good when I go to the ocean and go climbing over rocks. Anyway grocery shopping went better this time since we had a list, and knew what we had to get which was less stressful, and we had more time to complete our shopping too. The next morning I was able to break in my new shoes when some friends and I went to the ocean to see the low tide. Seeing the low tide was the most amazing sight I’ve seen so far on this trip, I just love the ocean so much! Although it was so windy which made climbing on rocks very difficult, but I managed and just watching the tide looked calming like it normal makes me feel, and there’s nowhere I’d rather be than watching the waves crash onto rocks so peacefully. We also explored the rocks, and I was surprised to see that there were so many barnacles all over the rocks, and they were sharp too so that was interesting. On our way back one of my friends was able to see a live starfish! I’ve wanted to see a live, moving starfish all my life, and I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw it, it looked so adorable. This week has been a pretty eventful week, but this week I’ve also very homesick actually, and I didn’t think I would be homesick but I guess when I just think about home, or friends etc. it just makes me miss home, so that’s been a struggle this week that I’m still working on getting through that. But in better news this week I’ve been working on my spring break plans and I plan on going to different countries over the break, and I can’t wait to be done with buying everything for it, and can just relax when it’s all said and done. You’ll have to stay tune to see which countries I go to for the break which isn’t until March so a while away. To conclude that’s all for this week join me next week for some exciting adventures, and places that I’ll be going to so you’ll get to hear about that next week. Until then slán! (Goodbye!) 

 

Week One Of This Amazing Adventure



Artifact at a Galway Museum

 

Never have I ever thought that I'd be able to go to Europe to travel, and I'd especially never believe that I'd get a chance to go to Ireland in my lifetime. I cannot express how excited, and grateful I am to have such an opportunity to travel in Ireland, and be able to learn their history, and what makes Ireland, Ireland. It gives me great pleasure to know that I will be able to learn more about my heritage, and what makes me who I am. When Saturday morning came, and I had to prepare to leave for Ireland I had so many mixed emotions going through my head. I was ecstatic, but nervous for the travel there. It didn't help that on the way to the airport my stomach kept flip flopping as I kept holding my significant other's hand trying to calm myself, and think happy thoughts for the travel ahead. I have traveled on planes before, but I've never traveled on planes internationally before so I had no idea what to expect whether it would go well or not. We get to the airport, and check in and everything was going fine until it was time to pass through security. Looking at my family, and significant other I did not think saying goodbye would be as hard as it was. After saying farewell to everyone I made my way past the security, and it was time to wait for the flight. The flight to Newark was easy as cake it was only two hours, and we even flew over the statue of Liberty! Getting off of the plane, and making our way to the next gate went pretty well. The layover felt long as we were all anticipating our flight for Ireland. As the time finally came to board our flight I had still felt a little worried, but I also felt giddier at that time. The flight to Ireland went good it was my first time to have food on a plane, so that was interesting to experience. But what I wanted more than anything else was to be able to fall asleep, and stay asleep but of course that didn't happen just short amount of sleep here and there. When we finally landed in Ireland I was not only groggy, but relieved that we finally arrived at our destination! When my roommates, and I got to our cottage it occurred to me in my head 'wow I can't believe this is the first day to an amazing adventure' that thought filled me with excitement, however I was still pretty jet lagged from everything that was going on throughout the day. Over the next few days my friends, and I experience so many adventures, and it hasn't even been a full week yet. So far I've seen how beautiful the ocean the waves are so pretty, and soothing. I've also traveled to a small town called Spiddal, and learned the history of the town, as well as the whole country. I also went to a cute little café, and had the best hot chocolate of my life. I also went exploring around the town seeing the locals houses, and see what's around town. Another day I also went to a bigger town called Galway, and we went around learning about the history of the town as well as the buildings around the area during the beginning of time for Galway. Afterwards my friends, and I explored to different stores, and see what's in them. Eventually we also went grocery shopping which was difficult to complete since we didn't plan everything out very well, so we'll have to back to shop more for groceries. As far as school wise my classes went pretty well, can't wait to learn more from those classes. So that's my exciting week so far, I'm pretty interested in what more fun adventures I'll be embarking on next. Stay tune for more adventure reveals next week until then slán! (Goodbye!).